h Mr. A. H. Gillmor, a very strong Liberal. The Hon. A.
J. Smith, also a Liberal, had little in common with his
attorney-general, Mr. Allen, who was a Conservative. Mr. Odell, the
postmaster-general, represented the old Family Compact more thoroughly
than any other man who could have been chosen to fill a public office in
New Brunswick, for his father and grandfather had held the office of
provincial secretary for the long term of sixty years. As he was a man
of no particular capacity, and had no qualification for high office, and
as he was, moreover, a member of the legislative council, his
appointment to such a position was extremely distasteful to many who
were strongly opposed to confederation. The Hon. Bliss Botsford, of
Moncton, who became surveyor-general, was another individual who added
no strength to the government. In a cabinet consisting of four men in
the government who might be classed as Liberals, and five who might be
properly described as Conservatives, room was left for many differences
and quarrels over points of policy, to say nothing of patronage, after
the great question of confederation had been disposed of. Local feelings
also were awakened by the make-up of the government, for the North Shore
people could not but feel that their interests were in danger of being
neglected, as instead of having the attorney-generalship and the
surveyor-generalship, which had been theirs in the previous government,
they had to be content with a single member in the government, without
office, in the person of Mr. Richard Hutchinson, who, as the
representative of Gilmour, Rankine & Co., the great lumber house of the
North Shore, was extremely unpopular, even in the county which had
elected him. The Hon. Robert Duncan Wilmot was perhaps the most
dissatisfied man of any, with the new cabinet in which he found himself.
He had not been a fortnight in the government before he began to realize
the fact that his influence in it was quite overshadowed by that of Mr.
Smith and Mr. Anglin, although neither of them held any office. Mr.
Wilmot was a man of ability, and of strong and resolute will, so that
this condition of affairs became very distasteful to him and his
friends, and led to consequences of a highly important character.

{DISSENSIONS IN THE GOVERNMENT}

The new government had not been long in existence before rumours of
dissensions in its ranks became very common. Mr. Wilmot made no secret
to his friends of his