r Grits. In the
framing of the Quebec resolutions his part was chiefly in arranging the
financial terms with a regard to the interests of his own province.

Another influential member of the Canadian delegation was Mr.,
afterwards Sir, Alexander Galt, the son of the creator of that original
character in fiction, Laurie Todd, who had been a resident for many
years in Western Canada, where a pretty city perpetuates his name. His
able son had been for a long time a prominent figure in Canadian
politics, and was distinguished for his intelligent advocacy of railway
construction and political union as measures essential to the material
and political development of the provinces. His earnest and eloquent
exposition of the necessity of union had no doubt much to do with
creating a wide-spread public sentiment in its favour, and with
preparing the way for the formation of the coalition government of 1864,
on the basis of such a political measure. His knowledge of financial and
commercial questions was found to be invaluable in the settlement of the
financial basis of the union, while his recognised position as a
representative of the Protestant English-speaking people in French
Canada gave him much weight when it was a question of securing their
rights and interests in the Quebec resolutions.

The other members of the Canadian delegation were men of varied
accomplishments, some of whom played an important part in the working
out of the federal system, the foundations of which they laid. There was
a brilliant Irishman, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, poet, historian and orator,
who had been in his rash youth obliged to fly from Ireland to the United
States on account of his connection with the rebellious party known as
Young Ireland during the troubles of 1848. When he removed from the
United States in 1857 he advocated with much force a union of the
provinces in the _New Era_, of which he was editor during its short
existence. He was elected to parliament in 1858, and became a notable
figure in Canadian politics on account of his eloquence and _bonhomie_.
His most elaborate addresses had never the easy flow of Joseph Howe's
speeches, but were laboured essays, showing too obviously the results of
careful compilation in libraries, while brightened by touches of natural
humour. He had been president of the council in the Sandfield Macdonald
government of 1862--a moderate Reform ministry--but later he joined the
Liberal-Conservative party as