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SIR CHAKLES BEUCE, G.C.M.G._, ON 



by the Mother Countiy, represented by a Governor and 

 Executive Council, a Legislative Council and a Legislative 

 Assembly. It is impossible for me to trace the history of the 

 conflict which delayed the concession to the colonies of the 

 principle of the subordination of the Executive to the Legis- 

 lature. It was realised that the logical consequence of this, 

 concession must be the liberation of the colonial governments- 

 from the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. In 1775, 

 Lord Mansfield declared in the House of Lords : " Take it upon 

 which ground you will, the supremacy of the British Legislature 

 must be complete, entire and unconditional or, on the other 

 hand, the Colonies must be free." In 1837, Mr. Gladstone, in 

 the House of Commons — I quote Viscount Morley — " took a firm 

 stand against the pretensions in Canada to set their Assembly 

 on an equal footing with the Imperial Parliament at home." 

 That is exactly what Canada has done, with the result that the 

 liberation of the Dominion Parliaments from the control of the 

 Imperial Parliament has become the recognised condition of 

 their adhesion to the Empire. 



We have thus seen the development of three forms of 

 Constitutional Government : — 



1. Colonies in which the Crown has the entire control of 



legislation, while the administration is carried on by 

 public officers under the control of the Home 

 Government. 



2. Colonies possessing representative institutions, but not 



responsible Government, in which the Crown has only 

 a veto on legislation, but the Home Government retains- 

 the control of public officers. 



3. Colonies possessing representative institutions and 



responsible Government, in which the Crown has only 

 a veto on legislation, and the Home Government has 

 no control over any public officer except the Governor. 

 I need not trace the development of the constitutional 

 principle of the subordination of the Executive to the 

 Legislature, and its consequence in each of the units of the 

 Empire now grouped as Dominions. Before 1860 eight colonies 

 had received responsible government ; the Cape was added in 

 1872, Western Australia in 1890, Xatal in 1893, and the 

 Transvaal and the Orange Eiver Colony in 1906. Thus the 

 circle of our self-governing colonies in the temperate zones is 

 complete. In 1867, the ^N'orth American colonies, with the 

 exception of Newfoundland, .which remains a separate unit, 

 were lederated in the Dominion of Canada by the British North 



