220 



DOMINION OF CANADA. 



start, and so far it may be said to be gradually 

 advancing in strength and national importance. 

 Constructed so as to admit, one day or other, 

 of the question of "State rights," Sir John A. 

 MacDonald thus described the care that was 

 taken to prevent evil from that source. First 

 referring to the United States, he says : " They 

 declared by their Constitution that each State 

 was a sovereignty in itself, and that all the 

 powers incident to a sovereignty belonged to 

 each State, except those powers which, by the 

 Constitution, were conferred upon the General 

 Government and Congress." Then, speaking 

 of the Dominion, he points out the difference : 

 "Here we have adopted a different system. 

 We have strengthened the General Govern- 

 ment. We have given the General Legisla- 

 ture all the great subjects of legislation. We 

 have conferred upon them, not only specifically 

 and in detail, all the powers which are inci- 

 dent to sovereignty, but we have expressly 

 declared that all subjects of general interest 

 not distinctly and exclusively conferred upon 

 the local Governments and local Legislatures, 

 shall be conferred upon the General Govern- 

 ment and Legislature." 



Discussion has, however, arisen as to the 

 relative powers of the local and General Gov- 

 ernments and Legislatures, friends of the former 

 affecting to see a disposition at headquarters 

 to "belittle" them, as they have somewhat 

 forcibly expressed it. Hence Mr. Dunkin, a 

 prominent member of the Quebec Administra- 

 tion, announced in his place in the Legislature 

 in 1867 that "none of the functions of the 

 Provinces have a municipal character. They 

 are not derived from the Dominion ; they are 

 not dependent on the Dominion ; their author- 

 ity is not subordinate to the Dominion. It has 

 far more the character of coordination." But 

 some months' reflection would seem to have 

 modified Mr. Dunkin's view bringing it more 

 in harmony with Sir John A. MacDonald's 

 for, in a recent speech, we find him affirming 

 that " he never entertained a thought of claim- 

 ing any undue importance or jurisdiction for 

 the local governments. The local governments 

 had subordinate functions to the General Gov- 

 ernment, but no one could deny that they had 

 some coordinate powers, and that was all he 

 claimed." Trouble of a more serious nature, 

 amounting almost to alarm, prevails in another 

 quarter of the Dominion. The people of Nova 

 Scotia have from the beginning been opposed 

 to that province being included in the Confed- 

 eracy, and have, by protest and remonstrance, 

 in various forms, denied the right of the local 

 Parliament to sanction the annulling of their 

 ancient Constitution holding to the doctrine 

 of Locke, that "the Legislature can have no 

 power to transfer their authority of making 

 laws, or to place it in other hands." This op- 

 position, led by the Hon. Joseph Howe, an old 

 and able politician, completely controlled the 

 elections which have occurred since confedera- 

 tion, and still continues formidable; but, as 



the appeal to England was absolutely without 

 effect, and, as the leading statesmen of both 

 parties in the House of Commons have ex- 

 pressed their unwillingness to interfere with 

 a scheme which, although more immediately 

 colonial in its operations, is yet of great im- 

 portance, from an imperial point of view, it is 

 thought that Mr. Howe is becoming somewhat 

 more pacific in his disposition toward the Gen- 

 eral Government, and that the latter are will- 

 ing to meet him in a spirit of compromise.* 

 It is understood that Newfoundland is now 

 well disposed toward that "eventual admis- 

 sion into the Union " which the imperial Act 

 provides for, and that an open declaration to 

 that effect would soon follow an adjustment 

 with Nova Scotia. British Columbia has made 

 formal communication of her willingness to 

 join immediately upon the Hudson's Bay Ter- 

 ritory being acquired. The Dominion Parlia- 

 ment of 1867" passed resolutions authorizing 

 this acquisition, and two members of the Gen- 

 eral Government, Messrs. Cartier and MacDou- 

 gall, are at present in England, engaged in for- 

 warding the necessary negotiations. It is 

 believed that the ancient company to whom 

 this territory legally belongs will not be in- 

 duced to surrender their rights at a less cost to 

 the Dominion than $5,000,000. 



The legislation of the several Parliaments of 

 the Dominion, federal and local, has been, so 

 far, carefully consistent with the general wel- 

 fare, if we except an apparent unwillingness in 

 Quebec to encourage immigration. 



Prominent among the measures of the Fed- 

 eral or Dominion Parliament of 1868, stands the 

 Post-office Act, which repeals the material 

 provisions of all previously-existing postal 

 laws in the former Provinces, and assimilates 

 the regulations and rates throughout the Do- 

 minion. The rate of local postage has been 

 reduced from five cents to three, and the Post- 

 master-General has effected an arrangement 

 with the United States, reducing the postage 

 between that country and Canada from ten 

 cents to six. Post-office savings banks have 

 been authorized and established. Another im- 

 portant postal event has been the withdrawal 

 of the Cunard boats from the route between 

 Liverpool and Boston, via Halifax, by which 

 the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 

 wick were deprived of direct postal communi- 

 cation with Great Britain. But the Canadian 

 Government has since entered into a contract 

 which commenced on the 1st of July last, and 

 is to continue for three years with the In- 



* Since the above was written, Mr. Howe has been at 

 Ottawa, the seat of the Dominion Government, and ob- 

 tained such an extent of fiscal and other concessions for 

 Nova Scotia as to warrant, in his own judgment, his 

 acceptance of a place in the Cabinet. He has returned to 

 Nova Scotia to seek reelection to the House of Commons 

 under these circumstances. Writing from Portland, on 

 his way home, to a friend in Montreal, he says : " I did 

 not take office, though it had been open to me for eighteen 

 months, till my country's fair claim to readjustment of 

 the scheme was admitted, and until Gladstone's Cabinet, 

 with John Bright in it, counselled peace and refused re- 

 peal." 



