Parliamentary Government in Canada

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Dawson, 1886 - 57 pages
 

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Page 3 - That as to dispute what God may do is blasphemy, ... so is it sedition in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power.
Page 6 - Ministry is, in fact, a committee of leading members of the two Houses. It is nominated by the Crown : but it consists exclusively of statesmen whose opinions on the pressing questions of the time agree, in the main, with the opinions of the majority of the House of Commons. Among the members of this committee are distributed the great departments of the administration. Each Minister conducts the ordinary business of his own office without reference to his colleagues. But the most important business...
Page 6 - Burleigh or a Sully, would be unfit for executive functions. It has been truly said that every large collection of human beings, however well educated, has a strong tendency to become a mob ; and a country of which the Supreme Executive Council is a mob is surely in a perilous situation. Happily a way has been found out in which the House of Commons can exercise a paramount influence over the executive government, without assuming functions such as can never be well discharged by a body so numerous...
Page 7 - ... a treaty on a particular basis, or to send an expedition to a particular place. They have merely to declare that they have ceased to trust the ministry and to ask for a ministry which they can trust.
Page 7 - Ministers are bound to act as one man on all questions relating to the Executive Government If one of them dissents from the rest on a question too important to admit of compromise, it is his duty to retire. While the...
Page 7 - ... majority supports them against opposition, and rejects every motion which reflects on them or is likely to embarrass them. If they forfeit that confidence, if the parliamentary majority is dissatisfied with the way in which patronage is distributed, with the way in which the prerogative of mercy is used, with the conduct of foreign affairs, with the conduct of a war, the remedy is simple.
Page 22 - That her Majesty's Ministers do not sufficiently possess the confidence of the House of Commons to enable "them to carry through the House measures which they deem of essential importance to the public welfare ; and that their continuance in office under such circumstances is at variance with the spirit of the Constitution.
Page 3 - ... as it is atheism and blasphemy in a creature to dispute what the Deity may do, so it is presumption and sedition in a subject to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power : good Christians," he adds, " will be content with God's will revealed in his word ; and good subjects will rest in the king's will, revealed in his law.

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