In the proceedings which resulted in Confederation Mr. McGee took a conspicuous and an honourable part. The union of the British North American Provinces, as we have seen, had been advocated by him from the time of his first arrival in the country. Independently of his speeches in the House, which were among the most brilliant efforts evoked by the occasion, he did good service by his writings in the public press, and by lectures and addresses delivered by him in various parts of Canada and the Maritime Provinces. In order that he might be relieved from pecuniary cares by which he was sometimes beset, his friends throughout the country organized a fund on his behalf, and purchased and presented him with a comfortable, well-appointed homestead in Montmorenci Terrace, St. Catherine Street, Montreal, wherein he and his family found a resting-place during the remaining years of his life. He was thus enabled to address himself to his cherished projects with comparative freedom from anxiety. In 1865 he repaired to England as a Member of the Executive Council to confer with the Imperial Government upon the great question of Confederation. During his absence he, after an interval of seventeen years, once more set foot on his native land, and paid a visit to Wexford, the home of his boyhood, where he was the guest of his father. During his sojourn at Wexford on this occasion he delivered an eloquent speech on the condition of the Irish race in America. He publicly deplored the part he had played in the troubles of 1848, and enlarged upon the demoralized condition of his countrymen in the United States as compared with those resident in Canada. He proclaimed his conviction that the time for fruitless attempts at insurrection was past, and that he for his part should regard traitors to Great Britain as the enemies of human progress. This deliverance gave grievous offence to the Irish citizens of the United States, by many of whom D'Arcy McGee was thenceforward denounced as a renegade to his principles. This sentiment was strengthened by McGee's righteous denunciations of the Fenian horde who menaced our shores in the summer of 1866, and who shed the blood of some of our promising young men. At the general election of 1867 these utterances were called into requisition as an election cry. Mr. McGee had not accepted a portfolio in the first Government under Confederation, which had just been formed, but had waived his claim to office in favour of another Irish Catholic, Mr. Kenny, of Nova Scotia. McGee, however, though he was thus complaisant, had no intention of retiring immediately from public life, and once more offered himself to his constituents in Montreal West. That constituency was the abode of the local "Head Centre" of the Fenian Brotherhood, and the Fenian influence there was considerable. Mr. McGee's utterances had made him the object of the inveterate hatred of that body, and it was determined