vernor
succeeded in reforming the procedure of the higher courts of judicature
and in establishing district courts after the model of Upper Canada.
Altogether, twenty-one ordinances were passed which had the force of
law. They were indispensable, in Thomson's opinion, in paving the way
for the Union. He was under no illusions as to his methods. 'Nothing
but a despotism could have got them through. A House of Assembly,
whether single or double, would have spent ten years at them,' he
writes, with perfect truth.

The Maritime Provinces next claimed his {51} attention, as they came
within the scope of his commission. In Nova Scotia, likewise, a
struggle for responsible government was in progress, but with striking
differences. The protagonist of the movement, Howe, was the very
reverse of a separatist. He was passionately attached to Britain and
British institutions, and he thought not in terms of his little
province, but of the Empire. Over-topping all other politicians of his
day in native power and breadth of vision, he was successful in working
out the problem of responsible government by purely constitutional
methods, without a symptom of rebellion, the loss of a single life or
any _deus ex machina_ dictator or pacificator from across the seas.
Howe, indeed, was fitted to educate statesmen in the true principles of
democratic government, as his famous letters to Lord John Russell
testify. Howe's achievement must be compared with the failure of
Mackenzie and Papineau, if his true greatness is to appear. When
Thomson and he met, they found that they were at one in principle and
in respect to the measures necessary to bring about the desired
reforms. That month of July 1840 was a very busy one for the
governor-general. He reached Halifax on the ninth and left on {52} the
twenty-eighth for Quebec. In the meantime he had met many men,
discussed many measures, gauged the situation correctly, drafted a
clear memorandum of it, and made a flying visit to St John and
Fredericton. He found New Brunswick happy and contented, a very oasis
of peace in the howling wilderness of colonial politics. His policy
was to get into personal touch with every part of his government and to
see it with his own eyes. On his way back to Montreal from Quebec he
made a detour through the Eastern Townships. Everywhere he increased
his already great popularity.

Apart from his natural and commendable desire to inform himself by the