Sir HENRY DRAYTON (West York):

Mr. Speaker, I had hoped-I do not know that I could expect, but I think I would have been justified in expecting as well as hoping-that my hon. friend at present leading the* House (Mr. Lapointe) would have given us some reasons why his government thought it necessary at this particular point to admit their total incapacity to carry on public business. I take it that my hon. friend deems that task perhaps very difficult to accomplish. Whatever apologies may be made and they must be feigned, they cannot be real-the fact is that by this motion the government say: We are not in a position to carry on public business. Although we called parliament for the purpose of carrying on public business, although we held ourselves out as a government constituted and functioning, we are not; we cannot carry on public business. Then, Sir, it becomes necessary to make this motion, perhaps the last phase of a series of contortions and attempts to keep in office a government that ought not to be in office. The House has been engaged upon a work which some members may look upon as humanitarian. They have been proceeding under the impression that a work of resuscitation is necessary. But this is not a case of suspended animation, this is not a work of resuscitation. This government is dead-and only its supporters do not realize it.

Adjournment of the House

Oh, oh.

Sir IIENRY DRAYTON:

Hon. gentlemen opposite may laugh, but I just want to tell them, Mr. Speaker, that they are not the country. They may attempt to undo the work of the people at the polls, but they cannot undo it. They may attempt to hold up-

Oh, oh.

Sir HENRY DRAYTON:

Hon. gentlemen laugh; it is the only argument they have in the present case, and they are welcome to laugh. It is all that is left to them to do. No, it is something which cannot be done; the wave of public opinion, dissatisfaction and discontent which smashed this government, defeating nine of its ministers, is not going to be stopped by any puny efforts of this House.

Now, Mr. Speaker, in the absence of reasons, I desire to ask on what possible grounds this government can ask this indulgence. In the first instance I desire to point out that my hon. friends themselves have put it out of their power to ask this adjournment. To-day they have no right to ask this adjournment, unless it is that we are to go on drifting in this House without any idea of procedure, without any idea of rights, of nothing except that the time of the House is to be wasted. Why do I say that? I say it because unquestionably, in certain instances, governments which have been shot to pieces the way this government has been might approach the House with a view to seeing what the wishes of the House were. This government has not chosen to take that course in the constitutional way. On the other hand, instead of following the regular procedure in a case of this kind, where it was thought necessary to get some advice from the House in a situation of difficulty, it has taken upon itself to function in the ordinary way and having functioned in the ordinary way it is not entitled to the adjournment. What the government has done is very simple. I am quite sure my hon. friend the Minister of Justice (Mr. Lapointe) knows the constitutional authorities just as well as, if not better than, I do. But something was necessary here; this is a government which can only exist by purchase, and as it only exists by purchase it was necessary-

Order.

Sir HENRY DRAYTON:

Mr. Speaker, I repeat the words, exists by purchase. Since it only exists by purchase it was necessary that terms be made, that the Speech from the

Throne should come down, and that we should travel along with opportunities for hon. gentlemen to get still further commitments from this government. So it was done. But, Mr. Speaker, my hon. friends cannot ride the two horses. They cannot on the one hand come to parliament and say, "We are ready to go on with business; here is our Speech from the Throne and we are willing and ready to implement that Speech," and then turn around and admit, as it is admitted in this motion, that they cannot function; that they are not ready; that they can do nothing, and that the Speech from the Throne was merely a sham, a holy statement of what they hoped some day to do. But the bills are not drafted; the House cannot get on, and they say they must have an adjournment. As I said before, Mr. Speaker, my hon. friends cannot ride these two horses. A government coming to the House not fully constituted and requiring time to complete its organization is usually a new government, and I am perfectly willing to admit that my hon. friends can find any number of precedents where a new government, for the purpose of forming its cabinet, gets an adjournment practically as a matter of course. But this is not such a case. This is not a new government, but the shattered remnant of the old. My right hon. leader (Mr. Meighen) has tried to get from this government some idea as to what the resurrected form is to be, but he cannot get even a suggestion. Certainly before this motion should ever pass the House ought to know what this government intends to do in the vacation; to what purpose it intends to put the time; what departments are to be wiped out; what departments are to be continued, and how this broken up, broken down, government is to be reconstructed. But we cannot get that information.

As I remarked before my hon. friend the Minister of Justice knows the practice in such cases as well as the author of the book I have before me. Nevertheless, I intend to draw the practice to the notice of the House. I read, Mr. Speaker, from May's Parliamentary Practice, 12th edition, at page 142. This paragraph deals with a situation where the government is not in a position to carry on. Perhaps it might be the existing government or perhaps a new* government, but the body which took upon itself the right to carry on and was not in a position to do so. This is the procedure as laid down by this authority-

Mr. POULIOT:

I would like to ask the hon. member before he goes on, if he has purchased this book.

Adjournment of the House

Sir HENRY DRAYTON:

Mr. LAPOINTE:

Mr. Speaker-

Mr. MEIGHEN:

I submit, M'r. Speaker, that if the mover of the motion speaks he closes the debate; we are certainly not through.

Mr. LAPOINTE:

Was it the purpose of my hon. friend to prevent me from speaking?

Adjournment of the House

Sir HENRY DRAYTON:

I regretted that when Your Honour put the question, my hon. friend never rose in his place when he ought to have risen.

Mr. LAPOINTE:

I quite agree that I,

having moved the resolution, have lost my right of speaking only by way of reply after the others have all spoken. I had intended, however, to speak on the motion.

Oh, oh.

Mir. LAPOINTE:

That is what I intended to do, and my hon. friend-I am in the judgment of the House-jumped to his feet and prevented me from doing it. However, it is all right.

Mr. CHAPLIN (Lincoln):

The government is dead.

Sir HENRY DRAYTON:

May I make a suggestion-