CHAPTER XI 
HONOURS 
§ 1. Titres or HoNOUR 
THE prerogative of honour is essentially one for the 
personal exercise of the Crown.! It is clear that the value 
of an honour depends entirely upon its being considered as 
a mark of royal favour, and that possession of an honour 
which was conferred merely by local authority would be of 
practically no value whatever. Moreover, if an honour were 
conferred locally it would only be valid within the local 
limits, and outside those limits it would have only such value 
as might be accorded to it by courtesy in other countries. 
On the other hand, it is the privilege of the Crown to 
confer honours which are valued throughout the Empire. 
Accordingly honours are never conferred in virtue of local 
Acts. It has, indeed, often been questioned whether an 
honour could be so conferred. It hardly seems possible to 
deny in the abstract that an Act could be passed empowering 
a Governor to confer titles of honour, but that such an Act 
should be approved by the Crown may be regarded as being 
at present impossible, and certainly there is no case on 
record of the passing or the approval by the Crown of such 
an enactment. 
The value of conferring honours on persons in the Colonies 
was insisted upon by Lord Elgin? when Governor-General 
! For the prerogative, cf. 31 Hen. VIII. e. 10, quoted by Lord Macnaghten 
in Earl Cowley v. Countess Cowley, [1901] A. C. 450, at p. 456. 
* See Walrond, Letters and Journals of Lord Elgin, p. 114. Tt may be 
aoted that even a Governor-General cannot ¢ dub’ a man Knight; it is 
a power reserved for the Crown alone; even the Duke of Connaught on 
his visit to open the Union Parliament in 1910 did not receive the power. 
On the other hand, Governors-General and Governors are allowed to per- 
form investitures. Cf. Attorney-General for Dominion of Canada v. Attorney- 
General for Province of Ontario, [1898] A. C. 247, at p. 252; in re Bedard. 
7 Moo. P. C, 23.