rmers should accept no
representation in the cabinet, but that they should give confederation
an outside support. That Macdonald and his party were immensely
benefitted by Brown's action, there can be no doubt. For several years
they had either been in Opposition, or in office under a most
precarious tenure, depending entirely upon a majority from Lower
Canada. By Brown's action they were suddenly invested with an
overwhelming majority, and they had an interrupted lease of power for
the nine years between the coalition and the Pacific Scandal.
Admitting that the interest of the country warranted this sacrifice of
the interests of the Liberal party, we have still to consider whether
it was wise for Mr. Brown to enter the ministry, and especially to
enter it on the conditions that existed. The Lower Canadian Liberals
were not represented, partly because Dorion and Holton held back, and
partly because of the prejudice of Tache and Cartier against the
Rouges; and this exclusion was a serious defect in a ministry supposed
to be formed on a broad and patriotic basis. The result was, that
while the Liberals were in a majority in the legislature, they had
only three representatives in a ministry of twelve. Such a government,
with its dominant Conservative section led by a master in the handling
of political combinations, was bound to lose its character of a
coalition, and become Conservative out and out.

A broader question is involved than that of the mere party advantage
obtained by Macdonald and his party in the retention of power and
patronage. There was grave danger to the essential principles of
Liberalism, of which Brown was the appointed guardian. Holton put this
in a remarkable way during the debate on confederation. It was at the
time when Macdonald had moved the previous question, when the
coalition government was hurrying the debate to a conclusion, in the
face of indignant protests and demands that the scheme should be
submitted to the people. Holton told Brown that he had destroyed the
Liberal party. Henceforth its members would be known as those who once
ranged themselves together, in Upper and Lower Canada, under the
Liberal banner. Then followed this remarkable appeal to his old
friend: "Most of us remember--those of us who have been for a few
years in public life in this country must remember--a very striking
speech delivered by the honourable member for South Oxford in Toronto
in the session of 1856 or 1857,