Whatever this man or that may claim to have done towards building up
Confederation, I, who was in good measure behind the scenes throughout,
repeat that to the late Duke of Newcastle the main credit of the
measure of 1867 was due. While failing health and the Duke's premature
decease left to Mr. Cardwell and Mr. W. E. Forster--and afterwards to
Lord Carnarvon and the Duke of Buckingham--the completion of the work
before the English Parliament, it was he who stood in the gap, and
formed and moulded, with a patience and persistence admirable to
behold, Cabinet opinion both in England and in the Provinces. At the
same time George Etienne Cartier, John A. Macdonald, and John Ross, in
Canada; Samuel L. Tilley, in New Brunswick, and, notably, Joseph Howe,
in Nova Scotia, stood together for Union like a wall of brass. And
these should ever be the most prominent amongst the honoured names of
the authors of an Union of the Provinces under the British Crown.
The works, I repeat, to be effected were--first, the physical union of
the Maritime Provinces with Canada by means of Intercolonial Railways;
and, second, to get out of the way of any unification, the heavy weight
and obstruction of the Hudson's Bay Company. The; latter was most
difficult, for abundant reasons.
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