Confederation proclaimed

Adelayed dispatch (we wonder why it was not sent over the wires to this place five days ago) announces that Her Majesty has issued a proclamation declaring the union of Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as the dominion of Canada.

Appended is a list of senators, appointed by the Queen, to the Upper House of the new legislature, according to the provisions of the Confederation bill passed by Parliament.

A subsequent dispatch announces that the union of the provinces will take effect on the first of January. But this is evidently a mistake — the first of July, no doubt, being intended as the date on which the act shall come into full force.

The Act of Confederation as amended

Some curiosity has been felt about the nature of the new clauses reported in the London papers as having been added to the Confederation bill in passing through committee of the House of Commons.

These were the clauses relating to money matters provided in the original draft of the bill. The measure having been initiated in the House of Lords, such clauses could not be introduced, the Commons having an exclusive privilege with reference to these matters.

The Quebec Chronicle says that the bill passed the second reading as it came from the Lords, and the only alteration made in committee was the insertion of the word “male” in describing the class of person entitled to vote at elections. The delegates gave their consent.

Women are thus precluded from the exercise of political power unless by an alteration of the constitution. In the meantime, we daresay our fair friends in the provinces are quite satisfied with the share of political consequence they enjoy while Queen Victoria rules the British Empire. When their sex reigns supreme, they need not desire to share the contention of political life. The Daily British Colonist and Victoria Chronicle,

June 4, 1867