JHAP. I] ORIGIN AND HISTORY 23 
loss of office. The Lieutenant-Governor endeavoured to 
induce them to reconsider the decision, but in vain, and he 
then acquiesced in the result without making any attempt 
to dissolve Parliament and appeal to the country against 
his ministers. His action was attacked in the Imperial 
House of Commons on March 26, 1849, but was successfully 
defended by the Secretary of State. 
In New Brunswick also there was delay in adopting the 
principles of responsible government, to which, as usual, 
the Lieutenant-Governor was not partial. But events in 
Nova Scotia precipitated action, and on February 4, 1847, 
there was presented to the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir E. 
Head, an address praying that there might be laid before 
the House any dispatch from the Secretary of State regarding 
the tenure of office in the province or responsible govern- 
ment. Accordingly an extract from Earl Grey’s dispatch to 
Sir John Harvey was laid before the House, and on February 
24 the House resolved, by a majority of twenty-three to 
eleven, that it should approve of the principles laid down 
in that dispatch, and of their application to the case of New 
Brunswick. 
In the case of Prince Edward Island there was some delay 
in the granting of full self-government, partly due to the fact 
that there was a feud between the proprietors of the island 
and their tenants, which proved wholly incapable of solution 
until, on entry into the Dominion, the proprietors were 
bought out at the cost of the Dominion. Efforts were, how- 
ever, made to secure some degree of harmony between the 
Assembly and the Executive Government, and in a petition 
of 1847 3 the House of Assembly asked for the appointment 
of four members of the Executive Council from their numbers. 
' Parl. Pap., H. C. 621, 1848, pp. 33-40. Cf. Letters and Speeches of 
J. Howe, i. 553, 562-4. 
* Parl. Pap., H. C. 621, 1848, p. 40. In 1832 the Executive and Legislative 
Councils had been separated ; see Lord Glenelg’s dispatch of April 30, 1837, 
in Canada Sess. Pap. 1883, No. 70, p. 18. The separation in Canada was 
introduced by the Act 31 Geo. IIL c. 31. 
* Parl. Pap., H. C. 566. 1847. See also the Address to the Crown of 
March 23. 1850.