ng friends in the House, or
elsewhere, to press their claims. As I cannot be on the spot, and have
no such aids to rely upon, will you do me the favour, when such matters
may be fairly pressed, to urge:

'1. That eighteen years of parliamentary and official life ought to
have trained me to comprehend and to administer colonial government.

'2. That mainly by my exertions, the constitution of my native
province was remodelled and established upon sound principles.

'3. That a system of public works, devised by me, and now rapidly
advancing, is {125} regarded as so important to the prosperity of Nova
Scotia and of the provinces generally that all parties acknowledge
their value and give me their support.

'4. That, irrespective of colonial interests or feelings, these works,
by which troops can be conveyed in a few hours from the depot at
Halifax to the Gulf of St Lawrence or Bay of Fundy, and regiments of
militia from the eastern and western counties can be concentrated for
the defence of its citadel, arsenals, and dockyard, ought to be
considered in any comparison in which mere military or naval service
may be supposed to outweigh my claims. When completed, these works may
fairly be contrasted as a means of defence with all that your engineers
have done in the Maritime Provinces for half a century.'

[Illustration: JOSEPH HOWE. From a painting by T. Debaussy, London,
1831. Reproduced in Chisholm's _Speeches and Public Letters of Joseph
Howe_]

Attempts in 1857 to approach Mr Labouchere through the
lieutenant-governor, Sir Gaspard Le Marchant, and through his brother,
Sir Denis, a well-known literary man, failed, but in 1858 Lord Derby,
whom Howe had known earlier as Lord Stanley, became prime minister, and
Howe renewed his claim. With statesmanlike intuition he saw the
possibilities of the Pacific slope, now, by the {126} Oregon Treaty,
shared between Great Britain and the United States, and asked for the
governorship of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, which he thought
should be united under the name of British Oregon. Here he could guide
the infant steps of a vaster Nova Scotia; here were mountain and valley
and sea, farm and forest and fisheries; here were international
problems, not only of relations with the United States, but with the
awakening East. Lord Derby's answer was delayed, through no fault of
his own, and when in November Howe brought out an edition of his
collected speeches and p