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The following diagrams illustrate the mefhod: L'exemplaire film* fut reproduit grAce i la g6n6rosit6 de I'Atablissement prAteur suivant : La bibliothAque des Archives publiques du Canada Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre reproduites en un seul clichA sont filmAes A partir de I'angle supArieure gauche, de gauche A droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la mAthode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 A CHAPTER i^' OF CANADIAN HISTORY. , Reprinted from McMILLAN'S MAGAZINE, for January, 1876. Canada— by the wordii of the warm-hearted and eloquent Irish noble, who, under the Sover- eign, is her constitutional ruler — is the happiest and most fortunate of countries. Any one, in England or the CTnited States, who read the speech lately made by Earl Dufferin at a dinner given in his honor by the Canada Club, London, must have felt a thrill of surprise at the glowing picture of the young, buoyant, and vigorous New Dominion, so ardent and devoted in its at- tachment to the mother country, so possessed by an ineradicable conviction of the superiority oi her political institutions, so animated by a no- ble spirit of independence, and of determination to build up a nationality worthy of that parent state, so splendidly endowed with a magnificent and boundless territory, rich in natural resour- ces, and made richer by the industry, skill and enterprise of her sons by nativity and adaption, so free from embarrassments contracted in the past, and so little troubled in the present by par- ty strifes, or by the divisions growing out of dif- ferences of race and religion. The reader would probably put; down his paper with a feeling of respect for the speaker, and might say to him- Bolf, that the Oovemor-Greneral had certainly made a splendid speech for the ticcasion, and had drawn a very flattering picture of the condition of Canada ; but, if he bad at all an intimate knowledge ot its past and present history, he might think that the noble earl had spoken out of the enthusiasm of an imaginative nature, and soared above the re;ive a brief history of the provinces confederated as far as it bears on the great question. The religious idea was ]m)ininentin the minds of Jm^ques Cartier, the discoverer of Canada (including Acadie), and of Samuel de Cham- plain, i.hs founder. Eesides the glory of holding vast dominions, the great incentive that caused the French crown to maintain a hold upon provinces whose material resources italways un- dervalued, and whose government was a con- stant tax t,'|>on its treasury, was the glorious field that they were supposed to afford for jiroselytism and the spread of the Roman Cath- olic Faith. That faith gained no comput.ible increase by expansion among the native tribes, for the red man withered away in the presence of the white; but it took root in the soil. In their early desperate struggles, the French set- tlers in Canada were sustained by the 8i)iritual zeal, and, to some extent, by the means of the Jesuits. For a considerable time — a period of strango enthusiastic pietism — Canada was in the hands of the Fathers, and governors and their councils gave their inHuence to support the rigid rule of the Church. Obedience to th?. mandates of priests, strict observance of the rules of the Church, were the sentiment and practice of*the colony, especially of Canada, and impressed a character on the French Canadians, who were noted for their simplicity and their piety, and, it may be said, for their superstition and ignor- ance. Opposition to ecclesiastical rule arose in time. Governors-General, like the old Count Frontenac, brooked with impatience the exalted pretensions of the priests "of the black .robe" to domination over the State, and a great dis- ■oluteness of manner broke out amongst the 'rtmners of the woods.'the wild roving fur-traders; the paramount authority of the Church over the settled part of the colony, over the agricultural habitants, was never much weakened. The city of Quebec, founded by Champlain in 1608, was then, and has since been, the centre of Romiph eccleaiastical authority, and on the great prow inoe that now bears the name of Quebec, there •till rests the impress that the Jesuit fathers gave the infant mind of the colony. Canada was pre-eminently a Catholic prov- ince, not only under the French regime, but af- ter its conquest by the British in 17()0. By the treaty of Paris (February 10th, 1763), the French in Canada were left to the fullest freeo8« session, Bnti.sh also in religion and constitution. There never was a time when Rome was less feared, less in a jxisition or temi>er of mind to put forward pretensions, or entertain hopes of subjecting tlie world to her sway, when she met more opiX)sition to her claims of spiritual sovereignty over Catholic countries, (n«^.bly in Gennaiiy, where she was less jealous in main taining her hold on the members of her fold) than in the second half of the eighteenth cen- tury, a time ever historically memorable for the Seven Years' War that left Protestant England and Prussia the greatest powers in Europe, for the outbreak of the American war, and the out- burst of the Fiench revolution. The policy of the British crown towards Canada might unre- servedly be called generous, if it were not open to the charge of indifference, and of having been followed without any provision of what Canada might become in the hands of a British people. It was British energy that infused a spirit of independence and of enter- prise into Canada, and the French Canadians profited by the influence of their example ; but for a long period the British, few in numbers compared with the French Canadians, were dis- couraged by the crown policy, and hampered by the foreign laws and customs of the province. Immediately after the conquest, a royal proc- lamption was issued, promising the introduction of British law and representative institutions into Canada; but, to the intense diesatisfaction of the British settlers, that iiromise was not ful- filled. The disaffection in the English ooloaies, from Mairio to Georjjia, was then ripening into active rel>ellion. As an intimidation to the spirit of liberty, Canada, with immensely extended boundaries, was erected into the province of Quebec, with an absolute government, and with the Roman Catholic faith recognized as the reli- gion of the State. The result of the revolutionary war— the dec- laration of the independence of theUnit«d States — was the great era in the history of the western Continent. The republic, having achieved iU liberty, commenced its wonderful career of growth, expansion, and material prosperity. Founded on the equality of man as to hia politi- cal rights— by the letter of its constitution and the spirit of its people opposed to the connection % CANADIAN HISTORY. of Church and State— allowins' perfect freedom of individuals and sects to worship God accord- ing to their spiritual insii^ht and the dictates of their conscience — rejecting the claim of any sect to peculiar favor, and esijccially opposed to the claims of the Church of Rome— that republic was, both in its political constitution and eccle- siastical polity, the diametrical opposite of Can- ada, where a few British officials, in the spirit of a privileged class, ruled the country with a high hand, and the Catholic hierarchy held spiritual sway over the mass of the in- habi«ants. But the American revolu- tion had great influence on the future of Canada, for it led to the foundation by the Loyalists in 1784 of the British Province of New Brunswick, detached from Nova Scotia (whose combined territory formed the ancient Acaflie), and, a few years later, of that of Up- per Canada. From that time the British ele- ment made itself more stronj^ly felt, and an impetus was given to commercial and industrial progress. In 1792. Upper and Lower Canafernment that recognized the principle of responsibility, and with one I^egis- l{\ture in which each harl an equal representation. But it was not until 1849 that responsible Gov- ernment was really established and frankly ac- cepted by all parties. After union, the Canadas made great progress in matters of 'Ititernal reform. Among the first measures passed was a Common School Act for the United Provinces. The difference between the character, sentiments, and views of British Upper Canada and French Lower Canada was displayed especially on the subject of education. The majority of the Upper Provinces was in favor of free noh sectarian schools, vmder gov- ernmental and municipal control; the majority of the Lower Pn>vince, or at least the hierarchy that controlled that majority, contended for sectarian schools, under ecclessastical supervis- ion. In the Upper Province there was a Catholic minority, and inthe Loiver a Protest- ant minority, about equal in point of numbers, and entertaining the same views on the common school question as the majorities of their own race an*d religion. There was continual battle and legislation over the school question for years. The endeavor to unite the Provinces educationally, as they were politically, was fnistnted by the influence brought to bear by the 1 terarchy on the French Canadian and Catholic representatives, who, though in a min- ority, were, owing to party divisions among the British and Protestant representatives, enabled, to throw their support on the side of the party in power, and thus exercise a control on legisla- tion. As a concession to their "conscientious convictions," the Catholics were permitted to establish separate schools in Upper Canada, while the Protestants in Lower Canada were allowed to maintain dissentient schools. The minorities were thus seemingly on an educational pan but in effect they were not. There was a liberal air in the free non- sectarian system of Upper Canada, and Cath- olic parents who happened to be of French ex- traction, and to live in districts where they were unable to maintain separate schools.might really send their children to the public schools without scruple; and felt safe, when paying taxes for their support, that they were not contributing to a system of teaching that interfered either with A CHAPTER OP their religion or their nationality. Bat the Brit- ish minority of Lower Canada lived in a close atmosphere, among a people alien in feeling, language, and habits, in the presence of a school system under the rule of the clergy of a domin- ant Church, and which they felt was not calcu- lated to foster a healthy British ^national spirit. They were called upon to support schools of which they could not approve, and in all educa- cational matters felt the pressure of the prevail- ing ecclesiastical rule. By the end of the first decade of the union. Upper Canada had outstripped Lower. la the first-named province, where impatience at French-Canadian influence was strongly felt, a movement was commenced for representation according to population. The French Canadians, fearful that their power would be weakened.and their peculiar institutions endangered, if the British Protestant element became predominant, defended their position in the Legislature with great tenacity. The sectional strife produced such bitter feeling, and such frequent ministerial crisis, as to make government almost impossible. At length, in 1864, the leading men of all parties stopped to consider seriously the position. A proposal was made to substitute a federal, in- stead of a legislative union; but, favorable cir- cumstances occurring, a scheme to confederate all the British North American Provinces was proposed, and the '" Quebec Scheme "—so called from the city where the provincial delegates met — was drawn up in the October of that year. Many in the British and Protestant provin- ces of Upper Canada (now Ontario), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, would have pre- ferrod a legislative union, but Lower Canada (now Quebec) stood • in the way. Her leaders would have :iothing but a federal union which should give to <.ne -local Legislature, where the French and Catholic element would be all pre- dominant, the guardianship of her peculiar in- stitudom,. In a legislative union the trouble under which the Dominion now labors could hardly have occurred; yet it is Lower Canada, which was so jealous of her own rights arid in- dependence, that foments it. The Quebec Scheme was modified in some partica;Iars, but it formed the ground- work of the "British North America Act" passed by the Imperial Parlia- ment in 1867, which is now the constitution of the confederated provinces. Certain specified powers were entrusted to the "general" and "lo- cal" legislatures. To the latter bodies, for in- stance, was especially reserved, by the 93rd Clause, the exclusive right to make laws relating to eduoatioa, with a general reservation that nothing in such laws should prejudicially affect the right that any class of persons might have by law in the provinces at the time of union with respect to denominational schools. Fur- ther daring the time that confederation was being discussed, the British miniority of Lower Canada, who had vainly pleaded for a quarter of a century for the estahlinhment of public non-sectarian schools, urged that it should not take place unless they were guaranteed rights with respect to such schools. As under confed- eration Upper Canada would have independent power to make laws relating to education, and might revoke its, separate school system, ecclesi- astical influence was brought to bear to prevent such action, and to fix in perpetuity the separ- ate and dinsentient schools in the two provinces; and certain special exceptions were accordingly appended to the Clause already mentioned, enacting that the rights possessed by the Roman Catholic minority of Upper Canada at the time of the union, with rexpect to separate schools should be extended to the minorities of Quebec, and giving the minorities remedy from any Act of the Provincial Legislatures affecting those rights. A confederation of all the British North American Provinces had, at several crises in the history of the Canadaa, been put forth as a means not only of promoting their general pros- perity, but of increasing the power of the Brit- ish Protestant element, and lessening French Ctmadian Catholic influence, and of getting rid of the emlx-i-rassments caused by sectional jeal- ousies. Confederation, it was hoped, would ■Tive the Provinces united something like a na- tional status. Events, however, have occurred since 1871, which appear to show that Confed- eration has not answered the expectations of its most sanguine supporters. The influence of the hierarchy of Lower Canada over the Legislature of the TTnited Canadas on all matters affecting religion and education has been felt as directly in the Parliament of the Dominion; and many . of the representatives of British Ontario find themselves now fettered in their action by en- gE^^ements contracted through that influence in the past, and are committed to pursue an uncon- stitutional course. t In the eighty years since its foundation in 1784, New Brunswick had shown itself to be the most peaceful and loyal of all the Provinces. It had been agitated, indeed, by a political contest similar to that which had convulsed the Cana- das, but without evincing either a rancorous or rebellious spirit, and its politics bad been little CANADIAN HISTORY. 5 i I »- -t embittered by sectarian strife or *'reIigiou«" 1 animositiea. Its Legislature had always given ' inuoh attention to tlie subject of education, ami had liberally provided means to promote it, but with only partial good results. In conjunction with legislative aid— direct taxation on the prop- erty of the country (so levied and apportioned as best to call forth the liberality of the people of the parishes to supplement the amount so raised) had long been advocated as the efficient motive power that would infuse life and vigor into the common school system, and as the mosi just way to support it; and before 1867 the other British Provinces had adopted the princi- ple. A few years after Confederation the Local Government of New Btunswick grappled with a question which their predecessors had always been veiy chary of touchinsr. In 1871 a Com- mon Schools Act was passed, repealing all then existing School Acts, makinsr assessment com- pulsory, and enacting that all schools to be en- titled to leginlative aid under its provisions must be non-sectarian. The Act did not interf<»re with the right of any class of persons of any de- nomination to maintain, outside the common school system, schools in which distinctive reli- gious doctrines might be taught; nor could it take away the right of the Legislature to grant public money in aid of theirsupport. But its im- mediate effect was to deprive the schools, sem- inaries and academies of the Episcopal, Catho- lic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist bodies of the legislative grants which they had enjoyed before its passing. The clergy and laity of the Catholic minority felt aggrieved. They claimed that under the Parish School Act (whiclt had been repealed) they possessed the privilege of maintaining schools of a denominational char- acter, to which legislative aid was granted, and that their rights were protected by the excep- tions of the 93rd clause of the British North American Act, 1867. As the Common School Act was not to come into operation until Janu- ary 1st, 1872, and as the constitution gave the Grovemor General authority to disallow Acts of the Local Legislatures within a year after their passing, they immediately petitioned the Privy Coimcil of Canada to advise the Governor Gen- eral to exercise his prerogative. Sir John A. Macdonald, Minister of Justice, replied to the petitions, reporting that the Legis- lature of New Brunswick had acted entirely within its jurisdiction in passing the Common Schools Act, 1871; that it had sole power to redress any grievance under it, and to give or withhold public moneys in sup- port of Bchoola; that no separate or dissentient schools, coming under the protecting clauses of the British North America Act, were sanction- ed by any law of the Legislature of New Bruns- wick; and that, therefore, the Governor-General had no right to intervene, and the Act must go into operation. This opinion, putting so strcag a bar against the pretenHions of the minority.and coming front so high a constitutional authority as Sir John A. Macdonald, who could not be accused of hos- tility to the Catholics, as he had always advo- cated separate schools, was of great weight, and entitled to be received with deference. To introduce so embarrassing a question as this School Act into a body like the House of Commons of Canada was the surest way of awakening sectional strifes and "religious ani- mosities" to compose which confederation had been entered upon, and of making the people of New Brunswick regret that they had given tip their constitutional independence for embarrass- ments of which they had so little experience in the past. But this was the course that the min- ority was determined to pursue, counting on th« sympathy of their co-religionists throughout the Dominion, and on the support of many of the representatives of British Ontario. The Dominion Parliament met in April, 1872, before the expiration of the year within which the school law (which had been in operation in New Brunswick for five months) might be dis- allowed. Mr. Costigan, Bepresentative of "Victoria County, New Brunswick, a mixed con- stituency in which the French Catholic element is predominant, attacked the law on the grounds set forth in the minority petitions, and called on the Governor-General to disallow it. The right course for the Government, that was bound by the opinion of the Minister of Justice, and of all upholders of the constitution, would have been to vote the question out by a direct resolution , expressing the opinion that the Parliament of Canada had no right to interfere. What they did was to oppose the disallowance motion. If they were not disposed for thorough action, the leaders of the minority, at any rate, were pre- pared to go all lf*»srthf,. M. Chauveau, Repre- sentative of Quel ' :>unty, assuming that the framers of the British North America Act must have intended to protect such rights as were claimed by the minority of New Bruns- wick, moved a resolution for an address praying the Queen to cause an Act to be passed amend- ing the British North America Act in the sense which the House believed to have been intended at the time of its passing, by providing that each religious denomination in the Province 'should \ 6 A CHAPTKR OF continue to possess all such rights, advAntages, and privileges, with regard to its schools, as it had enjoyed at the time of the passing of the Act. On lei ming the pur|)ort of the Chaveau reso- lution, the Governirient of New Brunswick very promptly transmitted, on the 29th of May, by telegraph, to the Privy Council of Canada, a very earnest and forcible protest against this at- tempt to overthrow the school legislation, and to destroy the jxiwers and indefjcndence of the J'rovincial Legislatures. Desirous of preserving the union, the Government declared that they could not refrain from drawing the attention of the Government and Parliament of Canada to the alarming character and consequences of that resolution. "Those consequences far outweigh the iraport- ence of the particular subject involved. The aHtiuuption by the Government and Parliament of Canada, of the right to oeek the imposition of further limitations of the powers of the Pro- vincial Legislatures, is subversive of the federal character of the union, tending to the destruc- tion of the powers and independence of the Pro- vincial Legislatures, and to the centralization of all power in the Parliament of Canada. The people of New Brunswick gaimot and will not so surrender their rights of snlf-govemment within the limitu of the consti- tution, and with regard to the ptissage of such resolutions as an infringement of the constitu- tion by those whose duty and interest should lead them to uphold the rights of the Provinces, while maintaining powers of the General Gov- emmeii*- The executive council in committee, therefore, hasten to warn the Government and Parliament of Canada of the danger involved in the passage of nuch resolution, which if passed, whatever its effect upon the cause of Imperial legislation, must stand as a precedent of inno- vation of provincial rights fruitful of evil; and in the name of the people of New Brunswick, and invoking the protection of the constitution, the executive council in committee protest against the passage of such resolution, and em- phatically assert the right of the Legislature of New Brunswick to legislate upon all questions affecting the education of the co«ntry, free from interference by the Parliament of Ca- nada." On the evening uf the same day the Chaveau resolution was voted down in the Parliament of Canada, 126 nays, 34 yeas. But a resolution, moved by Mr. Colby, (Quebec), was aftersirard carried;' 117 yeas, 42 nays, expressing regret that the school law of New Brunswick was un- 'satisfactory to a t>orUon of the inhabitants, and a hoiie that it might be so modified during the next session of fhe legislature aa to remove any just ground of discontent, and a rider was ap- pende I, on the motion of lion. Alexander McK.*nzie (Lambton, Ontario), referring the case to the Law Officers of the Crown, and if jjossible to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, England, for their opinion, in order to ascertain whether it came within the the terms (rf the exceptions to the 93rd clause of the Brit- ish North America Act. During the autumn and the winter of 1872 Earl Dufferin, Governor General, transmitted to Earl Kimberley, Colonial Secretary, docu- ments on the School-law case, and the argu- ments of the Government of New Brunswick, and of the counsel of the Catholic Bishop of St. John, New Brunswick, thereon. These were severally submitted to the Law Officers of the Crown, whose opinion substantially sustain- ed the position taken at the first by Sir John A. Macdonald. Early in the spring of 1873, this opinion was corroborated by the judgment of the Supreme Court, New Branswick, in the case of parties who contested the legality of an assessment on the ground that it included a sum for the support of schools levied under authority of the Common Schools Act, which they held was unconstitiitional. Thus by the highest legal authorities the constitutional right of the Legislature of New Brunswick to pass the School-law was amply vindicated; still the supreme tribunal had not given judgment, for the Frivy Council intimated that it could not then take cognizance of the case, though it might, at some future time, be brought before the Judicial Committee on appeal from Cana- dian Courts of Justice. There was no danger ot an opportunity not occurring. It may be here remarked that the Sohuoi-law, when it received an3rthing like fair play, had been proved to be a most beneficial meaoure. Within a short period after the commencement of its working, the number of pupils attending school had largely increased, many fine new school-houses, fitted with all educational re- quirements, had been constructed, and generally through the untiring energy of the central ad- ministration, a vigor not before known had been infused throughout the common school system. Owing partly to local jealou8ies,partly to opposition raised in some quarters to the legality of the school-assessment, the Board of Education and the chief superintendent had 1 , i CANADIAN HISTORY. Uaw, had fare, lent ling Inew re- [•ally ad- jhad Ihool ]«tly the of I had many ditfiCTiltiea l« inducing the people of some of the districts to work it out in ijood faith. D uring the seasioii of the Local Lej^islature that terminated early in April, 187;i, laws were passed kgalisiiig assesHOients that had been entered, and providing a remedy in cases where *'.iey should again 1k3 con- tested In the Courts; also a law amend- ing the School Act so aa to increase the power of the central control vested in the Board of Education over the trustees and districts, to determine more precisely ttie time and the mode of levying, collecting, and apiK)rtioning the county funds and district assessments. During the summer and autumn of 1872, a general election had taken placa in the Domin- ion, and the contest between the two political parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, or Grits, had bevernment with a vote of want of conti dunce, but he was constrained or persuaded to allow that matter to dro)>. A French member afterwards twitted him by sayin;? that it was much to be regretteil that after having had vic- tory in hiH hands he did not know how to profit by it. If the Frenchman only meant that the vote would have been carried, it is possibly true. The Qovemmeut, bowever, was noon enough put ou its trial ; and for the remainder of the year the whole Dominion was agitated by the developments of the Pacific Scar jal, by the resignation of the Macdonald and the for- mation of the Mackenzie administrations, and by anothei" general electi«Tn — and during the excitement the constitutional contest over the New Brunswick School-law was almost forgot- t n. Tlie Catholic minority had some grounds for hoping that their position would be stronger under the Mackenzie administration as the lead- ers ot that administration had, when in op- position given it active encouragement. But the possession and responsibility of power have generally a restraining effect. During the session of the new par^ '^ment that met March, 1874, the School-law question was raised, but there was no contest over it. Five thousand dollars were voted to defray the expenses of appeal in England ; to aid, in fact, the Catholic Bishop of St. John, New Bruns- wick, to contest the constitutionality of the School Act— a pretty practical proof, at least,of sympathy. The contest over the School-law has a religious as well as a political aspect. It is matter of fact that it has been synchronous with the great conflict in the Grerman Empire befween the State and the Papacy, which has had a disturb- ing effect on the politic 1 action of countries like Canada, where the population is mixed Catholic and Protestant; and, m its world- wide significance became more and more appar- ent, it has been watched, both in America and in Europe, with keen and keener interest. In Canada, the ecclesiastical authorities whose lo- • cal central seat is the ancient Quebec, the City of Champlain and the Jesuit Fathers, are ani- mated by the spirit that has gone forth from Ultramontane Home, and their zeal, since the promulgation of the Syllabus and the Vatican decrees, has been increased in denouncing mixed and common sobools as dangerous to faith and raorala, in upholding the necessity of eoolesiasti- cal authority, goTemment, and interference in education, and in insisting upon the remoral of all restrictions upon religious instruction that may enter into the course of daily secular edu- cation. In New Brunswick, while the continued on- slaughts of the Parliament of Canada on the independence of the Tjocal Legislature were cal- culated to inflame the majority of the people, the attitude assumed by the hierarchy of the Dominion towards the School-law tended to cause a feeling A repulsion to anything like Ultramontane dictation, a feehng which was strengthened by the very violent spirit in which the chief Catholic organ advocated the claims of the minority and reviled t1i« Government who introduced the Schdol-law, ' Legislature who carried it, and the people .<> supported both. In the summer ot 1874 the people of New Brunswick had an opportunity to express their feelings and sentiments on the question. A general election for the Local Legislature took place in June. The result was remarkable, and plainly showed the determina- tion of the majority to uphold the law and the Grovemment administering it. Not an opponent of the government or the law was returned, even from large counties, where the opposition to both had been strong. Out of forty-one repre- sentatives only five were elected in the interests of the minority, and of the whole number a large proportion were new men. While New Brunswick was still under the ex- citement of the election contest, the final steps to test the constitutionality of "the School Act were taken. The action of the Federal Parlia- 1. ent in giving money to aid the advisers of the minority to argue their case by appeal, threw on the Local Legislature the necessity of voting means to defray the charges of defence. The Hon. George E. King, Attorney-General, and leader of the Government, who* had taken the foremast part in framing and carrying through the School-law, proceeded to London in the in- terest of the province. On the 17th of July the question was argued before the Judicial Lords of the Privy Council— the Right Honorables Sir J. W. Colville, Lord Justice Mellish, Lord Justice James, Sir Montague Smith, and Sir Robert P. Collier— in the case of an appeal from an adverse judgment of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick by a ratepayer of Portland, St. John, wh'> objected to the assessment for school purposes mtj^e on the town, on the ground that the School Act, under authority of which it had been ordered, was void. The counsel of the ap- pellant was kept strictly to the short point at isaue, whether the general exception to the 93rd CANADIAN HISTORY. Clauae of the British North American Act pro- tecting any ri»'' out to it, voted with the large majority, d >ai ■ ing that he did so with the knowledge ai -. •. sent of the (Catholic Bishop of St. John Ne> Brunswick. The statement wad denied by * exti ^mists, who opposed the royal address.pn ing tor the exercise of Her Majesty's intluencv, as a step, which would in its issue lead to no practical or satisfactory result, and merely post- poned the difficulty which would return next year upon Parliament with more perplexing force than ever. By inviting the Royal influence,,the Dominion Government, no doubt, hope thai; such a pres- sure will be brought to bear on. the Legislature of New Brunswick as to induce it to yield to the demands made by the minority, and thus relieve them from their embarrassment. So the question stands for the present awaiting Imperial action on the Royal Address. The Government of New Bnmswick, backed by an overwhelming majority in the Legislature, has not receded from the position taken in the pro- test of the 29th May, X872; it rests on constitu- tional ground. Though on that groimd the Go- vernment has been supported, it has re<^ived little sympathy from the political leaders and representatives ' '. the Dominion at large. The Parliament of Can^u^is seemingly governed by the traditions of the past; that it is still under the influence of the minority that has done so much to shape the courae of history in th^ f>ast. CANADIAN raSTORT. II a address to ty would be ice with the procure such Eis would re- Mackenzie, le House to jrial legisla- ers reserved ir constitu- langer their >use did by o by a simi- her proposi- h was pro- abec centre) both should eeiv. f raising a e represen- ) leaders of had made aiming that government was met*"* rity, d >ar- je ai ^ ■■ John Ne> nied by +' [dress, prt 's inHuenuv, lead to no tierely post- return next exing force « significant action has shown. During the last session the Government carried through Parliament a measure erecting the North West Territory into a separate Government, with the responsibility of settlinjT' the primary institu- tions — (not of one Province only, but of the several Provinces that may in the future be carved out of that vast region) — under which, as the Hon. Edward Blake observed, "we hope to see hundreds of thousands —and the more san- guine among us millions — of men and families settled and flourishing." A special provision wap inserted in the clause of the constitution relating to education determining in perpetuity that the minorities. Catholic and Protestant, shall have the right to establish separate schools and this was done with the avowed intention of letting people, who might emigrate thither, know what they might expect, and with special reference to the troume im New Brunswick. But tiie same secti«n of the British North Ameitica Act, which grants to the Legi<;Iature of New Bnmswick the exclusive right to make laws in reference to education, grants in no lesa degree like powers to the Legislatures of all future Provinces throughout the Dominion. This action of the Parliament of Canada is ob- viously ultra vires, since it seeks to abridge powers conferred by the Imperial Parliament. From this sketch of a trouble which has, during the term of Earl Dufferin's rule, arises in Canada, it may be inferred that ^'the epoch" has not been so halcyonian as the glowing description drawn by His Excellency would lead one to imagine; but it is to be hoped that the position of affairs is still '^ot of such gravity as to be beyond the political wisdom,' experience and ability which, we are assured, have grown with the growth of wealth and happiness with- in the New Dominion. September, 1875. Dominion luch a pres- egislature Shield to the ihvu relieve nt awaiting ress. The ked by an ilature, has in the pro- n constitu- tid the Go- re<^ived eaders and itrge. The tverned by itill under as done bo a th^ f>a8t.