ecutive he was indisputably the
foremost figure in the province. To him the Cabinet turned so often
for advice in hours of crisis that he became known as the 'government
cooper'; and a government which is known to depend upon a power behind
the scenes is invariably weakened.

In 1854 the Crimean War with Russia had broken out. Great Britain had
enjoyed profound peace since Waterloo, and the mechanism of the War
Office was rusty and inadequate. She soon became hard pressed for
troops, and {131} under the Foreign Enlistment Act Howe was sent, in
1855, by the lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia to the United States
with the object of getting men to Halifax, there to be sworn in. It
was a delicate and unthankful task. Men did not come forward with
enthusiasm, and Howe was driven to employ doubtful methods and doubtful
agents. The sympathy of the United States was with Russia, a sympathy
especially shown by the thousands of Roman Catholic Irish who had
arrived in the past ten years. As a result of the attempted
enlistments, Mr Crampton, the British ambassador, was given his
passports by the American government; in New York Howe was mobbed, and
compelled to escape from his hotel through a window. Meanwhile, the
Irish in Nova Scotia had been roused against him. He returned from a
mission on which he had hoped to win Imperial reputation under a cloud
of failure, out of pocket, and with the Catholic vote, for the past
twenty years his sheet-anchor, alienated.

Other misfortunes followed. Of late there had been rising into
prominence in the Conservative ranks a country doctor, Charles Tupper
by name. In 1852 he had demanded to be heard at one of Howe's
meetings. 'Let {132} us hear the little doctor by all means,' said
Howe, with contemptuous generosity. 'I would not be any more affected
by anything he might say than by the mewing of yonder kitten.' So
vigorous was Tupper's speech that a bystander muttered that 'it was
possible Joe would find the little doctor a cat that would scratch his
eyes out.' In 1855 the prophecy was fulfilled. In his own county of
Cumberland Howe was defeated by Tupper, and throughout the province the
Conservatives obtained a decisive majority. In the next year Howe was
elected for the county of Hants, but before he took his seat events
occurred of which he took a short-sighted advantage.

The Irish Catholics of the province, whose numbers were now largely
increased by the prospect of wo