During this same hundred years, as civilization has advanced, education enlightened the masses, intelligence expanded among the people, and experience been gained, there has grown up that marvellous form of self-government under which we Canadians and our brother colonists live--the British Constitutional Monarchy. In this British Empire, in the colonial parliaments, as in the Imperial Parliament, the King or Sovereign represents all the people, not a party, and is the permanent chairman of the nation. The will of Parliament, tempered by his continued counsel, is his will. The ministers of the Crown, who, with the Premier as their head, form the Executive, are elected by the people, and sit in the same House of Commons with the other elected representatives. Debating with them on the issues of the day, they are responsible to their fellow-members for the measures which they introduce;[165] and when they fail to carry these measures, and cease to secure the support of the majority of the people's representatives, as then sitting in Parliament, the ministry must resign, and is succeeded at the call of the sovereign, or in a self-governed Dominion, of the Governor-General, by another Cabinet, which shall represent that majority; or, should the matter be considered of sufficient importance, the whole Parliament is forthwith dissolved by the Sovereign, or his representative, as the neutral and unbiased centre of impartial power. All the members return for re-election by their constituencies, and the question at issue is quickly submitted for decision by the ballots of the electors. Thus the acts of the Premier or chief minister, and of his Cabinet, and also of the party of which he is leader, and the whole Parliament, are at once subject to the opinion of the people without waiting for the completion of their term.[166] [165] No Bill for the expenditure of any money or for a change in taxation can be introduced except by a member of the Cabinet. [166] The life of a Parliament in Canada is limited to five years, and, unless it has been dissolved in the interval, must return for re-election at the end of that term. An entire new parliament can be re-elected any time in about six weeks. Further, indeed, than this, if a member of the Cabinet should die or resign during the term of any parliament his successor must, upon his appointment, return to his individual constituency and be re-elected, so that the opinion of the people may be taken upon the general policy of the Cabinet and upon his own special fitness for his appointment. The Governor-General of Canada, as also the governors in the other self-governed colonies, does not, as so many of the people of the United States imagine, govern the country, acting with absolute power under the direction of the Government of Great Britain; for in every way, except for the purposes of imperial advice and the declaration of war, Canada is practically an Independent Dominion, as sings the empire poet,[167]