measure of 1867 was due. While failing health and the Duke's premature
decease left to Mr. Cardwell and Mr. W. E. Forster--and afterwards to
Lord Carnarvon and the Duke of Buckingham--the completion of the work
before the English Parliament, it was he who stood in the gap, and
formed and moulded, with a patience and persistence admirable to
behold, Cabinet opinion both in England and in the Provinces. At the
same time George Etienne Cartier, John A. Macdonald, and John Ross, in
Canada; Samuel L. Tilley, in New Brunswick, and, notably, Joseph Howe,
in Nova Scotia, stood together for Union like a wall of brass. And
these should ever be the most prominent amongst the honoured names of
the authors of an Union of the Provinces under the British Crown.

The works, I repeat, to be effected were--first, the physical union of
the Maritime Provinces with Canada by means of Intercolonial Railways;
and, second, to get out of the way of any unification, the heavy weight
and obstruction of the Hudson's Bay Company. The; latter was most
difficult, for abundant reasons.

This difficult work rested mainly on my shoulders.

It may be well here to place in contrast the condition of the Provinces
in 1861 and of the Confederation in 1886. In 1861 each of the five
Provinces had its separate Governor, Parliament, Executive, and system
of taxation. To all intents and purposes, and notwithstanding the
functions of the Governor-General and the unity flowing from the
control of the British Crown--these Provinces, isolated for want of the
means of rapid transit, were countries as separate in every relation of
business, or of the associations of life, as Belgium and Holland, or
Switzerland and Italy. The associations of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia were far more intimate with the United States than with Canada;