y, snow-clad mountains,
deep bays, and many islands give beauty, grandeur, and variety to the
most glorious scenery of the continent. Daring fur-traders passed down
its swift and deep rivers and gave them the names they bear. The
Hudson's Bay Company held sway for many years within the limits of an
empire. The British Government, as late as 1849, formed a Crown colony
out of Vancouver, and in 1858, out of the mainland, previously known as
New Caledonia. In 1866 the two provinces were united with a simple
form of government, consisting of a lieutenant-governor, and a
legislative council, partly appointed by the Crown and partly elected
by the people; but in 1871, when it entered into the Canadian union, a
{406} complete system of responsible government was established as in
the other provinces. Prince Edward Island was represented at the
Quebec conference, but it remained out of confederation until 1873,
when it came in as a distinct province; one of the conditions of
admission was the advance of funds by the Dominion government for the
purchase of the claims of the persons who had held the lands of the
island for a century. The land question was always the disturbing
element in the politics of the island, whose history otherwise is
singularly uninteresting to those who have not had the good fortune to
be among its residents and to take a natural interest in local
politics. The ablest advocate of confederation was Mr. Edward Whelan,
a journalist and politician who took part in the Quebec conference, but
did not live to see it carried out by Mr. J. C. Pope, Mr. Laird, and
others.

[Illustration: John A. Macdonald.]

At Confederation the destinies of old Canada were virtually in the hands of
three men--the Honourable George Brown, Sir George Cartier, and Sir John
Macdonald, to give the two latter the titles they received at a later time.
Mr. Brown was mainly responsible for the difficulties that had made the
conduct of government practically impossible, through his persistent and
even rude assertion of the claims of Upper Canada to larger representation
and more consideration in the public administration. No one will deny his
consummate ability, his inflexibility of purpose, his impetuous oratory,
and his financial knowledge, but his earnestness carried him frequently
beyond the {407} limits of political prudence, and it was with reason that
he was called "a governmental impossibility," as long as French and Englis