Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/683

 Notesonthe ADELAIDE AND VICINITY vii Constitution of South Australia As has been before stated, the judges of Great Britain have estabhshed this principle : that when once the Crown has granted a Constitution to a colony, and conferred representative institutions on the peoi)le of such colony, the Crown cannot take away the rights granted or alter such Constitution ; and in order to maintain and continue the right of the Privy Council to advise the Crown, notwithstanding the appointment of local councils, there is usually inserted in the Constitutions of such colonies a clause reserving the power to legislate by "Order in Council," that is to say, by order made by the Crown with the advice of the Privy Council. Privy Council In course of time the Privy Council (becoming unwieldy on account of the number of its members, which continually increased, and the multiplicity of the business it transacted) acted through committees ; and the King's prerogative in respect to his colonies was, and in fact still is, exercised through a committee of the Privy Council. Perhaps some one may demur to the statement, and point out that the Crown's colonial adviser has sometimes in the past been the Secretary of State for Home Affairs, or the Secretary of State for War, and that its present adviser is the Secretary of State for the Colonies. For all that, the statement is correct. There may be a committee of one as well as of several, and the officials 1 have mentioned have advised, and still advise, the Crown in reference to colonial affairs as members of the Privy Council. When this Colony was founded the prerogative wtis exercised in colonial affairs through "the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies," and it was not until 1854 (in consequence of the strain on the de]5artment caused by the Crimean "War) that a separate Secretary of State for the Colonies was appointed. There was, however, then in existence (established in 1782) a Consultative Committee of the Privy Council, who advised the Crown in colonial matters, commonly called the "Committee of Trade and F"oreign Plantations," and it was in pursuance of a report from that body dated April 4, 1849, that we obtained our Constitution Act. Laws in force on the settlement of a colony Thk first charter to found a colony granted by a British Sovereign was granted in 1578 by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Humphrey Gilbert. He was given power to take possession of "'all remote and barbarous lands," and to make laws to govern any lands he acquired ; but there was a proviso. It was provided that "all who settled there should have and enjoy all the privileges of free citizens and natives of England, any law, custom, or usage to the contrary." The law which was enforced in such country was the common law of England at the time of settlement, and such part of the statute law as was applicable to its conditions. As Mr. Chitty puts it :— " If an unsettled country be discovered and peopled by British subjects, they are supposed to possess themselves of it for the benefit of the Sovereign"; but carrying their nationality with them the settlers claimed the right of Englishmen : they claimed to be governed by the law of England.