1004 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART v
action independently of ministers, for the Governor has no
other person to fall back on to carry out his will. In 1861
the Governor of New South Wales did indeed himself seal
a grant under instruction from the Imperial Government
to settle a long outstanding dispute which had commenced
in times when the Imperial authorities controlled the land
policy of the Colony, but his action was heartily condemned
by the Legislature! Governor Sir William Macgregor in
1907 was compelled to take steps himself to secure the
publication of the Imperial Order in Council regarding the
fisheries in Newfoundland, the Colonial Secretary, who was
Prime Minister, declining to do the work. Again, on
Imperial grounds the Governor of Natal was instructed
in 1906 to put off executions of certain natives, but the
result was the resignation of the Ministry, and the Imperial
Government withdrew the instruction on hearing further
and better details of the transaction, which showed that the
natives had had a full and fair trial.2 |
There are of course other cases, and it is always possible
that a Governor may have to do what Sir Bartle Frere did
in 1878, in Imperial interests dismiss a Ministry,® and appeal
to the constituencies for a verdict in his favour. At the
same time it must be admitted that that was an extreme case.
In a few cases the Imperial Government has clearly used
its instrument, the Governors, to secure a change of domestic
policy in the interests of the Empire as a whole. The
Governor-General of Canada, Lord Monk, was extremely
active in pressing the question of federation on his ministers,
and the records of federation show how far he deemed
himself entitled to go in expostulation with them on their
slow tactics. The Lieutenant-Governors of the Maritime
Provinces also did their best, and in one case, that of New
Brunswick, the acceptance of federation was proximately
due to the action of the Lieutenant-Governor in getting rid
of the anti-confederation Ministry. He did not dismiss
New South Wales Legislative Assembly Votes, 1861, i. 58, 416, 647-743
* Above, pp. 291 seq. * Parl. Pap., C. 2079.
' Cf. Pope, Sir John Macdonald, i. 291 seq.
