=Source.=--The open letters of Joseph Howe of Nova Scotia to the
Colonial Secretary, Lord John Russell, 1839, printed in Howe's
_Speeches and Public Letters_, Vol. II. Boston, 1858.
The city of Liverpool shall again serve us for the purposes of
illustration. Turn back to the passages where I have described a
Mayor, ignorant of everything, surrounded by irresponsible but
cunning advisers; who, for their own advantage, embroil him with a
majority of the citizens, while his countenance, and the patronage
created by the taxes levied upon the city, are monopolised by
a miserable minority of the whole; and insulted and injured
thousands, swelling with indignation, surround him on every side.
After your Lordship has dwelt upon this scene of heartburning and
discontent--of general dissatisfaction among the citizens--of
miserable intrigue and chuckling triumph, indulged by the few who
squander the resources and decide on the interests of the many, but
laugh at their murmurs and never acknowledge their authority--let
me beg of you to reflect whether matters would be made better or
worse, if the Mayor of Liverpool was bound, in every important
act of his administration, to ask the direction of, and throw the
responsibility on, another individual, who never saw the city, who
knows less about it than even himself, and who resides, not in
London, at the distance of a day's coaching from him, but across
the Atlantic, in Halifax, Quebec or Toronto, and with whom it is
impossible to communicate about anything within a less period than
a couple of months. Suppose that this gentleman in the distance
possesses a veto upon every important ordinance by which the city
is to be watched, lighted and improved--by which docks are to be
formed, trade regulated, and one-third of the city revenues (drawn
from sources beyond the control of the popular branch) dispensed.
And suppose that nearly all whose talents or ambition lead them
to aspire to the higher offices of the place, are compelled to
take, once or twice in their lives, a voyage across the Atlantic,
to pay their court to him--to solicit his patronage, and intrigue
for the preferment, which, under a better system, would naturally
result from manly competition and eminent services within the city
itself. Your Lordship is too keen sighted, and I trust too frank,
not to acknowledge that no form of government could well be devised
more ridiculous than this; that under such no British city could
be expected to prosper; and that with it no body of her Majesty's
subjects, within the British islands themselves, would ever be
content. Yet this, my Lord, is an illustration of your own theory;
this is the system propounded by Lord Normanby,[5] as the best the
present cabinet can devise. And may I not respectfully demand,
why British subjects in Nova Scotia any more than their brethren
in Liverpool, should be expected to prosper or be contented under
it; when experience has convinced them that it is miserably
insufficient and deceptive, repugnant to the principles of the
Constitution they revere, and but a poor return for the steady
loyalty which their forefathers and themselves have maintained on
all occasions?
One of the greatest evils of the Colonial Constitution, as
interpreted by Your Lordship, is, that it removes from a Province
every description of responsibility, and leaves all the higher
functionaries at liberty to lay every kind of blame at the door of
the Secretary of State. The Governor, if the Colonists complain,
shrugs his shoulders, and replies that he will explain the
difficulty in his next despatch, but in the meantime his orders
must be obeyed.