466 COMMONS DEBATES April 6, 1868
Mr. Gibbs said he had no hesitation in giving the vote he
had done the other day, but the remarks of the honourable member were
rather ungracious, coming from a gentleman who introduced his last
resolution well knowing, from the fate of the first, that the information
asked for would not be granted, and who, because he could not get all,
would take none.
Mr. Mackenzie said that the motion moved by the honourable
member for Chateauguay, to which allusion had been made, was one
suggested by the member of South Lennox, and spoken favourably of by the
members for Renfrew and South Ontario. One of these gentlemen having
suggested the motion to the member for Chateauguay with whom they had
been in accord in bank sentiments, nothing was more natural than that
honourable gentleman should make the motion, and he (Mr. Mackenzie)
confessed, however, that he was never more astonished in his life than to
see one member after another member stand up and vote against this very motion.
(Hear and laughter).
Mr. Cartwright was free to acknowledge he did suggest the
motion, but he bowed to the judgment of the Minister of Justice in the
matter, who had desired that compliance with the resolution would be adverse to
the public interest.
Mr. Mackenzie said that not a single member of
the Ministry said the motion of the member for Chateauguay was adverse to the
public interest.
Hon. Mr. Galt protested against its being taken for
granted that the Government were at a great disadvantage in consequence of
their arrangement with the Bank of Montreal. He wished to bear
his testimony to the fair dealing of that institution towards the
Government. In circumstances of very considerable financial difficulty
the Government had received assistance from the Bank of Montreal, the
absence of which would perhaps have proved exceedingly embarrassing
to the Ministry of the day.
At six o'clock the House rose.
After the recess.
Hon. Mr. Rose having obtained leave to speak, said he did
not decide to allow the statement of the member for Chateauguay to pass
unchallenged. Now, he would state once for all, that the Government desired to
give the fullest information of all the transactions
they had with their fiscal agents. There was nothing whatever in these the
Government need to be afraid of. All these transactions had been solely
dictated and carried on with an eye to the public interest. No information
which the House or country has a right to expect would be withheld.
Hon. Mr. Holton hoped, as every information was
to be given, that the correspondence on this subject, which he had asked for,
would be forthcoming. He had no hesitation in saying that at one time
when he was in the Administration, the Bank of Montreal was a useful
public servant—now it would become master.
Hon. John S. Macdonald said the statement of the member
for Chateauguay regarding the Bank of Montreal was not warranted. He
protested against this continued harping against the Bank of Montreal. The fact
was that the bank was patronized by the Government because it
had helped them cheerfully and materially in times of need, and was
besides by far the best managed institution of that time in the Dominion.
Let the member for Chateauguay attack the Government and let the servant
of the Government alone. It was unfair to attack the Bank of Montreal
when the gentlemen of the Treasury Benches were the really responsible parties.
Dr. Parker thought that even though there was nothing to
conceal, as the Minister of Finance stated, still his continued mystery on
the subject would excite suspicion in the country. He would prefer that
the whole information should be given.
The motion was carried.
LABRADOR
Mr. Fortin moved an address for all correspondence between the Government of the late Province
of Canada and of the
Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland, in relation to the boundary line
of Labrador.—Carried.
Mr. Fortin moved an address for all correspondence relating to the custom duties exacted by
the
Newfoundland Government from Canadian fishermen on the Coast of
Labrador.—Carried.
NOVA SCOTIA—REPEAL—DR.
TUPPER
Mr. McDonald (Antigonish) moved for a copy of the
address of the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia, praying for the repeal of
so much of the British North America Act as [...]