avigation on the Fraser within two years, local representative
institutions, and representation in the Canadian parliament.

The legislature, despite the alluring prospect set forth in an address
to the Queen moved by DeCosmos, cautiously adopted an amendment
declaring that, while it adhered to its previous action in endorsing
the principle of union 'to accomplish the consolidation of British
interests and institutions in North America,' it lacked the knowledge
necessary to define advantageous terms of union. A convention of
delegates met at Yale to express dissatisfaction with local conditions
in British Columbia and to frame the terms on which {172} union would
be desirable. The Legislative Council, still unconvinced, again
declared for delay; but a dispatch from Lord Granville in August 1869,
addressed to the new governor, Anthony Musgrave, who, on the
recommendation of Sir John Macdonald, had succeeded Seymour,
emphatically endorsed Confederation, leaving open only the question of
the terms. The Confederation debate took place in the Legislative
Council in 1870. In concluding his speech in favour of the policy,
Joseph Trutch, one of the three delegates who afterwards went to Canada
to perfect the bargain, said:

I advocate Confederation because it will secure the continuance of this
colony under the British flag and strengthen British interests on this
continent, and because it will benefit this community--by lessening
taxation and giving increased revenue for local expenditure; by
advancing the political status of the colony; by securing the practical
aid of the Dominion Government...; and by affording, through a railway,
the only means of acquiring a permanent population which must come from
the east of the Rocky Mountains.

{173} The arrangement made by Canada was a generous one. It included a
promise to begin within two years and to complete within ten a railway
to the Pacific, thus connecting British Columbia with the eastern
provinces. The terms were ratified by the people of British Columbia
in the general election of 1870, and the union went into force on July
20, 1871. The Dominion now stretched from sea to sea.

Prince Edward Island had fought stoutly in resistance to the union.
For six years it remained aloof. The fears of a small community, proud
of its local rights and conscious that its place in a federal system
could never be a commanding one, are not to be despised. At first
federati