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| 3-'_ k '";3'.;" ~ & M 0P © a t o oBP is | [ WWe HS \ L t | '-' ¢ i.' |," $ 5* ;) 111 uP |> ' #4 ® © B ; f T {it> 2. 4 14 | § *A 84| n not proceed to enforcé the payment OJ ine Municipal Loan Fund Debt, and the Gov-- eroment felt themseives compelled to hold a sum in hand to enable them to deal with that question. It was felt, however, that it was their duty to set apart a portion of that surplus to be devoted to the aid of railways and public works for the purpose of opening up the bick country. lu the next place, the Government contemplated the appropriation of $1,500,000 in develop-- ing that portion of the couniry from which so large a revenue was derived in the form of timber dues. ge o --It being now six o'clock the H journed till half--past seven. ML se AFfER RELCESS. vote that therefore they were not compe-- tent to advise thes grown. . Jt was quite clear that that position WAs untenable. The question was whether the Govern-- ment in the exerciso of its Judgment l';":s not competent to form an 0P'°'°&f,§§'afi in the present POSiE'OB_O.f ttf * clection with the __P"OjKké place, the positio M' favorable to them. On the bes information that be could get, he though the Government were perfectly justified i holding theic seats and waiting the cours of the elections. _ He did not think that th Government could honestly take any othe course. Suppose they gave place to hon. gentlemen opposite, and the elections turaed out as the Government expected they would do, what reasonable prospec would the hon. gentlemen opposite have of being able to carry on the Government ? They certainly could not do so without changing the opinions of some hon. mem-- bers on this side of the House. The Gov-- ernment were not justified in resigning until by a vote of non--confidence, passed by a full House, their conduct had been censured. If hon. geutlemen opposite had the confidence of tue House, why should they object to permit the Government to remain in office, doing nothing more than was absolutely necessary for the purpose of carrying on (Government? The hon. gen-- tleman had said that the Government had been defeated on othér occasions--once on the proposal for--adjournment, and again on the railway policy ; but it 'did not fol-- low that the Government should think it necessary © to _ resign. There was an instance of 'a British Gov-- ernment remaining in power five years, during which period it was defeated 160 times. 1f that was the case he did not see that there was any cogency in the ar-- gument that because this Government had suffered three defeats, therefore, they must retire. He had been invited by the hon. member for Ssouth Bruce as an individual member of the Government to resiga. He did not consider that any man assum-- ing public oflise was at liberty, on mere personal considerations, to throw off his re-- sponsibilities. Ie believed that when h eitered upon the arrangement under which the coalition had been formed, h was bound fairly and honestly to carry i out. _ He did not think that he should b f irly carrying it out if he were now to re sign in consequence of a majority of on against the Governwent ia a House wherd t number of constituencies were not reprel senuted. Hs did not think he could retaix his self--respect if he were to do so. Honol and good faith in his opinion reqauired hi f to remain where he was, and he intended , to do so; and if the vote of the House o q this question should result in arepetition o ; that majority of one against them, I should retain his position. 1 Mr. MACKENZIE said that the mem bers of the Government seemed to thin that becaus6 they'! Hard "the confidence the last House thep "should have the cong 'denice Of this.*; 'DThe mermas _ _' ~, Mi:C AG-- which the country was appealed to was whether the Goveroment should have the excessive power entrusted to them under this Railway Act or not, and the answer of the GGovernment was that they should not Th reference to the argument that the con:-- NMit. MACKENZIE said that the hon. gentieman had not advised to dissolve the House and dare not do so. Hse then pro-- ceeded to argue the constitutional question and said that the Government, although its policy had been condemned, had forced the Opposition to another appeal to His Excellency. Hon. gentlemen opposite now asked the House to adjourn without taking a vote of credit as it had been done last year very properly, because they were not in a position to advise ths application Of thitsuipply. _ _ _ _.._ _ '_. . . govern unléss supported by the the voice of tha people. Did hon. gentleman oppo-- site think that the majority of one which they claimed would be suflicient to enable them to carry on the Government. _ if the result of the clections should be to place the Government in a decided minority, there was not a member of it who would wish to retain his seat against the will of the people. _ Huppose that..y G°Xx> ernmett fiifway communiciation between the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa, and to offer a subsidy of $10,000 a mile, and came down to the House to ask authority for such grant, but without naming the exact points where such railway should begin or terminate, would there be any-- thing unconstitutional or usurping in that ? Now this example was precisely similar to the case now brought before the House in the legxislation of previous Sessions. That legislation had reccived the approval otf Reformers of that day; and he believed the Opposition now brought against that principle orginated in party feciing alone. Hoe had been glad to hear the hon. member for West Middlesex say that he had no in-- tention of Fringing any charge of corrup tion against individual members. of th Government. Mr. Cameron thea read an extract from a report of a speech by th hon. member for Welland, a candidate who bound himself to take every reasonabis occasion to oppose the Government, in op position to a candidate who undertook to support the Government,. He thought that if the Government had not been defeated on their railway policy they would have de-- served to be defeated for not devoting more attention to the promotion of immi-- e@ratiOfn," c _c0.. c.l uc ul e es s ie ns w b. Mr. FAREWELL <accepted that denial, and went on to reter to the term "cast iron pledge," which had been made use of by fome speakers, and many hon. members knew that expression had been made use of with special reference to him. Now he could not see that it was any worse for an hon. _ member to pledge himself to oppose the Government than to pledge himself to support it. Mr. Farewell went on to at-- tack the policy of the Government with respect to ths recognition of the institu-- tion at Hamilton ; and argued that that in-- stitution had been closed and another site selected in order to gain a supporter for the Government. 1e defended the conduct of the Ref?rsners of South Ontario in selecting ' Mr, McCALL said tuat tho charge had been brought against him of bringing for-- ward an amendiment drawn up by the At-- torney--General. _ We (McCal]) emphatically dclx.ied that. _ (Loud cheers) . 3 3 _y"IaIMHOTM Y AAG not thought of Aak-- ing that step until the Atty--Geal. took the step of drawing up an amendment to that effect, which was placed in the hands of an hon. member. Mr. CUMBERLAND rose to explain, In alluding to the cast--ron pledge, he had not objected to any hon. ger tleman pledg-- ing himself to his electors, but to such a pledge being given to political leaders, _ CC D nerirrnys + L * Mr. PRINCE thought the constitutional question had been pretty well argued out and that it bad been decided in favor of his (the Opposition) side of the House 1If h»e understood the hon. member for Algoma correctly, the House could not comment on past legislation ; but what celse was the House to comment upon ? Air. CUMBEEL AND explained that he had only referred to legislation of the par-- ticular class and under the particular cir-- cumstances which had been brought under discussion. Mr. PRINCK contnued. | 'The threat of a dissolution had been held out to hon, members supporting the Government. Hop. Mr. CA MERON denied that he had held out such a threat. He had merely re-- ferred to a suppositious case in which a Government might be authorised in taking such a step. Williama i. 2, "° °2 HAJLCPL LCOLL, (Grey), Tooley, Williams, (Darham).--26. Nayrs--Messrs. Baxter, Blake, Boultbee, Christie, Clarke, (Wellington), Cla. ke, (Norfolk), Clemens, Cook, Crooks, Crosby, Currie, Dawson, Deacan, Fairbairn, Farewel, Finlayson, Galbraith, Gib-- bons, Gibson. Go#, Hod rins, McCall, (Norfo'k), MacKenzie, McKelar, McKim, McMauus, Merrick, Oliver, Pardee, Patterson, Paxton, Pérry, Prince, BOoDiMNSQLnoSeXtAL t inclain . Smith." Springct. Mr. PRINCE went on to spe*} of the railway aid question. The "Great Western Railway had been referred to, but there was no similarity between the case of that roid and the lines to which aid was now proposed to be given. _ The amendment of the hon. Aity.--Gen. was then put to the House, and on a divi-- sion the numbers appeared to be yeas 26, nays, 48. ; YEAs--Messrs. Boulter, Calvin,Cameron, Carling, Clarke, (Grenville), Code, Corby, Craig, (Glengar-- ry), Craig, &Rnssefl). Camberland, Deroche, Fitz-- simmons. Graham; Grange, Guest, Harrington, Macdonald, (Cornwal}) Macdonald, (Leeds) Mc-- Callum, McRae, Monteith, Richards, Rykert, Scott, (Gl'e\'). Tmlnv NT LTNE ons We n c C _ Mr. McCALL said he recollected an in-- stance illustrating the effect of a cast--iron:} pledge in the last Parliament, when ninc members had left the House rather than vote upon a measure upon which they were pledged. With referdnce to the charges which nad been br--ught against | him, he had to say that no approaches had been made to him by any member of the Government. He had thought that the House as now constituted was not in a position to decided upon the questions at issue, but a vote of the House having sei-- tled that question, he bowed to its decision, although he had given the Government an independent support, but he felt that they should not press upon him for another vote after that expression of the House. Therefore, it would please him better to see the Atty.--General withdraw his mo-- tion, and the hon. member for South Bruce withdraw his, on the understanding that the Cabinet should retire. The constitutional quuestion was a most important one,and the eyes of the British Empire were upon them; theretore they should not stand upon '\technicalities, but deal with the question on broad principles. He had now dis-- charged his duty to his constituents and to the Province, an d if he should be compelled to vote again he should vote according to the dictates of his conscience, and that must be for the original motion. f gone,rand it was still open to them to inter-- fere with its disposal. The hor. Atty. General had challeeged them to a direct vote of confidence, and on that challenge they had acted. A dissotution had also been hinted at, and one would soon take place. not, however, a dissolution of the House, but a dissolution of the Goverment. l He was not extremely anxious about it ;; he was merely fulfilling the pledge he gave last year. The pledge which he then gave| # he had now falfilled. I The ATTY.--GENERAL said he had| been twitted with regard to a vote which: he had taken this time last year when he obtained a vote of $200000 on supply. Buch a vote was not asked for now on account of the pledge which had been | given, that if they were to remain as they 'were until afterthe holidays they should I not use one farthing of public money. If the Goyvernment received that support | which they expected at the Coming'clec- tions they should then be prepared to come down to the House at the earliest possible period and asz for the necessary supply. He was prepared to take the con-- sequence of the vote that would be taken that evening, anud hoped he would be pre-- pared to bow to the decision of the House. Mr., BOULTBEE felt it due to himself to give his reasons Inr snnnnrline tha to give his reasons for supporting the améndment. He did not vote for it on the ground of want of confidence in the Go-- vernment, because he did not feel that. He voted for this i mendment because it appeared to him that they were bound to abide by the decision of the House, and al-- though the majority against the Govern-- ment was only a small one still it was a majority. It might perhaps be many years before they would have an administration that looked so closely after th> interests of the country as this administration had done. He felt that he had no right to press his opimions against the will of the ' House, and theréfore he must vote against the Government. * Mr. BLAKE said that the motion of the Atty.--General had already been really dis-- | posed of by the decision of the House on '\the amendment of the hon. member for | South Norfolk. At the time the hon. Atty,-- | General had a great msjority in that House | he had not ventured upon such an infrac-- | tion of constitutional practice as now. He 'Was now asking the IHouse to assent to a { proposition which it would not have per-- \ mittel this tims last year. He had been amused at the remarks i made on the impropriety of commenting on past legislation, but the speech was full of references to past legis-- lation. With regard to this railway ald question, however, they were not desling with past legislation, the money was not Mr. PAXTON had opposed the railway policy of the Government for the last four years and opposed it still, notwithstanding the aid his constituency would receive from "Ahat fund. _ He cousidered the Atty.--Gen-- eral was attempting to cling to power in defiance of the decision of the House and the wil! of the people. * Te rdns for In Bii sor tail Cal iinj (GI ocl an O th Mc (B 1J fol Pr MA in (A t