[BURPEE] . HOWE AND THE ANTI-CONFEDERATION LEAGUE 463 
The House got livelier and better filled when a dog tax bill came up—for you see 
the country gentlemen who could not maybe point out Nova Scotia on the map keep 
fox hounds subject to a tax which interests them more keenly than a Canadian tariff. 
I confess this utter indifference was more mortifying to me than positive opposi- 
tion. I could allow for the action of Watkin, Kinnaird,“ and other Grand Trunk 
members but when I saw English gentlemen sitting where Burke once sat framing 
his indignant sentences against the Government’s disregard for the popular wish 
in the old American colonies I felt that their changed policy, contrasting so remark- 
ably with his was one of the worst signs of the time. It showed that they considered 
Colonists beings as little related to them as the inhabitants of some nameless Chinese 
mud village, and it showed that the complaint so general now in England that this 
Parliament is utterly indifferent to a proper sense or share of responsibility, and 
utterly devoid of the quick sympathies with popular rights which used to ennoble 
the name of the House of Commons is correct. 
This is a fair statement of the case, and I have been thus particular for I wish 
you to form as correct a view of the situation as possible. Poor Nova Scotia! her 
loyalty deserved a better recognition. What will come of it all I would rather try 
not to conjecture—my only hope is that Providence which has so highly endowed 
her with natural resources, and has animated her people with a true spirit of freedom 
will yet deliver Nova Scotia from her present difficulties into a destiny worthy of 
his gifts to her. 
Poor Howe! the disaster tried his spirit very hard—very, very hard. I had to 
do my best to condole with him, but when ever we thought of the noble hand who had 
so materially and generously done their best to assist in the defeat of this iniquitous 
policy, the anticipation of the regret you will all feel deepened ours. 
WM. GARVIE. 
Halifax, April 11, 1867. 
Dear Sir— 
Your letter of the 29 March, has been recd the conclusions you have arrived 
at—That England will leave us to a ‘‘North American Fate’”’ is what we have all 
pretty much realized. The ‘Dominion Govt” will only be an affair ad interim— 
You name it as a “premature independence’”’ but I am not sure if we will only first 
be independent when we become part of the United States—No one would venture 
to name the State of New York as not independent and yet if we drift into an alliance 
with that State among others, we will have full share of her independence. It may 
yet be, that it is best for us that in this case we have not had our own way. But 
it is very hard while the head may reason, upon political good or national benefit— 
for the heart to suffer its strong ties Severed, and we who thought we were loyal 
British Subjects to find, we might have been with as much thanks, preachers of 
Yankee annexation, or any other doctrine which would have lauded American 
Progress—against British Power. 
How our children will laugh at the idea of independent Nova Scotians having 
been governed by such men as Earl Carnarvon and other sprigs of English aristocracy 
when the time comes that Nova Scotia as the Seaboard part of North America 
shares in the Power which dominates over the North Atlantic. 
But dear Sir as regards beating the Delegates and sending men to the Local and 
General Parliament the troubles we have is not in the will of the People but to find 



43 Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird, afterward tenth Baron Kinnaird (1814-1887). Member of Par- 
liament for Perth 1852-78. 
