COLONEL THE HONORABLE JOHN HAMILTON GRAY, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. "Then let us be firm and united, One country, one flag for us all ; ON the first of September, 1864, an Intercolonial Conference of great importance was held at Charlottetown, in the Island of Prince Edward, to take into consideration the question of uniting the three Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Island of Prince Edward, under one Government and Legislature. The following fifteen delegates assembled, five from each Province. Colonel the Honorable John Hamilton Gray, of Prince Edward Island, President of the Conference. The proceedings of that Conference have not, we believe, been officially given to the public. Besides the main question, “shall these Provinces be united as one Government?" with respect to which we may be allowed to conjecture, there was little difference of opinion, there remained a second question on which a conclusion was less easily arrived at. "Shall that Government be represented in one Legislature?" In other words, "shall the union be Legislative or Federal?" It so happened, however, that the resolutions of the respective Legislatures of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward's Island, were identical in their terms. Thus the deliberations of the Conference were circumscribed by the words of the resolution under which it met. It is as follows: Resolved, That His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor be authorized to appoint Delegates (not to exceed five,) to confer with Delegates who may be appointed by the Governments of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, for the purpose of discussing the expediency of a union of the three Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, under one Government and Legislature. The report of the said Delegates to be laid before the Legislature of this Colony, before any further action shall be taken in regard to the proposed · question. But as the Delegates appointed under the last mentioned resolution were assembled at Charlottetown, a trim looking steam vessel, half war ship, and half yacht, hove-to, and dropped anchor in the offing. The vessel needed no special introduction. She bore at her peak the patent of her quality, while the burnished letters on her bows expressed a name as dear to those Islanders as to ourselves. The first was the "old flag," with its three-fold cross of faith and truth, of strength and union, of freedom and brotherhood; and the second was the Royal name, "Victoria." Nor was the object of the visit less interesting than the vessel. Apart from the consideration which was due alike to the character and position of the visitors, their appearance there at that time, as well as their errand, were acts of grace and courtesy, expressed in the friendly forms of compliment and challenge. They came to listen and to learn, to hear what was said, and to see what was done. The question which that Conference was summoned to discuss was one with which some experience, and much study, had made them familiar; which they had considered as statesmen and were as patriots, anxious to advance. Therefore it was that places of honor were appointed within that Council Chamber for the following gentlemen, members of the administration of Canada, who thus became, so to speak, the political guests of the Conference :-The Honorables Messieurs John A. Macdonald, George Brown, Alexander T. Galt, George E. Cartier, William McDougall, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, and Hector L. Langevin. The Conference, of which the subject of our sketch was chairman, was important, we may be allowed to think, not alone for what it did, but from what it avoided doing. It was assembled to consider a particular resolution. It was adjourned, so far as the public is informed, without having put on record an opinion on the merits of that resolution. In the meanwhile, the principle of that resolution animated all hearts; it was the subject of all thought, and the burden of all speech. Like the genial Christmas congratulations of friends who had been long separated, or of neighbors who had become estranged, the Conference and its aim acted like a cordial. Let us have union, but let that union embrace all that it can embrace. "Have a big heart," said Tecumseth to General Proctor, on the morning he was slain. "Have a big heart," each delegate at Charlottetown may, as we think, very properly have said to one another. "What is good for you may be good for me; what is good for your Province, must be good for ours!" Let union play the enchanter's part. Let kind intimacy take the place of cold neglect. Let a new temple of concord be erected, and let its proportions be magnificent. Instead of creating a Maritime Province, create a Northern Nation. Instead of gathering 600,000, gather 4,000,000 of souls within one government. Be resolved: "have a big heart." We do not know what was done on the occasion. We know what was not done. The delegates who assembled to create a comparatively small Colonial Union, adjourned to promote a superlatively large one. The Conference at Charlottetown will become historical, for it was the prelude to the Quebec Conference, whose resolutions, like the pillars of an ancient temple, are destined to become the supports of a stalwart nation. The subject of our sketch was personally, as well as by his position, peculiarly fitted to occupy the place of President of that Conference. By birth and parentage he belongs to the "blue blood" of America. His father, who resided in Virginia when that State was a British Province, was established in business at Norfolk and Petersburg, in connection with the late General John Hamilton. On the breaking out of the revolutionary war he espoused the Royal cause, preferring adversity to dishonor. Even the beguiling temptations of trade and profit did not cause him to forget his King and country. Maternally we learn that Colonel Gray is descended from the Stukeley family, lords of the manors of Stukeley magna and Stukeley parva, but whether or in what degree he is related to the reverend antiquary of the last century of that name; the "arch druid," as he was called by the critics on account of his knowledge of British antiquities, we know not. It was not, however, wholly, or perhaps chiefly, to his immediate descent from an United Empire Loyalist, that Colonel Gray is by birth a native of Prince Edward Island. On the eighth of September, 1761, on the occasion of the marriage of George the Third with Charlotte Sophia, Princess of Mecklenberg Strelitz, it happened that the grandfather of the subject of our sketch was one of the officers of the guard of honor, and, as we infer, a gentleman marked for notice by the popular young King. The French war in America was over. It only remained to secure by treaty what had been won by conquest. Canada was the victor's prize. By the acquisition of Canada the other actual or alleged possessions of |