of June the legislature met, fresh from the
people, and adopted, by a vote of thirty to eight, a resolution
appointing delegates to arrange with the Imperial authorities a scheme
of union that would secure 'the just rights and interests of New
Brunswick.' The battle was won.

Meanwhile, like the mariner who keeps a vigilant eye upon the weather,
the Tupper government in Nova Scotia observed the proceedings in New
Brunswick with a view to action at the proper moment. The agitation
throughout the province had not affected the {115} position of parties
in the legislature which met in February. The government continued to
treat federation as a non-contentious subject. No reference to it was
made in the governor's speech, and the legislature occupied itself with
other business. The agitation in the country, with Howe leading it,
and William Annand, member for East Halifax and editor of the
_Chronicle_, as his chief associate, went on. Then the debacle of the
anti-confederate party in New Brunswick began to attract attention and
give rise to speculations on what would be the action of the Tupper
government. This was soon to be disclosed. In April, a few days
before the fall of the Smith ministry in New Brunswick, William Miller,
member for Richmond, made a speech in the House which was destined to
produce a momentous effect. His proposal was to appoint delegates to
frame a scheme in consultation with the Imperial authorities, and thus
ignore the Quebec resolutions. To these resolutions Miller had been
strongly opposed. He had borne a leading part with Howe and Annand in
the agitation, although he was always favourable to union in the
abstract and careful on all occasions to say so. Now, however, his
speech provided a means of enabling Nova Scotia to enter the {116}
union with the consent of the legislature, and Tupper was quick to
seize the opportunity by putting it in the form of a motion before the
House. An extremely bitter debate followed; vigorous epithets were
exchanged with much freedom, and Tupper's condemnation of Joseph Howe
omitted nothing essential to the record. But at length, at midnight of
the 10th of April, the legislature, by a vote of thirty-one to
nineteen, adopted the motion which cleared the way for bringing Nova
Scotia into the Dominion.

Miller's late allies never forgave his action on this occasion. He was
accused of having been bribed to desert them. When he was appointed to
the Sena