therefore, agreed that the long-talked-of Intercolonial Railway should be constructed from Halifax to Quebec, the British Government to give its aid in carrying out the costly scheme.
2. New Provinces.—The principal events of our history since confederation must now be told very briefly, for this part of our history is so recent, that we cannot say, yet, which of its events are the most important, or whether some things that have taken place since confederation are for the good of Canada, or not.
The first Governor-General of the Dominion was Lord Monck, and his Prime Minister was Sir John A. Macdonald, who had taken a leading part along with the Hon. George Brown in carrying through the Confederation scheme. His principal colleagues were Sir George E. Cartier from Quebec, the Hon. Charles Tupper from Nova Scotia, and the Hon. S. L. Tilley from New Brunswick. The first Prime Minister of Ontario was the Hon John Sandfield Macdonald, the Lieutenant-Governor being the Hon. William P. Howland. The majority of the people of the Dominion were content to give the new constitution a fair trial, except the people of Nova Scotia. In the first parliament elected after the union, the members from that province were nearly all opposed to confederation, and had to be quieted by the grant of “better terms.” In 1868, steps were taken to get possession of the vast territory held by the Hudson Bay Company in the North-West. This territory, known as “Prince Rupert’s Land,” had been given to the Hudson Bay Company in 1670 by King Charles II. of England, and had been used by it, for two hundred years, to carry on a profitable trade in furs. The value of this territory was but little known, and the Company fearful of losing its charter always strove to make the English people believe that it was fit for nothing except grazing buffaloes, and providing trapping grounds for Indians. A very few settlers had made their way into this unknown and lone land—the only settlement of importance being at Red River, where Lord Selkirk had founded a colony in 1811. The whole population numbered but ten thousand souls, and was gathered mainly at the different trading posts.
The charter of the Company was expiring, and the Canadian Goyernment induced the British Parliament to pass an Act by which the North-West or Hudson Bay Territory could be surrendered to
