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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O.885

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

SIR,

No. 223.

(Natal—General.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Royal Courts of Justice, We were honoured with your commands signified to us in Mr. Graham's letter

August 9, 1899. of the 28th ultimo, stating that he was directed by you to transmit to us the copy of a despatch (with enclosures), datel 8th June, 1899, from the Governor of Natal, which raised a constitutional question of some importance to all the self-governing Colonies, viz.: whether, if a Prime Minister vacated his office by death or otherwise, his Ministry was ipso facto dissolved.

That Mr. Graham was to enclose a copy of the Natal Constitution Act No. 14 of 1893, under section 8, of which the Governor issued the Commission appointing the Ministers mentioned in the postscript to his despatch.

That the passage quoted by the Governor from the well-known work of Alpheus Todd on Parliamentary Government in England, occurred at page 283 of volume II., of the 2nd edition (1889), and at page 21 of the Abridged Edition by Spencer Walpole (1892), and was apparently inserted on the authority of a statement to be found on page 243 of volume 1 of the work published by Mr. Gladstone, known as from past years."

Gleanings

"

"

That one of the cases referred to in a footnote to the page in Alpheus Todd's work containing the passage in question occurred at the Cape Colony in 1878 when a question arose as to the position of one of the members of Mr. Molteno's Ministry after that gentleman had been dismissed from the office of Prime Minister by the then Governor, Sir Bartle Frere. That, on that occasion, the question was submitted to the local, Attorney-General, Sir Thomas Upington, who reported on the authority of Alpheus Todd's above-cited dictum that the Ministers ceased to hold office on the formal dismissal of Mr. Molteno having been completed. That the correspondence was printed at page 33 of the South African Command Paper C. 2100, a copy of which was forwarded

to us. Mr. Graham further stated that you requested that we would take these papers

into our consideration and favour you with our opinion upon the following point:

Did the death of a Prime Minister involve the immediate cessation of their functions on the part of the other members of the Ministry, or could they continue to perform such functions pending the formal tender and acceptance of their individual resignations and the appointment of a new Ministry?

In obedience to your commands we have taken the papers into our consideration, and

have the honour to

Keport--

That, in our opinion the death of the Prime Minister does not involve the immediate cessation of their functions on the part of the other members of the Ministry, nor do constitutional usage and convenience require their resignation.

Ministers hold office of the Crown and not of the Prime Minister. Of course the death or resignation of the Prime Minister may render it, in their opinion, expedient that they should resign. This is a matter for their own consideration individually, or collectively. Until they have resigned, and their resignations have been accepted, they are the Ministers of the Crown and bound to perform their duties as such. A new Prime Minister may be appointed with whom the other Ministers may be willing to act, and in that case they may go on in their respective offices without any breach of continuity,

The Constitution of Natal (and in this respect it is not peculiar), does not appear to specify any office as that of Prime Minister. Every Minister is appointed by the Governor in the name of Her Majesty and holds office at Her Majesty's pleasure.

The passage cited from Todd's Parliamentary Government, volume 2, page 21 (Walpole's edition), in reality entirely negatives the idea that a vacancy in the office of Prime Minister creates a vacancy in the case of all the other offices in the Ministry. It is true that Mr. Todd says that the Ministry is thereby ipso facto dissolved, but that this refers to the collective existence of the Ministry and not to the tenure of individual

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