efficiency. The 'trustee' doctrine of the British Parliament may well be allowed to stand for the present, till facts compel a change. In effect, the self-governing Colonies are even now independent in their legislative powers, and there is no desire in the British Parliament to tamper with their freedom. It is only on the executive side, in the administration of services common to the whole Empire, that the 'trustee' doctrine might break down from sheer inadequacy of knowledge. This danger seems to demand some kind of advisory council as its remedy; but a mere consultative body of colonial statesmen, summoned to act as assessors to the Cabinet on certain questions, is scarcely the true solution. For it is essential that any council should have within itself the capacity for extending its functions when occasion arises; it should contain in its constitution the nucleus of wider powers. It must, therefore, have a share in executive control—a small share, necessarily, for the man who pays the piper calls the tune, and in most Imperial questions Britain, as financially responsible, will have the determining voice. But this state of affairs may change; it is even now in process of change; and any Imperial council should provide for the colonial members the rudiments of a share in the actual executive, which could be increased as the Colonies accepted a larger share in Imperial burdens. Further, it is important, if such a council is ever to grow into a real Parliament of the Empire, to see that the colonial members shall really represent their Colonies. If they are nominated by the Crown, they may be a most competent and valuable element, but they will not be representative. They will be unable to claim any mandate from the people. The advice we take, the share in the executive power we grant, will not be the advice or executive acts of the Colonies, but of a few independent colonial statesmen, whom their countrymen are not unlikely to regard, in Mr. Reeves's phrase, as 'fussy absentees.'
Advisory and executive functions, and a quasi-
