CHAP, 1] THE DOMINION OF CANADA 727
reiterated in a dispatch of June 30, 1873 with regard to
the disallowance of the New Brunswick Education Act, and
a dispatch of December 31, 1874, as to land legislation of
Prince Edward Island? There it was clearly laid down:
* This is a matter in which you must act on your own indivi-
dual discretion and on which you cannot be guided by the
advice of your responsible ministers.” Naturally, so interest-
ing a divergence of view at home attracted attention in
Canada, and accordingly a committee of Council considered
the question and decided on March 8, 1875, that the act
of the Governor-General in this regard was essentially one to
be done on ministerial advice as all his other acts were.
But this opinion was not accepted by Lord Carnarvon, who
in a dispatch of November 5, 1875,2 was still of opinion that
the matter should be left vague. He instanced the rules then
laid down for the exercise of the prerogative of mercy in
Australia, and then said that the Governor-General should
consult his ministers and then give his own individual
decision on the point, as he did in cases of pardons. He
went on to add -
The constitutional remedy for any prolonged difference
of opinion between the Governor-General and his advisers
would be the same in this as in any other case of a similar
ature. Holding, as I have already explained, the opinion
that the constitution of Canada does not contemplate any
interference with provincial legislation on a subject within
the competence of the local legislature by the Dominion
Parliament—or, as a consequence, by the Dominion ministers
w~] assume that those ministers would not feel themselves
justified in retiring from the administration of public affairs
on account of the course taken by the Governor-General on
such ga, subject, it being one for which the Dominion Parlia-
ment cannot hold themselves responsible, although it may
demand to know what advice they gave.
Then Mr. Blake gave the whole subject his careful con-
sideration. In a report of December 22, 1875.4 he contro-
! Canada Sess, Pap., 1874, No. 25, p. 13; 1876, No. 116, pp. 84, 85.
* Ibid., 1885, No. 34, p. 368. 3 Thid., 1876, No. 116, pp. 83, 84.
Ibid., pp. 79, 83. The correspondence is also printed in Provincial
Legislation, 1867-95, vp. 65 seq.
