CHAP. 1] THE DOMINION OF CANADA 713 
mentioned above. It cannot alter the relations between the 
Houses, or the rules as to the recommendation of Money Bills 
by the Governor-General, and their origination in the Lower 
House ; it cannot alter the rules regarding the Speaker, 
though it can make provision for the filling of the chair in 
the absence of a Speaker ; ! it cannot change its own quorum, 
nor can it deprive the Speaker of his casting vote in case of 
equality of votes. It cannot alter the provisions as to the 
royal assent to and the reservation of Bills.2 
Nor can the Parliament affect in any way whatever the 
provincial constitutions or the division of powers between 
the Federation and the provinces. On the other hand, the 
provinces each possess the full right of altering their consti- 
tution except as regards the office of Lieutenant-Governor. 
This power is given by the Imperial Act, and confirmed to 
each new province by the terms of its Constitution Act, 
which by the Imperial Act of 1871 is declared unalterable 
by the Dominion. The only power of the Dominion with 
regard to the alteration of the provinces is that of changing 
boundaries and the necessary consequential legislation, con- 
templated in the Act of 1871,® which is conditional on the 
assent of the province affected, and was exercised in the 
case of the Quebec boundary in 1898. 
The only limitation on the power of alteration in the 
provinces is that in s. 80 of the British North America Act 
under which the Quebec Legislature shall not alter the 
limits of any of the electoral districts referred to in the 
second schedule to the Act, unless the second and third 
readings of the Bill have been passed in the Legislative 
Assembly with the concurrence of the majority of members 
representing all those electoral divisions or districts, and the 
* The Act for a Deputy Speaker (57 & 58 Vict. o. 11) was validated by 
59 Vict. ¢. 3; see Provincial Legislation, 1867-95, pp. 1314-23, 
* There were a few dicta which might seem to point to a power of con- 
Stitutional change in Fielding v. Thomas, [1896] A. C. 600. but they cannot 
be pressed ; see Lefroy, p. 699, n. 1. 
* The exact wording of this Act has been thought to limit the power of 
the Legislature of Manitoba, but the better opinion is otherwise; see 
Provincial Legislation, pp. 806 seq.