ded the progress of the country.

Since there is promised a separate account of the great work of
Confederation in another volume of the present Series, I do not propose
to do more here than allude to it briefly. It is known that
immediately after the defeat of the Tache-Macdonald government in June
1864, Brown said to several supporters of the Administration, among
them Alexander Morris and John Henry Pope, that the present crisis
should be utilized to settle for ever the constitutional difficulties
between Upper and Lower Canada. He assured them of his willingness to
co-operate for this end. Macdonald quickly responded to the overture,
and the next day he and Galt met Brown in the St Louis Hotel, Quebec.
It is worthy of note that at this interview Macdonald and Galt
proposed, as a remedy for existing ills, a federal union of all the
British North-American provinces. Brown, on the other hand, while
theoretically commending the idea, did not regard it as within the
region of practical politics, but viewed its adoption as 'uncertain and
remote.' His remedy was 'Parliamentary Reform, based on population,
without regard to a separating line between Upper {73} and Lower
Canada.' This was simply his old friend 'Representation by Population'
under another name. When assured that it would be impossible to carry
such a measure, Brown agreed that the Government should negotiate for a
confederation of all the provinces. If this failed, they should then
introduce the federal principle for Canada alone, while providing for
the future incorporation of the Maritime Provinces and the North-West.
On this understanding Brown, with two Reform colleagues, Oliver Mowat
and William M'Dougall, entered the Cabinet. The members of the
reorganized Government lost no time in applying themselves to the great
object of the coalition. It so happened that, while Canadian statesmen
were thus considering the question of a union of British North America,
the thoughts of public men in the provinces by the Atlantic--Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island--were turned in the
direction of a union of these provinces. A convention was about to
meet at Charlottetown to discuss the subject. The Canadian Government
determined to take advantage of this opportunity, and eight members of
the Ministry repaired to Charlottetown, where they were hospitably {74}
received and were invited by the conference to express their views.
They unfolded