856 Dorion had moved a resolution favouring
the confederation of the two Canadas. In August, 1858, Brown and
Dorion undertook to form a government pledged to the settlement of the
question that had arisen between Upper and Lower Canada. Dorion says
it was agreed by the Brown-Dorion government "that the constitutional
question should be taken up and settled, either by a confederation of
the two provinces, or by representation according to population, with
such checks and guarantees as would secure the religious faith, the
laws, the language, and the peculiar institutions of each section of
the country from encroachments on the part of the other."

At the same time an effort in the same direction was made by the
Conservative party. A. T. Galt, in the session of 1858, advocated the
federal union of all the British North American provinces. He declared
that unless a union were effected, the provinces would inevitably
drift into the United States. He proposed that questions relating to
education and likely to arouse religious dissension, ought to be left
to the provinces. The resolutions moved by Mr. Galt in 1858 give him
a high place among the promoters of confederation. Galt was asked by
Sir Edmund Head to form an administration on the resignation of the
Brown government. Galt refused, but when he subsequently entered the
Cartier government it was on condition that the promotion of federal
union should be embodied in the policy of the government. Cartier,
Ross and Galt visited England in fulfilment of this promise, and
described the serious difficulties that had arisen in Canada. The
movement failed because the co-operation of the Maritime Provinces
could not be obtained.

In the autumn of 1859 two important steps leading towards federation
were taken. In October the Lower Canadian members of the Opposition
met in Montreal and declared for a federal union of the Canadas. They
went so far as to specify the subjects of federal and local
jurisdiction, allowing to the central authority the customs tariff,
the post-office, patents and copyrights, and the currency; and to the
local legislatures education, the laws of property, the administration
of justice, and the control of the militia. In September a meeting of
the Liberal members of both Houses was held at Toronto, and a circular
calling a convention of Upper Canadian Reformers was issued. It
declared that "the financial and political evils of the provinces have
reached su