ARE LEGISLATURES PARLIAMENTS? A STUDY AND REVIEW. BY FENNINGS TAYLOR, DEPUTY CLERK, AND CLERK ASSISTANT OF THE SENATE OF CANADA, Author of "Sketches of British-Americans," with Photographs by Notman; "The Last Three Bishops appointed by the Crown for the Anglican Church of Canada," &c. MONTREAL: JOHN LOVELL; QUEBEC: DAWSON AND CO. TORONTO: G. M. ADAM; OTTAWA: DURIE AND SON NEW YORK: JOHN W. LOVELL. 1879. ENTERED according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine, by FENNINGS TAYLOR, in the office of the Minister of Agriculture, at Ottawa. THIS STUDY AND REVIEW, BY HIS FRIENDLY PERMISSION, IS CORDIALLY DEDICATED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR JOHN ALEXANDER MACDONALD, K.C.B., D.C.L., &c., &c., &c., A STATESMAN WHOSE LOVE OF LITERATURE AND ART HAS NOT ONLY PROMPTED HIM EARNESTLY TO MUSE ON THE WORKS OF THEOLOGIANS, POETS, ARTISTS, JURISTS AND SATIRISTS; BUT WHOSE SYMPATHY WITH HUMAN NATURE HAS ENABLED HIM TO FIND REFRESHMENT IN NOVELS AND PHILOSOPHY IN ALL WRITINGS WHERE WIT SPARKLES, OR WHERE HUMOUR FINDS A TONGUE. A STATESMAN, MOREOVER, WHO HAS GIVEN TO HIS COUNTRY THE FRUITS OF HIS LARGE EXPERIENCE, RARE INDUSTRY AND MATURE WISDOM, ESPECIALLY ON THOSE SUBJECTS THAT RELATE TO PARLIAMENTARY LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT, AS THEY ARE EXPOUNDED AND ENFORCED BY THE SUPREME AUTHORITY OF THE MOTHER COUNTRY. FOR MY PART I LOOK UPON THE IMPERIAL RIGHTS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THE PRIVILEGES WHICH THE COLONISTS OUGHT TO ENJOY UNDER THOSE RIGHTS, TO BE JUST THE MOST RECONCILABLE THINGS IN THE WORLD. THE PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN IS AT THE HEAD OF HER EXTENSIVE EMPIRE IN TWO CAPACITIES, ONE AS THE LOCAL LEGISLATURE OF THIS ISLAND, PROVIDING FOR ALL THINGS AT HOME IMMEDIATELY, AND BY NO OTHER INSTRUMENT THAN THE EXECUTIVE POWER; THE OTHER, AND I THINK HER NOBLER CAPACITY, IS WHAT I MAY CALL HER IMPERIAL CHARACTER, IN WHICH, AS FROM THE THRONE OF HEAVEN, SHE SUPERINTENDS ALL THE SEVERAL INFERIOR LEGISLATURES, AND GUIDES AND CONTROLS THEM ALL WITHOUT ANNIHILATING ANY.-Burke's speech on American Taxation, Vol. I, page 156, of his "Select Works," edited by E. J. Payne, M.A., Fellow of University College, Oxford. PREFACE. THE inquiry which has suggested what follows is a very interesting and important one, for it includes a good deal more than a question of grammatical construction, and rises much higher than a mere play on the value of terms that are commonly accepted as interchangeable. There need be no controversy on the etymology of the words in our title page, for their origin and derivation can easily be traced. It may at once be admitted that they are popularly regarded as synonymous and convertible; nor can their relationship be questioned, for the business of law-making is inseparably interlaced with, and necessarily includes, the duty of talking and consulting. But the question we propose to examine refers less to the ordinary kinship, than to the official use, of the two words "Legislature” and “Parliament." Such examination is the more necessary as the suggested meaning of these words, as supplied by the English statutes, is by no |