cmap. vii] CABINET SYSTEM IN DOMINIONS 341
London in 1910! and the recognition accorded them by the
late King’s desire on various formal occasions, and by order of
the present King at the royal funeral in 1910, at the state
opening of the Parliament, and at the Coronation of 1911.
The Australian Agents-Generalatone time showed consider-
able political activity in accordance with the suggestion of
Sir J. Vogel, who thought that friction and fear of personal
Government might thus be avoided, possibly a reference to
Sir George Grey’s quarrels with Lord Normanby, and the
latter’s vigorous measures to keep him in order. At any
rate they on occasion appeared as forming 2 Council to
express the views of the several Colonies : thus they attended
on the Secretary of State to ask him to sanction the Divorce
Act of Victoria, passed in 1889,% and they united in recom-
mendations of the adoption of the principle of allowing the
Colonies to know the names of proposed Governors before
the final selection was made,? and they constantly pressed on
the Colonial Office the question of the Western Pacific. They
also appeared at the Colonial Conference of 1887 to represent
their Governments along with other persons of distinction.
In 1892 the Agent-General of New Zealand supported
ministers’ views against Lord Glasgow.* But their political
energy was limited and «till is limited by several essential
facts : the Governor as the King’s representative is clearly
the proper person through whom any important communica-
tion should come. Thus the Secretary of State, in the case
of the request from Queensland not to appoint Sir H. Blake,
preferred to deal with the officer administering the Govern-
ment and not with the Agent-General. Or again, in 1892,
when the Agent-General for New Zealand called on the
Secretary of State to endeavour to induce him to support
the Ministry against the Governor, the Secretary of State
gave the Governor instructions a day before the Agent-
General was informed, so that the Governor could make his
own arrangements with ministers instead of their learning
1 Lord Strathcona’s personal rank as a peer naturally satisfied for long
the desires of Canada. . ¢ Parl. Pap., C. 6006 (1890).
2 parl. Pap., C. 5828 (1889). + Parl. Pap., H. C. 198, 1893-4.
