lls 
1e 
0s, 
rf 
iy 
d 
a 
1. 
2 
d 
Y 
n 
n 
11 
|, - 
1 
8} 
1) 
QO 
L 
1) 
f 
pt 
suap. 1] PRINCIPLES OF IMPERIAL CONTROL 1023 
be added that the statute of 1844! gives to the Crown a 
paramount right to allow any appeal whatever from the 
Supreme Court of Canada, though for some unknown reason 
the right has not been asserted in recent discussions. A 
Canadian Act of 1889 bars the appeal entirely in criminal 
cases ; this was passed with the consent of the Crown, as in 
such cases the Judicial Committee have no desire to interfere 
with the decisions of the Supreme Court of a Dominion, 
though the Act is really ultra vires as repugnant tothe Imperial 
Act 7 & 8 Vict. c. 69. There is, it may be added, a general 
disinclination to legislate on such topics, and the Imperial 
Government also does not desire such legislation; in the 
case of the Constitution of Natal, when the matter was 
being discussed, the Committee of the Legislative Council 
which had the Bill in hand proposed to give the Crown the 
right of appointing a Governor instead of leaving it to the 
prerogative, and the Imperial Government asked that this 
should not be done, as the matter was more conveniently 
dealt with by the exercise of the prerogative unhampered 
by statutory enactments. So in South Australia in 1906, 
when it was proposed, at the instance of the Chief Justice, by 
the Government to pass a Bill dealing with the powers of 
the Lieutenant-Governor or Administrator, the Legislative 
Council was unfavourable to the scheme on the ground that 
it was a matter of the prerogative, in which it did not desire 
to fetter the Crown. It is true that in that case the Bill 
was very harmless, as it merely made it clear that there 
were certain powers which a deputy Governor could exercise, 
and which were considered of doubtful validity by the Chief 
7 & 8 Vict. c. 69. So the Victoria Supreme Court Act, 1890, attempts 
vainly to increase the appealable limit to £1,000 as against £500 in the 
Order in Council of 1860, but the Court disregards the Act. 
' South Australia Legislative Council, 1906, Sess. 2, p. 141; House of 
Assembly Debates, 1906, Sess. 1, pp. 191 seq. A Governor cannot appoint 
» deputy without express authority ; see Forsyth, Cases and Opinions 
on Constitutional Law, pp. 79, 80. In Canada the Governor-General has 
statutory authority to appoint Administrators vice the Lieutenant- 
Governors, and in some provinces the latter have by Provincial Acts power 
to appoint deputies for definite ends.