[skelton] the CANADIAN CONSTITUTION 103 



than that of the United States, and would combine the advantage 

 of the unity for general purposes of a legislative union with so 

 much of the Federation principle as would join all the benefits of 

 local government and legislation upon questions of provincial 

 interest. 



We have, etc., etc., 



(Signed) G. E. Cartier, 

 Jno. Ross, 

 A. T. Gait. 



The federal government, according to this suggestion, was to 

 consist of the governor-general, a cabinet responsible to parliament, 

 a senate elected on a territorial basis, and a popular house elected 

 on a basis of population. The only variation from this plan in the 

 scheme eventually adopted was the substitution of a nominated 

 for an elective Senate. The Conference in 1864 did not contain any 

 of the Lower Canada Liberals who had been the stoutest advocates 

 of the adoption of an elective Upper House in the province of Canada 

 in 1854; elderly politicians were apprehensive of the energy and money 

 required to canvass wide areas, and the obvious advantage of Senatorial 

 patronage in winning assent to the federation scheme, also weighed 

 against the elective plan. It is curious that no feature of the Con- 

 stitution was more discussed than the composition and powers of the 

 Upper House, and that no feature has so completely failed to meet the 

 expectations of its framers. 



As to the form of union. Gait was clear that a federal rather than 

 a legislative union must be adopted, and time has ratified that stand. 

 But he was equally clear, and this was before the Civil War had 

 impressed the fact upon all men, that the federal government must be 

 made stronger than in the United States. Whether this should be 

 done by assigning to the federal government all powers not specifically 

 entrusted to the local legislatures, is, he declares, a matter for mature 

 deliberation. The very fact that the constitution was enacted by a 

 superior legislature, and did not profess to be derived from the people, 

 would, he points out, prevent the local legislatures from claiming the 

 same sovereign powers as the states had asserted in the United States. 

 The list of specific powers suggested for the federal government include 

 practically all that were actually so assigned, except marriage, naturaliz- 

 ation and the concurrent powers over immigration and agriculture. 

 They include nothing that was not so assigned except Crown Lands, 

 and even in this case Gait's draft suggests that the net revenue from 

 the Crown lands in each province were to be its exclusive property, 

 except in the case of the territories. The inclusion of Criminal justice,. 



