But I put it on provincial grounds as well.
When Canada proposed to move, in 1859, Newfoundland alone responded;
when Nova Scotia moved, in 1860, New Brunswick alone agreed to go with
her; at all events, Canada did not then concur. Of late years the
language of the Colonial Office, of Mr. Labouchere, of Sir Bulwer
Lytton, and of the lamented Duke of Newcastle, was substantially:
'Agree among yourselves, gentlemen, and we will not stand in the way.'
Ah! there was the rub--'Agree among yourselves!' Easier said than done,
with five Colonies so long estranged, and whose former negotiations had
generally ended in bitter controversies. Up to the last year there was
no conjunction of circumstances favourable to bringing about this
union, and probably if we suffer this opportunity to be wasted we shall
never see again such another conjunction as will enable us to agree,
even so far, among ourselves. By a most fortunate concurrence of
circumstances--by what I presume to call, speaking of events of this
magnitude, a providential concurrence of circumstances--the Government
of Canada was so modified last spring as to enable it to deal
fearlessly with this subject, at the very moment when the coast
Colonies, despairing of a Canadian union, were arranging a conference
of their own for a union of their own.
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