Section IL, 1917 7i] Trans. R.S.C. 



Some Origins of "The British North America Act, 1867 T 



By William Renwick Riddell, LL.D., etc., Justice of the 

 Supreme Court of Ontario. 



(Read May Meeting, 1917.) 



"The British North America Act, 1867"^ with its few amending 

 Acts may be called the written Constitution of Canada. 



This "Constitution" is of very great consequence indeed in our 

 national life: but it plays by no means the important part played by 

 the Constitution of the United States in that country. It is not so 

 elaborate or minute; it does not affect to exhaust the rules of govern- 

 ment, but leaves much to the feeling for freedom and justice supposed 

 to inhere in our people. 



The difference between the Americans and us enters into the 

 very terminology: 



"The word 'Constitution' carries with it a different connotation 

 in English and American usage, and we in Canada follow the English. 

 In our usage the Constitution is the totality of the principles more or 

 less vaguely and generally stated upon which we think the people 

 should be governed : in American usage the Constitution is a written 

 document containing so many words and letters which authoritatively 

 and without appeal dictates what shall and what shall not be done. 

 With us anything unconstitutional is wrong no matter how legal it 

 may be; with the American people anything unconstitutional is 

 illegal however right it may be — with the Americans anything which 

 is unconstitutional is illegal, with us to say that a measure is un- 

 constitutional rather suggests that it is legal but inadvisable."^ 



Accordingly when any proposed measure is under consideration, 

 it is very seldom that the Act, the written "Constitution" needs 

 to be looked at. 



But as it lays down the broad lines of our system, the Act deserves 

 careful attention: and it is a matter of some interest — it may be of 

 some value — to enquire into its origins. 



1 30-31 Vict., C. 3 (Imp.) 



2 The Dodge Lectures, No. 2, Yale University, March 6th, 1917: "The Con- 

 stitution of Canada." In Bell v. Burlington (1915) 34 O.L.R. 619 (Appellate Division 

 of the Supreme Court of Ontario) at p. 622, I discussed this terminology. 



