Document Information

Date: 1866-06-13
By: Province of Canada (Parliament)
Citation: Province of Canada, Parliament, Scrapbook Debates, 8th Parl, 5th Sess, 1866 at 9.
Other formats: Click here to view the original document (PDF).

Click here to view the rest of the Province of Canada’s Confederation Debates for 1866.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY.

WEDNESDAY, June 13^th, 1866.

The Speaker took the chair at three o’clock.

Several petitions were brought up, among them one by Mr. Street from the Bank of Upper Canada, praying for amendments to their charter; one by Mr. Morris from the University of Queens College Kingston, praying for the usual grant to that institution.

Twenty-Eight petitions were received and read.

Mr. White reported form the Niagara Election Committee that Mr. Angus Morrison had been duly returned for that constituency.

The following bills were introduced and read a first time. Second reading ordered for tomorrow.

Mr. Bellerose – To extend the provision of the Lower Canada act responding the building and repair of Churches.

Hon. A. A. Dorion – To amend the act respecting election of Members of the Legislature.

Hon. A. A. Dorion – To amend the act containing special provision respecting both Houses of Parliament.

Mr. Geoffrion – To amend the Lower Canada agricultural act.

Mr. Geoffrion – To amend the Municipal Law of Lower Canada.

Mr. Street – To amend the Municipal Law Fund act as to the distribution of monies arising from Clergy Reserves.

Hon. Attorney General MacDonald then rose to move the adjournment of the House as a mark of respect to the memory of the late members whose decease had occurred since the last session of the House, the late member for North Wentworth, Mr. Northman, and the late member for North Oxford, Mr. Hope F. McKenzie. He would not undertake to make any lengthened remarks on the merits and virtues of the deceased gentlemen, for that duty could be better discharged by other members, who from personal intimacy and associations, had perhaps better means of doing them justice. He would only say that they had been respected and useful members of this House, and he asked now that this House should pay their respects due to their memory by adjourning for today.

Hon. J. S. MacDonald seconded the motion, which he said had been so appropriately introduced by the Attorney General West. From personal and political acquaintance of long standing with the late member for North Wentworth, Mr. Notman, he (Mr. MacDonald) was able to speak to the excellence of his character both in public and private life Mr. Notman was born in 1805, in Scotland, came to Canada in 1831, and in 1837, he (Mr. M.) knew him, as an active and efficient volunteer in defence of the institution of our country.

He had through life been a man of thorough loyalty, and had organised and for many years kept up at his own expense an efficient company of artillery at Dundas, in the country he had so long represented. He was returned to Parliament in 1847, and there, as perhaps the Attorney-General West might remember, had taken an active part in the debates of the Oxford election case, and ably vindicated the purity of election. In 1851 he was defeated, but was again returned in 1857, and though he did not take frequent part in the debates of the House, he was a good speaker, his enunciation being clear and forcible. As a politician, he had been consistent throughout his career, and though he respected the old adage which declared that we should say nothing but good of the dead, yet he did not think there was a member of This House, or a man in the country, who could justly cast a reproach upon the character, public or private of the late Mr. Notman (Hear, Hear).

Now that the Constitution was to be torn away under which they had so long worked when a new era was to draw upon us, and a new Constitution was to replace the old, he might be pardoned if he referred briefly to the members that had composed the several Parliaments. Since the Union, of the 84 elected to the First Parliament in 1841-43 were dead, 41 alive, but none of them now in this House – of those returned in 1844, there were three members now present, who had since that date continued to sit in the House, the Hon. Attorney General West, the member for Montmorenci (Mr. Cauchon,) and himself (Mr. J. S. MacDonald).

Of the Parliament returned at the general election in 1847 there were now in the House the three members, already named, and then hon. member for Peel (Hon. J. H. Cameron,) and towards the close of that Parliament the Hon. Attorney General East and the Hon. Finance Minister were returned to the House. Of those returned at the general election, in 1851, there were ten members now present. (Mr. McDonald also gave the figures as to how many were alive of those retuned at each general election since the union.)

During the long period in which the Attorney General West, the member for Montmorenci and himself, with the other old members of the house had taken part in the legislation of the country, there had been many angry discussions and many pleasing incidents – many things upon which they could all look back with pleasure, and he wished they might all have a long and happy career under whatever constitution may be substituted for the one they were about to give up. With the new legislature would come new men and new measures; but looking back up on the past he thought this legislature had little to regret, it had been much good service to the country, and the country had made very great progress under it.

Of the other deceased member (Mr. McKenzie, though most so intimately acquainted with him, she could bear testimony to his careful application to his duties which he appeared to have comprehended and at once on his first entrance into the house. He sincerely joined therefore with his friend the Atty. Gen. and supporting the adjournment of the house is a [sic] of respect and then we do to the memory of the deceased. (Hear, hear).

Mr. McKellar deemed it proper, as an old personal and political friend of the late Mr. Hope McKenzie to say a few words on the motion. In relation to the late member for North Wentworth, he could only endorse the remarks of the member for Cornwall; but Mr. McKenzie had been one of his oldest and most valued political and private friends. In 1860 he was elected for Lambton, and in 1803 for North Oxford, by an overwhelming majority. Had he lived to offer himself again to the same constituency, he (Mr. McKenzie) had been assured he would have been returned without opposition. He was sure that all would agree that the House had lost a valuable member, and the country one of its best citizens.

Hon. Mr. MacDougall regretted the absence of the Hon. Mr. Brown on this occasion, who, had been in his place, might have been expected to do justice to the memory of the deceased members Mr. McDougall alluded briefly to the high and important duties devolving upon members of the legislature, and form which these gentlemen had been summoned by death, and concluded by saying that the personal acquaintance with both members he could fully endorse the sentiments of the members for Cornwall and Kent.

The House then adjourned until 3 p.m. on Thursday.