The elections for the Dominion house of commons took place in the
summer of 1867, and Sir John Macdonald's government was sustained by
nearly three-fourths of the entire representation. The most notable
incident in this contest was the defeat of Mr. Brown. Soon after his
resignation in 1866 he assumed his old position of hostility to Sir John
Macdonald and the Conservatives. At a later date, when the Liberals were
in office, he accepted a seat in the senate, but in the meantime he
continued to manage the _Globe_ and denounce his too successful and wily
antagonist in its columns with his usual vehemence.

The first parliament of the new Dominion met in the autumn of 1867 in
the new buildings at Ottawa--also chosen as the seat of government of
the federation--and was probably the ablest body of men that ever
assembled for legislative purposes within the limits of old or new
Canada. In the absence of the legislation which was subsequently passed
both in Ontario and Quebec against dual representation--or the election
of the same representatives to both the Dominion parliament and the
local legislatures--it comprised the leading public men of all parties
in the two provinces in question. Such legislation had been enacted in
the maritime provinces before 1867, but it did not prevent the ablest
men of New Brunswick from selecting the larger and more ambitious field
of parliamentary action. In Nova Scotia Sir Charles Tupper was the only
man who emerged from the battle in which so many unionists were for the
moment defeated. Even Sir Adams Archibald, the secretary of state, was
defeated in a county where he had been always returned by a large
majority. Mr. Howe came in at the head of a strong phalanx of
anti-unionists--"Repealers" as they called themselves for a short time.

The legislation of the first parliament during its five years of
existence was noteworthy in many respects. The departments of government
were reorganised with due regard to the larger interests now intrusted
to their care. The new department of marine and fisheries, rendered
necessary by the admission of the maritime provinces, was placed under
the direction of Mr. Peter Mitchell, then a member of the senate, who
had done so much to bring New Brunswick into the union. An act was
passed to provide for the immediate commencement of the Intercolonial
Railway, which was actually completed by the 1st of July, 1876, under
the supervision of Mr., now Sir, Sand