e an essential requisite to any scheme of
union, to make it acceptable to the people of the Maritime Provinces,
that sufficient money should be given to the provincial governments to
enable them to continue these services as before. It was difficult to
convince the representatives of Upper Canada of this, and it appears
that the conference nearly broke up without arriving at any result,
simply because of the apparently irreconcilable differences of opinion
between the representatives of the Maritime Provinces and those of
Canada in regard to this point. Finally these differences were overcome,
and the conclusions of the conference were embodied in a series of
seventy-two resolutions, which were agreed to, and which were to be
authenticated by the signatures of the delegates, and transmitted to
their respective governments, and also to the governor-general, for the
secretary of state for the colonies. These resolutions formed the first
basis of confederation and became what is known as the Quebec scheme.

It was perhaps inevitable that during the discussion of the scheme of
confederation by the Quebec convention, the proceedings should be
secret, but this restriction should have been removed as soon as the
convention adjourned. That this was not done was the principal reason
for the very unfavourable reception which the Quebec scheme met with
from the people of New Brunswick, when it was placed before them. It was
agreed at the Quebec conference that the scheme should not be made
public until after the delegates had reported to their respective
governments for their approval, but it was impossible that a document,
the terms of which were known to so many men, should be kept wholly
concealed from the public, and so the details of the scheme leaked out
and soon became a topic for public discussion. These discussions would
have been conducted in a much more friendly spirit if the Quebec scheme
had been given freely to the world, but as it was, prejudices and
jealousies, in many cases, darkened the question, and made men, who were
otherwise favourable to confederation, assume an attitude of hostility
to the Quebec scheme.

{SUBVENTIONS TO THE PROVINCES}

One of the points which at once attracted the attention of the opponents
of the scheme was the sum allowed to the several provinces for the
purpose of conducting their local affairs. As the provinces had to
surrender to the general government their right to levy customs an