An Act respecting Registry Offices, and Privileges and Hypothecs in Lower Canada. An Act to amend an Act passed in the present Session, intituled, "An Act to restrict interments in a certain Burial Ground in the City of Quebec." An Act to provide for Annual Statistical Returns of Judicial Matters. An Act to amend the Upper Canada Common School Act. An Act to amend the provisions of the several Acts for the incorporation of the City of Montreal. An Act for the more effectual prevention of Corrupt Practices at Elections. To these Bills the Royal Assent was severally pronounced by the Clerk of this House in the words following: "In Her Majesty's name, His Excellency the Governor General doth assent to this Bill." The Clerk of the Crown in Chancery read the title of another Bill to be passed, as follows: "An Act respecting the management of the Indian Lands and Property." To this Bill the Clerk of this House did thereupon say: "His Excellency the Governor General doth reserve this Bill for the signification of "Her Majesty's pleasure thereon." Then the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly addressed His Excellency as follows: MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY: We, Her Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of Canada, attend Your Excellency with our Bill of Supply for the service of the current year. Among the subjects which have engaged our attention during the Session, the Commercial interests of the Province have occupied a prominent place. With an earnest desire to obtain for Cañada her share in the advantages derivable from the great and increasing trade between the Old and New Worlds, we have largely augmented our subsidy to the Ocean Steamships plying between the Ports of the St. Lawrence and the Mother Country. We have also agreed to remove the Tolls heretofore levied on vessels availing themselves of our internal communications on this great highway, in order to afford additional facilities to ships navigating the Lakes and Rivers of Canada, and to abolish the restrictions heretofore imposed on the free passage of Commerce by way of the St. Lawrence. We congratulate Your Excellency on the completion of the great project of consolidating our Statute Law, in the enactment of the Act for the consolidation of the Statutes of Lower Canada. In connection with this branch of our labours, we have, during the course of the present Session, brought to maturity two important Statutes affecting Lower Canada, one for the consolidation of the Municipal Law, the other to make provision for the administration of Justice therein. Looking forward with pride and satisfaction to the approaching visit to Canada of the Eldest Son of our beloved Queen, we have authorised Your Excellency to incur whatever expense may be necessary for the suitable entertainment of His Royal Highness, as the Guest of this Province, and we rejoice at the prospect which has been afforded to us, of meeting together to welcome in person this illustrious Prince, and of expressing the sentiments of loyalty and affection to our Sovereign, Her Throne, and Family, which so eminently characterize the people we represent. I have now to offer to Your Excellency a Bill appropriating the sums voted for the service of the year, to which I respectfully solicit Your Excellency's assent. To the said Bill, the Clerk of this House, by His Excellency's command, did thereupon say: "His Excellency the Governor General thanks Her Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, "accepts their benevolence, and assents to this Bill in Her Majesty's name." Then His Excellency the Governor General was pleased to deliver the following Speech: Honorable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council; Gentlemen of the Legislative Assembly: The time has come when I am able to release you from the labours of the Session, and I think that I may express satisfaction at the result of your deliberations. The prosperity of the country is reviving. The measures which you have sanctioned for extending our trade, and facilitating the free navigation of the St. Lawrence, involving as they do, some sacrifice, will contribute, in the end, to increase our resources. The establishment of a Free Port at the Eastern and at the Western extremity of Canada will attract commerce to our shores, and must hasten the settlement of districts hitherto waste and unproductive. The Fisheries of the Gulf, and the Mining interests of the Upper Lakes, will benefit greatly by these liberal measures. You have destroyed the last remnants of the Seigniorial Tenure, which remained in a few fiefs in the district of Montreal. The Act for improving the administration of Justice in Lower Canada, will cause the expense of juries to be defrayed from local funds. This change, and the completion of the system of the Registration of instruments affecting land will have carried a step further the assimilation of the laws in force in either section of the Province. You have completed the steps necessary for adding the Consolidated Statutes of Lower Canada to the body of the Statutes of Canada and Upper Canada, already promulgated in a compact form; and you have brought into a more convenient shape the Municipal law affecting the Eastern section of the Province. All these are steps tending to strengthen that bond of union which I believe to be es sential to the progress and the future greatness of your country. I should add, that the Common School Law of Upper Canada has been amended and improved, and that a Bill will be submitted for the Assent of Her Most Gracious Majesty, providing for the future administration of Indian Affairs by the Provincial Government. The terms of this enactment are such as to shew a desire to uphold the rights, and protect the property, of those most nearly concerned in it; and I cannot doubt, but that, if sanctioned, its provisions will be carried out in perfect good faith by the Executive Government of Canada. Gentlemen of the Legislative Assembly: I congratulate you on the successful steps taken for consolidating the Public Debt, and on the saving which will be effected by the investment of the Sinking Fund, in securities of a different description. I thank you for the Supplies which you have granted for the Public Service, and I earnestly hope that the temporary depression of our finances, may disappear in the course of the current year. Honorable Gentlemen, and Gentlemen: There is one subject on which I have not yet touched, and that is the promised visit to this Province of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Your invitation has been most graciously responded to by Our Queen, and your reception of Her Son will now shew the warmth of those feelings which dictated the Address of last Session, and the deep sense of loyalty to the Throne, and of love for the laws and institutions of Great Britain, which animate the population of Canada. Then the Honorable the Speaker of this House said :— Honorable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and It is His Excellency the Governor General's will and pleasure that this Provincial Parliament be prorouged until Wednesday, the twenty-seventh day of June next, to be here held, and this Provincial Parliament is accordingly prorogued until Wednesday, the twenty-seventh day of June next. 23rd April Return respecting the Hearing Fees charged in the Division Courts, Upper Canada..... 14th May....... APPENDIX No. 5. Return to an Address for a list of the causes standing APPENDIX No. 6. 1st May, 1859......... Clerk's Statement of the Receipts and Expenditure of the Legislative Council from the 1st May, 1859, to the 1st January, 1860......... 130 141 234 APPENDIX No. 1. To the Honorable the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada, in Provincial Parliament assembled. The Report of the Librarian upon the state of the Library of Parliament, RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH,— That upon the removal of the Seat of Government, after the close of last Session of Parliament, it was considered, by the Government,-who did not then know what accommodation could be provided for the Books,-inexpedient that the whole Library should be immediately transferred to Quebec. Accordingly a Minute in Council was passed, and communicated to your Librarian by letter from the Provincial Secretary, dated 11th July, 1859, directing him for the present to forward to Quebec a selection of Books, not to exceed ten thousand in number, and to include such books as might be especially necessary for the use of Members during a Session of Parliament. This direction was complied with, and a selection of works of reference forwarded to Quebec before the close of the season of navigation. Upon the completion of the building erected for the accommodation of the Legislature, it was ascertained by your Librarian that the room assigned to the Library would receive nearly the whole collection; whereupon the Honorables the Speakers were pleased to direct that the entire Library should be despatched to Quebec. By judicious management of the apartment, and careful economy of space, your Librarian is happy to state that nearly the whole of the books have been accommodated in the new Library. A portion of the remainder, comprising the collection of works on the History of America, some scientific publications, seldom consulted, and a series of Periodicals and Parliamentary Papers, have been placed in a room at the Laval University, in close proximity to the Parliament buildings, which has been kindly placed at the disposal of the Legislature for that purpose, by the Directors of that institution, and is under the exclusive control of the Librarians of the Legislature. The collection of works on French Law has been placed in the office of the Commissioners for the Codification of the Laws of Lower Canada, under the sanction of the two Speakers, for the convenience of the Commissioners. The books, however, will be accessible to the Members of Parliament at all hours. The removal of such a large collection of books in the depth of winter, from a distance of nearly six hundred miles, and the careful arrangement and classification of them, within a period of two months, without the loss or damage of a single volume, is a subject for congratulation and thankfulness. Since last Session the Library has been enriched by the addition of several hundred volumes on English Law, including an extensive series of Law and Equity Reports. These books were purchased in England, by Mr. Speaker Smith, on very favorable terms, and have rendered this important section of the Library perfect and complete. Few other additions have been made to the Library during the recess; nevertheless some works of novelty and general interest, published in Europe and America during the past year, will be found upon the shelves. To facilitate reference to the books in the Library, a Supplementary Catalogue or Index to the Volumes, added to the collection since the 25th February, 1858, has been |