762 THE FEDERATIONS AND THE UNION [rarr 1v
ment of the whole matter. Finally, after further discussion,
the matter was decided for the time by a dispatch of
November 17 declaring the award of the Secretary of State.
Unhappily there was delay in carrying out the award, and
on February 2, 1876, the Legislative Assembly petitioned
the Queen to insist on the Federal Government observing the
award. In 1876 the Governor-General made a visit to the
province, and in a brilliant series of speeches brought home
to the province the difficulties and troubles which had beset
the great undertaking : Lord Dufferin allayed for the time
the trouble, but it broke out again in 1878, and was only
diminished by the change of government in the Dominion
and the satisfactory assurances given by the administration
of Sir John Macdonald.

§ 9. Tee ENTRY OF NEW PROVINCES
The last section of the Act provides for the entry of new
provinces in the shape of Newfoundland, Prince Edward
Island, and British Columbia, on addresses from both Houses
of the Parliament and of the Legislatures of the provinces,
and also for the admission of Rupert’s Land and the North-Western
 Territory on the conditions expressed in these
addresses and approved by the Queen : the mode of admission
was by Order in Council, and the Order was to have the
force of an Imperial Act. It was provided that if Newfoundland
 entered she could have four additional senators, but
the four accorded to Prince Edward Island were to be taken
as vacancies occurred from the other two maritime provinces,
reducing the number to ten apiece. It is curious that this
part of the Act was the least satisfactory of all. In the case
of the admission of Rupert’s Land no conditions were inserted
in the address, and so the position was of doubtful validity,
* Canada Sess. Pap., 1875, No. 19; 1876, No. 41; 1885, No. 34 ; Willison,
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, i. 369-408. The province desired a reference to the
Privy Council of the whole question, but this was declined by the Dominion
when the Secretary of State was ready to arrange it. The interpretation
of the terms of union has in several cases come before the Courts ; see
Attorney-General of British Columbia v. Attorney-General of Canada, 14 App.
Cas, 295; Burrard Power Co. v. The King, 43 S. C. R. 27: [19111 A. C. 87.