England so long as the practice itself lasted. From the earliest times payment was made to Knights of the Shire and Burgesses; and in 1323, by Statute of 16 Edward II., the wages were fixed at four shillings per day for a Knight and two for a Burgess or citizen. These payments were made by the constituency, and continued regularly until the end of the reign of Henry VIII. When the time came to incorporate Wales with England, the Act of Parliament providing for representation of Wales, passed in 1535-6, 27 Henry VIII., ch. 26, provided that towns should pay wages to their representatives, and the second Act, passed in 1543-4, 34 and 35 Henry VIII., ch. 26, had similar provisions. And when the universities received the right to send representatives to Parliament, it was provided that the burgesses were to be at the charge and costs of the Chancellor, masters and scholars, and there is ample evidence that the members for the University of Cambridge in 1603-4, nearly if not quite the first to represent a university, were allowed five shillings per day for their expenses.

The practice gradually died out. The oft-repeated story that the well-known Andrew Marvell, who sat for Hull in the reign of Charles II., was the last member of the Commons to receive wages, is not true, for in 1681, three years after Marvell's death, King, who had been M.P. for Harwich, obtained a writ from the Chancellor for his expenses as member of the House. But so far as appears it may be considered that Marvell was the last to receive a regular salary in this way. Lord Campbell seems to think that the writ never was abolished, but could be claimed as of right. However that may be, the payment of wages to members died out in England more than two centuries ago, and they served without remuneration until the other day.

Many looked upon it as part of the constitution that the Commons should serve at their own expense, but it is not reported that any very dire calamity has followed the new

measure.

It is to be noted that both in England and in Canada the present method is payment by the country; but as we shall see, the ancient method in England was followed in Upper Canada at first, and the constituencies were liable for the wages.

In the Irish Parliament, the practice of paying members also prevailed, the freeholders being assessed and the money

collected by the Sheriff; in 1666 a Bill passed the Irish Conmons abolishing wages for its members entirely; but this was rejected by the Irish House of Lords, and the old law continued until the Union in 1800.

In Scotland as early as 1587 there was statutory provision for wages to be paid to members by the freeholders; further legislation took place in 1648 and 1661. The "Commissioners or members for shires were by this last Act to receive five pounds Scots (i.e., 8 shillings and 4 pence sterling) per day. These wages were not paid after the Union with England in 1707, the last Act providing for them being in 1690; when, seventeen years afterwards, the Union came about, all wages and allowances from constituencies were allowed to lapse.

However, the "wages" given in 1793 in Upper Canada did not alarm by excess. Section 30, after reciting that "it was the ancient usage of England for the several members representing the counties, cities and boroughs therein, to receive wages for their attendance in Parliament," enacted that every member of the House of Assembly should be entitled to demand from the justices of the peace of the district in which his riding was situated, a sum not exceeding 10 shillings per day (i.e., $2) for each day he had been engaged in attendance on the House, and been necessarily absent from his house, the amounts to be paid out of the rates. This was slightly amended ten years after by (1803) 43 Geo. III. ch. 11.1

House was not a dead letter is seen from the records at Osgoode That this provision for the wages of members of the popular 1818, in the Court of King's Bench (praes. Powell, C.J., Campbell, Hall. For example: In Michaelmas Term, 59 Geo. III., Nov. 13th, and Boulton, JJ.), a mandamus nisi was issued to the justices of for the payment to Richard Hall, Esq., a member of the Commons Gore, requiring them to issue an order to the treasurer of the district House of Assembly of Upper Canada, of the sum of thirty pounds, being the amount of his wages for sixty days' attendance at the last session of the Provincial Legislature, out of the monies which may come into his hands under and by virtue of any Act of the Provincial Parliament. And a similar order to pay James Durand, Esq., Member These were made absolute April 17th, 1819.

of the Assembly.

Other instances may be of interest :castle, holden at Haldimand, April 10th, 1804, at which were present for the District of NewTimothy Thompson, Benjamin Richardson, Asa Burnham, Joseph Keeler, Joel Merriman, John Spencer. Leonard Soper, Asa Weller, Elias Jones and Richard Lovekin, Esquires, the following order was made: "The Magistrates in Quarter Sessions assembled in the district of Newcastle, the 10th of April, 1804, order that the sum of forty-five pounds, ten shillings, be collected in the county of Nor

thumberland to compensate David M. Rogers for services as Member of the House of Assembly for the years 1801, 1802, 1803 and 1804. (Sgd.) Tim'y Thompson, "Chairman."

And on April 9th, 1805, this order was made: Ordered that the sum of nine pounds, ten shillings, be collected in the county of Northumberland for the wages of David Macgregor Rogers, Esquire, Member of the House of Assembly, representing the counties of Hastings and Northumberland, for his services during the first Session of the Fourth Parliament.

"April Sessions, Haldimand, 9th April, 1805.

On April 8th, 1806, the following: "Ordered that the sum of nine shillings and five pence halfpenny, be allowed in abatement to Benjamin Eqing, collector of the rates for the township of Haldimand, for the year 1805, for the rates of persons not living in the township. The Clerk of the Peace presented the following Assessment Rolls to the Magistrates for the townships of Murray, Cramahe, Haldimand, Hamilton, Hope, Darlington. Ordered that the clerk transmit a copy of the said assessments agreeable to law. Ordered that the sum of five pounds, fifteen shillings. Halifax currency, be collected for the payment of the wages of the Member of the House of Assembly for the second Session of the Fourth Parliament in the county of Northumberland.

66

(Sgd.) Benjamin Richardson,
"Chairman."

On April 14th, 1807, the following: "Ordered that the sum of eleven pounds, five shillings, be collected for the payment of the wages of the Member of Assembly representing the counties of Hastings and Northumberland, for the third Session of the Fourth Provincial Parliament, being the proportion of Northumberland."

David M. Rogers was also Clerk of the Peace; he lived for a time in Prince Edward county and then removed to Grafton, Northumberland county. He represented his riding from 1796 to 1824, with the exception of one Parliament, and was active in military matters (as his descendants have been ever since). He became Registrar of Deeds for the united counties of Northumberland and Durham, and Judge of the District Court of Newcastle District: he died in 1824, aged 52.

The Act was, however, interpreted with some strictness. When the Act of (1820), 60 Geo. III., ch. 2, authorized representation for towns in which the Quarter Sessions were held, and which had a population of one thousand, and the town of Niagara sent Edward McBride as a member to the Legislative Assembly, the Court held, that he was not entitled to wages: The King ex rel. Edward McBride, Esquire, M.P., against the Justices of the District of Niagara (1826). Tay., 542. Members for towns had to serve without wages till 1835, 5 Wm. IV., ch. 6.

Chapter four provided for laying out and repairing highways by the agency of Commissioners or overseers, the beginning of the wretched plan of leaving the care of highways to local authority.

Chapter five was of very great public importance. Before the conquest in 1759-60, of course, the Roman Catholic religion was practically universal in Canada, and there was no trouble in procuring the solemnization of marriage. Even after the conquest and until the influx from the United States, Protestatnts were few in number, and practically all

lived in places of some importance like Quebec or Montreal, and a Protestant clergyman was there available. -a Protestant married in a country place it was to a "Canadienne," and her priest was good enough. But with the immigration into Upper Canada in considerable numbers of a country. population, many of them Protestants, the situation was altered. By the law of England only a clergyman of the Church of England could perform the ceremony, and these were scarce: according to a report made in 1792 by Mr. Cartwright, Legislative Councillor, there were none in the Eastern District, only two in the Midland, one in the Home and none in the Western. There were a few Presbyterian, Lutheran and Methodist ministers, and some Roman Catholic priests; but these were not qualified. Marriages had, however, been solemnized by these and in some cases even by laymen; and some relief was urgently needed. A Bill was introduced in the Council by Cartwright, which, with some amendments, became law.

This validated all marriages theretofore contracted between persons "not being under any canonical disqualification to contract matrimony," who publicly contracted before any magistrate or commanding officer of a post, or adjutant or surgeon of a regiment acting as chaplain," or any other

It seems to have been not unusual for a surgeon to tie the matrimonial knot, and it is not at all unlikely that the following instance accounts for the mention of them in the Act. James Mathew Hamilton, of the 5th Northumberland Regiment of Captain Foot, when stationed at Mackinac, married Louisa, daughter of Dr. David Mitchell, Surgeon-General to the Indian Department, who pertion in that part of the country. The young couple were afterwards, formed the ceremony, as there was no clergymen of any denominas er abundanti cautelâ, remarried in 1792 by the Rev. Robert Addison, at Niagara. The entry in the marriage registrar of St. Mark's

Church reads:

Mitchell, his wife. They had been married by some commanding officer or magistrate, and thought it more decent to have the first the register of St. Mark's Church, Niagara, when that church was repeated." The register was Mr. Addison's private book, but became opened in 1809. Captain and Mrs. Hamilton were friends of Lieutenant-Governor and Mrs. Simcoe.

August 1792, Captain James Hamilton to Louisa

person in any public office of employment." For the future

land in

and until there should be five parsons of the Church of Engany one district, a J.P. might solemnize the marriage, using the form of the Church of England. It was of course quite too much to expect in the then existing state of religious toleration that any parson or minister of any other church or sect should receive such authority. The Lieutenant-Governor, Simcoe, indeed wrote to Dundas expressing his astonish

ment that it had even been proposed to give such power to ministers of other denominations. At all events this proposition had to be abandoned. The Lieutenant-Governor did not like the Act which was passed, but public opinion was too strong for him and he assented to the Bill. Simcoe was most anxious for the establishment of the Church of England in Upper Canada, and bent all his energies toward that end.

The provisions of the bill were wholly unsatisfactory to many of the settlers. Some were Presbyterians who had come from Scotland, where their church was established and where Episcopalians were the dissenters; others were Lutherans whose church was established in parts of Germany. Many had come from the colonies to the south without an established church at all; not a few were members of the ancient Church of Rome, which had been the established Church in Canada till a few years before. None of these could see why their clergy were not quite as good as those of the Church of England. Petitions were signed and presented to the Lieutenant-Governor for a repeal of this marriage Act of

1793.

These he treated with lofty scorn. He said that he thought it proper to say that he looked upon the petition as the product of a wicked head and a disloyal heart; but at length in 1796 an Act was passed, 38 Geo. III. ch. 4, making it lawful for a minister or clergyman of any congregation or religious community professing to be members of the Church of Scotland, or Lutherans, or Calvinists, to celebrate the ceremony of marriage for members of their own congregation or religious community, upon the minister procuring a proper certificate from the Quarter Sessions. Similar marriages in the past were also validated. This was so little to the taste of the Lieutenant-Governor that he reserved the Bill for His Majesty's pleasure. The royal assent was given Dec. 29, 1798, and the Bill became law. This made the trouble if anything more acute. So long as one Church had the monopoly it was not so bad, but when four participated, all those who were excluded insistently demanded the reason why.

The agitation was at length successful. In 1830, by the Act of 11 Geo. IV., ch. 36, the power of celebrating marriages was given to clergymen and ministers of the Church of Scotland, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Independents, Methodists, Menonists, Tunkers or Moravians,