(4) (5) (6) (7) 6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907 majority of the House of Assembly of the Province for which they serve to be manifested by Triplicate Instruments under the hand and seal of the Speaker thereof to the Governor General, the Speaker of the Legislative Council, and the Speaker of the General Assembly. And be it also enacted by the same authority that to give any Acts of the said Governor General, Legislative Council and General Assembly, the force and authority of a Law, the same shall have been assented to in the said Legislative Council by the majority of the voices forming a house of Council, according to His Majesty's appointment thereof, and shall have been assented to in the said General Assembly by such and so many Voices as will make it the Act of the majority of the Provinces, having right to be represented in the said General Assembly, and it shall be a house of General Assembly as often as there shall be assembled one or more members duly elected by each of the Assemblies of the said Provinces or of the greater number of such provinces. And be it further enacted by the same authority that it shall be lawful for His Majesty, His Heirs and Successors to authorize and direct His Governor General for the time being or the Person upon whom that trust by His Majesty's Appointment may devolve, in His Majesty's name and by an instrument under the great seal of the British Dominions in North America to summon and call together such General Assemblies in such manner as His Majesty shall be pleased to signify and command by His Royal Instructions to such Governor General. And be it also enacted by the same authority that the Governor General under such instructions as he may have received from His Majesty may assemble the said Legislative Council and General Assembly where, and prorogue and dissolve them, when and as often as he shall judge it necessary, Provided always and be it enacted that they shall be called together one at least in every two years, and continue to have the right of sitting seven years from the Teste or day of the process or summons for their election unless they shall be sooner dissolved by the Authority aforementioned. But no Member either of the said Legislative Council or General Assembly shall be permitted to sit or vote in the General Legislature untill he shall have taken such Oath as hereinbefore directed to be taken by the Members of the Legislative Council and Assembly of Upper or Lower Canada, or not being an Inhabitant of either of the said Provinces last mentioned such other oaths and qualifications as are taken to become a Member of the Parliament of Great Britain as by His Majesty's Instruetions shall be directed and required. And be it also enacted by the same Authority that whenever any Bill which has been passed by the said Legislative Council and by the said General Assembly shall be presented for His Majesty's Assent to the Governor General for the time being or the Person exercising that trust under His Majesty's Authority, it shall and may be lawful for such Governor General or other person exercising the said trust, at his discretion, subject nevertherless to such Instructions as he may from time to time receive from His Majesty His Heirs and Successors, either to declare His Majesty's Assent to such Bill, or to declare that he withholds such assent, or that he reserves the said bill untill His Majesty's Pleasure shall be signified thereon And no Bill so to be presented and not assented to in manner aforesaid shall have the force of a Law. And be it further Enacted by the same Authority that nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to prevent His Majesty from appointstig, erecting, and constituting such general and executive Council and Councils as he may judge proper for the said Provinces and Dominions in general, and Any other Office, in His Royal Judgment and discretion requi SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18 (9.) (10.) site for the said general Government; or from nominating and appointing thereto from time to time, such persons as he shall think fit to compose the same Executive Council, or to execute such offices or from removing therefrom any person or Persons whom he may think fit to remove. And be it also Enacted by the same Authority that it shall and may be lawful for His Majesty to give Authority to his said Governor General, or the person exercising that trust, on his arrival in either of the provinces within his commission, to assume the authority and to perform all the duties and functions which the Lieutenant Governor thereof, might exercise and perform; and the powers and authority of such Lieutenant Governor shall be suspended & so continue during the time of the Governor General's being within the same province; and that it shall also be lawful for His Majesty to give to the said Governor General for the time being, tho' absent in some other province of His General Government, authority respecting any act of any of the Provinces of such nature and tendency as His Majesty may see cause by His Royal Instruction to describe, to suspend the execution of such Act until His Majesty's Pleasure shall be signified respecting the same; to which end it shall be the duty of the person administering the Government in every Province subject to the Governor General's Authority, to transmit to him a copy of every bill to which he has assented as soon as possible after the enacting of the same into a law; and shall upon the suspension thereof by the Governor General immediately cause the same to be made known by proclamation under the great seal of his Province, in the manner most effectual for making the same universally known to the Inhabitants of the same Province, and all others whom the same may concern. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, that nothing in this Act contained shall be interpreted to derogate from the rights and Prerogatives of the Crown for the due exercise of the Royal and executive authority over all or any of the said Provinces; or to derogate from the Legislative Sovereignty and Supremacy of the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain; but the Acts of Legislation of either of the said Provinces, as well as the Acts of the Governor General and the Legislative Council and General Assembly so to be made, shall be subject to the Royal dis-allowance as exercised heretofore respecting the laws of any of the British Provinces, and the said Dominions and all the Provinces into which they may be hereafter divided shall continue and remain to be governed by the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain as the supreme Legislature of the whole British Empire. D. Endorsed. D. In Lord Dorchesters to Mr. Grenville N° 15 of 8th February 1790. CLAUSE RE TRIAL OF CRIMINAL OFFENCES.1 And whereas it may so happen that Offences may be committed, whien as the Law now stands, may be only triable and punishable in England by virtue of divers Statutes, as Treason or Murder perpetrated in foreign parts, and yet the Offender may be taken and imprisoned for such offence, in one or other of His Majesty's Provinces in America. Be it therefore enacted by the Authority aforesaid that such offender may be tried and punished, in such of His Majesty's Provinces where he may happen to be imprisoned, and for that purpose may be proceeded against before Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer constituted from time to time 1 This is clause E, (Q 44-1, p. 77) drawn up by Chief Justice Smith, and referred to in Dorchester to Grenville p. 676, as also in Smith to Dorchester, p. 685. 18-3-44 6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907 under the meat Seal of the Province, as nearly as may be according to the Curse in the realm of England for the Trial of Offences of the like nature. Endorsed .E D. Your Lordship's dispatch N° 15 was not received Ar The Session of Parliament was then so far advanced that it WAS THE THALAT pe cer se bring forward at that time the proposed bill for regulating VVSOTERONG ĐỀ Quecer, especially as several of the observations stated by Your ", vise plan the subject were of a nature to require previous consideration, and as it An appeared pe cacie that I might receive from Your Lordship any further suggestions WHAT 12% Wert on a filler examination of the plan and that I might perhaps be able ựa no myseż ĉ Your Lordship's personal assistance in the course of the summer. The discussions with have arisen with Spain having induced His Majesty to ne to state to Your Loris ip the necessity of your continuing for the present in vg uncertain whether even in the Supposition of an amicable adjust[ dat business, it could be terminated soon enough to allow of my transmitting » Your Lovese gs season His Majesty's permission to return to England, I have tirgot to state to Your Lordship in this manner some particulars which have , ཏཾཔ a the subject of Your Lordship's dispatch above mentioned and its ་ ་ ༤ certainly be considerable difficulty in any mode of describing the boundper Canada till some precise adjustment is made with the United States, dese points in which the Treaty of 1783 has not been carried into execution so ga seting parties. This subject is now under the consideration of Government, s not improbable that some person may be sent from this Country with powers Pose points. But if such settlement shall not have taken place previous to ne bringing forward the Quebec bill in the next Session of Parliament, I am no to believe the most adviseable mode of avoiding the difficulty in question will sar of leaving the Boundaries to be fixed by His Majesty. Frisk would enable the King to provide for the point to which the clause B' inclosed Yu Lordship's dispatch relates-If any other mode should be adopted the object of be attended to. la materia' obection occurs to me to the numbers proposed by Your Lordship for as rocmation of the Legislative Councils or Houses of Assembly in the two Proas I must necessarily rely so much upon Your Lordship's judgment in 1 I were to wish any alteration it might perhaps be to lessen the numbers he Legislative Councils are to consist in the first instance-and this with a to having the means of greater selection with respect to the persons to be first eA Oves Q44 1, p. 132. To follow the discussion of the various sections of the bill reand second draughts of it. See pp. 667 and 677. FAX Sth, enclosing, among other papers, the second draught of the Constitutional wh Stain arose over the capture of certain British vessels at Nootka Sound, on the It was feared for a time that war would be the result, with the possibility se being drawn into it at the instance of Spain, owing to the difficulties about the Dawn up by the Chief Justice relative to the boundaries between Quebec and New SESSIONAL PAPER No. 18 named, on the characters and conduct of whom so much depends. The mode suggested, for ascertaining the circles, or districts for elections appears unobjectionable. The More difficulty seems to occur with respect to the proposed extension of the qualification of Eligibility to persons born under the dominion of foreign princes, and not within those provinces which have been conquered by His Majesty's arms. naturalization bills in Great Britain always contain a clause of exclusion from Seats in either House of Parliament, and there seems to be great objection to giving any similar right by provincial naturalization. Unless therefore I should hear from Your Lordship that there are any persons whom in Your Lordship's opinion it would in the present moment be particularly desirable not to exclude and who would not fall under the description of Eligibility as it before stood I incline to think it should not be altered. Some doubt occurs to me whether it would be desireable to extend the disqualifying clauses in the manner proposed by Your Lordship. It is true unquestionably that persons of the descriptions mentioned are not entitled to political honours or consequence, but the means of discouraging them within the province seems to be a consideration rather of local provincial regulation, and not naturally to form a part of a law on which the Constitution of the Province is to be grounded. After much enquiry and consideration, and after receiving the opinions of professional men upon the subject it does not appear to me to be practicable to introduce into the proposed bill any considerable or material articles of Commercial Law, and the insertion of those of smaller importance would not be desireable. Unless therefore I should receive any further suggestion on that subject from Your Lordship, it is my present intention not to add to the bill any clause of that nature, although I cannot but confess that I have taken this resolution with considerable reluctance, and apprehension of the possible effect which it may have on the British Commerce. The difficulties of which the Merchants have complained with respect to the Commercial Laws of Canada and which certainly by no means appear to me to have been entirely unfounded, though in some instances, I think they have been exagerated, seem nevertherless rather to have arisen from the uncertainty of those Laws than from the positive defects of any one particular system. That uncertainty might perhaps be removed immediately by provisions to be adopted by the local Legislature of the Province, and it must ultimately be done away by an uniform and consistent administration of Justice which it will be the duty of His Majesty's Ministers to secure to the King's subjects by such means as will under the proposed system be left in His Majesty's discretion. I am not quite satisfied that this will be fully sufficient to obviate the objection drawn from the prejudices of those persons of whom the Legislature of Lower Canada must in great measure be composed, and from the natural operation of those prejudices in questions of Commercial Laws. But the difficulty appears to me unavoidable and not to be of sufficient weight to prevent the adoption of the proposed system if right in other respects. It is certainly very desireable that the benefits of an exchange from tenure in fief to common Socage should not be confined to the persons holding immediately of the King but should be extended to their under-tenants. But it seems necessary that some mode of compensation should be settled by which the person holding of the King might receive an adequate return for the value of the rights which he would lose by such conversion, unless it is understood that the benefit derived to the tenant in capite from the extinguishing the feudal rights of the King, would in all cases be greater than the loss incident to him upon the surrender of his rights over his under-tenants. This as far as I understand the present system of tenures in Canada, I imagine would not be the case, and it would therefore be necessary to make some provision for this difficulty. Whether it is possible to establish any general rule or fixed proportion of compensation to be made by the under-tenant to his Lord in lieu of the feudal services and payments to which he is now subject, or whether it would be necessary in each distinct case to have recourse to some mode of appraisement or valuation, and what mode could be best adapted for that purpose, I am not sufficiently informed to decide, and I must therefore request that Your Lordship will with the assistance of His Majesty's Chief 18-3-445 6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907 Justice, and any other Persons whom you may think competent to advise you upon it, give a particular attention to this point and transmit to me such a clause as shall be judged effectual for the object which I have mentioned. In framing such a clause attention will of course be paid by the persons drawing it to the nature and operation of the different clauses in the Stat: 12 Car. 2 Cap. 24, by which Socage holding was made general in this Kingdom. If any compensation is to be paid by the under-tenant to his Lord on such Conversion, it seems necessary to provide that the Conversion shall not take place but by mutual consent. Proper attention will be paid to Your Lordship's suggestions with respect to the Commencement of the Bill, but the intermediate establishment of a separate Government in Upper Canada according to the form of that created by the present Quebec Act does not appear adviseable. The formation of a general Legislative Government for all the King's Provinces in America,' is a point which has been under Consideration, but I think it liable to considerable objection-The principle of uniting the executive Government, has already been acted upon, and is one which I think of material importance to the British Interests in America. The other Clauses suggested by the Chief Justice will be considered by His Majesty's Law Servants. I am &c. &c. W. W. Grenville DUNDAS TO DORCHESTER.2 (No. 2) The Right Honble Lord Dorchester Whitehall, 16th September 1791. In the letters which were written to your Lordship by my Predecessor, Lord Grenville, I find you were long ago fully informed by his Lordship of His Majesty's intention of dividing His Province of Quebec into two separate Governments, to be called the Province of Upper Canada, and the Province of Lower Canada, and of Regulations which were proposed to be made in consequence, for the better Government of that part of His Majesty's Dominions. In pursuance of that intention I am now to inform your Lordship that a Bill was introduced into Parliament and passed during the last session, intituled " An Act to repeal certain parts of an Act passed in the Fourteenth year of His Majesty's Reign intituled An Act for making more effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America; and to make further provision for the Government of the said Province," a Copy of which I inclose together with a Commission under the Great Seal, revoking your former Commission of Governor of the Province of Quebec, and vesting you with the Chief Government of the two Provinces beforementioned and also Instructions under the Royal Sign Manual applicable to the Regulations which His Majesty under the Act, has thought fit to establish. In framing the Instructions to Your Lordship with respect to the Quorums of the Legislative Councillors and of the Members of the Assembly for Lower Canada, some difficulties occurred in fixing on the number which might be proper to compose such Quorums, and on a consideration of the subject, it was rather thought adviseable that the number of which such Quorums should consist, should be left to those Bodies to determine. The mode which His Majesty's Servants recommend for adjusting this point, 1 Referring to the proposed clause on that subject submitted by the Chief Justice. See p. 687. 2 Canadian Archives, Q 52, p. 213. Henry Dundas was a noted politician of the period, who had boxed the compass among the political parties of the time and finally attached himself to Pitt, with whome he gained special favour. After filling several important offices, he became Secretary of State for the Home Department, on June 8th, 1791. In 1802 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Melville and Baron Dunira. |