Conservatives
had there met to determine what was best for the future guidance of
half a continent, not to fight old party battles, or stand by old party
cries, and candour was sought for more than mere personal triumph. The
conclusion arrived at, it is thought, was judicious. It ensured the
utmost freedom of debate; the more so, inasmuch as the result would be
in no way binding upon those whose interests were to be affected until
and unless adopted after the {61} greatest publicity and the fullest
public discussions.

That the conference decided wisely admits of no doubt. The provincial
secretaries of the several provinces were appointed joint secretaries,
and Hewitt Bernard, chief clerk of the department of the
attorney-general for Upper Canada, was named executive secretary. In
his longhand notes, found among the papers of Sir John Macdonald, and
made public thirty years later by Sir Joseph Pope, we have the only
official record of the resolutions and debates of the conference.
Posterity has reason to be grateful for even this limited revelation of
the proceedings from day to day. It enables us to form an idea of the
difficulties overcome and of the currents of opinion which combined to
give the measure its final shape. No student of Canadian
constitutional history will leave unread a single note thus fortunately
preserved. The various draft motions, we are told by Sir Joseph Pope,
are nearly all in the handwriting of those who moved them, and it was
evidently the intention to prepare a complete record. The conference
was, however, much hurried at the close. When it began, Sir Etienne
Tache, prime minister of Canada, was {62} unanimously elected
chairman.[3] Each province was given one vote, except that Canada, as
consisting of two divisions, was allowed two votes. After the vote on
any motion was put, the delegates of a province might retire for
consultation among themselves. The conference sat as if in committee
of the whole, so as to permit of free discussion and suggestion. The
resolutions, having been passed in committee of the whole, were to be
reconsidered and carried as if parliament were sitting with the speaker
in the chair.

The first motion, which was offered by Macdonald and seconded by
Tilley, read: _That the {63} best interests and present and future
prosperity of British North America will be promoted by a federal union
under the crown of Great Britain, provided such union can be effe