wn it
back ten or twenty years. Howe trampled the spark under his feet.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa, an unrivalled political tactician was watching
the situation. While {147} the fever in Nova Scotia was at its height,
Sir John Macdonald had refused to say a word. Now that the fever had
run its course, now that the one able leader of the repeal cause
realized the _impasse_ into which he had brought his beloved province,
Macdonald saw that it was the time for him 'from the nettle danger to
pluck the flower safety.' He entered into negotiations with Howe,
employing all his art and all his sagacity. Clearly he put the choice.
Nova Scotia was in the Dominion, and the only way out led direct to
Washington. Was not the only possible course for the greatest Nova
Scotian to sink his personal feelings, and to join in giving to Nova
Scotia her due part in a nation stretching from sea to sea and from the
Arctic to the Great Lakes, puissant and loyal beneath the flag of
Britain?

Against this conclusion Howe fought hard. It meant for him an act of
inconsistency which he well knew his recent allies would stigmatize as
apostasy. But the logic of the situation was too strong for him, and
with noble self-sacrifice he faced it. In January 1869 he entered the
Cabinet of Sir John Macdonald, and by so doing won for Nova Scotia the
better financial terms which removed her {148} most tangible grievance.
By this time most of the leaders of the repeal party were ready for
this step, even though their followers were not. Had Howe sunk his
egoism and consulted them before he crossed the Rubicon, had there been
no telegraph between Ottawa and Halifax, so that he could have come
personally and have been the first to explain to them the improved
financial terms which he had won, and the necessity of his entering the
Cabinet as a pledge of his sincerity, they would probably have been
satisfied. But the telegraph spoiled all, especially as there were men
in the local legislature who were fretting against his leadership.
They felt themselves to be in a false position, from which they could
escape by making Howe the scapegoat. For ten days the only fact that
was made to stand out before all eyes was that the leader of the
anti-confederate and repeal party had taken office under Sir John
Macdonald. The cry was raised, Howe has sold himself; Howe is a
traitor. They condemned him unheard. When he returned to Halifax, old
friends crossed the str