adapted to the public exigencies. The first important measure in this direction was the bill of 1857, which has been followed by other legislation in the same direction of improving the machinery of administration.1

But in no respect have we more forcible evidence of the change in the colonial policy of the imperial government than in the amendments that were eventually made in the Union Act of 1840. All those measures of reform, for which Canadians had been struggling during nearly half a century, were at last granted. The control of the public revenues and the civil list had been a matter of serious dispute for years between the colonies and the parent state; but, six years after the union, the legislature obtained complete authority over the civil list, with the sanction of the imperial government, which gave up every claim to dispose of provincial moneys. About the

1 Mr. Spence, when postmaster general in the Taché-Macdonald administration, introduced the Act of 1857, appointing permanent deputy heads and grades in the departments. 20 Vict., chap. 24. Cons. Stat. of Canada, c. 11. Since Confederation, 24 Vict., c. 34. See Reports of Civil Service Commission, presented to Canadian Parliament, 1880-81 and 1882, in which the present condition of the service is fully set forth, Ses. Pap., No. 113. (1880-81) and Sess. P., No. 32, (1882). In 1882, Parliament passed an Act to improve the efficiency of the service (45 Vict., c. 4), which has been amended by 46 Vict., c. 7. See Rev. Stat. of Canada, c. 17.

2 S.s. 50 to 57, respecting consolidated revenue fund and charges thereon, and with the schedules therein referred to, were repealed by the Imperial Act 10 and 11 Vict., c. 71, and the Provincial Act 9 Vict., c. 114, brought into force under sec. 9 of said Prov. Act, which provided a permanent Civil List in place of that arranged by the Imperial authorities. See Cons. Stat. of Canada, c. 10.

same time, the imperial government conceded to Canada the full control of the post office, in accordance with the wishes of the people as expressed in the legislature.1 The last tariff framed by the Imperial Parliament for the British possessions in North America was mentioned in the speech at the opening of the legislature in 1842,2 and not long after that time, Canada found herself, as well as the other provinces, completely free from imperial interference in all matters affecting trade and commerce. In 1846, the British Colonies in America were authorized by an imperial statute to reduce or repeal by their own legislation duties imposed by imperial acts upon foreign goods imported from foreign countries into the colonies in question. Canada soon availed herself of this privilege, which was granted to her as the logical sequence of the free trade policy of Great Britain, and, from that time to the present, she has been enabled to legislate very freely with regard to her own commercial interests. In 1849, the Imperial Parliament, in response to addresses of the legislature, and memorials from boards of trade

3

1 See Speech of Lord Elgin, sess. of 1847, Jour. of Ass., p. 7; Can. Stat., 13 and 14 Vict., c. 17, s. 2, and Cons. Stat., c. 31, s. 2, under authority of Imperial Act, 12 and 13 Vict., c. 66.

2 Ass. Jour., 1842, p. 3.

* Imp. Stat. 9 and 10 Vict., c. 94. Todd Parl. Gov. in the Colonies, 176-80. See speech of Lord Elgin, 1847, Jour. p. 7, in which he refers to the power given to the colonial legislatures to repeal differential duties heretofore imposed by the Colonies in favour of British produce. In response, the legislature passed, 10 and 11 Vict., c. 30, the first measure necessary to meet the altered state of our colonial relations with the mother country." Speech of Speaker of Assembly in presenting Supply Bill. Jour. p. 218.

and merchants in Canada, repealed the navigation laws, and allowed the river St. Lawrence to be used by vessels of all nations. With the repeal of those old laws, which had been first enacted in the days of the commonwealth to impede the commercial enterprise of the Dutch, Canadian trade and shipping received an additional impulse.

No part of the constitution of 1840 gave greater offence to the French Canadian population than the clause restricting the use of the French language in the legislature. It was considered as a part of the policy, foreshadowed in Lord Durham's report,2 to denationalize, if possible, the French Canadian province. The repeal of the clause in 1848 was one evidence of the harmonious operation of the union, and of the better feeling between the two sections of the population." Still later, provision was made for an elective legislative council, so long and earnestly demanded by the old legislature of Lower

1 Leg. Ass. J. (1849). 43, 48, 57; app. C.; Imp. Acts, 12 and 13 Vict., c. 29, s. 5. The memorandum of the Canadian government sets forth very clearly that since it was no longer the policy of the Empire to give a preference to colonial products in the markets of the United Kingdom, no reason could possibly exist for monopolies and restrictions in favour of British shipping. App. C. as above.

2" Without effecting the change so rapidly or so roughly as to shock the feelings and trample on the welfare of the existing generation, it must henceforth be the first and steady purpose of the British Government to establish an English population, with English laws and language, in this province, and to trust its government to have but a decidedly English legislature." P. 110, et seq.

3 See chap. v., Bourinot's Practice and Procedure.

Canada. In 1854 the Imperial Parliament passed, in response to an address of the legislative assembly, an Act to empower the legislature to alter the constitution of the legislative council. In 1856, the Canadian legislature passed a bill providing for an elective upper house; the province was divided into 48 electoral divisions, 24 for each section; twelve members were to be elected every two years; every councillor was to hold real estate to the value of $8,000 within his electoral district. The members were only to remain in the council for eight years, but could of course be reelected. Exist ing members were allowed to retain their seats during their lives. The speaker was appointed by the Crown from the council until 1862, when he was elected by the members from among their own number. The first election of councillors under the new Act took place in the summer of 1856.

3

1 Leg. Ass. J. (1853), 944; Imp. Act, 17 and 18 Vict., c. 118. In the course of the debate the Duke of Newcastle said: "The proper course to pursue was to legislate no more for the colonies than we could possibly help; indeed, he believed that the only legislation now required for the colonies consisted in undoing the bad legislation of former years." 134 E. Hans (3) 159. 22 and 23 Vict. c. 10, Imp. Stat.

2 19 and 20 Vict,, c. 140; Cons. Stat. of Canada, c. 1. Mr. Cauchon, commissioner of Crown Lands, in the McNab-Taché Administration, introduced the bill in the Assembly.

3 Can. Stat., 23 Vict., c. 3, repealed s, 26 of 19 and 20 Vict., C. 140. The Act made also provision for supplying the place of the speaker in case of his being obliged to leave the chair from illness, &c. The first election took place in 1862, March 20, when Sir Allan McNab was chosen Speaker.

CHAPTER VI.

FEDERAL UNION OF THE PROVINCES.

The union between Upper and Lower Canada lasted until 1867, when the provinces of British North America were brought more closely together in a federation and entered on a new era in their constitutional history. For many years previous to 1865, the administration of government in Canada had become surrounded with political difficulties of a very perplexing character. The union had not at first been viewed with favour by the majority of the French Canadians who regarded it as a scheme to anglicize their province in the course of time. One of their grievances was the fact that the Act gave each province the same representation in the legislature, though Lower Canada had in 1840 the greater popula

1

1 See address of Mr. Lafontaine (Turcotte, I. 60), in which he laid before the electors of Terrebonne his opinion as to the injustice of the Union Act: "L'union est un acte d'injustice et de despotisme en ce qu'elle nous est imposée sans notre consentement; en ce qu'elle prive le Bas-Canada du nombre légitime de ses représentants, etc."