don, 1857.
Reproduced in Chisholm's 'Speeches and Public
Letters of Joseph Howe.'

JOSEPH HOWE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 144
From a photograph by Notman, taken about 1871.

{1}

CHAPTER I

NOVA SCOTIA

Joseph Howe was in a very special sense at once the child and the
father of Nova Scotia. His love for his native province was deep and
passionate. He was one in whom her defects and excellences could be
seen in bold outline; one who knew and loved her with unswerving love;
who caught the inspiration of her woods, streams, and shores; and who
gave it back in verses not unmeet, in a thousand stirring appeals to
her people, and in that which is always more heroic than words, namely,
civic action and life-service. 'Joe' Howe was Nova Scotia incarnate.
Once, at a banquet somewhere in England, in responding to the toast of
the colonies, he painted the little province he represented with such
tints that the chairman at the close announced, in half fun, half
earnest, that he intended to pack up his portmanteau that night and
start for Nova Scotia, and he advised all {2} present to do the same.
'You boast of the fertility and beauty of England,' said Howe, in a
tone of calm superiority; 'why, there's one valley in Nova Scotia where
you can ride for fifty miles under apple blossoms.' And, again: 'Talk
of the value of land, I know an acre of rocks near Halifax worth more
than an acre in London. Scores of hardy fishermen catch their
breakfasts there in five minutes, all the year round, and no tillage is
needed to make the production continue equally good for a thousand
years to come.' In a speech at Southampton his description of her
climate was a terse, off-hand statement of facts, true, doubtless, but
scarcely the whole truth. 'I rarely wear an overcoat,' said he,
'except when it rains; an old chief justice died recently in Nova
Scotia at one hundred and three years of age, who never wore one in his
life. Sick regiments invalided to our garrison recover their health
and vigour immediately, and yellow fever patients coming home from the
West Indies walk about in a few days.' 'Boys,' he said on one occasion
to a Nova Scotia audience, 'brag of your country. When I'm abroad I
brag of everything that Nova Scotia is, has, or can produce; and when
they beat me at everything else, I {3} turn round on them and say, "How
high does your tide rise?"' He always had them there--no other