Responsible government in the Dominions: Responsible government in the Dominions

Responsible government in the Dominions (Vol. 2)

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Multivolume work

Identifikator:: 1896933912

Document type:: Multivolume work

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Press

Year of publication:: 1912-

Collection:: Economics Books

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Volume

Identifikator:: 1896935052

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-238139

Document type:: Volume

Author:: Keith, Arthur Berriedale http://d-nb.info/gnd/119086794

Title:: Responsible government in the Dominions

Volume count:: Vol. 2

Place of publication:: Oxford

Publisher:: Clarendon Pr.

Year of publication:: 1912

Scope:: XI Seiten, Seiten 570-1100

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Multivolume work

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part IV. The federations and the union // Chapter I. The dominion of Canada

Collection:: Economics Books

744 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART TV be taken, I think, by any one occupying the position I have the honour to hold... . The large question of principle which was presented for consideration was simply whether or not the Provincial Legislature has the power, without control, to take one man’s property and give it to another and to take away from the person injured any right of redress in the Courts. . . . I entertain in all honesty and sincerity the view that it is of vital consequence to the well-being of this Dominjon that the rights of the Provinces to legislate within the scope of their authority should not be interfered with, and that every Provincial Legislature, within the limits prescribed for it by the terms of the British North Americq Act, is and ought to be supreme. I believe that this is a principle of greater importance to the welfare of this Dominion as a whole than even the sacredness of private rights or of property ownership. I am willing to go thus far in the enunciation of the views I am stating to this House, that a Provincial Legislature, having, as is given to it by the terms of the British North America Act, full and absolute control over property and civil rights within the Province, might, if it saw fit to do so, repeal Magna Charta itself. I know no difference between that most sacred bulwark of liberty and of property to every British subject and any piece of legisla- tion. I take it that no one would dispute the power of a Provincial Legislature to repeal the Habeas Corpus Act, or any other charter of liberty which Englishmen possess : and in precisely the same view I take the ground that rights of property are subject only to the control of Provincial Legis- latures within Canada. “Having that view, it seemed to me in considering this legislation that I was not, as advising His Excellency in Council, called upon to think at all of the injustice, of the outrageous character it might be, of the legislation, but that my one inquiry ought to be whether or not there was anything in the legislation itself which went beyond the power of the Provincial Legislature to pass a law referring alone to property and civil rights within the Province. In that view I had the help of opinions which had been expressed by my immediate predecessors in office, the Hon. David Mills and the Hon. Charles Fitzpatrick— and he quoted the passages above mentioned, and pro- ceeded — Ishare these views. I believed, as I still believe, that it is the true spirit of our constitution. These are considerations entirely for the Provincial Legislature. It represents the

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