1406 THE JUDICIARY [PART VI
independent judgement of the Imperial officer—the Governor.
He considered, however, that even so, ministers must be
responsible for any advice which they gave and be liable to
condemnation by Parliament; they could not consistently
with the principles of self-government be relieved from
responsibility for anything they did. The representatives
of Newfoundland considered that the power in such cases
should be vested in the representative of the Crown, and
Mr. Service thought that the matter should certainly stand
over until the Australian Colonies were agreed; while Sir
William Fitzherbert, on behalf of New Zealand, thought that
it was inconvenient to press the question of life and death
for party decision before Parliament. No action was there-
fore for the time being taken upon the question at issue.
§ 4. Tee CHANGE OF 1892
The decision of the Colonial Conference remained for
a time unchallenged, for evidently Ministries were not agreed
as to the course to be taken, and some at least were not
adverse to being relieved from the troublesome position
involved by the necessity of dealing with such cases on their
final responsibility! On the other hand, Mr. Higinbotham
felt very deeply on the subject, and it was one of the points on
which he addressed Lord Knutsford, not as a Secretary of
State, but as a distinguished person interested in Colonial
affairs. His language was warm, but in effect he was right
in thinking that in all ordinary matters it would be better
if the usual system of responsibility was adopted. In 1888
the utterly unstable position was illustrated by the action of
the Governor of Queensland, who declined to accept minis-
terial advice in a non-capital case ; the Premier at once said
he would resign, and the Governor had, after consulting the
Secretary of State, to give way. Then followed a dispatch
of October 30 to the officer administering the Government
of the Colony, in which Lord Knutsford admitted that
Sir A. Musgrave had acted strictly within his instructions,
but he said that he would have done well to subordinate his
. (f. Holman in New South Wales Parliamentary Debates, 1911, p. 1296.
