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€l)e €mplogte0 of % Btmit €l)ambtr 
 of tl)c JQHomimon. 
 
 Trantlated from "La Minerve." 
 
 t 
 
 The spiaiT of Clause 130, in the Act or Confederation, intituled 
 « The British North America Aor, 1867." 
 
 The 1st of July lost saw the establishmeDt of a new order of things in Canada. 
 
 The general principle involved in a change of this nature is, that all offices and 
 employments dependent on the regime'that has been abolished were at an end ; or, to speak 
 more plainly, the result of the above cited Act is, that a whole class may at once be oast 
 out upon the street, if it is the pleasure of the new Anthoritiei to order an immediate 
 evacuation of their offices. 
 
 There are countries where faction demands this dean sweeping out of places as the 
 reward of the victors, and where they maintain that << in rootipg up the tree it is necessary 
 to clear away the branches," and this mode of proceeding may at first sight be deemed 
 logical, but reflection will soon Qiake apparent certain consequences that may well 
 disconcert us. 
 
 Most of the unfortunates thus suddenly deprived of all income have perhaps families 
 dependent upon them, but u'importe, strike them all down, husband, wife and children, at 
 one blow. 
 
 Of what crime have these poor people been guilty, that they should have drawn down 
 ' on their heads such a calamity ? None. The fathers were simply good, honest and 
 irreproachable employes, working conscientiously and doing honor to themselves and to 
 their occupation. Then why oast them out ?, 
 
 That which may be pronounced as absolutely logical can not always be put into 
 practice : for example, the cruel law which demanded " an eye for an eye," though 
 perhaps founded on some subtle theory, is not Christian, and has therefore been abolished 
 by Chrittians, 
 
 In Canada it is certain that a general clearing out of the employes before the 1st of 
 July, 1867, would have been impossible ; not that there would have been any lack of 
 aspirants for the vacated places, but the execration that such injustice would have given 
 rise to would have been too formidable. 
 
 Our object, however, is not to examine here tho principle that the fall of a regime 
 necessarily involves the termination of all offices established under it. The question we 
 are about to discuss here ia quite different. 
 
 The new Act of Union contains an express exception to the inhuman principle men- 
 tioned above, as we may read in clause 130, to wit : — 
 
 " Until the Parliament of Canada otherwise provides, alt officers of the several 
 Provinces, having duties to discharge in relation to matters other thaa those coming within 
 the classes of subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Pro- 
 vinces, shall he officers of Canada, and shall continue to discharge the duties of their 
 respective offices under the same liabilities, responsibilities and penaltieh as if the Union 
 had not been made." 
 
 Ther3 can be no doubt that the spirit of this clause was intended to pervade the whole 
 service, and was designed to regulate all its functional operations in its passage to the new 
 regime. It preserved at once both public and private interests It continued thd (Uvil 
 
Service, and maintained the employes of the abolished regime in possession of their 
 charges without interruption, until some competent authority should have made other 
 dispoMtions; «nd though the holding of their offices is plaioly susceptible of revocation, 
 should necsMity require it, still it is equally evident that the new regime found a ^«*sonne/ 
 in the Bureaux, who were there by the authority of the above cited Act. 
 
 Why was clause 130 passed at all ? Oan there be any doubt that, among other thingn, 
 its object was to prevent tno p\A 6|leer from beiug despoiled of the merit and of the right 
 which he had acquired by his zeal, his labor and his experience. 
 
 Take away this clause and all his years of service are lost to him. The new regime 
 would then find itself beset with new men, and in reconstructing the offices, unworthy 
 preferences would exclude true mwit, which is incapable of descending to a certain species 
 of solicitation. According to the Act all this is avoided, provision is therein made for the 
 continuation of the old employes in their offices and emoluments, and if any were excluded 
 from this right for any other reason than that of un worthiness, justice would surely demand 
 that they should be properly indemnified for their past services, even though those services 
 shonld not have beeu rendered to the present Authorities but to their predecessors. 
 
 Besides it is oiKly jnstfe that in LretvrJl for Uie advantages that the new regime expe- 
 rienced at its debut from the posseasion of a corps of experienced functionaries, some 
 respect shonld be shown by it to the past, and same disposition be manifested to satisfy 
 the natural obligations i(i^rjre4 ))jthe ,o\d order of things. 
 
 We beg to ^ffor some grave nets in suppprt of this interpretation! 
 
 A general opinion has pi^evailed, ^nd we may add, and was encouraged by persons 
 high in authority, that tiiere would be no spoliation of offices, that the revolution being a 
 pacific one ^ould be consequently a beneficent one. It was assuredly never the intention 
 bf itt' authors that it should he Ae foDr^runner of misery and woe to any class, and upon 
 that opinion the ever anxious eii|iploy6 rested his hopes. 
 
 Now if this opinion was err6neou8> should not the Ministry, who have the execution 
 of the laws, have warned the employ^ that his off. e was liable to suppression in principle 
 at least, and that he hdd it merely on sufferance ? 
 
 In that case he might have iQade an effort to avail himself of the opportunity afforded 
 by the organization of rae Departments of the Local Governments, where many of the old 
 functionaries were called upon to fill offices, owing to their experience in public business ; 
 but the silence of the executive, and the spirit of clause 130, had completely reassured them 
 and led them to trust in the security of that lot upon which the subsistence of their 
 ' families depended. 
 
 These facts prove that the employes h*'^d up to the 1st of July last lost none of their 
 rights, and tint ^ey had really become odicers of the Dominion, and it follows from this, 
 tiiat the Federal Authorities could not be under any misapprehension as to the obligation 
 they were under of indemnifying for past services the holders of all offices that might be 
 dispensed with in the process of reorganizing the Departments. 
 
 II. 
 
 SOMB or THE RbAIONS WHY IT IS JUST TO INDEUNIFT THOSE WHO MAY BE 
 DKPBIVED or THBIR EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 It is only justice that the State, in displacing one of its servants, should indemnify 
 him, either by acoordinghim a certain sum of money, if he is still young, or by pensioning 
 him if he is old or infirm. 
 
 The right to a retlripg pension, or to an indemnity when the services of a public 
 fUeer are dispensed mth, and for no fault on his part, u a prinoiplo that has been eonse- 
 erated in Fiance, evpr since the 14th century, and also in JBngUnd since tho Revolution 
 «ri698. 
 
 A pe?n)#|ient office or a salary onco ac<iuired is a sort of personal property irhich 
 should not be taken away without indemnifying the person dispossessed, these ubligations 
 fure founded in justice end good faith. 
 
 Itjias beeo held thet the best course to pursue in the suppreasiQa or diminution of 
 ol^ces is 40 weit till they become vacant, and the illustrious Burke ezpiesiMd himielf ^pon 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
this Bubjeot in the followidg gea«rotUi seme :— ^' Botb iHidolll and jtutiMWere oppoflcid' to 
 the prinoiple of die^Hng offiM holders of the emohimeQts they enjoyed^ eveijr r*ef onii of 
 this kiod Bhoald be made prospeetive and dot retirOspeotiye, and that it ooald'iioi/be neoes- 
 sai-y, in aooomplishing ooonomioal refotttS) to plfcoe the ephemeral life of man in com- 
 parison with the endaring life of a nation, or to commit an act of rigor and injastioe toirarda' 
 individnals in order to attain a little sooner the objeotthat Patliament had in view." 
 
 Fox shared this sentiment, and went even fnrther, declaring that a pablio ofSiie once 
 acquired became " a freehold." 
 
 Snoh were the juit and g<;neroa8 opinions expressed by these two great men, and in a 
 speech delivered by Lord John Kossell, in 1886, that sfate'ntitan oitbd them as par excel- 
 lence, " the principles of Bnrke and Fox." 
 
 On several occasions in England, and more than once also in Canada, the Legislatare' 
 have not hesitated to recognize as legitimate the rights of the officer to a permaticttt 
 possession of his office. 
 
 We limit ourselves to two examples. During the Session of 1864, the Contibgetlt' 
 Committee of the old Legislativ<e Couneil presented a Rejpdrti having for iUr object a 
 reform of the staff and salaries of the employes of that Chamber. In this Report tho' 
 Committee expressed an opinion that with some feir exceptions the salaries of the 
 officers were too high; that there were offices which might be united into one, and 
 others that might be altogether dispensed with. They proposed to abolish the office of 
 Librarian after the demise of the present venerable ojoupant of that offiee ; they thought 
 also that the offices of Black Bod and Sergeant-at-Armscdtdd be' performed by one person 
 whenever the opportunity occurred of accomplishing that change without injury to any 
 private interest. 
 
 The reduction of salaries proposed by the Committee was large^ and extended toe^eryj 
 office except the French Translators who were omitted in conse(lQdlice of the 'speciality 'of 
 their functions. But when did they propose to effect these econoiirieil ? Only, Eaid' i^' 
 Committee, in a spirit of justice and dignity worthy cf them, whenever vacancies Occtirred^ 
 and new appointments had to be made. Th^ Council adopted this reoomiA^tadatiota."'' 
 
 In 1849, the House of Lords, in England, had acted on the same pribclple. Tha 
 Reform which was sanctioned by their Lordships consisted partly in th^'slippter^idtt 'of 
 offices, and partly in the reduction of certain high fees that existed; but in order'tb avoid ' 
 « disappointment and injustice," their Lordships decided t^at these reforms should^not be 
 put into operation until vacancies occurred by the death o. promotion of the then' offid^' 
 holders. — See Lords' Journals, 1st August, 1849. 
 
 Doubtless our Contingent Committee of the Legislative Council folldWbd thi^ prece- 
 dent, and they were right in doing so. Perhaps, in a few cases, the salaries of the offi'oiirs 
 of the Legislative Council did exceed the proper maximum, bub we are of opinion th&t' 
 these salaries would be found upon enquiry «;o have be^n increased On and justMoti^SS. 
 
 HI; .. ^ 
 
 Lamentablb Decision or thjb Sinate. 
 
 We come now to a consideration of the lamentable deduon arrived at by the Senate. 
 It is much to be regretted that on entering into the full enjoyment of their high functions 
 they should have exhibited such an utter obliviousness of those obligations which we have 
 shown to be based on law and equity. 
 
 Were the employes of our former Legislative Council excluded from all benefit of 
 clause 130 ? Assuredly not. Why should any exception be made in their respect ? 
 
 The Int of July found them at theiv desks in the offices of the Senate. Ought they 
 to have abandoned them ? or could they be regarded as intruders ? 
 
 The Act answers for them, it recognized and adapted them as " offieers of Canada." 
 Justice demanded that they should be suUjected to no-cliango. • 
 
 "OFfiOEBS OF Canada," says the Act. What does that mean? The appella- 
 tion is general and necessarily presupposes another. What Other could be applied to theiii 
 
 * ISeeJowaa)BofLegiil«tiTeConncil(I864), Utbaad83ii«f Jaiie. .... 
 
I 
 
 Qolesg that of employes of the Senate ? Bat if not employes of the Senate, what wer e 
 they ? Honorary officers of Canada ? That would indeed be a oarions denomination. 
 
 The pubHo voice had proclainked that every officer should be continued in his office, 
 its rights and duties. To this the Executive gave & silent assent, or rather we should say, 
 by one particular act it spoke in its turn, for the employes having become officers of the 
 Dominion, and there being as yet no special oredit in existence, the Executive ic^aued an 
 order for their payment out of the Federal Funds. 
 
 Rome months after —to wit — on the 6th of November, the opening of the Parliament 
 of Canada took place, when all these officers continued to perform their duties as authorized 
 officers. Such was the state of affairs on the 25th of November, when the Hon. B. 
 Seymour laid before the Senate a Report of the Contingent Committee, stating that the 
 Committee did not recognize any employes as belonging to the Senate at the opening of 
 the Session, except those that had been appointed by the Crown, viz. : — ^The Clerk, the 
 Chaplaia and the Usher of .^e Black Rod. This Report was accepted by the House on 
 the following day. 
 
 We believe that the Committee though acting conscientiously had entirely misappre- 
 bended clause 130. 
 
 1'hcy adnoitted, as may be seen in the report of the debates, that the said clause 
 preserved thu rights of certain officers, but not those belonging to the employes of the old 
 Council. 
 
 Can it then be possible that we have among us any privileged classes ? Does favorit- 
 ism enter into the spirit of clause 130 ? 
 
 This conflict of opinions reminds us of the assertion of one of the most subtle lawyers 
 of modei'u times, who said that he had never yei seen an Act of Parliament through which 
 ho could not have driven a coach and six. But we have shown that clause 130 really 
 extends its favors to all — without exception — and the retrospective decision that we are 
 now attacking supports this interpretation, or at least it acknowledges a doubt, for where 
 was the use of a written declaration if the Committee felt certain that those that they were 
 disowning had no right to claim any thing of them? 
 
 Nobody will contest that the Senate possessed the power, under the Imperial Act, of 
 removing the employes from their offices, but had they the power to declare that those 
 gentlemen that they found in charge of the Bureaux of the Senate had never been its 
 officers ? and could they without just cause deprive them at once of all that merit that 
 they had earned as useful servants, and of all those claims to consideration which is 
 naturally implied in the title of old employes ? That is the real question. 
 
 Certainly the Senate could claim no right to act unjustly, and yet after some little 
 hesitation the Senate voted the Report, as we have said before, thus declaring on the 
 faith of its Committee, that saving those fanctionaries nominated by the Crown, it had not, 
 and never had had, any other employ6s — an arbitrary decision and doubly unjust — unjust 
 inasmuch as it ignored the spirit of clause 130, and unjust again because it violated all 
 natural obligations. 
 
 And what were the results ? 
 
 The Senate would have nothing to do with the employes of the old Council. 
 
 They would leave the moral obligations of that body unfulfilled. 
 
 It was true that the employes possessed rights founded in equity and good faith ; but 
 the Senate would not honor the engagements of its authors, as they say in the language of 
 jurisprudence, and as theso latter are constitutionally dead and cannot recognize those 
 rights, it follows that the rights are annihilated. 
 
 Surely that id not justice. ^ 
 
 IV. 
 
 Consequences of the Decision oi* the 26th November, 
 
 On the 11th of December, fifteen days after that decision, so much to be regretted, 
 its promoters framed another report to give effect to the first, and this Second Report 
 assumed the form of u long decree of spoliation ; on being presented to the House 
 it excited a spontaneous cry from Senators, who pronounced it "inhuman," while a 
 portion of the press declared it to be iniquitous ; but wo must confess that it did not 
 surprise us, for was it not a logical sequence to the decision of the 26th of November ? 
 
 H 
 
 Y 
 
i 
 
 V 
 
 « 
 
 The Senate had ignored claoM 130, and consequently it was neceMary that " the 
 branche$ ihould be cleared away with the trunk." As to the Contingent Oommittoe they 
 no longer experienced any restraint on the score of private interests, for they had adopted 
 as a principle, that the Senate had no employes. 
 
 The ground once cleared to our satisfaction of all obstructions, nothing is more tempt- 
 ing than the desire to rebuild, and so the work proceeded. 
 
 To re-establish the personnel of the Bureaux the Committee proposed, in the first 
 place, to take on all the old clerks and messengers, with the exception of sixteen, declaring 
 that it was expedient to secure the services of (.ersons who wore already au fait in their 
 several functions. For as far as their experience is concerned they are found good, but 
 as to their rights they are good for nothing. 
 
 They are of opinion that those they thus select for employment may form an efficient 
 staff, but that is no reason that they should bo properly treated. Their salaries are to be 
 much below the amount fixed upon by the Committee of 1864, but that Committee con- 
 templated no reduction until the demise of those who then Leld the offices. 
 
 We have already said there existed uo salaries that had been raised without some just 
 cause. 
 
 It should be noted that in Canada the Government provides no pension for old or 
 infirm employes, or for their widows, and it is therefore reasonable that the salaries of 
 officers should be higher there, than in those countries where that beneficent practice 
 prevails. 
 
 In Canada the employ6 must lay by some small savings ; there are few of them, how- 
 ever, who can accomplish this, for the cost of living at the capital is always dear. Doubt- 
 less an economical reform of tho departments is to be desired ; but surely any attempt to 
 effect this should be based on just and wise principles like those we have shown to be laid 
 down by Burke and Fox, for the guidance of the Government of England. The economists 
 lay down a principle from their own point of view. TLey say that in fixing the amount 
 of a salary it is necessary to-coosider the skill of the workman, the value and importance 
 of his labour, and the cost of living in the nlace where he is located^ Such especially was 
 the opinion of Biohard Cobden. 
 
 Another economist, Monsieur Le Fellelier de la Serthe, says, " That to attempt to 
 fix permanently the salaries of workmen, whatever might be their activity, their intelli- 
 gence, or their skill in the profession which they exercise for all times, places, and 
 circumstances, independently of the dearness of living, the anxieties attending it, &c., 
 would be extremely unjust, if not impossible." 
 
 The Contingent Committee of the Senate do not view things in this light. The 
 pruning knife makes the same havoc with the reasonable and moderate salaries as with 
 the highest. Most of these salaries are the reward of many years' service, but the Com- 
 mittee is heedless of that, it has nothing to do with the past, and considers that the abro- 
 gation of the Union Act of 1&41 has made a tabula rasa. 
 
 These honest persons are in their eyes only new comers, and they treat them accord- 
 ingly. Certainly the report tends to work a strange revolution ; it levels all conditions ; 
 for instance, the clerk of the French Journals is to have only $900 per annum, that is to 
 say a $100 more than the postmaster of the Senate, and $100 more than the house- 
 keeper, though more strictly speaking he would have $100 less than the latter functionary, 
 for the house-keeper, besides his eight hundred dollars, has house rent, fuel and light. 
 The clerk of the English Journals, as well as tbe second French translator, is to have 
 $1,000 a year, and the senior French translator $1,100. 
 
 In the House of Commons the house-keeper receives $1,150 with house-rent, fuel and 
 light. 
 
 Truly the Committee have an odd notion of "the value and importance of labour." 
 
 So much as to salaries, now a word as to titles : Out of the thirteen em- 
 ployes destined by the Committee to form the staff of the officers of tho Senate, 
 seven of them are *o be without any distinctive title. Now out of these seven, four of 
 them held titles under the old regime, and will consequently be despoiled of that which 
 they doubtless valued very highly. The title of official distinction is an object of much 
 ambition with the employig ; it gives him a certain consideration. Besides every honorable 
 and intelligent man is desirous of bearing a certain share of responsibility ; it is only the 
 
imprvdeni aodiOurvleBg wlio regard it M a burden. TiIm awftj a mao'i dlfllinotive title 
 ana 70a taka from him bii respoiisibiliijr, and with it his loal, his courage, and hie delire 
 to diatinKUurii himseltli He it no longer any thing but a kind' of maobinoi intelligcfnt, 
 perhaps, Dntirreflponsible and hamiliated. 
 
 The public interest requires that tho employ^ should onjoy the title of the office, the 
 duties of which ho is called upon to discharge. This is the practice that prevails in 
 France. In England the more common praetioo is to substitute distinctive classes for 
 titles. In the House of Lords for example the employ^, under the general designation of 
 clerks, are divided into three classes, and these are again divided into degrees. A man 
 may arrive by seniority at the head of his class ; but superior ment alone can raise him to 
 another class, and this in a real and encouraging distinction. 
 
 The Committee of the Senate qualifies only three or four officials with titles, in addi- 
 tion to those fuDotiomuries who are nominated by the Grown. Alt the others are to come 
 under the general denomination of clerks; ohough among them are to be found, under the 
 general name of clerks, two French translators, and the two clerks of Journals. Up to 
 this point the Oommittee have only been unjust. We now proceed to show where it has 
 been "inhuman." 
 
 Strictly speaking it might have dispensed with all the old employ6s. It dow not go 
 so far as that. It has only dispensed with sixteen. 
 
 Several among these could count twenty, thirty, and thirty-five years of service. 
 How would soldiers be treated who could show such terms of service ? Thor Com- 
 mittee, however, does not -see that they have any cause for complaint. Perhaps because 
 they are too old they reject them. Who is to reeompense thf m for their past services ? 
 
 That is quite another afiair, for since tho decision of the 28th of November it is 
 impossible that the Senate can ^ it. Porbaps tho local Governments will, but that is 
 uncertain. 
 
 If the Dominion pensioned them, it would recognize that they also were entitled to the 
 benefit (^ clause 130 ; now the Committee have decided against that. One thing is certain, 
 and that is, that they are in danger of coming to want. Seeing the urgency of the case, 
 the Committee resolved to bo generous. It could not admit that they had any claim to 
 indemnity, but out of pure liberality it accorded them a year's salary. 
 
 " Th^i Ohbei" however, does not admire that. " If the report errs at all," says he, 
 « it is in .the. direction of being too libend'to the employ^i who are to lose their places." 
 Thus then, 16 persons are to be dismissed 'without any other resource than a small gratuity. 
 Injustice hero gives birth to injustice. Old employes, reckoning more than a quarter of a 
 century's service, are to receive only a year'fr sakiry, like those who had newly entered tho 
 service. 
 
 Among tho«e who are laid ' aside is one- whose fate inspires strange feelings. He is 
 the grandson of one of thie victims of thut odious prosoription of 1755^ that dark and 
 bloody page in the Acadian Annab ! His forefather was of the parish' of la Grande Pr^e. 
 « Sad oeinoidenoe 1 Scarcely had the representatives of the old Acadian land assembled in 
 the Federal Parliament, than thedesoenaantotonaof the proscribed is in his turn hunted 
 out of au employment where he has rendered such oisefhl services.'"*' 
 
 Among' the rejected are three or four sexagenarians. At such an age is it not late to 
 enter upon a new career ? 
 
 Ah, gentlemen of the Committee, old men who are demanding the dismissal of old 
 menj.tosaveafrution'of aiiarthing per head to the nation, whttt courage you have !! 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 V. •■ ■ ■ 
 
 The M01IVX8 OS the Comuiitbk. 
 
 It now remains to us to examine the principal motives of tho conduct of the Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 Some of the members who compose it are what they call " Radical in matters of 
 Economy," They desire to reduce the expenses at any cost. At any cost, there is th« 
 
 B9n»Jtf.,L«tjUier de St. Ja8t,.12tb.Deoea^er. 
 
1' 
 
 \ 
 
 «tU. All ■Muible men miutdMire tosee an>end of Uuriih ozpeues. BatwhjBomaoh 
 uazietj tbout mmII miuliteni, iHieo so muiy great mbnaei exist to oooiuy their atteotion f 
 It aeema puerile oondoet to be occnpyiog themselTei with detailing a nandAil of fkithfol 
 aervanta when they viight ohooae out of undertakings involving DnUions. Many peraons, 
 believing themselves good eitizons too, complain of such doubtful economy and think it 
 as necessary to be economical in the practice of iujustioe as well as in thejtublio Bevenue. 
 
 In England a few years ago when they created a new Divorce «nd Probate Court, it 
 was felt to be consistent with the public interest as well as with the j>ublio hoBMtyr^at 
 the State should indemnify all those who were deprived of their employment iby the 
 abolition of that ancient ecclesiastical tribunal. And that indemnity amounted to the 
 enormous sum of £116,000 per annum, as may be seeo in the recent work of Mr. Alpheus 
 Todd, " On Parliamentary Oovemment in England." An excellent example of the 
 respect due to the rights of private interebt The saving ptoposed by the Oontisigeot 
 Comnittet) of our Senate does not exceed $18,000. One of the Senators, the Honorable 
 Mr. Anderson, calculated that this economy would not lower the tax one-third of aoent 
 per head to the tMC .payers of the whole Dominion. Is it worth while to commit so much 
 injustice for so small a prof t ? 
 
 Two other members of t^e Oommittee had other ojijeots in view. Everybody knows 
 that New Brunswick and Nova Scotia claim the right of placing a certain number of em- 
 ployes in the Senate. But a question arose whether they ought to exercise that right now 
 or defer it till some vacancies occur. At the instigation of some of the members the 
 Committee immediately created some vacancies that it plboed at the disposal of the Senators 
 from the Maritime Provinces. But several of those representatives expressed themselves 
 as averse to dispossessing men who had received the assurance that they held their em- 
 ployment for life. Such were t&e generous sentiments expressed by t^e venerable Mr. 
 Holmes, as well as by Messrs. Miller, Weir, &o. The coveted offices in question amovnted 
 only to four, and to obtain the disposal of these four places some of the Senators became 
 the prjneipal promoters of the sad decision of the 2(H;h of November. They urged 
 that their right to the disposal of these offices was incontestable, and they claimed to 
 exercise it much as they regretted its interference with tJte moral righttofihe old Servants. 
 Justice could not be done to these without an act of injustice being practised upon 
 others. We would here remind those members who paid so little deference to moral 
 right!, that to obtain an object incomparably more grave, the present constitution conse- 
 crates similar rights in favor of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, to the prejudice, so to 
 speak, of Upper and Lower Canada. We refer them to clause 147 of the " Act of 'British 
 North America, 1867." 
 
 This article predetermines the changes that the aooession of Prince Edward Island to 
 the Federation would occasion. The three Maritime Provinces, grouped t(^ether, having 
 a right in priadiple only to twebty.fonr members, the same ns in eaich of the other two 
 divtsioB'i, tipper and Lower Canada, Neva Scotia was to have ten SeiDiatt>rs, New' Bruns- 
 wick ten Senators, and Prince Edward Island four. Now the two first named Provinces 
 who, as yet, form by themselves the third division, possess, at present, each twelve mem- 
 bers. If Prince Edward Island should join the Union would it not follow that a sixth of 
 said Senators ought to lose their titles ? But those who drew up the Act judged rightly, 
 that it would be unjust to take from four persons a dignity which had been bestowed 
 dpon them for life. Modifying the principle, they decided that in according four members 
 to Prince Edward Island, on her entrance into the Union, they would displace no body, 
 only the respective representation of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia shall be reduced 
 from twelve to ten members, at vacancies occur. 
 
 When Upper and Lower Canada, out of respect to the rights of possession, thus 
 consent that the sister Provinces shall enjoy four seats in the Province more than them ; it 
 eeems to us that it would be but courteous and loyal on the part of the Maritime Pro- 
 vinoes to recognize the force of this principle in respect to our old employ^. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 We have now fiaished onr ezamination of a question which though it concerns imme- 
 
8 
 
 difttoly only a few penons, is of real importance in its relation to spraye principles. And 
 if we have gone into details it was with the object of inducing a publio body not to proceed 
 with an act of injoatice, which is no small matter. 
 
 Fortunately the Senate has not yet sacotioned the Report of its last Oommittee, but 
 adjourned the consideration of it to the IGth of March. We have reason to belieye that 
 it will hesitate to adopt a proceeding so faulty in principle, so miserably parsimonious, and 
 BO ill becoming its dignity. A great majority of the Senators do not desire to displace any 
 body, but a number of the Senators from Ontario are of a different opiuion. 
 
 It is to be regretted that men who formed a part of the former Legislative Oounoil 
 should, in the new Senate, be so oblivious to the moral responsibilities that belong to them 
 as the representatives of the old order of things. It ill becomes them to be unmindful 
 of certain obligations, especially when they consider how the Queen has acted by them 
 in similar matters. Their chief title to the high dignity which She has conferred upon 
 them is in short the same "acquired right" that they dispute to their former old cm< 
 ploy^s.* 
 
 To sum up briefly, the Senate, for all the reasons that we hare indicated, ought in 
 justice to connrm the old employes in their offices and salaries, or, if it comes to the 
 conclusion that it is its duty to displace some, it should indemnify them or even pension 
 them. And if it is necessary to accomplish that — to revoke its first decision — then why 
 not revoke it ? 
 
 "I felt it was unjust" said the Honorable Mr. Miller, at the sitting of The House 
 on the 12th of December last, "and I foresaw the consequences. To day I think myself 
 no longer bound by that decision though I did not oppose it when it passed." 
 
 Other good words were spoken on that occasion, we give them below, and certainly 
 nothing finer could fall from the mouth of an honest man. 
 
 Mr. Seymour and some others having reproached Mr. Letellier de St. Just with resist- 
 ing the execution of a reform which had been approved by him three years before : — 
 
 " It is true, replied he, that I voted for the report of 1864, but that was on condition 
 that it should only take effect in the future — that is to say — on the demise of the present 
 Office Holders, but if you will maintain that I have been inconsistent, be it so! I prefer 
 to be thought illogical rather #liaa inhuman." 
 
 And here. Gentlemen, is the true solution of the question : it is better to be illogical 
 than inhuman. 
 
 * Hon. Ha. Gcrbii— I woald ask why, in the first selection, the choice of the Grown is restricted 
 to the membera of this Chamber, when probably others out of it could be found whose presence here 
 would be of more advantage to the public ? 
 
 HoK. Sir E. P. TAOHi— I do not know what advantage would be derived if the Grown had the 
 right of making selections trom all over the country. If that had been proposed, / think many 
 honorable ffentlemen would have found fault trilhit. (Hear, hear.) It was due to eouttesey that the 
 members of this House should not be overlooked, and not only that, but there were acquired rights 
 which had tobe respected.— Debatet on Confederation of B. N. J. Province*, 1866. , , 
 
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