Document Information

Date: 1866-07-02
By: New Brunswick (House of Assembly)
Citation: New Brunswick, House of Assembly, Reports of the Debates of The House of Assembly [1866] at 65-66.
Other formats: Click here to view the original document (PDF).

Click here to view the rest of New Brunswick’s Confederation Debates for 1866.

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY.

Monday, July 2.

•       (p. 65)

[…]

DELEGATION TO ENGLAND

Mr. Smith asked the Attorney General if in the concluding remarks he […]

•       (p. 66)

[…] made on the Resolution, he meant that the Government would Confederate New Brunswick and Canada if Nova Scotia did not come in.

Hon. Attorney General was not aware that he had said any thing of the kind, but the hon. member for St. John (Mr. Skinner) had asked the question, and he told him that he could not say what the delegates would do. He supposed they would do what they considered best under the circumstances.

Mr. Smith thought the country should have some information on the subject. The Attorney General had said that if Nova Scotia did not come in, then Saint John would be made the terminus of the Inter-colonial Railway, and thus she would be force to Confederate. He would not ask if the Government would pursue such a course?

Hon. Mr. Wilmot did not see any necessity for such a question, as Nova Scotia had agreed to appoint delegates.

Mr. Smith said that was only the action of the House, and not of the people. They would send home a delegation, and Mr. Howe would be heard at the bar of the House of Commons and in the Halls of St. Stephen. They had sent home petitions signed by thousands asking that no Union should take place till after the dissolution of the House.

Hon. Attorney General said the mater would be for the deliberation of the delegates. It was something in the future and a contingency that might never arise.

Mr. Chandler supposed the meaning of what the Attorney General said was that it was a circumstance whose probability was so remote that there was time enough to think and talk about it.

Mr. Smith thought the hon. member for Charlotte must be the 10th member of the Government.

[…]