42 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



and perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of the Council- 

 Assembly is its continued solidarity for the West as against the 

 exasperating delays and delinquencies of federal administration. 



III. From Representative to Responsible Government 



The stage from Assembly to responsible government in the 

 North-West Territories is one of remarkable contrast with the colonial 

 period of the original provinces of the Dominion. 



In the earlier colonies the Legislative and Executive Councils 

 were continued and deliberately reinforced; in some instances by 

 special privileges and vested interests, in some by proposals (for- 

 tunately abortive) for hereditary titles, and in others by the Clergy 

 Reserves from Crown lands for an established church. The contest 

 between Council and Assembly for "responsible government" thus 

 resolved itself into a contest between two sections of the same com- 

 munity, one exercising by virtue of appointment and the other 

 claiming by virtue of popular election the control of administration. 



In the Territories the old Council had been swallowed up and 

 absorbed by the Assembly. There was no Family Compact. The 

 North-West Territories Act of 1888 provided for an Advisory Council 

 of four members on "matters of finance" to be chosen from the 

 Assembly, together with ex officio legal advisers on matters of law; 

 but the first act of the members of the Advisory Council was to 

 align themselves not with the Lieutenant-Governor and the federal 

 government but with the local Assembly in a carefully staged contest 

 for fully responsible government. 



Co-operation with the Assembly in this struggle was openly 

 avowed by the Advisory Council on finance — "being with the rest 

 of our fellow Members jealous of the rights, which were granted to 

 us." Within a year the Advisory Council resigned in a body (Oct. 29, 

 1889) because they were "unwilling to accept responsibility without 

 a corresponding right of control" over all "matters of finance," 

 including not only territorial revenues but the annual subsidies from 

 the Dominion. A new Advisory Council was promptly met in the 

 Assembly by a sharp vote of want of confidence, and the result was a 

 series of demands and concessions which culminated within nine years 

 in practically full responsible government within the limits of the 

 North- West Territories Acts. 



The first of these contentions was that upon which the Advisory 

 Council had resigned in 1889 — -the control of all financial resources, 

 federal as well as local, at the disposal of the Crown under the Act. 



