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for the necessity ot a communion to try the members'of the present Government, they would have the decency to." step down and out," and not wait to be tried " all. The lyr.ti. member for East Toronto seemed to think that the easiest way to get rid of magistrates was to drop them and appoint others in their places. Were tho Attorney- General, howewr, to follow that recom- mendation in the case of some friend of hon. gentlemen opposite, no mat- ter how good a ground he might have, for doing so, he (Mr. Fraser) would be sur- prised if some of those hon. gentlemen did not on the first opportunity denounce the Government as tyrannical and unjust. Because in those cases the Government had given. persons a chance to de- fcnd thcmSelvcs against charges which they declared were not true, the hon. ancniber for South Simcoe objected. lion. gzcntlnnn-n opposite seemed to think that ifa charge of deliberate wrong-doing were to be brought. against a magistrate, the proper Way would be simply to bring an action against him and allow hint to con- tinue his evil practices. lndecd, it seemed to be impossible to satisfy hon. gentlemen as to the proper mode of enquiry. Last session they had dcclnimed lengthily and eloquently in regard to certain charges affecting the management of the Central Prison; and the, system of inquiry which they had attacked in that case was exactly the, system which they say should have been pursued in the charges new under consideration. The Minister had in that case conducted the enquiry, and examined the Witnesses on oath ; but they found hon, gentlemen opposite charging the Government with whitewashiug their oili- l cers, and with being actuated by political I motives in adopting that mode of enquiry. ' The expectation and the hope of the coun- try was that educational matters should be [ lie-pt untirely free front politics, but new, in ' view of the evident inclination of the I Opposition to degrade this enquiry into a qiicstion of politics, would it have been a wise thing to have had the Central Committee charges investigated ' by the head of the Department? Would' that have tcndcd to keep educational' matters out of the arena of politics. On the contrary, the best thing toohage done was to do what had been done-to appointa Commissioner in whom the country had every cottiidoce, and still hon. gentlemen wore not satistied. They talked of a " xxhiienvaslung, report i" but he (Mr, Fraser) could hardly believe what they said in that rv-'pcct. He did not believe that any hon. gentleman on tho other side would any that there "as any previous tutrlcrstam'ing bctwccn the Government and the thnuniisioner tsomhas was implied by the words "Whitewashlng report." But even when that means of enquiry wasadopt- ed. no complaint was made. No tault was foundas the investigation proceeded, and no fault would have been found now, only that their desire to have certain friends of the Hort-rmnent condemned, rightly or wrongly, had not been gratified. (Hear, hear.) He believed that the good sound cmmnon sense of the people, and even of those in the constituencies of hon. gentle.. men Opposite, would endorse the action of the Gotituttttctit as the one best calcu- lated to secure a full and satisfactory in- quiry, and as the one which would best tend to keep our educational system free from the contact of politics. lie was equally sure that the report of the Commissioner was one which Would be generally approved by those who had read the evidence on which it was based. (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) Mr, SCOTT said he had been one who had desired that educational mat- ters should be kept free from poll. tics; but he had foreseen that, however desirable that might be, it would be almost impossible, as no sooner would the Opposition criticise any act of the Minister of the Department darn supporters of the Government would large them with being actuated by politics. That that fear had been justifies! was evident by the course of the present debate; but he Wished notwrth- standing to assert the right of hon. members to criticise the affairs of the Education Do. partment the same as any other Department of the Government. ll on. gentlemen had spoken of the Commission appointed to try the Pacitio Scandal charges, but it would be remembered that that Conuuigsion had been appointed against tho earnest protest of the Reform party, and that those ot that party who were Interested in formulating the charges had refused to appear before the Commission.l The Central Prison investigation had also i been referred to, but it had never yet been made apparent why that investigation had been conducted by a Minister of the Crown, as it had never been shown why the Central Committee charges should have been in-. vestigated by a Commission. Ever since Confederation it Seemed to have been the rule to cotuiuctbysMinisterof the Crowninquiries which should have been referred to 3 Com- mission, and rice verse. The charges ot cruelty and irregularity in the Central Prison on the part ol'those who were sub- ordinates of the Minister might very prop. ct-ly have been investigated by a Commission ; and that mode of inquiry would have been much more satisfactory to the people than the one which had been pursued. There was a strong suspicion that some things had been kept back in that inquiry which in the public interest should have been brought to the light of day. In truth, it seemed to be the great. object of hen gentlemen oppo- site, to conduct their inquiries in whatever way was best for the interests of their party. The inquiry conducted by Mr. Justice Pat- terson would have, been much more satisfac- tory if the Minister himself had conducted it, because the charges were ofsuch a nature that they could only be established by the wltnitcsiottg of the parties accused. For ex- ample, the country was Well satisfied that if the Minister of Education had inquired into the charge of collusion between Wc. Kirk- land and Prof. Mela-Han, he would have gone nn further than the coincidence be- tween the wording of the questions and the cittttvw,tauccs under which they had been civcniinorderiohav"omidtititttiu.clt.couuti.ion. existed, But because the Commissioner had found no actual proof of these improper re- lations he had disimsxed the charge: The feeling in the country was that the charge had been prom-n7 'and that the reason these gentlemen had been retained was because they were friends of hon. gentlemen oppo- site. With regard also to the other charge, rim, that a certain publishing house had: mjuyml except ional favours from the Central i 1'ouunittee, the general opinion of the com- munity was that the bottom of that matter had not been reached, and that I if :Ulu Minister himself had conducted i the investigation, his own good sense I would have led him to conclude that he had Ft't'n enough. and that the result would l have been that, he would have taken de- cided steps to ptcvent the recurrence of ruch relations as had existed. The infer- I nee to be drawn from the remarks of the Attorney-General and the Commissioner of Public Works was that there should be a Royal Commission appointed in the case of may magistrate who was complained of; but these were matters for which the coun- try would very properly hold Ministers themselves responsible. n being six o'clock the Speaker left the chair. After recess, . Mr. HODGINS said that the member for West Peterborough had questioned the con- stitutionality of the proceedings,takep by the Minister in the Central Prison enquiry last you, and had said that the conduct of the Government was utterly indefensible. The [acts were that the Minister was the l't'prv. ;chtive of the Government in regard. to "10 Central Prison that he was responsible for tho officials appointed in the insiitutinn, and that it was his duty to say whether nurse ofiicials had rightly or wrongly dischoigpd their duties. It was a constitutional right: of the Minister to iiwistigtt.t? the conduct of his subordinates. W. was bound to assume a personal rtspotveib1lity as to whether the charges made against them ivcrc true or not. In regard to tho "lrarges m convection with the Education oepart- ment, it any one was t'espoasible for the acts of tho Central Committee andunf the In- Central Committee and" the,"