1891. April 29. The first of the new C.P.R. steamers arrived at Vancouver from Yokohama, beating the record by over two days. The mails were landed in Montreal in 3 days 17 hours, from Vancouver.

June 6. The Right Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald, G.C.B., Premier of the
Dominion, died.

1892. April 17.

Death of Hon. Alexander Mackenzie.

May 24. Death of Sir Alexander Campbell, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario.
December 5. Resignation (from ill-health) of Sir J. J. C. Abbott, K.C.M.G.,
Premier of the Dominion. Sir John S. D. Thompson called upon to
form a Government.

1893. April 4. The Court of Arbitration, respecting the seal fisheries in Behring
Sea, which met formally on 23rd March, began its session. Arbitrators:
Baron de Courcel (Belgium), Lord Hannen (Great Britain), and Sir John
Thompson (Canada), John M. Harlan and J. P. Morgan (United States),
Marquis Visconti Venosta (Italy), and M. Gram (Norway and Sweden.)
October 30. Death of Hon. Sir J. J. C. Abbott.

June 8. First steamer of the new Australia-Canada line arrived at
Victoria, B.C.

Title "Honourable

as conferred by the Queen in the Duke of Buckingham's despatch, No. 164, of 24th July, 1868, explained by Earl Ripon to extend to all parts of Her Majesty's Dominions. See Official Gazette (Canada) August 5, 1893.

CHAPTER II.

VI. The Canadian Constitution. Subjects assigned to Federal Parliament and to Provincial Legislatures.-XIV. Senate and House of Commons.XVII. Franchise.-XVIII. Elections.-XXIV. Standing Committees. XXVII.--Local Legislatures.-XXIX. Municipal Institutions.-XXX. Judiciary.-XXXIII. Unorganized Territory.--XXXIV. List of Governors General.-XXXV. List of Members of Privy Council and Dominion Parliaments, &c.

6. The system of government established in Canada under the Union Act of 1867 is a Federal Union (the first of the kind in the British Empire), having a general or central government, controlling all matters essential to the general development, the permanency and the unity of the whole Dominion, and a number of local or provincial governments having the control and management of certain matters naturally and conveniently falling within their defined jurisdiction, while each Government is administered in accordance with the British system of parliamentary institutions. By this Act the Imperial Parliament practically gave to the Dominion Parliament the largest possible rights which can be exercised by a dependency, of legislating on all matters of importance to the Union generally.

The position Canada consequently occupies is that of a semiindependent power. The powers vested in the Parliament of Canada are set forth in the 91st section of the Confederation Act, which provides that the Queen, with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons may "make laws for the peace, order and good government of Canada in relation to all matters not coming within the classes of subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the Provinces"; and for greater certainty it is declared that "the exclusive legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada extends to all matters coming within the classes of subjects next hereinafter enumerated," that is to say :

(1.) The public debt and property.

(2.) The regulation of trade and commerce.

(3.) The raising of money by any mode or system of taxation. (4.) The borrowing of money on the public credit.

(5.) Postal service.

(6.) The census and statistics.

(7.) Militia, military and naval service and defence.

(8.) The fixing of and providing for the salaries and allowances of civil and other officers of the Government of Canada. (9.) Beacons, buoys, lighthouses and Sable Island.

(10.) Navigation and shipping.

(11.) Quarantine and the establishment and maintenance of marine hospitals.

(12.) Sea coast and inland fisheries.

(13.) Ferries between a province and any British or foreign country, or between two provinces.

(14.) Currency and coinage.

(15.) Banking, incorporation of banks and the issue of paper

money.

(16.) Savings banks.

(17.) Weights and measures.

(18.) Bills of exchange and promissory notes.

(19.) Interest.

(20.) Legal tender.

(21.) Bankruptcy and insolvency.

(22.) Patents of invention and discovery.

(23.) Copyrights.

(24.) Indians and lands reserved for the Indians.

(25.) Naturalization of aliens.

(26.) Marriage and divorce.

(27.) Criminal law, except the constitution of courts of criminal jurisdiction, but including the procedure in criminal

matters.

(28.) The establishment, maintenance and management of peni

tentiaries.

(29.) Such classes of subjects as are expressly excepted in the enumeration of the classes of subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the legislatures of the provinces.

7. In the 92nd section the Act defines the powers of the local legislatures, which in each province may exclusively make laws in relation to matters coming within classes of subjects next hereinafter enumerated, that is to say

(1.) The amendment from time to time, notwithstanding anything in this Act, of the constitution of the province, except as regards the office of Lieutenant-Governor. (2.) Direct taxation within the province, in order to the raising of a revenue for provincial purposes.

(3.) The borrowing of money on the sole credit of the province. (4.) The establishment and tenure of provincial offices and the appointment and payment of provincial officers.

(5.) The management and sale of the public lands belonging to the province, and of the timber and wood thereon. (6.) The establishment, maintenance and management of public and reformatory prisons in and for the province. (7.) The establishment, maintenance and management of hospitals, asylums, charities, eleemosynary institutions in and for the province, other than marine hospitals.

(8.) Municipal institutions in the province.

(9.) Shop, saloon, tavern, auctioneer and other licenses, in order to the raising of a revenue for provincial, local or municipal purposes.

(10.) Local works and undertakings other than such as are of the following classes :

(a.) Lines of steam or other ships, railways, canals, telegraph or other works and undertakings connecting

the provinces with any other or others of the provinces or extending beyond the limits of the province. (b.) Lines of steamships between the provinces and any British or foreign country.

(c.) Such works as, although wholly situated within the province, are, before or after their execution, declared by the Parliament of Canada to be for the general advantage of Canada, or for the advantage of two or more of the provinces.

(11.) The incorporation of companies with provincial objects. (12.) The solemnization of marriage in the province. (13.) Property and civil rights in the province.

(14.) The administration of justice in the province, including the constitution, maintenance and organization of the provincial courts, both of civil and of criminal jurisdiction, and including procedure in civil matters in these

courts.

(15.) The imposition of punishment, by fine, penalty or imprisonment for enforcing any law of the province made in relation to any matter coming within any of the classes of subjects enumerated in this section.

(16.) Generally all matters of a merely local or private nature in the province.

8. Section 93 provides that "in and for each province the legislature may exclusively make laws in relation to education, subject and according to the following provisions :

(a.) Nothing in any such law shall prejudicially affect any

right or privilege with respect to denominational

schools which any class of persons have by law in the province at the Union.

(b.) All the powers, privileges and duties at the Union by law conferred and imposed in Upper Canada (now Ontario) on the separate schools and school trustees of the Queen's Roman Catholic subjects, shall be and the same are hereby extended to the dissentient schools of the Queen's Protestant and Roman Catholic subjects in Quebec.

(c.) Where in any province a system of separate or dissentient schools exists by law at the Union, or is thereafter established by the legislature of the province, an appeal shall lie to the Governor General in Council from any act or decision of any provincial authority affecting any right or privilege of the Protestant or Roman Catholic minority of the Queen's subjects in relation to education.

(d.) In case any such provincial law as from time to time seems to the Governor General in Council requisite for the due execution of the provisions of this section is not made, or in case any decision of the Governor General in Council on any appeal under this section is not duly executed by the proper provincial authority in that behalf, then, and in every such case, and as far only as the circumstances of each case require, the Parliament of Canada may make remedial laws for the due execution of the provisions of this section and of any decision of the Governor General in Council under this section.

9. There are certain rights which the Dominion and Local Governments may exercise in common, among which are agriculture and immigration, respecting which the general Parliament may make laws for any or all of the provinces, and each legislature may do the same for the province over which it has jurisdiction, provided that no provincial Act is repugnant to any Dominion Act.

10. Either the English or French language may be used in the debates in Parliament and in the legislatures of Quebec, Manitoba and the North-west Territories, and both languages are to be used in the respective records and journals of those Houses, and in the publication of the laws of Quebec, Manitoba and the North-west Territories. Either language may be used in pleadings or processes in the courts of Canada, and in Quebec and Manitoba.