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b- Hon. J. S. M AC DON ALDaBefore the 3- orders of the day are called. I propose to I l make some explanations in regard to what L'as taken place in this Hume since it Open- r aid., The i'riyeiNntt-t it the opening of the 7 Boccyairiiined that the programme which ti was contained in the speech from the Throne , would have commended itself to the House, so I far as to secure a gracious reply from the " House. The mews ares which it feroshadow I, ed, though scanty, and the allusions to past Legislatures would have they fondly hoped io' prevented any active discussion; and in ad i,, dition to that We relied upon the record of i" the past four years to justify our ex .'. _ ctatiens that we should have J. red the ordinary courtesy shown to the Speech that former Speeches had received 4 from the House. In that respect we were id sadly disappointed. We had looked forward L t with hope that the record of the past would W have secured for us at all events a fair hear Y' ing in regard to the measures foreshadowed '0 in the Speech. Action has been taken, not ttt unusual, I admit, in the annals of Parliament, l" but unusual in later em, to attach " to the first paragraph of the Address a motion tio that was intended to test the strength of the I!,' Government and the feelings of the Rouse p" towards it. Of course we could not avoid (its that issue. We found that issue taken upon i, a measure which the Legislature last session had passed by the largest majority that the l. Government ever had. We had imagined I. that the measure which of all others, we regarded " the crowning act o our Administration, that is the appropriation of a portion of the surplus " our disposal to works of improvement, to encourage enter. ., prises which were intended" open up the 5 Mr Clarke (South Grenvi1le)---Bill inti. b. tuhsd " An Act to make better provision for If tho sale of infants' causes." , a Mr . Bonltboe ---Bill to provide for the t Mutation of the city of Toronto from the e county of York, and to prevent the trul in , the county of York for certain judicial put m poses, and to DreVent the trial in the county n' of York of any outta in which the cause of F'. action arose in any other county. Parliament of Ontario TUESDAY. Dec. It), I The SP BAKER took this (hit tt three 1 O'clock. Mr Dtstwon--Biq intitnled " An Act to empower certain persons to nppesr as agents nun not as ndvocntel in the Division Courts in the Provmce of Ontario." Mr. Macdonald (Lemhs)--Bi11 intitulea " An Act to amend the Ant of the Paulie uncut of the Province of Ontario, intituled ' An Act respecting the establishment of registry offices 1n Ridinge, and to amend the Registration of Titles (Ontario) Act.' " Also --Bil1 intituled " An Act to amend the Act intituled ' An Act respecting short; forms of mortgages in Upper Canada} and being Chapter ariari of the Statutes of cars. ada, 27 28 Victoria " ttMill IrMl.lMEliT-rllBT SESSION. Mr Hodgins -Bill to amend the Law of Property and Trusts. A1so,--Bill to amend the law relating to the remuneration of attorney. and solim. to". AUo,-Bi11 to enable Assignees of chosen in (when to sue st law in their own names) and for other purposes. Mr. Crooks-Bill to establish meehanies' lien on property created by their labour. A1ao,--Bill tomake debts and other chasm in action atuigaabie at law. Ahro,---Bi11 to extend the legal capacity of named women. RESIGNATION OF THE MINISI'RY. Mr. SPEAKER called for the orders of the day. _ --,s ""-. -. we co'nsidered it conferred very limited powers, indeed, as far " regards the dispo- sition of the grant, it was presented to the eountry as a usurpation of the functions of the Legislature. We sought in vain for any legislation, as far as our experience in the Canadian Legislature was concerned, in which there was an equal limit to the exer- cise of executive functions as in that Act . We fondly ho ed that we would receive that cordial) recognition of our de. sires to advance the interests of the country, which we thought our measures deserved I am not going to allude to the course taken by the hon. gentlemen to inflame the public mind and spread abroad the notion that the _ lxecntive had obtained extraordinary _powers. The time for that has gone by. _ t%ffioe it to say that the sensational ap- peals made at the hustings are st:ll feltin this House. We found members coming here pledged to cendemn us, not so much ccause we appropriated the public money for the purposes I have mentioned as for the power, the unconstitutional power whieh it was alleged we assumed to our. l selves. Well, Sir, I claim and will always l claim that there is no m1.too"titt1tionslii;y in l the powers entrusted to us by the House, i and even if it was unconstitutional, after it i was sanctioned by t;hMTonse we had to carry tout the directions of the House until the :; Act was repealed. However, we find that [j the alarm once started became general, and 1.1.129 not subsided when we met. The motion an of our country, and to hiriliUte th" settlement of our waste 1attdsr--we had Imagined that on this Act we would not be condemned. It appears, Sir, that we were Menu; that although it we! constitu- tionally introduced inte_the lioness, although BILLS INTRODUCED. the hon. member tor t5Btnrr"Brtm1r'mttr."" gsted that unmistakably. We found that on a question of adjournment we were defeated; we found that on the vote of (want of ttonfuonee we were defeated by a :majority of one. Looking to the incomplete i condition of this House in respect of the re. presentation of the people in it, we honestly felt that with a majority of one which was obtained site; a lengthened discussion upon i what we believed an unfair representation of z the meaning of the Act, we ought not to admit that " a proper verdict. believin that the unrepresented constituencies would send members who would take a different view of the matter. Honestly believing that We did not accept the vote of condemnation in the sense in which it was expected by the House we should have accepted it, we felt bound to advise His Excellency that we believed a different complexion would be given to the House after the elections. The gooeedings of yesterday manifested tho feel. 1 gs of the House in a more unttvutaka.ble, manner, and however much we might regret that the .vacant constituencies had not an zppondluty of sending representatives here to 'give their cglnions 1113911 :. 1mtter of so much importance as 'a change of administration, we felt that after the vote of last night we had no alter native left, but were bound to abandqn the advice we had tendered to His Excellency yesterday morning, and submit to the wry. diet of this House. And we did so without y reluctance. We found it would be im. tps.ssiblis; no watt-$1: What the result ot the "L, - _ ' g, -ze was more Itll- 1'lCaaatrl.o 0149900 " ' want of coniidcnee in 'them than TM', manifested by the unjority of one the other night. The Government felt that they had a higher duty Ito perform; they had to jadga whether they should abandon tho trust im . posed in them while a portion of tho coun- try was unrepresented, or wait till the .whole eountrJr.had an opportunity of pass- in; sentence upon them. I hope that, not. vthhetanding what has been said, credit will be givep_to myself, and my colleagues that 1ectiona might be, that, after that vote the Government"; could maintain itself with any degree of credit in the House, and that no 'useful measure: could be carried by them in yy, weak condition in which they were placed by the expression of the House. For m self, and I think I am speaking for my colleagues, however, much may have been said against us, we felt that the responsibilities placed upon us could not be abandoned because of (2.; adverse vote of the House. Numorow l stances could be adduced of Millie" , 'N 17".": remained in office after they 7 "'1" mung we" did not do as we dido because we desired to retain ofrlee or for tho sake of the emoluments of office, or through any desire to be considered as the only per- sons worthy of the otmiit1enee, of the House and the country, but because we believed, as Ihave said, that there was a duty which devolved 11p011 us to wait till all the constituencies were represented. We ventured to hope that new members still gave us their confhlenee, but we cannot gainsay the conclusion arrived at last night, and I am here to de. clare In my place with all sincerity that no 'such motives, actuated us in asking for an adjournment, which was denied us. Mr. Speaker, I feel I can speak with some ex- perience of the duties and responsibilities which devolve upon one holding the position which I have had the honour to hold in this Province for the last four ands half years. At 'the beginning of that time it was said we :were commencing a new era. Great respon- lsibilities were cast upon both the Goverw 'ment and the Legislature. That responsi- bility was all the greater from the fact that we had but one chamber. We had to take the responsibility of so forming oar legis- lation that the ingenuity of counsels could not detect a flaw in it. Andi am happy to tell you that the legislation of the past four years has been Such that we have had less amending of the Acts of previous sessions than they had at Ostawa, where they have a second Chamber. The Gov. ernment do not claim all the credit of that, because in this respect an Opposition is always useful to a Govern. ment, just as the lawyers are useful to the judges on the bench. As we are the only colony that has had the 1i1'vurt.iteuruvt of its uffrirs cor.'lucd to on; Ch-unc/r, it we; grr.t'rfyit: to 1' 1d "mt the (\'rm s." n- other colonies. I was not sorry that the example, which Ontario has given to me world of its ability to manage its uh with economy, prudence and tsxcafa .oe with but one Chamber, is sho t to h _. t,", meet in the Province f _ 1% Tlg' . lining been inte _ .. o) Que , s mo ton that Pros" -oduced into the Assembly. or Cow - - .mce to abolish the Legislative .uCil. In this Province the experience which our municipal institutions give to the men who manage them, qttlifies them to take part in the higher legislation mat is curried on in the House of Assembly. Bavinghad this responsibility cast upon us we have strong reason to believe that we have nequitted our. selves of the task assigned to us with credit to ourselves and advantage, to the country. And I am eonfirmed in that view because gentlemen opposite confined their attacks principally to that question, which had been made a test question at the last; election - the question of granting aid to railways. We were glad to know thst excepting a few al. lusione now and then to the matter of _trrib any. ---I myself being churned with bribing by ,.holestxier-y.ot.toi.tyWs act of ours collec tively or individually could be pointed. oat w hich could bring home tons an act of bribery with a View to perpetuate. our continuation in offioe. It was a proud position in which we found ourselves last session, when ttt' Uommittee of Public Accounts met to ex- amine the proceedings of three years; and after searching enquiries no matter was /ritselmed which could be construed into an unfair appropriation of money for my service I speak of that; with great satisfaction, and I think that we have cause for congratulation that we escsped the Con. demnation of a searching committee. in re' upset of the manner in which we disposed of the moneys which were oonfided to us. I may lay the same thing with regard to the large sums given as from tune to tune for particular works. I think, therefore. that in respect of the working of our new system, we stead in a very proud position before the country. Begging the, tlet 'riir'r'"'uela having " -u'd was more 1111- _ want of confidence Ith no C