he young Prince of Wales visited
the provinces as the representative of his mother, the beloved Queen
Victoria. His tour resembled a triumphal progress. It evoked feelings
and revived memories which the young prince himself, pleasing though
his personality was, could not have done. It was the first clear
revelation of the intensity of that attachment to the traditions and
institutions of the Empire which in our own day has so vitally affected
the relations of the self-governing states to the mother country. In a
letter from Ottawa[2] to Lord Palmerston, {24} the Duke of Newcastle,
the prince's tutor, wrote:

I never saw in any part of England such extensive or beautiful outward
demonstrations of respect and affection, either to the Queen or to any
private object of local interest, as I have seen in every one of these
colonies, and, what is more important, there have been circumstances
attending all these displays which have marked their sincerity and
proved that neither curiosity nor self-interest were the only or the
ruling influences.

Of all the events, however, that startled the British provinces out of
the self-absorbed contemplation of their own little affairs, the Civil
War in the United States exerted the most immediate influence. It not
only brought close the menace of a war between Great Britain and the
Republic, with Canada as the battle-ground, but it forced a complete
readjustment of our commercial relations. Not less important, the
attitude of the Imperial government toward Confederation underwent a
change. It was D'Arcy McGee who perceived, at the very outset, the
probable {25} bearing of the Civil War upon the future of Canada. 'I
said in the House during the session of 1861,' he subsequently
declared, 'that the first gun fired at Fort Sumter had a message for
us.' The situation became plainer when the _Trent_ Affair embroiled
Great Britain directly with the North, and the safety of Canada
appeared to be threatened. While Lincoln was anxiously pondering the
British demand that the Confederate agents, Mason and Slidell, removed
by an American warship from the British steamer the _Trent_, should be
given up, and Lord Lyons was labouring to preserve peace, the fate of
Canada hung in the balance. The agents were released, but there
followed ten years of unfriendly relations between Great Britain and
the United States. There were murmurs that when the South was subdued
the trained armies of