[BURPEE] HOWE AND THE ANTI-CONFEDERATION LEAGUE 423 
Halifax, Nova Scotia. 
July 5, 1866. 
The Hon* Joseph Howe. 
Sir, 
You are aware that at the last general Election in Nova Scotia the subject of a 
Union of the Provinces was never discussed either in the Newspapers or at the 
Hustings, and that the opinions of the people in any legal form were not collected 
either upon the abstract question or upon any form of Union. 
You are aware that it has been announced in the organs of the Provincial Gov- 
ernment that delegates are to be sent to England! in the Steamer of the 19th July, 
with power to arrange in conjunction with Delegates from some of the other Colonies, 
a new Scheme of Government-for British America, which it is designed to embody in 
an Act of the Imperial Parliament, to be passed if those Delegates can induce Her 
Majesty’s Government to assume the responsibility of such a measure. 
The people of Nova Scotia are naturally very anxious to know whether Her 
Majesty’s Government will seriously entertain this proposition, and if so what time 
will be allowed after the measure is prepared and printed, for them to review, and 
should it appear objectionable, petition against it. We have therefore to request 
that you will at once proceed to England and put yourself in communication with 
Her Majesty’s Government in order to ascertain these facts that if necessary steps 
may be taken without delay to prevent the two Houses of Parliament being misled. 
The Scheme of Government arranged at Quebec in 1864, you are aware was dis- 
tasteful to all the Maritime Provinces and could not be presented and carried in any 
one of the four Legislatures then existing. Though Elections have since been held 
in New Brunswick and Newfoundland, the undersigned believe that that Scheme 
could not in either of those Provinces be carried now, and yet they remember with 
grave apprehensions for the future that if they had had the power that most unjust 
and injurious measure would have been forced upon all the Provinces by its framers.? 
A new one is promised now, and it may be better than the last, but whatever it is 
the undersigned believe that it should be most carefully matured and only presented 



1 The Nova Scotia delegates to the London Conference were Charles Tupper, W. A. Henry, Jona- 
than McCully, Adams G. Archibald, and J. W. Ritchie. Howe refers to these elsewhere as ‘‘four law- 
yers and a doctor undertaking to annex Nova Scotia to Canada.’’ Sir Charles Tupper, Bart. (1821— 
1915), need not be otherwise described. Henry (1816-1888), became a member of the Government of 
Nova Scotia in 1852, Solicitor-General 1854, Provincial Secretary 1856, Solicitor-General 1859, and 
again in 1863, Attorney-General 1866. McCully (1809-1877) was Solicitor-General in 1860, member 
Legislative Council 1866, appointed Supreme Court of N.S. 1870. Archibald (1814-1892) was 
Attorney General 1860-63, Secretary of State in Dominion Cabinet 1867, Lieutenant Governor of 
Manitoba 1870-72, and of Nova Scotia 1873-83, knighted 1885. Ritchie was a member of the 
Legislative Council and Solicitor General in 1866, appointed to Senate at Confederation, and in 1870 
to Supreme Court of N. S., died 1890. New Brunswick was represented by S. L. Tilley (1818-1896), 
John Johnson (1818-1868), Peter Mitchell, (1824-1899), Charles Fisher (1808-1880), and R. D. Wil- 
mot (1809-1891). Canada sent John A. Macdonald (1815-1891), G. E. Cartier (1814-1873), A. T. 
Galt (1817-1893), William McDougall (1822-1905), H. L. Langevin (1826-1906), and W. P. 
Howland (1811-1907). ; 
2In New Brunswick, Tilley appealed to the people on the Confederation issue in 1865 and was 
defeated. Albert Smith, who succeeded him, held office for only a short time, and was followed by 
Peter Mitchell. Mitchell went to the country on the question of union with Canada, and was sustained. 
The legislature endorsed Confederation by a large majority. In Nova Scotia, Tupper took advantage 
of the favourable action of New Brunswick, and without appealing to the people, secured the approval 
of the legislature. In both provinces the Lieutenant-Governors, under instruction from the Imperial 
Government, threw all their influence on the side of union. In Newfoundland and Prince Edward 
Island both legislature and people were, for various reasons, unalterably opposed to Confederation. 
Hannay, New Brunswick, II, 229-264; Tupper, Recollections, 66-71; Pope, Memoirs of Macdonald, 
I, 295-298, 358-360. Macdonald, Confederation Movement in Prince Edward Island. 
