In February, 1840, Mr. Howe moved a series of resolutions, in which it was emphatically stated that “no satisfactory settlement of questions before the country could be obtained until the executive council was remodelled,” and that, as then constituted, “it did not enjoy the confidence of the country.”  The motion was carried by a majority of eighteen votes, in a house of forty-two members, and indeed, so untenable was the position of the executive council that Mr. James Boyle Uniacke, a member of the government, retired, rather than vote, and subsequently placed his resignation in the hands of the lieutenant-governor, on the ground that it was his duty to yield to the opinions of the representative house, and facilitate the introduction of a better system of government, in accordance with the well-understood wishes of the people.  From that time Mr. Uniacke became one of Mr. Howe’s ablest allies in the struggle for self-government.  Sir Colin, however, would not recede from the attitude he had assumed, but expressed the opinion, in his reply to the address of the legislature, that he could not recognise in the despatch of the colonial secretary of state “any instruction for a fundamental change in the colonial constitution.”  The assembly then prayed her Majesty, in a powerful and temperate address, to recall Sir Colin Campbell.  Though Lord John Russell did not present the address to the Queen, the imperial government soon afterwards appointed Lord Falkland to succeed Sir Colin Campbell, whose honesty of purpose had won the respect of all parties.

Lord Falkland was a Whig, a lord of the bedchamber, and married to one of the Fitzclarences—­a daughter of William IV and Mrs. Jordan.  He arrived at Halifax in September, 1840, and his first political act was in the direction of conciliating the Liberals, who were in the majority in the assembly.  He dismissed—­to the disgust of the official party—­four members of the executive who had no seats in either branch of the legislature, and induced Mr. Howe and Mr. James MacNab to enter the government, on the understanding that other Liberals would be brought in according as vacancies occurred, and that the members of the council should hold their seats only upon the tenure of public confidence.  A dissolution took place, the coalition government was sustained, and the Liberals came into the assembly with a majority.  Mr. Howe was elected speaker of the assembly, though an executive councillor—­without salary; but he and others began to recognise the impropriety of one man occupying such positions, and in a later session a resolution was passed against the continuance of what was really an un-British and unconstitutional practice.  It was also an illustration of the ignorance that prevailed as to the principles that should guide the words and acts of a cabinet, that members of the executive, who had seats in the legislative council, notably Mr. Stewart, stated openly, in contradiction of the assertions of Mr. Howe and his Liberal colleagues,