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British Columbia Historical Books Collection
The makers of Canada ; v. 12
Longley, J. W. (James Wilberforce), 1849-1922
"Contents: ... vol. 8. Bryce, G. MacKenzie, Selkirk, Simpson. 1905 .... vol.20. Coats, RH. and Gosnell, R.E. Sir James Douglas. 1908.- vol.21. Doughty, A.G. Index and dictionary. 1911."-- Strathern, G. M., & Edwards, M. H. (1970). Navigations, traffiques & discoveries, 1774-1848: A guide to publications relating to the area now British Columbia. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 191
307 pages : frontispiece ; 24 cm
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THE MAKERS OF CANADA VOL. XII JOSEPH HOWE THE MAKERS OF CANADA JOSEPH HOWE BY Hon. J. W. LONGLEY MORAN •' A ATI JL .1 JL:.i IJ THE MAKERS OF CANADA JOSEPH HOWE BY Hon. J. W. LONGLEY TORONTO MORANG & CO., LIMITED 1906 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year 1904, by Morang & Co., Limited, in the Department of Agricultv/re /rtT-T) i-L /f#£ CONTENTS CHAPTER I Page BIRTH AND YOUTH . . . .1 CHAPTER II COLONIAL GOVERNMENT . - • 13 CHAPTER III RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT . . .35 CHAPTER IV HOWE AS A MINISTER .... 71 CHAPTER V HOWE VS. FALKLAND . . . .89 CHAPTER VI THE LIBERAL MINISTRY . 109 CHAPTER VII HOWE AND RAILWAYS . , . .117 CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII Page FOREIGN ENLISTMENT AND THE IRISH CATHOLICS 149 CHAPTER IX HOWE AND CONFEDERATION CHAPTER X INCIDENTS 173 231 CHAPTER XI HOWE AND LITERATURE . CHAPTER XII HOWE'S SOCIAL QUALITIES CHAPTER XIII CONCLUSION APPENDICES . 257 271 . 283 291 INDEX 301 CHAPTER I BIRTH AND YOUTH r ' ' • *Q JOSEPH HOWE was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, December 13th, 1804. Those who are familiar with the topography of Halifax have seen the beautiful sheet of water called the North West Arm, which lies on the western side of the city and forms the peninsula on which the city is situated. The scenery, though rugged, is delightful, and the cottage in which Mr. Howe was born was built on this Arm, two miles from the heart of the city, then containing scarcely more than ten or twelve thousand people. His father was John Howe, who was descended from one of four brothers who came from the southern part of England to the New England States in the 17th century. John Howe was the only one of the family in New England who remained loyal to Great Britain at the time of the revolution, and he came to Nova Scotia after the evacuation of Boston. Mr. Howe was a Loyalist, devoted to England and British institutions, and he infused into his son a deep-seated regard and attachment for the empire. In a great speech delivered at Southampton, England, in 1851, Joseph Howe, referring to his father, uttered the following 1 JOSEPH HOWE tribute, which gives a striking indication of his British tendencies:— "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." Mr. John Howe was first married in Boston to a Miss Minns, by whom he had three sons, John, David and William, and three daughters. On the death of his first wife, Mr. Howe married Mary Austin, nee Edes, a daughter of Captain Edes, who with his wife and child had come out from England and by chance remained in Halifax. This second wife bore him two children, a son and a daughter. The daughter lived to be married, but died soon after at sea. The son was Joseph, whose achievements and career it is the purpose of this work to chronicle. The task imposes unusual responsiblity. To say that Joseph Howe ranks foremost amongst the statesmen produced in British North America and occupies a front position among the makers of Canada does not convey all that a full and just biography of the man would entail. Many men in British North America have been distinguished by successful public careers, and have earned a lasting place in the history of their country by their talents, achievements and devotion, but Howe, while 2 EDUCATION unsurpassed as a statesman, possessed qualities not usually associated with public life. He was a man of vivid imagination, unfailing wit, a poet and litterateur^ whose unique personality places him in marked contrast with most of the political leaders of British North America with whose names his must be historically associated. The brush that paints his character aright should have delicate touches and command of various hues and shades of colour. Young Joseph Howe had few opportunities of obtaining an education. His father's house was two miles from the nearest city school and he was able to attend only in the summer months, when these two miles were traversed on foot each morning and afternoon. In winter he was kept at home. His father, however, was a man of culture. Shortly after his arrival in Halifax he became king's printer, and after that he held the important position of postmaster-general for the Maritime Provinces, including in his duties the care of the post-office at Halifax. He devoted himself to the cultivation of the mind of his youngest son, who spent his winter evenings in reading and study. During all his life Joseph was a voracious reader, and the librarian of the legislative library was heard to declare that Mr. Howe had read nearly all the books in the library. Joseph, throughout his life, in his public utterances referred to his father with veneration. On one occasion, speaking of him, he used these words:— JOSEPH HOWE "For thirteen years he was my instructor, my playfellow, almost my daily companion. To him I owe my fondness for reading, my familiarity with the Bible, my knowledge of old colonial and American incidents and characteristics. He left me nothing but his example and the memory of his many virtues, for all that he ever earned was given to the poor. He was too good for this world; but the remembrance of his high principles, his cheerfulness, his child-like simplicity, and truly Christian character, is never absent from my mind." Joseph had a splendid physique, and, as he grew to manhood, was finely proportioned, and of a robust constitution. He was fond of sports and of rambling in the woods, and very early gave indications of possessing a poetic temperament. Although Mr. John Howe held offices to which slight emoluments were attached, he possessed no tendency to accumulate, and, as a consequence, at the age of thirteen, it was felt necessary that Joseph should obtain employment. His father was king's printer, so Joseph was employed in the office of the Gazette, and taught the trade of a printer, varying this occupation by occasionally assisting in the post-office at Halifax. Thus it will be seen that Howe started his career without the advantages of a university education or even of a complete common school course, and he is not the only conspicuous instance of a man who has achieved, not only a distinguished position, 4 JOURNALISM but an admirable command of English composition, without a study of the ancient classics. During the ten years of apprenticeship Howe composed many fugitive poems, which appeared anonymously in the newspapers in Halifax. One poem entitled "Melville Island," attracted more than usual attention. Near the head of the North West Arm stands a little island, most picturesquely situated in a small cove, surrounded by verdure- covered hills. Upon this island was erected a military prison, very soon after the settlement of Halifax, and prisoners were confined there during the French war, and the war of 1812-15. At the time of the publication of the poem the Earl of Dalhousie was lieutenant-governor of the province, and he was so far impressed with the merits and beauty of the verses that he invited the young author to government house, loaded him with praise, and entered his name upon the invitation lists, which, considering the exclusive character of the government house coterie in those days, was an honour somewhat unusual, but, as events will show, not producing any marked results in the birth of aristocratic tendencies on the part of the recipient. In 1827, when Howe was twenty-three years of age, having, as he conceived, sufficiently served his apprenticeship, he embarked, in connection with Mr. James Spike, on a journalistic career by purchasing the Weekly Chronicle, a newspaper which was then being published by Mr. William Minns. The name 5 JOSEPH HOWE of the paper was changed to the Acadian, and Mr. Howe, at this early age assumed the duties of editor. It was not a political paper, and its columns give no indication of that wonderful mastery of political topics which its editor afterwards developed. It furnished news, and its editorial columns were devoted to sketches of scenery and local affairs. It was somewhat literary in its scope and published a considerable amount of poetry, much of it the composition of the editor. Howe's connection with the Acadian was brief. Before the end of the year he sold his share in this paper to his partner and purchased the Nova Scotian. This ambitious and widely circulated paper was then owned by Mr. George R. Young, a son of Mr. John Young, the author of the Letters of Agricola, which had aroused the people of Nova Scotia to interest in agriculture, and a brother of William Young, who for many years occupied a commanding position in the political field in Nova Scotia, and afterwards became chief justice of the province, and was honoured with knighthood. Mr. Howe paid £1,050 for the Nova Scotian, and in January, 1828, he became sole editor and proprietor. It is probable that he was able to pay but a very small portion of this price at the beginning, and since in a small community the task of making a weekly newspaper profitable was far from being an easy one, many of Howe's friends had serious misgivings as to his ability to make the venture successful a Kw.-^ai 1 TOURS OF THE PROVINCE Howe himself was duly sensible of the difficulties surrounding it, but he had a lion's heart and a cheerful disposition, and addressed himself to the work before him with unflinching courage and dauntless zeal. At that time the English mails were fully two months on their passage, being carried by sailing packets, and the collecting of English and foreign news was therefore difficult and uncertain. Howe toiled day and night to give tone and character to the paper, and at the same time to secure for it a wide constituency throughout the province. He wrote its editorials and collected its news, and he introduced in the course of time a new feature in publishing reports of debates in the House, and of trials and arguments in the courts of law. Howe did the reporting himself, and Mr. Fennerty describes him as seated in the gallery of the House day after day, taking notes upon the crown of his hat, and then, after the adjournment of the House, working until late at night making transcripts of his notes, with little time reserved for sleep. In order to extend his paper's circulation and establish connections with the rest of the province, Howe was accustomed, when time permitted, to make tours of different parts of the province on horseback or on foot, for in those days railways and other easy and quick modes of communication were unknown. In this way he acquired a very intimate knowledge of all parts of the province, and of the 7 JOSEPH HOWE views and feelings of the people, and he utilized such information as he was able to collect during these various tours for furnishing material for a series of charming letters entitled, " Rambles." These letters were written in an easy, conversational style, and set forth the splendid agricultural resources, the opportunities of developing industries, the need of commercial facilities, and, added to all, the scenic charms and beauties of the province. They awakened people to a sense of the value and importance of their country and aroused emulation, which has made itself felt, if not in active industrial development, at all events in a tendency to intellectual progress, which has placed Nova Scotia first in the number of ambitious and able men which it has contributed to the public life of British North America. Shortly after assuming control of the Nova Scotian, in January, 1828, Mr. Howe was married to Catharine Susan Ann McNab, the daughter of Captain John McNab of the Royal Nova Scotia Fencibles. Mrs. Howe was a woman admirably adapted for the position of helpmeet and companion to a busy public man. She was endowed with excellent mental gifts, and above all, possessed of sound judgment and unerring common sense. Howe himself was inclined to be indifferent in financial matters, and somewhat impulsive, occasionally rash, in political movements, and Mrs. Howe usually exercised a wholesome restraining 1 MARRIAGE influence upon the impetuous tendencies of her distinguished husband. She believed in him, had faith in him, and was ever ready to cheer him with her encouragement as well as restrain him by her counsel. As will be seen in the unfolding of Howe's character, he was a man of exceedingly social and convivial temperament, and, as he was from the earliest times quick in making friendships, unfailingly genial and fond of boon companionship, his house was always open to his friends. It sometimes happens that the most amiable wives are indisposed to have their domestic repose continually invaded by hosts of friends at all times and seasons. Mrs. Howe gracefully acceded to her husband's tendencies in this direction, and thus contributed not only to his enjoyment, but also to his power. For seven years Howe devoted himself to his work of making the Nova Scotian the first and chief newspaper in Nova Scotia. In respect of politics his editorial career may be characterized as an evolution. During the first year the paper was devoted to his I Rambles," and to a series of clever papers entitled, 1 The Club." They were the joint offspring of several bright men, of whom Howe was the chief, and were framed somewhat on the model of the "Noctes Ambrosianae." The chief contributors were Thomas C. Haliburton (Sam Slick), Lawrence O'Connor Doyle, Dr. Grigor and Captain Kincaid. These men, most of whom afterwards became distinguished, held their meetings and 9 ui„m,<**<***■*+ JOSEPH HOWE planned their sketches in Mr. Howe's house. Associated with them as Howe's friends were S. G. W. Archibald, Beamish Murdoch, Thomas B. Aiken, Jotham Blanchard, Andrew Shields and George Thompson. "The Club" dealt with the various questions of the day, including pointed references to prominent officials and public affairs. In 1829, Howe published a history of Nova Scotia written by Haliburton, but antedating the publication of those inimitable sketches, beginning with "Sam Slick," which have since made his name favourably known to the English-speaking world. This book was a valuable contribution to the historical research of the province, but it proved to be an unsuccessful financial operation and Howe lost heavily on the publication. Howe and Haliburton, however, continued to be friends until the latter's death, although political differences inevitably arose at a later period, which, perhaps, somewhat diminished their intimacy for a time. In 1829, Howe began to write upon political topics, and to deal with great independence, courage and dexterity with the questions which began in a more conspicuous manner to engage the attention of the legislature. It was in 1830, however, that he commenced the publication of his legislative reviews, which were afterwards continued from year to year. A seat in the press gallery and a careful reporting of the proceedings of a legislative body is, perhaps, the best possible training for a political career, and 10 POLITICAL EDUCATION in this way Howe obtained a grip and mastery of the political situation in Nova Scotia difficult, if not impossible, of attainment by any other means. The press often affords better facilities for obtaining a political education than a seat in parliament. The member is in his place for three or four months in the year; the remainder of the time he is at his home attending to his duties. A political editor is in the field throughout the year, and follows with accuracy the movements on the political chessboard at all times and at all seasons. n CHAPTER II COLONIAL GOVERNMENT THE political problems confronting the people of Nova Scotia in 1830, when Howe began to take an active part in political discussions, were essentially the same as those which were agitating all the provinces of British North America. The struggles of the next few years in all parts of British North America may be characterized as an evolution of the principles of self-government. The imperial government was somewhat perplexed to determine an accurate policy in respect of that portion of North America which had remained loyal to the empire during the great revolutionary struggle, and had become the home of the United Empire Loyalists when the revolting colonies had obtained their independence. When the treaty of peace was signed in 1784, no very high estimate of the value of the remaining possessions in North America was entertained by the English people. The population was extremely small. Nova Scotia had only a few thousands of English-speaking people; New Brunswick was constituted a province not until 1784, and had but a paltry handful of settlers. Prince Edward Island was a small island with very few inhabitants, and Canada, which was 13 sa JOSEPH HOWE the most important division of them all, meant at the beginning, for the most part, Lower Canada, which was preponderatingly French and governed very largely as a Crown colony. The experience of the imperial authorities in governing the large English colonies, which had just successfully revolted, left them in a somewhat confused condition as to what course should be pursued in the government of those remaining loyal. If too much was conceded, they feared that revolt and independence would ensue; and, if too firm a policy was adopted, these small communities might be driven to cast in their fortunes with the republic beside them. To all, legislatures had been conceded, but to these legislatures all power was not committed. The legislative council, or second chamber, of all of them was composed of the direct nominees of the Crown, and these were chosen from the wealthy or official class especially devoted to maintaining the interests of the executive. The lieutenant-governor acted under a commission which gave him large control, and, therefore, while the legislature existed necessarily for the purpose of law-making, it did not for a moment possess the power of determining the political complexion or policy of the executive. It did not even possess the greatest leverage which the House of Commons from the earliest time has possessed, the control of supplies. The revenue of these provinces was derived from three sources: first, duties on certain 14 il. FREEDOM FROM CONTROL classes of imports, which duties were collected by virtue of imperial acts, their control being vested in the governor; secondly, sales of Crown lands, also treated as a prerogative of the Crown, and the money received from these lands was at the disposal of the king's representative without respect to the legislature. In addition to these, there was another source of revenue derived from duties on imports imposed by the provincial legislature. The control of this money was in the hands of the people's representatives, but from the first two sources enough money was obtained for the purpose of carrying on the government, paying the salaries of officials from the lieutenant-governor down, including the judges and departmental officers of the government. Therefore, it was quite possible for the governor and his friends and officials to go on administering the affairs of the country according to their own views, whether the legislature was favourable or not, because they had at their own command the monies to pay their salaries and administer executive functions generally. The result of this condition of things could easily be foreseen. The official class would continue to please themselves, and as one favourite departed from the scene another favourite would be chosen to occupy his place, and in consequence the real functions of government would be in the hands of a privileged class, and the great mass of the people 15 JOSEPH HOWE permanently excluded from all hope of participation therein. Such were the conditions of government in all the provinces. In Upper Canada the governing class was dubbed "the family compact"; in Lower Canada it was "the oligarchy"; in Nova Scotia those supporting the government were called "Tories," but the substantial point at issue was the same in all. English-speaking people, wherever placed, will invariably struggle for the right of self-government. The people of England were the very first who insisted upon popular representation and continued the struggle for several centuries, until the power of the House of Commons ultimately overshadowed the power of both the Crown and the Lords. At the time of which we speak Great Britain enjoyed the full privileges of responsible government. No administration could exist for a moment which did not command the support of the House of Commons, and the power of the Crown was limited by checks and guards which the constitutional privileges of the Commons had securely grasped. The sovereign could spend no money until it had been voted by the Commons; he could carry on no war until the means for sustaining such war had been voted by the Commons; his advisers must always be men who had the confidence of the people as represented in the Commons. As all these various provinces adhered to Great Britain, and as a considerable portion of the population were the descendants of 1Q iiiliW UNSATISFACTORY CONDITIONS Loyalists who had sacrificed everything for British connection, naturally these men looked to England for models of government, and it was inevitable that nothing would ultimately satisfy them but a condition of responsibility to the people as full and ample as that which prevailed in the motherland. Such a condition did not prevail in any of the British North American provinces in 1830. The lieutenant -governor, as has been seen, exercised powers under commission far in excess of those which any British sovereign would have dreamed of assuming. The members of the executive council were chosen at the will of the governor, and all the important offices of the province were in the hands of a few favourites, and, in the case of Nova Scotia, mostly members of the Church of England. It did not concern the members of the executive or such officials as the provincial secretary, the attorney- general, etc., whether the House of Assembly was favourable to their policy or not. Their tenure was the will of the Crown. If a vacancy in an important office occurred, the strings were at once pulled at Downing Street for appointment to the vacancy, and this system of favouritism and lack of responsibility to the popular will, not only prevailed in the capital and in connection with the government, but it existed in all the shire towns in respect to the county offices, such as sheriffs, prothonotaries and clerks of the Crown, customs officers, registrars of deeds, etc. 17 ^^2 ri£ I JOSEPH HOWE Previous to Howe's advent to the political arena, many men had arisen in the legislature who were disposed to enlarge the powers of the House and curtail the extraordinary powers of the governing authorities. In Nova Scotia, one anomaly, especially objectionable, existed. The executive and legislative councils were identical, that is, the same men who, in their capacity as a second chamber, passed upon all laws, constituted the executive council to execute them. In this council sat the chief justice, the bishop, the collector of customs and other officials. When acting as a legislative council, while the legislature was in session, this body sat with closed doors and its deliberations were as secret as when acting in its capacity as an executive council. Such men as S. G. W. Archibald, Alexander Stewart, Beamish Murdoch, Jotham Blanchard and others had already begun to assert the powers and privileges of the House of Assembly, and by a free criticism of the existing conditions had frequently come into conflict with the "Council of Twelve," as the legislative and executive council was then called, (owing to the fact that i^ was composed of twelve members). Through the influence and agency of these men, a large proportion of the population of the various counties had become imbued with liberal principles; but these leading reformers had always been careful to avoid any definite or far-reaching measures which would bring them into direct conflict with the governor and 18 LL mm «* ADVANCING LIBERALISM the influential men who surrounded him. At that time government house was the social centre of the city and no man who aspired to occupy an important place in the affairs of the province cared to risk exclusion from the governor's dinner table. The consequence was, that, notwithstanding the existence of a Liberal party contending for the rights of the people in the House of Assembly, nothing definite in the way of sweeping away existing abuses or of introducing a system of executive responsibility had been yet accomplished. Mr. Howe as early as 1830 began in his newspaper to take an active part in the discussion of political matters, at first with considerable prudence and impartiality, but by degrees he became imbued with Liberal principles, and the columns of the Nova Scotian for the next five years exhibited a steady advancement on the part of Howe in the direction of ultra reform principles. In 1830 a general election took place, and Howe took an active part in supporting candidates of the popular party in this election. The composition of the assembly returned was decidedly favourable to those who were struggling for a system of popular government, but, during the five or six years that this legislature continued, nothing substantial was accomplished, and all the efforts of the so-called reformers ended in failure. They were, as a matter of fact, constantly overawed and baffled by the council of twelve. Howe, during this period began 19 ■j.«i> u £s£ *~v\smxxx-?z?«*- JOSEPH HOWE to write boldly in support of reform measures, and not only gave offence to the government by his attitude, but also drew upon his head the enmity of the Liberal members by stoutly demanding that they go forward and do the work for which they were elected. In 1835 fate presented a great opportunity to Howe. At this time the city of Halifax had no charter and was governed as a part of the county of Halifax by a bench of magistrates appointed by the governor, and in no sense responsible to the people. The general belief then prevailing was that this bench of magistrates had become negligent and corrupt in the administration of the affairs of the city, and Howe was quite free with his criticisms of this body from time to time. At last he published a letter signed "The People," arraigning the magistracy of Halifax in scathing terms. The writer declared that he ventured to affirm, without the possibility of being contradicted by proof, that the magistracy had by one stratagem or another taken from the pockets of the people in fines, exactions, etc., amounts in the aggregate that would exceed £30,000. "Could it not be proved," he said, "and is it not notorious that one of the present active magistrates has contrived for years to filch from one establishment, and that dedicated to the poor and destitute, at least £300 per annum?" He further declared that from the pockets of the poor and distressed at least £1,000 was drawn annually and 20 PROSECUTION FOR LIBEL pocketed by men whose services the country might well spare. The result of the publication of this letter was startling. The magistrates of Halifax, a powerful body, tendered their resignation, and they also demanded the prosecution of Howe for libel. The attorney-general submitted an indictment for criminal libel to the grand jury of the county, and a true bill was found. The magistrates believed, undoubtedly, at this moment that Howe, whose newspaper was becoming very troublesome to the governing class, was about to be destroyed. It was known that he was without means and that the entire influential class was hostile. He would be tried by a chief justice appointed by the governor, and a member of the council of twelve. He would be prosecuted by an attorney-general identified with the government and interested in maintaining the privileges of the chosen few. Once convicted and sentenced to imprisonment, as they hoped, his paper would be destroyed, he himself discredited and ruined, and a blow thereby struck which would have its due moral effect upon any other incipient reformer who might essay to follow in his footsteps. Howe's conduct in respect to this libel suit marks in a striking manner the moral fibre of the man. He has furnished an account of his course when confronted with the indictment. This is probably the most authoritative statement of the matter:—"I went to two or three lawyers in 21 •WHHiirvT ' JOSEPH HOWE succession, and showed them the attorney-general's notice of trial, and asked them if the case could be successfully defended. The answer was I No. There was no doubt that the letter was a libel. That I must make my peace or submit to fine and imprisonment.' I asked them to lend me their books, gathered an armful, threw myself on a sofa and read libel law for a week. By that time I had convinced myself that they were wrong and that there was a good defence, if the case were properly presented to the court and jury. Another week was spent in selecting and arranging the facts and public documents on which I relied. I did not get through before a late hour of the evening before the trial, having only had time to write out and commit to memory the two opening paragraphs of the speech. All the rest was to be improvised as I went along. I was very tired but took a walk with Mrs. Howe, telling her as we strolled to Fort Massey, that if I could only get out of my head what I had got into it, the magistrates could not get a verdict. I was hopeful of the case, but fearful of breaking down, from the novelty of the situation and from want of practice. I slept soundly and went at it in the morning, still harassed with doubts and fears, which passed off, however, as I became conscious that I was commanding the attention of the court and jury. I was much cheered when I saw the tears rolling down one old gentleman's cheek. I thought he would not convict me if he could help it. I 22 A BOLD RESOLVE scarcely expected a unanimous verdict, as two or three of the jurors were connections, more or less remote, of some of the justices, but thought they would not agree. The lawyers were all very civil, but laughed at me a good deal, quoting the old maxim that jj he who pleads his own case has a fool for a client.' But the laugh was against them when all was over." Up to this period, although for seven years actively engaged in newspaper work, there is no record that Howe had ever undertaken to deliver a speech in public, and yet, rejecting the advice of the lawyers, he was proposing to face a court politically hostile, the attorney-general and associate counsel, and boldly make his own defence in a criminal action, in which under the rules of law, he would be precluded from offering evidence in support of the truth of the statements in the libel. The difference between a great man and an ordinary commonplace man is usually manifested by one or two striking incidents. The ordinary man, in Howe's situation, would have made his peace with the magistrates. A careful apology would have been drawn up and published in the Nova Scotian, the proceedings withdrawn, and the abuse not only continued but fortified by this token of cowardly surrender. The great man, the heaven-inspired hero, is he who is able to brush aside all considerations of expediency, all timorous opportunism, and recognizing the moral principles involved in the issue, boldly 23 JOSEPH HOWE dares to put everything at stake and challenge fate. Such a man was Joseph Howe, and in the splendid heroism which characterized his action in 1835 we have the key to the qualities and character of one of the greatest men British America has yet given to the world. The day of trial came. Sir Brenton Halliburton, the chief justice, presided, Mr. S. G. W. Archibald, the attorney-general, prosecuted, and with him was associated Mr. James F. Gray, a well known advocate. A jury was sworn, and Mr. Gray opened the case for the Crown. At the conclusion of the opening address Mr. Hugh Blackader was called to prove publication, but did not appear, because, being in warm sympathy with Mr. Howe, he refused to attend. Steps were about to be taken to issue a warrant for his arrest. Not to be excelled in generosity, Howe arose promptly and admitted that he was the proprietor of the Nova Scotian, and that the article had appeared in that paper on January 1st, with his knowledge. The Crown's case being thus admitted, Howe rose to speak in his own defence. That speech has been preserved and can be found in the "Speeches and Public Letters." It was delivered by a layman, unused to courts, and at that time unused to public speaking. Many of the topics dwelt upon in his speech were local in their character and are of no permanent interest to the world, but nevertheless, it is scarcely going too far to say that the whole history of forensic eloquence 24 mm mm THE ADDRESS in British jurisprudence has rarely furnished a more magnificent address to a jury than Mr. Howe's, and certain passages of it will not suffer when placed side by side with the great forensic orations of Burke, Sheridan, Erskine and Webster. One would have expected some timidity from a man situated as Howe was, but he had scarcely proceeded ten minutes before he assumed a bold and aggressive tone, and this he maintained to the end. He commented very early upon the fact that instead of taking proceedings against him civilly for libel, in which case he would have been able to furnish proof of the statements, they had chosen to proceed criminally, by which method all enquiry as to the truth or falsity of the libel was precluded, and only his motive in publishing it could be judicially enquired into. "Why," he demands, " if they were anxious to vindicate their innocence, did they not take their proceedings in a form in which the truth or falsity of the statements made could have been amply enquired into?" And then he answers the question in these terms:— "Gentlemen, they dared not do it. Yes, my Lords, I tell them in your presence and in the presence of the community whose confidence they have abused, that they dared not do it. They knew that' discretion was the better part of valour,' and that it might be safer to attempt to punish me than to justify themselves. There is a certain part of a ship through which when a seaman crawls, he 25 JOSEPH HOWfi Subjects himself to the derision of the deck, because it is taken as an admission of cowardice and incompetence ; and had not these jobbing justices crawled in here through this legal lubber-hole of indictment, I would have sent them out of court in a worse condition than Falstaff's ragged regiment— they would not have dared to march, even through Coventry, in a body." It is difficult to avoid the temptation of quoting many passages from this remarkable speech, but, as it occupied six and one-quarter hours in delivery and covers many pages, this is impossible. A paragraph or two of the peroration may be fittingly inserted, which cannot fail to impress any one possessed of a shadow of sentiment or imagination with the wonderful power of this young man. " Will you, my countrymen, the descendants of these men; warmed by their blood; inheriting their language; and having the principles for which they struggled confided to your care, allow them to be violated in your hands ? Will you permit the sacred fire of liberty, brought by your fathers from the venerable temples of Britain, to be quenched and trodden out on the simple altars they have raised ? Your verdict will be the most important, in its consequences, ever delivered before this tribunal; and I conjure you to judge me by the principles of English law, and to leave an unshackled press as a legacy to your children. You remember the press 26 INDEPENDENCE OF THE PRESS in your hours of conviviality and mirth—oh! do not desert it in this its day of trial. "If for a moment I could fancy that your verdict would stain me with crime, cramp my resources by fines, and cast my body into prison, even then I would endeavour to seek elsewhere for consolation and support. Even then I would not desert my principles, nor abandon the path that the generous impulses of youth selected, and which my riper judgment sanctions and approves. I would toil on, and hope for better times—till the principles of British liberty and British law had become more generally diffused, and had forced their way into the hearts of my countrymen. In the meantime I would endeavour to guard their interests—to protect their liberties; and, while Providence lent me health and strength, the independence of the press should never be violated in my hands. Nor is there a living thing beneath my roof that would not aid me in this struggle; the wife who sits by my fireside, the children who play around my hearth; the orphan boys in my office, whom it is my pride and pleasure to instruct from day to day in the obligations they owe to their profession and their country, would never suffer the press to be wounded through my side. We would wear the coarsest raiment; we would eat the poorest food; and crawl at night into the veriest hovel in the land to rest our weary limbs, but cheerful and undaunted hearts; and these jobbing justices should feel, that one frugal 27 JOSEPH HOWE and united family could withstand their persecution, defy their power, and maintain the freedom of the press. Yes, gentlemen, come what will, while I live, Nova Scotia shall have the blessing of an open and unshackled press." He was replied to by the attorney-general, and the jury was charged by the chief justice, whose instructions to the jury were decidedly unfavourable to the defendant. In summing up he said:— "In my opinion, the paper charged is a libel, and your duty is to state by your verdict that it is libellous." It is needless to say that the court-house was thronged from beginning to end of the trial, which occupied two days. After the judge's charge the jury retired, but they only deliberated ten minutes. When they filed into the box and pronounced their verdict—" Not guilty," the immense crowd in and out of the court-house burst into vociferous cheers. On leaving the court-house, Howe was borne to his home upon the shoulders of the populace. Bands paraded the streets all night, and Howe was compelled during the course of the evening to address the crowd from the windows of his house. He besought them to keep the peace, to enjoy the triumph in social intercourse round their own firesides, and to teach their children the names of the twelve men who had established the freedom of the press. Shortly afterwards a number of Nova Scotians residing in the city of New York raised a 28 ELECTED TO THE HOUSE subscription and purchased a solid silver pitcher, bearing this inscription:—"Presented to Joseph Howe, Esq., by Nova Scotians resident of New York, as a testimony of their respect and admiration for his honest independence in publicly exposing fraud, improving the morals, and correcting the errors of men in office, and his eloquent and triumphant defence in support of the freedom of the press. City of New York, 1835." This was forwarded to Halifax and presented to Mr. Howe publicly by a committee of leading citizens, and accepted by him in a graceful and modest speech. This prosecution for libel, by one sudden bound, placed Howe in a most conspicuous place in the eyes of his fellow-countrymen. Early in the next year, 1836, the House of Assembly was dissolved and Howe and William Annand were chosen as the Liberal candidates for the metropolitan county of Halifax. Thus began the intimate friendship between these two men, which lasted without interruption until they separated, in 1869, upon the Repeal question. Both Howe and Annand were elected by large majorities. In his speeches on the hustings prior to this election, Mr. Howe laid down clearly the principles of government which he was seeking to establish in Nova Scotia. These may be epitomized in the following extract from one of his speeches:— "In England, one vote of the people's representa- 29 fl I JOSEPH HOWE tives turns out a ministry, and a new one comes in, which is compelled to shape its policy by the views and wishes of the majority; here we may record five hundred votes against our ministry, and yet they sit unmoved, reproducing themselves from their own friends and connections, and from a narrow party in the country, who, though opposed to the people, have a monopoly of influence and patronage. In England the people can breathe the breath of life into their government whenever they please; in this country, the government is like an ancient Egyptian mummy wrapped up in narrow and antique prejudices—dead and inanimate, but yet likely to last forever. We are desirous of a change, not such as shall divide us from our brethren across the water, but which will ensure to us what they enjoy. All we ask is for what exists at home—a system of responsibility to the people extending through all the departments supported at the public expense." Thus, at length, Howe has achieved a seat in the assembly of his native province. The situation at that moment demanded high service if the entrenched system of irresponsibility and favouritism was to be swept away, and a form of responsible government established. The task must fall upon the shoulders of a man especially fitted for this work. No man had up to this time appeared upon the scene who had given evidence of the qualities necessary to achieve this great purpose, and it must 30 HOWE'S QUALITIES be understood that the process by which responsible government could be extorted from the imperial authorities and made applicable to one province would be available for all the other British American provinces, and, indeed, would constitute a model for colonial government throughout the empire. It may be fitting for a moment to examine Howe's endowments for the great task which was now before him. Howe had a splendid physique and an excellent physical constitution. His height was a little above the medium, with broad shoulders, well expanded chest, and a neat, well-formed figure with tapering limbs. He was reputed at the time to possess great physical strength and power. While lacking a scholastic education, he had, nevertheless, the advantages of a thorough training in journalism and had improved his mind by a wide range of reading of the best authors. Shakespeare seems to have been his favourite, and he was intimately familiar with his plays. His temperament was buoyant, and he may be characterized as a splendid optimist. He was eminently social and brimful of humour, which bubbled forth from hour to hour in his daily intercourse with his fellow-men. His mental powers were of the highest order; his mind was incapable of narrow views, and he looked at all questions from the broadest prospective. He had acquired a matchless style in writing, easy, natural, terse, luminous and spiced with an unfailing touch of human nature 31 JOSEPH HOWE and graceful humour. Previous to his great speech at his trial for libel, he was not known to possess any special talent as a public speaker. That occasion revealed remarkable powers of eloquence, and from the time he entered parliament to the end of his career he enjoyed without diminution the reputation of being one of the greatest orators of his day and generation. His style of public speaking differed totally from that of other great men in British America with whom he may be contrasted. These brought information and sound reasoning to their public utterances, but, while Howe was surpassed by none in the range of his knowledge on great questions which he discussed, and had extraordinary powers of lucidity in unfolding his views and presenting his ideas in a plausible and taking manner, he differed from all his compeers in the wealth of imagination which he could throw upon any subject with which he was dealing, the delightful humour, and, above all, the subtle and irresistible personal magnetism which marked all his great public utterances. These are rare endowments, but they do not constitute the supreme test of Howe's fitness for the great work before him. Intellectual endowments and capacity to speak and write effectively are important qualities for a public man and political leader, but, beyond these, great occasions require moral stamina, dauntless courage, and these constitute Howe's crowning glory. His father's instincts were Tory, 32 MORAL HEROISM his three elder brothers were distinctly in sympathy with the dominant Tory views of the day. All the influential agencies surrounding the capital and the outlying county towns were hostile to any radical change in the existing condition of affairs, and these elements formed a strongly entrenched power which it was difficult to resist and dangerous to attack. Howe, as has been said, was of an eminently social disposition and no one was better fitted to shine in society. To attack existing powers meant social ostracism, a penalty from which most men would shrink with dismay. It also meant that upon his head would fall all the thunder-bolts of ridicule and contempt which entrenched power can fulminate. Those who had been professedly fighting the battles in the assembly were not devoid of intellectual strength and of parliamentary eloquence and power, but they lacked the moral heroism which could challenge the worst and bring matters to a crisis. Such a man was Joseph Howe, and the events will presently show that he was one of those heroes so graphically portrayed in Carlyle, as now and then vouchsafed by Providence to mankind to straighten out the tangles which injustice and incompetency have created, and to introduce a new epoch into the conditions of human affairs. The history of the world is the biography of its great men. Howe was distinctly a maker of history. 33 7t¥ CHAPTER III RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT THE general elections had been held in 1836 and the new parliament was called together early in 1837. The House of Assembly contained many men of experience and eminence. Mr. S. G. W. Archibald had for some time been a leader of the popular party and was a man of education and ability. Mr. Alexander Stewart, who had been associated with those fighting the battle of the assembly, was also an eminent lawyer and a man who has attained a recognized position in the history of the province. Mr. John Young (father of Sir William) was also a member of the assembly and a man of large and progressive views. Mr. Lawrence O'Connor Doyle was a man of the most delightful character, whom Mr. Howe—not a poor judge of such matters—regarded as the wittiest man he had ever met, and whose political career was only marred by his excessive indulgence in conviviality. Mr. James Boyle Uniacke was also in this legislature, and might be regarded, perhaps, as the leader and spokesman of the Tory party. Howe was thirty-two years of age, he was taking his seat in the legislature for the first time, and the task before him was, not only to confront those in 35 JOSEPH HOWE this assembly who were unfavourable to a change in the constitution of the country, but to grapple also with those timid and conciliatory Liberal members, who were necessarily alarmed at the direct, uncompromising and bold manner in which the young member seemed determined to challenge existing conditions. On the first day this new parliament met, Howe was upon his feet with a resolution which indicated the temper of his mind and the line of action which might be expected from him. It was in connection with the appointment of a chaplain. Although at that time the population of Nova Scotia was over 150,000, and the Church of England numbered less than 30,000, that body had nearly a monopoly of all the public offices, and of positions with emoluments attached. The council of twelve was composed of eight Episcopalians, three Presbyterians and one Catholic, and from time immemorial the chaplain of both Houses was chosen, as a matter of course, from the Episcopalian clergy. Howe's first resolution, when the appointment of a chaplain had been moved, was to this effect:— "Resolved, That, representing the whole province, peopled by various denominations of Christians, this House recognizes no religious distinctions, and is bound to extend not only equal justice, but equal courtesy to all." The first and pressing question which agitated the assembly was the constitution of the legislative 36 EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC council. On the opening day, after the routine business had been disposed of, Mr. Doyle moved and Mr. Howe seconded the following resolutions:— "Resolved, That the practice hitherto pursued by His Majesty's legislative council in this Province, of excluding the people from their deliberations, is not only at variance with that of the House of Lords in England, and that of several of the legislative councils in the other British North American colonies, but contrary to the spirit of the British constitution, and injurious to the interests and liberties of this country. " Resolved, That while this House has no desire to deny to the upper branch of the legislature the right enjoyed by the representatives of the people, and sanctioned by public opinion, of closing their doors during the discussion of questions of order and privilege, and on particular occasions, when the public interest may require secret deliberation, yet they should fail in their duty if they did not express to His Majesty's council the deliberate conviction of those they represent, that the system of invariable exclusion, pursued for a series of years, and still pertinaciously continued, is fraught with much evil, and has a tendency to foster suspicion and distrust. " Resolved, That this House is prepared to provide the expenses which may be incurred for the accommodation of the public in the legislative council chamber. 37 JOSEPH HOWE "Resolved, That the clerk do carry these resolutions to the council, and request their concurrence." In support of these resolutions Howe made his maiden speech. With slight amendments these resolutions were adopted by the House unanimously. It was clear after the election that the popular party had obtained a commanding position in the new assembly, and it was not considered judicious by those who were really in sympathy with the oligarchy to make a stand upon this question, because public opinion throughout the province was distinctly opposed to the existing position of the legislative council, especially in its dual character as the executive, and to the holding of its legislative deliberations behind closed doors. To these resolutions the council on February 4th, forwarded to the House a reply, in which it was set forth that His Majesty's council denied the right of the House to comment on its mode of procedure; whether their deliberations were open or secret was their concern and theirs only. This message was received by the popular party in the House with just indignation and considerable anxiety, while of course it was the occasion of mirth and exultation in Tory circles. It was felt on all sides that it was necessary to deal with the matter in some form. Mr. John Young, who was recognized as a consistent and sturdy liberal, proposed a series of conciliatory resolutions in the hope of inducing 38 j 1 Bold resolutions the council to recede from its haughty position. Mr. Howe saw clearly that the adoption of these tame expressions of opinion would be simply dallying with the question and pursuing the innocuous and futile policy which had characterized the Reform party in the previous parliament. He accordingly conceived the idea that no course was left to him but boldly to propose a series of resolutions in amendment to those of Mr. Young, couched in terms so clear and so emphatic as to make a clean cut issue with the council, and carry the matter, if need be, to the imperial authorities. It is not difficult to see that this was a bold course for a young man, who had scarcely been a fortnight in the legislature, to take; and the boldness of his action is emphasized by the fact that it could not fail to bring down upon him the displeasure of the recognized leaders of his party. In presenting these resolutions Howe made a speech of great length. Impressed with the seriousness of the position he was taking, he says in the course of his splendid speech:— I It is one which I should not have assumed, did I not deeply feel that it involves the peace and freedom of Nova Scotia; and although, when applied to her alone, these principles may appear of little importance, when I take a broader view— when my eye ranges over our vast colonial possessions—when I see countries stretching through every clime, and embracing many millions of people 39 JOSEPH HOWE more than the islands to which they belong, and when I reflect that upon a right understanding of these principles, a fair adjustment of these institutions, depends the security and peace of these millions of human beings, my mind warms with the subject, and expands with the magnitude of the theme. Sir, I ask for nothing but justice1 and responsibility, sanctioned by the spirit and forms of the British constitution. The idea of republicanism, of independence, of severance from the mother country, never crossed my mind. Centuries hence, perhaps, when nations exist where now but a few thousands are thinly scattered, these colonies may become independent states. But it will not be in my time; and when it arrives, if it be permitted to us to look down from the other world upon the destinies of our country, I trust hers may be one of freedom and of peace. But, as there is now no occasion, so have I no wish for republican institutions, no desire to desert the mighty mother for the great daughter who has sprung from her loins. I wish to five and die a British subject, but not a Briton only in the name. Give me—give to my country the blessed privilege of her constitution and her laws; and as our earliest thoughts are trained to reverence the great principles of freedom and responsibility, which have made her the wonder of the world, let us be contented with nothing less. Englishmen at home will despise us, if we forget the lessons our common ancestors have bequeathed." 40 DEBATE ON THE RESOLUTIONS A protracted and somewhat fierce debate followed. Mr. Alexander Stewart, one of the popular leaders, became alarmed, and straightway went over to the government. Howe closed the debate in another speech, concluding with these beautiful and pregnant words: "Sir, when I go to England, when I realize that dream of my youth, if I can help it, it shall not be with a budget of grievances in my hand. I shall go to survey the home of my fathers with the veneration it is calculated to inspire; to tread on those spots which the study of her history has made classic ground to me; where Hampden and Sydney struggled for the freedom she enjoys; where her orators and statesmen have thundered in defence of the liberties of mankind. And I trust in God that when that day comes, I shall not be compelled to look back with sorrow and degradation to the country I have left behind; that I shall not be forced to confess that though here the British name exists, and her language is preserved, we have but a mockery of British institutions; that when I clasp the hand of an Englishman on the shores of my fatherland, he shall not thrill with the conviction that his descendant is little better than a slave." These twelve resolutions proposed by Mr. Howe are so vital to a proper conception of the question of responsible government that they should be read carefully in their entirety (see Appendix A.) In spite of the opposition of the friends of the govern- 41 JOSEPH HOWE ment in the House and of the bitter hostility of some of those who were formerly associated with the Reform party, Howe succeeded, with some slight amendments, in securing the passage of every one of these twelve resolutions, some of them by substantial majorities, and soon afterwards moved for a committee to prepare an address to the Crown embodying the resolutions. Three days later there came a message from the legislative council so pronounced and decisive in its character as to create the greatest excitement in political circles. It vehemently resented the manner in which the House had commented upon the council and its conduct, and intimated in plain terms that unless one obnoxious resolution was rescinded it would inevitably result in the interruption of the public business. This meant, of course, that they would refuse to pass the supply bill. It was an heroic remedy which the council had previously resorted to with impunity, since the Crown revenues were ample for paying the salaries and carrying on the functions of government, whereas the provincial revenues were devoted to the road and bridge service and other matters of importance in developing the interior of the country. If the monies were not appropriated for these purposes, all these important services would have to remain unperformed, which would be not only a serious thing for the country, but would tend to compromise the member with his constituents. 42 A DISCONCERTING MESSAGE The receipt of this message occasioned the greatest possible anxiety to the popular party in the House. To yield to the council in this point meant a perpetuation of existing abuses. Stoutly to maintain their position on these pregnant resolutions meant the loss of the revenue, and the absence of any money to spend for the necessary development of a young, scattered and growing province. Many wiseacres shook their heads and said that Mr. Howe had precipitated matters in a rash and hasty manner and that the responsibility must fall upon his head, and his enemies were disposed to think that he had fallen into a fatal blunder, which would injure his prestige and, perhaps, destroy his career. The day on which the council's message was to come up for consideration, Howe was not at first in his place, and no one knew what course he would pursue; and his attitude was of some importance, because, although he had only just taken his seat, in this comparatively short time he had come to be looked upon as a leader and guide in this great struggle for popular rights. At last Howe walked into the chamber, buoyant as ever, with that jaunty manner and cheerful smiling face, which never failed, in the long years in which he was associated with the political struggles of his province, to give confidence to his friends. At the proper time he arose and announced his determination. He had anticipated, he said, the action of the council, and was prepared for it. The revenue should not be lost; the resolu- 43 JOSEPH HOWE tions had done their work; they had tested the opinion of the House; they had gone, with the debates upon them, to the country; they would go to England, and even if rescinded the very coercion under which the act was done would illustrate the overweening power of the upper branch and the defective constitution of the country. He would not rescind the single resolution complained of, but would move to rescind the whole, and then ask for a committee to prepare an address to the Crown upon the state of the province. What that address would contain was matter for after consideration, when the revenue bills had been passed. The resolutions were rescinded; the revenue bills were secured, and within a few days of the close of the session an address to the Crown was reported and passed, which embodied all the resolutions, and elicited those important despatches from Lord Glenelg, which were laid before the House the next session and led to important results. It must not be inferred that, jaunty as was his manner of doing it, the rescinding of these resolutions occasioned Mr. Howe no concern. We know from the best sources of information that he wrestled anxiously all night with the vexatious problem, and yielded to the painful necessity only after a prolonged struggle. The adroit manner in which Howe had met this serious situation enhanced his reputation, baffled the confident anticipations of his enemies, and 44 it! CONCESSIONS gave added confidence to his friends. After the revenue bills were passed, Howe moved his address to the Crown, and carried it by a substantial majority. This address, together with the counter statement of the council of twelve, was forwarded to the colonial office by Sir Colin Campbell, at that time lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia. During the recess, despatches were received from Lord Glenelg, secretary of state for the colonies, which, while not conceding the full measure of responsible government for which Howe was resolutely contending, went very far towards meeting the just demands of the House of Assembly. In his despatch to Sir Colin Campbell, Lord Glenelg instructed him to substitute two councils for one, that is, a legislative council was to be appointed for purposes of legislation, and a second council was to be appointed for the purposes of government. In forming these councils the governor was instructed to select men from all parts of the province and from the various religious denominations. He concurred in the proposition that the chief justice should be excluded from both of these councils, and the governor was recommended to call to his councils those representative men of the House of Assembly who enjoyed the confidence of the people's representatives; and the desire of the House of Assembly to have the control of the casual and territorial revenues was conceded upon the condition that the assembly should provide permanently 45 JOSEPH HOWE for the payment, according to a civil list submitted, of the salaries of certain officials, such as the governor, provincial secretary, judges, attorney-general, solicitor-general, etc. To illustrate the fact that the colonial office was not yet prepared to concede the principle of executive responsibility in colonial government, an extract from one of Lord Glenelg's despatches will suffice:— "The language of the 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 respectful, but, at the same time, a firm declaration, that it is inconsistent with a due adherence to the essential distinctions between a metropolitan and a colonial government, and is, therefore, inadmissible." Upon the receipt of these despatches, Sir Colin Campbell and his advisers created two councils, and forwarded the names for approval to the colonial office. The legislative council consisted of nineteen members, but it was composed, to a preponderating degree, of those favourable to the governing party, and leading Reformers were carefully omitted. The executive council was also formed very much upon the same lines, but with some objectionable persons omitted, Four members 46 « A STEP BACKWARDS of the executive were drawn from members of the House of Assembly, but they were those in sympathy with government house and officialdom, with the exception of Mr. Herbert Huntington, who was a sturdy advocate of reform and a supporter of Mr. Howe. During the session of 1838, however, it was announced that the legislative and executive, so formed by Sir Colin Campbell, had been dissolved, and new bodies created under instructions of Lord Durham, the governor-general. According to instructions from the colonial office, the number of members of the executive was limited to nine, and the legislative council to fifteen members. When the new councillors were gazetted, it appeared that Mr. Herbert Huntington, the only Liberal on the executive, had been left out, and the legislative council was composed almost exclusively of men hostile to responsible government. After these appointments had been gazetted, Howe in his place in the assembly delivered an important and able speech, in the course of which he pointed out the numerous advances which had been made already as the fruit of the efforts of the assembly in the previous session, and indulged in a tone of justifiable triumph concerning the great concessions which had been freely made by the imperial authorities. Later in the session another address to the Crown was proposed, expressing appreciation of the gracious consideration which had been given to the 47 JOSEPH HOWE I I previous representations of the assembly, but pointing out among other things that in the formation of the executive and legislative councils the sentiments and wishes of the people at large had been ignored and that places in these councils had been conferred upon those who did not command the confidence of the people, and urging other complaints in respect of the existing system of government. The answer to this despatch was laid upon the table of the House in the session of 1839 and was distinctly unfavourable. The offer of the casual revenues was withdrawn, the councils as they stood were sustained, the judges' fees were abandoned, but these officers were compensated out of the public revenues. The request that all the outports at which collectors were maintained should be open was evaded, and five or six bills passed during the previous session were disallowed. The only course now, it was felt, was to send a delegation representing the views of the majority to England. The tone of the latest despatches clearly indicated that both the governor and the executive were unduly influencing the colonial office. A series of resolutions was moved in the House on the subject of the popular grievances, concluding with one to the effect "that two members possessing the confidence of the House be appointed to proceed to England and represent to Her Majesty's government the views and wishes of this House and the people of Nova Scotia on the 48 THE REBELLION OF 1837 subjects embraced in the foregoing resolutions, and such other matters as might be given to their charge." The debate upon these resolutions was a fierce and protracted one. The lines between parties were being formed. The members of the government in the House, with Mr. J. B. Uniacke at their head, were distinctly resisting, with the assent of the governor, Howe's plans for securing responsible government and a recognition of the rights of the people, while Howe had behind him a compact majority of men who were determined to follow him, without wavering, in the pursuit of the great and important end he had in view. At this particular juncture the popular party in Nova Scotia was considerably hampered by the reports of rebellion and bloodshed which came from the upper provinces. The unwise insurrection led by William Lyon Mackenzie and others in Upper Canada, and the precipitate resort to arms under the leadership of Papineau in Lower Canada had a tendency to cast aspersion upon the popular party in Nova Scotia. It was claimed that they were making demands which would lead also to sedition and rebellion. It is, perhaps, the greatest tribute that can be paid to Howe's sagacity as a public man, that, though entirely new to the political scene, and called upon to assume leadership at the moment of his entering the assembly, and resenting bitterly the denial of popular rights by the governing bodies, he was never for a moment 49 JOSEPH HOWE betrayed into taking a step which was not strictly constitutional and within his rights as a legislator in a British colonial parliament. When the news of the insurrection first reached Nova Scotia, Howe was able to publish a very able letter addressed to Mr. H. S. Chapman, a leader of the Lower Canadian extremists, who had written to Howe to secure his cooperation in the Liberal movement there. This letter was dated October, 1835, before Howe had entered the legislature. In it he frankly points out the apparent aim of the agitators in Lower Canada—separation from Great Britain and the establishment of republican institutions, and he tells him plainly that no such idea animates the Maritime reformers, who love British institutions and intend to secure their full rights, by constitutional means, within the empire. Such a statesmanlike exposition of the situation at so early a stage of the struggle for self-government is a striking illustration of the great mental endowments of Mr. Howe, and his letter to Mr. Chapman, when published, elicited the highest encomiums of the English press.1 xAt the time of the rebellion in Canada, a regiment of British soldiers was sent from Halifax to uphold the imperial authority. A meeting to raise funds to support the wives and children of the soldiers was made the occasion of a loyal demonstration, and some of the Tory officials were disposed to take advantage of the incident to hint in their speeches at the dangers of agitation in this quarter. Mr. Howe was promptly on his feet, and in a magnificent speech vindicated the loyalty of himself and his associates, and completely captured *&§ meeting. 50 REFORM WITHOUT BLOODSHED Mr. Howe had faith in British institutions, and believed that, when the issues were thoroughly discussed and clearly understood, all that Reformers were now struggling for could be accomplished without compromising the loyalty of a single individual or disturbing the peace of any province or community. Indeed, it may be fairly claimed that the principles laid down by Howe and his broad, clear and statesmanlike representation of the situation to the colonial secretary were the means of securing an enlightened system of self- government in all the rapidly growing colonies of the British empire. The necessity of resorting to rebellion in the Canadas in 1837 is an indictment against the wisdom and judgment of the leaders of the popular party, and it redounds to the eternal glory of Joseph Howe that he achieved within the compass of a few years everything the most ad- , vanced colonial statesman could desire by perfectly constitutional means and without causing a single drop of blood to be shed. In the debate upon the proposition to send delegates to England, Howe entirely vindicated himself and his party from any reflections that might be cast upon them owing to the folly committed by the extremists in the Canadas. The resolutions were adopted by substantial majorities, and Mr. Herbert Huntington and Mr. William Young, afterwards Sir William Young, chief justice, were chosen as delegates to proceed to England, Mr. Howe would 51 JOSEPH HOWE naturally have been selected owing to his leading position in the popular party, but he thought it would strengthen his position if he made it impossible to have charged against him any interested motive in his struggles. The legislative council selected Messrs. Alexander Stewart and Lewis M. Wilkins as delegates to represent that body and to defend the old system in England. A scene occurred in the House during this session which redounds to its credit and especially to the high and magnanimous character of Mr. Howe. A controversy was going forward in respect to the boundary between the province of New Brunswick and the state of Maine. At last, in February 1839, the governor of the state of Maine sent a message to the senate and assembly of the state announcing that he had ordered troops into the disputed territory. His action in this matter was approved by both Houses and $800,000 was voted to pay the expenses of this hostile invasion of what was recognized then as a part of the province of New Brunswick. When this high-handed procedure became known in Halifax, although party feeling ran high, all political differences were hushed in a moment when the honour of the British flag was menaced. The executive government was helpless so far as the assembly was concerned, which was largely hostile and under the control of Howe and his associates, but Howe did not permit this to weigh. He at once tendered to the government the united 52 LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S MEASURE support of himself and his followers in any measure providing for the defence. A series of resolutions was reported and carried unanimously, by which the executive was authorized to call out the whole militia of the province for the defence of New Brunswick and to expend £100,000, if necessary, in repelling the invaders. When the resolutions were passed, the whole House rose and gave three cheers for the Queen, and three for the province of New Brunswick. It was at this time that Lord Durham's famous report was laid before parliament, and this elaborate and now famous document gave great encouragement and support to the popular party. Lord John Russell had brought forward in the English parliament an important measure for the settlement of Canadian affairs. It was disappointing to colonial Reformers, and especially coming from Lord Russell, who had achieved a just distinction for his breadth of view and liberality of mind. He failed to follow Lord Durham's report but elaborately argued that the adoption of executive responsibility in the sense in which it was understood in Great Britain was an obvious impossibility. The act creating the union of 1841 did not, therefore, in any way concede a full measure of responsible government, although this was ultimately achieved to the fullest extent under the operations of the act itself. Colonial Reformers in Nova Scotia were disposed to become despondent and believe that there was 53 JOSEPH HOWE no expectation of obtaining a just consideration of colonial claims to self-government from the imperial authorities. Howe remained sanguine. His conviction was that Lord John Russell did not understand the situation, and he undertook to bring the whole question of colonial government before him in a series of four letters, which may be read at this date, more than sixty years after their publication, as a magnificent illustration of intellectual capacity, breadth of view and vigorous composition unsurpassed in the whole volume of correspondence that has passed for one hundred years between the imperial government and the various statesmen who have been reared in the empire. To print them in full is impossible, and yet no enlightened Canadian can afford to dispense with their perusal. They are to be found in Vol. II. of Howe's "Speeches and Public Letters," and they embody in the clearest and most fascinating terms, and with a brightness and raciness altogether unusual in official correspondence, the whole case for self-government. They were printed in pamphlet form and placed in the hands of every member of both Houses of the imperial parliament, and widely distributed in the clubs. Unquestionably, these letters exercised a far-reaching influence on the policy of Great Britain towards her rapidly developing colonial possessions. After they had been well- considered and understood no further narrow enunciations of policy are to be found in despatches from 54 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL the colonial office, and although in Nova Scotia the struggle had to be maintained a few years longer, and although in the Canadas, after the Act of Union, owing to the narrow views and arbitrary conduct of Sir Charles Metcalfe, full development of responsible government did not accrue until some years later, yet the seeds of sound policy had been sown and taken root, and thenceforth self-government was regarded as not only wise and prudent, but indeed the only condition upon which happiness, contentment and prosperity could prevail in the colonial empire. Splendid work Mr. Howe achieved in the enfranchisement of his own province, but when his claim to eminence is put forward, it will rest not alone upon the fruits of his direct political service in his own province but in the commanding part he played in educating the imperial authorities in true statesmanlike methods. If Howe were alive to-day and with more than sixty years experience in the development of colonial government in North America there is scarce a line in the four great letters to Lord John Russell that he would desire to recall, and his friends and admirers can read them at this day as the emanation of a splendid mind. Lord John (afterwards Earl) Russell was a very distinguished British statesman and afterwards prime minister, but his friends could scarcely derive the same satisfaction from his observations on colonial executive responsibility. Lord Russell lived to see colonial governors govern, 55 JOSEPH HOWE through their constitutional advisers, as fully and absolutely as the sovereign at home; and in less than a score of years after his famous pronuncia- mento, no British colony possessing responsible government would have tolerated the idea that an executive should hold office an hour after it had ceased to possess the confidence of the people's representatives. Messrs. Young and Huntington went to England, as did also Messrs. Stewart and Wilkins, and at the next session of the legislature in 1839, they reported to the respective bodies which had delegated them. Nothing definite resulted from this delegation. Messrs. Young and Huntington obtained concessions in respect of the opening of several ports of entry in the province; some definite concessions in respect of legislation; but accomplished nothing in respect either of the composition of the councils or in establishing the principle of the responsibility of the executive to the popular House. It is, perhaps, desirable that a statement should be made in respect to the actual 'methods of conducting government in Nova Scotia at this time. The executive council on being constituted in 1838 as a separate body from the legislative council, consisted, first, of the Hon. T. N. Jeffrey, who was Her Majesty's collector of customs for Nova Scotia at Halifax, and holding no seat in either branch of the legislature. The Hon. Simon Bradstreet Robie, 56 THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL who had had a seat upon the judiciary, which he had vacated, was a member of the executive, and also president of the legislative council. The provincial secretary was a permanent official appointed by the Crown upon the recommendation of the colonial secretary, and held a seat in the executive, but was not a member of either branch of the legislature. His name was Sir Rupert D. George, and although his was an important provincial department, he was absolutely independent of the House of Assembly, and indeed virtually independent of the executive council to which he belonged. The attorney-general, Mr. S. G. W. Archibald, was not a member of the executive council, but obtained his appointment direct from the Crown through the colonial secretary, and at the same time held the position of speaker of the House of Assembly. The solicitor-general was Mr. J. W. Johnston, who was appointed to office in 1834, but held no seat in either branch of the legislature, nor indeed was a member of the executive. In 1838, when the two separate councils were formed, Mr. Johnston was made a member of both. Mr. James B. Uniacke was a member of the executive without office, and held a seat in the House of Assembly, and up to 1840 may be regarded as the leader of the government party in the popular branch, and therefore Howe's chief antagonist for the first term of his legislative life. It is proper to mention, however, that the strongest man in the executive 57 JOSEPH HOWE W[ council, and the one who can be fairly regarded as the leading figure of those opposed to responsible government in Nova Scotia was the Hon. J. W. Johnston, who, though born in the West Indies, sprang from a distinguished ancestry, came to Nova Scotia in his youth, settled at Annapolis, studied law with Mr. Thomas Ritchie, afterwards Judge Ritchie, and on being admitted to practice, first opened an office in Kentville, but afterwards moved to the capital, where he soon by his commanding abilities secured a foremost position as an advocate. His tastes and connections were all aristocratic, though the temper of his mind was liberal, and while his name is invariably associated with the leadership of the Tory party, he was in reality less disposed to thwart reform measures than many of those associated with him. From the time he entered the executive council in 1838, four years after he had held the office of solicitor-general, he was Sir Colin Campbell's chief adviser and the strongest man in his government, though then occupying no place in the House of Assembly. Afterwards we shall find Mr. Johnston developing into a great figure in the political arena of the province, and destined for many years to be Howe's most sturdy opponent. Similar anomalies in connection with the administration of government were to be found at this time in all the provinces, and it is not an extraordinary incident that the leading men of these 58 HOWE'S OBJECTS several provinces should have conceived it impossible to have adopted in this country the same principle of executive responsibility to the people which had been then fully achieved in Great Britain. It is seldom that a privileged class ever conceives the wisdom of surrendering its privileges. What Howe started out to achieve was simply this, that all persons holding office and helping to carry on the business of the country should be appointed by an executive which had the confidence of a majority of the members of the House of Assembly; that no executive could hold office a day longer than it could command the confidence of the people's representatives, and that the governor himself should be reduced to the position of a respectable figurehead, acting according to the advice of ministers who were responsible for every act done in his name and liable to be called to account for it in the popular House. This was honestly believed, by British ministers and by most of the leading men of Nova Scotia at that time, to be a piece of palpable absurdity, which could not be practically worked. Mr. Howe was thoroughly imbued with the idea that it not only could work, but that nothing else would give satisfaction to the people and lead to pleasant and harmonious relations with the mother country. And here we see the issue between the two parties, which was not to be finally determined until 1847. Meantime, considerable progress had been made 59 JOSEPH HOWE in the direction of reform. The old council of twelve had been swept away; a legislative council, holding its deliberations with its galleries open to the public, had been created, and an executive council formed in which members of the House of Assembly had obtained seats; but no control over the executive had been obtained by the House. The revenue of the country had not yet been placed fully at the disposal of the assembly, and the leading officials of the province were, in the main, men who in no sense commanded the confidence of the people's representatives. In the autumn of 1839 Lord John Russell became colonial secretary and he sent despatches on the subject of the formation of colonial governments to the Canadian provinces, the most important feature of which was in relation to the tenure of office of public officials in Canada. He adverts to the fact that all the leading offices were held by permanent tenure, the origin of which was that these at first were appointed from persons residing in England, but as of late years the practice had been introduced of preferring to places of trust in the colonies persons resident there, this had taken away the strongest motive which could be alleged in favour of a practice to which there were many objections of the greatest weight. The governors were instructed to cause it to be made generally known that thereafter the tenure of colonial office held during Her Majesty's pleasure, would not be 60 LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S DESPATCHES regarded as an equivalent to tenure under good behaviour, but that such officers should be called upon to retire from the service as often as any sufficient motives of public policy might suggest the expediency of that measure. These remarks were not to apply to judicial officers, nor to offices which were altogether ministerial and which did not devolve upon the holders of them duties in the discharge of which the character and policy of the government were directly involved, but were intended to apply to the heads of departments, and especially to such offices as that of provincial secretary, treasurer or receiver-general, surveyor- general, attorney and solicitor-general; and should apply also to members of the executive council in those provinces in which the legislative and executive councils were distinct bodies. When these despatches arrived late in 1839, Sir John Harvey, the governor of New Brunswick, under date of December 31st, issued a circular addressed to the heads of the civil departments and members of the executive council of New Brunswick, in which he intimated to them his intention of carrying on the government of that province upon the lines laid down in Lord John Russell's despatch. This at once gave complete satisfaction to the people of New Brunswick, and practically ended, so far as that province was concerned, any acute contest in relation to responsible government, although, it must be added, it was not until a later date that the 61 JOSEPH HOWE full and complete recognition of responsible party government was in effective operation in that province. In Nova Scotia, Sir Colin Campbell, acting partly upon his own views, and supported, no doubt, by most of those in his council, adopted an entirely different course. His council was composed almost entirely of men not possessing the confidence of the assembly, and no prominent member of the popular party could look forward, under existing conditions, to any reasonable expectation of filling a responsible or honourable position in the government of the country. In the session of 1840, finding that Sir Colin Campbell would take no step towards giving effect to Lord John Russell's despatches, Mr. Howe gave notice of a series of resolutions reciting the existing conditions, and concluding as follows: "Resolved, that the House of Assembly, after mature and calm deliberation, weary of seeing the revenues of the country and the time of its representatives wasted, and the people of Nova Scotia misrepresented to the sovereign, the gracious boons of the sovereign marred in their transmission to the people, do now solemnly declare that the executive council, as at present constituted, does not enjoy the confidence of the Commons." Howe introduced this resolution in a speech of great length and power. Perhaps its greatest merit was in its extreme moderation, and the exhaustive 62 WANT OF CONFIDENCE manner in which he set forth point by point the actual prevailing conditions. This speech made a great impression, not only upon Mr. Howe's friends in the House, but upon the members of the executive who sat in the House, and it was not less far-reaching in its effect upon the people generally throughout the province. This resolution of want of confidence was passed by a large majority in the House, and it is a notable fact that the Hon. Mr. Uniacke, the leader of the government in the House, withdrew from the division, and it became an open secret that he was leaning towards Howe's views. After the adoption of these resolutions, the House waited upon the governor in a body and presented them. The governor's reply was evasive and altogether unsatisfactory. He declared that he had no reason to believe that any alteration had taken place on the part of Her Majesty's government in respect to the methods of conducting colonial government, and he declared that justice to his executive council compelled him to say that he had every reason to be satisfied with the advice and assistance which they had at all times afforded. When the House returned to its own chamber, Mr. Uniacke arose and stated that being desirous of facilitating the introduction of a better system of government, he thought it his duty to the House and to the government to tender his resignation of the seat he held as executive councillor, and he intimated that his resignation had 63 JOSEPH HOWE been accepted. He followed this with a speech in which he admitted frankly the absurdity of the present system and the necessity for a change. Howe at once rose, and in the most handsome manner conveyed his congratulations to his late antagonist; declared that his resignation did him the highest honour; paid a tribute to his ability, and contrasted his conduct with that of the men who, while they had relied upon him for their defence, now wished to sacrifice him in support of a rotten system which the government itself had abandoned. From thenceforward Mr. Uniacke may be reckoned as a friend and coadjutor of Mr. Howe in the struggle for responsible government. To indicate how bitter and tenacious of its position the official oligarchy was, it is stated that, although belonging to one of the oldest and most distinguished families in the province, Uniacke for a time was socially ostracized by the governor and by many of the old Tory families in the city. It was unquestionably an important acquisition to the Liberal party of Nova Scotia to have secured the cooperation of such an able and accomplished man as James Boyle Uniacke. Howe and his associates in the House of Assembly were naturally disgusted at the answer to their address given by Sir Colin Campbell. It was not that he affirmed anything especially obnoxious, but the evasive tone indicated a determination upon his part to disregard Lord John Russell's - SIR COLIN CAMPBELL despatch and to cling to his present Tory advisers. Howe's first impulse was to prepare an address to the governor-general, but this he abandoned, and after a day or two proposed another address to Sir Colin Campbell, couched in mild and respectful terms, setting forth with still greater clearness the exact point at issue between the assembly and the government. He asked him simply to give effect to Lord John Russell's despatch and carry on his government according to the wishes of the people. The second address was adopted by a large majority in the House, twenty-nine voting for and ten against it. It was presented to the governor and an answer returned almost identical in its vague and unsatisfactory character with the former answer. He declared that if he gave effect to their address, he would practically recognize a fundamental change in the colonial constitution, which he could not discover to have been designed by the despatch of the secretary of state, Lord John Russell, of October 13th. Howe now took a step which for boldness stands almost unsurpassed in the struggle for responsible government in any of the colonies. Sir Colin Campbell was a distinguished old soldier, a very worthy type of man personally, and the office of lieutenant- governor of a province in those early days was regarded with a sanctity altogether unknown at the present time. He was sent out directly by the imperial authorities as the representative of the 65 M I If JOSEPH HOWE sovereign; he exercised substantial political power and enormous social influence; he had always at his back not only the wealth and social position of the country and the official class, but there is always an innate disposition on the part of the people generally to hold in high regard the office of governor. Yet Howe took the responsibility of submitting to the legislature an address to the queen, very full in its character, and concluding with this memorable paragraph: "That Your Majesty will join with this House in obviating the necessity for such appeals— that you will repress these absurd attempts to govern provinces by the aid and for the exclusive benefit of minorities, this assembly confidently believes; and in asking Your Majesty to remove Sir Colin Campbell, and send to Nova Scotia a governor who will not only represent the Crown, but carry out its policy with firmness and good faith, the representatives of Nova Scotia perform a painful duty to their sovereign and to their constituents, but recommend the only remedy which they fear can now be applied to establish harmony between the executive and legislature of this province." This step really startled the people of Nova Scotia. It was a novel movement in the history of colonial government. Some members of the legislature became timid. They could follow Howe in his efforts to procure popular government, but to vote to ask the queen to recall the governor was going too far. Some other timid ones who could not 66 ftri«ifli ATTACK AND DEFENCE be induced to vote for this extreme measure were absent when the division took place, but Howe was able to secure twenty-five members to vote, and carry his resolution by a substantial majority. When this resolution was adopted considerable excitement prevailed in the province, especially in the city of Halifax. Up to this point the leaders of the Tory party had recognized that Howe's course was obtaining the support of the mass of the people in the country, and therefore, they scarcely cared to challenge him to a contest in the open; but they regarded this resolution as going in advance of public opinion and giving a shock to the sensibilities of the people at large. The consequence was that public meetings were summoned to denounce this cruel attack upon the governor. The first of these was held in the city of Halifax and the call was addressed simply to those opposed to the action of the assembly. Howe and his friends, of course, could not attend this, but they immediately summoned another meeting, open to everybody, for public discussion. Mr. Johnston, the solicitor-general, who was regarded as undoubtedly the leader of the Tory party, attended this meeting, and Howe and he met for the first time upon the public platform. Both speeches were able and eloquent, for Johnston was an orator of great distinction. Howe, after the meeting, was carried home upon the shoulders of the people. His speech on the occasion was a masterpiece, and, considering 67 HS JOSEPH HOWE that the meeting was composed of heated partisans in a mood to interrupt, great moderation was observed by Howe from the beginning to the end. From the capital the war was extended into the country. The Tory officials circulated addresses of a fulsome character to the governor. But Howe was equal to the occasion and threw himself everywhere, east and west, in the province, to sustain the popular side and keep his friends and supporters, in the outlying districts, in fine. And so the contest went on until July 9th, 1840, when Mr. Poulett Thomson (afterwards Lord Sydenham), who had been recently appointed governor-general of Canada, arrived from Quebec, which was then the seat of government for Canada and the usual residence of the governor-general. He immediately assumed the reins of government, as under his commission he had a right to, and sent for the leading men of both parties to consult upon the aspect of affairs. Mr. Howe was among the number, and between him and Mr. Thomson there was a full, free and most agreeable interchange of views. • What course would be adopted in respect to the governor remained a profound mystery. Among the Tories it was reported that the colonial secretary had declined to present the address of the assembly to the queen, and boasts were made everywhere that the governor would be sustained. But the problem was solved on September 30th, when Lord 68 m LORD FALKLAND Falkland arrived in Nova Scotia, bearing with him the queen's commission as lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia. This nobleman was a young man, still in the thirties, handsome in appearance, extremely vain, with little political experience, and, so far as can be judged, of no very great intellectual endowments, and certainly lacking in discretion. But he arrived, evidently with instructions to carry on the government in such a way as to meet, if possible, the objections of the popular party, and he started out with one distinct policy, and that was that the only way to govern a colony successfully was to call into the council men representing all shades of political opinion. It no doubt seemed a plausible solution then, but experience very quickly demonstrated that this system was far from being an ideal one, but rather an impossible one, and that with all the evils surrounding it, the only rational and sensible method of carrying on the government of the country was by a homogeneous cabinet with a premier at its head, all the members of which should be united 4n carrying forward a common policy. In furtherance of his policy, Lord Falkland asked Howe to take a seat in his council, and he agreed, on the condition that McNab and Uniacke should also be taken in, that a bill for the incorporation of Halifax should be submitted as a government measure, and that as vacancies occurred from time to time in the council, men in sympathy 69 JOSEPH HOWE with the majority of the assembly should be taken in to supply their places. Thus, before the end of his first term in the legislature, we find that Howe has not only destroyed the old council of twelve, made the deliberations of the legislative council open to the public, driven from the province a lieutenant- governor who would not regard the popular will, but now has himself been asked to accept a place in the cabinet in association with men of his own political views, whose object was to infuse into the government the principles for which he was contending. When Howe was sworn into the cabinet he had been four years in public life and was thirty-six years of age. 70 CHAPTER IV HOWE AS A MINISTER ALMOST immediately after the formation of -£jL Lord Falkland's administration, the House was dissolved and a general election took place. Howe's position during the three years that he held a seat in the executive was not by any means an easy or agreeable one. As a doughty champion fulminating against officialdom, he quickly became the popular idol, but many, if not most, of those who were in sympathy with the movement for responsible government looked with suspicion, if not with disfavour, upon his association with the bigwigs who gathered about government house. Johnston did not become attorney-general until the next year, and the idea of premiership had not yet developed in connection with the executive council of the province, but to all intents and purposes Johnston was Lord Falkland's chief adviser, and occupied a position as nearly as possible akin to that of premier. He was a strong man and distinctly obnoxious to the Liberals of Nova Scotia, many of whom doubted the propriety of their hero sitting at a council board at which Johnston was the ruling spirit. At the same time, it will be easily understood 71 JOSEPH HOWE that officialdom and the Tory party generally throughout Nova Scotia were profoundly disgusted at finding at the council board a man who had ruthlessly disturbed their comfortable nests, and who, from their point of view, might use his position at this board to destroy completely the system which they cherished. Howe's first duty was to appease his friends by a public letter before the elections, and thereby secure a majority of Liberals in the new House of Assembly, and in this he was entirely successful. His own words justifying the course he had taken will, perhaps, best set forth his conception of the situation. "Having been elevated by Her Majesty's command to a seat in the executive council, a brief explanation may be necessary on this subject, and I make it the more readily because I have no secrets to conceal. When the charge of personal ambition has been reiterated by those who assert their claims to fill every post in the country, by applying in shoals whenever one happens to be vacant, I have often smiled at their modesty, and at their ignorance of facts. Had I sought my own advancement, and not the general good, I might have accepted a seat in council in 1837, and held it for life independent of the people. Again, in 1839, had I abandoned my principles, I might have obtained the vacancy occasioned by the demise of the Hon. Joseph Allison; but to have gone into the old council, upon the old principles, would have been 72 Ml ANOMALIES OF GOVERNMENT to deserve the epithets which have sometimes been as freely as ignorantly applied. When, however, Her Majesty's government, by the withdrawal of Sir Colin Campbell, by the retirement of a large section of the old council, and by the adoption of the sound principles for which the popular party had contended, made such a demonstration as I conceived entitled them to the confidence of the country, it seemed to be clearly my duty to accept the seat tendered by the new governor, and to give him the best assistance in my power." The anomalies of these three years of hybrid administration are too numerous to be minutely detailed. Mr. Howe, although a member of Lord Falkland's government with Mr. Johnston at the head of it, found himself and his colleagues in Halifax city and county fiercely opposed at their elections by the political friends of Johnston, and this course was pursued in most parts of Nova Scotia in respect to all the candidates running for the assembly who could be classed as Howe's friends and followers. Nevertheless, the Liberal party was successful in this election, and Howe and his three colleagues for Halifax were returned by large majorities. After the election Howe was entertained at a public banquet in Mason Hall. Another anomaly in connection with this new condition of things arose at the opening of the House. Mr. S. G. W. Archibald, as has been said, had long filled the office of attorney-general and at 73 JOSEPH HOWE the same time the speakership of the House of Assembly. Before the new House met, Archibald had accepted the position of master of the rolls, a judicial post corresponding to judge in equity. This left the speakership open. Under the existing condition of things, with responsible government in full operation, no member of a government would think of filling that position. However, the race for the speakership at this session was between Howe and his friend James B. Uniacke, and, after considerable contest, the former was elected by a majority of two, thus occupying the dual position of member of the government and speaker of the House. In September, 1842, the office of collector of customs at Halifax became vacant by the retirement of Mr. Binney, and Howe accepted the position. It is probable that he was forced by financial exigencies to accept this place of emolument. His political duties were now extremely exacting. He had been forced during the first four years of his legislative career to assume leadership, travel over the province, address meetings and give his time to the evolution of policy. He was a poor man when he started his political life and remained steadily poor until the day that he died. At this time, too, he had the responsibilities of a young and growing family. He was compelled in 1841, to hand over the control of the Nova Scotian to Mr. Nugent, who in a very short time handed it over to Mr. William Annand, Howe's friend and colleague, who continued its publication 74 RESPONSIBILITIES OF MINISTERS together with the Morning Chronicle, which he started soon afterwards. Howe was, therefore, without any means of livelihood except those which sprang from his political duties. When the next session (1843) opened, Howe announced that, having accepted an office of emolument, he felt it his duty to resign the speakership. Previous to this Mr. William Young, member for Inverness, had been sworn into the executive council in place of S. G. W. Archibald. Young became a candidate for the speakership in 1843, and Mr. Herbert Huntington, another warm friend of Mr. Howe's, was his opponent. To show that public opinion was advancing, a resolution was passed by the legislature declaring the office of member of the government and speaker incompatible, whereupon Young resigned his seat in the executive council and was elected speaker by a majority of two over Mr. Huntington. Still another anomaly to be mentioned in connection with this era of government is that while Howe and McNab made declarations in the House of Assembly that the ministers were responsible and held office through the favour and confidence of the assembly, in the legislative council, Johnston, Stewart and other members made speeches declaring almost the exact opposite. This was one of the tokens of difference of opinion which appeared between members of the same administration. Howe was determined that this question of 75 JOSEPH HOWE responsibility should be settled and defined. A meeting of council was called and Mr. E. M. Dodd, who was at that time solicitor-general and a member of the executive and legislative councils* was deputed to make a statement which would have a quieting effect. Mr. Dodd in this statement, which was afterwards approved by Mr. Johnston in a public declaration, declares that while the governor is responsible to his sovereign and the ministers are responsible to him, they are likewise bound to defend his acts and appointments, and to preserve the confidence of the legislature. This patched up matters between the diverging ministers, for a time. But, perhaps the greatest anomaly which was developed by this period of coalition government was in respect to the question of education. This leads, naturally, to an incident in Howe's career which cannot be omitted if a full study of his character is to be made. By some unfortunate incident Howe had a quarrel with the leaders of the Baptist body in Nova Scotia at this time. Mr. Johnston himself was originally a member of the Church of England and belonged to the exclusive set which at that time the Church of England represented in the province, though in point of numbers they represented less than one-fifth of the population. An unfortunate division occurred about this time in St. Paul's church, the oldest and largest Episcopalian organization in the city, in reference to the choice of a rector. The people 76 ■ HOWE AND THE BAPTISTS elected one clergyman as rector, the bishop appointed another, and made him rector by virtue of his official prerogative. This led to the withdrawal from St. Paul's of a considerable number of influential men. It happened at this time that a Baptist minister, the Rev. John Burton, was conducting religious services in Halifax with considerable enthusiasm, and many of the seceders from St. Paul's church sat under his ministration and were affected by his religious fervour, among the number being the Hon. Mr. Johnston, Mr. E. A. Crawley, (a rising lawyer who afterwards entered the Baptist ministry and became one of the most distinguished men in religious life in Canada), Mr. J. W. Nutting, Mr. John Ferguson and others, all of whom ultimately joined the Baptist church. Ferguson was the editor and proprietor of the Christian Messenger, and Howe had for some time published this paper in the office of the Nova Scotian under contract, involving certain business transactions between Mr. Howe, Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Nutting, which led to financial difficulties and litigation, and paved the way for considerable ill-feeling between Howe and leading members of the Baptist body, the majority of whom in Nova Scotia were naturally in sympathy with Howe's struggles for popular government. It is necessary to admit frankly that Howe during his whole career could never be classed as thoroughly judicious in his general movements. As a political tactician he was unsurpassed, but he had an impul- 77 ftt 1 JOSEPH HOWE sive temperament in his every day dealings with men, which very often led him to do things indiscreet for a political leader, and to utter not infrequently bitter words which would long rankle in the breasts of his victims. Johnston at this time was intimately identified with the Baptist body and he and the eminent men who united* with that body at the same time were regarded with considerable interest and pride by the Baptists generally throughout the province. Although seated round the same council board politically, no one at the time doubted that Mr. Johnston, was, to all intents and purposes, sympathizing with and aiding and supporting those Baptists associated with the Christian Messenger, with whom Howe was carrying on a violent personal struggle. Another still more acute cause of dissent arose at this time, when Johnston and Howe were sitting as colleagues in Lord Falkland's council. It may be mentioned that Howe from the earliest period was deeply interested in the great question of education, and nothing which pertains to the public life of a country, viewed from every aspect, can be so far-reaching in its consequences as the proper intellectual development of the masses, through the agency of public schools. As early as 1841 Howe introduced a measure to establish a system of free schools by popular assessment. At this time, while there was a school system in Nova Scotia in a measure controlled by the board of edu- 78 . THE SCHOOLS cation, and small sums were voted to aid and assist common school education by the House of Assembly, yet throughout the province generally the only method of obtaining a school was by voluntary subscriptions from the people, and the teacher was very often himself compelled to go through a district and get subscriptions from those having children in order thereby to have a school established. Some of the larger towns had grammar schools which received a special grant from the legislature, but the school system of Nova Scotia was crude, unsatisfactory, and could never become permanently successful until established upon a distinct legal basis, and until the support of schools was made a compulsory charge upon the taxpayers in the section. Howe was the first Nova Scotian distinctly and explicitly to advocate this. His speech on this question was one of the noblest and most elevated of his career. He knew quite well that the proposition to impose taxation for the support of schools would be unpopular in the country and alarm the members of the House, but he did not hesitate to advocate it boldly, and to appeal to the members of the House to risk everything in order to accomplish this great reform. For the sacred purposes of education, for founding a provincial character, for the endowment of common schools for the whole population, no hesitation, he maintained, need be felt at coming to direct taxation. Few, perhaps, were more worldly than 79 TV 11 h\\ JOSEPH HOWE himself, or more alive to the value of popularity; yet he would willingly take all the blame, all the unpopularity that might be heaped on him, as one who had a share in establishing that which he proposed. They were representatives of the people, and he put it to them, as they were greatly honoured, should they not greatly dare ? He called on gentlemen not to be too timid in risking popularity, and not to reckon too carefully the price of doing their duty. Were they Christians, and afraid to lay down their seats, when He from whom they received the distinguished name laid down His life for them? Were they Nova Scotians, and afraid to do that which would tend to elevate the country to the highest moral grade? If so, they were unworthy of the name. It was their duty to raise and establish the character of the country as the character of other countries had been—by the intelligence of the people. It was not destined that the honour of establishing a free school system should become the endowment of Mr. Howe. That glory belongs to another; but that Howe's persistent and eloquent advocacy paved the way to the later achievement of Sir Charles Tupper, in 1864, is an undoubted fact, and entitles him to a large shaie in the credit for this noble measure. But the question in relation to education which resulted in acute difference between Johnston and Howe, while members of the same cabinet, related 80 THE COLLEGES to the establishment of colleges. The Church of England had founded King's College early in the century and it was for a time the only institution that could be regarded as possessing collegiate powers. Dalhousie College had been called into existence early in the century as the result of the appropriation of a large sum of prize money taken in the war of 1812 and entitled the "Castine Fund," but this institution had been apparently taken possession of by the Presbyterian body, and with great illiberality they had refused to appoint the Rev. Mr. Crawley, now an eminent Baptist divine, to a professorship in the institution on account of his religious views. This induced the Baptists to found an institution at Wolfville, called at first Queen's, but soon after, Acadia College. The institution was started in 1839, and has existed by the voluntary contributions of the Baptist body, and has steadily grown and expanded until this day, when it has become one of the most important collegiate institutions in the Maritime Provinces. The Catholics also founded a collegiate institution, and the Methodists were calling into existence their institutions at Sackville, N.B., on the border line between the two provinces and supported by the Methodists of both. Thus in a province of less than three hundred thousand people, five colleges, sectarian in their character, were in existence. Mr. Howe believed that these colleges were unnecessarily multiplying burdens upon the people, 81 JOSEPH HOWE and affording only a minimum of efficiency in the direction of university education, and he therefore openly and boldly favoured the establishment of one central college, free from sectarian control and open to all denominations, maintained by a common fund and rallying round it the affections of the whole people. A resolution supporting this proposition was submitted to the legislature, under Howe's inspiration, by his friend Mr. Annand, seconded by Mr. Herbert Huntington. Howe made a very able speech in its support, in the course of which he stated that when he looked abroad on the works of Providence he saw no sectarianism in the forest or in the broad river which sparkled through the meadows; and asked why we should be driven to the conclusion that men could not live together without being divided by that which ought to be a bond of Christian union. As a matter of principle Howe was unquestionably sound in this view, and if his policy in respect to one central university had prevailed in Nova Scotia, it is quite probable that greater efficiency in respect to higher education would have resulted. But his uncompromising course on the question was unwise from a political point of view, as the result demonstrated. Taken in connection with his recent quarrel with the Christian Messenger and leading men in the Baptist denomination, it was only calculated to add fuel to the flame. The Baptists at that moment were zealously employed 82 ACADIA COLLEGE in the work of building up Acadia College, and the project had taken root in the hearts and consciences of the great mass of the denomination. Mr. Johnston, as one of the leaders of the Baptist body, was naturally called upon to defend his college, and incidentally the denominational system. This brought him into direct conflict with Howe on an important public question, which at that moment had become a burning one. The inevitable result of such a controversy would be to alienate from Howe and his party a powerful section of the Baptist body, and several seats in the Nova Scotia legislature were likely to be influenced in a considerable measure by the Baptist vote. Mr. Howe, as the result showed, paid dearly for his chivalrous advocacy of a non-sectarian provincial university, and the acute contest between these two men, both of them sitting at the same council board, constitutes, as has been said, another of the grotesque anomalies which must inevitably follow from a government constructed on the lines upon which Lord Falkland insisted. The Christian Messenger fulminated furious attacks upon Howe week after week, and Johnston himself, at a Baptist association in Yarmouth, in the course of an inflammatory speech, animadverted with great severity upon the action of the House of Assembly in passing the resolutions which Mr. Annand had moved and Mr. Howe had supported. Howe, in self-defence, held a series of meetings to discuss this college 83 I I II JOSEPH HOWE question, the first in Halifax, when a resolution was passed endorsing his policy; then he visited Colchester, Hants, and Pictou. While Howe was absent in the autumn of 1843 attending these meetings, the executive council, under Johnston's leadership, was called together and a proposal made for dissolution. Howe was summoned to attend, but he had iriade engagements for two meetings which detained him on the way. Before he got to the capital, an order-in- council dissolving the House was passed. This course was justly regarded by Howe and his friends as unwise and uncalled for. The term of the House had not nearly expired and the government had received a steady support for all its important measures, thanks to the influence which Howe was able to exercise. The dissolution was to take place at a time when acute differences of opinion were being publicly proclaimed on an important question, between Johnston, the leader of the government, and Howe, the leader of the Liberal element in it. But Johnston had a definite purpose in this sudden dissolution of the legislature. He perceived that Howe had alienated influential interests in Nova Scotia by his unfortunate difficulties with the Baptists, and on account of his zealous advocacy of a central university as against sectarian colleges, and he conceived the idea that he would dissolve the House and set himself to the task of securing a majority of members in the assembly who would 84 A PRECIPITATE ELECTION be in sympathy with himself and his views. In furtherance of this, Johnston resigned his seat in the legislative council and accepted a nomination for the county of Annapolis, then represented by a supporter of Howe. Annapolis was a strong Baptist constituency and Johnston relied upon the influence of denominational pride and sympathy to enable him not only to carry his own seat, but also the two remaining seats in the county. Some of Howe's friends, when this dissolution was announced, seeing in it plainly a determination on the part of the majority of the council, with Johnston at their head, to conduct matters according to their own views and without regard to the wishes and sentiments of Howe and his friends, urged him to resign and bring on a crisis then. But Howe did not concur in this view, and indicated to Lord Falkland his judgment of the situation. If Howe and his friends should carry a majority of seats in the election, the true policy for Johnston would be to resign and allow him to form an administration. If Johnston obtained a majority of seats, the true policy would be for him (Howe) to leave the government and let Johnston form an administration composed entirely of his own political friends. This most rational proposal Lord Falkland declined to entertain, adhering to his fatuous scheme of having a council composed of men of all political views. During the election, which Howe and his friends 85 JOSEPH HOWE entered upon with much discouragement and want of spirit, he constantly advocated the idea of party government, and announced that the administration hereafter should depend upon the result of the coming elections. Mr. Johnston, on the other hand, supported Lord Falkland's idea that government should not be conducted upon party lines, but he had in his mind all the while a fixed determination that, if he could by any possibility obtain a majority of members favourable in the new House, he would rule according to his own views and let Howe and his friends take care of themselves. The election took place late in the year 1843, and the result was for a time in doubt. Both parties claimed a majority. As a matter of fact, the event proved that Johnston could count upon a majority of one in the new assembly. After the elections were over Howe and his friends in the government did not resign, and it is possible that if Johnston had pursued a wise course he might have placed his antagonist in an embarrassing position. But, almost immediately after the election, he committed a distinct blunder, which afforded Howe the very opportunity he wished, to retire from the cabinet. The mistake was nothing less than calling to the executive and legislative councils Mr. M. B. Almon, a bitter Tory, who had been active in opposing Howe in his election in Halifax, and who was a brother-in-law of Johnston himself. The instant this was announced Mr. Howe, 86 RESIGNATIONS Mr. J. B. Uniacke and Mr. James McNab retired from the government. It was one of the conditions upon which Howe and his supporters had entered the cabinet three years before, that as vacancies occurred, friends of the Liberal party should be called to the council. William Young had been appointed in 1842, and resigned on accepting the speakership in 1843. The vacancy belonged to the Liberals, and the arbitrary filling of it by the appointment of so pronounced an opponent as Almon made it impossible for Howe and his friends longer to endure the unpleasant position in which they were placed. Lord Falkland called upon these gentlemen to give reasons for their resignation, which Howe promptly did in clear terms, as did also Messrs. Uniacke and McNab. At a later time further negotiations were set on foot by Lord Falkland to induce these gentlemen to come back. Mr. Dodd, the solicitor-general, was made the medium of communication. His attempt was unsuccessful, as these gentlemen distinctly declined the proposition. At the first session of the new parliament a resolution of want of confidence was soon moved, and this Johnston was able to defeat by a vote of twenty-six to twenty-five. This tested the strength of parties in the House, and during the parliamentary term Johnston had to rely upon this narrow vote to secure the adoption of his measures. 87 CHAPTER V HOWE VS. FALKLAND AS soon as it became evident that Lord Falkland -<ljL was determined to carry out his own superficial views of government, and that Johnston intended to hold office by his majority of one in the House, Howe's course became clear. The task he set before him was to devote his energies to stirring up public opinion against Johnston and his government, and to make sure of securing a majority of members at the next general election. The contest for these three memorable years was, perhaps, the most conspicuous in the record of Howe's career. Party feeling was intense at this moment and Howe saw clearly that by keeping the Liberal party compactly together in the House and in the country, and compelling the administration to be carried on by members of the Tory party alone, he could bring about the exact condition of things for which he had always been struggling. If he carried a majority of seats in the assembly at the next election, he could force the resignation of Johnston's government and cause the creation of an administration which would represent the views and policy of the Liberal majority, and thus would end forever irresponsible governments, hybrid 89 lOSEPH HOWE administrations, and impose for all time to come upon any administration hereafter formed in Nova Scotia the necessity of having the support and confidence of a majority of the people's representatives. The contest was, of course, in a large decree, between Johnston and Howe, but, ultimately, owing to the somewhat foolish conception of his position on the part of Lord Falkland, the contest was really for a considerable time between the governor and Mr. Howe, and this part of it was conducted with the utmost bitterness. An employee of the government and a friend of the lieutenant- governor began a series of scurrilous newspaper articles attacking Mr. Howe. Howe took no notice of the writer of the articles, but held Lord Falkland directly responsible for their publication, and, over his own signature, addressed scathing open letters to Lord Falkland, which constitute the very acme of vituperative literature. It has been mentioned that Mr. Annand became proprietor of the Nova Scotian and Morning Chronicle in 1843. As Howe had resigned his seat in the government and also his office as collector of customs, it was the universal judgment of his friends that he should resume the editorial management of these party papers, and in May, 1844, his first editorial appeared. It was written in his characteristic style, and, as an illustration of the peculiar qualities by which Howe could endear himself to 90 1 AN EDITORIAL the masses of the people, a quotation from this article will be read with interest:— "Hardly had we taken our seat upon our old acquaintance (the editorial chair) when we fancied that ten thousand ties which formerly linked our name and daily labours with the household thoughts and fireside amusements of our countrymen, aye, and countrywomen, were revived as if by magic. We stepped across their thresholds, mingled in their social circles, went with them to the woods to enliven their labours, or to the field to shed a salutary influence over their midday meal. . . . And we had the vanity to believe that we would be everywhere a welcome guest; that the people would say, p Why, here is Howe amongst us again; not Mr. Speaker Howe, nor the Hon. Mr. Howe, but Joe Howe, as he used to be sitting in his editorial chair, and talking to us about politics, and trade and agriculture; about our own country and other countries; making us laugh a good deal, but think a good deal more even while we were laughing.' Such is the reception we anticipate, homely but hearty; and we can assure our countrymen that we fall back among them, conscious that there is no name by which we have been known of late years among the dignitaries of the land that we prize so highly as the old familiar abbreviation." During these three years and more of toil, Howe was the great inspiring personality of the Liberal party. Mr. Annand, who was associated with him 91 JOSEPH HOWE in the editorial office every day during the struggle, thus describes him at this period:— "Nothing could exceed the buoyant and cheerful spirit with which Mr. Howe applied himself to the task which he had assumed, of routing Lord Falkland, and his government, horse, foot and artillery, at the next election. In the darkest hour he never despaired. He played through labours multifarious, and which, to a person of different temperament and training, would have been irksome. His armchair became the centre and rallying point of the whole party. Our office was rarely empty; his house, when at home, never. We have often seen him dashing off an editorial, which was to set the whole province laughing or thinking, surrounded by a mob of friends planning some movement or preparing for some meeting. We have known him work when he was weary; inspire others with cheerfulness, when his heart was sad; and he thought as little of galloping over two or three counties and addressing half a dozen public meetings, as others would think of a drive round 'the Point.'" Howe's versatility during this period of conflict was marvellous, but perhaps it may not add to his reputation to enter too fully into his contributions to the political literature of the day. Not content with caustic prose, he lampooned his opponents in verse. One of these poetical effusions entitled "The Lord of the Bedchamber," created much comment at the time, and was, of course, severely criticized 92 SATIRIC VERSES by his opponents. It appears that Lord Falkland had been one of the Lords of the Bedchamber prior to his coming to Nova Scotia, and it was to him under this name that the poem was addressed. The whole poem is a clever bit of satire, but scarcely of sufficient interest to quote in full. Its style can be gathered from the first two verses:— The Lord of the Bedchamber sat in his shirt, (And D—dy the pliant was there), And his feelings appeared to be very much hurt, And his brow overclouded with care. It was plain from the flush that o'ermantled his cheek, And the fluster and haste of his stride, That drown'd and bewildered, his brain had grown weak, From the blood pump'd aloft by his pride. Another pasquinade, supposed to be addressed by Lord Falkland to Lord Stanley, at that time colonial secretary, contains the following as a sample of Howe's genius in galling satire:— In my public despatch, 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 checkmated. The Poacher in Chaucer, with a 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. 93 i 11 JOSEPH HOWE The first session of the new parliament was marked by protracted debates on the political situation. Mr. Howe made a lengthy speech in defence of his conduct both in going into and leaving the administration (but he was careful in this speech to omit anything that savoured of a personal attack upon Lord Falkland), and also setting forth the principles upon which an administration should be formed and continue in office. Then followed the efforts of Lord Falkland to induce leading men of the Liberal party to enter the administration on the condition that Howe should be excluded. These not only failed, but they impelled Howe to that course of vigorous and bitter attack upon Lord Falkland which ultimately drove him from the province. During the summer of 1844, Mr. Howe visited parts of Nova Scotia, holding public meetings in Wilmot, Windsor, Newport, Maitland, Parrs- boro, Maccan, Amherst, Wallace and Musquodo- boit. His tours over the province were made on horseback. He often addressed three meetings in a day, attended public dinners, and participated in the evenings in country balls. It is impossible to describe the enthusiasm which he created among his friends and admirers in all parts of the province. At the meetings his eloquence captivated the hearts of his hearers; in social fife he was simply irresistible. Most of his time at public gatherings, when he was not speaking, was spent moving round 94 \ SPEECH AT CORNWALLIS freely among the people, especially the women; he was brimful of humour, and elicited the ardent regard of every person with whom he came in contact. At each of these great popular addresses he was certain to indulge in some delightful and unique outburst, based upon the surrounding incidents, which evoked great enthusiasm. The biography of Mr. Howe, properly speaking, cannot be written. The only true picture of his career can be obtained by extracts from his innumerable public utterances upon all questions and upon all occasions. The compass of this book makes this impossible. At an immense picnic at Cornwallis, where fifteen hundred persons of both -sexes were assembled in the open air to welcome the hero of responsible government, Mr. Howe made the following reference to the ladies of King's county, whose health he proposed:— Sculptors and painters of old stole from many forms their lines of beauty, and from many faces their harmonies of feature and sweetness of expression ; but from the groups around him, individual forms and single faces might be selected, to which nothing could be added, without marring a work, that, if faithfully copied, would stamp divinity upon the marble, or immortality on the canvas. He had seen other countries and admired their wonders of nature and of art. Germany had her Drakenfels, and Scotland her mountains, France her vineyards, England her busy marts, and Ireland 95 JOSEPH HOWE her depths of verdure—each and all had some peculiar charm, some native characteristic, that Nova Scotians must be contented to admire, and satisfied to want; but when he came to contemplate that first, best gift to man, he could place the girls of his own wild country beside those of any portion of the globe, and thank Providence that those who were to lie in our bosoms and beautify our homes, were their equals in personal loveliness, in tact and virtue. Addresses of a complimentary character were presented to Mr. Howe in all the places which he visited during this campaign, one of which will serve as an example of the manner in which he was regarded by his ardent followers in Nova Scotia:— "Mr. Joseph Howe:—Sir, It is with feelings of no ordinary joy and gratification that we welcome you to our fertile county. No language at our command can adequately convey to you the unfeigned satisfaction and heartfelt gratitude with which we have ever witnessed the untiring zeal and perseverance you have displayed, in supporting our best interests during the whole tenor of your political career. Time would fail us to enumerate even the more prominent scenes in which you have stood forth the friend and champion of the people, and triumphantly fought their battles, both with your pen and in the legislative arena, and by which you have won their lasting confidence and affection. But we feel it a duty incumbent on us to mark 96 FRICTION with peculiar applause and approbation, that noble and disinterested act by which you and your associates cast off the shackles of office, and came forth the staunch and unfettered guardians of the people's rights. "For this, as well as for the successful exertion of a whole lifetime spent in promoting the glorious cause of British colonial freedom, in the name, and on behalf of the reformers of King's county, we beg to tender you our best thanks and confidence, and our sincere and earnest wishes for your future usefulness and prosperity.—King's County, July 17th, 1845." The second session, 1845, was the scene of the most memorable contests between the two political parties that have marked the political history of Nova Scotia. At the former session Howe still had confidence in Lord Falkland and no desire to do him injustice. That nobleman had, in a fatuous manner, identified himself with the opponents of Howe, and had taken a course so hostile to him personally that, as we have said, the contest became for a time more peculiarly one between Mr. Howe and Lord Falkland than between Mr. Howe and Mr. Johnston. In this session Mr. Uniacke moved a resolution, the general effect of which was to express lack of confidence in the existing administration. Upon this Mr. Howe made a speech in the legislature, which occupied several hours in delivery and was regarded as the greatest 97 Ii JOSEPH HOWE parliamentary effort he had hitherto made. In reply to this nearly every prominent man in the legislature, from Johnston down, who was opposed to Howe, made answer, nearly all of them speaking in a tone of bitterness and unsparing invective. After ten days debate Howe rose and made a general reply, as long, as able and as vigorous as his first effort. The opening words of this speech will serve to illustrate the delightfully easy and racy manner with which he invariably began his public utterances :— "Mr. Chairman,—There is a good story told of an Irishman, who was put in the pillory for saying that the city authorities were no better than they should be. He bore the infliction with exemplary patience, and severe enough it was; for every silly fellow who expected an invitation to the mayor's feast, every servile creature, who aspired to a civic office, strove to win favour by pelting him with conspicuous activity. When the hour expired, and a goodly array of missiles had accumulated upon the stage, the culprit, taking off his hat and bowing politely to the crowd, said, 'Now, gentlemen, it is my turn,' and, commencing with his Worship, pelted the crowd with great dexterity and effect. The Irish, who always relish humour, were so pleased with the joke, that they carried the man home on their shoulders. I have no expectation that my fate will be quite so triumphant, but no gentleman will question my right to follow the example. I have GOVERNMENT SUSTAINED sat for ten days in this political pillory; missiles of every calibre have hurtled around my head; they have accumulated in great abundance, and if my turn has come, those by whom they were showered have no right to complain. As first in dignity, if not in accuracy of aim, perhaps I ought to commence with the learned and honourable Crown officer; but there is an old Warwickshire tradition, that Guy, before he grappled with the dun cow, tried his hand upon her calves; and perhaps it would be as well, before touching the learned attorney-general, that I should dispose of the strange progeny his political system has warmed into existence. The eagle, before he lifts his eye to the meridian, learns to gaze with steadiness on the lesser lights by which he is surrounded; and, as 1 Jove's satellites are less than Jove,' so are the learned leader's disciples inferior to their master." Mr. Uniacke's resolution was voted down by a majority of three, and the government was thus saved for another session. During this session an incident somewhat unique in parliamentary government occurred in the House. Those who are familiar with Lord Durham's famous report are aware that in it is broached the idea of an intercolonial railway connecting the Maritime Provinces with Quebec. In 1845 some capitalists in London set on foot the organization of a company to undertake such a work, and Mr. George R. Young, brother of William Young, then speaker 99 JOSEPH HOWE of the House, being in London, associated himself with the movement, and the law firm, consisting of his brother William and himself, were made solicitors of the company. During the session a despatch from Lord Falkland to the colonial secretary was brought down and read in the House, in which Mr. George R. Young's name and that of his brother were repeatedly mentioned, and in which they were held up to condemnation as associates of reckless and insolvent men. The principle of mentioning private persons in official despatches was entirely unsound and would not be dreamed of at the present time, and only illustrated Lord Falkland's utter failure to appreciate his constitutional position as lieutenant-governor. Many members of the House were indignant, and especially the speaker, who, occupying the chair, had no opportunity to refer to it. It was inevitable that some comment should be made upon it, and most public men would have taken occasion to animadvert upon this practice in terms of deprecation. Mr. Howe, whose feelings for Lord Falkland, it will be easily recognized, were not of the kindest, saw an opportunity of giving a very striking object lesson, so he rose, immediately after the reading of the despatch, and made the following terse statement:— Mr. Howe said that he should but ill discharge his duty to the House or to the country, if he did not, on the instant, enter his protest against the 100 •** •*-—-- A BOLD SPEECH infamous system pursued (a system of which he could speak more freely now that the case was not his own), by which the names of respectable colonists were libelled in despatches sent to the colonial office, to be afterwards published here, and by which any brand or stigma might be placed upon them without their having any means of redress. If that system were continued, some colonist would, by and by, or he was much mistaken, hire a black fellow to horsewhip a lieutenant-governor. Naturally, this extraordinary characterization created great excitement. The question of order was raised It appeared that no one had taken down the words, yet a vote of censure was moved by the government party and carried by their usual majority. Howe immediately addressed a long letter to his constituents on the incident, in which, in scathing terms, he dwelt upon the whole principle involved in the recent official despatches of Lord Falkland, and concluded with the following words: " * But,' I think I hear some one say, jj after all, friend Howe, was not the suppositious case you anticipated might occur, somewhat quaint and eccentric, 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 101 111 JOSEPH HOWE 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 passions, 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 to say that whenever, hereafter, our rulers desire to grill a political opponent in an official despatch, they will recall my homely picture, and borrow wisdom from the past." It would not be profitable to dwell further upon the acute and virulent conflict which continued for some time between Lord Falkland and Mr. Howe. It is sufficient to note that his Lordship was the first to grow tired of it, and at last, notwithstanding the support of his government, Lord Falkland became impressed with the disagreeable position in which he found himself placed. On January 1st, 1846, he omitted the usual levee at government house, recognizing that owing to his personal embroilment in the political affairs of the province, it would take almost entirely a partisan hue. No dinner or levee was held on the Queen's birthday, May 24th, and at last on August 3rd, Lord Falkland packed up his effects and sailed for England, where he soon after received another appointment 102 SIR JOHN HARVEY as governor of Bombay. This was the second lieutenant-governor whom Mr. Howe, in the brief period in which he had been in public life, had driven to the wall. Sir John Harvey, who had been governor of New Brunswick, and later of Newfoundland, was Lord Falkland's successor, and he arrived on August 11th, 1846. No appointment could have been better suited to meet the difficulties then existing in Nova Scotia. Sir John Harvey was himself a broad and liberal-minded man, and although he acted loyally upon the advice of his ministers on his arrival in the province until they were driven from office, yet unquestionably his sympathies were altogether with those who were struggling to secure constitutional government in Nova Scotia. After he had been a few months in the province he submitted a memorandum to his ministers, intimating his belief that the council should be filled up, and that it would be desirable to have leading men in the opposition offered places in the administration. The council acted upon the request of the governor and made overtures to Messrs. Howe, Young, Doyle and McNab, and these gentlemen were well assured that, if they accepted the positions thus tendered to them, they would have the confidence and support of the governor. But Howe never proposed that any such step should be taken. In the course of a year a general election must take place and his settled policy was that the situation should not 103 JOSEPH HOWE be hampered by coalitions, but that a straight issue between the two parties should be submitted to the people, and the result of the elections determine the complexion of the administration. So in a very lengthy and elaborate paper, prepared by Howe himself, the Liberal leaders respectfully declined this proposition. Nothing occurred in the session of 1847 to call for special note. Mr. Johnston had introduced, and carried, an excellent measure providing for simultaneous polling at the general election, which experience has amply demonstrated to be a great improvement on the old system of having elections peripatetic in their character and lasting ten days or a fortnight. After the session was over, about the end of March, both parties were absorbed in the approaching elections. It may be mentioned that after the session of 1845, Howe with his whole family removed from the city of Halifax to a farm in Upper Musquodo- boit, in the eastern part of Halifax county, forty or fifty miles from the capital, where they spent two years. Mr. Howe's own words in respect of this Musquodoboit residence may be appropriately quoted:— "They were two of the happiest years of my life. I had been for a long time overworking my brains and underworking my body. Here I worked my body and rested my brains. We rose at daylight, breakfasted at seven, dined at twelve, took tea 104 1 MUSQUODOBOIT at six, and then assembled in the library, where we read for four or five hours almost every evening. I learned to plough, to mow, to reap, to cradle; I knew how to chop and pitch hay before. Constant exercise in the open air made me as hard as iron. My head was clear and my spirits buoyant. My girls learned to do everything that the daughters of our peasants learn, and got a knowledge of books which, amidst the endless frivolities and gossiping of city life, they never could have acquired. My boys got an insight into what goes on in the interior of their own country, which should be of service to them all their lives. I read the Edinburgh Review from the commencement, and all the poets over again; wrote a good deal, and yet spent the best part of every fine day in the fields or in the woods. My children were all around me, and in health, and although I had cares enough, as God knows, and you know, I shall never, perhaps, be so happy again." When the session of 1847 was over, Howe returned for a short time to his Musquodoboit home to rest, but it was early made manifest that the government and its friends intended to use desperate measures to secure the elections. Howe was, of course, to contest the city and county of Halifax with three colleagues, and the Conservatives had nominated four strong men to oppose them. Stories, pretty well authenticated, are told of handsome election funds which were raised by some of the 105 JOSEPH HOWE wealthy members of the privileged class in Halifax to aid in the contest. Howe returned from his farm in May and began his campaign, first addressing a series of meetings in his own county; then he made a tour of the province, visiting twelve of the eighteen counties, and during this tour addressed sixty public meetings, accepted fifteen public dinners, and rode and drove thousands of miles. It would be impossible adequately to describe the enthusiasm which Jlowe's personal presence inspired as he moved over the province. His public speeches were admired, but his personality, as he shook hands and cracked jokes with thousands of men and women, was a greater feature in evoking personal regard than even his matchless and persuasive addresses. The elections were held on August 5th, and resulted in the Liberals obtaining a handsome majority. Mr. Howe and his three colleagues were returned for Halifax. After the election, worn out, he went straightway to his little farm in Musquodo- boit, but before he reached the Middle settlement, the inhabitants of the entire section turned out in carriages and on horseback, with banners flying, to meet him, and escorted him, for some twenty miles, to his home. A wagon with the raised seat festooned with flowers, and drawn by six horses, was waiting for him; an address was presented to him by the people of Upper Musquodoboit and of Middle Musquodoboit, and every token of the esteem and affection in which he was held was 106 JOHNSTON RESIGNS bestowed. "For a month afterwards," said Mr. Howe, " I did nothing but play with the children and read old books to my girls. I then went into the woods and called moose with the old hunters, camping out night after night, listening to their stories and calming my thoughts with the perfect stillness of the forest, and forgetting the bitterness of conflict amidst the beauties of nature." Johnston and his associates did not accept their defeat gracefully. Although no doubt as to the rer suit of the election could exist, yet Johnston took no steps to vacate office, and met the House on January 22nd, 1848. Howe proposed Mr. William Young for speaker. This was bitterly opposed by Johnston and the government. Mr. Young was elected by six majority. Still no resignation. On January 24th, Mr. James B. Uniacke moved an amendment to the address, concluding with this statement, " and we consider it our humble duty respectfully to state that the present executive council does not possess that confidence so essential to the promoting of the public welfare, and so necessary to insure to Your Excellency the harmonious co-operation of this assembly." This was carried by a vote of twenty- eight to twenty-one, and, the day after, Mr. Johnston's government resigned, and Mr. James B. Uniacke was called upon to form an administration. 107 CHAPTER VI THE LIBERAL MINISTRY THOSE who have perused the preceding chapters, and have formed, it is hoped, a justly high opinion of Mr. Howe's talents and achievements, of his splendid courage, his unceasing devotion to the Liberal cause, his unrivalled eloquence and his matchless power of winning the confidence and affection of the masses, will probably wonder why, when the Tory government had been driven from office, Howe himself was not called upon to form an administration. Those who will take the pains to study carefully and philosophically the history of popular government throughout the world will scarcely need an answer. Public life in all free countries reveals usually two classes of men, one which possesses great talent, great courage, great intellectual endowments and capacity to revolutionize events and make history; another, which, but moderately endowed with these particular qualities, has the advantage which mediocrity always bestows of possessing the confidence of average people, by dint of a reputation for judiciousness derived from the possession of average qualities. In former days in Great Britain, such men as the Pitts were able, it is true, to obtain the premierships, and in these 109 JOSEPH HOWE later days, Mr. Gladstone and Lord Beaconsfield might perhaps be classed as the distinguished exceptions to the general rule, although a careful insight into Lord Beaconfield's career indicates that he possessed to a very marked degree the quality of gauging public opinion and adjusting himself to it. But for the most part the premiers of Great Britain have been men of average, all-round ability, but who could reckon among their qualities that of being able to appeal to the ordinary mortals whom they were governing. In the United States, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and James G. Blaine could never be president, but James Polk, James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore, Rutherford B. Hayes and Benjamin Harrison could. The history of Canada and her several provinces has illustrated, often enough, the principle that the man who obtained the leadership was not necessarily the man who was guiding the policy of the country or making history. Mr. James B. Uniacke was a gentleman of education, wealth, high social standing, and of long experience in public affairs, and it was most natural that he should have been chosen to lead the administration to be formed. He chose for his colleagues Messrs. Michael Tobin, Hugh Bell, Joseph Howe, James McNab, Herbert Huntington, W. F. Desbarres, Lawrence O'C. Doyle, and George R. Young. The defeat of a Tory administration, and the accession, as a result, of a Liberal administration, 110 Hm THE NEW ADMINISTRATION constitutes the final act in the triumph of responsible government in Nova Scotia. The advent of Lord Elgin to Canada on the departure of Lord Metcalfe may be named as the period when responsible government in its amplest form received full recognition in the larger provinces of Canada. Never, after 1848, was the idea entertained in any province of British North America, having a constitution, that an administration could hold office an hour longer than it had the confidence of the people represented in the popular branch. The new administration had some unpleasant reforms and changes to make. In the formation of the administration Mr. Uniacke became attorney- general, and Mr. W. F. Desbarres solicitor-general, and these were the only departmental offices that then existed. Sir Rupert D. George has been mentioned as perpetual provincial secretary; it was determined to get rid of him. He resigned his seat in the executive with the rest of the government, but he did not think of resigning his office as provincial secretary. Provision was made by order- in-council for a retiring allowance, and he, having obstinately refused to bow to the popular will, was dismissed, and Howe became provincial secretary, holding it as a departmental and political office, subject to the exigencies of the government to which he belonged. The treasurer was an officer hitherto appointed by the governor, who had exercised this power in Lord Falkland's time by the 111 gf»W JOSEPH HOWE appointment of Mr. Samuel P. Fairbanks. This was loudly protested against, and Howe gave pledges that this officer should be a responsible minister. A departmental bill was introduced whereby the two departments of financial secretary or finance minister, and receiver-general or treasurer were created, and these offices were bestowed, the first upon Mr. Herbert Huntington, and the last upon Mr. James McNab. The casual and territorial revenues were taken possession of by the government, and the salaries of the various officials, including the governor, judges, etc., were provided for by a civil list made statutable, and subject at all times to the independent action of the legislature of the province. Great official documents of protest went to the colonial office from all the officials affected, but they were met triumphantly in able official despatches prepared by Howe, and it is to be noted that the lieutenant-governor, Sir John Harvey, stood loyally and steadily with the members of his administration in all the acute measures which they were compelled to take in order to give full effect to the principles of responsible government. In a despatch by Sir John Harvey to the colonial secretary, dated soon after the formation of the new administration, he makes this observation:—"I may therefore, perhaps, venture to regard the introduction of a system of responsible government in Nova Scotia, as having been practically effected upon fair, just principles, and without the necessity 112 CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM of having recourse to any measure of a stringent character, except in the single instance of the provincial secretary, and that a great step has been taken towards the political tranquilization of this long distracted colony, inasmuch as I apprehend no factious opposition, to any measure of acknowledged utility, from the party under the guidance of my late government." This may be fairly taken as an official pronouncement of the establishment of responsible government. In looking over the long and arduous struggle, two or three things may be safely predicted without fear of challenge. The author, the moving spirit, the supreme champion, and the acknowledged hero of responsible government in Nova Scotia, was Joseph Howe. He achieved it by perfectly constitutional means; not a disloyal word was uttered by him or his friends during the entire contest, though perpetually branded as rebels and provoked by official stupidity. He lent the weight of his great influence to uphold constitutional methods, in the struggle in Canada and New Brunswick. He discountenanced rebellion and bloodshed in both Upper and Lower Canada, and when at a later date riots occurred in Montreal, when Lord Elgin was pelted with rotten eggs, and the parliament buildings burned by a mob because of a measure to compensate losses by rebellion, and when, also, the British American League was organized in Montreal, revolutionary in its aims and disloyal in 113 JOSEPH HOWE its utterances, Howe addressed a letter to the Hon. George Moffatt, the president of the League, dated May 8th, 1849, in which he threw upon the entire movement the greatest possible opprobrium, and in scathing terms intimated that no sympathy could be expected from the provinces by the sea in this disturbing and disloyal movement. Some extracts from this famous letter will certainly be read with interest, and will illustrate Howe's incisive method of dealing with current topics :— "We gather from the 'scholastic production' to which your name is attached, that a convention, called by yourself, is to supersede the parliament 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 encumbrance; 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 parliament 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 114 —— THE HALIFAX CONVENTION your address, and as the mob of Montreal have favoured us with their interpretations of its contents, I am induced to inquire whether it be the true one, and whether pelting the queen's representative, dispersing our parliaments, and burning our books, are to be indispensable preliminaries in joining the British American League?" In taking office, therefore, in 1848, with responsible government fully achieved in Nova Scotia, Howe had not to lament the utterance of a seditious word or an act unworthy of British statesmen. The government so formed by Messrs. Uniacke and Howe continued during the four years term of parliament, and dealt with many questions, but it is not necessary to refer at length to these. The entire revenues of the country were placed absolutely at the disposal of the legislature; the postal system, which had been previously managed under imperial control, was vested also absolutely in the provincial government; a postmaster-general was duly appointed by the executive, and the whole post-office system made as subject to the people's control as the customs, roads or education. Howe, during his term of office, again brought forward his educational measure, and made another great speech in its behalf, but could secure no adequate support at that time from the legislature. Early in September, 1849, a convention was held in Halifax, consisting of delegates from Canada, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia 115 JOSEPH HOWE —all the members of the Nova Scotia government attending as delegates. The object was to consider the commercial conditions of the country, and, after a full discussion of several days, a resolution was adopted, apparently unanimously, affirming, in effect, that a system of reciprocal trade between this country and the United States was essential to the proper commercial development of the country. This may be regarded as the first organized movement in the direction of a reciprocity treaty with the United States, which culminated in the treaty secured by Lord Elgin in 1854. 116 CHAPTER VII HOWE AND RAILWAYS WHEN Howe entered public fife, railroads were just coming into vogue in the world. In 1830, the experiment of operating railways was successfully inaugurated in both Great Britain and the United States. Naturally these new and somewhat expensive means of communication were confined at first to great centres, but quickly enough began to be extended, and before 1840 they had become an important feature of transportation. An eye like Mr. Howe's could not long escape observing the necessity and utility of railways, and as early as 1835, a year before he had been elected to parliament, he wrote a long and elaborate editorial in the Nova Scotian, advocating a railway from Halifax to Windsor, that point being selected because it is situated on the Basin of Minas which opens into the Bay of Fundy, and would thus connect Halifax, by means of the numerous ports along the Bay, with a large section, not only of the western but of the eastern portions of the province as well. After entering public life, Howe felt that the question of responsible government was paramount, and until Nova Scotians had the right to govern themselves and secure full control over their own 117 JOSEPH HOWE I resources and revenue, it was useless to consider other questions. For twelve years, therefore, he devoted his undivided attention to this great question, with results which we have been able to appreciate. When the Liberal government was formed in 1848, an order-in-council was passed, at an early session, authorizing the survey of a fine of railway between Halifax and Windsor. Mr. Howe, associated with Mr. W. F. Desbarres, was appointed commissioner to carry out the terms of this resolution, and a survey was made and estimates of costs given which were submitted to the legislature in 1849. The exhaustive report made by Lord Durham in 1839 constitutes the origin of many important questions which have since then engaged the attention of British American statesmen, and have led to great and far-reaching measures. One of the suggestions in this famous report was a railroad on Canadian soil to connect the Maritime Provinces with Canada. Durham urged it both as a military necessity and as a pre-requisite of the political union of British North America. However, as the imperial government and parliament did not give much effect to Lord Durham's recommendations, they did not lead to any immediate practical results in British North America. In 1845 a company was formed in London which proposed to build a railway from Halifax to the St. Lawrence, and this proposition was submitted 118 THE INTERCOLONIAL RAILWAY to the governments of the several provinces for their support. A public meeting was held in Halifax to consider the matter, and a resolution was passed asking the government to aid and support such an undertaking. In this movement, Howe did not, at first, take an active part. At the moment his chief duty was to secure the downfall of Lord Falkland and the Tory administration, and to that single purpose he devoted himself until after the elections of 1847. The legislature, however, at the instance of the governor, in 1846, adopted a resolution pledging Nova Scotia to co-operate with the other provinces interested in a joint survey of the line to the St. Lawrence, which we may designate by the name which it has since acquired as the Intercolonial Railway. The sum of ten thousand pounds was spent by the governments of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in securing this survey which was made by Major Robinson, and has become known in Canadian history as the Robinson Line, which indeed, does not differ very materially from the fine which was adopted in 1868 as the route of the present Intercolonial Railway. The Robinson survey was submitted to the legislature in 1849. Mr. Howe was then in power, and during that session the government submitted to the legislature a measure giving the right of way with ten miles of Crown land on either side, and twenty thousand pounds sterling per annum as a subsidy to be paid until the road was able to earn profits. 119 JOSEPH HOWE Similar legislation was adopted in Canada and New Brunswick. At this time it was believed that the imperial government would also contribute to the construction of this road, which was deemed of immense importance from an imperial point of view. No action, however, was taken by the imperial government immediately, but at a subsequent date a report was obtained from a Captain Harnett, R.E., who spoke unfavourably and in disparaging terms of the entire enterprise, and the British government, in distinct terms, declined to render any assistance. Such was the position of railway matters in 1850. So far as can be judged by his recorded utterances, and by his general policy, Mr. Howe, from the beginning, had been favourable to the policy of the construction and owning of railways by the government. He always argued with warmth that railways were, like other highways, for public utility, and should be owned and controlled by the public and for the public. Seeing nothing likely to arise out of these larger schemes which were as yet somewhat vague, Howe proposed a resolution in the session of 1850, pledging the credit of the province to the extent of three hundred and thirty thousand pounds for the construction of a railway between Halifax and Windsor, and made an eloquent speech in support of it. Naturally a new proposition involving a public debt created a good deal of opposition, and was one of those 120 RAILWAY PROJECTS advanced movements which always alarm the timid and the ignorant. Howe fought for his resolution as well as he could, and foreseeing the impossibility of getting the whole sum voted, finally yielded sufficiently to secure the voting of half this sum, feeling well assured in his mind that if once the enterprise could be inaugurated he would have no difficulty in getting the remaining amount voted subsequently. During the summer of 1850, considerable excitement in railroad circles arose in connection with a scheme for uniting Portland with the Maritime Provinces by means of a road then named the European and North American Railway. This project was to unite Nova Scotia and New Brunswick by rail with the rapidly developing railroad system of the United States, and to further this movement a great railway convention was held at Portland, July 1st, 1850, and delegates from the governments of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were invited to attend. The delegates from Nova Scotia were Mr. James B. Uniacke, the leader of the government, Mr. Johnston, the leader of the opposition, and Mr. Fraser, of Windsor. The gathering was a notable one. Great hospitality was bestowed upon the visiting delegates by the city of Portland. Eloquent speeches were made, and resolutions were adopted with great enthusiasm that a company should be formed to carry out this enterprise at once. When the Nova Scotian delegates returned, 121 JOSEPH HOWE a public meeting was called at Temperance Hall, Halifax, to receive their report and to take into consideration what measures should be adopted on the part of Nova Scotia to further this project. When the scheme came to be carefully examined it was found that the road would cost at least twelve million dollars and no steps appeared to have been taken at this enthusiastic Portland convention to determine where the money should be found. Certainly no company was available with sufficient capital to carry on this enterprise. The state of Maine could hardly undertake its portion of the work because it had already mortgaged its resources to the limit for railway construction within the state. The larger portion of the line would traverse New Brunswick which had scarcely two hundred thousand inhabitants and could not afford, on its own responsibility, to raise the money for this work, and Nova Scotia's contribution of one hundred and forty miles to the frontier, would involve, under the most favourable conditions, a very large sum. After resolutions had been passed, thanking the delegates for their efforts, adopting the Une proposed and recommending Halifax as a terminus, Howe arose and began that active participation in railway enterprises in British North America which has placed his name foremost among all men who are associated with this critical period in Canadian history. A resolution had been moved appointing a large committee to cooperate 122 THE PORTLAND SCHEME with the people of Portland. Howe made a speech on this resolution, which completely changed the whole temper of the meeting and incidentally reveals how thoroughly he had considered all phases of the railway question. He pointed out in clear and incisive terms the impracticability of this Portland scheme under existing conditions. He declared that no considerable portion of the great sum required for the construction of this road could be raised by the provincial guarantees of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick or the state guarantees of Maine. The only way that any railroads could be constructed in these provinces for a long time to come was by their government assuming the responsibility, pledging their public revenues, borrowing money and expending it directly on the work. His resolution was as follows:— "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 prepared and presented to the lieutenant-governor, praying that His Excellency would recommend the provincial parliament to undertake the construction of that portion of this important work which is to pass through Nova Scotia on a fine between Halifax and the frontier of New Brunswick." This lucid proposition commanded instantly the unanimous and enthusiastic support of the entire meeting. An address signed by the mayor and the city council was presented to the lieutenant- 123 I \v If! 1 i T* Iii I ifi W (; 1 iU l]f''il,j uU 1 ' :PiJiL I !f i| 1 |l| 1 [1 III JOSEPH HOWE governor urging his government to take immediate measures to secure the construction of railways in Nova Scotia, on the authority of the government's credit. The governor very soon afterwards sent a despatch to the colonial secretary, indicating the movement in favour of railway construction in the province, and the necessity of spending about eight hundred thousand pounds sterling, which at six per cent, interest, would have to be paid by the province and would amount to forty-eight thousand pounds. This, with an imperial guarantee, could be secured at three and a half or four per cent, and would thus make the annual expenditure for interest throughout the province very much less. Earl Grey, in his response under date September 21st, 1850, intimated to Sir John Harvey his entire approbation of the support which he and his administration were giving to railway construction, and stated that in his opinion it would be of the highest service to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to have railways constructed. He concluded, however, with the statement that, while very anxious to promote the enterprise, he regretted to say that Her Majesty's government would not recommend to parliament any measure for affording pecuniary assistance for the construction of even the railway from Halifax to Quebec, and still less for the construction of any similar railway less national in its character to be undertaken by the people of Nova Scotia. This action of the imperial government is only in line 124 A DELEGATE TO ENGLAND with the general policy pursued steadily for many years in colonial enterprises. It is possible, perhaps, that in the end, its result has been advantageous to these provinces, because it has fostered a spirit of self-reliance. Whether increased independence bears with it a corresponding increase of cohesion within the empire is a deeper question than the immediate future will solve. Howe and his friends were not entirely discouraged by this summary disposal of their proposition by the imperial government, and it was determined that in order that the question be properly understood by the home authorities, capitalists and railway contractors, a delegate should be forthwith sent to England to give light upon the resources of the country, and at the same time to enlist the sympathies and produce broader views on the part of British statesmen. Howe was naturally chosen for this task, and on the first day of November, 1850, he sailed for England. Upon arriving there he at once sought an interview with the colonial secretary, Earl Grey, and after thus opening up the important subject he had come to discuss, he addressed two letters to him, embodying fully and exhaustively the exact situation in relation to the various provinces of British North America. It is necessary again to repeat that the only satisfactory biography of Howe is the publication of his own speeches and letters. A mere epitome of these letters would give no adequate idea of their 125 1 if 1 i ifI 1 b'Ft m v s 1 ■ ;.;..:.! \m p JOSEPH HOWE wealth of information or bold and splendid grasp of all the great problems which, for more than fifty years since that date, have been and still are, engaging the attention of the best minds British America has produced: the advantages of railways and the necessity for better steam communication between Great Britain and Halifax; the importance of uniting all these provinces by a railway between Halifax and the St. Lawrence; the desirability and importance of making Canada, through direct imperial effort, a field for the great emigration which was going out from the British Isles; and the interest which the inhabitants of Britain themselves had in the development of the active and progressive peoples that had sprung from their loins and settled in growing communities throughout the world; and, above all, the supreme importance of binding them together in one common policy, imperial in its character, and bringing to the councils of the empire the intellect, sympathy and cooperation of all the bright minds, reared and to be reared in its outlying portions. These letters appear in the "Speeches and Public Letters," Vol. II., page 400, and may also be found in the "Journals of Nova Scotia " for 1851. Every moment of Howe's time during his protracted sojourn in Great Britain was devoted to stirring up interest, among all classes, in British American affairs. The publication of these letters in England at once riveted the attention of the 126 yL\p SPEECH AT SOUTHAMPTON foremost men in Great Britain upon this broad colonial statesman. He received an invitation from the mayor and corporation of Southampton to address a public meeting in that important seaport, and he did so on January 14th, 1851. The hall was crowded with an audience composed of the best people in the city. The speech delivered by Howe upon this occasion is regarded by many of his friends as his greatest effort. It would be difficult, however, out of such a number of orations as must be put to his credit, to assign first place to any one. It certainly was an effective address. One extract only can be given, for the speech is of great length:—* "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 honour 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 the 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 honoured by its associations. And when I put my 1 See "Speeches and Letters," Vol. II., page 32. 127 I II 11 JOSEPH HOWE foot on the spot trodden in days of yore by the warriors who embarked for the glorious fields of Agincourt and Crecy, 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 manufactories, which have been created by untiring energy and honourable enterprise within a few years, my pride in your historical associations was quickened and enlivened by the proofs of modern enterprise 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 institutions, feelings, and civilization, as much like the parent as possible, has been the labour 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 England that across the Atlantic they possess provinces of inestimable value." The effect produced by this speech was gratifying. Howe was invited to attend a banquet 128 EFFECT OF HOWE'S VISIT given by the corporation, his health was proposed by the mayor and drunk with great enthusiasm, and the Hampshire Independent, the leading paper of the city, referred to his visit and speech in terms of the highest appreciation. The metropolitan press devoted a great deal of attention to Howe's utterances on colonial questions, and in the House of Lords a discussion arose on the subject of his letters to Earl Grey. Lords Stanley and Mount- eagle referred especially in strong terms to the importance of the questions opened up by these letters, and asked the government what policy they intended to pursue in view of these representations, strongly urging that Howe's propositions be accepted. Mr. Howe's utterances attracted another class— the railway magnates, Sir Morton Peto, William Jackson and Thomas Brassey, who were capitalists and railway contractors. They put themselves in communication with Howe, and thus became interested in Canadian railways. These men did not prove of advantage to Howe's aims and policy, but they were led to an investigation of Canadian resources, and ultimately became associated with the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway. Of social attentions while in London on this occasion, Howe was the constant recipient, but naturally his mind was mostly absorbed in the great purpose of securing an imperial guarantee for the construction of a railway from Halifax to 129 JOSEPH HOWE Quebec, which would carry with it a railway from Halifax to the New Brunswick border, and thus incidentally serve the interests of the eastern and northern portions of the province. In endeavouring to get some definite action on the part of the Whig ministry then in power, Howe experienced enormous difficulties. During the session of 1850-51, parliament was embroiled in acute faction fights; to such a degree, indeed, were these dissensions carried that on February 21st, 1851, about the time that Howe was hoping to have obtained favourable consideration of his propositions from Earl Grey, Lord John Russell's ministry resigned, and this left everything in doubt and difficulty. The session in Nova Scotia had already opened, and Howe realized the importance of having something to submit to the House of Assembly before it prorogued. For several days it was extremely doubtful what would become of the ministry, or whether Lord Derby or some person else would undertake to form another. This suspense lasted until March 3rd, when Lord John Russell resumed office and agreed to continue the government. By the 10th, Howe was able to obtain a letter from Mr. Hawes, written under the authority of Earl Grey, the colonial secretary, and this letter was in every way exceedingly encouraging and satisfactory. Indeed, it went further in this direction than any subsequent action on the part of the imperial government in respect to guarantees of colonial loans. A possible exception to this 130 LETTER OF MR. HAWES was the undertaking to guarantee a portion of the money required for the construction of the Intercolonial Railway at the inauguration of confederation in 1867. The important points of Mr. Hawes's letter, which was somewhat lengthy, were as follows:— "I am directed to inform you that Her Majesty's government are prepared to recommend to parliament that this guaranty should be granted, or that the money required should be advanced from the 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 distinctly 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 responsible—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 shall be provided for to the satisfaction of Her Majesty's government. "In order that such arrangements may be made, Her Majesty's government will undertake to recom- 131 Ml JOSEPH HOWE mend to parliament that the like assistance shall be rendered to these provinces 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 fine passing through its own territory, the proportion of the whole cost of the work which would fall upon any one province, would exceed its proportion 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." This important letter, Howe at once communicated, with an elaborate report, to his government, and on April 5th sailed for Halifax, arriving home on the 14th. During Howe's absence some difficulties had arisen in connection with the ministry, which involved the resignation of one of the ministers, Mr. George R. Young, and Howe was called upon to exercise his tact in allaying any unpleasant feelings that had arisen from these internal dissensions. 132 CONFLICTING PROJECTS Howe's report and the despatches from Downing Street were laid before the House, and were received with an almost universal chorus of approval. Of course, those opposed to the ministry and opposed to government railways made some criticisms, but the sentiment almost universal in the legislature and throughout the province was that Howe had achieved a great work and had succeeded in an unexpected degree in enhghtening Her Majesty's ministers and interesting them in the affairs of British North America. Another difficulty which immediately presented itself to Howe was the opposition which the promoters of the Portland scheme offered to his proposal. The imperial government did not undertake to guarantee provincial bonds for the construction of a railway from Halifax to Portland. The foundation of their guarantee was that imperial interests were concerned in the construction of a railway from Halifax to the St. Lawrence, and there were many persons in both provinces who looked upon the Portland scheme as the more useful and desirable. Howe did not offer any opposition to the Portland project, but he exerted all his efforts to securing the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, regarding this enterprise as having important and far- reaching relations to the consolidation of the British American provinces and the strengthening of the empire. Howe, armed with Mr. Hawes's letter, had now the task of securing the cooperation of 133 JOSEPH HOWE New Brunswick and Canada in furthering this great enterprise. It became necessary, consequently, that he should at once take steps to that end, though his first care was that the people of Nova Scotia should be fully enlightened upon the whole question. Before leaving, therefore, for New Brunswick and Canada, Howe addressed a great public meeting of the citizens of Halifax at Mason Hall on May 15th, and this speech sets forth in masterly terms the whole position of British North America, its importance to the empire and its great future. Note one passage:— I With such a territory as this to overrun, organize and improve, 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 will 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 134 II A PROPHETIC UTTERANCE every principle which lies at the base of your country's prosperity and advancement; 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 it£ 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." In 1871, when British Columbia was incorporated into the Dominion of Canada under the condition that a railroad should be built to the Pacific ocean in ten years, most men regarded this as a vast and, perhaps, impossible undertaking. It required faith, in 1871, to undertake such a project by a united 135 JOSEPH HOWE Canada which had grown enormously in population and resources during the preceding twenty years. What are we to think of the great mental vision and splendid faith of a man who, before confederation was seriously conceived, could, in 1851, make a prediction that men within the sound of his voice would live to hear the whistle of the steam engine in the passes of the Rocky Mountains ? In New Brunswick, Howe had to encounter exceptional difficulties. The interests of the greater number of the people seemed to be in the direction of the railway to Portland, and the route which Major Robinson had selected for the Intercolonial ran along the north shore of New Brunswick, where population at that time was slight; it did not touch the cities of St. John and Fredericton, nor the populous centres of the St. John River. Howe had no less a task before him than to convert the people and government of New Brunswick to his views and interest them in carrying out their share of the project according to the terms of Hawes's letter. He addressed meetings at Dorchester, Moncton, St. John and St. Andrews, and then visited Fredericton to confer with the governor and members of the government. In his public speeches in New Brunswick, Howe grappled with the matter most adroitly and clearly demonstrated that there was no disposition on his part or on that of the government of Nova Scotia to interfere with any of New Brunswick's railway projects, but merely to interest them 136 HOWE'S SCHEME ACCEPTED in a project of common advantage to all British American provinces, namely that of securing a line from Halifax and St. John to the St. Lawrence. He undertook to point out to them that by means of this promised guarantee of a loan from the imperial government, the money for both projects could be obtained upon conditions involving scarcely more obligations upon their province than one project would entail. The result of his efforts in New Brunswick was entirely successful, and he was able to induce Mr. Chandler, a leading New Brunswick statesman, to accompany him to Toronto, where he was to meet the Canadian government, with Lord Elgin at its head, on June 15th. On his way thither he passed through Portland, and being entertained by the leading citizens, he so presented his new scheme as to modify any hostility on the part of Portland or the people of Maine. The Canadian government, after full consultation with Messrs. Howe and Chandler, promptly accepted Howe's scheme and adopted a minute of council agreeing to recommend to parliament at the next session a measure to provide their portion of the Intercolonial Railway loan upon the terms embodied in Mr. Hawes's letter on behalf of the colonial secretary. Mr. Chandler, after this order-in- council had been passed, returned at once to New Brunswick to endeavour to procure a similar order- in-council from his government. Howe remained for a short time in Canada, and he was everywhere 137 JOSEPH HOWE received with the greatest enthusiasm. A public dinner was given to him by the citizens of Toronto, which the governor-general, Lord Elgin, attended. He and Mr. Chandler were taken to Hamilton accompanied by leading members of the legislature, and were entertained by Sir Allan MacNab. Coming down to Montreal, Howe was given a public dinner by the leading merchants of that city, at which Mr. (afterwards Sir) Hugh Allan, the president of the Board of Trade, presided. He was also given a picnic at Belceil. The public addresses of Mr. Howe in Montreal were delivered very soon after the outburst of dissatisfaction with trade matters, which led to the issuing of an annexation manifesto, and the whole tenor of his speeches was to enlarge upon the value of British connection, and to invoke riot only colonial pride, but to make it coincide with a due regard to the obligations we owed to the motherland. At Quebec Howe was given a notable reception. He was invited by the mayor and corporation to address a public meeting, and his speech was lauded by the press in the most flattering terms. He was tendered a public banquet, but declined. Indeed, at this moment Howe was the most prominent figure in British North America. Mr. Angers, at the meeting at Quebec, declared that " For his zeal, talent and success in promoting the great Halifax and Quebec railway, the Hon. Joseph Howe would be considered the benefactor not only of Nova 138 I A CHANGE OF CONSTITUENCY Scotia but of all the North American colonies." Howe returned to Nova Scotia, passing through Dorchester, N.B., on his way. He met the Hon. Mr. Chandler, who informed him that the government of New Brunswick had ratified the agreement made in Toronto, and was prepared to construct the two lines upon the terms proposed. On July 21st, Howe reached Halifax, and was greeted by enthusiastic demonstrations of welcome on the part of the citizens, including a display of fireworks. He had prepared a lengthy and circumstantial report of his mission to New Brunswick and Canada, which was published at once and gave universal satisfaction. The House of Assembly was dissolved on July 26th. Mr. Howe, who had been a representative of the metropolitan constituency of Halifax since his entry into public life, resolved to seek a constituency at this election in Cumberland county, alleging as a reason that the attention required by the interests of a county so large and populous as Halifax pressed upon him too severely in connection with his larger public duties. It seems probable, however, that Howe, being well assured that Halifax was perfectly safe to elect four supporters of the government, felt it desirable that he should secure support in another constituency by his presence. The elections were sharply contested by the opponents of the government, and there were signs of opposition in the county of Cumber- 139 JOSEPH HOWE land, but Howe on entering the county proceeded with an active canvass, rode on horseback four hundred miles in twelve days, and made twenty speeches, which produced such an effect that opposition was withdrawn. To indicate how highly Howe was appreciated outside of the province, an extract from a speech delivered during this campaign at Amherst, by the Hon. Mr. Chandler of New Brunswick, will be a striking testimony:— "Mr. Howe 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 of his manners, combined with such high intellectual resources. Negotiating with ministers of state, at the governor-general's council board, or even in the presence of his sovereign, as beneath the lowly roof of the humblest farmer in the land, he is ever the same—Joe Howe." The result of the election was altogether favour- 140 RAILWAY MEASURES PASSED able to the government. Halifax returned four supporters; Howe and his colleagues were elected in Cumberland by acclamation, and ,a good working majority was obtained. The railway policy, which had thus been apparently consummated, so far as the three provinces were concerned, was doomed to be shattered. The compass of this work does not include a history of Canada, nor is it profitable to enter into details of the difficulties which ensued. Messrs. Jackson, Peto, Betts and Brassey had fixed their minds upon railway enterprises in Canada, and sent their agents with all kinds of specious proposals for the construction of the work. Howe was not captivated by these, but wished to adhere strictly to the original proposition of having the road between Halifax and Quebec constructed by the three governments, the loan for the necessary money to be guaranteed by the imperial government. The legislature of Nova Scotia was called together on November 4th, and Howe soon after brought down the railway bills, which pledged Nova Scotia not only, to the construction of a piece of road between Halifax and New Brunswick, but for thirty miles beyond the boundary. After a protracted debate his railway measures were carried by large majorities. It became evident, however, soon after, that New Brunswick was being captivated by propositions from English capitalists for the construction of the road to Portland, and Mr. Hincks, 141 JOSEPH HOWE representing the Canadian government, came down to New Brunswick, and a conference of the three provinces was asked to meet at Fredericton to reconsider the whole question. Mr. Howe declined to join this conference, foreseeing then the influences that were at work. The delegates, however, came to Halifax, and it was easy to see that there was a determined disposition on the part of New Brunswick, aided by the influence of the Canadian government to make the route of the Intercolonial by the valley of the St. John River, rather than by the Major Robinson route. Howe would not join in this movement because he believed it would jeopardize the imperial guarantee. The New Brunswick legislature, however, adopted this proposition, and the next step was to obtain the consent of the imperial government to the changed route. Messrs. Hincks and Chandler went to England. They asked Howe to join them. It was, however, impossible for him to accede to this for the reason that the election of himself and Mr. Fulton had been set aside by a committee of the legislature, and it became necessary for him in mid-winter to contest an election in Cumberland. The campaign proved a severe one, but on March 24th, 1853, Howe and his colleague, Mr. Fulton, were again triumphantly returned for the county of Cumberland. On his return he received complimentary addresses and a large escort of the men of Colchester county, and in Halifax he and his colleague 142 RETURN TO THE ORIGINAL POLICY were received and conducted to the House by an enormous crowd of people and a torchlight procession. Now that the election was safely over, some still thought that Howe should go to England and join Messrs. Hincks and Chandler, but this was not his view. He foresaw difficulty and failure. Lord Derby's government was by this time in power, and it distinctly refused to give the imperial guarantee for a line through the St. John valley. Mr. Hincks also had an unfortunate quarrel with Sir John Packing- ton, but he succeeded in making arrangements for the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway. New Brunswick likewise became involved in contracts with these English railway men, which turned out unfortunately, if not disastrously, and even the terms and conditions upon which the Grand Trunk was constructed were not, viewed by the light of history, altogether satisfactory from a financial point of view. On August 5th, 1852, Sir Gaspard LeMarchant became governor of Nova Scotia, Sir John Harvey having died the previous spring. Howe now reverted to his original policy of constructing railways for Nova Scotia as a government work, and quite irrespective of the action of any of the other provinces. On August 25th an order-in-council was passed, pledging the administration to proceed with the construction of railways east and west, and authorizing contracts to be entered into, subject 143 JOSEPH HOWE to the approval of the legislature, for raising the funds and carrying on the works. The publication of this order-in-council brought offers from Messrs. Peto, Brassey & Co., and Sikes, King and Brook- field. It was deemed advisable that the resources of these proposed contractors should be enquired into, and still more necessary that financial arrangements, whereby the money could be secured upon the credit of the province, be made in London before proceeding with any enterprise. To this end, Mr. Howe left for England on October 28th, 1852, and, having completed his arrangements with Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., for negotiating the provincial bonds to the extent of one million pounds currency ,000,000) he returned in the latter part of December. During the session of 1853 Howe introduced a measure authorizing the government to construct railways upon the great thoroughfares to the extent of one million pounds/This measure was opposed by Johnston and his supporters in a most determined manner. Canada had entered into a contract with Jackson and his friends to construct their railways, as also had New Brunswick, and it was contended that company railways could be secured with moderate subventions in Nova Scotia at much less cost and by incurring a very much smaller provincial obligation. Howe, against his better judgment, deemed it wise to respect these objections. He withdrew his measure 144 GOVERNMENT REORGANIZED and substituted facility bills to give effect to the proposition of the opposition, and announced that he would allow a year to pass and see if favourable contracts could be obtained for the construction of the railways. A year passed by and nothing substantial was accomplished. Consequently, when the House met in 1854, the ground was clear for Howe's original proposition. It was proposed that a line should be built from Halifax to Pictou in the east, and a line to Windsor westerly, to be ultimately continued to Annapolis or Digby. Some prominent men in the legislature who had hitherto been in opposition to the government, including Mr. L. M. Wilkins, announced their conversion to Howe's policy and supported the government. The railway measures were passed and the government was empowered to proceed at once with the construction of the sections east and west, the Une being common to both sections as far as Windsor Junction. After these measures had been successfully carried through the House, a complete reorganization of the government took place. Mr. James B. Uniacke, the attorney-general and formal head of the government, being in ill-health and desiring to retire from active public life, accepted the office of commissioner of Crown lands. This left the way clear to Mr. Howe to assume in name as well as in reality, the leadership of the government; but he had other views. The Railway Act had provided that these railways were to be constructed by a board of rail- 145 Kit JOSEPH HOWE way commissioners, the chairman to be a permanent salaried official with £700 a year, the other members to be merely consultants without salary. Howe chose, for reasons which it is not quite easy to understand, to give up his position in the government and take the subordinate position of chief commissioner of railways. He alleged that his object in leaving the government and taking the post of chief railway commissioner was because of his conviction that railway construction was the most important matter at the time, and demanded his undivided attention. He understood well that many difficulties were to be encountered and many dangers to be faced in the introduction of railways into the province, and he felt the work would be safest in the hands of one who was in thorough sympathy with the undertaking. At Howe's suggestion, Mr. William Young, who had been speaker for a number of years, was called upon to form an administration. He accepted this duty and took the office of attorney-general. Mr. Wilkins became provincial secretary, Mr. Henry solicitor- general, and Mr. Howe ceased to be associated with the executive government of the province. He retained, however, his seat in the legislature, as it was expressly provided in the act that the chairman of the railway board should be eligible to sit in the assembly, and it is needless to remark that although no longer in the executive, he continued to be the leading figure in parliamentary halls. 146 RAILWAYS AND CONFEDERATION This sketch embodies the actual conditions of railway construction in Nova Scotia. The railway was pushed forward as rapidly as possible to Truro and to Windsor, and was owned and operated as a government railway. In 1864 provision was made for extending this government road from Truro to Pictou. Consequently, when confederation was formed, while Ontario and Quebec entered the confederation with a large public debt, and without equivalent public works, certainly without any railways to represent this debt, Nova Scotia entered the confederation with its quota of debt, but with railways already profitable to represent it. Indeed, if the railway between Halifax and Pictou on the one side and Halifax and Windsor on the other were operated to-day upon ordinary commercial principles, they would pay fair interest upon the reasonable cost of construction. 147 CHAPTER VIII FOREIGN ENLISTMENT AND THE IRISH CATHOLICS MR. HOWE pursued his duties as chairman of the railway board with assiduity. During the summer of 1854 work was in vigorous operation, and in 1855 a large number of men were employed and construction was going vigorously forward. In 1854 the Crimean war broke out. The results of the early efforts in the war were not favourable to British arms and much humiliation and distress was felt on all sides. It seems inevitable that under the present British army system, the nation must always be unprepared for war on a large scale, and inefficiency in generalship and failure in the commissariat department are always sure to be exposed. The necessity for more men for service in the Crimea became apparent, and in the session of 1854-55 the British government passed an act providing for the foreign enlistment of soldiers for the army. Howe, years before, had pointed out in the clearest possible terms the importance of having colonial regiments formed, trained and made ready for active service, but no heed was paid to his suggestions and warnings by either the colonial or war department of the 149 JOSEPH HOWE imperial government. In furtherance of the Foreign Enlistment Act, a despatch came from the colonial secretary to the lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, Sir Gaspard LeMarchant, asking him to arrange to have a recruiting station opened at Halifax at which men could be enlisted for active service. The government, in response to this, made arrangements accordingly to establish a depot at which officers and men could be enlisted and sent to the Crimea. It may be mentioned at once that the expectation in opening this office in Halifax was that numbers of men would come from the United States and enter the service here. Communications had already been received by the governor and others from friends in the United States intimating that many men were out of employment there, and that a number of British subjects in the United States, as well as Poles, Hungarians, etc., would enter the service with avidity if an opportunity was afforded them. The governor sent for Howe and consulted him upon the steps which should be taken, of course, in conjunction with his advisers. Howe thought it desirable that some one should go to the United States, examine the ground, and see how far it was practicable to secure recruits for active service, and in this the governor concurred and asked Howe to suggest a suitable person for this mission. He replied that some member of his government would be best suited for this purpose, but the governor, 150 J MISSION IN THE UNITED STATES and probably his advisers, were strongly of the opinion that Howe would most efficiently discharge such a service. It was not a pleasant duty; it involved difficulties and possibly dangers, but Howe was never a man to shrink from any service which he thought necessary to uphold the honour of his country and the integrity of the empire. In consequence Howe started in March and visited Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington on this mission. At this period Mr. John F. Crampton was British minister at Washington. Between this minister and the governor of Nova Scotia correspondence had taken place, and this had grown out of correspondence with Earl Clarendon, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, who had drawn the attention of the minister to the Foreign Enlistment Act, and sought light as to how far it was probable that recruits could be obtained in the United States. Mr. Crampton proceeded judiciously at first, but came to grief, as it happened, before the matter was over. There were upon the statute book of the United States stringent acts against foreign enlistment in that country. The British minister consulted an eminent lawyer, in whom he had confidence, as to what could be done legally, and what could not be done under this act, and it seemed to be the judgment that no contract for enlistment could be made with any person within the United States, nor could there be personal solicitation of any citizens of the United States to 151 II JOSEPH HOWE enter into a foreign service. Mr. Crampton no doubt proposed to act strictly within his legal rights and not to exceed them, but this proved to be a somewhat difficult matter, not only in the abstract, but because of the prevalent sympathy of the American government and people during the war. It is useless to enquire why, but the fact remains, that during the Crimean war of 1854-55 an immense majority of the people of the United States sympathized with Russia. At the beginning a policy of strict neutrality was announced by the United States government, and it can be easily inferred that any steps taken in any direction tending to give aid or assistance to the British authorities at this juncture would excite the most acute feeling throughout the United States. It was the judgment of the British minister, as well as of the governor of Nova Scotia that, while it was illegal to enlist soldiers in the United States, it was not infringing any statute to circulate posters in that country setting forth the fact that a recruiting station had been opened at Halifax and that any men who desired to enlist and might come for that purpose, on arriving there, would not only receive pay according to the army regulations, but would be paid the full amount of their travelling expenses from their residence to Halifax. A proclamation to that effect was issued by the provincial government of Nova Scotia, under the hand of the lieutenant- governor, and signed by Mr. L. M. Wilkins as pro- 152 DIFFICULTIES OF THE MISSION vincial secretary. An address, written by Howe, embodying this proclamation and pointing out the opportunity that it afforded, was issued and widely circulated in the United States, chiefly through the agency of Howe, who was acting with those upon whose friendly confidence he thought he could rely, especially the British consuls at New York, Boston, etc. At an early stage of Howe's mission in the United States he began to meet with difficulties. It was his misfortune to be approached by men wap made great professions of devotion to the empire, and of their ability to obtain recruits, provided that some means were placed at their disposal, and Howe, in as judicious a manner as possible, placed in the hands of one of these officious men the sum of $300. Howe's secretary also held communication with several persons, perhaps, in some instances with a little more zeal than discretion. In consequence, the fact that steps were being taken to secure recruits for the British army in the United States became gradually a matter of notoriety. It not only got into the newspapers but the authorities took cognizance of it, and warrants were issued for the arrest of sundry persons, including Howe and his secretary. The latter was arrested and tried before Judge Kane, and acquitted. No bill was found against Howe. Hertz, who had obtained the money from Howe and some other money from his friends on the strength of the 153 Kim! JOSEPH HOWE business he had undertaken, turned out to be a renegade, and after being tried for violating the laws of the United States, he made a confession implicating various persons, including the British consuls and the British minister himself. At a somewhat critical period of Howe's efforts, the finishing stroke in the way of opposition came from Halifax. A man named William Condon, who held office as a gauger in the customs department, was president of the Charitable Irish Society. It is, perhaps, fitting to state here that during the progress of the war in the Crimea there were unmistakable tokens in Halifax of sympathy with the Russians on the part of a considerable portion of the Irish Catholic population. Indeed, it is asserted upon fairly good authority that meetings were held in which Great Britain and her actions in respect to the war were denounced, and that a league was formed to give effect to these hostile views. Condon was suspected of having more or less sympathy and cooperation with this movement. Howe had some success in obtaining recruits, and a number of men came to Halifax for this purpose, among others a body of Irish Catholics. Whether these men were influenced after their arrival in Halifax or not, the fact remains that it was alleged on their behalf that they had been induced to come to Nova Scotia upon the pledge of work upon the railway. As no work was provided for them, they were in a condition of destitution, and Condon 154 A CONDON'S ANNOUNCEMENT sent to an Irish newspaper published in New York, where Howe then was, a telegram couched in the following terms: "Sixty Irishmen entrapped in Boston as railway labourers sent here for the foreign legions. Publish and circulate this.—Wm. Condon, Pres. C.I.S." The effect of the publication of this was to compel Howe to leave immediately, which he did, and returned to Halifax after two anxious months in the United States, where his efforts had secured about nine hundred men in spite of all the difficulties encountered. It can be easily imagined that he was not in a very pleasant humour towards the Irish population on his return to the province. In 1855 the term of the legislature expired, and it became necessary to have a general election. Howe had not returned from his mission in the United States when the campaign opened throughout the province. It was not believed that his seat in Cumberland was in any danger, and therefore he did not hasten his return with any sense that his presence was necessary in Cumberland county. But it happened that in this election the candidate against him was a certain local doctor named Charles Tupper, who thus for the first time appears upon the political scene in Nova Scotia, in which he afterwards played such a conspicuous part, and for many years later a still more commanding part in the larger arena of federal affairs. Local tradition thus records the circumstances under which Mr. Howe and Dr. Tupper first met in the political 155 JOSEPH HOWE arena. It has been already mentioned that Howe was called upon to contest a bye-election in Cumberland in 1852, and it is related that in one of his public gatherings in that county, after he had finished his address, Dr. Tupper, short of stature and then of slender form, came forward and demanded the right to reply. This was received with laughter and jeers by Howe's friends. Mr. Howe was, as always, disposed to be generous, so he arose and said: "Let us hear the little doctor by all means. I would not be any more affected by anything he might say than by the mewing of yonder kitten," pointing to a cat which was perched upon a fence near by. Having thus secured the right to speak, Dr. Tupper came forward and plunged at once into a vigorous onslaught in the same trenchant style which characterized him until the latest period of his political career. A gentleman present at the meeting, who was then in political sympathy with Howe, was so far affected by Tupper's vigorous criticisms that he made the remark that "it was possible that Howe would find this little doctor a cat that would scratch his eyes out." The prediction was soon enough fulfilled. At the general election of 1855, Dr. Tupper received the Conservative nomination as a candidate for the county of Cumberland, and conducted his campaign with such force that when the votes were counted it was found that Tupper and his Conservative colleagues were elected, and Howe and his col- 156 HOWE'S FIRST DEFEAT leagues had been defeated. This was Howe's first defeat in a political election. Mr. Young's government had been handsomely sustained and had a large majority in the new House, and Mr. Howe would retain his office as chairman of the railway board. His defeat, therefore, did not affect in any way his pecuniary prospects, but it was an unexpected and unpleasant incident. He accepted his failure, however, good-naturedly, and attributed it to the fact that he was too late in getting into the county owing to his absence abroad. During the session of 1856 Howe was not in his accustomed place in the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia, and it is needless to say that his absence created a great gap. No figure, indeed, could be more missed by the occupants of the galleries. For twenty years he had been the most conspicuous figure in the legislative halls, bringing every variety of genius to bear upon the stirring questions discussed, and it did seem a strange incident to find public discussions going forward in the assembly with no "Joe" Howe to enliven them. In 1856, after the session, Mr. L. M. Wilkins was appointed a judge of the supreme court. His place as provincial secretary was taken by Mr. W. A. Henry, at that time solicitor-general, and Mr. A. G. Archibald became solicitor-general and a member of the executive. Mr. Wilkins's seat in Hants county thereby became vacant, and Howe was presented with a requisition signed by leading men of both 157 lilt* i JOSEPH HOWE political parties asking him to become the representative of that county in the House of Assembly. He accepted, and was returned by acclamation. Once again, therefore, Mr. Howe was in his place as a member of the assembly. But striking events were to occur before he took his seat in the session of 1857. During the summer of 1856 riots had occurred on the railway. It appears that a body of Irish Catholics had made a savage attack upon the shanty of one Gourley, situated on the line of railway under construction. It is not necessary to enter into details of the outrage, but unquestionably it was a savage and brutal attack, and a reign of terror was inaugurated. The reason alleged for this attack upon Gourley's shanty was that the owner had made some observations reflecting upon certain tenets and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. The outbreak was not entirely confined to the attack upon Gourley's shanty, but other riots and terrorizing acts were alleged to have been perpetrated by the Irish Catholics employed on the work, and they had given out threats that no Protestant should be allowed employment. Howe, as chairman of the railway board, had proceeded to make personal investigations and take proceedings to bring the rioters to justice, and to secure peace and order along the line, and in pursuit of this he had encountered much that was irritating and calculated to excite deep indignation. It happened that on the afternoon of his return 158 DISMISSAL OF THE BRITISH MINISTER from this tour a public meeting was held in Halifax for the purpose of considering the presentation of an address to Mr. John F. Crampton, the British minister at Washington, who had been summarily dismissed from that post by the president of the United States, solely and entirely on account of his connection with the foreign enlistment business with which Mr. Howe had been actively associated.1 The people of Nova Scotia at large were in 1 Early in 1856 a long discussion took place in the British House of Commons on the conduct of Mr. Crampton in respect of foreign enlistment, in the course of which Mr. Gladstone made a speech attacking Crampton, and incidentally reflecting on Mr. Howe. The latter at once addressed an open letter to Mr. Gladstone, in which he resented his imputations and ably defended himself. Only an extract or two can be quoted:—" Presuming on the advantage which fine talents and elevated station confer, you ventured to take unwarrantable liberties with a stranger's name and reputation; to speak in his absence of a British American gentleman, whose only offence was obedience to his sovereign and zeal for the honour of his country, in terms of sarcasm and reproach, which, I shall presently show, were undeserved from any Englishman, and least of all from the honourable member for Oxford. . . . The responsibility for what I did, whatever it was, has been assumed by the Queen's government and ministers, and after full discussion of the subject in all its bearings, has been sustained by parliament. By what rule is it, therefore, that Mr. Gladstone, a single member of the cabinet under whose authority and instructions I was employed, ventures to arraign my conduct, or shake himself clear of the responsibility of my proceedings ? If i this Howe I has done wrong, e that Gladstone,' no less than Mr. Sydney Herbert, his friend and colleague, whose despatch was my sole warrant and authority, must share the blame." Mr. Gladstone, after reading Mr. Howe's letter, sent him a note, in which he very generously withdrew his reflections, and made the amende honorable. Mr. Howe never received any remuneration from the Imperial government for his disagreeable and dangerous services in connection with Foreign Enlistment. 159 JOSEPH HOWE sympathy with Mr. Crampton and believed that he had been unfairly and harshly dealt with by the American authorities. Knowing that Mr. Crampton was to pass through Halifax on his way to England, a public meeting of the citizens had been called to consider the propriety of presenting an address to him. No political hue was given to this meeting. Leading men of both political parties attended and expressed their opinion freely that Mr. Crampton had been made a victim of American sympathy with Russia. The war by this time was over and peace had been established. The meeting proceeded in its usual way. A resolution was moved by Mr. Henry Pryor that a complimentary address be presented to Mr. Crampton expressing the cordial sympathy of Nova Scotians. This was seconded by Mr. Peter Lynch, Q.C. At this point a note of opposition was heard, and it came from a representative of the Irish Catholics present at the meeting. Howe had taken no active part in the meeting up to this point, but when he observed this fresh outbreak of anti-British feeling among the Irish population, he felt that the time had arrived when some one should take the responsibility of speaking out in plain and unmistakable terms. This action on Howe's part was not that of a judicious politician, or a successful opportunist; indeed a thorough politician would have done nothing of the kind, but in Howe's action on that day and for the months that succeeded it, one 160 BREACH WITH THE IRISH CATHOLICS may read clearly the type and character of his manhood. He was fresh from the scene of Irish Catholic rioting and terrorism on the railway. He still remembered the outbursts of hostility to Great Britain by a portion of the Irish population in Halifax, and he had not ceased to smart under what he conceived to be the disloyal and hostile treatment he had received from the hands of Mr. Condon while endeavouring to advance the interests of the empire in a foreign country. His just indignation was thoroughly aroused, and with the courage always characteristic of his every movement, he threw discretion to the winds and arose in this meeting and delivered a speech in which in clean cut terms he denounced the insidious disloyalty of a portion of the Irish population and gave it to be distinctly understood that, at whatever cost or sacrifice, he intended that the loyal British people of this province should join issue squarely with those who were the undisguised enemies of the empire. He went further and stated that the Protestant sentiment of this country should be tested as to whether a band of Irish ruffians should undertake to terrorize Protestant citizens in the discharge of their duties on the public works of this country. This action on the part of Mr. Howe, as will be easily understood, created a deep and Hitter feeling in the community. Two-fifths of the population of the city of Halifax were Roman Catholics, and an overwhelming portion of the Catholic population 161 •fiff l v la JOSEPH HOWE was Irish, and to add to the piquancy of the incident it must be borne in mind that a substantial majority of this Irish Catholic population had been devoted to Howe in his great agitation for popular government, and had supported him with zeal and ardour in all his election contests in the city and county of Halifax. The immediate effect of Howe's speech was a violent outburst of feeling on the part of the Irish Catholic population, voiced through their organ, The Catholic. An opportunity of retreat was, perhaps, presented to him. He had made his speech from sudden impulse, and therefore reflection might have suggested to him the propriety of withdrawing many of his vigorous and offensive words and securing peace. But no such course was characteristic of the man. His speech was succeeded by letter after letter in the Morning Chronicle, in which in terms still more vigorous he declared that he would never cease until it became distinctly and thoroughly understood in Nova Scotia who was to rule, the loyal English population or a band of disloyal Irish Catholics, who undertook to mob people for the expression of their religious convictions. What course would have been adopted by the Conservative party at this moment if Johnston only had had control of the political movements of his party must be a matter of conjecture. Undoubtedly many leading Conservatives in Halifax were in secret sympathy with Howe in his crusade, and Johnston himself was scarcely the type of man that 162 TUPPER SEIZES HIS OPPORTUNITY would have cared to have attained power by a league between his party and the Irish Catholic population. But although in the legislature only one session, Charles Tupper had become the leading and dominant spirit of the opposition. Upon the instant that this quarrel between Howe and the Irish Catholic population had arisen, Tupper saw the chance of utilizing the incident for defeating the government and coming into power. He accordingly took prompt advantage of the occasion persistently and relentlessly to encourage the controversy and help to widen the breach. As the professed champion of civil and religious liberty, he became the vindicator of the rights of the Irish Catholic population. The session of 1857 was approaching, and the public began to speculate with profound interest as to what would be the outcome of this quarrel in respect to the government of the day. As Howe was not then a member of the government, and as William Young, the premier, had said and done nothing in respect to the Irish Catholic population, and no member of his government was in the slightest degree directly concerned in Howe's quarrel, it may be reasonably asked why this emeute should in any way affect the fortunes of the government. The answer is very simple. Howe at that moment occupied such a commanding place in the public eye and was regarded as such a supreme factor in the counsels of his party that it was impossible to dis-associate his 163 JOSEPH HOWE political party from any public action of his. Howe held office under the government as chief commissioner of railways. The Morning Chronicle, which was his organ in this controversy, as well as the leading organ of the Liberal party in the province, was owned and controlled by Mr. William Annand, a member of the legislature and holding the office of queen's printer under the government. Dr. Tupper was very particular to have the question constantly protruded: "If you are not in sympathy with Mr. Howe and Mr. Annand in their crusade against our Roman Catholic citizens, why do you retain them in office?" Prior to the meeting of the legislature, Mr. William Condon, who has been mentioned as a foremost factor in these political religious disturbances, had been dismissed from his office as gauger in the customs department, and every one felt that it was almost impossible for the government to have pursued any other course, considering the fact that he was day after day writing offensively in respect to Mr. Howe, and on lines calculated to damage the political party with which Howe was associated. When the House met the crisis came. Some time previously Mr. Michael Tobin had resigned his seat in the government. He was an Irish Catholic, and related by marriage to Mr. William Young. Just as the House was meeting another Catholic member of the government resigned, as did also Mr. W. A. Henry, who, although not a 164 HOSTILE DEMONSTRATIONS Catholic himself, represented the county of Sydney (now Antigonish), the population of which was seven-eighths Roman Catholic. An amendment to the address was moved by Mr. Johnston in terms which made it practically a vote of want of confidence, and this was carried on a division of twenty- eight to twenty-two, every Catholic supporter of the government but one voting with Mr. Johnston. In the debates which were continued for a number of days in the House of Assembly, Howe became the central figure of the discussion, and never in his whole political career did he exhibit greater heroism and greater disregard for consequences than in this struggle. Usually it had been his fortune to have an enthusiastic crowd of friends in the gallery, who applauded all his efforts in the direction of popular government. During this debate the preponderating element in the galleries was drawn from the Irish Catholic population, and when Howe arose to speak every effort was made to disconcert him by hostile demonstrations, and the speaker and other members of the House were compelled to threaten constantly to clear the galleries. But Howe maintained his position with rare good nature, and uttered his views with a boldness altogether foreign to a man in political life. His own position was at stake, as well as that of the members of the government. He was then, as at all times, poor and without means of support for his family outside of his employment as a public man, but he 165 JOSEPH HOWE declared in the plainest terms that if the government were defeated on the issue then before the House he would not hold office another hour. An extract from one of his speeches in this session will serve to indicate the Spartan manner in which he faced the situation:— " Let me say, sir, in the face of this legislature— in the presence of those who have known me both in public and private life for upwards of thirty years, that no inducement, however strong, no lure, however tempting, could provoke me to persecute any man or body of men on account of religion— and although, for purposes which it is not difficult to understand, some parties are attempting to propagate this trash now—the time will come when the principles which have guided my public career for thirty years, will be recognized and discerned by my actions to-day. I claim equal justice for myself, I claim equal justice for every Catholic in the country. Turn to your journals—to your reports—to the pages of the public prints, and you will everywhere see my footprints. It may be that the pressure brought to bear on some of my friends may induce them to desert their ancient standard, believing that something is to be gained or achieved by going into opposition. A word or two to these gentlemen, and but a word—I do not come here to explain or apologize. What is writ is writ and what is said is said. I Throughout a long political life—throughout a 166 HOWE IN OPPOSITION long parliamentary career, I have been true to the friends with whom I started—to the principles which I entertained. The time may come, I say, when some of these friends may desert me and their party—some may do it willingly, but others will do it most reluctantly. When the new administration is formed, Mr. Howe's office will be at its disposal. He will take his seat on these benches an independent member—will say that which he believes to be true, and do that which he believes to be right. And, sir, all the combinations which can be formed will never coerce or intimidate me, confident that the heart and soul of Nova Scotia is with me in this struggle." Mr. Johnston, it is but fair to mention, in opening the attack upon the government, scarcely referred to the racial and religious phase of the discussion. He based his demand for the downfall of the government upon its incapacity and total failure to conduct the public affairs with efficiency. It comported best with his policy that he should get all the Irish Catholic votes on an issue other than that of race and religion. It was entirely needless that he should plunge into a discussion of the racial question when assured that the votes would come to him precisely as well on the public issues as on the real issue. Johnston succeeded in forming his government, he becoming leader and attorney-general with Tupper as provincial secretary. Howe's next business, therefore, was to secure the downfall of this administration, 167 JOSEPH HOWE and for the next two years he devoted himself without respite to the task of inflaming the people and keeping the issue which he had raised well to the front. The general elections came on in 1859. Howe contested Hants county, and was triumphantly returned, as also a small majority of Liberals, enough to secure a majority of four or five on division. By this time the Catholic question had subsided to a considerable extent, and one of the principal matters to be determined at this election, as there were no grave issues of public policy at stake, was—which of two veteran lawyers was to receive the appointment of chief justice of Nova Scotia. Sir Brenton Halliburton, who had been chief justice for many years, was long past eighty, and infirm, and it was quite well known that he could not continue on the bench very much longer. If the government were sustained, the office would go to J. W. Johnston, who thoroughly deserved it for his long and brilliant record in the political field as well as his splendid career in the forensic field. If, however, the government were defeated, this great prize would fall to William Young. Although it was manifest that a majority of opposition members had been returned, Johnston did not resign, but continued in office and met the House. During the session of 1860, Dr. Tupper made a brave and splendid fight for existence. It proved, hopeless, however, and a vote of want of confidence was passed, and Johnston retired. Mr. Young was 168 J PREMIER OF THE PROVINCE called upon to form an administration. For some reason, probably an indisposition to seek re-election in Cumberland, he took no department, but simply the position of president of the council. Howe was provincial secretary, Mr. A. G. Archibald attorney- general, and Mr. Annand financial secretary. In a few months Young accepted the office of chief justice, at last vacant, and Howe became for the first time premier of the province. Howe and his government continued in office until the general election of 1863, but little pertains to this administration which is of historical importance to Nova Scotia, or adds anything to Howe's reputation. As a matter of fact, Howe had long since outgrown his provincial ambitions, and yearned for wider horizons and a larger sphere of action. Devoted as he was to the empire, and conscious of having rendered great service, he cherished the dream that he would sooner or later receive tokens of appreciation in the way of imperial employment. The greatest of men have their weaknesses, and Howe, with all his intellectual power, was not devoid of personal vanity nor free from the corroding influence of a towering ambition. In 1854, when only fifty years of age, he talked about bidding farewell to political life, and it was probably with greatly diminished enthusiasm that he battled for two years in opposition for the purpose of restoring his party to power, and it was also probably with scant joy that he resumed his place 169 j M JOSEPH HOWE in the provincial administration. In 1860 his colleagues appear to have become aware of Howe's great yearning for an imperial post, as the records of the executive council board witness. Before Mr. Young retired to the bench, a minute of council was passed, setting forth Mr. Howe's strong claims to imperial recognition, which was, no doubt, forwarded through the lieutenant-governor to the colonial secretary. No imperial position, however, immediately came. The history of imperial policy in relation to the colonies indicates what would seem to an ordinary person a short-sighted policy in respect of making use of the talents of distinguished men in the outlying portions of the empire. Knighthoods are bestowed freely, sometimes a baronetcy, but positions in the imperial service rarely. Patronage probably plays as large a part in the imperial as in colonial governments, and ministers have their hands full in providing posts and employment for friends of the party within the kingdom. Early in 1863 an opening came. Mr. Perley of St. John, who had been appointed fishery commissioner on behalf of Great Britain for carrying out the provisions of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, died while in Newfoundland on fishery business, and Howe was selected as his successor. The appointment was made early in the year with the understanding that the active duties should not be taken up by Howe until somewhat later in the 170 THE RETRENCHMENT SCHEME season. This was necessary inasmuch as Howe was still leader of the government and a general election was at hand, and the fortunes of the party seemed anything but bright at that mofnent. As has already been remarked, a great genius is not always a successful party leader, and Howe encountered many difficulties in the three years during which he had control of provincial affairs in Nova Scotia. The government majority was extremely narrow. His lieutenants in the House did not at that stage render very effective support in public debate. Johnston was, of course, the leader of the opposition, but the moving, animating and inspiring figure was Dr. Tupper, who gave no rest day or night to a government manifestly sinking in popular favour. During the session previous to the election of 1863, Dr. Tupper brought forward a famous I Retrenchment Scheme," whereby he proposed, in order to have more money at the disposal of the government for public services, to cut down the salary of nearly every official in the government employ, thereby saving sixty or seventy thousand dollars a year. It was a mere political device, but it served its purpose with the electorate. The elections took place in May, 1863, and out of a House of fifty-five, only thirteen Liberals were elected. Howe himself was among the slain. The situation appearing quite satisfactory in the county of Hants, Howe was induced to become a candidate in the county of Lunenburg. Tupper, 171 JOSEPH HOWE who had the good fortune to be elected by acclamation in the county of Cumberland, started straight for Lunenburg and pursued Howe steadily for a week, with the result that Howe and his colleagues were defeated by large majorities. A new government was formed, Johnston becoming leader with the department of attorney-general, and Tupper resuming his old department of provincial secretary. During the first session of the new legislature, 1864, an act was passed creating a judge in equity for the express purpose of retiring Mr. Johnston, thus clearing the way for Tupper, who assumed the leadership. Events of the most far-reaching character followed the formation of this administration, but these must be dealt with in another chapter. 172 CHAPTER IX HOWE AND CONFEDERATION WHEN Dr. Tupper was in England in 1866 endeavouring, in common with other Canadian statesmen, to secure the passage of the British North America Act, and Howe, representing the anti-confederate party of Nova Scotia, was seeking to prevent its passage, the former wrote and published a pamphlet, filled with quotations from Howe's former speeches and utterances favourable to a union of the British North American colonies. Indeed, so strong were the passages quoted and so effectively were they marshalled by Tupper, that the impression has prevailed everywhere that the confederation of British North America had been Howe's cherished dream. This is not strictly true. That a man with Howe's breadth of view should fail to recognize the possibility and importance of the organization of all British North America into a consolidated dominion, possessing the germs of nationality, is opposed to any conception of his character. Every question which pertained to the development of British America had received his profound consideration, and upon all questions of this character he had made striking and brilliant utterances in his speeches and writings. Neverthe- 173 JOSEPH HOWE less, it cannot be fairly said that Howe had made himself a conspicuous champion of confederation. If we are to give effect to his utterances in respect to the destinies of British North America, it will be plainly seen that his favourite scheme, from early days, had been a consolidation of the empire, a solution of the problem of the North American colonies by an organized empire in which all the colonies would be represented, and all accept common responsibilities and duties in respect to maintaining imperial integrity. Of that proposition Howe may be said to have been the most conspicuous author, and on the question of imperial federation, no note has been uttered within the last decade by any statesman, imperial or colonial, more advanced or matured than Howe's utterances of fifty years ago. He had in general terms repeatedly and eloquently advocated a union of the British North American colonies, and none were able to perceive with greater breadth of view the importance of such a union and its necessity if a consolidated English-speaking nation was to be developed in North America. In some of his speeches the difficulties in the way of this union are frankly pointed out, and the objections on the part of the Maritime Provinces to linking their destinies completely with Canada had been frankly avowed. When Johnston in 1854 moved a resolution and made an eloquent speech in favour of a union of the British North American provinces, Howe had spoken 174 SIR CHARLES TUPPER in anything but enthusiastic terms in support of Johnston's resolution. On the contrary he pitted against this proposition a wider and more dazzling prospect of imperial union. It is just to affirm that, while Howe recognized the value and importance of Canadian confederation, he always cherished a lurking fear that the Maritime Provinces would be completely overshadowed and absorbed by the Upper Provinces in such a union. Johnston retired to the bench in 1864, and Tupper became actually, as from the beginning he had been virtually, premier. Tupper was a man of great ability and restless ambition. He naturally sought, the moment he found himself safely in the saddle, to inaugurate some movement which would extend beyond the narrow bounds of the province. He consequently introduced a scheme of Maritime union in the session of 1864, and sought the cooperation of the governments of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in furtherance of this project. Both these governments responded favourably to his application, and it was arranged that a convention should assemble early in September at Charlottetown. Nova Scotia was to send five delegates, and, naturally, it was altogether desirable that both of the great political parties should be represented. At this moment Howe was not in the legislature, and was performing the duties of British commissioner under the provisions of the Reciprocity Treaty. The political party with which he was 175 Lvf; l JOSEPH HOWE associated was a mere remnant in the legislature, Mr. A. G. Archibald leading the forlorn hope of an opposition. At the time this convention at Charlottetown was to be held, no thought of the larger union was present as a definite proposition in the minds of any of the provincial governments. Though Howe was not in public life, few would question that he, above all others, should be asked to join in such a large measure as the union of the Maritime Provinces. Sir Charles Tupper has always asserted that he invited Mr. Howe to become a delegate from Nova Scotia to this convention. But the absence of any official communication to that effect in the provincial secretary's office occasioned doubt in many minds as to the accuracy of this. The matter, however, has been placed beyond doubt, for the original correspondence is in the possession of Mr. Sydenham Howe, Joseph Howe's only surviving son, and is as follows:— "Halifax, August 16th, 1864. My Dear Sir:—I have the pleasure of informing you that your name has been this morning submitted by the executive council to His Excellency the lieutenant-governor as one of the delegates to the conference upon the union of the Maritime Provinces, and I am instructed by His Excellency to enquire if you will accept that office and attend the meeting of delegates at Charlottetown on September 1st. I remain, Yours faithfully, (Sgd.) C. Tupper." 176 in CONFEDERATION CONFERENCE IH. M. S. Lily, August 16th, 1864. My Dear Sir:—I am sorry for many reasons to be compelled to decline participation in the conference at Charlottetown. The season is so far advanced that I find my summer's work would be so seriously deranged by the visit to Prince Edward Island that without permission from the foreign office, I would scarcely be justified in consulting my own feelings at the expense of the public service. I shall be home in | October, and will be very happy to cooperate in carrying out any measure upon which the conference shall agree. Very truly yours, (Sgd.) Joseph Howe." A seat on the delegation was offered, of course, | to Mr. Archibald, the leader of the opposition, and | the other seat, it appears from the official records, I was offered to Mr. John Locke, M.P.P. for Shel- jjburne county, a leading representative of the Liberal j party in the House. Mr. Locke declined to serve, (and Mr. Archibald was asked by Sir Charles Tupper | to name the gentleman he would prefer to be associated with him on the delegation, and he named | Mr. Jonathan McCully, who was the leader at that I time of the Liberal party in the legislative council. |Dr. Tupper, Mr. W. A. Henry and Mr. R. B. Dickie were the delegates chosen from the government side of the House. It is not necessary to dwell in detail upon the lincidents attending confederation. The Maritime Idelegates met at Charlottetown. Difficulties im- 177 L JOSEPH HOWE mediately presented themselves in the way of a Maritime union, which bade fair to be insuperable, and while these were being grappled with, Sir John Macdonald and his associates from Canada appeared suddenly upon the scene and proposed a union of all the provinces, and induced the delegates of the three provinces to meet Canadian delegates at a conference at Quebec to consider a wider scheme of confederation, which should embrace all British North America. Representatives of all the provinces, including Newfoundland, agreed to this, and the famous Quebec conference was held, at which a scheme of confederation, quite ample in its details, and not widely differing in principle from the scheme ultimately adopted in 1867, was framed. It is, indeed, an unfortunate incident that in the consideration of such a great question as engaged the attention of the statesmen of Canada at Quebec, a man of the genius, experience and national reputation of Joseph Howe should have been absent. Sir Charles Tupper declares that, having invited him to take part in the Charlottetown convention, and he having declined, and Messrs. Archibald and McCully having accepted and taken part in the deliberations at Charlottetown, and having been present when the invitation was extended by the Canadian delegates to go to Quebec, it was impossible for him to ask either of these gentlemen to retire in order that Howe might have a place. It may also be added that Mr. Sydenham Howe declares very 178 HOSTILITY TO THE SCHEME distinctly that, even if his father had been invited to attend the Quebec conference, he would have been unable to serve owing to the fact that at that particular season he was actively engaged in his official duties and was cruising in H. M. S. Lily round the coast. At all events, a measure of confederation was drawn up in Quebec in October, 1864, and assented to by the representatives of all the provinces, and Joseph Howe had no part in the matter. How this scheme was presently submitted to the public; how it was adopted, after serious discussion, by the Canadian parliament in 1865; how it was rejected by New Brunswick very soon after its publication and Mr. Tilley swept from office, and an anti-confederate government, under Mr. Albert J. Smith, installed in power, which necessarily postponed the whole question; how it was rejected by Prince Edward Island, and how all the ingenuity and skill of Dr. Tupper was essential to prevent a resolution hostile to it being passed in the Nova Scotia legislature in 1865; and how ultimately New Brunswick reversed its judgment and adopted the scheme in 1866; and how the legislature of Nova Scotia, on the suggestion of Mr. William Miller, who had been one of the pronounced opponents of confederation, adopted a resolution, by a majority of thirty- one to nineteen, authorizing the delegates to frame a scheme in London, are incidents well known and not necessary at this stage to be elaborated. It is enough to say that very early after the publication 179 JOSEPH HOWE of this scheme, it became manifest that the people of Nova Scotia were unfavourably disposed to the union, as laid down in the Quebec resolutions, and were prepared to offer bitter and uncompromising opposition to the confederation scheme. Public meetings were called in Halifax, at which eloquent and aggressive speeches were made against the scheme. These meetings were extended throughout the province, and unusual political excitement was generated. Party lines for the first time in Nova Scotia began to be obliterated. The most determined opponents to confederation were lifelong supporters of Mr. Johnston, and up to that moment, had been followers of Dr. Tupper. Messrs. A. G. Jones, W. B. Vail and Martin I. Wilkins may be cited as conspicuous examples of Conservative opposition to the union. On the other hand, Messrs. Archibald and McCully, the actual leaders of the Liberal party in the legislature, were supporting confederation. While this excitement was developing, every person in Nova Scotia was profoundly anxious to know what course Mr. Howe would take in this matter, because every one recognized that he was still the greatest man i and the most potent factor in the public life of the country. Notice had been given by the American government of the termination of the Reciprocity Treaty, and Howe recognized, of course, that with its termination his position as an imperial officer ceased. 180 HOWE'S DILEMMA This meant cessation of employment, which was not an altogether unimportant consideration to a man who had not accumulated a dollar. Howe had ample time to weigh the situation carefully and to determine his action after balancing every consideration. On the one hand was the fact that he had often expressed himself concerning the union of British North America as one of the great and imperative questions of the future, and that now a more definite prospect loomed up of securing this great object than had ever previously existed. On the other hand the situation presented a great and terrible temptation, almost beyond the power of mortal man to resist. Howe saw a recent and not much beloved rival at the head of affairs in Nova Scotia, suddenly become a conspicuous figure in the moulding of a great measure of national and far-reaching import. His own political party had been annihilated in 1863. There were manifest tokens of popular hostility to confederation in Nova Scotia. What if these prejudices could be utilized for the destruction of Tupper and his high-flown scheme with which his name had become so conspicuously associated? When this had been accomplished, Mr. Howe might reflect it would be easy for himself to reopen the matter and secure a measure of confederation which would more amply satisfy the interests of the Maritime Provinces. The temptation thus presented to a man of Howe's active temperament, who was soon to be without employ- 181 JOSEPH HOWE ment, has induced many persons to believe that he was influenced by personal considerations in the action which he finally took in reference to confederation. That these considerations may have had some influence upon his judgment, it is indeed, impossible to deny, but a close examination into his every act and motive at the time entirely rebuts the supposition that personal considerations were in any way paramount in influencing his action. As for the matter of livelihood, Mr. Howe, foreseeing the termination of his imperial office, had made ample provision for securing a liberal competence. His literary abilities had so far impressed the proprietor of the New York Albion as to induce him to offer Howe a handsome salary to undertake the editorial management of that paper, and a written contract had been entered into, the terms of which were everything that Howe could desire. The following is the contract actually signed between Mr. Howe and Mr. Morrell:— "New York, March 22nd, 1866. Memo, of Agreement:—Referring to the correspondence hereunto annexed, it is agreed:—That Joseph Howe shall as early as possible after the 31st inst., assume the editorial management of the New York Albion, and that William H. Morrell shall pay him quarterly at the rate of three thousand five hundred dollars per annum. It being understood that should anything occur to make it Mr. Howe's interest to withdraw from the engagement, he shall forfeit one quarter's 182 MORRELL'S PROPOSAL salary to Mr. Morrell and shall give him at least one month's notice. Joseph Howe, W. H. Morrell." Writing to his wife at this time, from New York, Howe gives some interesting particulars which indicate pretty clearly the trend of his mind at this moment. No reference is made whatever to confederation, nor any hint given of re-entering politics:— I When I left home, as you know, though my prospects of further official employment were good, still there was just enough of doubt and uncertainty about it to make us both anxious as to the future. Assuming the desire and the intention of my friends over sea to be all that we could wish, still there might be delay, and a year or two wasted in waiting, without income, would embarrass and vex us a good deal. But Providence seems to provide for us often in modes very unexpected and often just at the right time. I had hardly arrived here Saturday morning when an application was made to me by Mr. William Morrell, who has purchased the New York Albion, to write for, or what he would much prefer, to edit the paper after March 31st next, when the transfer takes place. The offer was made in the most flattering terms, it being assumed that the views and policy of the speech at Detroit would guide my pen in the conduct of the paper. We dined together and discussed the whole subject with the utmost frankness nearly all day. . . After a good deal of friendly chat, I explained my 183 JOSEPH HOWE position and expectations and gave him to understand that if official employment offered I could only consent to write for the paper, living where I liked and receiving a certain annual sum. This I thought I could do while I remained on the continent. If free of other engagements I might be induced to edit the paper if he could make it worth my while. He finally said he would make me offers, either of which I could accept any time within two months, but he would prefer that I should assume control of the paper. He would give me $1,500 for editorial or other contributions, leaving me free to attend to other business and live where I liked, or he would give me $3,500 to edit the Albion. If the paper prospered, as he thought it would, he would add $500 to either offer I accepted, at the close of the year. All this was very handsome and fair, and astonished me very much, as it will you. Here, at all events, are bread and cheese, a living for my family, and an honourable and influential position independent of local politics or of friends over the sea. If nothing better turns up we are thus provided for and have two months to look round us, if anything better is on the cards. If they give me anything I can make my $1,500 by light labour and get my salary besides. If they give me nothing we can live here in our usual quiet way, and put by $1,000 every year to pay our debts, leaving our assets in Nova Scotia undiminished. For this new and unexpected mercy I fervently thank God. It 184 m\ JOURNALISM OR POLITICS ? makes me feel more independent of all chances and casualties than I have done for many a day." Howe was undoubtedly at this time not especially disposed to resume public life in Nova Scotia. Always desirous of imperial appointment, and realizing by this time how little trust could be reposed by a colonial statesman upon British magnanimity in this regard, Howe would unquestionably seek in preference a position in the literary world. As has been said, he had distinct tastes in the direction of literature and wielded a most facile and graceful pen. A situation, therefore, on a leading paper of literary scope in the city of New York would be congenial employment, and would give him at the same time an opportunity of collecting his various manuscripts and of producing something in literature which would be worthy of his genius. Those most closely associated with Howe at this critical period of his life declare that he was extremely reluctant to take any step which would lead to his re-entry into the political field, but he was unquestionably honestly and frankly opposed to the Quebec scheme. It must be mentioned in this connection that from various points of view the Quebec scheme was not altogether just to Nova Scotia, financially or otherwise, and this of itself constituted a large factor in justification of a policy of hostility. That Howe, in finally resolving to throw the weight of his power against confederation, intended thereby to destroy forever the principle 185 JOSEPH HOWE of confederation cannot for a single moment be believed. That he thought himself fully justified in destroying Tupper's scheme of confederation on the ground that it was unjust to Nova Scotia and should not be adopted until the people of Nova Scotia had pronouncedjudgmentuponit is the fact, and whatever consequences to Howe's name and reputation in history are involved by that fact must be accepted and endured. At the first great public meeting held at Temperance Hall in Halifax to denounce the scheme, Howe sat upon the platform but said nothing. Mr. McCully had been editor of Annand's Morning Chronicle for several years, and had come back from Quebec a firm advocate of confederation, and wrote his editorials accordingly. Suddenly there came a time when, like a thunder bolt from a clear sky, appeared the first of a series of articles which extended for several days, entitled I The Botheration Scheme, No. 1." Any person in Nova Scotia who had been familiar with Joseph Howe and his unique and unmistakable style could have no doubt that these thunder bolts proceeded from the great old tribune himself. The political situation in Nova Scotia at this time was mixed. Dr. Tupper and his government were overwhelmingly strong in the legislature; Archibald, the leader of the opposition, and Hiram Blanchard, one of his chief lieutenants, were cordially supporting confederation. McCully, the leader of the opposition in the legislative council, was 186 A MIXED SITUATION also cooperating with Tupper in furthering confederation. It was clear, however, that the confederation question must quickly overshadow all local issues, and as a consequence, we find those of both parties opposed to confederation in the House, coming together and appointing a leader. Mr. Archibald was ignored, and Mr. Stewart Campbell of Guysboro was chosen for this position. Several supporters of the government had announced their hostility to confederation, and leading Conservatives and supporters of the government were openly announcing their determination to resist the scheme to the death. The session of 1866 brought matters to a crisis. The anti-confederate New Brunswick government had been disposed of. Tilley had come back victorious to office after another general election, and New Brunswick was ripe to enter the union. It only remained for Nova Scotia to join and confederation was assured. The two islands of Prince Edward and Newfoundland were too small to be of serious consequence in the creation of the union, and it was, of course, confidently believed that they would join in due course. It was not quite plain how the existing House of Assembly could be induced to accept the Quebec project. It was a notorious fact that a majority of the members were avowedly hostile, and, vigorous and determined a leader as Dr. Tupper was, it was not easy for him to discover the methods by which he could get a favour- 187 JOSEPH HOWE able vote for confederation in the existing temper of the House. Suddenly, one day, when the session was well advanced, and when every one was on the qui vive as to what steps Tupper would take, Mr. William Miller, now Senator Miller, member for the county of Richmond, made a speech favouring the appointment of delegates to meet representatives of the other provinces in London for the purpose of framing a scheme of confederation more favourable to the interests of Nova Scotia. Most members of the anti-confederate party at that time believed that this startling proposition, coming from one of the most active and determined opponents of confederation, was the result of a compact between Tupper and himself. The opportunity of enquiring into this question occurred some years later, when Mr. Miller brought an action for libel against Mr. Annand because the Morning Chronicle had stated that Miller had been corruptly bought by Tupper. In the course of this suit both Miller and Tupper swore most positively that not a single word had passed between them on the subject, and Tupper deposed that no person in the legislature was more amazed than himself when Miller made his proposition. However, Tupper resolved to take instant advantage of the new situation. A few days later he submitted a resolution embodying Miller's proposition, and by the extensive exercise of the patronage of the government and by every bold measure which it was possible for 188 COMPROMISE REJECTED an indomitable man to exercise, secured the passage of this resolution, and the field was thereby ripe for a colonial conference in London for the framing of the British North America Act. In the meantime Howe was consolidating the opponents, and the Morning Chronicle, of whose columns he obtained control, thundered against the union every day. By mid-summer, 1866, Howe's duties as fishery commissioner ceased with the treaty, and he was free to resume the active duties of a political leader. It should be mentioned in this connection that, notwithstanding the fact that Howe was seriously opposed to the Quebec scheme, and had many misgivings as to the wisdom of linking Nova Scotia with the Canadas in view of the unfortunate political muddle which had characterized the last decade of their history, he, nevertheless, went to Mr. Archibald, prior to his sailing for England as a delegate to frame confederation, and told him that if it was provided, in any act so framed, that the scheme should not come into operation until it had been submitted to the people of Nova Scotia and voted upon by them, he would withdraw all further opposition and cease entirely the agitation. No such assurance was given him by Archibald, nor indeed was there the slightest intention on the part of the promoters that anything of the kind should be done. It was the purpose of the authors of confederation to get the scheme legally adopted and 189 f I Ui JOSEPH HOWE to run no risks of a hostile vote of the people. This high-handed method of overturning the constitution of the country without popular assent, was obnoxious to every deep-rooted sentiment of Howe's nature. That the people should rule in all matters had been his invincible principle from the earliest moment of his political life, and it unquestionably stirred his indignation to have this scheme, which he regarded as unfavourable to Nova Scotia, consummated by the imperial parliament in defiance of the wishes of her people. The following extract from a letter to the Hon. Isaac Buchanan, dated June 20th, 1866, will give a fair idea of the dominant views of Mr. Howe at this time:—"You seem to mistake altogether the grounds on which I have taken the field. Though I have never proposed any scheme of union I have no invincible objection to become a Unionist provided anybody will show me a scheme which does not sacrifice the interests of the Maritime Provinces. The Quebec scheme does sacrifice them completely and the reference to a committee in England is not only an unconstitutional waiver of the rights and responsibilities of the legislature but a leap in the dark besides. The people of Nova Scotia have for one hundred and eight years had their own parliament, and responsible government for twenty-five. I hold that to deprive them of these rights by an arbitrary act of parliament, at the instigation of the Canadians who have never invested a pound of 190 REASONS FOR OPPOSITION capital in our country, would be an outrage out of which would grow undying hatreds and ultimate annexation. If an honest, practicable scheme of union can be arranged, let it be printed, perfect in all its parts (which the Quebec scheme is not), and when it has been aired in all the provinces, let the people accept or reject it. If they voluntarily abandon their institutions they will sincerely support the union. If tricked or bullied out of what they value highly they will never be content. When our four hundred thousand tons of shipping go sweeping over the sea with their flags half-mast high, carrying into all British and foreign ports a protest against the outrage done them by the Canadians, you may judge how much stronger they will be for the support of such allies. My course is clear. Old opinions have nothing to do with this matter. I resist the Quebec scheme of government because I do not like it, and the plan for sweeping away the institutions of my country without the consent of its people—because it is an atrocious violation of legal rights never abused or abandoned." Howe's power over the masses at this time was phenomenal. A few leading Liberals followed Archibald, but it may be safely stated that the entire Liberal party of Nova Scotia, with these few exceptions, placed themselves unreservedly and with ardour under Howe's banner, and their ranks were swelled by a considerable section of the Conservative party, who were alarmed at confederation. 191 111 JOSEPH HOWE The delegates met in London December 4th, 1866. The opponents of confederation had raised a considerable fund for the purpose of sending Howe to London, accompanied by Messrs. Annand and Hugh McDonald, M. P. P., to exert their utmost endeavours to defeat, if possible, the confederation scheme. Howe made a magnificent fight in London, but it was manifestly the policy of the imperial government that Canada should be united, and all the weight of the administration was thrown in that direction. It is to be noted also that the leading men occupying the front benches of the opposition were in no way disposed to make an issue of confederation in the imperial parliament. Howe issued pamphlets, wrote newspaper articles and discussed the question with leading members of the imperial parliament, but without avail, and the British North America Act was adopted on March 29th, 1867, and, as is well known, came into force on July 1st of that year. Mr. Howe, his efforts to prevent the passage of the British North America Act having failed, was in a measure free from further responsibility. He reported fully to Mr. W. J. Stairs, of Halifax, president of the anti-confederate league, and the following correspondence will indicate that his political associates were disposed to allow him to exercise his own judgment as to the future. The letter from Mr. Stairs which follows is dated from Halifax, March 28th, 1867 :— 192 LETTER FROM MR. STAIRS "Your letter of the 15th inst. has been received and read to those friends who have been with you so much interested in showing the people of England the state of public feeling in Nova Scotia. " I thought it right to bring it to the notice of the anti-confederate members of the legislature, and it has elicited with them, jointly with our outside friends, a letter of thanks to you for your devoted services, and shows, if words can express it, their feelings of sympathy for you in this heavy disappointment. Some may say they never expected any other result, that they judged the House of Commons to be as it has proved. But I must say, I am disappointed. I never could have believed the House of Commons was so void of earnestness and so purely selfish as to disregard the rights and wants of a colonial people, when their case was so clearly and distinctly put. "I must say, if to get rid of these provinces is their idea, and I believe it is, they have shown a clear perception of the mode in which it is to be worked. But all vain regrets must be buried, and we must, to repeat your words, look to make a new page in the history of our country. This is easier for some than for others. "I am commissioned to convey to you the sense of a meeting of friends held last evening. The names will be seen by you on another paper. The sentiments they expressed as regards yourself were these:—1st. That after the devotion and sacrifice 193 JOSEPH HOWE you have made of yourself on behalf of Nova Scotia, it is the wish of your friends and the friends of Nova Scotia, that you should cease from any course of public action in the interests of Nova Scotia which may be made at a sacrifice of your personal feelings and interests. 2nd. Your friends feel that should you return and wish to join the parliament at Ottawa, they will hail your aid as of most serious importance to the party whose duty it will be to mould the constitution of the new state, with regard to the interests of Nova Scotia. 3rd. It was expressed by the Hon. Mr. McHeffy that the county of Hants would, whether you were absent or present, return you as a member of the parliament at Ottawa.1 "And now, dear sir, I have tried to convey to you the sense of the meeting, but I feel it has been most imperfectly put. The kindly words which expressed these thoughts I cannot reproduce. Of this, however, be assured, your friends will hail 1 Copy of resolution of party friends referred to in the above letter: Resolved unanimously, "That the sincere and cordial thanks of this meeting be, and are hereby tendered, to the Honourable Joseph Howe for his very firm and patriotic vindication of the right of the people of Nova Scotia to be consulted on the question of the confederation of the colonies before the final consummation thereof by the Colonial and Imperial authorities; and that he be most kindly assured that the learning and ability displayed by him in the discussion of that question, involving as it did, the constitutional freedom of Nova Scotia for all time to come, will ever be held in grateful esteem by the hearts and memories of his fellow-countrymen. On behalf of the meeting, Stewart Campbell, Chairman." 194 J HOWE'S REPLY with pleasure any word which may reach them of your being happily employed in England, and should you return to continue your lot among us, you will ever have the first place among your countrymen. ..." The following is Mr. Howe's reply to Mr. Stairs's letter, dated April 12th, 1867, from 25 Saville Row, London:—"Many thanks for your long, kind letter and its enclosure. Our friends have expressed in a very earnest and touching manner what I know every one of them feel. Though savage enough when all was over I was never for a moment depressed. I had calculated all the chances before coming here, and knew that they were heavily against me. But I knew also that it was my duty to come. If I had not, my honour would have been tarnished and my conscience wounded. Having done my best I can now sleep soundly. Even the Canadians (no matter what our scamps may say) admit that we made a most gallant fight, and now that it is all over I have the satisfaction to know that, however provoked, we have not, in the face of the world, discredited our friends or our country by one ungentlemanly act or word. I In leaving me perfectly free to follow my own fortunes, my friends have shown their appreciation of past labours, and recognize my right to repose. I have thought much of this matter during the past month, and I have come to these conclusions, that, perplexed and comparatively defenceless as our 195 JOSEPH HOWE people must be for some time, I am hardly at liberty to desert them now, at the very crisis of affairs, and when some guidance may be required— at all events, that I cannot do this, or seek or accept other employment until after the general election. If my countrymen desire my aid and wish me to go to Ottawa, they will say so and some county will elect me. If they do not, then they absolve me from all obligation, and I can then dispose of what remains of my life to the best advantage. Were I to express an opinion as to what ought to be done, I might err, and therefore do not, and the matter must rest entirely with my countrymen, whom, by no overt act, on this personal point, can I attempt to influence or control. I shall probably go home by the boat of April 27th, and be governed by the action of my friends, if any has been taken. An idea has got abroad here that I am expected to lead the opposition at Ottawa. It would be a great mistake for our people to pledge themselves to oppose an administration which is not in existence, and which cannot be formed until after the elections take place all over the confederacy. All that they ought to do is to pledge themselves to cooperate and take any line that in their judgments will be most for the interests of our country. "To conclude the personal matter, let me say that I have not, since I came here, asked any office or preferment, nor do I think, if any were offered, that I could honourably accept it, without laying 196 LETTERS TO HIS WIFE myself in some way open to the suspicion of in some way compromising the dignity of my mission, and withdrawing myself from responsibilities which my countrymen may yet wish me to assume." This is a manly, straightforward statement of his position. Two extracts from his letters to Mrs. Howe at this period show as conclusively that he proposed, having gone thus far, to share the fortunes of his party and make one last struggle for his country. "No appointment has been offered me, nor have I asked for any! The subject of my personal claims or position has never been even alluded to in any communication, personal or written, since I came here. This battle must be fought out before I can think of my own interests or yours either, which God knows are always uppermost in my thoughts. You take, as you always do, just and patriotic views of our duty at this crisis. When the last shot has been fired and I can do no more in defence of my country's rights and interests, with a clear conscience and a cheerful spirit I can commence the world again, and a kind Providence will take care of us as it has always done. It is not worth while even to speculate as to the future just yet, but we will think quick when the proper time comes." And a fortnight later, on March 2nd, 1867, he writes:—" As you may suppose, the last fortnight has been one of anxiety and vexation, but through it all I have been cheered with the consciousness 197 JOSEPH HOWE that I have done my duty to my country and to yours and to my father's principles and memory, and am a thousand times happier than I was at Washington or at home last spring before I had decided on my course. I can now live among my own countrymen and enjoy their respect, or lie down beside my father in the churchyard. Do not feel about my disappointment. I never could have been happy had I not fought this battle through, and when it is over will face the future with a light heart." No one will be surprised then, that after confederation was adopted by parliament, Howe forthwith went back to Nova Scotia and began one of the most brilliant political campaigns in the record of colonial government in British North America. The first general election for the House of Commons of Canada was to take place in September, 1867, and the election for the first provincial legislature was to take place on the same day. A provincial government had been formed under the auspices of Dr. Tupper in July, with Mr. Hiram Blanchard and Mr. P. C. Hill as leading members. A Dominion cabinet was formed at the same time at Ottawa with Sir John A. Macdonald at the head of it, and with Messrs. Archibald and Kenny as the Nova Scotia representatives. Dr. Tupper himself, with great magnanimity, had resigned his right to a seat, which was, of course, placed at his disposal. Howe had one clear purpose, which 198 IN THE FIELD AGAIN was to carry, if possible, every one of the nineteen seats which Nova Scotia had in the House of Commons and every one of the thirty-eight seats in the House of Assembly, and to achieve this in the face of all the power and patronage of both the federal and provincial governments and also in the face of the tremendous force and power of Dr. Tupper as an opponent. During the spring of 1867 Howe made a political tour of Nova Scotia, addressing large meetings from town to town, east and west. The enthusiasm which he inspired on these occasions cannot be adequately described in words. His face was not as familiar as of yore in all parts of Nova Scotia, and for some years his voice had not been heard, but he still lived in the hearts of the masses of the people as the greatest figure in the political world. Unquestionably, the sentiment of Nova Scotia at this stage was hostile to political union with Canada, but with the leading politicians on both sides accepting it, it is likely, if Howe had remained neutral, that this opposition would have failed to take effective form and shape. But with Howe at the head of the movement, it developed into a tidal wave which even the indomitable will of Tupper could not resist, although, in justice to him, it must be said that he threw the whole power of his splendid energy into the contest. The writer may, perhaps, be permitted to describe the incidents of one of these meetings of Howe in 1867, of which he was an eye-witness. The 199 JOSEPH HOWE meeting for Annapolis county was to be held in Bridgetown, one of the largest and most central towns in the county. The meeting was to take place in the forenoon, which, under ordinary circumstances, would be an impossible hour to secure a great gathering in a farming population, but from eight o'clock onwards carriages began to roll into the town from every quarter, and by half- past ten the town was filled with an excited multitude. A little later Howe drove in himself and was enthusiastically greeted by the multitudes along the street. He put up for a short time at the leading hotel at the head of the street, and hundreds, if not thousands, watched to see his form near a window in the upper story, where, seated at a table, he was making a few notes in preparation for the meeting. At last, accompanied by a number of leading friends, he walked to the court-house. It was found that the building would not contain one-half of the people, and as the day was fairly pleasant, it was necessary to move outside and speak from the steps to the multitude in the open air. Mr. Howe was dressed tastefully, as always, in a suit of grey, and wore a tall white hat. When the meeting was organized and a chairman appointed, Howe came forward and stated that he was accustomed at all such gatherings to begin with three cheers for our beloved Queen, and these were given with a will. Howe was extremely care ful during his whole anti-confederate, and later 200 J A CAMPAIGN SPEECH during his repeal campaign, to make sure that no charge of disloyalty to the empire could be preferred against any action on his part or that of the party with which he was associated. He then launched forth into a magnificent speech dealing with the subject in its broadest terms and carefully abstaining from any mere claptrap appeals to the popular prejudices. As an example of the imagery with which he could embellish passages of his speech, one extract may be given from this admirable address:— "Aye, but think of the attractions of Ottawa! They may be very great, but I think I may be pardoned if I prefer an old city beside the Thames. London is large enough for me, and you will no doubt prefer London with its magnificent proportions to Ottawa with its magnificent distances. London! the commercial centre of the world, the nursing mother of universal enterprise, the home of the arts, the seat of empire, the fountain-head of civilization. London! where the Lady we honour sits enthroned in the hearts of her subjects, and where the statesmen, the warriors, the orators, historians and poets, who have illustrated the vigour of our race and the compass of our language repose beneath piles so venerable we do not miss the cornice and the plaster. London! where the archives of a nationality not created in a fortnight are preserved, where personal liberty is secured by the decision of free courts, and where legislative chambers, 201 JOSEPH HOWE the most elevated in tone, control the national councils and guard the interests of the empire. Surely with such a capital as this we need not seek for another in the backwoods of Canada, and we may be pardoned if we prefer London under the dominion of John Bull, to Ottawa under the dominion of Jack Frost." Howe, at all events, so successfully pursued his campaign against confederation that out of nineteen members of the House of Commons, only one, Dr. Tupper, and that by the most tremendous exertions, was elected to represent the confederate cause, and of the thirty-eight seats in the provincial legislature only two confederates secured election, and one of these, Mr. Blanchard, by a division in the ranks of the anti-confederate party. He was promptly unseated, and at the bye-election defeated by an immense majority, a few months later. Most of the anti-confederate candidates in both the federal and provincial House were elected by overwhelming majorities. In fact a more complete tidal wave of popular opinion was scarcely ever exhibited in the history of popular government. Howe at this moment was the hero of the hour, and it seemed as if he held the destiny of the province within his own keeping. A provincial government was promptly formed with Mr. Annand, Howe's life-long friend, at the head of it, and with his anti-confederate supporters as members. At the first session of the federal parliament, Howe 202 TUPPER'S PARTY GROWS appeared with an unbroken phalanx to raise the note of repeal in the national councils, while his only opponent, Dr. Tupper, confronted him without a follower. This was the appearance that matters assumed at this moment, but the history of the world demonstrates clearly enough that events are not controlled by mere majorities. Now that Howe had been able, by dint of his marvellous influence, to induce the people of Nova Scotia to reject confederation and demand the disruption of the union, what was to be the outcome ? For upon the solution of this must depend ultimately the strength or weakness of Howe's position. Of course, the provincial government took immediate steps to obtain a repeal of the union, and in this they received the cooperation of all the Nova Scotia members of the House of Commons, with three exceptions. One exception the reader would naturally expect, but already Dr. Tupper was proceeding with his task of sapping the strength of the anti-confederate party. Mr. Stewart Campbell, who had been elected to the House of Commons for Guysboro, as an unflinching anti-confederate, had suddenly announced his belief that, as confederation had been adopted, it would be unwise and unpatriotic to take further steps to secure its dismemberment. Mr. James McKeagney of the county of Cape Breton had from the beginning intimated his determination to take a similar course, and these two men from this moment may be classed as Dr. Tupper's 203 /r il JOSEPH HOWE followers. A delegation was immediately appointed to go to England and demand a repeal of the British North America Act, so far as it related to Nova Scotia. Of course, Howe was put at the head of this delegation, with Annand, J. C. Troop and H. W. Smith as co-delegates. Howe sailed for England on February 14th, 1868, and the other delegates proceeded later. Dr. Tupper was chosen by the government of Canada as its representative to oppose the action of the Nova Scotian repealers, and to uphold the integrity of the Dominion. Howe, who was, of course, the soul of the delegation, proceeded to take the most active measures to further his plans. He issued pamphlets and published letters. He canvassed personally members of the House of Commons and of the House of Lords. He was able to secure the active cooperation of no less a personage than Mr. John Bright, who became his spokesman in the House of Commons, and of Lord Stratheden in the House of Lords, but he plainly saw very soon after his arrival, indeed it is not unlikely that the suspicion took possession of his mind before he started, that it was distinctly a part of the imperial policy that confederation should be maintained. He was therefore unable to secure the slightest aid or encouragement from the colonial secretary or the members of the government, and he found equal difficulty in obtaining any cordial cooperation from those occupying the front benches of the opposition. 204 TUPPER AND HOWE IN LONDON Early in March Tupper appeared in London and his first step on his arrival there was to proceed to Howe's lodgings to present his compliments. Unquestionably, Tupper felt that he was bound to capture Howe, and he recognized that even the stars in their courses were fighting for him and his cause. Howe and Tupper had their first interview alone in London. The situation could not be misunderstood. Dr. Tupper said: " Mr. Howe, you are here seeking a repeal of this union. You are commissioned for that purpose, and bound to exert your utmost efforts. You will fail. What then?" And indeed, what answer could Howe make, even with his overwhelming majority in the provincial legislature and his great array of support in the House of Commons, and his overpowering command of the electorate ? Could he propose political union with the United States? Tupper knew that it was opposed to every instinct and prejudice of Howe's character. Was rebellion to be thought of? Three hundred thousand Nova Scotians against the empire! This was too preposterous for serious consideration. What then? Was Howe's great statesmanship to be put to no better use than to disturb and agitate the union and give birth to a spirit of faction and unrest, which would paralyze the efforts of the authors and founders of this new nation? Could any one expect that a man of Howe's greatness could picture such a line of conduct as the outcome of all those large ideas of 205 JOSEPH HOWE constructive statesmenship which had characterized his entire life ? Tupper clearly perceived this when he put that poignant question—" What then?" Howe naturally pleaded that he could do nothing but remain true to those whom he represented. He knew quite well that he had conjured up a spectre which he could not down and was powerless to control. But Dr. Tupper's answer was prompt: "You cannot permanently ally yourself with a disturbing faction. Your place is in the government of Canada, helping by your talents and your influence with the masses to secure the effective operation of confederation itself." And when all was said and done, that was the only course open to Joseph Howe. He remained in London to the end, until Mr. Bright's proposition for a committee of enquiry was voted down by an overwhelming majority, and when a proposition favourable to repeal had been rejected by an incoming Liberal administration in as clear and decisive terms as had characterized the answer from the Conservative government which had just left office. Before leaving England Howe penned an eloquent and spirited protest on behalf of Nova Scotia addressed to the colonial secretary, in which he concluded with these memorable words: " In the interim, we presume, the future of our country will be anxiously considered by its people. May the Almighty guide them. Having discharged our duty to the empire, we go home to share the perils 206 A LOSING BATTLE of our native land, in whose service we consider it an honour to labour, whose fortunes in this, the darkest hour in her history, it would be cowardice to desert." Then he and his co-delegates sailed for Halifax, and on board the same steamer was Dr. Charles Tupper. Before leaving England he had written to Sir John Macdonald that " Howe would soon be with us." Howe and his associates were received in Halifax by the anti-confederate party as the heroes of Nova Scotia's rights, and Tupper was welcomed by a few leading men who had gathered upon the wharf to present their respects, among others Mr. Tilley, of New Brunswick. Howe's position at this moment was extremely trying and painful. He saw plainly that it would be unpatriotic and unworthy to keep up a fruitless agitation which would constitute a disturbing feature in confederation, and yet it required little prescience to foresee what attitude would be assumed towards him by that great anti-confederate party which his genius had created. There is nothing from which a spirited man shrinks with such instinctive horror as the charge of treason, and it was not difficult to perceive that any movement on his part towards staying the insensate agitation for repeal would be met by a howl of indignant dissent from the repeal party. This, indeed, might have been avoided but for the existence of a provincial government. The members who had been elected to the House of Commons 207 JOSEPH HOWE were distinctly pleased with the condition they found there; soon began to fraternize with the representatives of the other provinces, and soon in their hearts ceased to have the slightest desire for a repeal of the union. But the members of the provincial government were not brought in contact with Canadian questions at all. They owed their position to the tidal wave of anti-confederate feeling in Nova Scotia. They believed that this still existed and would not spend its force for some years, and that the most effective method by which they could retain the confidence of the people who sent them there was to keep up the agitation for repeal, though they knew quite well that it would be hopeless and fruitless. Therefore at this moment the highly-inflamed anti-confederate party in Nova Scotia looked to the local government for the championship of its cause rather than to the members of the House of Commons. If the leaders of the provincial government had frankly agreed with Howe as to the course which should be pursued, much of the difficulty and opprobrium with which he had later to contend would have been avoided. But there was no intention on the part of the leaders of the provincial government to do anything of the sort. The consequence was that the first moment Howe gave indications of an intention to hesitate respecting further measures looking to repeal, Mr. Annand, his life-long friend and associate, parted company with him, and opened the 208 TUPPER'S ACTIVITY columns of the Morning Chronicle to an unceasing tirade of abuse of his old leader and hero. When Howe returned from England he was still received and regarded as the leader and hope of the repeal party. If any of his associates on the delegation had suspicions regarding his future course, they concealed them, and, as a consequence, public meetings and receptions were held in which Mr. Howe was glorified for his able championship of the repeal cause; and uncompromising determination to carry forward the struggle was everywhere expressed. But events were developing. On landing at Halifax Tupper found Mr. Tilley, a member of the federal cabinet, and to him he unfolded Howe's doubts and difficulties, and the inevitable determination to which they must ultimately carry him. Mr. Tilley was induced to write a letter to Sir John Macdonald, recommending that he come down to Nova Scotia and confer with the leaders of the anti-confederate party. As for Tupper himself, he set out straightway for Ottawa to find Sir John in person, and not finding him there, pursued him to Toronto and induced him to agree to visit Nova Scotia about August 1st, 1868. It happened that the provincial legislature was to hold a special session at that date, and in view of the failure of the repeal delegation, a convention of all the provincial and federal members opposed to confederation was to be held in Halifax. Tupper's anxiety was not so much to secure a favourable 209 JOSEPH HOWE consideration of any proposition to stay the repeal movement with the party generally as to bring Sir John and Mr. Howe together, because he recognized that if Howe's cooperation could be obtained, the backbone of the repeal movement would be broken, and that Howe's great name and influence, allied to his own confederate followers in Nova Scotia, would quickly give him command of the situation. Sir John agreed to this visit and was accompanied by Sir Georges Cartier, Mr. Peter Mitchell and Mr. William McDougall. The announcement of Sir John's intended visit was made in advance, and was received with mingled feelings by the anti-confederate party. Sir John, although confederation had been achieved but a year, had already gained the reputation of being a most able and adroit manipulator of men and conditions, and the uncompromising repealer viewed with alarm the prospect of the wily politician bedevilling the leaders of the anti-confederate party. One of the repeal organs, the Acadian Recorder, went so far as to suggest violence to Sir John, and this drew from Mr. Howe the following letter to the editor of the Morning Chronicle, dated July 30th, 1868, which is so characteristic of the man that it must be inserted in full: "The papers inform us that Sir John A. Macdonald and his lady, and perhaps Mr. Cartier, are coming to Nova Scotia on a visit, and the editor of an evening paper bespeaks for them, should they come, discourteous treatment, if not rougher hand- 210 HOWE'S PROTEST ling. I regret to see this spirit manifested in any quarter. Where actual war rages flags of truce are respected, and the soldiers in the field exchange courtesies across their lines which lend the grace of chivalry to the sternest conflicts. Roderick Dhu shared his plaid and his heather couch with Fitz James, though ready and anxious to cross swords with him in the morning. We have taught the public men of Canada and of England within the past two years that the people of Nova Scotia are men and not cravens. Let us show them now that we are gentlemen and not ruffians. One rude word, one act of discourtesy, would disgrace us all, and bring such discredit on our cause as to make it hopeless hereafter. "Nineteen Nova Scotians traversed the Canadas last fall, and sojourned for forty days in the capital of the Dominion. Though the great majority of them were known to be hostile to the fundamental law under which the legislature was convened, and not very friendly to the government—though I and others denounced the act and the policy of the majority on all suitable occasions, with indignant freedom of speech, yet from the time we entered Canada until we came out of it we received from all classes of the people hospitable and courteous treatment. I passed through the crowded corridors of the House of Commons with my hot words ringing in the ears of the people I met, but they never offered me insult, and at three o'clock in the 211 JOSEPH HOWE morning I often went to my lodgings alone, as little apprehensive of obstruction or offence as I would have been in the streets of Halifax. Let us hear no more, then, of different treatment of Canadians, high or low, in any part of the province. If we have lost our constitution let us preserve our manners. "The secretary of state and the imperial parliament have thrown upon the Canadian government the responsibility of action in the great controversy which, at the present moment, perplexes us all. It would appear that its leaders have promptly responded, and will come here to discuss with Nova Scotians such remedial measures as they may have to propose. We are bound to give them a fair hearing and courteous treatment. Is our case so bad that we are afraid to discuss it on our own soil with the leading men of Canada? Are we so strong that we can afford to outrage the public sentiments of the whole world by a reckless disregard of all usages of civilized diplomacy? I think not, and I hasten to say that I should deeply regret if any indiscretion were to sully a course which has hitherto been conducted with dignity and temper which have challenged the respect even of those to whom we have stood opposed. I am quite sure that on reflection, the writer to whose article I refer, and whose views it is possible I may have misapprehended, will concur in the opinions which I consider it a public duty thus frankly to express." This was the first public utterance which had 212 SIR JOHN MACDONALD'S VISIT fallen from Howe's lips since his return from England. His residence was a neat little cottage in a grove on the Dartmouth side of the harbour, and while all others were talking the great old sage remained silent, and his silence was bearing its fruit in mutterings of suspicion on the part of his friends and followers. This letter gave a distinct indication of his intention to treat with Sir John, and his desire that he should be courteously received during his visit. Sir John and his colleagues arrived at Halifax on a Saturday evening, July 31st, and Sir John himself became a guest of Sir Hastings Doyle at government house. He immediately addressed a note to Mr. Howe, stating his desire to meet him, and suggesting Sunday at half-past one o'clock as a suitable hour. Howe acknowledged the note and agreed to meet him at that hour at government house, and it can be easily imagined what matters of weighty import were discussed during the afternoon between these two distinguished men. The next day the anti-confederate caucus assembled in the old parliament buildings. Mr. Howe presided. An executive committee was appointed to give Sir John Macdonald and his colleagues a hearing, and Howe was able to secure even this slight concession only by his own casting vote. Sir John Macdonald appeared before this committee composed of the leading men of the party, including all the members of the provincial government, but he accomplished 213 JOSEPH HOWE nothing definite by this. Sir John was too adroit to commit himself by any injudicious promises. He stated that his government had been charged by the colonial secretary with the duty of discovering what just grievances Nova Scotia had, and if any of the terms of union were shown to be unfair that his government would undertake to make them right, and he invited most full and cordial representations in this regard. So far as the provincial government and its immediate followers were concerned, no concessions would have been accepted. It was not their interest to come to terms. It was their interest at that moment to have the agitation kept up, but Sir John Macdonald's words had their weight with those members of the anti-confederate party who were in the House of Commons, and they were not wanting in effect even upon members of the provincial legislature who were just and broad enough to recognize that the agitation was aimless and vexatious. But Sir John Macdonald's visit had accomplished this important result: it had secured a rapprochement between himself and the great leader of the repeal party. It is scarcely possible to appreciate the enormous difficulties which surrounded Howe at this moment. Patriotism declared, in unmistakable terms, that it was his duty to abandon this vexatious and hopeless struggle. The appreciation of his own name and character in history proclaimed that it would be impossible to avoid the adverse judgment of man- 214 J A DIFFICULT POSITION kind, if he lent himself further to a lost cause. On the other hand, he was confronted with the unquestionable fact that he would have the bitter hostility of the provincial government, and that in his ears would be heard the din of a thousand voices proclaiming him a traitor, and these the voices of lifelong friends and admirers. He might well, perhaps, have wished that he could have been spared such a victory as seemed to be his on September 18th, 1867. Sir John Macdonald desired Howe to take immediate steps to end the difficulty. The most persistent claim put forth by the anti-confederate party was that under the financial terms of confederation, Nova Scotia was not receiving full justice. It is scarcely worth while to enquire into the niceties of this claim, because, whether it was well founded or mythical, it was seized upon by Sir John Macdonald as a convenient means of taking some step to reconcile Nova Scotians to the union. He wished Howe to enter at once upon the discussion of better terms with Sir John Rose, the finance minister. Howe hesitated, but he agreed to give the whole question careful consideration and to continue the discussion with Sir John by correspondence. Consequently, soon after his return, Sir John Macdonald wrote a lengthy and carefully prepared letter, setting forth his understanding of the situation, and pressing upon Mr. Howe the necessity of giving these matters careful attention with a view to early action. The correspondence, 215 JOSEPH HOWE which extended over two months, between Sir John Macdonald and Howe, has been published in the appendix of Pope's "Life of Sir John Macdonald," and these letters are intensely interesting historical documents, although it must be frankly admitted that in this correspondence, viewed from a political standpoint, Sir John Macdonald comes out distinctly best. Not a line in his several letters but showed evidence of most careful reflection; not an injudicious expression falls from his pen; nothing that could not safely be given to the world at any moment. Howe's letters are scarcely free from some tokens of indiscretion. He sometimes puts himself somewhat in the power of Sir John, and he occasionally betrays unfortunate tokens of personal feeling in regard to his late associates. It must be remembered that at this date Mr. Howe was sixty- five years old, and although many men have exercised their full faculties at a much later period in life, it may be fairly stated that he was not the Howe that drove Sir Colin Campbell and Lord Falkland from Nova Scotia. Mr. Howe showed Sir John Macdonald's letter to Annand, the head of the provincial government, because he did not fail to realize how important it was that the provincial government should be induced, if possible, to cooperate in measures looking to a settlement of Nova Scotia's grievances on the basis of better terms. Annand read the letter and at once stated: "Yes, we will take this letter 216 HOWE AND ANNAND and deal with it." Probably this would have been very satisfactory to Howe if he could have trusted Annand to have dealt with it in a fair and ingenuous manner, but it required no great wisdom to see that if left absolutely to be dealt with by the provincial government, it would have been not the means of securing reconciliation, but the means of the provincial government's seeking justification for the continuation of the struggle by imposing unreasonable, indeed impossible, conditions upon the federal government. Howe was therefore compelled to withdraw the letter from Annand's consideration, since, indeed, cooperation was impossible. It was thus that these two life-long friends parted company, and that a powerful faction remained in Nova Scotia to hamper every movement of Howe in the direction of reconciliation, to keep up the agitation for repeal for a year or two longer, and, even then, to leave a rankling sentiment in the breasts of hundreds, if not thousands, of men in Nova Scotia, who might, under fair conditions, have been reconciled to the great measure of Canadian confederation. Howe's version of the interview between Annand and himself on this point is as follows:—" Mr. Annand wished to shelve Sir John's letter until another delegation could be sent to England. I said, * If I put this by for six months and let you send a delegation and the answer is unfavourable—what then?' Mr. Annand replied, 'Then I will go for 217 Joseph hoWE annexation.'" To this Mr. Howe answered, "In that case we should have to part, and we may as well part now and save six months' time." Howe remained in seclusion at " Fairfield " during the summer and autumn. A vote of thanks to the delegates had been adopted by the legislature of Nova Scotia before its adjournment in September, and a day was appointed on which the delegates were to appear at the bar of the House and receive this token of honour from the mouth of the speaker. Mr. Annand, Mr. Troop and Mr. Smith were at the bar, but the great old Joseph was absent, though not far away. Indeed, at the very moment when the speaker was conveying the sentiments of the House, Howe, on the arm of a friend, was walking to and fro on Hollis Street under the shadow of the parliament building. Mr. Howe had his reasons, and they were fairly good ones, for not wishing at that moment to accept hypocritical professions of regard from the men whom he knew were presently to turn and rend him. Every day that Howe refused to join in the vehement outcry against confederation the suspicion deepened in the mind of the anti-confederate leaders that he was about to forsake the cause, and dark whispers and ominous shakings of head were heard and seen. Knowing that he was without means it was the prevailing fear of the repealers that Howe would obtain some imperial office as the price of abandoning his friends, or even some 218 THE REPEAL PARTY SUBSCRIPTION lucrative place provided by the federal government. These fears were absolutely without foundation and no doubt remains that Howe was solely concerned in devising the best and most honourable means whereby the provincial interests could be served and the trouble ended. The wealthy men of the repeal party conceived the idea of meeting these fancied temptations by counter proposals. When Messrs. Howe, Annand and Hugh McDonald went to London in 1866- 67 to oppose the adoption of the confederation scheme, their expenses were paid by a subscription from the friends of the anti-confederate party, and a sum had been raised for this purpose, amounting to $6,710.97. When the anti-confederate government had been formed, subsequent to the elections, it was deemed a proper thing to vote from the provincial treasury this sum for the purpose of recouping the friends who had raised it by voluntary subscription. One day in September, 1868, one of the merchants who had been a liberal contributor to this fund and a devoted friend of Howe, visited him at "Fairfield," and made a proposition that this sum should be handed over to him as a mark of appreciation for his devoted services to the cause. The real object was, of course, delicately veiled, but a man of Howe's discernment could not fail to apprehend its possible meaning. After giving the matter careful consideration he wrote to another very influential friend in 219 JOSEPH HOWE the city a lengthy letter in which it will be seen that Howe, in very plain terms, declines to permit his actions to be hampered by personal considerations of any kind. It was publicly stated by Howe that another attempt had been made to bind him to the cause in the form of a proposal to send him to Washington as a special commissioner for Nova Scotia, but this he declined even to consider. The following is the letter above referred to, dated Fairfield, September 26th, 1868 :— "My dear B.,—G was over yesterday and we talked all the afternoon. As you and others whose motives are equally friendly were not present I have thought it due to you to put upon paper the substance of what was said to G . "1st. As respects the rumours and slanders set afloat about the town and country, I believe they all come out of the province building and had their origin in the meanest and most contemptible of motives. They are without a shadow of foundation. "2nd. I had with the imperial government in 1867 no intercourse or communication which was not known to or read by Messrs. Annand and McDonald. In 1868, except during the two days that Mrs. Howe and I spent at Stowe, when confederation was never mentioned, some or all of the delegates were present at every interview with the Duke of Buckingham, and saw, I believe, every note that passed between us. I have at no time, since I resigned my fishery commissionership, asked 220 INDEPENDENCE for office, nor has any offer been made to me by Her Majesty's government. I have had no communication with the imperial authorities since leaving England, and the story which I found floating about Hants the other day, that the British government had said to Mr. Howe, 'You quiet Nova Scotia and we will take care of you,' is a base falsehood, without a shadow of foundation. "3rd. It is just as untrue that I have accepted office under the Dominion government. The very reverse is true, and Sir John Macdonald was informed that nothing would induce me to take office until the country was satisfied and my own friends thought that I could do so with honour. Even when consenting to cooperate with him for the restoration of our American trade it was with the distinct understanding that my services would be gratuitously rendered, that no miserable scamp should have it in his power to say that money was an inducement. "You will perceive, therefore, that at this moment I stand perfectly independent of the imperial and of the Dominion governments. Now, for many reasons, I desire to stand quite as independent of the local government. In the critical and delicate circumstances in which this province is placed, it may become my duty to act on my own judgment, and, should the necessity arise, I wish to be perfectly untrammelled by all considerations except those of public duty. 221 JOSEPH HOWE 11 have no faith in a further appeal to England, and I cannot lie to the people of Nova Scotia and amuse them with vain delusions and another expensive delegation. " I do not believe in Mr. Wilkins's law, and I do believe in the paramount power of the imperial parliament. "I do not believe in committing a body of honourable and loyal men to treason, insurrection and filibustering raids into our country without the smallest chance of a fair fight to be crowned by reasonable success. 11 do not believe in passing revenue laws which nobody would obey, without the governor's assent, nor in imprisoning collectors who would be instantly released on a writ of habeas corpus. " I do not believe in making treasonable speeches one day nor in eating them the next. Nor in censuring a governor and then shrinking from the inevitable alternative—a dissolution. " For these, and for sundry other reasons, it is of the utmost importance that I should keep myself clear of all entanglements just now. If, as I believe he will, Sir John A. Macdonald puts into official form the substance of what he said to the committee of the convention, I want to be at perfect liberty to reconsider the whole subject as it may be then presented. "As respects our mercantile friends, I have nothing to conceal from them. My action in the 222 PORTLAND CONFERENCE future as in the past will be fair and open. If they wish to do my family the service delicately explained to me by Mr. G., I am perhaps not rich enough to refuse their gift. But I want it to be made, if made at all, with a full knowledge of the facts. I have always thought, without any reference to what they might do with it, that the merchants were entitled to have the money advanced in 1867 for the public service, repaid by the government. But if this is done it ought to be done purely on public grounds and without reference to its further appropriation. If given to me it should be given for past services, leaving my future action untrammelled. If given merely as a retainer to commit me to a policy which I may or may not approve, my friends would not, I am sure, feel offended if in that case the offer was respectfully declined." The correspondence between Mr. Howe and Sir John Macdonald resulted in a conference at Portland between Mr. Howe and Mr. A. W. McLellan, one of the members of the House of Commons, and Sir John Rose, in which the whole financial situation was taken into careful consideration. Mr. A. W. McLellan, who afterwards became a minister, was a sound and able financier, and a very suitable man to cooperate with Mr. Howe in details. It may be mentioned, however, that Howe's first choice for his associate was Mr. A. G. Jones, of Halifax, who was regarded as one of the most 223 JOSEPH HOWE influential men of the anti-confederate party, and on Howe's dropping out, became the recognized leader of that party in Nova Scotia. Mr. Jones, in response to Howe's request, very frankly stated his reasons for declining. He would be very glad to enter into such negotiations, with the aim of securing financial justice to Nova Scotia, but he said with much cogency, that any efforts made by any persons who did not secure the cooperation of the provincial government would not settle the question, and that it was useless to attempt to secure a settlement until the local House agreed to it. As evidence that Mr. Howe acted openly in all his actions in this matter, it is to be noted that before going to Portland he addressed the following circular, dated October 19th, 1868, to his Nova Scotia supporters in the House of Commons:— I Sir John A. Macdonald sent me last week a semi-official letter, embodying the statements and propositions made here to the committee of the convention, to which I have replied to-day. As these papers are of some length I cannot have copies made for all our friends, but I write to say that they and any others that may form part of our correspondence will be open to the inspection of the members of the House of Commons whenever any of them come to town." At Portland arrangements were made for the sum of $1,188,750 to be added to the debt to be credited Nova Scotia on entering confederation, 224 A MEMORABLE CONTEST and an annual payment of $80,000 for ten years. Howe would, undoubtedly, have preferred not to have entered the government of Sir John Macdonald at this time. If he could have maintained an independent attitude as a member of the House of Commons, he could have avoided many imputations which followed his acceptance of an office of honour and emolument. He foresaw this with unerring clearness, but, unfortunately, the option was scarcely left with him. Sir John Macdonald stated that it involved great difficulty and risk to agree to these large concessions to Nova Scotia, and that his only hope of being able to carry such a measure through the House of Commons was by the assurance that the repeal movement would cease, and that the only substantial guarantee he could give to his colleagues and supporters was the presence of Mr. Howe himself in his cabinet, helping to carry out the great work of confederation. To this appeal Howe could make no answer. The consequence was that on January 30th, 1869, Howe was sworn in as president of the privy council, and came back to Nova Scotia to face the issue with the electors of the county of Hants, for which county he was then sitting as member. The contest in Hants was the most memorable in the history of single elections in Nova Scotia. The provincial government and the entire anti-confederate party threw themselves into the county from far and near, because it was recognized that the struggle 225 JOSEPH HOWE was one of life or death to the anti-confederate party of Nova Scotia. Funds were not wanting. The sum of $6,710.97, voted generously by the legislature to recoup the men who had patriotically subscribed it to pay the delegates in 1866-67, was paid over to the treasurer of the repeal league, and the very sum with which the leaders of that movement sought to bind Howe to their cause was in the end applied to secure his defeat in Hants. Nevertheless, Howe's friends were not inactive. As long as his health permitted he made a splendid fight, but, unfortunately, during the campaign his strength completely failed him and he was confined to the house, and the election had to be carried on by friends. The result of the election, however, was entirely satisfactory to Howe. His majority was three hundred and eighty-three, and by his election the cause of repeal received its death blow, although the provincial government still utilized it as a battle-cry for a year or two afterwards, and this notwithstanding the fact that the better terms which Howe had achieved were accepted by them, and all the advantage of the larger annual revenue which his exertions had obtained, inured to their benefit. Howe did not long remain the president of the council. The department of secretary of state for the provinces soon became vacant by the retirement of Mr. Archibald, and Howe was assigned to this place. This department was an important one and corresponded very largely with the duties 226 VISITS FORT GARRY now performed by the minister of the interior. The admission of the North-West Territories and the creation of the province of Manitoba were especially under his control. In order the better to discharge his duties, Howe made a visit to Fort Garry, or Winnipeg, in the autumn of 1869, and studied upon the spot all the circumstances and surroundings of the situation, and became impressed with the idea that difficulties were to be met in taking possession of that country. On his return from this visit he met Mr. McDougall, who was on his way to assume the duties of governor when the territories should be legally handed over. In the brief interview which occurred, Howe frankly pointed out some of the dangers of the situation, but the circumstances of their meeting on a cold day, in open conveyances, made a lengthy interview impossible. Mr. McDougall, after the unfortunate fiasco which attended his attempting to assume his duties, charged Mr. Howe with having fomented the difficulties during his visit to Winnipeg. This charge, of course, was preposterous. Howe had no other object than to remove obstacles and to pave the way towards pleasant and friendly relationships with the people of the new territory which was about to become a part of the Dominion. After his return to Ottawa news of the outbreak on the Red River reached the capital. The correspondence in relation to this troublesome incident in Canadian history devolved 227 JOSEPH HOWE upon Mr. Howe, and in it he displayed his old-time ability in unfolding in lucid and fitting terms the varying phases of the situation. In all the important problems which confronted the Canadian government during the four years that he was in office, he took a fairly active part. Howe's four years as a member of Sir John Macdonald's cabinet are the least glorious of his whole career. His health was impaired, not entirely on account of old age, although he was sixty-five when he became a member of the government, but chiefly owing to the arduous winter campaign of 1869 in his election in Hants, when he was compelled, as has been mentioned, to withdraw from active participation in the fight. His journey to the North-West was also a task beyond his physical power and his exposure during the long journey in a sleigh in November, and the necessity of camping out on the plains produced serious results. Consequently, during the remainder of his term in office he did not possess the vigour and fire of former years. But, apart from this, the situation was novel. Howe had been accustomed all his life to lead and control events. He found himself a member of a government of which Sir John Macdonald was the supreme head and of a cast of mind totally different from his own. Sir John Macdonald was a shrewd political manager, an opportunist, whose unfailing judgment led him unerringly to pursue the course most likely to 228 WST-. J'i'.r-P^-^yr-. » -, r. j GOVERNOR OF NOVA SCOTIA succeed each hour, each day, each year. Howe had the genius of a bold Reformer, a courageous and creative type of mind, who thought in continents, dreamed dreams and conceived great ideas. Sir John Macdonald busied himself with what concerned the immediate interests of the hour in which he was then living, and yet Sir John Macdonald was a leader who permitted no insubordination. Sir Georges Cartier, a man not to be named in the same breath with Howe as a statesman, was nevertheless a thousand times of more moment and concern with his band of Bleu followers in the House of Commons, than a dozen Howes, and the consequence is that we find, for four years, the great old man playing second fiddle to his inferiors, and cutting a far from heroic figure in the arena in which he had been cast under circumstances altogether unfavourable. There are gleams of the old fire in occasional speeches delivered in the House of Commons, but this old fire usually betrayed him into injudicious observations which led to trouble and sometimes proved perplexing to Sir John Macdonald.1 In the spring of 1873 the governorship of Nova Scotia became vacant by the retirement of Sir Hastings Doyle. This position was offered to Howe. He accepted it, and in May, 1873, he was sworn into office, and took up his residence at government house, Halifax, the very place from which he had driven the Colin Campbells and Falklands in a 1 See Appendix aB" A 229 JOSEPH HOWE former day. His health was broken, but his friends hoped that the leisure and freedom from care of this position would enable him to recuperate, and Mr. Howe himself on assuming office was cheerful and buoyant. He was not destined to hold this high place long, for his great career was soon to reach its termination. When weighing, as history must weigh, his claims and qualifications as a statesman of the first order, those of our Canadian fellow-citizens who do not belong to Nova Scotia, and who are not familiar with his great career must try to do him the justice of never measuring his qualities by the four unfortunate years that he was a cabinet minister in Ottawa. 230 CHAPTER X INCIDENTS MR. HOWE had always a yearning desire to visit England and note in person the scenic aspects and industrial developments of Great Britain, and also to come in contact with her public men and study on the spot her political institutions. At the close of the session of 1838, he sailed on April 28th for England accompanied by T. C. Haliburton (Sam Slick), and did not return until November. During that time he not only travelled over a large part of Great Britain and Ireland, but also visited France, Belgium, and a portion of Germany. He contributed to the Nova Scotian a series of delightful articles under the title of "A Nova Scotian in England." These have never been published in separate form, but they would make as interesting a book of travels as any that have been published in this country. On the voyage across, the ship upon which Howe had taken passage was overtaken by the steamer Syrius, which had made a trial trip to America from England and was on her return voyage. The captain of the Tyrian, on which Howe was sailing, determined to send his mails on board of her. Mr. Howe visited the steamer while she was lying to 231 HB JOSEPH HOWE and was entertained by the captain, after which he returned to his ship which lay becalmed, while the steamer proceeded easily upon her voyage. This incident so far impressed Mr. Howe, whose eye was ever alert for anything that would operate favourably to his country, that he devoted himself, on his arrival in England, to the task of drawing the attention of the colonial minister to the desirability of establishing steam communication between Great Britain and Halifax. Mr. William Crane, a prominent man from New Brunswick, was in London at the time and he joined with Mr. Howe in a letter addressed to Lord Glenelg. Two extracts from this letter will serve to demonstrate how clearly Howe grasped the problem of steam communication between Great Britain and British North America and how. broad and far-reaching were his views in this regard even at this early date:— "Since the undersigned left the colonies, and after the close of the legislative sessions, the successful voyages made to and from England and New York have solved the problem of the practicability of steam navigation across the Atlantic, and rendered a revision of the system of packet communication between Great Britain and her North American provinces extremely desirable, if not a measure of absolute necessity. Assuming that no reasonable doubt can any longer be entertained that the commercial and public correspondence of Europe and 232 LETTER TO LORD GLENELG America may now, and to a vast extent will, be conveyed by steam, the question arises whether the line of packets between the mother country and the important provinces of North America, should not be immediately put upon a more efficient footing. This question, for a variety of reasons, is beginning to press itself strongly upon the minds, not only of the colonists generally, but of all those who in this country are engaged in commercial relations with them, or are aware of the importance, in a political point of view, of drawing them into closer connection with the parent state. . . . "If Great Britain is to maintain her footing upon the North American continent—if she is to hold the command of the extensive sea coast from Maine to Labrador, skirting millions of square miles of fertile lands, intersected by navigable rivers, indented by the best harbours in the world, containing now a million and a half of people and capable of supporting many millions, of whose aid in war and consumption in peace she is secure—she must, at any hazard of even increased expenditure for a time, establish such a Une of rapid communication by steam, as will ensure the speedy transmission of public despatches, commercial correspondence and general information, through channels exclusively British, and inferior to none in security and expedition. If this is not done, the British population on both sides of the Atlantic are left to receive, through foreign channels, intelligence of much that 233 JOSEPH HOWE occurs in the mother country and the colonies, with at least ten days, in most cases, for erroneous impressions to circulate before they can be corrected. Much evil has already arisen from the conveyance of intelligence by third parties, not always friendly or impartial; and, from the feverish excitement along the frontier, the indefatigable exertions of evil agents, and the irritation not yet allayed in the Canadas, since the suppression of the late rebellions, it is of the highest importance that a line of communication should be established, through which not only official correspondence but sound information can be conveyed. The pride, as well as the interests of the British people, would seem to require means of communication with each other, second to none which are enjoyed by other states." Very soon after this, Mr. Samuel Cunard of Halifax, with great foresight and enterprise, established a steamship line between Great Britain and Halifax, which created many bright hopes in the breasts of the people of that city at the time. The enterprise grew to such proportions that the Cunard line subsequently made New York the terminal point on this continent and developed into one of the great steamship lines of the world. The desirability, however, of direct rapid transit between Great Britain and Canada, through some convenient point on the Atlantic coast, has continued to occupy the attention of the public men of this country to 234 Hi j ADVOCATES RAPID TRANSIT the present day, and no words advocating this project have been couched in broader and more effective terms than those uttered by Joseph Howe in 1838. Howe visited England many times after this, as will have been observed from the records of the preceding chapters of this book. He became to a large degree associated with the public men of Great Britain, and was, in his day, perhaps the most conspicuous figure in London among the colonial statesmen of the empire. An incident which illustrates Howe's determination to uphold his cause at all hazards occurred in 1840. It is unnecessary to state that the persistent and successful attacks which he was making upon the salaried and governing class of Nova Scotia excited the bitterest hostility. At first an attempt to crush him by ridicule and ostracism was tried, but this proving unsuccessful, and Howe's capacity and possibilities becoming each day greater, the leading spirits of the governing class became desperate. It has been mentioned that in 1840, after the resolutions had passed asking for the recall of Sir Colin Campbell, public meetings were held in Halifax and elsewhere in the province to discuss this burning question. At one of these meetings Johnston made a speech of considerable length and importance, which Howe had no opportunity of answering on the spot. He replied to it in two stinging letters addressed to the people of Nova 235 JOSEPH HOWE Scotia, and in these he arraigned the existing irresponsible system of government, the high salaries which were paid to the chief justice, Sir Rupert D. George and others, and plainly intimated that if these gentlemen were to give up their positions, they could be filled on more moderate salaries by men of equal if not greater capacity. The publication of these letters promptly evoked a challenge to Mr. Howe. It may be mentioned that his first invitation to an affair of honour had come two years previously from Doctor Almon, who was then just beginning to practice in Halifax, who afterwards became a senator and died but a few years ago, and who was well known all his life for his somewhat extreme views on many questions. This matter was disposed of without a meeting. So far as can be gathered, young Almon was unable to obtain any leading man to act for him in this proposed affair. But after the publication of the letter to the people of Nova Scotia, Mr. John C. Halliburton (son of the chief justice, Sir Brenton Halliburton) believing his father to have been insulted in this letter, sent a formal challenge to Howe, which was promptly accepted, his old and staunch friend, Herbert Huntington, undertaking to act for him and be his second in the duel. It may seem strange at this time that any public man would think of risking his life on the field of honour in this country, and the sixty or more years that have intervened since then have so far wrought 236 CHALLENGED TO A DUEL a change in public opinion, that anything of the kind would be considered preposterous at this date; but in 1840 duelling had not entirely disappeared in Halifax, and Howe felt it his duty to accept. Fortunately, we have on record his own words of justification and a full analysis of all the incidents which seemed to make the step necessary, in a letter written to his sister shortly after the event, which will be read not without interest at this present time:— "Your long letter only confirmed my apprehension that you would be startled and worried by the duel. I fully appreciate all you said, and enter, into your feelings—but nobody but myself could exactly understand the requirements of my position, and, constituted as society is, the almost imperative necessity there was for my taking the step. Providence, in this case, mercifully preserved me, for which, I trust, I shall never cease to be thankful, and strengthened my hands by the very means which were taken to disturb me. For my own part, I hate and detest duelling as much as you do—as much as anybody can. A person who engages in it lightly must be a fool—he who is fond of it must be a villain. It is a remnant of a barbarous age, which civilization is slowly but steadily wearing away, but still it is not worn out. There are perhaps three views taken of duelling by three large classes of persons at the present day—the religious people view it with abhorrence, as an ordeal in which there 237 JOSEPH HOWE is no justice and by resorting to which the express commands of the Deity are violated—the fashionable, those who fancy themselves possessed of a more elevated station in society than the rest of their fellow-creatures, and who believe that they have higher notions of honour and a monopoly of courage and fine feeling, cherish and boast of this institution as one peculiarly their own, although they have no more real affection for it than their neighbours—while the great body of the people, those who settle their own differences with fists, sticks and horsewhips, while they seldom resort to the pistol, are yet admirers of personal intrepidity in all its forms, and rely with more affectionate attachment upon a leader in the senate or the cabinet, if assured that he is fit to lead them in the field. My own belief is that there are situations which try the moral courage more severely than duelling. So far as my experience goes I would rather stand a shot than go through the 'rescinding of the resolutions,' the 'libel trial,' or the moving of the * address of censure.' On either and all these occasions there was more at stake than a limb as far as I was concerned—more than a life as regarded the country, and I suffered a thousand times more than on the morning I went out with Halliburton. Indeed that affair was done with as much coolness as any other piece of business. I had been long impressed with the conviction that it would have to be done with somebody, at some 238 LETTER TO HIS SISTER time, and had balanced the pros and cons and regarded the matter as settled. So long as the party I opposed possessed all the legislative influence they did not much mind my scribbling in the newspapers—when I got into the House they anticipated that & failure there would weaken my influence as a political writer, and believing I would fail, were rather glad than sorry. When, however, they found I not only held my own, against the best of them, but was fast combining and securing a majority upon principles striking at the root of their monopoly, they tried the effect of wheedling, and, that failing, resorted to intimidation. "For the first two sessions Uniacke's bearing and speeches were most insolent and offensive. I let him go on for some time, till the House was satisfied that he had earned a dressing, and then curried him down once or twice to his own surprise and that of his friends, who expected that he would have challenged me. He did not, however, although I fully expected it. He saw I was determined, was satisfied and altered his tone. Another member of the party was annoyed at a speech I made two or three years ago and demanded an apology. I consulted Dodd who was an old hand at such work; we handed the parties the reporter's notes of the speech and refused to apologize for a word of it. The gentleman, finding we were not to be bullied, thought fit to be satisfied. Winter before last, young Dr. Almon called me out—his father abused 239 JOSEPH HOWE me in the council and I skinned him in the House. This was easily disposed of. . . . "Thus stood matters when Halliburton's message came. To him I could not object. Though younger than me and having neither any family nor political party depending on him, still he was in the situation of a gentleman and had a right to make the demand. Had I ever been out with anybody I would at once have refused or explained—because in fact there had only been a fair comparison of different classes, and no insult in the matter; but feeling assured that he could not draw back, and that if I did it would subject me to repeated annoyances from others, and, perhaps, either weaken my position as a public man, or compel me to shoot some fellow at last, I selected a friend whom I knew would go through with it if necessary. He did his best to prevent it, but the thing had to be done, and all is well that ends well. I never intended to fire at him and would not for ten thousand pounds—all that was necessary was for me to let them see that the Reformers could teach them a lesson of coolness and moderation, and cared as little for their pistols, if anything was to be got by fighting, as for their arguments and abuse. I know you will say that the risk was greater than any advantage would justify—morally speaking it was—politically, there were strong temptations and among them the one which I know you will prize the highest was the perfect 240 THE DUEL independence I received to explain or apologize— to fight or refuse—in future. A proof of the advantage gained in this respect was shown a fortnight ago. Sir Rupert D. George being annoyed at a passage in the first letter to the solicitor-general, sent John Spry Morris to me with a challenge. My answer was, 'that never having had any personal quarrel with Sir Rupert, I should not fire at him if I went out, and that having no great fancy for being shot at by every public officer whose intellect I might happen to contrast with his emoluments, I begged leave to decline.' This I could not have done had he come first, but now, the honour was not equal to the risk— nothing was to be gained either for myself or my cause—they got laughed at and nobody blamed me." The meeting took place one morning in the spring of 1840 at a place in Point Pleasant Park near the old Tower. It had been arranged that the affair should come off at an early hour, and Howe and Huntington were upon the scene at the time appointed. Pistols were used and Halliburton fired first. Fortunately, he missed his aim. Howe, with that generous and chivalrous nature which always characterized him, discharged his pistol in the air and the affair was over. Mr. Howe asked Mr. Huntington to breakfast, and they went back from this exciting meet in a somewhat serious mood. Very little was said at the breakfast hour, 241 JOSEPH HOWE and Mrs. Howe, remarking the unusual silence, asked: "What is the matter with you all this morning, one would think you had been to a funeral?" and then it was that Howe for the first time related to her the incidents which indicated that he had been much nearer to a funeral than she had suspected. On the day of the duel Howe wrote and left with Huntington four letters to be delivered in case anything serious should occur. Two were in respect of business matters and it is not necessary to refer to them. Of the other two, one was addressed to his wife, and the other to the people of Nova Scotia. These two letters will be read with sympathetic interest, not only by those who knew him and appreciated the tenderness of his nature, but by all those who respect under all conditions a brave and loving heart. To his wife he wrote:— " The painful alternative of risking my life has been forced upon me, very unnecessarily, as I conceive, but in a way and from a quarter that it may not be put aside. You know my sentiments upon these matters and the view I take of all the obligations which my position imposes. If I fall, my will, made before going to England, will secure to you and the children all I am worth. Sell the Pearl, keep up the Nova Scotian, pay my debts and there will be a living for you all. I have written a line to Thompson and Arthur who will not do less than what is right. Confide in James who will be a 242 TO HIS WIFE AND COUNTRYMEN father to you. I cannot trust myself to write what I feel. You had my boyish heart, and have shared my love and entire confidence up to this hour. Heaven and ourselves only know the pure pleasures of the past—the future, for you and my dear babes might well unman me, and would, did I not feel that without a protector you could better face the world, than with one whose courage was suspected, and who was liable to continual insult which he could not resent. God in His infinite mercy bless you. There shall be no blood on my hand. Yours till death, Joseph Howe." To the people of Nova Scotia he wrote:—" My friends,—During the political struggles in which I have been engaged, several attempts have been made to make me pay the penalty of life for the steady maintenance of my opinions. Hitherto Providence has spared my life, and without dishonour averted the necessity for an appeal to those laws which society has prescribed. This may not be the case always. Were my own feelings only to be consulted under the circumstances which may make the publication of this letter necessary, I might, and probably would, decline a contest, but well knowing that even a shadow of an imputation upon my moral courage, would incapacitate me for serving my country with vigour and success hereafter, I feel that I am bound to hazard my life rather than blight all prospects of being useful. If I fall, cherish the prin- 243 JOSEPH HOWE ciples I have taught—forgive my errors—protect my children."1 Howe was a man of broad sympathies, and no class—especially the weak and helpless—failed to 2Very soon after, Mr. Howe was challenged by Sir Rupert D. George. Fortunately, having given conclusive proof of his courage and sustained his position as a man of honour before all the world, he was able to dispose quickly of Sir Rupert's challenge. The correspondence is furnished on account of the interest which these illustrations of the type of the age will afford :— Sir Rupert D. George's challenge:— "Sir,—I called at your house with the intention of delivering the enclosed note from my friend Sir Rupert George, but finding you out have been obliged to send it under cover. I have only to request on his behalf that you will appoint a friend to make the contemplated arrangements as early as possible. I shall be at the Exchange Reading Room until six o'clock and again at half-past seven. I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant, John Spry Morris.—April 24th, 1840." Enclosure:— "Joseph Howe, Esq.—Sir: I have read your letter to the people of Nova Scotia and considering your observations with respect to myself to be insolent and offensive, I have requested my friend, Mr. Morris, to make the arrangments that have become necessary for the settlement of the affair between us. Your most obedient servant, Rupert D. George.—24th April." "John Spry Morris, Esq.—Sir: Your note of this day's date, covering one from Sir Rupert D. George, has just reached me, and in reply to both I have to state that I see no occasion for my consulting any friend upon the subject of them, but at once, and without any hesitation, decline the hostile meeting to which they point. § Having never had any personal quarrel with Sir Rupert George, I should certainly not fire at him if I went out, and I have no great fancy for being shot at, whenever public officers, whose abilities I may happen to contrast with their emoluments, think fit to consider political arguments and general illustrations einsolent and offensive.' I am, sir, your obedient, humble servant, Joseph Howe." 244 k^ INDIAN RIGHTS receive his generous consideration. When he entered political life the Indians of Nova Scotia were a quite neglected race. The Indians in the province were not numerous and consisted of one tribe, the Micmacs. In laying out Crown lands, reservations had been made for them, but no one had been appointed to see that their rights were respected, or to assist them in any way in acquiring the rudiments of an education, or to encourage them in giving up a nomadic life and making permanent settlements by building houses and cultivating lands. In 1841, soon after Howe's admission to the executive council of Lord Falkland, he addressed to that nobleman a long and able letter setting forth the condition and needs of the Micmac race in the province. Lord Falkland's response to this was the appointment of Howe as a special Indian commissioner, and an appropriation of money was made to enable him to give aid and encouragement to the Indians. Howe devoted a great deal of attention to the discharge of this work. He obtained data in respect to Indian reserves in the Crown lands' office. He had correspondence with not only the chiefs of the Indian tribes, but clergymen and others, chiefly Catholic priests who were interested in the Indian tribes in their vicinity. In the autumn of 1842 he made a tour of the province, visiting every Indian reserve and Indian camp from one end of the province to the other. 245 JOSEPH HOWE In the Nova Scotia archives a fairly good sized volume is preserved in manuscript, mostly in Howe's own handwriting, containing a detailed statement of all his labours and efforts on behalf of the Indians, and it affords extremely interesting reading. He appeared to enter with warm sympathy into the cause of the Micmac and he seems to have been wonderfully successful in winning his way into their confidence and regard. One passage from his report will serve to illustrate how broad were his sympathies and how easily he could adapt himself to the most unique circumstances:— "A ride of ten miles further out on what is called the Liverpool road brought me to Charles Glode's farm. For the greater part of the way, though there is a struggling settlement of whites, this road is very indifferent, and for the last three miles there is only a wood path. As several lots had been laid off for Indians on my plan, I was in hopes to have found several families together. In this I was disappointed though some had chopped down a few acres. Either from the badness of the road, the distance from town, the stony character of the soil, or from all these causes combined, the others have strayed off to other places without making any perceptible improvement. I reached Glode's camp some time after dark. He was absent on a hunting expedition and I was compelled to throw myself on the hospitality of his two daughters, young girls of twelve and fifteen, who in that 246 VISITS THE INDIANS remote situation, several miles from a habitation and surrounded by the wilderness, were left in possession of his worldly goods, and who, though the most perfect children of nature that I ever beheld, required some explanation and persuasion before they would lift the latch. "Having won their confidence, watered and fed my horse, by the aid of birch bark torches, we got some herrings, potatoes and tea for supper. I spent a couple of hours in contrasting the not ungraceful but guileless simplicity of these young creatures with the active intelligence and prurient knowledge of things good and evil, so common among persons of the same age in the cultivated and more artificial state of existence I had left behind me. "It was almost impossible to make conversation as we had so few topics in common and at last we lit a torch and fell to writing down Indian names with the corresponding English words, an exercise which seemed to interest my young friends very much." Of course Howe ceased to be Indian commissioner when he retired from Lord Falkland's council in 1843, but he always took a warm interest in the Indian population, and to most of them he was as great a hero as he was indeed to the fellow- citizens of his own race. In 1854 a bill was introduced into the Nova Scotia legislature by Mr. Johnston to prohibit the importation, manufacture and sale of all intoxicating 247 JOSEPH HOWE drinks. Such measures are now common in both the federal and provincial legislatures. Usually statesmen hedge upon them and dispose of them by various subterfuges. Howe was opposed to prohibition and met the issue squarely in a speech of wonderful boldness and rare eloquence, every word of which would be read with interest, but only a few passages of which can be given. These, at all events, show that Howe did not shirk the issue, notwithstanding that the legislature had been flooded with petitions, and considerable interest had been excited on the question. He said in part:— I 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 own heart, drank wine. Solomon, the wisest of monarchs and of human beings, drank wine. Our Saviour 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 Pharisees, who drank it not—who reviled our Saviour as a 'wine bibber,' and the I companion of publicans and sinners,' who would have voted for the Maine liquor law as unanimously as they cried, ' Crucify Him.' ... 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 248 J SPEECH ON TEMPERANCE 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, Grattans, Foxes, and Sheridans of the British Islands, every one of whom drank wine? Let the learned gentleman glance at the noble structures—the architectural wonders that embellish Europe. Who reared them ? Men of gigantic intellects whose common beverage was wine. 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 drunk by those benefactors of their race; and we cannot, with their masterpieces before us, believe the assertion, till their works have been eclipsed by artists trained up under this rigorous legislation. Has Maine turned out as yet a statue that anybody would look at; a picture that anybody would buy ? Look at the deliverers of mankind; the heroic defenders of nations. Was Washington a member of the temperance society? Did not Wallace 'drink the red wine through the helmet barred?' Who will under-' take to say that Bruce, on the morning on which 249 JOSEPH HOWE he won the battle of Bannockburn,—that Tell, 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 architecture, 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." Allusion has been made to one visit of Mr. Howe's to the United States on an unpleasant mission and with unfortunate results, but it must be understood that he was not an infrequent visitor to American cities and was everywhere a welcome guest. In 1851 a great festival was held in Boston to celebrate the completion of railway communication with the West, and British America was represented by the governor-general, Lord Elgin, Mr. Hincks and Mr. Howe. The occasion was honoured with the presence of the president of the United States and some of the most eminent men in the union, including Edward Everett, Josiah Quincy and others. Howe spoke on behalf of British America in the same elevated strain which characterized all his speeches. He visited Boston again in July, 1857, and at the city cele- 250 TRIBUTE TO EVERETT bration in Faneuil Hall, responded to the toast "The Queen of Great Britain," in the course of which he paid the following tribute to Edward Everett:— I 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 reputation 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 honoured they quaffed.' He melts into our cup the rich ingots of his imagination, and every man who listens to him is intellectually richer for the draught." Another passage alludes to the relations between Britain and the United States:— "England is no longer the harsh mother against whom that old 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 into declarations of independence, but gracefully concedes to them the right to make their own constitutions, and to change and 251 JOSEPH HOWE 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 govern 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 bur parliaments are in session. Think of us then, as we really are, your equals in many respects; your rivals, it may be, in all things honourable, but ever your brethren, your friends, your neighbours." A little later Howe was a guest at the Democratic festival at the Revere House, and responded to a toast, "Our mother country," in a speech equally brilliant and pleasing. In 1865 a great convention of the boards of trade and chambers of commerce of the United States was held at Detroit, to which representative men from all the cities of British North America were invited. The purpose of the convention was to consider the question of fiscal relations between the United States and British North America in view of the fact that notice had been given of the termination of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854-66. It was one of the greatest gatherings of a commercial character that has taken place on this continent, and such eminent Americans as the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, Vice- 252 <0* SPEECH AT DETROIT President of the United States, and from Canada such men as the Hon. Messrs. Holton, Flint, Gibbs, Buchanan, Leonard, Sir Hugh Allan, Peter Red- path; the Hon. Messrs. Fisher, Botsford and Steeves, of New Brunswick, and other eminent men from all parts of North America gathered together. Two resolutions were adopted by the convention. One was approving of the action of the United States in giving notice of the termination of the treaty, and the other was a resolution requesting the president of the United States to enter into negotiations with the government of Great Britain, having in view the execution of a treaty between the two countries for reciprocity of commercial intercourse between the United States and the several provinces of British North America, which should be just and equitable to both parties. Howe was one of the delegates from Halifax to this convention, and spoke upon this resolution. His speech so far excelled the other addresses that it became the one great feature of the convention, and the Detroit convention itself is remembered now chiefly on account of this address: It so impressed the delegates that at the conclusion of one of its finest periods, the vast gathering rose en masse and gave three cheers. He gave a clear statement of the incidents which had led to reciprocity, the mutual advantages which had accrued from its operation, and the special and superior advantages derived from its provisions by the 253 JOSEPH HOWE people of the United States. He pleaded for a broad and generous policy in respect to this subject, but at the same time, in eloquent terms, he told the citizens of the United States that the people of British North America could never be lured from their allegiance or forced by any commercial pressure into an abandonment of their regard for the empire. The speech remains as one of the noblest expositions, by a statesman of either country, of the true relations which exist between the United States and Canada. Prince Edward Island had, from almost its earliest settlement, suffered from the consequences of improvident grants of large areas of land to private holders, by which settlers were deprived of the titles to their lands and the country was kept in perpetual agitation on the question of land monopolies and quit rents. After much correspondence between the government of the island, the proprietors and the colonial secretary, it was at last arranged that the whole matter of difference between the proprietors and the tenants should be left to the arbitrament of three commissioners, one to be appointed by Her Majesty's government, one by the legislature of Prince Edward Island as representing the tenants, and the third by the proprietors. On the acceptance of this proposition by the legislature of Prince Edward Island, the Hon. Joseph Howe was unanimously chosen to represent the tenants on the commission. The Hon. 254 k*m PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND John Hamilton Gray, of New Brunswick, was appointed to represent the imperial government, and John W. Ritchie, Esquire, an eminent lawyer (and afterwards judge), of Nova Scotia, to represent the proprietors. These commissioners opened their court at Charlottetown on September 5th, 1860, and heard counsel representing the various parties, and took a large volume of evidence. They subsequently traversed the island from end to end, examining minutely into the circumstances and conditions of all portions of the province affected. They then made a report extremely full, and dealing in an exhaustive manner with every phase of the dispute, and made an award which should have been satisfactory to all parties concerned. It was satisfactory to the government and people of Prince Edward Island, and an act was at once adopted by the legislature of Prince Edward Island giving legal effect to the award. This act, however, was disallowed by the Crown, on the advice of the colonial secretary, upon whom must rest the responsibility of having, by a narrow and illiberal policy, postponed the settlement of this acute question for more than ten years. rUm-tiMI CHAPTER XI HOWE AND LITERATURE THE public speeches and official acts of a statesman convey only a partial idea of his real character. In comparing Howe's speeches and public letters with those of other Canadian statesmen, it will be found that he has left behind him a volume of political literature in no way approached by the written remains of any one or any half-dozen public men who have exercised a commanding influence in moulding the institutions of Canada. It is quite true that a number of those engaged actively in public life have given more or less attention to matters of a literary character. The Hon. George Brown was a vigorous prose writer, but so far as is known, his writings were confined entirely to political topics. Sir John Macdonald has left on record a number of public letters of great interest, which reveal him as a man of enormous sagacity, of unfailing prudence, and with a clear mastery of the subject matter under discussion, but his most devoted admirers would scarcely regard his writings as literature, or anything more than the clear and careful exposition of existing political conditions at any given period. Mr. L. S. Huntington wrote a book or two and 257 JOSEPH HOWE some poetry. Alexander Mackenzie wrote a life of George Brown, but it could hardly be called a successful biography nor did it reveal any special merit. David Mills wrote some poetry as well as prose. Sir Charles Tupper has contributed a few magazine articles on political topics, which are not at all unlike, in tone and substance, his speeches on similar topics. Of literary work, it could scarcely be claimed on his behalf that he has done anything. Sir John Thompson, Sir Georges Cartier, Mr. J. J. C. Abbott, and Sir McKenzie Bowell have contributed nothing beyond newspaper editorials to literature, nor indulged in any special writing, as far as is known, except that of a purely political type. Sir Wilfrid Laurier has certainly literary sympathies and has written some few charming articles, which betray a taste which gives great promise, but his time has been absorbed so fully in political work that there has been little scope for the cultivation of the muse. Mr. Howe stands forth unique in this regard. His political writings are, of course, his best known work, and these embrace a variety of topics, so large and varied in their character as to put him in a class by himself among Canadian public men. He contributed the first and the last word upon the subject of colonial self-government, and was unquestionably the man who, above all others, enlightened the imperial authorities, and especially colonial secretaries, as to the true and only policy whereby the colonial possessions could be retained and rnade 258 VARIETY OF POLITICAL TOPICS loyal and devoted to the empire. He was among the first of those who dreamed dreams of the consolidation and greatness of British North America, and no public man in Canada has ante-dated him in his great prophecy of 18-51, that there were those within the sound of his voice who would live to hear the screech of the railway whistle in the passes of the Rocky Mountains. He stands almost first among those who conceived the great idea of imperial federation, and certainly no man has ever lived within the empire who has contributed such a wealth of knowledge, and such a breadth of conception to this subject as Joseph Howe. Indeed, if all that has been said within the last decade on this topic by all the statesmen within the British empire, were brought together, nothing more cogent, nothing more advanced would be found than in his "Speeches and Letters," published more than fifty years ago. As long ago as 1838, Howe recognized the importance of a fast line of steam service between Halifax and Great Britain, and if all that has been said on the fast-line service within the past decade were added together, there would be found nothing more advanced on the subject, nor anything said half so forcibly and eloquently, as when Howe dealt with the same topic half a century ago. If it be really important that Canadians should be loyal to the Crown and devoted to the empire, no public man born within this Dominion has con- 259 I JOSEPH HOWE tributed one tithe as much towards propagating and enforcing that principle as Joseph Howe. Indeed, his speeches and public letters on the great political topics which have concerned British North America and, in fact, the empire, constitute a body of literature which can be read with as much interest, profit and inspiration to-day as when they first appeared, and contain within them germs which cannot die, and which will seem fresh and inspiring to future generations. But Howe's literary work was by no means confined to his political writings, though no man engaged in public life in British North America had more exacting political duties cast upon him. It was his business, almost single-handed, to educate a province, both by his pen and by his personal presence. He frequently held office, and even when not in office was the centre, soul and rallying point of his political party, and yet he found time amidst these exciting duties to write a great deal, both in prose and poetry. In Halifax he became at an early period of his career, in spite of the strong political feeling that existed, the indispensable man on all great occasions. In 1849 Halifax celebrated the hundredth anniversary of its foundation by Corn- wallis, and on that occasion Howe composed the words of a song, now familiar enough, which still vibrates with the emotion with which he wrote it:— All hail to the day when the Britons came over, And planted their standard, with sea-foam still wet, 260 THE FLAG OF OLD ENGLAND Around and above us their spirits will hover, Rejoicing to mark how we honour it yet. Beneath it the emblems they cherished are waving, The Rose of Old England the roadside perfumes; The Shamrock and Thistle the north winds are braving, Securely the Mayflower blushes and blooms. Chorus. Hail to the day when the Britons came over, And planted their standard with sea-foam still wet, Around and above us their spirits will hover, Rejoicing to mark how we honour it yet. We'll honour it yet, we'll honour it yet, The flag of Old England ! we'll honour it yet. In the temples they founded their faith is maintained, Every foot of the soil they bequeathed is still ours, The graves where they moulder, no foe has profaned, But we wreathe them with verdure, and strew them with flowers! The blood of no brother, in civil strife pour'd, In this hour of rejoicing, encumbers our souls! The frontier's the field for the Patriot's sword, And curs'd be the weapon that Faction controls I Chorus—Hail to the day, etc. Then hail to the day! 'tis with memories crowded, Delightful to trace 'midst the mists of the past, Like the features of Beauty, bewitchingly shrouded, They shine through the shadows Time o'er them has cast. As travellers track to its source in the mountains The stream, which far swelling, expands o'er the plains, Our hearts, on this day, fondly turn to the fountains, Whence flow the warm currents that bound in our veins. Chorus—Hail to the day, etc. And proudly we trace them: No warrior flying From city assaulted, and fanes overthrown, With the last of his race on the battlements dying, And weary with wandering, founded our own. From the Queen of the Islands, then famous in story, A century since, our brave forefathers came, 261 JOSEPH HOWE And our kindred yet fill the wide world with her glory, Enlarging her Empire and spreading her name. Chorus—Hail to the day, etc. Ev'ry flash of her genius our pathway enlightens— Ev'ry field she explores we are beckoned to tread, Each laurel she gathers, our future day brightens— We joy with her living and mourn for her dead. Then hail to the day when the Britons came over, And planted their standard, with sea-foam still wet, Above and around us their spirits shall hover, Rejoicing to mark how we honour it yet. Chorus—Hail to the day, etc. On another notable public occasion he stirred every patriotic heart in his country by another poem of no less fire and merit, entitled:— OUR FATHERS Room for the Dead I your living hands may pile Treasures of Art the stately tents within; Beauty may grace them with her richest smile, And Genius there spontaneous plaudits win. But yet, amidst the tumult and the din Of gathering thousands, let me audience crave:— Place claim I for the Dead—'twere mortal sin When banners o'er our Country's treasures wave, Unmarked 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 every varied dye; Swart Artizans their rival skill may try, And, while the 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. Not here? Oh! yes, our hearts their presence feel Viewless, not voiceless, from the deepest shells 262 j OUR FATHERS 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 reverberates to our measured tread, Banner and wreath will own our reverence for the Dead. Look up, their walls enclose us. Look around, Who won the verdant meadows from the sea? Whose 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 quelled the savage ? And who spared the tree That pleasant shelter o'er the pathway throws ? Who made the land they loved to blossom as the rose ? Who, in frail barques, the ocean surge defied, And trained the race that live upon the wave? What shore so distant where they have not died ? In ev'ry sea they found a watery grave. Honour, 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 honour'd—while the sacred fire, Nourished by vestal hands, was made to burn From age to age. If fitly you'd aspire, Honour 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 dowers, And, o'er the old men's graves, go strew your choicest flowers. His lectures before the Mechanics' Institute in Halifax, some of which, fortunately, have been preserved, may still be admired for their wealth of 263 JOSEPH HOWE patriotic sentiment, and their genuine eloquence. Two of these are especially notable, one on the "Moral Influence of Women," and the other on "Eloquence." When the tercentenary of Shakespeare was celebrated in Halifax in 1864, every one turned to Joseph Howe to deliver the oration on the occasion, and among the many splendid tributes which the most gifted minds throughout the empire laid at the feet of England's and the world's greatest poet, few surpassed in purity of diction and warmth of eulogy the oration delivered by Joseph Howe. It has been already mentioned that while yet a boy he composed a poem on Melville Island, and those who will care to read it in the published volume of his poems will see that it reveals a poetical gift which would do no discredit to a poet of maturer age. His most ambitious poem was entitled "Acadia," but was never finished, although it fills some hundreds of lines and is extremely beautiful from beginning to end. Many of his best verses were the fruits of happy inspiration in going from place to place throughout Nova Scotia. It has been mentioned that he was fond of riding over many portions of the province on horseback, and by this means he became acquainted with many families, among whom he was always a welcome and revered guest. On one occasion, while visiting a political friend, Mr. Eaton, in Cornwallis, he drove in the autumn to the beautiful Gaspereau Valley, and on his way observed 264 THE DESERTED NEST a deserted nest that hung shelterless on a tree. This evoked the following stanzas:— Deserted nest, that on the leafless tree, Wavest to and fro with every dreary blast, With none to shelter, none to care for thee, Thy day of pride and cheerfulness is past. Thy tiny walls are falling to decay, Thy cell is tenantless and tuneless now, The winter winds have rent the leaves away, And left thee hanging on the naked bough. But yet, deserted nest, there is a spell E'en in thy loneliness, to touch the heart, For holy things within thee once did dwell, The type of joys departed now thou art. With what assiduous care thy framers wrought, With what delight they viewed the structure rise, And how, as each some tiny rafter brought, Pleasure and hope would sparkle in their eyes. Ah! who shall tell when all the work was done, The rapt'rous pleasure that their labours crown'd, The blissful moments Nature for them won, And bade them celebrate with joyous sound. A Father's pride—a Mother's anxious care, Her flutter'd spirits, and his gentlest tone, All, all, that wedded hearts so fondly share, To thee, deserted nest, were surely known. Then though .thy walls be rent, and cold thy cell, And thoughtless crowds may hourly pass thee by, Where love, and truth, and tenderness did dwell, There's still attraction for the Poet's eye. It was in no small measure due to Howe's efforts that the mayflower (trailing arbutus) became generally recognized as the floral emblem of the province, and Nova Scotians everywhere were charmed by the appearance of the poem in 265 JOSEPH HOWE which in fitting terms he celebrates the beauties of this modest floweret:— Lovely flow'ret, sweetly blooming 'Neath our drear, ungentle sky— Shrinking, coy and unassuming, From the gaze of mortal eye. On thy bed of moss reposing, Fearless of the drifting snow, Modestly thy charms disclosing, Storms but make them brighter glow, Spring's mild, fragrant, fair attendant, Blooming near the greenwood tree, While the dew-drop, sparkling, pendant, Makes thee smile bewitchingly. Oh! I love to look upon thee, Peeping from thy close retreat, While the sun is shining on thee, And thy balmy fragrance greet. View exotics, proudly growing On the shelter'd, mild parterre, But, if placed where thou art blowing Would they bloom and blossom there ? April's breeze would quickly banish All the sweets by them display'd, Soon each boasted charm would vanish, Every cherish'd beauty fade. Scotia's offspring—first and fairest, Nurst in snows, by storms caress'd Oh! how lovely thou appearest When in all thy beauty dress'd. Red and white, so sweetly blending, O'er thy fragrance throw a flush While beneath the dew-drop bending, Rivall'd but by beauty's blush. Welcome, little crimson favour, To our glades and valleys wild, Scotia ask'd, and Flora gave her, Precious boon, her fairest child. 266 HOWE AND HALIBURTON On social occasions Mr. Howe not infrequently contributed poetic toasts. During most of their lives Mr. Howe and T. C. Haliburton (Sam Slick), were friends and boon companions. Haliburton was somewhat older than Howe and had left public life before Howe entered it, but they were often thrown together socially. Haliburton, by assiduous devotion to literary work, has secured a conspicuous place among the humourists of America. He was not regarded in his day as a very great man, but he was eminently jovial, and at all convivial occasions brimful of wit and bad puns. Howe had infinitely superior intellectual qualities, and indeed finer literary tastes, but his duties as a politician precluded his giving the same attention to literary work. Ultimately Haliburton left the Bench and moved to England, where he obtained a seat in the House of Commons. On one of the convivial occasions in Halifax after Haliburton's departure, Howe proposed his health in the following toast:— Here's a health to thee, Tom, a bright bumper we drain To the friends that our bosoms hold dear, As the bottle goes round, and again and again We whisper "we wish he were here." Here's a health to thee, Tom, may the mists of this earth Never shadow the light of that soul Which so often has lent the mild flashes of mirth To illumine the depths of the Bowl. With a world full of beauty and fun for a theme, And a glass of good wine to inspire, E'en without thee we sometimes are bless'd with a gleam That resembles thy spirit's own fire. ' 267 PI I JOSEPH HOWE Yet still, in our gayest and merriest mood Our pleasures are tasteless and dim, For the thoughts of the past, and of Tom that intrude, Make us feel we're but happy with him. Like the Triumph of old where the absent one threw A cloud o'er the glorious scene, Are our feasts, my dear Tom, when we meet without you, And think of the nights that have been. When thy genius, assuming all hues of delight, Fled away with the rapturous hours, And when wisdom and wit, to enliven the night, Scatter'd freely their fruits and their flowers, When thy eloquence played round each topic in turn, Shedding lustre and light where it fell, As the sunlight in which the tall mountain tops burn, Paints each bud in the lowliest dell. When that eye, before which the pale Senate once quailed, With humour and deviltry shone, And the voice which the heart of the patriot hailed, Had mirth in its every tone. Then a health to thee, Tom, every bumper we drain But renders thy image more dear, As the bottle goes round, and again and again, We wish, from our hearts, you were here. It has been mentioned that Howe very nearly became the editor of the New York Albion. He contributed some very dehghtful articles to that publication, one of them a vivid pen and ink sketch of Daniel O'Connell, whom Howe had met in London, and another entitled "The Locksmith of Philadelphia," which, though indeed a simple story, yet nevertheless possesses in a degree the style and quality which have made the "Vicar of Wakefield " an immortal book. Had Howe taken 268 A VISIT TO HOWE the editorial chair of the Albion instead of embarking in the anti-confederate campaign of 1867, he might have lived longer and had an opportunity of making contributions to literature which would have given him a not undistinguished place among the literary men of the age. The writer spent an afternoon with Mr. Howe in the autumn of 1872, about six months before his death. Howe had been spending a fortnight at the house of his daughter, Mrs. Cathcart Thomson, on the shores of the North West Arm. As I entered the room I noticed he had three bundles of papers, one containing his poems, which have subsequently been published, another containing his fugitive prose writings, and another, much larger, his political correspondence with eminent men throughout the empire. He had been devoting most of his time to endeavouring to cull the most important of his papers from the great mass and classify them. He said that he had been devotedly fond of literary work throughout his life, and it was a matter of the keenest disappointment that his political duties had robbed him of the time essential to pursue his cherished aims. He hoped that by some good fortune leisure would soon be afforded him during which he could carry out his literary projects. The promised leisure came the following May, when he was appointed governor of Nova Scotia, but, alas, his health was broken, and but a short period was to be allotted to him for fulfilling these literary 269 mil n JOSEPH HOWE aims. This is a matter for sincere regret since a volume of Howe's reminiscences of men and things would have constituted as delightful reading as could well be imagined. His letters to his wife and members of his family, while absent from home, especially in the old country, are full of delightful descriptions of persons he was meeting and of interesting incidents, political and otherwise, which were occurring about him, but after all, these are not the passages from his letters which the world would cherish most, if indeed they were available for publication. The tone of tender affection for his family, and the devotion for Nova Scotia which breathes in them all would be the most splendid tributes to the great and noble soul from which they flowed. 270 CHAPTER XII HOWE'S SOCIAL QUALITIES IT is much easier to picture a great man in his public capacity, to report his speeches, to dramatize his actions, to reproduce his sentiments in relation to matters of public concern than it is to portray his personal characteristics in his every day life. In Mr. Howe's case, these constitute such an interesting and striking phase that one seems baffled in the attempt. A more delightful personality could scarcely be imagined. Although occupying prominent official positions most of his life, Howe was absolutely free from the conventional pose of an official personage. When not actively employed in public duties, (and no one led a busier life, made more speeches, wrote more articles, attended to more official routine,) he was not happy for long without congenial companionship. Did he leave the provincial secretary's office some afternoon at four, it was to seize upon a congenial friend and take a long ramble, telling stories, cracking jokes, or indulging in poetic outbursts; or, again, seeing a good, fat, Irish ward-politician near, he would, in a most genial manner, take him by the arm and whisper that he was greatly perplexed with some important matter of public policy 271 JOSEPH HOWE and was earnestly desirous of having his advice. He would then gravely unfold the situation and hold earnest converse with his Hibernian friend, luring him into precisely the view of the situation which he himself desired to adopt, and, finally, leave him with a warm pressure of the hand with the impression upon his mind that he was himself playing an important part in the government of the country and that Joe Howe was the boy who knew how to do things. Picture a great Liberal demonstration held in one of the country districts of Nova Scotia to celebrate some electoral victory—large crowds gathered in a spacious field with baskets of provisions and little family picnics in all quarters. At last a team drives up with four spirited grey horses, decorated with the Liberal colours, and, in a large and handsome carriage sit the Hon. Messrs. Young, Archibald, Annand, McCully, Weir and Howe. As they alight, the leading men gather round and are presented one by one to these distinguished statesmen. Messrs. Young, Archibald, etc., in a dignified posture, remain in a group to receive their friends and admirers in a manner befitting their high official station. Where is Howe? In an instant he is flying among the crowd, speaking to every woman he knows, probably calling her by her christian name. At one moment he has the charming Mrs. Smith upon his arm, perfectly happy to be thus honoured by the great Joe Howe, but in five 272 A TYPICAL SCENE minutes he has reached Mrs. Brown, another admirer, and by some subtle process not quite easy to describe, Mrs. Brown is seen smiling and happy leaning upon Mr. Howe's arm, until, indeed, the delightful Mrs. Jones is seen, whereupon, by a similar process, Mrs. Jones is likewise revelling in the rapture of a stroll with Mr. Howe. The other dignitaries are entertained at luncheon in a special tent provided for this purpose. Is Howe there ? Not a bit of it. He is lying on the ground taking his picnic with the Robinsons with an admiring circle from the other families gradually gathering about him. When the time for speaking arrives, the chairman is conducting Messrs. Young and company, in fitting form, to the platform, which has been erected and festooned for the occasion. Where is Howe? With a cigar in his mouth, flying about, arranging that all the best seats near the platform are filled with his lady friends, and this lasts until, finally, he is captured and himself conveyed to the platform and planted among the distinguished speakers. Solemn discussions of the great public questions ensue in speeches by Messrs. Young, Archibald and McCully, but when Joe Howe is upon his feet everybody is on the qui vive for they know that some delightful bit of humour will characterize his opening remarks, and then they look for an outburst upon the local scenery and historical memories of the place. When at last the period comes, when, throwing back his coat, he 273 JOSEPH HOWE begins to dwell upon public affairs, the heart of every man, woman and child in the vast audience thrills with the magnetic home-made eloquence, which falls naturally and gracefully from his lips. Again, fancy him entering one of the innumerable homes he was accustomed to frequent in his constant rambles over the province. The moment he was inside the door, he would fling his arm round the wife and salute her with a hearty kiss. If there were any grown up girls in the house, they were submitted to the same salutation. If, in their modesty, they ran away, they were chased and pursued until they were captured and kissed, and this was Howe's almost invariable custom for thirty years. Once in the family circle, all dignity was laid aside and every moment was occupied with delightful and entertaining conversation. He told stories to the children and entertained the grown ones by incidents of his travels, and anecdotes of every j kind which had occurred during his varied experi- j; ences in the world. In this way he became a domestic personality in hundreds, if not thousands of homes in Nova Scotia. Women were absolutely devoted to him, and taught their children to regard him as a hero. If death came to any household with which he was thus closely finked, there promptly came a beautiful letter from Howe (and who could write such letters?), full of sympathy and consolation. And these, we may be sure, were not written for dramatic effect, 274 AN AFFECTIONATE NATURE but because his own heart was warm and his own great soul sympathized with sorrow in every form. His private correspondence with his wife and children reveals a warmth of affection and tenderness of soul rarely found in the correspondence of any of the world's heroes whose letters have seen the light. To old men who had been associated with his early struggles, Howe was especially devoted. In his wanderings over the province he never passed by a house in which an old friend lived, without entering and talking to him in the most affectionate terms. In 1868 when he was travelling through the western part of Nova Scotia, he entered the house of an old man who had passed his eightieth year and was confined by age and infirmity to his easy chair by his fireside. He had been one of Howe's devoted friends in early days. Howe sat down beside him, talked in loving terms of their old associations, and on rising to leave him, kissed his furrowed cheek, down which could be seen rolling tears of affectionate and grateful appreciation. With such incidents as these, a matter of almost every day occurrence, is it any wonder that he became in a peculiar degree, and in a sense, quite different from that which pertains to the average public man, the idol and hero of thousands of Nova Scotians, became, indeed, a distinct figure in the public mind, and a living, breathing personality in the public imagination? Johnston, Young and 275 JOSEPH HOWE Tupper could be mentioned with a fitting sense of provincial pride, and at a later date after confederation Sir John Macdonald, Blake, Mackenzie, Laurier and Thompson evoked the respect and admiration due to eminent men who were dedicating their lives and energies to the public service. But people thought of Joe Howe in a different sense. He was part and parcel of the daily life and thought of the people, woven into the very woof of their existence. A bitter day came to many devoted friends of Mr. Howe in 1869, when, for reasons which have been amply set forth, he felt it necessary to accept confederation and take a seat in the government of Sir John Macdonald. The antipathy to confederation at that time was very intense. The method by which it had been forced upon the country in defiance of the popular will, had aggravated the bitterness, and coming so soon after the splendid victory of 1867, Howe's action bore the semblance, in the popular mind, of desertion and treason. The old veterans who had for thirty years fought under Howe's banners, and loved him as a brother, were forced, with bitterness of heart, to cast him from them as one who had betrayed their cause. In his goings to and fro in the province in the latter part of 1868, he was met by many cold looks, and some lifelong friends refused to give him their hand, and it can easily be imagined how keen and poignant would be the pain which this would cause 276 HOWE'S INFLUENCE to a warm and sensitive nature. If there was one yearning desire ever present in Howe's heart, it was that he should maintain the love and confidence of his fellow-countrymen. In his speech at Windsor at the first meeting after he had taken office in 1869, he referred at the close of his address to the fact that it had been charged upon him that he had deserted his principles and entered the government from ambition. Throwing back his coat in the old familiar way, he uttered these passionate words:— "Ambitious, am I ? Well, gentlemen, I once had a little ambition. I was ambitious that Nova Scotia should have a free press and free responsible government. I fought for it and won it. Ambitious! am I ? Well, gentlemen, an old man at my time of life can be supposed to have but little ambition. But, gentlemen, I have a little ambition, I am ambitious that when, in my declining years, I shall ride up and down the length and breadth of Nova Scotia, I may receive the same sympathy, confidence and love from her sons as in days gone by I received from their sires." No public man that ever lived in British America and few that have ever lived in the world, within the range and sphere in which they moved and acted, exercised such a far-reaching influence upon the people within the circle of their influence as Joe Howe. To his impulses may be traced the race of clever men whom Nova Scotia has contributed to the public life of Canada, and not alone to public 277 JOSEPH HOWE life, but to the literary and intellectual life of the country. From the period at which Howe was at the zenith of his power until after his death a great number of the brighter Liberals were insensibly imitators of his style and manner. The familiar gestures which were so characteristic were seen reproducing themselves in many young men who were mounting the political platform and essaying to influence the world with their oratory. It is impossible to estimate the number of young men in Nova Scotia whose breasts were stirred to honourable ambition by the writings and speeches and the personal influence of Joseph Howe. When he left his party, if indeed his action can be so characterized, in 1869, some of those who had been his lifelong admirers and imitators were among those who went to Hants county to confront him on the platform during his campaign, and it was not far from ludicrous to see young lawyers, whose eloquence had been fashioned in Howe's school, actually hurling their thunder bolts at the old man's head, with gestures and intonations which had been aptly borrowed from their former hero. These small lights were seeking to destroy their old master by the inspiration which they had drawn from his breath. Howe had an inordinate and undying love for the beautiful and picturesque, and as he went abroad in Nova Scotia, he sought in every way to inspire a taste for the aesthetic among the people. 278 LOVE OF NATURE For trees especially he had a great love. It is related that on one occasion when passing along the road near Truro, he saw a farmer beginning to cut down a beautiful row of willows which grew by the roadside in front of his house. Howe was shocked, jumped from his carriage and expostulated. The farmer replied that he could sell them and he needed the money. Howe said: " What will you take to let them stand ?" "Oh, I suppose five pounds," answered the farmer, and Howe instantly drew from his purse the five pounds, and those who travel in the vicinity now can see to this day the beautiful row of trees still standing. In religion, Howe was absolutely free from sectarian prejudices or denominational influence* His father belonged to a sect called Sandemanians, or Glasses, who held somewhat peculiar views, accepting the Bible as final authority, but being utterly opposed to an established church and a paid clergy. A small knot of these men, of whom Mr. John Howe was one of the leaders, used to gather together on Sundays for worship, and so strong was Mr. John Howe's prejudice against a paid clergy that, although naturally a man of generous instincts, he would refuse to remain in the same room with a salaried clergyman. As the result of his father's lack of denominational affiliations, Howe never united himself with any religious body nor could he be reckoned as an adherent of 279 —*^-»—*» JOSEPH HOWE any particular religious sect. He was, nevertheless, a man of strong religious feelings. No man in his day studied the Bible more thoroughly and carefully than he, and he constantly expressed the opinion that its literature was among the finest and its truths the most sublime. Quotations from the Scriptures are found inwoven into his public utter* ances on all occasions. Howe's habit of going to the country and actually living in the fields for a week or ten days has been already mentioned. One of the places which he thus frequented was the house of a coloured couple named Deers, at Preston. One evening a Baptist minister happened to arrive at the Deers's house to remain all night. He details the fact that during the evening he got into free conversation with Howe and when the time came for bed the latter informed him that he had made a practice during his whole life of reading a passage from the Scriptures before going to bed. He got down the Bible for this purpose, and after he had finished reading, asked the minister to engage in prayer. But it is proper to add that Howe bore no general character for piety during his active political fife. On the contrary, his duties brought him in contact with ward politicians and his convivial nature brought him boon companions at the festive board, and his reputation was that of a jolly good fellow. Those only who knew him intimately were able to appreciate the strong undercurrent of religious feeling which pervaded his 280 INTELLECTUAL INTERESTS nature. During his life he usually went to church wherever he was, and it mattered to him not in the slightest degree whether the service was Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist or Methodist. Mrs. Howe belonged to the Presbyterian faith and in Halifax Mr. Howe frequently attended church with her. Howe was constantly endeavouring in Halifax to keep up some sort of interest in intellectual matters. It was very considerably by his personal influence that the Mechanics' Institute became a permanent and useful institution in the city, maintaining a course of lectures and literary discussions. Howe himself was a frequent contributor to the lecture course and a constant attendant of the other lectures, frequently moving the vote of thanks and imparting new life to the discussion by his happy observations. It is related that on one occasion when Mr. George R. Young had lectured before the institute, Mr. Howe, in the course of the general discussion which followed, made some remarks in a spirit of banter touching certain features of the lecture, which were not altogether pleasing to Mr. Young, who, in responding to the vote of thanks which had been accorded him, took occasion to say that he did not come to such occasions with stale jokes bottled up in his breeches' pocket; to which Mr. Howe on the instant remarked that no one was in a position to state what jokes Mr. Young carried bottled in his breeches' pocket, 281 ^ttjjj^gisr iT.iiiMi- Y vii ifiHM JOSEPH HOWE but all could bear testimony to the fact that he never drew the cork ! Mr. Howe had ten children, of whom only two, Mr. Sydenham Howe and Mrs. Cathcart Thomson, are now living. 282 B'-£ w&m*J^ikmMmt^w.»tMJMteM^^>-^ CHAPTER XIII CONCLUSION AS has been stated, broken in health, and yet -£jl buoyant and hopeful, Howe was appointed governor of Nova Scotia in May, 1873. In a letter to a friend, written shortly before leaving Ottawa, he says:— "The governorship I never had a doubt would be offered to me by my colleagues, nor did I ever distrust the widespread confidence and affection of my fellow-countrymen. What was very doubtful when I saw you in the autumn was whether I should live through the winter and be in any condition to discharge any official duties in the spring. Thanks to a kind providence, the doubt so far has been given in my favour. I have gone through three of the worst months of the winter without any serious recurrence of the dangerous symptoms which imperilled my life last year. We have still two months of winter to pass through, but thanks to my Boston physician, I know what to do if anything goes wrong, which, at present, I do not apprehend. Of course, no appointment will be made until General Doyle's retirement, but, should I live, you will see me down in time to take the chair if it is vacant. There may be a little 283 j6mmmM mmm k3tto>1fcfrtf%« ft-ifcMfrig. »^^»!,'syat^<fy»^»«fc:- W'm JOSEPH HOWE knot of people opposed to my appointment, but there is hardly one of them that does not know in his inmost soul that I have fairly earned the promotion by forty years of public service. What some of them are afraid of is that I will violate my own principles by treating them unfairly and pay them off for a good deal of gratuitous treachery and abuse. They will probably be mistaken in this as in everything else. No offer has ever been made to me of imperial favours. Certainly no honorary distinctions have ever been sought by me or desired." Howe did not misjudge the attitude of some of the more bitter of the repealers, who, while most persons called and paid their customary respects at government house, on^ his appointment, remained away as a token of their displeasure at his alleged desertion of the repeal cause. The days were quietly spent. Howe had hoped that the leisure which the governorship would afford him would enable him to devote some time towards gathering together his literary work, and to publish a record of his striking reminiscences. But this expectation was doomed to disappointment. June had just been ushered in, with its unfolding leaves and early blossoms, when suddenly the city was startled with the announcement that Joseph Howe was dead. Quickly the word was flashed over the province, and nothing could have been more touching or could illustrate more fully the supreme place which he occupied in the hearts 284 NEWS OF HIS DEATH of the people than the tokens of profound grief and almost awe with which the news of his death was heard. Plain farmers in remote rural districts bowed in silence when told that Joseph Howe was dead. It was not because he occupied a position which would make his death precipitate a crisis; he was not holding any place of power. For the previous four years he had not been conspicuously in the public eye, but he remained at all times enthroned in the hearts of his countrymen. Nor, indeed, was the feeling evoked that which ordinarily follows the death of a conspicuous and highly esteemed public man. It was rather the loss of a personality who had for more than a generation been associated with the everyday life and thought of the people of Nova Scotia. He had moulded to an enormous degree the thoughts and sentiments of the people. He was a living entity that had charmed them in every form and on a hundred different occasions. Scarcely a commonplace word had ever fallen from his lips. On whatsoever theme or occasion he spoke or wrote, the subject at once became illumined with a splendid imagination and a glowing warmth of soul which touched the heart at the same time that it captivated the intellect. His funeral was attended by an immense concourse of people. His wife being a Presbyterian, the services were conducted by the pastor of one of the Presbyterian churches. Twenty thousand people lined the streets through which were carried the 285 ^^^gjgjvt^ JOSEPH HOWE last mortal remains of Joseph Howe to repose in Camp Hill cemetery. His family, although possessing little wealth, erected a modest monument of plain Nova Scotia granite. The remains of lesser men than he have been deposited in Westminster Abbey, but it is fitting that the hero of popular rights should mingle his dust with the commonest of his countrymen. Thirty years have passed by and no statue has been erected by his countrymen to immortalize his splendid career. Efforts have been made in this direction, but people who would willingly contribute to a monument for a champion oarsman have been backward in subscribing to a statue for the greatest Nova Scotian. At the last session of the Nova Scotia legislature the sum of ten thousand dollars was unanimously voted for this purpose, and a commission has been appointed to secure its erection at the south end of the provincial building and in view of the provincial secretary's office, in which for years he sat and laboured and wrote. It must be mentioned to the credit of the present provincial government of Nova Scotia that some years before the death of Howe's widow they voted her an annual pension of five hundred dollars. When his qualities are understood, when his great labours and achievements are appreciated throughout the Dominion, it is not unlikely that a statue not less imposing than any now standing, will be erected to perpetuate his name on Parliament Hill at Ottawa. 286 HIS WORK Comparisons are unpleasant and generally needless. Viewing his forty years of public service justly and having regard to his speeches, his writings and his achievements, what other of the great men that British America has produced can be fairly placed in comparison with him ? He did not attain such an eminent place in the public life of the Dominion as Sir John A. Macdonald, nor, perhaps, would he have been able, under similar conditions, to have guided the ship of state with the same consummate skill amid the various difficulties which surrounded the initial stages of welding together the somewhat heterogeneous elements which went to compose the Canadian confederation. Let due credit be given to each man in his own sphere for his special gifts and achievements, but among the gifted men whom British North America has produced, we cannot name one who has left behind such a body of political literature dealing so luminously with every great question which concerns both Canada and the empire, as remains to the perpetual credit of Joseph Howe. Nay, without presumption, may it not be fairly asked what British statesman that has lived and acted within the past sixty years has contributed as much to the solution of these great empire-reaching questions as can be found in the recorded utterances of Joseph Howe ? Where among his contemporaries can be found a man who could throw such flashes of imagination upon every subject with which he attempted to deal, in 287 tftA^kbtia^.JB^«ftrfffe^» ' -' nite' ii i r rii ~i iiTi ^ l-dMiiiri ii JOSEPH HOWE the whole volume of whose writings and speeches scarcely a dull word or commonplace expression can be found ? Who dreamed such dreams of his country's ultimate greatness and power ? Who drew such mighty pictures of the possibilities pertaining to a union of the British races of all parts of the globe into one great empire ? Where will we look in our country's history for such a striking personality that could captivate senates by his skill and eloquence, masses by his magnetic power, and intellectual bodies by his unrivalled powers of mind? In an age of timid opportunism he exhibited daily the qualities of a hero. He had the courage to leave the conventional ruts in which most public men are content to plod and to strike out into new fields, to brave dangers from which the average public man shrinks. Alone and almost single-handed he faced the power of a well intrenched autocracy in Nova Scotia, destroyed their power and gave his countrymen the boon of self-government. He was the foremost expounder and the greatest teacher of the true principles of colonial government of his age, and his great thoughts penetrated the cobwebs of official routine which surrounded the colonial office in Downing Street and gave birth to larger and better views. Circumstances have much to do with a man's ultimate place in history. The same genius which could successfully manage the affairs of a province might suffice to manage successfully the affairs of an 288 *"""*r **** iridMlfciM*.' Aifi''Am f'mrSir'trt'-i'iWY-f r rte"--^*i -^^-"'■-■/■■wsa-,^.* a^ SUBSEQUENT EVENTS empire, and he who works in a small sphere may have a small place in history beside the man to whom fortune has consigned the larger arena. Most of Howe's life was spent in ministering to the well-being of a province that at his death numbered scarcely four hundred thousand souls. He lived to see the Canadian confederation launched, but at a period when it was too late for him to achieve the first position in it or to recognize the fruition of those splendid dreams which his imagination never failed to create. Thirty years have passed since he was laid at rest, and it is not too much to say that no one of the great ones who are permitted to participate in the vast expansion and development of this Dominion would have felt greater joy and pride in the realization than would Joseph Howe. To have British power established from the Atlantic to the Pacific in North America, to convert wildernesses into centres of industry and progress, to plant cities on plains where nothing but bears and buffaloes roamed, and to have great railway lines unlocking the resources of vast undiscovered territory were glorious visions which ever filled the heart of Joseph Howe. But to all these great hopes he, rightly or wrongly, as time will show, preserved the ideal of a united empire which has not yet been realized. No one can estimate too highly the worth and value of a great man:— H Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion ? f 289 MUM ■mm m mam &£^fe^fe JOSEPH HOWE His great thoughts, his heroic actions and his mighty achievements are not alone the heritage of his country, but the inspiration of the young men who are to carry forward its destinies. Every forward step which humanity has taken in the political, in the religious, scientific or social world has been under the guidance of some superior being who has, amid difficulty and danger, led the way. When Canada has achieved, as it is fast achieving, a recognized place among the puissant nations of the world, and the British empire has attained the dominance due to union and enlightened virtue, Joseph Howe will occupy a conspicuous niche among the authors and heroes of its glory. IL !t> 290 - —' imi a fi 11 a APPENDICES UfeHMC^ ifiiHsaBliiBtt£alilalyk^lawfew^jijffiBattilliMttu APPENDIX "A" THE TWELVE RESOLUTIONS 1. RESOLVED, that a committee be appointed to draw up an address to His Majesty to embrace the substance of the following resolutions:— 2. Resolved, that in the infancy of this colony its whole government was necessarily vested in a governor and council; and even after a representative assembly was granted, the practice of choosing members of council exclusively from among the heads of departments, and persons resident in the capital, was still pursued; and, with a single exception, has been continued down to the present time. That the practical effects of this system have been in the highest degree injurious to the best interests of the country; inasmuch as one entire branch of the legislature has generally been composed of men who, from the want of local knowledge and experience, were not qualified to decide upon the wants or just claims of distant portions of the province, by which the efforts of the representative branch were, in many instances, neutralized or rendered of no avail; and of others, who had a direct interest in thwarting the views of the assembly, whenever it attempted to carry economy and improvement into the departments under their control. 3. Resolved, that among the many proofs that might be adduced of the evils arising from this imperfect structure of the upper branch, it is only necessary to refer to the unsuccessful efforts of the 293 i MM i liiirr- h JOSEPH HOWE assembly to extend to the outports the advantages of foreign trade; to the enormous sum which it was compelled, after a long struggle, to resign for the support of the customs establishment; to the difficulties thrown in the way of a just and liberal system of education; and to the recent abortive attempts to abolish the illegal and unnecessary fees taken by the judges of the supreme court. 4^ Resolved, that while the population of this province is composed, as appears by the last census, taken in 1827, of twenty-eight thousand six hundred and fifty-nine members of the Episcopal Church, and one hundred and fifteen thousand one hundred and ninety-five Dissenters, which proportions may be assumed as fair at the present time, the appointments to the council are always studiously arranged so as to secure to the members of the church embracing but one-fifth of the population, a clear and decided majority at the board. That there are now in that body eight members representing the church; that the Presbyterians, who outnumber them by about nine thousand, have but three; the Catholics, who are nearly equal, have but one; while the Baptists, amounting, by the census of 1827, to nineteen thousand seven hundred and ninety, and the Methodists to nine thousand four hundred and ninety- eight, and all the other sects and denominations, are entirely unrepresented and shut out from influence in a body whose duty it is to legislate for all. 5. Resolved, that while the Catholic bishop has no seat at the council board, and while clergymen of all other denominations are, as they ought to be, carefully excluded, the bishop of the Episcopal Church always has been and still is a member. 294 APPENDIX "A" 6. Resolved, that while Dissenters, as they have a right to, justly complain of a state of things so exclusive and insulting, they would regard its continuance with more indifference if it did not lead to a general and injurious system of favouritism and monopoly, extending throughout almost every department of the public service over which the local government have control; thereby vesting in the hands of a part of the population the resources arising from the industry of the whole, and creating invidious distinctions and jealous discontent in the minds of large numbers of His Majesty's loyal subjects. 7. Resolved, that two family connections embrace five members of the council; that, until very recently, when two of them retired from the firm, five others were co-partners in one mercantile concern; and to this circumstance may be attributed the failure of the efforts of this assembly to fix a standard of value, and establish a sound currency in the province. 8. Resolved, that the assembly of this province have for years asserted, and still most respectfully assert, their right to control and distribute the casual and territorial revenues of the country, whether arising from the fees of office, the sale of lands, or the royalty paid upon the produce of the mines. But this House regret that hitherto their efforts to obtain justice in this respect have been unsuccessful. The lands of the province are, in effect, mortgaged to pay to the commissioner a salary out of all proportion to the services he is called on to perform; while all the mines and minerals of the province have been leased for sixty years to a wealthy English company, without the consent of 295 JOSEPH HOWE and independent of all control by the representatives of the people. 9. Resolved that apart from the mere question of judges' fees, which this House has pronounced, and still believes to be, unconstitutional and illegal, the presence of the chief justice at the council board is unwise and injurious, having a tendency to lessen the respect which the people ought to feel for the courts over which he presides. From the warm interest he has always manifested in public questions, and particularly in some of those in which the representative branch and His Majesty's council have been diametrically opposed, and from the influence which his position gives him over a numerous bar, he has generally been regarded as the head of a political party; and frequently been brought into violent conflict with aH people imbued with the truly British idea that judges ought not to mingle in the heats and contentions of politics. 10. Resolved, that the evils arising from the structure of His Majesty's council, and the disposition evinced by some of its members to protect their own interests and emoluments at the expense of the public, are heightened and rendered more injurious by the unconstitutional and insulting practice, still " pertinaciously adhered to" by that body, of shutting out the people from their deliberations. This practice they still maintain, although it is opposed to that of the House of Lords in England and that of the legislative councils of Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland; and notwithstanding the murmurs and complaints of the people for a long series of years and the repeated representations and remonstrances of this assembly. 296 APPENDIX "A" 11. Resolved, that while the House has a due reverence for British institutions and a desire to preserve to themselves and their children the advantages of that constitution under which their brethren on the other side of the Atlantic have enjoyed so much prosperity and happiness, they cannot but feel that those they represent participate but slightly in these blessings. They know that the spirit of that constitution—the genius of those institutions—is complete responsibility to the people, by whose resources and for whose benefit they are maintained. But sad experience has taught them that, in this colony, the people and their representatives are powerless, exercising upon the local government very little influence, and possessing no effectual control. In England, the people, by one vote of their representatives, can change the ministry, and alter any course of policy injurious to their interests; here, the ministry are His Majesty's council, combining legislative, judicial, and executive powers, holding their seats for life, and treating with contempt or indifference the wishes of the people, and the representations of the Commons. In England, the representative branch can compel a redress of grievances, by witholding the supplies; here they have no such remedy, because the salaries of nearly all the public officers being provided for by permanent laws, or paid out of the casual and territorial revenues, or from the produce of duties collected under imperial acts, a stoppage of supplies, while it inflicted great injury upon the country, by leaving the roads, bridges, and other essential services unprovided for, would not touch the emoluments of the heads of departments in the council, or of any 297 mtmrnm mm •- "• ~i JOSEPH HOWE but a few of the subordinate officers of the government. 12. Resolved, that as a remedy for these grievances, His Majesty be implored to take such steps, either by granting an elective legislative council, or by such other reconstruction of the local government as will insure responsibility to the Commons, and confer upon the people of this province what they value above all other possessions—the blessings of the British constitution. 298 APPENDIX "B" MR. HOWE did not approve of the Pacific Railway policy of the government in 1872, which led to defeat in 1873. He was in no way mixed up with the election scandals of 1872, because while they were in progress he was in the United States .under medical treatment. He was returned for Hants by acclamation in his absence. But on his return in the autumn he became dissatisfied with the policy, and although old and without means, he refused to give his sanction. He promptly wrote the following to Sir John:— "Ottawa, December 6th, 1872. My dear Sir John:—After a night of anxious consideration of the scheme of railway policy developed by Sir Hugh Allan and his friends yesterday, and apparently acquiesced in by my colleagues, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot defend that scheme or be a party to arrangements which I believe will be a surprise to parliament and the country, and fraught with consequences deeply injurious to the best interests of the Dominion. I shall as rapidly as possible put upon paper the views I entertain of the measure as presented, and of the policy that ought to be pursued, and hope to be able to place them in your hands in the course of the afternoon. I regret sincerely the separation from old friends which this divergence of opinion must necessarily involve, but I apprehend it cannot be avoided, and am quite prepared to make the sacrifice rather than throw over for the sake of office my conscientious 299 JOSEPH HOWE convictions. Believe me, my dear Sir John, Yours sincerely, (Sgd.) Joseph Howe." Sir John could not afford to allow a resignation on such an issue, and instantly sent Howe the following note:— "(Confidential.) December 6th, 1872. My dear Howe:—I have talked matters over with our colleagues and they desire to meet your views as much as possible. You need not prepare your paper, and I will be glad to see you in the morning. Yours always, (Sgd.) John A. Macdonald." Matters were arranged in some way to satisfy Mr. Howe, for he remained in the government until May, 1873. 300 INDEX Acadian, The, 6 Acadia College, 81, 83 Aiken, Thomas B., 10 Acadian Recorder, 210 Albion, The, 182, 183 Allan, Sir Hugh, 138 Allison, Hon. Joseph, 72 Almon, M. B., 86, 87, 236 Angers, Mr., 138 Annand, William, 29; assumes control of the Nova Scotian, 74, 75 ; publishes Morning Chronicle, 75 ; submits resolution supporting one non-sectarian college, 82; financial secretary, 169; action for libel against, 188; delegate to London, 192; head of provincial government, 202; member of repeal delegation, 204; turns against Howe, 208, 209, 217; receives vote of thanks from the legislature, 218 Archibald, A. G., 157, 169, 176, 177, 186, 189, 198, 226 Archibald, S. G. W., 10, 18; prosecutor in libel suit, 24; in the House of Assembly, 35 ; speaker in the House of Assembly, 57; master of the rolls, 74 B Bell, Hugh, 110 Betts, Mr., 141 Blackader, Hugh, 24 Blanchard, Hiram, 186, 198, 202 Blanchard, Jotham, 10, 18 Brassey, Thomas, 129, 141, 144 Bright, John, 204, 206 Buchanan, Hon. Isaac, 190 Burton, Rev. John, 77 Campbell, Sir Colin, lieutenant- governor of Nova Scotia, 45, 58, 62, 64-69; address of Howe to Queen re Sir Colin Campbell, 66 Campbell, Stewart, 187,194 (note), 203 Cartier, Sir Georges, 210 Catholic, The, 162 Chandler, Hon. Mr. 137-140, 232 Chapman, H. S., 50 Charlottetown, convention at, 176- 179 Christian Messenger, 83 Chronicle, Morning, Mr. Annand publishes, 75; Howe contributes to, 90-93; letters concerning Irish Catholic terrorization, 162; McCully as editor, 186; "Botheration Scheme I articles, 186; action for libel, 188; opposed to union, 189; opposed to Howe, 209; letter from Howe to editor of, 210-212 Chronicle, Weekly, 5 "Club, The," 9, 10 301 JOSEPH HOWE Colonies, the government of, 14 Condon, William, 154, 155,164 e< Council of Twelve," 18 Crampton, John F., 151, 152, 159, 160 Crawley, E. A., 77 Cunard, Samuel, 234 D Dalhousie College, 81 Desbarres, W. F., 110; solicitor- general, 111; appointed commissioner, 118 Dickie, R. B., 177 Dodd, E. M., 76, 87 Doyle, Sir Hastings, 213 Doyle, Lawrence O'Connor, 9; in assembly, 35; offered a seat in council, 103, 104; elected for Halifax, 106 ; chosen by Uniacke for administration, 110 Durham, Lord, his report before parliament, 53, 99 E Elgin, Lord, 250 Everett, Edward, 250, 251 Fairbanks, Samuel P., 112 Falkland, Lord, 69, 71; calls on Howe, McNab and Uniacke for reasons for resignation, 87; his struggle with Howe, 89-102; returns to England, 102 Ferguson, John, 77 Fraser, Mr., 121 Fulton, Mr., 142, 143 Gazette, The, 4 302 George, Sir Rupert D., 57; dismissed from post of provincial secretary, 111; challenges Howe, 244 Glenelg, Lord, despatches from, 44, 45 ; letter to, 232 Gray, James F., 24 Gray, John Hamilton, 255 Grigor, Dr., 9 H Halliburton, John C, his duel with Howe, 236-244 Haliburton, Thomas C. (Sam Slick), 9, 231, 267 Halliburton, Sir Brenton, 24, 168 Harnett, Captain, 120 Harvey, Sir John, 61 ; made governor-general, 103; his conduct towards the members, 112, 113; despatch to colonial secretary, 124; death, 143 Hawes, Benjamin, his letter, 131, 132 Henry, W. A., 157, 164, 177 Hill, P. C, 198 Hincks, Sir Francis, 141, 142, 250 Howe, John, father of Joseph, 1; his marriages, 2; king's printer and postmaster-general, early education, 3; character, 4 Howe, Joseph, born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1804, 1; speech at Southampton, 1, 2; tribute to his father, 1, 2, 4; physique, learns printer's trade, 4; composes poetry, enters journalism, 5; edits the Acadian, purchases the Nova Scotian, 6; strenuous work in journalism, 7; tours in INDEX Howe, Joseph—Continued province, 7, 8; marriage, 8; "Rambles" and "The Club," 9; friendship with Haliburton (Sam Slick), 10; writes on political questions, 10, 19; the political problem of self-government, 13; colonial government, 14; large power of lieutenant-governor, limitations of the legislature, 14, 15; discusses politics in his paper, 19; attacks magistracy of Halifax, 20; is sued for libel, 20-30; character, etc., 31-33; in parliament of 1837, 36-44; debate on the resolutions, 41; a disconcerting message, 43; speech in parliament of 1838, 47; advocates reform without bloodshed, 50, 51; dispute re boundaries of New Brunswick and Maine, 52, 53; letters to Lord John Russell, 54, 55; the executive council, 57; his objects, 59; resolution of want of confidence in council, 62, 63; address to Sir Colin Campbell, 65; address to the queen re the recall of Sir Colin Campbell, 66; as a minister, 71; anomalies of government, 73; speaker and collector of customs, 74; gives up Nova Scotian, 74; quarrel with the Baptists, trouble about schools, 76-87; a precipitate election, 85, 86; resigns from government, a resolution of want of confidence, 87; struggle with Lord Falkland, 89-102; contributes to Nova Scotian and Weekly Chronicle, 91, 93; holds meetings throughout Nova Scotia, 94-97 ; speech at Cornwallis, 95; speeches in legislature, 97-99; protest against despatch of Falkland, 100, 101; is offered seat in council by Sir John Harvey, 103, 104; residence in Musquodoboit, 104, 105; election contest, 105- 107; proposes William Young as speaker, 107; chosen on Uniacke's administration, 110; provincial secretary, 111; election of a treasurer changed, 112; position in the government, 113; letter to the Hon. George Moffatt, 114, 115; measures introduced during Uniacke's administration, 115; Halifax convention, 115, 116; editorial in the Nova Scotian re railroads, 117; appointed commissioner, 118; attitude towards building of railways, 119- 123; resolution re railways, 123; sent to England as delegate, 125- 132; speech at Southampton, 127, 128; how the Hampshire Independent regarded the speech, 129; Mr. Hawes's letter, 131, 132; addresses citizens' meetings, 134- 137; his scheme accepted by Lord Elgin and the Canadian government, 137; new election, Howe stands for Cumberland county, 139; Mr. Chandler's speech, 140; his railway bills passed, 141; conference at Fred- ericton, 142; contests election, 142, 143; trip to England to obtain credit for province, introduces measure for construction 303 JOSEPH HOWE Howe, Joseph—Continued of railways, 144; returns to his original proposition, 145; the railway bill, retirement of Uniacke, 144,145 ; retires from government, becomes chief commissioner of railways, 146 ; work as chairman of railway board, 149 ; his attitude towards formation of colonial regiments, 149, 150; sent to the United States to secure recruits, 150-155 ; election contest, 155-157; asked to take Wil- kins's seat, 157, 158; riots on the railway, 157, 158; projected address to Crampton, and Irish Catholic opposition, 159-168; contests Hants county, 168; provincial secretary and premier, 169 ; wearies of provincial office, 169, 170; fishery commissioner, 170; his attitude towards British North America Act, 173-175; British commissioner, 175 ; Howe and confederation, 180-182, 185, 186; position on the Albion offered him, 182, 183; series of articles in the Chronicle, 186; consolidating opponents of confederation, 189; letter to Hon. Isaac Buchanan, 190, 191; delegate to London, 192; feelings of the people towards, 193-195; his reply to Mr. Stairs, 195- 197; his purpose regarding Dominion cabinet, political tour, 199; meeting in Annapolis county, 200-202; campaign against confederation and its result, 202; at head of repeal 304 delegation, 204; meets Tupper in London, England, 205-207; his trying position, 207; letter to the Chronicle, 210-212; presides at anti-confederate caucus, 213, 214; his difficulties, 214- 216; correspondence with Sir John Macdonald, 216; does not receive the vote of thanks, 218 ; the projects of the repeal party, 219-224; enters government of Sir John Macdonald, 225; election in Hants, 226; secretary of state, 226, 227; groundless charge of McDougall, 227; governor of Nova Scotia, 229, 230; sails for England, 231; project for steamship line, 232- 235; attacks salaried class in Nova Scotia, 235; results, 236- 244; Indian commissioner, 245- 247; his opposition to prohibition, 248-250; visits to the United States, 250-254; meeting of tenants and proprietors of Prince Edward Island, 254, 255; Howe and literature, 257-270; his social qualities, 271-282; his children, 282; his death, 284- 285; the feeling of the people, 285; funeral, 285, 286; a conception of his character and work, 286-290 Huntington, Herbert, 47, 51, 56; runs for speakership, 75; supports resolution demanding non- sectarian education, 82; chosen on Uniacke's administration, 110; made finance minister, 112; acts as Howe's second, 236 INDEX Jackson, William, 129, 141, 144 Jeffrey, Hon. T. N., 56 Johnston, J. W., 57, 58, 71, 75 ; goes over to Baptists, 77-87; appoints Almon to the council, 85; has a majority in assembly, 86; defeats resolution of want of confidence, 87; tenacity of office, 89; contest with Howe shifted to Falkland, 90; speech against Howe, 98 ; carries measure for simultaneous polling, 104; resigns with his government, 107; member of railway convention, 121; opposes Howe's measure for construction of railways, 144; attacks the government, 167; retires, 168; appointed attorney-general, 172; speech favouring union in British North America, 174; retires to the bench, 175 ; introduces bill prohibiting sale of intoxicants to the Indians, 247, 248 K Kenny, Sir Edward, 198 Kincaid, Captain, 9 King's College, 81 Legislature, the, 14rl9; its limitations, 14, 15 LeMarchant, Sir Gaspard, 143, 150 Letters of Agricola, 6 Lieutenant-governor, his large powers, 14 Locke, John, 177 London, colonial conference in, 188, 189 Lynch, Peter, 160 Macdonald, Sir John A., 178,198, 209; Tupper arranges that Howe shall meet, 210; Howe bespeaks fair treatment for, 210-212; arrival in Halifax, discussion with Howe, 213; anti-confederate caucus, 213, 214; influence on Howe, and correspondence with him, 215-217; induces Howe to enter his government, 225; his speeches, etc., 257 Mackenzie, William Lyon, 49 MacNab, Sir Allan, 138 McCully, Jonathan, 177, 186 McDonald, Hugh, 192, 219 McDougall, William, 210, 227 McKeagney, James, 203 McNab, Catharine Susan Ann, married to Joseph Howe, 8; her character, 8 McNab, James, enters council, 69; declaration made by, 75; retires from government, 87; offered a seat in council, 103, 104; elected for Halifax, 106; chosen by Uniacke for the administration, 110; made receiver-general, 112 McNab, Captain John, 8 " Melville Island," a poem, 5 Metcalfe, Sir Charles, 55 Miller, William, 179, 188 Minns, William, 5 Mitchell, Peter, 210 Morning Chronicle—See Chronicle 305 JOSEPH HOWE Morrell, William, 182, 183 Morris, John Spry, 241 Murdoch, Beamish, 10, 18 N Nova Scotian, the, 6, 8, 9, 19, 23; Mr. Annand publishes, 75; Howe contributes to, 90-93; Howe's editorial re railroads in, 117; Howe contributes to, 231 Nugent, Richard, 74 Nutting, J. W., 77 Packington, Sir John, 143 "People, The," a letter signed, 20 Perley, M. H., 170 Peto, Sir Morton, 129, 141, 144 Pryor, Henry, 160 refuses imperial guarantee for line through St. John valley, 143; government pledged to go on with railways east and west, 143, 144; Howe's measure for construction of, 144, 145; provision made to extend road from Truro to Pictou, 147; riots, 157, 158 "Rambles," a series of letters, 8, 9 Ritchie, John W., 255 Ritchie, Thomas, 58 Robie, Hon. Simon Bradstreet, 56 Robinson, Major, 119 Rose, Sir John, 215 Russell, Lord John, 53-55, 60, 61; his ministry resigns, he resumes office, 130 Quebec Scheme, 178, 185, 187 Quincy, Josiah, 250 Railways, report of Lord Durham on, 118; from Halifax to Windsor, 118; company to build Intercolonial, 118,119; Robinson Line, 119; European and North American Railway, 121; convention at Portland, 121; scheme to unite New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Maine by rail, 121-125; railway magnates and Howe, 129; Canadian government accepts Howe's scheme for Intercolonial Railway, 137; railway policy shattered, railway bills passed, 141; conference at Fredericton, 142; government 306 Self-government, 13 Shields, Andrew, 10 Smith, Albert J., 179 Smith, H. W., 204, 218 Spike, James, 5 Stairs, W. J., 192, 193 Stewart, Alexander, 18; in the House of Assembly, 35; deserts to the government, 41; delegate to England, 52, 56 Stratheden, Lord, 204 Thompson, George, 10 Thomson, Poulett, 68 Tilley, Sir Leonard, 179, 187, 207, 209 Tobin, Michael, 110, 164 Troop, J. C, 204, 218 INDEX Tapper, Sir Charles, 80; contests Cumberland county with Howe, 155-157; encourages breach between Howe and the Catholics, 163, 164; provincial secretary, 167 ; " Retrenchment Scheme," 171; assumes the leadership, 172; publishes quotations from Howe's speeches favouring British North America Act, 173; scheme for Maritime union, 175-180; invites Howe to become delegate to the Charlottetown convention, 176; advocates confederation, 186-189; forms provincial government, 198; resigns his right to a seat in cabinet, 198; elected to represent confederate cause, 202; alone in opposition, 203; plans to undo anti-confederates, 203, 204; goes to London, England, 205-207; confides in Mr. Tilley, 209; his magazine articles, etc., 258 U Uniacke, James Boyle, 35 ; resists Howe's plans for securing responsible government, 49; Howe's chief antagonist, 57 ; resigns his seat as executive councillor, 63; joins Howe in the struggle for responsible government, 64; given a seat in Lord Falkland's council, 69; runs for speakership, 74; retires from government, 87; moves resolution of want of confidence, 97-99; called to form an administration, 107; chooses his colleagues, 110; attorney-general, 111; measures introduced, 115; member of railway convention, 121; commissioner of Crown lands, 145 Union of all the provinces, 178-182, 185-192 Union of 1841, 53 W Wilkins, Lewis M., 52, 66, 145, 146, 152, 157 Young, George R., 6, 99, 100; offered a seat in council, 103; declines, 104; elected for Halifax, 106; chosen for administration formed by Uniacke, 110; resigns his ministry, 132 Young, John, 35; proposes conciliatory resolutions in parliament of 1837, 38, 39 Young, Sir William, 51, 56; member of executive council, 75; speaker, 75; again proposed as speaker, 107; called to form an administration, 146; his government sustained, 157 ; accepts the office of chief justice, 169 307 Sect That Flourished In Halifax At One Time Has Passed Out Of Existence "Sandemanians" Are Never Heard of in This Day—Origin Dates Back Many Years-—Titus Smith Presided Over Local Congregation in 1785—Haipfany Followers. ^^\KW& &fJ&MI $» tfi&Q ^nationa^ljirch established by the ^IJITE a number or years ago|iaws of earthly kingdoms is anti- QUITE a number ol years there existed in the Halifax and Dartmouth district a religious sect "Sandemanfans" which is now extinct, or rather nothing has been heard of it for some years. The following extract was taken from the history of Christ Church, Dartmouth, written by Canon C. W. Vernon: BORN IN SCOTLAND H1 "«*T""HE Sandemanians owed their I origin to John Glas, who was born at Auchtermuchty, Fife, Scotland, in 1695, where his father was a parish minister. Hence they are also called "Glasites." He was ordained by the Presbytery of Dundee, but soon developed his Ispecial views and formed a society i 'separate from the multitude./ \ numbering nearly one hundred and drawn from his own and neighboring parishes. These pledged them fiplves 'to join together in the Christian ' nrofession to follow Christ the Lord as the rierWeous- ness of His people, to walk together in brotherly love, and in the duties of it, in subjection to Mr. Glas as their overseer in the Lord, to observe the ordinances of the Load's Supper once a month, and to submit themselves to the Lord's law for removing offence*-. 1 (Matt. XVIII. 15^20)/. He held that there was no warrant in the | New Testament for a national j church, that the magistrate as-such (has' no function in the church, that national covenants are without scriptural grounds, that the true Reformation cannot be carried out by political and secular weapons but by the word and spirit of Christ only. He was suspended and finally deposed by his presbytery. In the course of the investigation he affirmed that 'every Christian in its constitution and persecuting in its spirit/ WAS NOT DESERTED IS followers continued to adhere to him, forming the Glasite congregation. He removed to Perth, where he was joined by Robert Sandeman, who became his son-in-law, and was eventually recognized as the leader and principal exponent of his views. From the fact that he introduced the "agape" or love feast and celebrated it as the common meal with broth, his congregation was nicknamed the 'kail kirk/ "The sect spread in both England and America. In practise they aimed at a complete conformity to primitive Christianity. Eld-^ ers or bishops were chosen without regard to previous education, and engaged in other occupations, a second marriage disqualified an elder, the Lord's Supper was observed weekly and a love feast every Sunday morning and evening service, the washing of feet 'and the kiss of peace were for a while observed, they abstained strightly 'from things strangled and from bl^d/ and the accumulation oX wealth was regarded as ung scriptural and improper. The■■&$£ Sandemanian Church in America, ceased to exist in 1810. )Jjm In 1785, Titus Smith, a Harvard graduate presided over the congregations then founded in Halifax. He settled upon a farm at Preston, Dartmouth. The older Messrs. Piers, of the North West Arm. Halifax, were members of this interesting body.
Includes an index Clipping of news article found adhered to other side of last page with a handwritten date as May 10, 1930 Other copies : http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/317628722 Part of: John Ridington's Personal Library Collection
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Original Format: University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special Collections. FC2322.1.H69 L65 1906
Howe, Joseph, 1804-1873
Nova Scotia--Politics and government--1763-1867
Joseph Howe
Text