CHAP. 1] THE DOMINION OF CANADA 659 
asserted the same principle of the prerogative of the Queen 
being as extensive in Her Majesty's Colonial possessions as 
In Great Britain where it was not expressly limited by local 
law or statute; in that case they decided that by the 
law, the Civil Code and Procedure Code of the Province of 
Quebec, the prerogative was limited to the case of the com- 
mon debtor being an officer liable to account to the Crown 
for public moneys collected or held by him. If the preroga- 
tive existed it also was available to the provinces, which 
would otherwise be reduced to the rank of dependent muni- 
cipal instrumentalities, but for this contention the Privy 
Council was unable to find either principle or authority. 
They continued :— 
Their Lordships do not think it necessary to examine, in 
minute detail, the provisions of the Act of 1867, which no- 
where profess to curtail in any respect the rights and privi- 
leges of the Crown, or to disturb the relations then subsisting 
between the Sovereign and the provinces! The object of 
the Act was neither to weld the provinces into one, nor to 
subordinate provincial governments to a central authority, 
but to create a Federal Government in which they should all 
be represented, entrusted with the exclusive administration 
of affairs in which they had a common interest, each province 
retaining its independence and autonomy. That object was 
accomplished by distributing, between the Dominion and 
the provinces, all powers executive and legislative, and all 
Public property and revenues which had previously belonged 
to the provinces ; so that the Dominion Government should 
be vested with such of these powers, property, and revenues 
as were necessary for the due performance of its constitutional 
functions, and that the remainder should be retained by the 
Provinces for the purposes of provincial government. But, 
In so far as regards those matters which, by s. 92, are specially 
reserved for provincial legislation, the legislation of each 
province continues to be freefrom the control of the Dominion, 
' This passage serves as a useful reminder of the incorrectness of the 
doctrine as developed by Mr. Higinbotham to mean that no instructions 
could be given to a Colonial Governor by the Crown, and asserted by the 
Parliament, of Victoria, December 22, 1869; Parliamentary Debates, ix. 
2670, 2671. Lefroy, op. cit., p. 121, is quite right in repudiating this 
doctrine, but it is not involved in Mr. Blake’s views or those of Burton J., 
and the Ontario Government. 
H 
or