Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine, by D. A. O'SULLIVAN, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. 8150 TORONTO: PRINTED BY PATRICK BOYLE, 16 Francis Street. THIS LITTLE WORK IS, BY KIND PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED ΤΟ THE HONORABLE EDWARD BAKE, Q. C., M. P., BY THE AUTHOR. +4-16-346Px Exchange Univ. of Western Ontario APR 1 3 $34 PREFACE. IN the compilation of the following pages the writer has endeavoured to make a fair use of such materials as were within his reach, in order to effect the object he intended. Preceded by no writer on the subject, and desirous of rejecting such contemporary opinion as was neither judicial nor official, nor otherwise authoritative, he has found the task not at all an easy one. From the number of distinguished Constitutional Lawyers in Canada, and especially in this Province, one might have been justified in the expectation that something more permanent than a speech at the hustings, or a pamphlet in some party issue, would have remained as instructive reading on the subject. As to contemporary opinion, very little of it is entitled to grave consideration. It is needless to say that the writer has carefully avoided using any public expression of opinion, no matter how authoritative it may appear, unless it bore the stamp of some authority with it. In regard to decisions of the Courts and judicial dicta on the subject, the former must of course be taken to be law; the latter carry weight proportionately with the reputation and ability of the particular Judge pronouncing them. It must be admitted that a Judge, in construing our Constitutional Act, or any section of it, or any Statute in fact, familiarizes himself necessarily with the spirit of the Act; and if he goes out of his way to express an uncalled for opinion, or what may be deemed uncalled |