THE GENERAL ADVANTAGE OF CANADA. 15 



ridiculous attempts to defeat perfectly meritorious measures. For 

 instance, the government of Ontario intimated that, if Parliament 

 persisted in allowing the declaration in favor of undertakings appar- 

 ently otherwise provincial, it would set abour repealing forthwith all 

 the powers previously given by Ontario to such Corporations. ,And 

 so, in regard to a company in the same session, backed by a very 

 large investment of capital in southern British Columbia seeking 

 booming privileges on a navigable river, in the Dominion railway 

 belt, a certain section of the Senate became alarmed, and almost 

 stampeded, over the idea of interference with " Provincial Rights," 

 not, perhaps, in this case entirely oblivious of political considerations. 

 After the bill on its first presentation had been defeated in commit- 

 tee, and a debate in the Senate had arisen on the necessity for sending 

 it back for reconsideration, one Senator spent the most of an after- 

 noon discussing a point of order so as to defeat the sending back of 

 the bill ; and, when it was reconsidered by committee favorably and 

 again reported to the House, he spent the larger part of another 

 afternoon trying to have the constitutionality of the measure referred 

 to the judges of the Supreme Court for an opinion, a very naive at- 

 tempt to give the bill the six months' hoist, as the Supreme Court 

 had adjourned a month or so previously, and would not meet again 

 until October. 



In the session just ended our old familiar friend — The Ontario 

 and Michigan Power Company — again came storming the federal 

 citadel, directing its engines of war against the bulwarks of the 

 House of Commons. The Nipigon Rivei was explored from its 

 source to its mouth ; the Pigeon River and its international aspects, 

 and the international qualities of the head waters and upper reaches 

 and tributaries of both streams, were powerfully described, and 

 members must have longed to get away and enjoy the cheering in- 

 fluences of those delightful waters, where yet, however, winter was 

 lingering in the lap of spring. 



The old, old battle between the Province of Ontario and the Do- 

 minion of Canada was renewed in all its fierceness, and the debate is 

 of more than usual value because the horizon was cleared of election 

 clouds and the question was considered on its merits. A quiet and 

 independent consideration of the measure, as asked, would lead one 

 to think that the promoter could obtain much more than he even- 

 tually received even under the Ontario Companies' Act, without re- 

 ference to any legislature. 



