CHAPTER II
AUSTRALASIA AND THE EMPIRE
The With the full granting of responsible government it is mfl of the obvious that British policy must less and less concern itself Imperial with the internal politics of the Colonies. The general ^upoifthe ru ^ e course still holds good that no Colonial legislative constitu- body is competent to pass a law, at variance with or velopment repugnant to any Imperial Statute which extends in its of the operation to the particular Colony. Neither can such body ^Colonies? exceed the bounds of its assigned jurisdiction. The right of veto, however, has been very sparingly exercised. It would nevertheless be most erroneous to hold that, even with regard to questions of internal management, the rôles of the Colonial Governor and of the British Secretary of State have become merely ornamental. Indeed, in the case of the Australian Colonies, there were causes at work which rendered the existence of the English authorities of the utmost importance. Allusion has already been made 1 to the suggestive passage wherein Sir E. Head pointed out the use of the Canadian Union as a training ground in political moderation. No such training had been received by the Australian colonists, and, in consequence, amongst them political warfare was carried to extreme lengths. But it must at once be apparent how ill suited were constitutions moulded on the British for Oct. 14, such methods of procedure. In Lord J. Russell’s words, i 8 39- “ Every political constitution in which different bodies share the supreme power is only enabled to exist by the forbearance of those among whom this power is distributed. . . . The Sovereign using the prerogative of the Crown to the utmost extent, and the House of Commons exerting its powers of the purse to carry all its resolutions into im- 1 See supra, p. 309.
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