[bourinot] CANADIAN CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY 149 



be established ou such a basis as rai,a,-lit l»e compatible witli tlie rio;ht, 

 efficient and independent discharge of its hiu-li and important duties." ' 



XIX. Answer of L')RD Stanley to Address of 18-4.5 for Change 

 IN THE Constitution of Lecuslative Council of Nova Scotia. 



The colonial secretary of the day, Lord Stanley — afterwards the 

 Earl of Derby, premier of England — in a despatch to Lord Falkland, 

 then lie uten ant-go vernoi-, dated August 20th, 1845, assigned reasons why 

 it was not possible to make pecuniar}^ provision for the payment of the 

 members, and then proceeded to discuss '■ the second proposal, that the 

 tenure of office of a legislative councillor should be during his life, and 

 not during His Majesty's pleasure." No such "second proposal" in 

 exact words, it is M-ell to note, was made in the address of the legislative 

 council, as ma}- be seen by reference to the preceding paragraph No. 

 17.' All that they asked tor was a " defined constitution." Lieutenant- 

 Governor Archibald,^ discussing this matter in 1833, assumes with much 

 reason that Lord Stanley must have been citing the language of Lord 

 Falkland's despatch which accompanied the address of the legislative 

 council, and which was pi-obabl}' in the nature of one of those confidential 

 communications that are not made public except on special occasions. 

 In this despatch^ of Lord Stanley, he did not consider the argument 

 deduced from the Canadian constitution in favour of a life term as at all 

 meeting the case — and this argument was obviously in Lord Falkland's 

 letter since it is not used in the address of the council. He pointed out 

 that the tenure of the office of legislative councillor in Canada was '■ con 

 nected with and regulated by many other constitutional rules which are 

 not in force in Nova Scotia, and of which the introduction into >iova 

 Scotia might perhaps be found impossible." But though he thus "hesi- 

 tated to admit one of the arguments urged in favour of this change," he 

 added that he did not "design to be understood as opposed to the change 

 itself." He then went on to refer to the fact that a question nearly con- 

 nected with this, arose in New Brunswick' in 1843, and he had, on the 

 11th of July and 30th December, in that year, addressed to Sir W. Cole- 

 brooke, lieutenant-governor of that province, two despatches in which 

 "he explained " the views of Her Majesty's government on the question 

 which has arisen in Nova Scotia. In the first despatch of the 11th July, 

 he states that "Her Majesty's government had humbly submitted to the 

 Queen their opinion that it w^ould be pro2:)er to revise the instruments by 

 which the legislative council of New Brunswick is constituted." He had 



1 See Legislative Council Journal, 184.5. 



'^ See above, p. 148. 



•■ See below, paragraph xxiii. 



•• See Legislative Council Journal, 1846, App. I. 



■' See below, paragraph xxvii. 



