to members of Parliament out of the public revenue, or otherwise; and the accounts of what monies have been issued or paid for secret service, and to members of Parliament, presented to the House by the said commissioners. And the examination of Mr. Francis Rainsford; and also the information given, upon oath, by the Lord Viscount Falkland before the said commissioners, formerly presented to the House from the said commissioners, were read.

"And the Lord Falkland was heard in his place, and then withdrew. And a motion being made, and the question being put, that the Lord Falkland, being a member of this House, by begging and receiving two thousand pounds from His Majesty, contrary to the ordinary method of issuing and bestowing the King's money, is guilty of a high misdemeanor and breach of trust,' the House divided. The yeas were 143; nays 126. Tellers for the yeas, Mr. Harley, Sir Rowland Gwin. Tellers for the nays, Sir Robert Rich, Mr. Biddulph.

"Resolved, That the Lord Falkland be committed to the Tower during the pleasure of this House, and that the speaker do issue his warrant accordingly."

come.

Here, my Lord, is a noble " "beggar," a "mendicant Falkland!" He ought to teach the family modesty and common sense for a century to And, bear in mind, that he was sent to the Tower by a larger majority than Your Lordship has yet been able to get to vote for the absurd resolutions you have from time to time aimed at me. I may be told that it is unfair to revive this little trait of family history. So it would be, my Lord, but for two reasons-first, because all the good "done in the flesh" of the Falklands is thrown in our faces, whenever we hint at an imperfection in the "tenth transmitter;" and secondly, because there lies upon the table of the Assembly at this moment some rather curious evidence, that certain propensities run in the blood; and that "mendicant" Governors are sometimes sent to Colonies, where they help themselves, in violation of law and "contrary to the ordinary method of issuing and bestowing the King's money."

To that evidence I may deem it my duty, before Your Lordship quits our shores, to direct your attention, in return for some favors showered upon me by authority." In the meanwhile, having finished the "lesson for the day," I beg to assure Your Lordship of my distinguished consideration.

March, 1846.

JOSEPH HOWE.

LETTER II.

MY LORD, On returning to town on Monday evening, I found that your official printer had attributed to me the authorship of an anonymous letter, that I had never seen, and made it the foundation of a grave charge of treason. This small matter I must settle with Your Lordship; for though the fire burnt the cat, when my chesnuts are meddled with, I shall lay the lash over the monkey. Let me deal with the letter first, and with the charge afterwards.

The letter of a "Pioneer" was sent to the Chronicle office by a very respectable man, of a high conservative family, but whose interests have been injuriously affected by the constant fluctuations in the commercial policy of England. He wrote as he felt, I presume, and is responsible for his own opinions. If necessary, he will avow them openly; at all events, he will do me the justice to acknowledge, that his letter never came to the office till I was in the country; that I never saw it till after my return, and that the inferences of your scribe are as unfounded as they are malicious. The internal evidence, in the letter itself, was sufficient to prove that I was not its author. Your Lordship knows, your scribe knows, all the world know, that I am a free trader. Ten years ago I denounced the corn laws, and have steadily advocated, both as an editor and a legislator, the abolition of every restriction, British or Colonial, by which human industry is hampered, and the great family of mankind is broken into mutually oppressive and perpetually hostile factions. I could not have written the letter of "Pioneer," unless I was so stupidly inconsistent as to denounce what I had prayed for, and to mourn over the success of principles of political economy that I had steadily and openly approved. I was a free trader, when Sir Robert Peel advocated monopoly; I was writing against the corn laws when you were an idle ensign in the army. Whatever you may do, my Lord, I am very apt to adhere to opinions deliberately formed; and one of them is, that a Governor who keeps a reckless creature in pay, to defame those whom he happens to hate, will be very apt to create more disaffection than he subdues. In this case, as in most others in which your instrument has been employed, Your Lordship perceives how easy it is to dash his superstructure of falsehood about his ears.

The charge of disaffection and disloyalty, I disdain to answer. Your Lordship cannot make me a rebel. I know how to distinguish between authority, and the abuse of it; between arbitrary principles of Colonial government, and a bad Governor. Whatever the Falklands may have done for the permanency of British dominion on this continent, the

Howes have done their share. One of them fell in the woods of Ticonderoga, fighting against the French; another led up the British Grenadiers on the slopes of Bunker Hill; a third rests in the churchyard beneath your eye, who abandoned the country of his birth that he might maintain his allegiance to his Sovereign; and there is another, my Lord, whose indomitable good humor, and steady nerves, the highest amount of executive folly and provocation cannot overcome; who knows the difference between curbing the insolence of the beadle and setting fire to the parish; between a corrupt judge and the majesty of the laws; between the Sovereign who should be reverenced and the Viceroy who may be despised.

Whenever the " British yoke" becomes burthensome to North America, it will be broken like a pack-thread, and I would be one of the first to break it; but I am not one of those who believe that relieving the people of England of their burdens, is an injury to the Colonists; that these Provinces are to be preserved by protective duties; by taxes on the food which the starving millions in the mother country consume. The new commercial policy I heartily approve; but if I did not, I certainly should not see, in a blunder in economy and finance, the seeds of a political revolution. No, my Lord, if I am ever driven to discuss the question of separation from England-which God forbid it will neither be done in a corner, nor under an anonymous signature; nor upon a question of reducing taxes upon bread and timber. It will be when I am convinced that the British Constitution will not flourish upon this continent; that responsible government, as I understand it, has been formally and gravely denied. That day, I believe, to be very distant. The British Constitution, I still hope, will flourish in North America. And, notwithstanding Your Lordship's efforts to embroil us all, I have an abiding confidence in the corrective which the new system supplies to the disorders produced by your folly. Your Lordship, I fear, while wandering in the south of France, will have the exquisite mortification of beholding Nova Scotia a peaceful Province, and Joseph Howe a loyal man.

On one point, your scribe has been correctly informed. I am about "to retire from the metropolis, and turn up the soil of Musquodoboit.” With this number, my connection with the press ceases for the present; but be comforted, I shall not be so far away but that we can "take sweet counsel" together. I shall be a peaceful agriculturist, no doubt; but, hark ye, my Lord, in order that we may be good friends, you had better keep your pigs out of my garden and not attempt to plant tares among my wheat.

April 9, 1846.

JOSEPH HOWE.

LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL.

MY LORD, During the summer of 1839, I did myself the honor to address to Your Lordship four letters on the subject of Colonial government. Your Lordship, with the love of rational liberty which characterizes your family, but with the caution of a prudent statesman, was at that time dealing with the questions raised by Lord Durham's report, and seemed embarrassed by doubts and apprehensions, which it was the design of that brochure to remove. I have not the vanity to suppose that the pamphlet is remembered, or that a copy of it is still in your possession; but I have the satisfaction to reflect, that, slowly permeating through the mass of British and Colonial society, and tested, with more or less of sincerity, by governors and legislators ever since, the main principles it advocated have, by their own intrinsic value, forced their way, until millions of British subjects regard them as indispensable guarantees for the peaceful development of their resources and the integrity of the Empire.

Deeply engrossed, during the last seven years, with a series of com mercial and political questions in which the people of the United Kingdom felt a lively interest, Your Lordship has had but little leisure to devote to a minute inspection of the progress which the Colonists were making in the science of self-government. Called again, by the command of your Sovereign, and the confidence of Parliament, to the administration of public affairs, it now becomes indispensable to the satisfactory discharge of your high duties, that you should study with a thoughtful accuracy of investigation, the steps by which these noble possessions of the Crown have advanced in the march of improvement; and that you should inquire whether there may not be means, but partially developed or wholly unapplied, by which all fears of separation between Great Britain and her North American Provinces may be forever set at rest. Canning boasted that, by recognizing the independence of South America, he had called a new world into existence: may it be Your Lordship's boast, that by admitting the just claims, developing the resources, and anticipating the natural and honorable aspirations of North Americans, you have woven links of love between them and their mother country, and indefinitely postponed all desire for independence.

This elevated species of ambition the people of British America ascribe to Your Lordship. The part you took in Lord Durham's mission -the support you gave to Lord Sydenham-the dispatches-which,

*

however variously interpreted, were truly described by him, who declared that they conferred "a new and improved constitution on these Colonies," furnish abundant proofs, that, in Colonial, as in all other reforms, your mind has advanced in the right direction. That you have had doubts, and apprehensions, and difficulties to contend with, has not impaired our confidence; that these have been overcome, your recent declaration of the policy your government intends to pursue, is decisive and gratifying evidence.

Reposing in a quiet nook of my own country, after seven toilsome years spent in giving practical proofs to its people of the value of the principles advocated in 1839, I read that declaration; and, while the tears glistened in my eyes, I felt that, however refreshing the seclusion, this was not the moment to leave a government, honestly disposed, and thus publicly pledged to work out their plans, without the encouragement that sympathy and the lights which Colonial experience on this side the water, could supply. I mused upon the boundless field of labor Your Lordship was about to enter; the herculean tasks which lay everywhere around you; the onerous cares, which, as First Minister of the Crown, you were called upon to assume, and I felt that a man so placed, was not only entitled to hear the kindly "God speed" of the Colonist, but to have the benefit of every ray of light that might guide him on his way.

When legislating for the mother country, Your Lordship has the aid of representatives and colleagues from every portion of the three kingdoms. No English interest can be overlooked, because every section of the country can hold constant communication with the Cabinet, through Parliamentary or other agents. Scotchmen convey to the Councils of their Sovereign, and infuse into the discussions of the Legislature, the facts, impressions, and even prejudices, without a knowledge of which there can be no successful statesmanship; and even Ireland, unequal and unjust as her portion of parliamentary and executive influence is, has yet a share. Her voice, even when disregarded, is still heard; one hundred and five members enforce her opinions in Parliament; able pens discuss questions which concern her in every part of the kingdom; and her national associations, and the ceaseless activity of her selected leaders, make her voice authoritative, if not potential, in each crisis of affairs. To deal wisely with countries so situated, though often perplexing, is not impracticable: there is a fullness of information, an ever swelling or receding stream of public sentiment, and an abundance of fellow-laborers,

Sir John Harvey.