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.."^e-:^
AUfQLO-ASIAN INTUBCOUSSS
VIA
GREAT BRITAIN IN THE WESTERN SEMI8PSERE.
PUftTHBE EXPOSITION
0*
SIE KICHAED BROUNS
FOR DIRECT ANGLO-ASIAN INTERCOURSE
Bir ROUTE OF
BfilTISH NORTH AMERICA
AND
THE MONARCHICAL SETTLEMENT OF THE VACANT TERRITORY
BKTWEKN
THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCi^ANS.
" IS IT NOTHIHO TO BRITAIN THAT TO HBK SWAT HAS BEEN COHHITTBD AN
EMPIRB ON WHICH THE SUN NEVER SETS, AT THAT PBECISB PERIOD AT WHICH
SOIBNTiriO DISCOVERIES HAVE WON THEIR LATEST TRIUMPHS OVER 6PACB AND
TIMB?"
LONDON :
EDWABD 8TANF0BD, 6, CHABING CEOSS.
1854.
,^'i
%
I
6i>^6:
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I.— Origin of the Project . . ' ■ • • ^
II.— First Prospectus of IJnilway, and Ur. Kolpli's Letters, 22nd
January and 6th July, 1845 . . • • ^
III.— Summary of Occurrences relative to the Railway, from 1845 to
1851 . .... • •. • ^
IV.— Kxtvactsi from the American United States Press . • 8
A\— 11( ads of Bill for the Incorporation of a Company to make the
liiiilway and Colonize the vacant Crown Lands over which it
will pass . . • • ' .J
VI.— Emigration Statistics from 1845 to 1854; Extracts from Sir
John Hervcy's Speech of 1847, and the Hon. G. R. Young's
Article on the Railway . • • • ^^
VII.— Conclusion . . . '13
<S
ANGLO-ASIAN INTERCOUUSE
AND
.MONARCHICAL SETTLEMENT OF BRITISH
NORTH AMERICA.
" Westwiirti tli(< coiirae of Kniinro takes its way,
Tho Urst i'oiir ucls ttlready jiast,
Tlu' filth sliiiU close tlio drmnii with the day,
Time's noHpst ofl'Hpriiig is his Insi."
HiSlUI!' llUllKDLEY.
:'
4
i '
In the Jouunal of Elemental Locomotion, so far buck as
IMarch 18b3, Sir liicliard Broun first drew attention to the impor-
tant subject of opening direct elemental intercotirse between Europe
and Asia by way of the Eritisli Jforth American possessions, and
phintintfraoiiarcliical colonies upon the vacant crown lands along the
lino. After adverting to the magnificent prospects which such an
entirely home viaduct between Great Britain and the Oriental
World unfolds to view ; to tiie circumstance that the town of Nootka,
on the Sound of that name, is likelj' iu time to become as large as
London, as tho trade between it and 200 millions of the Asiatic
race would bo wonderfully great ; and to the conclusion, warranted
by the mere statistics of the case, that the route of a prodigious
commerce across the regions stretching from the serriated shores
of Piiget Sound to the waters of the f»rent lakes of Canada, would
soon inundate them wilii a vast population. Christian temples, cot-
tages rich in domestic comfort, towns boasting the best gifts of civil-
isation, and settlements rising rapidly into centres of knowledge
and power ; he thus observed : —
"That the enterprise — the junction of the Atlantic and
" Pacific by elemental means — is a mighty one is without
" doubt; but a mighty result is to accrue, and mighty means can
" be brought to operate it — The physical energies of tho two
" most promising nations of the New world, together with the
'* wealth and power of their common parent, the greatest of the
" Old. To such a coalition what is impossible P Over and above the
" advantages just glanced at, this route meets the only difficulty
" in Mr. Seward's plan (steam navigation with India by the Cape
" of Good Hope) viz., that arising from the want of fuel — a
*' difficulty indeed which affects neither its possibility nor its ex-
"pcdiency, but one, notwithstanding, which could onljr be over-
" coir.e by immense labour and expenditure. Upon this mngnifi-
" cent line of march, which may be made the means of diffusing
" science and religion, with their attendant blessings, over the
"most populous empires in the globe — ^besides creating new
"ones in its way — God, as if in provision for such an event,
"has bencficeutly laid up, at points nearly cquidislant, inex-
" haustiblc supplies of the material required. In the islands of
Great Britain, Cape Breton, and Japan, coal ubounda, and pos-
sibly it inav be discovered in Formosa, and upon the banks of
the Columoia : if not, cbar can be had in both places in the
greatest abundance. In another important respect, how will
this liiNE abridge the discomfort and tedium of a long sea
voyage P when, instead of an expanse of water, over which the
squeamish eye can find no resting place, a third of the way
shall roll past, as in peristrephic rotation, many thousand views
of the most majestic scenery of the Western Hemisphere. We
trust tliat the day is not distant when operations to be followed
by such results will be vigorously begun, and that the interval
will be short indeed in this — as well as in other projects moved
by us — over which the Posterity who shall reap the advantages
contemplated, will have to pour the sympathy of the detractive
reflection — ' Ofortunati nhnium si tantum norint ! ' "
Subsequent to the date of this article, in March 1833, Sir Richard
Broun presented a memorial to Earl Grey, then Prime Minister,
and wrote two pamphlets, suggesting a government consolidation
of the internal Elemental Transit of the country, and making the
conveyance of persons, letters, and goods, a joint source of revenue
to the State — whereby taxes and poor-rates would be reduced, food
cheapened, manual labour increased, and capital distributed. In
1835 he organised The Central Agbicxjltueal Society of Gbeat
Britain and Ireland, the most comprehensive institution ever
established in the United Kingdom for the protection and encourage-
ment of British Agriculture, and the production of cheap bread of
home growth. And in the year following, 1836, he commenced
those proceedings for the revival of Scottisli Baronet rights and
Scottish Baronet duties in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick which
are now in progress towards a judicial issue.
On the threshold of the first development of the vast project which
this Synopsis is written to promote, the labours of Sir Richard
Broun in the cause of the systematic colonisation of the vacant
crown lands in North America, drew from a noble English Baronet
now no more these encouraging observations : — " Yours is a grand,
a glorious project. Its influence extends over a vast space both in
" the old world and in the new. It must affect the destinies of
"hundreds of thousands of human beings, not only now but for ages
" yet to come. It is a giant labour, bringing care, anxiety, and toil ;
" but an ardent mind like yours will be cheered on its onward course
" by the high feeling which the consciousness of a great duty per-
" formed, and the bright gleam of hope that ultimate success will
" crown your indomitable efforts cannot fail to bring." Whilst it
will be recollected that an American statesman, long since deceased,
predicting the importance that would one day be attached to the
junction of the Atlantic and Pacifie Oceans, thus wrote : — " On
" broad grounds this work has been well characterised as the
" mightiest event in favour of the peaceful intercourse of iiations
" which the physical circumstances of the globe present to the
" enterprise of man. The whole world is interested in this work.
'* I would not speak of it with sectional, even national feeling ; but
" if Europe is indifferent, it would be glory surpassing the conquest
" of kingdoms to make this greatest enterprise ever attempted by
" human force entirely our own."
When Stephens penned these remarks, steam navigation and
railway enterprise had not began. Neither did he contemplate an
1 1
overland route by elemental means acrosa tlie North American
C'oatineiit the cousl ruction of which would not only pi'ovido a
Woiu.u's Highway, but would plant states ftnd colonies at each
footstep of its course. This idea th ^ aniazinfjf progress of the railway
system sufrgested to Sir Kichard JJroiin in the close of 1841. On
the 7th of November in thuL year a Coniniittee of the Baronets of
Scotland and Nova Scotia was empowered by a fjeneral meeting to
take all the steps needful to make good the chartered rigiiis of the
Order to two million and a half acres of the vacant soil in the
royal province of New Scotland as anciently bounded ; and to
advance this end — one which alike concerns the opulence, the pros-
perity, and peace of the mother country and the colony — he origi-
nated the project of forming, by means of a Joint Stock C'oM^A^ y,
a main trunk railway which should connect tiie three provinces of
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Camida by a direct hue of steam
communication commencing at Halifax and proceeding thence to
(Quebec, with power afterwards progressively to extend the same
westward to the Pacific Ocean, form branches, and purchase and
improve lands upon the line.
This scheme Sir Bichard set out in a prospectus which he sub-
mitted in January, 1815, to various gentlemeu in the City of
London ; and he also sent it to Dr. Thomas Eolph, late Emigration
Agent for the Government of Canada, with a letter requesting to
have his opinion as to the practicability of the undertaking. In
reply to this communication, on the 22nd of January, 1845, Dr. Rolpb
wrote to Sir Kichard as follows : — " I return to you, as you desire,
"the very able prospectus which you have drawn up; and only
" wish there had been as much practicabdity in pursuing the project
" as you have evinced ability in designing it. There are, however,
*• I consider, insuperable difficulties in the construction of such a
" railroad as you speak of, from climate as well as from mountains.
" In the intermediate distance between Lake Superior and Nootka
" Sound there is an extent of country subject to several months of
"severe winter; whilst between ihe Lake of the Woods and the
" Eocky Mountains the surface is very irregular."
Whilst prosecuting farther inqiiiries upon the subject. Sir Richard
Broun observed in the IVwies journal of the 23rd of March, 1845, a pa-
ragraph copied from a New^ York paper, headed " Gigantic Entek-
PBiSE," mentioning that Mr. Asa Witney, an enterprising merchant
in that city, had just propounded a plan for the construction of a
railroad from the western shore of LaKe Erie to the navigable part
of the Colombia River and tne Oregon territory, to become the
future medium of the Americo-European trade with China. Three
months later, whilst occupied with the same matter, he received a
note from Mr. William Bridges (who afterwards acted as secretary
to the promoters), dated the 2Gth of June 1845, saying, it had
oecurrea to him that the present was a very favourable opportunity
for forming a nucleus to carry out his (Sir R's.) Nova Scotia objects
by means of a railway, and offering to assist in getting the requisite
city influence. And ten days afterwards. Sir Richard received a
second letter from his friend Dr. Rolph, dated, 6 July, 1845, as
follows : — " A few months since you wrote to me as to the practica-
" bility and expediency of constructing a railroad, which by passing
*' through, ana connecting our extensive valuable possessions in
" British North America, might, at the same time, ensure our mari-
" time and commercial supremacy, by uniting the waters of the
" Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans It then occurred to me that the
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prcat extent of the line, the nature of the territory, and the t-hn-
riictor of the climate would oppoao obstacles that mijjht be decmod
iiiBupcrable. Since that time, however, my attention havinjj been
more directly drawn to the policy and feasibility of gucli a scheme,
I have read with great attention, much surprise, and no incon-
siderable satisfaction, that our acute, formidable, enterprising
neighbours, the Yankees, have actually made such a sur-
vey of the line as to render its success no longer problem-
atical. This being the case, and its immeasurable importance to
the political pre-eminence and commercial prosperity of this
country being so self-evident, I think it is a project that seriously
deserves the utmost attention. The union of the two oceans by
Lake Nicaragua and the Isthmus of Panama would be a far more
formidable, and a great deal less desirable undertaking ; whilst
the conjoint colonisation of the great, superb, and fertile valley of
the Oregon, which could be rendered an auxiliary to this great
national work, would be fraught with endless blessings to this
over-peonled kingdom. Five hundred waggons aro now daily
Sassing tnrongh the United States territory to the shores of the
'acific Ocean ; and when I I'cflect that a railroad has been made
" through the United States already from Now York to New
" Orleans, a far greater distance than the one I now trust to see
" undertaken, the object I think is one well worthy of British
" capitalists, British patriots, and British philanthropists."
Since the date of Dr. Rolph's letter nearly ten eventful years
have passed — ten years within which time upwards of two millions
of our people have crossed the Atlantic Ocean — and the following
is a brief summary of occurrences as regards that portion of this
great scheme that lies between Halifax and Quebec : — 1. After
various preliminary steps in May and Juno 18'16, Sir liichard
Broun, Captain F. "W. Hamilton, Sir Edward Hoare, G. E. L. Per-
rott, Esq., Mr. Valentine and Mr. Bridges, as a provisional board,
presented Memorials to the Prime Minister Sir JJobert Peel, and
to the Governors of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada, set-
ting forth the vast importance of the undertaking in its various as-
pects, social commercial and political, and asking for it Govern-
ment countenance and support ; — 2. A Joint Stock Company was
registered by them as Promoters, under the Act 7 »fc 8 Vict. c. 110,
to carry out the design as an Anglo-Canadian or imperial measure ;
— 3. Interviews, by depiitation, was had by them with the Colonial
Minister, and promises of ministerial aid and encouragement were
obtained ; — 4. Committees of Correspondence and Co-operation
were organised at Halifax, St. John, and Quebec, comprising the
most influential gentlemen in the three colonies interested; — 5.
Pledges of every support within the power of the Provincial Execu-
tives were received by Sir liichard Broun and his associates, in
answer to their Memorials, from their Excellencies Sir William
M'B. Colebrooke, Viscount Falkland, and Lord Metcalfe — the
latter stating that "the Governor-General in Council had given to
" the Memorial that degree of consideration which the vast import-
" ance of the subject merits : that it was an undertaking well worthy
" of the countenance of the Canadian Government and of the people
" of that and the neighbouring British provinces ; and that the Me-
" morialists might rely xiponthat Government for whatever protec-
" tion and aid it might be consistent to render, and where therail-
" road might pass through the unconceded lands of the Crown, it
" would confer the right to the Company of using what was necea-
" sary for the purposes of the line ;" — 6. A Government survey of
4«.
tho Railway hetwocn Ilalifux antl Qiicbor wn* mndo l>y Mivjor Wo-
hiiiHon anci Captain Hcnderflon in ISlTniul IS-l^t, ami their Report
— the most valuable eonipilation on the soil, clinmle. nnd repoinn s
of New Scotland in its ancient limita over muilo — was printed by
her Majesty's command, in 1841), for the information of both lloiist's
of Parliament ; — 7. The respective Colonial Assemblies passed first
resolutions and afterwards Facility Acts in favour of the sclienn
npreeing to vcHt in the Company that shall be incorporated for tlio
construction of the work all the vacant Crown lands over which the
Railway may pass to the extent of ten miles on cither side of the
line, together with an annual grant for twenty yeai-s of l;20,0()()
from each province — making £(50,000 per annum — towards the
dividend on the capital invested ; — 8. The presentation, in difl'crent
sessions, of Petitions to both Houses of Parliament from Sir liichard
Broun praying for Committees on the subject, with a view to carry-
ing out the scheme as an imperial measure ; and, finally, the adop-
tion of stops by the Provinces south of the St. Lawrence, to con-
struct the portions of the Railway lying within their own bounds.
Within the ion years of multifarious labour imderf{one by Sir
Richard Broun in raising and carrying foi-ward the standard of this
mighty cause, he has received promises of support for it from suc-
cessive Admip.istrotions ; the leading Statesmen, whether Libeial
or Conservative, in both Houses of Parliament, have viewed it
favourably; the chief organs of public opinion of all shades of
politics have cordially advocated it ; and both at home and in the
Colonies men of enlarged views have spoken, written, and published
addresses, articles, pamphlets, and volumes on the topic sufliciently
numerous if collected and bound up to form an extensive library.
Further, pari passu with these movements, the rival enterprise
started by Mr. Whitney (of which some notices follow, and which
was first heard of in this country some months posterior to the
promulgation of Sir llichard Broun's project) has received the sup-
S)rt of nineteen different States of tne American Union ; whilst n
ill to incorporate a Company to carry it out was introduced into
Congress in June last, and advanced some stages preparatory to its
being finally dealt with in December.
Under these circumstances, the time may be considered to have
arrived when an united and vigorous effort ought to bo made by the
Press and the people of this country to urge upon both Houses of
Parliament during the course of next session the policy and ne-
cessity of passing a measiire to incorporate the Promoters of Sir
Bichard Broun's project, with authority to them as a Company, to
exercise colonising powers equivalent to those which were delegated
by the Crown to the Scottish Baronetage in 1625, and which were
ratified and approved by the Estates of Scotland in Parliament
ttiit»embled in tne years 1630 and 1633.
Before proceeding to develop the heads of a Bill for this purpose,
it may be proper to remind the British public, whose attention to
matters in the West has been diverted by the war in the East, that
about a twelvemonth ago the New York correspondent of the
Times wrote to say that Mr. Whitney's scheme was then exciting
a very general interest through the lengtli and breadth of the
rinited States. " It is," said he, " the theme of universal discus-
" sion in conventions, state legislatures, and public bodier) of every
" description. Information on the subject is read with avidity, and
"the Federal Gorernmont has taken hold of the matter with
" earnestness. Since all doubt is now removed about the early
" construction of this great continental highway, which is destined
" to effect in a greater or leaser degree the fortunes of every civil-
*' ized nation, it has grown into favour with all sections and parties.
" Nobody is opposed to it — everybody says it must and shall be
" made. It has become the hobby of demagogues, and is working
" in the brain of statesmen. Everybody wants some share in the
" glory of the work, everybody is disposed to help it along. The
" last Congress, under the pressure ot public opinion, appropriated
" 100,000 dollars for the survey of three distinct routes to the Pacific
" — all lying between the British possessions on the north, and tlio
"States of Mexico on the south. The writer then proceeds to
state that the prevailing opinion then was that a Company would
be formed, with power to raise 1(X),000,0(X) dollars (the estimated cost
of the road), the various States through which it will pass giving
liberal donations of the public domain. The revenues from the
traffic on this route would, it is calculated, be very great. " If only
" the same number of passengers," continues the writer, " went
" over it as now regularly cross the Isthmus to and from California,
" at 200 dollars per head, it would give the road an income of from
" 40,000,(X)0 dollars to 50,0(X),000 dollars per annum. But the freight
" business would be incalculable. The commerce of the Pacific Ocean
" and the Eastern Asiatic world would flow through this new channel.
"New York would be brought within twenty days of Canton —
" nearer than England can ever be. It is thought, too, that so vast
" would be the influence upon the commerce of Europe, it would
" not only affect the business now done by the Cape of Good Hope,
" but perhaps in the end change the channels of European and
" Asiatic commerce. Be this as it may, the Pacific railroad, if it is
" ever completed, seems likely to affect the business of the entire
"world."
So much from this authority : but further back on the 27th of
March, 1851, an article appeared in the Neio York Tribune, which,
after adverting to Mr. VYhitney's idea as one of a vaster and more
inspiring enterprise than the political and industrial world had ever
before attempted, states : — " The route through British America is
" in some respects even preferable to that through our own territory.
" By the former the distance from Europe to Asia is some thousand
" miles shorter than by the latter. Passing close to the northern
" shore of Lake Superior, traversing the water shed which divides
"the streams flowing towards the Arctic Sea from those which
" have their exit southward, and crossing the Rocky Mountains at
" an elevation some 3000 feet less than at the Soutn Pass, the rail-
" way could here be constructed with comparative cheapness, and
" would open up a region abounding in valuable timber and other
" natural products, and admirably suited to the growth of grain
"and grazing. Having its Atlantic sea-port at Halifax, and its
" Pacific dep6t near Vancouver's Island, it would inevitaljly draw
" to it the commerce of Europe, Asia, and the United States. Thus
" British America, from a mere colonial dependency, would assume
"a controlling rank in the world ; to her other nations would be
" tributory ; and in vain would the United States attempt to be her
" rival, for we could never dispute with her the possession of the
" Asiatic commerce, or the power which it confers. But the matter
" reaches beyond the suggestions of national interest, and has a
"wider scope than the mere sentiment of patriotism. We had
'"k^.
N-
M
9
17*
\
" hoped that this ficpublie might make the easy effort necessary tn
" grasp a prize so magnificent, but wo shall hail with satisfaction
" the actual conimcnccment of such a work wherever and by
" whomsoever it is undertaken."
The Pennxt/lvania Iiiquiret' of tlio 4th of April following, cites thn
above remarks, and then adds — " Wo hope that this golden, niug-
" nificent opportunity of the United States to take and hold for
** ever the greatest prize ever ofl'orod, or which can ever again be
"offered to any nation, is not so far gone — is not sacrificed without
" hope of recovery. But the prospect, we confess, is a gloomy one.
" On the 3lHt Congress will devolve this great reproach — this fearful
" responsiijility. A bill for the Whitney liAiLKOAU was reported
" to both Houses, and a majoritv, as understood, was ready to pasi
" it. But the chance was not afforded, and hence nothing was done.
"Great Britain has only waited for this failure in the American
" Congress. Already funds have been obtained there at three-und-
"a-half per cent, to make tlio railroad from Halifax to Quebec and
" Montreal. From (Quebec and Montreal the route to I'uget's
" Sound is a straight line, feasible, making the distance from EngTand
" to China 1500 miles shorter than over the United St ,i : os. We have
" postponed if not sacrificed the most splendid <^p(<i)rtunity of
"wealth — OF commercial and polittcalouandeur— ever brought
" within the grasp of any nation, and passed it over to a rival as
" nothing worth ! What culpable indifference to the true interests
" of a great nation ! "
With these observations before us ; and seeing that " from Lake
Superior to the Bocky Mountains we imperatively assert Nature,
by all her means of earth, air, and water, has marked this tbact of
lAMD as one which the presiding genius of human prosperity has
expressly till now reserved for the predestined scene of the greatest
traffic which the world, with all its commercial records, has ever yet
known ;"* Sir Richard Broun is now engaged in preparing a Bill
which he hopes shortly to introduce into Parliament, with the
concurrence of the Government, for the threefold purpose of con-
necting the shores of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans by means
of a Main Trunk Bailwat, founding a central empire upon
monarchical principles between the Great Lakes and Georgia Gulf,
and giving such a regulated impulse in futtire to colonisation in the
Western Hemisphere as shall cause it to solve most of those
f)roblem8 connected with population in the British islands, which
brm the master difficulty of the age in which wo live.
This Bill will ask from Parliament the necessary powers : —
1st. To constitute a British Company in accordance with
the views submitted by him to Mr. Gladstone when Colonial
Minister in 1846, whereby the State would have a share in the
management, the patronage, and the profits of the Company.
2. To raise the capital needed partly by means of shares in
the money markets of the United Kingdom and of the British
North American Colonies ; and partly by means of redeemable
Land Notes, in the way that Pennsylvania was settled in
1674, where, according to the testimony of Hume the historian,
" the land itself, which was the chief commodity, was coined
" and passed into circulation."
* Britain Redeemed and Canada Preserved. London : Longman & Co.
1850.
wm
10
3. To levy, in consideration of separate grants of land along
the lino of railway, asaessnifiits upon the chief towns in the
United Kingdom, according to the precedent set by James I.
in 1G12, wlicn ho "csted the plantation of the royal province of
Ulster in the t\vci»e principal Livery Companies of the City of
London ; whereby every municipality in the mother country
woidd, instead of workhouses, night asylums, aoup kitchens,
and all the other debasing expedients for keeping alive and
nourishing pauperism, have a vent and patrimony — generation
after generation — for the rising youth of both sexes for whom
no profitable employment is to bo found at home.
4. To exercise all leasing, banking, mining, shipping, fishing,
trading, and other powers necessary for settling the vacant
lands acquired by the Company, and making their natural
resources available.
The amazing progress of events in Great Britain and Ireland
during the last ten years — within which limited space of time the
following figures, viz. : —
Capitul nnthorizrd hy
Share? and Loans.
Sessions.
Acts pnased.
1844-5
48
£20,15 4,697
1845-6
122
59,499,452
1816-7
270
131,713,206
1847-8
193
44,213,139
1848-9
85
14,620,471
1849-0
34
3,155,032
1850-1
34
4,115,632
1851-2
61
. . 9,553,275
1852-3
51
4,333,83 1
1853-4
. ... 10(5
15,517,602
illustrate the progress of the Railway System at home — vender
it unnecessary to enter into any lengthened argument in support
of what is above thrown out as seeds for public thought on this
enterprise, between this time and the next meeting of Parliament.
It ought to suffice that Great Britain and her noble and still
attached offspring the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
and Canada — emphatically our home colonies, and shortly, let
us trust, to be the trunsatlantio half of the British monarchy —
have offered to them the alternative either of doing this great work
now, or of allowing, by their joint supincness and common want of
foresight, a jealous rival to carry out a counter-project which may
supersede it altogether, or at least postpone it for an indefinite
period.
For the prompt and successful accomplishment, however, of
Sir Bichard Broun's vast scheme — which combines the creation
of a Human Polity as well as the making of a trunk railway —
something in addition to the formation of a Joint Stock Company
is required. Why is colonization in the nineteenth century not
dignified as it was by the wisdom and patriotism of Kings and
Catinets in the early part of the seventet nth century, and raised to
be a national institute P Her Majesty has the other day conferred
baronetcies upon two Canndian gentlemen. Why does not the
Queen confer baronetcies upon two hundred Canadian gentlemen,
with grants of land and privileges, legislative and otherwise, similar
to those bestowed by James I. and cliarlcs I. on the Scottish baro-
nets P Again, why is the hereditary Viceroyalty of New Scotland
not revived in the person of the senior co-heir of Sir William Alex-
11
ander, Viscount Canada and Earl of Stirlinj?, and its semi-rt'^nl
throne on the banks of the Meramichi or St. John surrounded
with the colonising banners of the Baronets of Scotland and Nova
Scotia, their clansmen, and tenantry ? Further, why shoidd not
Canada be placed under the hereditary vice-regal sceptre of a Prince
of the Blood Royal of England, and corresponding vice-royalties bo
now founded one between the Great Lakes and the Kocky Moun-
tains, the other between the Rocky jNtountains and the shores of the
Pacific including Vancouver's Island, and separate orders of Baro-
nets, having territorial grants and political privileges, established to
promote their settlement on principles which shall be in accordance
with those which make Britain the best bulwark of the laws, liber-
ties, and conventionalities o'' mankind P Can we fit out fleets ajid
armies for the Baltic and tue Crimea, and risk the blood and the
resources of the empire to compose the strifes of distant foreign
powers, and can we forget that history records that James I. by a
plantation lever in Ulster accomplished more in nine years to settle
Ireland, than all his predecessors had eflected by means of the
sword in the 440 years which had elapsed since the conquest of it
was first attempted P Assuredly it may now be said that the planta-
tion of Ulster was an act of political wisdom of more importance to
Ireland, to Great Britain, and to Protestantism, than, perhaps, any
other royal act in the history of our country. And with such aids
and implements at our command — such trained bands as Mould
issue year after year from hundreds of municipalities in the I'nited
Kingdom to swell a Crusade of Peace to the remotest confines
of Britain in the Western World — is there any other sovereign
or people on the face of the globe, having so glorious a mission to
perform as is the mission of our race — that namely of founding
new Realms in the humanities of Christianity, of patriotism, and
industry — who would either postpone the doing of such things or
leave tnem unaccomplished P
The overland Main TRrNK Railway from Halifax in Nova
Scotia, to Fort Laugley or some adjacent port in New Caledonia,
is about 3000 miles ; and assuming that the construction of the line
will average £5i 00 per mile, the whole expense in round figures
would be £15,000,000 — of which two-thirds may be raised bv land
notes. The following figures show the overland distance, average
time of transit, and estimated cost : —
From Ilalifux to Quebec
„ Quebec to Fort William
„ Fort William to the Pacific.
Total
Milos.
(i3.5
1050
1300
Honrs.
. 25
12
. 52
11!)
Cost.
£3,175,000
5,250,000
fi,r,no,(too
tl f,<J25,OUO
As however railway communication from the Atlantic to Quebec
is now onen, and the middle distance from Quebec to Fort \\ iiliam
can be accomplished, ad interim, by means of steam-boats, the 13(X)
miles between the Great Lakes and Vancouver's Island is all that
needs to be constructed for the time being. This link alone lias an
Asiatic population of two hundred millions at the one end of it, and
at the other three millions of British subjects, and about four mil-
lions of Americans on the borders of the Great Lakes.
Now by employing convict labour, and by attracting from the
United States those poor hewers of wood and drawers of water who
have reluctantly gone thither from the British Islands since Sir
i;
Ilicliard Broun first developed bis scheme in 1815, as shown by tlio
following emigration statistics, viz. : —
Tears.
To our Colonies.
To the United States
1845
31,803
58,538
mw
43,139
82,239
1817
109,680
142,154
1818
31,0fi5
188,233
1849
41,.367
219,450
1850
32,901
223,078
1851
42,fi05
267,357
1852
32,873
214,261
1853
31,522
230,885
Total
400,315
1,656,195
the whole of this great work may be accomplished within the
space of five years from the date of turning up the first sod. And
simultaneously with it may be founded a Central City in Red
Kiver Settlement — where already there is the nucleus of a com-
munity of about 10,000 souls — with other towns along the line:
whither, in addition ;,o such settlers as the grandeur and magnitude
of the enterprise will certainly attract from both Europe and Asia,
year after year may be drafted from all the infant schools, the Sab-
bath schools, and the industrial schools in England, Scotland, Ire-
land, and Wales, such generous youth as shall prove for colonisation
purposes " the salt of the earth," instead of rotten seed, in th'i*^ virgin
soil, which is destined in futurity to be the theatre of c -nts and
agencies which will exercise the mightiest control for good or evil
over the latter ages of mankind.
Apart from all the moral considerations in the matter — the com-
bined claims of humanity, patriotism, and duty urging the instant
adoption of a project wliich would enable our wilderness possessions
between Halifax and Fort Langley to outstrip all the intervening
stages of national growth, and spring at once, ^jc/* saltum, into im-
portance, population, and power — let it be remembered that if the
emigrants to the United States since Sir Ricbard Broun first pro-
pounded in January 1845 the idea of direct railway communica-
tion with Asia across North America, took with them only so small
a sum on the average as £10 each, this country has thereby lost
upwards of £"16,561,U50. Whilst putting the same value upon the
thews and sinews of each emi^rrant, as a colonising machine, that the
Neto York Herald does, viz., 1,000 dollars, in this way the national
wealth has been depreciated to the extent of 1,656,195,000 dollars,
or £331,237,000 sterhng !
Again, during that time — the last ten years — for Highland desti-
tution, for Famine relief in Ireland, for Poor-rates, for Police ex-
?en8es, and private almsgiving, we have expended fully £100,0(X.),00O.
'urther, within that period, British agriculture was depreciated in
one year, by the unrestricted importation of foreign grain, to the cal-
culated amount of £90,000,000, whilst within six days' sail of our
shores in New Brunswick alone — the future granary of the mother
country — we have 14,000,000 acres of virgin land lying waste and
unpeopled, with the reports of Professor Johnston on our table
showing that the soil of that province produces per acre, on the
average, 17* bushels of wheat and 204 bushels of potatoes, whilst
the corresponding yield in the state of New York, with all its ad-
vanced processes of husbandry, is only 14 bushels of the former and
90 bushels of the latter !
13
It is already sewu years since Lis late Excellency Sir John
Harvey thus spoke relative to SirKicliard Broun's project on open-
ing the Lejjislative Assembly of Nova Scotia : — " The period at, and
" the circumstances under, which we meet afford mo the opportu-
" nity of recommending to your continued attention an undertaking
" second in its importance to none that has ever engaged the notice
" of any Colonial Legislature in any portion of the British domi-
" nious. I allude to the proposed Railway between Halifax and
" Quebec, which will constitute a most important link in that great
" chain of communication which is destined, at no remote period, to
" connect the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean, and to conduct to a
'• British sea port, from those into which it is now forced, that vast
" stream of trade not of our western possessions alone, but of the
" rich and extensive wheat and grain-growing districts of all Central
" America."
Seeing then, as the revenue returns show, that since 1845 our
trade with Europe, Egypt, &c., has increased only to the extent of
£2,192,285 per annum, whilst during the same period the increase
to our Colonies and to the United States excceda £33,000,000 per
annum ; knowing the insidious pohcy that lurks under a railway
communication between Canada and the Atlantic, of which Port-
land in the State of Maine, instead of Halifax in Nova Scotia,
shall be the sea-board terminus ; and considering that the New
York Herald in Julv last made the positive announcement that
despatches from the llussian Government had arrived, offering to
the United States the whole of the Russian territory in North
America; with the knowlndge also that all the railways and great
public works in the United States have been constructed by means
of foreign — i. e., Iuish — labour; that within three years from the
discovery of gold in California, the Americans hacf on the Pacific
coast thirty-seven ocean steamers, and thirteen ordinary steam
vessels, showing an aggregate of 34,986 tons ; that the mines in
Mexico and Australia (which in five years' space caused an augmen-
tation of £85,000,000 in the precious metals) are neither so extensive
nor so useful sources of national wealth as are the salmon, cod,
herring, seal, whale, and other Fishekies of the North Pacific
Ocean ; that the American commercial capital afloat on the four
great lakes is even now estimated at £16,000,000; that Ocean
FKRRY BOATS cau be coustructcd capable of carrjing 2000 pas-
sengers from Galway to Halifax in 5J days, at cabm fares of £10
per head, intermediate ditto, £5 ; and that all intelligent writers
upon the coming fortunes of nations, whether they be tourists,
historians, men of science, or men of the world, are of opinion,
" IF WE WOriD NOURISH A HOrE OF A BKIGUTER FUTUBE, WE
MUST FOLLOW TJIE SUN AND LOOK STILL WESTWARD;" let US
conclude by urging that our gracious Sovereign, on opening
an early session of Parliament, will consider the time has ar-
rived when (to use the language of a colonial writer), " this great
" project shall be held to stand no longer a topic for debate,
" or of narrow or sordid calculation, seemg it involves the con-
" trolling question of national allegiance, and is to settle the
" mighty issue whether the institutions and forms of local govern-
" ment in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada are to con-
"tinue Monarchical, o% are to descend and become republican.
•' Can then the outlay affect either the sober judgment of her Ma-
" jesty's Ministers on the one hand, or of our legislators and people
" on the other P It is to secure to the former sovereignty in the
14
" west ; fighting (rroiuid to curb uud control an ambitious and
"haughty rival; a {^rowing nation of children as customers; a
"homo for surplus population ; a new sanctuary for the free insti-
" tutions of the old world ; a fresh field for practical arts ; another
" and a living reflex of the laws, literature, science, and discoveries
" with which our ancestors have illustrated the past brilliant his-
" toiy, and adorned the present condition of Europe ; and on the
" other, the protection and security of the British flag, sympathy
"with British interests, the glorious inheritance of British freedom
" — the life and impetus of her inimitable constitution; a preference
" in the British markets ; and a friendly brotherhood and relation-
"ship in all she is yet to achieve." Further, let us trust that
Queen Victoria in her next speech from the Throne will not
fail to re-echo the noble eulogium of her representative already
cited in the ears of both branches of the imperial Legislature ;
on the ground that, taking the period at and the circumstances
under which we now live into account, this joint bailway and
COLONISATION I'BojKCT is second in its importance to none that
has ever occupied the attention of the Imperial Legislature, or
claimed the support of a great, free, wealthy, intelligent Christian
nation. And wfij/ so? Because, as a frontier means of defence
against republican tendencies and aggression in the western hemi-
sphere, the right construction of this main trunk railway from the
Atlantic to the Pacific will prove a more enduring and impregnable
rampart than was in days of old against hostile inroads the great
Chinese wall. Because, as a commercial-nexus, it will bind up in-
difisolubly in one mighty Monarchical State the scattered compo-
nent parts of maritime Bhitain on both sides of the Atlantic.
Because, as a colonisation-lever, it may be so m ielded on the broadest
platform of the new world as to raise to comfort and independ-
ence the million masses of the poor and idle whose condition alike
weighs down and dishonours the old. Because, as a pauper-farm-
ing and convict-employing expedient, it may be ro prosecuted as not
only to write up " Delenda est Inopia et Inertia " upon the door-
posts of every workhouse, jail, and penitentiary in the land, but to
extirpate causes which are militant against order, against industry,
against morality, such as silently but certainly are effecting that
within the bounds of the British Islands which Europe armed and
at our gates would fail to accomplish. And finally, because by
giving free scope to the expansive energies of a Kac e yet destined
by Providence so to obey the Divine commandment " Be fruitful
and multiply — replenish the earth and subdue it," as to make obe-
dience to the injunction a blessing instead of a curse, it will prove
the handmaiden to, and harbinger of, that coming reign of goodwill
and peace which is to exalt the closiag eras of mankind in that
transition stage between time and eternity which it is less our doom
than our destiny to overpass.
London,
28//5 December, 1854..
PUBLICATIONS
0»
THE SUBJECT OF Sill EICHAHD BllOUN'S PliOJECT.
I,
Halifax and Quebec Railway,
WITH COPIES OF MEMORIALS, CORRESPONDENCE, REPORTS,
NOTICES, ETC.
London : E. Wilson, Royal Exchange. 1845.
ir.
Scotland in the Western Hemisphere.
London : T. Saundees, Charing Cross. 1850.
iJi.
British and American Intercourse;
LETTER TO THE EARL OF DERBY, PRIME MINISTER.
London : T. Saunuebs, Charing Cross. 1852.
IV,
Three Addresses on Colonization in Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick.
Glasgow. 185C-