ime the people of Canada and New
Brunswick had been almost wholly unknown to each other, because the
difficulties of travelling between the two provinces were so great. Any
person who desired to reach Montreal at that time from St. John had to
take the international steamer to Portland, Me., and was then carried by
the Grand Trunk Railway to his destination. Quebec could be reached in
summer by the steamer from Pictou which called at Shediac, but in winter
the journey had to be made by the Grand Trunk Railway from Portland, the
only alternative route being the road by which the mails were carried
from Edmunston north to the St. Lawrence. Under these circumstances the
people of the Canadian provinces and of the Maritime Provinces had but
few opportunities of seeing each other, and the people of all the
provinces knew much more of their neighbours in the United States than
they did of their fellow-colonists. One result of the Hon. D'Arcy
McGee's visit in 1863 was an invitation by the city of St. John to the
legislature of Canada to visit the Maritime Provinces. The invitation
was accepted and a party of about one hundred, comprising members of the
legislature, newspaper men, and others, visited St. John in the
beginning of August, 1864. Their trip was extended to Fredericton, where
they were the guests of the government of New Brunswick, and to Halifax,
where they were the guests of that city and of the government of Nova
Scotia. This visit produced a good effect upon the public mind, and
enabled the Maritime people to see what kind of men their
fellow-colonists of Upper and Lower Canada were.

{POLITICAL CRISIS IN CANADA}

In the meantime a great crisis had arisen in the government of Canada,
which was the immediate cause of the active part which that province
took in the confederation movement. When Upper and Lower Canada were
united in 1841, it was arranged that the representation of each province
in the legislature should be equal. The arrangement at that time was
favourable to Upper Canada, which had a smaller population than Lower
Canada; but in the course of time, as the population of Upper Canada
increased faster than that of the lower province, the people of Upper
Canada felt that they had less representation than they were entitled
to, and this state of affairs led to the raising of the cry of
"Representation by Population" which was so often heard in that province
prior to the era of confederation. In 1864 Upp