954 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART TV
true that s.13 of the Constitution requires that if the Governor-
General in Council is empowered to do something he must act
with the advice of his Council—a, phrase borrowed from the
Australian Constitution and no doubt synonymous with the
requirement of the Canadian Constitution, ‘by and with
the advice '—but the Executive Council remains in the last
resort in the Governor-General’s control : for in the first
place he can always dismiss the existing members, and he
can in the second place fill it. up for the moment in any way
he pleases.
It might have been expected that in this regard the new
Constitution would have endeavoured to go beyond the
Australian precedent just as that Constitution went far be-
yond the precedent of Canada, but this is not the case. The
British North America Act, 1867, decides that there shall be
an Executive Council, styled the Privy Council for Canada,
but it in no way defines the mode in which that Council is
to be constituted. The Australian Constitution ® not merely
calls a Council into being, but it provides that the officers
appointed by the Governor-General to administer the
departments of State are to be the King’s Ministers of State
for the Commonwealth and also members of the Federal
Executive Council? It is important to note that they are
not the only members of the Council; the number is un-
limited and all hold office at pleasure. Precisely similar
provisions occur in the case of the South African Constitution.
There are to be not more than ten Ministers of State, who
will also be Executive Councillors, but they will not consti-
tute the Executive Council, which remains undefined in
point of numbers. But while the Governor-General is thus
Ya 11.
' 63 & 64 Vict. ¢. 12, Const. ss, 62, 64. Cf. Quick and Garran, Constitu-
tion of Commonwealth, pp. 709-11.
* There was a strong party in favour of abandoning responsible govern-
ment in foto; see Sydney Federal ‘Debates, Pp. 782 seq. But responsible
government prevailed. Neither in Australia nor in the Union is there
any fixed number of ministers assigned to the Senate ; in point of fact,
in 1910-11 only one senator was a minister in the Union: in Australia
there are. in view of the strength of that House, two or three.
