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.
