The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4)Dent, John Charles
History
The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4)
Dent, John Charles
Canada -- Biography
of Manitoba the Province was in a very disturbed condition. He had the
satisfaction of leaving it reduced to order, and far advanced in
settlement and legislative progress. On his departure from Manitoba, the
_Free Press_, the organ of the Liberal Party, thus referred to his
career in the North-West: "To-morrow is the last day of Hon. Alexander
Morris's connection with Manitoba as Lieutenant-Governor. When, five
years ago, the announcement was made that Chief Justice Morris had been
appointed to the position which he is now just about vacating, very
general satisfaction was manifested by the people of the Province. Mr.
Morris succeeded to the office when it was surrounded by difficulties
great and complicated; and the task before its incumbent was by no means
an easy one. The Province occupied a most peculiar position; having just
had constitutional self-government thrust upon it, without any
preparatory training. The Lieutenant-Governor necessarily found himself
at the head of a people who, no matter how good their intentions, could
not reasonably be expected to have a very perfect appreciation of the
true position of a Lieutenant-Governor under such a government.
Lieutenant-Governor Morris during the early part of his official career
had plenty of evidence of this, and it devolved upon him, in no small
degree, to impress upon them exactly what such government entailed--that
the Lieutenant-Governor was supposed to act almost solely upon the
advice of the Crown Ministers of the day, who in turn were responsible
to the people's chosen representatives in Parliament. And in no one way
has Governor Morris more distinguished himself than in the observance of
this fundamental principle of our constitution, however much he may
actually have assisted in the government of the country by his ripe
experience and statesmanship. The smallest Province though Manitoba is,
the office of its Lieutenant-Governor has entailed more extensive
responsibilities than that of any other Province in the Dominion."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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