IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 ,50 ™"^ 
 
 1.4 
 
 1^ 
 
 12.2 
 
 1.8 
 
 1.6 
 
 <? 
 
 /2 
 
 A 
 
 /^ 
 
 c^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^3 
 
 
 
 /A 
 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 m 
 
 4> 
 
 
 ;\ 
 
 \ 
 
 ^<b 
 
 V 
 
 
 «^ <^v '^Q 
 
 \ 
 
 ns^ 
 
 >% 
 
 «l?\J<?^ 
 
 23 WEST MAINS ;.'<EET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 
 
 (7io) 872-4503 
 
 '1> , ^'^^^ 
 
A. 
 
 (/. 
 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
 V 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notas/Notas tachniquas at bibliographiquas 
 
 The 
 tot 
 
 Tha Instltuta has attamptad to obtain tha bast 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically unique, 
 which may altar any of tha images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 r I Covers damaged/ 
 
 Couverture endommagie 
 
 □ Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture rvstaurie et/ou pelliculAe 
 
 I I Cover title missing/ 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartas g6ographiquas en couleur 
 
 Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 
 D 
 
 Planches et/ou illustrations an couleur 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Reli^ avec d'autres documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La re liura serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distorsion le long de ia marge int6i ieure 
 
 Blank le<ives added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certainas pages blanches ajouties 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela 4tait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas iti filmies. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires supplimentaires: 
 
 L'Instltut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a iti possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cat exemplaire qui sont peut-fttre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reprodutte, ou qui peuvent axiger una 
 modification dans la mtthoda normale de filmage 
 sont indiquAs ci-dessous. 
 
 I I Coloured pages/ 
 
 D 
 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagias 
 
 Pages restored and/oi 
 
 Pages restaur6es et/ou pellicul^es 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxei 
 Pages decolor6es, tacheties ou piquies 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages ddtachies 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 Quality of prir 
 
 Quality indgala de I'impression 
 
 Includes supplementary materit 
 Comprend du matdriel suppl4mentaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 I I Pages damaged/ 
 
 I I Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 
 r~1 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 
 I I Pages detached/ 
 
 rri Showthrough/ 
 
 I I Quality of print varies/ 
 
 I I Includes supplementary material/ 
 
 nn Only edition available/ 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totaleivient ou partieilement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, una pelure, 
 etc., ont 6x6 fiimies A nouveau de fapon d 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 The 
 poa 
 oft 
 filnr 
 
 Orii 
 beg 
 the 
 sioi 
 oth 
 firs 
 sioi 
 ori 
 
 Thfl 
 aha 
 TIN 
 whi 
 
 Mai 
 diff 
 enti 
 beg 
 righ 
 reqi 
 met 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ca document est filmi au taux de reduction indiquA ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 14X 18X 22X 
 
 26X 
 
 XX 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12X 
 
 16X 
 
 20X 
 
 24X 
 
 28X 
 
 32X 
 
The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 Bibiiothdque nationale du Qu6bec 
 
 L'exempiaire fiimA fut reproduit grflce A ia 
 g6nArosit6 de: 
 
 Bibilothdque nationale du Quebec 
 
 The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec ie 
 plus grand soln. compte tenu de ia condition et 
 de ia nettet6 de l'exempiaire film6, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or illustrated Impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 Les exempiaires originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est Imprimte sont filmte en commenpant 
 par Ie premier plat et en terminant soit par la 
 derniire page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustratlon, soit par Ie second 
 plat, selon Ie cas. Tous les autres exempiaires 
 originaux sont filmte en commandant par ia 
 premiere page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustratlon et en terminant par 
 ia darnlAre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur ia 
 dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon Ie 
 cas: ie symbols — ► signifie "A SUiVRE". ie 
 symbole V signifie "FIN". 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc.. may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre 
 fiimds d des taux de reduction difftrents. 
 Lorsque Ie document est trop grand pour dtre 
 reproduit en un seul cllch6, il est fiimi d partir 
 de I'angie supirieur gauche, de gauche d droite, 
 et de haut en has, en prenant Ie nombre 
 d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 illustrent ia m6thode. 
 
 1 2 3 
 
 1 2 3 
 
 4 5 6 
 
M, 
 
 R 
 
 Annnr 
 Det'lai 
 
 'W 
 
385,1 
 
 C^-p^ 
 
 ■/ 
 
 ^-»->-y/iu. 
 
 
 RAILWAYS 
 
 15 
 
 t^ 
 
 Ain> 
 
 R E P U D I A T I O N, 
 
 ••HI.' 
 
 BT 
 
 IST B R V A . 
 
 ■Itl.-UX 
 
 Annnntiato in gentilnis et aiulitum facitfi t levate Ni»iiiim : predicate, ft nolite celare. Jer, 60, v. 2. 
 Dculare ye :\mo«g the people, and puuiish ; ar.d set upa btuuduiil ; publish and conceal not. 
 
 MONTRBAX.: 
 
 PKINTID BY JAMES POTTS, HERALD OVrtCI 
 1855. 
 
 •I 
 
m 
 
 Auuunl 
 D«clar< 
 
RAILWAYS AND REPUDIATION, 
 
 BY 
 
 N E R V ^ . 
 
 Anuuntiate in gentibus et audituin facite : levate signum : predicate, et nolite celare. Jer. 60, v. 2 
 Declare ye among the people, and publisli ; and set up a standard ; publish and conceal not. 
 
 
 
 • • • 
 
 :*.•••.; 
 
 
 PRINTED BVr JAMES POTTS, HERALD OFFICE. 
 
 J855. 
 
■« • • 
 
 ) • • ■ « 
 
RAILWAYS AND REPUDIATION. 
 
 lO-o. 1. 
 
 rublished in the Montreal Herald, December 1, 1854. 
 
 The famous South Sea bubble, Law's Mississippi scliemc, and all the insane and 
 visionary plans which have since been devised, bid fair to be surpassed in the wide 
 spread extravagance and ruin of our railway schemes, of the real nature of which, 
 people seem yet, in spite of the expfiieiice they have had, to remain in ignorance. — 
 For we should be doing injustice to the acuteness and intelligence of many, if we sup- 
 posed that they were deceived themselves by the speculations which have sufficed to 
 delude others. The distiller is not ignorant that his business sends thousands to per- 
 dition who would have otherwise done well, yet his anticipated gains induce him to 
 persevere. The slave-holder is not insensible to the infamy of holding a fellow- 
 creature in bondage, but the advantage he expects renders him callous to its crimi- 
 nality. The owner of a privateer, with letters of marque, despatches his men to mur- 
 der and plunder on the high seas, those who have done him no injury, if he believes 
 his pecuniary interests will be advanced by such measures. A portion of mankind 
 are deterred from no crime, not even the commission of robbery, rape, or nnirder, if 
 the law has inadvertently permitted it, as in the case of slave-holding, privateenng, 
 and some otheis which might be mentioned. Hence it becomes indispensable for men 
 to rejudge the justice of the legislators, and to see whether they have departed from 
 those sacred, primal, and fundamental rules of right, that all legislators are bound to 
 preserve inviolate. Policy, timidity, or interest, a dislike to oppose the popular cur- 
 rent while in its strength, or a desire to derive advantage from the errors of others, 
 may keep many silent who could foresee the inevitable consequences of the railway 
 mania. 
 
 The proper protectors and guardians of the public against the visions and delu- 
 sions which sometimes, like epidemics, spread through the population "of a country, 
 ought to be found in its legislature ; but, it will sometimes happen that this mental ma- 
 lady, in a greater or less degree, extends to this body itself. The excitement of new 
 discoveries, or novel applications of industry, produce unfounded anticipations of gain 
 upon the majority of the people ; their representatives in the legislature are but iheir 
 fellow-men, of whom, numbers, without Tjad faith, may temporarily participate in the 
 delusions and errors of their constituents. IJut if the exaggerated expectations of the 
 people are encouraged and fostered instead of being repressed by the action o*' the 
 legislature, we need hardly expect tli^'in to escape a state of demoralization, similar 
 to that of the worst times in the most depraved eountiies. 
 
 Already, it is estimated according to some, that live hundred millions of dollars 
 have been irretrievably sunk upon the I'Jnglish railways. In the United States the 
 estimate of loss is not less than two hundred millions of dollars, and if no check be 
 interposed by the Legislature, the absorption of half the capital in v^merica would 
 follow. Dismay and a feeling like the precursors of bankrupcy and repudiation exist 
 among us, and in this country the action of the legislature has tended unguardedly to 
 the augmentation of the evil. It is time that tliey retrace their steps, and avert the 
 disasters that threaten us, by abandoiung the visionary and delusive anticipations they 
 have cherished, and by returning to those primal and fundamental rules which all legis- 
 latures are bound to observe, and upon which the whole social edifice is founded. 
 
 There is still opportunity if the Jjcgislature be active and alive to their danger, to 
 escape it. It is above all things requisite that they take a sober and just view of their 
 
 kt 
 
 57490 
 
p 
 
 i| 
 
 We 
 owing pro- 
 
 4 
 
 powers ami fiiiielions, ami do ii„i exc'ed tlicm. It i. ,mt in fh,. I Oil 
 
 t IIS coiitiiiciif iliiii it ,... I I- ,."""'"• "'*""''" "iti lytli century, nor oa 
 
 •• eilinK in co„,|„:„ 'alio,, ,rM 'jvalfi.t ' "''^ °" ""'''"°" <" 
 
 •• power » .i.-l.!:alc.,l b, ll„.,„ ,„ ,\«A,c«y^c:vn,Ji"l'nZ'''\ >''";"'" 
 
 •• 1.0 c.o„,|,ari,„„ „iih',|,e 1°,^ tooXrs «°'" '" """""''"' ""'J '''a.- 
 
 "pose ot convey no- freiolit nnd nns>iPnn..>... """ ' "'""'erua , undertaken for the pur- 
 " ships convey freight am pal'^erto^r Zl' tt""\^'''^'' ^^ ''''""' ^^ «^^'™- 
 " n.ks from lire, Hood and i St where lot' of If' ' ■"'i *" ^'''' '^"'^"^'^'^^ ^"^^ 
 '• and is to be compensated fo^ and ho w^ ! "'i •' "' P"""''"*^ '""^ °'=^"'-' 
 
 " can justly force ir constrain 'anv 1 l ''"'•^"''^'•^^'"P. "« law, human oj divine 
 
 " Ins fltun'e and « anT more^ a; lolte'r in!" ''7'' ''' ^^'"' ^* *''^ ^^^ °^ 
 " undertakings." "^ '^ ^"*^' '"'° «'"* ^"PPO'-t other commercial 
 
 Counties in LofverCanadarby a bvSv o t' U °''f V" ?^"r'P^' Council of all 
 
 tal stock of any railroad com nan v ( o nn ' ? ? f ''"'' ^^i>,cnhe for shares in the capi- 
 
 heen approvedVy t le liorTrof ^^^ '"f.f'f « ^'""""t, after the by-law shall have 
 
 funds for the payment ofThe iiie %S 'u f^''''' "'"' *« '«^"« l>""d« to raise 
 
 not the right of tax" on for trLinfetnce of f P'"'^^ '^'. '"^j""*^' >" "^^^^^i"' 
 
 might not exceed their legitin Se unc Z ^ h.^^ ^ government (which 
 
 on a credit, for speculativt ^d commerciR t?" ^^Y *', '^''' ^""'^^ ^ ^^^^o^' 
 
 their will, members of a comlrcr»arir7 ' °^'"'H"^ the minority, against 
 
 to the pay„,ent of their pro^ t onTte So "17''?' ?^ "^ •'''"'^'"S their land, 
 
 should become a loss ! ! ' A decree of no 'I ^ """^ '"^'T*' '" '"^^ ^^^ «™°»nt 
 
 be contemplated that even a renresentaZ I "i ; '"^""^'^. ^'■*=^'"^"' '* <=«»'d "«ver 
 
 that they should delegate to EstJ'^''"'' '^'"''' P"'^'^^^' ^"^ ^^'^ '«^^» 
 
 the consent of the CW/on- «} t / %'"^ '''^*"*'^ ^"t^orize, also, npon 
 
 the county (if the inhabUa"trofs{h„S:Sl^^^^^^^^^ "'j^'l ^""^ P^'^^ 
 
 lounships shall be more especially interested in 
 
 »ucli rft 
 
 for, on 
 
 to rais(! 
 
 approva 
 
 siihdelej 
 
 ('ouncil 
 
 are not 
 
 inlrrest( 
 
 tanfs, fo 
 
 their lai 
 
 Th 
 
 stock in 
 
 issued b 
 
 tants, is 
 
 portento 
 
 for sale 
 
 it is prol 
 
 valid, th( 
 
 bonds hii 
 
 years — a 
 
 paid, am 
 
 Tin 
 
 the defer 
 
 sititulion 
 
 ture, ver 
 
 of £20,0 
 
 the amou 
 
 yet want 
 
 taken is ( 
 
 prietor ol 
 
 unsucces! 
 
 exceed hi 
 
 right of 1 
 
 it be righ 
 
 ties or to 
 
 In c 
 
 has been 
 
 also shall 
 
 a magnitu 
 
 to the cor 
 
 excessive, 
 
 constructi 
 
 if there bi 
 
 but to the 
 
 is necessa 
 
 systems ol 
 
 every civi 
 
 and propei 
 
 take the n 
 
century, nor uq 
 set aside rights 
 
 )iit etiianutions ; 
 
 lat their consti- 
 
 '11(1 or control ; 
 
 iperior riglits of 
 
 annexion. We 
 following pro- 
 
 aundation of all 
 
 any individual, 
 oil condition of 
 
 ii itish subjects 
 people, for the 
 i»t. That this 
 and is of too 
 ities, towns, or 
 funds requisite 
 calities. 
 Mcial purposes 
 ngst the rights 
 far less is it a 
 te to the less 
 lountry, whom 
 lions of profit 
 es would bear 
 
 d ought to be, 
 every railway 
 n for the pur- 
 am, as steam- 
 casualties and 
 ty may occur, 
 nan or divine, 
 at the risk of 
 sr commercial 
 
 massed in the 
 Council of all 
 s in the capi- 
 aw shall hare 
 londs to raise 
 y in counties, 
 ment (which 
 I by taxation, 
 ority, against 
 g their lands 
 8 the amount 
 : could never 
 and far less 
 also, upon 
 orm part of 
 interested iii 
 
 5 
 
 jucli rftilwny.) thu additional shares, to an indefinite amount, be taken and subscribed 
 for. on beha f o» such township, in the ..apital stock of such railway, and bonds issue.l 
 to raise funds in payment ol the stork, without even submittins;- the matter to the 
 approval of the niajority of the .piulified electors of such townships^ or parishes. Thii, 
 Mibdelegating in favor of two or thre.- individuals, who chance to be township or parish 
 C ounrillors, whom private considerations of many desnnptions might innuence--who 
 are no even required to allege in what manner the township or parish is especiallv 
 interested-the right of raising funds on a credit, on tiie property of all the inhabi- 
 tants for speculative and conimenMal concern without their consent; and of binding 
 their lands, so as to render tlieiii misideuhle and insecure, if not a total loss 
 
 I he power of bin.ling the unwilling minority, by the taking of shares of capital 
 stock in any railroad company, in payment of whirl,, bonds bearing interest are to be 
 issued by county municipalities, payable in the course of a few years by the inliabi- 
 tan s, IS a power which is believd to be without example in other countries, and is 
 portentous of utter niin in this ; for these bonds have been olTered.even in the outset 
 tor sale to us, at first hand from the issuers, at a great discount, and have been sold' 
 It IS probable, at a yet great, r discount ; while, nevertheless, supposing the bonds to bo 
 valid, the inhabitants will be bound to pay the interest on the entire sum for which the 
 bonds have been given, and tiie capital itself, at the end generally of about twentv 
 years— although, perhaps, scarcely seventy per cent, of that capital may have been 
 paid, and that seventy per cent, may have been unprofitably expended. 
 
 1 he whole proceeding is of the nature of a forced conscription, without being for 
 the detence ot the country. " It lends corruption lighter wings to fly," being a sub- 
 stitution ot paper credit for money ; and those whom the paternal care of the Ic^isla- 
 
 f''!>'oTfn^.r°''-T'^' '^°"''' "°* '"*■■"'* '^'^•' ^^'"^ 'nanageinent of a bank with a capital 
 ot i,ZU,OU0 paid in, are intrusted with the issuing, management, and sale of bonds to 
 tlie amount of hundreds of thousands without any security. It is an enormous tax 
 yet wants the character of legitimate taxation, which is a sum certain, while the stock 
 taken is ot an uncertain value, and depends upon casualities, and renders every pro- 
 prietor of a farm liable witiiout his consent, supposing the railway speculation to be 
 unsuccessful, to the extent of his proportionate share of the stock, which may greatly 
 exceed his means, and even reduce him to ruin ; and it is an invasion, not only of the 
 right of property, but of the liberty of action, which belongs tcr all freemen. Would 
 It be right even were it lawful, to entrust such power to petty officials in municipali- 
 ties or to individuals? 
 
 In our following numbers wc shall endeavour to show the practical use which 
 has been made of this power in the case of one of our Canadian railways ; and we 
 also shall endeavour to show that railways, like can:ils, are undertakings of too great 
 a magnitude and importance to be left in a country so destitute of capital as Canada, 
 to the construction and nnnagement of associated individuals. The cost of each is 
 excessive, but with this dilference, that the cost of canals is chiefly the outlay for the 
 construction; but with railways the outlay is enormous and perpetual, and the profits, 
 It there be any, go not to the stockholders, with whose money they have been built, 
 but to the hosts of Directors, Secretaries, Clerks, and Employes of all kinds, of which it 
 IS necessary to maintain a full complement for each. They form, indeed, gigantic 
 systems of ruinous competition and reckless and appalling homicide, to the disgrace of 
 every civilized community. If the Government here possesses due regard to the lives 
 and property of the people, it will, like the Governments on the continent of Europe, 
 take the management of railways into its own hands. 
 
 NERVA. 
 
G 
 
 III" 
 
 1 1 
 
 ]\ro. a. 
 
 Vuhlislti'd in thr MimtmU Jlcrahl, DccnnUr 21, I8r)4. 
 
 We procnrd now, arcor«lin;r (o (Im' pmiiiiM! given in our first nuinbt-r, to show 
 by way of cxainiilf. tim luactical iisr whicli lia<« liccn inadf of flic powtr of indofiiiite 
 taxation fonfcricti ii|i()n Municipal ('oiiiiciU, in tin; case of one of our Lower Canada 
 Kail ways, in passin;; hy-laws for takin;;' siiarcs in tlie capital stock of ii railway coin- 
 )mny, and for is>(uiii;r lionds in payniiMit of the sarni;. 
 
 Tilt' company rnfcrred to, in which the shirt's wer»> taken. In the Stnnstead, Shcf- 
 ford and Chainbly llailroad (Jainpaiiy ; thi' county is tii:it of Shcirord, thv township 
 that of Farn'iain. Tht; municipality of tin; county, on the 12th tSeplember, IS').'}, 
 passed a by-law, after its apjiroval by the majority of the qualified electors of the 
 county, for taking- shares in the capital stock of that company, and for the issuing of 
 bonds, bearing interest at six per cent., for raising funds to pay for the same, to the 
 amount of twenty-five thousand pounds currency. And on the ninth day of .lunuury, 
 185-1, the two Municipal Councillors of the township of Farnharm, without waiting 
 for it to be ascertained in what precise locality the railroad was to pass a (matter ne- 
 neceisary for them to know before they could legally act,) and without any sanction 
 but their own, gave their approval and authority, whieli is all that the law requires, to 
 the municipality of the said county of .shetVord'to pass another by-law for the taking 
 of additional stock, and the issuing of bonds for the raising of funds, on behalf of the 
 township of Farnham, in case the railroad should pass in one diiixtion, to the amount 
 of .£15,000 and in case it should pass in another direction, to the amount of an addi- 
 tional sum of X 10,000, making together another sum of jC25,000, in addition to the 
 £25,000 taken on behalf of the county, of which, also, Farnhum would bear its pro- 
 portion : so that the lands of the township of Farnham would be held for upwards of 
 i230,OO0— an ainount which all the lands in Farnham would hardly bring at a Sheriff '» 
 sale ; thus making a single township bear a burthen equal to an entire county in 
 the expense of a railroad ; an expense sufficient, if the railroad should not be more 
 successful than ordinary, to expropriate every land holder in the township ; and there 
 is no reason to suppose that tlie railroad will be more successful than ordinary— there 
 is, on the contrary, every reason to suppose that it will be less so. 'JMie charters 
 for railways already obtained, some of which are completed and in operation, suffice 
 abundantly to establish that the Stanstead, .SbelVord and Chambly Kailroad must al- 
 ways, even were it made, be carried on at a loss, and in consequence must be ultim- 
 ately abandoned. The Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad, belonging to the Grand 
 Trunk Company, from Portland to Montreal, is already completed and in operation ; 
 but not having taken the shortest route, owing to influences, whether beneficial or 
 sinister it is not our mission to enquire, that Company has found that another railroad, 
 diverging from the prese:;* one at Island Fond, and passing through St. Armand, or 
 Dunham, and Staubridge, in the county of iMissisquoi, whould shorten the distance 
 from Portland about fifty miles. The charter is obtained, and surveys have been 
 made, and there is no doubt, from the great interests at stake with regard to Portland, 
 the nearest port to Canada on the Atlantic seaboard, that this road, to shorten the dis- 
 tance between Portland and Montreal, ought to be and will be completed by the 
 Grand Trunk Company. The Stanstead, Sheilbrd, and Chambly Railroad must pass 
 in Canada wholly between the present Portland railway, which comes to Montreal 
 from Island Fond, and the new and shorter railway which will come also from Island 
 Pond to Montreal. At no place in Canada will the Stanstead, ShelVord, and Cham- 
 bly Railroad, probably, be more than a little over 20 miles distant from one or 
 the other of the roads, and it will generally be from 15 to 20 ; and for the last forty 
 miles of its course, it will not be more than from 10 to 12 miles from one or other 
 line of the Grand Trunk Company's roads. It wi!j be, consequently, a competing 
 railroad, not with one merely, but between two other railroads of the Grand Trunk 
 
uiiilttT, to show 
 
 iwtr of iiKliifiiiite 
 
 • Lower C.inada 
 
 !i railway coin- 
 
 •<fanstt!ad, Shef- 
 ril, tlitt townnliip 
 [!|il»'iiiber, 18'y.i, 
 
 I'lcctors of tlit! 
 or tilt; issiiina; of 
 I lie Muiu!, to tlio 
 (lay of .lunuary, 
 without waiting 
 INS a (matter ne- 
 ut any sanction 
 law requires, to 
 V for the taking 
 HI behalf of the 
 I, to the amount 
 [)unt of an addi- 
 
 aiklition to the 
 lid bear its pro- 
 
 for upwards of 
 ng at a Sheriff's 
 ntire county in 
 id not be more 
 ship; and there 
 )rdinary — there 
 'J' he charters 
 peration, suffice 
 ailroad must al- 
 
 must be ultim- 
 g to the Grand 
 1 in operation ; 
 r beneficial or 
 iiother railroad, 
 ?t. Armand, or 
 en the distance 
 k'eys have been 
 ird to Portland, 
 shorten the dis- 
 mpleted by the 
 road must pass 
 [^s to Montreal 
 Iso from Island 
 rd, and Chain- 
 
 fioin one or 
 : the last forty 
 Ti one or other 
 y, a competing 
 Grand Trunk 
 
 C'ompany; all three converging logediir, and terminating at the i.nnie point on t)i« 
 south side of the river St. Lawiciu.-, oppo>,il«- Monlreal. The two lines of (he 
 (Jrand Trunk road (between which the Siiiiishad, SholVord and Chambly Jiailrnad 
 will pass,) are themselves so near together, that tliey might .suffer from the evils of 
 competition, except for the circumstance of their belonging to tin; same company, 
 which would enable it in some measure to lessen the disadvinilage. JJut (here are no' 
 rational grounds, even of hope, that if all the three lailroads are constructed the cen- 
 tral one, that of iStanstcad, SlielVord, and Chambly coiihl ever pay, even its working 
 
 expenses, far less yield any return to the municipalities which snbscrilied for shares 
 
 or to the fanners and to landholders who will have to jiay for them, if the bonds be valid. 
 There seems, therefore, not the remotest ( liance of this partnership concern, namely] 
 the Stanstead, Shefford, and Chambly Uailroad, beiii<r a successful one. Not t!ven 
 if the municipal majorities shoiihl sacrifice the value of all (he lands of (he majority 
 and minority together in subscribing and giving bonds for stock, would it succeed or 
 produce any other effect (ban that ol dcjniving every landholder of his property, if 
 payment of the bonds should ever be exacted. Then, indeed, when the bonds should 
 
 be called for, we might sec majorities and minorides unite in one common object 
 
 repudiation. The minorities, indeed, could not be blamed for ivfiisinjf to pay the debts 
 they had refused to contract; but the majorities, who had been (he only active ones 
 in contracting the debts, would probably be the most active also in repudiating them, 
 if they found it necessary to choosi; between adherence to (he engagements of the 
 municipality and the loss of their lands. They might allege that they were duped 
 only by the wild aspirations and delusive visions which had deceived their superiors, 
 whose business it therefore must be, since they wantonly encouraged the delusion, to 
 see then™ harmless out of the snare they had been led into in consetpience. The mu- 
 nicipahties could plead in their own justification that they had been deluded by the 
 encouragement of the legislature, anil the undue favor with which railway schemes 
 and visions had always been received by the Provincial Parliament. «till the calami- 
 tous repudiation would take place, and as our banks, although sufficiently astute, also 
 deluded by parliamentary encouragement and railway visions, may have injudiciously 
 advanced large sums for the construction of railways, (we hojie not competing ones,) 
 it wiJI be well if the diffi-uilties extend no fur(li(;r' tliun (o municipal bonds. In tin; 
 meantime the legislature, not having yet taken the alarm, is going on with its charters, 
 addmg railroad bill to railroad bill, as if all were prospering and to prosper. No 
 doubt can be entertained that the legislature has had no other end in view in passing 
 thesQ laws, as well as in all its other acts, than to benefit the people. This is apparen't 
 from the circumstance of the legislature having made iirovision for the disposal of the 
 surplus profits and dividends to arise from railways, while no measures are devised to 
 meet or parry the deCiciences or losses which might arise from insudicient employment, 
 from casualties, or misfortunes. From all wliicii, it i)Iaiiily appears that the legisla- 
 ture looked upon railways as a safe investment, unchangeable in value, and tliat it 
 entered not into its contemplation that any railroad would be liable to the casualties 
 of commerce, or prove an unsuccessful undertaking. \ Ct railroads are emphatically 
 the creatures of commerce, and siibj(;ct to all tlie vicdssitiules and even more than the 
 ordinary risks of trade, for the loss of life is an extra casualty for which railroads are 
 justly bound to make compensation. Five hundred millions of dollars have been sunk 
 in unprofitable enterprises of this nature in England, and most of the railroad undcr- 
 takmgs in the United States have become bankrupt. On one occasion only, incluil- 
 ing compensation for the loss of between fifty antl a hundred lives by running fion: a 
 bridge into a river, (to say nothing of perpetuallv recurring casualties of'^a minor 
 nature) a railroad company in the Lnited Slates lost more than one hundred thousniHl 
 pounds. Of the few railways in Lower Canada, all have been unsuccessful, except 
 the Grand Trunk. In Upper Canada the (.'real Weslein has recendy sacrihc. H 
 many lives and much property for which it is liable lo make compensation. ]f, (here- 
 fore, the bonds giv-n by the municipalities be valid, and unwilling jmrties are con- 
 strained to enter into railway partnerships where they are liable to ruin, for in riality 
 
f 
 
 s 
 
 Ihe; form partnership, "m cow.ma7iditer on credit, bj stock being taken on their 
 acco.^,t for wncli their property is responsible, such unwiihng partie. have a just an.l 
 sacred ca,m tint ^,he le^sb.tnre should compensate and indemnify them against t.' 
 looses wh.ch they may sustain in conseqvence. But from the velocity of th^e ra war 
 movement Irom t^.e great number of municipalities, purporting to be vested with 
 m>thonty to issue bonds m Payment of shares of c.ptal stock payable with interest 
 u, tweny to twenty-five • ,ars, the legislature might find the resLrces of tielVo 
 vince ,f the law continues to be acted upon, insufficient to pay the losses of those who 
 willbeconstrainea by the municipalities to enter into the railway partnerships and 
 ^ho will be driven from their farms if obliged to pay their proportionate slwe of the 
 OSS ; for the municipalitei would be encouraged in their recklessness of exnense if 
 they imagmed that the legislature would indemnify those whom they i Ired^Tr^^! 
 ctpm dMa. res.st the beginnings, is , he only safe rule to adhere to, when he matter con- 
 cerns the violation oin^hts more sacred than the authority of the violaTors A^e 
 the rights of municipalities to take shares in railway stocks, given in a statute of last 
 year, more sacred t an the rights of property? tlfan the rights of a son to7he farm 
 
 Ibnusf 1 r " '^^'''v ""ir ''"' "''"'' '"^•^ '^^''''^ '" «^-7 civilized ountry 
 thousands of years ? \et the municipalities have risked this violation of the XJuZ 
 property if their bon els be valid by taking shares in railway par nSipsv^hoK^^^^^ 
 ficientlr calclatmg the probable cos. or the chance of profit. The'^JeS "eS- 
 ature ought to be too ch.ry of its powers, if it possesses^ such powersfto part w^th 
 them easily :. ley are trusts to be exercised by themselves, not sEb-delegated o ml- 
 ..icipalit.es ; hey are trusts, if the rights exist at all, for which the leg slS ,re will be 
 held responsible, whattrer may be tiie agency. 'cfe'sianire wui De 
 
 There is no course which the legiskture can adopt to escape the obhVation of 
 mdemnifying those forced into such partnerships,-an ooligation^due alike o See 
 and morality -except only to restore their former freedom%f agency to indiv duals 
 and to allow the taking of shares in railway partnerships to be Ts 7ou.hra Zs^to 
 have remained -a vohmtary act on the pari of him whose property is Habelor it 
 
 :; p;:nshes' ^'' '' "^^"''" " *^°""^'" = «^ '' *- - *-- CouS;: b to^ship^ 
 
 NERVA- 
 
\g taken on their 
 I have a just antl 
 them against the 
 y of the railway- 
 be vested with 
 )le with interest 
 rces of the loo- 
 ses of those who 
 partnerships and 
 late share of the 
 ss of expense, if 
 njured. frin- 
 ihe matter con- 
 violators. Are 
 I statute of last 
 son to the farm 
 zed country for 
 of the right of 
 ips without suf- 
 ! general legis- 
 fs, to part with 
 ilegated to mu- 
 fislature will be 
 
 le obligation of 
 alike to justice 
 to individuals, 
 )ught always to 
 is liable for it, 
 rs in township* 
 
 lands that th'» 
 lapital stock of 
 le by the inba- 
 trade may pos- 
 !s will be more 
 coraprehensive 
 
 safel/ in such 
 ties. Yet we 
 
 most greviouft 
 
 NERVA. 
 
 
 
 
 nvo. 8. 
 
 Published in the Montreal Herald, Jamiary 12, 1855. 
 
 We have treated this subject hitherto, and shall contmue to treat it, with all d.l0 
 wwfT" f '-^^^'t"' "'«s:e^. and all possible indulgence for the violation of rights 
 wo 1 t ?o h "^' ' '^M'^ foundations of society. To carry respect bevond'thi, 
 would be to becon^e i partakei m the commission of all the crimes whi'h may be the 
 -onsequence of me. ares against the inviolable rules of social safety and morality, 
 whether proceedmg from the Munici..al^lies, the Legislature, or any other corporate 
 
 rnnld'w.^r ^''^''*'' ?''\? ''-'^ 'L^^'S^* *'^ '"^P"'^^ P^'^'^'^'^ t^^at the Legislature 
 could have the power of authonsmg Municipalities to tnke shr.res in the capital stock 
 
 of t^nnr'"^""; .'' ""^^ *'.rr' **'''■''■"'■ '^°"^« •'^^""S- '"^•^'•'^ *^ ^^^ch the inhabitant* 
 of those JVlunicipahties would have to pay. 
 
 in r.-.U^-^-"^ now to show that this supposed power of the Legislature is unfounded 
 in right is incompatible w;th the normal and primal rules on which every civilised 
 
 TlV-,:- '" J* '"*'"' ".'^^ ^""'^'y P""'^'?'*^ "<■ '■b^'-ty in governments that have any 
 pre en .ons to freedom, and is besides, opposed to that higher law of Providence, 
 which limits and restrains the aberrations of every Legislature on points where there 
 18 BO previously written consitution to restrict them. 
 
 r.rp f)!\'t-^^''*\! ""''' ^""^ extensive one. It has not been treated ivith all the 
 care which its weight m our social relations deserves. It has not yet been treated at 
 f' 'r" ; 7f •7ortant character which it derives from an unexampled law existing 
 in Canada, fatal alike to our morals and our liberties. It involves many and compli- 
 cnn hone t?H ' ^? 'V'?"'^ ^^ frequently calling first principles to our aid that we 
 rests irenHttr.'^r '*' '=°"'P''';!>»'«"'^' ^' determine which, among conllicting inte- 
 be vi'pweH H ^? P''^*^^'-^"'^^- ^he subject, to be fully understood, may require to 
 be viewed under different aspects, and may necessitate some repetitions, for which we 
 We tS""" '"/''''^"^f ^\ \ ^"1 begin our strictures with the provincial law of 1 853. 
 in !*'J7^ before spoken of this law as portentous of utter ruin in Canada if persisted 
 
 iroilJieforr^nH .'"^ "'"' '''"' ^'u'^P'"' '^' ""^'°"^ "P^'"'''*'"" "?"» ^"^^ right of landed 
 L,?nn!n tL *« ^^^pensate the innocent bonvlholders for the losses they might sus- 
 tain upon the repudiation of the bonds they had purchased. '' 
 
 ralities fn .1"^^^ ^^ ^'^""^^ ""''''" ^'^° "'^P^'^*' 5 first, as a law authorizing Munici- 
 palities to enter into engagements on behalf of all owners of property or lands, of ail 
 
 ■rth;?wi; ' """^^T' ^^' "^" ^^ '^''' "b« ^'^ ^'^P^ble ol actin^^ for themselves 
 Zvcrt ^^.LT ";*; '^'^l-gj'!''^"' ""^n «f professions, tradesmen, mecTianics, /.m;^..5 
 Sfin slh 'vi r^'"*^ V" \'"'"'"°" Partnersbip.iisk, all who own property or 
 
 haveiled ^^"""^'H'^f, for the payment of the bonds .-hich the Municipalities 
 rectlvtof,;'^ ? f''^ maybe viewed as a law authorizing Municipalities indi- 
 Tach asne ' or7'r^' to an indefinite amount ; and we trust we fhall show that, under 
 of if n£ i ' he I^^g's'ature has contemned aud t.a^iscendecl the just limits 
 
 1st sS o" h-T'*^ !t' ^"'"'' f ^ '""''"^ "S'-ts of its constituents ; iong the 
 ™genc^ "■' *^' "«"' °^ P™P^'"'^' <'-^^''°"' of judgment, and freedom of 
 
 to refe"r ll'nn"/ ?.'l '"'' ""'^v' *^' ^"* ''P'^* ^^"^^ mention^, we are called upon 
 we vent... P.?,! P^^f tions contained in the first number of our series, to which 
 
 Tmelv "lit P'•'^"'"^ hat no lover of freedom or of justice could refuse his assent, 
 " nTerciM ultZ^^ 7 .""^ "'"P""^ T"' ^ J°^"* pa.:tnership, speculative and com- 
 " a^d I H.lZ r t'" tne purposes of conveying freight and passengers over land 
 
 waswit theilTe r""'^ '''!'r^\'\^^^^^y freight and passengers over sea." It 
 was witli the intention of cnnsirlppn"- f's^ r^o-h* -f *(v- T c-i--' . .° .. • .-. . . 
 „-l,t,„c In ♦,!,« -u • r — ," ^ ^ ' ■ S ' "^ ^"^ ijeuiBiuiun; iG a;.i;non;^c ivlunio- 
 palitits 10 take shares ,n railroads en behalf of their constituents, that this compariso» 
 
Ifit 
 
 IIMI 
 
 10 
 
 between railroads and stoamships, natural, obvious and intelligible to every person 
 wasn.ade. Tl.e same lethal and annihilating agent, stean,, is the power or Toto 
 used .n the two cases; the object for which this'dano-erous power is used, the con 
 veyance of freight and passengers, is the same in each case ; the concern in whose 
 hnT.'Thuf '"/'"' '} '■ ^'"P'")'«'''^ commercial partnership, is the same in 
 both the ultimate ends and aims o( each are the prolUs derivable from trade ; the 
 agents, scope character, ends and ni>„s of each are, therefore identical, and equally 
 appa hng and heart-rending disasters have occurred from each. If, therefore the le- 
 gisature has a nght to autim.ize Municipalities to take shares in the capital stock of 
 radroad companies, and to bind their constituents to the payment of the bonds issued 
 for the same, (which they must do or the bonds are worth nothing) the Leo-isJature 
 must have an equal nght to authorize Municipalities to take shares in the capi- 
 tal stock of steamship companies, and a fortiori, to take shares in the capital stock 
 
 ttthXntTr ''' f,^l^;T>^^''"' f"^ ^^"g-«- nature, and to issue bonds binding 
 the inhabitants to pay ! ! This conclusion, a strictly just and logical one, is a reduc- 
 tw acl ahmrdum as to the right of Municipalities to take shares in the Capital sS 
 of railway companies. Such power is manifestly beyond the functions and attribu- 
 tions of even a representative legislature ; it could never be acted on unless it were 
 mtended or attempted tore-organize society altogether, on the plan of those who 
 would establish an universal community of goods, wives and children, or a community 
 on Owen s or some other equally luminous and practical'e plan. ^ 
 
 The supposed power of the Legislature to vest Municipalities with the authority 
 i.S'nfr'TKf ^fPf.^tock of trading companies, not for themselves, but oJ 
 behalf of the inhabitants of those Municipalities, and the still more obnoxious and dan- 
 gerous power ot binding the unwilling by the issue of bonds affecting their lands and 
 property for the payment, .s a power which cannot exist. It comL not within the 
 express or implied authority bestowed by the people, the source of all power, upon 
 their mandataries or representatives in Parliament. It is a power which has neve^ 
 been assumed in the most despotic countries : it is against all primal and normal rules • 
 jt destroys the rights to all property and with it all stfety. As well might orLel' 
 lature declare hat there should be but one creed in religion, as butane creed L 
 railways, and then endeavour to force its own faith upon thi people, and this, too by 
 compelling them after the most approved mode of state religiois. to coml 'forward 
 with their contributions in its support. But there would still be this diff^e en^e n 
 favor of state religions, that the people might every one have sufficient for his own 
 subsistence, after paying his religious contributions, which might by no means be the 
 case, after paying his share of the municipal bonds. ^ 
 
 Let us now proceed to consider this law under the second aspect of which we 
 have spoken, namely: as a law authorizing Municipalities indirectly to tax lands and 
 property to an mdelmite amount. ^ 
 
 It will be observed that the authority to tax, which extends virtually even to the 
 powe. of depnvmg the farmers in the country of their lands without Compensation 
 which extends to conhscat on in short,) in favor of railroads, is conveyed to U,e cl-' 
 i^ Sr nnT'r '^ ,^ ""'^'P'^''^'^^ i« ^ower Canada. It is a power not conveyed 
 .n fair and chrect terms, to impose a tax equal to or exceeding the whole value 
 of their lands, or m other words to deprive the owners of^he soil of Their 
 holdings, without giving any thing in compensation ; not so indeed— the Le^is- 
 a ure wou d have been the first to feel hurt and shocked at the in quity S 
 atrocity of such a measure ; but the power of taxation is conveyed as a knd of favor 
 .n the mdd and soothing terms of " an authority in virtue of \ By-law to take an, 
 ?ot the n. •■ ''r7.," *'" "^ '''"^ «' ^"^ ■-' "^^d company, /nd to iss e bond 
 
 axation^'^Tclf '' """?';'" "? "^-^''^ ^'^™'"g ^"'^ ""P°p''''^'' '^^^^ " ^ax and 
 taxation is carefully avoided here, but in the impon of this dulcet nhraseoloey the 
 
 Municipalitie, generally to rush into ruinous railroad schemes without reflection. In 
 Its operation this law gives, if it be a valid law. to the majority in counties, the enof 
 
 I 
 
II 
 
 to every person, 
 power or motor 
 is used, the con- 
 concern in whose 
 p, is the same in 
 from trade ; the 
 'deal, and equally 
 therefore, the le- 
 capital stock of 
 the bonds issued 
 I the Legislature 
 res in the capi- 
 the capital stock 
 ue bonds binding 
 one, is a reditc- 
 the capital stock 
 ons and attribu- 
 n unless it were 
 in of those who 
 or a community 
 
 ith the authority 
 jmselves, but on 
 loxious and dan- 
 
 their lands and 
 3 not within the 
 all power, upon 
 vhich has never 
 id normal rules ; 
 ight our Legis- 
 it one creed in 
 nd this, too, by 
 
 come forward 
 lis difference in 
 jnt for his own 
 3 means be the 
 
 ct of which we 
 
 tax lands and 
 
 lly even to the 
 compensation, 
 
 ed to the coun- 
 not conveyed 
 
 B whole value 
 soil of their 
 
 d — the Legis- 
 iniquity and 
 
 1 kind of favor 
 .w to take and 
 to issue bonds 
 rms " tax and 
 raseology, the 
 encourage the 
 eflection. In 
 ties, i:ie enor- 
 
 mous power even of sacrificing, without the smallest compensation, the whole proper- 
 ty of the land-holders if the railroad company should be unsuccessful ; it recalls to our 
 remembrance a similar delicacy of delusive phraseology observable in the United 
 States, in their federal constitutions, and in certain acts of the federal legislature, 
 (Congress) where the use of the term " slavery " is solicitously avoided as being in- 
 consistent with the declaration " that all men are created equal " and "endowed by 
 " their Creator with certain inalienable rights;" amono- which "are life, liberty, and 
 " the pursuit of happiness," their legislation therefore "is sedulously confined not to 
 slavery but to matters of involuntary servitude! ! Yet even in the United States, 
 no law exists enabling majorities in county Municipalities (although it may in some 
 cities, towns and places of trade,) to bind minorities by the taking of stock in railroad 
 companies. The free agency and the free will of those, at least, who do not bear an 
 African complexion, are there respected. Railroad shares are not taken for those 
 white men who do not choose it, nor do railroad bonds bind their lands, and if they 
 do not bind the lands, they are worthless, unless it be to deceive and delude the bond- 
 holders. Is it in Canada that a former parliament has passed such an act ? It is 
 unworthy- of the honor and majesty of the law to attempt to do that indirectly and 
 under the cover of honied phrases, which it would be debasing or iniquitous to do in 
 direct and positive terms. 
 
 But the Municipalities themselves, of course, it will be said, will know what they 
 are about ; they, of course, would not take stock in a disadvantageous railroad com- 
 pany ; they are governed by the majority ; the majority must have the same interest 
 as the minority ; it is absurd to suppose that they would sacrifice their own. 
 
 Plausible, but unsound conchiNJon : were even all this true, it would be no justi- 
 fication of the Legislature for confiding to their inferiors the right entrusted to them- 
 selves alone, the sacred right of taxation, the chief and almost the only source of all 
 their power, for the exercise of justice or the prevention of wrong. liut the conchi- 
 sion is absolutely false ; the majority may have different interests, the expectation of 
 different advantages, the prospect of incidental profits; t!ie majority may also be 
 wrought upon by delusive representations of railway schemers and agents, and their 
 own bright and visionary anticipations ; the majority of electors in county Municipa- 
 lities, who are generally of the working class, and who with their friends look for 
 beneficial employment in the contracts for making railways, would readily be induced 
 to approve of bye-laws for the taking and subscribing for enormous amounts of rail- 
 way stock, particularly as they are to be paid for by the issue of bonds a long credit 
 of twenty-one or twenty-five years, the immediate proceeds of which bonds, they 
 would expect, would be chiefly expended in the payment of the labors of cattle, horses, 
 and men to be prrfornied by themselves: to be performed at double or more than 
 double the price of orduiary labor, for in new and sparsely settled countries where 
 the population is far too scanty for the ordinary and necessary demands upon its 
 hands, the extra call for labor arising from the construction of railways, raises its 
 price immediatel) and largely. The bonds would be sold probably like others at a 
 discount, as some Canadian municipal bonds, (we shudder at the mention of it,) have 
 lately been offered to us at fifty per cent discount. Of the sum obtained, but a por- 
 tion would be employed on the railways, but the majority who did not expect to pay 
 them, although all powerful as a majority to authorize the Municipalities to subscribe 
 for stock, being of the class that every tew years sell their farms and emigrate to the 
 West, would not be much affected by that consideration. 
 
 In the meantime they would produce a charge for interest upon the possessions 
 of the county, which in the beginning might be paid out of the proceeds of the bonds 
 to avoid alarming the inhabitants, and not till the second or third year would the inha- 
 bitants begin to feel the iron pressure of this taxation : by this time the railroad 
 would, probably, be in operation, or all the contracts for its completion would be given 
 out. If the bonds were payable in twenly-five years, the interest added to the prin- 
 cipal would amount to nearly three-times the sum for which the bonds were issued ; 
 and if the bonds, as usual, were parted with at a discount, to four or five times the 
 

 li-iii 
 
 I '-i I 
 
 \ ' ! 
 
 without pay.r,ent and tl ^wholl uiol h 'i ^';%'»«'-'f g« '^■'^ditors have ^one 
 
 .oc^i^L which h;;!;5 1: tz:^.:::^!^^::^^- - ^"^ ^^^'^' 
 
 though e;t'obt:4'tL^^^^^^ !"'^ "•"'?! 1"^^ g-- ^- the bonds, al- 
 
 landifolders^ wi f'red he ,1,1 V n'''l ' ! , "'"''^. ^f " '*'" '''''"'•^'- '^'^ ^<^^ the 
 shares and the issue o ho b (;' h^ ' '^''"''.u'^'' ^"bscription for railroad 
 
 them ; and they would m^ to n v \Z *f^,'"^8'nn.ng, hat they should have to pay 
 would be sold Ibr the debt on fi e L '^ Tfu '"'^' '""'' their farms and land, 
 
 pensation ! J3u tth s is a A^st b. n 1 ' TI ""f"^ ^' ^^'" '''■""^ them without com- 
 principles of all govlS wf.lf; .?' ^""''"""^"tal and ^A.«m,W/y in^Ma/de 
 bonds Cannot be fal d X'e k t J^^P^-.-p-P--" Native, and therefore the 
 he had planned, because an rbsHi^ff. l.ll / "'\^'-"«^^'^' gave up a building which 
 
 which tfeble th value Ld bee IpdN^T ^1' ""''^ ' ^'''' "^^'''•"'^ ''«'• 
 pended the erection of rXel'e'!?;^ ^'^^ ^«"'th of his power, sus- 
 
 sell him a lot necessary trcompltehfs Z altho / h'"'"''' ' '^'''''''^'' ''^""''^ to 
 ed. But with the Municipaulls the Ki/v^^^^ ^^ P'"''^" ''^' tender- 
 
 sorbing the principal pa^ o^ tL al wi ft aT:"^ ""MZ '"^ ^rr' ''''' ^^- 
 without right to pass such a law and it To ,1 nJ F e F ^S]^^^^''re was itself 
 which it possessed not itself thlr? l *''^"'^^' *'' municipalities the right 
 
 are too ^red to b u 1 e " ^7 7"^"!^ '' ^^^ possess, whfch 
 
 tion, directly or indirectly Tan^^.nin.f K^^ ? ''''^*''' ^'"''■^' "^''t of taxa- 
 Municipalities the Suture h^T^u "^^'I' ^"* '" conferring powers on 
 right o? taxation T true the Sut^ '^°"'^. t ^^"^^'- °^ ^^^" ^"^ g*^-- 
 avoid the common mention of he term txainT t^'^' T'T^' '^'''■''^' to 
 
 orst^am.toi^.eJ:te^^^ 
 
 »how,i;t?;rtrt;::iet^4:raT:"itr ^•^^^'"•^^^'^ -'^'- -^-^ookto 
 
 ingithas contemned anftrlns eldX^^^^^^^ "?""''*^' Legislature in pass- 
 
 sacred rights of its constituent " tk! ^ ' °^ ''' P""'''''' '''"'' ^i«'ated the 
 
 fraught with more dangeT to the ,;ubli n "''"i '""" "" ^'^^ "^ Parliament passed 
 ■ railway statutes referrfd t^ o a'nt n? '? '"* '''""'^' '" ^'"^^^ '=°'"'"g' thin the 
 that they have had no previo" ox^lle .nl^T f^.^''^'^"^, t.^.^ with truth be said. 
 The duty on tea. the stamp a t .nril'? . , ^f^ ^"' 'i"^ "'^ ^■"t"'-« i""tators 
 volution, were trivial and c'^„tem»tfbletonn V "'.'' ^''^'^'P'l^ted the American re- 
 of agency, compared to th s r g7of tb crTb!„^f: '. "" """^ ^''^'''y '"^"^ ^^^^dom 
 and giving bonds for which ot£ are t^^^^^^^^^ '" ''\ '"'-^•'cantile concern, 
 
 bankruptcy and disasters whicl TnT. ./^ ^' f '"' V"" '^''t'mating the confusion 
 quence, unless the legSatbn r 'tis to . '' ' '"T ^'" ^"^''^'■^' "^"^ ^^ the conse- 
 will become a petty fyra^ni d wi,f?i„ir''' ""T/'^'"'''' ' ^'''''y ^^'""icipality 
 the wrong-s, jealouLs and en n fl. "' ' ^"*' '^'"'^'- ^' the railroad ^ multiply 
 
 chy ensue. •" '"'^ '^'""'''^•^ ^^'" '"'^''^ase, until repudiation, rebellion and anar ' 
 
 . grace'^oTt^rrat:: ;;t„LtS"bef ^' ''?. "" T'''' ''^ «^""^"^ -^ d- 
 
 .' body (the county IVJun'dpa^i iesHo "^ between thcmseho and the people another 
 
 injury to the sufferer" ^^^ '''''""' ^''^ ""^"^^''^te and direc! initrument of 
 
 and i;^ ^;3a;;::s^^^Si:i,t^^^ ''''-'' ^'" ^•■^ -P-^-tative, 
 which are unexampled in Xr "veml^^^^ con er upon them not only authorities 
 i^eedom of agenc/ which b^irT^;^ 'SrSl-Sll^^Sir^;;! £ 
 
table as the ma- 
 itors have e^one 
 !S in llie capital 
 
 • the bonds, al- 
 ien case for the 
 ion for railroad 
 lid have to pay 
 ■arms and lands 
 n without com- 
 dly inviolatde 
 d therefore the 
 building which 
 i of ground for 
 lis power, sus- 
 ier refused to 
 :e was tender- 
 nent their ab- 
 ture was itself 
 lities the right 
 possess, which 
 ■ight of taxa- 
 ng powers on 
 n any general 
 J observed, to 
 ow on Muni- 
 ently — confer 
 ibe for shares 
 
 undertook to 
 iture in pass- 
 I violated the 
 iment passed 
 ing, than the 
 truth be said, 
 re imitators. 
 American re- 
 and freedom 
 ile concern, 
 le confusion, 
 the conse- 
 Municipality 
 Ml ^ nmltiply, 
 on and anar- 
 
 py and dis- 
 )ple another 
 istrumcnt of 
 
 13 
 
 lughest, the blame and the wrong will rest where it ought, namely, on the represed- 
 
 hdmg rust reposed m .t if once excited, will be fatal \. its reputltTon.^ 
 
 nor to levy taxes, except only for the sunnort of fhp LS a ^ ''""'^' '^"''^ks 
 their subordinate localiSes ; if Z t^Zl t tTo diff rfntlof muT^ "' 
 their business or too much engaged in party contests, to neXt the JchTef 1.^°^' 
 niary duty winch they now too readily without any r ght, defgate to o h r2- ''"" 
 ly,the„g|jtof taxation; if they will in this particular act wTLLra„d^"T" 
 
 ly and b i„ J r^,^^:^^^st^t<:^^^^^^ '::z::tr''- 
 
 tamable by him who has to pay it as all taxes mo h^ t K. '"""""^^f.^™ and ascer- 
 a„gn,c„.a.i„„ ft„„, ^irfortJe/i^T L 'i™ Je°2 n^'^ & ^ '*„'°,;f «"t 
 m glit ll,e„ kno» how to shape their course, a,.d might poMihrivoW the 'dLf"'"'? 
 
 fe'^isitiirar: s • 'zitirLTsrai-fcr'th^-'f- 
 
 NERVA. 
 
 esentatives, 
 authorities, 
 ce and the 
 y '^th the 
 
11 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 Published in the Motitreal Herald, February 26, 1855. 
 
 The condition of Canada is well known to be far diflerent in point of ability 
 and prosperity from that of the mother country, or even from that of the older por- 
 tions of the United States ; but still, perhaps even in Canada, wherever no gi Jntic 
 systems of rum, popularly known as competing lines, can be brought to work their 
 destruction, judicious railways may have enough of real utility to find support and en- 
 couragement between great marts of trade, through a populous country, without vio- 
 lating in their favor the sacred and primal rules of individual right of property free- 
 dom of judgment, and liberty of action. To give encouragement to a greater extent 
 than this would lead t'o destruction. To violate these sacred rules, would be to up- 
 root the foundations of social safety, and to make repudiation inevitable, by renderinc 
 the discharge of the debts contracted for railways impossible ; it would be to inflict 
 atrocious and universal injury, which no idolatry or faith in politics or railways could 
 render endurable. Reaction would follow in a short time, as it has done in England 
 a highly wealthy, populous, manufacturing and commercial country ; a country there- 
 tore, better adapted for the support of railways than perhaps anv other in the' world. 
 Ihe profits from radways in England, were for a time, more than double the market 
 rate ot interest, and were on the increase ; but other lines in connection with these 
 were a terwards made, and some competing ones, and the profits fell to one half their 
 original amount. The mania still continued— new railroads were built, and new ex- 
 penses were mcurred on the old ; some damages had also to be compensated, and the 
 profits have now sunk to a third of their original value, and are still depreciatino-. It 
 IS evident that m England they have not counted the morning and the evening to the 
 day, as regards their railway system. Pei-haps it would have been better for En-land 
 It one third of their present railways had never been made. In England, accordino- 
 
 V rl^' T''°/'-'''^''^ ^^*.'^""^''^ '" 1851. there are some agricultural counties in 
 which the land is worth from four to five hundred dollars an acre. Whereas fto 
 show the difference of value) choice lots of land in the township of Farnham were sold 
 at a voluntary sale at IVJontreul, on a day fixed, by public advertisement, published 
 or some months in the newspapers in the year 1853, at the rate of less than two dol- 
 lars an acre. JButin England, the principle is only voluntary subscription : there is 
 no example there of agricultural counties being authorized to take .shares of capital 
 stock in railways for the unwilling, and to issue bonds bearing interest to raise funds 
 tor their payment in iive-and-twenty or any number of years, from the estates of the 
 land owners, although the lands there are worth more than two hundred times as much 
 as m l.ower Canada: the insane idea of subjecting the unwilling minority who would 
 not take shares, to the will of the majority who desired them to be taken, has not 
 possessed the Legislature of England. Twenty-five years have hardly elapsed sine 
 the comp etion ol the first railways in England, and, already the depreciation in the 
 value ot that species of property there has become extreme ;' twenty-live years is the 
 precise limit to which railway bonds given for the counties and townships that we have 
 seen in Lower Canada, extends. All progress is much more rapid in America than 
 in England even to the progress— if that can be called progress-of decay and cor- 
 ruption, live yc^ars from tins time may sulHce to accomplish here the work of five- 
 and-twenty in England, as we have commenced on a far more ruinous and more reck- 
 less railway plan, and our zeal has been superior and our faitii greater : althouoh, un- 
 happily—perhaps happily—our means are by no means commensurate : lb ' if, in 
 twenty-five years, without any similar stimulants from the action of the LeoJslature 
 the cautious^ and plilegmitic English, notwithstanding their superiority of means and 
 appliances have brought such immense losses upon themselves, what chances have 
 we, with all the stimulants and excitements that have been employed, of cscapino- 
 Irom irretrievable rum ? The Tunes remarks " that recent experiencp has proved 
 
, 1855. 
 
 in point of ability 
 it of the older por- 
 lerever no gigantic 
 light to work their 
 ind support and en- 
 mntry, without vio- 
 
 of property, free- 
 to a greater extent 
 >, would be to up- 
 table, by rendering 
 would be to inflict 
 s or railways could 
 s done in England, 
 ; a country, there- 
 Jther in the world, 
 double the market 
 nection with these 
 ill to one half their 
 built, and new ex- 
 npensated, and the 
 
 depreciating. It 
 the evening to the 
 3etter for England 
 England, according 
 jltural counties in 
 re. Whereas (to 
 ''arnham were sold 
 isement, published 
 less than two dol- 
 cription ; there is 
 
 shares of capital 
 est to raise funds 
 the estates of the 
 red times as much 
 nority who would 
 be taken, has not 
 •dly elapsed since 
 epreciation in the 
 r-live years is the 
 hips that we have 
 in America than 
 )f decay and cor- 
 the work of five- 
 s and more reck- 
 ;r : although, un- 
 urate ; for if, in 
 the Legislature, 
 ty of means and 
 it chances have 
 ycd, of escaping 
 ;nce has proved 
 
 15 
 
 •how easy it is in the profoundest peace to brin^r upon ourselves ■» or^of 
 
 "ere necessar, in tlie United iStates to n Kh .„ ' f , """"""' ""<! ""P-lse. 
 
 I man and the theme of everv tonm.p • nf ,.„i i ^ oecame the politics of every 
 
 chnreh door,, a. the I'all" c„ ft ^iS C ^v^ ""T""''' "' '"' 
 
 pany he moved, the thrilling topic, »cre tl ° amc T- ,, 1 " ' "" "'".""" '""^ 
 
 i. a week : whill eoL^ot'e^i; l.ferelljin'lT^^^^^^^^^^^ "> ?-'»" 
 
 of loeomotivcs and cars and other stap d re,-litier»hwruv„ .■ * ' . "'""'■"'"S 
 
 I few stood ready to take such advanHtpnV/ , "' "^^n^es m operation. A cautious 
 1 might offer, ^hile none ventured! dT.nnrn n •'"' "^ ^'^^thers, as the occasion 
 United Sta'tes, that few who ditrfrmnTlnr' ^ '' ^.''^'^^'-kabie peculiarity in the 
 Jjon is in the ascendent, ^t^rfto t kV K^^^^^^^^^ P°r-/"- 
 
 the Legislators, although stung almost to mXpTwff. T •. '^"^ ^he majority of 
 idolators of the new Juff^ernaut feTt flf fl^^ ^' *''^ '''''^''^ '"•'^"'^' ^'though 
 
 !^^e"»;™t;!I&'^^^^^^ 
 
 , counties the power ^of^eprvi.Sttn^^^l^ofXri^ "'' ""^''"'^ "°* ''^'''^'' *^ 
 
 fair opportunity of correctin<rtl,Pms,.irnw wi, '' , ' "1 "f"*^"^ ^o "ave oflered them a 
 liable to do wifhout mer^Kre- o' t k v ! ^^'"^ '''''^' '' "''" ^'^^'^^^''^ ^^^ 
 errorwouldprobablyhavibeen enaiml En >l "^'"''"n''' f'^^'^^^^^~^^d the 
 no constitution, which soars above thpT. -^ ! ' "f '", ^^"•''''^' ""^ ^'^^^ as yet 
 ceeded. The only course hat ,.nT ^'^='^'f "'"' ,'"'^ '''^'''' '^' ^'''^'^ >^hen ex- 
 experience, or gJater e flee ion tlfn T"''' ^' '"^°P^'^'' '^ '' 1^^^'*'°" ^« «<"t^n »« 
 haste of a'session has 1 own'Xt t lS '? '^T''"'^'^ ^ '""'''^'^"S during tlie 
 operation, or inco.npaib e wi?h 1 L^.Is o "'' \T ^''I'^ ^ ""'' '"J"^'^''^"^ '» '^s 
 safe to the intelligence an^v h e 0^;^' f '''? ^ ?.''.'"''"-''' *=°"'"^*'^^ "'"''^ thar> is 
 adopt other measures to reassumed.e fTl'^ ""'"'-paiU es. And before the people 
 deprived in this country, r;"':;n o'^co::?';.- J.|''^'' '''' ^"=''* "^^ *« '^^' ^^n 
 
 n.a„i^;:,r::;,lt; Sy ,S':^n; *:,f'^ 1"--^'^ ^^ ^'- United states. TI. 
 taken by th^ Government alon v M L" ' 'r', '"'"T ™"'"^^ '•^"^^'''^«' (^^ ""der- 
 inore, it is probable, wil"; be Jem„^^^^^ '^f vast region,) and many 
 
 , too great, Ld brino- rui?in their tritn ''"''' '''"-''' ^'''-'"' "^""'^^'- ^^ "'ready 
 
 have'already been s^alriled for X . "^ '"oro victims than the thousands wto 
 "and the dangers iti 'comes ottoT'"'' T'""^' f^"'^'^^^ ^^"-^ '^'^^«» °f ^"th 
 "wisdom from these t ertl aTile de vL o?^! V^*'^^ "'•'''^ ''' ''^'"'^'S "or of 
 " personal proof alone that exn L.« ^ di^behevmg : it is in the bitterness of 
 
 I " to any use." experience comes home with conviction, or impresses 
 
 ss^has tlTft. t'ftot:' r- ar-Th" ^7 ''V'"^^ '^ ''' -"-' -'' ^^s uro- 
 1 paroxysms of th;malX V.:::!^ ^r^rl'^.u^'^^-^''-^^-" -"-^'"S 
 
 malady itself, and from the jud 
 
 judicious exposure, by high oflicial 
 
^ 
 
 1 
 
 i ;i i S 
 
 IG 
 
 characters,— counting from the CJovernors of the Union down to the State Engineers, 
 of the abuses, illusions and frauds exercised by Presidents and Directors of railwayi 
 upon the unwary stockholders, and pointing out new legislative measures, by which 
 these abuses may be more spedily known, if not prevented. In all of the States they 
 have laws against fraud ; in many they have laws against gambling, and even Lynch 
 law has' been called into operation in some places against gamblers with deadly effect. 
 VV^e do not advocate the Lynch code, but we think that when railroad charters, 
 granted by the Legislature, open the way to every description of fraud, dishonesty and 
 gambling, some law more stringent than already exists ought to be passed against rail- 
 road officials, from the President downwards, for those misrepresentations, conceal- 
 ments and acts of fraud by which so many thousands are misled to their ruin. Instances 
 are known where railroad Directors have carried about subscription lists for share- 
 holders, where their own name figured, for the sake of encouragement, for a very 
 large number of shares, to the habitations of old and infirm persons, and after making 
 highly coloured representations of there being no risk in the matter, and pointing out 
 by way of proof the number of shares taken by themselves, have induced these unfor- 
 tunate persons to subscribe for such amounts as to reduce them to distress in their old 
 age, and probably shorten their days. What was the surprise of those persons to find 
 shortly afterwards, that those Directors were only the holders of fewer shares than 
 they had induced them to purchase : in fact, being in the direction, where they could 
 see more than others, they had kept the knowledge for a time concealed, and had pro- 
 bably sold out, or adopted other methods to reduce the subscriptions on which their 
 victims had relied as a proof that the undertaking was a safe investment. All the 
 money received as deposits for shares, for bonds sold, and from every other source, 
 comes into the hands of the Directors. The Directors, besides being shareholders in 
 common with their victims, are often themselves traders, proprietors of founderies, 
 dealers in timber and iron, and concerned in other callings from which profits are 
 derived in railroad making- ; they have, therefore, the opportunity of making indirect 
 profits in various modes that may more than compensate for all their losses upon the 
 stock. To say that the Directors have the same or a common interest with the share- 
 holders, as if they had no other or higher interest, is therefore a delusion : they may 
 have a common interest to a small extent, but their seperate and totally adverse inte- 
 rests may be often ten times greater : the Directors, therefore, ought always to be 
 viewed with a certain degree of watchful inquietude. 
 
 The Directors are the agents, managers and procurators of the stockholders, and 
 during the period of their official management they should not be considered as acting 
 for themselves, but for the corporation whose officers they are. If they have bought 
 the debts, bonds or stock owing by the corporation at a discount, during their term of 
 office, when they possess so easily the power to raise or depress the prices of each, 
 they are bound in equity to place the discount to the credit of those for whom they 
 act, as was held lately by judgment at Toronto in the case of Mr. Bowes. There 
 should be no difference between the managing officers of one corporation and those 
 of another as regards common honesty ; and if, as Directors, they are the agents, 
 managers, mandataries, and attornies, through whom alone the corporation can act, it 
 follows that they cannot, while in office, speculate or make profit upon the bonds or 
 debts of the corporation for themselves, the profit must accrue to the corporation or 
 body for whom they act. The attorney would be stripped of his gown who, while 
 acting in the case, should purchase his client's bond from the adversary at a discount, 
 and then charge his client for its value at par. If a contrary doctrine could be sus- 
 tained, there would be no end to the frauds which might be practised. But the whole 
 system is one of misrepresentation and fraud : everything is sought to be enveloped in 
 concealment and mystery, until an indignant call for investigation takes place, and 
 then it is found that unexpected liabilities exist where ill was supposed to have been 
 discharged, and the unfortunate shareholders who had honorably satisfied every legiti- 
 mate claim, are told very coolly, that if they intend to save anything it is necessary to 
 come forward with new subscriptions or advances of money, to come into the same 
 
 nces 
 
 ve L 
 olders 
 
 ve di 
 ut ev( 
 ith an 
 F 
 
 prese 
 uormo 
 ebt, tl 
 ays ni 
 landat 
 repor 
 
 bene 
 'ebly ( 
 ig a v( 
 ands 
 ands 
 ointme 
 ipendi 
 ave be 
 ley ha 
 
 injui 
 mmer 
 hich V 
 neede 
 of the 
 Had 
 ** montt 
 railroi 
 stock! 
 gislati 
 to pr€ 
 
 
 m 
 
 ij 
 
the State Engineers, 
 
 1 Directors of railways 
 ve measures, by which 
 I all of the States they 
 bling, and even Lynch 
 lers with deadly effect, 
 hen railroad charters, 
 f fraud, dishonesty and 
 be passed against rail- 
 presentations, conceal- 
 
 theirruin. Instances 
 'iption lists for share- 
 iragement, for a very 
 ions, and after making 
 itter, and pointing out 
 i induced these unfor- 
 to distress in their old 
 f those persons to find 
 
 of fewer shares than 
 ion, where they could 
 ncealed, and had pro- 
 ■iptions on which their 
 
 investment. All the 
 n every other source, 
 being shareholders in 
 rietors of founderies, 
 om which profits are 
 ;y of making indirect 
 
 their losses upon the 
 terest with the share- 
 i delusion : they may 
 
 totally adverse inte- 
 , ought always to be 
 
 i 
 
 the stockholders, and 
 considered as acting 
 If they have bought 
 , during their term of 
 5s the prices of each, 
 those for whom they 
 Mr. Bowes. There 
 orporation and those 
 hey are the agents, 
 trporation can act, it 
 it upon the bonds or 
 the corporation or 
 his gown who, while 
 ersary at a discount, 
 )ctrine could be sus- 
 sed. But the whole 
 it to be enveloped in 
 on takes place, and 
 pposed to have been 
 atisfied every legiti- 
 ig it is necessary to 
 come into the same 
 
 17 
 
 iworthy hands as liave aliiiady dis.sipatod or speculated with all their precedinff ad- 
 mces. What prospect of benefit is there in doing this ? Several times already 
 ave Directors, after having got into difficulties, come again on behalf of the stock- 
 olders by public or private loans, into the possession of enormous sums, sufficient to 
 ive discharged their debts, and paid for such improvements as were really necessary, 
 ut every fresh loan seems to have only added to their cupidity, for it has left them 
 ith an additional load of debt at the end of every second or third year. 
 
 From all this systema \j concealment and mystery, from these unmanly arts and 
 presentations, from this spirit of gambling and imposition which has got abroad, 
 uormous sums have been lost. The liist vice, according to Franklin, is getting into 
 bt, the second is lying, of whose train concealment, misrepresentation and fraud al- 
 ays make a part. What right have the Directors, who are the agents, managers and 
 andataries) in these senses, the servants of a corporation, to exercise concealment in 
 report which they make to the stockholders for whom they act ? What prospect 
 f benefit is there in putting more money into the hands of those who have already 
 ■ebly deceived the shareholders, it may again be asked ? It seems only by adopt- 
 ig a vote of want of confidence, by taking the management of the roads out of the 
 ands of those who have so long mismanaged them, and by putting affairs into the 
 ands of assignees, or by invoking the assistance of the Legislature to aid, by the ap- 
 ointmeat of commissioners, that there can be hope of escaping from the ruin that is 
 npending, and of saving a part from the wreck which menaces all. Such appears to 
 ave been the reasoning of shareholders in various railroads in the United States, and 
 ley have acted in consequence. The results of this new action, whether beneficial 
 r injurious, remain to be seen. An editorial article in a New York newspaper 
 ommenting upon a report of the State Engineer upon the subject of railroads (of 
 rhich we shall give an extract in our next number) observes : — " Legislation is greatly 
 needed to prevent frauds constantly recurring in our railroad companies, very many 
 of them never coming to the knowledge of the stockholders' until it be too late. 
 Had there been, as is now in contemplation by the authority of the legislature, 
 monthly reports, those frauds could not have been committed. Directors of all 
 railroad companies never impart any information of their affairs and business to their 
 stockholders, or to any body else, unless compelled, and it is now time that our Le- 
 gislature passed measures of the important character now contemplated by them, 
 to prevent these ev^ils." 
 
 NERVA. 
 
!! 
 
 IN 
 
 PuMiscd in the Montreal llrrnhl, March 3, 1855. 
 
 Thr State Knt;ineer for New 'S'ork, in a report, alike creditable to his nhlUf.V. 
 h..s patr.ot>s„. a,ul Lis integrity, wl.ieh was pre.'ente.l to the LesSn e o th t S , ' 
 
 " 'J'lie railroad (corporations, in which there is a larirer ini-i'sfmo-f tl«„ • ii 
 " bank, ovor which the la» exercises ,,,pcrvi»io„, are m-Sd to co„T„r. '" ' 
 ;; ....onat or ca„i,„l a„,l interest, of the greatest .'nagai;:!:";' "noo : , TtZ 1 ■■ 
 
 ■• Ll ;S.''o ;TsZ',tST„"",', °' "'"" '"t- ""'•"'•■"""y ----tar^i ,n m 1 later 
 
 " past, a'a'a ^^si:^^^:'::^:^^:^:^;^^^''' i't '™" °' "- ^ ■ ■'■; i 
 
 " .^iven'J'll^puElii':^;, f!::T^± f ^if'*^' P-'^--ce of dnty that can bo Ci.;!^ 
 " at.,ias. aa, n,alver.tio„ i„4e /,l,„,„Sro„'„'f"te It!'" "'°" ""'"" """"" i T::^! 
 
 " errorLhicI, cannot ho'^JtriS'L^CSrS."''''' '""'' °' ""■" =°"'»'" 
 
 " required for them ann a Ut, eme'<»^K^^^^ °- ^'"J "'""'' ""'' ^^ ""'' 
 
 " their own officers, ° U be een ttt ll,i ''l"'""' ,°' ','"''' """"• f'P'"'' l>r 
 " or relnctantly an, i.nje feeuTperflle ,nT'] ''7 ''f ''"'° '""i"'""' ""'""I' 
 •• to „„ee,,l, iLtcad /ex,abtr;h:r;re'r„;a™."''° "''' "' ""»= »'«"" 
 
 '• Inpatient for raiiroad:::!- 'Z^^^;^-^^:- * ^riS,X:"S;i 
 
 « 
 
19 
 
 , IHSf). 
 
 !thnms(*lvps nrn) t\u'. country in a feiirfiil aif;j;i«'i>;ii(i' tif iiiili-litciliics!*. In (li<ir /r>iil 
 
 to liitstcii tlio ronstriictioii of riiilmnds, time, circiimslaufcs, c()^t, iiml oven tlit'ir 
 
 Ivaliii' wlicil cotriplrldil liavi' licm (lisrr<>ar(lc(l. 'I'la- i|iii'>ti"n iti too muny iii>tan<'e9 
 
 litable to his abilities, 
 
 jRislature of that State 
 
 last, has thu following 
 
 f seems 
 
 )() have hei'ii. not wlK^llicr the roail.s were nfvdr'd or won 
 
 M 
 
 |i:iy w|i( II con- 
 
 investment than in the 
 to control an immense 
 h no otiier check than 
 incorrect, and m many 
 !n the stockholders and 
 s. 
 
 igate the errors of the i 
 ;eneral depreciation of 
 in rejrard to their suc- 
 uld have been wholly 
 
 stnicted, but whether bonds could be negotiated, at no matter what rati; oi disconnt. 
 
 'j'bis |inlicv liiis (lirnwii millions of de|)reciated railway securities upon the markttt, 
 (it. home (ind tihroad y iiuA now the reaction leaves us with tiiousands of miles of 
 unlinished roads and a strinj^ent money |)ressure, operatinif injuriously upon all the 
 business interests of the State. The expediency, tiierefore, of repealing the law is 
 respect fid ly Miij;|i;t'sted. 
 
 '* (^luieded with oiu" railway system is another feature of great but delicate 
 interest. In their laudable desire to avail themselves of the advantages of such 
 improvcuM'iits, cities, villaties arnl towns have loaned tlu;ir credit to railroad compa- 
 nies. Tills is a powvir which shoidd be sparingly granted by (lie Legislature, and 
 cauiiously exercised by the people." 
 
 How miu'.b of what is contain -d in the above extracts have become, and are 
 aily beconiiui;- applicable to ('anada, we need not undertake to show. Jt is highly 
 larining, and too obvious. Those who liav(; followed up our railroad proceedings with 
 le slightest attention, will be able to make the application iheinselves. These rpio- 
 e of duty that can be ! ations are als,o given with a view to establish, among other things, that the legislaiuru 
 s to render at frequent md the highest ollicials in the United States, if they discover, or if tbi'y are shown 
 f the work, and of the hat they are pursuing a wrong or dangerous course, are not deterred by any false 
 : is not difficult to de- \ nide or pretended principle from retracing their steps and repealing those enactments 
 he long run, does not "hich are becoming dangerous to the public weal — ' »r. tjiiid >letrinu')Ui rrsjiidi/ica 
 most certain security , apiat .'''' W'v. have been told however, decidedly, and with some temper, that tiie 
 ; aw authoii>ing tiie majorities in municipalities to subscribe for shares of capital stock 
 rporations is required : n railways on behalf of unwillin!> minorities, will not be repealed : that the Legislature 
 • in the form prescrib- 'ad not gone so far for the purpose of retracing its steps, and iliat it would persevere. 
 3r characteristics, the j f so, we can only lament it, for its perseverance will show that all we have said, and 
 ement also of the re- #till are ha|)|)y to believe, respecting the good intentions of the Legislature, and their 
 
 eing inadvertently drawn into a wrong course from a desire to favor the too exlen- 
 ive desires and delusions of the masses, not of Lower but of Upper Canada, were 
 uly fond imaginings. It will show that they have acted with their eyes open ; and 
 atlier than acknowledge themselves not infallible, in which there would be no dishonor 
 or tmpitude, they would ])refer to see in a few years the country involved in bank- 
 uptcy, rebellion and anarchy. 
 
 J t would have been well if the change in New York had come sooner, but perhaps 
 the system of concealment to maintain the delusion, which had closed the avenues to 
 information, left them without the knowledge that the change was needed. In Canada 
 ■veil known inaccura- Jsimilar laws for the prevention of conceaiments on the part railway directors or offi- 
 in, and in submitting -a^'^'s, to tho<e lecommended by the State Engineer are necessary ; reports weekly or 
 nction, derived from ^monthly would be requisite, exhibiting the true state of atVairs. 
 
 uitted, of the reports % I" t'le American llailway .lournal we lind it stated that " directors cannot safely 
 !io reliance whatever S" ''"^ entrusted with the full authority in the management of our roads, the misfortunes 
 
 *' which have overtaken them, and for which we may say, in all instances, they are 
 '' directly responsible, are full proof. This is no random charge. Show us an un- 
 *' lucky railroad, and we will put our linger upon the very plague spot and not go out 
 " of the direction." Tlie separat^; and often hostile interests between directors and 
 shareholders which are involved, when directors (the agents and niandataries of the 
 shareholders,) while in ofliue, presume to speculate in the shares or bonds of the com- 
 pany are often sufficient to produce serious injury to the corporation. The directois 
 are like gamblers, to whom every card in the pack with which tiiey play is known to 
 I themselves, but concealed from the public and siiarelioiders. So, if the directors of 
 a bank have been playing false, and buying at a discount while in ollice, the stock, 
 bonds, or other debts of the corporation for wiiich they act — they are, or ought to be 
 pital, iiave involved '^'"*<^'t^ responsible, personally, to the corporation, whose gereiits they are — and then- 
 
 urred involving injury 
 mation thus furnished 
 
 ng these reports to be 
 examination as would 
 1 in conformity with 
 therefrom as he was 
 intance with the sub- 
 
 or profit of railroad 
 my of them contain 
 
 ee from the supervi- 
 terests, and has only 
 affairs, prepared by 
 1 frequently omitted, 
 sed by those officers 
 
 le Eegislature, gives 
 tate for railways 
 
'2(1 
 
 protitN this iiindr ^^l(..f^f !,« bmu^rht into ihr common stock, for it would be »inmm 
 too llacrrantly ajrainst those for whom tUt-y act, it would he ahusinif. too glnriiiirlv 
 their hduciary trusts, to a.ssume that such malv.jrsation on the part of directors who 
 possess w.th such facility the power of raisin- or depressiuir ,he nominal value of the 
 stocks over which they preside .oui.l pas, unscathed, if they were ohliced to refund 
 It would put an end to their speculations and make tlieni act like honest men. at least' 
 Willie m oHicc. Corporations are somelimes si riiiuly said to possess neither con- 
 science nor heart ; we certainly do not ..x| t from them any unnecessary sentim..,,- 
 
 tality.butwe sho.ild at least always expect lo find in them honor, that sacred tie 
 which aids and strengthens virtue where she is, and imitates her actions where she 
 IS not. 
 
 We are told that several banks in the United States have assisted competing 
 lines of railway, ami to this cause may, perhaps, in part, be ascribed the failure of the 
 many banks of which, ei^r|,(y are now said to have completely failed in the western 
 suites, and their assesls to he in the hands of tlie prop,;r government officers : and 
 about eighty others to have practically failed to fulfil their engagements. But if a 
 bank which IS 111 no danger of failing, has assisted two competing railroads which can- 
 not both be kept in operation, and the majority of the stockholders of both are about 
 effecting an arrangement as to which of them shall be discontinued, to conclude which 
 agreement a little delay only is requisite as to terms or sanction, the bank is standinir 
 grievously m the way of it.s own reputation and of the public interest, which refuse. 
 to prolong Its former indulgence until the necessary time to effect the arrangement has 
 been accorded, however injudicious it might have been to grant the credit in the first 
 mstance. In competing railroads in the United .States, in several instances, one has 
 been closed so as to render the other profitable, while if both were running even at the 
 Hghest rates which railroads are allowed to charge, the result would have been an 
 unmitigated loss for the expenses of running as ordinarily estimate,! two years ago 
 were oiie-balf the gross receipts, and tiie current charges have, since that time, in- 
 creased by ten or twenty per cent. To have two railroads, therefore, from nea ly 
 to dri.t'' ^ same place at double expense, where one is more Ihan suflicien^t 
 to do al that IS required absorbmg all the receipts from both, appears to be a species 
 of suic.de It IS what Young calls " guilt's blunder." The bank then, which, if no 
 the cause has a least participated in this blunder, seems bound in equity and honor, 
 since Its credit has been the cause of the antagonism, to continue it until the projected 
 reconcdiation can take place and endeavor to assist the good understanding, i, stead 
 of bemg ready by the stringency of its demands to increa.s^> the existing difficulties. 
 
 NERVA 
 
1 
 
 for it Would be sinnii/t> 
 abusing, too glniiii);!), 
 part of (lin-ctors wIki 
 If nominal valuo of the 
 iViTe oblijrj'd to refund, 
 cc hont'st men, at least, 
 lo poNst'ss neither con- 
 unnecessary sentimcn- 
 lionor, that sacred tie 
 her actions where she 
 
 ive assisted competing 
 -ibed the failure of the 
 Y failed in the western 
 "jrnment officers ; and 
 gagements. But if a 
 g railroads which can- 
 ders of both are about 
 led, to conclude which 
 1, the bank is standing 
 interest, which refuses 
 ;t the arrangement lias 
 the credit in the first 
 Tal instances, one has 
 :re running even at the 
 t woidd have been an 
 Imated two years ago, 
 e, since that time, in- 
 herefoie, from nearly 
 is more than suflicient 
 )pears to be a species 
 nk then, which, if not 
 in equity and honor, 
 it until the projected 
 inderstanding, instead 
 existing difficulties. 
 
 NERVA. 
 
 21 
 
 Puhlishcd in the Montreal Hrrald, Much 15, ISr)n. 
 
 rR fii'gitlature of Canada, it Ins been seen, has acted under the impression that 
 ^ery projoctMl railro:id w.is a sale and prolitibit! inveHtmeut ; and for that rea*n«, 
 
 though an inadequate om;, has asiunitMl llie uprecedented right of investing ilir coun- 
 
 Miinicipal Councils with powers beyond (heir legitimate functions and attributes; 
 )wi!rs importing that tliesi! Municipal Councils possessed all the legul intelligence, 
 pscretion and judgment, necessary to enalde (hem correctly to enact the by-laws re- 
 lisite for the purpose, and that their disinterestedness and integrity would be siiffici- 
 It to administer righteously the milli(uis of dollars which might, from (he sale of 
 )nds, come into the hands of men iinaccuslcnned to such sums or such trusts, without 
 tacting any security or imposing any check or supervision deserving tlit! name. 
 
 The confidence of the ljegi>laturt' in its o\fn integrity, has led if (o form too 
 
 rli an estimate of the honor and incoi ruilibility of Municipal (Jounciis. Their coii- 
 ience has led them astray from that humility in which alone can be found safety. — 
 fhere are few of them who do imt pray not »o be led into temptation: was it rii>lit, 
 hen, that they should pass acts vfhicli purport to be laws, whose direct and inevitable 
 j)eration and tendency was to expose the untried Munici|)al Councils, and with them 
 [portion of their constific ils, to the dangers of what to tiiein might be resistless 
 imptations 1 Could it be expected that the Municipal Councils should resist, when 
 Ite and fortune seemed to combine with the Legislature is otVeiing them |)Ower and 
 lealth, if only for a time? If an apple is represented as a temptation sufficient to 
 lad our first parents astray when they were forbidden and cautioned against its use, 
 id the All-seeing was on the watch to detect their disobedience, how could their des- 
 bndants, the poor Municipal l^uncillors, be expected to withstand the tenqitation 
 
 those flying chariots, the railway c:;rs, with Satan at hand to lure them, in the 
 ^ape of imaginary power, wealth, stocks, bonds, speciilution and gambling, and no 
 ^rvculing ci/e to mark their wanderings from the path prescribed ? Will the peo- 
 ie long consider it risjht to continue those so-called laws/ in Lower Canada it 
 ay be surmised that these questions have been already answered by the facts which 
 jive occurred. Those facts are, that from every municipality in Lower Canada where 
 
 -laws have been passed for the taking of railway shares, the inhabitants liave pro- 
 teded in the courts of law, in the name of the Attorney tJeneial, whose sanction has 
 6en laudably afforded them for the purpose, to obtain, on just grounds, that the by- 
 Iws be declared null, and the further issue of bonds be prohibited. A judgment has 
 Iready been rendered in one of the cases in their favor. 'J'he others are not yet suf- 
 ciently advanced to admit of a decision. The people are becoming panic-stricken 
 
 the load of debt which is about to be imposed upon them, and from which they 
 6em likely to be relieved only by measures at which all true and failhtiil hearts revolt 
 -measures of repudiation or revolution. They have begun to count the morning and 
 be evening to the days of the iron-horse. The fabled introduction of the wooden- 
 into Troy was not so disastrous to that unfortunate city as would be the iiitro- 
 icuon of the iron-horsr througlioui our settlements, if it is to be accompanied with 
 list ("ir.:. i the freedr •; u our rights and property. We cannot know, if stock be 
 ikeii, what our losses may amount to : — If it be said they can amount only to all t\ve 
 tock taken (this may be very far from true, but if it were tiiie) how many muiiici- 
 ilities would then be induced to subscribe, or how many municipalities could sub- 
 cribe, as they have done without ruin I We know how it is, in those cases where 
 lie stock is taken by voluntary subscriptions ; a representation is made on the part of 
 (le directors, stating that an addition to the road, a branch or other improvement, is 
 scessary to make the road productive, the unl'orliinate shareholders subscribe anew, 
 
 authorise a loan, and (owing to some new line or to soiim other cause, perhaps lore- 
 Sen by some of the directors who take care to sell out just before the denoument,) 
 ^e result is, that the shareholders find they have lost all the new outlay, and all tlie 
 
^ 
 
 \'i 
 
 ! I I 
 
 • •< '' 
 
 ; 
 
 22 
 
 3S?t!»S':5,?^"^^-^^^^^ 
 
 an 
 
 iifi^iiitil 
 
 ^ ;= f ,^::?:s;^;;- 
 " Whoro coP'oioiu-p, truth, and hono^ty aro maclo 
 10 rise aiKl full like other svar, of trade " ' 
 
 should 
 ^rCiitcr 
 
 of ii.oi,- i,„ l,.^^s„ ; ;„iiii,„, '; ,"" °' 7i"i»">' '■< i«=« »p»"-<i to u,. i-c,5i„s, 
 
 ta,n, that f|, ( 'o m , \l,. f'-'- '™?.' ?" ''' '""^ '•■°'" ^^""""'J- ■'^"t one thin- is oer- 
 
 a^•.•icuItu,■aI .fMMl h bt of ' {• ^'"■""S''/;!"'- ' the railroad passed, (such 
 tlut case no con..- atdat io,!s o t .^ / " ^™r''^ '.'■'^^^ *'''''•'' ^^«"''' ''^"'^^ ^^'''" '" 
 mav r.erhapssena W U wt, n f 'V" ^" ''"' P''"!''^ "'""i? ^he line." Jt 
 
 third'p.rsn,s i;; ^^J I Hm-^T 1^' f '" VJ^^^S^d.to be able to say that some 
 »-t. IU.tcan T :; .i,:;''^^^^^^^ -I'ole spoliatioi has been 
 
 In the case b-'lbre „sS ^ XS u!^?:'^^ ™ such grounds? 
 
 misrepresentations and Ir-'n.ls sn^ h nl V • "I*"' '^"'^ ""'^ *''«'" conceabnents, 
 r.f r,„Uo not from V .n -t not unlrequently take place i„ railroad .nP.ttere 
 
 tron. a..y author.ty denved tro.n the Legislature as to municipalities/ ' 
 
'"% 
 
 old Ennland, and quit' 
 
 be more rnution.N llian 
 
 fill flie iniflligencn iind 
 
 m powers beyond ris^hf : 
 
 bi' more oi It^ss iuhIit 
 
 of ralb'oads wlio will 
 
 render reinunerutiv(.>, 
 
 mnicipjilities and their 
 
 es. JmiI: fhese suppo- 
 
 itile concerns, and still 
 
 lo, 
 
 mate sliareholders and 
 :»e!«agi!red city, to the 
 s an observation of an 
 s villains as often as it 
 rivileo-es which should 
 f confers even greater 
 T Canada there seems 
 re vvill be at any future 
 Its of Lower Canada, 
 ^-laws, as far as deci- 
 tlie matter liad been 
 e serious, and the in- 
 fo province could re- 
 ;r and better purposes 
 oti, jobbing and gani- 
 heiiivflves. 
 
 icii tliis railway mania 
 the following passage 
 tiand and Burlington 
 t weuk, for one mill a 
 ; !fi2,000,000, besides 
 sastrous to the stock- 
 mniense advantage to 
 spared to iho feelinos 
 )artof them their al?; 
 who could devise and 
 in so atrocious ; but 
 service to others, as 
 ie that, "it has been 
 !." Now it jnay oe 
 ulong the line" for it 
 xpenses and mainte- 
 iii\t one thing is cer- 
 pital stock on behalf 
 lilroad passed, (such 
 would have been in 
 along the line." It 
 ible to say that some 
 spoliation has been 
 in on such grounds ? 
 from concealments, 
 in railroad inrstters, 
 to municipalities. 
 
 2:i 
 
 Unt in no mode can the continuance of all the powers included in our Municipal 
 Acts be vindicate, or palliated. They involve by constraint in a common venture 
 «^ n.rtnershii), .-haracters the most opposite and dissimilar, who are each entitled to 
 Sp ex 'rcise of free will. The sober, the frugal, the industrious, who hrtve lived and 
 toiled only to fulfd faithfully their engagements and to secure something to those dear 
 S tiPm somethin-r for '■ the davs of darkness which shall be many ' and the i.llc, 
 Ic X;-t.m'ae lK%xtravagant:the dissipated, " who take no thought for the mor- 
 « ow" a e put upon a common lead : They are placed by municipal coercion atthe 
 .1 n c!-nmP of hazard : Their fortunes are launched on the ocean oi steam together, 
 J!,ri?e dissipated together against the wills of their owners in smoke or explosion. 
 MLTil . fplisViuire still hesitate to rescind these noxious corporate powers l 1 or 
 Ifh^'misons" We have too high a respect for the Legislature to believe that it is to 
 «^ ow f ee scope to the agei cy of speculators, gamblers and jobbers ot nulroads but 
 ? I "amonrotherreasonslt may be said that the Corporatmns or Municipalities 
 Im be inUired if their powers be reduced. To tins it may be answered that the 
 p V s we en roviden'tly bestowed ; that the people will be injured il they letam 
 fh 1 Zi Corporations are always inteuded to be like every social or domestic insti- 
 t in fo the advantage and benefit of the people ; this is the object ol all law 
 KZ'rations rre the mere creatures of the Law endowed with such v. ality and 
 low s as the law has been pleased to bestow upon them in which they stand 
 Fn a ar lo^er position than the people, whose rights exist antecedently to all 
 Imnan laws and whose rights those laws, even by the creation oi Corporations, 
 *e e inteTd d to: augment and preserve. The same Legislature which has ere- 
 S .an put an en^t^the^stene^ ^ can a^oga e t^ ^^^^ 
 
 ^TZ^:;:^^X^ '-iS the nghts of the people, l^it although 
 Sie aw possesses this power, and must, when necessary, without scruple exercise it ; 
 yet as itsexercise at times and in peculiar conditions might seem harsh, all corpora- 
 tions oi.ht to be of limited duration, a circumstance which would alvvays cond-.e to 
 k ep them within the line of duty. Covporations not unfrequently, also, have a ten- 
 de'icy to esUb ish castes or sects: castes check iniprovement, keep societ,y static, n- 
 a y or anse it to retrograde and oppose the lav^ of progress, which in all things that 
 rnot viok e primal and fundamental laws, appears to be the intention ot ProvidcMice. 
 Th hiX the'^obiect, the more dangerous the caste ; hence religious castes and Cor- 
 tuK^tii^s^re m^i da K>erous than all others : to bestow upon these ast-menlioned 
 ( oC-a ions a r^'1-tual duration is what the laws of man commonly endeavor toertect 
 an n i do n. S laws of man are at war with the Lws of nature, lor they a , Mime 
 ^ i :: ia"n,^hed that point of perleetion at which we ought to s op ; hjr every 
 ncl of perpetual incorpation is an edict agunst luture improvement. It is owmg to 
 S LS^lrlnd siiister inlluence of caste that the i^rtile -g-"-' ';;;;;;; ':^;:;-;:- 
 liest -ibodes of man. have been subjected during countless ages to dietvrannyo criul 
 a^cie'tbi^ pe stitious the bJ-ning of widows, the immolation ot .-'^ --;; J^i;; 
 w leels^of .hu- -e naut, and all the forms of impiety w iich a governing and lanatic 
 1 Tr es hood coufd devisL to delude and bnitify the sons and daughters ot man. Against 
 f fl nf lie pen u 1 edict for the prevention of future improvement seems to have gone 
 f ' S;, td^h^has been subjectid to a foreign y^^^Jl^^/^^^^J^ZJ^^t 
 hope to recover herself and become independent until she throws olt the load ot su 
 
 soon becir attacke.l'by the blight of self interest ; the "^^^"^?^^;^:r:^'Z^ 
 into the hands of a few designing persons who have, or '^'''^^te f .^ "^ '^^;' , °\ 4 
 from their associates, and gradually become more r.nd more '^'«J,ff;°'\ ''-;■, J 
 of the members, until at length those interests are en irely 'ost !^h of . I h^ su t 
 rior attractions of the power and advantage of the directors, '^"^^^Z ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^';- 
 managed or mis-managed solely with a view to the a^i^antage o the oihu or ol 
 tice-bearears. An uninLermitting and jealous guard appcirs, therefore, to 
 
"i i 
 
 24 
 
 gislature for the benefit of all, to b autiou fb l^M^TJ"c^^ ^7 °^*^' ^" 
 municipal or otherwise, and to preserve it^cL ml ovp tt^ ,^"'^P°'-«t.'ons, whether 
 statements of their co/.dition, m^anagen e t nd p o. , and fv ST'"^.!;'- '!? ''^^' 
 t.on. In short, the Legislature oulht to bear LS ihat i! V m'"^ ^'''A^ 
 ations, it i8 in some degree founding pett/riS to it^HfvvK estabiisiTing Corpor- 
 interests of the commu^nity in propo^rtionl tl pow ;fb;tiTLT? '"•'"''^ *° '^' 
 to the common weal, and therefore fatal fn itilirT^f ' ".'^ ^'"'"'"'^ '■"•no"^ 
 
 should center in itselfi alone t entrusted t^tW '''"" ''^ ^"'"'^'^ "^'•='' 
 
 NERVA. 
 
ly by such governments 
 ems the duty of the Le- 
 ? Corporations, whether 
 n by requiring periodical 
 d by hmiting their dura- 
 , in establishing Corpor- 
 1 may work injury to the 
 i^ed, and become ruinous 
 ver and privileges which 
 
 NERVA. 
 
 25 
 
 Published in the Montreal Herald, April 5, 1855. 
 
 America the levelling principle is the ruling one. No white man in the United 
 Itates likes that another should have more advantages than himself, and his zeal to 
 rtablish this equality in a country where all are born with equal rights to life, liberty 
 id the pursuit of happiness, (the negroes always excepted,) prompts him to untirino- 
 idustry and unceasing exertion. If his acquaintance fifteen or twenty miles off has a 
 ulway gomg past his house, he thinks he should have one also. This is one of the 
 lost distinguishing traits of every native American eharacter. One person would call 
 emulation or competition, another might denominate it envy or jealousy ; while a 
 jjiiird— who considered emulation, competition, envy and jealousy, as kindred disposi- 
 ;|ons of the mmd, or rather, as modifications of feeling derived from a common source, 
 |nly varymg in degree and intensity, according to circumstances, education and cha- 
 |acter— would say that both were right, but that each should add the momenclature 
 |f the other to his own. 
 
 > Suppose that the whole sea-coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, included, was 
 /fcdented by a succession of harbors or sea-ports, each as good as that of Portland or 
 New York, and each at the distance of only five or six leagues from the other. The 
 jA-merican in his spirit of emulation or competition, envy or jealousy, would desire to 
 ^e a railroad built from each port across the country into the interior. Suppose it 
 lione. Railroads are not wealth, nor are they the representatives of wealth— unhap- 
 pily, they seem likely to become representatives of poverty in many places. Rail- 
 foads do not change the soil nor render pine-barrens productive lands. The lands 
 iffould continue to bear the same relative value to each other, with the railroads all 
 bmlt in the case supposed, that they now do. But the railroads, besides having cost 
 - t'j^"; 'construction ten times the value of all the lands intervening between them, 
 Irould be encumbered with an annual charge equal to the amount of the interest of 
 Ihe cost of construction, and— if they were employed,— to another charoe of equal or 
 jreater amount for tiie working expenses. It is obvious that if all these railways 
 Jrere kept up they would absorb, many times over, all the wealth and resources of the 
 fjost populous and opulent countries. Nature, however, has fortunately bestowed 
 Jrith a sparing hand such sea-ports as New York and Portland, and the spirit of com- 
 Jpetion, emulation or euvy, ought to be restricted within the limits prescribed by neces- 
 sity or advantage. In many places, as often as it can be done, it is customary to de- 
 mand the subscribers to the capital stock, or shareholders, out of their entire outlay, 
 ;^nd sometimes this extends to all the other creditors. Railroad Directors enjoy 
 jgreat facilities for effecting this, and thus, we hear of the immense utility of the rail- 
 road to those who live along the line. Now the advantage must be far more widely 
 comprehensive than this, or the expressed praise is the strongest censure, and shows 
 that the country, generally, and the masses pecuniarily interested have been the vie 
 tims ot traud and delusion. There can be no description of a country more alarmino- 
 to a judicious and prudent shareholder, than the common laudatory metaphor, that il 
 fc covered by a net work of railways. He may safely deduce from such a descrip- 
 tion that the prosperity of the country has received a severe check, if it be not 
 blighted past recovery. 
 
 We are friends to the construction of railways, as often as they are kept within 
 due bounds, that is, as often as they consist with the public utility. Eut the public 
 is composed ot all its parts and to effect this public utility it must yield something like 
 an adequate return for the cost laid out upon it. If the labourer is worthy of his hire, 
 he who hires labourers for the public service with money (the produce of bis own 
 lormer labour) is worthy of his interest. Endeavourinff to obtain, as is done in the 
 -JJnited States, railroads at the cost of one portion of the community for the benefit 
 ol another,— and then, if the experiment fail, turning into contemptuous pity or ridi- 
 those at whose expense they were made, as has been done in the ca'se of the 
 
pi' 
 
 s 
 
 1 i ) t 
 
 26 
 
 Now Ynrk und Erie railway, whore, it is said, that .'{>'23,()00,0()') were saoril'iced — in 
 >nost iinmnral and disgraceful. Every railroad, answers some of the purposes of canals 
 or naviifahh; rivers, as all more or less serve for the conveyance of freight and pas- 
 sengers. But a railroad, although the charge to each individual passenger l)e but a 
 comparatively trilling sum, is, as regards those who contribute to its construction (tak- 
 ing into consideration the enormous cost of making the road with the extensive means 
 and apjdiances they have to maintain of cars, locomotives, station houses, machine 
 shops, establishment of officers and men, and the dread responsibilities to which they 
 are liable, by far the most expensive means of conveyance yet known. The current 
 of a river costs, nothing to keep it in motion, but a railroad even after it is completed 
 with all its means and appliances, re(|uires an immense and perpetual outlay, which 
 the country on its borders and the petty villages through whicli it passes cannot com- 
 pensate, and which can only be i-emuiierated by a great extent of country, or the in- 
 tercourse of large cities, and iience the nnnd)er ot unsuccessful lines which, after gi- 
 gantic expenses in the making, it is found requisite to close and abandon. Jt is a 
 vulgar adage to sav that competition is the life of trade, this is often unsound and er- 
 roneous as a public or government principle where the good of all is concerned. 
 Competition in some things and circumstances would endanger life, destroy trade, or 
 lastly introduce in its stead unendurable misery as is most feehngly and strikingly ex - 
 emplitied in so humble an instance as Hood's " Song of the iShirt." It is folly to 
 encourage competion in small matters so as to occasion distress and wretchedness ; it 
 is madness to encoui'age competition in matters so costly as canals, or so expensive 
 and dangerous to life as railroads. Tn a comitry of so little wealth, and frequently so 
 sparsely settled, as Canada, where the railways often pass through long lines of \inset- 
 tled forest, where, during live months of the year, owing to the inclemency of the 
 season, the travelling ceases or is so greatly dimmished as not to pay the daily ex- 
 penses, it would be madness. Those who would encourage railway competion amongst 
 us, in such a condition of things, are actuated not by feelings of philanthropy, but by 
 tliose of reckless and intense selfishness. Competition in these matters would increase 
 the recklessness with which life is already sacriticed to money in America, where tra- 
 veling by land is nearly as dangerous as voyaging by sea. 
 
 The Covernment in this country, it would seem, can adopt two courses in rela- 
 tion to the construction of railroads consistently with what it owes to the rights and 
 liberties of its subjects — one is to leave th>'ni to voluntary subscription as is done in 
 England and the United States, where is has already proved so disastrous, not imme- 
 diately to the government, but to the people and their morals, (but, it must always be 
 recollected that what affects the iieophi immediately atVects the government ulthmdely, 
 either in repution or credit); and the other is to take them into its own hands as is 
 done by nations on the continent of Europe. But, in no case can the (lovernment 
 have the right to bestow upon Municipalities a compulsory power over minorities in 
 taking, or making them answerable for shares in the capital stock of railways, and in 
 issuing bonds on behalf of the inhabitants for the payment of these shares. 
 
 They must be restored to that freedom of will, choice and agency in things law- 
 ful which is their birthright, whicii belongs to them in other free countries and 
 which it was wrong, directly or indirectly, to take from them in this — namely, the 
 right of determining for themselves whether they will or will not belong to, or be re- 
 sponsible in person or property for any partnership, or quasi partnership associations 
 running partnership risks, of which the Roman, the French and the English law concur 
 in saymg that the essence, the one indispensable requisite, is mutual and personal con- 
 sent. If it be held that " an act of Parliament can make murder proper, or give 
 " rectitude to robbery," if it " can sanction evil deeds, or consecrate crimes," then 
 it may be consistently held that it can sanctify a breach of contract, or construct a 
 purely personal and aleatory contract against the consent of the person who is to be 
 bound by it. The Legislature is desired only to withdraw a pretended right confer- 
 red on Municipal Corporations, a right specious in appearance, meant perhaps as a 
 boon, yet in reality ultimately fatal to the liberties and mora!? of the peopk 
 in its operation than Esau's pottage or Pandora's box. 
 
 anil »trnr«P 
 
*>7 
 
 ) were siicril'iciMl — i^ 
 he puiposes of canals 
 e of freiglit and pas- 
 I passenger be but a 
 its construction (tak- 
 the extensive means 
 kion bougies, machine 
 )ihties to which they 
 own. Tiie current 
 after it is completed 
 pc.tual outlay, which 
 L passes cannot com- 
 if country, or the in- 
 lines which, after gi- 
 nd abandon. Jt is a 
 ften unsound and er- 
 of all is concerned, 
 ife, destroy trade, or 
 ;ly and strikingly ex - 
 hirt." It is folly to 
 md wretchedness ; it 
 lals, or so expensive 
 fb, and frequently so 
 1 lono; lines of unset- 
 16 inclemency of the 
 to pay the daily ex- 
 y competion amongst 
 philanthropy, but by 
 itters would increase 
 America, where tra- 
 
 two courses in rela- 
 ve'n to the rights and 
 cription as is done in 
 lisastrous, not imme- 
 it, it must always be 
 vernment uUhmitely, 
 I its own bunds as is 
 can tbe (lovernment 
 er over minorities in 
 k of railways, and in 
 e shares. 
 
 gency in things law- 
 free countries and 
 n this — namely, tbe 
 belong to, or be re- 
 tnership associations 
 J English law concur 
 al and personal con- 
 rder proper, or give 
 !crate crimes," then 
 ;ract, or construct a 
 person who is to be 
 tended right confer- 
 meant perhaps as a 
 he people, and worse 
 
 As Well mi>'ht the Municipalities prescribe wboin the minority should take a» 
 , partners for life, or marry, as what other partnersbips they should enter into against 
 their own con«^i'nt. 
 
 It is true the Municipalities might tell the minority that tbe partnership would be 
 Hivuiao-ed for them by others, but this would be but a .hallow device to recommend it, 
 as neople like to have some little to do tbemselves in their partnership concerns, wbe- 
 
 tu;r belonging 1o tlie home department, or ollu:rwise ; and if this partnership, con- 
 ■iK'ted on''their behalf by the Municipalities, to be ntmaged by others, should only 
 t>c ;is successful as the great majority of other railway partnerships, it would leave 
 em to compensate the whole amount of tbe shares taken and possibly a great deal 
 
 ore. 
 
 Another effect of this legislation of Municipalities is, that it would tend to pro- 
 uce the "-reatest inequality in the assessments or contributions imposed upon each, 
 become speedilv the cause of heart burnings and enmities. Very difl'erent burthens 
 ould be borne by different adjoining Municipalities through which railroads pass, 
 ccordino- to the; recklessness, the ca])rice, or the delusions which might predominate 
 n each. " If the laws aimed at justice they would place these Municipalities on a 
 .ore equal footing : if one Municipality was not compelled to subscribe for shares of 
 apital slock, so neither should the other be. The Legislature, perhaps, would be^ 
 hocked at the idea of compelling all the Municipalities to take shares. But now, if 
 ne Municipality chooses to avoid all the burthens of a ruinous railroad by not taking 
 hares, although it lies along the line, what iniquity, what, tlagitious injustice, there 
 ould be in obliging the miuority of the adjoining Municipality, partaking of the same 
 entiments, to bear'burtbens that may crusli them ? If it be voluntary on the part of 
 he Municipalities to subscribe for stock, let it be, also, voluntary on the part of the 
 individuals composing those Municipalities. Without the law is rescinded, every in- 
 dividu-d on whose property the bonds could attach is already half enslaved. The 
 borrower, says Praukliu, is a slave to the binder, the debtor to tbe creditor. From 
 the time of Homer it has been said, 
 
 " Jovo fixed it certain that wliiitev;'r clay 
 Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away." 
 
 It is true that we can get rid of tbe debt and the slavery together — by repudia- 
 tion and revolution. It woulil be well for our legislators to reflect tliat their present 
 course in these matters is unpist; and where injustice, althnugh not intended, results 
 from measures adopted, we live in an age perhaps too ready to call for retribution. 
 
 NEl^VA. 
 
4 
 
 I ;' 
 
 m 
 
 28 
 BBTo. 8. 
 
 PuhUshed in the Montreal Herald, April %, 1854.. 
 
 It is said to have been the late Duke of Wellington's opinion that the construction 
 and management of the railroads in Britain oiij-Iit to have been in the hands of Gov- 
 ernment; if they had been, there is no probability that they would have been atten- 
 ded with such immense loss as'they have been to the people. The " Railroad King" 
 and his fellows would have been more speedily checked when they had the eyes of 
 the members of the House of Commons upon them duiing their whole career 
 than when the supervision went no farlhor than to pass an Act of Incorporation 
 givmg certam powers, and then leaving such vast numbers of their fellow-citizens to 
 be the victims of delusions, frauds and dishonesty. On the continent of Europe 
 the radways are m the hands of governments. The lines of raiUvay runnino from 
 foreign countries, where there was no intervening seperation by the sea or a laroe 
 river, might have occasioned umbrage among the powers of Europe, unless those 
 lines at least, had been in the hands of the respective governments. 
 
 There are many cogent reasons in favor of the government having under its con- 
 trol all railways that enter mto the province as continuations of lines from other states 
 without cros.smg the St. Lawrence or its parent lakes. This can happen in Lower 
 Canada only. There are as yet but three lines of railway that thus enter Lower 
 Canada. One is the Grand Trunk from Portland ; the government, as part owner of 
 that road after its entrance into Canada, may probably have there all the control 
 which It may require. There are then only two other lines, which ought to have been 
 only one, as they come from places little distant from each other ; both on the west 
 side of Lake Champlam, both terminating at the same place— Montreal-and running 
 about twelve miles apart: one is the first, and was for a number of years the 
 only railroad in Canada, begun m the reign of his late Majestv William IV —viz the 
 railroaa to 6t. Johns, with its continuation to Uouse's Point. If the rioht of nrimo- 
 
 what was, fo a long period, the hrst and only railroad m Canada, that connected the 
 province with a foreign country, or the waters of the St. La^Wence with those of 
 Lake Champlain 1 he other is a railroad commenced a number of years afterwards 
 extending from Montrea to Lachine, thence subsequently and more recently , roLn.ed 
 from Caughnawaga on the opposite side of the St.' Lawrence, to the province line- 
 which was reached about twelve miles above Rouse's Point where it crosses the 
 Ogdensburgh railroad, as does also the House's Point railroad about twelve miles b ! 
 lew ,t. Ihe utter impossibilily ot these two lines being ren.unerative, and the cer- 
 tainty of their being ruinous to each other after an outlay^f about two million of do - 
 Le easv'f^r th'e " '"""''*'/ amalgamation of interests. If this takes effect, t wout 
 
 CrZll^ I /"'■"■""''"£' ^' '* ^""''^ '^""•'"•^'^^ ^^ f"'- it"* interest and that of the 
 
 Grand Irunk, to acquire the control of this amalgamated road, but there is no other 
 
 radroad that could be needed or that could be carried on, witnout an enorr ou" an a 
 
 OSS, between Lower Canada and the United States, unless it be one roiected by 
 
 iL^xZt Pt t'"^ J'"'"'^ ?""'' ^'^ ^'^°^**^" the distance between pXd and 
 Montreal, of which we have spoken in a former number. The Grand Trunk now^n 
 operation commanding as it does the whole intercourse between PortlanSand Mon- 
 treal, and a part of the intercommunication with Boston ; and the Rouse's Point road 
 Srlen^M ^' """"/f '»t,— -"--^ion with Bo'ston, which p 4 over tSe 
 Green Mountains, and for the mtercourse with New Yok which is carried on bv 
 land through Vermont or by water through Lake Champlain. The delusions to say 
 nothmgol the frauds of railwsys have wrought enough of misery and d"Lste; ^the 
 neighboring states and in the parent country to render it impeTadvron ^e Ledsla 
 
 tS: to XThL'd a TT. *'' ^r' °*" '''' p^'^f'^' -d - '' vaTurits om S: 
 
 tation to stay its hand as to future enterprises of this nature. The power functions 
 and character of the government are as much interested in these matters'as tliey are 
 
29 
 
 in the repression of delusive frauds or vices of a different character tl.at tend to de- 
 grade and .mpavens h tlie whole people. Why are lotteries prohibited amongst a mo- 
 ral people I Why .s sambhng an offence ? The worst and most fraudulent feat^s 
 of lottenes and ga.nblmg are apparent .n the management and transactions of railway^ 
 conducted upon the voluntary system What would be the benefits, it may be asked 
 that wou d be Ukely to result from the government taking into its own hands the ma- 
 nagement of ra. ways ? Those benefits are obvious as Toon as the demoraliyng and 
 suicidal law au horizmg Municipalities to subscribe for shares of the capital stock on 
 behalf of unwilling minorities shall have passed away. If individuals see their advan- 
 tage in becoming stockholders m a promising line, they can then subscribe, secure that 
 no competing ine will be allow to destroy its advantages. As the officers of the rail- 
 way will not then be allowed to maintain antagonistic interests to the stockholders— 
 the dangers which they have now to dread from internal treachery, will also be esca- 
 ped. 1 he government possesses advantages for railway purposes that can be posses- 
 sed by no other ; it can select their course— it can choose their number. It can and 
 must avert the certain ruin of competing lines, it need build none except such as would 
 be considered advantageous to the whole community— such in other words, as would 
 be remunerative. Do any persons want such as would not be remunerative^ Then 
 they want to inveigle others into undertadings which might be hazardous and ruinous: 
 they want that their road should become a stock jobbing, a cheating, and a fraudulent 
 concern, mi^hich speculation and gambling should have unlimited scope, as in most 
 rmlroads which have been denounced by Governors and State Engineers in a neigh- 
 bouring country ; men of this stamp should meet with no confidence. In the affairs 
 of the world, says Franklin "men are saved not by faith but by the want of it " 
 Again the government can fix remunerative prices ; it can manage more cheaply hav- 
 ing large lines under its control than when a full complement of President, Directors 
 Secretary, attaches and men are separately employed for each railway. Many of the 
 officials who are the most expensive might be dispensed with, because there would be 
 a general superintendence for all, while the numbers of the working men who contri- 
 bute to the safety of the passengers might be increased. 
 
 The riots which now take place too frequently from the non-payment of wa<^es 
 sometimes for months together to impoverished labourers, enlisting in their favor the 
 sympathies of all the humane, might be wholly prevented. 
 
 The employment of any on the running stations excepting temperance men 
 who would be necessary for the safety of the passengers could be avoided, for the 
 triumph of temperance regulations cannot be long in forcing its way, where steam is 
 the propelling principle, and where consequently without such precaution the dangers 
 and disasters of travelling by land might be greater than those of travelling by sea. 
 Steam power and drunkenness can never be associated without destruction. 
 
 The power of railway officialism in the Corporations with the large sums of money 
 which come without any security into the hands of railway Tresidents and Directors, 
 of which the message of the Governor of the State of New York affords some speci- 
 men, and the chances of gambling and fraud which offer in various directions of which 
 the English courts and publications give us ample examples. " How in one company 
 " half a million of capital was down to unreal names, how in another company Direc- 
 II tors bought for account more shares than they issu.sd and so forced up the price, and 
 " how in others they repurchased for the company their own shares, paying themselves 
 " with the depositors money." All these, and endless numbers more, suffice amply to 
 establish that even the voluntary partnership system of joint stock companies is radi- 
 cally and incurably bad, as a common system on which to construct railways — and if 
 as a voluntary system, it is so fraught with evil, how doubly and insupportably perni- 
 • lous must it be when to these evils the Canadian Municipal powers of coercing mi- 
 uorities ag-ainst their wills into these partnerships shall be superadded. 
 
 Mutual confidence should be the soul of all associations. Eailroad associations 
 liiive almost universally forfeited that confidence and lost that soul which was their 
 iitc. Different railways have often hostile interests to each other. Each incorporat- 
 
•M) 
 
 I:! 
 
 j-d railway, iilth HI Jill in itsi If a piirtiUTsliij), has, ns it i?* managed, antagonisms and 
 separate interests in itself sullicient to work its ruin, or to t-cntre all \*s t>niiis in the 
 hands of half a do/en. The railway directors can raise or depress the |iricc of shares 
 or bonds to suit their exclusive desi;;iis, and seldom have they been deterred from pur- 
 suing' their own at the sacrifice of tlie interest of all others. We do not hear from 
 tlie continent, of iOiirope. where railways are in the hands of i>()vern?nent, of such 
 frauds and infamies as those that takes jiiace in iMigland iirjd the rnitcd States, but 
 which will be enlarged and improved on in this Province, if to the voluntary system 
 the inetVaitle tyranny of .Municipal coercion, by taking shares of the capital slock for 
 the unwilling, shall continue to he superinduced. TI.e French Canadians, far more 
 considerate as to con^Mpiences, will rightly look upon this pretended Vlunicipal power 
 as a snare to involve them in a far heavier thraldoin than all the seigniorial privileges 
 from wiiich they have been so long laboring to emancipate themselves; they will,ofcour>;e 
 wisely avoid the snare. The majority of the iiuulified electors in the Anglo-Ameri- 
 can townships, >' studious of change and pleased with novelty," although not posses- 
 sing a fiftieth of the property, may in some places.possihiy venture into it, in the hope 
 that they may migrate before the day of reckoning shall "come, careless of what shall 
 befall those whom they leave behind ; but railway explosions — whether of steam or 
 credit — come often with such sudden destruction upon those interested, that the ruin 
 may often precede the intended migration. We shall not employ time at present in 
 characterising Legislators who would deliberately form and carry into execution 
 plans so destructive to the prosperity of the people who elected them. We know 
 
 not yet that such plans were formed or will be persevered in ; if not persevered in 
 
 we shall be entitled to believe they have never been formed ; but if they should, there 
 will be time enough then to talk of conspiracies, not of the people against the o-overn- 
 ment, but of the Legislature against the people, as the Legislature of Eno-|and con- 
 spired against the people of the then Colonies by the stamp aet. * 
 
 But we have happier expectations from futurity : from the very extremity of the 
 difficulties which beset us we may draw our hopes of deliverance. We have no con- 
 tidence in Joint Stock Companies ; we have none in Municipalities. Like the petty 
 Duked ims and Marquisates of a past century in Italy, or the Barons in Germany, who 
 could hang, draw and quarter on their own estates, these Companies or Municipalities 
 have just power enough to involve us in a civil war of competition and ruin, but not 
 enough to elVect a conquest that shall give us the hope of peace or prosperity. The 
 iron yoke that is now pressing upon us we feel heavily ; that wh'ch is in prospect be- 
 fore us IS more grievous than we can bear, and we "would (ly from petty tyrants to 
 " the throne ;" from Municipalities m which we can have no trust, to the Lerrislalure 
 in which we stdl place confidence, from the state of shareholders to the state of tax- 
 payers, piously believing that as tax-payers something may still be left us, while as 
 shareholders 
 
 " In a hind of Hectors, 
 
 Cheats, supercargoes, swindlers and directors," 
 
 we have reason to fear that all may be swallowed up. It is certain that a «afer sys- 
 tem might be devised (notwithstanding all the bugbears that we hear of government 
 frauds) than could be established by any other mode, for the officials mi"lit be men 
 choosen tor the busmess, professional men, who should be prohibited from speculating 
 in the shares of the concern, who would act in the face of the whole country be un- 
 der continua and ready supervision, and not lind shelter under their own inM-.nificance 
 as may now be done. Then the complaints of individuals would inspire sahitarv fear 
 and restraint, if well founded ; the officials would not be traders, nor furnishers of ma- 
 teria s or supplies, nor contractors, nor in league with them, and the remedies to 
 frauds could be applied so speedily as. to prevent their most injurious effi^cts. Be- 
 sides, the prestige and reverence which rightfully obtains in favor of a work of "-overn- 
 ment, would remove m«ch of the envy and jealousy which now attaches to^dmost 
 every undertakinPfoH hi? nature begun and carried on by associated individuals and 
 
31 
 
 wliicli prompt tci attfiiiipls at injury, regardless of tlie many lives of innocent people 
 who may be sacrificed to hatreds and enmities in which they take no part. 
 
 Those who assnme that governments cannot conduct any public work to advan- 
 tage, by reason of the constant readiness of the people to impose upon and overcharge 
 tiieir rulers, do not reflect that the same objections exist against canals which are al- 
 most exclusively governnuMit works, that the same disposition to impose ujion and 
 overcharge exists against Corjjorations and Municijialities, and that while the credit 
 of the government is so much better, they must have superior advantages in obtaining 
 contracts at the lowest price. Besides, the examples of internal treachery have been 
 much more flagrant in the Corporations of a neighboring country than could be possi- 
 ble in works conducted under a government. 
 
 The superiority of the railroads on the continent of Europe to those of England 
 in point of convenience, comfort and safety to life and property, is conceded by all re- 
 cent travellers. Safety to life may be too contemptible a matter to deserve of itself 
 the attention of enterprising men clevoted to steam progress ; but the lives now have 
 to be paid for, which may secure them a little more regard. iStill, if the voluntary 
 principle could not be entirely superseded, as people must be allowed to ruin them- 
 selves — although you rightly prohibit others from ruining them — an occasional railroad 
 on the voluntary system, might be permitted by government where it can do no inju- 
 ry, nor elVect a civil war upon other railroads. There would always be enou<Th of t!ie 
 unprincipled, and more than enough, to undertake them, for the chances of "amblin"- 
 and fraud which they would afford to Contractors, Presidents, Directors and oth«;rs 
 admitted to their secrets, were this the sole prospect of profit. Surely greater encou- 
 ragement than this ouglit not to be permitted. 
 
 NERVA 
 
 I 
 
32 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 To the Editor of the Mnntrecd llrra/d, [PiMished DcccmlH-r 1, iHiH.J 
 
 Sm, — Tlierc are many of those who have read the a/arming and omimms 
 (•omiminiciitioii of " Ncrva," in your |)a|)«T of tlic — instant, who would be very 
 much ftratified if that gentleman would tell them in what way the large sum of money 
 he mentions h:is been lost in railroads in (Jreat Britain ? And, also, whether it is not 
 a fact, that even those railroads, that have been most ruinous to tiie stockholders, 
 have greatly increased the value of Ileal Estate to those Districts through which they 
 pass or are contiguous, so much so, that it is a matter of doubt whether the proprie- 
 tors would not be greatly tiie gainers if they were to be mulcted in the whole cost of 
 those roads. They are also at a loss to see what the injustice and hardship can be in 
 nineteen out of twenty men obliging the twentieth to do something that will double 
 the value of his and their own property. 
 
 ALIQUIS. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 To the EditofT of the Montreal Herald, [Published December 11, IBS'!.] 
 
 Sm, — Your correspondent "Aliquis" speaks of many persons, who would be 
 very much gratified if " Nerva " would tell them in what way the large sum of money 
 he mentions has been lost in railroads in Great Britain. The answer is obvious — it 
 has been lost in the same way in whicii money was lost by the South Sea, the Mis- 
 sissippi, and other schemes, by the selfishness, misconduct and misrepresentations of 
 the unscrupidous or unprincipled agents and speculators, and by the want of business 
 habits or capacity, and the confiding trust of the deluded victims. But the question 
 meant or intended to be put by " Alicjuis," perhaps is not so much " what way " the 
 large sum of money has been lost, as what is " Nerva's" authority for the statement 
 and the answer to that question is, correspondence from England and publications 
 stating that more changes have taken place already in fortunes in England, since the 
 introduction of railways, than during five times the same period before. The wealthy 
 have become impoverished, unscrupulous agents have risen as by magic to rapid for- 
 tunes, clergymen, the infirm, the incapable of business, widows and orphans, wiio had 
 placed their all in these concerns, as in safe investments, have been reduced to beg- 
 gary. Where these vicissitudes occur with prodiguous or unusual frequency, t!iere 
 must be something evil in the enactments of the state itself, or in the conduct of the 
 persons through whose agency the wrong occurs. The great mistake has been the 
 considering railways, as many have unfortunately done because their foundation is on 
 land, as partaking of the security of landed estate, and, therefore, as being a safe 
 investment. Many thousand persons havo; been induced to invest their means in 
 railway undertakings who would have shuddered at the idea of doing so, had they been 
 told fairly and honorably that they were embarking in trade, or investing their little 
 all where all might be lost. But railways ought to be universally known and declared 
 to be what they r-ally are, that is, a purely trading concern, nor only subject to the 
 chances and misrepresentations of trade, but to far more than the ordinary risks and 
 uncertainties to which trade is liable 
 
 The way in which the large sum of live hundred millions of dollars has been lost 
 in England, is also to be found in an article in the Edinburgli Ueviow for October, 
 1854, entitled, " Railway Morals and Railway rolicy," where; the interest of the 
 directors is shown to be often adverse to that of the proprietors, aiul ilicierore to re- 
 
3d 
 
 quire great watchfulness on the part of the latter, and where ilirectors and contrac- 
 tors are not too advantageously spoken of. Having, thus, not only answered, but given 
 our authorities in answer to the first question, us well as to another question whicli v/v 
 were led to presume might be meant or inferred from the one propounded, we proceed 
 to the next enquiry, namely, " whether it is not a fact that -even those railroads that 
 " have been most ruinous to the stockholders, have greatly increased the value of 
 " real estate in those districts through wliich they pass, so much so, that it is a mat- 
 " ter of doubt whether the proprietors would not be greatly the gainers if they were to 
 « be mulcted in the whole cost of these roads." The fust part of this enquiry con- 
 tains a question, and the latter part appears to be the (juestioner's own deduction anil 
 inference, and if not, it must be a second question— they each deserve an answer. To 
 the first part it might be fairly answered that some railroads, which have proved most 
 ruinous to the stockholders, have greatly increased for a time, wttil other and cow- 
 peting railroads have been Imilt, the value of the real estate in those districts through 
 which they pass. But is this a reason or justification for encouraging the making 
 of railroads which may prove most ruinous to the stockholders ? If the ruined stock- 
 holders had been informed at the beginning by the speculators, agents, directors and 
 contractors of railroads, some of whom must have foreseen, but kept this knowledge 
 concealed, that such most ruinous results would possibly attend their outlays in stock, 
 would they have been induced to risk their fortunes in such enteq)rises ] They would 
 not. And is it any consolation to the ruined stockholders who have been misled and 
 deluded by the visionary fallacious or fraudulent representations of speculators, to tell 
 them that, although they have lost their fortunes, a different set of people, the land- 
 owners, have gained something by what they have lost 1 It is the duty of the legis- 
 lature to protect all its subjects equally, as far as it can, from the delusions and frauds 
 of the reckless or unprincipled. To the latter part of this enquiry of " Aliquis,^^ 
 whether it be an inference or a question, the answer is, that it is no " matter ot doubt ; 
 it is certain that the proprietors would not be greatly the gainers, nor at all the 
 gainers, if they were to be mulcted in the whole cost of the railroads ; that they would 
 be ruined completely. To the concluding remark of " .Vliquis " that " they," mean- 
 in°- the many who have read the communication of « Nerva," " are at a loss to see 
 "what the injustice and hardship can be in nineteen out of twenty men obligmg the 
 « twentieth to do something that will double the value of his and their property, we 
 have only to observe that their sense of right must be drawn from very different foun- 
 tains than those of equity and morality, than those of the laws of France, England or 
 any other civilized country, who could be for a moment at a loss to see the injustice 
 and hardship of the case supposed. The sacred rights of {Iroperty are set aside, the 
 freedom of agency is denied, and the equal exercise of judgment and conscience, on 
 the part of the twentieth, is set at nought. Several railways in the United fetates, 
 after costing large sums, are now closed because they did not pay the working expenses, 
 and a Committee of the Caughnawaga, and Champlain and St. Lawrence railways is 
 now appointed to consider whether one or both of those railways shall cease to run. 
 These are fact startling enough to occasion hesitation in the twentieth person, whose 
 rights and freedom are to be over-ridden by the nineteen, concerning the credit due 
 to railway representations and visions. This twentieth person may be of the con- 
 scientious opinion that the railroad projected is disadvantageous, that it wiJl not pay 
 the expenses of being worked and must be abandoned, that a competing line wil be 
 set up, which may cause it to be closed, and cause him to suffer loss. It might be 
 that he would willingly agree to the desires of the mneteen if they would secure him 
 against loss ; but he is not to be permitted to exercise any right over his own proj)- 
 erty : his strongest conviction, his conscience itself, in preserving his proper^^ tor his 
 children, is to be violated because he is the twentieth, and may be wrong y^hile nine- 
 teen infallible persons making railway promises, which are never deceitful, have a dit- 
 ferent Son, and who^t tjip injustice and hardship of this can be, ra. way favourers, 
 SeTand V'mot'r;-, I:«t^^ 
 tiona bad at least produdeKi- the ccnvicti&n:ojr:th6»r.P'.yn <R|Propnety, and are we now 
 
 1 , , . • ' ' I • • » •••••. 
 
li 
 
 34 
 
 to be threatened with railway persecutions in addition to the apalling loss of life and 
 property they have heretofore occasioneil f 
 
 The readiest way, as has been already said, to put an end to the grerious delu- 
 sions, misrepresentations and injustice, to which our present system of railways gives 
 encouragement and support, to aflord better protection to the lives and property of 
 Her Majesty's subjects, to restore them to right and freedom of agency, of which no 
 representative body or individual is entitled to deprive them, but of which what now 
 purports to be law deprives them, is to make some changes in the law, and for the 
 Government to take the matter into its own hands. The only part of our |)opul*tion, 
 to their honor be it spoken, who have exercised any independence of judgment on the 
 subject of railways are the French Canadians— most others seem to have deliTtred 
 themselves up with blind and unreasoning credulity to the ordinary views of unbound- 
 ed wealth, improvement and progress, artfully suggested by railway agents and 
 scemers, until, at last, morality has expired, and the statutes of Canada contam an 
 unexampled law, against which petitions will soon be recived, and which the French 
 Canadians, it is believed, will do their best to repeal. ^,r.^nxr » 
 
 ERRATUM. 
 
 On the 33rd line of page 15, for " offered," read « afforded." 
 
 ' till 
 
 • . • ' 
 
 • • '• ' 
 > J t • • •• 
 
ife and 
 
 s delu- 
 9 give« 
 «rty of 
 hich no 
 lat now 
 for the 
 Illation, 
 i outhe 
 tlivcred 
 ibound- 
 nts and 
 otain an 
 French 
 
 SRVA.