which were hardly consistent with his present position. The following Bills were read the second time: To incorporate the British Canadian Investment Company (limited). To extend the Act of last Session, intituled: "An Act relating to the Upper Ottawa Improvement Com pany." To incorporate the Atlantic and Pacific Mutual Fire and Marine In To enable Ozro Morrill to obtain a patent for certain inventions and improvements in sewing machine shuttles. The Hon. Mr. Blake then said-" We "are engaged in a very difficult task"the task of welding together several "Provinces, which have been accus"tomed to regard themselves as isola"ted from each other, and which are "full of petty jealousies, their Provincial "questions, and their local questions. "How are we to accomplish our work?surance Company. "How are we to effect a real Union "between these Provinces ? Can we “do it by giving a sop now to one, now "to another, after the manner of the late "Government, by giving British Co"lumbia extravagant terms, which "have been referred to, and by giving "Nova Scotia $150 a head for the export duty, which cannot be made out as worth more than $65,000 a year? "Do you hope to create and preserve "harmony and good feeling, with such a false, and sordid, and mercenary "basis, as this? Not so! That day "I hope is gone for ever." 66 .66 Apropos of another matter, he found it on record that the hon. member for Terrebonne might possibly if he desired have had the position of the President of the Council. The Premier's name had not been mentioned nor had the House been informed how the offer had been made. Hon. Mr. BLAKE-No offer was made. To amend the Act thirty-five Victoria, Chapter one hundred and eight, intituled :" An Act to amend the Act incorporating the London and Canadian Loan and Agency Company (Limited)." Respecting the Canada Southern Bridge Company. To incorporate the National Trust and Investment Company of Canada, (Limited). To incorporate the Chartered Bank of London and North America. To ameud the Act incorporating the Ottawa Gas Company, to confirm a resolution of their shareholders placing preferential and ordinary stock on the same footing, and to confirm, amend and extend their corporate powers. To authorize the shareholders of the Security Permanent Building and The Bill was read the second time, Savings Society of St. Catharines and the House rose for recess. AFTER RECESS. PRIVATE AND LOCAL BILLS. The following Bills were read the third time and passed : Respecting the capital of the Great Western Railway Company, and for the capitalization of certain charges and liabilities. to change the name of the said society. To amend the charter of the St. Lawrence Bank, and to change the name of the said bank. W. O'DONOHUE. Mr. COSTIGAN-In order that no hon. member would be taken by surprise, gave notice that on the next occasion when the motion was made for the House to go into Committee of To authorize the shareholders of the Supply, he would move in amendment: Permanent Building and Savings So-That the Speaker do not now leave ciety to change the name of the said society. To authorize the shareholders of the Provincial Permanent Building and Savings Society to change the name of the said society. To amend the Act incorporating The Canada Shipping Company. the Chair, but that it be resolved that whereas this House did on the 13th of February last vote an Address to Her Majesty, praying that a full amnesty be granted to all persons connected with the North-West troubles, for all acts committed by them during the said troubles, saving only Louis Riel, Am brose Lepine and W. D. O'Donohue; and that a like amnesty was granted to Louis Riel and Ambrose Lepine conditional on five years'banishment from Her Majesty's Dominions, thereby excluding W. D. O'Donohue from the benefits of such amnesty; and whereas the said W. O'Donohue has since written the following letter-(here he read the letter submitted to Parliament last Session)--in the opinion of this House the Government should at once institute a thorough enquiry into the statements contained in said letter, in order that justice may be done in the premises. Hon. Mr. BLAKE suggested that the motion should be placed on the notice paper. After a brief discussion the suggestion was adopted. SUPPLY. The House went into Committee of Supply, Mr. Scatcherd in the Chair. On the item, $25,000 for the relief of the distressed settlers in Manitoba, Hon. Mr. CARTWRIGHT explained that the reason why this sum was asked for without being placed in the estimates in the usual way, was in consequence of representation made to the Government that the case was urgent and would not admit of even a week's delay. The roads would soon break up, and it was important that the grain should be forwarded at once for the use of the settlers this spring. Mr. SCHULTZ-Is this a gratuity or a loan? Hon. Mr. CARTWRIGHT—It is a loan. Hon. Mr. BLAKE said the money was advaneed to the settlers and mortgages were taken on their lands for its repayment. Mr.SCHULTZ objected to mortgages being taken for such small amounts as four or five bushels of wheat given to each settler. It would be much better to take payment by note. Hon. Mr. BLAKE said the people of Manitoba had shown such an independent spirit that they declined to accept a gift from the Government. They wanted relief, but they were willing to repay anything that might be advanced to them, and they could not, therefore, object to giving a mortgage. Mr. SCHULTZ said he was aware of the independent spirit of the people, and he did not ask that repayment should not be exacted. What he did contend was that a note would be more convenient than a mortgage for such a small advance as four or five bushels of wheat. Hon. Mr. TUPPER said no one was more ready than he was to give hearty support to the proposition of the Government for the relief of the settlers in Manitoba. He entirely agreed with the hon. member for Lisgar in the objection to this Government becoming the the mortgagee of the people individually. There had been some experience of the mode in which that was worked out in the township of Proton, Ontario. A person named Nixon had attempted in Proton on the eve of an election to bring the power of the Crown Lands Department to bear on the settlers to sirable that such a scandal should be influence their votes. It was not derepeated on a large scale, and in a wider field. This same Nixon was now the agent of the Dominion Government in the North-West. The first step was taken, and the next would be the mortHe obgaging of the settlers' lands. jected to that. It was bad enough to have to pay the cost of transportation, and $6 a day to an official out of this advance, without putting the additional expenses of a mortgage on each settler. It would be better a thousand times to let the people suffer than to deprive them of their freedom, as he had reason to believe they would be if this course were taken. He hoped the Government would reconsider the matter and abandon the idea of taking a mortgage from the settler to whom an advance was made. Hon. Mr. BLAKE replied that the question was not whether there were hungry men; the proposition was not to relieve all who were suffering from want of bread. Settlers in that Province-persons who were invited to settle on Dominion lands-had been met by a sudden calamity which had deprived them of the fruit of their labours. The grasshopper had consumed their harvest, and they were without means; so much for the limitation of the grant. Then the hon. gentleman said that the farms ought not to be mortgaged; but he did not understand the hon. member to say that these sums ought to be made free gifts. Was that his view? Hon. Mr. TUPPER-No. Hon. Mr. BLAKE-The hon. gentleman acknowledged that this ought not to be done. Then these settlers were to remain debtors of the Government, with the power to exact, or remit, or postpone the payment, or order the immediate payment of the debts incurred. The Administration was to be able to oppress or exercise leniency, and the only difference between them was that the land ought not to be mortgaged; and was not the argument as to influence being brought to bear on voters, as potent with regard to the one as to the other position? It was. perfectly clear that the moment the hon. gentleman conceded the admission he did, this was fatal to his case, and his inferences became totally illusory. If they were debtors to the Government, this should be put in the clearest possible way. but The hon. gentleman had referred to transactions which had occasioned considerable comment, but with his usual unfortunate inaccuracy, was mistaken about names; as the Finance Minister had remarked on one occasion, there was twenty per cent. of accuracy in the statement. A person called— Hon. Mr. TUPPER-Mr. Lewis. Hon. Mr. BLAKE-It now appeared that the hon. gentleman knew that it was Mr. Lewis who was concerned in the matter, but he had preferred an aptness of illustration to accuracy of statement, in order to make a point. The hon. gentleman had no right to say that Mr. Nixon was an emissary of the Government. He gave to this statement the flattest possible contradiction. He was First Minister of the Government at the time, and it had then been clearly shown that Mr. Nixon was not an emissary of theirs. Although the conduct of Mr. Lewis was reprehensible, he observed that he (Lewis) had issued a pamphlet in which he disproved the charges against himself; but as it appeared to him (Mr. Blake) the evidence proved that his conduct had been reprehensible in the extreme; yet he always stated that he did not have the slighest authority for what he had said to the parties in question regarding the intentions of the Government. Hon. Gentlemen-Hear! hear! Hon. Mr. BLAKE-Hon. gentleman could "hear! hear, could "hear! hear," but it was entirely too late even for the persistence of the calumnators of the faction, to which the hon. gentlemen belonged, to go this length. Mr. BOWELL-What about the interview with Mr. MacKellar in his shirt-tail? Hon. Mr. BLAKE-The whole of this story has been spread before the country. The evidence I believe was taken on oath; and on the whole, no honest, no fair-minded, and no candid man careful of his reputation, could come to conclusions based on it, adverse to the Government of which I was head at the time. Hon. Mr. TUPPER could only say that he had not felt it necessary to explain the circumstances connected with this matter, and he suggested to the Minister of Justice that the difficulty mentioned could be obviated by leaving the payment by the settlers open, as the object was merely to afford relief through the Government; it would not be accepted as a gratuity, and the understanding should be that these persons should pay it back when they felt able to do so; but no mortgages were to be taken. The hon. gentleman said that this aid was to be extended exclusively to men, who where the owners of the lands— Hon. Mr. BLAKE-Settlers. Hon. Mr. TUPPER-The owners of the lands; if they be not owners they cannot give mortgages. Hon. Mr. BLAKE-Settlers. Hon. Mr. TUPPER-The hon. gentleman need not draw fine-spun legal subtleties here. They were the owners or had a right to the lands, or mortga | ges would be useless. If they could charging able and efficient duties which not pay the Government would he was called upon to discharge. The be the loser, and it would be a matter had been thoroughly investigatthousand times better for the Govern- ed, and he had only to state that the ment to make a free gift of it out and allegations constituted an infamous out than to have any such relations scandal. with individual settlers as was proposed. He had never said that there was a duty of $1 a ton levied on ships. He said that the hon. gentlemen had proposed to levy a duty of $1 a ton, and that it had been prevented by the fact that the tariff was not found acceptable by the House. His (Hon. Mr. Tupper's) statement was not 20 per cent. astray, while the hon. gentleman's statement was 80 per cent astray. It had been asked why he was not accurate in the statement of the facts he had made. It was because he wanted to spare the Hon. Minister of Justice. He did not want to tell the House a truth to which the hon. gentleman could not listen without a blush. He did not care to state then that Mr. Lewis went on that dishonourable and corrupt mission with money furnished by the partner of the Hon. Minister of Justice. This transaction and others of a like kind had undermined the confidence of the people of Ontario in the hon. gentleman, and it was transactions of this character that had swept away his supporters from seven of the finest Reform constituences and returned his opponents instead. It was such transactions as these that had swept away the overmastering majority of the Government mastering majority of the Government in Ontario and left them in the position they now occupied. He hoped the hon. gentleman was now satisfied. Hon. Mr. BLAKE said it was due to a public servant who was unable to speak for himself there, that what the honourable gentleman said should not remain uncontradicted. He was convinced that there was no evidence--he spoke subject to correction-that there was no evidence in the investigation in question on which Mr. Nixon was proved to have said or done anything which ought not to have been said or done. He did not recollect any evidence which in the slightest degree affected Mr. Nixon in reference to the allegations which Lewis made. That statement was due to Mr. Nixon, who was in a distant part of the country dis Mr. WHITE (Hastings) held that money was lent by the municipalities many of the individuals to whom would never pay back the money they owed unless they were compelled to do so by the Government. It was necescollect the amounts, and he considered sary some way should be devised to in getting back this money. that they were in duty bound to assist If the Government undertook to do what for Cumberland, the people would had been suggested by the hon. member soon know it. They would be held responsible for the collection of this money, and if they used it for the intelligence enough to find it out. purchase of support the country had Mr. DYMOND said Mr. Nixon's. connection with the Proton affair was not only never proved, but it was absolutely disproved. That Mr. Nixon had ever committed any offence against electoral purity had never been substantiated. The charge was first brought against him in a disreputable newspaper which terminated a dishonourable career some years ago. Hon. Mr. TUPPER said that not withstanding the disreputable character of that journal, the support of one of the gentlemen connected with it was acceptable to the Government. Mr. DYMOND said that Mr. Robertson had been engaged by a newspaper as advertisement agent in London, but he failed to see how that circumstance made him a supporter of the Government. The charges were first made in the newspaper referred to, and it was a cruel, dastardly and infamous slander. The story with regard to Mr. McKellar was no more just than that relating to Mr. Nixon, so far as anything corrupt or discreditable to him as a Minister was concerned. No man in Ontario held a higher reputation for veracity, and it was in consequence of the high estimation in which he was held throughout the country that the Opposition and their press hurled such slanders against him. Hon. Mr. TUPPER said if Mr. John Ross Robertson was the disreputable character which the hon. member for North York had represented him to be, it was anything but creditable for the Globe to employ him on its staff, and it was rather singular that the men who claimed to be leaders of the Party of Purity should reward the writer of the articles they complained of by an appointment to an emigration agency in Ireland. The proposition of the Government was fraught with corruption. and danger to the last degree to the liberties of the people. Let the principle once be established that the Government can take the money of the people out of the Treasury and use it for the purpose of lending it to individuals, taking mortgages on their property as security, and the rights of the people are seriously tampered with. Mr. YOUNG said the principal object was to know that this money would be repaid at some time or another, not so much for the amount of money involved, as to prevent the establishment of the principle that any distressed portion of the community might look for aid from the public exchequer. If the objection urged against this proposition could be held valid, it would apply with equal force to the suggestion of hon. gentlemen opposite. Mr. BOWELL said so far as he was concerned he gave the Minister of Justice the greatest possible credit for the Bills he had introduced this Session in order to stamp out the corrupt practices which had been exposed in some of the Ontario election trials. His course was in marked contrast to that of the gentleman he had taken from the bench to act as leader of his party in the Ontario Legislature, and who had introduced Bills to whitewash every man who had been found guilty of corruption and disqualified under the law. The only question really was as to the best possible way in which the relief could be given without placing those who were the recipients—if he might use the term—of this favour in a position in which any Government could exercise any control over them in the future. He believed that the Hon. Mr. LAIRD did not think that they would in any way mend the matter by empowering the Local Government to collect the money, as the arguments concerning political influence would have the same bearing and greater force in this connection. The latter, moreover, did not desire to assume this responsibility. Very few of these settlers had received their patents for these lands, and the Dominion Administration was in the best position to arrange the matter. He did not think that there was any ground for apprehending danger as to the use of the power held over the settlers in order to secure political ends. Mr. PLUMB stated that the Minister of the Interior's statement had strengthened the argument that this matter should be placed under the control of the Local Government, which could deal with it better than any agent of the Dominion Cabinet so far distant from the scene of operations. He thought that they were all endeavouring to find the best means of acting, and he trusted that the plan he mentioned would commend itself to the good sense of the House. He doubted whether it was desirable to hamper the settlers' lands with liens; but if it was necessary, there would be no difficulty in doing so, as the Government, in most cases, held the titles to the lands. The money should be distributed fairly, and put into such hands as would best serve their purposes. The item was passed. Item 52, $3,000, to meet expenses connected with the care of archives being taken up, |