Canadas, and for all the Provinces of Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, charged with the control
of local matters in their respective sections."

[Illustration: The Marquis of Dufferin.
Governor General of Canada 1872-1878.]

[Illustration: SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD]

These proposals were well received in London, and in 1866 the Canadian
Legislature met for the last time under the old conditions. The
British North America Act became law in March of the following year,
the Earl of Carnarvon being Colonial Secretary; and on the 1st of July
the new Dominion, under command of John A. Macdonald, was launched by
Governor-General Viscount Monk on that prosperous course which still
conducts the premier colony of England into an ever brighter future.

Valiant in asserting her predominance there was, however, a siege
against which the fortress and bastions of Quebec were of no avail.
Left behind in the march of progress, commercial and political, her
prestige as a centre of national influence slowly declined, and
Montreal and Toronto took over that pre-eminence which had been hers
for centuries. Yet nothing could rob the city of her maternal
grandeur. She saw no longer in the West the wild prospects and the
fertile wastes, but a sturdy nation settling down to its destiny, and
spreading out over half a continent; so realising her ancient
prophecy, so fulfilling her laborious hopes, the reward of zealous
toil and martyrdom. Colbert's dream was now come true, save for the
flag which floated over the happy homesteads in the peaceful land.
These homesteads of the West, in the region of the great lakes, were
indeed to be centres of growth and progress and vast wealth; yet the
venerable fortress on the tidal water ever was, and still remains, the
noblest city of the American continent. There still works the antique
spirit which cherishes culture and piety and domestic virtue as the
crown of a nation's deeds and worth. There still the influence of a
faithful priesthood, and a university in some respects more
distinguished than any on the American continent, keep burning those
fires of high tradition and a noble history which light the way to
national grace of life, if not to a sensational prosperity. Apart from
the hot winds of politics--civic, provincial, and national--which blow
across the temperate plains of their daily existence, the people of
the city and the province live as simply, and with as little greedy
ambit