IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) % % 1.0 I.I 1.25 141 IA9 112.8 1^ m M 11= 1.4 IIIIII.6 V] <^ /] v: -.^? /A 7 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 CIHM/ICMH Microfiche CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques f ^ ^. I Technical and Bibliographic Notas/Notas techniques at bibliographiquas The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. 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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed et different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmAs d des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Stre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 d partir de I'angle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite. et de haut en bas. en prenant le nombre d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants lllustrsnt la mithode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 (l yz^^. '^ OBJECTIONS OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTION TO ANY LEQISLATION AFFECTING THE TROPERTr KNOWN AS THE Crystal ]F2Llace Property, MONTREAL. LP The Royal Institution was in ISGO, and for m.Me than 30 years previously, the owner in trust for McGill Uni- versity of the land in question, which was given by the late Mr. James McGill for the >»urposes of Protestant Education. In August, ISOO, the Royal Institution leased tlio property for a rental of $1,200 for special purposes of an Educational character to the Board of Arts and Manu- factures, then existing under the Statute 20 Vic. c. 32, for so long only as these purpos(Js should be carried out. It also loaned to that Board $12,000 to aid in the construc- tion of the Crystal Palace. On the 2nd October, 1800, the Govenunent lent to tho Royal Institution the sum of $40,000, and accepted as part security for payment of that sum an iissignment of the $12,000 due by the Board of Arts and also of tho yearly rent of $1200. I The transfer and arrangoinent so niado were accepted by the Board of Arts and Manufactnres, wliicli bound itself to the Government in accordance with its terms. The Board of Arts and :V[anufactures made no attempt at any time to carry out tlie purposes of tlie Lease. The Buihling was used for public concerts and entertainments, and in 1S61 was, by the formal permission of the Board of Arts and Manufictures, taken possession of by the Government and used for military purposes ; such as the keeping of Artillery, the guns being drawn in and out by horses whenever required,— the drilling of troops, and other purposes of a like nature. This non-fulfilment of the purposes of the Lease terminated it by the t(}rms of the grant which was only to continue while these purposes were carried out. It is not here a question of forfeiture by violation of conditions, but one of the lease being spent by the limita- tion of time indicated in the words of the grant itself. But the lease was also forfeited by the violation of the conditions which gave the Royal Institution the right of re-entry ipso facto and without process of law upon such violation, and the stipulation is declared not to be com- minatory. On the coming into force of the British Xorth Amer- ica Act, 1867, the land and building passed into the possession of the Dominion Govev aent, and continued to be used by it for the militaiy purposes stated a])ove until the year 3 873 and the building till Sept. last III 1869 the Statute 20 Vic. c. 32, under which the then Board of Arts and j\[anufactures existed with which Board alone the Iloyal Institution had contracted, was repealed by the Statute 32 Vic. c. lo, and that Cor- poration became extinct. The repealing Statute 32 Vic. c. 1-5 created another Board of Arts and Manufactures, but this latter Board was not in any manner, either directly or by implication, vested with the 2>roj>erty of or made liable for the debts of the former Board. Tlie silence of the latter Statute as to the succession of the new Bourtl to the old was undoubtedly intentional, as the old Board was deeply involved in debt without any available assets. It was in fact then, and had been for many years before, insolvent. Exclusive of tiie loan for $12,000 with interest, it owed other large sums of money, and liad been obliged to compromise one build- ers' and mortgage debt of upwards of $8000 for less than 30 cents in the dollar. It is, however, of no importance, in so far as the legal consequence is involved, whether the silence of the Statute 32 Vic. c. 15, as to the devolution of the succes- sion of the old Board was intentional or not. The important fact is that tlie provision giving succession is not there. This is admitted on all hands, even by the Counsel of the adverse party, and has been formally declared in a Court of Law. The Council of Arts and ]\Ianufactures has not there- fore any right or capacity under which it can sue the Royal Institution or any other party for mything which previously appertained to the old Board of Arts and Manufactures. It does not in any manner or degree represent that Body. On the 17 th June, 1S73, after a good deal of negotia- tion and careful examination, a deed A'as executed under which the Government received the amount of the debt due to it and discharged the mortgage upon the property of the Iloyal Institution, retaining in its possession tlie Exhibition Building, wliich it agreed to remove from tiie ground within seventy-five days, and which it has since sold to the purchaser of the land. In this absolute absence of right or capacity to make a judicial claim the Council of Arts and Manufactures seeks to obtain a title by Legislation. The Royal Institution has no fear of the final result of testing the whole matter in a Court of Law, but a pro- tracted litigation would be very injurious to it. The interest on the purchase money of the property which has been sold would be unavailable probably for years, and the University would be thus deprived of a large resource upon which it is greatly dependent for paying its professors. This loss, with the sums which must be sunk in law expenses, will cause serious and permanent embarrassment and materially cripple its Educational work, if not permanently, at least for a long time to come. The Royal Institution objects to any Legislation which will change the relation or status of the parties, as unjust and arbitrary, and a palpable usurpation of the functions of the Courts of Law. And it claims that this question of acquired rights, which has already been brought before the Courts, shall be left to be dealt with by the proper tribunals of the country. The Legal reasons briedy assigned are (among others) the following : 1. The Legislature cannot take away acquired rights either directly or indirectly. It is ultra vires. 2. There is no object in passing an Act other than to help the Council of Arts and Manufoctures to bring an action against McGill University which it has not now the right to bring. 3. By the proposed Legislation the status of the parties will be changed, and a title now legally vested I\ in one party will be assailed with a view to give it to another which now confessedly has no title. 4. The Council of Arts and Manufactures has no more right by law to be declared the successors of the old Board of Arts and Manufactures than has any other corporation, for there is an essential difference in the character and constitution of the two. The Board of Arts and Manufactures was in a great measure made up of representatives of educational and scientific bodies who were ex-officio members, while the Council of Arts and Manufactures is a quasi political body, the creature of the government of the day. 5. The property was sold in good faith long before this claim w^as set up. The purchaser has paid a large portion of the purchase money ($28,000) and has been for some months in possession. To make a law for enabling a claimant to disturb all these relations and rights is a violation of justice and principle. G. No pretended successor of the spent Corporation can now be vested with its rights, because at the moment of its extinction its succession devolved by the mere operation of law either upon the Dominion Govern- ment, which was in actual possession, or upon the Quebec Government, (subject in either case to the right of re-entry by the University upon the property in question.) The Dominion Government claims the ownership. It has exercised that right, and has sold the Crystal Palace to a third party, who is now and for some months has been in rctual possession. The Legislature therefore cannot take from either Government the succession which by law devolved upon it by assuming to make another successor to oust the actual legal successor, and this after 6 a lapse of five years when the property has been disposed of by sale to innocent third parties. 7. The present Council of Arts of course could not liave been the successor, for it was not in existen«'e when the corporation became extinct and the succession devolved, and the Legislature cannot now make the Board of Arts which immediately preceded the Council of Arts the successor, for that corporation (the 2n(l Board of Arts and Manufactures) no longer exists. To make it after its absolute extinction for thn?e years tlie successor oftlie origimil Board of Arts, and the medium of transmission to the present Council of Arts, violates all notions of legal principle, and is a simple absurdity. 8. Not only is the Legislature silent in the Statute 32 V. c. 15 as to any transmission of the rights of the old Board to the new one, but it is also silent in the Statute creating the present Council of Arts a-id Manufactures. Thus there are tw'o statutes relating to this subject, neither of which contains any provision upon so obvious and important a branch of it as the succession to the rights of the extinct corporation. The intention of a Legislature can only be sought in its Statutes, no extrinsic circumstance can be admitted to prove that it meant something wiiich it has not said. 9. The idea of a declaratory law to create the succes- sion is preposterous. Declaratory laws are legislative interpretations of existing Statutes (always to be regarded with jealousy, and never admissil)le but in extreme cases), but to call that a declaratory Statute which contains positive Legislation to supply a provi- sion never made is clearly unjustifiable. You cannot interpret a statutory provision which does not exist. j Tliere is iiorliiiiu; to interpret. Ko sane man will con- tend tiiat one Leu^islature can sav of the Statute of another thafc it intended a certain piece of legislation hut forgot or omitted to enact it, and thereupon declare that it ivas enacted. The consequence of admitting such a doctrine might upset by retro8i)ective laws all the institutions of society. On behalf of the Roval Institution. CIIS. D. DAY, President.