cHapr. 1] THE DOMINION OF CANADA 745 
people of the Province : its members are elected by the 
same electors who send us to this House, and I certainly seek 
to put every Provincial Legislature, within the scope of its 
jurisdiction, as laid down in the British North America Act, 
upon an absolutely level footing with the Parliament of 
Canada itself so far as its legislation is concerned. I know 
no difference and can see no distinction to be drawn from 
the true reading of the language used in the British North 
America Act. Both this Parliament and the different Pro- 
vincial Legislatures have limits placed by that legislation 
apon their jurisdiction and legislative powers, and it is of 
equal importance that each should keep and be kept entirely 
within its own limits. It would not be proper in declaring 
some Provincial measure to be one which ought to be dis- 
allowed, that this Parliament or its representatives, his 
Government, or its Minister of Justice, should transgress the 
limits of the jurisdiction which the British North America 
Act intended to confer upon them. My view was, and is, 
that any measure of this sort is one in regard to which the 
only appeal from the Provincial Legislature ought to be to 
the people who elect that Legislature, and who, if they please, 
may dethrone the Government of the day and deprive it of 
power. This was a question, it seemed to me, to have been 
fought out at the polls. This was not a question which it was 
right to relegate to the Minister of Justice or the Government 
of the day at Ottawa, and ask that Minister or that Govern- 
ment to decide, and, acting upon that view and no other, 
I gave the advice which I did in this matter 
It must be admitted that the case was prima facie one for 
interference,! and one in which the circumstances were very 
remarkably open to criticism. It was alleged by a certain 
company, the Florence Mining Company, that in December 
1905 their predecessor, W. J. Green, undertook to prospect 
on the Cobalt Lake in Ontario, which they held was open 
for exploration by an Order in Council of October 30, 1905 
2ancelling an earlier Order in Council of August 14, 1905. 
In March 1906 he made a formal application for a patent 
to register the claim, but this request was refused, and he 
was informed that the property was not open for exploration 
at the time. The company then decided to bring an action, 
! Bee Canadian Annual Review, 1907, pp. 497, 498; 1908, pp. 284-6; 
1909, pp. 881-3; 1910, pp. 405, 417.