House of Commons, 7 June 1869, Canadian Confederation with Newfoundland
634COMMONS DEBATES
June 7, 1869
Hon. John Sandfield Macdonald said he had never heard a
more flimsy excuse offered by a gentleman sworn to discharge an important public
duty.
Mr. M. C. Cameron said the hon. gentleman was hard to
please. The afïŹdavit contained the exact truth. The member for Carleton
was absent from the city on a great public duty. Some gentlemen were here from
Newfoundland, and it was the duty of Ministers to have
entertained them hospitably. As Ministers neglected their duty, the
member for Carleton was one of a party who undertook to show these
gentlemen hospitality by taking them on a trip up the Ottawa, and
there was no saying how much progress had been made on that trip towards
the annexation of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. (Hear, hear, and
laughter.)
The discussion was continued by Sir George
E. Cartier, Messrs. D. A. McDonald, Masson
(Soulanges), Pope and Wright (Ottawa), the
remarks being mostly of a jocular nature,
and at the expense of Mr. Connell, Mr. Pope
proposing that he be imprisoned during the
pleasure of the House, or that a codicil to
suit his case be put at the end of the Flogging
Bill.
Mr. Wright acknowledged that he was the Mephistopheles who
had allowed the member for Carleton from his Parliamentary duties to
taste of the tree of knowledge on the waters of the Upper Ottawa and pleaded
that the punishment should be of the highest description.
The motion was agreed to.
LAKES AND RIVERS
Mr. Geoffrion introduced a Bill to empower the Company
for the improvement and deepening of the St. Francis and Yamaska, to
levy tolls on vessels navigating said rivers.
Sir John A. Macdonald said that the objects sought for
by this Bill were within local jurisdiction, and asked the hon. gentleman
not to proceed farther with it. Besides, the Dominion did not claim
the right to impose tolls.
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