ohn, moved, as an amendment to the address, a
want-of-confidence resolution. This resolution, instead of being carried
by a large majority as was expected, was lost by a vote of fifteen to
twenty-two, Messrs. Alexander Rankine and John T. Williston, of
Northumberland, Messrs. Robert Gordon and Joseph Reed, of Gloucester,
Mr. A. Barbarie, of Restigouche, and Mr. Francis McPhelim, of Kent,
having deserted their Liberal allies. Had they proved faithful, the
government would have been defeated, and the province would have been
spared another three years of an incompetent administration.

In this division, Tilley and Needham, who represented the city of St.
John, and Messrs. R. D. Wilmot and Gray, two of the county members,
voted for Ritchie's amendment. As Wilmot and Gray showed by their votes
that they had no confidence in the government in February, 1851, it was
with much surprise that the people of St. John, in the August following,
learned that they had become members of the administration which they
had so warmly condemned a few months before. Their secession from the
Liberal party destroyed whatever chance had before existed of ousting
the government. Mr. Fisher had seceded from the government in
consequence of their action in reference to the judicial appointments,
and John Ambrose Street, who was a member for Northumberland, became
attorney-general in place of Robert Parker, appointed a judge. Mr.
Street was a ready debater and a strong Conservative, and his entrance
into the government at that time showed that a Conservative policy was
to be maintained.

{RAILWAY LEGISLATION}

Mr. Street, as leader of the government in the assembly, presented a
long programme of measures for the consideration of the legislature,
none of which proved to be of any particular value. The municipal
corporation bill was passed, but it was a permissive measure, and was
not taken advantage of by any of the counties. A bill to make the
legislative council elective, which was also passed in the Lower House
at the instance of the government, was defeated in the Upper Chamber.
The bill appointing commissioners on law reform was carried, and
resulted in the production of the three volumes of the revised statutes
issued in 1854. The most important bill of the session, introduced by
the government, was one in aid of the construction of a railroad from
St. John to Shediac. This bill provided that the government should give
a company two hundred