d and George
Brown, came together to carry out a scheme of confederation, which was
too great to {303} be the object of petty party strife, and which
required the support of all parties to make it successful. Both
political parties, as George Brown confessed, had tried to govern the
country, and each in turn had failed from lack of steady adequate
support. A general election was unlikely to effect any improvement in
the situation, and the one hope seemed to lie in a frank combination
between opponents to solve the constitutional difficulties which
threatened to ruin the province. "After much discussion on both
sides," ran the official declaration, "it was found that a compromise
might probably be had in the adoption either of the federal principle
for the British North American provinces, as the larger question, or
for Canada alone, with provisions for the admission of the Maritime
Provinces and the North-Western Territory, when they should express the
desire": and to secure the most perfect unanimity the ministers, Sir E.
P. Tache and Mr. Macdonald, "thereon stated that, after the
prorogation, they would be prepared to place three seats in the Cabinet
at the disposal of Mr. Brown."[8]

It is not within the scope of this essay to discuss {304} developments
after Confederation, yet it is an interesting speculation whether, up
to a date quite recent, the grant of responsible government did not
continue to make a two-party system on the British basis unnatural to
Canada. Between 1847 and 1867, the destruction of the dual system, and
the creation of government by coalition, were certainly the dominant
facts in Canadian politics, and both were the products of the gift of
autonomy. Since 1867, it is possible to contend that, while two sets
of politicians offer themselves as alternative governments to the
electors, their differentiation has reference rather to the holding of
office than to a real distinction in programme. Alike in trade,
imperial policy, and domestic progress, the inclination has been
towards compromise, and either side inclines, or is forced, to steal
the programme of the other. Responsible government was the last issue
which arrayed men in parties, neither of which could quite accept a
compromise with the other. It remains to be seen whether questions of
freer trade, imperial organization, and provincial rights, will once
more create parties with something deeper in their differences than
mere rival