[bourinot] CANADIAN CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY 153 



ing a precedent for a change in the constitution of the legislative council 

 of Nova Scotia. Governor Archibald did not ignore the fact that the 

 conclusion to which he had come was apparently contradicted by the 

 fact that in several commissions and instructions issued to governors of 

 Nova Scotia, subsequent to the despatches in question, all appointments 

 to the council continued to be made '' during pleasure.'' He meets this 

 objection — vita! on the face of it — by the following statement : 



" It would have seemed the projDer thing to revise the terms of the 

 royal commission and instructions, so as to have made them conformable 

 to the altered tenure, and this is the course which first suggested itself to 

 the colonial secretary, as appears b}- his despatch of the 11th July, 1843, 

 to Sir William Colebrooke, quoted above. But on further consideration 

 Lord Stanle}' informed Sir W. Colebrooke, in another and later despatch ' 

 of the 30th December, 1843, that, on proceeding to execute his intention 

 in the form announced in the previous despatch, it had been gratifying 

 to him to discover that it would be practicable to fulfil the pledges con- 

 tained therein, without incurring the inconvenience of introducing any 

 change in the royal commission and standing instructions under which 

 he was acting." So that it would appear "the life tenure had been in- 

 troduced in the most solemn form into the constitution of the council in 

 New Brunswick, without changing the wording of the royal commissions 

 or instructions. If that were the case there {in Neic Brimsivick'] there 

 can be no reason why it should not be so here [fn Nova Scotia'].'"' 



XXIV. Eeview of the Chanues r.v New Brunswick Constitution. 



As Grovernor Archibald appears to have fallen into an error in the 

 foregoing statement it is important that we should now review the facts 

 in New Brunswick, though I shall show at the close of this review, when 

 I come to give my conclusions on the facts, that this error, too, does not 

 impair the general argument of the lieutemmt-governor in the opinion he 

 formed on Lord Stanley's despatch. 



XXV. Address of New Bbunswick x\ssembly with Eespect to 



Legislative Council of that Province. 



Now it appears from the journals " of the house of assembly of New 

 Brunswick that in the S3Ssion of 1843, that bodj- passed an address to the 

 Queen, praying that such changes should be made in the constitution of 

 the legislative council as would make it " so free from official jnfluences 

 as to form a constitutional check as »well as upon the executive, as the 

 representative branch of the legislature.'' They proposed for Her 



1 See above, p. 150. 



2 The italics and \vord.s in brackets are mine. 



3 See N.B. Ass. .Jour., 1843, pp. 288-289. 



