systems tried in Ontario have produced the best results. If the position of municipal legislator is made sufficiently attractive, as to length of term and remuneration, to induce men to specially qualify themselves for the position, in other words, if the office of municipal legislator or manager becomes a special calling by itself, much better results will follow. On the legal profession, and on the legal profession almost alone, will devolve the responsibility of adopting the best system, and then working it out.

MUNICIPAL TAXATION.

Municipal taxation is about the only kind of taxation. people appear to feel or to which they give much attention in this country. Any system of taxation will not of itself reduce the amount of taxes paid by a community. From time to time different classes of the community endeavour to shift the burden of their taxes from themselves to some other class. In the end however the burden generally spreads itself out pretty evenly, because the class that is compelled to assume the heavier burden in the first instance, finds some way to indirectly collect it from others. Canada is a borrowing country, and the one important thing to keep in mind in adopting any system of taxation is to select one that is not distasteful to the lender. Municipal debentures are not in a very favourable position at present and efforts thus far to place our municipal debentures on the trustee list in England have been unavailing. The legal profession can understand and appreciate this and will no doubt use their efforts to guard against a disaster resulting from adopting business methods that are not agreeable to the lender.

No apology is offered for referring to these matters which are away from common every day routine of practice, because the lawyer's field spreads far beyond the boundaries of litigation.

To him the Parliament, the Legislature, the Municipal Council and the School Board, look for guidance. Few legislative reforms, great or small, have come to us but from the lawyer. When trouble arises in the family, in the municipality or in the state, they all instinctively turn to the lawyer. Therefore a heavy responsibility falls upon him and he will undoubtedly have more to do with the above proposals than any other class in the community.

DIVORCE AND BANKRUPTCY.

The outstanding features of this meeting will be Divorce and Bankruptcy. That is you will be asked to consider two conditions of failure, one domestic and the other financial. The lawyer from his calling is brought in contact with these matters more than any other class in the community, and naturally should be better able to suggest remedies. Failure in either of these directions is to be deeply deplored, and if the failure can be made less disastrous by legislation it should be. In the matter of divorce we have already provided a remedy, but unfortunately it is so expensive that to adopt it will in many cases produce the other failure, bankruptcy, thereby inflicting both failures upon the unhappy individual.

THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL.

The growing popularity of the Hague Tribunal is gratifying, not only to the lawyer, but to the world at large. While it benefits the lawyer by providing another tribunal in which he may practice, it also benefits the people as a whole to a greater extent. It is expensive of course, but its expense is infinitesimal as compared with the cost of war. Just as ordinary litigation is expensive, though the cost is trifling as compared with the disaster that followed when people settled their disputes by resort to brute force. The peaceful methods of the lawyer will go on, till the ruffianism of war between two countries will be no more tolerated than the ruffianism of a fight between two individuals upon our streets, when the only war will be between the police soldiers of a united civilization against the barbarous and direlict peoples of the uncivilized portions of the world, and finally the civilized methods of obedience to the rule of law will triumph throughout the world and the lawyers' elysium will be realized.

"When the war drum beats no longer,

When the battle flag is furled

In the Parliament of man,

The Federation of the World."

SOME EARLY LEGISLATION AND LEGISLATORS IN UPPER CANADA.

BY THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE RIDDELL, L.H.D., LL.D.

It is a matter of regret that the early statutes of Upper Canada are not available for the ordinary practitioner; they are full of interest from a historical point of view and otherwise.

Of course, it is well known that at the time of the conquest of Quebec-and consequently of Canada-in 1759 and 1760, what was afterwards Upper Canada, was not settled. Accordingly, the proclamation of 1763 which introduced or purported to introduce the English law, civil and criminal, into Canada, did not practically affect that district. The Quebec Act of 1774, 14 Geo. III., ch. 83, did, however; for, before it was repealed, Upper Canada had a considerable number of inhabitants, chiefly from the revolting colonies to the south. This Act reintroduced the French civil law, although it left the English criminal law in full force. Much discontent was manifested by the English-speaking colonists of Upper Canada at being subjected to French law; and when the Act of 1791, 31 Geo. III., ch. 31, made Upper Canada a separate province, her first Parliament abolished the old Canadian or French law, and introduced the law of England for the decision of all matters of controversy relative to property and civil rights, and also introduced the English rules of evidence. This is found in the very first chapter of the statute of the first session of the first Parliament for Upper Canada.

The second chapter established trial by jury in all actions, real, personal, and mixed, and authorized the jury, if so minded, to bring in a special verdict. In the French system the jury had no place; and the French-Canadian did not hesitate to express his wonder that the English should think their property safer in the determination of tailors and shoemakers than in that of their Judges.

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The third chapter established the Winchester measure, one just beam or balance, one certain weight and measure, and one yard, according to the standard of His Majesty's Exchequer in England." The lineal and superficial measures. were the same then as now, but the gallon, etc., somewhat

smaller, being the same as those still used in the United States.

Chapter 6 made a Court for small debts, the ancestor of the present Division Court. It authorized any two or more Justices of the Peace to sit and hold a Court, to be called a Court of Requests, on the first and third Saturday in every month, to try any claim not exceeding 40 shillings, Quebec currency. This was what was also known as Halifax or Provincial currency, a shilling equalled 20 cents. These Courts remained practically unchanged till 1833-their jurisdiction was extended in 1797, by 37 Geo. III., ch. 6, and in 1816 by 56 Geo. III., ch. 5-but in 1833, by 3 Wm. IV., ch. 1, it was provided that Commissioners should be appointed by the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor to sit and hold the Court of Requests. This Act after being amended in 1837 by 7 Wm. IV., was itself repealed in 1841, by 4 & 5 Vict., ch. 3, which provided for Division Courts to be presided over by the Judge of the District Court of the district in which the Division Court was situated. This introduced substantially the present system. We shall have occasion to consider the District . Court again.

Chapter 7 regulated the tolls to be taken in flour mills. by fixing them at not more than one-twelfth. This has come down unchanged to the present time, R. S. O. (1897), ch. 140, sec. 1.

Chapter 8 provided for a gaol and court-house in every district. Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Canada, had, 27th July, 1788, by proclamation, divided what afterwards became Upper Canada, into four districts, Lunenburgh, Mecklenburgh, Nassau and Hesse. The Upper Canada Act, we are now considering, changed the names to Eastern, Midland, Home and Western, and directed that the gaols and courthouses should be placed in New Johnstown (Cornwall), Kingston, Newark (now Niagara), and for the Western district "as near to the present court-house, as conveniently may be."

In 1816, the gaol and court-house for the Home district, was directed to be erected at York (now Toronto), 56 Geo. III., ch. 18.

We shall meet these districts again, and pass over them for the time being.

Chapter 4, abolishing the summary proceedings in the Court of Common Pleas in actions under £10 sterling, and

chapter 5, providing for the appointment of firemen, we also pass over.

The above constitutes the legislation of the first Parliament of Upper Canada during its first session at Newark beginning Monday, September 17th, and ending Monday, October 15th, 1792.

But there were other matters of great interest at this session.

On the 19th September, the Secretary of the Province presented for the consideration of the House, a signed and sealed instrument delivered to him by Philip Dorland, of Adolphustown, in the county of Lennox. This recited a "Certain writ under the great seal of this Province of Upper Canada . . . directed to the returning officer of the county of Prince Edward and district of the township of Adolphustown" requiring him "to send one knight girt with a sword, the most fit and discreet to represent the said county;" also an election by the freeholders, of Philip Dorland; that he, Philip Dorland, being "one of the persons commonly called Quakers," could not take the oath prescribed for members of the House, but he would make a declaration to the same effect. He then asked that if he could not sit without the oath, a new writ might issue. The House ordered a new writ to issue, as Dorland "was incompetent to sit or vote in the House without having taken and subscribed the oath set forth in the Act of Parliament."

On Saturday, September 29th, Mr. Colin McNabb, as preventative officer, was "ordered to attend at the Bar of the House to give information respecting the contrabrand traffic carried on in this district, as far as the same has come within his knowledge."

It is time, now, that we enquire into the personnel of the Legislature. Much of my information as to these I owe to two papers by C. C. James, Esq., M.A., LL.D., C.M.G., contributed to the Royal Society of Canada, in 1902 and 1903, and being vol. 8, sec. 2, pp. 93 sqq., and vol. 9, sec. 2, pp. 145 sqq., respectively.

We may disregard Lord Dorchester, the celebrated Sir Guy Carleton, who was Governor-General of Canada-but Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe, the LieutenantGovernor, is not negligible, for it is certain that he took a personal interest in much of the legislation.