CHAP. 1] THE DOMINION OF CANADA 733
Bills, the Dominion Minister of Justice reported that the
province should have accepted the responsibility of deciding
whether the Acts, which were intra vires, should become law,
and no action was taken to bring them into operation! In
1878 the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec reserved a Railway
Bill against the advice of his ministers, and then dismissed
the ministers : the new Premier advised him to reserve, not
to withhold assent, and the Bill never became law.2 But
certainly the normal modern practice is assent followed by
disallowance : in 1908 no attempt was made by the Lieu-
tenant-Governor of British Columbia to decline to assent to
the anti-Japanese law, thoug its disallowance was certain,
and in 1907 he had declined his assent? The reason for this
is probably the feeling which animated Mr. Blake in 1876-7,
that the legislation of Canada vis-a-vis the Imperial Govern-
ment should be completed in Canada, and then if need be
disallowed, and not reserved by a Governor-General or
refused assent by him. Still there is no reason why reserva-
bion or refusal of assent should not be used in exceptional
tases, and there is certainly no convincing ground for the
View of Todd that refusal of assent should only be done on
Ministerial advice ;4 on the other hand the view of Sir J.
Macdonald that it should never be done on ministerial advice
18 somewhat too sweeping a dictum.
The mode of disallowance was prescribed with much
solemnity in 1868. It was agreed after full consideration
by the Privy Council of Canada that the Minister of Justice
should report as quickly as he could on Bills to which no
objection could be taken, and send in separately and in
detail reports on Acts which seemed open to objection as
(1) altogether illegal or unconstitutional, (2) as being partly
legal or unconstitutional, (3) as clashing with the legislation
! Ontario Sess. Pap., 1874, Sess. 1, No. 19. So also in 1892 as regards
Prince Edward Island ; see Provincial Legislation, 1867-95, p. 1225. and
cf. pp. 77, 104, 763, 807, 915, 1018, 1045, 1200, 1201.
* Quebec Legislative Assembly Journals, 1877-8, pp. 230. 272. A new Act.
41 & 42 Vict. ¢. 3, was substituted.
* Canadian Annual Review, 1997, np. 612, 613.
' See below, Part V. chap. i.
