Help from Canada was quickly forthcoming and a grant of L30,000 from the home country combined with private efforts to meet the most pressing needs of the moment. The building of wider streets, the proscription of wooden houses, and the provision of an ampler water supply, showed that the lessons of the past had not been thrown away. That year, 1846, was to be an _annus mirabilis_, for a storm, fiercer than the wildest within living memory, wrought havoc among the shipping in St. John's Harbour, and overwhelmed many substantial buildings inland. It seemed as if the malice of destiny had sent the gale to destroy the little that had escaped the fire; for Natives' Hall, which was being used to shelter the houseless, was blown to the ground. About this time--thanks to the currents of excitement spread everywhere by the European revolutionary movements of 1848--began a fresh agitation for responsible government, which had already been granted to the other North American colonies, and which involved a larger measure of self-government than had been conceded in the constitution of 1832. The inhabitants became more and more anxious that appointments within the colony should depend upon popular approval--or, rather, on the choice of the party commanding a majority in the Legislature--and not upon the Crown's nomination. The official view at home on this demand was stated both by the Whig, Earl Grey, and the Conservative, Sir John Pakington. The former wrote: "Until the wealth and population of the colony shall have increased considerably beyond their present amount, the introduction of what is called responsible government will by no means prove to its advantage.... The institutions of Newfoundland have been of late in various ways modified and altered, and some time must unavoidably elapse before they can acquire that amount of fixity and adaptation to the colonial wants of society which seems an indispensable preliminary to the future extension of popular government." Similarly, Sir John Pakington, in a despatch of April 3rd, 1852, observed: "Her Majesty's Government see no reason for differing from the conclusions at which their predecessors had arrived in the question of the establishment of responsible government, and which were conveyed to you by Lord Grey in the despatch already mentioned. I consider, on the contrary, that the wisdom and justice of these conclusions are confirmed by the accounts since received from Newfoundland."