Cet ouvrage couvre la période qui va de 1758 à nos jours.

This reference book is primarily a procedural work which examines the many forms, customs, and practices which have been developed and established for the House of Commons since Confederation in 1867. It provides a distinctive Canadian perspective in describing procedure in the House up to the end of the first session of the 36th Parliament in Sept. 1999. The material is presented with full commentary on the historical circumstances which have shaped the current approach to parliamentary business. Key Speaker's rulings and statements are also documented and the considerable body of practice, interpretation, and precedents unique to the Canadian House of Commons is amply illustrated. Chapters of the book cover the following: parliamentary institutions; parliaments and ministries; privileges and immunities; the House and its Members; parliamentary procedure; the physical & administrative setting; the Speaker & other presiding officers; the parliamentary cycle; sittings of the House; the daily program; oral & written questions; the process of debate; rules of order & decorum; the curtailment of debate; special debates; the legislative process; delegated legislation; financial procedures; committees of the whole House; committees; private Members' business; public petitions; private bills practice; and the parliamentary record. Includes index.

In the year 1861 a meeting was convened at the Education Office, Toronto, with the view of establishing an Historical Society for Upper Canada. The writer, as an Upper Canadian by birth, and deeply interested in his country with respect to the past as well as the future, was present. The result of that meeting was the appointment of a Committee to frame a Constitution and By-Laws, and take the necessary steps to organize the proposed Society, and to report three weeks thereafter. The Committee consisted of the Hon. Mr. Merritt, Rev. Dr. Ryerson, Col. Jarvis, Mr. DeGrassi, Mr. Merritt, J. J. Hodgins, Dr. Canniff and Mr. Coventry. For reasons unknown to the writer, this Committee never even met. The following year the writer received a printed circular respecting an "Historical Society of Upper Canada" which had been established at St. Catharines, of which Col. John Clarke, of Port Dalhousie, was President; Hon. Wm. H. Merritt, Vice-President, and George Coventry, of Cobourg, Secretary. "HONORARY MEMBERS." "Chief Justice Sir John Beverley Robinson, Bart., Colonel Jarvis, Toronto, Doctor Canniff, Toronto, Henry Eccles, Esq., Q.C., William H. Kittson, Esq., Hamilton, Henry Ruttan, Esq., Cobourg, The Venerable Lord Bishop of Toronto, Alfio DeGrassi, Esq., Toronto, J. P. Merritt, St. Catharines, Thomas C. Keefer, Esq., Yorkville, Hon. George S. Boulton, Cobourg, David, Burn, Esq., Cobourg." At the request of this Society the writer undertook to prepare a Paper upon the Settlement of the Bay Quinté. Having been induced to take up his abode for a time at Belleville, near which he was born, the writer availed himself of every opportunity he could vicreate while engaged in his professional duties, during a period of five years, to collect facts pertaining to the subject. After some months of labor, he was advised by friends, in whose judgment he had confidence, to write a History of the Bay Quinté, for publication.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1869.