The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Mr. CAMERON said he was sorry the' ihon. Attorney-General was not always as careful of the rights and interests of others as he was of the rights and interests of magistrates. A great many otlicem, against whom there were no complaints, were dismissed without having the privi- lege of an investigation by a com- mission of enquiry. lie thought when any charge having the sernbhuure of truth was preferred against a magistrate it was as well to drop hint from the commission of the peace. A new commission could be issued, leaving out the name of the obnoxious in. , dividual. The practice of issuing commis- sions of enquiry in matters of this kind was not a desirable one. What was the use of a Government if it could not as- sume the responsibility of dealing with officials? The hon. gentle- man (Mr. Mowat) sought Commissioners among his friends, and those Commissioners the course which he had pursued seemed to him to be preferable. new the wishes of the head of the Gov- :rnment and acted accordingly. The hon. gentleman sheltered himself from the re. sponsibility of action by the poor subterfuge of a Commission. Mr. MOWAT-The Commissioners take evidence. Mr.CAMEPs0N-hnd report in accord- zznce with what they conceive to be the wishes of tho Goverr'uiwnt in the matter. t"No, no.") Ho did not mean that to apply with respect to all Commissions,bnt he,knew that when friends of the Government were appointed to conductan equality they always leaned in favour of the overnment. If hon. gentlemen opposite were not capable of discharging their duties, they ought to give way to persons who believed them. selves able to do so. (Opposition cheers.) Mr. MOWAT said that he had felt that magistrates, from their judicial positions, were entitled to the same protection as judges. The cases were not so clear as the hon. gentleman (Mr. Cameron) suppOSed, for there were generally charges made on the one hand and denied on the other. Only in very gross cases would he thir. Monet) issue Commissions against magistrates: he would rather avoid doing so. A magistrate had a kind of life interest in his office, and ought not to be degrade-3 from it unless for very grave rea- sons. e thought he would pursue his own course in this matter rather than that sug. gested by the hon. member for East Toronto. (' i ear, hear.) Mr. MACDOUGALL (Simcoc) mid that -- never knew a case in which the result of u inquiry by Commission was satisfactory, . It! in tho interest of the public. There _ :13 a conviction in the minds of the people of fl e Province that a state of things existed in connection with the Central Committee and the booksellers that should not exist. But the Commissioner in his report found nothing wrong. He might perhaps have made some secret suggestion to the Govorn- ment of necessary changes or something of that kind, but the public knew nothing about that. The report was one of ac- quittal i no one was present to act as public prosecutor, to u that the evidence was properly adduced, except a gentleman who had volunteered to do so, and yet the hap- hazard result arrived at was expected to be satisfactory to the public. The result was not satisfactory. The hon. members composing the Gorernmcnt thought it Watt proper for them to shirk their duties be. cause they thought that it they themselves held the investigations for which they issued Commissions} some one would find fault with them. The Government was there to perform the duties imposed upon them,ns the Opposition was there to see that the Gorernment exercised a wise dis. cretion. llo proceeded to quote at some length in support of his ar- gument against the appointing of commissions of enquiry, Toulmin Smith's work on "Government by Commissions," published in 1849, and wont on to say that Commissions Were usually appointed to enquire into matters of public policy. He remembered that a Very useful Commission was issued by the 8andtUld Macdonald Government to enquire into matters con. nected with the working and practice of the Courts, but when the hon. gentlemen opposite came into power that Commission was put out of existence, and to this day We know nothing of the results at which it had arrived. But the Government had issued the Central Committee Commission for the purpose at whitewashing-not to get out the whole truth, but to gd an " parts case. Such Commissions were not beneficittl to the public ; they were extra-constitutional, and they ought to be condemned, and he believed the public opinion of this country condemned the Min- ister of Education for having avoided his. obvious duty in conducting this enquiry for himself. Had he done so, there would have been some changes made, and the public would have derived some benefit from the enquiry. As it was, everything was in the same condition as formerly, and the persons who, for the public good, had called for the enquiry ware snubbed. They were told that they wore meddlers, and that there should be no more said on the sub- ject. If there Were any persons in the employ of the Department who were culpable, let them be turned out, and no one would canplztin,but the Government would receive theapprobation of the country for having fulfilled the duties the Constitu- tion imposed on them, and which they Were sw_orn 1oyli1tily?vste. (Opposition cheers.) Mr. FRASER suppos'ed it would be quite impossible for any member, or all the mem- bers,0f the Government to satisfythe Oppo- sition that they had done justice in an y case. It was unfortunato_that political parties in this country Were so hostile towards each othcrthat it was almost impossible " a Government to take any particu- lar course of action with the in- tention of serving the public interest without finding thexuSclves challenged with having done so from a. political motive. With regard to this particular matter, the Government had neither neglected their duty, nor had gone beyond the Constitution. (Hear, hear.) They had kept within the Constitution, and within tho range of their duties. He had hardly thought that the hon. gentleman who had just sat down would have forgotten his own political his. tory with regard to constitutional "practice.- The hon. gentlmnmr tool: ' considerable credit to himself for having; been instrumen- tal for the :q-pointmvnl of the. Commission through Which the more jobs Were un- Carlin-d. London charged him (Mr Macdougall) with having done "rang on that occasion he would deny the charge, even though he regarded the wrong as having been done by a "dorm Govcrtmwnt. He (Mr.l"mscr) did not say that what was done was wrong, but that the hon. member for South Simcoc had not given the Government credit for follow- ing the good example he himself had set. Thcve had been Commissions issued such as he hoped this (lovornmcnt would never issue. There had been the Com.. mission on that momentous mutter whichwas so graphically represented by} Grip in the picture of the gal-; Iant and Aonourablo knight as at once the jfidge, tho counsel, and lhc 1elon. (Laughter) When the time came I Mr. FllAs1uul--Yis, and we have a quasi Reformer here (cheers and Janghter)---that old-time. licformcr, that constitutional Ile., forlm-r, that one of the two, three, of four fathers of Confederation. He (Mr. Fraser) did not think the hon. member for South Simeoc would thank the hon. member for London for calling attention to his old Reform professions. If the hon.mcmber for Mr. MliIlrlr)I'l'lr-1t was a Committee of the House. Mr. Mr',ll1s'Di'l'II-1t was .1 Reform Gov- ernment that did so, Mrd'llASlu'i'. said then- was a('c-mmission appointed, at the instigation of the hon. mctnbrr (Mr. 1liir'tow.,:,ivll), by the Govern- ment of which ho was a member. He (Ur. Nac0ou:,rall) took credit for having induced the Gm'ermnmd of the late lion. Sandlield Mnmlonuhl to appoint a Uommvuiion, but the hon. gunllcnmn did not say that that Government went beyond the Constitution.