1300 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V
of the United Province of Canada. He then pointed out that
the removal of the connexion which had formerly existed
between the Mother Country and the Colonies through the
exercise of patronage and commercial protection might be
replaced in some measure by the judicious grant of titles
and other marks of the royal favour, showing the continuance
of a direct connexion between the Crown and the Colony.
He then recommended strongly that the appointments in
question should not be made on the advice of Colonial
ministers, though they could be made on the advice of the
Governors and of Imperial ministers. That position still,
on the whole, may be said to remain good ; that is to say,
marks of the royal favour are bestowed not on the responsible
 advice of ministers, but on the advice of a minister of
the Crown in the United Kingdom, whose opinion, of course,
is obtained in part from the Governor and in part from the
Ministry of the Colony. It is clear that if the honours are
to be of Imperial validity they must be granted by an
[mperial authority. It would be possible for His Majesty
if the honours were of local validity to confer one which
should be valid in Canada or in Australia on the advice of
a Canadian or an Australian Ministry, but as the honour
cannot be confined in space, the advice must be that of an
[mperial minister who bears the responsibility of each appointment
 and must inform himself as best he can on the subject
by what means he finds available to him. Obviously the
[mperial Officer in the Dominion or State, the Governor-(Feneral
 or Governor, must be one source of information, and
a very important one. Obviously too, due weight must
be given to the Ministry of the day. But it is clear that the
weight of the opinion of the Ministry will differ very considerably
 in different cases. If the honour which it is
proposed to confer is one for political services, their opinion
* Cf. Sir J. Macdonald’s view, Pope, ii. 237 seq., and Goldwin Smith,
Canada, pp. 155 seq.; Molteno, Sir John Molteno, i. 341. Higinbotham
thought that honours should be given by the Governor on the advice of his
ministers and the Colonial Parliaments; apparently he meant life peerages.
A motion against the grant of honours was unsuccessful in the New South
Wales Assembly in 1882 ; see Debates, pp. 460-72.