82 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



At a very early stage of the Quebec Conference the Resolution 

 was unanimously adopted: "That there shall be a General Legisla- 

 ture for the Federated Provinces composed of a Legislative Council 

 and Legislative Assembly"- — this terminology was not persisted in, as 

 we find Hon. George Brown within a week thereafter speaking of the 

 House of Commons' ' and on the revision of the Resolutions the language 

 employed in the Report of the Delegates was "a Legislative Council 

 and a House of Commons." The Upper House continued to be called 

 the Legislative Council ; but by the third Draft of the Act,^ "Senate" 

 was given as a name to the Upper Chamber to distinguish it from the 

 Legislative Councils of the Provinces as well as to give it greater 

 dignity. 



The name "House of Commons" involved a principle. From the 

 very beginning of Colonial Government the Assemblies had more or 

 less vigorously claimed the same rights and powers as the Imperial 

 House of Commons. 



When Murray received instructions to call a General Assembly, 

 he was told that "the Members of several Assemblies in the Planta- 

 tions have assumed to themselves Privileges in no ways belonging to 

 them, especially of being protected from Suits at Law during the 

 term. . . And some Assemblies have presumed to adjourn 

 themselves at Pleasure without leave from our Governor first ob- 

 tained, and others have taken upon them the sole framing of Money 

 Bills refusing to let the Council alter or amend the same." — and he 

 was instructed to prevent such practices. ^ No Assembly was in fact 

 called under these instructions: disappearing under the Quebec Act 

 of 1774, the Assembly reappears under the Canada or Constitutional 

 Act of 1791 — and thereafter continuously the Assemblies kept pressing 

 their claim to be Houses of Commons: not infrequently using the 

 name. The Union Act of 1840 still used the name Assembly: but 

 by 1867, there was no longer any doubt of the true position of the 

 popular House, and it received its true name. It wa's left to the 

 Canadian Parliament to define its own "privileges, immunities and 

 powers" so long as these did not exceed those of the House of Com- 

 mons at Westminster. 



When the very small part played in Canadian public life by 

 the Senate is considered, it is interesting to see what a large part of 

 the time of the Quebec Conference was taken up in the question of 

 the composition etc., of the Upper Chamber. It was quite early 

 decided to form Divisions for the purpose of the Upper House: 1. Upper 



1 Pope, "Confederation," pp. 10, 19, 20, 39, 123, 142, 160. 



2 Shortt & Doughty, Const. Docs., 1759-1791, pp. 136, 137. 



