THE UNION OF THE PROVINCES. 27
The honour of taking a decided step towards such a Initiative
union belongs to the legislature of Nova Scotia. In 1861 a hy a
resolution favourable to a union was passed by that legis-
lature and transmitted to the Duke of Newcastle, then
Colonial Secretary, who in turn forwarded it to the Governor-
General and the Lieutenant-Governors of the provinces. The
Lieutenant-Governors brought the subject before their re-
spective legislatures; and the legislatures of the maritime
provinces passed a resolution authorizing the respective
Lieutenant-Governors to appoint delegates not exceeding
five to confer with delegates of the other provinces “for the
purpose of discussing the expediency of a union of the three
provinces under one government and legislature.” Delegates
were appointed and it was arranged that the conference should
meet on the 1st September at Charlottetown.
Before the Conference met a coalition government was
formed in the Province of Canada pledged to a union of the
provinces, and the Government at once asked for and obtained
permission to send delegates to the Charlottetown Conference,
who however were not authorized to consider the ques-
don of a legislative union. The proposal to unite the mari-
time provinces was deemed impracticable, but the delegates
were unanimously of opinion that a union on a wider basis
was possible and the Canadian delegates proposed that with
the consent of the provinces a further conference should be
held at Quebec. The proposal was adopted and the Con-
ference ended.
The Quebec Conference met on the 10th October. Twelve
delegates were present from Canada, seven from New Bruns-
wick, five from Nova Scotia, seven from Prince Edward’s Island
and two from Newfoundland.
The Conference sat for eighteen days and the result of its
deliberations was the celebrated “Seventy-two” resolutions
on which the Act of Union was afterwards based. Each
delegation undertook to submit the resolutions to its own
Charlotte-
town Con-
ference.
