vides so carefully, that fraud shall be pre- | vented and justice done in all cases, and so generally useful that it is more than probable that it will be permanent, and, without being repealed, wil be amended from time to time, as experience shows the need. It had an amendment passed to it, in 1869, which prevents a debtor from getting discharged unless his assets shall pay fifty per cent of the claims proved against his estate upon which he shall be liable, as the principal debtor, unless the assent in writing of a majority in number and value of his creditors be filed in the case at, or before the time of the hearing of the application for discharge. He would say it was suspicious to see gentlemen who helped to pass our law, in 1869, as a Dominion Law, seek now to get it repealed of their own mo tion, since he was not aware that even one petition from the parties who bad the best right to be judges on such commercial questions had not asked for its repeal; but on the contrary nearly all the great centres of business, through their respective Boards of Tradei had asked that it may not be repealed, but that it may be continued, and amended if necessary. He would ask then that this motion may be well considered by this House, and the Government, so that the country will not fall back-by allowing this Law to expireto that state of affairs which prevailed in the Lower Provinces before the passing of this uniform Law, which so enables the commercial men of the several Provinces of this Dominion to understand each other. Further he would say, on the basis of our commercial credit, he would ask that the motion be complied with, and the Law continued, and thereby confidence given to men of means to advance their capital, and give that credit so essential for commercial activity In answer to the arguments of some hon. gentlemen, it was only necessary for him to say that under the several clauses of this law, it was utterly impossible for the dishonest debtor to act as described, and as he could under the system of execution, because no unequal or preferential making of the assets-where commercial men know their business-can be sustained, but every cre ditor must share and share alike. In con clusion then, he would support the motion of the hon. mover, and hoped every gentleman who loved fair play would act similarly, so as to keep a law continuing, that is now a Dominion law, in contrast with the confusion the country will be in if this Act be allowed to expire, and which to him would be going backward instead of forward-making again the laws of the several provinces of this Dominion dis<< similar instead of national and uniform. Hon. Mr. CAMPBELL replied that under any circustances the Government intended taking the question of the Insolvency Laws into their consideration during the vacation, and would therefore willingly agree to the Address. The motion was carried. Bills on the following subjects were read a second time: St, Catharine's Board of Trade, River Sydenham. Hon. Mr. CAMPBELL introduced a bill to amend the act respecting copyrights. The House adjourned. HOUSE OF COMMONS. OTTAWA, May 31, 1872. The SPEAKER took the chair at 3.15 p. m. JUDICIAL SALARIES. After routine, Hon. Sir JOHN MACDONALD moved that the House go into Committee of the Whole to-morrow, to consider a resolution to amend and extend the schedule to the Act 31, Vic. 33, and make provision for the salaries of judges and stipendiary magistrates in the Provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, British Columbia, &c. He said that it was his intention, in accordance with an Act passed by the New Bruns. wick Legislature, to make provision for the appointment of an additional puisne Judge in that Province, the Court consisting now of only a Chief Justice and one Judge. The motion was carried. HUDSON BAY CO. Hon. Sir F. HINCKS moved that the House go into Committee of the Whole tomorrow to consider the following resolu tion:-"That it is expedient so to amend the Act respecting the loan for paying a certain sum to the Hudson Bay Company, 34 Vic, cap. 3, as to provide that the interest at five per cent. per annum on any sum issued out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, under the Imperial Act, respecting the said loan, shall rank equally with the principal sum as a charge upon the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Canada, and that the investment and accumulation of the actual sums remitted for the Sinking Fund of the said loan shall be under the direction of the Treasury of the United Kingdom, The motion was adopted. amount upon the surveys and other preliminary operations, the payment for which would have to be made by the com pany, so that it was better to say nothing at all about interest. (Laughter.) Then he proposed to amend the third section by adding this proviso after the words it may be practicable none of such alter"Dominion lands," provided that so far as nate blocks of lands aforesaid shall be less than six miles, nor more than twelve miles in front on the railway, and the blocks shall be so laid out that each block granted to the company on the side of the railway shall be opposite another block of like width reserved for the Government on the other side of the railway." The reason this amendment was proposed that in laying out the land the Government intended to adopt a rule of making each township with a frontage of six miles on the railway, as a block twenty miles square would be too large for one township, in such a great length of railway. It might be well, however, to have blocks of a greater frontage than six miles and accordingly power was given to make them twelve miles in frontage or two townships. Mr. CARTWRIGHT asked whether the rights of the Hudson Bay Company, as to the lands reserved for it by the Act transferring the North West territory, would be affected. Hon. Sir GEORGE CARTIER said the Government had agreed to act upon the suggestion that had been made on the other side with regard to the frontage of the land grants and reservations along the line of the Railway; and also in regard to the deposit of ten per cent to be required from the company undertaking the work. It was proposed to amend the second section by providing that the deposit shall be placed in the hands of the Receiver General before any agreement is concluded between the Government and the company, and shall remain in his hands until other wise ordered by Parliament. The object of this amendment was to give the Gov. ernment power, at the end of four or five years, when the railway had so far advanced as to make its completion certain at an Mr. MILLS asked whether the rectangu. early day, to come before Parliament and lar system of surveys that had been adoptask leave to release the million deposited in Maniboba would be applied to these and pay it back to the company construct. ing the road. The money would be retained, however, until Parliament released it in favor of the company. Mr. GIBBS asked why should not the words "ten per cent." in this clause be changed to $1,000,000, for the company with which the Government made an agreement might have a capital of more than ten millions in which case the deposit would be more than one million. Hon. Sir GEO. CARTIER said the company, before the Government entered into an agreement with it, must have a capital of $10,000,000 at least, and it would be upon that basis that the agreement would be made, but there was nothing to prevent the company afterwards increasing its capital if it saw fit. Mr. GIBBS asked if the Government would pay interest upon the deposit of $1,000,000 during the time it remained on the hands of the Receiver General. Hon. Sir GEORGE CARTIER-No, the Government would spend more than that Hon. Sir GEORGE CARTIER said that no right of the company would be affected by the bill. townships, and if so whether the base line would follow the line of the railway, for if not the railway might go diagonally across the lots and a greater frontage than six miles would therefore be required. Hon. Sir GEORGE CARTIER said the general policy would be to adopt the rectangular system of survey as far as possible, but it was not to be expected that the matter of detail would be rigidly settled at the outset. That would be the general plan of the survey, but occasions might arise when there would be departures from it. Hon. Mr. MACKENZIE said that as the depth of land granted was twenty miles there would be two miles left after deducting three townships of six miles each. What was to be done with those two miles? Hon. Sir GEORGE CARTIER said the Government had thought of that. The Company would have to adopt the same system of survey as the Government, and that would leave strips of two miles at the rear of the blocks. They would have to form gores the same as was the case in many parts of Ontario. Another amendment he intended to propose was to add to the same clause, the 3rd, the following words, "and fresh additional lands granted to the company, and reserved by the Gov. ernment, shall be laid out in alternate blocks on each side of a common front line, in like manner as the blocks granted and reserved along the line of railway." This referred to the lands which might be grant. ed to the company elsewhere than on the line of railway. Then he proposed to amend the 15th clause by proposing that the ten per cent should remain in the hands of the Receiver General" until otherwise ordered by Parliament." He then moved that the report be not concur. red in, but referred back to Committee of the Whole, with instructions to make these amendments. Mr. GIBBS said that a deposit might be made by a company with which an agreement would be made by the Government. In that case, surely it was not intended to retain the deposit without paying interest upon it until the authority of Parliament was obtained to return it. Hon. Mr. BLAKE said the objection was unanswerable. There must be provision for the return of the money immediately, in case no agreement should be made with the company by the Government. Mr. WALLACE (Vancouver's Island) sug: gested that Government securities might be received and repaid instead of money. Hon. Mr. ABBOTT said that two or even more companies might each make a deposit of a million, and yet an agreement might be made with only one The Government should take power, therefore, to pay back the money if no agreement was entered into. Hou. Sir GEORGE CARTIER said the Government would have no power under the bill to retain more than the one mil lion of the company with which an agree ment would be made. Hon. Mr. ABBOTT proposed to add a few lines to the clauses, providing that if after placing the deposit in the hands of the Receiver General the company should not enter into an agreament with the Government, the Governor in Council would have power to return such sum. Hon. Sir GEORGE CARTIER said he had no objection to this being done. The motion was then carried, and the House again went into Committee on the bill, Mr. Cartwright in the chair. Mr. MILLS objected that if the townships were made only six miles square, it would prevent the introduction of the Canadian municipal system, and compel a resort to the American agency system, which he considered much inferior to the representative system of this country: Hon. Sir GEORGE CARTIER said the Government had adopted the plan of six mile townships advisedly Emigrants coming from Europe were acquainted, even before they arrived, with the American system and understood that they could procure quarter sections of 160 acres each. It would be an advantage. therefore, if the Canadian agents could tell them that, while the soil was as good which could be offered to them in the North-west, the size of the lots they would receive would be the same as in the United States. The plan was the same as had been adopted in Manitoba, and he did not think it would be well for the House to alter it. Mr. AMOS WRIGHT thought the principle of laying out alternate townships along the line of the railway was wrong. The American plan was to take alternate sections of 160 acres, and that he thought was calculated better to encourage settlement and promote the occupation of the country. He was sorry that the Government had departed from that rule. Hon. Sir GEORGE CARTIER said the Government had considered that point and felt that it was not desirable to adopt the plan of laying out the land in alteracres, for in that case the Government nate blocks of one hundred and sixty would have had to assume all the expense and trouble of making the survey in detail upon all the lands instead of the com pany. Mr. MILLS insisted that townships thirty-six miles square would be so small that it would be too costly to introduce representative municipal institutions, and the people would thus be forced to adopt the American plan of agencies, which he He did considered very objectionable, not see why townships of sixty-four square miles, instead of thirty-six, should not be adopted, nor did he see that a large township would have any effect in decreas ing emigration. The first and second amendments were then agreed to. Upon the question being put on the amendment to the 15th clause. Mr. GIBBS asked whether the Govern ment would not accept the suggestion of the hon. member for Vancouver Island and receive the deposit in Government securities of money, if the company wished to make it in that form. It might be that the company would sell the securities to raise money, and then if an agreement was not made with the Government, it would have to re-purchase the securities SUPPLY. The SPEAKER left the chair at 5.20' the House agreeing to consider it 6 o'clock AFTER RECESS. TORONTO CORN EXCHANGE. Mr. GIBBS, in the absence of Mr. BEATY, moved the second reading of the bill to incorparate the Toronto Corn Exchange Association.-Carried. The House went into committee on the bill, rose and reported. Third reading to-morrow. AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE COMPANY. Mr. COLBY moved the second reading of the bill to incorporate the Agricultural Insurance Company of Canada.-Carried. The House went into committee on the bill, rose and reported, and the bill was read a third time and passed. ACCIDENT INSURANCE COMPANY. Hon. Sir FRANCIS HINCKS moved Mr. CARTER moved the second reading concurrence in the items of the estimates of the bill to incorporate the Accident Inpreviously adopted in Committee of Sup-surance Company of Canada,- Carried. ply.-Carried. SHIPPING OFFICE. Hon. Dr. TUPPER moved the House into Committee to consider the resolution declaring it expedient to provide for the appointment of a shipping office for sea men at Leach Port, in Nova Scotia, at which there is a custom house-Mr. Mills in the chair. The resolution was adopted, and read a first and second time; and a bill was introduced founded thereon, and read a first time. HALIFAX HARBOUR. Hon. Dr. 1UPPER moved the House into Committee to consider the resolution declaring it expedient to provide for the appointment of a Harbour Master for the port of Halifax-Mr. Mills in the chair. The resolution was adopted, and a bill founded thereon was introduced and read a first time. EMIGRATION. Hon. Mr. POPE moved the second reading of the bill to provide for the incorporation of the Emigration Aid Society. -Carried. QUARANTINE. Hon. Mr. POPE moved the second reading of the Act relating to quarantine. -Carried. The House went into committee on the bill, rose and reported, and the bill was read a third time and passed. BILLS ADVANCED. Mr. BARTHE moved the second reading of Trade.-Carried. of the bill to incorporate the Sorel Board The House went into Committee, rose and reported, and the bill was read a third time. reading of the bill to incorporate the Board Hon. Mr. LANGEVIN moved the second of Trade of the Town of Levis.-Carried. The House went into Committee, rose and reported, and the bill was read a third time and passed. Mr. GIBSON moved the second reading of the bill to incorporate the Missionary Society of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada.-Carried. The House went into Committee on the bill. Mr. MILLS said the House would exceed its power in passing this act. He could not understand upon what ground they could give the power to hold real estate. They were not carrying out the principle of a federal union and were depriving the Local Legislatures of those powers which were necessary to give them that influence which every government should possess in order to produce the necessary prestige for the conduct of the affairs of the coun<< try. Hon. Mr. WOOD said the question was, could they take property otherwise than in conformity with the civil law of the several Provinces. He maintained that a company incorporated in the Province of Quebec could do business in any other Province of the Dominion, and that it was entirely a wrong impression to suppose that more power was obtained by procuring a charter from the Dominion. He thought that the Minister of Justice should form an amendment to the third clause limiting the acquisition of property. Hon. Sir JOHN MACDONALD replied that it would not be well at that moment to discuss so difficult a question as that opened by the member for Bothwell. The principle of the bill having been estab Il-hed that there might be a missionary society incorporated, having its missionary operations in all parts of the country, they must come to the conclusion that it In order to hold real was necessary. estate the corporation must have a Domin ion existence. A missionary society incor. porated for Provisional purposes, could not hold real estate in any other Province than in that Province from which it obtained its incorporation. The argument drawn by his hon. friend opposite from the fact that foreign corporations were acknowledged by the International Congress, did not come in there. No decisions went so far as to show that that foreign corporations could hold real estate in England, and therefore this corporation, hold ing property in the Dominion, must get power somewhere. It might be that this Parliament could incorporate this Mission ary Society throughout the Dominion, and the Local Legislatures giving it powers to hold real estate. Before Confederation each Province could have passed this Act. W nen the British North American Act was passed, it was designed that the Dominion Parliament should have all the powers possessed by the different Provincial Legislatures before the Union. The member for Bothwell had drawn a comparison between the constitution of the nited States and that of Canada. The constitution of the form er is this: Every State has its own sover. eign jurisdiction, with the exception of those special powers reserved to Congress. If there was any power not specially and expressly given to the United States by the Constitution, it belonged to the different States. Our Constitution is just the reverse. All rights incidental to sovereignty belong to the Dominion Parliament, except those powers which we cannot exercise so long as we are dependent upon Great Britain. This Parliament can do whatever is necessary for the peace and After some remarks from Mr. Mills, in which he differed from the views of the Minister of Justice as to the Constitution of the United States, the Committee rose and asked leave to sit again. CANADA PACIFIC RAILWAY. Hon. Sir GEORGE E. CARTIER moved concurrence in the report of committee of the Whole on the Pacific Railway Bill. Hon. Mr. BLAKE-As he had intimated the other evening, he desired to take the sense of the House as to the route the railway should take from the south of Lake Nipissing. Hon. gentlemen oppos site had stated that they had not sutficient information before them to enable them to determine which route should be adopted. He had thought that that was an argument in favour of postponing the matter, but he now intended to move, as a way of meeting the difficulty that the Railway should pass, if practicable, by the south and west of Lake Nipising: The in formation before the House pointed to an intention of taking the road by the east It was the route the Chief and north. Engineer had laid down in the first instance, without having made a survey in the other direction at all. Under these circumstances, and believing as he did, that the Province of Ontario would suffer materially unless every exertion made to bring the road by the south and west, he would move an amendment to the the first clause to the effect "that the railway be constructed by the south and west of Lake Nipissing, if found to be practicable." Was Hon. Mr. HOLTON asked whether the hon. member for West Durham was prepared to make any statement as to the distance of the route which he advised. It might be thought that route would be the nearest to Lake Ontario, but the question was whether it was the shortest route. Hon. Mr. BLAKE was not prepared to give an opinion on it, but from what he had |