a. In 1858 the question of confederation was discussed in
the parliament of Canada, and such a union was made a part of the policy
of the government; for Mr. A. T. Galt, on becoming a member of the
administration, insisted upon its being made a cabinet question, and Sir
Edmund Head, the governor-general, in his speech at the close of the
session, intimated that his government would take action in the matter
during the recess. Messrs. Cartier, Galt, and Ross, who were in England
representing the government of Canada, waited upon the colonial
secretary, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, asking the authority of the
imperial government for a meeting of representatives from each of the
colonies to take the question of union into consideration. The colonial
secretary informed the Canadian delegates, no doubt after consultation
with his colleagues, that the question of confederation was necessarily
one of an imperial character, and declined to authorize the meeting,
because no expression of sentiment on the subject had as yet been
received from any of the Maritime Provinces except Nova Scotia. The Earl
of Derby's government fell a few months after this declaration of its
policy in regard to the colonies, and was succeeded by the government of
Lord Palmerston, which was in office at the time when the negotiations
which resulted in the confederation of the colonies were commenced. At
first Lord Palmerston's government seems to have been no more favourable
to the union of the colonies than its predecessor; for in 1862 the Duke
of Newcastle, then colonial secretary, in a despatch to the
governor-general of Canada, after stating that Her Majesty's government
was not prepared to announce any definite policy on the question of
confederation, added that, "If a union, either partial or complete,
should hereafter be proposed, with the concurrence of all the provinces
to be united, I am sure that the matter would be weighed in this country
both by the public, by parliament and by Her Majesty's government, with
no other feeling than an anxiety to discern and promote any course which
might be the most conducive to the prosperity, strength and harmony of
all the British communities of North America." It must always be a
subject of astonishment that the British government for so many years
should have had no definite policy on a matter so momentous, and that
they should have sought to discourage, rather than otherwise, a project
which has been of such