Canada.

on the question whether the Great Council shall be dissolved. If a majority of the votes cast is in the affirmative, the term of the Council comes to an end and a new election is immediately held.” The second, is a demand for the revision of the Cantonal Constitution, in accordance with a provision of most of the Constitutions that the question of revision must be submitted to the popular vote on the demand of a certain number of citizens. The third is a system of proportional representation, which has recently been adopted in many of the Cantons.

II. STATE-GOVERNORS.

Just as the British North America Act makes specific provision for the constitution of the Legislatures in Ontario and Quebec, so does it provide for the appointment by the Governor-General of a Lieutenant-Governor for each Province, who is assisted by a Provincial Executive Council. The material sections of the British North America Act are the following:

Sec. 58. For each Province there shall be an officer, styled the LieutenantGovernor, appointed by the Governor-General in Council by instrument under the Great Seal of Canada.

Sec. 59. A Lieutenant-Governor shall hold office during the pleasure of the Governor-General; but any Lieutenant-Governor appointed after the commencement of the first session of the Parliament of Canada shall not be removable within five years from his appointment, except for cause assigned, which shall be communicated to him in writing within one month after the order for his removal is made, and shall be communicated by message to the Senate and to the House of Commons within one week thereafter if the Parliament is then sitting, and if not then, within one week after the commencement of the next session of the Parliament.

Sec. 60. The salaries of the Lieutenant-Governors shall be fixed and provided by the Parliament of Canada.

Sec. 61. Every Lieutenant-Governor shall, before assuming the duties of his office, make and subscribe before the Governor-General, or some person authorised by him, oaths of allegiance and office similar to those taken by the Governor-General.

Sec. 62. The provisions of this Act referring to the Lieutenant-Governor extend and apply to the Lieutenant-Governor for the time being of each Province or other the Chief Executive Officer or Administrator for the time being carrying on the Government of the Province, by whatever title he is designated.

Sec. 63. The Executive Council of Ontario and Quebec shall be composed of such persons as the Lieutenant-Governor from time to time thinks fit, and in the first instance of the following officers, namely, the Attorney-General, the Secretary and Registrar of the Province, the Treasurer of the Province, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and the Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works, within Quebec, the Speaker of the Legislative Council and the Solicitor-General.

Sec. 64. The constitution of the executive authority in each of the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, continue as it exists at the Union, until altered under the authority of this Act. Sec. 65. All powers, authorities, and functions which under any Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or of the Legislature of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, or Canada, were or are before or at the Union vested in or exercisable by the respective Governors or Lieutenant-Governors of those Provinces, with the advice, or with the advice and consent, of the respective Executive Councils thereof, or in conjunction with those Councils or with any number of members thereof, or by those Governors or Lieutenant-Governors individually, shall, as far as the same are capable of being exercised, after the

Union in relation to the Government of Ontario and Quebec respectively, be vested in and shall or may be exercised by the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario and Quebec respectively, with the advice, or with the advice and consent of, or in conjunction with the respective Executive Councils or any members thereof, or by the Lieutenant-Governor individually, as the case requires, subject nevertheless (except with respect to such as exist under Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, or of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland), to be abolished or altered by the respective Legislatures of Ontario and Quebec.

Sec. 66. The provisions of this Act referring to the Lieutenant-Governor in Council shall be construed as referring to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province acting by and with the advice of the Executive Council thereof.

Sec. 67. The Governor-General in Council may from time to time appoint an administrator to execute the office and functions of Lieutenant-Governor during his absence, illness, or other inability.

Under these sections of the British North America Act, several important constitutional questions have arisen.* But they have all depended for their decision upon the particular terms of the Act, and do not demand discussion in the limited space available here.

The Australian Constitution, on the other hand, makes no Australia. specific provision for the appointment of State Governors. This is only natural in view of the fact that Sec. 106-as has been pointed out above-provides for the continuance of the Constitution of each State as at the establishment of the Commonwealth. The Governors of each State are, therefore, still appointed by the Crown under Letters Patent, as they were before the adoption of Federation. But the State Governors in Australia are no longer Commanders-in-Chief of the Military and Naval Forces in the State, as the Governor-General is now vested with that command.

On the establishment of the Commonwealth, new Letters Patent and Commissions were issued to the Australian State Governors. They also still have the pardoning power-as far as offences within the State against the laws of the State, or for which the offender may be tried therein [i.e., apparently, in the State, not the Commonwealth, Courts]-whereas this power is denied to the LieutenantGovernors of the Canadian Provinces.

III. PUBLIC DEBTS OF THE STATES.

Article VI., Sec. of the Constitution of the United States reads United States. as follows:

"All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption of this Constitution shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution as under the Confederation."

But this provision referred to the war-debt of the Confederate
Government. No provision was made for the taking over by the
United States of the public debt of the several American States.

* [Vide the cases of Maritime Bank of Canada vs. New Brunswick ReceiverGeneral (1892, Appeal Cases, p. 437). Lenoir vs. Ritchie (3 Sup. Ct. Rep., 575). Attorney-General of Canada vs. Attorney-General of Ontario (3 Ontario Appeal Rep., 6). Letellier's Case (Leggo's Lord Dufferin, p. 653). Attorney-General of Quebec vs. Reed (10 P.C. App. Cases, p. 141). All these cases are discussed by Wheeler: "Confederation Law of Canada," pp. 27-35.]

Canada.

The United States Constitution thus left to the separate States
the management of their public debt. "Nothing" [says Mr. Bryce,
American Comm., Vol. II., p. 138] "in the financial system of the
States better deserves attention than the history of the State debts,
their portentous growth, and the efforts made, when the people had
taken fright, to reduce the amount and to set limits to them in the
future
State indebtedness, which in 1825 [when
there were twenty-four States] stood at an aggregate over the
whole Union of 12,790,728 dollars [£2,500,000], had in 1842 reached
203,777,916 dollars [£40,000,000], and in 1870, 352,866,898
[£70,000,000]
. The huge and increasing total startled

the people and, as everybody knows, some States repudiated their
debts. The diminution in the total indebtedness of 1880, which
stood at 250,722,081 dollars [£50,144,000], and is the indebted-
ness of thirty-eight States, is partly due to this repudiation. .
The disease spread till it terrified the patient, and a remedy was
found in the insertion in the Constitutions of the States of pro-
visions limiting the borrowing powers of State Legislatures.
For the last thirty years, whenever a State has enacted a Consti-
tution, it has inserted sections restricting the borrowing powers of
States and local bodies and often also providing for the discharge
of existing liabilities. Not only is the passing of Bills for raising a
State loan surrounded with special safeguards, such as the require-
ment of a two-thirds majority in each House of the Legislature;
not only "is there a prohibition ever to borrow money for, or even
to undertake, internal improvements [a fertile source of jobbery
and waste, as the experience of Congress shows]; not only is there
almost invariably a provision that whenever a debt is contracted,
the same Act shall create a sinking fund for paying it off within a
few years, but in most Constitutions the total amount of the debt
is limited, and limited to a sum beautifully small in proportion to
the population and resources of the State. Thus Wisconsin fixes
its maximum at 200,000 dollars [£40,000]; Minnesota and Iowa
at 250,000; Ohio at 750,000; Nebraska at 100,000; prudent Oregon
at 50,000; and the great and wealthy State of Pennsylvania, with
a population now exceeding 5,000,000 [Constitution of 1873, Art.
IX., Sec. 4.], at 1,000,000 dollars." ["New York-Constitution of
1846, Art. VII., Secs. 10-12-also names a million dollars as the
maximum, but permits laws to be passed raising loans for some
single work or object,' provided that a tax is at the same time
enacted sufficient to pay off this debt in eighteen years; and that
any such law has been directly submitted to the people and approved
by them at an Election."]

In Canada, on the other hand, elaborate provisions were made for the assumption by the Dominion of the public debt of the Provinces, by the following sections of the British North America Act

Sec. 111. Canada shall be liable for the debts and liabilities of each Province existing at the Union.

Sec. 112. Ontario and Quebec conjointly shall be liable to Canada for the amount (if any) by which the debt of the Province of Canada exceeds at the Union sixty-two million five hundred thousand dollars, and shall be charged with interest at the rate of five per centum per annum thereon.

Sec. 113. The assets enumerated in the fourth schedule to this Act, belonging at the Union to the Province of Canada, shall be the property of Ontario and Quebec conjointly.

Sec. 114. Nova Scotia shall be liable to Canada for the amount (if any) by which its public debt exceeds at the Union eight million dollars, and shall be charged with interest at the rate of five per centum per annum thereon.

Sec. 115. New Brunswick shall be liable to Canada for the amount (if any) by which its public debt exceeds at the Union seven million dollars, and shall be charged with interest at the rate of five per centum per annum thereon.

Sec. 116. In case the public debts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick do not at the Union amount to eight million and seven million dollars respectively they shall respectively receive, by half-yearly payments in advance from the Government of Canada, interest at five per centum per annum on the difference between the actual amounts of their respective debts and such stipulated

amounts.

Sec. 117. The several Provinces shall retain all their respective public property not otherwise disposed of in this Act, subject to the right of Canada to assume any lands or public property required for fortifications or for the defence of the country.

Sec. 118. The following sums shall be paid yearly by Canada to the several Provinces for the support of their Government and Legislature :

Ontario ..

Quebec

Nova Scotia

New Brunswick

Dollars.
Eighty thousand.
Seventy thousand.
Sixty thousand.
Fifty thousand.

Two hundred and sixty thousand.

and an annual grant in aid of each Province shall be made, equal to eighty cents per head, of the population as ascertained by the census of one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the case of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, by each subsequent decennial census until the population of each of those two Provinces amounts to four hundred thousand souls, at which rate such grant shall thereafter remain. Such grant shall be in full settlement of all future demands on Canada, and shall be paid half-yearly in advance to each Province: but the Government of Canada shall deduct from such grants, as against any Province, all sums chargeable as interest on the public debt of that Province in excess of the several amounts stipulated in this Act.

Sec. 119. New Brunswick shall receive, by half-yearly payments in advance from Canada, for the period of ten years from the Union, an additional allowance of sixty-three thousand dollars per annum; but as long as the public debt of that Province remains under seven million dollars, a deduction equal to the interest at five per centum per annum on such deficiency shall be made from that allowance of sixty-three thousand dollars.

Canada.

The following particulars as to the assumption of the public Assumption of debt of the respective Canadian Provinces by the Dominion State Debts, Government are taken from a very interesting article contributed to Vol. V. of the "Encyclopædia of Canada " [published in 1899] by the Hon. G. E. Foster, at one time Finance Minister of the Dominion. Taking a period of thirty years-from 1867 to 1897he examines the development of the public debt of Canada. The information contained in his article can be divided under two heads.

(i.) Provincial Debt actually taken over by the Dominion:

With regard to this Mr. Foster explains that "in some Provinces the debt was comparatively small, whilst in Ontario and Quebec it was comparatively large, and the disparity was equalised by the expedient of assuming a certain proportion of the debt of the latter, and by allowing to the former a nominal debt larger than the actual one, the excess of which should remain as an asset of the Province with interest at 5 per cent. per annum, until it should be absorbed. For the excess of the debt of Ontario and Quebec above what was assumed by the Dominion, the Federal Government was liable; but on this excess the Provincial Governments were to pay interest to the Dominion at 5 per cent. per annum. In further explanation of the classes of debt mentioned above, it may be said that the division of assumed indebtedness settled in 1867 was subsequently altered on various occasions, either because in itself it was considered inequitable, or because it was deemed advisable in the interests of the Provinces to grant further relief, or in consequence of the admission of new Provinces to the Dominion. With these explanations let me examine briefly the growth and extent of the Federal debt. In 1867, under the Act of Confederation, the allocation of assumed indebtedness was as follows:-

In 1869 a further allowance was made to Nova Scotia of 1,186,756 dollars, and this was read into the terms of 1867 in such a way that Nova Scotia should be considered as having entered Confederation with a debt of 9,186,756 dollars. In 1870 Manitoba was added to the Union with a debt allowance of 472,090 dollars. In 1871 British Columbia came into Confederation with a debt allowance of 1,666,200 dollars. In 1873 Prince Edward Island entered with a debt of 4,927,060 dollars. In 1873 Ontario and Quebec were allowed the excess of their actual over their assumed debt of 1867, which excess amounted to 10,506,089 dollars-i.e., the Dominion assumed this in addition to the 62,500,000 dollars assumed in 1867; and in order to preserve equality, proportional increases were allowed to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba and British Columbia. Again, in 1884, re-adjustments were made which resulted in increases in the assumed debts of all the Provinces; and in 1886 a substantial increase took place in the case of Manitoba.