DOMINION OF CANADA. 



275 



l.rou-ht down to the House of Oom- 

 eund ivadinir <-ii tin- 2Sth, 

 .i long tind interesting delate, in which 

 ninent members toi.k part, passed 

 throngh Committee of the Whole on the 4th of 

 . ;-;i 1 rceeived its linal reading and passed 

 ,,,i i!i,- sth of .March. On the 2'Jth of that 

 iiiontli t!u- measure received tho royal I 

 and ' i\v. (ties AXXPAL CYCLOP. i:ii\, 



Pi lii.io DOCUMENTS.) Shortly afterward 

 anot her art was introduced and agrc. 



;'itc> -inir tho payment by the Homo Gov- 

 ernment of interest on the sum of three million 

 pounds sterling, for the construction of the In- 

 '.niial Railway, i. .,a line between Quebec 

 and Halifax, and a necessary part of the Union 

 me, l>y which road Canada will possess a 

 r outlet to the ocean through British terri- 

 This measure received the royal assent 

 on the 12th of April. 



Little or no opposition was offered to these 

 two measures in Parliament, though the anti- 

 Union party of Nova Scotia had sent two gen- 

 tlemen. MV^s. Howe and Annand, to England 

 early in tho season, where they still remained, 

 to protest on the part of that province against 

 the Union being consummated, until it had been 

 first submitted to tho people of Nova Scotia for 

 their approval. The efforts of these gentlemen 

 were utterly futile to advance their cause, 

 against the strong voice of both Houses ; which 

 was completely, or very nearly so, in favor of 

 tho confederation of the colonies. 



During their stay in England the colonial 

 delegates were paid the greatest possible at- 

 tention and respect by those in authority and 

 all classes of the British nobility ; every effort 

 was used to make their visit as pleasant and 

 agreeable to themselves personally, as it was 

 hoped tho results of their labors would prove 

 beneficial to the portions of the empire which 

 they represented. On their return to Canada 

 several of the delegates received popular de- 

 monstrations in their favor of a most flattering 

 kind. 



The following royal proclamation was issued 

 on the 22d of May : 



A PROCLAMATION 



For uniting the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, 

 and New Brunswick, into one Dominion, under the 

 name of Canada, 



Whereat, by an act of Parliament, passed on the 

 twenty-ninth day of March, one thousand eight hun- 

 dred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of our 

 reiiin, intituled " An act for the union of Canada, 

 Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the govern- 

 ment thereof, and for purposes connected therewith, 

 after divers recitals, it is enacted that it shall be 

 lawful for the Queen, by and with the advice of her 

 Majesty's most honorable privy council, to declare, 

 by proclamation, that on and after a day therein ap- 

 pointed, not.being more than nix months after the 

 passing of this act, the Provinces of Canada, Nova 

 St-otia, and New Brunswick shall form and be one 

 dominion under tho name of Canada, and on and 

 after that day those three provinces shall form and 

 be one dominion under that name accordingly; and 

 it is thereby further enacted that such persons shall 

 be first summoned to the Senate as the Queen by 



warrant, under her Majesty's royal ign manual, 

 thinks fits to approve, and their hamcu nhall be in- 

 i in the QIH-I-II'H proclamation of union." We, 

 then-ton', by ami \vft!i the advice of our privy coun- 

 cil, have Utongbi fit to issue this our royal procla- 

 mation, and we do ordain, declare, and command that 

 on and after the first day of July, one thousand eight 

 hundred and sixty-seven, the Provinces of Canada, 

 Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick shall form and be 

 one dominion under the name of Canada : 



And we do further ordain and declare that the 

 persons whose names are herein inserted and set 

 forth are the persons of whom we have by warrant 

 under our royal sign manual thought fit to approve 

 as the persons who shall be first summoned to the 

 Senate of Canada : 



Given at our court, at Windsor Castle, this twen- 

 ty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord one 

 thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, and in the 

 thirtieth year of our reign. 



By this proclamation the 1st of July was 

 appointed for the Union to come into operation. 

 Accordingly that day was observed through- 

 out the Dominion as a day of general rejoicing. 

 In Ottawa, the capital, Lord Monck, who had 

 previously before the Union held the office of 

 Governor-General of British North America, 

 was sworn in by the Chief-Justice of Upper 

 Canada, as Governor-General of the now Do- 

 minion, in presence of the members of the old 

 provincial cabinet and others. At the conclu- 

 sion of that ceremony his Excellency, on behalf 

 of the Queen, conferred the honor of knight- 

 hood upon the Hon. John A. Macdonald, as 

 chairman of the late London Conference, who 

 was created a Knight Companion of the Civil 

 Division of the Order of the Bath ; and the 

 Governor-General at the same time intimated 

 that the sovereign had been pleased to create 

 Messrs. Cartier, Gait, McDougall, Howland, 

 Tupper, and Tilley, Companions of the Third 

 Division of the same order, an honor which 

 the two first-named gentlemen subsequently 

 asked permission to decline. Sir John A. Mac- 

 donald, the newly-created knight, waa called 

 upon by the Governor-General to form the first 

 administration for the Dominion, a duty which 

 ho safely and easily accomplished within a few 

 hours' time. On the same day (1st of July) 

 provisional Lieutenant-Governors were ap- 

 pointed to the four provinces: Major-General 

 Stisted, to Ontario ; Sir Narcisse F. Belleau, a 

 native French Canadian, to Quebec ; Lieuten- 

 ant-General Sir W. F. Williams, Bart., a native 

 of Nova Scotia, to that province ; and Major- 

 General Doyle, to New Brunswick. 



The Dominion Government, as constituted, 

 composed of Conservatives and Reformers, the 

 latter party predominating in point of numbers, 

 met the popular wish and expectation. In the 

 Province of Ontario, however, Mr. George 

 lii-own and the ultra "Clear Grits," before 

 oven the construction of the cabinet on its pres- 

 ent basis had been determined on, began to re- 

 vive the embers of old political fends and ani- 

 mosities, with the view to the formation of a 

 strictly party government. A " Reform" Con- 

 vention had assembled in Toronto, in Jane, 

 which passed resolutions condemnatory of all 



