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1 do not pmrosc at this stage of the Bill to say anything at all upon the various amendmoents to the Railway Act which have been proposed for the consideration of the House, as it is obvious that any observation which may be mado upon that subject had better be made when the Bill is before the comumniltee. Nor do I propose at this stage to make any lengthened remarks with ref-- erence to the hon. gentleman's proposals of an-- other description, namely, to declare a vast num-- ber of railways--by a vague and unsatisfactory iefinition--works for the gencral _ advan-- tage _ of Canada. The objectionable charac-- ter of the Biil--for so I conceive it to br-- is no reason why the Bill should not be road a second time, inasmuch as the measure which con-- | tains numerous proposals which are to the public | ad vantage, and the sense of the Mouse upon the ' other proposals may be challenged ata subsequent | atago of the measure. Would Mr. Blake have used such language lusthat if he thought that by his amend-- ment ouly 50 miles of railroad would have remained under Provincial jurisdiction i He went on to say :-- _ This is a very import ant Bill. _It contains very numerous provisions, some of them of a startling character, and one of them in particular very Starting. It was introduced six days ago, and distributed in English only one or two days ago. It has not yet been distributed in French, and the Governimment announced that they would be likely to--day to take Government notices of motion and concurrence, anc not Bills. I have not excepted to a numoer of things taken in the ordinary course, and which did not involve discussion, but the hon, gentleman anunounces now that he pro-- poses to-- take up this Biil without refoer-- ring 'i to the Railway Committee, to which the priginal ftailway Act to which this is an «nendmenti in many important respects, was referred. Under thes> cirecumstances I think the hon. gentleman's proceedings are unfair. He is exposing the House to a surprise to read this Bill the second time at this stage without the prelimi-- nary steps being taken, which we have a right to rely on according to the rules of the Houso ; and under these circumstances I object, as the Bill is not distributed in French. Mr, Blake was remonstrated with for his course, Sir Charles Tupper saying that it was a Bill very easily comprehended, to which Mr. Blake replied that it was very compre-- hensive. After further urging to allow the Bill to be read a second time without the Bill yoiug to the Railway Committee, Mr. Blake said :-- 1 would be very glad to compnly with the wishes of the hon. gentieman, but I would like to know how many members of the Houss have read this Bill besides the hon. gontleman, and how many comprenended its provisions before the hon. gen-- tleman moved the second reading of it. We are vyery busily engaged to a late hour every morning in discharging our eustomary dutiecs "Ihe Gov-- ernment are asked every night--i take paing to ask them--what they are going to do next day ; they do not announce that tacy are going to read this Bill, which is a very import-- ant Bill; and we know that ° according to the forms of the House they could not read it, I have not information on many points which I would like to have, for which 1 shall have to ask the hou. gentleman at a future stage when the Bill goes on. And there are other Snlngs. 1 think you have brought no list of the railways, which, with one fell swoop, pormit me to say, you propose to bring wit ain the legislative juris diction of the Parliament of Canada. We have no such legislation which 1 would notably like to I know of no mode by which this Parliament could more eifectually dampen the enterprise and check the energies of the diiferent Local Legisia-- tures with reference to improvements of this de-- scription than by this measure. As well as I can understand, it practically has an _ effect DAEZRC PGnOCRRCEWCC ACRIOCNE 2 WEGTHOU DULGUIY IRC U have. lfthe houn. gentleman had referred the Bill to the ltailway Committee I would not have been dlfl)oscd to take c.\'z.-c})! ion, but as it is now proposed to take the Bill through the Committee of the whole House, 1 fes! constrained to> say that I do not think the real business will be for-- warded oy that course. After reéecess on the 18th May, the matter was up for debate again,. Mr. Blake then said :-- Weil, I am sorry the hon. gentleman takes this course, That is, refuses to refer the Bill to the Railway Committee. _ _ ond reading on the same day, on the 15th of May, 1883. The House closed on the 23rd. There had been discussion before in the Rail-- way Committee on some provisions relating to amendments to the general Railway Act. But there had been nothing to indicate that it was groposed to take away the jurisdiction of the Province over local railways, even to a limited extent. On the 15th of May it had its first reading, as I have said. Mr. Blake asked if the Bill would be referred to the Railway Committee. To this Sir Charles Tugl)cr answered, " No." I will read what Mr. Blake said on this measure, because if I were in the backcountry and hadnothing before me but what the hoa. gentlemen have said on this subject I should assums that Mr. Blake thought the course of the Domi-- nion Government was a very good one, on the whole the Bill was not a very bad mea-- sure, and that he was willing to concur in what was proposed. Mr. Blake said : of railways in the Province which, if Mr. Blake's contention had been assented to, would remain under Provincial control. Well now, it is well to remember that this Rail-- way Bill of the Dominion Government was introduced about the closing days of the session of 1883, and that very little of discus-- sion occurred. It had its first reading, and they were attempting to go on with the see-- wb Mr. FRASER--I trust my hon. friend will not introduce this amendment at this time, but will wait until it can be more fully con-- sidered and dealt with. There are some parts of this resolution that I would have no objection to at all. But I think upon reflec-- tion that he will feel that we ought not to in-- trudeltoo prematurely®into matters that more property should be dealt with by the au-- thorities elsewhere. (Hear, hear.) If any recommendation in favour of clemeney that this House can make shall have the effect of bringing about a better condition of affairs, I for one will only be too glad to assist in bringinf: it about. But he will see, and think _ the House will see, that there may be a possibility of bring-- ing into a _ recommendation of that kind suggestions of matters which, after all, this House should not pronounce upon. It is no part of our duty to say whether justice has been done or not, and I do not think we are called upon to say anything about that. Hon. 0. MOWAT took up Mr. Meredith's references to the Boundary and Escheats cases, showing most conelusively, as he did in his former speech in reply to Mr. Mere-- dith, that Sir John Macdonald had made an attempt to obtain the right of escheat for the vominion after there were three decisions of the Courts and an agreement against him. Mr, WiIITE addressed the House upon the ?n-e,stion of the Indian title, alleging that the ndians had a claim, and through them the Dominion, to the land in the formerly dis-- puted territory,. He then made some re-- marks about the imprisoned HMalfbreeds, and moved the following amendment :--* That the following words beadded to the proposed amendmsnt :--* And we trust, now that paace has been restored, the supremacy of the law vindicated and maintained, and just _ punishment _ inflicted on _ the principal participants ia the rebellion, it may be {ound consistent with the public interests to extend the merciful consideration of the Crown to the eases of those who are now undergoing imprisonment for oifences committed during or arising out of it." ___-- upon every railway, because ever railway connects either diroctlf' or fndirectly with some of the leading lines. -- You cannot have a side line or a concession line in the country which does not ultimately connect with a groat road and lead to some town or other, so that all the railways with which lLam most familiar--those in my own Province--are the same with regard to the main lines as it seems to me, Lhoulgh it is not absolutely clear, under the de-- tinition of the hon. gentieman. I should like to know what prospects there are, what induce-- monts there are, to build a railway which doos not connect with one or the other of those leading lines, and the proposal is for the future _to -- say -- that al? theso _ roais, not merely those at present constructed, but those hereafter to be constructed, shall be taken in charge by this Parliament. Much has been done by the Provinces, very much by the Province of Ontario, and a firout deal by some of the Provinces in the way of the creation of local railways, Is it probable that Mr. Blake would have used the ex{f)ressiou, "at one fell swoop," if he intended to propose an amendment which would only retain to the Province jurisdiction over fifty miles of the railroad ? Mr. Fraser dealt with the causes which in-- duced the Dominion Government to take up such legislation, at the time remarking, the great railway corporations seeing that the 1 ocal House had passed Acts referring to the construction and care of frog switches, and given certain claims against the compa-- nies, at all events had enabled the servants of the companies to have a right of action under cortain cireumstances, All this goes to show that the railway corporations were likely to have exercised what influence they had to bring about a transfer of jurisdiction. CmmR RVEe rCiuiratalsithits t stedls t .2 27 WB or control over a railway chartered h';rv the Dominion Government. Concluding, he said ----\Vo may charter railways one after the other, we may _ive them the original powers of construction, but thereafter we sgall be powerless to control or regulate the trafic. I shall be glad to find that we can give right of action against those railway companies. He sat down amid prolonged applause. Mr. MERE'.)FI'I{ moved ixis amendment extending to the Volunteers of other Provin-- ces the thanks which by the speech are given to the Volunteers of Ontario. He spoke on the question of the assumption by -- the Dominion fof Provin-- cial railways, contending that under Mr. Blake's amendment all leased lines, such as the Toronto, Grey, & Bruse and those form-- ing part of the old Great Western system, would have passed to the Dominion Govern-- ment. 1It_heing six o'clock the Speaker left the chair. AFTER ARECESS, Mr. MERBDITH dealt again with the Gov-- ernment's course on the Boundar&' and Es-- cheats questions, and endeavoured to show that they had not won a victory in either Emm ET ME OPm nmy Li B 15 118 11B s cided the other way--that we have no power or control avar a railurso shautnmad Hhw +la case. CEmen C t B e n nttee P e mmeVEn ie Mo, ME@GEDITH suggested that the Pro-- vince might still pass such Acts. fgq« C. £, FiiaASER--The Courts have de-- To