ISO ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



ob-served tliat the goveriinient 'hud recoinmciided, tliat in that revision 

 tlie number of legishitive councillors should be increased to 21 ; that of 

 that number seven onl}- should be persons holding- otlices at the pleasure 

 of the Crown ; and that the quorum should be fixed at 8."' Lord Stanley 

 had also informed the lieutenant-iiovernor of New Brunswick that the 

 i^overnment had "further advised Her ^lajesty that provision should be 

 made for vacating the seats of members, either in the case of bankruptcy 

 or insolvency, or in any case where a member should be a defaulter or 

 should be convicted of any of the crimes Avhich, in the technical sense of 

 the word, are distinguished as infamous, and that to these rules we had 

 proposed that another should be added for rendering void the seat of any 

 member absenting himself, whether with or without leave, after the 

 lapse of a certain prescribed period." In the later despatch of the 30th 

 December, 1843, Lord Stanley had informed Sir W. Colebrooke that '-on 

 proceeding to execute the intention "' set forth in the preceding para- 

 i^^raph, he had discovered that " it would be practicable to fulfil the 

 pledges of the Uth of July, without incurring the inconvenience of intro- 

 ducing anv change in the royal commission and standing instructions 

 under which he was acting." These changes, continued Lord Stanley, in 

 the despatch to Lord Falkland, were carried into effect. They were 

 made, he pointed out "at the instance of the popular branch of the 

 legislature and were suggested by that body with the apparent, or rather 

 with the avoAved design of rendering the legislative council more acces- 

 sible to popular influences, and of bringing the two houses into a more 

 habitual accord and harmony with each other." More than that, it 

 appeared to Her Majesty's government that "the proposed changes 

 would tend to elevate tin- character, and to increase the legitimate 

 authority and influence of the legislative council and thus to give ad- 

 ditional stability to the provincial constitution " of JSew Brunswick. 



XX. Changes Proposed by Lord Stanley in Case of Nova Scotia. 



■'Adhering to that opinion," concluded Lord Stanley in his despatch 

 of 20th of August, 1845, to Lord P'alkland, '• ice think tJidt the same or 

 s'nnihtr rules ought to he introduceil into Nova Scotia, as a necessary ac- 

 companinient of the proposefl alteration in the tenure of the office of a 

 lefjislative council. On these terms Your Lordship will understand that 

 Her Majesty would he prepared to accede to the suggested change in that 

 tenure."^ As respects the suggestion, that "this innovation should be 

 made by the authority of i)arliament," he was not aware of any "reason 

 for doubting the power of the (^ueen to effect the change permanently, 

 in the unaided exercise of Her Majesty's royal prerogative," and he 

 should regard "as improper and unconstitutional, an application to par- 



' The italics are the pre»<ent writer's. 



