TO THE

HON. SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD, K.C.B., M.P.

MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND

FIRST MINISTER OF THE CROWN IN CANADA

&c. &c.

AND

TO THE MEMORY

OF

Thomas D'Arcy M'Gee

STATESMEN

WHO HAVE BEEN PRE-EMINENTLY DISTINGUISHED

FOR THEIR ABLE ADVOCACY OF

BRITISH CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES IN THE DOMINION OF CANADA

This Volume is Inscribed.

PREFACE.

AFTER AN INTERVAL of two years from the issue of the first part of this treatise, I am at length enabled to lay before the public the concluding volume. The delay has been unavoidable. It was partly owing to the prior claims of official duty, and partly to the variety of topics embraced in the latter portion of the work which demanded the most careful investigation and research.

The publication of the earlier volume was, in fact, undertaken sooner than I had originally contemplated, from a desire to place it in the hands of prominent public men in Canada before the constitution of the new Dominion should be enforced, trusting that it might be helpful in the settlement of various political questions which were likely to arise at that juncture. In order to accomplish this, I was obliged to change the plan of my work, to the detriment, in some measure, of its appropriate order and sequence. The history and development of the king's councils, and the interior working of the Cabinet, ought properly to have followed my exposition of the kingly office; and such had been my first design. But as these chapters were not sufficiently advanced to admit of their insertion in the first volume, I preferred

to omit them from their proper place, rather than postpone the publication. I mention this, as it will explain what might otherwise be regarded as a defect in the work itself. Be this, however, as it may, the additional time afforded for the completion of the work has enabled me to bring down my narrative of constitutional history and practice to the present day, when we are about to enter upon a new and important era in our political history.

As I have associated the name of the late Thomas D'Arcy McGee, in the dedication of this volume, with that of one of the most eminent statesmen now living in Canada, I may be permitted to mention that by his lamented and untimely decease I have lost a friend who took the warmest interest in the progress of this work from its very commencement, and who welcomed the publication of the previous volume by a most kindly notice in a London journal. After a large experience in political life, at the beginning of which he evinced a decided preference for a republican form of government, Mr. McGee acquired, in maturer years, a profound admiration for the British Constitution. With the enthusiasm of his poetical temperament, as well as with the sagacity of a practical statesman, he loved to speak of its great and varied excellences, and especially to dwell upon the benefits resulting from the monarchical principle as the true foundation of all stable government. Had he lived, it was his purpose to have delivered a course of lectures thereon in the chief towns of Canada. I should have gladly assisted him in this good work, to the best of my

See his letter, signed M. P. P., in the Canadian News of March 14,