The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-22 00:00:00

N 1 til rtina aim

-SP-
LONDON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1850.

Among the numerous difficulties embarrassing the
department of the Colonial Secretary, none are more
important in their character than those originated by

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our possessions in the North-American continent.
For the diminution of those difficulties we must
eoatinue most solicitous until such :time as can be
witnessed the revival of a cordial understanding be-
tween those colonies and the mother country. Un-
happily, this friendly feeling between ourselves and
our scattered territories has now, for some conside-
rable period, been dissipated, or, at any rate, very ma-
terially injured ; and this, we are bold to say,
entirely from the mismanagement of the central
Government. Not that we attach the blame in any
way exclusively to her MAJESTY'S present advisers,
the hresponsibility of al these unfortunate mis-
understandings Lz:looging, more or 1.!,5, to a long list
of past Administr..z.cns. in referriz g tc; the miser-
able acd anomalo-,..3 position now occupied by the
British Cabinet towcrds the great 1-ulk of our de-
pendencies, we nre actuated in no r..1,..:ner by an idle
predisposition to rake up old griev...ze;, or to dis-
seminate unnecessarily ideas dercgAtory to the
intelligence of our statesmen. Our intention
is to direct public attention, if possible, to
the consideration of projects f.,,aloula:ed to remove
Many of the annoyances rr-ferreci to, and ultimately,
if carried out with any degeee of ezterprise, to place 1
the whole system of colonial government upon a solid 1
I
and satisfactory foundation. t

Conspicuous and, we might almost say, paramount
among these beneficent projects is one affecting the
prosperity and, in some measure, evert the very sta-

bility of Nova Scotia as an important section of our
North-American possessions.
Very recently there has arrived in this country,
from tLe dependency last mentioned, a gentleman
entrusted with a mission intimately concerning the
interests of its active and intelligent population—we
allude to the Honourable JOSEPH HOWE, the Pro-
vincial Secretary. Himself deeply versed in the
labours and responsibilities of the Nova Scotia Go-
vernment, and acquainted, moreover, with the extra-
ordinary capabilities of the colony, Mr. HOWE was
perhaps, the fittest person that could have been selected
from among the members of the local administration
for the purpose of bringing its wishes before the
home Government for its acceptance and approbation.
As we understand, the principal object of the Honour-
able Provincial Secretary on arriving in the mother
country is to urge individually upon the chief of the
Colonial Department, and generally speaking upon
the whole of her MAJESTY'S Government, the ad-
visability of affording every reasonable encourage-
ment to a projected enterprise of considerable magni-
tude, and one promising net only to Nov% Scotia
itself, but in a greater or less extent to both hemi-
spheres a multitude of scarcely calculable advantages.
The enterprise we here speak of is DO other than
a proposed intercolonial and intersectional line of
railway opening up communications uninterruptedly
between New York and Halifax. As an evidence
that the project is in no respect chimerical, and that
its anticipated good consequences are, in their nature,
anything but illusory, it is only necessary to trans-
cribe the eulogistic opinion entertained of it by Earl
GREY himself, her MAJESTY'S present Colonial Se-
cretary. Upon the scheme of railway extensiOn'to
the principal town of Nova Scotia, that statesman
has thus written :—" I regard the work," says he
"as one calculated to be of the highest ser-
vice to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick,
and instead of 'considering it as likely to
endanger by competition the still more important
scheme which has been proposed for connect-
ing Halifax with Quebec, I believe that it is likely to
prepare the way for the execution of the latter, and
that it will contribute to the same end, namely, that
of rendering Halifax the great port of communication
between the two continents of Europe and America."
So much for the estimate formed of the undertaking
by the Right Honourable the Colonial Secretary—an
estimate as earnest as it is, to our thinking, deserved.
The Honourable JOSEPH HOWE therefore, the Pro-
vincial Secretary of Nova Scotia, is entitled to our
congratulations for having arrived in England for the
purpose of advocating the claims of that important
province, provided to that end with a proposal of this
golden and inestimable character.
To the end, that the enterprise under consideration
may be the more fully appreciated, it will be
advisable, perhaps, to glance at the social and political
progress already made by this remarkable and im-
portant possession. A cursory glance at its develop-
ment in these respects is, indeed, almost essential,
now that it is proposed to conduct through Nova
Scotia the main trunk of all the United States and
other North-American railways. The mere supposi-
tion that a time may arrive when the vast bulk of
European intercourse with the new world shall
be carried on by way of Halifax, invests
the whole of the colonial province, of which it forms
the capital, with an interest, it may be, in some measure
disproportionately greater than that attached to the
other parts of our. North-American possessions.
However this may or may not be, we cannot but
regard it as advisable to sketch hurriedly, but suc-
cinctly, the history of the rise of Nova Scotia under
British domination.
Nova Scotia then, it mast be remembered, was
ceded by France to England as recently as the year
1713—50 that all the changes that have been effected
in its well-being since its passing under the rule of
the Anglo-Saxoni, have taken place within a period of
140 years, an insignificant interval in the existence of
even the smallest and poorest dependency. When it
is borne in recollection that scarcely any regard what-
ever was paid to the interests of Nova Scotia by its
new possessors from 1713 to 1749, it will be seen that
the time during which the development of the capa-
cities of the colony could be watched over by the
British Government becomes very materially and ap-
preciably diminished. At the latter period, however,
in consequence of the renewal on the part of the French
monarchy of a disposition to interfere again with the
partitioning of the North American continent, the ob-
servations of the English, multitude were directed to:the
value of the colony, and a grant of 40,0001. was voted
by the House of Commons for the support of a num

ber of emigrants. Thereupon nearly two thousand
of these emigrants, encouraged by the aid of Parlia-
ment, landed in Chebucto Harbour, and in 1750 (just

one hundred years ago) erected the town of Halifax,
directed in their hardy and resolute operations by their
Governor, the Honourable EDWARD CORN WALLIS.
Not long afterwards, namely in 1758, the value and
security of Nova Scotia became very considerably
enhanced by the capture of Louisburg and the occupa-
tion of Cape Breton ; and subsequently, that is to say
in 1768, the strength of those dependencies was sig-
nally increased by the resignation on the part of
France of each and all of her former possessions

in the North-American continent. Prior to this
final and crowning settlement of our colonial
power in that quarter of the western hemi-

sphere, namely, in 1758, during the year sign&
_ _

lized by the seizure of Louisburg, a constitution based
upon that of the mother country was granted to Nova
Scotia—a constitution comprising a House of As-

sembly, a Legislative` Council, and a resi

dent Governor. Gradually, however, a num-
ber of evils and abuses sprang into ex-
istence out of this very constitution, the
local administration at one time being led into a s 3 s-
tem of deplorable extravagance. Nevertheless, there
arose ultimately in opposition to this extravagance

and to these abuses a vigorous opposition, out of

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which emerged in the end a great constitutions:

struggle of fifteen years' duration. Alluding
to these events, the Provincial Secretary thus
_ _ _ _

expressed himself, in his farewell address
to his constituents, on- the 31st ultimo :
" Responsible government, administered through
heads of departments, holding their places by the
tenure of public opinion, has occupied, as you are
aware, a considerable place in the public discussions

of British America, fur the last ten or fifteen years.
We have lived, however, to see our principles
triumph—to see them recognised, after full debate,

by the Lords and Commons of England,

:o see them clearly enunciated by successive Secre-

'aries of State, in Canada and New Brunswick, no

less than in Nova Scotia, supplying new securities
to liberty, and fresh vigour to every branch of the

Administration."

Furthermore, the Hon. Provincial Secretary ob-
served, after detailing a variety of economical ar-

rangements

" The past, with all its valuable results, is before
you—but no political party, no Administration indif-
ferent to the duties of the present hour, and unmindful
of future improvements, can live upon the fame of past
achievements, and grateful reminiscences of bygone
labours, however honourable these may have been.
The cry and the great want of Nova Scotia, at the
present time, is further industrial development—
active employment for the people—new and
improved facilities for business and social
intercourse. To this field of honourable
labour she invites all her children, without
reference to past differences of opinion, and in utter

oblivion of the rivalries and ardent feelings which
past contests have aroused. In this field there is
work enough for us all for twenty years to come.
Upon this field I am prepared to enter, as an
humble labourer, in the spirit evoked at the great
meeting held in the capital on the 25th of August. I
believe that a Government fostering that spirit
—nobly sustained by it, and dedicating the public
treasure and the public credit to the work of indus-
trial development, may do much good. With a vie w
to give form and direction to that spirit, I have ac•
cepted the important mission with which I am
charged. If I succeed, cur country will reap the
advantage--if I fail, the mortification will be my own ;
but I shall bear it with the consciousness that I have
done my best."

For the better comprehension of the mission en-
trusted to the Honourable Provincial Secretary the
following extract from the dispatch of the Governor
of Nova Scotia, bearing date the 29th of August,
1850, may not be deemed unworthy of
especial consideration :—" In the meantime," says