^>. %. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) // €o A A /.% i/.. % if. ^ s 1.0 I.I 1^ |50 Z 1;° 1.8 11.25 111.4 IIIIII.6 V] <^ /] v: %i>V * > o / %^>> .^^^ ^ i»>. i CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICJVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 1980 Technical Notes / Notes techniques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Physical features of this copy which may alter any of the Images in the reproduction are checked below. n n Coloured covers/ Couvertures de coi leur Coloured maps/ Cartes gdographiques en couleur Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages ddcolordes, tachetdes ou piqudes Tight binding (may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin)/ Reliure serr6 (peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge irt^rieure) L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. 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The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol —»> (meaning CONTINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec ie plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetA de I'exemplaire filmi, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la der- nidre image de cheque microfiche, selon Ie cas: Ie symbols — *> signifie "A SUIVRE", Ie symbole V signifie "FIN". The original copy was borrowed from, and filmed with, the kind consent of the following institution: National Library of Canada L'exemplaire filmi fut reproduit grdce d la g6n6rosit6 de I'dtablissement prdteur suivant : Bibliothdque nationale du Canada Maps or plates too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper Inft hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour 6tre reproduites en un seul ciichd sont filmdes d partir de Tangle sup6rieure gauche, de gauche d droite et de haut en ba&, en prenant Ie nombre d'images ndcessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la m6thode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 I ( V^:39::.P-n&^^^ :cA,^^2tBr-'?-^ aJ^W.- A**«**«i**AA*A*AAA********A******AA4MUkAAAA*flM4 SPEECH BY M^- N- f". BAVIN, M.^- ON THE BUDGET DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, OTTAWA, MARCH, 29th, 1892. 1892. |^*'f'<'VW*IV«VV««V«»«WI|l«MPVV«l >*i"«"Vnt) to the barunnasB prepared for them by the policy of the hon gentlemen, may be still larger, and that cry of unrestricted reci- procity may yet be hoard. That cry, even when there was behind it a ceruHin amount of belief, a certain evidence of faith, was not either a very successful, nor, in my opinion, a very respectable one. And now when it is absolutely a falsetto cry, when we hear it from those benches — because hon. gentlemen must say some- thing and have been able to invent nothing else — that cry has passed into the category of ridiculous clap-trap, and I was sorry to see so much time occupied here to-night in re echoing the doleful sounds we have so often heard from my hon. friends. The hon. gentleman who has seat (Mr Davies, P.E.I.) by the hon. member for Mills), and I sympathize the remarks made by the hon. nieiibers tor Bothwell. Neither this assembly nor any '-ther human institution can be expected i.. reach or even approach the ideal. When speaking of public opinion in Canada as not satisfactory, he might say the same of England, he might B^y the same of any country where consti- tutional government prevail** ; you might say public opinion is not all it ought to be, but if you compare public opinion in EiiijI&ad to-day with what it was fifty years ago, not to go back to the time of Charles II, not to go back to the Revolu- juat taken his was preceded Bothwell (Mr. with some of 2 tion, yuu will tind that the state of public I opinion in England is intelligent, it is , ever ready to grasp all great questions, | and ia in advance of what it was at any I other time A man familiar with the j history of Canada must know that al- I though public (n. gentle men oppiisite ? Will they appnmch the question subsequently in the same lart/e spirit? No. They will try and twis* that act to a party advantage, and seek from a particular and small occurrence to draw a general conclusion and make a sweeping elfoct. 1 wish to deal very briefly with the hon. gentleman who has just taken his seat. He commenced his speech by resorting with great cleverness to a style of advocacy that those who have practised in criminal courts are familiar with. I do not think he was very iiigbiiuous He tried to prove that the reverse of & statement that was made from this side was the true state of the case. But what are the fact,8 in regard to discrimination by Newfoundland ] When we got that treaty the Newfound- land tariff was 30 onta per barrel r)n flour, and the treaty allows 26 cents for United States flour. The protest of the Government was based on that fact, and the Act which th« hon. gentleman con- founded with this only came into exist- ence twelve mniiths afterwards. (Hear, hear, from Sir John Thompson) 1 say for an hon. gentleman sitting within two chairs of a philoscphic statesman who takes such large viens of things in general as does the hon. member for Bothwell (Mr. Mills), it was hardly a creditable proceeding on the part of the hon. mem- ber for Queen's (Mr. Daveis). But hon. gentlemen around him cheered, and how- ever grossly at variance with the facts the statement might be, hon. gentlemen opposite would cheer. I will be very brief in dealing with the hon. gentleman's argument as to what the Minister of Finance did in giving us the information that was in his be soin as one of the Ministers who went to Washington. There can be no doubt whatever that it is a well established rule that when diplo- matic negotiations take place and pro- tocols come into existence, if a Minister intends to refer to these, and the trans- actions are completed, they atiould be laid on the tablp i f Parliament. But if you take the most extreme cases, and if you examine the authorities you will find this : that this position is never surrend- ered by a Government under constitu- tional procedure, that it rests with their sense I'f responsibility to the country as t'l whether or imt they will at any given 1 8 time lny the papers on the table. Of c lurse, they nre responsible. But in the present case you had rnaily no diplomatists ill Washini^fon to arranne a treaty. What you had was this : Three Ministers goinif down to Washington at the invita- tion — and I will come to the dispute on that in a minute, and pass rapidly from it too — of a member of a foreign govern- ment to have an informal, a (jiinsi private 'liscuAsion as to what might be done in the w»iy of reciprocal trade. As I under- stand it, because I an> not in the confid- ence of the Government in this matter, , in retjard to the subjects that were j definitely arranged, and in regard to which definite information could be given, we have the papers laid on the table ; and ill regard to these communications which passed between the Ministers and Mr. Blaine and General Foater, respectintj reciprocal trade, what have we? We have what has again and again been dresentations of certain people. You know. Sir, that Mr. Pope, in one of his admirable poems, speaking or slanders alludes to a certain insect that has an uncontrollable instinct, but an instinct necessary for its own existence, to spin cobwebs. These cobwebs are very un- sightly, and so the poet says of the slanderer : " Break one cobweb through He spina the slight self-pleasing thread anew. Destroy his Hb or sophistry— in vain. The creature's at his dirty worls again." (Cheers). I confess to you, Sir, that I was not surprised that my hon. friend spoke once more about the monstrosity of the Minister of Finance talking about the prosperity of the country. It is a dread ful thing that the Minister of Finance, in the face of what we see to day in Canada, should stand up here and speak of the prosperity of the country. It is a mcn- trous thing that he should dwell on the increase in the tonnage of our ships, of the mileage of our railways ; perfectly monstrous that he should say one word about the vast increase of our exports or that he should refer to the evidences of our prosperity. It was superfluous, it was monstrous, and if the hon. gentleman will excuse me for saying st), it was a super fluity of naughtiness, if I may bonow a word from Paul, because the couiitry had proclaimed the conviction of its prosperity so strong by reducing hon. gt-ntlemon opposite to the miserable account of empty benches that they now make up, that it was perfectly unnecessary for the .Minister of Finance to dwell upon the prosperity of the country. We know that when ray hon. friends opposite went from place to place, and sent forth thtir wail iT\gs and draped themselves, so to speak, as political mutes, and went to the funeral of something, yo i may guess what it was, but it was not our funeral, anyway — (laughter) the country rejected them We know that the people whose votes they needed, and whose votes they want- ed, and whose votes they courted with tears and waitings, declared in answer to their entreaties : "Gentlemen, really in these constituencies the accommodation in the lunatic asylums is greatly limited, and begone as quickly as you can." I am much concerned for my hon. friend from Both well (Mr. Mills). I have b^en a dabbler in constitutional law and things of that sort myself, but I have never gone, of course, as deeply as th.it hon. gentleman (Mr. Mills). In fact, 1 would be sorry to go so deep as he. One of the Luke poets tells a brother poet that if he does not get up from his books he will grow double ; and to be too studious is attended with s>*ine inconvenience, and to be too learned is not alwfvs a happy thing I c )nfoss that I feel for my friuiid from Bothwell (Mr Mills) when I see him with B'miething sitting heavily on his mind, rising discontentedly from that seat to which in its infinite mercy an all-wise Providence has allotted him, and feeling fundamentally uneasy, (Laughter.) I always sympathise with him in i£ the North VVoat. Mr. Davin. Thu hoii gentlmuaii is iniatakuri about that. I hke luy hoti. friend so much that I am ulvvayh sorry when I cannot a^ree with liim, and the con8e({U(iice ia that whenever he makea a remark 1 am doomed to rej^ret. (Laugh- ter ) Now, Sir, I will not waite tune in deahng with the decrease in the savings batiks dei)oaits. That has been dealt with fully iti tlie speech of the inm. Minister of 'inance, ao that the answer to the hon. u jmber for Queei.'.s on that subject is in Ilanmta. VVith regard to shipping, I want to point out thit the hon. gentleman munt have bton consci oualy disingenuous in what he said in regard to the decrease of the tonnage of vessels built in Canada. tie tried to make out that that, too, was an evidence of dininished prosperity ; yet the hon. gentleman must have known that within recent years the fashion has gone from timber ships to iron bhips built on the Clyde ; ho must havt> known that large ships are registered in ?]ngland — why ? In order that they may escape municipal taxation. (Hear, hear.) And yet the hon. gentleman, knowing that, spoke as if he were apeakifg not in a Parliament like this, but before a jury, in which case when the trial is over and he has or has not got his verdict, there is no mere about it. If in Parliamoiit when he can be answered he talks that way, what would he say on the hustings? Again he spoke about the census. Well, I am not going to take up the tiiiiH of the House about that, but I see the eyes < f my hon. friend from Wellington (Mr. MoMuUen) fixed on me. and a smile that is childlike and bland lighting up his countenance. I will ask his attentiim therefore for a moment to a few remarks I will make about the census and tho exodus, and as he is great on comparisons of figures I will call his attention to this comparison. May I point out to the hon. gentleman that he is actually not reason- ing when he takes a set of figures for one year, say 1877, and compares it with a set for 1887. The true comparison would be tho figures which we could ahow, had hon. gentlemen opposite continued in office since 1878, as compared with those we can show to-day. That would be the real comparison, showing the state of the country, had the Mackenzie Administra- tion continued in office until to-day as compared v« i what it actually is under the Coiisorval.ve regime. Had hon. gen- tlemen o|){)o.site remained in power what W(nild have happened 'i We should have had a Pacific Railway extending probably 200 miles west of Winnipeg. East of Winnipeg we sliould have had the water stretches ; we should have no North- West whatever, und the credit of Canada would not be what it is to day. N«jw, take the census. DooH anybody suppose we have anything to do with limiting or increasing the populati(m ! Doen anyone suppose that tho exodus would not take place whatever governmont was in power ? Mr. Mills (Bothweli;. Yes. Mr. Davin. Thjhon. gentleman must suppose a great deal, because he knows very well that tho natural cause of that exodus is the restless enterprising spirit of a progressive community such as ours. To say that the cause is to be attributed in any way to the quality of the Crovernment shows a very bid state of perceptive poweis, unless we liad a state of things such as existed prior to 1878, when every- tiody was shroudec^ in gloom and no attempt made to develop cur manufac- tures. But I say thit;, that with the countiy in a normal condition we have to account for tho exodus by the enterpris- ing spirit of restless educated young men whog(j across the line. Neither will 1 deal with what the hon gentleman said about sugar, because after all that has been sufficiently dealt with I want to refer •mce again to the negotiations at Washington and to what the hon. member for Queen's (P.E.I.) said concerning them. He described the Ministers, especially the Minister of Finance, as going down to Washington dishonestly, .rith the view of putting obstacles in the way of reciprocity, and he went on to say that the Minister was greatly to be blamed because he showed difficulties on the Cana- dian side In the way of a certain treaty lid show, had hoii. iitinued in office with thuae we can juld be the real iiti state of the srizie Adininistra- I until to-day as actually is under Had hori. gen- d in power what We should have Ltending probably niiipeg. East of ve had the water »e no North -Wi-st of Canada would Now, take the suppose we have itin^ or increasing anyone suppose not take place IS in power ? Yes. gentleman must icause he knows "ill cause of that erprising spirit of such as ourd. To ) be attributed in ' the Government e of perceptive i state of tilings 878, when every- 1 gloom and no )p cur manufac- that with the Htion we have to by the enterpris- cated young men Neither will 1 I gentleman said ber all that has ith I want to I negotiations at the hon. member jaid concerning the Ministers, of Finance, as ?ton dishonestly, obstacles in the e went on to say *tly to be blamed ties on the Cana- a certain treaty under discussion. But the hon gentleman evidently fails to see that showii'g there was a difficulty on the Canadian side would be no evidence of a disinclination on the part of the Finance Minister to have a treaty. If he had shown difficul- ties on the American side, that would show he had disinclined t* make a treaty. (Hear, heie.) Can anyone who knows anything of our Conservative and Keforui politicians doubt that every enlightened man in this country would be ready to make a treaty witti the United States which would be useful to Ca da? No- body doubts for one moin> that we would be ready to enter into a treaty on the line of that of 1854 modified by present conditions, and nobody doubts that such a treaty could be made if the Americans were willing to .neet us half way or even a ({uarter. But, as the Fwiance Minister says, the history of our net^otiations shows that to our proposals thttre are no counter proposals, and that when the hand was stretched out by Canada, no hand was stretched out to meet us. In fact, the conversations between the Finance Minister and Mr. Blaine reveal what might have been known from inference and from the political situation in the States, the character of tht) parsy to which Mr. Blaine belongs, atKl Mr. Blaine's own character, and that is that it would be impossible to get a coiiimnrc al *reat.y with the United States Unless on torms this country would never su>)mit to. I was sorry to hoar the clos- ing remarks of the hon. member for Quenii's. He talked in a vein of humilia- tim we have too often heard from that sid« of the House, but which the country hasdecliired thoy will have none of. He said nothing could more tend to disloyal- ty than to have it go forth that it is difficult or impossible to make a treaty with the United States. What would that mean t It would mean that 5,000, 000 of Canadians doubt their power t this cry, he will be like Cadot tho hero of the One poem written by Mr. Louis Frechette, " Le drapeau fantume." Cftd"t was with France when Canada was c ded t ' England. Ho still wavi-d his white flaij over his little fort. A number of English soldiers summoned him to sunender, and he refused. They were called away. Twenty years passed by and still the fla&{ floats idly r>n its swaying mast, althouj^h it has no longer a mean- ing, and the unhappy man's chivalry is all wasted and astray. I say there ia not a man on that side fighting for unrestricied reciprocity who is not fighting under a. phantom banner which every sensible man can see has no longer any meaning. The Opposition commenced by taking a depravfcd line. Firat they took unre- r ( oi i 1 in i • i ft i w 1 C( , , [^ : a 1 ' te i di bl !;,. ' i w i ^ ( 1 1 to j ' i BC i bI; 1 h( oi 1 M '" ol tr . ' ' P' " ) hi fa ' Bll kl Ei tiS Ai tli a ' in hti . nc he wl 1 ■ . A, , . Ii V Hi '■ ' '"■ ^ - ml . ■*■ ' ■■ "* is CO 1 1 th i ■ 1 I • ex of CO ge i m|v S stricted reciptocity. Nove they are driven down to commercial union, and afterwards we shall nnd them driven to annexation, and then that colony will no doubt have swelled very large, and where will the party find itself ? It may have disappear- ed altogether by being sent up aloft. (Cries of " Down.") But anyway it is no longer a serious cry, and I would fain hope that even this session hon. gentlemen would review the eituation and pive ui clear, reasonable, logical criticism— criti] cism that, though it might come frot hostile ranks, would yet add to efficiency of that great council of tht nation for the excellence and effectiveness of which my hon. friend the member foi Both well (Mr. Mills) is su much and sc laudably concerned. (Cheers).