or our
services, I scorn connection with you. [Immense cheering.] Go into
the same government with Mr John A. Macdonald! [Cries of never!
never!] Sir, I understood what degradation it was to be compelled to
adopt that step by the necessities of the case, by the feeling that the
interests of my country were at stake, which alone induced me ever to
put my foot into that government; and glad was I when I got out of it.
None ever went into a government with such sore hearts as did two out
of the three who entered it on behalf of the Reform party--I cannot
speak for the third. It was the happiest day of my life when I got out
of the concern. [Cheers.]

These were warm words, designed to rally a divided party. In due time
the tireless energy of the speaker and his friends reawakened the
fighting strength of their followers. For the moment, however, a
considerable number of {143} Liberals were disposed to give the new
conditions a trial. Howland and McDougall were invited to address the
convention, and they put their case in temperate and dignified
language. Howland pointed out that in the new ministry there would be
several Liberals from the lower provinces, and these men had requested
their Ontario friends not to leave them. McDougall's address was
especially apt and convincing:

We think that the work of coalition is not done, but only begun. We
think that British Columbia should be brought into the confederacy,
that the great north-western territory should be brought in, that
Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland should be brought in. I say that
the negotiations of the terms upon which these provinces are to be
brought in are important, and that it is as necessary that the
government in power should not be obliged to fight from day to day for
its political existence, as when Confederation was carried up to the
point we have now reached.... I think the coalition ought not to cease
until the work begun under Mr Brown's auspices is ended.

{144}

It was evident from these remarks that the arguments--what his critics
called the blandishments--of Macdonald had prevailed.

The first Cabinet, which was announced on July 1, began on a non-party
basis. This commended it to moderate men generally. But the task of
getting it together had been herculean. To secure a ministry
representative of all parts of the country seemed a reasonable policy
at the beginning. With time this has grown into an unwritten