Wilmot and Tilley

THE MAKERS OF CANADA
EDITED BY
DUNCAN CAMPBELL SCOTT, F.R.S.C., PELHAM EDGAR, Ph.D., and, WILLIAM DAWSON LE SUEUR, B.A., LL.D., F.R.S.C.
WILMOT AND TILLEY
THE MAKERS OF CANADA
EDITION DE LUXE
TORONTO MORANG & CO., LIMITED 1907
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year 1907 by Morang & Co., Limited, in the Department of Agriculture
Transcriber's Note: Unique page headings have been retained and appear along the left margin by the relevant paragraphs. Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Variant spellings have been retained. Inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised.


The contest for responsible government which was carried on in all the provinces of British North America for so many years resembled in some of its features a modern battle, where the field of operations is so wide that it is impossible for a general to cover it with his eye or to keep control of all the movements of his subordinates. In such a case, everything depends on the ability of the generals who command the different army corps, who, operating in remote parts of the field, must take the responsibility of success or failure. The two Canadas were so far removed from New Brunswick, and the means of communication were so poor, that there was but little help, even in the way of suggestion, to be expected from them, while the contest for responsible government was being carried on. Even the efforts in the same direction which were being made in the province of Nova Scotia had but little influence on the course of events in New Brunswick, for each province had its own particular grievances and its own separate interests. Thus it happened that the battle for responsible government in New Brunswick was fought, to a large extent, without reference to what was being done in the other provinces which now form the Dominion of Canada, and the leaders of the movement had to be guided by the peculiar local circumstances of the situation. Still, there is no doubt that the efforts of all the provinces, directed to the same ends, were mutually helpful and made the victory more easily won.