present. Lord Carnarvon
[the colonial secretary] was in the chair, and I was rather
disappointed in his power of presidency. Macdonald was the ruling
genius and spokesman, and I was very greatly struck by his power of
management and adroitness. The French delegates were keenly on the
watch for anything which weakened their securities; on the contrary,
the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick delegates were very jealous of
concessions to the _arrieree_ province; while one main stipulation in
favour of the French was open to constitutional objections on the part
of the Home Government. Macdonald had to argue the question with the
Home Government on a point on which the slightest divergence from the
narrow line already agreed upon in Canada was watched for--here by the
French and {124} there by the English--as eager dogs watch a rat hole;
a snap on one side might have provoked a snap on the other and put an
end to the concord. He stated and argued the case with cool ready
fluency, while at the same time you saw that every word was measured,
and that while he was making for a point ahead, he was never for a
moment unconscious of any of the rocks among which he had to steer.

The preliminaries had all been settled before the meetings with the
colonial secretary. The gathering was smaller in numbers than the
Quebec Conference, and the experience of two years had not been lost.
We hear no more of deadlocks or of the danger of breaking up. There
was frank discussion on any point that required reconsideration, but
the delegates decided to adhere to the Quebec resolutions as far as
possible. For the Liberal ministers from Upper Canada, Howland and
McDougall, this was the safest course to pursue, because they knew that
George Brown had put his hand and seal upon the basis adopted at Quebec
and would bitterly resent any substantial departure from it. This was
also the view of the representatives of Lower Canada. The {125}
maritime delegates wanted better financial terms if such could be
secured, but beyond this were content with the accepted outline of the
constitution.

The delegates were careful to make plain their belief that the union
was to cement and not to weaken the Imperial tie. At Quebec they had
agreed upon a motion in these terms:

That in framing a constitution for the general government, the
conference, with a view to the perpetuation of our connection with the
Mother Country and to the promotion of the bes