[boukinot] 



BUILDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA 



65 



always identical ; for the old judge eventually, as some of his later books 

 show, developed a vein of Tory cynicism. In 1838 he and Mr. Howe 

 went to England in the English ten gun brig " Tyrian," and on the 

 passage were overtaken — and here I give Mr. Howe's own account as it 

 appears in his "Speeches and Letters"^ — by the steamship "Sirius," 

 which was making its trial trip, in defiance of the opinion of Doctor 

 Lasdner, the popular scientist of those days. The captain of the 

 " Tyrian " decided to send his mails by the steamer, and when this was 

 accomplished, the "Sirius " steamed ofï" out of sight while the " Tyrian " 

 was left to roll with flapj^ing sails in a dead-calm. "Such a practical 

 illustration of the contrast between the two motive powers," says the 

 writer of the volume before me " was not likely to be lost upon such men 

 as those who were left behind. On landing, Judges Haliburton and Mr. 



SIR SAMUEL CUNARD, BART. 



Howe went down to Bristol to confer with the owners of the ' Sirius ' 

 and ' Great Western.' In London they discussed the subject with other 

 colonists, and, aided by Henry Bliss and William Crane of New Bruns- 

 wick, endeavoured to combine all the North American interests in an 

 etibrt to induce Her Majestj^'s government to offer such a bounty as 

 would secure to these provinces the advantages of ocean navigation." 

 An able letter was at once addressed by Mr. Howe to Lord Glenelg, then 

 secretary of state for the colonies, urging the imperial importance of 

 continuous steam navigation between England and her dependencies, and 

 the result of this energetic discussion of the question was the announce- 

 ment a few months later that contracts for the conveyance of mails by 

 steam were awarded to Mr. Samtiel Cunard, a Nova Scotian, who won 



1 See vol. I., p. 180. 



Sec. II., 1899. 5. 



