e a very
active part in political matters, he may stimulate others to hostility
or to a certain course of action, who, under other circumstances, would
be neutral or inactive, and there is reason to believe that some of the
men who were most prominent in opposing confederation at the general
election of 1865 were mainly influenced by the views of the
lieutenant-governor. Confederation, however, had been approved by the
British government, after the terms arranged at Quebec had been
submitted to it in a despatch from the governor-general; and those
officials in New Brunswick and elsewhere, who expected to find support
in Downing Street in their hostility to confederation, were destined to
be greatly disappointed. Not long after the new government was formed in
New Brunswick, Mr. Gordon returned to England, and it was generally
believed that he was sent for by the home authorities. Instead of being
favourably received on the ground of his opposition to confederation, he
is said to have been compelled to submit to a stern reproof for his
anti-constitutional meddling in a matter which did not concern him, and
to have been given decidedly to understand that if he returned to New
Brunswick, to fill out the remainder of his term of office, it must be
as one pledged to assist in carrying out confederation and not to oppose
it. When Mr. Gordon returned he was an entirely changed man, and
whatever influence he was able to exert from that time forward was used
in favour of confederation.

{FENIAN THREATS}

Another cause which made confederation more acceptable to the people of
the province arose from the threats of the Fenians to invade Canada,
which were made during the year 1865, and which were followed by armed
invasions during the following year. Although there was no good reason
for believing that the opponents of confederation were less loyal than
its supporters or less inclined to favour British connection, it was
remarked that all the enemies of British connection seemed to have got
into the anti-confederate camp. The Fenian movement had its origin in
the troubles in Ireland arising out of oppressive land laws and other
local causes, and it soon extended to America, where the politicians
found it useful as a means of increasing their strength among the Irish
people. At that time, there were in the United States many hundreds of
thousands of men who had been disbanded from the army at the close of
the Civil War, and who w