Wilmot and Tilley

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James Hannay. Wilmot and Tilley

LEMUEL ALLAN WILMOT

CHAPTER I. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE

CHAPTER II. EARLY EFFORTS FOR REFORM

CHAPTER III. WILMOT IN THE LEGISLATURE

CHAPTER IV. WILMOT AS A DELEGATE TO THE COLONIAL OFFICE

CHAPTER V. LORD JOHN RUSSELL ON TENURE OF OFFICE

CHAPTER VI. THE READE APPOINTMENT

CHAPTER VII. WILMOT'S VIEWS ON EDUCATION

CHAPTER VIII. THE DEMAND FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER IX. THE VICTORY IS WON

CHAPTER X. JUDGE AND GOVERNOR

SIR LEONARD TILLEY

CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER

CHAPTER II. ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE

CHAPTER III. THE PROHIBITORY LIQUOR LAW

CHAPTER IV. REFORM AND PROGRESS

CHAPTER V. THE INTERCOLONIAL RAILWAY

CHAPTER VI. THE MOVEMENT FOR MARITIME UNION

CHAPTER VII. THE QUEBEC CONFERENCE

CHAPTER VIII. DEFEAT OF CONFEDERATION

CHAPTER IX. TILLEY AGAIN IN POWER

CHAPTER X. THE BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT

CHAPTER XI. THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF CANADA

CHAPTER XII. FINANCE MINISTER AND GOVERNOR

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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.

Among the men who took a part in the contest for responsible government in New Brunswick, Lemuel Allan Wilmot undoubtedly held the foremost place, not only by reason of the ability with which he advocated the cause, but from the trust which the people had in him, which made him a natural leader and the proper exponent of their views. There were, indeed, men working in the same field before his time, but it was his happy fortune to witness the fruit of his labours to give the province a better form of government, and to bring its constitution into line with the system which prevailed in the mother country. He not only viewed the land of promise from afar, but he entered into it, and he became the first native lieutenant-governor of the province,—a result which even he, sanguine as he was, could hardly have contemplated when he began his career as a public man.

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Lemuel Wilmot's mother died when he was only eighteen months old, so that he never knew a mother's love or a mother's care. But his father early recognized his youthful promise, and gave him all the educational advantages then available. He became a pupil at the College of New Brunswick, which was situated in Fredericton, of which the Rev. Dr. Somerville was the president and sole professor. This college was in fact merely a grammar school, but Wilmot acquired there some knowledge of the classics. However, his scholastic career was not prolonged, for in June, 1825, he entered as a student-at-law with Charles S. Putnam, a leading barrister of Fredericton. He was admitted an attorney of the supreme court in July, 1830, and a barrister two years later. He was then twenty-three years of age.

The men who were contemporaries of Mr. Wilmot as a youth are all dead, and not many anecdotes of his career as a student have been handed down to us. Being of an ardent and ambitious disposition, he took a keen interest in the stirring events that were being enacted around him; for it was a time of great political excitement, and the business troubles of the province increased the difficulties of its inhabitants. In 1825, all the lumbermen in the province were ruined, and the bad management of the Crown lands office which had added to the business difficulties became more than a political question, for by cramping its leading industry it affected the prosperity of every man in New Brunswick. It was then that young Wilmot resolved to enter upon a political career and to do what he could to redress the wrongs from which the people were suffering. Strange to say, at this time he, who afterwards became most eloquent, had an impediment in his speech, which it took much labour to overcome. To improve his knowledge of French, he spent some months with a French family in Madawaska, among the descendants of the ancient Acadians. In this way he acquired a colloquial knowledge of that language.

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