Part 124

"The Federal Constitution of the Dominion of Canada is contained in the British North America Act, 1867, a statute of the British Parliament (30 Vict., c. 3). I note a few of the many points in which it deserves to be compared with that of the United States. The Federal or Dominion Government is conducted on the so-called 'Cabinet system' of England, i. e., the Ministry sit in Parliament, and hold office at the pleasure of the House of Commons. The Governor-General [appointed by the Crown] is in the position of an irresponsible and permanent executive similar to that of the Crown of Great Britain, acting on the advice of responsible ministers. {385} He can dissolve Parliament. The Upper House or Senate, is composed of 78 persons, nominated for life by the Governor-General, i. e., the Ministry. The House of Commons has at present 210 members, who are elected for five years. Both senators and members receive salaries. The Senate has very little power or influence. The Governor-General has a veto but rarely exercises it, and may reserve a bill for the Queen's pleasure. The judges, not only of the Federal or Dominion Courts, but also of the provinces, are appointed by the Crown, i. e., by the Dominion Ministry, and hold for good behaviour. Each of the Provinces, at present [1888] seven in number, has a legislature of its own, which, however, consists in Ontario, British Columbia, and Manitoba, of one House only, and a Lieutenant-Governor, with a right of veto on the acts of the legislature, which he seldom exercises. Members of the Dominion Parliament cannot sit in a Provincial legislature. The Governor-General has a right of disallowing acts of a Provincial legislature, and sometimes exerts it, especially when a legislature is deemed to have exceeded its constitutional competence. In each of the Provinces there is a responsible Ministry, working on the Cabinet system of England. The distribution of matters within the competence of the Dominion Parliament and of the Provincial legislatures respectively, bears a general resemblance to that existing in the United States; but there is this remarkable distinction, that whereas in the United States, Congress has only the powers actually granted to it, the State legislatures retaining all such powers as have not been taken from them, the Dominion Parliament has a general power of legislation, restricted only by the grant of certain specific and exclusive powers to the Provincial legislatures. Criminal law is reserved for the Dominion Parliament; and no Province has the right to maintain a military force. Questions as to the constitutionality of a statute, whether of the Dominion Parliament or of a Provincial legislature, come before the courts in the ordinary way, and if appealed, before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England. The Constitution of the Dominion was never submitted to a popular vote, and can be altered only by the British Parliament, except as regards certain points left to its own legislature. … There exists no power of amending the Provincial constitutions by popular vote similar to that which the peoples of the several States exercise in the United States."

_J. Bryce, The American Commonwealth, volume 1, appendix., note (B) to chapter 80._

See CONSTITUTION OF CANADA.

ALSO IN: _J. E. C. Munro, The Constitution of Canada (with text of Act in appendix) Parl. Debate on Confederation, 3d Sess., 8th Prov. Parliament of Canada._

_W. Houston, Docs. Illustrative of the Canadian Constitution, pages 186-224._

CANADA: A. D. 1869-1873. Acquisition of the Hudson's Bay Territory. Admission or Manitoba, British Columbia and Prince Edward's Island to the Dominion.

"In 1869 … the Dominion was enlarged by the acquisition of the famous Hudson's Bay Territory. When the charter of the Hudson's Bay Company expired in 1869, Lord Granville, then Colonial Secretary, proposed that the chief part of the Company's territories should be transferred to the Dominion for £300,000; and the proposition was agreed to on both sides. The Hudson's Bay Charter dated from the reign of Charles II. The region to which it referred carries some of its history imprinted in its names. Prince Rupert was at the head of the association incorporated by the Charter into the Hudson's Bay Company. The name of Rupert's Land perpetuates his memory. … The Hudson's Bay Company obtained from King Charles, by virtue of the Charter in 1670, the sole and absolute government of the vast watershed of Hudson's Bay, the Rupert's Land of the Charter, on condition of paying yearly to the King and his successors 'two elks and two black beavers,' 'whensoever and all often as we, our heirs and successors, shall happen to enter into the said countries, territories and regions.' The Hudson's Bay Company was opposed by the North West Fur Company in 1788, which fought them for a long time with Indians and law, with the tomahawk of the red man and the legal judgment of a Romilly or a Keating. In 1812 Lord Selkirk founded the Red River Company. This interloper on the battle field was harassed by the North West Company, and it was not until 1821, when the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies—impoverished by their long warfare-amalgamated their interests, that the Red River settlers were able to reap their harvests in peace, disturbed only by occasional plagues of locusts and blackbirds. In 1885, on Lord Selkirk's death, the Hudson's Bay Company bought the settlement from his executors. It had been under their sway before that, having been committed to their care by Lord Selkirk during his lifetime. The privilege of exclusive trading east of the Rocky Mountains was conferred by Royal license for twenty-one years in May 1888, and some ten years later the Company received a grant of Vancouver's Island for the term of ten years from 1849 to 1859. The Hudson's Bay Company were always careful to foster the idea that their territory was chiefly wilderness, and discountenanced the reports of its fertility and fitness for colonisation which were from time to time brought to the ears of the English Government. In 1857, at the instance of Mr. Labouchere, a Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to enquire into the state of the British possessions under the Company's administration. Various Government expeditions, and the publication of many Blue Books, enlightened the public mind as to the real nature of those tracts of land which the council from the Fenchurch Street house declared to be so desolate. … During the sittings of the Committee there was cited in evidence a petition from 575 Red River settlers to the Legislative Assembly of Canada demanding British protection. This appeal was a proceeding curiously at variance with the later action of the settlement. When in 1869 the chief part of the territories was transferred to Canada, on the proposition of Earl Granville, the Red River country rose in rebellion, and refused to receive the new Governor. Louis Riel, the insurgent chief, seized on Fort Garry and the Company's treasury, and proclaimed the independence of the settlement. Sir Garnet, then Colonel, Wolseley, was sent in command of an expedition which reached Fort Garry on August 28, when the insurgents submitted without resistance, and the district received the name of Manitoba."

_J. McCarthy, History of our own Times, chapter 55 (volume 4)._

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Manitoba and the Northwest Territories were admitted to the Dominion Confederation May 12, 1870; British Columbia, July 20, 1871; Prince Edward Island, July 1, 1873.

_J. McCoun, Manitoba and the Great North West._

ALSO IN: _G. M. Adam, The Canadian Northwest, chapters 1-13_

_G. L. Huyshe, The Red River Expedition._

_W. P. Greswell, History of the Dominion of Canada, page 313._

_J. E. C. Munro, The Constitution of Canada, chapter 2._

_G. E. Ellis, The Hudson Bay Company (Narrative and Critical History of America, volume 8)._

See, also, BRITISH COLUMBIA: A. D. 1858-1871, and NORTHWEST TERRITORIES of CANADA.

CANADA: A. D. 1871. The Treaty of Washington.

See ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1871.

CANADA: A. D. 1877. The Halifax Fishery Award.

See FISHERIES, NORTH AMERICAN: A. D. 1877-1888.

CANADA: A. D. 1885-1888. Termination of the Fishery articles of the Treaty of Washington. Renewed controversies. The rejected Treaty.

See FISHERIES, NORTH AMERICAN: A. D. 1877-1888.

CANAI, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.

CANARES, The.

See ECUADOR: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

CANARY ISLANDS, Discovery of the.

The first great step in African exploration "was the discovery of the Canary Islands. These were the 'Elysian fields' and 'Fortunate islands' of antiquity. Perhaps there is no country in the world that has been so many times discovered, conquered, and invaded, or so much fabled about, as these islands. There is scarcely a nation upon earth of any maritime repute that has not had to do with them. Phœnicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Moors, Genoese, Normans, Portuguese, and Spaniards of every province (Aragonese, Castilians, Gallicians, Biscayans, Andalucians) have all made their appearance in these islands. The Carthaginians are said to have discovered them, and to have reserved them as an asylum in case of extreme danger to the state. Sertorius, the Roman general who partook the fallen fortunes of Marius is said to have meditated retreat to these 'islands of the blessed,' and by some writers is supposed to have gone there. Juba, the Mauritanian prince, son of the Jupa celebrated by Sallust, sent ships to examine them, and has left a description of them. Then came the death of empires, and darkness fell upon the human race, at least upon the records of their history. When the world revived, and especially when the use of the loadstone began to be known among mariners, the Canary Islands were again discovered. Petrarch is referred to by Viera to prove that the Genoese sent out an expedition to these islands. Las Casas mentions that an English or French vessel bound from France or England to Spain was driven by contrary winds to the Canary Islands, and on its return spread abroad in France an account of the voyage."

_A. Helps, Spanish Conquest, book 1, chapter 1._

ALSO IN: _E. H. Bunbury, History of Ancient Geography, chapter 20, note E._

CANAS, The.

See PERU: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

CANCELLARIUS.

See CHANCELLOR.

CANDAHAR. Siege and relief of English forces (1880).

See AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1869-1881.

CANDIA.

This is the name of the principal town in the island of Crete, but has been often applied to Crete itself.

See TURKS: A. D. 1645-1669, where an account is given of the so-called "War of Candia"; also CRETE: A. D. 823.

CANDRAGUPTA, OR CHANDRAGUPTA, The empire of.

See INDIA.: B. C. 327-312, and 312-.

CANGI, The.

A tribe in early Britain which occupied the westerly part of Modern Carnarvonshire.

See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.

CANICHANAS, The.

See BOLIVIA: ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

CANIENGAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY.

CANNÆ Battles of (B. C. 216).

See PUNIC WAR: THE SECOND. (B. C. 88). See ROME: B. C. 90-88.

CANNENEFATES, The.

"On the other bank of the Rhine [on the right bank] next to the Batavi, in the modern Kennemer district (north Holland, beyond Amsterdam) dwelt the Cannenefates, closely related to them but less numerous; they are not merely named among the tribes subjugated by Tiberius, but were also treated like the Batavi in the furnishing of soldiers."

_T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 8, chapter 4._

CANNING, Lord, The Indian administration of, A. D. 1856-1862.

CANNING MINISTRY, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1820-1827.

CANOPUS, Decree of.

An important inscribed stone found in 1865 at San, or Tanis, in Egypt, which is a monument of the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, who ascended the throne in 246 B. C. It gives "in hieroglyphics and Greek (the demotic version is on the edge) a decree of the priests assembled at Canopus for their yearly salutation of the king. When they were so assembled, in his ninth year, his infant daughter Berenice, fell sick and died, and there was great lamentation over her. The decree first recounts the generous conduct and prowess of the king, who had conquered all his enemies abroad, and had brought back from Persia all the statues of the gods carried off in old time from Egypt by foreign kings. He had also, in a great threatening of famine, when the Nile had failed to rise to its full amount, imported vast quantities of corn from Cyprus, Phœnicia, &c., and fed his people. Consequently divine honours are to be paid to him and his queen as 'Benefactor-Gods' in all the temples of Egypt, and feasts are to be held in their honour. … This great inscription, far more perfect and considerably older than the Rosetta Stone, can now be cited as the clearest proof of Champollion's reading of the hieroglyphics."

_J. P. Mahaffy, Story of Alexander's Empire, chapter 15, note._

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CANOSSA, Henry IV. at.

In the conflict which arose between the German Emperor, Henry IV. (then crowned only as King of the Romans) and Pope Gregory VII. (the inflexible Hildebrand), the former was placed at a great disadvantage by revolts and discontents in his own Germanic dominions. When, therefore, on the 22d of February, A. D. 1076, the audacious pontiff pronounced against the king his tremendous sentence, not only of excommunication, but of deposition, releasing all Christians from allegiance to him, he addressed a large party, both in Germany and Italy, who were more than willing to accept an excuse for depriving Henry of his crown. This party controlled a diet held at Tribur, in October, which declared that his forfeiture of the throne would be made irrevocable if he did not procure from the pope a release from his excommunication before the coming anniversary of its pronunciation, in February. A diet to be held then at Augsburg, under the presidency of the pope, would determine the affairs of the Empire. With characteristic energy, Henry resolved to make his way to the pope, in person, and to become reconciled with him, before the Augsburg meeting. Accompanied by the queen, her child, and a few attendants, he crossed the Alps, with great hardship and danger, in the midst of an uncommonly cold and snowy winter. Meantime, the pope had started upon his journey to Augsburg. Hearing on the way of Henry's movement to meet him, not desiring the encounter, and distrusting, moreover, the intentions of his enemy, he took refuge in the strong fortress of Canossa, high up in the rocky recesses of the Apennines. To that mountain retreat the desperate king pressed his way. "It was January 21, 1077, when Henry arrived at Canossa; the cold was severe and the snow lay deep. He was lodged at the foot of the castle-steep, and had an interview with the countess Matilda [mistress of the castle, and devoted friend of the pope], Hugh, abbot of Clugny, and others, in the Chapel of St. Nicolas, of which no traces now remain. Three days were spent in debating terms of reconciliation; Matilda and Hugh interceded with the pope on the king's behalf, but Gregory was inexorable; unless Henry surrendered the crown into the pope's hands the ban should not be taken off. Henry could not stoop so low as this, but he made up his mind to play the part of a penitent suppliant. Early on the morning of January 25 he mounted the winding, rocky path, until he reached the uppermost of the three walls, the one which enclosed the castle yard. And here, before the gateway which still exists, and perpetuates in its name, 'Porta di penitenza,' the memory of this strange event, the king, barefoot, and clad in a coarse woolen shirt, stood knocking for admittance. But he knocked in vain: from morning till evening the heir of the Roman Empire stood shivering outside the fast-closed door. Two more days he climbed the rugged path and stood weeping and imploring to be admitted." At last, the iron-willed pontiff consented to a parley, and an agreement was brought about by which Henry was released from excommunication, but the question of his crown was left for future settlement. In the end he gained nothing by his extraordinary abasement of himself. Many of his supporters were alienated by it; a rival king was elected. Gathering all his energies, Henry then stood his ground and made a fight in which even Gregory fled before him; but it was all to no avail. The triumph remained with the priests.

_W. R. W. Stephens, Hildebrand and His Times, chapters 11-15._

ALSO IN: _A. F. Villemain, Life of Gregory VII., book 5._

See, also, PAPACY: A. D. 1056-1122; ROME: 1081-1084.

CANTABRIA, Becomes Bardulia and Castile.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1026-1230.

CANTABRIANS AND ASTURIANS, The.

The Cantabrians were an ancient people in the north of Spain, inhabiting a region to the west of the Asturians. They were not conquered by the Romans until the reign of Augustus, who led an expedition against them in person, B. C. 27, but was forced by illness to commit the campaign to his lieutenants. The Cantabrians submitted soon after being defeated in a great battle at Vellica, near the sources of the Ebro; but in 22 B. C. they joined the Asturians in a desperate revolt, which was not subdued until three years later.

_C. Merivale, History of the Romans, chapter 34._

ALSO IN: _T. Mommsen, History of Rome, book 8, chapter 2._

See APPENDIX A, volume 1.

CANTÆ, The.

A tribe in ancient Caledonia.

See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.

CANTERBURY. The murder of Becket (1170).

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1162-1170.

CANTERBURY PRIMACY, Origin of the.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 597-685.

CANTII, The.

The tribe of ancient Britons which occupied the region of Kent.

See BRITAIN. CELTIC TRIBES.

CANTON: A. D. 1839-1842. The Opium War. Ransom of the city from English assault. Its port opened to British trade.

See CHINA: A. D. 1839-1842.

CANTON: A. D. 1856-1857. Bombardment by the English. Capture by the English and French.

See CHINA: A. D. 1856-1860.

CANTONS, Latin.

See GENS, ROMAN; also ALBA.

CANTONS, Swiss.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1848-1890.

CANULEIAN LAW, The.

See ROME: B. C. 445.

CANUTE, OR CNUT, King of England, A. D.1017-1035, and King of Denmark, A. D. 1018-1035. Canute II., King of Denmark, A. D. 1080-1086. Canute III., King of Denmark, A. D. 1147-1156. Canute IV., King of Denmark, A. D. 1182-1202.

CANZACA.

See ECBATANA.

CANZACA, OR SHIZ, Battle of.

A battle fought A. D. 591, by the Romans, under Narses, supporting the cause of Chosroës II. king of Persia, against a usurper Bahram, who had driven him from his throne. Bahram was defeated and Chosroës restored.

_G. Rawlinson, Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy, chapter 23._

CAP OF LIBERTY, The.

See LIBERTY CAP.

CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1497. Discovery by John Cabot.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1497.

CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1504. Named by the fishermen from Brittany.

See NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1501-1578.

CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1713. Possession confirmed to France.

See NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1713.

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CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1720-1745. The fortification of Louisbourg.

After the surrender of Placentia or Plaisance, in Newfoundland, to England, under the treaty of Utrecht (see NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1713), the French government determined to fortify strongly some suitable harbor on the island of Cape Breton for a naval station, and especially for the protection of the fisheries of France on the neighboring coasts. The harbor known previously as Havre a l' Anglois was chosen for the purpose. "When the French government decided in favour of Havre a l' Anglois its name was changed to Louisbourg, in honour of the king; and, to mark the value set upon Cape Breton it was called Isle Royale, which it retained until its final conquest in 1758, when its ancient name was resumed." In 1720 the fortifications were commenced, and the work of their construction was prosecuted with energy and with unstinted liberality for more than twenty years. "Even the English colonies contributed a great proportion of the materials used in their construction. When Messrs. Newton and Bradstreet, who were sent to confer with M. de St. Ovide [to remonstrate against the supplying of arms to the Indians in Nova Scotia] … returned to Annapolis, they reported that during their short stay at Louisbourg, in 1725, fourteen colonial vessels, belonging chiefly to New England, arrived there with cargoes of boards, timber and bricks. … Louisbourg [described, with a plan, in the work here quoted] … had, between the years 1720 and 1745, cost the French nation the enormous sum of 30,000,000 livres, or £1,200,000 sterling; nevertheless, as Dussieux informs us, the fortifications were still unfinished, and likely to remain so, because the cost had far exceeded the estimates; and it was found such a large garrison would be required for their defence that the government had abandoned the idea of completing them according to the original design."

_R. Brown, History of the Island of Cape Breton, letters 9-11._

"The fort was built of stone, with walls more than 30 feet high, and a ditch 80 feet wide, over which was a communication with the town by a drawbridge. It had six bastions and three batteries, with platforms for 148 cannon and six mortars. On an islet, which was flanked on one side by a shoal, a battery of 30 guns, 28 pounders, defended the entrance of the harbor, which was about 400 yards wide, and was also commanded from within by the Grand or Royal Battery, mounting as many guns, of the calibre of 42 pounds. The fort … was a safe rendezvous and refuge for French fleets and privateers, sailing in the Western Hemisphere. It commanded the maritime way into Canada, and it watched the English settlements all along the coast. It was a standing threat to the great business of New England seamen, which was the fishery on the banks."

_J. G. Palfrey, History of New England, book 5, chapter 9 (volume 5)._

"'So great was its strength that it was called the Dunkirk of America. It had nunneries and palaces, terraces and gardens. That such a city rose upon a low and desolate island in the infancy of American colonization appears incredible; explanation is alone found in the fishing enthusiasm of the period.'"

_C. B. Elliott, The United States and the New England Fisheries, page 18._

CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1744. Outbreak of the Third Inter-Colonial War.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1744.

CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1745. Conquest by the New Englanders. Fall of Louisbourg.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1745; and ENGLAND: A. D. 1745-1747.

CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1748. Restored to France.