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the Province--to make special laws for it, as they had done for Algoma--without its being represented would be tyranny. The only precedent for any such courso was where an English constituuncy had proved '| itself so utterly «corrupt that the right of representation had to be taken from 'it. That wawthe only precedent that hon. gon-- tlemen'"could cite in favour of the view , that the House could bo constituted with= out every constituency sending a member. There were special reasons why no Legisla-- ture should exclude Algoma, bscause it was such an enormous country. The late mom-- ber for Algroma used to tell them that it was nearly as large as all the rest of On-- | tario put together, aud according to the | boundaries which were now conceded to the Province, it was as large as the rest of Ontario. Yet the contention on the other side was that thero was a deliberate inten-- tion to deprive that vast country of repre. sentation unless the elections happened to occur there at the same time as in the rest of the Province or uniess the return day happened to be the same day as for the rest of the country. _ One vote might change a Government. Their friends in Quebec bad been carrying on the Government for somo time with great success, and were kept in power only by the vote ot one meraber. Yet though this importance might attach to one vote, his hon. friends opposite con. tended that the House could go on without giving Algoma an opportunity of being represented . | suppose that past legislation led to that, it would require the strongest language that it would be possible to em ploy. Every pre. sumption was against it ; it was entirely contrary to all British practice, and to ail < precedent. _ It would, in frct, be | yranny to thus take away the right of | any portion of the country to be tepre-- | sented in Parliament after having once ' recognized it. To makeo laws for that part | of the country in common with the rest of Mr, MOWAT said they were all members for London, yet it would be & monstrous thing to hold an election without giving Lonudon an opportunity of reoturning & te= | presentative, But though he thought many | coustituencies could do better than London , (laughter), still Loudon had a right to make | its mistake if it chose. No oune whose mind | was perfectly unbiassed by party consider-- | auous'which were misleading hon. members f opposite, now thought any construction ot the statute possible which would have the effeot that his hon. friend claimed it had. ; Supposing, however, the (Government had : taken the view that hon. gentlemen said | they should bave taken, and that in the | absence of the member for Algoma they | should after the next election--when they wouid come back with even a larger majority than they bad now--(hear, hear) fiod it convenient to hold a session before the return otf the Algoma writ, what would hon, geutlemen say of the proposi. tion they were advocating now ? Mr, DEACON--Better amend tho law. Mr. MOWAT said there was no nscessity tor amending the law, and at all events Algoma should be there to have a voice in the amendment,. -- (HMear, hear.) But if the Government wore to take the course he had indicated, what a fierce outery would there be from hon. gentlemen opposite at their procecding without the representation of Algoma,. -- And the outery would 'be n just one, for if they wore capable of commituing guch an outrage they deserved to pass from that side of the House to tne other, What the hon. member had chicfly relied upou in support of his view was the fact that ceitain former proclamations had boeen issued from time to time which named a day for the meeting of the House antecedent to tho return of the writ for Algoma, and in order to give weight to that view ths bon, gentleman regarded those proclamations As_ solemn declarations of opinion and very important instruments in themselves, while the fact was 'thftt they werse mere formalities--more fictions, in fact, 'They professed to call _tho House to-- gether when there was no intention t_lm.t the -- House should --meet at the time named, 'Fne custom was an old one, and had been kept up, and when tho proclamations had been br(}ught to hum he §5000 tot is mitention called to He had noAngA.l:l?il. l-"fo ;? 0"'2- l'\):tflnllf vear. Mr, MEREDITH--We aro all members tor Algoma, n' s oA these proclmnutions until the present year. It was to be observed, however, that none of the proclamations upon which the argu. ment of his hon. friend was founded called Parliament together for the despatch ot business. Mr, MEREDITH----The first one does, Mr. MOWAT said only in the sense that if Parliament did meet they might transact business, provided they were not prorogued, The proclamation for the despatch oi busi-- ness was the only substantial one, and there was not a single case of a proclamation for the despatch of business antecedent to the return of the Algoma or any other writ. Since this matter came up he had some investigations made of old proclamations, and he found that the mistake had occurred at an carly period. In 1872, when Sir John Macdonald was Minister of Justice, all the writs in the Dominion, except those of Gaspe, Chicoutimi, and Saguenay, were re-- turnable on one and the same day, and the writs for the latter constituencies were returnable on a subsequent day, and the proclamation called Parliament together on the last of these days. (Hear, hear.) 'The error had at that time evidently been dis. covered, 'The writs gencrally were return-- able on the 3rd of September, 1872, and those for the three excepted constituencies on thse 12th of October,. Again, when Mr. Blake was Minister of Justice, all the writs were returnable on the 21st of November, 1874, with the exception of the three ho had named, as well as British Columbia and Manitoba, which were re. turuable on the 12th March, 1874, and Par-- liiment was not called till the latter date, He had also evidently discovered the mis-- tako which:was made in previous procla--= mations, T'hey should remember that the proclamations could not alter the law ; if the principle his hon,. friend contended for was not a fair one it could not be made so by a proclamation. He quoted Maxwell un the construction of statutes in support of this view, A case in point had occurred in Lower Canada many years ago, and he would read from the Journals of that time to show what had been done., 'The writs were all returnable on the l1ith of April, 1820, except that for the county of Gaspe, which was returnable on Thuursday, the 1st of June following., Parliament cameo to-- gether in pursuance of the writs on the 13ih of April, betore the return day for Gaspe, and before the actual return of the writ,-- The House on mecting unanimously passed the tollowing resolution :-- Resolued, That it is the opinion of this Committeo that according to the proclamation of His Honour the Prosident and Administrator of the Government of this Province, bearing daie thoe ninth day of KFebruary last, the representation of this Froviuce is nol as yot complete, inasmuch as the day fixed by the said prociamation as the roturn day of the writ of clection for the county of Gaspe is not yet arrived * * * *, and this House is incompotont, and cannot proceed to the despatch of business, Mr. S8COTN--The Governor did not accede to that view. was \;rong. The representatives of the people, at all events, refused to proceed to business until every part of the.country had an opportunity ot sendiag a member to Par-- liament, and the matter stopped there until the death of the King, when the Parliament was prorogued, Mr. MEREDITH--How could they meet at ali if their objection was good ? Mr, MOWAT--Porhaps they ought not to have met, but they might not have known the facts of the case until they came to. gether, He then read the following extracts from letters he had received from Mr. Fodd on the question ;-- On one occasion, in Lownr Canada (between 1820 and 1830), Parliament was convened to assomble be-- fore the return day for the Gaspe election writ bad NN A 0A 3 c i in sc Ants s P in Bscicns s e To nd uba dn h hn 4 come, and the H_o{uo of Assembly at once resolved that t.heg were mcqr)leu and incompetont to pro-- ceed to business, and they rofused to sit accordingly, They were then prorogued until they could be law-- fully and constitutionally assembled, and they were clearly right in this contontion. He read from a second letter which Mr. Todd wrote subsequently, as follows :-- Novertholess, I am equally clear from constitu-- tional precedent and analogy, as cited in my letter of the 19th inst., that when ail the returas have not been appoinicd for the same day, the last day on which any writ is returnable must be considered as the doterminate date of the commencement of the existence of Parliament to legislate, _ Bofore that date the body is not complete, and is not compotent toact. This view being in accordance with that he (Mr. Mowat) bad himself formed, he did not feel at liberty to take any other course than to adviso His Honour that such Mr.*MOWAT said that if he did not he