1008 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART v
Premier at first refused to sign the formal recommendation
for assent, but later did so. It is clear that the conduct of the
Governor was constitutionally j ustified, and he was informed
by the Secretary of State in a dispatch of February 15,
1878,! that he had acted properly—but hardly because the
advice was unconstitutional : there had arisen one of those
cases where the ministers have a perfect right to advise, and
the Governor should follow their advice unless he thinks that
if he refuses he can obtain other advisers who will assume
full responsibility for and defend his action, and on this
occasion the Governor no doubt realized that the action of
the Ministry would be so unpopular that their resignation
would be followed by the return to power of the opposite
party. The power has never yet been used at home, but it
has been threatened to use it in one case of a private Bill
unless the promoters allowed adequate opportunity of the
consideration of objections by the Government department
concerned, and the use of the refusal of the royal assent on the
advice of ministers seems clearly proper in a suitable case
like that,? despite Mr. Asquith’s explicit language in debate
on February 21, 1911, on the Parliament Bill. The power
has been used several times in Canada in the case of the
provinces, as by Lieutenant-Governor Archibald, to veto
Acts which have passed, but which clearly contained some
serious legal flaw which would have rendered their acceptance
undesirable. It has also been proposed to use the refusal of
assent as a method of Dominion control, but it is preferred
to use the plan of reservation, and an Imperial officer would
certainly be unwise to thrust himself into the invidious
position of refusing assent ® when he can avoid all difficulty
by transferring the responsibility of the decision to the Im-
perial Government, besides avoiding the trouble which will
' New Zealand Gazette, 1878, p. 912; Parl, Pap., 1878, A. 2, p. 14.
¢ Todd, Parliamentary Government, ii, 398; Lowell, Government of
England, i, 26; Hansard, ser. 3, cli. 586-9, 691-3, 797, 798 (Victoria
Station and Pimlico Railway Bill in 1858).
* Cf. the dispute regarding Mr. Dunsmuir’s refusal in 1907 to assent
‘0 the British Columbia Immigration Bill, Canadian Annual Review, 1908,
0, 537.
