Congress with those parliament. main six other powers granted to Congress. The first, which is to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports and excises, is, as has already been pointed out, granted subject to certain restrictions which alone create any difficulty in its interpretation, and which have no parallel in the case of the Dominion parliament; the next is to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States and with the Indian tribes, which has been the subject of a multitude of legal decisions, but the interpretation of which can obviously throw little Powers of light on that of the far wider Dominion power to compared make laws in relation to the regulation of trade of minion and commerce, especially supplemented as the latter is by the other Dominion powers over navigation and shipping, banking, bankruptcy and insolvency, and other matters with which trade and commerce are mainly concerned. Then comes a power granted to Congress over post offices and post roads, upon the interpretation of which some doubt has arisen, which has not arisen in reference to the Dominion power over postal service, possibly because the latter is supplemented by the general residuary Dominion power already spoken of. The next power granted to Congress and not already noticed, namely, that of declaring war, granting letters of marque and reprisal, and making rules concerning captures on land and water, concerns matters in our case pertaining to the Imperial Government. There only remains the power granted to Congress to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such district (not exceed The conclu sion of the matter. ing ten miles square) as might become the seat of the Government of the United States, and over places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards and other needful buildings, and the power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. So that on the whole comparison, Taschereau, J., seems abundantly justified in saying, as he did in one case, that "the relative positions of the parliament of the Dominion of Canada, and the legislatures of the various provinces, are so entirely different from those of Congress and the legislatures of the several States, that all decisions from the United States Supreme Court,though certainly always entitled to great consideration, must be referred to here with great caution1;" and Fournier, J., in saying "if there be in many respects an analogy between the two countries, there is certainly none whatever in the mode adopted for the distribution of the legislative power2"; and Gwynne, J., in saying that "our Constitution, though of a federal nature, is totally different from that of the United States."3 14 S.C. R., at p. 299, I Cart., at p. 321. 2 Valin v. Langlois, 3 S.C.R., at p. 55, 1 Cart. at 193. In re Niagara Election Case, 29 C.P. at p. 274. THE LAW OF LEGISLATIVE POWER IN CANADA. PROPOSITIONS 1 AND 2. 1. The British North America Act is the sole charter by which the rights claimed by the Dominion and the Provinces respectively can be determined. 2. Although the British North America Act was founded upon the Quebec resolutions, and so must be accepted as a treaty of union between the provinces, yet when once enacted it constituted a wholly new point of departure, and established the Dominion and Provincial Governments with defined powers and duties, both alike derived from it as their source. constitu The former of the above propositions is taken One from the words of Gwynne, J., in Mercer v. The tional Attorney-General for Ontario, and is of great 1 15 S.C.R. at p. 675, 3 Cart. at p. 56-7, (1881). The learned judge speaks in a similar manner in City of Fredericton v. The Queen, 3 S.C R. at p. 563, 2 Cart. at p. 55, (1880). And so, also, in Venning v. Steadman, 9 S.C.R. at p. 224, (1884), Henry, J., says :-"The authority of the Dominion government and the Dominion parlia ment is, as I take it, altogether under the Confederation Act.” charter. |