k 3S5. 7/ ™ E 
 
 EMPLOYMENT 
 
 M 
 
 'n* 
 
 ■ THE PEOPLE AND THE CAPITAL 
 
 OF 
 
 OF 
 
 * 1 
 
 Britain 
 
 ¥ 
 
 IN HER OWN COLONIES, 
 
 AT THE SAME TIME ASSISTING 
 
 
 *,.V 
 
 EMIGRATION, COLONIZATION AND PENAL ARRANGEMENTS, 
 
 
 i 
 
 BY UNDERTAKING THE CONSTRUCTION OF 
 
 I i 
 
 A GREAT NATIONAL RAILWAY 
 
 between 
 
 THE ATLANTIC AND THE PACIFIC, 
 
 FROM 
 
 HALIFAX HARBOUR, NOVA SCOTIA, 
 
 TO 
 
 
 m ' ' ■ 
 
 A'i 
 
 FRAZER’S RIVER, NEW cf.iLEDONIA. 
 
 V .LyAn \ 
 
 • • • v r>A • • 
 
 BY 
 
 MAJOR ROBERT CARMICHAEL-SMYTH. 
 
 “ Let those, who discard speculations like these as wild aiu* improbable, recur 
 to the state of public opinion at no very remote period on the subject of Steam 
 Navigation. 
 
 “ Within the mei^v, r of persons not yet past the meridian of life the possi¬ 
 bility of traversing byAteam Engine the channels and seas that surround and 
 intersect these islands was regarded as the dream of enthusiasts.” 
 
 
 '? 
 
 C, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 W. P. METCHIM, 20, PARLIAMENT STREET. 
 
 1849. 
 

 
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 THE WORLD — 1,000,000 OOO 
 
 CHINO c.-Uits OlPEHGOftCIFS 
 400,000 ooo whi JK/uld be. brought 
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 „ Fort Langley to Sandwich. Islands. . HO 
 
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 Feejee I s to Sydney (New Sou IF Wales). 
 
 „ to Auckland fNew Zealand)..-. II50 
 
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 DISTANCES OVERLAND 
 
 Miles 
 
 555 
 
 Freni Halifax to Quebec — 
 
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THE 
 
 "KQ. 1 
 
 i| ' U *1 
 
 u ^ ^ n 
 
 EMPLOYMENT 
 
 OF .. 
 
 THE PEOPLE AND THE CAPITAL 
 
 <&nax Britain 
 
 IN HER OWN COLONIES, 
 
 AT THE SAME TIME ASSISTING 
 
 EMIGRATION, COLONIZATION AND PENAL ARRANGEMENTS, 
 
 BY UNDERTAKING THE CONSTRUCTION OF 
 
 A GREAT NATIONAL RAILWAY 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 THE ATLANTIC AND THE PACIFIC, 
 
 FROM 
 
 HALIFAX HARBOUR, NOVA SCOTIA, 
 
 TO 
 
 FRAZER’S RIVER, NEW CALEDONIA. 
 
 “ Let those, who discard speculations like these as wild and improbable, recur 
 to the state of public opinion at no very remote period on the subject of Steam 
 Navigation. 
 
 “ Within the memory of persons not yet past the meridian of life the possi¬ 
 bility of traversing by Steam Engine the channels and seas that surround and 
 intersect these islands was regarded as the dream of enthusiasts.” 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 W. P. METCHIM, 20, PARLIAMENT STREET. 
 
 1849. 
 

 

 "\ 
 
 
 *v 
 
 3 ? 5 . 7 / 
 
 C.2.U. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 i 
 
 SJ 
 
 *■ 
 
 -i* 
 
 •' ' V. . 
 
 “ It is the duty—the imperative duty—of every individual 
 “ (however humble) to express conscientiously, but calmly, 
 “ his public opinions, for by such means truth is elicited.” 
 Hence it may be permitted to observe, that a momentous 
 question is now brought to the notice of the people of Great 
 Britain,—that it ought not to be neglected, until perhaps 
 a voice from her colonial children may go forth proclaim¬ 
 ing “ it is too late,”—for then the opportunity of uniting 
 in firm and friendly bonds of union “ this wondrous empire 
 “ on which the solar orb never sets” will have passed away 
 for ever. 
 
 “ That which we have, we prize not to the worth; 
 
 “ But being lacked or lost,—why then we rate its value.” 
 
 \ 
 
 - . 
 
 * ft 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 “ At this moment, when renewed attention is turned 
 “ to all the Routes which, during ages past, have from 
 “ time to time been talked about, as best fitted for a link 
 u of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific 
 “ Oceans,”—we call upon the people of Great Britain and 
 her Government to reflect, that, for her, the best and 
 shortest link of communication—the great link required 
 to unite all her dominions in one powerful chain—is now 
 in her own possession,—that—“ it is in vain to incul- 
 “ cate feelings of brotherhood among mankind by moral 
 “ influence alone; a sense of community of interest must 
 “ be also established,”—that Great Britain can, in the 
 opening of the Route herein proposed, at the same time 
 employ her own Children at home and abroad, as well 
 as her own continually increasing Capital. 
 
 “ The Railway operations of the various nations of 
 (i the world may be looked upon as a sort of competition 
 “ for the overflowing Capital of the countries where 
 “ Profits are low and Capital abundant.” 
 
 “ The duty of Government is first to regulate the 
 “ stream of Emigration, so that if a man be determined 
 “ on leaving the United Kingdom he may settle in one of 
 “ its colonies.” 
 
 “ It must be acknowledged as a principle, that the 
 “ Colonies of England are an integral part of this 
 u country.” 
 
 u We have superabundance of Capital—a plethora of 
 “ Talent—Scientific and Commercial—they only want an 
 “ outlet to be beneficially employed.” 
 
 “ The Expansion of Capital would soon reach its 
 “ ultimate boundary, if that boundary itself did not con- 
 “ tinually increase.” 
 
VI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 u What the Legislature should desire and pro- 
 “ mote is not a greater saving, but a greater return to 
 u savings, either by improved cultivation, or by access to 
 “ more fertile lands in other quarters of the globe.” 
 
 “ Each nation derives greater benefit from having 
 u an increasing market in one of its own provinces, than 
 “ in a foreign country.” 
 
 “ The possession of remote territories, is the only 
 “ thing which can secure to the population of a country 
 “ those advantages derived from an easy outlet, or pro- 
 “ spect of outlet, to those persons who may be ill pro- 
 a vided for at home.” 
 
 “ We have an immense Colonial Empire. To its 
 “ resources and exigencies we now seem for the first 
 “ time to awaken. Hitherto we have been content to 
 “ consider it as a magnificent incumbrance, that testified 
 “ to our greatness but had nothing to do with our in- 
 “ terests or the welfare of our population.” 
 
 “ In certain parts of the Empire transportation was 
 “ a very valuable punishment, but there ought to be 
 “ natural limits to it. Transportation was very well in the 
 u infancy of a Colony, but as it became more peopled and 
 “ civilized, it was undesirable to deluge it with a convict 
 “ population. The subject of abolishing the penalty of 
 “ transportation was one of very great importance.” 
 
 “ Generally the state has a right to the services of 
 “ her convicts. England has ample territory in which to 
 u exercise that right. There are works in her Colonies 
 “ no individual has money enough, and no Company 
 “ interest enough, to undertake.” 
 
 “ Can we or can we not classify our convicts?—To 
 “ this is the whole question of transportation reducible.” 
 
JJattecpmc upon Cron 
 
 Extract from Annual Register. 
 
 1767. 
 
 “ Hail, Native Ore ! Without thy powerful aid, 
 
 “ We still had liv’d in huts with the green sod 
 “ And broken branches roofed. 
 
 “ Hail, Native Ore ! Of thee possessed, 
 
 “We envy not Golconda’s sparkling mines, 
 
 “ Nor thine, Potosi, nor thy kindred hills 
 “Teeming with gold. What, though in outward form 
 “ Less fair, not less thy worth. To thee we owe 
 
 “ More riches than Peruvian mines can yield, 
 
 •/ ' 
 
 “ Or Montezuma’s crowded magazines 
 “ And palaces could boast, though roof’d with gold. 
 “ Splendid barbarity ! and rich distress ! 
 
 “ Without the social arts and useful toil 
 “ That polish life and civilize the mind. 
 
 “ These are thy gifts, which gold can never buy. 
 
 “ Thine is the praise to cultivate the soil, 
 
 “ To bare its inmost strata to the sun, 
 
 “ To break and ’meliorate the stiffened clay, 
 
( viii ) 
 
 “ And from its close confinement set at large 
 “ Its vegetative virtue. Thine it is 
 “ The withering hay and ripened grain to sheer, 
 
 “ And waft the joyous harvest round the land. 
 
 “ Hail, British Native Ore ! 
 
 “ For thine is trade, that, with its various stores, 
 
 “ Sails round the world, and visits every clime, 
 u From Nova Zembla to the Antarctic Pole; 
 
 “ And makes the treasures of each clime her own, 
 “ By gainful commerce of her woolly vests, 
 
 “ Wrought by her spiky combs; or steely wares, 
 u From the coarse mass by stubborn toil refin’d. 
 
 “ Such are thy peaceful gifts! ” 
 
 “ Then grateful own, 
 
 “ Britannia’s sons, Heaven’s providential love, 
 
 “ That gave you real wealth, not wealth in shew, 
 
 “ Whose price in bare imagination lies 
 “ And artificial compact;— Thankful ply 
 “ Your Iron Arts , and all the world is yours.” 
 
ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC KAILWAY. 
 
 “ The systematic development of the resources of British 
 North America will, so far from being a drain on Great 
 “ Britain, be of immediate advantage to her.” 
 
 “ Such development entails the natural, enduring and perfect 
 “ union between Great Britain and that part of her empire.” 
 
 If an apology was due to his countrymen, when so hum¬ 
 ble an individual brought forward so great a project, how 
 much more must he owe a debt of gratitude, for the in¬ 
 dulgence he has met with, and the encouragement he has 
 received. 
 
 Deeply impressed with the vast importance and serious 
 nature of the subject in question—of the numerous interests 
 that would be benefited, and unaware of any that could be 
 injured, and having, by the advice of friends, divested it of 
 all personal remarks, as well as of every thing that might 
 appear in the least degree political, he ventures to urge its 
 further consideration upon the public. And he does so with 
 the more confidence, because there is evidently an anxious 
 desire on the part of the Government to give every pos¬ 
 sible assistance to great national undertakings, and as 
 there is every prospect of a railway from Dublin to the 
 Atlantic Coast of Ireland being soon completed, and an 
 emigration company formed in Galway. 
 
 It will be well to recollect, that when Sir George Simp¬ 
 son quitted England on his journey round the world, he 
 was accompanied, in addition to his own party, by “ a 
 “ gentleman in the service of the Russian American Com- 
 “ pany, on his route from Petersburgh to Sitka , which his 
 “ superiors were preferring for him, as shorter by thirty 
 u degrees of longitude, the whole breadth of all the rest 
 “ of the world, to that of his own native empire.” 
 
 The Caledonia Steam Ship of 450 horse power, on 
 
 B 
 
( 2 ) 
 
 board of which Sir George Simpson and his party em¬ 
 barked at Liverpool, reached Halifax on the 18th March. 
 Sir George Simpson observes, when speaking of this Steam 
 Packet line, “to the establishment of this communication 
 “ between the two Continents Halifax owes much, both 
 “ on commercial and political grounds. Still, however, 
 “ the work is only half done .” And Sir George then goes 
 on to show how the English mails are obliged to be sent 
 through the United States, for want of a proper land 
 communication to Quebec; but I trust that the time has 
 at length arrived, when our great Colonial land route of 
 travelling may reach from Halifax to Frazer’s River, from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific. The nautical high road 
 between England and her North American Colonies has 
 long been established beyond a question, and may be 
 depended upon beyond a doubt, as a regular, a safe and an 
 easy communication, of nine or ten days average passage; 
 another undertaking has now to be accomplished by 
 Great Britain and her Colonies—an undertaking that will 
 open a mine of wealth to all concerned, not the wealth of 
 gold, but of commerce and industry;—for between the 
 North-Eastern and North-Western shores of America, 
 through our loyal, long-tried and devoted North American 
 Colonies, there may now be created a great, and a most 
 important work—a British Colonial or Imperial Railway 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific —a work that would give 
 remunerative employment to the population, to the wealth, 
 and to the inventive genius of England. 
 
 Startling as it may at first appear, a little reflection will 
 show that it may be done; that England and her children 
 have the power to make it; and that it will become valu¬ 
 able property—for it would increase our commerce and trade 
 to an extent not easy to calculate. But such a noble work 
 must not be looked upon merely as a money question,— 
 although if only considered in that light,—England must 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 reflect that, if she wishes and intends to retain her high 
 pre-eminence amongst the nations of the earth, she must 
 most assuredly pay for it. No country can have all the 
 blessings and advantages of England and have them for 
 nothing, nor can she retain them without great exertion. 
 Her accumulated wealth cannot be allowed to remain idle 
 •—nor will it. No one will deny for a moment that every 
 economy that will make the poor man richer and happier 
 ought to be practised; but let us take care that we do not, 
 from too strong a desire to retain that wealth which Pro¬ 
 vidence has thrown into the lap of England even in the 
 midst of war, deprive her labouring children of legitimate 
 employment and just remuneration, (all that the industrious 
 classes of our fellow-countrymen require.) But the under¬ 
 taking proposed has even a higher claim to our attention. 
 It is the great link required to unite in one powerful chain 
 the whole English race. Let then our princely merchants 
 condescend, for a short time even, to consider the under¬ 
 taking here proposed ; and say, if they can, that (even 
 should it be executed at an immense expense) it would 
 not—produce a great and beneficial forward movement, 
 be a present happy employment, and a future perpetual 
 source of wealth, to England and her children. Let 
 them consider also, that “the social advancement which 
 “ the modern improvement of Railways is calculated to 
 “ effect has added a new faculty to man, in the facilities 
 “ which it affords of communication between province and 
 “ province, and between nation and nation. Nor does it 
 “ seem too much to say, that it will be the means of 
 “ binding all the nations of the earth into one family, with 
 “ mutual interests, and with the mutual desire of pro- 
 “ moting the prosperity of their neighbours, in order that 
 “ they may enhance their own, and forming thereby the 
 “ most powerful antagonistic principle to war that the 
 “ earth has ever known.” And “ we trust our readers 
 
 b 2 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 “ of all politics will cordially join with us in a desire, 
 “ that the wonderful discovery which it has pleased the 
 “ Almighty to impart to us, instead of becoming amongst 
 “ us a subject of angry dispute, may in every region of the 
 “ globe bring the human family into friendly communi- 
 u cation ; that it may dispel national prejudices; assuage 
 “ animosities—in short, that, by creating a feeling of uni- 
 “ versal gratitude to the powers from which it has pro- 
 “ ceeded, it may produce on earth peace and good-will 
 “ towards men.” And where, let it be asked, can this 
 wonderful discovery, this great power of steam, be called 
 into action so effectually and so usefully, not only for 
 Great Britain, but for mankind in general, than in that 
 parallel of latitude in which (all barrier difficulties and all 
 cause for war being now removed) would naturally flow 
 in full tide the civilization, arts and sciences that invariably 
 follow in the wake of Englishmen? Then as to the diffi¬ 
 culties of the undertaking, let us recollect that an eminent 
 engineer, previous to the construction of the Liverpool and 
 Manchester Line, said, “ No man in his senses would at- 
 “ tempt a Railroad over Chat Moss : ” his calculation was 
 that it would cost £270,000, Yet the genius of George 
 Stephenson afterwards surmounted the difficulty at a cost 
 of £40,000, though the work was commenced when en¬ 
 gineering science was less understood than now. “ Steam 
 “ as applied to locomotion by sea and land is the great 
 “ wonder-worker of the age. For many years we have 
 “ been so startled by such a succession of apparent mira- 
 “ cles, we have so often seen results which surpassed and 
 u falsified all the deductions of sober calculations, and so 
 “ brief an interval has elapsed between the day when cer- 
 “ tain performances were classed by men of science as 
 “ among impossibilities, and that wherein those same per- 
 “ formances had almost ceased to be remarkable from their 
 “ frequency, that we might almost be excused if we regarded 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 “ the cloud-compelling demon, with somewhat of the re- 
 “ verence which the savage pays to his superior, when he 
 “ worships as omnipotent any power whose limits he cannot 
 “ himself perceive.” With such a power (so eloquently 
 described) at our command, and such magnificent results 
 to be obtained from it, shall England hesitate ? shall 
 the expenditure of a few millions check such a noble 
 work ? shall the Rocky Mountains be a barrier ? moun¬ 
 tains never yet properly explored, and of which almost 
 all we know is that we nearly went to war to be 
 allowed to cross them. And what are the expenses of 
 war? Between the years 1797 and 1815, 630 millions 
 of money were expended for carrying on war. Again, 
 the very magnitude of the undertaking and length of the 
 Railway is in its favour, for — “We believe it may be 
 “ affirmed without fear of contradiction, that the working 
 u details of a Railway are invariably well executed in 
 “ proportion to their magnitude. A little Railway—like 
 “ a little war—is murderous to those engaged and ruinous 
 “ to those who pay for it.” Now if in England experience 
 has taught all this,— shall the people of Halifax, New 
 Brunswick, Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, &c., be allowed, 
 perhaps encouraged, to go on slowly endeavouring (at an 
 immense expense and outlay for such young commu¬ 
 nities) to make a variety of local Railways, thus ac¬ 
 knowledged to be ruinous, and the mother country remain 
 quietly looking on when she has now the power of greatly 
 assisting them, and to her own advantage, by planning and 
 arranging one grand route and system of Lines throughout 
 the whole country, and under Providence the means of 
 opening that route in an incredible short space of time ? 
 Let then England, her North American colonies, and the 
 Hudson’s Bay Company, join heart and hand, and with 
 the great power of steam which it has pleased the Almighty 
 to place at the command of man, there will soon arise a 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 work that will be the wonder and admiration of the age— 
 and such a mercantile and colonizing road will be open to 
 Great Britain, that at no future period (at least within the 
 imagination of man) will she ever again have to complain 
 6 of too great a population on her soil, and too small a 
 market for her labour. 
 
 Let us consider the immense annual cost to England for 
 her prisons and her convicts,—much of that crime arising 
 probably from the want of employment, and consequent 
 poverty. Even at this moment five millions are spoken 
 of as a sum required to be expended in new prisons 
 for a favourite system. It has been suggested “ as well 
 “ worthy of consideration, whether it would not be ad- 
 “ visable to cease transporting convicts at so great a cost 
 “ to distant settlements, and instead to send them to a 
 u nearer place of exile, where their labour might be ren- 
 “ dered in so great a degree valuable, as speedily to 
 “ return to the Mother Country the whole of the charge 
 “ incurred for their conveyanceand where could England 
 better employ her convict labour, than on a work that 
 would be of such vast and lasting importance to herself, to 
 her colonies, and to mankind in general? “If gangs of 
 “ convict labourers were placed a little beyond the verge 
 “ of civilization, and employed in clearing and enclosing 
 “ lands, constructing roads, building bridges, the land thus 
 “ prepared and improved would meet with ready pur- 
 “ chasers at prices which would well repay the Govern- 
 “ ment their previous outlay.” It may be objected by 
 some, that the expense of the troops necessary to guard the 
 convicts would be very great, and would be a heavy 
 burden to this country. To them I must use the words 
 of the “ Times,” when suggesting the grant of colonial 
 lands to be annexed to the performance of military duties. 
 “ Subsidiary to and connected with this arrangement 
 “ might be devised another, by which soldiers of good cha- 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 “ racter might be discharged after ten years service, and 
 “ rewarded with small freeholds in the colonies. They 
 “ might be bound to appear on duty at certain periods, and 
 “ for a certain duration of time, as our pensioners are at 
 “ present.” And if soldiers of six or eight years service 
 were sent out in charge of the convicts, that unpleasant 
 duty would be of very short duration before they would 
 meet with their reward. 
 
 This system of pensions alluded to by the “Times” 
 would become extremely applicable to the troops employed 
 in guarding the convicts on the proposed Atlantic and 
 Pacific Railway, and small villages, and ultimately cities, 
 would, no doubt, arise from such a source: but even the 
 first outlay caused by the employment of the convicts on 
 such a work cannot be considered as any extra expense 
 to government; for these convicts must be fed, must be 
 employed, and must be guarded somewhere : and it will 
 be seen hereafter that government may be reimbursed 
 not only her expenditure on account of the convicts, but 
 also her expenditure on account of the troops required to 
 guard them. In the suggestions for the employment of 
 the convicts, it is further said, “ There is unhappily but 
 “ too much reason for believing that the whole number of 
 “ labourers who could be thus profitably employed might 
 “ be furnished from the criminal population of Great 
 “ Britain.” And by a return given at the same time, it is 
 shown that the number of convicts from 1825 to 1833, 
 both years inclusive, was 22,138, and that return did 
 not include all the penal settlements. “ The cost of 
 “ convicts at home and abroad have mounted from 
 “£111,306 to £378,000; certainly the law of increase 
 “ is strongly marked on the expense of crime.” “If 
 any body will cut down this figure he will earn the 
 “ gratitude of the nation.” This last expression of the 
 Times has more particular reference to the expense in- 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 curred for Ireland, but will no doubt be acknowledged to * 
 be equally true as bearing upon the enormous general 
 increase of convict expenditure ; and the more I reflect 
 on this subject, the more do I feel convinced that the 
 employment of convict labour in the Rocky Mountains, 
 and at several other points of the Line of this proposed 
 great National work, would produce a most beneficial 
 result, as a means of reducing the amount of crime, as 
 even an immediate saving of transport expense to England 
 (unless indeed all distant penal settlements are to be finally 
 abandoned), and as an ultimate great advantage both to 
 her own commerce, and to that of her colonies; and here 
 let it be recollected, that there is a feeling abroad “ to force 
 “ upon government and the legislature a bold and manly 
 “ course in dealing with crime in generalthat the mag¬ 
 nificent prisons now built are considered “ unjust to the 
 “ labouring poor, whose humble dwelling, with coarse and 
 “ scanty food, is mocked by the grandeur and beauty of 
 u the prison, as well as by the idle and comfortable enter- 
 u tainment within its walland it has been remarked by 
 a public journal in a warning voice, “ to make prisons 
 u palaces is the way to turn palaces into prisons.” Lastly, 
 
 “ we cannot afford to spend £50 a year on a convict at 
 “ home.” Enough has been said on this subject at pre¬ 
 sent, and we will now consider again the working out of 
 this great undertaking. We will suppose, in the first place, 
 active, intelligent, and scientific young men to be sent 
 to the Rocky Mountains, to ascertain the best spot at 
 which to cross them, and the best port (if the mouth of 
 Frazer’s River will not answer), on the western shore of 
 North America, within, of course, the Hudson’s Bay Com¬ 
 pany’s territory, for a great commercial harbour and rail¬ 
 way terminus. Then let a grand line of Railway be 
 marked out from Halifax to that spot, and let all local 
 towns or districts that have sufficient capital and labour 
 to undertake any part of that Line have the benefit of the 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 •profits of the whole Line, in proportion to the parts they 
 may finish. No convict labour need interfere with them. 
 But in such districts as are at present so thinly inhabited 
 as to have no working population, and no capital to 
 expend, let the work be commenced by England, by her 
 capital, and her convicts: and let Government encourage 
 and facilitate the formation of a great Atlantic and 
 Pacific Railway Company, by obtaining from Parliament 
 a national guarantee for the completion of the work; 
 first, of course, having entered into arrangements with 
 the Hudson’s Bay Company, and her North American 
 Provinces, for the security of such sums of money as may 
 be advanced, by way of loan, from Great Britain. 
 
 “ We have at home a superabundant population, sub- 
 “ ject to a very rapid increase on any reduction of the 
 “ price, if but of the necessaries of life,—how can it be 
 i( better employed than in seeking, with its own advance 
 “ in social position, and means of acquiring its comforts, if 
 “ not its luxuries, the spread of our free institutions— 
 “ equal laws—and holy religion. We desire an enlarged 
 u sphere for commercial enterprise. New markets for our 
 u manufactures; these every fresh colony supplies in its 
 “ measure. If then New Caledonia be what it appears to 
 “ be, if its climate, soil, agriculture, and commercial capa- 
 “ bilities be as represented, why leave its future destiny 
 “ to time and circumstances?” We call then upon Great 
 Britain, her North American Provinces, and the Hudson’s 
 Bay Company, to employ their wealth and power to unite, 
 in one great unbroken iron chain, the Mother Country 
 with her distant Children, and, in spite of Nature’s diffi¬ 
 culties, carry steam across the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 I have been accustomed to look upon the power of 
 England as irresistible,—morally, physically, and intel¬ 
 lectually,—she has now in this age the command of mind 
 and matter sufficient to enable her almost to move the 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 earth, and shall the tunnel under the Thames, the tube* 
 over the Conway, and the bridge over the Menai, be our 
 only wonders ? Let England only commence the Railway 
 from Halifax to the Pacific, with the order to her sons to 
 cross the Rocky Mountains and the accomplishment of the 
 undertaking will soon reward the labour, courage and skill 
 which would undoubtedly be exhibited. Sir Alexander 
 Mackenzie inscribed in large characters, with vermillion, 
 this brief memorial, on the rocks of the Pacific, “Alex¬ 
 ander Mackenzie from Canada by land the 22nd of July, 
 1794.” Who will be the first engineer to inscribe upon 
 the Rocky Mountains “ On this day engineer A. B. piloted 
 the first locomotive engine across the Rocky Mountains;” 
 and what then will be the feeling of Englishmen, when 
 even now Steam is considered the “ exclusive offspring of 
 British genius, fostered and sustained by British enterprise 
 and British capital!” We have seen that on the highest 
 habitable spot of the Mountains of the Alps stands a 
 monument of war, placed there by the hand of a powerful 
 man in the pride of victory over his fellow-men, and in 
 honour of his companions in arms. We trust before long 
 that on the highest habitable spot of the Rocky Moun¬ 
 tains will stand a monument of peace, placed there by an 
 enterprising nation in honour of the victory of science over 
 nature, and in memory of some enterprising son. 
 
 After all her wars, her victories and her revolutions, 
 in what condition is France? 
 
 What may not England expect to be with all her vic¬ 
 tories over nature—her trade and commerce ? May she 
 march forward in her career of peace, as bravely, as nobly, 
 and as proudly, as she did in that of war; and may she 
 now take as great an interest in, and make the same ex¬ 
 ertions' for, the welfare and happiness not only of her own 
 people, but of those of other nations in all quarters of the 
 
( 11 ) 
 
 * globe, as she did in former days for their protection from 
 a desolating foe. 
 
 What the ultimate consequences of such a link of con¬ 
 nection would be, are indeed far beyond the reach of the 
 human mind to foresee; but its immediate results stand 
 out apparently to the most common observer. In the first 
 place, Cape Horn ( the roughest point to weather in the 
 whole world) would be avoided. In the next, the long 
 passage by the Cape of Good Hope to innumerable places 
 in the Pacific Ocean would become also unnecessary. In 
 both these cases a great amount of time (which in com¬ 
 merce is money) would be saved. Again, it would be no 
 longer necessary to send goods by the route of the Hud¬ 
 son’s Bay to the territories of that Company; and thus 
 a climate horrible in winter and summer , would also be 
 avoided. Then one view of the map of the world will 
 show that the proposed terminus of the Atlantic and 
 Pacific Railway at Frazer’s River, taken as a centre, 
 would bring New Zealand, New South Wales, in fact, 
 Australia, New Guinea, Borneo, Singapore, Canton, Pekin, 
 all within forty or fifty days’sail of that point; and taking 
 the Sandwich Islands as a centre point, (where there 
 is a fine harbour, and where a depot of coals might be 
 established,) which could be reached in ten days, all 
 the before-named places would be brought within twenty 
 days for steam navigation; other points, such as the 
 Friendly Islands, &c., might be selected for further depots 
 of coals. Again, from the terminus of the proposed rail¬ 
 way the mails from England could be despatched to all 
 the above-mentioned places, and the formation of a great 
 steam navigation company, with a grant from Govern¬ 
 ment, in the same way as a grant was made to the 
 Atlantic Steam Navigation Company, would insure mag¬ 
 nificent steamers for the conveyance of these mails, and 
 would secure also to the Hudson’s Bay Company an im- 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 mense consumption of their coal. Last, though not least 
 of all, this Railway route across the continent of North 
 America would ensure to England at all times a free com¬ 
 munication with her East India possessions. It is true 
 that at present there is no difficulty in that respect, but let 
 the public reflect, and let the Government reflect, that in 
 the event of a European war, we might be called upon to 
 defend and keep open that communication at an immense 
 expenditure of life and money, and indeed it might even 
 be closed against us; whereas the proposed Line across 
 the continent of America would be within our own domi¬ 
 nions, and would not oblige us to interfere or meddle with 
 -J any continental wars to enjoy its free use. No time ought 
 to be lost in the commencement of this National Under¬ 
 taking. 
 
 If then Government took the initiative, it might obtain 
 the consent of Parliament, and proceed to appoint a Board 
 of General Arrangement and Control, consisting, say, of 
 fifteen Commissioners : three on the part of Great Britain, 
 three to be named by the Hudson’s Bay Company, three 
 to be appointed by the Government of Nova Scotia, three 
 by that of New Brunswick, and three on the part of 
 Canada; all these latter of course with the approval of 
 their respective Governors. It may appear that the North 
 American Provinces would thus have a greater proportion 
 of Commissioners; but as each of these Colonies have 
 Governments independent of each other, they may be 
 considered as separate countries, although we take them 
 as one when considered as the North American Provinces. 
 These Commissioners could be authorized to make all the 
 necessary arrangements for the security of the money that 
 may be advanced in any shape by the Government of Great 
 Britain, and should be instructed to draw up the general 
 Articles of Agreement between the high contracting parties; 
 and Government might be authorized by Parliament to open 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 an account with these Commissioners, who as a Body 
 might be called “ The Atlantic and Pacific Railway Board 
 of Control,” and under its auspices a public Company 
 might be formed, refunding to the Government all previous 
 outlay. 
 
 Our North American provinces are close at hand, and 
 during the approaching summer all the necessary ar¬ 
 rangements might be made for the reception of a great 
 number of convicts in different locations; and, in the 
 first instance, as a temporary measure, they might be 
 sent to Halifax and Quebec, where they could be re¬ 
 ceived immediately in very good wood huts; at both 
 these places they could also be at once set to work in un¬ 
 loading the vessels sent from England with the necessary 
 stores for the commencement of this great national work, 
 and in preparing and levelling the situations of the respec¬ 
 tive termini; for of course at both these stations great 
 government as well as private wharfs would be established. 
 Again : another portion could be sent at once from New 
 South Wales to the port fixed upon on the north-west coast 
 of North America, in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s terri¬ 
 tory : there they could be put to work in the same way— 
 to unload vessels bringing in stores, to cut down and pre¬ 
 pare timber, level and get ready the site of the terminus. 
 And it appears very necessary that preparation should be 
 made for the reception of a large body at the Red River 
 Settlement, that point being a very important spot in the 
 Line proposed. There ought at once to be made a prac¬ 
 tical line of communication between it and the head of 
 Lake Superior. “The soil, which is alluvial, is beyond 
 “ example rich and productive, and withal so easily 
 “ worked, that, although it does not quite come up to 
 “ the description of the Happy Islands—reddit ubi cere- 
 “ rent tellus inarata quot annis—there is an instance, I 
 “ was assured, of a farm in which the owner, with com- 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 “ paratively light labour in the preparatory processes, had 
 “ taken a wheat crop out of the same land for eighteen 
 “ successive years, never changing the crop, never manur- 
 “ ing the land, and never suffering it to lie fallow, and that 
 “ the crop was abundant to the last; and, with respect to 
 “ the pasture and hay, they are to be had ad libitum, 
 “ as nature gives them in the open plains.” Speaking 
 of import goods: “ All these articles are brought across 
 “ from Hudson’s Bay, a distance of several hundred miles, 
 u in boats, and these boats are drawn across the portages 
 “ on rollers, or in some places carried upon waggons; 
 “ hence those articles which are of a heavy description are 
 “ charged at a price seemingly out of all proportion to 
 “ that of many others which may be obtained at a moderate 
 “ price: a common grindstone is sold for 20s.” 
 
 On leaving Fort William, at the head of Lake Superior, 
 and proceeding up the Kaministuquoia River, Sir George 
 Simpson writes ,—“ The river, during the day’s march, 
 “ passed through forests of elm, oak, lime, birch, &c., 
 “ being studded with isles not less fertile and lovely than 
 “ its banks; and many a spot reminded us of the rich 
 u and quiet scenery of England. The paths of numerous 
 ‘‘ portages, some spangled with violets, roses and many 
 “ other wild flowers, while the currant, the gooseberry, the 
 “ raspberry, the plum, the cherry, and even the vine were 
 “ abundant. All this bounty of nature was imbued, as 
 “ it were, with life, by the cheerful notes of a variety of 
 “ birds, and by the restless flutters of butterflies of the 
 “ highest hues. One cannot pass through this fair valley 
 “ without feeling that it is destined, sooner or later, to 
 u become the happy home of civilized men, with their 
 “ bleating flocks and lowing herds; with their schools and 
 “ their churches; with their full garners and their social 
 “ hearths.” 
 
(. 15 ) 
 
 Now read again the description of Hudson’s Bay, then 
 look upon that picture, and upon this; look upon that 
 country that will give eighteen successive crops of wheat, 
 and look upon the difficult, dangerous, and tedious navi¬ 
 gation of that bay, whose climate in summer and winter is 
 horrible , and through whose waters the stores of this fine 
 country are obliged to travel; look at that picture, then 
 look at this,—the easy, safe, and rapid communication of 
 a Railway,—and say if the time, health and money that 
 would be saved by its construction is not worthy the 
 consideration of Englishmen, and would not repay the 
 constructors, even if that was to be its last terminus. 
 
 But when it is considered that the Main Line of Rail¬ 
 way, in passing through our own colonies, would skirt the 
 shores of Lake Superior—rich in mines of silver and copper 
 —and that the Red River Settlement would only be one of 
 the many valuable towns and districts that would be opened 
 to trade and commerce, and only contribute its mite to the 
 profits to be obtained from the passage of the Rocky Moun¬ 
 tains to the Pacific, it appears to me impossible that such 
 a powerful and wealthy Company as that of the Hudson’s 
 Bay Company, such magnificent colonies as our North 
 American Provinces, and such an empire as Great Britain, 
 can balance for one moment whether loss or profit would 
 attend the undertaking and completion of such a Railway. 
 
 But our argument is stronger as we proceed; for, cross¬ 
 ing the Rocky Mountains, where the real terminus would 
 be, let us pause for a moment to consider the mine of 
 wealth we should open—not the wealth of gold and silver 
 —but wealth, the reward of commerce and industry. 
 
 “ The land,” Nicolay says, “ affords, even now, exports 
 “ of cattle, wool, hides, and tallow, as well as salted meat, 
 “ beef, pork, wheat, barley, Indian com, apples, and 
 “ timber. Of these all are sent to the Sandwich Islands, 
 “ some to California, and hides and wool have been sent to 
 
( 16 ) 
 
 “ England. The woods of the Oregon present another fer- 
 “ tile source of national wealth. The growth of timber of all 
 “ sorts in the neighbourhood of the harbour in the De-fuca 
 “ Strait adds much to their value as a naval and com- 
 u mercial station. Coal is found in the whole western 
 “ district, but principally shows itself above the surface on 
 “ the north part of Vancouver’s Island. To these sources 
 “ of commercial and national wealth must be added the 
 “ minerals—iron, lead, tin, &c. The mountains and sea- 
 “ coast produce granite, slate, sandstone,—and in the 
 “ interior oolites; limestone is plentiful, and to the north 
 “ most easily worked and very rich in colour.” 
 
 And, in conclusion, we may say that the Hudson’s Bay 
 Company’s territory in the Pacific, that is, New Caledonia, 
 “ will be found to fall short of but few countries, either 
 “ in salubrity of climate, fertility of soil, and consequent 
 “ luxuriance of vegetation, and utility of production, or 
 “ in the picturesque character of the scenery.” And this 
 country could be brought within a distance of about six¬ 
 teen days of England. 
 
 It has been remarked, that “ a person who is already 
 “ thriving seldom puts himself out of his way to commence 
 “ even a lucrative improvement, unless urged by the addi- 
 “ tional motive of fear lest some rival should supplant him 
 “ by getting possession of it before him.” Truly, indeed, 
 has it been said by the Spectator, u that England is not 
 “ bankrupt, nor poor, nor needy. In every quarter we see 
 “ immense additions to material wealth; we observe, too, 
 11 on all hands a vast extension of luxurious enjoyments 
 u among the middle classes; every thing attests a huge 
 “ growth in the wealth of the nation ” It may be fairly 
 considered, then, that England is thriving—a lucrative 
 improvement of vast magnitude is open to her—and if the 
 additional motive of fear of rivalry is necessary to excite 
 her in so noble an undertaking, let her reflect on what is 
 said in an American paper:— 
 
( 1? ) 
 
 A Boston paper of the day says, “ the finding of these 
 “ gold mines is of more importance than any previous 
 “ event for 300 years. The prosperity of Queen Eliza- 
 “ beth’s reign was mainly owing to the stimulus given to 
 u commerce by the increase of the precious metals ; but 
 “ the field now to be acted upon is at least fifty times 
 “ greater than during that period. Within five years 
 “ there will be a Railroad from the Atlantic Ocean, 
 “ across the great American Continent, through the gold 
 “ regions, to the Bay of San Francisco, said to be the 
 “ finest harbour in the world. The people of San Fran- 
 “ cisco will then communicate by telegraph in a few 
 “ minutes, and the mails will be taken to Canton on the 
 “ one side in fourteen days, and to London on the other 
 “ in nine days; so that intelligence may be conveyed 
 “ from the one end to the other in the short period of 
 “ twenty-three days. This will be witnessed under five 
 “ years.” 
 
 It is evident, then, that the people of the United States 
 are quite aware of all the advantages to be gained by a 
 quick communication across the Continent of America. 
 Let us consider now, for a moment, what the consequences 
 of a Railway would be as regards your own valuable and 
 fertile colonies. 
 
 The reader has no doubt already pictured to himself 
 the town of Halifax alive with all the bustle and excite¬ 
 ment of a great commercial community, and her noble 
 harbours full of every description of vessels, from the 
 magnificent English steamer to the small colonial coasting 
 craft. And when we reflect that at Halifax would rest 
 the terminus, whence could be embarked for England at 
 all seasons of the year, our highly valuable colonial pro¬ 
 duce, including the rich exports from the Southern Pacific 
 Ocean (not sent round Cape Horn or the Cape of Good 
 Hope); and when we reflect that this long neglected sea- 
 
 c 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 port town could equally receive at all seasons of the year 
 the various exports from England, for her numerous 
 Colonies; and when we consider that there is abundance 
 of coal at hand, with wood and stone for building, who 
 can hesitate for a moment to acknowledge that Halifax 
 would soon become one of the most important ports, and 
 one of the most noble cities of the world ; add to this, that 
 the connection and attachment of Nova Scotia to England 
 would be cemented for ever. “ This is the best situation 
 “ in all America, if the British did but know it. It will 
 “ have the greatest trade, the greatest population, the 
 “ most manufactures, the most wealth, of any state this 
 “ side of the water. The resources, natural advantages, 
 “ and political position of this place, beats all.” Then 
 again, look to the city of Quebec; no sooner would the 
 river navigation open, than thousands of vessels from 
 England would be seen dropping their anchors at the 
 foot of her proud citadel, carrying out vast cargoes of 
 English exports; and the railway carriages ready to con¬ 
 vey all these articles of commerce to every town and 
 district in the North American Colonies; away also to 
 the far west, whence they would be forwarded to our 
 colonial possessions in the Southern Pacific, and to 
 numerous other places; then again, behold these ships 
 reloading quickly with the timber and other exportable 
 articles from our then firmly-linked-together valuable 
 Colonies, sailing away for England, and repeating their 
 visit two or three times in the season; the difficult navi¬ 
 gation of the Hudson’s Bay avoided; the territory of the 
 Hudson’s Bay Company daily increasing in value, from 
 the ease with which its inhabitants could procure articles 
 of commerce, before almost forbidden to them; and 
 Quebec, being their nearest port for embarkation for 
 England, would necessarily become even a much more 
 important city than she is at present. The land in her 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 neighbourhood would become highly valuable, and, as a 
 matter of necessity, the fine country to the north, with 
 even better soil and better climate, would soon be opened 
 and peopled. Then again, look to New Brunswick, con¬ 
 nected as it would of course be both with Halifax and 
 Quebec, thus having a free and direct communication 
 with those cities, and enabled to export or import at any 
 season of the year, (should she wish to avoid the navi¬ 
 gation of the Bay of Fundy); then think what strength 
 she would bring to the union of the Colonies by such a 
 link of connection, and how many more opportunities her 
 inhabitants would have of encouraging and fostering that 
 strong attachment to their English brethren we all so well 
 know to exist amongst the people of New Brunswick. 
 
 But I might point out town after town, and district 
 after district, whose wealth and prosperity would go on 
 rapidly increasing. Montreal has already made some 
 steady advances to a great capital, and the time cannot be 
 far distant when she will rival even the most flourishing 
 on the North American Continent. To her this proposed 
 Railway would be highly important. She has shown that 
 she already understands the value of such things ; for not 
 only has she a small one of her own to La-Chine, about 
 seven miles up the river, but she has also, 1 understand, 
 finished about thirty miles towards the Atlantic in the 
 direction of Portland. The interest of these Companies 
 would not of course be lost sight of, but their profits 
 taken into the general calculation. The great Trunk 
 Line of Railway would naturally, I conclude, go through a 
 country some little distance to the north of Montreal; but 
 one of the most important termini must of necessity be at 
 that city where the business of the Government is carried 
 on, and where of course a general Railway Communica¬ 
 tion with every town and district would be established. 
 Toronto would naturally be considered in the manner 
 
 c 2 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 in which so loyal and devoted a city ought to be, and 
 where was held, even to a very late period, the parlia¬ 
 ment of a great country, surrendered only to her sister 
 Montreal on public considerations and for the general 
 good ; and the Main Line of Railway should be brought 
 as near Toronto as the communication between the At¬ 
 lantic and Pacific (its great object and principal view) 
 would permit. 
 
 “ It is painful to think of the blunders that have been 
 “ committed from time to time in the management of 
 “ our Colonies, and of the gross ignorance or utter disre- 
 “ gard of their interests that has been displayed in treaties 
 “ with foreign powers. Fortunately for the Mother Coun- 
 “ try, the Colonists are warmly attached to her and her in- 
 “ stitutions, and deplore a separation too much to agitate 
 “ questions, however important, that may have a tendency 
 “ to weaken their affections by arousing their passions.” 
 Should the Government of Great Britain, upon whose 
 consideration will be forced the present situation of her 
 Colonies, consider it right to give their support to this 
 proposed Atlantic and Pacific Railway, for the reasons 
 herein explained, or from any other cause,—the great be¬ 
 nefit that Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Canadas 
 will derive from having open to them a free and easy 
 access to the Atlantic and the Pacific, will, I trust, occa¬ 
 sion such an activity of mind, and such an employment of 
 matter, that, in the general good arising therefrom, all 
 thoughts of former ill treatment or unkindness from the 
 Mother Country will soon be forgotten. 
 
 The great question, however, is, and will be on all sides, 
 Where is the money to come from ? and that question I 
 am weak enough to fancy is easily answered. Let us 
 consider this subject a little. Let us remember, first, that 
 England expended 630 millions during nineteen years in 
 war, and, notwithstanding which expenditure, the country 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 got richer and richer every day ; and if the country is not 
 poorer now than it was in the years when it was able to 
 raise the sum of 150 millions in a single year—the greater 
 part of which it could afford to expend in one year in war, 
 and grow richer all the time—surely such a country can 
 afford to expend some few millions for the benefit of those 
 colonies on account of whom she was lately ready to go to 
 war, and on whose account she did actually expend about 
 two millions, caused merely by the rebellion and disturb¬ 
 ance of a few discontented spirits. But the money that 
 England would be called upon to advance in the proposed 
 undertaking would secure to her not only the attachment 
 of her children in the North American provinces, by making 
 it as well their worldly interest, as it is their natural feel¬ 
 ing and wish, to remain Englishmen ; but that money, and 
 the interest of that money, could be secured to her by 
 proper arrangements being entered into with the Hudson’s 
 Bay Company, and with the North American Provinces, 
 and be ultimately reimbursed to her by the formation of 
 the proposed Company. 
 
 Up to the present moment England has, I believe, ex¬ 
 pended the sum of £148,000,000 on her Railways, and 
 nearly 5000 miles are finished ; and on an average 
 these Railways are said to give a return of about four per 
 cent., and “ with the increase of the national wealth and 
 “ population, and with the increase of habits of social in- 
 “ ter-communication and the transit of goods, the traffic 
 “ on Railways would increase, and the profits and divi- 
 “ dends would not be less but greater; and in the case of 
 “ some of them, no man would pretend to say how great 
 “ might be the increase of dividends from the improved and 
 “ economical modes of working Railways, which, there is 
 “ every reason to believe, will day by day be freshly dis- 
 “ covered.” And who will say that <£200,000,000 ex¬ 
 pended (even should such a sum as that be required) 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 in making a Railway Road from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific through our own territories, and therefore com¬ 
 pletely under our own controul, would not increase by 
 a tenfold degree the value of that property already 
 expended in England ? When the Railways now in 
 contemplation at home are finished, their total length will, 
 I believe, be about 10,000 miles, and the expenditure be¬ 
 tween 200 and 240 millions. The length of the Railway 
 proposed to go through our colonies may be spoken of 
 roughly as at about 4000 miles; but when we take into 
 consideration the relative value of land in England and 
 our colonies, and a thousand other Railway contingencies 
 in a highly civilized country, creating enormous legal, le¬ 
 gislative and other expenses, we naturally come to the 
 conclusion that the outlay per mile must of course be 
 considerably diminished in the colonies. Taking it, 
 however, at the English expenditure of £24,000 a mile 
 on the average, it would only cost £96,000,000;— 
 £5,000,000 has been estimated as sufficient for six hundred 
 miles of Railway from Halifax to Quebec. But calling it 
 £100,000,000, and supposing the work to be five years 
 completing, that would only be at the rate of £20,000,000 
 a year, the interest of which at five per cent, would be 
 £1,000,000. Surely, then, such a sum as that could be 
 easily raised, even by the Hudson’s Bay Company alone, 
 upon the security of their extensive and valuable territory. 
 For so great a difference would soon arise between the 
 value of that territory as it is now—merely the abode of 
 Indians and hunters—and what it would be then; with 
 its clearings, its improvements, its roads, its trade, its 
 manufactures, and its towns, that any amount of debt 
 almost might be incurred. But our loyal colonies would 
 no doubt equally enter into securities to England, and 
 be glad, in fact, to share their chance of the profit; for 
 these colonies, as well as the Hudson’s Bay Company, 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 would be immense gainers. Still it may be argued, that 
 unless it can be shown that England herself would be 
 a gainer, she would not be justified in advancing any 
 money on such an undertaking. Let us, then, consider 
 this point a little. It has been asserted (what some 
 of our public journals confess to be true), <( that if the 
 “ revenue had fallen off, it was because the balance sheet 
 “ of the merchants and the manufacturers had fallen off 
 “ likewise.” If then we show that, by the undertaking of 
 such a work as is now proposed, the balance sheets of the 
 merchants and manufacturers must increase immensely, 
 we surely make out a case for the good of the country 
 generally, as far as revenue is concerned. 
 
 Let us then first consider, that “ So interwoven and 
 “ complicated are the fibres which form the texture of the 
 “ highly civilized and artificial community in which we 
 “ live, that an effect produced on any one point is instantly 
 “ transmitted to the most remote and apparently uncon- 
 “ nectecl parts of the system/’ And again—“ The ex- 
 “ portation of labourers and capital from the old to the 
 “ new countries, from a place where their productive power 
 “ is less to a place where it is greater, increases by so much 
 “ the aggregate produce of the labour and capital of the 
 “ world.” 
 
 Now, with regard to the first remark, the effect that 
 would be produced by the necessary exportation of all the 
 machinery for the making and working of this Atlantic 
 and Pacific Railway, would of course produce, even in 
 England, a very great increase both to the productive 
 power, and to the consumption of a variety of articles 
 apparently unconnected with the affairs of the Railway; 
 and when, again, we look to the necessary exportation of 
 labourers and of capital to the towns on the Line of the 
 Railway where there is less productive power at work, 
 by increasing that dormant power we shall increase the 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 aggregate capital of the world, and consequently that of 
 England. Again—“ Could we suddenly double the pro- 
 “ ductive power of the country, we should double the sup- 
 “ ply of the commodities in every market, but we should 
 “ by the same stroke double the purchasing power—every 
 “ body would bring a double demand as well as supply 
 “ —every body would be able to buy twice as much, as 
 “ he would have twice as much to offer in exchange.” 
 Also—“ A country which produces for a larger market 
 “ than its own, can introduce a more extended division of 
 “ labour—can make a greater use of machinery, and is 
 “ more likely to make inventions and improvements in the 
 “ progress of production.” Again—“ Whatever causes a 
 “ greater quantity of any thing to be produced in the same 
 “ place, tends to the general increase of the productive 
 “ powers of the world.” Now it surely will not be denied, 
 that the undertaking of this National Railway would cause 
 in England a greater quantity of machinery to be made and 
 exported to the North American provinces, thus producing 
 for it a larger market than the home, and causing a greater 
 quantity to be made—thus a general increase of the pro¬ 
 ductive powers of the world must-be produced; and as 
 “ wealth may be defined all useful or agreeable things 
 “ which possess exchangeable value,” it necessarily follows 
 that the immense increase that would be given to the pro¬ 
 ductive powers of England, to those of her North Ame¬ 
 rican provinces, and of the Hudson’s Bay territory, by 
 an undertaking on such an extensive scale, if it did not 
 completely, would nearly double these powers; and as 
 whoever brings additional commodities to market brings 
 additional power to purchase, it follows that the inhabitants 
 of our North American provinces, and of the Hudson’s 
 Bay territory, would be enabled to take nearly twice the 
 quantity of our manufactured goods. 
 
 In moving an amendment this year to the Address from 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 the Throne, it was said: “ the exports of the six principal 
 “ articles of British industry, cotton, wool, linen, silk, 
 “ hardware and earthenware, exhibit a diminution as 
 “ compared with 1847, of no less than four millions, and 
 “ as compared with 1846, of five millions;” such being the 
 case, it becomes highly important to consider the cause of 
 this falling off, with a view to a remedy, and some great 
 measures must be adopted towards our own colonies that 
 will enable them to receive a greater quantity of manu¬ 
 factured goods from the mother country, and this great 
 Railway is suggested as one that would increase the pro¬ 
 ductive power and population of our North American co¬ 
 lonies, and a consequent increasing demand for hardware 
 and earthenware, to say nothing even of the other articles 
 of British industry, or of the facility of communicating 
 with our other colonies. 
 
 These few remarks will suffice to show that the balance 
 sheets of the merchants, and consequently of the revenue 
 of England, as well as the capital of individuals, must 
 increase immensely during the construction, and at the 
 completion of the proposed undertaking. It has been 
 stated that “ Railways are the very grandest organi- 
 “ zation of labour and capital that the world has ever 
 “ seen that “ the capital actually invested in Rail- 
 “ ways advanced from £65,000,000 sterling in 1843 to 
 “ £167,000,000 in 1848—no less than £100,000,000 in 
 “ five years.” And why should we not look forward to an 
 equal—aye—and to a much larger investment—on such a 
 magnificent Line of Railway? joining, as it would, all the 
 northern dominions of the old world—crossing, as it would, 
 the northern territories of the new, and making an easy 
 opening to the rich and thriving world that may be con¬ 
 sidered of the present day. For “ the word has been given, 
 “ an active and enterprising population will be poured in, 
 u every element of progress will be cultivated, and the 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 “ productive countries on the shores of the Pacific, here- 
 “ tofore isolated, will be brought into active and profitable 
 “ intercourse. It may truly be said that a new world has 
 “ been opened. 
 
 “ Our fathers watched the progress of America, we our- 
 “ selves have seen that of Australia, but the opening of the 
 “ Pacific is one of the greatest events in social history 
 ts since, in the fifteenth century, the East Indies were 
 “ made known to Europe; for we have not, as in America 
 “ or Australia, to await the slow growth of European set- 
 “ tlements, but to witness at once the energetic action of 
 u countries already in a high state of advancement. The 
 “ Eastern and the Western shores of the great Ocean will 
 “ now be brought together as those of the Atlantic are, 
 a and will minister to each other’s wants. A happy coin- 
 “ cidence of circumstances has prepared the way for these 
 “ results. Everything was ready, the word only was 
 “ wanted to begin, and it has been given. 
 
 “ The outflowings of Chinese emigrants and produce, 
 “ which have gone towards the East, will now move to 
 “ the West; the commercial enterprise of Australia and 
 “ New Zealand has acquired a new field of exercise and 
 “ encouragement; the markets which Chili and Peru have 
 “ found in Europe only, will be opened nearer to their 
 “ doors; the North-West shore of America will obtain all 
 “ the personal and material means of organization; the 
 u Islands of the Pacific will take the place in the career 
 “ of civilization for which the labours of the missionary 
 “ have prepared them; and even Japan will not be able 
 “ to withhold itself from the community of nations. 
 
 “ This is worth more to our merchants and manufac- 
 “ turers, and to the people employed by them, than even 
 “ the gold mines can be; for this is the statement of cer- 
 “ tain results, and the working of the gold mines, how- 
 “ ever productive they may prove, must be attended with 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 “ all the incidents of irregularity and uncertainty, and 
 “ great commercial disadvantages.” 
 
 Surely then there would be no difficulty with Parliament 
 to encourage and facilitate the formation of an Atlantic 
 and Pacific Railway Company, by obtaining its sanction 
 to the loan of such sums as might be required (to 
 be issued under the sanction of a board appointed for 
 that special purpose), particularly when it is recollected 
 that the expense of a great part of her own convicts could 
 be provided for by that advance. The manner in which 
 it is proposed these loans should be made will be seen 
 hereafter. 
 
 It will easily be seen, that it would be impossible to 
 complete this Atlantic and Pacific Railway, without at 
 the same time giving great encouragement to the emigra¬ 
 tion of labour; and this “ is only practicable when its 
 “ cost is defrayed, or at least advanced , by others than the 
 “ labourers themselves. Who then is to advance it ? Na- 
 “ turally it may be said, the capitalists of the colony, who 
 “ require the labour, and who intend to profit by it. But 
 “ to this there is the obstacle, that a capitalist, after going 
 “ to the expense of carrying out labourers, has no security 
 * 4 that he shall be the person to derive any benefit from 
 “ them.” To those who would object to Government in¬ 
 terference in a case like the present, we can only say, 
 that “ the question of Government intervention in the 
 “ work of colonization involves the future and per- 
 “ manent interests of civilization itself, and far out- 
 “ stretches the comparatively narrow limits of purely 
 “ economical considerations; but, even with a view to 
 “ these considerations alone, the removal of population 
 “ from the overcrowded to the unoccupied parts of the 
 “ earth’s surface, is one of those works of eminent 
 “ social usefulness which most require, and which at the 
 “ same time will best repay, the intervention of Govern- 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 merit.” (t No individual or body of individuals could re-im- 
 “ burse themselves for these expenses.” Government, on 
 the contrary, could take from the increasing wealth caused 
 by the construction of this Railway and consequent great 
 emigration , the fraction which would suffice to repay with 
 interest the money advanced. These remarks apply equally 
 to the governments of the North American provinces as to 
 those of the Hudson’s Bay Company and Great Britain. 
 
 Independently of the money question, however, “ there is 
 “ the strongest obligation on the government of a country 
 “ like our own, with a crowded population and unoccupied 
 “ continents under its command, to build as it were and 
 “ keep open a bridge from the mother country to those con- 
 “ tinents.” Let us reflect that “ the economical advantages 
 “ of commerce are surpassed in importance by those of its 
 “ effects, which are intellectual and moral. It is hardly 
 “ possible to overrate the value, for the improvement of 
 “ human beings, of things which bring them in contact with 
 “ persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of 
 “ thought and action unlike those with which they are 
 “ familiar. Commerce is now what war once was—the 
 “ principal source of this contact. Commercial adven- 
 “ turers from more advanced countries have generally 
 “ been the first civilizers of barbarians, and commerce is 
 “ the purpose of the far greater part of the communica- 
 “ tion which takes place between civilized nations. It is 
 “ commerce which is rapidly rendering war obsolete, by 
 “ strengthening and multiplying the personal interest 
 “ which is in natural opposition to it.” In whatever 
 point of view, therefore, we regard this subject—whether 
 as one of duty, by providing the means of healthy and 
 legitimate employment to our numerous artificers and la¬ 
 bourers now in a state of destitution—-a domestic calamity 
 likely to be often inflicted upon us, unless new fields, 
 easy of access, are made permanently open to our conti- 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 nually increasing population—and “ it would be difficult 
 “ to show that it is not as much the duty of rulers to pro- 
 “ vide, as far as they can, for the removal of a domestic 
 “ calamity, as it is to guard the people entrusted to their 
 “ care from foreign outrage”—will they “ slumber till some 
 “ great emergency, some dreadful economic or other crisis, 
 “ reveals the capacities of evil which the volcanic depths 
 “ of our society may now hide under but a deep crust ?”— 
 or whether we view it as a means of assisting any general 
 system in the penal code—or whether we view it as a point 
 of individual or government interest, by turning all that 
 extra-productive power, now idle, in the direction of our 
 own colonies, and thus connecting and attaching them 
 more strongly to the mother country—increasing their 
 wealth, their power and our own—or whether we consider 
 it in a moral and religious point of view, as affording greater 
 and quicker facilities for the spread of education and the 
 Gospel of Christ—or whether we look upon it as an in¬ 
 strument for the increase of commerce, and (as an important 
 consequence) the necessarily directing men’s minds, with 
 the bright beams of hope, from their own individual and im¬ 
 mediate distress, as well as from the general excitement and 
 democratic feeling and spirit of contention showing itself 
 amongst many nations (an object greatly to be desired) 
 —or whether we look at it in a political point of view, as 
 keeping open to us at all times, without the necessity of 
 interference with other nations or of war, a great high road 
 to most of our colonial possessions, and particularly to 
 India—viewing it then in any one of these points, who 
 can doubt for a moment the beneficial results that must 
 attend such an undertaking. But when all these con¬ 
 siderations are taken together, we must repeat what we said 
 in a former page, that it is a grand and a noble under¬ 
 taking, and that it must be accomplished by Great Britain 
 and her colonies. 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 Let us reflect, lastly, that “the world now contains several 
 “ extensive regions, provided with various ingredients of 
 “ wealth, in a degree of abundance of which former ages 
 “ had not even an idea.” All the other North American 
 provinces have, even by their own exertions, made rapid 
 advances in wealth, accompanied by moral and intellectual 
 attainments, and can look forward at no very distant period 
 (if even left to their own exertions) to be enabled to take a 
 very prominent position in the affairs of the world. But 
 the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territory is still nearly in its 
 primitive state, and much indeed is to be expected from 
 its advancement, when it shall have taken its proper sta¬ 
 tion in the general trade and commerce of mankind; the 
 position of Vancouver’s Island is such that there is little 
 reason to doubt its wealth and consequence will place it 
 high in the scale of England’s offspring. 
 
 But “ who (I have been asked) in the living generation 
 “ would be reimbursed for the outlay? and without that, 
 “ who will undertake a national work, however grand or 
 “ remunerative to future ages ?” To this I answer fearlessly, 
 that thousands of human beings of the present generation 
 would benefit by the outlay; that the employment would be 
 a quite sufficiently lucrative one, and visibly so, to induce 
 the English capitalist to come forward and undertake the 
 formation of a Company; for even at this moment Railways 
 are in contemplation, if not actually commenced, from 
 Halifax to Quebec, from New Brunswick to Halifax, and 
 from Montreal to the Atlantic; and how much more would 
 these Lines be paying Lines when they had also an open¬ 
 ing to the Pacific ! But no individual nor combination of 
 individuals could have sufficient influence with, or, if they 
 had the influence, could have the necessary power to in¬ 
 duce, the Hudson’s Bay Company to open its territories, 
 and to enter into all the arrangements and all the agree¬ 
 ments that would be necessary to be made with that Com- 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 pany, with England, and with the North American Colo¬ 
 nies, before a work affecting the interests of so many could 
 be commenced. 
 
 It is necessary, then, that Government should take the 
 initiative, and it is not uncommon for her so to do in all 
 great national works, such as roads, surveys, expeditions 
 either for the objects of science or commerce; such as 
 those sent to discover the north-west passage, upon 
 which thousands have been spent, and on account of 
 which, at this very moment, England has to deplore, in 
 all probability, the loss of many a noble son, whose re¬ 
 latives have been for so long a time kept in all the agony 
 of suspense. Upon no other description of work would 
 Great Britain be required to advance a single penny; 
 but the very fact of her undertaking what may be con¬ 
 sidered legitimate expenses of a government, the survey 
 and marking out the whole Line, the entering into treaties 
 with her Colonies and the Hudson’s Bay Company for the 
 general security of the money, and for the interest for a 
 certain number of years of the capital of the Company, 
 would give such a confidence to the public mind, that a 
 very short time would bring into full operation, in that 
 direction, sufficient of the power and wealth of England to 
 accomplish the work; and when accomplished, Govern¬ 
 ment would still hold a lien upon it until she was reimbursed 
 every farthing. And, let me ask, are there not a thousand 
 expenditures that have been undertaken by Government for 
 which no reimbursement has ever taken place; and are not 
 individuals every day risking their capital and their accu¬ 
 mulation of savings, in speculations in foreign lands, when 
 the result of those past connections have been such as to 
 lead the Minister of Foreign Affairs, even in his place in the 
 House of Commons, to hold out as it were a threat to the 
 whole world, if England’s children did not receive their 
 due. Surely it would be more prudent, more politically 
 
< 32 ) 
 
 wise, and more economical, for Government to encourage 
 the expenditure of our own capital in our own Colo¬ 
 nies. 
 
 From his office in London, the Minister of Great Britain 
 can now convey his thoughts, his wishes, his commands, 
 in a few moments to every part of England and Scotland, 
 and will soon be enabled to do so to the Atlantic Coast 
 of Ireland. He can send the soldiers, horse and foot, 
 as well as the artillery of Great Britain, flying through 
 the land at almost any rate he wishes. And all heavy 
 stores and goods of the merchants can be easily forwarded 
 at about twopence, and even, I believe, a penny a mile per 
 ton, and at about twenty miles an hour; and a penny a letter 
 now enables every individual in England to communicate, 
 at almost every hour, with his distant friends and relations; 
 the post office itself travelling at a rate and with an ease 
 little to be comprehended by those who have not witnessed 
 it. The result of such immense wealth and such enormous 
 power is more than is required for England, and would ne¬ 
 cessarily carry with it its own destruction, was not her em¬ 
 pire one which encircles the world. 
 
 Let the minister then who guides and directs the wealth 
 and power above described, and in whose hands the des¬ 
 tinies and happiness of thousands are placed, picture to 
 himself the encouragement that would be given to British 
 industry and British enterprize, if, at ten days distance from 
 her shores, a port was established from which he would 
 be enabled to send across the Continent of America his 
 thoughts, his wishes, and his commands, with the same 
 speed at which they now travel throughout England; 
 and if these thoughts, wishes and commands could reach 
 the Sandwich Islands (which may be called the me¬ 
 tropolis of the Pacific) in ten days, and every one of 
 our own Colonies in the Pacific in about fifteen days 
 more after leaving the western shore of North A me- 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 rica; and if from the same port (ten days distance from 
 England) could also be despatched the troops of Great 
 Britain, if unfortunately necessary, travelling at the rate 
 before described; if heavy stores and merchants’ goods 
 could also be enabled to cross the Continent of America, 
 at the same cost and at the same speed as they now 
 travel in England; if the post office system could also be 
 introduced, and if letters at a penny each might pass be¬ 
 tween relation and relation, between friend and friend from 
 England to her most distant Colonies—if her children gone 
 forth to colonize could then either return or communicate 
 their every wish to England in less than a month ; and 
 reflecting as he ought to do and must do upon the power 
 and wealth of England, let him not say that all here de¬ 
 scribed is not easily within her reach. Let him rather 
 consider the subject with a view to become the Leader of 
 the Country in such a noble work. Let him not look upon 
 it, merely as a great commercial or colonizing enterprise,— 
 but as a grand National Work,—the desideratum, that has 
 been wished for, cared for, and looked for, ever since the New 
 World was discovered;—let him reflect that it is nothing 
 less than an imperial high road between the two oceans— 
 the Atlantic and Pacific—the undertaking and carrying 
 out of which he is called upon to consider. To me, it ap¬ 
 pears that Providence has reserved this glorious victory 
 over nature, for the honour and prosperity of the British 
 nation. It is true “ we cannot command success—but 
 we can do more—we can deserve it.” Let us only put 
 our shoulders to the wheel and the work will soon be 
 accomplished. 
 
 With sincere gratitude to private friends and to general 
 readers, I now venture to request particular attention to 
 the concluding observations and summary. 
 
 D 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY. 
 
 In order to place this project before the public in as 
 comprehensive and yet concise a point of view as its na¬ 
 ture will allow, it will not now be necessary to dwell on 
 the fact, that there has been established for some time 
 back, what may be called a Direct Nautical High Road 
 between Liverpool and Halifax ; nor would there be 
 any advantage here, to detail the various satisfactory 
 reasons why Halifax has been fixed upon as the Trans¬ 
 atlantic Port; neither will there be any occasion for 
 the least discussion as to the proper site for a Terminus 
 on the Atlantic: nor for any doubt as to a regular pas¬ 
 sage between it and England. The able report of Major 
 Robinson has further relieved the undertaking from all 
 difficulty, as well as solved the question of its cost, as far 
 as Quebec, or rather it should be said as far as point 
 Levi ’ and he estimates the distance from Halifax at 635 
 miles, cost of railway £5,000,000. 
 
 At this point, then, it is necessary to commence the 
 consideration of practicability and cost in proceeding with 
 the route to the Pacific. 
 
 The River St. Lawrence at Quebec is about a mile 
 broad, and it would, therefore, be necessary to have 
 powerful steam boats (constructed on purpose so as to 
 answer in winter as well as summer) for conveying the 
 railway carriages across, in the same manner as is now 
 proposed to be done in Scotland across the mouth of the 
 Tay and elsewhere. The cost of these boats must be added 
 to the estimate of Major Robinson; and it is then only 
 necessary to consider the project of the Atlantic and Pa¬ 
 cific Railway from Quebec. 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 This city is in longitude 71° 15' west, in latitude 46° 50' 
 north; and the mouth of Frazer’s River, New Caledonia, 
 is in longitude 123° 7' west, and in latitude 49° 6' north. 
 The distance may therefore be computed at about 2,350 
 miles. 
 
 Fort Garry, at the confluence of the Assinniboia and the 
 Red River, is in west longitude 97° 3', and north latitude 
 59° 6', and may therefore be called 1,200 miles from 
 Quebec, thus leaving only 1,150 miles from that point to 
 Frazer’s River. 
 
 Now since the estimate of Major Robinson to construct 
 a railway from Halifax to Quebec, 635 miles, is £5,000,000, 
 £15,000,000 ought to carry it to the heart of the Red 
 River settlement, and £10,000,000 more ought to carry it 
 over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. We have then 
 the several distances, average time of transit and cost as 
 follows:— 
 
 Miles. Hours. Cost. 
 
 From Halifax to Quebec. 635 . . 30 . . £5,000,000 
 
 „ Quebec to Fort Garry. 1,200 . . 60 . . 10,000,000 
 
 „ Fort Garry to Frazer’s River . . 1,150 . . 58 . . 10,000,000 
 
 2,985 148 £25,000,000 
 
 From Frazer’s River to the Sandwich Islands the dis¬ 
 tance is about 2,870 miles; and by maintaining the inde¬ 
 pendence of these islands, taking them as a centre, and 
 making a treaty to have our depot of coals there, we are 
 brought within reasonable steaming distance of any part of 
 the Pacific Ocean ; and from these islands we could always 
 send or receive news in about twenty days,—that is, when 
 once the Electric Telegraph was established from Halifax 
 to Frazer’s River; and by means of the Railway, goods 
 or passengers from and to England could be conveyed in 
 about five or six and twenty days ! 
 
 d 2 
 
( 36 ) 
 
 Now it will not be argued, I trust, that England alone 
 could not afford the expenditure of such a sum for the 
 employment of her people on so important a work, and 
 which would inevitably cause the speedy colonization of 
 what may be called Central North America. But when 
 we consider that Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Canada, 
 and the Hudson’s Bay Company, are all deeply interested 
 in this undertaking, the sum of £25,000,000 appears in¬ 
 significant, when the results of the accomplishment of the 
 
 Railway are taken into consideration. And it must always 
 
 %/ 
 
 be remembered, that this expenditure would be spread 
 over several years, each day opening up a country nearly 
 every foot of which would be capable of cultivation for the 
 support of man, and that the classified convicts could be 
 employed. 
 
 From Quebec the route would pass near Three Rivers, 
 Montreal, and, crossing the Ottawa, run between King¬ 
 ston and Bystown, about equal distance from each ; and 
 the canal already in existence could be converted into a 
 railway, and thus connect these towns with the main line, 
 which, curving as near as possible towards Toronto, would 
 pass between Lake Huron and Nipissing, and then by the 
 north of Lake Superior to Fort William. 
 
 From Fort William, a railway could be made to run 
 almost in a direct line to the south pass of the Rocky 
 Mountains, in about latitude 50°, and at a distance of 
 twenty or twenty-five miles from the frontier—near enough 
 to have branch roads to the several points where the Ame¬ 
 ricans have commenced to settle and cultivate the country ; 
 and as this line would run along the high land or water¬ 
 shed, about 1,500 feet elevation, that divides the streams 
 flowing towards the north from those flowing towards the 
 south, there is very little probability of any engineering 
 difficulties, and the draining of the railroad and ground 
 
( 37 ) 
 
 about it would be easy. The distance from Fort William 
 to the Red River, above Fort Garry, is about 350 miles; 
 from the Red River, along a prairie, although comparatively 
 speaking elevated country, to the south pass of the Rocky 
 Mountains, about 850 miles; and for these 1,200 miles, 
 the line of railway might be made nearly direct, and could 
 therefore be traversed at almost any speed. The south pass 
 of the Rocky Mountains may be taken at between 5 and 
 6,000 feet high ; and as in the line of railway from Carlisle 
 to Glasgow—a distance of about 100 miles—the height 
 crossed over is about 1,000 feet, that is, 1,000 feet of ele¬ 
 vation is surmounted in 50 miles, and on the Glasgow side 
 with no gradient worse than 1 in 100, and on the Carlisle 
 side with an incline of 1 in 75, there could be no great diffi¬ 
 culty in reaching the 6,000 feet, particularly if stationary 
 engines were established. It does not therefore appear 
 probable that any great engineering difficulties are likely 
 to be met with even in these much talked of Rocky Moun¬ 
 tains ; but it would of course be necessary to survey both 
 the south and north pass, to ascertain from which the 
 most practicable descent to the mouth of Frazer’s River 
 could be obtained. 
 
 Let us now take one general review of the line of country 
 through which the proposed trunk railway would have to 
 pass, and of the probable arrangements as regards the land 
 * that would be made. In Lord Elgin’s despatch on the 
 subject of the Quebec and Halifax Line of Railway of 
 the 20th December, 1848, we read “it is proposed that 
 “ the w 7 ork shall be executed by Government; that where 
 “ the line passes through a settled country, whatever land 
 “ is necessary for the road shall be purchased for the pro- 
 “ vinces and handed over to the Imperial Government with- 
 
 out charge; that where it traverses the public domain, ten 
 “ miles on either side of it shall also be placed at the dis- 
 
( 38 ) 
 
 “ posal of the Imperial Government, with a view on the 
 “ one hand to the promotion of an extensive scheme of 
 “ settlement in connection with the work, and on the other 
 “ to the replacing by land sales a portion of the capital ex- 
 “ pended ; and, finally, that the capital required for the 
 “ actual construction of the road shall be raised on the 
 “ security of a revenue to be derived from an imposition of 
 “ a duty of 7s. 6d. per load on timber, the produce of British 
 “ North America, when imported into Great Britain.” 
 From the spirit thus shown by the Canadian Government, 
 no doubt need be entertained of a further grant of land 
 being offered for the continuation of the railway towards the 
 centre of our North American provinces. I mean towards 
 that country situated beyond Lake Superior, towards the 
 Rocky Mountains, where “ it should be remembered that 
 “ there are most fertile and lovely tracts of country, many 
 “ times larger than England, which never yet, within the 
 “ knowledge of man, have yielded their fruits to his ser- 
 “ vices. 
 
 A great part of the country thus described belongs to 
 Canada, the rest to the Hudson’s Bay Company and to 
 England, and no doubt therefore but a large tract of land 
 could be obtained both for settlement and for the pur¬ 
 poses of the railway communication. 
 
 From all that has been stated, it appears then, that a 
 tract of country of about 3,000 miles in length, now in * 
 the possession of Great Britain, is of such a nature as to 
 permit of the construction of a main trunk line of railway 
 from ocean to ocean, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in a 
 direct line; that not one farthing on the whole length 
 of line would have to be paid for by Great Britain; but, 
 on the contrary, in many parts, if not in the whole length, 
 about ten miles on each side would be given up to her; 
 that there would be no legal disputes, or parliamentary 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 delays; and that Great Britain could colonize at almost 
 every mile; and further, that there are great facilities of 
 water communication for carrying on the communication 
 during the summer, until the whole line may be open. To 
 commence this undertaking, then, it is only necessary to 
 continue the survey from Quebec, and the expenses of that 
 may be estimated at £40,000, as £10,000 was sufficient 
 for 600 miles; and, if the water communication is made 
 use of from Quebec to Fort William, 13 Millions ought to 
 carry a direct line of railway from that spot over the 
 Rocky Mountains to the mouth of Frazer’s River, and 
 about £8,000,000 connect the communication between 
 Fort William and the north branch of the Columbia. 
 
 To those who would argue against this great Imperial 
 work on account of the long winter, severe climate—the 
 frost and the snow—we can only say, that as far as com¬ 
 munications in general are concerned, it will be granted at 
 once that the frost and the snow, in latitude north of about 
 40°, are fatal difficulties in many respects; they are fatal to 
 the rivers, fatal to the lakes, and almost fatal as regards 
 the roads; for lakes and rivers are frozen up, and the 
 roads rendered nearly impassable for a long period,—but 
 frost and snow are not fatal to railways. The railway 
 brings with it a power and a means to overcome all diffi¬ 
 culties; and unless, therefore, it is to be maintained that 
 the country is not worth the expense and exertion neces¬ 
 sary to keep open a free communication throughout its 
 districts at all seasons of the year, railways must be 
 established, and the greater the scale and use of such 
 works, the greater will be the profit. And here we can¬ 
 not do better than reprint the interesting description 
 given by Major Robinson of how such a communication 
 may be kept constantly open. 
 
 “ In determining the form of the road, it is necessary to 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 bear in view that it will pass through a country everywhere 
 liable to be obstructed by heavy falls of snow. It does 
 not appear, however, from the results of inquiries made in 
 the United States, that anything beyond inconvenience, 
 and some additional expense in the cost of working the 
 line, is to be apprehended from this cause. 
 
 “The railway from Boston to Albany, which crosses the 
 range of mountains between the Connecticut and Hudson 
 rivers, attaining upon them an elevation of upwards of 
 1400 feet above the sea, to which it ascends by a grade of 
 about 80 feet per mile for about 13 miles, traverses a 
 country subjected to the same sort of winter as the British 
 North American Provinces. 
 
 “ The average depth of snow in the woods is from 3 to 
 4 feet, which is not much less than it is in the woods of 
 New Brunswick and Canada. 
 
 “ In 1843, a year remarkable for the great number of 
 snow storms which occurred, there were 63 falls of snow, 
 but the traffic was not interrupted to any very serious ex¬ 
 tent, not more than two or three trips. 
 
 “ To keep the roads clear, two descriptions of snow¬ 
 ploughs are used, one for the double track and another for 
 the single. In the former the share of the plough travels 
 immediately over the inner rail, throwing the snow out¬ 
 wards from the track. It is first used on one track, and 
 then runs back upon the other. 
 
 “ In the single line the ploughshare travels in the centre 
 of the track, throwing the snow off at once upon both 
 sides. 
 
 “ For the double track the snow-plough weighs from 5 
 to 6 tons, and cost about £125. For the single track it is 
 somewhat lighter. 
 
 “ The plough requires generally, when run without a 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 train, two engines of 20 tons each, or with a train three 
 engines. 
 
 “ When the fall of snow does not exceed a few inches, 
 the small plough, always fixed in front of the engine, con¬ 
 sisting of an open frame-work projecting about 5 feet in 
 front, and called the “ cow-scraper ” is found, when cased 
 over, to be sufficient to clear the line. When the fall is 
 deeper, the plough is used immediately after the snow has 
 ceased to fall. 
 
 “ It can be propelled by three 20-ton engines through 
 three feet of newly-fallen snow at the rate of six miles an 
 hour. 
 
 “ If the fall does not exceed two feet, it can travel at 
 the rate of 15 miles an hour. 
 
 “ The drifts through which it is propelled are sometimes 
 15 feet deep, and from 200 to 300 feet long, and at others 
 8 or 10 feet deep, and from a quarter to half a mile in 
 length. 
 
 “ The line of railway is marked in divisions of about 
 eight miles, to each of which eight or ten men are allotted, 
 who pass along the line each day with small hand-ploughs, 
 picks, &c., clearing away the snow and ice which the trains 
 collect and harden between the rails and the roadway. 
 
 a It is found that the freezing of the snow or rain upon 
 the rails does not impede the heavy engines, as the weight 
 of the forward wheels is sufficient to break it, and enable 
 the driving wheels to bite. 
 
 “ Whenever, from local causes, the snow is found to 
 drift on the line of railway, snow fences are erected, which 
 are found very effectual. They are simple board fences 
 from 10 to 15 feet high, placed from 10 to 20 feet back 
 from the roadway. 
 
 (t In wet weather the rails become very slippery; but 
 the difficulty is overcome, and the wheels enabled to bite 
 
( 42 ) 
 
 upon the steep gradients by the use of sand-boxes, which 
 are fixed in front of the engine and immediately over the 
 rails. These can be opened at pleasure by the engine 
 driver, and the sand is used wherever necessary. 
 
 “ The means thus successfully adopted to overcome the 
 obstacles arising from ice and snow are employed much in 
 the same way upon all the railways which are exposed to 
 them. 
 
 “ In the year 1847, the expense incurred under this 
 head (removing ice and snow) upon the western railroad 
 in Massachusetts, was, according to the official return, 
 2763 dollars, equivalent to £575 sterling. 
 
 “ Upon many of the other lines expenses under the 
 same head are returned, but very much smaller in amount. 
 
 “ In places where the rails are not raised above the 
 general level of the country, much greater difficulty is 
 experienced in keeping the lines clear of snow than in 
 parts where there are embankments. 
 
 “ From the foregoing it does not appear, therefore, that 
 snow need be considered an insurmountable obstacle to 
 the formation of a line of railway from Halifax to Quebec. 
 
 “ To obviate, as much as possible, the liability to inter¬ 
 ruption from this cause, it is recommended that in the 
 construction of the line, it be adopted as a principle, that 
 the top of the iron rail be kept as high as the average 
 depth of snow in the country through which the line 
 passes. 
 
 “ In Nova Scotia this will require probably an embank¬ 
 ment of 2 feet high, gradually increasing as it proceeds 
 northward to the St. Lawrence and along the flat open 
 country on its banks to 5 or even 6 feet.” 
 
 From these extracts it will be seen that neither frost nor 
 snow are insurmountable difficulties to the enterprizing 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 Americans, and that they consider the communications 
 during winter, even of the northern part of the empire, 
 worth the expense and trouble necessary to keep them 
 open. It has yet to be shown that the British American 
 provinces are not equally valuable. 
 
 Let us consider now for a moment how the construction 
 of the proposed railway communication would affect Great 
 Britain and her North American provinces. It has been 
 stated, that u so great is the fertility of Canada, that 50 
 u bushels or wheat are frequently produced on a farm 
 “ where the stumps of the trees, which probably occupy 
 “ an eighth of the surface, have not been eradicated; some 
 “ instances of 80 bushels per acre occur. Near York 
 “ (now Toronto ) in Upper Canada, 100 bushels were ob- 
 a tained from a single acre. In some districts wheat has 
 “ been raised successively on the same ground for twenty 
 “ years without manureand the line of country that 
 would be opened out by the Atlantic and Pacific Railway 
 would for a great part merit the above description, and 
 being about 3,000 miles in length and 20 in breadth would 
 give nearly 60,000 square miles. If, then, this line was 
 surveyed, and all the spots that might be considered 
 eligible situations for townships were marked out and 
 given over to the different counties and large towns of 
 Great Britain and Ireland, a regular system of emigration 
 could be commenced, and a very short time would elapse 
 before settlements would be made in such locations, and 
 rough communications opened; after which the correct 
 levels could be made, contracts entered into, and different 
 companies formed for various small portions of the line— 
 the profits of the whole line bearing proportion to the 
 local expenditure,—wealth and prosperity must attend 
 such proceedings. At present all new settlements are in 
 general made along the banks of rivers, because of the 
 
( 44 ) 
 
 difficulties of penetrating into the interior of a new country, 
 and of obtaining the necessary supplies even if successful. 
 Major Robinson compares this sort of settlements along 
 the banks of the St. Lawrence as one continued village of 
 200 miles. The expense and difficulty of keeping up a 
 good road for such distance would be very great, and 
 consequently seldom undertaken. The railroad would 
 answer the purpose of river and road, with this advantage 
 over the former, that its current would run both ways, and 
 would give every facility to the formation of villages at 
 tolerable distance from each other ; so that the population 
 emigrating to the provinces could assemble round the 
 several stations, thus assisting and protecting each other; 
 and emigrants from different counties and towns of Great 
 Britain and Ireland would at once join their friends or re¬ 
 lations, and thus a general system be carried on. In like 
 manner convicts could be sent out from different counties 
 to clear the land for the industrious labourer, and to be 
 located on such part of the line as might be found most 
 desirable and most distant from highly populous districts, 
 and there they would be employed in doing the rough work 
 as pioneers for the railway—particularly in the Rocky 
 Mountains. 
 
 And why should not English convicts be sent to work 
 in the Rocky Mountains ? We all know that the highest 
 peak of the Great St. Bernard is 11,005 feet above the 
 level of the sea, and is covered with perpetual snow. 
 Between the two main summits runs one of the principal 
 passages from Switzerland to Italy, which continues open 
 nil winter . On the most elevated point of this passage is 
 a monastery and hospital, founded in the tenth century by 
 Bernard de Monthon. The French army, under Bona¬ 
 parte, crossed this mountain with its artillery and baggage 
 in the year 1800; and here Bonaparte caused a monument 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 to be erected to the memory of General Desaix, who fell 
 in the battle of Marengo. If, then, a monastery and 
 hospital have been established since the tenth century, and 
 are still to be found in the old world at such an elevation, 
 and in such a climate, what objection can there be to the 
 establishment of a convict post, under similar circumstances, 
 to open an important road in the new world ? We have 
 seen that Sir George Simpson crossed the Rocky Moun¬ 
 tains at a height of 8,000 feet, but the south pass is not 
 believed to be much more than 5,000, and lower passes 
 may yet be found. At all events our soldiers are exposed 
 to every diversity of climate and every hardship; and we 
 see no reason why healthy and powerful criminals should 
 be more cared for. It was also suggested in 1836 —“ The 
 “ gangs might be moved to other and more distant spots, 
 “ and employed in similar works of utility, and in this way 
 “ would relieve emigrants from many of the hardships and 
 “ difficulties which they are now doomed to encounter at 
 u the commencement of their settlement.” 
 
 In summing up then—What do I wish to bring to the 
 notice of my countrymen? It is that they have now the op¬ 
 portunity of occupying a belt of land in their own latitude— 
 commencing at a distance of only eight days steaming from 
 the west, or Atlantic coast of Ireland, and consisting of about 
 3,000 miles in length by about 20 miles in breadth, almost 
 every acre of which, when under cultivation, would be 
 capable of supporting man ; that this belt of land leads 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific; that it could be appor¬ 
 tioned out in different lots to all the counties and large 
 towns of Great Britain and Ireland; that throughout this 
 whole line there are not likely to occur any great engi¬ 
 neering difficulties, certainly none insurmountable, in the 
 construction of a railway, the acknowledged best commu¬ 
 nication of the day; and that at each end of this belt of 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 land are most excellent harbours. Why then, let me ask, 
 should we hesitate to make “ war upon the wilderness,” 
 surely as honourable, and certainly far more profitable, 
 than making war upon our fellow-men. In such a war 
 Great Britain could employ her wealth, her talents, her 
 rich, her poor, and her criminals,—all for the benefit of 
 trade, of commerce and of industry; and a work would 
 be constructed in which, although commenced by a compa¬ 
 ratively small expenditure, by merely opening at first such 
 parts of the country as have no facility of water commu¬ 
 nication, could ultimately fund at least £200,000,000 with 
 a profitable return; for when that work shall have crossed 
 the continent of North America, the inhabitants of a 
 great part of the United States will travel it—already 
 are they working their way up to Canada, and have done 
 so to the Lakes:—they would join the great trunk line 
 of the British Imperial Railway, either at the Montreal, 
 the Kingston, the Toronto, or the Fort William Stations. 
 Let any one who doubts this, only consult the map and 
 read the accounts of the different exploring expeditions 
 that have taken place on the American continent. It has 
 already been shown that it is the best route from St. 
 Petersburgh, consequently must be for all the ports of 
 the Baltic and North Sea. 
 
 One word more on railways in general, and on the 
 prospects of England, and I have done. Railways “ have 
 “ become necessary to the age; and that country which 
 u has them not must fall behind in the onward march of 
 “ improvement, and in the development of its resources; 
 “ and the longer it is suffered to do so, the greater and 
 u more unfavourable will be the contrast which it will 
 “ present to the world.” As regards England, let it be 
 recollected, that “ great as is our civilization and intelli- 
 “ gence, compared with the empires of former days, we 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 “ have no right to think that the goal of prosperity and 
 u glory is attained. England has by no means reached 
 “ the zenith of earthly honour ; science is as yet but in its 
 “ infancy ; the human mind has scarcely arrived at adoles- 
 u cence; and, for aught we imperfect beings know, this 
 “ little Island may be destined by Providence to continue 
 “ as a light unto the heathen, as a nucleus for the final 
 “ civilization of man.” 
 
 ROBERT CARMICHAEL-SMYTH, 
 
 Author of a Letter lately published on this subject 
 to the Author of “ the Clockmaker.” 
 
( 48 ) 
 
 Extract from “Sun,” April 7th, 1849. 
 
 “ NORTH AMERICAN RAILWAY. 
 
 “ TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN. 
 
 “ Sir,— I have much pleasure in forwarding the enclosed 
 Memorandum, and in authorising you to state that it has been 
 both graciously and favourably received by Sir John Henry 
 Pelly. 
 
 “I am well aware that the columns of the ‘Sun’ have not 
 unfrequently been used to convey sentiments in opposition to 
 the Hudson’s Bay Company, but the highly favourable notice 
 you have considered it your duty to take of the project brought 
 forward for a British Colonial Railway from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific Ocean, convinces me that, in a question of such vast im¬ 
 portance, no recollection of any past differences will be allowed 
 to bias your judgment of present proceedings, and I have no 
 doubt, therefore, you will give full publicity to the Memorandum 
 I now forward. 
 
 “ I cannot permit this opportunity to pass without recording 
 my grateful thanks for the warm support this railway project 
 has received at your hands ; but I must not dwell on this sub¬ 
 ject, lest it should seem that it was the vanity of the author you 
 have gratified, and not his labours that had been encouraged. 
 
 “ I have the honour to remain, Sir, 
 
 “ Your most obedient servant, 
 
 “ Robert Carmichael-Smyth. 
 
 “ Junior United Service Club, 
 
 “ March 30th, 1849 .” 
 
 “ Major R. Carmichael-Smyth presents his respectful compli¬ 
 ments to Sir John Henry Pelly, and in submitting to his favour¬ 
 able consideration the accompanying Memorandum, begs at the 
 same time to be permitted to return his sincere thanks for the 
 kindness and attention with which he has been received at the 
 Hudson’s Bay House. 
 
 “ Major R. Carmichael-Smyth is fully impressed with the 
 vast importance of the subjects on which he has had the honour 
 to be allowed to communicate with Sir John Henry Pelly, but 
 he is also equally aware of his own humble position, as regards 
 either commercial or political matters ; and he cannot, therefore, 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 but feel the more grateful to those who, forgetting this circum¬ 
 stance, are willing to consider only, whether the project he has 
 brought forward is a practical one, and whether it may not be 
 the means, under Providence, of adding to the happiness and to 
 the glory of the industrious, intelligent people of this great 
 empire* 
 
 “ J. U. S. Club, Charles-street, Haymarket, 
 
 “21th March, 1849 .” 
 
 “ MEMORANDUM FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF SIR 
 JOHN HENRY PELLY, BART., IN HIS CAPACITY 
 AS GOVERNOR OF THE HON. HUDSON’S BAY 
 COMPANY. 
 
 “ It is not proposed in this Memorandum to trespass upon 
 the valuable time of Sir John Henry Pelly by any attempt to 
 enumerate the various important results that, as a matter of 
 course, would follow the accomplishment of the long wished-for 
 junction of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ; neither is it con¬ 
 templated to dwell, even for a moment, on the many beneficial 
 consequences that would naturally arise to the British empire, 
 should it be ascertained, after a careful survey of the ground, 
 that a line of connection, or practicable communication even 
 of a secondary nature, could be made throughout our North 
 American colonies and the Hudson’s Bay territory. 
 
 “ It is highly necessary that all these matters should be fre¬ 
 quently brought under the notice of the public, and although 
 there are many points upon which more detailed information 
 might be given, yet it would indeed be mere idleness and waste 
 of words to attempt to say anything on such subjects to one who 
 has so long and so ably conducted the affairs, directed the ener¬ 
 gies, and guided the destiny of a great and powerful company ; 
 and who must have been consulted, and have taken part in the 
 discussions and treaties that have been entered into about the 
 Oregon question, and it stands recorded by a celebrated writer 
 on colonial matters, that, ‘ but for the Hudson’s Bay Company, 
 England would have been shut out from the Pacific.’ 
 
 “ This Memorandum, therefore, will, as far as it regards the 
 Governor, assume a knowledge in a general way, and, to a cer¬ 
 tain extent (that is to say, as far as the wants of the servants and 
 
 E 
 
( 50 ) 
 
 of the services of the Hudson’s Bay Company have up to this 
 moment required) of the degree of practicability of the several 
 routes across the Rocky Mountains. But as the project now 
 brought forward is one arising from the peculiar circumstances 
 of the present day—from the great strides of practical science—• 
 from the many improvements afforded by locomotive power for 
 rapid communication and easy travelling, as well as from nu¬ 
 merous other causes—it is probable that the country of which 
 we are now treating may not have been examined, much less 
 surveyed, nor even perhaps looked at in a casual way, with a 
 view to a permanent thoroughfare for the commerce of the 
 Colonies to the Pacific ; still less, perhaps, has the thought of 
 a railway ever entered into the mind of those who, no doubt 
 accustomed to every hardship, have spent their lives in trading 
 with the Indians, and in hunting through wild districts to pro¬ 
 cure the furs which serve for the comfort and ornament of those 
 who are fortunate enough to live in the possession of every 
 luxury. 
 
 “ It is believed, that not until the very last moment did the 
 Hudson’s Bay Company contemplate resigning any portion of 
 the Oregon, north of the Columbia ; and that river was there¬ 
 fore considered as the natural outlet for New Caledonia. 
 
 “ Having thus touched upon all the preliminary points con¬ 
 nected with the proposed undertaking, and brought the project 
 under the immediate notice of the Governor of the Hudson’s 
 Bay Company, the great question of the practicability, or other¬ 
 wise, of a railway communication through the territories over 
 which he presides, stands out prominently to view, the solving of 
 which is of course of the utmost importance to all those who, 
 from any cause whatsoever, wish for a safe, a rapid, and a na¬ 
 tional communication with the Pacific Ocean, through our North 
 American provinces. 
 
 “ Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Canadas are at this 
 moment most anxious and zealous in the cause ; and it is humbly 
 and respectfully submitted to Sir John Henry Pelly, that the 
 moment has arrived when he can materially assist in the endea¬ 
 vours about to be made for a great national move to the West; 
 and when the pressure of population on subsistence in this 
 country, together with the anxious desire of all to improve the 
 
( 51 ) 
 
 condition of society by affording to every man wholesome and 
 permanent employment, will enable him to open out the valuable 
 territory of the Hudson’s Bay Company. 
 
 “ The object, then, of this Memorandum is to solicit the good 
 offices of Sir John Henry Pelly, and to request that he will use 
 the influence his high position must naturally give him to bring 
 this matter under the favourable consideration of the Colonial 
 Minister, urging the importance of exploring and surveying par¬ 
 ties being sent out, as soon as the season would permit, to the 
 several points upon the proposed line that he may consider ne¬ 
 cessary ; and of fixing upon some spot on the right bank of Fra¬ 
 zer’s River, or any other point that may appear more desirable, 
 as a proper site for a terminus for the Pacific. 
 
 “ A scientific and talented young officer, one of the Royal 
 Engineer corps, whose mind has been engaged in considering 
 the manifold important results that would follow a perfect and 
 rapid communication through the North American provinces, 
 has already pointed to the Rocky Mountains; and it is not 
 believed that there would be any great difficulty in reaching 
 some of the passes through them from the Atlantic,—but the 
 country between those mountains and the Pacific is of such a 
 nature, that, although the direct distance is comparatively short, 
 a careful survey could alone decide the point as to the practica¬ 
 bility of descent, by railway, for commercial purposes, to the 
 waters of that ocean. 
 
 “ Robert Carmichael-Smyth, 
 
 “ Author of the Letter lately published on this subject 
 
 to the Author of the ‘ Clockmaker.’ 
 
 “J. U.S. Club, Charles Street, Hay market, 
 
 “ March 27 , 1849 .” 
 
 E 2 
 
 U, OF ILL. LIB. 
 

 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 HISTORIC TIMES. 
 
 Concluding paragraphs from the article in the “ Historic Times ” of the 
 23 d February on the Missing Arctic Expedition. 
 
 “ This brief sketch of Arctic discovery may serve to remind our 
 readers of its progress to the present time, and prepare them for further 
 discoveries, while it sufficiently illustrates our estimate of the national 
 character, that in about fifteen years the ice-bound coasts of a continent 
 extending 110 deg. of longitude, i. e., as wide as Asia, and twice as wide 
 as Europe, has been traced by land and sea, and its interior traversed in 
 every direction. It cannot, however , be doubted that the same amount 
 of energy and capital thus employed might have joined the Atlantic and 
 Pacific by a path available for commercial purposes, united the west with 
 the east, poured the wealth of the latter into the coffers of our merchants , 
 and spread religion and civilization to the most remote corners of the 
 globe.” 
 
 SUN.-— \Qth February. 
 
 “ According to the scheme disclosed in this remarkable pamphlet 
 mails, merchandize and passengers might be perpetually conveyed to and 
 fro between England and her colonial territories in the two hemispheres 
 without having to traverse the roads of continental Europe (which roads 
 V might be rendered impassable at any moment by the outbreak of a 
 general war), and without the necessity of having to double either the 
 Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn, where the seas are as tempestuous 
 as the voyages are circuitous; and the intercourse between Great Britain 
 and her most distant and scattered possessions would not only be by this 
 means less liable to interruption, but it would be infinitely more rapid, 
 and, in every respect, more convenient. The proposed line of railway 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 would link together the two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic; it 
 would stretch in a direct line across our colonies in North America; 
 it would commence at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and would terminate at 
 Frazer’s River*, pouring into the Gulf of Georgia ; it would communicate 
 by steam vessels with the ports of the United Kingdom in one direction, 
 and in the other would promote a continual interchange of commodities 
 and intelligence with Pekin, with Canton, with Australia, with New 
 Zealand, with the Spice Islands, with Ceylon, with Madras, and with 
 Calcutta. 
 
 “ The North American Railway from the Gulf of Georgia to the Gulf 
 of St. Lawrence, running from Nova Scotia by St. John’s, through 
 New Brunswick, across the St. Lawrence and Otawa, traversing Upper 
 Canada along the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Superior, through the 
 dominions of the Hudson’s Bay Company to the south of Lake Winnipeg, 
 over the chain of the Rocky Mountains to the coast of the Pacific, 
 confronting the island of Vancouver—this enormous line of railway 
 would then be the first substantial employment of that felicitous fact 
 which has been intimated in the expression that the shores of the Pacific 
 constitute ‘the end of the West and the beginning of the East.’ 
 
 “ It would form ‘ the great link required to unite in one powerful chain 
 the whole English race.’ It would penetrate the enormous barrier of the 
 Rocky Mountains. It would, in a particular manner, bind together the 
 interests of England, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the Canadas. 
 It would present a magnificent field for the employment of gangs of 
 convict labourers—criminals, who, by clearing and enclosing lands, by 
 constructing roads and building bridges, would be withdrawn from the 
 diabolical contaminations of the penal settlements, would unconsciously 
 be instrumental in forwarding the grand labours of civilization. 
 
 “ It would pass through regions ‘rich in mines of silver and copper,’ 
 such as the vicinity of Lake Superior. It would draw into use the 
 abundant timber of the Oregon, the plentiful coal of Vancouver’s Island, 
 the iron, lead and tin, the granite, slate and sandstone, the oolites, the 
 cattle, wool, hides and tallow, the salted meat, the beef, the pork, the 
 wheat, the barley, the Indian corn, the apples, and the rest of the 
 nutritious vegetation which now flourishes unconsumed in the length 
 and breadth of the North American Continent. 
 
 “ Such is the noble project of a colonial railway suggested by this 
 patriotic pamphleteer.” 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 ARMY DESPATCH. 
 
 Extract from the British and Army Despatch, 1 6th February, btfore the 
 pamphlet was published for general circulation . 
 
 “ This pamphlet is from the pen of an officer of rank, whose long 
 residence on service in North America has enabled him to offer to the 
 public some valuable suggestions on the subject of the extension of 
 railway communication on that vast continent, in the further extremity 
 of which new ground has lately been broken in the progress of civilization. 
 The pamphlet purports to point out means for the employment of the 
 people and capital of Great Britain in her own colonies, by undertaking 
 a great national work, and thus opening the shortest road to the most 
 extensive regions of wealth ever before at the command of any nation in 
 the world, (not regions of gold, but for commerce and industry,) and 
 opening to Great Britain a new outlet for the superabundant population 
 of her soil, and new markets for her labour. With great minuteness and 
 considerable local knowledge the author traces the means by which the 
 far apart Atlantic and Pacific Oceans shall be made easily communicable, 
 and urges that, on that part of the line where the district labour and 
 capital is sufficient, it shall be undertaken by the residents, and where 
 population is too thin, the remedy can be supplied by English capital and 
 convict labour. 
 
 “ The pamphlet is altogether well worthy of perusal by all who are 
 interested in the progress of the great tide which is now so strongly 
 setting ‘ westward.’ ” 
 
 BRIGHTON GAZETTE.— 8th March, 1849. 
 
 u One consequence of the recent discoveries in California has been the 
 renewed and zealous discussion of various plans heretofore suggested for 
 opening a direct communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 
 instead of the present circuitous and hazardous route by Cape Horn. 
 A general feeling seems to have hitherto prevailed in preference of a 
 water line by the river and lake of San Juan de Nicaragua; and certainly, 
 as compared with the Isthmus of Darien or that of Tehuantepec, there 
 can be little doubt of its superior eligibility. But we think that the views 
 developed in the able pamphlet of Major Carmichael Smyth will go far 
 towards effecting a revolution in public opinion. For the United States the 
 route above-mentioned may be a sufficiently desirable one; but the author 
 of this pamphlet contends—and therein he will have at least every English¬ 
 man on his side—that such a communication ought, if possible, to be 
 
( 55 ) 
 
 made within the limits of our own territory. Should war hereafter break 
 out, we must seriously feel the deprivation of a short route to our eastern 
 colonies; and the bare contemplation of such a contingency must create 
 a strong feeling in favour of Major Smyth’s proposal, which is to construct, 
 with the aid of convict labour a railway from Halifax in Nova Scotia to 
 Frazer’s River on the shores of the Pacific. This river has its embouchure 
 six miles to the north of the 49th parallel, which defines the United States’ 
 boundary. It is a mile wide. The country around is low, with a rich 
 alluvial soil; and Fort Langley is twenty miles from its mouth. From 
 hence, by steam navigation, lines of communication would be opened 
 with China and India, as well as with the Sandwich Islands, Labuan, and 
 Australia, the distance being thus of course immensely shortened, as com¬ 
 pared with the present state of things. We need not enlarge on the in¬ 
 calculable advantages of such a route; for the emergency which has 
 arisen in India speaks trumpet-tongued on that score. We could wish, 
 indeed, that our author had developed more fully the practicability of his 
 plan; but we have, like himself, a strong faith in the ability of English¬ 
 men to overcome even apparently insurmountable obstacles. 
 
 “ In a question like this the advocates of colonization must feel a 
 strong interest; for Met England, her Northern American colonies, and 
 the Hudson’s Bay Company, join heart and hand, and with the great 
 power of steam which it has pleased the Almighty to place at the com¬ 
 mand of man, there will soon arise a work that will be the wonder and ad¬ 
 miration of the age—and such a mercantile and colonizing road will be 
 open to Great Britain, that at no future period (at least within the imagi¬ 
 nation of man) will she ever again have to complain of too great a 
 population on her soil, and too small a market for her labour.’ This letter 
 is addressed to the f Clockmaker;’ and who will not echo the exclamation of 
 that distinguished writer—‘ Oh, squire, if John Bull only knew the value 
 of these colonies, he would be a great man, I tell you—but he don’t.’ 
 
 “ The length of the proposed railway is estimated at about 4,000 miles ; 
 and its terminus on the Pacific coast would be opposite Vancouver’s 
 Island, which could thus hardly fail to become a central point of in¬ 
 estimable importance, situate as it is in the vicinity of the gold district, 
 and on the high road to India. Such a railway would make Halifax only 
 ten or fifteen days distant from the north-west coast of America, and the 
 Sandwich Islands would not be ten days farther off, while Halifax itself is 
 even now within ten days of Liverpool. Moreover, it is a curious fact that 
 at both termini of the proposed line, (which, by a singular coincidence, 
 would be placed in Nova Scotia and New Caledonia ), nature has bounti¬ 
 fully provided a large and apparently inexhaustible supply of coals. As 
 to the advantages of the project, indeed, there cannot be a moment’s hesi¬ 
 tation. The only question is its practicability. 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 RAILWAY TIMES .—March 10th, 1849. 
 
 “ There is a work to be done—wealth to be opened up—men’s bodies 
 and souls to be saved—the press teems with suggestions, plain, practical, 
 and operative—yet not a ray of intelligence, of apprehension, not a sign, 
 not an expression indicative of activity, escapes from the chief of the 
 Colonial Office, or his fussy, yet do-nothing, subordinates. 
 
 “We shall revert to this topic in our next, and lay before our readers 
 the able, invigorating alignments of Major Robert Carmichael Smyth, in 
 reference to the subject of a British colonial railway communication 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific.” 
 
 SUN .—March 13 th, 1849. 
 
 “ On the 16th of February we directed public attention to a pamphlet, 
 in the form of a letter, addressed to Judge Halliburton, the immortal 
 1 Clockmaker,’ by an officer in one of her Majesty’s Highland regiments— 
 a pamphlet in which a magnificent scheme is proposed for the connexion 
 of the Pacific and the Atlantic by a railroad running through our North 
 American possessions, through the Canadas, and through the territories of 
 the Hudson’s Bay Company, beginning at the harbour of Halifax, near 
 Newfoundland, and terminating on Frazer’s River, opposite Vancouver’s 
 Island. Since then it will have been observed by our readers that the 
 author of that remarkable pamphlet, Major Robert Carmichael Smyth, 
 has addressed a letter to ourselves, in which he disclaims any of that dog¬ 
 matic egotism which is generally supposed to actuate the projectors of 
 such colossal enterprizes. The pamphlet of Major Smyth, previously 
 printed for private circulation, and written without any signature upon 
 the title-page, has, subsequently to the appearance of our remarks on 
 the 16th ultimo, been published in a complete and well-digested form, 
 accompanied by an illustrated map from the hand of Mr. Wyld, the geo¬ 
 grapher. Now that the plan may be regarded as fairly before the public, 
 we cannot but take this, the earliest opportunity, of reiterating our previous 
 argument, that the noble scheme suggested by Major Carmichael Smyth 
 is one intimately associated with the present condition and the future 
 destinies, with the glory, the greatness, and the prosperty of the British 
 empire.” 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 THE ECONOMIST .—March 11th, 1849. 
 
 “ The long double titles to this pamphlet of forty three pages are as 
 instructive as its contents. The writer proposes that a railway shall be 
 constructed from Halifax to Frazer’s River, New Caledonia, on the Pa¬ 
 cific, and that the] convicts of England shall be employed to make it. 
 The amount of capital supposed to be necessary is £150,000,000. The 
 scheme is magnificent; the execution at present we opine somewhat 
 difficult. In the United States, however, something similar has been 
 proposed by Mr. Benton, but tbeir line will run through a more tem¬ 
 perate climate, and have the support of a larger population than the line 
 proposed by the author. There is no reason in this age of marvels, the 
 result of science and art, to despair of the accomplishment of some such 
 undertaking, but the time is hardly yet come for our Government to set 
 about it by the employment of convicts. The difficulty of disposing of 
 them will not justify incurring the expense, and perhaps committing the 
 cruelty, of locating them in squads all the way between Halifax Harbour 
 and Frazer’s River on the shores of the Pacific. Such suggestions are 
 not to be despised, however, because they do not seem immediately 
 feasible ; the project will deserve to be kept in view, but it is rather for 
 the colonists to execute than the mother country. Industrial enterprises 
 of all kinds should rather be undertaken by the individuals who are to 
 profit by them than by Governments. 
 
 HISTORIC TIMES .—March 23rd, 1849. 
 u THE WEST AND THE EAST.” 
 
 “ The opening a direct communication between the Atlantic and the 
 Pacific is a subject of so great importance to the world, and more espe¬ 
 cially to this country, that we feel thankful to Major Carmichael-Smyth 
 for directing our attention to the line in which we are more directly in¬ 
 terested, inasmuch as there can be no doubt (our own interest apart) it is 
 also the most easily opened and the most generally available. 
 
 “We are content to adopt some mottoes of his selection as a basis of 
 operations, and the more so as they are from authority 
 
 “ 1 It must be acknowledged as a principle that the colonies of England 
 are an integral part of the mother country,’ says Mr. D’lsraeli. 
 
 “ ‘ The possession of remote territories is the only thing which can 
 secure to the population of a country those advantages derived from an 
 easy outlet, or prospect of outlet, to those persons who may be ill-pro¬ 
 vided at home,’ says my Lord Brougham. 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 “ And these opinions are capped by the Times of the 20th of January 
 last:—‘ We have an immense colonial empire. To its resources and 
 energies we now seem for the first time to awaken. Hitherto we have 
 been content to consider it as a magnificent incumbrance that testified to 
 our greatness, but had nothing to do with our interests or prosperity.’ 
 We trust those days are past, and that England will for the future look 
 on her colonies not as mere fields of territorial aggrandisement—not as 
 great cesspools for convicted iniquity—not as means of rewarding official, 
 or courtly, or even familiar services, nor yet solely as affording opportu¬ 
 nities of expanding commerce and amassing wealth by mercantile specu¬ 
 lations—they have been each and all of them, it is time they should be so 
 no longer—but rather as the great outlets for the superfluous energies of 
 the nation, whether physical or mental, agricultural or commercial, ac¬ 
 cording to Schlegel’s truly philosophic idea, the safety valves of the poli¬ 
 tical machine; and those which are nearest to us might well claim our 
 earliest attention, did not other causes equally incite us to consider them 
 first. The constant westward progression of the world—the coming 
 struggle among commercial nations for the commerce of the Pacific—the 
 discovery of a new El Dorado in California, unite with our domestic ne¬ 
 cessities, which press so sternly upon us, to make it not only necessary to 
 inquire the shortest and most direct route to the new fields for enterprise 
 in the west, but how a sufficiently practicable one may be found which 
 shall open up not only that commerce but fresh localities for colonization. 
 This Major Smyth proposes to us. The idea is by no means altogether 
 new, yet it comes in a new shape, and suggested with singular boldness, 
 being nothing less than the connexion of the Atlantic with the Pacific by 
 a railroad commencing at Halifax and ending at Vancouver’s Island. 
 These two names, and the distance between the places, may incline some 
 among our readers to pause—we beg them to go on. Things are only 
 relatively great or small, and, if the means be proportioned, the terms 
 may become convertible. 
 
 “ The question which arises is, what is the character of the country 
 between these two points, and what facilities for or impediments to such 
 an undertaking does it present ? We will give as short an answer as may 
 be, and the shorter, for disposing of a quarter of the distance at once. 
 This contest for the transit of inland produce between the great natural 
 outlet, the St. Lawrence, and the artificial one afforded by the Erie Canal, 
 necessitates the completion of railroads from the great Lakes of Canada to 
 the Atlantic. The route from Halifax by St. John’s, New Brunswick to 
 Quebec and Montreal has been marked out and approved by Government; 
 this must be finished. From thence a short communication would unite 
 Lakes Ontario and Huron, and thence to the head of Lake Superior there 
 is no difficulty in the way of direct water communication ; and we reserve 
 
( 59 ) 
 
 the consideration of this part of the route until vve take occasion to notice 
 the condition and prospects of Canada and its suitableness as a field for 
 emigration. The great question is how to get from thence; and here 
 again it is rail versus water. It is obvious, that through five-and-thirty 
 degrees of longitude the same conditions cannot prevail, and consequently 
 that all must be duly considered. The natural facilities provided by the 
 internal waters of this country must strike every one on a mere glance at 
 the map, provided the waters be navigable to any extent, and Lieutenant 
 Synge has published a valuable pamphlet calling attention to them. On 
 the other hand, it cannot be doubted that artificial water communication 
 is at best slow, and probably quite as expensive in the long run as that by 
 railroad, and moreover, that the whole of British North America being 
 under process of drainage, as Major Smyth so justly states, it becomes 
 doubtful how long canals, if formed, would continue to fulfil their office. 
 
 “ In a very able work (which we quote the rather because it contains 
 a summary of all that is known on the subject, and which it is our pur¬ 
 pose shortly to review at length) by Mr. J. E. Fitzgerald of the Hudson’s 
 Bay Company, with special reference to it and its territories, and their 
 fitness for colonization, we find it stated, first, that the Sascatchewan 
 River is navigable for boats and canoes from Lake Winnepeg to near it3 
 sources in the Rocky Mountains; and secondly, that the country which 
 connects Lake Winnepeg with Lake Superior is a magnificent country for 
 colonization. Sir G. Simpson speaks in the strongest language of the 
 beauty of the country and the fertility of the soil, and of the rich and 
 varied produce of the earth in its wild and uncultivated luxuriance, as all 
 travellers have done from Mackenzie to Ballantyne; and, as Mr. Fitz¬ 
 gerald well observes, ‘ had not the North-West Company of Montreal 
 been destroyed (or rather absorbed into the exclusive monopoly of the 
 Hudson’s Bay Company), it is probable that many settlements would by 
 this time have sprung up in the channel down which their vast fur traffic 
 was poured into Canada. But the waters are now silent and deserted, and 
 the whole trade is diverted to the desolate shores of Hudson’s Bay, to be 
 stowed into the 1 annual ship’ for the London market;’ for this cause, no 
 doubt, they repurchased Lord Selkirk’s settlements, one of which only is 
 preserved, at Red River, as a monument of the patriotic and philanthropic 
 spirit which animated that nobleman, and led him to desire to extend the 
 British colonies in North America to the utmost known bounds of the 
 west. 
 
 “ It would appear then that ready communication can be effected with 
 Lake Superior; that from thence to Lake Winnepeg is a country most 
 desirable for settlement; and that from thence a navigable river stretches 
 1400 miles. The first step then is obviously to occupy at once this in¬ 
 termediate position, the more desirable from having coal at no great 
 
( 60 ) 
 
 distance. Having done so, the next point is Cumberland House, where 
 the falls of the Sascatcliewan occur, and then form the communication, 
 first by water, then by rail, bit by bit, to the Rocky Mountains. From 
 the Rocky Mountains Major Smyth proposes the route by Frazer’s River; 
 but this country offers few advantages either for water or land transit, and 
 still less for settlement. Mackenzie’s route to the Pacific, if we may 
 judge from his description, is more worthy adoption—this would terminate 
 in about latitude 52 deg. north, just above Vancouver’s Island, and in the 
 immediate vicinity of the coal found there in such abundance, and of such 
 excellent quality, and sufficiently near to Queen Charlotte’s Island, which, 
 if not colonized simultaneously, should be immediately after Vancouver’s. 
 So much for the route indicated by the physical character of the country. 
 We will take an early opportunity of describing it more in detail, and 
 offering illustrations of as many of the principal points as are available ; 
 at present we must glance at the means. 
 
 “ It is evident that in such a case individual voluntary emigration is 
 the ultimate object, the immediate must be obtained by some other. 
 Three are proposed— 
 
 “ 1. Convict labour. 
 
 “ 2. Military settlements. 
 
 “ 3. Pauper emigration. 
 
 “ The first was suggested by Mr. Porter in his ‘ Progress of the Nation,’ 
 and nothing can be more desirable than the employment of those unhappy 
 men on works by which they may make some recompence to society for 
 their outrages upon it. The labour of 22,138 might thus bring us 
 something like a sufficient interest for the £378,000 now expended upon 
 them. 
 
 “The introduction of the system of Colonel Tulloch, by which the pen¬ 
 sioners are made available for home service, suggests the second. If a 
 body of men, discharged from the army at a sufficiently early age, was 
 located on the spot where the convicts were to work, to guard them until 
 it was finished, and then allowed to remain on lands allotted to them, while 
 the convicts were moved forward under the guardianship of another party, 
 nuclei for colonies would be formed of men, as Colonel Smyth observes, 
 loyal by profession and habit, and fitted by previous training to defend the 
 frontiers should occasion require it. These might form the respective 
 staffs of bodies of local militia raised among the natives, who would then 
 be in process of civilization from intercourse with disciplined troops, and 
 an advanced stage of social existence. 
 
 “ The third is not the least important. The act of parliament which 
 permits money to he borrowed by boards of guardians for the purposes of 
 emigration, on the security of the poor rates, has been too little considered 
 or acted on. How few parishes would hesitate, did they know that what 
 
( 61 ) 
 
 it costs to keep a pauper here for two years would settle him, his wife 
 and family, comfortably for life in America. At present, the want of 
 knowledge how to set about it presents the greatest difficulty; but open 
 a national road, and that vanishes immediately. Connected with this 
 subject is the employment of children. The Children’s Friend Society 
 was doing a good work in apprenticing children in the colonies when it 
 was stopped by the Times, probably with a view to embarrass the sup¬ 
 porters of the new poor law. By sending out young people you gain in 
 many ways. The expense is less, both in the length of time before their 
 services are remunerative, and in the cost of transit. You put an effectual 
 stop to the rapid increase of population, and they reach their new country 
 at an age when they become acclimatized most easily, both physically and 
 mentally. And here a wide field opens. Parkhurst and our ragged 
 schools would send forth their thousands, and our gaols, now the hot-beds 
 of vice, need no longer be filled to overflowing, since this sort of trans¬ 
 portation would be a boon rather than a punishment, and might be regu¬ 
 lated in severity exactly to meet the necessities of the case, and even the 
 improvement or otherwise of the individual. And how many of both 
 sexes, now cast away in this world for ever, would, under judicious 
 management, have become valuable members of our transatlantic terri¬ 
 tories, and far more a blessing to society than they had before been its 
 curse ? 
 
 “ Major Smyth, in his magnificent scheme for a railroad to connect 
 both seas, from Halifax to the mouth of Frazer’s River, estimates the 
 expense at £150,000,000; by availing ourselves of the natural water 
 communication, this might be reduced two-thirds, say £100,000,000, i. e. 
 on the immediate outlay. England has expended on her own internal 
 communications about £150,000,000, having about 5000 miles completed. 
 Who shall then say that such a scheme is chimerical? Who shall say I 
 shall not live to see it ? But whence the funds ? By the three means 
 proposed they are for the most part provided. We thank Major Smyth 
 again for an apt quotation from the Morning Post of January 31st:— 
 ‘ Without raising one shilling from the Exchequer, boldly apply the 
 national credit to relieve the national distress;’ and it is not a little 
 singular that this plan is already adopted by the Hudson’s Bay Company 
 in these countries for their own particular profit—nothing circulating in 
 them but their own notes. There would be, however, this difference, that 
 their notes now are valueless out of the territory, whereas those of which 
 we speak would have the same value wherever the British name was 
 known, and British honour and credit respected. 
 
 “ We close the subject for the present by again quoting Mr. Fitz¬ 
 gerald :—< 
 
 “ ‘ If England will ever see this great truth, and will enforce upon the 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 Government the task of directing the stream of colonization, which must 
 go on, directed or not, as long as population continues to increase faster 
 than its means of subsistence—and if the Government does ever under¬ 
 take to goide the energies of those who leave our shores into such chan¬ 
 nels as shall produce the most beneficial reaction upon the mother country, 
 and the most salutary influence on the stability of the whole empire, it is 
 impossible but that this task of opening up the overland communication 
 between the Canadas and the Pacific Ocean should be one of the first to 
 demand attention.’ ‘ The time has come,’ says the ‘ Clockmaker,’ ‘ when 
 the great American and colonial route of travelling must commence at 
 Halifax’—‘ and end at the Pacific,’ says Colonel Smyth; and we echo 
 his conclusion.” 
 
 RAILWAY TIMES .—March 31st, 1849. 
 
 “ A more interesting work than Major R. Carmichael-Smyth’s pamphlet 
 upon British Colonial Railway Communication we have rarely met with. 
 It has for its object the establishing the conviction in the public mind, 
 that railway communication may and can be established between the 
 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; and it may be said to proceed farther, and 
 demonstrate the necessity of at once entering upon the undertaking. The 
 wide and statesman-like view which Major Smyth has taken on this sub¬ 
 ject might be well imitated in the Colonial Office. He conjures up no 
 visionary scheme, full of fallacious promises of returns immediate and 
 immense, but looking the exigencies of our own land fairly in the face, 
 he points to this undertaking as offering the direction in which they may 
 be encountered, and marshals the means of effecting his conquest over 
 the physical and moral difficulties of the question. The gallant author 
 dwells upon the rapid growth of steam-power, and its results in and upon 
 our North-American colonies. He asks (and we think the reader will 
 join with him) whether this progress is to be arrested ? He shows that 
 it cannot be; that the force of circumstances alone points to the systematic 
 developement of our colonies as the sole remedy for those evils which 
 may be traced to a redundant population incapable of adequate employ¬ 
 ment. He rests his argument upon the practical ground, that we are at 
 an enormous cost for providing against the burdens entailed by disposing 
 of the criminal part of the community; that we send to penal settlements, 
 at a heavy expense, upon a six months’ voyage, convicts whose labour 
 we might convert into a gain in advancing the boundaries of civilization. 
 And he reinforces the convictions of his own mind by authorities collected 
 from many sources. The great sin of our emigration system has been 
 its want of a solid and cautious foundation. We have expended large 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 sums of money in a way which has produced no adequate benefit to the 
 community. Under it progress has been arrested, hardship aggravated, 
 wealth wasted, and lives sacrificed. "We are year by year adding to the 
 demands for military force to uphold order and defend those colonies, 
 which, if rightly planted into new countries, would have been their own 
 supporters and defenders. We have, by a long system of negligence, 
 made our colonies refuges for the destitute, at a cost which would have 
 served to found them in prosperity and dignity. The general bearings 
 of this policy it is beyond our province to investigate ; it is enough for 
 our purpose to show that an erroneous, rambling, and vagabond system, 
 if system it may be called, has left our colonial possessions, up to the 
 present time, without any means of entering upon those great works 
 which are the basis of civilization, except upon terms which expose those 
 who embark therein to ruin, and the works themselves to delay or aban¬ 
 donment. Against such results Major Smyth desires to guard for the 
 future. He has placed his plan upon a basis which carries upon its face 
 the prophetic legend of its completion,—it is practicable :— 
 
 “ He has pointed out what is to be done: — 
 
 “ He has shown how it is to be done :— 
 
 “ With these extracts we must close our present notice of this valuable 
 little work. Its appearance is most opportune, as, in the present state of 
 the transportation-question, every sound and practicable suggestion is 
 enhanced in value. To render the deportation of convicts not only not 
 a burden to the state, but a source of profit ; to find a field for their 
 labour, in which no injury to the poorer classes of operatives may arise 
 from the substitution of the hands of the guilty for those of the honest 
 and innocent; to apply this labour to the production of great works of 
 incalculable value, in combination with a system of colonization marked 
 with the British characteristics of order and progression,—is the duty 
 reserved for our present rulers. Let them consult the pages of Major 
 Carmichael Smyth for their guidance and encouragement, and let them 
 send that gallant officer to the field of action, * with the order in his 
 pocket.’ ” 
 
 THE MARK LANE EXPRESS.— 2nd April , 1849. 
 
 “ The author advocates, with great zeal and earnestness, the formation 
 of a railway communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean 
 through Canada, and points out the enormous advantages to be derived 
 from such an undertaking, by making it the high road to our colonial 
 possessions in the east. By the route he strikes out Canton would be 
 brought within twenty-three days’ passage of London. We recommend 
 a perusal of this work.” 
 
( 64 ) 
 
 RAILWAY RECORD.— April 21sf, 1849. 
 
 u Major Carmichael Smyth revives and zealously advocates the project 
 of a Colonization Railway from Halifax through Canada, and across the 
 Rocky Mountains to the Oregon. That this will be the ultimate con¬ 
 summation of any British American Railway undertaking is not im¬ 
 possible. 
 
 SUN.— 7th April, 1849. 
 
 “ Canada is no Cerberus. It is not to be conciliated by a mere sop. 
 Its interests and our interests must be identified, if we wish to preserve it 
 for ever to ourselves. How is this to be accomplished ? The solution of the 
 problem—difficult though it may appear—is very far from being out of 
 the reach of discovery. Many, we know, regard it as about an equivalent 
 to the squaring of the circle. We look at it otherwise. The difficulty 
 exists, in the first place, in the Canadas, and the means of removing that 
 difficulty is there too. There is never a bane, says the old saw, but the 
 antidote is within a stone’s throw. The dockleaf grows in the shadow 
 of the stinging-nettle. In brief—the means of reconciling Canada to 
 England, and of binding the colony to the mother country inextricably, 
 is discoverable in Canada itself—in its riches both mineral and agricul¬ 
 tural, in its ports and rivers, its soil and its climate. Canada has the 
 material in abundance; England has the intelligence and vigour which is 
 alone wanting to work that material. Let England and Canada but once 
 see this, and the result will be to their common advantage. Let England 
 see that she has within herself an amount of strength and ability immea¬ 
 surably beyond her own requirements—an amount of strength and ability 
 that, as things at present remain, are literally running to waste —and she 
 will no longer continue indolent while rebellion is ripening in North 
 America. Let Canada see that she possesses a treasure in grain, and 
 fruit, and metal, and timber, infinitely beyond her own use—a treasure 
 that is in like manner running to waste within her boundaries—and she 
 will no longer be disposed to pick a suicidal quarrel with the power alone 
 competent to aid her in working out her development. And as to the 
 method of working out that development, listen to the remarks of one 
 who has studied well the resources and capabilities of the two Canadas: 
 ‘ Completeness of communication,’ says Lieutenant Synge, in his admi¬ 
 rable pamphlet on British North America, ‘ including facility, rapidity 
 and security, is, indeed, the true secret of the development of a country.” 
 —(P. 8.) Lieutenant Synge is thoroughly acquainted with the geogra¬ 
 phical and geological peculiarities of the colony; he has studied the 
 country with the scrutinizing and appreciative eye of an officer in the 
 
( 65 ) 
 
 Royal Engineers ; and he pronounces himself decidedly in favour of the 
 feasibility of opening such lines of traffic as shall render the communica¬ 
 tion throughout those dominions complete. * The advance,’ he says, 
 ‘may be made by canal, by railroad, or by a mixed route.’—(P. 14.) 
 If so, then assuredly the railroad would be preferable, as coming within 
 his former requirements of rapidity, and security, and facility, much 
 better than the canal or the mixed route. Canal barges would hardly 
 keep pace with steam engines, and railroads are not generally liable to be 
 frozen. Every one of the arguments employed by Lieutenant Mil¬ 
 lington Synge go far to enforce the scheme to which we have already 
 more than once referred, as having been propounded by Major Carmichael 
 Smyth—the scheme of constructing a gigantic arterial railway running 
 across North America from Frazer’s River to Halifax, and thereby con¬ 
 necting together the Pacific and the Atlantic. No doubt the project is 
 bold—so bold as at first sight to appear almost extravagant. But bolder 
 things have been done under more discouraging circumstances, and 
 without a fraction of the recompense in comparison. Many shrug their 
 shoulders, very likely, at the suggestion, and feel disposed to cry out, 
 with Austin Caxton, ‘Pshaw!’ and ‘Papae!’ But the Spanish children 
 pointed after Columbus in the streets of Madrid, calling him the ‘ mad 
 Italian,’ because he dreamed of discovering land further west than the 
 Canaries! Major Carmichael Smyth can afford to exult in the privilege 
 of bearing a kindred derision to that lavished by the Castilians upon the 
 glorious Christopher. Yet the day-dream of a trunk railway between 
 the Pacific and the Atlantic would seem to have awakened the attention 
 of people as little gifted with imagination as fur traders. From the com¬ 
 munications published by ourselves in another column it would appear 
 that the Hudson’s Bay Company are disposed to afford the scheme their 
 countenance. That fact, we doubt not, will go a great way towards its 
 advancement, if it do not actually bring about its realisation. It will 
 show that the motion can influence more than intellectual speculators— 
 that it has the attraction of £ s. d. as well as the fascination of a poetical 
 vision. The subject, in fact, is one so peculiarly calculated to arrest the 
 attention of every one interested in the prosperity of our North American 
 possessions as to force itself upon public consideration. And, appearing 
 precisely at this moment, it holds out a means for the tranquillization of 
 the turmoil already beginning to revive in the Canadas. It proffers the 
 very boon for which the mother country has been so long aspiring; it 
 reveals the chain that may bind our dependencies in North America to 
 Great Britain for ever, and with those dependencies all the rest of the 
 colonies hanging on to the gorgeous skirts of the empire. Once carried 
 out, the stupendous possessions of England, though distributed over both 
 hemispheres, would be permanently compacted together; our fleets would 
 
 F 
 
( 66 ) 
 
 more than ever hold dominion over the seas commanding both hemi¬ 
 spheres ; the hidden resources of the northern continent of America, of 
 New Zealand, and of Australia, would he suddenly called to light; the 
 necessity of an overland route across Europe (liable at any moment to 
 interruption) would be removed, the route across the New World being 
 more direct and rapid; indolent crime would be compelled to toil, in the 
 persons of the convict labourers, for the nourishment and emolument of 
 industrious virtue; the east and the west, barbarism and civilization, the 
 fruitful regions of spice and vegetation, and the cities of workshops and 
 factories would be confronted, face to face, through the intervention of 
 steam power; Canada would be pacified, England would be enriched, 
 and the British empire consolidated. 
 
 “ Will this prove a gorgeous day-dream or a magnificent reality? We 
 leave Time to decide.” 
 
 LETTERS. 
 
 “TO THE EDITOR OF THE HISTORIC TIMES. 
 
 “ Sir—Some few days back a lucky chance brought your highly-interest¬ 
 ing paper into my hands—I ought rather to say the sixth number, which 
 opens with the most exciting illustration of the “ Last sight of that Arctic 
 Expedition.” 
 
 “ All your readers must, I feel well assured, have joined in those fervent 
 wishes and prayers expressed in the first paragraph of your leading article 
 on this subject for the success of those bold and hardy men of the whalers, 
 who, stimulated by witnessing the distress and exertions of Lady Franklin, 
 may be induced to prolong their stay in such scenes, and in such a 
 climate, with the hope of at least ascertaining the fate of the expedition, 
 if they are not destined to be rewarded by the rescuing from a dreadful 
 situation the gallant officers and crews of her Majesty’s ships Erebus and 
 Terror. 
 
 “ The last paragraph, however, of your historic article on ‘ Arctic 
 Expeditions,’ is the cause of my now venturing to address you, for it 
 particularly attracted my attention; having for some time past entertained 
 the same idea, and having lately sent to press a small pamphlet on that 
 subject; and I have taken the liberty of directing a copy to be left at 
 your office. 
 
 “ The paragraph to which I allude runs thus— 
 
 “ ‘ This brief sketch of Arctic discovery may serve to remind our readers 
 of its progress to the present time, and prepare them for further dis¬ 
 coveries, while it sufficiently illustrates our estimate of the national cha¬ 
 racter, that in about fifteen years the ice-bound coasts of a continent 
 
( 67 ) 
 
 extending 110 degrees of longitude, i. e., as wide as Asia, and twice as 
 wide as Europe, has been traced by land and sea, and its interior tra¬ 
 versed in every direction. It cannot, however , be doubted that the same 
 amount of energy and capital thus employed might have joined the Atlantic 
 and Pacific by a path available for commercial purposes , united the west 
 with the east , poured the wealth of the latter into the coffers of our mer¬ 
 chants, and spread religion and civilization to the most remote corners of the 
 globed 
 
 “ The subject is one of great importance at the present moment, and 
 nothing could be more interesting to the public than a full, clear, and de¬ 
 tailed historical account of all the projects that have ever been brought 
 forward to connect, for all practical purposes, the Atlantic and Pacific 
 Oceans. A small pamphlet, entitled “ Canada in 1848,” has been pub¬ 
 lished by Lieutenant Millington Henry Synge, of the Royal Engineers, 
 who, although he does not actually propose an entire communication, 
 strongly points out both its probability and its possibility. The following 
 extracts cannot be otherwise than highly interesting to your readers :— 
 
 “ ‘ As to the means of communication themselves by which these 
 countries are opened, besides the traffic and freight resulting from the 
 cultivation of the west, that of the Hudson’s Bay Company may prove 
 not inconsiderable, though probably how advantageous in all respects to 
 themselves, the company may be somewhat unwilling to see the mystery 
 and romance of their territory invaded.’ * * * 
 
 “ ‘ So long, however, as the empire’s heart is overburdened by a surplus 
 multitude, it should be remembered that most fertile and lovely tracts of 
 country, many times larger than England, exist in the body of that 
 empire, which never yet within the knowledge of man have yielded their 
 fruits to his service. A manifold-multiplied value also is given to every 
 part of the connected communication between it and the Atlantic, and 
 thereby also to every part of British America, when once the goal of the 
 Pacific is attained.’ 
 
 “ The object of the pamphlet I have had the pleasure to forward to you 
 was principally to bring to the notice of the public that the British 
 empire has now in its own quiet possession magnificent and valuable 
 territory, through which could be constructed as good, as short, and as 
 practicable a line of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific 
 Oceans—as far, at least, as Europe and the North of America are con¬ 
 cerned—as had ever yet been projected. The letter to my friend, the 
 author of ‘ Sam Slick,’ was written hastily and energetically; but, feeling 
 as I did the vast importance of the subject both to England and to her 
 colonies, some allowance will perhaps be made for a first essay. The 
 more, however, I reflect upon the subject, the more do I feel fully 
 satisfied that a British colonial railway communication is not only practi- 
 
 F 2 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 cable, but that the construction of such a work would afford the means of 
 establishing a permanent system of colonization, of emigration, and penal 
 laws. Finally, that as regards finance, such an undertaking would, 
 instead of being a drain upon the funds of England, produce a large 
 increase of capital, both at home and in the North American colonies. 
 When we consider the great benefits that would arise upon the completion 
 of the wox-k to every interest concerned in it, and that nearly one-half of 
 the population of the world (the 400,000,000 of inhabitants of China and 
 her dependencies) would then only be distant from England thirty-five or 
 forty days, surely the consideration of such a communication is well 
 worthy the attention of the people of this great empire. 
 
 “ Our leading daily journal (in which may be found many articles on 
 the communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific) says, on the 
 13th ultimo, ‘ It is impossible to look at the map and not perceive that it 
 is of far more consequence to England.’ Of the importance, therefore, of 
 this communication all are agreed: why then hesitate to undertake it? 
 The press alone will command attention ; and our starving poor require 
 its aid. Let us get rid of all theories of minimum of wages, and of 
 immense poor-rates, and let this great national work be at once inquired 
 into; its construction will give every man ‘ a fair day’s wages for a fair 
 day’s work,’ and many an industrious man will be thereby enabled 
 ultimately to hold land of his own. England has never been afraid of 
 war—why should she be afraid of acting boldly in time of peace ? Our 
 neighbours, active and energetic, are at work; we must not, and cannot 
 remain idle. Beyond the moat of this little island, we have wealth inex¬ 
 haustible : shall we hesitate to gather it in ? But I must apologise for so 
 long an epistle, and with confidence I leave the subject in your hands; 
 and if any of the suggestions brought forward in the pamphlet on the 
 subject of railway communication meet your views, I shall feel highly 
 flattered by any notice they may receive. 
 
 “ I have the honour to remain, 
 
 “ Sir, 
 
 “ Your obedient servant, 
 
 “ROBERT CARMICHAEL SMYTH. 
 
 “ Junior United Service Club, 
 
 8th March, 1849.” 
 
 [“ By reference to our paper of last week, Major Carmichael Smyth 
 will see that we purpose giving the historical account he expresses a wish 
 for, and we have not noticed his pamphlet as yet only because the valuable 
 suggestion contained in it is, in form, the last which has been given to 
 the world, although the idea of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific 
 by this route was the cause of Mackenzie’s journey.— Ed.”] 
 
( 69 ) 
 
 SUN.— March 8th, 1849. 
 
 COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC 
 
 OCEANS. 
 
 “ To the Editor of the Sun. 
 
 “ Sir, —In your paper of the 16th ult. you did me the honour to make 
 some remarks, in its leading article, on a few thoughts I had put together 
 in the shape of a letter to my friend the author of “ The Clockmaker” 
 (merely for the perusal of friends, and such influential persons as could 
 find time to read and reflect on such a subject) on an Atlantic and Pacific 
 Railway communication. Those thoughts were hastily and enthusiasti¬ 
 cally written, but time and cool reflection have only tended to strengthen 
 the conviction of their correctness, and to impress my mind the more 
 deeply with their importance. Again, therefore, I venture to call your 
 attention to the subject, although as yet no other London journal has 
 echoed your kind voice; but whether we are right or whether we are 
 wrong, there are many points that must be, and that before long, brought 
 to the serious consideration of the British public. 
 
 “ In the Times of the 13th ult. we have a long and interesting article 
 on the various projects (suggested during the last half century) for 
 opening a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 
 There are four paragraphs of that article to which I would request par¬ 
 ticular attention, commencing severally— 
 
 “ ‘To adventurous minds;’ 
 
 “ ‘ This state of affairs 
 “ ‘ A few days back 
 “ ‘ Important however.’ 
 
 “ In the first paragraph we read—‘ Each projector has made a point of 
 declaring all to be impracticable except his own.” Now, Sir, I am anxious 
 to draw the attention of the editor of the Times to the few thoughts 
 I have written on this subject, and which are now published, and if he 
 can spare me the time, I would request his attention to a small pamphlet 
 I have had the pleasure to forward to him. In that pamphlet I do not 
 think he will find an insinuation even of the impracticability of any project 
 ever brought forward for a communication between the Atlantic and 
 Pacific Oceans. I would also wish to call his attention to a pamphlet 
 published by Lieutenant Millington Henry Synge, of the Royal Engineers, 
 called ‘ Canada in 1848,’ and although that officer does not actually pro¬ 
 pose a communication, he strongly points out both its possibility and its 
 probability, and I do not observe that he in any way alludes to the prac¬ 
 ticability or otherwise of any former projected scheme. 
 
 In the fourth paragraph of the article of the Times, to which I have 
 alluded, we read—‘ A railroad from the Mississipi, already talked of 
 
( 70 ) 
 
 would at once furnish an outlet for all the produce of the States to the 
 eastern seas, but England has no such resource.’ Surely, Sir, these few 
 last words have escaped from the press of the Times without permission ; 
 for such a decision against England cannot be considered otherwise than, 
 to say the least of it, rather premature. For my own part, I believe 
 that Great Britain, as an empire, is now in the quiet possession of terri¬ 
 tory—most valuable and magnificent territory—through which could he 
 constructed (at an immense gain to herself) as good, as short, and as 
 practicable a line of communication as it is possible to make between the 
 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. And further, I believe with Lieutenant 
 Synge, 
 
 “ ‘ That there is a field open to an almost illimitable capital of labour. 
 
 “ ‘That the systematic development of the resources of British North 
 America will, so far from being a drain on Great Britain, be of immediate 
 advantage to her. 
 
 “ ‘ That such development entails the natural enduring and perfect 
 union between Great Britain and that part of her empire. 
 
 “ In the fourth paragraph also of the article in the Times, to which I 
 have alluded, we read—‘It is impossible to look at the map and not to 
 perceive that it is of far more importance to England/ 
 
 “ I am most happy to agree in this with the Times, and if the editor 
 will do me the favour to look at the small map attached to the pamphlet 
 on the subject of the ‘ Atlantic and Pacific Railway,’ he will perhaps, as 
 it is somewhat different from the maps commonly in use, be more strongly 
 impressed with the importance of this subject as regards England, or 
 rather we should say the British Empire. 
 
 “ In the Times of the 2nd instant, the City article refers to that of the 
 13th ult., then relates some historic facts connected with the Nicaragua 
 route, informing us that the report (as far as it went) of the special agent 
 sent by General Jackson, was adverse to the Panama route, again 
 alluding to the railroad from the Mississipi to the St. Francisco, and then 
 concludes with an extract from Mr. Stephen’s most interesting work, in 
 which that author eloquently and cleverly tries to excite the jealousy and 
 pride of other nations. ‘ If,’ the extract says, ‘ Europe is indifferent, it 
 would be glory surpassing the conquest of kingdoms to make this greatest 
 enterprise ever attempted by the human force entirely our own.’ Now, 
 Sir, I may perhaps be excused from making an extract from a private 
 letter, since such opinions have had great influence in inducing me to 
 appear before the public, and here I must take the opportunity of saying, 
 as regards myself— 
 
 ‘ Pardon, gentles all, 
 
 The flat, unraised spirit, that hath dar’d, 
 
 On this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth 
 So great an object.’ 
 
( 71 ) 
 
 Thus runs the extract from my private letter:—‘ The conception is a 
 magnificent one, and carrying it into effect would be a crowning glory to 
 Great Britain.’ I must not trust myself to continue, for your space and 
 time are both valuable. I have the honour to remain, Sir, your most 
 obedient, obliged servant, 
 
 ROBERT CARMICHAEL-SMYTH. 
 
 SUN.—12 th April, 1849. 
 
 “ ROUTE TO THE PACIFIC.” 
 
 “ To the Editor of the Sun. 
 
 “ Sir,—After reading the splendid and noble speech of Sir Robert Peel 
 on the rate-in-aid question, it appeared to me that the Right Hon. Ba¬ 
 ronet had taken up a position of which every lover of his country would 
 feel proud, and around which all parties would eventually rally. 
 
 “ You have shown, Sir, by your comments on that speech, how clearly 
 you perceive the brilliant light about at length to disperse the gloomy 
 mist that has for too long a time been hanging over the destiny of this 
 powerful empire. 
 
 “ A mighty change is evidently about to take place in the mode of 
 conducting the affairs of this great nation, and we shall presently act as 
 boldly in peace as we did in war. 
 
 “ The carrying into effect Sir Robert Peel’s gigantic schemes, with his 
 plans for healthy emigration, will naturally entail the construction of 
 immense colonial self-sustaining works, for these alone can afford the 
 means so generally required, of giving immediate employment to the 
 emigrant. 
 
 “ It was, therefore, with much satisfaction I noticed your observations 
 consequent on the publication of the Memorandum so lately favourably 
 received by the Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company. 
 
 “ In his hands I feel confident that document will not be allowed to 
 remain idle, but the subject will soon, if it has not been so already, be 
 brought under the notice of the Colonial Minister, and thus our princely 
 merchants may, perhaps, learn from high authority, that England has 
 now in her own quiet possession most valuable territory, through which 
 can be constructed (and, under Providence, in an incredible short space 
 of time) as good, as practicable, and as short a line of communication be¬ 
 tween the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans as any that has ever yet been 
 proposed, not only for England, her colonies and the north of Europe, but 
 also for many parts of the United States. 
 
 “ It is well worthy of remark, and ought not to be forgotten, that when 
 
( 72 ) 
 
 Sir George Simpson left England on his journey round the world, he was 
 accompanied by “ a gentleman in the service of the Russian-American 
 Company,” on his route from Petersburgh to Silka, which his superiors 
 were preferring for him, as shorter by thirty degrees of longitude , the 
 breadth of all the rest of the world, to that of his native empire—evi¬ 
 dence, I think, conclusive of the shortness of the route to the Pacific 
 (and, as a matter of course, to the Sandwich Islands, the metropolis of 
 that ocean) for any traveller from the ports of the Baltic. 
 
 “ If I am wrong as regards my remark about the United States, some 
 one may perhaps be kind enough to point out any route that would be 
 shorter or better for a native of Portland, in New Hampshire, to travel 
 to reach the Pacific, than by Montreal, the Red River settlement, and 
 over the Rocky Mountains to Frazer’s River. 
 
 “ No, Sir, depend upon it, that not only for the British empire, but 
 for many other parties, the route for which we are now using our best 
 endeavours will prove to be the most practicable, the most available, and 
 the shortest. To Great Britain invaluable, as giving immediate and 
 remunerative employment to her people, and affording the required 
 outlet to “ our superabundance of capital—our plethora of talent.” But 
 your kind indulgence must not make me forget the value of your time and 
 of your columns. I shall therefore conclude with assuring you of the es¬ 
 teem and gratitude of 
 
 “ Your most obedient servant, 
 
 “ ROBERT CARMICHAEL-SMYTH. 
 
 “ Junior United Service Club, 
 
 April 9, 1849.” 
 
 BRIGHTON GAZETTE.— March 15th, 1849. 
 
 To the Editor of the Brighton Gazette. 
 
 “ Sir,—The very flattering notice you were kind enough to give in 
 your paper of yesterday to the contents of the pamphlet I had the plea¬ 
 sure to forward a few days ago for your perusal and consideration, entails 
 upon me the necessity of again intruding upon your valuable time,—in 
 the first place, to have an opportunity of returning, which I do most 
 sincerely, my grateful thanks for the highly favourable remarks you have, 
 as an impartial public journalist, considered it your duty to make on my 
 perhaps rather too enthusiastic endeavours to arouse general attention to 
 what has long appeared to me a question of vital importance to the British 
 empire. 
 
 “ That the subjects in favour of which I have ventured to appear 
 before my countrymen should have enlisted your powerful aid did not in 
 
( 73 ) 
 
 the least exceed my expectations; but that you should have at once so 
 fairly and so boldly stated, when alluding to the other proposed routes 
 across the American Continent, and more particularly to the one of the 
 Lake of San Juan de Nicaragua, that ‘ we think that the views developed 
 in the able pamphlet of Major Carmichael Smyth will go far towards 
 effecting a revolution in public opinion,’ is so gratifying to my feelings, 
 and so encouraging to my labours, that if I am now troublesome in urging 
 forward this great national undertaking through the medium of your 
 columns, I trust, with you at least, I shall meet with some excuse, par¬ 
 ticularly for not quietly allowing the following remark, extracted from the 
 Morning Chronicle of the 7th instant, to pass unnoticed:— 
 
 “ ‘ The fact is that from various circumstances, such as the vicinity of 
 the United States, the manner in which the public lands of the colony 
 have been disposed of, and the feelings of the present inhabitants with 
 respect to immigration, we have long ceased to regard Canada as a proper 
 field for settlement, at once systematic and extensive.’ 
 
 “ Now, Sir, we have the highest authority on points of honour to warn 
 us that (I quote from memory) ‘ no man has a right, by speech or in 
 writing, to impute improper motives to another;’ and far be it from me, 
 therefore, to insinuate even that the writer of the article in the Chronicle 
 asserts other than what he firmly believes; but when the columns of a 
 public journal, extensively circulated (and, as we are led to believe, 
 powerfully supported), contain opinions so highly detrimental to the wel¬ 
 fare and prosperity of a most important part of this great empire, it would 
 indeed be a neglect of duty on the part of those holding different opinions 
 to remain silent. 
 
 “ Let the writers of the articles for the Chronicle bring forward what¬ 
 ever reasons they will in favour of any system for New Zealand, the Cape 
 of Good Hope, or any of our other colonies, let them use their best 
 endeavours for the happiness of them all, let them point out how in every 
 way they may be benefited; but let them pause before they again lend 
 their aid to those who wish to lead the public to believe that our magnifi¬ 
 cent and loyal colonies, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada, are 
 unfit for the reception of our emigrants, either from vicinity to the United 
 States, from local arrangements regarding land, or from any other cause 
 whatsoever. The author of The Art of Colonization says— 
 
 “ ‘ But whatever may be the cause I have no doubt that the love of 
 England is the ruling sentiment of English colonies;’ and with him on 
 this point I most cordially agree. By neglect we may certainly oblige 
 our colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada to look to 
 America as their best friend, and thus drive them from us; but we may 
 depend upon it they will go with a heavy heart, and England may repent 
 with a broken spirit. I can look forward to the continually increasing 
 
 G 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 greatness of our extensive empire, if we expect ourselves to fulfil its in¬ 
 tended destiny; but ‘ there is a tide in the affairs of’ nations as well as in 
 those of ‘men,’ and its ‘ ebb’ may carry away the landmarks of our glory 
 and of our prosperity, not so easily hereafter to be replaced. 
 
 “ In the Executive Council Chamber of Canada, on the 20th December, 
 1848, it was resolved—‘ that the Committee of Council have no doubt 
 that the Canadian Legislature would be prepared to sanction any measure 
 having for its object the transfer to Her Majesty’s Government of the un¬ 
 settled crown lands, through which the proposed railroad would pass, to 
 the extent of ten miles in depth on each side, and that it would further 
 undertake to obtain, at the expense of the province, all the private pro¬ 
 perty required for the railroad line in Canada, and for the several 
 stations.’ 
 
 “ In the Council Chamber of Fredericton, New Brunswick, on the 
 6th of January of this year, present His Excellency the Lieutenant 
 Governor, it was decided that— 
 
 “ The Council, having considered these documents with great attention 
 and satisfaction, fully concur with the opinion expressed by Major 
 Robinson in his very able report, that while the projected railway will 
 be of great advantage to provincial interests, it is at the same time a 
 work of imperative necessity, in a national point of view, for the preser¬ 
 vation and integrity of this portion of Her Majesty’s dominions. 
 
 “ ‘Participating in this conviction, the Board anxiously desire to co¬ 
 operate with the adjoining colonies in a practicable scheme for the 
 completion of so important an undertaking.’ 
 
 “No question of greater importance to British colonial interests could 
 be presented for the consideration of the Government. Upon it hangs 
 the destiny of these provinces as portions of the empire. In its favour¬ 
 able termination we view the only guarantee of colonial unity and 
 British discrepancy in British North America; and so deeply rooted do 
 we believe to be the attachment of this colony to British institutions, 
 that we are of opinion no opposition will be offered in our legislature to 
 the proposition of the Canadian Government, however its adoption might 
 bear upon what has hitherto been the principal staple of the province. 
 
 “ These resolutions of the Council have reference to the proposed 
 Halifax Quebec Railway, and also to the increase of duty from Is. to 
 7s. 6d. on colonial timber, as a security to the British Government for 
 any advances they may make for the completion of such railway. I 
 will now, Sir, conclude with a few observations from the report of Major 
 Robinson, presented to Parliament by command of Her Majesty, and 
 just printed: — 
 
 “ ‘ For any great plan of emigration or colonization there is not 
 another British colony which presents such a favourable field for the trial 
 
( 75 ) 
 
 as New Brunswick. To 17,000,000 of productive acres, there are only 
 208,000 inhabitants. Of these 11,000,000 are still public property. 
 On the surface is an abundant stock of the finest timber, which in the 
 markets of England realizes lai'ge sums annually, and afford an unlimited 
 supply of fuel to the settlers. If these should ever be exhausted, there 
 are the coal fields underneath. The rivers, lakes, and sea coasts abound 
 with fish.’ 
 
 “ Then as to the practicability of carrying on the line of railway to the 
 Pacific. It can be clearly shown that a similar description of country, 
 and indeed in many parts far superior for agricultural purposes, runs 
 through the whole length of that parallel of latitude in which would be 
 constructed the great British colonial railway communication that has 
 been proposed in my letter to the Author of the Clockmaker; and, as a 
 means of affording permanent work to our starving and unemployed 
 population, as a means of enabling the country to make a permanent 
 system of national colonization, and, at the same time, of assisting the 
 legislature to relieve the country from the expense of wdiat the Times so 
 justly observed on the 19th February, ‘ We cannot afford to spend £50 
 a year on a convict at home.’ As a means, then, I say, of materially 
 assisting in the solution of all these important questions, now r agitating 
 public opinion, I do not believe any better plan can be suggested; and 
 I believe also, if judiciously and systematically undertaken, the ultimate 
 consequence of this great national work, instead of being a drain on the 
 finances of England, will increase, to an immense extent, both her 
 revenue and her capital. 
 
 “ With many apologies for the length of this communication, 
 
 “ I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 “ Your obedient and much obliged servant, 
 
 “ ROBERT CARMICHAEL-SMYTH.” 
 
 “ 17, Preston Street, Brighton, 
 
 “ March 9th, 1849.” 
 
London : printed by W. P. Metchim, 20, Parliament Street, 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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