This is Lord Monck's.(who was he?).letter to the Rt. Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P. in charge of Britain's Colonial Department, the eventual author of the British North America Act.
   Here he was giving his opinion of observations of the Canadians' talk about wanting their own federal government.
   Britain was not about to let Canada go a few years later when Britain came out with the BNA Act.
   As this letter shows, Canadians just did not qualify.then.for a confederation. They do now!
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Government House 
Quebec 
November 7 - 1864
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"Sir, In another dispatch of this date I have had the honor of transmitting to you the resolutions adopted by the representatives of the different.colonies.of British North America (showing that the Provinces and all North American British possessions were regarded as Colonies).at their late meeting at Quebec.in reference to the proposed.Union.of.those Provinces.('Provinces'. –.a term understood as being synonymous with 'Colonies'.(*), which showed that creation of a federal union of all Provinces {Colonies} was desired by our forefathers way back then {always was}, but the legal opportunity for this remained unobtainable until 1931 under the Statute of Westminster). I propose in this dispatch to lay before you some observations of my own on the proposed scheme which I think it would be judicious for the present at least, to treat as confidential. ...
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"I must in the first place express my regret that the term "confederation" was ever used in connection with the proposed Union of the British North American Provinces both because I think it an entire misapplication of the term and still more because I think the word is calculated  to give a false notion of the ...
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... "sort of union which is desired.(the Canadians. wanted.an autonomous . legislature;.what they got) I might almost say which is possible, between the provinces.

"A.Confederation or Federal Union as I understand it, means a union of Independent Communities bound together for certain defined purposes by a
treaty or agreement entered into in their quality of sovereign states, by which they give up to the central or federal authority for those purposes a certain portion of their sovereign rights retaining all other powers not expressly delegated in as ample a manner as if the Federation had never been formed..(as the United States and others have done better)....
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...."If this be a fair definition of the term Federation and I think it is applicable to all those Federal Unions of which history gives us examples, it is plain that a Union of this sort could not take place between the provinces of British North America, because they do not possess the qualities which are essential to the basis of such a union. (because at this time they were not sovereign and didn't become that way till the Statute of Westminster, December 11, 1931)....
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....''They are in no sense sovereign or independent communities.
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"They.possess no constitutional rights. except those which are expressly conferred upon them by an Imperial Act of Parliament and the power of making treaties of any sort between themselves is.not one of those rights.....
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....''The only manner in which a Union between them could be effected would be by means of an act of the Imperial Parliament which would accurately define the nature of the connection, and the extent of the respective powers of the central and local authorities, should any sort of union short of an absolute Legislative Consolidation be decided on..(the BNA Act was just that)....
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....''The Sovereignty would still reside in the British Crown and Imperial Legislature, and in the event of any collision of authority between central and local bodies there would be the power of appeal to the supreme tribunal from which all the colonial franchises were originally derived and which would possess the right....
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...."to receive the appeal, the authority to decide, and the power to enforce the decision.....
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...."I dwell particularly on their view of the matter because although I think I have shown that a Federal Union, properly so-called.(meaning here a confederation.
    England ended up using the word 'union' when they completed their BNA Act  because of what they made that word mean; they did not make it mean a 'confederation', because of the connotation it would have),.is impossible in these Provinces. under their present conditions, yet is the scheme which has been agreed upon embodies the principles of a general government for the general purposes, the United Province, and local bodies in the management of such affairs as may be considered local in their character. I think it is of importance to show and I think the considerations which I have placed before you prove that.".(in this last paragraph Lord Monck was assuring those in England that Canadians 'weren't really' trying to get out from under Britain's control {but they actually were})

End of Lord Monck's letter to Cardwell, which was extracted from a dispatch of 32 pages, these being pages 11 to 16.
    Lord Monck appears in this letter to assume that his plan will form the groundwork for the. Union.of the Provinces (not the confederation of the Provinces that Canadians wanted) which was true and eventually culminated in the BNA Act..
    The Provinces wanted say in those things political which were affecting them. This led to Britain's BNA Act by which certain division of powers did take place, but with Britain still having all the control and final say.

Also, on September 25, 1866 Lord Monck, in his second dispatch, wrote to the Right Honorable Earl of Carnarvan (successor to Cardwell)

-Lord Monck grants title of "Sir" to John A. Macdonald.