is principles. It is probable that he came to
feel that Mr Hawes's letter went further than was desirable. To the
hot fit induced by Howe's eloquence succeeded cold shivers, which the
great contractors naturally encouraged. Of the great firm of Jackson,
Peto, Betts, and Brassey, which eventually built the Grand Trunk and
the early railways of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, two at least were
influential Whig members of the British House of Commons. Very
possibly Lord Grey found that with the Portland guarantee annexed he
would have difficulty in forcing the plan through parliament. He may
have believed that with the guarantee struck out the provinces would
{119} still be able to finance the Portland line. Howe is on sounder
lines when he makes the fiasco an argument in favour of his plan of
colonial representation in the Imperial parliament. 'The interests of
a few members of parliament and rich contractors were on one side, and
the interests of the colonists on the other; and in such a case there
was no great difficulty in giving two meanings to a dispatch, or in
telling a Nova Scotian with no seat in parliament or connections or
interest in England that he had made a mistake.

'The Provinces were proceeding to fulfil the conditions, when,
unfortunately, two or three members of the Imperial parliament took a
fancy to add to the cost of the roads as much more as the guarantee
would have saved. It was for their interest that the guarantee should
not be given. It was withdrawn. The faith of England--till then
regarded as something sacred--was violated; and the answer was a
criticism on a phrase--a quibble upon the construction of a sentence,
which all the world for six months had read one way. The secret
history of this wretched transaction I do not seek to penetrate.
Enough is written upon stock-books and in the records of courts in
Canada to give us the proportions of that {120} scheme of jobbery and
corruption by which the interests of British America were overthrown.
But, sir, who believes that if these provinces had ten members in the
Imperial parliament, who believes--and I say it not boastingly--had
Nova Scotia had but one who could have stated her case before six
hundred English gentlemen, that the national faith would have been
sullied or a national pledge withdrawn?'[9]

It was the turning-point in Howe's career. For the first time he had
attempted Imperial work on a great scale; he had put forward h