acification of Canada and the
reconstruction of its constitution. While a large proportion of the
people of the colonies looked with favour upon the idea of a political
union, there was in all of them a large body of objectors who were
steadily opposed to it. People of that kind are to be found in all
countries, and they have existed in all ages of the world's history.
They are the persons who see in every new movement a thousand
difficulties which cannot be surmounted. Their minds are constructed on
the principle of rejecting all new ideas, and clinging to old forms and
systems long after they have lost their vitality. They are a class who
look back for precedents for any step of a political character which it
is proposed to take, and who judge of everything by the standard of some
former age. They seem to forget that precedents must be created some
time or another, and that the present century has as good a right to
create precedents as any of its predecessors. To these people every
objection that could be urged against confederation was exaggerated and
magnified, and whenever any proposal was made which seemed to tend
towards the union of the colonies, their voices were heard upon the
other side. We need not doubt the honesty or loyalty of these objectors,
or consider that they were unfavourable either to British connection or
to the building up of the empire. It was merely their misfortune that
they were constitutionally adverse to change, and could not see any
merit in a political movement which involved the idea of novelty.

For some time the principal advocate of confederation in the Maritime
Provinces was the Hon. Joseph Howe, a man of such ability and force of
character that on a wider stage he might have risen to eminence, and
ranked amongst the world's great statesmen.[10] It is impossible indeed
not to regret that so great a man, one so imperial in his instincts and
views, should have been condemned to spend his life within the bounds of
one small province.

{ATTITUDE OF COLONIAL OFFICE}

The question of the political union of the British North American
provinces was brought up in the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia in
1854, and then the leaders of both parties, the Hon. Mr. Johnson for the
Conservatives, and the Hon. Mr. Howe for the Liberals, united in
advocating the measure, and in depicting the advantage which would
accrue from it not only to Nova Scotia, but to every British province in
North Americ