This structure, created between 1811 and 1819 at a cost of ú52,000 accommodated the Nova Scotian legislature, the Supreme Court and leading government offices. Artist John Elliott Woolford's (1778-1866) coloured etching documents the appearance of the recently completed building. Built of stone, with some thirty-eight fireplaces and such elegant touches as elaborate, plaster moulding, it was designed to inspire a respect for authority. Province House acquired an increasingly democratic image during the 1830s and 1840s, however, as Joe Howe and his followers made it the focus of their campaign for reform.
Howe's famous 1835 trial, in which he successfully defended himself against an attempt by the Halifax magistrates to convict him of seditious libel, took place in the Supreme Court chambers here. The Assembly room rocked with continual political debate between 1836 and 1848 as Howe led the political struggle to replace a gentry dominated oligarchy with the more liberal system of responsible government. Howe triumphed in 1848, although the new regime he introduced brought only qualified reform to Nova Scotia. Under responsible government, control of the provincial administration and economy remained in the hands of the business and professional elite resident in Halifax. Similarly, the labouring poor remained powerless and destitute thanks to a property conscious franchise and to the laissez-faire mentality of those in power. Howe had given Nova Scotia a democracy that benefited few below the middle class.
