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 of turning his powers of invective against the government, which he insisted was ‘tainted with corruption, collectively and individually, both in their public and private characters.’ ‘It was time,’ he declared, before the dissolution of the house in 1854, ‘that an end should be put to this system of corruption, which was disgracing Canada more than any colony which Great Britain had ever had under her wing.’

The conservatives returned to office after the election in 1854, and the MacNab-Morin ministry was formed, in which MacNab was premier. A. N. Morin of Lower Canada was commissioner for crown lands. Macdonald took for the first of many times the office of attorney-general for Upper Canada. In 1856 MacNab was succeeded as premier by Colonel (afterwards Sir Etienne) Tache, but Macdonald, who then became the leader of the House of Assembly, was the real leader of the conservative party from that date till his death, thirty-five years later. In 1857, on 25 Nov., Colonel Tache resigned. On the following day the governor-general directed Macdonald to form a ministry. Tache's portfolio was conferred on George (afterwards Sir George) Etienne Cartier, who led the representatives of Lower Canada. No other change was made in the administration. Macdonald almost immediately dissolved parliament. His party obtained a majority at the polls, and the new parliament opened while he was still premier (November 1857).

Macdonald found his most persistent opponent in George Brown, the leader of an extreme section of radicals known as ‘Clear Grits.’ To liberals and conservatives Brown was equally hostile. Early in 1858 Macdonald introduced a measure for selecting a permanent capital for Canada, and Brown was so offensive in his opposition that Macdonald met his obstructive conduct by resigning office. Brown failed to form a ministry, and after an absence of eight days the conservatives returned to office. A decisive blow was thus struck at the ‘Clear Grits.’ For unassigned reasons, but probably from a desire to conciliate the French of Lower Canada, Macdonald, after his party's victory over Brown, resumed his old position of attorney-general for Upper Canada, while Cartier became premier. In 1859, in spite of bitter opposition from the lower province, Ottawa finally became the capital city. Next year Macdonald helped to entertain the Prince of Wales on his visit to Canada.

In 1861 Lord Monck came to Canada as viceroy. At the time the conservative Cartier-Macdonald ministry was falling, but Macdonald is said to have been ‘not less busy holding his own party together than putting his opponents into hot water among themselves.’ In 1862, when the civil war was raging in the United States, and threatening an invasion of Canada, Macdonald introduced a Militia Bill, providing for the defence of the colony. It was rejected from fear of expense, but it gave to Macdonald in England a reputation for loyalty which his subsequent career fully confirmed. Public education, the status of the Roman catholic church in Lower Canada, and the future of the vast extent of crown lands in the north-west were the questions that chiefly occupied the attention of the Cartier-Macdonald ministry, but Macdonald was among the first to insist on the necessity of revising the constitution of 1841. Toronto had now twice the population of Quebec, but both continued to send an equal number of representatives to the House of Assembly, and the ministries were still formed on the awkward plan of admitting for every member from the upper province a representative from the lower. Moreover, the two provinces were practically separated by different modes of local government. In Quebec the principles of feudality and Roman catholic predominance were still recognised, and there were no means of uniting the two provinces in case of invasion by America. A union of the two Canadas was absolutely needful in Macdonald's opinion. The radical George Brown, in his newspaper, ‘The Globe,’ by clamouring for representation by population, was soon found to be fighting part of Macdonald's battle.

The Cartier-Macdonald ministry remained in power until 1862, when a weak liberal administration was formed, under the leadership of John Sandfield Macdonald (1812–1874). But in 1864 the conservatives returned to power, with Tache as premier, and Macdonald, the real leader, in his old position of attorney-general for Upper Canada.

The federation movement led by Macdonald began in full earnest at the same time. George Brown was admitted into the administration as president of the council. The little maritime provinces along the east of British America, which were wholly independent of Canada, had long been contemplating some sort of separate union among themselves, and in 1864 the legislatures of Nova Scotia, of New Brunswick, and of Prince Edward Island authorised delegates to meet in September at Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island, in order to discuss the question. Macdonald saw his opportunity, and although unauthorised by the Canadian legislature, he thrust himself, with