ht of the country in both parties applauded the act,
and the desire for union found free vent. Posterity has endorsed the
course taken by Brown and justly honours his memory for having, at the
critical hour and on terms that would have made the ordinary politician
quail, rendered Confederation possible. There is evidence that the
Conservative members of the coalition played the game fairly and
redeemed their promise to put union in the forefront of their policy.
On this issue complete concord reigned in the Cabinet. The natural
divergences of opinion on minor points in the scheme were arranged
without internal discord. This was fortunate, because grave obstacles
were soon to be encountered.

If George Brown of Upper Canada was the hero of the hour, George
Cartier of Lower Canada played a role equally courageous and
honourable. The hostile forces to be encountered by the
French-Canadian leader were {42} formidable. Able men of his own race,
like Dorion, Letellier, and Fournier, prepared to fight tooth and nail.
The Rouges, as the Liberals there were termed, opposed him to a man.
The idea of British American union had in the past been almost
invariably put forward as a means of destroying the influence of the
French. Influential representatives, too, of the English minority in
Lower Canada, like Dunkin, Holton, and Huntington, opposed it. Joly de
Lotbiniere, the French Protestant, warned the Catholics and the French
that federation would endanger their rights. The Rouge resistance was
not a passive parliamentary resistance only, because, later on, the
earnest protests of the dissentients were carried to the foot of the
throne. But all these influences the intrepid Cartier faced
undismayed; and Brown, in announcing his intention to enter the
coalition, paid a warm tribute to Cartier for his frank and manly
attitude. This was the burial of another hatchet, and the amusing
incident related by Cartwright illustrates how it was received.

[Illustration: Sir George Cartier. From a painting in the Chateau de
Ramezay.]

In that memorable afternoon when Mr Brown, not without emotion, made
his {43} statement to a hushed and expectant House, and declared that
he was about to ally himself with Sir George Cartier and his friends,
for the purpose of carrying out Confederation, I saw an excitable,
elderly little French member rush across the floor, climb up on Mr
Brown, who, as you remember, was of a stature approaching