but the vigilance of the authorities and the readiness of the people of
Canada to defend their soil prevented any more hostile demonstrations
from the United States. The prisoners taken in the Niagara district were
treated with a degree of clemency which their shameless conduct did not
merit from an outraged people. No persons were ever executed, though a
number were confined for a while in Kingston penitentiary. The invasion
had the effect of stimulating the patriotism of the Canadian people to
an extraordinary degree, and of showing them the necessity that existed
for improving their home forces, whose organisation and equipment proved
sadly defective during the invasion.

In the summer of 1866 the Canadian legislature met for the last time
under the provisions of the Union Act of 1840, and passed addresses to
the Queen, setting forth constitutions for the new provinces of Upper
and Lower Canada, afterwards incorporated in the imperial act of union.
A conference of delegates from the provinces of Nova Scotia, New
Brunswick, and Canada was held in the December of 1866 at the
Westminster Palace Hotel in the City of London. The members on behalf of
Canada were Messrs Macdonald, Cartier, Galt, McDougall, Langevin, and
W.P. Howland (in the place of Mr. Brown); on behalf of Nova Scotia,
Messrs Tupper, Henry, McCully, Archibald, and J.W. Ritchie (who took Mr.
Dickey's place); of New Brunswick, Messrs Tilley, Johnson, Mitchell,
Fisher, and R.D. Wilmot. The last named, who took the place of Mr.
Steeves, was a Loyalist by descent, and afterwards became speaker of
the senate and a lieutenant-governor of his native province. Their
deliberations led to some changes in the financial provisions of the
Quebec plan, made with the view of satisfying the opposition as far as
possible in the maritime provinces but without disturbing the
fundamental basis to which Canada had already pledged itself in the
legislative session of 1865. All the difficulties being now removed the
Earl of Carnarvon, then secretary of state for the colonies, submitted
to the house of lords on the 17th of February, 1867, a bill intituled,
"An act for the union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the
government thereof; and for purposes connected therewith." It passed the
two houses with very little discussion, and the royal assent was given
to it on the 29th of March of the same year as "The British North
America Act, 1867." It is interesting to know