In 1872 a general election was held in the Dominion, and while the government was generally sustained, it came back with a minority from Ontario.  The Riel agitation, the Washington Treaty, and the undertaking to finish the Pacific railway in so short a time, were questions which weakened the ministry.  The most encouraging feature of the elections was the complete defeat of the anti-unionists in Nova Scotia,—­the prelude to their disappearance as a party—­all the representatives, with the exception of one member, being pledged to support a government whose chief merit was its persistent effort to cement the union and extend it from ocean to ocean.  Sir Francis Hincks, finance minister since 1870, was defeated in Ontario and Sir George Cartier in Montreal.  Both these gentlemen found constituencies elsewhere, but Sir George Cartier never took his seat, as his health had been seriously impaired, and he died in England in 1873.  The state gave a public funeral to this great French Canadian, always animated by a sincere desire to weld the two races together on principles of compromise and justice.  Sir Francis Hincks also disappeared from public life in 1873, and died at Montreal in 1885 from an attack of malignant small-pox.  The sad circumstances of his death forbade any public or even private display, and the man who filled so many important positions in the empire was carried to the grave with those precautions which are necessary in the case of those who fall victims to an infectious disease.

But while these two eminent men disappeared from the public life of Canada, two others began now to occupy a more prominent place in Dominion affairs.  These were Mr. Edward Blake and Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, who had retired from the Ontario legislature when an act was passed, as in other provinces, against dual representation, which made it necessary for them to elect between federal and provincial politics.  Sir Oliver Mowat, who had retired from the bench, was chosen prime minister of Ontario on the 25th October, 1872, and continued to hold the position with great success and profit to the province until 1896, when he became minister of justice in the Liberal government formed by Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

In 1873 Prince Edward Island yielded to the influences which had been working for some years in the direction of union, and allied her fortunes with those of her sister provinces.  The public men who were mainly instrumental in bringing about this happy result, after much discussion in the legislature and several conferences with the Dominion government, were the following:  Mr. R.P.  Haythorne, afterwards a senator; Mr. David Laird, at a later time minister in Mr. Mackenzie’s government and a lieutenant-governor of the North-west territories; Mr. James C. Pope, who became a member of Sir John Macdonald’s cabinet in 1879; Mr. T.H.  Haviland, and Mr. G.W.  Howlan, who were in later years lieutenant-governors of the island.  The terms of union made not only very favourable financial