Though the steps taken in 1858 had no immediate result, the fact remains that the Government of which Cartier was the head, was the first to take up the question of the union of the British North American provinces, that, as the lamented Thomas D'Arcy McGee remarked in his great speech during the Confederation debate "the first real stage of the success of Confederation, the thing that gave importance to the theory in men's minds, was the memorandum of 1858, signed by Cartier, Galt and Rose. The recommendation in that memorandum" said McGee, "laid dormant until revived by the Constitutional Committee which led to the coalition, which led to the Quebec Conference, which led to the draft of the Constitution now on our table, and which" added McGee with assurance "will lead, I am fain to believe, to the union of all these provinces,"--an assurance, which was not long afterwards happily fulfilled. Cartier was the leader of the Quebec wing of the Coalition Ministry. He was a delegate to the Charlottetown Conference, as well as a member of the Quebec Conference. He took a leading part in the Confederation debates, ably defending the measure against the attacks made upon it. With Macdonald, Brown and Galt he was deputed after the scheme had been adopted by the Legislature to go to England to confer with Her Majesty's Government; he was also one of the delegates who sat in Conference from the 4th to the 24th December, 1866, at the Westminster Palace Hotel in London, and at which a series of 69 resolutions, based on those of the Quebec Conference, were finally passed. The sittings of that famous conference were renewed early in January of 1867, a series of draft bills were drawn up, and revised by the Imperial law officers, a bill was submitted to the Imperial Parliament in February, and on March 29th, under the title of the British North America Act, it received the royal assent. A royal proclamation issued from Windsor Castle on May 22nd, 1867, appointed July 1st as the date upon which the Act should come into force, and the following first of July witnessed the birth of what the Governor-General, Lord Monck, well designated as "a new nationality".