will be in consonance with the better of May and November; and during those opinions of the age,-which are somewhat periods of the year it was quite possible, different in various countries, according with almost equal facility, to have transto the influence of those who own capital. In England, it is very well known, the treatment of operatives is very much more liberal and generous than in the past, but in the United States the law is far more in favor of the proprietor or the capitalist. I trust that we shall base our law upon the one that is most humane in protecting the operatives, as far as we fairly can.

ported them from the sea-board to the North-West, by utilizing the waters of Lake Superior, and thus avoiding, for the present at all events, the construction of the most expensive part of the railway, so far as length is concerned that part between Port Arthur and Algoma Mills. I think, myself, that if speed in the construction is to be attended with very great cost, it is a very doubtful policy; however, it is premature to pronounce any opinions upon what the Government proposes, as they did not on the present occasion take Parliament into their confidence, and say what they think are the best means of preventing that delay.

The next paragraph has reference to the rapid progress of the Canadian Pacific Railway and it is probably the most important paragraph in the Address, inasmuch as the paragraph concludes with the statement that we shall be called upon to consider some of the best means for com- We are glad to hear, no doubt, that the pleting the railway at an early day. There Intercolonial Railway had, in connection are those, and they embrace a very con- with other railroads, during the past year, siderable number of the people of this received an increase to its traffic. We are country, who believe that speed in the told, also, as a matter of glorification, that completing of that railway was not such the surplus exceeds that of any previous an important factor as to necessitate a year, and are, as a consequence, led to premium being paid to the company for its assume that we ought to be extremely construction at an earlier date than was at thankful to the Government for giving us first arranged. When the terms of the that surplus. Now, I have always underpresent agreement were made, it was stood that it was not considered the very believed that if the contract were fairly best statesmanship to be accumulating surcarried out and the road completed within pluses. This surplus simply means so the time then fixed, the company would much taken out of the pockets of the peodo remarkably well; that it was a gigantic ple, it means additional taxes for the peotask and could not be finished in less time ple, it means raids upon the accumulated than that stated in the contract. I observe amounts in the treasury,-demands_for now that it is proposed to complete it in public works which are represented as very much less time; that we are to have being in the public interest, but which we the railway, if money will build it, com- afterwards find had very much better been pleted within the next two years. This left alone. In the United States they have question is one that should, I think, had surpluses, and it is one of the importcommand the consideration of the ant enquiries at the present moment how people of this country-whether it is to reduce that surplus, how to bring it wise to pay a large additional sum, simply down to the actual expenditure of the for the early completion of the line. There country. It is not considered wise or are many who believe also that, as the traffic of the North-West is really limited to seven months in the year, it might have answered very well if our communication with the North-West were through one of the great water-ways, by steamers via Lake Superior, up to the expiration of the time in which the railway was to be completed. Certainly, so far as immigration is concerned (which is no doubt an important element to be considered) immigrants reach our shores only between the months

prudent statesmanship to have a surplus, more particularly one acquired as ours has been-by imposing a high tariff upon the people. One can easily measure what it is by taking the taxes that have been paid in the last three years, and comparing. them with what was received in the three preceding years, which amounts to a very considerable sum. The imports increased, but the taxes increased even in a greater proportion; the duties in many instancesespecially the duties of Customs-doubled,

come.

and therefore this large increase which we tant, and no doubt our dairy produce and call a surplus is nothing more than the our cattle trade will and must increase increased amount which has been taken year by year. I very much doubt, howfrom the laborers of Canada. It would ever, whether the sale of cereals will go have been possible, during the time of de-on and increase at the rate that it did up pression in 1875-6-7-8 to have made the to the year preceding the present one. people of this country contribute a larger Then again it must be remembered that sum to the revenue, but we should have one great source of prosperity during the driven them into open rebellion if we had years I have quoted-1881-2-and of adopted such a policy. The only justifi- which hon. gentlemen got the benefit, cation that the Government of that day was due to the fact that our lumber had had was that we kept the taxes down, and largely increased in value, that during the enabled the people to live as cheaply as time of depression the people had ceased possible. We were expending considerable to build houses, and railways had ceased sums of money on capital account, but to be constructed, so that lumber had this helped to benefit the people, because gone out of demand. With the improved it was undertaken with foreign capital, times the lumber market went up and bewhich we employed in building the Wel- came enormously inflated, a great portion land Canal and the St Lawrence Canal, of our wealth being due entirely to the inas well as expenditure upon the Inter- creased value and large additional quantity colonial, all of which was of material ser- of lumber which we were enabled to sell vice to the people. It is idle for anybody abroad. Do hon. gentlemen suppose, to say now that putting the tariff up in from the outlook in the United States, 1876-7 would have brought a change of that this is to continue? Do they suppose times earlier than it otherwise would have that we are likely to sell in the next three years the same quantity that we have in the past? I doubt it very much, and I will tell you why I do ibt it. One of the great sources of the distribution of money through the United States has been the enormous railway mileage that has been constructed. In 1882 no less than 12,000 miles were constructed,—I have forgotten the figures for 1881, but they were very large, but in 1883 the mileage fell off to 6,000 miles. What does that mean? An hon. Senator shakes his head, but I think I can shew very good authority for it. I can shew that the Northern Pacific, and other long lines of railway in the United States are practically finished, and that railway construction in that country cannot go on in the ordinary course of events with the same expansion as during the past three years. As a consequence we will feel the effect of it in our exports of lumber and of cereals, which will decrease, and we have nothing to substitute to the same extent, in point of value, for those two articles. Will hon. gentlemen pretend to say that it will not affect this country very seriously, and will they say that the people of this country can go on paying the high taxes they are now paying? I think not. I do not think it requires a very prophetic vision to say that they will make short work of any

That change was due to causes that were entirely outside of Canada, and wholly uncontrolled by any administration, whether Reform or Conservative. Therefore I am one of those who question the wisdom or propriety of a surplus which has been obtained by taxing the people. I do not wish to be a bird of ill-omen, but one cannot loose sight of the fact that a change is coming over the trade of this country. We know very well that the wheat crop of this country is shorter than usual, but in former years when there was a shortage in the quantity of wheat there was an increase of price, and the farmer got the benefit in one way or other; but to-day he has a reduced quantity and also reduced value for that quantity and what is that owing to? To the fact that there are other competitors in the world than those on this continent-Canada and the United States. The people of Western Europe, India, South America and Australia are now sharing the field with us, and it is a very grave question to see the trade of this country in cereals not keeping up to the past. If that is so, the most important export will necessarily go down, but I believe other exports of the farm will go up. I believe our capacity for feeding cattle is a very large one; our great adaptability as a dairy country is most impor

Government that keeps the tariff up gentleman explain how the people can among the thirties or forties or fifties, on pay more if they do not earn more? articles required by the masses; the mere fact of our having manufactories in Canada that can make those articles for us is no advantage to the people, because the price is put up by the manufacturer to the level of the tariff. The manufacturer would be a fool if he did not do so. His object is to make the most money he can and to take the advice of the Government and put on all sail while the fiscal policy lasts. It is quite evident that the con sumer must pay to the manufacturer the cost of the article plus the addditional sum that he is enabled to charge through the tariff. It is so in all cases. It can not be otherwise. You do not suppose that manufacturers are specially patriotic, or that they make their goods simply to sell to Canadians! They do sell to Canadians if the Canadians will pay their prices, and their price is just the price that they can get for it.

HON. SIR ALEX. CAMPBELL-Do they not compete amongst themselves?

HON. MR. SCOTT-They do compete amongst themselves, but they all keep up to the level of the value of the article plus the tariff, otherwise we would not have anything brought in from abroad. I ask the hon. gentleman to say whether the import of cottons has continued in this country since manufactories for cotton have been established in this country? If he consults the Trade and Navigation Returns he will find that we have been importing more cotton during the three years that the cotton manufactories have been in existence in Canada than we did the three preceding years.

HON. MR. SCOTT-I have endeavored to show that when the inflation came in 1879 we had added some 65 or 70 millions of dollars to our wealth from the raw products of Canada; that the people of the United States and England were enabled to purchase from us our products-the products of the farm, the forest, the fisheries and the mines-not the products of the manutacturers; they never moved out of the four millions that have been quoted from year to year. If the hon. gentleman looks at the Trade and Navigation Returns he will not find at any time that there has been an excess of manufactures over the four millions. While the whole volume of trade has moved from seventy millions to over one hundred millions, he will find that that particular item has remained stationary. No sort of stimulus will enable us to make cotton either in quantity or cheapness that will induce people abroad to purchase from us; therefore our ability to pay this increased burden is due entirely to the sale abroad of our natural products. And the reason is not hard to find. You have only to look at the trade year by year in this country in the special items to which I have directed the attention of the House. But it is a large subject, and it may need an apology for somewhat digressing, though I could not afford to allow the first or second paragraph of the Address to go wholly unchallenged, in which the Government assume that we are to be congrutulated on our prosperity. Canada would be at all times a prosperous country if she were not unduly oppressed through tariff laws. We can stand the squeeze probably better than almost any other country in the world, but I

HON. MR. MASSON-The people are hope that squeeze will be at some remote richer and better able to buy.

distance; still the Government themselves have called attention to the fact that there is a disturbance in the trade of this country. I have called attention, from my standpoint, to where that disturbance owes its origin; I have pointed out that that disturbance is much more serious than the Government are inclined to imagine when I have shown to this House the increased number of failures, treble in amount in two years (a very large increase) and when HON. MR. MASSON-Will the hon. I have called attention to the shrinkage in

HON. MR. SCOTT-Where does the wealth come from? Is it from the manufacturer ? Will the hon. gentleman tell me that the fact of having manufactories at Cornwall, and at Valleyfield, and at other points is benefitting the great bulk of the people in this country? No, it is not even a "fly on the wheel."

the value of stocks which in former times, ation. We who have had the happiness at all events, we were accustomed to con- of knowing him are aware that he was sider in some degree as the barometer always incorruptible and immovable as of trade. The Government of Mr. those old rocks which cannot be stirred Mackenzie was abused because peo- and from which the moss is never removed. ple were failing in 1876-78, and when I have, then, the pleasant hope that the stocks went down in value the Gov- present senator for De Lorimier will ernment were told that they were respon- always follow the right path in his new sible, and they were told that if they form career as I am bound to believe he has ulated some policy, or passed some Act of followed it in the past. The Government Parliament that they could remove this has had ample time to make its choice terrible incubus. The incubus that hung and it has certainly chosen a man of over the country then was in no sense due talent. to the Canadian people, nor was it removed by the Canadian people in any other way than through their own industry. It was removed by the current of trade setting in in other countries, when they were enabled to buy our products, and it requires no great argument to prove that that is a correct and sound conclusion.

HON. MR. ARMAND (in French) In participating in the debate on the Address in reply to the Speech from the Throne, I wish to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. I congratulate the Goverment on the choice which they have made of our new colleagues; I do not know the hon. gentlemen from the sister provinces, but if I may judge by analogy, by those who come from my own province, the choice of them is wise and judicious.

As for the hon. gentleman who represents the division of Laurentides, a French Canadian district, he belongs to one of those nationalities speaking the English language. Although already in the decline of life, he is new born, so to speak, to a public career. His great aptitude for commerce and finance contribute to make him a valuable acquisition to the Senate. No one can say of him that he does not represent property. If I can believe rumour, he is more than a millionaire.

As for the hon. Senator for the division of De Lorimier, he is also new born to public life in the Parliament of the confederation. His great aptitude for law entitles him to be considered as one of the first members of the bar of the commercial metropolis of the Dominion. He is a son of that illustrious old man who was for a considerable time among us as our colleague under the old union of the Canadas and under the present confeder

But I think that under the elective system the electors would have required less time to make a selection, and I believe that they will say, with their hands upon their hearts, that they could not have done better to gain the sympathies of the present Secretary of State. If I can believe rumor, this gentleman had another candidate in view. If such is the fact, this hon. gentleman has furnished evidence that he does not know how to appreciate men, and that he has not at heart the interests and the dignity of his Province.

Now, hon. gentlemen, in view of the rapid construction of our Pacific Railway, which is being built as if by enchantment

But no;

a road which, according to many journalists, and also our neighbors, would certainly involve us in ruin-in view of these numerous means of communication and facilities for traffic by land as well as by water, communications which are the surest indications of the prosperity of the country-in view of the millions which have been granted as bonuses, I, for one, would be happy if I had only congratulations to offer the Government. as the adage goes, "There is no spot in the heavens without a cloud." To use a French and maritime expression, I perceive on the horizon of my country a speck which menaces the existence of what is dear to all of us, the constitutional usage of giving to my Province in this honorable House an adviser to the representative of our august, of our gracious and well beloved sovereign--to the representative of Her who presides so worthily over the destinies of Albion-the Empress of India. I perceive, besides, the violation of the British North America Act, as was shown by the hon, senator from DeLanaudiere and also by the hon. senator from De Salaberry and many other hon. gentle