Howe (1835), Dixon (1920) and Mclachlan (1923): Comparative Perspectives on the Legal History of Sedition
![handle is hein.journals/unblj45 and id is 287 raw text is: HOWE (1835), DIXON (1920) AND MCLACHLAN
(1923): COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON THE
LEGAL HISTORY OF SEDITION
Barry Cahill*
Then there is Howe, who was prosecuted by the corrupt magistrates whom he
exposed in his day. By the way, he successfully defended himself, and I hope to
perhaps follow his glorious example. He is now proclaimed as Nova Scotia's
noblest son.
- FJ. Dixon, 1920
When they tried Joseph Howe for sedition, they erected a monument to him in
the shadow of the County jail [sic: Province House yard].
-J.B. McLachlan, 1924
I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but I tell you that what happened
to Howe will happen to McLachlan.
- J.S. Woodsworth, 1924
In Halifax, in 1835, Joseph Howe, a newspaper proprietor and editor, was tried for
seditious libel for publishing the second of two pseudonymous letters critical of
local government. In Winnipeg, in 1920, FJ. (Fred) Dixon, an independent labour
member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, was tried for seditious libel for
publishing in the strike bulletin which he briefly edited during the General Strike
of 1919, articles critical of the strike's suppression. In Halifax, in 1923, J.B.
McLachlan, communist secretary of United Mine Workers of America District 26,
was tried for seditious libel for having written an official letter critical of the
violent actions of the provincial police in Sydney. These three state trials
document the important historical conflicts out of which they arose, reflect the
politico-legal contexts in which they occurred and illustrate the meaning of the
misrule of law as it developed through the repressive exercise of state power
during both the colonial and the national periods. This article is an attempt at a
Archivist, Government Archives Division, Public Archives of Nova Scotia; Editor, Nova Scotia
Historical Review. A preliminary version of this paper was read at the Atlantic Law & History
Workshop II, Dalhousie Law School, in March 1995. I am grateful to Professors David Frank, Philip
Girard and Barry Wright of the Department of History, UNB (Fredericton), Dalhousie Law School
and Carleton University Department of Law, respectively, for their most helpful critiques.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/unblj45&div=30&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Howe (1835), Dixon (1920) and Mclachlan (1923): Comparative Perspectives on the Legal History of Sedition
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