The Honorable Mr. Fraser, the leader of the Provincial Government had been selected as the candidate of the Dominion Government, for the House of Commons in the County of York, and as the Secretary, the Honorable Mr. Wedderburn was about to be appointed a County Court Judge, a reorganization of the Government became necessary in the spring of 1882. Among the members who were supporters of the Government for seven years in the Legislature, and by means of his newspaper, the " Daily Telegraph " was Mr. William Elder. He naturally expected to be consulted in the formation of a new Government, and great was his surprise, when on the 25th of May, 1882, he received a telegram from Fredericton, announcing that a new Premier had been chosen, and a new Government formed without the slightest reference to him. The new Premier was the Honorable Daniel L. Hanington, who had been a member of the previous Government without office. The Hon. P. A. Landry who had been Chief Commissioner of the Board of Works in the previous Government, became Provincial Secretary. The Honorable Michael Adams still retained his position as Surveyor-General. The Honorable G. I. Colter became Chief Commissioner of Public Works, and the Honourable E. McLeod, Attorney-General. The members of the Government without office, were the Honorable Robert Marshall, the Honorable William E. Perley, and the Honourable Robert Young, who was President of the Council. Later in the year, the Honourable F. E. Morton was appointed Solicitor-General, on the death of the Honourable J. H. Crawford, who had filled the office of Solicitor General for three years. The election was held on the 15th of June, 1882, and was vigorously contested. It was a Conservative house, twenty-two members being of that complexion, while eighteen announced themselves as Liberals. As the principal members of the Government were Conservatives, the result of the election must have reassured them, and there was no intimation of any trouble prior to the meeting of the Legislature on the 22nd of February 1883. It was stated by members of the Government that at a caucus which was held immediately after the meeting of the Legislature, there were members who attended and assured the Government of their support, but two days later, when Mr. Blair, in his capacity of leader of the Opposition, moved a vote of want of confidence in the Government, it was carried by a narrow majority, and on the 26th of February the Government resigned. The Lieutenant-Governor having called on Mr. Blair to form a new Government, the following Administration was sworn in:

Honorable A. G. Blair, Premier and Attorney-General, Honorable William Elder, Provincial Secretary, Honorable Robert J. Ritchie, Solicitor-•General, Honorable James Mitchell, Surveyor-General, Honorable P. G. Ryan, Chief Commissioner of Public Works, Honorable Thomas S. Gillespie, President of the Council, and the Honorable Archibald Harrison, Honorable G. S. Turner, and the Honorable Dr. Vail without a portfolio. This Government dated from the 3rd of March, 1883, and it was on the same date twenty-five years later that it was finally defeated, after many changes of personnel and five changes of Premiers.

The Blair Government of 1883, included six Liberals and three Conservatives, but it received the support of many Conservatives in the House and was looked upon as a non-party Government although the Premier was counted as a Liberal. The controversies which arose out of the Government of Mr. Blair and his successors, are too recent to be dealt with in a contemporaneous History. Mr. Blair continued Premier until July, 1896, when he resigned to enter the Dominion Cabinet as Minister of Railways. His resignation from that office and his appointment to the position of head of the Railway Commission, which he resigned in 1904, and his death January 25th, 1907, are too recent to require more than a passing mention. Mr. Blair was succeeded as Premier by the Hon. James Mitchell who also became Attorney General, having previously held the offices of Surveyor General and Provincial Secretary. On the formation of this Government the Hon. L. J. Tweedie became Provincial Secretary, the Hon. H. R. Emmerson Chief Commissioner, Hon. A. T. Dunn.

Surveyor General and the Hon. A. S. White,. Solicitor General. In June, 1897, the Hon. C. H. LaBillois was appointed Commissioner for Agriculture. Hon. Mr. Mitchell died in December, 1897, and the Hon. H. R. Emmerson became Premier. The only change in the offices arising from that, being that the Hon. A. S. White became Attorney General, while the office of Solicitor General was not filled. Mr. Emmerson continued Premier until August 31st, 1900, and was succeeded by the Hon. Mr. Tweedie. The principal matters affecting the constitution of the Province which were passed during the administration of the Hon. Mr. Blair, were the Act changing the qualification of the electors and candidates for the House of Assembly, and the Act abolishing the Legislative Council. Perhaps to this ought to be added, the Act for the uniting of the Cities of St. John and Portland, and giving a new form of Government to the united City. A change in the qualification of electors and candidates had long been demanded but the conservative instinct of the Legislature resisted any change for many years. The first act on the subject which obtained the sanction of the home authorities, was based on the ownership of land to a certain value, by the voter, and of property in land worth £200 by the elector. At the time of Confederation, the qualification of a voter was to be taxed on real estate or personal property, or on both combined or an income to a certain amount. In the City of St. John, a person who desired to vote on income, had to pay taxes, under the assessment bill then in force, to the amount of about $25 a year. The new assessment law introduced and passed by the Hon. George E. King, reduced the rate of taxation and income, but left the amount which was necessary to obtain a vote as it was before. In 1889 Mr. Blair introduced a bill which abolished the property qualification required of members, and practically gave a vote, based on manhood suffrage, to every resident of a constituency, who had lived in it for a year. This Liberal Act was agreed to by members on both sides of the house and passed the Legislative Council. An amendment to it which was moved by Dr. A. A. Stockton and supported by the Hon. Mr. Emmerson, giving a franchise to widows and spinsters who were the owners of property, was withdrawn. The only defect in the bill as passed, was the provision which gave the right to vote to owners of real estate in counties in which they did not reside. This was amended by subsequent legislation passed when the Hon. Mr. Tweedie was Premier and now the principle prevails without question, of one man, one vote, in all Provincial elections.

Many attempts had been made to abolish the Legislative Council or to effect changes in its constitution, such as would make it more efficient and more amenable to public opinion. For some time prior to the year 1891, persons appointed to the Legislative Council were obliged to give a pledge to vote for its abolition, when the time came to introduce a measure for that purpose. At the session of 1891, the Hon. Mr. Blair, introduced a bill of six sections, to abolish the Council. In his speech, when introducing it, he explained these sections as follows:

Section 1, declares the abolition of that body.

Section 2, repeals Chapter 3 of the Consolidated Statutes. Of the constitution of the Legislative Council.

Section 3, declares that all legislative powers, jurisdiction and authority, within the Province which, under the British North America Act or any other law, charter, ordinance or constitutional enactment has heretofore been vested in the Lieutenant Governor, Legislative Council and Assembly, shall be, and are hereby vested in and exercisable by the Lieutenant Governor and the Assembly, to be hereafter designated the Legislative Assembly, and such powers may and shall be as fully exercised and enjoyed by the Lieutenant Governor and Legislative Assembly as the same are now exercised and enjoyed by the Lieutenant Governor, Legislative Council and Assembly.

Section 4, provides that all bills passed by the Legislative Assembly shall become law when sanctioned by the Lieutenant Governor, in the manner heretofore accustomed, and all enactments shall be in the name of the Lieutenant Governor and Legislative Assembly.

Section 5, provides that all persons who are at present members of the Council shall be entitled to retain for life the honors and dignities pertaining to such membership, as fully as if this act had not been passed.

Section 6, provides that the present Clerk of the Council shall continue to be paid during life the same salary he now receives by warrant in the usual manner and the present assistant clerk shall be paid annually the sum of $400 during his life."

This bill was supported by the Hon. Mr. Hanington, the leader of the Opposition and was agreed to. The only material amendment passed by the Council was one bringing the bill into operation at the dissolution of the existing House of Assembly. In a subsequent speech on the subject made in the House of Assembly, the Hon. Mr. Blair said:

"Believing the time had arrived and that the present session was an opportune one for the purpose, upon the names of the appointees being selected and determined upon by the Government, I personally, by letter, communicated with many if not all of them on the subject. I stated to them in my communication with reference to their appointment that the policy of the Government was to abolish the Council, and if they would accept an appointment under those circumstances, I asked them to return me with their signatures, the communication which I enclosed. This was the reply or the formal pledge which was returned me in those cases:

To the Attorney General and Leader of the Government.

Sir: Having been notified that the Government has it in contemplation to ask my acceptance of a seat in the Legislative Council and to appoint me thereto at an early date, I beg to assure you that in case my appointment shall take place I will .accept the same upon the understanding that I will at all times vote for any measure or measures introduced and promoted by the Government for the purpose of bringing about the abolition of the Council, and I hereby pledge myself to vote accordingly. "

The union of St. John and Portland was accomplished in the year 1889. The City of St. John as originally founded, had a very limited area, not more than 800 acres. The principal portion of it was on the east side of the harbor but a portion of it, containing about five thousand inhabitants on the West side. To the North of the city was Portland, and to the East, Simonds. Portland was originally a parish, and for many years was under parish Government. As it received the overflow from the city of St. John, it presently became populous, and then was incorporated as a town and afterwards as a city. Thus there were two cities at the mouth of the River St. John, one of them containing 2d, 127 people and the other, Portland, with 15,226 inhabitants. As these two cities were so closely joined together that no one could tell when he had crossed the line between them, it seemed but natural and proper that they should be united. In 1888, an Act was passed to authorize the appointment of a commission to enquire and report with a view to the union of the cities of St. John and Portland. This commission, of which Mr. Wilson, of York, was chairman, reported at the following session of the Legislature, and the bill which they had prepared to effect the union of the two cities, was before the House on the 16th April, the Legislature having been held for a week or more for the purpose of disposing of this necessary work. As the electors of both cities had voted in favor of union, the only obstacle to its immediate passage was, the claims made for the people of Carleton, or the West side, that there should be a clause in it providing for a free ferry, or a bridge across the harbor at Navy Island. The Legislature refused to pass such an amendment to the bill, and it was agreed to as originally introduced. There can be no doubt that its effect has been very beneficial and that it has given the city of St. John an importance which it would not have otherwise acquired.

The following extract of Mr. Wilson's speech in introducing the Union Bill will convey some idea of the difficulties involved in the measure:

"The difficulty the commission met with was not that of uniting St. John and Portland — it was that of practically uniting different portions of the same city. When they entered upon their inquiry, they found they not only had to unite the two cities but in fact had to unite three cities. They found that under the provisions of the act of settlement passed in 1853, a strange condition of affairs existed between the two portions of St. John, and that the only bond of union between them, was that the representatives of both legislated in the same chamber, that they were presided over by the same mayor and crossed the harbor in the same ferry-boat. Until he inquired into it, he had no idea that such an anomalous state of affairs existed. The commission found it necessary to enter exhaustively into the financial affairs of the two-sides of the harbor, and after making careful inquiry and examining numerous witnesses, as well as the public accounts, they had reached the conclusion that St. John west had been favored in that settlement, as she had obtained the right to raise her revenues from public lands, to such an extent that she was enabled to keep down her taxation to $1.04. The commission had felt that it was absolutely necessary that some compensation should be given to the people of Carleton for the increased taxation they felt bound to impose upon them, if the union was to be made a success. That was the part of the inquiry they had found most difficult. Calculations were gone into to see what the burdens of the two cities had been, and what they would have been, provided they had been the same for the past five years, and the commission reached the conclusion that the taxation of that portion of the city of St. John which lay on the west would be raised from $1.04 up to $1.31 — that is, the commission had found it necessary to-impose upon the people on the West Side, an extra burden. They found that the slight difference existing between Portland and St. John east per $100 was not sufficient to call for any particular recommendation, so far as Portland was concerned, but they did recommend that the sum of $60,000 should be expended upon the great thoroughfare between Portland bridge and Indiantown. They looked upon that as an expenditure, not only in the interest of Portland but of St. John, and also of the people of the valley of the St. John; furthermore, taking into consideration that almost all the* building lots of St. John were taken up, the commission came to the conclusion that if any large increase of population — for which all would hope — took place, it would be necessary for the people to spread out upon the hills of Portland and build for themselves residences there. They also would be interested in the improvement of this great thoroughfare. And still another consideration which induced them to adopt that course was, that the annual expenditure made upon that street was largely in excess of what would be required to pay the interest on the amount expended upon it. So that it would not only be a great benefit to the whole people, but would be an economical arrangement as well.

"Returning to the subject of remuneration to th& people on the West side for the extra taxation levied upon them, Mr. Wilson said it was recommended that the sum of $ 60,000 be spent upon the streets and sewers of Carleton within a period of five years, which he thought would amply compensate them for what they were giving up. In order that honorable members might clearly understand just what importance to attach to the superior position which the people of Carleton claimed to occupy, they ought to take into consideration the fact, clearly brought out in the report, that the streets of St. John East had been hewn out of the solid rock and the work of grading them had cost immense sums of money, and they were now about complete and required a very small annual expenditure to maintain them in repair. With reference to sewers, the evidence of Mr. Smith and Mr. Murdock showed that the sum of $83,000 would entirely complete the sewerage system of St. John East; the sewers of St. John East were constructed scientifically and of such material that the future outlay would be small. For the great efficiency of the services, the East side had piled up a considerable indebtedness and while, on the other side of the harbor, the people claimed exceptional privileges, yet, according to the testimony of their own men, their streets were in a disgraceful condition, and they had no sewers worthy of the name. By neglecting their streets and sewers in this way, and by diverting the revenue made theirs by law from the common lands and fisheries, they have been able to keep down their taxation and occupy the superior financial position they claim to possess. That position was occupied because of the fact they had been willing to put up with such streets and sewers as the people of St. John East would not tolerate at all. He thought if the sewers and streets of Carleton were placed in anything like the condition of efficiency possessed by those of the east side, the taxation there would be more than it was on the eastern side of the harbor. He ventured the assertion that if St. John and Carleton had, in the past, really been under one Government, under one control as to streets and sewers, that these services would not be in the bad condition they were in to-day, for the Common Council would undoubtedly have been actuated by a desire to see all portions of the city receiving the same benefits in regard to these services. The extra 27 cents of which the Carleton people complained, would not realize more than the necessities of the public service on that side of the harbor absolutely demanded. While they would be called upon to pay more under the union, at the same time they could rely upon receiving more. If this question was to be discussed from a sectional point of view— from the point of view that the people on the East side would treat those on the West unfairly and unequally — it was impossible to discuss it at all. He was satisfied that Carleton need not entertain the slightest apprehension that she would not be dealt with in a generous spirit. The commission, whether they were given credit for it or not, had given every consideration and bent every energy, to make the union a union not only in law but in fact, and they felt that the expenditure of $60,000 given to the people of Carleton was sufficient to amply compensate them for the extra taxation they were called upon to pay. It was not true that this was all Carleton was going to get. She would be entitled and would, without any question, receive the proportion of the revenues which her valuation bore to the valuation of the whole city.

"The commission had also inquired as to the best means of communication between the two sides of the harbor. They found that the revenue of the present ferry was about $18,000, while the expenditure was $21,000. The commission had concluded that for a bridge across the harbor, •costing about $300,000, the interest to pay on that amount, would not be as great a burden for the people to bear as the present cost of the ferry service. Besides there was no comparison between the two methods of accommodation. Why, it might be asked, did not the commission recommend a bridge in their report? To that he would reply, that the act forming the commission, had not conferred upon them the power to make the surveys and inquiries that would be necessary, to arrive at an understanding of the cost of that work. If the commission could have ascertained that such a bridge could be built for a reasonable sum, without doubt he thought that provision would have been embodied in the report, but for the reason stated, no recommendation was made, and it was thought better that the power should be left to the Common Council to provide for the necessary surveys and information, upon which they could intelligently deal with that question. "