plained to them "the anxious desire felt by Parliament and the British people that a settlement of the questions relating to the Canadas should be speedily arrived at." The council passed an address in favour of a reunion of the provinces under one legislature, as a measure of “indispensable and urgent necessity." The governorgeneral, in the month of December, met the legislature of Upper Canada, and, after full consideration of the question, both branches passed addresses in favour of union, setting forth at the same time the terms which would be considered most acceptable to the province."

It will be seen that the imperial government considered it necessary to obtain the consent of the legislature of Upper Canada, and of the special council of Lower Canada, before asking Parliament to reunite the two provinces. Accordingly, Lord John Russell, in the session of 1840, again brought forward his bill entitled, "An Act to reunite the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and for the government of Canada,"3 which was assented to on the 23rd of July, but did not come into effect until the 10th of February in the following year, in accordance

1 Special Coun. J., Nov. 11, 12, 13, 14. Christie V., 316-22.

2 Leg. Coun. J. (1839-40) 14, &c. Leg. Ass. J. (1839-40), 16, 57, C3, 66, 161, 164. Christie, V. 326-56. Previously, however, in 1838, a committee of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada had declared itself in favour of the proposed union. Upp. Can. Ass. J. (1838), 282.

3 3 and 4 Vict., c. 35. The bill passed with hardly any opposition in the Commons, but it was opposed in the Lords by the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Gosford, and the Earl of Ellenborough, besides others.

with a suspending clause to that effect.' The act provided for a legislative council of not less than twenty members, and for a legislative assembly in which each section of the united provinces would be represented by an equal number of members-that is to say, forty-two for each, or eighty-four in all. The speaker of the council was appointed by the Crown, and ten members, including the speaker, constituted a quorum. A majority of voices was to decide, and in case of an equality of votes, the speaker had a casting vote. A legislative councillor would vacate his seat by continuous absence for two consecutive sessions. The number of representatives allotted to each province could not be changed

1 Mr. Poulett Thomson, now created Lord Sydenham, issued his proclamation on February 5, 1841, and took the oath on that day as governor-general from Chief Justice Sir James Stuart at Government House in Montreal. Mr. Thomson's title was Baron Sydenham, of Sydenham in the County of Kent, and of Toronto in Canada. (Christie V., 357-8.) The first Parliament of the united Canadas was held at Kingston, 14th June, 1841. In 1844 it was removed to Montreal (then a city of 40,000 souls), on address. Mr. Speaker Jameson and other Upper Canadian legislative councillors left their seats rather than agree to the vote for the change. The legislature remained at Montreal until the riots of 1849, on the occasion of the Rebellion Losses Bill, led to the adoption of the system, under which the legislature met alternately at Quebec and Toronto-the latter city being first chosen by Lord Elgin. An address to the Queen to select a permanent capital was agreed to in 1857, and Ottawa finally chosen. The Canadian Parliament assembled for the first time on the 8th June, 1866, in the new edifice constructed in that city. The British North America Act, 1867, s. 16, made that city the political capital of the Dominion. Turcotte, 1st part, 71, 144; 2nd part, 119, 315-16.

except with the concurrence of two-thirds of the members of each house. The quorum of the assembly was to be twenty, including the speaker. The speaker was elected by the majority, and was to have a casting vote in case of the votes being equal on a question. No person could be elected to the assembly unless he possessed a freehold of lands and tenements to the value of five hundred pounds sterling over and above all debts and mortgages. The English language alone was to be used in the legislative records.1 A session of the legislature should be held once, at least, every year, and each legislative assembly was to have a duration of four years, unless sooner dissolved. Provision was made for a consolidated revenue fund, on which the first charges were expenses of collection, management, and receipt of revenues, interest of public debt, payment of the clergy, and civil list. The fund, once these payments were made, could be appropriated for the public service as the legislature might think proper. All votes, resolutions or bills involving the expenditure of public money were to be first recommended by the governor-general.

2

The passage of the Union Act of 1840 was the com

1The address from the Upper Canada Assembly prayed for the equal representation of each province, a permanent civil list, the use of the English language in all judicial and legislative records, as well as in the debates after a certain period, and that the public debt of the province be charged on the joint revenues of the United Canadas. These several propositions, except that respecting the French language, were recommended in the governor-general's messages. Christie, V. 334-48.

* See chapter on Supply. Bourinot's Parliamentary Practice and Procedure.

mencement of a new era in the constitutional history of Canada as well as of the other provinces. The statesmen of Great Britain had learned that the time had arrived for enlarging the sphere of self-government in the colonies of British North America; and, consequently, from 1840 we see them year by year making most liberal concessions, which would never have been thought of under the old system of restrictive colonial administration. The most valuable result was the admission of the all important principle that the ministry advising the governor should possess the confidence of the representatives of the people assembled in parliament. Lord Durham, in his report, had pointed out most forcibly the injurious consequences of the very opposite system which had so long prevailed in the provinces. His views had such influence on the minds of the statesmen then at the head of affairs, that Mr. Poulett Thomson (as he informed the legislature of Upper Canada), "received her Majesty's commands to administer the government of these provinces in accordance with the well-understood wishes and interests of the people." Subsequently he communicated to the legislature of the united provinces two despatches from Lord John Russell, in which the gover

1 In answer to an address from the Assembly, 13th December, 1839. (Christie V., 353.) The views of the great body of Reformers (in Upper Canada) appear to have been limited, according to their favourite expression, to making the colonial constitution “an exact transcript” of that of Great Britain; and they only desired that the Crown should, in Upper Canada, as at home, entrust the administration of affairs to men possessing the confidence of the Assembly. Lord Durham's R. 58.

2 Lord J. Russell was colonial secretary from 1839 to 1841; the

nor-general was instructed, in order "to maintain the utmost possible harmony," to call to his counsels and to employ in the public service "those persons who, by their position and character, have obtained the general confidence and esteem of the inhabitants of the province." He wished it to be generally made known by the governor-general that thereafter certain heads of departments would be called upon "to retire from the public servico as often as any sufficient motives of public policy might suggest the expediency of that measure. During the first session subsequent to the message conveying these despatches to the legislature, the assembly agreed to certain resolutions which authoritatively expressed the views of the supporters of responsible government. It was emphatically laid down, as the very essence of the principle, that "in order to preserve between the different branches of the provincial parliament that harmony which is essential to the peace, welfare, and good government of the province, the chief advisers of the representative of the sovereign, constituting a provincial administration under him, ought to be men possessed of the confidence of the representatives of the people,

office was afterwards held successively from 1841 to 1852 by Lord Stanley, Mr. Gladstone, and Earl Grey. So that all these eminent statesmen assisted in enlarging the sphere of selfgovernment in the colonies. Todd's Parl. Gov. in the Colonies, 25.

1 Can. Ass. J. (1841), App. BB. These papers were in response to an address from the Assembly of 5th August, 1841. The instructions to the governor-general repeated substantially the despatches on responsible government. Journals of Ass., 20th August, 1841.