t the
lieutenant-governor had violated their liberties. If the
lieutenant-governor could find ministers with a legislative majority
behind them to uphold his action, there was nothing more to be said:
the doctrine of ministerial responsibility covered all his acts. And
this support he had found; for the Joly Government, on appealing to the
people, had turned a minority of twenty into a majority of one. 'The
people of the province of Quebec,' declared Mr Laurier in the Commons,
'who alone are interested in this question, have decided that in their
opinion, whether that be right or wrong, the act of Mr Letellier was
just and constitutional.... You say No. What are you here for if you
say No? If your policy had been supported by the people of Quebec, you
would not now be seeking vengeance at the hands of this House.' But
logic was in vain. The vote of censure carried, and Macdonald
recommended to the governor-general, the Marquis of Lorne, that
Letellier should be dismissed. Here again a nice question of
responsibility arose. First the question had been whether the
lieutenant-governor was to be guided by provincial ministers or by the
federal government which appointed him. Now the problem {66} was
whether the governor-general should be guided by his advisers in
Canada, or by the British Government which had appointed him. With the
assent of the Canadian Cabinet the question was referred to the
Colonial Office. Mackenzie's protest against this colonial-minded
appeal was in vain, but the upshot proved satisfactory to him. The
colonial secretary replied that the lieutenant-governor was undoubtedly
responsible to the governor-general for any act, and that equally
undoubtedly the governor-general must act upon the advice, in this as
in other matters, of his responsible ministers. The governor-general
suggested reconsideration, but the Macdonald Cabinet was obdurate and
Letellier was dismissed. Fortunately the precedent thus set has not
been followed. The principle is now established that a
lieutenant-governor may be dismissed only when he cannot find
provincial ministers willing and able to support him.

The later constitutional issues were chiefly disputes between the
Dominion and the province of Ontario. They were not merely differences
of opinion on abstract constitutional points. They were in large part
struggles for power and patronage between two very shrewd practical
politicians, Sir John {67} Macdon