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Date: 1865-09-13
By: Province of Canada (Parliament), Morning Chronicle
Citation: “Provincial Parliament. Legislative Assembly. Wednesday, Sept. 13th” [Quebec] Morning Chronicle (14 September 1865).
Other formats: Click here to view the original document (PDF).
Note: All endnotes come from our recent publication, Charles Dumais & Michael Scott (ed.), The Confederation Debates in the Province of Canada (CCF, 2022).

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

Wednesday, September 13, 1865[1]

The Hudson’s Bay Territory

John Sandfield Macdonald [Cornwall] said he should have like his hon. friend from Caughnawaga—

Some Hon. Members—Roars of laughter.

Luther Holton [Chateauguay]—I am not ashamed of the name.

John Sandfield Macdonald [Cornwall] said he sometimes miscalled the constituency, but he meant his honorable friend the member for Chateauguay [Luther Holton], and he regretted that hon. gentleman had not asked information about the proposed Government measure on the subject of the Hudson’s Bay Territory. Last Tuesday night, in answer to a question put by him (Mr. Macdonald) the Government promised that they would come down with their measure on the Friday or Tuesday following.

Now, the Friday and Tuesday had come and gone, and yet we neither had measure or explanation. It was the pet scheme of the Hon. President of the Council [George Brown]—it was his measure par excellence, and whatever else was abandoned or deferred we had been led to expect all along that this certainly would be pressed.

George Brown [Oxford South, President Executive Council]—There’s no occasion for a speech. Put your question.

John Sandfield Macdonald [Cornwall] said that the hon. gentleman needed not get into a passion. Hon. gentlemen came down and told us in the most solemn manner that we were going to have a measure on the North-West business. For his (Mr. Macdonald’s) part he did not think they had any intention of doing so. They had humbugged the House and humbugged he community—they had almost succeeded in gulling almost everybody, but they had not sold him.

Some Hon. Members—Laughter and cheers.

George Brown [Oxford South, President Executive Council] said it was quite natural the hon. member for Cornwall (Mr. J.S. Macdonald) should feel anxious about the North-West question. The importance of the matter was a sufficient justification for such anxiety, and he was therefore not surprised that the explanations should be demanded.

Luther Holton [Chateauguay]—The measure, the measure.

Some Hon. Members—Hear, hear.

George Brown [Oxford South, President Executive Council] said he was quite ready to give the explanations last night; but the important debate which arose on the manner in which the hon. member for Chateauguay [Luther Holton] had given up forty-two-thousand pounds of bonds to the Grand Trunk—

Some Hon. Members—Hear, hear, and laughter.

George Brown [Oxford South, President Executive Council]—prevented him from doing so. He hoped, however he would have an opportunity of doing so to-morrow, when hon. gentlemen would get all the explanations they required.

Luther Holton [Chateauguay]—I take it for granted it’s a measure that is to be brought down.

Some Hon. Members—Hear, hear.

George Brown [Oxford South, President Executive Council] if the hon. gentleman lives until to-morrow he will see.

Some Hon. Members—Laughter.

Luther Holton [Chateauguay] said the House had been promised the policy of the Government and by inference a measure on this important subject. Now we were told, after a number of unfulfilled promises, that we were to have explanations to-morrow. If hon. Gentlemen were going to introduce a bill they could do so in advance—there was nothing to prevent them. The hon. gentleman concluded by denouncing the policy of the Government in this matter.

The subject then dropped and the orders of the day were taken up.

ENDNOTES

[1]      Source: “Provincial Parliament,” [Quebec] Morning Chronicle (Sep. 14, 1865).