SPEECH ON THE BUDGET 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Hon. L. R. CHURCH, Q.C. 
 
 1^ - TREASURER OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC, 
 
 DBLIVERED IN THX 
 
 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, QUEBEC, 
 
 '?''.■■■"■' 81sT January, 1878. ' ■-- ^^;;->ii:^-' 
 
 
 Beported for Montreal Gazette, 
 
 MONTEBAL : 
 PRINTED BY T: & R. WHITE. 
 
 1878. 
 
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 ■ THE BUDGET SPEECH. "-^ 
 
 '■/. »:^ 1 :'■ ■,»,.■■.';. , '■■»■.■". ,. ■■ ■ ■• 
 
 , ,, , Quebec, 31st January, 1878. 
 
 The Treasurer moved that the Speaker do leave the Chair for 
 the House in Committee of Supply, and in doing so delivered the 
 following Budget Speech : — 
 
 Mr. Speaker, — Any one who has watched the receipts of a Treasury 
 or Revenue Department from month to month of a critical year, 
 whether that Department be for this Province, or for any larger or 
 smaller state, and from time to time, in his anxiety, compared these 
 receipts with previous ones, must have experienced various feelings of 
 -elation and depression, according as the guage registered an increase 
 -or a deficit, and for you and me, responsible as we are to the people, 
 I primarily, and you, secondarily, the past fiscal year has been one 
 of unusual care and anxiety. In a revenue like ours, of which so 
 large a portion is fixed, the margin over which the diligence or energy 
 of a treasurer can be exercised, and assert any control, is necessarily 
 limited, and relatively small, and as he watches the fluctuations to 
 which I have referred, and recalls his own helplessness, his feelings are 
 at times neither reassuring nor enviable. At length, however, the year 
 closes, and the result, whether satisfactory or unsatisfactory, is known, 
 and when the time approaches that it must be rehearsed, it is rather 
 with a feeling of relief than any other, that he places in the hands 
 •of the House, and of the country, the burden of his hopes, fears and 
 .anxieties for the period just closed. Some such feelings have 
 been mine during the past year, and now, face to face wi)th you, the 
 representatives of the people, I have come to tell you of the past and 
 of the future, so far as they concern the fiscal year, which closed 
 with the month of June last, and the year which will open with 
 the first of July next (1878). I have said the past year has been an 
 anxious one, for I was dealing with an expenditure which was larger 
 than any which had preceded it, and I had to mark how far the pro- 
 visions made to meet the burdens, which that expenditure occasioned, 
 were adequate to that end. As day by day, or rather as month by 
 month, the cash balances at our credit in the banks diminished, dxi^ 
 
the assets which represented them developed, one in my position 
 could not but associate the idea of a diminution of 50 or 100,000 
 dollars in the bank, and a consequent loss of interest on that amount 
 of money, with, say, the extension of the railway from Quebec to St 
 Anne's, or ih>m Montreal to Lachute, and to calculate to what extent 
 the traffic returns from such railway communication would go to make 
 good such deficiency of interest ; and thus has passed the long hot 
 days of summer, and the cooler and shorter days of autumn ; and 
 now, standing here, we may not alone consider such questions to- , 
 gether, but we may, and with your indulgent forbearance we will take 
 a glance over all the important fiscal events of the year. ^ j^ 
 
 THE FISCAL YEAR 1876-77. 
 
 And first, beginning where we left off last year, let us see what have 
 been our receipts for the fiscal year ending the 30th June last (1876-77). 
 I know, Mr. Speaker, that it is not easy to interest all the members of 
 the House, and much less all the people of the constituencies outside of 
 the House, in the dismal science of figures, but if you will give me 
 your attention for a few minutes, I think I can so state and group 
 the transactions of that year, that any one who will may comprehend 
 their meaning, and the relation which they bear to the past, and 
 in a manner see the forecast of the future. The revenue of the 
 lyear 1876-77 was $2,433,111.65. In this year we had, unlike the 
 preceding one, the advantage of testing fairly the results of the 
 legi^tion, having for its purpose the meeting of the interest and 
 6itlking fund on the new loan, and later on and in another connection^ 
 'I shall have to refer to the subject again. I merely desire to say nOi*r 
 'that the year was a complete one financially speaking ; all the sources of 
 'revenue having the full year to operate in and yield returns. Towards 
 making up the gross amount which I have just named, we had an old 
 and vadued acquaintance in the Dominion subsidy, and the interest 
 upon such trust funds as are in the hands of the Dominion Govern- 
 ment. The subsidy proper being as heretofore $959,252.80 ; the 
 trust funds yielding $55,459.32. As a gourmand turns a sweet morsel 
 in his mouth, anxious to realize and enjoy to the fullest extent its 
 gratefiil flavor, so do I, the Treasurer of the Province, as I think of 
 this item of revenue, reflect and enjoy the thought that it represents 
 no new sacrifices, nor new burdens, but one incorporated in our con- 
 stitution, and which no time, or calamity, or depression can affect. 
 It is there for all time, costing us, as I stated last year, nothing in its 
 collecting or management, and a guarantee to our creditors and our- 
 selves, that for almost the half of all the necessities and obligations 6f 
 
 
the Province, there is at all times, and for all time an adequate pro- 
 vision. Next comes the item which may be said to reprerent more 
 than any other the nation's inherited wealth. I mean the ,j i » 
 
 REVENUE FROM OUR CROWN LANDS. -.■•'•"" 
 
 Hitherto, Mr. Speaker, the only revenue we derived from tlie millions 
 and millions of acres of our Crown Domain, was from the sale of 
 certain descriptions of wood growing upon it, but with this year opens 
 another era, and I have it from my friend, the Hon. Commissioner of 
 Crown Lands, that it is his intention to submit for your approval, a 
 scheme, having for its object the utilization for revenue purposes, of 
 these mineral and economic deposits, which recent explorations have 
 proved to exist in the Ottawa country, and which seem destined to 
 contribute in no mean measure to the future of this Province, and 
 indeed to the Dominion. 
 
 When we think of the results which promise and have attended the 
 efforts to export meat, butter and cheese from this countr" to Eng- 
 land, and when we think how these alluvial plains at the fooi of the 
 Laurentides, now in a measure exhausted by unwise and unsystema- 
 tic farming, may be refertilized and made to bloom under the stimu- 
 lating and fertilizing effects of those 
 
 DEPOSITS OF PHOSPHATE OF LIME ■ r . 
 
 which, in the words of Mr. Vennor, exceed in value and amount any- 
 thing of its kind which the world has ever seen or known heretofore, 
 or, to use his own words, as copied from a public letter published by 
 him last September, wherein he says : " I cannot refrain from exprers- 
 ing It as my firm con vie .ion that in no other part of the world has 
 there ever been, or will there probably ever be, such a continuous 
 stretch of phosphate bearing rocks and such a vast and apparently 
 inexhaustible deposit of the mineral phosphate of lime as exists in 
 Ottawa and possibly the immediate adjacent county to the eastward 
 and further." "This mineral," he adds, "rather than any of the 
 ores of iron, is destined to form the great centre of all mineral industry, 
 in this section, for ages to come." Since then I have received the 
 following letter : — 
 
 "Geological Survey of Canada, 
 "2ist January, 1878. 
 ""Hon. L. R. Church, 
 
 " Quebec ; 
 " Sir, — In accordance with your request I herewith offer for your 
 consideration the following notes relating to the occurrence of phos- 
 
phate of lime in the Ottawa region. The mineral is held or carried by 
 one particular belt of rock, which can be easily identified by a practised 
 eye ^herever met with. This has now been traced from Hull Town- 
 ship to Backatong Lake, a total distance of upwards of ninety miles. 
 Here it turns around, and folding under a synclinal axis, retum» 
 southward again along the Lievre side of the country, finally reaching 
 the Township of Buckingham. The belt of rock is thus exposed and 
 aforms continuous outcrop for a distance of about 1 80 miles. Of this 
 distance as yet only a very small portion has been tested by minings 
 operators ; yet the little that has been done has returned results 
 beyond the expectations of the most sanguine. The townships in 
 which this belt has been to some extent tested iare Buckingham. Port- 
 land, Templeton, Hull and Wakefield. The chief openings are those 
 of the Buckingham Mining Company in Buckingham and Portland ; 
 Brown's, in the last named township, recently sold for $16,000, to Pesr- 
 ton's of New York ; Miller & Haycock's, and McLaurin's, in Temple- 
 ton. The openings in Hull and Wakefield are innumerable and of great 
 importance. From all of these openings several thousands of tons of 
 No. I mineral have been raised and shipped to Liverpool at very con- 
 siderable profits, and this without any-extra effort or attempt at deep> 
 mining. The cost of mining, taken at the average, is about $5.00 per 
 ton ; transport to Montreal via O. & O. Railway, inclusive of drawing 
 from mines $1.50 per ton. Freight from Montreal to Liverpool, say 
 $5.00. Handling, 50 cents more per ton. In all, total cost laid down at 
 Liverpool may be safely put down at from $12 to $13 per ton. The. 
 price of No. I Phosphate in England varies from $27 to $29 per ton. 
 From these figures will be at once seen the very large margin in this- 
 particular branch of mining industry. The whole enterprize however 
 is yet in its infancy. I do not hesitate to say that along the whole, 
 course of the phosphate belt of rock (180) there will hardly be found one 
 square mile that does not contain or embrace one or more valuable 
 deposits of the mineral. I have myself discovered some forty-five, 
 localities in which it appears to exist in very large quantity, and all of 
 these are yet out of the circle of mining operations. What is now 
 wanted is a thorough geological investigation of this whole region — not a. 
 mere cursory examination with one or two men, backed up by a 
 paltry sum of $1,000 or $1,500 — but a systematic survey with a well 
 organized party, supported by ample funds, so that casteen test pits^ 
 excavations, and all other tests deemed desirable, could be 
 made. It is my firm conviction that these deposits of phosphates 
 are to be followed out much in the same manner as are coal seams,^ 
 and should this be proven and work conducted in a systematic. 
 
manner, an industry would be created in our midst that the most 
 sanguine never dreamed of. The supply is to all intents and purposes 
 inexhaustible. It is my present intention to devote myself entirely to 
 this particular economy until I have proven either that my present 
 surmises respecting it are correct, or that they have been premature 
 and are untenable. , ', ', '." .'. i'. ;,:' . .r 
 
 Hoping that these very hurriedly written notes may be of some 
 slight service to you, and help in some way my further investigations, 
 I remain, dear Sir, 
 
 Yours, very respectfully, 
 , (Signed) Henry G. Vennor. 
 
 But to return. When we think of these plains, I say, thus restored 
 to their pristine richness and carefully managed under the improved 
 ideas of culture everywhere making itself understood amongst our 
 people, and when we think of the ready means by which the beef, the 
 butter, the cheese, and mutton and other products of these soils un- 
 der improved scientific means may be transported to England by our 
 unsurpassed lines of steamships, and delivered right in the very heart 
 of that country, and the advanced prices they will there command 
 over what has been hitherto received ; when we think of the wonderful 
 results which a perseverance in these practices for a limited number 
 of years must achieve, we see in this discovery of Mr. Vennor and 
 others the dawn of a new era of prosperity for our Province — an era 
 which will allow of our young men remaining at home and not emi- 
 grating elsewhere ; an era of prosperity which will open up a new class 
 of industries to engage and develop the energies of our people ; a 
 new era which will enable us to use in useful and profitable home 
 enterprises any surplus capital which we may possess, and lay the foun- 
 dations of the future destiny of this Province, which I firmly believe is 
 intended to be the centre of mineral and commercial enter- 
 prise for the Dominion of Canada. It is not a little singular, and 
 I cannot refrain from dwelling a moment upon the fact, that 
 the construction of the Q., M., O, & O. Railway has, more than 
 any other thing, contributed to the opening up and realization of 
 the fact that great undeveloped wealth belonged to the Crown in these 
 Crown Lands, over the timber which grew upon them, or their fitness 
 or value for agricultural purposes. For all along the line of the road 
 in the course of its construction were scattered a large number of 
 men, sub-contractors and others, who were familiar with quarrying 
 and blasting and the character of different rock; and these men 
 having to carry on these works in the very heart of these new dis- 
 
covents were attracted to examine, and with such success that I am 
 assured there is scarcely a sub-contractor on the upper part of the 
 ro«4 not now engaged in mining enterprises, and with very flattering 
 prospects of success, thus affording traffic for the road and employ- 
 ment to the hundreds of people who would be without employment, 
 owing to the depression in the lumber trade, had these discoveries 
 not been made, — being a means, too, of drawing under the notice of 
 the outer world the generous dower of mineral wealth which has 
 been given to this historic old Province of ours ; and a means of 
 introducing foreign capital in our midst, and affording by its success 
 a stimulant to the curious and speculative, to see whether such natural 
 wealth has been given only to one locality, or whether the same, or 
 other and equally valuable deposits of economic minerals are not to 
 be found besides those known to exist at the present time. 
 
 '' -i '•,..;,, 'I ^jjj. TiMBEit TRADE. '' 
 
 But coming back from this, which in a measure may be the 
 domain of fancy, to the hard, stem facts of the year, we find the 
 Crown Lands have yielded $517,463.80, a sum some $86,915 less 
 than the preceding year, and affecting pro tanio the total revenue. 
 To any one familiar with the state of our staple trade, the falling off 
 in the receipts of this Department will not be matter for surprise or 
 remark. Our chief regret must rather be that we have not yet begun 
 to feel any revival of the trade. Whether anything can be done to 
 stimulate an earlier return to it'j former prosperity, by recasting the 
 manner in which duties are exacted, or in an;' other manner, must 
 •engage the attention of my hon. friend on my left (Hon. Mr. 
 Gameau) ; as well as the not less interesting question for you all, 
 whether, whilst helping the trade, anything can be done to add some- 
 thing to the revenue of the Province, over and above that which it 
 how yields. I feel bound to say that no more important, difficult or 
 delicate question could engage the attention of the head of a Depart- 
 ment than the one I am no^^ referring to ; and I can only hope that 
 in all which may be devised wisdom and knowledge may guide the 
 Executive, and that a result broad and sound enough to be the policy 
 •of the future decade will be determined upon. AU of us know the 
 difficulties of the trade ; all of us know, or may know, the necessities 
 of the future ; all of us, by observation and judicious reflection, may 
 contribute to wise results. Let us, therefore, in all that affects our 
 •taple trade, act carefully, prudently, unitedly and deliberately. 
 Btxnight mto direct rivalry with Ontario in the same market, we 
 must not burden our people more than those of Ontario, nor more 
 
than the trade will legitimately bear, whilst those who pursue it must 
 be witling to accept cheerfully their fair share of the burdens of the 
 people, and contribute, according to their success, towards the 
 revenue of the Province. Practically monopolists of the Crown 
 Domain, they have their duties and obligations to the State, whilst, 
 as pioneers of settlement and guardians of a great industry, the State 
 has duties towards them. In the course of the year, as is probably 
 well known to all members of the House, the bonus exacted on the 
 transfer of limits has been reduced from eight to four dollars per mile. 
 Without entering into any discussion as to the wisdom or un-wisdom 
 of the Executive in originally imposing this impost, nor of its suita- 
 bility to meet the objects which the Commissioner of the day had in 
 view, it will be conceded, that as a source of revenue, it was of little 
 value ; and that it seriously interfered with transactions in limits, which 
 in a time of depression, not to say distress, might, if less shackled, be 
 availed of to relieve many members of the trade from their embar- 
 rassments. Hence the action of the Government. 
 
 ■>• ' ''•Iff ,/.' f . I, 
 
 OTHER REVENUES. .in 
 
 Law Stamps this year yielded $197,981.32. This item of revenue 
 manifests an expansion of between nine and ten per cent, for the year, 
 over the receipts of the previous one. I cannot say that I am very 
 fond of this tax, for it is a tax on redress ; yet, under our Constitu- 
 tion, unless you make non-litigants bear the burden of litigants, I 
 suppose there is no other means of making our courts in a measure 
 self-sustaining. 
 
 The revenue from Registration Stamps $15,558.51, has increased 
 twenty-five per cent., and yet does not yield what it should do, in 
 view of the large sums spent and being spent on the Registration 
 Service, but now that the cadastres have been completed and pto- 
 ■claimed in many counties, and parts of the country, the clause of the 
 Act, 32 Vic, cap. 25, and the Orders-in-Council passed under its 
 authority in June, 1870, and August, 1877, giving us 15 per cent, of 
 registration receipts, our revenue from this source should be materially 
 augmented, and you will see in my estimate of revenue for the next 
 fiscal year it has entered into my calculations. 
 
 ASSURANCE STAMPS. 
 
 The Revenue from this source was $33,847.13, and the House 
 -will naturally and very properly expect in this connection, some 
 information as to the progress of our law-suit with the insurance 
 companies to test the validity of the Provincial Act, 39 V«c, Cap. 7, 
 
imposing a duty upon assurance policies or premiums. The recent 
 judgment of the Court of Appeals in the insurance case brought 
 by the Province against the Queen Insurance Company compels 
 me to invite the attention of this House to the questions upon which 
 that judgment turns, and necessarily, in so doing, I shall be forced to- 
 speak in somewhat critical terms of some of the dicta contained in 
 the said judgment. In doing so I shall endeavor to put aside all 
 questions not strictly within the domain of my office, leaving to the 
 law officers of the Crown, and their counsel, the task of dealing with 
 the law issues, properly so called, which are without my domain, 
 and still finally undetermined by the courts. I desire to add, more- 
 over, as a ■ \wyer, I have a most profound respect for the personnel of 
 that Court, and for the dignity and ability with which its public duties 
 are performed ; but here, on an occasion of this kind, where a seem- 
 ing conflict has occurred between the judicial and legislative branches 
 of the Government in the interpretation of the Constitutional Act, and 
 where it would be supineness or gross indifference to great public con 
 cems if we hesitated to look current events in the face, I cannot and 
 I ought not, Mr. Speaker, to hesitate to at least record the fact, with 
 such reflections as it becomes me to make on a matter not yet finally 
 determined, but upon which the country and the Legislature has a 
 right to know the opinion of Her Majesty's Government. I und'.i 
 stand, from the reports I have seen of the judgment, Chief-Justice Sir 
 Antoine K\mi Dorion, and Justices Monk, Taschereau, and Cross, as 
 declaring, in broad and general terms, that the Province may impose, 
 UJider the Constitution, direct taxes, but not indirect ones. 
 
 Now, at first sight, this may seem to make such a broad and 
 general definition of the classes of taxation within the province ot 
 this House as to leave little to conjecture ; but, on second thought, I 
 think it will be found that such is not the case. The constitution, as 
 was declared by one of the learned judges in his judgment, makes no 
 definition of what is direct and what indirect taxation ; and these 
 terms are of such an elastic and indefinite character that financiers, 
 legislators and judges may well be pardoned if they do not agree. 
 Unfortunately, under our constitution, we cannot say as the Right 
 Hon. Mr. Gladstone, in presenting his budget, once said : — " I have 
 always thought it idle for a person holding the position of Finance 
 Minister to trouble himself with what, to him, is necessarily an abstract 
 question, namely, the question between direct and indirect taxation, 
 each considered upon its own merits. To many people both, as is 
 natural, appears sufficiently repulsive. As for myself, I confess that 
 owing to the accident of my official position, rather than to any more 
 
11 
 
 profound cause of discrepancy, I entertain quite a different opinion. 
 I never can think of direct or indirect taxation, except as I should 
 think of two attractive sisters, who have been introduced into the gay 
 world of London, each with an ample fortune, both having the same 
 parentage (for the parents of both I believe to be Necessity and 
 Invention), differing only as sisters may differ, as where one is of lighter 
 and another of darker complexion, or where there is some agreeable 
 variety of manner, the one being more free and open, and the other 
 somewhat more shy, retiring and insinuating. I cannot conceive any 
 reason why there should be unfriendly rivalry between the admirers 
 of these two damsels ; and I fondly own, whether it be due to a lax 
 sense of moral obligations or not, that as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 if not as a member of this House, I have always thought it not only 
 allowable, but even an act of duty, to pay my addresses to them 
 both. I am, therefore, as between direct and indirect taxation, prob- 
 ably impartial." ' "■■•■■■>■'■ r. . . ..:. .Si 
 
 TTie Court, in the particular case to which I have referred, declared 
 against the tax because it was indirect, and had in reality to be paid 
 by the assured. This at first blush, and indeed upon reflection, is 
 diflicult to understand, because the Act in terms declares that the 
 assurer shall take out an annual license in order to practise the call- 
 ing ; says he shall pay a fee or duty for it ; that that duty shall be 
 fixed in a certain manner, and for a certain amount on his receipts ; 
 that it be paid at a certain time, and in a certain way by him ; that 
 his neglect to do so shall entail a certain penalty upon him and upon 
 him alone, and only in the most remote manner aff°ects the insured, 
 and that only to the extent of declaring his policy valueless, if the 
 assurer has not stamped it. Does this not strike you. Sir, as legisla- 
 tion levelled at the assurer, and at him alone ? And if so levelled at 
 him, is it not a direct tax against his business ? Take the definition 
 of the greatest living author on political economy of his day. I refer 
 to John Stuart Mill and apply it to the case. Mill defines " a direct 
 tax to be one which is demanded from the very persons who it is 
 intended or desired should pay it." Who is this tax demanded from ? 
 Who is intended or desired shall pay it ? The Act says the assured. 
 Again, take the remarks upon the Fire Insurance duty in England 
 by the Right Hon. Mr. Gladstone in his budget speech of 1864, in 
 which he says : That for two-thirds at least, viz. : all that portion of 
 the duty which falls upon property it is a direct tax, and indirect for 
 the other third, or such portion as falls upon stock-in-trade, and this 
 distinction formed the basis of a readjustment of his duties. Again, 
 consider the definition of Professor Fawcett, than whom no more 
 
12 
 
 accurate or correct thinker exists in England He defines a direct ta^c 
 to be one which is really paid by the person from whom it is levied, 
 and then goes on to prove that there is not necessarily any essential 
 distinction between a direct tax and an indirect tax, and that a 
 direct tax may be converted into an indirect one simply by a private 
 commercial agreement. But let the honorable gentleman's own words 
 speak his views : — " Direct and indirect taxation are words of such 
 frequent use that they probably need no definition. It may, perhaps, 
 however, be well to state that a direct tax is really paid by the person 
 from whom it is levied, whereas an indirect tax, though nominally 
 paid by one person, is really paid by another. An income tax, and 
 all assessed taxes, such as taxes on private carriages and dogs, are 
 •direct taxes, for they deprive those who pay them of an amount of 
 wealth equivalent to the tax. But an entirely different result follows 
 •with regard to an indirect tax, such as the malt duty ; for in buch a 
 case, although the malt duty is in the first instance paid by the maltster, 
 yet the tax really comes out of the consumers of beer, because the 
 price which they are compelled to pay for beer is increased by an 
 amount which must at least be equivalent to the tax imposed. It is, 
 therefore, manifest thi t taxes on commodities are indirect, because if 
 commodities are taxed they are increased in price, and consequently 
 the consumers of the commodities really pay the taxes, although 
 they may in the first instance be levied upon the importers 
 or producers of commodities. It must not, however, be supposed 
 that there are no indirect taxes, except those which are imposed upon 
 commodities ; for instance, a tax which is in its essential character 
 direct, may bfecome indirect by private and commercial arrangements, 
 and by many other causes. Thus, in England it is customary for the 
 tenant farmer to pay poor-rates ; it is, however, evident that all such 
 charges as these are really paid by the land owner, because, if a 
 farmer has to contribute one hundred pounds a year in poor-rates, 
 he is able to pay so much less a year for the use of his land ; 
 consequently, if no poor-rates were imposed, the landlord might 
 increase the rent of his farm by the whole amount which his tenant 
 previously contributed to these rates. The same remark applies to 
 various other rates and also to tithes. It appears therefore that 
 there is not necessarily an essential distinction between a direct and 
 an indirect tax ; for we have seen that a direct tax may be converted 
 mto an indirect tax, simply by a private commercial arrangement, 
 since there is no reason whatever why the poor rates shoald not 
 in all cases be paid by the landlord, and not by the tenant If this 
 were done the poor-rates would become a direct tax. It is therefore 
 
^18 
 
 possible that the words direct and indirect, when applied to a tax, 
 may denote only a nominal distinction; the tax, however, which 
 is imposed upon commodities cannot be made a direct one, since 
 "it would be impracticable to levy the tax upon each person who 
 may have to purchase any particular article ; consequently the real 
 points of distinction between the two different systems of taxation 
 will be best elucidated by comparing the effects of a direct tax with 
 those which result from a tax imposed upon a commodity. I am 
 aware that it may be urged that this nroves too much, but I cite the 
 authority to shew that it is the mannti in which a tax is imposed and 
 the person whom the Legislature directs to pay it that defines its 
 character for directness or indirectness, and not any man's theory of 
 who ultimately will have to pay it. Moreover, what is an insurance 
 policy on property? It is nothing but a prudential contract entered 
 into by a person who feels that he is either unable or unwilling to 
 bear the risk of its contingent loss by fire, with some assurer, who, 
 'in consideration of the payment of a certain premium, is willing 
 to accept the contingency of bearing such loss. Now, if a law 
 be passed which says, that before any one can execute such a 
 contract, a certain one of the parties shall pay a certain duty upon his 
 gross receipts or on the consideration money to the Crown, 
 is that not a direct tax against him ? If the statute left it undeter* 
 mined by whom this duty should be paid, or if it were capable of 
 being incorporated by the assurar or company with the rates charged 
 by it, and a general average struck, it might be contended that, be- 
 coming incorporated with the rate charged, it was thus distributed 
 over the general transactions of the company, and finally paid by the 
 insured. But, inasmuch as every house or other property, by its 
 ralue, surroimdings, style of architecture, materials of construction, 
 water supply, police and alarm provisions, proximity or remoteness to 
 extra hazardous risks, etc., is a type for itself, the imposition of a 
 license or duty upon him or them who assume the risk of its destruc- 
 tion by fire is, to my mind, as direct a tax against him " from whom 
 it is levied," to use the words of Fawcett, or paid by the very person 
 who it is intended or desired should pay it If we regard or respect 
 the words of the Act, as I can conceive, and even if we give effect 
 to Mr. Gladstone's distinction, and draw a line as between the 
 property and the stock in trade, still the words of the Act, making it 
 payable by the assurer, and thus showing whom it was intended or 
 desired should pay it, provides for this specious objection, and refutes 
 any argument based upon the assumption that the payer of the duty 
 will add it to his other margin of advance upon the goods, and thus 
 
14 
 
 ultimately collect it from the consumer. Take, on the other hand, 
 the case of a life policy. In what does this differ from the case of an 
 owner of property ? Each individual life is a rule for itself, in which 
 physical and mental vigor, the existence or non-existence of heredi- 
 tary or acquired disease, the occupation of life, the years a man 
 has attained*, his personal habits of sobriety or insobriety, and a 
 thousand other end varying considerations adjust the premium, and 
 with it the duty which his assurer must pay before he can enter 
 into any contract with him on the subject. In conclusion, one 
 would be very much inclined to agree with the hon. and distinguished 
 ex-colleague of the present Premier for England, the member of 
 the Imperial House of Commons for Buckinghamshire, who frankly 
 in a debate on the Budget, stated that he did not know of any great 
 authority to whom he could refer for a definition of what was a 
 direct tax and what was an indirect tax, if it were not that our 
 constitution makes use of the expression "direct taxes" and it becomes 
 matter of necessity, or it is of prime concern to obtain an authorita- 
 tive declaration of the true meaning of the words, and this will be 
 ac'complished by the appeal to the Privy Council. In these remarks, 
 Mr. Speaker, I have carefully avoided the constitutional question and 
 dealt with the subject from the standpoint that the tax was a direct one, 
 leaving to the lawyers and to the bench of judges to consider in what 
 way the Imperial Statute is to be construed, whether by the light of 
 the Confederation debates, the Resolutions of the Confederation Con- 
 gress, the pre-existing legislation on Licenses in the United Canada 
 of 1841-67 ; and of course the same legislation in Nova Scotia and 
 New Bnmswick, or merely as an Imperial Statute brought before an 
 Imperial Court for elucidation and interpretation. I tnist in what I 
 have said no one will find, or think he finds, any want of respect for 
 the court whose judgment I have alluded to. 
 
 Marriage licenses have yielded $6,558.00 the same as last year, less 
 seventy-two dollars, — thus have twelve couples, it is to be supposed, 
 through the " obduracy of hard-hearted parents," or the " commercial 
 depression," or " lack of affinity," or " want of pluck," or some other 
 equally potent but less suggestive cause, been kept apart — a result in 
 which the Government accepts no share of responsibility, as the stock 
 of licenses was always equal to the demand. — (Laughter.) 
 
 TAVERN AND SHOP LICENSES. 
 
 This important source of revenue yielded $228,138.82 having 
 increased about 10 per centum during the year, and in this connection, 
 1 may say, I have taken advantage of the Commission to revise the 
 
15 
 
 sUtutes, to have the draft Act which I lubmitted last year reviMd by 
 thena, with the view of its ready incorporation into the Revised 
 Statutes without any difficulty when it shall have been adopted by this 
 House. 
 
 Law fees, exclusive of stamps, is a small item, $8,158.36, but shows 
 a satisfactory increase of between 40 and 50 per cent. 
 
 Fines under the License Act stand at $6,482.67; and have more 
 than quintupled, and whilst they show a manifest disposition on the part 
 of some of our people to evade the law, are at the same time a testimony 
 to the zeal and assiduity of some of our detective and revenue officers. 
 I may say that a portion of our police has been detailed during the year 
 for revenue purposes, and the result has been what I have indicated in 
 the large increase in the fines, to be followed, I hope, by a more 
 satisfactory and legitimate increase in the obedience of persons wishing 
 to engage in the licensed victuallers' trade to the law by their taking 
 out the licenses which the law requires. 
 
 Fines, Justice — This is a mere trifle, $157.02, and shows a slight 
 diminution. 
 
 The Building and Jury — This fund has not been satisfactory, for, al- 
 though it shows $17,410.41, being an increase of over 50 per cent, yet 
 there are large accumulated arrears which it is difficult to collect The 
 moment the Sheriff, acting under the orders of the Department or in con- 
 formity with the requirements of the Act, attempts to enforce payment 
 of the amounts due, in hot haste comes a letter from the member of the 
 county, the Curd or Mayor of the parish, or a petition from a number 
 of the ratepayers, stating that special reasons exist, from some cause 
 or other, why the sum should not be enforced. Now, I respectfully 
 suggest that in view of the mere trifle which the municipalities of Lower 
 Canada contribute towards the administration of justice here as com- 
 pared with any other of the Provinces, and notably with Ontario, with 
 which I am familiar, and which in the aggregate only amounts to 
 $13,877 exclusive of stamps, it is not reasonable that the municipali- 
 ties should not pay their full quota, nor just to those who do, that any 
 should be allowed to fall into arrears. If the House should be of 
 opinion that a specific charge such as at present exists of from $12 to 
 $24 per municipality is not just, and that the burden should be adjusted 
 upon the basis of population or the assessed value of each county or 
 municipality, I am ready to accept the latter idea, and then the 
 principle that people should contribute to the burden of the State in 
 proportion to their means, would prevail, and I would be happy to 
 see this tax put upon this basis. 
 
.16 
 
 p> ■' .•'■••.•■■ poLtOE. ■ ' ' • ^'> ' • - ■- ' ■ -4. ..■;*•., i 
 
 ^ Some of the changes foreshadowed in my last (inahdiistatemint 
 have occurred in this force. Not being able to come to terms with the 
 City of Quebec as to the ainount of the annual contribution of that 
 City on the first of May last, we withdrew the police from its muni- 
 cipal duties here, and a city force was substituted. Since that time a. 
 portion of the force was despatched to Montreal for revenue purposes,, 
 and the result has been in many respects satisfactory, and so soon as 
 time has been given to put the new system into working order, there 
 is no doubt but a considerable saving will be effected, and I believe 
 greater efficiency given to our revenue system and increased pro- 
 tection to licensed dealers. The amount collected, $46,950.57,, 
 represents some arrears as well as revenue proper for the year. 
 
 „ i ,.! . ./. i V . ;.^-.. ADMINISTRATION Of JUSTICE. ;. i i 'ii-t.Vi.^ >• V . 
 
 The vagrant tax has yielded us this year $9,804.33, a simi not 
 equal to the anticipations of my predecessor when he submitted the 
 tax, but one which diminishes /r<7 /a/i/t? the burden of the general 
 
 public "•'• r'^Wii--' .,■ ; M !': ' ('>' I'-- -I'l , V ■. .- :,;. ;,,;kiii^W,v ,<'i ~ 
 
 The House of Correction, Montreal, only gave us $ 1,436' 92- 
 
 Montreal Court House, exclusive of stamps, gave us only. 3,977 57 
 
 Education 5i704 47 
 
 Special Protestant Superior Education Fund i c 42 
 
 Special Roman Catholic Superior Education Fund 55' So 
 
 Legislation, viz : •, , , 
 
 Sale of Statutes 219 30< 
 
 Fees on Private Bills 3.539 3* 
 
 Printing Private Bills in Statutes 506 40 
 
 OJliia/ Gascttt 34.607 77 
 
 '■■' ' ' ' THE MUNICIPAL LOAN FUND " *'" ' * ''' " 
 
 this year only yielded $1,167.30, and is asubject of increasing interest, 
 for in a few months of two things one will happen, either the pretended 
 award will be annulled or confirmed ; if annulled, we will then enter 
 into steps to divide the assets in the schedule between us and Ontario 
 on some just and equitable basis, if confirmed we will only have to 
 take what is given us by the award, and amounting, with what belongs 
 to us in the hands of Ontario, to between four and five millions of 
 dollars, and make such use of them as may be deemed meet, and 
 amongst these assets is to be found the Municipal Loan Fund, the 
 Lower Canada portion of which amounts to $2,172,865 of principal 
 
IT 
 
 and $1,131,634.96 of interest, the principal of this loan bears interest 
 at 5 per centum, and the arrears of interest bear six per cent, and the 
 former would give us as an item of revenue over $100,000 per annum, 
 if all were collectable, and honorable gentlemen will have noticed that I 
 have taken this into the account, and have, in my estimate of revenue, 
 taken $108,643.00 from that source. Hitherto no very considerable 
 amounts have been collected from this fund, because it was in an 
 vmsettled condition and we were not the owners of it, and had, I am 
 informed, protested against the right which Ontario assumed to deal 
 with the Upper Canada section of the fund in a definitive manner, and 
 we could not consistently do anything with the Lower Canada 
 portion, when we denied the right of Upper Canada to deal with 
 it. Hence it lay in abeyance, the Province merely collecting such 
 sums as passed through its hands, or were payable l)y the Dominion 
 Government as indemnity to the townships for the cost of abolishing 
 the seigniorial rights in the seigniories. Now, however, as I have 
 said, matters are changed, and in a few months this asset will be 
 available, and cannot but afford us large returns. 1 do not suppose 
 that the policy of the Government will be to exact the full amount of 
 the indebtedness of each municipality under that fund, but it cannot 
 be expected that some use will not be made of it calculated to relieve 
 the Provincial Exchequer from some of the burdens now imposed 
 upon it. Upper Canada, or rather Ontario, has dealt with it, and in 
 a way, I believe, which has given general satisfaction. I do not 
 know, nor, indeed, have I yet considered, what course we should 
 adopt ; acting under the old rule for the making of hare soup, which, 
 you all recollect, was, first catch your hare : in other words, first get 
 a legal title to the fund, then see what it is best to do with it. In 
 the meantime the fund grows annually by the amount which I have 
 taken into the estimates, and we are, I think, justified in taking it 
 into the account of the normal revenue for the year which must find 
 us in possession of it, and, if we get anything like justice, much more.. 
 
 The Quebec Fire Loan has only yielded $735.40, and is another 
 of these funds not yet definitively settled. We are for the moment in 
 possession of it, whether wisely or unwisely — certainly unwisely if the- 
 price paid for the possession of such funds was to allow Ontario to 
 get possession of the only real assets, which were the joint property 
 of the two Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. But, however 
 obtained, we are in possession, and it has yielded, as I have stated, 
 $73S-40- Of course, this fund, like its predecessors, must be dealt 
 with, as soon as it is ours definitively, in a formal manner. 
 
 The contribution to the Montreal Female Gaol of $25,000 has beea 
 2 
 
18 
 
 paid and forms part of the assets. The Pension Fund amounts to 
 $3,402.32. Casual rcventi to $978.31 ; the amount of refunds was 
 $4,895.19 ; and interest reached the large sum of $243,166.20 ; mac'e 
 up of $199,102.64 on bonds, $36,498.43 on special deposits, $935.05 
 onordinary deposits, $71.17 on police, $3,000.00 on Beauport Asylum, 
 $3,558.91 on St. Jean de Dieu Asylum. Of course this large item must 
 now disappear in a considerable measure. There will remain the interest 
 for the current year on the railway monies for such period of time as 
 they lay in the banks and awaiting the demand of the Commissioners, 
 and interest upon unused balances in the banks as may be from time 
 to time arranged. During the interregnum between the expenditure 
 of these monies and the leasing of our roads, there must be a serious 
 loss to the Province, for on the one side, the money which these 
 roads cost is lying unremunerative, and the bonds, which are the 
 acknowledgement of our indebtedness for the money, are drawing 
 interest ; but the efforts which have been made by the Com- 
 missioners to get them as far completed as was possible, as is 
 proved by the great progress made since last session, shortens 
 that period as much as it was possible to shorten it. Now, 
 the western end of the road, viz., between Montreal and Hull, is 
 ready to be leased and the period of time fixed by the public notices 
 for parties to tender has nearly expired, and I hope before many 
 weeks the lease will be signed and the roads yielding the first instal- 
 ment of the large sum which is expected from them so soon as they 
 are finished. By adding up these several sums, you will find they 
 amount to $2,433,111.65 as the total gross revenue receipts for the 
 year, exclusive of monies paid us on account of purchases of bonds 
 by the Merchants' Bank. If to this sum of $2,433,111.65 you add 
 $4,185,333.33, being the gross sum received from the Merchants' 
 Bank as the price of the bonds purchased by them from us, you find 
 that the total gross revenue of the year and the cash thus received 
 amount to $6,618,444.98, being the total cash which came into the 
 Treasury during the year. Now add to this the amount which I told 
 you last year was in the banks on the 30th June, 1876, viz., $2,122,- 
 016.56, and you will find a grand total to be accounted for of 
 
 $3,740,461.54- 
 
 i 
 
 EXPENDITURE 1876-77. 
 
 Now, how has this large sum been dealt with, and what portion 
 remained unexpended on the 30th June last (1877)? In the first 
 place, upon the ordinary services the following sums were expended, 
 viz., upon : 
 
/7v%?^^^ 
 
 19 
 
 LegiBlation |167,969 21 
 
 Civil Government 166,273 91 
 
 AdininiBtration of Justice, Police, Reformatories and Prison 
 
 Inspection 620,358 77 
 
 Public Instruction, Literary and Scientific Institutions, Arts 
 
 ant' Manufactures n60,730 18 
 
 Agriculture, Immigration, Repatriement and Colonization 189,387 13 
 
 Public Works and Buildings, not chargeable to Capital 77,734 70 
 
 Charities, including Lunatic Asylums ($182,287.68), Reforma- 
 tory and Industrial Schools 240,748 16 
 
 Crown Lands, exclusive of Registration Service 75,1 79 03 
 
 Quebec Official Qazette 16,800 00 
 
 SUNDRIES. 
 
 Miscellaneous $22,816 63 
 
 Philadelphia Exhibition 2,200 00 
 
 Copy of Registers, St. Oervais 600 00 
 
 Municipalities Fund 144 00 
 
 Stamps, Licenses, &c 11,426 18 
 
 Tanneries Land Investigation 10 60 
 
 Marriage Licenses 6,630 00 
 
 Payments by Revenue officers out of their collec- 
 tions 27,234 1 3 
 
 , 71,061 34 
 
 Total ordinary expenditure $1,885,242 43 
 
 exclu8i\ c of payments to railways, and interest and 
 management of public debt. 
 
 CHARGEABLE TO CAPITAL. 
 
 Public Works and Buildings $127,829 07 
 
 Registration Service 93,899 79 
 
 221,728 86 
 
 $2,106,971 29 
 Interest and charges of management of Public 
 
 Debt 407,176 01 
 
 Total Payments, Railways excluded $2,514,147 30 
 
 Payments to Railways 3,481,670 24 
 
 Total expenditure. Railways included $5,995,817 54 
 
 Warrants outstanding 30th June, 1876 $ 39,059 39 
 
 $6,034,876 93 
 Deduct warrants for ordinary expenditure outstanding 30th 
 
 June, 1877 14,136 19 
 
 $6,020,740 74 
 Deduct also warrants outstanding on 30th June, 1877, on rail- 
 way expenditure 93,891 99 
 
 ■. /i- 
 
 $5,926,848 75 
 
20 
 
 Thus we have the following as the summary of the year's trans- 
 actions : — 
 
 Total receipts, including balanc^e on hand, 3Uth June, 1870 18,940,461 S4 
 
 Total paymentH 6,9'26,«48 75 
 
 Balance in TreaHury 12,813,612 7'J 
 
 which is deposited in banks, as detailed in Statement No. a of 
 Public Accounts ; or, summarizing the statement in another form, we 
 have the following : 
 
 Receipts, exclusive of proceeds of BondH, including 
 
 balance 30th June, I H7« $3,424,644 66 
 
 Expenditure, exclusive of piiymenta to mllwayH, . ,', ' 
 
 but including $221,728.81!, chiirgeiiMo to ',' ",'''„■',.,:.' 
 
 cnpitAl, and $407,176.01, intoroHt, Ac, on , 
 
 public debt ■ j'. 2,539,070 60 
 
 ' ' $ 885,574 li; 
 
 Proceedg of Bonds, including balance 30th June, 
 
 1876 $,'■.,.315,816 58 
 
 Payinent8toKailwayi»,le880Ut8tandingwarrautH.. 3,387,778 25 1,928,038 6;t 
 
 , , ... $2,813,612 7!) 
 
 The only other fund upon which it is necessary I should say a few 
 words, in order to complete the financial statement of the year with 
 which I am dealing, is the Judicial Deposits. From it we learn that 
 a total amount of $2,255,835.12 has been received, including interest 
 since the Judicial Deposit Act came into force, and that $2,050,- 
 379.72 has been paid out, including charges up to the time I am 
 speaking of, viz., the 30th of June last, 1877, leaving a balance of 
 $205,435.40, for the disposition of which I refer you to Statement > 
 No. 1 3 of the Public Accounts — or to recapitulate the figures respect- 
 ing that fund : 
 
 
 The total amount received, including interest since the 
 
 Act came into force to 30th June, 1877 $2)255,835 12 
 
 Total payments, including charges to same date 2,050,379 72 
 
 Balance in banks $205,455 40 
 
 So much for mere figures ; now let us examine results. And to 
 enable us to do so it is necessary to draw a distinction between ordi- 
 nary normal annual revenue and expenditure, and extraordinary, or, 
 rather, unusual revenue and expenditure ; inasmuch as, if we do not 
 dissociate our railway construction and subsidy account from all othersJ 
 its very magnitude dwarfs, whilst it destroys — or, rather, I should say, < 
 
21 
 
 covers up — tlic more important question of what is the true normal 
 annual revenue of the Province, and what is its true normal annual 
 expenditure, and how far has or does the one provide for the wants 
 or demands of the other. 
 
 Pursuing, then, this distinction, we find that we have received, as 
 ordinary normal annual revenue (and exclusive of railway bonds or 
 their proceeds), during the fiscal year 1876-77, $2,433,111.65, and 
 we have expended during the same period of time (exclusive of 
 moneys paid to railways, but inclusive of $407,176.01 of interest 
 upon our railway bonds) the sum of $2,514,147.30, making or leaving 
 an apparent deficit of $81,035.65 on the transactions of the year. 
 Now, if there be no means of reducing this amount fairly, we are face 
 to face with an expenditure exceeding revenue. Let us, therefore, see 
 if such is the case. 
 
 In the first place we have bought and paid $13,100 for agricultural 
 exhibition grounds at Montreal ; next we have loaned to the Depart- 
 ment of Public Works, or we have advanced to it out of the revenue 
 of the year, the sum of $43,521.90, in order to enable that Depart- 
 ment to proceed with the construction of the Jacques Cartier Normal 
 School building at Logan's Farm, which sum of money will be 
 returned to the treasury so soon as the property on Notre Dame 
 street, in Montreal, now occupied for Normal School purposes, has 
 been sold, an event which you all know has been deferred owing to 
 the depressed value of real estate in Montreal at the ]Kesent time 
 and for the past two years. Besides, we have paid out of the reve- 
 nues of the year $33,806.83, which were spent upon the new public 
 departments in this city. We have also spent, to complete the new 
 Female Gaol at Montreal, $31,458.44 ; but as we received, on account 
 of this outlay, from the city of Montreal, $25,000 as her contribution 
 towards that structure, there is only $6,458.44 of that sum which 
 .should be credited to the expenditure of the year, if you deduct the 
 $25,000 contributed by Montreal ; if you do not, then the whole 
 amount remains to be credited to capital account, and hence deducted 
 from ordinary normal expenditure. And besides these sums there is 
 the large sum of $93,899.79, paid out for the cadastral service, which 
 should not be included in ordinary normal expenditure, for, although 
 very useful, is not annual expenditure, and ought, as I explained last 
 year, to be charged to capital account. ,, ,,: 
 
 . I. 
 
22 
 
 Now, all these sums, viz. : $13,100 00 
 
 43.5" 90 
 33.806 83 
 
 3 '.458 44 
 93.899 79 
 
 Making a total of $315,786 96 
 
 Have been paid out of the revenue of the year, and if from the total 
 revenue of $3,433, i ' ' -^S you deduct the only unusual or extraordinary 
 item of revenue which fell in during the year under examination, viz., 
 the $35,000 received from Montreal for the gaol, you reduce it to 
 $3,408,111.65 ; and if from the total expenditure, on the other hand, 
 you deduct these payments and loans which I have just described, and 
 which do not belong to ordinary normal expenditure, you reduce the 
 total expenditure to $3,398,360.34, and deducting again this from the 
 reduced receipts (or $3,408,1 11.65), you find that, instead of a deficit, 
 $81,036, the year's transactions show a gain of $109,75 1.31, as between 
 normal annual revenue and normal annual expenditure, and that we 
 have this latter sum and $35,000 received from Montreal for a special 
 purpose (the Montreal Female Gaol), and $8 1 ,035.65 out of our surplus 
 funds in the acquisition of real estate, the erection of public buildings 
 and completing the cadastral service of the country, and as the out- 
 lay on the Normal School buildings is to be returned, and as the 
 outlay on the Departmental buildings will, so soon as these structures 
 are completed, save a large annual outlay for rent and insurances, not 
 to speak of the safety of the public archives, now and for years in 
 great peril, and the outlay on cadastres lead to a considerable return, 
 as I have explained in the earlier part of my address, I fail to see 
 anything alarming, but much that is reassuring, in these figures when 
 their true character is understood. I may add that we have spent some 
 $30,000 more which might also be chargeable to capital account, and 
 are represented by permanent assets, amongst which you will find 
 some $7,531.38 expended to put a new heating apparatus in the Que- 
 bec Gaol. 
 
 I know my honorable friends will oppose to this view of 
 the case the item of receipts represented by the interest on 
 deposits. I frankly admit that we cannot count upon this amount 
 for the current year in its entirety ; but I am dealing with the year 
 1876-77, and for that year we received and had that amount in our 
 treasury and ^ona fide received for the year ; and in this connection, 
 when comparing last year (1876-77) with the preceding one, and 
 when mentally deducting this large item of interest which has been 
 
18 
 
 received this year, let us not forget that we paid $153,715 more this 
 year for interest than last year, and that our interest account has now 
 reached its maximum, as the whole amount of the loan has been ex- 
 funded, and the only other loan is the Commissioners' Loan for the 
 Interest and Sinking Fund of which the amplest provision undoubt- 
 edly exists in the annual rental of the road. 
 
 So much for the ruin and decay of the Province up to July last, 
 and so much for its bankruptcy. Sir, I cannot refrain from saying 
 that if there be to my mind one thing more unpatriotic than another — 
 I had nearly said contemptible than another — it is the conduct of 
 those who remained silent when the country was undertaking great 
 public enterprises, or who even approved of them, and who, when 
 these enterprises are approaching completion and the financial strain 
 occasioned by them is most keenly felt, now rush eagerly forward and 
 shout that ruin, decay and bankruptcy are imminent, yet are too 
 indifferent to the interests of the country or too ignorant of its resources 
 to know either the folly or wickedness of their conduct on the one 
 hand or its danger to public interests on the other, and who endea< 
 vour by the stoutness and persistency of their assertions to nuke 
 good, statements which have no foundation in fact or reason, and find 
 their justification for such unpatriotic conduct if they can for the 
 moment confuse an opponent or snatch a momentary political 
 triumph. 
 
 RAILROAD SUBSIDIES. 
 
 To complete this long, and I know, tedious array of figures, 
 permit me in conclusion to give you the amounts expended upon the 
 different subsidized roads and upon the Q. M. O. & O. Railway, or 
 Government road. We have spent to the 30th of June last and 
 during, of course, the fiscal year, 1876-77 : 
 
 Upon the St. Francis, Megantic & International $25,906 50 
 
 Lake Champlain & St. Lawrence Junction, (late 
 
 Philipsburg, Famham and Yamaska) 54.650 00 
 
 South Eastern 75.904 99 
 
 Levis & Kennebec 75.738 00 
 
 Montreal, Portland & Boston, late Montreal, 
 
 Chambly & Sorel 15.412 46 
 
 Missisquoi & Black River 3.990 00 
 
 Waterloo & Magog 26,937 50 
 
 $278,539 45 
 
24 
 
 i> '■•""■' Brought forward $278,539 4S ' 
 
 And upon the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa & Occidental 
 
 Road — Eastern Section i,753>i30 79 
 
 Western Section 1,425,000 00 
 
 Commission 25,000 00 
 
 . .;,.:. ..,„.. : . ... $3,203,130 79 
 
 To which latter sum, if you add the amount above given as ex- 
 pended upon subsidized roads, makes the total railway expenditure of 
 the fiscal year under consideration (1876-77), $3,481,670.24, and if 
 to this you add the figures which I have heretofore given you as the 
 gross ordinary annual expenditure, viz., $2,514,147 30, you obtain a 
 sum of $5,995,817.54 as the gross total expenditure for the year; to 
 this you must add a sum of $39,059.39 for outstanding warrants on 
 the 30th June, 1876, and deduct two sums — the one of $14,136.19, 
 and the other of $93,891.99, being outstanding warrants on the 
 30th June, 1877 — and you obtain the balance sum ol $5,926,848.75 
 as the amount actually paid out by the treasury during the year 
 which closed with the 30th June last. The public accounts, in the 
 hands of members, will make, or doubtless they have made all of you 
 familiar with these results, and I need not recapitulate further than 
 to say that if you deduct from this sum of $5,926,848.75, the total 
 of payments, from $S, 740,461. 54, being the total annual receipts 
 and the proceeds of the second loan, and the balance at our credit in 
 the bank on the 30th June, 1876, you obtain the sum of $2,813,612.79, 
 being the sum which I once before mentioned to you in my summary 
 of receipts and expenditures, as the balance which remained at our 
 credit in the Banks at the end of the last fiscal year (30th June, 1877), 
 in the respective amounts detailed on page 8 of the public accounts. 
 
 It will, no doubt, be interesting to members, and imperative upon 
 me in consequence of the temporary loan which I negotiated with the 
 Bank of Montreal, to explain briefly what has become of this large 
 balance of $2,813,612.79, which, on the 30th of June last lay at our 
 credit in the Bank. It consisted of two sums, as hon. members may 
 verify on reference to the public accounts, viz., first balance of rail- 
 way funds, amounting to $1,928,038.63, and special and ordinary 
 deposits amounting to $885,574.16. And in doing this I think it will 
 be convenient to follow, somewhat, the returns before the house, and, 
 in doing so, this sum will find its place. r-'W' " ■ " '' > ■' 
 
 In the first place, we had this balance sum of $2,813,612.79 ; next 
 we received from ordinary revenue resources, up to the i8th Decern- 
 
25 
 
 ber last (ii'77)> $^03.5S°-94; and finally, I borrowed in December 
 $500,000 from the Bank of Montreal. These sums, amounting in 
 the aggregate to $4,117,163.73, must be accounted for. If you will 
 deduct from this gross sum of$4,i 17,163.73, the sum of $1,413,930.03 
 spent upon the general public service, and the sum of $2,159,225.56 
 expended on the railroads ; of which the subsidized roads have 
 received the following amounts : '' '':■ »''''^^ -' ' -i ; ' ;;:» ^idvj 
 
 The Levis and Kennebec $21,069 65 
 
 The Quebec Central 129,068 62 
 
 The International 43»S8i 25 
 
 The St. Jerome Branch of M. O. & O. Railway 3»i5o 00 
 
 The Montreal, Portland and Boston 58,098 03 
 
 The Laurentian 55.875 00 
 
 The Waterloo and Magog 32,275 00 
 
 Total ...$343,117 55 
 
 Whilst on the one side of the account you add $108,028. 18 for out- . 
 standing warrants on the 30th June last, and deduct on the other side 
 $257,309.33 for outstanding warrants on the i8th of December 
 last, you will find there was of this sum of $2,813,612.79, about 
 which you wished to inquire, ahd of the other sums since received, 
 the sum of $693,289.29 in cash remaining unexpended on the . 
 1 8th day of December lasl, from which the demands made by the 
 'Commissioners and the requirements of the general public service 
 have been met. I, perhaps, should apologize for entering so fully 
 into the last general statements, but as returns have been asked for, 
 and put upon the table of the House, and distributed to the public, 
 I make the statement, which I have just made, as much for the pur- 
 pose of explaining to the hon. members that no forecast of the pre- 
 sent year can be made of the receipts up the present time as for any 
 other purpose, and for the obvious reason that the only important 
 item of revenue which comes in regularly, and at a fixed date, is the > 
 item of subsidy ; all the others, if you except law stamps, come in — 
 some at one date, some at another. Thus, licenses, which last year 
 realized $228,138, only yielded us, up to 18th December, $42,839.12 ; 
 and this year, for the same period, $36,773.41. Crown Lands, 
 which last year yielded us $517,463.80; up to the i8th December, 
 yielded $190,372.98 ; and for this year, to the same period, $106,426.81. 
 It is proper to state, however, that we have since received over 
 $100,000, and we expect to receive from this source, by the 30th June 
 next, fully $575,000. - -,n ;:-^/i^:,, . ..u <,> rrvnj./'i^ 1 ;■•: .; ; ...-; 
 
2fr 
 
 And so on with many other items of Revenue, such as the return* 
 frtan Official Gazette^ Fees on Private Bills, &C; . ,,'.'.'._■. 
 
 On the other hand, in the expenditure for the same period, there i» 
 no just proportion between the amount spent and the period of the 
 fiscal year which we have reached, as compared with the total grant 
 for the different services for the whole year — as, for instance, $48,000' 
 were granted for colonization roads; and although less than six 
 months of the year had elapsed, when the return was made, all the 
 money was expended. So had large expenditures been made on 
 capital account, which do not belong to the ordinary expenditure of 
 the year — as, for instance, $30,676 on the Jacques Cartier Normal 
 School since the 30th June last ; $80,000 on the Sinking Fund of the 
 Public Debt, of which only $40,000 belongs, properly speaking, to 
 the first six months of the year ; $69,423 have been expended in the 
 same period on the New Departmental Buildings ; $32,932 on Cadas- 
 tres, and so on. So you will readily see, Mr. Speaker, that no more 
 deceptive guide could be taken, to judge of the probable expenditure 
 ■of the year, than to take the first half and to compare it with the 
 second, as anyone may prove for himself if he will take the returns 
 for the same period of any previous year, and compare it with the 
 balance of the year. In conclusion of this branch of the subject, I 
 desire, Mr. Speaker, to bring under your notice the following con- 
 clusions to which 1 arrive, and which I think the foregoing figures 
 fully justify : — In the first place scarcely any augmentation has taken 
 place in the expenditure of the Province, except such as was directly 
 occasioned by the large public enterprises which we are engaged in 
 subsidizing or constructing ; secondly, that our revenue expanded in 
 nearly every item of it which is in any manner elastic, except the 
 revenue from Crown Lands, which fell off, as I have before mentioned, 
 $86,915. This falling off was due solely to the general depresson 
 in the lumber trade, but which, unlike any ordinary loss of revenue, 
 does not represent a permanent loss, but rather an accumulating 
 capital ; for every pine or spruce tree felled in the forests, while it 
 yields its quota of duty, depreciates just so much the value of our 
 Crown domain, and as this falling off of revenue is represented by so 
 much more standing and growing timber, we cannot say we have lost 
 ♦his much from our available assets, as would be the case were there 
 a falling off in Excise, Customs, Licenses, Law Stamps, or any such 
 source of revenue, but rather that the payment of just so much money 
 has been deferred to the Treasury till the revival of the timber trade 
 increases the demand for this valuable staple. That we know and 
 have felt the maximum of the burden of the Public Debt, having had 
 
2t 
 
 to provide fully for the interest during the year ; that we have added 
 not less than $190,796.96 to our capital account or loaned it, to be 
 returned, as I have explained, or spend it in the cadastral services. 
 That we have made great progress in the work of constructing our 
 railways, and that we can, I think, look back with some complacency 
 upon the results of the year, since they do not show what the pessi- 
 mists and croakers predicted, but on the contrary that we have but 
 to provide for the amount which is represented by interest returns ; 
 and the same balance which has hitherto existed between revenue and 
 expenditure will be maintained. So much for the past, and now for 
 the forecast of the future, or in other words what is the estimated 
 revenue and expenditure for the fiscal year beginning ist July, 1878, 
 and ending 30th June, 1879. 
 
 THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT 1878-79. 
 
 I come now to the estimated revenue 1878-79, and I submit the 
 following as that estimate : — 
 
 Dominion : 
 
 Subsidy $959,262 80 
 
 Interest on Trust Funds 65,469 32 
 
 $1,014,712 12 
 
 Crown Lands Department 667,000 00 
 
 Law and Registration Stamps 2:^" )0 00 
 
 Assurance Stamps 34,000 00 
 
 Licenses, Tavern, &c 230,000 00 
 
 Quebec Official Gasette 34,600 00 
 
 Police 10,000 00 
 
 Administration of Justice Revenue 12,000 00 
 
 Registration Revenue 6,000 00 
 
 Law Fee Fund, exclusive of Stamps 10,000 00 
 
 Building and Jury Fund, Do 7,000 00 
 
 Montreal Court House 3,800 00 
 
 Fines — Justice and Licenses 6,600 00 
 
 Public Worlis— Revenue 1,500 00 
 
 Legislation — Sale of Statutes and Fees on 
 
 Private Bills , 2,660 00 
 
 Printing of the Laws and Casual Revenue 
 
 and Superior Education Special Funds. 1,876 00 
 
 Municipal Loan Fund (Capital, $2, 1 72,685) . . 108,600 00 
 Interest on proceeds of Common School 
 
 Lands in hands of Ontario '. . 20,000 00 
 
 Interest 40,000 00 
 
 New taxes 200,000 00 
 
 $2,531,637 12 
 
 The estimated current expenditure for 1878-79 is as follows : — 
 Leoislatiom : •'•' • ' '• 
 
 Legislative Council — Salaries, contingen- . . ' . , "t 
 
 cies, indemnity to members and mileage . $ 44,150 00 ' , 
 
 Legislative Assembly — For similar services 109,906 00 
 
!l 
 
 111 :u/.voii| r 
 
 28 
 
 Library of the LegiBlature 3,000 00 
 
 Expenses of elections 3,000 00 
 
 Clerk of the Crown in Chancery — Salary ; ' ,i, j'j ,;,'ji 1,,^ 
 
 and contingent expenses 800 00 , ,._ 
 
 Printing, binding and distributing the Laws 4,000 00 
 
 Law Clerk salaries and contingencieg 4,400 00 
 
 Total Legislation $169,266 00 
 
 Oivil Oovernmert salaries and contingencies 172,045 00 
 
 Administration of Justice 409,790 00 
 
 Police 38,655 00 
 
 Beformatories 46,000 00 * v . m > ; 
 
 Prison Inspection 3,900 00 
 
 Total for Justice, Ac 497,246 00 
 
 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 
 
 ii.-;- 1 ■- ; 
 
 Superior Education proper $ 71,000 00 
 
 High Schools, Quebec and ,•' • ' -. ■?.'■*"»'• 
 
 Montreal 2,470 00 
 
 Compensation to R. C. institu- 
 tions for High Schoolgrants . 4,940 00 
 
 Common Schools 
 
 Schools in poor municipalities . 
 
 Normal Schools 
 
 Salaries of School Inspectors . . . 
 
 Books for Prizes 
 
 Journals of Education 
 
 Superannuated Teachers 
 
 Schools for the Deaf and Dumb . 
 Deposit of Books, Maps, Sec 
 
 "otal Public Instruction Department. 
 
 Literary and Scientific Institutions. 
 Board of Arts and Manufactures. . . 
 
 Total Public Instructions, Literary and Sci- 
 entific Institutions, Arts & Manufactures 
 
 Agriculture 
 
 Immigration 
 
 Colonization 
 
 Total Agriculture, Immigration and Coloni- 
 zation 
 
 > PUBLIC WORKS AND BUILDINGS. 
 
 Ilents, Insurances, Repairs, &c., of public 
 buildings generally 
 
 Inspections and Surveys 
 
 Parliament Buildings, for new roofs 
 
 Bridge across the Ottawa (re-vote) 
 
 Bents of Court Houses and Gaols 
 
 Insurances, do do 
 
 Repairs, do do 
 
 fionaventure Court House and Gaol, to 
 heighten wall (re-vote) 
 
 Total Public Works and Buildings 
 
 $ 78,410 00 
 155,000 00 
 8,000 00 
 
 1 ' ■ ' 
 
 ^ '" . ' ' ' ' '^'' 
 
 46,000 00 
 30,000 00 
 
 
 4,000 00 
 2,400 00 
 8,000 00 
 12,000 00 
 6,000 00 
 
 1 ' ' ' 1 
 
 ; $348,810 00 
 
 , . .■ ( ,- ' ) . 
 
 8,680 00 
 10,000 00 
 
 •> 11.. 
 
 
 $367,490 00 
 
 74,152 00 
 15,000 00 
 55,000 00 
 
 : ■ '■ • ;(. -.-"uit 
 
 
 $144,152 00 
 
 $ 42,250 00 
 
 -u J't 
 
 4,000 00 
 
 r ; !' t r -^ i 
 
 1,500 00 
 
 
 1,000 00 
 
 
 527 00 
 
 
 3,500 00 
 
 'f,y ;':;•'-> :>'' ;. 
 
 12,800 00 
 
 •:>M-fA.;=,ij'i 
 
 
 .'J ■ »(M -■•rt.S 
 
 1,000 00 
 
 
 
 $ 66,677 00 
 
^9 
 
 .;■/ 
 
 CHARITIK8. 
 
 KXPENOITURB ON CAPITAL ACCOUNT. 
 
 
 Lunatic Asylum, Beauport, St. Jean de Dieu, 
 
 St. Ferdinand d'Halifax 
 
 Belmont Retreat Inebriate Asylum 700 00 
 
 Marine and Emigrant Hospital, Quebec .... 2,666 67 
 
 Lying-in Hospital, Quebec 2,013 33 
 
 Miscellaneous, as per statement 41,670 00 • . , , 
 
 Reformatory and Industrial Schools 16,140 00 
 
 Total Charities $267,190 00 
 
 MiscellaneouR, generally for unforseen and 
 
 unprovided for services ■ ^ i '. , 1 6,000 00 
 
 Municipalities' Fund, C. 8. L. C, Cap. 110.. , 3,000 00 
 
 Surveys through Crown Lands - 1 5,000 00 
 
 tieneral Expenditure do. , 58,880 00 
 
 Qnehec Official Oazetle ' ' 16,750 00 
 
 Stamps, Licenses, Ac ' • ' ' "■ 8,000 00 
 
 Total estimated current expenditure, public 
 
 debt excluded ' $1,801,485 00 
 
 ' .;'.'■'■■■' 
 
 PvBLio Debt : ' . .^,,.. , 
 
 Interest $403,933 34 ; '., 
 
 Management 4,866 67 
 
 Sinking Fund 80,786 67 / 
 
 $489,686 68 
 
 Total Current Expenditure, Public Debt 
 
 included $2,291,07168 
 
 Public Departments, Construction $141,200 00 
 
 McGill Normal School, new wing 1,600 00 
 
 Court Houses and Oaols, new districts 6,000 00 
 
 Registration Service (cadastre) 60,000 00 . 
 
 Total Expenditure on Capital Account $208,700 00 
 
 Total Estimated Expenditure $2,499,771 68 
 
 Of which there was previously voted $ 656,301 68 
 
 And to be voted 1,843,470 00 ; - i . 
 
 $2,499,771 68 
 
 In addition to these sums, the following supplementary eijtimates for 
 1877-78 will be required: , 
 
 Police 8,000 00 
 
 Reformatories 26,000 00 
 
 School of Navigation 500 00 
 
 Gaol for Females, Montreal (on capital ac- 
 count) 8,300 00 
 
 McUill Normal School repairs (on capital 
 
 account) 
 Demolition of Jesuits' Barracks 
 Philadelphia Exhibition 
 
 3,104 26 
 2,000 00 
 614 27 
 
 Total $47,418 53 
 
80 
 
 Which may be giimmarized as follows : 
 
 Current Expenditure $36,014 27 
 
 Capital Account 1 1,404 26 
 
 $47,4)8 63 
 
 To cover special warrants for expenditure already made, belong- 
 to the fiscal year ended 30th June, 1877, as per Public Accounts 
 Statement No. 11, page 105, $70,240.18. ' 
 
 THE RAILWAY COMMISSIONERS' LOAN. 
 
 This, prehaps, Mr. Speaker, is as good a time as any other to 
 explain fully the position of the Railway Commissioners' loan and the 
 recent arrangements made by me with the Bank of Montreal, the 
 details of which have been some days before the House. The House 
 of course recollects that in 1875 when the scheme of the honorable 
 member for Sherbrooke for the construction of the railways was laid 
 before the House, we all confidently calculated upon the municipal 
 subsidies. No one anticipated that any difficulties would arise in 
 their payment, and as the unexpended balances of them amounted to 
 $1,969,354.38, these balances formed a very important item in the 
 financial calculation. Since then, for one reason or another with which 
 the House is familiar, these bonds have not been handed over, and 
 hence it becomes a question, what is the policy of the Government 
 respecting them, and what are the intentions of the Government 
 respecting the Commissioners' bonds, and why they have not been 
 sooner negotiated. And for convenience sake I will answer the last 
 question first. It may not be generally known that notwithstanding 
 the advantageous sale of our bonds last year to the Merchants' Bank, 
 the Bank owing to difficulties thrown in its way in England, was not 
 able to place, as it is called, the loan, rapidly. The demand was very 
 slight, and as the summer advanced, it became, I suppose, manifest to 
 financiers with the progressive diminution of the balances at our bankers, 
 the necessity for negotiating this loan (the Commissioners' bonds) was 
 becoming greater, and some time in the month of September it was 
 officially notified to me that fully ^^500,000 of the loan was still in 
 the hands of the Bank, and that if I were to place, at such a junc- 
 ture, more bonds on the market, the effect upon the Bank and upon 
 such new loan would be extremely prejudicial. Since then, I am 
 happy to state, a large proportion has been placed. Under these 
 circumstances I cast about me and considered, as, indeed, I had 
 before considered, whether it was advisable to attempt to float the 
 loan upon the Canadian market j whether it was advisable to try it in 
 
31 
 
 the American market (New York and Boston) ; or whether it was best 
 to place it upon the EngHsh money market, and if so, whether the 
 then present, was a favorable time. I may tell you I took counsel in 
 these matters, not alone upon this side but upon the other side of the 
 Atlantic, and the counsel which I received, and the conclusions at 
 which I arrived, were, that it was advisable to make the loan in the 
 English market, and to defer making it until the previous loan was 
 placed, or, at any rate, to wait as long as possible. This necessitated 
 the negotiation of a temporary loan, and, as the House knows, I 
 made arrangements for an immediate , 
 
 ADVANCE OF THE SUM OF $500,000, 
 
 and also for a contingent advance of another $500,000 if I should 
 desire it. I need not dwell upon the details, as the House has all the 
 papers in its hands. Suffice it to say I made the arrangements, and 
 the rate charged was the most favorable rate obtainable at the 
 moment — for loans at call were worth from six and a half to seven 
 per cent, and money was comr. '■>g five per cent, in England. 
 Now, in this connection, two questit. naturally arise and require 
 explanation : Why did I select the Bank of Montreal, and why did I 
 fix and agree to a rate for the whole amount rather than for the 
 amount I then wanted, and why was it fixed at the apparently high 
 rate agreed upon? It may not be generally known, but the fact 
 exists nevertheless, that none of our bankmg institutions enjoy the 
 reputation which the Bank of Montreal does as a negotiator of 
 Canadian loans in the English market. It is not necessary to enquire 
 into the cause ; it is sufficient for our purpose to note the fact. The 
 bank, in consequence of its connection with our first loan and other 
 loans, has a clientele, to use a legal phrase, but one I know intelligible 
 to all the members in the House — has a clientele, I say, of investors in 
 England, and the proof of that fact is to be found in the bona fide 
 manner in which the first loan was placed and in the success which 
 has attended the placing of the second. This circumstance naturally 
 inclined me to prefer the Bank of Montreal. Moreover, I doubted 
 whether in the actual circumstances of trade and traders, it 
 would be convenient for any other bank to make such an 
 advance and for such an amount ; and I felt that, under all 
 the circumstances, it were better to arrange with that insti- 
 tution if I could. In the latter part of September, then, I ap- 
 proached that institution on the subject of purchasing the bonds or 
 advancing me what I should require until the bonds were placed, and 
 I fixed the amount at from $500,000 to $1,000,000. The bank , 
 
32 
 
 once offered me the amount, and at the then current rate, viz., 6 per 
 cent. As I saw no great reason to anticipate any great advance in 
 the rate of money in England (then, if I mistake not, about three per 
 cent.), nor none here except such as normally occurs when the har- 
 vest has to be carried to market, and as I then had no use for the 
 money, I decided that I would only conclude the arrangement to this 
 extent ; that it should be understood that under all circumstances I 
 could have $500,000 on demand, and at the current rate, whatever it 
 might be ; and another $500,000 on the terms mentioned in the agree- 
 ment. I thought this better than to borrow money before I wanted it, 
 and have it lying in the bank at a less rate of interest than I was pay- 
 ing out. In November the rate went up to 5 per cent, in England, 
 and here from 6)4 to 7 on call loans, and proportionately higher on 
 loans for three or six months. The consequence of this was, 
 that when I came to want the money the rate for the best 
 paper for three to six months was from 7 to 8 per cent. I agreed 
 to pay the former rate, and I did this the more readily in view of the 
 disturbed stale of Europe, the evident near approach of international 
 difficulties in the East, and the possibility of England, and perhaps 
 other European nations, being dragged into the conflict then as now 
 being fought out on the Danube and in the Balkans. Everyone 
 here knows how mu^h such considerations have to do with large 
 monetary transactions, and if the province of Quebec, should peace 
 be restored, has no more to mourn over than that for three or six 
 months she paid a fractional rate of interest upon a temporary loan 
 greater than, if the war had gone on, she probably would have paid, 
 she will have little to regret. I know this transaction has been gener- 
 ally criticized ; by some favorably, by others adversely. I know that 
 many think with me, that in getting the money only at the minute I 
 wanted it, at the then current rate for the best loans, I did as well as 
 any one ought to expect or demand, but I know this opinion is not 
 universal. I know that a distinguished and honorable gentleman has 
 stated elsewhere that I paid too much, that he could have borrowed a 
 million of dollars at 65^ per cent, had he been in my position. Well, 
 Sir, had that hon. gendeman contented himself with merely criticizing 
 my public conduct, and its success, I should have felt that it was 
 his province and his duty, and I should have experienced no feelings of 
 resentment ; but, when he follows up that criticism with a statement of 
 what he could have done were he treasurer, I can only say with all 
 becoming humility in his august presence that I know, as the country 
 knows, the special borrowing aptitude of that honorable gentleman, and 
 his distinguished career as a financier ; and I am of opinion that the 
 
88 
 
 country will find, in these two facts, and in the history of the unfortunate 
 Metropolitan Bank, the best answer to that gentleman's strictures and 
 assertions. Another honorable gentleman, here in this House, speak- 
 ing with the high authority which attaches to an honorable career and 
 a prominent position in a banking institution — I mean the member 
 for St. Hyacinthe — stated I paid too much, and that I might have 
 borrowed at a less rate. I can only oppose to the judgment and 
 diction of my honorable friend, my own experience, and the judgment 
 of such men as the member for Montreal West, and I apprehend, from 
 their silence on the subject, of most others familiar with money mat- 
 ters outside as well as inside of this House. I know I should exempt 
 from this category the honorable member for Levis, whose novel, 
 not to say thin and vapory notions of finance and the means of 
 tiding over any strain upon our banking resources, is, to my mind> 
 unique in its simplicity and breadth of application. Sir, talk of a 
 paper currency ; my honorable friend would only want a paper mill 
 and an engraver, a facile banker and a credulous public, and the 
 El Dorado of the past would become a reality of the present, and this 
 new apostle of finance, add, by this crowning triumph of genius, 
 another, and perhaps the greatest, to the other great achievements of 
 the century in which it is our advantage, as it is our pride and boast,, 
 to live. . ,, • \. " ' 
 
 THE FINANCIAL RESULT. . ,, , , ;, 
 
 From the foregoing statements of actual receipts and expenditures 
 for 1876-77, and estimated receipts and expenditures for the year 
 1878-79, it must be apparent to all that there are certain items of 
 revenue which contributed to swell the receipts of 1876-77 which will 
 not be so 'productive in the year 1877-78, and which will fail in great 
 measuie, if not altogether, in the year 1 87 8-79. Amongst these is 
 notably the item received from interest accrued on bonds sold the 
 Merchants' Bank up to date of delivery, and interest on the proceeds 
 of the sale of bondi^ lying in the banks. Last year we received from, 
 this source $199,102.64, and, also, and ii augmentation of this, the 
 difference between what it is anticipated the Crown Lands will yield 
 this year over and above the estimate for 1878-79, or $18,000, making 
 a total of over $217,000. As against this sum we have some certain, 
 anticipated savings in connection with the administration of justice, 
 the cost of reformatories, and the management and support of the 
 insane. But after deducting these amounts I find there must remain 
 a ba'ance unprovided for, of expenditure over revenue, of about 
 $175,000 for the year 1878-79. It will be seen that I do not take 
 3 
 
;}4 
 
 into account any revenue from the railways, over and above what will 
 he the annual charge for interest and sinking fund on the Commis- 
 sioners' loan, which will amount to $t 80,000 per annum. If my 
 estimate covered a greater period of time than one year, and if the 
 railways were all completed, I make no doubt that the revenue 
 would exceed what will be required to pay interest and sinking 
 fund on the Commissioners' bonds. But it must not be for- 
 gotten that any surplus must go to j)ay interest upon the 
 amount of the municipal subscriptions of Montreal, Quebec, Three 
 Rivers, and the other municipal corporations that have contri- 
 buted, and that this will require over $125,000 per annum ; and that 
 it is only any balance which will remain after the interest on these 
 bonds has been provided for which can be taken in reduction of the 
 burthen which the annual revenues of the Province have to bear. 
 But when the road is fully completed, and connected at Ottawa with 
 the Central and Western Ontario Railways, and with the Great West 
 through and by the Georgian Bay branch of the Canada Pacific Rail- 
 way ; at Montreal with the Eastern and South-Iiastern Railways, and 
 at Quebec with tide water and the steamers and shipping from Europe 
 and elsewhere, I have no doubt that the net returns must very largely 
 exceed what will be required to meet these sums, which together only 
 reach some $300,000. It is comforting and reassuring to know 
 that every dollar by which such net proceeds exceed the 
 amount is a dollar in relief to the revenue of the Province, 
 and a burthen to that extent from which the taxpayer of 
 Quebec is relieved. I desire to explain here, as I have in 
 another connection pointed out, that I do not propose to ask any 
 supplementary vote for any deficit which may occur during the pre- 
 sent year ; for, if the revenue from Crown Lands comes up to the 
 calculations of the Hon. Commissioner, made in December, 1876, 
 from sources then known to him, and if the amount over and above 
 that sum, which I expect will be realized out of the sale of phosphate 
 lands, be taken into account and added to it, and the addition to the 
 revenue which our new tax will give for the three months or there- 
 abouts of this year in which it will be in operation, I hope the deficit, 
 if any, will not be at all serious ; and I am the more encouraged in 
 this view from the expansion in revenue, from licenses, stamps, &c., 
 during the year 1876-77 over the previous year. 
 
 ' ' THE PRINCIPLE OF TAXATION. '* 
 
 J. _ 
 
 Having learned the amount of the anticipated deficit for the ap- 
 proaching year, and having considered together the causes which 
 
85 
 
 have or will lead to it, tlie next and most obvious duty is to devise 
 the most wise and ready means of providing for it ; for we must not 
 allow the impression to go abroad that this Province is either unwil- 
 ling or unable to meet its engagements, or afraid to look its position 
 fearlessly in the face. It is obvious the deficiency can only be met 
 in one of three ways : either by the cutting down of expenses, or by 
 the imposition of new sources of revenue, or by both combined. We 
 have adopted the latter means. We have reduced the growing ex- 
 j)enses of such services as we could control, and we propose a new 
 .source of taxation. Now, I know that in speaking of taxation I am 
 approaching delicate ground. I know nothing is so destructive of 
 the reputation of a financier, or so dangerous for a (iovemment, as 
 to talk of imposing new burdens upon the people. I know that one 
 of our greatest British statesmen, one who, having first filled a high 
 position of honor among colonial statesmen, became and is now a 
 great living light in the ranks of the Liberal party in England, one, 
 too, who has filled with credit and acknowledged ability the high 
 position of Chancellor of the Exchequer — I mean the Rt. Hon. Robt. 
 Lowe — has defined taxation to be " the distribution of just so much 
 misery, a misery which it is the duty of the financier to make as toler- 
 able as possible ;" and another equally eminent writer in France, M. 
 Turgot, has said it is the ^science of plucking the goose without making 
 it cry. 1 know, too, that in the history of the past, in the older coun- 
 tries of Europe, the means taken to drag from the purses of the people 
 the money demanded by the necessities or exigencies of the monarch 
 or the nation, that the rulers acted rather as beasts of prey than as 
 guardians of a people's prosperity and a nation's progress ; I know, 
 moreover, that too often the only measure to their demands was the 
 necessities of the monarch, not the ability of the people to meet them ; 
 1 know that with those gentlemen, persons, not purses, were the basis 
 of taxation. I know, too, that no thought of the property protected 
 nor the advantages enjoyed by, or conferred upon, individuals entered 
 into the calculation of how much they should pay. 1 know, further, 
 that the chief merit of a tax was often that it was most hidden from the 
 eyes of those who paid it, and that indirection was its greatest merit. 
 But all that has happily passed. Now, by the system under which it is 
 our happiness to live, the difference between direct and indirect ta.xation 
 is fully understood and fairly considered ; both forms of taxes have their 
 advantages, and both now serve and may hereafter serve their pur- 
 pose in the economy of this or any other province or state. Still, 
 under the Constitution which now governs us, our powers of taxation 
 apart from specific sources defined and described in the Constitutional 
 
30 
 
 Act, may be said to be restricted to direct taxation, and even that 
 term is of doubtful significance and of broader or narrower meaning, 
 according to the construction which indivi(hials put upon the Qsnd 
 clause of the British North America Act of 1867. There is, however, 
 one suggested form in which the powers of this Legislature may be 
 exercised to impose direct taxation, to which pubHc attention ha» 
 been directed by alarmists, and political hack-writers and stump 
 orators, and pot-house politicians, and respecting which I think it 
 right once, and I hope for the last time, to call your attention, and that 
 is a direct tax jpon the farms and homes of the people of this Province, 
 in order to provide for the safety of the person, or the protection 
 of the property of the people. I desire to say here, Sir, that 
 in my opinion the time has not yet come, nor do I believe 
 it will ever come, when the tax collector will have to come 
 directly to the people, to demand from them their quota, by 
 a direct tax upon the soil, towards the support of the expenses 
 of the State. Enough, and, in my opinion, too much latitude has 
 been given under our present municipal system, or at least I would 
 say that such burthens under our system are imposed upon proprie- 
 tors by a mere numerical majority, which those proprietors ought not 
 to bear, since they often do not share in the advantages derived from 
 the expenditure in proportion to the buiu.eiTS which are imposed upon 
 them. However, be that as it may, I entirely deny that direct tax- 
 ation, in the sense sometimes suggested, is now or likely to become 
 necessary. There are yet, according to my view of the powers 
 of this Legislature, ample means to increase its revenues if it 
 should be thought advisable or necessary to do so. It seems to 
 me. Sir, that openness and justice are essential to the government of 
 a people, by the people, for the people, and that the burthens of the 
 State should be borne in proportion to the advantages and protection 
 which a person receives in his person and property, and proportion- 
 ately to his ability to pay, and that they should be so imposed as not 
 to cripple any legitimate industry or trade, or in such a manner as to 
 be difficult or expensive of collection, or to an extent to seriously 
 burthen those who are called upon to pay them ; that so far as a 
 Legislature may properly interfere in such matters, they should be so 
 imposed as to prevent the unequal acquisition, or what is the same 
 thing in effect, the unequal distribution of wealth ; I don't mean so as 
 to keep the thriftless, idle and improvident on equal terms with the 
 thrifty, industrious and provident; but rather that the burthens of the 
 State should be proportioned to the capacity and means of paying of 
 
87 
 
 the individual, not, as has been done too often in Pairopo and the 
 East, so as to make the poor, poorer and the rich, richer. 
 
 HOW THK rtEFICIT IS TO BK MET. 
 
 But, Mr. Speaker, I am perhaps wearying you and the members of 
 this House with these general reflections, when I should rather be 
 describing the character and range of the taxes, which I propose to 
 impose, in order to meet the anticipated deficiency of $175,000 or 
 thereabouts. I propose to put a duty of ten cents upon each hundred 
 dollars of the nominal value or amount of all contract notes or agree- 
 ments for the sale and purchase of stocks, and upon every conveyance 
 or transfer of stock, of any company or corjjoration, whether such 
 transfer be made upon the books of such company or otherwise ; but 
 in case such duty has been paid on the contract note or agreement, 
 and it be produced and fyled and deposited with the corporation or 
 company whose stock is so transferred thereunder, no duty shall be 
 payable upon the transfer in the books. And, secondly, I propose to 
 put a duty of twenty-five cents upon each hundred dollars of the 
 nominal value or amount of all contracts or agreements entered into 
 for any purpose whatsoever, except those above-mentioned, where the 
 thing to be done or promised is of any appreciable value, including 
 in such transactions (which will be specially detailed in the resolutions 
 which I propose to bring down,) all deeds of sale, transfers of any kind, 
 obligations, litc. I will exempt certain contracts, such as bank notes, 
 bills of exchange, promissory notes, bills of lading, warehouse receipts, 
 bonds given in relation to Customs and Excise, charter parties, receipts 
 and releases, certified copies and extracts from the registrars of civil 
 status, policies of assurance and insurance receipts, wills, donations 
 between parent and child or of child to parent, and also all other 
 civil contracts (excepting those having reference to transfers of stock,) 
 where the value of the matter or thing contracted about is less than 
 two hundred dollars. The schedules to be annexed to the proposed 
 act will show clearly the contracts to be affected by, and those to be 
 exempted from the operations of the proposed measure. I know, Mr. 
 Speaker, that the classes of p'^ople likely to be affected by these taxes 
 are principally those having con.iiderable means, or at least having the 
 control of considerable means. I dare say there will be considerable 
 objection made to this tax, as, indeed, there would be to any tax in this 
 Province, which it was expected would yield $200,000 I know a large 
 number of persons must be affected by it, that until people are some- 
 what accustomed to it, it will seem irksome and exceedingly disagree- 
 .able. And I know that the first thought of many will be 
 
38 
 
 to deny its constitutionality. But I have taken the precaution 
 to study very attentively and carefully the Constitutional Act, 
 and I have moreover consulted some of the best constitutional 
 lawyers of the Dominion, and I am satisfied the tax is entirely within 
 our powers to impose. I have satisfied myself that it will be paid by 
 those who are most able to contribute towards the burthens of the 
 State, and in the manner most easy for them to bear ; that it will not 
 be expensive or difficult of collection, because I projjose to declare 
 by the Act that contracts upon which the duty has not been paid 
 shall not be effectual or legal, and I fail to see that any objections 
 can be raised u[)on the score that it will cripple any honest enterprise 
 or industry. I know speculators in stocks will probably wince and 
 think themselves harshly dealt with ; but I think that there is nothing 
 unfair in asking those who, speculating upon the future, and discount- 
 ing, as it were, current and probable events, deal in so doing in a com- 
 modity the transactions in which, as between them, adds nothing to our 
 general wealth or progress, to contribute something out of the thousands 
 they deal in to the expenses of the State. I therefore submit this tax 
 to you as my solution of the financial problem of providing for the defi- 
 ciency. I recommend it to you for acceptance, and, whilst I would 
 be as glad as any one, if next year, or the year after, a happy restora- 
 ration of prosperity in our staple trade, or a great augmentation in 
 the revenues from railways would allow us to reduce or remove it ; 
 until then I ask you to accept it, and I think I can successfully de- 
 fend it either upon the floor of this House or before the country. 
 
 THE CONTRAST WITH ONTARIO. 
 
 There is another feature of this subject — the financial standing of 
 this Province — which I think it right to say a word upon. I mean 
 the desire which the advocates of the ruin and decay and bankruptcy 
 cry, manifest to drag us into contrast with Ontario. Now, I do not 
 think it is good policy for us to bring this subject too often or too 
 prominently under notice, lest the people in our sister Province come 
 to think we envy them their prosperity. I do not think the effect is 
 good here or elsewhere. I am not disposed to play the Uriah Heep, 
 and be " Umble and meek" on all occasions, even when I do not 
 feel so, and I do not think the effect is beneficial, as I have said, 
 upon a people to be always practising self-depreciation ; but since so 
 much has been said by the enemies of the political party charged 
 since Confederation with the management of the affairs of this Pro- 
 vince, let us once for all offer a few explanations of the relative 
 standing of the two Provinces — explanations which seem to be 
 
99 
 
 required after so inucli has been said, not by Ontario, but by the 
 croakers and pessimists of our own Province. These people are 
 always pointing to the fact that Ontario claims by her last financial 
 statement to have assets over her liabilities amounting to 
 $4,873,203.25. Sir, 1 rejoice in the fact; it speaks well for her; 
 but when that fact is mentioned, as I have said, by our own people, 
 to the disparagement of the Government, and as showing our mal- 
 administration and the greater sagacity and success of Ontario, I 
 cannot refrain from pointing out that in her assets she includes two 
 'I'rust Funds, viz., the Upper Canada Grammar .School Fund, 
 amounting to $312,769.04, and tlie Upper Canada Building Fund, 
 amounting to $1,472,391.41, as exclusively her own, which the advo- 
 cates of this Province claim as belonging in part to it. If the judg- 
 ment of the arbitrators be maintained, no doubt these sums belong 
 to her ; if it be annulled, 1 hope the opinion of our counsel will 
 be sustained and that four-ninths, if not one-half of these amounts will 
 be found to belong to Quebec. These two sums amounted on the 
 first of July, 1867, to $1,785,160.45. Now, I have said Ontario 
 claims these two funds as exclusively her own and has by legislation, 
 viz., by Act 33 Victoria, cap. 9, sec. 5, of her statutes, incorporated 
 them with and into her Consolidated Revenue Fund, and hence they 
 are put by the Hon. Mr. Crooks in his statement as a part of her 
 assets, but, as I have pointed out, if the award be set aside and we get 
 our share of these funds, say one-half, our assets will be swelled pro 
 tanto or to the amount of $^92, 580.22)/., and the interest thereon at five 
 per cent, since Confederation, which amounts to $357,032 in the ten 
 years which has elapsed since then, and adding these two sums 
 together you have a total sum of $1,249,612, which Ontario or the 
 Dominion will have to pay us, if, as I have said, we get our share of 
 these amounts, if we consider that share as one-half; if four-ninths it 
 would be so much less, and of course the assets of Ontario will be 
 diminished to the same extent as ours are increased. But let us not at 
 the present moment speculate upon the subject, let it sufficelo men- 
 tion it ; and the additional fact that the contingency that Ontario would 
 have to pay it, has not escaped the astute observation of one of her 
 leading representatives, for as long ago as November, 1874, in a 
 debate in the House there, it was stated in substance that these sums 
 ought not to be included in their surplus, inasmuch as Ontario would 
 have to account to Queb,c for her share of them and interest. 
 
 ■n *r., 
 
 t 
 
40 
 
 ■, ., . ,■., ,-..', QUEB'X ASSETS. 
 
 But, if Ontario has a large surplus, is Quebec without assets ? Hat 
 she nothing to compare with Ontario? Is it only the dismal side of 
 the balance sheet which her people may and ought to look at and 
 consider ? Has she no other assets than her share of the Common 
 School Fund in the hands of the Dominion Government ; and, if she 
 has, of what do they consist and what are their values? And in 
 order that you may understand of what these consist, I will state 
 them in two ways : first, according to the division made by Messrs. 
 Macpherson & Gray in their pretended, or rather disputed 
 award ; and, secondly, as they would stand if that judgment were 
 set aside. And in doing this I shall include only those which our 
 counsel considered as genuine assets, and I will append to them their 
 amounts, whicii those gentlemen gave as " real amounts," and taken 
 from public documents : 
 
 Kamouraska Court House $ 201 27 
 
 Municipal Loan Fund, L.C 2,507,041 10 
 
 Quebec Fire Loan 180,315 64 
 
 L. C. Superior Education Income Fund 377,251 53 
 
 L. C. Supeianuuated Teachers' Fund 2,700 88 
 
 L. C. Normal School Building Fund 61,761 84 
 
 Widows' pensions and uncommuted stipends 4,126 31 
 
 Balance of special appropriations 99,482 20 
 
 Surveys 7,66153 
 
 Common School Fund (collected up to 1867) 714,906 35 
 
 Library of Parliament 94,459 0» 
 
 : ,) ', Making a grand total of $4,049,897 65 
 
 as the amount belonging to us under the Arbitrators' award. But on 
 the other hand suppose that award should be set aside and justice be 
 ultimately done this Province, they would consist of all in the B. N. A. 
 Act enumerated as the credits, liabilities, properties and assets of Upper 
 Canada and of Lower Canada, which the arbitrators had to divide, and 
 if you take as your guide the total " real value" of all the assets which, 
 by the B. N. A. Act of 1867 would have to be divided, you find that 
 they amount to $18,291,345.99, of which, if one-half were allotted to us, 
 we would get $9,145,672.99 or if only 4-9ths we would get $8,129,- 
 487.10, to which, if you will add, the amount collected and still held, 
 by the Government of Ontario, on account of the Common School 
 Fund, since Confederation, you will have a sum exceeding by between 
 three or four hundred thousand dollars our total present bonded debt. 
 Now, sir, I do not want to be misunderstood. I do not mean to say 
 that, if we had these assets, we would be able to sell all of them, or 
 collect all of them, or otherwise dispose of all of them, so as to realize 
 
41 
 
 in cash either the one sum or the other, but they are so much property, 
 and whether we have ultimately to be content with the sum now allot- 
 ted to us by the arbitrators of $4,049,897.56 or obtain the larger sum 
 of $9,145,672.99, or the intermediate sum of $8,129,487.10, they 
 are assets of this value and a guarantee of our solvency and sound 
 financial standing; and besides these assets there is, moreover, in 
 outstanding instalments due to the common school fund, and in the 
 hands of the Ontario Government, a sum which I find put at $1,704,- 
 738 by our arbitration counsel, of which we claim one-half and 
 the arbitrators allow us 4-9ths ; and further, our share of 8,959 acres 
 of land, belonging to that fund, and unsold at the time of Confedera- 
 tion. I see by the official declaration at Toronto that they have 
 collected $380,604.28 since Confederation of these arrears of the 
 common school fund, and over and above all these sums we have 
 our share of the value of the library and other personal property of the 
 late Province of Canada, estimated by the arbitrators at $200,000, 
 and our share of special appropriations unexpended on the 30th June, 
 1867, amounting to $317,955 ; and, finally, we have our new line of 
 railway, upon which we have already expended over seven millions 
 of dollars. Thus, Mr. Speaker, may we too count our assets by mil- 
 lions if so disposed ; but as I said last year, let us for the present 
 forbear and await the issue of the appeal to the Privy Council, for we 
 cannot know our true financial position and standing with precision, 
 till a final settlement takes place with Ontario and the Dominion, and 
 I trust that this may be accomplished during the current year. Then 
 will we know which of all these assets belong to us, which to Ontario, 
 we can then judge of their cash value, and as merchants would say, 
 " take stock " of the situation. Until then we may take such comfort 
 to our souls as these figures give, and whilst we steadily and undis- 
 turbedly go on and complete the great enterprises to which the good 
 faith of the province is pledged, take heart of faith, and believe that 
 we are not, as our enemies would wish it to be thought, bankrupt or 
 even embarrased, but that we are able to meet all our foreign engage- 
 ments and all our domestic ones, and that whilst we are fully alive to 
 the great burthen which in 1874 and 1875 we undertook, we know 
 we have not since assumed any new ones, and that we will not do so 
 till these old ones ones are completed, and our differences with 
 Ontario adjusted, and that then, and not mtil then, will we consider 
 and say how far or what way can we next set about the greater 
 development of this fair heritage of ours, and by what means add to 
 the prosperity and happiness of her people. . . 
 
42 
 
 ' TAXATION IN ONTARIO AND QUEBEC. ' 
 
 But, sir, there is another explanation not without its value, which, 
 in a measure, accounts for the ease with which Ontario piled up this 
 much admired surplus, — let us examine into it a little and see whether 
 we cannot, whilst doing no injustice to Ontario, extract a grain of 
 comfort from it for our people, — and that is that this asset has in a 
 very great measure accumulated in consequence of her system of 
 meeting the cost of the administration of justice. And first let me 
 premise with this significant fact, that Ontario has received from the 
 Dominion, in the ten years which have elapsed since Confederation, 
 $2,386,200 more money than Quebec; and again the still more 
 important fact that Ontario does not contribute much over thirty and 
 a third per cent., so far as I can judge, towards the cost of the 
 administration of justice out of her Provincial Exchequer, whilst 
 Quebec bears more than ninety-five per cent., and in this item alone 
 is to be found an aggregate saving of probably not less than two and 
 one-half million dollars since Confederation. Look at the figures, 
 and in arranging them I am forced to take the year 1872, not being 
 able to lay my hand on a complete set of official returns since that 
 date. In that year the total cost of the administration of justice 
 was $448,707.16, of which the Provincial Government contributed 
 $191,647.66, and the municipalities $257,059, and of that amount 
 she (Ontario) received back from litigants by way of stamps on 
 law fproceedings $87,165.88, or within a trifle of fifty per cent, of 
 her contributions ; whereas in Quebec, the same year, the service 
 cost $292,968, independent of police and reformatories, (the whole 
 cost of which, I may say, fell upon the Province, except some $20,000 
 from the city of Quebec for police service,) of which first named sum 
 of $292,968 the Province contributed the whole except about $25,000,. 
 and of this latter sum only $13,877 was contributed by the municipa- 
 lities — or, to lay aside the confusion of figures and speak of results : 
 In Ontario, I think it may be said safely, the State contributes about 
 40 per cent, and gets back 20 towards the administration of justice^ 
 whilst the municipalities contribute the balance, or 60 per cent, whilst 
 in Quebec the State contributes about 95 per cent and gets back 
 about 30 per cent from litigants by way of stamps, and the municipa- 
 lities about 5 per cent, and that, comparing the total amount expended 
 there of $448,707 with the total amount expended here of $292,968, 
 and the relative populations of the two Provinces at that date or now, 
 you will find that justice is, to say the least, as cheaply administered 
 here as there, and in fact costs less per capita. Now, will any one 
 
4» 
 
 explain to me in what way Ontario is richer tlian Quebec, because she 
 has this sum, which probably amounts to two and a half millions of 
 dollars in the last ten years, and which she has been enabled to save 
 through the contributions of the municipalities towards the adminis- 
 tration of justice ? I say, will any one explain to me in what way 
 Ontario is to that extent richer than Quebec, because she has this 
 sum lying at her credit in the Bank, and drawing probably five per 
 cent, interest upon it, whilst the people of Quebec having had these 
 sums of money, which in Ontario, as I have explained, are paid by 
 the people through her municipal system, paid out of the Provincial 
 Exchequer, and hence to the relief, to that amount, of the ratepayer. 
 Rather does it not follow that that amount is left in the pocket of the 
 ratepayer of Quebec which in Ontario has been collected from him, 
 and, moreover, as it is notorious that the cost of collection of even 
 the most easily collected tax seldom costs less than from seven to ten 
 per cent, when the taxpayers are many and the amounts small, it 
 follows that a sum of from $175,000 to $250,000 has been expended 
 upon tax gatherers in Ontario, and taken out of the pockets of tax 
 payers, while here it is quietly resting in the pockets of our people, 
 or lying in the Banks to their credit at a not less rate of interest than 
 the Ontario people draw. Sir, people talk of direct taxation as 
 imminent in Lower Canada, and that Ontario is in no danger. 
 Will any one tell me what is more direct than the tax I have 
 described which Ontario now pays, and from which Quebec is 
 exempt, for the administration of justice. 
 
 Again, look at the Court Houses and gaols, and their maintenance 
 in Ontario and Quebec. Who builds them in Ontario ? I am in- 
 formed, except to the extent of a small proportion, the local tax-payer. 
 Who maintains them ? The local tax-payer. By what system ? By 
 a direct tax upon his home. On the other hand, by whom are they 
 built and maintained here ? By the Provincial Exchequer. By what 
 means ? Principally by the litigant himself, or from the general funds 
 of the Province. Sir, if the people of this Province will voluntarily 
 accept the same burthens which the people of Ontario accept and 
 bear, to the relief of the Local Government ; if they, through the 
 system in vogue there, will build and maintain their own Court Houses 
 and gaols, and the inmates requiring no more from the Provincial 
 Exchequer than what is paid in Ontario, and will persevere in that 
 system for ten years, we too would have our two or three millions at 
 our credit in the bank, although the tax-payer would be pro tanto 
 that much poorer, and this, sir, too, notwithstanding that we have to 
 maintain the double language with its attendant expenditure, and the 
 
44 
 
 two Houses. Nor is it true, sir, that in all respects is our expenditure 
 greater than in Ontario. I have shown you, in some items where 
 there was a seeming over-expenditure in Quebec, it was really found 
 to be only a shifting of burthens ; that what was paid here was not 
 more than what was paid there, only that in the one case it appeared 
 in the published public accounts of the Province, in the other it 
 would be found in the details of municipal expenditure of the different 
 counties of Ontario. 
 
 • :•: I •• < • - . .,1 v.; - . ^ . 
 
 HON. A. Mackenzie's opinion. 
 
 But I fear, oir, these statements will not have full weight on the 
 other side ct the House, and I am anxious to carry conviction to the 
 minds of those honorable gentlemen whose good opinions I so much 
 covet, and whose endorsation of these facts would go so far to dispel 
 the cloud of gloom and discontent which in some quarters prevail as 
 to the different financial balances which Ontario and Quebec at the 
 moment exhibit ; and therefore I know that those honorable gentle- 
 men will receive with a glow of pleasure, which I assure them is 
 equalled by my own feelings of satisfaction, the explanations I offer 
 them, contained in the words of the Hon. Premier of Canada when 
 Treasurer of Ontario, and when he, as I am now, was presenting his 
 financial statement to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and when he 
 was accounting for the prevalent notions that Ontario had waxed rich 
 and counted her surplus by millions. He said : " We are told that 
 while before the Union we were complaining of constant deficits, since 
 that time this Province has waxed rich by the Union with it of the 
 other Provinces, and is now able to count its surplus by millions, 
 while the truth is, that if we had devoted the revenues accruing to 
 the Government of Ontario from general sources, to the same purposes 
 that the general revenues had been devoted to in the other Provinces, 
 we would not only have no surplus, but would be obliged to resort to 
 direct taxation, to a considerable extent, to meet our expenses. In 
 order to shew this more clearly, I ask the House to consider for a few 
 minutes the relative amoimts paid for local services in the other 
 Provinces. I take the last published statement I can find, that of 
 1870-71, for the other Provinces. For educational purposes during 
 that year there was paid by the Government : ;?•■-' ; ., 
 
 Of Ontario $3T9>3°5> o*" 24 cents per head 
 
 Of Quebec 311,210, or 26 " " 
 
 Of Nova Scotia 165,000, or 42 " " , 
 
 Of New Brunswick 136,711, or 47 " 
 
 i( 
 
48 
 
 For roads and bridges there was last year paid by the Govern- 
 ment : 
 
 Of Ontario $ 60,000, or 4 cents per head 
 
 Of Quebec 1 50,000, or 1 2 J^ " " 
 
 uf Nova Scotia 214,213, or 55 " " 
 
 Of New Brunswick 159,000, or 55 " " 
 
 In Ontario the $60,000 was spent entirely upon what are known as 
 colonization roads, in those districts of the country where there is 
 either no population or where the population is so sparse as to be un- 
 able to contribute anything for local purposes. It was an expenditure 
 entirely outside of the ordinary resident population, while a very large 
 proportion of the $150,000 spent for this service in Quebec — more 
 than two-tliirds of it — was expended in the old settled counties. The 
 amount expended for this service in Nova Scotia was about one-third 
 of the entire revenue received by that Province from the Dominion. 
 For the administration of justice there was expended last year by the 
 Government : 
 
 Of Ontario $197,000, or 12)^ cents per head. 
 
 Of Quebec 373.838, or 31 
 
 « H 
 
 The municipal authorities of Ontario contributed for the adminis- 
 tration of justice in the same year $381,188, or about double the 
 amount expended for that service by the Government in that time. 
 Mr. I^ngton, during the discussion which preceded the passage of 
 the Nova Scotia Relief Bill, as it was called, prepared an elaborate 
 statement which I will not read to the House, but give merely his 
 conclusions as to the extent of local parliamentary and municipal 
 taxation ; this shows that the local parliaments and the municipal 
 authorities in the four Provinces contributed per head, for purely 
 local purposes, in addition of course to the money received from the 
 Dominion from the two or three sources from which the Dominion 
 subsidy is derived, as follows : 
 
 , Ontario $4 01 , 
 
 Quebec 2 09 
 
 Nova Scotia i 835^ 
 
 New Brunswick 1 5iJ^ ',."; 
 
 ' This shows the relative amounts raised either by the local parlia- 
 ments or the municipal councils in order to provide for the 
 necessary local expenditures required for the administration of 
 
46 
 
 justice, the education of the people and the maintenance of local 
 institutions of a benevolent character, so that whether you com- 
 pare the contribution of the State towards the administration of 
 justice, the education of the people, the colonization of the country, 
 the support of the insane — which latter service, I may remind you, 
 parenthetically, cost here, about $180,000, and there, over $280,000 — 
 you will find that on sifting the matter the people of Quebec really 
 are as cheaply governed, or, more correctly speaking, manage their 
 provincial concerns as economically as in Ontario. 
 
 ■■ ■ ■, !i .•■•■•■ . 
 
 THE CONSOLING FEATURES 
 
 are, that if we have not so much money in the banks, we have taken 
 less out of the pockets of the taxpayers. That, if we have made use 
 of our credit, it has not been frittered away in trifling undertakings, 
 but in large Provincial enterprises. That the expenditure of the 
 money has been made at a time when the value of labor and the 
 necessaries of life were extremely low and occupation scarce. That 
 its expenditure at such a time necessarily leaves the largest possible 
 asset behind it, whilst it affords the largest modicum of relief to the 
 people who obtain employment. That, apart from perhaps a slight 
 advance in the price of retailed spirits, and a ten cent stamp on 
 exhibits, and a trifling duty on insurance policies, the taxpayer of 
 Quebec is no more burthened than he was ten years ago. That all 
 these taxes might be struck out of the Statute Book at once if he 
 would consent to pay what the taxpayer of Ontario now arid always 
 has paid. That our credit abroad is improving, after suffering a 
 temporary suspicion, and that, within a short delay, all these enter- 
 prises, which the Province has undertaken to aid or construct, if we 
 except the connection with the Canada Pacific Railway, will be 
 accomplished, and that the oracular prediction of the would-be wise, 
 that we were fast speeding to ruin or direct taxation, are with- 
 out foundation, and that, on the contrary, we are financially healthy 
 and sound, and equal to every legitimate engagement which we 
 have or are likely to contract ; and that, taking all the 
 assets which I have named to you, and being, some in the 
 hands of the Dominion, others in the hands of Ontario, and adding to 
 them our magnificent line of railway and our other public properties 
 upon which very large sums of money have been expended since Con- 
 federation, we can present a balance sheet which we need not, as a 
 Legislature, be afraid to submit to our people, nor, as a Province, be 
 afraid that our creditors should investigate, or our enemies, (if we have 
 any) criticise. That, whilst we look, with pride and satisfaction, upon 
 
47 
 
 what is being done here, to open up and develop our country, we need 
 not, and we will not, refuse, or grudge, the meed of praise justly due to 
 the Legislature of Ontario, for what she has done, claiming, neverthe- 
 less, for Quebec that, regard being had to the means at her disposal, 
 she is not afraid to compare notes with her Western sister in what the 
 first decade after Confederation has accomplished, or even with that 
 bright galaxy of Colonial stars, to which the hon. member for Argen- 
 teuil referred, on a previous occasion, when he spoke of their wonder- 
 ful resources, and of the abundant means, which were at their disposal, 
 to meet the obligations of government, and the claims for internal 
 development, as compared with ours. 
 
 COMPARISON WITH THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES. 
 
 Since then I have looked with some care into the obligations of 
 these colonies, the obligations they have undertaken, the means at 
 their disposal to meet them, and, without wearying the House too 
 much, or abusing unreasonably the great patience which you, and the 
 members, have manifested to me, I cannot refrain from placing a few 
 of the facts and figures before you, which will show, more than any 
 mere words of mine could demonstrate, how very far from accurate 
 are the roseate hues with which, I presume, the exuberance of youth, 
 has led my honorable friend to regard the financial position of those 
 grand and flourishing outgrowths of the British Empire. I do not 
 deny their enterprise, their prosperity, their financial soundness ; but 
 I do say that the Province of Quebec, with her debt and her assets 
 and resources, is the peer of any one of them at this moment. What 
 •may be in the great undeveloped future, I cannot say for them, or us ; 
 but to-day, I repeat, we are the peer of the best of them. What are 
 the facts ? Our debt is eight million three hundred thousand dollars, 
 or seven dollars per head ; add to this, if you like, our proportion of 
 the Dominion debt, say thirty million more, or thirty dollars per 
 capita more (although with this latter amount we have here, and in 
 connection with our Provincial Exchequer, nothing to do). How 
 does this compare with the other British colonies, and take, for 
 instance, the Australian ones? In 1873 there were 458 miles of 
 railways open, and 145 miles building. New South Wales, 401 
 miles open and 58 building. South Australia, 202 open and 148 
 building. Queensland, 218 open and 144 building. Tasmania, 45 
 open and 121 building. Western Australia, 40 open and 35 building. 
 In 1873 New Zealand, with a population of 310,437, or just about one- 
 quarter of ours, owed ;^i 2,509,546, or $200 per head, and her debt 
 has since probably increased. In 1874, Western Australia with a 
 
48 
 
 population of 25,761 owed $175,000, or $S per head, but was about 
 to undertake public works which her Provincial Secretary proposed 
 to pay for by a loan. Tasmania, in the .iame year, with a population of 
 104,317, and a debt of about seven and a half millions of dollars, or 
 about $70 per head ; Queensland, the same year, with a population 
 of 146,690, owed about twenty four millions of dollars, or about $160 
 per head of its population ; South Australia, with a population of 
 198,357, owed aliout eleven millions of dollars, or about $55 per 
 head,' New South Wales, with a population of 560,275, owed a>debt 
 of about fifty-five millions of dollars, or about $;7 per capita, and has 
 borrowed $400,000 this year for immigration purposes; and, finally, 
 the great colony of Victoria, with a population of 700,492, owed about 
 sixty -three millions of dollars, or about $io per head of her population ; 
 and the last news from there is a deficit of $573,309.90 expected this 1 
 year — a revenue of ;^4,904,i8o, against an estimated expenditure of 
 ;^5,o22, 1 45 stg. Now, if you compare the origin of any one of these 
 debts — 1 mean by that the purpose for which it was contracted, or the 
 rate of interest paid for the money, or the price realized for the deben- 
 tures, which are the public acknowledgments of it, the relative cost of 
 the assets (where assets exist, such as railways or telegraphs, and 
 these latter are the chief assets which remain) — you will find that our 
 railway assets here cost per mile much less than any of the others ; 
 indeed, in so far as 1 can gather, our Provincial railways (allowance 
 being made for every expense) will not much exceed the half of the 
 cost of the Australian railways. But, Sir, at this advanced hour of 
 the evening I need not detain you with more facts of this nature, nor 
 with the liabilities and responsibilities of others. We have our own ; 
 let me hope our policy amply and equitably provides for them. 
 
 I'HK RAILWAY COMMISSIONERS. 
 
 Although tlie Railway Commissioners' report explains fully the 
 progress of the work entrusted to their charge, nevertheless, I think it 
 would be a satisfactory thing if I were, before proceeding to speak of 
 the manner in which the funds to meet the probable expenditure upon 
 railways are to be provided, to briefly pass in review some of the 
 principal facts connected with these works since December last, the 
 amount paid to the Commissioners, the amounts paid by them to the 
 contractors or expended upon the commission, detailing at the same 
 time the amounts expended upon these railways both before and since 
 they were taken in hand by the Government, the amount which it is 
 expected it will be required to complete the enterprises, the amount 
 still at the disposal of the Commissioners, and finally a few words as 
 
49 
 
 to tlic progress of the work and the proportion which retnaiiis lo he 
 done. 1 quote in doing so from the Commissioners' report. 
 
 " In December rH-jO, the several subsidies granted by the Lcgisla- 
 »' ture for the construction of the said roads, Ijcing all e\|)ended, with 
 " excei>tioi'( of $19,500, and the municipalities having up to that time 
 " neglected to pay their sul)scrij)tions, the Commissioners obtained 
 " from the Provincial (lovernmcnt several advances which, on tlje 
 " first of December instant, amounted to $2,345,000, on bonds which 
 " tliey were empowered to issue to the extent of three millions of 
 " dollars, by Act 39th Vict., Ca]). 2. This loan was made out of 
 " 'The Consolidated Railway l-und,' under the provisions of the Act 
 " 40lh Vic. Chaj). 2, Section 4." 
 
 The Commissioners have received, in all, from the Government, up 
 to the isl December, instant, from the following sources, $5,623,969.90, 
 namely : 
 
 On 8ul)aidie8 $3,278,969 00 
 
 Loan on tlieir bomU 2.345,000 00 
 
 Making, as I have snid $5,623,909 90 
 
 Out of thiw sum they have paid : 
 
 1. To thf Monoralile T. MtOr.-evy 2.092,890 1 1 
 
 2. To Mr. Dunain Muidonald 2,508,013 82 
 
 3. Exponsos of (.'ommission, including HalarieH 
 
 of CoranilKsioutirs and their ouiployeen, 
 
 HalariuH and expenses of two Chief En- • 
 
 ginetTH, and the expenses of surveys be- 
 tween JIasi<inonge, Terrebonne and Mont- 
 real, and between Aylnier and Quio Itiver 
 
 $71,507 04 
 
 L(!SR nmount furnished by contractors according 
 
 to their contract $19,358 42 
 
 52,208 G2 ' ' 
 
 Suspense account 2,018 03 
 
 balance in I'.unklst December, 1877 8,838 42 
 
 $5,023,009 90 
 
 On the I St December, instant, Hon. Thos. McGreevy had re- 
 ceived on his contract, from all sources, $3,362,370.26, namely : 
 
 From the North Shore Railway Company, com- 
 ing from the Government of the Province 
 of Quebec, and from tlie subscription of Ihi' 
 City of Quebec 304,480 15 
 
 From the Commissioners 2.902,890 11 
 
 From the Government, by amount paid for a 
 note of the Nortli Sliore Railway Com- 
 pany 5,000 f 
 
 $3,.3C2,370 20 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 At the same date Mr. 1). Mactlonald had received on his contract 
 from all sources, 53,^18,615.80, namely : 
 
 From th« Northurn ('olotilcntion Ituilway. 793,402 0.1 
 
 KroDJ th<! < NimmiiiiiioiuTa 2,n«8,01 3 »'i 
 
 Krooi til*) Uovdrnmciit, umoiiiit jmid to the 
 
 JarquvH < 'iirtior liaiik 400,000 00 
 
 From the Oovemment. Uy umoiint paid to 
 the Moutn.'iil, Otluwu and WchU rn 
 
 Rail WB}- ("oniimny 57,140 05 
 
 $3,818,015 80 
 
 At the same date the total expenditure on the Qiiebe<:, Montreal, 
 Ottawa and Occidental Railway, was $7,235,213.61, and made up as 
 follows, namely : 
 
 I'Hid to till' Hon. T. McOrt'fvy $:i,.102,370 2C 
 
 Paid to Mr. Diincnu McDonald .'<,RlH,eiQ HO 
 
 .Piiid expc>nHt>8 of the CominUHion, not in- 
 cluding tbf amount riirnlNlicd by ton- 
 
 tractorp, uccordinK t" coiitrnct .12,208 02 
 
 SugponHe account 2,018 93 
 
 Total F.xpinditurc on the Road $ 7,235,213 (Jl 
 
 At the same date the .sums remaining to be disbursed to complete 
 the Road, were appro.vimately the following .• — 
 
 .Approximate cohI of thv Line Itetwucn Que- 
 bec and Montniil (including $»I(),387.7.'> 
 for the I'ilcH Roiul) $ t,935,04.'i 44 
 
 T<(>M) : amount paid tlie lion. TlioniaM Blr- 
 
 (irecvy to tlic IhI Dec, IH77 3,362,370 id 
 
 B ilancc still piiyul)le $1,572,675 18 
 
 Telegraph Line on the EuHtern Hection 15,000 00 
 
 Approximate value of the woi-Uh rt-uiaining 
 
 to be done and matcriulH to l>e Hupplied 
 
 on the iNt December instant, on 
 
 the Western St^ction, to complete the 
 
 works according to contract, including 
 
 rolling stock and the balance required 
 
 for the purchuMC of IuhiIk 689,280 80 
 
 Approximatt? cost of the road aiiovc Aylmer 600,000 00 
 
 Htation in the City of Montreal, including 
 
 land 250,000 00 
 
 Lc8h: the amount in the Schedule for the 
 
 station at Montreal $20,000 00 
 
 And the approximate value of the land which 
 
 the contractor of the Elostern Section is 
 
 obliged to furnish $40,000 00 
 
 60,000 00 
 
 190,000 00 
 
 Contingencies 50,000 00 
 
 Total $3,116,956 98 
 
51 
 
 Towards completing the enterprises, honoral)le gentlemen will find 
 the Commissioners, at pages 15 and 16 of their Reix)rt, declare they 
 have of unexpended subsidies and lK)nds, &c., $2,981,355.38. 
 
 The following Statement shows the proportion of work done on the 
 Road from Quebec 10 Ayliuer, including the I'IIjs and St. Jerome 
 Branches, up to the ist December, 1877 : 
 
 Totnl coat of riMui I'stiiiialud ut $i),t)2»,ui:i 7 1 
 
 Value of work lionc T,183,4U2 r>8 
 
 I'io|K)rtU)n 71) . 01 pti it-iit., or 4-ft 
 
 nil. I'DsnioN i)K rui; kailwavs. 
 
 From the foregoing mass of ligurcsand facts \vc may cull the follow- 
 ing information : — That, to complete the Cloveniineiit railway to Ayl- 
 mcr, and allowing $50,000 for contingencies, will cost $2,261,055.98 ; 
 that it will cost $^00,000 to complete the road above .\yliner, $15,000 
 for a telegraph line on the eastern section, /.<., between Quebec 
 and Montreal, and $190,000 for land damages, erection of station, 
 &c., at Montreal, over and above $60,000, which the contractors 
 must, under their contracts, contribute l»)waiils these objects, making 
 in all $3,116,955.98 to complete, as I have said, all the proposed 
 Government roads. This estimate is based 011 work lo be done frt m 
 ist of December last ; .since then, up to the 25th of January, thire 
 has been paid $325,000 on account of these roads, and, of course, 
 is .so much to be deducted. 
 
 There also has been paid ii|Jon the subsidized roads up to the 
 present time $1,377, 323S3' leaving the sum of $1,819,753.17 yet 10 
 be jwid to them so soon as it shall have been earned. 
 
 Statement of Subsidies to Railways, Province of Quebec, other thrn 
 the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa & Occidental Railway, to 26th day cf 
 January, inclusive : 
 

 
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 It is estimated that the sum of $500,000 will meet all the demands 
 pon the Treasury by these roads during the present year (1878). 
 lud if you add the sum of $2,261,955.98, amount which the Com- 
 lissioners estimate as necessary to complete the Government road fo 
 ylmer, you have a total of $2,761,955.98, which is likely to 
 :quired for these works during the year. Beyond this there is the 
 
 WB'STERN EXTENSION OF THE Q. M. O. & O. RAILWAY 
 
 bove Aylmer, and its attendant cost of construction, which we will 
 ow consider. As the House is aware, the Commissioners have 
 aused a survey to be made, and have invited tenders for this road 
 est of Aylmer, as far as the village of Quio, and it is the intention of 
 le Government to go on and build that section of the road, between 
 ylmer and its connection with the Georgian Bay branch of the 
 !anada Pacific Railway, in time to meet the latter when it shall have 
 sached the Ottawa River, whether thai be at Douglas or Renfrew. 
 !ut owing to the Hon. Mr. Mackenzie, and the Government at 
 )ttawa, having cancelled their original contract with the late Hon. 
 B. Foster, and they having declared that further explorations were 
 ecessary before the road could be constructed, or even let out to 
 ontracl ; and as, moreover, it was uncertain where the eastern ter- 
 linus would be placed, it became obviously impossible for this 
 lovernment to make any further progress with this work, than cause 
 
 survey to be made as fur above Aylmer, as it was certain 
 subsequent deviation from Renfrew, or Douglas, could 
 
 ect the line through Pontiac. This point was thought to 
 
 Quio village, and accordingly that survey was made and t nders 
 vited, the intention being, as I have said, that we would go on with 
 e work of our line, as fast as was necessary to meet the Pacific line, 
 hen it reached the terminal point on the Ottawa. Mr. Mackenzie 
 ated, at the close of last session, that his Government would be pre- 
 ared to state its policy at the ap|)roaching session. In a few weeks 
 e will know what it is, and as we are ready to go on and make the 
 nnection, so soon as he shall have done the part which the Do- 
 inion Government has assumed, this crowning part of the grand 
 heme to connect the great West and tide -water, by a lino of railway 
 
 far as possible through this province, need not be much longer 
 
 leferred. It is not the intention, and never was the intention of the 
 
 ovemment, to build a mere local road into Pontiac ; its intention, 
 
 it always has been, was to give the people of this Province a road 
 lonnecting with the Canada Pacific at the West, and the seaboard 
 
."' i 
 
 and eastern system of railway going east. 'Ihese surveys have satis', 
 fied the Commissioners that the western section to Portage du Font 
 can be constructed for a little more than half of what it was estimated 
 it woi'ld cost, viz., $'Joo,ooo, in ])iacc of $1,000,000, and the progress! 
 of that section only awaits the action of the Dominion (Jovernmcni; 
 with respect to the other, or (jcorgian Hay section. 
 
 Now, taking the sum total recjuired to comi)lete the Governmem 
 roads at $3,1 16,955.98, less]$325,ooo since ist of December paid, and \ 
 the simi of $1,819,753.17 necessary to pay all i^nearned subsidies 
 and you have the gross unli(|uidated liabilities of the Province, which ; 
 amount to $4,61 1,709.15. lo meet this you still have in the Consoli { 
 dated Railway Fund the following sums, viz : 
 
 The Railway Commissioners' IJonds for $3,000,000, less 
 $500,000 loaned on them by the Bank of Montreal, 
 or $2,500,000 00 
 
 We have unjiaid by Montreal and Quebec of their sub- 
 scriptions 1.5 '0,355 38 
 
 There is of other municipal subscriptions 459,000 00! 
 
 Making a total of $4,469,355 38; 
 
 It is not likely, indeed it is certain, that this total sum of $4,611,- 
 709.15 will not be wanted this year. We may safely deduct $400,000 
 from the Western extension. .And as to the amount likely to be | 
 earned this year by the subsidized roads, I have already stated we do 'i 
 not expect more than $500,000 will be claimed. Hence we exjjcctto 
 spend upon the Q. M., C). & (). Railway $2,716,955.98, less $325,000 | 
 paid since ist December, or $2,391,955.98. and upon subsidized 
 roads, $500,000 ; total, $2,891,955.98. 'J'his is the anticipated gross I 
 railway expenditure for the year out of the fimd of $4,469,- 1 
 355-38, and will leave in the fund, if the bonds sell at par. J 
 $1,577,399.40, to meet a contingent liability of $1,719,753.17, or in j 
 other words, the' • will be $142,353.77 to provide for when all the | 
 Government roads are done and all the subsidized roads are also done. 
 Of course, any discount which the bonds may be subjected to, will 
 diminish pro tanto the amount of this fund. On the other hand, if it 
 should chance that any one of the many roads now subsidized should 
 not be constructed, either in whole or in part, the fund will gain to 
 that extent. Thus, Sir, if the committee has followed me, and I have 
 not exhausted its forbearance, do we propose to deol with the ques 
 
 ■J 
 
 /i 
 
ions of how the enterprises undertaken by us are to be completed, 
 ow the subsidies to enterprises undertaken by others arc to be pro- 
 ided for, and how the necessary augmentation to the revenue is to 
 |e obtained. We have not attempted to deal with this latter subject 
 a peddling or meddlesome spirit. We have not sought by the im- 
 losition of a lax here, and another tax there, to deal with the ques- 
 lon. We have concluded il was necessary to raise a certain sum of 
 loney, and we have asked ourselves, regard Iieing had to the bur- 
 liens at present pressing upon the people, in whSt manner or by what 
 leans can this be most justly, most easily and most certainly oh- 
 ;ined, and we have found, or thought we found, the solution of this 
 'j^uestion, in the tax [ have suggested. We ha\ e made no effort to con- 
 ceal the difficulties of the jjosition, nor the amount of money necessary 
 to relieve the Treasury, I will not say from its embarrassments, for 
 it never had any, but from its obligations. U'e have finally taken 
 you into our fullest confidence ; wc have given you the benefit of 
 our reflections upon the subject. We think we have solved the 
 ^difficulties of the ])Osition, and this in a manner, to do no rank, calling 
 >r nationality any injustice. We are persuaded that the burthen we 
 iropose will be easily borne and be equal and uniform in its pressure, 
 our endorsation of this policy and these views will show to the 
 leople of this Dominion and elsewhere that we have still an abiding 
 Taith in the future of this Province, and in the great enterprises or 
 lublic works which it has undertaken to subsidize or construct, 
 "hat, when from any cause an imjjortant item of revenue, such as the 
 Jrown Lands, falls off, we arc prejjared to suj)ply and have the means 
 ^o supply the deficiency ; that there are amiile means at the disposal 
 •f the Province for every obligation which it has contracted, or which 
 ^t may deem wise to contract ; and finally, that we can, without diffi- 
 ;ulty or interruption to the steady |)rogrcss of our prosperity, find 
 leans of meeting every fiscal demand necessary for maintaining public 
 faith, for protection against internal disturbance, for the construction 
 »f internal improvements, and for the maintenance of every institution 
 lelonging to a good Government which has been committed to us by 
 'tlie constitution, and is conducive to the social or moral progress of 
 the people. 
 
 We have only to believe ourselves rich and we are rich ; we have 
 only to place faith in our means and they will be found sufficient for 
 every rational or needful purpose. But real weakness may be created 
 by yielding to apprehensions which have their origin only in ignorance, 
 and many of the worst effects of national poverty may be produced 
 
 V. 
 
56 
 
 by an insufficient appreciation of the strength of our resources, and 
 by a short-sighted impatience of fiscal i)ressure, which is really light 
 in itself and utterly insignificant when compared with the value and 
 importance of the objects for the attainment of which it is imix)sed. 
 
 , The Hon. Treasurer resumed his seat at 10:20, having occupied 
 two hours and fifty minutes: in the delivery of his sjjeech. 
 
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