454 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
upon him there the next morning. This brought out Henry and Mac knocked him 
off his pins in a letter which appeared yesterday morning. All the papers with any 
others which touch our interests, are sent. 
You will see the Speeches at the Portsmouth Dinner to Lord Monk in the Times 
an Article, describing the measure itself in the Pall Mall Gazette. You will finda 
Canadian version in an Article from the Ottawa Times,!!® in Public Opinion which 
will reach you by this mail. From the best inforrhation we can gather the New 
Nation has shrunk a good deal. Newfoundland and Prince Edward Islands are not 
to be coerced and are struck out. British Columbia and the Hudson’s Bay territory 
are struck out, so that the New Nationality has shrunk from 4,000,000 of square miles 
to 447,000, only 3,553,000 having been knocked out by the opposition.”° Another 
point is settled that it is not treason to oppose this scheme even in sight of the Queen’s 
Palace, and a third, that, as little Prince Edward Islands has not been coerced, and is 
left out neither would Nova Scotia if a parcel of Sheep had not been terrified out 
of their wits. Halifax, it is said, is to be relieved of the Railway Debt which it 
would never have paid, and there may be a few other trifling Concessions, but we 
believe, as the Ottawa Times asserts, the Quebec Scheme has not been changed in 
any important particular. 
Believe me 
Yours truly, , 
JOSEPH HOWE. 
25 Saville Row, 
Private. Feb. 1867. 
The Right Hon. 
Earl Russell. 
My Lord 
I was sent over to this country in the summer to-urge upon Your Lordship’s 
Government the propriety of permitting the people of Nova Scotia to decide their 
own future at the Polls before any Scheme of Confederation should be sanctioned 
by Parliament. 

119 Established 1844. 
120 In the Quebec Resolutions provision was made for the union of the Canadas, Nova Scotia, New 
Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, and for the future admission of Newfoundland, the North West 
Territory, British Columbia and Vancouver Island. Pope, Confederation Documents, 39-40. The 
Resolutions as adopted by the delegates to the London Conference in Dec. 1866, provided for the union 
of the Canadas, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and the admission of Newfoundland, Prince Edward 
Island, the North West Territory and British Columbia. Jbid. 98. The draft Confederation Bill 
of Jan 23, 1867, made provision for the union of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and for the 
admission of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. Jbid. 142, 156. The draft Bill of Feb. 2, 
1867, confined the union to the same three Colonies or Provinces, and provided for the admission of 
Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, the North-Western Territory and British Columbia. In this 
draft the new dominion is named the Kingdom of Canada, and for the first time the two divisions of old 
Canada are called Ontario and Quebec. Jbid. 159,176. The so-called Fourth Draft makes the same 
provisions, except that to the colonies whose future admission is provided for is added Rupert’s Land. 
Ibid. 177, 210. The Final Draft Bill, of Feb. 9, 1867, agrees with the Fourth Draft. The name of the 
confederation is changed from Kingdom of Canada to Dominion of Canada. Jbid. 212,246. Howe’s 
statement is therefore incorrect. From the Quebec Resolutions to the British North America Act 
as finally adopted by the Imperial Parliament, the only real change in the proposed confederation is 
the dropping of Prince Edward Island. On the interesting points as to who proposed the name “‘King- 
dom of Canada,” and who was responsible for its abandonment, see Pope, Memoirs, I, 312-13; Bourinot. 
Canada under British Rule, 215. 
