82 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



he was right, and that was in l)elievini( tliat the energetic and, in some 

 respects, hasty action of the Nova Scotia leaders of confederation was 

 certain to create a bitterness of feeling against any scheme of union, 

 which might sooner or later endanger even Imperial connection. When 

 Howe gave up the fight against confederation, and accepted the " better 

 terms," which were the result of the contest he fought from 18(J5 to 1868, 

 it was with the honest conviction that no other course was open to one 

 who valued the preservation of British interests on this continent. He 

 understood above all other statesmen the value of confederation if fairly 

 worked out, and the dangers of isolation ; and when he had won for his 

 province more favourable linancial terras he withdrew from a hostility 

 which was not reconcilable with his former advocacy of a scheme of union 

 and with his desire to perpetuate British institutions on this northern half 

 of America. His action at this critical time in our political history lost 

 him many staunch friends in his own province, and no doubt he was, 

 until his death, sometimes an unhappy man when he fretted under the 

 difficulty of bringing his associates and supporters of u long political 

 career to understand the loftiness of his motives and the true patriotism 

 that underlay his whole conduct at this critical stage in the history of 

 the Canadian Dominion. 



Howe left behind him two volumes ' of speeches and addresses which 

 he delivered in the course of his long and chequered career, with an 

 appendix containing the letters he wrote to Lord Eussell on responsible 

 government — the ablest exposition of the subject written by any of the 

 actors in those stirring times. These volumes have on the title page the 

 name of William Annand as the editor, but it is well known that Mr. 

 Howe himself collated and corrected all these speeches and letters 

 which cover the most momentous period in the history of Nova Scotia. 

 Mr. Annand was chief!}' noted as tlie publisher of The Morning Chronicle 

 and Nova Scotian, the organs of the Liberal party, and as the friend and 

 follower of Joseph Howe for many years. Intellectually he was "weak 

 but his paper and his friendship gave him a sort of factitious weight in 

 public affairs. It was men like Howe, Jonathan McCally, and other 

 strong writers in the Liberal party who, before 18G7, gave vigour to the 

 editorial columns of The Chronicle. However, Mr. Annand thought he 

 saw his opportunity when Mr. Howe entered the dominion government, 

 to become a leader himself, and refused to bow to his former idol, but 

 used his best etforts to destroy his usefulness in the province. While the 

 friendship was real, and Mr. Annand was nominally (editing Howe's 

 " Life and Letters," he might have performed a useful task if he could 

 have actually devoted himself to give us an insight into his great friend's 



i"The speeche.s aud Public Letters of the Hon. Joseph Howe, edited by W. 

 Annand, M.P.P., Boston, Halifax and Montreal ; 2 vols., 1858." 



