16 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
man assert that history will not repeat itself, and that the governor- 
general will not assume a position something like that of the president of 
the United States, so that the cry amongst political parties will be ‘Who 
is for the president, and who is against him?’” It would be assuredly 
an unfortunate thing for Australia, as well as for Canada, were the gov- 
ernor-generalship to become the object of the contentions of political 
parties and factions, like the presidency or governorships of the United 
States. 
The elective principle has never been applied in the constitutional 
practice of Canada to administrative, executive or judicial officers—despite 
their close neighbourhood to the United States,—but has been confined, 
in accordance with the English system which obtains throughout the 
empire, to representatives in parliament or in the municipal councils of 
the country. Consequently Canadians have been spared the excitement 
and expense that have followed the adoption of the elective principle in the 
United States, where the president of the nation and the governors of 
the forty-four states are elected for short terms of office—the former for 
four years and the latter from one to four years. Removed from all 
political influences, since he does not owe his appointment to any Canadian 
party, exercising his executive powers under the advice of a constitu- 
tional ministry who represent the majority in the legislature, representing 
what Bagehot would call the dignified part of the constitution, the 
governor-general is able to evoke the respect and confidence of all classes 
of the people, and not only to exercise a decided influence on the adminis- 
tration of public affairs by consultation with his ministers, under the 
unwritten but well understood conventions and rules of the constitution, 
but also to elevate the tone of public opinion by his public speeches on 
those numerous occasions when he is called upon to address audiences on 
questions of general import relating to education, literature and science, 
and other matters not mixed up with party politics but having an inti- 
mate connection with the development and prosperity of the country. 
By his hospitalities as head of Canadian sociéty, he is able to bring men of 
all political parties together in social intercourse, and do much to assuage 
the bitterness of faction in a country where the current sets so steadily 
towards democracy. Were the governor-general elected, he could not 
possibly occupy the same vantage ground, since he would be necessarily 
the leader of his party, like an American president—the subject of the 
sharp and unfair criticism of his political opponents. He would again 
occupy the position the governor-general practically held for over fifty 
years in Canadian political history before the establishment of responsible 
government, when he was too often personally brought into the arena of 
political discussions and conflict, and made a target of the abuse of the 
popular leaders, since there were no ministers sitting in parliament to 
assume full responsibility for the acts of the executive authority. 
