76 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the world should be extended as far as the local conditions of 



the Colony should admit. "^ 



Seventeen years before, the Attorney-General Thurlow had 

 thought it absurd to give Canada a Constitution at all like that of 

 Britain — now every one believed that the Colony should have a Con- 

 stitution as like that of the Mother Country as possible. Fox thought 

 the new Constitution not democratic enough, but all thought it like 

 that of Britain — as, indeed, it was on paper. 



In the House of Lords, Lord Grenville said : "Our Constitution . . 

 . . the envy of every surrounding nation — they are now about to 

 communicate the blessings of the English Constitution to the subjects 

 of Canada because they (i.e., the Lords) were fully convinced that 

 it was the best in the world" — and there was no dissent.^ 



In Upper Canada for example we find when the first Parliament 

 of Upper Canada met at Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake), Monday, 

 September 17, 1792, His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, Colonel 

 John Graves Simcoe, in the Speech from the Throne, said to the mem- 

 bers of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly: 



"I have summoned you together under the authority of an Act of 

 Parliament of Great Britain passed in the last year and which has 

 established the British Constitution, and also the forms which secure 

 and maintain it in this distant country. 



"The wisdom and beneficence of our Most Gracious Sovereign 

 and the British Parliament have been eminently proved, not only in 

 the imparting to us the same form of Government, but also in securing 

 the benefit of the many provisions that guard this memorable Act; 

 so that the blessings of our invaluable constitution thus protected and 

 amplified we may hope will be extended to the remotest posterity. ..." 



Both Houses made a most loyal address in answer, that of the 

 Council following closely the wording of the speech from the Throne. 



In his Speech from the Throne closing this Session, Simcoe said 

 that the Constitution of the Province was "the very image and trans- 

 cript of that of Great Britain."^ 



1 The word's are those of Fox p. 414, but Burke says the same thing in effect. 



2 29 Hansard, pp. 656, 657. 



^ The Speech from the Throne and the Answers will be found in the Seventh 

 Report of the Bureau of Archives, Ontario, 1910, pp. 1-3; Sixth Report of the Bureau 

 of Archives, Ontario, pp. 2-3. The closing speech is on pages 11 and 18 respectively. 



From the very beginning of the two Provinces of Canada it was considered 

 that the Constitution was the "very image and transcript" of that of Great Britain; 

 and most of the conflicts between Governors and Parliament, and between the two 

 Houses of Parliament arose from the contention that the British Constitution was 

 not followed in the government of the Canadas. 



