the revenue, and demanded proportionate
representation. La Fontaine had pointed out, at the time he was prime
minister, that representation by population would subject the weaker
province to the control of the stronger, and that as he would not impose
the principle upon Upper Canada at the time he would not concede it,
without constitutional restraint, if her position were reversed. Upper
Canada now became aggressive and the question had to be settled.
Macdonald, who became prime minister in 1856, and had formed a new
government with Cartier in 1857, maintained that no amendment to the
constitution was necessary; that existing conditions were satisfactory.
Brown, on the opposite side of the House, declared that representation
by population was imperative, with or without constitutional changes;
and Dorion appears to have suggested the true remedy, when he gave
notice of a motion in 1856:--

"That a committee be appointed to inquire into the means that should
be adopted to form a new political and legislative organization of the
heretofore provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, either by the
establishment of their former territorial divisions or by a division
of each province, so as to form a federation, having a federal
government and a local legislature for each one of the new provinces,
and to deliberate as to the course which should be adopted to regulate
the affairs of united Canada, in a manner which would be equitable to
the different sections of the province."

Dorion was in advance of the time. He understood the true principle of
federative union as applicable to Canada. But he did not pursue this
idea, and in fact his following was never sufficiently strong to enable
him to give effect to the sound measures he was so capable of
formulating. This, perhaps, was his special weakness. On the 2nd of
August 1858 he formed an administration with Brown, but was forced to
resign after being in office three days. When the question of
confederation was discussed a few years later he opposed the scheme,
believing there was nothing to justify the union at the time, although
he admitted "that commercial intercourse may increase sufficiently to
render confederation desirable." In 1873 he accepted the portfolio of
minister of justice in the Mackenzie government, and during the six
months that he was in office passed the Electoral Law of 1874 and the
Controverted Elections Act. Dorion sat as member of the asse