RAILROAD ACCIDENTS, LAW OF. 



779 



the "ice-bridge" from forming below Mon- 

 treal by the use of steamboats built for tbe 

 purpose of breaking up the ice. The grant of 

 money for this scheme arrived too late for the 

 experiment to be tried this year. 



Politics. The session of the Quebec Legisla- 

 ture of 1886 was chiefly remarkable for the 

 discussion of a Federal issue with which the 

 Provincial Legislature had no legitimate con- 

 cern. Advantage was taken by the Rouge 

 party of the odium incurred in the Province of 

 Quebec by the Conservative Government of 

 the Dominion, through allowing the execution 

 of Louis Riel to place the dominant party in 

 the province, also Conservatives, in an awk- 

 ward dilemma. A motion censuring the Do- 

 minion Government was proposed in the Legis- 

 lative Assembly, and the Quebec Conservatives 

 were thus offered the choice of dealing a seri- 

 ous blow at their political friends in Ottawa, 

 or running directly counter to the intensely 

 excited feelings of the masses of French-Ca- 

 nadian electors. The Provincial Government 

 took the ground that the matter was ultra 

 vires of the Quebec Legislature, and by a vote 

 of 41 to 18, taken on May 7, the House sus- 

 tained the Government. On June 26 the Hon. 

 Honore Mercier, leader of the Opposition, 

 issued a manifesto to the electors of the prov- 

 ince, declaring the autonomy of the Canadian 

 provinces to be in danger, and defining the 

 policy of the National party. The programme 

 was as follows: 



1. The energetic maintenance of the principle of 

 provincial autonomy against all attacks, direct or in- 

 direct. 



2. Decentralization to the utmost possible degree, 

 and extension of municipal powers. 



3. The maintenance of all guarantees, religious and 

 other, upon which our present system of public in- 

 struction is based. The giving of a practical 'direc- 

 tion to education leading up to agricultural, mechan- 

 ical, and technical pursuits. 



4. Full respect and protection for all the rights of 

 minorities. 



5. Immediate adoption of energetic and practical 

 means tor the amelioration of the financial situation 

 in the province, and the preventing of direct taxa- 

 tion. 



6. Economy of the public moneys, and suppression 

 of those expenditures in behalf of immigration and 

 administration that are not strictly indispensable to 

 the public service, in order to augment, by so much 

 as is thus saved, the grants devoted to colonization. 

 Eeform of that doctrine of ministerial accountability 

 which has been the cause of so great abuse. 



7. The amendment of the crown-land laws and 

 regulations in such a manner as to be favorable to the 

 colonist and to the protection of our forests. 



8. Electoral reform in the broadest sense, in order 

 to give the franchise to all classes of society, and 

 more especially to teachers, farmers' sons, and labor- 

 ers, to clerks and students, etc. 



9. Eetbrm in the law relating to master and serv- 

 ant, and a better act regarding the employment of 

 women and children. 



10. Reform in the jurisprudence, in order to render 

 litigation shorter and less costly. 



The Legislature was dissolved, and the elec- 

 tions, which were held on October 14, after a 

 vigorous canvass, proved disastrous to the Gov- 

 ernment. When the appeal was made to the 

 country, the Government was supported by 

 forty-five members in a House of sixty-five, 

 and, with the exception of a single session in 

 1878, the Conservatives had been in power in 

 the province ever since confederation. The 

 Government refused to resign until defeated 

 in the House, and refused to summon the 

 Legislature earlier than in the ordinary course. 

 Extraordinary pressure was brought to bear 

 upon the Government, which was accused of 

 clinging to office after it had lost the confi- 

 dence of the country, in order that it might be 

 in a better position to aid the Dominion Gov- 

 ernment in the Federal elections. Finally, it 

 became evident that Mr. Mercier could com- 

 mand a majority of about ten on a division in 

 the Assembly. 



Labor Movement. In the Province of Quebec, 

 as elsewhere on this continent, the Knights of 

 Labor have lately become numerically strong, 

 and command the respect of politicians of all 

 parties for the "labor- vote." In the provin- 

 cial elections, labor candidates were brought 

 out in each of the three parliamentary divis- 

 ions of Montreal, but they were all defeated. 

 Undoubtedly the most serious obstacle to the 

 progress of the Order of the Knights of Labor 

 in Quebec is the hostility of the Roman Cath- 

 olic Church. The order was condemned in 

 1884; but an appeal was made to Rome, and 

 modifications were made in the constitution of 

 the society, with a view to securing from the 

 Roman Catholic Church the same toleration 

 for the Knights in Quebec that they enjoy in 

 the United States. On July 31, 1886, CardU 

 nal Taschereau, the new Archbishop of Quebec, 

 issued a circular announcing that the Congre- 

 gation of the Propaganda had maintained its 

 judgment of 1884, and that therefore the Order 

 of the Knights of Labor in Quebec was still one 

 of the secret societies membership in which 

 lias always been absolutely forbidden to Roman 

 Catholics. 



RAILROAD ACCIDENTS, LAW OF. At the 



opening of the year 1886, 127,730 miles of 

 completed railroad were in existence in the 

 United States. The stock of the companies 

 owning or operating these roads was $3,817,- 

 697,832 ; the funded debt was $3,765,727,066; 

 the unfunded debt was $259,108,281 ; and the 



current debt was $231,040,215, making a total 

 liability or investment of $8,073,573,394. The 

 number of locomotives in use on these rail- 

 roads at the opening of 1886 was 61,937, and 

 the number of cars in use at the same period 

 was 829,353. The total earnings were $772,- 

 568,833; the amount of interest paid was 



