cted
on principles just to the several provinces_. This motion, general in
its terms, asserted the principle which the conference had met to
decide. It passed unanimously amid much enthusiasm. To support it,
one may think, involved no serious responsibility, since any province
could at a later stage raise objections to any methods proposed in
carrying out the principle. But to secure the hearty and unanimous
acceptance of a federal union, as the basis on which the provinces were
ready to coalesce, was really to submit the whole issue to the crucial
test. {64} Macdonald's motion reflects, in its careful and
comprehensive phrasing, the skill in parliamentary tactics of which he
had, during many years, displayed so complete a mastery. To commit the
conference at the outset to endorsement of the general principle was to
render subsequent objection on some detail, however important,
extremely difficult for earnest and broad-minded patriots. The two
small provinces might withdraw from the scheme, as they subsequently
did, but the larger provinces, led by men of the calibre of Tupper and
Tilley, would feel that any subsequent obstacle must be of gigantic
proportions if it could not be overcome by statesmanship. After
cheerfully taking this momentous step, which irresistibly drove them on
to the next, the conference proceeded to discuss Brown's motion
proposing the form the federation was to assume. There was to be a
general government dealing with matters common to all, and in each
province a local government having control of local matters. The
second motion was likewise unanimously concurred in. Having, as it
were, planted two feet firmly on the ground, the conference was now in
a good position to stand firmly against divergences of view, provincial
rivalries, and extreme demands.

[1] Pope's _Confederation Documents_.

[2] There were two delegates named John Hamilton Gray, one whose views
are quoted here, the other the prime minister of Prince Edward Island.
Only one volume of Gray's work on Confederation ever appeared, the
second volume, it is said, being unfinished when the author died in
British Columbia.

[3] A list of the delegates, who are now styled the Fathers of
Confederation, follows:

_From Canada, twelve delegates_--SIR ETIENNE P. TACHE, receiver-general
and minister of Militia; JOHN A. MACDONALD, attorney-general for Upper
Canada; GEORGE E. CARTIER, attorney-general for Lower Canada; GEORGE