776 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV
its right to veto any law intra vires the provinces, and in
effect the Dominion Government has yielded. The rising
spirit of Ontario has been seen in the regret publicly expressed
in a recent speech by Sir James Whitney, the Premier, that
the province cannot appoint an Agent-General in England
who can correspond directly with the Imperial authorities,
but must go to them through the High Commissioner. The
secret of this consciousness of strength is obvious : the people
of Canada and the Federal Parliament cannot change the
Constitution of Canada, however much they desire it, or
deprive the provinces of any of their powers, unless the
Imperial Government agree, while in the Commonwealth
the powers of the states can be and are gradually being
taken from them by the federal electors.
The truly federal character of the Constitution is un-
doubtedly due in great measure to the decisions of the Privy
Council which has corrected the earlier tendency of the
Supreme Court to interpret the powers of the provinces in
a restricted sense. But great part of the credit of maintain-
ing provincial rights against the unificationist tendencies of
Sir John Macdonald must be ascribed to Sir O. Mowat, who
was determined that federation should mean for Ontario
freedom in internal matters. His tenure of office saw the
successful assertion of the powers of the provincial legislatures
to define their privileges! the admission of their right to
confer on the Lieutenant-Governor the power of pardon,?
the acquisition for the provinces of the right to escheats?®
the settlement of the Ontario boundary,* the declaration of
the provincial title to the freehold of the Indian lands? the
upholding of the provincial right to regulate the liquor trade,®
and the disuse of the federal veto as regards acts not un-
constitutional” In the later years of his career he had the
support of Sir John Thompson, perhaps Canada’s greatest
lawyer, who respected the Constitution too greatly to seek
to upset it even on federal grounds.®
t Above, p. 696. * Above, pp. 680, 681. 8 Above, pp. 679, 680.
' Above, p. 770. 5 Above, p. 684. ¢ Above, p. 676.
* Above, pp. 738, 739. ¢ Cf. Willison, Sir Wilfrid Laurier. ii. 208-10.
