il levy against employers. The
Commoners did not dare reject it for fear of the vote in one particular
province. What they did was meet the Senate in unofficial caucuses.
They said: We shall pass this bill all three readings; but we depend on
you--the Senate--to reject it. We can go to the province and say we
passed the bill and ask for the support of that province; but because the
bill would be inimical to the best interests of other provinces, we
depend on you, the Senate, to defeat it. And the Senate defeated it.

When older democracies are curtailing the strength of veto power in upper
houses, it is curious to find this dependence of a young democracy on
veto power. Instead of the life privileges leading to an abuse of
insolence and Big Business, up to the present in Canada, life tenure
independent of politics has led to independence. The appointments being
for life guarantees that many of the incumbents are not young, and this
imparts to the Upper House that quality of the Witenagemot most valued by
the ancient Saxons--the council of the aged and the experienced and the
wise.

Active, aggressive power, of course, resides chiefly with the Commons.
Representation here is arranged according to the population and must be
readjusted after every census. "Rep. by Pop." was the rallying cry that
effected this arrangement. No property qualification is required from
the member of the House of Commons, but he must be a British subject. He
must not have been convicted of any crime, minor or major.

Franchise in Canada is practically universal suffrage. At least it
amounts to that. Voters must be registered. They must be British
subjects. They must be twenty-one years of age. They must not be
insane, idiots or convicts. They must own real property to the value of
three hundred dollars in cities, two hundred dollars in towns, one
hundred and fifty dollars in the country; or they must have a yearly
income of three hundred dollars. A farmer's son has the right to vote
without these qualifications, evidently on the ancient Saxon presumption
that a free-holder represents more vitally the interests of a country
than the penniless floater, who neither works nor earns. In other words,
the carpet-bag voter does not yet play any part in Canadian politics.
Bad as the corruption is in some cases among the foreigners, when votes
are bought at two dollars to five dollars, the point has not yet been
reached when a carpet-ba