all the Dominion. The principal cause of disagreement between the Lieutenant-Governor and M. De Boucherville arose out of a Bill relating to the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa & Occidental Railway. This Bill had been introduced into the Assembly, and had actually passed that House before the Lieutenant-Governor was made acquainted with its provisions. This the Lieutenant-Governor believed to be not only an evil in itself, and an infringement upon his prerogative, but actually subversive of the Constitution. It is impossible to understand the nature of this dispute without some knowledge of the history of the measure which directly occasioned it. A few years ago the Quebec Government, yielding to urgent petitions from the various municipalities situated along the north shore of the River St. Lawrence, agreed to assume a charter previously granted to a private company to build a railway along the north shore from Quebec to Ottawa. The route of the projected road was laid out, and the municipalities through which it ran granted bonuses to assist in its construction. The bonuses varied in amount, and were presumed to be proportionate to the actual benefit which the respective municipalities were to derive from the projected railway. Then began a reign of wire-pulling and bribery such as the lobbyists at Washington have long been familiar with, but which we in Canada have fortunately had but little experience of. Rings, partly composed, in some cases, of members of ther Local Legislature, were formed for the securing undue advantages in connection with this and other enterprises. The most shameless corruption was practised, and M. de Boucherville, the head of the Administration, declared ins inability to restrain the evil. The location of the line was altered in places, and in many instances the original features of the undertaking were completely changed. The municipalities affected by the change of route protested, but to no purpose; and finding that their representations were of no avail, and that the agreement with them had been violated, they refused to pay over their bonuses. Here the trouble culminated. The Provincial Exchequer was empty. The work on tne railway was unpaid for; contractors were clamorous, and the Government determined to appropriate the bonuses itself as the most direct way out of the difficulty, To effect this they introduced a Bill to the Assembly which, amongst other things, empowered the Government to determine the date of the maturity of the whole or of part of the municipal subscriptions. It then declared that no objec-
