90 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Section 55 reads: "Where a bill passed by the Houses of the 

 Parliament is presented to the Governor-General for the Queen's 

 assent, he shall declare, according to his discretion, but subject to the 

 provisions of this Act and to Her Majesty's instructions, either that he 

 assents thereto in the Queen's name, or that he withholds the Queen's 

 assent, or that he reserves the bill for the signification of the Queen's 

 pleasure." 



Section 56. "Where the Governor-General assents to a bill in the 

 Queen's name, he shall, by the first convenient opportunity, send an 

 authentic copy of the Act to one of Her Majesty's Principal Secre- 

 taries of State; and if the Queen in Council within two years after the 

 receipt thereof fey the Secretary of State thinks fit to disallow the Act, 

 such disallowance (with a certificate of the Secretary of State of the 

 day on which the Act was received by him) being signified by the 

 Governor-General, by speech or message to each of the Houses of the 

 Parliament, or by proclamation, shall annul the Act from and after 

 the day of such signification." 



Section 57. "A bill reserved for the signification of the Queen's 

 pleasure shall not have any force unless and until, within two years 

 from the day on which it was presented to the Governor-General for 

 the Queen's assent, the Governor-General signifies by speech or mes- 

 sage to each of the Houses of Parliament or by proclamation that it 

 has received the assent of the Queen in Council." 



In Murray's Instructions (1763), it was provided that no law or 

 ordinance respecting private property should be passed without a 

 clause suspending its operation till His Majesty's pleasure should be 

 known: and also that all "Laws, statutes and ordinances" passed by 

 Governor, Council and Assembly should be transmitted within three 

 months of their passing to the "Commissioners for Trade and Planta- 

 tions" with the reason for passing them. Until such time as an 

 Assembly should be called, Rules and Regulations not affecting 

 "Life, Limb or Liberty of the Subject" or "imposing any Duties or 

 Taxes" might be passed by Governor and Council, but must be trans- 

 mitted to His Majesty by the first opportunity for approbation or 

 disallowance.^ No Assembly having been in fact called, the Governor 

 by the advice of the Council made a number of Ordinances.^ 



1 Shortt & Doughty, pp. 135, 136. 



* These are now to be found collected in a convenient form in a publication of 

 the Archives of Canada. "Ordinance made and passed by the Governor and 

 Council of the Province of Quebec, 1763-1791, Ottawa , 1917." 



Before the coming into force, May 1st, 1775, of the Quebec Act, 1774, there 

 were 39 Ordinances in all passed by the Governor at Quebec: on their face, they 

 purported to be "ordained and declared" (or "ordained" in a few instances) by the 



