the members of the Protestant denominations had no interest in or control over the schools of the Roman Catholics. There were no public schools in the sense of state schools. The members of the Roman Catholic Church supported the schools of their own Church for the benefit of the Roman Catholic children and were not under obligation to and did not contribute to the support of any other schools.' Now, if the state of things which the archbishop describes as existing before the Union had been a system established by law, what would have been the rights and privileges of the Roman Catholics with respect to denominational schools? They would have had by law the right to establish schools at their own expense, to maintain their schools by school fees or voluntary contributions, and to conduct them in accordance with their own religious tenets. Every other religious body which was engaged in a similar work at the time of the Union would have had precisely the same right with respect to their denominational schools. Possibly this right, if it had been defined or recognized by positive enactment, might have had attached to it, as a necessary or appropriate incident, the right of exemption from any contribution under any circumstances to schools of a different denomination. But, in their Lordships' opinion, it would be going much too far to hold that the establishment of a national system of education upon an unsectarian basis is so inconsistent with the right to set up and maintain denominational schools that the two things cannot exist together, or that the existence of the one necessarily implies or involves immunity from taxation for the purpose of the other. It has been objected that if the rights of Roman Catholics, and of other religious bodies, in respect of their denominational schools, are to be so strictly measured and limited by the practice which actually prevailed at the time of the Union, they will be reduced to the condition of a 'natural right' which does not want any legislation to protect it.' Such a right, it was said, cannot be called a privilege in any proper sense of the word. If that be so, the only result is that the protection which the Act purports to extend to rights and privileges existing by practice' has no more operation than the protection which it purports to afford to rights and privileges existing by law.'

It can hardly be contended that, in order to give a sub

stantial operation and effect to a saving clause expressed in general terms, it is incumbent upon the court to discover privileges which are not apparent of themselves, or to ascribe distinctive and peculiar features to rights which seem to be of such a common type as not to deserve special notice or require special protection.

"Manitoba having been constituted a province of the Dominion in 1870, the provincial legislature lost no time in dealing with the question of education. In 1871 a law was passed which established a system of denominational education in the common schools, as they were then called. A board of education was formed, which was to be divided into two sections, Protestant and Roman Catholic. Each section was to have under its control and management the discipline of the schools of the section. Under the Manitoba Act the province had been divided into twenty-four electoral divisions, for the purpose of electing members to serve in the Legislative Assembly. By the Act of 1871 each electoral division was constituted a school district, in the first instance. Twelve electoral divisions, 'comprising mainly a Protestant population,' were to be considered Protestant school districts; twelve, comprising mainly a Roman Catholic population,' were to be considered Roman Catholic school districts. Without the special sanction of the section there was not to be more than one school in any school district. The male inhabitants of each school district, assembled at an annual meeting, were to decide in what manner they should raise their contributions towards the support of the school, in addition to what was derived from public funds. It is, perhaps, not out of place to observe that one of the modes prescribed was assessment on the property of the school district,' which must have involved, in some cases at any rate, an assessment on Roman Catholics for the support of a Protestant school, and an assessment on Protestants for the support of a Roman Catholic school. In the event of an assessment there was no provision for exception, except in the case of the father or guardian of a school child-a Protestant in a Roman Catholic school district or a Roman Catholic in a Protestant school district-who might escape by sending the child to the school of the nearest district of the other section and contributing to it an amount equal to what he would

have paid if he had belonged to that district. The laws relating to education were modified from time to time, but the system of denominational education was maintained in full vigor until 1890. An Act passed in 1881, following an Act of 1875, provided among other things that the establishment of a school district of one denomination should not prevent the establishment of a school district of the other denomination in the same place, and that a Protestant and a Roman Catholic district might include the same territory in whole or in part. From the year 1876 until 1890 enactments were in force declaring that in no case should a Protestant ratepayer be obliged to pay for a Roman Catholic school or a Roman Catholic ratepayer for a Protestant school. In 1890 the policy of the last nineteen years was reversed, and the denominational system of public education was entirely swept away. Two Acts in relation to education were passed. The first (53 Vic. c. 37) established a department of education aud a board consisting of seven members, known as the 'Advisory Board.' Four members of the board were to be appointed by the department of education, two were to be elected by the public and high school teachers, and the seventh member was to be appointed by the University Council. One of the powers of the Advisory Board was to prescribe the forms of religious exercises to be used in the schools. The Public Schools Act, 1890 (53 Vic. c. 38), enacted that all Protestant and Roman Catholic school districts should be subjected to the provisions of the Act, and that all public schools should be free schools. The provisions of the Act with regard to religious exercises are as follows:-(6) Religious exercises in the public schools shall be conducted according to the regulations of the Advisory Board. The time for such religious exercises shall be just before the closing hour in the afternoon. In case the parent or guardian of any pupil notifies the teacher that he does not wish such pupil to attend such religious exercises, then such pupil shall be dismissed before such religious exercises shall take place. (7) Religious exercises shall be held in a public school entirely at the option of the school trustees for the district, and, upon receiving authority from the trustees, it shall be the duty of the teachers to hold such religious exercises. (8) The public schools shall be entirely non-sectarian, and no religious exercises shall be

allowed therein except as above provided.' The Act then provides for the formation, alteration, and union of school districts, for the election of school trustees, and for levying a rate on the taxable property in each school district for school purposes. In cities the municipal council is required to levy and collect upon the taxable property within the municipality such sums as the school trustees may require for school purposes. A portion of the legislative grant for educational purposes is allotted to public schools; but it is provided that any school not conducted according to all the provisions of the Act, or any Act in force for the time being, or the regulations of the Department of Education, or the Advisory Board, shall not be deemed a public school within the meaning of the law and shall not participate in the legislative grant. Section 141 provides that no teacher shall use or permit to be used as text books any books except such as are authorised by the Advisory Board, and that no portion of the legislative grant shall be paid to any school in which unauthorised books are used. Then there are two sections (178 and 179) which call for a passing notice, because, owing apparently to some misapprehension, they are spoken of in one of the judgments under appeal as if their effect was to confiscate Roman Catholic property. They apply to cases where the same territory was covered by a Protestant school district and by a Roman Catholic school district. In such a case Roman Catholics were really placed in a better position than Protestants. Certain exemptions were to be made in their favor if the assets of their district exceeded its liabilities, or if the liabilities of the Protestant school district exceeded its assets. But no corresponding exemptions were to be made in the case of Protestants.

"Such being the main provisions of the Public Schools Act, 1890, their Lordships have to determine whether that Act prejudicially affects any right or privilege with respect to denominational schools which any class of persons had by law or practice in the province at the Union. Notwithstanding the Public Schools Act, 1890, Roman Catholics and members of every other ̧ religious body in Manitoba are free to establish schools throughout the province; they are free to maintain their schools by school fees or voluntary subscriptions; they are free to conduct their schools according to their own religious tenets without molestation or interference.

No child is compelled to attend a public school. No special advantage other than the advantage of a free education in schools conducted under public management is held out to those who do attend. But then it is said that it is impossible for Roman Catholics or for members of the Church of England (if their views are correctly represented by the bishop of Rupert's Land, who has given evidence in Logan's case) to send their children to public schools where the education is not superintended and directed by the authorities of their church, and that therefore Roman Catholics and members of the Church of England who are taxed for public schools, and at the same time feel themselves compelled to support their own schools, are in a less favourable position than those who can take advantrge of the free education provided by the Act of 1890. That may be so. But what right or privilege is violated or prejudicially affected by the law? It is not the law that is in fault; it is owing to religious convictions, which everybody must respect, and to the teaching of their church, that Roman Catholics and the members of the Church of England find themselves unable to partake of advantages which the law offers to all alike.

"Their Lordships are sensible of the weight which must. attach to the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court. They have anxiously considered the able and elaborate judgments by which that decision has been supported. But they are unable to agree with the opinion which the learned Judges of the Supreme Court have expressed as to the rights and privileges of Roman Catholics in Manitoba at the time of the Union. They doubt whether it is permissible to refer to the course of legislation between 1871 and 1890, as a means of throwing light on the previous practice or on the construction of the saving clause in the Manitoba Act. They cannot assent to the view, which seems to be indicated by one of the members of the Supreme Court, that public schools under the Act of 1890 are in reality Protestant schools. The legislature has declared in so many words that the public schools shall be entirely unsectarian, and that is carried out throughout the Act."

In a sense this decision has no reference to the other provinces or to the North-West Territories. So far as Manitoba alone is concerned, it decisively disposes of the ques