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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely Included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre film6s A des taux de reduction diff Arents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproJuit en un seul clichA, il est filmA A partir de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 r- ^.1 ^« ROADS. A Popular Lecture delivered before the Athenaeuiq Instl-* tute, on March 26th, 1877. By Alexander Mukray, Esq., P. G.S., &c. Mr, Prtaident, Ladies and Gentlemen : — drhe subject upou -which I p.ni ahout to address you, nciay at first sight appear to be of a dry and tedious nature, and one about which, in thia generatiftn, gcJ much is already known, that little has to be added to the general information. It may be said that every one knows all about what roads are, and no doubt every intelligent person knows more or less of their history, from early periods to the present time. Still, a condensed sunimary of the rise and progress of civilization from the eai-lier,ng«s till noWj through the instrumentality of ready communication, may be found instructive ; and it may b<5 interesting to reflect a little upon the crude be_ giniiirifes with which our ancestors started in the race, impelled by the same causes which still apply, un,til in pur own day intercourse with the whole wcJtid ha^ culminated in'the establishment of the steamboat and the iron |jorse. Progi*es8 is /in inherent necessity ; nay, more, it may truly be called n law of nature. It is a well-known fact that every successive epoch, all through the vast ages of geological time, ha^s produced higher and higher developments of aniriial foi;m, until reaching the superficial deposits whicli reveal the works aud remains of ourown.specjes. But, throughout all thosg vast ages, the simpler and less complex forms of animal life persistently hold their owij, if not specifically, they do genericallyj from epoch to epoch, from formation to formation, up to the prQSf nt day. In .like manner man, althougli of a single species (or pro'isionally so-called by ethnolo- gists), is divided into many races, the higher types of which are in con- stant and unceasing agitation, inventing, improving, and labori^ towards some hitherto unknotvn attainment; whereas the lowe;'J;ypes of race, like the protozoa of geological periods, remain in stolid.indiffereuce, following the saoje course of life as pursued by their savage forefathers, constructing- the satiie implements, and using the same description of weapons as are re- Tealed to us to have existed contemporaneously with the earligt records of the existence of humanity on earth. The simple tools of stone manufac- tured by the hands of Palceolithic or Neolithic men, are so nearly identical with those made by savages of the present day in every respect as to be scarcely distinguishable : many examples of which I have at this moment in my possession, formed by the wild hordes who formerly roamed at largei over the forests and marshes of Newfoundland. But, tenacious as most low types of humanity may be as to primeval habits, there are instaoMKi brought to light to show that even the wildest tribes made occasional spasmodid efforts to improve their condition, and even to attain a certain stage of civilization. As an illustrious example we might cite the grand &nd mysterious remains at Pelanki and other parts of. Central America^ which amply testify to a high state of progress ia the arts on the part of the aborigin^kl inhabitants ; but to go still further back in time, we And that primitive humanity, lo6^ ahterior to any historic record, must have ad- rariced in skill, and with such advancement we may safely infer they im- proved in condition. It has been shewn by certain distinguished antiqua- ries and naturalists— Danish And -Swedish in particulai*— such asKillsoq,r' Steinstrdp, f'orchammer, and others, that a chronological succession of periodn can be established, which have been called the ages of Stcne, ol . bronze, and of iron, named from the materiel which have each in their tum_ served for the fabrication of implements. {LyelFs Aut. of Man.) Now, W-^r bronze is an alloy of about nine parts of copper and one of tin; and see? '^ ing that although the former nietal is often found in a natite state, and. j[j xeaAy, as it were, for immediate use ; tin is not only a rare ore as such, but.. ^ never occurs native, it must witliout hesitation be admitted that the bronze population had far advanced in art over the stone people, as, to get the combination required, they must have been skilled in the art of smelting. , To detect the existence of the ore of tin, then disengage it from the matrix^ ^,[ And firiaTly aftei? blending' it in due proportion with copper, to cast the fused mixture in a mould, allowing time for it to acquire hardness by?^ ^ Cooling ; all bespeaks no small skill in manipulation. The next stage of ; improvement is that manifested by the substitution of iron for bronze, in^ir,',^^, dating another stride in the progress of the arts. Except in meteoric stoneSi^^r- irod like tin is never found native, and to fuse it requires intense heat, not., . io be obtaiifed without artificial appliances, such as pipes inflated by thu^ human breath or bellow^; or some other suitable machinery. These ini-^ji provementB, however, great as they may appear to b?, were chiefly^ design-.^, edfor the common purpose of attaining superiority over the less imprbevd _, races that still languished, in war or in the chase. No record has been left ,^ to she"*v that agriculture was pursued in any form, or that those' primoeval |,j people ever art'ived beyond a modification of original barbarism. The der^,^ posits in which the implements have been found are neaifly destitute of , , . domestic animals, with the" exception of the dog, .the constant faiitfiirat-*„|, tendant of man through every stage of developement. Lyell re-marks," j^ however, that the domestic ox, the liorse, and the sheep, ^re confined tq.'.j^. thiit part of the Danish peat which grew in the ages of bronze and iron; ,,j but it appears probable enough that these aniirtals, although found as80r'..,y ■ dated with other remains representive of those ages, were ncft actually/. ;;^^ domestic, in the proper sense of the word; but an aboriginal stocl?^^,frPi|9;i;.:g whence domestic animals were subsequently derived. .1 \^i ' But notwithiStalidin^-the ndtural instinct which so evidently points t6-'^»^| • wards progression' and iinpTOvement, there is nevertheless a tendency in 4; 1 ^^•• I instaneetf occasional a certain the grand America^ tie part of i find that hare nd- : they im- i antiqua- B Ni]lBon» . session of stcne, of i^heirtum Now, as. , and see- jtate, and such, but he bronze ;o get the smelting. iematriz« cast the Iness by stage of ize, in^ir, c 8tpnes» leat, no^., . by th*: leseini-, design- prbevd teen left imoeval The d^. itute Qi pf ul at- -niarks,, [inedt<^.', i asso:'* f jtualiy/ frpm ^" m'ui its ncy in •f 3 the higher as well as the lower races to retrograde, unless some strong stimulant, such as the ambition fur ct^nqucst, the desire of gain, or dis-. tinction in arts or letters, is constantly employed, urRiiig tiie more power- ful or skilful to increased endeavours to maintain their place among in- dividual? or nations ; and emilh^ting others, to strive to supplant them. The remains of I^elanki are now trod over unheeded by the modern savage as the |)lacd was by his aboriginal forefather long ere the first foundation was laid. Egypt, Syria, Greece, and the grand old Roman Kmpire, have degenerated from their once high and imperial standing, when eacli in turn held the wo^fld in awe or admiration, to the rp ik of provinces or of second- rate states. The wild Bedouin roams as of old over the deserts of Arabia, his habits or his garb much the same as they were in the days of Abraham although Assyrian Nineveh and Jerusalem itself must have risen and Crumbled away in the interval. .'* To follow up the analogy, a similar tendency has been pointed out by geologists in the development of organic life. It has already been said that a new and more highly organised state of existence, appears progress- ively throughout the whole geologicajy sequence j but while such is thd welt known fact, it nevertheless is equally well established that the types most Jiearlj' approaching the earlier forms of life, which have existed from pem iod to period, and exist to the present day, are but degenerate representa- tives of their prototypes of old. As, for example, among the very lowest of animal organisms, the modern foraminifera are but dwarfs as coinpared with the eozoon canadenae of the lowest eozoic rocks ; the gigantic orthocera ammonites, and other sjilendid chambered shells of former periods, ai-enow represented by the tiny nautilus ; the alligator or crocodile of modern daj'S represents the mighty monsters of the Wield — the megalosaurus and igua*^ Oaddn; and the little insignificant existing sloth is nil that is left to stand in the place of the elephantine form of the megatherium of the tertiarys. But to multiply examples would far exceed the limits to which the paper' is entitled ; and I shall proceed now more directly to the subject proper, . viz.— Roads. ' Prom time immemorial, the histories of gi-eat nations now extinct to' tho6e of the present day, tell us that one of the first steps to be taken to es- tablish civilizatiou,.has been, is, and ever will be, to procure ready means df coqimunication. Man, like most of the inferior animals, is a social crear ' lure, and must have intercourse with his kind. But he is also, as well as" i his lower congeners, a quan*e)some animal, and hence it is that as his in- tercourse extends, the tendency to covet his neighbour's goods- extends cor- respondingly. Individual fights, petty feuds, and national wars are the ' results; and Anally, in accordance with Darwin's theory of natural selection by the fittest, the weaker go to the wall, while the stronger flourish mora conspicuously than before. 4^ud yet these wars, horrible to contemplate a^'' they are in t^heir details, have not been altogether an unmixed evil. Ott' the contrary, they have directly been the means of building up the greats estimations qI the earl^ ; of forcing. the greatest intellects into their proper :;:(■, ■••■-': ^.-.^^^ place, of fostorlng enerpry and Inventive Renins In Cfery form ; and finally --])nri(ioxical ns it. may aj»|ipftr--of ei cour.ifjinK «^ci<*nce and the aits. As ai exumplo illuslMtive of tho iidvaticf of civics itlbrt, to attain which conimuiiic ition with tlie enter world was found to he the prihiary necessity, while the iuainteniincj of oslahliKhfd roads required in the first instnhce the most perftctposeil le^fflciency in t'ueir construction, let us tAke aglance nt the at itely totuesof Glblon, in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. ]lo says *• Three hujidrcdAfricau cities had once acknowledged the authority Of Carlhaf?e, nor is it likely thi'ir numbers dimini-hed under the adminis- tration of the emi)eroi'S: Citrthapfe itself rose wilh nev^ splendor from its ashes ; and that capital, as well as Capua and Cornith, soon recovered all the advantajjes which cm be separated from indeiiendent sovereignty. The provinces of the east present tho contrast of Roman magnificence with Tur- kish barbarism. The ruins of antiquity scattered over uncultivated flelds> and ascribed by igooi-ance to the power of majiid, stiarcely afford a shelter to the oppressed- peasnnt or- wandering Arab. Under the riSign of the tieesars, the \ roi>er Asia alone contained five hunrftred jiopulous cities en- riched with all the gifts of nature, and adorned with all the niftnements of art. Eleven cities of Asia had or.ce disputed the honor of dedicating a teniple to Tiberias, and their reajHictive merits were examined bj' the se»- ate. Four of them were immediately rejected as unequal to the burdei^ ; and among theee was Laodioea, whc^Be splendor is ^till displayed In itslcfuip^, Laodicea ooUected'ii considerable revenue from its flocks of sheep, celebra- ted for the fineness of their wool, and'had received, a little before the con- test, a legacy of about four hundred thousand pounds by the testament of; a generous citizen. If such was tlie pdverty of Laodicea, what must have been the wealth of those cities, whose claim appeared favourable, and par- ticularly of Pergamos, of Smyrna, and of Ephesus, ^ho so long aisputed with each other the titular primacy of A«iaP The cajSitals of Syi^ia antl Egypt held a still superior rank in the empire ; Antiqch and Alexandria looked dowq whh disdain on a crowd of dependent cities, 'fend yieh^ed, with reluctance to the majesty of Rome itself. * * * All of these cities were con- nected with ieach other, and with' the capit&l, by the ptiblic highways, which, issuing f»om the ForuiA of Rouie, traversed Italy, pervaded tho provinces, and were terminated only by the frontiers of the empire. If we carefully trace the distance from the wallof Antoninus to Rome, and from thence to Jerusalem, it will be foftnd that the great conlmiinicationfi^ from the north-west to the south-east point of the empire, w^ drawn out to the length of four thousand and eighty Roman miles. The public roads ' were accurately divided by milb' stones^ and ran in )r direct line from ont> city to another, with very little respect for tiie obstacles either of natpi'li 01 private property. Mountains were petf crated, and'arches'thro^tfoveir^ thp broadest and most rapid streams.' The middle part df the road was' raised into a terrace which commuided the adjacent country, consisted of several strata of saad, gravel and cement, and was paved with large stones* PIT in some places near the capital with granite. Such was the construc^r ftod Anally e arts, tain which y necessity, [nstnhce the aprlance nt lati Empire, 9 authority )e adiuinis- ior from its )covere4 all ignty. The 3 with Tur- 'ated fleldst 'd a shelter Sign of the 3 cities en- %)ftnemedtg idicating a by the sen- 16 burden) ; nit39lsuip9,- p, celebra- re the con- stament o^ must have ), and par- ( aisputed Syyia and iexandria ded, with were con- igh^ays, aded the pire. If ome, and nfcationg* rawn out lie roads ■ rom on^ 3f natpi^' ©■WtfoTeir* 'oad was " isistdd of ;e 8tones> :on8tntcr tion of the Roman highways, whose firmness has not entirely yielded to the ofTort'i of Jlfteeii centuries. They united tho bubjecls of the most distant provinces by an easy and familiar intercourse, &c." Romiiins of these gigantic works for communication and martial j)ur- poses, are still distinctly traceable in Grout Britaiu. The wall of Antoninus aud of Lollius Urbicus across Scotland, have inilet disftppeareil, but thero still remain traces of tho wall of Hidrian between Newcastle and Carlisle : and tiie camps of Agiicola are distmctly displayed at several places in Pertiisliire ; while in some parts the Roman roads themselves, or in part at least, have been used as a aub-?tratum for modern macadimizrd roads in the same cjuatry. It was within tho flrar. contury of the Christian era that the couquest of Gf.oat Britain was effected l)y the Ilomaaarms; they penetra- ted and hold possession of the lowlands, but were abruptly stopped in tbeir career at the foot of the Grampian Hills. Poiupoulus Mela, who wrote in the reign of Claudius, the emperor who initiated the war against Great Bri- tain, is said to have expressed a hope that by the success of the Roman arms, the island and its savap^e inhabitants would soon be Getter known 1 These same savages, however; were possessed of attributes characleristic of their successors, or desceudents blood of comingled with that of other'races, in iodomitabie valor, and an intense love of freedom ; and it may be that the spirit of enterprise and perseverance was ieveh then hitent' which has now so strikingly been developed in the Anglo-Saxon race. Smiles in his admirable work, " The lives of the Eagineers," says : — Roads have, in all times, bees among the most influential agencies of society ;' and the m'akciis of roads, by enabling men readily to communicate with each other, have properly been regarded as among the most effective pion- eers of civilization. Roads are literally the pathways not only of indus- try, but of social and national intercourse. AVherever a line of communica- tion between men is found, it renders comi^erce practicable, and where commerce penetrates, it invariably crt^ates civilization arid leaves a his- tory. Roads place the city and the town in connection with the village and the farm, open up markets for field produce, and provide outlets for man- ufactures. They enable the natural resources of a country to be develop- ed, facilitate tiavelling and intercourse, break down local jealousies, and in all ways tend to bind together society, and hiring out fully that healthy spirit of industry which is the life and soul of every great nation." * * " The road is so necessary an instrument of social well-being, that in every new colony it is one of tlie first things thought of." And again, I see in a quaint little book, entitled " Old Roads and New Roads," the following^ remark which few will be bold enough to gainsay ,~"A history of roads is, in greSat measAre, indeed, a history of civilization itself." To shew the high regard that was entertained by the Bomans for road contractors, the office of Curator Viarum, or Boad Surveyor, was bestow^ upon the most illustrious member of the Senate, and after the victory of Sfantinea, Epanimondas was appointe4 chairman of scavengers at Thebes ; while Pliuy the Younger wfta at one time commissioner of eowera on tho iEujil inn road. * r Hut tlio fall of the Roman empire brnnfl:ht TPry differont snccessors. Th& ideas of the Teutonic and Cnltic races, who divided among thomselves the patrimony of tl)e Cuosars, we^*o essontially dilTorout from those eulertfiined by Cionco and Rome. The individual rather than the corporate existence of man became the prevalent coucepLion of tho Church and of legislators } and nations sought rather tp isolate themselves from one another than to coalesce and C()ire8))t)nd. The Roman plan was eminently municipal. The city M-as tho gorm of each body polilic, and tho Couuectioii of roads with cities is obvious. But our Teutonic uncestora abhorred civio life. They generally shunned the towns, evwi when accident had placed thj.m in the Centre of their shires or marks, und when the jU-oximiiy of great rivers qr the convouiouco of walls {'lul markets seemed to hold out every inducement to take possession of tho vacant enclosures. . . In many cases the Ro- man cities were allowed to utterly decay ; tho forest reeamed its rights ; the feudal castle was constructed from tho ruins ot the Proconsul's palace and the JJuf-iiica -, or if these edilicep Wero too massive for demolition they "were left staiuliug in tho waste— t'jo mammoths aud 8auri:m8 of a bygone civilization. The great Via) v;ere for leagues overgrown with herbage, o!^ concealed by wood and morass. In these Vias any observer might remark the strong resemblance, in the right lines and colossal structure, to our mo- dern railways. On tho other hand, the drift-ways along the dykes of the Celts scarcely deserved tho name of roads at all. We must pass over the various stages of progress made under the eucce? ■ Bive conquests and partial occupation of Great Britain by the Danes, tho Saxons and the Normans, to a more recent period in our history, where the adivptability of natural selection of the fittest, is displayed in the race which is now dominant over nearly one half of the whole world !— and I will now try to show that ready and rapid communication by sea and by land, has been the basis of that high degree of civilization to whichj the great nationality of which we form a jmrt, has at length attained ; and* further, ac regards tho jireseut and the future, that to hold back or hesitate in the march of progi'ess is suicidal to the best interests of a people, and must evontuttlly lead to their absori^tinn by others more fitted for the great battle 01 life than themselves. The mixture of races of which the popula- tions of Great Britain, her colonies, and the United' States are the result, illustrate the adaptability of the combination ; and while good and evil tendencies have been engendered through the blood of each of the vai'ioua races, the general effect has beec assuredly beneficial. — ThsJUtest holds th^ reins, and leach the way. We have already seen the opii.'on expressed by romponius Mela eigh? teen hundred years ago, and we can form some idea of what Scotland was at that time, when Antoninus Pius and Hadrian erected theit walla of de- fence against the inroads of the wild but warlike Picts and Scots. All of us know, and perad venture many of us hare seen, Scotland as it no'v^ is? owers on tho ccessors. Th4 omselves the 10 eDtertftined Lite oxiatence i legislators; other thnn to LmicijjRl. The )f roads with life. They them in the 'eat rivers ,pr f infill comont :A6e8 the Ho- 1 its rights ; nsurs palace uolition they of a bygone 1 herbage, o]i» light remark e, to our mo- dykes of the J the succea • I Danes, tho itory, where 1 in the race vorld I— and I by sea and m to which tained; and* : or hesitate people, and ox the great the popula- I the result, k1 and evil the various '^ holds th9 Mela eigh-P 3tland was ^alls of de- s. All or ht§» tiian one hundred yean Ago, however, it prosontcd a rery differeni Mpect to what it does at tho present time ; and even in my own rocoUeo- tion, things were very different imleed to what they arc thia day. But long previous to even that early period, roads of a kind wero admittedly an absolute necessity for the very existence of the inhabitants, commercial or agricultural. These 8o-«allod roads were probably looked upon at the time of their inception as models of constructivo goinua, and adaptable for all purposes. They were, however, simply execrable, oven much later; and I can well remember, when 1 was a boy, of tho demuro look and re« monstrative eloquence of a coachman, when informed that the carriage would bo required to drive for four or five miles over them and back again. Our ancestors were much in ine right to make tlioir wills before encount- erid^ tho perils of a ride across the moors, which wore munorons ; indeed, 1 have heard my own father aay that such a proceeding was rocommendable, when one was about to travel from Edinburgh to York I From the fon-ier to London was proportionally more dilBcult and dangerous, and took well on for a week to perform.* jJht about tho year 1815 a better state of nffail's began to dawn ; and through tho efforts of Telford and Macadam the art of road making upon scieiitiflc principles was about to revolutionise the whole system of communication, nud to bring the most distant parts of the island into ready intercourse, by means of roads of unrivalled excel- lence. In agreat degree, the principle Macadam follow od for his construc- tion, was precisely that of the Romans, the solid basements of whose structures may still be seen in many parts of Great Britain after a lapse of eighteen centuries. ... A little egotistical digression will perhaps be pardoned/when I state that I feel a sort of title to expatiate upon Ma " 'amized toads, as it so hiippen- ed that some fifty or fifty-five years ago, a very near relative of mine, in £onsQ(}Vien6e of his liberal and enthusiastic support of those constructions iii Perthshire, went by the soubriquet of " Tho Colossus of Rhodes ;'' and my own father was hia industrious and enteriirising colleague. Both spent large sums out of their private means, of which the country genera My de- rived far .re advantage than they did individually; but tho country prospered a it never had before ; and has gone on prospering ever sinca. : In those by-gone days which I speak of, and to some extent remember, the estsiest, safest, and in every way the best means of locomotion was either to use " Shanks's mare," or to straddle *he back of aShetland pony. Mr. Smiles says about the state of Scotland, towards the close of tho 18th century, — " We found a country without roads, fields lying nncultiva- * Besides the dangers incident to ordinary travel, there were about tliis time the fffntlerAen of the road to encounter sometimes, who were not celebrated as beiiR over- Bcrupluous in regiird to the laws of meum ixnA tmnn. There is, er was once, an unitisiiib print, dated about the year 17«9, in which the driver of an English su^e coaeli is repre- sented in the armed guise of Sir Hudibrns. He curies a horse-id^tol in his belt, fuid a . eouteau dethasae slung over his shouldei*, while the guard is accoutred with no lef^^s than threa pistols iind a busket-hilted sword, besides having a ciirbine striti)i)e(l to his se.it beliina the coach. One df the "insider," an anr:ent geiitUmnn in a Riiinilies wip, is teen through the capaoions window of thecoaoli affectionately hugging a carbine, und a veoman on the roof is at ones caressing a bull-dog, and supporting a bludgeon thr.t might nave Mrved for Daniie Dinnipnt himself. f ied, mines unexplored, and all branches of industry Innguibhing, in tht midst of an idle, miserable and hafi^gard population. Fifty years passed and the state of the Lowlands had become completely changed. Roads bad been made, canals dug, coal mines openpd up, iroq-works eotablished j manufactures were extending in all directions; and Scotch agriculture, in- stead of being the tvorst, was admitted to bo the heat in the inlaDd." Smiles Again tells us a littbj further on that between the years 1715 ui.d 1745 the state of agrictiUure may be infer.^ed frnm the fact that an instrument call- ed the cfls-^'Arom— literally thia '• fcrooked feet"— the use of ivhich had been forgotten in every other conniry in Eiifope, •(•'as almost the only tool eni*" ployed in tillage in those parts of the ilighlund*, which were separated by impassable ronds ftom the rest of the United Kingdom. The cas-chrom was a rude (Boinbiuation of a lever for the removal rocks, a spado to cut the earth, and a foot-plough to tiirri it. I'tirther ^e are told by Mr. Smiles, that after roads had been to a certain extent constructed, the Highlanders, in papsing from one place to another, instead of fc lowing these roads, con- tinued to travel by the old cattle trnckia along the mountain sidles. The so-called roads in the lowlands were rutty, niuddy quagmires at many ports, while the wretched liridle or foot-pftths that. led through the Bighl&nd glensj wel'e on many occasions impnssibte altogether; and woe to tl>e unfortrtnate traraller who might happen to bo caught in a snow storm f In those days the weary traveller was fain to take rest in the first highland shielin)^ he miglit happen to meet, to he regaled peradVentiire (very hospitably hut very fi*ugally) with braxy mutton ard oatcake, wash-* , ed down by an ever welcome draft of the real mountain deto from a "»ma*, iiill. no unco far atca\*' Upon all this stcto of things Macadam made great inroads; tlie bridle paths became by degrees good substantial roads; the streams and torrents were bridged over • and where the solitary oheilipg, once stood, a sprinkling of neat cottages stand instead. Such, we umy say, was the first greai stage in proKreps, by which, within my own time, the Highlands of Perthshil-e was brought directly into communication with thq high civilization of the south. But what wore these charges in comparison with the ■'trides luado in the same direction ■^liich have been accomplished since P The Stephensons and the steam locomotive have efTected another and more perfeci. f ^voliitioli over things as established by Macndiim, than the lattet did uver the eh^liet state erf affairs, when the dashing turn-out o^ coach and four sitpetsoded the services of the shaggy sbetlauder. Where the turf-roofed sheilingaud cottages stood, niay now be seen a handsomely built Bbootinf;^ lodge or mansion, and the 'tvell-care'i-for. traveller will find all the comforts and conveniences of modern appliance in tiie gorgeous hotels which c m be reached iiy easy f tages. These changes Mhetv th^ in- vincible march of progress in all material matters, and fully accord with the general natural law I have attempted to shew, must, by one means or by another, ultimately prevail. If a people is void of the necessary enterprise and energy to accomplish these changes within themselves, others will not be wanting who will readily tnke advantage of their effeteness, and wM. >i-^.'iU;ivrA. -i7.. >.ij*L-:^^\iY-: .-. i, *...?-.. jJ^(.i';'^-ikT^i^i'i.^ uibhing, in thtt years pnwed »d. Roads bid 8 eotablished } igricultura, in- iilaDd." Smiles 5 iud 1745 the istrinnent call* irhich had been only tool em« B sei)arated by Phe cas-chrom mdo to cut the y Mr. Smiles, ) llighlanders* eee roadp, con- ai^ee. ■':;•:';' quagmires at i throiig-h the her ; and woe ht in a snow ?6t in the first peratttenftire atcake, wash- >om a " »wa' u made great al roads ; the tary eheilipg we may say, wn time, the tion with the 1 comparison ccomplished Qted another icndam, than 3t turn-out of ider. Where hnndsomely; ler will find he gorgeous ihew th^ ih- ord with ihe neans or by y enterprise lers will not i», and who ..til iiu.fj ..<..... J feebler race and their inheruui>«.w. , ..o a Highlander, I can scarcely help looking back on the remote past with- out some degree jf regret when I see so ccmple^a an obliteration of many things as they used to he, Innff ayne. It is not aggr^eable to one who was *• to the manor born," to e^e the " 1 xnd of brown heath and shaggy wood " invaded by Cocktey sportsmen and drawling tourists, together with a host of dj'speptic invalids or idlers, in pursuit of improved henlth, or to drive away tnnui, whose appreciation of the stem beauties of Glen Almond or Glen Ogle is of the faintest ; or who could drive through the lovely and romantic straths oi the Tay and the E irn unmoved, or indifferent to all but creature comfort. When I think of these s^me scenes, as I knew them long ago, and view them as they now are, and observe the consequences, I feel inclined rr4ther to accept the changes as the inevitable, than admire them for their own sake. We must DOW bid farewell to Europe for a time, and see what has beeL done on the western side of the Atlantic wiihin the last forty years. Id the early part of the month of July, 1837, just forty years ngo, I landed for the first t'ire in Canada, at Montreal ; whence after a protracted journey of about a week, by the coursr of the gri>»t St. Lawrence, ar.d Lake Onta- rio, I got to the end of water communication and landed at Hamilton. Travelling, so far, had been done with comparative esse, except when " portages" had to be made over tlie rapids of the river, which were bad enough in all conscience. The hostelries, moreover, although wanting in many conveniences, were passable enough in most respects. But the perils of the road, from Hamilton westwr.rd, hud not yet been encountered and little indeed had I the remotest conception of the " Slough of Despond " I was to pass through, notoriously known as the Grand River Swamp. In a two-horse waggon, innocent of springs, after two mortal days of struggling through bottomless mud, and jolting and tumbling in and out of ruts, which gai)ed on every side, the village of Woodstock was reach* 1 ; having thus accomplished with pain and grief a distance of fifty miles. But the land I had selected to occupy lay nine miles from Woodstock, to which I was informed there was a road; the same rond (called so surely io irony), leading through the wcj^'h, being to my then inexperienced eye, almost or quite imperceptible. Bad as was the main highway, there was at least a wide open .:paco without trees or stumps; but here the stumps stood firm and fast as they did before the axe had done its work ; the Bwampi were bridged over, corduroy fathion, by »he stems of the trees themselves ; and the bridges across the streams had been engineered and constructed, in jhe primitive style and with the most primitive of instru- ments — viz. " an axe and an auger." And the dwellings those roads led to were as primitive as the roads themselves. Huts built of huge logsdove- tailed at the four corners; in size generally about 20x1.') feet; lathed and plastered inside, and the chinks betw* en the logs stuffed with moss imd cbipswithout, constituted the dwellings of the landed jirojirietors. Such WBft the condition of thiuga generally Learly over tlie wliole surface of the 10 I I fair province of Ontario forty years ago. At that period, there were set- tlers still living, whose farms yielded them ample and independent sup- port, whose first beginnings obliged them to carry their seed for the first crop upon their backs, from Little York (now Toronto), a distance of one hundred miles through the woods, by an Indian trail, known then m the Mohawk Road. Things were at this time, however, in a sort of transition state ; immigration of people of social standing and considerable private means, wi well as hosts of agricultural laborers and mechanics began to pour in to occupy the wild lands, and the prospects of future progress were OS promising as could well be desired ; when, in that same year, 1837, the unnatural and detestible rebellion broke out, which threw Canada back in the scale of advancement nearly twenty years. But in spite of all obstruc- tions, nature was bound to maintain the supremacy of hor laws ; and it became clear enough to the inhalfltants of Canada, that unless they cuose to abandon the great inheritance bequeathed upon them in their birth as British subjects, they must advance in material condition with the genius of the age ; or their country and themselves would inevitably be swallowed up by the stranger looking in at the window, whose energies are ever keep- ing pace with the fittest to fight the great battle of life. .:? ,,.j ; /?;■ I ., i The revolution that has taken place in the state of communication in Canada, and with that change the enormous advance in all matters con- nected with civilizatiou, within the last twenty years, is perhaps as as- tounding as the world ever saw ; and far surpasses in degree, comparative- ly, the results attained in Great Britain in the course of two centuries. But in Canada as well as in Scotland, the leas intelligent classes were hard to move out of the old groove ; and well do I remember, after good plank or macadamised roads were constructed, how these people clung like para- sites to the old tracks ; carrying half-loads, wearing and tearing both wag- gons and horses ruinously, rather than pay a sixpenny toll for easy, rapid and safe communication. In 1837 not one solitary iron rail was laid in Canada;— In 1864 there were about 2,000 miles of iron railroad complete and running, and at the present time there is little if anything less than 4,000 miles, inclusive of the Great Intercolonial, in perfect working order. This estimate is exclusive of the great Canada Pacific, and sundry other projected lines, now under the Enginaership in Chief of my old friend, Mr. Sandford Fleming, who also constructed the Intercolonial ; the latter being recognized as the finest structure of ,the kind on the continent of Nortb-. America, and is allowed to rank among the best railroads in the world hm'J In 1853 1 surveyed a section of country between Lake Huron and tbft Ottawa, by the valleys of the Muskoka and the Fetewabweh, returning by the valleys of the Bonne Ghere and.Madawaska to Balsam Lake. ■ At thajl^ time the whole extent of that vast region was a complete^ unbroken^ ani^ unknown wilderness, with the exception of some lumbering localities near the mouths of the rlveri falling into the Ottawa. Now, the whole country Irf intersected by roads ; townships have been laid off ; villages have sprung into existence; luinbering limits have extended to the shcrei of Lakea 11 there were set* [ iependent sup- led for the flrst distaocd of one Eva then as the rt of transition dernble private lanics began to •d progress were year, 1837, the Canada back in B of all obstruc- ir laws ; and it less they chose I their birth as th the genius of y be swallowed s are ever keep- nmunication in all matters co^- perhaps as as- e, comparativp- two centuries. Maeh yvevQ hard ter good plank clung like para- jiug both wag- for easy, rapid rail was laid in Iroad complete thing: less than working order, d sundry other ' old friend, Mr. the latter being inent of North. theworldl; . .!- Huron and tbft h, returning by Lake. ^ At tha^ unbroken, and I localities near whole country {es have sprung hcrei of Lakes Huron and Nipissiag, and a railway is projected and partly laid to join the future Pacific road at or near the latter lake. ? i i ,:,n} lod f '.roTl ^v Other British colonies have kept pace with Canada in the gruMit race ft the age, and New Zealand perhaps is even a more remarkable instance of British enterprize, and determination to overcome all difficulties, than either Canada or Australia. But while all the world have been moving at this rapid rate, what has been done in the meantime by the oldest and near- est colony of Great Britain, towards the advancement of civilisation by means of roads. I fear it must be acknowledged that hitherto this province has displayed only the primitive or protozoac instincts, which sooner or later must give way to the inevitable law. Newfoundland still remains in the embryotic state, as regards the means of communication, if we except a few miles of road in the peninsula of Avalon, and around the shores of the southern bays. Into the great interior there is literally no access to be had of any kind whatever beyond that formerly used by the aboriginal savage. Now, I imagine that to a St. John's audience, I need hardly say that I, in the execution of my duties, have had opportunities of seeing and knowing the truth in regard to the nature of the interior of this great island, such as perhaps no white man ever had ; and I hope it will be conce<1ed that, as a disciple of science, I have beta strictly guided in my opinions and ex- pressions by facts. That experience has long convinced me that there is no reason or necessity for this, any more than other colonies, remaining in the bftck-ground, and her natural resources (which are manifold) can only be generally known or fully developed by means of good lines of road. It has often struck me as very remarkable that the people most difficult to persuade that anything good can come out of Newfoundland, aie New- foundlanders *, and not that alone, but they generally are less informed as to its geography, topography, or peculiarities than many utter strangers, or casual visitors. How often, when I was engagtd describing the natur) of the interior, and advising a line of route to be followed by the engineers of the preliminary survey for a railrord, have I heard it remarked that the scheme was Utopian, the route impracticable, and the whole idea a delusion P —but what proved to be the fact ? Simply, that there were no insuperable difficulties at all, from St. John's to St. George's Bay, and that a large por- tion of the track was especially and exceptionally favorable. I must beg of you to bear in mitd that I do not at present refer to financial difficulties, which may or may not exist now or hereafter ; but simply to constructive obstacles, which, as already said, are by no means insuperable. What I am desirous to ehow is that we should, in order to keep pP4je with the rest of the world, have a constant and vigilant eye upon the future ; and that when we commence to open up communication, it should be done in such a manner as will pave the way for a railroad, or a construction of the best kind of another sort hereafter. The plan I proposed to adopt was first ex- pressed m a lette:r I had the honor to address to one of your honorable re- presentatives upwards of a year ago ; which letter With some further ob- Mrvations on the same subjeot were published in the North Star of the 16th W^A^^i'ii.j^'^f.t;. of November last. In that letter, I also gave a rough estimate of what a good carriage road would probably cost in the making ; and shewed reason tohelieve that the line run by the engineers, with some modification, would be generally the most advnnt.^eou8, and through a country wl.ich would eventually, upon being developed, be favournble to the construction of a railway. At the conclusion of the letter alluded to I used these words, — " 1 am distinctly of opinion that the preliminary line run by the engineers, with a few slight modifications, will prove not only the best but by far the least expensive that can be found for construction, and I am not aware of any special difficulties in the way of connection with it by means Of local rr'adfl. Brigiis is prol^ably more favourably situated in this respect than any of the other outports, as but a very short piece of road in continu- ation of the i)resent existing one between " the Goulds " and Big Barren or Ocean pond on the Hodge Waters, would complete the connection. With regard to the expense of building nn ordinary good road through the inte- rior of the country, I believe that a contract would be readily taken at from $2,000 to $3,000 per mile, and I estimate the cost as follows.' — Clearing complete, say per mile S160 Grubbing roots, &c. " " 180 Grading, , ,. " " 1000 Culverts, " •' 100 lucreaseof expense advancing into the jninterior with com- misariat, &c., 300 S1.730 The road to be sixty-six feet or one chain wide. Then, if we suppose the length of the road to be three hundred miles, and the contract taken at $2,000 per mile, the sum total for a complete thoroughfare, through the is- land would be $600,000 or £160,000 currency." ;.-w-i v-iut ,f.,i. iiu "■•< U', It is rather remarkable that at the very same time that I put my ideas on this suliject into form, Mr. Sandford Fleming was contemplating a scheme of a precisely similar nature ; so exactly identical as to occasion the remark from himself, when he saw my published letter, that they could not have more nearly corresponded had we put our heads together for the purpose. I have already stated, that on the gieat lines of road constructed by the Romans, each mile was marked by a stone or i>illar, on which, no doubt, there was inscribed the distances from Rome on the one hand, and from the next most important place or places on the other. I look upon it also as a certainty, that the initiatory step to these gigantic undertakings was to make a preliminary exploratory survey ; and the next, after having re- solved upon the line to be followed, to place the mile stones in their re- spective I ositions, as the preparatory work of clearing, grading and ditch- ing went on. Now, this example, so well worthy of imitation, is exactly what I should wish to see done here, as an earnest that our preliminary survey was reall''' "^'' *-"'i" +o be utili^*"*? -vrifh thn view of pv#«nf;uaH^' •■ ..i •."'■«* ." It . .Mi» n-r .'Ji -(■■. i:;; -|.fi ■ •fj.' P*»ntUAlb» "^ coming a railroad. One or iwo pillam marked on one or other of Mr. Lynch'a alignments out of this city, with the distance registered from St. John's on one side, and from St. Oeorge's Bay ou the other, would go a long way in inapiriog conBdence, both at home and abroad, in the sincerity of the people of the province in their desire to commence a new epoch or era, by mending their ways. Bui if our backwardness i» in many respects deplorable, as contrasted with other coloaies or countries, tliere are counter-balancing advantages here wliicli tha latter have not, to an equal exteut, for procuring efficient progress at a cheap rate wheuever a scheme of any kiud is fairly and pro- perly inaugurated. There arn, in the meantime, no private interests or property to be interfered with, no local jealousies to be encountered, or obstacles of any kind beyond the physical, which are common to all such constructions to a greater or less degree everywhere. • Whan I came to thie country, nearly thirteen years ago, my greatest am- bition was to emuhite the action of my dear departed friend and colleague, Sir William Logan, and to be an instrument employed to raise Newfound- land in the scale of colonies, as he undoubtedly was, and a chief one, in raising Canada to the proud position she has now attained. I have already shewn the advancement Canada has made within my own recollection ; and now, old as I am, I still hope to see a new and better state of things inau- gurated h ;re, for it certainly appears to be preposterous that a great island like this, containing so many natural resources, only awaiting development, should any longer be dependent upon one solitary industry. The fisheries of Newfoundland will probably be iu the future, as in the past, its greatest and most important industry, bu<^ a country to be solf-sustaining muse en- courage mixed industries, by developing all the i-esources nature has be- stowed. A thriving and progressive people cannot be all composed of fishermen, any more than of cobblers or tailors or tinkers — or, if you will, of engineers, of philosophers, or parsons. Each and all of these or other trades, professions or callings are useful and '^onorable in themsalves, and, when established, they ought and must materially aid each other in the great struggle for existence; in accordance with the laws upon which the whole social fabric is founded. > : r: ' r ;; l; We have seen what Scotland was in the first century : her coasts are as grim and forbidding, and a great part of her interior is as barren as either are in Newfoundland. The Eomaus deemed the Highlands to be inipene- tratable and worthless, as many now do the whole interior of this island. The proportion of land naturally suited for cultivation in Scotland to the whole area of the kiniD;doin, is not much greater than it is here ; and what has been done in the first case, may, to a great extent, be done in the last. The Picts and Scots were, no doul)t, fishermen in the days of the Romans ; the inhabitants of the Hebrides and the coasts are so still ; but where would Scotland be to-day, but for her magnificent roads, her agricultural excel- lence, and her gigantic manufactories, whidi, as a son of her soil, I ^'" T^roud tA «••»" --« nnriva''"' " ♦^^he face of the earth I 14 ■M •I I remember weU the day in Canftdn, when old Sir Allan McNab, in an*- werinfif a question regarding his political views, replied,—" My politics are railroads;" and from that day till this, the cry has ever been roads, more roads. Withont roads a country is nothinpf, and never can be anythinfjc* See, for example, even in our little domestic comforts, what we lose at this present moment for want of the means of communication. I, for one, could live nil the year round upon fresh codfish ; and were I in Montreal, hundreds of miles from the sea, I could supply myself daily by going or sending to the market ; while here, in the greatest fishing country in the world, such an article cannot be procured for love or money, unless it be imported from Nova Scotia ! Again, 1 have during the winter received two letters from Tokei, Japan ; the first dated November 24th, the last Decem- ber Srd, 1876. The former of these reached me here in St. John's on Decem- ber 28tli, the latter on January 13th — the avenige time of passage being about thirty-five days from the Antipodes, or a good deal less than the time of transit per royal mail on our Great Acrthein route from this (o TwiUivgate! In conclusion, I would beg to remark that in commencing a work of any kind, very much must depend upon the genius and experience of the con- structor, whethsr the work is eventually to prove a success or the con- trary ; and road building is no exception to the general rule. A piece of bad engineering, ^n the first instance might be the means of doing material damage to the whole construction or io a country-side ; as great as it might be to erect a splendid building upon a rotten foundation. As well to take a backwoodsman of Canada, who was an adept at liuilding a log hut, to erect a building like the Houses of Parliament on the Thames or the Otta- wa, as to place the charge of constructing roads in the hands of inexper- ienced men. Great highways are one thing; local tracks are quite another. A great thoroughfare through a new country must be made with a keen eye to the future, and pngineercd in such a way that when things become sufficiently ripe for further advancement, the railroad will supersede the old road without greatly changing its course, and the iron horse will re- place the animal power. ■ With these convictions strong upon me, and keenly feeling conscious of utter disinterestedness, as I own neihter an acre of land nor a mining share in the colony, I here once more express my belief that the elements of wealth and greatness abound in this island ; but that without the con- struction of good lines of road through and through thecov.ntry, by means of which capital and labor may be brought to bear, it will be futile to look for any real or permanent improvement. While thus advocating change — although I fran'ily admit my general opinions to be of the pronounced cort- aervative stamp — I contend that ultra conservatism, or refusing to keep pace with the march of the age, is only less disastrous to the well-being of a people than reckless innovation, leading to anarchy and ruin. :■ J ;t r>; ^ His Excellency, our gallant Governor, has proclaimed his opinion that a new era is dawning upon Newfoundland, and his ministers have initiated ■:-.^S:< . ..■*V...*;^-V.>il'l^>::;v ^.iliv-'/. i^.'^'-^. -■ •* I .1 * . iu.--. ■:'f ■;> .. steps towards a sysC^ * of progress ; but unless these opinions and efforts are warmly supporter there will always be danger of relapsing into the old state of mesmeric indi&urence which has kept the land at least a oeii' tury behind the rest of the civilised world. Knowledge is power, union is strength ; the light of the former is glimmering brightly; and it in to be hoped that the latter will prevail for the comm> i weal. If my feeble voice were worth regarding, I would urge that there should be no hesitation or faint-heartedness in settling into a state of progress ; that the whole popu- lation are interested in proclaiming they can no longer endure being with- out means of communication ; that every resource mineral or agricultural should be fully developed, and they now resolve that their country should not only be the oldest, but should rank among the foremost of the colo- nies of Great Britain. The following is an extract from the evidence of Prof. J. Macoun, before a select committee of the Dominion House of Commons, on colonization of the North West territory question by Mr. Hagar^— " Would not settlement folluw railway construction, the same as in the Western States?" Annoer b^ Prof. J. Macoun, of Albert Uaniversitt/, Belleville, Ontario'. — "Prdcsely in the same way. No matter how the question is taken uj) and discu:v ">%" , ^* ...;-•• AlBXANDSB MVBBAT. . 5<'-' ;W'v. 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