at least one of the Provinces and the Dominion. When the framers of the Constitution provided that all powers not specifically delegated to the Provinces should remain with the Dominion, it was thought that all danger of conflict X between the central authority and the province had been removed. The exercise of the Governor-General's right of veto in the case of the Manitoba Railway Acts shewed that this was not the case, and that where the veto is exercised, not on the ground that the province has exceeded its legislative powers, but on grounds of "general policy," a conflict may arise. It should be added that the Dominion is fully alive to the necessity of rarely interfering with provincial legislation, except where clearly illegal'. 1 See post, chap. xv. Aren and population. CHAPTER II. CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE PROVINCES. THE Dominion of Canada as now constituted comprises seven organized Provinces, one organized District, and a vast extent of territory, sparsely inhabited, known as the North West Territories. The area and population of Canada is as follows: Union of the Provinces. Originally the Dominion was composed of the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec (previously known as Upper and Lower Canada respectively), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. By an Imperial Order in Council' dated the 23rd June 1870 the North West Territories were ceded to the Dominion as from the 15th July 1870, and a Canadian Act (33 Vic. c. 3) formed out of these territories the new Province of Manitoba. British Columbia was admitted into the Dominion as from the 20th July 1871 by an Order in 1 See Appendix. Council' dated the 16th May 1871, and Prince Edward's Island was admitted as from the 1st July 1873 by an Order in Council' dated the 26th July 1873. In 1876 the District of Keewatin was carved out of the North West Territories, and received a special form of government under the direction of the Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba. By the British North American Act 1867 provision was made for the admission of Newfoundland, but it still remains a separate colony, though there is at present a movement in progress in the island in favour of Union. The following brief outline of the Constitutional history of the various Provinces may prove useful to the student. 1. ONTARIO AND QUEBEC. tion of the of Quebec. After the conquest of Canada and its cession to England Constituby the capitulations of Montreal in 1760, confirmed by the Province treaty of the 10th Feb. 1763, the Crown by Letters patent constituted the Province of Quebec. General Murray was appointed Governor, and he was ordered to execute his office according to his commission and the accompanying instructions and such other instructions as he should receive, and according to all laws made with the advice and consent of the Council and Assembly. Power was given to him, with the consent of the Council and as soon as the circumstances would permit, to call an assembly of the free-holders and planters, and until this was done the Governor and Council were invested with "authority to make such rules and regulations as should appear to be necessary for the peace, order and good government of the Province." The Instructions required members of the proposed No assembly assembly to take in addition to the oaths of allegiance and met. supremacy a declaration against transubstantiation, but the French population who were Catholics refused to take such 1 See Appendix. The Uncertainty of laws. Thurlow derburne. tests, and the assembly though formally summoned never met'. The government therefore remained in the hands of the Governor and the Council. The Council consisted of the Lieutenant-Governors of Montreal and Three Rivers, the Chief Justice, and eight others chosen from the residents in the Province. It possessed legislative as well as executive powers: the Crown retaining the right to disallow all laws. Great uncertainty prevailed as to what laws were actually in force in the Province. Some thought that the effect of the conquest and of the proclamation of the 7th Oct. 1763 was to establish the law of England in all its branches, the French settlers maintained that the old Canadian laws remained unrepealed, whilst some of the leading lawyers held that the result of the proclamation was to introduce the Criminal Law of England and to confirm the Civil Law of Canada. The Government of Quebec retained the above form until 1774 when the English Parliament gave a new Constitution to the Province by an Act known as the Quebec Report of Act. Previous to the passing of this Act the Crown by and Wed- Order in Council had directed Attorney-General Thurlow and Solicitor-General Wedderburne " to take into consideration several reports and papers relative to the laws and courts of judicature of Quebec and to the present defective mode of government in that Province and to prepare a plan of Civil and Criminal Law for the said Province and to make their several reports thereon." On the reports made in pursuance of these orders the Quebec Act was based1. The new constitution recognised the religion of the French population by relieving Catholics from the necessity of taking the test oath, and enacts that the English Criminal lative law was to prevail in criminal matters, but as regards property and civil rights recourse was to be had to the laws of Canada which were based on the customs that the French settlers had brought with them. The legislative power was The Legisplaced in the hands of a Council appointed by the Crown, Council. consisting of not more than 23 and not less than 17 persons. No ordinance was to be passed unless a majority of the Council were present, and every ordinance was to be transmitted, within six months after its enactment, for His Majesty's approbation, and if disallowed was to be null and void from the time the disallowance was promulgated at Quebec. war with Shortly after the passing of the Quebec Act war broke Results of out between England and her American Colonies. One result Colonies. of the war was the immigration of a large number of British subjects into the Province. The new settlers located themselves chiefly in the west, along the banks of the St Lawrence, and in the neighbourhood of the lakes Ontario and Erie'. Serious complaints were made by the new British settlers of the state of affairs in the Province, and a demand was made for a constitution resembling that to which they had been accustomed. In 1791 a bill was introduced by Pitt dividing the Pro- Bill introduced by vince into Upper and Lower Canada, the line of division Pitt. being so drawn as to give a great majority to the British element in Upper Canada and a great majority to the French settlers in Lower Canada. The measure was strongly opposed by Fox, who urged that the separation of the English and French inhabitants was most undesirable, and that general and political expediency required that the French and English should coalesce into one body, so that the different distinctions of the people might be extinguished for ever. Many Canadians were opposed to the principle of the bill, and their 1 Christie, I. p. 68. |