Part 3

To return, then, to our subject, and to the necessity for England to be up and stirring. 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 additional 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, "that England is not bankrupt, nor poor, nor needy. In every quarter we see immense additions to material wealth; we observe, too, on all hands a vast extension of luxurious enjoyments 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:--

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 Elizabeth's reign was mainly owing to the stimulus given to 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 Francisco 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.[see Note 43]

You have no doubt already pictured to yourself the town of Halifax alive with all the bustle and excitement 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; for soon, not merely one steamer a week, as now, would touch from England on her way to New York, but Nova Scotia herself, from the increasing wealth and importance of her towns, would require the use of many steamers to enable her to carry on the numerous commercial duties that would fall to her lot; 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 produce, 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 seaport 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--and that the dream of the Clockmaker would be realized. "This is the best situation in all America--is Nova Scotia, 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 be 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; then picture to yourself the railway terminus, alive with all the consequent bustle, the steam up, and the railway carriages ready to convey 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 navigation 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 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. I cannot cease referring to Quebec without recording my gratitude for many kindnesses there received--particularly from the family of Captain Boxer.[see Note 55] Then again, look to New Brunswick, connected 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 navigation 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, my dear friend, I might go on this way for ever, pointing out town after town, and district after district, showing how the wealth and prosperity of each would go on rapidly increasing. I cannot, however, quit the subject without a passing word on Montreal, in which city I have passed many happy days, and from whose inhabitants I have received much kindness and civility. That noble city 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, I 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 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 Communication with every town and district would be established. Toronto would naturally be considered in the manner in which so loyal and devoted a city ought to be, and where was held, even to a very late period, the parliament of a great country, surrendered only to her sister Montreal on public considerations and for the general good;[see Note 62] and the Main Line of Railway should be brought as near Toronto as the communication between the Atlantic and Pacific (its great object and principal view) would permit. Hamilton, Kingston, Byetown and several other places must not consider themselves neglected, if not herein specially mentioned; but in fact as regards these Colonies, the song of your friend, the Clockmaker, about them cannot be sung too often. "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." Truly do I hope that I may now sing to them with confidence,--

"There's a good time coming yet, Wait a little longer."

In your conversation with the Clockmaker you have observed, "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 disregard of their interests that has been displayed in treaties with foreign powers. Fortunately for the Mother Country, the Colonists are warmly attached to her and her institutions, 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 benefit 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, occasion 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?[see Note 56] 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 got richer and richer every day;[see Note 14] 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 disturbance 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 feeling 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, only expended the sum of L148,000,000 on her Railways, and, I believe, 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 inter-communication and the transit of goods, the traffic on Railways would increase, and the profits and dividends 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 discovered." [_Bradshaw's Almanack, 1849_]. And who will say that L200,000,000 expended (even should such a sum as that be required) in making a Railway Road from the Atlantic to the Pacific through our own territories, and therefore completely 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 between 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, legislative 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 L24,000 a mile on the average, it would only cost L96,000,000;[see Note 32]--L5,000,000 has been estimated as sufficient for six hundred miles of Railway from Halifax to Quebec. But calling it L100,000,000, and supposing the work to be five years completing, that would only be at the rate of L20,000,000 a year, the interest of which at five per cent. would be L1,000,000. 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, 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. Mr. Cobden has 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 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 unconnected parts of the system." And again--"The exportation 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 aggregate capital of the world, and consequently that of England. Again--"Could we suddenly double the productive power of the country, we should double the supply 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 productive powers of the world must be produced; and as "wealth may be defined as all useful or agreeable things which possess exchangeable value," it necessarily follows that the immense increase that would be given to the productive powers of England, to those of her North American 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.

Lord Stanley, in moving an amendment to the Address from the Throne, says: "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 manufactured goods from the mother country,--and this great Railway is suggested as one that would increase the productive power and population of our North American colonies, and a consequent increasing necessity 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 of and at the completion of the proposed undertaking. Mr. Montgomery Martin has stated that "Railways are the very grandest organization of labour and capital that the world has ever seen:" that "the capital actually invested in Railways advanced from L65,000,000 in 1843 to L167,000,000 in 1848--no less than L100,000,000 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 considered of the present day. For "the word has been given, an active and enterprising population will be poured in, every element of progress will be cultivated, and the productive countries on the shores of the Pacific, heretofore 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 ourselves have seen that of Australia, but the opening of the Pacific is one of the greatest events in social history 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 settlements, but to witness at once the energetic action of 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, and will minister to each other's wants. A happy coincidence 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 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 manufacturers, and to the people employed by them, than even the gold mines can be; for this is the statement of certain results, and the working of the gold mines, however productive they may prove, must be attended with all the incidents of irregularity and uncertainty, and great commercial disadvantages."--(_Wyld's Geographical Notes._)

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 L150,000,000 in 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 the greater part of her own convicts could be provided for by that advance.

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 emigration 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? Naturally 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 that he shall be the person to derive any benefit from them." To those who would object to Government interference in a case like the present, we can only say, in the words of Mr. Mill, that "the question of Government intervention in the work of colonization involves the future and permanent interests of civilization itself, and far outstretches 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 Government." "No individual or body of individuals _could_ reimburse 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.[see Note 57]