DIARY OF THE CONFEDERATION NEGOTIATIONS, 1870

Friday, June 3rd.1

We arrived at Ottawa City at 1 o'clock to day from Prescott; would have been in yesterday had we not missed the train.2 Mr. Trutch sent in a note stating we had arrived. The Governor General summoned us to his presence at 3 o'clock.3 We were received courteously; after a few minutes Sir G[eorge] Cartier made his appearance and we were introduced to him and very shortly after conducted and inducted by him to the Privy Council and presented to all the Members -a Council being at that time held.4

After an ordinary conversation, we were informed that we should be made acquainted with the time when our presence would be required and then the Hon. J[oseph] Howe [President of the Privy Council] volunteered to shew us the City. He did so and we dined with him in the evening, Sir F[rancis] Hincks [Minister of Finance] being present and Honble. Mr. Tilley [Minister of Customs]. We subsequently learned that on Monday next we were required to meet the [Privy] Council at 2 P.M.

Introduction June 6

Notes:

  1. Contrary to the general acceptance of June 4th as the date for the arrival of the delegates (see Scholefield and Howay, British Columbia, 2:293), the date here mentioned is correct. Compare telegraphic message in the Victoria Daily British Colonist, June 5, 1870.
  2. The Toronto Globe, June 10, 1870, states quite definitely that the delegates arrived in Ottawa on the 28th of May, and H. E. Seelye, special correspondent of the Victoria Colonist, in Toronto on the 27th. Presumably they made a short visit out of the capital before undertaking to contact the Government, for this same issue of the newspaper quotes at length from a speech made by Dr. Helmcken at a dinner in honour of R. W. W. Carrall, in his native city of Woodstock, Ontario.
  3. Sir John Young, later Baron Lisgar, Governor-General of Canada, 1868-72.
  4. The reference here is to a meeting of the cabinet. It is to be remembered that the Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, was seriously ill at the time. Consequently the responsibility for the negotiations fell upon Sir George Cartier, Minister of Militia and Defence, the acting Prime Minister.

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