fail to demonstrate the usefulness of a second
chamber by industry and capacity in revising hasty legislation. The
delegates actually believed that equality of representation between the
three divisions, Upper Canada, Lower Canada, and the Maritime
Provinces, would make the Senate a bulwark of protection to individual
provinces. In this character it has never shone.[4] Its chief value
has been as {130} a reservoir of party patronage. The opinions of
several of the delegates are prophetical:

HENRY (Nova Scotia)--I oppose the limitation of number. We want a
complete work. Do you wish to stereotype an upper branch irresponsible
both to the crown and the people? A third body interposed
unaccountable to the other two. The crown unable to add to their
number. The people unable to remove them. Suppose a general election
results in the election of a large majority in the Lower House
favourable to a measure, but the legislative council prevents it from
becoming law. The crown should possess some power of enlargement.

FISHER (New Brunswick)--The prerogative of the crown has been only
occasionally used and always for good. This new fangled thing now
introduced, seventy-two oligarchs, will introduce trouble. I advocate
the principle of the power of the crown to appoint additional members
in case of emergency.

HOWLAND (Upper Canada)--My remedy would be to limit the period of
service and vest the appointment in the local legislatures. Now, it is
an anomaly. It won't work and cannot be continued. You cannot give
the crown an unlimited power to appoint.

One result of the views exchanged is found in the twenty-sixth section
of the Act. This gives the sovereign, acting of course on the advice
of his ministers and at the request of the Canadian government, the
right to add {131} three or six members to the Senate, selected equally
from the three divisions mentioned above. These additional members are
not to be a permanent increase of the Senate, because vacancies
occurring thereafter are not to be filled until the normal number is
restored. Once only has it been sought to invoke the power of this
section. In 1873, when the first Liberal ministry after Confederation
was formed, the prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie, finding himself
faced by a hostile majority in the Senate, asked the Queen to add six
members to the Senate 'in the public interests.' The request was
refused. The colonial secretary, Lord K