e. "We are striving," he said, "to settle forever issues
hardly less momentous than those that have rent the neighbouring
republic and are now exposing it to all the horrors of civil war. Have
we not then great cause for thankfulness that we have found a better
way for the solution of our troubles? And should not every one of us
endeavour to rise to the magnitude of the occasion, and earnestly seek
to deal with this question to the end, in the same candid and
conciliatory spirit in which, so far, it has been discussed?"

He warned the assembly that whatever else happened, the constitution
of Canada would not remain unchanged. "Something must be done. We
cannot stand still. We cannot go back to chronic, sectional hostility
and discord--to a state of perpetual ministerial crisis. The events of
the last eight months cannot be obliterated--the solemn admissions of
men of all parties can never be erased. The claims of Upper Canada for
justice must be met, and met now. Every one who raises his voice in
hostility to this measure is bound to keep before him, when he speaks,
all the perilous consequences of its rejection. No man who has a true
regard for the well-being of Canada can give a vote against this
scheme unless he is prepared to offer, in amendment, some better
remedy for the evils and injustice that have so long threatened the
peace of our country."

In the first place, he said confederation would provide a complete
remedy for the injustice of the system of parliamentary
representation, by giving Upper Canada, in the House of Commons, the
number of members to which it was entitled by population. In the
senate, the principle of representation by population would not be
maintained, an equal number of senators being allotted to Ontario, to
Quebec, and to the group of Maritime Provinces, without regard to
population. Secondly, the plan would remedy the injustice of which
Upper Canada had complained in regard to public expenditures. "No
longer shall we have to complain that one section pays the cash while
the other spends it; hereafter they who pay will spend, and they who
spend more than they ought, will bear the brunt. If we look back on
our doings of the last fifteen years, I think it will be acknowledged
that the greatest jobs perpetrated were of a sectional character, that
our fiercest contests were about local matters that stirred up
sectional jealousies and indignation to their deepest depth."
Confederation would