summer of 1845, Mr. Howe visited several parts of the Colony, held "mass-meetings," and addressed throngs of people in the open air. In the more populous neighbourhoods, he spoke four hours at a time, and attended political dinners and picnics, provided specially to do him honor. In the Assembly, his speeches were frequent, and sometimes excited in tone and abounding in personal allusions. Though once a member of Lord Falkland's cabinet, he indulged in the most bitter invectice against his Lordship, and on one occasion declared that it might become necessary to hire a black fellow to horsewhip the governor through the streets of Halifax." This remark, unfortunate and undignified, caused much sensation among people who, besides their habitual deference to rank, look upon the person of the representative of their sovereign as sacred.

The administration of Lord Falkland closed in disquiet, the leaders of the two parties and their followers giving way to extreme irritation. After the breaking up of his coalition ministry, near the close of the year 1843, matters between him and the Liberals continued to grow worse, until finally his withdrawal * from Nova Scotia must have become as desirable to him as it certainly was to them. He was succeeded in the summer of 1846 by Sir John Harvey, a military officer of distinguished merit, and who, as former governor of New Brunswick, † and thence transferred to the executive chair of Newfoundland, possessed much political experience. Specially instructed by the government at home to devote his attention to reconciling and healing the differences and personal enmities which existed in the Colony, he made known at once his desire to form a Council in which both parties should be represented. His proposition is understood to have been, so to construct that body as to give the Conservatives a majority of one member. This offer was declined by the Liberals, first, because they were not to enjoy an equal share of the power and patronage, and, secondly, because they objected to again trying the experiment of governing the Colony by a coalition. This is the substance of the negotiation on both sides, ex

Early in 1848, he was appointed to the government of the Bombay Presidency, with a salary of about $40,000 per annum, exclusive of outfit. Sir John, it will be remembered, was governor of New Brunswick during the Aroostook troubles.

cept that the Liberals were to have the disposal of the office of Solicitor-General, which was to be vacated by the Conservative incumbent at their pleasure. In the correspondence, the Liberals intimated the wish to appeal to the country in a general election of a new Assembly.

Sir John communicated to the Colonial Secretary the failure of this overture, and received in answer the first despatch of Earl Grey which is named at the head of this article. "While I regret," says the Earl, "your want of success in efforts prompted by your anxiety for the efficiency of the public service, I must add that I am not surprised at the result."

"The experience of free countries shows that it but rarely happens, that a coalition of rival leaders, which often appears the easiest solution of many political difficulties, can be arranged to the honor and satisfaction of those who are included in it, or can form any permanent foundation for any government. And however injurious party animosities may often be to these small communities, which can ill afford the exclusion from their affairs of any of the practical ability which is contained within their limits, experience has taught that those animosities exhibit themselves at least as keenly in small as in large societies, and that the public necessities are as little effectual there as elsewhere in inducing those who are separated by personal and political repugnances to unite their councils for the common good.

"The letters which constitute the correspondence in the present case must have convinced you, as they have convinced me, that the personal and political differences which separate those who bore a part in it are so wide as to render it impossible for the two parties, in the present state of their political feelings, to act together honorably or usefully.

"It is very problematical whether any lapse of time or any change of circumstances will ever bring those parties into a state of feeling_more favorable to the arrangement which you contemplated. I am therefore of opinion, that, the present negotiation being at an end, no attempt should be made to renew it.

"The two contending parties will have to decide their quarrel at present in the Assembly, and ultimately at the hustings, and until a decision adverse to your present advisers shall be pronounced in one way or the other, the composition of your Council will require no farther interposition on your part."

Reserving to another place our comments on Earl Grey's remarks upon the want of success which has usually attended

the "coalition of rival leaders," we may here observe, that the two contending parties did, in the summer of 1847, ultimately refer their quarrel to the people "at the hustings," where the Conservatives were signally defeated. In previous elections, the contest was frequently prolonged for a week, and even a fortnight; but this time, under a recent law, the polling was accomplished in a single day, much to the satisfaction of all persons interested. The new Assembly met in January, 1848, and, as in Canada under similar circumstances, the members of the Council tendered their resignations,* which were accepted; and the Liberals formed a ministry from the leaders of their own ranks, and also obtained the disposal of the great law-offices of the crown, and of the still more lucrative post of Provincial Secretary. Mr. Howe, besides a seat in the cabinet, received the last-named office, and, as will be seen when we come to notice his Letters to Lord John Russell, now enjoys the highest honors to which a Colonist can aspire. Thus we record the adoption of the system of "responsible government" in Nova Scotia ; an event which, though sure to happen sooner or later, because of the precedent in Canada, was hastened by the principles avowed in Earl Grey's despatch of March 31, 1847, which was laid before the Assembly by Sir John Harvey, soon after the opening of the session. The following extract will sufficiently indicate the nature of his Lordship's views.

"Small and poor communities must be content to have their work cheaply and somewhat roughly done. Of the present members of your Council, the Attorney-General and Provincial Secretary, to whom the Solicitor-General should perhaps be added, appear to me sufficient to constitute the responsible advisers of the Governor. The holders of these offices should henceforth regard them as held on a political tenure; and, with a view to that end, the Provincial Secretary should be prepared, in the

* Three of the retiring members of the cabinet were Lewis Morris Wilkins, Simon Bradstreet Robie, and Mather Byles Almon. Their names indicate their origin. Mr. Wilkins, who is a judge of the Supreme Court, is a son of Isaac Wilkins, a Loyalist of New York, and a nephew of Lewis Morris, who was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of Gouverneur Morris, another distinguished Whig of the Revolution. Mr. Robie is the son of Thomas Robie, an adherent of the crown, formerly of Marblehead, Mass., who went to Halifax, thence to England, and back to Salem, Mass., where he died. Mr. Almon's name reminds one of the clerical wit of Boston, but we are unable to give exact particulars with regard to him.

event of any change, to disconnect from his office that of the clerkship of the Council, which seems to be one that should, on every account, be held on a more permanent tenure."

The Colonial Secretary evidently yields to necessity rather than conviction, since, after arguing the question, he qualifies his consent, and announces his conclusion in the following language :

"On such terms as these, which I have thus detailed, it appears to me that the peculiar circumstances of Nova Scotia present no insuperable obstacle to the immediate adoption of that system of parliamentary government which has long prevailed in the mother country, and which seems to be a necessary part of representative institutions in a certain stage of their prog

ress.

The celebrated despatch of Lord John Russell to Sir John Harvey, in 1839, which in Colonial politics acquired the name of the "Russell Purge," was thought at the time to contain doctrines wholly irreconcilable with justice to persons who held official stations. No case of removal, unless for official misconduct, had occurred in the Colonies during the reign of King William, or in the reigns of his brother and father; office was held by a sort of prescriptive right, by a life tenure, and descended like an estate to the incumbent's family. The "Purge" gave notice of a great change, inasmuch as Sir John was directed "to cause it to be generally known, that public officers would be called upon to retire as often as any motives of public policy might suggest the expediency of that measure"; and that the rule was applicable, not only to those to be appointed, but also to those who then enjoyed the honors and emoluments of place. What do we now see, after the lapse of nine years? The popular will, having wholly wrested away the prerogative, now breaks up cabinets, and displaces the highest functionaries, without check, accountability, or control. We see, too, a minister of the crown conceding in express terms, that such a power seems to be a necessary part of representative institutions in a certain stage of their progress"! If a single Whig of 1776, in his loftiest mood, even so much as dreamed of obtaining a "concession " like this, we have yet to be informed of it.

As we review the proceedings in New Brunswick during

the last three years and a half, we find similar manifestations of "progress." Sir William Colebrooke, the successor of Sir John Harvey, and who is also an officer in the army, had encountered no organized opposition to his measures at the time when our former remarks were committed to the press; but they had hardly been published, before the Assembly, the public papers, and political men generally, assailed him with great asperity. Here, as in Canada and Nova Scotia, the demand was, that the representative of the queen should dispense patronage in accordance with the popular voice, and not, as both he and his predecessors had always done, at discretion, and subject only to the approval of the home government. Our account of the affair must be brief. On the death of the Provincial Secretary,* in December, 1844, Sir William appointed to the vacant office Mr. Reade, a gentleman who had married his daughter, who was well qualified to fill the station, and who had received assurances from Lord John Russell and Lord Ashburton, that his services in the West Indies, and during the negotiations. which resulted in the adjustment of our northeastern boundary, should be duly rewarded at a proper opportunity. Several members of the Council, disapproving of the appointment, resigned, and after an angry debate in the Assembly, of several days' duration, an Address to the Queen passed that body, in which, in hardly decorous terms, Mr. Reade is spoken of as Sir William's son-in-law," and his selection is stigmatized as an "improper and unjust exercise " of the prerogative. His ability to perform the duties of Secretary was not denied, and the objection to his appointment was merely that he could not be " regarded as a permanent resident of New Brunswick," and so ought to be provided for elsewhere.

66

Lord Stanley, who was then the Colonial minister, disapproved of the appointment, and recalled the members of the Council who had broken up the administration; he caused

* The Hon. William Franklin Odell. He was named for the only son of Dr. Franklin, who was the last royal governor of New Jersey, and a Loyalist. His father was the Hon. and Rev. Jonathan Odell, of New Jersey, who also adhered to the crown. The letters between Arnold and André, at the plotting of the treason, were addressed to his care in New York. Mr. Odell settled in New Brunswick at the close of the Revolution, and was the first Secretary of the Colony; at his death in 1818, his son, above named, succeeded to the office.