cuar. vii] CABINET SYSTEM IN DOMINIONS 335 
formal sanction, as in the case of the termination in 1904 
of the appointment of Lord Dundonald for insubordination 
as head of the Militia of Canada. 
The Governor’s relation with his Ministry must needs be 
a very close and confidential relation, and it is obviously 
the duty of both sides to see that it shall be as cordial as 
possible. It is not, of course, the right of the Governor to 
require information from his ministers of all the measures 
they propose to adopt : that was formally laid down long 
ago,! though lack of such information was one of the grounds 
on which Mr. L. Letellier dismissed his ministers in Quebec 
in 1878,2 and something of the same kind influenced the 
decision of the Governor of the Cape in dismissing the 
Molteno Ministry in the same year.® But the Governor ought 
to be on such terms with the Premier that he will normally 
discuss with him his legislative plans and projects : he need 
not discuss his party politics with the Governor, but he 
should keep him well informed of all public matters of any 
importance. He may obtain from a Governor with whom he 
is in close touch much useful advice : there are many Gover- 
nors who have experience far exceeding that of their Premiers, 
and in any case a first-hand knowledge of what is going on 
is essential to the discharge of the duty of the Governor as 
an Imperial officer. But while in these matters the question 
is in the end one of courtesy and the co-operation which is 
essential between the head of the Government and the 
representative of the Sovereign, the matter is different when 
the Governor is called upon to perform any official act 
whatever : he is then entitled to the fullest information which 
he can desire : there is nothing that can properly be kept 
back from him, and to withhold information is conduct which 
would justly deserve the severest censure. It does not 
matter that the Governor will normally act on the advice 
of his ministers : 4 he must be allowed to decide if he will 
* See Lord Carnarvon’s dispatch to Sir G. Bowen, November 20, 1864, in 
Queensland Legislative Assembly Votes, 1867, p. 64. 
2 Parl. Pap., C. 2445. * 1bid., C. 2079, 
$ Cf, Fulton v. Norton, [1908] A. C. 451.