tes as to the scheme, until an
accomplice turned Queen's evidence, added fuel to the flame, and
convinced the most sceptical that there was a second Gunpowder Plot in
existence, which was destined to annihilate our local legislature and
our provincial rights.[2]

{102}

This was the situation which confronted Howe when he returned in the
autumn from his tour as fishery commissioner. He had written from
Newfoundland, on hearing of the conference at Charlottetown: 'I have
read the proceedings of the delegates and I am glad to be out of the
mess.' At first he listened in silence to the Halifax discussions on
both sides of the question. These were non-partisan, since Archibald
and McCully, the Liberal leaders, were as much concerned in the result
as the Conservative ministers. Howe finally broke silence with the
first of his articles in the Halifax _Chronicle_ on 'The Botheration
Scheme.' This gave the signal for an agitation which finally bore Nova
Scotia to the verge of rebellion. Howe's course has been censured as
the greatest blot upon an otherwise brilliant career. In justice to
his memory the whole situation should be examined. He did not start
the agitation. Many able and patriotic Nova Scotians urged him on.
Favourable to union as an abstract theory he had been: to Confederation
as a policy he had never distinctly pledged himself. The idea that the
Quebec terms were sacrosanct, and that hostility to them involved
disloyalty to the Empire, must be put aside. It is neither {103}
necessary nor fair to assume that Howe's conduct was wholly inspired by
the spleen and jealousy commonly ascribed to him; for, with many
others, he honestly held the view that the interests of his native
province were about to be sacrificed in a bad bargain. Nevertheless,
his was a grave political error--an error for which he paid
bitterly--which in the end cost him popularity, private friendship, and
political reputation. But the noble courage and patience with which he
sought to repair it should redeem his fame.[3]

It was no secret that the governor of Nova Scotia, Sir Richard Graves
Macdonnell, was opposed to Confederation. The veiled hostility of his
speech in Halifax has already been noted; and he followed it with
another at Montreal, after the conference, which revealed a captious
mind on the subject. Arthur Hamilton Gordon (afterwards Lord
Stanmore), the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick, also hampered the
movem