decided between parties at the
polls. The result was a victory for the Liberals, and as soon as the
assembly met a direct motion of want of confidence was carried against
the government, and for the first time in the history of the country the
governor called to his council men exclusively belonging to the
opposition in the popular branch. Mr. Howe was not called upon to form a
cabinet--his quarrel with Lord Falkland had to be resented somehow--but
the governor's choice was Mr. James Boyle Uniacke, who gave a prominent
position in the new government to the great Liberal, to whom responsible
government owed its final success in this maritime province.

Responsible government was not introduced into Prince Edward Island
until 1851, when an address on the prosperous state of the island was
presented to the imperial authorities, who at once consented to concede
responsible government on the condition that adequate provision was made
for certain public officers affected by the new order of things. The
leader of the new government was the Honourable George Coles.

In the history of the past there is much to deplore, the blunders of
English ministers, the want of judgment on the part of governors, the
selfishness of "family compacts," the arrogance of office-holders, the
recklessness of Canadian politicians. But the very trials of the crisis
through which Canada passed brought out the fact, that if English
statesmen had mistaken the spirit of the Canadian people, and had not
always taken the best methods of removing grievances, it was not from
any studied disposition to do these countries an injustice, but rather
because they were unable to see until the very last moment that, even in
a colony, a representative system must be worked in accordance with
those principles that obtained in England, and that it was impossible to
direct the internal affairs of dependencies many thousand miles distant
through a colonial office, generally managed by a few clerks.

Of all the conspicuous figures of these memorable times, which already
seem so far away from Canadians of the present day, who possess so many
political rights, there are several who stand out more prominently than
all others, and represent the distinct types of politicians, who
influenced the public mind during the first half of the nineteenth
century, when responsible government was in slow process of evolution
from the political struggles which arose in the operation of