ractice even then whenever
there was a conflict between imperial and Canadian statutes.

Addresses to the Queen embodying the Quebec resolutions were submitted
to the legislature of Canada during the winter of 1865, and passed in
both houses by large majorities after a very full discussion of the
merits of the scheme. The opposition in the assembly came chiefly from
Mr. Antoine A. Dorion, Mr. Luther H. Holton, Mr. Dunkin, Mr. Lucius Seth
Huntington, Mr. John Sandfield Macdonald, and other able Liberals who
were not disposed to follow Mr. Brown and his two colleagues in their
patriotic abandonment of "partyism."

The vote on the address was, in the council--Contents 45, Non-contents
15. In the assembly it stood--Yeas 91, Nays 33. The minority in the
assembly comprised 25 out of 65 representatives of French Canada, and
only 8 out of the 65 from Upper Canada. With the speaker in the chair
there were only 5 members absent on the taking of the final vote.

Efforts were made both in the council and assembly to obtain an
unequivocal expression of public opinion at the polls before the address
was submitted to the imperial government for final action. It was argued
with much force that the legislature had had no special mandate from the
people to carry out so vital a change in the political condition of the
provinces, but this argument had relatively little weight in either
house in view of the dominant public sentiment which, as it was obvious
to the most superficial observer, existed in the valley of the St.
Lawrence in favour of a scheme which seemed certain to settle the
difficulties so long in the way of stable government, and offered so
many auspicious auguries for the development of the provinces embraced
in federation.

Soon after the close of the session Messrs Macdonald, Galt, Cartier, and
Brown went to England to confer with the imperial authorities on various
matters of grave public import. The British government agreed to
guarantee a loan for the construction of the Intercolonial Railway and
gave additional assurances of their deep interest in the proposed
confederation. An understanding was reached with respect to the mutual
obligations of the parent state and the dependency to provide for the
defences of the country. Preliminary steps were taken in the direction
of acquiring the north-west from the Hudson's Bay Company on equitable
terms whenever their exact legal rights were ascertained. The report of
the de