rants and retarded the
settlement of the island. In New Brunswick the legislature was entirely
occupied with the consideration of measures for the administration of
justice and local affairs in an entirely new country. Party government
had not yet declared itself, and the Loyalists who had founded the
province controlled the legislature for many years until a spirit of
liberalism and reform found full expression and led to the enlargement
of the public liberty.

In Nova Scotia the Loyalists gradually acquired considerable influence
in the government of the province, as the imperial authorities felt it
incumbent on them to provide official positions for those men who had
sacrificed so much for the empire. Their power was increased after the
arrival of Governor John Wentworth--afterwards made a baronet--who had
been the royal governor of New Hampshire, and had naturally a strong
antipathy to democratic principles in any form. In his time there grew
up an official oligarchy, chiefly composed of members of the legislative
council, then embodying within itself executive, legislative and
judicial powers. A Liberal party soon arose in Nova Scotia, not only
among the early New England settlers of the time of Governor Lawrence,
but among the Loyalists themselves, for it is inevitable that wherever
we find an English people, the spirit of popular liberty and the
determination to enjoy self-government in a complete sense will sooner
or later assert itself among all classes of men. The first prominent
leader of the opposition to the Tory methods of the government was one
William Cottnam Tonge, who was for some years in the employ of the naval
department. Sir John Wentworth carried his hostility to the extent of
dismissing him from his naval office and also of refusing to accept him
as speaker of the assembly--the first example in colonial history of an
extreme exercise of the royal prerogative by a governor. Mr. Tonge's
only crime appears to have been his bold assertion from time to time of
the privileges of the house of assembly, as the guardian of the revenues
and expenditures, against the interference of the governor and council.
We find in Nova Scotia, as in the other provinces, during the period in
question, the elements of perpetual discord, which found more serious
expression after the war of 1812-15, and led to important constitutional
changes.

The governors of those times became, from the very nature of their
position,