|
The political struggles
through which the Eastern Provinces were to pass followed mainly upon
the same lines as those in Canada, with the important difference that in
the former there was no appeal to physical force. Party feeling ran high
down by the sea, yet in the end all crucial differences were adjusted
under constitutional forms. There was no rebellion there, no arbitrary
suspension of provincial autonomy. Taking the three provinces in turn it
is natural to begin with Nova Scotia. Perhaps the first note of the
impending storm – the first observable ripple upon the surface –
appeared in connection with the Council. This somewhat anomalous body
combined in itself not only legislative, but executive and judicial,
authority. Its president was the Chief of Justice of the Province; it
advised the Governor as modern Cabinets do; and it also constituted a
second Chamber. Moreover, its doors were closed against the public, and
results only were made known by Black Rod at the bar of the Assembly. So
early as 1834, Mr. Alexander Stewart had brought the subject before the
House, but nothing was done at that time. In 1836, however, a general
election took place, and now the Opposition commanded a majority.
Messrs. Joseph Howe and William Annand were returned for Halifax, and
found themselves side by side with a compact and resolute party.
The Council was at once
the subject of an attack courteously conducted. A resolution was adopted
complaining first, of the constitution of that body, and secondly, of
the secret character of its deliberations. The Upper House affected to
regard the Assembly’s action as a breach of its privileges, whereupon
the veteran Reformer, John Young ("Agricola"), of whom mention
has already been made, submitted a motion in which the House disclaimed
any intention of wounding the Council’s dignity. It was certainly high
time that some change should be made. Two family connections, according
to Mr. Howe, embraced five seats in that body, and five others were
co-partners in a single mercantile firm. A dead-lock ensued which
resulted in an appeal on both sides to the Home Government. Shortly
after, the Council opened its doors to the public.
Another matter of vital
importance was the necessity of complete legislative control over the
casual and territorial revenues of Nova Scotia. The Assembly properly
insisted upon the power of the purse-strings. The quit-rents belonging
to the Crown had already been surrendered conditionally. In 1838,
despatches from Lord Glenelg, Colonial Secretary, were received, in
which the Home Government surrendered all the revenues, ordered the
removal of the Chief Justice from the Council, and sanctioned, though
with reluctance, the separation of the Executive from the Legislative
Council. The Governor to some extent thwarted the Assembly by his
nominations to the Executive, and the result was the commencement of a
heated agitation for responsible government. Reference has already been
made to Lord John Russell’s despatch to Sir John Harvey,
Lieutenant~Governor of New Brunswick. Apart from Lord Glenelg’s
admissions, it was taken to be a complete acknowledgment of Colonial
autonomy. The Nova Scotian Governor, however, persistently ignored the
instructions from Downing Street, and therefore, nothing remained for it
in 1840 but to buckle on armour for the strife.
The efforts to secure
responsible government in the Maritime Provinces had received a powerful
stimulus from recent events in Canada. The mission of Lord Durham had
roused public men to action, and a delegation waited on His Lordship
from the Provinces, at the head of which was the Hon. Mr. Johnston, of
Halifax. They had been invited to do so; and, during the interview,
unfolded their complaints. Mr. (now Sir) William Young placed in the
Earl’s hands a formal statement of the case. The chief subjects dealt
with were the Crown Lands Administration, American encroachments on the
fisheries, the enormous expense of the Customs, the extravagant salaries
of officials, [The Provincial Secretary had 1,000 pounds sterling,
besides holding the lucrative office of Registrar of Deeds. – Campbell’s
History of Nova Scotia, p. 326.] and the composition of the
lately severed Executive and Legislative Councils. It will be observed
that the last topic touched the vital question upon the solution of
which depended the practical autonomy of the Province. International
disputes apart, the whole matter resolved itself into this: Were the
lands and revenues of the colony to be the property of the people,
controlled by their representatives and administered by Ministers
possessing the confidence of those representatives?
There were two
difficulties in the way of responsible government: first, the
vacillating conduct of the Colonial office, and secondly, the perverse
action of particular Governors. The changes which occurred, from time to
time, in Downing Street, were incompatible with consistency. Even the
same Minister not unfrequently altered his views and gave contrary
instructions at different times. It was Lord Glenelg who, in 1837, first
enjoined the selection of public servants acceptable to the
majority. But Sir Colin Campbell systematically disregarded the mandate.
[The writer was led into the error, by trusting to a current history, of
confounding this ruler with Lord Clyde. There were, in fact, two
distinct Colin Campbells, and had nothing in common but the name and the
martial profession.] In October, 1839, Lord John Russell, contrary to
his prior action in 1836, clearly laid down the principles of
responsible government in a despatch to Sir John Harvey,
Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. Messrs. Howe, Young, and the other
Reformers of Nova Scotia, rationally contended that this definition of
colonial policy should be held to apply to all the Lower Provinces,
although only one was directly referred to. The Lieutenant-Governor,
however, kept on in the even tenor of his way, in spite of remonstrances
from the Assembly. The year 1840 witnessed the culmination of the
struggle. A series of resolutions, embodied in an address, were passed,
in which the necessity for a radical change in the constitution of the
Executive Council was insisted upon. Mr. Uniacke, the only Minister who
was acceptable to the House, resigned. Sir Colin, however, was not to be
moved, and nothing remained to be done, but to solicit his recall. This
extreme step was adopted with reluctance, because personally the
Lieutenant-Governor was liked by men of all parties; yet, as a
necessity, it was taken firmly, though with studied care and moderation.
In March, a sort of
pitched battle was fought before the electors of the town and county of
Halifax. The contest was unequal. On one side were Messrs. Howe, Annand,
Forrester and Bell, and on the other, a speaker of great power,
Solicitor-General Johnston. All of these men, with the distinguished
exception of Joseph Howe, were, we believe, Scots by birth or
extraction. Ten days after, the Colonial Secretary broadly propounded
the doctrine that the majority ought to be represented in the Council.
At the same time, that fatal want of clearness in decision,
characteristic of Downing Street, seemed to temper its counsels. In
England, the entire Ministry must necessarily retire, unless tempted to
try the hazard of a general election, so soon as it loses the confidence
of the House. The old traditional notion that, in some sort of sense,
the Governor occupied a better position than the Crown still haunted the
minds of Colonial Secretaries, and served to prolong the controversy,
and, in a mischievous way, to throw obstacles in the way of a foregone
conclusion, as will speedily be seen; for the end was not yet.
Meanwhile Sir Colin
Campbell had been recalled, [A pleasing incident is related of his last
levee. Mr. Howe attended, and, after a bow, was retiring, when Sir Colin
stretched out his hand, with the remark, "We must not part in that
way, Mr. Howe; we fought our differences of opinion honestly; you have
acted like a man of honour. Here is my hand." Notwithstanding the
heat of the struggle, the bluff soldier withdrew from the scene, with
undiminished popularity as a courteous, hospitable and generous man.]
and was succeeded by Viscount Falkland. His Excellency proceeded at once
to act in obedience to the views recently expressed by the Colonial
Secretary in Parliament. It seems difficult to reconcile the Ministry’s
position with any tenable or workable theory of Responsible Government.
The Executive was still to be chosen according to the Governor’s will;
but he was to allow the party of the majority some representation in it,
when vacancies occurred. The idea that there should be a homogeneous
Cabinet, selected by the leader of the majority, would have been
rejected at once. In September, 1840, the Council was entirely composed
of the anti-Reform party, and, by all constitutional usage, should have
been dismissed en masse. Instead of getting rid of them and
giving carte-blanche for the formation of a Ministry to Mr. Howe,
Lord Falkland cashiered four members, retained the rest, and appointed
Messrs. Howe and McNab as representatives of the majority in the
Council. That this was a measure of justice may be admitted; but that
Responsible Government was firmly established by seating two Reformers
side by side with six opponents can hardly be conceded.
A dissolution of the
House left the balance of parties much as before. Mr. Howe was elected
Speaker, but resigned in 1843 to become Collector of Colonial Revenues.
Mr. (now Sir W.) Young succeeded him in the chair. During this year
pseudo-responsible government was put to a crucial test. A majority of
the Council were of the old type, and, being alarmed at the growing
agitation on educational and other subjects, precipitated a dissolution.
Messrs. Howe, Uniacke and McNab, who had protested against this step, at
once resigned. The immediate cause of their secession, however, was the
appointment of Mr. Almon to a seat in the Cabinet. This was clearly a
reactionary move. Lord Falkland claimed perfect freedom in the matter of
official selections, and strange to say his recalcitrant advisers appear
to have explicitly admitted the claim. The reason assigned for Mr. Almon’s
nomination was that, it would demonstrate His Excellency’s confidence
in the Premier, Mr. Johnston, who was the new Minister’s
brother-in-law. Not a word about the confidence of the Assembly. In
February, 1844, the new House met and Mr. Wm. Young was promptly
reelected Speaker. Notwithstanding this proof of Opposition strength,
the Governor carried his point by a majority of two or three votes.
[They appear to have managed matters strangely in those days. Mr. Howe
left the Cabinet to become Speaker, and then went back again apparently,
although there is no evidence before us that he did so. He then left the
Chair to become a Minister. Mr. Young succeeded him, and stepped down in
turn to be Minister; resigned and again became Speaker. Moreover,
according to Mr. Campbell (History, p. 353), he actually opposed
the Address while Speaker in the Parliament of 1844.]
Lord Falkland, of whose
good intentions there can be no doubt, then took the extraordinary step
of requesting, through an intermediary, the return of the ex-Ministers
to office. But, although he avowed himself desirous of reforming the
Government, he required of the three gentlemen a pledge that they would
abstain from agitation, and further that they should renounce the notion
that the Governor stood in a similar position to the Sovereign so far as
the House was concerned. ["He also insisted as a condition of
acceptance, on an express disavowal of the theory advanced in the
Assembly that the representative of the Sovereign stood in the same
relation to the representative of the people of the colony which he
governed that the monarch does to the House of Commons in
England."] In other words he, His Excellency, desired first to
muzzle the three ex-Ministers, and to extort an express recantation of
the first principle of Responsible Government. Of course, Messrs. Howe,
Uniacke and McNab at once declined office upon such humiliating
conditions. There was thus a Metcalfe struggle, on a smaller scale in
Nova Scotia, and the parallel was farther made good by an experimental
tour of Lord Falkland in search of popular backing. The result was not
quite satisfactory, but His Excellency could plead a set-off in the
shape of an approving despatch from the Colonial Secretary. In August,
1846, after a prolonged controversy of a personal character with Mr.
Howe, which was not conducted with much dignity on either side, Lord
Falkland retired, and was succeeded by Sir John Harvey.
The new
Lieutenant-Governor saw clearly the unsatisfactory position of affairs,
and naturally inclined to that facile expedient—the dernier ressort
of perplexed viceroys—a coalition. He had extremely rational views
of his own about the composition of the Council; but, unfortunately,
they were not acceptable to at least one of the parties concerned. Both
were nearly equal on a division in the House, but Sir John Harvey would
not hear of equal representation in the Cabinet. At the same time he
desired something like unanimity at the Board, and, therefore, objected
to the notion that the policy of the Government should be decided upon
by a majority of votes. Moreover he was a sort of Civil Service reformer
in his way, and advocated a fair disposal of public patronage,
irrespective of party. A political millennium of that sort, however, was
not to be; and is to all appearance as far away now as it was
thirty-five years ago. One seat in the Cabinet, and the
Solicitor-Generalship were thrown to the malcontents; but, as might have
been expected, were at once declined. The Opposition leaders urged that
they could not be fairly asked to act with men in whose general policy
they had no confidence; and suggested an immediate appeal to the people.
A new election was
ordered, therefore, and the House met in January, 1848. Mr. William
Young was again elected Speaker by a majority of six votes, and on the
Address, a vote of non-confidence in the Ministry passed by twenty-eight
to twenty.one. Mr. J. W. Johnston, the Premier, a man of great ability
and weight, at once resigned. With this vote, the old colonial system,
which had died hard, here as elsewhere, finally passed to its rest, to
be embalmed in the museum of historical antiquities.
His Excellency sent, not
for Mr. Howe, but Mr. Uniacke, who at once formed a Liberal
administration which included the obnoxious chief, as well as Messrs.
Bell, McNab and George R. Young, who formed the Scottish element.
Hence-forward, for some years, politics ran smoothly enough. The people
of Nova Scotia, having secured popular government, settled down to the
work of material progress. In 1850, Mr. Johnston made a slight diversion
by proposing a string of resolutions, asserting that as the Colonial
Office had transformed the constitution, England ought pay the Governor’s
salary; and that the Legislative Council should be made elective. The
purpose of the latter resolution was eminently conservative beneath the
surface, because it aimed at the establishment of a counterpoise to the
supremacy of the Assembly as definitively established, under Responsible
Government. The House, however, was not in the humour for organic
changes, and the resolutions were negatived on a vote of twenty-six to
fourteen.
In 1849, Halifax
celebrated its centenary. Mr. Beamish Murdoch, the historian, of the
Province, whose name sufficiently proclaims his nationality, was the
orator of the day. During the political lull of the next few years, the
public men of Nova Scotia devoted their attention to the improvement of
their educational system, the development of mines, the construction of
railways, and the consolidation of the laws. The last of these
undertakings was entrusted to a commission, on which Messrs. Young
(subsequently Chief Justice of the Province), J. W. Ritchie (now Chief
Justice of the Dominion Supreme Court), assisted by James Thomson, were
of Scottish extraction. Attempts to secure Imperial aid to an
Intercolonial Railway, which promised well at the outset, failed, on the
accession to power of Lord Derby, because the Home Government thought
the proposed line too close to the frontier. The fishery question again
excited attention, and the citizens of Halifax, under the presidency of
Mr. Andrew McKinlay, the Mayor, protested against any concession of Nova
Scotian rights. Meanwhile Sir John Harvey had died at his post, in
March, 1852.
The Government continued
in power until after the general elections of 1858, which materially
altered the relative strength of parties. Messrs. Howe and Fulton were
defeated in Cumberland by Dr. Tupper and Mr. A. McFarlane, and in the
following year a vote of non-confidence was carried by twenty-eight to
twenty-one. Mr. Johnston was once more called upon to form a Cabinet,
with Dr. Tupper, and amongst his colleagues, were Messrs. Stayley Brown
and John McKinnon, John Campbell and Charles J. Campbell, all of
Scottish birth or origin. The new Government went vigorously to work,
especially upon the coal question, which was at last settled by the
vesting of all the mines under Provincial control. The Assembly was
dissolved in 1859, and the Opposition claimed a majority. When the House
met in January, 1860, a dispute at once arose regarding the eligibility
of some of the members. The Attorney-General then proposed Mr. Wade, as
Speaker, and Mr. Young nominated Mr. Stewart Campbell, the latter being
elected by a majority of three. The next step was a motion of want of
confidence, which was carried by a majority of two. The Government,
however, contended that five or six members were ineligible, because at
the time of the election they held offices of profit and emolument under
the Crown. Ministers, therefore, advised a dissolution, which the
Lieutenant-Governor declined to grant. A change of administration was
the result, and Messrs. Young and Howe found themselves once more in
power. In 1863 another embarrassment took place after a general
election, and the Johnston party once more took office. In this Cabinet
were the two Johnstons, James McNab, J. McKinnon and Alexander McFarlane,
whilst Jas. McDonald was Commissioner of Railways.
The first measure of
importance was the Education Act of 1864 introduced by Dr. Tupper and
passed into law. Thence-forward the burning issue was Confederation. Mr.
Howe had previously moved in the matter, but without effect; but now in
1864, the Government despairing of a general union of the B. N. A.
Provinces, proposed a meeting of delegates to arrange for a union of
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. The legislatures
agreed upon this course, and the conference met at Charlottetown on the
1st of September. They were joined there by Mr. (now Sir) J. A.
Macdonald, Hon. George Brown, Messrs. Galt, Cartier, McGee, Langevin,
Macdougall, and Campbell, from Canada. The larger project now engaged
the public mind, and the result was a second meeting at Quebec in
October, whereat the basis of Confederation was agreed upon. But the end
was not yet. At this time New Brunswick stood in the way, for that
Province had, at the polls, pronounced decisively against the proposed
union. Dr. Tupper, despairing of success, proposed that, in the
meantime, the old negotiations for a smaller union should be continued.
Strange to say a sudden change took place in 1866 in the views of the
New Brunswick legislature, and resolutions in favour of B. N. A. union
passed both Houses.
The subject was at once
revived in Nova Scotia, and resolutions were adopted in favour of
confederation by a vote of thirty-one to nineteen in the Assembly, and
thirty to five in the Council. There was, however, a rift in the lute,
and both parties at once nerved themselves for the struggle. Messrs.
Annand and Hugh Macdonald joined Mr. Howe in London to oppose the
scheme, and were met by Dr. Tupper and five other friends of union. Mr.
Howe occupied a vulnerable position since he had previously been a warm
friend of the scheme, but he had an active and able champion in Mr.
Annand. He and his colleagues did not hesitate to condemn the
union as "an act of confiscation and coercion of the most arbitrary
kind," and predicted that at the general elections to be held in
the coming May, only three counties out of the eighteen would return
friends of confederation. Nevertheless, the assembled delegates of all
the provinces settled the terms of union at a meeting in London during
December. The Bill passed in March, and the Dominion of Canada was
formally constituted on the 1st of July.
In March of that year the
Nova Scotia Legislature assembled, and the anti confederationists
immediately put forward a protest against the Union. The Hon. Stewart
Campbell, seconded by Mr. Killam, and supported by Mr. Annand, proposed
an amendment to the Address, setting forth that the delegates had
transcended their powers, and demanding that the British North America
Act should not have any operation in the Province "until it has
been deliberately received by the Legislature and sanctioned by the
people at polls." On the Government side the struggle was carried
on by Dr. Tupper, Mr. Shannon, and others. On a division only sixteen
voted for the amendment, and thirty-two against it. The party in
power, however, had yet to face the electors. In July a local Government
had been organized under the leadership of Mr. Blanchard, and the
general elections took place in September. The result showed that Mr.
Annand had even overstated the strength of the confederation party,
since Dr. Tupper alone was returned to the Commons, whilst Mr. Blanchard
and only one supporter found seats in the Assembly. The
"Antis" had carried thirty-six seats out of thirty-eight in
the latter body. Of course a change of Government was inevitable, and at
the head of the new Cabinet appeared the Hon. Mr. Annand.
Naturally the first step
taken in the new House was the passage of resolutions for an address to
the Crown, expressing the widespread discontent of Nova Scotia at what
was styled "a fraud and an imposition;" declaring that the
people of the Province did not desire "to be in any way
confederated with Canada"; and praying that the royal proclamation
be revoked and the Imperial Act repealed, so far as it related to Nova
Scotia. A one-sided debate followed, lasting twelve days, and the
resolutions were carried with only two dissentient voices. Messrs. Howe,
Annand and two others being sent to England to urge compliance with the
prayer of the Address, they were confronted by Dr. Tupper. As might have
been expected, the Colonial Secretary declined to accede to the prayer
of the Provincial Legislature, stating his reasons at length in a
despatch to his Excellency, Lord Monck. The Local Government replied,
asserting the "constitutional rights" of the Province, and
protesting vehemently against the Imperial Act. [The concluding words
may be given as of historic value: - "They should proceed with the
legislative and other business of the Province, protesting against the
Confederation, boldly and distinctly asserting their full purpose and
resolution to avail themselves of every opportunity of extricating
themselves from the trammels of Canada; and, if they failed after
exhausting all constitutional means at their command, they would leave
their future destiny in the hands of Him who judges the people
righteously, and governs the nations upon earth." – Campbell’s
History, p. 462.] Mr. Bright moved in the Imperial Commons in June
for a Commission to enquire into Nova Scotia’s discontent; but his
motion was negatived in a thin House by one hundred and eighty-three to
eighty-seven.
Still, although twice
defeated in England, the anti-confederationists appeared to be secure in
their own Province. Soon after the return of the delegates, however, a
schism occurred in their ranks. Mr. Howe, who had returned from London,
as he went thither, a determined opponent of the Union, suddenly
resolved to make terms with the Dominion Government, and was joined by
Mr. A. W. McLelan, M.P. for Colchester. The result was that, in return
for an increased subsidy to the Province, these gentlemen, and those who
acted with them, accepted the situation; but, although they were
subjected to much obloquy, there can be no doubt that their motives were
above suspicion. As Mr. Campbell remarks, perhaps as much cannot be said
for the "minor satellites" who went over with them. [History,
p. 406.] Mr. Howe entered the Dominion Government as Secretary of State
for the Provinces, and subsequently became Lieutenant-Governor of his
native Province, in which position he died on the 1st of January, 1873,
on the verge of three score and ten. He had only been installed in
Government House a few weeks before his death. [It may be useful to add
here the census of Nova Scotia by origins in 1871: - Scots, 130,741;
English, 113,520; Irish, 62,851; French, 32,833; German, 31,942.]
A few biographical
notices of prominent public men of Scottish birth or extraction, as full
as the scanty accounts at command will permit, may be given here.
Mention has already been made of the Youngs who figure so conspicuously
in Provincial annals. Sir William is the son of the late Hon. John
Young, well known as the author of the letters of "Agricola."
The former was born at Falkirk, Stirlingshire, on July 27th, 1799, and
educated at Glasgow. His family removed to Nova Scotia, where the father
opened a store. In 1820 the son abandoned business and commenced the
study of law, for which he had been originally intended, under Mr.
Charles Fairbanks, a lawyer of considerable note. He was admitted to the
bar in 1826, and in 1835 as barrister in Nova Scotia. Soon after his
call he entered into partnership with his two brothers, George R. and
Charles. He, as has been seen, was a member of the Legislature, and
afterwards served as a Minister in the Uniacke Cabinet of 1848. George
was an author of no mean repute, and founded the Nova Scotian newspaper.
Charles became subsequently a Judge in Prince Edward Island, prior to
which he occupied a prominent position in public life, as will be seen
hereafter.
William Young began his
public career in 1832, when he was elected as one of the members for
Cape Breton, and subsequently for Inverness and Cumberland also. During
the entire years of his political life, Mr. Young signalized himself as
a pronounced Reformer, protesting against the Imperial claim to
quit-rents, and its possession of the coal mines, struggling for reform
in the anomalous Legislative Council, and also for shorter Parliaments.
He was also an ardent champion of the rights of Nova Scotia fishermen
against infringements by the Americans and French. When the struggle for
responsible government opened, there could be no doubt of the position
to be occupied by him. He at once espoused the cause with ardour, and
was sent to visit Lord Durham, in company with Mr. Johnston. Again in
1839 he was once more a delegate to England to press reform upon the
Home Government in the matter of customs, excise and crown lands. When
the conflict occurred with Sir Colin Campbell, Mr. Young threw all his
energy and eloquence into the scale. In company with Mr. Howe, he and
Messrs Forrester and Bell, who were "brither Scots," assailed
the arbitrary action of the Lieutenant-Governor, both in and out of the
House
In 1843, he was elected
Speaker in place of Mr. Howe, who had accepted office, but early next
year he vacated the chair in order to take his place in the Executive
Council. In a new House he was again elected to the Speakership amidst
general applause The contest, as already related, continued under Lord
Falkland’s administration, and was only terminated by the arrival of
Sir John Harvey as Lieutenant Governor. Meanwhile Mr. Young was one of
the foremost of the combatants. He had not only fought valiantly at
home, but visited the Reformers of Upper Canada, and received the honour
of a banquet from Mr. Baldwin and his brother Liberals at Toronto. Early
in 1848 the prolonged controversy came to a close. Mr. Young was again
elected Speaker, and Mr. Howe was once more in power. In 1850 he was a
member of a commission to consolidate the laws of the Province, and in
1857, became, on Mr. Howe’s appointment to the Railway Board, Premier
and Attorney-General. An injudicious letter from Mr. Howe which had
given great offence to the Roman Catholics, caused a defeat of the
Government; but at the general election in 1859, the tables were again
turned. The Opposition candidate for Speaker triumphed and Mr. Young was
reappointed Premier and also President of the Council. In 1860, he
succeeded Sir Brenton Haliburton as Chief Justice of the Province, and
soon afterwards was also made Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court. He
received the honour of knighthood, in recognition of his long public and
judicial services, in 1868. Sir William Young occupied his seat on the
bench until 1881, when he retired, as Chief Justice, to be succeeded by
the Hon. James McDonald, Minister of Justice.
His career has been in
every respect an honourable one. In Parliament and on the platform, he
was always eloquent and his conduct on the Bench reflected the highest
credit on his learning and ability. No subject, as has been well
remarked, [Canadian Portrait Gallery, iv. 47.] was foreign to
him. He distinguished himself as a student in arts, letters and science,
as well as in politics and jurisprudence. A speech at the Dufferin
banquet was one of the latest of his public efforts. Sir William was a
Governor of Dalhousie College, and for some years President of the North
British Society. One of his St. Andrew’s Day addresses lies before us
and gives a fair idea of the learning and eloquence he could display on
public occasions. He is a man of fine presence, and at the age of over
eighty, is still hale, firm of step, and bright in eye. In 1880, Sir
William and Lady Young celebrated their golden wedding. He had been
fifty years married, and almost as long in the service of his
fellow-countrymen.
The Hon. William Annand
was born at Halifax, of Scottish parentage, in 1808, and received his
education there. In 1837, he was elected along with Mr. Howe to the Nova
Scotia Assembly for Halifax county, and remained ever afterwards a
staunch ally of the Reform leader. Mr. Annand took part in all the
struggles for responsible government, and for complete autonomy of the
colony, and in the prosecution of railway and telegraph enterprises. His
influence in public affairs was largely due to his connection with the
press—he being proprietor of the Morning Chronicle and Nova
Scotian, published at Halifax. In May, 1844, Mr. Howe joined him in
the redaction, and both together assailed with vigour the attitude of
Lord Falkland. In some instances, Mr. Howe, at all events, transgressed
against the ordinary amenities of political controversy. Amongst other
questions in which Mr. Annand moved at an early date, was the endowment
of denominational colleges, and he succeeded in getting a vote against
it in the Assembly, on a division, of twenty-six to twenty-one. When Sir
John Harvey succeeded to the Lieutenant-Governorship, the triumph of
responsible government was complete, yet Mr. Annand did not appear in
the list of the Uniacke Ministry of 1848, but for some years held the
lucrative post of Queen’s Printer. After the general election of 1859,
however, Mr. Annand took office under his old chief as Financial
Secretary. In 1863 the Government was defeated at the polls; and Dr.
Tupper became Premier. From 1864 onwards Mr. Annand, as we have seen,
devoted all his energies against confederation. He opposed the Quebec
Conference, went to England to obstruct its consummation, and
subsequently to urge the repeal of the Act. At the elections of 1867 he
suffered a defeat. He had been called to the Legislative Council of his
own Province, but resigned to prevent Dr. Tupper from being returned to
the Commons for Cumberland. The attempt was a bold one, but failed. The
Doctor received 1368 votes; Mr. Annand, 1271. Considering all things,
the majority was not a large one, and the defeated candidate had the
satisfaction of knowing that his opponent was the only confederate in
the Nova Scotian delegation to Ottawa: On the seventh of November in
that eventful year, Mr. Annand was called upon to form a Provincial
Government and became Premier, and Treasurer, but subsequently resigned
the latter office in favour of Mr. Stayley Brown.
It may now be as well to
note some of the minor members of Mr. Annand’s party, with short,
biographical references. The Hon. Stayley Brown, just mentioned, was a
native of Glasgow, Scotland, where he was born in 1801. The family
emigrated to Nova Scotia and settled in Yarmouth about the year 1813. He
was a merchant of ability and success, and, without serving any
apprenticeship in the Assembly, was nominated to the Legislative Council
in 1843. In January, 1856, Mr. Brown became Receiver-General in the
Conservative Administration of the Hon. Jas. W. Johnston, and held
office till the break-up of the Cabinet in 1860. During about ten months
from March, 1874, he was Speaker of the Council; then entered the Local
Cabinet as Treasurer of Nova Scotia. The Hon. Daniel Macdonald boasts
descent from the Lords of the Isles, but was personally born at
Antigonish, N. S., in 1817. A lawyer by profession, he had arrived at
the age of fifty, when he first entered the Legislature in 1867. In
1872, he became a Cabinet Minister, taking the department of Public
Works, and in 1875, the Attorney-Generalship. The Hon. Colin Campbell
belongs to one of the Argyle families of Campbell. His grandfather, who
settled in America in 1770, was a public man in Nova Scotia, and a M. P.
P. as far back as 1793. Colin was born in 1822 at Shelburne, N. S., and
was educated at Digby and Weymouth. A ship-owner and merchant, he served
on the Directorate of an Insurance Company, and also as local bank
agent. Mr. Campbell originally belonged to the Howe party, but was
attracted by the retrenchment schemes of Dr. Tupper, and went over to
the Conservative party. He sat for Digby from 1859 to 1867, when he was
one of the many rejected on the question of Confederation, being
defeated by Messrs. Vail and Doucett. In 1871, however, he regained his
seat by a large majority, and again in 1875, but in 1878 he once more
suffered misfortune: and is not now in the House. In 1875 he was made an
Executive Councillor, and had a portfolio under Mr. Annand.
The Hon. Hugh McDonald
sprang from the McDonalds of the Keppeck in the Scottish Highlands. He
was born at Antigonish in 1826. In 1855 he was called to the bar, and
received the honours of the silk in 1872. After a preliminary defeat Mr.
McDona1d obtained a seat in the Nova Scotia Assembly for Inverness in
1859, and filled the seat until 1862, in which year he declined the
SolicitorGeneralship. In 1863 the Howe party were beaten at the general
elections, one of the victims being Mr. McDonald. He next appears as one
of the anti-confederation delegates to London in 1866, with Messrs. Howe
and Annand. In the following year the strong tide against the union
raised Mr. McDonald to the Commons, to which he was elected for
Antigonish by an overwhelming majority over the Hon. Mr. Henry. In June,
1873, he was sworn in as President of the Privy Council, and next month
became Minister of Militia. On the eve of the resignation of the
Macdonald Government, he was raised to the Nova Scotia Bench, as Judge
of the Superior Court of Nova Scotia, a position he still occupies.
The Hon. James McDonald,
now Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, also belongs to a Highland family
settled in Pictou many years ago. He was born at East River, in that
county, on the 1st of July, 1828, and educated at New Glasgow. Unlike
his namesake he was from the first a Conservative, and a friend of
Confederation so soon as it became a vital question. He was called to
the bar in 1857, and became Q.C. in the year of the union. Mr. McDonald
sat for his native county from 1859 to 1867. In June, 1863, he was
appointed Commissioner of Railways when Dr. Tupper’s administration
was formed, and towards the close of the following year succeeded Mr.
LeVisconte, who had retired, as Financial Secretary and Cabinet
Minister. This appointment, says Mr. Campbell (p. 560), proved an
important accession to the administrative capacity and strength of the
Government. The year 1867 was an unfortunate one for unionists, and Mr.
McDonald, fared like the rest of his party, save Dr. Tupper, in the
Dominion contest. A candidate for Pictou, he was defeated by Col.
Carmichael, the latter’s majority being nearly three hundred and
sixty. At the local elections of 1871 he once more obtained a seat in
the Nova Scotia Assembly, but resigned in the following year to try
conclusions with his old opponent for the Commons. This time he was
triumphantly returned, with Mr. Doull, by a majority of two hundred and
five over Mr. Carmichael. Once more in the year 1874, he was marked out
for defeat, and as one of Sir John Macdonald’s supporters when the
latter passed under the Pacific Railway cloud, was once more rejected,
though by a slender majority. [The vote stood, Jas. W. Carmichael, 2178;
John A. Dawson, 2124; Robt. Doull, 2123; Jas. McDonald, 2110.] In 1878,
the tables were again turned, and Mr. McDonald, under cover of the
National Policy, was victorious by a majority of over three hundred.
When the Liberal-Conservative Cabinet was formed, the member for Pictou
was appointed Minister of Justice, and, on appealing to his
constituents, re-elected by acclamation. This office he continued to
fill until May, 1881, when, on the retirement of Sir William Young, Mr.
McDonald was raised to the Bench as Chief Justice of Nova Scotia.
The Hon. John William
Ritchie, Judge in Equity of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, is a brother
of Chief Justice William Johnston Ritchie, of the Dominion Supreme
Court. Their father, Thomas Ritchie, was also a Judge, though of an
inferior Court. Mr. Ritchie was born at Annapolis, on the 26th of March,
1808, and educated at Pictou. Having adopted the legal profession, he
was called to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1832, and to that of Prince
Edward Island in 1836. For some years Mr. Ritchie was Law Clerk to the
Legislative Council of Nova Scotia, and in May, 1864 became a member of
that body—a position he retained until the union. So far back as 1850,
he had served on the Commission to consolidate and simplify the laws of
the Province, and subsequently, with Messrs. Howe and Gray, to adjust
the tenants’ right question in Prince Edward Island. It does not
appear that he was ever an ardent politician; still he was a
sufficiently prominent public man to be one of the Tupper delegation to
London in favour of confederation in 1865. In the Cabinet which brought
about confederation, he served as Solicitor-General with a seat in the
Cabinet. When the Union had been consummated, Mr. Ritchie was called to
the Dominion Senate, and remained in that position until June, 1870, on
his appointment as Judge of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. When Judge
Archibald left the Bench to assume the Lieutenant-Governorship of the
Province, in 1873, Judge Ritchie was promoted to the post of Judge in
Equity, which he still fills with dignity and credit, notwithstanding
his advanced years. Of his brother, the Chief Justice, it will be
necessary to speak under the New Brunswick section of this chapter.
The Hon. James William
Johnston, whose name figures so conspicuously in the history of Nova
Scotia, as a statesman, lawyer, and judge, was the son of Dr. Johnston,
of Edinburgh University, a loyalist immigrant who settled in Jamaica.
There, at Kingston, in 1792 (29th August), Mr. Johnston was born. He was
sent to Scotland to be educated, and, after his return, the family
removed to Nova Scotia. Admitted to the bar in 1815, he began the
practice of his profession at Kentville. He subsequently entered into
partnership with the Hon. Mr. Robie. Mr. Johnston’s rise was rapid,
and he soon attained a first place at the Nova Scotia bar—a position
he retained until his elevation to the Bench. His oratory was fervid and
effective, and he peculiarly excelled at cross-examination. On one
occasion, "his bursts of impassioned eloquence seemed to sweep as
with the force of a tornado, bearing down all before them."[The
Canadian Biographical Dictionary: Quebec and the Maritime Provinces,
p. 532.] In 1833 he was made Solicitor-General, but the office was not
political, and it was not until 1838 that at the urgent desire of Sir
Colin Campbell he accepted a seat in the Legislative Council, and began
his public career. Into the political arena Mr. Johnston carried the
same ability and earnestness which had distinguished him at the bar. He
was a Conservative, one might almost say, by heredity, and regarded with
suspicion proposed changes in the constitutional system of the Province.
In 1843, on his appointment to the Attorney-Generalship, Mr. Johnston
resigned his seat in the Council, and was elected M.P.P. for Annapolis,
which he represented without a break until his elevation to the Bench.
In him Lord Falkland found an able and ready champion with tongue and
pen; and in the conduct of his defence he exhibited consummate tact. But
the spirit of the times was too strong for even his distinguished
ability, and after the elections of 1847 he found himse1f compelled to
resign. In 1850 Mr. Johnston took the singular step of proposing that as
the constitution of the Province had been radically changed by Downing
street the Lieutenant-Governor ought, in future, to be paid by the
Imperial authorities. Of course the motion was defeated, and by a vote
of twenty-six to fourteen. In 1856 the Liberal Government fell from
power, chiefly owing to its attitude towards the Catholics, and. Mr.
Johnston once more formed a Government, with Dr. Tupper, Messrs.
McKinnon, Stayley Brown and the two Campbells. In 1857, in company with
the present Lieutenant-Governor Archibald, [The Archibalds ought by
rights to have been Scots, and no doubt were so originally, but they
appear to have tarried during several generations in the North of
Ireland. Hence it would seem to be stretching a point to claim them.] he
proceeded to England in order to secure the abolition of the monopoly in
mines. In 1860 the Liberals were again in power, but in 1863 Mr.
Johnston for the last time formed a Government, from which in the same
year he retired, on being appointed Judge of the Supreme Court. On the
bench, although advanced in years, he displayed the same clear and
vigorous intellect that had achieved so much and it remained unimpaired
to the last. Judge Johnston was in England when Lieutenant-Governor Howe
died in 1873, but the Dominion Government at once offered him the high
position. Although eighty-one years of age, twelve years Mr. Howe’s
senior, he at first accepted the office, but found that it would be
impossible to leave England. He died at Cheltenham on the 21st of
November in the same year. Mr. Johnston was the first in the Maritime
Provinces to suggest a confederation of the Provinces. In 1854 he moved
a resolution in its favour, and was thus the earliest to bring the
subject before any Legislature. [Mr. (now Sir) A. T. Galt took a similar
course in 1858.] The hon. gentleman was, like Mr. Mackenzie, of Ontario,
a Baptist, and a strenuous advocate of a prohibitory liquor law. His
whole career, political bias apart, was an eminently useful and
honourable one. It may be added that his grandfather, who originally
settled at Savannah, Georgia, believed himself entitled to the dormant
title of Marquis of Annandale—a name he gave to his estate in the
South. As a loyalist, he left the country, and after a short sojourn in
Britain finally settled in Jamaica, as already stated. The Hon. Mr.
Johnston’s son, bearing the same name, is now Judge of the County
Court of the City and District of Halifax.
The Hon. John McKinnon,
already mentioned, is descended from the McKinnons of the Western Isles.
His father emigrated to this Province (county of Sydney), from
Inverness-shire. The family is Highland Catholic, and a younger brother
of the same gentleman was Catholic Bishop of Arichat up to the time of
his death in 1878. He, himself, has always been a farmer—one of the
sturdy, old Scottish stock. He was born in November, 1808, at
Dorchester, Antigonish, N.S., for which county he sits in the Assembly.
He was a member of the Conservative Administration of 1857 and 1860.
Again in July, 1867, he was appointed a member of the first Local
Government, but the ill-fated Cabinet perished in the anti-confederate
storm of that autumn. He, Mr. McKinnon, however, only suffered the loss
of office, as he had been a member of the Legislative Council since
1857. In spite of the lack of educational opportunities he was a
well-instructed man, and not thought disqualified for a place on the
Board of Education, with Messrs. Tupper, Johnston, Henry and Ritchie as
colleagues. As a magistrate also for forty years, and an agricultural
commissioner, Mr. McKinnon has performed most valuable services.
Hon. Alexander Keith’s
name has not hitherto appeared in these pages, yet at confederation, he
became Speaker of Legislative Council. His father was chief of the
Keith, and he himself was born on the 5th of October, 1795 at Falkirk in
Caithness-shire. Like almost all Scots, he received a good education,
and was then sent to Sunderland in England to learn the brewing and
malting business. Five years after, in 1817, the family removed to
Ha1ifax, and young Keith at once entered into a brewery partnership,
persevering until he became sole owner of the business, and subsequently
acquiring an independent fortune. Prior to the incorporation of the
city, Mr. Keith was commissioner in the Court of Common Pleas, and
afterwards served as Mayor of the City of Halifax in 1843, 1853, and
1854; he was for a long period a Director of the Bank of Nova Scotia.
Called to the Legislative Council in 1843, he sat that body for thirty
years. In 1867 when the Local Legislature was constituted he became
President of the Upper House. In the same year he was elected to the
Dominion Senate, but declined the honour. The Presidency he held at the
time of his death on the 14th December, 1873. Mr. Keith was an ardent
Mason, filled high Offices in the craft, and was deeply respected by the
brethren of the "mystic tie." His widow, with whom he lived
forty years, a son and three daughters survive him, and live together,
all but one married daughter, at "Keith Hall," the family
homestead.
Another
"old-stager," but a Haligonian by birth, is Hon. Alexander
Stewart, who at the time of his death was Judge of the Vice-Admiralty
Court at Halifax. His father, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, arrived
in Nova Scotia with his wife shortly previous to Alexander’s birth at
Halifax on the 30th of January, 1794. He was the eldest of a family of
three, the two sons afterwards becoming partners in the practice of law,
and one daughter. His father died early, leaving the widow in poor
circumstances; but she subsequently married again. Alexander was
educated at the grammar school of Halifax, and he made the most of his
opportunities. For some time he was employed as clerk in the Ordnance
Department. This position did not satisfy young Stewart’s ambition.
When he announced his intention of retiring, his chief remonstrated with
him, remarking that in time he would rise to be head clerk. His reply
was that he would not remain if he could not rise higher than the chief
of the department himself. His next venture was in commerce. Entering a
West India house, he soon became a member of the firm, and, in a few
years, saved enough to retire and gratify his desire to enter the legal
profession. Having studied at Halifax and Amherst, he was called to the
bar in 1822. Meanwhile, on the principle, perhaps, that one good turn
deserves another, he had been united to Sarah, sister of the Hon. Mr.
Morse, who had married his sister. Mr. Stewart rose rapidly in his
profession, practising in Cumberland County, and also in Westmoreland,
N.B. In 1826, he was elected to the Nova Scotia Assembly, and
represented Cumberland until 1837, when he was raised to the Legislative
Council. In 1834, he made a powerful attack on the constitution of the
Legislative Council, advocating open sittings and its separation from
the Executive, [Campbell, p. 293.] and in the same year vigorously aided
Mr, Young in urging the surrender of the quit-rents. [Ibid. p.
299.] In 1840, he became a member of the Executive Council. For some
time past, Mr. Stewart had practised at Halifax, and in 1846 succeeded
Mr. Archibald as Master of the Rolls and Judge of the Vice-Admiralty
Court. The former position he vacated, on a pension, when the Chancery
Court was abolished in 1855. In the following year he was honoured with
the Companionship of the Bath,—the first colonist, it is said,
so distinguished. The other Judgeship he retained until his death on New
Year’s day, 1868. [It may not be amiss to quote a tribute to his
character cited in the Canadian Biographical Dictionary, p. 414.
"Stewart, physically, was a handsome man; and intellectually he
stood high among Nova Scotia’s distinguished men forty or fifty years
ago. There is not in our local legislature at present, a man of such
startling eloquence and commanding ability. Were the equal of him, by
some accident or chance, suddenly placed in our Assembly to-day, what a
sensation would thereby be created! What a shaking up of dry bones! In
the presence of such an eagle, there would be a fluttering among the
sparrows." – New Glasgow Plaindealer.]
Lieutenant-Colonel
Charles James Campbell is a native Scot, having been born in Skye, in
Inverness-shire, on Nov. 6th, 1819. He came to Nova Scotia in 1830 and
engaged in commercial pursuits. For a generation past he has been
engaged in developing the New Campbelltown coal mines; and was the first
to send a cargo direct from Nova Scotia to Australia. In addition to
these enterprises he has also busied himself with seal and herring
fishing, oil-wells, gold mining, marble, lime, and salt-springs. Col.
Campbell was unfortunate in his first entrance upon parliamentary life.
He was elected for Victoria in 1851, but was unseated on petition. In
1855, he was returned once more, and sat till 1859 when he lost his seat
for defending Catholic rights. In 1860, he was elected, but again
unseated; three years after he was once more a member, only to lose his
election in 1867 on account of his confederation views. Yet again, in
1871 Mr. Campbell headed the poll, and in the following year was
elevated to the Legislative Council, of which he remained member about
two years and a half. In 1874, he secured election to the Commons by a
majority of eighteen, but was unseated on a recount. In 1876, he was
once more returned, and sat until 1878, when he lost his seat by over a
hundred vote although a Conservative He is a strong advocate of
retaliatory duties, especially on coal, and generally on manufactures.
During his brief career at Ottawa, Mr. Campbell strongly opposed the
Mackenzie administration, and prophesied its defeat, although perhaps he
did not foresee his own. As few men have met with more ups and downs in
public life, so also, it may be said, there are few who have done so
much to develop the resources of his country. Mr. Campbell has had a
large family, for, although two children were removed by death, he has
still six sons and two daughters, the younger of the latter still at
school. His career, as a notable example of Scottish energy, thrift and
intelligence, well deserves a more ample record.
The public career of Mr.
Alexander Mackay is another example of the striking upheaval which
occurred in Nova Scotia in the confederation year. His parents settled
in the County of Pictou, from Sutherlandshire, in 1815, and he was born
there at West River, three years afterwards. Educated at Pictou Academy,
he resembled the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie in his earlier fortunes,
having been a mason and builder. Later on he devoted himself to farming
and trade. Since 1858 he has been a magistrate, but he does not appear
upon the political arena until 1863. Mr. Mackay was a Conservative and
supported Dr. Tupper in his struggle for union. During the political
whirlwind of 1867, he was sacrificed to popular fury; but he found
favour once more in 1872, and has since been returned at two general
elections by acclamation. He is a crucial instance of Scottish energy
and probity. Attached to the Church of his fathers with characteristic
zeal, he has been an elder in the Kirk for more than twenty years; and
in the words of a biographer, merits the title of "honest
Scotchman" with emphasis.
Almost outside the sphere
of politics, we may note, merely as a sample, for there are many like
him, Mr. Donald Grant, of the same county. Well known as a builder and
manufacturer, far and wide, he was originally the son of a carpenter
from Inverness-shire, and of Sophia Macdonald, a Scottish daughter of
the heatherland at Pictou. Equipped with so much of the rudiments as
could be supplied, Mr. Grant commenced life as an apprentice to his
father’s trade. Thence he gradually mounted the ladder, as a builder
upon a small scale, and so on upward to the position of a manufacturer.
Beginning life without a dollar, or with any other endowment save what
Providence had vouchsafed, he has risen purely by energy, enterprise and
thrift to be a power in the railway world of Nova Scotia. Mr. Grant,
although a Conservative, has never been tempted into public life,
although he has served in the municipal council of New Glasgow, and is,
or was until recently, Warden there. His name and career seem worthy of
record even thus briefly, because he is a specimen brick of the stiff
Scottish clay which underlies the stable fabric of Nova Scotia.
There are still a
considerable number of Scots whose names might well find a place here;
but, unfortunately, the facts necessary to give sketches of them are
very scanty. A few, however, may be mentioned. Mr. Robert Doull, at
present one of the members for Pictou at Ottawa, hails from the extreme
north of Scotland, having been born at Wick, Caithness, in 1828. He was
still an infant in arms, when his parents left their native land to
settle at Pictou. Like his father, Mr. Doull is a merchant, and also a
magistrate, a Lieutenant-Colonel of Militia, and a Director of the
Pictou Bank. For fifteen years he was Treasurer for the county, and has
occupied a prominent position in the Order of Odd-fellows. In 1872, Mr.
Doull was elected first to the House of Commons as a Liberal
Conservative. The events of 1873, however, had caused a reaction
throughout the Dominion, and in March, 1874, a large majority were
returned in favour of the Liberal Government, which, had assumed office
in the previous November. The member for Pictou was one of the victims,
but although the vote was heavy, he only lost his seat by a majority of
one. [Mr. Dawson, also a Pictou merchant, received 2,124 votes; Mr.
Doull 2,123.] In 1878, the wheel of fortbune once more turned in his
favour and made him amends. On that occasion his majority was nearly two
hundred and fifty.
Lieutenant-Colonel, the
Hon. Stewart Campbell, Q.C., has also had his ups and downs. Like the
Hon. Mr. Johnston, he is a native of Jamaica. He was the son of a
militia General Officer, who distinguished himself during the rebellion
there in 1832. Mr. Stewart Campbell was born in 1812, and, removing to
Nova Scotia, received a call to the bar in 1835. Between 1863 and 1865,
he served on the Commission to revise the statutes. In public life,
besides filling some subordinate judicial offices, Mr. Campbell sat for
Guysborough continuously from 1851 to 1867 in the Assembly, and from
1867 to 1874 in the Commons—a period of over twenty-three years. From
1854 to 1860, he served as Speaker of the Assembly. Mr. Campbell was
politically a Liberal, but he had supported the Dominion Government
since its formation, and when the re-action came, in 1874, he succumbed
to Mr. Kirk, a supporter of the Opposition, and there his political
career ended.
Lieutenant-Colonel John
A. Kirk, as a Liberal, has also suffered from political vicissitudes. He
is the grandson of a native of Dumfries-shire, who served in the British
army during the American revolutionary war and settled in Nova Scotia.
Mr. John Angus Kirk was born at Glenelg, Nova Scotia, in 1837, and was
brought up a farmer. From 1867 to 1874, he sat for Guysborough in the
Assembly, when he resigned to be a candidate for the same seat in the
Commons. He succeeded in defeating the Hon. Stewart Campbell by a
majority of over two hundred. In 1878, however, there was a reaction of
another sort, and Mr. Kirk lost his seat by nearly one hundred and
seventy votes.
Amongst the Senators, one
may be mentioned who has passed from the scene. The Hon. John Holmes was
born in Ross-shire as far back as March, 1789, and came to Nova Scotia
in 1803. In 1836, he was elected M.P.P. for Victoria, and sat for it
during eleven years, until 1847, when he suffered defeat. At the next
general election he was more successful, and remained a member from 1851
to 1858. In the latter year he was elevated to the Legislative Council,
in which body he continued until the Union. In 1867, when seventy-eight
years of age, he was called to the Senate. He died about 1870, having
been in public life, with the short exception referred to, for
thirty-four years. The Hon. Alexander Macfarlane, Q.C., who appears to
have succeeded Mr. Holmes, is a Nova Scotian of Scottish descent, the
son of the late Hon. Donald Macfarlane, and born at Wallace, Nova
Scotia, in June, 1817. He was called to the bar in 1844, and is now
Surrogate of the Vice-Admiralty. Mr. Macfarlane sat for Cumberland from
1856 to the Union, and during the last two years of that period occupied
a seat at the Council Board. He was one of the Nova Scotia delegates to
the London Conference which settled the terms of Confederation. In 1870,
he was called to the Senate, of which he is still a member.
The course of political
events in New Brunswick ran in much the same groove as the struggle in
Nova Scotia, with two important exceptions. Party feeling did not run so
high in the former Province, and the entire controversy touching
responsible government was settled at an earlier date. [Fenety: Political
Notes and Observations.] So early as 1832, the Executive Council was
separated from the Legislative; but the Governor and his friends were
still independent of popular control. The Crown Land Department was a
close bureau, completely beyond any legislative influence. Out of the
casual and territorial revenues, the dominant party could defray all
current expenditure without reference to the Assembly. Having the power
of the purse in their hands, the Executive might defy votes of
non-confidence and treat with supreme indifference both the censures and
remonstrances of the people’s representatives. Sir Archibald Campbell,
who was at this time Lieutenant-Governor, like his namesake of Nova
Scotia, was a bluff soldier, and tenaciously clung to the existing
system. In 1836, Mr. L. Wilmot (a cousin of the present
Lieutenant-Governor), assumed the leadership of the Reform party, and
proved to be the Joseph Howe or William Young of New Brunswick. As usual
the steps taken were simply tentative. At the outset all that was sought
was a periodical account of the revenue; but this, once conceded,
naturally involved legislative criticism and control over the
expenditure. Still the old system died hard; and the conflict was
prolonged during some years. The ruling clique had upon its side the
Governor; and he was invariably backed by the Colonial office. Downing
Street not only supported its agents, but laid down unconstitutional
maxims by means of despatches. The procedure of any particular time was
thus dependent upon the whim of the Colonial Secretary; his despatches
were law, and objection to them was futile.
In 1837, in the absence
of an expected missive from home, the Lieutenant Governor assumed a
haughty demeanour and requested the House to pass the Civil List Bill
with a suspensory clause, pending the pleasure of the Crown. The
Assembly enquired whether Sir Archibald Campbell would assent to the
Bill at the close of the Session, as the Houses had passed it, provided
a favourable answer should arrive in the meantime. The Governor refused
to give more than an indirect answer; but he had sent over Mr. Street, a
trusty member of the Council, to "button-hole" the Colonial
Secretary. The Assembly took alarm, and at once denounced the Governor
by resolution, and demanded his recall. Messrs. Crane and Wilmot were
sent to London, and the result of their representations was the
retirement of Sir Archibald, and the arrival as Governor of
Major-General Sir John Harvey. With his arrival, the struggle for
responsible government practically terminated for the time in New
Brunswick. The Civil List Bill was passed, and, amidst great rejoicing,
the Assembly voted money to secure a full length portrait of Lord
Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary. For some years affairs proceeded calmly
in the Province. So long as Sir John Harvey remained, nothing arose to
mar the general content. But as Canada had its Lord Metcalfe, New
Brunswick was fated to enjoy a ruler of the same type in the person of
Sir William Colebrooke. His predecessor had been a pronounced Reformer,
by his efforts the boundary dispute which before and afterwards caused
infinite trouble to the Province, was temporarily adjusted, and he had
left for Newfoundland amidst the universal regrets of the people. Sir
William Colebrooke was a man of another stamp altogether, and changes in
the Imperial government had materially altered the complexion of its
policy towards the colonies. In addition to that, the Province was
suffering from serious depression in the lumber-trade, and St. John had
recently suffered from a destructive conflagration, such as unhappily we
have seen repeated in recent times. A necessary consequence of these
disasters was a falling-off in the revenue. The Assembly then appealed
to the Imperial Government for a loan; but Lord Stanley (the late Earl
Derby) roundly lectured them upon their wasteful expenditure. The
revenues had been placed at their disposal, and already the large
surplus had been frittered away. The Colonial Secretary broadly hinted
that they had proved themselves incapable of managing their own affairs.
Obviously a second political crisis was at hand. The cry of danger to
responsible government was raised, but at the general election of 1842,
it fell flat. The electorate generally was either indifferent or too
strongly loyal, to heed the agitators. As in Canada, shortly after, the
Conservatives triumphed, and Sir William Colebrooke, like Lord Metcalfe,
received congratulatory addresses in large numbers from every quarter.
He was hailed as the champion of monarchy and, for the moment, the party
of progress was cast into the shade. In 1844 on a vacancy occurring in
the Executive, he appointed a gentleman after his own heart, and
distinctly of his own mere motion. At once four ministers resigned.
Three of them, Messrs. Hugh Johnston, Chandler, and Hazen, freely
admitted the prerogative right of the Governor, yet disputed the
propriety of this special exercise of it. The position of affairs was
certainly anomalous. Mr. Reade, the provisional appointee to the
Provincial Secretaryship was not, properly speaking, a New Brunswicker,
even by domicile. The office was not only a lucrative one, but held for
life; and, therefore Mr. Wilmot and his friends hastened to employ this
arbitrary display of prerogative on behalf of responsible government.
The Reform party urged that so important an officer should be the head
of a department, and a responsible adviser of the Crown, liable like
other executive councillors to removal when the Cabinet had forfeited
the confidence of the people’s representatives. It does not appear
necessary to follow this controversy into detail. [For a full account of
the cases, see Fenety’s Political Notes, vii., viii and ix.] It
may suffice to remark that, in the end, the Assembly prevailed. The
Colonial Office declined to confirm Mr. Reade’s appointment, and the
Hon. Mr. Saunders obtained the office. At the same time, the reform
sought for by Mr. Wilmot was not formally conceded for several years
afterwards. All, therefore, that the year 1845 brought forth,
politically, was a particular success, without express recognition of
the principle at stake. The action of Sir William Colebrooke was all the
more galling, because the appointment of Mr. Reade was a rather coarse
reply to a direct vote of want of confidence in the Council, passed by
twenty-two to nine in the Assembly at the beginning of a Session.
In and throughout 1847
the controversy raged with little or no effect; but in 1848, the friends
of responsible government were materially aided by the despatch of Earl
Grey to the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. On the 24th of February,
Mr. Fisher and Mr. Ritchie both introduced resolutions which affirmed
the principles of colonial government stated in the Colonial Secretary’s
missive. The former gentleman’s motion was ultimately put to the vote
and carried by twenty-four to eleven after an exciting and protracted
debate. As in Canada, the Government party insisted that responsible
government was in full force, notwithstanding the fact that appointments
to the Council were made arbitrarily by the Governor, and that the votes
of the majority were ostentatiously disregarded. As Mr. Fenety remarks
[p.278.], the battle was really fought for New Brunswick in Canada and
Nova Scotia, and the fact that in the final vote men of both parties
united demonstrated the folly of farther resistance. At the same time
the Province now under consideration was the first to insist upon the
great weapon in the power of a representative assembly—the initiation
of money grants. It also had long preceded Nova Scotia in the separation
of the Legislative Council from the Executive. There only remained the
inevitable battle for the spoils, in which both parties approved
themselves equally sincere and in earnest. After the session of 1848,
Sir W. Colebrooke retired and was succeeded by Sir Edmund W. Head, the
first civilian who had ever occupied the Lieutenant-Governorship and the
grandson of a U. E. Loyalist of 1783. The period of his Vice-royalty
covers what may be called the speculative era, when the railway mania
was in progress and the reciprocity treaty concluded. In 1852, the line
of the Intercolonial Railway was agreed upon, but the Provinces
concerned failed, as we have seen, to secure the Imperial guarantee.
Nevertheless, the Grand Trunk of Canada, and the St. John and Shediac of
New Brunswick, were put under contract. In 1854, Sir Edmund Head
departed to encounter squalls in Canada, and gave place to Mr. Henry
Manners-Sutton, who, in turn, was succeeded by the Hon. Arthur Gordon,
in 1861.
|
