1880, held that Caldwell could not drive his logs as the streams were found not to have been navigable or floatable for saw logs or other timber, rafts, and crafts when in a state of nature, and issued the appropriate injunction. Appeal was allowed by the Ontario Court of Appeal, where Chief Justice Spragge held that Ontario law made all streams, whether naturally or artificially floatable, public waterways. On appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, the Court of Appeal's decision was reversed on the grounds that: the streams in question were not floatable without the aid of artificial improvements, the appellant had at common law the exclusive right to use his property as he pleased, and to prevent respondents from using as a highway the stream in question where it flowed through appellant’s private property, as held in the 1863 decision in Boale v. Dickson, the Ontario statute in question extends only to such streams as would, in their natural state, without improvements, during freshets, permit saw logs, timber, etc., to be floated down them. Appeal to the Privy Council The Privy Council held in favour of Caldwell, ruling that the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal (stating that the Upper Canada Act had been misconstrued as to its effect in Boale v. Dickson) was correct. After reviewing Upper Canada's laws in the matter that had been enacted as early as 1828, it further declared: Aftermath As a result of the Privy Council's ruling, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed the Rivers and Streams Act, 1884, which the federal government decided not to disallow. In order to assert its own jurisdiction, the Parliament of Canada subsequently passed the Navigable Waters Protection Act. Subsequent legislation on the issue had mixed results. McLaren v Caldwell established the principle in Canadian law that waterways are open to all, and that while private interests can charge a reasonable amount for the use of any improvements they have made, they cannot refuse passage to anyone. The victory was essentially a political one - Mowat's refusal to back down in the face of Macdonald’s intransigence made it more difficult for the federal government to disallow legislation that clearly fell under provincial jurisdiction, and led Macdonald increasingly to send matters to the courts. Essentially, disallowance was considered to be inconsistent with the rule of law, as well as being incompatible with the political conception of