on had found eloquent advocates. There could not be, it was
pointed out, any career for men of distinction in a small sea-girt
province cut off completely from the life and interests of the larger
area. But these arguments failed, as also did proposals of a more
substantial kind. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick desired greatly to
augment the maritime importance and influence in the Dominion by the
inclusion of the little island province. During the summer of 1866,
while the delegates from the two maritime provinces {174} were waiting
in London for the arrival of their Canadian colleagues, they made an
offer to James C. Pope, prime minister of the Island, who happened to
be in London, that the sum of $800,000 should be allowed the Island, in
order to extinguish the rights of the absentee land-owners, an incubus
that had long caused discontent. The Canadian delegates, at first
reluctant, were brought to agree to this proposal. But it was
declined, and the same fate overtook better financial terms which
Tilley offered in 1869. The Island went its way, but soon found that
the capital necessary for internal development was hard to secure and
harder still to repay if once obtained. A railway debt was incurred,
and financial difficulties arose.

This situation came to the knowledge of Sir John Rose, the first
finance minister of Canada, who had gone to reside in London as a
partner in the great banking house of Morton, Rose and Co. There is a
touch of romance both in the career of Rose and in the fact that it was
through his agency that the little province entered the federation.
Rose was a Scottish lad who had come to Canada to make his fortune.
When a practising barrister in Montreal he had lost his silk gown as
Queen's Counsel {175} for signing the Annexation Manifesto in 1849.
His abilities were of the first order, but his tastes inclined to law
rather than to politics. The Dominion was in its infancy when his
talents for finance attracted attention abroad and secured him the
handsome offer which drew him away from Canada and led to his
remarkable success in the money centre of the world. But he never lost
interest in the Dominion. He maintained a close and intimate
correspondence with Sir John Macdonald, and, learning of Prince Edward
Island's difficulties, communicated with the Canadian prime minister.
Thus was the way opened for negotiations. Finally a basis of union was
arranged by which the Dominion assumed