e Queen or by the Governor on Her Majesty's behalf or
sometimes by the Governor alone, omitting any express reference to Her
Majesty, with the advice and consent of the Council and Assembly. They
are almost invariably designated as Acts. In Colonies not having such
Assemblies, Laws are designated as Ordinances, and purport to be made by
the Governor with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council (or
in British Guiana of the Court of Policy).

"55. In West Indian Islands or African Settlements which form part of
any general Government, every Bill or Draft Ordinance must be submitted
to the Governor-in-Chief before it receives the assent of the
Lieutenant-Governor or Administrator. If the Governor-in-Chief shall
consider any amendment indispensable, he may either require that
amendment to be made before the Law is brought into operation, or he may
authorize the officer administering to assent to the Bill or Draft on
the express engagement of the Legislature to give effect to the
Governor-in-Chief's recommendation by a supplementary Enactment."

The effect of these Regulations may be best understood by taking the
following supposed case as an example of their operation.

The Houses of the Victorian Parliament pass a Bill legalising the
marriage of a widower with his deceased wife's sister.

i. The Governor refuses his assent. The Bill is lost and never becomes
law.

ii. The Governor assents to the Bill on the 1st of January. It thereupon
becomes an Act, and law in Victoria.

iii. The Crown disallows the Act on the 1st of April. The disallowance
is published in Victoria on the 1st of May. From the 1st of May the Act
ceases to be law in any part of the British Dominions, but marriages
made under it between the 1st of January and the 1st of May are valid.

iv. The Crown allows the Bill. It thereupon becomes an Act which
continues in force in Victoria until it be repealed either by the
British Parliament or by the Victorian Parliament.

v. The Bill contains a clause that it shall not come into force unless
and until allowed by the Crown within two years of its passing. It is
not so allowed, it never comes into force, or in other words never
becomes law.

The point to be noted is that the Crown, or in reality the Colonial
Office, has and often exercises the power of placing a veto upon any
Colonial law whatever.

[44] Compare 'Victorian Parliamentary Paper,' 1883, 2 S., No. 22, and
the _Times_ of September 2