re, but to
remove the cause of the agitation.

From early days there had been struggles against the oligarchy. In
1830 the speaker of the House, S. G. W. Archibald, protested against an
attempt of the Council to lower the duty on brandy. Apart from the
evident desire of the great merchants on the Council to get brandy in
cheap and sell it dear, he took his stand on the fundamental maxim that
taxation was the affair of the people's House alone, that there should
be 'no taxation without representation.' A man is not necessarily a
village politician because he lives in a village, or a great statesman
because the stage on which he struts is wide. In this petty scuffle in
an obscure colony were involved the same principles on which John
Hampden defied King Charles. The Council gave way, and the old system
went on as before.

Then, on the 1st of January 1835, a letter appeared in the _Nova
Scotian_, accusing the magistrates of Halifax of neglect,
mismanagement, and corruption, in the government of the city. No names
were mentioned; the tone was moderate; but the magistrates were {45}
sensitive and prosecuted Howe for libel. At this time there was not an
incorporated city in any part of the province. All were governed by
magistrates who held their commission from the Crown. When Howe
received the attorney-general's notice of trial, he went to two or
three lawyers in succession, and asked their opinion. They told him
that he had no case, as no considerations were allowed to mitigate the
severe principle of those days, that 'the greater the truth the greater
the libel.' He resolved to defend himself. The next two weeks he gave
up wholly to mastering the law of libel and the principles upon which
it was based, and to selecting his facts and documents. With his head
full of the subject, and only the two opening paragraphs of his speech
written out and committed to memory, he faced the jury. He had spoken
before, but only to small meetings, and on no subjects that touched him
keenly. Now the Court House was crowded, popular sympathy entirely on
his side, and the real subject himself. That magic in the tone that
gives a vibrating thrill to an audience sounded for the first time in
his voice. All eyes turned to him; all faces gleamed on him; he
noticed the tears trickling down one old gentleman's {46} cheeks; he
received the sympathy of the crowd, and without knowing gave it back in
eloquence. He spoke for six hou