DERATION 129

_CHAPTER XIV_

LAST YEARS OF THE UNION 141

_CHAPTER XV_

CONFEDERATION 147

_CHAPTER XVI_

THE QUEBEC CONFERENCE 163

_CHAPTER XVII_

THE CONFEDERATION DEBATE 169

_CHAPTER XVIII_

THE MISSION TO ENGLAND 181

_CHAPTER XIX_

BROWN LEAVES THE COALITION 189

_CHAPTER XX_

CONFEDERATION AND THE PARTIES 199

_CHAPTER XXI_

CANADA AND THE GREAT WEST 211

_CHAPTER XXII_

THE RECIPROCITY TREATY OF 1874 223

_CHAPTER XXIII_

CANADIAN NATIONALISM 235

_CHAPTER XXIV_

LATER YEARS 243

_CHAPTER XXV_

CONCLUSION 255

INDEX 269

CHAPTER I

FROM SCOTLAND TO CANADA

George Brown was born at Alloa, a seaport on the tidal Forth,
thirty-five miles inward from Edinburgh, on November 29th, 1818. His
mother was a daughter of George Mackenzie, of Stornoway, in the Island
of Lewis. His father, Peter Brown, was a merchant and builder. George
was educated at the High School and Southern Academy in Edinburgh.
"This young man," said Dr. Gunn, of the Southern Academy, "is not only
endowed with high enthusiasm, but possesses the faculty of creating
enthusiasm in others." At the risk of attaching too much significance
to praise bestowed on a school-boy, it may be said that these words
struck the keynote of Brown's character and revealed the source of his
power. The atmosphere of the household was Liberal; father and son
alike hated the institution of slavery, with which they were destined
to become more closely acquainted. "When I was a very young man," said
George Brown, denouncing the Fugitive Slave Law before a Toronto
audience, "I used to think that if I ever had to speak before such an
audience as this, I would choose African Slavery as my theme in
preference to any other topic. The subject seemed to afford the
widest scope for rhetoric and for fervid appeals to the best of human
sympathies. These thoughts arose far from here, while slavery was a
thing at a distance, while the horrors of the system were unrealized,
while the mind received it as a tale and discussed it as a principle.
But, when you