Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/96

Howe  he ranked among the fiercest of the tories. He took an active part against Burnet for his 'Pastoral Letter,' and declaimed vehemently against the prosecution of the war and on behalf of Sir John Fenwick. He took a special pleasure in serving among those appointed by the House of Commons to bring in a bill on the forfeited estates in Ireland (December 1699), and thundered in parliament over the grants to William's Dutch friends of some of the property. Howe's attack on the partition treaty, which he denounced by the title of the 'Felonious Treaty,' was so savage that William exclaimed that but for their disparity of station he would have demanded satisfaction. He invariably denounced foreign settlers in England and standing armies. When the army was reduced (1699) he succeeded in obtaining half-pay for the disbanded officers.

With Queen Anne's accession Howe was once more a courtier, and in 1702 moved that a provision of 100,000l. a year should be secured to her consort, Prince George of Denmark. He was created a privy councillor on 21 April 1702, and vice-admiral of Gloucester county on 7 June. On the retirement of Lord Ranelagh, the post of paymaster-general was divided, and Howe was appointed paymaster of the guards and garrisons at home (4 Jan. 1702-3). On 15 May 1708 he became joint clerk to the privy council of Great Britain. After Anne's death his places were taken from him, and his name was left out of the list of privy councillors. He then retired to Stowell House in Gloucestershire, an estate which he had purchased, and died there in June 1722, being buried in the chancel of the church on 14 June. His wife was Mary, daughter and coheiress of Humphry Baskerville of Poentryllos in Herefordshire, and widow of Sir Edward Morgan of Llanternam, Monmouthshire. His son and heir, John Howe, was the first Lord Chedworth. An account of Stowell House and Park is printed in the 'Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucester Archaeological Society,' ii. 47-52. Howe was possessed of some wit and of vigorous speech, but he lacked judgment. There are verses by him in Nichols's 'Collection of Poetry,' i. 194, 210-12, and he is said to have written a 'Panegyric on King William.' An anecdote by Sir Thomas Lyttelton in illustration of his speaking talents is in the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' xix. 364-5, and he is introduced into Swift's ballad 'On the Game of Traffic.' A satirical speech of Monsieur Jaccou (i.e. Jack How), purporting to be 'made at the general quarter sessions for the county of G—r,' and ridiculing his vanity and French leanings, was printed (Brit. Mus.) Macaulay speaks of him as tall, thin, and haggard in look.

[Henry Sidney's Diary of Charles II, i. 100-122; De la Prynne's Diary (Surtees Soc.),pp.242,243;Rudder's Gloucestershire, p.708; Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, i. 205; Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges,viii.140-1; Lodge's Irish Peerage, ed. Archdall, v. 81; Macaulay's Hist. passim; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Relation, ii. 390, 395, 611, 614, 641, iv. 594, v. 228, 238; Burnet's Own Time, Oxford ed. v. 47-8, 49, 55, 62; Nichols's Poets,viii.284-5;Gloucestershire Notes and Queries, i. 241-2.]  HOWE, JOSEPH (1804–1873), colonial statesman, born on 13 Dec. 1804 in a cottage on the bank of the North-west Arm at Halifax in Nova Scotia, was the son of John Howe (1752-1853), who was for many years king's printer there and postmaster-general of the lower provinces. His mother, the daughter of Captain Edes, was his father's second wife. Joseph received no regular education. When fourteen he was apprenticed as a compositor in the 'Gazette' office at Halifax. He devoted many odd hours to reading, and during his apprenticeship published a poem called 'Melville Island,' descriptive of a small island at the head of the North-west Arm. In 1827, in partnership with James Spike, he purchased the 'Halifax Weekly Chronicle,' and changed its name to the 'Acadian.' He became himself its non-political editor. Before the year was out, however, he sold his half-share to his partner, and himself bought for 1,050l. in 1828, from a journalist named Young, a paper, founded three years previously, called the 'Nova Scotian.' From the outset the ' Nova Scotian,' under his direction as its sole editor and proprietor, succeeded beyond all expectation. In it he published two series of papers by himself, the first called 'Western and Eastern Rambles' through all parts of the British North American possessions, and the second entitled 'The Club,' a sort of transatlantic 'Noctes Ambrosianæ.' Howe also reported with his own hand the debates in the Assembly and the trials in the courts of law. Among his collaborateurs was Thomas Chandler Haliburton [q. v.], better known as 'Sam Slick,' for whom, at a heavy loss to himself, he published the now standard 'History of Nova Scotia.' In 1829 Howe became an ardent free-trader, and in 1830 commenced in his journal a series of remarkable papers entitled 'Legislative Reviews.' On 11 Jan. 1832 he opened, with an inaugural address, a mechanics' institute in Halifax. In 1835 his strenuous opposition to the local government led to an action for libel (The King v. Joseph Howe). He conducted his own