same time, not to argue the case for the
Dominion, but to afford the Imperial authorities full information upon
the subject. He and Howe returned on the same steamer. A few weeks
later Macdonald, Cartier, and certain of their colleagues paid a visit
to Halifax, where, as Macdonald naively records, they were received by
the members of the local government with 'sufficient courtesy.' A most
interesting correspondence afterwards took place between Macdonald and
Howe, with the result that early in the year 1869 Howe entered the
Dominion Cabinet as president of the Privy Council. He remained there
four years, and then retired to become the lieutenant-governor of Nova
Scotia, in which office he died shortly afterwards.

{81}

The first session of the Dominion parliament was saddened by the
assassination of Thomas D'Arcy M'Gee, one of the most gifted and
charming of men, within a stone's throw of the House of Commons. An
Irishman by birth, M'Gee in early life attached himself to the Young
Ireland party. He took part in the insurrection of Smith O'Brien, and
in consequence was obliged to flee the country. After some years spent
in the United States, he settled in Montreal, where he started a
newspaper. He speedily became a favourite with the Irishmen of that
city, and by their influence he was returned to parliament in 1857.
True to the national instinct, M'Gee began his political career as an
opponent of the Government. In 1862 he accepted a portfolio under John
Sandfield Macdonald, but he was dropped on the reconstruction of the
Cabinet in 1863, and then passed under the influence of John A.
Macdonald. The two speedily became, not merely political, but personal
friends. From 1864 to 1866 they were colleagues in the Tache-Macdonald
Administration. In 1865 M'Gee visited Ireland, and while there made a
speech in which he unsparingly denounced Fenianism, and besought his
countrymen to shun all connection with {82} that odious conspiracy.
From that hour he was a marked man. M'Gee was shot from behind his
back while he was entering his lodgings in Ottawa, in the early morning
of April 7, 1868. Several persons were arrested for complicity in the
murder. One of them, Thomas Whalen, was found guilty and was executed
on February 11, 1869.

Shortly before the meeting of the first session of the first parliament
of the Dominion, Sir Alexander Galt, the minister of Finance, suddenly
resigned his portfolio and left the Go