possible to avert the passing of any Bill, and when he cannot avert the passing, then to veto any Act of the Colonial Legislature, which is disapproved of by the Home Government as opposed either to Imperial law or to Imperial policy.  Thus, a Victorian Act, even when sanctioned by the Governor, must pass through another stage before it finally becomes law.  It must receive the assent of the Crown, or, in other words, the assent of the English Secretary of State for the Colonies, and unless this assent be either actually or constructively given it does not come into force.[43] The matter to be carefully noted is that the Crown, or in other words the English Ministry, which represents the House of Commons, has, as far as law goes, complete power of controlling the legislation even of colonies like Victoria.  This power is both positive and negative.  If the Victorian Parliament fails to pass some enactment necessary in the opinion of the British Parliament for the safety of the Empire, then the Parliament at Westminster can pass an Act for Victoria supplying the needful provisions.  If on the other hand the Victorian Legislature passes a bill, (e.g. expelling Chinese from the Colony,) which the Home Government representing the British Parliament deems opposed to Imperial interests, then the Government can either direct the Governor to refuse his assent to the law, or cause the Crown to disallow it, and thus in any case make it void.  When we add to all this that there are many occasions, which we can here only allude to, on which a Colonial Governor can, and does, act so as to hinder courses of action which conflict with English interests or policy, it becomes clear enough that, as far as constitutional arrangements can secure the reality of sovereignty, the Imperial Parliament maintains its supremacy throughout the length and breadth of the British Empire.  It is of course perfectly true that Parliament having once given representative institutions to a colony, does not dream of habitually overriding or thwarting Colonial legislation.  But it were a gross error to suppose that Colonial recognition of British sovereignty is a mere form.  It is in the main cheerfully acquiesced in by the people of Victoria, because they gain considerable prestige and no small material advantage from forming part of the Empire.  They have no traditional hostility with the mother country; they have every reason to deprecate separation, and—­a matter of equal consequence—­they believe that if they wished for independence it would not be refused them.  England stands, in short, as regards Victoria, in a position of singular advantage.  She could suppress local riot, or cause it to be suppressed, and she would not try to oppose a national demand for separation.  Hence a complicated political arrangement is kept in tolerable working order by a series of understandings and of mutual concessions.  If either England or Victoria were not willing to give and take, the connection between England and