162 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



this case was perfectly in accord with that prescribed by Lord Stanley in 

 a similar case in 18»U. In a despatch' to Lord Falkland, he authorized 

 his lordship •' to call on Mr. Starr, and on any other member of the 

 executive or legislative council who may now or hereafter be in the same 

 predicament, to resign their seats, and in the event of non-compliance, it 

 will be your duty to suspend any such councillor from his office." In 

 Mr. Gladstone's desjjatch " of 1848, in answer to the address of the 

 legislative council on the subject of the tenure of office, he instructed 

 Lord Falkland ''to resoi't to the measure of suspension" in case a 

 bankrupt member of the council shoiild '■ not voluntarily resign his 

 office." The office of councillor being held during pleasure under the 

 royal instructions, the governor could always exercise the royal prerog- 

 ative of dismissal in such cases as arose in 1888. when Lord Monck's 

 commission and instructions still formed a part of the constitutional law 

 of Xova Scotia. 



XXXIV. CONSTITUTLONAL EfFECT OF BRITISH NoRTH AMERICA 



Act, 1867. 



] have now revicAved the constitutional history of the legislative 

 council of Nova Scotia, from its origin in the early part of the eighteenth 

 centur3' down to the first of July, 1867, when, in accordance with the 

 British North America Act of 1867, Nova Scotia became a province of 

 the federal union known as the Dominion of Canada. This imperial act 

 provides^ that the lieutenant-governor shall be appointed by the govei-nor- 

 general of the Dominion ; that the constitution of the executive authority 

 of Nova Scotia " shall, subject to the provisions of this act, continue as it 

 exists at the union, until altered under the authority of this act ; " that 

 the constitution of the legislature of the province of Nova Scotia, shall, 

 •• subject to the provisions of this act, continue as it exists at the union 

 until altered under the authority of this act." In the ninety-second 

 section, setting forth the subjects of exclusive provincial legislation, it is 

 enacted that "in each province the legislature may exclusively make laws 

 in relation to matters coming within the classes of subjects hereinafter 

 enumerated ; " and the tirst subject so enumerated is " the amendment 

 from time to time, notwithstanding anything in this act, of the con- 

 stitution of the province, except as regards the office of lieutenant- 

 governor " — the governor-general in council alone having the ])ower to 

 appoint, dismiss, and instruct that functionary as respects his relations 

 ^th the Dominion government. In the exercise of this power of 

 amendment, the legislature of Nova Scotia is supreme.* 



1 A.SS. Jour. 1861, App. 48. 

 ■^ See above, paragi-aph xxii. 

 ■^ See B. N. A. Act, ss. 58-68-88. 



^ See Judgment of Judicial Committee of Privy Council in Hodge vs. the Queen. 

 App. Cas. 117. 



