cHAP. vir] CABINET SYSTEM IN DOMINIONS 339
regards the prerogative of mercy by Lord Carnarvon, and
acted on, greatly to the annoyance of Lord Glasgow, by his
ministers in 1892, when they refused to accept all his sugges-
tions that they should resign over the dispute as to the Upper
House, and stuck to their posts awaiting the decision of the
Secretary of State in their favour! In the later case of
Lord Chelmsford in Queensland the party of Mr. Kidston
took pride in the fact that they had been more considerate
to Lord Chelmsford, and had resigned office so as to avoid
placing him in the position of awaiting a decision from home
against his ruling in the matter of the proposed appointments
to the Upper House.
The speeches of the Governor to the Houses of Parliament
are matters for his ministers, and he has no responsibility
for them. Still, on the other hand, the Governor has the
right to ask that he be not compelled to make attacks on
the Imperial Government : thus in 1875 the Governor of the
Cape insisted on softening the tone of the speech from the
throne as regards Lord Carnarvon’s federation policy? In
1897 the Governor of Newfoundland, Sir H. Murray, actually
altered in reading a part of the speech, but the references
were only to local matters in that case, although he deviated
from them, and the local press criticized his action severely.?
But in 1908 the speeches in Newfoundland and in Queensland
both showed due consideration for the position of the Imperial
Government and the Governor respectively, though feeling
ran high, in the first case against the Imperial rescript * of
1907 regarding the fisheries,® and in the second case against
the Governor’s action in refusing Mr. Kidston’s advice as to
the swamping of the Upper House and his grant of a dissolu-
tion to Mr. Philp.5
! See above, chap. vi. * Molteno, Sir John Molteno, ii. 4.
3 Evening Herald, May 13, 1897. ¢ See Parl. Pap., Cd. 3765.
* In such circumstances the Governor's private influence could always
be properly exercised. It is a fixed rule in England not to use violent terms
in the King’s Speech, e.g. the speeches of 1910 and 1911 are models of
calmness.
)
