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States on payment of an insignificant charge, and a duty existed on American flour. This House can also imagine the consternation and dread excited in the back settlements of the country by the vivid and heartrending pictures drawn by my hon. friend of the youth and manhood of the country being taken from their homes to protect the interminable line of the Canadian frontier. While the people were told on the one hand that they must resort to direct taxation to sustain the local services of the country, Mr. Howe had everywhere asserted the statement made tonight, that the first effect of Confederation would be to increase the indirect taxation of the country 50 per cent. It would be no doubt gratifying to the House to know that the financial position of Nova Scotia was so good; but the Finance Minister, who had to find the money, would show the House that so far the Dominion had not made much out of that province. The truth was, that to complete the public works on her own responsibility she would have been obliged to largely reduce the expenditures for the leading services or increase her tariff to at least 15 per cent.

Then it must not be forgotten that the recent election was run under a franchise created by the Government of my hon. friend, and which came into operation for the first time at the last election. In addition to all this, the Government was obliged just before the dissolution to bring in a new Representation Bill in order to adapt the local Constitution to the new state of things under the union. We were thus compelled to reduce largely the representation of several counties, an act in itself extremely repulsive to the electors. The popular cry was raised that the union, irrespective of its merits, had been forced on the people in an arbitrary and unconstitutional manner.

I need not, in this House I am sure, defend the mode in which the Union Act was carried by the Imperial Parliament, based upon the action of large majorities in the legislatures of all the provinces affected by that Act. Pitt

and Peel, and all the most eminent statesmen of England, have in the most unmistakable terms asserted the right of Parliament to deal with any question, constitutional or otherwise, which in their judgment the good of the country demanded. My hon. friend himself, and all the leading public men in Nova Scotia, had from time to time recorded their opinion in favour of the colonies being united precisely in the mode adopted in this instance. Yet unionists and anti-unionists alike were called upon to denounce the mode as an invasion of their rights, and punish those who carried the measure. Notwithstanding all these advantages in going to the polls, the House will be surprised to learn that my hon. friend Mr. Howe and his supporters failed to induce one-half of the electors of the province to go to the polls and record their votes in their favour. I have made the following calculation up with all the care in my power, and will be glad to submit my figures to the scrutiny of my hon. friend. The unionists contested all but three counties in the province. In those three I have given the unionists one-third and two-thirds to the other side. There are about 48,000 voters in the province. Of them about 10,000 did not go to the polls at all, and of the remainder about 15,000 voted for the union candidates and 22,500 for their opponents, giving them a majority of about 7,500 votes in all.

But, Sir, I am not prepared to admit that a majority of the electors have pronounced against the union or in favour of its repeal. Nay, more, Sir; I am prepared to show the House that my hon. friend himself, and many of his leading supporters, went to the country prepared to give this union a fair trial. My hon. friend (Mr. Howe) at a large meeting at Mason Hall, at Halifax, previous to the election, said: "Let us hope that they (the Canadians) will act justly. If they do, we should aid them to work the new system fairly"; and subsequently referring to the pledge then given, the hon. gentleman, in a letter addressed to the people of Canada

on June 18th last, over his own signature said: "I, having expressed my determination to bow to the paramount authority of Parliament and try the experiment, am not likely to be deterred by necessary forms," etc. Mr. Power, one of the members elected to represent the metropolitan constituency of Halifax in this Parliament, gave the following pledge to the electors in presence of his leader and colleague (Mr. Jones), who also represents the county of Halifax: "I will not detain you longer, but will conclude by saying that if you elect Mr. Jones and myself to the Dominion Parliament the interests of Nova Scotia will not suffer at our hands. We are charged with intending to countenance factious opposition. No such thing. We have certainly given the scheme a conscientious and consistent opposition, but are now disposed, if we go to Ottawa, and find it to work even moderately well, to let it have a fair trial." The hon. member for Guysborough, who led the opposition to union in the Nova Scotia Legislature at the last session on the ground that it had not been submitted to the electors, and who ably advocated those views, took a subsequent occasion to say on the floor of the House that now that the Imperial Act had become the law of the land, he was prepared to bow to its authority, and give his best aid to carry on the legislation of the country under the new circumstances in which we were placed. While Mr. Campbell, who made this statesmanlike and patriotic declaration, was returned by acclamation, Mr. Annand, who pledged himself to repeal, was defeated at the polls. I ask my hon. friend who has blamed the unionists so severely for acting without the question having been fairly submitted to the people, how he can, in the presence of facts like these, use the power he obtained for the purpose of endeavouring to destroy and break down this union before giving it that fair trial to which he stands pledged before the people? Can my hon. friend expect that the Imperial Parliament, who passed this Act with a petition against it, signed, according to

Mr. Annand's declaration, by "about 40,000 petitioners," break faith with this great confederation at the instance of representatives who only succeeded in polling about half that number of electors, and upon the pledge that they would give this measure a "fair trial"?

No man is in a worse position to urge objections to the mode in which this measure was passed than the hon. member who has just addressed the House, as it is well known that he spent years in advocating a system of responsible government by which the affairs of the country should be controlled according to the wishes of the majority of the people's representatives. What guarantee can my hon. friend give the Imperial Government that the same reaction will not take place in Nova Scotia that was witnessed in New Brunswick, where one year an overwhelming majority of the electors declared against the union and the next a still larger majority polled their votes in favour of it? I am not without hope, Mr. Speaker, that my hon. friend will yet consider his position on this question, and assume the same statesmanlike and patriotic position which the former opponents of union representing New Brunswick have taken. I read with great pleasure the manly declaration made by my hon. friend (Mr. Anglin) at Montreal the other night-a declaration that did honour to the head and the heart of that gentleman-that although he had been conscientiously opposed to the union, he was now prepared to give his aid to work it out in the manner best calculated to promote the good of our common country. Sir, I would rejoice to see my hon. friend from Nova Scotia in the same way assume a position that would enable the country to avail itself of the great ability he possesses. He says that the Government could not give him or those who act with him anything that he could honourably accept. It would, of course, be impossible for any Government to strengthen the hand of those who declare their intention to break down the Constitution of the country whenever they obtain the power. But my hon. friend

must see that his position renders it equally impossible for him to aid a constitutional opposition in the responsible and important Parliamentary functions they are called upon to discharge, as nothing would necessarily paralyse an opposition so completely as being associated with parties hostile to the existence of the integrity of the country and anxious to disintegrate it.

Under these circumstances, I put it seriously to my hon. friend whether the obligations which he has assumed by taking a seat in this Parliament do not bind him, at all events, to give that fair trial to the existing institutions of the country which the electors of Nova Scotia had a right to expect from his declarations previous to the election ?

I make these observations from no apprehension that the union of these provinces can in the slightest degree be endangered by any course which the hon. member, or those who sustain him, may take, but in order to avert the evil to our common country, and especially to my own province, likely to result from this mischievous agitation for repeal.

My hon. friend says that he has been charged with disloyalty. Far be it from me to assail the reputation of any man except upon the clearest evidence, but when the delegates were charged with being traitors to their country, we felt it right to call attention to the striking fact that, while not a Fenian or annexationist or traitor could be found within our ranks, every man of that class openly proclaimed their sympathy with the opponents of union. Although this Confederation is entirely safe from the assaults of all, I cannot be indifferent to the injury that may be inflicted upon us among those who do not understand the question by such speeches as that delivered by the hon. member for Hants to-night. The avowed hostility to the union will encourage those who are anxious for our downfall, and the declaration by a member of this House that we are weak and defenceless will invite aggression.

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