CANADIAN REPORTS REFERRED TO. Can. S. C. R. Dor. App. Grant Hannay L. C. J. Ont. App. Ont. Rep. Pug......... Pug. and B. Q. L. R. R. and C. R. and G. U. C. C. P. Russell and Chesley's Reports of the Supreme .Russell and Geldert's Reports of the Supreme .Reports of the Court of Common Pleas, Ontario. U. C. Q. B..........Reports of the Court of Queen's Bench, Ontario. Steph. Dig... .Stephen's Digest of Quebec Reports. ABBREVIATIONS. ..Law and Custom of the Constitution by Sir W. British Columbia. ..The Consolidated Statutes of British Columbia. .British North American Act, 1867. .Parliamentary Procedure and Practice in the ..Journals of the Canadian House of Commons. .Sessional papers of the Dominion of Canada, Cases decided on the B. N. A. Act 1867, in the Privy Council, Supreme Court of Canada and the Provincial courts. Toronto, 1882. .History of the late province of Lower Canada, Quebec, by Robert Christie. Montreal, 1848-55. .The code of civil procedure of Lower Canada. .The Consolidated Statutes of New Brunswick. Parliamentary Debates on the Confederation of the ..Histoire du Canada depuis sa decouverte jusqu'à .Manitoba. ..The Consolidated Statutes of Manitoba, 1880. ON the 1st day of July in the present year (1888) the Canadian federation attained its majority; twenty-one years having elapsed since by an Order in Council the Provinces. of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were formed into the Dominion. Twenty-one years is not a long period in the life of a State, and it is not to be expected that the Constitution of Canada will prove as instructive a subject of study as that of the United States with its hundred years of growth and development. But in many respects the Canadian Constitution offers a special field for the inquirer. It is a successful effort to solve the problem of uniting distinct states or provinces under a central government. A similar task had already presented itself to an English speaking people, but the conditions of the problem solved in Canada differed in many respects from the conditions that faced Washington and his associates. While the American States had to create not merely a central government but a government which, within the limits laid down, should be supreme, the Canadian Provinces had to organize a Union subject to a supreme Executive, Legislature and Judicature all of which already existed. The executive supremacy of the Queen, the legislative power of the Imperial Parliament, and the judicial functions of the Privy Council Dif ferences between Canada and U. S. remained unaffected by the Union, and this to some extent simplified the work to be done. It has been more than once stated that the Canadian Constitution is a mere copy of the American. Such a statement is very far from the truth. That the framers of the Quebec resolutions adopted portions of the American system is undoubted, but every care was taken to avoid those weak points in that system which the experience of years had brought to light. "We can now," said Sir John Macdonald when moving in the Legislative Assembly of Canada the resolution in favour of the Union, "take advantage of the experience of the last seventy-eight years during which the (U. S.) Constitution has existed, and I am strongly of belief that we have in a great measure avoided in this system which we propose for the adoption of the people of Canada the defects which time and events have shewn to exist in the American Constitution." The election of a President for a term of four years, the independence of the President during this period both of his ministers and of Congress, and the delegation to the central Government of definite specified powers leaving the balance of legislative power in the States, are three of the most important characteristics of the United States Constitution. But not one of these principles was adopted in Canada. The Executive authority was vested in the Crown, represented in Canada by a Governor-General (appointed by the Crown), who is required to act by the advice of a ministry responsible to the Canadian Parliament. Specified powers only are given to the Provinces, the balance of legislative power being lodged in the Dominion or in the British Parliament, for the belief prevailed in Canada that the exceptional powers of the American States and the doctrine of state rights had been leading factors in bringing about the great Civil War. Further differences between the two Constitutions will be referred to later on, |