excerpt from the book...ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFEThe contest for responsible government which was carried on in all theprovinces of British North America for so many years resembled in someof its features a modern battle, where the field of operations is sowide that it is impossible for a general to cover it with his eye or tokeep control of all the movements of his subordinates. In such a case,everything depends on the ability of the generals who command thedifferent army corps, who, operating in remote parts of the field, musttake the responsibility of success or failure. The two Canadas were sofar removed from New Brunswick, and the means of communication were sopoor, that there was but little help, even in the way of suggestion, tobe expected from them, while the contest for responsible government wasbeing carried on. Even the efforts in the same direction which werebeing made in the province of Nova Scotia had but little influence onthe course of events in New Brunswick, for each province had its ownparticular grievances and its own separate interests. Thus it happenedthat the battle for responsible government in New Brunswick was fought,to a large extent, without reference to what was being done in theother provinces which now form the Dominion of Canada, and the leadersof the movement had to be guided by the peculiar local circumstances ofthe situation. Still, there is no doubt that the efforts of all theprovinces, directed to the same ends, were mutually helpful and made thevictory more easily won.