73¢ THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV
of the Dominion where there was concurrent power, and
(4) as affecting the interest of the Dominion generally. This
principle was laid down finally on June 9, 1868, and in
substance the procedure has not been changed : the report
of the Minister of Justice is the important part of the case.
In strict constitutional theory it may be that the Dominion
should have contented itself with the disallowance of
unconstitutional or illegal laws, as Lord Carnarvon argued
with so much energy in 1873-5:2 in practice, it did nothing
of the sort, but decided to supervise very closely the pro-
vincial legislation, especially when the correspondence with
Lord Carnarvon ended in the virtual abdication by the
Colonial Office of the view that in case of doubt the Secretary
of State should be applied to as having authority to direct the
Governor-General. In many cases Acts have been allowed to
remain in operation, though they are clearly in part ultra vires,
if the rest can be separated and therefore allowed, while the
Legislature has been asked to take steps to amend the part
which was invalid, or sometimes, if the Dominion was able
to legislate, it has passed legislation not exactly to validate,
for that could not be done if the Act were ultra vires, but to
secure the same effect as was aimed at in the Provincial Act.
The examples of disallowance are decidedly numerous,
though perhaps fewer than might be expected when the
prodigious legislative output of the provinges is taken into
account : thus a return made for the use of Todd ® showed
! Canada Sess. Pap., 1869, No. 18; 1870, No. 35, pp. 6, 7; the reports
are published up to 1906, and are here cited as Provincial Legislation. As
legal opinions as to constitutionality and so forth they are valuable, though
not of course authoritative ; of. observations on this point in 39 S. C. R. 405,
at pp. 413-15, by the C.J. ; Blake in Lefroy, op. eit., p. 141, note.
* Cf. Lefroy, pp. 197, note 4, 198; Adderley, Hansard, ser, 3, clxxxv.
1319 ; Mills, Canada House of Commons Debates, 1889, p. 876.
* Parliamentary Government in the Colonies, p. 271. Up to 1882 the total
number was only thirty-one; out of 6,000 Acts for 1883-7, fifteen Acts
were disallowed ; see Canada Sess. Pap., 1882, No. 141; 1885, No. 29 ;
Munro, Constitution of Canada, pp. 260, 261. Up to 1906, 86 were dis-
allowed: Ontario 8, Quebec 4, Nova Scotia 6, New Brunswick 1, Manitoba
27, British Columbia 40, Prince Edward Island none. In Ontario 3 were
