Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/685

Rh of freehold property to the value of $4,000, and an equal amount in personal property, and a resident of the province for which he is appointed. In the case of Quebec, senators are appointed to represent particular districts; and they must either be residents of those districts or have a property qualification therein. The appointments are for life, but a seat would be vacated by bankruptcy or loss of the required property qualification, transfer of allegiance to another country, treason, felony, or any infamous crime. The house of commons originally consisted of 181 members, of whom 82 were for Ontario, 65 for Quebec, 19 for Nova Scotia, and 15 for New Brunswick. Since then 6 have been added for British Columbia, and 4 for Manitoba. There is no fixed date for the annual meeting of parliament; that body is summoned, as in England, by the executive, at convenient times for the despatch of business. The electoral divisions of Quebec (late Lower Canada), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick remained the same as before the confederation was formed; those of Ontario (late Upper Canada) were somewhat altered. Except for Quebec, which is always to continue to have the fixed number of 65 representatives, there is to be a readjustment of the representation after every decennial census, according to the changed proportions of the population; but no province is to have the number of its representatives reduced unless the decrease of population, as compared with the population of the whole of Canada, reaches 20 per cent. All appropriation and tax bills must originate in the house of commons; and no money vote can be proposed unless it be recommended to the house by message from the governor general. There are certain measures of an unusual or extraordinary kind to which the governor general may refuse the royal assent, and which he may reserve for the signification of the queen's pleasure; and the royal veto may be exercised at any time within two years. Besides the federal government, there is a local government in each province. The lieutenant governors of the provinces are appointed by the governor general, and hold office during pleasure, but are removable only for cause within five years, which is practically the term of their incumbency. They are advised by executive officers, most of whom act as heads of departments, who are responsible to the people's representatives. These governments are not uniform in structure, one of them, that of Ontario, having but one chamber. In the distribution of the powers between the general and the local legislatures, the crown lands remained under the control of the governments of the provinces in which they are respectively situated. To the charge of the general parliament were assigned public debt and property; the regulation of trade and commerce; the raising of money by any mode of taxation; borrowing on the public credit; postal service; census and statistics; militia, military and naval,

and defence; beacons, buoys, lighthouses, Sable island; navigation and shipping; quarantine and the establishment and maintenance of marine hospitals; seacoast and inland fisheries; ferries between a province and any British or foreign country, or between two provinces; currency, coinage, and legal tender; savings banks; weights and measures; bills of exchange and promissory notes; interest; bankruptcy and insolvency; patents of invention and discovery; copyrights; Indians and lands reserved for Indians; naturalization and aliens; marriage and divorce; the criminal law (from which the constitution of the courts is strangely excepted, and the anomaly is seen of local legislatures constituting or altering the constitution of courts to which the general government appoints the judges); the establishment, maintenance, and management of penitentiaries; and all subjects not expressly assigned to the local legislatures. The residuum of power therefore rests with the general legislature, not the provincial. The parliament of Canada has to enact uniform laws relative to property and civil rights in the several provinces, and the procedure of any courts therein; but such laws cannot go into effect until reënacted by the provincial legislatures. The powers confided to the local legislatures are uniform. They include the right to amend the local constitutions, except as regards the office of lieutenant governor; direct taxation to raise a revenue for provincial purposes; to borrow money on the credit of the province; the establishment of the tenure of provincial offices, and the appointment and payment of provincial officers; the management and sale of the public lands and timber; public and reformatory prisons; local hospitals, asylums, and charities, other than marine hospitals; municipal institutions; shop, saloon, auction, and other licenses; local works, exclusive of lines of ocean and other ships, railways, canals, and telegraphs which extend beyond the limits of the province, or, being situated wholly within one province, have been legally declared to be for the general advantage of Canada, or of more than one province; the incorporation of companies for provincial purposes; the solemnization of marriage; property and civil rights; the administration of justice; the enforcing of laws, by punishment, fine, or penalty, having relation to any of the subjects of which the provincial legislature has cognizance; and generally all matters of a local or private nature. Previous to the establishment of confederation, separate Roman Catholic schools had been established in Ontario, and dissentient or Protestant schools in Lower Canada, as part of the public school system; and the continued existence of both is guaranteed by a constitutional prohibition to legislate on the subject. With regard to agriculture and immigration the general and local legislatures have concurrent jurisdiction. The only judges appointed by the local governments are those of the probate courts in Nova