imberley, held that the power
was intended solely to bring the two Houses into accord when an actual
collision of opinion took place of so serious and permanent a kind that
the government could not be carried on without the intervention of the
sovereign as prescribed in this section. The Conservative majority in
the Senate highly approved of this decision, and expressed its
appreciation in a series of resolutions which are a fine display of
unconscious humour.

Not the least important of the changes in the scheme adopted at London
was that relating to the educational privileges of {132} minorities.
This is embodied in the famous ninety-third section of the Act, and
originated in a desire to protect the Protestant minority in Lower
Canada. Its champion was Galt. An understanding existed that the
Canadian parliament would enact the necessary guarantees before Canada
entered the union. But the proposal, when brought before the House in
1866, was so expressed as to apply to the schools of both the
Protestant minority in Lower Canada and the Catholic minority in Upper
Canada. This led to disturbing debates and was withdrawn. No
substitute being offered, Galt, deeming himself pledged to his
co-religionists, at once resigned his place in the Cabinet and stated
his reasons temperately in parliament. Although no longer a minister,
he was selected as one of the London delegates, partly because of the
prominent part taken by him in the cause of Confederation and partly in
order that the anxieties of the Lower Canada minority might be allayed.
Galt's conduct throughout was entirely worthy of him. That he was an
enlightened man the memoranda of the London proceedings prove, for
there is a provision in his handwriting showing his desire to extend to
all minorities the protection he claimed for the Lower {133} Canada
Protestants. The clause drawn by him differs in its phraseology from
the wording in the Act and is as follows:

And in any province where a system of separation or dissentient schools
by law obtains, or where the local legislature may adopt a system of
separate or dissentient schools, an appeal shall lie to the governor in
council of the general government from the acts and decisions of the
local authorities which may affect the rights or privileges of the
Protestant or Catholic minority in the matter of education. And the
general parliament shall have power in the last resort to legislate on
the subject.[5]