. Johnston, John Hamilton Gray, Edward
B. Chandler, W. H. Steeves; from Prince Edward Island, J. H. Gray,
Edward Palmer, W. H. Pope, {50} George Coles, A. A. Macdonald.
Newfoundland, having no part in the movement, sent no representatives.
Meanwhile Lord Monck, at the request of his ministers, had communicated
with the lieutenant-governors asking that a delegation of the Canadian
Cabinet might attend the meeting and lay their own plans before it.
This was readily accorded. The visitors from Canada arrived from
Quebec by steamer. They were George Brown, John A. Macdonald,
Alexander T. Galt, George E. Cartier, Hector L. Langevin, William
McDougall, D'Arcy McGee, and Alexander Campbell. No official report of
the proceedings ever appeared. It is improbable that any exists, but
we know from many subsequent references nearly everything of importance
that took place. On the arrival of the Canadians they were invited to
address the convention at once. The delegates from the Maritime
Provinces took the ground that their own plan might, if adopted, be a
bar to the larger proposal, and accordingly suggested that the visitors
should be heard first. The Canadians, however, saw no reason to fear
the smaller union. They believed that Confederation would gain if the
three provinces by the sea could be treated as a single unit. {51}
But, being requested to state their case, they naturally had no
hesitation in doing so. During the previous two months the members of
the coalition must have applied themselves diligently to all the chief
points in the project. It may be supposed that Galt, Brown, and
Macdonald made a strong impression at Charlottetown. They spoke
respectively on the finance, the general parliament, and the
constitutional structure of the proposed federation. These subjects
contained the germs of nearly all the difficulties. When the delegates
reassembled a month later at Quebec, it is clear, from the allusions
made in the scanty reports that have come down to us, that the leading
phases of the question had already been frankly debated.

Having heard the proposals of Canada, the delegates of the Maritime
Provinces met separately to debate the question that had brought them
together. Obstacles at once arose. Only Nova Scotia was found to be
in favour of the smaller union. New Brunswick was doubtful, and Prince
Edward Island positively refused to give up her own legislature and
executive. The federation proje