CANADA 



1124 



CANADA 



local issues which further divided the great 

 political parties. As a result no Ministry ever 

 had a large majority in the assembly, and none 

 stayed in office very long. The most promi- 

 nent in this changing array of ministers were 

 Allan MacNab, Robert Baldwin, Sir Louis La- 

 fontaine, Sir Etienne Tache, Sir John A. Mac- 

 donald, George Brown, Sir Francis Hincks, John 

 S. Macdonald and Thomas D'Arcy McGee. 



In spite of those constant changes three 

 important reforms were enacted. The Munici- 

 pal Corporation Act of 1849, of which Baldwin 

 was the author, provided a system of municipal 

 government for Upper Canada. In 1854 

 seigniorial tenure was abolished in Lower Can- 

 ada, and the clergy reserves were secularized 

 in Upper Canada (for details, see subheads His- 

 tory under ONTARIO; QUEBEC). Another event 

 of great importance in 1854 was the negotia- 

 tion of a commercial treaty between Canada 

 and the United States; it provided for free 

 trade between the countries and remained in 

 force for ten years. 



Confederation. The idea of confederation, 

 of a Federal union in which each province 

 should retain control of its local affairs while 

 transferring its general powers to a central 

 government, was not a new one in 1864. It 

 had been suggested early in the nineteenth 

 century, and the Earl of Durham had been one 

 of its ardent supporters. It was also gaining 

 ground both in Upper and in Lower Canada, 

 chiefly because real government was rapidly 

 becoming impossible there under the Act of 

 Union. Finally, in 1864, after one Ministry had 

 succeeded another in an apparently endless 

 chain, George Brown proposed a coalition -Min- 

 istry, including men of all parties, to work for 

 a union. 



While the statesmen in the two Canadas were 

 thus beginning to put their heads together, the 

 Maritime Provinces became alarmed at the 

 possibility of war between Great Britain and 

 the United States (see TRENT AFFAIR); they 

 considered the advisability of a union and 

 called a conference of delegates to meet at 

 Charlottetown, P. E. I. When the Canadians 

 heard of this coming conference, they asked 

 and received permission to send a delegation, 

 which included John A. Macdonald, Georges E. 

 Cartier and George Brown. The proposed 

 union of the Maritime Provinces was over- 

 shadowed by the greater plan of union of all 

 the provinces, and the Charlottetown Confer- 

 ence adjourned after deciding to hold a second 

 conference at Quebec a month later. It was 



at the Quebec Conference (which see) that a 

 series of seventy-two resolutions embodying a 

 plan of government was adopted. 



The action of the conference was received 

 with joy in Great Britain and in Upper and 

 Lower Canada. Newfoundland and Prince Ed- 

 ward Island rejected the plan entirely, and 

 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia accepted it 

 only after much debate and delay. Delegates 

 were sent to England to present the resolu- 

 tions to the home government, and in March, 

 1867, Parliament passed the British North 

 America Act providing for a union of Canada, 

 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as one Do- 

 minion of Canada. The Act, except in a few 

 minor details, followed the plan of the resolu- 

 tions adopted by the Quebec Conference. 



Expansion of the Dominion. The British 

 North America Act provided for the division 

 of Canada into two provinces, Quebec and 

 Ontario, previously known as Lower and Upper 

 Canada, respectively. It also made provision 



YORK FACTORY 



For many years one of the main posts of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company. At the mouth of the 

 Nelson River, opposite Port Nelson. 



for the addition of other parts of British North 

 America to the new Dominion. During the first 

 session of the Dominion Parliament a resolu- 

 tion was passed calling for the annexation of 

 Rupert's Land and the Northwest to Canada. 

 One of the arguments in favor of this change 

 was that the Hudson's Bay Company was 

 interested in its own trade rather than in the 

 development of the West, and also because of 

 the possibility of aggression by the expanding 

 United States. Under pressure from the British 

 government the company finally surrendered 

 its control of the Northwest; it received 300,- 

 000 and one-twentieth of all the land lying 

 south of the north branch of the Saskatchewan 

 River and west of Lake Winnipeg, and it also 

 retained its posts and its trading privileges. 



Red River Rebellion. The Hudson's Bay 

 Company formally surrendered its territorial 

 rights to the British government on November 

 19, 1869. In anticipation of the further trans- 



