FROM 1868 to 1873-GOVERNMENT OF LORD LISGAR - MANITOBA AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. 1. LORD MONCK was succeeded, in 1868, by Lord Lisgar, the Right Hon. Sir John Young, Baron Lisgar, P.C., G.C.B.,G.C.M.G. Sir John A. Macdonald still remained at the head of the ministry, but with the following cabinet: The Hon Sir JOHN ALEXANDER MACDONALD, K.C.B., Minister of Justice and Attorney-General. The Hon Sir GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER, Bart., Minister of Militia and Defence. The Hon. SAMUEL LEONARD TILLEY, C.B., Minister of Customs. The Hon. Sir FRANCIS HINCKS, K.C.M.G., Minister of Finance. The Hon. HECTOR LOUIS LANGEVIN, C.B., Minister of Public Works. The Hon. Jos. Howe, Secretary of State for the Provinces. The Hon. CHRISTOPHER DUNCAN, Minister of Agriculture and Statistics. The following members of the Privy Council were without office: Hon. Sir A. T. Galt, K.C.M.G. Hon. Sir John Rose, Hon. Adam G. Archibald, Hon. W. P. Rowland, C.B. Parliament met on the 15th of April, 1869, and was prorogued on the 22d June, after a busy and important session. The following is a summary of some of the most important acts passed: 2. NOVA SCOTIA. This bill enacted that the permitted debt of Nova Scotia at the union was nine million one hundred and eighty six thousand dollars, interest being chargeable to her on any excess, and payable to her on any amount by which it is less than that sum. She was to receive for ten years, from the 1st of July, 1867, eighty-two thousand six hundred and ninetyeight dollars annually, in addition to payments under the British North American Act. She was debited in account with Canada for five per cent. upon the cost of the provincial build ing until it should be placed at the disposal of the Dominion. All sums were payable in currency of Old Canada. This was in full settlement of all demands of Nova Scotia upon Canada. 3. NORTH-WEST. This bill provided for the temporary government of these territories, to be known, when acquired, as the North-west Territory. It authorized the appointment of a lieutenant-governor, who, under direction of orders of the governor in council, was to provide for the administration of justice there, and peace, order, and good government of her majesty's subjects and others. The governor in council might also appoint seven to fifteen councillors to aid the lieutenantgovernor. All laws in force there not inconsistent with the British North American Act, this act, or the terms of admissions, were to remain in force till altered or repealed. All public officers there, except the chief, were to continue in office till others were appointed. LORD LISGAR. 4. DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE. This act provided for a department of finance, with the auditor-general and deputy inspector-general as deputy heads. The audit board was subordinate to it. The governor in council and minister of finance were given power to distribute the work among the employés and branches of the department. Provision was also made for a committee of council to be called the treasury board, and to consist of the minister of finance, the receiver-general, the minister of customs, and minister of internal revenue, to consider all matters of accounts or finance submitted to it by council, or which they deemed necessary to bring under its notice. The secretary of the board may or may not hold another office in the civil service. 5. IMMIGRATION AND IMMIGRANTS. This act recited and confirmed the agreement entered into between the Canadian government and the provincial governments of Ontario, Quebec, and New Erunswick, by which the first maintained agencies in London, and elsewhere in Europe, and at Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, IIamilton, Ottawa, IIalifax, and St. John, N.B., and quarantine stations at Grosse Isle, St. John, and Halifax; it provided that the latter should appoint to such agencies as they see fit in Europe and in their own provinces, and furnish the department of agriculture and immigration, and agents abroad, with full information respecting their policy of settlement, etc. Under the law Dominion agents could receive and expend any moneys furnished by any province upon the care and forwarding of immigrants to such province. Masters of vessels were to pay one dollar a head upon all immigrants over one year of age brought into the country with the sanction of the government of the country whence they came; one dollar and fifty cents on those brought in without such sanction. The law also regulated the manner in which immigrants should be brought out, providing for their safety and comfort. 6. PATENTS FOR INVENTIONS. This act provided for a patent office presided over by the minister of agriculture and statistics, and made a branch of his department, he becoming commissioner of patents. It has a seal which all judges and courts will recognize as evidence. He makes rules, with the approval of the governor in council, to carry the act into effect, notice being given in the "Canada Gazette." Proceedings under this act are reported annually. Any person having been a resident in Canada for one year next before his application, and having invented or discovered any new or useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or improvement thereof, not known or used by others before his invention or discovery, or not being in public use or on sale in any province of the Dominion, with consent of the inventor, may procure a patent therefor; but no patent shall issue for an invention or discovery having an illicit object, or for a mere scientific principle or abstract theorem. A foreign patent, taken not more than six months before, does not disqualify from obtaining the Canadian. An inventor or discoverer qualified, as above, may transfer or bequeath his right, and his representative take out the patent. A patent for an improvement of a thing already patented does not give the right to make or vend such article, nor to the original patentee to make or sell the article with the improvement. The applicant must make oath to the residence, and his belief that he is the original and true inventor or discoverer, before a justice of the peace in Canada, or before a British minister, consul, etc., or a judge abroad. He must, in his petition, elect a domicile in Canada, and state the place or places wherein, for the year, he was a resident in Canada. IIe must set up the title of his in vention, etc., with a short description, and allege all facts necessary to entitle him to a patent in his petition, and with it must send a written specification, in duplicate, describing his invention in such full and exact terms as to distinguish it from all other similar contrivances or processes. The law also provided for the details of the office, duration of patents, etc. 7. COINAGE OFFENCES. The act provided that counterfeiting current gold or silver coin was punishable by imprisonment for life, or any lesser period. Coloring coins or metals, with intent to pass them as genuine coin, or manufacture them to be so passed, or to make genuine coin pass for coin of a higher value, the same. Impairing or lightening coin, fourteen years or any less time. Filing or clipping it, seven years. Buying or selling counterfeit coin for less than its apparent value, for life. Importing it, the same. Exporting it, less than two years. Uttering it, fourteen years. Passing light coin, one year. Possessing counterfeit coin, three years. Subsequent offences, felony, for life. Uttering foreign coin, medals, etc., as current coin, one year. Defacing coin by stamping words thereon, one year. A tender of coin so defaced is not legal, and uttering it is punishable by ten dollars fine, if the attorney-general consents to the prosecution. Counterfeiting foreign gold or silver coin not current in Canada, seven years. Bringing such coin into Canada, the same. Uttering it, six months. Second offence, two years. Any subsequent offence, seven years. Having it in possession, three years. Counterfeiting foreign coin other than gold or silver, one year. Second offence, seven years. Making, mending, or having unlawfully in possession coining tools, felony for life. Conveying the same out of her majesty's mints into Canada, for life. Suspected coin may be cut or otherwise tested by any person to whom it is tendered. If genuine, he bears any loss; if not, the tenderer. Revenue officers must cut, break, or deface all light coin coming into their possession. Any person finding counterfeit coin, or materials, machines, or tools for coining, or filings, or chippings, or dust from lightened coin, might at once seize them, and take them before a justice of the peace, or a justice of the peace may issue his warrant to seize the same by day or night. When no longer needed for evidence, such coin or tools, etc., are to be defaced, broken, or destroyed. The coin to be cut or broken in open court or before a justice of the peace. Where offences have been committed in two provinces, districts, or counties within ten days by the same person or by confederates, proceedings may be taken in either of them for the whole. The evidence of a surveyor or officer of the mint is not necessary to prove a coin counterfeit; that of any other creditable witness is sufficient. Differences of date between the true coin and counterfeit is not a ground for acquittal. The offence is complete, though the counterfeit coin made or uttered is not finished. Any person may arrest and deliver to a peace officer any one guilty of an offence under this act. A person convicted of a misdemeanor may be fined and ordered to find sureties to keep the peace and be of good behavior, instead of any other penalty; if convicted of felony, may be ordered to find sureties in addition thereto, but no one can be detained more than one year for the failure to find sureties. Laws were also passed for the punishment of forgery, injuries to the person, larceny, injury to property, perjury, and a long list of other offences. A very lengthy act relating to the duties of justices, summary convictions, etc., was also passed at this session, besides a vast number of local and private acts. 8. In 1869-70 Confederation had already greatly increased the importance of British North America in the eyes of the whole world. The best evidence of this fact was to be found in the augmented flow of immigration to our shores. It is estimated that twenty-five thousand immigrants settled in the different provinces during 1870. This is a marked increase over previous years, and indicates that since the union we have received, as we deserve, increased attention from foreign countries. But there were comparatively few abroad, and not so very many even among ourselves, who fully appreciated the vast extent of our territory, the amplitude of our resources, the general excellence of our institutions, and the important future which, with anything like wise statesmanship on the part of our rulers, is certainly in store for this country. With the single exception of Russia, the Dominion of Canada embraces the largest area of territory of any country in the world. This may surprise those who have not closely examined their maps, but it is borne out by facts. Our neighbors, the people of the United States, who sometimes speak as if the whole continent were theirs, have to take a secondary place to the Dominion when boundaries come to be discussed. The Dominion territory, even in 1870, was as follows: — |