Responsible Government, however, was not yet an accomplished fact, though its accomplishment was nigh at hand. In 1847, the Colonial Secretary, Earl Grey, in a despatch to Sir John Harvey, who was at that date Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, clearly defined the principles upon which the Government of that colony should be carried on. The principles enunciated were precisely those for which the Reformers had all along been contending. It was declared that members of the Executive Council should be permitted to hold office only so long as they possessed the confidence of a majority of the people, as signified by the votes in the Assembly. The heads of the various departments, it was said, should retain office only during pleasure; and Government officials were neither to be permitted to occupy seats in the Legislature nor to be removable on a change of Government. These concessions implied neither more nor less than Responsible Government. The principles were evidently as applicable to New Brunswick as to Nova Scotia. Soon after the opening of the session in 1848 Mr. Fisher introduced a resolution approving of Earl Grey's despatch, and accepting its doctrines on behalf of the Province. The debate which followed was big with the fate of New Brunswick. Many of the more advanced Conservatives coincided with the principles enunciated, and supported the resolution, which was finally carried by a large majority. Thus was Responsible Government finally adopted in New Brunswick.
The speeches made by Mr. Fisher and Mr. Wilmot during this debate were emphatically the speeches of the session. That of Mr. Wilmot was published in pamphlet form and circulated throughout the Maritime Provinces. It was considered as sufficiently important to be noticed in the North American Review, published at Boston, Massachusetts, where it was stated that "He (Mr. Wilmot) possesses brilliant powers, and as a public speaker ranks with the most effective and eloquent in British America."
Mr. Wilmot was called upon to form a new Government, which, though the result of a coalition, was of a Liberal complexion. He himself became Premier and Attorney-General. During his tenure of office his name is associated with several important Legislative measures, among which may be mentioned the Consolidation of the Criminal Laws (1849), and the Municipal Law (1850). During the latter year he attended as the representative of his Province at the International Railway Convention held at Portland, Maine, where he delivered a speech which we have not read, but which, judging from the encomiums which have been lavished upon it, must have been an effort of very uncommon eloquence. Mr. Lathern, in the work already quoted from, says of it: "There were many able and eloquent speeches at that Portland Convention, from Parliamentary and public men, but to Attorney-General Wilmot, by common consent, was awarded the palm of consummate, crowning oratory. He carried the audience by storm. To people across the border, accustomed to political declamation, it was a matter of amazement that their most brilliant men should be completely eclipsed. It was a still greater cause of mystery how a style of oratory, of the imaginative and impassioned type, regarded as peculiarly a production of the chivalrous and sunny South, could have been born and nurtured amidst the frigid influences and monarchical institutions of a bleak and foggy forest Province. There were accompanying advantages which stamped the effort as supreme of its kind. Dramatic action, consummate grace of rhetorical expression, a voice of matchless power and wondrous modulation, contributed to the heightened effect. To a very considerable extent the eloquence was impromptu, and therefore largely took its caste and complexion, apt allusions, and rich surprises, from the immediate scene and its surroundings. That magnificent burst of oratory swept over the audience like fire amongst stubble, and like the tempest that bends forest trees. Reporters are said to have dropped their pencils, and yielded to the magnetic, resistless spell; and the people, gathered in dense mass, were wrought into a frenzy of excitement and enthusiasm." Making due allowances for the unconscious exaggeration of a writer who seems to have revered Mr. Wilmot as his "guide, philosopher and friend," the Portland speech must have been an effort of which any orator might justly feel proud. During this same year (1850) Attorney-General Wilmot visited Washington as a delegate from his Province on the subject of International Reciprocity; and a few months later, in company with the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Edmund Head, he attended a meeting of the Canadian Government held at Toronto, for the purpose of discussing important matters relating to the British North American colonies.
In the month of January, 1851, he retired from the Administration, and accepted a seat on the Judicial Bench, as a Puisné Judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. At the time of his appointment to this position the still higher office of Chief-Justice was vacant, and he, as Attorney-General might not unreasonably have expected to succeed to that dignity. His acceptance of the less exalted position was the cause of some surprise, as he would have had the entire Reform Party of the Province at his back in any dispute with the Lieutenant-Governor, and might have brought much pressure to bear upon him. His acceptance was probably due to the fact that politics are an uncertain pursuit, and that there was no saying what the morrow might bring forth. He never experienced defeat on the hustings in the whole course of his sixteen years of political life, but at the last election for York he had been returned by a very slight majority. He was sensitive to public opinion, and had no ambition to remain on the stage until he might possibly be hissed. He was at this time enabled to retire with honour, and the consciousness that he retained public confidence and respect. Other reasons may probably enough have influenced him. His professional business had necessarily suffered through his constant attendance upon his Parliamentary and official duties. His income had dwindled down to less than a third of what it had once been, and his expenses had greatly increased. The position of a Puisné Judge is a high and honourable one, such as no lawyer, however eminent, need disdain to accept. His choice was made, and for more than seventeen years thereafter he discharged his duties as a Judge with usefulness and dignity. During this interval he frequently delivered lectures before Mechanics' Institutes and Lyceums in St. John, Fredericton and elsewhere; and some of these discourses were as remarkable for learning and eloquence as any of his public utterances. His convictions as a Protestant were unusually strong, and some of his remarks on sectarian themes occasionally caused irritation among persons whose theological faith differed from his own, but in no case does the irritation seem to have been more than temporary. His exemplary life, and his evident sincerity of purpose, induced even opposing theologians to allow him a latitude of expression which would scarcely have been tolerated in an ordinary personage. During his tenure of office as a Judge he also took an active part in forwarding the cause of education, and in support of many voluntary associations of a benevolent and religious character. Among numerous other offices conferred upon him, he was appointed a Member of the Senate of the New Brunswick University, from which he received the degree of D.C.L.
Though Judge Wilmot had been for many years removed from the arena of politics, it was well understood that he was a firm friend of British American Union, and ardently desirous to see Confederation prove a lasting success. From his high local standing, from the judicial position he had held so long having raised him above the confines of political party strife, and from his acknowledged abilities, he was singled out for the office of first Lieutenant-Governor of his native Province, under the new order of things which came into being on the 1st of July, 1867. The appointment was not made until rather more than a year afterwards, during which period the duties of Lieutenant-Governor were performed by Major-General Charles Hastings Doyle, probably for the same reasons that assigned to some of the other Provinces military Governors during the first year of Union. When, however, the appointment was made on the 27th of July, 1868, it gave very general satisfaction throughout New Brunswick. It was felt that such an appointment was a fitting tribute to a man who had spent the greater part of his life in the public service, and who had at all times preserved his honour untarnished. There is not much of special interest to tell about his Lieutenant-Governorship. His public addresses, and even his official speeches in connection with the opening and closing of the Legislature, were distinguished by sentiments of fervent patriotism, and by the expression of broad and enlightened ideas as to the duty of the people in sustaining the consolidation of British power on this continent. He held office until the expiration of his term, on the 14th of November, 1873, when he received a pension as a retired Judge, and laid down his governmental functions, with the public respect for him undiminished. The remainder of his life was passed in retirement, from which he only emerged for a short time in 1875, when he succeeded the Right Hon. H. C. E. Childers, as second Commissioner under the Prince Edward Island Purchase Act of that year. He was nominated as one of the arbitrators in the Ontario and North-West Boundary Commission, but did not live long enough to act in that capacity. During the last two or three years of his life he suffered from chronic neuralgia of a very severe type, and was sometimes prevented from stirring out of doors. As a general thing, however, he continued to take active exercise, and to lend his assistance in the organization of religious and benevolent enterprises, and he did so up to within a few days of his death. He died very suddenly at his house in Fredericton, on the afternoon of Monday, the 20th of May, 1878. While walking in his garden after returning from a drive with some members of his family he was attacked by a severe pain in the region of the heart. He entered his house and medical aid was at once summoned, but he ceased to breathe within a few minutes after the seizure. The immediate cause of death was presumed to have been rupture of one of the blood vessels near the heart.
Reference has been made to the religious side of Judge Wilmot's character, but something more than a passing reference is necessary to enable the reader to understand how greatly religion tended to the shaping of his social and public life. It has been seen that he first began to take an active interest in spiritual matters in 1833, the year after his call to the Bar. The interest then awakened in his heart was not transitory, but accompanied him through all the phases of his future career. This is not the place to enlarge upon such a theme, but it is in order to note that his spiritual experiences were of an eminently realistic cast. "Through the whole course of my religious experience" (to quote his own words), "I never once had a doubt in regard to the question of my personal salvation. The assurance of my acceptance as a child of God, and the firmness of my confidence, are such that Satan cannot take any advantage on that side, and cannot even tempt me to doubt or fear in regard to the reality of my conversion." This conviction strengthened with his advancing years, and left its impress upon all his acts. He bestirred himself actively at class-meetings, and for more than forty-four years taught a class in Sunday-school. Only the day before his death he took part in these exercises for the last time. Though a sincere and zealous member of the Methodist Church, he was no bigoted sectarian, but interested himself in the prosperity of all religious bodies, and fraternized with the clergy of all denominations. He had a critical knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures such as few laymen can pretend to, and his own copy of the Bible bears on almost every page traces of his diligent study of what he regarded—and that in no mere metaphorical sense—as the Word of God.
Judge Wilmot was twice married. His first wife was a Miss Balloch, daughter of the Rev. J. Balloch. His second wife, who still survives, was Miss Black, a daughter of the Hon. William A. Black, of Halifax, a member of the Legislative Council of Nova Scotia. It may also be mentioned, in conclusion, that during the visit of the Prince of Wales, in 1860, Judge Wilmot raised and commanded a troop of dragoons for escort duty, for which service he personally received the thanks of His Royal Highness.