RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT IN TILE DOMINIONS. t
atIR. KEITH, whose legal and historical attainments and prac- tical experience at the Colonial Office specially fit him for the task, has written what must long remain the authoritative work on responsible government in the oversea dominions. It is a continuation and amplification of Todd's classic treatise, which leaves the last thirty years unebronicled. Many things have happened since Todd wrote. The constitutional theory of the Empire has insensibly changed, the status of the dominions has altered, new theories are in the air, and new !problems to be faced. The last few years, especially, have been rich in interest for the historian of Constitutions, with such episodes as the dispute in Natal over martial law, the Constitutional crisis in Queensland under Lord Chelmsford, the Union of South Africa and the various Imperial Confer- ences. Mr. Keith is a painstaking and scientific writer. His volumes are amply " documented," and, for the sake of greater 'security, he quotes his authorities—despatches and the like— in generous extracts. Partly he gives us a statement of actual practice and partly an examination of the delicacies of legal status and undefined powers. The first provides a most valuable work of reference, a sort of politician's vade mecum ; but the second is an original inquiry in which the writer shows both acumen and sound judgment. We commend, for example, his examination of the famous thesis of Mr. Higinbotham, the Victorian Chief Justice, that responsible government, which
• A Nature Calendar. By Gilbert Whito. Edited with an Introduction by Wilfred Mark Webb. Loudon: The Selborne Society. [25e. net.]
t Oxford Government in the Domiaisms. By Arthur Berriedale Keith. vols.; at the Clarendon Pros. Lek Se. net.] was derived in England from the common law, was derived in the Colonies from statutes. Ho shows that this is not true even of Australia, and wholly untrue of Canada, where responsible government rests, us at home, on Constitutional practice. Not one Colonial Constitution, to take one instance,- attempts to lay down the fundamental law of responsible government—that a Government must rule by a pullet.. mentary majority. Mr. Keith examines every detail of executive and legislative power, the different types of. Federalism, the forme of Imperial control, the position of the Church and the judiciary, and in his final section. discusses the various theories of, and steps toward, Imperial co-operation. It is a work of immense patience and erudition, but the style throughout is clear and interesting. The author deserves well of students of Imperial problems and not less well of those who are concerned in the practical business of government.
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