nd success, and
I really believe will have an immense influence on the future
destinies of Canada."

The formation of the coalition cabinet was announced on June 30th.
Foley, Buchanan and Simpson, members of the Upper Canadian section of
the Tache-Macdonald ministry, retired, and their places were taken by
the Hon. George Brown, Oliver Mowat, and William Macdougall. Otherwise
the ministry remained unchanged. Sir E. P. Tache, though a
Conservative, was acceptable to both parties, and was well fitted to
head a genuine coalition. But it must have been evident from the first
that the character of a coalition would not be long maintained. The
Reform party, which had just defeated the government in the
legislature, was represented by only three ministers out of twelve;
and this, with Macdonald's skill in managing combinations of men, made
it morally certain that the ministry must eventually become
Conservative, just as happened in the case of the coalition of 1854.
Brown had asked that the Reformers be represented by four ministers
from Upper Canada and two from Lower Canada, which would, as nearly as
possible, have corresponded with the strength of his party in the
legislature. Galt and Macdonald represented that a change in the
personnel of the Lower Canadian section of the cabinet would disturb
the people and shake their confidence. The Lower Canadian Liberal
leaders, Dorion and Holton, were adverse to the coalition scheme,
regarding it as a mere device for enabling Macdonald and his friends
to hold office.

Mowat and Brown were re-elected without difficulty, but Macdougall met
with strong opposition in North Ontario. Brown, who was working hard
in his interests, found this opposition so strong among Conservatives
that he telegraphed to Macdonald, who sent a strong letter on behalf
of Macdougall. Brown said that the opposition came chiefly from
Orangemen. The result was that Macdougall, in spite of the assistance
of the two leaders, was defeated by one hundred. He was subsequently
elected for North Lanark. In other bye-elections the advocates of
confederation were generally successful. In the confederation debate,
Brown said there had been twenty-five contests, fourteen for the
Upper House and eleven for the Lower House, and that only one or two
opponents of confederation had been elected.

There had been for some years an intermittent movement for the union
of the Maritime Provinces, and in 1864 their legislatures had