THE

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Thursday, 7th Feb., 1878.

The Parliament which had been prorogued successively from the twentyeighth day of April, 1877, and thence from time to time to the seventh day of February, 1878, met this day for the despatch of business.

The Members of the House being assembled,

A Message was delivered by the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod :GENTLEMEN,

Sir William Buell Richards, Knight, Deputy Governor, desires the immediate attendance of this Honourable House in the Senate

Chamber.

And the Members being returned, The Clerk of the House, standing on the lower step below the Speaker's Chair, said:

I have the honour to inform the House that I have received from the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery copies of warrants showing vacancies which have occurred in the representation, namely:

Of the Hon. TIMOTHY WARREN ANGLIN, Speaker of the House and Member for the Electoral District of Gloucester, by resignation of WILFRID LAURIER, Esq., Member

for the Electoral District of Drummond and Arthabaska, by acceptance of the office of Minister of Inland Revenue; of the Hon. JOSEPH EDOUARD CAUCHON, Member for the Electoral District of Quebec Centre, by acceptance of the office of Lieut.-Governor of the Province of Manitoba; of the Hon. IsıDORE THIBAUDEAU, Member for the Electoral District of Quebec East, by resignation.

SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD: Mr. Patrick, I conceive that you cannot, as Clerk of the House, undertake to perform the duty of Speaker, and to make these announcements. I object to your doing so. Your only duty is, if any member speaks, to point to him. and mention his name.

The Clerk proceeded to announce the vacancies:

Of JOSEPH GAUDET, Esq., Member for the of GEORGE MOFFATT, Esq., Member for the Electoral District of Nicolet, by resignation; Electoral District of Restigouche, by resignation; of the Hon. WILLIAM B. VAIL, Member for the Electoral District of Digby, by resignation ; of ALFRED G. JONES., Esq., Member for the Electoral District of Halifax, by resignation; of the Hon. Hon. PETER MITCHELL, Member for the Electoral District of Northumberland, N.B., by resignation; for the Electoral District of New Westand of JAMES CUNNINGHAM, Esq., Member minster, by resignation.

clected Speaker, as it is that the practice and rules and law of Parliament should be observed. If this had been the first Session of a Parliament, and if, as was the case in the first Session of this Parliament, the majority or at least a large number of the members were new to Parliament, and there might be a difficulty in choosing a member to be Speaker who had sufficient Parliamentary experience, then there might be a reason for selecting a man who had experience of the practice of Parliament. But this is the last, or, at all events, the fifth Session of this Parliament, and those who have been here before have had sufficient training during four Sessions to be able to fill the office of Speaker creditably. Therefore, there was no necessity for this motion being made by the hon. gentleman. He might have found in the ranks of the House, and in the ranks of those who accord him their confidence, many gentlemen who might have filled the office as creditably as the late Speaker, against whom I do not wish to say anything in his character of Speaker. I think, therefore, it is unfortunate that the motion should have been made, and the hon. gentleman must know that it is rather straining the rules of Parliament to take this course. It is setting a precedent, setting aside the old rules of Parliament and the precedents which have been established by the wisdom of centuries, simply because the hongentleman prefers one particular individual over all the members of this House. If there were no other person fit for the duties, or as fit for the duties, there might be some justification or excuse for the motion. But, Sir, I contend that we, the members here, are but a crowd until we have, as the old phrase was, the mouth of Parliament. Until we have a Speaker, we are but an assemblage of members of Parliament, meeting in the hope and belief that, in accordance with the summons of the Crown, we will be constituted a House. We are not a House as yet. We must proceed according to the rules of Parliament. We cannot suspend the rules of this House, or rather of this assembly, which will be a House; and, in say

ing assembly instead of House, I think it will be found that, in the time when the privileges of Parliament were perhaps more looked at, and more carefully scanned than at any other time-during the existence of the Long Parliament and the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell-that a case arose when the House declared that, the Speaker being absent from illness, they were a mere assembly, and they entered on the records that, divers members of the House having met in assembly, and no Speaker being there, they could not even move an adjournment, but ex necessitate they dispersed. They came again next day, and a member was desirous of leaving to attend a lawsuit, which, as he said, was of the greatest possible consequence to the State, and in those days no man could leave without the special permission of the House. The members said that by connivance they might allow him to go, but that without their Mouth they could not even give him leave of absence. And, Sir, we have a rule, the 120th Rule, I think, of our House, which says:

"In all unprovided cases, the rules,usages and forms of the House of Commons of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, shall be followed.”

This is an unprovided case, and the rule, the practice of the Parliament of England, the Commons of England, must be followed. Now, what is the rule of the Parliament and House of Commons of England that was established years ago? On the 23rd of February, 1688, it was resolved that the ancient order be observed, that upon new members coming into the House, they be introduced to the Table between two members, making their obeisances as they come up, that they may be better known to the House. That rule was in 1688 resolved upon, and repeated the ancient rule, as it is expressed, that whenever new members were introduced, they should come into the House and be introduced to the Chamber between two members. We cannot set aside that rule. The House of Commons of this country, as the House of Commons in England, is to

a very great extent master of its own rules; with the Speaker in the Chair, it can, upon due notice

name, because his name is mentioned in the motion-is either a new member or an old member. That is quite clear. If he be a new member, he must be introduced between two members, under this rule, before he can take his scat in this House; and if he is not a member of this House, the practice in Parliament goes to show that he cannot be elected Speaker. But he is not a new member, he is an old member. Then I would call the attention of the House to the 45th clause of the British North America Act, which provides that in case of a vacancy happening in this office of Speaker, by death, by resignation or otherwise, the House of Commons shall, with all practicable speed, proceed to elect another of its members to be Speaker. If he is a new member he must be introduced, and until introduced he cannot be elected as Speaker; if he is an old member, and, by death, by resignation or otherwise, his seat is vacated, another member must be elected by the express words of the clause I have mentioned. There is no way of getting over that. There is the law of the land; you may discuss what was the actuating cause which induced the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, of the United Kingdom, to pass this clause; but there is the law, that' in case of vacancy by death, by resignation or otherwise, such a course must be taken. Well, this vacancy is not occasioned by death, I am glad to say, for the sake of us all; it is not occasioned by resignation of the Speakership; but it has been occasioned otherwise, by resignation of the seat, which involved the loss of the Speakership. It comes under the third of the instances in in which there is a vacancy, and when the House is to elect another of its members Speaker. Now, by no possible argument can another of its members be made to mean the same member. If a new member, he cannot be elected in his absence; he cannot take his seat until introduced; and, therefore, under that clause, under the rule of 1688, he cannot take his seat; while, if an old member, and if that rule does not apply to him, then another member, and not the same

being given, alter any of its rules, or, by unanimous consent, set aside its own rules, and without such unanimous consent, even when the House is fully constituted, it cannot set aside those rules. But here we are no House; we cannot suspend any rules; we must carry out the practice of Parliament; we are obliged to carry out the practice of Parliament; and any act we take which is not in accordance with the Act of Parliament is illegal and invalid. The rule is, therefore, upon new members coming into the House, that they be introduced to the table between two members, making their obeisances as they come up, in order that they may be better known to the House. It was—I have no doubt it will be mentioned-stated, perhaps, that we have sct aside that rule in this House and allowed members to take their seats without being introduced to the Table. You all can remember, or those who were in the House during the last two or three Sessions, the course of our practice in that respect; and I say that there are cases in which the House of Commons could, by unanimous consent, suspend the rule. We have had that power, but we cannot now make a new rule. We cannot now suspend the rule. We must now carry out the rules of Parliament as we left them at the end of last Session. Had we a Speaker, and had any of the numerous gentlemen who were elected since last Session, by the unanimous consent of the House taken their seats, then, of course, the rule is not altered, but it is dispensed with for the occasion, by the unanimity which so often enables Parliament to set aside a rule without repealing it. Such a rule is not repealed. It still exists, and as long as it exists it must be the only governing principle, and the only governing principle which is to be used at this moment. It may be said, Mr. Clerk, that this rule does not apply to the hon. member for Gloucester who is now proposed for Speaker, and that as to the rule respecting new mernbers coming into the House and being introduced to the Table, he is not a new member, that the House knows him, that he cannot be better known than he has been, and, therefore, that this rule does not apply to him. Well, Mr. Anglin--I may use his