L
77
CANADA.
CHURCH CONVOCATION.
No. 1.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.
Reference --
• 885
SIR,
COPY of a LETTER from the LAW OFFICERS of the CROWN to the Right Hon. II. LABOUCHERE.
Doctors' Commons, August 5, 1856. (Received August 5, 1856.) We are honoured with Mr. Merivale's letter of the 10th July ultimo, stating that he was directed to transmit to us a copy of a Bill passed by the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada, "to enable the members of the United Church of England and Ireland in Canada to meet in Synod," together with the Governor's accompanying despatch; and to request that we would report to you our opinion whether this Bill (which has been reserved by the Governor for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure) may lawfully receive the Royal assent without the assistance of Parliament.
Mr. Merivale was also pleased to state that you would be glad to receive
our opinion on this point at our earliest convenience.
In obedience to your commands, we have taken the Bill into consideration, and have the honour to report:
That we much regret that we are obliged to arrive at the conclusion that the Crown's assent ought not to be given to the Act in question.
Many of the observations contained in two reports made by us in August 1855, one on the Address of the Canadian Legislature, and another on the Act passed by the Legislature of the Colony of Victoria, are applicable to the subject before us, and will serve to explain some of the reasons on which our present opinion is founded.
We may observe that the Victoria Act contained important limitations and provisoes which are not in the Act now submitted to us. But, as additional grounds for our present report, we must beg attention to the following remarks: The Legislature of Canada does not possess (except where it has been expressly given by an Act of the Imperial Parliament) any power or authority to alter or affect any part of the unwritten or written law of this country in force within the Province of Canada.
Whenever it has been intended that it should have the power to do so, an express authority has been conferred by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, of which the Wm. IV, cap. 20, and the 16 and 17 Vict., cap. 21, are striking
instances.
Any Bill, therefore, passed by the Legislative Council and Assembly in Canada, which directly or indirectly repeals or alters any part of that which may be called, for distinction only, the Imperial Law in force in Canada, is ultro rires of the Canadian Legislature, and would have no legal validity even if the Crown's assent were given to it, which ought not by any means to be done.
It is, moreover, to be observed that the prerogative of the Crown, both ecclesiastical and civil, is part of the common law, and the Colonial Legislature ought not to be invested with any portion of the Royal prerogative, more especially
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2PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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