Delegates representing the three provinces met in Quebec in September, 1862, to consider this offer, New Brunswick being represented by Messrs. Tilley, Steeves and Mitchell. The delegates from the Maritime Provinces declared their willingness to propose to their respective governments to accept the proposition of the Duke of Newcastle if Canada would bear one-half of the expense of the railway instead of one-third. The Canadian government offered to assume five-twelfths of the liability for the construction and working of the Intercolonial, and to this the delegates for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia had to agree. This imposed a very serious burthen on two provinces, which, between them, had only six hundred thousand inhabitants, and their willingness to assume it shows the interest they took in this great work.

NEGOTIATIONS IN ENGLAND

In pursuance of an arrangement made at this Quebec meeting, delegates from the three provinces went to England to arrange the terms of the guarantee with the British government; the Hon. Mr. Tilley represented New Brunswick, and the Hon. Joseph Howe, Nova Scotia. Mr. Gladstone, who was then chancellor of the exchequer, insisted on a sinking fund being provided, which was to be a first charge on the revenues of the several provinces. This sinking fund was objected to by the colonial delegates, but the only modification in its terms which they were able to obtain was that the sinking fund was not to take precedence of any existing liability. Before leaving England, Messrs. Tilley and Howe prepared and submitted a memorandum to the Duke of Newcastle in which they expressed a hope that Mr. Gladstone might be induced to reconsider the matter of the sinking fund, and that it would not be insisted on. The Canadian delegates left England without an acceptance of the terms proposed by Mr. Gladstone, and without a formal rejection of them. Previous to the meeting of the Canadian parliament, Tilley proceeded to Quebec to urge upon the Canadian government the preparation of the necessary bills to carry out the agreement entered into for the construction of this great railway. He reported to the lieutenant-governor on his return that the government of Canada, for reasons stated, could not then undertake to pass the legislation required, which they greatly regretted, but that they had not abandoned the arrangements for the construction of the railway. The Canadian government's declaration in the course of the session that they had abandoned this important enterprise was, accordingly, a source of great surprise and regret. The governments of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia passed the necessary legislation at the next session, but the government of Canada took no further step in the matter until the confederation negotiations were commenced in 1864.

CHAPTER VI
THE MOVEMENT FOR MARITIME UNION

We now come down to an event of the greatest interest, in which Mr. Tilley took part, and one of such vast and far-reaching importance that it quite overshadows all the other events of his career. The confederation of the Canadian provinces was, beyond all question, the most notable colonial movement within the British empire since the American Declaration of Independence. It changed at once the whole character of the colonial relations which had subsisted with the mother country, and substituted for a few weak and scattered colonies a powerful Dominion, able to speak with a united voice, and stand as a helpmeet to the nation from which most of its people had sprung. No man, whatever his views as to the wisdom of that political union may have been at the time, can now deny that it was timely and necessary, if the colonies and the mother country were to preserve their connection with each other. It is safe to say that, if confederation had not taken place in 1867, British interests on this continent would have suffered, and possibly some of the colonies would now have been a part of the United States. The policy of separating the colonies from England, which has been so much advocated by many leading public men in the great republic, would have found free scope, and by balancing the interests of one colony against those of another, promoting dissensions and favouring those provinces which were disposed to a closer union with the United States, something might have been done to weaken their connection with the British empire, which is now the glory and the strength of the Dominion of Canada.

The question of the union of the several colonies of British North America was by no means a new one when it came up for final settlement. It had been discussed at a very early period in the history of the provinces, and indeed it was a question which it was quite natural to discuss, for it seemed but reasonable that colonies of the same origin, owing the same allegiance, inhabited by people who differed but little from each other in any respect, and with many commercial interests in common, should form a political union. No doubt it might have been brought earlier to the front as a vital political question but for the fact that the British government, which was most interested in promoting the union of the colonies, took no step towards that end until almost compelled by necessity to move in the matter. The colonial policy of England, as represented by the colonial office and in the royal instructions to colonial governors, has seldom been wise or far-seeing, and the British colonies which now girdle the world, have been built up mainly as the result of private enterprise; for the part taken by the government has, in most cases, been merely to give official sanction to what private individuals have already done, and to assist in protecting British interests when they have become important, especially in new regions of the world.

CONFEDERATION FORESHADOWED

When the Earl of Durham was sent out as governor-general of Canada after the rebellion there in 1838, he suggested in his report that the union of the colonies of British North America was one of the remedies which ought to be resorted to for the pacification of Canada and the reconstruction of its constitution. While a large proportion of the people of the colonies looked with favour upon the idea of a political union, there was in all of them a large body of objectors who were steadily opposed to it. People of that kind are to be found in all countries, and they have existed in all ages of the world's history. They are the persons who see in every new movement a thousand difficulties which cannot be surmounted. Their minds are constructed on the principle of rejecting all new ideas, and clinging to old forms and systems long after they have lost their vitality. They are a class who look back for precedents for any step of a political character which it is proposed to take, and who judge of everything by the standard of some former age. They seem to forget that precedents must be created some time or another, and that the present century has as good a right to create precedents as any of its predecessors. To these people every objection that could be urged against confederation was exaggerated and magnified, and whenever any proposal was made which seemed to tend towards the union of the colonies, their voices were heard upon the other side. We need not doubt the honesty or loyalty of these objectors, or consider that they were unfavourable either to British connection or to the building up of the empire. It was merely their misfortune that they were constitutionally adverse to change, and could not see any merit in a political movement which involved the idea of novelty.