1032 G69s The Stor Confederation R. E. Gosnell THE LIBRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE STORY CONFEDERATION WITH POSTSCRIPT ON QUEBEC SITUATION -BY- R. E. GOSNELL Copyright 1918, by the Author. FOREWORD THIS being the fiftieth year of Confederation it is fitting and most timely that, in addition to the ceremonies inci- dent to the celebration of the fiftieth birthday on the last First of July, there should be a book published in which are summarized and explained the conditions on account of which Union was evolved ; in which events and personalities are clearly indicated, and not only general principles and vital issues are dealt with but in which local and provincial consid- erations and relations have due prominence, and the very widest possible aspects of British federation in North Amer- ica are set forth. It is not even untimely at this critical stage of our history that we should speculate somewhat on the future. Two books, which I might term by-products of Confed- eration sentiment, were published this year, one didactic in its treatment and the other biographical, both excellent books, but neither making claims to being at all comprehensive in its scope. The first referred to is a symposium of four lectures delivered at the Toronto University. The other is entitled "Confederation and its Leaders," and is written by Mr. M. O. Hammond of Toronto. Sir Joseph Pope, some years secre- tary to my late father, Sir John Macdonald, has given to us what is known as "Confederation Documents," to the archives of which he had free access. This volume, as its name implies, is not intended for popular consumption, and its contents are confined to basic facts. There were no regular minutes of the Charlottetown, Quebec and London conferences kept, and Sir Joseph's book, highly valuable for its purpose, is largely made up of notes made by my father and the texts of FOREWORD resolutions relating to the general principles upon which Union was based. Col. the Hon. J. Hamilton Gray, one of the Fathers and a former Premier of New Brunswick, may be regarded as the official historian of Confederation, tout it is ever to be regretted that only his first volume was published and the manuscript of the second was lost. The published volume is extremely valuable as a record and for certain observations -by one of the makers of Confederation, but it covers only the organic stage of Union from the Charlotte- town conferences to the actual culmination in 1867, and Con- federation is still in the making. It has had treatment in the magazines and in several small volumes not purporting to be more than readable reviews of the bringing about of the B.N.A. Act, the Magna Charta of Canada as a dominion, but none of the publications to which I have referred covers the wide field which Mr. Gosnell has surveyed in his book to which this is a foreword. There have, of course, been several useful and able commentaries upon Confederation from the constitutional point of view, largely based upon judicial inter- pretation and particularly upon decisions of the Privy Council. With fifty years of perspective, we should now be in a posi- tion to judge more or less accurately of the merits of the work of the architects of the federal structure, and to view success- fully federal relations under a variety of trying strains and over a wide extent of territory. It is true that as a result of conditions arising out of this war Confederation has yet to stand its severest test, but there is every hope that sectional and racial considerations, which are the lions in the pathway, will not be permitted to prevail. Mr. Gosnell modestly claims to have written only a journalistic review of Confederation. This may be true, but it is the kind of review which appeals to the ordinary reader who wishes to arrive at a serviceable knowledge of the sub- ject, and in that, I think, consists its merits. Mr. Gosnell, though I judge him to have political leanings, has endeavored, and 1 think with success, to be impartial in his judgments and FOREWORD estimates of men and in his conclusions in respect of their policies. I should be less than human if I were not pleased that Mr. Gosnell gives to my father, Sir John Macdonald, a prom- inent place among those who accomplished the federation of the British North American Provinces, and acknowledges that he had very definite aims and high ideals in respect of Union in Canada and beyond Canada as it affected the Empire, His dominating idea was the co-operation of Canada in main- taining inviolate an Empire in which the well-tried principles and traditions of British institutions should always prevail and that whatever form ultimate British federation, of which he thought Canada would be a happy partner, might take, Brit- ish sovereignty of the people as represented in the King should be the cardinal feature. Hence he believed in calling it the "Kingdom of Canada," instead of the "Homimon of Canada," the King being the connecting constitutional link between all parts of the Empire, and allegiance to the Empire being the vital principle of all his politics. War has in a wonderful way cemented Empire sentiment which has hitherto 'been more or less nebulous. It is for this reason that we regret the atti- tude of Quebec which is the only doubtful factor in the wider solution we have to face after the war, because not much longer can we dally with the problems which persistently force themselves on us for final consideration. We must either be an Empire united in some form with constitutional bulwarks or a series of independent nations whose interests will become more and more diverse and unrelated. There is the much talked of kinship which counts for a good deal while it is young but grows cold and indifferent with age. It is now Teutonic ambitions for world supremacy as against British traditions in favor of a free world working out its own destiny untrammelled by dynastic complications. The key to the future liberty of nations is in the consolidation of the British Empire, with sympathetic alliances strong enough to FOREWORD ensure peace and prevent tyrannous domination by one coun- try over another. There is another feature of the story of Confederation which I did not fully realize until I read the manuscript. It is the extent to which railways and transportation generally have entered into and influenced that great national move- ment and undertaking. We find at the very outset in the Maritime Provinces a strong desire for the facilities of transportation afforded by railways and that only a few years after the first line in Great Britain had been laid down and its usefulness demonstrated. Isolated as the Maritime Provinces were people naturally wished to have communication with the outside world. They v/anted connection by rail with the adjoining states of the Union and they wanted to get into commercial touch with the Canada of that day. So far as either the people of the United States or the people of Canada were concerned there was no sentiment in the Atlantic Provinces at all. They knew the people of Canada scarcely as well as we know the people of Australia today and for practical purposes were farther away from them. The Maritime Provinces did not know Canada at all and their only interest in it I speak of the people as a whole was the possibility of an extension of trade and a wider outlook upon the world, an interest somewhat similar to what we feel in Newfoundland and the West Indies. Of course, we have the wider interest now in rounding out our Confederation on its 'broadest possible basis, the appeal to what I am pleased to feel is our strong national pride. But essentially sentiment in national affairs builds itself up and feeds upon material inter- ests and material expansion. There was no Canadian senti- ment, as such, and no Canadian national pride quite the opposite in 1864, as we know and feel it today. Our limits of vision were narrow and provincial. The glory of the United 'States is in the extent and resource of its great domain. That of the British is in the Empire upon which FOREWORD the sun never sets. Germany has developed a pride in and love for Fatherland as the result of consolidation of a number of Teutonic states in which one hundred"years ago such senti- ments were unknown. But at the bottom of it all has been the extension of the facilities of inter-communication at first, for centuries, ships, and then railways, and now a combination in system of both ships and railways. So in Canada the desire for railway com- munication and connection evolved the Intercolonial, which was the sine qua non of Confederation so far as the Maritime Provinces were concerned. We have an interesting analogue, though an illustration of the principle on a much bigger scale, of the Canadian Paci- fic railway, the sine qua non of British Columbia's entry into Union the joining of the east and west and perhaps in a more important sense the development of the entire West, whose marvellous expansion in three decades is wholly due, as a first cause, to that great national enterprise- As an example of the weight of considerations of political and material interest versus sentiment in national affairs although sentiment in the last analysis must be the binding cement we have the original proposal of the Hon. George Brown. The genesis of Confederation, so far as he was con- cerned, was a railway into the Middle West to develop that country and create a population which in voting power would offset and overcome "French-Canadian domination," against which he waged relentless warfare. It was not a political possibility in its original form, but it secured his assent to the Union of all the Provinces which would break the deadlock between Upper and Lower Canada and possibly achieve his object in another way. And just here permit me to interject this observation, Railways were the original problem of Confederation. They have remained the great problem of Canada since Confed- eration, not only in the Dominion as a whole, but in the Provinces, and if Newfoundland were added tomorrow to the FOREWORD sisterhood we should have an extension of the problem there. Governments have been made by their railway policies and more have been wrecked by them. In this way our railway problems are among the fruits of Confederation, and these problems are not less now than before, although our financial ability to cope with them is greater than ever. There have been big mistakes made in our railway policies from the very beginning and for the reason that in one sense and in many localities their prospective benefits were greatly magnified, and in another sense their importance as factors of local development have not been sufficiently appreciated. As a consequence we have too many railways for one purpose and not enough for another. A railway is an uncertain quantity from start to finish. It may, as in the case of the Canadian Pacific Railway, exceed in its success all anticipations, or it may, as in the case of some others, be very disappointing in results ; 'but as the Monetary Times, I think, suggested, we have this hope, even as to what we regard as mistakes for the present, they may in the years to come by new conditions and new developments 'be galvanized into successes. I feel, however, and have always left since I have 'begun to make a study of the railway problem that, as a corollary of Confed- eration, based as it was largely on railway considerations, the policies of the Dominion and of the Provinces should have been made to co-ordinate as to general and local requirements, so as to have avoided overlapping activities and jurisdictions. Thus we would have had a logical and comprehensive system, not as at present, one disjointed and duplicated in many parts. Returning to the main thought which I had in view, our transcontinental system of communication assisted materially in achieving another object of Confederation, and that is of extending our outlook beyond continental shores. We have had afforded us through our own territory outlets to the Orient and to Dominions of the Southern Seas by lines of steamships whose importance has been agumented by the logic of a Pacific cable. We have thus by these complements FOREWORD to Atlantic services virtually established the All Red Route, a material and substantial binder of Empire, for which senti- ment and large political considerations may some day find suitable constitutional habiliments. I have been induced to attach this Foreword to Mr. Gos- nell's Story of Confederation because of the important and peculiar relation which transportation bears to the whole subject in regard to both the narrower and wider aspects of Union. One of the features of interest to me in the story of the author is the manner in which, not obtrusively, however, and perhaps not intentionally, this relation has been traced from an obscure commencement to a splendid and logical con- clusion. Mr. Gosnell, as he says in his Introduction, has not indulged in attempted rhetorical flights or served up literary garnishings to his readers although the subject is full of temptations in that respect 'but, in my opinion, he has suc- ceeded in representing a plain and interesting narrative of events and exposition of conditions which have led up to our present proud position as a Dominion, now almost conspic- uous in world affairs. His book is also suggestive of much greater things yet to come. As Mr. Gosnell suggests, Confed- eration is still in the making and the resources of statesman- ship have not yet been exhausted, or indeed have they yet come up to the mark of determining the possibilities of the future. These shall be requisitioned to the full in "The Work of Big Men After the War." THE AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION THE first of July of the present year having been the Fiftieth Anniversary of Canadian Federation, I was induced to write a series of articles for the Victoria Daily Colonist, entitled "The Story of Confederation." These met with a good deal of favour from readers, and as a result of requests from numerous sources, I have undertaken their publication in book form. I have dealt with the subject from the time of the first suggestions in the direction of the consolidation of the various parts of British North America up to the present time, and in some measure prospectively as well. Confederation is yet in the making, and I have endeavoured to deal with it not only in the general and wider aspects as relates to the consummation of union in 1867, but to the subsequent incor- poration of Provinces from time to time, with some reference to the conditions which governed the entry of each, and to sundry modification of terms and readjustment of financial relations. I have dealt with British Columbia at greater length than with any of the other Provinces, for several reasons, one being the natural inclination to be more liberal in attention to one's own Province ; another being that in its federal rela- tions it has a history peculiarly its own ; and still another being that that history is least known and least understood in Canada. I have had occasion, and perhaps more favour- able opportunities than most persons, to study federation from the British Columbia point of view, and I trust that my treatment of the subject will in that respect be somewhat illuminating. 12 THE AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION The endeavour has been throughout to give a plain, jour- nalistic statement of events and conditions associated with the evolution of Canada's nationhood. The subject lends itself to fine writing and the temptation to grandiose rhetoric and literary garnishings is very great, a temptation I would have resisted, even if I had possessed these accomplishments. Had it not been for a natural indolence and lack of time I might have rewritten the articles to harmonize the style with the greater dignity of the book. With a few alter- ations and slight editorial revision, however, the Story of Confederation is here printed as it originally appeared, and its merits must be judged -from a journalistic rather than from the bibliographic point of view. Speaking prospectively, the future of Canada is, in the opinion of many of our leading publicists, still a serious problem, rendered not the less perplexing on account of the War, which has given to our federation and all the federa- tions of the Empire a new significance and a newer outlook. Personally, although I may fall within the category of those who venture where angels fear to tread, I have no doubts about the final solution and have no fears of the lions in the pathway. In the concluding remarks of the volume I have, at least, indicated possibilities, possibilities made brighter and more certain on account of the success achieved by the lesser federa- tion whose steady development and splendid prosperity exem- plify in a remarkable way the truth of the old saw, "great oaks from little acorns grow." THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION ARTICLE I. FIFTY years ago, on the first of July of this year, which has ever since been known as Dominion Day, the prin- ciple of Confederation had concrete expression in the British North America Act, then brought into effect. The old colonies of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were brought together under the terms of a written constitu- tion, but one in which was contained and continued intact the best of free, expanding and traditional institutions of British government. The B. N. A. Act, as it is more commonly termed, made provision for the inclusion of the other colonies of British North America whenever they chose to come in, and for the organization of the other Provinces in the Middle West as the territory developed and became sufficiently popu- lated. Newfoundland is now the only colony of British North America which is not represented in the sisterhood of J. S. Ewart, the well known constitutional lawyer and the author of "Kingdom Papers," has taken serious exception to the use of the term "Confederation" as applying to the Dominion. As a matter of exact terminology the exception is well taken. Canada is not a confederation but a federation, although from the point of derivation, apart from the recognized meaning, the use of "Confederation" could be justified. Murray's Oxford Dictionary gives the following definition of Confederation: "1. * * * * A league, an alliance (between persons or states), in modern use only the latter. "2. A number of states (or formerly of persons) united by a league; a body of states united for certain common purposes. "In modern common use 'Confederation' is usually limited to a permanent union of sovereign states for common action in relation to external affairs. Such were the fol- lowing: Germanic Confederation, the union of the German States under the presidency of the Emperor of Austria from 1815 to 1866; Confederation of the Rhine, the union of certain German States under the protection of Napoleon Bonaparte from 1806 to 1873; New England Confederation, the union of four New England Colonies for common defence against the Dutch and the Indians, 1643-84. The United States are commonly described as a confederation (or confederacy) from 1777 to 1789; but from 1780 their closer union has been considered a 'federation' or federal republic." There is no question that the Canadian union cannot be strictly regarded as a con- federation, which involves a compact or alliance by treaty among sovereign powers for some common purpose, but without reference to the direction of local affairs; but the term has been so persistently and invariably used in Canada from the very outset that it may be said to have become authorized by general consent and constant usage. If I were to give to this book the title of "The Story of Federation," the majority of readers would have to read the contents to gather 'the purport of the phrase. One might almost as well try to give a new name to Canada itself. 14 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION provinces. That ancient colony had representatives at the celebrated conference of 1864, but the scheme as submitted to the people subsequently was voted down by a large majority, and they have never evinced any disposition to join Canada since. It is not necessary here to discuss the reasons, but as the war has changed everything it is likely to be fol- lowed by the complete rounding out of Confederation by the addition of Newfoundland. Perhaps nothing affecting the destinies of the British Empire has been so significant as the consolidation of the British possessions in North America under the title of the Dominion of Canada. It has had a far-reaching effect in stimulating similar consolidations in Australasia and in Southern Africa, and it may well be that the example set by Canada in 1867 will be followed in that wider and closer con- solidation of the Empire, which it is predicted will come after the war. Claims have been made for Joseph How, Sir. Chas. Tupper, George Brown and Sir John Macdonald as having first advocated Confederation, and having promoted the move- ment. None of these can be established. As a matter of fact, the first proposal dates as far back as 1600, the idea being to unite Anglo-American colonies for purposes of defence against the French and hostile Indians. The second proposal was in _l 754^55 . and originated with no less a personage than Benjamin Franklin himself. In 1775 Wm. Smith, who was afterwards a chief justice, proposed a plan of union, but was banished to Canada, and one authority refers to him a*s "the grandfather of Confederation." And so from that time at frequent intervals it was advocated and supported by prom- inent men, in the newspapers and magazines, in books and pamphlets and by legislative resolutions. I can give you a list of over fifty of the times and occasions, and these could no doubt be greatly multiplied ; but the four men referred to were certainly early and strong advocates. Sir John A. Mac- donald attended a meeting in Montreal in 1849, at which a THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 15 resolution in favour of union was passed, and in the same year the British North American League, which, according to the Hon. Alexander Morris, was composed of the advanced wing of the Conservative party "that rallied around the banner of John A. Macdonald." Sir Charles Tupper in his reminiscences does not claim to go back of 1860, when he delivered a lecture in St. John, New Brunswick, on the sub- ject. Of Joseph Howe, his biographer, Hon. J. W. Longley, has said : "When Johnston, in 1854, moved a resolution and made an eloquent speech in favour of union of the British North American provinces, Howe had spoken in anything but enthusiastic terms in support of Johnston's resolution. On the contrary, he pitted against this proposition a wider and more dazzling prospect of Imperial Union. It is just to affirm that while Howe recognized the value and importance of Canadian Confederation, he always cherished a lurking fear that the Maritime Provinces would be completely over- shadowed and absorbed by the Upper Provinces by such a union." Of the Hon. George Brown's share in bringing about Confederation reference will be made later. The leading Canadians who supported the movement were Chief Justice Sewell (1814 and 1822), William Lyon Mackenzie (1831), Bishop Strachan (1838), Hon. Hamilton Merritt (1851), Colonel Rankin (1851), Hon. J. W. Johnston, in the legislature of Nova Scotia (1854), R. S. Hamilton, Nova Scotia (1855), Hon. J. H. Gray, in New Brunswick legislature (1856), J. C. Tache, Quebec (1857), Hon. A. T. Gait, Toronto (1857), and in the Canadian Legislature, supported by the Hon. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, in 1859; at later dates Sir George E. Carter, Sir John Rose, Hon. Alexander Morris, Sir Charles Tupper, Sir John A. Macdonald, Hon. Joseph Howe, Hon. George Brown, and, of course, we have others who were delegates at the Charlottetown Conference of 1864, which included William Macdougall, Alexander Campbell, Oliver Mowat, H. L. Langevin (of Old Canada), A. G. Archi- bald and R. B. Dickie, of Nova Scotia; Sir Leonard Tilley, Hon. Charles Mitchell and J. H. Gray, New Brunswick ; the THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 17 Hon. Colonel Gray, E. Palmer, W. H. Pope (father of Sir Joseph Pope), and A. A. McDonald, Prince Edward Island. These were not all the most prominent after Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Charles Tupper and George Brown.* But in any review of the persons who are deserving of credit is included the late Judge Thomas Chandler Haliburton, famous in Canadian literature as the creator of the character of "Sam Slick," whose vision of Empire, as revealed in his writings was greater, wider and farther in the future than that of any other Canadian, not even excepting Joseph Howe. He was the first and the best of Canadian humorists. It will be seen, therefore, from this cursory outline of the movement in its inception that confederation of the British possessions in North America is something which was for a long time in the air, just as some form of Imperial federation has been in the air for many years and to whom to attach some special credit on its account as the originator would be most difficult. Before leaving this phase of the subject it would be well to remember the celebrated report of Lord Durham in 1839, in which there was the first definite and official recommendations in regard to union of all the Canadian colonies and parts of British North America. Without any dou'bt that report, whether written by himself or his secretary, had much to do with formulating opinion on the subject. * On Wednesday, August 8th, of this year, Sir James Grant, in replying to an address of the City of St. Catherines, the freedom of which had been extended to him, after referring to the Welland Canal constructed in 1824, he said: "Near reference to the C. P. R. recalls a period almost of ancient history. In 1849 and 1860 I entered the medical department of McGill University, guest of the late Allen McDonald, ex-Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. During my college term frequent conferences were held on the Great West, at which Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and ex-chief factors resident in Montreal, took an active interest. I thus obtained valuable information in spare hours on this great and unknown territory in the residence of Mr. McDonald. In 1854, at graduation, I located at Bytown, afterwards Ottawa City. In 1862 I delivered a lecture on the union of the different parts of Canada and binding together by an iron splint, a railway to promote trade and commerce. "The following day Sir John invited me to Earnscliffe, and enquired where I obtained the facts for the lecture. 'From Sir George Simpson and ex-chief factors of the Hudson's Bay Company,' I replied. 'You must come into parliament,' said Sir John, and in 1871 I was elected for the county of Russell at Confederation. Some time afterward I was summoned to Stadacona Hall, where Sir John had a slight cold. lie was seated in an arm chair in his studio reading a book, in which was a yellow marker, which he with- drew and asked me to read, a cable received the night previous from Grenfell, London, announcing arrangements had been completed for the construction of the C. P. R." 18 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION ARTICLE II. In a previous article I gave what might be termed the genesis of Confederation. Reference has 'been made to the Conference of Charlottetown in 1864, which was adjourned to Quebec in the same year, where a basis of Confederation was arrived at and presented in a series of resolutions, seventy-two in number. It is not the intention here to give the history of that conference, or outline its discussions, or describe its personnel. These are matters which will form the subjects of a separate article. I shall rather anticipate the results and refer to the attitude of mind in which they were received in the various provinces and colonies affected by the proposals. Railways and Confederation are so closely associated that they could not be considered apart. They were comple- mentary in their relations to each other. The Maritime Provinces were sequestered from Canada, with which they had not even a nodding acquaintance. Before Confederation railways in New Brunswick occupied the attention of its people. Ten years after the first railway was in operation in England an agitation was started in that province, and it is stated, by the way, that New Brunswick today has more railways in proportion to its population than any other country in the world, except British Columbia, something over 2,000 miles. A meeting was held in St. Andrew's in 1853 to discuss a railway to Quebec, the line of which was surveyed the following year. It was not until 1858 that it was completed as far as Canterbury and not until 1868 as far as Woodstock. The first sod of a railway from St. John to Shediac, on the Straits of Northumberland, was turned in 1853, and it was on this occasion that the conception of Confederation had its first definite and specific expression in that province. In the address presented to Sir Edmund Head, Lieutenant- Governor, this appeared: "Our sister colonies and ourselves, though under the same flag and enjoying the same free THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 19 institutions, are comparatively strangers to each other, our interests disunited, our feelings estranged, our objects divided. From this work, from this time, a more intimate union, a more lasting intercourse must arise, and the British provinces become a powerful and united portion of the British Empire." It would be hardly possible to frame a better description of the situation or one that could have proved more prophetic. His Excellency in replying cordially endorsed the sentiment, and expressed the hope that the people of Canada (Ontario and Quebec of today, then called Upper and Lower Canada), Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island would speedily realize that their interests were identical and be inspired with a unity of purpose and of action such as had not yet existed, and he added : "If these sentiments prevail I have no fear for the future greatness of British North America." Unfortunately, when the sentiment was put to test after the conference of 1864, the only opposition, and in Nova Scotia it was very bitter, came from the Maritime Provinces, where the idea of Confederation was practically first conceived. The new railway was called the European & North American Railway, and was part of a plan to connect the great cities of the United States with an eastern port in the Atlantic provinces, in order to shorten the voyage to Europe. It was not until 1871 that, with great eclat, the President of the United States honoring the occasion with his presence, was the last spike driven to complete the connection. Conditions governing railway and ocean transportation since that time 'have greatly changed. The Canadian Pacific Railway built a short line through Maine, and the slow passage across the Atlantic is now a thing of the past. The conditions which prompted building the European & North American Railway no longer exist. The Intercolonial Railway, however, from Halifax to Quebec first gave the connection in Canada desired and anticipated, and as a railway of national importance it was essentially a part of the Confederation scheme so far as 20 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION the Maritime Provinces were concerned, just as the C.P.R. was part of Confederation so far as British Columbia was concerned. A delegation of influential men, which included representatives from Canada, went to England in 1861 to press upon the authorities there the importance of aiding in the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. Curiously enough just at that time the Trent affair occurred, and with the intense excitement which followed war was all but declared 'between Great Britain and the United States. Troops were hurriedly sent to Canada, and as winter was at hand they had to be sent to Quebec through New Brunswick. The difficulty and delay attending transportation by sleds, as a writer puts it, served as an object lesson to statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic, and led the Home Government to more seriously consider the construction of a railway for military purposes, as they did later on consider the C.P.R. in a similar connection. The building of the Intercolonial was the price paid for the entrance of the Maritime Provinces into Confederation. It was carried out as a Government enterprise, and from the first was regarded, as it was, as a political rather than a commercial undertaking. The present, what was known as the "northern route," was selected out of deference to the judgment of the Imperial authorities for military reasons. Sir Sandford Fleming, who later distin- guished himself as a great Imperialist, not only in theory but in constructive policy, and who wrote a history of the Intercolonial, had charge of surveys and construction. As a political factor it paid Canada, but as a commercial venture it has been a loss. Railways, therefore, have cemented the political structure of Canada in a manner which otherwise would not have been possible. The Intercolonial brought in the Maritime Provinces, the C.P.R. made the West; the Grand Trunk, the Great Western and the Northern energized and along with the canals developed the trade of Quebec and Ontario, and, essentially, the basis of Confederation and its chief incentive was interprovincial trade. 'Sentiment was the THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 21 least important factor, although it fed the imagination of the earliest promoters. j/ Confederation began with the desire of the Maritime Provinces for a Maritime union, and the movement was followed closely by Canadian statesmen. The British Govern- ment took very little interest in the initiation. There was a section of British politicians and economists, whose mouth- piece for the time being was The London Times, who regarded the "colonies" as an incubus rather than as a benefit. At no time I think did this attitude represent the feelings of the bulk of the people of Great Britain ; but having in mind the events in America which followed on after the Boston "tea party" they refrained from bringing pressure to bear upon the colonies, and this was wise as the sequence of events in Canada and in the Empire has shown. In ' 1864, the Maritime Provinces held a convention for the purpose of negotiating a union among themselves. It so happened that about that very time a memorable meeting was being held in the St. Louis Hotel, Quebec, where Sir John Macdonald, Sir Alexander Gait and the Hon. George Brown met to endeavor to compose the differences between Upper and Lower Canada, which had resulted in a deadlock in which no political progress seemed to be possible. Brown, perhaps, more than any other person, was responsible for this condition of affairs, and having his eyes opened to the consequences of such a situation, through the mediation of Lord Monck, held out the olive leaf to Sir John, and together they agreed at this meeting that the Government should negotiate for a Confederation of all the provinces. If this failed, as Sir Joseph Pope puts it, they should then introduce the federal principle in Canada alone, while providing for the future incorporation of the Maritime Provinces and the West. On this understanding, says Pope, Oliver Mowat, Brown and William McDougall entered the Cabinet. William McDougall was afterwards more familiarly known as "Wan- dering Willie" from his proclivity to shift party allegiance. THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 23 As already stated, steps were being taken for a maritime union and a conference had been called to be held in Charlotte- town. The Canadian Government at once appointed a dele- gation of twelve to seek admission to the conference to discuss the question of including all the British provinces in North America. The whole history of events in Canada was changed by the momentous decision to admit them, and the masterful mind of Sir John Macdonald dominated the proceedings. If he did not initiate the 'movement, or take the first step, his genius for organization of men and practical measures caused him to emerge as the greatest of the Fathers of Confederation in solving its problems. ARTICLE III. The immediate causes of Confederation are now so remote that they are largely forgotten by the older genera- tion and not understood by the younger generations, who have grown up under conditions wholly unlike those which existed sixty or seventy years ago in Canada. Confederation was not, as in Germany, the result of a definite, determined policy, but of political and physical exigencies. By a fortunate conjunction of political causes as they affected Canada and those which affected the Maritime Provinces, quite different in each case, there was afforded the solution of several difficult problems. We had no Bismarck in British North America in those days and no Hohenzollern dynasty whose ambitions for consolidation and a dominant Prussia had to be satisfied. As provinces we were brought together by pure force of circumstances. I have already pointed out that the Confederation move- ment had its nucleus in a practical way in the desire of the Maritime Provinces for a Maritime union. There arose from the isolation of their position the needs of communication with the outside world much greater than they possessed, and their inability as individual units to satisfy those needs. Had Canada depended upon a national policy 24 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION and a Bismarck to carry it to a successful consummation the Provinces of Canada would in all probability now have been states of an American union. At the time I refer to, the old "Family Compact" everywhere was a thing of the past, and the fight for responsible government had been ended. In Canada, however, as the result of the union of Quebec and Ontario in 1841, the basis of which was illogical and unworkable, government had come to a deadlock, and in order to make this quite plain I shall have to be somewhat retrospective, as history enters very largely into a situation which became intolerable. As I have said, the bitter struggle against the Family Compact was ended, but, as nails driven into a wall after being extracted leave their scars, so the fight left its acrid memories. The Family Compact, though a regrettable factor in Canadian history, represented the aristocracy of the country, and also unswerving loyalty to Great Britain and British institutions, then not quite so enlightened in relation to the common people and not so democratic as they are today, and very naturally those who desired a change associated the two facts in their minds. The politics of the country ranged itself on the sides of Reformers and Tories, in the first instance, and afterwards of Clear Grits, led by George Brown, and the Conservatives, whose virtual leader after he joined the Draper administration in 1847, was John Macdonald. All the old bitterness of the Family Compact days was imported into the new order of affairs, and few at the present time can realize the venom which was displayed in politics then and for over forty years after. While the people of Canada were at all times as a body loyal to the core to Great Britain and the Sovereign, not unnaturally some of the leaders of the radical party and many of their followers were regarded as rebels by the other side, and so bitterness was always being intensified. The Union of Upper and Lower Canada was a step toward Confederation, but a very imperfect one. In 1840 the basis of union was provided for. It involved equal represen- THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 25 tation from the two provinces, dual leadership, and double majority. Although Quebec at the time of the union had more than half the population of Canada, Upper and Lower Canada were each given forty-two representatives, and that was a solemn and fixed agreement, which could not be. altered without mutual consent. Here was the seed of trouble, because Ontario developed much more rapidly than Quebec, and soon outstripped the latter in population and production. The Hon. George Brown, who had become a power in Upper Canada as editor of The Globe, which he established in 1844, and who was a fervid and forceful speaker, attacked this principle and advocated what was known as "rep" by "pop," or representation toy population, not in constituencies, but as between the two provinces. Dual leadership meant that there should be two premiers or leaders, one from each province, and so without reference to order there was a succession of administrations known as Morin-McNab, Tache-Mac- donald, Hincks-Morin, Brown-Dorion, Macdonald-Sicotte, Cartier-Macdonald, Macdonald-Cartier, Baldwin-Lafontaine, and so on, all of which were short-lived, and had to depend upon a double majority of votes in Parliament. That is, every measure or resolution had to be carried by a majority in both provinces, and, considering the number of controversial questions, sectional, religious and racial, which were constantly being intruded into the arena by, particularly, George Brown, leader of the Clear Grits in Ontario, Protestant, English-speaking and radical, as opposed to Quebec, Catholic, French and essentially Conservative, it is no wonder that in time there came about a political impasse in which union threatened to go to pieces. The hyphenated principle was no more popular then than it is just now in the United States. Among the questions which agitated Canada in those days were representation .by population, the abolition of seigneurial tenure in Lower Canada, the seculari- zation of clergy reserves in Upper Canada, compensation for rebellion losses, the seat of Parliament, which, like our Easter, 26 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION was a movable feast, and separate schools. These questions were all settled in time, and would have been settled without much hardness of feeling had not .George Brown, in The Globe and in Parliament, discussed them in his vehement and uncompromising way, and in a spirit which alienated Quebec from sympathy with the union and sowed the seeds of discord, as between that province and Quebec, which are still bearing fruit. There was this essential difference between Sir John and his implacable rival Brown, that the one bided his time to bring about what he considered should be done, and saw clearly ahead the difficulties which he had to overcome. The other was impetuous and brooked of no delay. Incidentally through the estrangement brought about by Brown's course with his old-time moderate reform allies, the party known as Liberal-Conservatives came into existence, when men like Mowat and Macdougall joined hands with Sir John to bring about a better state of affairs, and it continued to exist with few defections after Confederation. So we come to the time when Brown, seeing the logical results of his own course, came to Sir John Macdonald, at the instigation of Lord Monck, Governor-General, offering to co-operate with the latter in some scheme to relieve the situation. Gait, at the memorable meeting in Quebec, proposed as a remedy a federal union of all the Provinces. Gait had in 1858 formed one of a delegation that went to England to discuss the subject of Confederation with the Imperial authorities, and that may be regarded as the beginning of the movement in that direction. Brown's idea, however, was not national in its conception. His idea, obsessed as he was with the principle of representa- tion by population, was to build a line of railway to the Middle West, developing and settling the prairies with an English population, giving the latter a preponderance over the French. Persuaded that such a measure was impossible to be carried through, he agreed to a Confederation of all the Provinces, and a fusion of forces was effected, after which a delegation attended the Charlottetown Conference. THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 27 In Ontario the Charlottetown programme met with little or no opposition. In Quebec there was little enthusiasm displayed, and a great deal of sectional and other prejudice had to be overcome. The man who was mainly responsible for bringing Quebec into line was the late Sir George Etienne Cartier, for long a close colleague of Sir John. He was undoubtedly one of the ablest men Quebec ever produced, a man loyal to the state, scrupulous in honesty both publicly and privately, and in whom his compatriots of Lower Canada had the fullest confidence. The adherence of Quebec was obtained as the result of a series of compromises without which it would have been impossible, and in the great debate in Parliament, when the Confederation resolutions were moved, George Brown admitted the fact and approved of it. It was different in the Maritime Provinces, in which the opposition to Confederation was led by Nova Scotia, of which Sir Joseph Howe was the uncrowned king. He had fought the fight of responsible government against executive Family Compact rule, which he won by almost unaided efforts. It is acknowledged that he possessed the most consummate skill of any man in our history as an effective popular orator, and as an editorial writer he was easily in the very first rank. He had the graces of inspirational speaking and writing, both in prose and poetry, which George Brown lacked, gifts, in addition to his personality, which endeared him to the hearts of the people. It is said that the opposition to Confederation in Nova Scotia was not so much to the principle as to the manner in which it was proposed to give it effect. The two Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were undoubtedly brought in against their will, but they were powerless from the fact that they had been committed to the scheme by their representatives in the conference, and could only protest, which Joseph Howe, did with all his might and with such effect, so far as popular opinion was concerned, that only two Unionists were returned for the Local Assembly after the arrangement was confirmed THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 29 and only one to the federal House. The latter was Sir Charles Tupper, then Dr. Tupper, the man responsible for the entrance of Nova Scotia into Confederation, and for much else that was of importance in this period of our history. It is not necessary to discuss the reasons which caused Howe to take the position he did, because the point will probably never be settled. He was getting on in years. There may have been considerations of his own part in the movement, and pos- sibly hostility to Dr. Tupper, his great antagonist, whose debates with the latter have been described as a "battle of giants." One can never tell to what extent the personal element is involved even among really great men. Howe continued to oppose Confederation until it was consummated, and went to England to endeavor to have the union repealed. He subsequently came under the spell of Sir John Macdonald, who, after giving Nova Scotia Better Terms, took him into his Cabinet and subsequently made him Lieutenant-Governor. He became very unpopular in Nova Scotia as a consequence of his change in policy, and died of a broken heart. Long ago, however, his memory became rehabilitated in the affec- tions of his native province. The late Sir Leonard Tilley stood in about the same relationship with New Brunswick in connection with Con- federation as did Sir Charles Tupper in Nova Scotia, but his task was a much easier one, as opposition was much less keenly directed toward it. However, the electors of New Brunswick, no more than those, of Nova Scotia, were consulted in the details. Opposition was also very strong in Prince Edward Island, which did not come in for several years later. The opposition of all three provinces arose largely out of the supposition that their entity was being submerged into that of the greater Province of Canada, and their interests made subsidiary. No one in the Maritime Provinces today would contend that any of the fears of pre- Confederation days have been realized. As a matter of fact, the statesmen who came from these provinces took a very 30 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION important part in Canadian affairs, and exercised a tremen- dous influence upon its destinies. i ARTICLE IV. While I shall have occasion again to refer to the attitude of some of the provinces represented at the Charlottetown Conference, and that of some of the men who were leaders of public opinion, I now come direct to the celebrated conference, the results of which were destined to be so momentous for Canada. To Dr. Tupper, later Sir Charles, is due the almost sole credit of initiating it. The first man he invited to attend was Joseph Howe, who, although he had moved a resolution in the Legislature of Nova Scotia, which was seconded by Dr. Tupper was unanimously passed in its favor, excused himself on the ground that he was a fishery officer of the Imperial Government, but at the same time wished the convention every success. The conference was to be held at Charlottetown on September i, 1864, and as soon as wind of it got to Canada and the Liberal-Conservative coalition was effected, a dispatch was sent in the name of the Governor- General to the Governors of the Maritime Provinces inquiring whether the Charlottetown Conference would receive a dele- gation from Canada, "whic'h wished," to use Sir Charles Tupper's own words, "to express its views on the wider union." The suggestion was very welcome to the members of the conference, and so were the delegates, who were received with open arms. So isolated were the Maritime Provinces from old Canada then that a visit of prominent citizens of the latter was as much an event as if a deputation today came to Canada from South Africa on some important mission. The delegation from Canada comprised : John A. Macdonald, Hon. George Brown, Hon. Alexander T. Gait, Hon. George E. Cartier, Hon. Hector L. Langevin, Hon. Wm. Macdougall, and Hon. D'Arcy McGee, all of whom took prominent part in affairs in Confederation, and to whom subsequent personal THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 31 references will be made. The names of several of them will be permanently part of Canadian history. The conference at Charlottetown was only preliminary, with the single result of it being decided to adjourn to Quebec in October. I am not aware of any minutes of that conference having been kept or of any informal account of them being published. What was important about it was that it gave the Canadian dele- gates an opportunity of familiarizing themselves with the people, the conditions, the natural resources and the views of the leaders. There was a series of meetings held. What I have been able to obtain is taken from a book entitled "Confederation of Canada," written by the late Hon. J. Hamilton Gray, a member of the Supreme Court Bench of British Columbia, a former Premier of New Brunswick, and one of the Fathers of Confederation. It states: "The advantages of such a union, and the outlines of the proposed constitution should union be effected were submitted by the Hon. John A. Macdonald, ably supported by Messrs. Brown and Cartier. The financial position of Canada was contrasted with the several provinces, their several sources of wealth, their comparative increase, the detrimental way in which their conflicting tariffs operated to each other's disadvantage, the expansion of their commerce, the expansion of their manufactures and the development of the various internal resources that would be fostered by a free intercourse of trade, and a greater unity of interest were pointed out with great power by Mr. Gait. In a speech of three hours statistics were piled upon statistics confirming his various positions and producing a marked effect upon the convention. It might be said of him as was once said of Pope, though speaking of figures in a different sense (He lisped in numbers for the numbers came). Messrs. McGee, Langevin and Macdougall briefly but strenuously corrobor- ated the views of their colleagues, and, after two days' command of the undivided attention of the convention, the Canadian deputies withdrew. 32 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION "Before doing- so, however, they proposed that the convention should suspend its deliberations upon the imme- diate subject for which they met, and should adjourn to Quebec at an early day, to be subsequently named by the Governor-General, there further to consider the wider and broader union which had been proposed. On the following day the convention deemed it better for the general interests of British North America that an adjournment should take place, and agreed to report to their respective governments what had occurred." While in Prince Edward Island the members of the Canadian delegation were most hospitably entertained, and many speeches were made. Judge Gray throws a sidelight on the subject by telling us that while Mr. Dundas, Lieuten- ant-Governor of the Island, cordially cheered on the move- ment, it was well known to the New Brunswick delegation that the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, Mr. Gordon, who was at the time on a visit to Mr. Dundas, was not friendly, though, with diplomatic reticence, he was most cautious in expressing his opinions, and it -was believed that the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia was equally unfriendly. This may have had something to 'do with the subsequent attitude of the Maritime Provinces on the ques- tion, but one never knows the undercurrents which influence public opinion at a time when all the men who took part are dead and gone. From Charlottetown the Canadian delegates went to Halifax, where, accepting Judge Gray's version, a pro forma meeting of the convention was held on September 10 in the Legislative Council chamber, but no business of any import- ance was done, and the further consideration of Confederation was by unanimous consent postponed until after the details should be fully entered into at the proposed conference at Quebec. The presence of the Canadian delegates was taken advantage of both at Halifax and St. John, New Brunswick, to give opportunity to the leading citizens to hear their views, THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 33 which were expressed at banquets at which Brown, Cartier, Macdonald, Gait and others spoke. Perhaps the most illum- inating of all the speeches from an informative point of view was made by the Hon. George Brown, who, as a journalist and a student of public affairs, had a veritable store of facts at his disposal, and, along with the Hon. A. T. Gait, shared the honors of the conference and subsequent proceedings in that respect. We learn that the population of all the provinces represented, including Newfoundland, was about 3,750,000, and the total number of males between twenty and sixty years of age about 700,0000. Of the lands held by private parties there were over 45,500,000 acres, of which 13,000,000 acres were under cultivation. The value of farm products was estimated at about $150,000,000, and the assessed value of farm lands at $550,000,000. Considering the low value of land and farm products in those days, Canada, it will be seen, had made very considerable progress under very serious disadvantages. George Brown, in his speech at Halifax, said: "I might continue this analysis through our whole industrial pursuits, and show one and all of them in the same high efficiency ; I might tell you how we exported last year $15,000,000 in timber alone (one-half of the present production of British Columbia in lumber in value R.E.G.) ; I might expose to you the rapidly increasing importance of our coal mines, our iron works and our petroleum wells (Oil wells had been developed in the county of Lambton, Ont., in which the honorable gentleman was personally interested R.E.G.), I might enlarge on the fast rising importance of our manu- factures. . . . Let me, however, wind up with this, that were the provinces all united tomorrow they would have an annual export trade of no less than $65,000,000 and an import traffic to an equal amount (The aggregate trade of Canada is now over $2,000,000,000 R.E.G.) ; they would have 2,500 miles of railway (At the present time there are nearly 40,000 miles of railway in Canada R.E.G.) ; telegraph wires extending to every city and town throughout the country, and an annual THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 35 government revenue of nearly $13,000,000 (Revenue of Canada is now about $275,000,000 R.E.G.). It needs no special wisdom to perceive that a state presenting such resources and offering such varied and lucrative employment to the immi- grant and the capitalist would at once occupy a high position, and attract to it the marked attention of other countries. It would be something to be a citizen of such a state (It is R.E.G.)" It is impossible within the limits of reasonable space to even give a synopsis of the various speeches, but one by Sir John Macdonald is important in reflecting that peculiarly practical temperament of his and his bent in the direction of Imperial unity to which we are now so rapidly moving. "We were," he said, "at present states of one sovereign, and all paid allegiance to the great central authority; but as between ourselves, there is no political connection, and we are as wide apart as British America was from Australia. But we must have one common organization, one political government. It has been said that the United States Govern- ment is a failure. I do not go so far. On the contrary, I consider it a marvellous exhibition of human wisdom. It was as perfect as human wisdom could make it, and under it the United States prospered greatly until very recently. But being the work of men it had its defects ; and it is for us to take advantage of experience and avoid the mistakes, and endeavor to see if we cannot arrive, by careful study, at such a plan as will avoid the mistakes of our neighbors." After dwelling upon what he considers the weaknesses of the United States' constitution, which are well understood now, he observed : "Then we shall have taken a great step in advance of the American Republic. If we can only obtain that object, a vigorous general government, we shall not be New Bruns- wickers nor Nova Scotians, but British Americaps, under the sway of the British sovereign. In discussing the question of local union we must consider what is desirable and practic- able; we must consult local prejudices and aspirations. It 36 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION is our desire to do so. I hope that we shall be enabled to work out a Constitution that will have a strong central government, able to offer a powerful resistance to any foe whatever, and at the same time will preserve for each province its own identity, and will protect every local ambition ; and if we cannot do that we shall not be able to carry out the object we have in view. ... If we allow so favorable an opportunity to pass, it may never come again. But I believe we have arrived at such a stage in our deliberations, that I may state without breach of confidence, that we all unitedly agree that such a measure is a matter of the first necessity and that only a few (imaginary, I believe) obstacles stand in the way of its consummation. I shall feel that I have not served in public life without a reward if, before I enter into private life, I am subject of a great British nation, under the Government of His Majesty, and in connection with the Empire of Great Britain and Ireland." On October 10, 1864, at n a.m., in the Parliament Build- ings of Canada, in Quebec, the adjourned conference was opened. ARTICLE V. In the previous article a list of the delegates to the Quebec Conference was given, and the names* of the men represented the best brains of Canada, and while it may be * The representatives were as follows: Canada Hon. Sir Etienne P. Tache, Premier, M.L.C. ; Hon. John A. Macdonald, Attorney-General West, M.P.P.; Hon. George E. Cartier, Attorney-General East, M.P.P.; Hon. George Brown, President of the Executive Council, M.P.P. ; Hon. Alex. T. Gait, Finance Minister, M.P.P. ; Hon. Alex. Campbell, Commissioner of Crown Lands, M.L.C. ; Hon. William Macdougall, Provincial Secretary, M.P.P.; Hon. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Minister of Agriculture, M.P.P.; Hon. Hector Langevin, Solicitor-General East, M.P.P.; Hon. J. Cockburn, Solicitor-General West, M.P.P.; Hon. Oliver Mowat, Postmaster- General, M.P.P.; Hon. J. C. Chapais, Commissioner of Public Works, M.L.C. Nova Scotia Hon. Charles Tupper, Provincial Secretary, M.P.P.; Hon. W. A. Henry, Attorney-General, M.P.P.; Hon. R. B. Dickey, M.L.C.; Hon. Adams G. Archibald, M.P.P.; Hon. Jonathan McCully, M.L.C New Brunswick Hon. Samuel L. Tilley, Provincial Secretary, M.P.P.; Hon. John M. Johnson, Attorney-General, M.P.P.; Hon. Edward B. Chandler, M.L.C.; Hon. John Hamilton Gray, M.P.P.; Hon. Peter Mitchell, M.L.C.; Hon. Charles Fisher, M.P.P.; Hon. William H. Steves, M.L.C. Newfoundland Hon. F. B. T. Carter, M.P.P., Speaker of the House of Assembly; Hon. Ambrose Shea, M.P.P. Prince Edward Island Hon. John Hamilton Gray, Premier, M.P.P.; Hon. Edward Palmer, Attorney-General, M.P.P.; Hon. W. H. Pope, Provincial Secretary, M.P.P.; Hon. A. A. Macdonald, M.L.C.; Hon. T. H. Haviland. M.P.P.; Hon. Edward Whelan, M.L.C. THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 37 said that distance lends enchantment to the view I do not believe there was ever a time in our history when there were so many able and brilliant statesmen on the political horizon. In 1864 there were two British colonies on the Pacific Coast, Vancouver Island and British Columbia, but the Government of neither of them was invited to send representatives. In fact, it would have been a physical impossibility after the Charlottetown Conference was announced for either to have had notification, or to have sent delegates in time, and, of course, the Middle West was wholly unorganized territory, a Hudson's Bay Co. possession, an "imperium in imperio." The West, however, was kept in mind, and it was part of the programme of the Fathers of Confederation to include it when it should have been sufficiently developed and populated. The proceedings of the Quebec Conference was never set down in extenso. The records consist of a list of notes and resolutions, and of these we have a fairly complete list in Pope's "Confederation Documents." As secretary of Sir John Macdonald, Sir Joseph Pope had very ample access to all and sundry information in respect of this important gathering. The Hon. John Hamilton Gray, who was one of the dele- gates, is the only man who wrote extensively about the proceedings. When the Quebec Conference assembled all the prelim- inary sentimental considerations had been eliminated, the general principle of political consolidation having been approved of and decided upon. The delegates at once settled down to the prosaic business of adjusting the various relations that should subsist between the proposed Provinces and the proposed new Dominion. The questions which were discussed, and which were necessarily of a very delicate and complicated nature, involving as they did so many diverse interests and sectional views, must form somewhat dry material as pabulum for readers, but as forming the very substructure of Confederation they are of extreme importance. Everything depended upon how the details were worked 38 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION out in order to satisfy a variety of conditions to ,be harmon- ized. Sir Etienne P. Tache, Premier of Quebec, was unani- mously chosen as President. Judge Gray makes a very appropriate and graceful reference in his opening account : "Thus was opened a convention whose deliberations were to have a marked bearing upon the future of British North America. The time, the men, the circumstances were pecu- liar. The place of meeting was one of historical interest. Beneath the shadow of Cape Diamond, on the ruins of the old castle of St. Louis, with the broad St. Lawrence stretching away in front, the Plains of Abraham in sight, and the St. Charles winding its silvery course through scenes replete with memories of old France, where scarce a century gone the Fleur de Lys and the Cross of St. George had waved in deadly strife, now stood the descendants of those gallant races, the Saxon and the Gaul, hand in hand, with a common country and a common cause." There were other things which added to the solemnity of the occasion, should I say. Less than a century before the other American colonies of Great Britain had formed a federation of States, but independent of the flag under whose egis a new Canada was now coming into existence. In that Republic a great strife was going on in which the principles of its constitution were being tested in the crucible of civil war. In connection with the war complications had arisen between Great Britain and the United States which threat- ened hostilities between the two countries. In such an event Canada would naturally be invaded. Owing to a series of misunderstandings a great deal of bitter feeling was fomented on the other side of the line, which, fortunately, for the greater part, has long since passed away. In the first place there arose a discussion as to publicity being given to the debates, but it was decided, and a mutual understanding was arrived at, to the effect that to have the freest possible discussion of all matters, so as not to affect local prejudices while conclusions were being reached, the THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 39 proceedings should be conducted in camera, a plan which had as a precedent the Philadelphia Conference in 1787 in similar circumstances. It was also decided that as the Canadian representation was numerically much greater than that of any other of the provinces, the voting should be by provinces, so that equal weight should be given to all, the representatives of each province in groups consulting apart on every propo- sition advanced, and reporting as a unit through their chair- man. First in order of importance on the agenda was the basic nature of the union, whether a legislative or a- federal union. To illustrate, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales form at present a legislative union, with a central Parliament and a central administration dealing with all matters, whether local or general. It was obvious that in a country of such vast extent as British North America, with varying local wants and conditions, the federal principle was greatly to be preferred, and that was very quickly approved of. Thus was established the principle of local autonomy, or home rule in local affairs, and federal authority in matters of common interest and affecting all. Then as a natural corollary followed the question of the delegation of rights as between two powers. The experience of the United States, as particu- larly emphasized by the civil war, in state rights, was sufficient to cause the Conference to conclude that the opposite principle should be adopted. In the United States the source of power is the people as represented by the States of the Union, and what was known as residuary rights were delegated to the central authority. State rights were responsible for the civil war, and especially where international relations were affected, the federal government at Washington has been severely handicapped at times. In our case the central government is the fountain of authority and the powers of the provinces are delegated powers. But as Gray rightly remarks the results are practically the same, as in both countries the source of power is inherent in the people. THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 41 Perhaps the greatest difficulty experienced was in decid- ing as to the basis of representation in the federal Parliament. The Hon. George Brown had for many years been advocating representation by population in the old Parliament of Canada, and, as a matter of fact, as previously explained, that question was immediately responsible for the bringing about of Confederation. As we have found in British Columbia, and as has been demonstrated in other parts of Canada, with very unequal conditions the principle is not strictly applicable in practice, but so far as it was possible it was applied to federal representation. Quebec with sixty-five electoral divisions /was made the fixed unit of representation, so that after Confederation each province in each readjustment after the census-taking would have a representation in the same proportion as 65 bore to the population of Quebec. In the first instance, provincial representation was not altered. I am not going to discuss the merits of such a basis. Theoreti- cally it may not have been correct, but in a rough and ready way, and more or less equitably, it was the best that could be arrived at then, and as a basis has continued ever since. Representation in the Upper House was more easily arrived at, the provinces being divided into three groups, 24 to each group, although it was not so easy to determnie the method of the selection of Senators and their tenure of office. Brown perhaps more forcibly than anybody else advocated the present system of appointment by the executive for life. In more recent years there have been many suggestions for reform of the Senate, but the original plan has been adhered to, and for political reasons no government leader cared to take the initiative. As to the admission of western provinces as they were formed, no suggestions were made as to their representation, it being left for time and circumstances to arrange. In consideration of the fact .that the settlement of financial relations was easily the most important of all questions to be settled by the Conference, and that it requires far more 42 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION space than could be spared in an article which has almost reached its limit, I 'have decided to make it the subject of a separate article, and proceed to other matters dealt with. I may say that the Conference came to a deadlock on finances and all but broke up without coming to any conclusion. The solution was afforded by forming a committee of all the Finance Ministers of the provinces, who, after a private conference, came to an agreement which was accepted in open meeting, and thus a crisis in the affairs of Confederation-in- making passed away. The respective powers of the federal and local Parlia- ments are set forth in the provisions of the British North America Act, and are familiar to most readers. Although the division was not so clearly defined as to avoid frequent reference to the courts, with final interpretation by the Privy Council, in the main they afforded a good, practical, working code, and now as the result of judicial construction there is little left in doubt. Speaking generally and broadly, the jurisdiction of the provinces is confined to property and private rights and matters of purely internal administration. The jurisdiction of the federal Parliament extends to making ''laws for the peace, order and good government of Canada, in relation to all matters not coming within the classes of subjects by this Act assigned exclusively to the Legislatures of the provinces." Judge Gray informs us that the question of the judiciary was not so easily settled, and led to long and animated discussion. Lower Canada with its civil laws based on the French code would not be permitted by its representatives to be made uniform with the civil laws of the other provinces. The outcome was that it retained its civil code and the codes of other provinces were made uniform. That was a compro- mise rendered necessary in order that Confederation might be made possible. It was unanimously admitted that the criminal law must be the same throughout Canada, and that it must have its origin in the federal Parliament, the appoint- THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 43 ment of judges lying within the prerogative of the federal executive. I am not going to deal with the remaining subjects of taxation, imports and exports and railways because they form essentially part, or at least are cognate with that of financial relations, which I have reserved for separate treat- ment. All the conclusions of the Conference were embodied in seventy-two resolutions to be transmitted to the several government of the provinces represented, and were the basis of subsequent discussion as to details, of which there were four or five revisions before finality was reached. ARTICLE VI. Among the many difficulties incident to the adjustment of various relations, the most difficult of all was the question of financial relations, and I am devoting an article exclusively to the subject on account of the political developments consequent upon the original settlement. As Crown colonies, the provinces had their own sources of revenue independent of each other and separate fiscal systems. One can readily imagine that in the circumstances when they were asked to surrender their main sources of revenue to a central govern- ment and depend upon minor revenues for the purpose of carrying on the local administration there would be serious trouble, and, as I have previously stated, it brought about a crisis that all but spelled failure for the whole scheme. Had the Conference broken up on this or any other issue we cannot speculate upon what would have been the future of British North America. It was Judge Gray's opinion that the simplest and the shortest method would have been at once to determine that each province should by its own direct taxation bear the burden of its own local expenditure and wants, and that the general revenue should all be distributed solely for general purposes. It certainly would have been the simplest and shortest method, but the question is, what would have been 44 THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION the best or most equitable way? All the provinces differ from each other in physical conditions, and the cost of administration in one province would have borne more heavily upon its people than the cost of administration on another province. As a matter of fact, that is the case at the present time. In British Columbia, for instance, we know that on account of our "sea of mountains" the cost of government is many times greater for similar services than in some of the other provinces, and always will be. That fact was recog- nized in 1906, although not adequately, when the interprovin- cial conference of that year recommended an additional special allowance of $100,000 a year for ten years. Nineteen hundred and six was the year when an effort was made to arrive at a "final and unalterable" settlement of the financial relations of the provinces and the Dominion, although we well know that nothing done under the authority of legislation is final and unalterable, but it was intended in this way to give all the finality possible to the conclusions reached on that occasion, and the intended use of the words in the Imperial Act which was passed confirming the arrangement would at least have been an index of what the conclusions were intendel to be. In any event the arrangement suggested by Judge Gray was out of the question. In Upper Canada there had been a very considerable development of the municipal system, in which local wants are provided for by local taxation, but in the Maritime Provinces, though understood, municipalities had not been formed, and the Government, to use Judge Gray's words, was to the people "a nursing mother" of children. Everything in the gamut of requirements was supplied by the Government. It was inevitable, therefore, that these provinces would not consent to any proposition which did not provide for substantial assistance in matters of local administration to which they had been accustomed. On the other hand, it was very difficult for the people of Upper Canada to understand that that was right. The THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 45 representatives of the Maritime Provinces stood firm as a rock, and a compromise was necessary if the chief end of all were to be accomplished. The question was what system to adopt. There was no precedent except that of the United States, and in that union each state is supreme in its rights of taxation, and the Fathers of Confederation had decided against States' rights as they existed across the line. When Australia federated another principle was adopted that of the Commonwealth collecting all taxes for general purposes and returning to the states a certain proportion of the revenue. A settlement was arrived at by compromise effected through a special committee of the several ministers of finance. The report was the basis of the financial relations provided for the British North America Act, but the resolutions of the Quebec Conference as a whole were materially altered in the final conference at Westminster, and, therefore, it is . not necessary to deal with any but the final result, but it will be interesting to give some of the figures upon which the financial arrangements were based. A. T. Gait, afterwards Sir Alexander, was the financial genius of the situation, and, while almost an impossible politician, made an able Minister of Finance. Canada in 1864 had a funded debt of over $60,000,000, imports of $52,500,000, exports of nearly $42,000,000, a popula- tion of about 2,800,000, a revenue of $9,750,000, and an expenditure of $10,759,000. These are all round numbers. Newfoundland had a debt of $946,000 ; Nova Scotia, $460,000 ; New Brunswick, $5,700,000; Prince Edward Island, $241,000. Figures are very dry reading, but the following table, being a calculation as to the revenue, expenditure, debt, imports, etc., per head of the population in each province in 1864, are those upon which the financial relations were based, or rather those through which a basis was arrived at: THE STORY OF CONFEDERATION 47 Province Newfoundland. . . Nova Scotia 30 c*> Population * j^ to the M H- Square Mile _o 12 Revenue per _^ 't_n Head of the o o Population ^tS Expenditure _. lu P er Head of O vo Population -