Lower Canada never submitted to the same degree of injustice as is now inflicted upon Upper Canada. They started at the union with an excess of population of 175,000, but it took a very few years to turn the prepond erance the other way, and now Upper Canada has an excess of population of 359,000. I put this as a demand of simple justice to the people of Upper Canada. If we were to demand representation in proportion to what we contribute to the revenue, as we pay £3 to £1 that Lower Canada pays, we would have three representatives to their one. But all we ask is that we stand on the same footing, man for man. We ask no more than representation strictly according to population, man for man. How can we expect to go on harmoniously-how can we hope to have the people of this country grow up a vigorous, enlightened, self-governed nation, with institutions such as will do credit to a great people, if we are ever to maintain these distinctions between the two sections of the province? Is it not clear that, if ever this country is to take that position which it ought to do among the nations of the world, it must be by our legislation being for the whole people as one, and by sweeping away those absurd distinctions which thrust themselves into every matter of legislation? We have one government for Upper Canada and another for Lower Canada, Our division of the public money is made on the same principle. So it is with the measures of the government. One day they bring forward something to please Lower Canada, on another day something to please Upper Canada. Instead of our getting quit of those prejudices and sectional feelings, every year is strengthening them more and more. We are asking at the present moment to have a vast new territory added to our borders. Are we to carry out the same principle in reference to this? Are we to say that one half of it shall be for Upper Canada and one half for Lower Canada? Is not this the time when we ought to make our institutions such as will adapt themselves to any future position in which we may be placed? With a view to those great intercolonial questions which are coming up, and those important changes that are being mooted, should we not see that we are prepared for them by having a constitution founded on principles of justice, and fitted to build up a great and prosperous people? Every day furnishes additional proof of the necessity of our adopting this reform without any delay; and I shall therefore put my resolution into your hands, in the hope that it will be fairly met, and that in dealing with it honourable members will not suffer themselves to be influenced by sectional feelings and prejudices, whether pertaining to Upper or Lower Canada. I move that it be "Resolved-That in the opinion of this House the representation of the people in parliament should be based upon population, without regard to a separating line between Upper and Lower Canada."

POLICY OF THE BROWN-DORION ADMINISTRATION.

The following speech was delivered at a public meeting in Toronto a few days after the consummation of the political trick known as the "Double Shuffle," whereby Mr. Brown and his colleagues were obliged to resign, after a four days' incumbency. It is one of a series delivered during that exciting period, and gives on the whole not only a good idea of the then political situation, but also a fair specimen of Mr. Brown's political oratory. The speech deals with the whole political position of Mr. Brown, his colleagues, and his party, as well as with the ministerial ground.

MR. BROWN said: I have very often had occasion to meet my fellowcitizens in such assemblages as this, but I never came to any similar meeting with so clear a conviction as I have this night, that I am entitled to look my countrymen fearlessly in the face, and claim their full approval for every public act I have performed, for every position I have taken since I was returned by you last winter triumphantly to parliament. If there is one single act of my life above all others for which I am prepared to claim credit at the hands of the people of Canada, it is the part I have taken in the startling transactions of the last few days—it is for the bold stand I and my colleagues have just made in attempting to resist what I shall frankly characterize as a deliberate plot against the liberties of the people. I have come before you to-night in order that no time may be lost in placing the whole facts connected with the construction and fall of my adminis tration clearly before the people, and that the taunts and injurious insinuations which have been directed against the conduct of myself and my colleagues may at once receive that complete and conclusive denial which we are able to give them.

But before proceeding to narrate recent transactions as they occurred, I desire to carry the minds of the audience back to the time of the general election, and to trace up events from that date to the present, that it may be clearly seen how the recent ministerial crisis arose, and the manner in which it was met. When I had the honour to be returned as the senior representative of the city of Toronto at the last general election, you will recollect that the invitation to me to become a candidate was the spontaneous act of the electors, and that the requisition bore an array of names far exceeding in numbers and influence any that had ever appeared attached to a similar document in this city. This strong expression of confidence from my fellow-citizens was undoubtedly in a great measure intended to

strengthen the hands of the opposition-was intended as a protest against the administration of the day, against their denial of representation by population, their extension of sectarian schools, their extravagance and corruption, against the enormous additions to the public debt, and the alarming increase of taxation. You will also well recollect that the opposition contended that the cure for these evils was to find some common basis of legislative and administrative action on which the affairs of the country could be carried on, without those constant appeals to sectarian and sectional feelings which had been the rule up to this time. And you will recollect that we contended that unless some such common basis were soon found, national bankruptcy must be the inevitable result. We showed that by the existing see-saw system of setting one section against the other and governing through their divisions, our public men were being demoralized, and losing the confidence of their constituents; the men in power for the time being regularly betook themselves to corruption, to a reckless use of the Crown patronage, to an extravagant and corrupt expenditure of the public money to buy up supporters in parliament and to mollify people out of parliament, and all for the noble end of keeping themselves in office. One more trouble was this, that in regard to our school system we were threatened with its complete destruction by the growth of separate sectarian institutions grafted on the system-an evil which struck at the root of national education, and which it was feared would go on from year to year, till at last, by its wasteful expense and its weakening effect, the overthrow of the whole national school system would result. In common with my party, I urged that the only cure was to sweep away those sectarian schools altogether, and have one system which would be accessible to all classes alike, which would respect the religious feelings of all, and would do equal justice to all. You will recollect that, in addition to these views, we of the opposition demanded that a system of thorough retrenchment should be applied to the public finances; that the enormous expenditure should be cut down; that the hoards of public employees, brought into the public service for no other reason than that they were the dependants or relatives of the men in power, should be thinned, their salaries reduced to a proper scale of remuneration, and that stringent economy should be applied to every other part of the public service. On these and many other questions I raised distinct issues, and you endorsed my position by triumphantly electing me your representative.

The same feeling manifested in Toronto swept over Upper Canada. Few candidates dared to go to the polls with a doubtful sound on any of these questions. Three cabinet ministers who made the attempt lost their elections; and when the House met, the majority of the Upper Canada representatives were found firmly associated together in opposition, demanding a fair and final settlement of the differences between Upper and Lower Canada; while many on the treasury benches were found very heartily with us in their consciences, but unhappily willing to let principle rest rather than risk the loss of office for their party. Notwithstanding their defeat in their own section of the province, Mr. John A. Macdonald

and his colleagues proceeded to carry on the executive and legislative bustness of Upper Canada by his large majority of Lower Canadian representa tives, but in direct defiance of the recorded votes of the Upper Canada majority. To have men in power dispensing the patronage of the Crown, controlling the executive machinery, and guiding the legislation of Upper Canada-men whose conduct had been condemned at the polls by the people they pretended to govern—was a new and strange spectacle in our legislature, and one that created much dissatisfaction in both sections of the province.

In general legislation we had the same absence of principle, the same wasteful legislation, the same tying up of the members on the part of the administration as in the previous parliament. They were supported by a large majority from Lower Canada, and on that majority their tenure of office depended. But in opposition we had arranged a small but noble band from Lower Canada, with my valued friend, Mr. Dorion, at their head, who stood out against wrong and injustice in every shape. Many of you, I have no doubt, have been within the halls of the legislature, and you must, I think, be ready to acknowledge that the opposition at least did their duty to the country; that if the administration did succeed in carrying many bad Acts, it was not without vigilant watching and earnest protest across the House. True, it has been charged against us that we wasted the public time; but I confidently affirm that not an hour was thrown away, and that the whole unnecessary delay which took place arose from the utter inca pacity of the administration, from their knowledge that the moral strength was with us, and their dread to face the ordeal which all their measures had to pass. Though they were in office for years, I think it was the 42nd day of the session before one of the measures mentioned in the speech from the throne was laid on' the table of the House. Only a few came then, and it was 50, 60, 80, 100, and even 110 days after the opening of the ses sion before some of the government bills named in the speech from the throne were introduced. Indeed, one of the most important of them, the Crown Lands Bill, had not received a second reading at the end of five months.

It was entirely with the administration that the delay took place, and not with us. We might, however, have gone on for some time without being able to shake the solid phalanx of Lower Canadians that sustained the administration; but disclosures, in the recollection of you all, were made early in the session that not only shocked the people out of doors, but even touched the members of the House. I allude to the startling frauds that had been perpetrated by ministerial candidates at the general election. It was dragged to light that the poll books in many constituencies had been falsi. fied; that large numbers of names had been fraudulently recorded after the polls were closed; that a cabinet minister and two other gentlemen were returned for one constituency by 15,000 false votes fraudulently recorded, and that not fewer than 32 seats were claimed from the sitting members on the grounds of fraud, violence or corruption. A partisan Speaker, entrusted with dangerous powers by the election law, and an unscrupulous majority,

enabled the administration and their supporters speedily to dismiss nearly the whole of the petitions against the seats of their friends. The petition of the electors of Montreal against the return of Solicitor-General Rose, and the petition of the electors of Verchères against the return of AttorneyGeneral Cartier, and many similar petitions, were at once disposed of by the Speaker, on some frivolous objection to the wording of a recognizance, and all the parties continued in their seats. Mr. Fellowes was declared duly elected by 320 false names of professed citizens of Rome, Albany and Troy, in the state of New York, fraudulently recorded, though with all these votes counted he had but 14 of a majority over his opponent. And the three members for Quebec have been allowed to this hour to discharge the full duties of representatives of the people by virtue of 15,000 false votes. Public confidence in the administration received a rude shock by these proceedings; and the disclosures of the Public Accounts Committee following immediately on the back, destroyed the last lingering confidence of every independent man. It was elicited that £500,000 of provincial debentures had been sold in England by government at 991, when the quotation of the Stock Exchange was 105 @ 107, by which the province was wronged to the extent of £50,000. It was elicited that a member of parliament supporting the government, sold to the government £20,000 of Hamilton debentures at 972 that were only worth 80 in the market, by which he pocketed £3,500 without advancing a shilling. It was elicited that large sums were habitually drawn from the public chest and lent to railway companies, or spent on services for which no previous sanction of parliament had been obtained. It was elicited that in the published annual statement of the provincial finances, entries appeared of large sums as disbursed, which were not actually paid for many months after the date of entry, thereby giving a false impression of the state of the public exchequer. It was elicited that notwithstanding the large additions made by them to the customs duties, the ministry had been unable to meet their extravagant expenditures from taxation, and had gone back on obsolete Acts-Acts authorizing the issue of bonds for certain public works, but which works were paid many years ago from surplus revenue, and issued on their strength debentures in one year to the enormous extent of $3,400,000. It was proved that in their short term of four years ministers had doubled the national debt, and had increased the ordinary expenditures from £1,040,000 to £2,350,000. And not only was it proved that the shrievalty of the county of Norfolk had been sold as a piece of merchandise for £500 down, and a secured income of £300 a year, but the scandalous transaction was openly justified in parliament by the Prime Minister and his reckless partisans. The result of these and many similar disclosures was to take from the ministry what little confidence yet remained to them in the country, and even to shatter perceptibly their control over their Lower Canada adherents in the House of Assembly.

The strength of the opposition gradually increased, until at last ministers were defeated on an important part of their financial scheme for the year. They did not resign in consequence of that vote, but a few days