[BURPEE] HOWE AND THE ANTI-CONFEDERATION LEAGUE 413 
of business will take the necessary steps to bring this subject before 
the government and Parliament of Great Britain.” 
Joseph Howe, William Annand, Jared C. Troop and W. H. Smith 
were appointed delegates, to bring the views of the repealers to the 
attention of the British Government. Howe sailed for England on 
February 14th, and the others followed later. Tupper was sent over 
by the Dominion Government to oppose the movement for repeal. 
Howe used all his tact and powers of persuasion to secure the release 
of his province, but without avail. In a despatch dated June 4th, 
1868, from the Duke of Buckingham to Lord Monck, Governor Gen- 
eral of Canada, the Colonial Minister says that he has had an interview 
with the delegates, and has laid before the Queen the address of the 
House of Assembly of Nova Scotia praying for repeal. He discusses 
at some length the complaints of Nova Scotia that no appeal had been 
made to the people, and that the union had not been made subject to 
ratification by the provincial legislatures, and announces the decision 
of the Imperial Government that under all the circumstances it would 
not be warranted in advising the reversal of a measure not merely 
conducive to the strength and welfare of the Province but also import- 
ant to the interests of the whole Empire.* 
In London, Tupper, forseeing the failure of Howe’s mission, de- 
termined to win him if possible to the side of the Dominion. One gets 
interesting and rather amusing glimpses of the meetings between the 
two old political warriors, from both Tupper’s and Howe’s published 
correspondence. 
Tupper writes Macdonald, April 9, 1868: 
“TI called and left a card for Mr. Howe (who was not in) immediately 
after my arrival, and saw Annand and Smith, but made no reference 
to politics. Last Monday morning Howe came to see me here, and we 
spent two hours in the most friendly, I may say unreserved, discussion 
of the whole question. He met me with the observation that he would 
not say that he was glad to see me here, but that he expected me, as 
he knew that under the circumstances I must come. He said that if 
the Government and Parliament refused to do anything, he intended 
to tell the people of Nova Scotia that he was ready to adopt any course 
they might decide upon. I told him that I considered it due to my own 
character as a public man, as well as to the interests of my country, 
to obtain the approval of Nova Scotia to the union; that I had, after 
careful consideration, decided that it could be done despite all opposi- 
tion, and had refused the chairmanship of the Railway Commission 
in order to leave myself untrammelled, and strengthen my hands for 
the work, but that I was tired of fighting, and knew the struggle would 
*Campbell, Nova Scotia, 460-61, 
| Recollections of Sixty Years, 73-4. 

