612 PARLIAMENTS OF THE DOMINIONS [PART IIL 
advise a Governor to perform an act which they admit to 
be contrary to law, or not yet authorized by law. 1f, 
however, they think that there are grounds for tendering 
such advice they will do so under the obligation of obtaining, 
in so far as they are themselves concerned, the subsequent 
approval of Parliament, with an indemnity should the circum- 
stances appear to require it. 
7. But it is not possible in the same manner, or to the same 
extent, to cover by the ex post facto sanction of the local 
Parliament the action of a Governor who under ministerial 
advice has acted in a manner unauthorized by or contrary 
to the law. There are also cases in which the Governor has 
positive duties to perform which are prescribed by law, 
and which are not matters of policy or of opinion. The 
Constitution of Victoria specifies the Governor as the person 
by whom certain acts necessary for keeping in motion the 
administrative machinery of the country shall be done, and 
his responsibility in regard of such acts cannot entirely be 
borne by the ministers nor by the local Parliament. For 
anything which he may do or decline to do the Governor 
is accountable to the Sovereign whom he represents, and 
not directly to the community over which he is appointed 
to preside, and if Her Majesty's Government should require 
him to show that his acts have been lawful, or, if not in 
conformity with any law, have been necessary to meet 
a pressing emergency, this would afford no ground for saying 
that the responsibility of the Colonial ministers in local 
matters has been in any degree interfered with. 
The ministers of Victoria also took exception to the 
publication of certain correspondence with the Secretary of 
State and to his receiving a deputation, but the Secretary 
of State declined to suppose that they could desire to fetter 
his discretion in the matter at all 
In a dispatch of August 17, 18782 the Secretary of 
State gave the opinion of the law officers of the Crown 
that, while the moneys necessary for defraying the costs 
of the collection of revenue in Victoria were specifically 
appropriated for the purpose by s. 45 of the Constitution 
Act, the view that, when the Committee of Supply had voted 
money for other purposes and the vote had been reported 
to the Legislative Assembly, the amount voted becomes 
1 Parl. Pap., C. 2173, p. 97. * Ihid., pp. 97-9.