ly
given it does not come into force.[43] The matter to be carefully noted
is that the Crown, or in other words the English Ministry, which
represents the House of Commons, has, as far as law goes, complete
power of controlling the legislation even of colonies like Victoria.
This power is both positive and negative. If the Victorian Parliament
fails to pass some enactment necessary in the opinion of the British
Parliament for the safety of the Empire, then the Parliament at
Westminster can pass an Act for Victoria supplying the needful
provisions. If on the other hand the Victorian Legislature passes a
bill, (e.g. expelling Chinese from the Colony,) which the Home
Government representing the British Parliament deems opposed to Imperial
interests, then the Government can either direct the Governor to refuse
his assent to the law, or cause the Crown to disallow it, and thus in
any case make it void. When we add to all this that there are many
occasions, which we can here only allude to, on which a Colonial
Governor can, and does, act so as to hinder courses of action which
conflict with English interests or policy, it becomes clear enough that,
as far as constitutional arrangements can secure the reality of
sovereignty, the Imperial Parliament maintains its supremacy throughout
the length and breadth of the British Empire. It is of course perfectly
true that Parliament having once given representative institutions to a
colony, does not dream of habitually overriding or thwarting Colonial
legislation. But it were a gross error to suppose that Colonial
recognition of British sovereignty is a mere form. It is in the main
cheerfully acquiesced in by the people of Victoria, because they gain
considerable prestige and no small material advantage from forming part
of the Empire. They have no traditional hostility with the mother
country; they have every reason to deprecate separation, and--a matter
of equal consequence--they believe that if they wished for independence
it would not be refused them. England stands, in short, as regards
Victoria, in a position of singular advantage. She could suppress local
riot, or cause it to be suppressed, and she would not try to oppose a
national demand for separation. Hence a complicated political
arrangement is kept in tolerable working order by a series of
understandings and of mutual concessions. If either England or Victoria
were not willing to give and take, the connection between Englan