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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul jlichA. il est filmi A partir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche 6 droite. et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6csssaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 R< IT fi«i 1 OD Poi cba val HH 1 the . liti E gre^ frie tim affo hap U8, I fron beai fron fiill con two in u hav'i Hem to at has beb of 01 no gent and FUNCTIONS OF THE SENATE. [FromTnK GAzmTE, Momietil, I'Sth April, 1890.] Responsibilities and Duties of the Upper (/haraber. ITS VALUE TO THE PUBLIC. S«uiiele«i« rrltlclsaiN of Urn Work An- Hwered by Sf'nator Abbott— An Able and Kloqnent Speech. Hon. J. J. C. Abbott's speech in the Senate on WedneHday last in reply to Senator ! Poirier'B motion for a remodeling of that i chamber will tak»- place among the most , valuable RpeecheB of the Bession. It is valuable SB tending to open the eyeu of the people to the position of the upper house in our coa- i vitution, and will bear careful peruHal: — Hon. Mr. Abbott said : I am disposed to re- gret that even the Hiigbt color wliich my hon. friend's address hHs given to what is some- 1 times said with regard to us, should have been \ a^'orded by him on this occasion ; bu^, per- haps, the difhculty which that may cause to I 118, the unpleasantness wLi< h we may feel i from having the senf^eless cries occasionally j heard about the Senate, supported by a voice from within, may be compensated for, by the j fyll discussion which has taken place on the constitution of this body in the debate we ^-ave bad to-day. My hon. friend and one or tH'o other Li'U. ^tntU-men withhim, very few in number, I must ray, in so large a House — have not lound fault with the position of the Senate as rettards its penoimcly I am happy to say, l>«rauit Is worth oose.rving that llie election of Hcna- tors basin substance almost ceased to be in- direct. They tre still nominally chosen, as under the letter of the coiistltution lliey must be chosen, by the state leglslatnnfs. Trie slate legislature means, of course, the parly lor tho time dominant, Which holds a party meeting (caucu*) and decides on the candidate, who is . thereupon elected, the party going solid for whomsoever the majority has ap- proved. Now the d'Hermination of tho caucus hss almo&t always been arranged beforehand 1>y the party managers. Hometimes, when a vacancy in a senatorshlp approaches, the aspirants for It put themselves before th6 ptopin fii the state. Their names ar» discussed at the state party that they would sacrifice any interest rather than tiiat a Democrat >should poll a Itepublio- anvote. We know perfectly well that there is no consideration that will induce a major- ity of the Senate to go against their party ; and that the man who voted against his party would be held up to the scorn and con- tempt of the 60,000,000 of people of the United States, and would lie as much de- iipised by his opponents in politics as by his own friends. How is it we are going to clmngc human nature so that the men who aro returned here by the exertions of the doLiinant party in a provincial legislature, shall cease the moment they arrive here, to have any political opinions? That I think is easilj answered. That 1 think is already comphtely answered. A hlFKEHKNOK OF OPINION. Hon. Mr. Maclnnes (B. C.)— The hon. gentleman is really patting a strange in- terpretation on the words I made use of. The words 1 used lour years ago, which 1 read to the i^ouse and endorsed to-day, were that if an olectiun was made by the different provincs that members would come here free and untrammelled, under no influence or under aay sense of gratitude to the leaders here at the Federal capital, as they would owe their position to tho Local Legislature, and many of the local legisla- 8 hon. turuH art! not actuated by the tiamo prin- ciples that urevail here at thti capital Hon. Mr. Abbott — If I «;ould only bo certain that when I talie down what 1 hoar w ith my cars, I place before mvsell bomething which I havfi a ristht to discuHH, it would fcicilitate my labors here a good deal. I tuok down at the moment my hon. friend Kpoke, the lanfcuage he used, which was in so many words that these men who would be Hunt here by the local lej^islatures would know no party. Hon. Mr. Maclnues (15. C.) — 1 read it out of the book, and 1 can denote no 'mintake. Hon. Mr. Abbott — 1 am not speaking of mv hou. friend's speech of four years ago. 1 had not the advantage of hcuring that speech, or reading it, and I am only speaking uf what my htm. friend said in the House with- in the last three hours, which I wrote care- lully down, and which I read in making the stattmentlo the House, when he insiHted tiiat the persons sent by the Itgislatures to this House would know no party. But while I am refeniug to the hon. j;tnJeman,l would remark upon another curious statement lie made about tho defects of this system of appointment, lie said that one great ob- jection to this mode of appointmcnlis, that a btnator so appointed would be so iuilueuccd by gratitude to the men who appointed him, that he would not be able U> give an inde- pendent vote against them. Now, I point to uiy hon. friend himself as a living, walking and speaking proof totliC contrary. Hon. Mr. Maclnnos (B. (J.) — I must rise to a question of order again. 1 am misre- presenied again. The hon. gentlemen must know, as every hon. member of this House must know, that 1 never was elected as a Conservative or a Grit— that in both of my elections to the House of Commons I was distinctly an independent I defeated the cai'lidate of the Mackenzie Government in 187;!, when the Reform party was in power ; at the next election I defeated the Con- servative candidate that was run against me, and I was returned to the (-'ommons thoroughly indopeudcnt,and hon. gentlemen who will take tho trouble to turn up tho Parliamentary Companion of 1878 will find there in my biography that I am in favor of unrestricted reciprocity with the United Htates and thoroughly indcpeudeut. rilK INKI.t'ENCB OF" OBATITUDE. Hon. Mr. Abbott^ — My hon. friend has not yet interfered with or disputed the statement I made as to what he remarked a. few mo- ments ago. The objection which he made remains there. This speech which he has favored us with, which shows the chamel- eon character of his politics, has not altered the position he took, that the fact that an hon. gentleman was appointed by a particu- lar minister or [(articular party would so aifect him with gratitado to the benefactor who placed him in the House, that it wonld be impossible for him, or next to impossible for him, ever to vote against him afterwards. Now, we have jiroof, as I said — living, walk- ing and speaking proof—that that is not a valid objection. I think 1 may conclude that the mode of election proposed would not cause party feeling in this House to disappear ; and in my opinion it would not have the etfect of giving to this House as good a selection other- wise as we now have from another body. I venttire to dispute and doubt the assertion, that the local legislatures are better tittedt J appoint memberaof tho Cana- dian Senate than the central or Federal Par- liament, in which, as a matter of course, this Hou.se itself has a voice. The appoint- ments are made on the recommendation of tho government In power, and, generally speaking, a'thongh in the case of tho pre- sent Government that rule has not been universal, the candidate shows the color in politics which fairly describes the party ap- pointing him. My hon. friend was one io» stance, but then he would have been an e(|ually good instance on the other side if his apitointnunt had been made by a Liberal government, for ho alternately fought and cttniiucred first one and then the other party. But appointments here are naturally io ac- cord generally with the party tendencies of the Government of the day. PAKTIKS IN THE SENATK, Hut my hon. friend from Ottawa thinks that is a bad mode of appointing senators. He thinks it has not been successful. He says there are only three Liberal senators from Ontario in the House, and ho desires a larger representation of that party in this House. Hon. Mr. Power— From Ontaiio! Hon. Mr. Abbott — Yes, from Ontario. My hon. friend has been asking tor a change for some time, and his party in Ontario has long been desiring a change. And if they had long got the change they wanted, there would soon be a change in the senators, too. But supposing the Liberal party in Ontario had been iu office all tblg time, what position JtBTT *'tt*'«l»»»t«'- would a Coneervative GoTemmeot now Ira in, if a Liberal Qovernment had had the op- portunity of filling all the vacancieu in the Henate for the last twenty-tive or thirty years ? Then would there have been plenty of Liberal senators in the House. In fact the appointment of senators accompanies the confidence of the people. But I main- tain that the members who come to this House appointed for life, having a proper sense of the gr&ve dutien that appertain to them, drop party tendencies to a large ex- tent, and in so far as those party tendencies bear towards faction they have disappeared from the members of this House altogether. My experience of the Senate proves, that whether u.. members be appointed by a Liberal or Conservative Government they have shown, since I remember this House, and I have observed it more since I have been more intimately acquainted with it of late — they have shown that disposition to study the true interest of the country in disregard of party feeling and pa'-ty dis- cussion, that betits them in the high position they hold as senators of this Dominion. The result, therefore, in the opinion of my hon. friend, of the change he proposes to make would be that we would have better men, men of higher standing in the country, and men with less party feeling. In my opinion we would not have men of equal standing in the appointments which would be made by the local legislatures ; they would not probably be equal to the selections which are made by the Dominion Parliament from the whole Dominion of Canada. And proba- bly they would be more likely to be ani- mated by party feeling than those men who have had a large experience of the affairs of the Dominion itself, which is actually the case with three-tourths of the men Hitting round me in this House. They would have a larger training on the great (luestions which are constantly arising, and would bav6 a larger grasp of the measures which are fitted for the welfare and progress of their country. I think, there- fore, on all these grounds, on the ground of independence, on the ground of absence of party feeling, on the ground of ex- perience and breadth of view ; and on the ground of better training for the high posi- tion which they bold, a better selection would be made by the Parliament of the Dominion, than could be exptcted to be made by the legislatures of the provinces, without any exception. THAT IS THE DEMrtKRATE COWCI.rSION I have come to; and I think circum- stanced and reason, and common sense would indicate, that from n lar;,'er field, a larger and more experienced body of men — from a larger colhction of trainca states- men — we are more likely to gut men fitted to bo senators of Canada tban from the smaller legislatures, selecting less ex- perienced persons from the smaller circles of public men in the local legislatures. I think, therefore, we may fairly consider that wc have bt-tter opportunities for a fair selection of senators by the principle which we have adopted, than we could have by al- lowing the local legislatures to nominate them — in other words that the i uriiament of Canada or its Government, would be a more reliable guide in the choice of senators, than the premier of any of the smaller prov- inces, from persons within his party ex- periences. It may be noticed also that the constant alteration which is to be expected from time to time of parties in the Govern- men of the Dominion will produce a corres- ponding alteration in the political character of the gentlemen who are from time to time appointed to this House. No such corres- pondence can be expected from appoint- ments made by local legislatures, who ant bound by no ties and who have no harmony as to politics, as between their party princi- ples and the party principles of the Dominion Government. It happens at this moment that a very large proportion of the local governments of Canada are Liberal. It is very probable that party politics do not ex- ercise so large an influence on local legis- latures as they do on that of the Dominion itself, and thai^ administration in a pop- pular manner may tend to keep in power a party in the province of one cast of political thought, while in the Dominion the Government is guided by the other. And in the Dominion the party which in provin- cial matters favors the opposite political complexion, entrusts to them the power of gove;ning the entire nation. And although possibly the number of senators appointed by the local governments might not be sufficient in number to destroy the equilibrium ot the House, and set the major* ity in the Senate against the majority which prevails in the other House, still there is no doubt that it might result in that, and it might result in a very serious disturbance of the harmony which otherwise would exist between the two Houecb, more especially as the Senators who would be sent from the 5 local legislatures would be more likely to be influenced by local feeling than tbOHc se- Iticted from a larger field by the Dominion i'ttrliament. For thene reasons I am in hopes that the House will prefer the present sys- tem of selecting members of the Senate to ihiitwliich is proposed by niy honorable Iriend from Acadie, that is to say election by the provinces. THK KI,KrTIVK8"SRTEM I'NFKASinLE. r>ut we have had some KUggestions from other honorable gentlemen. One or two honorable gentlemen who spoke, I think Huutalned the propoHltion of my honorable friend. Other honorable gentlemen who bave spoket: and are dissatisfied with the preHcnt condition of tbingK, have suggested ele<;tion by the people — in some instances by a body of electors specially (juali- fied by property for the purpose, which, to my mind is, of the various elective projectn, the most reason- able and most likely to result in a strongly conservative Senate— I use the word con- servative not in a party pense at all — but there are no two of the hon. gentlemen who have spoken who have agreed as to the mode in /hich this election should be con- ducted We had, as the honorable gentle man from Acadie said, an elective council which commenced in 185G and terminated with Confederation. We have had, therefore, the experience of 10 years of an elective upper house ; and that method of selection was driven up on mature and careful considera- tion, and after consultation with all the several provinces which then constituted the Dominion The facte and the argu- ments with reirard to this change are stated in the Confederation debates, and there it will be found that the whole of the Mari- time provinces were in favor of the contin- uance of the appointing system by the Crown, and were not willing to give that up ; while the leading statesmen of the provinces of Canada, although thev did not think that the elective system had been a failure, were nevertheless prepared to state that there were symptons of dilficulties aris- ing under that system. These difiiculties have been referred to by most people who have discussed the system of an elective upper chamber, and these difficulties were beginning to manifest themcelveB. And the delegates from Canada willingly yielded to the desire of the Maritime provinces to have the Senate constituted on the principles which those provinces preferred, namely, the principle of appointment by the Crown. T venture to trouble the House with two or three referen^^B on this subject, which I have taken from the Confederation debates, from the speeches of the present Premier, Sir John A. Macdonald, and the Hon. Geo. Brown, who was, in fact, the leader of the Liberal party at that time. Sir Johu Mac- dunald says, in discussing the various modes of electing an Upper House : — "We found a (general disinclination on the part of the lower provinces to adopt the elective principle : Indeed, I do not think there was a dlnsentlng voice in the confer- encd against the tvdoptTon of the nominative principle, except from Prince £dward Isliind. The dfloKHtes from New BruoBwick, Nova Hcotia and Newioiiudlaud as one man, were in favor of nomination by the Crown, and nomination by the Crown is, of con rm>, the Hystem which 18 most In accordance w'lth the British constitution." That is the view he takes of the elective system. Then again : — " The arguments for an elective council are numerous and strong ; and I ought to say no as one of the administration responsible for introducing the elective principle In Canada ; but there were causes— which w« did not take Into consideration at the time — why It did not so fully succeed in Canada as we had expected. One great cause was the enormous extent of constituencies and the Immense labor which conseiiuently devolved on those who sought the sultrages of the people for election to the council. For the same reason the expense— the legitimate expense— was so enormous that men of standing In the country, eminently lltted for such a position, were prevented from coming forward . At first, 1 admit, men of the first standing did come forward, but we bave sei;n that in every succeeding eleotloi. In both Can cdas, there has been an Increasing dis- inclination, on the part of men ol standing and political experience und weight in the country, to become candidates ; while on the other hand, all the young men, the active poli- ticians, those who have resolved to embrace the life of a statesman, have sought entrance to the House of Assembly." Then speaking ot the objection that there might be a deadlock between the two Houses, he says: — There is no fear of a deadlock between the two houses. There Is an Infinitely greater chance of a deadlock between the two branches of the legislature, should the elec- tive principle be adopted, than with a nomin- ated chamber chosen by the CroWn and having no mission from the people. There is, I repeat, a great danger of an Irreconcilable dlflerence of opinion between the two branches of the legislature, If the upper be elective, than If It holds its commission from the Crown." So he points out the wide distinction in case of conflict between the two houses, be- tween an elective house and a nominated honse. Then the Hon. Geo. Brown, the other pole of the political sphere in this country, held a similar opinion. He always 6 huM the opinion that tliere waa ilanKtr m an elective houHe and be eays : — "1 liave always »)cen opposyd to a Hecoud elective chamber, and Iain no still troni the couvlctlon that two elective bouM^H are lucon- NiHteutwIth the rlelit workliiKNof the ISrUlHh parliamentary Nydt^ifi. [ voted, ahnONt alouf, againMt the change when the Council waH made elective, bufl have lived ta noo a vust majority of tbo^e who did tliH deed wIhIi It hacen necessary. And how far would tliey have been williner to stand the enormous election e>peuHe8 necessary to carry through an election over such large constitnencicH ? I, myself, assisted my la- mented friend, the Hon John Hamilton, in cnnvassin/i; one-third of the divisiitn which I represent in this House; and I can assure hon. gentlemen that I and my colleague fnunri it ft aulKciently heavy task, to warrant him in paying that he wouhl never again plant ministries or forms them. I It is not on the breath of this House that , the minisfrv exists; it is to the direct re- I presentatives of the people tiiat it is I responsible. With regard to the (inances of the country, it is not we who ap- I proprlate the revenues of the country or its moneys, to public works and other purposes ; by the constitution, it is the otlier House that does that. MINLSTKHS IN THK SENATE. Hon. gentlemen complain, and with some reason, that we have not ministers with portfolios ht^re. But the more f see of the working of this House, the more I doubt whether the possession of portfolios in this House would be an unmixed benelit. If there be a department which needs no money, which does not recjuire that its chief shall stand in his own person befon; the re- presentatives of the pe<»ple, and state what he has done with the money entrusted to him during the previous session, and what money be requires for the use of his depart- ment for the ensuing year — if there is a minister who has such a department we might have him here; but as to the heads of departments which are oliliged to spend money in the interest of the country, which have to construct great public works, which have to deal with the finances of the coun- try, to manage them, to j)iy our debts, to car- ry on the negotiation of our loans, to collect customs, and manage our inland revenues — who is it that has a right to call the head of such a department to account in his proper person, and demand from bini annually a de- tailed statement of everything he has done, or proposes to do: how he has spent the pub- lic money, and what more be wants to ' i'.' spond ? Who haR to demand that of him ? Not the Senate, but the other IFouee. The people «)f Canada can change their coostita- tion altogether, if tht;* pleaHe, I preKume, )>iit until they exercise that right, it Ih the Lower UouHe that must deal with the money of the country, that must settle how that money is to be spent, that must call to account every minister who handles, or expects to handle, or has power to handle the public money. He must come to that House and must in his own proper person account before the tri- bunal f6r every official act. These consider- ations are probably the reasons why port- folios have been gradually driven from the Senate into the other House, and any hon. gentleman who looks calmly and dispas- sionately at this question mutt see, tiiat, whether those reasons are conclusive or not. I do not say they are conclusive by any mcani), but they are growing upon me, and 1 am inclined to believe that they are growing ia their im- pression upon other members ol the Senate too. These considerations denerve more weight in the demand which wn freciuently make, and which I, myself, have repeatedly joined in making, that we should have de- partments in this House which will cause a larger meat«u re of the work of the country to be done in the Senate. GOOD WOHK FOR THE 8KN ATK. I think there are other modeii by which we can appropriate to ourselves - the work that we are peculiarly fitted to do. One of the most important functions of the House of Lords is to deal with the private legis- lation of the country. By a skiliul adapta- tion of the rules of the two HouKes, a large portion — the greater part, I think — of the private legislation of England has been forced into the House of Lords, and it is done there, and it is done, it is admitted on all hands, most admirably. It is one of the plumes in the cap of the L'ouse of Lords, that there is no country in the world where the private legislation is done more perfectly and more thoroughly than in England. That is something we can hold cut for our- solveH, to attract to tlie Senate more of the initiat on of the private legislation of the country. We have to do with it largely as it is. Every private bill that comes up receives the close attention of this House, aud many of them are amended either by pruning superfluous clauses, altering them or adding to them in the interest of the public,und there is no reason why this House should not at- tract to itself a great portion of the original private bill business of the whole Dominion. I do not know, therefore, and ray honor- able friend did not specify, in what respect it is that we do not perform the duties which are expected of us — the exact expres- sion I think be made uh>' of was that we did not hold our own. There are many reasons why what my honorable frfend may refer to, when he speaks of not holding our own, may be a necossary consequence of our posi- tion. A CONTRAST WITH THK COMMONS. The public admire speeches; they like dis- cushions, especially if they are a trifle warm. They like political questions, with which they habitnaHy deal themselves as, matter of private conversation. They hear nothing of that kind here, or only at rare intervals. That kind of discussion is not exactly with- in our function — quite within our powers, but not within the functions that wo assume to ourselves. It appears to me that it would not be of advantage to the Senate if evory debatable question which is spoken of day after day, night after night, in the House of Commons, were ditigged lip in the Senate and subjected to the same treatment here. The reasons which prompt these long discussions, and cause them to be prolonged from day to day, and woek to week, with a great deal — 1 hope I may be pardoned for saying so, but I mean no offence — a great deal of repetition, do not exist here. But there are strong mo- tives for such debates in the other House. It is important to a man in another place, who has shortly to go before the people, to denounce the Government, if he happens to be in Opposition, for their extravagance and corruption ; and if he happens to be on the Government side of the House to show how unpatriotic and corrupt the Opposition are. These are two subiects, fertile In them- selves, aDu expanded to a degree that it Is almost impossible to calculate except by those who will go throngh the labor of wading through Hansard. These are the discussions and debates which attract the public eye, and control the popular taste. They would approve of us if we talked for days and days without any results, proba- bly, but the qu'et, unobtrusive labor which this House goes through in perfecting and supervising the le^tislation of the country, I have no doubt they would appreciate if they knew of it. 9 THK PHEHB ANO THE 8KNATK. But they do uot know of it ; it ia nut tbo kii,d ut labor which preBentH itself Iteforu the eyes of the public iu evury iicwupHpei of I he Doiiiiniou. Aud grttal uuinbt-rM, u large iiittjority, prolnibly, of our pvoplu, for whom wu are uarncHtly, boooHtly and dili- i^i'iitly working iu tbJH House and in our (KDimlMue rooms, day after day, never know tbat we arc euKaged in Beeking to further thfir welfare at all. They Hee nothing, pcr- iiaus, but BOtne uentencu in the papers Btat> JDg tbat the old women of the Senate ad- journed at 4.30 to-day. This prodnceM a laugh; it is circulated in every paper and thoiic who have not neen us may imagine that our garments arc not of tbat virile and mascu- jiue character that they ought to be. Tbey find fault with our adjournm«;ntt),not know- ing tbat our labors arc coucurrent with those of tlie House of Commons and tbat tl are times when faction and oratory hold the tield, and there is nothing for us to do for tLe moment. There is nothing too absurd for people wbo are not much interested in tbu matter, aud umuse themselveB by reading sneers and jokes about the Senate, to be- lieve. They laugh at the cheap and stalejokes and take them lor gianttd; lio one is there to dispute what is ^uid, and tbey form tbe idea that we are a parcel of imbecile old people, who are slumbeiing away a ([uiet und well paid lite up here, doing nothing but drawing our pay, and allowing tbe busi- ness of the country to go where it pleases. It IS not our fault if this be the impression of many people, aud it ought uot to aflect us. Wfi ought not to admit because there are jukeR in the papers about up, that we are not tioiding our own, not fulfilling tbe purposes of our existence. We are independent of all »' "'', and we are men of sulHcient experi- eu'.v «nd knowledge of the world and of business, and of sufficiently thorough public training, to treat these things as not affect- ing us one jot. The consciousness that we are doing our work and doing it thoroughly, ought to be, and I have no doubt is, quite sutficient for us, and if we may feel a pass- ing irritation at being characterized by contemptuous epithets, it passes away very quickly, and makes very little impression on any member of this House. It appears to me, and I am confirmed in this impression by many hon. geni.ie- men that the presence of the press in our House and the reports short as they are, and few as they are, which they furnish to the public of the doings of this House, are im- proTing our position in the eyes of the coun- try. I am satisfied of that. I hear on all blinds, and especially I hear from gentle- men iu another place, of the benttit we con- fer by tbe care which we take with the le~ gislaiion ; and I was asked this very day where the legislation of the country would be if the Keuatt were gone, by one of tbe very men who was engaged in creating that legislation in another chamber. 80MK STATISTICS. Instead of being, as is Bupposed by some, mere legistrars of the will of the Govern- ment in another bouse, bound by gratitude, like the hon. gentleman from New West- minster, to vote exactly for what they desire us to do, we find that last year we passed through this House 25 bills, 'introduced in this House, of which number 13 were amended, many of them in a material de- gree, while the House was in session. We have already dealt this year with 27 of these bills, of which IG Lave been amended ; and every hon. gentleman knows tbat there aie one or two important measures we have gone through with enormous euro, which it is ad- mitted on all hands we have benefitted to a most important extent, but which are not included in this list, not V'-ving been finish- ed in this house In tb' A year, from the HoU--e of Commons, wct^okup and disponed of 37 public bills, of which 15 were materi- ally amend* d in this house; and we disposed of 59 private bills, of which 20 were materi- ally amended in the Senate ; making a total last year of 121 bills considered by the SenF,.e, of which 48 bills were materially amended in the course of their passage througt this house. This year the number is not so great because they have not all come before the Senate, but this year we have already disposed of 88 bills, of which 3G have been materially amended "n this bouse. Now, of all the iiills tbat have thus been amended which had first passed through the crucible of the House of Com- mens, and were sent back to that house, with amendments made by us, we have never had any hesitation sliown by the lower House in concurring iu the amendments that w© made, except in one instance. Lastycarwe received a message from the lower Houte informing us tbat tbey could not concur in one of our amendments, for reasons which they gave. Our committee met and ex- amined the message, and the reasons,' and they sent to the lower House an answer to those reasons, as being the reabons which bad induced them to make the amendment. The House of Commons immediately accept- ed the reasons which were given to them in reply, and adopted the amendments withoat 10 ! f further discussiou. So in point of fact, of this immeDHe number of bills carefully gone through and ameuded in this house, every one has been accepted by the lower house without objection exce^'« one, and In that case, after consideration, and hearing the reasons which had prompted this house to make the ame;ndment, that ope was accept- ed also, without further objection. We performed another branch of our duties last year — it was not particularU- agreeable to me, but on the whole I resp ed the Senate for doing what the major, considered to be its duty on that occasion, and I am bound to believe that the majority was right. A Government bill passed by the House of Commons, which the majority of this House disapproved of, was brought before the ISeuaie and was unceremoniously rejected. I did my best to carry it through : 1 thought it ought to pass - I thought we were pledged to it in many ways. 1 gave vat ions reasons why '* '~-ght to have passed the House, and I think, abstractedly speak- ing, it ought to have passed the House. But the majority of the Senate were opposed to ii ; and notwithstanding their gratitude to the gentlemen who appointed them, thty re- jected the bill alter a comparatively short discussion. Hon. Mr. Dickey — The bill has never come back. THK BKNATK HAS PONE ITS DUTY. Hon. Mr. Abbott— No. What after all doeK this discussion result in, now that wo iiave got through with it. We have had otl'cr- cd to us various modes of electing this House, but wu have not had suggested to U8 any reason whatever that I can see for changing uur constitu- tion. The only semblance ot a reason ofl'ered — it was a good reason, too, if it had been well founded — was that which the hon. gentlemen from Acadie oflfert-d, that we were not doing what was expected of us, no properly carrying out the objects of our con- stitution. I think I have shown, and my hon. friend from Halifax has shown, what those objects really are. I think 1 have shown, and other members of the Henate have shown, tliat we have really performed our duties with regard to those objects ; that we are daily performing them, and that every day we are seeking to take to our- selves a larger amount of work. 8o far irom Hhirking work and desiriDg to live in indolence and luxurious ea8e,drBwing our pay for nothing, we are seeking for all the work we can legitimatel: do within the sphere of our duties. What we have had bo- fore us we have done and done well. It is not disputed — no hon. gentleman whu has si>oken has disputed — that we have done the work well. Some hon. members suggested that we ought to throw out more bills in order to show our independence. I do not agree withthat ideaatall. If anyone can point to a bill, which in the opinjon of the majority ought to have been thrown out, and we did not do it, I am ready to cry peccavi,and I would be ready to say that we were guilty, if such a citcumstance occurred ', but it has not been suggested by those who have proposed that we should tbrow out bills to show our inde- pendence, that we have omitted to reject any bill that in the opinion of the majority of the Senate ought to have been rejected We have rejected such bills, whoever in- troduced them or 1 ought them before us, as we thought should not pass; we liav«; amended those that we thought should be amended ; we have improved those that we thought needed improvement. We have not delaytd in the performance of those duties or the exercise of our functions; we have been equal to the work before us — wo have not allowed it to get into arrears. We have been here ready to perform all the duties entrusted to us, and it is admitted on all hands that we do those duties well. What more can be required of us than that? If wu do not happen to attract pul)lic attention much, what matters itV I say to hon. gentlemen let us do our work — let us guard the legislation of the country, let us revise it, let us correct it, let us amend it, let us re- ject it, in the interest of the country, as Wf are reciuired to do. Let us take care that no temporary ht of prejudice or passion, in- jurious to our country or disadvantageous to our interests is allowed to force a measun.' through this Parliament without giving to the people a further opportunity for considering it. That is one of our most important func- tions, not to persist forever in resisting the will of the people — that I should never re- commend you to do — but when you find ill- considered legislation, measures which vou think have not received due consideration by the representatives of the people, or by the public, it will be your duty to reject them for the moment, to give the people a further op- portunity to examine thorn. If we continue to perform those duties with diligence, if we continue to exercise with dignity and etHciency the functions which the constitu- tion entrusts to us, we may safely leave our reputation, our services, and our character, to the appreciation ot our country, which we loye and revere, and from which we shall recelre all the recognition we desire, of our performance of the high functions of sen- ators of this Dominion. rho haH oue the ggeetod billH iu do not aD point aajority 3 did not fouldbe such a jot been iBed that )ur Jnde- to reject majority rejected )ever i^- )eforo UB, we liavt! tiould be e that wf We have of those Lions; we ore UK — u arrearK. rm all ine mitted ou ell. What at? If we attention to bon. , UH guard i us revise let U8 re- itry, as wt; c:are thai aisBion, in- tftReOUB to measun: ving to the ousidering tant func- sitting the never re- m tind ill- which you Icration by or by tho t tliom for ftuther oi)- fti continue jence, if w« fnity and le constitu- y leave our r character, ir, which we ch we shall eslre, of our >aB of leu-