a step in the colonial policy of the Empire should
have been received at London in a passive and indifferent spirit has
often been the subject of complaint. When the Australian Commonwealth
came into existence, the event was marked by more {136} ceremony and
signalized by greater impressiveness. But another phase of the
question should be kept in mind. The British North America Act
contained the promise of the vast Dominion which exists to-day, but not
the reality. The measure dealt with the union of the four provinces
only. The Confederation, as we have it, was still incomplete. When
the royal proclamation was issued on the 10th of May bringing the new
Dominion into being on July 1, 1867, much remained to be done. The
constitution must be put to the test of practical experience; and the
task of extending the Dominion across the continent must be undertaken.
Upon the first government of Canada, in truth, would rest a duty as
arduous as ever fell to the lot of statesmen. They had in their hands
a half-finished structure, and might, conceivably, fail in completing
it.

[1] He became Lord Derby in 1869 and bore this title in 1889 when Sir
John Macdonald related the incident.

[2] Zechariah ix 10.

[3] Sir Joseph Pope's _Confederation Documents_.

[4] The recent increase in the number of western senators modifies this
feature.

[5] _Confederation Documents_, p. 112. Mr Justice Day of Montreal, an
English Protestant enjoying the confidence of the French, is believed
to have had a hand in framing the Galt policy on this subject.

{137}

CHAPTER XII

THE FIRST DOMINION MINISTRY

Before the delegates left London the governor-general privately invited
John A. Macdonald to form the first ministry of the Dominion. A month
later the same offer was made more formally in writing:

I entrust this duty to you as the individual selected for their
chairman and spokesman by the unanimous vote of the delegates when they
were in England, and I adopt this test for my guidance in consequence
of the impossibility, under the circumstances, of ascertaining, in the
ordinary constitutional manner, who possesses the confidence of a
Parliament which does not yet exist. In authorizing you to undertake
the duty of forming an administration for the Dominion of Canada, I
desire to express my strong opinion that, in future, it shall be
distinctly understood that the position of first minister shall be
{138} held by _