. Allen on the bench. The confederation party
had been so badly beaten in York at the general election that no doubt
was felt by the government that any candidate they might select would be
chosen by a very large majority. The candidate selected by the
government to contest York was Mr. John Pickard, a highly respectable
gentleman, who was engaged in lumbering, and who was extremely popular
in that county, in consequence of his friendly relations with all
classes of the community and the amiability of his disposition. The Hon.
Charles Fisher was brought forward by the confederation party as their
candidate in York, although the hope of defeating Mr. Pickard seemed to
be desperate, for at the previous election Mr. Fisher had received only
1,226 votes against 1,799 obtained by Mr. Needham, who stood lowest on
the poll among the persons elected for York. Mr. Fisher by his efforts
in the York campaign, which resulted in his election, struck a blow at
the anti-confederate government from which it never recovered. His
election was the first dawn of light and hope to the friends of
confederation in New Brunswick, for it showed clearly enough that
whenever the people of the province were given another opportunity of
expressing their opinion on the question of confederation, their verdict
would be a very different one from that which they had given at the
general election. Mr. Fisher beat Mr. Pickard by seven hundred and ten
votes, receiving seven hundred and one votes more than at the general
election, while Mr. Pickard's vote fell five hundred and seventy-two
below that which Mr. Needham had received on the same occasion.

CHAPTER IX

TILLEY AGAIN IN POWER

Among the causes that had assisted to defeat confederation in New
Brunswick, when the question was first placed before the people, was the
active hostility of the lieutenant-governor, Mr. Arthur Hamilton Gordon,
a son of that Earl of Aberdeen who was prime minister of England at the
outbreak of the Crimean War. Mr. Gordon had been a strong advocate of
maritime union and had anticipated that he would be the first governor
of the united province of Acadia, or by whatever name the maritime union
was to be known. He was therefore greatly disappointed and annoyed when
the visit of the Canadians to Charlottetown, in September, 1864, put an
end to the conference which had met for the purpose of arranging the
terms of a union of that character. While a governor cannot tak