control of a small social
set, whose interests are different from or adverse to those of the great
majority; that it will only strike deeper root if the governor is given
as his advisers not such an irresponsible council, but the popular {61}
leaders, men strong in the confidence of the province.

Events moved rapidly. In October 1839 Lord John Russell sent out to the
governors of the various British North American colonies a circular
dispatch of such importance that it was recognized by Sir John Harvey,
the governor of New Brunswick, as 'a new and improved constitution.' In
this it was said that 'the governor must only oppose the wishes of the
Assembly where the honour of the Crown, or the interests of the Empire,
are deeply concerned,' and office-holders were warned that they were
liable to removal from office 'as often as any sufficient motives of
public policy may suggest the expediency of that measure.' A subsequent
paragraph stated clearly that this was not meant to introduce the 'spoils
system,' but to apply only to the heads of departments and to the other
members of the Executive Council.

Sir Colin Campbell, at this time lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, was
a very gallant soldier of unstained honour and kindly disposition, a
personal friend of the Duke of Wellington, under whom he had proved his
valour in India and in the Peninsula. When {62} in 1834 an epidemic of
cholera ravaged Halifax, Sir Colin went down into the thick of it, and
worked day and night to assuage the distressing agonies of the sufferers.
In politics, however, he was under the sway of the Council. He now
refused to communicate Lord John Russell's dispatch to the House, and
when that body passed a vote of want of confidence in the Executive, Sir
Colin met them with a curt reply to the effect that 'I have had every
reason to be satisfied with the advice and assistance which they [the
Executive] have at all times afforded me.'

But 'there was the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.'
Mr J. B. Uniacke rose in the House and stated that, in the conviction of
the absurdity of the present irresponsible system, he had tendered to the
governor his resignation as an Executive Councillor. Mr Uniacke, a man
of fine presence, oratorical gifts, and high social position, had
hitherto been the Tory leader and Howe's chief opponent in the House, and
his conversion to the side of Responsible Government was indeed a
triumph. But the