of
parties in the legislature. Appeals were made frequently to the people,
and new ministries formed,--in fact, five within two years--but the
sectional difficulties had obviously reached a point where it was not
possible to carry on successfully the administration of public affairs.
On the 14th June, 1864, a committee of the legislative assembly of
Canada, of whom Mr. Brown was chairman, reported that "a strong feeling
was found to exist among the members of the committee in favour of
changes in the direction of a federal system, applied either to Canada
alone or to the whole of the British North American provinces." On the
day when this report was presented, the Conservative government, known
as the Tache-Macdonald ministry, suffered the fate of many previous
governments for years, and it became necessary either to appeal at once
to the people, or find some other practical solution of the political
difficulties which prevented the formation of a stable government. Then
it was that Mr. Brown rose above the level of mere party selfishness,
and assumed the attitude of a statesman, animated by patriotic and noble
impulses which must help us to forget the spirit of sectionalism and
illiberality which so often animated him in his career of heated
partisanship. Negotiations took place between Mr. John A. Macdonald, Mr.
Brown, Mr. Cartier, Mr. Galt, Mr. Morris, Mr. McDougall, Mr. Mowat, and
other prominent members of the Conservative and Reform parties, with the
result that a coalition government was formed on the distinct
understanding that it would "bring in a measure next session for the
purpose of removing existing difficulties by introducing the federal
principle into Canada, coupled with such provisions as will permit the
maritime provinces and the north-west territories to be incorporated
into the same system of government." The Reformers who entered the
government with Macdonald and Cartier on this fundamental condition were
Mr. Brown, Mr. Oliver Mowat, and Mr. William McDougall, who stood
deservedly high in public estimation.

While these events were happening in the Canadas, the maritime provinces
were taking steps in the direction of their own union. In 1861 Mr. Howe,
the leader of a Liberal government in Nova Scotia, carried a resolution
in favour of such a scheme. Three years later the Conservative ministry
of which Dr., now Sir, Charles Tupper, was premier, took measures in the
legislature of Nova Scotia to carr