was leader, were also very distrustful of Brown, and clearly saw that he could have no strength whatever in a province where French Canada must have a guarantee that its language, religion, and civil law, were safe in the hands of any government that might at any time be formed.  The wisest men among the Conservatives also felt that the time had arrived for adopting a new policy since the old questions which had once evoked their opposition had been at last settled by the voice of the people, and could no longer constitutionally or wisely be made matters of continued agitation in or out of parliament.  “The question that arose in the minds of the old Liberals,” as it was said many years later by Thomas White, an able journalist and politician,[16]

“was this:  shall we hand over the government of this country to the men who, calling themselves Liberals, have broken up the Liberal party by the declaration of extravagant views, by the enunciation of principles far more radical and reckless than any we are prepared to accept, and by a restless ambition which we cannot approve?  Or shall we not rather unite with the Conservatives who have gone to the country declaring, in reference to the great questions which then agitated it, that if the decision at the polls was against them, they would no longer offer resistance to their settlement, but would, on the contrary, assist in such solution of them as would forever remove them from the sphere of public or political agitation.”

With both Liberals and Conservatives holding such views, it was easy enough for John A. Macdonald to convince even Sir Allan MacNab that the time had come for forgetting the past as much as possible, and constituting a strong government from the moderate elements of the old parties which had served their turn and now required to be remodelled on a wider basis of common interests.  Sir Allan MacNab recognized the necessity of bringing his own views into harmony with those of the younger men of his party who were determined not to allow such an opportunity for forming a powerful ministry to pass by.  The political situation, indeed, was one calculated to appeal to both the vanity and self-interest of the veteran statesman, and he accordingly assumed the responsibility of forming an administration.  He communicated immediately with Morin and his colleagues in Lower Canada, and when he received a favourable reply from them, his next step was to make arrangements, if possible, with the Liberals of Upper Canada.  Hincks was only too happy to have an opportunity of resenting the opposition he had met with from Brown and the extreme Reformers of the western province, and opened negotiations with his old supporters on the conditions that the new ministry would take immediate steps for the secularization of the clergy reserves, and the settlement of the seigniorial tenure, and that two members of the administration would be taken from his own followers.  The negotiations were successfully closed on this basis of agreement, and on September 11th the following ministers were duly sworn into office: