t>.. ^> A^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) / O O its ' ^/'^< '^i'^ A 1.0 I.I 1.25 Hi Hi ^ 1^ 1.4 21 2.2 2.0 1.6 ^ V] <^ /] /a •^V *a^ .^ M CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian de nnicroreproductions historiques 1980 Technical Notes / Notes techniques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Physical features of this copy which may alter any of the images in the reproduction are checked below. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exeriplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Certains d^fauts susceptibles de nuiire d la qualitd de la reproduction sont not6s ci-dessous. 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The following diagrams illustrate the method: L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce 6 la g6n6rosit6 de I'itablissement prdteur suivant : La bibliothdque des Archives publiques du Canada Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre reproduites en un seul clich6 sont filmdes 6 partir de Tangle sup6rieure gauche, de gauche 6 droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la m6thode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 n t»>'; ' „ ;f''-.,^t '"(''.■■;;■■ «•-"!,' ' 4t' ,^! 0tt^taf^omm0nH SPEECH OF THE HON. EDWAI5D BLAKE •■| •>•: ON THi"^. m ANSWER TO THE , [• .-.1. ^ "-^iTv ■ ' : • .•'■,■ SPEECH FROM THE THRONE Delivered in the Hmise of Cttmmom, at Ottaica, on Friday, Jan. 30//t, 1885. Mr. BLAKE. I have to congratulate my hon. friends who have just addressed the House on the manner in which they have discharged their somewhat difficult and onerous task. It is true that we observed at some stages slight signs of hesitation, but upon the whole, if I were asked to say in what particular blanches of the art of oratory they have most s'lown their abilities to-day, I should say it was in the euphemistic and the hyperbolic departments. We have heard an account of the country, (rf its progress and pros- perity, of its general condition, which we should be only too glad if we could to adopt as correct, but which, unfortunately, from th6 point of view from which we look at that condition, from the facts which are visible to our eyes, from the facts which reach our oars, we are utterly unable to assent to ; and I must repeat my congratulations to my hon. friends, having undertaken the task of seconding and of bettering the expressions in the Speech, that they have been able to go through their business w th so much gallantry , and, upon the whole, with so little hesitation. I am sorry that we are met so late. I had hoped that after the promise made the Session before last, and which was very measurably kept last Session, we should have adhered to the notion of coming here as soon as our friends and colleagues from the most distant parts of the Dominion cou'u reach Ottawa, after passing their Christmas week at home. I believe that is the most convenient time for th^ discbarge of the legislative I ueines'i of the Dominion, and it is a very important thing for us that that business should be discharged at the period at which it can, with the least in- coiivonience to the country and to the members wha compose the Legislature, be fulfilled. I trust that we shall not on future occasions go further into the year than to-day, but rather that our future Sessions may commence at the time at which the hon. gentleman brought us together at last year, if not a few days earlier. I join in the oongratulatioas which have been addressed to the House in the gracious Speech, and referred to slightly by the hon. gentlemen who have moved and seconded the Answer, as to the abundant harvest which, no doubt, has been a vtry great blessing. I have not observed upon this occasion a rejjeti- tion of those further eulogies with refer- ence to harvests which have accompanied some former Ministeiial utterances upon that subject. I recollect very well the occasion of a Ministerial demonstration in the western part of this province a few years ago — I think in honor of the Minister of Public Worls— when a then member of Parliament epresenting an Ontario constituency, declared tluA 2 he had voted for, and intended to sup- port, the Government that had raised the price of wheat from 77 cents to $1.40, He did, I admit, vote for and support that Government, whether upon those or otiier grounds I know not. He was faithful, and he has received his re- ward. He no longer adorns those benches, at least during the sitting of the House, but he receives a handsome salary for inspecting the Colonization Companies of the North-West. I dare say, under similar circumstances, some other hon. members, with similar expectations, may be induced to say that the price of wheat is to day satisfactory ; but that stretch of audacity has not yet prevailed in this House. And we are told besides, in efiect, that we are enjoying commercial prosperity as well as a good harvest ; and the hon. member for Beauce (Mr. Taschereau), several times felicitated us upon the condition of the country. He opened his speech with felicitating us on our general prosperity, and he said he could not do better than close it with a repetition of the same felicitation. It is admitted, indeed, that we have a share a slight share, a modest share, hardly worth mentioning, to be mentioned only in a whisper at all events, in the depres- sion which is said to prevail in the neighboring Republic and also in Great Britain. But we are told that we are ever so much better off than they aie — the great exemplars of Free Trade on the one hand, and of Protection on the other. We have, I presume, reached the happy medium with respect to our fiscal policy. "We are, I suppose, just right. They protect too much in the United States, and so their depressions are deeper; they protect too little in England, and so their depressions are deeper ; but happy Canada, its financial destinies presided over by the hon. gentleman who smiles so blandly upon me, and who, no doubt, would smile in the same way on a plat- form in St. John, if he happened to be there to-day, — I say happy Canada has found the medium. SLe neither indul- ges in Free Trade nor does she iB;dulge in Protection, and so, hy consequence of that the depression is ever so much lighter. But there is a depres- sion. It is now acknowledged. It was faintly denied last year. I remember, two or three years before, the hon. Min- ister of Finance pro[)hesiei^ — standing as he does on a great eminence, with means and sources of information not available to the general public, respon- sible as he is, at least to the extent of giving the tone and turn to public opinion, which is important in these res^pects — he prophesied, I say ten years of prosperity, and invited those who might trust in him to clap on all sail for that time and then to take it in. Last year he offered us a modified pro.sperity. Thiee years had elapsed so he did not offer us the ten years then ; but he gave us seven years to date from last Session. It was not absc^ lute prosperity either, it was not an all- sail kind of prosperity ; you were t take in a reef or two, and if only yo: U,jk in a reef or two and were prudent y ju would get seven years of prosperity. Well, we have had one year of the hon. gentleman'^ half-breed pi'osperity ; we have had one years of going under reduced canvas, and I am afraid in too many instances with masts gone and running under jury masts, and in some other instances with wreck* on divers rocks and reefs, some of which were created by the hon. gentleman him- self. I say we have had that little time,, and now we are told that there is depres- sion, but that it is only a modified depres- sion. What a contrast that is to the ten years of full-sail prosperity, and even to the seven years of modified prosperity promised last year ! What a contrast the condition of the country presents in the light of the promises made by ilw hon. gentleman just before the General Election of 1882 ! What do we hear to- day of the increasing industries which were to be established, provided he se- cured the verdict which the hon. gentle- man solicited and wh^ch he obtained upon the faith of those fallacious promises made in 1882 1 The hon. the Fir.st Minister speaking in Toronto, said : — ; . . "I tell you this, and this is not a matter of supposition bat of certainty and knowledge on my part, that there are millions of dollars waitmg to be invested in Canada, millions in England and large sums in the United Stales waiting to be invested in every kind of industry, in mines and manufactures of every kind." And then a little later he said: — "All that is wanted by capitalists in Canada, England, and the Unitea States, aye. in France and Germany, is to learn whether the country is of the fixed, constant opinion that the National Policy shall be continued as settled in 1878." Ke promised ns, not as a matter of specu- lation, not as a matter of expectation, not as a matter of belief, not as a matter of calculation, as were the hon. Finance Ministei^'s promises of coijitinued pros- perity, not as a matter of suppo- sition, but of certainty and know- ledge, that if he got the verdict which a few weeks afterwards he did get, we should see not merely a continuance of the existing industrial activity, not merely a continnance of existing indus- trial investmeirts, but an enormous influx of capital in addition, to be invested in various industries. Where ai-e they? I ask again, where are those millions which the hon. gentleman certified to us as a matter of absolute certainty and know- ledge would be here if he was retained in power 1 The gracious Speech assures us that our commercial prosperity rests upon foundations which no temporary or pai tial disturbance can remove. There is a sense in which I agree to that proposi- tion. I am glad to do so, because I do not desire to move an amendment to the Speech. There is a sense, I say, in which I agree to that proposition. Such com- mercial prosperity as in this country we can enjoy does rest on permament luun- dations. It rests on the land and on the sea. It rests upon the fertility of the soil, upon our agricultural products, upon our great timber resources, upon our minerals, upon our ships, upon ouv fisheries; but important and large as it II these interests are, it rests, and will for many generations mainly rest in Canada, upon the land. And it depends, th- sf being the foundations, upon the well .))>- plied energy and industry of our people >i < and th frugality of their expenditure If thooC energies and abilities and thai frugality are properly applied we shall grow in trade, commerce and manufac- turers. But the hon. gentleman obvio'.isly reads the Speech in another way. It i* not upon these great foundations to which I have referred, which the hon. Finance Minister may indeed shake, with which he may indeed to some extent in- terfere, but it is upon Acts of Par- liament that he thinks our trade and com- merce and prosperity depend. Wo- had, circumstanced as we are, having- gone through a very long period of liqui- dation, of depression, of economy, during which all the weak houses in business were eliminated, and having made a fresh start a vei'y little while ago, we had in tht natural and ordinary course of things a right to expect, not indeed the Finance Minister's promised ten years' duration of prosperity, but we had a right to expect a very considerable number of years of extraordinary pros- perity. That is what past events, and the experience of different commercial countries, would have indicated to us. What we got was a too brief gleam of prosperity. What we obtained by the hon. gentleman's arrangement was not an increased permanence of that pros- perity but an abbreviation of it. It haa been lessened and contracted, its term has been shorteneJ, and difficulties have been created by the system which he lauds af? itself the very foundation of prosperity. How has this been done ? Disturbances the hon. gentleman speaks of. He talks of temporary and partial disturbances. There h^ve been disturbances not very partial Vjut pretty general — not very temporary, for they have lasted a good while. There have been disturbances which he has created. There has been [ the disturbance of a high and excessive taxation. There has been the disturbance of an unequal, and unjust taxation. There has been the disturbance of a sectional taxation. There has been the disturbance of an unnecessary amount of taxation. There has been an unnecessary withdrawal of the people's I ~*fJ*J k'lj' - ^^ i\' » ti.'ii)* .jUjil.*- *'*/nga *,*-. A-A'.iM " ' * 'i • earnings from the conduct of the people's buHiness. There has been a inversion and a lockup of money, causing in many cases an entire loss and annihila- tion of capital as an effect of his policy. There has been great inilation andsjiecula- tion promoted by the hon. gentleman's policy. There has been as unnatural &timu- ias adminstertd to certain favored indus- tries, giving to them a brief opportunity of fleecing the public by the higher rates they were enabled to charge while they were practical monopolies, and producing the natural, inevitable, predicted results at a time even earlier than we might have ex- acted them. These disturbancesare due not to visitations from on high; they are due not ■jO the natuml difficulties of our situation. They are due to the action of this Govern- ment and the preceding and present Par- liament. It is natural, under the circum- stances to which I have alluded, that the hon. gentleman should propose to press upon our attention a bankruptcy or insol- vency law. It is the natural outcrop of h>j policy. He has delayed it as long he could, but he feels that the situation is so serions that that measure must be brought into the pi'ominence which all measures receive when they are introduced in the Speech fi-om the Throne. We are told that Canadian boai-ds of trades and English chambers of commerce alike have poin ed out the necessity of such a mea- sure. We were quite familiar with the views of Canadian boards of trade. They have been pressed upon us for more than one Session past. Strong represen- tations have been made by the principal boards— the Montreal board, the Toronto board — and, I think, one of the hon. gen- tlemen from Montreal introduced last Session a Bill, based on a report or pro- pc sed by the board of trade of his city, and we know the active course which has been pursued by gome of ou ; western boards. They did not produce much effect ; but I ot serve by the papers that the First Min- ister has taken a trip to the other side of the water and has sfjen there some of the English chambers of commerce. The Finance Minister has also seen them, and I am glad to know that their representa- tions have had more effect than ihe re- f resentations of our home-made boards of trade, and that they have given go much attention to the subject as is in- volved in suggesting its consideration in the Speech. The First Minister, ir'sed, in that country, in which it seems there is something in the air — I do not know what it may be — which makes our tongues wag a little wildly sometimes, told one of the Chambers he addressed, that ours was principally a rural population, with the prejudices of a rural population ; that we members naturally represented those prejudices ourselves, and that of courae there were difficulties in passing such a law. If, said he, we wer>^ an urban popu- lation, if we had the superior intelligence and knowledge of affairs which belong to urban populations, there would be no dithculty in the matter ; but having only poor homespun country people for our constituents and representing them in this House, there were difficulties in carrying out the measure. However, he intimated that he would do what he could with us ; he would do his best to open our eyes and remove these scales of pre- judice from our vision. And I suppose he has satisfied himself that his influence is so great, and indeed I observe that the Secretary of State has said of him ihttt the phrase ia appropriate, **l'etat c'eet moi" — that he can do what he will — I suppose from the utterances from the hetition, whether to the Government or the Parliament I know not, asking that the duty on flour should be raised to a dollar a barrel, and I observe that the Finance Ministerhasmore thanonce stated lately that serious consideration would ihave to be given to the ditficulties of the milling industry. Having stated so much generally with reference to the condition of the country, I would, allude again to the City of St. John. It ia the constituency of the Finance Minister, and in its fate and fortune he is no doubt specially interested. I do not believe things have been so bad in the City of St. John for forty years as they have been in the last year, and I do not believe the hon. gentleman would find his old and faithful friends in that city rally around him in sup; >rt of his policy, even though they might do so in supi)ort of himself individually. I believe they have Jiad some amongst the saddest and most difficult exi)eriences of the failure of the hon. gentlema.'i's policy to do tie great things which he promised it would do. Take the capital City oi Nova Scotia, the City of Halifax, and ascertain what its condition is. Ascertain in each case what is the condition of the special ly-pro- tected industries. Look at the cotton industry of St. John ; look at the cotton industry of Halifax, the sugar industry of Halifax, the West India trade of Halifax which this policy was going to do so much to develope. Go to the far West and look at the City of Winnipeg, and see what is its condition this year as « compared with the last I Manufactures, of course, have not been developed there ; but take the returns of Customs duties, of populations, of assessment, take the general condition of the people, and tell us whether Winnipeg has prospered. And so, whether you go to the far East or to the far West on this side of the Rockv Mountains, can you find prosperity 1 Take the old City of Qujbcc, and not- withstanding the statement of the hon. m mber for Cumberland that the timber and ship-building industries are flourish- ing in Nova Scotia, I ask what ia the condi- tion of these industries in Quebec? There is another view, however, not quite so plea- sant, which the hon. gentleman over- looked when he told us of the change that has taken place in the system of construc- tion of ships in Nova Scotia, and that is, that it is found that the wooden sailing ships of the tonnage formerly prevalent can no longer live, that they cannot do a business to keep them afloat, and that vessels of larger tonnage for longer voyages have to be constructed. There has been a change in the system owing to a change in the times. In the long struggle between steam and sail and between wood and iron, it is found that the only chance for wood must be in vessels of large tonnage and built for long voyages, and if so, ships constructed before that change took place must be doing an unprofitable business. So, when the hon. member for Cumberland spoke of the large amount of tonnage employed and said it was in an active condition, I must say he surprised me, because it is the common talk of the world that there has never been a time when tonnage was so unprofitable as it has been in the last year. It is certain thao there has been a great over-production in the world's tonnage. It is also certain that freights were never lower and that ships are carrying freights at prices which can- not pay. It happened only the other day that there were tenders for carrying a certain lot of stufi" from Liverpool to London, and an Atlantic liner agreed to carry it by way of New York for six shillings. That is the state of the ship- ping industry of the world when the hon. member for Cumberland finds cause for congratulation in the state of the shippings industry of Nova Scotia. The hon. member having told us that his pro- vince was flourishing so greatly, it was natural that out of the abundance of his his heart he should have had regard for the poor Province of Ontario. I thank him for his consideration when, in expressing the hope that the article of coal should be admitted free into the United States, he coupled with it the reservation that he would have regard for the Province of Ontario, and that he ' .should not like to have the price increased by the removal of the present duty on that article imported by us from the United States. I do not know whether the hon. member's remark was serious or a joke. If a joke he will allow me to say that it was not a very good one ; if serious, I will not waste time upon it. Take the City of Montreal and see iiow it fares. To go a little farther west thaii Montreal, take the town of Cornwall, one of the glories of the l^'ational Policy, a place the hon. firat Minister was good enough to visit shortly after 1882, and find the conditior> of the main in- dustry in that town. Go to the City of Kingston, to Cobourg, to Oshawa ; go even to Toronto, which has had exceptional opportunities of prosperity and growth, and which has fortunately only a few protected industries. It is true we have a couple. We have the boM works, but they are shut uj) — yes, they bolted, as my hon. friend from East York, Mr. Mackenzie, says ; we have also the glucose works, but they wero not opened. Other industries we have, and they are in a happier condition. Then take Hamilton, Dundas, London, St Catherines Guelph, Chatham — it would be too tedious. Sir, to prolong the list, but with very few exceptions you will find that the story of the cities and towns and in- dustrial centres of Canada is the same everywhere. It varies in degree, but it is the same in kind ; it is one of difficulty and depression instead of life and anima- tion. No wonder. The hon. gentleman as I have said, has done what he cou'd to disarrange the natural progress and growth of these industries, and we have in the lumbering industry, the farming in- dustry andnotwithstandingthe statements of the hon. member for Cumberland, the fishing and shipping industries, great sour- ces of difficulty, partly owing to this pro- cess of disarrangement. You could net give that permanent prosperity you talked of, but you could take it away, you could sl^orten it, and that you have done. The Speech rather regrets than otherwise the diminution in imports, but it announces, I observe, that notwithstanding that eircumstances and notwithstanding the lessened prices and volume of imports, the revenue exceeds the expenditure. At the close of the financial year a surplus was announced oi" about ^1,600,009, — $700,000 from the other sources of the revenue, and $900,000, in round figures, from Dominion lands. The expenditure on Dominion lands was omitted, and I am afraid it was very large, but as the hon. gentleman charges it to capital account, he finds it is of no account at all. . We borrow the money to pay for the expenditure on Dominion lands which I am afraid was about $700,000. Thia would leave a modest margin of $200, 000 as the net revenue from Oominion lands instead of $900,000 : or if you leave your revenue from Dominion lands intact, it would absorb the surplus from all other sources. Perhaps I am uncharitable, but 1 suspect the hon. gentleman of having put to capital account some of thesa rail- way aids which we have been granting so lavishly out of our revenues, from dme to time, until to-day ; and I shall look with some anxiety for the production of the Public Accounts to see whether this surplus, small as it is, compared with former turplusses which the hon. ger le- man gloried in, is real or in large part fictitious. With reference to the question adverted to in the Speech of the lessened pi ice of imports, it is to be remembered that that circumstance is not of such great importance under the present as under the old ad valorem ^tiriff, because now a very large proportion of the duties is specific, and you pay the same duty to that extent, however cheap the goods may be bought. But this is also to be remembered, that your revenue — although you very nearly produce au equilibrium between revenue and expen- diture — is still very large. In 1879 and 1880 the imports were from $82,000,000 to $86,500,000, and the hon. Minister said they were too large and ought to be reduced. He said that one cf the great sources of evil and difliculty in this coun- try had been the expansion of imports i 8 he congratulated us on their being down to these figures, but he wanted and intended to bring them down still further in order to make things Hafe and tidy and comfortable. Now in this year of reduced imports they are $30,000,00 J to $35,000,000 more than they wore in the year when the h«n, gentleman said they were too lai'ge, 80 that it is not for him, whose p-^licy it was to make the imports smaller than $85,0uo,. ?0, to complain, because they are $30,000,000 more than what he said was too much. If, on the one hand, the imports have decreased, and the revenue has diminished, on the other hand the hon. gentleman is getting but Vfcry slowly towards the realization of his policy which was to import less than $85,000.0^0, because the im- ports are t^tili $80,000,000 more. But about the same time the hon. gentleman denounced the adverse balance of trade and gloried very much in the circum- stance that in one year that adverse balance had been turned the other way, and I recollect well how the Ministerial organs generally crowe over that event. The good time hud come and we were going to keep it up. We were going to Keep up our exports and to keep down our imports. Well, that has not happened. At the time the hon. gentleman said he did it, he claimed to have succeeded, in pnrsuance of his policy, in so aiTanging that he had, I think, one or two millions exports over imports and he was happy. But if his policy is to be measured by his statement at that time, what sort of view a ust be taken when theie is an ad- verse balance of $25,000,000 1 Last year this was the adverse balance ; and foi- the last three years the adverse balances amount to about $75,000,000. In 18"^ he declared $13,000,000 was about the ffam required for Customs duties to carry on the public service, and in 1881 he gloried in having obtained a revenue of eighteen and a half millions, whish ■was a vei'y handsome revenue and l^oduced a very large surplus. This yeax the hon. gentleman has a Onstoms rtrenue of more than twenty millions, or more than one and a half millior greater than in the year 1881. Yet we lea»i> now that the hon. gentleman almost seems to re- gret the revenue is reduced, for he says that notwithstanding »ts reduction he is still ab'e to ))roeople their national life, I leave to the most ardent gupportets ot the (Tovern- ment, not to assert but to es-tablish. Our public debt has increased A'ery largely ; we shall get the account very soon, with the engagements of the current year ; and looking to those engagements which are to be added in the coming year, it is clear that there must be an increase of the public debt to a v«;ry large extent. That general result has afftcted our cred?^^^. Notwithstanding the great commendation of hon. gentleman opposite on th(^ lite loan, we find it drags ; we find that it Ik a drug in tlie market ; we find it s vated in an important London paper the other day that a portion of it was taken by a f- w persons who hold it still, as they have been unable to unload. And that is the condition of things, aritinged by the hon,. gentleman, in which we have toeff:)ct the important operation of exchanging a very large proportion of our 5 per cent, debt in a voy few months. I hope, however, Sir, that whatever the hon. gentleman else many have done with reference to our finances, he has been more careful of his investments than he was last year. I trust he has not invested any mora money in l)anks like the Exchange Bank, and that no item of that ^ description will reappear in our Public Accounts as an investment. All the cir- cumstances which have since become 9 manifest to the general public with refer- j encetothedisgrojeful management of that I institution throw light upon what ouglit j to have been the conduct and the policy of the Administration, when they lent, under the peculiar circumstances under I which they (lid lend, that sum at the tim» ' at which they did Itnd it; and I canr but conceive that the hon. gentleman v ■ have a very difficult task, even in this | Hou^e and to this House, in vindicating, : with that added light, his conduct in that [ transaction. We seem to have stopped a good many gaps. We seem to have tilled up money void.s. Wcseem to havehanded , OTor to Mr. Craig some .'ISOO.OOO ; and : I suppose thus settled that little gap | that was made in that anomalous account \ which placed a sum of about S(i,5U0 to the credit of the Conservative election committee, for I forget which division of Montreal, but I dare B^y the hon. member to whom it b<'!oags ■will rise and say. Now, Sir, it was in this state of things with reference to the country that the first Minister in \ England in November last declared that | at that juncture "there .wei'e in Canada j no industries materially suffering and that i every industrious man could get a good j day's pay for a good day's work." It is in- deed quite true that the hon. gentleman has assumed a new role. Who does not re-/ member the diatribes that were uttered against my hon. friend from East York I (Mr. Mackenzie),f,iid those who acted with j him when thev morlestly said that they i thought it was of soiiie consequent e to | Canada that it rihoxild be a cheap ct>untry I to live in ? Who does not remember that i we were almost told it was a disreputable : thing to L e a cheap country to live in ' — cheap and nasty — that what was wanted I was a dear country to live in and plenty of money to pay the high prices? That ^ ■was the argument, and it was said that | the argument to the contrary, of its being I of some consequence that the prices of I commodities should be low and that people should pay as little as possible for what they wanted was a despicable argument, an argument to be swept away by *ha •imtempt of the hon. gentleman opposite. But it is his own argument to- day. He re{)eat8 on two occasions the statement that we art puffering to-day from too great plenty. There is too much wheat in the country and so wheat and Hour are too cheap ; there is too much cotton in the country, enouj*'^ or three time."? as many people as, there ointed out in a sentf^nce an important fact. He says one cent of freight on a bushel of wheat to the farmer of the North-West is of the greatest ii.iportance; we must not handicap him in his effort to get his wheat to the markets of Europe. That is the great difficulty. That is the difficulty which we have got to surmount,adifficulty largely of our own creation, in view of the policy ot the Government with respect to the whole C.P.R. The anxiety of the jjeople of that country to obtain some other mode of communication, their anixety to reach Europe by some other means, cutting off us of the east by a short run to Hudson's Bay, their proposals with respect to the ex- penditui*e, the zeal which they display in pressing the construction of that railway, are to my mind the strongest evidenoes of the feeling that must e::i8t thore, as to the- vital importance of procuriiig some other means of communication or some competi- tion with respect to moving thtir produce. I was very sorry to hear — I suppose it was* a half inspired utterance — the hon. member for Cumberland (Mr.Townshead), when, in referring to the expedition to Hudson's Bay he told us that whatever difficulties it might have evidenced as to its primary object, the establishing of the possibility of a route between the North- West and Europe, we had at all events to congratulate ourselves more than to console ourselves with the reflection that we had found a new salmon fishery. That will, indeed, be balm to the people of the North -West. I am very glad under these ciroumstacces to hear, and I hope it is not now to late, that a libcrnl land policy with respect to railways in the North-West is about to be adopted. When the Pacific Railway Company was chartered we were told that it would sup- ply us with branch lines ; that a very large proportion of the land grant was to be taken from districts off the main line, and that interest and policy would necessitate their building the branches; and in the earlier day?, after the execution of that contract, they adopted that view themselves and they projected very lengthy lines — I can- not n iw give you the mileage, but in one year the projects transmitted to the Min- ister covered more than one thousand miles of branch lines. But a change took place in their policy and in the policy of the Administration, and it was deter- mined to make it the primary object, to the exclusion and sacrifice of the branch lines, in the meantime, to finish the ends of the line ; and so, although some- thinghas been done by thecompanyin that direction, something where it was neces- sary perhaps to meet competition, some- tfiing where it was necessary to pusb to one side rival enterprises, something where it was necessary to provide another means of connection with the second line of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Mani- toba Railway, yet what has been done in that direction hau been trifling compared 13 wifch the expectations which were held out to us, trifliiifj compared with their own projects as laid before us some years ago. I cannot altogethei blame them, — this policy havang been adopted — because if all the resources they possessed, if all the money they could boirow and raise, were to be devoted to the construction of the ends of tlie line, it was clear there could be nothing 'eft for the branches. One observation only I will make. L^ng ago in the last Session, I think of the Parliament of the hon. member for tast York (Mr. Mac- kenzie), a proposal was made to grant liberal aid to local railways. That pro- }>osal has been the subject of much ani- madvertion and criticism on the other side, Hon. gentlemen were going to do the thing a great deal better ; they were going to help the railway companies and at the same time to make money out of it ; they would not give the land away, not they; they would sell it at $1 per acre and the company would make $1 orf)i.50, and so both the railways would be bene- fitted and the Public Treasury i^-.plen- ished. But now we find free grants cure to be given to luilways. I will aovernment resisting it,, and we were refused the opportunity. But I see something in the newspapers, which always are accurate, that seems tc indicate that after all my hon frienc' v/as not so far wrong. I see that something was said by tiie First Minister, and coi*ro- berated by the Minister of Public Works^ in the City of Th-ee Rivers, in t he- county which he so ably represents,, indicating that we were to see the surveys, that we were to have some opportunity of dealing with them, notwithstanding the decision which was reached last Session, which will be proved a wrong decision under the circumstances. To what do we owe this new i'ght on the^ pai't of the hon. gentleman 1 Was it to re- concile his supporters, or why was it, that having us completely in his hands, having procured from this confiding Parliament the consent that he asked for, he should now say that he will be gracious enough to permit us to do our duty in the matter ? From the hon. member for Cumberland (Mr. Townshend) we learned that nothing- has been done in the far east, and that the counties of Cumberland and Pictou are in a sad condition by reason of that failure, Now that surprises me. T begin to lose faith in assurances, how- ever positive alid plausible. I had myseir doubts about this matter; I expressed theua frankly as I always do. I questioned the hon. gentleman's predecessor, the late hon. Minister of Railways, a» to whether he had satisfied him- self that the companies were all right that they were solvent, that the matter was bona fide, and the Minister of Rail- ways assured me, with every positive- ness, that it was all right, that he had satisfied himself as to the bona fides and good standing of the corporations^ and that everything was going through.. Now, the hon. gentleman from Cumber- land says that his pi-edecessor was all wrong. He assures me that nothing — no, that some small work has been done, which has not been paid for, and that th» 16 poor laborers lack, and the storekeepers lack, and they call on the Government whom they have faithfully supported in two elections, notwithstanding the offer held out to them of a railway throiigh the country — they call on the faithful vay route and other matteis, that there should be a Minister of Railways. It is of some importance to us to know who should be th^uccessor of the late Minister of Railwa^ It is of little consequence when a Bobitaille a Robitaille succeeds, but it il of some consequence who should be the successor of the late n< iber for Cumberland. Now, we are promised some measures, mostly of an amendatory character'- measures to amend the Insurance law, the Civil Service Act, a Contagious Dis- eases measure, a North- West Census measure.and a measure in relation to the North-West Mounted Pojijca. I|i8ware I« stibjeoto of legislation of the Session. But yre find on both sides of the Honse — the hon. member for Cornwall and Stor- mont has shown that he found it too — tliat certain measures which were pro- mlsbd once or twice before are not men- tioned. Thi^re U no Factory Bill pro- miwed, though, like the Franchise Bill, it adorned former Hpeeches from the Throne. The Franchise Bill survives, but we cannot sf\y, in jhis instance, that it is the feurvival of the fittest The Factoiy Billseeir to have disappeared, obviously, as the . m. member for Cornwall and Stormont thinks, for good. It surely is not am(mg the alia, the othpr things which it was not thought worth while to men- tion in the Speech horn the Throne, but which are to be brought forward as Special plums in the pudding. Nor do We find anything more promised to the Nbrth-West than the censur. I had hoped some measure would h.\ve been promised for the represent atiai of the North-West Territories. That question was discussed in both branches of the Legislature last Session. My hon. friend from Huron (Mr. Cameron) brought in a Bill to provide for representation in the Territories, but the hon. gentleman does not see fit to offer them representa- tion, and tells iktm instead he will count their numbers. Nor is anything said 'with reiereiice to the grand Imperial schemes of w. ich ths hon. Minister lately declared himself a supporter. We had some reason te expect that when a gentlemen in his position had announced, in his view, the importance of these schemes, jtthey Meonld, at any rate, have been brt«g^t forward in that Speech But npoilthem nothing is said. I shall not, under these circumstances, discuss them, but I cannot pass by the occasion on which the hCm. gentlettian made state- metets on these subjects without protest, for my part, with reference to certain lan- guaige which he Used, When in England, as the First Minisfter ef OSm^a, the hon. gehtlebian ou^htto have been particularly otttefnl, if he ^hose to make allusions, to |xiUtteftl opt^tomtts to make them wHh Mgttid 4o 'tiecitta0y Aod fsct, titid kiot to have used his position unfairly, as I conceive he did, to discredit those who are opposed to him in this country. As reported in the English papers, he said in one of his speeches : " The Can dian Liberal Conservatives are tho^e who draw their inapirations from Eng- land, who believe in the English constitution, and would loyally fellow English precedents. Opposed to tnem we have the Liberal party, but they are not the true Liburals. The majority are, I believe as loyal as any con- servatives. They have an earnent desire to continue the union which happily exists be- tween Canada and the Mother Country, but they do not draw their inspirations from Eng- land. We have no contiguity to a great nation, to a people who speak the same language, d«al with us and trade with us, and it is therefore very natural that their iustitu- tions should offer some attractions to a con- siderable body of our people." I maintain that was an inaccurate state- ment of the opinions of the Liberal party. I maintain that the Liberal party has a well settled and reasonable preference for that system, as more flexible, as giving earlier and apter opportunities for the triumph of the popular will, which we have here according to the British Executive and Parliamentary plan, than it has for the Presidential system which prevails on the other side of t e line. I have never heard any gentleman who represented in any shape any hection oi the Liberal party or any constituency in the interest of the Liberal party, express a preference for the Presi- dential as opposed to our Parlia- mentary system, and I maintain it was an unfair use to make of the position the hon. gentleman vocupied in England, that he should make a statement emi- nently calculated to discredit in that country his politi(. >il opponents and with- out any fmundatitm in fact. At the same time, the hon. gentleman was good enough to fcay that : " Any Englishman, in coming to Canada, if he was a man of education, invariably joined the Canadian Conservative party, no matter what his home politics may hav« bean. " I do not know, 1 am sure, tmder whdb flboimurtaneiiMi the ^on. gentlettuui made such a statomor.t, but I »y he inflicted a groes insult on, a very inrge portion of the most Lntellfgent part of th^s coinmu- nitj, who bavo come from England, are educated men, and are warm adherents of the Liberal party. The hon. gentle- man made another statement on the same occasion. In giving what he thought was a historical riaumi ot past history, he declared, with some very violent lan- guage which I will not read, for we are accustomed to it from the hon. gentleman, that the conduct of the Liberal party had been that of demagogues in Canada, aud then he went on to say : " And they charged Sir George Cartier with being little better than a French speaking Engtishman." %, That was the climax of the hon. gv'^ntle- man's attack upon us, that wo had oha.?ged Sir George Cartier with being no batter than a French spf^aking Englishman. Why, I fancy, if the hoa gentleman's audience had been present when Sir George Cartier was in England on a former occa- sion, they would havn heard him making the same statement. That was Sir George Cartier's public statement frequently made with reference to his posit i on. But the ho a. gentleman turns this statement, whiob came from the lips of his own colleague, in- to a dreadful accusation hurled at him by poUtioal opponents. I hope the hon. gentleman, on future occasions, when in England, will be a little more aocurate when he attempts to describe the actions and conduct of his political opponents. The hon. gentleman ought to have re- membered, when he gave that account, which I have read, of the principles and view» of the Liberal party, that the only man of the quondam annexationists of 1849 now prominent in public li^e, is Sir David Macpherson, a colleague of his own. He ought to have remembered that the most prominent advocate of independ- ence in Canada was a former colleague of his own. Sir Alexander Gait, his Minister of Finance for many years, who declined to receive the honor of knighthood exceut upon the distinct understanding that he held views on independence which he If ould be at perfect liberty to uphold ; and who denounced the hon. gentleman in 1875, but, as a repentant sinner, was afterwards received into the services and embraces of the sinner he had denounced. Under these circumatanots, it became th:^ hon. gentleman to make such attacks P3 he has made in the absence of those whom he was aspersing. Besides the absence of those subjects in the Speech, there are some other little omissions. The hon. gentleman found place in the Speech from the Throne for the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Russell and the Queen. There haa been a greater decision since then. There has been a decision on the boundary question. The Russell cane settled a point of law with reference to what the hon. gentleman thought were the reHtive jurisdictions of the Domini(m and the Provinces. The boundary case decided the f^te, as the hon. gentleman described it, of a kingdom, and yet W3 find no statement of it. Thei'e is much said upon this subject, whluh I am a little compelled to disagree with. People seem to think that the issue is very different from what I have always thought the issue to have been. A great question has been settled ; a question between Canada and one of the Provinces ; a question promoted by this Adminiatre'' n, from one point of view, which it afterwards thrust upon one of the Provinces, and which has ultimately been decided ad- versely to this Administration. I say ad- vt^rselytothis Administration. The issue was, as to what the boundary of Ontario was, and up n that subject, as long ag|o as March, 1872, the Government presided over by the hon. gentleman made this de* olaration with reference to that boundary ; " The boundary in question is clearly iden- tical with the hmita of the Province of Quebec, according to 14 George III, chap. 83, the Quebec Act, and describ^da^ follows • • • Extending along the river Ohio westward to the Banks of the Mississippi (that is the junc- tion of the two rivers) and northward to the southern boundary of the Hudson's Bay territory. The southern boundi^?y of the Hudi>on's Bay territory is well understood to be the Height of Luid dividing the ivi^te^ whieh flow i«co HucUon'ii ]3ay Ufm %HP 20 tatering the yalley of the Great Lakes, and forming the northern bo undarj of Ontario." ThereK>rethe position the hon. gentleman took at that time was that the bounHary of Ontario was the due north line from the junction of the Ohio and the Misgisaippi on the one part, and the Height of Land upon the other part. The Government ox Ontario stated its view in the course of that correspondence, which was prao tically the boundary of the Lake of the Woods to the westward and on the north a line to the northward of the Height of Land. Then the hon. gentleman, on the 17th November, 1872, reported, stating this: " The northern boundary of Ontario the Ooremment believe to be the line of the watershed separating the waters that run towards Lake Superior from those which run towards Hudson's Bay, and the western boundary a line drawn in accordance with the provisions of 14 Geo. III., chap 83, from the conflux of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers northward, that is, by tne shortest northward course to the southern boundary of the Hudson's Bay territory." These, Sir, were the two statements of the Administration on that subject Then there came an attempt to ascertain what the boundary was, and the arbitration was arranged, and the award took place, and the hon. gentleman, in opposition to the contention from tiis side of the House, that the award ought to be accepted declared that it should not be accepted, Whyt Because he said it was all wrong, that we ought to have an entirely difierent boundary from that which was found by the award. He said this : "They" — that is the Dominion Parlia- m«nt or Qovernment — "say it is not a true boundary — that the Dominion wants simply what by law is their right. The Ontario Qovernment asks and Legislature have no tight to ask more but they say, no. They passed a law accepting the award, because they saw It added an aidditional kingdom to Ontario, as was the remark of its Premier, and they will not do anything else. Once again : "The effect of settling the boundary be- tween these Provinces will compel I do not ■ay the Province of Ontario, but the present QoTenuneiQt Pf Ontario^ to be reasoAable, and not to insist upon a boundary which cannot be supported m any couit or tribunal in the world. They will come to terms Quick enough when they find that they must do so. To use an expreBsion which is common in Scotland, it is land hungry they are for that country, and they are resolved to get it rightly or wrongly." Then again : "Nor is it the duty of the Dominion Government to accept their idea of the facts ; because, according to my idea, the whole case was giver, away before the arbi- trators. Anybody reading the case would see that it was most wretchedly managed on the part of the Dominion. An inferior man, though a respectable man in his way, Mr. McMahtm, was chosen to conduct the whole case, instead of employing the first legal ability in the country — instead of the Minister of Justice himself conducting the e' before the arbitrators. The whole case ^ irown away — it looks almost as if it v,^ deliberately thrown away. Never was such a case so given away as the cs>^e of the Dominion was on the very face of it." Now we find that t,his subject is once more discussed; but before it was His- cussed, and at the very time at which this debate took place from which I have been reading these extracts, the hon. gentleman was arranging to thrust the issue upon a sister Province and to hand over to Mani- toba the controversy in which he had been, up to that time, himself engaged be- tween the Dominion and Ontario, and the Province of Manitoba ende*»voured to take possession of a portion of that which had been awarded to be, and is now found to be, territory of Ontario. And hon. gentlemen opposite said it w^s all right fi*r the Provivce of Manitoba to take possession. A nd the Province of On- tario resisted the attempt of Manitoba to take possession of what is determined to have been Ontario's territory ; and hon. gentlemen opposite said it was all wrong for Ontario to attempt i > resist such a taking of possession — ^they ought, like good Christians, to have allowed the Manitobans to take possession of the territory wihch it is now established was all alon^ their owil The question has been pactically settled according to the awitrd, as fav as the copmiitt^e have de> si' oided. They hare decided, It seems, not that the award was wrong, not that it was a conventional boundary, but that it was the real bound ry. As far as the oomraitt' e have decided, the case was not given away before the arbitrators, dfli- beratelv or otherwise, and the issue which the hon. gentleman, in the year 1872, joined, as I have shown from these ex- tracts, between the Dominion of Canada and the Province of Ontario, in which he contended for a due north line from the conflux of the Ohio and Mississippi as the western boundary and for the Height of Land as the northern boundary, as far as it is decided, so far is it decided entirely against the contention of the hon. gentle- man and in favor of the contertion of the Provinc . Those oceans of learning and erudition which we heard poured out in the debates upon the subject in this House from supporters of the Ad- minstration seem to have been all wasted and thrown away, inasmuch as the decision has been altogether opposed to them. Yet the whole question is not settled. The hon. gentleman, for some reason or other, although it was agreed in this House that the reference should take place between the- Dominion as well as Manitoba and the Province of Ontario, although it is said that there was an assent on the part of the Dominion to such a reference, at the end it seems withdre v, and so the decision only form- ally and effectually settles the question as far as the boundary of Manitoba and Ontario is concerned. Still one is led to the hope that, inasmuch as what has been declared by the arbitrators in effect settles the prin(uple8 upon which the rest of the boundary ought to be deter- mined, there will be no further con- troversy and the award will be accepted, in reference to the rest of it, on the prin- ciple which appears to have guided the Judical Comaiittee so far as it has gone. Nor is anything said to the hon. gentle- man's attitude in regard to the lands. He has arranged another controversy with the Province ; he is at issue as to the ownership of the lands in this territory. He has declared that, even if the territory be within the boundary of the Province of Ontario, still the lands are the property of the Dominion. It will be important for us to know, if that contention is to be maintained, whether there is still to be a controversy, or whether this question is not to be, as I say it ought to be, at once settled iu all its parts. There is yet an- other omission which ia proper to bo re- marked upon — nay, there are two. The first is with refc;i.:^cetothe Streams Bill. Since we last met here, there has been a decision of the Judical Committee on that subject also. It was alleged by the hon. gentleman that the legislation in the Local Legislature, declaring what the law was, was not legislation ; that it was robbery. He used language which, coming from anybody else, I should have said was strong. He said these things : The Ontario Government, " dressed in a little brief authority, Jacks-in-the box, tramp- ling on the man, as they said they would do, pleased Mr.Caldwell and robbed Mr.McLaren. Au hon. member has stated that the Streams Bill was not intended fur Mr. McLaren, but for general application. But it is mean of the sneak who creeps down the back stairs and steals the kitchen utensils, or the fellow who comes behind you and picks vour pockets — they are men more to be despised than the highway robber. It would have been more manly if the Ontario Government had intro- duced a Bill to hand over Peter McLaren's Property to Wm. Caldwell ; they dare not so, and therefore they passed a Bill respect- ing rivers and streams. It was a wretched, flimsy and transparent device ; it deceived nobody, but it was only by being a public bully that the Government could introduce and carry it ; otherwise there must be a •petition. It had the effect of depriving Mr. McLaren of his property, under the pretence that it was in the public interest. No- thing more contemptible or sinister could be done by a Government or Legislature. It was a Bui to take from Mr. McLaren his property and hand it over to h.T. Caldwell. True, Mr. McLaren had spent, some say ^250,000, and hon. gentlemen opposite say from $100,000 to fl50,000. I do' not know how much it was — but it was Mr. McLaren's property. The river at that spot was not a navigable river, and the judge who heard the evidence and viewed the facts stated that it was dear that at the place where the improve- meats were made it was only not navigable but not floatable. It would soarc«ly allow a n plank or a alab to so down any mare than upon a ditch. CaHwell'a timber and logs could not K<) thiough there until the im])rove- mentB were .'nade. Mr. McLaren, with his usual indust tj and perseTerance, in order to carry on his extensive business, made a dam and a slide out of his own timber, for his own Eurposes and on his own soil. Mr. CaldweU ad no right to use it without his consent and without paying for it. It was absolutely the propwty of Mr. McLaren." And again he says : " Supposing an honest old farmer's wife sbonld expropriate her neighbour's hen and say : ' I shall keep this hen, and you shall feed it right and see that it lays at the proper time, and I will pay you by giring you a share of tie eggs.'" Now that was the attitude of the hon. gentleman. But the Judicial Committee of tke Privy Council have decided to the contrary ; thev have decided that it was not Mr. McLaren's right to interfere with Mr. CaHwell's ('oraing down thisutream ; they have decided that the law was correctly declared by those who advised the local legislation ; they have decided, in fact, that the Bill which was said te be a means of taking away Mr. McLaren's property w'*^^h an illusory compensation, was the omy Bill that could protect him at "ill, or give him any reasonable com- pensation for the use of his improve- ments over property in respect of which there was a public easement under the existing law of the land. So t!ie infallible disallowers who disallowed this measure on the ground that it was an unjust interference with Mr. McLaren's property, turn out to be all wrong, and t le reason upon which they acted, in- sufficient as I conceive that reason to have been, turns out to have been no valid reason at all. I say insufficient aa I con- ceive that reason to be, because I am con- vinced that upon the true reading of our constitution the mere circtimstance that in th6 opinion of these gentlemen a diff- erent kind of compensation ought to be given, that the bill was interference with private rights, was no ground whatever for the exercise of i he power of disallow- ance. But it turns out that the very basis of their aetiou was an error. And yet^Sir, wo do not find any reference to Culdwell and McLaren in the Speech from the Thione. Then. Sir, there waa the very caj»e in which the hon. gentleman intro- duced this c "^tom of giving an account to us of the decision of the Judicial Com- mittee of the Privy Council the case of the license question. The license ques- tion was raised last Session on several oocaiuons, but it was last raised on the fteor of this House on the motion of our lamented friend, Frederic Houde; anrl I may say that all of us who watched his course here must receive the mention of his name with sadness. He has since passed from amongst us. He was a man of marked indepen- dence of character,of f rankness.of honor,of indomitable spirit and energy ; and no man who has seen him here for these many years past but muct have been touched by the exhibition of that spirit and energy which he made when he struggled against weakness and disease in the dis- charge of his duties in Parliament. We know that he exhibited that independence of character to which I refer in a very marked way, outside this House, with re- ference to the journalistic career to which he was attached. We have observed in this House, with what emotion he, on one or two occasions, separated himself from his friends, feeling that it waa a painful thing to do, knowing that it was a painful thing to do, but rising superior to his emotions at the call of duty. And he waa a man of gieat kindness of spirit as well. He was kind to all of us, opponents as well as friends ; and I cannot omit mentioning here the marked kindnf^ss and generosity of feeling with which, durin y many years, he treated myself who am now addressing you. More than once it has happened to me to receive from him, sitting on the benches opposite, before he came to sit ixear my hon. friend from Montreal East (Mr. Coursol) — I have received from him a little note after I h-id said something that pleased him, expn^saing satisfaction with the way it was said, though not al- ways concuiring in the sentiments I ut- tered Such was the spirit in which he treated hia opiKments^ and the kindiiiieas 23 he exhibited towards them, I am flare was exhibited in a re-doubled spiiit towards his friends. How would h«, who haHgoiie fioin amoagst ub, have rejoiced at the late decision in this cane, the last of his efforts; how wouid he have rejoiced to see that by the unaniinous decision of the Supreme Court the view which he cook as to the law was sustained in the Speech. Now we have no reference to that, and yet 't was an important transaction. Par- Uam ^*; by a Bill, decided that there 8ho«A».i be a reference of this subject to thtj Supreme Court. It was thoughi important enough to do so, and a refer- ence was made. The Provinces were called upon to take part in the proceed- ings, and five, I think, did take part-^ the Province ef Ontario, the Province of Quebec, the Province of Nova Scotia, the Province of New Brunswick, and the Province of British Columbia. From the Province of Manitoba, as we are aware by public documents, there had pro- oeet'^'d a protest against this license measure of the Government, although I do not observe that they took part in the case. I am not aware what was the attitude of the Provincn of Prince Edward Island. But we find most of the Provinces taking part in this transaction on one side, ard the Dominion on the other ; yet a ti ansaction of that des- cription, taking plaoe under authority of that Act of Parliament, resulting, as it has resulted, is not thought worthy of being adraitteti into the Speech from the Throne. Whyl Because the result is unpleasant to the hon. geritlemen, I suppcjse. Now, I ask the House, is it too late to retrace our steps ? Remember that we meddled in this matter for one reason, and for one reason only, because it was said by the hon. gentleman that the local laws were waste paper, and that it was absolutely necessary that we should intervene. Remember that was the ground upon which he invited his supporters to sustain him in passing his Bill. I^emember that that alleged neces- sity was whoUy disproved by the decision in the cai^ of the Queen w, Hodge ; that since that time the ia^stance of the hon. gentleman that the local license laws wsre waste paper, has been by him <* thdrawn ; that it has been admitted that Inejare valid, and therefore the{>retence upon which Parliament wtis introduced to interfere has diBapi)eared &nd disappeared forever. Remember that from that time out it was only as a point of expediency and policy and not as a necessity that we have ^en told we should interfere; that it has been admitted to be true that the local laws, which had been in force for seventeen years, were good and valid laws, and it wasonly because it was thought better in the interest of the whole Domi- nion that we should interfere, and if we could supersede them, invalidate them — submerge them, as the hon. menber for Glengatry (Mr. McMaster), I think, said — by federal legislation. Remem- ber that in this policy of inter- ference, of abstraction from the Pro- vinces o'i that whi' h it was decided by the Committee of the Privv Council is their right, we, in this Parliament, are engaged in a conflict with each one of six out of seven Provinces; and I have no i reason to sup- pose that the attitude of the Province of Prince Edward Island differs from the attitude of the other Provinces. Re- member that we are engaged in an effort to take away, against the will of the Pro- vinces 0^ Canada, a right which th' y have been exercising — validly, as decided by the court of last resort— ever since Confederation. Remember, again, that since last Session, the Supreme Court has decided unanimously, not that the local laws are waste paper, as the hon. gentleman alleged, but that his Act is waste paper,thac the Act which he passed because the local laws were waste paper is itself vaste paper. And consider for yourS'^lves whether it is use- ful, in the interests of this Confederation, to continue this struggle; whether it is calculated to strengthen the bonds of union, to strengthen our confidence in the federal system to press this Parliament further in a controvsrsy in order to take away from the several Pro* vinces a right which is theirs that you me-y be able by legislation of your own to do U: I! ii. the same things which they are doing, according to your fashion, instead of theirs, and by that means, as the hon gentleman stated, submerge their legislation. I do think v^e ought to retrace our steps, that we ought not to prolong this controversy, that we ought to repeal the objectionable parts of the Act which the hon. gentle- man passed, and leave the Local Legisla- tures, according to the wants and wishes and the condition of public sentiment and opinion in each locality, to. deal with the license question. I do trust that wiser counsels will prevail. I know full well that it would be a humiliating act for the First Minister . He made great pretensiona On the stump and else, where he declared himself infallible. He declared he had never been mistaken, but had always been sustained. It was a foolish action. It was not necessary to have done it, and he should have allowed his followers to have sounded his praises in that regard rather than have sounded them himself, because just 80 soon as he began to do so defeat after defeat took placa Once he began boast- ing of hie infallibility, day after day the hon. gentleman found that he was mortal and fallible like the rest of us. Is it not much better that we should acknow- ledge that we are all fallible, even if Bome are immortal, and decide that we will not continue this struggle to save the hon. gentleman's amour propre, but will leave the matter where it was for seventeen years, whence the hon. gentleman himself said he would never have dragged it, except under the belief , . . V -. ■ iitin'-m ,iM^ ':..'ij l^kdit ; :.!■.'. . 'tli j. i?f? that it waB neeeflsary in the public good, because the local laws were only waste paper f Let the locax v. .ft remain. If I oculd hope that my words have any weight I would pray the House to re- cognize, though it may be late, our true position ; to apprehend the fact that we are, and have been for some time, by our general policy, rather weakling than strengthening the true bonds of imion ; that our centralizing policy, our Tariff policy, our policy uf high and sectional taxation, our policy of extravagan^^ expenditure, has been and is alienat ing important elements in Canada from sympathy with the uuion itself , that it is our duty to recall the promises that were made , to the various Provinces which were induced to ent^r into this union, the promises of economic \l govern- ment and ,of .low taxation, the promises with respect to trade, the prcHnisee with respect to a fiscal policy, the promises vtrith respect to expenditure, which w,ere made panieularly by the leaders in the Maritime Provinces at the time the union measure Nvas Ijrought before them ; and that we otight to set about the initiation, J might almost say, of ajtrue Federal policy, in- cluding, together with the practical re- cognition of the Federal principle, a re- duction of expenditure and svich a reduo* tion of taxation as past extravagance permits ; a policy rsuitable to our actual oiroumstaucee, instead of one based on hollow dreams, already proved untrue, and but too likely if persisted in to end in a disastrous waking, ^.u.. oao iui •i»j^-i"t ,8i«li ,{:i h>''hhmt o'w laU - • ■ ■ ti^' In } '' - '' Vfiitni A\iti. •• ' -'* '; . ... ;.imii^w«i 'A\ Roiii t^idi oDiua ^adl