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Date: 1866-06-04
By: Arthur Gordon
Citation: Despatch from Lieutenant Governor Arthur Gordon to Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, No. 41 (4 June 1866) in UK, Parliament, Correspondence respecting the Proposed Union of the British North American Provinces (London: George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, 1867).
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No. 23.

COPY of a DESPATCH from Lieut.-Governor the Hon. ARTHUR GORDON to the Right Hon. EDWARD CARDWELL, M.P.

(No.41.)

Fredericton, June 4, 1866.
(Received June 18, 1866.)
(Answered, No.40, June 22, 1865, page 122.)

SIR,

IN my confidential Despatch of May 7th, I stated that I had, on the advice of my Executive Council, dissolved the Provincial Parliament.

2. Sixteen members of the new House of Assembly have already been returned, of tense not one is a supporter of the late Government, or an opponent of Confederation. The county of York, which at the last general election returned four members opposed to the Quebec scheme, has now, by a majority of nearly two to one, returned four unionists. Of the only two members of the late Government who have as yet offered themselves for re-election, one has been signally defeated, whilst the other, finding success hopeless, withdrew from the contest before the day of polling.

3. There can now, I think, be no doubt that the new Parliament will contain a very large majority favourable to Confederation.

I have, &c.

(Signed) ARTHUR H. GORDON.

The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P.,
&c. &c. &c.