, the governor of Nova Scotia, in forwarding
Howe's motion to the Colonial Office, wrote: 'As an abstract question
the union of the North American colonies has long received the support
of many persons of weight and ability, but so far as I am aware, no
political mode of carrying out this union has ever been proposed.'

[Illustration: Sir Alexander T. Galt. From a photograph by Topley.]

The most encouraging step taken at this time, and the most far-reaching
in its consequences, was the action of Alexander Galt in Canada. Galt
possessed a strong and independent mind. The youngest son of John
Galt, the Scottish novelist, he had come across the ocean in the
service of the British American Land Company, and had settled at
Sherbrooke in the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada. Though personally
influential and respected, he wielded no general political authority,
for he lacked the aptitude for compromise demanded in the game of
party. He was the outspoken champion of Protestant interests in the
Catholic part of Canada, and had boldly declared for the annexation of
Canada to the {18} United States in the agitation of 1849. His views
on clericalism he never greatly modified, but annexation to the United
States he abandoned, with characteristic candour, for federation. In
1858 he advocated a federal union of all the provinces in a telling
speech in parliament, which revealed a thorough knowledge of the
material resources of the country, afterwards issued in book form in
his _Canada: 1849 to 1859_. During the ministerial crisis of August
1858 Sir Edmund Head asked Galt to form a government. He declined, and
indicated George Cartier as a fit and proper person to do so. The
former Conservative Cabinet, with some changes, then resumed office,
and Galt himself, exacting a pledge that Confederation should form part
of the government's policy, assumed the portfolio of Finance. The
pledge was kept in the speech of the governor-general closing the
session, and in October of that year Cartier, with two of his
colleagues, Galt and Ross, visited London to secure approval for a
meeting of provincial delegates on union. Galt's course had forced the
question out of the sphere of speculation. A careful student of the
period[3] argues with point {19} that to Galt we owe the introduction
of the policy into practical politics. In the light of after events
this view cannot be lightly set aside. But the effort bore no fruit
for the m