690 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART 1V
Roman Catholic rights in the Protestant provinces. In the
case of New Brunswick in 1871 there arose the question
whether the legislation of that year with regard to schools
had not infringed upon a privilege of the Roman Catholic
minority enjoyed at federation. It was decided in 1871 by
the Supreme Court of New Brunswick,! in Maher v. Town
of Portland, that it had not, and after various efforts to
obtain the disallowance of certain Acts the law officers of
the Crown advised that the Act was intra vires ;2 this view
was confirmed by the decision of the Privy Council in 1873
in the long unreported case of ex parte Maher? dismissing
the appeal from the subordinate Court without even calling
upon the province to show cause. In March 1875 the
Dominion House of Commons, as the Dominion Government
had no chance of securing the disallowance of the law, the
available year having expired, addressed the Crown in favour
of a modification of the law through the royal influence. The
Crown, however, by a dispatch from Lord Carnarvon of
October 18, 1875, pointed out that while, as the address
admitted, the passing of an Act to affect the provincial law
would be unconstitutional, as the matter was one of local
interest, the attempt to exercise the royal authority by way
of an appeal to the province to amend the law would also
be unconstitutional, and there the matter ended, as New
Brunswick stuck to its decision not to establish separate
schools.
The same troubles arose in 1877 over the Prince Edward
Island legislation regarding public schools. After an un-
availing effort to have the Bill reserved by the Lieutenant-
Governor, the Roman Catholic minority petitioned the
Government at Ottawa to disallow the Act, while the Pro-
vincial Government insisted that the Act was entirely within
'1 Pugs. 73; Wheeler, pp. 334 seq. See 2 Cart. 445. The Act was
34 Vict. c. 21, repealing 21 Viet. c. 9.
? Canada Sess. Pap. 1877, No. 89, pp. 343-428; Provincial Legislation.
1867-95, pp. 661 seq.
* Times, July 18, 1874, p. 11; now reported at length in Wheeler.
¢ Canada Sess. Pap., 1877, No. 89, p. 434; for the present state, which
Is a compromise, see Hinnay, New Brunswick, ii. 293-317, 362-5.
