The sequel is well known. At the Quebec Conference of October 1864 a series of resolutions were drawn up for a federal union. These were later rejected by several of the provinces and negotiations had to await many manoeuvres and events until 1866. In the fall of that year delegates from the provinces of Canada (later Quebec and Ontario ), New Brunswick and Nova Scotia met in the Westminister Palace Hotel in London and drew up the British Act which established the Dominion of Canada on July 1st, 1867. Prince Edward Island did not participate in this latter meeting and refused to join. Five years later, after several economic and political misfortunes, the Island asked to be admitted and became a province on July 1st, 1873. The years since Confederation have seen the gradual changes of the late Victorian era and the twentieth century: the coming of gas and electricity, of machines, especially the horseless carriage and the motor car, changes in fashion from long skirts, bonnets, frock coats, beaver hats, and voluminous bathing suits, the admission of ladies to educational institu¬ tions and to business, successive prohibition crises, develop¬ ment of new tastes in amusements such as the gramaphone, the "pictures", and the latest dance steps, and the coming of large-scale wars to alter completely the lives of thousands. Indeed the times are changing so quickly that the Charlotte - town Centennial is an appropriate reminder to the present generation to look back occasionally and examine the institu¬ tions, customs, and traditions of the past so as to understand better the responsibilities of the present and the challenge of the future. '4&rw~ i &.