FOURTH ORDINARY MEETING. 33 



■of course, applies only to the Federal Government, but from other 

 -expressions and from one express section in the same Act, several of 

 the Provinces claim that Her Majesty is a necessary element in their 

 Provincial Legislatures ; that she is the executive in the Provincial 

 Legislatures. These Provinces are Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and 

 British Columbia, and they use the same forms mutatis mutandis of 

 enacting laws as are used at Ottawa or at Westminister. * * * 



It is conceded that the Queen has no immediate power over Pro- 

 vincial Legislation, as the veto on it must come from Ottawa and 

 not from England. When, therefore, Her Majesty passes an Act in 

 the Provinces referred to, Her Majesty's representative at Ottawa 

 may disallow it — a proceeding likely to endanger the well-known 

 doctrine of principal and agent, but from which happily no serious 

 results have yet happened. * * * 



I have now called attention to the three great divisions of govern- 

 ment — the executive, the judicial and the legislative. In the latter 

 two of these we resemble the Constitution of the United States — in 

 the former and as to the Dominion Parliament generally, we offer an 

 example of a reduced copy of the British Constitution. We labour 

 under the disadvantages of every people living under a written con- 

 stitution — defined, limited and inflexible — but we have the advan- 

 tages which a certain amount of definiteness always affords. We 

 have not been an easy people to govern in the past, and it is likely 

 that we will be no better in the future. 



The inhabitants of the Dominion scattered from ocean to ocean — 

 men of different countries and languages — different religions and 

 races — are difficult to govern consecutively in the same way for any 

 great length of time. Six changes we have had since Quebec fell, 

 and our ablest men will now tell you that the next few years 

 are going to decide largely the fate of the Dominion. 



It may be impossible to keep in union elements that are ill-assorted 

 or antagonistic, but the continued existence of Canada as a Feder- 

 ation will be due to the united good sense of the whole people rather 

 than to the absence of defects of any constitution binding them 

 together." 



In the discussion which followed Mr. George Murray, Mr. 

 William Houston, Mr. Alexander Marling, and Mr. William 

 Anderson took part. 

 3 



