THE CANADIAN LAW TIMES Edited by E. DOUGLAS ARMOUR, Of Osgoode Hall, Barrister-at-Law. VOL. VIII. TORONTO: CARSWELL & CO., PUBLISHERS. 58,315 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, by CARSWELL & Co., in the office of the Minister of Agriculture. PRINTED BY THOS. MOORE & Co., LAW PRINTERS 20 ADELAIDE ST. EAST, TORONTO. THE CANADIAN LAW TIMES. IN JANUARY, 1888. THE MARITIME COURT OF ONTARIO. N the year 1877 the Parliament of Canada established the Maritime Court of Ontario (a). Vice-Admiralty Courts had been in existence for many years in the Maritime Provinces and at Quebec, and the peculiar Admiralty jurisdiction exercised by them had been found so advantageous that it was deemed wise to establish a Court possessing similar jurisdiction over the inland waters of Ontario. The Vice-Admiralty Court at Quebec was established in the year 1764, and at that time the Province of Quebec included what is now the Province of Ontario, and the jurisdiction of the Vice-Admiralty Court of Quebec extended to the inland waters of Ontario, but was apparently never exercised over matters arising thereon. When the Province of Quebec was divided into Upper and Lower Canada, the jurisdiction of the Court was confined to the Province of Lower Canada. No doubt at that period the navigation trade and commerce on these inland waters was not of sufficient magnitude or importance to call for the establishment of a ViceAdmiralty Court in Upper Canada. Since that period the shipping on these waters has increased to large proportions, and for many years the absence of a Court exercis (a) The Maritime Jurisdiction Act, 1877, 40 Vict. cap. 21 (D), now consolidated with amending Acts as chapter 137 of the Revised Statutes of Canada. VOL. VIII. C.L.T. 1 |