[BURPEE] HOWE AND THE ANTI-CONFEDERATION LEAGUE 427 
43 Sackville Street. 
3rd August, 1866. 
The Most Honorable 
The Marquis of Normanby. 
My Dear Lord Normanby, 
I now send you Copies of the Newfoundland Petitions!’ to the Lordsand Commons 
and of our own.!% 
The Newfoundlanders have put their case with clearness and decision. To 
transfer the government of that Island to Ottawa would be as absurd as to allow 
Michigan to govern Jamaica, and yet the Delegates would have done it last year 
if they had been able, and would tomorrow commit the Government and Parliament 
of England to this act of cruelty and injustice. The Petition is signed by the prin- 
cipal Merchants of St. John, and by the mass of its male population. 
The Nova Scotian Petition expresses, a little too elaborately perhaps the views 
of our people. It is signed by 18,000 of them which is equal to 1,600,000 of them.?° 
if the populations are contrasted. If, as my friends assure me they will be, the 
signatures are swelled to 40,000, these, being 2/3ds of the enrolled Militia of the 
Province, ought to count for four millions over here. 
The question was very fairly treated in the House of Lords. 
Believe me, 
My Lord, 
Very sincerely Yours, 
JOSEPH HOWE. 
London, 
43 Sackville Street, 
18 Aug., 1866. 
Wm. J. Stairs, Esq. 
My dear Stairs, 
A day or two before Parliament rose I addressed to the Earl of Carnarvon the 
letter of the 6th of August which I enclose. It was answered yesterday by Elliot’s 
Letter of the 17th, a copy of which I send, with our reply and Memo. about the Rail- 
way which went to the Colonial Office yesterday. These papers will show you exactly 
how matters stand. 
On the 16th an extraordinary article appeared in the Money column of the 
Times’! which startled us a good deal and for the moment created the suspicion 
that Carnarvon was pfaying us false. I went at once to Sampson, the financial 
Editor, explained to him that it was full of errors, and in my judgement had no foun- 
dation. He is an old friend, and promised at once to publish any explanation or 
correct any errors that I might point out. Before writing I wanted to satisfy myself 
that the main statement was false and that C. had not been such a fool as to commit 
himself so eggregiously. This morning one of the Delegates has been compelled to 
clear the matter up and it is now apparent that the Colonial Secretary has committed 
himself to nothing and will not till the Canadians arrive. I had today a very long 

18 Printed in Correspondence respecting the proposed union of the British North American Provinces. 
See Bibliography, No. 71. : 
19 See Bibliography, No. 65. 
20 “Of them”’ evidently should read ‘‘over here.”’ 
21 See Appendix. 
