HE disputed Nova ScotJan election of 1859 demonstrated unmistakably the evils inherent inthe practice ofhaving controverted elections tried by committees of the House of Assembly. It also intensified the doubts which had been developing for some time about he efficacy of a system of responsible government operating through the party system. In 1848 and 1849 a welldisciplined contingent of Reformers had pushed through the legislature the major enactments which were required to institute their conception ofresponsible government. By 1850, therefore, the time to test the suitability of party government under normal conditions had arrived. The early indications were that> if principles and issues were needed to maintain stable alignments within a two-party system, they were almost non-existent. Indeed, by the mid-fifties the Acadian Recorder was convinced that no cogent reason [existed] for the division of the Representatives of Nova Scotia into two parties, regularly organised for the annihilation of each other, in the halls of our Legislature. x Because political issues revolved more and more around personalities rather than principles, public life became increasingly embittered in the period which followed. Especially suited to this brand of politics was Charles Tupper, who delighted in rough-and-tumble procedures and infused vigour into a party long denied it. From his first session in the legislature (1856), in which he denounced the Liberal Administration ofWilliam Young for having introduced the Yankee system of dismissing office-holders in wholesale fashion, the Cumberland Doctor lost no opportunity to harass the Government. But it required another year and another issue to bring down a Ministry rent with dissension. As the culmination of the estrangement of the Government and its Catholic supporters, the eight Catholic assemblymen a d two Protestant members who represented Catholic counties bolted the Liberal ranks in 1857, and helped institute a Conservative Ministry which included J. w. Johnston as Attorney-General nd leader of the Government, and Charles Tupper as Provincial Secretary. That one-fifth of the Assembly could change its political allegiance overnight and maintain