100 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



field of practical politics in the province of Canada, by his resolution 

 in the Assembly in 1858 and by his insistence upon the adoption of 

 federation as a plank in the platform of the Cartier-Macdonald 

 ministry in the same year. His friendship with Cartier had much 

 to do with winning the indispensable adherence of the Lower Canada 

 leader to the federation programme. The financial clauses and the 

 provision protecting the educational rights of religious minorities 

 were mainly his work. It is, however, not generally known that 

 during his negotiations with the Colonial Office in 1858 he submitted 

 a confidential memorandum which anticipates to a remarkable 

 ejttent the constitution decided upon six years later. 



Before quoting this document, it would perhaps be well to enter 

 a caveat. The fact that the provisions of a constitution are anticip- 

 ated by some writer or in some other constitution is not conclusive 

 evidence that they were based upon that earlier model. In spite of 

 Mr. Gladstone's reference to the United States constitution as the 

 most wonderful work ever struck oft' at one time by any body of men, 

 it is clear that no constitution, United States, Canadian, or other, if 

 it is more than a paper fantasy, can be considered wholly the work of 

 any man or group of men. Any constitution which is to work must 

 have its roots deep in men's experience, must be conditioned by the 

 facts of the nation's history and the capacities of the people. Certain 

 broad features will be part of the common inheritance of opinion, and 

 like problems will suggest independently like solutions. The example 

 of the United States, as the greatest federal power, was ever in the 

 minds of the Fathers of Confederation, sometimes attracting, some- 

 times repelling, but never forgotten. The constitution framed for 

 New Zealand in 1852, and which gave that colony for a quarter 

 century a federal system of government, also exercised some influence. 

 Apparently Switzerland was little studied, and the Latin-American 

 imitations of the United States constitution received still less attention. 



It will be recalled that in 1858 a delegation from the government 

 of the province of Canada, consisting of George Etienne Cartier, 

 John Ross and Alexander T. Gait, went to England to confer with the 

 British authorities on that hardy perennial, the Intercolonial, and 

 on the newer project of Confederation. They had many interviews 

 with Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Secretary for the Colonies, and 

 Disraeli, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Conservative adminis- 

 tration of Lord Derby. They received on all sides much courtesy but 

 little encouragement. The correspondence exchanged between Gait 

 and Lytton shows that it was with great difficulty the government was 

 induced to give a colorless reply, instead of expressing definite opposit- 

 ion to Confederation. The contrast between the attitude of the 



