them any title in law-any title that a court of justice can recognize as against the crown. The Indians must in the future, every one concedes it, be treated with the same consideration for their just claims and demands that they have received in the past, but it will not be because of any legal obligation to do so, but as a sacred political obligation in the execution of which the State must be free from judicial control.1

In 1882 the Quebec legislature passed a statute "to impose certain direct taxes on banks, insurance companies, and every incorporated company carrying on any labour, trade or business in the province. Payment was resisted of the taxes thereby imposed, and the queen's bench reversed a decision of the superior court that the Quebec legislature had no power to pass the statute, on the grounds that the tax is a direct one and that it is also a matter of a local or private nature in the province, and so falls within the jurisdiction of the provincial legislature. The case was carried before the judicial committee of the privy council, who affirmed the judgment of the queen's bench that the tax in question was direct taxation within class two of section ninety

two of the federation act. corporation doing business in the province is subject to taxation under section ninety-two, sub-section two, though all the shareholders are domiciled or resident out of the province.3

They also laid it down that a

1 Taschereau J., 648, 649. See also opinion of Henry J., 630. 245 Vict. (Q), c. 22.

310 Leg. News, 259-264.-Their lordships add: "There is nothing in the previous decisions on the question of direct taxation which is adverse to this view. In the case of the Queen

Reference has been made, in connection with the case just cited, to the dispute between the governments of Ontario and Canada as to the boundary of the province on the north and west. This question has given rise to a vast amount of legal and political literature since the acquisition of the North-West Territories, and it is necessary here to state briefly its present position. In 1878 three arbitrators were chosen on behalf of the Dominion and Ontario governments to come to a settlement of the question. They arrived subsequently at a unanimous decision, but while the Ontario government accepted the the award as satisfactory, the Dominion government took no steps whatever in the matter. The subject remained in abeyance until 1884 when a case was arranged for reference to the judicial committee of the privy council, but before the case was argued, the do

Insurance Company [3 App. Ca. 1090, supra, p. 127], the disputed tax was imposed under cover of a license to be taken out by insurers. But nothing was to be paid directly on the license, nor was any penalty imposed upon failure to take one. The price of the license was to be a percentage on the premiums received for insurances, each of which was to be stamped accordingly. Such a tax would fall within any definition of indirect taxation, and the form given to it was apparently with the view of bringing it under class nine of section ninety-two, which relates to licenses. In Reed's case (10 App. Ca. 141) the tax was a stamp duty on exhibits produced in courts of law, which in a great many, perhaps in most, instances would certainly not be paid by the person first chargeable with it."

1 Ann. Reg. 1878, pp. 187-194. The arbitrator for Ontario was Chief Justice Harrison; for the Dominion, Sir Francis Hincks; Sir Edward Thornton, British Minister at Washington, was the third, chosen by the two conjointly.

minion government withdrew, so that it went before their lordships only as affects the boundary between Ontario and Manitoba. At an early stage of the proceed. ings, their lordships decided that the award was not binding, inasmuch as no legislation had taken place to give effect to the same, but they found at the same time that "so much of the boundary lines laid down by that award as relates to the territory now in dispute between Ontario and Manitoba to be substantially correct." Accordingly they find "the true boundary between the western part of the province of Ontario and the southeastern part of the province of Manitoba to be so much of a line drawn to the Lake of the Woods, through the waters eastward of that lake and west of Long Lake, which divide British North America from the territory of the United States, and thence through the Lake of the Woods to the most northwestern point of that lake as runs northward from the United States boundary, and from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods a line drawn due north, until it strikes the middle line of the course of the river discharging the waters of the lake called Lac Seul, or Lonely Lake, whether above or below its confluence with the stream flowing from the Lake of the Woods towards Lake Winnipeg; and their lordships find the true boundary between the same two provinces to the north of Ontario and to the south of Manitoba, proceeding eastward from the point at which the before-mentioned line strikes the middle line of the course of the river last aforesaid to be along the middle line of the course of the same river (whether called by the name of the English River or as to the part below the confluence by the name of the River Winnipeg) up

to Lac Seul, and thence along the middle line of Lac Seul to the head of that lake, and thence by a straight line to the nearest point of the middle line of the waters of Lake St. Joseph, and thence along that middle line until it reaches the foot or outlet of that lake, and thence along the middle line of the river by which the waters of Lake St. Joseph discharge themselves, until it reaches a line drawn due north from the confluence of the Rivers Mississippi and Ohio, which forms the boundary eastward of the province of Manitoba." Their lordships do not express an opinion "as to the sufficiency or otherwise of concurrent legislation of the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, and of the dominion of Canada, but at the same time think it "desirable and most expedient that an imperial act of parliament should be passed to make this decision binding and effectual." From the foregoing decision it will be seen that it only affects the question between Ontario and Manitoba, and leaves the rest of the boundary to be still finally determined. The Ontario government has taken all the measures necessary to establish their jurisdiction in the territory given to them by the decision in question. The whole matter, however, rests in statu quo so far as the Dominion government is concerned. As we have already seen, the question they subsequently raised with respect to the title to the Indian lands in the disputed territory, has been decided by the Canadian courts in favour of Ontario.2

1 L. N. 1884, pp. 281-282. See remarks of Mr. Blake, Can. Hans. 1885, pp. 17, 18; and of Sir J. A. Macdonald, ibid, p. 23. Also, April 13, 1888.

2 See supra, pp. 151–155.

CHAPTER XIV.

RULES OF CONSTRUCTION AND CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES DEDUCED FROM JUDICIAL DECISIONS.

The most important questions which have come before the privy council and the supreme court of Canada, have arisen upon the provisions of the British North America Act, relating to the distribution of legislative powers between the parliament of Canada and the legislatures of the provinces, and in the words of the privy council, "owing to the very general language in which some of these powers are described, the question is one of considerable difficulty." A learned judge of the supreme court observes that "in construing the act, no hard and fast canon or rule of construction can be laid down and adopted, by which all acts passed, as well by the parliament of Canada as by the local legislatures, upon all and every question that may arise, can be effectually tested as to their being or not being intra vires of the legislature passing them." The nearest approach to a rule of general application that has been attempted in the courts of Canada, with a view to reconcile the apparently conflicting legislative powers under the act, is