To those resolutions all the British Provinces in North America were, as I have said, consenting parties, and the measure founded upon them must be accepted as a treaty of union. The conference of Charlotteville was adjourned to Quebec, and there, in the month of October, those resolutions were drawn up which have since become famous under the name of 'the Quebec Resolutions,' and which, with some slight changes, form the basis of the measure that I have now the honour to submit to Parliament. In September of that year delegates from all the Maritime Provinces, including Newfoundland and Prince Edward's Island, were assembled at Charlotteville to discuss the terms of a possible union of those Provinces alone when the Canadian Parliament intervened and gave to the design a grander character by deputing representatives to propose the Confederation of all the British North American Colonies. But matters were not then ripe, and it was not till 1864 that the first decided step was taken in furtherance of the proposal. Governor General of Canada, in his speech from the throne, announced the policy of Confederation to the Canadian Parliament and in the autumn of that year, when my noble Friend (the Earl of Derby) was in office, delegates from that Province came to this country to consult with Her Majesty's Government upon the subject. But delays and difficulties intervened, and Lord Durham's intentions were never carried out. Lord Durham, when he proposed in his most able Report the legislative union of Upper and Lower Canada, distinctly contemplated the incorporation of the Maritime Provinces. It is enough to say that, in one form or another, it has for many years been before the public mind in the British Provinces of North' America. My Lords, I will not detain your Lordships now by any lengthy recapitulation of the early history of this question. From the evidences, indeed, which I have seen in that office of the interest that he took in this question, I am confident, although it has fallen to my lot rather than his to submit this measure to Parliament, yet that there is no one in either House who will more sincerely rejoice in its success than the right hon. Caldwell, laboured to effect the consummation of this work. And here, in the very outset, I would wish to hear my testimony-whatever it may be worth-to the ability and patience with which my right hon. I have, however, this advantage in the performance of my task, that the present measure is not a question of political controversy, and that I may count almost as much upon the sympathy of many noble Lords opposite in the purposes of this great undertaking as upon those of my noble Friends on this side of the House with whom I am in the habit of acting. Said: In laving before jour Lordships the details of one of the largest and most important measures which for many years it has been the duty of any Colonial Minister in this country to submit to Parliament, I must unaffectedly ask for the forbearance of the House.

Canadian mansion becomes disintegration