760 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [PART IV 
of Canada whose functions were not provincial were to con- 
tinue in office and exercise their functions as before, and the 
Governor-General in Council could appoint new officers. 
All laws in force were to remain in force until altered by the 
authorities created by the Act, but no powers of alteration 
which were not before existing were given by s. 129, a fact 
which told against the claim made by the Minister of Justice 
of Canada in regard to copyright, that the Parliament had 
power to repeal any Imperial Act extending to Canada before 
1867. Then several sections provide for the constitution of 
officers in Quebec and Ontario in place of the officers of the 
United Provinces ; the Lieutenant-Governors were autho- 
rized to change the Great Seals by Order in Council for these 
provinces ; arrangements were made for an arbitration as 
to the property of the Union to be transferred to either 
province! and the records were to be distributed by the 
Governor-General in Council, and provision was made for 
the accepting in evidence of certified copies of such records, 
presumably to avoid trouble in producing an original in the 
province in which it was not to be kept. Provision was also 
made for the issue of proclamations before union to commence 
after union, and for proclamations after the union to be 
made in virtue of antecedent authority of the united province. 
There are also more important clauses: s. 132 confers 
on the Parliament and Government of Canada all powers 
necessary or proper for performing the obligations of Canada, 
or of any province thereof, as part of the British Empire 
towards foreign countries arising under treaties between 
the Empire and such foreign countries. The effect of this 
1 See Canada Sess. Pap., 1871, No. 21. The Quebec arbitrator refused 
to act because of disagreements, but the award of the other two arbitrators 
was proceeded with and pronounced valid ; see In the Matter of an Arbitra- 
tion and Award between the Province of Ontario and the Province of Quebec, 
4 Cart. 712. For further developments of this question and of the subse- 
quent arbitration of 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. 6; Ontario, 54 Vict. ¢. 2; 
Quebec, 54 Vict. c. 4), see Attorney-General for Ontario v. Attorney-General 
for Quebec, [1903] A. C. 39; Province of Quebec v. Province of Ontario, [1910] 
A. C. 627; Province of Ontario and Dominion of Canada v. Province of 
Ouebec, 25 8S. C. R. 434.