358 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [PART 111 
the two cases quoted had put an end to the doctrine which 
appeared at one time to have been concurred in that a Colonial 
Legislature was a delegate of the Imperial Parliament. It 
was a Legislature restricted to the area of its powers, but 
within that area unrestricted, and not acting as an agent 
or a delegate. Again, in Dobie v. The Temporalities Board, 
the Privy Council held that within the limits prescribed to 
them by the British North America Act, Provincial Legisla- 
tures were supreme, and there was no limit to the authority 
of a supreme legislature except the lack of Executive power 
to enforce its enactments. 
If the Legislatures do not act by delegated authority, it is 
entirely within their discretion by what means and in what 
manner they shall carry out the duties to legislate for the 
peace, order, and good government entrusted to them. 
This was asserted clearly in the case of Riel v. The Queen? 
where it was contended that the Canadian Act 43 Vict. c. 25, 
which provided for the administration of criminal justice in 
the North-West Territories, was ultra vires, and that the 
Imperial Parliament could not have intended to permit the 
Dominion Parliament to legislate with regard to the high 
crime of treason. or as to altering the rights, under an English 
statute, of a man accused of the crime, and further, that the 
Dominion Act was not necessary for peace. order, and good 
yovernment. 
It was clearly laid down by the Court that this doctrine 
was not tenable. They said — 
It appears to be suggested that any provisions different 
from the provisions which in this country have been made 
for administering peace. order. and good government. 2 
"7 App. Cas. 136. Cf. Lafferty v. Lincoln, 38 S. C. R. 620. On the 
other hand, according to North Cypress v. Canadian Pacific Raihway Co., 
35 8. C. R. 550, the North-Western Territories Legislature was a new 
delegate of the Canadian Parliament. * 10 App. Cas. 675. 
* This is the technical phrase now always used in conferring legislative 
power. The older phrase prefixed the needless word * public’, and had 
welfare’ for ‘order’; so e.g. the Royal Commission to the Governor- 
General of Canada in respect of each of the Maritime Provinces as late as 
1861. and see 3 & 4 Vict. c. 35.5. 3. But though the change was presumably