ported, pronouncing upon the validity of the Dominion and Provincial Statute Laws, and, on many points settling the principles that should be applied in the construction of the Confederation Act, and defining the limit and scope of Federal and Provincial Legislation.

It may be thought by some, inadvisable, to have noted so many decisions of the Federal Court of the United States, but it will be remarked, how frequently our Judges have been compelled, in the absence of other precedents, to look to the decisions of the highest Court of that Confederacy; for, that Republic also consists of Federal Union of separate Sovereign States with a written constitution prescribing the sphere of action of the Central Government and of the Local Governments; and this necessarily required continual appeals to the Judiciary to define, determine, and settle, the line of demarkation between these two jurisdictions. Several cases have been reported more at length than many may, at first sight, deem expedient or desirable for a work of this kind; but it must be borne in mind that these are recent and important cases, involving many issues of great moment, which have been discussed with great ability by the Judges of the Court of last resort in this Dominion.

But, for those who do not lose sight of the fact that we are on the threshold of a new system of national existence, and, from want of an experience that time alone can give, are deprived of any great number of judicial decisions, no apology will be necessary.

The Quebec Resolutions of 1864, and the Constitution of the United States have been added, for the reason, that a ready reference to them is useful, if not necessary, in the study of the Constitutional Act of Canada.

It is but just to acknowledge, here, the efficient assistance afforded in our preparation of this work by L. H. Pignolet, Esq., of the Montreal Bar, and by A. A. Stockton, Esq., of the St. John, N. B., Bar, to whom the Author tenders his cordial thanks and this expression of his gratitude.

C. S. L. C... ... Consolidated Statutes Lower Canada. Q. L. R......................... .Quebec Law Reports.
C. S............Cour Supérieure.

R. C............ Revue Critique.

way

A SHORT history of the events which preceded and prepared the for the Confederation of the North American British Provinces may be useful in leading the mind away from 'unprofitable researches, and bringing prominently to view the steps that have marked the growth of a policy, which has raised the Colonial possessions of England to a condition of almost complete independence of the parent state.

Until the commencement of the difficulties with America," says Thomas Erskine May, in commenting on the Colonial Administration of the Mother Country, "there had not even been a separate department for the government of the Colonies; but the Board of Trade exercised a supervision little more than nominal over colonial affairs. In 1768, however, a third Secretary of State was appointed, to whose care the Colonies were entrusted.

"In 1782, after the loss of the American Provinces, the office was discontinued by Lord Rockingham, but was revived in 1794, and became an active and important department of State. Its influence was felt throughout the British Colonies. However popular the form of their institutions, they were steadily governed by British Ministers in Downing Street.

"In Crown Colonies-acquired by conquest or cession-the dominion of the Crown was absolute, and the authority of the Colonial Office was exercised directly by instructions to the Governors. Some of them, however, like Jamaica and Nova Scotia, had received the free institutions of England, and were practically self-governed. In 1785 representative institutions were given to New Brunswick, and so late as 1832 to Newfoundland. But the Mother Country, in granting these constitutions, exercised, in a marked form, the powers of a dominant. state.

B

Canada, the most important of this class, was conquered from the French, in 1759, by General Wolfe, and ceded to England, by the Treaty of Paris (10th February, 1763). (1) In 1774 (14 Geo. III, c. 83) the administration of its affairs was entrusted to a council appointed by the Crown; but in 1791 (31 Geo. III, c. 31) it was divided into two provinces, to each of which representative institutions were granted. It was no easy problem to provide for the government of such a colony." (2).

Mr. Justin McCarthy, in chap. 3 of his recent and interesting "HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES," describes, as follows, the condition of the country at that time.

"The condition of Canada was very peculiar. Lower Canada was inhabited for the most part by men of French descent, who still kept up in the midst of an active and moving civilization most of the principles and usages which belonged to France before the Revolution of 1789. Since the cession the growth of the population of the other province had been surprisingly rapid, and had been almost exclusively the growth of immigration from Great Britain, and one or two of the colonizing states of the European continent, and from the American Republic itself.

"It would have been difficult, therefore, for the Home Government, however wise and far-seeing their policy, to make the wheels of any system run smoothly at once, in such a colony as Canada. But their policy certainly does not seem to have been either wise or far-seeing. The plan of government adopted looks as if it were especially devised to bring out into sharp relief, all the antagonisms that were natural to the existing state of things. By an Act, called the Constitution of 1791, Canada was divided into two provinces, the Upper and the Lower. Each province had a separate system of government, consisting of a Governor; an Executive Council appointed by the Crown, supposed in some way to resemble the Privy Council of this country; a Legislative Council, the members of which were appointed by the Crown for life; and a Representative Assembly, the members of which were elected for four years.

"When the two provinces were divided in 1791, the intention was, that they should remain distinct in fact as well as in name. It was hoped that Lower Canada would remain altogether French, and that Upper Canada would be exclusively English. Then it was thought that they might be governed on their separate systems as securely and with as little trouble as we now govern the Mauritius on one system and Malta on another.

"Those who formed such an idea do not seem to have taken any counsel with. geography. The one fact, that Upper Canada can hardly be said to have any means of communication with Europe and the whole Eastern world, except through Lower Canada, or else through the United States, ought to have settled the question at

once.

"It was in Lower Canada that the greatest difficulties arose. A constant antagonism grew up between the majority of the Legistive Council, who were nominees of the Crown, and the majority of the Representative Assembly, who were elected by the population of the province. The Home Government encouraged and indeed kept up that most odious and dangerous of all instruments for the supposed management of (1)1 Chalmer's Treaties 467.

(2) 2 May's Cons. Hist. of Eng. 525-527.