Contemporaneously with the repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty came the raids of the Fenians--bands of men who did dishonour to the cause of Ireland, under the pretence of striking a blow at England through Canada, where their countrymen have always found happy homes, free government, and honourable positions. For months before the invasion American newspapers were full of accounts of the assembling and arming of these bands on the frontiers of Canada. They invaded the Dominion in 1866, property was destroyed, and a number of Canadian youth lost their lives near Ridgeway, in the Niagara district, but one O'Neil and his collection of disbanded soldiers and fugitives from justice were forced back by the Canadian forces to the country whose neutrality they had outraged. The United States authorities had calmly looked on while all the preparations for these raids were in progress. Proclamations were at last issued by the government when the damage had been done, and a few raiders were arrested; but the House of Representatives immediately sent a resolution to the President, requesting him "to cause the prosecutions, instituted in the United States courts against the Fenians, to be discontinued if compatible with the public interest"--a request which was complied with. In 1870 another raid[2] was attempted on the {379} Lower Canadian frontier, but it was easily repulsed, and the authorities of the United States did their duty with promptitude. For all the losses, however, that Canada sustained through these invasions of her territory, she has never received any compensation whatever. Out of the very circumstances which were apparently calculated to do much injury to Canada, her people learned lessons of wisdom and self-reliance, and were stimulated to go vigorously to work to carry out that scheme of national development which had its commencement in the Quebec conference of 1864, and was constitutionally inaugurated in 1867 when the provinces entered on the new era of federal union. [1] The delegates to the Quebec conference, held the following positions in their respective provinces: _Canada_: Hon. Sir Etienne P. Tache, M.L.C., premier; Hon. John A. Macdonald, M.P.P., attorney-general of Upper Canada; Hon. George Etienne Cartier, M.P.P., attorney-general of Lower Canada; Hon. George Brown, M.P.P., president of the executive council; Hon. Alexander T. Galt, M.P.P., finance minister; Hon. Alexander Campbell, M.L.C., commissioner of crown lands; Hon. Jean C. Chapais, M.L.C., commissioner of public works; Hon. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, M.P.P., minister of agriculture; Hon. Hector L. Langevin, M.P.P., solicitor-general for Lower Canada; Hon. William McDougall, M.P.P., provincial secretary; Hon. James Cockburn, M.P.P., solicitor-general for Upper Canada; Hon. Oliver Mowat, M.P.P., postmaster-general.