3586.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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ITCO. 885
T
12 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
No. 131.
(CANADA.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
MY LORD,
We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Malcolm's
Temple, 27th March 1877. letter of the 17th instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to request that we would favour your Lordship with our opinion upon certain points which had arisen in regard to the use of the Great Seal of the province of Nova Scotia in Canada.
2. That by the British North America Act, 30th Vict. cap. 3 (sec. 136) it was provided that "until altered by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council the Great Seals "of Ontario and Quebec respectively should be the same, or of the same design, as "those used in the provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada respectively before "their union as the province of Canada." That no such clause as the foregoing appeared to have been considered necessary at the time of the union in the case of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but in 1869 it was thought desirable that new seals should be prepared for the Dominion of Canada and for the four provinces then included in the Dominion. That new Seals were accordingly prepared, and on the Queen's 7th of May a Warrant (copy annexed) was passed under the Queen's Sign Manual and Warrant, Signet addressed to the Governor-General of the Dominion, authorising and directing 7th May that the said seals should respectively be used for the sealing of all things whatsoever which should pass the Great Seals of the Dominion of Canada and provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and requiring and commanding the return of the old seals. That this Warrant did not appear to have been obeyed in the case of Nova Scotia, where your Lordship had reason to believe that the use of the old seal had continued notwithstanding Her Majesty's instructions, and it appeared that a contention had lately been raised in Nova Scotia that in consequence of such use of the old seal all documents which had passed the Great Seal since the receipt of the new seal were invalid.
3. That it would seem, however, that this view had not met with universal assent, perhaps on the ground that it might be contended that the Warrant sending out the new seal was to be regarded as merely directory and not as abolishing the old seal, and that though the Lieutenant-Governor acted wrongly in disregarding the directions contained in the Warrant, his misconduct did not have the effect of making documents sealed with the old seal invalid.
1869.
4. That Mr. Malcolm was desired to enclose a copy of a case which was submitted 6th August for the consideration of the Law Officers of the Crown in August 1869, relating to the 1869. question of the power of altering the Great Seals in the provinces of Canada, together
with a copy of the opinion which was given in reply, and that he was to state that the 11th August assent of the Crown to the introduction of a Bill enabling the Lieutenant-Governor of 1869. the province to alter the seal in future had been given.
That the points upon which our opinion was desired by your Lordship are the following:-
(1.) Was the order in the Warrant of 7th May 1869 to use the new seal merely directory, so that a disregard of its injunctions would not have the effect of invalidating documents which were subsequently soaled with the old seal, or did the Warrant from the date of its receipt render the old seal of no effect? (2.) Do we agree with the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, dated 11th August 1869, to the effect that local legislation with the previous assent of the Crown is competent to empower the Lieutenant-Governor to alter the Seal?
(3.) Assuming that the effect of the Warrant transmitting the new seal was from thenceforth to render invalid all documents sealed with the old seal, is local legislation competent to validate the past use, contrary to the injunctions of the Warrant, of the old seal, and to make good all documents passed under it and all things done under it?
▲ 12916.-130. 25. -12/84.