168 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



council accepted the tenus ' in clear eini>hatic language in an address to 

 the Crown — "that this house concurs in the necessity and propriety of 

 the conditions attached to the coneessiou oï a tenure for life to its 

 members" — shows the construction plact'd on thedesi)atch h^- the council 

 at the time. The terms were accepted, and the comi)act between the 

 Crown and the council was to all intents and ]nirposes settled. Mr. 

 Gladstone, on behalf of the Crown, took no exception to this emphatic 

 declaration of the council, but tacitly acquiesced in what had been done 

 previously with the authority of the C'rown. Jf there had been no sucli 

 •compact, assui-edly he would have iiuide some reference to the language 

 of the council, accepting the terms as accomi)anying a change of tenure, 

 instead of going on to make some remarks on other points that occurred 

 to him in connection with the address. It is true no changes were made 

 in the future commissions and instructions with respect to a life tenure 

 or to the rules specitieally stated by Lord Stanley to be " a necessary 

 -accompaniment of the proposed alteration in the tenure of the office of a 

 législative councillor," and no doubt, from a strictly technical legal point 

 of view, the pro))osed change may be regarded by lawyers, who do not 

 con.sider all the constitutional aspects of the case, as defective. But ]iOrd 

 Stanley has ex))lained - why it was not necessary to make all these 

 changes iit the commission and instructions in the case of New Brunswick 

 and Xova Scotia; and with respect to the '• i)roposed alteration in the 

 tenure of the office of a legislative councillor," to which the other changes 

 •or rules were a mere accompaniment, he says in <listinct language that it 

 was not necessary that this ' innovation ' — mark this word — '• should be 

 -made by the authority of )>arliament ; ' he was not aware of any reason 

 •• for doul)ting the power of the (^ueeri to effect the change permanently, 

 in the una'nh'd exercise of Her .Majesty's royal prerogative." In other 

 words, the (^ueen, by a compact made in this despatcdi written by her 

 -command bv the secretary of state and responsilile councillor, pledged 

 .herself to allow the royal prei-ogative to remain in abeyance with respect 

 •.to the legislative council of Nova Scotia, and to permit its members to 

 liold office practically during good behaviour — the terms accompanying 

 and limitinn- this new tv'uure being set forth clearly in Lord Stanley's 

 .<lespatch. 



Too much importance may be attached to the commissions and 

 •instructions of governors, and too little to the despatches to the same 

 instructing them as to their duties and responsibilities. The instructions 

 that accompany the commissions are not \inder the great seal, with all 

 the legal weight that attaches to documents to which that highest evideiuH; 

 •of the royal will is affixed. The governors' commissions and instructions 

 in Nova Scotia, as in other colonies, have been always under the signet 



1 See above, paragraph xxi. 

 - See above, p. 153. 



