70 JOHN GEORGE BOURINOT ON 
legislature accordingly went energetically to work to provide forthe internal government 
of the upper province. Some difficulties arose in dealing with this question on account 
of the position taken by Lower Canada. During the suspension of the constitution in 
French Canada, an ordinance had been passed by the special council “ to provide for the 
better internal government of this province by the establishment of local or municipal 
institutions therein.” The province was divided into twenty-two districts, comprising 
certain seigniories, townships, and parishes. The governor and council fixed and deter- 
mined the number of councillors who were elected for every district. The warden was 
appointed by the governor-general, and his duties were regulated by instructions from 
the same high functionary. The meetings of householders, at which the parish or town- 
ship officers as well as the district councillors were elected and other business was trans- 
acted, were convened on the authorisation of the warden by one of the justices of the 
peace for the district. The governor had the power to dissolve a district council under 
extraordinary circumstances. Instructions were issued by the governor and council to 
the chairmen of parish or township meetings, assessors, collectors, surveyors of highways 
and bridges, overseers of the poor, and other local officers. ' 
Consequently, the system in operation in Lower Canada was entirely controlled by 
the government. It was the desire of the Upper Canadians, who had been gradually edu- 
eated for more popular local institutions, to elect the warden and other officers. The 
measure which was presented in 1841, by Mr. Harrison, provincial secretary of the 
upper province, provided that the inhabitants of each district should be a body corporate 
within the limits prescribed by the act, and provision was made for the formation of 
municipal councils, to consist of a warden and a fixed number of councillors in each dis- 
trict. Power was given to these councils to assess and collect from the inhabitants such 
moneys as might be necessary for local purposes, and generally to adopt measures for the 
good government of the respective districts represented in these local bodies. The Upper 
Canadians naturally wished to elect their own warden, but it was argued that it was inex- 
pedient to concede to one province privileges not given to the other. The French 
members in the legislature were not only opposed to the measure passed by the special 
council, but believed that, if they sanctioned the passage of a liberal measure in Upper 
Canada, it would be followed by similar legislation for Lower Canada. The most influen- 
tial men in that province were opposed at that time to any system that might impose local 
direct taxation on the people. ° 
Imperfect as was the act of 1841, it was the commencement of a new era in municipal 
government in Canada. In the course of a few years the act was amended, and the people 
at last obtained full control of the election of their own municipal officers. Statutes 
passed from time to time swept away those numerous corporate bodies which had 
been established by the legislature of the old province, and provided by one general law 
“ for the erection of municipal corporations and the establishment of police regulations in 
and for the several counties, cities, towns, townships and villages in Upper Canada.” * 
Lower Canada was also brought into the general system, according as the people began 
to comprehend the advantages of controlling their local affairs. The ordinance of the 

1 Canada Sessional Papers, 1841, App. X. * Dent’s Canada since the Union of 1841, i. 146. 
3 Con. Stat. 12 Vict. c. 80, and 12 Vict. c. 81. 
