The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-30 00:00:00

Prorogation of the Canadian Parliament.

The Canadian Parliament was prorogued on the
15th August. The Speaker of the Legislative
Assembly addressed the Governor-General, de-
scribing the measures taken by the Parliament
for repelling the Fenian raids, the success of the
steps taken to federate the provinces, and express-
ing the hope that a new era was dawning wherein
the British colonies of North America will be-
come a great, powerful, and wealthy nation. His
Excellency closed the fifth session of the eighth
provincial Parliament with the following speech :

"Hon. Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, Gentlemen
of the Legislative Assembly,—l have much pleasure in
releasing you from further attendance in Parliament,
and I observe with satisfaction the large amount of
important business, both public and private, which you
have transacted during the session. The completion
of the Code of Civil Procedure in Lower Canada is
a permanent memorial of the ability and industry of
those who devised and carried the project into execu-
tion, and cannot fail to be highly advantageous to
those who live within that portion of the province. By
the Acts for amending the laws relating to munici-
pal institutions and improving the mode of assessment in
Upper Canada, the municipal system of that province,
already admirable, will be further consolidated and im-
proved. It must be a source of satisfaction to you to feel
that the credit of the province will be strengthenedand her
commercial operations will be extended by the changes
which have been made in the duties on imports and other
financial alteiations, tending toreduce the cost of living in
Canada. We may confidently expect that the effect of the
tariff which you have adopted will be to provide for the pub-
lic wants without opening new sources of taxation,and to in-
crease the available resources of the country by enlarging the
markets for the industry of the people. The establishment
of telegraph connexion in the portions of the dominions
of our Queen situated on both sides of the Atlantic ocean
has been hailed in Canada with feelings of the utmost satis-.
faction. The success of this great undertaking cannot fail
to advance the progress of civilisation, to extend the opera-
tions of trade, and thereby to promote the peace and pros-
perity of the world at large.
"Gentlemen of the Legislative Assembly,—l thank you
for the liberal provision you have made for the public ser-
vice of the current year. It shall be my object and that of
my advisers to administer your grants so as to secure at
once economy and efficiency. lam particularly gratified
that you have enabled me to make provision for those who
have suffered by the loss of relatives, or have been wounded,
during the late attack on the province. This act is a just
tribute on your part to the patriotism of the men on whom
devolves the defence of the province, and will prove to the
survivors that they do not serve an ungenerous or ungrate-
ful country. The votes for purposes of public defence are
on a scale which will enable the Government to improve
the efficiency of the Volunteers in armament, equipment,
and drill, and no exertions shall be wanting to apply your
grants with effect in each of these particulars.
" Hon. Gentlemen and Gentlemen,—l rejoice that you
have completed your part of the plan for the union of
the colonies of British North America, and I shall not fail
to transmit to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, for
presentation to her Majesty, your address on this subject.
In bringing to a close the last Session likely to be held
under the Act for the union of the Two Canadas, I congra-
tulate the Parliament which that law called into existence
on the retrospect afforded by the events of the last quarter
of a century in this province. You can mark during
that period the firm consolidation of your institutions, both
political and municipal, the extended settlement of your
country, the development of your internal resources and
foreign trade, the improvement and simplification of your
laws, and, above all, the education which the adoption of
the system of responsible government has afforded to your
statesmen in the well-tried ways of the British Constitu-
tion. The same principles, the application of which has
been attended with so much advantage in the smaller union,
will be the guide of your course in the larger sphere of ac-
tion on which you aro now about to enter, and I fervently
tray that the blessings which you have hitherto enjoyed
may be given in larger measure to that new nationality of
which you will form a part, and the dimensions of which
will entitle it to a high place among the Powers of the
world."

DEATH OF MR. HALL MAXWELL. —The agricul-
tural community of Scotland, and many of the most
eminent farmers in Great Britain and Ireland, as well as
on the Continent, will learn with deep regret of the demise
of Mr. John Hall Maxwell, of Dargavel, which took place
on Saturday last at Torr-hall--ono of the deceased gentle-
man's properties near Weir-bridge, a village about six miles
west of Paisley. The fact of the death is all the more
melancholy that he had just retired, after discharging for
20 years the important and onerous duties of the secre-
taryship of the Highland and Agricultural Society of
Scotland, to enjoy the leisure which his distinguished
services in the cause of agriculture so well entitled him to
claim. The immediate cause of his death we have not
learnt, but we believe it is mainly attributed to disease of
the heart. He died in his primp, at the age of 54, hav-
ing been born in Queen-street, Glasgow, in February,
1812. The late Mr. Hall Maxwell, who was the representa-
tive of two ancient families in Renfrewshire—the Halls of
Fulbar, and the Maxwells of Dargavel, the former dating
their possession of Fulbar from the time of James, High
Steward of Scotland, the grandfather of King Robert 11.,
and the latter holding Dargavel by charter since 1516
was educated for the Bar, to which he was called in
1835, and practised successfully for ten years. On the
death of the then secretary of the Highland Society—Sir
Charles Gordon—Mr. Hall Maxwell, who was at that time
a director of the society, applied for and received the
vacant appointment. Under his energetic and judicious
management the society soon rose to a pitch of vigour
and influence which it had never before attained. At the
time when he undertook the secretaryship the number of
members was 2,620, and the funds of the society amountedivw
to £34,000. When he left the roll of members
The
increased to 4,200, and the finances to ..£so,onos-tratio
annual shows of the society under his greataas
alikedro the quan-
tities showed an equal improvement,
agricultural implements.
tities and quality of stock, and the nu
of workmanship and finish of 3,grii,Ch Mr. hall Max-
One of the neatest benefits h. er and superiority
well conferred upon Scottish.f
the agricultural statistics
agriculture was in su-
perintending the collection
from 1851 to 1857. The annual
of stock and crops
co
estimated by
staff of some
£6,000, but Mr.. ll.a assisted by Governmenta at
, accomplished the
Maxwell,
Scctlaud •
very satisfactory manner for about £2,500 less
sum Parliament had voted as necessary. The
2soto of the
thethe Pll n collectionci P e
1
thoroughly reliable was
itinhv'foaolnr.kintiahnteigon thus obtained being
of the greatest value ; nevertheless the country was
deprived of it on a paltry matter of routine, and, in conse-
quence, for the last eight years, we have been left entirely
iu the dark as to the acreage under the various kinds of
crop, and the precise number of our flocks and herds. For
his services in connexion with the collection of these sta-
tisti3s Mr. Maxwell was in 1856 created a Civil Companion
of the Bath. Mr. Maxwell was himself a keen and intel-
ligent agriculturist ; and on his estate of Dargavel effected
at great expense many improvements, especially in the
reclamation of waste land, changing a dismal and un-
healthy morass into flourishing fields of potatoes and oats
and luxuriant pasture. In all his operations, however, he
was careful in his calculations that the return should be
proportionate to tho outlay, which many proprietors are
not. Mr. Hall Maxwell leaves a widow and six children
—two sons and four daughters —to mourn his loss.—
Scotsman.