NOTE AS TO STATUTE REVISIONS IN THE PROVINCES OF UPPER CANADA, CANADA, AND ONTARIO.

The history of the Statute Law applicable to the territory now comprised in the Province of Ontario, dates from 1791.

After the Treaty of Paris, 1763, by which the French possessions in North America were ceded to Great Britain, a Royal Proclamation was issued on the 7th October, 1763, introducing the law of England, both civil and criminal, into the whole of the ceded territory, and forming a portion of it, lying towards the East, into the Province of Quebec. The Governor of the new colony received power and direction "so soon as the state and circumstances of the colony would admit thereof, to summon and call a General Assembly," but until this was done, the Governor and Council were invested with "authority to make such rules and regulations as should appear to be necessary for the peace, order and good government of the Province." In 1774, the Quebec Act, 14 Geo. iii. c. 83, was passed, by which French law was re-introduced in civil matters, and the limits of the Province of Quebec were enlarged, so as to include the whole of the territory afterwards formed into Upper Canada. The Quebec Act produced dissatisfaction, especially among the British colonists, and in 1791, the Imperial Act, 31 Geo. iii. c. 31, was passed, by which the Province of Quebec as it then existed, was divided into the two Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada; the powers of legislation by the Governor in Council were taken away; and a Legislature was granted to each Province, consisting of the Governor, a Legislative Council and a Legislative Assembly. The first Parliament of Upper Canada met at Newark, now Niagara, on 18th September, 1792.

1. The first revision of the Statutes in the new Province of Upper Canada was made in 1818. It consisted merely of a collection of the Acts of the Province of Upper Canada in force at that date, together with such Acts of the Imperial Parliament and Ordinances of the former Province of Quebec as affected Upper Canada.

2. In 1831, a collection of the Statutes of Upper Canada, in force at that date, was published by Messrs. Hugh C. Thomson and James Macfarlane, which, though a private enterprise, long supplied the place of a revision by authority.

3. In 1840 was passed the Imperial Act 3 & 4 V. c. 35, to re-unite the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada; and the Union took effect by proclamation on the 10th February, 1841. A revision was soon after begun of the Statutes of Upper Canada in force at the date of the Union. A commission for the purpose, dated 25th July, 1840, was issued to the Hon. John Beverley Robinson, the Hon. James B. Macaulay, the Hon. William Henry Draper, and John Hillyard Cameron, Esq., and directed the Commissioners "diligently and carefully to "examine and revise the several statutes from time to time passed and enacted by the Parliament of Upper Canada, and then in force and effect; and to make "such report upon the premises as in their opinion should be most for the interest, "welfare and good government of the Province."

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The result of the labours of the Commission was embodied in two volumes, the first containing Public Acts, and the second, Local and Private Acts. The report to the Governor-General, in which the Commissioners announced the completion of the work, is dated 8th March, 1843, and was printed as a preface to the first volume.

In this, as in former revisions, no consolidation strictly speaking of the Statutes was attempted. The various Acts in force were printed as they had been passed, omitting only such portions as had expired or had been repealed, with notes stating the reasons for omissions, and giving the provisions, if any, which the Legislature had substituted for repealed clauses; errors in the text were left uncorrected, except by way of a note directing attention to them; and the revision did not receive authority by legislative adoption, but was nevertheless, by general use, practically substituted for the preceding volumes of Statutes.

4. A revision of the Acts and Ordinances in force in Lower Canada at the date of the Union of Upper and Lower Canada was begun in 1842, and completed in 1845, by a Commission composed of Messrs. A. Buchanan, H. Heney and G. W. Wicksteed. The Commissioners made two reports, which, as well as a prefatory notice, was printed with the volume of Revised Statutes compiled by them.

5. In 1856 was begun the first consolidation, properly so called, of the Statute Law.

Two commissions were then issued, one on the 7th February, 1856, appointing Messrs. John Hillyard Cameron, Joseph C. Morrison, Adam Wilson, Skeffington Connor, Oliver Mowat, and David B. Read, to examine, revise, consolidate and classify the Public General Statutes affecting Upper Canada only; and a second, dated 28th March, 1856, appointing Messrs. A. Polette, Gustavus W. Wicksteed, Andrew Stuart, T. J. J. Loranger, Robert Mackay, and George de Boucherville, to examine, revise, consolidate and classify the Public General Statutes applying exclusively to Lower Canada; and each Commission directed the Commissioners therein named, jointly with the members of the other Commission, to examine, revise, consolidate and classify the Public General Statutes which applied equally to both sections of the Province.

Subsequently the Messrs. Cameron and Morrison resigned, and in their stead respectively the Hon. J. B. Macaulay and S. H. Strong, Esq., were appointed. Afterwards Dr. Connor, and Mr. Mowat also resigned, preparatory to their be coming candidates for election as members of the Legislative Assembly. The Commissioners were in a later stage of the work, and especially during its final revision, assisted by His Honour Judge Gowan, County Court Judge of the County of Simcoe.

The first report of the Commission was made on the 19th April, 1858, and drafts of the Consolidated Statutes for Upper Canada and the Consolidated Statutes of Canada were in 1859 submitted to the Governor-General, accompanied respectively by a report, dated January, 1859, by Sir J. B. Macaulay, the chairman of the Upper Canada Commission, and a joint report dated 3rd March, 1859, by Sir J. B. Macaulay and Mr. Wicksteed, the acting Commissioner of the Commission for Lower Canada. (See Sess. Papers, 1859, No. 9.)

At the Session of 1859 these two volumes were laid before the Legislative Assembly, and Acts were passed to provide for their coming into force by procla mation.

Pursuant to the provisions of the last mentioned Acts, the enactments of the then Session were incorporated with the consolidation; and the two volumes were by Proclamation declared to come into force upon the 5th December, 1859.