YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY X, m'3._ This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation with Yale University Library, 2008. You may not reproduce this digitized copy ofthe book for any purpose other than for scholarship, research, educational, or, in limited quantity, personal use. You may not distribute or provide access to this digitized copy (or modified or partial versions of it) for commercial purposes. THE SPEECHES PUBLIC LETTERS THE HON. JOSEPH HOWE. EDITED BY WILLIAM AKNAND, M.P. P. VOLUME SEOOHD. BOSTON: JOHN P. JEWETT & COMPANY. HALIFAX: A. & W. MACKINLAY. MONTREAL: B. DAWSON & SON. LONDON : SAMPSON, LOW, SON & CO 1858. o, *-A X CONTENTS. PAOE. Railroad to Windsor 3 Eailroad to Quebec ' 6 Resolution of 1850, Speech on 9 Portland Convention 23 Meeting at Temperance Hall 25 Mr. Howe's Policy 26 Delegation to England 31 Letters to Earl Grey 32 Speech at Southampton 33 Opinions of the Press 52 Debate in the House of Lords 53 Ministerial Crisis 54 Leaves England 55 Executive Perplexities 56 Speech at Masons' Hall 58 Mission to Canada and New Brunswick 78 Speeches in New Brunswick. . . .• 79 Visit to Toronto 87 Reception in Canada 88 Speech at Toronto 89 Speech at Quebec 90 Speech at Montreal 97 Compliments 100 Mr. Howe's Report 102 Dissolution 108 The Elections 109 Present from Old Friends 110 Counteracting the Enemy Ill Member for Cumberland 113 The Great Contractors 114 Mr. Archibald's Letters 115 Mr. Howe's Replies 117 Railway Jubilee at Boston 119 Visit to Portland '. 122 Opening of the Session, 1851 123 Railway Bills and Speeches 124 Monument to Huntington 128 iii iv CONTENTS. PAGE. Sir John Harvey's Closing Speech 129 Guarantee Withdrawn 130 Speech on Elective Councils 131 Death of Sir John Harvey 148 Compliments in Colchester 149 Hinckes and Chandler in England 1 50 Railway Policy of 1852 151 The Dead Lock 152 Speech on Free Trade and Protection 153 Dinner and Speech at Amherst 168 Railway Policy successful, 1854 173 Speech on Organization of the Empire 174 Sir Gaspard Le Marchant's Speech 207 Our Fathers 208 Speech on Maine Liquor Law 210 Railway Celebration 216 Reciprocity Treaty 219 Foreign Enlistment Service 220 Speech at Faneuil Hall 223 Speech at Democratic Celebration 227 Letters to Lord John Russell, 1 839 233 Review of the Solicitor General's Speech 285 Official Resignations, 1843 316 Lord Falkland's Letter and Answer .- 317 Letter to Francis Hinckes, Esq 325 Letter to Freeholders on Personal Dispatches 333 Letters to Lord Falkland 340 Letters to Lord John Russell, 1846 348 Letter to Freeholders, Election, 1847 374 Letter to the Hon. George MofFatt, 1849 383 Letter to Constituents, Delegation, 1850 394 Letters to Earl Grey, 1850 400 Letter to Hon. Francis Hinckes, 1855 439 Lecture — Mechanics' Institute, 1834 463 Lecture — Moral Influence of Woman, 1836 478 Lecture on Eloquence, 1845 494 Appendix 513 SPEECHES. RAILWAYS. "We approach now a period when Mr. Howe's political labors were drawing to a close. The institutions for which he had struggled were secured, consolidated, and successfully defended. He could, therefore, devote his energies to the internal improve ment of his own country, and of the Provinces by which she is surrounded. As early as 1835, Mr. Howe, during a visit to the western counties, had been struck with the importance of connecting them with the metropolis by means of a railroad from Halifax to Windsor. On his return to town he wrote a series of papers, which were afterwards published in pamphlet form, and are now beside us, recommending this- project to public attention. An extract or two will be read with interest, now that, twenty-two years after this enterprise was first conceived and suggested, it has been realized by the perseverance and energy of the man by whom they were written : — Halifax is separated from the rich arid valuable lands to the north ward by an extent of stony and barren country, extending immediately in rear of it, a distance of thirty miles. Now, no man will deny that if that space did not exist — if Halifax could be brought as near to Wind sor as Mr. Jeffrey's farm ; or if "Windsor, with all the shores of the Bason of Mines at its back, could be drawn as near to the capital as Mr. Pultz's inn now is, both town and country would be benefitted to an extent which no one could possibly calculate. The former would, in effect, be placed upon the borders of the best lands of the Province, and the pop ulation of two of the finest counties would be included in a moderate suburban range ; while the distance between the western country and its principal market would be shortened, by thirty miles. It is impossible to fancy such a thing without seeing the immediate action and reaction it would produce, by turning the whole labor of men and cattle which is now necessary to surmount the obstacles presented by this intervening space into channels of actual production,; and securing, as constant cus- 3 4 RAILROAD TO ' INDSOR. tomers to Halifax, the thousands, the results of whose labors are now driven elsewhere by the difficulties of approaching the metropolitan market. If the thirty miles of bad land, lying between Halifax harbor and the Ardoise Hills, were annihilated to-morrow, would not Halifax command the whole trade of the Bason of Mines, and be so identified with the interests and advancement of the midland counties, as to grow into a place of immense wealth and importance within a very few years ? Would not the price of lands rise rapidly in consequence of the facility of getting to market ? And would not property of every description in the town be amazingly enhanced in value by the nearer contiguity of fine, thriving, and populous agricultural settlements ? A railroad from Halifax to Windsor would realize this pleasant fancy ; in effect, and for all practical purposes, it would annihilate the thirty miles. They would be struck out of our calculations of distance ; but yet this comparatively sterile tract would be rendered more valuable by the facilities afforded for bringing the wood and other bulky articles with which it abounds to the harbor. Even travelling by stage, a passenger is now about seven hours on the road between Windsor and Halifax ; a locomotive engine would bring him down in two. A ton of hay brought by steam might be sold in the market square before another drawn on the common road had passed the seven mile plain. An old woman in Windsor might fill her basket with vegetables, and coming down on the railway, reach Halifax as early in the day as the blacks from Preston get here with their berries. A fisherman, who found the Halifax market supplied, could take the contents of his flat to Windsor, and return in time to row himself home to Ferguson's Cove. So that there is no end to the facilities that a railroad with locomotive engines would afford, and there can be no doubt that the immediate effect would be to draw Halifax and Windsor within fifteen miles of each other ; and attract through the one and to the other a vast amount of business, in which neither now have any participation. Assuming that the thing was done, there can be no doubt about the extent to which time and space would be annihilated. Travellers have been carried at the rate of thirty miles an hour on the Liverpool and Manchester rail road, and twenty-two and a half miles in the hour could, no doubt, be accomplished here if deemed expedient. Then, as regards freight, a single engine will travel, with a weight of ninety tons in its train, with ease and safety at the rate of eight miles an hour ; and, managed by three men and thirteen boys, will bring, in five and a half hours, to market as much agricultural or other produce as could be brought on the com mon road by two hundred and seventy horses and ninety men in a long RAILROAD TO WINDSOR. 5 summer day. We are justified in assuming, therefore, that from the day that a railroad from Windsor to Halifax was fairly opened, thirty miles of the distance would be annihilated ; and the capital, with its fine harbor, and command of the Atlantic seaboard, would be brought within ten or fifteen miles of the Bason of Mines, and the rich lands of the midland counties. ****** Every man in at least one entire section of the Province lias a per sonal and pecuniary interest in the matter. This interest may be deeper with the people situated immediately around the two points of termina tion ; but it affects more or less the whole population dwelling on tbe shores. of the Bason of Mines, in Cumberland, Colchester, Hants, King's, Annapolis, Lunenburg, Queen's, and even in Shelburne county ; but much more than all these does it affect the interest of the people of Halifax. To us it is, if not a vital question, one of the most pressing and commanding importance. A railroad to Windsor at Once strikes off from Halifax the ancient reproach of barrenness ancl sterility ; it annihi lates the bad land by which we are surrounded ; it brings the finest tracts in the Province — may we not say in North America ? — thirty miles nearer to our doors ; it gives us Newport, Windsor, Falmouth, Horton, and Cornwallis, as suburban towns, in reality nearer to us than are Lawrence Town, Chizetcook, and Margaret's Bay, with the present in different roads. Indeed, so closely identified would Halifax become with the business and improvement of those fine townships, that every acre brought into higher cultivation, every child born within their limits, would become a hostage for its growth and prosperity. No longer sigh ing for a river flowing into our harbor, we should have one with the tide of steam running both ways, and bearing us to and fro at the rate of twenty knots an hour. What river, what canal, could possibly be half as good ? No longer presenting to the whole population along the shores of the Bason of Mines the repulsive aspect of a long, tedious, and ex pensive land carriage, by which they are driven to seek other markets and form other connections, we should attract them to our streets and stores, by multiplied facilities for active and profitable intercourse. A railroad to Windsor would be of more essential service than a river as broad and deep as the St. John extending all the way. These papers attracted a good deal of attention at the time they were published, but Mr. Howe was not then in the Legis lature ; he had no influence in the government, and those who might have much earlier realized the conception, had not the courage to come up to the task. Judge Halliburton be- 55* 6 RAILROAD TO QUEBEC. came an early convert to Mr. Howe's views, and eloquently enforced them in his amusing sketches. At a later period Mr. Fraser and Mr. Wilkins, of Windsor, exerted themselves to have traffic returns collected and preliminary explorations made. On motion of the former gentleman, a resolution was passed in the session of 1848, authorizing the government to employ competent persons to examine the country between Halifax and Windsor, to ascertain if a practicable line could be found. Mr. Howe and Judge Desbarres [then Solicitor General] were appointed commissioners to make the necessary arrangements. Mr. George Wightman, a self-taught civil engineer, familiar with the face of the country, was selected for this service, and with a small party spent the summer of 1848 in running trial lines, and collecting information. His work was reviewed and his calculations tested by E. S. Chesborough, Esq., of Boston, and the results of their joint labors, with a report from the com missioners, were laid before the Legislature in the session of 1849. A railroad from Halifax to Quebec was suggested by the Earl of Durham in his celebrated report submitted to Parlia ment in 1839. This project was thenceforward freely discussed in all the Provinces. The want of a military road was much felt during the troubles in Canada. It would be indispensable to the security of the Provinces in the event of a war with the United States. Under any circumstances, whether they were to be confederated or not, such a great highway must bind the Provinces together, open up their unsettled lands, and inspire their population with feelings of pride and a sentiment of na tionality. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the enter prise was popular, and, for many reasons, had earnest and eloquent advocates in all the Colonies. It was not, however, till 1845 that the leading politicians of the Provinces had much leisure or inclination to grapple seri ously with this project. Outsiders discussed it a good deal, but those whose first thought was to establish securities for wise internal administration, naturally felt that they must do one thing at a time. RAILROAD TO QUEBEC. 7 In October, 1845, some gentlemen in London proposed to form a company to build a railroad from Halifax to the St. Lawrence, and communications were sent to the Provinces in terested inviting cooperation. A public meeting of the princi pal citizens was held at Halifax, at which cooperation was pledged, and the attention of the Executive invited to the im portance of the undertaking. Other meetings were held at Quebec and elsewhere, in which a good deal of earnestness was manifested. In November, prospectuses were issued by the promoters of the company in London, who proposed to build, as we have already said, not only the road to the St. Lawrence, but the road to Windsor also. As these persons had used the names of a good many Colonial gentlemen with out their knowledge and consent ; and as, upon inquiry, there was good reason to doubt the extent of their resources, a good deal of bickering arose between those who represented and those who opposed the promoters. A meeting was held at Masons Hall, at which feeling ran very high. At this meeting an executive committee of nine gentlemen was appointed to prepare statistics, conduct correspondence, and report from time to time as progress might be made. Meetings were also held during the autumn, both at Windsor and in Halifax, at which the importance of the Western Rail road was freely discussed. When the session opened, a memorial was submitted from the promoters of the Halifax and Quebec Railroad, in Eng land, with certain dispatches, to which reference has already been made, and which increased rather than allayed the feel ings that had been previously excited at the public meet ings. There were communications to and from the Colonial Secretary and the Governors of Canada and New Brunswick, showing that in all the Provinces the subject was exciting a good deal of interest. On the 14th of March, resolutions and an address were passed, pledging this Province to cooperate with the other Colo nies interested, in a joint survey of the line to the St. Lawrence, in the incorporation of a company, and the appropriation of funds in aid of the enterprise. 8 RAILROAD TO QUEBEC. The survey by Major Robinson and Captain Henderson fol lowed, and their report and plans were submitted to the Colo nial Legislatures in 1849. During that session, the right of way, with ten miles of crown land on either side, and £20,000 sterling per annum for ever, or until the road paid, were granted by our Legislature. Grants, proportional to their resources and interest in the work, were also made in Canada and New Brunswick. The belief was general that substantial aid would be given by the British government ; and sanguine and apparently well-founded hopes were entertained in all the Provinces that a work, recommended by a royal commissioner, countenanced by Governors and sec retaries of state, which had been surveyed at a cost to the Colonies of £10,000, and in aid of which £60,000 per annum and ten thousand acres of land had been granted by the Colo nial Legislatures, would be considered of sufficient importance to command the attention of Parliament. This had been the general belief of many from 1846 to 1849. When the surveys were completed, and the Legislative grants were given, a rail road from the seaboard to the St. Lawrence, upon British terri tory, appeared to be unfait accomplis. The disappointment was universal, when a report from a captain of the Royal Engineers, addressed to the Colonial Sec retary, and by His Lordship transmitted to the Provincial gov ernments, dashed all the high hopes that had been raised, and left the people of North America to digest their disappointment as they could: wondering, as no doubt they did, at the facility with which one Royal Engineer officer could construct a great scheme of national improvement, after two years of careful in quiry, and at a cost to them of £10,000, which another officer of the same corps, but of inferior rank, could scatter to the winds. Up to this period Mr. Howe had taken no particularly active part in the advocacy of the railroad to the St. Lawrence. He had served as a member of the Halifax committee ; as a mem ber of the Legislature he had voted for the grants, resolu tions and addresses, which had been brought forward by other gentlemen ; but he did not aspire to take any lead upon the question, or to share with others the laurels that might be WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OP 1850. 9 reaped in a field upon which they had established rights, by priority in the display of activity and zeal. Mr. Uniacke, Mr. George R. Young, Mr. Cogswell, Mr. William Pryor, Mr. God frey, and some others, had displayed very creditable intelligence and enterprise, and in their hands Mr. Howe left the work until their resources were exhausted — till the measures which they recommended had been tried and failed ; until Captain Har ness had disparaged the enterprise by his report, and the British government had thrown it over, after so many years of excite ment, and in view of the lavish appropriations made by the Provinces. Captain Harness's report was laid before the House in 1849. Mr. Howe waited until near the close of the session of 1850, leaving the railway field clear for gentlemen who had any thing further to propose, and only entering upon it when assured that it was, for the present, abandoned. He determined then to make an effort to build the Windsor road, which he had sug gested fifteen years before; and to propound a new policy, which, however it startled the public mind at the time, was des tined^ ultimately to supersede all others in the maritime Pro vinces, and to be crowned with abundant success. Mr. Howe, on the 25th of March, moved a resolution, pledg ing the Provincial revenues to the whole extent of the sum re quired by Wightman and Chesborough to construct the rail way to Windsor ; and made the first that we can find of a series of speeches upon railways, which ultimately resulted in the passage of the laws of 1854, and the construction of the two great works which now happily give life and elevation to our country. The House having gone into committee of the whole, on motion of the Hon. the Provincial secretary, to consider the resolution of which he had given notice on a former day, the object of which was to pledge the public funds to the extent of £330,000 for the construction of a railroad between Halifax and Windsor, he rose and said : — Mr. Chairman, — I regret that the pressure of other business, to which circumstances had given precedence, has compelled me to move a reso- 10 WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. lution of so much importance as that which I hold in my hand, at so late an hour and in a House so thin. I could have wished that every mem ber had been present this evening, not on personal grounds, for I have outlived the poor vanity of speechmaking here, to be followed by no practical result ; but because I sincerely desire that the proposition I am about to submit may be duly weighed and considered with an interest proportioned to its importance. [Mr. Howe read the resolution.J Now, sir, in asking this Assembly to affirm that resolution, I should be wanting in all the attributes of a good citizen, if I did not feel the re sponsibility that ought to rest upon any man having the hardihood to propose it. If I bespeak the attention of gentlemen around me, it is be cause the subject is worthy ; if I advocate the proposition earnestly, it is because I feel its importance ; and if I seek to convince others, I do so because I have an abiding faith in the convictions of my own mind. While doing my best, befittingly, to discharge this public duty, it be comes me to crave indulgence, for I know my own defects. Though cir cumstances favor my advocacy of a measure which I have pondered for fifteen years, I feel how many there are in this Assembly more able to do it justice. If I present it unskilfully, I trust the committee will not think less favorably of the enterprise itself. I come not here as a member of the government to offer to you a measure in which the administration is united. I address you as a member for the county of Halifax, on a subject which deeply involves the inter ests of my constituents ; as a representative of this Province, upon the prosperity of which the construction of this railroad will have a most inspiring influence. I could have wished that the government had as sumed the responsibility and the credit of this measure. I believe it to be the high duty of all governments to take the lead in enterprises of this nature. But there were difficulties in the way. We felt, perhaps that it would be unfair to gentlemen representing distant counties, who honor us with their political support, to call upon them to sustain a measure involving so large a pledge of the public credit ; and besides, if this pledge were to be given, it would carry less weight at home and abroad if it rested on a mere party division, than if a majority of this Assembly, without distinction of party, gave it, after mature delib eration, uninfluenced by pressure from either side. To construct this railroad we shall require united action in the Legislature, in this city, along the line, and in the western counties. It will demand from us mutual cooperation ; it will task all our resources. Besides, as we may require the Imperial guarantee, we can go to Her Majesty's ministers WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. 11 and into the English money market with more confidence as an united than as a divided community. We can then ask the best terms, because we present the best security that the character of the Legislature and the resources of the Province afford. On questions of sufficient magni tude — the equalization of postage, the extension of general commerce, the defence of our national honor, — the voice of faction is hushed in this Assembly, and forgetting our rivalries, we think only of our coun try. So let it be to-night ; in that spirit let us approach this question. As early as the year 1835, 1 first suggested to my countrymen the practicability and importance of constructing a railway between Halifax and Windsor, and wrote a series of papers in the Nova Scotian recom mending the project to public favor. For a time I was perhaps the only solitary individual who seriously entertained a hope that such an enter- prize would be accomplished. The idea was suggested in my rambles around that beautiful bason which it is the object of this resolution to connect in the most intimate relations with the capital and with the southern seaboard. I was struck by the peculiar character of the Bason of Mines, the. singular ebb and flow of whose tides (carrying vessels to and fro against the winds) form one of the most remarkable water powers in the world. I was struck with the seventeen rivers, bordered by rich marshes, inhabited by a thriving population, and carrying the pro ducts of their industry to its bosom. Those noble defences, the north and south mountains, which encompass and shelter from every wind that teeming valley of unsurpassed natural fertility, which stretches for a hundred miles from Blomidon to Digby, met my eye. From this rich region, steadily advancing in population and productive industry, and ca pable of sustaining a million of people, the capital of Nova Scotia was separated by a comparatively sterile tract of thirty miles. The shortest high road to New Brunswick, and to the United States, lay through that western valley. A railroad was the natural suggestion of the scenery and resources presented to the eye. Among the first who shared my enthusiasm on this subject was Judge Haliburton, of Windsor, who was familiar with the western country, and who, long after I had convinced myself that the project was premature, gave it, in his popular works, a world-wide celebrity. Subsequently, Captain Moorsom, whose expe rience in railway engineering qualified him to judge of the practica bility of the scheme, gave it his approbation. In 1845, the learned member for Pictou, being in England, in conjunction with certain parties there, issued the prospectus of a company for constructing a railway to Windsor. With that proposal I had nothing to do, for although the subject was ever present to my mind, I had schooled 12 WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. myself to look at it without undue enthusiasm. In 1835, the railway experience ofthe mother country was not extensive, while few had been tried upon the continent. As late as 1839 France and Belgium had but one or two short lines. In northern Europe there was scarcely one. The railway facts and experience of the United States have all accu mulated within the last fifteen years. Prior to that, and long subse quently, no railroad paid that did not chiefly pay by passengers alone. Satisfied of this fact, I convinced myself that for some years a railroad to Windsor would be premature. I laid it aside till the arrival of a pe riod when 1 could feel assured that it would be successful. What has taken place since 1835 ? England, Ireland, and Scotland have been in tersected with railways, which now form a perfect network across ihe British island. It may be said that many of them do not pay. There are two reasons for this : first, because the government, surrendering the control which every government should exercise over the high roads of a country, rival lines were projected which were not required ; and, sec ondly, because the expense lavished upon them in many instances was out of all proportion to the probable income. Mr. John Wilson, of St. Andrews, who visited England on railway business, assured me that in that country an average of £5,000 per mile had been spent in building station-houses alone, a sum nearly equal to the cost of railways in Nova Scotia. Turning to the Continent, we see France, Belgium, Germany, Aus tria, and even Russia, intersected with railways, nearly all of them con structed since 1835. The tour of Europe may now be made in one fourth of the time, and at a fourth of the expense, which were formerly required. In the adjoining republic, nearly all their best and most re munerative lines have been constructed since 1835 ; among them, that which, running back from Boston, taps the commerce of the. West, and that which, running up the Hudson, successfully competes with the splendid steamers by which that river is navigated. These, and many others, penetrating the wide extent of the Union, connecting not only the larger cities, but the most remote villages, and hamlets, are of mod ern date, and have already given an astonishing impulse to national in dustry, developing new resources, and creating trade in the most unpro ductive regions. The Windsor line, to which I now desire to call your attention, has been left in abeyance, while Europe and America were proving the utility of railways. We have now the advantage of their experience, and may safely rely upon the facts which they have accu mulated. Our own country has largely increased in population and re sources in the meantime. The western counties have advanced their WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. 13 cultivation and their numbers. Not only has the commerce of our sea board towns vastly increased, but the Bason of Mines has now its fleet of ships and brigs, not only carrying its gypsum, grindstones and agricul tural productions, but competing for its share of the foreign carrying trade. No man can ascend the Ardoise, or the North Mountain, and gaze down upon the scenery which they enclose, without perceiving the improvements which have been wrought within the ¦ last fifteen years. Hamlets have grown to villages, villages to towns, new streets and farms are perceptible everywhere. Continuous ranges of cultivation connect Windsor and Falmouth with Horton and Cornwallis, which are again connected by Aylesford, and Wilmot with Granville, Annapolis, and Digby. And no man can contemplate the fertility of the soil and the rapid development of its resources, without feeling assured that that whole region is destined to become a garden, filled with an active, intel- igent and wealthy population. The internal commerce of that region already requires that we should give it vent by railway to the southern shores and capital of our country. In other respects, the present time is favorable to this enterprise. For some years past, the changes which have been proposed in the com mercial policy of the mother country, have deranged, from time to time, our Colonial industry. These are now at an end. Free trade will henceforth form the universal rule throughout the Empire, and the dis patch from Earl Grey, which I had the honor to lay on the table a few days ago (and which I regard as one of the most important ever com municated to this Legislature), gives to us the right to establish free ports and ports of entry wheresoever we please. Sir, I looked forward to the introduction of the present system of government with sanguine hopes of success. I fought for it, hoped for it, and prayed for it. But I never did expect to see the day wlien, by the abrogation of the old maternal policy, we should be left to open ports wherever we required them, and to manage our own commercial affairs. So large a concession is calculated to awaken the brightest prestige of future prosperity and success. Now then is the time for us to give to our farmers the most approved facilities for transporting the products of their industry to the seaboard. If any man doubted the agricultural capabilities of Nova Scotia, his doubts must have been dissipated by what we have lately witnessed. Scourged like other countries by a comparative failure of crops for four successive years ; the " metal of our pastures " has been proven by the comparative ease with which our country has carried its population 56 14 WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. through the trying dispensations of Providence ; already we can descry indications above the horizon of dawning and brighter days. Looking to the improved condition of our institutions, the time for embarking in this enterprise would seem to be no less favorable. Polit ical discussions have, until very recently, agitated the country. I do not deny that there are divisions still, but to a certain extent the political fervor has evaporated. Had we entered upon the consideration of this subject, during the past three or four years, the conflict and heat of party would have been more likely to mar the enterprise than at present. I would have shrunk, as a member of this Legislature, from conferring such a power as is sought for in this resolution upon any Ex ecutive, unless that body were responsible. No matter which party • rules, they are responsible now, and should we require the imperial guarantee, almost every important question upon which there was con troversy has been settled fairly between the imperial State and this Col ony. I think then, sir, that the time is favorable, because of our im proved commercial position ; because we may look forward to the revival of our agriculture ; because political discussions between the Province and the mother country have been brought to a close ; and because the money market of England is abundantly supplied, our credit is good, and all that we require can be obtained on favorable terms. We may be told that railroads are not matters in which government should interfere. I differ entirely with those who entertain such an opinion, and I do not hesitate to propound it as one of the guiding prin ciples of policy which shall run through the whole course of my after life, that I shall, while in any Cabinet, press them to take the initia tive in such works as this. It is the first duty of a government to take the front rank in every noble enterprise ; to be in advance of the social, political, and industrial energies, which they have undertaken to lead. There are things they should not touch or attempt to control ; but the great highways — the channels of intercommunication between large and wealthy sections ofthe country, should claim their especial consider ation ; and when I am told that we should hand over, for all time to come, this great western railway to a private company, I have to such an assignment a serious objection. I may yield my opinion if overruled. All our roads in Nova Scotia, made by the industry and resources of the people, are free to the people at this hour. The toll bar is almost un known, and this railroad, which will be the Queen's highway to the western counties in all time to come, should be the property of the Prov ince and not of a private association. The roads, telegraphs, light- WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. 15 houses, the standard of value, the administration of justice, these are the topics with which a government is bound to deal. There was a time, in the feudal ages, when every baron administered law to his tenants and retainers according to his own will ; but the progress of civilization swept this system away, because men found it to be inconsistent with liberty ; and because they found that all those modes of dealing with that which belonged of right to the State, led to tyranny. Then if it be the duty of the government to maintain, in the heart of our country, those great high roads through which its commerce must flow, it is equally their duty to provide the best ; those which the exigencies of the country require, and the improvements of modern science suggest. When I travelled over what was said to be the free soil of England, and found the carriage stopped at every turn by a toll bar, I involuntarily said — " Give me back the roads of Nova Scotia, rough though they be, where a man may gallop at his will uncontrolled, unobstructed." The government of Great Britain erred when it surrendered to private companies the control of the high roads of England. The little State of Belgium acted in a far wiser manner ; and while France, Germany, and Italy, have, during the past two or three years, been convulsed to their very centres, that state has remained in quiet and tranquility. In Bel gium, the railways radiating from a common centre, reach every section of the country. They are all owned and have been constructed by the government. The rivalries and the ruin which have resulted from con flicting lines in England, she has been spared. In my judgment of all the nations of Europe, not one has shown more wisdom, in the construc tion of railways, than the little State of Belgium. The government, the Legislature, the people, as a whole, have made the roads we have ; if they are good, they deserve credit ; if bad, they are perhaps as good as our circumstances would permit. Suppose, sir, that, in the earlier days of our history, we had waited until a private company should make a road to Pictou. Would the Scotchmen of the Green Mountains or the Yorkshiremen of Amherst, have been content to wait until a private com pany had opened up channels of communication between them and other, sections of the Province ? Would it have been wise to keep the great western road from Halifax to Windsor, thence to Annapolis, and on to Yarmouth, unopened, merely because a private company had not the en terprise to perform the work ? Who built our lighthouses and estab lished our mails ? The government or private companies ? Sir, there is greater unity of action, greater power for good, in a government than in a private company ; had the canal been managed by a responsible govern ment, instead of a company, the wasteful reckless expenditure, the utter 16 WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. disregard of every thing which might ensure success, which character ized the operations, would have been avoided, and that splendid failure would never have taken place. Suppose that instead of incorporating a company to construct the steamer running across this harbor, the government had built one twenty years ago ; principal and interest would have been long since paid, and the public might have had a free ferry in all time to come. I firmly and fully believe then, that it is the duty of a government to take the initiative in all such enter prises as this. I may be asked, is this just such a line as we ought to touch ? I answer, yes ; it is the best, because it will test better than any other, the value of railways to Nova Scotia ; because it is the most certain to propa gate itself over the face of the country by joint lines. Suppose this line once formed and in full operation, paying its six per cent., would it rest at Windsor ? No ! Onward it would go, to Horton, Cornwallis, Aylesford, Bridgetown, and at last, down Granville to the Gut. The claims of the east would be then pressed forward for a railway from Halifax to Pictou, and soon we should have a communication of this kind extending round the head of the bay to New Brunswick. Sir, I lent my voice and vote to the great railway proposed by the honorable and learned Attorney General, and advocated by the honorable member for Pictou and others; I agreed to pledge the revenues of this Province to the amount of £20,000 annually, for the purpose of carrying out this great national un dertaking. It is not my wish, I do not intend, to contrast that with the one now proposed. The British government refused to entertain that scheme, and are we to be idle, waiting for the gathering of the elements which are ultimately to force the greater work upon their consideration ? I think not. The present proposition may be carried out, and if success ful will prove an effective stimulus in inducing British capitalists to in vest their funds in the greater work. But there are other reasons why we should not hesitate to speed this railway forward ; every foot of it is within our own territory, every stroke of the engine will add to our wealth and increase our prosperity ; and not only will it be valuable in times of peace, but it will afford facilities for the rapid transit of troops across our own country, and into the neighboring Provinces, in war. One regiment, with railways intersecting Nova Scotia, is worth three or four without them. The proposed railway to Quebec, runs for hundreds of miles near the American frontier, and may be broken up. This passes through the bosom of our country, and cannot be disturbed till our country is overpowered. Let us view the question in its worst light. Suppose after the railway has been completed — the £330,000 expended — >• that it does not pay ; what then ? Will we be ruined ? No ! Sir, I WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. 17 maintain that even then, the expenditure of so large a sum of money as £330,000 upon a work of this nature, would do much towards develop ing our resources, increasing our population, and adding to our revenue, because the consumption of dutiable articles would be greater than at present. A large portion of the work about this railway, might be done by our own population during the winter months ; we have some four or five months during the greater portion of which our rural and working classes are without employment. According to Mr. Wightman's calcu lation, founded on the experience of the United States, the cutting and embankments could be done at this period of the year ; thus would the money expended be carried directly into the pockets of the people, and they would receive adequate compensation for laboring during a period which they now spend in idleness. Though I have spoken of the coun try which lies between the head of the Bason and the foot of the Ardoise as comparatively sterile, it is not without its own resources. The road side, even here, is settled nearly all the way. From hence come most of our frames and wharf logs, and from hence would come cord wood, bark, and ship timber. Thousands of acres of good land, in the rear of the Windsor road lots, would be at once brought into cultivation if a rail road were laid ; and the splendid water powers of the Sackville River would be speedily turned to account. Sir, I do not beheve I am exaggerating when I say, that every acre of cleared and wood land in Windsor, Falmouth, Horton, Newport, and Cornwallis, would rise in value on the instant, whilst the property owned in Halifax would also feel the impetus, were this project carried out. Nay more, sir ; every vessel along our western and eastern coast, would be doubly certain of having a ready freight at a good price ; in fact, each branch of our industry would be largely benefitted. I may be asked, what right we have to tax posterity ? I believe that legislators have no right to tax posterity for extravagance, for high sala ries, for foreign and aggressive wars. But we are the trustees of the people, and as no farmer would hesitate to mortgage his farm to drain or improve it, so it is our duty not to hesitate to use the credit as well as the capital of Nova Scotia, to build what will make it more valuable in all time to come. Sir, the timid steward of Scripture met his master, whose money he had been afraid usefully to employ, and excusing him self said, " I knew that you were a hard man, and I wrapped it up in a napkin, and buried it in the earth." The answer given him is the an swer that ought to be given every timid, hesitating, procrastinating legisla tor who fails, through fear of responsibility, to do his duty to his country. It is said that this enterprise can be carried out by a company. But 56* 18 WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. where is it to come from ? The honorable and learned member for Pictou, some years ago issued a prospectus, but no company has been formed yet, although the prospectus combined the names of many leading and respectable men in Nova Scotia. The resources of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada, were pledged towards the Halifax and Quebec Railway, and yet no company could be found who were disposed to carry out the work. But I main tain that to make this railway with public funds, would do more good than if it were constructed by private capital. Pass this resolution, and £330,000 comes in from abroad, the Province guaranteeing the interest, and the road being worth the money. To withdraw from general circu lation so large a sum as £330,000, in connection with other expenditures, might produce embarrassment. That was the case in England, when companies " rose as an exhalation,'' day after day, till finally a crash, world-wide in its disastrous operations, resulted. A kindred effect would be produced in Nova Scotia by corresponding causes. Again, were a private company to go into the English money market in search of money, they would not be able to obtain it at a less rate than six per cent, while, with the Provincial guarantee, we might obtain it for four or four and a half per cent. Again, we have all heard of the jealousies and rivalries which have disturbed these questions from time to time ; to place the work under the control of government will obviate this difficulty. I may be told that I urge this because I am a member of it. Let me say in all sincerity, if this work is not taken up by the present House ; if par ties change, and conservatives come in with a majority ; however closely I may watch their movements on other subjects, I say here, that if they have the manliness, enterprise, courage, and liberality, to take hold of this project, if it be left for them, they shall have on this question my most cordial, earnest, and anxious support. And, sir, much as I value the position which my countrymen have conferred upon me, were it ten dered to me to descend as a hereditary right to my children, in consider- tion of my abandoning this question, I would refuse the offer. Let me see this railroad once in operation, and the proud consciousness of having done my duty to my country will be worth to me more than the highest office in the gift of my sovereign. Sir, there are croakers and cravens in every community, who, distrust ing themselves, also distrust the resources and energies of their own country. With such as these, if a crop fails, we are sure to have good harvests no more ; if our markets are bad, with them they will never be better. With such men as these, England has been ruined a hundred times, and Nova Scotia has gone to wreck a dozen. It is an English- WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. 19 man's privilege to growl, and grumble, and be dissatisfied with every thing about him ; and we, his descendants, inherit much of the parent , spirit. Most of our people who go abroad, visit the old, populous, em pire states of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York. They con trast the progress which these have made with our own, and come home dissatisfied. They never stop to think that New York had her eighty thousand white inhabitants, Massachusetts her two hundred thousand, Pennsylvania her two hundred and fifty thousand, aud even Connecticut her one hundred thousand, when Nova Scotia was a wilderness, without an Englishman upon her soil. But take any of the smaller states, Ver mont, New Hampshire, or any others that can be fairly contrasted with Nova Scotia. How many towns will you find larger than Halifax or Yarmouth ? Some manufactures they have which we have not, and the fisheries of Maine are bolstered up by national bounties. But few of these states produce or export more than we do, and how few of them possess the rich lands, the self-sustaining and productive fisheries, and the coasting and foreign tonnage of little Nova Scotia after all. Sir, is this a country the inhabitants of which should droop and hang down their heads, pining until Providence does something for them ? or is it a coun try to rise up, shake off its lethargy, and do something for itself? It is, sir. In Nova Scotia those characteristics are to be found by which we can trace the old Teutonic blood, carrying with it the highest social and industrial virtues. It flows in our western valleys, on our eastern hills, on our western sea-coast, in our southern harbors, here, there and every where ; and, claiming descent from the illustrious ancestry that we do, we should have the spirit and the enterprise to give it further scope. Look at the roads in Nova Scotia; contrast them with those of other countries ; and, taking them for all in all, those in our own are superior to any, -for our condition and extent of territory, that it has ever been my good fortune to travel on this continent. It is a very uncommon thing for a young Nova Scotian to be unable to read, write, and cipher ; and when our laws are revised, as regards legal enactments we shall not be very far behind other countries. With all questions touching their politi cal freedom, the people of Nova Scotia know how to deal. Then, looking to the past and seeing what we have done, I say, let us have the railway ; let us not fear a failure, when the brightest augury of success may be drawn from our past progress. Sir, I hope to see the time in this Province, when the question asked of every public man at the hustings, will be, not " To what party do you belong ? " but " What great public improvement do you mean to advocate ? to what great public mea sure, tending to advance the general welfare of the people, are you 20 WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. pledged ? " The people will hereafter require public measures of public men ; and, next to the care of their liberties and political interests, they will look for the development of their resources, and the advancement of their condition. Men acting upon the public stage, should move for ward in advance of the times, and not trust too much to the position which they have acquired by past services. There are but few in the capital aware of the fertility of the land in some of our western counties. I may not have seen the most productive portions of the globe, but I have surveyed the plains of Belgium and of Mayo ; I have seen the Lothians of Scotland, and some of the finest. agricultural districts in England and in the United States ; and I unhesi tatingly declare that the country lying between the foot of the Ardoise hills and Digby Gut is equal in natural fertility to any that my eye ever beheld. From Parrsborough to Truro stretches one continuous village, with fine uplands in the rear, rich mines in the centre, and marshes in the front. From the Shubenacadie, down the whole sweep of the bay to Windsor, lie fine uplands, timber and marsh lands. This is the coun try, sir, which we desire to connect with the southern seaboard. [Of this and its resources Mr. Howe gave a rapid sketch.J Mr. Martell. You have forgotten Arichat. Mr. Howe. No ! I shall never forget Arichat, its cheery popu lation, enterprising mariners, warm-hearted politicians, to say nothing of the pretty French girls, who dance with such sprightliness and grace ; these are characteristics which indelibly stamp it upon the mind. But, sir, let me now show to the committee, that if this railroad were made tomorrow, and did not return one shilling of interest, Nova Scotia, as a community, would still largely gain by the enterprise. Thirty-two thousand seven hundred and forty-eight persons, by SentelPs returns, passed the Sackville bridge, going and returning, in 1848. Suppose all to have gone to or come from Windsor, the average cost of the journey, even by stage, is 10s. each, while six hours is the shortest time spent on the road ; with heavy teams it is often two days. If these people could have been transported to and fro at 5s. each in an hour and a half, the amount saved in money and time would nearly have equalled the whole amount of interest on the outlay. I made a journey to Windsor in the autumn of 1849, and was surprised to hear a gentleman, at dinner, remark that he had counted ninety wagons and teams on the road as he went up. I counted the same number the next day as I came down. With such a traffic already on the road, can any man be lieve that this speculation will fail ? But, again, take the cost of freight. It is now 40s. per ton ; by the railway it will be 15s. ; so that here a4in WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OF 1850. 21 we shall have a saving of 25s. per ton, or about £8,400 on our present traffic. The saving of time will be immense. But these savings will be vastly increased when the railway has done for Nova Scotia what it has done for every other country, — increased twofold the traffic and travel upon the route. My calculations are based upon the report of Mr. George Wightman, who, rough in his manners though he be, self- taught though he be, is a Nova Scotian of whom we may be justly proud. He has never been sent to lay out a line of level road in Nova Scotia, but, traversing the country with the eye of an Indian, and the science of a civil engineer, he has selected the right track. Experience has always shown his lines to be the best, and in so far as he has pledged his professional reputation, I place the utmost reliance upon his report. Mr. Chesborough, who traversed his line and checked his calculations, is also a gentleman of high standing and character. His testimonials show that he has been employed on the American railways since he was fifteen years of age, under the most distinguished engineers. We may be told that we cannot expect to borrow this money, as we may repudiate. Sir, I have never known, and hope I shall never know, this Legislature to repudiate an honorable obligation ; but by the propo sition which I have made, though this difficulty existed, it would be ob viated, for I propose to go further, and ask for the Imperial guarantee besides, and that I have no doubt but the British ministry would, for such a purpose as this, cheerfully give us. We may be asked in Eng land if it will pay. I should not hesitate to answer that there is every prospect of its so doing. We may be asked if it is defensible. Point to the map, and a statesman or a soldier would see in an instant that it is. I am wedded to no particular line, although I have great reason to believe the one selected to be a good one. It follows the water lines of two rivers all the way. It cannot go farther to the westward, because the four rivers which empty into Margaret's bay, with their chains of lakes and deep ravines, lie in the way ; and while the Ardoise rises as you go west, the descent into the vale of Windsor is too precipitate. The eastern side Wightman thoroughly examined. Easier grades may be got there, but by great increase in distance. For these reasons, then, I believe that we have got the very best line ; that fact will be deter mined before the work commences. But let us look at this question in its worst aspect. Suppose the road built, and the House called upon to vote £10,000 or £12,000 a year. We already pay £1,000 a year to sustain the post road, and £500 for the transportation of our mails over it. If we had to pay the larger sum — £12,000 for two or three years — the credit and resources of Nova Scotia would be equal to the 22 WINDSOR RAILROAD. — RESOLUTION OP 1850. strain, and in a few years the line is sure to pay. But suppose it to suc ceed, link by link we would have it stretching all along our western vil lages, with steamboats to Windsor from Parrsborough, Londonderry, Horton, the Noel Shore, and St. John. Let this railway be built, and Windsor will become a city, and Halifax will double in size and popula tion, before five years have passed away. A word or two more, sir, and I have done. Turning over the old Council minutes the other day, I met with the following entry : " 20th December, 1764 — A large tract of country upon the southeast side of Pesiquid river, erected into a township, called Windsor, and included within the county of Halifax." The Governor's speech in 1759, recom mending that a road be opened to Windsor, I hold in my hand. To open that road, at that period, was a greater undertaking for our fore fathers than this railroad is now for us. When I look back to the time in which those old men lived and la bored ; when I see this building in which we stand, and all the improve ments which they have bequeathed to us in a cheerful and hopeful spirit, I feel that we should not be doing our duty if we paused or hesitated to advance in the construction of such a work as this. At this late period of the session and hour of the night it would be unwise in me to detain the committee longer. I have paid no man the poor compliment to can vass him for his vote. I have sought to bring no pressure from without to bear upon this Assembly. I present this measure to you as one in which I take a deep interest, and in the wisdom and practicability of which I sincerely believe. Let it be sustained upon its own intrinsic merits. Unless this measure can bear the test of patient inquiry and calm consideration, and can be sustained by its friends in fair, manly, and honorable debate — unless it can commend itself to the deliberate judgment of this House, it should not pass. But my firm convictions are that it can, and that the representatives of the people should at once assume a responsibility, from which a noble achievement must result, and upon which they will reflect with pride, in all time to come. This proposition received a fair amount of support, but it encountered just enough of opposition to delay the commence ment of the work for four years. There were those who only believed in the old mode of making railroads by companies, with or without subsidies, but who conscientiously feared to intrust the power to government. There were some who ap prehended that if the Windsor road was commenced it might impede the construction of the Trunk Line, and there were a THE PORTLAND CONVENTION. 23 few who did not believe that railroads were required in this country, or would be productive of any advantage if they were made. After a hard struggle to obtain an appropriation of the whole amount required, Mr. Howe was induced to accept one- half, with the assurance that the other half would be easily raised by a company. Without surrendering his own belief in the policy that ought to be pursued, he accepted the only grant he could get upon the terms prescribed, and set about trying the experiment demanded by the opposition, with but little hope of success. Meetings were held in Halifax and Windsor, but although sufficient enthusiasm was displayed in both places, the summer was passing rapidly away without any demonstrations to warrant the belief that the other half of the capital required would be raised by private subscriptions. In July, the excitement upon the subject of railroads was heightened by two causes. A short dispatch was received from Earl Grey, in which, acknowledging the receipt of an address from the Legislative Council, His Lordship informed Sir John Harvey that Her Majesty's government " was not prepared to submit to Parliament any measure for raising the funds neces sary for the construction " of the railroad to Quebec. This dispatch, short and decisive, apparently closed the door to all negotiation with the Imperial government — to all hope of aid from home. Almost simultaneously with its publication came an invita tion for delegates to attend a railway convention, to be held at Portland, on the 31st of July, to consider of the best means by which that city could be united to Halifax by a railroad running eastward through the Province of New Brunswick. The invitations were accepted, and a numerous and highly respectable delegation was sent from New Brunswick. One less numerous, but combining a great deal of weight and talent, went forward from Nova Scotia. It included the Attorney General, the Hon. Mr. Johnston, the leader of the political opposition, and Mr. Fraser, of Wind sor, who represented the Western Railroad Committee. Be sides these, there were some other gentlemen from Halifax and the eastern and western counties. 24 THE PORTLAND CONVENTION. This convention was, on many accounts, extremely inter esting. The sons of the Loyalists, and those of their ancient enemies, met for the first time since the Revolution, on common ground, and for the promotion of a common object. The city of Portland, beautifully situated, was rendered doubly attractive by the courtesy and hospitality of its inhabitants, of both sexes. Eloquent speeches were delivered ; the flags of the two nations were interwoven ; it was determined that a company should be formed to carry out the enterprise forthwith ; and the meeting broke up after exhibiting a very fraternal spirit and a good deal of pardonable enthusiasm. On the 26th of August, a public meeting was convened in the Temperance Hall, at Halifax, to receive the reports from the delegates who had attended the convention at Portland, and to take such steps as might appear judicious in furtherance of the great enterprise there suggested. At this meeting, reports were read and eloquent speeches made, but nobody could show how the money required ($12,000,000) was to be raised. It was apparent that while a million currency would be required to construct that part of the road which was to pass over Nova Scotia (one hundred and thirty miles), a much larger sum would be wanted to make two hundred miles through New Brunswick. It was admitted on all hands that the State of Maine and the city of Portland had exhausted their resources in pushing forward the roads which connected or were to connect Portland with Boston on the one side, and Montreal upon the other. Mr. Fraser, in his report, stated that he " had sought for distinct information as to the modes in which it was expected to obtain the money requisite," but could obtain " no precise information." " The gentlemen in Maine did not hesitate to admit their present inability to raise the funds in that State to build their line within their own territory." Resolutions were passed at this meeting, thanking the dele gates, adopting the line proposed, and recommending Halifax as the terminus. A resolution was before the meeting, ap pointing a large committee to cooperate with the people of Portland. At this stage of the proceedings, Mr. Howe for the MEETING AT TEMPERANCE HALL. 25 first time interfered. He ascended the platform and delivered a speech, of which, we believe, no report remains, but the effect of which was electrical, and carried the public mind of the community with him as if by magic. He reminded the meeting how many years had been wasted in the vain hope that the road to the St. Lawrence would be built by a company ; of the season which had just been wasted in the fruitless endeavor to raise only £167,000 to construct the road to Windsor ; of the millions which had been wasted by companies in the United States endeavoring to accomplish great undertakings with insufficient means. He showed that the general revenues of Maine belonged to the general govern ment ; that her State revenues were surcharged by the annual expenditure ; that ninety miles of the European line must be made within her territory, while the funds of her capitalists were barely sufficient to complete the roads for which they had been already pledged. He argued that if Nova Scotia found it difficult to raise the tenth part of a million of money by sub scriptions of stock, she could not raise a million ; and that New Brunswick, which would require a larger sum, and had a less population by one hundred thousand, could not be more successful. To expect capitalists in England to embark $12,- 000,000 in an enterprise of which they knew little, and in aid of which those who knew the most were unable or un willing to make large contributions, would be scarcely rational ; and to tempt them by false representations to do so, would be dishonest and unfair. The naked facts of the case had not been presented, or had been studiously veiled amidst the fascinations and excitements of Portland. If the road was indispensable, there was only one way in which it could be built with integrity, and in a reasonable time. It was the duty of the government to provide roads for the people. If a railroad was the best road they should provide that. The only way in which Nova Scotia and New Brunswick could construct this or any other railroad for a long time to come, was by their gov ernments assuming the responsibility, pledging their public rev enues, issuing debentures either with or without the guarantee of the Imperial government, borrowing the money honestly and 26 MR. HOWE'S POLICY. expending it faithfully, under the restraints which their Consti tutions would stringently impose. He concluded by moving this resolution : — Resolved, That as it is the first duty of a government to construct and to control the great highways of a country, a respectful address be pre pared and presented to the Lieutenant Governor, praying that His Ex cellency would recommend the Provincial Parhament to undertake the construction of that portion of this important work which is to pass through Nova Scotia on a line between Halifax and the frontier of New Brunswick. We never saw any thing like the unanimity and enthusiasm with which the new policy thus propounded was received by this great meeting. Men who had not spoken to Mr. Howe for years were loudest in the expression of their approbation, and his friends of course were gratified at this new triumph — this new proof of his boldness and sagacity. The day after the meeting broke up the following address was presented to the Lieutenant Governor : — TO HIS EXCELLENCY LIEUTENANT GENERAL SIR JOHN HARVEY. Knight Commander of ihe Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath, Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, Lieu tenant- Governor and Commander-in- Chief, in and over Her Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia, and its Dependencies, fye. fye. fye. The Mayor and Aldermen of the city of Halifax respectfully desire to bring to the notice of Your Excellency the accompanying resolution, which was passed unanimously at a very large and influential meeting of the citizens of Halifax, held on Saturday last in this city, to consider the subject of the proposed European and North American Railway. They would respectfully urge upon Your Excellency the importance of the subject, as one more worthy than any other, in the present aspect of affairs in Nova Scotia, to engage the attention and enlist the sympathies and exertions of the government. The completion of the great work contemplated by the resolution, will not only elevate this Province to the most conspicuous and important position on the Western Continent by rendering it the direct channel of communication between our parent country and the United States on the most enlarged and ma°nificent * SIR JOHN HARVEY'S REPLY. 27 scale ; but the rich, though now unproductive resources of our Province, both mineral and agricultural, will become developed and made available to the public good, its commercial interests rapidly advanced, and its revenue materially aided and increased. They therefore cordially con cur with the sentiments contained in the enclosed resolution, and doubt ing not that Your Excellency takes a deep interest in every project which has a tendency to advance the interests of the Province, they re spectfully pray that Your Excellency would recommend to the Provin cial Parliament to undertake the construction of that portion of this im portant work which is to pass through Nova Scotia, on a line between Halifax and the frontier of New Brunswick. And the Mayor and City Council would earnestly press upon Your Excellency the propriety of calling together the Legislature at as early a period as practicable, in order that their sentiments may be ascertained on this important subject. To which His Excellency made the following reply : — Mb. Mayor and Gentlemen, — You and the highly respectable meeting by which you have been deputed to address me, do not do me more than justice in believing that I feel most deeply interested in what ever relates to the ancient and loyal Colony which our gracious sovereign has committed to my charge, and that I regard it as my first duty to do aU that depends upon me to promote it. The resolution which you have just presented, embodies what appear to me to be enlightened and sound views, suited to the age in which we hve. The cost of constructing railroads is light compared with the cost of doing without them. Nova Scotia owes it to her own character to adopt, as speedily as she may, improved facilities for the transportation of her people, with the products of their industry. She owes it to the civ ilized world to make her portion of " The European and North Ameri can Railroad," which must become the shortest highway between the great families of the Anglo Saxon race. Be assured that my Government will approach this great question without delay, and with an earnestness commensurate with its deep im portance ; and that it will afford me very sincere gratification to identify myself with this work, and to become, in any way, personally instrumental in realizing the hopes entertained by the citizens of Halifax. J. Haevet. Government House, Halifax, August 28, 1850. Sir John Harvey did not slumber over this request. From 28 DISPATCH TO THE COLONIAL SECRETARY. the animation and earnestness of his reply it will be seen how deep an interest he felt in the success of the great enterprise. Two days afterwards this dispatch was on its way to Downing Street : — Government House, Halifax,) August 29th, 1850. j" Mt Lord, — Your Lordship is aware, from the correspondence which has passed between the North American governments and the Colonial office, that for some time past a deep interest has been felt by the people of these Provinces in the promotion of railways. So long as hopes were entertained that Her Majesty's government would aid in the construction of the line between Halifax and Quebec, public attention was concentrated upon that. As the prospects of its accomplishment became less definite and assured, other objects, either local or intercolonial, were discussed; and resolutions or laws, having relation to these, were passed during the recent sessions of most of the Colonial Legislatures. The construction of the electric telegraph, which not only connects Halifax with the chief towns of New Brunswick and the State of Maine, but forms the most important link in the chain of communication between the old world and the new, and the success which has attended that appropriation of the public funds, has attracted public attention to the practicability and importance of placing a railroad beside the telegraph. This would give to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick a noble highway through their territory, connect them by railway with all the principal cities on this continent, and secure to the port selected for the eastern terminus, commercial advantages with which no seaport within the republic could ever successfully compete. While these views were pressing upon the minds of the leading men in the Provinces the subject was taken up in the State of Maine, and a convention to which the Colonists were invited, was called to meet at Portland on the 31st of July. The proceedings of the convention I have now the honor to inclose, together with the reports made by the delegates who attended from Nova Scotia to the communities or commit tees by which they were severally appointed. On the. return of those delegates the public mind in Nova Scotia became very highly excited, particularly in Halifax, and in those coun ties through which the road would pass. Under those circumstances my Government were required to deal with the question thus raised, and to decide whether they would stand aloof from this movement, and allow a great highway, which in peace would be a thoroughfare of nations, and DISPATCH TO THE COLONIAL SECRETARY. 29 in war might be of vast importance, to be constructed and controlled by foreign capitalists ; or should at once grasp the enterprise, and, by the aid of the public funds and credit, discharge towards the country the highest and most legitimate functions of a vigorous Executive. The latter determination was arrived at, and the opportunity was afforded to de clare their policy at a public meeting held in the metropolis on the 24th instant, the proceedings of which will be found reported in the papers transmitted by this mail. This movement, which meets my entire approbation, has been received with great satisfaction by all parties. The address of the City Council, with my answer, I have the honor to enclose. The details of this measure have yet to be adjusted, and it may be necessary to send to Eng land some members of my government to communicate more at large with Your Lordship in reference to them. In the meantime I should be glad to be informed whether, upon such pledges as have been regarded as satisfactory in other Colonies being given, Her Majesty's government would be disposed to aid Nova Scotia with its guarantee of such funds as she may find it necessary to borrow in England, in order to construct this road. These would not exceed £800,000 sterling, and would prob ably be secured, not only on the general revenues of the Province, but upon the road itself. Such a guarantee would enable the Province to enter the market upon the best terms, and effect a large saving in the accomplishment of the work. The revenue of Nova Scotia is about £80,000 sterling, her debt but £87,892 sterling, of which £47,892 is represented by Province paper, on which no interest is paid. The per manent and indispensable charges are about £40,000, leaving about £40,000 of surplus revenue available for public improvements. The revenue has increased £4,400 within the present year. The increase on the whole will probably be £10,000. If, therefore, as I anticipate, the Legislature sustains the policy of the government, they will have the means at their disposal to pay the interest promptly on any loan they may require to effect. I shall be very much gratified by an early communication of the de cision of Her Majesty's government on this point, and of the terms, and nature of the securities required. I have, &c, (Signed) J. Harvey. The reply did not reach Halifax till late in October. It was unfavorable. We print it that the true position of these 57* 30 EARL GREY'S ANSWER. great North American works, at the moment when Mr. Howe undertook their advocacy in England, may be understood : — Downing Street, 21st September, 1850. Sir, — I acknowledge your dispatch No. 190, of the 29th ult. On the subject of the projected line of railway from Halifax to Portland, in Maine, I have to express my entire approbation of the degree of sup port and encouragement given by yourself and the Provincial adminis tration to this important undertaking. I regard the work as one calculated to be of the highest service to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and instead of considering it as likely to endanger, by competition, the still more important scheme which has been proposed for connecting Halifax with Quebec, I believe that it is likely to prepare the way for the execution of the latter, and that it will contribute to the same end; namely, that of rendering Halifax the great port of communication petween the two continents of Europe and America. But, while I am most anxious to promote the success of this enterprise, I regret that the same reasons which have hitherto prevented Her Majesty's government from recommending to Parliament any measure for affording pecuniary assistance towards the construction of the Que bec railway, will, probably, stand equally in the way of their advising the guarantee of a loan for the scheme now in contemplation. I have the honor to be, &c, (Signed) (Signed) Grey. Lieut. Governor Sir John Harvey. The Provincial government had now either to recede from the position to which Mr. Howe had pledged them, or to go boldly forward and endeavor to alter the determination of the Imperial government. At all events, it was of great conse quence, however these roads were to be built, that the attention of the capitalists and population of the mother country should be turned towards the vast and undeveloped resources of British America. Mr. Howe was selected to perform these tasks, and was sent as a delegate to England, on the 1st of November. Previous to his departure, he addressed a letter to his constituents, which will be found in the collection. He bore with him this introduction, addressed to Earl Grey : DELEGATION TO ENGLAND. 31 Government House, Halifax, > October 25th, 1850. j My Lord, — The members of my government, upon a full consider ation of the contents of Your Lordship's communication of the 21st ultimo, have deemed it to consist with what they owe to public feeling (which has been very unequivocally expressed throughout the Province), and to their views of the great interests involved, to seek to present these views to Her Majesty's government, in as plain and forcible a manner as may be consistent with the deep respect with which all decisions by Your Lordship have been and will at all times be received by them. They have accordingly resolved on delegating one of their body to pro ceed to England, in the hope that Your Lordship will admit their delegate to an audience, and will afford him every facility which to Your Lord ship may seem fit in bringing the views wliich he is charged to advocate, under the consideration of Her Majesty's government. Permit me, therefore, to present to Your Lordship the Hon. Jo seph Howe, a member of my Council, and a gentleman well qualified, in my judgment, to afford to Your Lordship and to Her Majesty's gov ernment the fullest information and the most correct views of the state of public feehng in Nova Scotia. The deep importance attached throughout the Province to the subject of Mr. Howe's mission, will, I doubt not, plead my excuse for any devia tion from existing regulations which may attend this mode of communi cation with Your Lordship ; and I do not doubt that on this, as on some other points, Mr. Howe's local information, experience, and sound judg ment, will be found useful and acceptable. It is Mr. Howe's present intention (should circumstances not induce him to alter it), to return to Nova Scotia before the meeting of the Legislature, in the hope of enabling me to convey to that body, at their meeting, some definite information as to the prospect of being able to obtain the necessary funds from London capitalists, either with or with out the aid of Her Majesty's government. As the latter alternative, however, will involve a difference of from £16,000 to £20,000 a year, in the amount of interest to be paid by the Colony, I feel satisfied that Your Lordship will be disposed to promote any well-considered measure by which so large a saving may be effected, without risk to the Imperial government. I have, &c, (Signed) J. Harvey. The Right Hon. Earl Grey. The two letters addressed to Earl Grey, in London, show 32 SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. the spirit, earnestness, and ability, with which Mr. Howe dis charged the high duties he had assumed.* These letters, when read in our hearing, in the House of Assembly, won the spontaneous plaudits of the writer's most inveterate political opponents. When laid before Parliament and printed in England, they raised Mr. Howe to a position, in the estimation of the press and public men of the mother country, of which any Colonist might be justly proud. Having, in these two very able letters, placed before Her Majesty's government his views of the true policy to be pur sued towards British America, Mr. Howe determined to make a public appeal to the people of England. Having availed himself of a chance introduction to the Mayor and some of the leading members of the Corporation of Southampton, he had so far interested them in the objects of his mission that an invitation had been given to him to go down to that great sea port and address its assembled citizens. On the 14th of Janu ary, a public meeting was held in the Town Hall of Southamp ton, over which the Mayor, Richard Andrews, Esq., presided. The hall was crowded with a numerous and highly respectable audience, naturally curious to know what this native of a dis tant Colony had to say. The speech delivered by Mr. Howe on this occasion is perhaps one of his best. It was reported in the Hampshire papers, printed in pamphlet form, and distrib uted over England, being sent to members of Parliament, to reading-rooms, clubs, and periodicals, in every part of the three kingdoms. Having been introduced to the meeting by the Mayor, Mr. Howe, oppressed no doubt by the novelty of his position, rose and said : — Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen, — You may imagine the various and con flicting feelings by which I am embarrassed, in rising to address this in telligent and prosperous community, and through them the twenty-eight millions of people who inhabit these British islands — the centre of modern civilization; the honored home of my fathers. Be assured that I deeply feel the responsibility which your kindness and my public position have tempted me to assume. The memory of those great ora- * Letters from Sloane Street, 25th November, 1850; 16th January, 1851 SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 33 tors with whose highest flights of eloquence you have been familiar from childhood ; whose voices, like distant thunder, still linger in the ears of the present generation, weighs upon me no less than the immediate pres ence of those polished and skilful speakers that you are daily accus tomed to hear. Would, for your sakes, that I could as easily invoke the spirit of the dead, as I do, in all sincerity and humility, crave the indul gence of the living. The magnitude of the interests which I desire to present to your -notice, involving, as I believe they do, to some extent, the relief of these islands from the burthen of poverty and crime, the integrity of this empire, and the permanence of the connection between the North American Provinces and England, oppresses the mind even more than the intellectual character of my audience. I wish those in terests were less imposing, that the danger of neglecting them was less imminent, or that my ability to deal with them was proportioned to the magnitude of the theme. When I last visited Southampton I little thought that I should ever return to it again, and certainly never dreamed that I should have the honor and the privilege to address, within its ancient walls, and with the evidences of its modern enterprise all around me, such an audience as is assembled here. I was then a wandering Colonist, surveying, eleven years ago, Europe for a first time. Attracted to Southampton by the beauty of its scenery, and by its old associations, when I entered your spacious estuary, and saw, on the one side, the fine old ruin of Netley Abbey, and on the other the New Forest, famed in ancient story, I felt that I was approaching a place abounding in interest, and honored by its associations. And when I put my foot on the spot trodden, in days of yore, by the warriors who embarked for the glorious fields of Agincourt and Crescy, and on which Canute sat when he reproved his fawning courtiers, I felt my British blood warming in my veins, and knew that I was indeed standing on classic ground. But, sir, on that occasion I did not see those evidences of commercial prosperity which I was anxious to observe. In visiting to-day your splendid docks, your warehouses, your ocean steamers, your railways, and rising manufacturies, which have been created by untiring energy and honorable enterprise within a few years, my pride in your historical associations was quickened and enlivened by the proofs of modern enter prise which distinguish this great seaport. The object of my visit to England is to draw closer the ties between the North American Provinces and the mother country. To reproduce England on the other side of the Atlantic ; to make the children, in in stitutions, feelings, and civilization, as much like the parent as possible, 34 SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. has been the labor of my past life ; and now I wish to encourage the parent to promote her own interests by caring for the welfare, and strengthening the hands, of her children ; to show to the people of Eng land that across the Atlantic they possess Provinces of inestimable value. The interest which Southampton has in a clear appreciation of their importance no man can deny. Already her advantages are obvious and patent, but they may be largely extended by North American con nections. You have the British Channel flowing by you. like a mighty river, with the great continental markets on its opposite shore, the trade of the Baltic on your left, and of the Mediterranean on your right. You have your East and West India steam lines ; the Isle of Wight is your natural breakwater ; a lovely country surrounds you ; and the royal city of Winchester, and the imperial city of London, are at your very doors. Add to these advantages, permanent and profitable connections with the vast territory and rapidly expanding communities of British America, and the prosperity and importance of Southampton will he greatly en hanced. I found existing in this country, when I was here before, and I still observe it on every hand, I will not say a criminal, but certainly a very lamentable ignorance of the state of the British Provinces on the conti nent of America. An erroneous opinion prevails that, at the American Revolution, all that was valuable on that continent was severed from British dominion; that but a few insignificant and almost worthless Provinces remain. This is a great mistake, and, if not corrected in time, may ultimately prove fatal. Glance at the map above you, sir, and you will perceive that one-half of the whole American continent still owns allegiance to Great Britain, is still subject to the sceptre of Queen Victoria. That vast extent of country is, however, but little known in England. Intelligent men ask me every day where it is, of what it consists, what are its boundaries ? Gentlemen perfectly famil iar with Canada, know comparatively nothing of the maritime Provinces, which here (though as distinct as Germany, France, Belgium, and Hol land, are from Russia) are yet confounded with Canada. Merchants who trade with Newfoundland know as little of Canada ; Nova Scotia is a sort of terra incognita, of which one rarely hears, and many Canadians know nothing of the boundless and beautiful tract of country which lies between their Province and the Pacific. Although the United States have extended their boundaries by the conquest of the Mexican Provinces, Great Britain still owns one-half the continent of North America. This territory, with its adjacent islands, is four million of square miles in extent. All Europe, including SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 35 the British islands, measures but three million seven hundred and eight thousand ; so that, throwing away two hundred and ninety-two thousand square miles for rivers and lakes of larger extent than are found in this hemisphere, you have in North America, for the inexhaustible susten ance of British subjects, a country as large as Europe. This country resembles Europe in all its principal features ; it is full of the same nat ural advantages, and as capable of improvement as Europe was in her early days. Taking the round number of square miles, and reducing them to acres, and we have above ninety acres for every man, woman and child in the British islands. Now, suppose that they throw off two millions of their population, and I shall show you presently that there are that number to spare, we shall have a square mile of land for every inhabi tant, or four thousand four hundred and eighty acres for every head of a family that British America would then contain. Is not this a country to which, in the present condition of England, the attention of her states men and of her people should be turned ? But it is often said the cli mate of North America is rigorous and severe. Do me the favor to glance at the eastern hemisphere, including Europe, Asia, and Africa, and, separating the northern countries from the south, the vigorous par allels from the warm and enervating, tell me in which reside, at this moment, the domestic virtues, the pith of mankind, the seats of com merce, the centres of intelligence, the arts of peace, the discipline of war, the political power and dominion? Assuredly in the northern half. And yet it was not always so. The southern and eastern portions, blessed with fertility, and containing the cradle of our race, filled up first, and ruled for a time the territories at the north. But as civiliza tion and population advanced northwards, the bracing climate did its work, as it will ever do ; and in physical endurance, and intellectual en ergy, the north asserted the superiority, which to this hour it maintains. Glance again at the map, and you will perceive that England still owns half the continent of North America ; and taking the example of Europe to guide us, I believe, the best half. Not the best for slavery, for, thank God, we have not a slave or a Fugitive Slave Law in our Northern Provinces. Not the best for raising cotton or tobacco, but the best for raising men and women ; the most congenial to the constitution of the northern European ; the most provocative of steady industry ; and all things else being equal, the most impregnable and secure. The climate of North America, though colder than that of England, is dryer when it is cold. I rarely wear an overcoat, except when it rains : an old chief justice died recently in Nova Scotia at one hundred and three years of age, who never wore one in his life. Sick regiments, 36 SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. invalided to our garrison, recover their health and vigor immediately; and yellow fever patients coming home from the West Indies walk about in a few days. Look at the countenances and robust appearance of the inhabitants, and you will see the vigor and energy that the cli mate of North America imparts. I have said that, all things being equal, the two divisions of the conti nent would be similarly improved ; but, sir, they are not, and never have been, equal. The first British emigration all went to the southern half. Whither went the " Mayflower," that sailed with the Pilgrims from this port? Ik the heart of the New England States. Whither went Penn's and Baltimore's emigration ? To Pennsylvania and Maryland. The northern portion, for one hundred and fifty years, being occupied by French hunters, traders, and Indians. The British did not begin to set tle in Nova Scotia till 1749, nor in Canada till 1763. Prior to the former period Massachusetts numbered one hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants ; Connecticut, one hundred thousand ; Philadelphia had her eighteen thousand before an Englishman had built a house in Hal ifax ; and Maine had her two thousand four hundred and eighty-five enrolled militiamen, long before a Briton had settled in the Province of New Brunswick. All the other States were proportionably advanced before Englishmen turned their attention to the Northern Provinces at all. The permanent occupation of Halifax, and the loyalist emigra tion from the older States, gave them the first impetus. But, you will perceive, that, in the race of improvement, the old thirteen States had a long start ; they had three millions of Britons and their descendants, a flourishing commerce, and much wealth to begin with, at the Revolu tion. But a few hundreds occupied the Provinces, to which I wish to call your attention, at the commencement of the war ; but a few thous ands at its close. Now, Mr. Chairman, you will perceive, that had both these portions of the American continent enjoyed the same advantages down to the present hour, the southern half must have improved, and increased its numbers, much faster than the northern. But the advantages were not equal. The excitement and the necessities of the war of independence inspired the people at the South with enterprise and self-confidence, and non-intercourse with Great Britain stimulated domestic manufactures. Besides, they had free trade with each other, and, so far as they chose to have, or could obtain it by their own diplomacy, with all the world. The Northern Provinces had separate governments — half-paternal des potisms, which repressed instead of stimulating enterprise. They had often hostile tariffs, and, down to the advent of Mr. Huskisson, and SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 37 even to the period when the navigation laws were repealed, were cramped in their commercial operations by the restrictive policy of England. In other respects, the South had the advantage. From the moment that their independence was recognized, the confederated States enjoyed the absolute control over their internal affairs. Fancy what this did for them, for more than half a century that the northern Provinces were governed by politicians voted in and out of office by the fluctuations of opinion in England, or by officers sent out, and by the permanent irresponsible cliques that these almost invariably gathered round them. Down to the year 1839, when Lord John Russell's celebrated dispatch was promul gated in the Colonies, — and the struggle was scarcely over till 1848, when that dispatch was acted on and enforced by the present govern ment, — the Colonies were carrying on perpetual contests with Govern ors ancl Secretaries of State, to win that which Englishmen have en joyed since the Revolution of 1688, — the privilege of managing their own affairs. To that contest I devoted twenty years of my life, and I thank God it is now over. England has given us that self-government which she has herself enjoyed for a century and a half, and I trust we shall make a good use of it. But I have not enumerated all the sources of disparity. The Na tional Government of the United States early saw the value and im portance of emigration. It bought up Indian lands, enlarged acknow ledged boundaries by pertinacious and successful diplomacy, surveyed its territory, and prepared for colonization. The States, or public com panies or speculators in them, borrowed millions from England (a good many of which they have forgotten to pay), opened roads, laid off and advertised lots in every part of Europe, and invited emigration. Con gress framed Constitutions suited to the new settlements, investing them with modified self-government from the moment that the most simple ma terials for organization were accumulated ; and formed them into new States, with representation in the National Councils, whenever they numbered forty thousand inhabitants. Ohio, for instance, which is one of the colonies thus planted, did not exist in 1783. It now contains a million and a half of people, and has its nineteen members in Con gress. British America contains two millions, and has not a single rep resentative in your National Council. But pass that over. While all this was going on, what did England do to people and to promote the prosperity of her Northern Provinces ? Almost nothing. She was too much occupied with foreign wars and diplomacy ; often descending from her high estate to subsidize foreign princes, whose petty dominions, if flung into a Canadian lake, would 58 38 SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. scarcely raise the tide. What did we do in the Northern Provinces to fill up this territory ? We did the best we could. We married as early, and increased the population as fast as we could. But, jesting apart, what could we do ? Down to 1815 we were engrossed by the wars of England ; our commerce being cramped by the insecurity of our coasts and harbors. Down to 1848, we were engaged in wars with succes sive Governers and Secretaries of State, for the right to manage our in ternal affairs. These are now over, and we, on our side of the water, have got command, to some extent at least, of our own resources and of our time. We have now the means and the leisure to devote to the great questions of colonization, emigration, and internal improvement ; to examine our external relations with the rest of the empire and with the world at large ; to consult with you on the imperfect state of those relations, and upon the best appropriation that can be made of your surplus labor, and of our surplus land, for our mutual advantage, that the poor may be fed, the waste places filled up, and this great empire strengthened and preserved. Having shown you why the contrast is so striking between the United States and the North American Provinces, let me now show you what the latter have accomplished, even under all the disadvantages which they have had to encounter. The five that occupy that portion of territory which has been politi cally organized, are : Canada, which lies the farthest back, and is the most extensive and populous of the whole; New Brunswick, which joins to Canada ; Nova Scotia, next to that ; Prince Edward Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and the Island of Newfoundland. With all their disadvantages, let me now show the audience what these colonies have done and what they are worth. The five provinces number about two millions of inhabitants. Their annual average imports and exports, from 1842 to 1846, have been as follows : — Imports. Exports. Canada £2,174,332 £1,819,695 Nova Scotia 984,225 767,596 New Brunswick 794,785 651*668 Newfoundland 783,870 885,251 Prince Edward Island 110,783 63 867 Showing a total of £4,847,995 £4,188,077 Now, a total amount of imports of near five millions, and over four millions of exports, does not show a bad industrial condition in such a short time, and under such disadvantages. SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 39 I have noticed the common mistake which people make in Europe, who confound the Maritime Provinces and Canada together, as though there was no distinction. Canada is a noble Colony, full of resources, but its harbors are closed with frost in winter, while those of Nova Scotia and of most of the Maritime Provinces are open all the year round. For general commerce, you will perceive, then, that our advan tages are very superior ; that our people are destined much more ex tensively than their brethren in the rear, to " go down to the sea in ships," to be the carriers and factors of those who occupy the extensive regions further west. These maritime Colonies, in point of territory, include eighty-six thousand square miles, an area half as large again as the kingdoms of England and Scotland, and nearly as large as Holland, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, and Switzerland, all put together. They are rich in mines, and surrounded by the best fisheries in the world. Taking all the Provinces, and summing up the number of registered vessels they now possess, not including vessels merely built for the Eng lish market, I find that Canada owned, in 1846, six hundred and four; New Brunswick, seven hundred ancl thirty; Newfoundland, nine hundred and thirty-seven ; and Prince Edward Island, two hundred and sixty- five ; being a total of two thousand, five hundred and thirty-six vessels, measuring two hundred and fifty-two thousand eight hundred and ninety- two tons. Nova Scotia, my own Province, — the peculiar character and resources of which are but little understood in England, — possessed in 1846, two thousand five hundred and eighty-three vessels ; or, forty- seven more than all the other four Provinces put together, and measuring one hundred and forty-one thousand and ninety-three tons. Nova Scotia, in many respects, greatly resembles England. It is nearly an island, being joined to the Province of New Brunswick by a narrow isthmus. Of coal, it has endless fields ; it has iron in rich abundance ; inexhaustible fisheries surround its shores ; and its noble harbors are open all the year round. Its population is made up of English, Irish, and Scotchmen ; or rather,, of a native race, combining the blood and the characteristics of the three kingdoms, with a few Germans and French, who make agreeable varieties. With this brief description, I trust, sir, that you will perceive that we have wrestled manfully with the disadvantages I have described ; are not unworthy of our lineage ; nor have been heedless of the resources of the countries we occupy. Five thousand vessels floating on the ocean, under your flag, is our contribution in a single century to the mercantile marine of the empire. This does not include boats engaged in the shore fisheries. Of this fleet, little Nova Scotia owns one-half, or more 40 SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. vessels in number than all Ireland, though the tonnage is not quite so great. To enable you more nearly to appreciate the value and re sources of these Northern Provinces, let me furnish a very striking contrast. I take the Eastern Colonies, or Mauritius and Ceylon ; the African Colonies, including the Cape ; the Australian Colonies, including New Zealand ; and the West India Colonies, including the Bahamas and Guiana ; and putting all their tonnage together, they have but two thou sand one hundred and twenty-eight vessels, measuring ninety-eight thousand one hundred ancl eighty-three tons. You see, therefore, that the five North American Provinces own more than double the number of vessels which belong to all the other Colonies of England, Nova Scotia alone having nearfy twice the amount of their aggregate tonnage. But some may ask, What interest have the people of England in these statistics ? Why should they trouble themselves about the extent or the resources of the countries you describe ? Let me now show you, Mr. Chairman, how deep and all-pervading an interest the people of these islands have in this inquiry. The late Charles Buller (whose loss North America deeply mourns, for he was her steady and enlightened advocate, whose aid I regret I have not now, for he was my personal friend) declared, in the House of Commons, a short time before he died, that in Ireland, on an average, two millions of people were unemployed for thirty weeks in the year. To what extent fever and famine have diminished that number since, I do not know ; but I take the fact as it then stood, and fear that too near an approximation to that statement might be hazarded, even now. In Ireland, in the year 1848, (to say nothing of the £10,000,000 voted by Parliament, of the provisions sent in from foreign countries, or of the voluntary aid extended to that un happy country), there was raised within her own boundaries, no less a sum than £1,216,679, and expended in poor-rates ; or an average of Is. lOd. on £13,000,000. Nearly a million and a half of persons were re lieved, to the extent of 16s. 8d. per head. In Scotland, £544,000 was raised and expended ; the number of persons relieved, two hundred and twenty-seven thousand, six hundred and forty-seven ; and the amount paid averaged £2 7s. dd. each, enough to have shipped every poor Scotchman out, in a well-appointed steamer, to Nova Scotia ; there to become a blessing to the Colony; a customer, not a burden, to the mother country. In England, — which, if this plague-spot were re moved, would be as near perfection as can be attained by any civilized community, — the enormous amount of £6,110,765 was raised and ex pended in 1848, being Is. Qd. on £67,000,000. One million, eight hundred and seventy-six thousand, five hundred and for.ty-one persons SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 41 were relieved, or about one in every eleven of the whole population in this garden of the world ! The average cost of each person relieved, was £3 5s. lOd. more than enough to have shipped every man to our own Northern Colonies, and made proprietors and freeholders of them for life. I turn to the workhouses, ancl find that in 1849, they contained : — In England — Boys 30,158 Eit for service 4,570 Girls 26,165 Ditto 3,690 56,323' 8,264 In Ireland — Boys 62,514 Girls 66,285 128,799 Making a total of one hundred and eighty-five thousand one hundred and twenty-two, without including Scotland, from which I have no return. Then, again, look at the number of committals for offences in the three kingdoms, in the year 1848, viz. : — In England 30,000 Ireland 38,552 Scotland 4,900 Making a total number of 73,771 Of this number, six thousand two hundred and ninety-eight were transported, and thirty-seven thousand three hundred and seventy-three were imprisoned. I refer to these painful facts, not because I believe you are worse than the people on our side of the Atlantic, but because I believe a vast number of poor wretched creatures break the laws in these islands because they have not the wherewithal to live ; they are abso lutely driven by poverty to the commission of crime. Many of these are imprisoned, and expatriated from their country, who, in my con science, I believe to be as innocent, in the sight of God, as any man in this assembly. You maintained in Ireland, in 1849, a constabulary force of twelve thousand eight hundred and twenty -nine, and three hundred and forty horses, at a cost of £562,506 ; and in England and Wales, including the London police, nearly an equal number at a nearly equal cost. In this service, you expended a gross total of £1,140,000 ; thus maintaining as many constables in these two small islands as doubled the whole standing army of the United States of America. And is this necessary, because the people of these islands are worse than 58* 42 srtiXH AT SOUTHAMPTON their brethren of the new world ? By no means ; but government is com pelled to maintain this force in consequence of the immense pressure upon the means of subsistence in this country, and which pressure would be relieved, till you might reduce your constabulary one-half, by promoting sound and wholesome emigration. Then, again, I might refer to the cost of prisons. I find that the prison at York cost £1,200 per head for each prisoner they have to maintain in it ; enough, as the inspector reports, " to build for each a separate mansion, coachhouse, and stable." If you multiply by. twelve (the number of jurors summoned on a jury) the number of criminals tried, you will see the enormous amount of time wasted in the punishment of crime. Then, there is the amount of prop erty stolen by criminals, which no man can guage ; it still continues to increase with the. progress of population and the advancement of crime. There is another consideration, — the cost of life and property destroyed by agrarian outrages, superinduced by the artificial and pressing system under which you suffer in this country. And what is the remedy for all this ? I turn at once to the four millions of square miles of territory under the Queen's sceptre on the continent of North America, with its noble rivers, fertile soil, exhaustless fisheries, and valuable mines ; and I ask, will you allow three-fourths of this vast territory to continue a howling wilderness ? Many persons have an idea that large emigration may empty England. Empty England ? The idea is preposterous. No Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman, will live out of these islands that can live in them. No man would voluntarily choose to leave this country, which is a garden from shore to shore, and exchange it for a comparative wilderness. Who would leave the land of their fathers with all its historical associations, — unless driven out by poverty, or stimulated by high enterprise ? But, we are sometimes told, there is only one enlightened mode of colonization, and that is being very extensively tried in our southern and Eastern Colonies. Of the Wakefield theory of colonization, I would speak with all respect ; of the combined efforts of public spirited indi viduals, seeking to give it a fair trial, I would be the last to disapprove. I do not wish to check the progress, in valuable Colonies, of associated enterprise ; but having for more than a month closely examined all that they have done, and are capable of doing, I turn from them to the North American field, satisfied that they must continue to furnish but homoeo pathic remedies for the internal maladies of England. In twenty-two years, from 1825 to 1846 inclusive, only one hundred and twenty-four thousand two hundred and seventy-two persons went from these United Kingdoms to the Australian colonies and New Zeal- SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 43 and. In the same period seven hundred and ten thousand four hundred and ten went to the United States, to strengthen a foreign and rival power; to intrench themselves behind a hostile tariff, ranging from fifteen to one hundred per cent, over British manufactures ; to become consumers of American manufactures instead, and of foreign productions, sea borne in American bottoms ; they, and the countless generations that have already sprung from their loins, unconscious of regard for British interests, and of allegiance to the crown of England. In twenty-two years, one hundred and twenty-four thousand two hundred and seventy-two settlers have gone to Australia and New Zealand! About half the number on the poor-rate of Scotland in 1848. Not a tenth part of the paupers relieved in Ireland ; or one in fourteen of those who were supported by England's heavily taxed industry, in that single year. Not more, I fear, than died of famine in a single county of Ireland, from 1846 to 1850 ; and less, by sixty thousand, than the number of the young people who were in the workhouses of England and Ireland in 1849. Valuable then as these Eastern Colonies may be, and respectable as may have been the efforts to improve them, it is obvi ous that as aids to the removal of pressure upon the resources of the United Kingdom, those who calculate largely upon them are sure to be deceived. The reasons are obvious. Australia and New Zealand are fourteen thousand miles from the shores of England ; the British Prov inces of North America are but two thousand five hundred. Every poor man who embarks for Australia must be maintained by somebody for one. hundred and twenty or one hundred and fifty days, while he is rolling about in idleness on the sea. The ordinary passage to North America, in sailing vessels, is about forty days. Wiith steam we may hope soon to reach Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in eight or ten days, and Canada in twelve. The expense of a passage to the East is £20, to the West it is £3 10s. ; and with emigrant steam vessels may be still further reduced. Then, mark the disproportionate prices of land. In Australia or New Zealand one hundred acres of land cost £100 sterling ; in the Canterbury settlement, £300. In western Canada one hundred acres of the best land in the empire can be bought for £40 ; in Lower Canada for £20. In New Brunswick, where there are still eleven millons of ungranted acres in possession of the government, for £12 10s. In Nova Scatia, where land is now, in many districts, as valuable as in any of the Colonies, and from the increase of commerce, soon will be in all, we give one hundred acres of crown land to an emi grant for £10. But, we are told, that in the Eastern Colonies these high prices are 44 SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. not paid for land alone, but for civilization ; for roads, schools, religious ordinances and education, without which land is of no value. I know not whether we are very highly civilized in North America, butT will just explain the position of Nova Scotia, and let the audience judge for themselves. It is divided into seventeen counties, and every county has its sheriff, magistrate, jail, courthouse, and two terms of the. supreme court, in which the common and statute law of England is administered. The Province is intersected with roads, and bridges span all the larger and most of the smaller streams. Every county is divided into town ships, and each township has its shire town ; and in those towns there are places of worship for the Episcopalian, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian, the Catholic, the Independent, and for the various modifi cations of religious opinion which divide the inhabitants of these islands. Every county has from fifty to one hundred schools. There is scarcely a house in Nova Scotia without a Bible in it, and hardly a native of the Province who would not be ashamed to be unable to read it. This is the " barbarous " state of the North American Provinces, for Nova Scotia is but the type of them all. If what I have described be civilization, we shall be extremely glad to give all these blessings, this civilization, such as it is, to every Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman, who chooses to come into the Province, and one hundred acres of land besides, for £10. But England's political, as well as her moral and industrial interests, demand that her North American possessions should be strengthened and improved. We hear a good deal occasionally about the balance of power in Europe ; and, one would suppose, by the excitement created by some paltry continental intrigue, or petty principality in Germany or the Mediterranean, that the very existence of this great nation was often involved. The people of British America, in their simplicity, are sometimes apt to think that, if half the trouble was taken about the terri tories which belong to us, that is wasted on those which do not, our British brethren would be nearly as well employed. I am no alarmist, but there appear to be many in England, and some of them holding high military ancl social positions, who regard England as defenceless, at this moment, from the assaults of any first-rate European power. Now, suppose that France or Russia were to combine her military and naval forces with those of the United States to attack England, hopeful as I am of the destiny and confident in the resources of these islands, I doubt not but they would, in the end, come gloriously through the struggle. But who can deny that the contest would be perilous for a time, and, under the most favorable circumstances, very expensive ? One Ameri- SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 45 can war added £120,000,000 to your debt: a few millions, profitably employed, but not wasted, in the Northern Provinces, will so strengthen them as to make another war a very remote contingency, and compara tively little burdensome or hazardous, if it ever comes. But, suppose the Northern Provinces neglected and ultimately lost ; imagine the ter ritories of the Republic extended to Hudson's Bay, and that the spirit generated by two wars, ancl which a word, a single act, so readily revives, pervaded the continent. Strip England of every port on thc Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ; leave her without a ton of coal for her steamers, or a spar to repair a ship. Fancy the five thousand vessels that we now own added to the enemy's fleet, and the four hundred thousand men that we could arm to-morrow added to her forces ; the enemy's outposts and arsenals would then be advanced five hundred miles nearer to England, and the West India Colonies overpowered and lost, as a matter of. course. Would not the balance of power in Europe be thus fearfully disturbed, because England had failed, to maintain the balance of power in America ? The picture, Mr. Chairman, is too painful to be dwelt on, even for a moment ; and I gladly turn to the measures which I beheve, by strengthening, and inspiring the northern Provinces with grateful con fidence in the policy and maternal forethought of the United Kingdoms, will render the empire impregnable and secure. The measures which I propose are extremely simple, and in the end will be found almost self-sustaining, relieving rather than adding to the burdens of the State. They include — Ocean steamers for the poor as well as the rich. The preparation of wild lands for settlement, by the Colonial govern ments. The promotion of public works of acknowledged national utility, by the interposition of Imperial credit, that the labor market may be ex tended, and the poor of Great Britain employed, as an aid to colonization. The bounties which you now pay to encourage your North American and West India mail steamers amount to £385,000. For this sum you maintain, on the ocean, twenty-four noble vessels, which in peace are a protection to commerce in the seas they traverse, and could in a moment be converted into formidable vessels of war. The postage on the letters they carry pays a large portion, if not the whole expense. To build and equip the same number of steamships for the navy would require an expen diture of £2,400,000 in the first instance, and the annual cost would not be less than the bounty now paid. It is clear that, by these contracts, the na tion is stronger by the twenty-four ships, and yet saves the £2,400,000 it would cost to build them, even should no postage be received. Apply 46 SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. the same principle to the conveyance of emigrants that you do to the conveyance of letters. The same bounty which you now pay to one of these lines would at once add eight or ten more noble ships to the naval force of England. There might be some loss at first, but ultimately they would be self-sustaining, and the millions you now maintain in unions and workhouses would not only be enabled to maintain themselves, but would ultimately, by their increased traffic and intercourse, maintain for you an important addition to the naval force of the empire. [Mr. Howe illustrated the necessity for the employment of emigration steamers, by showing the deplorable results of emigration as it had been conducted to the North American provinces in sailing vessels, particu larly in years of famine or industrial derangement at home. He showed from the official returns, that in 1847, seventeen thousand four hundred and forty-five British subjects died on the passage to Canada and New Brunswick alone — in quarantine, or in the hospitals ; that, from the in fection spread through thirty Colonial towns and cities, there was too much reason to believe that the number must have swelled to twenty-five thousand. By quotations from American works he inferred that an equal number perished on their way to, or in the United States, in the same year ; making an aggregate of fifty thousand.] I am quite aware, said he, that government were not to blame for this mortality; that to have prevented emigration would have made the mat ter worse. I am quite aware that improved regulations have since been proposed and established, and that a famine year affords no fair criterion of the average mortality in ordinary seasons. But when we reflect that but eight hundred men were sunk in the Royal George ; that but one thousand nine hundred and ninety-three were slain at the battle of Waterloo ; that at Salamanca but one in ninety of those engaged was killed, and but one in one hundred and four at Maida, we are impressed with the solemnity of the obligation to guard against such results in all time to come. The loss, by this single year's emigration, was equal to the aggregate population of three Irish cities, or three of the smaller agricultu ral counties of Scotland. The ocean omnibus for the poor is the true rem edy. In ordinary seasons it will make emigration a cheerful change from one part of the Queen's dominions to another ; in periods of dis tress, of derangement and plethora in the labor market, it will transport Her Majesty's subjects in health and security from where they are not wanted to where they are. [Mr. Howe also illustrated the evils arising from fraud and misdirec tion, and from collisions and shipwrecks at sea, and the heavy expenses consequently thrown upon the Provincial governments. One car°-o of SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 47 emigrants, wrecked upon the coast of Nova Scotia in 1848, cost its gov ernment, to relieve the sick, bury the dead, aud to tranship the survivors, £939, or £5 10s. per head. Another cargo of one hundred and twenty- seven Highlanders, shipped by a proprietor in South Uist, to clear his estate, cost him to export and misdirect, £3 10s. per head. It cost the government £4 1 Os, to bury the dead, to cure the poor people who sur vived, of small pox, and to transship them to Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. He also showed the hostile Colonial legislation which the inevitable sickness and casualties attendant upon long -voyages in sailing vessels, generated ; and explained how these laws would be swept away, and how cheerfully the Colonial governments would lay off their lands, and prepare for emigration, if the working classes could be sent out with certainty in health, and landed at convenient ports, where their friends, and proprietors having land to dispose of, would be ready to receive them. Steamers could run along the southern coasts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and land emigrants wherever they were wanted. They could run through the Gut of Canso, and supply the northern counties, including Prince Edward Island. They would go up the St. Lawrence and drop them from Gaspe to Quebec] But, Mr. Chairman, I am anxious to see these ocean steamers for the working classes, on another account. The omnibus in the Strand, — the parliamentary train, — carries passengers both ways. So will it be with the poor man's steamer. Now, when an emigrant leaves home, he leaves it forever. The Scotchman breathes his lament of " Lochaber no more." Green Erin goes down, as the ship recedes, like an emerald sunk in the sea ; for, except in their dreams, the children she throws off from her bosom rarely return to it again. Of thousands who annually leave "merrie England," how few ever revisit their kindred, or see home again until death has robbed it of every charm. Why is this ? The length and uncertainty of the voyage, the misery endured, the peril encoun tered, the relations lost, the fraud, the misdirection, make the emigrant family, -to the close of life, dread the sea. Then the cost, in a mail steamer, to and fro, would swallow the price of a farm. What are the political effects ? That the British islands throw off, not only the bodies, but the souls — the clustering affections and ever-springing recollections of home, with the hope to revisit it, which, if not realized, soothes to the end of life, and would, if the prospects were rational, be then bequeathed to the next generation. Whenever gratified, the effects would be con servative of British feelings, and a thousand links of love would be thus woven to bind the two countries together. Let us, then, have the ocean omnibus, not only to carry the working classes of Great Britain and 48 SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. Ireland to the virgin soil which invites them, but to bring them back — the fortunate to relieve their kindred, and those of moderate means to revisit their home or the home of their fathers ; to tread the scenes which history hallows, and compare, without a blush, the modern triumphs and civilization of England, even with those of the proud Republic beyond the frontier. Such a squadron would be worth to North America and to England a dozen ships of war, and could be maintained ultimately for a fifth part of the expense. The Britons who crossed and re-crossed in them would not only maintain them with little or no cost to the nation in time of peace, but with light crews, help to defend them in case of war. The preparation of their lands for settlement, the repeal of all taxa tion upon emigrants, and the creation of facilities for settlement ancl dis tribution, would be spontaneous results of Colonial legislation, costing the mother country nothing. Already works of great magnitude and importance have been designed, and are ripening to completion in North America. Some of these have already received the sanction and ap proval of the British government, as they assuredly involve important national as well as Colonial interests. We do not ask the British people to tax themselves for these, further than we can show them that they will save two pounds for every one they risk. But we do ask them to interpose the national credit to enable us to construct them on tlie best terms, to create a labor-market at their very doors ; to furnish, within the Queen's dominions, a profitable field for the investment of that surplus capital of £50,000,000 a year which lies in your coffers, and which when lent to foreign countries is rarely paid, and cannot be collected without imminent risk of war. We ask you to employ your money and plant your people, under the standard of England, that they may not drift off and intrench themselves behind hostile tariffs. We ask you to seize the strong points of your own territory, and build up British cities by securing to them the full advantages of trans- Atlantic intercourse. We ask you to provide employment for millions who are a burden, but who can maintain themselves by industry. We ask you to divide the soil of the empire among those who have neither roof-tree to shelter them, nor a hearthstone that they can call their own. With all their wealth the freehold proprietors of these islands are, I believe, estimated at eighty thousand. But one in every three hundred and fifty of those who tell us they rule the seas, own a single acre of land. An Englishman boasts that his house is his castle ; and so, per haps, it is, but it rarely stands upon his own soil. How large a propor tion of the inmates of these castles may have them demolished, or their SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 49 household deities scattered, when the leases fall in ? In Scotland, but six hundred and thirty-six thousand of the inhabitants out of two million six hundred thousand, live upon the land. All the rest, driven in by the high price of it, overcrowd the labor-markets of seaports and manufactur ing towns. In Ireland, there were, until recently, — perhaps are now, — forty-two thousand two hundred and sixty-two farms of only one acre in extent ; four hundred ancl seventy-three thousand seven hundred and fifty-five averaging from one to thirty. Between 1841 and 1848, eight hundred thousand tenants in that unhappy, but most lovely country, were driven out from these small holdings ("evicted" as the term goes), their hovels, in many cases, burnt over their heads, and their furniture " canted " into the street. With this condition of real estate, do you wonder that Chartism, So cialism, O'Connor land schemes, are rife upon your soil ? Is it not hard for the great body of this people, after ages spent in foreign wars for the conquest of distant possessions, in voyages of discovery, and every kind of commercial enterprise, to reflect that, with all their battles by land and sea, their £800,000,000 of debt, their assessed taxes, income tax, and heavy import duties, their prisons full of convicts, their poor-rate of seven millions, so few of all those who have done and who endure these things, should yet have one inch of the whole earth's surface that they can call their own. Good harvests and a brisk trade may soothe the disinherited ; the standing army and the twenty-one thousand constables may keep them down, even in periods of industrial derangement ; but, even if they could forever, the question naturally arises, have all your battles been fought for this, to maintain in England a state of seige ; to have the sword forever hung above her bosom, suspended by a single hair? God forbid, Mr. Chairman. But what is the remedy ? Agrarian out rage and violation of the rights of property ? No, sir ! I would not divide the estates of the rich among the poor, but I would open up to the poor the virgin soil of the empire, that they may no longer eat into the fortunes, while they envy the prosperity, of the rich. Give the poor Scotchman who has no land, a piece of North America, purchased by the blood which stained the tartan on the plains of Abraham. Let the Englishman or Irishman, whose kindred dashed through the surf at Louisburg, or clubbed their muskets at Bloody Creek, have a bit of the land their fathers fought for. Let them at least have the option of own ership and occupation, and a bridge to carry them over. The results of such a policy would as assuredly be conservative of the rights of property as it would permanently relieve the people. For your sakes, as well as for their own, Mr. Chairman, the people 59 50 SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. of British America are anxious to see you adopt an elevated and en larged scheme of Colonial policy, by which relief will be given to your resources, and strength to their own. The hopes and prospects of the future will then atone for the omissions and errors of the past. We shall feel that England is indeed our home, and you will feel that you have homes on both sides of the Atlantic. Men will go from these islands to British America, as they now go from Hampshire to Wiltshire; and thousands will return every year to tread the scenes which history hallows, or, if need be, to defend the temples where our common ances try repose. Though we cannot afford to play at soldiers every day, as they do upon the continent, — for we prefer to handle the axe, and plough the land and sea, — yet we have a Landwehr who own their muskets ; who, at their own expense, could put a month's provisions, upon their backs, and be here by steam, in ten days, if their sovereign required their services. But they would be undisciplined and awkward i Per haps so ; yet full of energy and resources, they would learn as much in a week as an European serf does in a year ; and when the shock of bat tle came, you might " Ask yon despots whether Their plumed bands Could bring such hands And hearts as ours together." I am happy to be enabled to add, sir, that the representations which it has been my duty to make to Her Majesty's government, in reference to these subjects, have been received in the fairest possible spirit. I be lieve that the present Cabinet is sincerely desirous, if the practicability of the plans can be demonstrated, to relieve the burdens of this country and strengthen the North American Provinces. But I need scarcely tell you, that no administration in these islands can do any thing but what the people approve. The responsibility, in this, as in all other important measures, rests with the people. Let them assume the desire of gov ernment, and act upon it. Let them stimulate the Executive, if that is required. Before the American Revolution, an old philosopher came over to this country, on e, mission in which he failed ; the government of that day treated him coldly, but he forgot to appeal to the people. I believe that if the people of this country understood the question then as they do now, much bloodshed and expenditure would have been saved. I antici pate no coldness from the government, and certainly have received noth ing but courtesy and kindness from those members of it with whom I SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 51 have been brought into communication. In the British people I have an abiding faith. I should regret if it were otherwise, for I have an he reditary interest in these questions. During the old times of persecution, four, brothers, bearing my name, left the southern counties of England, and settled in four of the old New England states. Their, descendants number thousands, and are scattered from Maine to California. My father was the only descendant of that stock who, at the Revolution, ad hered to the side of England. His bones rest in the Halifax churchyard. I am his only surviving son ; and, whatever the future may have in store, I want, when I stand beside his grave, to feel that I have done my best to preserve the connection he valued, that the British flag may wave above the soil in which he sleeps. The impression produced by this speech was so favorable, that Mr. Howe was immediately invited to a banquet to be given by the Corporation in the audit house. It was attended by the principal citizens, including members of the town coun cil, and other public functionaries. The proceedings were most gratifying to Nova Scotia, and highly honorable to all con cerned. In proposing Mr. Howe's health, the worthy Mayor said : — They must all have been delighted at the lucid manner in which their honorable guest had, on the previous evening, developed his plans, and shown the advantages that would be derived therefrom to the working population of England. He hoped that he would succeed in his en deavors, and if he only succeeded in a hundredth part of what he an ticipated, they would have reason to be grateful to him. He was re joiced to have such a talented, patriotic, and worthy man as their guest that evening, and he was sure they would all drink most heartily the " health of the Hon. Mr. Howe, success to his efforts, and prosperity to the Province of Nova Scotia." The toast was drank with every demon stration of delight. The Hon. Mr. Howe, who was received with renewed cheers, said that, in the North American Colonies, they were in the habit of speak ing of England as their home ; and if he had not found a home in Southampton, he did not know where it was. Never had he expected, except by the death of a near relative or friend, to ha*ve had his feelings stirred within him as they had been that night. He had always had faith in the people of England. He came amongst them a stranger, and already he felt as an inhabitant of Southampton. The object he had 52 OPINIONS OP THE PEESS. come here to advance was one on which he sought to unite all parties ; one which lay at the bottom of their common Christianity — to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to people the waste places of the earth, and to make two blades of grass grow where, not one, but none grew before. He had that morning visited, in the company of their Mayor, some of their charitable institutions ; and he could wish that he had some of the lads he saw in one ancl the females he saw in another with him in the Colony from which he came, where they would be removed from the ne cessities of either poverty or crime. The Hampshire Independent thus expressed what it is but fair to assume was the state of public feeling created in the south of England by Mr. Howe's visit to Southampton : — We have much pleasure in directing the attention of our readers to the report of the meeting held at the Town Hall on Tuesday evening, which will be found in another column. A more important question than that brought before the notice ofthe inhabitants of Southampton on that occasion, bythe Hon. Mr. Howe, has never been submitted to the consid eration of the people and government of England. With the lucid reason ing, the startling facts, the profound political philosophy, and the forcible eloquence of the honorable gentleman, we shall not now deal. These are points upon which our readers may form their own opinions from the speech which we have most reluctantly been compelled to abridge, but to which we shall again and again call pubhc attention. Our principal object now is to solicit inquiry and investigation into a question of such vital importance, not only to Southampton, but to the whole of the United Kingdom. If England and the North American Provinces can be brought within ten or twelve day's sail of each other by emigration steamships,' they will not be farther apart than England and Ireland were a few years ago. This was a point strongly impressed upon the meeting by Mr. Howe, whose distinguished position as a minister, and member of the Legislature of Nova Scotia, not less than his extensive and correct information, gives weight and authority to his opinions ; and if we can only induce the government and Parliament of this country to devote a sufficient sum of money annually to carry his excellent sugges tions into effect, his mission to England will be followed by more im portant consequentes than any that have occurred since Benjamin Franklin made the fruitless endeavor to repair the breach between this country and her revolted American Colonies. By encouraging emigra tion to our own dependencies, we secure the twofold advantage of DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. 53 strengthening the empire, and obtaining good customers for our manu factured goods. We should not be doing our duty if we did not express what we so sincerely feel, that the town is highly honored by the visit of Mr. Howe, and deeply indebted to our public-spirited and enterpris ing Chief Magistrate and the Trade Committee, for their assiduous and praiseworthy endeavors to point out to the government and the country the great natural advantages of Southampton as a port of emigration. The period that elapsed between the presentation of his let ters to Earl Grey, the delivery of this speech, and the receipt of Mr. Hawes's letter of the 10th of March, was one of mingled triumph and anxiety. That he had distinguished himself in the estimation of the government and people of England, he had evidences on every side. The press generally applauded his eloquence, boldness, and the skill with which he had pre sented questions of great interest for public consideration. In the House of Lords, both Lord Monteagle and Lord Stanley called the attention of the government to the policy enunciated by Mr. Howe, and demanded to know whether they intended to entertain it, and to give the countenance of the Imperial Parliament to enterprises in which it was palpable that the mother country, as well as the Colonies, had a deep interest. In personal interviews, with which he was honored by both of those noblemen, Mr. Howe had explained his views, and we have heard him speak in very grateful terms of the frankness and courtesy with which they discussed with him the objects of his mission. From Earl Grey and Mr. Hawes, he received the assurance that he had deeply interested the Cabinet, and that his proposi tions were seriously entertained. There were other persons who had become deeply inter ested. The letters had been laid before Parliament and had found their way into the hands of Sir Morton Peto, William Jackson and Thomas Brassey, Esquires, two of whom had seats in the House of Commons. Those gentlemen saw in the noble country which Mr. Howe so eloquently described, and in the great enterprises which he advocated, a boundless field for the employment of their capital and resources as rail- 59* 54 MINISTERIAL CRISIS. way contractors. They put themselves immediately into com munication with Mr. Howe, and became thenceforward mixed up with his subsequent negotiations, and ultimately the active promoters of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. We have often heard Mr. Howe describe his feelings, tri umphs and anxieties, at this period. As a Colonist, he had attracted notice and won great praise, in the highest and most intellectual circles of the mother country. He had been re ferred to in the handsomest terms in the House of Lords. His letters were passing from hand to hand in the House of Com mons, where men of all shades of politics acknowledged the boldness and ability with which he had treated great Imperial and Colonial questions. He had directed towards the broad field of British America the keen spirit of cupidity and enter prise that led the railway world. These were honorable achievements of which any man might be proud. They opened for Mr. Howe the mansions of the great, won for him kindness and hospitality that he has ever gratefully remembered, and gave him the opportunity to observe the inner life of all circles of English society. But amidst the splendor and excitement of the great metropolis, he thought most of home ; of the rebound from the great country in whose interests he was toiling; of the joy which his suc cess, if he should succeed, would diffuse among the attached friends he had left behind him. The winter of 1851, was one of intense political excitement in the mother country. The Whig majority was restless and unsteady, and the conservatives pressed the government night after night with question or debate in either House of Parlia ment. On the 14th of February, Mr. Howe wrote to the dep uty Secretary, " The incessant occupation of the leading mem bers of the government, in discussions wliich involved the whole policy of the country, has precluded the possibility of their giving to the Colonial questions in which we feel an in terest, the consideration which would be indispensable to the defence of large guarantees or expenditures, in Parliament." On the night of the 21st of February, Lord John Russell moved an adjournment, and on the following day the ministry LEAVES ENGLAND. 55 resigned. This was a sad trial of Mr. Howe's patience, as at the moment he had on his table the draft of Mr. Hawes's letter, giving the sanction of the Imperial government to his policy, sent for his revision and acceptance, by Earl Grey. When the ministry retired, this draft could not, of course, be made official, or bind the incoming government. It was reasonable to expect that if Lord Derby came in, he would give to the Colonies the advantage of the generous sentiments he had uttered in the House of Peers ; but nobody could tell what new combinations might be formed, and a dissolution of Parliament appeared fre quently to be the only solution of the complications in which parties were involved by personal rivalries, or honest differences of opinion on important public questions. Great delay and anxieties long protracted appeared inevitable, whatever might happen ; and it was not at all improbable that the hopes and interests of North America, might be wrecked amidst the storms and convulsions which she could neither avert nor control. The crisis lasted a fortnight. Everybody, at all presentable, was sent for and consulted, and at last, on the 3d of March, the Whigs went back to office. On the 7th, the draft of Mr. Hawes's letter was formally submitted to the Cabinet, and ap proved. It is dated the 10th, and reached Mr. Howe on the following day. We have included this dispatch in the railway correspondence, which appears in the proper place, together with the reports which, on the 13th of March and 4th of April, were addressed to the Provincial government. On the 5th of April, Mr. Howe left England for Halifax, weary of labor and undivided responsibility, sated with the ex citement and pleasures of society, and conscious that new toils and heavy responsibilities awaited him on his return. But, conscious also, of great triumphs achieved, of great services ren dered; and above all, of the possession of great powers, tested on the broad field of European competition, and strengthened and improved by six months of observation and of discipline in the metropolis of the civilized world. Mr. Howe reached home on the 14th of April, and found a good deal of work on his hands from the moment of his arrival. His old friend Mr. Huntington had resigned, and Mr. Creelman's 56 EXECUTIVE PERPLEXITIES. appointment to the Financial Secretary's office, though securing the services of a most upright and faithful officer, had created some jealousies that required to be soothed. The old question of an Elective Council had been pressed, and some of the sup porters of government giving way, a majority had sanctioned the principle. The franchise had been disturbed, and changed from a 40s. freehold to the payment of taxes. But the most perplexing matter that required immediate attention, was a se rious difference between the Attorney General and Mr. G. R. Young, which compromised the Cabinet, and gave rise to gen eral suspicions that its members were not united upon the great question of its railway policy. When Mr. Howe's letters, and the dispatches from Downing Street, were laid before the House, the members and supporters of the government, with one ex ception, expressed unbounded satisfaction. Even the warmest of his old political opponents, acknowledged the ability, tact, and moral courage displayed by the delegate ; and however much some of them might disapprove of railways being made by governments, all admitted that Her Majesty's ministers had been won at last to an enlightened appreciation of the value of her North American Provinces, and were acting with a gener ous and sincere desire to promote their internal improvement. Mr. George R. Young professed to think otherwise, and in some speech which he had made, had given great offence to his colleagues, and to the public generally. Action- had been taken upon this speech before Mr. Howe arrived. The Attorney General and Mr. Young had tendered their resignations, and could no longer act together. Vain efforts to harmonize these jarring elements having been exhausted, Mr. Young's resigna tion was accepted with all courtesy, on the 12th of May. There were other causes for perplexity. The promoters of the Portland convention evidently did not look with a friendly eye upon Mr. Howe's policy and proceedings. They desired to make Portland the seaport of Canada, and to draw all the Prov inces into friendly connection and ultimate political harmony with the United States. Mr. Howe desired to create a North American nation, watchful of republican America, even while pursuing common objects, but in perpetual friendship and al- OBSTRUCTIONS. 57 liance with the British Islands. Mr. Howe was content to make the shore line through the maritime Provinces, either as part of a great scheme, or by itself; but he desired to keep that portion of the railway which ran through British territory, under British influence and control; and he had labored to give to the Provinces a great intercommunication between the At lantic and the St. Lawrence, which, even if it could not com pete for the traffic of western Canada with the Portland line, would in peace and war be of inestimable value to the empire, and ultimately secure to Eastern seaports the trade of all that noble country which lies between Quebec and Nova Scotia. In New Brunswick, there were powerful interests opposed to the Northern line. As surveyed by Major Robinson and Cap tain Henderson, it did not touch Fredericton, the political capi tal, or St. John, the commercial metropolis of New Brunswick. Mr. Howe had foreseen that unless by combining the two roads in a general scheme, it was hopeless to expect the guarantee of the Imperial government for the road to Portland alone ; and equally hopeless to anticipate that New Brunswick would ex pend her resources upon a national highway, which sacrificed to Imperial or intercolonial interests, the hopes and fair claims of her two most influential and important cities. Before he ar rived in America, and before his policy was understood in that Province, the influences which dominated in the southern sec tions, combined with those which the Portland convention had created by the appointment of agents in New Brunswick, had placed the Legislature in a position of antagonism to the North ern road, and of course to the general policy propounded by Mr. Howe. In this Province some of the agents appointed by the con vention had been equally active, and. a bill for incorporating a company to make the road to Portland alone, with the aid of large subsidies from the Provincial government, had been introduced into the Assembly, and was favored by those who, for various reasons, were opposed to the more comprehensive scheme. The bill had been deferred till Mr. Howe's success in England was apparent, and then was laid aside. After a leisurely survey of the whole field of exertion, Mr. 58 RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. Howe set to work with his usual energy and decision. The Cabinet was united and in earnest. The telegraph had assured him of the friendly feeling and cooperation of Canada. As a general election was to come off in the course of the summer, it was indispensable that public opinion should be prepared, and a friendly majority returned. A public meeting of the citizens of Halifax was convened at Masons' Hall, on the 15th of May. Men of all ranks and shades of politics attended, and vied with each other in the en thusiastic reception given to Mr. Howe. It was here that he delivered that speech which Lord Grey informed him was " one the best that he had ever read." We copy it from the pub lished report of the proceedings : — Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen, — This meeting has been called to ascer tain whether the citizens of Halifax, after six months' deliberation and reflection, are as unanimous as they were in August last ; whether they are still disposed to intrust to their government the task of constructing intercolonial railways ; and whether they are prepared to accept the terms which have been offered to the Province in Mr. Hawes's letter of the 10th March. The position which the negotiations have assumed, render it necessary that efforts should be made to overcome difficulties that have arisen beyond our own frontier. The government contem plates sending a deputation to Canada, to confer with delegates from the neighboring Provinces, in the confident hope that those difficulties may be overcome, and that that unity of action aud mutual harmony may be secured by which alone the great works contemplated can be rendered not only practicable but easy of accomplishment within a reasonable time. To appoint men, however, to perform this service ; to send them from amongst us to negotiate with the governments of Canada and New Brunswick, in ignorance of the state of public feeling at home, before they know whether the ground behind them is firm and stable, would be unwise, premature, and useless. They could not with confidence ask New Brunswickers or Canadians to give their sanction to any hne of policy before they knew whether Nova Scotians were determined to sustain it. I am happy in the belief that the unanimity which presages success, the manly forbearance and generous rivalry which insure the perfection of large and comprehensive measures upon sound principles do exist among us ; do pervade the community, actuating and animating the large and highly respectable body of our fellow citizens here assent RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. 59 bled. So far as I have been enabled to gather the general sentiment since my return, from frequent communication with leading men representing great interests, and the opinions of large sections of our people, I believe that the resolutions which have been prepared for submission will meet the unanimous support of this assemblage. The imperial government, with a magnanimity which does honor to the British people, sustained by that unanimity of sentiment among the great leaders of public opinion at home which promises a long continu ance of the honorable relations existing between us, has offered to the three British North American Provinces seven millions of pounds ster ling, at the lowest interest at which money can be obtained in the world. This money is offered for the purpose of enabling them to complete, in an incredibly short space of time, and with security and ease, great inter nal improvements which their advanced condition renders so desirable ; which will bind them together into one prosperous community, animate them with new hopes and aspirations, and ultimately elevate them from the Colonial condition to that of a great and prosperous nation, in per petual amity and friendship with those glorious islands to which we trace our origin, and to which, through this great boon, so much of our material prosperity will in all time to come be traced. Halifax has been formed by nature, and selected by the dictates of sound policy, as a common terminus for these great intercolonial railways. Three hundred and thirty miles will connect us with Portland, and all the lines which interlace the American Republic and bind together the prosperous communities of the South and West. Six hundred and seventy miles more, opening up the central lands and settlements of New Bruns wick, will not only connect us, as we originally contemplated, with Quebec and the St. Lawrence, but passing through one hundred and eighty miles of settlements on that noble river, will place us in commu nication with the populous city of Montreal, which will soon be in connection with Portland on the other side ; the circle will be thus com plete, and chains of intercommunication established, easily accessible, by shorter lines, to all the rising towns and settlements which that wide circuit will embrace. But when Montreal is reached, shall we stop there ? Who can believe it ? Who can think so lightly of the enterprise of Western Canada as to apprehend that she will not continue this iron road, link by link, till it skirts the shores of Ontario and Erie, and draws its tributary streams of traffic from the prolific regions of Simcoe, Superior, and Huron ? Al ready municipalities are organizing and companies are forming to extend this railway for six hundred miles above Montreal. Once completed to 60 RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. that city, how will those interior lines advance ? How many interest,, will combine for their extension ? The British government and people will take a natural pride in the continuation of this great national work. The success of the lower lines will be promoted and insured by exten sion. British capitalists and contractors, lured into this boundless field, will seek further employment for their capital and labor; and millions of industrious people will flow into Provinces where employment is certain and land is cheap. This is the prospect before us, sir, and the duties it imposes we must learn to discharge with energy ; the destiny it discloses we may contemplate with pride. England foresees, yet fears it not. She relies upon our resources and upon our integrity to repay her money. She believes in the existence of the old feelings here which are to strengthen with our strength, and bind us to her by links of love, when pecuniary obligations have been cancelled. She virtually says to us, by this offer, There are seven millions of sovereigns, at half the price that your neighbors pay in the markets of the world ; construct your railways ; people your waste lands ; organize and improve the boundless territory beneath your feet ; learn to rely upon and to defend yourselves, and God speed you in the formation of national character and national institutions. But, sir, daring as may appear the scope of this conception, high as the destiny may seem which it discloses for our children, and boundless as are the fields of honorable labor which it presents, another, grander in pro portions, opens beyond ; one which the imagination of a poet could not exaggerate, but which the statesman may grasp and realize, even in our own day. Sir, to bind these disjointed Provinces together by iron roads ; to give them the homogeneous character, fixedness of purpose, and ele vation of sentiment, which they so much require, is our first duty. But, after all, they occupy but a limited portion of that boundless heritage which God and nature have given to us and to our children. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are but the frontage of a territory which includes four millions of square miles, stretching away behind and be yond them, to the frozen regions on the one side and to the Pacific on the other. Of this great section of the globe, all the Northern Provinces, including Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, occupy but four hundred and eighty-six thousand square miles. The Hudson's Bay ter ritory includes two hundred and fifty thousand miles. Throwing aside the more bleak and inhospitable regions, we have a magnificent country between Canada and the Pacific, out of which five or six noble Provinces may be formed, larger than any we have, and presenting to the hand of industry, and to the eye of speculation, every variety of soil, climate, and RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. 61 resource. With such a territory as this to overrun, organize and im prove, think you that we shall stop even at the western bounds of Canada ? or even at the shores of the Pacific ? Vancouver's Island, with its vast coal measures, lies beyond. The beautiful islands of the Pacific and the growing commerce of the ocean, are beyond. Populous China and the rich East, are beyond ; and the sails of our children's children wih reflect as familiarly the sunbeams of the South, as they now brave the angry tempests of the North. The maritime Provinces which I now address, are but the Atlantic frontage of this boundless and prolific region ; the wharves upon which its business will be transacted, and beside which its rich argosies are to lie. Nova Scotia is one of these. Will you, then, put your hands unitedly, with order, intelligence, and energy, to this great work ? Refuse, and you are recreants to every principle which lies at the base of your country's prosperity and advance ment ; refuse, and the Deity's handwriting upon land and sea, is to you unintelligible language ; refuse, and Nova Scotia, instead of occupying the foreground as she now does, should have been thrown back, at least behind the Rocky Mountains. God has planted your country in the front of this boundless region ; see that you comprehend its destiny and resources — see that you discharge, with energy and elevation of soul, the duties which devolve upon you in virtue of your position. Hitherto, my countrymen, you have dealt with this subject in a becoming spirit, and whatever others may think or apprehend, I know that you will persevere in that spirit until our objects are attained. I am neither a prophet, nor a son of a prophet, yet I will venture to predict that in five years we shall make the journey hence to Quebec and Montreal, and home through Portland and St. John, by rail ; and I believe that many in this room will live to hear the whistle of the steam engine in the passes of the Rocky Mountains, and to make the journey from Halifax to the Pacific in five or six days. With such objects in view, — with the means before us to open up one thousand miles of this noble territory ; to increase its resources and lay bare its treasures, surely all petty jealousies and per sonal rivalries should stand rebuked ; all minor questions of mere local interest should give way. The smoke of past contests has perhaps at times clogged my own mind ; like an old chimney, the soot of controversy may have adhered to it after the cooking of constitutions was over. But the fire of this noble enterprise has burnt it out. I come back, after six months' absence, prepared to cooperate with any man who will honestly aid me to work out the prosperity of our common country; and I am glad to discover that a reciprocal and cordial feeling is manifested by those whose opinions differ, on other subjects, from my own. 60 62 E.ULEOADS AND COLONIZATION. It is frequently said, sir, that a government should not touch these public works. But the roads of a country — the Queen's highways — surely come within the purview of the Executive. In this case it is clear that, unless done by the government, these great railways cannot be done at all. Even if companies could make them, they would cost fourteen millions instead of seven. But, sir, what is a government for, if it is not to take the lead in noble enterprises ; to stimulate industry ; to elevate and guide the public mind ? You set eight or nine men on red cushions or gilded chairs, with nothing to do but pocket their salaries, and call that a government. To such a pageant I have no desire to belong. Those who aspire to govern others should neither be afraid of the saddle by day nor of the lamp by night. In advance of the general intelligence they should lead the way to improvement and prosperity. I would rather assume the staff of Moses, and struggle with the perils of the wilderness, and the waywardness of the multitude ; than be a golden calf, elevated in gorgeous inactivity — the object of a worship which debased. But how came this work to be assumed by the government ? The citizens of Halifax, by acclamation, handed it over to us at the great meeting held in Temperance Hall, after the return of the delegates from Portland. The capitalists of the Province were there, and con fessed that the enterprise was beyond their grasp. The people were there, and the feeling was universal that this work was to be done by the government,, if done at all. At that meeting many an old antipathy was buried, and the government assumed and has carried on the project in the spirit with which it was tendered. That meeting was held in August. Sir John Harvey's dispatch, asking for the Imperial guarantee, bears date the 29th of that month. The refusal which led to the delegation reached Halifax in October. On the 1st of November, the delegate left for England. The first interview granted to me was on the 18th; I could not decide upon any course till that was over. In a week after, the first letter to Earl Grey was written ; it went in on the 25th. So far, you will perceive, that from August to the end of November, not a moment was lost. The meeting at Southampton was held on the 14th of January; the second letter to Earl Grey is dated the 16th. Six weeks elapsed between the dates of the two letters. How were these passed ? In reading a cart-load of books, and pamphlets, and parliamentary records and reports, that I might gather facts, and ascertain what others had written and said on the subjects I wished to treat ; in diving by day and night into the mysteries of that industrial and social life which it might become my duty to illustrate. However impatient some of you RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. 63 have been, no Nova Scotian who had not seen England for ten years could have wisely appealed to its intelligence without this preparation. The best proof that the time was not wasted is to be found in the fact, that no hostile criticism met my eye before I left England ; nor was a single statement attempted to be gainsayed. From the 16th of January to the 14th of February, the whole sub ject was under the consideration of the Cabinet, with Lord Grey's con fident assurance of a favorable result. But delays were unavoidable. The nation was boiling with excitement upon other question's, and the ministers were much engrossed. Even after the generous debate in the House of Lords, some delay was inevitable, and it was not until the 20th of February that I had Lord Grey's draft of the proposition em bodied in Mr. Hawes's letter. With that upon my table, honorably crowning my mission, you may imagine what I endured during the min isterial crisis which lasted a fortnight, and during all which time no offi cial character could be given to the draft. Mr. Hawes's letter came on the 20th March, and my friends in England congratulated me on the ter mination of my labors. But I knew better. The local interests, and apprehensions, the personal rivalries and jealousies, of three Provinces over the sea, rose before me, and I thought a month would be well spent in preparing to deal with these. Before I show you what I did, let me say a word or two to those, if any there are, who hold the opinion that the offer of the British govern- mant is not as liberal and magnificent as it has been described, because no direct contribution has been given. In the first place, as a Nova Scotian, whose forefathers have gone through difficulties and privations which the present generation are not called upon to endure ; who has shared in the inheritance of a country already valued at fifteen millions ; owing nothing abroad, and but a nominal debt to its own people, which a year's revenue would pay off, I am too proud to accept as a gift a single sovereign from my brethren in the British Islands. With all the surplus wealth of England, the taxation to meet the interest of weighty obliga tions and an Imperial expenditure is onerous. What right have I to take a shilling out of the pocket of a Manchester weaver, or of a poor orange woman in the Strand, to make our railroads ? The credit of the Imperial government I would freely use, without a blush of shame, or a sense of dishonorable obligation, but trust me, there is not a high spirited Nova Scotian who would take a shilling of its money. But suppose money had been given. Suppose Earl Grey had said to me, " There, Mr. Howe, are a million of sovereigns, go and get the other six millions where you can," the six would have cost us just £150,000 a year more 64 RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. than the whole will cost now. Suppose His Lordship had given me two, or even three millions, — and the most exacting spirit over the border would hardly require more, — I must have paid £240,000 a year for the four millions at six per cent., while the whole seven will now cost but £245,000. Is it not clear, then, that if I had accepted even two millions in solid gold, instead of the terms offered in Mr. Hawes's letter, I should have been an idiot ? Is it not equally clear that the interposition of Imperial credit, while it leaves our pride untouched, and the resources of Great Britian undiminished, actually saves us nearly three million pounds sterling in the construction of our public works ? Could I have stood here to-day, with brow erect, if over-taxed Englishmen's money was in my hand ? Would you have taken it if I had ? No you would not. The service offered is incalculable. The sense of obligation should be as deep as it will be lasting. We incur this debt without dishonor, as we will discharge it in all integrity and good faith. Those who under value this magnificent boon, offered to us by the British government, should reflect that seven millions of money, drawn from our own re sources, or borrowed on our own credit in the general market of the world, would cost us just £157,000 a year more than if we take the sum Upon the terms which it has been my good fortune to secure. But, Mr. Mayor, I thought it was just possible that there might be some obstructions presented, in some quarter ; and I thought it might be as well to put Nova Scotia in a position to act independently of those obstructions. I am happy to say that she is now prepared at all points. I hold in my hand two letters, one from the London and Westminster Bank, the other from the Commercial Bank of London. The first is perhaps the strongest monied institution in Great Britain, next to the Bank of England ; the position and resources of the other are well known. Either will open an account with Nova Scotia alone, with or without guarantees ; will honor our drafts, sell our debentures, and pro tect our credit; we may draw to-morrow for £20,000 or £30,000. Here is a letter from another capitalist, who will do all this, and place £100,000 at our disposal. The interest is high, it is true, but the arrangement may be useful, should Nova Scotia be compelled to fall back on her own resources. Even with these, you will perceive, we are tolerably well armed ; but here are three letters from English contractors, either of whom could and would make one of our lines, and some of whom offer to make the whole line to the St. Lawrence. [Mr. Howe here read one of these let ters, signed by two gentlemen, whose notes would float, he said, through any bank in London for a million of pounds, and who were associated RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. 65 with others equally wealthy and enterprising. They claimed to have made, either jointly or severally, one-third of all the railroads in the United Kingdom ; were prepared to lodge £30,000 in the Provincial treasury as security for their good faith, and make either line through a single Province, or all the lines required, in any time that might be stipu lated for, and upon any terms that might be fixed by Imperial and Colonial engineers. Another of these contractors, said Mr. Howe, will make the forty miles from Truro to Pictou,, or thirty or fifty from the trunk line to Windsor or Cornwallis, in less time, and with less chaffering, than would be required by some of our great politicians and capitalists to build a barn. Mr. Howe also referred to a proposition from an associated body of the workingmen of England, who were prepared to purchase fifty miles of land along the line, and transfer their skill, capital, and families to the Provinces, if f^ir and honorable terms were given. He could, he said, if authorized, have formed a dozen of such associations, and made arrangements to settle township after township, as the work advanced, through New Brunswick to the St. Lawrence.J The position that we occupy, then, Mr. Mayor, is one of security and varied resource. We can unite with the other Provinces for the con struction of intercolonial railways, or we can " do what we like with our own." We can make for British America one thousand miles of railway at three and a half per cent, if these Provinces are alive to their own interests. We can make the whole line to Portland, independently of the other, if New Brunswick follow our example, and pledge her public funds for the money. Or, we can make our own roads to Pictou on one side, and Bridgetown on the other, without reference to what may be done beyond the frontier. If others choose to waste time with bubble com panies and expensive experiments — if this noble offer is rejected, we have enough to do till our neighbors purchase wisdom at six per cent. In the meanwhile we shall begin at the capital, and extend our own lines east and west. We can commence to-morrow if we choose, and can make one hundred miles with more ease and celerity than any private company could make ten. It has been said by some that the delegation was premature. Yet in what position would we stand now but for the delegation ? We are armed at all points. We are prepared to make all the roads projected through the three Provinces, and save them £175,000 a year in interest. We are prepared with contractors to make the whole line to Port land at five per cent., and we are prepared to make our own roads, inde pendent of our neighbors. While we have been doing all this, Maine and New Brunswick have been passing facility bills, to try and get two 60* 66 RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. hundred and seventy-five miles of railway made with about as many thousand pounds. They have not yet made a mile, or stuck a pickaxe; and yet we are told that our delegation was premature ! But it has often been said that we have broken faith with the people of Portland. I should like to know in what manner. The gentlemen of Portland invited us to discuss with them the propriety of making a rail road. The delegates who attended represented local meetings or com mittees only, and nobody who sent them dreamed that the government or- Legislature was to be bound by any thing they said or did. The meeting was preliminary, for the purpose of comparing views and elicit ing information. Had we supposed that Maine was to dictate to us how we were to make our portion of the railroad, or that we were to be bound to pay some undiscovered capitalists £60,000 a year, when we could get our work done for £35,000, we certainly should have been no parties to the convention. But in what essential have we broken faith ? We offer to our neighbors the means to make the whole line. We have pledged our public resources to make our part of it. Have they offered us a pound, or raised one-fifth of what they want themselves ? Nay, can either or both show us anybody's obligation to lend them or us one-tenth of what we jointly require ? They asked us to cooperate with them to obtain a railroad, and we have broken faith by providing for our own requirements, and offering them money to build it to their very doors. The spirited and unanimous demonstration made by all ranks and classes in Quebec, shows that our efforts have not been unappreciated in that quarter, and that the offer of the British government has been hailed with the patriotic feeling it is so well calculated to evoke. But, sir, all winter long, a gentleman from one of our northern coun ties has been pressing upon the Legislature a bill, asking to be incor porated, that he might build the Portland railway. Now, I happen to know something of that person, and of the resources of the county he is trying to mislead ; and sure I am, that, if you had incorporated him three times over, he would not raise, between this time and next Christ mas, as much money as would make a single mile of railroad. But let the county of Cumberland seriously reflect on what this gentleman and his friends are about; for just so sure as the folly of these people tempts New Brunswick to rely upon cooperation which they have not the power to give, so surely will years elapse before Cumberland sees a railroad approach her borders, either on one side or the other. The people of Cumberland, however, shall not be so deceived ; I will not wait till Mr. Dickey crosses the seas, but will take an early opportunity to discuss with him the merits of his scheme, and then let the people of Cumber land decide between us. RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. 67 But, sir, it has been urged that by accepting the proposal of Earl Grey we pledge ourselves to make railroads in New Brunswick, and to bear the burden of the whole scheme. A word of explanation upon this point. In giving my adhesion to this plan, I conceive I did nothing more than pledge Nova Scotia to repay the principal and interest neces sary to construct the railroad across her own territory ; I assumed that the other Provinces would do the same. If, however, it shall appear that New Brunswick is unable to bear her own burden, I am quite pre pared to consider whether Canada and Nova Scotia shall lend their aid — to what amount, and in what proportions. But this is a new question to be discussed and decided hereafter upon its own merits. New Bruns wick, in my opinion, will reap the largest amount of benefit from the ex penditure. She will get two most important lines at three and a half per cent., the other Provinces but one. She has eleven million acres of crown lands to settle and to rise in value. Her population may be doubled in two or three years almost without an effort, and I am very sanguine that, when the true bearing of this proposal upon her great interests comes to be understood, her people will accept it without any apprehension for the result. These two lines will touch nearly all her more populous coun ties, and breathe new life into them all ; these two lines will open up millions of acres of wilderness lands, and prepare locations for half a million of people, who will settle township after township as the works advance. But, it has been said that our own revenues will be swamped, and that our own country will be burdened by this speculation. Now, taking the worst view that can be taken of this enterprise, let us suppose that our one hundred and thirty miles are made, and do not, for a few years, yield a pound beyond their working expenses. In that case we should have £35,000 currency to raise. In 1849, our revenue was £15,000 less than in 1850 ; yet there was enough to pay all our ordinary ex penses, and £30,000 or £40,000 to spare for roads, bridges, and schools. This year the Receiver General assures me our revenue will increase from £5,000 to £7,000 over that of 1850. Here, then, are £22,000 over and above the revenue of 1849, before the railroads have been com menced. The difference of £13,000 may be met, for a few years, by an issue of Province paper, if our revenue should not increase from emigration or increased expenditure. But, sir, the population of Nova Scotia is three hundred thousand, and doubles every twenty years. Some of our young men, it is true, go abroad from restlessness and a desire to see the world. A few to better their fortunes, it may be ; more to be convinced, by sad experience, that half the labor, energy, 68 RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. and skill fruitlessly expended in foreign states, would have made them richer and happier in their own country. But, sir, the cradles of Nova Scotia add fifteen thousand, year by year, to our population. I never see a bride going to church with orange blossoms in her bonnet, or a young couple strolling to Kissing Bridge of a summer evening, but I in voluntarily exclaim, Heaven bless them; there go the materials to make the railroads. So long, then, as love is made in Nova Scotia, and love makes children, we shall have fifty or sixty thousand added to our popu lation every five or six years, who will add at least £20,000 or £30,000 to our annual income. The speculation is, then, perfectly safe for us, even if an emigrant should not touch our shores. Let me now, however, turn your attention to a subject which has been too long neglected in these North American Provinces — I mean the subject of emigration and colonization. We are too apt to turn to the United States for comparisons unfavorable to our own prosperity and advancement. One of the principal causes of this prosperity we rarely pause to consider. Yet I believe that, since the recognition of Ameri can independence, the British Islands alone have thrown off at least five millions of people, to swell the numbers in the republic. Every convul sion in continental Europe adds its quota of capital, skilled labor, and energy to those States. Germany has sent millions ; France, Switzer land, Italy, lesser but still valuable contributions. Add to the emi grants who have come, the progeny that has sprung from their loins, and one-half the whole population of the United States may be taken to represent its immigration. Should we, then, with institutions as free as those of our neighbors ; with a territory of boundless extent ; with natural resources which defy calculation; with a noble country in our rear, capable of sustaining millions of people, permit this stream of population and wealth to flow past us, as the gulf stream flows, without a thought as to its utility, its volume, or its direction ? Of late our attention has only been turned to emigration by the occa sional arrival of a floating pest house, and by the sufferings of poor wretches, flung by the accidents of life upon our shores. But the time approaches rapidly when all this will be changed ; when steamships of large size will transport the surplus labor of the British Islands to these Provinces, to go in upon these railroad lines, and fill up the fertile lands of the interior. Simultaneously with the commencement of these rail roads the stream will set this way, and it will never cease to flow till it enlivens the shores of the Pacific. Make these railroads, and our own enterprising townsman, who has already bridged the Atlantic, will start RAILEOADS AND COLONIZATION. 69 the ocean omnibus, or, if he does not, he will soon have competitors upon the line. It has been of late too much the fashion in Nova Scotia to speak slightingly of emigration. How few pause to reflect how much even of our own prosperity we owe to it ; and yet a small band of English ad venturers, under Cornwallis, laid the foundation of Halifax. These, at a critical moment, were reinforced by the loyalist emigration, which flowed into our Western counties, and laid broad and deep the foundation of their prosperity. A few hardy emigrants from the old Colonies, and their descendants, built up the maritime county of Yarmouth. Two men of that stock, first discovered the value of Locke's Island, the com mercial centre of East Shelburne. A few hundreds of sturdy Germans peopled the beautiful county of Lunenburg. A handful of emigrants from Yorkshire gave animation to the county of Cumberland. The vale of Colchester has been made to blossom as the rose by the industry of a few adventurers from the North of Ireland. Half a century ago a few poor but pious lowland Scotchmen penetrated into Pictou. They were followed by a few hundreds of Highlanders, many of them "evicted" from the Duchess of Sutherland's estates. Look at Pictou now, with its beautiful river slopes and fertile mountain settlements, its one hun dred schools, its numerous churches and decent congregations, its pro ductive mines, and thirty thousand inhabitants, living in comfort and abundance. The picture rises like magic before the eye, and yet every cheerful tint and feature has been supplied by emigration. At the last election it was said that two hundred and seventy Frasers voted in that county ; all of them heads of families and proprietors of land. I doubt if as many of the same name can be found in all Scotland who own real estate. I remember the county of Sydney well, when the descendants of the old loyalists and disbanded soldiers were scattered upon its sea-coast and river intervales, " few and far between." Look at it now, and see what emigration, chance directed, has done for it even in a few years. Turn to the three counties of Cape Breton, into which emigrants have been thrown, without forethought on the part of the Imperial or Provincial government — without any care or preparation. What would those counties be without the broad acres these men have cleared ; without their stock, their shipping, and their industry ? And what would our revenue be without their annual consumption ? What lesson should we gather, then, from the history of the United States and from our own ? The value of emigration and colonization. But an idea prevails that Nova has no space to spare, no lands to people ; that, however important emi- 70 RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. gration may be fo New Brunswick and to Canada, we have no room for the surplus population of Europe ; no lands to give them should they come. This is also a mistake. [Here Mr. Howe exhibited a colored map, from wliich it appeared that there were four million acres of crown lands yet ungranted in Nova Scotia proper, exclusive of those in the three counties of Cape Breton. Besides these, he argued, there were the vacant lands of large proprietors, while it was notorious that all the old farms would feed, by high cultivation, twice the population they con tained.] The^e is room, then, for a very large body of emigrants in Nova Scotia. Is there no room in this city, which must ultimately ex pand into ten times its present size ? I regret that it is too much the habit to depreciate our own country, instead of studying its resources, and anticipating its future progress. In an especial manner has this habit prevailed among the idle youth of Halifax. I have known hundreds, whose industrious fathers had toiled upon land and sea to bring them up in luxury, who have spent their own lives upon the sidewalks, or in senseless dissipation, all the time abusing the country they have been too idle to cultivate or improve. Dozens of these have died in imbecility and sloth ; many more have wandered off to some " fool's paradise " or other, and those who have been too proud to work in their own noble country, have toiled like slaves and died in foreign lands. Look round Halifax and ask who own the wharves and stores, the valuable corners, building lots and man sion's, that these idlers, and unbelievers in Nova Scotia's resources, have let slip out of their hands. Englishmen, Irishmen, and Scotchmen, many of whom came into Halifax without a shilling, but who have added to its wealth by their industry, and who are living all around us in abundance, and. many of them in the enjoyment of ample fortunes. Even Halifax, then, Mr. Chairman, has tested the value of emigration, and as she has thrown off her idlers and grumblers, has been recruited by an influx of the enterprising and industrious. What lessons should past experience, in town and country, teach us then ? The value of emigration. Let me state here that the government propose for the future to combine the business of emigration and colonization with the duties of the land office, or commit them to a distinct yet active branch of administration. Thus we shall have a Colonial officer in communication with the board of land and emigration at home, and through that board with the board of poor law guardians, and with the constituted authori ties of every city and parish in England. We propose to make the deputy surveyors in each county active agents of this department, to lay off the crown lands, and prepare pictures of their districts. We shall RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. 71 then have persons whose business it will be to instruct and advise every poor man who touches our shores, to prepare annual lists of the number and description of mechanics, farmers, servants or apprentices, required in different localities, to bind the latter when they come, and protect them in case of need. By the aid of this simple, and not very expen sive machinery, I shall be much mistaken if we do not add many thous ands to our population, and a very handsome sum to our revenue. In every part of North America, there is no remark more proverbial than that the farmer with a large family gets rich, while he who has no children is generally poor. Why is this? Because the- labor of young people, from twelve or fourteen to twenty-one, is the least expensive and most profitable labor that a farmer can have. A boy or a girl on a farm soon learns to do light work as well as a man or woman ; from eighteen to twenty-one they can do men and women's work, but do not cost men and women's wages. It is the same upon the shores, where our fishermen and coasters have to rely upon the strength of their own families, and rarely can get an apprentice. And yet there are, in the Asylums of England and Ireland, at this moment, one hundred and eighty-five thou sand children, eight thousand of them, on an average, fit to be bound out. Any number of these, fine hearty boys and girls, may be had for the asking. They will be sent here free of expense, if we make prepara tions to receive them. Now, I propose to collect returns in the autumn of the number of apprentices wanted in the spring, so that any industri ous man may send for a boy or a girl as he would for a plough or a net. To our country this description of emigration is admirably well adapted, for these young people, in a few years, would be heads of families them selves, requiring from others the labor they had supplied. These Prov inces, I believe, could, under judicious arrangements, take the whole eight thousand that the mother country is prepared to throw off, which she now has flung into the streets ; and if they did, while our numbers were increased every day, the mother country would have eight thou sand paupers, prostitutes, and thieves the less, and eight thousand honest and industrious people more would annually contribute to Colonial rev enue and to the consumption of British manufactures. Let us have the railroads, then, and in addition to the natural absorption of labor by the settlements already formed, we may superinduce, upon their construction, an enlarged and healthy system of Colonization. Difficulties have, it is true, started up in New Brunswick, but let me say that I deprecate all attempts to scold the people of that Province for what they have done or left undone. Rash, I think they were ; but I quite appreciate the delicacy and difficulty of the position which the 72 RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. public men of New Brunswick occupied, called upon, at the close of a session, to deal suddenly with this great question. All that they felt I had foreseen before I left England, and, so far as I had authority or leisure, had provided for. I do not believe that the Legislature of New Brunswick will permanently obstruct this mighty enterprise ; and of this I am quite sure, that the people of that Province will not sustain them if they do. Let us look at the financial aspect of this question, shutting out of view for the moment all hopes of increased population and reve nue. Suppose Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, by a company, were to construct the Portland railroad, three hundred and thirty miles, with money at six per cent. The annual interest would be £138,600, even if the stock sold at par. No Colonial railway company's bonds or stock would bring in England within twenty or twenty-five per cent, of the amount which the debentures of the government would bring, even without the guarantee. Take the higher rate, and there is a dead loss of twenty sovereigns in the one hundred, or £200 in every £1,000 and £20,000 in every £1,000,000. We want about two millions and a half to build the Portland railroad. Add to this the half a million sunk, at starting, and the annual interest which the two Provinces must pay for the Portland line alone will be £180,000, for three hundred and thirty miles of road, to say nothing of the ruinous expenses entailed by uncer tainty and delay. Now, Lord Grey will enable us to make five hundred and seventy miles through these two Provinces, paying for interest but £139,650 or £40,350 a year less than Mr. Dickey and his Portland friends want us to pay for one. But, besides, New Brunswick offers £20,000 for twenty years to the Quebec line. Now, add to this, her share of the interest on the Portland hne at the dear rate of £119,000, and her money contribution is £139,000, about as much as both Prov inces would have to pay, by my scheme, for both roads, or £31,000 more than I ask her to pay for opening up her entire country. But what more has New Brunswick pledged herself to give ? A million and a half of acres of land upon the Portland line, and three millions on the line to Quebec ; — four millions and five hundred'thousand acres. This land at the low upset price of 2s. M. an acre, is worth £562,500 : at 5s £1,125,000. So, then, the interest on the value of the land, £75,000 a year, being added to the money already granted, and to the cost of what is to be raised at a ruinous rate, we have the round sum of £214,000 a year, while I offer to make her both roads, open her entire country, double and treble her population, for £108,535 a year, leaving her to make the most of her four million five hundred thousand acres of land as they rise in value. These are the facts, sir, upon which I rely to RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. 73 convince the public men of New Brunswick ; at all events, I am very confident that they will be very easily understood by the people. But we are sometimes told that Halifax is going to ruin the Province, and that the distant counties have no interest in this scheme. Sir, it becomes Halifax to take the lead in this, as she has hitherto done in noble enterprises and battles for principle, of which all parts of the Pro vince have reaped the advantage. The destiny of Halifax is secure. Providence has made her the natural emporium of east and west, has formed her noble harbor and capacious basin to receive the products of a vast interior. When the electric telegraph was introduced, it began at Halifax, because here alone was there business to sustain it. It paid, and now it is being extended to various sections of the Province by pri vate enterprise. Suppose it had gone first to White Head, where no body lived, and where there was nothing for it to do ? The speculation would have failed, and no more lines would have been built. So it will be with the railroads. We want them, not merely for strangers to pass over our country (and if we put them on such lines, they would not pay, for local and not through traffic sustains a railroad), but for our own trade and our own people. Build one to White Head to-morrow, and of what use would it be to the people of Pictou and Sydney, where much misconception prevails on this subject ? A century must elapse before White Head would grow to the size of Halifax, and, in the mean time, the cattle, and sheep, and pork, and butter and oatmeal, would come to Halifax, where the consumers are, and the cars would go to White Head where they are not. For every Pictou and Sydney man that goes to Europe, five hundred come to Halifax. What would be the consequence ? Halifax would make her branch line, which would be profitable ; the other would be ruinous, there being little or nothing for it to do at White Head, from the time a steamer arrived or went away. But, suppose a line made to Halifax, with money at a low rate of inter est ; in a few years it would pay, — perhaps at once, as the Telegraph did, — and then, how soon would branches extend to Pictou and Antigo nish on the one side, and to Bridgetown or Annapolis on the other? How long would one of my English friends be making us forty or fifty miles east or west ? Then, suppose the country behind us opened and filled up by two or three millions of people. Would they eat no fish ? Yes, sir, we should have a home market for our fishermen, where they would not be interfered with by bounties, or have to pay twenty per cent. Suppose Halifax and St. John become depots for the productions of the West ; will the shipping of Yarmouth, and Richmond, of Shel burne, Queen's, Lunenburg, and Guysborough, have nothing to do ? Be- 61 74 RAILROADS ATD COLONIZATION. Heve me, sir, that the eastern and western seaports would rise, as Halifax rose, and where they have one vessel at sea now, they would then have ten. The whole Province, and not Halifax alone, has deep pecuniary inter ests in the construction of these railroads. But, after six months of thoughtful reflection on this matter, I have brought my mind to the belief that there are higher interests involved even than our own. I believe this to be God's work, and I believe that he will prosper it. I believe that a wise and beneficent Providence never intended that millions of square miles of fertile territory behind and around us should lie waste and unoccupied, while millions of our fellow creatures rot in almshouses and poorhouses over the sea, or perish for lack of food. I regard these railroads, after all, but as means for the accomplishment of elevated and beneficent ends. I believe that, while the mother country aids us in the great work of internal improvement and national organization, we can aid her by removing the plague spots, poverty and crime, from her bosom ; we can offer her a freehold for every surplus laborer she has ; we can take thousands who are burdensome and make them help to support those who now support them ; we can cut off the sources of crime by providing for the orphanage of England ; we can clear the streets of the destitute, and rob the gallows of its prey. During my recent visit to the British Islands, I surveyed with pride and exultation their accumulated wealth ; their high cultivation ; their noble cities ; their unsuspected courts ; their active commerce ; their science, art, refinement and civili zation. But, I saw with sorrow and regret, much poverty and wretched ness which I believe may be largely abated if they cannot be entirely removed. Aid me in this good work, and the capital of England will flow into North America, providing healthy employment for her surplus population ; — aid me in this good work, and the poor rates of Britain may be beaten down from £8,000,000 to £3,000,000 ; — aid me in this good work, and the streets may be cleared, and the almshouses closed up ; — aid me in this good work, and, while the home markets are extended, British North America will rise to the rank of a second or third rate power, with all the organization and attributes of a nation. There is one passage of my published letters, upon which I perhaps owe to my fellow citizens some explanation. It is that in which I sug gest that convicts might be advantageously employed upon these railroads. Before you decide against this proposition, reflect how convicts are made in over peopled states. In Britain, the man who shoots a hare passing across his neighbor's ground, is a free man one day and a convict the next. What harm would he do in North America, where every urchin RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. 75 is at liberty to shoot what game he sees? What harm would the poacher do us, if, after making half a mile of railroad, he got a bit of land beside it, and reared a race of " mighty hunters," to pay us revenue in peace, and to defend our frontiers in war ? In Ireland there were, until very recently, forty-four thousand families, each living on one acre of land. One acre of land! While a farmer in Nova Scotia is half smothered if he has less than one hundred. In seven years, eight hundred thousand families were " evicted " from these small holdings. How many convicts did this process make ? Fancy that either of you, with a large family, occupied a poor cabin on one acre of ground. That you had toiled and struggled to pay the rent and could not ; and that the house was pulled down over your head, and your furniture and children, and sick wife, perhaps, were flung into the road. Who is there in all this audience, who, when night closed above him amidst such scenery and such temptations, might not be a convict ? If I were not, I would say of myself as an English martyr said when he saw a man going to be hanged, " There goes John Bradford but for the grace of God." Let me sketch another picture. I was returning at midnight from the Mansion House, where the abounding wealth of London was fitly represented at the Lord Mayor's hospitable board ; where the luxuries of every clime tempted the palate, amidst the appliances of almost barbaric splendor. As I rode through the streets, shadows occasionally dark ened the door-ways ; poor wretches appeared to be crouching for shel ter from the rain. At last I got out of the cab, and found a group of three children, the eldest a girl of seven, the others about three and four years old, sitting on the steps of a closed shop, with the winter rain beat ing in their httle faces, at one o'clock in the morning. I asked why they did not go home ? They said they had no home ; •¦ their mother was dead; their father seeking work somewhere, and the elder girl was vainly endeavoring to spread the ends of a threadbare shawl over the httle brother and sister who cowered beside her. My first impulse was to bundle the creatures into the cab and take them to my lodgings ; but I compromised with my conscience, gave them some money, and went home to bed, not to sleep, but to reflect. Suppose your children or mine were seated in that door-way, growing day by day in destitution and miseiy, amidst the temptations of a great city, and nightly exposed to the contact of all that was vicious by impulse, and resistless from organization. What might our children be ? Such as these become, thieves and prostitutes first, and convicts afterwards, almost as a matter of course. The question naturally arises then, can we do any thing in this matter ? I think we can. By taking the older children and making 76 RAILROADS AND COLONIZATION. good farmers, and fishermen, and sailors, of them ; we can create a vent to relieve the asylums, and then the streets may be cleared. By furnish ing land and employment for industrious adults, " evictions " will cease, and agrarian outrages diminish in number ; but we may do more, if a single experiment, which I am anxious to try, succeeds, and it can be shown that convicts, disciplined and guarded, can be worked in the woods. This idea originated with Major Robert Carmichael Smyth, than whom, I may say, the North American Provinces have not a more fervent admirer, nor a more zealous and devoted friend. To his brother, Sir J. C. Smyth, we owe the admirable military survey and report which have strengthened our defences ; and if my friend's experiment can be fairly tried, to him we may owe the extension of these railroads, and the open ing ofthe route to the Pacific. In view of such vast advantages I would not hesitate an instant to turn him in upon the lines with a regiment of convicts, who would be maintained and guarded without any expense to us. If he fails, we have tried a benevolent experiment ; if he succeeds, in five years our roads are done, and these pioneers will be far beyond the western frontiers of Canada, opening up the magnificent country behind to settlement and civilization. With one word of personal explanation, I shall move the first resolu tion. While in England some of my friends sent me a New Brunswick paper, in which it was more than insinuated, that I had gone to seek, not the railroad but the government of Prince Edward Island. That government was vacant for months after I reached England, but it was never named by me, nor was that or any other personal favor ever asked of the Colonial Secretary. Sir, from first to last, I felt that nothing would so lower and degrade my country, so injure her cause, or evince greater unworthiness of the confidence she had reposed, than for me to solicit any personal favor. I felt that I was charged with your interests, not my own ; that I had the honor of my country in my hands, and was bound to protect it. This I may say perhaps, that the noble secretary for the Colonies would not have withheld from me any per sonal favor that I could have fairly asked ; that he would gladly have improved my fortunes if I could have suggested the mode. But His Lordship did not pay me the poor compliment to suppose that I could abandon the field of honorable exertion which hes before me. To that he knew, as you know, my energies must be devoted till these great works are completed ; until these experiments of philanthropy and moral obligation are fairly tried. To labor with you and for you, that we may work out the prosperity and happiness of our common country, is for me sufficient distinction ; and let me say, in conclusion, though my RETURNING THANES. 77 eye has rested during my absence upon many noble objects and many beautiful scenes, for them all I would not exchange the warm hearts that are beating around me here. The following resolution was carried by acclamation at this meeting : — Resolved, That the citizens of Halifax have read, with unmingled sat isfaction, the letter addressed on the 10th of March, to the Hon. Jo seph Howe, by Benjamin Hawes, Esquire, acting under the directions of Earl Grey, arid by which funds to the extent of seven million pounds, to be expended in the construction of intercolonial railways through the North American Provinces, are tendered to the governments of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, on terms which secure the completion of- those works at a little more than one-half of what they would cost without the direct interposition of Imperial credit. Replying to a vote of thanks moved at this meeting, Mr. Howe observed : — You know, my fellow townsmen, all that I feel on this occasion, and I appreciate all that you would express. If I am good for any thing, if I have fittingly discharged the duties of this mission, I owe it to the op portunities you have afforded me to ripen and discipline the powers of my mind. I have done my best, and I did it with the consciousness that you would have been satisfied on that score even had I failed. Perhaps I may have had my moments of depression. When I steamed up Liver pool harbor, and saw the noble docks stretching for miles along the shore, ships gliding past every instant like birds upon the wing, and all the evi dences of the dense population and restless activity of a great commer cial emporium, I may have doubted the possibility of an unknown Col onist obtaining a hearing upon any subject. And I must confess, that when I found myself in the heart of England's great metropolis, with its two millions of people around me, of whom I knew not ten, I sometimes felt that if I ventured to raise my voice at all, amidst its aggregate in dustry, and high domestic excitement, I would probably resemble the man howling in the wilderness. But the light that led to other victories led to this. It flashes into my mind, I know not whence, and I have been accustomed to follow it wheresoever it leads. My heart is ever strengthened when my country has work to do ; and ideas, which books supply not, crowd upon me. I toil till it is done, and your cheerful faces are my best reward. Of one thing I am proud to-day ; of the unanimity and ardent attachment to the home of our fathers, which have character ized this meeting. In the generous offer of the government and people 61* 78 MISSION TO CANADA AND NEW BRUNSWICK. of England, we have felt John Bull's heart beating against our own. When the news of the great demonstration at Quebec, and of this, cross the sea, he will hear the throb of ours too audibly to doubt the sincerity of our attachment. And why should it be otherwise. Until the time arrives when North America shall rise into a nation, nothing can be more honorable than our connection with the parent state. We must have a metropolis, an Imperial centre somewhere, and I do not hesitate to ac knowledge that I prefer London, with her magnificent proportions, to Washington, with her " magnificent distances." Give me London, the metropolis of the world, with her time honored structures, in which the mighty dead repose ; with all her faults, it may be, but with her abounding wealth, her high art, science, and refinement ; but above all, and before all, the freedom of speech and personal liberty by which no other city that ever I saw is more honorably distinguished. I do not disguise from you that I look hopefully forward to the period when these splendid Provinces, with the population, the resources, and the intelligence of a nation, will assume a national character. Until that day comes, we are safe beneath the shield of England ; and when it comes, we shall stand between the two great nations whose blood we share, to moderate their counsels, and preserve them in the bonds of peace. United action, on the part of the three Provinces, being in dispensable to success, it was desirable that delegates should proceed to Toronto and confer with the Governor General and his Council. Mr. Howe was selected for this service, and shortly after, Sir John Harvey, who had lost his amiable lady during the winter, went home on leave. It was very important that two objects should be accom plished before the conference at Toronto was held, that the agents of the mere Portland scheme should be left without footing in Nova Scotia, and that the tone of public opinion in New Brunswick should be changed. As the promoter of the bill for incorporating the Portland Company resided at Am herst, Mr. Howe determined to attend a meeting at that place, and give the people of Cumberland an opportunity to hear both sides of the question. On the 2nd of June, he addressed them in a speech of which no record remains, but which car ried the audience with him, en masse, and made such an im pression on the county that its leading men came forward and SPEECHES IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 79 asked Mr. Howe to become its representative, an honor which he accepted a few months afterwards. From Amherst, Mr. Howe passed into the Province of New Brunswick, and addressed public meetings at Dorchester, at the Bend of Peticodiac, at St. John, and at St. Andrews, taking Fredericton on his route that he might confer with the Lieu tenant Governor. At all these meetings he produced a most favorable impression. Mr. Howe, having convinced the Hon. Edward Chandler that the decision of the New Brunswick Legislature had been hasty, and that his own policy was entitled to support, that gentleman thenceforward zealously cooperated with him ; spoke at the public meetings in favor of the combined scheme, went with him as a delegate to Toronto, and returning to Cumberland paid, in presence of the electors, the highest compliment which perhaps he ever received. Of the four speeches delivered by Mr. Howe in New Bruns wick, but one was reported, — that made at the Temperance Hall at St. John, when he was suffering from severe cold caught on the journey. It was plain and practical. It had been urged that the government of Nova Scotia had broken faith with the Portland convention. This was denied. The government had declined to send a delegate to that convention. Though a member of it had attended as a representative of the city of Halifax, he had only expressed there his own opinions, the Cabinet being free to act on the new condition of things pre sented by that convention. It had acted in good faith to all the parties concerned. Finding that no feasible plan had been arranged by which the funds required could be commanded, ' and being assured that they could not be raised within the Provinces themselves, they had sent a delegate to England empowered to pledge the public revenues, and to raise all the money required to make that portion of the line which lay within their territory. Finding that the Imperial government would not give the guarantee without provision was made for the intercolonial line, a scheme had been arranged by which both lines could be constructed without loss to the mother country, without burthening too heavily the resources of the Provinces, and without any necessity for calling upon the State of Maine 80 SPEECHES IN NEW BRUNSWICK. to make a mile beyond her own frontier. Was this a breach of faith ? or was it not a substantial service rendered by Nova Scotia to all the parties who were interested in the accomplish ment of common objects ? To the charge that Nova Scotia was interfering unfairly with the policy of New Brunswick, he replied " We have never done so. The only time that we ever interfered with your Provincial affairs was a few years ago, when we pledged every pound in our treasury, and every bayonet upon our soil, to aid in defence of your Province^ from invasion." He explained how many years had been wasted in Nova Scotia in fruitless endeavors to make railroads by companies. How, by commencing the Shubenacadie Canal with insufficient means, ruin and disgrace had been brought upon the country ; how the cost of American roads had been enhanced by the enormous discounts paid for money to complete them. The policy I recommend is simply to borrow the money, with the aid of the British government, in the cheapest market in the world where money can be had ; to make the Railroads with that money, on the pledge and security of the Provincial revenues and lands ; and thus to effect those works completely in four or five years, which would never be secured by mere private speculation. I have been also in fluenced by a desire to keep these Provinces in the hands of the people, to whom, in all time coming, I believe that they ought to belong. Even if we could effect these great works ourselves, I believe that if we were to withdraw such large sums of money from the industrial pursuits of the country, we should produce here the very same evils which were formerly produced by similar causes in England. It is a common thing, in discussing such projects as these, for men in humble positions in society to ask, What are the great capitalists going to do ? Let us in quire what the great capitalists are doing. Take the wealthiest man that we can see around us. If he is a shrewd, clear-headed man, of business habits, and alive to his own interest, where is his money ? Is it hid in an iron chest, or stowed away in an old bureau ? No. Then where is it ? In the hands of the industrious, and circulating all over the country ; it is in the mortgage of the farmer and the trader ; in the notes-of-hand of business men, and in every form and shape of commer cial operation ; earning not only six per cent, to the man who lent it, but also profits to the man who employs it. The money of Nova Scotia is SPEECHES IN NEW . BRUNSWICK. 81 thus employed, to my certain knowledge. Suppose, then, we draw two millions and a half of this money out of such circulation. It is all very well for the poor man to say, " Let the rich build the railroad." But where are the rich to get the money from? The rich man must come down on Tom ; he must come down on Dick, to get his money back from them ; somebody's ship must be a long while, before it can be launched ; another's must be a long time before it can get out to sea ; business must be impeded ; every thing must be cramped, and the whole business of the country must be far more deranged and injured, than would be counter balanced by all the benefits of the railroad, even if it were made. What happened in England in this respect ? I believe, that if all the railroads of England had been made by the government, it would have saved millions of pounds to the country. The railroads drew from general circulation more than even rich England could afford ; and hence came difficulty and distress. In the fall of 1847, bankruptcy was prevailing everywhere throughout England, Ireland, and Scotland ; and Willmer and Smith's paper came out by every mail, with lists of bankrupts almost as long as my arm. This was the effect of private companies, and of railroads constructed by private associations, even in wealthy England. Suppose, then, we withdraw half a million or a whole million of money from our commercial resources, why, the whole country would feel the pressure, and general distress would be the result. Then my policy is the most beneficial for us, because I wish to keep the money in the hands of the people, for their own ordinary pursuits ; while its with drawal from them would cramp the business of the country, and produce universal commercial distress. He thus explains why the cooperation of New Brunswick was not asked in the first instance : — When I was selected to go to England I would gladly have had the company and assistance, in my mission, of a delegate from New Bruns wick. But this Province had recently had a general election, the people were divided in opinion, the result of the elections with regard to future policy was doubtful, the government appeared likely to be overturned, and therefore we did not suppose Sir Edmund Head was then in a position to assume the responsibility that we had undertaken, as he had no settled or stable government to advise him, and to sustain him afterwards in the Legislature. Therefore it was that we did not ask New Brunswick to send a delegate to cooperate with us, because this Province was not at that time in the same settled position as we were. I will not disguise 82 SPEECHES IN NEW BRUNSWICK. the fact, that I left home for England, feeling the weight of all the diffi culties attending the object I had in view ; and let anybody who does not appreciate such a position, go on a similar mission, and try for himself what such difficulties are. I trust I approached the subject in a proper spirit ; and I hope that in no single instance did I assume to represent either New Brunswick or Canada, or to exceed the legitimate limits of my mission, which was, to borrow money for the public works of Nova Scotia, either with or without the guarantee of the British government. But I felt it my duty to state frankly what I felt to be the public opin ion, not only of my own country, but of New Brunswick and of Canada also ; and I trust that, in doing so, I have in nothing misrepresented you, nor offended the public sentiment of this Province ; though I must say frankly, that I could not urge my own cause without also urging yours. I first wrote to Earl Grey, setting forth the value of these Provinces, the importance of free and speedy communication between them and the mother country, and the importance of building up large seaports and cities in these Colonies, as rivals to those beyond the frontier; and I did not hesitate to express what I believed to be the views of public men in the Provinces. I assumed that we wished the aid of England; that we desired to continue the connection with England, and to raise ourselves to a higher status, one imposing higher obliga tions than that we at present occupied ; and in doing this, I am sure that I did not offend the public sense of New Brunswick ; I am sure that no man will say that I betrayed the trust reposed in me, as the advocate of the railroad from Nova Scotia to Portland. It has been said that I have betrayed my trust, and that I was- sent to England to represent the Portland convention. Now, the plain truth is, that I never represented any convention, but the government of Nova Scotia, which was not represented at that convention. I did not abandon the Portland hne ; I placed it before the British government in every light that my imagination could conceive, and urged it on their consideration as hon estly and favorably as any man from either of these Provinces could have done. But that was not the whole of my mission ; we had other objects of equal importance to discuss. Suppose that to-morrow Ave make our Provinces a thoroughfare for strangers and foreigners, do we want nothing else ? Our Provinces have been such a thoroughfare for years past, ever since the Cunard steamers were established ; but as for the great advantages supposed to arise from such transit, I would back a dozen clippers employed in our fisheries against all the steamers that can be built. I thought it was now full time that we had higher objects in view than a mere transit traffic,, and therefore I urged the general as- SPEECHES IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 83 pects and views of these Provinces, for the purpose of preparing the public mind in England to promote their elevation to a far higher status in the scale of nations. Having, very adroitly, sketched some of the prominent public men of New Brunswick, and brought out in bold relief the proportions of that great field of honorable emulation and ex ertion, which they would tread, when union of the Provinces by iron roads had been followed by the political organization which would be the immediate result, he said : — If the sphere were wide enough here, what would you do with such men ? You would send Judge Wilmot to administer justice, where ? To a small Province ? No ; but to an American empire. You would place Mr. Chandler on the bench of the United Provinces ; you would hold out to the young men of your country a sphere and a field for their exertions and their ambition, which none of them have open to them now. How ? By violence ? By rebellion ? By blood shed ? No. You would seek to live under the old flag ; you would seek not separation from the mother country ; that would be madness, folly, and bad faith ; but with the consent of the sovereign and the acquies cence of the Imperial authorities ; by the united action and good sense of all these Provinces, you would seek by union to elevate them all to a higher status than any of them separately can ever occupy. I believe that railroads will be of very great use to these Provinces ; but I be lieve, also, that it is necessary, nay, almost indispensable, to produce a social and political organization of the people, to raise these Provinces to a higher position than they can ever singly attain. I saw that if New Brunswick was called upon to make two hundred miles of railroad with money borrowed at six per cent., it would be no great hardship for her to make four hundred miles, with money at three and a half per cent. But look also at the territory of New Brunswick. I believe that your extent, in proportion to ours, is thirty thousand square miles to eighteen thousand square miles ; therefore, New Brunswick has twelve thousand square miles more than Nova Scotia. The nat ural inference is, that your Province will hold a great many more people than ours, and that it will ultimately be inhabited by a great many more. Professor Johnston, you know, calculates that New Brunswick will support five millions of inhabitants, and population pro duces revenue. How, then, can you best incur this obligation ? I be- 84 SPEECHES' IN NEW BRUNSWICK. lieve Nova Scotia is quite ready to do her part; and the question is, How can you undertake yours ? By this mode. I believe that to make the Portland line, the money to be borrowed will not only cost six per cent., but will eventually cost from six to eight per cent. But it is said that that line will pay and yield a profit. Then my answer is, that if it will pay the people who make it on speculation, at six or eight per cent., it will pay the government for making it at three and a half per cent. But then it is said, there is a wide difference between making it in the way that you propose, and in the way that we propose. Suppose that the company be formed, and the money raised to-morrow ? If the money be raised in the Province, it must be borrowed at six per cent, interest at least. Does any man in the Province buy stock that will not yield six per cent ? No ; no man in New Brunswick would lend his money under six per cent. Will anybody in England do it? When I was there, a person came to me (a gentleman of high standing, and agent for a number of foreign noblemen, who had money to invest ) and offered to loan me £100,000, at six per cent, interest. I declined the offer, and said that I could get it at three and a half per cent, elsewhere, and I heard nothing more of him for a month or six weeks. No doubt, if English capitalists were to go into the State of Maine or New Hampshire, and offer to lend the people plenty of money at three and a half per cent, in terest, they would take it most readily ; they would make bonfires, and eat I do not know what quantity of pumpkin-pies, in honor of the event. But strange things do happen ; and I never thought, that after the British government had offered us so large an amount of money, it would be so difficult to persuade our people to take it. He thus contrasts the two great lines, and shows how honor ably the great interests involved in each had been consid ered : — I want to put the Portland line through as speedily as possible. But it is said that I want to clog it with another line, that nobody wants, and that will not pay. I was not authorized to say to tlie British government that the Provinces did not want that other line. Eacli of the Provinces had pledged their money and lands to secure its construction ; therefore, I had a right to assume that that line was very near and dear to the peo ple of all the Provinces. It has also been said, that we want to array the North against the South. How? We have done nothing of the kind. I, for my part, have not held any communications with any par ties for any such purposes ; I have not written or published any thino- in SPEECHES IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 85 any of the public papers having any such tendency. But I cannot shut my eyes to the fact, that any government, having excited the hos tility of northern New Brunswick, would have serious difficulties to con tend with, in carrying on any scheme objectionable to that part of the Province. Are Restigouche, Gloucester, Northumberland, and the other counties in the northern and eastern districts, going to be satisfied with the arrangements which, up to the present time, appear to be made with regard to the Portland line ? It is not at all likely. What are the ap parent resources at present ? Massachusetts has pledged itself to the amount of $500,000, Maine has guaranteed the same amount, and New Brunswick the sum of £250,000 ; making a total of half a million of money (not yet granted and paid up, but only promised), to build a rail road that will cost two million and a half. Where will you get the rest of the money ? You cannot get it in the Provinces ; you cannot get it in England, except on the terms which I have already stated to you. Then your only source of safety and certainty will be, by accepting in good faith the terms offered by the British government, and adopting the Quebec line as well as the other. But then it is said, that will be run ning too great a risk. You say, the Portland line will pay ; there will be no risk there, but the whole risk will be in building the other line ; and you state, as an objection, that the terminus will be at Halifax. But suppose the line comes down from Quebec to the isthmus between the two Provinces, that station will be at about an equal distance from St. John and from Halifax ; then a man coming from Canada to St. John will stop there, and take the other line from thence to St. John ; a barrel of flour coming from Quebec to St. John will take the same route — they will neither of them go on to Halifax ; therefore, the idea that Halifax is to gain something by the Northern line that St. John does not, is ut terly fallacious. But how are you to make the line pay ? I will not now weary the audience- with papers and documents ; but I may say, that while I was in England I was not idle ; and the subject of peopling the Northern line engaged much of my attention. I found that there were thousands of the mechanics and traders of England, who were ready and willing to effect that object, in this way. The Province could sell them tracts of land on the line of the railroad, at a moderate price, and reasonable credit ; they would make the line running through their own settlements ; they would bring their families and friends out with them ; they would lay off and cultivate the lands on both sides of the line, and thus bring them rapidly into a productive state. It would be to the interest of all parties to people the land as fast as possible ; and in this way it might be done so fast that by the time the line of rail- 62 86 SPEECHES IN NEW BRUNSWICK. joad was finished, there would be almost as many settlers on it, as the present whole population of the Province. I assume that you have at present about two hundred thousand people in New Brunswick. What is your ordinary Provincial revenue ? About £100,000 ; or, by a simple calculation, about 10*. per head per annum. Suppose the Portland line will pay when constructed, and suppose you also incur the responsibility of the other hne ; the whole amount of annual interest required to be paid, will be made up by the additional revenue, raised from the addi tional population thus settled in the Province. I believe you have eleven millions of acres of land now unpeopled ; what revenue do you get from that immfense tract ? Very little, I believe. But pour the stream of emigration into the Province, and the result will be that the real estate of every one of its inhabitants will be improved in value, and the pub lic resources of the country will be largely enhanced. The obligations imposed on all the Provinces by the re strictive policy of the United States are thus humorously enforced : — Every day shows me the necessity of our taking steps to raise the or ganization and condition of our country. The institutions and policy of the United States are such and so influential, as to make it obligatory on these British Provinces to have institutions and a pohcy of their own. Mr. Dickie said, the other day, that he would have liked to see Mr. Howe at the Portland convention ; it was such a beautiful sight to see the two national flags floating and intertwining together. But I asked Mr. Dickie whether he would not have liked to see two mackerel there ? the mackerel of the United States and of Nova Scotia, hung up side by side ? But the mackerel of Nova Scotia would have had to pay twenty per cent, duty before it could have got admission to the con vention at all. So it is with our lumber, our hay, our coal, our cattle, our potatoes, and every thing we produce ; so that, in fact, there is not a single thing that could enter the United States duty free, excepting the delegates who went to the convention. This is a state of things to be submitted to only if we cannot help it ; but not if we can help it: My remedy for it is this : let us open both lines ; let us attract the stream of emigration to these Provinces. What then will be the result ? A barrel of shad put down at the Bend of Peticodiac will immediately find its way into the backwoods ; and the produce of the interior will quickly reach the seaports ; we shall have an internal home market for our produce; a much larger and more productive population; increased VISIT TO TORONTO. 87 revenues ; and we shall become relatively of more importance in the estimation of the mother country. There will be the means of rapid communication between the public men of the different Provinces ; and thus a united and great influence will be brought to bear on the mother country, in regard to all our Provincial affairs. Towards the conclusion of this speech, we find a touching reference to the relief which these public works would afford to the suffering poor of the mother country : — If, then, we can make these great public works in the manner pro posed, I believe that we shall largely bless and benefit the communities to which we belong. Those works will open up a sphere of operation, which will employ and feed thousands of the now suffering poor of the mother country ; and I believe that blessings from above will attend our exertions. Our railroads will tend to draw from their hovels and cellars a large proportion of those who, in the old country, are now left without daily bread, and so convert them into an industrious and thriving Colonial population. If there is any obligation on a human being to hand a crust to a starving neighbor, to extend alms to the indigent, in my mind there is an obligation weightier and higher imposed on us, when we find thousands of fellow-creatures perishing for lack of employment, to do something in this way for their relief ; to invite them into a country where they will find plenty of occupation ; where the fruits of the earth will yield them abundant support ; where the poor of the mother country may become the heads of flourishing families, and will be, for all time to come, a source of strength in time of war, and of internal activity and wealth in peace. Having passed through Portland, explained his policy to its leading citizens, and been hospitably entertained by them, Mr. Howe, accompanied by Mr. Chandler as delegate from New Brunswick, reached Toronto on the 15th of June. The dele gates were received with great kindness by Lord Elgin, and were at once assured by the leading members of the govern ment that they were prepared to recommend to Parliament to provide for their portion of the intercolonial line upon the terms prescribed by the Colonial Secretary. On the 16th, the dele gates were invited to take seats in the Executive Council of Canada, where, the business having been discussed and matured, the basis of an agreement was adjusted and reduced to writing. 88 RECEPTION IN CANADA. The Governor General, who attended at one of the meetings, giving his sanction to the proceedings in due form. The nature of the arrangement made will be gathered from Mr. Howe's report of the 20th July. Mr. Chandler returned to New Brunswick immediately, that he might secure the sanction of his own government. Mi. Howe passed down the St. Lawrence, to spend a few days at Quebec and Montreal. Nothing could exceed the hospitality and enthusiasm dis played by the Canadians everywhere. The delegates were entertained at a public dinner given to them by the citizens of Toronto, which the Governor General honored with his pres ence. They were taken to Hamilton to visit the works of the Great Western Railroad ; and, with the leading members of both Houses, were hospitably entertained at Dundern by Sir Allan McNab. At Montreal, Mr. Howe was treated by the merchants and leading men of that city with marked distinction. They gave him a public dinner, a pic-nic at Belle Isle, heard him praise Lord Elgin, without a murmur, and propound his views of railway connection and North American nationality with the utmost enthusiasm. The spirit of annexation until recently rife in some parts of Canada, and which had manifested itself so unmistakably at Montreal, was laid thenceforth, and it is to be hoped forever. Quebec gave Mr. Howe a reception of which any public man might be justly proud. He was invited by the Mayor and Corporation to address the citizens, which he did. A public dinner was offered and declined, as previous engagements inter fered, but he met the leading merchants at a dejeune given by one of his friends. Men of all origins, creeds, and grades, vied with each other in doing honor to a man in whom they recog nized high intellect and ardent patriotism, devoted to the inter nal improvement and social and political elevation of half a continent. The speeches delivered in those cities included many of the topics discussed in that made at Southampton, and in the let ters to Lord Grey. But in them all, Mr. Howe spoke out boldly against the spirit of annexation, at that time active in SPEECH AT TORONTO. 89 Canada, and did justice to Lord Elgin, who had been so re cently driven out of Montreal. At Toronto^ addressing the Chairman at the banquet, he said : — We are accustomed to acknowledge that the Queen's name is a tower of strength. And the Queen's representative, in every British Province, though not clothed with all the powers and influence of the Queen her self, is still entitled to all the respect, deference and consideration, that Her Majesty would receive if she were among us. I cannot enter into Canadian squabbles. I care not which party is in the ascendant. I claim only that fair consideration for Her Majesty's representative, which whoever may hold the reins of government is ever entitled to receive ; but, sir, while I listened to the eloquent and admirable observations just made by the distinguished nobleman who honors us by his presence, I tried him by the standard of his countryman Burns, who was not an aris tocrat nor a lord, but who left his impress on the mind of Scotland, whose name, among us all, has become a household word : — " The rank is but the guinea stamp — The man's the gowd for a' that." Who that has heard him this evening, or has marked his course in these Provinces, would fear to try him by that rule ? Contrasting the eloquence we have heard to-night with that of the House of Commons or the House of Lords, I can only regret that he is not in a position where he can be more usefully employed for the nation and the empire at large, than he is even at the head of this great North American gov ernment. But, sir, bear with me yet one single moment. It has been His Excellency's misfortune to come into these Provinces during that period of transition when we were passing from one state of political existence to another. He has, therefore, had to bear the brunt of it, and he has borne it well. It is a matter of delight and satisfaction to me that he sits here to-night with no man's blood upon his hand, that no man's life has been sacrificed to haste, to fear, or to apprehension. He sits in the midst of us, having provoked no war of races, but mingling in a friendly spirit with all races, communities, and orders of men, throughout British North America, feeling that he is entitled to general respect, and that he is sure to have it. I repeat that I care nothing for your party squabbles. The party that has the majority is the party that should be uppermost ; but the Governor who, pressed for the moment, has had the courage to endure, 62* 90 SPEECH AT QUEBEC. to wait, to bide his time, is the Governor to work out responsible govern ment. In saying this I am tresspassing largely on your patience ; but no man can suspect me of not being a friend to responsible govern ment. I now say this in frankness and sincerity ; not because Lord Elgin is Governor General, but because he is a human being who has ' been unfairly pressed upon. During the last four years, working out the problem of responsible government, he did nothing more than he did, because there was nothing more to do. Alluding to his own position he said : — When I contrast this scene before me with my lonely chamber in Sloane Street, where I endeavored to interpret the feelings and views of the North American Colonies, without any authority from British North America ; I cannot but be deeply sensible of the difference of the two positions, and delighted with the spectacle before me. The father, in classic 'story, whose three sons had gained three Olympic prizes in the same day, felt it was time to die. But, having gained the confidence of three noble Provinces, I feel that it is time to live. In London, in the midst of a population of two million, all boiling with excitement, and intent on their own interests, it fell to my lot to interpret the interests of British North America. I had no clue to guide, no friend to advise me ; no Canadian or New Brunswicker to aid me in consultation. What did I do ? I remembered that Sterne had said that man's mind is never interested in a mass of misery. A thousand shiver with cold or die with plague, and no man sympathizes with them ; but if you take a single individual and consider his suffer ings, you are sure to understand what humanity must feel. Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, were all distant from me ; but I looked into my own heart ; I knew what I felt, and I interpreted your feelings by my own. The speech at Quebec is the best, or perhaps was the most carefully reported. We give it as it appears in the Quebec papers : — Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen, — Ten years ago I passed a delightful week in this city. I have since travelled much in the old world and the new, but I have never forgotten the scenery nor the hospitality of Quebec. In returning to it! again there is but one drawback of which I am conscious, — I fear your expectations have been too highly raised. I have no eloquence to display, as a morning paper kindly anticipates, for SPEECH AT QUEBEC. 91 if I have had any success in life, it has arisen from the unadorned sim plicity with which I have spoken plain common sense to masses of peo ple. But if I were all that my friend imagines, there is inspiration here in every thing which surrounds me. Here the great Creator has him self been most eloquent, stamping his sublime and original conceptions on the bold promontories and mountain ranges around us ; and pouring into the beautiful vales they enclose or diversify, rivers, whose magnifi cent proportions never weary, whose sonorous music elevates the soul. Yet it is not from the works of nature alone that a poet or an orator might here catch inspiration ; he might catch it from the moral aspect of Quebec, from its noble educational and charitable institutions, from the arts of life successfully cultivated, the social virtues well illustrated and preserved ; and from the pleasing variety, which, to a stranger's eye is so attractive, afforded by the commingling of races once hostile and distinct. With this opening, Mr. Howe at once turned to the Railroad. Be ing at Montreal he had not thought it courteous to the people of this city to leave the St. Lawrence without paying them a visit, not that any personal compliment was desired, or any demonstration necessary. Que bec had already spoken. She did not wait for Halifax to speak. His foot had hardly touched his native soil, after a winter's work in England, when he found himself surrounded by obstructions ; the unanimous de claration of support from Lower Canada at once relieved his mind, and as to the certainty of the accomplishment of the railroad, he could now relieve theirs. Some might imagine that there had been at the seat of government difficulties to overcome ; some intricate or delicate negotia tion to conduct. This was not the case. The Governor General and the Cabinet required no reasoning to convince them. Their policy, con ceived with boldness, was avowed without reserve. It was to aid in completing the line from Halifax to Quebec and Montreal, and concen trate the energies of Canada that that line might be carried tp Detroit. Mr. Howe explained the nature of the difficulties which had arisen in New Brunswick, the steps which had been taken to remove them, and the grounds of the belief which he entertained, that they would be speedily overcome. The legislators of that Province had acted under tbe impression that the Portland line had been abandoned. On the con trary it was provided for. They thought that imperial commissioners were to expend money as they pleased, while the expenditure was left to the Provincial governments or any commissioners that might be ap pointed by them all. His friend, Mr. Chandler, had returned home, confident that the cooperation of New Brunswick would be secured. To Nova Scotia the question would be presented by a dissolution with out delay. 92 SPEECH AT QUEBEC. The importance I attach to this railroad can only be measured by the value I set upon our connection with the mother country, and upon our material and social elevation as a people. I look into the heart of any young man here, I care not of what race or origin — there is a void in it — a feeling of uneasiness — a sense of something wanting ? All our troubles have sprung from this source. This void must be filled ; this feeling must be removed. Every young British American must feel that he has got a country, and that that country has got a policy, clear as a sunbeam, and that can be honorably avowed in the face of day. The railroad will change the whole tone of the North American mind. A young Nova Scotian now drifts off to Boston or New York, takes a sail up the Hudson, or a ride over a few miles of railroad, and comes back wondering at the great country he has seen. Put the same youth upon a railroad and drive him fourteen hundred miles through his own noble country, and what would he say then ? Put him into an ocean omnibus, and let him see that great metropolis, which twenty of the largest Amer ican cities expanded together cannot equal, and what would he feel? Pride in the glories of the Empire would spring up from their contem plation, and when the noble country which God has given us here can be traversed and comprehended, the void in our hearts will be filled ; indeed we can then turn to a field of labor, boundless in extent, and of fering to the able and the emulous the excitement which elevates, and the rewards which should crown honorable exertion. Mr. Howe explained that the railway would not stop at Quebec or Montreal. It would soon extend west of Hamilton, from whence to De troit the Great Western was in course of construction. The American lines would soon connect us with the Mississippi, so that continuous rail ways would follow the line of the old French forts. No financier, no merchant, however skilful, could calculate the value of such a communi cation. It had been truly said, that the cost of railways was nothing to the cost of doing without them. But it may be said, that this road, how ever valuable, will cost too much, will burthen our resources, is beyond our means. Here the honorable gentleman drew a picture of the old Colonies at the close of the Revolutionary war — their inland towns destroyed, their seaports battered, their credit worse than nothing. From that condition they had risen, prospered, and drawn into their bosom an immense amount of capital from Europe, and with it Europe's surplus population. They had not been afraid to assume responsibilities and to complete great public works. Shall we not follow their exam ple ? Shall we be content to envy what we have not the enterprise to imitate. But what are we called upon to do ? To bear the burthen of SPEECH AT QUEBEC. 93 a foreign or a civil war ? No, sir, but, under the flag that has ever waved above us for a century, with the smile of our sovereign resting upon our labors, to create a great work of peace. The railroads of the United States have been constructed often at ruinous rates. The money expended on most of them, has cost from seven to ten per cent. Shall we then hesitate, with money at three and a half per cent, to complete a great line which must be one of the highways of nations in all time to come? Mr. Howe explained the reason, why, until of late, he had not taken a prominent lead in reference to the railway. His hands were full of other questions, and he was reluctant to interfere with his friends until their policy had been tried and their resources exhausted. It appeared to him then, that a new principle should be tried — ¦ that the Provinces should assume the responsibility, and build their own roads ; the mother country lending her credit and thereby saving us one-half of the cost. Why should the British gevernment make our railroads ? They built none in India or the other Colonies. Even during the Irish famine, the House of Commons rejected Lord George Bentinck's proposition to apply eight millions to employ the people, and make railroads through that country. In Nova Scotia, said Mr. Howe, we are too proud to take the money of England, for •our public improvements. Her credit we would use freely, as a merchant, who would not accept a sovereign as a gift, would use the endorsation of a friend. The service done to us will be immense, but England will herself derive a reciprocal advantage. Every year a surplus of fifty millions accumulates in the British Islands, for which investments must be found. This money has been lent to Greeks and Spaniards, and Columbians, and all manner of poor states and con federacies, that would not care if John Bull was hanged to-morrow. Many of these States pay neither principal nor interest, and the money cannot be collected without risks of a foreign war. While in England, I half jocosely suggested, that the North Americans should be employed to collect the twenty or thirty millions that the South American Republics owe. We have ships and seamen enough to do it, and a commission of ten per cent would make the railroad. But, Mr. Mayor, seeing that any British capitalist can come into the Queen's courts in the Colonies and collect a debt as simply and certainly as he could at home ; and that any judge in either Province would decide against the government of the Province as honestly as against the humblest man within it, I cannot but feel that this is the legitimate field where the surplus capital and labor of England should be employed. A friend told me in London, that he had that day discounted paper to the extent of £10,000 for less than one and a half per cent. Millions are lying idle at home, and many more 94 SPEECH AT QUEBEC. yield but two or three per cent. Who lends £100 in Canada for less than six per cent ? There, capital is abundant, and employment for it limited — here, our available capital bears no comparison to our means of profitable investment. But it may be said why does not capital flow in here ? There are two reasons — one is, that the real value and re sources of the Provinces are comparatively little known — the other, that events which we all deplore, have created in England the impres sion that the allegiance and friendly connection of these Colonies is doubtful and insecure. Cordial unanimity among ourselves, and the frank avowal of a clearly defined North American policy, will remove that impression, and the field will be cleared for future operations. If we can employ seven miUions of pounds of British capital, open up the extent and resources of the country for inspection and observation, and create a great pubhc work, which is paying a fair return, from that mo ment all the capital of England will be at our disposal, and there is no enterprise that our advanced condition may require for which we cannot, thenceforward, command the means. These reciprocal services will make the mother country and North America better known to each other. Much mischief has been done hitherto by misconceptions and misunderstandings, which a little good feeling and frankness will enable us hereafter to avoid. I found in England a good many persons whose sole end and aim was to make money out of the Colonies, and cheat the people of England by some impracticable scheme or patent job. Some of these have but little means and less character. There is another set who are great patrons of Colonial grievances, and who are ever ready to suck the brains of any Colonist that they may get up a question or a case in Parhament. When the Whigs are in, these gentlemen are Tories ; when the Tories are in, they are very good Whigs. I kept those gentlemen at arm's length, and found the advantage of it. I found in the mother country, not only among those highest in rank and position, but among the great body of the people, a desire to know more of North America ; to elevate her to tbe highest privileges of the empire ; to yield to her the largest measure of self-government compatible with its dignity. There may have been times when we have thought differently. I myself may have chafed at what appeared to be the limited field of ambition presented by the small Province in which I was born. But my sphere of action is widening every day. When a single North American can obtain audience of the government and people of England ; can secure millions of money for public improvements, and find his name a household word over the wide expanse of these noble Provinces, we have much to hope, and but httle to apprehend. SPEECH AT QUEBEC. 95 Mr. Howe explained the relative powers which would be exercised by the Imperial and Provincial commissioners. He also adverted to proba ble differences of opinion as to the route to be selected through Canada. Canada must decide these for herself. The other Provinces would not interfere, if their line to the St. Lawrence was not unnecessarily length ened. Mr. Howe then showed that the railway lines of the mother country being nearly finished, contractors of great resources and vast experience were prepared to come into these Provinces, and bring with them new elements of progress. These might be available, not only to construct the line from Halifax to Quebec and Montreal, but to continue it to Hamilton. He also expatiated on the probable effects which the railroad would have on the whole tone of Colonial society and pur suits — on the press, the bar, the mercantile community, the church. I come not, said he, to propound any political scheme, nor have I formed in my own mind any theory for a more extended organization of these Provinces ; but this I may say to those who have, that we must make the railroads first before any combination is possible. To the advocates of legislative union I say, your scheme is impracticable without the railroads. To the Federalist my advice is, make the railroads first, and test your theory afterwards. To the people of the maritime Provinces he would say, make the railroads, that you may behold the fertile and magnificent territory that lies behind you. To the Canadians he would say, make the railroads, that you may come down upon the seaboard and witness its activity, and appreciate the exhaustless treasures it contains. I wish, said he, that, standing upon Cape Porcupine, you could see the fleets of Americans that stream through the Gut of Canso, and coming one thousand miles, carry off year after year the treasures in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, of the value of which few men in Western Canada have any idea. While they are catching your fish, whose flour and whose pork do they consume ? Not yours, but the productions of the West ern States, by which a market is made for their farmers, and em ployment given to their railroads and canals. Hitherto Nova Scotia has stood alone in the attempt to protect, and in the struggle for, the Gulf fisheries. The government of Canada, I am happy to say, has determined to fit out a steamer to keep the Americans off the Gulf shores hereafter. New Brunswick will probably employ a vessel in the same service in the Bay of Fundy. Nova Scotia already has two upon her coast. With such a force, actively employed, the Americans could be kept beyond the limits fixed by treaty, a market would be created for Colonial produce, and our exports increased at least £100,000. For reciprocity we are all prepared. We will exchange with our neighbors, 96 SPEECH AT QUEBEC. if they please, the produce of the soil, the seas, or the mine. If they will not, then let them have the letter of the treaty, — a pound of flesh, but not one drop of blood. Mr. Howe showed how a due protection of the Gulf fisheries, and the instruction of the young Canadians in nautical science, would foster a mercantile marine. He also showed how rapidly emigration would flow into the wilderness which now lay between the St. Lawrence and the seaboard as soon as the railroad was made. He looked to the rail road also as a great agent by which the wandering thoughts and best af fections of British Americans would be concentrated upon their own noble country. Now, when a bad crop or commercial depression comes (and these come to every country), our young fellows drift off to the United States, and seeing four or five large towns, and a few hundred miles of railroad, wonder at the greatness of the country. I think it is Sterne who accounts for the fondness of ladies for lap-dogs, by observing, " that the human heart wants something to be fond of." It does, Mr. Chairman, and something to be proud of, too. Put a young Nova Sco tian upon a railroad, and let him travel fourteen hundred miles through a magnificent country which is all his own, with scenery ever varying and interest ever new, and you inspire him with pride and self-confidence that will keep him at home. Send down the young Canadian who thinks Detroit or Buffalo the metropolis of the world, to see Montreal, Quebec, St. John, and Halifax ; to see groves of masts around his own sea coast, and a mine richer than California in his own Gulf, and like Newman Noggs, he will begin to pluck up a spirit, and feel that, after all, Brother Jonathan does not own "all creation." I have not the slightest feeling of hostility to our neighbors across the frontier; but I am well assured that if there is any thing which induces them to esteem us lightly, it is our own estimate of their country and our slight apprecia tion of our own. When they find us alive to its advantages, standing erect, with a well defined policy, and fourteen hundred miles of railroad traversing its surface, made with money at three and a half per cent. they will begin to respect us more — perhaps to feel that the boot is get ting on the other leg. Before I close, let me allude to one topic which is often referred to as unfavorable to our future progress. The distinction of race is the in- • vidious theme upon which alarmists love to dwell. Perhaps you will bear with me when I say, that to a stranger coming among you, these very distinctions supply most of the variety which charms. We Anglo- Saxons, proud of our race and their achievements, are too apt to forget how largely the Norman French element entered into the composition SPEECH AT MONTREAL. 97 of that race. We forget that Frenchmen lorded it over England for centuries ; that their laws were administered in her tribunals, and their language spoken in her courts. Gradually the distinctions faded, and out of a common ancestry came that new race which has given laws and civilization to the world. So it will be here. Sprung from two of the foremost nations of the earth, speaking two noble languages, copying from each other the arts of life, the varying lights and shades which give it expression, who doubts that a race will grow up in North America equal to the requirements of their country, and proud of the character istics of the great families from which they have sprung ? Less than a century ago, Sir Wm. Howe led up the Light Infantry to fight the French upon the plains of Abraham, and the blood of brave men on both sides sank into the soil. But what of that ? Their descendants form one family ; and his-namesake comes to invade Canada in another mode, — to plant a railroad, not a scaling-ladder ; and hopes to rouse the lethargic with the whistle of the steam engine, not with the blast of war. So let it ever be. Let us respect each other's peculiarities. The French should imitate the intelligent enterprise of their neighbors. The English should remember that no Frenchman ever lacked courage, no French lady, grace. Let us copy from each other till that time arrives when, " As the varying tints unite, They '11 form in heaven's light One Arch of Peace." Addressing the merchants of Montreal, he reminded them of the orator of old, who, when bribed by the enemy, muffled his throat and declined to speak. His throat was muffled, too, and his voice almost inaudible, from the effects of a severe cold caught at Quebec. He regretted his physical weakness and inability, for he never more sincerely wished for the power to utter what he so deeply felt. I did not, said he, expect from the merchants of this noble city, this handsome compliment. Indeed, if there was any body of men whom I thought the least likely to assemble to do me honor, it was the merchants of Montreal. Most of you have been or are protectionists. Living in a country surrounded by the sea and indented with harbors, where high duties would but encourage smuggling, I have always been a free trader. Our opinions upon great questions of commercial pohcy were antagonistic. Upon political questions, we have been sometimes wide as the poles 63 98 SPEECH AT MONTREAL. asunder ; but I rejoice, that in all that relates to the internal improve ment and national elevation of the Provinces, we cordially agree. On leaving home, my friends warned me, that however acceptable my policy might be to Upper and to Lower Canada, Montreal would be dead against me. Had they rightly judged the state of public feeling here, I should have regarded your opposition as a great blow at the enterprise. I do not lightly value the intelligence and spirit of Montreal, nor the in fluence she wields in proportion to her widely extended commerce. If Montreal were against me, I should regard it as a great misfortune, but with this brilliant scene before me my mind is happily relieved. Why should Montreal be against me? I recognize her forecaste and liberality in all that I see around me : in your magnificent pubhc structures ; in the beautiful private residences that adorn your city or diversify its moun tain slopes ; in your commodious wharves, which strangers come from afar to see ; ia your magnificent canals, which draw down to you the produce of the West. In all these, I recognize the intellect, the energy and restless activity of Montreal. The works already achieved assured me that she could not be hostile to the enterprise of which I am the hum ble advocate. Montreal, it has been said, is deeply interested in a line to the sea-coast in another direction. She is, and I recognize in the interest she has taken in jt, another proof of her activity and forethought. The hne to Portland should be completed ; but its friends must perceive that if it is connected with other lines running east and north from Portland to Halifax, Quebec and Montreal, and west from Montreal to Detroit, — which must be the not very remote results of my policy if it be carried out, — their hne must be largely benefitted instead of being injured. In my correspondence with Earl Grey, I have advocated and provided for the extension of the Portland road to Halifax. One rail road should not content Montreal. In the present age, cities that do not stretch forth their iron arms to embrace the towns and hamlets around them, — which do not even penetrate the wilderness behind, — will be distanced in the race of improvement, and slumber away in poverty and neglect. WiU Montreal be content even when her single line to Portland is completed ? Ought she to be ? No, sir. She must have her hne westward to Hamilton and Detroit. She must connect with Galena and the splendid country that lies around the head waters of the Mississippi. Turning to the right, she will require a road up the banks of the Ottawa ; nor do I believe that she will or ought to be satisfied untU she has secured the hne I advocate, with another down the north shore of the St. Lawrence to Quebec. SPEECH AT MONTREAL. 99 All this sounded like rhodomontade to many people in 1851. The guarantee was subsequently withdrawn, and the Provinces were left to complete their public works with their own resources. But yet within seven years Montreal has her lines to Detroit, to the Ottawa, to Quebec and far down the St. Lawrence, be side the road to Portland. The North Shore Railroad to Quebec provided for by legislation and liberal grants of land, will probably be commenced before the lapse of many years. Adverting to the hopes and fears which had alternately buoyed him up or depressed him during his mission to Eng land, Mr. Howe said : — I was invested with no authority from Canada or New Brunswick. In speaking for them, rather than in their names, I was often compelled to assume a responsibility, and utter opinions which they might after wards repudiate. But I did what I believed was right, and ventured to point out what I thought all the Provinces desired. I did not disguise what I assumed it was for your interest that I should write and say, but spoke as frankly and freely to the highest in the empire as I have ever done while addressing my old constituents at home. I felt that many of the difficulties — may I not say all the difficulties — which had arisen from time to time between the people of these Provinces and the Im perial authorities, might be traced to a want of that frank communication which, on many accounts, was so requisite, and that most of our griev ances might be removed by plainness of speech, leading to complete understanding of our mutual interests. When I looked at the British Islands, I saw that they had more money than they knew what to do with, and more people than they knew how to feed. I thought that if their attention was turned to our undeveloped resources, and their capi tal was attracted to our great pubhc works, their surplus labor might be profitably employed in its expenditure, and the Provinces elevated to a more favorable comparison with the neighboring States. We have fer tile lands, splendid rivers, extensive sea-coasts swarming with fish — all the elements of prosperity profusely scattered by the Almighty over a country that requires but capital and labor to render it prosperous. For every pound of capital that the mother country has to spare we have a natural demand ; for every unemployed man and woman in Great Britain and Ireland we can furnish employment and a home. In the mother country they have twenty men for every tree ; we have five hundred trees, cumbering the soil, for every man she has to spare. Of 100 COMPLIMENTS. our neighbors across the frontier I would speak with all respect ; but when I see $400,000,000 of British capital employed in the United States, and but a few millions here, I ask myself, and felt authorized to ask the Imperial government, why should this be ? And I endeavored to make them comprehend the national importance of turning the streams of capital and emigration in this direction. The impression made by Mr. Howe in Canada, might be gath ered from the flattering notices of the Press, of all shades of politics. Introducing him to the merchants of Montreal, the President of the Board of Trade, Hugh Allen, Esq. said :- — Mr. Howe was an eminent man ; eminent as a politician, as a legisla tor, and an advocate of internal improvements. He was not here present as a politician. The meeting was one entirely independent of poUtics ; and he would not introduce any thing to mar its harmony. He [the Chairman] was surrounded by gentlemen of aU shades of politics, from the staunchest conservative to the most zealous repubUcan, and it would be wrong in him to say a word on politics. He had also before him, a great number of gentlemen of French origin, to-night, and he was de lighted at the occasion which had brought them together. He would take occasion to express to them the sentiments of pleasure, felt by gen tlemen of English origin, at seeing them among them. They were glad to see them taking that share in commercial affairs to which their position entitled them, and which properly belonged to them. The EngUsh were not only willing, but anxious to yield it to them, if they would only take it. It was not, then, as a politician that they met Mr. Howe, nor as a legislator, but as a great advocate of internal improvements. The people of this Colony were glad of a chance of associating and extend ing connections with their fellow subjects of Nova Scotia, and of the Provinces below. At Quebec, the following resolution was passed with accla mation : — That the thanks of this meeting be voted to the Hon. Joseph Howe, for his eloquent address on the great undertaking which now occupies the attention of all the Colonies of British North America, — the railroad from Halifax to Quebec and Montreal ; that this meeting has no doubt that his efforts will be crowned with success, and that, while expressing their approval of an acceptance of the liberal offer of the British govern- COMPLIMENTS. 101 ment, they give their entire approbation to any measure which may be adopted by the Legislature for the execution of this road. In moving it, the Hon. F. W. Primrose said : — It must be a source of the greatest gratification to all present, to understand how favorable the appearances were ; that at length this project, so important, as well to the mother country as to all the British North American Provinces, was likely soon to be reahzed ; and to express how deeply sensible we all are of the debt we owe to that honorable gentleman, for his indomitable exertions in behalf of this splen did scheme of national communication between these Provinces, and to which must be mainly attributed the probability which now appeared of its accomplishment. Mr. Anger, who spoke the sentiments of the French Cana dians at the Quebec meeting, was equally enthusiastic : — In seconding this resolution, he begged to say a few words, to express the feelings of gratitude of his fellow citizens of French origin towards the honorable traveller who had just addressed the meeting, for the mention he had made of the people of that origin, and principally for the eminent services he had rendered in England and on the continent in promoting the magnificent scheme of a railroad on British territory from Halifax to Quebec and Montreal. After the eloquent address he had listened to with so much pleasure and enthusiasm, he felt more em barrassed than he had ever felt in- giving utterance to his thoughts and feelings ; but he was encouraged by a sense of justice to declare, that for his zeal, talent, and success in promoting the great Halifax and Que bec Railway, the Hon. Joseph Howe would be considered the benefactor, not only of Nova Scotia, but of all the North American Colonies. Na ture has traced a great public highway, that extends from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the interior of North America ; and to complete it, it requires that we should place alongside of it an iron rail, that will baffle the inclemency of our winters. The interest and future prosperity of the British North American Colonies require that they should unite and draw near each other, and seal the common cause and their common friendship with an iron tie. If we aspire to any thing noble, to any thing grand ; if we desire a name amongst the nations ; if we do not wish to see our respective countries disappearing piece by piece, and overwhelmed in the American Union, we must form a Union of our own, and, as the honorable gentleman observed, the descendants of the two 63* 102 MR. HOWE'S REPORT. nations, the EngUsh and the French, who on this day rule the world, must form a race surpassed by none on the continent of America. The difficulties resulting from the difference of origin, and the absence of in tercourse between the people of the different Provinces, will soon disap pear, when one can on one day shake hands with his friends and feUow citizens at Toronto, and the next day at Halifax. Within the last ten years a great change in that respect has occurred in Canada. Independently of advantages, he [Mr. Anger] saw the very great benefit, in a financial point of view, of obtaining a loan of £7,000,000 at three and a half per cent., while the value of money in Canada was about seven or eight per cent. The expenditure of such a capital would have the effect to spread a line of farms, hamlets, and towns from Halifax to Quebec. After what had been said by the hon orable gentleman, he felt it would be unbecoming for him to enter at length on the importance of this work, and to divert the attention of the meeting from the impressive and eloquent remarks of the Hon. Joseph Howe, and he would conclude by stating that he was sure that every one present would respond to his sentiment, when he saluted that gentle man as the apostle of the progress and future greatness of the North American Colonies, united in a powerful confederacy. Mr. Howe returned through New Brunswick, meeting Mr. Chandler at Dorchester, and receiving from him the welcome information that the government of New Brunswick had rati fied the agreement made at Toronto, and was prepared to con struct the two lines upon the terms proposed. On the 20th July he addressed to his own government this official report of his proceedings : — Amherst, July 20th, 1851. Sir, — The negotiations, which I was charged to conduct with the governments of Canada and New Brunswick, having been brought to a close, in a final conference held with the delegate from the latter Pro vince this afternoon, I lose no time in submitting, for the information of His Honor the Administrator of the government, a report of my pro ceedings under the commission and instructions with which I was hon ored by His Excellency Sir John Harvey. You are aware that His Excellency Sir Edmund Head had selected the Hon. Edward B. Chandler to represent the government of New Brunswick at Toronto, and that it had been arranged that I was to meet him at Dorchester on the 1st of June. As I had to pass through the county of Cumberland, where the bill, MR. HOWE'S REPORT. 103 pressed so earnestly on the Legislature at its last session, originated ; and as it was more than probable that public opinion in New Brunswick would be largely influenced by the decision of that county against the measure, and in favor of the proposition made by Her Majesty's gov ernment, I deemed it to consist with my duty to invite, in the shire town, the most ample discussion of the whole subject. I therefore addressed a letter to the Custos Rotulorum of Cumberland, acquainting him with my intention to attend any meeting that might be called for that purpose. On reaching Amherst I found that a meeting had been convened, and that a very numerous and respectable body of the leading men of Cum berland crowded the court house. The result of an animated discussion, which extended over several hours, was an almost unanimous decision to sustain the views and policy of the government. At Amherst I received invitations to attend two meetings in the county of Westmoreland, New Brunswick, and another in the county of Kent ; the former I accepted, as the places named lay upon my route ; the latter I was compeUed to decline. The unanimity of feeling displayed at Dorchester, and at the Bend of Peticodiac, convinced me that the rural population of New Brunswick only required information ; and that, when the subject came to be fully discussed, their support would be given to any fair modification of the terms which the Legislature had re jected. An experiment on the city of St. John appeared to offer less assur ance of success. The office bearers and agents of the Portland com pany resided there ; and formed, with their friends, clients, and stockhold ers, an organized combination. A large portion of the press had taken its tone from these gentlemen ; and, for many weeks, the proposition con tained in Mr. Hawes's letter and the general policy of this government, had been discussed in a spirit which was certainly not calculated to ensure me a very cordial reception. When I entered the city I was as sured that there would not be three exceptions to the unanimity with which the offers of Her Majesty's government would be rejected and condemned. The result of the discussions which ensued, at a public meeting to which I was invited by the citizens, may be gathered from the altered tone of a very influential portion of the press, and from the fact that the promoters of the Portland company have postponed further proceedings until the 20th of August. " It is evident," says the editor of The Freeman (a journal originally hostile, still doubtful, but faithfully interpreting the prevailing sentiment ofthe community), " that the pub lic mind is excited by the magnificent proposal of Earl Grey, as inter preted by Mr. Howe and others." 104 MR. HOWE'S REPORT. Having attended three meetings within His Excellency's government, I deemed it but respectful to proceed to Fredericton, and explain to Sir Edmund Head the reasons by which I had been influenced, and the gen eral views which I entertained. These explanations were regarded as satisfactory, and I received from His ExceUency very gratifying marks of confidence and consideration. On reaching St. Andrews, on my way to the United States, I was met by a deputation, with a request that I would address a pubhc meeting at that place on the foUowing day. Though apprehensive that the interest which the people of St. Andrews naturaUy felt in the success of their own railroad, might place them in hostiUty to the intercolonial lines, I consented to attend the meeting ; and received, at its close, the most sat isfactory assurances, from a very large assemblage of aU ranks and classes, that no mere local interests, or predilections, would induce St. Andrews to place herself in opposition to a great scheme of intercolonial policy and improvement. The charge having been frequently made, that the government of Nova Scotia had broken faith with the Portland convention, and much pains having been taken to persuade the people of that city that the North American and European line had been abandoned, it appeared very desirable that the conduct of this government should be vindicated, and its pohcy clearly explained to the leading men of this friendly and very interesting community. Mr. Chandler and myself spent nearly a day at Portland, on our way to Canada. Mr. John A. Poor, one of the most active members of the convention, rejoined us at Toronto, and we exchanged frank explanations with, and received much courtesy from, that gentleman and his friends, on our return. Misconceptions, pre viously entertained, were dispelled by these friendly conferences. Mr. Hawes's letter of the 10th March, Earl Grey's dispatch of the 14th, ad dressed to the Governor. General, with copious extracts from the corres pondence between the Imperial and Colonial governments, have been published and extensively circulated in the State of Maine. Assuming that the policy explained to them wUl be acted upon in good faith, and " that the Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will, in some mode or other, most agreeable to themselves, carry out the plan of a continuous line of railway from the boundary of Maine to the eastern shores of Nova Scotia," all opposition to our policy has been wisely withdrawn by the people of Portland ; who are now appealing to the Legislature and citizens of Maine, to come promptly forward and supply the means to complete that portion of the line which is to extend from Bangor to the boundary of New Brunswick. 105 Mr. Chandler and myself reached Toronto on the 15 th of June, and during our stay at the seat of government, received from His Excellency the Governor General, from the Speakers of the two Houses of Parlia ment, from the members of the administration, and from the Mayor, and citizens of Toronto generally, such marks of distinction and courtesy as assured us of the very high estimation in which the Provinces we repre sented were held. Invited to take seats in Council on the 16th, we were at once assured of the cordial cooperation of the government of Canada ; of the readiness of the administration to accept the terms offered by the Imperial govern ment, and to unite with Nova Scotia in meeting the difficulties presented in New Brunswick, by such fair modification of those terms as would enable Mr. Chandler to secure the cooperation of that Province. It is due to that gentleman to state, that he made no importunate demands ; explained the position of his government, and the prevailing sentiment of the country, frankly, and then left it to the discretion and good feeling of the conference to determine to what extent the peculiar aspects of New Brunswick should.be considered, and aid given to that Province, in the construction of one of her great lines, to enable her to complete them both. If New Brunswick maintained an antagonistic position, it was clear that neither the line to the St. Lawrence, nor that to Portland, could be accomplished ; the proposition of the British government would in that case have to be rejected, and the three Provinces be driven, in bad tem per, and at ruinous rates of interest, to carry on their internal improve ments without mutual sympathy or cooperation. To obviate this state of things, appeared to all parties most desirable ; and, at length, Mr. Chandler was empowered to invite the cooperation of his government upon these terms, it being understood that the govern ments of Canada and Nova Scotia were to be bound by them, if New Brunswick acquiesced : — That the Une from Halifax to Quebec should be made on the joint ac count, and at the mutual risk of the three Provinces ; ten miles of crown land along the line being vested in a joint commission, and the proceeds appropriated towards the payment of the principal and interest of the sum required. That New Brunswick should construct the Portland line, with the funds advanced by the British government, at her own risk. That Canada should, at her own risk, complete the line from Quebec to Montreal, it being understood that any saving which could be effected, within the limits of the sum which the British government are prepared 106 MR. HOWE'S REPORT. to advance, should be appropriated to an extension of the line above Montreal. That, on the debt contracted, on the joint account of the three Prov inces, being repaid, each should own the line within its own territory. It was also understood that Canada would withdraw the general guar antee offered for the construction of railways in any direction, and that her resources should be concentrated upon the Main Trunk line, with a view to an early completion of a great intercolonial highway, on British territory, from Halifax to Hamilton ; from whence to Windsor, opposite to Detroit, the Great Western Company of Canada have a line already in course of construction. This policy having been arranged, it became very desirable that Mr. Chandler should return promptly to New Brunswick to submit it to his colleagues, and to assure himself that, in the event of the administration assuming the responsibility which it involved, they would be sustained by a majority of the Legislature. Allowing a sufficient time for a delib erate review of the whole ground, and for a final decision, a meeting was arranged with Mr. Chandler at Dorchester, on my return. I rejoined him this afternoon, and was happy to receive from him the assurance that the government of New Brunswick will be prepared to submit the policy agreed upon to the Legislature of that Province, with the whole ¦weight of its influence, so soon as the government of Nova Scotia inti mates that it is prepared to cooperate on the terms proposed. The final adoption of this great scheme of intercolonial policy, now rests with the people of Nova Scotia, to whom, it is probable, that it wiU be submitted by a dissolution of the Assembly at an early day. I have pledged the government to it beyond recaU. I have staked, upon the generous and enlightened appreciation of their true interests by my coun trymen, all that a public man holds dear. Having done my best to ele vate Nova Scotia in the eyes of Europe, and of the surrounding Colonies, I have no apprehension that she wiU repudiate the pledges which I have given. Her clear interest demands the prompt acceptance of the proposition. 1st. Because it secures to her, within a very few years, a railway communication of fourteen hundred miles, extending through the noble territory of which she forms the frontage, and with which her commercial social, and poUtical relations, must be very important in all time to come. 2d. Because it gives to her, almost at once, connection with eight thousand miles of railway Unes, already formed, in the United States ; makes her chief seaport the terminus for ocean steam navigation, and her territory the great highway of communication between America and Europe. ME. HOWE'S REPORT. 107 3d. Because, on the extinction of the debt, she will possess a road with which there can be no competition within the Province ; a road towards which two great streams of traffic must perpetually converge, and the tolls upon which must become a source of revenue, increasing with each succeeding year. 4th. Because the completion of these great lines of communication will give to all the North American Provinces a degree of internal strength and security, and consideration abroad, which will far transcend any pecuniary hazards which may be incurred. 5th. Because tho completion of these lines will draw into the Province much of the surplus labor and capital of Europe. 6th. Because the line from the seaboard once completed to Canada, there cannot be a doubt that it will soon be extended into the fertile and almost boundless country beyond ; being followed, at every advance, by a stream of emigration ; and ultimately, and in our own time, reaching the shores of the Pacific. It may be argued that we ought not to risk any thing beyond the limits of our own frontier. But T regard the risk as involving a very slight liability beyond what we have already cheerfully assumed. AU our calculations have been based upon the presumption that our roads will cost £7000 currency per mile. From the best information which we could obtain in Canada and in the United States, — and we gathered the opinions of the chief promoters of the Vermont, Great Western, Portland, and St. Andi'ews roads, — there is every reason to believe, if the Provinces avail themselves of the most modern experience, and of the present low price of iron, that, with the money in hand, and large contracts to offer, the work need not cost much more than £5000 currency per mile. Should this be the case, the sum which was originally contemplated will probably cover the whole expenditure for which Nova Scotia will be liable ; and, if it does not, with her present low tariff and annually increasing consumption, the deficiency may be soon supplied. But after a careful examination of the country traversed by American and Canadian railroads, and of the general testimony borne by their pro moters and officers, that in all cases the money with which they have been constructed has cost from seven to twelve per cent., I have brought my mind to the conclusion, that a railway built with money at three and a half per cent., will pay almost immediately, even if made through a wilderness, provided the land be good, water power and wood abundant ; and provided that there are formed settlements at either side, to furnish pioneers, and local traffic with them, when they are scattered along the 108 DISSOLUTION. Une. We have other resources, beyond our own Umits, in associations of the industrious and enterprising, who are prepared to come into the Provinces the instant these great works are commenced ; and who, within the limits at least of the lands dedicated to this enterprise, wiU soon form a continuous street, through that portion of the territory between our frontier and the St. Lawrence, which appears to present any really serious hazard. In estimating the relative risks and advantages which this scheme in volves, it should also be borne in mind, that while Nova Scotia has but little crown land left along, her portion of the hne (and this has been frankly explained), the lands which Canada and New Brunswick are prepared to grant are extensive and valuable. They whl probably amount to three million of acres, which, if sold at 5s. an acre (and with a railroad running through them they wiU soon command a much higher price), would form a fund out of which to pay the interest on the whole capital expended for the first three or four years. I cannot close this report without some notice of the very enthusiastic and honorable treatment that I received during short visits to Quebec and Montreal. In both cities, men, the most distinguished for social positions, commercial and intellectual activity, and commanding influence, vied with each other in recognizing the importance and value of the maritime Provinces. Among all ranks and classes, the railroads seemed to be regarded as indispensable agencies by which North Americans would be drawn into a common brotherhood, inspired with higher hopes ; and ultimately elevated, by some form of political association, to that position, which, when these great works have prepared the way for union, our half of this continent may fairly claim in the estimation of the world. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your very obedient servant, Joseph Howe. Wm. H. Keating, Esq. On the 21st, Mr. Howe returned home, and was greeted by a brilliant display of fireworks, and by other enthusiastic dem onstrations on the part of his fellow-citizens. His report was immediately published, and the House was dissolved on the 26th of July. All parties now prepared for the elections. The railway pol icy had been matured, it was for the people of Nova Scotia to accept or reject it, upon the terms arranged with the Imperial THE ELECTIONS. 109 and Colonial Governments. With a view to lighten the load which New Brunswick would have to assume, in providing for the two lines through her territory, Mr. Howe had generously offered that Nova Scotia should assume the cost and proprie torship of thirty miles beyond her territory. This was a noble offer, worthy of the country and characteristic of the man, who regarded British America as a whole, and sought no small ad vantage for that part of it where he happened to reside. It formed, however, the most assailable point of his policy ; and political opponents, were not slow to magnify the risks and dangers of such an expenditure. On the 28th of July, Mr. Howe retired from the representa tion of the county of Halifax, and threw himself upon the county of Cumberland. His reasons for taking this step are given in his parting address : — For the last fourteen years, you have done me the honor to elect me one of your representatives. During all that time, I have enjoyed a measure of public confidence, and received an amount of enthusiastic support, of which any man might be justly proud. Judging from the opinions expressed on every side, I am assured that I should receive, at the election which approaches, almost unanimous support. Were I at liberty to consult my own personal feelings, nothing could be more grati fying than to afford you again the opportunity to stamp with your appro bation my public labors and exertions. But it is my intention to throw myself upon another constituency, for reasons which, when frankly ex plained, will, I have no doubt, meet your approbation. Circumstances have opened before me a field of labor so extensive, that I cannot successfully cultivate that field, perform my official duties, and attend to the local affairs of forty thousand people, spread over a county one hundred miles long. My obligations to the whole Province, to North America, to my Sovereign, whose honor I believe to be deeply involved in the great measures now in progress, compel me reluctantly to resign a charge which others, not more zealous, but less occupied, may easily be found to assume. I must seek a constituency less numerous, whose local interests will occupy less time. I should prefer the smallest township in the Province, for just in proportion as I am relieved from minor responsibilities, will be the degree of leisure I shall have to inves tigate and deal with more important questions. I have another reason. Upon the great issue now presented to the 64 110 PRESENT FROM OLD FRIENDS. constituencies of Nova Scotia hangs not only their material interests, but the security and advancement of all the British Provinces in North America. Halifax is keenly alive to the magnitude and importance of the question. A degree of intelligent unanimity exists here, which else where may be wanting. Here no man can be elected who is not pledged to carry out that great measure of public policy to the ripening of which we have dedicated a year of life. I may be useful in other quarters where information is wanted, and where united action may not be so easily secured. The citadel being safe, I must take my stand some where upon the outworks of the position, that those who are open or concealed enemies, may not gain, at this important crisis, any advantage. •On the 1st of August, the farmers of Upper Musquodoboit, among whom Mr. Howe and his family had resided two years, presented him with a silver tray bearing this inscription : — TO THE HONORABLE JOSEPH HOWE. PRESENTED BT THE INHABITANTS OF UPPEK MUSQUODOBOIT, August, 1851. " It is," said the person who presented it, " the spontaneous and grateful offering of the inhabitants of a settlement to whom you have endeared yourself by stronger ties than those of poht ical party." " I shall accept this gift," Mr. Howe replied, " in the same spirit in which it has been bestowed. It will often remind me of happy hours passed among you ; of peaceful pursuits which recruited my body and my mind ; of old friends, whose steady industry and unostentatious virtues fitly illustrated the rural hfe of the country for which it is my pride to labor." On the 14th of August, the Legislature of Canada voted sixteen millions of dollars in aid of the Intercolonial Railway, thus fulfilling her part of the agreement made at Toronto. It was soon apparent, in Nova Scotia, that the government was to be everywhere stoutly opposed at the elections, and that while many of his former opponents declared themselves supporters of the railway policy, there was an evident dispositior to displace many of Mr. Howe's old friends, upon whose sup port he could confidently rely, and to return gentlemen whose hearty cooperation was more than doubtful. COUNTERACTING THE ENEMY. Ill On reaching Cumberland, Mr. Howe found the county flooded with slips and placards in which he was assailed with great bit terness, ancl in which ^the burdens and dangers to be entailed upon the country by his railway policy were exaggerated with reckless ingenuity. He argued, justly, that if this had been done in Cumberland, the same mischievous activity would be displayed in all the other counties. He determined at once to counteract it ; and prepared one of those terse, argumentative, and trenchant letters, which seem to cost no effort, and yet carry conviction, from their boldness, plausibility, and command of facts. Simultaneously printed at Pictou and Halifax, this let ter in a week was circulated all over the Province, and armed his friends everywhere with answers and arguments upon all the points discussed. After grouping and laughing at all the " cries " got up at former elections, he writes : — Not one of all these things that the obstructives prophesied would surely happen ever did happen, nor can they at this moment put their fingers on one act of Howe and his associates that has not done good to Nova Scotia. What have we done my friends? Let me group together some of the results of our labors. We — Opened the Council doors, and separated the Legislative from the Executive CouncU. Removed the judges from politics ; made them independent, and only removable from office by addresses from both branches of the Legisla ture. Reduced the number of judges from eleven to six. Passed the Quadrennial Bill, by which the right was secured to you of electing members every four years instead of once in seven. Passed the Qualification Act, by which a man owning property in any county could be elected in all the others. Passed the Civil List, by which the expenses of government were largely reduced. Passed the Registry Bill, by which the expenses of recording deeds is reduced one-half in all the counties. Passed the Post Office Act, by which the whole department was transferred from the Imperial to the Provincial government, and the rates of postage varying from 9d. to 2s. Id., were reduced to a uniform rate of Bd. all over the British Provinces. 112 ELECTIONEERING. •Passed the new School Act, by which a superintendent of education was appointed to visit and inspect the schools ; and by which libraries, open to the whole body of the people, wiU be established in aU the villages. Passed laws combining the two revenue departments into one, saving time to the merchant and expense to the Province. Opened fifteen or twenty new ports for trade and commerce. Passed the Departmental Bill, and so arranged the financial business of the country, that while there is an accurate inspection of accounts, a farmer coming for road or school money is paid in a few minutes, instead of having to dance attendance for hours with his team waiting in the street. Passed the law by which every man who has paid taxes or voted at an election, can plead in any of Her Majesty's courts for himself or his neighbor. Established a commission by which all the laws of the Province have been simplified and consolidated, and will be pubUshed this year in a cheap single volume, costing 7s. Qd., that everybody can read and understand. Passed the law by which Halifax was incorporated, and invested with all the privileges of an EngUsh city. Built the electric telegraph across Nova Scotia, by which instantane ous communication has been established with aU the cities of the Ameri can continent. Passed the law by which every man who pays rates is entitled to vote at elections. Established responsible government, by which a majority of the peo ple's representatives can turn out a bad government whenever they have lost the confidence of the country. These, my fellow countrymen, are some of the things which my friends and myself have done for the elevation and improvement of Nova Scotia, during the fourteen years that I have been in the Legis lature. His personal activity and energy, throughout this contest, may be judged by the fact that he rode four hundred miles, the greater part of it on horseback, in twelve days, and made twenty speeches; to say nothing of explanations, replies, and rejoinders. So decided and wide-spread was the impression that Mr. Howe had made on the county of Cumberland by his speeches in various parts of it, and so general was the conviction on the MEMBER FOR CUMBERLAND. 113 nomination day that he could not only win his own seat but carry his friends with him, that the opposite party proposed a compromise. A candidate was withdrawn, and two gentlemen were returned by acclamation with him, pledged to sustain the railway policy and resist a vote hostile to the government. It was on this occasion that the Hon. Edward Chandler sketehed Mr. Howe's character with a force and fidelity rarely equalled, if ever surpassed, by the most ardent of his admirers : — Mr. Howe, said Mr. Chandler, need not, on personal grounds, come to Cumberland to seek a seat. Any constituency in the three Provinces would be proud to accept his services. His reputation is North American. His speeches at Southampton, his letters to Earl Grey, have elevated all the Provinces in the estimation of Europe — have roused them to a knowledge of their own resources. I do not hesitate to say that no other man in the empire could have conducted that negotiation so ably — that no other man could have ripened this great scheme, so far, or can now bear up the weight of it in the Legislature. This we all feel to be true ; but what I admire about Mr. Howe, is the simplicity ofhis manners, combined with such high intellectual resources. Negotiating with min isters of state, at the Governor General's Council Board, or even in presence of his Sovereign, as beneath the lowly roof of the humblest farmer in the land, he is ever the same — Joe Howe. The metropolitan county, which Mr. Howe had left, elected his four friends. The contests generally resulted in the return of a good working majority to sustain the government, and of a still larger majority pledged or disposed to adopt and carry out the railway policy. So far by immense labor, great results had been achieved. The public mind of the mother country had been turned to the vast undeveloped resources of British America. The two Houses of Parliament had been informed and conciliated. The confidence and support of the Imperial Cabinet had been nobly won. The difficulties presented by the peculiar position and hastv determination of New Brunswick had been toned down, and the pledge of her government obtained. A great intercolonial scheme had been sanctioned by the governments of the three Provinces. Canada had voted her sixteen million of dollars ; and Nova Scotia, solemnly appealed to at a general 64* 114 THE GREAT CONTRACTORS. election, had determined not only to assume the construction of the whole of the Trunk line for the two roads but thirty miles beyond her frontier. At this moment a new element of perplexity and discord was presented. Messrs. Jackson, Peto, Betts, and Brassy, two or three of them members of Parliament, and all of them extensive railway contractors, had had their attention drawn to the great North American field of operations by Mr. Howe's letters and speech at Southampton. The contemplated expenditure of seven million sterling, to be raised under the guarantee of the British government, and paid in cash, offered irresistible attrac tions. Mr. Howe had courteously entertained and frankly stated to all the governments concerned their offers to build the roads. Any action on these offers was premature and impossible until all the laws had been passed, the funds secured, and the joint commission appointed. If Mr. Howe had had the power, he could not have given a contract to expend seven million of pounds, raised on the risk of Colonial revenues, to three or four strangers, without competition, or comparison of terms and prices, without suspicion of manifest and flagrant corruption. But he had not the power, and nobody else had, or ought to have had, but the joint commissioners, whoever they might be, acting with a single eye to the faithful expenditure of a large sum of money dedicated to great national undertakings. The contractors, however, looking to their own interests solely, were anxious to secure the expenditure of the seven million, however it might be raised; and with this view Charles D. Archibald, Esq,, was dispatched to North America to see how the land lay, and with a sort of roving commission to act in their interest as circumstances might arise. He had presented himself at Toronto while the delegates were deliberating with the Canadian government, and obtained a delay of two days, that some proposition which he stated he had brought with him should be considered. It turned out that he had brought none, having the sanction of the Imperial government or the signature of any eminent capitalist or con tractor. The Canadian government and the delegates, there fore, proceeded in their own way, acting upon what was definite, MR. ARCHIBALD'S LETTER. 115 and finally maturing the policy, that, if not ultimately disar ranged, would by this time have relieved the British Provinces from the reproach of having to conduct their postal business and military communications through a foreign country. The conference broke up on the 20th of June. On the 21st, Mr. Archibald addressed a letter to His Excellency the Governor General, which was printed and circulated in all the Provinces early in September. It is impossible to read this letter, by the light of our modern experience, without a smile : — " In order to carry out a complete railway scheme, commensurate with the requirements of the British North American Provinces," we are told " provision must be made for the construction of a Grand "Trunk line from Halifax to the American frontier at Detroit." What could Canada want more ? The configuration and geographical position of New Brunswick ren der it necessary to the completion of a perfect railway system, that the Province should be traversed its entire length by two main lines. Who could doubt it ? After describing the unsettled condition of the Province, he proceeds to show how, through the instrumentality of his friends, the great contractors, he intended to occupy her waste lands with an " army of peaceful operatives." " I propose, on the part of the association which I represent, to construct the European and North American line through New Bruns wick, agreeable to the charter of incorporation and the condi tions of the Facility Bills, and to subscribe for this purpose all the capital not already taken up. I therefore provide for the accomplishment of this project upon the precise terms already arranged by the Legislature." Why should Lord Grey or Mr. Hawes go down to Parlia ment, and ask for a guarantee to build this road, when it was already as good as built without their interference ? With respect to the Halifax and Quebec, or Northern line through New Brunswick, I propose (certain facilities being granted) in like man- 116 MR. ARCHIBALD'S LETTER. ner, on the part of the association, to organize the company by subscrib ing all the capital that shall not be taken up in New Brunswick. Ex necessitate, the company must expedite by every possible means the sale and settlement of their lands and the development of their resources ; the coal fields will be opened up, iron mines will be worked, foundries, machine shops and factories established. Every first class station along the line will become the nucleus of a town, and every stopping-place will form the centre of an agricultural ambit, and a rallying-point for the poor and unskilled emigrants, who will be cheered and instructed by the well-regulated operations they will witness on every side. The ex penditure upon the works will facilitate the settlement of the lands along the line, and the improvement of these lands will bring traffic to the rail way. It is not too much to expect that the population and revenue of the Prt)vince will be doubled within ten years, and long before the £20,000 a year guaranteed to the northern line shall become payable, the amount will be anticipated in the exchequer from the effects of these operations; and thus the end, in advance of its accomphshment, wiU furnish the means to this extent. This is no fancy picture, nor does it foreshadow half the realities of such a future as New Brunswick may now command. Bright visions — alas, too soon to fade. Then the line from Montreal to Toronto was summarily dis posed of, it being demonstrated that Canada would only be re quired to provide half the money wanted, and have that se cured by a first mortgage. The value of this first mortgage is now pretty well under stood in Canada and everywhere else. Mr. Archibald's clients were to have "the entire contracts for all the contemplated lines, without competition." This was the pith of the letter. The most attractive but least prophetic part of it was that in which " the countless millions of the In dian Archipelago, China, and Hindostan," were seen travelling up and down the roads which the writer was about to make. This letter, so frank, so plausible, so full of generosity and elevation of spirit, captivated the credulous in all the Provinces. It captivated another class. Those who saw in the lucrative offices and lavish expenditures of a great company, more at tractions than in devoted service, poorly enough rewarded, perhaps, which the Provinces wherein they lived had a right to claim. 117 Mr. Howe was not captivated. He saw through the scheme, and held fast to his integrity. The leader of the Parliamentary opposition in Nova Scotia having published a letter, and de clared his intention to support Mr. Archibald's project, Mr. Howe replied to it. His remarks gave some offence to Mr. Archibald, who wrote a second letter, to which Mr. Howe also replied. Though the public mind of Nova Scotia was kept steady by Mr. Howe's firmness and discrimination, it was ap parent that a party was forming to give opposition to his policy ; and when Mr. Archibald paid into the Commercial Bank of New Brunswick a deposit to entitle his associates to claim all the stock in the Portland line, it was difficult to resist the fascination by which many shrewd men in that Province were perfectly bewildered. It is impossible.to read this correspondence now without the thorough conviction that to the proceedings of these great con tractors, and their agents, we are to attribute the ultimate fail ure of the whole negotiation ; and the fact that Nova Scotia was compelled, upon her own resources, to make her own roads. That New Brunswick, after the waste of years and of thousands, was compelled to do the same. That no intercolo nial road has been made or provided for ; that Canada has no security for £3,000,000 advanced to these contractors, while their Grand Trunk Company's stock is at a discount of fifty per cent. We have not space to insert Mr. Howe's letters, but an ex tract or two will show their general tone and spirit. There is no want of evidence now, in Canada and New Brunswick, to give significance to the distinction drawn in the following pas sage between contractors who are copartners and those who are not : — Had Mr. Archibald (who is a personal friend to whom I am indebted for much courtesy while in England) or anybody else, come to me when I entered London, with a company prepared to build our railroads at their own risk, or even upon the terms already granted by the Colonial Legis- tures, my task would have been simple, and my labor light. On the contrary, I found lots of embryo companies, and individuals, zealous to 118 MR. HOWE'S REPLIES. spend money raised upon our credit, and to speculate in Colonial lands. I found none who were willing to run the slightest risk, or to advance funds not guaranteed by the Colonial or Imperial Governments. I la bored to work out my own policy in the full conviction that none were to be found. When I had succeeded, and it was known that so large a sum, advanced, or guaranteed by the Imperial government, was to be expended in the Colonies, the question "who should spend it? "be came deeply interesting. It is deeply interesting now. The interest we have in it, my friends, is this —"having got the money cheap, to make it go as far as possible. Assuredly it is not to embarrass ourselves with companies and associations, who shrunk from us " in our extremity," but who appear very anxious to aid us now that we can do without them. Entertaining this opinion strongly, I still adhere to the belief which I expressed at the Mason's Hall in May, — which was reiterated at St. John, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec, — that if we can bring into these Provinces British contractors of eminence, on fair terms, it will be sound policy. If they come, as contractors, I see no reason why they should not expend, for their own and our advantage, the whole seven million. If they come as co-partners, we shall be at their mercy, and involved in complications and embarrassments which I desire to avoid. You invite me, [he says to Mr. Archibald,] to state the objections I entertain to your proposals, which you think are not derogatory " to the honor and interests of New Brunswick." I will do so frankly. In the first place you assume that a noble Province like New Bruns wick, with a territory as large as Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hamp shire, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, all put together — with a free government, responsible to her citizens — with an industrious popula tion, a flourishing revenue, light taxes, and overcrowded Europe to draw upon for a steady stream of emigration, cannot, with the sympathy and cooperation of her sister Colonies and the credit of the Imperial govern ment at her back, hazard the construction of public works, which you and your friends will yet cheerfully construct, provided you are invested with one-seventh part of her territory, half a million of her money, and pro vided the other Provinces give you the construction of their raUways. Now, I am simple enough to believe that this proposition includes a flagrant disregard of the intelligence, and an insult to the dignity of New Brunswick. Put all your friends together, unite their entire fortunes and resources, and as our neighbors quaintly say they could not " begin to buy " the homestead of New Brunswick. They could not purchase the property upon a single river. Yet we are told that the people who RAILWAY JUBILEE AT BOSTON. 119 own the whole cannot risk the construction of these railways, which can easily be accomplished by those whose resources are insignificant in comparison. After stating a variety of objections to the plans, as detailed in Mr. Archibald's letter, he says : — My last objection touches higher interests than pounds, shillings, and pence. Show me the State or Province that ever willingly granted five millions of acres of its territory, with all its mines, minerals, and appurte nances, to a private association. Nova Scotia would not make such a grant if she never had a railroad. The man who proposed it would sit alone in our Assembly. New Brunswick may be less particular, but such a grant once made, to any association, with all the patronage, ex penditure, and revenues, of her two great roads, and a power would be created in her midst which would very soon control both her government and her Legislature. Canada has discovered how irresistably and certainly this "power" controls her government and Legislature ; New Bruns wick, whose energies were benumbed by it for years, can count, in round numbers, the cost of her emancipation. The citizens of Paris used, under the Orleans dynasty, to celebrate their three days of July, commemorative of a revolu tion in which some blood was shed and but little rational liberty secured. The citizens of Boston, this year, kept high holiday for three days to celebrate the completion of their railway commu nication with the West, and the establishment of a line of ocean steamships to facilitate and enlarge their commercial intercourse with the Old World. The 17th, 18th, and 19th of September, 1851, were devoted to pleasure, to civic demonstrations and boundless hospitality. The President, Millard Fillmore, and the chief officers of the national government, came by invitation, with many of the Governors and prominent public men of other States. Lord Elgin, Governor General of British America, was also present, by special invitation, attended by many of the leading men of Canada and of the other North American Colonies. The oc casion was most appropriate for such a gathering of the nota- 120 SPEECH AT BOSTON. bilities of the continent. They came together to celebrate the peaceful triumphs of science and industry — to rejoice over great lines of inter-communication, mutually advantageous to their commerce and social relations. The descendants of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and of the loyalists of 1773 met, on common ground, to exchange thoughts and courtesies, with mutual pride in their achievements and institu tions, and without any sacrifice of self-respect. Such a gath ering would have been dangerous, before, by a peaceful revolu tion, responsible government had been secured. It would have brought with it a sense of humiliation, had not the British Amer icans felt that a great railway system was already outlined and quite within the compass of their resources. As matters stood they could view the prosperity of their neighbors without de spondency or regfet. Levees, processions, steamboat excursions, dinners, and balls, followed each other in quick succession, and intellectual dis plays added everywhere a grace to civic hospitality. The lead ing men of the continent met face to face ; and many who only knew each other by reputation, enjoyed the advantages of personal intercourse, and tested each other's powers of fascina tion and of intellect on public arenas or at the festive board. In a mammoth tent, erected on Boston Common, five thou sand persons sat down to dinner. The principal speakers were the President, the Governor of Massachusetts, the Mayor of Boston, the Hon. Edward Everett, Mr. Winthrop, and Josiah Quincy, Jr. British America was represented by Lord Elgin, Mr. Hinckes, and Mr. Howe. We copy from the published re port, issued by the committee of management, our friend's re marks : — Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen, — At this late hour it would be unfair to trespass long upon your patience. With the voices of the eloquent speakers who have preceded me still charming the ear, how can I ven ture to address you at all ? Though feeling the full force of the com parisons which must be drawn, and representing one of the smaUest Provinces of the British Empire, I am reluctant to be altogether silent lest it might be supposed that my countrymen do not appreciate your hospitahty, or take an interest in the great works, the completion of SPEECH AT BOSTON. 121 which we have met to celebrate. To me the occasion is full of interest, for I stand here, the son of a banished loyalist, to rejoice with you in the prosperity of the city of which my father was a native. How many stirring passages of old Colonial history have the scenes presented to my eye during the past three days revived ! How strangely has the past been blended with the present, as I have listened to sentiments of mutual respect and friendship, breathed by the leaders of two great nations, sternly opposed in the olden time, but now rivals only in the graces which embelhsh life, or in the fields of profitable industry. As the son of a Bostonian, I cannot but rejoice — whatever may be the distinctions of allegiance, the claims of country, or the high hopes of the future which we British Americans cherish — in the permanent prosperity and advancement of this city. Mr. Mayor, I have looked on the great pageant of the day with ex treme interest and care, have marked the thronged streets in which the citizens of Boston conduct their profitable commerce, and observed the praiseworthy evidences of the skill and ingenuity of your mechanics. But the sight whieh challenged the highest interest and admiration — which appealed to the finest and most elevated feelings, were the lines of life and intelligence presented by the young Bostonians who repre sented the fostering care of the free schools of New England. I might have passed the other features of the celebration with comparative in difference, but when I saw those children, I was reminded of that Ger man schoolmaster who declared that when he entered his schoolroom he always took off his hat, for there he met the future dignitaries of his land. So here, sir, I saw the guarantee and the gauge of the future prosperity of this interesting State. The sight of those children, even more forcibly than the beaming faces which smiled from your balconies and windows as we passed, naturally called to mind those upon whose knees they had been nurtured, and led me to conclude that though we had seen this proud city in its holiday attire, and might, perhaps, see it in its working dress to-morrow, we could see nothing more interesting than the free schools which educate its children, and the beautiful and virtuous mothers who nourish them in their bosoms. Gentlemen, I speak to you as the descendant of a son of the old soil of Massachusetts — the representative of an offshoot which has some of the virtues of the original stock. I hope that Massachusetts men will come to the Northern Provinces and note them. We British Americans who share with you, down to a certain period, the vicissitudes of a com mon history, and the treasures of a literature bequeathed to us all — who have, since the revolution divided us, made for ourselves a noble- 65 122 VISIT TO PORTLAND. country out of a wilderness, while we survey your prosperity without envy, and cherish attachment to the parent state, have not forgotten the trials or traditions of a common ancestry. Nova Scotia has adopted the little " Mayflower " as the emblem upon her escutcheon ; and those who laid the foundations of her society, and built up her towns and seaports, were as proud of their Pilgrim stock as you are here. Though Halifax dates one hundred and twenty-seven years after Boston in point of time — ¦ though all that our fathers toiled for in that century and a quarter, they left behind them at the Revolution, still we- are foUowing in your foot steps — emulous, it may be, but I think I may assure you that through out the British Provinces on the continent there is now no feeling but that of cordial friendship towards these noble States. We desire to see you work out in peace the high destiny which your past achievements and free institutions promise. At the same time, as the territory we oc cupy is as broad as yours, — as broad as the whole continent of Europe, — watered by lakes as expansive as your own, drained by noble rivers, blessed with a healthy climate and unbounded fertUity, with fisheries and commercial advantages unrivalled, we are content with our lot, and feel that the mutual prosperity and success of both nations are to be found in peace, liarmony, and brotherly love. I hope, sir, that many years wiU not pass away before you are invited to a railroad celebration on British soil, and this I promise you, that when that day comes, even if our railroads should not be as long as yours, the festival shall be as long, and the welcome as cordial. In conclusion, sir, permit me to make another allusion to those who, if they are not here, ought to be " freshly remembered ; " for they have enlivened our visit by their marked beauty and fascinations. You have tried once or twice, I believe, to invade our frontiers. When next you make the attempt, let me advise you to put the women of New England in the front rank, and then you wiU be sure to succeed. On his return homeward Mr. Howe was requested to address the citizens of Portland in explanation of his railway policy, and the elite of that city, including both sexes, assembled to hear him. Of the impression he produced we may form some conception from the opinions expressed by The Portland Ad vertiser : — Throughout his remarks Mr. Howe vindicated most ably his position as a Nova Scotian, and his efforts to promote the welfare of his own country ; yet, with most amicable regards for the common welfare of the Provinces and the States. OPENING OF THE SESSIONS. 123 The address of Mr. Howe was skilful, eloquent, and able in all re spects ; frank, lively, and witty in many places, and was repeatedly interrupted by bursts of applause. Few public speakers have ever en tertained our audiences with more satisfaction. The occasion has given us another proof of the capital material they have among our eastern neighbors, for orators, statesmen, and railway kings. At the close of Mr. Howe's address, John Appleton, Esq., offered, with eloquent remarks, a resolution of thanks to Mr. Howe, for his able, eloquent, and lucid statements, in reference to the subject of the address, which was unanimously adopted by acclamation. On the 6th of October, Sir John Harvey returned from Eng land, and on the 4th of November, the new House met, and the two branches were thus addressed by the Lieutenant Gov ernor : — Public attention has for some time been directed to the importance of establishing railway communication between the southern seaboard of Nova Scotia and the St. Lawrence, with a branch line to connect the main trunk with the railway systems of the United States. The negotiations which I deemed it my duty to open last year with the Right Honorable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, resulted in a generous offer from Her Majesty's government to recommend to Par liament to guarantee, or advance the funds required to construct both these lines, upon certain conditions, the adjustment of which, during the past summer, rendered communications with the governments of the neighboring Provinces indispensable. The Legislature of Canada has made provision for their portion of the line from Halifax to Quebec, and for its extension through the terri tory of that Province, to the western frontier. The government of New Brunswick waits your ratification ofthe terms proposed at the conference held at Toronto in June last, to assemble the Legislature, with a view to secure its friendly cooperation. As the Imperial Parliament will probably meet early in the new year, and as it is of great consequence that the laws, passed by the Co lonial Legislature, should be transmitted without delay, to secure the ap propriations contemplated in time to warrant the commencement of operations in the spring, I have called you together at this unusual period, confident that you would, at whatever personal sacrifice, cheer fully aid me by a prompt and calm consideration of a question of the greatest magnitude and importance. 124 THE RAILWAY BILLS. The correspondence that has taken place, and the measures which I have directed to be prepared, shall be laid before you as soon as the forms of Parliament permit. I confidently commend the subjects which they embrace to your diU- gent and enlightened review ; and believing, as I do, that the destinies of these noble Provinces are, to a great extent, involved in the result of your consideration of this question, I shall anxiously await your decisionj and trust that the Author of all wisdom and goodness may guide your deliberations. On the 8th, Mr. Howe brought down the railway bills, ex plaining their provisions, and anticipating objections which might be urged to them. We take a few extracts from this speech : — But I may be told, now as heretofore, that after aU poor Uttle Nova Scotia should have no railway, because she is so favored in hav ing water communication. Sir, I have ever been accustomed to regard certain peculiarities of our country with pride and pleasure ; it may be, however, that Nova Scotia, like other beauties, is destined to owe her misfortunes to the very charms upon which our eyes love to dwell. Look at her on the map ; not only does the sea like a fond lover embrace her, but in the Bras d'Or Lake and Basin of Mines, it seems to rest on her bosom. Should she then have no railways because the waves love her ? because she has been so blessed by Providence ? Sir, I wish those who entertain that opinion, would glance at the map, and see how rails run side by side with rivers, and down the margin of streams. Upon the points and headlands these railways are to be found. Look at the noble state of New York ; beside the Hudson, one of the most magnifi cent rivers in the world, whose floating palaces strike with wonder and admiration the traveller from the Old World, runs a railway, paying handsomely, and not diminishing, to the sUghtest extent, the traffic, and trade, and travel, flowing down that river. But there is a still more striking illustration of the idea which I wish to convey. Let any man look at Long Island ; a small, narrow strip of land surrounded entirely by the sea ; and even where its very waters embrace and girdle it, runs a railway between the waves. Then, sir, I ask if there be the slightest shade of reason in the argument, that because Nova Scotia has extensive water communication, she should not possess a railway ? But a°-ain it is said Nova Scotia should not have a railway, because she is so small, so young, so poor. Well, sir, we have been told by the poet, that the MEETING OBJECTIONS. 125 mind is the standard of the man ; and the size of a country is generally measured by the men who are in it. Let this Assembly but have the elevation of sentiment, the enlarge ment of soul, the energy, vigor, enterprise, to deal with it as they ought to deal, and its dimensions will be forgotten. Nova Scotia, however, is not so small as many may imagine. Take Massachusetts, with its nu merous railways, extensive trade, vast capital, and place it side by side with Vermont, and together these two states "do not comprise so many square miles as little Nova Scotia, — Massachusetts having seven thou sand, and Vermont nine thousand, making sixteen thousand. Again, Switzerland is not a very large country, but her enterprise is apprecia ted by every nation of Europe. Holland is not a large country, and yet the people have shut out the sea, and maintained, in the very heart of Europe, the freedom which elevates and the enterprise which prospers a nation. Why then should we despair ? Look at our country ! Sir, I have rambled and travelled over the most of it time and again, en deavoring to familiarize myself with its resources. Take her inex- haustable fisheries, and fruitful soil ; her mines, minerals, water power, timber, all the natural advantages of which she is possessed, and I do not believe there is a spot of ground of equal area on the face of this continent, combining and including on its surface and in its bosom, so many natural advantages as does Nova Scotia. The rough elements of prosperity lie in profusion, within the grasp of all who choose to avail themselves of them ; and with all this, she has a long line of sea coast, nearly equal to the whole available sea line of the United States. Go into her Western counties and contrast them with those of Western Canada, and, sir, I firmly believe that we should not lose by such a com parison. I have travelled in the United States, and in Canada, and have never entered a farmer's house where I could obtain a more abundant or substantial meal, than in the vales of Cornwallis, or on the mountains of Pictou. We have been told, sir, that Nova Scotians will be unable to bear up under the weight of taxation which the supporters of this bill are about to impose. I have heard and read this statement, and I have wished that I could but direct back to the past history of our Province, the gaze of those who used it. I would have them contemplate the position occu pied by us in years gone by. Let me say to my honorable friend from Yarmouth, whose strenuous opposition I have been led to expect, that whatever that opposition may be, nothing can ever lessen the respect I entertain for his ability and judgment. But I wish he could have viewed the old sturdy settlers of Yarmouth, as they stood beside the sea- 65* 126 MEETING OBJECTIONS. shore, constructing the first ship that floated on the waters fronting that rising village. Sir, these old men had the nerve and energy to brave the dangers that surrounded them, with the primeval forests and un broken solitudes stretching behind them, peopled by the red man, then their foes. With no roads, no bridges, no schools, no churches, scanty means for civilization; yet with strong arms they hewed down the tim ber, -built their vessel, and dared all the risk. But, sir, how would that risk have been lessened, the toil and danger sweetened, if that little group, gathered around their first ship, about to be launched, could have been informed that but a few years later, and their offspring would have peopled Yarmouth with thousands of inhabi tants, and own two or three hundred sail of vessels ; that their roads would intersect the surface of the whole country, connecting them with its most remote districts ; their bridges span every stream, their churches dot every village ; that schools would be found the country over, offering every facility for internal improvement and progress ; and, in addition to all this, that they were on the eve of having railway communication with the whole continent of America, already having obtained rapid steam communication with the continent of Europe ; and that in order to obtain all this, they were to be taxed just 2s. Qd. per head. Think you they would have been afraid to launch their vessel ? No ! they would have smiled at any man who attempted to terrify and frighten them with such a weight of taxation as that. Let me turn the attention of the honorable member for Clare, — and no portion of the Province has been more frightened from its propriety by this taxation bugbear, than the township he represents, — let me di rect my honorable friend's attention to the trying circumstances through which that hardy French population passed, in the early settlement of this Province. If, sir, while their villages were in flames, their churches being destroyed by the axe — while general confiscation of their marsh and upland was made, any man had said to them, you shall have security and peace, the free exercise of your own religion, secure possession of marsh and upland ; nay, more, you shall have an immense market opened up to you in the other British possessions on this continent, with which you will be connected by railway ; and you may hear weekly from your friends in France, but, mark you ! you shall be taxed 2s. Qd. per head! ! Sir, I understand the spirit of that bygone race better, than to believe that such an apprehension would have alarmed them. They would have felt bound to transmit down, from generation to generation, all the im provements they could possibly make in the country, and 2s. Qd. per head would not have prevented them from doing their duty. MEETING OBJECTIONS. 127 But, sir, I have no fears for the way in which this measure will be dealt with by the people of this Province. I am, however, at this mo ment ignorant of the course of conduct which any member of this House may deem it right to pursue; I have not canvassed a single man, believing it to be beneath me and a degradation and disgrace to them ; but, sir, I commend it to the good sense and kindly feeling of those who have stood with me, side by side, during many exciting and interesting epochs of my political existence. To those who hitherto have been my political opponents, I would say, that down to the present hour, neither personally, nor as a member of the government, have I endeavored, by the ordinary means in the hands of an administration, to influence the mind, the opinions, or the judgment, of a single member of the Assem bly. But, sir, I would say, that if after all the time and labor this nego tiation has cost, personal interest, selfish or party feeling, should strangle the measure in its birth, I would feel deeply mortified and hurt. As an individual, I should feel much ; for little Nova Scotia — her honor, credit and welfare, I should feel more. The eyes of the American States, the eyes of British North America and of the mother country are upon her at this hour ; every message coming from the adjacent Colo nies evinces the feverish and intense anxiety with which they are look ing to her example. And, sir, let me say, in conclusion, that deep and strong as are my feelings at this moment, I have not the shadow of the shade of an apprehension for the mode in which it will be dealt with. Sir, I have never known this Legislature deficient in harmony and una nimity where a great occasion demanded it. It is my pride to contem plate those green spots which dot the history of this deliberative Assem bly — neutral ground where we all meet as Nova Scotians uniting for their country's welfare. Sir, the common defence of our country, education, those offices of charity to surrounding Colonies when af flicted by the hand of Providence which we are sometimes called on to perform, unite us. And, sir, I firmly entertain the belief that, by the time this question is discussed and tried out, we shall be united. Sir, I should rather that the bills were lost than that this work should re main, after its construction, a hostile tower — the object of attack and defence ; but I fervently beheve it will be Uke the smiling rivers, with which a bountiful Providence has blessed our land, the common highway of all ; the undivided property of every Nova Scotian, man woman and child ; and that each one within these walls will have his share of the pride and gratification of aiding its construction. A long and animated debate followed. Amendments were 128 MONUMENT TO HUNTINGTON. moved, in various forms, but were defeated by a majority of thirty-three to seventeen. The burthen of this debate was borne by Mr. Howe, who was compelled to speak often ; to meet all sorts of objections ; to argue with opponents who were sincere ; and to laugh at those who were factious and unreasonable. We have not space to spare for any of these speeches, which however effective at the time are perhaps not worth preserving. The bills were finally passed by large majorities, and on the 24th, Mr. Howe called the attention of the House to the im portance of surveying and preparing the crown lands for the occupation of settlers who might, by the construction of our public works, be attracted into the country. The Hon. Herbert Huntington had been a prominent and able member of the liberal party. An intimate friendship had existed between that gentleman and Mr. Howe, running over a period of fifteen years. They differed upon the railway policy. Mr. Huntington, whose health had been giving way for some time before, died in the course of this summer. A graceful tribute to his memory was paid, towards the close of the session, by Mr. Howe, who moved the following resolution, which was seconded and supported by the leader of the opposition, and unanimously adopted : — Resolved, That His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor be author ized, and respectfully requested, to cause some appropriate testimonial to be erected over the remains of the late Herbert Huntington, whose loss to his country and his family this House sincerely deplore. Mr. Howe said: — Mr. Speaker, although our proceedings during the present session have not been quite unanimous, I trust that the resolution which I hold in my hand will be adopted without a division. It is the custom in civilized countries, to perpetuate the memory, and to record the virtues of those who have rendered eminent service to the State ; and even among barbarous nations, some rude cairn marks the spot where sleeps the warrior whose voice was respected at the council — whose arm in battle was strong. To the dead such memorials are of little worth, but they are of value to the living. The rising generations study the history of their country in the monuments which grace its surface ; they emulate SIR JOHN HARVEY'S CLOSING SPEECH. 129 the virtues which their forefathers have regarded it as a sacred obliga tion to record. The gentlemen who have been recently returned to this Assembly may not be so familiar as the old members of the House are, with the peculiar characteristics and eminent qualities of the man to whom this resolution refers. For twenty years he served his county and his country faithfully ; during the whole of that time he acted under our personal observation. Every phase of his character was familiar to us ; we saw him tried in every conflict; by every vicissitude of Colonial public life ; and I think that gentlemen on all sides will agree with me that for varied information, unbending integrity, and a rigid adherence to what he beUeved to be right, no man ever was more deservedly dis tinguished than the late Herbert Huntington. Self-taught, his stores of knowledge were yet various and ample ; trained in the Legislature, and in a community where agricultural and commercial pursuits blend, his mind was practical — his knowledge suited to circumstances as they arose. To permit a man like this to slip out of our ranks without a recognition of his services or a word to his memory, would not be credit able to this House ; nor would such neglect be very encouraging to the rising intellect of our country. Let us place over Huntington's remains, then, some tribute to his worth. Let the country he served stamp her approbation on the spot where his body moulders. There may be novelty in the proposition, but if this is the first monument erected by Nova Scotia, let us hope that it may not be the last. Any elaborate or expensive work of art I do not contemplate or propose. It would be in bad taste. A simple shaft of Shelburne granite, with his name upon it, would be an ornament to his native town, and an appropriate memorial of plain manners, enduring virtues, and unbending integrity. In closing this remarkable session, Sir John Harvey could not restrain the feelings of honest pride with which he surveyed the results of energetic government, and the elevated future of the noble Provinces in which he had served so long. Never, during my long administration of Colonial governments, did I close a legislative session with more pride, and more entire satisfaction, than I feel at this moment. Having served in all the Provinces which you have labored to unite by bonds of peace, and mutual cooperation, I know their value, and highly estimate their vast resources. At the close of a long life, nearly thirty years of which have been passed in the North American Colonies, in peace and war, the great 130 GUARANTEE WITHDRAWN. measure in which you have been engaged, assures me that, more firmly set, and beaming with higher lustre, they are yet to remain the brightest jewels in the British crown. The moderation and elevated spirit which have pervaded the delib erations of both branches, will ever honorably distinguish the present' session. In returning to your homes, I beg you to be assured, that the high powers which you have conferred, and the grave responsibilities that you have imposed upon my government, will but increase my vigilance and care, to carry out the measures you have perfected in the spirit in which they have been conceived. On the 8th of January, Sir Edmund Head opened the Par liamentary session in New Brunswick. " In my opinion," said His Excellency, " a railroad uniting Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, especially in connection with a line to the United States, would produce an abundant return in this Prov ince ; I believe that your revenue would increase very largely without imposing additional burdens on any one ; that millions of acres, now untrodden, would supply food for man ; and that millions of tons of timber, now standing worthless in your for ests, would find profitable markets." These bright visions of prosperity, for the Province of New Brunswick, were destined soon to fade. The guarantee for the Portland line was soon after withdrawn, and that series of movements commenced with which Mr. Howe had little or no concern, but which ended in the abandonment of both the in tercolonial enterprises. We do not enter upon the merits of the controversy between Earl Grey and Mr. Howe. His Lordship's case will be found in his dispatches, and Mr. Howe's in his reports, and in his letter to Mr. Hinckes. In January, Mr. Howe was invited to join a conference of delegates at Fredericton. He saw the nature of the influences at work, and declined to assume individually any further re sponsibility. The delegates came on to Halifax, and then it was for the first time apparent that the interests of Montreal and the chief cities of New Brunswick would be combined to force a line by the valley of St. John, instead of by the route lo- SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. 131 cated by Major Robinson at the cost of the three Provinces. A proposition to change the line upon which all negotiation had hitherto proceeded, was made to the government of Nova Scotia, with a demand that she should make the thirty miles beyond her frontier as she had agreed to do in the scheme ar ranged at Toronto. This was referred to a committee of the House and declined, but the government subsequently deter mined to assume the responsibility of making the Trunk Line from Halifax to the frontier of New Brunswick, leaving the other Provinces free to locate the lines through their own territory as they pleased, provided they could obtain the consent of Her Majesty's government to the change. Mr. Chandler pro pounded the new arrangement to the Legislature of New Brunswick on the 16th of February, and it was of course sus tained, as it conciliated all the counties along the river St. John, at the sacrifice of the northern ones, which have less represen tation. At the close of his speech, Mr. Chandler made this pretty reference to Mr. Howe's exertions in the general cause of North American elevation : — He could not close without again referring to the Hon. Mr. Howe, and repeating his opinion that no Colonist could peruse those magnifi cent letters addressed by him when in England to Earl Grey on the sub ject of Colonial interests, without a feeling of pride and gratification ; and whatever may be the issue of the final proceeedings, that he [Mr. Howe] had performed a noble duty to British America. To obtain the consent of Her Majesty's government to the change of the line, Messrs. Hinckes and Chandler shortly after wards went to England. Mr. Howe was invited, but could not accompany them, having been unseated on a point of form by a committee, and having an election to run over a large county in midwinter. Before leaving for Cumberland he de livered the following speech, in opposition to a motion made by Mr. Johnston to introduce the elective principle into the Legislative Council. Mr. Speaker, if it be really true, sir, that there is no such thing as public virtue or enlightened public opinion in Nova Scotia ; if the de- 132 SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. nunciation which has just fallen from the lips of the honorable member for Annapolis to-day of the moral and political condition of this country be a true picture, then, sir, we might as well bring this debate to a close at once ; for why should the privileges of such a people be enlarged ? or of what use is it for us to debate the subject here when there is not within these walls, according to his doctrine, sufficient pubUc virtue, spirit, and independence, to give a righteous decision on this measure ? Sir, the language of the honorable gentleman reminds me much of a document he sent to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, not many years ago, describing the moral, social, and political condition of this country ; and, sir, as that remarkable paper was intended to prevent the introduction of responsible government, so the speech he deUvered to-day was to effect its destruction. I concede to him, sir, that we have ad vanced one step in our political improvement, even though there is no public opinion in Nova Scotia, and even though this Assembly are in capable of judging by the dictates of sound reason ; we have learned, sir, for the first time in our parliamentary experience, that it now takes a member two days to make one speech. If the doctrine he enunciated be true, whence come the volumes of light literature with which he has entertained us ? whence come those mouldy records he has passed tediously under our review ? Of what use are they to men who, he says, are incapable of judging of his argument ? Has he read them merely for the sake of obstructing the public, business ? The extract he has read from a speech of mine was uttered in 1837, fifteen years ago ; and it would be answer enough if I were to tell him that I have changed my opinion once, as he has changed his a hundred times within the same period. Sir, have we had no constitutional changes since then? Have we had no concessions that materially alter the case and change our position from what it then was ? We were struggling for an advance in our political existence; for something more of popularity in our institutions ; and I think we would gladly have accepted those precious Constitutions which have lately been offered to the Kaffirs of the Cape of Good Hope, and to the convicts of Australia ! But, I ask, would we have taken them in preference to the Constitution we have got, containing the responsible Executive Council which the gentleman wants so much to get rid of? I think not. No public opinion in Nova Scotia, sir? Why I stand here the creation of public opinion. Comparatively self-educated, with small re sources, and thrown into conflict with others in many public questions, I had nothing but an appeal to public opinion to sustain me. I found the SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. 133 honorable gentleman and his friends entrenched behind half a century ' of prescriptive reverence, in a government which owed nothing to public opinion ; but I shook them out of their shoes, and showed that the mass of the people in this Province are ready to prove at any time that there is such a thing as public opinion. But the learned member now complains of a body into which he crammed a great number of his friends. It does not please me, he says, and I must get rid of it ; because my friends were beaten, and outvoted, and failed to prevent the passage of the Departmental Bill, and the introduction of responsible government ; for all this was going on in another place, in the absence of some members who supported the government, when in walked William Grigor, and put an end to their efforts. He came in constitutionally, and why should he not? But suppose he did outvote the opposition; suppose by the vote of some gentleman from any county in the Province, the views of a member, or of many members of this House were defeated, would that be any reason for sweeping the Council off the face of the earth ? Why, sir, there were imperative reasons for the course then pursued. The Council was not full. It was well known that one gen tleman was expected from Cape Breton, whose early arrival was pre vented by a February snow storm. What were the opposition doing in the other end of the building ? They were trying to obstruct the passage of our measure, and we should not haye been good politicians if we had allowed them to succeed. It would have been fair and honorable for those gentlemen to have waited till the Council was full ; but they took advantage of circumstances, and it would have been a breach of trust for the Executive to have allowed them to do mischief to the country, by the defeat of good measures during the temporary absence of their supporters. The gentleman tries to make it appear that there is something very defective in our system. But I ask whether the Reform Bill of England was not carried by the expressed determi nation of the Crown to swamp the House of Lords ? ' Then, I say, there is an example for him ; but we did not swamp the Legislative Council, we merely filled up a single seat. But why does he show such hostility to this Council ? It consists of only twenty-one members ; and, out of the twenty-one, he appointed eight. Does he say that these possess no spirit or independence ? no public virtue ? If so, he libels nearly one-half of the body which was created by his hand. Mr. Johnston. I wish the honorable Provincial secretary would not put into my mouth what I did not say. I did not speak of the Legisla- 66 134 SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. live Councillors individually ; I distinctly avoided it, and so expressed myself several times. It would have been very unbecoming in me to have done so. I spoke of its constitution as a body. Mr. Howe. I am sure I do not want to put any thing into the gentle man's mouth when so much absurdity has come out of it ; but he is the last man in the world to complain ofthe construction of that body. No less than eight members of it were appointed by himself; and when he complains that the country is not represented there — that farmers are excluded ; I ask, how many out of the eight that he put in were farmers ? Only three, sir ; and yet he has the .courage, I should almost say the audacity (al though it is a strong word, but I do not mean it offensively), to reproach the friends of the Council for his own default. Sir, I sat in the Execu tive Council from 1840 to 1843 ; he and I sat there together. During that time I had some influence in choosing three members of the Legis lative Council, and two out of the three were appointed from the country. No sooner had I left, on the appointment of a gentleman resident in Halifax over the heads of others, which split the government, than he appointed eight, five of whom were from the town of Halifax, and three only from the rural districts. The gentleman is then in this curious position; he is finding fault with his own handiwork, and with the state of things which he himself created. But it is com plained that Dr. Grigor was appointed. He was, sir; but so anx ious were the liberal government to put into that body intelligent men from different sections of the country, that, before that seat was offered to Dr. Grigor, it was offered to and declined by four gentlemen residing in the interior. Mr. McCully, whom we appointed, resided in the coun try at the time ; he has since removed to the city. I presume it was not his fault, nor was it ours. Mr. McKeen lived in thc island of Cape Breton, and we did all in our power to give the country districts a fair representation at the Council board. There is another vacancy just now, but of that I will not speak. It is sufficient for me to show that when he had the reins of power he filled up but one - third of his vacancies from the country, while we chose two-thirds from the rural districts. He has entertained us to-day with long extracts from journals and speeches, but I wish he would only take this pamphlet, containing the views of himself and his then supporters, in which I find nothing of the movement in which he is now engaged. He would be much better employed in reviewing even his own old speeches, than in obstructing the public business by the papers which he has read. Sir, the gentleman took me at a disadvantage the other evening. He SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. 135 availed himself of the right he possessed to close the debate, and made an elaborate assault when my mouth was sealed against any reply. He told us that we, and not himself, concealed the dispatch of the 31st of March, 1849. Sir, I call upon the gentlemen who voted with him to say whether it was not our complaint, not that the dispatch was not submitted to the Legislature', but that it was not sent to the people. And, sir, we had to fight out on every hustings the very principles enunciated and confirmed in that dis patch, and which were opposed and denied by his supporters. We did not conceal it. When we entered the government we found and pro duced it ; but it was concealed by the honorable gentleman, and every effort was made by him and his supporters to make the people of Nova Scotia repudiate its principles before they had ever seen or heard of it. He asserted that Earl Grey's opinions were his opinions ; but I say let any gentleman, any man of common sense, take up that dispatch, and compare it with this pamphlet containing the sentiments of the honorable gentleman and his political supporters ; and if they can reconcile them to each other, then I do not understand the English language. I will trouble you with two lines from Earl Grey's dispatch, in answer to a minute of Council on the subject of offices. Here is the minute, signed by Robie, George, Johnston, Dodd, Almon, and Wilkins ; and the sum total of it is, that only one public office was to be vacated on a change of administration. To this Earl Grey replies as follows : " Of the present members of your Council, the Attorney General and Provincial secretary, to whom the Solicitor General should perhaps be added, appeared to me sufficient to constitute the responsible advisers of the Governor." And a little further on he says, " I should feel no objec tion to somewhat increasing the number of political offices ; for instance, by appointing a financial secretary, and a responsible chief of the depart ment of public lands and works, should the expense of doing so, without injustice to those now in the public service, be found to be not more than the Colonial revenue would conveniently bear." Thus Earl Grey agrees to what the honorable gentleman has all along, and especially during the late extra session, been endeavoring to defeat. I will not quote further from these old papers, but put it to the House whether the gentleman was justified in the statement he made. Now, sir, as re gards the question under consideration, I am disposed to deal with it fairly and temperately. I am willing to try it on its merits ; but I must refer to a hint thrown out by the learned member the other night, because it is just possible, I may not have another opportunity to do so. He 136 SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. not only denied what I then said, but said he would bring me to book on my handbill. When he chooses to attack it, I shall be ready to meet him. But I may say, that I ran my election in the county of Cumber land, canvassing and making speeches for ten days in different parts of the county, and I am not conscious of ever having uttered his name. If I am well informed, a different course was pursued in the county which he represents, where pretty fierce attacks were made upon the other members of government and myself. Now, sir, let me turn to the gentleman's arguments regarding the Legislative Council. Where is the difficulty ? It is this, that while we pay ourselves, we do not pay the members of that body. There fore, if gentlemen will come up to that standard, for the sake of see ing the public business done well, I will guarantee that we shaU have the best men in the country the moment you vote the money. If you have an elective Council to-morrow, I presume you do not expect that these elected gentlemen will come here and do the public business with out having, at least, their expenses paid. Pay them now, and you re move the difficulty ; if you do not pay them, you will never obtain men from the rural districts. But, sir, we are told that that body is not in dependent. I speak of it with impartiality. If it is not independent, sir, it is not because its members are not wealthy enough ; for I think the twenty who sit round the table in that chamber are as rich as the fifty round these benches. Are they corrupt ? I do not believe one of the men who sit there could be corrupted ; and as to my holding up the bag of sovereigns, as the learned member has described, I think he little understands the feelings of gentlemen in this House, on both sides, if he supposes that any one of them could be tempted to desert his duty by pecuniary considerations. He pays a very poor compliment to the honorable members of this House. Sir, the government did think, when a question of great interest was before the country, — one, in compari son with which all others sink into insignificance, — that, if they had not given an intimation that the patronage arising under the railway measures would not be dispensed exclusively to one political party, they would have failed in their duty. The country was entitled to such an intimation, and this House was entitled to it. With regard to filling up the Council; I believe that there are men in this House, on both sides, that have been drawn into the support of the government on that great question, that will not allow the business of the country to be ob structed. I believe that there are some who will abandon a standard under which they are subject to endless rivalry and fighting, and devote themselves to the public business. SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. 137 Why, sir, look at the prospects of our country! If we have an influx of industrious people in the course of a few years, — mechanics, labor ers, manufacturers, farmers, and others, who will give our country an impulse beyond what we have any conception of, is it right that with these hopes and anticipations before us we should be discuss ing resolutions which both sides of the house believe to be nothing more that tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee ? I do not believe that the hon orable member has the slightest expectation of carrying his measure. He may be convinced that it is necessary ; but how is he to carry it into effect ? The Council is a branch of the Legislature, and may pass a bill to abolish us, and the officers of the respective branches may meet half way, exchange courtesies and bills. I think we ought to be better employed than in embarking in a crusade against a coordinate branch of the Legislature. Sir, if the honorable member supposes he can intimidate the Legislative Council, he knows little of the men of whom it is composed. He has called it a mere idle pageant. Sir, I do not know what feeling there is in that body, but I do think that if this House were to run riot, there is spirit enough there to check bad legislation ; arid if the government were to show a want of know ledge of the opinions of the country, and that it did not possess the sym pathies and confidence of the people, there would be independence enough in the Legislative Council to force a dissolution. But the gen tleman is casting reflections on his own friends. Did he ask these eight gentlemen to take seats in the council chamber merely that he might have the pleasure of disbanding his troops in this summary way ? I put it to the House, whether it is fair that the men with whom he sought to strengthen his hands, who have carried forward the public business of the country, and spent thousands of pounds out of their own pockets, should receive the reward he is preparing when he proposes to read the riot act, and send them about their business. Why, sir, even Cromwell, when he dismissed a House of Commons, did not demolish the work of his own hands — he did not elect the Commons he destroyed. The man who burnt the temple of Diana at Ephesus, that his name might go down to posterity, did not erect the temple. The French sans cidlotes who pitched their enemies into bottomless boats, did not drown their friends and brothers. Sir, I believe the Legislative Council, as now constituted, is not only generally acceptable to the coun try, but that it ought to be so to this House. What was the complaint against the old Council ? That they sat in secresy, and that nobody could hear their debates. The learned member seems actuated by this feel ing : that as the liberal party destroyed one council, he ought to have the 66* 138 SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. privilege of destroying another. The old council bore no resemblance to the present body in the aspects of which we complained. Five out of the twelve were commercial partners, four or five were relatives, and nearly all the great interests of the country were totally unrepresented at that board. Now there are eleven merchants — not all belonging to Halifax, for that would be an unwise selection, but they come from the counties east and west — some members are gentlemen farmers ; then there s are two manufacturers, three professional men, and two practical farmers. I wish there were more of the latter class, and I believe there will be more as the country increases in wealth and intelligence ; but pay their expenses to-morrow, and the agricultural class will have a full and fair representation. Again, sir, am I to be told that its members are beyond and unconnected with popular sympathies ? I answer that five of them received their Legislative training here, and all their pubhc schooling among popular influences. They ran elections as we do, and carried with them the sympa thies and confidence of the people. Look at the Council in another aspect — I do not speak individually or offensively, but in the old Council the members were pretty much aU of one faith — now there are six Churchmen, two CathoUcs, two Methodists, two Baptists, four belonging to the Kirk of Scotland, one Free Churchman, one Indepen dent, and three of the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia. Here is a pretty fair sprinkling of the different denominations in our country ; there may be too many of one, and too few of another, but the in equality will be redressed as vacancies occur. And as regards their talents for public business, I believe that the six or eight gentlemen who attend from the country are men of influence ; that most of them might be elected to this branch if they pleased ; and that they are men, of in telligence and worth. The honorable member said the other day that he wanted to sweep the Council away, because it might obstruct the public business ; but does any man shoot his dog because he may one day go mad, or throw his food into the street for fear he may be poisoned ? Why, sir, the gen tleman appears not to be dealing with practical matters, but with fallacies which have no foundation. What is his complaint? Not that popular principles have been set at naught, and the public business obstructed, by the second branch. No : his complaint is that the Council is not ob structive ! Take the bill he mentions, sir, — the Departmental Bill. Why, that measure was fought out at every hustings ; it was discussed, under stood and approved of, in every village in Nova Scotia; and after it was passed by a large majority in this House, by the aid of Dr. Grigor, we SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. 139 got it through the Council, too. So that the complaint is that the Coun cil agrees with the Assembly ; not that it is an impracticable and obstruc tive body. I feel desirous to deal with the question, now fairly before us, with all deference ; but I do believe that if it were not for personal respect for the member for Annapolis, both sides of the House would vote his bill to be " frivolous and vexatious." I believe it ought not to be here, first, because it is unnecessary ; secondly, because it interferes with other important, interesting, and necessary business ; and thirdly, because it disturbs the harmony and good understanding between the two branches. It may be that the learned member's bill is going to pass in the other end of the building ; and it may be that his speech the other night, im puting corruption to that body, may lead to a collision, and a delay of the public business. He has quoted a native writer on the subject of the pilgrims in New England ; but I can remember the time when that very same gentleman was brought to the bar of tins House, and made to apol ogize for- much less than the honorable member's speech. There are decencies and courtesies which we ought to observe towards each other. Of what use, sir, is all that the gentleman has paraded here, about eight to eight, and nine to eight ? It is a question of internal discipline for the Council to decide, as we have to frame the rules and orders of this House. Suppose it were wrong for them to yield the President's double vote ? Sir, the Legislative Council have the right to deal with the question and we have not. Suppose, on the division the other night, that you as Speaker had given two votes instead of one ; would the Legisla tive Council have any right to interfere? If such an attempt were made, I am sure that it would only unite the members of this House as one man to defend their privileges. The learned member told us sir, to-day, that Earl Grey had entirely agreed with his opinions in the celebrated dispatch which is the foundation of our argument ; he says he did not conceal it ; that it expressed his own policy and his own views. Why then, sir, the very thing he wanted has been done ! What then does he want ? I cannot comprehend. It occurs to me that the gen tleman, having got every thing his own way, now wants to have every thing changed to suit his whim, like a spoiled child. I think when his views come to be examined side by side with Earl Grey's, it will be found that there is a common agreement in some things ; in others an irreconcilable difference. I think Earl Grey left some points open to be fought out at the hustings. The Departmental Bill was one ; we carried that, and hence the honorable member's mortifica tion with the Legislative CouncU. If there had been just three more 140 SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. members in it against the Bill, enough to have permanently defeated and obstructed us, the Legislative Council would have been the finest body on the face of the earth, and, in oriental language, the honorable member would have prayed that it might " live forever." The gentleman did not publish the dispatch, and still we came back here in a majority, to pass our Departmental Bill ; and I do not care whether it passed the Council by a majority of only one or half a one ; the people were entitled to and have got it. I never searched the journals to find how the Council was divided. The honorable mem ber reads enough of them to us. I would rather have something more entertaining ; something more enlivening. I advise the member from Annapolis, to get one of his friends to read his extracts to the Coun cil just now, when that branch has nothing else to do. We shall gladly dispense with the infliction. I presume he wants to get his views before the country, and these extracts from the journals with them ; but of what service can they be, after all, when there is no " public opinion " in Nova Scotia ? The learned member has wasted the best part of a day in trying to convince us that we are an enslaved people, because the two branches are not independent of each other. Can he show us two such bodies in the world, as he wishes to create, entirely independent of each other ? He talks of our people being too much imbued with party feel ing, compared with the population of England ; but, sir, England herself, though he seems tired of admiring her, gives an immense weight of influ ence to the second branch. In the United States, the Senators and Representatives are elected by the same parties ; and therefore, the com plexion of both Houses must be very similar, coming from the same source. The gentleman seems to be smitten most remarkably, with the similarity between the institutions of the United States, and those we ought to have. It may be, sir, that I entertain for British institutions something of an hereditary and permanent respect ; at all events, I should like to see them fairly tried before we substitute any thing else. The learned member has gone back to an old speech of mine, in which I ar gued that splitting the old Council in two, adding a few more members, and keeping them both independent of the people, would be no better than cutting a rotten orange in two ; it would not give us either a harmo nious and efficient second branch, or a responsible executive ; and it is wonderful that I should so clearly have seen, in, that early period of our constitutional history, what the country really required, as gathered from subsequent experience. If, sir, the system of government had been then what it is now, I should never have raised my voice against it. The Constitution we have SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. 141 is far superior to any thing we can draw from the United States, prosperous as they are, numerous as is their population, glorious as may be their destinies. I cannot, sir, as a descendant of the old stock, forget that we are humbly endeavoring to imitate a Constitution which has grown up, ripening and strengthening for a thousand years ; and pos sessing au aspect of solidity and permanence which the free institutions of our neighbors, admirable as they are, cannot rival. The honorable member for Annapolis wishes to give us a new Constitution ; nothing pleases him but the republicanism of our neighbors. He casts behind him the noble institutions of our parent land, and I could not help smiling, the other evening, as he came to these strange conclusions : away with the trappings of royalty, away with the prerogatives of the crown, away with the second branch of the Legislature. Sir, I prefer a system of administration, which has some experience to recommend it — a mode of conducting public business, which has been worked well for ages by the Anglo Saxon. Does he seek for that? No, but a departure from our old landmarks, and the election of the second branch of the Legislature. Let me ask, sir, how long this innovation will satisfy the people if once yielded ? We shall soon have our governors and judges elected ; in short, the principle must be carried out through all the rami fications of society. Should we then have the British Constitution ? Should we have either the will or the power to defend the independent exercise of the prerogative, on occasions where we all admit it should be full and unrestrained ? We should have, sir, to change our entire ad ministration, and' perhaps soon to sacrifice our connection with the parent State; and part from, and bury forever, those glorious associations which are ours so long as the tie is unsevered. He tells us that he copies the Anglo Saxons, but I challenge him to show me a time in the whole history of Saxon England, when the second branch was elected by the people. He has frequently taunted me about bringing out convicts to settle the wild regions between Canada and the Pacific ; yet he draws his example of free government from the convicts of Australia, and the Caffres of the Cape. When I was in England, last year, sir, I met the delegate who came from the Cape to get this Constitution ; he came with the idea of having the second branch elected hy the suffrages of the whole Colony. I per ceive his bill has been slightly altered in that particular, and instead of there being but one electoral district, the Colony has been split into two. I asked him one day at dinner, " How will you carry on your elections if you make the whole Cape one electoral district ? I find it hard enough to canvass a county and run my election within that limited circle. I 142 SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. would not think of offering for the whole Province, and if any man attempted it at the Cape he would be eaten up by the Caffres before he got back. I do not believe the new Constitution will work ; and before a year it will have to be abandoned, or some very material alterations must be made." I advised him to throw out his elective Council, and put in reponsible government. " Responsible government," said he, " what is that ? " I explained it to him, and he admitted that if he could have abandoned his plan and taken mine he would have done so. Therefore, sir, I do not feel that there is any particular necessity for our going for a Constitution to the Cape of Good Hope. Suppose Nova Scotia split into two halves, and one set of candidates had to scour all the western counties, and another set all those east of Halifax. Mr. Johnston. That is not in my bill. Mr. Howe. Then why quote to us the Cape of Good Hope ? I am endeavoring to show the gentleman that in the only example he has quoted for our imitation the thing will not work, and I confess I have some respect for degrees and orders, and the general adaptation of parts to a whole. I would not like to see the tail of a terrier on the head of a spaniel. It is true there is a composite order in architecture, but it is not destitute of symmetry. We must have either repubUcan institutions, which I do not desire, or the British Constitution, which I think we ought to have. Now, sir, let me turn your attention for an instant to another of those precious constitutions he quotes to us — one that has been suggested by a British nobleman for the settlement of Australia, but which has never been sanctioned after any fair trial by British free men. The Cape Constitution provides that no man can be a candidate for legislative honors, unless he is worth £2000. Apply that to this House, sir ! How many men would walk out of that door if they were obliged to swear that they were worth that amount ? But the Constitu tion for Australia goes a point further ; it provides that no man can be a candidate who is not worth £4000 in property, or has a yearly in come of £200. Let him put those features in his bill, or else he is only quoting these new examples of free government to deceive and mis lead. At present, sir, we have in Nova Scotia a good deal of adminis trative power, and an effective popular control, but when the Australians come to settle down under their new Constitution there will be much dissatisfaction. The gentleman admits that he has no good ground for making the Constitution he has quoted a foundation for his bill. I say, then, I object to his bill, because it is unnecessary, a waste of time, and may lead to a collision with the other branch. But I have other objections. His bill does not give us the British SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. 143 Constitution, the Cape Constitution, nor even the Australian ; and I be lieve constitution-making in the hands of a single individual rarely suc ceeds. The liberals had sense, discernment, and firmness enough, to adhere to the time-honored Constitution of the mother country ; and their prudence is sufficiently demonstrated by the fact, that for the last twenty years, in almost every state of Europe, new constitutions have been tried ; some of them partially succeeded and others totally failed, while that of old England has stood intact, with no fundamental alterations, while the political systems of the continent were tumbling to pieces." Many persons with minds very much like that of the learned gentle man, have framed new Constitutions without number, but they all have one slight defect. They will not work. Talk then about our Council being a mere useless pageant ; why, any thing is better than what will not work. The constitutions so hastily adopted in Europe are a wreck ; they have gone to " everlasting smash." But the Consti tution of England still stands as our guide, proving itself the pride and glory of the age. It is true that we are humbly imitating the glo rious bequest of our ancestors, and I may be told that our little Consti tution is a poor imitation of its great prototype. Sir, the village church may be but a humble imitation of the magnificent cathedral, but at all events the spire points to heaven ; pure hearts may worship at its altar, and the eternal God, who looks with favor upon all his creatures, hallows and accepts their devotions. The little streams which run through our country, have not the power or extent of noble rivers, but they perform their part in the economy of nature by moistening and fructifying the soil. This House may be but a humble imitation of the House of Com mons, but the spirit of liberty is here, and independence enough to guard the rights and privileges committed to our charge ; and day by day we see gentlemen around these benches transacting the public business, with capability, intelligence, integrity, and public spirit, and the rights of the people are as ably defended as in any Legislative body in the world. Take,' then, the Legislative Council ; its members are not peers of the realm, tracing their ancestry back to the days of William the Conqueror ; there may be noble blood flowing in their veins, or there may not ; but they have grown up with us all, and are worthy of our confidence and respect. They may not have the ermine on their shoulders or coronets on their heads, but in that little body there exist as pure hearts, as unflinching determination, as high spirit, and as unswerving integrity, as in that cham ber which Her Majesty honors with her presence. But the honorable member has referred to the third branch of the Legislature. To that part of his address I shall give but a passing notice. I did, sir, think, 144 SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. that some passages in the resolutions he read here the other day, with reference to the office of Lieutenant Governor, might have been spared. I confess I do not comprehend his argument. Is it that the head of the government has no power to defend the rights of the people under re sponsible government ? I sometimes think, sir, that we very much un dervalue what we have got. Suppose this House and the Legislative Council united together to pass a law trenching on public liberty, or invading private rights, I do not believe there wiU appear in North America, for a century, a man at the head of affairs destitute of sufficient spirit to appeal to the peo ple. Does the Sovereign in England possess any more power than a Governor under the responsible system ? Why, sir, I saw Her Ma jesty herself for a fortnight without a government. We hear sometimes very lamentable stories about the intelligence and prosperity of this country, but have we ever yet been in a position that no public man would undertake the government of the Province ? Have we ever been in, the position which Her Majesty occupied when her Cabinet recently resigned; when she called around her the great officers of state, who de clared themselves incapable of forming a government, while the opposi tion also declined ? The same thing might happen to any Governor to-morrow, but what would it prove ? Nothing against our system, for it is as liable to. occur in England, where the Queen is as dependent on the House of Commons, as the Governor of Nova Scotia must be upon the Attorney General, or the member for Annapolis. It may sometimes happen that the administrator cannot come to terms with either section of the House, and cannot form a Cabinet. That, sir, is a temporary incident, inseperable from our free institutions. The gen tleman talks about the Constitution ofthe United States working so well ; but, sir, I have seen the Legislature of Maine engaged for thfee weeks in trying to elect a Speaker ; and in Pennsylvania the military had to be called out to put down a row got up on account of the difficulty of working her institutions. Therefore, sir, the argument is fallacious. Our Constitution is better than theirs, aud if we have not the Queen here in person — and I hope we shall see Her Majesty one day after we get our railways laid — we have got a functionary who exercises the same powers, and stands in a similar position. If we have not got the House of Lords, we have the next best thing — the leading wealthy men of the Province to form a barrier and a check against hasty legis lation ; we have the rules and forms of Parliament for our guidance, and the business of the country goes on as it does at home, in accordance with the wishes and feelings of the people. And, sir, the reforms which SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. 145 from time to time are made by the Parliament of the mother country — the passage of the Reform Bill, the abolition of slavery, the repeal of the Corn Laws, and a dozen other splendid measures I could name — show that instead of our Constitution being worn out, it is re-in vigorated every day, and preparing itself for new trials and new ques tions as they may arise. Look at it during the wax-, when Eng land was menaced on every side, surrounded by hostile nations ; see her with her nicely-balanced Constitution, affording the means of free and powerful action ; bursting through the combinations arrayed against her, and moving triumphantly through the machinations of continental ene mies. But we are told that the Pilgrims came out to New England, and brought with them an elective Council. Sir, I ought to say nothing against the Pilgrims, because I am a descendant from that stock ; but, because I have Pilgrim blood in my veins, that will never blind me to Pilgrim errors. The old book the learned member for Annapo lis has quoted to-day reminds me of some of them. The Pilgrims were fond of liberty, but has he ever heard of the Blue Laws of Connecticut, which flourished under one of these old charter consti tutions? Talk of Church and State, sir! why they existed in more rigorous form in some of those old Colonies of New England than -they do in the mother country; which, although it gives preference to the Church, does not proscribe and persecute everybody who does not conform to the privileged religion. But this was done in the old Colo nies, whence the gentlemen now draws his examples. Who burned the witches ? Who hunted down and persecuted hundreds of people that ought to have had the protection of the government ? Had the pre rogative of the crown existed in those days in its proper strength, sup ported by a second branch, it would have mitigated in some degree the horrors of persecution. Therefore the gentleman's examples are unfor tunate, and his bill is true to no system he has quoted. It is neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring. He does not give us any constitution that now exists or that ever did exist on the face of the earth. One word, sir, about the American Constitution. , It was framed while the States were in deadly conflict with the mother country ; when every man who had any thing to do with its construction hated and detested England, and therefore they wanted to make it as different as possible from any thing English. It results from that feeling that the best men in the republic, the moment they accept office, have to withdraw from the Legislature, and are cooped up within the four walls of their respect ive departments, and become incapacitated from mingling in public dis- 146 SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. cussions ; and their superior intelligence, tact and abilities are lost to the country. When in Massachusetts the other clay, I saw a man of much worth and intelligence, who had lost his seat in the Legislature. Well, said I, why do you not offer again ? He told me that he could not ; he had given an unpopular vote about the Blue Mountains, or some other lo cal affair ; and because he had lost his seat for one place, and the law did not allow him to offer for another, the Legislature lost the benefit of his labors. Now, sir, that may be a very good system, but I like ours better. A man in London may represent Dublin, or a man in Dublin may repre sent Cork ; a man in Scotland may represent London, if London chooses to elect him. There are many restrictions and disabilities in the Ameri can system which we hardly see, but which operate much worse than those in the constitutional government we possess. I do not say that an elected judge may not do justice as well as one chosen by the crown; but if I was going to be hanged, I would prefer to be hanged by a judge chosen in the old way, which has been sanctioned by the usage of cen turies, rather than by one elected. But, says the gentleman, the coun try is ruled by an oligarchy. I answer, that the country was ruled by an oligarchy when twelve men, sitting in secret, carried on the legis lation of the second branch, and wielded the executive functions of the government, independent of public opinion. We are no oligarchy now, because our power must be exercised in strict accordance with the will and wishes of the people, no matter what political party holds the reins. But that old Council 'Carried on the government for years, and I might call him an oUgarch for sustaining and defending it. But we showed, sir, that no oligarchy can exist in this Province; for we scattered that Council to the winds, and had others formed more adapted to the requirements of the country ; and now the people have as much control over the government of Nova Scotia, as they have in either the United States or England. Who doubts that if the honorable mem ber had come here with a majority at his back, we should have retired, and left him the offices and patronage of the government ? I might have thought it hard, as any man would who does his best for the good of his country, but I would have had no right to complain ; and I am sure I would not call the gentleman an oligarch for availing himself of the power which the suffrages of the people had conferred upon him. I should have taken my hat, and left him in undisturbed possession. He may ask, would I be satisfied? Perhaps not; but what would pubhc opinion care for that ? I might show the people that they were wrong SPEECH ON ELECTIVE COUNCILS. 147 and I was right; and perhaps I might get back before many years, with my friend the Attorney General, to measure swords with our friend again. But our system is disliked as too monarchial ; and the learned member talks as if he were determined to banish every thing aristocratical off the face of the earth. Does he take his lessons from the United States? If so, let me ask him if he ever heard of the " upper ten thousand ? " — a very expressive phrase that originated in that country, and which includes a certain wealthy class, that cuts off all others less fortunate in the acquisition of worldly possessions, and looks down upon the poor, and the snobs, with commiseration and contempt. Let the gentleman go into any large city of the Union — let him visit any of the watering places in the summer season, and he will find as much aristocratic feeling and as much exclusiveness, as he ever found in Nova Scotia or as can be found in England. Why, it is said that John Bull loves a lord ; but if a lord wants really to enjoy himself for a few weeks, the right place to go to is into the United States, where he will be feted, lionized, and made ten times as much of as ever he was in his own country. Any brainless fellow, who can put on a title, will have excellent quarters in the United States, until he is found out ; and if I wanted to be treated with great hospitality and consideration across the borders, I would only have to show that I was one of the " upper ten thousand " of some other country, and that would be a passport to the fa vors of the wealthy. In that country they have had elective and free in stitutions for seventy years. Responsible government has only been in operation in Nova Scotia for four or five years. If we had got it seventy years ago, how rapidly would the country have advanced ! I venture to say that any gentleman who saw Canada seven or eight years ago, and who sees her now, will tell us that she has sprung forward with a bound, and has felt an immediate impulse from the operation of her free institutions. All her public measures have been carried with an unprecedented spirit of harmony ; every exciting question has also been swept off the books in Nova Scotia ; and if the member for An napolis had been swept off with them, there would be peace and quiet ness in the land, and Nova Scotia would go forward with vitality and success, under the operation of her free institutions. Look at the action which this House has taken on a great public ques tion that enlisted the sympathies of a large portion of our people. Show me a question of importance that has been dealt with by great communities with more vigor, efficiency and harmony than we have ex ercised here ; and although success has not yet crowned our efforts, I 148 DEATH OP SIR JOHN HARVET. know free institutions have done much for us in ameliorating the asperities of party and promoting objects of public interest. Sir, I believe that five millions of people have poured into the United States since the Declaration of Independence ; and if any fair comparison is to be drawn between their institutions and ours, one thing ought first to be considered — that ours should be tried before they are condemned. Sir, I have taken this, perhaps the last opportunity I may have, of giving my sentiments on this great public question. Any thing that is elective may be popular. Any thing that would give privileges to my countrymen, it may be unpopular to oppose ; but I have stood before them with an open countenance on other questions ; and I may say to all classes that while a combination of the three Provinces is required to open up the industrial resources of the country, I do not think I ought fruitlessly, frivolously, and vexatiously to lend my countenance to a measure, which I believe in my heart, I will not say is designed, be cause that would be discourteous, but which is most admirably calculated to render hopeless and useless all our exertions to raise British North America to the position she ought to occupy. On the 24th of March, Mr. Howe and his colleague, Mr. Fulton, were triumphantly returned for the county of Cumber land, having been stoutly opposed by a very formidable combi nation. With the flush of victory on his brow, Mr. Howe heard by telegraph, while standing on the hustings, of the death of Sir John Harvey, under whom he had served for four years as Provincial secretary, and for whom he entertained very sin cere respect and affection. On returning from Cumberland, through the county of Col chester, he was met by a large escort of the yeomanry in sleighs, entertained at a lunch, and presented with an address from which we take an extract. The relation in which we stand toward you for the past number of years, has bound us to you by the strong ties of love and gratitude. We are well aware that the duties of the statesman are numerous and various. When we reflect on what you have done for our native country, we feel grateful that we have so long enjoyed the services of one so able and willing in the service of our beloved Nova Scotia. The ability and zeal with which you have labored in the business COMPLIMENTS IN COLCHESTER. 149 connected with the forwarding of the railway scheme ; the cleverness and earnestness which ever characterized your illustrations of impor tant subjects, and the fervor with which you brought the matter before the British Government, has laid us under a debt of gratitude to you which we never can repay. The unhappy exposition of Earl Grey to a considerable extent has marred the progress of your negotiations ; now we feel glad to have it in our power, in your own presence, to exonerate you from any blame that may arise from the misunderstanding, in delaying the great enterprise which we are all so anxious should progress. The history of Nova Scotia defines your character, and demonstrates it to be that of a statesman, a true patriot, and an honest man. You will also convey our best respects to Mrs. Howe and family, and we wish you every joy on joining them. Long may you stand forward to diffuse the blessings of Uberty and pure knowledge, and become more deeply rooted in the affections of the people of Nova Scotia. On reaching Halifax, Mr. Howe was enthusiastically wel comed. Mr. Fulton and himself were taken to the Parliament House in an open barouche, preceded by flags and banners, and followed by thousands of citizens. A torchlight procession en livened the night, and Mr. Howe was compelled, before going to bed, to address some thousands of people in front of his residence. Colonel Bazelgette, who assumed the temporary administra tion of the government, closed the session on the 8th of April. Mr. Howe has been blamed for not immediately proceeding to England, to join Messrs. Hinckes and Chandler. Those who blame him should remember, that he had for fifteen months before borne the whole burden of a great enterprise, involving delicate and important negotiations ; that his policy had been deranged ; that he did not approve of the route by the River St. John, though he had yielded, from necessity, to its adop tion ; that he shrewdly suspected — what afterwards proved to be the case — that a powerful combination of great contractors, having large influence in the government and Parliament of England, were determined to seize upon the North American railroads, and promote their own interests at our expense. 67* 150 HINCKES AND CHANDLER IN ENGLAND. Perhaps he anticipated the refusal of Her Majesty's govern ment to countenance a deviation from the line adopted by Major Robinson ; and thought it but fair that those who had planned that deviation should alone bear the responsibility of the change. If they succeeded in obtaining the guarantee they were entitled to the credit ; if they failed, and he was not in England, no blame could attach to him. Had he been entirely untrammelled by other considerations, we think he was justified in declining to proceed. But there were other considerations to which some weight should be attached. la the first place, he was worn down by travel, excitement, and fatigue ; and in the next, his services were much required by the officer who, suddenly, and for the first time, had been called to the administration of the government of the Province. Had he gone, he must either have differed from his co-delegates, or have been compromised by their acts. By not going he left himself free to strike out an independent policy for his own Province, when that which had been forced upon Nova Scotia should, as he probably anticipated, had failed. The refusal of the Earl of Derby's government to give the Imperial guarantee for the line by the St. John ; the quarrel between Sir John Packington and Mr. Hinckes ; the contracts arranged between Messrs. Chandler, Hinckes, and Jackson, — followed in rapid succession. With none of these proceedings had Mr. Howe any concern ; but, distrustful and reserved, he kept his own counsel, and Nova Scotia free from entanglements and partnerships ; until the time arrived for the final adoption of those laws, under which her railroads have been constructed with her own resources ; and without the character of the country being injured by corruption, deception, or fraud. In the mean time New Brunswick, after wasting two years in reliance upon those contracts, had to buy Mr. Jackson off at a cost of £90,- 000 ; and, adopting the policy of Nova Scotia, to push forward her roads as public works. The Grand Trunk Railroad through Canada has been made, but at a fearful sacrifice to all con cerned, but the knowing ones who have had the expenditure of the money. The government has advanced £3,000,000, for RAILWAY POLICY OP 1852. 151 which it has no security. The English shareholders, who, in good faith, advanced their money under a promise that they were to get eleven per cent., have yet received nothing ; and the stock, brought out at a premium, has already sunk to fifty per cent, below par. Sir Gaspard Le Marchant assumed the government of Nova Scotia on the 5th of August, 1852. On the 25th, a minute of Council was adopted, pledging the administration to proceed with the construction of the railways east and west, in con venient sections ; and authorizing contracts to be entered into, subject to the approval of the Legislature, for raising the funds and for carrying on the works. This minute was published, as a declaration of policy. It elicited two offers, to construct the whole of the works required. One from Mr. Jackson, repre senting Messrs. Peto, Brassey, & Co., and one from Messrs. Sykes, King, & Brookfield. It became now very important that the standing of the latter firm, and the extent of their resources, should be ascertained ; and absolutely indispensable that financial agents should be secured in England, able to place the bonds of the Province at their proper value in the market, and to advance funds upon them whenever they should be required. To put the government in a position to satisfy the Legis lature upon both these points, Mr. Howe left for England on the 28th of October ; and, having executed his mission, returned home on the 27th of December. The session of 1853 was, to Mr. Howe, perhaps the most perplexing and unsatisfactory that he had ever passed through. He brought down the propositions of Messrs. Sykes and Jackson. He brought an offer from Messrs. Baring, Brothers, & Co., to ne gotiate the bonds of the Province to the extent of a million of pounds currency ; and he introduced bills authorizing the gov ernment to construct, upon the most advantageous terms, rail ways upon our great thoroughfares to the extent of that sum. An organized opposition to those bills soon showed itself within the House, which was strenghened and inflamed by all sorts of influences from without. Canada and New Brunswick 152 THE DEAD LOCK. had handed over their roads to Mr. Jackson upon his own terms. The influence of both those Provinces was brought to bear to compel Nova Scotia to follow their example. This Mr. Howe steadily resisted, adhering to the cardinal principles with which he had started at Temperance Hall. 1. That whatever roads were made should be made as public works, paid for honestly, and owned by the Province. 2. That money should be borrowed on the best terms, and expended without any respect to who were the contractors. The opposition contended that if acts of incorporation were passed, with moderate facilities, Mr. Jackson and his friends would come in and construct our roads, as they were about to do those in the other Provinces. The resources of the great contractors were magnified — those of the Province depreci ated ; and all the arguments by which Canada and New Bruns wick had been misled were reiterated here, with dexterous inge nuity, and powers of face worthy of admiration. When a doubt was suggested, or an argument required, it was only nec essary to telegraph to Quebec or St. John to obtain a satisfac tory reply. Promises the most mendacious, and offers the most generous, were reiterated in debate, or reduced to the form of" deliberate business propositions. The House, though there was a clear majority to sustain the government, became equally divided and brought to a dead lock upon the railway question. A large committee spent a great part of the session collecting evidence, and were nearly as much divided as the House. The results are well known. By a masterly retreat Mr. Howe abandoned the field, offering to pass the Facility Bills required by the opposition, and calling upon them to fulfill all the mag nificent promises they had made. The position was a trying one — even more trying than that he had been called to assume when rescinding his own resolutions in 1838. But his nerves were equal to the strain, and his foresight and political sagacity were never more finely tested. The Facility Bills were passed, and though some surveys were prosecuted in the course of the summer by Mr. Jackson's engineers, no company was formed, no pledge was fulfilled; and, before the House met FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 153 in 1854, the field was cleared of Mr. Jackson and his friends, and the sounder policy advocated by Mr. Howe rose again into the ascendant. Of many speeches made on the varying phases of these rail way questions, during the session of 1853, we are not sure that any would be read with much interest now. We pass them over, to enable us to give insertion to one upon Free Trade and Protection, called forth by a very absurd report made by a select committee, but of which nobody ever heard after this re view of it was delivered. Mr. Chairman, — The question now under consideration of the commit tee is one of vast magnitude, and I regret that my condition of body and mind — suffering as I have been for the past few days — is not such as to permit me to do it that justice its importance demands. I could not postpone addressing the House longer, for it has become necessary, as rapidly as possible, to bring the business of this session to a close. I was not present last session when the subject was discussed ; I can not charge my mind with having read the debates ; nor had I an opportunity of reading the report of the committee until last evening. But, sir, after perusing that report — when I came to compare the magnitude of the interests with the loose, casual, and desultory manner in which the question was treated yesterday — I felt that I could not shrink from the performance, to this House and country, of the duty which my official position imposes. With all deference to the honorable and learned chair man of the committee [Martin Wilkins], he will allow me to say — for it is due to each other and to the country that we should speak our sen timents frankly — that I read his Report with deep sorrow and regret; that I felt humiliated to see a Nova Scotian seeking to put on the jour nals of the Legislature what I believe to be a piece of systematic, though not intentional, misrepresentation and defamation of his country. True, we may see in the newspapers denunciations of the position, character, commercial resources, and advancement of our Province ; and I believe these have greatly disheartened our people ; setting them at variance with their condition and country ; and leading them to believe that there is something abroad and beyond our borders infinitely superior to any thing that can be found at home. This, however, does not justify a legislator in stamping with the seal of official authority these aspersions ; in sapping the springs of vitality and energy that alone are left to 154 FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. quicken or animate them ; and by a steady, persevering system of self- abasement, inducing an utter absence of all hope. Sir, I believe that this Province is as progressive, as forward in the race of civilization and improvement, as half the countries that may be compared with it on the face of the earth. I find that the honorable gentleman starts with the assumption that Hali fax is the Province of Nova Scotia; he takes the exports and imports ofthis city as evidencing the state of trade the Province over. The time was, prior to 1828, when all the other ports in the Province had their tables of foreign imports blank. There was no other free port down to that period but Halifax. Now Yarmouth, Shelburne, Lunenburg, Pictou, Sydney, Pugwash, aU ports in the Province, are free warehousing ports ; and therefore no comparison can be drawn between the exports and imports of this country, unless they are embraced in the calcula tion. Even in his comparison of the exports and imports of Halifax, he has made an error of about £33,467. Assuming the report to be correct of our imports in 1852 being £222,293, our real exports amounted to £119,385 instead of £85,918, or £33,467 more than the report states. This sufficiently proves the general looseness and inaccuracy of the re port. Halifax has no natural export. It produces neither coal, plaister, grindstones, deals, agricultural produce, cordwood, or ships, which are produced and exported from other parts of the Province. It appears to me, sir, that the honorable member augurs the downfall of Nova Scotia on very insufficient premises. He would have us believe that the country is going to the dogs, because, according to his views, we do not manufacture stoves, leather, furniture. Sir, I revert to the period when free trade was first introduced into this country ; what was our situation then ? Can he point to a single foundry then in existence ? Not one ! Now we have some five or six. Look at Mr. Johns, who came here not a great many years ago, a poor Welshman ; -without friends, capital, or experience, he commenced in this city ; now he owns a square ; his steam engine goes night and day, and he has set an example to those of our countrymen, who, not possessing the steady energy to work their way up, turn their backs upon the land of their birth and flee abroad. I turn to Fresh-water Bridge, and can recollect the period when scarce a pound's worth of property was owned in that region ; now there is £100,000 worth on the soil. A foundry is there also ; does it need pro tection ? It has sprung up within a year or two ; and now I am told that it can supply the very iron piUars required to support this buUding cheaper than they can be obtained in the United States. In Pictou, FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 155 these foundries have also made their appearance since the adoption of this much reviled system of free trade. But the Report asks us to tax the milk-pail of every farmer's wife in the country, that we may encour age one or two manufacturers in the Province. The single one now in operation is supporting itself ; and although the gentleman who carries it on is my personal friend, yet I would not consent to violate what I conceive to be sound policy, to do an act which I am sure would be of no service to him and injure everybody else. As for our tailors and shoemakers, there are ten in the city now for every one there was, when the old protective system began to relax in 1828. Then you could scarcely obtain a decent coat unless you employed a particular tailor ; now good workmen can be found in almost every street. Sir, Halifax has had her seasons of trial, privation, and depression, as all other cities have ; but she has emerged from out of every struggle the stronger and better for the energy she was obliged to put forth. But, says the Report, our mechanics go abroad. Suppose they do ? Does not the honorable member for Pictou know well that in Germany, comprising millions of people and many states, no young man is allowed to set up in business for himself until he has travelled, seen the world, and treasured up some knowledge and experience useful to him in the branch of industry to which he has determined to devote his time? This, in Germany, would be quite correct ; but it never occurs in Nova Scotia but a qualm and an apprehension is excited in the mind of some anxious, over-zealous protectionist ; some ingenious and clever man, who, not bestowing the time to satisfy his own mind upon the subject, weaves all the old women's apprehensions into a Report, and thereby attempts to unsettle that policy which for the last ten or twelve years has worked to our advantage. Household furniture is spoken of. Why, sir, I will undertake to assert, that one house alone sells and ex ports in a single year more household furniture, than was manufactured in the whole city when the system that prevailed up to 1828 began to relax. Have they not prospered ? See the large and extending estab lishments that now dot the city, where the manufacture of furniture is carried on ; mark the comfort and elegance of style with which many of the houses of our mechanics are furnished. And do I envy them this ? No, sir, I thank Providence that this is a country where any industri ous man can command these comforts for his family. Manufacturers of piano-fortes are also to be protected. Sir, I can remember when the city could boast of few, if any, of those musical instruments ; when a piano manufactory was unknown, and when at almost every party 156 FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. old Hurst's violin was heard. Now it would almost be deemed heresy to dance to any thing but a piano or full brass band. I know not whether the change is for the better, for I am sure that nothing could be more blithe, gay, and frolicsome, than the jovial dancing parties of my younger days. But who own these pianos now ? The wives and daughters of our public officers or professional men ? No, sir, but the wives and daughters of those very men who, according to the honorable gentleman, are on the verge of ruin, and therefore stand desperately in need of pro tection. Sir, I say, long may those pianos sound ; long may they dance around them, and long may they cherish in their hearts a feeling less desponding than some of our public men would infuse into their bosoms. The Report is also mournful on the condition of the tanners. Sir, the true secret of the difference between the prosperity of the American and Nova Scotian tanneries is this : an American has the sense to know that if he carries the hides to the bark, instead of carrying the bark to the hides, he makes a large saving, for he reduces the amount of carriage from three or four loads to one. The Americans have also ascertained that the application of machinery to this branch of industry doubles the profits of the manufacturer. If a hedge be drawn around those engaged in this manufacture in Nova Scotia, no inducement will be offered them to introduce these improvements here. They will not then tax their in genuity or expend their capital to compete with the foreign manufacturer. Had the honorable and learned member for Pictou, instead of bringing in this report, moved a grant sufficient to send some able and experienced man to the United States, whose duty it should be to examine into the mode of conducting the various branches of business in that country, and report as to which of them could be successfully carried on in Nova Scotia — what machinery was necessary, what the required outlay, the result would have been far more beneficial and of infinitely greater value, than any law we can pass founded upon his views. Last summer I was in Amherst, and while there I called to see an old-fashioned New England man. I walked through his establishment, and his conversa tion at once evinced his intelligence and shrewdness. Around his shop were to be seen looking-glass frames, furniture, picture frames, and to all appearance he had plenty to occupy his time, and seemed in most com fortable circumstances. " Can you tell me," I asked, " how it is that you have been able to come here, establish, and successfully carry on a business which none of our own people had the wit to understand ? " " Why, Mr. Howe," said he, " your people are not up to it. No man does any thing in the United States with his hands, that can be done with FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 157 his head. These articles that you see around have been manufactured at one-half the sum they would have cost had they been made by hand." I ran through, this autumn, a large foundry in Glasgow, and while passing round the works, the overseer said, "From the swarthy ap pearance of the men engaged here, you would suppose them over-worked, but it is not so. It is a curious fact in the history of modern mechanism, that nearly every thing of this kind is manufactured by machinery, the men merely being engaged to watch the progress of the work, and ar range and keep the machines in order."' While there, I saw a shaft of iron, as thick as my body, cut like cheese, the man attending the machine merely shifting the bar and replacing it with another. So with almost every thing else. That is the secret of American success. But, sh', let me ask the honorable and learned member for Pictou, who he is going to tax, and for what? According to the census of 1852 we have in all the Province — Employed in manufactures 3,200 Mechanics 8,895 12,095 While our — Lumberers number 1,954 Men at sea 3,961 Registered seamen 1,413 Fishermen 9,927 Farmers 31,604 Merchants and traders 2,415 Doctors 145 Lawyers 143 Clergymen 288 51,850 The class to be protected, then, it is apparent, number less than one- quarter of those to be taxed for their advantage. Assuming that they are one-fourth, and adding the families to the men, two hundred and twenty-five thousand people are, by the Report, to be taxed for the ben efit of seventy-five thousand. Even were his arguments sound, I represent Cumberland, and I ask myself if I am prepared to tax the farmers, lumberers, quarrymen, the sawmen; competing, as they are obliged to, with all the world, for the purpose of bolstering up certain artificial branches of industry, which cannot stand competition on a fair and just basis? But the 158 FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. true reason why I am opposed to the imposition of the proposed du ties is, that I believe they can stand on their own strength ; and that emerging, as Our farmers and fishermen are, from the stagnation and de pression occasioned by bad crops and unprolific fishing seasons; af flicted as they have been by the dispensation of Providence ; it would be unwise, unfair, and impolitic, to burden them with a single shhling of duty more than is absolutely necessary for the purposes of revenue. Why, sir, does not the honorable and learned gentleman know that even between this and the head of St. Margaret's Bay, a large sum has been this year appUed to save unsuccessful fishermen from starvation ? And yet he would increase the price of the articles they need, that a few manufacturers — who now live, some of them at least, in affluence and splendor — may be better paid. He is apprehensive of what he terms the exodus of our population. Admitting all he says to be correct, are we singular in that respect ? Has the outgoing of our people been such that we should be marked down among the Colonial possessions of England as a country depopu lated "f- Sir, I find by a report of the Maine Legislature, that they are obliged to build more railways than those now in operation that they may keep their people at home, and yet Maine is within the charmed cir cle of American protection. In the United States, as in other countries the large cities attract the rural and far off population. Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, are larger, gayer, and more attractive places ; in them is an aggregation of amusements unknown to the rural viUage, and therefore the younger portions of its population go to swell the num bers of the metropolis. So it is in the old world. The population of London has grown to be equal to that of all Scotland put together, and yet Scotland was under a protective system long enough. Almost every baker in London is a Scotchman, and every milkman a Welshman. Again, sir, there has been the gold excitement of California and Aus tralia. You hardly take up a Punch that does not contain a ludicrous joke on this subject. But on all hands it is admitted that never, under the old protective system, has England been as prosperous as she now is under that of free trade. Nova Scotia, then, is not singular in this. Her population have gone away to a certain extent, but so have the peo ple of Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, of all the States of the Union ; of England, Ireland and Scotland. The tide set to California ; it is now setting to Australia : but those of our young men who have left their homes to seek gold had better have stayed at home. Within my own knowledge at least a dozen have lost health, constitution, life, or FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 159 prospects, while but few have returned a pound better off than when they left ; and surely their minds and hearts are less open to contam ination here, where peace, order, and steady progressive industry, dis tinguish this people, than among the gambling, unprincipled population, and the various fascinations and temptations that abound in those distant regions. Show me the country, sir, where gold fields exist that has ever arrived at extended civilization. Take Spanish America — the whole race of its native Indians destroyed, its people uneducated and immoral ; contrast that country with England. No gold is found within her borders, but she has iron, copper, coal, and timber ; ores and ochre, and stalwart men to work her mines and catch her fish. Rumors reach us of gold being found at Annapolis, at the Chaudiere, and silver in Queen's county. I trust in heaven they may prove untrue. Nova Scotia, Uke England, has iron, coal, and copper ; she has timber to build ships and fisheries to supply them with a hardy race, to make the most of these great natural resources. Let us, then, cease to invent libels upon our country, but make the most of the blessings of Providence, leaving those who prefer to seek adventures to push their fortunes abroad. As to the cry of empty houses in Halifax, I had the curiosity to turn to the census, in order that I might ascertain how we contrasted in this particular with other countries. The census of 1852 shows that there were in all Nova Scotia, two thousand and twenty-eight uninhabited houses ; in the large county of Halifax, including the city, three hundred and sixteen. He then showed that in London, the metropolis of the world, there were in the Parish of Marylebone six hundred and fifty- eight uninhabited houses ; in the Strand, the great thoroughfare of uni versal commerce, five hundred and thirty-seven. That Windsor, with a population of nineteen thousand, living under the very smile of royalty, had three hundred and seven empty houses ; about the same as the county of HaUfax, with double the population. Stockport, with a population of less than one-third that of Nova Scotia, had two thousand five hun dred and ninety-nine uninhabited houses, or five hundred and seventy more than were to be found in all this country. Bolton had two thousand two hundred and seventy-four empty houses, and a population of one hundred and thirteen thousand seven hundred and twelve. Contrasted with Wales, Nova Scotia had largely the advantage ; and taking Fife- shire, in Scotland, with its population of one hundred and fifty thousand, about half that of Nova Scotia, it had one thousand and seventy-six empty houses, or about one hundred in the whole above our proportion. lfJO FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. In the city of Dublin, there were one thousand five hundred and sixty- one empty houses. In Wexford, one thousand one hundred and eight. In Antrim, two thousand six hundred and seventy-four. In London derry, two thousand three hundred and fifty-nine. In Cork, three thous and six hundred and eighty-eight. Let us hear no more then about empty houses being proof of decline in Nova Scotia. There are empty houses in every city in the world, and have been since the world began. In the largest and most prosperous they are often^he most numerous, just as there are empty hats and boots for the same reason ; because if the supply were not greater than the demand, people would sometimes go unsheltered, and sleep in the street. The Report professes a desire to put the manufacturers of Nova Scotia on a footing with those of other countries. What, sir, is the secret of the growth of American manufactures ? Their boundless market, and perfect freedom of trade with each other. A wooden nutmeg, or a ham, has the whole range of the Union for a market ; a clock, a hat, any thing that Yankee ingenuity invents, may be sent into thirty States. Again, asks the Report : shall we buy from a people that wUl not buy from us ? Why, sir, I have bought from many men that never purchased of me ; I bought because I wanted what they had. Does the honorable and learned Chairman mean that we should do without flour, corn, brooms, or rice ; subjecting our people to inconvenience that we may retaliate on the Amer icans for not purchasing from us ? But, sir they do purchase from us. Where does all our coal, wood, potatoes, butter, fish, plaister, go, but to the States of the Union ? All that we have to export there finds a ready market. Jonathan is a pretty good customer after aU. The Report wants perfect freedom of trade ; that, sir, is like perfect happiness — you must take as much of it as you can get. I have no doubt but that we should all desire to be perfectly happy, wealthy, and healthy ; but neces sity compels us to obtain as much of what is good as we can. It has been said that a Uttle learning is a dangerous thing; the honorable and learned gentleman would apply the same principle to free trade. I think if we cannot get a great deal, a little of either is much to be desired. He tells us that the consumer does not pay the duty. Suppose a Nova Sco tian takes his plaister, grindstones, or other articles to the American market, sells them, and brings back the proceeds in Yankee notions ; now he is met by a merely nominal duty here ; but if twenty or twenty-five per cent, were imposed, would not the price of the articles be en hanced to the buyer by the amount of duty levied ? It would. The seller, in making up his costs and charges, would add the duty, and the FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 161 price would be increased one-fourth. Therefore it is, sir, that I believe the consumer pays the duty. As to the famine of which the honorable and learned member for Pictou speaks, he reminds me of the Frenchman who went to the Court of VersaUles, to represent to the King the destitute state of some starving department. The King said, " You are a fine, portly man ; have you lived in that department all your life ?" " Yes," was the reply ; and the King was pleased to refuse the applica tion, placing more reUance upon the real picture of starvation presented in the person of the delegate, than on the imaginative one he had drawn. Look at the honorable member himself; he is a host, when used as an argument against the dreadful destitution of which he complains. Go into any part of Nova Scotia, and I will back the population for general comfort of condition and circumstances, against the same classes in any country ; yet, sir, by the Report of this committee, we would be led to the conclusion that all was going to rack and ruin. I do not be- Ueve in such prognostications. I believe they give but a false color ing to the picture of our country ; and that although the weavel, and loss in the fisheries, have been upon us, yet but in a few isolated instances is real want perceptible. Still further do I conceive the Committee have erred in attributing the distress that does prevail to the system of trade now in operation. Let me exhibit a bird's-eye view of our com merce, before the adoption of free trade ; let me give a few facts to sober the fancy, as a set-off against these flights of imagination. Sir, the honorable gentleman has been soaring above our heads like a balloon at a horticultural show, until dazzled by the height to which he has attained, he has become rather unsteady, and seems to require a little ballast that he may attain his equilibrium ; the result may perhaps teach him not again to be emulous of the clouds. In 1852, says he, the imports were £222,347, the exports about £119,000. What were they in 1821 and 1828 under the old Protective Tariff? They were respectively £162,362 and £217,933 but little less than the present average. If our city is ruined and desolate now, was it not in a condition equally ruinous and desolate then ? Surely these prophets should have flown from it as from Sodom or Gomorrah. Why did they not leave ? Mr. Johnston. They got the worst of it, for not leaving the cities the honorable Provincial secretary has mentioned. Mr. Howe. We did not suffer much ; but if any unforeseen calamity does arise, surely the sufferers should be the false prophets from Pictou. We are not in the grievously awkward and destitute position that the honorable and learned member for Pictou would make out ; he had bet- 63* 162 FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. ter turn his attention to this subject more closely, and make himself ac quainted with the real facts of the case, before attempting to stigmatize his country as he has done in this Report. His argument reminds me much of a conversation said to have been held by Agricola with a des pairing farmer from Cornwallis, who complained that he had no market. " Why," said Agricola, " what have you to seU ? Any poultry, mutton, potatoes?" "No." "Any beef, cabbages, or turnips?" "No." Go into AnnapoUs and you will not find an egg, a chicken, or a pound of butter, you will scarcely find a single article produced in the country, for which a ready and remunerative market is not at hand. The honorable member for Kings and I know his noble county well ; and there never was a period when its people were more prosperous ; when property was so fast becoming released from mortgage, or when productions were so readily disposed of. Look at our fish trade; there is not a barrel left on our hands in the spring, whatever the catch. Instead, therefore, of grumbling and growUng, I think it is the duty of Nova Scotians to ele vate their country, if possible, in the eyes of our own people and of aU the world. Mr. Howe then exhibited a tabular return, showing a picture of our commerce in 1807, 1814, 1821, and 1828. By this it appeared that down to the latter period no Provincial port but HaUfax had any foreign trade ; that not a single vessel then entered or cleared for the United States from Yarmouth, Digby, Pictou, Sydney, Kings, Hants, or any other active centre of the American trade ; whUe the Consular certifi cates showed that, during the past year, voyages had been made by our own vessels from every port in Nova Scotia to the ports of that Repub lic with which Mr. Wilkins declared the export trade had dechned. Mr. Howe admitted that the exports would be more extensive if reciprocity or entire free trade could be secured; but as matters stood, the American consumers paid a large portion of the duty, and aU parts of the Prov ince participated in a convenient and profitable traffic which it would be madness to destroy. Our exports to the United States, from all our ports, had now reached £266,850, or forty-four times what they were in 1828, under the old restrictive and protective system to which the learned member from Pictou wished to return. Again, says the Report — " Property is of little or no value." Well, sir, I have always thought that to own any thing that can be sold was to be worth something. But if the value of property depends upon pro tection, why did not this magic power increase its price previous to 1828. My mind again reverts to that period when fields were sold for FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 163 £5,000 that would now readily command £50,000, and when the whole of Granville Street could have been purchased for the value of two stores now situated in it. Since that period, Halifax and Dartmouth have doubled in size. New Glasgow and North Sydney, towns that have sprung up, a result of our coal trade with the American Union, did not then exist ; Yarmouth was a scattered village ; Pugwash a hamlet of half a dozen houses ; Hantsport was unknown, and not a single square rigged vessel was owned in the Basin of Mines. In what quarter of Nova Scotia, then, has property depreciated in value ? Surely here as elsewhere the increase of population, and the construction of new pro perty on the face of the soil, will enhance the intrinsic value of the soil itself. Our population has nearly trebled since that period, and in a fair ratio property has increased in value. But I must pass on. The Report says, — " You import more than you export ; therefore your country is going to ruin ; " this notion, like the story of the philosopher's stone, has deluded the world long enough, for hardly can a country be found the imports of which do not appear to be greater than its exports. There is another extraordinary fallacy, among many with which this Report abounds, and these combined with its sonorous and grand sen tences, propounded with an air of entire truthfulness, are well calcu lated to mislead those who are too indolent to investigate for them selves. Now for a politico-economic axiom : " The price of property is regulated by the quantity of money in the market." Indeed ? Take CaUfornia ; there gold and gold dust are the common productions of the country ; there flour has risen as high in price as forty-five dollars per barrel, because it was not plentiful. Cast the wealth of Golconda upon a desolate island, will it add to its value ? No ! They pay as high as four dollars for a goose in Australia. Mr. M. I. Wilkins. Because money is plentiful. Mr. Howe. No ! I say because geese are scarce. Let gold flow in large quantities into a country, and with every other commodity it will depreciate in value ; and although a party may obtain a larger quan tity of the precious metal for the article he sells ; yet the real value will not be greater than that of the smaller quantity when the gold was less plentful. And then the Report would terrify us with the picture of some fabulous giant in armour, crushing us for admitting foreign manu factures into our markets ; but why not admit them if they are re quired ? The Report says, because a multitude of manufacturing labor ers would be called into existence. Suppose they could, would he have the farmer of Cumberland, Pictou, Annapolis, Kings, forsake his 164 FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. implements of husbandry ; the fishermen of Sambro or the Gut forsake his nets and seines, and the calm content and even equality of fortune they enjoy, to become like the manufacturing laborers of England or of the neighboring Union ? Would he oblige our fishermen or farmers to pay a large sum for the articles needed in their households that they might maintain somebody else ? Sir, I hope not ; I would desire them to pur chase what they require wherever it can be obtained cheapest. Obtain protection, says the honorable and learned member for Pictou, and money will become abundant and wages high. To show the absurdity of this doctrine, let me give him but the example of the United States in which protectionist principles are rife. About eighteen months ago specie was so scarce that the best commercial paper could not be dis counted at less than from ten to fifteen per cent., while six per cent. is the highest rate ever asked in Nova Scotia ; and everybody knows that the wages received by our laboring classes are, at aU events, equal to the sums paid in the United States. And this with aU the gold Cali- ifornia has thrown into the Union. There is another curious paragraph ; Oh, says he, we will protect the fishermen. How ? By giving them bounties ? Oh ! no, sir, but by preventing the Americans from fishing on our grounds. Have we not done so already ? and is it not our inten tion to carry out what we have commenced ? It is ; therefore let him not credit protection with what free trade is doing. But the object is palpable. He sees that to foster those branches of industry which he regards with peculiar respect, it is necessary to tax all others ; and therefore he gives to the fishermen this one drop of comfort, as compensation for the burdens he intends imposing upon them. The assertion in the Report that, if the present system be continued, " the population would be thinned down to the aged, infirm, and others, who, in consequence of poverty and the peculiarity of their circum stances, have neither the means nor abiUty to leave the country," is a foul libel on Nova Scotia. Such assertions, daily made or repeated by those who ought to know better, are calculated if not intended to break the spirit of the people at home, and to depreciate the character and re sources of the Province abroad. The learned member for Pictou is a false prophet of evil, which exists only in his own imagination. Out of his own mouth I cannot convict him, for there comes so little out of it to enable one to construct a rational argument about any thing, but I will convict him out of his own county. Mr. Howe then took the census of Pictou for 1829, and showed that in that year it contained but 13,949 souls. This was in the good old protective times before free trade com- FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 165 menced. Of course, under the ruinous system which the learned mem ber denounced, the House would expect to find the county depopulated and nobody left but the "aged, the infirm, and the poor." What is the fact ? That, not counting the restless or adventurous whom she has thrown off to other countries, to the United States, to California, and to Australia, Pictou contained in 1852, 25,593 souls, having doubled her population in twenty-four years. Now, sir, besides this, I can show to the honorable and learned gen tleman that Pictou has increased in wealth as well as population. He will admit, of course,, that every acre of ground cleared and tilled, every house and barn put up, every horse and ox, sheep or pig added to the farmer's stock, increases by its value the general wealth of the Province. In 1828 the county of Pictou included but 49,181 acres of cleared land. It now has 103,562 acres. The increase, taken at the low rate of £5 an acre, would show that Pictou, to say nothing of buildings and other improvements, had added a quarter of a million to the value of her real estate in twenty-four years. Take the same ratio for the other seventeen counties, where the same thing has been going on, and then tell me that Nova Scotia is becoming poor and worthless. But not only has Pictou doubled her numbers and breadth of cultivation, but ad vanced in every other element of wealth and profitable industry. In 1828 her cattle numbered but eleven thousand seven hundred and one. She has now eighteen thousand nine hundred and twenty head. In 1828 she had but sixteen hundred horses. She has now four thousand five hundred and sixty-one. He would therefore tell the learned mem ber who represented this fine county, that before sitting down to pen such an extraordinary production as that upon the table, it might be as well to inform himself as to its actual condition, and to gather the most obvious and elementary materials for judging of the condition of our country. Now, sir, suppose Scotland had acted on the principles which the hon orable and learned member would apply to this Province, would her sons have been as active, intelligent, and wealthy. She drew no cordon around her, but allowed her sons to go abroad, to see the world ; some to the Indies, some to America ; many of whom returned to the land of their birth with the accumulated wealth and experience they had acquired ; and their country marks their ' track over the mountain wave with de light, rejoicing that they went abroad, and on the wide field of the world fought their way up to eminence and wealth. Why, then, should our ears be assailed with these eternal lamentations whenever a Nova 166 FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. Scotian quits our soil ? and why should those who remain in the old homestead be libelled, misrepresented, and abused ? Our sons go abroad to take their chance with the adventurous youth of all nations, animated by a natural desire to see the world, and emulous of distancing their competitors in the race for wealth or fame. Now, sir, our official returns show that down to 1828 no vessel could enter or clear out of any port but that of HaUfax. I admit that in con sequence of the change Halifax may not have advanced as rapidly as she otherwise would, but the other ports have been benefitted in a degree more than compensating for her loss. I will now read a statement of our imports and exports for 1852, prepared by the honora ble Financial Secretary. They were as follows : — Imports. From Great Britain £427,532 " United States 347,843 " British North American Colonies 243,041 " British West Indies 21,938 " Other Countries 153,819 Total £1,194,173 Exports. To Great Britain £62,675 To United States 266,850 To British North American Colonies 352,105 To British West Indies 214,034 Other Countries 85 035 T°tal £980,699 From this it will appear that if we are carrying on a losing trade it is with John Bull and not Brother Jonathan. Our imports from Great Britain were £427,532 ; exports £62,675 ; while our imports from the United States were £347,843 ; our exports £266,850. But, sir, the difference is more apparent than real. The exports were charged at home prices. Ninety-seven thousand barrels of mack erel which sold in the United States at £2 are charged at but £1 in the returns. Forty-nine thousand cords of wood, worth 20*. per cord across the bay, are set down at 10s., and so with every thing else. From those returns it will appear that the country which sold us the most and took the least was Great Britain ; our imports being £427,532, and our exports but £62,675. If then we want protection at all it would appear to be against our mother country. But, even in that direction, things FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. 167 are not really so bad as they appear. On the registry of Great Britain in 1847 there were four hundred and thirty-nine Nova Scotia built ves sels, numbering one hundred and three thousand three hundred and nine teen tons. Take these at £6 per ton, and the amount of export in an ar ticle which the returns did not include would amount to £619,914. Then there were the vessels built here and sold to the fishermen of Newfound land, and the vessels built all around the shores of the Bay of Fundy, and sold to New Brunswick. The amount which Great Britian expends annu- ually in maintaining the fleet and troops in the Province should also be set down to the credit side of the account. But even if our imports exceeded the exports, which they really did not, the labor of three hundred thousand people is expended annually upon the face of the soil ; accumulated prop erty in cleared land, buildings, stock, and improvements, which are the real evidences of a country's advance and prosperity, constitute the stock in trade out of which, if we owe any thing, we are able to pay. Beside this, sir, there are the vessels built in our ports and floated over to New Brunswick, there rigged and hailing from that Province, but in point of fact being a real export from our own. Sir, had I had more time and been in better physical condition than I am, I should have gone more thoroughly into the subject ; but I believe I have said enough to show that the Report, the accuracy of which I have impugned, is not a correct picture of the condition of this Province, or of the extent and nature of its trade in 1853 ; and should therefore not be placed on our journals. I may say to the honorable and learned member for Pictou that neither he nor I have received the training that would fit us for dealing with this subject. Is it not matter of fact, that since Great Britain has repealed the navigation laws and thrown her ports and carrying trade open to the competition of the world, her shipping and tonnage have been steadily on the increase ? It is. Sir, I admit that the time may arrive when the union of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia with the other Provinces, may be necessary to compel the United States to grant us more extended freedom of trade. My mind has not yet come up even to that point. Surrounded as we are by the sea I believe it is our true policy to give the freest scope to the maritime propensities of this people. Take Liverpool, Pictou, Arichat, Shelburne, Yarmouth, and Digby ; our duty is to connect these seaports with our agricultural and mining counties by good roads, that every facility for the exportation of our pro ductions may be afforded. But, sir, I put it to the House whether the experience of the past has not taught us that if our impositions on foreign importations exceed a certain rate means will be found to evade their payment. You may impose your duties, you cannot collect them. 168 DINNER AT AMHERST. It is a well-known principle that if your penal enactments be too severe, juries at once become lenient ; and on the same principle, if you increase your tariff beyond what is rational and reasonable, the sympathies ofthe community are enlisted in favor of the smuggler. The commerce will be hampered east and west ; you offer a bounty for a breach of the revenue laws. With these remarks, sir, I shall conclude, satisfied with having recaUed the attention of the House to a sense of the magnitude of this subject ; its vast importance, and the great effect it will in future have in improving the condition of our people, in stimulating them to active ex ertion and adding to the general wealth of the Province. For more than a year the opposition press had been unusually scurrilous. Mr. Howe had been assailed with great virulence and injustice. At a dinner given to him by about two hundred and thirty of his constituents at Amherst, he paid these writers off, vindicating his own conduct on all the points on which it had been assailed, and carrying the war into the enemy's coun try with a great deal of energy and effect. As specimens of Pro vincial stump oratory, we take an extract or two from this speech: I turn now with pleasure from mere personal defamation to the gen eral charges which the opposition bring against the government. You hear it complained from day to day that it has ruined the Province. You look round upon a smihng and prosperous country, and know that charge to be groundless. Never, within my memory, was Nova Scotia more prosperous. The breadth of cultivation is everywhere extending. New farmhouses, barns, and mills are going up in all directions. The internal trade is active ; new ships are building all round the coast, and our mercantile marine is profitably employed. Bad crops have but quickened the industry of the people. Prices are high, wages good, and the people cheerful. Where do the Tories find the evidences of ruin and decay ? Not in Cumberland, I am sure. Not in the Eastern coun ties, from which I hear the most gratifying accounts. Not in Yarmouth, which launches a new vessel every week, and finds employment for them all. Not in King's, where a gentleman told me the other day that money was so abundant, that he knew of £8,000 or £10,000 lying in that single county which could not be invested at five per cent. Not in Halifax, where new shops are being opened, and new houses are being built on every street. There, as everywhere else, public improvement keeps pace with private enterprise. Look at the edifice behind us, as large as all the old hotels. put together. In the capital a new barrack SPEECH AT AMHERST. 169 is being built, the citadel advances, a new market is in course of erec tion, a new court house and lunatic asylum are already provided for, and the Common has been more embellished within the last two years than in half a century before. Let us hear no more, then, of the Tory twad dle about ruin and decay. But it is said that you are living under a tyrannical government. This I take leave to deny. There is not a man from end to end of the Province who can complain that his civil and religious rights are denied to him. There is not a man, however poor, of any sect or denomination, who has not free access to every officer, from the Lieutenant Governor downwards. There is not a man or woman, a black man or an Indian, whose complaint is not promptly investigated, whose written or verbal communication is not treated with courtesy and respect. Long may such tyranny continue in Nova Scotia. Turn to the public departments, and you will find a new spirit breathed into them all. A few years ago you had no audit of accounts — even the treasurer audited his own. Now the inspection is perfect as it is prompt. Formerly a farmer would wait half a day to get a road ac count examined, with his team standing in the street. Now, no man who enters the Province Building leaves it till his accounts are audited, and the check for his money is in his hand. Formerly your statistics were imperfect, and the returns of your trade of little value. Now voluminous returns, showing the condition of every branch of industry, are laid upon the table of the House. With the lowest tariff in the world our revenue is steadily increasing, while new free ports have been opened in all directions, giving additional facilities to trade. Look at the post office. A few years ago you paid 9d. on a letter from Amherst to Halifax, Is. Qd. on one sent from Halifax to Sydney, 2s. ld. if it was sent to Montreal. Now you can send a letter all over the Province, all over British America, for 3d., and yet with this reduc tion of postage, since the liberal administration came into power, forty- six new rides have been set up, and seventy-three new post and way of fices have been established, conferring upon numerous settlements, and upon many thousands of the people, the blessings of postal communica tion. Look at the land offices. Formerly you had two, costing an enormous sum ; and yet any man wishing to buy land had to travel to Halifax or Sydney with his money, and make another journey to obtain his grant. Your deputy surveyors gave no bonds, and often pocketed the money which ignorant people paid them. Now one department does the work at a moderate expense, and in every county there is a deputy, under 69 170 SPEECH AT AMHERST. bonds, to whom money may be safely paid, and through whose hands the grants, when perfected, are delivered to the people. If you turn to the board of works you will find a number of miscellaneous services, — Sable Island, the penitentiary, lighthouses, public buildings, and vessels for the protection of the revenue and the fisheries, which were formerly managed or mismanaged by irresponsible commissioners, all combined under one methodical and responsible department, the work being better done at very much less expense. Of my own department, I will only say, that a Tory secretary, who represented no constituency, formerly cost the country about £1,800 a year. Now the unfortunate wight who stands before you does all his work for £700, finding time to do much that he never thought of doing, and representing the fine county of Cumberland besides. But it may be said, what have you done for Cumberland. Reflect, for a moment, how little time Mr. Fulton and myself have had to do any thing. The extra session was devoted to the railroad alone. During nearly the whole of the session in 1852 we were running a second elec tion. We have had but one session to mature any measure calmly. But have we done nothing ? It used to be said, during the elections, " Oh ! you will never see Howe's face again ; he will never travel over the county, and look at your roads and bridges." They knew little of me. Last summer I was twice in Cumberland. I rode over every part of the township of Parrsboro, and through much of the township of Amherst, and traversed the shore from Pugwash to Malagash. I have just returned from a circuit nearly as extensive, in which I have visited Point de Bute, Bay de Verte, Tidnish, River Philip, Leicester, Little River, and Pugwash. These rides I shall continue till I have the whole county in my head. Nor have these rambles been barren of re sults. For years had Cumberland paid light duties, and yet had not a lighthouse on either of her coasts. Now a new lighthouse at Parrsboro, built last year, sends its beams far out over the Basin of Mines, and we must have another at Pugwash by and by. For twenty years a bridge across the River Philip had been talked of by the people and promised by the Tories. They would have promised it for twenty years more. Fulton and I provided for it the very first session that we represented . the county together. Already are the piers completed, and by the end of September the whole will be done. The House gave us £300 ; the bridge will cost £1,600, but before the end of autumn we shall have the happiness to contemplate the finest public work ever constructed in the county, and which will connect all the thriving settlements on the north ern shore together in all time to come. Yet we have not been unmind- SPEECH AT AMHERST. 171 ful of other parts of the county. Bent's Hill, the worst upon the post road, has been altered. A new line from Half-way River to Parrsboro has been surveyed, ancl, after this season, we travel the Fullerton hills no more. Next year we shall attack the hills between Pugsley's and Macan. The whole coast line from Advocate Harbor to Colchester has been surveyed, and as soon as the River Philip Bridge is paid for we shall show you a new line on the Parrsboro shores. But you ask me, "What about the railroad?" Well, I have no infor mation to give more than all the world has. I know that it has been said, " Oh ! Howe dare not come to Cumberland, now that his railway policy has failed." But here I am, and neither afraid nor ashamed to defend any act I have done, and every word I have said in reference to the rail ways. After all that has been written and said upon the subject ; after aU the phases the question has assumed, is there a sane man in North Amer ica who will assert that my original scheme of borrowing the money at three and a half per cent., under the guarantee of the Imperial govern ment, and constructing the railways as government works, was not far superior to any other that has yet been proposed ? If I failed to carry out that scheme, I am proud that for two years I struggled to accom plish it with all my might, and with the sincerity of an honest convic tion. But why did I fail ? Is there a man here who blames me ? Is there a man who does not feel that I failed because the interests of pow erful parties in England, who wanted to make money out of those roads, were opposed to the interests of the Provinces ? You may remember that all through the summer and winter elections we were told, " Howe is going to ruin the Province with his railway scheme." Mark, now ; my scheme was to build them with money at three and a half per cent., and to let the people own them. That was to bring ruin on us all. I hold in my hand the prospectus of the Canada Grand Trunk Railway Com pany. Now what have they published to all the world, after, we are told, careful surveys and estimates ? Why that, made with money or bonds, bearing interest at six per cent., the Grand Trunk Railway, which was to ruin us if made with money at three and a half, will not only pay all expenses, but yield a clear profit of eleven and a half per cent, besides. Now, assume that statement to be true, and what are the inevitable conclusions ; that all the tales of mischief and ruin to arise from making railroads, spoken and published by the opposition in 1851, 1852 and 1853, were baseless fabrications ; and that the motive was to put this eleven and a half per cent, into their own pockets, that ought to have been a permanent source of revenue to the people of British America, lightening their taxation, and ultimately giving them railroads 172 SPEECH AT AMHERST. as free as their common highways are now. Yes, my friends, this was the motive : and when you calculate eleven and a half per cent, on mil lions of money, besides contractors' profits, you need not seek far for the reasons which disturbed my policy in 1851. The interests of a few members of Parliament, and rich contractors in England, were on one side, and the interests of the Colonists on the other ; and in such a case there was no great difficulty in giving two meanings to a dispatch, or in telling a Nova Scotian vrith no seat in Parliament, or connections or influence in England, that he had made a mistake. Who doubts, then, that down to 1852 my policy was sound, and who blames me that powerful combinations in England, and no fault of mine, caused it to miscarry ? And what care I for the taunts and slanders of those recreant Nova Scotians, who, combining with these speculators against their country, hope to put some portion of the eleven and a half per cent, into their own pockets ? My defence of my conduct in 1852 is soon made. Hinckes and Chandler came to Nova Scotia in that year to induce us to adopt the line by the valley of the St. John. I resisted that Une as long as I could, and their line was subsequently condemned by the British government, and pronounced impracticable by Mr. Jack son's surveyors. They went to England, and you know well the reasons why I could not go. They did the best they could for their several Provinces, and I have never blamed them for what they did. But, as Nova Scotia was unpledged by their arrangements, and had six months to review her position, I saw clearly that she could do better ; that she could, upon her own credit, and without any Imperial guarantee, carry out her original policy, and make, control, and own, her own rail roads. I saw, also, that it was for the interest of all the Provinces to have competition, and to cheapen the cost of their public works. With this view I labored down to the middle of last session. When that ses sion opened, the money was ready on the credit of the Province alone to build all our railroads. Contractors were ready to build them for twenty per cent, less than New Brunswick and Canada were to pay. In ten days the bills might have been passed ; in ten more the contracts would have been signed, and five hundred men might now have been upon the lines. Again, the interests of rich contractors, and scheming attorneys, clashed with the interests of the Province, and united the op position to a man. I could have beaten them notwithstanding, had not one or two persons, calling themselves liberals, conspired with the enemy to destroy our bills, and to dash down the hopes and prospects of their own party, at the proudest moment of its political history. This work accomplished, the combined opposition were powerless for good. They SPEECH AT AMHERST. 173 could neither form a government nor build a railroad. To secure a party triumph, they promised that Mr. Jackson would build the three roads, and pay us interest at six per cent, for any bonds the Province gave him. I did not believe that he could do this ; I do not believe it now ; but the moment that his friends put that pledge in writing, we accepted it, and a compromise was the result. That compromise we shall stand by in good faith. If Mr. Jackson, or anybody else, will form a company, and construct the railroads under the Act of Incorporation which has been passed, the government will give them every fair cooperation. But, should no company be formed, the alternative bills come into operation, and the roads will be built as originally proposed. The day is far dis tant, my friends, when I shall be ashamed of my railway policy, or afraid to discuss it in any part of Nova Scotia. Against fearful odds I have battled for the general interests, and if I have not done all that I wished, I have at least done all that I could. When the House met in 1854, it was quite apparent that the Province had lost a year by relying upon the promises of the op position ; that Mr. Jackson had abandoned the field, and that, if railroads were to be made, they could only be secured by pledging the public funds for their construction. Mr. Wilkins, member for Windsor, acknowledged his conversion to Mr. Howe's views, and tendered his support to the government. His example was followed by some other gentlemen ; and, before the session closed, the laws under which our noble public works have been and are being constructed, were matured and passed. By these the government was authorized to construct three railroads : A trunk line from Halifax to Pictou, to connect the capital with the eastern counties ; to tap the trade of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and to secure the export of coal from the Albion, and any other mines that might be opened along the track, during the winter months, when the Gulf is closed by ice. A line, running westward to Windsor, and onward through the western counties to Digby ; connecting Halifax with the Bason of Mines, at either or both points, and insuring easy and rapid communication with St. John, New Brunswick, Portland, and the whole railway systems of Canada and the United States. 69* 174 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIEE. A line, from Truro to the frontier of New Brunswick, to form part of any intercolonial line that Canada and that Province may hereafter make. These works were to be constructed under the supervision of six commissioners, to be appointed by the government. The funds were to be raised by the issue of Provincial debentures, for the payment of the interest and principal of which the Pro vincial revenues, with the revenues of the roads, were pledged. The government were empowered to complete such sections first as were most required, and were limited to the expenditure of a million pounds currency until the experiment was fairly tried. The political opposition exhausted all their resources in order to defeat these bills, but they were finally carried through both branches, and received the royal assent. On the 11th of March, on a motion brought forward by the leader of the opposition, to promote a union of the Provinces of British North America, Mr. Howe delivered a speech on the organization of the Empire, which has been justly regarded as very able. It was extensively circulated and much admired on this side of the Atlantic, at the time of its delivery ; and, when republished in England in 1855, attracted a great deal of atten tion from the metropolitan and Provincial press of the mother country: — Mr. Chairman, — Had the government brought this question here, my honorable friend from Londonderry might have charged upon us the se lection of an inappropriate season, or disregard of the pressure and strain of public business already tasking the industry of this Assembly. But, sir, this resolution has been brought here by the leader of the opposition, and we are challenged to discuss it. Perhaps if we had introduced the measure, it might not have been met in the spirit which I trust we shah display. One half of the House might have fancied that some sinister design lurked within the resolution, and the supposed interests of party might have combined them against it. But I desire to treat the gentle man with more courtesy — the resolution with the consideration it de serves ; and I trust that the day is yet far distant in Nova Scotia, when questions of transcendent importance will be entangled in the meshes of party, or fail to challenge, no matter whence they emanate, earnest and thoughtful investigation in this Assembly. Sir, I differ with my honor- ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 175 able friend from Londonderry, and with all those who are disposed to treat this subject lightly. Come from whose hand it may, the resolution before the committee opens up for discussion the broadest field, the noblest subject, ever presented to the consideration of this Legislature. A day, or even a week, may be well spent upon such a theme. If, sir, such topics were oftener presented here, our ideas would expand beyond the charmed, it may be, but the contracted circle of party disputations ; our debates would assume a higher tone ; and the hopes and aspirations of our people, clustering around their firesides, would point to interests more enduring than even the result of half our controversies — some poorly paid office, or paltry Provincial distinction. Sir, I regret not the time which this question will engross, but my in ability to do it justice. When the prophets and orators of old were about to discourse of the destinies of nations, they retired to the moun tains, or by the streams, to meditate ; they communed, in the abundance of their leisure, with God above, and caught their inspiration alike from the tranquillity which enabled them to penetrate the dispensations of His Providence, as from the phenomena of nature all around them ; and which tinged with beauty the " thoughts that breathe, and words that burn," which have come streaming down, like Unes of light, even to the present hour. They were often untrammelled by daily duties and hu man obligations. Borne down by official labor and responsibilities of various kinds, I feel that, for me at least, the occasion of this discussion is inauspicious. Believe me, sir, that my obligations to my sovereign as her sworn Councillor, to the head of the government as his constitu tional adviser, and to the party with which I act, press heavily upon me. But yet, rising with the magnitude ofthis great theme, I shall endeavor to catch its inspiration ; remembering only that I am a Nova Scotian, the son of a loyalist, a North American, a true subject of the Queen ; but one whose allegiance, to be perfect, must include every attribute of manhood, every privilege of the empire. Sir, I wish that my leisure had been greater, that I might have brought before you the ripened fruits of meditation, the illustrative stores of history which research only can accumulate. In no vain spirit do I wish also that the sentiments wliich I am about to utter might be heard and pondered, not only as they will be by those who inhabit half this continent, but by members of the British Parliament, by Imperial states men, by the Councillors who stand around, and by the gracious sovereign who sits upon the throne. Perhaps this may not be. Yet I believe that the day is not distant, when our sons, standing in our places, trained in the enjoyment of public liberty by those who have gone before them, 176 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. and compelled to be statesmen by the throbbing of their British blood, and by the necessities of their position, wUl be heard across the Atlantic; and will utter to each other, and to all the world, sentiments, which to day, Mr. Chairman, may fall with an air of novelty upon your ear. I am not sure, sir, that even out of this discussion may not arise a spirit of union and elevation of thought, that may lead North America to cast aside her Colonial habiliments, to put on national aspects, to assert na tional claims, and prepare to assume national obhgations. Come what may, I do not hesitate to express the hope that, from this day, she wiU aspire to consolidation as an integral portion of the realm of England, or assert her claims to a national existence. Sir, the first question which we men of the North must put to our selves, is, Have we a territory broad enough of which to make a nation? At the risk of travelling over some of the ground trodden yesterday by the learned member for Annapolis, I think it can be shown that we have. Beneath, around, and behind us, stretching away from the Atlantic to the Pacific, are four miUions square mUes of territory. AU Europe, with its family of nations, contains but three million seven hundred and eight thousand, or two hundred and ninety-two thousand miles less. The United States include three million three hundred and thirty thousand five hundred and seventy-two square miles, or seven hundred and sixty- nine thousand one hundred and twenty-eight less than British America. Sir, I often smUe when I hear some vain-glorious Republican ex claiming : — " No pent-up TJtica contracts our powers, The whole unbounded continent is ours ! " forgetting that the largest portion does not belong to him at aU, but to us, the men of the North, whose descendants wiU control its destinies for ever. Sir, the whole globe contains but thirty-seven milUon square miles. We, North Americans, living under the British flag, have one- ninth of the whole, and this ought to give us " ample room and verge enough" for the accommodation and support of a countless population. It is true that all this territory is not yet politically organized, but — Canada includes 400,000 square mUes, New Brunswick 28 000 Nova Scotia j 9 qqq Prince Edward Island 2 000 Newfoundland 37 qqq Making in all 486,000 square miles, ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 177 which have settled landmarks, and are controlled by Provincial legisla tion. Throwing out of consideration the unorganized territory behind, let me show you by comparison what the rest includes. The great Prov ince of Canada is equal in size to Great Britain, France, and Prussia. Charmed by her classic recollections, how apt are we to magnify every thing in the old world, and to imagine that Providence has been kind to her alone. Yet the noble St. Lawrence is equal in proportions to the Nile — the great granary of the East, which, from the days of the pa triarchs, has fed millions with its produce. Take the Italian's Po, the Frenchman's Rhone, the Englishman's Thames, the German's Rhine, and the Spaniard's Tagus, and roll them all into one channel, and you then only have a stream equal to the St. Lawrence. The great lakes of Canada are larger in volume than the Caspian Sea ; and the Gulf of St. Lawrence (with which we are so familiar that we forget what it is), con tains a surface of one hundred thousand square miles, and is as large as the Black Sea, on which the proud fleets of four hostile nations may at this very moment be engaged. Accustomed to think and feel as Colonists, it is difficult for us to imagine that the Baltic, illustrated by Nelson's achievements and Campbell's verse, is not something different from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and yet it is not. Its dimensions are about the same ; its climate rigorous ; its coasts originally sterile, and the sea-kings and warriors who came out of it, made of no better stuff than are the men who shoot seals on the ice flakes of Newfoundland, till farms on the green hills of Pictou, or fell trees in the forests of New Brunswick. But, sir, let us confine our attention for a few moments to the mari time Provinces alone. Of these you rarely hear in the mother country. If an Englishman thinks of North America at all, he divides it between Canada and the United States. Except in some sets and circles, chiefly mercantile, you rarely hear of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, or Newfoundland. The learned member for Annapolis truly described the Colonial condition when he stated, that in the estima tion of our fellow subjects at home, a Colonist is nothing. But, with God's blessing, we will wipe away the invidious distinction. The mari time Provinces alone cover eighty-six thousand square miles of territory. They are half as large again as England and Scotland together. They are as large as Holland, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, and Switzerland, all put together. New Brunswick alone is as large as the kingdom of Sar dinia, and even Nova Scotia is larger than Switzerland. Mr. Chairman, I listened with genuine pleasure to the member for Annapolis, when he spoke, as he did yesterday, of the resources of Nova 178 ORGANIZATION OP THE EMPIRE. Scotia. I do not so listen to him when, misguided by passion, he dis parages his country that he may have a fling at its government. I have said that Nova Scotia is as large as Switzerland, a country which has maintained its freedom for ages, surrounded by European despotisms. If it be answered that Switzerland owes her national existence to her inaccessible mountains, then I say that Nova Scotia is as large as Hol land, which, with a level surface, did the same. The Hollanders, who almost won from the sea a country no larger than ours, defied the whole power of the Spanish monarchy, swept the British Channel with their brooms, and, for a century, monopolized the rich commerce of the Eastern Islands which they had subdued by their enterprise and valor. Our country is as large as theirs, and let us not be told, then, that we are getting on stilts, when we either point to the resources which past industry has but imperfectly developed, or fore shadow that future which looms before us, so full of hope and promise. Why, sir, even little Prince Edward Island is larger than aU the Ionian Islands put together, and yet they are more thought of by European di plomatists than are our Provinces, only because they sometimes indulge themselves in the dignity of insurrection. But it may be said, What is extent of territory if it be a howling wil derness ? If you have not the population, you can aspire to no national existence. Let us see, sir, if we have not men enough to assert and to maintain any status to which we may aspire. Canada contains 1,842,264 inhabitants. New Brunswick 200,000 Nova Scotia 300,000 Newfoundland 100,000 Prince Edward Island 75,000 2,517,264 Yet, after all, it may be retorted, what are two millions and a half of people ? Not many, indeed, but every thing must be tested by compari son. What have two millions and a half of people done ? That is the question. Take Scotland, for example ; she has but two millions six hund red and twenty thousand now. Yet will any man assert, that if Scotland desired a distinct national existence, if the old lion which Punch affects to laugh at were really angry, that Scotsmen would hesitate to unfurl the old flag and draw the broad claymore ? True it is, that Scotland has not her separate Legislature ; but she has what we have not, — and to this point I shall shortly turn the attention ORGANIZATION OP THE EMPIRE. 179 of the committee, — her fifty-three members to represent her interests in the Imperial Parliament. British America, with an equal population, has not one. Turn to our own continent, and, by way of example, take the State of Ohio. She has but a million and a half of people, yet she has not only her State Legislature and government as we have, but sends nineteen members to the National Congress. She is a sovereign State, but she forms a part of a great confederacy, and her nineteen members guard her interests in the discussions which touch the whole, as ours are not guarded in the great council of the empire of which we form a part. Will North Americans long be satisfied with less than every State of the Union claims ? Turning again to Europe, we find Saxony, that centuries ago gave conquerors and kings to England, has but one million seven hundred and fifty-seven thousand inhabitants. Wirtemberg, with about the same population, is a kingdom, with its European potentate at its head, its court, its standing army, its foreign alliances. Denmark, which also gave kings and ravagers to England, and has maintained her national position from the days of Canute to our own, has but two millions two hundred and twelve thousand and seventy-four inhabitants. Yet her court is respected ; her alliance courted ; she maintains a peace estab lishment of twenty-five thousand men which is raised to seventy-five thousand in time of war. Look at Greece : " The Isles of Greece — the Isles of Greece, Where burning Sappho loved and sung." Greece that broke the power of Xerxes, and for arts, arms, oratory, poetry, and civilization, stands preeminent among ancient states. Greece, at this moment, has her King, who reigns over but nine hundred and thirty-six thousand subjects. But, sir, does extent of territory make a nation ? Never. Numbers of people ? No. What then ? The spirit which animates ; the discipline that renders them invincible. There were but three hundred men at the Pass of Ther mopylae ; yet they stopped an army, and their glory streams down the page of history, while miUions of slaves have lived and died and are forgotten. Glance at Portugal ; she numbers less than three and a half millions (three million four hundred and twelve thousand), and yet, when she had a much smaller population, her mariners explored the African coast, found their way round the stormy Cape, and founded in the East a poUtical and religious ascendancy which lasted for a hundred 180 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. years. We, North Americans, sit down and read the exploits of Gus tavus Vasa, or of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden. We wonder at the prowess of those Norman adventurers who carved out kingdoms with their conquering swords, and founded dynasties in France, Italy, and England. Yet we are apt to forget that Sweden and Norway together have but four milhon three hundred and six thousand six hundred and fifty souls, and that the mingled blood of the Scandinavian and the Saxon courses through our veins. The men who are felling pine trees upon the Saguenay, or catching fish in our Baltic, would make good sea-kings to-morrow, if plunder and not commerce were the order of the day. Let us, in heaven's name, then, throw aside our stupid devotion to historic contemplation, and look the realities of our own position fairly in the face. Sir, I have spoken of Switzerland, but I forgot one striking fact ; that with a population less than that of British America at this moment, she has not only maintained her nationality, but has sent armed warriors to fight the battles of half the States of Europe. Let me now turn your attention to South America. Here we find a cluster of States, certainly not more intelligent or more deserving, but all challenging, and enjoying a higher status than our own. Let us group them : — Venezuela 1,000,000 people. New Granada 1,678,000 Equador 600,000 Peru 1,373,000 Bolivia 1,700,000 Chili 1 ,200,000 Buenos Ayres 675,000 Some of these countries are, in education and political knowledge, be neath contempt ; not one of them contains two miUions of people, yet all of them not only manage or mismanage their internal affairs, but form alliances, exchange diplomatic representatives, and control their foreign relations. Is there a British statesman, then, with a head on his should ers, who, looking at what North America is, and must become, but must feel the necessity for binding her to the empire by some enlightened provision for the protection of her material interests, for the gratification of her legitimate ambition ? Sir, a country must have resources as well as breadth of soil. Are we destitute of these ? I think not. Between the extremes of cold and heat lies a broad region peculiarly adapted for the growth of wheat ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 181 About half of this — the peninsula formed by the great lakes — belongs to Canada. The soil of Lower Canada, of New Brunswick, and of Prince Edward Island, if less fertile, is still productive. Boundless forests supply us with materials for ships, and with an inexhaustible export. Are there no mineral resources ? I believe that the riches of the copper mines of Lake Superior have scarcely yet been dreamed of. We know that, in the Lower Provinces, we have iron and coal in abundance. I have spoken of the St. Lawrence ; but have we no other navigable rivers ? What shall we say of the noble Ottawa, the beautiful Richelieu, the deep Saguenay ? what of the broad Miramichi, of the lovely St. John ? Nova Scotia, being nearly an island, has no mighty rivers, but she has what is better than them all — open harbors through out the year. She has old ocean wrapping her round with loving em- bracements ; drawing down from every creek, and cove, and harbor, her children to share the treasures of an exhaustless fishery, or to carry commodities across her bosom. Though not large, how beautiful and diversified are the lakes and streams which everywhere glad the eye, and give to our country water carriage and water power in every section of the interior. Already Nova Scotia has shown what she can draw from a soil of generous fertility, what she can do upon the sea. Sir, I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, and my head will be cold long before my prediction is verified; but I know that the day must come when Nova Scotia, small as she is, will maintain half a million of men upon the sea. Already is she becoming remarked and remarkable for her enterprise. Taking her tonnage, and applying to all the other Provinces her ratio of increase since 1846, they collectively own six thousand one hundred and thirty-nine vessels, measuring four hundred and fifty-three thousand tons. We are perpetually told of the progress made by the Great Republic ; and the learned member for Annapolis ascribes all their prosperity to their union. But the North American Provinces have not been united, and yet they own as much tonnage as the fifteen of the United States which I am about to name. I take North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missis sippi, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Oregon, and California ; and, altogether, they own only four hundred and fifty-three thousand nine hundred and forty-six tons of shipping, or but nine hundred and forty-six tens more than the five North American Prov inces ; which have no union, no national existence, no control over their foreign relations, no representation in the National Councils of the empire to which they belong. I may be told that some of these States raise 70 182 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. more corn, cotton, or tobacco, or have more manufactures than we have. I care not for these. Since the world began, the nation that had the most ships, has had the most influence. Maritime countries ever take the lead in freedom, in commerce, in wealth, and true civilization. Sir, let not the member for Annapolis, while he directs our attention to higher objects, fail to see in the maritime position which his country has achieved, unmistakable evidence of her energy and her enterprise. And let it ever be borne in mind, that the United States were a century in advance of us in point of time, and that they came into possession of aU the prop erty that the loyalists left behind them. But, sir, take the combined tonnage of North America, and you will find that it equals that of Hol land, Belgium, and the two Sicilies, three of the maritime powers of Eu rope. Who then will say that we have not a mercantile marine where with to endow a nation ? Scotland maintains upon the Clyde the greatest manufactory of ships in the world. Vessels glide up and down that beautiful stream like swaUows round a barn. Scarcely a moment passes, but richly laden ves sels arrive or depart with domestic manufactures or the products of foreign climes. Go into the factories where the mighty engines for her steamers are wrought, and the noise of the fabled Cyclops' cave is realized. The roar of waters behind Niagara Falls is scarcely more incessant or more deafening. And yet, sir, the tonnage of Scotland is only a trifle more than that of the North American Provinces. Her whole commercial marine included but five hundred and twenty-two thousand two hundred and twenty-two tons in 1853. At the risk of being tedious, let me now turn your attention to two or three curious historical facts illustrative of this argument. Since we were boys we have aU read of the Spanish Armada. We all have heard of Queen Elizabeth reviewing her land and sea forces ; and preparing, with grave doubts in her royal mind, to defend her sea-girt isle against the foreign invaders. This was in 1588. We read in old chronicles, that England then owned but one hundred and thirty-five merchant ships. But then some were " of great size," some four hundred tons, and a few reaching five hundred tons ! If my friend George McKenzie, of New Glasgow, had dashed into the midst of the maiden Queen's navy, with his one thousand four hundred and forty-four ton ships, I fear that he would have shaken her nerves, and astonished our forefathers, of whose exploits we are so enamoured that we never think of our own. Sir, in 1702, the mercantile marine of England and Wales included only two hun dred and sixty-one thousand two hundred and twenty-nine tons; and ORGANIZATION OF .THE EMPIRE. 183 even as late as 1750, not a century ago, it was but four hundred and thirty-three thousand nine hundred and twenty-two ; less than the ton nage of North America at this moment. And yet, for ten centuries prior to that period, they had maintained an independent national existence. Let me now inquire, Mr. Chairman, whether or not we have other elements upon which to rest our claims. Is there any reason to fear that our ships will rot in the docks for want of commodities to carry, or of commercial activity? Look to our imports for 1853 : — Canada £8,200,640 Nova Scotia 1,194,175 New Brunswick, 1852 1,110,600 Newfoundland, 1852 795,738 Prince Edward Island 298,543 £11,599,696 The imports of the whole United States in 1791, sixteen years after they had established their independence, only amounted to $52,000,000 ; but a trifle over what ours are at the present time. Yet with that lim ited amount of commerce, they had gone through a bloody and expensive war with one of the foremost nations of the world ; whose statesmen, un fortunately, still go on dreaming that they can keep continents filled with freemen, without making any provision for their incorporation into the Realm, or for securing to them any control over their foreign relations. Let me now turn your attention to the exports of British America : — Canada £5,570,000 Nova Scotia 970,780 New Brunswick, 1852 : 796,335 Prince Edward Island (about) 242,675 Newfoundland 965,772 £8,545,562 And if we add to this amount another million, for the value of new ships annually built and sold, we may take the whole at £9,545,562. Turn again to the statistics ofthe United States for 1791, and you will perceive, that sixteen years after they had declared their independence, their exports amounted to but $19,000,000, or about half the value of our own. Glance again at the Parent State, from whom we have learnt so much, and to whose history we always recur with interest. She occupies a proud position now ; but what was she, commercially, a few centuries ago? In 1354, when the Black Prince was carrying the conquering arms of 184 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. * England half over France, her exports were but £212,338 ; less than one fourth of what the exports of Nova Scotia are now. Turn to the period of the civil wars, when the people of England felt strong enough to dethrone a king, and cut off his head. When Cromwell's Puritan sea warriors so raised the national character abroad, that an Englishman was secure and respected in every quarter of the globe. How limited was the trade of England then. Even after the Restoration, so late as 1669, the exports of England and Wales only amounted to £2,063,294. I have another remarkable contrast for you, Mr. Chairman. In 1688, England secured, for the first time in her histor}-, that system of acknowl edged accountability which we call responsible government. Now, from 1698 to 1701 the average exports of England and Wales did not exceed £6,449,394 ; less than our own by two miUions ; not more than ours were when we claimed and established the same political safeguards. The exports of England in 1850 had risen to £175,416,000. Expand ing with the principles of unrestricted commerce, their value must now be above £200,000,000. While then we look back at her days of de crepitude, let us borrow hope from her smaU beginnings, and cherish the freedom and self-reliance which have ensured her prosperity. But, it may be said, if you are going to look like a nation — if you wish to put on the aspect of a great combined people — you must have some revenues to support your pretensions. Well, sir, look at the rev enues of these Provinces under tariffs remarkably low: — Canada collects £1,053,026 Nova Scotia 125,000 New Brunswick 180 000 Prince Edward Island 35,345 Newfoundland 84 393 £1,477,694 We raise this amount now without any extraordinary effort, with but a very inefficient force to collect it, without any body feeling that it is coUected. The sum is not large, but other people, even in trying times, have had less ; and see what they have done with what they had. Take the United States. At the Declaration of Independence the revenue of the thirteen States was but $4,771,000, or £1,200,000 ; so that when those thirteen colonies entered upon a mighty struggle with the parent state they had less revenue, by £300,000, than these five Provinces have now. But, sir, we are told every now and then, that there is something in these northern regions adverse to the increase of population ; that the Mayflower may flourish under our snow drifts, but that children wUl not; ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 185 that, compared with the procreative powers of the " sunny south," here they must be " few and far between." I deny the impeachment. In the North marriage is a necessity of nature. In the South a man may do without a wife ; but in the long cold nights of our winters he can not sleep alone. Large, vigorous, healthy families, spring from feather beds in which Jack Frost compels people to lie close. The honorable member for Annapolis showed us, yesterday, that the inhabitants of Canada have increased sixty-eight per cent in ten years. New Bruns wick has advanced in about the same ratio, while Nova Scotia has quintupled her population in fifty years. At the same rate of increase Nova Scotia will count her population by millions before a new century begins, and British America — taking every means of calculation into account — will probably then contain at least ten millions of people. If, then, Mr. Chairman, the British and Colonial statemen of the present day, cordially cooperating, do not incorporate this people into the British Empire, or make a nation of them, they will, long before their numbers have swelled so much, make a nation of themselves. Let me not be misunderstood, sir, I shall say nothing here that I would not utter in the presence of the Queen. If disposed to declare our inde pendence to-morrow, I do not believe that Her Majesty's government would attempt to prevent us by force. If they did, they would fail. But what I want them to understand is this, that they lost one-half of this continent from not comprehending it ; and that just so sure as they expect the sentiment of loyalty to attach the other half to England, while the people of two small islands divide the distinctions and the influence of Empire among them, they will by and by be awakened by the peaceful organization of a great country, whose inhabitants must be Britons in every sense of the word, or something more. This may seem to be vain and arrogant language, and I may be asked to support it by some reference to the ultima ratio of nations — physi cal force. Taking our population at two millions and a half, every fifth person should be able to draw a trigger, giving five hundred thousand men capable of bearing arms. Such a force would be powerless as an invading army, but in defence of these Provinces, invincible by any force that could be sent from abroad. Put into these men the spirit which animated the Greek, the Roman, the Dutchman, or the Swiss ; let them feel that they are to protect their own hearthstones ; and my word for it, the heroic blood which beats in their veins will be true to its characteristics. How often have we heard that our republican neigh bors " down south " were going to overrun the Provinces. They have attempted it once or twice, but have always been beaten out, and I do 70* 186 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. not hesitate to say, that the British Americans over whom the old flag flies, are able to defend every inch of their territory, even though Her Majesty's troops were withdrawn. Indeed, sir, if these five hundred thousand men are not able to defend our country, they deserve to be trodden down and made slaves of for the rest of their natural lives. Why, sir, the standing army of Great Britain, charged with the de fence of an Empire, including Provinces in every quarter of the globe, numbers but one hundred and twenty thousand men ; in war this force is raised to three hundred and eighty thousand ; so that North America can muster for the defence of her own soil, more men than are required to maintain the honor of the crown or the integrity of the Empire at home and abroad. The whole standing army of the United States includes but ten thousand men, a number that we could caU out in a day from our eastern or western counties. Sir, my honorable friend from Pictou has only to sound the pibroch in the county he represents, ahd ten thousand sons of the heather, or their descendants, would start up with musket and claymore ; and I am not sure that there would not be bagpipes enough found in the county to cheer on the warriors with the wild music of a martial nation. Why, sir, the old thirteen Colonies, sixteen years after their Declaration of Independence, deducting slaves, had but a little over three millions of people ; while, at the Declaration of Independence in 1775, they had only two millions two hundred and forty-three thousand, all told, or a smaller physical force than we have now. My father used to tell me curious old stories of the Colonial army that ¦went to take Louisburgh. The whole New England force fitted out for that expedition was but four thousand and seventy strong ; just about as many as, upon an emergency, the leader of the opposition could turn out from the county of Annapolis. I should not like to see him clothed in more warUke habiliments than those he usually wears ; but if he fancied mihtary command, I am quite sure that he could enroU in his own county four thousand, as daring and gallant warriors as went to the capture of Louisburgh. I do not think that I am mistaken, when I say, that the women of that county are as well worth fighting for as any on this con tinent, and that they can regale their defenders on the best cheese and apple pies that are to be found on either side of the line. But we have all heard of another armament, some of the wrecks of which, on a calm day, may still be seen reposing at the bottom of Bed ford Basin. I mean the great fleet fitted out by France for the conquest of the old Colonies, under the Due d'Anville. That fleet consisted of seventy sail, but it transported across the broad Atlantic but three ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 187 thousand one hundred and fifty fighting men, an armament that this Province alone should defeat in a single battle. At the battle of Bun ker Hill there were but three thousand men on one side, and two thousand on the other. Though there was a fair stand up fight, the physical force engaged was nothing compared with the great political principles which have rendered the conflict immortal. I turn to Scotland again, to keep my honorable friend from Pictou from going to sleep ; he has heard of Bannockburn. Well, at that great battle, which secured the independence of his country, there were but thirty thousand Scots engaged ; about half as many men as Nova Scotia could arm to-morrow, if an emergency demanded an appeal to physical force. In 1745 six thousand Scotchmen marched to Derby, in the very heart of England, " frightening the Isle from its propriety ; " and at the battle of Culloden, where the power of the Stuarts was finally stricken down, there were but four thousand Scotchmen engaged, with muskets a great deal worse than those which we affect to despise. At the union of England and Scotland in 1707, the population of the latter country was but one million and fifty thousand ; her shipping not fifty thousand tons; her revenue only £110,694. These facts are curious, for with such apparently straitened resources Scotland had maintained her national independence for ages ; often fighting great battles, and passing through fiery trials. Where, sir, is my friend the Financial Secretary ? He wants something to lend dignity to the dull figures which he pores over day by day. Let me assure him that he need not fear to contrast his revenue of £125,000, with that of Scotland at the union. As late as 1766 the shipping of Scotland measured but 32,818 tons, but a trifle over what it was a century before, while ours has increased enor mously in the same period of time. Historical events, which genius illustrates, dazzle us, as stage plays do, so that we rarely count the strength of the company, or measure the proportions of the scene. The Royalist army at Marston Moor mus tered but twenty thousand men, and yet the crown of England hung upon the issue. The Scots at Dunbar had but an equal number. Three such armies could be furnished by Nova Scotia alone. I am often amused at the flippant manner in which our old arms are spoken of; but at Naseby King Charles had only " twelve cannons," and they were not much better than those which are used for firing salutes at our mud for tresses in Guysborough and Lunenburgh. Why, at the battle of Cressy there were but thirty thousand Englishmen — about one half of the militia of Nova Scotia. At Poictiers there were but twelve thousand, fewer men than our friends from Cape Breton could muster without drawing a 188 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. man from the main. Man for man, then, we have in North America force enough to fight over again all the great battles that emblazon our national history ; that is, if the blood of the sires has descended to their sons, and if the mercurial atmosphere, of the north, which ought to lend it vivacity, does not render it sluggish and inert. You will be amused to find that Frederick the Great had only two and a half millions of people to develop his schemes of conquest, and to defy a world in arms. So that nobody ought to be surprised if two and a half millions of British subjects, accustomed to the forms and securities of freedom, physically as enduring, and inteUectually as intelli gent, should at least ask for the same poUtical status as the cockneys of London or the weavers of Manchester. But, it is sometimes said by politicians, for party purposes, that aU the world is advancing faster than we are. Is it so ? Take Halifax for example. It numbers twenty-five thousand inhabitants. How many cities in the whole United States are larger ? Only twenty-one. Mon treal has sixty thousand people ; there are only eight cities in the Re public more populous. Let us now, sir, turn to another aspect of the question. If we have got the resources, the trade, the territory, the men and the cities to begin with, have we not got the freedom ? Look to your old monarchies, or recent republics, and see if any of them have exhibited more of the love of liberty, or of capacity for securing its practical enjoyment, than we have. The very tone of this debate proclaims Nova Scotia a free country ; and that, whatever we may lack, we have the first best gift of God to man : freedom of thought, of speech, and of public discussion. The people of this country select every public officer, from one end of it to the other, either directly, or by their representatives, with one single exception. The Lieutenant Governor alone is appointed by the Impe rial government. We have more power over those who manage our affairs than they have in England, where the peers are permanent — the crown hereditary. Our people, in their town meetings, do their local business ; this Legislature forms the administration and sustains it. We are as free as any people in Europe, Asia, or Africa ; and as for America, I believe the principles of the British Constitution secure a sounder state of rational freedom than the Constitution of the RepubUc And, sir, let us bear this in mind, that these form the only cluster of col onies that have devised a system which makes freedom compatible with allegiance, and to whom free constitutions have been conceded. I rec ollect, when in England three years ago, meeting delegates from Aus tralia and the Cape in search of constitutions for their Colonies. I told ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 189 them that we had a very good one in Nova Scotia, which they ought to copy. But their heads were filled with theories. Repudiating, as we have not done, the principles ofthe British Constitution, they saw visions and dreamed dreams. The delegate from the Cape wanted an elective Council, the members to be elected by the constituency of the whole Colony. I tried to made him understand that canvassing a county in Nova Scotia was no joke ; and that before a gentleman got through his canvass of the whole Cape Colony, he would either be -devoured by lions or shot by Kaffirs. My friend would not believe me ; but before he got home, the Kaffir war broke out, and I fear that he has been either killed or eaten before this, while in search of his new constitution. If we look across the border, Mr. Chairman, we have, in some re spects, not much to envy. I have never sought to disparage the United States. Familiar with their early history, their trials, their achieve ments, and their blunders, I give them credit for all they have accom plished, and make liberal allowance even for their mistakes. They speak the same language, and are descended from the 'same ancestors ; but have they more of rational liberty than we have ? Until recently they might boast of their Universal Suffrage, which we had not ; but we have it now, and even the member for Annapolis tells us that their institutions are more conservative than ours. As regards public burdens, how do mat ters stand ? The United States, with a population of thirty millions, owed in 1846 two hundred and twenty-four millions of dollars, or seven dollars to each inhabitant of the country. Nova Scotia, with a population of three hundred thousand, owes but one hundred thousand pounds, (half of it paying four per cent, and the other half paying nothing), or about one dollar twenty-five cents for each inhabitant. Even if our railroads were completed, and were entirely unproductive, we would have the use of them, at all events ; and even then we would not be as deeply in debt as are, at this moment, the prosperous United States. I think then, Mr. Chairman, it is obvious that whether we take extent of territory, rivers and lakes, extent of sea coast, natural re sources, shipping, imports and exports, revenue, ratio of increase, physi cal strength, size of cities, the enjoyment of freedom, general education, or activity of the press — we are entitled to form a nation, if so dis posed, and to control our foreign relations as well as our domestic affairs. How can this be done ? In various ways ; and, sir, I shall discuss the modes with the same freedom as I have done the means. First, it may be done by annexation to the United States. What would be the advan tages of that step ? All commercial questions now agitated between the 190 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. two countries, would be settled at once ; we should have unlimited inter course with the seaboard of that great country, and free trade from Maine to California. Our public men would no longer be depressed with the checked aspirations of which the member for Annapolis spoke last night. Every North American, whose pride is now wounded by degrading contrasts, would be eligible to the highest offices and posi tions — not in a colony, but in a nation ; and we should enjoy perpetual peace with our neighbors along fifteen hundred miles of frontier. Sir, I do not deny that any man who sincerely and honestly advocates annexa tion to the United States, has powerful arguments in his favor. I am opposed to it, and would resist such a step by aU means within my reach. I believe it would be, unless forced upon us, morally wrong ; being a violation of our allegiance, and a breach of faith pUghted to our brethren across the water for more than one hundred years. Of course, if they expect us to be Colonists for ever ; and make no provision for our being any thing else ; upon their heads, and not upon ours, be the conse quences of the separation, which, when this is apparent, will be inevitable. I prefer full incorporation with them, in one great empire; free participa tion with them in its good and evil fortunes, its perils and its distinctions. All this I believe to be practicable, and shall not despair of its fulfilment. But, sir, there are other considerations which would deter me from any thought of annexation. At the revolutionary struggle, the loyalists were driven seaward ; they lost their homes, right or wrong, acting on their honest convictions ; and I rejoice that, whether right or wrong, be- Ueving themselves right, they had the courage, and enterprise, and en ergy, so to act. They sacrificed every thing but their principles ; their property was confiscated, and they cast their lot into a comparative wil derness. They and their descendants have made it to " blossom as the rose." They have fraternized with the French Canadians and Aeadi ans. English, Irish, Scotch and German emigrants, have graduaUy come over to be incorporated with them, to fiU up the country, to form one race ; so that North America presents the outline of a great improv ing and self-dependent community. Sir, the Loyalists left all they owned in the United States, and their possessions were merged in the general property of the Union. The Republicans cannot restore it to us ; and I should be ashamed to go back to tell them, " our fathers made a great mistake, they thought their glorious old flag and time-honored^ institutions worth preserving ; but we, their sons, with a territory larger than yours, and a population larger than you had when you framed your Constitution ; with education that our fathers taught us to prize ; free of debt and at peace with aU the world, are not fit for national existence," ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 191 are unable to frame a Constitution, but come back, after a separation of seventy years, and ask to take refuge under the stars and stripes ! " No ! Mr. Chairman, I for one will never prefer such a craven request. Sir, I believe annexation would be unwise for other reasons. I be lieve the United States are large enough already. In a few years the population of that country must reach one hundred millions. They have as much work to do now as they can do well ; and I believe before many years, if their union is preserved, they will have more work to do that any Legislature can despatch, after their modes, in three hundred and sixty-five days. Congress now sits for half a year. Our legislation occupies about ten weeks ; that of New Brunswick about the same time. In Canada, the session often lasts three or four months. So that, if an nexation were seriously contemplated, there would be no time in the National Congress to get through with the work that ought to be well and wisely done. There is another question which must be settled be fore you, or I, or any Nova Scotian, will be a party to annexation. Sir, I believe the question of slavery must be settled sooner or later by bloodshed. I do not believe it can ever be settled in any other way. That question shadows the institutions, and poisons the springs of social and public life among our neighbors. It saps all principles, overrides all obligations. Why, sir, I did believe until very lately that no consta ble, armed with a law which violated the law of God, could capture a slave in any of the Northern States ; but the Fugitive Slave Law has been enforced even in Puritan New England, where tea could not be sold or stamps collected. British North America, sir, has not a slave in all her boundless territory ; and I, for one, will never cast my lot in with that of a people who buy and sell human beings ; and who would profane our soil with their Fugitive Slave Laws, or involve us in agrarian war for the preservation of an institution that we despise. There is another reason that would make me reluctant to be drawn into the vortex of the republic. There might come cause for conflict between that country and old England. Sir, there is not a man in this Assembly who does not aspire to hold his head as high as the head of any other man on earth ; but I trust, nay, I know, that there is not one who would raise his hand in hostility against that revered country, from whose loins we have sprung, and whose noble institutions it has been our pride to imitate. If the slave States could be cut off, and the free States could be com bined with us in perpetual peace with England, we might see nothing objectionable in a union such as that. Having discussed the question of annexation, let me inquire how else could we organize ourselves into a nation ? By forming North America 192 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. into a kingdom or confederation by itself, and establishing friendly con nections with other countries, with the entire concurrence of our brethren at home. I agree with the member for Annapolis, that there would be great advantages arising from a union of these Colonies. But there must be differences of opinion as to the various modes of accomplishing that object. We may have a king, or a viceroy, and a Legislature for the whole of North America ; or we may have a Federal and Democratic Union. The advantages of the first would be a strong executive, a united Parliament, the crown hereditary, distinctions permanent. But there would be disadvantages. Such a government would be expensive ; there would be no peerage or feudal bulwarks to sustain a sovereign ; and we might get a dynasty of knaves, fools, or tyrants. We should have the monarchical and democratic elements warring for ascendancy, and our people would soon feel the loss of their local Legislatures. What has been the complaint of Ireland for years ? That there was no Par liament in College Green. Of Scotland, at this moment ? That there is no Parliament at Holyrood. A higher description of talent, a more elevated order of men in a united Legislature, would not compensate the people for the loss of local legislation which they have enjoyed for a century. By a Federal Union of the Colonies we should have some thing like the neighboring repubhc ; and if I saw nothing better I should say at once, let us keep our local Legislatures, and have a President and central Congress for all the higher and external relations of the United Provinces. We should then have nationality with purely repub Ucan institutions. But if we so far change our organization, we must substitute American precedents and practice for British. We now re fer to Hastell as our guide in Parliament perplexities ; we should then have to take the practice of the neighboring republic. There might be one disadvantage in having a king or a viceroy. The Queen across the water, because the Atlantic rolls between us, offers nothing obnoxious to the prejudices of our American neighbors ; but once establish a mon arch or viceroy here, and I am not quite sure that we would not have a fight to maintain him on his throne, with those who apprehended danger from our example. Under a Federal Union we should form a large and prosperous nation, lying between the other two branches of the British family, and our duty would evidently be to keep them both at peace; But, sir, I will say to the member for Annapolis, that before we can have this organization, or any other, we must have railroads. The company which has made a line of railway from Hamilton to Windsor, Canada West, deserve great credit for their enterprise and energy. I admit that the Grand Trunk Company of Canada is preparing to con- ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 193 nect a great part of that country with these indispensable lines of com munication ; but, sir, it will take years to complete what Canada has be gun ; and then we have New Brunswick between us. It is clear we cannot have a united Parliament without railroads ; for if any of us were summoned to Quebec to-morrow, we should have to travel from the end of our own country to its metropolis through a foreign State. We must have railroads, first ; and then, take my word for it, the question we are now discussing will assume a form and shape that will soon lead to a tangible solution. Once put my honorable friend from Clare [Mr. Comeau, a French Acadian] on a railway, and send him up among the inhabitants of Lower Canada, and he would feel no longer as a poor Colonist ; but as one of a million of men, speaking the same language, animated by the same hopes, participating in kindred aspirations. Let him see the noble St. Lawrence and the lakes that lie beyond ; let him survey the whole of this magnificent country that God has given to his race, and to mine, on this side of the Atlantic, and he would come back to meet, without a blush for her capacity, or a fear for her fortunes, an Englishman, an Irishman, a Scotchman, a German, a Frenchman, or even a republican, from across the border. Overspread the Colonies with railways, and I care not what you have, — a united Congress or nothing. The people of British America will then be united, and wiU soon assert the position which they will feel their capacity to maintain. Pondering or. these themes, sir, my mind ever turns to an old states man, who has gone I trust to heaven, but whose name will be dug up, and whose writings will be read with interest in years to come, on both sides of the Atlantic — I mean old Governor Pownall. Looking through the strife and passion which preceded the American Revolution, through the fire and smoke of it, at the stupid prejudices and blunders which it engendered and has entailed, it is curious to see how a calm mind and sagacious intellect penetrated into the philosophy of a great controversy, and would have laid the foundations of the empire in mu tual confidence and respect. What was his advice, when the rebels of the Colonies were preparing their muskets and the statesmen of Eng land were deaf and blind ? He said : " You are one family — the ocean divides you ; you must have different forms of government, but that is no reason why you should not be a united family ; arbitrate on disputed points; keep the peace; have distinct forms of government, if you please, but establish a zolverein, and let there be perpetual amity and free trade between the British races on both sides of the Atlantic." Had his advice been taken, the Revolution would never have occurred ; we should have been spared the second war ; and the paltry jealousies 71 194 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. which any sneering scribbler or unprincipled politician may now blow into a flame, would never have existed. Let us, as far as we can, lend ourselves to the realization of this grand idea. I feel now as I felt yesterday, that every word which dropped from the member for Annapolis was pregnant with meaning, and full of in terest. Let us suppose, sir, that our railroads were finished, and that we had the rapidity of intercourse necessary for union. Are there, then, no difficulties in the way ? First, the French Canadians may not favor a union. I should like to be assured that they did ; but certain facts have given me a contrary impression. Upper Canada favors a union, because the people there think it would tend to keep the French Canadian influ ence down. That view of the matter has been propagated in Lower Canada, and it has raised prejudices which cannot, perhaps, be easily overcome. The Lower Provinces would never sanction inequahty or injustice of any kind ; but yet the French Canadians may have their fears. My honorable friend from Clare might indeed be sent up as a missionary, to convince his brethren that we would not be less just to them than we are to him; that Nova Scotians treat those of French descent as brethren, who are never permitted to feel any poUtical, religious or so cial distinctions. The prejudice may be overcome; but it exists in Can ada, and may be found a difficulty in the way of a union of the Colonies. There are other difficulties. If a project of union is to be discussed, let the proposition come from the other Provinces. For various reasons, I have but little desire to re-open intercolonial negotiations about any thing, just now. The seat of government would be a knotty question ; the large debts that Canada has contracted, another. The New Bruns wick papers invite the Lower Provinces to form a union, with Amherst or Sackville for a capital. The former would be most convenient for me, for I should live in the midst of my constituents. If we have a confed eration of all the Provinces, the capital should be Quebec — the natural fortress — the Gibraltar of British America. Montreal is indefensible. And I put Halifax out of the question, as it is not central. But suppose, sir, we were united to-morrow. Might we not have some diversities of interest ? It is just probable that the farmers of Western Canada, in their anxiety to get their wheat into the United States, might throw our fisheries overboard. The member for AnnapoUs hopes such would not be the case ; so do I. But he will agree with me, that the in terests of all the Colonies are not the same in every respect ; and what we have to fear is, that the smaller Provinces may be swamped, and their interests sacrificed, for the benefit of their more populous neighbor. Past experience leads me to guard against such a contingency, for I know ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 195 that in negotiations which deeply stirred the hopes of our people, Canada has been satisfied to sacrifice national and provincial interests, for not very weighty nor very worthy considerations. There is yet another position, Mr. Chairman, which North America may aspire to; and to my mind it presents a solution of all the difficulties which attach to this question in other directions. I think the time is rapidly approaching, when there must be infused into the British empire an element of strength which has scarcely yet been regarded. North America must ere long claim consolidation into the realm of England, as an integral portion of the empire, or she will hoist her own flag. Let us look at this proposition in its broadest light, and in its local bearings. We are, and ever will be, a commercial people. It is our interest to have free trade, and close alliance with the largest number of human be ings who produce and consume ; who have commodities to carry, and who will give the greatest activity to our commercial marine ; provided al ways, that our security and honor can be as well maintained. Suppose Nova Scotia were to form a union with New Brunswick and Canada, to morrow, and that they were all to withdraw from the empire, as they will, if not elevated to equality with their British ¦ brethren. Sir, I do not undervalue the claims or standing of the Colonies ; but we would withdraw from an empire peopled by hundreds of millions, and unite our fortunes with but two and a half millions of people, with an exposed frontier of fifteen hundred miles, and with no fleets and armies to spare, to protect our sea coast. Suppose we should prefer annexation to an independent national existence ; we should become allied to but thirty miUions; and though the proportionate advantages would be greater, the loss by withdrawing from the mother country would be immense. We should be part of thirty millions of people, it is true ; but they have neither troops nor ships of war to spare, to aid us in any great emer gency ; they would have enough to do to defend themselves. Now, sir, let me claim your attention for a moment, while I develop another view of this question. What is the British Empire ? Look at the outlaying portions of it, which contain : — West Indies 900,000 inhabitants. Australia 307,645 Africa 218,908 Ceylon 1,506,326 Mauritius 159,243 New Zealand 204,000 India 94,210,218 97,506,340 196 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. This includes the colonial portion of the empire, strictly speaking ; but to these ninety-seven millions, three times the population of the United States, we must add one hundred and thirty-three millions one hundred and ten thousand, being the population of states which are our allies or tributaries in the East. Add again thirty millions, the population of the British Islands, and we have in round numbers two hundred and -sixty millions of people within the boundaries, or subject to the influence of the empire, to which we at present belong. All the States of Europe include but two hundred and thirty-three millions of people. Then, sir, I ask, will any Nova Scotian, who pretends to be a statesman ; will any North American, with his heart in the right place, lightly entertain the idea of withdrawing from the enjoyment of free commercial intercourse with two hundred and sixty millions of human beings ; from participation in the securities, the sources of pride, which such an empire affords, to form, without cause, an isolated community of two millions and a half, or even ten millions, or to seek a dishonorable share of the advantages enjoyed by thirty millions ? While, however, we value our connection with the empire highly, let not British statesmen, too intent upon the intrigues and squabbles of Eu rope, undervalue our resources, our claims, our pride in that connection, or our physical force to achieve another, whenever this becomes irksome. All that I seek for is entirely compatible with our present relations ; by elevating North Americans to a common level with their brethren at home, I would but draw the bonds which bind us closer together. There is no necessity to endanger the connection, commercial, physical, or inter national, which we enjoy in common with so many human beings. " Ships, Colonies, and Commerce " have long formed the boast of old England. Ships we have in abundance. Her Colonies are oure. The empire includes every climate which the sun diversifies, every soil, every race of men, every variety of production. It is guarded by the largest fleet and the best disciplined army in the world. It has for its metropo- Us, the most populous city of modern times, the nursery of genius and the arts, the emporium of commerce, the fountain-head of capital, the nursing mother of skilled labor in every branch of manufactures. Let us then, not cast about for new modes of political organization, until we have tested the expansive powers and intellectual capabilities of what we have. Let us, then, demand with all respect, the full rights of citi zenship in this great empire. It is clearly our interest to do this ; surely it is congenial to our feelings. Sir, I would not cling to England one single hour after I was convinced that the friendship of North America was undervalued, and that the status to which we may reasonably aspire ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 197 had been deliberately refused. But I wUl endeavor, while asserting the rights of my native land with boldness, to perpetuate our connection with the British Isles, the home of our fathers, the cradle of our race. The union of the Colonies is the object of the resolution, but, in my judg ment, such a proposition covers but a limited portion of ground which the agitation of that subject opens up. What questions of importance have we to settle with Canada, New Brunswick, or any of the other Col onies. We have free trade and friendly relations with them all. What have we to ask or to fear ? What questions are at issue with the United States? None but that of a reciprocal trade, which would have been settled long ago, if North America had had a voice in the making of trea ties ancl in the discussions of the Imperial Parliament. But have we not questions of some interest to adjust with the mother country ? There is one, of more importance than any other except the railroads, — the ques tions of our mines and minerals. Does any man believe that any com pany would have monopolized for thirty years the mines and minerals of an entire Province had British America been represented in the Impe rial ParUament ? That monopoly would go down before a searching in vestigation for a single night in the House of Commons. No ministry could justify or maintain it. Here there is no difference of opinion. But what avails our unanimity. The battle is to be fought in England ; but here it never is fought, and never wjll be, until we have a representation in Parliament, or until the Legislature votes £5000 for a luminous agi tation of the question. I yield to the Association all that I have ever said in its favor. I would do it justice to-morrow had I power io do in jury ; but I do believe that one Nova Scotian within the walls of Parlia ment would do more to reclaim our natural rights in a single year, than this Legislature could do by remonstrances in seven. Take the question of the fisheries. Ypur fisheries, including all the wealth that is within three marine miles of a coast fronting upon the ocean for five thousand miles, are at this moment subject of negotiation. What have you got to do with it ? What influence have you ? Who represents you in London or in Washington, or discusses the matter in your behalf? . The British Minister, pressed upon by the United States on the one hand, and by the prospect of a war with Russia on the other, may at this moment be giving away your birthright. Tell me not of your protest against such an act of spoliation. It would amount to noth ing. Once committed, the act would be irrevocable ; and your most valu able property would be bartered away for ever. Sir, I know what gives influence in England, what confers power here — the right and the oppor tunity of public discussion. Your fisheries, if given away to-morrow, would 71* 198 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. scarcely provoke a discussion in the House of Commons ; but place ten North Americans there, and no minister would dare to bring down a treaty by which they were sacrificed. How often have questions in which we took a deep and abiding interest been decided without our knowledge, consultation, or consent ? I am a free trader, and I am glad that unrestricted commerce is the settled policy of the mother country, as it is of this. But can I forget how often the minister of the day has brought down and carried out commercial changes which have prostrated our interests, but in the adoption or modification of which we have had no voice ? Sir, with our free Legislatures, aud the emulation and ambi tious spirit of our people, such a state of things cannot last for ever. Is there a man who hears me, that believes that the question of the fisheries can be settled well, or ought to be settled at all, without those who are most interested, being represented in the negotiation ? What is taking place at this moment in the old world invests this ar gument with painful significance. Notes and diplomatic messages are flying from St. Petersburgh to Vienna, and from Vienna to London. A despot is about to break the peace of the world, under pretence of pro tecting the Greek religion. A fleet of Turkish ships has been sunk in the Black Sea. The Cunard steamers have been taken off the mail routes, to carry troops to the Mediterranean. To-morrow may come a dec laration of war ; and when it comes; our six thousand vessels, scattered over the ocean, are at the mercy of England's enemies. Have we been consulted ? Have we had a voice in the Cabinet, in Parliament, or in any public department by whose action our fleet is jeopardized ? No, eir, we have exercised no more influence upon negotiations — the issue of which must peril our whole mercantile marine — than if we had had in danger but a single bark canoe. I do not complain of the statesmen of England. I believe that Lord John Russell and the other members of the Cabinet are doing their best for the honor of old England, and for the welfare of the empire. But I will not admit that they have the right, at the present day, to deal with subjects which so largely affect the interests, and touch the feelings of two million five hundred thousand people, scattered over milUons of square miles of land, whose canvas whitens every sea — without our being consulted. [Mr. Howe next turned to the United Services, and showed how slight was the chance of British Americans, to rise in the army and navy. Their brethren at home had more money, to purchase ; they had aU the parliamentary interest to insure promotion. What inducements had our young men to enter either service ? He had five boys, but he would as ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 199 soon throw one of them overboard, as send him to compete where the chances were all against him ; to break his heart in a struggle where money and friends, not merit, would render emulation vain.*] The statesmen of England, sir, may be assured, that if they would hold this great empire together, they must give the outlying portions of it some interest in the naval, military, and civil services ; and I will cooper ate with any man who will impress upon them the necessity for length ening the ropes and strengthening the stakes, that the fabric which shelters us all may not tumble about our ears. I turn now, Mr. Chairman, to a topic upon which it may readily be supposed I feel keenly — the negotiations touching our intercolonial rail roads. To impress the minds of Imperial statesmen with the truly na tional character of the works we had projected, I spent six months in England. Here was a noble scheme of internal improvement, requiring about £7,000,000 sterling to carry it out. Had it been a question about Holy Places in Turkey, or some wretched fortress on the Danube, seven millions would have been risked or paid with slight demur. The object was, however, to strengthen and -combine four or five noble Provinces, full of natural resources and of a high-spirited people ; but, unfortunately, with no representation in the National Council of the empire to which they belong. The single guarantee of England would have saved us nearly half the cost ofthis operation, or £200,000 a year. The Queen's name would have been stamped upon every engine running through one thousand five hundred miles of her dominions. On the hearts of two millions five hundred thousand people would have been stamped the grace of the act, which, while it cost nothing — for our revenues were ample enough to pay principal and interest had the roads been unpro ductive — would have awakened grateful recollections and a sense of substantial obligation for a century to come. At last, bythe true nobility of the enterprise, rather than by the skill of its advocate, Her Majesty's government consented to give the guarantee. The Provinces were pro ceeding to fulfil the conditions, when, unfortunately, two or three mem bers of the Imperial Parliament took a fancy to add to the cost of the roads as much more as the guarantee would have saved. It was for their interest that the guarantee should not be given. It was withdrawn. The faith of England — till then regarded as something sacred — was violated ; and the answer was a criticism on a phrase — a quibble upon the construction of a sentence, which all the world, for six months, had read * Two Cadetships in the Navy, annually, have since been given to Canada ; one to Nova Scotia, and one to New Brunswick. This is a move in the right direction, for which the ministers deserve much credit. 200 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. one way. The secret history of this wretched transaction I do not seek to penetrate. Enough is written upon stock-books, and in the records of courts in Canada, to give us the proportions of that scheme of jobbery and corruption by which the interests of British America were over thrown. But, sir, who beUeves, that if these Provinces had ten members in the Imperial Parliament ? who believes — and I say it not boastingly — had Nova Scotia had but one, who could have stated her case before six hundred English gentlemen, that the national faith would have been sullied, or a national pledge withdrawn ? There are other questions of equal magnitude and importance to the empire and to us. Ocean steamers, carrying British mails past British Provinces to reach their destination, through a foreign State ; emigration uncared for and undirected, flowing past them too ; or, when directed, sent at an enormous cost to Australia, fourteen thousand miles away, while millions of acres of unsurpassed fertiUty remain unimproved so much nearer home. Upon these, and other kindred topics, I do not dwell. But there is one to which I must, for a brief space, crave your attention. Sir, I do not envy our neighbors in the United States their country, their climate, or their institutions. But what I do envy them is, the boundless field of honorable emulation and rivalry in which the poorest man in the smallest State may win, not mere colonial rank and position, but the highest national honors. Here lies the marked distinction between RepubUcan and British American. The sons of the rebels are men full grown ; the sons of the loyalists are not. I do not mean that physi- caUy or mentally there is any difference ; I speak of the standards and stamps by which the former are made to pass current in the world, while the latter have the ring of metal as valuable and as true. This was the thought which labored for utterance in the mind of the member for Annapolis yesterday. Let me aid it in its illustration. Some years ago I had the honor to dine with the late John Quincy Adams, at Wash ington. Around his hospitable board were assembled fifteen or eighteen gentlemen of the highest distinction in the political circles of that capi tal. There were, perhaps, two or three, who, like Mr. Adams himself, had been trained»from early youth in diplomacy, in literature, and in the highest walks of social and pubhc Ufe. These men were superior to any that we have in our Colonies, not because their natural endowments were greater, but because their advantages had been out of all proportion to ours. But the rest were just such men as we see every day. Their equals are to be found in the Legislatures and public departments of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia ; men superior to most of them have been on this floor every session for twenty years. Their ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 201 equals are here now. But how different are the fields of emulation ; how disproportioned the incitements to excellence ; the distinctions ; the rewards. Almost every man who sat round me on that night either then enjoyed, or has since won some national distinction. They were, or are now, senators in the national council, foreign embassadors, Governors, Secretaries of State, commanders of squadrons, or leaders of armies. Sir, my heart rose when I compared these men with those I had left at home, their equals in mind and manners. But it sunk, aye, and it sinks now, when turning to the poor rewards which British America offers to those who run with these men the race of emulation. What national distinction ever lights upon British America? Has she ever supplied a Governor to the Queen's widely extended dominions, a Sec retary, or an under Secretary of State ? Have we ever had a man to represent us in either House of Parliament, or in any Imperial depart ment ? How long is this state of pupilage to last ? Not long. If Brit ish statesmen do not take this matter in hand, we soon shall. I yield to no man in respect for the flag of my fathers, but I will live under no flag, with a brand of inferiority to the other British races stamped upon my brow. [Mr. Howe here contrasted Mr. Johnston, Mr. Huntington, Mr. Wil kins, the Speaker, with those who had governed the Colonies within his own observation. He thought the learned leader of the opposition would make quite as good a Governor as some that had been sent across the Atlantic. He convulsed the House with laughter in describing the attentions paid at Liverpool to a whiskered Yankee, who was the bearer of dispatches from Washington, and who, with a huge bag under his arm, that might have contained his wardrobe, was instantly permitted to land, unquestioned and unsearched. " I," said Mr. Howe, " was also the bearer of dispatches from a British Governor to Her Majesty's Secretary of State. I represented the Province of which I am a native, and the gov ernment of which I was a member. I explained my position, and showed my dispatches, more in jest than in earnest, for I knew what the result would be. The Yankee was in London long before I could get my portmanteau through the Custom House, being compelled to pay duty on half a dozen books and plans necessary to the success of the mission with which I was charged. Imagine what five and twenty British Americans on board the steamer would feel at this practical commentary on the respect commanded in England by successful rebellion, but denied to devoted loyalty." Equally animated was Mr. Howe's description of Massachusetts cotton spinners, and backwoodsmen from the west, snugly ensconced in the diplomatic box in the body of the House of Lords, when 202 ORGANIZATION OP THE EMPIRE. Parliament was opened by the Queen, while Colonists looked down upon them from the galleries, to which, not as a right but as a favor, they had been admitted.] Mr. Chairman, the time will come — nay, sir, it has come — when these degrading distinctions must no longer peril our allegiance. WUl any man say that North America does not produce men as fit to govern States and Provinces as those who rule over Maine or Massachusetts at this hour ? — as most of those who are sent to govern the forty Prov-' inces of the empire ? — as many that we have seen sent to darken coun sel and perplex us in the west? How long wUl North Americans be content to see their sons systematically excluded from the guberna torial chairs, not only of the Provinces that we occupy, but of every other in the empire ? Not long. If monarchial institutions are to be preserved and the power of the crown maintained, the leading spirits of the empire must be chosen to govern Provinces ; and the selection must not be confined to the circle of two smaU islands, — to old officers or broken-down members of Parliament. Look at the organization of the Colonial office ; that department which is especiaUy charged with the government of forty Colonies, and yet has not one Colonist in it ! How long are we to have this play of Hamlet with Hamlet himself omitted? Sir, I do not share in the vulgar prejudices about the ignorance and incapacity of Downing Street. No man can now be elevated to the office of Secretary of State for the Colonies who is not a man of business habits, holding high rank in either House of ParUament. There is, perhaps, not a man in the department who is not able or adroit in the performance of duties which are admi rably subdivided. The under secretaries are men of genial manners, high attainments and varied information. They are something more ; they are thoroughly well disposed to serve, and to stand weU with the Provinces committed to their charge. But what then ? They have no personal knowledge of Colonial public or social life ; no hold upon the confidence or the affections of the outlying portions of the empire. Compared with the men who might, and ought, and must be there, if the empire is to be kept together, they are what the clever secretaries of the old board of trade were in 1750, compared with such men as Franklin, Washington, and Adams. What these last were then, the Baldwins, La- fontaines, Chandlers, and Wilmots, of North America, are now. I speak not of Nova Scotia, although I know that her sister Provinces accord to her the inteUectual rank to which she is entitled. I know the men who sit around me here ; already I can hear the heart-beat of the generation which is springing up to take our places; and I do not hesi- ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 203 tate to say that room must be made on the floors of Parliament, and within the departmental offices of England, for the aspiring and ener getic spirits of this continent ; or they will by and by assert their supe riority, in the intellectual conflict which those who attempt systematically to exclude them must provoke. Talk of annexation, sir ! what we want is annexation to our mother country. Talk of a union of the Provinces, which, if unaccompanied with other provisions, would lead to separation ! What we require is union with the empire ; an investiture with the rights and dignity of British citizenship. In the United States, every forty thousand people send a member to Congress. North America has sixty-two times that number, and yet sends not one member to the National Council which regulates her trade, controls her foreign relations, and may involve her at any moment in war. Mark the effects of the American system. The discovery of gold threw into California, in two or three years, a large heterogeneous and comparatively lawless population. CaUfornia was many thousands of mUes away from Washington and from the old States of the Confedera tion. It was essentially a Colony ; and, under our system, would have been so treated for a century. Our neighbors are wiser in their genera tion. Hardly were the rude communities of California formed, while women were sleeping under tents and men under wagons ; while Judge Lynch presided over the Judicatory, and the better classes hung thieves in the market square ; the citizens met together, formed their Constitu tion, provided for education, and elected three or four men to represent California in the National Congress of the United States. Nova Scotia has been a loyal Province of this empire, with all the securities of law, and the refinements of civilization, for an hundred years, and to this hour has no such privilege. What binds that rude Californian community to the parent States ? The presence of her four or five representatives in the National Council. They may be negligent, incapable, corrupt, but they are there. Australia, not much farther off, with richer treasures, with wider space, has no such privilege ; and the wit of British states men, with the example of Republican America before them, seems inad- quate to a task which elsewhere is found so easy. Sir, this cannot last. England herself- has a deep interest in this question, and the sooner her statesmen begin to ponder the matter gravely, the better it will be for us all. The thirty millions who inhabit the British Islands must make some provision for the two hundred and thirty millions who live beyond the nar row seas. They may rule the barbarous tribes who do not speak their language, or share their civilization, by the sword ; but they can only rule 204 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. or retain such Provinces as are to be found in North America, by draw ing their sympathies around a common centre — by giving them an in terest in the army, the navy, the diplomacy, the administration, and the legislation of the empire. While a foreign war is impending, this may appear an inappropriate time to discuss these questions ; but the time will come, and is near at hand, when they will command the earnest attention of every true Brit ish subject. We hear much, sir, every day, about the balance of power in Europe ; and we all remember Canning's boast, that he was going to •call a new world into existence to redress the balance of power in the „old. At this moment we are plunging into a foreign war — the fiercest and most bloody it will be that we have ever seen. What is the pretext on one side ? Some question about the Greek religion. What is sup posed to warrant our expensive armaments on the other ? The balance of power in Europe. But is the balance of power in America nothing? and have these Provinces no weight in the scale ? God forbid, sir, that at this moment a word of menace should escape my lips. I am incapa ble of such a meanness. England's hour of extremity should never be our opportunity, for any thing but words of cheer and the helping hand. But, sir, come peace or war, it is the interest of England that the truth be told her. Is the balance of power in America an unimpor tant consideration, and how is it to be preserved, except by preserving that half of the continent which still belongs to England ? and that can only be done by elevating the inhabitants of these Provinces in their own opinion, and in that of the world at large. I know that it is fashionable in England to count upon the sympathies and cordial cooperation of the Republic. A year ago, Cobden and other apostles of his school, were preaching and relying upon universal peace. Now all Europe is arming. They preach, day by day, that Colonies are a burthen to the mother country. The reign of peace, of universal brotherhood, may come. Should it not ; and should Republican America throw herself into the contest against England, when engaged with other powers, as she did in 1812; what then would be England's position, should the noble Provinces of North America have been flung away, for want of a little foresight and common sense ? The power of the Republic would be broken if our half of the conti nent maintained its allegiance. But if that were thrown into the other scale, what then? Fancy the stars and stripes floating over our six thousand vessels ; fancy five hundred thousand hardy North Americans with arms in their hands in a defiant attitude ; fancy half a continent, with its noble harbors and five thousand miles of sea-rcoast, with aU its ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 205 fisheries, coal-mines, and timber, gone. Fancy the dockyards, and depots, and arsenals of the enemy advanced 1000 miles nearer to England. Oh ! sir, I have turned with disgust from the eternal gabble about the balance of power in Europe, when I have thought how lightly British statesmen seem to value the power that can alone balance their only commercial rival. One subsidy to some petty European potentate has often cost more than all our railroads would have cost ; and yet they would have developed our resources in peace, and formed our best secu rity in time of war. A single war with half this continent added £120,- 000,000 to the National debt of England. What would a war with the ¦whole of it cost ? And yet these Provinces are so lightly valued, that a loan for pubUc improvements cannot be guaranteed, or a single seat in the National Councils yielded, to preserve them. Sir, whatever others may think, I pause in the presence of the great peril which I foresee. I pray to God that it may be averted. Here, sir, is work for the highest intellects — for the purest patriots, on both sides of the Atlantic. Here is a subject worthy of the consider ation of the largest-minded British statesmen now figuring on the stage of public life. In presence of this great theme, how our little squabbles sink into insignificance, as the witches' cauldron vanishes from the pres ence of Macbeth. How insignificant are many of the topics which they debate in the Imperial Parliament compared with this. I have seen night after night wasted, while both Houses discussed the grave question, whether or not a Jew should sit in the House of Commons ; a question that it would not take five minutes to decide, in any Legislature from Canada to California. How often have I said to myself: I wonder if it ever enters into the heads of those noble Lords and erudite Commoners, who are so busy with this Jew, that there are two millions and a half of Christians in British America, who have no representative in either House ? A little consideration given to that subject, I have thought, would not be a waste of time. When I have seen them quibbling with the great questions of a surplus population, mendicity and crime, I have asked myself: Do these men know that there is, within the boundaries of the empire, within ten days' sail of England, employment for all ? free hold estates for all, with scarcely a provocative to crime ? I have often thought, sir, how powerful this empire might be made ; how prosperous in peace, how invincible in war, if the statesmen of England would set about its organization, and draw to a common centre the high intellects which it contains. With our maritime positions in all parts of the globe ; with every variety of soil and climate ; with the industrial capacity and physical 72 206 ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. resources of two hundred and sixty millions of people to rely on ; what might not this empire become, if its intellectual resources were combined for its government and preservation ? If the whole population were united by common interests, no power on earth ever wielded means so vast, or influence so irresistible. But, sir, let the statesmen of England slumber and sleep over the field of enterprise which lies around them ; let them be deluded by economists who despise Colonists, or by fanatics who preach peace at any price with foreign despots ; while no provision is made to draw around the throne the hearts of millions predisposed to loyalty and affection ; and the results we may surely calculate. Should the other half of this continent be lost for the want of forethought and sound knowledge, there will be trouble in the old homestead. " Shadows, clouds, and darkness,'' will rest upon the abode of our fathers ; the free soil of England will not be long unprofaned ; and the gratitude of Turks, and the friendship of Austrians or Republican Americans, will form but a poor substitute for the hearts and hands that have been flung away. On the 4th of April, Mr. Howe resigned the office of Provin cial secretary, and accepted that of Chairman of the Railway Board. Almost his last act as a member of the government, was his moving an address to the Queen, on the breaking out of the war with Russia, which he did in language that was gracefully responded to by the leader of the opposition, and the address passed unanimously. On this occasion Mr. Howe said : — Mr. Speaker, — The Province of Nova Scotia has, for the last hundred years, been a firmly attached and loyal portion of the British Empire. She has steadfastly maintained her allegiance through all the vicissitudes of peace and war. Loyalty is here an enduring sentiment ; and when ever there is menace or danger from abroad, our sovereign is not left to doubt of the strength of our feelings, or of our readiness to sustain, to the utmost of our power, the honor of the British flag and the authority of the crown. When these are in peril, the voice of faction is hushed, party feelings subside, party distinctions are obliterated ; and a united Legislature is seen, prepared to defend our common country, or to send to the foot of the throne the expression of sentiments which are shared alike by all ranks and classes of our people. Sir, I look back with pride to a period in our history, within the rec ollection of many around me, when, with singular unanimity and enthu siasm, the whole resources, physical and pecuniary, of Nova Scotia ORGANIZATION OF THE EMPIRE. 207 were placed at the disposal of the Lieutenant Governor, when the frontier was endangered ; amidst the acclamations of the people and of their rep resentatives. At that time I led the opposition in this House ; but I at once tendered support to the government of the day, as I am happy to know that the leader of the opposition will now second the motion which I am about to make. Then, as now, our flag was about to be insulted, our country embroiled with a foreign power. We are not now threat ened with any immediate danger. There is peace on this continent, and I trust it may be preserved. But our brethren at home are about to enter upon a struggle, the end of which cannot be foretold. The fleets and armaments on their way to the Baltic and the Black Sea, instruct us that they are in earnest. It is but right that the outlying portions of the empire should comprehend, and should discharge the obligations, which, in such a crisis, rest upon them. A common sentiment should thrill throughout the empire. The sovereign should feel that her subjects, ¦wherever situated, are united as one man. It is our duty to take the earliest opportunity of declaring to our sovereign the feelings of our peo ple. Let there be no doubt in her mind ; let it be felt and known that, whatever may be our party struggles or differences of opinion, there is but one feeling in Nova Scotia when the flag of England is unfurled. The latter clause of this address, I trust, will not be disapproved. What ever might be our regret at the withdrawal of Her Majesty's troops, I beheve that I am not mistaken when I assume, that the militia of Nova Scotia, about to be enrolled and embodied, would be able to defend their own soil and protect Her Majesty's forts and arsenals should our gallant soldiers be required elsewhere. If they can, they ought, and we should not detain a single regiment here that may be wanted in the Mediter ranean. Sir Gaspard Le Marchant was enabled to close the last ses sion in which Mr. Howe took the lead in conducting the public business of his country, with the following speech : — The great number of valuable laws, matured by your joint labors, and to which I have given the Queen's assent, honorably distinguished the session that it is my duty now to close. For the unexampled liberality with which you have provided for every branch of the public service, I thank you in Her Majesty's name. The great public works which you have authorized the government to construct, shall be commenced without delay, and carried forward in a 208 OUR FATHERS. spirit that I trust will enable us all to forget, in view of their vast utility, the conflicts of opinion, which, in a free countiy, always precede sound and beneficial legislation. The elevated views of national obligation ; the just appreciation of the nature of the struggle in which the mother country is engaged ; the de voted loyalty to our Sovereign ; and the chivalrous disregard of conse quences in the performance of duty, evinced by the addresses which you have desired me to convey to the foot of the throne, will challenge the admiration and respect of your feUow-subjects in every part of the Empire. Though I trust in God that this continent may be preserved from the scourge of war, yet it behooves us to be prepared for any emergencies ; and of this you may be assured, that while it is my determination so to organize the militia of this Province as to make defence easy, I shall not hesitate, if occasion should arise, to place myself at their head, with the same entire reliance upon their gallantry and self-devotion that I have upon your wisdom, liberality, and public spirit. In November, an Industrial Exhibition, doing great credit to the Province, and to those who originated the idea and worked out the details, was held in and around the Provincial building. Mr. Howe's contribution was the following spirited lines : — OUR FATHERS. Room for the dead ! Tour living hands may pile Treasures of art the stately tents within ; Beauty may grace them with her richest smile, And Genius here spontaneous plaudits win. But yet, amidst the tumult and the din Of gath'ring thousands, let me audience crave : Place claim I for the dead. 'Twere mortal sin, When banners o'er our country's treasures wave, Unmark'd to leave the wealth safe garner'd in the grave. The fields may furnish forth their lowing kine, The forest spoils in rich abundance lie, The mellow fruitage of the cluster'd vine Mingle with flowers of ev'ry varied dye : Swart artisans their rival skill may try, And, while thc rhetorician wins the ear, The pencil's graceful shadows charm the eye; But yet, do not withhold the grateful tear For those, and for their works, who are not here. OUR FATHERS. 209 Not here * Oh ! yes, our hearts their presence feel, Viewless, not voiceless, from the deepest shells On memory's shore, harmonious echoes steal ; And names, which, in the days gone by, were spells, Are blent with that soft music. If there dwells The spirit here our country's fame to spread, While ev'ry breast with joy and triumph swells, And earth reverb'rates to our measured tread, Banner and wreath should own our reverence for the dead Look up, their walls enclose us. Look around, Who won the verdant meadows from the sea ? Whoso sturdy hands the noble highways wound Through forests dense, o'er mountain, moor, and lea ? Who spanned the streams ? Tell me whose works they be, — The busy marts, where commerce ebbs and flows ? Who quell'd the savage 1 And who spared the tree That pleasant shelter o'er the pathway throws 1 Who made the land they loved to blossom as the rose 1 Who, in frail barques, the ocean surge defied, And trained the race that live upon the wave 1 What shore so distant where they have not died 1 In ev'ry sea they found a watery grave. Honor, forever, to the true and brave Who seaward led their sons with spirits high, Bearing the red-cross flag their fathers gave ; Long as the billows flout the arching sky They'll seaward bear it still — to venture, or to die. The Roman gather'd in a stately urn, The dust he honor'd — while the sacred fire, Nourish'd by vestal hands, was made to bum From age to age. If fitly you'd aspire, Honor the dead ; and let the sounding lyre Recount their virtues in your festal hours ; Gather their ashes — higher still, and higher Nourish the patriot flame that history dow'rs; And o'er the Old Men's graves, go strew your choicest flowers. The Maine Liquor Law has been, within the last five years, discussed in the British Provinces. Though in all of them it has been, from time to time, advocated by able men, and powerfully supported in numerously signed petitions, it has ul timately failed or been defeated in them all. It was adopted in New Brunswick, but after a year's experience of its effects, it was, on an appeal to the people, condemned with singular 210 MAINE LIQUOR LAW. unanimity, and immediately repealed. It was discussed with a good deal of ability in the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia during the sessions of 1854 and 1855, and at one time a small majority decided in its favor. The bill was subsequently postponed and abandoned. Mr. Howe's opinions upon this rather important question may be gathered from this speech: — After much reflection upon the subject, he had not been able to bring his mind up to assume the responsibility of voting for this bill. He would gladly have done so, because a very large and highly respec table body of his constituents were in favor of it. He had not expressed his sentiments last winter, because, during that session, he had occupied much time with other topics, and because this had been debated at great length and with marked ability by gentlemen on both sides. He would gladly now refrain, but during the eighteen years he had sat in this Assem bly he had never shrunk from an expression of his opinions upon any pub Uc question. It was due to the country at large, to his constituents, to the men who sat around him, that he should, even at the risk of offending those whom he most respected, give his reasons with his vote. He fully admitted the truthfulness of the harrowing pictures of physical suffer ing and moral degradation, drawn by the honorable and learned mem ber for Annapolis. He admitted, in all their extent, the evils of intem perance. He admired the self-devotion and earnestness with which large bodies of men had endeavored to eradicate those evils. He ap proved of the efforts made by the Temperance Societies, and wished them success, so long as they sought to reform by persuasion, by argu ment, and by example. When they attempted impossibUities ; when they sought to coerce the people into temperance, he conscientiously be lieved that they would fail ; he believed that all the good they had done would be perilled by a resort to harshness and coercion. The Deity had not prohibited the use of wine. On the contrary, he had given the grape to man with innumerable other bounties. Our Saviour had not prohibited the use of wine. He had sat with those who drank it, and had, by a miracle, replenished their cups at the marriage feast. The apostles had not forbidden the use of wine. Its use was denounced in the Koran by the Pagan Mahomet, but was not, so far as he could perceive, in the Bible. What, then, the Almighty had not done or attempted ; what he could have done with so much ease, yet had refrained from doing ; he thought it not wise for man to attempt. The evils flowing from the excessive use of wine he deeply deplored, as he did the evUs flowing from over indulgence of any other passion or MAINE LIQUOR LAW. 211 propensitjr. But who could argue from excess of any kind that the ra tional enjoyment of God's gifts was therefore sinful ? Who would vent ure to argue, that because mischief was done by many of God's gifts, they should, on that account, be "circumscribed or prohibited by hu man laws ? The atmosphere that fan's the cheek of beauty, that invigo rates the frame, that flutters the leaf upon the tree, that dimples the surface ofthe lake, that gives vai-iety and majesty to the ocean, — when accumulated in masses, lashes itself into the tempest and strews the shore with the wrecks of human life and property. The learned member standing amidst the wreck of navies and the whitening bones of hu man victims, might eloquently describe the scene ; but would he, if he could, attempt to restrain the eccentricities of nature, or to forbid to man, by human laws, the benefits of navigation ? How beautiful is wa ter ! (the temperance man's own element), yet how dangerous. The rain which fertilizes the fields, sweeps away with its excess bridges, mills, "and human habitations. If not drained off it sours the land, and breeds pestilence in cities. The fire that warms our hearths, that clears our woodlands, that smelts our metals, that drives our steamers and locomotives, is not less dangerous. Would he deny to man the use of these elements, because the casualties by fire and flood are most disastrous ? Would he forbid their use, because people are burned in cities — drowned in the rivers ; because a boiler bursts at sea, or an en gine sometimes runs off the track, or kills hundreds by the violence of a collision ? William the Conqueror, it is true, once denied to the people of England fire and light after the curfew tolled ; but the abhorrence in which the act is held, would not encourage anybody to follow his example. Woman is God's best gift to man. The fascination which she spreads around her — how difficult to resist ; the passions she inspires — how inti mately interwoven with all that arouses to exertion, and rewards, us for our toils. Yet, when even love is indulged in to excess ; when reason is overpowered ; when passion hurries on to folly, how numerous! the vic tims ; how blasting the effects. Yet who would, reasoning from the perils of indulgence and the dangers of society, deny to man the com panionship which alone makes existence tolerable ? The learned mem ber for Annapolis might draw from the sinks of vice, or even from the agony of a single victim, some harrowing pictures ; but would he, on that account, imitate the Turks, and lock up all the women ? The victims of indulgence in opium I have never seen ; but even spirituous liquors do not produce the extent of physical suffering and moral dislocation that re sults from the abuse of this drug. But would the learned member deny to society the use of that which allays the delirium of fever — which 212 MAINE LIQUOR LAW. soothes the infant upon the mother's bosom, and saves more lives than it ever destroys ? Take gunpowder, which blasts our rocks, loosens our plaister, defends our country, kills our game. Mark the mischiefs and miseries it produces when its mysterious power is abused. But who would argue that, because boys blow themselves up, and tyrants use gun powder for unworthy purposes, its use should be forbidden ? Would the learned gentleman, even with the battle-fields of Balaklava or Inkerman before him, attempt to restrain, by human laws, the manufacture and sale of gunpowder ? Who denies that law is the safeguard of our lives and property ; that courts are indispensible institutions ; that lawyers are the fearless advocates of the innocent and oppressed ? But has not even law been abused ? How many pettifoggers defile the courts, ensnare the ignorant, waste mens' estates, and embitter their lives ? Walter Scott's Peebles and Planestanes, and Dickens's pictures of the Court of Chan cery are familiar to us all. These are but sketches illustrative of the evils inseparable from the dispensation of equity and law by the most perfect tribunals of civilized countries. How are these evils to be miti gated or removed ? I would say by discussion ; by exposure ; by exam ple ; by honest and successful attempts to separate the securities and the legitimate practice of law from its abuse. The learned advocate of this bill, to be consistent, should close the courts, imprison the lawyers, and forbid the manufacture of law, or its importation from foreign countries. Woman, from her first appearance on the scene of life, has brought sor row and suffering with her. In her train came rivalries, and jealousies, and war, and strife. Let the learned member go into his own county where the pretty faces peeping through the apple-blossoms are lovely to behold. Even there, are there no broken hearts, no pale faces, no blighted lives, no damaged reputations ? No girls, with Burns' pretty excuse upon their lips — "A dear loved lad, occasion snug, A treacherous inclination. " No youths pleading, in the intonation of passionate repentance, that even "The light that led astray Was light from heaven." Yet would the learned gentleman, in view of all these evils, point to the pretty girls and say, " Touch not, taste not, handle not ? " Would he for fear of mischief, coop them up like cows in a Belgian barn ? The world has come down to the present period, from the most remote antiquity, with the wine cup in its hand. David, the man after God's MAINE LIQUOR LAW. 213 own heart, drank wine. Solomon, the wisest of monarchs and of human beings, drank wine. Our Savior not only drank it, but commanded Christians to drink it " in remembrance of him." In strong contrast with our Divine Redeemer's life and practice, we hear of the Scribes and Phar isees, who drank it not — who reviled our Savior as a "wine bibber," and the " companion of publicans and sinners," who would have voted for the Maine Liquor Law as unanimously as they cried, " Crucify him." Such people have existed in all ages of the world. The desire of hu man beings to dictate to each other what they should eat, and drink, and wear, has been evinced in different countries at different periods. The zealots in the State of Maine are mere plagiarists after all. Sumptuary laws, tried in many countries, and at different periods of the world's his tory, are now universally condemned by the good sense of mankind. Laws restraining drunkenness are nearly as old as drinking. It is curious to see what strange experiments have been tried at times. Zsslucus of Locris, four hundred and fifty years before the Christian era, ordained " that no woman should go attended with more than one maid unless she was drunk ; and that she should not wear gold or em broidered apparel unless she intended to act unchastely." This sage lawgiver punished adultery with the loss of both eyes. His own son broke the law ; and the old gentleman, unwilling to deprive his son of both eyes, compromised the matter by putting out one of his own. As early as 747, laws were passed in England restraining drunken ness in the clergy ; and Constantine, King of the Scots (who was a sort of Neal Dow in his day), punished it wilh death. His laws passed away as this law will pass, and a good deal of whiskey has been drunk in Scotland since. In England, in 995, an effort was made to restrain drinking by law, but it failed. Taverns were only in troduced in the thirteenth century. In the reign of Edward the Third, there were only three allowed in all London ; now there are thousands. Edward the Fourth tried to restrain them in 1552 ; forty were then al lowed in London, eight in York, and but four in Oxford. They were not licensed till 1752. The history of wine is curious ; its invention is attributed to Noah, who certainly had seen enough of the evils of water. The Chinese made wine from rice two thousand years before the birth of Christ ; and, although it must be allowed that they have tea enough, they make and drink it yet. Wine was but little known in England till the Boman conquest. We are told that it impairs our strength ; yet the people who drank it conquered those who did not. It was only sold by the apothecaries (as is now proposed again) in the thirteenth century. In 214 MAINE LIQUOR LAW. 1427, Henry the Sixth, a sensible King, tried to restrain its adulteration, and we read " that one hundred and fifty butts and pipes were condemned and emptied into the gutters in London, for being adulterated." The Stoics denied themselves the use of wine, but their sect soon died out. The Puritans tried the experiment of coercing people into temper ance and virtue, but they signally failed. I invite the honorable and learned member for Annapolis to review this period of English history. I refer to the time when the Puritan cause was most triumphant ; when Charles had been slain, his followers dispersed ; when Cromwell reigned at Whitehall; when his Major Generals held military command of all the counties ; when the May-poles were struck down, the theatres closed, the taverns shut up ; when mirth was restrained, and temperance enforced by the sword. Now, what was the effect of all this ? No sooner was the Protector in his coffin, than the people of England, by a common im pulse, threw off a system which they regarded as oppressive. So dis tasteful had these restraints become, that the people restored the Stuarts, forgot their civil wars and sacrifices, and reopened their theatres and taverns ; and so disgusted were they with Puritan domination, that liberty was forgotten in the general joy which the restoration of personal freedom occasioned. The wine-cup went round, and from that day to this, no attempt has been made to reestablish CromweU's system. Now, I fear that the friends of temperance are about to sacrifice aU the good they have done, as the Puritans sacrificed aU the reforms that they had established, by carrying restraints too far. This law may be par- tiaUy enforced for two or three years, but it will coerce people into resistance, and occasion a revulsion of feeling to be foUowed by universal license. So far as my reading extends, I may assert that every king, every statesman, every warrior who has illustrated the page of history, drank wine. The apostles who were the companions of our Saviour, drank it. The prophets, whose flights of inspiration still astonish us, we have every reason to believe, drank it. Cicero and Demosthenes, and all the orators of antiquity and of modern times, indulged in the juice of the grape. Who can say how much of the energy which gave them such power of language was drawn from its inspiration ? Have these men been eclipsed by the Dows and Kellogs of the platform ? What orators has the State of Maine sent forth comparable with the Pitts, Burkes, Grat- tans, Foxes, and Sheridans of the British Islands, every one of whom drank wine? Let the learned gentleman glance at the noble struc tures — the architectural wonders that embellish Europe. Who reared them ? Men of gigantic inteUects whose common beverage was wine. MAINE LIQUOR LAW. 215 Let his eye range through the noble galleries where the sculptors have left their statues ; where the painters have hung in rich profusion the noblest works of art. Wine, we are told, clouds the faculties and deadens the imagination. Yet it was drank by those benefactors of their race ; and we cannot, with their masterpieces before us, believe the as sertion, till their works have been eclipsed by artists trained up under this rigorous legislation. Has Maine turned us out yet a statue that any body would look at ; a picture that anybody would buy ? Look at the deliverers of mankind ; the heroic defenders of nations. Was Washing ton a member of the temperance society ? Did not Wallace " drink the red wine through the helmet barred ? " Who will undertake to say that Bruce, on the morning on which he won the battle of Bannockburn, — that TeU, on that day when he shot the apple off his son's head, had not tasted a glass of whiskey or a stoop of wine ? If then, sir, all that is valuable in the past — if heroism, and archi tecture, and oratory, sculpture and painting — if all that has bulwarked freedom and embellished life — has come down to us with the juice of the grape ; if no age or nation has been long without it, I think it behooves the advocates of this bill to show us some country where their system has been tried ; some race of men who drank nothing but cold water. I turn to the learned member's own profession. I ask him to show me two such lawyers, two judges so eminent, as Lords Eldon and Stowell ; the one the wonder of the admiralty, as the other was of the equity Court, Yet it is on record that at the very time when these men were oppressed with Herculean labors — when day after day they were delivering judg ments so masterly and profound that they defy all criticism — each of these great jurists drank his five bottles of port a day. I certainly woulJ not advise the learned member for Annapolis to try, in this country, an experiment so hazardous. In the moist climate of England this might be done, but not in the dry atmosphere of Nova Scotia. I have some times seen him, however, when a few glasses would have done him good. Indeed, I often fancy that, both in the Senate and at the Bar, his wit is not so poignant, or his logic so acute, as in the olden time when he used to take his glass of wine. My honorable colleague and friend from Cumberland, whose sincerity in this cause I entirely respect, quoted to us last winter the passage from Scripture, " If eating meat causes my brother to offend then will I eat no more." But would my honorable friend shut up all the butchers' shops and forbid by law the sale of meat, for fear somebody would eat too much ? Again, he told us " we have tried moral suasion, and have failed." If so, who is to blame ? If a speaker here fails to convince his audience, 216 RAILWAY CELEBRATION. do we permit him to coerce them into belief by force of law ? I resist this bill because it is a violation of the voluntary principle. Because it is defended by the old arguments by which fanatics and persecutors in all ages have sought to propagate religious opinions. Hoping to save men's souls (more precious than their bodies), Catholics have burnt Pro testants, and Protestants CathoUcs. The right of private judgment was denied. The right of one human being to coerce others into belief, as it is now sought to coerce them into temperance, has been tried a thousand times, and has failed, as this attempt will fail. From the spring of 1854 to that of 1857, Mr. Howe dis charged the duties of Chairman of the Railway Board. He was ably assisted by the Hon. Jonathan McCully, by "William Pryor, John H. Anderson, Thomas Tobin, and Perez M. Cun ningham, Esquires. Under their joint management and super vision, the Western Road from Halifax to Windsor, and the Eastern Road as far as Truro, were located by James R. For man, Esq., Chief Engineer, and placed under contract. The first section out of Halifax was opened on the 8th of February, 1855, and the event was celebrated by a railway ride and a banquet at the Four-mile House, which was attended by mem bers of both branches of the Legislature, and by the chief ex ecutive and municipal officers of the Province. Mr. Howe presided, and in proposing the health of His Excellency, Sir Gaspard Le Marchant, who from 1852 to 1858 administered the Government of the Province in a constitutional and impar tial manner, paid to that officer this well merited tribute of respect : — Again, gentlemen, it becomes my pleasant duty to announce another toast ; but before giving it, I will take the liberty of reading a short note which I received from the Lieutenant Governor this morning with great regret. After stating his inability to attend, in consequence of a sudden attack of illness, His Excellency adds : — " Would you oblige me by conveying my deep and sincere regret at the impossibility of my attending the Railway Commissioners in their proposed excursion of to-day. " Should the opportunity offer itself in the course ofthe afternoon, you would infinitely oblige me, by stating the cause of my absence and the great mortification it occasions me not to be present, to express person- RAILWAY CELEBRATION. 217 ally what I have so repeatedly assured you and the Commissioners of, that no man in the country feels a warmer interest in the perfect success of our railway engagements than myself, from the deep conviction that the works are now inseparably blended with the future happiness and prosperity of Nova Scotia. " While, gentlemen, I regret the absence of His Excellency, it affords me pleasure to propose his health. In these warlike times we may re member that he has descended from a race of soldiers. We read, day by day, of those splendid charges of our cavalry before Sebastopol. Sir Gaspard's father introduced and brought to perfection the system by which that cavalry was trained. He practised what he taught. Even the splendid charges at Balaclava have not eclipsed that by which our Governor's father won the battle of Salamanca. Sir Gaspard himself has wgn the military rank which he enjoys. In the conflicts of Spain he was the companion in arms of that distinguished officer, Sir De Lacy Evans. I will not in any way trespass on topics forbidden, but no man is more prepared to speak of his course of conduct since he assumed the reins of government in Nova Scotia. Identified with no party, but above them all — he has administered public affairs with firmness, intelligence and impartiality; extending to all classes, ranks and shades of opinion, the same manly and generous considera tion ; and if at this festive board all these are gathered, may we not pre sume that it is chiefly owing to his example. Major General Gore was unable to attend, but wrote to Mr. Howe to say : — " If I can get over my letters and dispatches for the mail to leave to-morrow, I shall be glad to witness your triumph, for such it will be, and in which I shall rejoice, for you are highly deserving of it, and I as sure you that if a soldier's praise is welcome to you, you have mine." In returning thanks for his own health, which was proposed by Mr. Doyle, Mr. Howe said : — That his worthy friend, the member for Halifax, had somewhat broken in upon the order of the regular toasts. He was quite sure that no person felt more pride and pleasure than his old friend and colleague, Mr. Doyle, of whom he might truly say that he was the only man he ever knew who had not an enemy ; whose humor never flagged ; whose wit never wounded; who, by common consent, was everywhere welcome ; and who, if ubiquity and immortality could be conferred by universal 73 218 RAILWAY CELEBRATION. suffrage, everybody would vote should enliven every scene of festivity down to the end of time. I am quite sure if he lived so long, the last trump would only drown the ring of merry voices over his last jest. For myself I thank you heartily for the manner in which you have drank my health. This day's triumph is not mine exclusively. I have been but an humble fellow worker of the miracle which has puzzled my learned friend. It would be gross egotism if I claimed any other credit. I am about to propose a toast to the two branches of the Legislature. Among the living, who sit around me, how many are there, who, by their advocacy of a common policy, have brought about a great result. But the dead ought not to be forgotten, who zealously labored, in one form or other, to stimulate railway enterprise. Without the cooperation of these men — without the skill of our engineers, the enterprise of contractors, and the zeal and energy of my fellow commissioners, what could I have done ? I should much mistake my duty if I sought to appropriate, or permitted my friend to attribute to me, all the credit which results from our common labors. To have been the associate of these men, in such work, I consider sufficient distinction. If I have a hope beyond, it is to connect my name with the works themselves. I think it was Apelles, who, calling upon a friend, and finding him absent, traced a line so beautiful upon his door that his friend, on his return, knew that the artist had been there. Hereafter, when these lines of beauty and utility cross our country, carrying animation and vigor into every district — enlarging the prosperity and developing the resources of the Province, perhaps some of my countrymen, or their children, may occasionally exclaim, " Howe has been here." Fill a bumper now gentlemen, to " the two branches of the Legislature," and although some of you may be compelled to drink your own healths, believe me that you might be much worse employed. Though not so crowded as some other legislative chambers, our Council and Assembly fairly reflect all the good and evil of our country. From what I have seen abroad or read of elsewhere, I believe them to include as much integrity, intelligence, pat riotism, and manly independence, as are to be found in any Parliaments in any part of the world. We have our party battles and conflicts it is true, but show me a country where these tdo not exist and I will show you a despotism. Out of these conflicts of opinion, spring enlarged principles of action, measures of public utility, and often, I am proud to say, among the combatants themselves, mutual respect. A note of men ace from abroad unites us ; a touch of nature from either side, " makes the whole house kin." If we have our rugged paths of political ambi tion, we have our " green spots of the soul that the eye loves to rest on." RECIPROCITY TREATY. 219 After the storms of public life, which divide us as the billows are divided, comes Ihe burst of sunshine, which hallows, as it does now, the inter change of courtesies, and the celebration of some festival in which we all have a common interest. The road to Windsor and thirty-two miles of the Eastern road were opened for traffic in the spring of this year. On the 8th of June, a number of Mr. Howe's friends and admirers assembled at Windsor, and, in presence of his constituents, presented him with £1,000, and a handsome complimentary address. The Reciprocity treaty, which largely extended the com mercial relations between the United States and the British Provinces of North America, was signed by Lord Elgin at Washington on the 5th of June, 1854. For the success of this measure, both countries are largely indebted to J. D. Andrews, Esq., who devoted many years of life to its accomplishment. He repeatedly visited all the Provinces, and communicated freely with the Colonial Governments ; by his personal exer tions he interested those who led them, and also the prominent statesmen of the Republic, in the question. A flood of light was poured upon it from the able and elaborate reports and statistical tables prepared under his direction for the informa tion of Congress. Though offence was given by some miscon ception which arose at the time, and in consequence of which Nova Scotia was left unrepresented at Washington ; it is but fair to Lord Elgin, and to all parties concerned, to acknowledge that this Treaty has greatly extended the trade and commerce of the two countries. The Russian war broke out in 1854. The allied armies were thrown into the Crimea, and their numbers were thinned by great battles, by incessant labor, and combats in the trenches. The British troops, being less numerous than the French, and covering too much ground, suffered most. Large quantities of indispensable supplies, were wrecked in the port of Balaclava, at the beginning of the winter of 1855, too late to be replaced before much suffering and mortality had resulted. A want of skill and administrative capacity in the higher military author ities was also apparent, and aggravated the sufferings of the 220 FOREIGN ENLISTMENT BILL. army, while it heightened the anxiety everywhere felt through out the empire for the fate of an heroic body of men, whose courage and endurance were undoubted, but whose position was most critical all through that winter. At a moment when the gloom was deepest, and the necessity for speedy re inforcements was most keenly felt, our friend was called upon to undertake a mission of a very delicate, and, as it turned out, of a somewhat hazardous nature. In 1846, Mr. Howe, in his letter to Lord John Russell, and again in 1854, in his speech on the Organization of the Empire, had recommended th^t representatives from the outlying Prov inces should be drawn into the Imperial Parliament, and the physical force of those Provinces embodied and prepared for the defence of our flag, however and whenever it might be assailed. His advice was neglected, and when the great war came, the stress and strain of it fell on the population of the British Islands; there being no preparations or legal enactments by which a man could be drawn from any one of our forty Prov inces into the Queen's service. A foreign enlistment bill, by which it was hoped that the materials, so abundant within it, might be obtained from beyond the limits of the empire, was passed through Parliament in some haste, and perhaps without due consideration. The winter of 1856, in consequence of various disturbing causes, was one of severe commercial depression in the United States. Thousands of the laboring classes of the great cities were thrown out of employment ; and large bodies of British subjects, and of the foreign population generally, were either supported by elemosynary efforts or were temporarily employed by the municipalities. Under those circumstances, it was very natural that foreign officers, driven by revolutions and proscrip tion from various parts of Europe, should offer their swords to England, and flatter themselves that their old co-patriots and companions in arms would follow them into her service. It was even more natural that British subjects, who took an interest in the honor and in the welfare of their mother country, should sug gest that those who were starving in the streets would cheer fully exchange the luxuries of the soup kitchen for good pay, MISSION TO THE UNITED STATES. 221 and a chance of promotion. These offers and suggestions were made by persons resident in the United States. With the passage of the Foreign Enlistment Bill, or the suggestions which induced Her Majesty's Government to test the resources of those who had urged that men might be drawn from that country, Mr. Howe had nothing to do. Had the Empire been properly organized, as he proposed should be done in 1846, foreign mercenaries would not have been required ; nor would there have existed any necessity for perilling, by experiments, successful or unsuccessful, the amicable relations which existed between Great Britain and the United States. But when the bill was passed, and the policy adopted, Mr. Howe was the last man to shrink from giving to Her Majesty's government any service or aid that might be required to render that policy successful. When, in the winter of 1855, he was selected and sent into the United States to test the accuracy of the statements made to the Imperial government by foreign officers and others in that country, and to guage the extent of their resources, he performed that service with rare prudence, sagacity, and moral courage. During the two months that he spent in the United States, he had to communicate with a score of persons, whose names had been given to him, and many of whom turned out to be reckless adven turers, utterly devoid of principle. He had to test their resources, to penetrate their designs, to estimate their charac ters, and not unfrequently to filing them off and run the risk of treachery and hostility, when he had proved or suspected that they were worthless. He had to do this with the neutrality laws in his front, and Russian agents and Russian sym pathizers all round him. How he did it, may be gathered from thi' fact that he left the country, after traversing it for two months, without the authorities — however well disposed to have done so — being able to prove against him any violation of law. How he defended the Imperial and Provincial govern ments may be gathered from the letter which he addressed to the Right Hon. William E. Gladstone, in 1856, with others which, from time to time, were called forth by the varying phases of the controversy which preceded or followed the re- 73* 222 THIRD DELEGATION TO ENGLAND. moval of Mr. Crampton. As Mr. Gladstone, on the publication of that letter, in the handsomest manner, did Mr. Howe ample justice, and as the tone of feeling between the two countries has essentially improved since 1856, we have not thought: it necessary to include any of these letters in this collection. The House of Assembly was dissolved while Mr. Howe was in the United States ; and, returning from his mission but a few days before the general election, he lost his seat for Cumberland, from utter inability to visit important sections of his county, where his opponents had been sufficiently industrious during his absence. On the 8th of June, 1855, Mr. Howe embarked for England, being, for the third time, honored by having Provincial interests entrusted to his care. He returned in the autumn, having suc ceeded — notwithstanding the efforts of political opponents to damage the credit of the country abroad — in selling to Messrs. Baring, Brothers & Co., £150,000 of Provincial debentures at par, and in negotiating with them for the further sale of what ever might be required, up to £800,000 sterling, to complete the public works. The Provincial bonds now command a handsome premium, and are sold at one hundred and nine. While in England, Mr. Howe republished his speech on the Organization of the Empire. Some passages of it gave offence to the Hon. Mr. Hinckes, who was then in London, and who reviewed it, in a pamphlet, with a good deal of ascerbity. Mr. Howe's reply, which we regard as equal, in point of style and elevation of tone, to any thing he ever wrote, will be found in this volume. In 1856, on the promotion of Mr. Wilkins to the bench, Mr. Howe was elected for Windsor without a contest, and by the concurrence of all parties. He sits for that township now. In March, 1857, the Liberal administration, under the leader ship of Mr. Young, was displaced by a hostile vote ; and Mr. Howe, thinking that he could not, with honor, hold an important office under the new government, — of the composition and policy of which he disapproved, — resigned the chair of the Railway Board. We think we cannot better conclude this record of the life SPEECHES IN NEW ENGLAND. 223 and services of an old friend than by giving a wider circulation to two speeches, delivered in Boston, on the 5th of July last, and which, we are quite sure, will be responded to by every well-wisher to the prosperity of two great countries that ought forever to be united in the bonds of peace. At the city celebration in Faneuil Hall, the toast was : — < " The Queen of Great Britain — Her virtues have gained her more hearts than her throne has subjects." Being invited by the Mayor, F. W. Lincoln, Esq., to respond, Mr. Howe rose and said : — Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen, — To be called upon on such an occa sion, to respond in such a place, to such a toast, I regard as an honor and a distinction — the highest ever conferred upon me abroad — the highest that can be conferred on a British subject by the people of these States. Sir, as I have of late rambled through New England, I have been pleased to mark how ancient prejudices have been toned down — how the angry passions, excited by two wars, have subsided ; but I hardly expected to hear, in old Faneuil Hall, the health of my Sover eign toasted on such a day, with so much genuine enthusiasm. With all my heart I thank you. In the name, and on behalf of my Queen I thank you, and three millions of North Americans, when they hear of this compliment, will thank you also. I wish, Mr. Mayor, that Queen Victoria could be presented to the admiring gaze of the citizens of Boston. That she could be here in person, to be seen of all men, as she is ever seen, on all suitable occasions, mingling with her people. As republicans you may not be very fond of Queens, but as men you are fond of beautiful and accom plished women. We honor our Sovereign, because we love liberty. Because our mon arch is our chief magistrate. We maintain a throne, because our liber ties and franchises are thereby bulwarked and sustained. We uphold and maintain royal prerogatives because they give grace and strength to that great constitutional system which, cemented by the blood of our fathers, yields to the pressure of modern civilization and supplies all the guards which ardent lovers of freedom can demand. We honor our Sovereign, then, when a man sits upon the throne, but when it is occu pied by a gifted, accomplished woman, we love her, and are not ashamed to avow the weakness, if it be one, before all the world. Queen Victo ria sets to all her subjects, at home and abroad, the example of a good 224 SPEECHES IN NEW ENGLAND; wife, of a devoted mother, of an accomplished lady, wise in art and lit erature, but wiser still in the domestic virtues which embellish palaces and cottages alike, and therefore it is that we thank God that in Her Majesty we have not only got a constitutional monarch, but an example for our wives and daughters. Mr. Mayor, I never come to Boston without feeling that I am at home, for I find friends everywhere and relatives not a few. I have partaken, on former occasions, of its unbounded hospitality. We have not forgotten, in the Provinces, — who that was present will ever forget ? — the noble celebration with which you inaugurated your great public works. I told you, on that occasion, that my father was a Boston boy. He, like Franklin, and like the Governor of your State ("who has just done himself honor by referring to the fact), learnt the printing business in this city. He had just completed his apprenticeship, and was en gaged to a very pretty girl, when the revolution broke out. He saw the battle of Bunker Hill from one of the old houses here ; he nursed the wounded when it was over. Adhering to the British side, he was driven out at the evacuation, and retired to Newport, where his betrothed fol lowed him. They were married there, and afterwards settled at Halifax. He left all his household goods and gods behind him, carrying away nothing but his principles and the pretty girl. The Loyalists, who left these States, were not, it must be confessed, as good republicans as you are, but they loved liberty under their old forms, and their descendants love it too. My father, though a true Bri ton to the day of his death, loved New England, and old Boston espe cially, with filial regard. He never lost an opportunity of serving a Boston man if in his power. At the close of your railway banquet, one gentleman told me that my father had, during the last war, taken his father from the military prison at Melville Island, and sent him back to Boston. Another on the same evening, showed me a gold watch sent by an uncle who died in the West Indies, to his family. It was pawned by a sailor in Halifax, but redeemed by my father, and sent to the dead man's relatives. And so it was, all his life. He loved his Sovereign, but he loved Boston too, and whenever he got sick in his latter days, we used to send him up here to recruit. A sight of the old scenes and a walk upon Boston Common were sure to do him good, and he generaUy came back uncommonly well. Though bound to say thus much, sir, for my Sovereign and my father; for my self, what can I say ? I feel very much like the man bidden to the feast without a wedding garment. How can I clothe my thoughts in language to win even the indulgence of an audience whose ears have SPEECHES IN NEW ENGLAND. 225 been "charmed by the great orator of New England ; may I not say of North America, for we have no man to match him, whatever there may be at the South. Your city pageants, your civic feasts, are imposing and attractive ; but these are everywhere — great orators are not. You are indeed fortunate in the possession of a man who gives to our land's language its strength unimpaired by the highest embellishment. The Indian draws from the maple the bow wherewith he kills his game, and the sap with which he sweetens his repast. Mr. Everett draws from the same large growth and cultivation, the arguments by which he sustains the great reputations and great interests of his country, and the honeyed accents which give to scenes like this the sweet cement of social life. The ancients — " Threw pearls of great price in their goblets of gold, When to those that they honored they quaffed." He melts into our cups the rich ingots of his imagination, and every man who listens to him is intellectually richer for the draught. I rejoice, sir, that the small clouds which threatened to darken the counsels and disturb the peace of our two nations have passed away, and I am glad that British statesmen have had the magnanimity and discre tion to throw over, at once and forever, a claim or pretension, which among commercial nations, in the present age of the world, can never be sustained. Stop your vessels on the high seas ! We might as well claim to stop women in the streets, to ascertain if they were virtuous ; to stop letters or telegraphic messages, coming into your country, for fear that they might contain something wrong. If we can stop your vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, what should hinder you to stop ours in the Bay of Fundy, and how would we North Americans like that ? The whole proceedings of this day, sir, so far as I have witnessed them, have been to me deeply interesting, and highly honorable to this State. The orators of the day have not imitated the bad example of some that I have heard elsewhere, who would perpetuate the animosities of the past, and make history a consuming fire. I have listened to the Declaration of Independence, as I always do, not without emotions of various kinds, but with emotions similar to those with which I read our great Charter and Bill of Rights, or any other eloquent protests against the injustice and barbarities of the past. I have never regarded England in the days of Lord North, as any thing to be very proud of, any more than you are very proud of New Amsterdam under Peter Stuyvesant. But judge not the British Em pire by what it was in 1772, but as it is in 1858. The British Islands 226 SPEECHES IN NEW ENGLAND. are now the centre of a vast commerce ; the seats of science and skilled labor ; the fountain heads of capital, overflowing in honest enter prise in every quarter of the globe. Forty States and Provinces, con taining three hundred millions of people, are combined by their diplo macy and defended by their arms. The England that oppressed you had but little liberty herself, and the Colonies that remained faithful to her had less. But how has all this changed since 1772 ? We have lim ited the prerogative ; we have reformed our laws ; we have purified our courts ; we have enfranchised men of all creeds and all professions, abolished monopolies, established free trade, and emancipated our slaves while extending our Empire. England is no longer the harsh mother country against whom that old bill of indictment was filed. She is founding new Provinces every day, training them in the practice of freedom and in the arts of life ; and, when they are prepared for self-government, she does not force them in to declarations of independence, but gracefully concedes to them the right to make their own constitutions, and to change and modify them from time to time. We North Americans may have had our grievances in the olden time. We may have had our own contests with besotted statesmen and absurd systems, but now we are as free as you. We gov ern ourselves as completely as any of your independent States. We have universal suffrage and responsible government. You may sometimes have to endure a bad administration for four years ; we can overthrow a bad one by a single resolution, on any day of the year when our Par liaments are in session. Think of us then, as we really are, your equals in many respects ; your rivals, it may be, in all things honorable, but ever your brethren, your friends, your neighbors. You have drank to my sovereign, Mr. Mayor. I would gladly respond, if I am permitted, by toasting those who rule over you, in spite of all your boasted liberties, who reign supreme in your affections. To me it seems that the ladies of Boston, though not less lovely, have marvel lously increased in size since I last saw them. Fashion inflates us in the Provinces a good deal, but you beat us in expansion. Whitfield, preaching about the time of the revolution, used this language, " As I passed over your country I saw your young maidens clad in their home spun garments. Would that I could see them clad in home-spun right eousness." What would the great preacher say if saw them now? Jack, when remonstrated with for beating his wife, and told she was " the weaker vessel," exclaimed " if she is, why dont she carry less sail ? " Jack's complaint is becoming general. There is a terrible lot of sail carried, but the craft are weatherly and lovely to behold. Even SPEECHES IN NEW ENGLAND. 227 Whitfield might mistake the pretty girls of Boston for angels peeping out of clouds of crinoline and lace. Of our North American women I will say nothing. Come over and see them. Dine with us and you will find our hearts as light as are your own. Mingle with us in the dance, and beauty and refinement shall lead you through its mazes. Our national festivals may not be so much to your tasle, but you shall have at least a hearty welcome. Mr. Howe closed his speech by giving " The ladies of the city of Boston." When Mr. Howe sat down, the whole audience rose, and gave three cheers, the band playing " God save the Queen." At the Democratic festival, at the Revere House, this toast was given from the Chair : — " Our Mother Country." With cliffs of white and bowers of green, And Ocean narrowing to caress her, With hills, and threaded streams between, Our little Mother Isle, God bless her. On being called upon by the Chairman, William C. Williamson, Esq., to respond, Mr. Howe said : — Mr. Chairman, — If this be a Democratic feast, all I will say of it is, that Monsieur Soyer could not improve the viands ; that the wines have a most aristocratic flavor, and that the fruits and flowers might be set upon the tables of the gods. I do not know whether I am a Demo crat or not, but I have been fighting half my life at the North, to make every man — whatever his creed, or origin, or complexion — equal in the eye of one responsible government ; equal in the presence of universal laws. We Englishmen, are endeavoring to combine in one general sys tem, the forty States and Provinces which compose the British Empire, scattered over every clime, embracing three hundred millions of people, speaking every language ; and, while combining them, we desire to de velop their resources by free trade with each other, and if possible, with all the world. If the Democracy of this country are striving so to com bine the thirty-one States of this confederacy, then I wish you success with all my heart. You would be fools and madmen, caUed to this vocation, in possession of half a continent, with a glorious history to re flect upon and boundless resources to develop, if, from any want of skill 228 SPEECHES IN NEW ENGLAND. or statesmanship, you failed to preserve this Union. England, Ireland and Scotland, who do not envy but glory in your prosperity, would despise you if you did. British America, whose interests are involved in your success, would deeply regret the dissolution of this great con federacy. The sentiment which you have just given does honor to your feast and to your nation. " Our Mother Country." Why should we not love and honor her ? Why should she not respect and appreciate us ? Your fathers and grandfathers and mine fought out, like brave men, as they were, their differences of opinion. And I, though a British subject, have lived to rejoice that we were beaten in that old war ; for human liberty and civilization, the world over, even in the British Islands them selves, have gained more by your victories than would have been gained had your rights been trodden down. But, bear in mind, my friends, that the Britons of the present day are not those who oppressed you. Your rivals in commerce, and arts, and arms, they may be ; but, thank God, they are at last your friends. Ardent lovers of liberty like yourselves, they have worked out, under other forms, the great problem of self-gov ernment. Comprehending the destiny of the British races, they are gratified to see you, on one-half of this continent, ruling your thirty republics, while we at the North are laying slowly, but securely, the foundations of a great empire. It would be strange, indeed, Mr. Chairman, if New England did not love Old England with all her heart. How closely do the two countries resemble each other. On every side, as I ramble over your beautiful States, contrasts which do not displease are blended with aspects highly characteristic of the two countries. I see England in your busy marts and thriving manufactories; in your substantial structures; in your per manent enclosures ; in the beautiful cottage homes of your farmers ; and in the vUlas of your merchant princes. I see her in your love of shade trees and flowers, which droop over your highways and are festooned around your city mansions. I see her in the neatness and thrift which everywhere prevail ; in your free press ; in your free Parliaments ; in your love of education, and in your reverence for the Bible. Why, then, should you not love your mother country ? Why should not we, men of the North and South, mutually love each other? We do ; we will ; we must. Fraternal feelings are a necessity of our natures. I would as soon shoot a Russian as a dog, if I met him in open conflict. But to slay an American, would seem Uke committing a great crime ; like fratricide or murder. There can be no lawful war between us ; no war that is not opposed to the higher laws which spring from our com- SPEECHES IN NEW ENGLAND. 229 mon history, and govern our mental and moral organizations. We have, it is true, been politically divided for three-fourths of a century. But what is that to the two thousand. years during which our blood, our laws, our fortunes were the same ? We were the same people from Runny- mede to 1688. Your ancestors and mine, wrung from tyrannic kings and corrupt ministers, the great charters which preserved the liberties of the world, under which you were trained for independence ; in which may be discovered the spirit of the declaration you have read to-day. Our fathers carried the Bed Cross Banner at the Crusades, flaunted their white and red roses in each others' faces at the civil wars ; and, at Agincourt, Crescy, and Poictiers, bent their bows and wielded their battle-axes for the honor and to the eternal glory of " our mother country." In the struggles of the Reformation, and in the later civil wars, you had your share. At Ramilies and Oudenard, and at Quebec, our ancestors fought side by side. Marlborough and Wolfe are yours ; Shakspeare, and Milton, and Spenser, are yours ; Russell, and Hampden, and even Chatham, are yours. We have common lot and part in all the great names that emblazon a common history, and have enriched a literature that we cannot divide. Shall it be said, then, that because an old fool like Lord North set us by the ears ; that, because the bad pas sions created by that first mad contest involved us in a second civil war, we are to fight again about any trifle, or that there can be any question of such magnitude as to turn back the great stream of our common thoughts, and set us to cutting each others' throats? God forbid! Shall we fight to test our courage ? It has been tested from Boadicea to Bunker's Hill ; from Bunker's Hill to Waterloo. We know how you can fight, for we have crossed swords with you — sometimes to our cost. You know how John Bull conducts himself in a fray ; and as to our British Americans, though lovers of peace, a bracing climate gives vigor to the frame, and you can hardly see a boy in the British Provinces, who, if there be reason good, would not as soon fight as eat his breakfast. But why should we ? Such scenes as I have witnessed to-day, assure me that we never shall. Such scenes as this are our best diplomacy. Let them ever abound, and let us carry our trumpets, as the firemen did theirs this morning, ever filled with flowers. Not the least gratifying part of the proceedings of this day, has been, to me, the oratorical displays, with which I have been charmed. The Chinese have their Feast of Lanterns ; but you hang out your intellect ual lights, which would be too dazzling, but for the art and the courtesy with which their radiance is subdued. Before I sit down, sir, permit me to thank you for the kindness shown to me on this occasion. Web- 74 230 SPEECHES IN NEW ENGLAND. ster has departed from the scene of his great labors ; Everett and Choate, it has been my high privilege to hear to-day, in the meridian splendor of their reputations. I am pleased, however, to see, sir, in the chair of this assembly, so able a representative of the rising race of orators and statesmen by whom the destinies of this great country wih hereafter be controlled, and if in accordance with the order of proceed ings, I beg to propose your health. PUBLIC LETTERS. (231) LETTERS. LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Sept. 18, 1839. Mt Lord, — I beg your Lordship to believe that no desire to seek for notoriety beyond the limited sphere in which Providence has placed me, tempts me to address these letters to you. Born in a small and dis tant Province of the Empire, and contented with the range of occupa tion that it affords, and with the moderate degree of influence which the confidence of some portion of its population confers, I should never have thought of intruding upon your Lordship, had not the occupations of my past Ufe, and the devotion to them of many days of toil and nights of anxious inquiry, led me to entertain strong opinions upon a subject which your Lordship has undertaken recently to discuss ; and which, while it deeply concerns the honor and the interests of the Empire, ap pears to be, by Her Majesty's present Ministers, but little understood. Whether or not the Anglo-American population, upholding the British flag on this side of the Atlantic, shall possess the right to influence, through their representatives, the Governments under which they live, in all matters touching their internal affairs (of which their fellow sub jects living elsewhere know nothing, and with which they have no right to interfere,) is a question, my Lord, that involves their happiness and free dom. To every Nova Scotian it is no light matter, that the country of his birth, in whose bosom the bones of a hardy and loyal ancestry re pose, and whose surface is possessed by a population inferior in none of the physical, moral, or mental attributes which distinguish his race, to any branch of the great British family, should be free and happy. I share with my countrymen their solicitude on this subject ; I and my children will share their deep disgrace, if the doctrines recently attributed to Your Lordship are to prevail ; to the utter exclusion of us all from the blessings and advantages of responsible government, based upon the principles of that Constitution which Your Lordship's forefathers labored to establish, and ours have taught us to revere. To the consciousness of social and 74* 234 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. political degradation which must be my portion, if the future govern ment of North America is arranged upon the principles recently avowed by the ministry, I am reluctant that the reflection should be added, that the Colonists were themselves to blame ; in permitting a great question, without ample discussion and remonstrance, to be decided upon grounds which they knew to be untenable and untrue. In addressing Your Lordship on such a topic, it is gratifying to reflect, that your past hfe is a guaranty that the moment you are satisfied that a greater amount of freedom and happiness can be conferred on any portion of your fellow subjects than they now enjoy, without endangering the welfare of the whole — when once convinced that the great principles of the British Constitution can be more widely extended, without perU to the integrity of the empire — you will not hesitate to lend the influence of your great name and distinguished talents to the good old cause " for which Hamp den died in the field and Sidney on the scaffold." Lord Durham's report upon the affairs of British North America ap pears to have produced much excitement in England. The position which his Lordship occupies as a politician at home, naturaUy draws at tention to whatever he says and does ; and the disclosures made in the report must appear so strange to many, and the remedies suggested so bold and original to many more, that I am not surprised at the notice bestowed by friends and foes on this very important document. From what I have seen, however, it is evident that His Lordship is paying the penalty of party connection ; and that his opinions on Canadian affairs, instead of being tried upon their merits, are in many cases applauded or opposed, as his views of British and Irish politics happen to be relished or condemned. It is almost too much to expect that my feeble voice will be heard amidst the storm of praise and censure that this report has raised ; and yet there may be some, who, disliking this mode of esti mating a state paper, or distrusting the means of judging possessed by many who express opinions, but whose practical experience of the work ing of Colonial Constitutions has been but slight — if indeed they have had any — may feel disposed to ask, What is thought of the report in the Colonies ? Are its leading features recognized as true to nature and expe rience there ? Are the remedies suggested approved by the people whose future destinies they are to influence and control ? The report has circulated for some months in the Colonies ; and I feel it a duty to state the grounds of my belief, that His Lordship, in attri buting many if not all of our Colonial evils and disputes, to the ab sence of responsibility in our rulers to those whom they are caUed to govern, is entirely warranted by the knowledge of every intelligent Col- LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 235 onist ; that the remedy pointed out, while it possesses the merits of being extremely simple and eminently British, — making them so responsi ble, is the only cure for those evils short of arrant quackery ; the only secure foundation upon which the power of the crown can be estab lished on this Continent, so as to defy internal machination and foreign assault. It appears to me that a very absurd opinion has long prevailed among many worthy people, on both sides of the Atlantic ; that the selection of an Executive Council, who, upon most points of domestic policy, will differ from the great body of the inhabitants and the majority of their representatives, is indispensable to the very existence of Colonial insti tutions ; and that if it were otherwise, the Colony would fly off, by the operation of some latent principle of mischief, which I have never seen very clearly defined. By those who entertain this view, it is assumed, that Great Britain is indebted for the preservation of her Colonies, not to the natural affection of their inhabitants — to their pride in her history, to their participation in the benefit of her warlike, scientific or hterary achievements, — but to the disinterested patriotism of a dozen or two of persons, whose names are scarcely known in England, except by the clerks in Downing Street ; who are remarkable for nothing above their neighbors in the Colony, except perhaps the enjoyment of offices too richly endowed ; or their zealous efforts to annoy, by the distribution of patronage and the management of public affairs, the great body of the inhabitants, whose sentiments they cannot change. I have ever held, My Lord, and still hold to the belief, that the popu lation of British North America, are sincerely attached to the parent State ; that they are proud of their origin, deeply interested in the in tegrity of the empire, and not anxious for the establishment of any other form of government here than that which you enjoy at home ; which, while it has stood the test of ages, and purified itself by successive peaceful revolutions, has so developed the intellectual, moral and natural resources of two small Islands, as to enable a people, once comparatively far behind their neighbors in influence and improvement, to combine and wield the energies of a dominion more vast in extent, and compli cated in all its relations, than any other in ancient or modern times. Why should we desire a severance of old ties, that are more honorable than any new ones we can form ? Why should we covet institutions more perfect than those which have worked so well, and produced such admirable results ? Until it can be shown that there are forms of gov ernment, combining stronger executive power with more of individual liberty ; offering nobler incitements to honorable ambition, and more se- 236 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. curity to unaspiring ease and humble industry ; why should it be taken for granted, either by our friends in England, or our enemies elsewhere, that we are panting for new experiments ; or are disposed to repudiate and cast aside the principles of that excellent Constitution, cemented by the blood and the long experience of our fathers, and upon which the vigor ous energies of our brethren, driven to apply new principles to a field of boundless resources, have failed to improve ? This suspicion is a Ubel upon the Colonist, and upon the Constitution he claims as his in heritance ; and the principles of which he believes to be as applicable to aU the exigencies of the country where he resides, as they have proved to be to those of the fortunate Islands in which they were first developed. If the conviction of this fact were once acknowledged by the intelh- gent and influential men of aU parties in Britain, Colonial misrule would speedUy end, and the reign of order indeed commence. This is not a party question. I can readUy understand how the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel may differ from Your Lordship or the Earl of Dur ham, as to whether measures should be carried, which they believe will impair, and you feel wiU renovate, the Constitution ; but surely none of these distinguished men would wish to deny the Constitution itself to large bodies of British subjects on this side of the water, who have not got it, who are anxious to secure its advantages to themselves and their chUdren ; who, while they have no ulterior designs that can by any pos sibUity make the concession dangerous, can never be expected to be con tented with a system the very reverse of that they admire ; and in view of the proud satisfaction with which, amidst aU their manly strug gles for power, their brethren at home survey the simple machinery of a government, which we believe to be, like the unerring principles of sci ence, as applicable to one side of the Atlantic as to the other, but which we are nevertheless denied. Many persons, not familiar with the facts, may wonder how this occurs, and be disposed to doubt the correctness of my assertion. It seems strange that those who live within the British empire should be governed by other principles than those of the British Constitution ; and yet it is true, notwithstanding. Let me illustrate the fact, by a few refer ences to British and Colonial affairs. In England, the government is invariably entrusted to men whose principles and policy the mass of those who possess the elective franchise approve, and who are sustained by a majority in the House of Commons. The sovereign may be per sonally hostile to them ; a majority of the House of Lords may oppose them in that august Assembly ; and yet they govern the country, until, from a deficiency of talent, or conduct, or from ill fortune, they find their LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 237 representative majority diminished, and some rival combination of able and influential men in condition to displace them. If satisfied that the Commons truly reflect the opinions of the constituency, they resign ; if there is any doubt, a dissolution is tried, and the verdict of the country decides to which party its destinies are to be confided. You, in common with every Englishman living at home, are so familiar with the opera tion of this system, and so engrossed with a participation in the ardent intellectual competition it occasions, that perhaps you seldom pause to admire what attracts as little attention as the air you breathe. The cab man who drives past St. Paul's a dozen times a day, seldom gazes at its ample outline or excellent proportions ; and yet they impress the Colo nist with awe and wonder, and make him regret that he has left no such edifice in the west. As a politician, then, Your Lordship's only care is, to place or retain your party in the ascendant in the House of Commons. You never doubt for an instant that if they are so, they must influence the policy and dispense the patronage of the government. This simple and admir able principle of letting the majority govern, you carry out in all your corporations, clubs, and pubhc companies and associations ; and no more suspect that there is danger in it, or that the minority are injured when compelled to submit, than you see injustice in awarding a cup at Epsom or Doncaster to the horse that has won, rather than to the animal which has lost the race. The effects of this system are perceptible everywhere. A peer of France, under the old regime, if he lost the smiles of the court suffered a sort of political and social annihilation. A peer of England, if unjustly slighted by the Sovereign, retires to his estate, not to mourn over an irreparable stroke of fortune, but to devote his hours to study, to rally his friends, to connect himself with some great interest in the State , whose accumulating strength may bear him into the counsels of his Sovereign, without any sacrifice of principle or diminution of self- respect. A commoner feels, in England, not as commoners used to feel in France, that honors and influence are only to be attained by an entire prostration of spirit, the foulest adulation, the most utter subserviency to boundless prerogatives, arbitrarily exercised, — but, that they are to be won in open arenas, by the exercise of those manly qualities which com mand respect; and by the exhibition ofthe ripened fruits of assiduous intel lectual cultivation, in the presence of an admiring nation, whose decision ensures success. Hence there is a self-poised aud vigorous independence in the Briton's character, by which he strangely contrasts with all his European neighbors. His descendants in the Colonies, notwithstanding the difficulties of their position, still bear to John Bull, in this respect, a 238 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. strong resemblance ; but it must fade, if the system be not changed ; and our children, instead of exhibiting the bold front and manly bearing of the Briton, must be stamped with the lineaments of low cunning and sneaking servility, which the practical operation of Colonial government has a direct tendency to engender. From some rather close observation of what has occurred in Nova Scotia and in the adjoining Colonies, I am justified in the assertion, that the English rule is completely reversed on this side of the Atlantic. Ad mitting that in Lower Canada, in consequence of the state of society which Lord Durham has so well depicted, such a policy may have been neces sary ; surely there is no reason why the people of Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, should, on that account, be deprived of the appUcation of a principle which is the corner stone of the British Constitution — the fruitful source of responsibility in the government, and of honorable characteristics in the people. If the Frenchmen in one Province do not understand, or cannot be entrusted with this valuable privUege, why should we, who are aU Britons, or of British descent, be deprived of what we do understand, and feel that we can never be prosperous and happy without ? Your Lordship asks me for proofs. They shaU be given. Looking at all the British North American Colonies, with one single exception, so far as my memory extends, although it has sometime hap pened that the local administration has secured a majority in the lower House, I never knew an instance in which a hostUe majority could dis place an Executive Council, whose measures it disapproved ; or could, in fact, change the policy, or exercise the slightest influence upon the ad ministrative operations of the government. The case which forms the exception was that of the Province of New Brunswick ; but there the struggle lasted as long as the Trojan war, — through the existence of sev eral Houses of Assembly ; and was at length concluded by an arrange ment with the authorities at home, after repeated appeals, and two te dious and costly delegations to England. But the remedy applied, even in that case, though satisfactory for the time, can have no appUcation to future difficulties or differences of opinion. Let us suppose that a gen eral election takes place in that Province next year, and that the great body of the people are dissatisfied with the mode in which the patronage of the government has been distributed, and the general bearing of the internal policy of its rulers. If that colony were an English incorporated town, the people would have the remedy in their own hands ; if they were entrusted with the powers, which, as British subjects of right belongs to them, they would only have to return a majority of their own way of LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 239 thinking ; a few men would change places ; the wishes of the majority would be carried out ; and by no possibility could any thing occur to bring the people and their rulers into such a state of collision as was exhibited in that fine Province for a long series of years. But under the existing system, if a hostile majority is returned, what can they do ? Squabble and contend with an Executive whom they cannot influence ; see the patronage and favor of government lavished upon the minority who an noy, but never outvote them ; and, finally, at the expiration of a further period of ten years, appeal by delegation to England ; running the hazard of a reference to a clerk or a secretary whose knowledge of the various points at issue is extremely limited — who has no interest in them, and who, however favorably disposed, may be displaced by some change in the position of parties at home before the negotiations are brought to a close. In 1836, a general election took place in Nova Scotia; and when the Legislature met for the dispatch of business, it was found that the local government had two-thirds of the members of the representative branch against them. A fair-minded Englishman would naturaUy conclude that the local cabinet, by a few official changes and a modification of its policy, would have at once deferred to the views and opinions of so large a majority of the popular branch. Did it do so ? No. After a fierce struggle with the local authorities, in which the revenue biUs and the appropriations for the year were nearly lost, the House forwarded a strong address to the foot of the throne, appealing to the Crown for the redress of inveterate grievances, the very existence of which our Colonial rulers denied, or which they refused to remove. To give Your Lordship an idea of the absurd anomaUes and ridicu lous wretchedness of our system up to that time, it is only necessary to state, that a Council of twelve persons administered the government, and at the same time formed the upper branch of the Legislature, sitting in variably with closed doors. Only five of these twelve gentlemen were partners in one private bank, five of them were relations, two of them were heads of departments, and one was the chief justice, who in one ca pacity had to administer the law he had assisted to make, and then in a third, to advise the Governor as to its execution. To heighten the ab surdity of the whole affair, it is hardly necessary to add, that only nine of these twelve were members of a particular church, which, however useful or respectable, only embraced one-fifth of the whole population of the Province. To the passage of certain measures for the regulation of our currency, the derangement of which was supposed to be profitable to those who dealt in money, the bankers were said to have opposed their 240 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. influence. Any attempt at reduction of the expense of the revenue de partments, the heads of which sat at the board, was not likely to prevail ; while the patronage of the government was of course distributed by the nine churchmen, in a way not very satisfactory to the four-fifths of the people who did not happen to belong to that communion. Such a com bination as this never could have grown up in any Colony where the English principle of responsibility had been in operation. Indeed, there was something so abhorrent to British feeling and justice in the whole affair, that Lord Glenelg at once decided that it was " too bad ;" and, while in Her Majesty's name he thanked the Commons for the represen tation they had made, he directed the Governor to dissolve the old Coun cU, and form two new ones, free from the objections which the Assembly had urged. Had the instructions given been fairly carried out, there is little doubt that in Nova Scotia, as in New Brunswick, the people and their rep resentatives would have been contented for a time ; and would have felt that, in extreme cases, an appeal from their local rulers to the Colonial Secretary would be effectual. The existing machinery of government might have been supposed to be adequate to the necessities of the coun try, with perhaps an entire revision and repair at the hands of the master workmen at home once in ten years ; or whenever the blunders of sub ordinates in the Colony had completely clogged its operations. But mark the result. The Governor was instructed to call into the new Councils those who " possessed the confidence of the country." Now, you in England are simple enough to believe, that when the Whigs have, in a house of six hundred and fifty-eight members, a majority of eight or ten, they possess the confidence ofthe country; and if their majority should happen to be double that number, you would think it droll enough if they were entirely excluded from political influence, and if the new creations of peers and selections for the Cabinet should all be made from the ranks of their opponents. This would be absurd at home ; and yet it is the heighth of wisdom in the Colonies. At the time these commands were sent out, the party who were pressing certain eco nomical and other reforms in Nova Scotia, were represented by two- thirds of the members of the popular branch. The relative numbers have occasionally varied during the past three sessions. At times, as on the recent division upon a delegation, the reformers have numbered thirty-three to eleven, in a House of forty-six. On some questions the minority has been larger ; but two-thirds of the whole may be fairly taken as the numerical superiority on all political questions, of the re formers over their opponents. It will scarcely be beUeved, then, in Eng- LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 241 land, that in the new appointments, by which a more popular character was to be given to the Councils, six gentlemen were taken from the mi nority, and but two from the ranks of the majority. So that, those who had been thanked for making representations to the Queen, and who were pressing a change of policy, were all passed over but two ; while those who had resisted and opposed every representation, were honored by appointments, and placed in situations to render any such change utterly hopeless. The Executive CouncU, the local cabinet or ministry, therefore, contained one or two persons of moderate views, not selected from the House ; one from the majority, and eight or ten others, to render his voice very like that of the " man crying in the wilderness." He held his seat about half a year, and then resigned ; feeling that while he was sworn to secrecy, and compromised by the policy he had not approved, he had no influence on the deliberations of the Cabinet or the distribution of patronage. Things were managed just as much in accordance with the royal instructions with respect to the Legislative Council. The pack was shuffled, the game was to remain the same. The members of the majority, as I have said before, were all omitted in the new creation of peers, but one ; while, both from the House and beyond it, some of the most determined supporters of old abuses were selected ; and among them, a young lawyer who had shown a most chivalrous desire to oppose every thing Her Majesty so graciously approved ; and who, in the ex cess of his ultra zeal, had, upon the final passage of the address to the crown, when almost all his friends deserted him, voted against the measure in a minority of four. Here, then, Your Lordship has a practical illustration of the correct ness of Lord Durham's observations ; and may judge of the chance the present system offers of good Colonial government, even when the people have the Queen and the Colonial Secretary on their side. Such policy would wither all hope in the Nova Scotians, if they did not confide in the good sense and justice of their brethren within the four seas. We do not believe that the Parliament, press, and people of Eng land, when rightly informed, will allow our local authorities " to play such tricks before high heaven ; " or force us to live under a system so absurd, so anti-British, so destructive of every manly and honorable principle of action in political affairs. The House of Assembly, as a last resort, after ample deliberation, determined to send two members of that body as delegates to England, to claim the rights of Englishmen for the people of this country. Your Lordship's declaration tells me, that on this point they will be unsuccessful ; but patient perseverance is a political characteristic of the stock from which we spring. 75 242 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. You ask me for the remedy. Lord Durham has stated it distinctly : the Colonial Governors must be commanded to govern by the aid of those who possess the confidence of the people, and are supported by a majority of the representative branch. Where is the danger ? Of what consequence is it to the people of England, whether half a dozen per sons, in whom that majority have confidence, but of whom they know nothing and care less, manage our local affairs ; or the same number, selected from the minority, and whose policy the bulk of the population distrust ? Suppose there was at this moment a majority in our Execu tive Council who think with the Assembly, what effect would it have upon the funds ? Would the stocks fall ? Would England be weaker, less prosperous or less respected, because the people of Nova Scotia were satisfied and happy ? But, it is said, a Colony being part of a great Empire, must be governed by different principles from the Metropolitan State. That, unless it be handed over to the minority it cannot be governed at all. That the majority, when they have things their own way, will be dis contented and disloyal. That the very fact of their having nothing to complain of will make them desire to break the political compact, and disturb the peace of the Empire. Let us fancy that this reasoning were applied to Glasgow, or Aberdeen, or to any other town in Britain, which you allow to govern itself. And what else is a Province, like Nova Scotia, than a small community, too feeble to interfere with the general commercial and military arrangements of the government ; but deeply interested in a number of minor matters, which only the people to be af fected by them can wisely manage ; which the ministry can never find leisure to attend to, and involve in inextricable confusion when they med dle with them ? You allow a million of people to govern themselves in the very capital of the kingdom ; and yet Her Majesty lives in the midst of them without any apprehension of danger, and feels the more secure, the more satisfaction and tranquillity they exhibit. Of course, if the Lord Mayor were to declare war upon France, or the Board of Alder men were to resolve that the duties upon brandy should no longer be collected by the general revenue officers of the kingdom, every body would laugh, but no one would apprehend any great danger. Should we, if Lord Durham's principles be adopted, do any thing equally outre, check us, for you have the power ; but until we do,' for your own sakes — for you are as much interested as we are — for the honor of the British name, too often tarnished by these squabbles, let us manage our own affairs, pay our own officers, and distribute a patronage, altogether beneath your notice, among those who command our esteem. LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 243 The Assembly of Nova Scotia asked, in 1837, for an elective Legis lative Council, or for such other reconstruction of the local government as would ensure responsibility. After a struggle of three years we have not got either. The demand for an elective upper branch was made under the impression, that two Houses chosen by the people would suffi ciently check an Executive exempt from all direct Colonial accountability. From what has occurred in the Canadas ; from the natural repugnance which the House of Peers may be supposed to entertain upon this point; and from a strong desire to preserve in all our institutions the closest re semblance to those of our mother country, a responsible Executive Council, as recommended by Lord Durham, would be preferred. Into the practicability of His Lordship's plan of a union of all the Colonies under one government, I do not intend to enter; that is a distinct ques tion ; and whenever it is formally propounded to the local Legislatures, will be gravely discussed upon its own merits ; but whether there be union or not, the principle of responsibility to the popular branch must be introduced into all the Colonies without delay. It is the only simple and safe remedy for an inveterate and very common disease. It is mere mockery to tell us that the Governor himself is responsible. He must carry on the government by and with the few officials whom he finds in possession when he arrives. He may flutter and struggle in the net, as some well-meaning Governors have done, but he must at last resign him self to his fate; and, like a snared bird, be content with the narrow limits assigned him by his keepers. I have known a Governor bullied, sneered at, and almost shut out of society, while his obstinate resistance to the system, created a suspicion that he might not become its victim ; but I never knew one, who, even with the best intentions, and the full con currence and support of the representative branch, backed by the con fidence of his sovereign, was able to contend, on any thing like fair terms, with the small knot of functionaries who form the Councils, fill the offices, and wield the powers of the government. The plain reason is, because, while the Governor is amenable to his Sovereign, and the members of Assembly are controlled by their constituents, these men are not respon sible at all ; and can always protect and sustain each other, whether as sailed by the representatives of the Sovereign or the representatives of the people. It is indispensable, then, to the dignity, the independence, the usefulness of the Governor himself, that he should have the power to shake off this thraldom, as the Sovereign does if unfairly hampered by faction ; aud by an appeal to the people, adjust the balance of power. Give us this truly British privilege, and Colonial grievances will soon oecome a scarce article in the English market. 244 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL The planets that encircle the sun, warmed by its heat and rejoicing in its effulgence, are moved and sustained, each in its bright but subordi nate career, by the same laws as the sun itself. Why should this beau tiful example be lost upon us? Why should we run counter to the whole stream of British experience ; and seek, for no object worthy of the sacrifice, to govern on one side of the Atlantic by principles the very re verse of those found to work so admirably on the other. The employ ment of steamers will soon bring Halifax within a ten days' voyage of England. Nova Scotia will then not be more distant from London, than the north of Scotland and the west of Ireland were a few years ago. No time should be lost, therefore, in giving us the rights and guards to which we are entitled ; for depend upon it the nearer we approach the mother country, the more we shall admire its exceUent Constitution, and the more intense will be the sorrow and disgust with which we must turn to contemplate our own. LETTER II. Mt Lord, — I have read the speech delivered by Your Lordship on the 3d of June, as reported in The Morning Chronicle, several times ; and beg Your Lordship's attention to what I conceive to be the rational solution of the difficulties raised in that speech, to the concession of the principle of local responsibility. Had Your Lordship been more famihar with the practical working of the existing Colonial Constitutions, and with the feelings of the people who smart under the mischiefs they pro duce, you would not, perhaps, have faUen into some errors by which that speech is disfigured ; nor have argued the question as one in which the obvious, manifold, and vital interests of the Colonists, were to be sacrificed to fear of some vague and indefinite inj ury that might be sustained by Impe rial interests, if Executive power were taken from the ignorant and given to the well informed — if it passed from the hands of officers to whom but a nominal responsibility can attach, into those of men subject to con stant scrutiny ; and, whenever they fail in their duty, liable to exposure and disgrace. Lord Durham recommends that the English rule, by which those who conduct public affairs resign when they have lost the confidence of the Commons, should be applied to the Executive Councillors in North LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 245 America. Your Lordship denies the existence of the analogies upon which Lord Durham's views are based : — " It does not appear to me that you can subject the Executive Council of Canada to the responsibility which is fairly demanded of the minis ters of the executive power in this country. In the first place, there is an obvious difference in matter of form with regard to the instructions under which the Governor of the Colony acts. The sovereign in this country receives the advice of the ministers, and acts by the advice of those ministers ; and indeed there is no important act of the crown for which there is not some individual minister responsible. There respon sibility begins, and there it ends. But the Governor of Canada is acting, not in that high and unassailable position in which the Sovereign of this country is placed. He is a Governor, receiving instructions from the crown on the responsibility of a Secretary of State. Here then, at once, is an obvious and complete difference between the Executive of this country and the Executive of a Colony." Now, my Lord, let me beg Your Lordship's attention to a few of the reasons why I conceive that such an argument as this ought not to stand in the way of the permanent peace, prosperity, and happiness, of a million and a half of human beings. " The Sovereign in England re ceives the advice of the ministers, and acts by the advice of those min isters ; " — but are there not limits assigned by law, within which those advisers are bound to keep ? and is not the Sovereign bound to know and to apprise the country when they overstep them ? What is the question at issue now between Whigs and Tories ? Is it not, whether, according to the spirit and practice of the Constitution, Sir Robert Peel had or had not a right to advise the changes in Her Majesty's household, upon which he insisted, before he would consent to form an administra tion ? Suppose the present Cabinet were to advise Her Majesty to cut off Sir Robert's ears, or to bombard the city of London, would she obey ? or would she not say, gentlemen, you are exceeding your powers, and unless you conduct yourselves with more discretion, you must resign ? It is plain, therefore, that there are bounds, beyond which, even in the mother country, neither the advisers nor the monarch can pass ; and ¦ none who seek Colonial responsibility are so mad as to require, that cor responding restrictions shall not be binding here ; that there shall not be a limit beyond which no Executive Councillor can pass, and over which no representative of Majesty will consent to be driven. These bounds must be clearly defined in the Act of Parliament which establishes the new system, or in the instructions sent to the Governors, to be communi cated to the Legislatures ; and which they may, if they see fit, embody in 75* 246 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. a bill, which, so long as it exists, shall be, to all intents and purposes, the Constitution of the Colony. But, Your Lordship says : — "The Governor is acting, not in that high and unassailable position in which the Sovereign of this country is placed." Why should he not occupy a position nearly as independent; and be perfectly unassailable, so long as he does not interfere (as the Sovereign would not dare to do) with matters for which others are re sponsible ; nor allow himself, or his Council, to overstep those boundaries which British subjects on both sides of the Atlantic, for the protection of their mutual rights and interests, have established ; and for a jealous recognition of which he, in case bad advice be given him, is alone re sponsible ? The Queen's position is unassailable only so long as she does no act which the Constitution does not permit to be done. The Gov ernor, if assailed, would in like manner turn to the Constitution of the Colony committed to his care ; and show that, on the one hand, he had neither trenched upon the rights essential to the security of Colonial lib erty, nor, on the other, timorously yielded aught which the laws for the protection of Imperial interests made it criminal to yield. Your Lordship is mistaken, therefore, in supposing that the Sovereign is divested of all responsibility ; although I admit it is much more diffi cult to call him or her to an account than it would be the Governor of a Colony. If the Queen were to deprive Sir Robert Peel of his ears, or open a few batteries upon London, an emeute or a revolution would be the only remedy ; but a Governor, if he consented to an act which shut out British manufactures, or was tempted to levy war upon a friendly state, could be called to account without difficulty or delay ; and hence, I argue, that the facility and certainty of inflicting punishment for offen ces of this sort, would prevent their commission ; and operate as a suffi cient guard to the Imperial interests, which Your Lordship seems so anxious to protect. If it be said that the people in a Colony may sus tain Councillors who give unconstitutional advice, my answer is, that the same thing may occur in England. When it does, a peaceful modifica tion ofthe Constitution, or a revolution follows ; but these cases are not so frequent as to excite alarm, nor is there any reason to believe that they will be more so, in the Colonies, whose power to enforce improper demands is so questionable. " He is a Governor receiving instructions from the crown, on the re sponsibility of a Secretary of State." This passage suggests some re flections, which I feel it my duty respectfully to press upon Your Lord ship's attention. One of the evils of the existing system, or rather hap hazard mode of government, devoid of all system, is the various read- LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 247 ings given to the medley of laws, usages, and Colonial office dispatches, by which we are at present ruled. An excellent illustration of the difficulty of obtaining an interpretation of these, about which there can be no mistake — which he who runs may read — may be furnished by contrasting the views put forth by your Lordship with those acted upon by Sir Francis Head ; and which, after a bloody rebellion, brought on to prove the value of his theory, he still avows in every succeeding edition of his Narrative, with a consistency and complacency worthy of all praise. " The responsibility," says Your Lordship, " rests on the Secretary of State." " The responsibility," says Sir Francis Head, in every act of his government and in every page of his book, " rests on me." From the moment of his entering into Upper Canada, he threw over board all the instructions from the Colonial Secretary (who, according to Your Lordship, ought to have been obeyed, for he was alone respon sible) ; he struck out a course of policy entirely new ; commenced " putting the padlock on the mind," to be followed by some hundreds of handcuffs on the wrists, and padlocks on the body. His language tp Lord Glenelg throughout was, "you must support me," — "the fear is that /will not be supported at the Colonial office." In fact, from first to last, Sir Francis gave instructions to, instead of receiving them from, the Secretary of State ; and finding that Lord Glenelg would not per mit him to try his experiments in government, and combat the fiery dragon of democracy in the bosom of a British Province, at the cost of a good deal of blood and treasure, and the prospects of a foreign war, without occasionally offering a little advice, the worthy Baronet resigned; and has ever since been publishing his complaints to the world, and claiming its sympathy, as a sufferer for conscience-sake, in upholding the only correct reading of Colonial Constitutions, and which the Secretary of State, and the Whig government of which he was a member, did not understand. The doctors in this case differed; the patient was left prostrate, mangled, bleeding and exhausted, listening to their alterca tions, but suffering from every gash made to convince each other at her ex pense ; and there she lay, until recently ; when, beginning to suspect that both had been talking nonsense and trying absurd experiments, she lifted her languid head, stretched out her wounded limbs, and began to fix her eyes upon the only remedy by which health could be restored. Let us, in order to convince ourselves that the conclusion to which Upper Canada is coming after all her sufferings is a sound one, examine the two prescriptions and modes of treatment ; and ascertain whether either contains any thing which ought to rescue it from the obliuion that 248 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. invariably closes over the nostrums by which the science of poUtics, like the science of medicine, is often disfigured for a time. A Colony where the Governor is alone responsible, is Sir Francis Head's interpretation of the system under which we live. It is one very much affected by Colonial Governors everywhere. Unlimited power within a wide Province, is a beautiful idea for an individual to indulge, especially when it is attended with but little risk and only nominal re sponsibility. Of all the British Colonial Governors who have wielded this vast authority ; plumed themselves upon the possession of these plenary powers ; and, in the exercise of them, vexed, distracted, and ex cited to disaffection one Province after another, how many have been tried or punished ? How many have met with even a reprimand from the ministry, or a cold look from the Sovereign whose authority they had abused ? I leave Your Lordship, whose historical reading has been much more extensive than mine, to point out the instances ; I have searched for them in vain. It is true that debates in Parliament occa sionally arise upon such subjects ; but these, judging by their practical effect, can hardly be taken into account. A Governor knows well that, so long as he holds office, the ministry by whom he was appointed wUl defend him ; that their majority in the Commons precludes the possi bility of a vote of censure being passed against him ; that the Duke, under whom he probably served, having a majority in the upper House, he is perfectly safe, so long as he commits no act so flagrant as to out rage the feelings of the nation ; and which, coming home to the heart of every man and woman in England, would make it unsafe for any parlia mentary combination to attempt to protect him. Thus fenced in during his administration, what are his perils when he retires ? The Colonists, too happy when rid of the nuisance to be vindictive, and hoping better things from a successor, of whom they are unwiUing to suspect any evil, cease to complain ; His Excellency is removed to another Province, with a larger salary, to act the same farce over there ; or retires to his estates in the mother country, to form one of that numerous body of ex-Governors, who live upon the consciousness of having, once within their lives at least, wielded powers within a wide range and over the destinies of many thousands of their fellow beings, such as are never per mitted to be wielded by any individual, however high his rank or widely extended his influence, without full and ample responsibility, within the British Islands themselves. These men, whether they go into Parlia ment or not, always sympathize with Governors abroad acting upon their darling theory ; and, as they are often consulted by ministers who know LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 249 perhaps a little less than themselves, they are always at hand to stifle the complaints of the Colonists when appeals are made to England. Your Lordship will perceive, therefore, that when a Governor de clares, as did Sir Francis Head, that the responsibility rests on him, he merely means,. that he is about to assume extensive powers, for three or four, perhaps for eight or ten years, without the shadow of a chance of his ever being called to account for any thing he may do or leave undone. To enable you to form some idea of the peace, prosperity, and satisfac tion likely to be diffused over a Province, by a Governor acting upon this principle and exercising these powers, let me request Your Lordship to imagine that, after twenty or thirty years of military service, by which I have become disciplined into a contempt for civil business and a frac tious impatience of the opinions of all beneath me in rank, Her Majesty has the right, and graciously deigns to exercise it, of making me mayor of Liverpool. Fancy that, up to the moment when the information is conveyed to me, though I have heard the name of that city several times, and have some vague notion that Liverpool is a large commercial port in England ; yet that I neither know on what river, or on which side of the island it is situated ; nor have the least knowledge of its extent, popu lation, requirements, or resources ; the feelings, interests, prejudices, or rights of its inhabitants. Within a month, having had barely sufficient time to trace out the situation of the place upon the map, read a book or two about it, hear an under secretary talk an hour or two of what neither he nor I understand ; receive a packet of instructions — of which half a dozen different readings may be given — and become thoroughly inflated with my own consequence, I find myself in Liverpool ; and feel that I am the great pivot upon which all its civil administration, its order and de fence, its external relations with the rest of the empire and the rest of the world turns ; the fountain from which its internal patronage is to flow; and to which all, for a long period of years, must look for social and political ascendancy, if they have no merit ; and, if they have, for a fair consideration of their claims. Your Lordship will readily believe, that a man thus whisked away from the pursuits which have occupied his thoughts for years, and plunged into a new scene, surrounded by human beings, not one of whose faces he ever saw before ; called to the consideration of a thousand topics, with almost any one of which the assiduous devotion of half a life would be required to make him familiar ; and having to watch over vast interests, balance conflicting claims, decide on the capacity of hundreds, of whose characters, talents, and influence, he is ignorant ; to fill offices, of the duties of which he has not the slighest conception ; — that a man so situ- 250 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. ated, must be either very vain or very able, if he is not appalled at the extent of the responsibility he has assumed ; and must be an angel of light indeed, if he does not throw the good city of Liverpool into confu sion. This, my Lord, is no fancy sketch ; no picture, highly colored to produce effect, but which, on close examination, an artist would cast aside as out of drawing ; it is a faithful representation of what occurs in some British Colony almost every year. But it may be said, all this is granted, and yet there is the Legislature to influence and instruct. Liverpool shall still serve for illustration, and we will presently see to what extent the representative branch operates on the conduct of a gentleman who assumes the responsibility, and is placed in the circumstances described. Let us suppose that the city char ter gives me for my advisers, from the moment I am sworn in, ten or a dozen individuals, some of them the heads of departments, enjoying large salaries and much patronage ; others, perhaps, discarded members of the popular branch ; and not a few selected by no rule which the people can clearly understand, but because they happened to flatter the vanity of one or other of my predecessors, or to be connected with the families, or favorable to the views or interests of some of those by whom they were advised. This body, be it observed, by usage never departed from, hold their situations as Councillors for life ; the people have no control over them, neither have I ; they are sworn not to inform upon each other, nor is it necessary that they should ; because, as I have assumed the respon sibility, and they for their own interest favor the theory, if anything goes ¦wrong they can lay the blame on me. This body, then, which owes no ahegiance to the people of Liverpool ; which often, in fact, has an inter est the very reverse of theirs ; which, suspected of usurpation and im proper influence, pays back the imputation with unmeasured contempt ; and hardly one-fifth of whose number could, by any possibility, be thus honored if their seats depended on popular selection ; this body I am compelled to call around me in order that my administration may com mence, for without some such assistance, I am unable to take a single step. They come ; and there sit, at the first council board, the responsible mayor, who knows nothing and nobody, and his irresponsible advisers, who, if they do not know every thing — and they are seldom greater witches than their neighbors — know their friends, a lean mi nority of the citizens, from their enemies, the great majority ; and are quite aware that, for their interest, it is necessary that I should be taught, as soon as possible, to despise the latter, and throw myself into the arms of the former. Will any sensible man, calmly viewing the relative situ ations, opportunities, and powers of the parties, believe that any act of LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 251 administration done, or any appointment made for the first six months, is my act or my appointment ? I may choose between any two or three persons whose names are artfully set before me, when an office is to be filled, and if determined to show my independence, may select the worst ; but I must choose from the relatives and friends of my advisers, or from the small minority who support them in the hopes of preferment ; for to that section, the whole of the city patronage must be religiously confined ; and it is of course so managed, that I scarcely know or have confidence in anybody else. Can Your Lordship believe that such a state of things would give satisfaction to the citizens ? Would they not begin to grumble and complain ? to warn, to remonstrate, and to expose the machinations and manoeuvres of the monopolists ? It would be very odd, and they would be very strange Englishmen, if they did not. But, as I have come to Liverpool to demonstrate the beauties of this system of city government, which I highly approve ; as I have assumed the whole responsibility, and become inflated with the consciousness of my extensive powers ; and, above all, as I am taught by my advisers to look upon every complaint of the system as a libel upon my judgment and an insult to my adminis tration — I very soon begin to dislike those who complain ; to speak and write contemptuously of them in private and in public ; to denounce any who have the hardihood to suggest that some alterations are required, by which the opinions and rights of the majority shall be respected, as men dangerous to the peace of the city, and disaffected towards Her Majesty's person and government; until, in fact, Liverpool becomes very like a town, in the olden time, in which the inhabitants generally being hostile to their rulers, the latter retire to the citadel, from which they project every de scription of missile and give every species of annoyance. By and by the time arrives for the legislative branches of the city government to assemble. One of these, being elected at short periods, under a low franchise, which includes the great body of the independent citizens, may be taken as a fair reflection of all their great interests, their varied knowledge, passions, and prejudices ; the other is a body of life legislators, selected by my advisers from among their own relatives and friends ; with a few others, of a more independent character, to save ap pearances, but in which they always have a majority of faithful and de termined partisans. The business commences ; the great majority of members in the representative branch — speaking the matured opinions of the people — complain of the system, and of the advisers it has placed around me ; expressing the fuUest confidence in me, whom they cannot suspect of wishing to do them harm, but asking my cooperation towards 252 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. the introduction of changes without which, they assure me, the city never can prosper. But my advisers, having a few of their adherents also in this body, they are instructed to declare any change unnecessary ; fo throw every obstruction in the way ; to bully and defame the more con spicuous of those who expose the evils of the existing system ; and to denounce them all as a dangerous combination, who, with some covert design, are pressing, for factious objects, a series of frivolous complaints. Of course, as the minority speak the sentiments which I have imbibed, and put themselves forward as my personal champions on all occasions, they rise in my esteem exactly in the same proportion as the other party are depressed, until they become especial pets ; and, from their ranks, as opportunities occur, all vacancies are suppUed, either in the list of irre sponsible advisers, who in my name carry on the government, or in the number of life legislators, who do their bidding in the upper branch. I respectfully beg Your Lordship* o ponder over these passages, which I assure you are true to nature and experience ; and ask yourself, after bringing home such a state of things to the bosom of any British city, how long it would be uncomplainingly endured ? or how long any minis try, duly informed of the facts, would wish it to continue ? Look back, my Lord, and you will find in every rotten corporation, swept away by the immortal act of which Your Lordship was one of the ablest defenders, a resemblance to our Colonial governments as they at present stand, too strong to be mistaken ; and, let me venture to hope, that the man who did not spare corruption so near the national centre of vitality ; who did not hesitate to combat these hydra-headed minorities, who, swarming over England, everywhere asserted their right to govern the majorities, will not shrink from applying his own principles — the great principles of the Constitution — to these more distant, but not less important portions of the empire. Your Lordship will, perhaps, urge that Sir Francis Head succeeded in pleasing the people and getting the majority on his side. Admitting the full force which the worthy Baronet gives to this case, it is, after all, but the exception to the general rule. The true history of events in Upper Canada, I believe, to have been this : A small, but desperate minority had determined on a violent revolution ; this party might have contained some men so wicked, that a love of mischief and desire for plunder were the governing principles, and others, moved by attachment to republican institutions ; but, small as it was, the greater number of those found in its ranks had been driven there by the acts of another equally small and equally desperate minority, who had long monopolized, — and, under the present system, may and will monopolize for a century to LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 253 come — the whole power and patronage ofthe government, dividing among them the revenues of the country. The great mass of the people of Upper Canada belonged to neither of these bands of desperadoes. They were equaUy determined, with the one, to uphold British connection ; and as equally determined, with the other, to get rid of a wretched sys tem of irresponsible local administration, under the continuance of which they well knew the Province could never prosper. When Sir Francis Head arrived, he entered the Colony — if we are to believe his own ac count of the matter — almost as ignorant as my imaginary mayor of Liverpool. Sir Francis admits his ignorance, but denies the conse quences that must be deduced from it : that he was led and influenced, in the first acts of his administration, until the compact found him ripe for their own purposes and embroiled even with the moderate men on the other side. Then commenced that extraordinary flight of proclama tions, addresses, and declamatory appeals ; which, winged with the ready pen of a professional author, and shot from the long bow of the family compact, created so much false excitement, and carried so much misrep resentation into every corner of the Province. In these the great ques tion at issue in Upper Canada — which was one between the interests of the family compact and the principles of the British Constitution — was winked out of sight ; and the people, not only of that, but of the sur rounding Colonies, were made to believe that they were to choose between British and Republican institutions ; that Sir Francis and the family compact (Archdeacon Strachan, with the Clergy Reserves, one-seventh of the Province ; and Attorney General Hagerman, with the corrupt patronage and influence of administration, under their arms), represented the former ; and Mackenzie, and his band of desperadoes, the latter. Thus appealed to, the British population everywhere, as the cunning men at Sir Francis' elbow well knew they would, said, with one voice : If that is the question, then we are for the British Constitution ; and hurrah for Sir Francis Head ! Mackenzie was an outlaw in a week ; his small band of desperadoes was scattered by the energy of the people, the great mass of whom, never dreamed of breaking the connection with the mother country. Then came the period in which the compact glori fied themselves and Sir Francis; the fever of loyal excitement, in which the miserable minority of officials — feeling strong in the success of their manoeuvres, and still stronger in the strength of British thousands pro fusely spent ; regiments of militia to be officered, equipped, and paid — began to wreak their vengeance upon every man who had been known to be hostile to their monopoly ; and to identify opinions, not more ex treme, when thoroughly understood, than those held by the most moderate 254 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. section of the Whigs in England, with " privy conspiracy and rebeUion." But the period was fast approaching when this unnatural excitement was to subside ; when hundreds of thousands of British subjects, looking steadily through the mists that had been raised around them, were to ask of each other, Has this case been decided upon the true issue ? Was that the question ? For evidence of the solemnity with which this inquiry has been put, and the all-pervading unanimity with which it has been answered, I refer Your Lordship to the meetings which have been held in every section of the Province ; to the opinions boldly expressed by every newspaper — with a few, chiefly venal exceptions — printed in Upper Canada ; to the bold and determined stand taken by many of the bravest and ablest men who crushed Mackenzie's rebellion, and beat back the sympathizers upon the frontier ; to the extraordinary union of Orange men and Catholics, Methodists, Baptists, Churchmen, and Presbyterians; whose watchwords are British connection and British responsibUity, and down with the compact, and the absurd idea cherished by Sir Francis Head, of a government in which the whole responsibility rests upon the Governor. If Your Lordship doubts the utter explosion of your theory, even in this Province, where, for a time, I admit, it seemed to flourish, the approaching general elections will furnish evidence enough; and even Sir Francis, if he were to come out again with another sheaf of procla mations and addresses, and preach this unitarian, doctrine of responsi bility, would no longer be listened to by the Upper Canadians, who have embraced a higher and purer faith. Having, as I conceive, then, shown Your Lordship that the idea of a Colony in which nobody is reponsible but the Governor, while his re sponsibUity is only nominal, however delightful it may appear in the eyes of those who have been or hope to be Governors, is one that never can be a favorite with the Colonists, and has been repudiated and rejected by those of them among whom, for a limited period, and under a system of delusion, it seemed to flourish ; let me turn Your Lordship's attention for a few moments to the doctrine maintained by Lord Glenelg, against Sir Francis Head, and now put forth by Your Lordship, in opposition to the Earl of Durham — that the Colonial Secretary is alone responsible, and that the Governor is an agent governing the Province by instructions from him. Whatever new readings may be given of our unwritten Constitutions, this is the one which always has been and always will be the favorite with Colonial Secretaries and under secretaries, and by which every clerk in Downing street, even to the third and fourth generation yet to come, will be prepared to take his stand. And why ? Because to de LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 255 prive them of this much-talked-of responsibility, which means nothing, would be to deprive them of the power to which they cling — of the right of meddling interference with every petty question and every petty appointment in thirty-six different Colonies. While things remain as they are, the very uncertainty which reigns over the whole Colonial sys tem invests the Secretary of State with a degree of power and influence, the dim and shadowy outline of which can scarcely be measured by the eye ; but which, from its almost boundless extent, and multiform and va ried ramifications and relations, possesses a fascination which few men have been born with the patriotic moderation to resist. Though a Sec retary of State may occasionaUy have to maintain, in a particular Prov ince, a doubtful struggle for the whole responsibility and the whole of the power, with some refractory Governor, like Sir Francis Head ; yet even there he must exercise a good deal of authority, and enjoy a fair share of influence ; while in all others his word is law, and his influence almost supreme. A judge, a crown officer, a secretary, or a land sur veyor, cannot be appointed without his consent ; a silk gown cannot be given to a lawyer without his sanction; while his word is required to con firm the nomination of Legislative Councillors for life, and irresponsible Executive Councillors, in every Province, before the Queen's mandamus is prepared. The very obscurity in which the real character of Colonial Constitutions is involved, of course magnifies the importance and in creases the influence of the gentleman who claims the right to expound them. More than one half the Colonists who obtain audiences in Down ing Street, are sent there by the mystifications in which the principles of the system are involved ; while the other half are applicants for offices, which, under a system of local responsibility, would be filled up, as are the civic offices in Manchester and Glasgow, by the party upon whose virtue and ability the majority of the inhabitants relied. Adopt Lord Durham's principle, and, above all, give to each Colony a well defined Constitution based upon that principle and embodied in a bill, and " the office " will become a desert. The scores of worthy people, with spirits weary of the anomalous and cruel absurdities of the system, and sin cerely laboring to remove them, now daily lingering in the anti-rooms, would be better employed elsewhere, in adorning and improving the noble countries which gave them birth, and whose freedom they are la boring to establish ; while at least an equal number of cunning knaves, whose only errand is to seek a share of the plunder, had much better be transferred to the open arenas in which, under a system of responsibility, public honors and official emolument could only be won. But then the office of Colonial secretary would be shorn of much power, which, how- 256 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. ever unwisely exercised, it is always delightful to possess ; the dim but majestic forms of authority which now overshadow half the world, would be chastened into reasonable compass ; with boundaries, if less imposing and picturesque, for all practical purposes more simple and clearly de fined. Nor would under secretaries and clerks have so many anxious and often fawning visitors, soliciting their patronage, listening to their twaddle, wondering at their ignorance, and yet struggling with each other for their smiles. The mother country would, it is true, hear less of Col onial grievances ; Parliament would save much time now devoted to Colonial questions ; and the people of England would now and then save a few millions sterling, which are required to keep up the existing system by force of arms. But these are small matters compared with the dig nity of a Secretary of State. Here, then, my Lord, you have the reason why your reading of our Con stitutions is the favorite one in Downing Street. Let us see, now, whether it is more or less favorable to rational freedom and good government in the Colonies, than that advocated by Sir Francis Head. Your authority and that of Lord Glenelg is with me in condemning his, which I have done, as deceptive and absurd ; he will probably join me in denouncing yours, as the most impracticable that it ever entered into the mind of a states man to conceive. The city of Liverpool shaU again serve us for the purposes of illustra tion. Turn back to the passages in which I have described a Mayor, ignorant of every thing, surrounded by irresponsible but cunning ad visers ; who, for their own advantage, embroil him with a majority of the citizens, while his countenance, and the patronage created by the taxes levied upon the city, are monopolized by a miserable minority of the whole ; and insulted and injured thousands, swelling with indignation, sur round him on every side. After Your Lordship has dwelt upon this scene of heartburning and discontent — of general dissatisfaction among the citizens — of miserable intrigue and chuckling triumph, indulged by the few who squander the resources and decide on the interests of the many, but laugh at their murmurs and never acknowledge their author ity — let me beg of you to reflect whether matters would be made better or worse, if the Mayor of Liverpool was bound, in every important act of his administration, to ask the direction of, and throw the responsibility on another individual, who never saw the city, who knows less about it than even himself, and who resides, not in London, at the distance of a day's coaching from him, but across the Atlantic, in Halifax, Quebec, or Toronto, and with whom it is impossible to communicate about any thing within a less period than a couple of months. Suppose that this gentle- LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 257 man in the dist&nce possesses a veto upon every important ordinance by which the city is to be watched, lighted and improved — by which docks are to be formed, trade regulated, and one-third of the city revenues (drawn from sources beyond the control of the popular branch) dis pensed. And suppose that nearly all whose talents or ambition lead them to aspire to the higher offices of the place, are compelled to take, once or twice in their lives, a voyage across the Atlantic, to pay their court to him — to solicit his patronage, and intrigue for the preferment, which, under a better system, would naturally result from manly competition and eminent services within the city itself. Your Lordship is too keen sighted, and I trust too frank, not to acknowledge that no form of gov ernment could well be devised more ridiculous than this ; that under such no British city could be expected to prosper ; and that with it no body of Her Majesty's subjects, within the British islands themselves, would ever be content. Yet this, my Lord, is an illustration of your own theory ; this is the system propounded by Lord Normanby, as the best the present cabinet can devise. And may I not respectfully demand, why British subjects in Nova Scotia, any more than their brethren in Liver pool, should be expected to prosper or be contented under it ; when expe rience has convinced them that it is miserably insufficient and deceptive, repugnant to the principles of the Constitution they revere, and but a poor return for the steady loyalty which their forefathers and themselves have maintained on all occasions ? One of the greatest evils of the Colonial Constitution, as interpreted by Your Lordship, is, that it removes from a Province every description of responsibility, and leaves all the higher functionaries at liberty to lay every kind of blame at the door of the Secretary of State. The Gov ernor, if the Colonists complain, shrugs his shoulders, and replies, that he will explain the difficulty in his next dispatch, but in the mean time his orders must be obeyed. The Executive Councillors, who under no circumstances are responsible for any thing, often lead the way in con centrating the ire of the people upon the Colonial Secretary, who is the only person they admit their right to blame. It is no uncommon thing to hear them, in Nova Scotia, sneering at him in public debate ; and in Canada they are accused of standing by while Lords Glenelg and Mel bourne were hanged in effigy, and burned in the capital, encouraging the populace to pay this mark of respect to men, who, if Your Lordship's theory is to be enforced, these persons, at all events, should have the de cency to pardon, if they cannot always defend. I trust, my Lord, that in this letter I have shown you, that in contem plating a well-defined and limited degree of responsibility to attach to 76* 258 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. Executive Councillors in North America, I have more strictly followed the analogies to be drawn from the Constitution, than has Your Lordship, in supposing that those officers would necessarily overstep all bounds ; that, in divesting the Governor of a vague and deceptive description of responsibility, which is never enforced, and of a portion of authority which it is impossible for him wisely to exercise, and yet holding him to account for what does fall within the scope of his character as Her Maj esty's representative — the constitutional analogy is still preserved, his dig nity left unimpaired, and the difficulties of his position removed. I trust also that I have proved to Your Lordship that the Colonial Constitutions, as they at present stand, are but a medley of uncertainty and confusion ; that those by whom they are administered do not understand them ; and lastly, that whether Sir Francis Head's interpretation or your own be adopted, neither offer security for good government : the contest between them merely involving a difference of opinion as to who is to wield powers that neither governors nor secretaries can usefully assume, and which of these officers is nominally to bear the blame of blunders that both are certain to commit. LETTER III. Mt Lord, — The next passage of the speech of the 3d of June, which I am bound to notice, is that in which you say : — " The Governor might ask the Executive Council to propose a certain measure. They might say they could not propose it unless the members of the House of Assembly would adopt it, but the Governor might reply that he had received instructions from home commanding him to propose that measure. How, in that case, is he to proceed ? Either one power or the other must be set aside ; either the Governor or the House of Assembly, or else the Governor must become a mere cypher in the hands of the Assembly ; and not attempt to carry into effect the measures which he is commanded by the home government to do." This objection is based upon the assumption, that the interests of the mother country and those of the Colonies are not the same ; that they must be continually in a state of conflict ; and that there must be some course of policy necessary for the Imperial government to enforce, the reasons for which cannot be understood in the Colonies, nor its neces sity recognized. This may have been the case formerly in the West LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 259 Indies, where the conflict was one between the ideas engendered by a , state of slavery and a state of freedom ; but it is not true of the North American Provinces, to the condition and claims of which my observa tions are chiefly confined. Of all the questions which have agitated or are likely to agitate Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or Prince Edward Island, how few, when rightly understood, can be said to involve any Im perial interest ; or trench upon any principle dear to our brethren at home, or the concession of which could disturb the peace of the Empire ? Have any of these Colonies claimed a right to regulate the foreign trade or foreign policy of the Empire ? Have they ever interfered, except to carry out the views of Her Majesty's government, with any of the mili tary or naval operations ? Have they exposed a grievance, the con tinued existence of which is indispensible to the well-being of the British Islands ; or demanded a right, the concession of which would not be ser viceable to themselves, without doing the least injury to the people of Britain ? For what have they asked ? For the control of their own revenues, and the means of influencing the appointment and acts of the men who are to dispense them ; and who are, besides, to distribute hun dreds of petty offices, and discharge functions manifold and various within the Colony itself. The people of England have no knowledge of these matters, nor any interest in them, to give them the right to interfere. Interference does much mischief to the Colonists, and can do no good to their brethren across the water. If British statesmen would let these things alone — and it is over these only that we claim to enforce respon sibility — and confine themselves to those general arrangements affecting the whole Empire, of which we admit them to be the best judges, and in the conduct of which we never asked to take a part, it would be impossible to conceive how such a case could arise as that supposed by Your Lord ship ; or how the Governor could be charged with " a measure which his Executive Council would not dare to propose." Admitting that there might be some subjects requiring discussion in the Provinces, but which the Colonists were not prepared to adopt, surely an Executive Councillor could be got, even if he were opposed to the views of minis ters, to submit the measure and explain those views to the popular branch ; or might there not be " open questions " in the Colonies as at home? The conclusion at which my mind arrives, then, after the best atten tion that I can give to this branch of the subject, is, that if the duties and responsibilities of government are fairly and judiciously divided between the Imperial and Colonial authorities, no such case as that assumed by Your Lordship can occur ; and, if it should, surely the good sense of all 260 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. parties concerned may safely be trusted, to avoid any violent or un pleasant collision. But did it never occur to Your Lordship to in quire, whether the very evil anticipated, as an insuperable objection to the new system, does not disfigure and annually occur under the old ? What else were the Executive Councillors in Upper and Lower Canada doing for a series of years but " proposing certain measures," to be as cer tainly rejected by the popular branch ? What else are they about now in Newfoundland ? What but this were they doing in New Brunswick, down to the close of Sir Archibald Campbell's administration ? In aU these Provinces a state of constant colUsion between the Executive and the popular branch, which could by no possibility arise under the system I contemplate, would answer the objection, even if the difficulty sug gested could be fairly taken into account. If it be said that the Coun cillors now do not refuse to propose measures, I answer, But if the Leg islatures invariably reject them, does government gain anything, or is public business advanced by the system ? What a figure did the Exec utive cut in Nova Scotia, in 1838, when the CouncUlor who brought down from the Governor a grave proposition, led the opposition against it? And how stand things in this Province now? Are not aU the Councillors selections from a lean minority of the commons, in which '~ody almost every debate terminates in a vote of impUed want of confi dence in them ; and where the Governor they surround has, on sev eral occasions, only been saved from an insulting vote of censure, by the good temper and moderation of the majority ? This is a state of things too ridiculous to be long continued. To me it seems essential that Her Majesty, in every Colony, should be represented by an Executive not only willing "to attempt" but " able to carry" any measures that it may be necessary to propose. The next objection taken by Your Lordship to the introduction of Provincial responsibility, one eminently calculated to have weight with the body you addressed, and to alarm the timid every where, was drawn from an application of the principle, to the management of foreign af fairs. " If," says Your Lordship, " the Assembly of New Brunswick nad been disposed to carry the point in dispute with the North Ameri can States hostilely, and the Executive Council had been disposed to aid them, in my opinion the Governor must have said that his duty to the crown of this country, and the general instructions which he had re ceived from the minister of the crown, did not permit him to take that course, and, therefore, he could not agree with the Executive Council to carry into effect the wish of the Assembly. That is allowed. Does not, then, its very exception destroy the analogy you wish to draw, when, LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 261 upon so important a point as that of foreign affairs, it cannot be sus tained?" Your Lordship, in delivering this passage, of course was not aware that, without the alteration of a single syllable, you answered the very objection that yourself had raised. If the Executive Council of New Brunswick advised Sir John Harvey to declare war upon the State of Maine, " he must have said that his duty to the crown, and his in structions, did not permit him to take that course." Most certainly he would, if a measure so ridiculous had been attempted in New Bruns wick, which no body who knows anything of that Province, could for a moment imagine. I do not believe that there are ten men in it, certainly there are not fifty in all the lower Provinces put together, who do not know that the sovereign alone has the right to declare war upon foreign powers ; and who are not willing that, upon all the relations of the Colo nies with these, and with each other, the Imperial government shall de cide. A few of the New Brunswickers blamed Sir John Havey for not acting upon Her Majesty's instructions, to maintain exclusive jurisdic tion over the disputed territory, notwithstanding the advice received from the Minister at Washington ; but, if those instructions had not ex isted, and had not been positive, no one would have been idiot enough to suppose that Sir John Harvey would have been bound to make war, on a point of honor or policy newly discovered by his Executive Coun cil, and upon which Her Majesty's government had had no opportunity to decide. Suppose, when Parliament was granting a charter to Hull, it was objected that the Mayor might be advised to make war upon Sweden, (and, in the case of an elective officer, the danger would be greater than if he were appointed by the crown,) would not the same House of Commons that thought it unsafe to let a Colony manage its internal affairs for fear it would engage in foreign wars, laugh at the possibility of such an absurdity being committed by any body of Eng lishmen out of Bedlam ? Why then should it be taken for granted that we are not English in our habits and opinions, our education and train ing, our capacity to discern the boundaries of authority ; and that therefore it would be unsafe to depend upon our wisely exercising pow ers, which, in the British Islands, millions exercise for their own secur ity and without danger to the State ? In the case of Hull, if the objec tion were gravely urged, the ready answer would be, " No greater pow ers can be exercised than are granted in the bill ; and if there is the least danger of the city authorities doing any thing so ridiculous, put in a clause that shall restrain them.'' And I say — after soberly protesting that the very suspicion of such an attempt is an insult to the understand ing, and an imputation upon the character of our population, which they 262 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELLi do not deserve — that if you wish " to make assurance doubly sure," put a clause into the bill which concedes the principle of responsibility so far as relates to domestic affairs, and by which all such belligerent Councillors shall be expressly restrained. Whether this point were or were not thus defined, that any Executive Council, merely because they were responsible to the people, would, after receiving such an answer as Your Lordship admits a British Gov ernor must give, proceed in defiance of his authority, to levy war upon a friendly State, I cannot for a momont believe. If they did, they cer tainly would so completely fail, and render themselves so supremely ridiculous, that the attempt would not be likely to be repeated, at least for a century to come. Let us suppose the case to have occurred in New Brunswick: that the Executive Council, being responsible, had advised Sir John Harvey ;o proceed hostilely ; and that, on his declining, they had levied war. In the first place, as all the regular troops were at Sir John's disposal, as Commander-in-Chief within the Province, and not merely as civil Governor, they not only could not have moved a sol dier, but would have had the whole military force of that and the ad joining Provinces against them. As the Governor's order to the Colo nels and officers commanding the Mihtia is indispensible, before a single step can be taken, under the laws by which that force is embodied, of course no hostile order would have been given, nor could those laws have been modified or changed without Sir John's assent. And if it be urged, that volunteers would have flocked to the aid of the Executive Council, may I not enquire where they would have obtained arms and ammunition, when all the military munitions and stores were deposited in military warehouses, under the care of commissaries and officers a. ordnance responsible only to the crown ? Oh ! no, my Lord, whatever effect such imaginary cases as these may have upon men at a distance,, unacquainted with the state of society in British America and the gen eral intelligence which prevails ; here they are laughed at, as the crea tions of a fertile imagination taxed to combat political improvements that were feared without being understood. If, even under the federa tive government of the United States, in which each State is much more independent of the central authority than any Colony would be under the system I contemplate, this right of private war has only been once asserted, by a single State, in more than half a century, and then was scouted all over the Continent, is it to be supposed that British subjects will pay less respect to the authority of their Queen, than do Republi can Americans to that of their President ? There is one bare possibility, which Your Lordship has not suggested, LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 263 in opposition to the new system, and yet it is scarcely more ridiculous than some that have been urged ; that the Colonial Councillors might claim the control of the squadron upon the North American coast, as well as of the land forces, in their anxiety to engage in foreign wars. The danger in this case would be nearly as great as in the other ; for, in modern warfare, a fleet is nearly as necessary as an army ; and yet, it is certain that the Admiral upon the station would know how to treat such a claim, should it be preferred by a Council, who, in the wanton exercise of authority, were disposed to transgress all bounds ? The next objection which I am bound to notice, is thus given in the report: — "Let us suppose that an officer of the militia in Upper Canada, after an action, was to order that the persons taken in that action should be put to death on the field. I can conceive it possible, in a state of exasperation and conflict with the people of the neighboring States, that the Assembly might applaud that conduct, and might require that it should be the rule, and not the exception, — that all invaders of their territory should be treated in that manner, and that the parties should be put to death without trial. Supposing that to be the case ; could the government of this country adopt such a rule ? Could the Secretary of State for the Colonies sanction such a rule, and not decide, as my honorable friend, the under secretary has done, that the practice would meet with his decided reprehension ? " Now, my Lord, admitting that such a case might occur once in half a century, under the new system, let me remind Your Lordship that it has already occurred under the old. If it is to have any weight, the fact of its occurrence in a Province in which the Executive Council is irres ponsible and the Colonial Secretary is in the exercise of his full powers, makes in favor of my argument ; while I have a right to deny, until proof is furnished, that it could occur, if matters were more wisely ordered, and a more rational system estabUshed, by which all tempta tions to foreigners to make inroads into British Provinces, speculating upon the disaffection of the people, would be removed. But, my Lord, life has been taken under your system — " death " has been inflicted " without trial," illegally, as you infer — and has any punishment fol lowed ? Have the laws been vindicated ? No ! — Then why not ? Simply, I presume, because your beautiful mode of government has pro duced such a state of things in a British Province, that the ministers of the Queen dare not bring the man charged with this high offence to trial. Under a system of responsibility, by which the population were left to manage their domestic affairs, I hold that no such violation of law would be likely to occur ; and, that if it did, investigation would be as safe, and 264 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. punishment as certain, as though a crime had been committed in Middle sex, or Surrey. I have thus disposed, my. Lord, of the military questions ; and, as I have left Her Majesty and her representatives in full command of the army and navy, and of the militia force of British America, and have asserted no claim of the Colonists to interfere with foreign treaties and diplomatic arrangements affecting the empire at large ; I think, if peace be not maintained with foreign states, the punishment for offences strictly military be not awarded, the blame will not rest with the Exec utive Councillors, who are to exercise no jurisdiction over these matters, and cannot be responsible if others fail in their duty. Let me now turn to another class of objections, arising out of our Colonial and foreign trade. " Again," says Your Lordship, " neither could this analogy be maintained with regard to trade between Canada and the mother country, or Canada and any other country. How then can you adopt a principle from which such large exceptions are to be made ? If you were to do so, you would be continually on the borders of dispute and conflict ; the Assembly and the Executive, on the one hand, requiring a certain course to be pursued, while the Governor, on the other hand, would be as constantly declaring that it was a course he could not adopt ; so that, instead of furnishing matter of content and harmony in these Provinces, you would be affording new matter for dis pute and discontent if you were to act upon this supposed analogy." Now, my Lord, I feel it my duty tp state, that you may take from any part you please to select, of England, Ireland, or Scotland, two hundred thousand persons, and among them you will not find a larger number than are to be found in Nova Scotia, well informed as to the degree of authority in matters of trade, which, for the good of the whole empire and the preservation of the advantages in which all are to participate, it is necessary to confide to the care of the Sovereign and the wisdom of the Imperial Parliament. The great corporations of London, of Bristol, and of Liverpool, do not presume to interfere with these, except by peti tion and remonstrance, neither do we. Each of these cities has the right to levy small duties within their own limits, for matters of internal regu lation, or to aid public improvements ; and these rights they exercise, in common with us, when they do not contravene any British statute, ne cessary for the protection of the trade of the empire. But, if it can be shown that a law bears unequally upon London or Halifax, and that a flagrant case of hardship exists ; or if the industry of any portion of the people, either in England or the Colonies, is taxed, while no correspond ing advantage is reaped by any other portion ; or that, if reaped, it is an LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 265 unfair and illegitimate advantage, — an appeal is made to Parliament. We have hitherto been contented, although not directly represented in that Assembly, to abide the result of that appeal ; or to pass bills, taking our chance of their being assented to in England. The same thing would occur, even if the Executive Council was responsible ; for, upon this point, there is no part of our population prepared to set up absurd or irrational claims. If Parliament should undertake to legislate directly against our interests ; to cut up our commerce, and prevent the growth of domestic industry ; and, after fair notice and ample proof of injury, were to persist in such a course ; why then a state of things would arise, which similar policy produced elsewhere, in other times, and upon the results of which either responsible or irresponsible Councils could exer cise but little influence. But, as political economists at home are every day becoming convinced that the more liberty they afford to the Colonist to conduct his commercial operations, the greater will be his demand for British manufactures ; and as, under the guidance of this enlightened policy, the laws of trade and navigation are annuaUy becoming less re strictive, it is not probable that difficulties, which were never insupera ble, will all of a sudden admit of no rational remedy ; or that the boun daries of Colonial and Imperial authority, now so well understood, and the recognition of which is so easily enforced, will often be called in question on either side. If the Colonists assert rights which do not be long to them, and persist in their contumacy, disturbing solemn treaties and setting acts of Parliament at naught ; why then they have broken the social compact, it is a case of rebellion, and they must be put down. Let us reduce the difficulty to practice, for the purpose of illustration. Suppose that both branches of the Legislature pass a law by which a heavy duty is laid upon British broadcloths, and those from the United States are admitted duty free ; and that the Executive Council, being re sponsible, advise the Lieutenant Governor to assent to it. Such an absurd piece of bad faith as this could never be attempted in the Lower Prov inces ; for public opinion would never sanction any interference with the general laws, not intended to remedy abuses, or that struck at Colonial, without promoting British prosperity ; nor would any changes be popu lar which violated the fraternal comity by which British subjects every where are bound to encourage and protect each other. But I have sup posed the law passed and presented. The Governor would say in this case, as he now invariably says — as Your Lordship admits he must say, if urged to provoke a foreign war : " Gentlemen, you are exceeding your powers. To legislate for your own advantage is one thing ; to legislate directly against your brethren at home, for the advantage of foreigners, 77 266 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. is another. This bill must be either modified or rejected, or reserved for Her Majesty's assent before it can go into operation." If the parties Urging it persisted, a dissolution might be tried, and an appeal to British Bubjects, in a case where the Governor was clearly right, and his advisers wrong, would never be made in vain ; particularly when aided by the Constitutional opposition, which, under a system of responsibility and manly competition, would exist in every Colony. But if it failed ; if such an almost impossible thing were upon the cards, as that a majority could be found in Nova Scotia to sustain such an act, or any thing bear ing a resemblance to it, then a case would have occurred for the inter ference of the Imperial authorities, who should say to us frankly, If you will come into unnatural and hostile collision, the weakest has the most to fear. Had Your Lordship been as familiar with the mode of dealing with such subjects as most Colonists are who have watched the proceedings of Colonial Assemblies, you would have been satisfied that no danger was to be apprehended from violent colhsions about matters of trade. When ?i new duty is proposed in Nova Scotia, or a reduction suggested, the first question asked on aU sides is, will the proposition violate the letter, or does it even run counter to the spirit of the Imperial acts ? If it does, in eight cases out of ten, the person bringing the measure forward drops it, on being assured of the fact. In the ninth case, where a doubt exists as to the policy and wisdom of Imperial legislation, it is found, on in quiry, that the clause which seemed to press upon us, originated in a wide view over the whole field of commerce, which British statesmen, often better than others whose positions afford fewer advantages, are en abled to take, and that its repeal would inflict an injury and not confer a benefit. The tenth case is perhaps one in which the Imperial ParUa ment, either from haste, or prejudice, or insufficient information, has committed an error in political economy, or inflicted a wound upon Colonial without benefiting British industry. In this case (and they only occur once in a great while) no one ever dreams, that, as Your Lordship expresses it, the Imperial Legislature is to be " overruled " by that of the Colony. We never doubt but that an appeal to the good sense and justice of our brethren over the water wiU be successful. A biU is passed, perhaps, to meet the difficulty ; and an explanation of the facts and reasoning in which it originated, is sent with it, in the form of an address to the throne, and in most cases is found to be successful. This is the mode at present. What reason is there to suppose that it would be much changed, if we had an Executive CouncU, whose powers and responsibilities did not extend to matters of general commerce, LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 267 already provided for by Imperial Legislation ? If we are so fond of violent conflicts and factious opposition, what hinders us from indulging our propensities now ? Shall we be less considerate the more kindly we are treated ? ShaU we have less respect for Imperial legislation, when we see that it leaves us the entire management of our domestic affairs, and only deals with those great interests which transcend our authority and are beyond our control ? Suppose twelve Nova Scotians, who are not responsible to any authority under Heaven, are made accountable to the rest of their countrymen, shall we have a man the more for forcible resistance than we have now — or a gun, a pike, a bomb, or a barrel of powder ? I have thus, my Lord, gone over the arguments urged by Your Lord ship in the speech of the 3d June. I have omitted none that appear to me to have the slightest bearing upon the great question at issue, and I trust I have given to each a fair and satisfactory answer. I have written not only under a solemn sense of duty, but with a full assurance that sophistry, woven around this question, either on one side of the At lantic or the other, would be torn to shreds in the conflict of acute and vigorous minds now engaged in its discussion. Had Your Lordship, in announcing the decision of the Cabinet, forborne to state the reasons upon which that decision was founded, I might, like counsel at the bar under simUar circumstances, have felt myself compeUed to acquiesce in a judgment, neither the justice nor the policy of which I could fathom. But when the arguments were stated, and when I saw a question involv ing the peace and security of six extensive Provinces, and the freedom and happiness of a million and a half of British subjects, disposed of by a mode of reasoning which I knew to be deceptive and unsound, — when I saw, in fact, that the parties claiming their rights were to be turned out of court, with aU the arguments and all the evidence upon their side, I felt that to remain silent would be to deserve the social and political degradation which this unjust decision was to entail on my countrymen and myself; to earn the Helot mark of exclusion from the blessings of that Constitutional freedom, which our forefathers struggled to bequeathe ; and which we should never cease to demand, as a patri mony that runs with our blood, and cannot be rightfully severed from our name. 268 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. LETTER IV. Mt Lord, — The business of factious demagogues, of all parties, is to find fault with every thing, to propose nothing practical, to oppose whatever is suggested, to misrepresent and to defame. The object of hon est and rational politicians ought to be to understand each other — to deal frankly, abhoring concealment, that mistakes may not be made about facts, terms, or intentions ; to deal fairly, giving credit for a desire to ehcit truth, and a wish to weigh in a just balance both sides of every question. Having put before you such evidence as I hope will lead Your Lordship's mind to the conclusion that the system by which the North American Colonies are at present governed, must be abandoned, it is not improbable that Your Lordship may inquire what it is that we are desirous to substitute for that system ? The demand is a reasonable one. The party who seek this change are bound to prove that they have a safe and inteUigible remedy for the evils of which they complain. If I cannot show to Your Lordship that, without endangering the authority of the mother country over her Provinces, weakening the constitutional powers of the crown, or trenching on the high privileges and wide range of duty assigned to the Imperial Parhament, a better form of govern ment than that which I am anxious to overturn — one more nearly con forming to the practice and spirit of the Constitution, as understood at home — to the wants and peculiar situation of these Colonies, and less repugnant to the feelings and prejudices of EngUshmen everywhere, can be established, then I must quit the field of argument, and cannot com plain if Your Lordship adheres to your own opinions. THE QUEEN AND PARLIAMENT. From what has been already written, it wUl be seen that I leave to the Sovereign, and to the Imperial ParUament, the uncontrolled authority over the mUitary and naval force distributed over the Colonies ; that I care fully abstain from trenching upon their right to bind the whole empire, by treaties and other diplomatic arrangements, with foreign States ; or to regulate the trade of the Colonies with the mother country, and with each other. I yield to them also the same right of interference which they now exercise over Colonies, and over EngUsh incorporated towns ; whenever a desperate case of factious usage of the powers confided, or some reason of state, affecting the preservation of peace and order, call for that interference. As the necessity of the case, the degree and na ture of this interference, would always be fuUy discussed by aU parties LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 269 concerned, I am not afraid of these great powers being often abused, par ticularly as the temptations to use them would be much lessened if the internal administration were improved. THE COLONIAL OFFICE. The Colonial Secretary's duties should be narrowed to a watchful su pervision over each Colony, to see that the authority of the Crown was not impaired, and that acts of Parliament and public treaties were hon estly and firmly carried out ; but he should have no right to appoint more than two or three officers in each Province, and none to intermeddle in any internal affair, so long as the Colonial government was conducted without conflict with the Imperial government, and did not exceed the scope of its authority. This would give him enough to do, without heaping upon him duties so burdensome and various that they cannot be discharged with honor by any man, however able ; nor with justice or safety to the mUlions whose interests they affect. His responsibihty should be limited to the extent of his powers ; and, as these would be familiar to every Englishman, exposure and punishment would not be difficult, in case of ignorance, incapacity, or neglect. THE GOVERNOR. I have shown, in the illustration drawn from the city of Liverpool, that most Governors come out to Colonies so ignorant of their geography and topography, climate, productions, commerce, resources, and wants ; and above aU, of the parties, passions, and prejudices which divide them; and of the character, talents and claims of the men by whom the popula tion are influenced and led ; that for the first six or twelve months they are like overgrown boys at school. It is equally clear, that while the business of government must move on, and the administration commence from the day on which the new Governor arrives, the schoolmasters, from whom all his facts are derived — from whom he gathers his views of in ternal affairs, and his impressions, not only of different parties, but of in dividuals of each party, — are the irresponsible Executive CounciUors, whom the present system caUs around him ; and who, possessed of such advantages, rarely fail, before he can by any possibihty escape from their toils, to embroil him with the popular branch of the Legislature, and the mass of the people by whom it is sustained. Now let us suppose, that when a Governor arrives in Nova Scotia, he finds himself surrounded, not by this irresponsible Council, who repre sent nothing except the whims ofhis predecessors and the-interests of a 77* 270 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. few families (so small in point of numbers, that but for the influence which office and the distribution of patronage give them, their relative weight in the country would be ridiculously di minutive) , — but by men who say to him, " May it please Your Excellency, there was a general elec tion in this Province last month, or last year, or the year before last, and an administration was formed upon the results of that election. We, who compose the Council, have ever since been steadily sustained by a majority of the commons, and have reason to believe that our conduct and policy have been satisfactory to the country at large." A Governor thus addressed, would feel that at aU events he was surrounded by those who represented a majority of the population ; who possessed the confi dence of an immense body of the electors, and who had been selected by the people who had the deepest interest in his success, to give him advice and conduct the administration. If he had doubts on this point — if he had reason to believe that any factious combination had obtained office improp erly, and wished to take the opinions of the country ; or if the Executive Council sought to drive him into measures not sanctioned by the charter ; or exhibited a degree of grasping selfishness which was offensive and in jurious, he could at once dissolve the Assembly, and appeal to the people : who here, as in England, would relieve him from doubt and difficulty ; and, fighting out the battle on the hustings, rebuke the Councillors if they were wrong. This would be a most important point gained in favor of the Governor ; for now he is the slave of an irresponsible Council, Which he cannot shake off; and is bound to act by the advice of men, who, not being accountable for the advice they give, and having often much to gain and nothing to lose by giving bad advice, may get him into scrapes every month, and lay the blame on him. The Governors would, in fact, have the power of freeing themselves from thraldom to the family compacts, which none of them can now escape, by the exercise of any safe expedient known to our existing Constitutions. It will be seen, too, that by this system, whatever sections or small parties might think or say, the Governor could never, by any possibility, become, what British Governors have of late been everywhere, embroiled with the great body of the inhabitants over whom he was sent to preside. The Governor's responsibility would also be narrowed to the care of the Queen's prerog ative, the conservation of treaties, the military defence, and the execu tion of the Imperial acts ; the local administration being left in the hands of those who understood it, and who were responsible. His position would then be analogous to that of the Sovereign — he could do no wrong in any matter of which the Colonial Legislature had the right to judge; but would be accountable to the crown, if he betrayed the Imperial interests committed to his care. LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 271 THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. Executive Councillors now are either heads of departments, or mem bers of the two branches who are generaUy favorable to the policy of these, and disposed to leave their emoluments intact. One or two per sons, of more independent character, and slightly differing from the others upon a few points, are sometimes admitted ; but a vast preponderance in favor of the views of the official compact, is always, as a matter of course, maintained. The heads of departments are always very well paid for their trouble in governing the country, by the enormous official sala ries they receive ; their colleagues either are looking to office, or have means of providing for their relatives and friends ; while, if it should so happen, that such a thing as a Colonial Executive Councillor can be found, for any length of time, in office, who has not served himself or his friends, the title, and the consciousness of possessing for life the right to approach and advise every Governor, and give a vote upon every impor tant act of administration, without a possibility of being displaced, or called to account for any thing said or done, is no mean reward for the small amount of labor and time bestowed. Formerly, these people, in addition to other benefits, obtained for themselves and their friends im mense tracts of crown land. This resource is now cut off, by the substi tution, of sales for free grants ; but, looking at the Executive Council, or Cabinet, as it exists in any of the North American Provinces at present, we find a small knot of individuals, responsible neither to the Queen, the Secretary of State, the Governor, nor the people ; who owe their seats to neither, but to their relatives and friends, through whose influence and intrigues they have been appointed ; and who, while they possess among them some of the best salaries, and nearly all the patronage of the coun try, have a common interest in promoting extravagance, resisting econ omy, and keeping up the system exactly as it stands. It will be per ceived, that such a body as this may continue to govern a Colony for centuries ; like the Old Man of the Mountain, who got upon Sinbad's back, ordinary exertions cannot shake it off. To understand more clearly how un-English, how anti-constitutional, how dangerous this body is, it is only necessary to contrast it with what it ought to resemble, but never does. In England, the government of the country is invariably carried on by some great political party, pledged to certain principles of foreign or domestic policy, which the people for the time approve ; but the cabinet in a Colony is an official party, who haye the power forever to keep themselves and their friends in office, and to keep all others out, even though nineteen out of every twenty of the population are against 272 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. them. What would the people of England say, if some twenty famihes, being in possession of the Treasury, Horse Guards, Admiralty, Colonial office, had the power to exclude Whigs, Tories, and Radicals; to laugh at hostile votes in the Commons, and set the country at defiance; to defend each other against the crown and the people ; to cover igno rance, incapacity, corruption, and bad faith ? Would they bear such a state of things for a week ? And yet Your Lordship seems to think that we should bear it, for an indefinite period, with patience. Now, for this body, I propose to substitute one sustained by at least a majority of the Electors ; whose general principles are known and ap proved ; whom the Governor may dismiss, whenever they exceed their powers ; and who may be discharged by the people whenever they abuse them. Who, instead of laying the blame, when attacked, upon the Gov ernor, or the Secretary of State, shaU be bound, as in England, to stand up and defend, against all comers, every appointment made and every act done under their administration. One of the first results of this change would be, to infuse into every department of administration a sense of accountability, which now is no where found — to give a vigor ous action to every vein and artery now exhibiting torpidity and langor — and to place around the Governor, and at the head of every de partment of public affairs, the ablest men the Colony could furnish ; men of energy and talent, instead of the brainless sumphs, to whom the task of counselling the Governor, or administering the affairs of an extensive department, is often committed under the present system. In England, whether Whigs, Tories or Radicals are in, the Queen is surrounded, and the public departments managed, by some of the ablest men the kingdom can produce. But suppose a mere official faction could exclude all these great parties from power, how long would the government pos sess the advantage of superior abilities to guide it ? Would it not at once fall far below the intellectual range which it now invariably main tains ? But, it may be asked, would not the sudden introduction of this sys tem work injustice to some who have taken offices, in the expectation of holding them for life. Perhaps it might, but even if this were unavoid able, the interests of individuals should give way to the pubUc good. The Boroughmongers had the same objections to the reform act ; record ers and town clerks to that which cleansed the corporations. This, hke all minor difficulties, might easily be .provided for ; and I am sure that there are but few of those seeking to establish responsible government, who desire to overturn even a bad system in a spirit of heartless vindic- tiveness. LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 273 THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. The Colonies, having no hereditary peerage, this body has been con structed to take its place. From the difficulty of making it harmonize with the popular branch, some politicians in Lower Canada — and it was said that the Earl of Durham, at first, inclined to the opinion — thought it might be abolished. I think there is no necessity for this ; first, because it would destroy the close resemblance which it is desirable to maintain between our Institutions and those of the mother country ; and again, because a second legislative chamber, not entirely dependent upon pop ular favor, is useful to review measures, and check undue haste or cor ruption in the popular branch. Besides, I see no difficulty in maintain ing its independence, and yet removing from it the character of annual conflict with the representative body, by which it has been every where distinguished. The main object of the Executive Council being the preservation of a system by which they enjoy honors, office and patronage, uncontrolled and uninfluenced by the people ; and they having the nomination of Legislative Councillors, of course they have always selected a majority of those whose interests and opinions were their own, and who could help them to wrestle with, and fight off the popular branch. Hence the constant collision, and the general outcry against the second chamber. The simple remedy for all this appears to be, to introduce the English practice : let the people be consulted in the formation of the Executive CouncU ; and then the appointments to the Legislative will be more in accordance with public sentiment and the general interest, than they are now. I should have no objection to the Legislative Councillors holding their seats for life, by which their independence of the Execu tive and of the people would be secured, provided they were chosen fairly by those to whom, from time to time, the constituency, as at home, entrusted the privilege ; and not as they are now selected, to serve a particular purpose, and expressly to wrangle, rather than to harmonize with the popular branch. The House of Lords includes men selected by all the administration which the people of Britain have called into power. The Houses of Lords, in the Colonies, have been created by all the administrations which the people never could influence or control. Some members of the second branch should, of course, have seats in the Executive Council, because in that Chamber also, the acts and the poUcy of the government would require to be explained ; but here, as in England, though very desireable, it would not be essential, 274 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. that the administration should always be sustained by a majority in the upper House. THE COMMONS. One of the first effects of a change of system would be, a de cided improvement in the character of all the Colonial Assemblies. The great centre of political power and influence would, in the Prov inces, as at home, be the House of Commons. Towards that body the able, the industrious, the eloquent, and the wealthy, would press with ten times the ardor and unanimity which are now evinced ; because then, like its great prototype in Britain, it would be an open and fair arena, in which the choice spirits of the country would battle for a share in its administration, a participation in its expenditure, and in the honor and influence which public employment confers. Now a bon vivant, who can entertain an aid-de-camp ; a good-looking feUow, who dances with a Governor's lady ; or a cunning one, who can wheedle a clerk or an under-secretary in Downing street, may be called to take a part in governing a Province for the period of his natural hfe. Then, these dis reputable and obscure channels of advancement would be closed ; and the country would understand the reason, and feel the necessity for every such appointment ; and the population would be driven to cultivate those qualities which dignify and adorn our nature, rather than debase it. Now, any wily knave or subservient fool feels that his chance is as good as that of the most able and upright man in the Colony ; and far better, if the latter attempts to pursue an independent course ; then, such peo ple would be brought to their proper level, and made to win their honors fairly before they were worn. Another improvement would be, the placing of the government of a Colony, as it always is in England, in a majority in the Commons, watched, controUed, and yet aided by a constitutional opposition. Under the present system, the government of a Colony is the opposition of the Commons, and often presents in that body the most unseemly and ridiculous figure. Numberless instances might be given of this. The three Executive CounciUors who sit in the Assembly of Nova Scotia, have been resisting, in miserable minorities, on a dozen divisions during the last two sessions, votes by which the Commons recorded a want of confidence in them and their party ; and, in fact, the government, in stead of taking the lead in public measures with the energy and ability which should belong to a government, cannot take a single step in the Assembly without the sanction of its opponents. Every emergency that LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 275 arises, and for which an administration ought to be secure of a majority, presents some absurd illustration of the system. When the border diffi culties with the State of Maine occurred last winter, the government of Nova Scotia had not the power to move a single man of the militia force (the laws having expired), or to vote a single shilling, until the majority came forward, as they always have done, in the most honorable manner, and, casting aside all poUtical differences, passed laws for embodying the militia, and granted £100,000 to carry on the war. But, will Your Lordship believe, will it be credited in England, that those who voted that money ; who were responsible to their constituents for its expendi ture, and without whose consent (for they formed two-thirds of the Com mons) a shilUng could not have been drawn, had not a single man in the local cabinet by whom it was to be spent ; and by whom, in that trying emergency, the Governor would be advised. Nor are things better when the Legislature is not in session. In consequence of the establish ment of steam navigation, a dispatch was sent out this spring, after the House was prorogued, requiring the Governor of this Province to put the main roads in thorough repair. Of course he had no means to ac complish the object, nor could his Executive Council guarantee that a single shilling thus expended would be replaced, or that a vote of cen sure would not be passed upon him if he spent one ; and to obviate the difficulty, they were seen consulting and endeavoring to propitiate the members of the majority, whose places, upon such terms, they are con tented to occupy ; and to which, so far as I am concerned, if such hu miliations are to be the penalty, they are heartily welcome. It has been objected to the mode proposed, that it would lead to the rotation of office, or extensive dismissals of subordinates, practised in the United States. But no person abhors that system more than myself; nor has it found any favor in the Colonies, where the English practice is pre ferred, of removing the heads of departments only. To those who are afraid of the turmoil and excitement that would be produced, it is only necessary to say, that if upon the large scale on which the principle is applied at home, there is no great inconvenience felt, how much less have we to fear where the population is not so dense, the competition not so active, nor the prizes so gigantic. A ministry that in England lasts two or three years is supposed to fulfil its mission ; and a quadrennial bill is considered unnecessary, because Parliament, on the average, seldom sits longer than three or four years. As, under a system of responsibility, the contest for power would be fought out here as it is in England, chiefly on the hustings ; an administration would, therefore, last in Nova Scotia until the quadrennial bill was passed, for six years certainly — two years 276 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. more than the Governor, unless specially continued, is expected to hold his appointment ; and if it managed judiciously, there would be noth ing to prevent it from holding the reins for twenty or thirty years. Of course, an Executive Council in the Colonies should not be expected to resign upon every incidental and unimportant question connected with the details of government; but, whenever a fair and decisive vote, by which it was evident that they had lost the confidence of the country, was registered against them, they should either change their poUcy, strengthen their hands by an accession of popular talents and principles, or abandon their seats, and assume the duties and responsibilities of op position. If there was any doubt as to what the nature of such votes should be, the Parliamentary usage would be the guide on this, as on all minor matters. APPOINTMENTS, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, ETC. One of the greatest evils of the present form of government is, that nothing like system or responsibility can be carried into any one branch of the public service. There are, exclusive of mUitia and road commis sions, nearly nine hundred offices to be filled, in the Province of Nova Scotia alone ; all essential to the administration of internal affairs ; not one of them having any thing to do with Imperial interests. And will it be believed in England, that the whole of this patronage is in the hands of a body whom the people can never displace ? that the vast ma jority in the Commons have not the slightest influence in its distribu tion ? wkile the greatest idiot, who gives his silent and subservient vote in the minority, is certain of obtaining his reward ? But the evil does not stop here. It is utterly impossible for the people either to bring to punishment, or to get rid of a single man of the whole nine hundred, if the local government chooses to protect him. Perhaps the most cruel injury that the system inflicts upon the Colo nists, arises from the manner in which they are compelled to conduct their internal improvements. This has been noticed by Lord Durham. But perhaps His Lordship did not fully comprehend the reasons which render the mode — however anomalous and injurious — in some degree acceptable to the constituency, in order that other evils may be prevented, which mignt be a great deal worse. It will be perceived that the nine hundred offices already referred to, are generally distributed by the ir responsible official party in such a way as to buy their peace, or strengthen their influence in the country. Let us see how this operates in practice. Suppose a county sends to the Assembly four representatives, all of whom LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 277 support the local government ; the patronage of that county is of course at their disposal, to strengthen their hands, and keep down all opposition ; but should the whole be hostile to the compact, then it is used to foster opposition, and create a party to displace them. If there is a division of sentiment among the members, those who support, are always aided in mortifying and getting rid of those who attack the government. Though but one of the four is an adherent of the compact, every man in the county knows, that his influence is worth much more than that of the other three ; that, while one can obtain any favor he wants for a friend or partizan, the others cannot, unless by the barter of a corrupt vote or the sacrifice of principle, even obtain justice. Now, if besides these nine hundred offices, about five hundred commissions, for the expenditure of the surplus revenues of the country, upon roads, bridges, and internal improvements, were given over, to be disposed of in the same way, the hands of the compact would be so much strengthened, that it would be Still more easy to create a party in a county, to endanger the seat of any member who ventured to give an independent vote. To obviate this risk, which was seen at an early period to menace the independence of the Commons, it was determined that the members from each county should recommend the commissioners for the expenditure of moneys within it ; and this being acquiesced in by the Governors for some time before its political bearing was much regarded by the compacts, has grown into usage which they have not ventured openly to attack ; al though, as they still contend that the right of appointment is in the Executive, they seldom fail to show their power and vent their feelings, by petty alterations almost every year. The advantages of this arrange ment are, that the majority of the constituency — and not the minority, as in every other case — distribute the patronage under this branch of expenditure ; and, as the members who name commissioners have a great deal of local knowledge, and are, moreover, responsible to the people, they can be called to account if they abuse this trust. But still, from the very nature of things, it is liable to abuse. Road commissions may be multiplied, and sums unwisely expended, to secure votes at the next election ; or to reward, not a good road maker, but a zealous partizan. The Executive has not the control it would have if these men were se lected by the government ; and the legislative power, which should be used to unmask corruption, is sometimes abused to afford it shelter. The remedy which our compacts always suggest, like all their remedies for political discrepancies, aims at the extension of their own influence and the firmer establishment of their own power. They are loud, upon aU occasions, in denouncing the corruption of the road system. The mi- . 278 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. nority in the Assembly are eloquent on the same theme ; while, through the columns of some newspaper in their pay, they are always pouring forth complaints, that the roads are wretchedly bad and will never be better until the expenditure is placed in their hands. It will be per ceived, however, that to follow their advice, would he to make what is admitted on all hands to have its evils, a great deal worse ; because, if these nominations are taken from those who possess local information, and given to men who have little or none, who will not be advised by those who have, and who can be called to account by no power known to the Constitution ; besides a great deal more of blundering being the result, the partial responsibility, which now makes the system barely tolerable, would be entirely removed. Political partizans would still be rewarded ; but, instead of all parties in the country sharing the patronage (for members of the minority, as well as of the majority, make these ap pointments), it would be confined to those only who supported the com pact ; and who, however imbecile, ignorant, or corrupt, would then be, as every other officer in the Colony is now, independent of any description of popular control. If any doubt could be entertained as to whether the public would lose or gain by the change, evidence enough might be gathered ; for some of the vilest jobs and most flagrant cases of mis management that disgrace the history of the road service in Nova Scotia, have been left as monuments of the ignorance or folly of the eompact, whenever they have taken these matters into their own hands. But, make the Governor's advisers responsible to the Assembly, and the representatives would at once resign to them the management of such affairs. It would then be the business of the Executive, instead of leaving the road service to the extemporaneous zeal or corrupt manage ment of individuals, to come prepared, at the commencement of each session, with a general review of the whole system ; and, supported by its majority, to suggest and to carry a comprehensive and intelligible scheme, embracing the whole of this service, accounting for the previous year's expenditure and appointments, and accepting the suggestions of members as to the plans of the current year. We should then have an Executive to which every commissioner would be directly accountable ; to which he could apply for instructions from January to December ; and which, being itself responsible, would be careful of its proceedings ; and yet, being more independent than individual members are in dealing with their own constituents, would be more firm and unyielding where it was right. This is the simple, and I am satisfied the only safe remedy for the abuses of the road system. To take the distribution of commis sions from fifty men, possessed of much local knowledge and partially LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 279 responsible, to give it to twelve others, haying less information and subject to no control, would be an act of madness. Fortunately, in this, as in all other cases, we have no occasion to seek for new theories, or try unsafe experiments ; let us adopt the good old practices of our an cestors and of our brethren i let us " keep the old paths," in which, while there is much facility, there is no danger. My Lord, there is an argument used against the introduction of Ex ecutive responsibility, by Sir Francis Head, which it may be well to notice, because it has been caught up by shallow thinkers every where, and is often urged with an air of triumph, that, to those who look beyond the surface, is somewhat ridiculous. It is said, if this principle had been in operation, Papineau and Mackenzie would have been ministers in the respective Provinces they disturbed ! But, do those who urge this objection ever stay to inquire, whether, if there had been responsi bility in the Canadas, either of these men could have assumed so much consequence as to be able to obstruct the operations of government, and create a rebellion in a British Province ? Nothing made a dictator tol erable in ancient Rome but a sense of common danger, arising out of some unusual and disastrous posture of affairs, which rendered it neces sary to confide to an individual extraordinary powers — to raise one man far above all others of his own rank — to substitute his will for the ordinary routine of administration, and to make the words of his mouth the law of the land. When the danger passed away, the dictator passed away with it. Power, no longer combined in one mighty stream, the eccentric violence of which, though useful might be destructive, was distributed over the surface of society, and flowed again through a thousand small but well established channels, every where stimulating and refreshing, but no where exciting alarm. In political warfare, this practice of the ancients has been followed by the moderns with good success. O'Connell in Ireland, and Papineau and Mackenzie in Canada, grew into importance, from the apparent necessity which existed for large masses of men to bestow upon individuals unlimited confidence, and invest them with extraordinary powers. I wish that the two latter, instead of provoking the maddest rebellions pn record, had possessed the sound sense and consummate prudence which have marked every im portant step of the former's extraordinary career. But, who believes, that if Ireland had had "justice," instead of having it to seek, that ever such a political phenomenon as the great agitator would have appeared, to challenge our admiration and smite the oppressors with dismay ? And who dreams that, but for the wretched system upheld in all the Colonies, and the entire absence of responsibility, by which faction or intrigue 280 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. were made the only roads to power, either of the Canadian demagogues would ever have had an inducement, or been placed in a position to dis turb the public peace ? I grant that even under the forms which I recommend, such men as Papineau and Mackenzie might have existed; that they might have become conspicuous and influential ; and that it is by no means improbable that they would have been Executive Council lors of their respective Provinces, advising the Governors, and presiding over the administration of their internal affairs. But suppose they had ; would not even this have been better than two rebellions — the scenes at Windsor, St. Charles, and St. Eustache — the frontier attrocities — and tbe expenditure of three millions sterhng, which wiU be the cost before the accounts are closed ? Does any man in his senses beheve, if Mackenzie or BidweU could have guided the internal poUcy and dispensed the local patronage according to the British mode, that either of them would have been so mad as to dream of turning Upper Canada into a Repubhc ; when, even if they succeeded, they could only hope to be Governors for a few years, with powers very much more restricted, and salaries not more ample, than were theirs for life, or as long as they : preserved their majority. Possessed of honors and substantial power, (not made to feel that they Who could most effectually serve the crown, were excluded by a false system from its favor, that others less richly endowed migh rise upon their ruins), would these men have madly rushed into rebellion, with the chances before them of expatriation or of an ignominious death ? You weU know, my Lord, that rebels have become exceedingly scarce at home, since the system of letting the majority govern has be come firmly established ; and yet they were as plenty as blackberries in the good old times, when the sovereigns contended, as Sir Francis Head did lately, that they only were responsible. Turn back, and you will find that they began to disappear altogether in England about 1688, and that every pohtical change which makes the Executive more completely ' responsible to the Legislature and the Legislature to the country at large, renders the prospects of a new growth, " small by degrees and beauti fully less." And yet, my Lord, who can assure us, that if the sovereigns had continued, as of old, alone responsible ; if hundreds of able men, all running the same course of honorable ambition, had not been encouraged to watch and control each other ; and if the system of governing by the minority and not by the majority, and of excluding from power all who did not admire the mode, and quarrelled with the court, had existed down to the present day ; — who, I ask, wiU assure us, that Chatham and Fox, instead of being able ministers and loyal men, might not have been LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 281 sturdy rebels ? Who can say that even Your Lordship, possessed of the strong attachment to liberty which distinguishes your family, might not, — despairing of all good government under such a system, instead of using your influence to extend by peaceful improvements the happiness of the people, — be at this moment in the field at their head, and struggling, sword in hand, to abate the power of the crown ? So long as the irrespon sibility principle was maintained in Scotland, and the viceroys and a few bishops and courtiers engrossed the administration, there were such men as Hume and Lindsay, and such things as assemblies in Glasgow, general tables in Edinburgh, and armed men in every part of that ndble country, weakening the government, and resisting the power of the crown ; and up to the period when Lord Normanby assumed the government of Ireland, and it became a principle of administration that the minority were no longer to control the majority and shut them out from all the walks of honorable- ambition, what was the attitude in which Mr. O'Connell stood towards the sovereign ? Was it not one of continual menace and hostility, by which the latter was degraded, and the former clothed with a dangerous importance ? And what is his attitude now ? Is it not that of a warm-hearted supporter of the Queen, whose smiles are no longer confined to a faction but shed over a nation, every man of which feels that he is free to obtain, if he has ability and good fortune to deserve, the highest honors in her power to bestow ? Daniel O'Con nell, (and perhaps it may be said that his tail suggested the comparison) is no longer a political comet blazing towards the zenith, and filling the terror-stricken beholders with apprehensions of danger and a sense of coming change ; but a brilliant planet, revolving in an orbit with the extent of which all are familiar, and reflecting back to the source of light and honor the beams which it is proud to share. Who any longer believes that O'Connell is to shake the empire and overturn the throne ? And who doubts, had he despaired of justice, but he too might have been a rebel ; and that the continued application to Ireland of the principles I denounce, would have revived the scenes and the sufferings through which she passed in 1798 ? If, my Lord, in every one of the three great kingdoms from which the population of British America derive their origin, the evils of which we complain were experienced, and continued until the principles we claim as our birthright became firmly established, is it to be expected that we shall not endeavor to rid ourselves, by respectful argument and remon strance, of what cost you open and violent resistance to put down ? Can an Englishman, an Irishman, or a Scotchman, be made to believe, by passing a month upon the sea, that the most stirring periods of his his- 282 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. tory are but a cheat and a delusion ; that the scenes which he has been accustomed to tread with deep emotion, are but mementos of the folly, and not, as he once fondly believed, of the wisdom and courage of his ances tors ; that the principles of civil liberty, which from childhood he has been taught to cherish and to protect by forms of stringent responsibility, must, with the new light breaking in upon him on this side of the Atlan tic, be cast aside as an useless incumbrance ? No, my Lord, it is mad ness to suppose that these men, so remarkable for carrying their national characteristics into every part of the world where they penetrate, shall lose the most honorable of them all, merely by passing from one portion of the empire to another. Nor is it to be supposed that Nova Scotians, New Brunswickers, and Canadians — a race sprung from the generous admixture of the blood of the three foremost nations of the world — proud of their parentage and not unworthy of it, to whom every stirring period of British and Irish history, every great principle which they teach, every phrase of freedom to be gleaned from them, are as familiar as household words, can be in haste to forget what they leamt upon their parents' knees ; what those they loved and honored clung to with so much pride, and regarded as beyond all price. Those who expect them thus to belie their origin, or to disgrace it, may as soon hope to see the streams turn back upon their fountains. My Lord, my countrymen feel, as they have a right to feel, that the Atlantic, the great highway of com munication with their brethren at home, should be no barrier to shut out the civil privileges and political rights, which, more than any thing else, make them proud of the connection ; and they feel also, that there is nothing in their present position or their past conduct to warrant such exclusion. Whatever impression may have been made by the whole some satire wherewith one of my countrymen has endeavored to excite the others to still greater exertions ; those who fancy that Nova Scotians are an inferior race to those who dwell upon the ancient homestead, or that they will be contented with a less degree of freedom, know little of them. A country that a century ago was but a wilderness, and is now studded with towns and villages, and intersected with roads, even though more might have been done under a better system, affords some evidence of industry. Nova Scotian ships, bearing the British flag into every quarter of the globe, are some proofs of enterprise ; and the success of the native author, to whom I have alluded, in the wide field of intellec tual competition, more than contradicts the humorous exaggeration by which, while we are stimulated to higher efforts, others may be for a moment misled. If then our right to inherit the Constitution be clear; if our capacity to maintain and enjoy it cannot be questioned ; have we LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 283 done any thing to justify the alienation of our birthright? Many ofthe original settlers of this Province emigrated from the old Colonies when they were in a state of rebellion — not because they did not love freedom, but because they loved it under the old banner and the old forms ; and many of their descendants have shed their blood, on land and sea, to de fend the honor of the crown and the integrity of the empire. On some of the hardest fought fields of the Peninsula, my countrymen died in the front rank, with their faces to the foe. The proudest naval trophy of the last American war was brought by a Nova Scotian into the harbor of his native town ; and the blood that flowed from Nelson's death wound in the cockpit of the Victory, mingled with that of a Nova Scotian stripling beside him, struck down in the same glorious fight. Am I not then jus tified, my Lord, in claiming for my countrymen that Constitution, which can be withheld from them by no plea but one unworthy of a British statesman — the tyrant's plea of power ? I know that I am ; and I feel also, that this is not the race that can be hood-winked with sophistry, or made to submit to injustice without complaint. All suspicion of disloyalty we cast aside, as the product of ignorance or cupidity ; we seek for nothing more than British subjects are entitled to ; but we will be con tented with nothing less. My Lord, it has been said, that if this system of responsibility were estabUshed, it would lead to a constant struggle for office and influence, which would be injurious to the habits of our population, and corrupt the integrity of public men. That it would lead to the former I admit ; but that the latter would be a consequence I must take leave to deny, until it can be shown, that in any of the other employments of life, fair com petition has that effect. Let the bar become the bar only of the minority, and how long would there be honor and safety in the profession ? Let the rich prizes to be won in commerce and finance be confined to a mere fragment, instead of being open to the whole population ; and I doubt whether the same benefits^ the same integrity, or the same satisfaction, would grace the monopoly, that now spring from an open, fair, and manly competition, by which, while individuals prosper, wealth and prosperity are gathered to the State. To be satisfied that this fair com petition can with safety, and the greatest advantage, be carried into pub lic as well as private affairs, it is only necessary to contrast the example of England with that of any Continental nation where the opposite sys tem has been pursued. And if, in England, the struggle for influence and office has curbed corruption and produced examples of consistency, and an adherence to principle extremely rare in other countries, and in none more so than in the Colonies, where the course pursued strikes 284 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. at the very root of manly independence, why should we apprehend danger from its introduction, or shrink from the peaceful rivalry it may occasion ? But, my Lord, there is another view that ought to be taken of this question. Ought not British statesmen to ask themselves, is it wise to leave a miUion and a half of people, virtually excluded from all partici pation in the honorable prizes of public life ? There is not a weaver's apprentice, or a parish orphan in England, that does not feel that he may, if he has the talent, rise through every grade of office, municipal and national, to hold the reins of government and influence the destinies of a mighty empire. The Queen may be hostile, the Lords may chafe, but neither can prevent that weaver's apprentice or that parish orphan from becoming prime minister of England. Then look at the United States, in which the son of a mechanic in the smallest town, of a squat ter in the wildest forest, may contend, on equal terms, with the proudest, for any office in twenty-eight different States ; and having won as many as contents him, may rise, through the national grades, to be President of the Union. There are no family compacts to exclude these aspi rants ; no Uttle knots of irresponsible and self-elected CounciUors, to whom it is necessary to sell their principles, and before whom the manli ness of their nature must be prostrated, before they can advance. But, in the Colonies, where there are no prizes so splendid as these, is it wise or just to narrow the field, and confine to little cliques of irresponsible politicians, what prizes there are? No, my Lord, it is neither just nor wise. Every poor boy in Nova Scotia (for we have the feelings of pride and ambition common to our nature) knows that he has the same right to the honors and emoluments of office, as he would have if he lived in Britain, or the United States ; and he feels, that while the great honors of the empire are almost beyond his reach, he ought to have a chance of dis pensing the patronage and guiding the administration of his native coun try, without any sacrifice of principle or diminution of self-respect. My Lord, I have done. If what has been written corrects any error into which Your Lordship or others may have fallen, and communicates to some, either in Britain or the Colonies, information upon a subject not generally understood, I shall be amply repaid. Your Lordship wiU perhaps pardon me for reminding you, that, in thus eschewing the anonymous, and putting my name to an argument in favor of Executive responsibihty for the North American Colonies, I am acting under a sense of deep responsibility myself. I well know that there is not a press in the pay of any of the family compacts, that will not misrepre sent my motives and pervert my language ; that there is not an overpaid and irresponsible official, from Fundy to the Ottawa, whose inextinguish- REVIEW OP THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 285 ble hostiUty I shall not have earned for the remainder of my life. The example of Your Lordship will, however, help me to bear these burdens with patience. You have lived and prospered, and done the State good service, and yet thousands of corrupt boroughmongers and irresponsible corporators formerly misrepresented and hated you. Should I hve to see the principles for which I contend, operating as beneficially over British North America, as those immortal acts, which provoked Your Lordship's enemies, do in the mother country, I shall be gratified by the reflection, that the patriotic and honorable men now contending for the principles of the British Constitution, and by whose side, as an humble auxiliary, I am proud to take my stand, whatever they may have suffered in the struggle, did not labor in vain. I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, Your Lordship's humble admirer, And most obedient servant, JOSEPH HOWE. TO THE PEOPLE OF NOVA SCOTIA. Fellow Countrtmen, — The speech ofthe Hon. Solicitor Gen eral, at the late public meeting in Halifax, is a document of some im portance at the present time. It is important, from the position and character of the speaker, from the occasion on which it was delivered, and from the use which has been attempted to be made of it, as a means to aid the system of government agitation now going on throughout the country. It is important to you, because it treats of topics involving your dearest interests ; and to me, because it attacks the policy of the majority in the Assembly, with whom I have acted, and, upon some vital questions, the soundness of my political opinions. To affect to treat such a document with indifference, would be to dis play but little knowledge of the state of public opinion in British North America ; to pass over it in silence would be to admit the assertion of its admirers, that it is conclusive and unanswerable ; to assail its posi tions anonymously would not be doing justice to a gentleman who has thrown himself boldly into the arena ; nor would it be satisfactory to the calm and reflecting minds throughout the Province, by whose deliberate judgment, founded upon evidence, the questions at issue must be ulti- 386 . REVIEW OP THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. mately decided. I have concluded, therefore, to put my own name to a review of the learned Solicitor's speech; in doing which, I think I am not doing more than his frequent references to myself would warrant, nor than both friends and enemies would require of me at the present time. My object will be to set before you, in language so plain and simple that even the unlettered cannot mistake my meaning, the grounds of my belief, — that, whether the learned Solicitor General's speech was intended as an attack upon the reformers, a defence of the Governor, a vindication of the conduct of the Legislative and Executive Councils, or as an argument against executive responsibility for the Colonies, — that, upon each and all of these points, there has been a signal failure, which renders the triumphal boastings of the opposite party ludicrous in the highest degree. Before referring to the speech itself, let me mark a peculiar feature of the present times, which its delivery serves to illustrate. Some years ago, when a few friends and myself in the capital began to press those reforms, many of which have been so happily accomphshed, and to ad vocate those principles which we still, under better auspices, proudly as sert, nothing could exceed the contempt and indifference with which our efforts were viewed by the party in power. When we met in the long room in the Exchange Coffee House, we could not persuade one of those who had any thing to hope or to fear, to enter the room, or take any part in the proceedings. From the door of the reading-room, which adjoins it, they would sometimes look in, with faces expressive of astonishment, that the humble men before them should have the assurance to discuss the mysteries of government, and devote an hour to public affairs. But times have changed. Those who rule, begin to fear that they cannot hold their positions but with the consent and support of the great body of the people ; and, on the occasion to which I refer, CounciUors and officials were seen smiling blandly upon tradesmen and mechanics, who so recently they affected to despise ; the wealthy merchant, with one foot on the threshold of the Council, and doubtful whether or not he would get leave to draw the other after it, exchanged greetings with the hum ble dealer, who, elsewhere, he would hardly have known ; and, more surprising even than all this, there stood Her Majesty's Solicitor Gety- eral, a member of both Councils, and confidential adviser to His Excel lency Sir CoUn CampbeU, defending the policy of the government and the conduct of the Governor before the " Hahfax mob." * * This was the polite name applied, until lately, to any public meeting for pohti cal purposes called in the capital. REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 287 Of course I attributed all these condescensions to the same cause to which you will probably attribute them. Surely, thought I, these strange things would never have happened had not the political discussions of the last few years made the mass of the people less intelligent, less united, and infinitely less powerful than they were ; depend upon it, all this consideration and civility result from the weakness displayed by the reformers at the last election, and from their utter inability to use any great influence upon those which are to come. When I reflected upon the share that I had had in producing this change, I was delighted to find that the learned Solicitor forgot to make it part of the general charge which he brought against the course that my political associates and my self had pursued. I must confess that, in putting the learned Solicitor General forward to defend the structure and policy of the government, no little tact was displayed by the opposite party. No doubt they calculated largely upon his influence, both in town and country, among a body of Christians who do not usually think with them ; no doubt they thought that because, to a certain extent, they hated him for the Uberal views he was known to entertain in religious matters, to the same extent he would probably find favor in the eyes of many who preferred those views to the bigoted and Harrow rule of exclusion upon which they have hitherto acted. There was policy, too, in selecting a man who had only the sins of a few years to answer for ; and who had not been for any length of time mixed up with the measures which have rendered the government so distasteful to a majority of the representative body and those they represent. If some policy was shown in selecting a defender, it must be acknowl edged that the skill of a practised advocate was also displayed in choosing the topics of the defence. The whole case was made to turn upon the propriety or impropriety of the rejection of two measures by the Legislative Council ; of these I shall speak by and by. In the meantime, I may observe that the charge against Sir Colin Campbell and his advisers goes much deeper. It touches not merely the acts, but the construction of the two Councils ; and I assert, that even if all the Solicitor General has said upon the subject of the civil list and the ju diciary was entirely satisfactory, still, the main charges against Sir Colin Campbell would remain untouched, and would be of a character sufficiently grave to justify the representatives of the people in asking for his recall. Before proceeding to the consideration of the three branches into which the subject naturally diyides itself, I cannot but pause a mo ment, to consider the charge made against the reformers, — that they 288 REVIEW OP THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. had " not fairly represented to the country " the conduct and sentiments of their opponents. " Well," thought I, when this accusation gravely feH from the lips of the learned Solicitor, " can you be serious ? or is it pos sible that close application to other and more important duties leaves no leisure for an examination of the contents, or an estimate of the char acter of the Provincial press ? " No doubt Mr. Johnston meant what he said, and spoke in all sincerity at the time ; but, that he spoke without reflection, anybody may be convinced that turns for a moment to the facts. During the four years that I have been in the Legislature, a person of known character and attainments has been employed to report the debates for The Nova Scotian. Passing over minor discussions, all the leading debates, those to which the speaker must have referred, have been faithfully and fully reported. It is true, the debates in the Legis lative Council have but seldom been given, because no weekly paper can furnish both ; but as their conduct and policy, whenever attacked, has always found able advocates in the Assembly, all that could be said for them has usually gone to the country with aU that was said against them. It is true, that a great deal that has been said and done in both Houses, and many documents connected with the pubUc business, have been omitted, or laid aside until their interest was gone, merely because there was not space to spare ; but so scrupulous have I been upon this pointy that I cannot call to mind one powerful oratorical display made by one of my opponents, bearing upon any of the great questions which divide the population, that has been intentionally suppressed ; while some of the most sarcastic and successful personal attacks upon myself and my friends, some of the ablest vindications of the opposite policy, are to be found faithfully recorded in The Nova Scotian, and often no where else. And it is a curious fact, that during the last session the only persons who complained of injustice having been done them were two conspicuous members on the reform side of the House. While I have thus " mis represented " the party with whom the learned Solicitor acts, what has been their conduct to me ? I could turn to a dozen reports in the papers which they patronize, in which my speeches have been either emascu lated, or entirely omitted ; while those of my opponents have been given at full length. I could turn to others, in which I have been made to utter nonsense too eggregious ever to have entered into any man's head; and to one instance, fresh in my recollection, where, in a report of a skir mish, in which, on all hands it was acknowledged the enemy got the worst of it, the victory was given to them ; a column or two being filled with single speeches on the other side, while mine, which occupied up wards of two hours in the delivery, was compressed into about ten Unes. REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 289 So much for the conduct of the reformers and their opponents in the most important department of political instruction to the people. Let us turn to other departments. The Times and The Pictou Observer are the most conspicuous organs of the government party ; The Journal extracts every thing which can make against us, and sometimes insinuates a great deal that is disreputable ; but is generally guarded and respectful in expression. But I ask the Solicitor General to range over the wide world of political discussion, and (omitting some of the London Sunday papers, that live by libel and blackguardism ) to select two organs of any party more industrious in defamation, more reckless and unprincipled in general management, more foul in scurrility, more false in fact and in ference, than the two papers through which the public conduct and per sonal character of the majority in the Assembly, and those who support them, are constantly assailed. I put it to him to say, if there is a politi cal or personal slander that could enter the most fertile imagination, that has not been vomited through these precious publications, against some one, if not all of the members of that majority. I ask him if one act of mine that was capable of perversion has not been perverted ; if I ever got credit for one effort, however worthy, in any cause, however good ; and if any part of the public conduct of either myself or my friends has ever been, through these, the favored organs of the local government, " fairly represented to the country ? " And, if not, I ask the Solicitor General, as an upright and conscientious member of that government, has he ever raised his voice against that wholesale and in discriminate slander ? and, if he has not, how he can stand up before the country, and make it a matter of charge against men so assailed, that, in placing their own views before the people, they do not always present in the most favorable light the conduct of those who set them such an example ? Ifi chose to turn to the newspaper files during the existence of the two bodies, I could lay before the learned Solicitor ten columns of misrepresentation and abuse of the House of Assembly, for one that could be produced reflecting on the Councils ; and, therefore, in this department also, I am prepared to maintain, that the local govern ment have had the advantage. But there are other modes of " misrepresentation " besides those af forded by the press. There is the industrious dissemination of direct falsehood and slanderous insinuation, through the varied channels of social life. Far be it from me to suspect the learned Solicitor General of any participation in this dirty work ; but I tell him that, in this de partment also, many of those with whom he has been associated, and who now cower beneath his gaberdine, and look to him for shelter and 79 290 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. defence, have labored most assiduously ; and that here, also, the advan tage has not been on our side. I have heard of such things, as one near relative of a grave dignitary standing at his shambles, day by day, and re lating one scurrilous invention after another ; and a second relative, who could not speak of the majority in the House of Assembly, without hint ing at treason and rebeUion. And I have often felt, how a word or a Une could wound and wither ; and yet I have also felt, that the cause in ¦which I was engaged did not require that every blow should be returned, or that every circle that chose to throw stones should have their glass house beaten about their ears. I have heard of such things as an Ex- exutive CounciUor secretly retaihng one direct falsehood and another gross and fraudulent perversion of fact, and quoting the highest officer in the government as his authority ; and yet I have not thought it neces sary to foUow even such distinguished examples ; contenting myself with dragging these lurking calumniators before the pubhc whenever I could trace them, and making them pay the penalty of exposure. I claim, therefore, for myself, and for those with whom I have acted, not only a degree of fairness in representing the sayings and doings of our oppo nents to the country, but a degree of magnanimity and forbearance, often under the greatest provocation, to which the party opposed to us cannot lay the shadow of a claim. Let me now turn to those topics which form the staple of the learned SoUcitor's speech — the civil list and the judiciary; repeating again what I have stated before, that even if aU that can be, has already been said upon these subjects, yet is Sir Colin Campbell left without any defence. But, can no more be said upon them ? Has the vindication, even of the acts of the Legislative Council, been so triumphant as to sUence any complaints of the systematic violation of Her Majesty's commands in the construction of that body ? The views which the majority ofthe Assembly always took ofthe casual and territorial revenues, were, that those revenues were vested in the crown, not as personal property, to be capriciously lavished upon individ uals cr withdrawn from the country, but as a trust fund, to be husbanded with economy and expended for the benefit of the whole people. In seek ing a transfer of those revenues, they thought that, as the representative branch had always promptly met every just demand upon the local gov ernment — and, as there was no reason to beheve that it would be less liberal in future, than it had been in times past — it was most unwise to have a separate source of income at the command of the Governor, over which the House had no control ; and which, by being apphed to raise the salaries of a few officers far above the means of the Colony and the REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 291 general scale of remuneration to others, created jealousy and uneasiness ; and fostered extravagant notions, which continuaUy menaced the Provin cial Treasury on the one hand, while it injured the tone of society on the other. The House believed, that the representatives of the people would appropriate those revenues more wisely than the three or four public officers, who usually managed the fund, and whose only care ap peared to be, to see who should get the most out of it. Perhaps they also thought, as the chief part of those revenues was derived from a most ex traordinary monopoly ofthe mineral resources of the Province, transferred to individuals for a period of sixty years, that the crown was bound to make atonement for a grant so impolitic, by making the small income it produced productive of some advantage to the people. In return for the revenues demanded, the House always professed its readiness to grant, either for the life of the Queen, or forever, an adequate civil list ; making the salaries of the Governor and the judges permanent. It did not con ceive itself bound, in making this appropriation, to give to all the officers who had hitherto managed this revenue, the whole amount of salary which they had given themselves. It thought that its duty was to take a fair view ofthe whole subject; looking to the claims of existing officers; to the duties to be discharged by future incumbents ; to the relative emolu ments and duties of other officers, already provided for; and to the pressing demands of the public service, in various important departments, for every shilling of surplus funds ; and, having done this, to pass such a bill as should finaUy settle the question. Those who took a lead in this measure, did not conceive that they were to be tied up by the claims of officers, who, from one cause or another, had hitherto been paid out of all proportion to the resources of the coun try ; or that they were bound to give them, during their lives, every farthing that they had hitherto received ; nor did they suppose that they were excluded by the language of any dispatches, founded upon the ex- parte statements and remonstrances of those officers, from making to the government a proposition, which, in their deliberate judgment, they believed to be rational and fair. Now what was their proposition ? The present Governor and his successors in office were to receive the full sums required by the Colonial Secretary. Sir Rupert D. George was to receive, during his continuance in office, £1,100 currency, in dependent of his receipts from the registry. £700 was to be the salary of his successor. The Chief Justice was to receive £1,100, besides his travelling fees of a guinea a day. £973 10s. was to be given to any future incumbent of the same office ; which, with the 292 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. travel, would have secured to the highest judicial officer of the Prov ince, in all time to come, about one thousand Province notes ; Judge Hal- Uburton having, during his life, about £150 more. The Puisne Judges were to have, now and hereafter, £700 each ; which, with a guinea a day for travel, during about three months that they were on the circuits, would have made nearly £800, to support their dignity and insure their inde pendence. The Master of the Rolls was to receive £700 a year. In addition to these sums, which were to have been permanently ap propriated in the biU rejected by the Legislative Council, every other charge borne upon the revenues to be surrendered, was to be provided for by the annual votes of the House. Now, I think, when you have calmly examined this scheme of appro priation, you will hardly agree with the SoUcitor General, that it involves any thing very illiberal on the part of the House, unjust to the officers, or perilous to the " public honor." A more wise and reasonable measure, I believe, never passed the Assembly ; nor was one ever conceived or carried through in a better spirit. I served on the committee which framed the bill, and I never saw the duties and claims of officers more fairly considered ; nor a more sincere desire manifested to quiet, and finally dispose of a vexed question ; and when the bill was reported, I did not believe for a moment that it would be rejected by the upper branch. Let us suppose that it had passed both branches, with a sus pending clause, and had been sent home, with an address from the two Houses, calling the attention of Her Majesty's government to the few points on which it varied from the dispatches ; but stating that the whole subject had been gravely weighed and considered ; and that, in the opin ion of both houses, it was a wise and reasonable arrangement. Does any man doubt that it would have been agreed to at home ? But, says the Solicitor General, it would have been unjust to the Chief Justice ; because he had taken certain fees which amounted to more, and an arrangement had been made with him by which they were relinquished. Let me invite your careful attention to this, the strong point of the Solicitor General's case, if it has a strong point at all — of which you may have doubts by and by ; but, for the present, bear with me, while I try out the merits of this objection. Suppose that, at this moment, the Chief Justice were in possession of those fees ; suppose that no question as to their legality had ever been raised ; suppose that they were not only not illegal, but expressly sanc tioned by legislative enactment ; but that, growing with the growth of the country, they had become excessive : will the Solicitor General venture REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 293 to deny to the Legislature the power and the right to abate, or even to abolish them altogether ? or to vary the mode of payment, or the amount of provision, in any way that they might think proper, in order to save to the country a surplus unwisely drawn ; provided, always, that they left to the officer a liberal and generous provision for his services, and paid him at a rate far above, rather than below, the scale of remunera tion running through the other departments of the public service ? I think, even if the Chief Justice were " remitted " back to the situation in which he was in 1837, that the arrangement proposed would have been fair and just, and no breach of the "public honor" ; and I shall be mis taken, if, when you have reflected on the subject, you do not think so too. But, says the Solicitor General, there was an " arrangement " with the Colonial Secretary, founded upon the fees. Well, if there was, this did not limit nor restrain the power of both branches to pass upon the whole subject ; nor did it put the Chief Justice in a stronger position than he would have occupied, nor endow him with any rights more sacred than he would have had, had the fees continued still in existence. I maintain, therefore, that admitting the legality of the fees — whether they were still continued or discontinued — the two branches had the right to pass upon the whole question ; subject, of course, to the approval of the crown ; and that, in securing to the Chief Justice of this little Colony £1,100 per annum, besides his travelling fees, there would have been no breach of the " public honor." But, when it is considered that the Chief Justice had hardly come into the receipt of the fees before they were disputed ; that the representative branch had again and again declared them illegal ; that the arrangement had been made by the Colonial Secretary, without the benefit of any counsel or advice from either branch of the Legislature, as to the amount of remuneration necessary for the Chief Justice, and upon that officer's representation of his own case ; how much stronger does the right of the two Houses appear, to legislate, wisely and independently, upon the whole question ? And what necessity was there for the Legislative Council to assume, that the Sovereign would not reconsider the affair ? Or what right had the Council to anticipate that Her Majesty would not do justice to the country at large, even though sftme sacrifice was to be made by an individual ? Mr. Johnston strenuously insists upon the right of the Legislative CouncU to assert its independence of the lower House, when the revenues of the country are to be squandered ; and have not we a right to claim for it equal independence of the crown, when those reve nues may be saved ? Having, then, as I conceive, established the right of the two Houses 79* 294 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. to deal with the whole question independently, and to place before the crown such a measure as (if the government at home chose, upon reflec tion, aided by the deliberate opinion of those who were the best judges, to sanction) would quiet doubtful claims, and lead to the transfer of the revenues, — let me enquire for a moment, what guarantees we had that the bill would have received at home the most favorable consideration? What are the general views which the home government have expressed in reference to this matter ? " It is not to Her Majesty's government," says Lord Glenelg, " a mat ter of any serious concern, whether the salaries to be assigned in the civU list be of greater or less amount ; provided only they are sufficient for the maintenance of the officers in whose favor they are granted, in that station of society to which they must belong." And then foUows an ad mirable injunction to economy ; in which, whUe His Lordship deprecates the idea of public officers setting an example of extravagance, he de clares, that he is " not only willing to admit, but anxious to assert, that in fixing the amount of official salaries in British North America, great frugality should be observed." It was, then, to a government thus most favorably disposed to entertain any proposition — even though it might, in some of its detaUs, not meet every previous arrangement — that the Council was asked to send the CivU List Bill ; and I utterly deny the propriety of its interposing between the Sovereign and the people's rep resentatives, to prevent the question from being reconsidered ; nay, I assert, that if that ibody had been constructed, as it ought to have been, , under the dispatches of Lord Glenelg, it would not only have passed the bUl, with a suspending clause, but joined with the House in an address praying that it might be accepted. You will perceive that I have foUowed the example of the Sohcitor General, and argued this question upon the case of the Chief Justice. If I am right, then all that has been said applies with equal, if not greater force, to the claims of the other Judges, and Sir Rupert George. And the next questions for you to ask, are : Were the sums granted suf ficient for the maintenance of the officers ; and, if less than they expected, were their claims to more stronger than the claims ofthe whole popula tion of the country to the benefit of the surplus ? One would suppose, from the manner in which violations ofthe "pub lic honor " are talked of, that, at the time when some, if not all of these officers were appointed, there was such a dearth of fit and proper persons, that the government and the people of Nova Scotia had to lure them from other and more profitable employments, and solicit their acceptance of the situations they hold, purely from regard to the public welfare. REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 295 Will any man assert that this was the case ? Will any man deny that all these parties were rejoiced to get them ? that, at the dates of their appointment, there were others to be had, equally competent ? or that the applicants for them, whose claims were rejected, were not grievously mortified at the time ; while few, if any, of the disappointed have been able to support, from their private incomes, the same style of living which those men have since indulged in at the public expense ? Take the case of the Chief Justice. A young officer gets tired of the army, quits it, and studies law. After practising a very few years, he applies for and obtains the situation of Puisne Judge, with a salary of £400 a year. If it be said, that it was the prospect of becoming Chief Justice that tempted him, I answer, that the emoluments of the Chief Justice, at the time, were less than the amount granted in the bill which the Council have rejected ; and, therefore, that the Province is guiltless of any blame, in either taking him out of the army or placing him on the bench; and that £400 at first, and £600 down to 1836 — independent of fees to the amount of about £100 or £150 more — were sums suffi cient to secure to the country the benefit of his services ; and that, if any one of the chances that might have debarred his elevation had occurred, he would have gone down to the grave, like any other judge, never ask ing or expecting more than £700 or £800 a year. Now, let us suppose that on the retirement of Judge Blowers, the government had said to Mr. Halliburton, You may have this situation ; but it is proposed to re duce the income to £1000, or even £900 a year. Would he have taken it ? Do any of you believe that he would have refused it ? And yet, are we to be told of violations ofthe public honor, when we offer the same officer £1,100, independent of travelling fees ? Will you credit a charge of injustice against the majority of the Assembly, who, in including this office in a general arrangement, gave to the incumbent a larger salary than any officer in the whole range of the department of the public service which he voluntarily selected, had when he entered it — £700 a year more than he had when he first tendered his services — and £400 a year more than he had, down to a few years before the Legislature was called upon to claim the revenues and revise the public expenditure of the country ? Let us turn to another of those unfortunate individuals, with whom the pledged faith of the government was to have been so strangely vio lated. Sir Rupert D. George inherited the office of Secretary of this Province from his father, when a mere youth ; and performed the duties of it by deputy for some years, until it suited him to make the pitiable sac rifice of burying himself, for four hours a day, in the south-west wing of 296 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. our Province building, with the paltry provision, from one source of rev enue or other, of some £1,600 a year ; a range of patronage by no means insignificant, and easy access to the ear of every Governor upon aU occasions. I have never yet heard that any great anxiety was expressed by the people of Nova Scotia to have the services of this young gentle man. I have never heard of any briUiant prospects abandoned ; nor have I ever been able to discover the manifestations of talent and infor mation so commanding, as to have insured for this individual a destiny more enviable than that which awaited him here. Sir Rupert, I am willing to admit, is a very good officer ; that is, he is what they would call, in England, a first class red-tape man, but nothing more. On occa sions when it has pleased him to absent himself from the Province, for a year or eighteen months, I am not quite sure that anybody missed him ; although his duties were performed by gentlemen of the same range of talent with himself, for about half the amount assigned to him in the rejected Civil List Bill. So, then, the Province of Nova Scotia having taken a mere strip- Ung, of ordinary talents, at his own request, and given him an enor mous salary ; having allowed him to absent himself and do the duty by deputy whenever he pleased, a privilege of which he has avaUed him self several times in a short life ; is not to be permitted to pass a general measure, affecting the whole civU list, and the casual and territorial rev enues of the crown, unless it gives to this gentleman the uttermost farthing, which, while those revenues were chiefly at his own disposal^ and he had unbounded influence with Governors and Colonial Secre taries, he had the conscience to give himself! But what were we going to give him ? Had we shaved so close that Sir Rupert was to be left without a sufficient sum to maintain him in the station in which he was bound to move ? Was his case so desperate as to require the interference of the Legislative Council to prevent Her Majesty's government from reconsidering it ? How much, think you, had the House assigned to the Provincial Secretary ? Just the sum given to the Chief Justice : £1,100 per annum. Was this aU? By another bill, making various alterations in the registry department, and which was also rejected by the Legislative Council, upon the same plea, that it did not give the uttermost farthing, Sir Rupert was to have re ceived, in commutation of his claims upon the deputies in the country, a pension of £200 a year. So that he was to have been paid out of the revenue of Nova Scotia, in aU time to come, just thirteen hundred Prov ince notes, or four thousand one hundred and sixty British crowns, — and this is what Mr. Johnston calls a violation of the " public honor." REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. .297 When you reflect that the allowance was more than double the amount given to the Provincial Treasurer — more than the whole sum given to three Judges of the Court of Common Pleas — full as much as the sums awarded, by private companies, to the cashiers and managers of three banking institutions in this town, will you lend your voices to swell the cry of injustice raised against your representatives, for not granting more, or will you hold the Council excused for the rejection of the bill ? Yet, it may be said, that the Puisne judges and Master of the Rolls were to be affected by the bill, and injustice was about to be done to them. Let us examine this ground of charge. When the Master of the Rolls accepted his present office, the salary was £600 — the bill se cured to him £700 — and it gave to each of the other judges an equal sum. Of Judge Wilkins's prospects and practice, before he accepted office, I am too young to say much ; they may have been great, but at all events the bill secured to him a larger salary than that for which they were voluntarily abandoned. Of the injury to be done to the two other judges, perhaps many of us are competent to forman opinion. I have heard the friends of Judge BUss say, that he never did make, while in practice, more than £300 pounds a year ; from what I saw of the business of courts, and from circumstances which were notorious at the time, I feel confident, that for several years previous to his acceptance of office, Judge Hill did not, on an average, make more ; and yet these are the men for whom £700 pounds a year, and ninety guineas for travel, was not considered enough. Poor gentlemen ; it really is dis tressing to think of the straits to which they would have been reduced, had not the Legislative Council kindly stepped in and prevented this breach of the " public honor." To me it seems rather strange, that so much solicitude is sometimes manifested to protect the faintest shadow of claim which wealthy indi viduals may have upon the revenues, when wholesale injury is often in flicted upon the poor, for the public good, without any body ever ap pealing to the public honor. For instance, how often do we see whole lines of road abandoned for new and better ones ; by which those who have built and improved, upon the faith of the old roads going past their doors, are deeply injured, if not reduced to poverty and ruin. This is an every-day occurrence. The plea is the public good ; the saving of time and distance to the great body of the people. Individual inter ests give way to a general measure of economy and improvement ; no man questions the right ofthe government to make the change, the people submit, even to ruin, without a murmur. But then, these are generally poor people, and the Legislative Council does not think it necessary to 298 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. interfere ; their sympathies are only excited by the sufferings ofthe rich, and they only assert the public honor when judges and secretaries are concerned. A few years ago, a general system of improvement was be gun in the streets of Halifax ; and, as it progressed, thoroughfares were blocked up, small dealers injured, poor persons compelled to mortgage for the enlargement or repair of property, half buried or completely under mined ; and not a few were driven out ofthe country, with broken hearts, the result of a general measure, sound in principle, and aiming at the general good, but often crushing and ruinous in its detaUs. Here was a case for the interference of those whose sympathies have of late been so painfully aroused ; did they interfere ? Contrast the injury done to hun dreds, with that done to four or five individuals under this Civil List Bill. Many of those persons lost their aU ; every one of the officers to be touched by the biU was to be left with a generous, if not a munificent allowance. The plea was the same ; the public welfare, the necessity for a general arrangement ; but there was a difference of rank and fortune ; a difference in the ability to make " the pubUc honor " bend to private pro tection, and a large amount of suffering was borne in silence. The sor rows and misfortunes of the great are often depicted in novels, and set forth in eloquent orations, whUe the calamities of the humble are re garded as of small account. So much for the Civil List Bill. Let me now turn your attention, for a few moments, to that which touched the judiciary. Under the beauti ful system which the reformers began to assaU a few years ago, you are aware that this little Province became blessed with just ten judges. Though it was for a long time stoutly denied that there was one too many, it is now generaUy aUowed, on all hands, that six are more than enough to do the work. In the first session of the present House, a biU passed, which, according to the Solicitor General, would have " crippled " both courts, by taking one judge from each bench. Into this question I shall not go, further than to say, that it would have given to three of the judges about six, and to the others about three months work in the year ; and the only objection to it that ever seemed to have much weight — that of allowing knotty points to be decided by two judges out of three — applies with double force to the Admiralty and Equity Courts, where more property is, I believe, annually disposed of, than before the Supreme Court, and in which a single mind decides. But let that pass. The bill was rejected by the Council, and another sent down. Now, you will perceive that this bill, while it abolished the inferior court, so far as concerned Nova Scotia proper, continued it in Cape Breton, and seemed framed to preserve the anomalous system com- REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 299 plained of, in three counties of the Province, for no other reason, that I could ever perceive, than to spare the judges of the Supreme Court the trouble of travelling twice into Cape Breton. I thought at the time, and I think now, if the Council had looked more to the general interests of the country, and less to the feelings and interests of individuals, that it might have been as well. However, such a bill as this it was impossible to pass. We were, therefore, in this position ; what a majority in the House wanted, the CouncU would not give them ; what the Council pro posed, did not extend uniformly over the whole Province, and had to be rejected. After three sessions had been spent in negotiation and discus sion, a bill was passed by the House, abolishing the inferior court — ap pointing one judge of that court to the Supreme bench — giving to each county two terms of the higher tribunal in a year ; and, without unne cessarily mixing the judges up with the business of the sessions, calling those courts at about the same time with the others, in order to avoid the too frequent attendance of the people as jurors, suitors, and auditors, — by which there would have been a very important saving of the time of the country. This bill was destroyed in the Council, without any conference being asked, or reasons given ; and when we came to couple this act with the destruction of the Civil List and Registration bills, already referred to, what were we to think ? Had even one been passed, we might have been disposed to yield our own opinions upon some of the others ; but the whole were prostrated ; and no sooner had the session closed, than a system of agitation was commenced, under the auspices of those who rejected these bills, in order to drive out of the Assembly those who passed them. You may be duped — you may lend yourselves to this system of agitation ; you may return the subservient body of representatives so anxiously desired ; but if you do, I am much mistaken if ever you get these questions settled on any thing like favorable terms, or get the number of your judges reduced to six. Put in the tools you are asked to select, if you choose ; but do not say that those who ought to have warned you shrunk from the task. What are the reasons given by the Solicitor General for the rejection of the judiciary bill ? " Two years ago," he says, " the same measure, with some modifications, went from the Council to the Assembly." WeU, and when we sent it back to them, adding another judge, to cure the anomaly as respected Cape Breton, then they would not pass it. But, he says, it was " defective in its details " — " some matters the Council could not amend ; " but, why was not a conference asked, or suggestions made ? why were not the defective details pointed out, that the united wisdom of both Houses might have been employed upon them? Was 300 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL S SPEECH. there not time ? Even had the session lasted a few days longer, would not these have been well spent in perfecting those details ? But, when no attempt was made — when no conference was asked — when this biU also, as well as the other two, was destroyed — what was the House to think ? What are you to think of the destruction of the Civil List and the Registration bills, upon the grounds already examined ; and of the judiciary bill, for the reasons assigned by the Solicitor General ; partic ularly when you trace to some of the principal agents of their destruc tion, the system of government agitation now going on throughout the country, and which, if successful, will certainly prevent the Legislative Council from ever being troubled with them again ? I trust that I have now shown you that the speech of the learned Solicitor General hardly affords even a figment, to cover the nakedness of the Legislative Council ; that the grounds of suspicion, if not of grave accusation against them, remain intact and unremoved. You may ask me, do I charge upon Mr. Johnston any corrupt motives or insincerity in this matter ? No ; I only charge upon him what he has charged upon me. " Men bound in parties," says the Solicitor General, " cannot at aU times follow their own opinions, and may be obliged occasionally to surrender their feelings." I charitably believe that in these matters he has surren dered his ; and I am not without my suspicions that, unless the learned gentleman shakes himself clear of the party with whom he has been and is yet associated, there may be further sacrifices to make, which few per sons would lament more sincerely than myself. I have, thus far, argued this question, as it affects the acts of the Leg islative Council ; but you will perceive, that whether the view which Mr. Johnston or I take be correct, the defence of Sir Colin CampbeU must rest upon very different grounds. The rejection of these biUs may Ulustrate or confirm the opinions which the House formed of the con struction of that body ; and had they passed, there is no doubt that less of practical evil might have been traced to its formation. But I assert, without the fear of contradiction, that if they were all upon the statute book at this moment, still Sir Colin Campbell would be left without a shadow of defence ; and that, if the House of Assembly had asked for his reeaU, upon the ground of his violation of Lord Glenelg's dispatches alone — to say nothing of his attempt to evade, and final refusal to act upon that of Lord John RusseU, — they would have been amply justified, and ought to be sustained by the suffrages of the country. Having, as I hope, to your satisfaction, disposed of the learned Sohcitor General's charge of misrepresentation against the reformers, and of his arguments in favor of the rejection by the Legislative CouncU, of the Civil REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 301 List and Judiciary BiUs, it becomes my duty to inquire, whether, as a defence of Sir Colin Campbell and his advisers, the document under re view affords any solid foundation, upon which a sound and unbiased mind can safely repose. Let me, therefore, set before you some of the most clear and emphatic of the Sovereign's commands ; and show how, in every instance, they were violated, and not obeyed. VIOLATION THE FIRST. Command. Members of Council are to be selected, " not only with out reference to distinctions of religious opinions, but in such a manner as to afford no plausible ground for the suspicion that the choice was in fluenced by that consideration." Execution. Of thirty members put into the two new Councils, eighteen were churchmen. But it may be said, there were the old members to dispose of. True, but of the eighteen new members chosen, just eleven were churchmen. How has this direct, flagrant, and unnecessary violation of his Sover eign's command been atoned for by Sir Colin CampbeU ? By giving to the church just three out of six of the recent appointments ; thus perpet uating the clear and decided majority in favor of one religious body, whose numbers are but one in five of the whole population. This was done after the Marquis of Normanby had reiterated the commands of Lord Glenelg, and insisted on the strict adherence to the principles laid down. Had Sir Colin dared, in the field, to have thus violated a clear and express command sent to him by the Duke of Wellington, the duke would have put him under arrest, and tried him by a court martial. VIOLATION THE SECOND. Command. " It is the desire of Her Majesty to entrust the duties attached to members of the respective Councils, to gentlemen entitled to the confidence of the great body of the inhabitants." Execution. Of four Executive Councillors, selected from the Assem bly, three were taken from the minority, comprising but about one-third of the whole, and but one from the majority, composed of the other two- thirds. Of four members taken into the Legislative Council from the House, three had opposed many, if not all, the clauses of the address of 1837, and one possessed so Uttle ofthe confidence ofthe country," that, in two or three elections for the township in which he lived, he was gen erally put in by the smallest possible majority of a very small constit uency ; and, in fact, only secured his seat by the interference of non- 80 302 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. resident voters, sent from the capital, a distance of forty-five miles, to his aid ; while, in the House, he had voted in a minority of four, against the very address which led to his elevation. VIOLATION THE THIRD. Command. The Marquis of Normanby, on the 31st of August last, writes to Sir Colin Campbell (and this, be it observed, is the very dis patch to which he referred the Assembly when they took up their reso lutions early in the session) — " With regard to the Executive Council, I feel very strongly how desirable it is that it should be composed in a manner to command the cooperation of the popular branch of the Con stitution ; and, although I do not desire to fetter your discretion upon this subject, yet I shall be glad to learn that you shall have thought it expedient to offer, as the occasion for doing so may present itself, seats to some of the leading members of the House of Assembly." Execution. The appointment of the Hon. Alexander Stewart, after, by his conduct in the Legislative Council, and as a member of the coun ter delegation, he had hardly left a friend in the Assembly who could open his mouth in his defence. Any person who will take the trouble to ponder upon these facts, will be compelled to come to the conclusion, which was reluctantly forced upon the mind of every member of the majority, that Sir Colin and his advisers were proceeding systematically upon two or three leading prin ciples. First, to perpetuate, in both Councils, a preponderating church influence, insulting to the feelings, if not injurious to the interests of dis senters. Second, to prevent the possibUity of the House securing the cordial cooperation of either Council, in their efforts to reduce the ex penditures of the country. Third, to confide in and patronize the minority only ; taking care, while speaking the majority fair when their assistance was needed, to exclude their leaders from the Executive Council upon one pretext or another ; never either offering to appoint, or appointing, more than one or two at a time, to be swamped by an over whelming preponderance of Tory influence in the Council, and to be dis trusted by their own party in the House. Now, it will be perceived that, whether the Legislative Council were right or wrong, in the rejection of the Judiciary and Civil List Bills, these charges against Sir Colin Campbell, these gross and systematic violations of the vital principles laid down in the Colonial Secretary's dispatches, still remain unexplained ; and, as I believe, entirely indefensi ble. I assert, therefore, without fear of successful contradiction, that if the House had, in 1838, immediately upon the pubhcation of Lord Glen- REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 303 elg's dispatches, and the gazetting of the appointments, asked for the recall of Sir Colin Campbell, they would have done no more than their duty ; and that if, after four years' experience of his character and policy — after exhausting every means within their reach to induce him to change the latter, and to try back towards the sound principles he had violated, they had failed to do their duty, and ask for his recall, then would they have been the veriest cravens that ever betrayed the confidence of a free people. Passing over, for the present, Sir Colin Campbell's treatment of Lord John Russell's dispatch, it becomes my duty now, with all humility, as the honorable Solicitor General has made some charges against me, to put a few questions to him, upon the answers to which, whatever respect I may still entertain for his private character, must assuredly depend the degree of consistency to which he is entitled as a public man. " I am a Dissenter," says the Hon. Mr. Johnston. I reply, " You are ; but how comes it that you are to be found associated with, and defending a gov ernment which, in defiance of the express commands of the Sovereign, with an artful consistency, violates the just rights and wounds the feel ings of Dissenters, by drawing from among one-fifth of the population three fifths of the members of the Councils? How comes it that you are the advocate of a Governor who, in the person of one of its ablest ministers, offered a most gratuitous insult to the very communion to wliich you belong ? And how does it happen that you are now lending yourself to a political movement, intended, if possible, to crush the man who most deeply resented that insult, and who has labored steadily and consistently to give to the Dissenting interest its just rights, and its fair share of influence in the Councils of this country ? " The Solicitor General says that he did not seek a seat in the Councils ; that it was forced upon him. I can well believe it, but I wish I could believe, that in accepting and holding a seat in such Councils — in de fending the principles upon which they were formed — and the conduct of Sir Colin Campbell in departing from his instructions — he has not left some of those who highly respect him, and would gladly see him take the independent position that he might occupy, to search in vain for mo tives, sufficiently strong, to induce a public man to sacrifice so much, even from the sense of obligation, which the tenure of a crown office might seem to impose. Had he said to Sir Colin Campbell, " as a Crown Officer, I cannot lend myself to any glaring and systematic violation of the instructions of the Crown ; as a Dissenter, I cannot consent to the galling and unnecessary preference, which you contemplate giving to one- fifth of the population over the other four-fifths, who are entitled to the 304 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. same consideration and to the same honors ; and, as a man who thinks with the House of Assembly upon a number of important questions, and who differs with the high Tory party upon many more, I protest against the formation of an Administration, in which the majority in the former are to be shut out from any influence in the government, and the same overwhelming preponderance is to be secured to the latter, which the House and Her Majesty's ministers have already alike deprecated and condemned." If this language had been held by the Solicitor Gen eral to Sir Colin Campbell, and if he had been firm in his determination to have no part in the matter, not because the situation was foreign to his habits, but because he would not seem to sanction a violation of in structions which he did not approve ; an insult to the great Dissenting interest of which he was a conspicuous member ; a disregard of the feel ings of the reform majority, with which, to a certain extent, he sympa thized ; and an exaltation of that party, to which he certainly owed no respect — my own belief is, that Sir Colin Campbell never would have dared to have violated his instructions in the manner he did, nor to have disregarded advice from such a quarter, thus independently tendered. Had he done so, and had Sir Colin ventured to deprive Mr. Johnston of his office on account of his independence, I believe that that gentleman would have been reinstated by the express command of the Colonial Minister, and have strengthened his claim to the respect, both of the peo ple and the government. It is mere mockery for Mr. Johnston to tell us that he " agrees with me in the eulogy upon Lord Glenelg's dispatch, and desires to see its principles in operation." He knows, or ought to know, that it has been the systematic violation of some, if not all of the principles laid down in that dispatch, in the first instance, and the pertinacious consistency with which that violation has been aggravated, rather than atoned for, in the recent appointments, that has led to events which, I believe, we both equally deplore ; and which has forced the Reformers to assert and main tain the principle of executive responsibility, in local affairs, as the only remedy to prevent the perpetuation of a system of exclusion and injus tice, which they have struggled against in vain, and which no strength of language can sufficiently condemn. And when Mr. Johnston lauds the old system, am I not entitled to ask him, what other remedy than that which we have applied, it affords for a case in which a Governor will not obey his instructions, and persists in acting upon principles, the very reverse of those laid down by the ministers of the Crown ? Patient submission, or a demand for his recall, I believe to be the only alterna tives. There may be some other, but I must respectfully request the SoUcitor General to point it out. REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 305 But, says Mr. Johnston, under the old system, the sons of poor men have been raised to the highest honors of the country. I admit it. In Nova Scotia, the poor boys of one generation are generally the rich men ofthe next. But, what is claimed as a peculiar merit of the old system, has occurred under every oligarchy that has ever been formed in any country, from the necessity felt by all such combinations, to neutralize opposition, and call into their ranks new accessions of strength. But, will Mr. Johnston affirm, that any or all of these men would have been so honored, if they had rendered themselves conspicuous for the asser tion of liberal principles ? WiU he assert, that majorities have not al ways been retained, favorably disposed to protect the emoluments and strengthen the power of the official party by whom they were appointed? Will he assert that, under that system, a majority ever can be placed in the Executive Council who will cordially sympathize with the Repre sentative branch, or submit to be restrained by its influence ? And if not, does he not perceive that such a system only holds out a prospect for the poor boys of one way of thinking ; that it is no more like the British Constitution " than I to Hecuba ; " that it strikes at the root of freedom of thought and manly independence, and never can, and never ought to be viewed with favor by any body of British subjects ? " What Englishman," says the Solicitor General, " would deny that the Representative body should govern to a great extent ? The practice is English, and I would not be an Englishman if I wished to cripple the power of the Assembly." But will the Solicitor General affirm, that the House of Assembly has the slightest influence in the government of this Province ? And will he deny that, from the very absence of all control over the administration, its power to influence the legislation of the upper branch, so wisely and successfully employed in England, and recently in Upper Canada, is not " crippled," and rendered of no avail ? On the sub ject of the delegation it is not my intention to waste much time. One thing, however, is certain, that if, whenever the representatives of the peo ple deem it indispensable to conduct negotiations with Her Majesty's government, two lawyers are to be selected from the other branch, and indulged with a pleasure trip at the public expense, to thwart the views of the Assembly and press their own claims to promotion ; and if the As sembly cannot pay their own delegates without wasting the public treasure by paying these gentlemen also, why then there is an end to all negotiation between the people and their sovereign ; the only desperate remedy for inveterate evils is swept away, and a new argument is supplied in favor of local responsibility which no man can successfully controvert. But it is said, the Council is an independent body, and can incur any expense they 306 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. please. I answer, that if they could send Messrs. Stewart and Wilkins to England, on mainly false pretences, and in defiance of the expressed opinions of the House, then can they employ the same persons, during the current year, to make a survey of the great roads of the Province, for the information of the Council, and insist upon their being paid, be fore the Assembly's grants for similar services are passed ; then can they authorize any one of fifty ridiculous expenditures that might be named, and compel the Commons to provide the expense. But, it may be said, the House of Lords have the same powers. Sup pose the Lords were to send up a request to the Queen, that two of their members should be dispatched on a confidential mission to Russia ; that request would be at once submitted to a Cabinet dependent upon its ma jority in the Commons for its very existence. If that majority were favorable to the object, the mission would be sent, and there would be no difficulty about the expense ; if unfavorable, no minister would dare to sanction the measure, and no expense would be incurred. I tell Mr. Johnston, then, and defy contradiction on this point, that all the difficul ties which have been felt about the delegation expenses, have grown out of the absurd and anomalous system which he defends ; and that, if the gimple principles of government we advocate, had been in operation, the perplexity upon this point, by which both he and I have been to a cer tain extent embarrassed, never could have occurred. I must confess that I was not a little amused by the subdued and deprecatory tone used by the Solicitor General, in pleading for the old system, with which, although habit and association have made him fa miliar, I cannot persuade myself that he is much in love. " I ask you," said he, " to bear in mind the peculiar circumstances of the country, and not to expect too much under the existing Constitution ; " and the people looked at him, as though the most they " expected " was to get rid of it. " The Assembly treated the Executive Council, as if responsibility rested on them, although they knew that it did not. Every bad act had been charged on that body, although it was well known that it did not govern the country." Now the fact was, that the Assembly knew very well, that, by the theory of the old Colonial Constitutions, the responsibility did not rest with the Council, but that in practice, they must and did govern to a great extent ; and they saw clearly enough, that the govern ment of the Province was conducted, in almost every thing where the commands of Her Majesty and the power of the House could be set at nought, upon the well known and avowed policy of the Tory and official compact of this Province. They felt, therefore, that it was but right and fair to attack the Governor's advisers. But these gentlemen generally REVIEW OP THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 307 turned round and said, " Why complain of us ? If our mouths were not sealed, we ' could a tale unfold ; ' we are not responsible ; why not attack the Governor? We are a.\> innocent as the babe unborn." When we complained to the Governor individually, he sometimes told a different story ; but when we complained publicly, he generally gave us to under stand, that he alone was responsible — that he took the responsibility — that he was highly pleased with his Executive Council. " Oh, very well," thought we, " if you are both agreed upon that point ; if there is no mistake, if there is no chance of changing the administration but by changing the Governor, then we know what to do ; aye, and have the energy and moral courage to do it." We voted for Sir Colin Campbell's recall, an act of painful necessity, but one which I shall reflect upon with satisfaction to the latest hour of my life ; and one which the great body of Nova Scotians, however they may have been momentarily ex cited, will, upon calm reflection, be prepared to sustain. " The Governor was not bound to take the advice of his Council, nor to consult with it, but in a few matters," says Mr. Johnston. And what a melancholy picture does this exhibit of the system ! Any two or three individuals, either in or out of the Council, getting the Governor into leading strings, may do just what they please; neither branch of the Leg islature, nor even the Council itself, knowing who gives advice, or who is to blame. And yet this is the system which the Solicitor General defends. For the sake of common sense, and of our common country, let it be swept away with other barbarous absurdities of by-gone times and let us have a body of Nova Scotians, whose mouths are not sealed ; whose acts are known, and whose advice, in all local affairs, Governors shall be bound to follow ; and then we shall have open and manly competition among ourselves, and hear no more about "poor old soldiers" being sac rificed, by one part of the population, for petting and patronizing another. " No member of the Council," says the Solicitor General, " has been brought forward charged with any wrong-doing ; let the finger be placed on the fact, and I will answer it." Surely he must have laughed in his sleeve, as the simple people around him gaped at this truism, which yet meant nothing, and, as a special plea, was unworthy of his powers of invention. AVill Mr. Johnston have the kindness to explain, how proof of wrong-doing can be brought home to any member of Coun cil ? Suppose his colleagues are interrogated, they are sworn to secrecy. The member is not likely to turn. Queen's evidence upon himself; and if the Governor is asked, he is bound to say, "I take the responsibility; not only cannot I accuse, but it is my duty to defend." " I doubt not," says Mr. Johnston, " that the Executive Council have made many mis- 308 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. takes ;" and yet, but a moment before he told us that they had little or nothing to do. Among the mistakes, however, they never made a greater one than in supposing that the people of Nova Scotia would be reconciled by the cry of " poor old soldier ! " to an irresponsible Execu tive Council — to, in fact, a Council chiefly resident in the town of Hali fax, and utterly irrespective of the opinions, and holding themselves far above the influence, of the members freely chosen by the people. The remedy for all this, I believe to be, an Executive Council enjoying the confidence of the Assembly. As the members of Council, in order that the government may be efficient, must reside in and about the capi tal, — or, at all events, such a number of them as may be required to con duct the administration, — the people who own and improve the other sixteen counties, should at least have the assurance that their interests and feelings, aye, and even their prejudices, have been consulted in the selection ; and should have some mode of signifying their disappro bation, and moulding and modifying the administration, whenever it for feits their confidence. Without this, the government is nothing but an oligarchy, self-elected from a particular town, which, with power to draw intc its bosom the merchants, bankers, and lawyers of that town, as they become rich enough to make their support an object, can rule the country as it pleases. It is not to be wondered at, that those who have long pos sessed this monopoly, should strive to defend it. Nor is it surprising, that persons who consider themselves qualified, by the weight of their pockets and the subserviency of their principles, for immediate or pro spective elevation to a share in its honors, should spring forward to its aid on all occasions. Hence the recent outcry in the capital, which has been caught up and reechoed by the compacts in the different counties, to whom the patent right of enjoying their patronage and managing their affairs, has been disposed of, in return for this sort of feudal service in all times of difficulty and danger. If I could persuade myself that a small part of the inhabitants of one county should thus govern the rest ; if I could, by any train of reasoning, bring myself to believe that such a system was fair and just, my best policy would be to follow such distin guished examples, and bow the knee to Baal. But, though a native and resident of the capital, and having the honor to represent it, I cannot narrow my views to the compass of a few miles ; nor forget that my countrymen, whose labor is enriching and adorning the length and breadth of the land, have the same rights and claims as myself and my immediate neighbors. I contend, therefore, for a system of government, by which a man who is ploughing the sea in a Yarmouth trader, tilhng the soil of Cornwallis, or sawing deals in Cumberland, shall feel that he REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 309 has the same rights, and the same prospects before him, that he would have if his lot had been cast within the favored circle ; and, therefore it is, that I contend for what has been called responsible government, but which is nothing more than the old British system, under which our brethren in Europe have lived and prospered ever since 1688; and by which mutual confidence between the representatives of the people and the representatives of the Sovereign is made a fundamental and indis- pensible element in every administration of public affairs, I do not gather from the learned Solicitor General's speech, that he is a determined opponent of this system ; and I should think it very strange if he was, when the Solicitor General of Upper Canada, recently ap pointed, has declared, that he has joined Mr. Thompson's administration because he has reason to believe that the government will be conducted on the principle of responsibility, and that the moment he finds there is a diminution of Parliamentary confidence, he shall resign, not only his seat in the Council, but his crown office also.* But, though Mr. Johnston does not boldly assail this principle, he hints a number of objections, which make me suspect that it is not a fa vorite ; and that the tranquU reign of irresponsibility would please him * On the 27th of February last, Eobert Baldwin, Esq., Solicitor General of Upper Canada, wrote a letter to II. J. Boulton, Esq., formerly Chief Justice of Newfound land, who is now an open advocate of responsible government, from wliich we ex tract the following passages. There certainly appears some difference of opinion be tween the two Solicitor Generals. Mr. Baldwin says : — " In the first place, I distinctly avow that in accepting office, I consider myself to have given a public pledge that I have a reasonably well grounded confidence that the government of my country is to bo carried on in accordance with the principles of re sponsible government, which I have ever held. " 1st. As Her Majesty's Solicitor General, I hold myself responsible, both to my Sovereign and my country, for the carrying out that enlarged policy in the conduct of public affairs, in which, as to all such subjects of general importance as your let ter refers to, I assume that the views of both will henceforth be found to coincide. But, on any such question, should the wishes of tho crown and those of the people come so far in collision as to result in a withdrawal of parliamentary confidence, I should feel it to be my duty to resign. "2nd. I am of course an officer of the government, and as such subject to their direction ; but whenever, upon any such question of general importance, my own in dependent judgment shall not load me to coincide in the views of the government, I shall feel it my duty, both to my Sovereign and my country, to resign ; or, to repeat the answer in another shape, whenever I feel that the government is to be carried on upon principles adverse to those which I profess, I shall cease to afford them my sup port, humble as it is, and what I conceive upon my own principles a necessary con sequence, shall cease to be a servant of the crown. 310 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. better than a government dependent on popular favor and the confidence of the representative branch. When I heard him say, " I do not oppose responsible government, on the main principle, if I oppose it at all," I felt a strong hope that we only differed as to the mode of obtaining it ; but when, one after another, difficulties and objections were started, and con trasts drawn, by which it was attempted to be shown that the principle could not be carried out in a Colony, I was reluctantly compelled to bring my mind to a different conclusion. Let us examine a few of these objections, by which the ignorant and the timid either have been, or may be startled by the Solicitor General. " No man," says he, " has explained the distinction that must of ne cessity exist between the government of a Colony and that of the mother country. There is the difficulty which I see." Now, although this as sertion has been printed in italics, I take leave respectfully to deny its correctness. In the pamphlet I published on the subject last autumn, the distinctions were clearly drawn ; and if every imaginable shade of dif ference was not taken into account, enough was said to show how easy these might have been met, had the intention been to write a volume and not a pamphlet. That "distinctions" must " exist between the govern ment of a Colony and that of the mother country," no man in his senses will deny ; but the onus lies with the Solicitor General, to show that these are of such a nature as to render a principle, which lies at the founda tion of the one, wholly incompatible with the safety of the other. I be lieve that amusing contrasts may be drawn between the temples in which we worship and the tables on which we dine, but I know that the same scientific principles apply to the construction and security of both. I be heve, that even yet, all the absurd objections that might be urged against revealed religion, or against the British Constitution as applicable to Great Britain itself, have not been urged and answered ; but yet, it has not been thought necessary to postpone the rational enjoyment of either, until the ingenious perversions of the human intellect, " never ending, still beginning," have been exhausted upon them. Neither do I think that we should put off the introduction ofthe principle of responsi bility — the only one by which harmony between the Executive and Legislative branches ofthe government can ever be preserved — merely because some ingenious objections may be raised from year to year. The few blows yet aimed by the Solicitor General may be easily put aside. " Were there not controlling checks over the Commons, which do not exist here ? If the same power were given here, would it not be greater, relatively, than they have in England ? What were the checks on the REVIEW OP THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S • SPEECH. 311 power of the Commons ? There was the immense power of the minis try in new elections ; there was the great control from wielding the patronage of government ; there was the influence of the court and of those about the court ; there was the established hierarchy, and the aris tocracy : none of these checks existed in the Colony." Now, I affirm that every British Colony has all these checks for the preservation of order, and the rational management of its affairs, over and above all the other checks which may exist within the Colony itself; and that our obligations to proceed wisely and prudently would be ten times more stringent, and our risks from violence or bad faith much greater than they are in England. The Constitution of Nova Scotia — the new Constitution, conferred by Lord John Russell and withheld by Sir Colin Campbell — if in full operation, might, at any moment, be sus pended and withdrawn by the Imperial Parliament. Should not the ex amples of Canada and Jamaica be before our eyes on all occasions, re straining and checking us, even if disposed to be unreasonable ? But what overruling and restraining power exists anywhere, that can as ef fectually prevent an abuse ofthe principle of responsibility in England? This I conceive to be a sufficient answer to all that the Solicitor General has urged upon this point. If disposed to examine the strength of the internal contrasts which he draws between the two countries, but which I consider quite unnecessary after what has been said, I might show, that there is not a great deal of reliance to be placed even upon these. The So licitor General will not, I think, venture to affirm, that the people of Great Britain and Ireland cannot turn out a ministry whenever they please, — " the patronage of the government," the influence of the " hierarchy " and " the court," to the contrary notwithstanding. The Tories had aU these, and yet they were turned out by the people ; and have been kept out for years, and can only return to power when they can persuade the people, and not the court or the hierarchy, that the Whigs are going too far. As to the influence of " the aristocracy," the prizes to be won by popular favor always secures, even for innovation, a fair share of their support ; and the prestige of the Governor's name would have double the influence in Halifax that the name of the Queen would have in any city in Britain. The Solicitor General knows full well that the most radical constituency in all England is that in the midst of which the Sovereign resides. " Westminster's glory " was the familiar subriquet which Sir Francis Burdett enjoyed in the palmy days of his radical no toriety ; and at this moment Mr. Leader, whose name is mentioned with such horror by conservatives in the Colonies, represents that portion of the metropolis which surrounds the palace of the Queen. 312 REVIEW OP THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. But, says the Solicitor General, " would it not be a mere struggle for power, without the influence of great constitutional questions, which are felt in England? What would be the objects of contention here? — whether A. should have the sweets of office, or B. turn him out." Now admitting that this was a fair view of the case, why should not A. and B. struggle for power and office, and the people decide who is to have them, rather than that A., being in possession, and leaguing with C. D. E. and F., should shut B. and all the other letters of the alphabet from office, or from any influence in the government? How often, even in England, does the contest between parties assume thc aspect of a mere struggle for power ? If the Solicitor General would take the trouble to run his eye over the correspondence of Horace Walpole, he would find upon what flimsy questions the fate of Cabinets has hung, and what contemptible arts are sometimes resorted to, to secure victory or avoid defeat, by par ties struggling for power. But the learned gentleman is mistaken, in supposing that there are no great questions nor principles of any importance in the Colonies to form the touchstones of party, or upon which rival combinations could be ar rayed, as they are at home. Compared, of course, with the gigantic in terests at stake in England, every question that arises in the Colonies is comparatively insignificant ; but " little things are great to Uttle men,'' and to little Provinces ; and I could point to a dozen questions of inter nal policy upon which the intellectual powers of our public men have been engaged during the past ten years ; and to a dozen more which wiU probably engage them for the ten years to come, that were or will be just of as much importance to the people of Nova Scotia, as were the questions upon which ministers have come in and gone out in almost every reign since 1688. It cannot be otherwise, in the very nature of things. Such questions arise out of the gradual growth and progress of every country, however small ; ancl are magnified and clothed with importance, real or fictitious, by the ceaseless activity of acute and ener getic minds, varying in natural endowments and in the degree and kind of cultivation they may have received. The perils of the sea are no less on board of a shallop than of a seventy-four ; and although the freight may not be so valuable) and the number of hands may be comparatively small, there is the same necessity for skill and inteUigence ; it is of the same importance, in the one case as in the other, that the ablest mariner should assume the responsibility and take the command. It is true that ships have been lost, and shallops too, by making interest, and not merit, the rule of promotion. Provinces have been sacrificed in the same way ere now, by the operation of the Solicitor General's system of govern- 313 ment ; and it is for this reason that I so anxiously desire a change. The internal securities against abuse of the new Constitution are : — 1st. The skill and prudence of those who may be tempted, and who must be aware that in no way are they more certain to lose power than by daring to exceed its constitutional boundaries. 2d. An able opposition, ready to point out their errors and assume their offices. 3d. A Legislative CouncU, independent to a great extent of the peo ple and the crown. 4th. A Governor, who may dismiss his Council and dissolve the House whenever he chooses, and who has a veto on every act. 5th. The people, whose loyalty and love for British connection are undoubted ; and who, every four years, may rebuke or dismiss public men who are going too far. If all these are not sufficient to ensure moderation and good behavior, why then the Imperial Parliament can be called in, backed by the army and navy. In coming now to the consideration of Lord John Russell's famous dispatch, it is only necessary for me to refer you to the Assembly's ad dress, for a faithful account of the views they took of it, and of the im pressions under which they acted in their subsequent negotiations with Sir Colin CampbeU. They found that, while in New Brunswick that document was hailed as conferring a new and improved Constitution upon the Colonies, in Nova Scotia it was sent to the Assembly with a voluminous bundle of papers, unaccompanied with a single remark ; that while in the sister Province it was formally communicated to the officers it was intended to affect, here no such intimation of the new tenure of office was made public, and the whole matter was treated by our Councillors and officials as one in which they had scarcely any con cern. When the Assembly acted upon this dispatch, the Governor acted as though it was not in existence ; and when, in order to put an end to such child's play, they called his attention to it, and to the manner in which it had been received in the other Colonies, he doubted the correct ness of the reading adopted almost universally except by the parties it was intended to affect, and said he must refer the whole matter to Eng land. This, it has been said, was a very proper course to adopt in a doubt ful case. It might be ; but it was the very best that could be selected to serve the interests of the official compact, and the very worst blow that could be aimed at the hopes and interests of the people. A refer ence home gave all the parties opposed to the new policy an opportunity 81 314 REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. of modifying or obstructing the minister's views, by various representa tions about their superior claims and the hardship of their individual cases. It gave them the chance of a change of ministry, or at least of a change at the Colonial office, and of the enjoyment of individual power for another year, to be used in every imaginable mode to annoy or baffle their opponents. What did it give to the Assembly ? The assurance that the Governor, who had read Lord Glenelg's dispatches backwards, was determined not to read Lord John RusseU's at aU ; that the old policy was still to be pursued under the new Constitution ; and that the results of all their labor and anxiety were to be withheld, for another year at least, by a mere quibble, which no court in the country would aUow to be pleaded to bar the operation of a statute half as plain, or half as strongly fortified by explanatory circumstances, as Lord John RusseU's dispatch. Had they flinched, the minister might have thought them indifferent, and acted accordingly; or a new Governor might have come out, to play over again the same game of solemn trifling. There was no choice, no middle course ; the paths of duty and dishonor were before them ; and the men who had accepted the high trusts you had reposed, discharged them with a firmness worthy of any cause. The dishonor rests with you, if you faU them in their hour of need. But, says the Solicitor General, it was wrong " to send home, in his old age, disgraced, a man who had served as a soldier faithfully." Now, here is another instance in which rank and station strangely confound people's notions of right and wrong. Suppose a poor old corporal, with one arm buried at Badajos, a leg at Talavera, and with a Waterloo medal around his neck, were placed in the dock, charged with some of fence against the laws of the Province, and his counsel were to urge his services in the field, as a reason why he ought to be aUowed to violate the private rights of the lieges in Nova Scotia with impunity ; with what indignation would the Sohcitor General rise and tread such a doctrine under his feet. He would teU his learned brother, that soldiers were the mere servants of the law and the Constitution, and that those who had once been employed to defend these should be the last to attempt their violation ; that fighting on the Peninsula gave no warrant for picking and steaUng, or assault and battery, in Nova Scotia ; that haff an arm was no bar to an action of trespass ; nor was a wooden leg an excuse in law for running off with another man's wife: and the old corporal would be tried, convicted, and handed over for punishment, quite as a matter of course. But when an old general comes to be tried, it is quite another thing ; a battle or two must be an excuse for any offence — even REVIEW OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL'S SPEECH. 315 the violation of the dearest rights of a whole people, and the distrac tion of a Province. They manage things better in England, where the independent expression of opinion on political subjects is never re strained, no matter who may happen to menace public liberty or retard the progress of improvement. Did the Solicitor General ever hear of an old soldier called the Duke of Wellington, who was Sir Colin Camp bell's commander-in-chief, and who, though the greatest captain of the age, wearing badges of distinction from every Sovereign in Europe, was driven out of the government by the people of England, because they did not Uke his poUtics ? "I wiU give you no reform," said the Duke to the people of England. " Very weU," said the House of Commons ; " then we will give the Sovereign a hint to remove you from the Cabinet." " I will give you no reform," said Sir Colin to the people of Nova Scotia. " Very well," said the people's representatives ; " then we wiU give Her Majesty a hint to remove you from the government." There is a strange analogy in the cases ; and who doubts that the results will be similar, notwithstanding the outcry that our Provincial Tories have raised ? I have thus, fellow countrymen, gone through the speech of the So- Ucitor General, and trust that I have redeemed my pledge, by proving : 1st. That the charge of misrepresentation, if it has any foundation at all, ought never to have been urged against the reformers, because it apphes with ten-fold force to the party whom the learned gentleman de fends, and with whom he acts as a member of the government. 2d. That the reasons given for the rejection of the Civil List and Ju diciary bills, by the Legislative CouncU, are unsound and inconclusive. 3d. That the defence of Sir Cohn Campbell and his advisers, and of the old system of government, has been too feeble and impotent to afford a shadow of argument upon which a rational mind can repose. 4th. That the Solicitor General's attack upon responsible government should but endear the principle which the term involves, more and more, to the people of Nova Scotia, for whose advantage it has been conceded by the Crown. 5th. That the charge against your representatives, of precipitancy, cannot fairly apply to men who had labored for four years to avoid the necessity for an extreme step, rendered imperative at last by the folly of His Excellency's advisers ; and 6th. That even eminent services in the field form no justification for disobedience to the Sovereign's commands, and the maladministration of civil affairs. In conclusion, I have only to remind you, that it is for you now to 316 OFFICIAL RESIGNATIONS. pronounce your judgment On the conduct of the reformers and their op ponents. If you beheve that the former have faithfully discharged their duty, and are desirous to establish the new Constitution, which they have labored to obtain ; fail not, at the approaching election, to return every member who has fearlessly upheld the cause of Colonial liberty, and to diminish by every means in your power the numbers of the minority, by whom your interests have been periUed or betrayed. In the meantime, I remain, Through evil report and good report, Your obedient servant, JOSEPH HOWE. OFFICIAL RESIGNATIONS. The Lieutenant Governor presents his compliments to Mr. Howe, and informs him that the Lieutenant Governor vriU expect to have the rea sons by which Mr. Howe and his coUeagues are induced to retire from the Executive CouncU stated in writing, when they tender their resignations. Government House, Wednesday, 20th December, 1843, } Halifax, 21st December, 1843. Mr Lord, — Your ExceUency having announced to me your inten tion to appoint a gentleman to your' Executive Council, whose eleva tion at the present moment, wiU, in my judgment, be justly regarded as an indication of a change of policy which has hitherto been approved, I feel myself reluctantly compeUed to tender my resignation of the seat I hold in that CouncU. Your ExceUency's right to make any appointments, which, in your opinion, wiU strengthen your government, or promote the interests of the country, I freely admit ; I only wish to guard myself from the weight of the obUgation to defend a poUcy of which I do not approve, and which I beheve wiU have a contrary effect, both in ParUament and the country, from that which Your Excellency anticipates. My office of coUector of impost and excise, for the district of Halifax, shaU also be placed at Your ExceUency's disposal, as soon after the end of the year as the accounts can be prepared and the business of it brought to a close. In retiring from the Council, I should not be doing justice, either to OFFICIAL RESIGNATIONS. 317 Your Excellency or to my own feelings, if I did not express, warmly and sincerely, the sense I entertain of the courtesy and confidence extended to me by Your ExceUency whUe I have held the high station which I now respectfully beg leave to resign. I have the honor to be, with great respect, Your ExceUency's most obedient and very humble servant, JOSEPH HOWE. His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor. Government House, ) Halifax, 25th December, 1843. j Gentlemen, — I have weU considered the cause you have assigned for the step you have lately taken, of resigning your seats in the Execu tive CouncU. Although separate letters have been written by each, a single reason,' and that the same, has been stated by you all — my intention to give you Mr. Almon as a colleague. No objection other than a political one, has been urged against that gentleman's appointment ; and that you en tertain no other, is proved by the fact that you were all weU satisfied that Mr. Almon should be nominated to the Legislative Council, when he some months ago declined a seat in that body. You have, however, deemed yourselves justified in resigning your offices on the sole ground of this political objection to this single appointment, at the same time that you distinctly admit my right to make it. Your letters intimate, that the introduction of Mr. Almon to the Council board at this particular juncture, indicates a change of pohcy on my part, notwithstanding that I have, in my interviews with you, made the strongest declarations of my determination to adhere to the principles by which I have hitherto been guided in the administration of the government of Nova Scotia. It, therefore, seems proper for me to repeat in writing my assertions on this head, and that I should at the same time review the course I have foUowed from the period of my ar rival in the Colony, keeping in mind the principles upon which the Council, by whose assistance I was to conduct the pubUc affairs, was formed. It is well known to you, that those principles were a represen tation at the board of different political sentiments and interests existing in the Legislature, with a view of affording the Lieutenant Governor the advantage of the best advice, and of producing concord between the Executive and Legislative bodies ; at the same time that the country should have the assurance of a fair and equal distribution of patronage in the exercise of the prerogative of the crown. That this patronage, up 318 OFFICIAL RESIGNATIONS. to the present moment, has not been unfairly dispensed towards your selves and those you may have represented, your continuance in the CouncU is sufficient evidence ; because, if the appointment of Mr. Almon justifies your retirement, it may be presumed you would have acted in the same manner if any previous case had met your disapprobation. The promotion of Mr. Almon is, in fact, the only subject of complaint urged in your letters ; and, gentlemen, you surely cannot have forgotten, that of the parties whom you consider as constituting the Executive Council, that to which you attach yourselves has influenced the bestowal of by far the greater number of offices since I came to the country, in cluding every seat in the Executive Council, and every seat but one in the Legislative Council ; and even that was given on the recommendation of Mr. James Boyle Uniacke, now one of yourselves. On my, for the first time, wishing to give a seat to a gentleman, whom you acknowledge to be in every way qualified, but whom you consider of a different political party from those to whom the offer of seats at the board has hitherto been confined, you quit my CouncU, and say such an act indicates a ehange of policy, regardless of my protestations to the contrary ; and notwithstanding that two of you, Mr. James McNab and Mr. Howe, had, a very few days previously, and after mature delibera tion, given in their renewed adhesion to the existing Council, and to the principles of government on which I had theretofore acted, abandoning the project of a party government. Mr. James B. Uniacke had never in formed me that he contemplated resigning, and therefore no renewed expression of adherence was necessary on his part. The reasons which make the appointment of Mr. Almon expedient, in my opinion, at this time, are such as — far from indicating a change of policy — appear to me to afford convincing evidence of the sincerity of my desire to avoid a change. On the late dissolution of the Assembly, the Council became openly divided on the question, whether a party government is or is not adapted to the actual condition of Nova Scotia ; I myself entertaining a strong opinion that such a government would be injurious to the best interests of the country ; and that a Council, formed on the principles on which the board — which had up to that time assisted me in the conduct of af fairs — was constituted, is better adapted to the exigencies of the Colony than any which could be formed on any other principle. The members of the government went to the hustings, each stating his own views ; Mr. Howe declaring at Halifax, that if he and his party succeeded in obtaining a majority, he should expect those who differed from him to retire, and that he would retire if he found himself in a- minority. OFFICIAL RESIGNATIONS. 319 Mr. Johnston, at Annapolis, unequivocally denounced the system of a party government, and avowed his preference for a government in which all parties should be represented. On the elections taking place, a House was returned which I believed would be opposed to the views of Mr. Howe. I sent for that gentleman, and expressed my conviction to him that such was the case, inviting him to remain in the government. Mr. Howe differed with me as to the probable feeling of the new House of Assembly, and said that nothing but the most imperative necessity would induce him to retain his seat in the existing Executive Council ; but, after consulting his political friends, agreed to do so, and to give a cordial support to the administration. After such a public manifestation of differences of opinion between members of the Council, it seemed to me absolutely necessary that the mode in which the government was in future to be conducted should be made apparent. A vacancy in the Executive Council gave me an op portunity of appointing a gentleman known to be hostile to a party gov ernment, and by so doing, of showing to the country that I was averse to that principle ; in other words, that I was desirous of continuing to govern, as I always had done, with the advice of a Council consisting of the leading men of all parties. This was no change ; and I do not conceive that Mr. Howe, or those who act in conjunction with him, had any right to complain of such a course ; especially as they had so lately, though so reluctantly, given in their renewed adhesion to the government. I selected Mr. Almon for advancement, because — although the recent declaration (at the Halifax election) of his sentiments with regard to a Council composed exclusively of persons belonging to one party, rendered my motives for his elevation unlikely to be misinterpreted in this respect — he had, previously to that event, been so little engaged in political life, that it was not probable the distinction conferred on him would offend the prejudices of any portion of the community, he being known to en tertain liberal views on questions of general policy ; and further, because from his affinity to Mr. Johnston, the leader of my government, his appointment would be looked upon by the public as a proof of my con fidence in that gentleman. Had Mr. Howe been in a position to insist on Mr. Johnston's dismis-' sal, he would have done so. Mr. Johnston only requested that a vacancy in the Council might be filled up by a gentleman agreeing with him in principle on one subject of deep importance ; and I cannot allow, that a compliance with his request could, under the circumstances of the case, afford any ground for assuming that I intended to change my policy. The practical value of the admission made by you all, of my right to 320 OFFICIAL RESIGNATIONS. make appointments, amounts to nothing if you are justified in seceding from the Council, and opposing my administration, on my making one which you deem injurious to your influence. Other members of the board would be equally warranted in acting in a similar manner on an appointment being made consonant to your wishes ; and in this way the prerogative of the Crown would be wrested from the Queen's representa tive, who is responsible to Her Majesty for its being judiciously exer cised, and become vested in certain members of this Council responsible to the Assembly. On a question relating to matters of a local nature, and which did not affect the royal prerogative, I should deem it my duty to pay every regard and deference to the views of the members of the Council, as well as to the wishes of the people, however much those wishes might militate against my own opinions ; but the claim which your resignations tend virtually to assert, I have no power to recognize. I am glad to receive your assurances of personal respect, and the express recognition of the confidence and good feehng which so long subsisted between us. I am, gentlemen, your most obedient servant, FALKLAND. To James B. Uniacke, James McNab, and Joseph Howe. Halifax', December 26, 1843. Mt Lord, — Having, at very heavy personal sacrifices, deemed it my duty to resign into Your Lordship's hands the offices I held, I was prepared to defend the course I had taken on the floor of the Assembly, and to meet the objections which might there be urged by Your Excel lency's advisers, in the presence of those who must ultimately decide on the wisdom and propriety of my conduct. This, I beUeve, is the consti tutional mode of adjusting such points as are now at issue between us ; a departure from it has elsewhere produced embarrassment, and may here complicate what seems to be a very simple question. Further cor respondence, I fear, can now do no good, but I am reluctant to appear to treat with disrespect a formal communication from Your Lordship, and must therefore offer a few observations upon your letter ofthe 25th in stant, with which I have just been honored. When I consented to take a seat in the Executive Council, the party with whom I acted formed a considerable majority in the Assembly, which majority was not weakened by the elections of 1840. These gen tlemen, during the three years I sat in the Council, were represented at the board but by two, and, for a short time, by three members who en- OFFICIAL RESIGNATIONS. 321 joyed their confidence. Their opponents, a minority in the House, had, during all this time, six representatives in Council. This inequality, as Your Lordship knows, produced much dissatisfaction among the liberal party, notwithstanding which, by great exertions, a majority of them were rallied to give a steady support to the government. This was done, because their leaders were anxious to give to her Majesty's gov ernment their best assistance in carrying out a new and advantageous system of administration in British America ; and because they relied on the pledge, given by Lord Sydenham, and subsequently by Your Ex ceUency, that, as opportunities offered, the inequality should be re dressed. In the new House, as I judge by the returns, this party, with out taking Mr. Uniacke and his friends into consideration, will constitute at least one half the members ; they would have had, even if Mr. Al mon had not been appointed, but two out of eight at the board. This, Your ExceUency must acknowledge, would have been a sufficiently slender " representation " of the " political sentiments and interests " of one large party " in the Legislature ; " yet I was willing to have met the House, rather in deference to your wishes and the advice of friends, than with any very confident hope that, without an increase of influence in Council, the party to whom I have reference would have been satisfied. My argument to them had always been, " have patience ; as opportunities offer, justice will be done." While a disposition was shown to do justice, as vacancies occurred, force was given to this argument. When, how ever, Your ExceUency announced your intention to appoint Mr. Almon, thereby giving one half the House a representation of two, while the other was to have seven, I felt that the " policy " was " changed " — that justice was not to be done; that the only ground upon which I had induced my friends to support the government, or could hope to induce them to do so, was to be struck away, and I left in the position of sanction ing a policy by which a fair representation of their political sentiments and interests was to be indefinitely postponed. It was no wish, therefore, to " wrest the prerogative from the Queen's representative," which induced me to resign, but a desire to guard myself from a total loss of confidence and influence in the Assembly, by which I would be deprived of all power, either to serve Her Majesty or benefit the Province. I respect the Queen's prerogative as much as I do the privileges of the people ; and Your Excellency knows that, during the three years I served you, I never counseUed its surrender, or attempted to tamper with it in the slightest degree. But it would be a hard case, if the prerogative could be so strained, as to compel public men to serve the crown, at the price of their consistency and the wreck of their reputations. 322 OFFICIAL RESIGNATIONS. Assuming that Mr. Uniacke and his friends were to act with mine, then the case would be but little better ; because we, who had good rea son to count upon a majority of the Assembly, were to have but three seats in the Council, while the minority, led by Mr. Johnston, were to have five, even without Mr. Almon, and, with him, they were to have six. Under these circumstances, it was a proof of our desire to avoid all embarrassment, that we consented to meet the House with a Council thus constituted ; and it is not surprising that we should have opposed an appointment, which we believed could not, even upon Your Lordship's own principles, be defended. With respect to " party government," Your Lordship is well aware, that, for many years prior to your arrival, party government existed here in its most offensive form ; the minority having all the Executive influence, and the entire distribution of patronage, while the great body of the people had nothing but a representation of two to one in the As sembly. Your Lordship found the Executive and Legislative Councils, and almost all the public offices, filled from the minority, under this rig orous party government, to which your present advisers clung as long as it could be sustained. They now profess to dislike a party government, merely because Her Majesty has declared that the interests and opinions of the majority are hereafter to be respected ; and yet, being a minority, they seek to preserve, in the Executive CouncU, an unvarying and clear ascendancy. It is true, that Your Excellency has done a good deal, as opportuni ties offered, to win confidence and support, by a fairer distribution of patronage. A few satisfactory appointments have been made to the Ex ecutive and Legislative Councils ; but at both boards, and in pubUc com missions and departments, the preponderance is stiU largely in favor of that party who support your present advisers. It is, perhaps, Your Lordship's misfortune, rather than your fault, that more could not be done in a short administration to redress this state of things ; but you will at once perceive, that the only guaranty the people had that it would ever be improved, was founded on the assurance that the party who have equal, if not superior claims with those who have so long pro fited by this patronage, would fairly participate in those counsels which were to influence its distribution. The desire for what is called " party government " has arisen in this Province out of circumstances over which neither your ExceUency nor myself have had much control. For several years your Lordship was called upon, almost weekly, by the friends and supporters of your pres ent advisers, to dismiss from your Council the few representatives which OFFICIAL RESIGNATIONS. 323 the majority of the Assembly had there ; and latterly others have claimed a party government, for two reasons — first, because they be lieved that those who gave Your Lordship but hollow support, fared equaUy well with those who sustained the administration cheerfully ; and, secondly, because circumstances, to which I need not refer, had created the impression that the CouncU was' not only divided upon important public questions, but that some of its members entertained for each other no very friendly feelings. I have never asked, and do not now desire a party government formed of but one interest, to the exclusion of all others ; but it does appear to me that it would be better to form a strong government, of gentlemen representing different interests and different sections of the country, but agreeing upon common principles and common measures, and secure of a good working majority in the Assembly; rather than to attempt, by any exercise of the prerogative, to bind men together who have but few private or public ties ; and who cannot fail to weaken any government by the absence of that united personal influence upon society and public opinion, which the members of Council should steadily exert, and with out which they cannot expect support, either in Parliament or through out the country. To Mr. Almon, personally, I have no objections ; his elevation to the Legislative Council I should not have opposed; but Your Lordship's opinion of his political position differs widely from mine. Mr. Almon supported the last administration, which was of a decidedly exclusive, party character ; and whatever he may have said, in the few brief public observations he made from the hustings, he voted and acted with the mi nority in this township against Mr. McNab, a member of the govern ment, and with those who have incessantly demanded a party govern ment, based on a representative minority. Mr. Almon's party connec tions and opinions were, then, sufficiently decided. But I had other ob jections. I did not think it wise, in making an appointment to the Exec utive Council, under the present system, to pass over the members of both branches of the Legislature, of all parties, in favor of a gentleman who had never represented any constituency, and upon no graver public necessity than his relationship to Mr. Johnston. That I did consider that those members of Council who had op posed the dissolution, with their friends in the Assembly, were " in a position " to enable you to carry on your goverument without Mr. John ston, Your Lordship may remember ; that I did not "insist on his dismis sal " is proved by the fact, of my consenting to serve with him, although I never attempted to conceal from Your ExceUency that some change or 324 OFFICIAL RESIGNATIONS. modification of the Council might be forced upon the Executive by the Assembly. What might have been Mr. Johnston's opinion as to the propriety of retaining my services had he been confident of a majority, I cannot determine, but I would not much like to hold a seat by so fraU a tenure as the moderation of those by whom he is sustained. My belief is, that an erroneous impression has been made upon Your Lordship's mind, both as to the composition of the new House, and the construction which will be placed upon the policy of the new appointment. Those who differ from my friends and myself, will soon have an opportunity of testing the sobriety of our judgment and the accuracy of their own cal culations. I thought and still think, it would have been better to have tried the temper of the new House, without making any appointment ; or to have made one that would have brought to the government some par liamentary support. " The claim " which we " assert " in our " resignations," Your Lord ship will permit me to observe, is simply this : — that we not only have the right, but are bound to retire from the Council, when a course is adopted which we beUeve will damage our public characters, and shake the confidence of the Assembly in the Executive government. I should be unworthy to advise Your Excellency, if I did not back the sincerity of my opinions by the cheerful surrender of office ; and Your Excellency might reasonably complain, if I clung to what was only given to me as a guaranty for sincerity, and ought to be yielded up as a pledge of grave and deUberate conviction. Retirement from the Council does not necessarily involve '¦' opposition " to the government. Personal or factious opposition to Your Lordship I am incapable of. Whether or not your advisers are to meet with hostil ity, in the Assembly, will depend upon the wisdom of future arrangements, the soundness of their principles, and the value of the measures they bring down. I fear, from the course pursued, that a large body of the leading men in the Legislature will be driven into opposition ; and it is more than probable that, unless those who have advised it, materially change the views by which they paralyzed the last administration that they almost exclusively influenced, I shall be compeUed, however re luctantly, to press upon them, at times, what may appear to be the opin ions and interests of the country. I have the honor to be, with great respect, Your Lordship's most obedient, very humble servant, JOSEPH HOWE. To His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, &c, &c. LETTER TO FRANCIS HINCKES, ESQ. 325 LETTER TO FRANCIS HINCKES, ESQ. Halifax, April 29, 1844. My Dear Sir, — I regret to find that my name has become mixed up with your newspaper discussions in Canada ; and that some chance observation of mine, called forth in the heat of debate, has been quoted by your enemies, as conveying a condemnation of the course pursued by yourself and friends in retiring from the Executive Council. As I do not see many Canada papers, and none very regularly, and as I am not even aware of what the reporters here have made me say, I am at a loss to know how any opinions of mine can be made to bear the interpretation put upon them. I think it fair, however, to set the matter right, by a frank denial that I ever pronounced any condemnation of the course pursued by the retiring ministers in Canada, and an explanation of my opinions on the important principles which appear to be involved in the pending controversy. The conflicting statements put forth by the Governor General and his ex-Councillors, rendered it difficult, for some time, to judge what the real points at issue were — the facts of the case, upon which alone an opinion could be formed, not being admitted on both sides. It was in reference to this contrariety of statement that I said, — in answer to some speaker, who sought to show that the Canadian and Nova Scotian cases were strictly analogous, — that the matter had been so " bungled " in Canada, that it was difficult to say whether such an inference could be fairly drawn. This is all that was said, or intended ; and the observation was only meant to apply to the then involved state of the controversy ; and used without any desire to charge blame upon either of the parties whose opposing statements rendered it difficult at the moment to form a correct decision ; and most desirable to keep the simple fact, upon which the retirements here were based, free from any theoretical dispute about general principles, which it did not necessarily involve. I trust that this explanation will be deemed satisfactory, and the propriety of the course pursued, under the circumstances in which we were placed, at once per ceived. The real points at issue in Canada appear to be now more distinctly developed; and, assuming that all parties mean what they say, and nothing more, and are disposed to profit by the past, and bury the feelings it may have aroused, I can see no reason why Mr. Lafontaine and his friends should not be recaUed to office to-morrow. You deny that you demanded any " stipulations " as to the mode in 82 326 LETTER TO FRANCIS HINCKES, ESQ. which patronage should be dispensed in future. On this point, then, there need be no further controversy. You claim the right to be consulted before appointments are offered or made. This appears to me to be reasonable. In three years and a half that I sat in Lord Falkland's Council, I never knew an instance in which this wise rule was violated. I can imagine some extreme case in which a Governor would act without advice, but only when his ministers had lost his confidence ; and then the more correct and constitutional mode would be, not to wound and mortify, but to dismiss them. You claim that no appointments should be made prejudicial to your influence. Whatever may be said of this in the abstract, in practice it must be conceded to every ministry. Members of Council are, or ought to be, selected because they have influence ; they can only be useful and efficient while they retain it. To break it down, by showing that to sup port them is not the road to preferment, is anti-British and absurd. To hold out a bounty to encourage opposition to men who honestly support a Governor, is an administrative anomaly which these Colonies will never tolerate ; to which men of spirit will never submit. To do Lord Falk land justice, he never favored such a practice while his cabinet was united. He endeavored to strengthen the legitimate influence of his ad visers, by patronizing those who supported them. His errors were of a later date, and of a different kind. The true principles upon which patronage should be dispensed I take to be these : — The Sovereign is bound to bestow all offices for the gen eral good, without reference to party ; but as no single mind can decide in all cases what is for the general good, and as a majority of the peo ple's representatives are assumed to reflect the wishes, and best under stand the true interests of the people, the Crown selects advisers from that majority, and takes their advice in the distribution of patronage. So long as these men really reflect the national sentiment and feeling, it would be most unwise to patronize those who oppose them ; and give offices to those who have mistaken the real interests of the country, or failed to carry with them the sympathies and confidence of the people. To give force and efficacy to the national will, harmony and vigor to the national councils, public confidence should govern political appointments ; and, in order that there may be the necessary firmness and stability in government, those who conduct it should have their hands strengthened by the Sovereign or the Governor they serve, down to the moment when they are to be dismissed, for some good reason, justifying a re-construc tion, or an appeal to the constituency, or in obedience to the declared wishes of ParUament. If, then, you did any thing to forfeit the Gover- LETTER TO FRANCIS HINCKES, ESQ. 327 nor General's confidence, it appears to me that he should have dismissed you, and appealed to the country. But while you were his ministers, it was at variance with constitutional principles to deny to you the legiti mate influence arising from the dispensation of patronage ; if this was done, which, by his friends, appears to be stoutly denied. The minority, under such a system, have no reason to complain ; they are not oppressed ; they share all the common blessings secured by good government and equal laws ; but they do not, for the time, share in the public honors and rewards which are the prizes reserved for those who have the ability to guide the national intellect, or the tact and good fortune to command the confidence of the majority. If it be said, that Colonial patronage is not to be dispensed by the Governors, so as to satisfy the Parliamentary majority in Canada, but the Parliamentary majority in England ; then you had better have a respectable despotism at once, without all the troublesome and expensive machinery of a representative government. But I cannot believe that Sir Charles means this, or that such a policy would be approved at home. The question how far the prerogative is to be restrained, in matters purely local, appears to be much canvassed in Canada. The view taken here, previous to 1840, was, that all those petty functionaries spread over the different counties, should be appointed avowedly by the Council. This was, in theory, objected to by Lord Sydenham ; who urged that every officer should be appointed by the Governor, in the name of the Queen. The point was yielded ; he frankly admitting that, in practice, these appointments must be made by the Council, who would alone pos sess the necessary local information. Our experience proves that, on this point, there need be no controversy. I can call to mind no instance, in three years, in which these appointments were not made with the ap proval of the Council, or in which Lord Falkland found it necessary to interpose the prerogative in opposition to their wishes. You will perceive, then, that on several of the topics raised in Canada we have had hitherto no dispute. Appointments, and offers of appoint ments, were always communicated to us, before they were made public, except in one instance, in which the secret was divulged by a member of the Council, the indiscretion being promptly disavowed by the Lieu tenant Governor. It is apparent that responsible government has been, down to a certain period, worked out simply and practically, here, with out any material difficulty arising to throw discredit on the system. Why you, having a clear Parliamentary majority, should have any trouble in Canada, I cannot comprehend. If Sir Charles seeks to deny to you, 328 LETTER TO FRANCIS HINCKES, ESQ. what Lord Falkland freely accorded to us, he is wrong; if you, having all this in practice, desire to press the theory to an inconveniently strict definition, you may be acting unwisely ; but ofthis the people of Canada are the legitimate judges. If you ask for nothing more than appears to me to be fairly included in the system, and have a majority to support you, you ought to be the ministers. If Sir Charles is determined to give less, and can get a majority, he may obtain a temporary triumph ; but the people will ultimately have responsible government in all its integ rity, notwithstanding. As regards the reservation of the bill for suppressing Orange lodges, it appears to me that circumstances may arise, after a government measure has been introduced, to render its postponement desirable. In that case, the preferable mode would be, for one branch or the other to defer it to the next session, and this could be done by the government majority in any stage of its progress. You will probably desire to know what we in Nova Scotia have been quarrelling about. The case is very simple. The liberal party, or a large section of it, in consideration of the dismissal of four or five of the more obstructive members of the old Council, and the recognition ofthe new principles, assented, in 1840, to a coalition ; being content with a very inadequate representation at the Council board, after a frank acknowl edgement of their claims to a further increase as vacancies occurred. The liberal majority in the last House sustained the government in good faith for three sessions, not demanding that official or honorary vacancies should be made for their leaders ; but never anticipating that their fair claims would be overlooked, or that a more equal adjustment, as to num bers, in Council, would be denied. In 1843, personal feelings, and a strong difference of opinion on the subject of education, (the Attorney General supporting the denominational system of colleges, or one for each sect ; and the liberals, sick of that system, going for one for the whole people), rendered a reconstruction of the Council desirable. Lord Falkland resorted to a dissolution. The liberals, somewhat reduced in numbers, still formed a majority of the new House. Had the Governor not interposed, they offered to, and could have formed a strong govern ment, leaving out one or two of the old Council. He seemed desirous to retain all the old members ; and, although the liberals had but three seats out of eight, they yielded to his wishes, and consented to meet the new House with the Council as it stood. At this moment Lord Falk land, having obtained their adhesions, without breathing a syllable of such an intention, appointed Mr. Almon, passing over all the liberals in both branches, and giving as his reasons, that he made the selection be- LETTER TO FRANCIS HINCKES, ESQ. 329 cause of Mr. Almon's " affinity " to the Attorney General, and to show that that gentleman possessed his confidence, and, by inevitable inference, that we did not. As the new appointment increased the representation of the old compact party, in the proportion of six to three, and as the reasons given for it were not only an outrage upon constitutional principles, but an insult to the minority, we remonstrated and retired. Then commenced a series of the most ludicrous events, all of which we, of course, are bound to charge upon Lord Falkland's advisers. Scarcely had we withdrawn, when a letter was sent after us, and pub hshed in the newspapers, charging us with attempting, by retiring and getting out of the Governor's way, to wrest the prerogative from him. This necessarily involved us in a newspaper controversy with the Gov ernor, before the House met. Though six weeks elapsed before it assembled, the vacancies were not filled ; and the Governor came down with a grave denunciation of party government. Considering party government a necessary incident of a British representative system, the liberals moved an amendment, waiving the question, but assuring the Governor, that whenever he was surrounded by a Council truly reflecting the opinions of the country, it should have their confidence. After a fortnight's debate, during which members were subjected to a system of undignified personal solicitation and influence, unparalleled in this Province, the address was carried by a majority of one ; two or three recreant liberals and all the " loose fish " voting with the government. You will perceive that the opposition, with all the influence of govern ment and the Governor against them, had twenty-five votes ; the admin istration, with three or four seats in Council, and two important offices to bestow, only being able to muster twenty-six. A more palpable and glaring defeat was never suffered, and resignation was the only honorable alternative. You will see, then, that Lord Falkland's first mistake was dissolving a friendly House in which he had a clear majority ; his second was asking the party who formed one-half of the new House, to consent to a coalition, with a representation of two to one against them, and in the face of an appointment, justified by reasons which were highly offensive ; his third blunder was, charging gentlemen who would not lend themselves to such an absurd arrangement, with attempting to wrest the prerogative, because they declined defending what they could not approve ; and his fourth was, coming down, surrounded by a party Council, to denounce party government. All this will appear ridiculous enough in Canada ; and certainly justifies old Oxenstiern's observation, that the world is sometimes governed with very little wisdom. 82* 330 LETTER TO FRANCIS HINCKES, ESQ. A proposition was subsequently made, that the Governor would con descend to take back the three retired Councillors, and appoint a Catholic, provided we abjured certain heretical opinions which we never enter tained. The offer was courteously declined. After waiting five weeks, during which no government measure was introduced, a Civil List Bill was brought down. This included the salaries of the Governor, the Secretary, and the Attorney General. The government was compelled by the opposition to abandon the whole scale. Whenever they ventured to divide, they were beaten ; yet, with the prerogative, about which they talked a great deal, thus dragging at their heels, they never abandoned their places. No other measure was produced during the whole session ; nor did they venture to fill up a vacancy ; to appoint from their own side being a violation of the prin ciple put forward in the speech ; and the members of the opposition steadily refusing all soUcitation, unless full and ample justice was done. Matters went on in this way till towards the close of the session ; the leading members of the opposition arranging the revenue bills, and giving good-humored assistance in carrying forward the business of the country. Before the House rose, a vote of want of confidence was moved, and sustained by twenty-four members, including the Speaker ; twenty-seven voting against it — one from our side, fearful of a dissolution, going with the government. As an amendment to the vote, the foUowing resolution, which is quite a curiosity in its way, was moved and carried: — Resolved, That, placing implicit confidence in His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, this House feel satisfied that His Excellency will, as soon as circumstances permit, carry out his intentions, as declared in his opening speech, of calling to his Executive Council men representing the different interests of the country. This is an open assault upon responsible government. You will ob serve that it declares implicit confidence in the Governor, not in his Council, and discharges them from all responsibility. This cunningly devised stroke at the new system is worthy of the men who now surround Lord Falkland, and who ruined Sir Colin Campbell. Did you ever hear of a weak ministry, in England, asking for a vote of confidence in the Queen, and compelling one-half of the nation to declare that they had none ? The view taken by the opposition of the character of this resolution, is expressed in the following one, moved by Mr. Doyle : Resolved, That inasmuch as the resolution reported from the committee implies, that there are circumstances in the state of this Province which at present prevent the full enjoyment of the Constitution, by having a LETTER TO FRANCIS HINCKES, ESQ. 331 Council representing the well understood wishes ofthe people, and tends to sanction a continuance, during the recess, of the present Executive Council, in its now imperfect state, and thus in effect to suspend the Constitution of the country ; this House deem it the right of the people of this Province, that His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor should at all times be surrounded by a Council that will insure to his adminis tration such an amount of the confidence of this House as will at once impart vigor and efficiency to its measures. The drift of Lord Falkland's letter to the ex-Councillors was to charge upon them an attempt to wrest the prerogative from him, by retiring. He subsequently published an extract from a dispatch, reflecting upon us. All this was felt to be rather too gross by both sides of the House, and the following curious resolution, moved by Mr. Uniacke's brother, was passed unanimously a few days before the close of the session : — Whereas, An article was published in The Royal Gazette newspaper, ofthe 29th February, purporting to be an extract from a dispatch ofthe Right Honorable the Colonial Secretary, as follows : — " We understand that His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor re ceived by the last packet a dispatch from Lord Stanley, in which the Secretary of State expressed his strong approbation of Her Majesty's government, of the course pursued by Lord Falkland in resisting the pretensions of Mr. Howe and his colleagues." And whereas, His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor has thought it inexpedient to furnish the correspondence with the home government, in relation to the retirement of Messrs. Howe, Uniacke, and McNab, — Resolved, That these gentlemen, in retiring from the Executive Coun cil, exercised a right which this House recognizes as a part of the Con stitution. What will be thought abroad of an Executive Council allowing such a resolution as this to pass, or, being too weak to resist it, keeping their places, we need not conjecture. You will perceive, then, that Lord Falkland's policy, during the last few months, has drawn forth a resolu tion of no confidence in his government, sustained by twenty-four mem bers out of fifty-one ; a vote of confidence in the Governor, carried by a majority of three ; and the resolution copied above, giving His Lordship a gentle rebuke for making unfounded charges, and publishing extracts from dispatches evidently called forth by ex-parte representations sent from the Colony. How all this may be viewed in Canada and in England, I know not; but here, one feeling of disgust pervades the mass of the constituency, who will, if this absurd state of things is suffered to continue, do justice to themselves and their friends at the next election. 332 LETTER TO FRANCIS HINCKES, ESQ. The best illustration that can be given, of the weakness and inefficiency of the government, is to be found in the fact, that they were unable to carry the Governor's own salary, and were afraid even to move for £5,700 of arrears due to the public officers. Lord Falkland is now in this position ; refusing to form a fair coalition, which he professed to de sire, and which was entirely practicable three months ago, he has been compeUed to form a party government, which he openly denounced. At this moment, the liberals, comprising two-thirds of the people and one- half of the House, are excluded from all Executive influence, and have been driven from the few offices they held. They do not complain of this, but will know how to follow the example set them hereafter ; ex perience having taught them that moderation and magnanimity are thrown away upon the opposite party. I trust these few brief observations will not only guard me from mis representation with respect to Canadian controversies, but enable you to judge of the real state of public affairs in this Province. One word, with respect to my former opinions, to which I have recently observed some reference in Lower Canada. I supported the French Canadians, in their just demands, down to the period when they commenced their armed trainings, and shed blood, and then denounced the promoters of the insurrection. I was at first opposed to the Union, but became a convert after the publication of Lord Durham's report. I supported Lord Sydenham, because he acted with great decision and good faith to us here, and because I saw that in Canada responsible government would flow naturally from his principles and measures. The result has proved that I was not far wrong. The present aspect of Colonial affairs on this continent is a little cloudy, but we must not despair. The people of England have taken a century and a half, since 1688, to work out responsible government. We, even with the benefits of their experience, must not expect to enjoy the fruits of a blessing so inestimable, without some years of discussion and delay, and some painful sacrifices ; but I have great faith in the good intentions of the home government, and much reliance on the firmness and intelligence of our people ; guided, as they will be, by the practical sagacity of their tried and experienced leaders. If we keep within the boundaries of the Constitution, and work together for good, a rational system will be founded in a few years that cannot be very easily disturbed. Meanwhjle, believe me, very truly yours, JOSEPH HOWE. LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. 333 TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF THE COUNTY OF HALIFAX. Gentlemen, — When you are kept, for a whole day, excluded from the lobby of the Assembly ; and, when the doors are opened, find a res olution on the journals censuring the conduct of one of your representa tives, it is very natural that you should desire to know why an old friend should deprive you of a day's rational amusement, if there was nothing more to be gained than a compliment of so questionable a character. " Why should Howe get us shut out," I think I hear you say, " if he had no other object in view than to get a rap over the knuckles?" I had a much higher object in view ; and, when you see clearly what it was, I think you will be satisfied that its attainment will be cheaply purchased by your day's exclusion, and my rap over the knuckles. My object was, to put an end to a system unknown in this Colony until 1844; practiced in no other on this continent; abhorrent to an Englishman's nature ; dangerous to every Colonist, — a system on which the law of England frowns, and from which the whole stream of modern Parliamentary and Executive precedent, flowing from the Imperial fountain head, indignantly turns away. That you may clearly apprehend my meaning, and enter into my feel ings, ask yourselves and inquire of each other, if there ever was an in stance in Nova Scotia, prior to 1844, of a Governor including the names of respectable men, without their knowledge or consent, in Executive communications, of a disparaging and injurious character; and then, having employed his own pen to defame, abusing his high office that he might publish ; laying his own libellous attacks and inuendoes, by the hands of his Executive advisers, upon the tables of both branches of the Legislature ? Many of you are familiar with public events, and docu- ' ments, for half a century. Can you recall an instance in which a Gov ernor, by such an eggregious act, evinced his malice or his ignorance ? I think not. Many of you have grown up and lived under the succes sive administrations of Sir George Prevost, Lord Dalhousie, Sir James Kempt, Sir Peregrine Maitland, Mr. Wallace, Mr. Jeffery, and Sir Colin Campbell. Do the journals of either House contain one document, written by the hand, and made public by the order, of either of those Governors, including the name, and striking at the character, of any gen tleman that they happened to dislike ? You will refresh your memories, and search our Legislative archives, in vain. Many of you are deeply read in British political history. Did you ever hear of the Sovereign including a subject's name (without that sub ject's knowledge, interference, or consent, and for the purpose of stamp- 334 LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. ing disapprobation,) in private notes, directed to individuals, and then, when the negotiation failed, publishing the communications ? Did you ever read that the Sovereign, having vainly endeavored to silence the opposition of members of Parliament, or lure them to sup port the government, sent down to both Houses official denunciations of the refractory, and sought to damage their characters by misrepresenta tion and inuendo, under the sign manual ? Did any King or Queen, since 1688, direct a minister to bring down to Parliament the Sovereign's criticism of the conduct of the Speaker of the Commons, in his private capacity as a lawyer, to be read under the said Speaker's nose — he being compelled to record, on the journals of the House over which he presided, the inuendoes aimed at his own character ? If Nova Scotia has been ruled for half a century by a dozen Gov ernors, and the mother country for two centuries by as many Sovereigns, without any such breaches of Executive propriety, or violations of the sub ject's rights, whether British or Colonial, the presumption is, that none such are indispensable to the good government either of these Provinces or of the United Kingdom. If no public man in England, since 1688, and no one in Nova Scotia, down to 1844, has been thus treated, we are justified in concluding that such outrages are unauthorized by our Con stitution, at variance with the genius of our laws, and repugnant to aU the recognized proprieties of public life. The presumption is as deeply founded in reason, as it is extensively fortified by the history of representative institutions in both countries. If any set of men, having gained the Sovereign's ear, and seized on the administration, could use the Sovereign's name to brand political oppo nents, and make the official communications from the throne to the people, vehicles of personal defamation, no public man would be safe ; and the Sovereign, instead of being elevated above the passions and the strife of party, would be brought into personal collision with the subject, and be exposed to personal indignity and danger. There could be no opposition to government, because every man who attempted it would be marked, denounced, and branded, by an abuse of his Sovereign's name, In barbarous times, the Sovereign's name was thus abused by bold, bad men, who grasped the prerogatives, and often controlled the person of the King. The Duke of Gloucester, in 1483, having vainly endeavored to induce the Lord Hastings to join his administration, accused his mis tress of witchcraft, and himself of treason ; and cut off the head of Hastings with most indecent haste. The accusations of witchcraft and treason were about as well founded in this case, as the charge preferred LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. 335 by Lord Falkland against Uniacke, McNab, and myself, of menacing the prerogative, when we refused to join his administration in 1844 ; but, for tunately, the power of life and death was not in his hands. His advisers could stab our characters, in a speech or a dispatch, and this was all they could do. But who doubts, had they had the power, that we should have been burnt as witches, or hanged as traitors ? Now, this privilege of hanging and burning is no longer possessed by British Sovereigns, or Lords Protectors, or Governors, or ministers. It has passed away before tbe advancing light of civilization, and the empire is all the better gov erned without it. And I contend that the right to stab character, to pre fer accusations, to deal in inuendoes, for difference of opinion on public measures, and questions of policy (involving no crime requiring a legal accusation and a judicial decision), being part ofthe same barbarous and " infamous system," ought to pass away with it. I contend that such a right has never been asserted, or exercised, by any Sovereign or minis ter, whose act is worth a rush as a precedent, for the last two centuries. I contend, that Lord Falkland may send his Attorney General down into any of Her Majesty's courts, to prosecute the Colonist most eminent for rank and talent, if he has violated the laws ; but that he has no right to send that officer, or any other, down to ParUament, with defamatory charges, insinuations, and inuendoes, aimed at the meanest Nova Scotian who happens to differ with him in politics, or oppose his administration. This opinion I shall maintain till my dying day. You, and your children after you, my friends, will maintain it ; and think a few hours well spent by a public man, in engrafting the sentiment, with a rough hand it may be, into the future practice of our administrations. This claim to make the Sovereign's written communications with her people, the channel for defamation, might be sustained, perhaps, if the monarch in her own person, standing on the throne, could arraign, or in jure, a subject before either House of Parliament. Charles the First tried this once, and in the end, though I never heard that he was horse whipped, he lost his head. No doubt Charles thought, on the day he went down to the House of Commons, and accused Hollis, Hazelrig, Pym, Hampden, and Stroud, that he had the right to do this ; and no doubt when Lord Falkland charged Uniacke, McNab, and myself under his own hand, with high crimes and misdemeanors, in 1844 ; and when he more than insinuated, in a communication to the House the other day, that the Speaker and his brother were agents and associates of reckless speculators or swindlers, he thought he was doing right. The justice of the proceeding, and the state necessity, were as apparent in the one case as in the other. There might be some excuse for Charles, two hundred 336 LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. years ago ; but surely Lord Falkland ought, by this time, to have learned that, as the Sovereign has no right to go down in person to prefer accusa tions, and give point to slanders, neither has her representative the right to make the communications which pass between the three branches of the Legislature, the vehicle by which the mahgnant passions of our common nature may seek a base but privileged gratification. Charles, but a few days after he " borrowed the Speaker's chair," saw his error, and ac knowledged his fault, and the Commons impeached his Attorney Gen eral. We have to deal with a ruler who never repents, and a Parlia ment who only impeach those who will not see in crown officers, if not "all the talents," all the Constitution and the law. We must, therefore, by our own firmness and discretion, my friends, obviate the necessity for repentance or impeachment. In the olden time, when the Sovereign, or the minister, in the Sover eign's name, preferred personal accusations, or wounded the honor of the subject, the person of the monarch was never safe, or "the divinity which should hedge a King " respected. RebeUions were rife in every reign ; the Sovereign was bearded, seized, imprisoned, slain, whenever or wherever he happened to be overpowered by those that the unbridled passions of his minions or favorites had provoked. I hold that the Sovereign and the Sovereign's representative should have no personal enemies. Under the " infamous " system I have described the monarch was never without them ; and we have had reason to fear, from Lord Falkland's experience since 1844, that it is not worth whUe to revive it in Nova Scotia. If I was a member of the House of Commons, and this system was attempted to be revived, I would rise in my place and denounce it as " infamous," and safely prophesy that the experience of all history justi fied the fear, that, if persisted in, some British Sovereign would have to encounter indignity at the hand of some British subject. Being a member of our Assembly, and seeing the system in full ope ration for two years, "l protested against it on Friday last, and warned the administration to set a better example, lest the penalty which the Sovereign would pay at home, might fall upon some of her representa tives, in a less deadly but more eccentric mode of retribution. This protest, accompanied by this prophecy, shut you out of the lobby for a day, and added a resolution to the series which the existing majority have passed against your old friend. But it will put an end to the sys tem, and leave henceforth the Queen's representative protected by the effulgence which is ever sufficient, except when its " beams " are unwisely " concentrated " for the purposes of " royal indignation." LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OP HALIFAX. 337 The folly of the system pursued in Nova Scotia, since 1841, may be illustrated by a few examples, from the recent modes of administration recognized as dignified, and conservative of the rights of the people and of the prerogatives of the crown of England. Lord John Russell re tired from the Queen's cabinet in 1841, as Uniacke, McNab, and I, did from Lord Falkland's in 1843. He went immediately into opposition ; but the Queen never branded His Lordship in official communications to ParUament ; never accused him of menacing the prerogative, or boasted in the Gazette that she had " resisted his pretensions." Lord John Russell then was the personal friend and loyal subject of his Sovereign, all the time he was opposing her government. The time ar rives when his services are required ; and, when the Queen's messenger finds him reading a novel to his wife in Edinburgh, he has no personal injuries to resent, no royal indignation to fear. But, on repairing to Windsor, he cannot form an administration to suit him, and declines to take office under his rival. But does the Queen open the ParUament with a miserable denunciation of his loyalty, and follow it up by a defamatory publication in the Gazette ? No ; such conduct would be " infamous," and I may add, however much in vogue two centuries ago, it is obsolete. Take another example. The Queen wrote a note to Lord John Rus seU, but she did not, while inviting him to her cabinet, declare that Lord Palmerston should never enter it. If she had done so, the note convey ing a stigma on the foreign secretary would never have been published. Take a third. Suppose the Queen, having formed an administration from one party in Parliament, was opposed by another. Would she send down, signed by her own hand, exparte statements of negotiations con ducted by her ministers, aimed at the public character, the private honor, or the allegiance of the gentlemen leading the opposition ? No. The statesman who would bring down such a document would be met by an indignant explosion from both sides of the House. Take a fourth. Suppose the Speaker of the House of Commons to have opposed the government in his public capacity, and have accepted in his professional character the solicitorship for a railway company. Would his Sovereign seek to punish him for political opposition, by lending her name to personal slander? Would the minister have brought down the Sovereign's criticism upon the scheme, to create the impression that the whole was a bubble, and the Speaker a rascal ? I think not ; and having the most sovereign contempt for all such artifices, at once derogatory to the dignity of the crown and the security of the subject, when this climax to the " infamous " system, which we have en- 83 338 LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. dured since 1844, came upon us on Friday last, I boldly protested against it, and warned the administration that, if persisted in, Colonists might by and by take the law into their own hands. By a party vote of twenty-nine to twenty the House have condemned me for vindicating the common rights of Englishmen and speaking the truth. I do not complain of this. They thought they were doing a ser vice to the State, as the judges in England thought when they con demned Hampden to pay ship money. But the money was not legally due ; and the record, like a scar on a brave man's face, while it shows how the man was assaUed, proves how undeserved peril was honorably encountered. In 1646 one More declared in the House of Commons that " they were born free, and must continue free, if the King would keep his kingdom." A majority sent him to the tower, but the bold declaration embalms the man's memory to this day, while the obsequious zealots who imprisoned him are cared for as little as zealots of another descrip tion are, who used to burn people in Smithfield for consciencious declar ations of the truth that was in them. It would be indehcate and unparliamentary to refer to any thing that passed within the House while the doors were closed. But you wiU per ceive by the following references, that the standing rules of our House, and of the House of Commons, must have been violated, or no serious notice would have been taken of my protest : — Hatsell says : — " By the ancient rule of the House, words spoken by any member, which gave offence, were to be taken notice of and censured in the same day in which they were spoken."- Our resolution was passed the day after. Again he says : — " This was the ancient rule ; but of late years the practice and rule has been, that, if any other person speaks between, or any other matter intervenes (Mr. Young and the Attorney General spoke between, and the adjournment and reading of the journals intervened) before notice is taken of the words which give offence, the words are not to be written down, or the party censured." The illustration he gives is curious, taken in connection with the case we are discussing. " This was observed in the instance of John Howe, Esq., who in a debate (in the year 1694), reflecting with great bitterness on the then adminis tration of affairs, with some personal imputations on the King himself, said, ' Egone qui Tarquinium Regem non tulerim, Sicinium feram,' and then moved that the House might go into a committee to consider of the state of the nation. He was succeeded by a member who spoke two or three sentences on the subject of the motion and then sat down. After which Mr. Charles Montague (afterwards Lord Halifax) took notice of LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. 339 Mr. Howe's words, which, he said, carried a reflection of the highest nature, and desired that Mr. Howe might explain himself. Upon which Sir Christopher Musgrove stood up to order, and said, that for the security of every gentleman who speaks, and to prevent mistakes, which must happen, if words were not immediately taken notice of, it was the constant rule and order of the House, that when any member had spoken between, no words which had passed before, could be taken notice of so as to be written down in order to a censure ; and in this the House ac quiesced, and Mr. Montague did not insist upon his motion." The Par liamentary law of 1694, and which is strictly adhered to at home to this day, was, you will perceive, violated in my case. In Todd's practice of Parliament, published in 1840, we find it re corded, that, " Wherever the cause of complaint is words spoken by a member of either House, reflecting upon the other House, or any of its members, it appears from the several instances to be extremely difficult to obtain redress, not only from the difficulty of ascertaining the exact expressions, and the meaning which it is intended they shall convey, but because it is the practice of the House of Commons, that, if excep tion be not taken against the expressions at the time, they cannot after wards be called in question even by the House itself." You will perceive then, my friends, that a vicious system of adminis tration has been attempted to be bolstered up by flagrant violations of the standing rules of the House of Commons, upon which those of our Provincial Parliament are modelled. The rules adopted by our Assem bly in 1837 are decisive, and could not be changed without the consent of two-thirds of the members. " But," I think I hear some one say, " after all, friend Howe, was not the suppositious case you anticipated might occur, somewhat quaint and ec centric, and startling ? " It was, because I wanted to startle, to rouse, to flash the light of truth over every hideous feature of the system. The fire-bell startles at night ; but if it rings not the town may be burned ; and wise men' seldom vote him an incendiary who pulls the rope, and who could not give the alarm, and avert the calamity, unless he made a noise. The prophet's style was quaint and picturesque, when he compared the great King to a sheep stealer ; but the object was not to insult the King, it was to make him think, to rouse him ; to let him see by the light of a poetic fancy the gulf to which he was descending, that he might thereafter love mercy, walk humbly, and, controlling his pas sions, keep untarnished the lustre of the crown. David let other men's wives alone after that flight of Nathan's imagination ; and I will venture 340 LETTERS TO LORD FALKLAND. to say that whenever, hereafter, our rulers desire to grille a political op ponent in an official dispatch, they will recall my homely picture, and borrow wisdom from the past. I have the honor to be, gentlemen, yours truly, JOSEPH HOWE. LETTERS TO LORD FALKLAND. Mr Lord, — An officer of your government, with Your Lordship's sanction and approval — an officer appointed by Your Lordship, and re warded for his services by large emoluments, commenced slandering me about two years ago, and has continued the practice ever since. The paper published by this person is the recognized organ of your govern ment ; the place he holds, an honest man was driven from, that you might provide wages for the venal instrument you desired to employ. Against every public, and almost every private individual, that Your Lordship is known to hate, has the weapon of this bravo been turned. I found it glancing off my ribs, but a very few days after I sat at Your Lordship's board, beneath your own roof, secure in the belief that the honorable relations of the past, no less than the courteous usages of the mother country, protected me from assassination. I was mistaken ; and, more in sorrow than in anger, cautioned Your Lordship to conduct your administration with more dignity and prudence ; not sullying your noble name with dirty work or dirty instruments. With a prophetic eye the consequences of your policy were foreseen, and with a prophet's plainness and sincerity they were foretold. The warning was unheeded, and Your Lordship took, in good earnest, to sowing wind, and you have been reap ing the whirlwind ever since. The last storm just faintly dying away, has purified the atmosphere a great deal, though intended by those who " sowed the wind," to destroy, and not to invigorate. At some personal hazard, perhaps, it became my duty to teach Your Lordship a useful lesson ; it will be long remembered. The one I am about to give you now will not be readily forgotten. Your paid servant, the organ of your government, appUed to me a few days ago the epithet of "place-hunting mendicant ; " and I am about to show you, my Lord, now that the folly of libelling gentlemen in official dispatches has been sufficiently illus trated, the danger of keeping a person in pay to apply such epithets as these to men of spirit and integrity, Your Lordship's equals, at least, in disinterestedness, and contempt for place- and lucre. LETTERS TO LORD FALKLAND. 341 Though holding you responsible for the acts of your officer, the blows of your assassin, a few humorous jests, intended to caution and restrain rather than to wound, have hitherto been regarded as sufficient retalia tion. They were like the bladder flappers, we read of in Gulliver, used to rouse the attention of great men without hitting them too hard. While I have jested, Your Lordship has struck out in real earnest ; while I have fluttered the bladder, you have turned upon your poor remem brancer with the stick. Now, my Lord, though I have smiled good hu- moredly for two years at all this, and could smile at it still, it ap pears to me that, if Your Lordship's political education be finished before you leave us, our fellow Colonists somewhere else, may enjoy the benefit. You are said to be on the wing : take another lesson before you go, a lesson in which there lieth much wisdom and common sense, if gravely pondered and rightly applied. I am " a place-hunting mendicant ! " am I, my Lord ? so says the per son who bears your commission, receives your wages, speaks your sen timents. If this were true, it strikes me that that arrow should not have come from your quiver. But, am I a place-hunter ? I have been eighteen years a public man, and never asked a place. I held one under your government for a short period, and gave it up when it could no longer be held with honor. But I gave your Lordship two of the best years of my Ufe without place or emolument, and served my Sovereign for nothing from 1840 to 1842, you receiving £7000 for your services during the same time. If I am then a place hunter, who held one but sixteen months in eighteen years ; who received that one without asking, and yielded it up without regret — what are you, my Lord ? You have held places for many years ; how won I know not ; but the public ser vices by which they were obtained are yet to be recorded. As respects Nova Scotia, before whose people these epithets have been applied to me, let me say, that you have held office here for six years, at a cost to my countrymen of some £20,000, to whose treasury you never contri buted ; while I, who have been paying taxes among them all my life, have held place but a few months, and received about a thirtieth part of that sum. Yet your minion reproaches me with place hunting ! forget ting another curious contrast, that I retired with my party, while you held on, when yours threw up the reins ; and changed your policy, that you might hold your " place." Pray instruct your minion to think be fore he writes. If you are to pay the penalty of his indiscretion, let him be more choice of epithets. But I am " a mendicant," if not a place hunter. I assume, from va rious similar attacks, that the foundation of this charge arises from the 83* 342 LETTERS TO LORD FALKLAND. voluntary determination of my friends to defeat the machinations of my enemies ; from the acceptance on my part, of a gift, neither craved nor desired, but pressed upon me by a body of public spirited men, as a re ward for past services, which they chose to appreciate, and without touching or impairing my independence for the future. Such gifts have been very common within the empire, and have usually been construed to confer honor on both parties. What Shakespeare says of mercy, may be said of voluntary rewards conferred by a grateful people upon those who, by honorable service, have won their confidence and affection : they are " twice blessed." Nelson received presents from foreign pow ers and from half the great cities he defended ; yet Nelson was no " mendicant." I saw the tables of Apsley House groaning beneath the presents conferred upon the great duke, by all classes, and orders, and ranks of men, yet Wellington was no " mendicant." Grattan received £50,000 from his country; yet is there a Falkland of your whole line, my Lord, that can be placed beside him at this moment in that best of aU Pantheons, the manly British heart ? Abbottsford was secured to the family of Scott, by subscriptions extending over the world. The widow and children of Burns have been provided for, by the admirers of the father's and the husband's genius. But a narrow minded sceptic — an unbeliever in all the generous emotions which sweeten life, and lead to high achievement — would imagine that the recipients, in these cases, were " mendicants ? " But, to leave those elevated names and examples, and come down to what more nearly concerns us, let me show you now, that if my services were insignificant, performed in the lowly vale of Provincial life, it will not be very easy for any Governor to crush those by whom such services may be performed. When Your Lordship came to this country, I had been living, some twelve years, in comfort and independence, by my own industry, never seeking "place " from the government, or aught but the rewards of hon est labor from the people. I fear, that during that time, our Sovereign and the people of England had a harder bargain in Your Lordship. You came to Nova Scotia, however, and required my aid. I gave it to you without any mercenary motive; withdrawing at first partially, and at last entirely, from my private affairs. All this was known to my friends at the time, and felt to be inevitable. The subsequent intrigues, by which it was sought to involve me in Mr. Nugent's ruin, that I might have no resource but office, were too clumsy and transparent to escape, general observation. My friends saw, meditated upon, and understood the whole game ; and when, having perhaps doubted and wavered a Ut- LETTERS TO LORD FALKLAND. 343 tie as to the result (an old friend being sorely beset) , they saw him leap over the pitfalls dug all around him, and stand erect on firm ground, facing the enemy with manly independence, it was very natural that, weighing the perils and temptations and chances, they should be anxious upon two points : first, to make up, in some degree, losses which a public man had incurred ; and secondly, by their generous sympathy, exhibited in a practical form, to show to the rising youth of a country where wealth does not greatly abound, that the confidence of the people could rescue their defenders from all dependence upon government. These things were uppermost in the hearts of the liberals of HaUfax about the close of 1843. Yes, my Lord, the men who are daily called a rabble, a mob, and rebels, were revolving these things in their heads about the time you were hiring a mean creature to abuse them. The things were honorable in themselves, I take it ; perhaps as much so as any thing which ever got into or came out of the head of any Falkland that I ever heard or read of. Great Lords, long descended from far-off Smithfield bruisers, might have learned lessons from these men at this exciting time. I declare to you, that I turned from the low ambition, the sordid spirit, the paltry intrigue, the open treachery, playing for months around solemn aristocratic me diocrities, — to contemplate, with pride in " my order," and hope for my country, the delicacy of sentiment, the manly self-devotion and generous thoughtfulness of these men. If you were " a mendicant," my Lord, the Queen Dowager could not contribute to your necessities with more royal munificence than they showed to me, — humble, steadfast, unpretending people though they are. " Go into no more Councils ; take no more offices ; waste the flower of your life for no more Governors, friend Howe. Serve your country as you have served her. A sum equal to the salary you have thrown up shall be paid to you by the people of Nova Scotia, and we will collect aud secure it." This offer was again and again pressed upon me, by earnest-minded men accustomed to keep their words, and some of whom, my Lord, could purchase your whole estate. Had I accepted this offer, I should not have been a mendicant any more than Chatham was, when he accepted an annuity from the Duchess of Marlborough. The liberals of Halifax, like the Duke of Newcastle, had a right " to do what they liked with their own ; " and there would have been less dishonor in my taking a salary from my political friends, than in your holding " place " under your political ene mies. Now, my Lord, had such an offer as this been made to you, or to any Falkland of the line for the last century, by the citizens of London or of Bristol, would it have been refused ? Would it have been dealt 344 LETTERS TO LORD FALKLAND. with in a more rational or less grasping spirit than by me ? You shah judge. A permanent allowance was declined, or any gift which should hamper my freedom of action for the future. But, to show my sense of their kindness ; to prove to them that there was no pride at the bottom of the business on my part ; to show to those who might perhaps tread my path in future, that the unpurchasable faith and open purses ofthe people could sustain Colonists against injustice and oppression, — I consented to accept a sum, not nearly So large as I had lost while attending to Your Lordship's business instead of my own, and less than some friends of yours have received for doing almost nothing, year by year, out of the resources of this people, as far back as my memory extends. Such is the transaction, my Lord, honorable to both parties, which, in his stupid ignorance, and for the gratification of Your Lordship's atra- billious emotions, your paid official servant has misrepresented, day by day. It is one in which my family and I take much pride. We would rather eat bread at the hands of our friends, in honest heartiness and mutual sympathy, than at the hands of our enemies, and the enemies of our country, purchased by mean compliance and treachery to the land we love. But, my Lord, though the generous thoughtfulness of these men will never be forgotten ; though the reality of their friendship has been tested, and the extent of their resources is weU known ; I have been ac customed to earn my bread since I was a chUd, and am teaching my children to do the same. And, my Lord, it strikes me that if you were stripped of what you never earned, we should still have bread, with some to spare to the mendicants over the way. But, my Lord, suppose that we were differently situated, and had acted differently. Suppose that, either from our follies or misfortunes, we were living on the sympathies of the benevolent ; what right has the proudest Falkland of you all to apply to the humblest Nova Scotian, so situated, a derisive epithet? A "mendicant" is a "beggar;" is he not, my Lord ? The terms, I believe, are synonymous. Your humble re membrancer must again step in with the bladder-flapper, and awake you to the folly of hiring a creature to apply to Nova Scotians such terms as these. While the Morning Post supplies light literature for Govern • ment House, in Brunswick street we study the history of our country. On the Journals of the House of Commons, under date of February 16', 1693, we find it thus written : — " The House, according to the order of the day, proceeded to take into consideration the information given, upon oath, by the Lord Falk land to the commissioners for stating the public accounts ; and also the account of the pensions, salaries, and sums of money, paid or payable LETTERS TO LORD FALKLAND. 345 to members of Parliament out of the public revenue, or otherwise ; and the accounts of what monies have been issued or paid for secret ser vice, and to members of ParUament, presented to the House by the said commissioners. And the examination of Mr. Francis Rainsford; and also the information given, upon oath, by the Lord Viscount Falkland before the said commissioners, formerly presented to the House from the said commissioners, were read. " And the Lord Falkland was heard in his place, and then withdrew. And a motion being made, and the question being put, ' that the Lord Falkland, being a member of this House, by begging and receiving two thousand pounds from His Majesty, contrary to the ordinary method of issuing and bestowing the King's money, is guilty of a high misde meanor and breach of trust,' the House divided. The yeas were 143 ; nays 126. Tellers for the yeas, Mr. Harley, Sir Rowland Gwin. Tel lers for the nays, Sir Robert Rich, Mr. Biddulph. " Resolved, That the Lord Falkland be committed to the Tower during the pleasure of this House, and that the speaker do issue his warrant accordingly." Here, my Lord, is a noble " beggar," a " mendicant Falkland ! " He ought to teach the family modesty and common sense for a century to come. And, bear in mind, that he was sent to the Tower by a larger majority than You*r Lordship has yet been able to get to vote for the absurd resolutions you have from time to time aimed at me. I may be told that it is unfair to revive this little trait of family history. So it would be, my Lord, but for two reasons — first, because all the good " done in the flesh " of the Falklands is thrown in our faces, whenever we hint at an imperfection in the " tenth transmitter ; " and secondly, because there lies upon the table of the Assembly at this moment some rather curious evidence, that certain propensities run in the blood ; and that "mendicant" Governors are sometimes sent to Colonies, where they help themselves, in violation of law and " contrary to the ordinary method of issuing and bestowing the King's money." To that evidence I may deem it my duty, before Your Lordship quits our shores, to direct your attention, in return for some favors showered upon me " by authority." In the meanwhile, having finished the " les son for the day," I beg to assure Your Lordship of my distinguished consideration. March, 1846. JOSEPH HOWE. 346 LETTERS TO LORD FALKLAND. LETTER n. My Lord, — On returning to town on Monday evening, I found that your official printer had attributed to me the authorship of an anonymous letter, that I had never seen, and made it the foundation of a grave charge of treason. This small matter I must settle with Your Lord ship ; for though the fire burnt the cat, when my chesnuts are meddled with, I shall lay the lash over the monkey. Let me deal with the letter first, and with the charge afterwards. The letter of a " Pioneer " was sent to the Chronicle office by a very respectable man, of a high conservative family, but whose interests have been injuriously affected by the constant fluctuations in the commercial policy of England. He wrote as he felt, I presume, and is responsible for his own opinions. If necessary, he will avow them openly ; at all events, he will do me the justice to acknowledge, that his letter never came to the office till I was in the country ; that I never saw it till after my return, and that the inferences of your scribe are as unfounded as they are malicious. The internal evidence, in the letter itself, was sufficient to prove that I was not its author. Your Lordship knows, your scribe knows, all the world know, that I am a free trader. Ten years ago I denounced the corn laws, and have steadily advocated, both as an editor and a legislator, the abolition of every restriction, British or Colonial, by which human industry is hampered, and the great family of mankind is broken into mutually oppressive and perpetually hostile factions. I could not have written the letter of " Pioneer," unless I was so stupidly inconsistent as to denounce what I had prayed for, and to mourn over the success of principles of political economy that I had steadily and openly approved. I was a free trader, when Sir Robert Peel advocated monop oly ; I was writing against the corn laws when you were an idle ensign in the army. Whatever you may do, my Lord, I am very apt to adhere to opinions deliberately formed ; and one of them is, that a Governor who keeps a reckless creature in pay, to defame those whom he happens. to hate, will be very apt to create more disaffection than he subdues. In this case, as in most others in which your instrument has been employed, Your Lordship perceives how easy it is to dash his superstructure of falsehood about his ears. The charge of disaffection and disloyalty, I disdain to answer. Your Lordship cannot make me a rebel. I know how to distinguish between authority, and the abuse of it ; between arbitrary principles of Colonial government, and a bad Governor. Whatever the Falklands may have done for the permanency of British dominion on this continent, the LETTERS TO LORD FALKLAND. 347 Howes have done their share. One of them fell in the woods of Ticon deroga, fighting against the French ; another led up the British Grenadiers on the slopes of Bunker Hill ; a third rests in the churchyard beneath your eye, who abandoned the country of his birth that he might maintain his allegiance to his Sovereign ; and there is another, my Lord, whose indomitable good humor, and steady nerves, the highest amount of ex ecutive folly and provocation cannot overcome ; who knows the difference between curbing the insolence of the beadle and setting fire to the parish; between a corrupt judge and the majesty of the laws ; between the Sov ereign who should be reverenced and the Viceroy who may be despised. Whenever the " British yoke " becomes burthensome to North Amer ica, it will be broken like a pack-thread, and I would be one of the first to break it ; but I am not one of those who believe that relieving the people of England of their burdens, is an injury to the Colonists ; that these Provinces are to be preserved by protective duties ; by taxes on the food which the starving millions in the mother country consume. The new commercial policy I heartily approve ; but if I did not, I cer tainly should not see, in a blunder in economy and finance, the seeds of a poUtical revolution. No, my Lord, if I am ever driven to discuss the question of separation from England — which God forbid — it wiU neither be done in a corner, nor under an anonymous signature ; nor upon a question of reducing taxes upon bread and timber. It will be when I am convinced that the British Constitution will not flourish upon this continent ; that responsible government, as I understand it, has been formally and gravely denied. That day, I believe, to be very distant. The British Constitution, I still hope, will flourish in North America. And, notwithstanding Your Lordship's efforts to embroil us all, I have an abiding confidence in the corrective which the new system supplies to the disorders produced by your folly. Your Lordship, I fear, while wandering in the south of France, will have the exquisite mortification of beholding Nova Scotia a peaceful Province, and Joseph Howe a loyal man. On one point, your scribe has been correctly informed. I am about " to retire from the metropolis, and turn up the soil of Musquodoboit." With this number, my connection with the press ceases for the present ; but be comforted, I shall not be so far away but that we can " take sweet counsel " together. I shall be a peaceful agriculturist, no doubt ; but, hark ye, my Lord, in order that we may be good friends, you had better keep your pigs out of my garden and not attempt to plant tares among my wheat. April 9, 1846- JOSEPH HOWE. 348 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. Mr Lord, — During the summer of 1839, 1 did myself the honor to address to Your Lordship four letters on the subject of Colonial govern ment. Your Lordship, with the love of rational liberty which character izes your family, but with the caution of a prudent statesman, was at that time dealing with the questions raised by Lord Durham's report, and seemed embarrassed by doubts and apprehensions, which it was the design of that brochure to remove. I have not the vanity to suppose that the pamphlet is remembered, or that a copy of it is still in your possession ; but I have the satisfaction to reflect, that, slowly permeating through the mass of British and Colonial society, and tested, with more or less of sincerity, by governors and legislators ever since, the main principles it advocated have, by their own intrinsic value, forced their way, until millions of British subjects regard them as indispensable guar antees for the peaceful development of their resources and the integrity of the Empire. Deeply engrossed, during the last seven years, with a series of com mercial and political questions in which the people of the United King dom felt a lively interest, Your Lordship has had but little leisure to devote to a minute inspection of the progress which the Colonists were making in the science of self-government. Called again, by the com mand of your Sovereign, and the confidence of Parliament, to the admin istration of pubhc affairs, it now becomes indispensable to the satisfactory discharge of your high duties, that you should study with a thoughtful accuracy of investigation, the steps by which these noble possessions of the Crown have advanced in the march of improvement ; and that you should inquire whether there may not be means, but partially developed or wholly unapplied, by which all fears of separation between Great Britain and her North American Provinces may be forever set at rest. Canning boasted that, by recognizing the independence of South Amer ica, he had called a new world into existence : may it be Your Lord ship's boast, that by admitting the just claims, developing the resources, and anticipating the natural and honorable aspirations of North Ameri cans, you have woven links of love between them and their mother country, and indefinitely postponed all desire for independence. This elevated species of ambition the people of British America as cribe to Your Lordship. The part you took in Lord Durham's mission — the support you gave to Lord Sydenham — the dispatches — which, LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 349 however variously interpreted, were truly described by him,* who de clared that they conferred " a new and improved constitution on these Colonies," — furnish abundant proofs, that, in Colonial, as in all other reforms, your mind has advanced in the right direction. That you have had doubts, and apprehensions, ahd difficulties to contend with, has not impaired our confidence ; that these have been overcome, your recent declaration of the policy your government intends to pursue, is decisive and gratifying evidence. Reposing in a quiet nook of my own country, after seven toilsome years spent in giving practical proofs to its people of the value of the principles advocated in 1839, 1 read that declaration ; and, while the tears glistened in my eyes, I felt that, however refreshing the seclusion, this was not the moment to leave a government, honestly disposed, and thus publicly pledged to work out their plans, without the encouragement that sympathy and the lights which Colonial experience on this side the water, could supply. I mused upon the boundless field of labor Your Lordship was about to enter ; the herculean tasks which lay everywhere around you ; the onerous cares, which, as First Minister of the Crown, you were called upon to assume, and I felt that a man so placed, was not only entitled to hear the kindly " God speed " of the Colonist, but to have the benefit of every ray of light that might guide him on his way. When legislating for the mother country, Your Lordship has the aid of representatives and colleagues from every portion of the three king doms. No English interest can be overlooked, because every section of the country can hold constant communication with the Cabinet, through Parliamentary or other agents. Scotchmen convey to the Councils of their Sovereign, and infuse into the discussions of the Legislature, the facts, impressions, and even prejudices, without a knowledge of which there can be no successful statesmanship ; and even Ireland, unequal and unjust as her portion of parliamentary and executive influence is, has yet a share. Her voice, even when disregarded, is still heard ; one hundred and five members enforce her opinions in Parhament ; able pens discuss questions which concern her in every part of the kingdom ; and her na tional associations, and the ceaseless activity of her selected leaders, make her voice authoritative, if not potential, in each crisis of affairs. To deal wisely with countries so situated, though often perplexing, is not impracticable : there is a fullness of information, an ever swelling or receding stream of public sentiment, and an abundance of fellow-laborers, 84 * Sir John Harvey. 350 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. to enable a prudent statesman to correct his reckoning and steer his course. To the mariner within soundings, the headlands are a guide, and the lead conveys every moment its assurance or its warning ; but the seaman who embarks on an ocean voyage, excites our fears by the comparative paucity ofhis resources, not less than by the perils of his way. The statesman who undertakes to govern distant countries, and partic ularly such Provinces as those of North America, at the present time, assumes a task of still greater difficulty and hazard. Grant him all the aids which he could desire ; and those who are tender of his reputation, or interested in his experiment, may weU tremble for his success, if they do not anticipate his blunders. Look around, my Lord, and see how few aids you have ; ask yourself how you would govern Scotland, with out one Scotchman in Parliament, in the Cabinet, or in the Home De partment, to aid you ; yet North America is to be governed, with a territory twenty times as extensive, and a population nearly as large, and not one North American near you to lend his assistance. There is one, at least, my Lord, at a distance — who, grateful for past services done to his country — regardless of the barriers which the pubhcation of his opinions may again interpose in the humble walks of Provincial ambi tion, — would gladly supply, to some extent, a deficiency which any man, called to the task Your Lordship has assumed, must almost instantly feel. To attempt this appears to me a duty, which I cannot, as an ad mirer of Your Lordship, and a beUever in your sincerity, put aside. Even the leisure, vowed to my family after many toilsome years devoted to the public affairs of Nova Scotia, appears a criminal indulgence ; when, by a little exertion, the position, requirements, and just demands of these noble Provinces may be simply explained, and the way cleared for Your Lordship to deepen the verdure of the Colonial laurels you have already won. If Your Lordship, and the men who now surround you, cannot lay the foundations of British power on this continent on an indestructible basis, then I fear I shall not live to see the work complete ; and if not perfected before the swelUng surges of repubUcanism make breaches here and breaches there, the waste of material, and the hazard of inundation will be in exact proportion to the delay. Borrowing wis dom from the modern history of Ireland, what is to be done for North America should be done promptly, generously ; in a spirit not of a grudg ing step-mother giving a gratuity, but of brethren sharing an inherit ance. Your Lordship possesses, I believe, the disposition and the power to deal with our difficulties, and to fulfil our hopes. Like the poor blind man on the Derbyshire hills, I may know the shortest tracks, for my feet LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 351 are familiar with every stone ; but Your Lordship must prove the value of local knowledge by the tests of higher science, and the advantage of a commanding position ; and will be entitled, when the Queen's highway is completed, to all the merit of the work. Let me endeavor, as briefly as I can, to group, for Your Lordship's information, the results of our Colonial experience since I last addressed you. For many years previous to that period, permanently placed exec utive officers — independent ofthe Legislatures, and invariably sustained, whether right or wrong, by the British government — ruled these Prov inces for their own advantage, irrespective of the interests or the confi dence of the people. Those men had rarely the magnanimity boldly to assume the unpopularity of their own acts or policy. By artful corres pondence they generally contrived to extract from the Colonial office a sanction of all they did, or desired to do ; and never failed to assure those who complained, that they were constrained by Imperial authority, and acting under instructions. The Colonists were thus habitually trained to regard the mother country, if not as an enemy, at least as an eccentric, exacting, and injudicious friend. The Colonial office was clothed with a character not easy to describe ; it was Pandora's box, with hope only for cravens and sycophants at the bottom ; it was a manufactory, into which grievances went by the quire, and injuries came out by the bale ; it was the lion's mouth, where enemies might deposit accusations, and into which honest men looked with awe. I freely admit that it did not always deserve this character ; that much sterling integrity, patient in vestigation, and high honor, often presided at the Colonial office ; and that, even under the worst administrations, there was a more sincere de sire to benefit the Colonies, among the leading minds of the department, than the Colonists were taught to believe. But it was almost impossible, under the old system, that the Colonial office could achieve any higher reputation. The eyes of Argus could not have glanced over the remote regions it was called on to inspect ; the hands of Briareus would have wearied with the multifarious labors it was expected to perform. The most promising and laborious public men in the Colonial office, sunk in a year or two to one common level of unpopularity. A more accom plished scholar ; a more accessible, amiable, and ordinarily industrious nobleman than Lord Glenelg, never held the seals. His published dis patches display vigor and clearness of design ; goodness of heart, and habitual sauvity of temper ; with an enlarged liberality of sentiment, hu manity, and good taste, that do him infinite honor in his modest retire ment, as they did in his official capacity. Yet Lord Glenelg, enveloped in the countless webs which the old system wove around him, was driven 352 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. into a sort of incomprehensible disgrace. No man gave the old system a fairer trial ; no man less deserved the fate to which it almost inevitably consigned its victims. Your Lordship escaped, by cutting the gordian knots which no living genius could unwind. By adopting promptly the leading principles of Lord Durham's report, you opened a vista through the surrounding dark ness ; by throwing back upon the Colonists the rubbish and the responsi bilities which were accumulating in the department, you secured freedom of respiration, and room to move ; and excited to activity a body of public spirited men, in all the Colonies, who were rejoiced to find themselves trusted, and were eager to be employed. Now mark the change. In the seven years previous to 1839, the journals of every North American Colony presented their annual Bill of Indictment against the governments, in the form of addresses to the Crown ; and although, from motives of policy, the Imperial authorities were not always directly charged with the grievances enumerated, yet sometimes they were openly impUcated, and boldly menaced ; and those who mingled freely in Colonial society, frequently felt, that if the phraseology of those documents was courte ously guarded, more was often meant than met the ear. During the last seven years, no such addresses have, to my knowledge, emanated from the Colonial AssembUes, for the simplest of all reasons ; grievances have been removed, by the circumambient pressure of responsibihty upon the executive heads of departments, and officers of government ; or where it was inconvenient to remove them, the storms occasioned by their con tinuance, have burst over the heads of those whose folly or cupidity evoked them ; their far off murmurs only being heard amidst the un wonted tranquiUty of Downing Street. Within the seven years previous to 1839, the Colonial office was be sieged by delegations. Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, all sent delegates ; some once, some twice, or thrice, with portfoUos full of papers. These missions were rendered indispensable, by the obstructions interposed to the transmission of correct intelligence, and the mystification in which the whole subject of Colonial goveijpment had become involved, by the operation of an absurd and impractical system. Fancy Lord Normanby sitting in grave deliberation, while four gentlemen argued before him the important Imperial questions, of how much salary a Nova Scotian judge should have, and who should sit in our Executive Council. These ques tions Your Lordship wisely transferred to the Colonial Legislature. Simple resolutions now settle the most of them ; the Governors, if they can combine the support of a ParUamentary majority, appoint whom LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 353 they please ; and the judges, after the calm deliberation of a committee of supply, get just as much money as the country they serve is willing or able to grant. No delegations have gone to Downing Street since 1839. Your Lordship wisely changed the battle grounds, and our lead ing men have had enough to do at home. In the seven years previous to 1839, there were two insurrections, costing four millions sterhng. From the moment that the leader of Lord Sydenham's government boldly avowed, in his place in the Assembly, the responsibility which he and his colleagues owed to the Legislature, down to the present time, you might (but for questions of foreign policy) have defended North America with a sergeant's guard. These have been the grateful fruits of what we used to caU responsible government — of that " new and improved Constitution," shadowed forth in Your Lordship's dispatches, and practically developed and illustrated by the energy, sagacity and patriotism of the Colonists ; until what was theory in 1839, has grown into a system of easy application to all con ceivable cases ; securing internal tranquillity, and relieving every Colonial minister who is wise enough to refrain from injudicious interference, of a vast amount of labor. I do not mean to say, my Lord, that every question of salary, of mal-administration, of grievance, in every Colony, is at an end ; that there are not party conflicts and personal rivalries still ruffling the surface of society ; that a Governor who does not com prehend the new system, or a secretary who will interrupt its natural operations, may not still give trouble, and provoke much angry discussion. But what I mean to assert is this, that " the new constitution " has worked wonders ; and that though I accepted and have resigned office since 1839 ; though I have shared the highest honors to be won under it, and breasted the fiercest persecution to be endured, I still believe it possesses within itself a remedial power for most Colonial evils ; and that as the Colonies would have been lost but for its introduction, to work securely for the future, with provident forecast and unity of de sign, Your Lordship must build on the foundations already laid. Some are of opinion, that self-government should be secured to these Provinces by act of Parliament ; but there is no necessity for this. You have no act of Parliament to define the duty of the Sovereign when ministers are in a minority ; we want none to enable us to suggest to a Governor when his advisers have lost the confidence of our Colonial Assemblies,* But what we do want, my Lord, is a rigid enforcement * It is sometimes said, the mother country has its great charter, its bill of rights, and whv should we not have a charter, or some such written guaranty for our liber- 84* 354 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. of British practice, by the Imperial authorities, on every Governor ; the inteUigence and public spirit of the people will supply the rest. Leave the representatives of Her Majesty free to select their advisers from any of the parties which exist in the countries they govern ; but let it be understood that they must hold the balance even ; that they must not be come partizans themselves ; and that then, when, from incapacity, personal quarrels, or want of tact, they are unable to fiU up the chief offices, se cure the supplies, and conduct the government with efficiency by the aid of a good working majority, their removal wiU be the inevitable result. Not their removal only. Your Lordship, will, I hope, pardon me, if, at some hazard of giving offence, I venture to discuss a point of great deU- cacy, and suggest that at least an unsuccessful and incapable Governor should incur the penalty of faUure and incapacity in aU other branches of the public service. Let me not be misunderstood. In discussing broad questions, which involve national interests ; the happiness of great countries ; the peace and security of an empire, I cannot descend to aim a personal allu sion, or to illustrate even by unanswerable evidence, drawn from a single Province, an argument, however sound. I speak of future Governors, as a class of public servants, and I seek to examine the rules and the policy by which they should be controlled, in language chastened by the exalted presence in which I speak, and the magnitude of the interests committed to their care. Loss of office and emolument, stoppage of promotion, are the penalties which British colonists are to pay under the new system for misdirection of the Sovereign's representative ; for want of talents, discretion, and success. We are content to serve our country on these terms ; and even if some gross delusion, some unprin cipled combination, or shift of pubUc opinion, unjustly bears us down, ¦we shrink not from hazards, which Your Lordship, acting in a wider field, is content to share. Many a good knight, whose foundered horse, frail lance, or untempered blade, sent him discomfited from the arena, felt the severity while he bowed to the majesty of those laws by which alone martial prowess could be sustained; but how many good knights would there have been, had the Sovereign bestowed the laurel without discrimination ; had the coward and the valiant, the graceful and the ties. Those who roason thus forget that these great securities of Britons are ours also ; that wo have besides, the whole body of Parliamentary precedents accumulated by the practice of the Imperial Legislature. We have more ; we have our Colo nial precedents since 1840; the resolutions recorded on the journals of Canada and Nova Scotia, and other authoritative declarations, made with the sanction of the Imperial government, and which cannot be withdrawn. LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 355 awkward, the courteous and the rude, the successful and the unsuccessful, been alike rewarded ? What interest would the spectators have taken in contests, where the highest qualities, and evidences of manhood, brought no distinction, and the want of them no disgrace ? Why should a different rule be applied to Colonial Governors? When we read of the impunity which Roman pro-consuls purchased in the capital for mal-administration in the Provinces, we cease to wonder at the disorders they provoked ; or that the local humors, suffered with out attention to irritate the extremities, by a geometric scale of retribu tion, in which the velocity of the approach was regulated by the square of the iniquity, paralyzed and corrupted the heart. The ingenuous youth of England, who pore over the classics at Eton and at Oxford, should be taught to feel, that the errors which ruined Rome, Great Britain has determined to avoid ; that the point upon which she is peculiarly sensi tive, jealous, and slow to forgive, is the misgovernment of one of her Provinces, however feeble or remote. The very opposite belief is fos tered by the facts which our Colonial experience has accumulated. Many Governors have ruled these North American Provinces since the revolutionary war, and the aggregate of their virtues and capacities, the result of their labors, was vividly described in Lord Durham's report. Some able and exceUent men we certainly have had ; but not a few, who were strangely deficient in those qualities which command respect, com municate energy, and secure the affections of a free people. There have been gradations of merit as of rank ; but from the individuals who had scarcely genius sufficient to write a simple dispatch, to the foremost file of able and enterprising statesmen, one common destiny has awaited them all — impunity, patronage, promotion. With the exception of Sir George Prevost, (a most amiable man, but one who, in exciting times, committed some military mistakes) not one was ever censured or dis graced. Further promotion may have been declined by some, from in creasing years and infirmities ; or may have been denied to others who wanted a patron ; but I- cannot discover that the grossest incapacity, the most palpable blunders, or the execration and ridicule of a whole mis governed Province, ever ensured Executive censure at home, or presented a barrier to further promotion. The evils and the injuries which flowed from such a system North America has endured ; but in her name, my Lord, I think I may be pardoned for desiring that it shall have an end. You try, by court martial, the officer who runs his ship upon a rock. Byng was shot for a deficiency of courage or of conduct ; and a gallant regiment but recently trembled for its well earned honors, because it was supposed to have wavered for an instant on a field of carnage. Surely, 356 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. my Lord, it is not too much to ask for some such security against mis government — for jealous watchfulness, and patient investigation where there have been violations of principle, or deviations from constitutional usage ; and if, with tenderness for human frailty, we seek no higher pun ishment, at least there should be a bar to further promotion. A few ex amples would produce a salutary effect ; create a higher standard of enterprise and ability, and infuse among our transatlantic population universal confidence in their Imperial rulers. The mode of administration which I have ever advocated, and for the introduction of which Your Lordship's dispatches of 1839, paved the way, exempts Colonial Governors from all responsibility to those they rule. Englishmen hold that the Queen can do no wrong, but enforce upon Her Majesty's advisers rigid accountability. Adopting the consti tutional fiction, we are contented to admit that those who represent the Sovereign here, can do no wrong in our eyes, so long as our right is ad mitted to call to account, for every Executive act, those who sit in Coun cil with them, and preside over the chief departments. The practice is convenient, and, on both sides of the water, fraught with many advanta ges. There is a slight distinction, however, which should ever be borne in mind. At home there is the ultima ratio of a revolution, which, though rarely resorted to, subjects the Crown to heavy responsibility, the constitutional maxim to the contrary notwithstanding. The Sovereign is responsible to the whole body of the nation ; and the surest safeguard of existing institutions, under a bad monarch, is to be found in the histor ical examples which prove how this accountability may be enforced. Our ultima ratio, it is clear, lies not in an appeal to arms, but to the government at home. It should be the care, then, of the Imperial authorities, to make every Colonial Governor feel that his responsibUity to his Sovereign is a reality, and not a fiction. " I can devolve my re sponsibility on no man " — " my duty to my Sovereign compels," and such like phrases, which Governors often repeat with a flippancy that raises an incredulous smile on the face of a Colonist, would then be words of fearful import and deep significance, pronounced with grave deliberation, and conveying an assurance of good faith, upon which North Americans would securely rely. Under any system, but particularly under the new, the most difficult and delicate task which devolves upon the Colonial minister, is the selec tion of Governors. Assuming the absence of nepotism, or of any un worthy motive, the wide range of employments, the varied accomphsh ments and talents included in the military, naval, and civU services of the empire, would seem to insure us against danger and disappointment LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 357 in the choice of our rulers. But yet, we have often been disappointed ; and the bungling and perils of the past should make us careful for the future. The Cabinet called to select a Governor for a North American Province, under existing circumstances, should never forget that there are twenty millions of Anglo Saxons electing their own Governors across the border ; and they should endeavor to prevent the contrasts not unfre quently drawn. They should invariably act upon the policy, that, to re press the tendency to follow a practice incompatible with monarchical in stitutions, nothing should be left for the Colonists to desire. But, it may be said, in Britain we provide Sovereigns by hereditary successsion, and yet we are well governed, because our constitutional practice divests them of political influence. This is a popular faUacy, which stands " not proven " by all the historical evidence that our annals supply. Grant that no Sovereign can withstand the pressure of public opinion, when the people are organized, and executive influence in Parlia ment is controlled by the stern mandate ofthe nation; yet how few such epochs are there even in the longest reign ? Grant that a good measure cannot be refused to clamoring miUions, represented by a great party in the State ; yet how often have measures been delayed, and parties broken and scattered to the winds, by the personal influence of the Sovereign ? This personal influence pervades the Court, is felt in Parliament, in the diplomatic intrigues of foreign countries, in the elevation or discourage ment of rival statesmen ; it is ever active, and all-pervading, often when the nation is indifferent or asleep. The theory of our Constitu tion yields this personal influence to the Sovereign, and assumes that it will be wisely exercised. The theory of our Colonial Constitutions in vests every representative of majesty with high personal influence ; and that it should be exercised with great probity and discretion, Your Lord ship will at once perceive. Your security against abuse lies in the heredi tary transmission of high qualities ; we have no security but the honor and the discernment of the Imperial Cabinet. This single point, the selec tion of a Governor, is perhaps the only one that much concerns us, upon which we can exercise no influence. We must confide altogether in the judgment and good faith of our brethren at home. If they send us a tyrant or a fool, we may control or instruct him ; but the process involves a monstrous waste of time, and engenders feelings which, like fire damp in mines, are insidiously injurious, even when they do not explode. As a general rule, be assured my Lord that every bad Governor sent to a Province makes a certain number of repubUcans ; that every good one reflects his Sovereign's image far down into the Colonial heart. These " golden links " between Great Britain and her North American Pro- 358 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. vinces must be alloyed by no base metal ; the best material, tried by the severest process of refinement, should be selected, that they may be worn as ornaments, and not regarded as chains. I am aware that the selection of Governors for North America, at the present time, is no easy task ; because men of a different order of mind, and with a higher style of training than pass muster in other portions of the empire, are required by the exigencies of this continent. To under stand this, my Lord, let us take a Governor of Massachusetts, and in quire by what steps he has risen to the elevation he enjoys, and by what process his mind has been ripened for the fitting discharge of his high functions. Born within the State, he is essentially a citizen, bound to her by filial and patriotic feelings. His early studies, not less than the active pursuits of manhood, make him familiar with her people and their diversified interests. The struggles by which he ascends, through tha hustings to the House of Representatives, and thence to the Senate ; presiding, it may be, at times, over one branch or the other, give him a training and experience eminently calculated to prepare him for the gu bernatorial chair. To provide for the British Colonies Governors to work our monarchical system as these men work theirs, is " a consum mation devoutly to bs wished." Yet they must be had ; we cannot af ford to repeat the blunders of the past ; and we cannot harmoniously de velop and apply the vital principle of responsibility without them. At a first glance, it would seem a simple matter to draw from the widely-extended range and diversified intellectual resources of the em pire, the persons we want ; yet there are difficulties that meet us on every field of selection. Men are trained for the army, the navy, and for the di plomatic service of the State ; but we have no normal schools for the education of Colonial Governors. The consequence is, that two or three Provinces are often mismanaged before the neophyte has learned to gov ern well, if indeed he ever learns. This is not to be wondered at, when we regard the mixed character of the society into which, at a few week's notice, he is often thrown ; and the complicated duties that, without any previous training, he is required to discharge. On one point, there is rarely much to apprehend : British Governors, with few exceptions, are gentlemen ; in ease and dignity of manner, sprightly conversation, and general acquaintance with foreign countries, they contrast favorably with those who preside over some of the neighboring States. But in solid information, knowledge of general principles, familiar acquaintance with British and Provincial history, and sympathy with the people they are called to rule, they are often very inferior. One radical defect in their education frequently requires years of experience to overcome. A com- LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 359 mander in the navy, or a general of division, has been accustomed to see masses of men moved by the boatswain's whistle, or the sound of the bugle. He has been taught to expect from all beneath him the most prompt and servile obedience, which again he is prepared to pay to his superiors. Transferred to East Indian Provinces, or Crown Colonies, where there are no Legislatures, no responsibility no organized and ever active public opinion ; where a semi-barbarous population have been op pressed by a despotism less enlightened and humane, — these officers often make excellent Governors, and infuse into the ignorant and un enterprising masses a respect for their characters and ready obedience to their discipline. But, transferred to North America, where English, Irish, and Scotchmen, and their descendants, form the entire population of a Province ; where every principle of the common-law is fearlessly propounded from the bench ; where every limitation of the prerogative is asserted by the Legislature ; where a press, free to the verge of li centiousness, embodies and influences public opinion ; where men of equal ability meet them at every turn ; while the least informed peasant in the fields is conscious of his British origin, and of the rights with which it invests him, — transferred to such a scene, the old sailors or sol diers often lose their self-possession. The bugle is sounded or the whistle blown, but no body moves, or moves in the right direction. The " one- man power " is not acknowledged ; but the power of the people is asserted with an admirable composure that only John Bull himself could equal. Now, in all this, my Lord, there is nothing that an intelligent Colonist, or an Englishman familiar with North America, would not expect to find, and be prepared to deal with on the instant. He would at once treat the population as Your Lordship treats the people of England, with deference and respect ; neither chafing at their British manifesta tions of personal spirit and independence, nor at their rigid adherence to constitutional principles. He would guard the prerogatives of the Crown with simple dignity, and make the Queen's name a tower of strength by never taking it in vain. He would act with or by any party, prepared with a good measure, or enjoying the confidence of the people, without railing at party, which, in every British community enjoying represen tative institutions, must exist. He would choose men of ability to fill the Executive departments, and be never so happy as when their con duct evinced the wisdom of the selection. He would never yield to petty jealousy of his own advisers, if they happened to be men of higher attainments and sounder judgment than himself; but would bear in mind the reflected merit, implied in the defence of Queen Elizabeth : — that when wise men govern a country, the Sovereign by whom they are se- .360 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. lected and retained, cannot be a fool. He would have no friends, in the unconstitutional sense, which implies back stair influence and intrigue ; but, at the same time, would have no enemies : being prepared to bow any set of men out of his Cabinet who had lost the confidence of the people, or to admit any other set into it by whom that exceUent certifi cate of character was produced. If, then, Governors are to be selected from the United Services, it is evident that mere soldiers or saUors are not to be preferred. I do not say that men should be rejected because they have fought for their coun try : the highest qualities of the warrior and the statesman have often been combined. But if we are to have rulers snatched from the tented field or the quarter deck, they should be men to whom the British Constitution does not appear a prurient excrescence, defacing the articles of war; men of enlarged minds, accustomed to affairs ; studious of the history of their country, and possessing great command of temper. The diplomatic service is often presented as a good school. It has its advantages, but there are some drawbacks. The diplomatist, who goes into a distant country, often regards himself, and is regarded, as the se cret foe of the State to which he is accredited, from the moment he passes its barriers. His latent hostiUty, his vigUant espionage, his cor ruption and intrigue, are veUed under a courtliness of manner, an air of frankness, and a strict observance of all the forms of official etiquette. All who approach him are suspected ; and the tools he employs are feared while they are doing mischief — despised when it is done. Trans fer such a man to a North American Colony, and he may " forget his cunning ;" he may remember that he is deahng with British subjects — administering a constitutional system, as a Governor — not acting as a spy ; he may bestow confidence, and win it ; but he is just as likely to have finished his term of office before he unlearns the vices of his old profession, as he is to enter at once upon a successful career, in virtue of the diablerie to which he has been trained. If diplomatists are to come, then, to the Colonies, let them, if possible, be those who have served in free countries — who are familiar with the spirit, and the modes of conducting business, in popular assemblies. If they have sat in either House of ParUament, so much the better ; but let them be men observant of its forms, imbued with its spirit, tolerant even of its eccen tricities, and prepared to work out, on a smaUer scale, the practical ad vantages which these, in the main, secure. The Peerage, and the House of Commons, could we draw upon the best materials which are found in those great schools of political instruc tion, would leave us nothing to desire. Could we always be secure of a LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 361 Durham or a Sydenham, we should have nothing to fear for the pros perous development of our resources, or the permanence of British do minion. But the prizes of Imperial public life are so splendid ; the noble emulation of these great arenas is so engrossing ; that the finer spirits, surrounded by party obligations, or fired with elevated ambition, can seldom be induced to accept, but at some peculiar crisis, or for a special object, the most distinguished North American position. The smaller Colonies can rarely hope for any but selections from that larger class, which, for obvious reasons, can be better spared. Men of sound sense, active business habits, cultivated taste and gentlemanly manners, may ever be found in this grade ; and if they have studied the pecu liarities of transatlantic society and poUtics, may make good Colonial Governors. But they must come out prepared to find at the Colonial hustings the " fierce democracy " they left at home ; in the Colonial courts advocates as fearless as in Westminister Hall ; a press as free as that of England ; and a numerous class of public men who will, within the forms and safeguards of the Constitution, work with and for them ; but who would not, for the smile of any Governor, sacrifice the confi dence or betray the interests of the country of their birth, and in which it is their highest ambition to leave an honest fame. Your Lordship will perceive that I lay great stress upon the selection of Governors. The importance of this I could illustrate by examples ; but, looking to a hopeful future, I desire to explain my views without any but the most delicate references to the past. A Governor once ap pointed, his "instructions" are of some importance; these should — ex cept in extraordinary cases, where some special difficulty has arisen, for which the ordinary forms of the Constitution provide no remedy — be as few, as simple, and as concise as possible. There is an old code which was, and I presume is yet, sent to the Colonial Governors, whole passages of which I fear are obsolete and inapplicable to the present condition of affairs. This book ought to be revised ; and if a copy of it were submitted to the criticism of some of the leading minds of North America, they might furnish valuable suggestions to the Colonial Secre tary, and aid in making it much more perfect. For my own part, I would no more trammel a Governor, than I would a general or an ad miral, with many instructions. Having selected the right kind of man, I should be strongly inclined to condense the whole into a few lines : — Enforce, within your government, the Imperial statutes. Maintain the prerogatives of the Crown. Respect the laws, and the rights of the subject. Secure, by strict observance of British practice, a working majority in the Legislature. 85 362 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. Remember that the Queen's representative is the fountain of honor, of justice, and of mercy : he must offer no insult, and should have no enemies. With these brief instructions, I would leave a Colonial Governor a large discretion, give him a fair support, but remind him of the tenure by which his office was held : — "if you succeed you shaU be rewarded ; promotion stops if you fail." To enable your Lordship to fulfil the pledge made in the speech referred to in the opening, there is Uttle else required than what I have included in this letter. Leave us free to work representative institutions after the British mode. Select your Governors with care ; give them concise and definite instructions ; and hold the scales of honor and dishonor be fore them with an unwavering hand : then wiU the work commenced in 1840 be completed in 1846 ; then will British Americans enjoy self- government without danger to their aUegiance ; and have only them selves to blame if they are not as prosperous as they are free. In my next I shall invite Your Lordship's attention to some points which touch less our internal government than our external relations to the rest of the Empire ; and, in the meantime, trusting that you will ascribe the liberty I have taken to the right motive, I have the honor to remain, etc. LETTER n. Mv Lord, — The system of internal self-government, to the consoh- dation of which Your Lordship's attention was invited in a former let ter, is essential to the preservation and peaceful improvement of these Colonies. It must be left to its operation. Frankly yielded, with the consent of all parties at home, it has been embraced by aU parties in North America ; and wUl be maintained with consistency, and worked with prudence, worthy of the descendants of those who secured similar privileges by the Revolution of 1688. My firm belief is, that success ive generations of loyal British subjects, respecting the paramount con trol of the Imperial authorities, but firmly resisting unnecessary and vex atious interference, will continue to expand and apply the principles de veloped within the last seven years, until the " girdled trees," described by Lord Durham, have become sturdy British oaks, fast rooted in the generous soU of the Constitution, and flourishing beside their venerable parent stem. LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 363 To give full effect to this system, it will be perceived that the true policy of British statesmen, except on the single point of the selection of Governors, is to be rather passive than active — to maintain a " mas terly inactivity ; " to do for us what the French merchant desired of the French King, — to " let us alone ; " to discourage complaints and refer ences to the Colonial Office, and to throw the responsibility on the ex , ecutive advisers of the Queen's representatives, who must combine and carry with them working majorities in the Provincial Legislatures. The prerogatives of the Crown, the authority of Parliament, the surveU- lance of the Colonial Secretary, will still exist; and be all the more res pected, that they rarely disturb internal administration, or attempt to control the free current of public opinion. Every officer, from the high est to the lowest, will still be the Queen's officer, bearing Her Majesty's commission, and holding it during pleasure. Every Imperial statute will be enforced in the Colonial courts ; every road will be the Queen's highway ; every militia man the Queen's soldier ; every dispatch from the Colonial Office will be received with the deference and respect to which it is entitled. All that is essential to the dignity of the Crown and the unity of the Empire will be retained by the mother country ; all that is indispensable to a wise internal administration will be freely conceded ; and mutual confidence and mutual prosperity be the natural results. Having disposed of this branch of the subject, let me now invite Your Lordship to a field of labor that British statesmen may legitimately oc cupy ; one worthy of your talents, and of the elevated reputation for decision and enterprise which you enjoy. I have long entertained some views, that I cannot but flatter myself will have weight with the present Cabinet ; and which appear deserving of mature consideration by all who not only desire to see these Colonies flourish under free institutions, but indissolubly incorporated as integral portions of the glorious British Empire. Apart from questions of internal administration, upon which I con ceive that enough has been already said, there is another aspect in which our North American Provinces should be viewed: — their external relations to the parent country, and to the Empire at large. Regarded in this aspect, there is much that may be done for them ; much that a wise statesman would not consider unworthy of some reflection, and of active interference in their behalf. Passing over for the present some questions of internal improvement, and others of political organization, in which the interference of the mother country would materially strengthen and elevate the whole group, let me ask Your Lordship to 364 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. consider whether, in all that relates to the general concerns of the Em pire, a wiser use may not be made of the inteUectual and physical re sources of this continent, and whether a wider field may not be opened for the emulation and honorable aspirations of its public men. To understand the importance of the subject, as it has again and again presented itself to my mind, it will be necessary for Your Lordship to fancy yourself a Colonist, looking abroad, on the one side, at the fields of ambition and influence presented bythe empire of which he is a mem ber ; and, on the other, at the positions achieved by the most humble citizens of the neighboring United States. The saddening reflection with which he withdraws his eye, to contemplate the narrow range of Provincial ambition ; the lowly walks in which he is condemned to tread ; the limited circle of influence, beyond which he can never hope to rise, would be felt in its full force by Your Lordship, if you were a British American, even though your popular qualities were questionable, and the strength of your wing untried. Let me iUustrate the subject by a few simple contrasts. An Anglo- Saxon youth, born in Massachusetts, may rise through every grade o_ office till he is governor of his native State. A youth, born in Nova Scotia, may do the same, with the single exception of the highest position, that of governor ; but if he is denied this distinction, he may, de facto govern his country, as leader of her Councils, if he possess the foremosi mind of the Provincial administration. So far, there is an equality oi condition, which leaves to a Colonist little to envy or to desire ; but, the highest point once reached, he must check his flight and smother his am bition ; while the young republican may continue to soar, with prospects expanding as he ascends ; until, long after his contemporary across the border, weary of the dull round of provincial public life, has ceased to hope, or to improve; in the full vigor of manhood, and with a rich matu rity of intellect, he reaches that elevated station to which he has been wafted by the suffrages of twenty millions of freemen. The Boston boy may become President of the United States ; the young native of Halifax or Quebec can never be any thing but a mem ber of an Executive Council, with some paltry office, paid by a moderate salary. The contrast is very striking, and well deserves the grave con sideration of those who may not regard it as too high a price to pay for the unwavering attachment of British America, that its youth should be admitted to some participation in the higher employments and distinc tions of the empire. I have known men, who, as Loyalists, left the old Colonies, and died in the Provinces, undistinguished and unknown be yond their borders ; while their contemporaries, scarcely their superiors LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 365 in intellect, or more successful up to the points where the conflict of principle compelled them to diverge, occupied the foremost rank in the republic. There are men now, in North America, who, if these Prov inces were States of the Union, would be generals, senators, governors, secretaries of State, or foreign ambassadors. I hafe seen and heard those who figure in the State Legislatures, and in Congress; and with a few exceptions, (formed by the inspiring conflicts and great questions of a vast country) I could have picked their equals from among Her Majesty's subjects, on this continent, at any time within the last ten or fifteen years. The old loyalists died contented, and their descendants in these Prov inces are loyal and contented still ; but, my Lord, should not a wise statesman anticipate the time, when these contrasts will sink deep into the provincial mind ; when successive groups of eminent and able men will have lived, and drooped, and died, hopeless, aimless, and undistin- tinguished beyond the narrow confines of a single province ; when gen ius, with its plumage fluttering against the wires, feeling itself " cabined, cribbed, confined," may raise a note of thrilling discontent or maddening ambition, to be caught up and re-echoed by a race to whom remon strance and concession may come too late ? For obvious reasons, my Lord, I do not dwell on this topic. A dull* man would not understand me ; but there is that within Your Lordship's own bosom which can teU you, in a throb, what we feel, and what we want. A few simple touches are all that are required, or I am mistaken, to deeply interest you ; and, when once your generous nature and acute understanding are excited to activity, the paths of honorable emulation wUl be open, and all ground of complaint removed. I do not disguise from Your Lordship that there are difficulties surrounding this subject ; it is my purpose to discuss them fairly ; because, upon the Colonists should rest, in such a case as this, not only the burden of complaint that a grievance exists, but the task of explaining how it may be removed. The population of British North America cannot be far short of two mil- Uons. With a boundless extent of territory to occupy, and an abundance of food, our people will increase, by the close of the present century, even if no general plan of emigration be superinduced on our present system, to twelve millions. To incorporate these twelve millions with the Empire, to make them think and feel as Englishmen, it is clear that all the em ployments of the empire must be open to them, and the highest privi leges of British subjects conferred. If this cannot be done, a separate national existence, or an incorporation with the United States, are dan gers to be gravely apprehended. Surely, then, it is a point of policy 85* 366 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. well worthy to be revolved by British statesmen, how these North Americans can be so deeply interested in the honor and unity of the Empire, as to preserve them " in the bonds of peace," and make them attached and loyal subjects of the Crown. By conferring upon them the advantages of self-government and control over their own internal af fairs, a most important advance has been made towards the achievement of this happy consummation. And now is the time, before there is any wide-spread discontent or clamorous demand, to anticipate, and provide for, a state of feeling, which must inevitably arise out of the practical ex clusion of the population from the official employments and higher honors of the empire. But it may be asked — are they so excluded? Seats in Parliament, the army, the navy, the diplomatic and civil services of the State, are open to all ; there is no legal barrier ; no rule of exclusion. In theory this is true ; in practice it is an utter fallacy. Look around, My Lord, upon those departments ; and while hundreds and thousands of English, Irish, and Scotchmen, throng them all, not twenty North Americans can be found. There are more Englishmen in the post office and customs departments of a single province, than there are Colonists in the whole wide range of imperial employment. Why is this ? It cannot be that <>ur young men are deficient in courage, enterprise, or ambition ; it can not be that the prizes to be won here are more brilliant and attractive. There must be a reason for it ; and the reason lies on the surface. Our youth have no patrons, no parliamentary, nor family, nor official interest or influence, to push them forward in the race, or to render competition equal. They are not on the spot to seek for commissions that are be stowed for the asking ; and they cannot hope to succeed, where other recommendations besides ability and good conduct are required. The result is, that the two millions of North Americans are practicaUy ex cluded, as the twelve miUions will be by and by, if no provision be made for their peculiar position and claims. Suppose a young North American to enter the army with an English man of the same age. In nine cases out of ten, by the possession of more ample means, the latter would rise by purchase over the head of the former, merit being equal. But, if the Englishman were the son of a Peer, or of a member of Parliament ; if his family had interest at the Horse Guards, or in a county or borough which sustained the adminis tration, the young Colonist, if he did not fall in some well-fought field (as most of my countrymen have done, who have tried the experiment), would be distanced in the race, and retire in old age on a subaltern's or captain's half-pay, while his more favored competitor became a general LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 367 of brigade. This, my Lord, whatever may be said of it, is practical exclusion from the army. In a few solitary instances, higher posi tions may have been won, but they are exceptions which prove the rule. In the navy, merit has, perhaps, a fairer chance, as promotion is not purchased ; but still interest and influence are there all-powerful ; and a young Colonist, on the deck of a British frigate, does not feel that it is a fair stage, where there is no favor. I grant that, in either service, some gallant exploit, some exhibition of rare personal valor or conduct, would attract notice and confer distinction ; but the opportunities do not occur every day ; and when they do, and when they are seized, I doubt if the exploits of the young Colonist, friendless and alone in the world, will figure as largely in the official dispatch, as they would if his uncle were a Lord of the Admiralty, or his father member for Bristol. But, it may be said, the Colonist, without fortune or interest, stands upon an equality with the Englishman who is no better off. This may be true, but yet does not improve our position, or weaken the argument; it reduces us to a level with the lowest class of Britons but does not raise us to an equality with the better classes, or with the New England ers over the border. The time is fast approaching, or I am much mis taken, when Englishmen will consider it as disgraceful to sell a commis sion in the army, as they would to sell a seat upon the bench ; when merit, and not interest, will be the rule in both services ; and when, having ceased to eat dear bread for the benefit of a few, they will not vote heavy army and navy estimates, without the great body of the peo ple are freely admitted to an equal participation in the patronage and promotion maintained by their expenditure. When that day arrives, and it may be nearer than we think, the Colonists will have nothing to complain of; .until it comes, some steps should be taken to remove all ground of complaint, and to associate North Americans with the habitual defence of the British flag. I must confess that I feel a degree of diffi dence in offering suggestions on a point which, for its full elucidation, would require some professional information and experience ; but there is one passage in British history that may furnish something like a prece dent. When the Highland regiments were raised, the districts whence they were drawn were generally disaffected. The embers left, when two un successful rebellions had been trodden out, were still smouldering, and ready to be enkindled ; Jacobite songs were the prevailing literature of the glens ; and broadswords were ¦ bequeathed from father to son, with the dying injunction, that they were only to be used in defence of " the 368 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. king over the water." Chatham saw, that to incorporate the Scottish highlands with the rest of the Empire ; to make their hardy mountain eers loyal British subjects, it was only necessary to give them something to do, and something to be proud of; to direct their chivalrous valor upon a foreign foe ; to let them win laurels and fortune under the House of Brunswick. The experiment was regarded as hazardous at the time, but how nobly the results confirmed the sagacity of the great statesman. On almost every battle field for the last century, the prowess of these Scottish regiments has shown conspicuous. The tales, told on their re turn, by maimed but honored veterans, of the heights of Abraham, of Egypt, Toulouse, Vittoria, and Waterloo, have superseded the exploits of Charles and bonnie Dundee. The regiments in which their fathers and brothers had served, were readily recruited from the ardent youth born among the heather. Glencoe and Culloden were forgotten ; a new spirit pervaded the Highlands ; and, even to the extremity of the " black north," the fusion of the Scottish race with " the southron " is acknowl edged on all hands to be complete. Now, my Lord, try some such experiment in North America. Raise two or three regiments ; train Colonists to command them ; let it be un derstood that, in those corps, merit only leads to promotion ; and give them in name, or dress, or banner, something to mark the Province whence they come. Try a frigate or two on the same principle; call one of them The Nova Scotia ; man her with the hardy fishermen who Une our sea coast, and hoist the Mayflower beneath the Union Jack, when she goes into action. Those regiments may flinch in the hour of trial, but no man who reads this letter, from Funday to Michigan, will believe it ; that ship may sink, but there is not a Nova Scotian who would not rather go down in her, than have her flag disgraced. From the heads of those regiments, and the quarter decks of those ships, the fiery spirits of North America would pass, if they were worthy, into the higher grades of both services ; they would be to us what the academy of West Point is to the youth of republican America, schools of instruc tion and discipline ; and then we should be prepared, not to envy our neighbors, but to meet them on the frontier, or on the coast, when the meteor flag of England was unfurled. Turning to the civil service of the State, we find the Colonists practi cally excluded. Some of them hold subordinate places in the Imperial departments whose branches extend into the Provinces in which they reside ; but the higher positions, even in these, are generally engrossed by natives of the mother country, who have had the good fortune to en joy Parliamentary or family influence. Of this we should not complain, LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 369 if we had the same means of pushing our fortunes at home, or in other portions of the Empire. There is one department, to employment in which we fancy we have a peculiar claim — the Colonial Office. Your Lordship may be startled; and others, who have never given the subject a thought, may be disposed to sneer. But there have been, occasionally, within my political remembrance, worse clerks and under secretaries than North America could have supplied. From the bench, the bar, the Legislatures, abundance of material could be selected, to give to that de partment a character for efficiency which it has rarely enjoyed ; and to draw around it a degree of confidence, that it can hardly hope to attain while the leading minds produced by the great countries committed to its care are practically excluded from its deliberations. I could quote twenty cases, in which one North American by the Colonial Secretary's side would have prevented much mischief; scores of exciting and pro tracted controversies, that might have been closed by a single dispatch ; and I have listened to and read speeches in Parliament, which the merest political tyro in the Provinces would be ashamed to deliver. I feel, My Lord, that this is bold speaking, and delicate ground ; but I shall be much mistaken in Your Lordship's noble nature, and in the im proved organization of the Colonial Office under Earl Grey, if offence io given. Before touching upon the means by which this very essential depart ment may be recruited from the Colonies, let me direct attention to the grounds of my belief that a very important preliminary step should first be taken. The concessions made to these Provinces provide only for their in ternal administration. AU their external relations — - with each other, with the mother country, and with the empire at large — still remain to be dealt with by the Imperial Parliament ; and the question naturally arises, Whether the time has not arrived when they are fairly entitled to some representation in the National Councils ? Your Lordship may be surprised at the suggestion ; but weigh this matter calmly. North America is nearly as much interested in every question of commercial regulation, of foreign policy, of emigration, religious equality, peace and war, as are the inhabitants of the British Isles. If she were an inde pendent nation, besides controlling her internal government, she would protect her own interests in the arrangement of them all. Did the Provinces form States of the American Union, they would have their representation in Congress ; and would influence, to the extent of their quota, whatever it was, the national policy. Now, my Lord, is it too 370 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. much to ask, of those who desire to avert any such change of position, that analagous privileges, suited to our circumstances and claims, should be conferred ? Is it not better that the mother country should magnani mously take the initiative in this matter, before clamor and discontent prevail ; before factious spirits seize upon a theme admirably adapted for popular declamation ? My object, my Lord, is not to sound a key note of unnecessary alarm, but to anticipate the dissonance that may possibly arise. I wish to put an end, at once and forever, to the fears of the timid within our own borders, and to the hopes of adversaries be yond them. I desire to come promptly to a state of things which all parties may acknowledge as mutually satisfactory, and recognize as per manent. I am weary of hearing English politicians speculating on the probabilities of separation ; of seeing American sympathy excited by the vain hope of Colonial disaffection. I would that foreigners should see and feel, that British Americans have nothing to complain of, and nothing to desire ; that they have attained a position, by peaceful loyalty and moral suasion, which their neighbors only won, by a disruption of old ties, and by the painful sacrifices of a bloody revolution. But, it may be said, if you desire representation in the Imperial Par liament, you must be prepared to part with your local Legislatures, and to submit to equality of taxation. Nothing would be fairer, if equality of representation was the thing sought ; but this, for obvious reasons, would be an impolitic demand ; and any scheme to carry it out, would be found, on due reflection, to be impracticable. To place in the House of Commons, representatives from all the Colonies, in proportion to their population, territory and varied interests, would be to swell the numbers, to a mob ; to throw upon that body all the business now dispatched by the Colonial Assemblies, would clog the wheels of legislation; even though Parliament sat throughout the year. Representation in this sense, and to this extent, then, is not what I desire ; but a moderate de gree of moral and intellectual communication between North America and the Imperial Parliament ; which, while it left all our existing ma chinery in full operation, would render that machinery more perfect ; and, without investing us with any share of political influence that could by possibility excite jealousy at home, would yet secure to us, at least, the means of explanation, remonstrance, and discussion. Suppose that the five North American Colonies were permitted to elect, in the follow ing proportions, either through the Legislatures, or by the body of the constituency, men of talent, enjoying public confidence : — LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 371 Canada 3 Prince Edward Island 1 Nova Scotia 2 New Brunswick 2 Newfoundland 2 10 and that the members, so elected, were permitted to sit and vote in the House of Commons ; a number so small would neither be inconvenient, nor apt to excite jealousy ; and yet, they would give to North America a voice in the National CouncUs ; an influence proportioned to the ability, information, and powers of debate, she furnished. It would give her more ; it would give her a noble field for the display of her cultivated intellects, and open, for the choicest of her sons, a path to the higher distinctions and honors of the Empire. It would give to her less brilliant, but enterprizing youth, seeking their fortunes in the military, naval, and civil services of the State, not patrons — for the influence of these rep resentatives would be trifling — but earnest and judicious friends, on the spot where their claims were to be stated, and their interests advanced. Now, my Lord, would not such a concession as this, gracefully be stowed, almost before it was asked for, strengthen the Empire ? Would it not put republicans and sympathizers hors de combat, without a bayonet or a barrel of powder ? It would be worth half a dozen citadels ; and, on the day that those ten members took their seats in the House of Commons, you might withdraw thousands of men, who are kept here at an enormous expense, to defend a country, the population of which, too happy for discontent, would guard with spirit the privileges thus peace fully secured. But, my Lord, I do not put this moderate demand on the footing of a favor ; to my mind, it bears the semblance of simple justice. In every session of Parliament, measures are discussed in which the Colonists are deeply concerned. Many times, within the last twenty years, the Colo nial trade has been deranged ; Colonial interests sacrificed, and our views have been strangely misinterpreted and misunderstood. If the general welfare were promoted, our sectional interests, of course, should not have stood in the way ; but, even in those cases where you are right and we are wrong, we would yet have the security of consultation, discussion, remonstrance. We would say, with becoming fortitude, " Strike, but hear us." Take the recent case of the repeal of the Corn Laws. Of that mea sure I highly approve. As a youth, just entering into public life, I denounced the Corn Laws ; and when they were doomed, I smiled at 372 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. the fears expressed in Canada and elsewhere, and rejoiced with all my heart. But, my Lord, even a good measure hardly reconciles us to the fact, that the commercial relations and settled business of two mUlions of people should be dealt with, even in a wise and philosophic spirit, with out their exercising upon the discussion, or the result, the slightest influence. Take another case. The North American Provinces might have been plunged into a war, arising out of the annexation of Texas, or the settlement of the Oregon question ; without, perhaps, having the shghtest interest, or desire to participate, in either quarrel. Happily, such calamities were averted by the dignified firmness and moderation of the Imperial authorities ; but similar controversies with foreign powers are continually arising, and may not always be so satisfactorily adjusted. The Colonial Legislatures do not pretend to meddle with any of these lisputes. But is it reasonable to ask miUions of Britons to take up arms ; to suspend their commerce ; to beat their ploughshares into swords, in a quarrel, upon the growth and deadly termination of which they have never been consulted ; and which they have had no power to influence o. avert ? The presence of such a body of men, as I propose, in Parlia ment, would remove this ground of complaint ; if they were outvoted, we should at least have the satisfaction to reflect that they had been heard. In some cases, their reasoning would probably prevaU, to the modification of a bad measure or the improvement of a good one ; in others, they would be convinced, and would take pains to satisfy their constituents of the wisdom and sound policy of the course pursued. They would perform the double duty of mingUng Colonial sentiment and opinion with the current of debate and of reconciling the Colonists to the decisions of Parliament. This they would do, if only permitted to speak and vote upon Colonial, or rather on Imperial questions ; but if allowed a larger latitude, even in the discussion of purely British topics, they might, at times exercise a salutary and temperate influence. If men of sound judgment, conciliatory manners, and cultivated taste, they would — from the very fact of isolation, and impotence as a party ; from their being strangers from a far country, with no interest in the matter ; trained in a different school, and accustomed to examine similar questions with other lights, and from different points of view — sometimes be heard amidst the din of party conflict. They might, when the storm was highest, pour oil upon the troubled waters ; and win respect for their intentions, when they failed to convince by their eloquence. If these men, fairly tried on the great arena, were found to possess talents for debate, ready pens, and habits of business, where could bet ter material be sought to recruit and strengthen the Colonial Office ? LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 373 Their local information and knowledge of detail could not well be sur passed ; their sympathy with the population of the countries to be dealt with would not be suspected ; and the double responsibility felt, to Par Uament on the one side, and on the other to the people among whom they would probably return to pass the evening of their days, would en sure the most vigilant and enlightened discharge of their public duties. And, my Lord, would it be nothing to have these men returning, every few years, from such scenes and employments, to mingle with and give a tone to the society of North America ? How invaluable would be their experience, how enlarged their views, how familiar their acquaint ance with the rules of Parliament and the usages of the Constitution ; but, above all, how sound their faith in the magnanimity and honorable intentions of our brethren across the sea. These veterans would become guides to the Provincial Legislatures when questions of difficulty arose ; and would embellish social life by the refinement of their manners, and the fruits of their large experience. But they would not all return. Some, it is to be hoped, richly en dowed by nature and improved by study, might win the favor of their Sovereign and the confidence of ParUament, and rise to the higher posts and employments of the State. If they did not, it would be because they were unworthy, and their countrymen could not complain ; if they did, the free participation of North Americans in the honors and rewards of the Empire would be proved and iUustrated ; and a field would be opened to our youth, which would enable them to view with indifference the prizes for which their republican neighbors so ardently contend. Mark, my Lord, the effects which this system would have upon our Legislatures and upon our people. Is there a young man in North America, preparing for public life, who would be contented with the amount of study and the Umited range of information now more than sufficient to enable him to make a figure in his native Province ? Not one. They would ever have before them the higher positions to be achieved, and the nobler fields of competition on which they might be caUed to act. They would feel the influence of a more Uvely emulation, and subject themselves to a training more severe. Our educational in stitutions would improve ; a higher standard of intellectual excellence would be created ; and not only in society would the influence be felt, but in the courts, the press, and in the Provincial Parliaments, there would reign a purer taste, and a more elevated style of discussion. These are a few of the advantages, my Lord, which I believe would flow from this concession. The views I entertain might be variously il lustrated, and explained with more accuracy of detail ; but I feel that 86 374 TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA. your time is precious, and that if once interested, your own vigorous un derstanding and acute perception will enable you to master the subject. There are other topics which, at fitting occasions, I may take the liberty to press upon Your Lordship's notice ; but in the meantime beg you to beheve that, however crude my views may appear, or homely the style in which they are expressed, I have but two motives : a sincere desire to see Your Lordship a successful minister, and North America indis- solubly incorporated with the British Empire. My father left the old Colonies at the Revolution, that he might live and die under the British flag. I wish to hve and die under it too ; but I desire to see its ample folds waving above a race worthy of the old banner, and of the spirit which has ever upheld it. I know North America weU ; and I am assured that, whUe a feehng of confiding loy alty is very general, there is as universal a determination to rest satis fied with no inferiority of social or political condition. We must be Britons in every inspiring sense of the word : hence my anxiety to an ticipate every generous aspiration, and to prepare the way for that fuU fruition of Imperial privileges, which I trust wiU leave to my country men nothing to complain of and nothing to desire. Should Your Lord ship, to whom, as a Colonist, I feel we are largely indebted, adopt my views, I shaU be amply repaid : should you reprove my boldness, or question my sagacity, it wiU not lessen the sincerity with wliich I sub scribe myself* With much respect, Your Lordship's Obedient, and very humble servant, JOSEPH HOWE. October, 1846. TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA: Fellow Countrymen, — After nineteen years of pubUc service, ten of them passed in the Legislature, I have but one more task to per form ; and I crave your patience, whUe I acquit myself of it, with the frankness, and I trust the modesty, which become an individual, address ing, perhaps for the last time, the population of an entire Province. In a few months, it may be in a few weeks, the existing House of As sembly must be dissolved, under the law, and you wiU be caUed upon to select Representatives, to whom, for a period of four years, the interests of Nova Scotia, so far as they depend on legislative action or executive TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA 375 influence, must be confided. This duty, sufficiently solemn, and requir ing the exercise of a sound judgment, at all times — on the present oc casion, from the position in which conflicting parties have placed you^ calls for a more than ordinary measure of firmness and discrimination. Between those two parties there can be no fusion — no compromise. You have to decide between two sets of men, and two sets of principles, in the presence of your families, whose future fortunes will be affected by your decision, and of upwards of a million of North Americans, in habiting the adjoining Provinces, who view your progress towards the settlement of a Constitution, with much solicitude, and whose political advancement may be influenced by your example. Having taken so prominent a part in the measures which have pro duced the present crisis, you will pardon me if I confess that I feel a deep interest in the result of the approaching contest. Great pains wiU be taken to persuade you, that this interest is purely personal — that in the advice I give, I am actuated by a desire to grasp power and office, and not by any regard for the public welfare. If you believe this of me, you will do yourselves injustice, and be grossly misled. Before you give credence to such slanders, recall to mind a few facts, known to you all, and which will enable you to judge of my motives by my past actions. Two offices of emolument were held in my family. Had I sustained the old system of government, and not denounced the hereditary trans mission of office, these places would have been mine at this moment ; and I could have held them for Ufe, and perhaps have transmitted them to my children, irrespective of public opinion. In 1837, and again in a subsequent year, Sir Colin CampbeU, and afterwards Lord Glenelg, offered me a seat in the Executive Council. Had I accepted either of these offers, I could have gone into the old Council, where permanent office, and a conspicuous place in the Ad ministration for Ufe, would have been mine. I declined these honors and prospects, because / sought a Constitution for you, not a provision for myself. — I could not conscientiously identify myself with a govern ment which was hostile to your interests, nor give the stamp of my ap probation to modes of administration of which I entirely disapproved. In 1840, when pressed by Lord Sydenham to take part in the new Administration, then forming, I declined, urging the just claims of others, and respectfully suggesting that I could be more useful to the Government and the country by maintaining an independent position. At the request of his Lordship, who required my services in the de velopment of principles, then for the first time about to be introduced 376 TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA. into the Governments of North America, I consented to serve, and did serve as a member of the Executive Council, for two years, at great personal sacrifices, without fee or reward. In the autumn of 1842, having previously relinquished my private business, with the management of which the discharge of my public duties largely interfered, I accepted an office, which became vacant by the death of the incumbent, and which was freely tendered to me by the Lieutenant Governor, with the sanction of all my colleagues. If disposed to have held this office, and a seat in Council, at the sacrifice of your interests, and of what I believed to be public principle, I should hold them now. But acts were done which I could not defend, and a course of policy adopted of which I disapproved, and I resigned them both in December, 1843. They were offered to me again in Feb ruary, 1844, but accompanied by conditions which I beUeved would involve a sacrifice of your interests and of my own honor, and they were respectfully declined. Whatever motives may be attributed to me, my countrymen, these are facts, of which I do not remind you for any poor purpose of self lauda tion, but that you may be furnished with a ready answer to the slanders of my enemies : not one of whom, so far as I am acquainted with their history, has given the same guaranties for sincerity and good faith. I remind you of these things, because you are a practical people, to whose common sense acts will speak louder than words ; and in order that you may weigh the subsequent statements to which I design to call your at tention, without having your minds influenced by idle tales, and unjust insinuations. I may be in error, in the views I take of public affairs j but I am anxious that my countrymen should see and feel that I am in earnest. Passing from mere personal matters, to the more enlarged questions which invite a calm consideration, let us inquire whether there is any thing novel, or alarming, in the aspects of affairs, or in the duties you are called to discharge. I am happy that I see in them nothing but manifestations of the practical development of a free Constitution ,-=- the ordinary occurrences, which must be looked for under a system of Responsible Government, which subjects, in their turn, the conduct and principles of all parties to the grave deliberation and solemn decision of a free people. There are not wanting alarmists, who endeavor to terrify you with the idea, that you are treading on dangerous ground — that you are menaced with some awful convulsion ; and that their wis^ dom, watching over the affairs of state, can alone save you from ir remediable ruin. Heed not such worthies — they are the same batch TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 377 of Halifax officials, Tory merchants, village lawyers, and their friends and dependents, who, at every step in advance which you have made, or attempted to make, for thc last ten years, have endeavored to alarm you with apprehensions, and to induce you to bow to their false gods, with a degree of political superstition unworthy of the country you love, or of the race from which you spring. The two parties present themselves before you, at this moment, claim ing your suffrages. Both admit that your decision upon their conduct and their principles must be final. Reflect, for a moment, that if you lived in a despotic country, such as the Tories of Nova Scotia would make this, there could be no such appeal ; the will of the Sovereign, or of an oligarchy, would be law. You might vote, if your rulers accorded the privilege ; but you could decide nothing. An election would be a mock ery, as it was in England down to the period of the Revolution ; as it is in France and other European States at this hour ; as it was in Nova Scotia down to 1840 ; and as it would have been to the end of our nat ural lives, if those who, just now, profess for your judgments great def erence and respect, hid not been controlled by their opponents, and by a course of events which has elevated you to the dignity of British sub jects, and reduced to the position of your servants those who were for merly your masters. You may remember that in 1830 there was a fiercely contested elec tion — two parties contending for the mastery ; and principles, growing out of thc brandy dispute, being warmly debated all over the Province. The people on that occasion did their duty manfully. They returned those who had battled for their rights, with a triumphant majority ; but, after all, they decided nothing. They did all they could ; they had no power to do more. The office-holders and members of Council, who had provoked the contest, sacrificed the revenue, and set the people's rep resentatives at defiance still held their places, and governed Nova Sco tia for ten years, in spite of the leaders of the people, with powerful ma jorities at their backs. Can they do this now ? No : the men who provoked the late contest, and who stand before you for judgment, are con scious that your verdict, if against them, carries with it a penalty from which there is no escape. They must not only obey the people's voice, but yield the positions which confer influence and emolument, to those who enjoy the confidence of the people. The distinction is marked. The change presents the evidence of a rev olution as great as ever appeared in the history of any country — a revo lution won for you without a blow or a drop of blood, by peaceful and constitutional means, and which conferred upon you privileges analogous 86* 378 TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA. to those which our brethren in Britain have exercised, with so much advantage, for the last hundred and sixty years. You possess, at this moment, the power to surround His ExceUency the Lieutenant Governor with Councillors in whom you repose confi dence, and to reward the men who you believe have faithfully served you, by confiding to them the emoluments of office and the administra tion of public affairs. Two parties appeal to you for your suffrages — the Liberals, who won for you this high privilege, and the Tories, who withheld it from you as long as they could, and who would, if they had the power, withdraw it from you now. Decide between them. On the one side are the men in despite of whom Responsible Government exists in Nova Scotia ; on the other, those who have secured for you and for your children this inestimable blessing. Take your choice. That you wfll decide justly, wisely, and dehver your verdict with sufficient emphasis I confidently believe. That you wiU longer entrust the working of your new Constitution to its inveterate enemies, and exclude from all participation in the government of their country the men who have la bored to improve its institutions, I wUl not anticipate. Should you do so, — should you, unmindful of the past, and misled by any momentary outburst of zeal — any vague and delusive promises on the part of the enemy, — give them a majority, reflect not on me. My last duty is per formed. But be not surprised if pubUc spirit dies out of the hearts of public men ; and if some of them retire in disgust from a service which entails upon them unintermitting labor and responsibility, but neither gratitude nor reward. For my own part I do not hesitate to say, that, having toiled for nineteen years to improve your institutions ; having de voted the flower of my life to sedentary labor and active exertion ; hav ing written reams, and spoken volumes, that the humblest order of my countrymen in the most remote sections of the Province should compre hend the nature of this great controversy and learn to estimate the value of the new Constitution, — if you falter now; if, with the enemy before you, with the fruits of victory within your grasp, the highest priv- Ueges of British subjects to be secured or cast away by a single act, in a single day, — you show yourselves indifferent or undisciplined, I shall cease to labor, because I shall cease to hope. My private pursuits, my books, my family, will sufficiently employ and diversify what remains of Ufe ; but I will not waste it in unavailing opposition, in the face of a solemn decision of the people, that the principles and services of my friends are valueless, and that all our labor has been in vain. Pardon me, my countrymen, if, for an instant, I seem to doubt your firmness and intelligence. I doubt not either, though I deem it right to TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 379 deal thus frankly with you. I beheve that you are about to do your duty with a cheerful alacrity, which will astonish those who have been, for the last three years, presuming upon your ignorance or indifference. I believe that you are about to read the Tories of this Province a lesson they will never forget, and to win for yourselves a very high position in the estimation of British America. The grounds of my confidence are two-fold : I have never known you wanting in the hour of trial ; and I never knew a case in which the lines of distinction between parties to a controversy were more clear ancl unmistakable than in this. You are to decide whether the Tories, or the Liberals of Nova Scotia, are to preside over the departments and conduct the government of this Province for the next four, — it may be, for the next ten years ; for the spirit you display in the approaching contest, will largely influence the politics of this country for a very long period of time. Let me draw, from the history ofthe past, the materials by which to judge ofthe rela tive claims of these two parties. I shall speak of them, as I have found them, and from the results of my own experience. The elements of both have always existed in this, as they exist in every country. I found them strangely mixed and jumbled together, when I took my seat in the gallery, as early as 1828 ; but those who were actuated by a sin cere desire to promote the general interests were without fixed prin ciples, or defined views of government ; acting for constituencies who too often decided elections upon personal likes and dislikes ; and in the presence of a well organized body of office-holders, who monopolized one branch of the Legislature, and alternately wheedled, controlled, or defied the other. There were times when these men clung to a particular measure with honorable tenacity, as they did to the support of the Pictou Academy ; but they were sure to be beaten in the end. There were times, when, rallied under able leaders, they presented an imposing in tellectual front to the enemy, as they did on the brandy question ; but, as I have shown you before, though they gained an electoral victory, it brought with it no punishment for past misconduct, and no reward for faithful service. After surveying these contests, for a time, I fancied that two things were indispensable to the reformation of our affairs and the improvement of our institutions ; a healthy tone of public feeling, based on sound po Utical knowledge, pervading not a class or a coterie, but the great body of the people ; and an organized party in the lower House, acting on general principles, which the constituencies understood, and feeling in honor bound to advance those principles until they should prevail. In common with other gentlemen, who took the same view of our position, 380 TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA. my pen was dedicated to the work of public instruction, down to 1837 ; when I went into the Assembly, to aid in those combined legislative movements for which the country was now prepared, and which, if made in good faith, the people were ready to sustain. Up to this period, you will perceive, the Tories of Nova Scotia had ruled this country, according to their own good-will and pleasure and for their own advantage. How they had ruled, and how they were ruling it, you have probably not forgotten. Let me turn your attention to the state of the Province in 1837, just ten years ago, when the two parties which now claim your suffrages, began steadUy to confront each other : — 1. The members of the Legislative Council, holding their seats for life, formed a permanent Executive Council, controlUng every Governor, and treating the people and their representatives with contempt. 2. The doors of the Legislative Council were closed against the peo ple. 3. PubUc departments, and offices, were held by irresponsible incum bents, and transmitted from father to son. 4. No representative of a town or county sat in the Executive ; the people, therefore, possessed no power to remove an obnoxious adviser of the Crown, by refusing to elect him. 5. The Representative branch possessed no power to influence the Executive by remonstrance, or to get rid of a bad administration by a vote of want of confidence. 6. We had ten Judges, paid out of our revenues, who performed, on an average, but a few weeks' work in the year. 7. Some of those Judges exacted from suitors about £1000 of fees per annum, for which there was no law. 8. The Chief Justice sat in the Legislative and Executive Councils, and mixed in all the fiery conflicts of politics. 9. There was no Quadrennial BiU, and a House once elected, sat for seven years, if sufficiently pliant and corrupt to suit the taste of the Ex ecutive. 10. There was no bill for vacating seats, on the acceptance of office and any representative of the people might sell himself to the govern ment, without incurring the slightest responsibility. 11. The public lands ofthe Province were appropriated bythe Craw ley and Morris famiUes, and scarcely yielded a sixpence to the treasury. 12. The casual and territorial revenues were divided by the officials among themselves, without any check or control. TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 381 13. The custom-house salaries were enormously high; and the privi lege of free trade was confined to two or three ports. 14. Of twelve members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, but two had ever represented a township or county in Nova Scotia. 15. Of the twelve, all lived in the town of Halifax but one. 16. Ofthe twelve, nine were churchmen, and but three dissenters. 17. The main roads still went over the Horton and over the Cumber land mountains ; there was no Guysborough road, no shore roads east or west of the capital ; but few, worthy of the name, in Cape Breton ; and; though £30,000 of revenue had been thrown away in a squabble between the two branches, and a much larger sum flung into the Shubenacadie Canal, no man haying act or part in these follies had ever been caUed to account. Now, my feUow-countrymen, when you are told — as you have been frequently, and as you will be a thousand times during the approaching canvas, by the agents that the Tories are sending over the country — • that Nova Scotia has been, is, or is to be, ruined by Howe and the liberals ; bear in mind that this is the state in which Howe and the lib erals found this Province, when I entered the Legislature in 1837. In what state did we find its capital? Its condition, prior to 1835, may be seen in the six hours' exposition of its corruptions and abuses, which I was compelled to make, in that year, before the Supreme Court. This showing up lead to some improvements, but to no fundamental change. Halifax possessed no vestige of municipal privileges, no right of election to office, no efficient accountability ; in fact, no responsible government. This, my friends, is a faithful picture of your country and of its insti tutions, as the liberals found them in 1837. To sweep away such a mass of absurdity — to cleanse such an Augean stable, was no easy task. The Tories teU us now, that they are great reformers and great patriots. What were they about from 1837 to 1840 ? Which of them raised his hand, or his voice, against this miserable system of irresponsibility, folly, and corruption ? I ask you, my countrymen, if, in all the arduous labor which the liberals encountered in dealing with these questions, they ever had the cordial support of the Tories, as a Party ? whether, as a party, however individuals may have occasionally voted on particular measures, we had not, at every step, their uncomprising opposition ? You are now asked by the gentlemen who assembled at the Harmonic Hall the other day, to return a Parliamentary majority to put down the liberals. I was not at the meeting, of course, but I know the materials of which it was composed, and the animus which guided its deliberations. 382 TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA. I should like to see ten men selected from it, of any mark, who ever gave voluntary aid in clearing away this mass of rubbish, with which the Liberals resolutely grappled in 1837. Where were the six members of the Exec utive Council, for whose advantage you are now asked to vote down the liberals, that they may be maintained in their positions ? Where was Sir Rupert George ? Receiving his £1,800 a year (in ten years, since this contest commenced, he has pocketed £18,000) — for what ? Has he proposed one measure of reform, written one article, or made one speech, to instruct the people, to advance a principle, or to carry a measure ? What has he done, then ? Left the Uberals to do their work ; while his wealth, his social and poUtical influence, have been employed to obstruct them. These advantages, combined with a daily intercourse with every Governor, have made him the soul of that con federacy by whom your rights have been endangered, and by whose electioneering arts it is now vainly hoped that you are to be again cajoled. [Similar questions, having reference to other members, were put and answered, but we omit them, as the letter is long enough without.] But, last though not least of the six, where, let me ask of you, was the Attorney General in 1837, when all the work, which I have enumerated in these seventeen numbered paragraphs, was stiU to do, and when the Uberals of Nova Scotia were bracing themselves for the labors wliich they have happily achieved ? I saw him first, surrounded by all the Tories of HaUfax, laboring with all his might to defeat Bell and For rester's election ; I saw him next in the Legislative Council, a staunch supporter of an administration in which sat eight churchmen and four dissenters, a determined opponent of responsible government. Again, I saw him voting to send Mr. Stewart and Mr. WUkins to England, to oppose Mr. Young and Mr. Huntington, charged with an important mis sion by the people's representatives. In the winter of 1839, 1 saw him defeating the Civil List Bill, and giving, as a reason, that salaries — higher than he ventured to ask in 1844 — were not high enough ; and, in the spring of that year, I saw him at Mason's HaU, surrounded by all the Tories of Halifax, to defend Sir Colin Campbell for ruling for years with a parUamentary minority, and to denounce the House of Assembly, which had the manly firmness to pave the way for the new Constitution, by requesting his recall. Yet these are the men that the Tories of Halifax have again met in solemn conclave to ask you to sustain. — The patriots, who have so many claims to your confidence — whose past services have earned for them, from the people of Nova Scotia, such a debt of gratitude. — These LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. 383 are the worthies, for whom the liberals are to be trampled under foot — for whom the Speaker, Huntington, Doyle, McNab, Desbarres, McLel lan, and their associates — (the men who have done the work of this country for ten years, and who deserve the highest rewards that a free people can bestow) are to be thrust aside. Oh ! no, my countrymen, I will not believe it of you. Blind, and infatuated, and servile, you would be indeed, to foUow such counsels, and make such a selection. The far mer who would sow day nettles among his wheat — the merchant who would ship pirates in his bark — the mother who would entrust her chil dren to the wolves, would not err more strangely, than would the Elect- tors of Nova Scotia, if they committed such a blunder. I had hoped, fellow countrymen, that this letter, would have contained aU I had to say to you, but it has grown under my hands, and I must reserve for another, a brief sketch of the manner in which the liberals dealt with the Augean stable — of the mode in which it was cleansed, and purified, with great advantage to you, and no thanks to the Tories. In the meantime do me the favor to keep this letter, that you may read the two in connection, fixing your attention upon the numbered para graphs, which furnish a picture of your country as it appeared, when I first took my place beside those true friends to civil and religious liberty, who deserve your support as surely, as they wUl ever command the esteem of Your very humble, And faithful servant, May i, 1847. JOSEPH HOWE. TO THE HON. GEORGE MOFFATT, PRESIDENT OP THE BRITISH AMERICAN LEAGUE, MONTREAL. Sir, — By the Europa, and by the overland mails, we have received, in Nova Scotia, accounts more or less authentic, of the singular pro ceedings of the political party of which you are a conspicuous member. We have read the address published by a society of which you are the recognized head ; and have before us various reports of the riots and in cendiarism by which the city of Montreal was subsequently disgraced. There may be no connection between the Hon. George Moffatt, and the coarse imitator of CromweU who usurped the Speaker's chair ; the 384 LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. gentlemen who form the British American League may have no sym pathy with the incendiaries who fired the Parliament House, and pelted the Governor General ; and, if so, I may be taking an unwarrantable liberty in addressing this letter to you ; but if leaders, in Canada, as everywhere else, are to be held responsible for the acts of those whose passions they inflame, and whose movements they might control, you wiU readily pardon the writer for not giving you the benefit of distinctions that it is difficult at this distance to perceive. It appears, sir, that, on the 20th of AprU, the British American League, of which you are the president, commenced an organized oppo sition to the constituted authorities of Canada ; and that on the 25th, only five days after, the Queen's Representative was assaulted in the streets of Montreal ; the members of the House of Assembly were driven by violence from the hall of legislation ; and the ParUament House, con taining the finest library in North America and the pubhc records of the Province, was reduced to ashes by a lawless and infuriated mob. There may, as I have said, be no necessary connection between the North American League — who are dissatisfied with every thing — and the Montreal incendiaries, who appear to have stuck at nothing ; but, as yet advised, they seem to share a common sentiment, and to be working out a common policy. If they are not, the people in the Lower Prov inces will be glad to be informed ; but, in the meantime, we must beg leave to give both, the benefit of a few observations upon their joint pro ceedings. We gather, from the " scholastic production " to which your name is attached, that a convention, caUed by yourself, is to supersede the Par Uament of Canada. This movement for dispensing with the services of the Legislature, it seems to us Nova Scotians, very naturally generated the idea that the building in which it sat was an incumbrance ; and that its books and papers, fraught with occult sciences and varied superstition, were dangerous to the progress of society. Lord Elgin, who stood in the way of Mr. Protector Moffatt, was pelted, as a matter of course ; and, as the old ParUament House was too small to hold the convention, it was very reasonable that the mob should exclaim : " Burn it down, burn it down ; why cumbereth it the ground ? " The promulgation of your manifesto, and the occurrence of subsequent events, take us somewhat by surprise in this benighted Province ; but nothing appears more natural than the sequence. As you have appealed to North Americans in your address, and as the mob of Montreal have favored us with their interpretations of its con tents, I am induced to inquire whether it be the true one ; and whether LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. 385 pelting the Queen's Representative, dispersing our Parliaments, and burning our books, are to be indispensable preliminaries to joining the British American League ? There is something truly original in your mode of doing things in Canada. In England, Her Majesty is never pelted, whatever missiles may hurtle round the heads of her ministers. In the United States, no personal outrage follows the independent exercise, by the President, of the veto power, in defiance of the expressed opinion of Congress and the nation. What American citizen would pelt the chief officer of the re public, if he merely ratified, as Lord Elgin did, a measure — whether right or wrong — presented to him by overwhelming majorities of the legislative chambers ? Except in the city of Montreal, I never heard of such an outrage being committed on a British Governor, in any Province of North America, even in the worst times. In Nova Scotia,.our Governors, even those who were the most unpopular, have ever passed to and from the Parliament House, without even a word of insult ; and have strolled through the streets unattended, at all hours, in periods of the highest political excitement. The Montreal mode may be preferable to ours ; but, even if good breed ing did not forbid the commission of such an outrage, we would prefer to eat our eggs. Perhaps it may be said, that as Lord Elgin is to be the last Governor General,* it can make little difference. But, even in that case, if we are to have a change, it should not be a change for the worse. If brutality of manners is to be an accompaniment or a consequence of our new po Utical organization, perhaps it might be as well, after all, to adhere to the old. Even the red republicans of Paris bowed Charles the Tenth and Louis Phillippe out of France, with good-humored deference to their misfortunes. In departing then from European, American and British Colonial precedents, and setting up not only new machinery of legislation, but a new style of manners and of political retaliation, I cannot but consider that you have been exceedingly unfortunate. The example you have set will never be followed in any civilized country, it will stand alone on the page of history, a permanent record of your renown ; as distinct, from the dangerous isolation of indecency which surrounds it, as indeli ble, from the characters of fire in which it has been traced. Though what the high Tories of Montreal have done is readily per ceived, it is not so easy to understand what they are at. Whether they a,, * Isaac Buchanan's letters. 386 LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. are driving the people on the same principle as the Irishman drove the pig, mystifying him as to the ultimate end of the journey ; or whether, blind with passion and disappointment, they are incapable of a design, perplexes us a good deal. In the former case there may be method in what appears to be madness ; in the latter, the poet's line — " your dull, no-meaning puzzles more than wit," has been fairly illustrated. We have been told that because some £90,000 have been granted to pay the rebellion losses, the Governor General has been insulted and the Parliament House burnt. To the people in the Lower Provinces this would appear a strange remedy, even admitting the disease to be desperate. The man who cut off his own nose to spite his face must have been a native of Montreal. You have exceeded the scriptural injunction, because, when your cloak has been taken, you have flung your coat into the fire. We are told of poor times in Canada, but money would appear to be plenty. Even the gold diggers in California cannot afford to burn their shanties over their heads when their neigh bors happen to rob them. If what your friends have destroyed, how ever, had been exclusively their own, we should not have thought of complaining. But the public records of Canada belonged to the empire. Rare and scarce books, deposited in a public library, are the property of the world at large. Goths and Vandals had the same right as other people to destroy their enemies, but, when they made war against litera ture and art, their very names became by-words among the nations ; and I am slightly apprehensive that their very unenviable reputation is Ukely to be shared by your friends in Montreal. During the revolution of July, every weapon was taken by the Paris ians from the Musee" d' Artillery ; but when the fight was over, so sacred was the National collection regarded, that every weapon was returned. Had each of the rioters of Montreal borrowed a book before they set fire to the building in which they were deposited, the library, at least, would have been preserved ; and had each ruffian stopped to read the volume taken, even the building itself might have escaped. When your country has been taxed to build a new edifice, and to pay the rebellion losses besides, the luxuries of rebeUion and arson wiU, no doubt, be keenly appreciated. It will only be, however, when you have discovered that you have burnt what you cannot buy, and destroyed what can never be restored, that you will learn the depth and complex ion of your egregious folly. When the British army set fire to the public muniments at Washington, they needlessly provoked much national hostility; but what would have been the feeling, had one portion of American citizens burnt what belonged to the whole ; the common re- LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. 387 cords of the country, in which every man had an interest and took a pride ? To expunge from the journals of Congress a single set of reso lutions, cost, if my memory serves, at least a fortnight's debate ; the in cendiaries of Montreal expunge the whole in a single hour, and hope, by calling other people rebels, that British Americans will regard this act of barbarism as an amiable ebulition of patriotic zeal. England deprived Ireland of her Legislature, or rather one party sold it to the other ; but neither burnt the Parliament House, which still stands in CoUege Green; and the records of legislation were regarded as sacred, even when the institution itself had passed away. When five hundred free church ministers went forth in a body from the general As sembly of the Church of Scotland, the people of Edinburg did not rush in and burn its records. In the civil wars of England you will look in vain for the destruction of the National muniments by either party, and even when Sampson put fire brands to the tails of foxes, -it was to de stroy the Philistines' corn and not his own. We smile at the Irish gen tleman who challenged the jury from whom he anticipated an unfavora ble verdict ; but what would we have thought of him, had he pelted the judges, who recorded it, with eggs, and burnt the papers of the Court ? Compared with any of the ordinary standards, the Sabaens* of Mon treal, are a people whose acts are not easy to be understood. As neither Englishmen, Irishmen, nor Scotchmen, ever burnt up Parliamentary records and libraries ; and as Frenchmen respect their national archives and collections, even during the reign of terror and the downfall of dy nasties, we cannot give credence to the professions of ardent loyalty which your manifesto breathes, nor resist the conviction that there is something more meant than meets the eye in the designs of Mr. Mof fat's convention. From the speeches of some members of your society, it is sufficiently apparent that a revolution is to follow the riot. Assuming that a dissolu tion of the empire and annexation to the United States are intended, stiU it appears to me that you have begun the great work in the worst mode, and at the wrong end. Yours is but a shabby imitation of the example set by the American Colonists of 1765. Did they complain that their Governors gave effect to the wishes of the majority of the people, legitimately expressed through their repre sentatives, freely chosen ? Did they make war on their own Parliaments, destroy their own State Houses, burn their libraries, annihilate their pub- *Worshippers of fire, who, according to the Koran, go to Hell through the fourth gate 388 LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. he records ? The old Colonists rebelled, not because bad laws were made within the Provinces, and their own revenues were improperly dis pensed by Colonial Assemblies, but because bad laws were made for them by the Imperial Parliament, and taxes levied upon them without their own consent. They did not complain, as you do, that their Governors did not reserve or veto Colonial laws, but they rebelled because they did ; because their Governors sought to rule by violation of charters — in de fiance of Colonial opinion. Mobs were raised in Massachusetts and elsewhere to protect the Parliaments from the military. Who ever heard of the soldiers having to protect the old Colonial ParUaments from the mob ? What a poor imitation is yours, then, of the great example which at least some members of your league are disposed to copy. Who, think you, will embark in an enterprize of so much hazard, with men who, at the very outset, so egregiously miss their way? A confederation of the Colonies may be the desire of your Conven tion. If so, the object is legitimate, but it must be pursued by legitimate means. Believe me, it can only be wisely attained by and through the Provincial Legislatures, not by self-elected societies, acting independently and in defiance of them. Suppose to-morrow, propositions were submit ted to the Lower Colonies for a legislative union or general confedera tion. If made by the government and Parliament of Canada, they would be treated with deference and respect. If made by a party in op position, they would not for a moment be entertained. The Lower Provinces are accustomed to peace and order, to the em ployment of constitutional modes of proceeding for the attainment of political or social improvements. Deadly weapons, so common in the streets of Montreal, are rarely carried in Nova Scotia, except in pursuit of game. We have no charges of cavalry at municipal elections, nor are men shot down in our streets if they happen to differ in politics. We are not indisposed to a union or a confederation, but we must know with whom we are dealing, and have securities for the preservation of the blessings we enjoy. We desire free trade among all the Provinces, under our national flag, with one coin, one measure, one tariff, one post office. We feel that the courts, the press, the educational institutions of North America, would be elevated by union ; that intercommunication by railroads, telegraphs, and steamboats, would be promoted ; and that, if such a combination of interests were achieved wisely and with proper guards, the foundations of a great nation, in friendly connection with the mother country, would be laid on an indestructible basis. But if you ask us to send members to a Parliament which is not to be LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. 389 free ; to which the Governor General is not to have access, and of which he is not to be one independent branch, in full possession of the Sover eign's legitimate prerogatives ; if you desire to reserve to the mob of Montreal the right to smash the windows, steal the mace, and burn the records, whenever any laws are passed distasteful to the political clubs of that city, we shall be content to bear the ills we have, until your no tions are less barbarous ; and, if alliances are indispensable, we shall look seaward, and, turning our backs upon the north, make the most of our commercial position. Permit me to say, also, that what appears to be rather a favorite project with some parties in Canada, is in Nova Scotia regarded as impractica ble and absurd. We hear a great deal about anglifying the French Canadians ; and a union of the Provinces is sometimes advocated with a view to swamping and controlling that portion of the population, which, being of French origin, still preserve their ancient religion, manners and language. On this point we had better understand each other. If the process of anglifying is to include any species of injustice to that large body of British subjects, who already form at least one-half of the popu lation of United Canada, to such a design, no matter in what form pressed, or by whom entertained, we will be no parties. A confederation, or an Union, on such a basis, would bring with it curses innumerable, without a single blessing. We have no desire to form part of a nation, with a helot and inferior race within its bosom. If the French Canadians, then, are to be disfranchised — to be trampled upon — to be denied one right of British subjects — one privilege of the poUtical and social compact contemplated, we will never consent to become their oppressors ; to assume the responsibilities of tyr anny; to earn their recuperative hatred and hostility, and to foster in our very midst the elements of domestic discord and national weakness. The Anglo Saxons of Canada may, if they are strong enough, and have the disposition, try this unpromising experiment for themselves. The Nova Scotians will never aid them, nor consent that a Frenchman on the Richelieu shall have an inferior status to that which is now enjoyed by a Frenchman in Arichat or Clare. The process by which the people of French origin, who occupy the vale of the St. Lawrence, are to be anglified, as the term goes, has never been very clearly defined. If we have read history aright, and are to be guided by the lights of other lands, or by our own domestic experience, we are justified in anticipating no very brilliant results, should the polit ical enthusiasts of Canada ever attain the power to try their experiment. How many different races were included within the French monarchy ? 87* 390 LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. How many under the empire ? How many are ruled over at this mo ment by Louis Napoleon ? Have they, at any period, all dressed alike, or spoke the same language ? How great a diversity of speech, of re ligion, of costume, of mental and physical organization and development, is presented to the eye in the widely-extended dominions of the Czar? Of what many-colored materials was the German empire composed ? And yet do not all these, — harmoniously blending at times, and again broken and contradistinguished, — add endless variety and interest to the social aspects of that great nation ? In the proudest periods of the Spanish mon archy, who could have mistaken an Andalusian for a Castihan — a native of Biscay for a dweller upon the Mediteranean shore ? The greatest em pires of antiquity were composed of different "nations, tribes, and tongues." Suppose that Xerxes had commenced the hopeful task of en forcing uniformity of costume, of speech, of weapons, of behaviour, among the countless battalia that he marshaUed for the conquest of Greece. Fancy, even, the Greeks themselves to have presented this much-coveted uniformity, and you must fancy the page of Homer de prived of half its charms. If, then, in every quarter of the globe, at every period of the world's history, people of various origin, and speech, and manners, have shared the ills and advantages of the same political organization ; tilling the same soil, fighting under the same standards, illustrating a national his tory common to them all ; if the greatest monarchs of antiquity could not enforce uniformity of expression, of feature, or of employment ; and if the higher civilization, which the Asiatic and European races have at tained, has left the distinctive qualities and lineaments discernible, what success is likely to attend the great Canadian experiment, by which Jean Baptist is to be suddenly hocussed into an Englishman ? Look to the British Islands, and do not close your eyes to the light streaming down from the luminous pages of their history. Ten centu ries have passed away, and yet the Celt and the Saxon, inhabiting the same territory, have not, like Coleman's two single gentlemen, been roUed into one. The descendant of the Briton in the Cornish mine, can barely comprehend, at this hour, the language of the descendant of the Dane, who comes from the eastern coast. Upon the Welsh hills nim sassenach is the reply of every second peasant you meet. Has the Highlander taught the Lowlander of Scotland to talk Gaelic, or the Lowlander com peUed the hardy mountaineer to abandon his plaid? How have the English anglified the Irish, after centuries of proscription and oppression? And yet, we are to be told, that it is a burning shame for the Lower Canadian to wear his own homespun, talk French, cover the roof of his LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. 391 chapel with tin, or decorate his shrine with flowers. He must be angli fied, forsooth ; and if he is not, why then his Parliament House must be burnt, his representatives stoned, his public records destroyed, the repre sentative of his Sovereign must be pelted with mud ; and the Orangemen, and Glengaries and lumbermen of Upper Canada, must march upon the capital of his country and knock him on the head. In Nova Scotia, sir, the Germans of Lunenburg, and the French of Isle Madame, have been settled for a century. They are Germans and Frenchmen still. Surrounded by a British population, who control the Legislature and set the mode, they adhere to their language, their faith, their social pleasures, their costume. But, we neither hate nor persecute them for their obstinacy. On the contrary, we learn from them and they from us. We think it no disadvantage if a Nova Scotian can speak two of the noblest European languages instead of one ; and the very diver sity of feature, and contrast of race with race, adds variety to life. If, then, we have been more than an hundred years anglifying a few thou sand people, who have been every where surrounded and placed at dis advantage, and have not yet succeeded, with all the allurements which kindness, justice, and unrestrained social intercourse held out to the merging of all distinctions ; how long will you be making converts of the compact mass of eight hundred thousand Lower Canadians, who must by and by multiply to millions, and who will adhere all the more closely to their customs and their faith, if their attachment to them be made the pretext for persecution ? In the sunshine, the Frenchman may cast aside his grey capote ; but, depend upon it, when the storm blows, he will clasp it more closely to his frame. You ask me what is to be done with these recussants, either in United Canada, or by the North American confederation ? Just what is done now in Nova Scotia on a small scale, and by republican America on a large one : Know no distinctions of origin, of race, of creed. Treat all men alike. Establish firmly the general laws and institutions es sential to the preservation of life and property, and teach all to respect them by a sense of common advantage and the undeviating fidelity of their execution. This is the best mode of anglifying, and will come, in time, to be regarded as preferable to that which appears to be so popular in Montreal. But we are told that the union of the Provinces must be dissolved ; that it works badly, throwing the administration of affairs into the hands of the French, who are united, whilst the Anglo Saxons of Upper Can ada are disunited. But the union was a British and not a French meas ure. It was forced, in spite of the French Canadians, who were charged 392 LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. with an enormous debt for public improvements in Upper Canada, com menced and carried through without their consent or approbation. They wisely make the best of it ; those who were its advocates, having got what they wanted, are determined to make the worst of it. It may be as well, however, before you dissolve the union, to balance its advantages, even setting against them all the cost of paying the re bellion losses. The British took the Frenchmen's money to pay their debts; but we never heard that the Frenchmen destroyed the canals upon which the revenue had been expended. But suppose the union dissolved, what security have you that the English will be more united than they are now ? In Upper Canada they would split into two parties, as they did before ; and in Lower Canada they would be a powerless and helpless minority. But, sir, believe me, your Canadian Union is worth something, after all. It makes you a nation, with a nation's strength; rather than what you were, two weak Provinces, to be played off against each other. Be sides, the tendency of modern civilization proves, that widely extended dominion, either by a monarchy or a republic, offers the best security for peace and industrial development. If, then, you seek annexation to the United States, or a union or confederation of the Provinces, some apology may be made for you ; but to go back to the enfeebled condition of sepa rate, discontented and hostile Provinces, is to propagate, in British America, the idea that the extent of the territory of Canada is amazingly disproportioned to the extent of its intelligence. Lord Durham described the Canadas as two girdled trees ; Lord Sydenham entwined their branches together, that they might shelter and protect each other. Montreal rioters, in order to disunite them, kindle a fire around the stems. But, it is said, business is dreadfully depressed in Canada ; and, there fore, we must have a convention ; must cast about for a new state of political existence ; and, in the meantime, the burning of a few houses and books, is a matter of trifling concern. This would not be a bad reason for carpenters and stone-masons, out of employment, to give for the destruction of public property ; but certainly for those who are to pay for a new Parliament House, the excuse, like the smooth shillings that used to circulate in Truro, may do very well for Montreal, but certainly wiU 'lot pass current anywhere else. The emancipation ofthe slaves, for a time, annihilated our West India trade. But, what then ? The full discussion of the subject — by which the British nation was induced to pay £20,000,000 sterling, to wipe away that stain from our national escutcheon — convinced us that we LETTER TO HON. GEORGE MOFFATT. 393 ought to submit to some sacrifice for the honor of belonging to an empire, in whieh traffic in human flesh was forbidden, and the possession of slaves was a violation of law. By emancipating her slaves, England has in jured our commerce. Fish and lumber feel the effect of social and commercial derangement in the West Indies. But, what then ? These causes are temporary ; to be subdued and overcome by perseverence and enterprise. The great Act of Emancipation — that backward step to wards national honor and virtue, in which the temporary depression originated — suffuses our cheeks with pride, and enables us to listen to tbe reading of the Declaration of Independence, which declares all men free and equal, with a calm pulse, and a consciousness of national superi ority to our neighbors. But the timber trade is depressed. Well, many believe that every stick shipped from our shores would leave more wealth behind it if it were burnt upon the soil, and the ashes scattered over its surface. I do not go this length, but I rejoice, from the very bottom of my soul, that Eng land is nobly fulfilling her great mission of teaching the principles of free trade to all the world. If she has ceased to protect your timber, what ever the temporary inconvenience, she has thrown open her own soil, manufactures and capital, to equally free competition ; and if, for a time, some thousands of people are thrown out of employment, remember that this is the penalty invariably paid for every valuable improvement ; and let your people rejoice that they have the fertile soil of Canada upon which to fall back. Shame upon the cravens who, when the world at large is to be blessed, and the glorious British Empire is to be expanded and strengthened, burn down their Parliament House, and assemble conven tions because a few shipyards are idle, and a few lumbermen wanting work. England has had her depressions. The industry of France has been paralyzed again and again. A dozen times, within my recollection, have the derangements of commerce driven thousands from the Atlantic States to the fertile regions of the south and west. Such derangements are as common in commercial States, as derangements of the digestive organs among a Board of Aldermen ; but I never heard that a rebeUion was the remedy, or that burning down the Mansion House produced a restoration to health. Waiting, for further revelations from Canada, I have the honor to re main, Your obedient servant, A NOVA SCOTIAN. Halifax, May 8, 1849. 394 LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF THE COUNTY OF HALIFAX: Gentlemen, — Having been charged, by the Lieutenant Governor, with a Mission to England, involving very important Provincial inter ests, I shall leave Halifax in the Steamer to-morrow, and shall proba bly be absent for eight or ten weeks. During the last Summer, I visited every section of the County, and believe that there is nothing which any of you have confided to my care, or to which my attention has been called, that has not been dealt with as you desired, so far as the means at the disposal of your Representa tives would admit. Should any casualties occur, prompt attention wiU no doubt be paid to any proper representation made to the Government, through my Colleague, Mr. Mott. As I have not had an opportunity of publicly addressing you since the present Administration was formed, it may not now be out of place for me briefly to enumerate the leading measures to which its sanction and support have been given, and the questions which have been honor ably and permanently settled. Responsible Government, administered through Heads of Depart ments, holding their places by the tenure of public confidence, has oc cupied, as you are quite aware, a conspicuous place in the public dis cussions of British America for the last ten or fifteen years. Sustained by your sympathies, I gave, as a public Journalist, some years of life to its advocacy, at a time when there was much ignorance and indifference on the one side, and the whole weight of Executive and Legislative author ity on the other. Excluded from the Administration in 1843, 1 still as serted, in every hamlet you inhabit, and in every County of the interior, the principles for the security of which my friends and myself retired ; and which, with the aid of the Liberal majority, returned in 1847, we have lived, as Members of Administration, to establish. The days of toil, and nights of mental anxiety, which every prominent man of our party passed through during that long contest, few of those engaged in it are ever likely to forget. We have lived, however, to see our princi ples triumph — to see them recognized after full debate by the Lords and Commons of England — to see them clearly enunciated by successive Se cretaries of State ; and in Canada and New Brunswick, no less than in Nova Scotia, supplying new securities to liberty, and fresh vigour to every branch of Administration. The old system of Government naturally generated extravagance ; and, coupled with the general Constitutional questions, was the sub sidiary, but yet important matter of economical reform. The People of LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. 395 Nova Scotia never did grudge a fair remuneration to those who trans acted the public business. The Liberal Party, in Opposition, therefore, pledged themselves only to that rational measure of reduction, which, as a Government, they were prepared to yield. Let us see how those pledges have been redeemed. Until recently consolidated and remodelled, the principal Departments of the Government cost : Two Land Departments £2,010 17 3 Two Revenue Departments 12,610 8 7 The Treasury 891 10 8 The Secretary's Office 2,012 10 0 £17,525 6 6 There being no efficient Inspection of Accounts provided for. As the Departmental system has been now arranged, the entire expense will be : The Land Department £850 0 0 Receiver General's Department 891 10 8 Revenue Department 5,401 1 0 Financial Secretary's Department 800 0 0 Provincial Secretary's Department 1,400 0 0 £9,342 11 8 Making a reduction of expenditure on these Branches of the public Service, contrasting their cost in 1847 with what they cost now, of £8,182 14 10 To which may be added other Savings, effected under the Civil List Bill, amounting to 1,412 10 0 £9,595 4 10 Deducting three Pensions from the above 925 0 0 The immediate Saving then is £8,670 4 10 The ultimate Saving, when the Pensions fall in, will be £9,595 a year. Coupled with the question of the civil list, was another which touched the registry of deeds. This never could be settled while the present op position were in power ; the allowance demanded for Sir Rupert, being greater than the House would consent to give. You will soon feel the advantage of a final adjustment of this vexed question ; and in a few days after I quit the shores of Nova Scotia, the cost, all over the face of it, of transferring property, and confirming titles, will be reduced to nearly one-half of what it is now. This bill will effect an important saving to all classes ; to the poor, who often lose their votes, or have their rights endangered by the expense of registration, it will prove an acceptable boon. 396 LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. The bill for consolidating the Crown Lands Department, withheld by the Colonial Secretary in 1845, was confirmed in 1849. Besides the saving of expense, greater concentration and efficiency have been secured. Maps, showing the granted and ungranted lands, in every county, are in course of preparation; and when these are completed, other improve ments, of which this department is stiU susceptible, will probably be introduced. As a necessary part of the departmental system, the bill to enable members to vacate their seats, either upon the call of their constituents, or otherwise, will be found useful and convenient. The Act passed in 1848, "to render the Judges of the Supreme Court and the Master of the Rolls independent of the Crown, and to provide for their removal," though met with much clamor at the time, establishes a salutary control, without impairing the dignity or weakening the moral influence of the bench. The construction of the electric telegraph gives you, on a cheap scale, an apt illustration of the principle which the Lieutenant Governor now seeks to apply to works of greater magnitude. Built by the public funds, and managed for the public security and advantage, it already pays the interest on the capital, its working expenses, and a handsome profit, to be applied to the return of the capital or to the extension of other Unes. It is clear, then, that we get for nothing, the profit of all the labor and em ployment that the construction of the telegraph gave ; all the social and commercial facilities which rapid communication with the great cities of this continent, and even with the West India Islands, gives to our people. Nay, we get them for less than nothing. The telegraph will pay us for our enlightened appreciation of its value. Let us apply the same prin ciple to the railroad, and trust in a kind Providence for a like return for our expenditure. The want of an accurate census of the Province has long been keenly felt. Under the law of last session, an enumeration of our population and stock, will be obtained in 1851, and the returns prepared will pre sent to you a faithful picture of every branch of our Provincial industry. The consolidation of our laws is steadily advancing. This is a work of great labor and importance, honorably engaged in by acute minds of both parties, and so fast ripening to maturity, that in 1851 you may have in one portable book all the laws of the Province, now scattered about in many volumes, and actually inaccessible to the great body of the people. It is sometimes said, that the government is not acting vigorously in reference to lighthouses and the Isle of Sable. Those who indulge in these attacks cannot be accurately informed. During the past summer a mass of valuable information in respect to our Ughthouses was for- LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. 397 warded to England, which cannot fail to secure the cooperation of the Imperial authorities in placing our Colonial lights on the very best foot ing which modern science approves. Two or three new lighthouses have been built during the past season, and an equal nnmber will be erected in 1851. As regards the Isle of Sable, ever since the inquiry instituted into its management, in the winter of 1848, the government have never lost sight of this branch of the public service. Mr. Townshend's Report was followed by a searching investigation, which led to a change of management, and to various improvements ; and I have just laid before the Lieutenant Governor the results of a personal inspection, which I trust will by and by satisfy you that the public interest, in this depart ment, is not neglected. It is probable that both these services may yet be combined under one commission, as soon as the sanction of the Legislature is given to an act to be submitted for that purpose. The improvements made in the new School Act of last session are, I believe, working beneficiaUy. For the first time in our history has an officer of the government passed over the face of the country, rousing the people to the importance of education, and imparting information in regard to it. He has not, of course, yet penetrated into all the remote sections, but the stimuli applied to the more populous and important centres, will soon be felt at the extremities. As soon as the arrangements can be completed, one thousand pounds worth of valuable books will be distributed over the Province, and formed into school libraries, giving, perhaps, on an average, one thousand volumes to every county. These, my friends, are substantial fruits, yielded to you by a liberal administration, and springing from the patriotic and enlightened legisla tion of the men returned to ParUament in the stirring contest of 1847. " By their works ye shall know them ;" and truly of their works the gen tlemen with whom I have been an humble fellow-laborer, need not be ashamed. Political opponents of course abuse them, and political and personal friends love to show their independence by finding fault ; but let either match the measures of the past three sessions, from the records of any ten to be found in the political history of the Province. Let either find me, from the history of party in any country, one that so fully carried out, in office, the pledges made upon the hustings. One measure, and one only, to which the Uberal party pledged itself, they have yet to perfect ; I mean the revision of the Post Office, and the reduction of postage to an uniform rate. Over the causes of the delay we have no control. The Imperial government have informed us that 398 LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. they are not yet prepared to make the transfer. We stand ready to dis charge our honorable obligations, and to perform our duty, when they do. I need say little of county improvements ; these are before you and you can estimate their value. The two or three remaining sections of the Guysboro' Road have been finished this summer ; twenty-eight miles of the Harvey Road, along the eastern shore, have been completed ; half a dozen important bridges have also been constructed ; the damage by freshets has been repaired ; and the cross roads are steadily im proving. While faithfully applying the public funds to internal improvements, we have not been unmindful of measures necessary to the extension of our intercolonial and foreign trade. With all the surrounding Colonies a re ciprocal interchange of productions has been estabUshed ; and seven or eight new ports of entry have been opened for the accommodation of our vessels trading on the open seas. The best proof that our commerce is reviving and extending, is to be seen in the increase of our revenue, which I have little doubt will, by the close of the year, show an increase of £15,000 over that of 1848, the year that we assumed the control of pub Uc affairs. Our efforts to establish a reciprocal trade with the United States have not yet been successful. The failure is fairly attributed to the influence of class interests in that country, over which we have no control. A charge is often made against us, arising out of this negotiation, upon which it is proper for me to make a single observation. Itis said, that we have yielded up our fisheries to the Americans for no correpond- ing advantage. To this charge I give a flat denial; and when the cor respondence is submitted to the Legislature, trust me you will perceive with what jealous watchfulness your rights of fishery have been guarded, and what substantial equivalents were demanded, in return for the con cessions we were prepared to make. Another charge sometimes brought against us by our friends, is, that we have not displaced the subordinate occupants of office. This is true; but it is equally true, that not only were the liberal leaders never pledged to do this, but that at every public meeting I attended, from 1843 to 1847, I repudiated the practice, with the approbation, and amidst the cheers of thousand of liberals, of whom the meetings were composed. From this brief review it is apparent, that not only has no pubhc pledge been violated by my friends, but that every one given to their countrymen has been honorably redeemed. The past, with all its valuable results, is before you. But no poUtical party, no administration, indifferent to the duties of the present hour, LETTER TO THE FREEHOLDERS OF HALIFAX. 399 and unmindful of future improvements, can live upon the fame of past achievements and grateful reminiscences of by-gone labors, however honorable these may have been. The cry, and the great want of Nova Scotia, at the present time, is for further industrial development ; active employment for the people ; new and improved facilities for business and social intercourse. To this field of honorable labor she invites all her children, without reference to past differences of opinion, and in utter obhvion of the rivalries and ardent feelings which past contests have aroused. In this field there is work enough for us aU for twenty years to come. Upon this field I am prepared to enter, as an humble laborer, in the spirit evoked at the great meeting held in the capital on the 25th of August. I believe that a government fostering that spirit, nobly sustained by it, and dedicating the public treasure and the pubUc credit to the work of industrial development, may do much good. With a view to give form and direction to that spirit, I have accepted the im portant mission with which I am charged. If I succeed, our country will reap the advantage ; if I fail, the mortification will be my own ; but I shall bear it with the consciousness that I have done my best. One word on a topic of a personal nature. It has been for some time past the habit of certain writers, to charge upon me the authorship of whatever displeases them in the columns of the liberal press. Of the general management of the press I do not complain. Articles often ap pear in it which I have not the ability to write. Others which, for many reasons, I wish had been suppressed. In this parting hour, perhaps I owe the declaration to friends and foes, that, since I entered Sir John Har vey's government, in the winter of 1848, 1 have not written ten articles in any newspaper. The few I have written have been brief explana tions of the acts and views of the administration, or of the Lieutenant Governor, without a single offensive personal allusion to any political opponent. Since the raUway meeting in August, I have not written a line. With these explanations, which cannot be deemed inappropriate at the present time, I have only to thank you for your confidence, and for all the kindness shown to me, during the thirteen years that I have been your representative. Amidst the heady currents of the great me tropolis to which I am hastening, many a famihar face will recaU my thoughts to home. And, beneath the stately structures of Europe, I shall not readily forget the happy hours which I have passed in the scat tered hamlets where many of you reside. Meanwhile, — I have the honor to be, gentlemen, Very truly yours, Halifax, October 30, 1850. JOSEPH HOWE. 400 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. LETTERS TO EARL GREY. London, 5 Sloane Street, November 25th, 1850. Mv Lord, — Having, at the interview with which I was honored on the 18th instant, received Your Lordship's instructions to place before you, in official form, the arguments on which, as a representative from the Province of Nova Scotia, I base my application for the guarantee of the Imperial government, in aid of the public works projected by the government of that Colony, I beg leave, with all respect, to call Your Lordship's attention to the foUowing statement and observations : — Regarding the period as rapidly approaching, if it has not actuaUy arrived, when railroads must be laid down through her most advanced and prosperous counties, east and west, Nova Scotia is caUed to decide, with the experience of the world before her, upon the measures to be adopted to secure for her people, at the least expense, with the slightest risk, and in the shortest time, these great modern improvements. Her people have been accustomed to free roads ; no toll-bars exist in the Province. Her roads, made at the pubhc expense, belong to the country, and are emphaticaUy the Queen's highways. In the few instances where she has deviated from this poUcy, in respect to bridges or ferries, the cost and the inconveniences of monopoly have tested its value. Railways are highroads of an improved construction. They are as es sential to our advancement and prosperity now, as common roads were in the olden time. The service which the government has performed for a hundred years in respect to tbe common roads, which probably measure eight thousand five hundred miles, we believe it to be capable of performing in regard to railways. The administration is content to assume the responsibility, and the people, including an immense majority of all political parties, are willing and anxious that they should. If our government had means sufficient to build railroads, and carry the people free, we believe that this would be sound policy. If tolls must be charged, we know that these will be more moderate and fair, if government regulate them by the cost of construction and management, than if monopolies are created, and speculators regulate the tolls only with reference to the dividends. If there be risk or loss, we are content to bear it. If the traffic of the country yields a profit, we would apply the surplus revenue to the opening of new lines, or to the reduction of the cost of transportation. Were a railroad to be constructed in Nova Scotia, for the accommoda tion of internal traffic alone, we should perhaps decide to lay a line LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 401 through our western counties first, these being the most populous and improved. An intercolonial railroad, in which the adjoining Colonies feel an in terest, offers more general advantages than a mere local line. Hence the interest felt in the Quebec railroad, which would have drawn to Hal ifax much trade from the St. Lawrence, and opened up to colonization large tracts of wUderness lands, both in Canada and New Brunswick. This line requiring £5,000,000 sterling to complete it, the united re sources of the three Provinces are inadequate to the work, without very liberal aid from the British government ; that aid having been refused, the project has been, for the present, reluctantly abandoned. A railroad to Portland offers many advantages which one to Quebec does not. It will cost only about half as much. It must run, nearly aU the way, through a comparatively improved country. It would connect Halifax with St. John (and by the river, with Fredericton), and the larger towns of New Brunswick ; giving to all these, with the villages and agricultural settlements lying between them, most desirable facilities for internal traffic. The Portland railroad would secure to Nova Scotia the advantages which nature designed her to enjoy ; connecting her with all the lines running through the American continent, and making HaUfax a common terminus for them aU. No American steamer, which did not touch at Halifax, could thenceforward compete, in priority of intelligence and the rapid transit of passengers, with those which did. From New York to Liverpool, the shortest sea line measures three thousand one hundred miles ; that usually traversed is three thousand three hundred. Miles. From Halifax to Galway is 2,130 Dublin to Holyhead 63 2,193 Holyhead to London 263 Dublin to the S. W. coast of Ireland 120 Halifax to St. John 266 St. John to Waterville 200 Waterville to New York 410 1,259 3,452 making the whole land and sea distance one hundred and fifty-nine miles more than the present sea passage. But the sea voyage, by the one 402 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. route, would be one thousand one hundred and seven miles shorter than by the other. To run these one thousand one hundred and seven miles by steamboat, at twelve miles an hour, would require ninety-two hours ; to run them by rail, at thirty miles an hour, would require but thirty-six hours. This route would therefore save, in the communication between Europe and America, fifty-six hours to every individual, in all time to come, who passed between the two continents ; the sea risks to life and property be ing diminished by one third of the whole. The States lying east of New York wiU be benefited in a ratio cor responding with their relative distances from that city. A merchant travelling from London to Portland, not only wastes fifty-six hours in going to New York, but must turn back and travel four hundred miles on the route to Halifax besides, which will require thirteen hours more. It is clear then, that when the line across Ireland is completed, and that from Halifax to WatervUle (from thence the lines are continuous all over the United States), this route may defy competition. No busi ness man will travel by a route which leaves him fifty-six or sixty hours behind time, which gives to others dealing in the same articles, and enter ing the same markets with the same information, such very decided ad vantages. No person travelling for pleasure, will waste fifty-six hours, at some peril, on the ocean where there is nothing to see, who can, in perfect se curity, run over the same distance by land, with a cultivated country and a succession of towns and villages to relieve the eye. The Americans assembled at the Portland Convention pledged them selves to make this line through the territory of Maine. Capitalists and contractors in that country profess their readiness to complete the whole through the British Provinces, provided acts of incorporation are given to them with liberal grants of land and money in addition. For various reasons, the government of Nova Scotia are reluctant to permit this to be done. They are unwilling to surrender that which must become forever the great highway between the capital of Nova Scotia and her eastern coun» ties, to the management and control of foreign capitalists. They believe it to be, My Lord, equally sound provincial and sound national policy, that that portion of what must become a great highway of nations, which lies within the territories of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, should be kept under British control ; and they believe that the security and defence of the maritime Provinces are involved in ad herence to that policy. LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 403 They believe that the honor of the Crown is concerned in this ques tion, to an extent which calls upon them to pledge the entire credit and resources of the Province, that it may not be tarnished. Having done this, they believe that the Imperial government ought to take at least sufficient interest in the question to enable them to enter the English money market on the best terms, and effect a large saving in the expend iture required. Money is worth, in the United States and in the British Provinces, six per cent. Suppose this railroad to be constructed by American or Provincial capitalists, it is evident that our portion of it, which will cost £800,000 sterling, must pay £48,000, sterling, or £60,000 currency, over and above its working expenses. With the Imperial guarantee, we can obtain the funds required at three and a half per cent., reducing the annual interest to £28,000 ster ling, or £35,000 currency. The government of Nova Scotia believe, that if British capital, so much of which flows into foreign States, where it is always insecure, and in times of trial is found to have invariably strengthened our ene mies, can be safely invested in the Queen's dominions, the Imperial gov ernment should take an interest in its legitimate employment ; and they are quite prepared to invest an equal sum to that now required, in build ing a line through the western counties of Nova Scotia, whenever the eastern pays its working expenses and interest on the sum expended. They believe that, even if the Province could raise this amount of capital, to withdraw so large a sum from the ordinary channels of circu lation, where it is beneficially employed, and earning interest and profits, would cramp the trade of the country, and produce, on a smaU scale, embarrassments similar in their nature to those experienced in the parent State. They believe that a low rate of interest would lead to the establish ment of a low rate of fares, of which every Englishman passing over the line would feel the advantage. They are prepared to carry the British and American mails at rea sonable rates, and to authorize the British government to pay the amounts contracted for, to their credit on the loan. They believe that Her Majesty's government legitimately employed their influence in securing, by the Nicaragua treaty, a passage for Brit ish subjects and commerce to the East. They believe, that to control the great highway to the West, and to secure to a British Province the advantages of oceanic steam navigation, would be an equally legitimate object. 404 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. They believe that, if Her Majesty's government takes the lead in these noble North American enterprises, they wiU make the Queen's name a tower of strength on that continent. They apprehend, that if the Colonists are driven to seek sympathy and assistance from the United States, in aid of their public works ; to become large debtors to their capitalists, at extravagant prices ; to em ploy their citizens habitually in the bosom of their country, a revulsion of feeling, dangerous to British interests, will be created, which states men should foresee and avoid. Whether, my Lord, it was prudent in the Provincial government to ask for the Imperial guarantee, I would respeetfuUy suggest that it is now too late to consider. The refusal will wound the pride of every Nova Scotian, and strengthen the belief that England is indifferent to the industrial development of the maritime Provinces ; that she has no policy, by backing which their inhabitants can be elevated to fair com petition with their republican neighbors ; and that when they ask her countenance and cooperation in measures which are as essential to the national dignity and security, as they would be productive of internal improvement, the reply, though courteous, shuts out hope. An impression prevaUs in the Lower Provinces, that either from the immediate presence in Canada of noblemen generaUy standing high in the confidence of the ministry at home, or from, the sensitive irritability with which aU parties resort to open violence in that Province, more weight is given to representations affecting her interest than to those which concern the maritime Colonies. Nova Scotians, compelled to sacrifice £22,000 a year in the completion of a national work, by the re fusal of the Imperial government to guarantee to the capitalists of Eng land the interest on this loan, cannot faU to contrast the relative position in which they are placed by that refusal. That they may not copy the evil examples by which a larger share of fraternal consideration wiU appear to them to have been secured, shall be my sincere and anxious prayer. The Canadas, seeking responsible government in the French mode, resorted to armed insurrections, which cost England 4 or £5,000,000 to suppress. Immediately after the restoration of tranquillity, the British government lent the Canadas £1,500,000. Had the maritime Provinces participated in those rebelhons, every regiment that marched through them in the winters of 1837 and 1839 would have been cut off. They did not. They adhered to their alle giance, and denounced the rebels. They cheered the soldiers on their winter marches, and provided for their wives and children. Yet Canada LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 405 has been rewarded for bad faith and the waste of national resources by a bonus of a million and a half ; and I know of no terms in which I can describe what my countrymen will feel, if, with a surplus revenue al ready available to secure the parent State from risk, they are refused the guarantee for half that amount. In 1839, the State of Maine called out its militia to overrun the Province of New Brunswick. Nova Scotia, though not directly men aced, promptly tendered her entire pecuniary and physical resources in vindication of the national honor. She had no direct interest in the boundary question. Not an acre of her soil was endangered, yet she did not hesitate to tender her means, and to set an example of loyal unani mity, much wanted on the continent at that moment, and which, had war commenced, could not have failed to have drawn it into her bosom. Yet now, the people she would have fought, tender their cooperation to make a great national highway across her soil ; and I submit, with all defer ence, my Lord, whether the Sovereign, whose honor she was prompt to vindicate, should be advised to refuse her aid, and view with unconcern the probable construction of such a work in our very midst by foreign capital, to be subject to foreign influence and control. When the storm blew from Maine we wrapped our loyalty around us. Who can tell what may happen, should the sun of prosperity shine from that quarter, and coldness and neglect appear on the other side ? England would not allow foreigners to control a great line of railway reaching from Dover to Aberdeen. Should she permit them to control three hundred and fifty miles of railway through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick ? When the French propagandists menaced Belgium, the Belgian gov ernment controlled the railways. The invaders were ambushed and overpowered. And through all the convulsions of 1848-50, Belgium has remained tranquil, and secure. When the mob of Montreal seized upon the capital of Canada, the electric telegraph was in their hands. The wires were used to commu nicate with partizans above and below, by which Lord Elgin was seri ously compromised, his government having no assurance that their secrets were kept or their messages delivered. But, my Lord, it may be asked, why should foreign capitalists make and control this road ? Why may this not be done by the Colonists them selves ? Because : — 1st. Capital is more abundant in the United States (most of which have borrowed largely from England) than in the British Provinces. 2d. Experience of raUway enterprises, and confidence in them, are more general in that country. 406 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 3d. A body of raUway engineers, contractors, and operatives, already formed in the different States, seek further employment, and wiU take much stock in payment, if employed. 4th. The interest of most of the lines south and west would be pro moted by extension. Not only would Europeans, now reaching the Central States by sea, travel by rail, if this were laid, but the popula tion of the Provinces, who rarely go south or west, for want of facul ties, would, by the aid of the European and North American Railroad, be let in on the western and southern lines. 5th. The national importance of controUing this railroad wiU induce Americans to embark in it. The electric telegraph across Nova Scotia was no sooner completed, than American merchants and speculators in cotton and corn would have bought it at any price. In peace and war the command of the work now proposed would give them great influ ence. No single association in the Provinces would wield so much. If they buUt the trunk Une they would ultimately control the branches. The constant employment of their own people would lead to the diffusion of RepubUcan sentiments ; and no Nova Scotian, or inhabitant of New Brunswick, would deem it worth his whUe to attempt to counteract ten dencies to which the mother country seemed indifferent, and which he saw must inevitably lead to but one result. Should it be objected, my Lord, that to comply with the request pre ferred by Nova Scotia, would be to delay or peril the completion of the great railway projected by Lord Durham, and which was designed to form a back-bone for the North American Provinces, and to open up large tracts of waste land to colonization ; we answer : — Show us that Her Majesty's government seriously entertain that pro ject ; that they are prepared to go down to ParUament and demand that it shaU be reaUzed, and Nova Scotia will at once honorably redeem the pledges which, in anticipation of what she conceived to be the Imperial poUcy, were recorded upon her statute-book. However the question may have changed its aspect, Nova Scotia wiU not swerve from any line of intercolonial pohcy which the parent state regards of paramount importance. But the question has changed its aspect. Whether Canada, with its railway lines connecting Montreal and Quebec with the sea, via Mel bourne and Portland, and which wiU, by the completion of the line now proposed through the cultivated parts of New Brunswick, unite both these great cities with Halifax, by distances, severaUy, of eight hundred and twenty-five, and eight hundred and sixty-five miles, wUl be disposed to embark funds in another, through a comparative wUderness, remains to be proved. LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 407 Nova Scotia, whatever may be the predilections of the Imperial gov ernment, or the determination of Canada, possesses this advantage : the line which she proposes to construct through her territory must be a common trunk Une for both the Portland and the Quebec railroads, whenever these are completed. Nova Scotia cannot be wrong in constructing her one hundred and thirty miles. If the Portland Railroad only is built, she is content to share the fortunes of that enterprise. If the British government prefer and choose to aid the work originally proposed, Nova Scotia will either pay her contribution, already pledged, or she will make that portion of the common line to the St. Lawrence which passes through her territory. We hope to see both lines finished. One continuous railroad-communi cation with the great rivers and lakes of Canada, or with the principal cities of the United States, would give an impetus to the social and material prosperity of Nova Scotia, which her people anticipate, in confident re liance upon their own resources and on the bounties of Providence. Give them both, and the trunk line through their country must become a source of prosperity to the Province, and of revenue to its govern ment, only to be paralleled, in the history of the new world, by the celebrated Erie Canal. But, my Lord, it may be urged that the parent State has many Colonies, and that she may be embarrassed by other claims of a similar nature, if this is granted. Admitting the soundness of the objection, I respectfully submit that it comes too late. The British government has already established the precedents of which Nova Scotia would claim the benefit. The grants to Canada have been, already referred to. In 1848, a law was passed by Parliament, guaranteeing the interest required on a loan for the public works of the West Indies and the Mauritius, in cluding railways. But we humbly conceive that no general rule of this kind ought to apply, even if the exceptions to which I have referred did not exist. The government of England does not place a lighthouse on every head land, nor maintain a garrison in every English town. It does not build a dockyard in every county, nor in every Colony. The prominent points of the sea-coast are occupied for commercial security ; and the most commanding positions, for the preservation of internal tranquiUity and national defence. Gibraltar is a barren rock ; yet millions have been expended in its capture and defence. Bermuda, in intrinsic value, is not worth a single county of New Brunswick ; yet it commands the surrounding seas, and is therefore occupied for national objects. 408 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. In like manner, I would respectfully submit, should the commanding ¦position of Nova Scotia be appreciated, occupied, and rendered impreg nable — not by the presence of fleets and armies — but by inspiring its people with full confidence in the justice, magnanimity, and wisdom of the Imperial government ; by promptly securing to the Provinces all the advantages arising from its proximity to Europe ; from its containing within its bosom the high road, over which, in all time to come, the Anglo-Saxon race must pass in their social and commercial intercourse with each other. There are other views of this question, my Lord, which ought to have their weight with the government and people of England. The position of the North American Provinces is peculiar ; and the temptations and dangers which surround them, trust me, my Lord, require, on the part of the Imperial government, a policy at once conciUatory and energetic. The concessions already made, and the principles acknowledged by Her Majesty's government, leave us nothing to desire, and Imperial statesmen little to do, in regard to the internal administration of our af fairs. But something more than this is required by the high spirited race who inhabit British America. Placed between two mighty nations, we sometimes feel that we belong, in fact, to neither. Twenty miUions of people Uve beside us, from whose markets our staple productions are excluded, or in which they are burdened with high duties, because we are British subjects. For the same reason, the higher paths of ambition, on every hand inviting the ardent spirits of the Union, are closed to us. From equal participation in common right ; from fair competition with them in the more elevated duties of government and the distribution of its prizes, our British brethren, on the other side, as carefuUy exclude us. The President of the United States is the son of a schoolmaster. There are more than one thousand schoolmasters teaching the rising youth of Nova Scotia, with the depressing conviction upon their minds, that no very elevated walks of ambition are open either to their pupUs or their own children. Protection to any species of industry in Nova Scotia, we utterly re pudiate ; but Your Lordship is well aware that many branches of in dustry, many delicate and many coarse manufactures, require an extended demand before they can be sustained in any country. This extended demand the citizens of the great repubhc enjoy ; and it has done more for them than even their high tariffs or their pecuUar institutions. The wooden nutmeg of Connecticut may flavor, untaxed, the rice of Carohna. Sea-borne in a vessel which traverses two mighty oceans, the coarse cloths of Massachusetts enter the port of San Francisco, without fear of a LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 409 custom-house or payment of duty. The staple exports of Nova Scotia cannot cross the Bay of Fundy without paying thirty per cent. ; and every species of Colonial manufacture is excluded from Great Britain, by the comparatively low price of labor here, and from the wide range of the republic, by prohibitory duties. The patience with which this state of things has been borne ; the in dustry and enterprise which Nova Scotia has exhibited, in facing these difficulties, entitle her to some consideration. But a single century has passed away since the first permanent occupation of her soil by a British race. During all that time she has preserved her loyalty untarnished ; and the property created upon her soil, or which floats under her flag upon the sea, is estimated at the value of £15,000,000. She provides for her own civil government ; guards her criminals ; lights her coast ; maintains her poor ; and educates her people, from her own resources. Her surface is everywhere intersected with free roads, inferior to none in America ; and her hardy shoresmen, not only wrestle with the repub licans for the fisheries and commerce of the surrounding seas, but enter into successful competition with them in the carrying trade of the world. Such a country, Your Lordship will readily pardon me for suggesting, even to my gracious Sovereign's confidential advisers, is worth a thought. Not to wound the feelings of its inhabitants, or even seem to disregard their interests, may be worth the small sacrifice she now requires. Nova Scotia has a claim upon the British government and Parliament, which no other Colony has. The mineral treasures in her bosom are supposed to be as inexhaustible as the fisheries upon her coast, or the riches of her soil. Nearly the whole have been bartered away to a single company, for no adequate Provincial or National object. A mo nopoly has thus been created, which wounds the pride, while it cramps the industry of the people. If Nova Scotia were a State of the American Union, this monopoly would not last an hour. If she now asked to have this lease cancelled or bought up, that her industry might be free, she would seek nothing unreasonable. The emancipation of our soil is, per haps, as much an obligation resting upon the people of England, as was the emancipation of the slaves. No government dare create such a monopoly, in England or in Scotland ; and bear with me, my Lord, when I assure Your Lordship that our feeUngs are as keen, our pride as sensi tive, as those of Englishmen or Scotchmen. Break up this monopoly, and capital would flow into our mines, and the mines would furnish not only employment for railroads, but give an impetus to our coasting and foreign trade. Nova Scotians have seen £20,000,000, not lent, but given, to their 89 410 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. fellow-colonists in the West Indies. They admired the spirit which overlooked pecuniary considerations in view of great principles of na tional honor and humanity. But by that very act they lost, for a time, more than would make this railroad. Their commerce with the West Indies was seriously deranged by the change ; and the consumption of fish, their great staple, largely diminished. If money is no object, when the national honor is at stake in the West Indies, why should it be in British America ? If the emancipa tion of eight hundred thousand blacks is a moral obligation, to be re deemed at the cost of £20,000,000 ; surely a territory, which now contains double the number of whites, attached British subjects, and which wUl ultimately contain ten times that number, is worth risking a million or two to preserve. The national bounties of Prance and America, my Lord, also place Nova Scotia in a false and unfavorable position. These bounties are not aimed at our industry, but at British naval supremacy. Yet they sub ject us to an unfair competition upon the sea, as galhng as is the mineral and metalUc monopoly upon the land. For every quintal of fish a Frenchman catches, his government pays him ten francs, or 8s. Ad. sterling ; and every man and boy employed, receives fifty francs for each voyage besides. For every ton of shipping an American employs in the fishery, his government pays him 20*. per ton. Nova Scotia juts into the seas which the French and American fishermen, thus stimulated, occupy. If she were a French Province, or an American State, not only would she participate in these bounties, but she would fit out and own, in addition to her present fleet, at least one thousand fishing craft, which now come from foreign ports into the waters by which she is surrounded, and subject her people to a species of compe tition, in which the advantages are all on one side. The manner in which Nova Scotia has extended her fisheries, in the face of this competition ; the hardy race she has reared upon her sea- coast ; the value of craft employed and of export furnished, speak volumes for the enterprise and industry of her people. Yet every Nova Scotian fisherman toils with this conviction daily impressed upon his mind: — " If I was a Frenchman, my profits would be secure. I would be in a position equal to that of an American ; far superior to that of a Colonist. If I was an American, I would have a bounty sufficient to cover the risk of my outfit ; and, besides, have a boundless free market for the sale of my fish, extending from Maine to California, whieh is now half-closed to me by nearly prohibitory duties." The British government could break down these bounties at once, by LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 411 equalizing them. The mother country owes it to her Northern Prov inces to try the experiment, if they cannot be removed by negotiation. But, suppose she does not ; suppose that, having done my best to draw attention to the claims of those I have the honor to represent, I return to them without hope ; how long will high-spirited men endure a position in which their loyalty subjects their mines to monopoly, their fisheries to unnatural competition, and in which cold indifference to public improve ment or national security, is the only response they meet when they make to the Imperial authorities a proposition calculated to keep alive their national enthusiasm, while developing their internal resources ? The idea of a great intercolonial railroad to unite the British American Provinces, originated with Lord Durham. In the confident belief that this work was to be regarded as one of national importance, Nova Scotia paid towards the survey of the line nearly £8000. The anticipation that the completion of this great work, in connection with a scheme of colonization, would redress many of the evils and inequalities under which the Provinces labor, for some time buoyed up the spirits of the people, and the disappointment is keenly felt in proportion as hopes were sanguine. If, then, the British government has abandoned the policy to which, perhaps too hastily, we assumed that it was pledged ; if the Em pire will make no roads through its territories (and the legions of Britain might be worse employed), surely it cannot be less than madness to permit foreigners to make them ; and it must be sound statesmanship to aid the Colonial governments, whenever they will assume the responsi bility of constructing and controlling the great highways, no less neces sary for internal improvement than for national defence. If the road to Nova Scotia is commenced, the spirits of the Colonists will revive. If extended to Portland, it will " prepare the way" — to em ploy Your Lordship's own language — " for the execution of the line to Quebec, and it will contribute to the same end, namely, that of rendering HaUfax the great port of communication between the two continents of Europe and America." I have said that the railroad across Nova Scotia will be the common trunk for the Quebec and Portland lines, whenever these are made. The former cannot be constructed by the Colonists, unless the British govern ment make liberal contributions. The line to Portland will be made either with British or American capital. If by the latter, then, my Lord, it is worth while to inquire in what position the British govern ment will stand, should they ever attempt to realize Lord Durham's magnificent conception, and find that the first link in the great chain of intercolonial communication is already in possession of their enemies ? 412 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. The Americans, at this moment, are putting forth their utmost skill to compete with our ocean steamers. When the railroad is constructed across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, their boats must start from and return to Halifax, or the competition will be at an end. A rivalry, hon orable to both nations, may still continue ; but, however the odds may turn, at least we shall have the satisfaction to reflect, that the inevitable result of that competition is to build up a noble maritime city within Her Majesty's dominions. The British government now pays for the conveyance o.f the North American mails between England and New York, £145,000 sterling per annum. By this arrangement, eleven hundred and seven miles of sea are traversed more than are necessary. The correspondence of aU Eu rope with all America, is delayed fifty-six hours beyond the time which will be actually required for its conveyance, when the railroads across Ireland and Nova Scotia are completed. One set of these British mail steamers pass by our own Provinces, and, to the mortification of their inhabitants, carry their, letters, and even the public dispatches of their government, to the United States, to be sent back eight hundred mUes, if they come by land ; at least five hun dred, if sent by sea. While the nearest land to Europe is British territory ; while a harbor, almost matchless for security and capacity, invites Englishmen to build up within the Empire a fitting rival to the great commercial cities which are rising beyond it, Your Lordship will readily comprehend the depth and earnestness of our impatience to be rescued from a position which wounds our pride as British subjects, and is calculated rapidly to gener ate the belief, that the commanding position of our country is either not understood, or our interests but lightly valued. My Lord, I do not touch the question of emigration and colonization, because I have already trespassed largely upon Your Lordship's patience, and because I do not wish to encumber the subject. There is another reason, my Lord. I do not desire to enter incidentally upon a field which has yielded so many crops of fallacies, but which, properly cultivated, may yet bear noble fruit. I wish to examine what may have been re cently said and written in England, on this important subject, before ex pressing my opinion. This only I may say, that if the British Islands have surplus labor, there is room for it all in the North American Prov inces ; and that the honor and the interests of England are deeply con cerned in planting that labor in the right place. I am aware, my Lord, that it is the fashion in certain quarters, to speak of the fraternal feelings which, henceforward, are to mutuaUy ani- LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 413 mate the population of Great Britain and of the United States. I wish I could credit the reality of their existence ; but I must believe the evi dence of my own senses. A few years ago I spent the fourth of July at Albany. The ceremonies of the day were imposing. In one of the largest halls of the city, an immense body of persons were assembled. English, Irish and Scotch faces were neither few nor far between. In the presence of that breath* less audience, the old biU of indictment against England, the Declaration of Independence, was read, and at every clause each young American knit his brows, and every Briton hung his head with shame. Then fol lowed the oration of the day, in which every nation, eminent for arts, or arms, or civihzation, received its meed of praise, but England. She was held up as the universal oppressor and scourge ofthe whole earth, — whose passage down the stream of time was marked by blood and usurp ation, — whose certain wreck, amidst the troubled waves, was but the in evitable retribution attendant on a course so ruthless. As the orator closed, the young Americans knit their brows again ; and the recent em igrants, I fear, carried away by the spirit of the scene, cast aside their allegiance to the land of their fathers. Had this scene, my Lord, occurred in a single town, it would have made but a slight impression ; but on that very day, it was acted with more or less of skill and exaggeration, in every town and village of the Re public. It has been repeated on every fourth of July since. It will be repeated every year to the end of time. And so long as that ceremony turns the concentrated hatred of Republican America, upon England, every twelve months, it cannot be a question of indifference whether the emigrants who desire to leave the mother country, should settle within or beyond the boundaries of the Empire. There is, my Lord, another view of this question, that is pregnant with materials for reflection, and that should task the statesmanship of Eng land, independently of it, though deserving to be glanced at in this con nection. I have said that the North American Provinces lie between two mighty nations, yet belong in fact, to neither. This branch of the subject is wide, and may be variously illustrated. Perhaps, before leav ing England, I may caU Your Lordship's attention to it again. For the present I confine myself to a single Ulustration. Whatever may be the decision of Her Majesty's government upon this claim, which, on the part of the Province I represent, I have endeavored respectfully to press upon Your Lordship's notice, I believe, and every one of my countrymen will believe, that if presented to the magnanimous and enUghtened Assembly where we are not represented, by a few Nova 89* 414 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. Scotians whose hearts were in the enterprise ; whose knowledge of the position and requirements of British America was minute and various ; whose zeal for the integrity of the Empire and the honor of the Crown, could not be questioned, the House of Commons would not permit them to plead in vain. But, my Lord, we have no such privilege. We daily see our friends or acquaintance across the frontier, not only distinguishing themselves in the State Legislatures which guard their municipal interests, but enrich. ing the national councUs- with the varied eloquence and knowledge drawn from every portion of the Union. From the national councUs of his country, the British American is shut out. Every day he is beginning to feel the contrast more keenly. I was not at the recent Portland Con vention, but the Colonists who did attend, astonished the Americans by their general bearing, abiUty, and eloquence. But when these men separated, it was with the depressing conviction in the hearts of our people, that one set would be heard, perhaps, on the floor of Congress the week after, or be conveyed in national ships to foreign embassies ; whUe the other could never lift their voices in the British Parliament, nor aspire to higher employment than their several Provinces could bestow. Let us then, my Lord, at least feel, that if thus excluded, we have but to present a claim or a case worthy of considera tion, to have it dealt with in a fair and even generous spirit. The warrior of old, whose place was vacant in the pageant, was yet present in the hearts of the people. So let it be "with us, my Lord. If the seats which many whom I have left behind me, could occupy with honor to themselves and advantage to the Empire, are stUl vacant in the national councUs, let Nova Scotia be consoled by the reflection that her past history pleads for her on every fitting occasion. London, 5 Sloane Street, January 16, 1851. Mt Lord, — In the letter which I had the honor to address to Your Lordship on the 25th November, I argued the case of Nova Scotia on its own merits, and ventured to claim the guaranty of the Imperial gov ernment in aid of her pubhc works, upon grounds which affected her material interests, her pride, her enterprise, and steadfast loyalty to the British Crown. The immediate consideration of that letter I did not desire, because, whUe preparing it, I was quite conscious that if the single issue raised, LETTERS TO EARL GREY. 4X5 were to be decided by Her Majesty's government upon the merits or claims of Nova Scotia alone, the Cabinet would have but a very inade quate statement of the reasons which ought to secure, and the Province I represent but a slender chance of obtaining, a favorable decision. The interest which the mother country has in the elevation of North America, in the increase of her population, the development of her re sources, the occupation of her wild lands, the extension of her commerce, and of her means of easy internal and external communication, I believe to far transcend the interest, great as that is, which the several Provinces feel in these very important questions. Should the aid of the parent State be refused, the Northern Provinces would still, but with less rapidity, complete their public works. Though not an emigrant landed on their shores, the population they have would Uve in plenty, and double every twenty years. Should they change their nolitical relations, the worst that could befall them would be association with their Anglo-Saxon neighbors, or an independent position, moderately secure and full of future promise. But England cannot afford to descend from the high position which she occupies among the nations of the earth. Having lost one-half of a mighty continent, won by the valor and enterprise of a noble ancestry, she can as little afford ta confess, in the presence of all the world, her inability to wisely rule the other half, and to preserve the attachment of its inhabitants. Besides, there are within her own populous cities, and upon the surface of her highly cultivated rural districts, certain evils, disorders, and burdens, with which it behooves her, as a good economist, and as a wise, enterprising and Christian nation, energetically to deal. For more than a month, I have surveyed with intense earnestness, the wide circle of her Colonial dependencies, and sought, in parUamentary and official papers, for some assured prospect of relief from those evils and disorders. I have examined with care the policy of the present and of past governments, and the plans and suggestions of public writers and associations ; and have invariably turned to the North American Prov inces with the conviction that they present, at this moment, the most available and diversified resources for the relief of England ; the noblest field for the further development of her industry, philanthropy and power. In offering suggestions to the Ministers of the Crown, I feel, my Lord, the distance which divides me, in rank and intelligence, from those I would presume to counsel ; and yet I am not without a hope that they will give some weight to the position I occupy and to the training which my mind has received. 416 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. If I understand the questions to be approached better than many per-- sons of far higher attainments — if I feel more acutely their commanding importance, it is because, being a native of North America, I have trav elled much over the Provinces, and mingled famiharly, and for many years, with all classes of their inhabitants ; and being a member of Her Majesty's Council in the Province I represent, I am bound by my oath to offer my advice, through the channels established by the Constitution, to my Sovereign, in matters of State, which I believe to involve th& honor of the Crown and the integrity and prosperity of the Empire. To provide employment for her surplus capital and labor — to ex* tend her home markets, to relieve her poor rates, to empty her poor- houses, to reform her convicts, to diminish crime, to fiU up the waste places of the Empire, and to give the great mass of her population a share of real estate, and an interest in property, — > I believe to be pre eminently the mission and the duty of this great country, at the present time. The period is favorable. The removal of impoUtic restrictions had lessened, to some extent, the pressure upon the public finances, and given to the people that measure of relief which affords time for reflection upon the means by which the stiU existing pressure upon industry may be further relieved. In a colonial point of view, the period is also fa vorable. Thanks to the policy which the present cabinet have carried out, the North American Provinces are relieved, so far as free countries ever can be, from internal dissensions. Invested with control over their own affairs and resources, they have now the leisure, as they assuredly have a sincere desire, to consult with their brethren on this side of the Atlantic on common measures of mutual advantage. I think I may say, that while they anticipate great benefit from the cooperation and aid of the mother country in promoting their public works, they are not unmind ful of their duty to consider the peculiar questions in which this country feels an interest; and to take care that while availing' themselves ofthe credit of England, no permanent addition is made to her public burdens. The subjects of colonization and emigration have been most elabo rately discussed. I pass over the points in which writers and speakfersr differ; in this they all agree, — that the British Islands have an interest in these subjects, second to none that has ever been felt by any nation in ancient or modern times. The enumeration of a few facts will-be suffi cient to exhibit the grounds of this belief. The statistical returns of 1850 will, I have no doubt, show a state of things much more favorable, but still I fear not so favorable as to shake the general conclusions, at LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 417 which I have arrived. These are founded upon facts, as I find them stated in official documents and works of approved authority. In Ireland, the lives of the population have for years been dependent upon the growth of a single vegetable. But when it grew, as was stated by the late Charles Buller, uncontradicted, in the House of Commons, on an average there were two millions of persons who, in that island, were unemployed for thirty weeks in the year. To what extent famine and emigration have since diminished the numbers, I have no means ot accurately judging; but it appears that in 1848, besides the £10,000,000 granted by Parliament for the relief of Irish distress, and provisions sent from other countries, £1,216,679 were raised in Ireland for the poor, and that one million four hundred and fifty-seven thousand one hun dred and ninety-four, or nearly one out of every five of the entire popu lation, received relief. In Scotland, where the population is only two miUions six hundred and twenty thousand, a fifth more than that of British America, £545,- 334 were expended for the relief of the poor in 1848, — more than was spent by the four British Provinces on their civil government, roads, education, lights, interest on debts, and all other services put together ; two hundred and twenty-seven thousand six hundred and forty-seven per sons were relieved, the amount expended on each being £2 7*. 9c?. ; a sum quite sufficient to have paid, in a regularly appointed steamboat, the passage of each recipient to British America. In England, in the same year, £6,180,765 were raised for the relie. of the poor, or 1*. lOd. in the pound on £67,300,587. The number aided was one million one hundred and seventy-six thousand five hundred and forty-one ; or about one out of every eleven persons occupying this garden of the world. The sum paid for each was even higher than in Scotland, being £3 5s. lOd. per head, — more than sufficient to have paid the passage to North America from Liverpool or Southampton. I turn to the workhouses of England ; and find that in 1849 there were in these receptacles, thirty thousand one hundred and fifty-eight boys and twenty-six thousand one hundred and sixty-five girls, of whom eight thousand two hundred and sixty-four were fit for service. In Ire land, there were sixty thousand five hundred and fourteen boys and sixty-six thousand two hundred and eighty-five girls, under the age of eighteen, — the aggregate in the two countries being one hundred and eighty-five thousand one hundred and twenty-two. Turning to the criminal calender, it appears that in 1848, there were committed for offences in England, thirty thousand three hundred and 418 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. forty-nine ; in Scotland, four thousand nine hundred ; and in Ireland,- thirty-eight thousand five hundred and twenty-two, making seventy- three thousand seven hundred and seventy-one in all ; of whom six thous and two hundred and ninety-eight were transported, and thirty-seven thousand three hundred and seventy-three imprisoned. I find that in 1849, you maintained in Ireland a constabulary force of twelve thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight men, besides horses, at a cost, taking the preceding year as a guide, of £562,506 10s. In Eng land and Wales you employed nine thousand eight hundred and twenty- nine policemen, (including the London police), at a cost of £579,327 is. 8d. From Scotland I have no return. But taking the above facts to guide us, it appears that, for mere purposes of internal repression, and the arrest of criminals, to say nothing of beadles and innumerable parish officers, you maintained, in addition to your army, a civic force double in number the entire army of the United States, at a cost (Scotland not being included) of £1,141,833 14*. 8d. Think you, my Lord, that when a Republican points exultingly to the returns, and contrasts these statistics of poverty and crime with the comparative abundance and innocence of his own country, and which he attributes to his own peculiar institutions, that a British Colonist does not turn, with astonishment at the apathy of England, to the miUions of square miles of fertile territory which surround him ; to the noble rivers, and lakes, and forests by which the scenery is diversified ; to the ex haustless fisheries ; and to the motive power, rushing from a thousand hills into the sea, and with which all the steam engines of Britain cannot compete ? Driven to attribute to British and Irish statesmen a want of courage and forecaste to make these great resources available to maintain our brethren and protect their morals, or to suspect the latter of being more idle, degraded, and criminal, than their conduct abroad would warrant, we gladly escape from the apprehension of doing general injustice, by laying the blame on our rulers. May it be the elevated determination of Her Majesty's advisers to relieve us from the dilemma, by wiping out this national reproach. One set of economists propose to remedy this state of things by re straints upon nature, wliich are simply impossible, and would be wicked if they were not ; another large political party desire to feed the people by a return to protection and the revival of class interests, with all their delusions and hostilities ; a third look hopefully forward to the further development of domestic industry in accordance with the principles of free trade. LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 419 All my sympathies are with the latter ; but while hostile tariffs exist in most of the populous States of Europe and America, I would aid them by the creation of new markets within the Queen's dominions ; by the judicious location of those who are a burden, upon the fertile lands of the Empire, that they may become customers to those who remain at home. One' writer, whose book I have read recently, objects to this, because he says that if any part of the population is displaced, young people WiU marry, and increase the numbers until the vacuum is fiUed up. The young ought certainly not to object to this, or the old either. If his theory be sound, it answers the objections of those who fear too great diminution of numbers, by emigration; and colonization would still have this advantage, that it would strengthen the transatlantic Provinces, and make more customers for Britain and Ireland, even should their population remain the same. But it may be said, there is but one enlightened mode of colonization, and, under the patronage of the government and of associated compa nies, that is being very extensively tried in our southern and eastern possessions. Of the Wakefield theory, I would speak with all respect ; of the com bined efforts of public spirited individuals, I would be the last to disap prove ; the judicious arrangements made by the government commis sioners, for the selection of emigrants, the ventilation and security of ships, and the distribution of labor, which I have carefully examined, challenge in most of their details, my entire approval. I do not wish to check the progress in these valuable colonies of as sociated enterprise ; I do not desire to restrict the growth of population within them, or to supersede the functions of the board of land and em igration ; I wish these rising communities God speed, and success to all those who take an interest in them. But I turn from them to the North American field, perhaps because 1 know it best, but assuredly because I believe that to people and strengthen it will secure political advantages of the very highest impor tance ; and because I apprehend that the Eastern Colonies, however they may prosper and improve, will offer but homoeopathic remedies for the internal maladies of England. In twenty-two years, from 1825. to 1846 inclusive, only one hundred and twenty-four thousand two hundred and seventy-two persons went from the United Kingdom to the Australian Colonies and New Zealand. In the same period, seven hundred and ten thousand four hundred and ten Went to the United States, to .strengthen a foreign and a rival power, to 420 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 173 entrench themselves behind a hostile tariff, and to become consumers of American manufactures, and of foreign productions, seaborne in Ameri can bottoms ; they and the countless generation that has already sprung from their loins, unconscious of regard for British interests and of alle giance to the Crown of England. In twenty-two years, one hundred and twenty-four thousand two hun dred and seventy-two settlers have gone to Australia and New Zealand ; about half the number on the poor rate of Scotland in 1848 ; not a tenth part of the paupers relieved in Ireland, or one in fourteen of those who were supported by England's heavily taxed industry in that single year : not more, I apprehend, than died of famine in a single county of Ire-* land from 1846 to 1850 ; and less by sixty thousand, than the number of the young people who were in the workhouses of England and Ire land in 1849. Valuable as the Eastern Colonies may be, respectable as may have been the efforts to improve them, it is manifest that, whether we regard them as extensive fields for colonization, or as industrial aids for the re moval of pressure on the resources of the United Kingdom, the belief, however fondly indulged, is but a delusion and a snare. Were I to go into a calculation of the expense, to show what this emigration has cost the government and people of England, I could prove this by pregnant illustrations. But two or three simple facts are patent, and lie upon the surface. Australia and New Zealand are fourteen thousand miles from the shores of England. The British Provinces of North America but twenty-five hundred. Every Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman, who embarks for the Eastern Colonies, must be maintained by somebody for a hundred and twenty or a hundred and fifty days, while he is tossing about in idleness on the sea. The average passage to North America is about forty days. And when the arrangements are complete, to which I hope to have Your Lordship's countenance and support, emi grants embarking for the North American Provinces may reach Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in eight or ten days, and Canada in twelve. The expense of a passage to the East is, to the government, to the emi grant, or to the capitalist to whom he becomes a debtor, £20. The cost of a passage to the West rarely exceeds £3 10s., and may be reduced to £2 10s., if steamships for the poor are employed. But mark thc disproportion, my Lord, in other respects. If an Eng lishman or Irishman, with capital, goes to the Eastern Colonies,, he must pay £100 sterling for one hundred acres of land. If he goes to the Canterbury Settlement, he must pay £300. Iu Western Canada he can LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 421 get his one hundred acres of the best land in the empire for £40 ; in Lower Canada for £20 ; in New Brunswick (where Professor Johnston declares more wheat is grown to the acre than in the best parts of the State of New York) for £12 10s.; and in Nova Scotia for £10, where, from the extent of mineral treasures, the proximity to Europe, the wealth of the fisheries, and the facilities for and rapid growth of naviga tion, land is now in many sections, and will soon become in all, as valua- - ble as in any part of Her Majesty's Colonial dominions. If land is purchased in the Eastern possessions, it is clear that Eng lish capital must flow out at the rate of £100 or £300 for every hun dred acres. If the poor go out, they must begin Colonial life by owing that amount, and £20 for their passages besides, if they aspire to become proprietors. A poor Englishman, on the contrary, can get to North America for a few pounds. If he works a single winter at the seal-fishery of New foundland, or on the wharves in Nova Scotia, or a single summer in the rural districts or timber forests of New Brunswick, he can save as much as will pay for his passage and his land. But it is said that these high prices are paid, not for land alone, but for the civilization, without which land is of little value ; for roads, bridges, churches, schools, for religious services and the means of edu cation. But all these exist in North America, to an extent and of an order of which few persons who have not visited the Provinces have any correct idea. Nova Scotia, for instance, is divided into seventeen coun ties, with their magistracy, sessions, court houses, jails, representatives, and complete county organization. Each of these again is divided into townships, whose ratepayers meet, assess themselves, support their poor, and appoint their local officers. In each of the shire towns there are churches of some, if not of all of the religious bodies which divide the British people. Every part of the country is intersected with roads, and bridges span all the larger, and most of the smaller streams. From fifty to one hundred public schools exist in every county. There is a Bible in every house ; and few natives of the Province grow up but what can read, write, and cipher. The same may be said gener ally of the other Provinces. We charge nothing for these civilizing in fluences. The emigrant who comes in, obeys the laws and pays his or dinary taxes, which are very light, is welcome to a participation in them all, and may, for £10, have his one hundred acres of land besides. The best criterion of the comparative civilization of countries, may be found in the growth of commerce, and the increase of a mercantile ma- 90 422 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. rine. Tried by this test, the North American Provinces will stand com parison with any other portion of the Queen's dominions. The West India Colonies, the Australian group, including New Zea land ; the African Colonies, and the East Indian, or the Mauritius and Ceylon, owned coUectively in 1846 but two thousand one hundred and twenty-eight vessels, or forty-two thousand six hundred and ten tons of , shipping. The North American group, including Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island, owned in that year five thousand one hundred and nineteen vessels, measuring three hundred and ninety-three thousand eight hundred and twenty-two tons. Of these, Nova Scotia owned in tonnage one hundred and forty- one thousand and ninety-three, and in number, more than the other four put together, or two thousand five hundred and eighty-three. But it may be asserted that the cUmate of North America is rigorous and severe. The answer we North Americans give to this objection is simple. Do me the honor to glance, my Lord, at the hemisphere which contains the three quarters of the Old World, and, dividing the northern countries from the south, the rigorous climate from the warm and ener vating, satisfy yourself in which reside at this moment the domestic vir tues, the pith of manhood, the seats of commerce, the centres of intelli gence, the arts of peace, the discipline of war, the poUtical power and dominion, — assuredly in the northern half. And yet it was not always so. The southern and eastern portions, blessed with fertihty, and con taining the cradle of our race, filled up first, and ruled for a time the territories to the north. But as civilization and population advanced northwards, the bracing climate did its work, as it will ever do ; and in physical endurance, and intellectual energy, the north asserted the su periority which to this hour it maintains. Look now, my Lord, at the map of America. A very common idea prevails in this country, that nearly the whole continent of North America was lost to England at the Revolution, and that only a few in significant and almost worthless Provinces remain. This is a great, and, if the error extensively prevail, may be a fetal mistake. Great Britain, Your Lordship is well aware, owns up to this moment one-half the con tinent ; and, taking the example of Europe to guide us, I believe the best half. Not the best for slavery, or for growing cotton and tobacco ; but the best for raising men and women ; the most congenial to the con stitution of the northern European ; the most provocative of steady in dustry ; and, all things else being equal, the most impregnable and se cure. But they are not and never have been equal. The first British emi- LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 423 gration all went to the southern half of the continent ; the northern portion, for one hundred and fifty years, being occupied by French hun ters, traders, and Indians. The British did not begin to settle in Nova Scotia till 1749, nor in Canada till 1763. Prior to the former period, Massachusetts had a population of one hundred and sixty thousand ; Connecticut one hundred thousand. The city of Philadelphia had eighteen thousand inhabitants before an Englishman had built a house in Halifax ; Maine had two thousand four hundred and eighty-five en rolled militiamen before a British settlement was formed in the Prov ince of New Brunswick. The other States were proportionally ad vanced before Englishmen turned their attention to the northern Prov inces at all. The permanent occupation of Halifax, and the loyalist emigration from the older Provinces, gave them their first impetus. But Your Lordship wUl perceive that, in the race of improvement, the old thirteen States had a long start. They had three millions of Britons and their descendants to begin with at the Revolution. But a few hundreds occu pied the Provinces to which I wish to call attention at the commence ment of the war ; only a few thousands at its close. Your Lordship wUl, I trust, readily perceive that, had both portions of the American continent enjoyed the same advantages from the period when the Treaty of Paris was signed down to the present hour, the southern half must have improved and increased its numbers much faster than the northern, because it had a numerous population, a flourishing commerce, and much wealth to begin with. But the advantages have not been equal. The excitement and the necessities of the War of Independence inspired the people of the South with enterprise and self-confidence. Besides, my Lord, they had free trade with each other ; and, so far as they chose to have, or could obtain it by their own diplomacy, with all the world. The Northern Provinces had separate governments, half-paternal despotisms, which repressed rather than encouraged enterprise. They had often hostile tariffs, no bond of union, and, down to the advent of Mr. Hus kisson, and from thence to the final repeal of the navigation laws, were cramped in all their commercial enterprises by the restrictive policy of England. In other respects the Southern States had the advantage. From the moment that their independence was recognized, they enjoyed the abso lute control over their internal affairs. Your Lordship, who has had the most ample opportunity of estimating the repressing influence of the old Colonial system, and, happily for us, has swept it away, can readily fancy what advantages our neighbors derived from emancipation from its 424 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. trammels. On reflection, you will think it less remarkable that the southern half of the continent has improved faster than the northern, than that the latter should have improved at all. But I have not enumerated all the sources of disparity. The national government of the United States early saw the value and importance of emigration. They bought up Indian lands, extended their acknowledged frontiers, by purchase or successful diplomacy, surveyed their territory, and prepared for colonization. The States, or public associations within them, borrowed millions from England, opened roads, laid off lots, and advertised them in every part of Europe by every fair and often unfair means of puffing and exaggeration. The general government skilfully seconded, or rather suggested, this policy. They framed Constitutions suited to those new settlements ; invested them with modified forms of self-government from the moment that the most simple materials for or ganization were accumulated ; and formed them into new States, with representation in the National CouncUs, whenever they numbered forty thousand. What did England do all this time ? Almost nothing ; she was too much occupied with European wars and diplomacy ; wasting miUions in subsidizing foreign princes, many of whose petty dominions if flung into a Canadian lake, would scarcely raise the tide. What did we do in the Provinces to fill up the northern territory? What could we do ? Down to 1815 we were engrossed by the wars of England ; our commerce being cramped by the insecurity of our coasts and harbors. Down to the pro mulgation of Lord John RusseU's memorable dispatch of the 16th of October, 1839, and to which fuU effect has been given in the continental Provinces by the present Cabinet, we were engaged in harassing con tests with successive Governors and Secretaries of State for the right to manage our internal affairs. This struggle is over, and we now have the leisure and the means to devote to the great questions of colonization and internal improvement ; to examine our external relations with the rest of the Empire and with the rest of the world ; to consult with our British brethren on the im perfect state of those relations, and of the best appropriation that can be made of their surplus labor, and of our surplus land, for our mutual advantage, that the poor may be fed, the waste places filled up, and this great empire strengthened and preserved. But, it may be asked, what interest have the people of England in the inquiry ? I may be mistaken, but, in my judgment, they have an inter est far more important and profound than even the Colonists themselves. The contrast between the two sides of the American frontier is a na- LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 425 tional disgrace to England. It has been so recorded in her parliamen tary papers, by Lord Durham, by Lord Sydenham, and by other Gov ernors and Commissioners. There is not a traveller, from HaU to Buckingham, but has impressed this conviction on her literature. We do not blush at the contrast on our own account ; we could not relieve it by a single shade beyond what has been accomphshed. We have done our best under the circumstances in which we have been placed, as I have already shown by reference to our social and commercial progress ; but we regret it, because it subjects us to the imputation of an inferiority that we do not feel ; and makes us doubt whether British statesmen will, in the time to come, deal with our half of the American continent more wisely than they have in times past. It is clearly, then, the interest and the duty of England to wipe out this national stain, and to reassure her friends in North America, by re moving the disadvantages under which they labor, and redressing the in equalities which they feel. Having, however imperfectly, endeavored to show that as a mere ques tion of economy, of relief to her municipal and national finances no less than of religious obligation, it is the duty of England to turn her atten tion to North America ; permit me now for a moment to direct Your Lordship's attention to the territory which it behooves the people of these United Kingdoms to occupy, organize, and retain. Glance, my Lord, at the map, and you will perceive that Great Bri tain owns on the continent of North America, with the adjacent islands, four million of square miles of territory. All the States of Europe, in cluding Great Britain, measure but three mUlions seven hundred and eight thousand eight hundred and seventy-one miles. Allowing two hundred and ninety-two thousand one hundred and twenty-nine square miles for inland lakes of greater extent than exist on this continent, the lands you own are as broad as the whole of Europe, If we take the round num ber of four millions, and reduce the miles to acres, we have about ninety acres for every man woman and child in the United Kingdom. Now, suppose you spare us two milUons of people, you will be relieved of that number, who now, driven by destitution into the unions or to crime, swell the poor-rates and crowd the prisons. With that number we shall be enabled, with little or no assistance, to repel foreign aggression. We shall still have a square mile, or six hun dred and forty acres, for every inhabitant ; or four thousand four hundred and eighty acres for every head of a family which British America will then contain. 90* 426 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 179 Is not this a country worth looking after ; worth some application of Im perial credit ; nay, even some expenditure of pubUc funds, that it may be filled with friends, not enemies ; customers, not rivals ; improved, organ ized, and retained ? The policy of the repubUc, is protection to home manufactures. Whose cottons, linens, woolens, cutlery, iron ; whose salt, machinery, guns, and paper, do the seven hundred and one thousand four hundred and one emigrants who went to the United States between 1825 and 1846, now consume ? Whose have they consumed, after every suc cessive year of emigration ? Whose wiU they and their descendants continue to consume ? Those not of the mother country, but of the United States. This is a view of the question which should stir, to its centre, every manufacturing city in the kingdom. Suppose the repubUc could extend her tariff over the other portions of the continent ; she could then laugh at the free trade poUcy of England. But if we retain that policy, and the Colonies besides, British goods wiU flow over the frontier, and the Americans must defend their revenue by an army of officers, extending ultimately over a line of three thousand miles. The balance of power in Europe is watched with intense interest by British statesmen. The sUghtest movement in the smaUest State, that is calculated to cause vibration, animates the Foreign Office, and often adds to its perplexities and labors. But is not the balance of power in Amer ica worth retaining ? Suppose it lost, how would it affect that of Eu rope ? Canning, without much reflection, boasted that he had redressed the balance of power in the Old, by calUng the New World into exis tence. But, even if the vaunt were justifiable, it was a world beyond the hmits of the Queen's dominions. We have a new world within them, at the very door of England, with boundaries defined, and, undeniably by any foreign power, subject to her sceptre. Already it fives, and moves, and has its being ; full of hope and promise, and fond attachment to the mother country. The new world of which Canning spoke, when its debts to England are counted, will appear to have been a somewhat costly creation ; and yet, at this very moment, Nova Scotia's little fleet of two thousand five hundred and eighty-three sail could sweep every South American vessel from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. I am not an alarmist, my Lord, but there appear to be many in Eng land, and some of them holding high miUtary and social positions, who consider these islands defenceless from continental invasion by any first- rate European power. Confident as I am in their resources, and hope ful of their destiny, I must confess that the mUitary and naval power of France or Russia, aided by the steam-fleet and navy of the United States,. LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 427 would make a contest doubtful for a time, however it might ultimately ter minate. But suppose the United States to extend to Hudson's Bay, with an extension over the other half of the continent of the spirit which animates the republic now. Imagine Great Britain without a har bor on the Atlantic or the Pacific that she could call her own ; without a ton of coal for her steamers, or a spar to repair a ship : with the five thousand vessels which the Northern Provinces even now own, with all their crews, and the fishermen who line their shores, added to the mari time strength of the enemy, whose arsenals and outposts would then be advanced five hundred miles nearer to England ; even if Newfoundland and the West Indies could be retained, which is extremely doubtful. The picture is too painful to be dwelt on longer than to show how inti mately interwoven are the questions to which I have ventured to call Your Loiaship's attention, with the foreign affairs of the Empire. I do not go into comparative iUustrations, because I desire now to show how a judicious use of the resources of North America may not only avert the danger iu time of war, but relieve the pressure upon the home gov ernment in times of peace. There is no passion stronger, my Lord, than the desire to own some portion of the earth's surface, — to call a piece of land, somewhere, our own. How few EngUshmen, who boast that they rule the sea, own a single acre of land. An EngUshman calls his house his castle ; and so, perhaps, it is, but it rarely stands upon his own soil. How few there are who may not be driven out, or have their castles levelled with the ground, when the lease falls in. There is no accurate return, but the proprietors of land in the whole United Kingdom are estimated at eighty thousand. -Ofthe two milUons six hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants which Scotland contains, but six hundred and thirty-six thousand and ninety -three live by agriculture ; all the rest, driven in by the high price of land, are employed in trade and manufactures. Evicted Highlanders rot in the sheds of Greenock ; and lowland peasants' offspring perish annuaUy in the large cities, for want of employment, food and air. In Ireland, there are, or were recently, forty-four thousand two hun dred and sixty-two farms, under one acre in extent, four hundred and seventy-three thousand seven hundred and fifty-five ranging from one to thirty. Between 1841 and 1848, eight hundred thousand people were driven out of these small holdings ; their hovels, in many cases, burnt over their heads, and their furniture " canted" into the street. Whence come Chartism, Socialism, O'Conner Land-schemes, and all sorts of theoretic dangers to property, and prescriptions of new modes by 428 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. which it may be acquired ? From this condition of real estate. The great mass of the people in these three kingdoms own no part of the soU, have no bit of land, however smaU, no homestead for their famiUes to cluster round, no certain provision for their chUdren. Is it not hard for the great body of this people, after ages spent in for eign wars for the conquest of distant possessions ; in voyages of discovery and every kind of commercial enterprise ; in scientific improvements and the development of political principles, to reflect, that with aU their bat tles by land and sea, their £800,000,000 of debt, their asssessed taxes, income tax, and heavy import duties, their prisons fuU of convicts, their poor rate of £7,000,000, — that so few of aU those who have done, and who endure these things, should not have one inch of the whole earth's surface that they can call their own. While this state of things continues, property must ever be insecure, and the great majority of the people restless. With good harvests and a brisk trade, the disinherited may for the moment forget the relative po sitions they occupy. In periods of depression, discontent, jealousy, hatred of the more highly favored, however tempered by liberaUty and kindness, will assuredly be the predominant emotions of the multitude. Their standing army and the twenty-one thousand constables may keep them down for a time. But, even if they could for ever, the question naturally arises, Have aU your battles been fought for this — to maintain in the bosom of England a state of seige and ever impending civU war? A new aspect would be given to all the questions which arise out of this condition of property at home, if a wise appropriation were made of the virgin soil of the Empire. Give the Scotchman, who has no land, a piece of North America, purchased by the blood which stained the tar tan on the plains of Abraham. Let the Irishman or the Englishman whose kindred clubbed their muskets at Bloody Creek or charged the enemy at Queenstown, have a bit of the land their fathers fought for. Let them have at least the option of ownership and occupation, and a bridge to convey them over. Such a policy would be conservative ofthe rights of property, and permanently reUeve the people. It would silence agrarian complaint, and enlarge the number of proprietors. The poor man who saw before him the prospect of securing his one hundred, or one thousand acres, by moderate industry, would no longer envy the British proprietor, whose estate owed its value to high cultivation, but was not much larger in extent. But, it may be urged, that if this policy be adopted, it may empty the United Kingdoms into North America, and largely reduced their popu lation. No apprehensions of this result need be entertained. There are LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 429 few who can live in Great Britain or Ireland in comfort and security, who will ever go qny where else. The attachment to home, with all its endearing associations, forms the first restraint. The seat of empire will ever attract around it the higher and more wealthy classes. The value of the home market will retain every agriculturist who can be profitably employed upon the land. The accumulated capital, science, and ma chinery, in the large commercial and manufacturing centres, will go on enlarging the field of occupation just in proportion as they are relieved from the pressure of taxation. Besides, emigrants who have improved their fortunes abroad, will be continually returning home, to participate in the luxury, refinement, and higher civilization, which is to be fairly as sumed, these islands will ever preeminently retain. Massachusetts, New York, and Pennslylvania, still enlarge their cities, and grow in wealth and population, though all the rich lands of the republic invite their people to emigrate, and there is no ocean to cross. The natural laws which protect them would operate more powerfully here, where the at tractions are so much greater. But it is time, my Lord, that I should anticipate the questions that will naturally arise. Assuming the policy to be sound, what will it cost to carry it out? Let us first see what the present system, or rather the public estab lishments, without a system, cost now : Poor Rates —England £6,180,765 Scotland 544,334 Ireland 1,216,679 Constabulary — England 579,327 Ireland 562,506 Convicts at home and abroad Emigration, 1849, (exclusive of cabin passengers) paid from Private or Parochial Funds 1,500,000 Paid by Government 228,300 £11,189,911 The cost of prisons, or that proportion of them which might be saved if the criminal calendar were less, might fairly be added to the amount. The prison at York cost £1200 per head, for each criminal : — a sum large enough, the inspector observes, " to build for each prisoner a se parate mansion, stable, and coach-house." A large proportion of the cost of trials might also be added ; and, as twelve jurymen must have been summoned to try most of the forty-three thousand six hundred and seventy-one persons convicted in 1848, the waste of valuable time would form no inconsiderable item. 430 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. The loss of property stolen by those whom poverty first made crimi nal, no economist can estimate ; and no human skill, can calculate the value of lives and property destroyed in agrarian outrages, when wretchedness has deepened to despair. My plan df Colonization and Emigration is extremely simple. It embraces — Ocean Steamers for the poor as well as the rich ; the preparation of the WUd Lands of North America for settlement ; and PubUc Works to employ the people. I do not propose that the British Government should pay the passage of anybody to America. I do not, therefore, require to combat the ar gument upon this point with which the Commissioners of land and Emigration usuaUy meet crude schemes, pressed without much know ledge or reflection. The people must pay their own passages ; but the Government, or some national association, or pubUc company to be organized for that purpose, must protect them from the casualties that beset them now, and secure for them cheapness, speed, and cer tainty of departure and arrival. If this is done, by the employment of steam-ships of proper construction, aU the miseries of the long voyage, with its sure concomitants, — disease and death ; and aU the waste of time and means, whUe waiting for the sailing of merchant ships on this side of the Atlantic, and for friends and conveyances on the other, would be obviated by this simple provision. A bounty to half the extent of that now given for carrying the mails would provide the ocean-omnibusses for the poor. Or, if Government, by direct aid to public works, or by the interposition of Imperial credit, to enable the colonies to construct them, were to create a labor market, and open lands for settlement along the railway line of six hundred and thirty-five miles, — these ships might be provided by private enterprise. By reference to the pubhshed Report of the Commissioners for 1847, your Lordship will perceive that in that year of famine and disease^ seventeen thousand four hundred and forty-five British subjects died on the passage to Canada and New Brunswick, in quarantine, or in the hospitals, — to say nothing of those who perished by the contagion which was diffused in the provincial cities and settlements. An equal number, there is too much reason to apprehend, died on the passage to or in the United States. In ordinary seasons, the mortality will, of course, be much less, and in all may be diminished by the more stringent pro visions since enforced by Parliament. But bad harvests, commercial depressions, with their inevitable tendency to drive off large portions of a dense population, should be anticipated ; and no regulation can protect. LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 431 large masses of emigrants, thrown into sea-ports, from delay, fraud, cupidity, and misdirection. No previous care can prevent disease from breaking out in crowded ships, that are forty or fifty days at sea, to say nothing of the perils of collision and shipwreck. Mark the effects produced upon the poorer classes of this country. Emigration is not to them what it might be made, — a cheerful excursion in search of land, employment, fortune. It is a forlorn hope, in which a very large portion perish, in years of famine and distress, and very considerable numbers in ordinary seasons, even with the best regulations that Parliament can provide. The remedy for all this — simple, sure, and not very expensive — is the ocean omnibus. Steam-ships may be constructed to carry at least one thousand pas sengers, with quite as much comfort as is now secured in a first-rate rail way carriage, and with space enough for all the luggage besides. If these vessels left London, Southampton, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, Cork, or Galway, alternately, or as there might be demand for them, on cer tain appointed days, emigrants would know where and when to embark, and would be secured from the consequences of delay, fraud, and mis- discretion. The Commissioners report, that last year the sum spent in " the cost of extra provisions and conveyance to the ports of embarkation, and maintenance there, amounted to £340,000." The cost of reaching the seaports cannot be economized, but the extra provisions and maintenance at the ports of embarkation would be materially reduced. But how much more would be saved ? The average sailing passage from London to Quebec is fifty-two days ; from Liverpool, forty-five ; from London to New York, forty-three ; from Liverpool, thirty-five. The average pas sage by steam, from any of the ports I have named, need not exceed — to Nova Scotia, ten ; to New Brunswick and Canada, twelve days. But assuming forty-three days as the average sailing passage from England to America, and thirteen to be the average by steam, let us see what the saving would be to the poor, even taking the present amount of emigra tion as a basis. Two hundred and ninety-nine thousand four hundred and ninety-eight emigrants left Great Britain and Ireland for America in 1849. A very great proportion of the Irish had a journey and a voyage to make to some English seaport, before they embarked upon the Atlantic. But pass that over, and multiplying the number of emigrants by thirty, and we have the number of days that would have been saved to these poor peo ple if they had been carried out by steam. It is clear that they wasted 432 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. eight mUlion nine hundred and eighty-four thousand nine hundred and forty days at sea, in, to them, the most precious year of Ufe, and the most valuable part of that year ; which, estimating their labor at Is. a day in the countries to which they were repairing, would amount to £449,247. The employment of ocean steamships for the poor would save all this, and it would put an end to ship-fever, disease, and death. The govern ment of England expended in Canada and New Brunswick alone, in 1847, in nursing the sick and burying the dead, £124,762 sterling. The ocean omnibus, whether estabUshed by government or by a private as sociation, would save all this in future. Restrictive Colonial laws would disappear ; and from the moment that there was a certainty that emi grants would arrive in health, however poor, the Colonists would pre pare their lands and open their arms to receive them. The saving of expense and time on our side of the Atlantic would also be immense. These ships could run down the southern shores of the maritime Provinces, and land emigrants wherever they were re quired, from Sydney to St. Andrews. Passing through the Gut of Canso, they could supply all the northern coasts, including Prince Ed ward Island. They could go direct to the St. Lawrence, landing the people wherever they were wanted, from Gaspe" to Quebec. Knowing exactly when to expect these vessels, our people would send to England, Ireland, and Scotland for their friends, and be ready with their boats and wagons to convey them off, without cost or delay, the mo ment they arrived. We should thus have a healthy, almost self-sustaining British emigra tion, to the full extent of the existing demand for labor, even if no pub lic works were commenced. But much would soon be done, still without costing the British gov ernment a pound, to extend the labor market. The moment that the ar rival of healthy emigrants, at convenient points, and early in the season, could be counted upon with certainty, the Provincial governments would lay off and prepare their lands for settlement, advertising them in all the British and Irish seaports. They would empower the deputy sur veyors in each county to act as emigrant agents, and locate the people. They would call upon the county magistracy to prepare, at the autumn or winter sessions, returns, showing the number and description of emi grants required by each county in the following spring, with the number of boys and girls that they were prepared to take charge of and bind out as apprentices. LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 433 Proprietors of large unimproved tracts would soon, by similar exer tion and kindred agencies, prepare them for occupation. A1J this may be done by the employment of steamships for the poor ; and they, I am confident, might be drawn into the public service without any cost to the country. If it be objected that, to so employ them, would diminish the demand for saUing vessels, I answer, no ; but, on the contrary, there would be an annually increasing demand for British and Colonial tonnage, to carry on the commerce and reciprocal exchanges that this healthy emigration would create. But, my Lord, I am anxious to see these cheap steamers on another account : that they may bring English, Irish, and Scotch men, and their descendants, from time to time, back to the land of their fathers, to tread the scenes which history hallows, or revive the recollections of early life ; to contemplate the modern triumphs and glories of England, and con trast them even with those of the proud Republic beside us. This en nobling pleasure cannot be indulged in now, but at a cost which debars from its enjoyment the great body of the Queen's Colonial subjects. Reduce the passage to ten days, and the cost to £5, and thousands would come over here every summer, to return with their hearts warmed towards their British brethren ; to teach their children the policy of Eng land, and to reverence her institutions. So far, my Lord, you will perceive that I have suggested nothing which would involve Her Majesty's governmest in heavy expense. On the contrary, I believe that even the cost of emigrant steamers would be more than made up, either by a reduction of expense in the naval ser vice, retrenchment of the cost of lazarettoes and quarantine, or by the relief which a healthy system of emigration would at once give to some, if not all the branches ofthe public service, which now cost £11,000,000 sterling. It would require but a slight calculation to show, that the planting of half a million of British subjects in the North American Provinces, where the duty on British manufactures ranges from six and one-fourth to twelve and one-fourth per cent.; and in the United States, where it ranges from fifteen to one hundred per cent., would amount to more than the whole sum wanted to establish these steamers. To illustrate this, I have made a selection from the United States Tariff, of certain articles in which British manufacturers feel a deep interest. It embraces one hundred and ten articles and branches of manufacture, upon which the duties in Nova Scotia, with very few ex ceptions, do not range higher than six and one-fourth per cent. — 91 434 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. British Manufactures which pay fifteen per cent, in the United States. Tow, hemp or flax, manufactured. Steel, in bars, cast or shear. Tin plates, tin foil, tin in sheets. Zinc or spelter. That pay twenty per cent. Acids, of every description. Articles used in tanning and dyeing. Blankets. Blank books, bound or unbound. Caps, gloves, leggings, mitts, socks, stockings, wove shirts and drawers. Chocolate. , Copperas and vitriol. Copper rods, bolts, nails and spikes ; copper bottoms, copper in sheets or plates. Dressed Purs. Glue. Gunpowder. Hats, or hat bodies, of wool. Oils used iu painting. Lampblack. Leather.Lead, iu pigs, bars, or sheets ; lead, in pipes, and leaden shot. Linens, of all kinds. Litharge. Malt. Manufactures of flax. Manufactures of hemp. Marble, unmanufactured. Mineral and bituminous substances. Medicinal drugs. Metals, unmanufactured. Musical instruments, of all kinds. Needles, of all kinds. Paints, dry or ground. Paper hangings. Tiles and bricks. Periodicals, Putty. Quills. Saddlery, Salts. Sheathing paper. Skins, tanned and dressed. Spermaceti candles and tapers. Steel.Stereotype plates, type metal, type* Tallow candles. Thread laces. Velvet. White and red lead. Window glass, of all kinds. That pay twenty-five per cent. Buttons and button moulds, of all kinds. Baizes, flannels, floor cloths. Cables and cordage. Cotton laces, insertings, and braids. Floss silks. All manufactures of hair of coarse de scriptions. Cotton manufactures. Manufactures of mohair. Silk manufactures. Manufactures of worsted. Mats and matting. Slates.Woollen and worsted yarn. That pay thirty per cent. Ale, beer, and porter. Manufactures of Argentine or German silver. Articles worn by men, women, or chil dren, of whatever material composed, made up in whole or in part by hand. Perfumes. Manufactures of grass, straw, or palm leaf. Beads. Hair manufactures of finer descriptions. India rubber manufactures. Pur caps, hats, muffs, tippets. Carpets, carpeting, hearth-rugs. Carriages, and parts of carnages. Cheese. Clothing, of every description. Coach and harness furniture. Coal and coke. Combs. Confectionery. LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 435 Corks. Muskets, rifles, and other fire-arms. Cutlery, of all kinds. Ochres. Jewellery. Oil cloths. Toys. Plated and gilt ware, of all kinds. Earthen, china, and stone ware. Playing cards. Manufactures of gold. Soap. Artificial feathers and flowers. Umbrella materials. That pay forty per cent. Cabinet and household furniture. Stained glass. Cut glass. Glass and porcelain manufactures. Manufactures of expensive woods. Iron, in bars or blooms, or other forms. Tobacco manufactures. Lon castings. Alabaster and spar ornaments. Japanned wares. Sweetmeats. Manufactures of cotton, linen, silk, wool, Preserved meats, fish, and fruits. or worsted, if embroidered. Marble, manufactured. That pay one hundred per cent. Manufactures of paper, or papier-mache. Brandy, whiskey, and other spirits, dis- Manufactures of wood. tilled from grain. A similar list might be made of East Indian and British Colonial staples and productions, with the endless variety of small manufactures which they stimulate, and to which these high duties apply. I pass now to the only remaining topic, the formation of public works, of approved utility, as a means of strengthening the Empire, developing the resources of the Provinces, and as an aid to more rapid and system atic colonization. Having, my Lord, in my former letter, entered largely upon this branch of the general subject, I need not repeat what that paper contains. Every mail brings fresh evidences of the feverish longing and intense anxiety with which all classes in the Provinces look forward to the es tablishment of those great lines of intercolonial and continental commun ication, which are not only to bind us together, and secure to the British Provinces great commercial advantages, but which would, with cheap steamboats, reduce the Atlantic to a British Channel, and continue the Strand in a few years to Lake Huron, and ultimately, perhaps even in our own time (so rapidly does the world advance), to the Pacific Ocean. ,The first one hundred and thirty miles of this communication Nova Scotia will make, and amply secure the British government from loss, should the advantage of its credit be given. We will do more. We will prepare our lands, collect returns, appoint an agent in each county, and repeal our taxes on emigrants ; offering, on the best terms, a home to all who choose to come among us. If Her Majesty's government have no objections to the employment of such portion of the troops as are not re- 436 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. quired to do garrison duty, we will give them a fair addition to their pay, or land along the line, to which in war their disciphne would be a de fence ; thus saving to the British government the expense of bringing these veterans back to England. The ability of Nova Scotia to fulfil any obligations she may incur to the Imperial government, may be estimated by reference to her past progress and present financial condition. Montgomery Martin, in his late work, estimates the value of the Prov ince, in movable and immovable property, at £20,700,000. Without counting wild lands and property upon which labor has not been ex pended, we rate it at £15,000,000. This has been created in a century, by the industry of a few thousands of emigrants and loyalists and their descendants. To the amount of shipping, as evidence of a prosperous commerce, I have already referred. Within the twenty years from 1826 to 1846, the population more than doubled ; the tonnage rising, in the last ten years of this period, from ninety-six thousand nine hundred and ninety-six to one hundred and forty-one thousand forty-three tons. The exports rose in the twenty years from £267,277 to £831,071. The revenue of Nova Scotia is chiefly raised from imports, the royalty on the mines, and the sale of Crown lands. There is no property tax, or assessed taxes, except poor and county rates raised by local assessments. Her tariff is the lowest in North America. Her ad valorem duty on British goods is six and one fourth per cent., that of Canada twelve and one half. AU the UabiUties of the Province amounted on the 31st December, 1849, to £105,643, 13s. ld. The Receiver General writes me that there has been an increase of the revenue during the past year, of £15,000, which will reduce the liabilities to £90,643, 13s. ld. No part of this debt is due out of the Province. Province notes, which circulate and are sustained by the demand for them to pay duties, represent £59,864 of the whole, which bears no interest. Of the balance, £40,000 is due to depositors in the Savings Bank, who receive four per cent. The holders of Stock certificates, covering the remainder, receive five per cent. The public property held by the government in the city of Halifax alone, would pay the whole debt ; which could be extinguished by apply ing the surplus revenue to that object for two years. The income from all sources fluctuates between £90,000 and £110,000. The permanent charges on this revenue secured to Her Majesty by the Civil List Bill, are £7,500 sterhng. The balance is expended in main taining other branches of the civU government, in opening and repairing roads, and promoting education. LETTERS TO EARL GRET. 437 We should make the interest of the loan we now require a first charge on this surplus, in the event of the railroad not yielding tolls sufficient, which, judging by the experience of our neighbors, we do not appre hend. This surplus must steadily increase ; because, while population and revenue wiU probably double within the next twenty years, as it has done, almost without emigration or railroads, during the past twenty, the expenses of the civil government will be but very slightly augmented. The revenue could, and if necessary would be, promptly increased, by raising the ad valorem duty, readjusting specific duties, or if even that were necessary to sustain our credit with the mother country, by a resort to a legacy, income, or property tax. The government of Nova Scotia (exclusive of lands in Cape Breton/, still retains three millions nine hundred and eighty-two thousand three hundred and eighty-eight acres of ungranted crown lands. These, if re quired, could also be pledged, or the net amount of sales of lands along the line could be paid over from time to time in liquidation of the loan. The whole amount required is £800,000. The city of Halifax being pledged to the Provincial government to pay the interest on £100,000, the whole amount that would therefore be chargeable on all sources of provincial revenue, the tolls on the railroad included, would be £24,500. Although having no authority to speak for the other Colonies, I may observe, that the Province of New Brunswick, which lies between Nova Scotia and Canada, has, in addition to her ordinary sources of revenue, eleven millions of acres of ungranted lands. She might pledge to Her Majesty's government the proceeds of as many millions of acres of these lands, along the Unes to be opened, as might be necessary, in addition to the pledge of her public funds, to secure this country from loss. The troops might be employed and settled in this Province also. The lands pledged could be sold to emigrants ; the British mails and soldiers would be transported at fair prices, and the amounts might be carried to the credit of the loans. I believe that New Brunswick could, if moderately aided, ultimately make her great lines, absorb and provide farms for mil lions of emigrants ; increase the home market for British goods by the annual amount of their consumption ; and, in a very few years, pay any loan she may require to contract, without costing England a farthing. The resources of Canada are well known to Your Lordship. Her interest in these great works cannot be exaggerated, and must be greatly enhanced by the approaching removal of the seat of gov ernment to Quebec. They would bring her productions to the sea board at all seasons of the year ; connect her by lines of communica- 438 LETTERS TO EARL GRET. tion with all the other Provinces, and with the mother country ; prepar ing the way for a great industrial, if not political union, of which the citadel of Quebec would ultimately form the centre. That her gov ernment would second any poUcy by which this might be accomplished, there is no reason to doubt. My Lord, there is one topic of extreme delicacy, perhaps, and yet, sp far as my own Province is concerned, I wiU venture to touch it without hesitation. Some of the British Colonies aspire to obtain notoriety, just now, by spurning from their bosoms the criminals of England ; with out modestly remembering that some of them, at least, owe their origi nal prosperty to such emigrants, and that thousands are annually tempted or driven into crime in this country, by the absence of employment, and by the resistless pressure which the slightest derangement in this highly artificial state of society creates. I believe that among the forty-three thousand persons convicted in this country in 1848, some thousands ¦were more to be pitied than condemned. If such persons, organized and disciplined, were employed upon the public works of North Ameri ca, as has been suggested, I believe that they would ultimately be re stored to society, and that the government would be immediately relieved from serious embarrassment. I do not shrink from the responsibility of making the suggestion, nor will I shrink from my share of the responsi bility of carrying it out. The people I represent, My Lord, are gener ally a religious people ; who know that our Savior had none of the sen sitiveness manifested at the Cape. He found some virtue in the poor woman that all the world condemned ; and did not consider at least one of the malefactors who were hung beside him, unworthy of Heaven. It has been suggested, that convicts might be advantageously em ployed on a large scale, in North America, for the construction of a railroad to the Pacific. I should Uke to see the experiment tried upon a small scale first ; and do not beUeve that if a judicious selection were made of those whose offences were superinduced by poverty and ex treme distress, or of those whose conduct in some probationary course of punishment had been exemplary, the North American Colonies would object to such a trial, if an appropriate choice were made of some locality along a great line in which they feel an interest, and if the men em ployed were properly officered and controlled by stringent regulations. A corps of five hundred might be formed, subject to military organiza tion and discipline, with the usual prospect of promotion to subordinate commands if they behaved well. Summary trial and punishment should be equaUy certain if they misbehaved ; solitary confinement in the Colonial Penitentiaries would be an appropriate punishment if they deserted or committed any new offence. If a portion of comparatively LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 439 wilderness country were selected for the experiment, the men might have sixpence per day carried to their credit from Colonial funds, while they labored ; to accumulate till their earnings are sufficient to purchase a tract of land upon the line, with seed and implements to enable them to get a first crop when the period of service had expired. The experiment would, I believe, succeed. It would cost the Imperial goverment nothing more than- it now costs to maintain the people else where. The Colony where they were employed would get the differ ence between sixpence per day and the ordinary rate of wages, to com pensate for any risk it might run ; and would besides ultimately secure customers for wild lands, and many useful settlers. In conclusion, My Lord, permit me to crave your indulgence for the length of this communication, which would be an unpardonable intru sion upon Your Lordship's time if the topics I have •¦ventured to discuss were less numerous and important. I have, etc. JOSEPH HOWE. LETTER TO THE HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. Sie, — That you should have rushed into print, on the publication of my speech in England, does not surprise me. There were some things in it calculated to give offence, and matters discussed, on which I have long known that we entirely disagree. As you were on the spot, the keenness of your criticism was one of the unavoidable perils of publica tion, and as that was foreseen, it must be good humoredly encountered. I would, however, rather review your reply than have you complain that the speech was published here in your absence. Before grappling with your main arguments, permit me to set myself right upon one or two points : and, first, as to the passage which you as sume to have been aimed at you. When that passage was spoken, I freely admit that I was in no humor to take the most amiable view of your public conduct upon the railway question, and believed that the ex pressions used were warranted by the subject and the occasion. The speech, you must remember, was spoken sixteen months ago, long before the select committees to which you refer were appointed, and at a time when the press and parliamentary speeches in Canada teemed with accusations, that, up to that period, had not been met or disproved. The reports, which, you state, contain your vindication, were only made during 440 LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. the last session. They have not reached me ; but when they do, permit me to assure you that nobody will more sincerely rejoice than myself, to find the exculpation complete. In justice to Nova Scotia, however, you should acknowledge that these imputations did not originate there. They came to us from Canada. It was roundly asserted in that Prov ince, that you had been concerned, with the Mayor of Toronto, in a transaction so gross, that the " Court " of Chancery had inserted on its " records " a sentence, by which that officer (the only one against whom the bill was filed), had been compelled to restore to the Corporation his share of the profits jointly made. It had been asserted, that on the stock-book of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, your name was found standing opposite to £50,000 of paid-up stock ; and that, from being no richer than most Colonial politicians usually are, you had, within a mar vellously short space, become extremely wealthy. All these things were said in Canadian newspapers of the highest respectability, and by mem bers of the Legislature holding prominent positions, before my speech was made. To such an extent were these statements credited in Canada that the liberal party was broken up, and Sir AUan MacNab came in at the head of a new combination, from which you were excluded. These charges, you say, have all been disproved. Of the extent and character of the vindication I shall soon inform myself by reference to the reports ; and, in the meantime, permit me to repeat, that I shall sincerely rejoice if it should be satisfactory. As you have thought it worth your while to favor the world at large with ten pages of comment and explanation with reference to our raUway negotiations, I can scarcely pass them over without a few remarks, al though nothing would be more unseemly than any attempt of ours to interest the British public in our past differences of opinion. From the account you give of them, it would be extremely difficult to comprehend the nature of my negotiations with Her Majesty's government, or of your own. A few explanations will suffice to define our relative positions and policy. The idea of a great intercolonial railway, to connect the British Prov inces with each other, originated with Lord Durham ; that of a shore line, connecting Europe and the United States, through the Lower Prov inces, was suggested at the Portland convention. The trunk for either, or both of these lines, would pass for one hundred and thirty miles through Nova Scotia. After several years had been spent in unavailing efforts to construct some portion of these works by companies, with aids and facilities from the Provincial Legislatures, I induced the government of Nova Scotia to assume the responsibility of borrowing the funds re- LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 441 quired to construct her own. I also suggested, that if the Imperial government could be induced to guarantee the loans required by the Provinces to complete the system, a vast amount of money might be saved, and that the works would thus be remunerative at a much earlier period than if constructed in any other mode. I came to England to press this policy on the Imperial government. and I labored here until my efforts had attracted to it the favor of the press, of the House of Lords, of the citizens of Southampton, and of many influential members of the House of Commons. The government then yielded, an apparently cheerful assent, and the guaranty was prom ised in a public dispatch, which was at once forwarded to all the Colonial governments. Knowing that the consent of New Brunswick could not be obtained to the arrangement, unless it included a provision for connecting her chief sea-ports with the system, and that if the shore line were provided for we should command the passenger traffic with the United States, and build up upon British territory fitting rivals to the great commercial cities of the republic, I argued throughout, that both lines were essential to the preservation of British interests and dominion, and ought to be provided for. For six months, the people of British America, with the official dispatch in their hands, believed that the guaranty was given for both. As matters have turned out, it is apparent that it might have been safely given, for the revenues of all the Provinces have so largely increased that they are now enabled to borrow all the money they re quire without the aid of the Imperial government, utterly irrespective of the paying properties of their roads. But it subsequently appeared, that Earl Grey only meant that the guaranty should be given to the Trunk Line. Now you argue that, for all the consequences of this misconception, blunder or second thought, whatever it may have been, I only am to blame. Suppose that this were true — that I really did erroneously as sume that Earl Grey designed to do more good than he really intended, the error would be venial. But had I no foundation for this belief? We shall see. It is true that I expressed to Sir John Harvey, in my letter of the 11th of December, 1851, my "regret and deep mortification" that I had misunderstood the views of Her Majesty's Government. With Earl Grey's dispatch in my hand asserting the fact, I was bound to assume at the moment that I had. A little reflection, however, con vinced me that I had hardly done myself justice. I mean to do it now, and I am much obliged to you for affording me the opportunity. 442 LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. When I put myself in communication with the Colonial Secretary in 1850, 1 was aware that misunderstandings had sometimes arisen as to matters of fact, where interviews had been obtained by persons con nected with the Colonies, and subjects discussed in an informal manner. I determined to avoid these, if possible, and therefore invariably sent to Earl Grey my own reports to the Provincial Government of what had passed, for his Lordship's inspection and approval. Mr. Hawes's letter to me, pledging the guaranty, was dated on the 10 th of March. On the 13th, I addressed to the Deputy Secretary of the Province a report to accompany that letter. This was sent to the Colonial Secretary for in spection, as all my reports were. You say that they were " not read." But should they not have been read ? If they were not, there was gross negligence, which no public officer could have defended on the floor of the House of Commons. If they were, then with what face can you assert that the officers in Downing Street " were wholly unaware that I believed them to be committed to a scheme which they had not enter tained." That these reports were read I have the best reason to be lieve, because one of them was cancelled at Earl Grey's request ; but that they should have been, if they were not, is just as apparent as that any Minister's interpretation of a treaty, about to be sent to his own Government, should, if submitted, be read by the Government to which he was accredited, in order to avoid the possibUity of future misunder standings. Hereafter, I doubt not, that even you will agree with me, that others, and not I, are responsible for the six months' waste of time, and that it would have been better for all parties concerned, if my " let ters " had been " read with sufficient attention." Your reference to the " speeches," which were not read, you will find to be equally unfortunate. I do not refer to half a dozen, made in dif ferent parts of British America, and regularly sent to Earl Grey during the summer of 1851, because I have no proof that his Lordship did read them, and certainly no desire to contend that they were worth reading. But, on my return to Halifax, in the spring of that year, I made a speech, in the Mason's Hall, in which I not only expanded my views of Imperial and Colonial policy, as connected with internal im provements, immigration, and the employment of destitute British sub jects on British soil, but described the proposition made by Mr. Hawes, as I understood it, with unmistakable distinctness : arguing with the people of New Brunswick, in a series of calculations, that, by accepting that proposition, they would get both the great works, essential to their prosperity, for about the same amount that one would cost if they re jected the guaranty. I must have been a bold man to have made that LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 443 speech, believing that I was in error. He will be a bolder, who asserts, if Lord Grey read it in June, and never informed all British America until the end of November that I had misunderstood him, and that we were self-deceived, that he could have been defended on the floor of Parliament, or anywhere else ; and that a British Colonist, with such a case in his hands, need to have been much afraid to hold up his head befdre six hundred English gentlemen, who, whatever their other faults may be, are dear lovers of fair play. Now, I have never proved, but you compel me to prove, that Earl Grey did "read " and sanction that speech. It was sent to his Lordship on the 28th of May. It was acknowledged in a note signed " Grey, " and dated " Colonial Office, June 12, 1851." As this note was marked " private," I have ever declined to publish it, and in consequence have borne much misapprehension which I ought not to have borne. Read it, and then ask yourself what you would say of the statesman who read such a speech of yours ; who wrote you such a note ; and who, five months after, wrote to your official superior to say that you were self-deceived. " I received," says his Lordship, " your two letters of the 28th of May, but I have little to say, beyond thanking you for them, and expressing the gratification your report of what is going on, has given me. I think all you have done about the Railway very judicious, and, without flattery, I may say that I do not know when I have read a better or abler speech than that which you made at the public meeting. I feel very sanguine of the ultimate assent of New Brunswick to the measure as proposed, and that we shall succeed in getting this most important work, destined, as I believe, to effect a change in the civilized world, accomplished." An unskilful defender or eulogist often does more injury than an open opponent, and I am under the impression that Earl Grey will not thank you very much for your defence of what is indefensible, or for your as sertion that my " letters and speeches were not read." Were I disposed to attribute to the great contractors whom you have named, the acrimony that runs through your pamphlet, or to revive the bitterness of past controversy, I apprehend that they would thank you just as little. With those gentlemen I have never had any personal quarrel, and do not intend to have any now. They have withdrawn from all interference with the railway policy of Nova Scotia ; and how ever attained, Nova Scotia respects too much the position which they have acquired in British America, to desire unnecessarily to interfere with them. By a few very simple contrasts I could show how deeply those gentlemen " were interested," and what strong temptations they 444 LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. had to " interfere." That they did so, from the time that they sent an agent to Toronto in the spring of 1851, down to the final signing of their contracts with you in 1852, every man in British America believes. We may charitably hope that you, in making those arrangements, thought only of the interests ofthe Province, but that the contractors looked after their own interests, and played their game with great energy and adroit ness, even you will scarcely deny. There is hardly one of them with the power of face to back your statement, or who will pretend that their in terests did not lie all in favor of the popular presumption. My policy was, after securing the money at the cheapest rate, to leave the Prov inces free to get their roads built at the lowest price, by open public contract. Theirs obviously was, to secure the construction of one thousand miles of railroad, at their own prices. I have never asserted that these gentlemen " exercised any influence with Lord Derby's government," but that they had influence with the government of which Earl Grey was a member, and of which they were all supporters, even you I think will not deny ; and that, having influence, they would use it in a matter in volving a profit of a million of money, I am credulous enough to believe. But, assuming that those gentlemen have been of great advantage to British America, that their policy was the best ; then I think that you ought to be the last person to sneer at my labors here in England, which first turned their attention towards the North American Provinces. Mr. Jackson publicly asserted, in presence of thirty gentlemen in Nova Scotia, that but for Joseph Howe's able expositions of the resources of British America, neither he nor Mr. Peto, Mr. Brassey, or Mr. Betts, would ever have thought of embarking their resources in their railways. If then Canada has largely benefited, and you have made a fortune by their operations, do be civil and grateful to the person who made you ac quainted. Be to his faults a little blind, And to his virtues very kind ; And " clap the padlock," if not on " your mind," at least on your rest less right hand, when you feel inclined to attack him. On your own railway negotiations I am inclined to touch tenderly. Assuming that you were sincere and disinterested in all you did, I have no doubt that you had your own trials. You attribute most of them to my absence ; but I am inclined to believe that on that, as on another cel ebrated occasion, the absence of a delegate from Nova Scotia was con sidered rather as a relief than a misfortune. However, you might have candidly told your readers the true cause. That being most unexpect- LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 445 edly unseated on a point of form, after my engagement to accompany you, I was compelled to spend the winter in canvassing a large county, snd in running a heavy and anxious election. Had I been here I am quite sure that you and I would not have agreed. The quarrel with Sir John Pakington might have been avoided, but the results of the negotia tion 'would have been the same. As it was, you did the very opposite to what you professed you meant to do, when you came over. You came, confidently declaring that Canada would aid New Brunswick in making a line by the River St. John, and that the guaranty would be given to that line if we would consent to it. We did consent, and New Bruns wick, which was simple enough to listen to the blandishments of Mr. Hinckes, has been left three years without a mile of finished railroad in any direction, while the State of Maine enjoys all the advantage of your diplomacy. You came professing to repudiate companies, and to build your roads as government works ; and you ended by throwing our com mon policy overboard, and rushing into the arms of the great contractors. The chief reason you gave was, that when the Imperial guaranty was withdrawn, their influence in the English money market was necessary to enable us to command the funds, and that their skill and experience were indispensable to the permanent construction of the line. The re sults show that Nova Scotia can construct roads with her own contrac tors as good as theirs, at two-thirds of the cost ; and that while all the Provinces can command as much money as they require, upon their own resources, Canada is compeUed to advance nearly a million of bonds at a time, to enable your company to float their stock, and get their lines completed. Such being the facts, patent and notorious to all the world, take an old friend's advice, and do not be too ready to appropriate to yourself doubtful compliments. Let bygones be bygones, and if there is any little good that we can yet do "on the face of the earth, let us set about it in a spirit of mutual forbearance. Your defence of Lord Elgin's treaty could not have been rendered necessary by any thing in my speech ; because, permit me to remind you, that the speech was made some months before the treaty, and long be fore it was known to me that Lord Elgin was to be charged with that service. But, perhaps you thought that the treaty required defence, or it may be that you have a taste for defending all the Lords you know. It would have saved Sir John Pakington some trouble had you been equally indulgent to the Baronets. Not having been a member of the government of Nova Scotia at the time, I am under no obligation to defend its conduct against the charges 92 446 LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. you have preferred. But I heard the members of it defend themselves in Parliament, and I do not hesitate to say that you have deeply wronged them. Now what are the facts ? Lord Elgin, absent from his govern ment on leave, in a private note, informs Sir Gaspard Le Marchant that he is coming out to the United States to negotiate, and desires His Ex cellency to send on a gentleman to confer with him. In the meantime an official letter comes down from Canada, addressed by the administra tor of the government of North America (Sir Gaspard's official superior at the time, bear in mind,) to His ExceUency, instructing him to select delegates, and informing him that notice would be given of the time when, and place where, the delegates were to meet Lord Elgin. No no tice of time or place was ever given, and before the two gentlemen who had been selected were informed to what point they were to repair, Lord Elgin had rushed in hot haste to Washington, and alienated a national property of more value than I can describe. The defence made by the government of Nova Scotia, in reference to this transaction, was perfect. The House almost unanimously held them blameless. Though myself a warm admirer of Lord Elgin ; a supporter of his administration from first to last, and indebted to him for much personal courtesy ; I condemned his conduct in this transaction, upon the facts as disclosed in the papers. It did appear to me that, in this age of telegraphs and railways, His Lordship might have waited four days, even to avoid the appearance of marked discourtesy and injustice to an ancient and loyal Colony, whose birthright (for she was the only Province deeply inter ested in the inshore fisheries) he was about to barter away. " Strike, but hear me," was never considered an unreasonable request. Nova Scotia had ever treated Lord Elgin with personal respect. She nobly sustained him when he and you were driven from the capital of Canada by those who complained of a similar surprise. Nova Scotia, had a sacrifice of interest been required of her for the general advantage of North Amer ica, would have gracefully made it ; but those know little of her who fancy that she will ever sacrifice her dignity and self-respect ; and her conduct throughout this transaction any of her sons could defend in either House of Parliament. Since I came to England I have been honored by Lord Elgin's per sonal explanations on one or two points of this controversy ; and, however unfortunate I may still think it was, that ground was left for the impres sion, I entirely acquit His Lordship of any design to exclude Nova Sco tia from the discussion. I believe that he and Sir Gaspard Le Mar chant were both mystified by the stupid dispatch which came down from Canada, of which the former knew nothing, but which the latter was bound to obey. LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 447 But such questions as this are eternally arising in or with reference to some Province of the Empire ; and do you not perceive, that, when they do arise, there is no common platform where they can be discussed and adjusted ? In 1852 you suddenly threw over a great scheme of intercolonial pol icy ; sacrificed the interests of the maritime Provinces, and of the Em pire at large, and added, at least, a million to the necessary cost of the Trunk Line through Canada. Your defence was, that you had been driven to do all this, — not, as you now allege, by the absence of Mr. Howe, — but by the discourteous and unstatesmanlike conduct of Sir John Pak ington and Lord Derby. Well, what happened ? Both those officers went down to their places in the Imperial Parliament, explained and justified their conduct, and left the universal impression in England that Mr. Hinckes, — assuming that the rage had notbeenputon for the benefit of the great contractors, — had acted very like the angry boy in The Alchemyst and had, at least, sacrificed a great scheme of national policy to an un- pardonable vanity, or an unfortunate infirmity of temper. You went home to the Canadian Parliament, and there you left the contrary impression. A majority were made to believe, that from Lord Derby and Sir John Pakington you had received most scurvy treatment ; and, under cover of the virtuous indignation thus excited, your railway contracts were sanctioned and approved. I regret that your speeches and letters are not beside me, but I well remember the tone and temper of them. Not a word did we then hear about the " high position which a Canadian minister occupies in the eyes of the world." Your argument then was, that being a Canadian minister, accredited to the Imperial gov ernment, you had been treated with marked indifference, if not with sov ereign contempt. But, my argument is, that, besides the two parties to this controversy, there were the British people, and the people of British America, whose interests were involved in it, and sacrificed by the rupture of the nego tiations ; and I contend, that the Empire should afford the means for a fair discussion of all such questions. I say, let not error be propagated on both sides of the Atlantic, which, when such questions arise, leads to irritation and alienation; but let us have a fair and full discussion some where, and ascertain where the truth lies. Let not Mr. Hinckes go to Canada and abuse Lord Derby, or Sir John Pakington go down to the House of Commons and disparage Mr. Hinckes ; but let them both be brought face to face before six hundred gentlemen, representing the whole Empire, that every man in it may thereafter know what he is to believe. 448 LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. What is true of your case is true of my own. What remedy had I in 1852, when Lord Grey's dispatch shattered the noblest scheme of Colonial policy ever devised, — a scheme which was calculated (to use His Lordship's own language) "to effect a change in the civilized world." None whatever suited to the magnitude of the wrong or of the occasion. Borne down by the weight of authority, which I had no means of resist ing here, I would have given aU that I was worth, or ever will be, for the opportunity of appealing from Earl Grey to the House of Commons ; for the chance of winning from the Imperial government a reconsidera tion of my policy. I might have failed, and so might you, and so might Mr. Johnston, had he come here to complain of the treatment of his Province, or of himself, in the Fishery negotiation. But what then ? We should all live and die with the satisfactory reflection that we had been heard ; our own people would not justify us when we were wrong; sources of irritation would be removed, and general principles, applicable to the whole Empire, would be evolved by every fresh discussion. I come now to your reference to our mines and minerals ; and I cannot but express my surprise at the ad captandum and flippant style in which you have discussed a subject of such importance. You used to have a keen eye for a grievance, but I fear prosperity has clouded your vision. You used to strain at a gnat, and now you can scarcely see a camel. Let me suppose that all the mines and minerals beneath the surface of England, Ireland, and Scotland, except what lay under land granted seventy years after the first settlement of either kingdom, had been im- providently granted away to a royal Duke, transferred to his creditors, and were held at this hour in close monopoly by a company which only worked two or three, over the whole broad surface of the three kingdoms. How long would such a monopoly last in presence of that Parliament which has abolished the slave trade, thte rotten boroughs, the corn laws, and the exclusive privileges of the East India Company ? Not a year. Yet this is the grievance of Nova Scotia. You argue, that because the Legislature gave corporate powers to the Mining Association, and because an old Parliamentary report acknowl edged that their operations had been beneficial up to a certain time, that therefore this lease should not be disturbed. But had the East India Company, the borough-mongers, and the slaveholders, no Legislative sanction ? Of course they had. And could not I, or anybody else, con sistently condemn the Company's monopoly, while admitting that India had been benefited by its operations? Might I not admit that the owner of Old Sarum generally made judicious selections of members of Parliament, but would that warrant his exclusive possession of what be- LETTERS TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 446 longed to Birmingham or Manchester ? Might not a Parliamentary committee report that the planters of a particular island were consider ate and humane ; but would that justify slavery there, or anywhere else ? Such arguments would not avail even to amuse the House of Commons. This lease would only require to be aired there for an evening or two, to go the way of all monopolies, — to be universally condemned. But I have ever separated from this act of the British government, — which the British government, at whatever cost, should cancel and recall, — the acts of a body of British merchants who bought the lease, and, upon the faith of it, have expended their capital in mining operations within the Province. To these gentlemen, individually and collectively, I have ever done justice. Some of them are my valued personal friends. They know my opinions and respect them ; and they know, that while I believe that Her Majesty's government is bound to adjust this question ; that while I believe that it is for the true interests of the Company that it should be adjusted, I have never contemplated, or would be a party to any act of spoliation or injustice. But let me fancy that all the mineral wealth of Canada, except what lay under a few old seigniories on the St. Lawrence, were thus locked up. What would the people of that Province do ? Resort to the old mode of furnishing facts to members of Parliament, and sending ad dresses and agents to the bar of the House of Commons, as they did for half a century ? No. They would resort to their more modern and more effective expedients — a successful or an unsuccessful rebellion. They would burn down a Parliament House, and pelt a Governor Gen eral. Now, it is because I desire, in the management of this great Empire, to avoid the delays and irritation inseparable from the old mode of dis cussing grievances, and the perils of the new, that I seek to secure a common platform where they may be discussed and settled. I think it beneath the dignity, and insulting to the intelligence of the great Prov inces of this Empire, that they should be asked to fee or to cram some member of Parliament to plead their cause ; or to send a hireling advo cate, to implore attention to their grievances at the bar of a Legislative body from which their people are systematically excluded. It may suit you to ignore this very rational demand ; and, looking only to the para mount object of floating railway stock, with an awful ponderosity, to paint the Colonial condition coleur de rose. But I have watched too carefully the development of the Colonial mind, and studied too long the imperfect organization of this Empire, to believe that the adjustment of this question is dependent on the temporary prosperity or tranquUlity 92# 450 LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. of any particular Province or cluster of Provinces — or on the personal influence or opinions of any particular individual. We are but on fhe threshold of this great discussion, — tbe greatest, let me tell you, in which the men of the present day were ever yet engaged. This is not a ques tion which you or I could, if we would, control. It is not a question which concerns Canada or Nova Scotia only ; it concerns India, Aus tralia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Ceylon, and the Cape. It concerns every Province into which the British races have gone, and thriven, and bred a native race with all the characteristics of the parent stock. It will presently concern even Canterbury, — the youngest born of that great Family of Nations which I wish to keep together. You and I will soon float like bubbles upon the surface of this great discussion, which will swell far beyond the ordinary sphere of our influence — the narrow cir cumference of our ideas. You seem to think that my official position should restrain me from discussing this great question. If it did, I should not be very long in of fice. While I honorably fulfil my official obligations to the government of Nova Scotia, it has no right to complain at the free expression of my opinions on any topic of general interest. This is a question of imperial dimensions ; it involves the integrity of a great empire ; the allegiance of millions of Her Majesty's subjects. Is my local position, as an officer of a single Province, to circumscribe my rights and duties as a British subject, as a citizen of that empire ? God forbid: I never pretended that I spoke the sentiments of the government of Nova Scotia, or that the Legislature of any Province in British America had taken action upon this question. Mr. Johnston's object in moving his resolution, and mine in discussing it, was to set the people in all the outlying portions of the Empire thinking on a subject of common con cern. To give a wider range to the discussion was the motive for the publication of my speech. My object has been attained. It would have been premature for Nova Scotia to have come to any direct action upon this question, until the subject had been agitated far and wide. That I have truthfully delineated, upon many important points, the feelings of all our Colonies, I firmly believe. That wide differences of opinion may exist as to the best mode of attaining a more perfect organization, is more than probable. That English prejudices may stand in the way, and Colonial prejudices also, I quite anticipate. But I do not care for all this, because in attaining responsible government, we had greater difficul ties to encounter with less efficient means. Twenty years ago, when Robert Baldwin, myself, and a few others, claimed for the British Provinces in North America the poUtical privi- LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 451 leges which they now enjoy, there were hardly ten men in England who did not believe we were mad ; and powerful parties existed in all the Provinces opposed to any change of system. The system has been changed, and what are the results ? Read them in the subsidence of ir ritation — in the settlement of old questions — in the free competition for the prizes of public and social life within the Provinces themselves — in the diffusion of education, and in the rapid march of internal improve ments of every kind. All these wonders have been wrought out, in a few years, by the action of Colonial intellect left free to operate over our internal affairs. But have we no external relations with our British breth ren? with our foreign neighbors? with each other? with French, and Dan ish, and Spanish Colonies ? with the commercial States of Europe, Asia, and Africa ? Of course we have. Now, what I want is, that the Colonial mind should be called in to aid in the discussion and adjustment of such relations. That the Queen should have the benefit of the advice of her Colonial subjects on all such questions ; that Parliament should consult with them ; that the people of the British Islands should be taught to regard them as parties concerned ; to respect and to rely upon them. Is this an unreasonable request ? It may indicate unpardonable presump tion, but I fear not to express the opinion, that even upon purely British questions our advice might be useful ; that Mr. Hinckes might be of ser vice in the House of Commons, when such subjects as decimal coinage are under discussion, and that even Mr. Howe might have thrown into the debate on the Limited Liability Bill, a little of transatlantic expe rience. But you tell me, that I may go into Parliament now. Why, I may go into the American Senate or into the Chamber of Duputies, by chang ing my country and qualifying for the position. You or I, in the House of Commons, unsustained by Colonial associates — representing no Prov ince — clothed with no Colonial confidence or authority — would much resemble a certain animal without claws, in a place that shall be name less. We should be, in fact, English representatives of English cities or boroughs, rather remarkable for having strong Colonial tendencies, which were always put aside when the interests or the prejudices of our constit uents were concerned. But ten North Americans, clothed with the au thority of half a continent, enjoying the confidence of millions of people, would stand in a much higher position. They would be listened to with respect, and, even if only permitted to address the House of Commons, without voting, would render essential service to the Empire. You assert that " the present Colonial system is all that can be reason ably desired." Let me disprove the statement by a single pregnant illus tration. * 452 LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. The Russian Empire, broad as it is, contains but sixty-milUons of people. The British Empire contains one hundred and thirty miUions. Now, how does it happen that when these two Empires go to war, the one that has the smallest amount of population is able to hold in check her rival, who possesses more than double her numbers ? WiU you pre tend that but for the military aid of France, Great Britain, on the land, would be any match for Russia ? How long would our unaided forces beleaguer Sebastopol ? How long could they protect Constantinople T The fact is startling, that the physical resources of the smallest popula tion outnumber those of the larger in the field. Now, why is this ? Simply because the one Empire is organized throughout, and the other is not. Because every Russian is made to feel that he has a common interest in the war ; while only thirty miUions of Britons, on the other side, bear the whole brunt and burden of it. Have we not, at this mo ment, one hundred millions of the Queen's subjects, beyond the British Islands, looking on as mere spectators of this death-struggle, whUe the Queen has no power to call one of them into the field. England, Ire land, and Scotland furnish all the thews and sinews for this great contro versy — theirs are the blood and treasure — the peril and the grief. There have been waiUng and sorrow in every city and hamlet of these islands ; but what then ? We have piped and danced beyond. Crape shadows the doorway of every church in England ; but our congregation* come forth in gay attire, for the voice of the national sorrow has not been " heard in our lands." This people are paying a million a week to uphold the national honour, yet we caU ourselves the common inherit ors of that priceless treasure, for the preservation of which we do not vote a sixpence. From the bosom of our mother country, as we caU it, have gone forth thousands of stalworth men to carry our national flag — to die around it — to perish in the trench or in the hospital ; and the boys of England, Ireland and Scotland, (my heart bleeds when I look into their young faces) are preparing to foUow them. Now, let me ask you, have the outlying portions of this Empire sent a man ? Where are the regiments that should pour in here, that would, if the one hundred mU- Uons of people, now unrepresented and indifferent, were made to partici pate in the ennobling privileges and great duties of Empire ? Tell me not that the question that I have raised is a Colonial question only, intruded at an inopportune moment. No, it is a British question in every sense of the word, the weight and paramount importance of which our hearts confess, for events daily supply us with painful iUustrations. Prince Albert spoke good sense when he declared that our free institutions, balanced against the secrecy and the unity of despotism, were on their LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 453 trial. His Royal Highness might have added, that our Imperial organi zation was on its trial too. Nay, he might have gone further, and said, that it had been already tried, and found wanting. We have been eighteen months at war, and the great Provinces of this Empire, where the Queen's health is drank at every festival, have scarcely sent a man to enforce the Queen's authority. We have been eighteen months at war, and hardly a man of the hundred millions who profess to venerate the Brit ish flag, has struck a blow in its defence. Yet you tell me that the sys tem is perfect ; and I tell you that it is no system at all; that the ques tion of questions, at the present moment, far transcending all the other questions of the day is — how this Empire is to be organized — how its strength in times of emergency may be drawn out — how the maritime and physical resources of the outlying portions of the Empire can be rallied round the homestead — how the hundred millions beyond the narrow seas can be induced to feel, and think and fight, for and with the thirty mUlions that they enclose. When this question has been dis cussed, and wisely determined, as it will be, lustre will be added to the Imperial diadem — the Queen's name, at home and abroad, will be indeed a tower of strength ; great weight and authority will be given to the decisions of Parliament, and a career will be opened up for the en ergetic and the ambitious, that will on every great emergency rally around our national standard the strength and the affections of an Empire. You will present yourself in a few days to the Emperor of the French, and spread before him the productions of Canada. Do not be surprised if that shrewd politician should ask you, "but, pray, Mr. Hinckes, does not Canada produce any men ? What number have you sent to the Crimea ? ' We have the Sardinian, but where is the Canadian Contingent ? Africa sends me Zouaves, cannot the great Province of Canada, peopled by two martial races, send the Queen of England a few regiments ? " Should these questions be put, what is to be your answer ? You cannot plead the poverty of your country, for her revenue is overflowing. You cannot plead that you have not men, for the mUitia returns of Canada should show four hundred thousand. You cannot pretend that these men are unfit to take the field, for every man is a marksman ; and they are of the same stock as those who fought at Cha- teaugay, and at Lundy's Lane. You cannot deny that Canada was con quered by the arms of England — that she has been fostered and de fended ever since. You cannot pretend that she has any thing to com plain of, for you profess to believe " that the present Colonial system is aU that can be reasonably desired." What then is to be your answer ? 454 LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. I am sure you will have too much good taste to point to the few thousands of pounds which North America has contributed to the Patriotic Fund, less than it has cost England annually to maintain two regiments in Canada — less than England has often contributed when there has been a fire at Quebec, or in Newfoundland. What, then, is to be your an swer ? Go down to Winchester, or Aldershott, and look at the fresh- coloured English boys preparing to do battle for our country — then think of the horny hands and stalworth forms that we have left on the Ottawa, and on the St. John, who do not strike one blow in its defence. Where, when England is sore beset, are the descendants of the Loyal ists, a race as loyal and as chivalrous as any within the Queen's domin ions ? Where are the McDonalds and McKinnons, of Glengary, and Sydney ? Where are the McNabs, of McNab, and the Frazers, of Pic tou ? Echo answers where ? And you must answer to the Emperor of the French that these men are cowards and poltroons, which you know they are not, or you must confess that there is something wrong in the organization of this Empire — fundamentally and radically wrong, and you must retract the silly and unfounded assertion that the " colonial system is all that can be reasonably desired." Now, my answer to such a question would be simple, candid, and con sistent. It would carry conviction, and vindicate the character of North America, while it accounted for the position she maintains. " May it please Your Majesty, — England entrusts her Colonies only with the management of their internal affairs. These are admirably managed without expense or trouble to England, except where she needlessly in terferes. But she never consults us either about her own or our external relations. She makes no provision by which the hundred millions of people inhabiting noble countries in every quarter of the globe, shall share her legislation or her counsels, shall give vigor to her diplomacy, accuracy and fullness of knowledge to her administration, or numbers and strength to her armies. Under those circumstances, may it please Your Majesty, we attend to our own affairs. Our sympathies are all in favor of England whatever she does, but our active interference in a foreign war cannot be demanded. We grant a few thousands of pounds, to provide comforts for the Avounded, and we pray in all our churches for the success of Her Majesty's arms, but we do not raise a sword to help her ; we think, in the simple language of Jeannette, that ' those who make the war should be the men to fight.' " This is the answer which every North American gives to his own conscience at the present hour. It is the answer which every man of the hundred millions of non-combat ants gives to the world at large. If it be a fact, then, that they are LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 455 non-combatants, and that this answer is sufficient, what shall we say of the system which produces such results ? what shall we say of the poli tician who declares that it is all that can be reasonably desired ? what shall we say of the British gentleman who would strangle with official trammels the liberty of public discussion on such a theme ? Logic would cease to be an art, if your argument on the distribution of distinctions was worthy of serious notice. I showed that, while the humblest native of the smallest State in the Union might hold any legis lative or executive position within that commonwealth, all the highest offices in the nation were open to him too ; that he might be a Secretary of State ; an ambassador ; a Judge of the Supreme Court, or President of the republic. You tell me that " a Canadian minister occupies a much higher position in the eyes of the world than a secretary in Michigan or Illinois." Even if this were true — and I am quite sure that the boast would be laughed at in Michigan — it proves nothing ; unless you can show that the Colonist's career does not practically stop when he is a Provincial minister. I contend that it does ; that, having reached that point, he is hedged in by barriers which he cannot overleap ; that, thenceforward, he must " fling away ambition ; " that he has got into a cul-de-sac ; that he finds John Bull, looking very like a beadle, guarding the rich scenery beyond, and saying to him, as he marks the expression of his longing eye, " No thoroughfare here." I can point to the Win- throps, the Cushings, the Rushes, the Websters — the descendants of the men who tore down the British flag, and drove out the Loyalists in 1783 — representing their country in a National Legislature, or in every court in Europe; and I can find a Buffalo schoolmaster or a New Hamp shire lawyer presiding over the Union ; while I challenge the world to show me a Colonist in our National Legislature, in any Imperial depart ment, or who is now, or has been for half a century, Governor of the smallest Colony within the Queen's dominions. That is my argument ; answer it if you can. You tell me, that on this subject I am misrepre senting the feelings of British America ; that I was " unable to convince the Assembly of which I was a member," of the soundness of my views. But I tell you that the speech of which you complain was delivered amidst the cheers of both sides of the House ; that it circulated over British America, almost unquestioned ; that, however men may differ as to the remedy, there is no difference of opinion as to the practical exclu sion of Colonists from the higher employments and more ennobling dis tinctions of the Empire. That this conviction is sinking deeper into the hearts and souls of the rising generation, and ought to be eradicated in time, by wise and generous statesmanship. Mr. Johnston's speech, or 456 LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. which I regret that I have not a copy, was more able and argumentative than mine. Now, what do you answer to all this ? " It is true that I cannot find a Colonist in the National Legislature, in the diplomatic ser vice, in any Imperial department, or in the gubernatorial chair of any British Province ; but I can find an office, recently filled up by a gentle man, who, though an Englishman by birth, has resided several years in a Colony." If you were a British American, and not an Irishman, " who has resided several years in a Colony," I should blush for my country. If I could show that every Irishman in Canada had been practically excluded from office for half a century, what would they say if you consoled them by finding a Canadian in office who once saw the Giant's Causeway ? As respects the United Services, your argument is equally feeble. You say that the Colonists now fighting the battles of their country in the Crimea will repudiate my opinions. How many are there ? I know of one Nova Scotian, who carried the colors of his regiment up the heights of Alma. There may be another ; there may be half a dozen North Americans in all ; but why do you not speak out what all our people feel on this subject. In a letter which I addressed to Lord John Russell in 1846, 1 ventured to assert " that the time would come when it would be thought as disgraceful to sell a commission in the army as to seU a seat upon the bench." The time has come. You argue that because the sys tem of purchase excludes seven-eighths of the people of the British Is lands from the higher grades of the army, and nearly all the Colonists, the Colonists have no reason to complain. But my argument is, that a system which works this general injustice weakens the Empire, and ought to be abolished. What would you or I have said when we held executive offices, if a man had walked in and offered to buy a magistrate's or a militia commis sion ? would we not have shown him the door, and have put him out of it, instantly, peremptorily ? Yet do you justify the right to buy and seU the power of life and death ; to lead men or to mislead them in the trench or in the field ; to guard or not to guard them, by forethought and expe rience, from frost, and wind, and rain ; from hunger, surprise and de spondency ? Or, if you do not, why not tell the honest truth at once — that, so long as commissions are bought and sold, and their distribution controlled by Parliamentary influence, the Colonial youth, who have no Parliamentary influence, and comparatively less wealth than their com petitors at home, are practically shut out from the mUitary service of the Crown. You tell me that the Colonists can now claim " the protection of the LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 457 Empire," but what twaddle is this ! What protection does Canada give to India, or Jamaica to Canada ? None whatever. Do you not perceive that the whole business and burden of protecting the Empire falls upon the people of two small islands, who, when they want aid and protection themselves, do not get it from any of the Provinces ? Did not the sword of Wolfe win every acre of the soil of Canada, and did not Canada recently refuse a few acres of that very land to encourage soldiers to fight for our common country ? While she appeared to have her choice of foreign alUances, England could perhaps afford to disregard the natural strength which lay within her own possessions. But how stands the matter now ? Russia and all her tributaries are in battle array ; Austria is treacherous ; Prussia sulky. AU Germany stands aloof. We have to lend money to Turkey and Sar dinia to enable them to keep their armies iji the field. The United States, thoroughly Russian in sentiment, preserve a sort of armed neu- traUty. Our sole effective ally (a noble one I grant you), is France. God give stabiUty to her councils, but I tremble when I think how much may depend on a single life. This is a faithful picture of England's rela tions with all the world. Stand before it, and tell me if it does not coun- sel her to strengthen her alliances with her own natural allies ; with her own Provinces, peopled by her own children. Is the old Pelican eter nally to shed her blood for the nourishment of offspring, who fly away when they are strong, or who when the eagle descends upon her nest, fold their wings, and do not battle in her defence ? Surely the mother is careless and indifferent, or the children are unnatural. The whole Austrian Empire contains but thirty-six million five hun dred and fourteen thousand four hundred and sixty-six inhabitants, — a trifle more than one-third of the population of the British Provinces beyond the sea. How have we waited, and pleaded, and negotiated, and argued, for an aUiance with Austria, while we have never wasted a thought upon the strength, latent but tremendous, which lies in John Bull's gigantic limbs, that our wretched system paralyzes- Let us group all our allies together, and we have : — Turkey, with 15,500,000 people. Sardinia 4,916,087 " France 35,781,628 " 56,197,715 But half the physical force that lies in the outlying portions of this Em pire, unrepresented and unorganized, but which a moderate share of rep resentation, and some forethought and consideration, would ever, in 93 458 LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. times of trial, rally around the throne. There is scarcely a Province that could not and would not send its regiment, if due consideration and a fair distribution of the honors and distinctions of the Empire made it a point of honor and of duty to send it; and many of them could send ten. The review of such an army would be a sight indeed ; and Queen Vic toria and her illustrious consort, standing in their midst, would feel that her throne was bulwarked, as it is not now ; British statesmen would feel that they were independent of treacherous allies ; the British people would feel that their soil, their institutions, and their high civilization were secure. To realize this great conception, there is nothing wanting but to draw into the counsels of this Empire the ripened intellects and noble spirits that lead this population. Talk not to me of difficulties. AU government is compromise, and half the diplomacy wasted on " the four points " would soon, adjust details. Let Great Britain and Ireland do their duty, and the Colonies will not be indifferent to the call of pa triotism, or regardless of the national honor. If I sought to " dismember the Empire," I would hold my tongue, and let these contrasts work their way. I point them out, because I de sire to keep the Empire together ; to organize and strengthen it ; to rally round the national flag the energies of millions who strike no blow in its defence ; to bulwark the British Islands with natural allies ; to make them independent of Turks, and Austrians, and Sardinians ; to draw into the Imperial employments the high intellects that embellish, the energies which control the destinies of its distant Provinces ; to make Queen Victoria's service a service of love and emulation everywhere ; to enable her to command every sword within her dominions. To teach Englishmen to value their own flesh and blood ; to teach Colonists to look to this great metropolis as to an arena, which at any moment they may be called to tread ; to Westminster Abbey, not as to an antique pile of masonry, covering the bones of their fathers, but as the sacred de pository where their children may be laid, when they have discharged in open and fair fields of emulation the higher duties of empire, and won its proudest distinctions. When that day comes, and come it will ; when the good sense that extended Parliamentary representation to Manches ter and Birmingham, shaU have extended it to Canada and Jamaica, to Australia, and the Cape ; when the men of the east and of the west, of the north and of the south, speak with authority and fullness of knowl edge, from the noblest forum to the largest civilized community in the world, then shall we have a camp at Aldershott, and an army that, un- LETTER TO HON. FRANCIS HINCKES. 459 aided by foreign alliances or mercenaries, can protect the civilization of the world.* Should that day ever happily arrive, you and I will forget our past controversies in the general joy. Should it not, the consciousness of the fearless performance of a great public duty will, whatever may happen, in some measure console Your obedient servant, London, March, 1855. JOSEPH HOWE. * Taking the population of the Empire at one hundred and thirty millions, one in every seven at least may be considered a man fit for service. This would give us eighteen million fighting men within the Empire itself. LECTURES. ;i3* (461) LECTURES. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE HALIFAX MECHANICS' INSTITUTE, ON THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, 1834. After a season of unexampled trial to this community,* and of anxious solicitude to us all, it is with no ordinary feelings of pleasure that I open the fourth course of lectures to this Institute. Although since We last met, some of us may have have lost relatives and friends ; still, when I find so full an attendance of my brother members — when I see around me so many familiar faces — I cannot but feel that the most appropriate sentiment for me to utter, and that to which your hearts will most cheer fully respond, is one of gratitude to Him, through whose sparing mercy we are again permitted to assemble to tread the paths of science ; and attain, through a right use of the means which he has placed within our reach, some knowledge of the wonders created by his hand, and of the laws by which they are controlled. It is our practice, in these opening addresses, without confining our selves to any particular subject, to touch upon the past history and fu ture prospects of the Institute ; to take a discursive range over the wide fields of literature and science, for illustrations of the value of such so cieties ; to build each other up in the love of knowledge ; to cheer each other on in that course of improvement which has been so successfully commenced. As this duty usually devolves upon your office-bearers, and as, for many reasons, it is my wish and my intention to fall back into the ranks at the close of the present year, I shall avail myself of this occa sion, to impress strongly upon your minds some general views that have long been forming in my own, and which I would fain leave among you ere I retire from the chair. The abstract or cosmopolitan idea of Knowledge is, that it is of no country ; the world of Science and of Letters comprises the learned and the ingenious of every clime ; whose intellects, reflecting back the light * From the Cholera, and commercial embarrassments. 464 LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. which each in turn bestows, serve to illuminate and cheer the dark places of the earth, and roll off the mists which ignorance and prejudice have gathered around the human mind. To benefit his whole race, and • to earn universal applause, are the first great stimulants of the student and philosopher ; but the all wise Being, who divided the earth into con tinents, peninsulas and islands — who separated tribes from each other by mountain ranges and unfathomable seas ; who gave a different fea ture and a different tongue, evidently intended that there should be a local knowledge and a local love, binding his creatures to particular spots of earth, and interesting them peculiarly for the prosperity, improve ment and happiness of those places. The love of country, therefore, though distinguished from this universal love, boasts of an origin as di vine, and serves purposes scarcely less admirable. It begets a generous rivalry among the nations of the earth, by which the intellectual and physical resources of each are developed, and strengthened by constant exercise ; and although sometimes abused by ignorance or criminal am bition, has a constant direction favorable to the growth of knowledge, and the amelioration and improvement of human affairs. Is that feeling alive in your breasts ? Is it abroad in this country? Has Nova Scotia received the power to attach her chUdren to her bosom, and make them prouder and fonder of her bleak hills and sylvan valleys, than even of the fairer and more cultivated lands from which their pa rents came ? I pause for no reply ; the unerring law of nature is my answer ; and though addressing an audience composed of aU countries, it is with the conviction that their children are already natives of Nova Scotia, and that their judgments will approve of the direction I wish to give to those feelings of patriotism which that circumstance will inevita bly inspire. You who owe your origin to other lands, cannot resist the conviction, that as you loved them, so will your children love this ; and that though the second place in their hearts may be filled by merry England, romantic Scotland, or the verdant fields of Erin, the first and highest will be occupied by the little Province where they drew their earliest breath, and which claims from them filial reverence and care. Far be it from me to wish, on this occasion, to draw national dis tinctions. I desire rather to show you how the certainty that your de scendants will be one race, having a common attachment to Nova Scotia, and knowing no higher obligation than to love and honor her, ought to draw you closer to each other in friendly union, and make you solicitous to give that direction to their minds which shall best secure their happi ness, and prompte the welfare of their common country. LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. 465 I must confess that, at a first glance, the youthful native of Nova Scotia would seem to require more than an ordinary share of amor patras, to justify much pride at the present condition of his country, or to inspire any ardent hope of her future prosperity and renown. He sees her almost the least in population and extent in the whole range of a mighty continent ; and without reference to the glorious nations of the old world, but a child in resources and improvement, as compared with the States and Provinces by which she is more immediately sur rounded ; and upon which the signs of a manhood, vigorous and ad vanced, are already deeply impressed. He may love her, but can he hope to render her conspicuous among such competitors ? — to raise her up to the level which they may, without any very extraordinary efforts, attain ? To the South and West a more generous sun warms a more fertile soil into a higher measure of fruitfulness and beauty than nature bestows on him ; and to the North, he finds countries which, from their geographical extent and earlier settlement, have a greater command of resources — are already vastly in advance — and seem destined to leave Nova Scotia far behind in the race of improvement; and to merge, in their own mental effulgence, the feeble light of science which even ar dent patriotism may kindle upon her soil. Turning from Virginia, with her sixty-six thousand square miles, covered with flourishing towns and more than a million of population ; from New York, with her magnificent rivers, princely cities, and two miUions of people ; from Massachusetts, with her extensive borders crowded with activity and intelligence ; from the Canadas, with their na tional dimensions, great natural resources, and rapidly increasing popu lation ; to our own little Province, hemmed in by the Atlantic and its bays, and presenting an outline as comparatively insignificant as her numbers, we may be pardoned if, at times, the desire to elevate and adorn our native land, is borne down by the sense of the competition we must encounter, and of the apparent hopelessness of the task. Many a time has my own mind sunk under the sense of these ine qualities ; and if I present them thus broadly to yours, it is because I wish to show you how I have learned to overcome them ; and, as it were, to consult you upon the possibility of rendering them a source of excite ment rather than of depression, to the generation now rising around us. With nations as with individuals much depends upon the principles and resolves with which they set out, and the strength of their determina tion to surmount the untoward accidents of birth ; and command, by energy and perseverance, the honors and rewards which circumstances would seem to have denied. The conviction of this truth prompts the 466 LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. utterance of sentiments on this occasion, that many may regard as far fetched and premature ; but which, after long and painfully revolving our present condition and future prospects, I feel it my duty to express. And something tells me, that although from the feeble manner in which they are urged, these views and opinions may now be held in slight es teem, a time shall come, when they will, with the genius and ability of a riper and more cultivated age, be infused into the minds of my coun trymen, and stimulate them in their love of knowledge, and their pursuit of an honorable name. We constantly see individuals of good natural capacity, and superior opportunities and advantages, outstripped in the pursuit of influence and distinction by those who, viewing the point from which they started, would appear to have had, in the paths of emulation, hardly any chance. We see the poor but persevering and industrious man accumulate wealth, and purchase extensive domains ; while, by the idle and the dissolute, the most ample fortunes are wasted. And these examples are seldom lost on those by whom they are carefuUy observed. Though an acci dent may bring wealth or reduce us to poverty, we know, by a com parison of many facts, that, in nine cases out of ten, these result from the possession of certain qualities, and the exercise or neglect of peculiar powers. Hence the poor and the wise man derives lessons of encour agement ; and if the estate of the rich landlord spreads its countless acres beyond his narrow field, or if the spacious palace overtops his humble store, his spirit is not depressed, but borrows strength and en ergy from the view of that affluence he determines to attain. Compare the advantages of Burke and Sheridan, Canning and Mans field, Curran and Erskine, with those of the thousands of wealthy youths poured out from the ancient coUeges of Britain, whose command of mas ters, well-stored libraries, and leisure for foreign travel and domestic study and reflection, would seem to have peculiarly fitted them to shine as orators and statesmen — and you will be convinced that there is a power in the human mind to control all outward circumstances, and raise itself up from the lowest depth of social degradation to the highest point of moral influence and intellectual renown. Need I refer you to the Franklins and Fergusons, the Johnsons and the Fultons, to convince you that, even on the roughest roads of scholarship and science, those who would appear to have the greatest advantages may be distanced by the genius and perseverence of the most obscure. These splendid individual instances have often been pressed upon your attention ; and I only allude to them here, that I may inquire, whether men in masses may not achieve for their common country a LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. 467 moral ancl inteUectual reputation, and a measure of collective prosperity and influence, equally disproportioned to her apparent means ; equally honorable to their joint exertions ; and equally worthy of that untiring diligence and indefatigable hope, without which nothing valuable can ever be attained ? I think they can. I would have you think so ; and, sanctioned by your judgment, I wish the sentiment to go abroad over the Province, and to become strongly impressed upon the minds of my youthful countrymen, until it ripens into a cheerful and fixed determina tion to raise up their native land to a point of distinction in agriculture, commerce, and the arts ; in literature and science, in knowledge and virtue, which shall win for her the admiration and esteem of other lands, and teach them to estimate Nova Scotia rather by her mental riches and resources, than by her age, population, or geographical extent. With nations as with individuals, though much depends on natural endowments, much also depends on first impressions and early culture ; and with them, as with us, though in some cases accidents may make or mar, it rarely happens that their ruling passions and fixed determinations do not con trol their destiny. This is the infant hour, or, if you will, the childhood of our country ; and it is, if not for you and I, at all events for the race among whom we live, and to whom our public declarations are addressed, to say what shall be her future progress ; what resources shall be placed within her reach ; what rules laid down for her guidance ; what opinions and determina tions indelibly impressed upon her mind. Shall we then neglect this high duty, which we owe alike to the hardy pioneers by whom the Province was conquered and explored, and who have done so much for us ; and to those generations that must come after, and to whose feet our knowledge and virtues should be as a lamp, and over whose destiny, whether for good or evil, we have such exten sive control ? ShaU we lie down in idleness and doubt, because we are but a handful of men, and because our country might be almost hidden in some of the Canadian lakes ? Shall we forswear all mental compe- pition, because other countries are larger and more advanced ? Shall we aspire to no national character, no combined influence, no honorable report ? Shall we turn recreant to the blood and example of those glorious islands, from which we derive our language and our name ? Shall we forget the obscurity of their origin, the vicissitudes of their history, and the obstacles which their children and our fathers triumphed over and controlled ? Or shall we, upon a continent peopled by their descendants, sell our birthright for the pottage of timidity and sloth ? Shall we teach our children to seek excuses for idleness and irresolution 468 LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. in the narrow dimensions of their country, and to tacitly yield to a Cana dian or Virginian superiority in all things, because he chanced to inherit a more fertile soil, and can reckon a million who bear his name ? The doubt that we could not do otherwise, has often painfully op pressed my mind ; but I have taught myself to hope, to reason, and re solve, and I am satisfied that we may, if we choose, tread a far higher path than that to which it would, at a first view, appear our des tiny must inevitably lead. WiU you throw aside your own doubts, and labor for a " consummation so devoutly to be wished ? " WiU you, on this night, pledge with me your faith that there shall come a time when Nova Scotian will be a name of distinction and of pride ; when it shall be a synonyme for high mental and moral cultivation ; when the sound of it in a Briton's ears shall be foUowed by the reflection that the good seed which he sowed had fallen upon genial soil ; and when the American, while glancing his eye over the map of this mighty continent, shall recognize, in the little peninsula jutting out upon the bosom of the At lantic, the home of a race superior to many and second to none of the countless tribes by whose gigantic territories they are embraced ? With mere politics, whether general or local, in this institute, we never interfere ; and I have elsewhere such a surfeit of the angry con tentions they engender, as to be the last to introduce them here. But there is a philosophy, taught by the experience of nations and of the human mind, upon which we may reflect and reason without offence. And if any ask, how can you talk of a distinct national character, with out a severance of the Colonial connection ; or how can you hope to raise Nova Scotia on the scale of importance without schemes of spolia tion and conquest, criminal and absurd ? here is my answer : the im provement I contemplate, the distinction at which I aim, are neither incompatible with our present political position, or with the peace and independence of our neighbors. I wish to lay the foundations of our future fame much deeper than the mere politician would lay them, to reap a harvest more hlameless and enduring than foreign conquest and oppression could«afford. Providence has given us a separate country, and the elements of a distinct character. We cannot change what the hand of nature has per formed. But can we not follow out the benevolent designs of Provi dence, and fill up, with pleasing tints and graceful animation, the outline which nature has but sketched ? Can we endanger our friendly relations with Britain, or excite the jealousy of our neighbors, by becoming wise and virtuous ; by establishing a high standard of moral excellence, and making to Nova Scotians the great truths of religion, philosophy and LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. 469 science familiar as household words ; by exciting among our population a desire for distinction, and a taste for literature and art, as general as is the taste for music in modern Italy, or as was the love of country which distinguished ancient Rome ? But, it may be said, what can a little Society such as this accomplish ? Need I remind you that a few intelligent and determined men can do al most any thing, to which reason and sound policy are not opposed ? Have not smaller combinations, ere now, broken down the superstitions, dispelled the ignorance, and elevated the moral and social character of distant millions, who seemed sunken in the lowest depth of barbaric deg radation ? Does not that great reformation, which is now spreading over the new world and the old, restoring to humanity those who had been .transformed to demons, and rescuing all ranks and classes from sorrow and pollution, owe its origin to a few enlightened and determined men ? To the work before us our means are not more disproportioned. They had distant and hostile tribes to reform ; we have our countrymen to improve who surround us on every side. They had deep-rooted customs and in veterate prejudices to contend with ; we have the ductile and vigorous genius of a youthful people in our hands. If we encourage each other to love the land of our birth, or of our adoption, and make that affection the perennial spring of virtue and of knowledge, that our country may be honored : if we teach our children, our friends and neighbors, that as mind is the standard of the man, so is it of the nation ; and that it becomes the duty of each individual to cast into the public treasury of Nova Scotia's reputation something to make her " loved at home, revered abroad ; " and if this feeling becomes so general throughout the country, as to be recognized as a stimulant and a principle of action, our work will be more than half accomplished, and we may leave the rest to time. Holding these opinions, I do assure you that I have watched the progress of this Institute with earnest solicitude and delight ; for as a Uttle leaven leaveneth the lump, I have fondly hoped that it would become the centre from which sound knowledge and correct feeling would be diffused ; and that from its walls a voice of in spiration, encouragement and hope, would go abroad over the Province, elevating the minds of my countrymen, and attuning their hearts to vir tue. When Themistocles was asked if he could play, he replied that he could not, but " he could make a great city out of a petty town." With out cherishing that contempt for the arts of life which the answer would seem to imply, let us seek to acquire and diffuse the knowledge by which villages are turned to cities, and petty territories raised up to be great 94 470 LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. and flourishing nations. This would appear a hopeless task — an unat tainable art, if the world's history was not full of cheering and conspic uous examples. These, as it were, with one voice, teach us this great lesson, that the growth and prosperity of cities and states do not depend so much upon their territorial extent, or their natural situation and ad vantages, as upon the discipline, knowledge, and self-devotion of their in habitants. Were I addressing rude soldiers of the middle age, I might point to Sparta and to Rome, and ask to what they owed their influence and dominion? But this is not the age nor this the country to applaud or practice a culture so austere ; and yet, may we not ask if our chance of earning for Nova Scotia a reputation more blameless and serene, by a disciphne less rigorous and brutal, is not better than that of the handful of disorderly soldiers, who subdued the world by first subduing them selves. But let us turn to those nations which have raised themselves to dis tinction by the arts of peace — by those qualities which, as they better suit our situation, are more in accordance with our sympathies, and the spirit of the age. Why was Athens more prosperous, more influential, enUghtened and refined, than the other states of Greece ? Was there any thing so pre eminently superior in her situation and natural gifts, as to mark her the favorite of fortune, and check all competition in the paths of greatness which she pursued ? Was there anything in the original extent of her borders, or in the character of the mere land and sea that they enclosed, to which her decided superiority can be traced ? No. To the nature of her early discipline, the value of her institutions, the noble ambition they excited, and the consequent devotion to industry, philosophy, and the arts, we must attribute the rise of that wonderful city, so long the seat of power and refinement ; and whose glory has come down to our own times, mellowed but not obscured by the lapse of ages ; refracted, perhaps, but unquenched, by the imperfect media of history and tradition through which it has passed. If it were possible to carry your minds back for centuries, and show you the low and barren sandbanks at the head of the Adriatic, out of which arose the great and flourishing republic of Venice (and compared with which even the Isle of Sable is an empire), I would ask whether you conceived it possible that even the industry and ingenuity of man could build up a mighty State out of such contemptible materials ? Did the stately palaces grow from out that barren soil ? Were they formed, like the wreathed coral, by the spontaneous resources of the sea ? No ; but they grew with the growth of Venetian inteUect, disciphne and in- LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. 471 dustry; they grew as a regard for the honor and interest of St. Mark became a fixed principle of action among his children ; and with them grew internal strength and moral influence abroad. And how did it happen, that of all the States of Italy, no fitting rivals could be found for these people, but in the confined and rugged borders of Genoa ? What earned her the title of " the proud " — gave her the mastery of distant seas, and almost the command of the Eastern Empire ? Was it her situation, her soil, her climate ? Had she any advantage in point of time, or territory, or population, over the other states of Italy ? Not at all ; but courage and enterprise, love of country and high-toned ambition overcame all obstacles, won every advantage, and gave to a little circle of rocky hills a name, an influence, and a degree of wealth and power, to which in her early days it would have appeared like madness to have aspired. Need I name Florence to you, or ask why the modern traveller, with bounding heart and excited imagination, hastens by the other cities of Italy to bend his gaze on her ? Is it because there is any magic in the Arno — any higher charm than nature has bestowed on other streams ? Can the country around it vie with the beautiful and sublime, the daz zling but barren dowry, of many a nobler scene ? Why, then, does Florence claim such especial regard ? Because within her borders were displayed, during a long period of her history, the highest qualities of the human mind, threading and controlling the dark and intricate policy of the times, influencing the fate of nations, and winning lustre and re spect by the finest achievements in literature, science, and art. The wis dom, self-devotion, and genius of her sons, secured to her the best re wards of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures ; raised her up to a degree of grandeur and authority, which nature would seem to have denied ; and filled her with objects to attract the attention and excite the wonder of every succeeding age. Who would seek, in the sluggish rivers and mud flats of Holland, for the' materials of a great and flourishing state ? Who would expect of the inhabitants of sueh a country, to do more than subdue the prominent disadvantages by which they were surrounded ; to atone, by the mo st persevering industry, for those inequalities of fortune that would appear to distinguish them from their more highly favored neighbors ; and sub ject them forever to mortifying contrasts on the scale of national im portance ? But, do we not find, in the flourishing cities of Holland, her crowded marts, her powerful armaments, her distant Colonies, her honor able name, the most unequivocal evidences of the boundless resources and energy of the human mind ; rising superior to the obstacles of nature, 472 LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. draining the land and subduing tbe sea, exacting tribute from the idle and improvident, and going on conquering and to conquer, so long as rightly disciplined and directed, and stimulated by the hope of honorable rewards ? Turning to Britain, we have a more striking illustration — one that we may be pardoned for contemplating with pride. Who among you is so ignorant as to believe that her prosperity and power — her boundless treasures of industry and art — her moral influence and honorable re nown, — are either the fruits of her position, her superiority of soil and climate, territorial extent, or of any start which circumstances gave her, in the march of civilization, over the other countries of Europe ? If her greatness grew out of her position, why were not the islands of the Mediterranean more commercial, prosperous and impregnable, than the countries upon the main ? If an insular situation is indispensable to the creation of naval armaments, the prosecution of foreign commerce, the establishment of distant Colonies, how does it happen that all these were acquired by Holland, Portugal and Spain ? In soil and climate, so far from having any advantage, she is behind her rivals ; in size, she is less than Prussia, and not half so extensive as France or- Spain ; and in point of time, when Italy was a garden, she was but a desert. Where then lies the true secret of Britain's influence and renown ? You must seek it in her nobler institutions — her higher political and social culti vation — her superior knowledge, enterprise, and freedom ; and above all, in that high toned patriotism and national pride, which stimulates her sons to enlarge her borders — pour the riches of the universe into her bosom — and, by the highest flights of valour, genius, and self devo tion, illustrate her history and adorn her name. Shall we, then, disregard these great lessons ? ShaU the muse of his tory teach us this admirable philosophy in vain, or point unheeded to those bright examples recorded by her pen ? No — I trust not. Let us pledge ourselves to each other to study them with attention, to im press them upon the minds of our neighbors and friends, to teach them to our chUdren ; and to seek from them consolation and encouragement amidst the difficulties we may have to encounter, in developing the re sources of this young and growing country. You wUl readily perceive that I wish to show you how national hap piness, influence and glory, are comparatively independent of those cir- sumstances which are vulgarly believed to create them ; and that a peo ple, though ever so few in numbers and deficient in physical resources, may, by a due appreciation of this truth — by a due estimate of early combination and perseverance, form their own destiny control their LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. 473 own fortune, and earn for themselves a measure of improvement, influ ence, and renown, out of all proportion to the gifts of nature and the apparent means at their command. But, it may be said, what reward shall we reap by forming resolveSj encouraging each other, and acting upon these examples? The first fruits would scarcely be ripened in our time ; and even if our convictions were seconded by our descendants, centuries would perhaps pass away before any thing brilliant or important could be achieved. Did our forefathers, who have done so much for us, reason in this way ? Did they shrink from clearing the forest, encountering the savage, from mak ing roads, erecting churches, colleges and schools ? Did they withhold from us the instruction which our wants demanded, and their situations enabled them to afford ? Did they do everything for the present, and nothing for the future ? And if their labours have taught us to look back with gratitude, ought we not to look forward with hope ; to raise in our own times the structure of domestic happiness and prosperity (the foundations of which were laid broad and deep) as high as our means will permit — trusting to those who come after us to ornament and per fect the work? Yes, let us imitate the example of the benevolent husbandman, who sows his grain in confidence, without stopping to en quire if others may not reap the harvest ; who plants the tree, and en grafts the twig, though neither may blossom beneath his eye, nor bear fruit until he is in his grave. But you may ask me to descend from generalities, and deal a Uttle in detail. So far as the limits of this address will permit, I am content to do so : and beginning with Agriculture, I wUl suppose that you demand of me, how our soil is to be brought up to an equality with that of more favored lands ? and I answer — by higher cultivation ; by intense study of its composition and capabilities ; by enlightened and assiduous man agement ; and by the application of all those chemical and mechanical improvements which promote fertility and amelioration, and have been treasured by the experience of the past. How are we to raise Manufac tures ? By importing nothing which our own industry can supply at as low a rate; and by multiplying those bulky and cheap productions, which enjoy some protection from the cost of transportation. Though, from the facility with which we are deluged by European manufactures on the one side, and those of the United States, forced into existence by wars and high duties on the other, at present prevents, and may for many years retard, the formation of some establishments that are emi nently to be desired ; still, as the natural capabilities of our country for the prosecution of this branch of national industry are great, I do not 94* 474 LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. despair.* Indeed there can be little doubt, that if the proper encourage ment is given, as the cost of subsistence and of labor falls, domestic manufactures wiU take firm root in the soil ; and tf once reared, they may be carried to any extent. As respects Commerce, there is no reason why Nova Scotia should not be eminently commercial ; because, although our power of agricul tural production may be restrained by our narrow limits, and by the character of our soil and climate ; and although the growth of manufac tures may be retarded by the trifling domestic demands of a thin popu lation, and the direct competition of older and more wealthy states; there is no such formidable obstacles to the rapid growth of a commer cial marine, and to the almost indefinite extension of domestic and foreign trade. I know that this opinion will be regarded by many as absurd ; but it is the result of some thought, and of a firm conviction. It is not essentially necessary that a country should produce largely, in order to secure the advantages of commerce — provided her people have more industry, economy, enterprise and inteUigence, than their neighbors, and are contented with smaller profits. The whole world is open to a people possessing these qualities ; and, if brought to bear, for any length of time, upon the most sterile and unpromising spot that skirts the ocean, they wiU infaUibly make it wealthy, populous, and powerful. The Phoenicians produced neither the gold of Ophir, nor the corn of Egypt ; the Genoese had no natural claim to the rich harvests of the Crimea, or the sturgeon of the Black Sea ; and yet they made more by the interchange of these commodities than the people by whom they were prepared. What gave the Dutch almost a monopoly of the wheat of Poland and the spices of the Indian isles ? The qualities to which I have referred. Who will say that it has not been by establishing com mercial relations with all parts of the earth, and becoming the factors of all other nations, rather than by the force of domestic production, that Great Britain has attained the unexampled rank and opulence she enjoys ? What natural connection is there between Glasgow and the North American forests ? and yet one house in that city, composed of a few enterprising, intelligent and frugal men, have established stores and mills in every part of Canada and New Brunswick ; buy and sell nearly half of all the timber cut, and out of the profits of their trade, have created a fleet of ships, the finest ornaments of the Clyde, and which would almost furnish a navy for a third-rate European power. Was it skill, economy, and enterprise, that enriched Salem by the India trade, and Nantucket and New Bedford by the Whale fishery ? or was there any LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS* INSTITUTE. 475 exclusive privilege, any singular advantage, which enabled their inhabit ants thus to outstrip the other seaports of the United States? I might multiply these illustrations without end ; but enough has been said to show you the grounds of my belief, that if the requisite qualities are cultivated and maintained, we may attain a degree of commercial great ness and prosperity, to which, in the present depressed state of our trade, it would appear like madness to aspire. Let me not be misunderstood. I am neither seeing visions nor dream ing dreams, but reasoning upon facts sanctioned by the experience of ages. I wish to build up agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, upon the surest of aU foundations — the mental and moral cultivation of the people. If knowledge is power, let us get knowledge. If our position presents difficulties, let us study to overcome them ; and if we can only surpass others, by a higher measure of patriotism, sagacity and endur ance than they possess, let us never cease to hope and labor until that standard is attained. A German economist, in treating of the elements of national wealth, beautifully characterizes that general intelligence to which I refer, as the " capital of mind," — that capital without which a country, richly blessed by nature, may be poor indeed ; but which is capable of raising up even a little Province like this, until its population is swelled to millions, until its canvass whitens every sea, and even its rocky hills are covered with fruitfulness, and its wildest glens are made to blossom as the rose. But, setting aside all views of political advantage, all hopes of individual or national opulence, is it not worth our while to get knowledge for its own sake ? to love and cultivate literature, science, and the arts, for the delight they afford and the honor and distinction they confer ? Scot land's reputation for general intelligence is worth something to her, in dependent of the more solid advantages it yields ; and Massachusetts has earned by her early discipline and general cultivation, a name useful and honorable at home and abroad. The high character for probity and inteUigence which British merchants have established throughout the world, secures confidence and respect, to say nothing of positive profit. Edinburgh's title ofe" modern Athens," is worth the exertions it cost ; and the solid reputation for skill and intelligence which the mechanics of Glasgow have earned, would be honorable, even if it were not the foundation of great productive power. Are these shadows, vague and unsubstantial ? or are they prizes, wor thy of the combined exertions of rational beings — stimulants, that we should duly appreciate, and endeavor extensively to apply ? But, it may be said, how can we earn distinction in literature, science, 476 LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. and art, when we are far removed from those great marts where excel* lence in these things meets the highest rewards ; and where the materials out of which they are created are almost exclusively treasured ? I admit that there is much reason in the objection ; and that in these, as in those things to which I have already referred, we labor under difficulties and have many obstacles to surmount. But I do not think that in aU cases these are insuperable, or that they may not be overcome by the re sources of genius, aided by patriotic self-devotion and an ardent pursuit of knowledge.Though there are many walks of literature, where others have earned distinction, from which we are shut out by our position and comparatively infant state ; there are others, in which much may be done, even by the ambitious youth of Nova Scotia, by a right appUcation of their powers and a judicious employment of their time. The sonnets of Petrarch, the sublime poems of MUton, the sacred melodies of Byron and Moore, and many of the finest dramas of England, and France, might, by the same combination of genius and self-devotion, have been produced in this or in any other country. The history, poetry, and general hterature of the world are now open to us, as they were to them ; and, except where pe culiar associations and minute local knowledge are required, the daring and imaginative spirits of Nova Scotia may learn to imitate, and possibly rival, the great masters by whom they are taught. A Nova Scotian could not have written Pelham, or Waverley ; because the one describes a state ,of society of which he can form but vague ideas, and the other ex hibits an acquaintance with the traditions, customs, and topography of a distant country, that he could scarcely acquire. But what should hinder him from producing any of the countless and beautiful tales with which English literature is rife, and that owe their celebrity to the faithful por traiture of the human heart ; the illustration of those virtues, passions, and imperfections, which have distinguished man in every country and in every age ? If it be said that wealth and leisure are essential to the acquisition of scholarship, and the production of works like these ; may I not ask if many of the finest scholars of Europe have not been miserably poor ? and if many of the noblest productions of her literature have not been created by men laboring under disadvantages from which the majority of our countrymen are comparatively free ? We cannot have access to the splendid libraries of the old world ; but, by combination and perse verance, we may provide ourselves with such as shall be extensive and respectable, and bring within the reach of all classes of the people, more LECTURE BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. 477 books than were ever read by thousands of those who have distinguished themselves by the productions of the mind. As regards the sciences, though we may lack many of the facilities for study and experiment that abound in older countries, still, the materials of all science surround us on every side, and hold out rich rewards to those who shall use them with skill and perseverance. In chemistry, geology, pneumatics, electro-magnetism, optics, natural history, astronomy, and medicine, how many brilliant discoveries are to be made ? and how splendid a reputation may not the assiduous pursuit of either or all of those sciences, even in this little Colony, confer ? Though the study of art is so essentially imitative, that without access to those monuments which the great masters have left behind them it may be almost impos sible to produce any thing of real value ; still, I treasure the belief, that if our wealthy youth would devote half the time to painting, sculpture, and music, which they sometimes give up to debauchery and frivolous amusements ; and if, instead of wasting months in the enjoyment of the sensual pleasures of the European cities, they would give them to the study of the immortal productions they contain, — that many years would not elapse before even in art some respectable progress might be made ; and a -knowledge of its wonders, and a right appreciation of its beauties, be more extensively diffused. I might dwell much longer on these topics, but the limits of your pa tience and my paper warn me to desist. In conclusion, I would again remind you that both honor and interest distinctly mark the paths which we should tread. We are few in numbers ; our country is but a narrow tract, surrounded by populous States ; and we have no prospect of dis tinction — I had almost said of future safety — but from high mental and moral cultivation, infusing into every branch of industry such a degree of intellectual vigor as shall insure success, multiply population, and en dow them with productive power. As we grow in knowledge, the con trast between Nova Scotia and her neighbors will be less striking ; the evidences of their superiority less disheartening and distinct. But this is not all. As the standard of mental and moral character is elevated ; as we become distinguished by an ardent pursuit of truth, by the noble flights of genius, the graceful creations of fancy — those things which are independent of mere politics and economy — Nova Scotia may acquire a reputation, which, in peace, will be a universal passport for her sons, and in times of peril must secure for her sympathy and support. This institute has already done much to accelerate the march of im provement. Its resources were never greater than at the present moment ; its prospects more brilUant ; the hopes of its friends better 478 THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. sustained. I know that you who have the power will continue to labor for the improvement of the young ; and, I feel assured, that those of us who may outlive the vigor of youth, will find the boys reared in this institute the props and instructors of our declining years. They wiU mount the platform to pay us back with interest whatever we may have bestowed. They will make our grey hairs honorable by their improve ments in manners and in mind ; they will shower upon our fading intel lects the discoveries of modern science, and delight us with the higher philosophy of a riper and more cultivated age. And should they, in turning back to the past history of the institute, recall any of the views which I have endeavored this evening to develop — though they may smile at the imperfect language in which they were conveyed — I think their experience will prove them to have been correct ; and justify the only apology, which, in the language of the Roman orator, I make for their expression : — " Who is here so vile that will not love his country ? If any, speak; for him have I offended." AN ADDRESS ON THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN, DELIVERED BEFORE THE HALIFAX MECHANICS' INSTITUTE, SEPTEMBER, 1836. 1 trust that my fair countrywomen will not suppose that the idea of preparing a paper, addressed especiaUy to them, originated in a disparag ing estimate of their understandings ; or in any distrust of their inclina tion and ability to partake largely of the wholesome phUosophic and lit erary fare furnished by those who cater for the weekly feasts provided at this Institute. I hope, also, that they will not suspect me of a design to waste this leisure hour in vain trifling, and mawkish compUment — foreign to the avowed objects for which we meet, and insulting to the good taste of such an audience as is here, assembled. My object in appearing before you this evening is very different. The design of this paper originated in a conviction of the immense moral in fluence which females as a class possess ; in a high appreciation of this power, and a desire to give it a bearing, so far as circumstances permit, on the character and prosperity of our common country. Pardon me, if I venture to assert, that there are many females in Nova Scotia — nay, that there may possibly be some in this audience — who are not auly THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. 479 sensible of the extent of this influence, nor of the paramount obligation which it imposes. Nor is this surprising. The recognition of great prin ciples, the growth of public spirit (the want of which in this community has often been lamented here), is generally slow in a new country. Men themselves are often but tardy scholars of what they should learn and practice without delay; and though each may not be indisposed to "do the State some service," their collective duties to society are often ignor antly or indifferently put aside ; while their vague designs, and languid determinations, assume no palpable or profitable form. If this be true as respects the lords of creation, to whom the por tals of colleges are open, whose self-examinations are prompted by the seclusion of Academic groves, whose minds are informed, and facul ties quickened, by those studies and that training which are essential to success in the professions, or in the active business of life, — how much more may " gentler woman " be excused for a less early apprecia tion of her moral power in the State, and of the high duties imposed by its possession. But in a new country, as I have often told you, much depends on early impressions and determinations ; and the sooner that both sexes understand the natural boundaries of their influence and their obligations, and become feelingly alive to the reputation and advance ment of the land in which they live, the sooner will it flourish ; the more rapid will be the growth of that public spirit, or rather public virtue, the fruitful parent of high thoughts, amiable qualities, noble actions, and val uable institutions. Strongly impressed by this belief, I endeavored some year or two ago, to kindle the fire of honorable enterprise in the minds of my young friends of my own sex, by a few simple appeals and historic iUustrations. The same motives which induced me to address them, urges me now, la dies, to address you ; and to solicit your attention to some views, which, if not novel, are well meant ; and in the exhibition of which, I have studied simplicity rather than effect — the ornament of common sense, rather than the pomp and grace of language. It is a common error — one extensively propagated by the overbearing and self-sufficient of our sex — that woman's thoughts should be bounded by her household cares ; that these alone should engross her time ; and that all matters of literature, science, politics and morals, should be care- fuUy eschewed — as any infringement on man's exclusive monopoly of these, would at once detract from the softer graces of the female charac ter, and endanger the balance of domestic subordination. On the other hand, the more reckless and daring apostles of the Rights of Women, have contended for a measure of Uberty so large,-for a participation in mas- 480 THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. culine thoughts and employments, so extensive and so gross, that they have made but few converts to their theories, and are not likely ever to persuade a whole people to bring them into practice. Let us not be led away by either extreme ; but whUe we preserve in violate the delicacy and freshness of the female character, that which i3 the presiding spirit of domestic life, and gives to it its holiest and most in expressible charm ; let women exercise that legitimate and rational influ ence on all the great interests of society, to which they are entitled, by their knowledge, their talents and their virtues ; and especiaUy by the deep stake they have in the general happiness and prosperity, not only now, but in all succeeding times. Before explaining how I think this influence may be brought to bear on the advancement of our own Province, let me turn your attention to the direction of the female character in other countries ; to its bearing on their history and institutions ; to the excitements it held forth to gen ius and valor ; and the fidelity with which it foUowed out the great ob jects and prevailing impulses of the age. The favorite pursuit, the passion, the business, if you will, of most ancient, and indeed of most modern nations, of which we have any authen tic accounts, appears to have been war. However the motives may have varied, or the principles on which these contests were conducted may have differed ; vibrating as they did, between the bloody exterminations of the Scythian and the courtly politeness of chivalry ; stiU war was the great end and aim of life ; the highest honors of the State were to be won in battle ; a man's wealth was estimated by the wounds upon his body, or the numbers he had slain. So prevalent and so exciting was this warlike spirit, that no nation was secure which did not possess cour age, discipline and experience, superior to its immediate neighbors. Wars were continually declared or courted, in order to acquire or test these qualities ; and the whole system of education was framed to pre pare youth for the tented field, and teach them that it was more honora ble to die fighting bravely in their ranks, than to live a life of cowardice and ease, earning for their families no honor, and performing no service to their country. Remember that we are not now approving of the conduct of these semi-barbarous ages, but looking at their spirit and institutions, in order to trace the influence of the female character upon them, and to show how much they were indebted to that influence for the self-devotion they exhibited, and the glory they achieved. It would not be wise, because it would not be delicate, to examine minutely the bearing of ancient laws and customs on the liberty and privileges of the female sex ; but this I THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF .WOMEN. 481 think I may venture to assert, that in ancient as in modern times, the in fluence which women exercised upon the spirit of their age, on the char acter and fortunes of their country, was in exact proportion to the con sideration in which they were held, and the rational freedom they enjoyed. When treated as slaves and inferior beings, they have invariably de generated, as man himself does when so treated, in body and in mind. But when regarded as rational beings ; as the friends and companions of the other sex ; as the wives ancl mothers of warriors and statesmen ; they have constantly shown an elevation of soul ; a susceptibility to the impressions of patriotism and national glory ; a readiness to sacrifice even the heart's best affections to the interests of their country, and the reputation of those they loved, which justifies the high place that they oc cupy in the history of the more civilized nations of antiquity ; and satis fies us, that had the general mind in some of them had a wiser and less sanguinary direction, female influence would have fostered the arts of peace as assiduously as it cultivated and transmitted the sentiments and impressions essential to a state of war. How much of the spirit of ancient Sparta breathes, even at this day, from the noble answer ofthe mother of Cleomenes, when her son had been promised succours by Ptolemy, King of Egypt, on condition that he would send his parent and children as hostages. After much irresolution ancl visible sorrow, he ventured to communicate the sad alternative, when , she replied — " Was this the thing which you have so long hesitated to communicate ? Why do you not immediately put us on board a ship, and send this carcase of mine where you think it may be of most use to Sparta, before age renders it good for nothing, and sinks it in the' grave ? " Being on the point of embarking, she took her son alone into the temple of Neptune, where, seeing him in great emotion and concern, she threw her arms about him and said — " King of the Lacedemonians, take care that when we go out no one perceive us weeping, or doing any thing un worthy of Sparta. This alone is in our power ; the event is in the hand of God." After her arrival in Egypt, hearing that Cleomenes, though desirous to treat with the Achsens, was afraid to put an end to the war without Ptolemy's consent, she wrote to desire him " to do what he thought most advantageous and honorable for Sparta, and not for the sake of an old woman and a child, to live in constant fear of Ptol emy." Though often apparently wrapt up in the honor of the individual they loved, there was, in the breasts of these Spartan dames, a regard to the 95 482 THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. reputation of the State triumphing over every feeling of mere family pride. The mother of Brasidas, enquiring of some AmphipoUtans whether her son had died honorably, and as became a Spartan, they loudly extoUed his merit, and said there was not such a man left in Sparta : upon which she replied — " Say not so, my friends ; for Brasi das was indeed a man of honor, but Lacedasmon can boast of many bet ter men than he." When their city was threatened by Pyrrhus, and the Lacedaemonians proposed to send off their women to Crete, Archidamia, entering the Senate with a sword in her hand, complained of the mean opinion which they entertained of the women, if they imagined that they would survive the destruction of Sparta. This appeal prevaUed, and as soon as the works necessary for defence were commenced, the matrons and maids devoted themselves to labor. Those that were intended for the fight, they advised to repose themselves ; and, in the meantime, they undertook to finish a third part of the trench, which was completed before morning. At day-break, the enemy was in motion ; upon which the women armed the youth with their own hands, and gave them the trench in charge, exhorting them to guard it well, and representing how deUghtful it would be to conquer in the view of their country, or how glorious to expire in the arms of their mothers and their wives, when they had met their deaths as became Spartans. And for two days they contrived to aid and encourage them ; and, by their conduct, saved the city from pUlage, and their persons from dishonor. In that scene in Glover's Leonidas, where the devoted warrior parts from his wife and children — though the positive certainty of death makes grief predominate over every other feeling in her bosom for the time — the arguments he addresses to her, show what were, to a Grecian woman under such circumstances, the true sources of comfort and con solation : — ¦ " Wherefore swells afresh That tide of woe 1 Leonidas must fall. Alas ! far heavier misery impends O'er thee and these, if, softened by thy tears, I shamefully refuse to yield that breath, Which justice, glory, liberty and heaven, Claim for my country, for my sons and thee. Think on my long unaltered love. Reflect On my paternal fondness. Hath my heart E'er known a pause in love, or pious care ? How shall that care, that tenderness be shown, THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. 483 Most warm, most faithful 1 When thy husband dies Eor Lacedasmon's safety, thou wilt share, Thou and thy children, the diffusive good. I am selected by the immortal gods To save a people. Should my timid heart That sacred charge abandon, I should plunge Thee, too, in shame and sorrow. Thou would'st mourn With Lacedremon ; would with her sustain Thy painful portion of oppression's weight. Behold thy sons, now worthy of their name, Their Spartan birth. Their glowing bloom would pine Depress'd, dishonored, and tbeir youthful hearts Beat at the sound of liberty no more. On their own merit — on their father's fame, When he the Spartan freedom hath confirmed, Before the world illustrious will they rise, Their country's bulwark and their mother's joy." The effect of this reasoning is told in the Unes which follow : — " Here paused the patriot. In religious awe Grief heard the voice of virtue. No complaint The solemn silence broke." I might turn your attention to many other passages, illustrative-of the influence of the female character, in what Thomson caUs " The man-subduing city, which no shape Of pain could conquer, nor of pleasure charm ; " and where " The tender mother urged her son to die." But let us pass on to Rome, where we shall find the same high esti mation of valor, military conduct, and devotion to the service of the State, under different laws and modifications, but fostered and strength ened in the same manner, by the powerful stimulants of female tuition and influence. How much of the national character is exhibited in the matron Cornelia's reproach to her sons " that she was still called the mother-in-law of Scipio, and not the mother of the Gracchi ; " a reproach, however, which, at a later period, they nobly wiped away. We can see in her presentation of these very sons — whom she was thus privately exciting, but of whose characters she had formed a just idea. — to the vain lady of Campania, as her richest jewels, the very pulsations, so to speak, of the whole female heart of ancient Rome. Indeed, we cease to wonder at the heroic deeds and sentiments of the 484 THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. men, when we contemplate the characters of the women. The account which Plutarch gives of the conduct of Portia, when she distrusted her own courage to preserve the dreadful secret which she saw was preying on the mind of her husband, will help to explain my meaning. She se cretly gave herself a deep flesh-wound, which occasioned a great effusion of blood, extreme pain, and a consequent fever. Brutus was sincerely afflicted for her ; and, as he attended her in the height of her pain, she thus spoke to him : — " Brutus, when you married the daughter of Cato, you did not, I presume, consider her merely as a female companion, but as the partner of your fortunes. You indeed have given me no reason to re pent my marriage ; but what proof, either of affection or fidehty can you receive from me, if I may neither share in your secret griefs, nor in your secret counsels ? I am sensible that secrecy is not the characteristic virtue of my sex ; but, surely our natural weakness may be strengthened by a virtuous education, and by honorable connections ; and Portia can boast that she is the daughter of Cato and the wife of Brutus. Yet, even in these distinctions I placed no absolute confidence, till I tried and found that I was proof against pain." She then showed him her wound, and informed him of her motives ; upon which, Brutus was so struck with her magnanimity, that, with lifted hands, he entreated the gods " to favor his enterprize, and enable him to approve himself worthy of Portia." The resolute conduct of this noble woman, who swallowed fire rather than survive the death of her husband, on the failure of his enterprise, proves that this was no domestic ruse ; but a manifestation of spirit and integrity, characteristic of the country and the age. It was said of Marcius Coriolanus, that his great actions were not so much performed for the love of his country as to " please his mother." Shakspeare has caught the true spirit of this lady's character ; and as the sentiments he puts into her mouth are chiefly borrowed from authen tic history, embellished, of course, by poetic language, I may be par doned for quoting a few lines from him. It is that passage in the play which precedes the visit of Valeria : — " The noble sister of Publicola, The moon of Rome ; chaste as the icicle, That's curded by the frost from purest snow, And hangs on Dian's temple." " When yet," says Volumnia, speaking -«f her distinguished offspring, " he was but tender-bodied, and the only son of my womb ; when youth, with comeliness, plucked all gaze his way ; when, for a day of King's entreaties, a mother would not sell him an hour from her beholding I, THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. 485 considering how honor would become such a person ; that it was no bet ter than picture-like to hang by the wall, if renown made it not stir, was pleased to let him seek danger where he was like to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him, from whence he returned, his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child, than now, in seeing he had proved himself a man. " Virgilia. But, had he died in the business, madam, how then ? " Volumnia. Then his good report should have been my son ; I therein would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely : had I a dozen sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Mar- cius, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country, than one volup tuously surfeit out of action.'' And again, carried away by her own enthusiasm, she exclaims : — "Methinks I hear hither your husband's drum ; See him pluck Aufidius down by the hair ; As children from a bear, the Voices shunning hhn : Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus, — ' Come on you cowards — you were got in fear, Though you were born in Rome.' His bloody brows With his mail'd hand then wiping, forth he goes, Like to a harvest man, that 's task'd to mow Or all, or lose his hire. " Vir. His bloody brow ! Oh Jupiter, no blood ! " Vol. Away, you fool ! It more becomes a man Than gilt his trophy. The breasts of Hecuba, When she did suckle Hector, look'd not lovelier Than Hector's forehead, when it spit forth blood At Grecian swords contending. " Fir. Heaven bless my lord from fell Aufidius. " Vol. He '11 beat Aufidius' head below his knee, And tread upon his neck." There spoke the true spirit of ancient Rome. Nor is it a matter of wonder that a people nourished, educated, anij excited, by such a race of women, became the conquerors and masters of the world. The won der would have been, had they belied in the field the admirable training of the domestic hearth. But the Roman women did not only encourage their husbands and children to fight bravely in war, but to preserve an unblemished reputa tion for integrity at home. They applauded their disregard of the paltry temptations of society, and fixed their attention on the nobler qualities of the understanding and the heart, and on the attainment of the solid honors of the state. " There were not fewer," says Plutarch, " than sixteen of the JElian family and name, who had only a small house and 95* 48 g THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. one farm among them ; and in this house they all live'd with their wives and many children. Here dwelt the daughter of .iEmilius, who had been twice Consul, and had triumphed twice, not ashamed of her hus band's poverty, but admiring that integrity which kept him poor." I might turn your attention to many other passages, highly illustrative of the moral influence of the female character in ancient Greece and Rome — to the spirited reply of Gorgo ; the courage of Coelia, who swam the river at the head of the Roman virgins, under a shower of darts ; or the self-devotion of Arria, who plunged a dagger into her own breast, to teach her husband how to die ; but we have not time to dwell longer here, and I think the Ulustrations I have chosen are amply suffi cient for my purpose. For they teach us this great lesson, that two of the foremost nations of antiquity were as much indebted to their women as to their men, for the extended influence and exalted reputations they achieved. We cannot, perhaps, at this distance of time, say which is entitled to the largest share of praise, for originating and strengthening those sentiments of exalted courage and patriotic self devotion, which were the fruitful sources of private honor and public advantage ; but the rational conclusion is, that they were mutuaUy cultivated and inspired ; that where woman's softer nature shrunk from the idea of peril, and the consequences of exposing those she loved, the patriot lord and father, as in the case of Leonidas, inculcated lessons of firmness and public virtue ; and where man himself required a spur to his ambition, it was supplied by Cornelia's taunt, or Volumnia's ardent praise. We need not dwell on the dark period which succeeded the fall of the Roman empire. That the influence of woman was felt upon it ; that its horrors were mitigated by her gentle ministrations, by her natural ten derness of heart, we cannot doubt ; for, to believe otherwise, would be to question the known characteristics of the sex in every country and in every age. But let us pass on to that period when the business of con quest having ended, the feudal system arose in every country in Europe, and upon the genius of which it will be seen that women exercised the most admirable and extraordinary influence. It is the custom to mourn over the fall of the Roman Empire. But when we contemplate the general corruption, the social slavery and de gradation of the mass, the depravity and cruelty of the few, to whom birth, wealth, or audacity, had given power, we almost feel thankful for that tide of rude but comparatively virtuous barbarians, by whom its whole boundaries were overflowed ; and cease to regret that knowledge and those refinements which were so interwoven with cruelty, imbecihty and vice. And it is pleasing to turn from the female character, soiled as THE MORAL INFLUENCE OP WOMEN. 487 it was in the latter days of the Empire by the operation of vile laws and customs, the influence of luxury, and the general corruption of morals and manners, to the simple dignity which it maintain'ed in the fastnesses of the north, and in those remote regions to which the term barbarian was applied. " It was, in truth," says Mills, in his History of Chivalry, " the virtue of the sex, and not any occasional or accidental opinion, that raised them to their high and respectable consideration. The Roman historian marked it as a peculiarity among the Germans, that marriage was considered by them a sacred institution, and that a man confined himself to the society of one wife. The mind of Tacitus was filled with respect for the virtuous though unpolished people of the north; and, reverting his eyes to Rome, the describer of manners' becomes the indignant satirist, and he exclaims that no one in Germany dares to ridi cule the holy ordinance of marriage, or call an infringement of its laws a compliance with the manners of the age." It is evident from all the accounts we have, that women among these northern nations, while they preserved a virtuous simpUcity of manners, stimulated their husbands and lovers to disregard death, and to seek for renown, in those rude con tests which, commenced by the encroaching spirit of the ancient Romans, ended but in the downfall of their widely extended power. Plutarch gives an account of a battle between the army of Marius and the Cimbri, in which the latter were beaten. When driven back upon their encamp ments, they found their women standing in mourning by their carriages, who killed those that fled, — some their husbands, others their brothers, and some their fathers. They strangled their chUdren with their own hands, and threw them under the wheels and the horses' feet. And Strabo, I think it is, who mentions, that such of them as were taken prison ers wished to be placed among the Vestal Virgins, binding themselves to perpetual chastity ; and had recourse to death, as the last refuge of their virtue, when their request was refused. That hardy tribes, nurtured and encouraged by such women, should subdue a people, however rich in numbers, wealth, and ancient reputation, after discipline had faded, corruption become general, and the female character shorn of its dignity ceased to exercise moral influence, or even to procure respect, cannot be a matter of suprise. But it is curious to mark how, as the feudal sys tem arose out of the turbid waves of northern conquest, woman not only preserved her ancient purity and influence, but brightened into a being more elevated and refined than she had ever been in the world's early his tory ; and secure, at last, of her own just rights and natural station, shed over hundreds of thousands of mailed warriors an influence the most salutary and benign. 488 THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. As polygamy was unknown to the manners of the northern tribes, so was it repudiated and contemned in the countries which they conquered ; and wheh this sentiment became strengthened and confirmed by the spread of Christianity, women began, by their plastic power, to soften and refine the rude men and ruder manners of that barbarous age. War was still, if we except a few ItaUan and German cities, the great business of life ; and though the sex were neither sufficiently powerful, nor perhaps sufficiently enlightened, to subdue this warlike spirit, with which their very natures were imbued, and with the triumphs and pageantries of which their childish footsteps were surrounded; stiU, whUe they urged their husbands and lovers, as the Spartan, the Roman, and Teutonic maids and matrons had done, to fight bravely for their country, and seek glory in the tented field, they inspired them with sentiments in which courage was singularly blended with poetry and religion ; with a repugnance to mere savage warfare ; a love of mercy, a high sense of honor, respect for the plighted word, and veneration for the name of woman ; until the beautiful laws and graceful embelhshments of chivalry were introduced, to mitigate the horrors and hide the deformity of never- ending war. If the temple of Janus was rarely shut, its portal was hung with flowers. " Chivalry," says MUls, " held out the heart stirring hope that beauty was the reward of bravery. A valiant but landless knight, was often hailed by the whole martial fraternity of his country as worthy the hand of a noble heiress, and the King could not, in every case, bestow her on some minion of his court. Woman was sustained in her proud elevation by the virtues which chivalry required of her ; and man paid homage to her mind as well as to her beauty. She was not the mere object of pleasure, taken up or thrown aside as passion or caprice sug gested, but being the fountain of honor, her image was always blended with the fairest visions of his fancy, and the respectful consideration which she therefore met with, showed she was not an unworthy awarder of fame. Fixed by the gaUant warriors of chivalry in a nobler station than that which had been assigned to her by the polite nations of anti quity, all the graceful qualities of her nature blossomed into beauty, and the chastening influence of feminine gentleness and tenderness was, for the first time in his history, experienced by man." I might entertain you for hours with the personal achievements and adventures of females, gleaned from the Poets and Chroniclers of the middle ages ; for it was no uncommon thing for ladies of peerless beauty and of the highest rank, favored by the quaint disguises and courteous usages of the time, to clothe themselves in armor, break a lance in the THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. lists, draw their swords in the cause of the oppressed, or set an example by their courage and humanity, in the more extended scenes of general warfare, of those qualities that as a class they encouraged, and which by both sexes were so highly prized. The victory of the English over the Scotch at Neville Cross is mainly attributed to the spirited demeanor of Philippa, wife of Edward the Third, who, in a perilous moment, when the King, her husband, was far away, and the fate of England in her hands, rode through the ranks, and by her exhortations and promises, nerved the hearts of her yeomen and chivalry for the struggles of a great occasion. From the History of Scotland I might borrow the details of that memorable seige sustained by Black Agnes, the lady of the Earl of March, in the castle of Dunbar, which she defended against the bravest warriors of England, beating them back from her walls, and mocking them with bitter jests. And the va ried adventures of the heroic Countess of Mountfort, of whom it was said by Froissart, that " she had the courage of a man and the heart of a lion," would, had we room for them, afford a striking illustration. Her noble defence of Britanny against the whole power of France ; her pathetic appeal to her soldiers, holding her infant son in her arms, from which the Austrian Queen at a later period may have borrowed, in ad dressing the estates of Hungary ; her able chspositions, her gallant sortie, her heroic constancy, and above all, her spirited bearing upon that ele ment so potent in subduing both sexes, when attacked by the Spanish fleet on her passage to England ; indeed every incident of her astonish ing career, had we leisure to trace them, would show the immense influ ence which females must have had, in bracing the spirits of men, and prompting to those deeds of almost superhuman valor and address, that distinguished the middle age ; and which, amidst more tranquil scenes, we often contemplate with a strange mixture of wonder and unbelief. "In the crusades," says the author, from whom I have repeatedly bor rowed, " parties of fair and noble women accompanied the chivalry of Europe to the Holy Land, charming the seas to give them gentle pass, and binding up the wounds of husbands and brothers after a well foughten field with the bold Mussulman. Sometimes they wielded the flaming brand themselves, and the second crusade in particular was dis tinguished by a troop of ladies, harnessed in armor of price, and mounted on goodly steeds." Such of my fair hearers as have read Tasso's " Jeru salem delivered," and Scott's " Count Robert of Paris," will readily un derstand how the influence of these acts and sacrifices would be blazoned and reproduced, by men of genius and imagination — the Troubadors and Novelists of the period — until courage became instinctive, and the man 490 THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. was despised who did not possess those quaUties for which woman her self was so distinguished. I must confess, however, that I admire less those voluntary exhibitions of courage in the field, than the more delightful, because softer, more natural, more feminine influences; which the females of the feudal times exercised, from the privacy of home, on the manners and spirit of the age. What a splendid light is thrown upon these by the answer of the French Hero, Du Guesclin, when our Edward demanded how he could pay the immense ransom which he himself had fixed. " I know a hun dred Knights of Britanny," said he, " who would sell their possessions for my Uberation ; and there is not a woman sitting at her distaff in France, who would not labor with her own hands to redeem me from yours." But while the women inspired the men with courage, and prompted the spirit of adventure, courtesy and humanity were enforced by their noble examples and gentle ministrations. " In the wars of the Guelphs and GhibeUines, the Emperor Conrad, as an offended Sovereign, had refused all terms of capitulation to the garrison of Winnisberg ; but as a courteous knight, he permitted the women to depart with such of their precious effects as they themselves could transport. The gates of the town were thrown open, and a long procession of matrons, each bearing a husband, or a father, or a brother, on her shoulders, passed in safety through the applauding camp." The knight who was stained with crime; who was false to his religion, his country, or his friend; who took an unchivalric advantage, or broke his phghted faith, won no word of woman's praise, no favor in her bower. By such sweet influences, aiding and strengthening the benign pre cepts of Christianity, continents that were once savage and unlettered have become civiUzed and refined. The spirit of peace, sustained by the experience of aU history, has spread her wings above the nations ; war is no longer esteemed as an amusement, and, except when waged in defence of some great principle of civil or religious liberty, scarcely tol erated as an occupation. The industry, the skill, the genius of mankind, have been turned into different channels. Nations seek renown by the cultivation of the arts of peace, the creation of just laws and noble in stitutions ; and those who, under a different dispensation, would have been first in the lists, and foremost in the tented field, seek, in the higher regions of intellectual achievement, a more useful and durable renown. And it is delightful to reflect, nay, to feel, that the encouraging efforts of that Being who formerly sent man forth to battle with the infidel, now lures him on in his warfare with ignorance and prejudice ; that the greenest laurel earned in the paths of peace, won by the triumphs of THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. 491 the mind, is that which drops from woman's hand, freshened by her tears, or hallowed by her sweetest smile. In the mighty revolutions by which these astonishing results have been produced, woman has had her part, and is entitled to her share of praise. If, as I believe, the diffusion of Christianity be at the root of all these political and social ameliorations ; that they spring up, as natural conse quences, from the divine spirit of justice and of love, which an Almighty mind has breathed into the Scriptures, let it not be forgotten that females were " last at the cross and earliest at the tomb ; " and that, throughout those long ages of persecution, in which the humane and devout Chris tian had to struggle for his rights and his opinions, — whether with the infidel, or with those misguided zealots who, naming the name of Christ, and professing, under various titles, to be his followers, regarded perse cution as a duty, — let it, I say, be remembered, that in almost every one of those scenes of religious suffering, some Sophronia or Columba has nerved the hearts of men by her fortitude, and sealed her convic tions with her blood. The cause of civil Uberty also, in every quarter of the globe, has been as largely indebted to the operation of female influence. Woman's ten derness of heart makes her the natural enemy of the oppressor, the soother and inspirer of the oppressed. In those exciting epochs of modern history which are emphatically said to have " tried men's souls," — whether in the British Isles, France, Poland, Switzerland, Italy or Spain, not only have women exercised, well and wisely, through the varied channels of social life, an encouraging and salutary influence, but have often set an example of heroism and self-devotion, which has thrUled through the hearts of a whole people, and challenged the admira tion of a world. A Joan of Arc has never been wanting to deliver a kingdom ; a Charlotte Corday to poignard a tyrant ; an Augustina to save a city, or a lady Russell to grace the last hours of a patriot's life, by tenderness and elevation of soul. Of the blessings secured by these trials and sacrifices, we are admitted to a full particpation ; while the art, the science, and the literature, every department of which has been enriched by the Mores, the Barbaulds, the Porters, the Montagues, the Martineaus, the Somervilles, the He- mans, and a long line of amiable women of talent, have descended to us with our language, and comprise by no means the least valuable portion of the high privileges and intellectual treasures which we inherit from our father land. And it is for us to consider ; it is for you, ladies, especially, to reflect, how you can best pay to posterity what you owe to the genius and spirit of the past. 492 THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. Pardon me if I conclude this paper by reminding you, that, to a great extent, you have the destinies of Nova Scotia in your hands. And le me conjure you never to undervalue the character of your own influence or the extent of your moral obligations. Look at the Uttle Province which, small as it is, some of us are proud to call our own ; its narrow boundaries, girded by the seas, and surrounded on every side by exten sive, populous and powerful states. What resources has such a country to sustain her against the gigantic influences with which she must hourly contend ? None, but the character, the intelligence, the energy and self- devotion of her people. Let it be your constant aim, your study, your pride, my countrywomen, to cultivate these quaUties, and to inspire your brothers, husbands, lovers, and children with the sentiments from which they spring. Without throwing aside the modest deportment of the sex ; without stepping over the bounds of masculine thought and occupation ; without neglecting those household cares and feminine accomplishments, for the want of which no public service could atone, let a regard for your country's welfare, its reputation, its prosperity, be ever present to your minds ; and let some portion of your time, and the whole weight of your moral influence, bear steadily on the means of its improvement. A Nova Scotian matron need not, as the Spartan or Roman did, urge her husband on to battle and conquest, because " a change has come over the spirit of the world's dreams ; " but she may show him, that, as these States were preserved, enlarged, and rendered illustrious, by discipline and valor, so must ours be strengthened and elevated by an assiduous cultivation of the arts of peace. If he complains that our boundaries are contracted, let her tell him, that, with industry and good husbandry, there is land enough to support millions of men ; and that, if this were ex hausted, the whole world is the freehold of a commercial people — the seas but the high roads which conduct to their domains. Let her remind him, that a country possessed of science and enterprise, can multiply physical power as she will ; that, if she be but rich in intellect, in creative genius and steady application, she may strengthen herself indefinitely with nerves of iron, and muscles of steam, and condense the energy and productive power of myriads within the compass of a £ew miles. The Nova Scotian mother, too, may do her part, while the graceful forms of childhood glide around her knees, and the ductile elements of the youthful mind are forming beneath her eye ; she may inculcate not only the ordinary principles of morals, but those lessons of public virtue — applicable to the situation of the country and the probable duties of Ufe — which, like bread cast upon the waters, wUl come back to her, in pride and admiration, after many days. There is a younger class, whose THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. 493 influence is chiefly felt in that opening dawn of manhood, when the heart is most susceptible of impressions, when the good and evil principles may be said to struggle most fiercely for the mastery over our nature ; and when a word, a glance, a noble sentiment uttered on a summer eve, may turn the scale in favor of public spirit and honorable ambition ; and if my young friends knew how powerful is their influence at that age, and on such occasions, they would not fail to smile away the sloth, the sense less and besotted pride, the inveterate idleness and inanity of mind, by which too many of our young men are beset ; and which rarely fails to ripen into groveUing vice and ruinous dissipation. Beauty, leading youth to the shrine of public virtue, is no fable in the world's history ; and there is no reason why in Nova Scotia it may not be amply realized. Let them teach the idlers and trifiers of our sex, that our country has neither hands nor minds to spare ; that their favors are to be won by public ser vice, by conquests in the regions of mind ; by trophies won in the ranks of patriotism, literature, science and art ; by what the poet beautifully styles " those glorious labors which embellish life." Nor need my fair friends trust to personal charms alone to sustain this influence ; without any dereliction of domestic duty, without sacrificing one feminine grace, one modest attraction, they may go before their brothers, friends and lovers — as some of them have already done — into those delightful regions. Science and history will disclose to them rich sources of illus tration ; and the pen and the pencil become eloquent, when other fasci nations fail. Be it yours, then, ladies, now that the times have changed, to win, with these gentler weapons — as the martial heroines of the middle ages did with lance and sword — a right to stimulate and reproach the other sex, where they fall short of the requirements of patriotism and ambition ; and, as they led the way to rescue the sepulchre of our Lord from the infide], lead you the way to vindicate those admirable precepts and prin ciples of justice, toleration, and truth, which he left for our direction, but which, by the corruption and weakness of our nature, are so frequently sullied and profaned. Aud believe me, that while you thus wander in the " pleasant ways of wisdom," general admiration and a deathless name are not beyond your reach ; for, even the deeds of Jean of Mountfort, as they did less good, shall fade from the world's memory before Mrs. He- mans' moral songs. I do not ask you to put on an affectation of art, destructive of the freshness of nature. I seek not to entice you from the gentle thoughts and appropriate occupations of home ; but, as the Greek and the Roman caught the spirit which led him on to victory ancl renown, amidst the re- 96 494 LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. laxations and delights of social intercourse, so would I have my youthful countrymen catch, from your enthusiasm, the energy and determination of which Nova Scotia stands so much in need. I would make beauty's flashing eye, and encouraging smile, at once the beacon and reward of public virtue and honorable exertion. I would have woman breathe around her ah atmosphere in which idleness, ignorance, and selfishness, could not for an hour exist ; but in which science and literature, high thoughts and honorable enterprises, would blossom and flourish, till they overspread the land. Not choking the domestic affections, or curbing the rational pleasures and enjoyments of life ; but giving to them a dig nity, a grace, a charm, in the highest degree attractive ; while they result in an abundant measure of collective reputation and improvement. Could I but see these sentiments diffused throughout the land, gene rally appreciated and acted upon by the females of Nova Scotia, I should laugh to scorn every sentiment of despondency and alarm. The present would be viewed with satisfaction ; the future bounded by hope. Though the existing race of men might be ignorant or indifferent, I should know that another was springing up, which, from the cradle to the tomb, would be subjected to a training and an influence, the most admirable and in spiring ; and which must ultimately rival the boast of the Athenian, by converting a small Province into a powerful and illustrious State. LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE : DELIVERED BEFORE THE LITERARY SOCIETY, SEPTEMBER, 1845. Mk. President, — I come, in obedience to the expressed wish of this Society, to offer my contribution to the common stock of knowledge. While others have given of their great abundance, I, like the widow in holy writ, must claim to have the insignificance of my offering pardoned, for the cheerfulness and sincerity with which it is bestowed. At the early meetings of this Institution, I was an occasional attend ant ; and although, of late, pressed by other avocations, I have been something of a truant, I have constantly heard of its well doing, and have never ceased to feel an interest in its progress. The design of its founders was, I believe, to establish a School of Eloquence, in which young men of the industrial classes might meet, on leisure evenings, to test each other's powers, and improve each other's minds. Such objects would seem to be praiseworthy; and your expe- LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. 495 rience proves, that to a reasonable extent, they have been attained. Truth has often been struck out here by the collision of opinion — the imagination has spread its noblest plumage, when fluttered by the breath of generous emulation ; and the untutored have sometimes risen to a height of genuine eloquence, prompted by innate good taste, and the impetuous feelings of the heart, often without any strict analysis of the rules by which the emotions they felt enabled them to act upon the un derstandings and the feelings of others. Thus far, then, your meetings have been productive of pleasure and improvement. But, that you may elevate the standard both of recrea tion and utility, it is necessary that you should ever have before you a clear perception of the true nature of the art you assemble to cultivate ; ancl have deeply engraven upon your minds a few simple principles, which are too apt to be overlooked amidst the jargon of rhetorical spec ulation. It would seem to be not an inappropriate occupation of your time, to call your attention to these at the opening of a new course ; and to endeavour to invite inquiry, rather by the simplicity than the pro fundity of my illustrations. But, first, it may be necessary to vindicate our claim to deal with such topics as these — to assert our right to study and employ the art which is to become our theme. There may be some here, there certainly are many elsewhere, who believe that Eloquence is above the sphere of the mass of mankind, who belong to the industrious and productive classes. These, in their social and political system, they condemn to a life of labor; and if they call them from it, for a moment, it is but as listeners, to be moved or influenced by the eloquence of the more favored classes — to wonder at their wisdom, and to bow to their commands. The Deity, how ever, has made no such partial subdivision of his gifts. Man, by the strong hand of power, or the accidental arrangements of society, may divide the earth, but the realms of intellect and knowledge are the undi vided property of all. The facts, treasured by the industry of the whole human race, are spread, like a repast, before the human family. Indi vidual use, or appropriation, increases, rather than diminishes, the com mon stock: the poor man may become rich in knowledge, while the wealthy is poor indeed ; he who owns a fertile country may be unable to reckon his income, while the poorest man upon his estate can measure the heavens, and calculate the contents of the earth. The sensibilities of the elevated in rank may be deadened and obtuse, while the peasant's heart may respond to the most delicate and kindly emotions. The in spiration, which cometh from on high, may fail to unlock the icy egotism 496 LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. of a haughty soul (as the sun burst thaws not the lofty mountain peak), while it wakes the lowly nature to enthusiasm, to eloquence, to song. Thanks be to God, then, that, in treating of eloquence — in tracing it to its sources — in employing its powers, to elevate and improve each other, we are not exceeding our privilege, or committing an intellectual trespass. But, it may be said, if eloquence be of a nature so catholic and uni versal, how does it happen that so few orators have appeared in any age or nation. The answer is simple, but yet does not circumscribe our common rights. Eloquence, like poetr}', in its higher moods, is the gift of Heaven, and the gift is too precious to be profusely squan dered. There may be few poets and fewer orators, in any age or nation, but these few may spring from the industrial classes ; and therefore have they a common interest in the discovery of this great gift, and a common right to improve it, by assiduous and successful cultivation. But, assuming that to these classes eloquence was to be a gift denied, still they would have a deep interest in the study of it — in the cor rect appreciation of the nature and value of those tests by which its genuine character may be ascertained. Eloquence influences, more or less, every moral, economic, and poUtical question, which involves the welfare and security of those who live by labour. By one speech each man's worldly possessions may be swept away — by one speech his country may be involved in irremediable ruin ; and one sermon, showy, declamatory, but unsound, may shatter his nerves, or cloud his reason. Those whose temporal and eternal welfare may be so largely influenced by eloquence, even though they may never become eloquent them selves, ought to learn to judge of the performances of others by whom they may be safely guided, or eggregiously misled. The Lo ! here, and the Lo! there, of oratorical pretence, is sounding continually in the people's ears. There is as much spurious oratory passing current in the world, just now, as there is spurions coin. The ring of true metal almost every ear can detect ; nor would it be much more difficult even for simple people to judge of genuine eloquence, were the laws by which they are urged to decide less voluminous and contradictory. But there is no end to the making of laws, nor to the confusion which the manu facture produces. The laws of rhetoric have increased in proportion to all the others ; until, while rules for making good speeches have been steadily accumulating, tbe number of good ones made, is proportionally on the decrease. An old friend of mine, alluding to the increase of the Statute Book, which he declared his inabihty any longer to cope with, observed, laying LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. 497 his hand on his heart, " but I have a little law-maker in here, and I must trust to him to keep me out of law." I must confess that, when some times seeking for the sources of true eloquence, and puzzled with the logicians, and rhetoricans, and sophists, I haVe been tempted to close the books, and turning in upon my own thoughts, to seek for some simple standard, by which to form my own taste, and find my own way. Many of you, I doubt not, have done the same ; but there may be others to whom a very simple rule may be of service, if, upon reflection, it is found to be of any value. If asked, then, by any youth in this assembly, how he should become an effective and impressive public speaker, I would answer : — " Speak the truth — and feel it." I know of no rule better than this — I know of none so good. I think it is fortified by all the best examples, and includes the pith and essence of all that has been written by the best critics. A practised speaker may utter what is untrue, and may not feel at all ; but the impression he makes will be in proportion to the probability of the facts he assumes, the plausibility of his reasoning, and the ap parent earnestness of his manner. So universally is this the case, that the very exceptions may be said to prove the rule, and may embolden any man, however unskilful, who is strong in the truth, and really in earnest, to beat down all the guards, and finally overcome the most cunning rhetorician. The actor, it may be said, declaims what has no foundation in fact, and cannot believe in the reality of what he utters ; but, it will be found, that just in proportion as the scene is true to na ture, the sentiments noble and elevated, and the actor is really con vulsed by the passions he delineates, will be the depth and overpowering character of the impression made upon the audience. The orator must really feel what the actor feigns, or he must become an actor, and feign so adroitly what he ought to feel, as to create the belief that he is indeed in earnest. This will ever be a task of great difficulty and delicacy; the safer course, for plain men, dealing with the practical business of life, is — " To speak the truth — and feel it." Let it not be supposed that this rule is too simple, and includes too little of labor and research. There may be cases, in which a few words, embodying an important truth, or a noble sentiment, and spoken with dignity and force, may carry a point more surely, and produce a more 96* 498 LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. powerful effect, than the most skilful and elaborate oration. Of this character was the address of Rochejaqulin, to the Vendeans : "Ifi advance, follow me — if I fall, avenge me — ifi fly, slay me." That of Hegetorides, the Tharian citizen, who at the risk of his life, proposed the repeal of an impolitic law : " Fellow Citizens, I am not ignorant of the fate that awaits me ; but I am happy to have the power to purchase, by my death, your preserva tion. I therefore counsel you to make peace with the Athenians." That of Seasvola, to the King of Tuscany, when his- hand was burn ing: — " Learn how little those regard pain, who have before their eyes im mortal glory." Volumes cf words could not have produced the effect of these short sentences, which any man of ordinary intellectual powers, without study or premeditation, might have uttered. Whence the electrical effects ? precipitating masses of half armed peasants upon the bayonets of disci plined soldiery in the one case ; and, in the other, preserving the lives of the speakers, doomed to apparently certain death ? These men spoke the truth, or showed, by their courage and elevation of soul, by the im posing energy and earnestness of their elocution, that they felt what they said — that they were in earnest. What a noble sentence was that spoken by Nelson, from the masthead of the Victory, on going into action : " England expects every man will do his duty ; " and every man did it. Why ? Because he knew that Nelson was in earnest ; that he felt what he said ; that he would lead the way into the thickest of the fight, and lay down his life for his country. That bit of bunting, then, was truly eloquent, because he who hoisted it was a man to suit the action to the word. But, suppose it to have been hoisted by a poltroon — a man of no mark, or likelihood, or experience ; though none could have objected to the sentiment, very few could have been warmed by its utterance. Its influence was electrical, because every sailor in the fleet saw Nelson standing on the quarter deck, his eye flashing with patriotic ardor, and his shattered frame ready to enforce the signal with its last pulsation. You will perceive, then, that something more than mere earnestness of manner is required to give effect even to such short speeches as these. To attain their object, there must be something in the life, the position, the achievements, of the party who speaks, to give to his audience a guarantee of earnestness and sincerity. For the absence of these nothing LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. 499 can compensate. So live, then, my young friends, that when a great truth, a noble and elevated sentiment, rises to your lips, it may find an audience predisposed to feel that it is not out of place. It is a mistake to suppose that genuine eloquence is confined to the pulpit, the forum, or the floors of Parliament. There are a thousand situations in which a good and a bravo man, by a few words well chosen, spoken with earnestness, and deriving weight from personal character, may serve himself, his neighbor, or his country. Treating of the most ordinary of these occasions, Bacon hath well said : " Discretion of speech is more than eloquence ; and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal, is more than to speak in good words or in good order." There is room for the best kinds of oratory in pleading the cause and stating the claims of the humble in the ordinary affairs of life. How often will a word flash truth into the coarse or selfish mind ; a look, or a gesture, put aside some petty oppression. And, in these cases, what weight is given to words by a conviction of earnestness, of deep feeling, by the guaranty of an upright and guileless life. There is room for eloquence by the fireside, and in the social circle, in soothing the infirmities of age, and in opening the minds and stimu lating the ambition of the young. To my eye, there is no more beauti ful picture than than that of " an old man eloquent," pouring with all the fervor of affection the treasures of experience into the minds of chil dren clinging round his knees, in whose transparent features he reads the story of his early love and of his chequered life. Yes, there is, perhaps, a picture still more attractive ; it is that of an ingenuous youth, who, as that old man declines to second childhood, rouses his dormant powers by apt discussion, or new intelligence ; and supplies, from his teeming stores, the oil, without which the flickering lamp of intellect would scarcely shed a ray. How weightily fall that old man's words, when his children feel that he is in earnest, and that they have the pledge of a well-spent life for the sincerity of his convictions. But who vshall paint the smile that lights up that venerable countenance, as the patriarch, straining each rigid sense, recognizes in every tone and . gesture, in each elevated sentiment and well-selected fact uttered by that boy, indications of intelligence and enthusiasm, which assure him that the fire of his intellect and the manly qualities of his nature, will survive, for the use of his country and the illustration of his name, when his bones are mouldering in the grave. There may be few, here, who are born to be great orators. I trust there are many who will realize these pictures ; and some, who, if occa- 500 LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. sions present themselves, will show how truly eloquent men become, who, in a good cause, back their words with heroic self-devotion. You wiU expect me to apply my rule to eloquence in its more extended sense, and I shall endeavor to do so by and by ; although, I must con fess, that I love to linger upon the less pretending, domestic, and, if you will, inferior departments of the art. Perhaps it may be that I feel my inability to cope with critics by whom the high road has been beaten ; and am more at my ease in the byways. It may be, that I would rather have you all good men and true, able " to give a reason for the faith that is in you," and to speak a word in season, without dissimulation and without fear, than have two or three of you distinguished rhetoricians, able to maintain either side of any question, and not much caring which side you take. It may be that I overvalue this essential element of sin cerity ; but I cannot bring myself to believe that there is any true elo quence without it. I would rather listen to Sterne's Starling, mournfully singing, " I cannot get out," than read the most pathetic description of unreal misery that rhetorician ever uttered. I will not go the length of saying that Lord Nelson was a greater master of eloquence than Demosthenes, although I might almost prove it, from the rhetoricians themselves, who define oratory to be " the art of persuasion." It was the design of the great Athenian to persuade his countrymen to win battles, not to lose them ; to secure the liber ties of Athens against the encroachments of Philip, not to fall, after a few vain struggles, prostrate at his feet. In all the great objects for which he spoke, passing over the temporary excitement which he created, Demosthenes signally failed. It is almost profanation to say, that he was not in earnest in any thing, except in the desire to make good speeches, which he did ; but that if he had spoken less, and died on the Mace donian spear, with one terse, vehement, national sentiment on his lips, in all probability the liberties of his country would have flourished half a century longer. Demosthenes filled his mouth with pebbles, declaimed by the sea-shore, gesticulated with drawn swords suspended above his shoulders, but threw his shield over his head and fled, when his sincerity the real depth of his feeling, came to be proven. The Athenians ad mired the orator, but could not depend on the man ; and probably thought that if they were all slain in defending the liberties of their country there would be nobody left to admire the next oration, in which Demos thenes should undertake to persuade the people to do what he shrunk from doing himself. Lord Nelson would have spoken a single line, but he would not have left Philip a single sail in the Classic seas. With LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. 501 that line, spoken in earnest, and backed by his own high spirit, he would have accomplished more than Demosthenes with his studied ora tions. If, then, Campbell is right in saying that " Eloquence, in its greatest latitude, denotes that art or talent by which a discourse is adapted to its end ;" or if the object of oratory be the " production of belief " or if rhetoric be the " art of persuasion," in either or all of these cases, Nelson may, perhaps, be considered the most eloquent of the two. At all events, if I had my choice, I would rather have one prac tical and sincere man, like Nelson, in Nova Scotia, with his heart on his lips, and his life in his hand, than a dozen rhetoricians, with mouths full of pebbles, uttering " sound and fury, signifying nothing." This may be a harsh judgment of Demosthenes, whose speeches are the highest models of rhetorical composition — worthy of all imitation and all praise. He doubtless was a sincere man, to the whole extent that he knew his own nature ; but incapable of that heroic self-devotion which he inculcated as a duty upon others, which was the true eloquence his country required, and without which she could not be saved. To give full effect to eloquence, not only the action of the body, but the ac tion of the life must be suited to the word. Elliot, dying in prison, pleaded more eloquently for the liberties of England, than Elliot declaim ing in the House of Commons. Chatham, falling in the House of Lords, ' touched the hearts of his countrymen more keenly than his noblest pas sage, delivered in the plenitude of his matchless powers. Had Demos thenes rounded his periods with an heroic death, his name would have " fulmined over Greece " with a majesty which even his oratory, almost divine as it was, could never reach. Take a few more instances of the effect of sincerity, as an essential element of successful oratory. Some of the most beautiful are to be found in Holy Writ. When Nathan spoke these words to David, there was something ex quisitely touching in the picture which he drew : — " There were two men in one city ; one rich and the other poor. " The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds. " But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up ; and it grew up together with him and his children ; it did eat of his own meat, and drink of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. " And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him ; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him." 502 LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. There may be finer things than this in classic oratory and poetry, but I must confess that I know not where to find them. Who can wonder,! while he beholds in his mind's eye, " the little ewe lamb " lying in " the poor man's bosom," that David was moved to terrible indignation, and said : — " As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shaU surely die.'' All this is beautiful, and natural ; but when the poor prophet, moved by a sense of duty, and holding his life in his hand, as the guage of his sincerity and deep conviction, turns to the great king, and pointing his finger at him, pronounces those terrible words, " Thou art the man ! " the whole scene rises, in oratorical sublimity, to the level of any passage in any language. Why is this ? Because Nathan risks all — dares aU, from a sense of moral obligation ; because he " speaks the truth, and feels it." Because to him, whatever men most value, the pride of place, the favor of a mighty monarch, nay, life itself, are perilled by the expression of virtu ous emotion, and a vindication ofthe eternal principles of justice. We have had some dissolute monarchs on the throne of England, and I have searched among the divines for a parallel reproof to this, but I have * looked in vain ; and therefore it is, that while this short sermon has lived for centuries, and will be read to the end of time, many of their gilt- 3dged volumes of discourses, perfect in rhetorical proportion, but which they did not feel, are mouldering on the shelves. It may be said that Absalom defeats my theory, for though a dissimu lator from the first, "he stole the hearts ofthe men of Israel." He did, but it was by a consummate imitation of truth, aided by elevated rank, and the most rare intellectual and physical endowments. Absalom was the Al cibiades, the George the Fourth, of his day, with " fascination in his very oow." " In all Israel there was none to be found so much praised as Absa lom, for his beauty ; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him." When such a man, the heir apparent, stood in the King's gate, des canting on the grievances of Israel, shaking hands with the Jews, and regretting that he was not a judge, it is not to be wondered at that he had influence ? But this proves, not that he was an orator, but that the people had not the sense to detect the artifices of the showy and plausible rhetorician. Had they applied the true tests to Absalom; had they asked, Has not this man slain his brother ? — Is he not stirring up sedi tion against his father ? — Can a monster, so unnatural, be a safe leader LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. 503 and a good judge ? — -Absalom would have exhausted his rhetorical arts in vain. There is a fine oratorical scene in the Old Testament, where Solomon, having completed the temple, " stands before the Altar of the Lord in the presence of all Israel, and, spreading forth his hands to heaven," be neath that gorgeous structure, which had cost him eleven years of toil and anxiety ; upon which thirty thousand men had labored ; which had exhausted the forests of Lebanon and the gold of Ophir, puts up that memorable prayer, filled with devotion to his Maker, and solemn admo nition to his people. Here, again, it is his sincerity, the utter negation of self, which is most to be admired, and gives the highest charm to the performance. Though he had just reared a noble pile, the wonder of his age and nation, and was about to sacrifice two-and-twenty thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep to distinguish its ded ication, not a vainglorious word escapes him. He even attributes the original design to his parent ; and, when invoking the presence and the benediction of his heavenly Father, and contrasting the eternal temples not made with hands with his highest architectural conception, he checks himself and exclaims : — " But will God indeed dwell on the earth ? Behold the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee ; how much less this house that I have builded ? " There are few things finer than that burst of Job's, whose sincerity we cannot doubt, where, after portraying the abject misery of his present condition, he turns, with the eye of faith, to the promises of a Saviour : — " Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. " He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. " He hath put my brethren far from me, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. "They that dwell in mine house, ancl my maids, count me as a stranger : I am an alien in their sight. " I called my servant, and he gave me no answer ; I entreated him with my mouth. " My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the chil dren's sake of mine own body. " Yea, young children despised me ; I arose, and they spake against me. " All my inward friends abhorred me ; and they whom I loved are turned against me." 504 LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. What a picture of utter loathsomeness and personal desolation is here. How strangely it contrasts with Nathan's sketch of the poor man, surrounded by all the kindly charities of life, with the pet lamb lying in his bosom. Yet, when Job rouses himself, and, peering through the darkness of his present condition, beholds the brightness of the Saviour's glory, there is an oratorical elevation in his hope, which casts even Nathan's indigna tion into the shade. We no longer see a broken-hearted old man, cov ered with sores, but behold a prophet of the Lord, glowing with holy in spiration : — " Oh that my words were now written ! Oh that they were printed in a book ! " That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever ! " For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : " And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." But, it may be said, what have these passages to do with oratory ? Much; the painting in both is admirable, and the rhetorical bursts, taken in connection with the positions of the speakers, are magnificent. Besides : it may be as well to show that the sermons of those who boldly reprove great men live longer than the fulsome adulation of the sycophant ; and that there is no situation, however loathsome or abject, to which a human being may be reduced, to which strong inspiration and elevated sentiment may not lend dignity and grace. In reading the New Testament, how often we are struck with fine oratorical passages, and imposing positions. How often is the interest deepened, if not wholly created, by a conviction of perfect earnestness in the speakers. The apostles were no mere teachers of rhetoric, visiting different cities, to display their skill in reasoning upon indifferent topics with equal ability ancl ease. They were men, dealing with the highest interests of humanity — who "spoke the truth, and felt it." There is no mannerism, no mere tinsel ornament, no shrinking, no fear. Whether surrounded by the infuriated Jews, or the wondering Gentiles — in the synagogue, on the hiU side, or before the judgment seat of kings, we find them self-possessed and eloquent. It may be said they were inspired — I grant it : but I hold that a firm conviction of the importance of great truths, ever has brought, and ever will bring, sufficient inspiration to make men eloquent in their promulgation and defence. I say a firm conviction, because men may accept truth, with- LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. 505 out feeling its value very intensely, and such will ever lack the inspira tion to proclaim it — to suffer — to die for it. Such may be cold rhet oricians and elegant mannerists, but they will never be eloquent, or pro duce any enduring or permanent impression. Let us test the correctness of this observation by reference to some of the successors of the apostles, who were no otherwise inspired. Show me a successful preacher of the gospel, who has produced any remarkable effect in the religious world, and I will show you a man thoroughly in earnest. Take St. Patrick for an example, and you will find that he was not only eloquent, but that his oratory gushed out from a heart, filled to overflowing with fervent piety ; in which reverence for the Most High was blent with an enlarged philanthropy ; so that every word he uttered, was enforced by purity of life, and nobleness of soul. Think you, if he had been a mere rhetorician — apt at scholastic dis putation, but living, Uke many a modern prelate, in luxury and pro fusion, on princely revenues drawn from the sweat of poor men's brows, that he would have converted a kingdom to Christ ? No : hundreds who may have believed the truth, but did not feel it, have tried that ex periment, and what is the result ? That the people have left the trained rhetoricians, with their senior wrangler's diplomas in their pockets, and have gone to hear genuine eloquence, from the poor self-denying priest, or dissenting clergymen, over the way. What was the secret of John Knox's success in Scotland ? Again the answer is, He was in earnest : so much in earnest, that even the first principles of rhetorical science were constantly violated by the coarse ness and intemperance of his manner. To him the delicate proprieties of life, the artificial divisions of society, the triumphs of architecture " thrones, principalities and powers," were as nothing, when they ap peared to dam up, or discolor the waters of life. It was in vain' that the clang of murderous weapons broke upon his ear — that glaived hands menaced, and noble brows were bent. " Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business," was the prevailing sentiment of the en thusiast, as he turned from or defied such vanities as these. The smile of that royal beauty — so winning and resistless, which, faintly re flected by the pencil, we love at this very hour, fell on the torrent of Knox's eloquence, as the sunbeam falls upon Niagara ; revealing, it may be, its depth and volume ; but powerless to change its current, or quell the deafening thunder of its roar. The Scottish hills were filled with orators of this class during the per secutions ; whose spirit and whose principles survive them, and whose memoiies will probably haunt the heather while it grows. These were 97 506 LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. no subtle schoolmen, trained to artistic disputation — they were men who had "embraced the truth, and felt it;" who preached upon the hill side where they were prepared to die ; who poured forth the truths they felt with beautiful simplicity, with the bay of the slot hound, and the tramp of dragoons, sounding in their ears. These men were lis tened to, believed, and loved, because they were in earnest ; and many became orators, as the dumb son of Croesus learned to speak, from the strength of the domestic affections, and the perils of the hour. So it ever will be. Eloquence must gush out of the warm heart. We drink the water that is trained through leaden pipes ; but, when a country is to be irrigated, or overflowed, the supply must come from the heavens, or well from the fathomless fountains which no human eye can trace. How was it that John Wesley created, not a mere contemptible schism, but a great moral revolution in the Protestant Church ? That he founded a new order of Christian ministers, and sent them, not only all over the civilized, but into the remotest corners of the heathen world ? How is it that his hymns were sung this week by millions of people called by his name, in thousands of churches that were not in existence when he was born ? How is it that an organized church government, perfect in all its parts, radiating from a common centre, and including members of every clime and country, bids fair to perpetuate his system, and immortalize his name ? You may tell me because he was a great scholar, and a great orator, but I tell you it is because John Wesley was in earnest ; because he felt the truths he preached ; because he strictly conformed to the requirements of the system he promulgated ; because, in the whole tenor of his life, he suited the action to the word. To him it could never be said : — " But, good, my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to Heaven, Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede." Take another instance. The captivity of the Holy Sepulchre, and the cruelties practised by the Saracens upon Christian pilgrims, were truths known to all Europe in 1092. Peter the Hermit was not the only man who knew them, but he was perhaps the only man who felt them deeply ; who made them the subject of his daily thought, and nightly meditation ; who, not only comprehended the whole scope and nature of the grievance, but had the courage, and energy, and self-devotion, to grapple with it. With such a theme, little more was required to make LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. 507 him truly eloquent ; and, by the united testimony of cotemporaries, truly eloquent he was. The man was in earnest ; he felt the truths he uttered. His very earnestness and enthusiasm supplied all deficiencies. He was the true fiery cross ; and, as he passed from city to city, and country to country, the souls of men kindled, until Europe was in a flame. The peasant beat his ploughshare into a Weapon ; the baron ceased from rapine and violence, to assume the symbols of salvation ; and monarchs left their kingdoms to the government of Heaven, while they crossed the seas, to purchase eternal life by the thrust of lance and stroke of sword. Peter was no cold and formal rhetorician, but a man of action and des perate courage ; ready to lead the way he pointed, to do what he advised should be done. His very defects, as a warrior and a leader, arose from the excess of those qualities which made his oratory so overwhelming ; a disregard of difficulties, in his reverence for his cause, and his firm re liance upon the direct interposition of Providence. If his sermons have not been preserved, history records, on many a sad and many a brilliant page, the singular effects they produced. Fleets were constructed, and armies marshalled, as if by magic ; the best blood of Europe was poured out like rain upon the sands of Palestine ; the enthusiasm of the Moslem was met by enthusiasm higher than his own ; a new road to Heaven was opened, by which " strong men armed " might enter. Thrones were shaken, and principalities founded ; and out of this military chaos, with its worldly policy blent with religious excitement, came more extended knowledge, and the nascent principles of freedom and civilization. We turn back to trace the origin of these mighty movements, and we find a poor monk, with a coarse frock over his shoulders and a rope round his waist, but with his whole frame convulsed with the reality of his emo tions, ancl his whole soul speaking, with what Shakspeare calls " The heavenly rhetoric of the eye. I doubt if Wolsey was ever so truly eloquent as after his fall ; when, on that journey to York, which was to be his last but one, he preached to the people, and blessed the little children, who flocked around him. While struggling up the steep ascent of worldly greatness, he had been — " Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading. I' the presence He would say untruths ; and be ever double Both in his words and meaning." Genuine eloquence wants no such aids, and eschews such practices But when he fell, when he had exclaimed — 508 LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. " Vain pomp and glory of the world, I hate ye. I feel my heart new opened ; '' he rose in eloquence as rapidly as he declined in power, and he who was deemed no longer suitable for an earthly minister, became a true minister of Heaven. Then it was that he gave such lessons as these : — " Love thyself last ; cherish those hearts that hate thee ; Corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in thy right band carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not, Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, Thy God's — and Truth's." Then it was, that, as the courtiers fled his presence, the people gathered round him ; to hear those precious words of wisdom in which there were no double meanings ; to be moved by eloquence, bursting from an overcharged heart, and pregnant with the realities of vast experience, and moving vicissitudes of fortune. Thus far I have drawn my illustrations from the Sacred Volume, and from the lives of those who have been its distinguished expounders. I have done so without reference to the subdivisions of the Christian family ; thank God, there is nothing sectarian in oratory. The fountain from which true eloquence flows, is not part of the church property of any denomination. One spire after another' may attract the lightning, or be shaken by the thunder ; but the home of both is in the cloud which floats above them all ; so is it with that Divine afflatus, that kindling in spiration, which descends at times for the purification of aU sects, but which no sectarian can confine in the hollow of his hand. If it should not seem out of place, nor savor of irreverence, I would pause for a moment to consider the Great Founder of the Christian family, in the purely oratorical phases of his earthly story. Veiling our eyes for a moment to his divine perfections, to his astounding miracles, let us regard him as a man, reasoning with men, and influencing them, through the senses, by the power of language. I must confess, that, judging from the scanty memorials that remain to us, I have ever re garded Christ as the prince of orators ; and, reflecting on the limited amount of these, when I have heard persons mourning over the loss of classic treasures, coveting a book of Livy, or a speech of Bolingbroke, I have involuntarily sighed for the lost biography and oratory of our Saviour. What we have is all-sufficient to enable us to judge of the rest. Like the fragments of a noble statue, the lines of beauty we can trace, deter- LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. 509 mine the exquisite character of the whole. But one saying of Jesus is recorded until his baptism by John. Yet we are told by Luke, that, — " The child grew, and waxed strong in the spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him." How often, among his youthful companions, and in the domestic circle, must that strong spirit have flashed out, and that knowledge have over flowed ! Yet the apples of wisdom, borne by the green tree, are for bidden fruit to us. None have been preserved. What they were like, however, we may gather from that most touching incident of his early life, when, about twelve years old, Joseph and Mary lost him, and turn ing back to Jerusalem, " found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." What a scene ; what a discussion, must that have been, where the Jew ish Doctors were confounded by a child of twelve years old ! From this period till he was thirty, all his eloquence is lost to us ; though it is recorded, that he " increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." The power of his eloquence may be judged by the fact, that, after the temptation, while we behold him in his mere human and intel lectual character — " there went out a fame of him through all the re gion round about Galilee, and he taught in their synagogues, being glo rified of all." Talk of the lost treasures of literature, I would give the whole, and a cartload of sermons into the bargain, for but one of these discourses to the Galileans. The burden of but one is preserved by Mark ; and when I have sought to call up before my mind's eye the figure of a perfect orator, I have imagined Christ, with the divine in spiration shining through those noble features, and animating that grace ful form, to which the highest skill of the artist can do but feeble jus tice ; with the sea of Galilee before him, and an awe-struck auditory clustering round, as those fearful words, uttered as he only could pro nounce them, sounded in their ears : "The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye, and believe the gospel." His subsequent discourses, which have been preserved, to say nothing of their divine wisdom and inspiration, and regarding them in their rhetorical character, are masterly specimens of oratory : the purest mor als being adorned with the highest imagination, without one violation of good taste, or one superfluous word. Though we might dwell on this theme for hours, and illustrate it by the whole New Testament, I shall 97* 510 LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. content myself with two extracts. The first is the opening passage from the Sermon on the Mount : — " Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. " Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be comforted. " Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit the earth. " Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteouness : for they shall be filled. " Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy. " Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God. " Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall be called the chUdren of God. " Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." We, who have had this message of mercy sounding in our ears from childhood, till constant familiarity has partially deadened our perception of its spirit, condensation, energy, and beauty, can form no idea of the feelings which it was calculated to excite in the poor and unlettered au ditory, whose country was groaning under a foreign yoke ; whose city was torn by factions ; and whose minds were perplexed by the rhetori cal flourishes of the teachers of rival sects, who were equally blind guides to the people ; and who only agreed in making them toil, that those who perplexed their understandings, might sit in the uppermost seats at feasts, and revel in the odor of a sanctity that was assumed. When, turning upon these blind guides, how fearful is that burst of oratory, in which they are denounced ! Cicero's " How long, 0 Cata- line," sinks into insignificance before it : — " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men : for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering, to go in. " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers ; therefore ye shall receive. the greater damnation. " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye compass, sea and land to make one proselyte ; and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." LECTURE ON ELOQUENCE. 511 In the whole range of human invective, where shall we find such ter rible oratory as this ? And when thundered, for the first time, in the ears of men swollen with pride and self-importance, strong in their mere wordly wisdom, and mistaking their ceremonial observances for genuine piety, the scene must have been one to which our feeble imagi nations can never do justice. In passing from the oratory of the Saviour, I need hardly remind you that his example confirms, rather than weakens, the maxim with which I set out. Who can doubt that he was ever in earnest ? That he spoke the truth, we know ; that he felt it, a Christian audience will not readily disbelieve. Two questions will probably arise in many minds : — But What is Truth ? and How far may Art assist Nature, in rendering its utterance pleasing and impressive ? To answer these questions, we should require to enter upon the broad field of oratory, redolent of perfume, and cultivated to luxuriance by the sister arts of rhetoric and logic. This task will probably be as sumed by some more experienced guide ; if not, we may devote to it some other evening. To essay it now, would be to violate a fundamen tal rule of the art we seek to teach, by trespassing on the time of an audience already sufficiently weary. APPENDIX. (513) APPENDIX. LETTER TO MR. CHAPMAN. Halifax, N. S., October 2, 1835. Sie, — A few days ago I received, via New York, your letter of the 18th July, with a copy of the article written by yourself for Tait's Magazine, and Mr. Roebuck's pamphlet on " The Canadas and their Grievances." I have also to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of May 30, but the pamphlet referred to in it never came to hand. Wait ing in part for that, and being anxious to mark the progress of the dis pute in Canada for some time further, in order to enable me to make up an opinion upon some points, I have put off writing to you from time to time, which I do not now regret, although, for any suspicion of disrespect it may have occasioned, I must beg to apologize. Though feeling no sympathy for the official faction in Lower Canada, and hating and despising as intensely as you do those men and measures that have, in all the British North American Provinces, excited opposi tion and complaint ; and although laboring to reform the public affairs of this my native country, I have for some time past shared in some de gree the suspicion, which I assure you very generally prevails in the Lower Colonies, that the party with which you act are determined, at all hazards, to precipitate a contest with the mother country ; ancl in order to effect this object, the redress of real grievances (the existence of which is admitted) was to be sought in a spirit the most uncompromising and offensive. I will not conceal from you that this suspicion was strengthened by the faUing away of John Neilson — a man of great ex perience ; one who had given the most trying proofs of his adherence to principle ; and that it has checked the ardor with which I formerly sympathized in all that was done and said by Mr. Papineau and his friends. The language of the late numbers of The Vindicator, the ac knowledged organ of your party, leaves no ground for doubting upon this head. In that of the ,* the desire for independence, the anxiety to follow the example of the United States, and shake off the connection with England, is openly and candidly avowed ; and though, perhaps, the declaration of these sentiments may have been hastened by some foolish publications on the other side, still they are abundantly suffi cient — coupled with other indications of the feelings of the majority * The date has not been preserved, and we have not the file to refer to. 516 APPENDIX. leaders — to convince me that an independent existence, or a place in the American Confederation, is the' great object which at least some of the most able and influential of the Papineau party have in view ; and that a redress of grievances as a Colony is with them a matter of second ary importance, and if it were to retard instead of accelerating this de voutly wished consummation, one rather to be deprecated than desired. I know that this is a charge often brought against you by your enemies ; I allude to it with a very different purpose : that you may understand how Canadian affairs are viewed in Nova Scotia, and that Colonial re formers may not misunderstand each other. I am quite aware that I run some risk of losing your confidence by this avowal, having seen enough of the spirit of party to teach me that men like not those who question their infallibility. ' But frankness and candor may save us all much trouble, and we owe it to the great interests involved to deceive neither ourselves nor each other. Assuming, therefore, that a sudden and forcible breach of the con nection with Great Britain is the wish of the whole or of a large por tion of the Papineau party in Canada, I may state, with confidence, that at least seven-eights of the population of the Lower Provinces would be opposed in sentiment to any such movement. Though cor dially opposed to the little knots of CounciUors, lawyers, and placemen, who stand in the way of improvement, the people of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are sincerely attached to the mother country, and dis posed to cultivate towards her inhabitants the most friendly feelings. We do not blame upon the people of Britain the various acts of misrule of which we complain, because we have seen them struggling against the same enemies that have usually oppressed us. The mischievous anoma lies and burdensome exactions of the aristocratic factions have been, if any thing, more severely felt in Britain than in the Colonies. Her peo ple are only now re-conquering the rights of which they have been cun ningly despoiled. And we look forward with confidence to the time when, by our own efforts and the cordial cooperation of the Uberal party at home, we shall be able to destroy our local factions, and enforce econ omy and popular control. If, when the Tories of Britain are weakened by expulsion from the Corporations, the Irish Church, the unjust mo nopoly of all offices, civil, naval, and military, the people of Brit ain, having the power in their own hands, refuse to do us justice ; if they withhold their sympathies and cooperation when we seek to follow their examples ; if they refuse to carry out in the Colonies the princi ples they maintain at home, then there is no doubt that the feelings of our population will be turned into other channels, and the connection with Britain be viewed very differently from what it is now. In the meantime, however, we consider it unfair and ungenerous to assume that justice will not be done us, or to encourage feelings of hostility to a coun try, the rapid reformation of whose institutions leads us to hope for an entire sanction of beneficial changes in our own. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact, that, surrounded as we are by great and growing States, many of them now possessed of almost na tional resources, we must be more or less subject to influences beyond APPENDIX. 517 our immediate control ; and that the time may not be very distant when the question of independence, or of a federative union with the adjoin ing Colonies, may come to be considered, not as one forced on us by any neglect or oppression of the mother country, but as a natural conse quence of our position, and the necessity it imposes of having an efficient and prompt government upon the spot, where its vigilant eye and pro tective hand may be most required. When this time comes, the lead ing minds of the Colonies must endeavor to lay the foundations of a ra tional system, suited to the circumstances under which they are called to the task. But our people have no disposition to hasten on this period; nor of themselves to precipitate any crisis, or to aid any rupture, which shall compel us to enter upon the business of self-government before we are prepared, with the enmity of a powerful nation, from which we have sprung, and to which we are sincerely attached, as a drawback on our exertions. We would rather, if the separation comes, that it should be the result of an amicable agreement, founded on an enlightened view of the circumstances by which all parties must consent to be con trolled. We wish to steer clear of that feeling of bitterness towards each other's manners and institutions which so generally prevails in England and the United States, and which is the fruitful parent of much error, and prevents two nations from doing much good to the rest of the world, that might be accomplished by mutual confidence and cooperation. But, while we think and reason thus, shaping our views by the knowl edge we have, we do not pretend to judge for others, who may be differ ently situated, and who may be disposed to a different course of policy. Though a student of Canadian affairs for some years past, I have never been in Canada, and therefore may have but an indifferent estimate of your means either of resistance to British fleets and armies, should re sistance become necessary, or of your capacity for self-government, should a contest terminate in your favor. But my own impression is, that with out the cordial cooperation of the other Colonies, even with the aid of the United States, Lower Canada could not achieve a forcible indepen dence ; or if she did, the cost to all parties would be so great, as to be a serious punishment for precipitancy in an object, which, in the very na ture of things, must at some not very distant day be peacefully obtained. The old Colonies, being numerous, spread over an immense extent of country, and having a powerful European nation, and gross ignorance on the part of their assailants, to aid them, made an honorable and success ful stand. They had the mercantile body at their back ; you have them nearly all against you. But if the French population of Canada are, as I presume, the same people with the Aeadians who still inhabit some townships of this Province, they are not such good materials as were the descendants of the Pilgrims, either for passing through a fiery struggle with such a power as Great Britain, or for building up of themselves a valuable system of government when it comes to an end. They cer tainly have some able leaders at the present time. Mr. Papineau is un questionably a man of splendid powers ; but it must be confessed that there are not a few of their public men, both in the Assembly and out of it, wanting in talent ancl discretion, ancl scarcely equal to the conduct 518 APPENDIX. of such a movement as I have presumed they contemplate. I have rarely seen a more unstatesmanlike and discreditable paper from any legislative body than were the famous ninety-two resolutions. I do not speak so much of their substance, as of their style, and of there being ninety-two of them. If you compare them with any of the resolutions of Charles the First's Parliament, when complaining of grievances, or -i.'Lh the resolutions of Congress, or of the old Colonial Assemblies, you will understand what I mean. However, if you think you have a good cause, and the wisdom and the strength, and are determined on a rupture, why then the issue is in the hand of God, and the fruits in the womb of time. We tell you what we think, and why we can be no parties to the contest, and, having done so, shall await the result. Thus far I have written upon assumptions that, I am quite aware, are unwarranted by any thing in your letters, but which have been forced upon me by the acts and sentiments of the party whose agent you are, so far as I have observed them during the past two years. I have written them in order to elicit such a declaration of your views, opinions and re sources, as may enable me to judge more accurately of the advantages or disadvantages of your position ; and that you may not be led into any ill- digested or precipitate contest, presuming upon the strength of sympa thies and feelings in the Lower Provinces, which I assure you do not exist. If, setting aside the matter of grievances, you are disposed to argue the broad question of admission into the American Republic, or a federative union of the Provinces, as one of principle, interest, or expe diency, of course we shall endeavor to entertain it as one that sooner or later must be thoroughly canvassed and understood. But, if you really desire to continue the connection with Britain, until these Colonies have grown up to " man's estate ; " until they are riper in knowledge, virtue, and resources, than I think they are now ; and merely seek such changes and reformations as are essential to their peace and prosperity — to the controlling of local factions, and the enjoyment of economical ancl responsible government, then will I go with you heart and hand ; and, what is of much more consequence, the great bulk of the people in these Provinces will go with you also. Throwing aside every thing that has been said upon a different supposition, and turning to the matter of Colonial grievances, as if we all intended their removal and nothing more, I must thank you for your very able, argumentative, and judicious article in Tait. I read it with interest and pleasure. Mr. Roebuck's pamphlet I liked less. I may be mistaken, but I think that gentleman has got quite credit enough for all the talent and judgment he possesses ; so far as we can decide at this distance, his recent displays, either in Parliament or the press, have earned him but few laurels. As this letter has grown to such a formidable length, I shall not be able to comply with your request for information until I can snatch another leisure hour. Perhaps the best way in which to cooperate with you would be for me to write an article, either to be published in Tait or elsewhere, as you think expedient, embodying the views of reformers here of the grievances of our own Colony. If I can spare the time, I will do this shortly, and send you such other information as may assist in en- APPENDIX. 519 lightening the good folks at home upon topics which, for their own and our interest, they should rightly understand. In the meantime, I remain your obedient servant, JOSEPH HOWE. To II. S. Chapman, Esq. \_From the London Morning Chronicle, March l.J We insert to day an admirable letter written in 1835, and obviously not intended for pubhcation, from Mr. Joseph Howe, the Reformer of Nova Scotia, to Mr. Chapman, the coadjutor of Mr. Roebuck in this country. It appears that in that year Mr. Chapman wrote to Mr. HoWe to beg for a consignment of Nova Scotia grievances, to be added to the Lower Canadian, ninety-two not being enough. Whoever reads any thing upon the subject should read the answer sent to Mr. Chapman by Mr. Joseph Howe. He that reads will have presented to him a pic ture of the weak violence of busy agitators, taking weakness and vio lence for granted in others, and met, doubtless much to their surprise, by a cool, wary, strong-headed, honest-minded lover of his country, who takes them to pieces in all sobriety of judgment, and tells them what they are about. Joseph Howe is the John Neilson, of Nova Scotia. In the pamphlet which we have so often quoted upon this subject, and which we can hardly quote too often, " The Canadian Controversy," it is shown how Neilson and his party, the genuine patriots of Lower Canada, seceded from Papineau so soon as they saw that all the actual grievances were in course of being redressed, and that what remained were but the pretexts of grievance, manufactured for ambitious pur poses by Papineau in that country, and negotiated upon commission by his grievance-brokers in this. It now appears that John Neilson's ex ample was not lost upon Nova Scotia, but found good acceptation and a worthy response from Joseph Howe, who quotes it in his letter to Mr. Chapman. Howe as well as Neilson knew that whatever they had to complain of in former years, there had been on the part of the British government, since 1828, a cordial disposition to meet all the reasonable wishes of the North American Colonists, and that that disposition has been effectively carried into practice with as much speed as circum stances would permit. He knew that the representations of the Assem bly of Nova Scotia had met with immediate attention from Lord Glen elg, and had been dealt with, not only in a spirit of justice, but in a spirit of earnest and cordial good-will; he knew that the Assembly had reason to be satisfied, and that they were in point of fact, satisfied, gratified, and contented. Under these ciroumstances they were not to be played upon by Messrs. Chapman and Roebuck, grievance-fed men, to whom a job was not so much a grievance, as a grievance was a job. If Mr. Howe's letter had been published when it was written, it alone might have calmed all apprehensions as to the ultimate success of a just and liberal government in conciliating the good-will of the really import ant part of the population of the North American Provinces. It would 520 APPENDIX. have been known that one native heart, so honest and so temperate, so strong in its moderation ; one native head, so clear and judicious, could not but have an extensive, durable, and binding influence over any com munity of English extraction. " I have rarely," says the letter, " seen a more unstatesmanlike and discreditable paper from any legislative body than were the famous ninety-two resolutions. I do not speak so much of their substance as of their style, and of there being ninety-two of them. If you compare them with any of the resolutions of Charles the First's Parliament, when complaining of grievances, or with the res olutions of Congress or of the old Colonial Assemblies, you will under stand what I mean. However if you think you have a good cause, and the wisdom and the strength, and are determined on a rupture, why then the issue is in the hand of God, and the fruits in the womb of Time. We tell you what we think, and why we can be no parties to the con test ; and, having done so, shall await the result." " If you think you have the wisdom " — if indeed ! And well had Mr. Howe read the best lessons of the greatest reformer of the times of Charles the First, when he thus suggests, in a question which the result has now woefully resolved, that wisdom is the condition of liberty — " For who loves that must first be wise and good ; But from that mark how far they rove we see By all this waste of wealth and loss of blood." We approve of Mr. Howe's letter in its whole tenor, and in all its parts ; and we would desire nothing better for all parties concerned, than to see its sentiments pervade the population of the Provinces, and of the mother country, and we believe that opinions of this character are gaining ground every day on both sides of the Atlantic. The re form of all local abuses Mr. Howe would steadily require, and this country and its government would gladly grant the concession of all such political powers as the legislatives bodies can exercise consistently with their position as the legislature of a province. The surrender to their ar bitrament of all questions which do not involve the responsibility of Her Majesty's Ministers as an Imperial government, the progressive educa tion of the Colonies in self-government, implying the progress of knowl edge and education amongst the Colonists at large ; these objects we are persuaded that this country, its Parliament, and its government would cordially join with Mr. Howe and his compatriots in approving and pro moting ; and, finally, we believe that all parties here will as willingly join with him in the calm and friendly contemplation of the probable arrival of the period when the two kindred communities may part in peace. Whilst such men as John Neilson and Joseph Howe are to be found in the North American Provinces, we have no fears of their relations with the mother country being embittered, or of their separation being precipitated, by the efforts of another class of politicians. Our only curiosity is to know what is to become of these would-be consignees of Colonial grievance. Which way will Mr. Chapman turn to find a less uncomfortable correspondent than Mr. Howe ? The spirit APPENDIX. 521 of gentle Mr. Roebuck, to what region will it resort ? Ejected from Bath, rejected by Nova Scotia, not altogether prosperous in Canada ; where will it bestow itself next ? " Animula vagula, blandula, Quas nunc abidis in loca 1 " We commiserate their condition ; we should be glad to be of service to them ; but we know not what to recommend, unless it be to seek out (in the words of an old Elizabethan) " some nation of new-found fools, where no navigator has yet planted wit." LORD GLENELG'S DISPATCHES. Downing Street, ?>§th April, 1837. Sir, — I have received your dispatch of the 9th of March, in which you transmitted to me a report of the proceedings of the Legislature of Nora Scotia since their meeting on the 21st of last January. It is a ground of sincere satisfaction to me, that the House of Assem bly rescinded the resolutions which they adopted on the state of the Province ; and I am happy to perceive, on reference to the Journals of the House, that the resolutions are rescinded on the motion of the same gentlemen who had originally proposed them for the adoption of the House. Hitherto mutual confidence has reigned, almost without interruption, between His Majesty's Government and the representatives of the peo ple of Nova Scotia, and I should deeply have regretted to be required to participate in a discussion conducted on either side in a different spirit. I hasten, therefore to obviate, if possible, any such controversy, and to place you in possession of instructions for your guidance on the questions embraced in those resolutions. It is the more incumbent on me to adopt this course, because you prepare me, not indeed for the im mediate revival of all the topics, the discussion of which had been sus pended, but for an intimation of the desire of the Assembly for some alteration in the form of their existing Constitution. I am happy to assure you that His Majesty, in acceding to the wishes, or what he conceives to be the wishes of the Assembly, makes no re luctant concession, but meets them with a cheerful assent, convinced that the greater part of the measures which they have suggested will be con ducive alike to the honor of his crown and the welfare of his faithful subjects inhabiting that part of his dominions. 1 st. His Majesty abstains from expressing any opinion on the ques tions debated between the two houses of Provincial Legislature, with regard to the disuse of Divine Worship in the one, and the exclusion of the public from the debates in the other. The King is persuaded that the very grave importance of these measures will be duly appreciated 522 APPENDIX. by either House, and the interference of the Executive Government on such subjects would not only be misplaced, but injurious, as it could not fail to be regarded, and justly, as an encroachment on the peculiar priv ileges of the Legislature. 2ndly. You give me reason to infer that the Assembly desire such a change in the constitution of the Legislative Council, as would bring it into correspondence with the system at present in force in the Canadas and in New Brunswick. It is, of course, understood in the Province that in all the British Colonies possessing Representative As semblies, except the Canadas and New Brunswick, the Council is a sin gle chamber, called at different times to the ¦ discharge of Legislative functions, and to the duty of assisting in the administration of the Exec utive Government. The separating this body into two distinct chambers, the one Legisla tive, and the other Executive, is an experiment which was first tried in the Canadas by the Act of 1791, and repeated in New Brunswick in the year 1832. So far as I have been able to judge, the result ofthis inno vation has not been such as to exclude very serious doubts respecting its real usefulness. It may well be questioned whether the maintenance of the existing constitution of the Council of Nova Scotia would not be the best mode of subjecting that body to a direct and effective responsibility, and of securing to each of the two houses of Legislature its just weight and legitimate influence in the deliberations and measures of the other. His Majesty, however, is graciously prepared to act on this question in conformity with such advice as shall be deliberately tendered to him by the representatives of the people of Nova Scotia, because the King will not refuse to his people in that Province every participation in the institutions of the other Provinces of British North America, which their representatives may regard as conducive to the general good ; and because His Majesty is convinced that their advice will be dictated by more exact and abundant knowledge of the wants and wishes of their constituents than any other persons possess, or could venture to claim. I willingly abstain from entering on the discussion of the alternative of an Elective Council suggested in one of the rescinded resolutions ; it is unnecessary for me to say more on this subject than to express my conviction that the suggestion was thrown out by the Assembly rather as a possible compromise of a supposed difficulty, than as expressing any fixed opinion that the evils of which they complain could be remedied only by so essential a change in the Constitution. 3rdly. The objections made by the Assembly to the actual composi tion of the Council are but too well founded, and whether that body shall retain its present fot-m, or shall be resolved into two separate chambers, it must undergo a very comprehensive change in its compo nent parts. It is now for the first time disclosed to me, and, as I have reason to think, it was never understood by any of my predecessors in office, that in this small body there have been included several gentlemen united together in one commercial partnership ; that the members have been APPENDIX. 523 chosen almost without exception from the inhabitants of Halifax or its vicinity, and that the great majority of them are all members of one relig ious community, which is stated to be least numerous of any of those into whieh the population of Nova Scotia is divided. It is impossible that distinctions so invidious should not be productive of serious discontent. Especially must this be the case when peculiarities of religious belief, are assumed as the ground of admission or exclusion. In the list which you propose to transmit for His Majesty's considera tion, of gentlemen qualified to sit in the Council of Nova Scotia, it will be your care to introduce the names of persons connected with all the great interests, agricultural, commercial, manufacturing, or professional, existing in the Province. You will also, as far as possible, propose candidates connected not merely with the capital, but with the other principal towns, and with the rural districts. Your recommendations will be altogether uninfluenced by any consi deration of the relation in which the proposed councillors may stand towards the Church of England, or any other society of Christians ; it will indeed be your care to avoid, as far as possible, such a selection as may even appear to have been dictated by motives of this description, and it may, therefore, be necessary that you should advert to differences of religious opinions amongst the various candidates for this honor, not as constituting any criterion of eligibility, but as a security against the semblance of undue favor to any particular Church. If the information on which the House of Assembly proceeded shall prove to be accurate, it is not improbable the necessity may arise, not merely for the introduction of many new members, but for the exclusion from the list of Councillors of some of the gentlemen at present holding seats there. I advert to this subject the more readily because as no charge has been preferred against any individuals, such a change, if really essential to the establishment of public confidence in this body, will be made without the infliction of any reproach or unmerited pain on any of the gentlemen who maybe immediately affected by it. Thus, for example, I do not think it defensible that more than one member of the same commercial house should sit at the Council board ; and if it be true that this rule has been violated, the retirement of one or more members of any such firm will not, I trust, be regarded, as it certainly will not be designed, as a personal slight or degradation. 4thly. The next in order of the questions raised by the Assembly is, whether the Chief Justice should retain his seat in the Council. On this question I do not anticipate any serious difficulty. In the event of the separation of the Council into two distinct chambers, it is His Majesty's pleasure that neither the Chief Justice nor any of his colleagues should sit in the Executive Council. Even if that change be not made, the King thinks it right that neither the Chief Justice nor any other Judge should be present at any of the proceedings of the Council in its Executive capacity. The principle to be steadily borne in mind and practically observed is, that all the Judges, including the Chief Justice, should be entirely withdrawn from all poUtical discussions. 524 APPENDIX. and from all participation in the measures ofthe local government, or of any persons who may be acting in opposition to it. It follows that even in Legislation the Chief Justice, and his brother Judges, should take no part, whenever, as must often happen, tbe adop tion br rejection of a law may involve some question of party politics. The only motive for retaining the Chief Justice in the Council, would be that he would probably contribute to the general improvement of the permanent laws of the Province, with a greater extent of experience and knowledge, than any other member of that body ; but it may fairly be questioned whether this advantage can be acquired consistently with that security which His Majesty is most anxious should be taken, against any of the Judges being drawn into the political discussions of the country. Perhaps the wisest course would be, that which prevails in some of the Colonies eastward of the Atlantic, where the judges are excluded from the local Legislature, but are required to revise every Act, before it is finally passed, and to report their opinion, whether it is framed in such a manner as to secure the attainment of the objects which the Legislature may have in view. The benefit of judicial knowledge and experience is thus obtained without any sacrifice of judicial independence. These, however, are questions on which His Majesty desires to act in conformity with the deliberate opinion of the people at large, and with the benefit of the ad vice of their representatives. 5thly. With regard to the management of the unsettled lands of the Crown, you will consider my instructions to Sir. A. Campbell as ad dressed to yourself. I am aware of no reason why the same system should not be established in both Provinces, subject to such minor modi fications as local experience may suggest to the Legislature of each respectively. 6thly. With respect to the financial question, I fear that the disparity which unhappily exists between the financial resources of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, will render it impossible to pursue a course pre cisely similar in each. Having, however, in my dispatch to Sir A. Campbell, and to his successor Sir J. Harvey, fully explained the prin ciples on which His Majesty has been pleased to authorize a settlement ofthe financial administration of New Brunswick, I have His Majesty's commands to authorize you to enter into any arrangement with the Legislature of Nova Scotia, which may be consistent with and sanctioned by those principles. I enclose, for your information and guidance, copies of the more recent parts of that correspondence. Having thus adverted to the opinions and wishes which appear to have been entertained by the Assembly of Nova Scotia, I trust that I am entitled to conclude that they will find in this dispatch a satisfactory proof of His Majesty's earnest solicitude fully to meet their views for the public good of the Province. The King has indeed peculiar pleasure in thus expressing his sense of the high claims which the Legislature of Nova Scotia have established to His Majesty's favor, by a long and un interrupted course of loyal and zealous attachment to the British Crown, APPENDIX. 525 united with an unwearied care for the well-being of that important part of His Majesty's dominions which is confided to their protection. I have the honor to be, &c, (Signed) GLENELG. To His ExceUency Sir Colin Campbell. Downing Street, Qth July, 1837. Sik, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch, dated 1st May, 1837, No. 71, with the address to his late Majesty, and to yourself, which it encloses. Although these documents reached me on the 14th ultimo, the painful circumstances in which the country was then placed by the melancholy illness of his late Majesty, prevented their being submitted to him ; but I am happy to find, that on all the principal questions to which these addresses refer, His Majesty's pleasure was signified to you in my dis patch ofthe 30th April, No. 77. Having had the honor of laying your dispatch, with its inclosures, be fore the Queen,- 1 have received Her Majesty's commands to refer you to my former dispatch, of the 30th April, and to signify Her Majesty's concurrence in the instructions therein conveyed to you. With reference to some of the demands now preferred in a more specific shape, in the address from the House of Assembly, I am further commanded to return the following answer : — 1st. The claim of the Assembly to control and appropriate the whole of the public revenue arising in the Province, is frankly admitted by the Queen, in the comprehensive and specific form in which that claim is now preferred ; subject only to the conditions by which his late Majesty was pleased, in the instructions to the Earl of Gosford, and to Sir Archi bald Campbell, of which you possess copies, to qualify the corresponding concession ; as, however, in Nova Scotia, a permanent provision has al ready been made by law for support of various public officers, the dis cussion of the terms of the proposed civil list may be drawn within much narrower limits, than in the adjacent Provinces. 2ndly. The amount of the salary of the Commissioner of Crown Lands is admitted to be a fit subject for the deliberation of the local Legislature, and every part of the expenditure connected with the land granting de partment, will, very properly, be subjected to their scrutiny and revision ; the conditions being, however, maintained, for which the Crown has stipulated in New Brunswick, as to the management of the Crown lands being vested exclusively in the Executive government, subject to their liability to account to the Legislature for all expenses incurred in con ducting that branch of the public service. 3rdly. Discouraging as tbe accounts of the receipts and the expenditure of the land granting department since the year 1831 undoubtedly are, they at least prove that Her Majesty's government judged rightly in op posing the advice offered to them at that time, as to the continuance of the old system of gratuitous grants of land. The returns have rather more than balanced the outlay. Whereas, if those counsels had been 526 APPENDIX. followed, the outlay would have formed an uncompensated charge on the other branches of the Provincial revenue. You are well aware that the expectations of drawing any considerable income from this source were never sanguine, nor does it now seem reasonable to indulge such hopes. It will be highly gratifying to Her Majesty to learn that the local Legis lature have been able to devise any scheme for rendering this branch of the revenue more productive, or for managing and collecting it at a re duced charge. ¦fthly. The title of the Mining Company to their lease being undis puted, it is superfluous to say that Her Majesty's government have no power to resume the grant. The introduction of their capital into the Province, is at least a very material compensation for any prejudice which the inhabitants may have sustained by the creation of their interest in the mines. Supposing, however, that the Province was injured by that transaction, the error will now be repaired to the utmost possible extent, by placing the rents ancl royalties at the disposal of the Provincial Legislature, and by the enactment of the proposed law respecting the territorial revenue ofthe Crown, which will render it impossible that this measure should be drawn into a precedent. 5thly. The exclusion of the Collector of the Customs from the Councils, whether Legislative or Executive, is a measure suggested by the As sembly ; but as they have not explained the grounds of that suggestion, I can advance no further on this subject than to state, that the strong and obvious motives which appear to recommend this officer's admission into the Council, are opposed by no considerations of equal weight which have occurred to me. 6thly. The language ofthe address would seem to indicate an opinion, which is not yet distinctly propounded, that the Assembly of Nova Scotia ought to exercise over the public officers of that government a control corresponding with that which is exercised over the ministers of the Crown by the House of Commons. To any such demand Her Majesty's government must oppose a respect ful, but, at the same time, a firm declaration, that it is inconsistent with a due advertence to the essential distinctions between a Metropolitan and a Colonial government, and is, therefore, inadmissable. On the other hand, the influence which the Assembly claim to derive from the power of refusing the supplies, properly belongs to them ; it being always assumed that this power wUl be exercised only in defence of the Constitution, and of the rights which the Constitution has created ; and it being further assumed that this privilege of refusing the supplies shall not extend to the case of those officers for whom provision is to be made by the civil list. 7ihly. The Assembly having deliberately expressed their opinion that the welfare of the Province would be promoted by creating two CouncUs instead of one, Her Majesty defers to their judgment on that question ; not, indeed, without some distrust of the soundness of the conclusion, but convinced that it is a topic on which the greatest weight is due to the advice of the representatives of the people. The Queen can give no pledge that the Executive Council wiU always APPENDIX. 527 comprise some members of the Assembly, but commands me to state that the circumstances of any candidate for that honor possessing that share of public confidence which his election as a member of the Assembly in dicates, must of course be considered as enhancing his claims to be pre ferred to those, who, in other respects, may not possess higher qualifica- , tions for this trust. The principle on which Councillors should be selected, is explained in my dispatch of the 30th April. You will, with the least possible delay, transmit to me a list of the names of such gentlemen as may appear to you best qualified to compose the Legislative and the Executive Councils of Nova Scotia. Her Majesty has observed with regret, the discussions in which the Council and the Assembly of Nova Scotia have recently become involved; That regret is, however, ma terially qualified by the observation that their differences do not relate to any vital and cardinal principle, but are such as may be entertained by those who are yet prepared to cooperate in the pursuit of the one common object, — the public welfare. I shall best testify my respect for those branches of the Legislature by declining to enter on those controverted questions ; persuaded, as I am, that the means of reconciliation will be more readily discovered without the intervention of any third party, and that this happy result cannot long be deferred, in a case like the present, where both parties are animated by a lively zeal for the public good, and both are directed by wisdom and experience in the prosecution of that purpose. You will communicate to both branches of the Legislature this dispatch, and my dispatch of the 30th April, as containing the answer which Her Majesty is pleased to return to their address. I have the honor to be, &c, (Signed) GLENELG. Major General Sir Colin Campbell, K. C. B. Downing Street, 31st October, 1837. Sie, — I have received and laid before the Queen your dispatch of the 26th of August, No. 93, containing the plan for a civil list to be pro posed to the Legislature of Nova Scotia, on the surrender to their appro priation of the casual and territorial revenues of the Crown, and also containing certain suggestions as to the future composition of the Exec utive and Legislative Councils. I have received Her Majesty's com mands to return the following answer. In approaching these questions, it is impossible for me not to advert to the similar discussion in which it became my duty to engage with the successive Lieutenant Governors of New Brunswick, and through them with the General Assembly of that Province. The successful issue of that negotiation is in no small degree to be ascribed to the advantage I enjoyed of direct personal intercourse with two members of that House, who had been deputed to visit this country, with a view to a more free and unrestrained communication with the ministers of the Crown. In the present case I have not that advantage ; but I trust that, notwith- 528 APPENDIX. standing this circumstance, an adjustment equally satisfactory to all the parties concerned, may be concluded. If, however, in the further stages of this discussion, any unforeseen difficulties should arise, and if the House should think it convenient to attempt the removal of them by a deputation similar to that which was dispatched from New Brunswick, they may be assured that their delegates will be received with all the re spect and confidence to which gentlemen charged with such a mission would be so eminently entitled. The comparison between the cases of the two Provinces, exhibits a contrast unfavorable to the financial re sources of Nova Scotia. While in New Brunswick the Crown placed at the disposal of the local Legislature an annual revenue of very large amount, and which had experienced a constant and rapid increase, the whole income which it is possible in Nova Scotia immediately to place at the disposal of the Legislature, assuming the correctness of the estimate contained in the paper No. 3, annexed to your dispatch, amounts only to £9,190 per annum. Of this sum no less a portion than £3,440 is de rived from taxes appropriated permanently to certain specific services by Acts of Assembly. The sum of £6,050 appears to be all that is drawn from property vested in Her Majesty in right of the Crown, although the increase which has recently taken place in the chief source of the Crown revenue in Nova Scotia, warrants the expectation of a further progressive augmen tation of it. The exigencies of the public service do not indeed depend on the amount of the funds which it is in the power of the Crown to sur render. Yet it is impossible altogether to exclude that circumstance from consideration in determining the extent of the demand to be made on the liberality of the Assembly for a civil list. Having had frequent occa sions, in my correspondence with the Governors of the other British North American Provinces, to state fully the principles on which alone, in my opinion, the demand for such a provision for any of the public ser vants of the Crown can be defended, I abstain from the repetition of them on this occasion. The dispatches to which I refer have been pub lished for the information of Parliament, or have been communicated di rectly to you. I confine myself, therefore, to the general statement that the chief, if not the only, motives by which Her Majesty's government are induced to stipulate for a civil list, are, first, the desire to exempt the Governor, the judges, and certain other pubUc officers, from a pecun iary dependence, which would be incompatible with the firm and impar tial discharge of their public duties ; and, secondly, the wish to prevent the revival, from year to year, of inconvenient and unseemly discussion, as to the amount of the remuneration to be assigned to the chief execu tive and judicial officers of the Province. These ends secured, Her Majesty's government have no real, I may add no imaginable motive for further solicitude on the subject. They have no wish to place any other part of the annual expenditure beyond the annual revision ofthe Assem bly. It is not to them a matter jff any serious concern, whether the sal aries to be assigned in the civil list be of greater Or less amount, pro vided only they are sufficient for the maintenance of the officers, in whose APPENDIX. 529 favor they are granted, in that station of society to which they must be long. I am not only willing to admit, but even anxious to assert, that in fixing the amount of official salaries in British North America, great fru gality should be observed. In countries recently settled, it is of moment that moderate and simple habits of domestic expenditure should prevail, and should be respected ; nor is there any exception to that rule which I should more strongly deprecate, than one which would enable, if not re quire, official men to distinguish themselves from other classes by a less strict economy, and a more costly style of life. Some qualification of this opinion is indispenable in the case of the Lieutenant Governor. It is unavoidable that he should maintain an establishment, and other ap pearances, commensurate in some degree with the dignity of the Sover eign whom he represents. It is on every account desirable that he should place himself at the head of the local society, not merely in his political relation to them, but in whatever concerns social intercourse and hospitality. These are duties which must involve a serious expenditure, and which must render the government of the Province a heavy burden, rather than a pecuniary advantage, if the present emoluments should be materially diminished. I do not, however, shrink, even in the case of the Lieutenant Gov ernor, from pursuing to their legitimate consequences the principles to which I have already adverted ; and I am happy to find that you concur with me, in thinking that on a vacancy in the office some reduction of the present salary may be made. I have no wish that the Lieutenant Governor should be in the receipt of a greater income than, upon a full consideration of all the circumstances of the case, the Assembly may re gard as adequate to his maintenance. If they should fix that income at a rate below his present receipt, they will, I am convinced, admit the ne cessity of a proportionate reduction in the expenditure which is incurred, rather for the support of the dignity of his office, than with a view to his personal gratification. It is right that I should distinctly apprise the House, that I am not entitled to calculate on the continuance of the Parliamentary Grant, to the Lieutenant Governor, beyond your own tenure of office, even should circumstances render it necessary to pro pose to Parliament to continue the grant during that period. In pro ceeding to apply the principles, which I have thus briefly stated, to the present case, there is another consideration which ought not to be lost sight of. I refer to the comparatively small revenue of the Province of Nova Scotia, which renders it the more incumbent on Her Majesty's government to avoid all unnecessary expense in the maintenance of those offices which are essential to the public service. After an attentive con sideration of the several suggestions which you have made on this sub ject, and of the circumstances of the Province, I am of opinion that it would not be right to insist on so large an amount as £9,190 per annum for the civil list, in return for the surrender by the Crown of the reve nue now at its disposal. It appears to me that £8,000 would be a suffi cient sum, if properly applied, to meet those peculiar expenses for which, on the principle already stated, it is essential to provide in the proposed civil list. I am therefore to inform you that Her Majesty will be wil- 99 530 APPENDIX. ling to accept the sum of £8,000 sterling, as the amount of the civil list for Nova Scotia. I proceed to suggest the services to which, in the event of this sum being granted, it should be applied ; and in doing this, I have thought it desirable to affix at once to each office, included in the follow ing hst, that sum which it is proposed permanently to appropriate to it, reserving the question of the right of existing officers to the full amount of salary which was attached to their respective offices at the time of their appointment : — Lieutenant Governor £3,000 Provincial Secretary 1,000 Chief Justice 1,000 Puisne Judges 1,950 Attorney General 50° Solicitor General 100 Miss Cox's Pension 115 Superintendent of Mines 100 Contingencies 200 £7,965 You will observe that I have omitted from the list several of the charges suggested by yourself, as fit to be comprised in an appropriate civil Ust. The first of these is £200 for the Lieutenant Governor's private secretary. I have not thought it necessary to insist on this allowance, as I think it is sufficiently provided for by the salary of £3,000 proposed to be attached to the Lieutenant Governor's office, with an aUowance of £200 for contingencies. It is intended, therefore, that no additional expense shall be incurred on account of a private secretary. 2nd. I propose that the salary of the Provincial secretary shall be reduced on the first vacancy to £650. This will leave £350 applicable to the expenses of his office, a sum which, under ordinary circumstances, will, I hope, prove amply sufficient. I do not of course propose to in terfere with the salary received by the present Secretary. The charges, therefore, now incurred for the Clerks, and contingencies of his office, must be defrayed during the tenure of his office, from some other source. I shall advert to this again, in a subsequent part of this dispatch. 3rd. I can find no adequate ground for exempting from annual re vision, the salaries of the Clerk of the Crown and Prothonotary, the Harbor Master at Sydney, or the Clerk of the Executive Council. 4th. I have omitted the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and the Surveyor General, not because the independence of such functionaries on annual votes, is, in itself, undesirable, but owing to the small amount of the revenue derived from the sale of lands, which appears to me not to justify a proposal that the salaries of those officers should be included in the civil list, intended to be permanent, or for a term of years. Having adverted to those charges, which, although suggested by you, I have not thought it right to include in the previous list, I proceed to make a few observations on some of the charges which are contained in that list. I have fixed the salaries of the Chief Justice, and of the other Judges, at a rate which, under all the circumstances of the case, appears to me adequate. As, however, the proposed amount would not, APPENDIX. 531 at least in the case of the Chief Justice, be equal to the salary at pre sent received, together with the average amount of fees, I cannot, of course, propose that, in the event of the civil list being granted, the right to receive the fees should be abandoned in consideration of a higher rate of salary. An option on this point must be given to the Judges. If they are willing to accept the rate of salary proposed to be affixed to their offices, and to forego the receipt of the fees, the arrange ment need not be postponed. If, on the other hand, this should be de clined, the new arrangement must be postponed during the existing ten ure of office. In this case, however, the present salary alone will be received, and the difference between that and the proposed salary to be hereafter paid, will, in the meantime, be subject to the appropriation of the Legislature. The effect of this arrangement will be, that the Prov ince will ultimately gain the amount of the fees, in addition to the Crown revenue proposed to be surrendered. I have fixed £500 as the salary of the Attorney General, on the principle stated in my dispatch on this subject, No. 87, of the 28th June last. A small surplus, liable to be increased on the cessation of Miss Cox's pension to £140, will re main, after providing for the services above enumerated, and which will be applicable to any incidental expenses not specifically provided for. There will thus be placed at the disposal ofthe Assembly about £1,500, the difference between the revenue to be surrendered, and the amount of the proposed civil list. I regret, however, to observe, that this must be subject, in the first instance, to those charges which, though not in tended to be placed on the civil list, have hitherto been defrayed from the Crown Revenues in Nova Scotia, and which cannot at once be aban doned without a violation of existing interests, which I am confident the Provincial Legislature will be equally anxious with Her Majesty's Government to respect. Among these are included the temporary charges of the office of Provincial secretary, to which I have before adverted. With respect however to these, and to the remaining charges of this nature, I wish you to consider whether some immediate reduction might not be made, without a violation of any pledge on the part of the Crown to the actual holder of the office. With regard to the scale of salaries in the preceding list, I must repeat that I am not solicitous to stipulate for any precise amount of remuneration for the various public offices to be included in the civil list. Her Majesty will expect, and indeed strictly require, that no such officer should receive any increase of his official emoluments by an annual grant of the Assembly. They should therefore be fixed at once at such a rate as may be adequate to the pro per maintenance of the officers. If estimated on any other principle they could not be accepted. If estimated on that principle, they must not be rejected, even though the Assembly should differ from you in opinion as to the amount of the sum which ought to be assigned for the entire support of any one or more of those officers. It would be injuri ous and unreasonable to suppose that the House would wish to refuse them what is requisite for their subsistence in that rank of society to 532 APPENDIX. which they must belong. I proceed to the next subject of your dis patch, namely, the composition of the Executive and Legislative Coun cils. Your suggestions have been formed avowedly on the conclusion that it was my intention that all the members of the present Council should belong to one or other of the new chambers. Anxious as I am to avoid whatever may tend to unnecessary offence or discontent in any quarter, I cannot satisfy myself that it would be right in the present instance to act on the rule to which you presumed that I should adhere. I feel it to be a duty, in the composition of the two Councils, to make that selection of individuals which I have reason to believe would be least open to just exception, -and which would af ford the most satisfactory proof of the desire of Her Majesty to entrust the duties attached to members of the respective Councils, to gentlemen entitled to the confidence of the great body of the inhabitants. In omitting, however, from the new lists any gentlemen who are members of the present Council, I wish it to be distinctly understood that nothing can be further from my intention than to inflict on them any pain, or subject them to any reproach or discredit. To avoid any such suspicion, Her Majesty has been graciously pleased, in accordance with your sug gestion, to intimate her desire that they should retain their present rank in society on retiring into private life. With the very imperfect per sonal knowledge which I have of the qualifications of the different can didates for seats in the Council, I could not venture to submit any final advice to Her Majesty on that subject without the support of your author ity. It is at the same time extremely desirable, that the separation of the existing Council into two bodies should take place without further delay; and, under these circumstances, I feel that the safest course which I can adopt is to convey to you Her Majesty's authority, at once to appoint, provisionally, to each of the Councils, those gentlemen whom you con sider best qualified for the discharge of the respective duties which will devolve on them. You will, of course, inform me, without delay, of the selection which you make in pursuance of this instruction, and of the ground on which it has proceeded ; and in case you should find it unne cessary provisionally to appoint the full number of which the Councils are intended ultimately to consist, you will at the same time transmit to me the names of other gentlemen from whom the vacancies may be sup plied. With respect to the Executive Council, you will carefully ad here to the following principles : first, that not more than one fourth be public officers ; secondly, that the members be drawn from different pro fessions, and different parts of the Province ; and thirdly, that they be selected not only without reference to distinctions of religious opinions, but in such a manner as to afford no plausible ground for the suspicion that the choice was influenced by that consideration. With reference to the Presidency of the Legislative Council, Her Majesty is pleased to confide that duty to the senior member for the time being, with the ex ception of the Bishop, and the members holding offices of emolument under the Crown. This arrangement is recommended by the experience of other British Colonies. You will communicate to both branches of APPENDIX. 533 the Provincial Legislature a copy of this dispatch, as explanatory of the principles by which the Queen has been guided in the measures actually adopted by Her Majesty, and in the application to be made in Her Maj esty's name for a Civil List. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient humble servant, GLENELG. To Major General, Sik Colin Campbell, &c, &c, &c. LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S DISPATCHES. Downing Street, 14th October, 1839. Sie, — It appears from Sir George Arthur's dispatches that you may encounter much difficulty in subduing the excitement which prevails on the question of what is called " Responsible Government." I have to instruct you, however, to refuse any explanation which may be construed to imply an acquiescence in the petitions and addresses upon this sub ject. I cannot better commence this dispatch than by a reference to the resolutions of both Houses of Parliament, of the 28th April and 9th May, in the year 1837. The Assembly of Lower Canada having repeatedly pressed this point, Her Majesty's confidential advisers at that period thought it necessary, not only to explain their views in the communications of the Secretary of State, but expressly called for the opinion of Parliament on the sub ject. The crown and the two Houses of Lords and Commons having thus decisively pronounced a judgment upon the question, you will con sider yourself precluded from entertaining any proposition on the subject. It does not appear, indeed, that any very definite meaning is generally agreed upon by those who call themselves the advocates of this princi ple ; but its very vagueness is a source of delusion, and if at all en couraged, would prove the cause of embarrassment and danger. The Constitution of England, after long struggles and alternate suc cess, has settled into a form of government in which the prerogative of the crown is undisputed, but is never exercised without advice. Hence the exercise only is questioned, and however the use of the authority may be condemned, the authority itself remains untouched. This is the practical solution of a great problem, the result of a con test which from 1640 to 1690 shook the monarchy and disturbed the peace of the country. But if we seek to apply such a practice to a Colony, we shall at once find ourselves at fault. The power for which a Minister is responsible in England, is not his own power, but the power of the Crown, of which he is for the time the organ. It is obvious that the Executive Councillor of a Colony is in a situation totally different. The Governor, under whom he serves, receives his orders from the Crown of England. ¦Sut can the Colonial Council be the advisers of the Crown of England? 99* 534 APPENDIX. Evidently not, for the Crown has other advisers for the same functions, and with superior authority. It may happen, therefore, that the Governor receives at one and the same time, instructions from the Queen and advice from his Executive, totally at variance with each other. If he is to obey his instructions from England, the paraUel of constitutional responsibility entirely fails ; if, on the other hand, he is to follow the advice of his Council, he is no longer a subordinate officer, but an independent sovereign. There are some cases in which the force of these objections is so mani fest, that those who at first make no distinction between the Constitution of the United Kingdom and that of the Colonies, admit their strength. I allude to the questions of foreign war and international relations, whether of trade or diplomacy. It is now said that internal government is alone intended. But there are some cases of internal government in which the honor of the Crown or the faith of Parliament, or the safety of the State, are so seriously involved, that it would not be possible for Her Majesty to del egate her authority to a Ministry in a Colony. I will put for illustration some of the cases which have occurred in that very Province where the petition for a responsible Executive first arose ; I mean Lower Canada. During the time when a large majority of the Assembly of Lower Canada followed M. Papineau as their leader, it was obviously the aim of that gentleman to discourage all who did their duty to the Crown within the Province, and to deter all who should resort to Canada with British habits'and feelings from without. I need not say that it would have been impossible for any Minister to support, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the measures which a Ministry, headed by M. Papi neau, would have imposed upon the Governor of Lower Canada ; Bri tish officers punished for doing their duty ; British emigrants defrauded of their property ; British merchants discouraged in their lawful pursuits, would have loudly appealed to Parliament against the Canadian Minis try, and would have demanded protection. Let us suppose the Assembly, as then constituted, to have been sitting when Sir John Colbourne suspended two of the judges. Would any Councillor possessing the confidence of the Assembly have made him self responsible for such an act ? And yet the very safety of the Prov ince depended on its adoption. Nay, the very orders of which Your Excellency is yourself the bearer, respecting Messrs. Bedard and Panet, would never be adopted or put in execution by a Ministry depending for existence on a majority led by M. Papineau. Nor can any one take upon himself to say that such cases will not again occur. The principle once sanctioned, no one can say how soon its application might be dangerous, or even dishonorable, while aU will agree that to recall the power thus conceded would be impossible. While I thus see insuperable objections to the adoption of the princi ple as it has been stated, I see little or none to the practical views of colonial government recommended by Lord Durham, as I understand them. The Queen's government have no desire to thwart, the represent- APPENDIX. 535 ative Assemblies of British North America in their measures of re form and improvement. They have no wish to make those Provinces the resources for patronage at home. They are earnestly intent on giving to the talent and character of leading persons in the Colonies ad vantages similar to those which talent and character, employed in the public service, obtain in the United Kingdom. Her Majesty has no desire to maintain any system of policy among her North American sub jects which opinion condemns. In receiving the Queen's commands, therefore, to protest against any declaration at variance with the honor of the Crown and the unity of the empire, I am at the same time in structed to announce Her Majesty's gracious intention to look to the affectionate attachment of her people in North America as the security for permanent dominion. It is necessary for this purpose that no official misconduct should be screened by Her Majesty's representative in the Provinces ; and that no private; interests should be allowed to compete with the general good. Your Excellency is fully in possession of the principles which have guided Her Majesty's advisers on this subject; and you must be aware that there is no surer way of earning the approbation of the Queen, than by maintaining the harmony of the Executive with the Legislative authorities. While I have thus cautioned against any declaration from which dangerous consequences might hereafter flow, and instructed you as to the general line of your conduct, it may be said that I have not drawn any specific line beyond which the power of the Governor on the one hand, and the privileges of the Assembly on the other, ought not to ex tend. But this must be the case in any mixed government. Every political constitution, in which different bodies share the supreme power, is only enabled to exist by the forbearance of those among whom this is distributed. In this respect, the example of England may well be imi tated. The Sovereign using the prerogative of the Crown to the utmost extent, and the House of Commons exerting its power of the purse, to carry all its resolutions into effect, would produce confusion in the coun try in less than a twelvemonth. So in a Colony : the Governor thwart ing every legitimate proposition of the Assembly, and the Assembly con tinuaUy recurring to its supplies, can but disturb all political relations, embarrass trade, and retard the prosperity of the people. Each should exercise a wise moderation. The Governor must only oppose the wishes of the Assembly, where the honor of the Crown, or the interests of the empire, are deeply concerned ; and the Assembly must be ready to mod ify some of its measures for the sake of harmony, and from a reverent attachment to the authority of Great Britain. I have, &c. J. RUSSELL. Downing Street, IQth October, 1839. Sir, — I am desirous of directing your attention to the tenure on which public offices in the gift of the Crown appear to be held through out the British Colonies. I find that the Governor himself, and every 536 APPENDIX. person serving under him, are appointed during the royal pleasure, but with this important difference: the Governor's commission is in fact revoked whenever the interests of the public service are supposed to require such a change in the administration of local affairs, but the com missions of all other public officers are very rarely indeed recalled, ex cept for positive misconduct. I cannot learn that during the present, or the two last reigns, a single instance has occurred of a change in the subordinate Colonial officers, except in cases of death or resignation, in capacity or misconduct. This system of converting a tenure at pleasure into a tenure for life, originated probably in the practice, which formerly prevailed, of selecting all the higher classes of Colonial functionaries from persons who at the time of their appointment were resident in this country. And amongst other motives which afforded such persons a virtual security for the continued possession of their placas, it was not the least considerable, that, except on those terms, they were unwilling to incur the risk and expense of transferring their residence to remote and often to unhealthy climates. But the habit which has obtained of late years, of preferring, as far as possible, for places of trust in the Colonies persons resident there, has taken away the strongest motive which could thus be alleged in favor of a practice to which there are many objections of the greatest weight. It is time, therefore, that a dif ferent course should be followed ; and the object of my present commu nication is to announce-to you the rules which will be hereafter observed on this -Subject in the Province of New Brunswick. You will understand, and will cause it to be made generally known, that, hereafter, the tenure of Colonial offices held during Her Majesty's pleas ure will not be regarded as equivalent to a tenure durjjig good behavior ; but that, not only such officers will be called upon to retire from the public service as often as any sufficient motives of public policy may suggest the expediency of that measure, but that a change in the person of the Governor will be considered as a sufficient reason for any altera tions which his successor may deem it expedient to make in the list of public functionaries, subject, of course, to the future confirmation of the Sovereign. These remarks do not extend to judicial offices, nor are they meant to apply to places which are altogether ministerial, and which do not de volve upon the holders of them duties, in the right discharge of which the character and policy of the government are directly involved. They are intended to apply rather to the heads of departments than to persons serving as clerks, or in similar capacities under them ; neither do they extend to officers in the service of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. The functionaries who will be chiefly, though not exclusively, affected by them, are the Colonial Secretary, the Treasurer or Receiver General, the Surveyor General, the Attorney and Solicitor General, the Sheriff or Provost Marshal, and other officers who, under different des ignations from these, are entrusted with the same or similar duties. To this list must also be added the members of the Council, especially in those Colonies in which the Legislative and Executive Councils are dis tinct bodies. APPENDIX. 537 The application of these rules to officers to be hereafter appointed, will be attended with no practical difficulty. It may not be equally easy to enforce them in the case of existing officers, and especially of those who may have left this country for the express purpose of accepting the offices they at present fill. Every reasonable indulgence must be shown for the expectations which such persons have been encouraged to form. But, even in these instances, it will be necessary that the right of en forcing these regulations should be distinctly maintained, in practice as well as in theory, as often as the public good may clearly demand the enforcement of them. It may not be unadvisable to compensate any such officers for their disappointment, even by pecuniary grants, when it may appear unjust to dispense with their services without such an in demnity. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient, humble servant, J. RUSSELL. Major General Sir John Harvey. CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM, Addressed by the Lieutenant Governor to the heads of the Civil Depart ments, and Members of the Executive Council in New Brunswick. Gentlemen, — In communicating to you the copy of a dispatch which I have recently received from Her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, I avail myself of the occasion to state to you the, views which I take of the very important change which, by this dis patch, is made in the tenure of your respective offices, which, instead of being held as heretofore, either " for life," or during good " behavior," are henceforward made entirely dependent upon the will of the Sove reign, or that of Her Majesty's representative. The principal objects of the regulations now introduced appear to me to be : 1st. While en larging the powers of the administrator of the government, by leaving him free to choose his Counsellors and office-bearers, to at the same time impose upon him a corresponding degree of increased responsibility, as well towards the Queen's government as towards the inhabitants of the Province over which he is appointed to preside, for the satisfactory ad ministration of its affairs ; and 2d., and, above all, it has for its object to ensure for the Governor, as far as may be possible, the most cordial and sincere support, assistance, and cooperation, in carrying out his views and policy, and those of Her Majesty's government, on the part of every individual member ofthe Provincial government, whose tenure of office is now made dependent upon him, by identifying their interests (as far at least as that tenure is concerned) with that line of conduct. Entertaining these views of the subject, I hail this dispatch as conferring 538 APPENDIX. a new, and, in my judgment, an improved Constitution upon these Colonies. Gentlemen, I have no intention or desire to require from you any thing in the shape of a renewed pledge or engagement other than those to which you are already bound by your respective oaths of office ; but having frankly explained to you my construction of this dispatch, I trust that it may only be necessary for me to signify to those who may do me the honor to retain their appointments and seats, that I must regard their doing so as a tacit intimation of their desire and intention to afford me their zealous aid and cooperation in conducting the affairs of the Pro vincial government ; and that if they should at any time hereafter feel themselves called upon to avow sentiments adverse to the policy which that government may pursue, or otherwise to oppose or obstruct the course of the proceeding which it may adopt, they will at the same time fully recognize the condition which such a dissent from the views of the Colonial government, so carried out, must necessarily involve. With regard to such of the present salaried officers possessing suffi cient claims from length of service, and who may now or hereafter, upon sufficient grounds, be desirous of retiring from office during my adminis tration, I can only assure them that I shall be found at all times ready and' willing to bring under the favorable notice of Her Majesty's gov ernment, and to give all due support to their applications for pension or retired allowance, in feir and reasonable remuneration for past services, upon the principle, however, that such pension or allowance (if obtained) shall cease upon any future restoration to office, and vice versa again re vive on the discontinuance of official salary. These, gentlemen, are the only observations which I have deemed it necessary to make, in communicating to you a dispatch, of which a copy, as well as of this memorandum, will be furnished to each of you by the Provincial secretary. J. HARVEY, Lieut. Governor. Government House, Fredericton, Dec. 21, 1839. DODDEAN CONFESSION. [Extract from Speech of Hon. A. Stewart.] " In Canada, as in this country, the true principle of Colonial govern ment is that the Governor is responsible for the acts of his government to his Sovereign, and the Executive Councillors are v responsible to the Governor. He asks their advice when he wishes it ; he adopts it at his pleasure ; and it is the duty of those who disapprove of his acts to retire from the board." remarks : We admit the whole of this, and have so stated it several times ; we also admit that any system of government which does not include the APPENDIX. 539 responsibility of the Governor to the Sovereign, and of the Councillors to him, is inconsistent with the relation of a Colony to the mother country. Lord Falkland has received Her Majesty's commands, to govern the Province in conformity with the well understood wishes of the people, as expressed through their representatives. His responsibility to his Sov ereign, therefore, renders it imperative upon us to consult your wishes and possess your confidence. If in carrying out1 his instructions he comes into collision with the House, his Sovereign must judge between him and them ; the people be tween the House and his Council. The success of his administration depends upon his having a Council secure in the affections of a majority of the House. His Council are responsible to him, but he takes them because they possess your confidence, and he will dismiss them when as sured they have lost it ; this involves their responsibility to you. We admit our responsibility to the Governor ; we admit the Governor's right to act and appoint, but we confess our obligation to defend his acts and appointments, and your right to obstruct and embarrass us in carrying on the government, when these are not wise and satisfactory. The ex ercise of the prerogative must be firm and independent in every act of government, general and local, but its exercise is to be defended here by us ; and the necessity there is for your possessing the confidence of the people — the Council yours, the Governor theirs — includes all the strength and yet responsibility, which are desirable under a representa tive monarchy. RESIGNATIONS, 1843. Halifax, 21st December, 1843. My Lord, — Your Excellency having dissolved the Assembly, and, since the election, communicated your intention of making a change in the Executive Council of the Province, thus indicating a line of policy which I deem injudicious, I am compelled to tender my resignation. In discharging this duty, I frankly admit Your Excellency's right to make such appointments as you please to your Council ; but feeling that I cannot cordially concur in this measure, I think it 'due to Your Excel lency to place my offices at your disposal, so that you may strengthen those who advise and approve of it. I assure Your Excellency that I am influenced in this step entirely by public considerations, and that I still entertain for Your Excellency the highest respect and esteem. I have the honor to be, Your Excellency's obedient servant, JAMES B. UNIACKE. To His Excellency Lord Falkland. 540 APPENDIX. Halifax, 21st December, 1843. My Lord, — Your Lordship having decided on calling to a seat in the Executive Council a gentleman, whose appointment, in my humble opinion, the Houseiof Assembly and country will disapprove, I feel my self obliged respectfully to tender my resignation as a member of that board. In separating from Your Excellency as one of your advisers, I beg to offer Your Excellency my warmest thanks for the uniform kindness you have shown me in all our intercourse, both as a member of your govern ment and in my individual capacity. I have the honor to be, with great respect, Your Excellency's most obedient servant, JAMES McNAB. His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor. Halifax, 27th December, 1843. To His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia: — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's communication of the 25 th instant, addressed to Messrs. Howe, Mc- Naby and myself, on the subject of our resignation of seats in Council to which Your Excellency was pleased to elevate us, on assuming the government of this Province. When I tendered my resignation to Your Excellency, I anticipated that I might be required to defend that step in the Assembly, and would have preferred a course more congenial to my feelings than a discussion in writing, not likely to produce benefit to those engaged in it, but the course adopted by Your Excellency compels me to offer respectfully a few observations. The right of the Lieutenant Governor, in the exercise of the royal prerogative, to'call to his Councils whomsoever he may deem eligible, I have always admitted, and still recognize to the fullest extent ; but if, in wielding that power, any member of his Council is convinced that a policy is pursued by which the government is weakened, his usefulness impaired or political' reputation hazarded, I am of opinion that he pos sesses the constitutional privilege of withdrawing from responsibility which he has not been instrumental in creating and is unwilling to as sume ; more particularly as the Lieutenant Governor is now clothed with power to dismiss public officers, whether of honor or emolument, if the policy of the country demands it. For some time previous to the departure of Your ExceUency's prede cessor, a large portion of the people of this Colony had pressed for the ad ministration of the government more in accordance with their interests and feelings ; to whom were opposed a numerous and influential body whose opinions were expressed by a minority in the Assembly, and almost the first duty which devolved on Your Excellency was to work out this principle, sanctioned by the parent State, and approved of by a majority of the Assembly ; to accomplish which, you formed a Council composed of persons entertaining various political views, announced your approba- APPENDIX. 541 tion of a mixed government, and so long as the members, selected by Your Excellency, continued to cooperate harmoniously, confidence was reposed in that body, and measures submitted to the Assembly generally carried. I was, as Your Excellency is aware, opposed to the dissolution of the Assembly. I could not perceive the urgent necessity of the measure, especially as that branch of the Legislature had invariably sustained Your Excellency's government, and signified by a vote, their confidence. I certainly was unconscious of the Council being openly divided on the question of party government, that never having been discussed, to my knowledge, in the Assembly oreither Council ; and I cannot believe that opinions have been elicited from the people on that subject by the recent elections. I admit that individuals — differing publicly, and openly ad dressing the people on those differences — have endeavored to gain influence with particular constituencies by espousing or denouncing such measures, but the general wish of the people is for a government created by a union of persons on whom they rely and who repose mutual confi dence in each other. When I understood from Your Excellency that differences between members of your Executive were reconciled, that they had consented to act together, and that you intended to meet the Legislature with the same Council that surrounded you at the dissolution of the late Assembly, of course — as I had kept aloof from the dissensions which existed, and had avowed myself free from the influence of any individual — I could have no objection to continue a member of that body, and lend my aid to sup port Your Excellency's administration ; but the change of Your Excel lency's determination influenced mine, and the appointment of a gentleman, for whom personally I entertain great regard, evinced a line of policy so destructive to the vigor of Your Excellency's government in the As sembly that I felt unable to defend it to the satisfaction of myself or of that body. A Council formed on the principle of representing different political sentiments and interests existing in the Legislature, with a view of pro ducing concord between its branches, can only be useful so long as those interested have confidence in the justice of those who create it, and even the appearance- of depressing one interest, or elevating another, will unsettle the equilibrium so essential for its preservation, and produce discord instead of harmony. The party forming a majority in the Assembly, during Sir Colin Campbell's administration, and an equality, if not a majority in the late House, although they complained that they were not numerically repre sented at Your Excellency's Council, yielded cordial support to your government, -which, upon the principle adverted to, it would have been prudent to retain ; yet the advisers of Your Excellency, notwithstanding the public manifestation of difference of opinion on various subjects be tween leading members of your government, and the reluctance evinced by Mr. Howe in renewing his adhesion to it, recommended the appoint ment of a gentleman to the Council, who, it is said, was conspicuous at the late election in opposition to members of Your Excellency's Council. ioo 542 APPENDIX. I do not think any government can remain powerful unless it possesses the confidence of the majority of the people, and their political sentiments I believe are liberal ; giving so numerous a party cause for withdrawing support, I deem unadvised ; and the course pursued, I apprehend, will produce that effect, and diminish the influence of those who approve of it ; therefore, I ought not to hold offices, the tenure of which, I have always understood from Your Excellency, rested on poUtical support. I feel that Your Excellency is under the impression that a large ma jority of the Assembly will sustain the views of Your Excellency's advisers ; if so, the removal from your Council of myself and others will materially increase the power of your government, and the mere circum stance of our withdrawal does not imply opposition to Your Excellency's administration, unless the measures of it are considered objectionable. The experiment of wresting the prerogative of the Crown from the Queen's representative, will not be attempted by any public man respon sible to the people of Nova Scotia, who entertain a just estimate of constitutional government, and prize that prerogative as highly as their more immediate privileges. I never wish to see it attacked, and will be found foremost in its defence if invaded ; and I regret that the conscien tious discharge of a public duty should have occasioned such an idea, or that reluctance to sustain and defend the appointment of a gentleman who has never sought the suffrages of the people, when others are compeUed to ask renewed assurances of their confidence, which seemed to disregard the claims of many whose political support for years has been given to gov ernment, and to some of whom such marks of distinction have been almost proffered, should subject me to such an imputation ; but I must, notwith standing, repeat what heretofore has been unquestioned — the constitu tional right of retiring from a government when unprepared and unwilling to defend its acts ; the judicious exercise of which privilege will be tested by the increased or diminished confidence of the people. I have the honor to be, Your Excellency's obedient servant, JAMES B. UNIACKE. NEGOTIATIONS, FEBRUARY, 1844. Government House, Halifax, Feb. 24, 1844. Sir, — I am sincerely desirous that the principles on which I, in my speech from the throne, stated myself to be of opinion that the Govern ment of this country ought to be conducted, should be carried out as speedily as possible by the construction of a Council, in which all inter ests shall be represented. On consideration of the mode in which this may be most conveniently effected, I have come to the conclusion that it may be best attained by the nomination to three of the four seats now at my disposal (you having already with my sanction stated in the As sembly how I mean to fill up the fourth), of those gentlemen who have lately seceded from the Government on the appointment of Mr. Almon. APPENDIX. 543 My sole object, as you, Sir, very well know, now is, as it ever has been since I assumed the Government of this Province, to do equal jus tice to all parties, and to promote the welfare and happiness of all classes in as far as this can be done by Executive and Legislative means. In the proposal I am now about to authorize you to make, the public will have an additional proof of my anxiety on the subject, and cannot fail to observe that in taking the initiative step in this measure of considera tion, I have utterly disregarded the various misrepresentations and per versions to which I am well aware such a course is liable, and volun tarily incurred this hazard in order that the general good may not be sacrificed at the shrine of party conflict. Actuated by these motives, I therefore request you will have the goodness to be the medium of communication on this occasion, and to tender to Messrs. Howe, Uniacke, and McNab, the seats they have lately resigned, provided they will consent to be guided with regard to certain matters according to the principles which, for the future stability and tranquillity of- my administration, I deem it necessary to establish as those by which the conduct of members of the Local Government should hereafter be regulated, and they will likewise distinctly state their con currence with me in opinion on other subjects of importance on which it is absolutely necessary that no difference of sentiment should subsist be tween myself and my advisers. With regard to the first head, it must be clearly understood that no agitation must be promoted by members of the Government on points affecting the principles on which it is constructed ; and further, that all open questions, on which Councillors may. differ, shall be settled at the Council Board, or in the Legislature, the discussion of such measures in Parliament being, whenever practicable, postponed to the consideration of those emanating from the Executive. As respects the second, I must require an expressed disavowal of the theory advanced in the Assembly, that the representative of the Sov ereign stands in the same relation to the Representatives of the people of the Colony which he governs, that the Monarch does to the House of Commons in England, or that the constitutional principle that the Sov ereign can do no wrong, can be applied to a Provincial authority. And further, a direct renunciation of the doctrine that any party in the As sembly has a right to be represented in Council in the numerical propor tion in which it exists in the elective branch of the Legislature ; together with a frank recognition of the right, of the Lieutenant Governor to select from each of the various interests composing that body, those who are to advise. him in the proportions which expediency, the efficient con duct of public affairs, and the exigencies of the times seem to him to demand. I believe any scheme of numerical representation in the Council to be impracticable, and to involve consequences dangerous to the indepen dence of the Lieutenant Governor, and therefore to the connection be tween the Colony and the Mother Country. I am, &c, FALKLAND. The Hon. E. M. Dodd. 544 APPENDIX. Halifax, February 26, 1844. My Lord, — Incompliance with Your Lordship's request, I had a personal interview with Messrs. Howe, Uniacke, and McNab, and com municated to them your Lordship's proposal for their return to the Ex ecutive Council, and to prevent any misapprehension as to the terms upon which the offer of their return was made, I gave them a copy of your letter (of this day's date) to me on the subject. The interview then terminated with a promise on their part that after consultation with their friends they would give me an answer, confining it either to an acceptance or a rejection of the proposition, and fully aware of the deep anxiety of Your Lordship for the peace and good government of the Colony. I regret now to be under the necessity of acquainting you that those gentlemen about five o'clock this evening informed me that, after consulting their friends, they have come to the conclusion of not accepting the proposal, and requested me to communicate their decision to Your Lordship in the most respectful manner, and which I now have the honor of doing. I remain, &c. E. M. DODD. His ExceUency the Lieutenant Governor. NEGOTIATIONS, JULY, 1844. Monday, July 8, 1844. Sir, — The Lieutenant Governor, feeling every anxiety to justify the confidence reposed in him by the House of Assembly, as expressed in their resolution of the 12th of April, and " to carry out his intention as declared in his opening speech, of calling to the Executive Council men representing the different interests of the country," has instructed me to offer you a seat at the Board, and to acquaint you that he has this day caused a similar proposal to be made to Messrs. McNab, Patrick Brennan, Herbert Huntington, and Benjamin Smith, to whom will be added some other gentlemen of the Roman Catholic body, thus placing five seats in the Council, and the office of Solicitor General, at the dis posal of the opposition. His Excellency deems it no further necessary to refer particularly to facts that aa-e matters of public notoriety, and which render it impossi ble for him now to include in a proposition of this nature Mr. Joseph Howe (your late colleague), than merely to express his regret at the circumstance. I have, &c, RUPERT D. GEORGE. J. B. Uniacke, Esq. Sir Rupert D. George: Sir, — I have the honor of acknowl edging your letter of the 8th July, instant, offering to me, by direction of the Lieutenant Governor, a seat, in conjunction with others, in the Executive Council, and must apologize for having postponed my reply APPENDIX. 545 until I had an opportunity of conversing with the gentlemen I am asso ciated with. I regret exceedingly that I am compelled to decline the honor intended to be conferred on me, as I feel that I could not, without the approbation of the gentlemen in opposition, draw with me that support necessary to render the government of the Province strong and stable. Among the reasons for the course I have adopted, it is right to state that there is a serious objection in the minds of members of the Assem bly, as in my own, to increase the number of the Council beyond nine, whereby we conceive the wholesome power of the lower branch of the Legislature will be enfeebled ; and we think the Executive Council should be so formed as to secure equal representation to both parties. I do not see any disposition to press any question of exclusive party government ; but, on the contrary, I believe that the sense of the As sembly is that the Queen's representative should be surrounded by Ex ecutive advisers sustained by a representative majority. I cannot close this communication without expressing my feelings towards Lord Falkland for having kept the office I felt it my duty to vacate unfilled to the present time, and assure you I am prepared to make any personal sacrifice to insure harmonious and tranquil govern ment to the country, which I am most anxious to see accomplished. I have the honor to be, Your obedient and faithful servant, JAMES B. UNIACKE. 23d July, 1844. Halifax, 18th July, 1844. Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th inst., expressing the Lieutenant Governor's anxiety to "justify the confidence reposed in him by the House of Assembly, as expressed in their resolution of the 12th April, and his wish to carry out his in tentions, as declared in his opening speech, of calling to the Executive Council men representing the different interests of the country," with his instructions to offer me a seat at the Council Board, with other gen tlemen named in your letter. In reply, I beg to state that I withdrew from the Council for reasons then assigned, and which it is not now necessary to repeat ; that when, during the last session, a seat was again offered me, I declined taking it, because I considered justice had not been done to the body with whom I had acted ; and I regret to say, that in the proposition now communi cated they are not in my opinion placed in any more favorable situation; but, on the contrary, if this change were carried out, I think it would very much tend to weaken and destroy their influence. This being my deliberate conviction, I could not, either with credit to myself, or with a prospect of benefit to the country, accept the seat now offered to me, and therefore most respectfully decline it. In communicating this decision to the Lieutenant Governor, may I ask the favor of your assuring His Excellency that I come to this con clusion with very great regret, as I would willingly sacrifice much of 100* 546 APPENDIX- my own personal opinion and comfort for the peace and quiet of the Province ; but I feel assured this desirable object cannot be attained by the change now proposed. I have the honor to remain, Sir, Your most obedient servant, JAMES McNAB. Yarmouth, 19th July, 1844. Sir, — I received your communication by the last mail, of the 8th instant, tendering me the offer of a seat in the Executive Council. In reply, I beg to state most respectfully, for the information of His Excel lency, that I am not desirous at any time of obtaining a seat in the Ex ecutive Council. My private affairs, together with the duties required of me as a member of the Assembly, fully occupy my time and atten tion. I should not, however, decline a seat in the Council, if it was thought I could be of service there, provided the liberals were a ma jority of the Assembly, and such gentlemen appointed as I believe the interest of the Province ought to be confided to. From the best judgment I can form of the state of public affairs, I do not think the proposed arrangement such as will be most likely to advance the interests of the Province : and I therefore beg most res pectfully to decline the trust His Excellency is willing to repose in me. I have the honor to be, Your most obedient and humble servant, H. HUNTINGTON. The Hon. Sir Rupert D. George. Halifax, July 26, 1644. To the Hon. Sir Rupert D. George : — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter bearing date the 23d day of June, offering me, by command of His Excellency, a seat, along with others, in the Executive Council. I beg leave to convey to His Excellency the high sense I have of the honor thus tendered, and regret the duty I owe to the gentlemen with whom I have acted since my return to the House of Assembly, and to my constituents, obliges me to decline it. These gentlemen and myself feel a sincere desire to see His Excellency surrounded by an Executive Council representing fairly the influence of the parties of which this House is now composed, and thus enjoying their confidence. And I de clined the honor tendered from believing that the nomination would neither satisfy the House nor the country, because not doing justice to the party of whom I acknowledge myself to be a member. I have delayed for some days sending in my reply, in the hope that some satisfactory arrangement would be made ; and I have to assure you that, while taking this step, I entertain the highest possible respect for His Excellency, and am compelled to do so only from a sense of duty. I have the honor to be, Your very obedient servant, GEO. BRENNAN. APPENDIX. 547 PASQUINADE. Private and Confidential. From L— d F d To L— d S y. Mt Lord, — By this mail, which 1 have not detain'd, A few lines, mark'd private, to write I 'm constrain'd. In my public dispatch, my position, en beau, Is set off to the greatest advantage you know ; When you read it you'll think I have nothing to bore me, But am driving Bluenoses, like poultry, before me. I'm sorry to own, yet the fact must be stated, The game is all up, and I'm fairly check-mated. The Poacher in Chaucer, with goose in his breeches, ' Was betrayed by the neck peeping through the loose stitches ; And I must acknowledge, unfortunate sinner, As my griefs are enlarging, my breeches get thinner ; And I feel, if I do not soon make a clean breast, That, from what you observe, you will guess at the rest. But while talking of geese, it is said, in some ruction, That Rome, by their cackling, was sav'd from destruction — The luck of the Roman runs not in my line, For I am destroyed by the cackling of mine. There 's H y, whose pedantry, blent with his blarney, Makes his verses so stiff and his letters so yamy, Has physick'd and scrawled till I 'm nearly done over — Eor ids books never sell, nor his patients recover. There 's W s, half German/half Taffy, they say Whose brains have "a looseness," who talks by the day — I wish that his wind would but go t'other way.- There 's J n, the costive, when spinning a yarn, On the floor ofthe House, or the floor of a barn, Excels in the fine arts of canting and prosing, And never can see when his audience are dozing : The extent of his labor no midwife can guess, While the wearisome after-birth spreads o'er the Press. Then there 's R s, who goes snorting and screaming so fine, In whom all the worst points of the bagpipe combine, The drone, and the harshness ; — our ears would be dinn'd, But the fellow, My L d, is deficient in wind. But the plague of my life is a genius I bought — (I'm indebted to Stewart for the unlucky thought,) In mischief laborious — in judgment deficient — In the slang of all despots a slavish proficient ; As a dog is with hairs, so he's cover'd with lies — If he touches a flower, it fades or it dies : Like an issue, first opened the patient to save, But which festers and runs till he reaches the grave, 548 APPENDIX. This fellow exhausts me — I 'm thin as a ghost, With detaining the Mails, and maintaining the Post. My L d, if I wrote this as long as a lecture, One half of my cares you could never conjecture : Only think how my feelings are wounded and hurt, By having a reference made to my " shirt " — Among ignorant people, so soft, that before, one In ten hardly knew that a nobleman wore one. The "Prerogative's" safe, as the talent we're told of, Which the idle and profitless steward got hold of, Wrapt up in a napkin, it " lies " on my table, But to make any use of 't I own I 'm unable. Then Metcalf has cut me, and Ryerson swears That Sir Charles never dressed himself out in my airs ; And your own declaration on Party, came down, Like the blow of a stick on the head of a clown. And that strange fellow, Howe, though I've tried to destroy him (I wish from my soul that I yet could employ him), Goes laughingly telling the truth o'er the land, TiU the storm rages round me on every hand — And the people, beginning to take my dimensions, But smile at my pride and resist my " pretensions." Have pity, My Lord, and, if possible, aid me, I know at the Clubs they will laugh and upbraid me ; But if in the East you can stow me away, Of your temporal welfare I '11 think, when I pray — And blunder no more, with my temper contrary, But behave myself better, Your friend, L s C t. CIVIL LIST. Government House, Halifax,) _ April 15, 1848. j Mt Lord, — I have the honor to transmit herewith an act to com mute the Crown Revenues of Nova Scotia, and to provide for the Civil List thereof, to which, subject to Her Majesty's approval, I have deemed it to consist with my duty to give my assent ; and should Your Lordship on a review of all the circumstances under which I have been called upon to deal with this question, feel that, in departing from the strict letter of my instructions, I have acted in conformity with their spirit, and with that concilitory policy, which appeared to be demanded by the state in which I found society here. I shall not regret the responsibility which I have ventured to assume ; but on the contrary regard Your Lordship's decision as having effected the final removal from this colony of a source of contention, which has perplexed its councils and embar rassed its public men for more than fifteen years. APPENDIX. 549 It was to be expected that this act, which is essentially a measure of compromise, could not be acceptable to those who regard their personal interest as paramount to all other considerations ; and who, unconscious or regardless of the higher responsibilities which rest upon those charged with the tranquilization of this Province, and the introduction of a new and improved system of administration, do not pause to reflect that a fair trial of an experiment so full of promise, almost implies, as a neces sary condition, the clearing away of obstructions, and the removal of the more prominent causes of existing irritation. For the gentlemen whose observations and protests are referred to in the margin, and herewith transmitted, I entertain all due respect. Their arguments presented to my mind, in various modes, during a residence of eighteen months in the Colony, have had, in the consideration of the sub ject all the weight to which they appeared to me to be fairly entitled ; and if my judgment has been conducted to conclusions different from theirs, it appears to me that the reason may perhaps be discovered in the more enlarged view which I am compelled to take of the responsibility resting on the Crown, in relation to the whole people, and which, in cases like this, must far transcend that private and personal obligation upon which these gentlemen mainly rely ; and which, in its widest acceptation, can constitutionally only mean this, that a public necessity shall arise before an individual shall be deprived of any portion of his income, de rivable from the public funds. Assuming, then, all these gentlemen affirm, the question must be asked, "has this public necessity arisen ? " In my judgment, it has — for the following among many other reasons. 1. Because for fifteen years the Province has been agitated, and suc cessive Governors embarrassed, by this vexed question ; no administra tion within that period having been strong enough to carry the whole amounts claimed by the officers, and each in succession having been com pelled either to interpose the Governor's influence or the Secretary of State's dispatches ; thereby placing the former in an unenviable, if not false position within the Colony, or keeping up the appearance of per petual conflict between the Imperial authorities and the Colonial Legis lature. 2. Because the tendency of this dispute, in which the Crown and its servants are necessarily regarded as seeking to exact from the Colony what public opinion condemns, must be in some measure to check and impair those feelings of confidence and attachment, which I firmly be lieve are spontaneous and natural in Nova Scotia ; while it has diminished the moral influence whioh those entrusted with higher positions and the business of government ought to exereise, and without which, there can be no progressive and vigorous administration of affairs. 3. Because much valuable time has been wasted in these disputes ; the attention of the people being continually drawn off from the consid eration of measures of general policy or internal improvement, to dis cussions ancl disputes respecting salaries ; and, as the lower sums are al ways the most popular, it has sometimes happened that men the least suited for public life, have been elected upon some pledge of impractica- 550 APPENDIX. ble economy, while the promises and calculations put forth by conflicting parties have lessened the tone of legislative independence in committee of supply, and generated a grudging spirit, which has not unfrequently hampered the government in the attempts to make necessary changes, or to authorize expenditures called for by the pressure of business in other departments, not directly touched by the Civil List Bill. 4. Because neither the Imperial nor the Provincial Government has possessed the power to force a settlement of this question. They could not prevent discussion, even if they withheld the revenues and ceased to negotiate — nor could they depend upon the permanence of the revenue itself, which, as appears by the Chief Justice's letter, was subject to fre quent fluctuations, occasioned by various causes. A year of depression might reduce the sales of land, the discovery of a mine on the Ameri can seaboard, or a revival of the import duty on coal in the United States, might almost annihilate the fund out of which the principal offi cers of government are paid, and again place it in the humiliating posi tion which it occupied in 1844 — the same men who had rejected fair and even generous propositions, when the revenues were ample being compelled to go down, almost in forma pauperis, to take any salaries they could get, — having to sacrifice the present and future Lieutenant Governor and abandon the whole arrears, in order to appease those who, under other circumstances they had defied, and obtain any provision for carrying on the public service. 5. Because the bill which my advisers were willing to sustain, if it did not accomplish all I had desired, was made more perfect in its pro visions, than that passed in 1844. That bill reduced the then Lieutenant Governor's salary £500 below the amount pledged to him when he came out — it reduced the salary for the future Lieutenant Governor to £2,500, and it left the whole of the arrears unpaid. The bill now transmitted provides for the officer actually administering the government the salary assigned to him by Your Lordship, and gives to his successor £500 more chan the bill of 1845. It pays all the arrears actually due up to that year, and secures permanently from that period, and in time to come, to all other officers the salaries sanctioned by the three branches of the Legislature in 1844, and to which Her Majesty would have been advised to assent, had any provision been made for the arrears. If, My Lord, these and other considerations which will suggest them selves to Your Lordship, influenced my determination to submit, and, if possible, to carry this measure, what occurred during its passage through the House would seem to furnish evidence that I had not acted unwisely. The present opposition includes all the parliamentary friends of the gen tlemen, whose protests are noted ift the margin — not one of whom ven tured to suggest a single salary higher than those included in the bill, while one of them, colleague of the late leader of the administration, in troduced a bill himself, the object of which was clearly to embarrass the government — the Lieutenant Governor's salary being fixed at £2,500. A motion made by a friend of the Chief Justice's for the payment of the full amount claimed by him, was negatived by a very large majority, most of the members of the opposition voting against the motion, and APPENDIX. 551 several of them suggested and voted for lower salaries than those which were deemed adequate and reasonable by the members of my govern ment. Under the circumstances which I have described, it has been my en deavor to discharge myself (with what discretion Your Lordship will judge) of difficult and delicate duties of a mixed character, involving the honor of the Crown, the interest of the Province confided to my superintendence, the fair claims of the officers, and the pledges of in fluential public men, without whose aid no measures could pass. It only remains for me to add that should Your Lordship, on mature considera tion of the whole subject, feel yourself at liberty to advise Her Majesty to give her sanction to this bill, the concession will, I am assured, be as acceptable to her subjects here, as it will be gratifying to her representa tive. I have, &c, &c, J. HARVEY. MR. HAWES'S LETTER. Downing Street, March 10, 1851. Sir, — I am directed by Earl Grey to inform you that he is at length enabled to communicate to you the decision of Her Majesty's Govern ment on the application for assistance towards the construction of the projected railway through Nova Scotia, contained in your letters of the 25th of November and 16th of January last. You are already aware, from the repeated conversations which you have had with Lord Grey, of the strong sense entertained by His Lord ship and colleagues of the extreme importance, not only to the Colonies directly interested, but to the Empire at large, of providing for the con struction of a railway by which a line of communication may be estab lished on British territory between the Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada, and that various plans which have been sug gested for the accomplishment of this object have undergone the most attentive consideration. It appears from Sir John's Harvey's dispatch of August 29, 1850, as well as from your letters and the verbal communications you have made to Lord Grey, that the Provincial government of Nova Scotia, fully re lying on the the concurrence of the Legislature, is desirous of undertaking the construction of that part of the projected line which would pass through that 'Province, and proposes to obtain for that purpose a loan of £800,000, which is the estimated expense of the work. The assistance which Lord Grey understands you to apply for on behalf of the Province, is, that the payment of the interest of a loan to this amount should be guaranteed by the Imperial Parliament ; the effect of which would be, that the money might be raised on terms much more favorable than would be otherwise required by the lenders. 552 APPENDIX. I am directed to inform you that Her Majesty's government are pre pared to recommend to Parliament that this guaranty should be granted, or that the money required should be advanced from tbe British treasury, on the conditions which I will now proceed to state : — In the first place, as Her Majesty's government are of opinion that they would not be justified in asking Parliament to allow the credit of this country to be pledged for an object not of great importance to the British Empire as a whole (and they do not consider that the projected railway would answer this description, unless it should establish a line of communication between the three British Provinces), it must be dis tinctly understood that the work is not to be commenced, nor is any part of the loan — for the interest on which the British treasury is to be re sponsible — to be raised, until arrangements are made with the Provinces of Canada and New Brunswick, by which the construction of a line of railway passing wholly through British territory, from Halifax to Quebec or Montreal, shaU be provided for to the satisfaction of Her Majesty's government. In order that such arrangements may be made, Her Majesty's govern ment will undertake to recommend to Parliament that the like assistance shall be rendered to these Province as to Nova Scotia, in obtaining loans for the construction of their respective portions of the work. If it should appear, that, by leaving each Province to make that part of the line pas sing through its own territory, the proportion of the whole cost of the work which would fall upon any one Province, would exceed its pro portion of the advantage to be gained by it, then the question is to remain open for future consideration, whether some contribution should not be made by the other Provinces towards that part of the line ; but it is to be clearly understood that the whole cost of the line is to be provided for by loans raised by the Provinces in such proportions as may be agreed upon, with the guaranty of the Imperial Parliament. The manner in which the profits to be derived from the railway when completed are to be divided between the Provinces will also remain for future consideration. You will observe that I have stated that the line is to pass entirely through British territory ; but Her Majesty's government do not require that the line shall necessarily be that recommended by Major Robinson and Captain Henderson. If the opinion which is entertained by many persons well qualified to form a judgment, is correct, that a shorter and better Une may be found through New Brunswick, it will of course be preferred ; and there will be sufficient time for determining this question while the earlier part of the line is in progress. It is also to be understood, that Her Majesty's government will by no means object to its forming part of the plan which may be determined upon, that it should include a provision for establishing a communication between the projected railway and the railways of the United States. Any deviation from the line recommended by Major Robinson and Captain Henderson, must, however, be subject to the ap proval of Her Majesty's government. It will further be required that the several Provincial Legislatures APPENDIX. 553 should pass laws making the loans which they are to raise a first charge upon the Provincial revenue, after any existing debts and payments on account of the civil lists settled on Her Majesty by laws now in force ; and also, that permanent taxes shall be imposed (or taxes to continue in force till the debt shall be extinguished), sufficient to provide for the payment of the interest and sinking fund of the loans proposed to be raised, after discharging the above prior claims. It will further be necessary that the expenditure of the money raised under the guaranty of the Imperial Parliament shall take place under the superintendence of commissioners appointed by Her Majesty's government, and armed with sufficient power to secure the due application of the funds so raised to their intended object. The commissioners so appointed, are not, how ever, to interfere with the arrangements of the Provincial governments, except for the above purposes. The right of sending troops, stores, and mails, along the line at reason able rates, must likewise be secured. If, on the part of the government of Nova Scotia, you should express your concurrence in the above proposal, Lord Grey will immediately direct the Governor General of the British North American Provinces to communicate with the Lieutenant Governors of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, who will also be directed to bring the subject under the consideration of their respective Executive Councils, in order that, if they should be prepared to join in carrying the undertaking into effect on the terms proposed, the details of the arrangement between the Provinces may be settled, and the sanction of the Legislatures obtained for the plan ; so that it may, with as little delay as possible, be submitted for the approval of Parliament. Before, however, the proposed measure can be so submitted to Parlia ment, it is proper to observe that there are some other questions affecting the pecuniary relations between the mother country and the Colonies which will require to be considered ; but as these questions have little, if any, reference to Nova Scotia, it is not necessary that they should be further adverted to in this letter. I am directed to add, that Lord Grey thinks it unnecessary that any measures should be taken by Her Majesty's government to encourage the establishment of steam vessels for the accommodation of emigrants of the humbler class, which is one of the subjects to which you have called his attention. If there should be a demand for such vessels, Lord Grey has no doubt that they will speedily be supplied by private enterprise ; indeed, he has been informed that ships of large size, intended for the conveyance of emigrants, and furnished with auxiliary steam power, are already building both in this country and in America ; and if, by undertaking the projected railway, a demand for labor is created in the British Provinces, and a large extent of fertile land is opened for the occupation of settlers, these circumstances cannot fail to lead to an extension and improvement of the means now afforded for the conveyance of emigrants to these Provinces. Lastly, with reference to the suggestion contained in your letter that convicts might be employed in the construction of the railway, I am to 101 554 APPENDIX. inform you that — though Her Majesty's government entertain no doubt that the expense of the work to the Provinces might thus be greatly re duced, while, at the same time, by judicious regulations, all risk of serious inconvenience might be guarded against — they would not be disposed to take any steps, with a view to the adoption of this suggestion, unless on a distinct application from the Colonial Legislatures ; but if such an application should be made, Her Majesty's government would be pre pared to make the necessary arrangements for the employment of a moderate number of convicts on the work, without any charge for their custody and subsistence to the Province which may have appUed for them. I am, &c, B. HAWES. MR. HOWE'S REPORTS. 5, Sloane Streeet, London, 13th March, 1851. Sir, — I had the honor to report to you on the 14th February. On the evening of that day a debate occurred in the House of Lords, which you wiU find in the newspapers I now enclose. In that House there appeared to be but one opinion as to the importance of the North American Provinces, and upon the soundness of the pohcy of aiding them to complete their public works. The personal references to myself wiU convey to His Excellency the best evidence that I can offer as to the mode in which my public duties have been discharged. Prior to the occurrence of that debate I had been honored with two very interesting interviews by Lord Stanley. On the 13th, I had addressed to Earl Grey the letter, a copy of which is enclosed. On the 21st of February, I was honored by Earl Grey with the peru sal of a draft of a communication, which His Lordship proposed to ad dress to me, and by an appointment for the foUowing day, to adjust any points which might be raised by an examination of that draft. On the 22d of February the Cabinet resigned, and no further progress could be made in the negotiation until their acceptance of the seals again or the 3d of March. I have now the honor to enclose a copy of a letter addressed to me on the 10th instant, by Mr. Hawes, in which the Lieutenant Governor will be gratified to perceive that my mission has resulted in the determi nation of Her Majesty's government to propose to Parliament to ad vance or guarantee the funds which may be required by the three North American Provinces, to make a railroad from Halifax to Quebec or Montreal, including a line of connection across New Brunswick with the railroad lines of the United States. I have reason to believe, that if the pressure of public business will permit, copies of this letter will be transmitted to His ExceUency the APPENDIX. 555 Governor General, and to the Lieutenant Governors of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, by this mail. You will perceive that all our great Unes are to be provided for, the Provinces through which they pass pledging their revenues to the Impe rial government, which will advance or guarantee the funds required at the lowest rate of interest. This cannot be higher than four, and will probably not exceed three and a half, per cent. No American or Colo nial company, seeking funds in the money market here, could obtain even a moderate amount at less than six per cent. I could make contracts for completing our own Une, in sections of fifty miles, paying the parties in our Provincial debentures at five per cent., but from all the information I can gather, even the Provincial government could not depend on ob taining any large amount of funds at a less rate of interest than what Canada pays for the last loan effected here, which is six per cent. The value to us, then, of the Imperial guarantee, cannot be over estimated. You wUl perceive that Her Majesty's government leaves the Provin cial governments free to select a shorter and more profitable Une than that chosen by Major Robinson, if one can be found. As regards construction and management, we are not to be unduly controlled ; the Imperial commission being limited to such necessary ju risdiction as may prevent the appropriation of the funds raised to objects not contemplated by Parliament. You will also observe that the Provincial Governments are left free to make the most they can of the lands through which the railroads are to pass. My present impression is, that by making a judicious use of these, Colonization may be carried on extensively in connection with the railroads, so that as many people may be added to the population of each Province as will swell its annual consumption and revenue beyond the charges which may be assumed for the construction of the lines. If this can be done, and I believe it may, we may strengthen the Prov inces, and permanently advance and improve them, adding to their wealth and population, flanking the railway lines with thousands of in dustrious people ; and giving the Provinces, in a few years, an elevation which we are all anxious that they should attain. To carry out this policy, there must be mutual cooperation between men of influence here and in the Provinces, acting with the general con currence of the Imperial and Colonial Governments. The ground has, I trust, been prepared for such organization, and I shall spend the rest of the month in drawing together those interests and influences on which the Northern Provinces may most securely rely to aid them in filling up their waste lands, and completing their public im provements. My present intention is to leave England by the boat ofthe 5th of April, and I cannot anticipate that any thing will occur to occasion further delay. I regret that it has not been possible to bring these matters into a shape to be passed upon by the Legislature during the present session ; but, on reflection, it will perhaps appear to His Excellency better that questions of such deep importance should be gravely propounded to the country 556 APPENDIX. for its deliberate decision, than that they should have been hurried through, or hastily rejected in the last session of an expiring Parliament. I have, &c. JOSEPH HOWE. W. H. Keating, Esq. 5 Shane Street, London 4th April, 1851. Sir, — I have now the honor to make to you my final report for the information of the Lieutenant Governor. Mr. Hawes's letter to me bears date the 10th March. I could have left in the steamer of the 15th had I believed that no further steps were prudent or necessary. But, being quite aware of the obstructions which might be presented, and the delays which jarring elements on the other side of the water might occasion, I thought it best not to leave England without placing Nova Scotia in a position not only to show to her sister Provinces the practicability and wisdom of the policy to which I had given my sanction, but to act independently of them should that policy not be approved. Looking to the sparse population of New Brunswick, and to the abso lute impossibility of that Province executing, unaided, and within a reasonable time, either or both of the two important lines projected across her territory, I deemed it to be my first duty to satisfy my own mind that a systematic plan of colonization could be superinduced upon the gradual construction of the railways, so that, by the time that serious liability was incurred, her population and revenues should be correspondingly in creased. The way having been previously cleared for conducting the inquiries and forming the connections which I deemed desirable, I trust I shall be prepared to show His Excellency that while, by accepting the generous and advantageous proposition of the British government, New Brunswick would obtain two railroads for a trifle more than one, made with her own resources, would cost ; she would, by falling into the general scheme, run but little risk, and throw into her wilderness lands, in a very short time, at least half a million of people. Into the detaUs of the measures which I have prepared myself to pro pose, or the extent of the resources which can be brought to bear upon the waste territory which it is wise policy to people, I do not think it necessary here to enter. Two or three simple facts will show that I did not attach too much im portance to this branch of the subject. The terms upon which the British government is content to aid the Provinces are not less favorable than those given to the proprietors of the incumbered estates in the mother country. These parties pay for £100 sterling six and a half per cent, for twenty-two years, which extinguishes the debt, paying in full principal and interest. Those who wish us to make our railroads with American capital or contractors, propose that we should give our deben tures, redeemable in twenty-five years, and bearing interest at six per cent. If we did this it is quite clear that we should make a ruinous and unnecessary sacrifice, paying in interest alone a sum nearly equal to the whole amount borrowed by either mode, and then having to repay the APPENDIX. 557 principal besides. However profitable such an operation might prove to the attornies and contractors who appear to have been pressing this policy upon the Provinces ever since the Convention was held at Portland, it would, in my judgment, now that we have the credit of the British gov ernment at our back, and the treasures of London at our disposal, be one that would forever stamp us as inferior in practical sagacity and shrewdness to the astute neighbors who tempted us to make, for their advantage, such a ridiculous bargain. But I do not believe that six per cent, is all that Provincial companies, without the guarantee of the Colonial and Imperial governments, will have to pay when once public works are commenced with, insecure and insufficient resources. Our own experience of one such experiment ought to be sufficient for Nova Scotia. A modern illustration should con vey a significant warning to all the Provinces. The city of Montreal, naturally desirous to aid a work in which it had a deep interest, gave to the contractors upon the Montreal and Portland Railroad a large amount of debentures to enable them to go on. These were sold here recently. A gentleman of the highest mercantile char acter thus describes the value, in the London money market, of the credit of the first city in British America, unsupported by the Provincial or Imperial government : " I understand that the agents of Blackwood & Co. (American contractors), who accepted as part payment of their work on the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad, £125,000 six per cent, city of Montreal bonds at par, sold them lately in London at the price of £70 to the £100. They mature at various dates, averaging, I believe, from ten to fifteen years." In this case (and so it will be in all others, where haste makes waste, or cupidity outruns resources), it is clear that the Canadians will pay not only high interest upon their debentures, but will have to redeem them at short periods, at an enormous sacrifice. If, then, the Provinces can, by mutual cooperation, secure funds to complete their great lines at about one-half what money has cost in all the adjoining States, and what it must cost them without the aid of the British government ; and if, while this money- is being expended, their population and resources can be so increased, as to make the risks they run merely nominal, I am well as sured, however timid statesmen may shrink from the responsibility, or interested speculators may advocate a different policy, that sound views will ultimately prevail, and that the sacrifices which precipitancy may occasion to either Province, will ultimately afford instruction to them all. Nova Scotia having led the way to the adoption of an enlarged and enlightened policy, and having discharged towards her sister Provinces, in a fair and generous spirit, the obligations which her prompt adoption of that policy imposed, it did not appear to me that I should leave her dependent upon their appreciation of her exertions, for the easy and successful completion of her internal improvements, in the^ event of no common action being attainable in respect to national or intercolonial lines. Looking to the development of her internal resources alone, Nova Scotia must have a common trunk line of railroad, extending in a north- 101* 558 APPENDIX. erly direction from her capital, and branching east to the Pictou coal mines, and west to her most populous rural districts, a large portion of the trade of which now flows across the Bay of Fundy. Her clear in terest is to make these lines without delay, should any thing retard an intercolonial enterprise. She may make fifteen, perhaps thirty miles, and then turn east or west as circumstances may determine ; or she may complete the trunk and continue the branches, for the accommodation of her own trade and people, by regular and safe gradations. Entertaining these opinions, I could not leave England without pro viding for the independent execution of our own internal improvements, under any and every possible contingency. I shall be prepared, there fore, to submit to His Excellency, propositions by which any amount of funds which we may require can be obtained, on our Provincial credit alone, at five and six per cent., from banks and individuals of the highest respectability, who will dispose of our debentures on the most favorable terms ; and I shall also be prepared to submit the offers of capitalists, and contractors, who have made one-third of all the raUroads in the United Kingdon, and who will complete working plans at their own ex pense, lodge thirty thousand pounds in the Provincial treasury as a pledge of their good faith, and construct either Nova Scotia's own lines (should the Provinces not agree) or all the lines contemplated by Mr. Hawes's letter of the 10th of March, on terms much more favorable than any railroads have been or can be completed with Colonial or American funds. I have, &c, (Signed) JOSEPH HOWE. Wm. H. Keating, Esq., Deputy Secretary. END OF VOLUME SECOND.