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Tous les autres exemplaires origlnaux sont fiimts en commenpant par la premiira page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'iliustration et en terminant par la darniire page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles sulvants apparaitra sur la dernlAre image de cheque microfiche, seion le cas: le symbols — »> signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent ^tre fiim6s A des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul ciichA, 11 est film* A partir de I'anple supArieur gauche, de gauche A droits, et de haut en bas. en prenant ie nombre d'Images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrant la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 .1 GREAT BRITAIN ONE EMPIRE. m >s?v • . ON THE UNION OF THE DOMINIONS OP GREAT BRITAIN ' BY , INTEE-COMMUNICATION WITH THE PACIFIC AND THE EAST VIA BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. \. WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR THE PROFiTABLE COLONIZATION OF THAT WEALTHY TERRITORY. BY CAPT. MILLINGTON HENRY SYNGE, ROYAL ENGINEERS, F.R.G.S. LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND. MDCCCLII. LONDON : SAVILL AND EDWAHDS, fBINTEBS, CHANDOS STIIEET. '^'$%i !,ll CONTENTS. Preface p. v. Introduction 27 The globe vs. Mercator's Projection — Isthmus of Central America — The true shortest road to the Pacific and the East — Gold regions — California, Australia, and Queen Charlotte's Island — The resources of the empire of Great Britain — Their systematic development — Mineral wealth of British America — Fertility — Abundant animal life — Intra-imperial communications — Their proper characteristics — Principles superior to accidents of geographical position — Vital integration of all the dominions of the Crown — Bonds of national union — Crisis and opportunity — Means of intercourse and their effects — The Church in the colonies — Necessity of policy of an imperial character — Value of the British- American route — Great Britain viewed without it — Condition of India — Progress of Russia — France — Boutes via America — Mr. Squiers — Policy of the United States — Annexation — Bulwer and Clayton con- vention — Injustice of keeping British America in a wilderness condition — Not much longer possible — Error of supposing the interests of Great Britain and of the United States to be necessarily opposed to each other — Instruction conveyed by the Confederation — Mutual advantages — OLD England in the New World — A hope. PART I. 1 . The Aim and Unity of the various features of the Enterprise 53 2. Important Bearing of Means of Communication on Eastern Supremacy . 54 HP IV CONTENTS. 3. Imperial Character of the Proposal . . . . . p. 55 4. The Route as connecting the Extremities .... 57 Distances — Speed — Winds — Currents — Electric telegpraph — Salubrity — Connexion — Inviolability— Commercial, maritime, industrial, and colonizing results. 5. The Route in its Component Parts 60 The Atlantic carried to the foot of the Rocky Mountains — The Welland Canal— The Erie Canal. The Links 62 1. Falls of St. Mary— 2. To Rainy Lake— 3. To Lake Winnipeg — 4. The Rapids of the Saskatchewan — (The , Churchill and Saskatchewan rivers — Routes to Peace river — Character of the navigation — Scenery — Country and climate)— 5. The passage of the Rocky Mountains — Sources of chief rivers — Route of Sir Alexander Mackenzie — The passes — Melting of the snow and ice- Modelling of still-water navigation — Land passage — General remarks — 6. Descent to the Pacific — The East reproduced in the West — Western terminations of the Route. _ Further Abbreviation of 1500 miles 71 Rivers and lakes emptying into Hudson Bay by Port Nelson river — Actual use and value of the route. PART IL Eastern Terminations — The Route in the existing Provinces 73 Principle of westward progress applied to the development of the eastern provinces — Superiority of the British- American route equally characteristic of its several parts — Position of the British- American seaports — Ad- vantages frustrated — Necessity of railroads — System of communication — 1. From Lake Superior and Lake Huron to the ocean— 2. From Lake Erie to the ocean — The Caughnawaga Canal — Supreme importance of supe- riority of intra-imperial communications — National alle- giance affected by the system and balance of intercourse CONTENTS. V T — The local interest and highest ultimate development of British America — Railroads throughout the Gulf Provinces — The Quebec and Halifax railroad — The St. Andrews and Quebec railroad — Central railroad — System based upon maximum of proportionate effect rather than minimum of cost. Initiatory Measures and the Continuous Railroad^ p. 83 Pre-arrangement — Comprehensive aims — Actual execution —Value of the great waters — Necessity of accurate topographical knowledge — Systematic supervision and direct control — Under what circumstances necessary and applicable — First principles and results — Initia- tory communication— Branch frontier lines — Grand trunk railroad and branches — Huron and Ottawa navi- gation — Bearing upon St. Lawrence, Welland, and Rideau canals — Railroads in the Gulf Provinces. Colonization. . 91 Involved in the construction of the route — Co-operation and combination — Colonization of British character of universal interest— Action and reaction between the mother country and the colonies— Necessity of coloni- zation — Inducements— Unity and uniformity — Simple and elementary laws of — Applied to the circumstances and opportunities of Great Britain. , Emigration, Labourers, and the Poor 98 Emigration — Its importance — Condition of a country de- pendent upon, that of the labouring classes — Industrial training — Its importance, and almost universal compa- rative neglect. — Advantages of the route — Individual elevation inferior to class amelioration — Slavery direct and indirect, avowed and real — Necessity of reconcilia- tion. Ways and Means, and System op Execution . . .102 Necessary qualifications of the system— Local resources ultimately furnish the means of development — Rules of valuation — Fundamental principles — Improved value, reproduction, co-operation — Two classes of emigrants VI CONTENTS. — Training and cmigrational houses of reception — Beneficial effects — Combination of instrumentalities — The Gospel — Change of Prospects — Practicability- Nature of system. Computations p. 107 Section I. — The ' Homes. ^ — Principles and preliminary remarks — Table of income and expenditure — Expenses of second yenr — Carried on for four years — Table of income and expenditure, fifth year — Table of data. • Section II. — TJie Works. — Works carried out from the labour and returns from the second class or reclaimed emigrants — Number of emigrants — Amount of funds. The Construction of THE Works 115 Comprehension of aim, and co-operation in execution of the essential principles — Comparison with the works, and size, and circumstances of the Netherlands. Conclusion 118 Summary of objects, inducements, facilities, and obstacles — High aims, co-operation — Facilities and difficulties — Belative aspect of — Resources — Fisheries — Bounties of Divine Providence — Mackenzie's (ixoposal — Increased importance since his day — Indian appeal — National duties — Divine judgment. / ^n . '. \ EXPLANATION TO ACCOMPANY THE MAPS. Map of North and Central America, showing various methods in which it has been proposed to connect the Atlantic and Pacijic Oceans. 1. By the Atrato and San Juan rivers, South America. 2. From the Niapipi river to the Gulf of Cupica, South America. 3. Chagres to Panama, Central America; railroad constructing. 4. Chiriqui Lagoon to Golfo Dolce, Central America. 5. By the river and lake San Juan de Nicaragua, Central America, (steamers ply upon them.) Various terminations on the Pacific. 6. Bay of Campeche to Tchuantepec, Central America — the most eligible route in Central America. 7. New Orieans to the Pacific 1 United States ; Mountains 8. San Louis to San Diego ) impracticable. 9. Chicago to Paget Sound. The best line in the United States. 10. Continuous railway ) Through British America. The 1 1 . Continuous navigation ) hest routes on the Continent. 12. Summer route through Hudson Bay. 1 I u-' " i ' » ■ r yy- \:- PREFACE. THE increase and improvement of the means of general intercommunication is essential to the maintenance and progress of the conmercial relations of England. The subject involves that of colonization, inasmuch as — independent'^ of the considerations which render it necessary to pay the first and prin- cipal attention to those channels which foster the largest amount of commerce, and are the most secure, — the most advantageous and complete system of universal intercourse lies very principally through British seas and territories, and the terminations of many of its parts, and the most convenient and profitable coaling, victualling, and commarcial sta- tions, are colonies and dependencies of Lngland. Three courses appear open to the empire which possesses these facilities, and that which may be pursued will in all probability largely affect her future. It would not seem impossible to trace the results beforehand, and that with some distinctness, that would attend the adoption, or the non-adoption, of a system of intra-imperial communications, and which would be proportioned to the greater or less degree of perfection with which it might be organized B VI PREFACE. .■ 'I i!' il- in respect of extent, frequency, speed, and indepen- dence, and on its being accompanied, or not, by the integration of the various dominions of the Crown, so as to form one empire, characterized by unity of policy, interest, and faith, in other words, by nationality. Colonization, which is the generation of a new community in the lineaments of an existing one, requires first of all that the characteristics of the parent stock should be understood and valued. To be conducted successfully, it moreover calls for suffi- cient judgment to appreciate the broad though delicate distinction between principles, duties, and privileges, which admit of no variation, and their external expressions, which are almost as little compatible with uniformity in different localities. Neither the greatness nor the excellency of an enterprise will be questioned which contemplates extended intercourse between the important, nu- merous, and widely-separated portions of the empire; which comprises all the most distant and most populous regions of the earth within its aim; and which looks to so complete an incorporation of the empire as to elevate the duties and birthrights of an Englishman above accidents of place, vir- tually superseding the existence of colonists and colonies, by the practice of real colonization. The stepping-stone is to sketch the system of communication, and to show its feasibility; and it ia of this the following pages treat. I was sailing, about nine yenrb ago, under the ill PREFACE. Vll beautiful islands of the Azores, rapt in admiration of their exquisite loveliness, — a day on which the most brilliant effects of light and shade were rapidly replacing each other, lent every heightening charm to their rich colouring. Stifling, perhaps, a feeling of regret that my destination was not before me, I turned to my companion and only fellow-passenger, a native of the island whither I was bound, and asked whether Bermuda resembled the fairy land of beauty and fertility we there beheld. * Not quite,' was the reply. Certainly the day on which we made its shores was very different. A squall hid the land from our view, our signals for a pilot were fluttering in vain, the master's anxiety could scarcely be concealed, and when at length we were boarded by the keen- eyed negro who was to take us into port, it would seem we had got within the reefs, and had to thank the watchful care of Providence for our preservation. The first tidings we received were of the havoc which that periodical scourge, the yellow fever, had made, and my inquiries for a connexion, the only friend I expected to find upon the island, were met by the reply that he had been carried to the grave on the preceding day. The Royal Artillery were in com- mand of a lieutenant, all the officers of senior ranks having died, and my own corps lost thirty-seven men from its scanty numbers. The master of the freight ship proved a most indifferent steersman in an open boat, and, the sea being still rough, drenched us in going ashore. In b2 Vlll PREFACE. I I ' 'r I the excitement of the moment, my bag had been forgotten to be put into the boat, so that my landing in the dreary and desolate scene presented by the North Tanks, St. George's Island, was attended by circumstances sufficiently saddening, and in a state of bodily discomfort not calculated to remove these impressions. The stolid indifference with which my applications for directions to the barracks was received, — and I had stumbled upon one of the principal personages of the island, — was more depressing than positive rudeness would have been. The troops were, I found, scattered over the island by the kind and thoughtful precautions of the com- mandant ; and it was hoped the fever had run its course at St. George's. ' How much did I attribute to this visitation! Barren grounds, and fallen fences, empty houses, ruined gates, fields of sage-bush ; I read efiects of fever in them all. I was soon to learn, that sad as had been the havoc it had made within the gar- rison, it was no ways chargeable with the neglect and desolation all around. In a land so singularly favoured by nature, and so valuable from situation that it ought to be a perfect, perhaps an unequalled, garden, — the climate of which admits equally of cereals, vegetables, and the choicest fruits coming to perfection, in which most of the varieties of English produce might be grown, and in which many West India plants grow wild, — the culture of the earth could find no favour ! The most questionable spe- culations of the wharf, the ignoble occupations of 1 ; ! ■ PREFACE. IX the mere retail of imported goods, presented more attraction than the tillage of the soil ! Even the ploughing of the deep was passing from the hands of these degenerate islanders, and the most nume- rous vessels and largest importations belonged to citizens of the United States ! That this proceeded from no abstract indifference to gain, no sense of luxurious, if indolent, enjoyment, the eager compe- tition of the counter, and the petty bargains of the store, too evidently showed.* The blame was thrown on nature, and the productiveness of earth denied where groves of orange, lemon, and of lime, scented the air with their delicious fragrance, — where peach and fig tree flourished, where birds alone gathered the berries from dells of coffee trees, and where tobacco, castor oil, and cotton, shed their fruits upon the ground. I began to fear that there might be possessions belonging to Great Britain not altogether rightly used ; and populations of British subjects, without altogether either national feelings or national cha- racteristics. ' • * The governor exerted himself to introduce a better state of things, and with some success ; but the inhabitants were utterly wanting in an appreciation of the extended bearings of their re- sources and interests. How wide a field for their peculiar products — cedar, arrowroot, tons les mois, plait, &c., &c.. North America would oflfer. What vast exchanges they might enter into ! It deserves remark, that during the worst ravages of the potato disease, when good seed could nowhere be procured, it was at last brought from Bermuda. Tlie whale trade, too, has almost fallen into neglect, but vessels belonging to the United States are constantly to be seen in the offing in prosecution of the fishery. FREVACE. 1 1 i! Placed where every natural advantage favours exchange with the different products of Europe, North America, and the more tropical West Indies, Bermuda should prize every spadeful of ground inestimably, and supply the north with her golden and downy and delicious fruits, and the south with European growths. Whereas now, provisions paid for in money are imported from New York, Balti- more, and New Orleans, and the very inferior manufactures from the States mostly supply their other wants, her beautiful harbours might be crowded with heavy-laden shipping, and her own sweet-scented cedar- vessels visit the far north-west. Prosperity would then replace her present melan- choly aspect, and healthy vigour praise the Source of mercies where indolence now arraigns it. From the land enshrined by Shakspeare, and sung by Waller and by Moore, I sailed to the shores of that mighty confederation, which, by too much self-confidence, perhaps detracts somewhat from its merits, and beheld a very different scene, — activity abounded, though its directions might be questioned. To me, however, it was still a land sprung from one ancestral stock, — it was a further lesson, and a warning voice from history, proclaim- ing how possible it had been for distant possessions to be overlooked and undervalued, misunderstood and lost. I travelled over scenes where English armies, splendidly equipped, had more than once surrendered, and where, on the king's ground, the king's officer had been hanged for a spy. His execu- PREFACE. tioner has gone down gloriously to fame though he learned his military skill in the service of the country and the master against which he turned his arms ; but he went down laurelled with success. I saw the stalwart sinew of my native land crowd- ing to the shores of the now severed country, and I heard that greater source of strength and wealth than broadest lands without them, affectedly des- pised. I found it building up their rival power, and yet saw the children of my own immediate race in emulation with the negro slave to do the service of the native citizen. * Your countrymen,' was said to me, with true republican feeling, * are our hewers of wood and drawers of water;' and harsher words were added still. I felt their truth, and sighed for the sad degra- dation of my race, which was even seeking such a fate, and wondered when the colonies of England would be made a home for English subjects, and the means of legitimate relief for British suffering. How thankfully and gladly I beheld the broad rivers, the bright air, the glorious loveliness of Canada ! I own I wandered through her cities in astonishment, wondering to find them more attrac- tive, more handsome ; the quality if not the rate of progress far more satisfactory. To see it proved, that in peaceful times, free from political excitement artificially implanted, even the speed of her development kept pace with that of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States; to hear that temporary absentees — as it may be courteous ■■■1! Xll PREFACE. !ii!! ^il!; now to call the former disturbers of her tranquillity, — that even they marvelled at the advancement made during the few years of their absence; to see her noble public works, and study her statistics, were all delightful, but proved quite at variance with the depreciation she had undergone. Why had she not, however, like her sister, though now separated, colonies, new countries growing up around her? Why should th'' vast territory on her west be lying in unfruitful desolation, bringing her no glory, sharing no commerce with her? Why should not her land and the immense adjoining regions be the home of those hated strangers of British race and blood, which were raising up the very strength that scorned them? Why should not the fertile lands of British North America be opened and brought into cultivation by their labour, and these scenes be made the schools of their redemp- tion? A bridge was wanting to the intercourse between Great Britain and her own possessions. There was no direct swift communication; the line of post, the road for passengers, went through the United States. They carried the tide of popular impression with them, and entailed the ebbing of Canadian settle- ment. The British seaboard is nearest to Great Britain ; the far west, even of the United States, can ouiy be reached expeditiously through British territory. Koads, therefore, from the seaboard to the west, would prove the superior position of that territory, PREFACE. • • • Xlll and afford a vast labour-market, and the means of settlement, to the melancholy hordec of angry and suffering expatriated emigrants. Pressed by the agonizing horrors which the tales of Irish famine soon revealed, and by the scenes of wretchedness which Canadian soil reflected, (emi- grants who pursue the cheaper water-route through- out are the only practical proof of the geographical superiority of the position of British America, they pass in transitu to the United States,) I hastily threw a few rough notes together, on the multi- farious resources and broad lands that might be made available with ease, and which were groaning with wasted redundancy as much as Erin was pining with distress. . - Instant application of the remedy — each voice raised that could bear testimony to a fact that could supply relief — were all I thought of. I did not doubt but that which might so palpably be seen, would be made widely known by others. I only thought to help a common cry. I did not doubt but that England would, with such a proof of want as Ireland then presented, open her vast colonial resources upon some splendid plan, and spread her groaning population over her solitary hoards. So noble a field for talent, for investment, for exertion, for philanthropy, would, I dreamt, be filled to overflowing. I foresaw all arrangements made, and the far waters of the west carrying their crowded burdens to prosperity and gladness. I only feared that amid all the various claims of b3 XIV PBEFACE. British colonics, America must not demand too much. I had yet much to learn. Room, relief, were the crying necessities that seemed to admit of no delay, no long deliberation. My first suggestions, framed for momentary use, and hoping to rouse others to attention and more elabo- rate exposition, were confined to the requirements of the hour. They required no grand completeness, no im- practicable preparation. A road (of course a rail- road) through fertile land, to connect the traffic of the interior of British America with its seaboard — a road where the geography of distances demon- strates its obvious superiority — an abbreviation of four hundred miles upon the frontier route of the great lakes — and links, requiring comparatively little labour, to open successive stages of new country, as might be needed, — all severally complete and inde- pendent, were the whole simple scheme. ; Little did I anticipate that, more than four years later, I should still be hoping the same results might be; less, that I should ever mix with it again; and least of all, that, ever since, I should have laboured, hoping in some measure to assist in their eventual and more complete realization. Nothing was done, and I was grieving with no light disappointment, over most threatening news from Canada. It seemed as though England never should believe in the value of any portion of Ame- rica until lost, and should raise it, when a rival, into overwhelming preponderance. I was almost PREFACE. XV without hope. It was then that I received a little work On the Employment of the Capital and Popu- lation of Great Britain in her own Colonies^ by Major Robert Carmichael-Smyth.* That was evi- dently written full of hope. The cause had other champions. Only those who in some cherished cause have felt the gloom of the last setting of its rays, can tell how cheering is the breaking of the cloud, and the new dawn of hope, which has been truly called the charm of every picture, and the life of every prospect. It is given to guide us through our pilgrimage, and to shed gladness over our path. The scheme was boldly and brilliantly sketched. No meeting miserable misapprehensions with falter- ing front and timid conciliation, but a full and bold assertion of the imperial value of the British con- tinent and communication in all its different aspects, and from shore to shore. A railway from Halifax to Nootka Sound ; and now the tale was told. Its objects, its advantages, its importance, its necessity, all stated. The whole was there from end to end. The pleasure which I then experienced was but the preliminary to hope revived and efforts newly entered on; and I have now the satisfaction of numbering the author of that gallant and dashing pamphlet, which was worthy of a soldier, among my personal friends. Mr. J. E. Fitzgerald*s work on the Hudson's * See also a Letter to Earl Grey, by the same author. XVI PREFACE. Bay Company and Vancouver's Island, contains, in its sixth chapter, a sketch of the proposed commu- nication, based apparently on very much the same views as were suggested in the little sketch entitled Canada in 1848, &c. Many others* have also either treated of, or touched upon, the subject. Britain Redeemed and Canada Presented, by Captain Wilson and Mr. A. Bates Eichards, and the works and pamphlets of the Rev. C. G. Nicolay and Mr. Douall, C.E., may be especially mentioned. I should be depriving myself of a great pleasure, were I to omit making my grateful acknowledgments of the kindness and courtesy they have shown me. Nor can I omit a tribute of grateful and affec- tionate remembrance to the memory of my late esteemed and valued commanding officer in Upper Canada, Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle, C.B., R.E. His general information, lengthened local experience, professional ability, and sound judgment, render his opinion entitled to great weight and consideration. Space will not allow me now to refer at length to the identity of his views with regard to unity of system in developing the communications across the continent, nor to his important remarks on the relative positions of those already formed, nor to his advocacy of the Huron and Ottawa, and Trent in- * See particularly Speech by Hon. Joseph Howe, Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia, at Southampton j' The British Empire and the Christian Faith, by G. Troup, &c. PREFACE. XVll land navigation improvements. These subjects must be reserved for a minuter investigation of detail. I cannot, however, resist quoting a passage of singular interest from bis last work, entitled, Canada in 1846:— * Even in our own davs, nearly four centuries after the Colum- bian era, the idea of reaching China by the North Pole has not been abandoned, and is actively pursuing by the most enlightened naval government in the world, and, very possibly, will be aclii#\ed ; and as coal exists on the northern frozen coasts, we shall have ports established, where the British ensign will fly in the realms of eternal .frost. * Nay, more ; we shall yet place an iron belt from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a railroad from Halifax to Nootka Sound, and thus reach China in a pleasure voyage. * I recollect that, about twelve years ago, Mr. Thomas Dalton (of Toronto) was looked upon as a mere enthusiast, because one of his favourite ideas was, that much time would not elapse before the teas and silks of China would be tiiiasported direct from the shores of the Pacific to Toronto, by canal, by river, by railroad, and by steam. * He lived to see an uninterrupted steam-boat communication from England to Lake Superior — a consummation which those who laughed at him then never even dreamt of ; and now a railroad all the way to the Pacific is in progress of discussion.' I would also, before leaving the subject of the mention of those who have contributed to lay before the country some intimation of the vast resources of the empire, and of the duties which those resources necessarily entail, speak in the highest terms of the just and comprehensive views set forth in a most able though unpretending lecture delivered at Glas- gow, by Mr. George Troup, and printed at the request of his audience. It grasps with calmness, dignity, and truthfulness, the varied aspects of its title, The British Empire and the Christian Faith, XVIU i'BEFACE. It will amply repay every one for its attentive perusal. It should never be forgotten, however, and can- not he too strongly impressed, that whilst the sub- ject is that which has from earliest times prompted all western voyages of discovery, the very track traversed, and the very substance of the proposi- tiouf are those of the heroic Sir Alexander Mac- kenzie. Many curious coincidences have at various times concurred to suggest the junction of its proposed extremities. By no means amongst the least in- teresting, is the remembrance that Cook, whose name and fame are identified with the Pacific ter- minations, should have begun his career and have acquired his skill in seamanship, at Halifax. The strange changes which even a very short in- terval of time witnesses, are singularly instanced in the past and present feelings with regard to emi- gration. Whilst a few years ago every one who advocated it was filled with lamentations over the general apathy and indifference that prevailed upon the subject, whilst statesman, pamphleteer, and journalist were all alike complaining, all are now as much amazed at the ceaseless roll of population far away from Britain's shores. This continuous draining movement now rather throws alarm into the opposite scale ; the senseless cry of * surplus multi- tudes* is changed ; the truth is felt and feared ; * The want of people is the destruction of the prince.' Deportations, goings-out, are indeed very different PREFACE. XIX things from migrations to tlif. colonies, and more so still from national colonization. Losing population from Ireland or England has been found to be no element of notional prosperity ; and proposals for systematized emigration are con- sequently in less disfavour than was formerly the case. The real advantages of the position of British America are also beginning to be received, and, though with some simple astonishment, it is being understood that the belt of the equator is neither the shortest nor most eligible communica- tion round the world. The juncture is tliurefore favourable for showing the intimate relation which subsists between the kindred enterprises of coloni- zation and perfected communications, and the vast scenes of productive labour that they would be the means of calling into existence. At such a time it is essentially important that the plans pro- posed should be eminently practicable, and framed upon simple yet comprehensive principles ; other- wise, the newly-awakened interest is in great dan- ger of being appealed to by superficial plausi- bilities, and rash, if not designing, speculations would inevitably end in ruin and disappoint- ment. An amusing illustration of this danger is to be found in Mr. Tyndale's interesting work upon the Island of Sardinia. He gives a prospectus, which appeared during the height of the railway mania, proposing the formation of one in that island, in order to develop its manifold resources. Notwith- XX PREFACE. ili'ii standing the entire groundlessness of its pretended statements, the imposture was more plausible than its wild impracticability would seem to warrant. The railway excitement was at its very height, the island well known to be abounding in many re- sources, all grievously neglected, and to be so naturally favoured as to have been ardently desired by Lord Nelson for the stronghold of Great Britain in the Mediterranean. Railways, there was no dis- puting, were admirable means for developing re- sources; and what combination of circumstances could be more favourable than a country naturally so wealthy, so extraordinarily cheap, in the very centre of civilization, and yet up to that time so entirely overlooked? It thus appealed to vague generalities, and there was no reason why it should not be successful in what were probably its only objects, the victimizing of its dupes. It is almost superfluous to add, that though the island does abound in multifarious resources, they are neglected to this day. Such reasons have influenced me to endeavour to arrange the whole plan here submitted in such a manner as to facilitate its complete investigation under every aspect ; and to frame it so that it may be executed as well from a small beginning as on a scale commensurate with its importance, its objects, and the honour of Great Britain. I would refer the reader especially to those portions of the work which show how completely the whole route is formed of severally perfect links, and request him PREFACE. XXI to bear in mind, that the complete scheme of land, water, and telegraphic communication, Is kept con- stantly in view, although I think the reasons un- answerable, both in number and weight, for, in the first instance, advancing as quickly as possible to the shores of the Pacific, opening the country by water or by land, according to the physical confor- mation of each peculiar part. Perhaps it may be well at onj'i to add a few words with respect to the climate, and the impedi- ment which winter presents to the use of the lakes and rivers. The climate of the region throughout nowhere interferes with the most profitable agricul- ture, and is incomparably milder as the western shores are approached. Happily in both respects there is no need to appeal to reason or probabilities, however strong ; Canada affords an actual proof in both instances. The Lower Province is in many parts less favoured, both in climate and soil, than any portion of country to the west, and the existing development of the whole is, up to this hour, with very trifling exceptions, entirely the result of water communications. Yet it is not proposed to confine the routes to the west to th*^ improvement of the great waterpaths ; but, on the contrary, to use them for the very purpose of forming a continuous rail- way from shore to shore, so soon as it can possibly be carried out, so as to obtain those benefits which it ought to be the means of bringing about. Great stress is sometimes laid upon the changes of tem- perature which result from inhabitation and culti- xxu PREFACE. I' i^ vation, but there is no need to do so. The waters, open or frozen, form the best initiatory roads, and the railroad follows to increase the speed alike in summer or in winter. The occupation of a country does indeed greatly modify the effects of frost and snow. Meteorological registers refute any such erroneous ideas as that the maximum or minimum temperature of the season or day are affected thereby ; but the practical effect is the same where, by the clearing and cultivation of the soil, the power of the sun is brought to bear more directly upon the ground. The depth of the snow and the p ^netra- tion of the frost are thereby diminished ; and as the atmosphere is warmed through the heat absorbed by the earth, and not by the direct rays of the sun, the length of the warm periods is extended, and the coldness of the nights diminished. With regard to the salubrity of the climate, I would refer those who may be in any doubt about the matter, to the accumulated evidence apon the subject, which may be found in topographical and medical notices of the country. The accounts that will there be found, and the extraordinary health- fulness and ordinary longevity that are there on record, run no small risk of quickly filling the land with the invalids and valetudinarians of the world. I wiP. quote one evidence : — * The fevers; and diseases of the States,' writes Mr. Stewart, of Prince Edward's Island, ' are unknown here ; pulmonary consumptions, which are so very common and so very destructive in the PREFACE. XXIU northern and central States, ar^ not often met rith; probably not ten cases have arisen since the Isettlement of the colony. A very large proportion [of the people live to old age, and then die of no [acute disease, but by the gradual decay of nature/ On the subject of the proper system of practical [execution of the artificial navigation, or the various Iprecedents that guide thereto, I have not thought lit advisable to enter. These and many other Idetails,* accumulated during years of watchful- mess and waiting, or studied amidst the scenes [themselves, while employed upon the grand inland navigation of the country, would extend far beyond the limits of the present outline, which, as has been said, is confined to that which must be the stepping- stone to any ultimate measures. Neither have I entered upon the arrangement and supervision, or other matters connected with those who may be the actual labourers upon the work. These, and the high aims of pure Christian colonization, as it might be exemplified by the empire of Great BriL * i, are indeed the objects which I have ever held in view in the whole plan, and to which I have gladly [devoted all spare moments of a life that is being [spent in a branch of the service which, whatever its [various occupations, is seldom an idle one. These * The aspects of the communication^ as a whole, and a few I points in the characteristics of some of its component parts, have jformed the subject of papers read before the Royal Geographical [Society, on the 24th of January, and 9th of February. M ' XXIV PREFACE. lii ilili! details, are, howler, necessarily ulterior in point of time, though immeasurably superior in import- ance, to the task of proving the merits and feasi- bility of the British- American route to the Pacific and the East. I committed my first hopes and efforts to Him to | whose glory the whole creation ought rejoicingly to minister ; and again, I would do so now, more ear- nestly and humbly, if, by His grace, I may. I would lay no sacrilegious hand upon the treasures of the sanctuary to adorn a human hope with rays that are divine ; but deeply persuaded, both that coloniza- tion is eminently a Christian duty, and that to be successful it must be carried out on principles of Christian faith ; and that the development of such a variety of most valuable resources, and the use of so wonderful a combination of favouring circum- stances as will, I think, be fiilly proved to exist, are weighty talents, to be diligently used and ac- counted for ; I hope they may be ruled to the increase of God's glory, the honour of our Sovereign, the wel- fare of her subjects, and the good of all mankind. Now, reader, if you have kindly borne so long in patience with me, I think I can promise that my subject only, and not myself, will, in the remaining pages, be intruded on you. Circumstances which need not be repeated, have induced me to give the foregoing explanation of my entering upon the matter. When carried out, I hope the precepts of the Saviour will be exemplified, in these vast resources being used to ameliorate the physical, PREFACE. XXV lental, and spiritual condition of all, and especially )f the lower classes. * Love,' says the Oxford Graduate, * is the secret of all success ;* lut not its only requisite, or should not have to crave indulgence for the short- jomings of the following sketch; but the blame mst wholly fall on me, for the subject owns no just reproach. Guildford Battery, Dover. H (H ;ii INTRODUCTION. A GLOBE and a glance at it, a string round the surface of the earth, a visit to Leicester- square, or a little attention to absolute geography, suflSce sadly to disturb ideas which incorrect deli- neation and the gold of California have combined to throw around the great system of intra-hemi- spherical communications. That convenient distortion of the surface of the earth, celled Mercator's Chart, or Projection, shows, indeed, in an in'^tant, the admirable abbreviation that is effected on the intercourse between Europe and the Pacific, by crossing the isthmus of Central America. And what can be more desirable than the simple expedient of completing the union of the great oceans of the world where they so nearly join? If anything be wanting, the modern El Dorado would seem to fill up the measure of advantages, and cause the inducements to overflow. Opportu- nities abound, from the Atrato and San Juan of South America to Tehuantepec. Rivers, bays, lakes, and narrow necks of land, have been suc- cessively explored, and successively commended. Panama, Nicaragua, and the Coatzacoalcos, seem 28 INTRODUCTION. to invite, by the facilities they afford, the removal of the last comparatively trifling obstacles. Still the tide of commerce and communication flows not yet unchecked from hemisphere to hemisphere. Alas! Mercator's convenient table surface, easy chart of a rectangular flat, is but a distortion and a delusion after all. Notwithstanding all its attrac- tive charms, the direct and even line that can be traced so smoothly and so facilely between London and its antipodes, is a deceitful phantom, without reality, and suggestive only of error and deception. Alas, the obstinacy of the globe, which persists in its rotundity, proving it, without compunction or remorse, the worst of all the ways to the Pacific and the East ! The sphere continues to exhibit the straight and simple road, according to the chart, a causeless and confusing circuit! The currents and the winds combine against the conformation of the continent, seeming to declare that, even were the isthmus swept away, trade should still seek another route, and climate chiming in, also condemns the false though fascinating fancy. The sphere, the cur- rents, the climate, and the winds, are facts — Mer- cator's chart, the would-be scientific exponent of the earth's surface, the baseless fabric of a vision. The globe, pushing its contradiction to extremiues, forces the line of shortest distance farther and farther north, till palpably coming to irreconcile- able issue with the chart, the really direct and shortest line is found to be through British North INTRODUCTION. 29 America, exactly where the projection of Mercator shows two sides of the triangle it would fain com- plete by a right line from London to Australia ! California and its gold, however! The surface and the sand, the river and the rock, the mountain and the mine — all, all teeming with the precious metal! Alas! the experience of ages, the analogy of nature, are against the southern clime and southern seat of gold. Treasure-laden South America, with inexhaustible stores of silver and of gold, of gem and costly stone, gives warning, trumpet-tongued, I by her distracted and desperate condition. The [fairest regions of the earth, where buried treasures I of the mine, the most prolific productiveness of waters, and the richest fertility of soil, vie in fore- I stalling every human want, and ministering to [every earthly dream of luxury, are melancholy beacons of mercies miserably abused. The gold of that land may be good, but man misuses it; [nature's richest scenes are also the most exquisitely lovely, but man resigns himself to indolence amongst them; the glowing clime with balmy breeze and jrateful shade is that of the cradle of his race, but there he sinks into the slothful Sybarite. Kedundant md luxuriant resources are blessings in themselves ; )ut they enslave and lead into captivity under the enervating influences of the seductions of the south. ^he masters of the universe are trained in sterner schools. In the north, amid scenes of comparative sterility, c w Hilll SO INTBODDCTION. ill i': I' under a harder clime, is the home of industry and lahour ; and the mastery of the world is the reward of steadier toil and hardier vigour. Deeper buried lie the mines of truest wealth. ^ Regions of literal golden treasure are not, how- ever, wanting to the attractions of the true road to the Pacific and the East. Although not the spoils of annexation, neither baptized in blood — not peopled by adventurers the most reckless, nor the most ruthless worshippers of the golden idol, — Australia freely offers up her costly store, and once despised Queen Charlotte's island bids fair to surpass the vaunted land of California in the purity of her metal. Within the pale of order and of law, the bounty of divine Providence has revealed a proportionate supply of the medium of exchange, while population and general resources have been multiplying in prodigal profusion. The evils of a scarcity of gold* are obviated by the timely disco- ' very of long-concealed supplies : the alarm of ruinous depreciation proves unfounded while cor- responding riches of every various kind are abun- dantly poured forth. How vain the fears, and how foolish the terrorist denunciations of the wise, who foreboded inevitable ruin from over-population ; how eternal the coun- sels of the Most High, who joined the fruitfulness and blessing of mankind ! 'In the multitude of people is the king's honour.' *" See Alison's beautiful remarks upon this subject. INTRODUCTION. 31 Situated exactly where the dangers of their cor- rupting abuse are least, and can best be guarded against, these auriferous deposits complete that perfect independence of all other nations of the earth, which must strike every one who weighs the circumstances of the wide empire committed to Great Britain, and which, if pondered over, can scarcely fail to create an overpowering conviction, that a fabric at once so vast, so fully fitted, so wondrously equipped, so variously endowed, must have some corresponding offices, some mighty mission, to fulfil. To point to a few of her resources, and to sketch the application of rapidity of communication, the great instrumentality of the age, to their develop- ment, upon the broad and comprehensive principles that are alone commensurate with their grandeur, and to leave her duty and her destiny to be gathered from them, form the objecc of these pages. ' Many related, indeed many intimately connected, subjects, are necessarily omitted; the allusion to many others scarcely extends to their enumeration ; but it may be hoped the day has passed away when it might be said even of those that have been touched upon, as it has been of kindred suggestions by a valuable and a valued friend,* that the very magnitude of the scheme was one of the difficulties in the way of its success. *' Major Robert Carmichael-Smyth. c2 - ,f M INTRODUCTION. The chain of mineral wealth extends from shore to shore, literally from one ocean boundary to the other. The minerals of Nova Scotia reappear on the Pacific seaboard. The interior of the country furnishes the same valuable products; Lake Supe- rior, the Rocky Mountains, and the Arctic regions, the mountains and the islands of the west, repeat them. Gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, white lead, and plumbago, tin, zinc, nickel, sulphur, and cobalt, and many other metals, might be named. Granites, porphyry, containing chroraate of iron, marbles of every variety and colouring, including statuary marble, rivalling that of Carrara in purity, but surpassing it in quantity; limestones, sand- stones, freestones, flagstones, grindstones, slate, and whetstones, are all actually being quarried. Litho- graphic stone, hitherto supposed to be confined to Solenhofen on the Danube, is found upon Lake Simcoe. Fine porcelain, plastic, pottery, brick, and fine clays abound. Gypsum, hydraulic lime, phosphate of lime, and shell-marl, furnish inex- haustible supplies of invigorating power to the soil. Salt springs and rock salt are plentifully found. Mineral waters, of healing efficacy, have already given rise to many lovely watering places. The more precious stones are represented by opal, ame- thyst, jasper, cornelian, garnet, sardonyx, chalce- dony, verde antique, serpentine, agates, zeolites, and others. The fertility and beauty of these regions have excited the wonder and admiration of succeeding INTRODUCTION. 33 travellers and writers, who appear to labour under the sense of inadequate powers of expression. Florid picturesque description and tabular statistical re- capitulation have in turn been tried to represent the veiled glories of the vast abandoned hunting ground. Blocks of copper weighing 250 tons and valued at 17,000/., shiploads of the same useful metal, and mountains of iron ore waiting for increased facilities of transport, are produced or proclaimed in favour of its mines. Almost incredible returns of wheat, successive crops during a term of years equally beyond ordinary European apprehension; fields of sweetest flowers blossoming in wild luxu- riance, and spreading their delicious fragrance throughout a mourning solitude; gardens in the 58th parallel of north latitude, and farmsteads in the 61st, — are the well-attested evidence preferred to prove its agricultural capabilities. Herds of wild cattle, giving to whole districts the appearance of a stallyard, troops of slaughtered buffalo tainting the air with their decay, piles of wasted animals with only the delicate morsels of the tongue extracted, varieties of deer in countless numbers, flocks of divers kinds of mountain sheep, — show the inex- haustible supplies of animal life. Waters so full of finny tribes that cakes of roe form the habitual food of Indian nations, exhibit the elements in emulation to shower forth their riches. Lakes and rivers intersecting every portion of the country, offer the natural and easy giant paths, by summer or in winter, to the exploration of its every part. Navigable, 1 34 INTRODUCTION. with only comparatively trifling interruptions, and of depth not always to be sounded, they carry the rival oceans from shore to snore throughout the continent, and place the open seas beyond the frozen regions of the north within reach of the Atlantic. Stately primeval forests upon their borders are as it were the living ships waiting to be fashioned to the use of man. Flocks of wild fowl, winged and feathered creatures of many different kinds, present the tribute of the air r and the testimony afforded by the presence of restless, pretty little fluttering humming-birds, and of gaily-plumaged denizens of southern climes, divests the Rocky Mountains of their fabled hyperborean terrors. National considerations, too multifarious to be enumerated, and too obvious to require it, point out the advantages, indeed the duty, of making use of resources such as these, and of rendering them of generd avail. That very intercourse between all parts of the earth which they incalculably facilitate, and which the tendency of the age is sure to bring about, would multiply their value many hundred fold, and the system of carrying it into execution would prove the most perfect instrument for their development. It is almost superfluous to point out the import- ance of having a secure, an independent, and a complete system of quick communication between the scT eral parts of the empire — that empire ex- tends through every division of the earth ; its syst-om of communication, whilst it should be imperial, and INTRODUCTION. 35 must obviously be universal, differs in no respect, in principle, from the intercourse between one parish and another. Geography can never justly affect or limit prin- ciple. Residence within thv3 boundaries of the same empire should never possibly involve a virtual expa- triation. In equity, birthrights must be beyond the sport of circumstances ; the adoption of a colonial career may be the very highest order of patriot devotion, and should by no possibility, far less by invariable fact, be punished with the forfeiture of loved ancestral honour, and of rights whiclx sanctified the cradle. The subject, therefore, embraces within its scope all that can be implied by the highest and most complete vital integration of all the dominions of the crown, — the entire unity of all, — all that the wid ^st and fullest import of colonization signifies ; all the industrial and alleviating results which can attend the emigration of specific super-redundant classes of existing population. This incorporation, which may startle by its vast- ness, and be despi; ed for its simplicity, is ultimately unavoidable; yet is its persevered-in abnegation possible. The paradox is true ; but the results of its rejection would be calamitous indeed. Inter- communication of the most rapid and continual description will assuredly take place between all the several portions of the British empire. It may be made the means of solving all difficulties in the way of her imperial integrity. England at present may 1 36 INTRODUCTION. ll!i !!l,ii'inii ii r :i' create, control, and guide it ; but if she fail to do so, even though precisely the same amount of inter- course should take place between precisely identical localities, it would no longer be between the magni- ficent appanages of her crown and sway. There are but three principal bonds of national union — language, faith, and interest. Her language is already that of her most encroaching rival, of, in some respects, her most inveterate foe, and her most watchful adversary ; her religion she has ceased to elevate with the deep devotion and singleness of true belief, which are alone compatible with faith ; the supposititious interests of her several dominions are now in frequent actual antagonism, in down- right subjection and inferiority to advantages lavished upon strangers with incomprehensible excluslveness. Carefully avoiding the exaggeration and en- thusiasm with which we are apt to view the cir- cumstances of the age in which we live, we cannot hide it from our eyes that the most portentous issues seem to hang on her decision. She may consolidate hei vast possessions, and virtually rule the world, not less by example — the example of unparalleled peace, prosperity, and virtue, — ^than by power ; or she may scatter her empire to the winds, breaking it into fragments and perpetuating angry ani- mosities. To trace the weakening influences that are un- dermining the stability of the colonial empire were a subject in itself, and an important one it is; the 1^1' INTRODUCTION. 37 total absence of national imperial unity of spirit, which is but too apparent under every form, leaves nothing to resist them. Under such circumstances, contrary interests must at length prevail, to the passing away of that empire which even the enemies of England acknowledge the noblest as well as the greatest that has yet been seen on earth. A dis- ruption, or a dissolution even, were not less preju- dicial to the interests of the colonies^ empires in themselves, than to those of the mother country ; and that great system of mutual intercourse which may now be extended between the mighty parts of the same great national family, would be deprived of half its value, if, indeed, it remained a practi- cable problem. ^ i The powerful action and reaction of means of communication upon the interests of a commercial people demand that the channels of intercourse should be continually fostered, guarded, facilitated, and watched over with jealous solicitude. So long as they are maintained in a position of intra- natio£»al superiority, the higher the development th^ ibreign exchanges may attain, the greater the irt ^ -e of prosperity ; but wherever and whenever intra-iiv^tional communications are suffered to fall below the intercourse maintained rith other coun- tries, an element of weakness is at work, propor- tioned to the strength, zeal, activity, and en- croaching propensities of foreign powers. These facts apply with peculiar force to the cir- ciiustances of the British empire, and especially to c 3 38 INTRODUCTION. if; li: .Jill' i'l I '!, M :-it those of British America. At the present moment, although, contrary to every natural feature of abso- lute and physical geography, the main communica- tions both of Great Britain and British America are with the United States; the advantages of a hundred years* start in the race of development, and the amazing energy and determined self-reliance which the circumstances of the breach aroused, and rendered indispensable, have combined to bring this result about. It has been followed, and again reacted upon with ever-increasing effect, by the covering of the thirteei older colonies with a network of steam communic^ is, by land and water, while the British continent remains without a single independent line from the seaboard to the immense interior! Such is ever the effect of a first step, whether for good or evil ; action and reaction ensue, and magnify the results of the initiatory measure to which it is so often difficult to gain attention. Left uncontrolled in the present instance, they must go on perpetually adding to the evil, and hastening the solution. An overruling of the present state by systematic effort and upon a pre- arranged plan, is indispensable to the healthy tone, if not to the continued existence, of British nationality upon the western world. The interests of the whole empire are involved, and the wisdom and assistance of the government and legislature of the empire should be earnestly ap- pealed to. There is one peculiar circumstance in no little INTRODUCTION. 39 3 danger of being overlooked, tut which gives warn- ing that the time for decision and actiop is at hand. So long as interests only, or even interests and passions only, were arrayed against the mother country, however unsafe such a condition, however unwise to leave it so, they would at least be opposed, even in the colonists themselves, by the last lingering longings after the associations of home, of ancestry, of tradition, and of love. The infant church of America was the last stronghold of England, south of her present boundary, and who can say how much she has availed to soften the asperities, bitter as they still are, against her? The churches in the colonies are rapidly becoming churches of the colonies, rather than branches of the imperial church. The proceedings of assem- blies of bishops and clergy in Australia, Tasmania, the Cape, and America, have assumed much of a metropolitan character, and many of the clergy themselves have at once perceived the insidious danger, not to outward ecclesiastical uniformity only, but to national connexion and imperial unity. There needs but the effect of time to give a colonial, rather than an imperial tone to the clergy and their congregations, — and not one high or holy tie would then be left to fight against blindnass, passion, or self-interest, whenever, unfortunately, any misunder- standing might arise between the mother country and the colony. The time is come when it would be wise to act upon the simple principle, not less ! 99 4Q INTRODUCTION. 1 il lUlil 3 ^W reasonable than just, and elevate the privileges of the subject above the accidents of geographical position, and endow laws, administration, and commercial regulations, with inherently expansive powers CO extensive with the limits of the empire. An imperial policy — and it is no great marvel that it should be so — is essential to the well-being, or even the continued existence, of a great empire, and no time could be more opportune or favourable to its establishment, than that which alike in- creases its necessity, the carrying out of perfected communications between its widest limits. The position of Great Britain, were she deprived of it, can alone give an adequate appreciation of the benefits which she may reap from the development of the British- American route. India, if left in sole dependence upon those by the Mediterranean for quick and frequent intercourse, is in an isolated condition, which forms a continual incentive to intrigues against the power of England in the East. Just when most urgently required, these routes must always fail. It is unnecessary to insist at length upon the progress of Eussia, and the formidable power of an empire, led by a single and that a master will, and which extends over three divisions of the earth. In Western Europe her influence has become decided ; throughout Asia, it advances, and is rapidly closing upon our most unsettled frontier. Her armies join those of her Austrian ally, upon the borders of Turkey, and all the coasts of the Black Sea are commanded by a splendid INTRODUCTION. AI fleet. From Turkey, almost at her mercy, she would quickly cross the Bosphorus, and the children of A.esur might revive the pride of their progeni- tors, and reawaken the alarms and dangers of universal dominion, on the scenes of the ancestral glories of their race. France, too, might lend her aid to humble us at our most vulnerable point. In short, the more absolute dependence is increased upon the Suez or Euphrates routes, the greater the provocation to their interruption, the more disastrous its results. A communication independent of the possible commotions of Europe or of Asia, is, therefore, of the first importance. It can only be found across the continent of America. Many ways have been proposed, from those in Columbia in South Ame- rica, up to the very British frontier. An actual communication, though on a very limited scale, exists between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, by means of the Atrato; but contrary winds prevent its being made either a serviceable or an expedi- tious one to any westward point. The lines between the gulfs of Darien and San Miguel, or the Chiriqui Lagoon and Golfe Dolce, are inferior in facilities for execution to those of Chagres and Panama, of San Juan de Nicaragua and the Gulf of Fonseca, of the Coatzacoalcos and Tehuantepec. The two latter favour the carrying out of a water communication, the former, the construction of a railroad, which ere long will probably be completed. The Nicara- guan river presents what are deemed insuperable 42 INTRODUCTION. tm difficulties to an oceanic sh'p canal; and the Pacitic approach by the port of Salinas is inferior to that of the Gulf of Fonseca. The alarms of Russia and the dangers of Europe might perhaps be avoided here; but slight, after all, would be the gain. The line of approach, though indeed in a measure supported by ruinec' and disaffected West-India islands, is along the coast of another riyal power, the pretensions and affections of which are not con- cealed. Even for steamers the advantage in dis- tance is questionable ; while for sailing vessels it is, in some respects, positively inferior to the routes of Cape Horn and of Good Hope. The climate, too, and other difficulties, would render, it of very questionable bv^nefit, or rather, a decided source of weakness, not of strength ; a harbinger, not of vic- tory, but of defeat. Were it, however, even ever so desirable abstractedly, the alternative in point of national security were but the choice between Scylla and Charybdis. Mr. Squiers's narrative was scarcely needed to reveal the cherished hopes of the democratic party of his country. The policy of the Confederation has never swerved from the sentiments he openly an- nounces — 'America for the United States;^ 'predo- minance on the Pacific;* * everywhere maritime and commercial ascendancy;' * dominion in the New World' — 'control over the Old.' Colonies of England, fare ye well ! Cuba, Canada, and California were called, not many years ago, the three coveted C's of the Confe- deration. One has been obtained ; the attempts to INTRODUCTION. 43 Pacific to that da and Lvoided ! gain, leasure t-India power, ot con- in dis- ils it is, 5 routes climate, of very )urce of of vic- m ever 1 point >etween ided to c party ion has nly an- ^predo- meand e New igland, i allure or seize the others have as yet been thwarted ; but the covetous desire burns strongly as ever. Her Majesty ^s territory has already been freely par- celled out; even the present provinces of British America are, with Oregon and Vancouver's Island, * to furnish ten states to our confederacy !' New- foundland, Labrador, and Oregon, are to be exalted into * territories ;' and, with some truth, they add, * Oregon, from the forty- ninth degree to the Russian boundary, is the New England of the Pacific, [in all save the rigour of the eastern climate,] and capable of supporting as much ropulation and in- dustry as the New England of the Atlantic' Mean- while the eye rolls over the West-India islands, where the energetic citizens would quickly solve the problem of renewed prosperity, either by tariff or slavery ; it scans the southern sister continent, looking upon Mexico and Central America as tribu- tary provinces already ; and the annexating appetite is soothed, or whetted, by the 'tranquil absorp- tion' of the Sandwich Islands. Japan is threatened with invasion, and no unintelligible signs appear of a desire to supersede the power of England in the East. No doubt there are numbers in the republic whose gentler spirit and quiet mind cause them still to regard the land of their origin with affection, and who, though proud of their own unequalled progress, can afford a space in other realms for other nations and other powers — ffoni soit qui mal y pense; but as their influence never yet prevailed to ward off war, repudiation, annexation, hostile invasions i u INTRODUCTION. |:, '.lliirilll'l of the territories of allies, piratical descents, or boldest boundary claims, they were an insecure sup- port to build upon, and likely to become continually of less avail against the sterner dealings of less scrupulous compatriots. The Report of the UnitedrStates Committee on Naval Affairs is quite as explicit, but far more formidable, than the amusing national and personal egotism of the ex-charge d'affaires. It expresses state policy, not individual animosity. * We shall have,' writes the committee, * the advantage .... admitting that European ships will come freighted to the railroad on this side of the Isthmus, with cargoes intended for the markets of the Pacific uud China. That, howe^'^^r, will not be the case. The large number of vessels boniiu to the ports of the United States for cotton, rice, tobi«cco, lumber, €our, provisions, &c., &c., will bmg the freights for those markets as ballast or cargoes, when they will be conveyed to the railroads in our own fast-sailing coasting vessels and steamers, which will also bring to us the commerce of the Pacific. ' This is very obvious, because if European ships were to sail with full cargoes direct to the railroad, they would run the risk of being compelled to return without ft'eight, or come to the United States for it. * We are so much nearer to the Isthmus than [are] the ports of Europe, and our means of communication and information will be 80 frequent and certain, our lines of steamers and coasting-vessels ■o constantly on the alert, that heavy European freighting vessels will find it quite impossible to compete with them. * The construction of this railroad will throw into our warehouses and shipping, the entire commerce of the Pacific. ' The spirit and genius of the American [^anglicb, United States] people and the extent of our territory proclaim clearly enough that we are to become the legitimate heirs of a vast commerce, that shall spread fleets of steam-ships over the bosom of the peaceful ocean. * The commerce from Europe to the East Indies, China, and the west coast of this contment, will be forced to ... . fall into our hands.* Vires acquiret eundo ! INTEODUCTION. 45 jnts, or ire sup- binually of less ige . . . . le railroad te markets the case, he United , &c., &c., roes, when g coasting nmerce of re to sail le risk of he United ports of m will he ig-vessels tg vessels rehouses |d States] >ugh that that shall ocean, and the into our ' Whether any considerations of this nature have been the secret cause of the failure of all efforts hitherto made to ojien a commu- nication across the Isthmus of Panama, we pretend not to say ; but we think it by no means improbable that men who now hold in their hands the pursestrings of the world, would decUne taking any steps which would so evidently deprive them of their com- manding position, and transfer the seat of the money power to our shores.' So far as the influences of Central American routes can extend, it remains no longer a question of contingent and possible policy, but of policy already in action. It is true the violent pretensions of Mr. Squiers failed of their full success, and the Bulwer and Clayton treaty happily obviated the alternative of a war or a most calamitous capitulation. Even the convention will scarcely bear minute investigation. The guaranteed neutrality, however fair-sounding, is as unequal in its results as the concessions by which it was established. Great Britain surrendered the advantages result- ing from her long connexion with Mosquito, and the virtual possession of Grey-town, the Atlantic port of the proposed canal. She yielded those accruing from the previously-made concession to her of the route through Costa Rica, with the outlet of Salinas. She gave up a fair and honourable opportunity of completing the chain of her com- munications round the globe, by an important link, over which she might have secured to herself, simply by its construction, and without injustice, an abso- lute control. The United States, on the other hand, yielded a contract made with the state of Nicaragua, pre- u INTRODUCTION. i j ! tending to bestow rights and property belonging to the kingdom of Mosquito, and joint rights of the state of Costa Rica ! To have attempted to enforce a claim so prepos- terous would have been tantamount to a declaration of war — a war which Great Britain could only have avoided by abandoning her old ally. To have done so would have proved the deathblow of her influence throughout Central America, and of her commerce with the adjoining countries, and have merited the strong censure that has been applied to the contingency.* ' The government that would propose to cowardly an abandon- ment of an inoffensive and honest people, struggling for their rights, would, with justice, be held up to the execration of man- kind.* As to the neutrality. Great Britain alone was interested in completing her naval and military com- munication with the Pacific. The ocean is her means, and her only means, of access to the incom- «!' . * See a very able and interesting article on Squiers*s Nicaragua, in Bentl€y*8 Miscellany for April. It must have been an irksome task to expose so unvarying a tissue of calumnious misstatement, very frequently of individual slander ; but the more thanks are due to those who undertook a labour they were so well qualified to execute. The amiable efforts made to draw attention to the more interesting portions of Mr. Squiers's work, in which there was no scope for his animosity or vanity, — no easy undertaking, — add the greater weight to the unqualified contradictions and condemnations which his assertions meet with on the authority of eye-witnesses. The aspersions cast, with singular bad taste and cruelty, upon the memory of Mr. Walker, are refuted in a talented article in Fraser's Magazine for the same month. It is entitled * The East and the West.' INTRODUCTION. 47 parably preponderating parts of her empire. The United States possess no isolated oceanic depen- dencies. It is, on the contrary, their positive interest to foster the completion and perfection of the internal communications within their own states. In time of war they can, without requiring the military use of any communication through another country, make hostile descents upon the British Pacific empires from the ports of those countries bordering upon that ocean which have recently been delivered into their hands. i Such a condition and policy show how slight indeed would be the advantage, either in security or in commercial relations, that England might obtain by avoiding the dangers of Europe and Asia to fall into the hands of the United States. Routes actually through that country would of course be even worse in these respects than those through Central America. Those proposed have been from New Orleans across Texas ; from St. Louis along the Gila river ; from the Missouri, or Lake Michigan, to Puget's Sound. The southern routes are considered not even desirable, and all but impossible ; and beyond the 49 th parallel of latitude and within the territories of Great Britain, lies a route better and more easy of execution than the northern ones. The considerations that have been reviewed fully exhibit its importance and its value: it is the binding link of England^s power. Nor should any m il III': I? ll 48 INTRODUCTION. \-c -' 1 ■ ■■,-'. I' \ }:■ i ■ ■r '1 'f' ii tine be lost in its development; the interests of Great Britain require its immediate use. It is neither fair, nor would it be much longer possible, to keep the immense territories of British America as an unfruitful hoard, for the mere pur- pose, as it weT'e, of tantalizing a neighbour with avowed purposes of annexation. How far may not the successive diminutions and concessions of the boundary be explained by moral feebleness caused by the consciousness of reckless waste? It is a provocation to cupidity, an invitation to aggression. Such a condition is alike injurious to Great Britain and to the United States. A true appreciation on the part of England of her immense American resources would not only disarm the encroaching tendencies of the confederation of their power, but it would most probably entirely remove them. Far from being driven by conflicting interests to war or bitter rivalry, these great powers can be much more benefited by their mutual prosperity. The confederation has proved how quickly an un- exampled state of material prosperity may be raised, and how strong a spirit of nationality may be evoked out of the most heterogeneous masses, by Oneness of System, and organization of a definite character. They have carried on unprecedented colonization without its even being named. The newest state is Ono, in rights, privileges, and duties, with the oldest. A he whole territory knows but one commercial law. Tet this policy of cohesion, far from proving inju- rious to foreign commercial relations, has seen the INTRODUCTION. 49 steady unswerving increase of their trade, shipping, power, and influence, in every region of the globe. And what is the great empire which is achieving such a destiny but a portion of the colonies of England, once despised and disregarded, and still peopling with the pariahs of her race ! If such is the power of unity of system, that it can create a nationality without the ties of ancestry or child- hood, who can measure its capacity, or what limit shall be set to its attendant blessings, when sancti- fied by the bonds of faith and duty, and hallowed by the earliest associations and the entire history of a race! ' ' Britain thus established in America would pruTre a source of greater security, prosperity, and glory, even to the United States, than they could ever reap even were they enabled to realize the boastful threat and sweep her off their (!) continent. Bent from their proud eminence on perpetual acquisition, they would doubtless smile to scorn the very thought of carrying with them the elements of dissolution. This is not the time to trace their origin ; but are there not only too many symptoms of the danger? Is it not fearful to see inordi- nate love of gain cherished for its own sake, rather than the fruits of industry desired? — ^to see *he mine, the market, and the wharf, peopled by those to whom the gratification of the passion of acquisition is object enough? So long as unfilled territory abounds, so long as annexation may be possible, the evil day may be put off; but the time must come 60 INTEODUCTION. m.:n U ji v^hen the land is filled, however wide its bounda- ries ; and then will have arrived the hour which will test the v/isdom of having broken, not the yoke only, but those fundamental principles of England which preserve the holy treasure of the nation's faith. May not the very instinctive fear of the fulness of her borders have aroused her anxious ambition of perpetual extension? Have the terrors of lawlessness no share in calling into existence the 'Native American' party, who seek to interpose some barrier to the free citizenship of thousands of annually amving immigrants? Has not the *Rensellaer war' proved that the true causes of popular commotions are not removed? Does it throw no ominous light on the insecurity of pro- perty whenever it may become more difficult of acquisition? Are the cabals of parties, and the animosities of north and south, of abolition or of slavery, devoid of all just grounds for alarm? Are not the Celts already held in awe; the negro in oppression? If principle be the basis of prosperity and the secret of national security, then it may be asserted with tolerable confidence, that an OLD England extending along the length of their northern fron- tier would promote both the stability and pros- perity of the United States. Not only would she exert a most powerful influence by the example of the magnificent prosperity she might elicit, and sway by the inherent truth of her vital principles; but the indirect effect of her moral weight would INTBODUCTION. 51 maintain the comparative ascendancy of the friends of moderation ; whilst the signal of her fall upon the continent would be the triumph of the wild advo- cates of anarchy and licence. How far nobler would it be to see this inter- change of mutual advantage : Great Britain follow- ing the example of the United States in the complete integration of the several parts of her empire, and adopting unity of system ; and the republic endeavouring to accompany and secure her material prosperity by greater external mode- ration and higher internal aims. How glorious were the hope to see these kindred nations walking agreed together, and uniting their influence to spread throughout the world the bless- ings of civilization and the Christian faith. > I X 1 i. yi'*^-' : \ !«■'■ f'il' ! k 1 '5 * t«. I, i ON THE UNION OF THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN, KIC. ;i" PART I. 1. The Aim and Unity of the varioics features of the Enterprise, TO bring about a system of complete and rapid inter- communication between the metropolitan kingdoms and the most remote outlying portions of the empire of Great Britain, and to form by this instrumentahty a real unity of its heterogeneous component parts, is a proposal of which it is not e^sy at once to grasp the various bearings and distant hmits. It arises, however, almost of necessity, and gradually fashions' itself before the mind, as the inevitable results of the increasing means of rapid communication are per- ceived, and the all-important subject of the vital inte- gration of the several portions pf the empire is adequately appreciated under its varied aspects. Should, for instance, colonization be the primary object, it is, when rightly understood, indissolubly bound up with imperial relations, laws, traditions, and affec- u if 54 ON THE UNION OF ii:»' tions; and to be carried out commensurately with its importance, requires the aid of imperial and universal intercommunications. Whether the chief interest be directed to the national inhabitation of territory now waste, or to the reclamation of a self-alienizing and self- expatriating population, the result still leads to intercom- mimications as the means. Should, on the other hand, the means of rapid intercourse be in themselves the principal aim, they require for their perfect execution, a regard, not only to the colonization of territory, and the oiganized settlement of multitudes, but to the systematic guidance of that change in imperial relations, which must inevitably result from the development of quick and frequent communications between the most extreme limits of the empire. If these premises be correct, the means of communication become in every instance the initiatory measure. For convenience of arrangement, therefore, their correctness may be first assumed, and subsequently proved. , \IM «h I'*":; ilk Li.,;, , 2. Important Bearing of Means of Communication on Eastern Supremacy, * It is well known how, almost from the earliest ages, the secure dominion of the East has been the object of the highest ambition. To that dominion, difficulty and insecurity of access were the insuperable obstacles. When, however, the attack was made by cofiamerce, rather than by force of arms, the stormy and the peace- ful oceans both lent their aid to the invader. The hope yet to improve upon that highway fired the genius of Columbus, and the redoubled name of ' Indies' still com- memorates his incomplete, but rightly pioneered, adven- ture. The Russians, too, endeavoured to penetrate northward of their gigantic, but inclement and inhospit- THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 55 th its Lversal !st be J now d self- jrcom- hand, 58 the cution, jr, and to the ations, lent of J most ises be 1 every jnce of 3e first icaiion ^t ages, 3ject of ity and Istacles. lerce, peace- [e hope lius of com- ladven- letrate lospit- able Asiatic empire, to the rich regions of the East. The most heroic efforts of maritime discovery adorn the history of our own otherwise melancholy and unprofit- able labours in a similar direction — efforts far from being altogether fruitless, since we are indebted to them for very much of that information which points unhesitat- ingly and unmistakeably to the right path to the Pacific and to the East. It is to the second great discoverer of the continental boundaries of the New World, to Sir Alexander Mackenzie, that we owe the clearest demon- stration of the practicability of realizing this long-che- rished desire of so many successive nations, by means of a short, secure, and speedy access to the East. The progress of the world's history, and the discoveries of science during that lengthened period of peace, for which our thanksgivings are due to Him that ruleth in the heavens and on earth, have but given fresh value to Mackenzie's brilhant achievements, and to the clear and forcible exposition which he has left of the national prosperity and glory to be obtained by following up the advantages of the enterprise which gives lustre to his name. ' '" 3. Imperial Character of the Proposal. It might at first sight be supposed, and would doubt- less be very generally assumed, that because British America is the scene on which the great proposed com- munication must be carried into ettiect, it must there- fore be of local, rather than of imperial national import- ance ; and it may be well briefly to vindicate the general and equal value of the proposal, in its bearings on every portion of the empire. The general benefit is, indeed, implied, if it can be proved to be the best way of approach to coimtries washed by the Pacific; but it can be exemplified in greater comparative detail. d2 56 ON THE UNION OF I jifv I It is the shortest route to China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and to all the countries contiguous to them: to India it a£Pords the only invulnerable approach, and to all it opens the most comprehensive, salubrious, and profitable one. Now none of these con- siderations affect British America directly, and the indi- rect influences of commerce operate equally upon all. Neither do they relate pre-eminently to the interests of the peopled portion of British America; the local effect of the proposed route, in this respect, would be essentially imperial, by giving a British and national direction to the trade and commerce of the existing British provinces, instead of allowing it to deflect daily more and more towards the United States. Humanly speaking, it would prevent the disruption of the colonial empire in this direction, and thereby perhaps obviate the dangers of its total dissolution. These are considerations eminently imperial; that is, of importance to the whole empire, and based upon its interests. Again ; the new empire, and the new local commerce that would be called into existence by means of the construction of the route, would be upon territory west of Upper Canada, upon territory now wholly, utterly, wretchedly, and sinfully waste and wasted. The existing countries east and west of that gigantic but reclaimable desert, would equally be gainers ; the coun- tries of the Pacific specially so ; since to them a new seaboard, with very numerous and admirable harbours, would be opened. To the east, an inland country only, with only an inland (though an unrivalled inland) navi- gation, would be added. Lastly, it is scarcely a question that admits of an alternative. The country which occupies the American seaboard of the Pacific, will and must command the conmierce and supremacy of the Pacific and the East. Our nominal sovereignty of the remnant of our North- American possessions, especially THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 57 of our portion of the Pacific seaboard, may- very safely be left undisturbed by the United States, so long as we ourselves bury it in the darkness of the tomb. Indeed, the continued neglect of the British Pacific seaboard, contemporaneously with the unparalleled development of that of the United States, would be the ' symptom and cause' that British supremacy had virtually passed away even from British India. Those who may develop the western coasts of America will be the merchants and masters of the East. All these are points of imperial importance, not of local partiality. 4. The Route as connecting the Extremities. As a mere question of means of communication, the features of the route are such as to involve interests of the utmost magnitude, sjid require that comprehensive- ness of view which can alone justly, or successfully, deal with the internal and external relations of the whole empire. It has been already stated that it is the shortest route to the Pacific and the East ; this is the case both geo- graphically and practically. Thus the distances and time are as follow : — To Sydney. To New Zealand. To Hong Kong. MUea. Days. MUes. Miles. ( 12,491 63 11,336 13,720 By Central America < to to to to \ 13,920 65 12,765 15,760 By the Cape of 1 Good Hope | 12,634 to 14,665 70 to 80 13,789 to 16,810 13,330 to 14,530 ( 11,727 62 12,882 ) By the Indian route < to to to > 15,590 I 13,425 66 14,580 j By British America 11,600 44 11,058 11,490 58 ON THE UNION OF !,: ,1 II To Shanghac and Japan the distance is less by 400 and 1400 miles respectively. The time by the British-American route is reckoned at the rate of 10 J knots the hour upon the oceanic, and of 30 miles the hour upon the land, portions of the route ; rates less than those of steamers now plying to British America, and of those of railway speed respectively. Two full days are allowed for coaling in the Pacific. The times of the three old routes are those tendered for at the time of the competition for the first steam communication with Australia; and they suffice for a basis of comparison, though framed upon less moderate data than those of the proposed route. The time to Sydney only is given ; but it is evident that the other distances being relatively even more favourable, would be performed with a proportionately greater economy of time. Moreover, in the comparison of length, the longer rather than the shorter distances of the tliree older routes, compete with those by British America, inas- much as they offer other attractions outweighing the disadvantages of greater length. Thus the Select Com- mittee of the House of Commons gave the preference to the route by the Cape of Good Hope, by which the distance to Sydney varies from 13,634 to 14,655 miles. With a paddle-wheel steamer at eight and a half knots, an'' a land transit at the rate of only twenty miles the hour, the distance to Sydney by British America would be performed in fifty-two days, again allowing two full days for coaling in the Pacific. Excepting by the British-American route, the distances would be very considerably increased for sailing vessels by those routes which are open to them. For example, supposing a ship-canal to be constructed in Centi-al America, the best sailing course from Sydney THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 51) to England would still be 15,818 miles long on account of trade winds and currents. From China to England by the same route, a vessel would add the distance from Vancouver's Island to Panama, in the Pacific, and on the Atlantic, that from Panama to Halifax, to very nearly the same course as one proceeding by British America. By the Cape ot Good Hope, the sailing course to Sydney would be 13,566 miles, and to China 14,530, and the return voyage 13,330 miles long. Between Vancouver's Island and every important port of the Pacific, the trade winds afford a wind either fair or favourable, or which can be crossed on a wind. Since, moreover, the relative effects of these advantages can never be affected by any future employment of the auxiUary screw-steamer, however general it may become, Vancouver's Island will ever retain the superiority it derives from its numerous harbours, and from its position both with regard to trade winds, currents, and great circle sailing. The electric telegraph, also, for the purposes to which it is applicable, would practically annihilate 3000 miles of the shortest of the distances that have been named. Thus, China, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan are brought within 8490, 8600, 8058, and 7090 miles respectively ! Asia, besides, points out the means, either northwards in continuation from St. Petersburg, or along its southern coast in prolongation of the line to Calcutta, by which the whole habitable earth may be girdled by the electric wire; the only unexecuted submerged portions being across the Straits of Constantinople and the Behring^s Straits ! The superiority in point of salubrity scarcely needs demonstration. Hot climates, long sea voyages, and 60 ON TUE UNION OF f. !• I: 1 transhipments under a tropical sun, are injurious to man, and destructive to products. The climate of British America guarantees the preservation of the latter, and is admitted to be highly favourable to the most healthful condition of man. Although the advantages of this connexion of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have been too briefly and insufficiently set fortli, they are yet clearly palpable. If to these advantages be added those of an inviolable and national communication with India and every portion of the empire, rendering Great Britain independent of the commotions of the world ; those of the creation of a new commerce, and of a new empire, such as would be called into existence, and their effects upon the maritime and general power and prosperity of Great Britain j it is surely not too much to say that no opportunity can exist for the profitable employment of labour, capital, and science, so eligible as that which the boundaries of our own empire present. Need its advantages be enhanced by contrast, or by calling to mind the disas- trously ruinous consequences which have too frequently followed upon foreign investments ? Shall the resources of our own mighty possessions be for ever disregarded, because their development seems most unfortunately not only to offer the highest possible reward^ but is also the clear path of duty ? 5. TTie Route in its Component Parts. Those results which depend on the completion of the enterprise, or, at least, on the union of the oceans by a complete and continuous communication between them, may now be left, and the component parts of the route be successively examined. The result will be the same ; the same comprehensive and imperial principles are TUE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 61 essential to the component portions of the route. It will, again, appear that no other means of communication offer any inducements comparable to those under con- sideration. The improvement of the navigation at the Falls of Saint Mary, a communicnt 'on between Lakes Superior and Winnipeg, and a canal to overcome the single rapid of the Saskatchewan river, are the whole amount of labour or of artificial aid required to open the vast interior of British America to the influences of civilization, cultivation, and commerce, and, virtually, to carry the Atlantic seaboard to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. A distance of 300 miles is all that would then remain to separate the opposite oceans, or the unrivalled harbours of Nova Scotia from those of Vancouver's Island, the grand ' wharves' of the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards respectively. An im- provement of the navigation to the extent of a lift of between 800 and 900 feet, would open the grandest feature of the route to vessels from the ocean, and form the great initiatory measure of the whole, extending for a distance of about 2700 miles, or seven-eighths of the entire trans-continental length ! The Welland canal, an accomplished fact, surmounts an altitude of 334 feet within a length of three and thirty miles, and practically obliterates the Falls of Niagara! The important and beneficial effects of this canal call for more minute examination, but may be concisely sketched in few words. The Erie canal is the medium of a vast proportion of the importing and exporting trr.de even of States actually situated upon the Missisippi and its tributa- ries. In eighteen years it was the means of very nearly tripling the population and the wealth of New York. The Welland canal, by substituting thirty-three miles d3 ii 62 ON THE UNION OF »v It I I ?'' I hi m of enlarged navigation for 154 n^iles of tow-boating, and by other advantages, has so far practically super- seded the western portion of the Erie canal, as to have been the means of transfeiring i large proportion of the trade from Buffalo upon Lake Erie, to Oswego or Lake Ontario. . = - - ' Here then is a precedent, a proof from fact, if any be needed, to show that far greater works can be, and have been, most profitably undertaken and carried out, with incomparably inferior inducements. i^. The Links. 1. Slight as the whole amount of labour is, that would be required to carry the first step of the route to the base of the mountain chain, that labour is sub- divided among separate Hnks. The route that would render that extent of country accessible, consists of component parts severally complete in themselves. Each is independent of those more westward; each would open a great and a aistinct feature of the country; each would be dependent only upon local resources, and be in itself a reproductive and profitable work. Thus, the Falls of St. Mary unite the waters, but divide the navigation of Lake Superior from those of Ijake Huron. The height of fall is only from eighteen to twenty-two feet. This is positively all that has to be done to extend the most magnificent inland naviga- tion in the world by 400 miles, to place the region of the immense mineral wealth of Lake Superior upon the seaboard, and to open to the plough the fertile and exquisite country irrigated by the Kamenis Toquoih ! 2. The improvement of the navigation, or the opening of a road, to Rainy Lake, would open a considerable V ■ -I THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 63 oatiuj^, super- :o have of the jgo on if any can be, carried is, that le route • is sub- ,t would sists of mselves. I ; each jountryj ces, and ers, but hose of jighteen has to naviga- region or upon fertile amenis opening derable extent of country of great fertility and of the most ex- quisite beauty. Language appears to have been neai'ly exhausted in the attempt to set forth the attractions of the country of the Kamenis Toquoih, of the Lake of the Thousand Lakes, of the Rainy Lake and River, and of the Lake of the Woods. 3. The romantic scenery of the Winnipeg river is of a more sterile character, and its navigation is frequently interrupted by falls and rapids : but by English river, routes are afforded, opening other communications, and traversing extensive tracts of tributary country; — viz., a second communication with Lake Superior, by EngUsh river and Lakes Sal and St. Joseph, and one with Hudson Bay, by the Nippegan waters and Albany river. It would appear very probable that by the Rat and Red rivers, the difficulties of the route between Lake of the Woods and Lake Winnipeg would be diminished, and a considerable extent of natural navigation be found available, traversing a country of superior agricultural capabilities. The trappers of the Hudson Bay Company adopt the route by the Winnipeg river, on account of the connected communications by English river with Albany Factory, James's Bay. The Red river is best known from the settlement of that name upon its banks, which, even under the unfavourable circumstances of its isola- tion, has maintained a long continued, and, in some respects, a prosperous existence. All testimony unites in favour of the productiveness of the country, and of the ease with which a population might at once be sup- ported on the produce of the soil. 4. The improvement of the navigation so as to over- come the rapids of the Saskatchewan (rapids only, and but three miles in length) would open the whole breadth of country from the frontier to the most northern tribu- IF 64 ON THE UNION OF '*;'* ti ii;:^ ifp ^'- taries of that noble river, to the tide of settlement and civilization, which would reach the very foot of the Rocky Mountains without a check ! The country throughout would appear to be of the most luxuriant fertility. Descriptions seem inadequate to represent it, and proofs of its productiveness abound. Sir George Simpson, govemor-in-chief of the territo- ries of the Hudson Bay Company, speaks of ' the rank- ness of vegetation savouring of the torrid zone/ The ground is covered for what may be termed whole fields, with tiger lilies, roses, bluebells, sweetbriers, violets, and hyacinths. Wood and water diversify the scene. The swampy land requires only diainage, and the parched prairie systematic irrigation, to burst forth into the most abundant richness. Herds of cattle give to the country the appearance of a stall-yard ; fish and wild fowl are everywhere in the greatest profusion. Coal, in thick seams and great beds, is found easily accessible upon the very banks of the Saskatchewan, which is navigable from its mouth to Hocky Moimtain House, (with the single exception of the rapid already mentioned,) and which can be descended from the mountains to Lake Winnipeg without an obstacle. Thus, by four distinct and severally independent works, which form together a connected whole, the entire tract of country between the 49th and 54th parallels of latitude, and extending to the 115th degree of west longitude, may be thoroughly opened ; and surely the prehminary labour, energy, and capital, required, have been shown to be comparatively exceedingly insignificant. The next links in regular succession would be, the Passage of the Rocky Mountains, and the Descent to the Pacific, but this concise and hasty glance at the principal features of the intervening country will be more complete if the great rivers of the adjoining region THE DOMINIONS OF GKEAT BRITAIN. 65 it and Rocky ighoTat rtility. proofs errito- ) rank- The i fields, ;ts^ and , The >arched ie most jountry owl are 1 thick e upon vigable L the ,) and Lake iendent entire iarallels lof west [ely the I, have dficant. |be, the jnt to at the be region which are not immediately connected with the Saskat- chewan, be first very briefly touched upon. A chain of rivers and lakes brings the waters of the Saskatchewan and Churchill rivers within a carrying place of 370 yards. The country between the Churchill and Peace rivers is opened by three principal branches of great waters ; namely, by the Beaver river and Upper Athebasca or Elk river, and Lesser S^ave lake ; by the Clear Water river, and then, either up the Athebasca and by Lesser Slave Lake, or down the Athebasca into the Peace river. The navigation, though in some places frequently interrupted, contains immense reaches wholly unob- structed, and much of the country is extolled in the highest terms by Sir A. Mackenzie, who, even in his day, lamented its neglected condition. Nothing can surpass the glowing language in which he speaks of the Valley of the Clear Water, yet he adds, * I will not pre- sume to give an adequate description of the scene which I enjoyed.' * Upon the banks of the Elk river,' he writes, ' I saw as fine a kitchen garden as I ever saw in Canada !' And this in the year 1787 ! A magnificent reach of natural and unobstructed navigation extends from the head of the Clear Water, by the Elk and Peace rivers, until the foot of the Rocky Mountains is again attained. The only interruption is a fall of about twenty feet, at the confluence of the Loon river with the Unjugah, or Peace river. The range of mountains which forms the La Loche portage extends so as to divide the waters of the Beaver lake and river from those of the Athebasca, but is there of diminished altitude, and finally disappears in the neighbourhood of the Saskatchewan. The whole tract of country, in its width from the frontier to the most northern tributaries of the Peace \t" 1^ 66 ON THE UNION OF river, which is thus opened by the numerous and gigantic waterpaths by which it is intersected, presents many inducements to inhabitation and settlement. The soil is, generally speaking, alluvial, and covered with de- cayed vegetation, the country clothed with wood, relieved with intervening meadows of grass. Much of it is of romantic beauty and exuberant fertility. The isothermal line which traverses the midland counties of England, passes midway between the southern point of James's Bay (Hudson Bay), and the northern shores of Lake Superior; but it then rapidly rises, and on the west coast it runs nearly parallel with the Russian boundary, at a considerable distance within the British territory. Moreover, the navig-ation of the Peace river in the fifty-eighth degree, opens earher and closes later than that of Canada, and consequently, in a still greater degree, than that of the Erie canal, of which the effects upon the State of New York have already been briefly noticed. A line of road, probably railroad, from the frontier, or about the confluence of the Bull Pound and Mocoatch rivers to the Peace river, or to the Turnagain or Wi Itzechadzue, and skirting the foot of the Rocky Moun- tains, would give compactness, union, and sohdity to the progress thus far effected. It would also be the means of rendering the first pass that might be opened through the Rocky Mountains accessible *and useful to all parts. 5. From Central America to within a comparatively short distance of the present British frontier, the moun- tain ranges present an impenetrable barrier between the eastern and western shores of the continent. The passes on the direct line of the British- American route concerning which the most information has been collected, are three in number. Still ftu^her to the north, the mountain chain becomes an interrupted succession of hills, gradually THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 67 diminishing in height. The sources of the north-west branch of the river Turnagain, or Itzechadzue, are in about 131°, those of the Peace river in about 127°, and those of the Athabasca in about 118°, west longitude. Thus the sources of the more northern rivers approach nearer to the Pacific. They have their rise amid the Peak and Babine Mountains, ranges parallel to the Bocky Mountains, and whose bases are covered with dense forest. The Athabasca has its source amid the Rocky Mountains, and the waters of the same lake flow in opposite directions, a portion finding their way through the magnificent course of the Athabasca, the Slave, and the Mackenzie rivers, into the Arctic Ocean, and another portion flowing rapidly into the Pacific, by the compara- tively short and tortuous course of the Columbia. The route of Sir Alexander Mackenzie adheres to the course of the Peace and Frazer's rivers, until the con- fluence of the river Western Road is arrived at. From Rocky Mountain Rouse, on the Peace river, in about 120° W. long., which is the head of the long unob- structed navigation eastward, the westward progress by water is, for a time, so frequently interrupted, that as a natural watercourse it is scarcely available. The waters flow with great rapidity between steep, narrow, and often precipitous banks. After a while, however, con- tinual reaches of easily navigable, and almost still water, from twenty to thirty miles in length, re-occur. Beautiful and extensive sheets of water burst suddenly upon the view. The summit level, so far from being a pinnacle of eternal snow, is clothed with wood, and enlivened by bright-coloured birds, and humming birds, the denizens of a southern clime. The mountains are covered with varieties of timber, specified as of unusual size. The characteristics of the southern pass between latitude 50° and 51° are very similar > ( I ON THE UNION OF I The central pass, between 53° and 54° N. L., is more gradually approached. The valleys are wider, and the character of the scenery less precipitous. The sudden rapidity with which the snow melts, and the ice breaks up in these and similar countries, is well known. In the spring season, the narrow valleys of the northern and southern passes are sometimes com- pletely choked by natural dams formed by timber and fragments of rock which are carried away by the impe- tuous torrents. When the accumulated waters have acquired sufficient weight, these temporary obstacles are borne away before them, and the rivers and streams gradually retire within their ordinary channels. This operation of nature is indicative of w 'le mode by which a great transit of traffic may be effected across the mountains. The narrow valleys are the river beds, the rocky banks and bottoms present the abutments and chambers of the masonry, the temporary dams only require to be made permanent, and then navigable rivers, steps of still water, will replace the furious and impracticable falls and rapids. The largest bodies of water admit of being regulated without danger, by pro- viding outlets increasing in size in fuU proportion to the accumulated quantities of the successive descents. - 1 The central pass, as being less precipitous, and wider, and having a more gradual approach, would appear to be best suited to land communications. There does not seem to be any reason why the principle of steps and the elevation of freighted carriages should not be applied, if necessary or advantageous, and with the ftirther aid of tunnels, the passage of the Rocky Moun- tains would cease to be attended by the difficulties, far less the impossibilities, with which it has been hitherto invested. ' ''^ It is but reasonable to infer that the various circum- THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 69 stances which have contributed to shroud the country in the mysteries of complete neglect, have also combined here, as elsewhere, in causing the difficulties which may at present attend crossing it, to be greatly over-estimated, and its real value to be equally imderrated. Wherever the rude hand of actual trial, and the prying gaze of personal inquiry have reached, this has proved to have been the case, and the fabulous or grossly exaggerated rumours previously prevailing against every portion of the continent have been ruthlessly dispelled. It has been asserted that far more favourable passes exist than those that have been mentioned ; it is sufficient to know that those which are explored are practicable in the condition in which they are represented. The stream of civilization, flowing, by means of the great waters above described, through the whole extent of country for a breadth of from seven to ten degrees, to the very foot of the mountains, and connected by the road already indicated, cannot fail to cause the best passes to become known ; and, if the plan be systematically and wisely carried out, the fullest and most perfect informa- tion will be collected while the great tide of settlement and inhabitation is approaching the mountain borders. It is worthy of remark that a party of poor unaided emigrants, whom the governor of these territories, travel- ling with the resom-ces of the country at his disposal, overtook on the plains of the central region, had arrived on the western slopes of the mountains with their wa- gons, families, &c., before the party proceeding by the route through which the governor conducted his guests and companions. (Vide Journal of Sir G. Simpson.) In estimating the supposed impracticability of the mountains, it is important to bear in mind that they have been thus traversed whilst entirely without roads ! It is only necessary to think for a moment what the Simplon would be without, or with, a road. m i 70 ON THE UNION OP i'f 'i 6. The route once adopted, the Pacific seaboard would possess all the interest now exclusively attached to that of the A-tlantic ; the great cities and crowded marts of Eastern America would be reproduced upon its westeru shores ; and the scenes of activity and enterprise which the sea-ports of the Atlantic now behold, would be repeated amid the deep and spacious bays and harbours of the distant Weet. It is a coincidence not a little remarkable, that the characteristics of the extremities of the British route should be in many important respects very similar and so admirably adapted to form the terminal stations of a great universal system of communication. Thus the harbours of Nova Scotia and of Vancouver's Island are equally unrivalled, both in quality and position. Both countries possess large deposits of coal ; .both, as it were, jut into the sea, and form the 'wharves' of their respective co-terminal and adjacent countries. They alike abound in local sources of wealth, in minerals, metals, &c. ; and to both, their position within the empire is essential for the highest development of their capabilities, whilst they equally confer upon the empire opportunities for brilliant pro- sperity which would be utterly unattainable without them. , Every approach to and from the Pacific seaboard would require eventual development, and should there- fore be duly regarded in forming the plan of the system of execution. Simpson's river in the north, the route of Mackenzie in about 52°, or 52° 30'' N. L., and i razor's river, all point out directions for means of com- munication between the seaboard and the passes. The productiveness of the soil and the excellence and mild- ness of the climate are proverbial ; and although the banner of St. George no longer waves over the smiling and beautifully fertile valleys of the Cowlitz and the Wallamette, of the Cootoonay and the Columbia, the THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 71 boundary does not divide their exuberant richness from a wilderness. British Oregon is agriculturally attractive. Mackenzie speaks of the timber (hardwood deciduous trees, well known as indications of superior land) as of the largest he had ever beheld. He writes of soil ' a black rich mould/ and longs for cultivation. He was never south of Point Menzies more than a degree north of the most northern extremity of Vancouvei''s Island, and about three degrees north of the boundary. Further Abbreviation of 1500 Miles, The European commerce of the immense region thus briefly reviewed, at present gives employment to two ships annually. These sail during the summer months to Fort York, situated at the mouth of the Nelson river, Hudson Bay, whence their cargoes are transported to the interior. Nelson river is in fact the main river, which, by its numerous and widely extending ramifica- tions, irrigates the vast interior of British America, being the channel by which the waters of the Saskatchewan river, and of Lakes Winnipeg, Winnipegoose, and Mannetoo- woopow, of the Assiniboine and Red rivers, of Rainy Lake, and Lake of the Woods, and their several tributaries, find their outlet to the sea. It is, so to speak, the great St. Lawrence of the central region. The exit of the waters from Lake Winnipeg is into Playgreen Lake, whence they flow through Cross Lake into the Katche- wan river, which is joined by the Burntwood river at the head of SpHt Lake. At the foot of this lake the river takes the name of the Port Nelson river, and becomes a single body of water. The Burntwood river very nearly unites the waters of the Nelson river with those of Churchill river. From the height of land called the Cranberry carrying-place, chains of rivers and 72 ON TH£ UNION OF i \mki lakes flow into the Saskatchewan, Churchill, and Port Nelson rivers, which severally point out still shorter means of communication, and afford a remai'kable illus- tration of the wonderful and complete manner in which the country is intersected by natural waterpaths in all directions, greatly faciUtatin^^ its exploration, and pro- viding the best primary mode of intercourse. The chain of rivers and lakes between the Katchcwan and Bumtwood rivers, extends nearly in a direct line from Split Lake to Pine-Island Lake, which joins the Sas- katchewan by Cumberland House. That Hudson Bay and the Port Nelson river foi-m a practicable and con- venient means of communication between Great Britain and the interior of British America is sufficiently proved by the fact that it is actually in use, and that it is the route selected by the Hudson Bay Company. Its further development and proper relatr position with regard to the great transcontinental route, are therefore subjects necessarily connected with the proper employ- ment of the resources of the country, and with the best means of opening it. It is also evident, from its present actual use, that the more limited period of the year during which it is available, forms no barrier to its utility. Even its natural and unimproved condition presents no obstacle to its being the road by which the whole European trade of the immense territory over which the Hudson Bay Company now exercises con- trol, is carried on. The importance of these facts is considerably enhanced when this route is viewed as part of the great system of intercourse now under considera- tion. It would still farther shorten the distances between England and the West by 1500 miles, and effect that additional amount of abbreviation to all partb of the Pacific. THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. n id Port shorter Ic illus- 1 which 3 in all nd pro- ^ The ran and 16 from he Sas- on Bay nd con- Britain ' proved t is the y. Its on with lerefore imploy- ;he best present le year to its indition ich the ry over con- acts is as part sidera- etween )t that of the PART II. Eastern Terminations — The Iloute in the existing Provinces WHATEVER means would most speedily, and at the least cost, open the largest extent of country on the direct route to the Pacific, would unquestionably be also the best for rendering the communication across the continent available and successful at the shortest interval of time. A(;cordingly, the foregoing brief examination of initiatory measures for breaking ground upon a route which must traverse unoccupied, and at present scarcely accessible territories, has been based upon that principle. It has been shown that tliis object would be effected by completing the navigation of a portion of the great inland waters of the continent, and the principal directions in which the system of water communication might be further developed and extended naturally attracted attention. The most speedy attainment of the entire enterprise, consisting of the triple features of improved navigation, a continuous railway, and the electric telegraph, is, however, the grand object con- stantly in view. The same principle, which, in the West, renders the quickest opening of new country of paramount import- ance in the first instance, demands an equally careful consideration of the means for obtaining the utmost de- gree of excellence in the various communications through the existing provinces, which form the eastern portion of ;■ -4 1 74 ON THE UNION OF the route. It has already been stated that it is the shortest and quickest route connecting Europe and the Pacific. An examination of the globe renders it evident that the more northerly the route is, the shorter it must be. Tims, besides the national and other advantages that have been pointed out, one across British America is shorter than one through the United States. The same facilities existing for crossing the respective transcontinental portions of these routes, the shoi-test can necessarily be most quickly traversed ; and if the examination be extended to the several component parts of the transcontinental portions, additional and important marks of superiority will be found to characterize the British route. The best route which could be opened in the United States is incontestably that which, adopting the same principle of starting from the head of the great navigable waters of the East, has its western termination at Puget's Sound. As a communication from Europe, therefore, it would bear the same relation to that by British America, which the arc of a circle does to the chord of that arc, or the remainder of the perimeter of an irregular figure to one of its sides. Neither does the route through the United States consist of distinctive, separate, and complete component parts. It is not favoured by any «:reat lateral system of navigable waters extending to the 115th and 120th degrees of west longitude. Instead of meeting the mountain chain in the same degrees, it has to encounter them in the 109th degree, and has a correspondingly greater quantity of difficult country to surmount. In- stead of opening an almost illimitable extent of tributary territory without effort or outlay, it could only open the land immediately adjacent to the railway, or road. THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 75 to which it must remain restricted. Instead of having merely to cross short mountain passes of unproductive country, it has, in addition, to traverse a portion of the American desert. Nevertheless it is the road universally allowed in the United States to be the best, as being the most northerly of those proposed, and Commodore Wilkes seems to regard it as the only practicable or advisable one afforded by their country. The comparison of the existing means of communica- tion eastward, exhibits the same superiority, resulting in the same manner from relative geograpliical position, and physical advantages. Thus the seaports of British America are considerably nearer Europe. Halifax lies upon the very track of the steamers between New York, Boston, and England; and Cluebec, although much nearer the west, is no further from England than New York. The ports of the British provinces are, moreover, upon the natural direct line of traffic. These are incontestable advantages, only requiring due development.. So prac- tical are their effects even now, that the European tidings, first carried (according to the present course of travel) past the very ports of the seaboard of Nova Scotia, actually re-enter the British territory in Canada in order to reach the western States of the Union more expeditiously ! It is manifest, however, that these ad- vantages are worse than neutralized, so long as the British Atlantic seaboard remains severed from the interior through the undeveloped condition of the inter- mediate country, and so long as the tide of travel is artificially turned through the United States. The eastern terminations of the route are therefore of the utmost and most pressing importance. The immediate co-operation of land routes (railroads) is indispensable to securing the traffic and prosperity which of right apper- BTT^ 76 ON THE UNION OF %i'' ^il 1' . , n m •I* !l|v tain to the channel possessing the greatest natural ad- vantages. They are equally essential to the quickest development of the through route to the Pacific, and should therefore be constructed simultaneously with the pioneering western links already described. Eveiy instant is of value in perfecting these communications with the seaboard. The whole superiority of the material prosperity of the United States resolves itself into the fact of their having been enabled, by the advantage of one hundred years' start, to deflect the course of trade from its best and natural channels, to the great prejudice of the possessions of that very country to whose com- merce and population they owe their sudden and stupendous growth. The importance of this connexion with the seaboard is being partially appreciated in Canada, and accordingly railroads are either projected, or in actual progress, which will extend from Sandwich (opposite Detroit), upon Lake Erie, to Quebec, at the foot of the inland navigation, and brancli'>s will unite Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay. It depends on the connexion of Quebec with Halifax, and with the other seaports of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick generally, whether the seaboard of the United States or that of British America is to profit by the increased commerce and wealth which will rhereby be created. A more definite view of the question will be obtained by examining the whole general system of communica- tion east\^ vd of Lake Superior, and dividing it into the links of which it is composed. THE DOMINIONS OF GKEAT BRITAIN. 77 1. From Lake Superior and Lake Huron to the Ocean. * The opening of a communication between Lake Huron and the St. Lawrence by French river. Lake Nepissing, and the Ottawa would effect an abbreviation of 400 miles. It would therefore command all the thi'ough traffic of the westward country. The com- parison and result would be the same whether made between the raib'oads or the navigation of these respec- tive directions. 2. From Lake Erie to the Ocean, It has already been said that the Erie canal is the channel of trade for many of the States situated upon the Mississippi, to w hich route it is found superior j and that the Welland canal (between Lakes Erie and Ontario) has had the effect of transferring a great proportion of the trade from Buffalo upon the former, to Oswego upon the latter lake. The Caughnawaga canal, between Montreal and Lake Champlain, would afford an eastern extremity of similar superiority, and secure to the St. Lawrence canals tlie trade which passes through the Welland canal. The Welland canal substitutes thirty-three miles of enlarged navigation for 151- of tow-boating ; the Caugh- nawaga canal would replace 130 miles of tow-boating by twenty miles of ship canal. The advantages of the former amount, in speed, to a difference of ten days, and from twelve to fourteen in the opening and close of the navi- gation ; and in economy, to 40 per cent. By the latter, instead of two transhipments there would be none, which would effect a saving pf a week in time, and of sixpence upon every bushel of wheat. The construction of this canal must lead to the £ ■ I h W la^if •f the United States has been widely advocated, with th 'se very objects in view. The future as well as present welfare of British America must equally suff'er, unless the ports of the Atlantic sea- board be connected with the interior by independent rail- roads, and thus become the chief ports of the continent. The development of the route is the highest attainable prosperity of the country. The supreme value of the route depends as much upoi- he national as the geo- graphical position of British America. It resvlts, indeed, from her situation upon the surface of the earth ; but it depends upon her station in the British empire. Com- mercial, national, political, and geographical considera- tions are all involved ; and all unite in favour of the route. Its advantages as a whole have been already seen. Through the superior position of the British ports it would be the means of establishing superiority of com- E 2 pit 10 ON TUE UNION OF munication through British channels, so far as relates to the through traffic between Europe and the Pacific. Precisely the same characteristics mark its several component parts from whatever point vithin the limits of the continent the comparison may be instituted. The principal supplies of wheat, flour, &c., are gi'own in the westeni states, which now ust the Erie canal. The river St. Lawrence, and land routes to the British sea- board in the same direction, possess manifest advantages for the traffic between them and England, Europe, the West Indies, the Gulf provinces themselves, the States of Maine, Vermont, and parts of New York and Massa- chusets. This :tbrms a vast proportion of the export com trade of the United States ; that with Great Britain and the Gulf provinces alone amounts to one-third of the whole. The British West Indies are the next chief consumers. The adoption of the route, and consequent inhabitation and development of country, would, more- over, rapidly enable British America to be, not the carrier only, but the producer of these supplie^i. These prominent considerations, which are here con- cisely stated, are enough to show that the Gulf pro- vinces require to be thoroughly covered by a complete system of railroads extending to all the chief ports, and that there is abundant traffic for them all ; indeed, when the whole route is in operation, probably far greater than could be accommodated without an increased mmiber of tracks. Neither are there any obstacles to the imme- diate construction of such lines. The local resources of the country are happily such as to render them repro- ductive works, independently of all the considerations that have been now adduced, upon the same principle of development of local resources which has been shown to apply to that part of the great route west of Lake Huron. THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 81 Thus the primary object of the Quebec and Halifax line is to unite these extremities at a minimum of cost, with chief regard to the greatest trafFic return from an existing population, so far as is compatible with its prominent military objects. The St. Andre w^s and Quebec line traverses a rich and beautiful country, and the company is favoured by an extensive grant of land. The line may be divided into three sections : the first, between St. Andrew's and Woodstock, opens the first direct route to Woodstock ; the existing one being by St. John and Fredericton. Woodstock possesses mines and iron foundries, and this portion of the line is capable of isolated yet prosperous existence. The same may be said of the section between Woodstock and Grand Falls. The completion of the line would fully compensate for the somewhat greater difficulties of the remaining portion ; and being a second, and private one, it is under no necessity to avoid the frontier. The supreme object of a national, secure, and independent railway, available for every purpose, is secured by that betvreen Halifax and Quebec. So far from being injurious rivals to each other, these lines, useful and necessary as they are, cannot satisfy the wants of New Brunswick or of Nova Scotia. Each will materially conduce to local settlemeat and local development, each will help to attract the stream of commerce and traffic to the Gulf provinces, and each can rely upon the fulfilment of the objects it has in view. The one will effect the establishment of a militarv and postal communication between England and the interior of America at a minimum of GOi»t, commercial, provincial, ani^ \wj\\ results being only secondary objects. The principal aim of the other is not so much to "^^ m 82 ON THE UNION OF I ' afford the advantages of quick communication through- out New Brunswick, as to develop resources more restrictedly local, and to obtain a share of the existing commerce of inland America. This is sought to be effected by a route wholly within British territory, yet shorter by about 250 miles than that from Nova Scotia to Quebec, thereby compensating for the respective positions of St. Andrew's and Halifax upon the seaboard. Situated along the eastern and western boundaries respectively, they leave the centre of the province track- less, and no portion of Nova Scotia, excepting the country between Halifax and Bay Verte, provided with a railroad. Railroads are, however, elements and means of growth in an uninhabited and favourable country. They differ in no respect from the long approved construction of common roads for the same purpose. New Brunswick is an eminently favourable coimtry, but it ^rould be needless, and within these narrow limits impossible, to enter with sufficient brevity upon its well- known and almost immeasurable capabilities. In an imoccupied and fertile country, railroads can be profit- ably constructed with a sole view to the development of the country traversed. The most brilliant development ensues where the elements of settlement exist in the highest degree, and where means of communication bring about that settlement. The United States furnish the most complete illustration and proof of this asser- tion in all its fulness. The multiplication of traffic and intercourse wherever well-chosen means of communica- tion have been opened, bears witness to the same prin- ciples. The greater proportion of 18,000 miles of railroad in the United States preceded the population and traffic which have rendered them so remarkably remunerative ! That the local development of the soil of New Bruns- brough- s more existing t to be ^ry, yet I Scotia ispective eaboard. undaries !e track- ing the led with f growth ev differ iction of country, )W limits its well- In an profit- )ment of lopment in the mication furnish s asser- iffic and munica- ne prin- railroad d traffic erative ! ' Bruns- TIIE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. wick and Nova Scotia would be foUowed by similar success, and is urgently required, is sufficiently attested by the fact, that they each pay about 200,000/. annually for provisions, which they might raise at their own door out of their own land ! A system of railroads based upon maximum of pro- portionate effect rather than upon minimum of cost, and aflPording the benefits of rapid communication to all the ports and parts of the Gulf provinces, is a measure of the greatest importance in furtherance of the prosperity they are legitimately entitled to enjoy ; it is required by the exigencies of the great route, which would incal- culably add to its value ; and it would obviously react most favourably on the whole of British America. Initiatory Measures and the Continuous Eailroad, The network of railroads at the eastern terminations, the successive links from Lake Huron to the Pacific, and the improvement of the Ottawa and Huron abbre- viations, may be simultaneously executed. The Gulf pro- vinces being countries comparatively known andinliabited, the system of railways so imperatively demanded by their circumstances requires to be immediately begun. Such a system, however gradually carried out, should be minutely prearranged ; but the prearrangement need in no wise interfere with any modifications which may be found expedient when in course of execution. The communications of a country cannot even approximate to its real requirements unless they be planned unon a unity of system and a scale commensurate with its whole extent and circumstances. To bring forward the extraordinary and overwhelming evidence which might be adduced in corroboration of these statements, would m 84 ON TUE UNION OF V '^. .i be greatly beyond the scope of a mere epitome. Unity, and system, in all their fulness, are indispensable to the judicious selection and best execution of means of com- munication. These again are the keystone to the opening out the resources of a country, and conse- quently to its material prosperity. As it is most essen- tial, so this prearrangement is most practicable in an uninhabited territory. These considerations show the great practical value of the magnificent waters which open so large an extent of country both in length and breadth, and indicate with precision and correctness the right direction of the means of communication, the proper posts for the first employment of labour, and the most advantageous order in the succession of the various works required to exe- cute the complete scheme. Were it proposed to confine the undertaking to, or to begin it with, the construction of a continuous railway, it could not possibly advance more quickly than it could carry inhabitation along its course. It could not, under any circumstances, open a comparable extent of country, or consequently cause a comparable amount of inhabita- tion. Neither could its direction be determined, far less its execution be begun, consistently with ultimate and perfect success, unless the whole territory had been previously minutely and accurately mapped. Examples abound in every sphere of the evils of precipitate action upon incomplete data, of procrastinated beginning and hurried execution, more especially perhaps in matters of engineering, civil and military. Minute topographical knowledge is the most powerful auxiliary of substantial schemes, while it is the most effectual guardian of public enterprise against private knavery, dulness, or incapa- city. Nor are the advantages of minute geogi'aphical THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 85 Unity, to the ■. com- o the conse- esscn- iu an alue of ent of e with )f the 10 first s order to exe- [), or to ailwav, t could under )untry, habita- ed, far timate been mples action g and ters of phical tantial I public icapa- liphical delineation confined exclusively to the system of inter- communication, although these are amply sufficient to call for and require it. The social, political, and cinl, as well as the military organizations of the new coun- tries that would be formed out of British America, will have to be determined ; and to each, and all, a map is one of the first requisites. Each and all can be ad- justed and defined in exact proportion to the accuracy and minuteness of such map. The French and the United States well appreciate this point. The best map of Italy reconls the era of its conquest ; and geological and mapping votes are among the first passed by the rising states of the politic con- federation. The links in the great westward chain cf communica- tions and their succession have been already given. Nature has marked out the whole — the line of country, and the general direction of the road, the levels, and the position of the stations. The variations are necessai'ily few, and confined within comparatively narrow limits. The work may therefore extend over the whole country, and the whole of it be opened without an hour's delay, while the reconnaissance and survey can be made at the same time. Doubtless, the development and prosperity whicli will ensue will cover the country with railroads, and especially in the neighbourhood of the rivers, which will be its wealthiest portions ; but the great trunk line of railway should be laid down from ocean to ocean, where it would most perfectly realize the utmost benefits to be derived from the intra-oceanic connexion of the distant extremities in opposite hemispheres. The completion of the enterprise should in this respect be determined by precisely opposite considerations to those which are the proper guides to the first opening of the country. It is ....... E 3 86 ON THE UNION OF !■ 1 H J the trunk or main communications, which require direct regulation. The circumstances of the HaUfax and Quebec railway call for it ; but the frontier line, extend- ing from Sandwich to Quebec, will result from the previous development of the country through its canals. In the same manner the improvement of the navigation between Lake Superior and the Pacific will be followed by the gradual construction of railroads throughout the region of the navigable waters without the immediate agency of direct control being required. Such works result from the creation of wealth, and arc the conse- quences of local activity, — the consequences rather than the causes of prosperity, — the abbreviations and improvements required by a commerce already in existence, and not the great arteries of a world-wide traffic. In first opening the country, it is obvious that the principle of reaching across the continen . as quickly as is consistent with inhabitation, in other words, as quickly as possible, is correct. To wait at any one link until the works there were completed, would be to break through and disregard that principle. A road is there- fore necessary to the construction of the works at each interruption of the navigation, and should be of such a character as to be also available for traffic. The result would be a railroad portage, or carrying place. A mixed route, therefore, would be the firstfruits of these pro- posals. The first conrnxunication across the continent would consequently be approximately as follows : — 1. Water communication to the head of Lake Huron, (or existing land routes, or mixed). 2. Kailroad portage (for a short time) round the Falls of St. Mary. 3. Water communication to the first impediment in the navigation of the Kamenis Toquoih. THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 87 direct X and jxtend- im the canals, igation ollowed out the mediate I works I conse- rather )DS and 3ady in rld-widc that the lickly as \ quickly ak until break is there- at each such a e result A. mixed se pro- ontinent • >f Lake lixed). und the ediment [juoih. 4. Railroads thence to Rainy lake, past tlie several impediments, using the chain of lakes for water communications. 5. Water communication to the head of Lake of the Woods. 0. Railroad to the head of the nnvigntion of the Rat river. 7. Water communication to the rapids of the Saskatchewan. 8. Railroads round the rapids of the Saskatchewan. 9. Water communication to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. 10. Passage of the Mountains, and descent to the • Pacific upon the same plan. Railroads are named instead of common roads, because in the execution of works extending over so large a country, and upon such a scale, the use of rails and steam would be found the most advantageous. Very trifling additional expense would convey the traffic by the same means. The land improvement thn should probably, in point of time, accompany the c< pletion of the work for perfecting the iivigation, wom, be — 1. A continuous railway from 'he head of Lake Superior to Rainy lake. 2. One from the head of the navigable waters of the Calling river tu the elbow of the south branch of the Saskatchewan. Wherever the advantages of a portion of the road would otherwise be ini\i*or, foresight and system must be more especially !>7oi ght to bear. Along the great waters, railroads will assoredly follow, but they will only reap half their benefit, unless completed through the IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I IM 12.5 I ^ 14.0 ■^ I2i2 12.2 1 2.0 m r |||l.25 III 1.4 1.6 < 6" ► PhotDgr^hii; Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET Wi ASTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4S03 \ ;V SJ \\ 88 ON THE UNION OF (• ■■■ intermediate tracts by the aid of pre-arrangement upon unity of system. In attempting to sketch the general direction of the continuous railway from oceac to ocean, the want of more minute and definite topographical knowledge is felt at once, and by contrast the full advantages of the great waters. It is obvious, however, that neither the directions of the frontier route to Sandwich by Montreal, Kingston, and Toronto, nor of the links just reviewed, are those best adapted to carry out the purposes and principles already stated. The e roads should be connected by branch lines ; and it must depend upon fuller information how much further north a course is practicable and advantageous. From Quebec it should strike some point upon the Ottawa, either keeping to the northern or southern watershed. The latter has been long proposed as the direction of a line for opening a very fertile country, and should a more northern course be practicable, should form a secondary, and, if not, the main Une. In the first case, the approximate direction of the Hue would be between the head waters of the Ottawa and the foot of Lake Temiscaming ; in the second, it would foUow the course of the Ottawa until it reached the watershed of the rivers flowing into Lake Superior, which would be its further course in either case. Thence it would pursue the direction of the chain of waters between Nippegan and Sturgeon lakes, or of those between Lake St. Joseph and Lake Sal. In the former case the continuation would be across the head of the Winnipeg river to Fort Garry ; or in the latter, it would follow the course of English river to the same place. From Fort Garry it would run in a direct line to the most practicable pass in the Rocky Mountains, and THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 89 guided by the same considerations, descend to the shores of the Pacific. In the east, branches from the head waters of the Ottawa will probably extend along the watershed to the Pickonagamis, and down tiie magnificent river Saguenay to the noble harbours at its mouth. Others will here- after open the valley of the Peribonea, and extend along the watershed to Ance Sablon Harbour. The Saguenay river abounds in various resources, and the country of the rivers flowing into Lake St. John increases in fer- tility the further they are ascended. Ance Sablon Har- bour is only 1650 miles from the west coast of Ireland, reducing the sea- voyage to six-and-a-half days, at the moderate rate of ten-and-one-third knots the hour. It is scarcely necessary to enter at length into the abbreviation of the main water route bv the construction of the link by Lake Hiu-on and the Ottawa. It formed the subject of legislative inquiry and approval so long ago as the governorship of Sir George Arthur, when Upper Canada was an independent province. By carrying it out on a sufficiently grand scale, and completing the navigation between Lakes Ontario and Huron by Lake Simcoe and the Severn, the great lakes would be acces- sible to every sized craft indifferently, and superiority of maritime development would be restored to British American shipping there as well as throughout the route. The St. Lawrence, Welland, and Rideau canals would become doubly valuable when thus connected with the great trunk communication. Had prearrangement and system been earUer brought to bear upon the develop- ment of the country, it would not now be necessary still to advocate the extension of the boundaries of commerce and civilization. The sums expended on the various modes of connecting Montreal and Kingston would have opened the country to the head of Lake Superior, and •iy '<' -. 90 ON THE UNION, ETC, the tide of travel would long ago have rolled on to the Pacific. The system of railways in the Gulf provinces, planned upon the same comprehensive principles, would in Uke manner be carried out gradually. The more prominent branches requu'ed in Nova Scotia would appear to be, to Windsor, Annapolis, and Bigby, westward; and east- ward to the Gut of Canso, with a branch to Whitehaven; in Cape Breton Island, from Inhabitant's Harbour to Aspy Bay and Cape North, and again in Nova Scotia, from Picton to Mines Basin, round the Cobequid Moun- tains. The central line of New Bruns\»ick might be formed of two branches in the southern part, one from St. John and Fredericton, and one from Bay Verte, both to the confluence of the Otell and Tobique rivers, thence in a single line up the valley of the Tobique, and either by the Pseudy river to Trois Pistoles, or by the Guda- maquochoui to Rimouski, to join the great coasting line of the south bank of the St. Lawrence. A cross line from St. J ohn to Shediac harbour up the valley of the Ken- nebecasis is already proposed. ■-•< COLONIZATION. IT is clear that the inhabitation of at kast a certain tract of the adjacent country is essential to the prac- tical utility, and indeed to the very construction, of the route, while, on the other hand, no measure could be more conducive to the best settlement of the whole country than the development of the communication between its opposite oceans. Colonization and the con- struction of the route may therefore be regarded as branches of one undert^iking having the same interests. The various bearings of an enterprise under contem- plation should all be examined. Sound wisdom, bearing in mind the importance of great aims in the execution of great works, will study the fullest combination of results, and secure the widest co-operation by considering every interest for which common advantages can be obtained. Where results are combined, the necessary instrumentality is proportionably less, more numerous interests are united^ and obstacles that might otherwise endanger success are guarded against and overcome. The colonization of British America, rather than the mere indispensable settlement of an attenuated tract of land, is therefore the more profitable as well as higher aim. Colonization signifies something far nobler and more important than the mere planting of man upon an un- inhabited or uncivilized soil. It is the reproduction by an ancient race of every characteristic of its ancestral 92 ON THE UNION OF ll stock upon new soil, with every human and religious safeguard for the perpetual preservation of its hereditary features. It requires, therefore, an intelligent appre- ciation, both of national hereditary principles, and of their social and political safeguards ; it calls for wisdom, that outward manifestation may not be confounded with life-giving principles, lest in the very ^> 'opagation of an external uniformity unity of spirit be destroyed. British colonization more especially should form a subject of the most solemn deliberation, and the most complete investigation. If the construction of the route is of interest to the empire, and of advantage to the world, the colonization that may be carried on by Great Britain concerns its highest well-being. To her is more peculiarly committed the custody of Truth. The main-stay of true religion, she is thereby the guardian of the freedom of the world. The measure of civil and religious freedom is, and must ever be, proportionate to the purity of faith. Every nation is therefore interested in the maintenance of her principles and in their diffu- sion throughout the legitimate sphere of the wide bounds of her own empire. The task is not so difficult as it might seem. Nationality and patriotism consist in attachment to hereditary principles ; where, therefore, these exist, there must not only be a corresponding intelligent affection for the laws on which they are founded, but also for the truths from which they spring. It is no new privilege to be won, but an ancient duty to be at length performed. Hereditary principles are the birthright of a subject, and cannot rightly be restricted by geographical position. Neither is it a duty that can be safely disregarded. It were inconsistent with faith in, or attachment to, either the religious or national privileges of England, to rJtiOi-^ THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 93 icient jiples ly be Irded. It to, Id, to be regardless c. the maintenance of the same blessings in the colonies. The effects of the condition of the colonies in their reaction for good or evil upon the interests of the mother country cannot be overlooked. But there is no need to wait for that reaction. Faith and love, the only preservatives of principles, can only live by practical exercise. It were vain to dream of maintaining the principles of England, and yet confining them within her bounds ; it is essential to their stability that her principles and privileges should be coextensive mth her dominion. Other countries have lost their colonial empire, and have merely dwindled into insigni- ficance. The circumstances of Great Britain would entail more serious consequences. With her, propaga- tion is an unavoidable law. The very fact of the lan- guage of England being the tongue of the New World indissolubly connects her welfare mth the condition of that world, and with the aspects of the multitudes that share her speech. If she fail to colonize, she will still inevitably people, the territory of America over which she now holds sway. If she fail to render the empire which her vital energy will nevertheless create, an inte- gral portion of herself, it will exercise upon her future an influence, different indeed, but scarcely less. The great rival she herself would have nursed into over- whelming preponderance, would rob her first of oppor- tunities unimproved, then of the commerce of the Pacific, of her colonies even there, would speedily undermine her Eastern trade, and shatter her Indian rule. The colonial, commercial, and maritime fabric of her power would be dissolved ; but the evil would not be ended. Opinion is even more powerful than commerce. Her political and social system would be overthrown amidst the tumult of discontent aroused by such calamities. An unpractised theory, however beautiful, could find no m. 94 ON THE UNION OF efFectual defence against the incessant cries of hostility uttered from the vantage ground of higher material prosperity, by a kindred but alienated race. The system, not its slumber, would be condemned ; destruction, not awakening, would be the result. It ought not to be necessary to urge the fatal con- sequences of neglect, the punishment of sloth. It should be sufficient to prove the duty. Duties were never yet neglected with impunity. Great Britain pos- sesses both unbounded territory and a teeming popula- tion, and the command of God from the beginning has been to ' replenish the earth.' It is more pleasing to view the duty as solemnly yet cheerfully and hopefully undertaken, surrounded as it is by innumerable inducements and faciUties. In this light the highest duties will take at once the highest ground, and the benefits obtained will assume their true position of rewards. The great mission of England is the guardiansliip of truth ; her church and people are the earthly bulwarks of the truth of God ; her constitution the human ark of freedom. All who understand the true secret of pros- perity, or appreciate the responsibility of duties and of privileges, will desire the promulgation of the pure spirit of her rule. u To enter upon the details of the duty of colonization based upon such principles, or on the means of carrying it out, or on the necessity of not mistaking rmiformity for unity, is impossible in an abridgment. The same restricted limits preclude even a brief enumeration of the manifold inducements to colonization, nor is it necessary for those who have rightly considered the subject. Even the highest colonization assumes, however, dis- tinctive and remarkable attractions as an undertaking THE D03IINI0N8 OF GREAT BRITAIN. 95 ostility laterial lystem, )n, not il con- h. It js were in pos- popula- ng has aly yet 1 as it In this highest jir true sliip of ilwarks ark of pros- ,nd of spirit [r, dis- taking identified with the route. To carry it out upon its loftiest, widest, and hohest principles, to organize into a unity of system the splendid and numerous outlying portions of the empire, and to guide the new directions of the great streams of traffic, caused by the peopling of the Pacific and of Western America, into channels that will not only maintain but elevate the commercial pre- eminence of Great Britain, ai'e objects of which the varied aspects offer the grandest inducements to all ranks, classes, and conditions. Religion, agriculture, and commerce, industry of every form and kmd, can be car- ried on with a fulness hitherto without example. The statesman and the patriot, the landlord and the farmer, the merchant and the manufacturer, the miner, fisher- man, and craftsman, would all find the widest field for their pursuits. It is not the mere providing of more space, the more complete fulfilment of the ordinary advantages of colonization, nor even the mere trans- planting of a complete community upon new and attractive ground, but the highest combination of every inducement to all classes, and the strongest arousing of their activity and interest. In carrying out the religious, political, and social organization of the new countries which would be called into existence, it would undoubtedly in the abstract be desirable to employ those forms which the wisest and best men of successive generations have united to rear and to maintain. The unreasonableness of division is patent in every phase of life, and would be much more readily and widely beUeved, if it were more simply and generally taught. Yet attachment to such forms, how- ever important, is but a secondary point, the great prin- ciples on which they are founded, are unalterably and eternally true. These no power whatever is at Hberty to modify, but their external expression may be if 96 ON THE UNION OF « ; t ' '' changed by lawful power, according to the exigencies of ever-varying circumstances. Thus, though unquestionably tlie promulgation of the pure spirit of Britisli religious and civil rule, under its best and purest forms, will be desired just in proportion as these are understood, so to the same extent will ex- ternal uniformity be readily yielded for greater unity of spirit. England and Scotland present examples of unity of spirit under widely differing forms of religious or of civil life. The United States are the widest illustration of intelligent colonization. New states, eighteen in number, and daily being added to, and forming the strongest instance of modern nationality of feeling, attest the wisdom of the course they have pursued. Unparalleled growth and prosperity are their reward. The system is very simple, and admirably practical and practicable. Capital for the development of waste land is obtained upon a partial mortgage of its resources. The capital thus obtained is employed in proving, developing, and exhibiting those resources, and a political decree determines that the mere inhabitation of a certain -tract of country elevates it at once to a defined position in the confederation. This is, in fact, merely elevating na- tional birthright above geographical position, and giving to the institutions of a country that inherently expansive power which the British constitution unfortunately lacks. It is the secret of the absolute contrast between the condition of the integrated colony states of the American confederation, and the colonial portion of the British empire. Were the laws, privileges, and customs of Great Britain similarly co-extensive, and inherently co-expan- sive with her empire, the colonies would soon become as little distinguishable from the mother country, as the new states, the colonies of the confederation, from the THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 97 thirteen parent stems. Even under most disndvantageoua circumstances, Oneness is sufficient to create an almost irresistible nationality, and if employed to spread the blessings of British principles- and of the constitution of Great Britain, woidd help to form the noblest as well Jis fii'mest empire iii the world. The commercial prosperitj' of the United States is attributable to precisely the same principle. AVherever the flag of the confederation waves, the same freedom of trade prevails, whUst all her foreign relations are made subservient to the deve- loi)ment of the varied and extensive branches of her domestic resources of trade, agriculture, commerce, and navigation. By adoption of a similar course, Great Britain would give an irresistible cohesion to her empire ; and every portion of it would be raised to un- approachable prosperity. The unbounded resources and extent of her dominions in every clime and region of the earth, afford the means of supplying every want ; and a real freedom of trade would be estabhshed, com- bining the truths, and avoiding the errors, of the sup- posed irreconcilable systems of free trade and protection. The most complete unrestrictedness of trade would in itself be the most decided protection, for it would be the common interest of all to pursue and to promote every branch of industry in the sphere most favourable to it. Interest, quite as much as duty, points to the com- plete integration of the colonies. Men, not localities, are the proper boundaries of principles or of privileges, and wherever subjects of the same empire dwell under one flag, unity should reign in commerce, as in duty, law, and right. ■ • - 9^ ON THE UNION OF 4' i EMIGRATION, LABOURERS, AND THE POOR. Mlicrc the inducements to settle in a new couutr\' preponderate ia favour of a particular class, or the pres- sure of present evils weij^hs most heavily upon a part of the community, emigration affords the remedy, and is the natural result. Such are precisely the cir- cumstances under which we live. The redundant multi- tudes, who entirely depend upon wages, and therefore, also, upon the rate of wages, have long engaged atten- tion. The numbers and condition of the poor, using the term to designate all that are out of employment, whatever the cause, are saddening to contemplate. If this subject appear at first sight less grand, it is in no measure less important than that which colonization suggests. Upon the condition of these preponderating classes, the permanence of society depends, and they certainly have the first claim upon us. Duty and in- terest are here, as ever, inseverable. Competition in its present form is ever seeking to supply at a rate con- tinually lower. The sufferings of the working classes, as well as the numbers of the poor, must increase so long as it continues. The more this system thrives, the lower their condition sinks. Emigration, in connexion with a scheme which would afford a fully adequate labour- market, would replace this grinding competition by an ever-increasing demand for labour; that labour would, moreover, be employed upon resources, the development of which would redouble the demand. The route admits of being carried out by a combination of many systems in which the capitalist and the contractor would hnd ample room; but it offers a far greater and higher boon to the labouring classes and the poor, and thus to all who indirectly depend upon their well-being- THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BUITAIN. 99 long lower with ibour- |by an rould, )ment route many Iractor ^r and and >eing it presents an unparalleled opportunity for forming what would virtually be a great school of industrj', but in which the tuition itself would be reproductive, and dircctlv fonvard the construction of the works. Practical instruction in handicraft and in various ways of earning an independent livelihood, is by far the most suitable to the wants and necessities of the labour- ing classes and the poor. It would not only elevate their physical condition, but their moral state as well, rendeiing them a truly valuable portion of the com- munity, with the general welfare of which they would themselves perceive their interests to be identified. Though the advantages of industrial training are self- evident, and it is obvious t' it the most valuable instruc- tion is that which will give greater skill in the daily occupations of life, the difficulties and expense attending it have caused it to be almost wholly overlooked. The route, however, affords the opportunity for carrying out such a system of instruction in the most complete man- ner, without in any degree interfering with other methods of executing the work. There is room enough for all. Upon the portions carried out industrially, all ages, abilities, and degrees of strength could be em- ployed and trained. The mode of carrying this into effect involves the proposed system of execution rather than the present subject, but the two are scarcely separable, if a proper estimate be formed of either the duties or advantages of emigration. The mental, bodily, and spiritual amelioration of the lower classes is the first necessity as well as duty of the day: the theme would be inexhaustible, but due reflec- tion must lead to tliis conviction. A community can have no stronger human safeguaid for its stability, than the peacefulness and contentment which are engendered, where the improvement of the several classes is a gradual, but a natural and progressive work. It has been made 100 ON THE UNION OF ill, \U h4 ' h ^ a happy boast of England, that the highest offices are open to the abihties and energies of the lowest original position ; br t though this may be a principle especially acknowledged in English law, there is no country or form of government under which the fortunes and skill of individuals have not elevated them to the fore- most rank. It is a far more healthy sign, and more essential to the well-being of a nation, that the several bodies of which it is composed sliouM find their condi- tion as masses to be a natiu'ally improving one. No one will deny in theory that the interests of the mem- bers or branches of a community are identical, and that . no one class can assume an antagonistic attitude to another, without injury to the whole. The theory, how correct soever, is nevertheless valueless, unless its trutli appear in the condition and conduct of the classes of that community. Such imdoubtedly is not the case amongst us. We perceive and blame the contradiction which upholds equality and slavery alike; and which, r/hile it justifies rebellion on the plea of a supposed inherent right of all men to liberty and freedom, can see in difiference of colour sufficient grounds to hold a race in bondage, and to traffic in mankind. Yet the unavowed and unintended yoke of slavery presses far more heavily and cruelly, where endless toil is too often not hopeless only, but proves absolutely inetfectual ; and where life itself, from which every ray of joy or consolation had long departed, at last sinks under accumulated wretchedness. In the mattei of life and death the interests of the slave and master are clearly identical ; but the employer may be fearfully indifferent to, or actually perceive an element of power in, the most prostrate condition of the class whence he draws his free and indeper^.dent servants. How can these things be remedied ? How can the master be constrained to see his real interests? Or TEE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 101 ices are original pecially country les and le fore- d more several p condi- e. No e mem- ,nd that tude to ►ry, how ts truth of that imongst which T/hile it nherent see in race in avowed heavily lopeless ere life ad long ledness. le slave er may ilement e class ts. an the ? Or rather, how can they again become so ? How^ can the two be reconciled? How can the bitterness of the oppressed be made to pass away? V/ho will provide sound teaching ? How can the poor be taught, unless the hours of toil be shortened ? And how can they be shortened, while a too circumscribed market and the controlling laws of trade compel continually sterner competition? When shall they be taught; and how shall they be made to listen? The elevation of the condition of the lower classes cannot be accomplished for them; but they may be guided and assisted to accom- plish this great work themselves. It is clear a system is required which can answer these conditions ; and that to be effectual, it must pro- vide space and create a demand for labour. It must rekindle hope, furnish inducements, and combine in- terests. It must include industrial and mental training, and be based upon and practise the precepts of Christ^s holy commandments. It must embrace the gospel, and preach its saving, healing, life-giving, and joyous doc- trines. 102 ON THE UNION OF t' ^ I IN'. ( WAYS AND MEANS, AND THE SYSTEM OF EXECUTION. It has been already intimated that the route would open a large field to the capitalist and contractor. It is unnecessary' to enter into the raort ordinary ways of performing extensive works ; but it cannot reasonably be doubted, that the enterprise which has now been briefly sketched in its principal features, would prove highly remunerative, and consequently it only requires to be known in order to be undertaken. It is also needless to dwell upon the various ways in which territorial set- tlement (whether aiming at colonization or simple emi- gration) has been, and may be^ carried out, or to describe the application of the same rules to the similar condi- tions of industrial settlement connected with mines, fisheries, ship-building, or other branches of labour. Neither contract, construction, nor settlement, can, how- ever, in themselves accomphsh the great and important ends that have been pointed out. A system com- petent to do so is therefore essential, in addition to any use that may be made of these means of hastening the work and of interesting other classes. It has been shown that the several portions of the route can be reproductively constructed, irrespective of the grand results attending its completion. This cha- racteristic renders its execution simple, and establishes the practicabihty of a system which wiU make it as beneficial during construction as it can prove when finished. Thus carried out in dependence on the local resources of the country traversed, those resources must be the SYSTEM 'oute would ractor. It iry ways of asonably be jeen briefly rove highly iiu'es to be so needless ritorial set- simple emi- to describe ailar condi- ith mines, of labour. , can, how- important tern com- ddition to hastening )ns of the 3pective of This cha- jstablishes bke it as )ve when resources 3t be the THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 103 ultimate fund whence the cost of execution is provided. A sufficient portion of them must therefore be secured to those who undertake their development. The chief resources are, land, the route itself, branches of industry that may be associated with it, mines, and fisheries. The preliminary expenses would therefore be secured by a portion of land, or by shares in these respective features. A free grant of a sufficient portion of the territory would greatly facilitate the starting of so comprehensive a scheme, but it is not indispensable. The system is independent of every consideration, except that of relative or improved value. All civilization is a monumental proof that the development of natural resources, judiciously directed, amply repays original cost and contingent expenses. It is scarcely possible, nor indeed does it appear essential, to enter into the more minute particulars of the necessary prehminary measures, with the brevity consistent with an abridg- ment. The peculiar circumstances of the country, owing to the charter of the Hudson's Bay Company, might be obviated by private purchase, or by parliamentary acts, home or colonial, similar to those by which the rights of private property are superseded for the general advan- tage, when canals, railroads, or measures of a similar nature are determined upon. The proper rules of valu- ation, the approximate rates of value, the probable amount of improved value, the computations, and the data on which they are based, are all points of the utmost im- portance, and require to be minutely and attentively examined, in order to obtain an adequate comprehension of the merits and proper scale of the proposal. These particulars are not, however, indispensable to its grand principles, to which it is preferable to confine an epitome rather than to enter superficially into minutiae. A F 2 m n\- Up' 'tijj. i Xi»*' 1 r 1 ipi 1! 1 104 ON THE UNION 0^ scheme of which the reproductive features are hased upon improved value, and the results of combination or co-operation, is adapted to any cii'cumstances in which it may be employed, but its powers will increase in pro- portion to the extent of co-operation and the amount of improved value. In order to carry out the views proposed for the benefit of the labourinj^ classes and the poor, regard must be had to two classes of emigrants. The first would comprise all who might emigrate upon their own means, the second those entirely dependent upon the Association. The former wculd be at once and directly a source of remuneration, the other, in the first instance, an expense, though also ultimately profitable to the Society. The formation of depots at the principal ports of Noi'th-American trade, or in other convenient localities, for the reception of the first class, and supplied with every necessary for famiUes or individuals, would be the first measure required. These depots should also be prepared for the reception and training of the second class of emigrants, vvhich would include all who might present themselves. In order to carry out the prin- ciples already stated, and to accomplish the objects in view, industrial tuition of every description, and religious and secular instruction, must be provided. The amehora- tive objects will be attained in the proportion in which the agency may reach the most helpless, abject, and de- graded class. A course of training would be indis- pensable for such as these, in order to render their reclamation possible and their employment profitable, and to avoid giving occasion of offence to new or exist- ing colonies, if such a population were recklessly cast upon their shores. It would accordingly be necessary to subject every individual who might be admitted on mere per- sonal presentation without means, to a probationary '^ THE DOMIiNIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 105 are based bination or 3 in which ase in pro- amount of ■led for the )or, regard The first their own upon the il directly a nstance, an he Society, al ports of it localities, pplied with )uld be the Id also be the second who might the prin- objects in d religious amehora- in which t, and de- be indis- der their profitable, or exist- east upon to subject ere per- )bationary period of not less than two years, but liable to any desirable prolongation, unless he should be enabled to establish a previous good character from his parish or known abode. The expenses of the first class need only be limited by moral obligations, but those of all who might be settled in a degree on credit or bond, should, for their own sakes, as well as that of the Association, be kept at the lowest amount consistent with the full attainment of the objects in view. Means of transport, and conveyance to the various localities in British America, and similar homes or depots in that country, must be provided. Whether the first-class emigrant merely resorted to such a home as . a temporary abode, or availed himself of the means of transport, or of all the faciUties afforded, he would have benefited the Association in some degree, and himself infinitely more. He would, at the least, have obtained a friendly shelter and the best means of informa- tion, and have escaped the cruelty, cheating, and ill-usage to which he is too often subjected at the hands of merciless speculators. Nor can the effects which might be hoped for in the majority of cases of the second class be easily overrated. Every inducement would combine to incite and facilitate good conduct ; and in how many instances would sound instruction and the saving truths of the gospel be heard for t' 3 first time ! After a short while, too, here would be the animating and encouraging examp.e of others who would have passed through a similar career to an honourable independence. The system would, therefore, combine all the various iastrumentalities that have been found most effectual in reclaiming the degraded, and in removing the causes of misery and vice. Hope would be revived by the direct and visible rewards set before diligence and good con- 106 ON THE UNION OF f-ii? ' duct. The highest stimulant would be afforded to exer- tion. The labour of the emigrant, according to his ability, would be received in lieu of payment, and the best instruction in every kind of industry be provided, whilst the surplus of earnings would be applied to pur- chasing shares in the associ.ited enterprise. There would be complete identity between individual and common interests. The foresight, wisdom, and wealth of the educated would be combined in effecting the most perfect pre-arrangement for the benefit of the poor, who would perceive in an immediately tangible and practical form, that labour is the stepping-stone to capital. All but the most obdurately insensible hearts would open under such influences, and would be prepared also to receive and love the instruction in righteousness. It were to deny the goodness and long-suffering of God, and to disbelieve His promises, were we to doubt that by such means the hearts of all classes might not again be knit together, and peace on earth prove the forerunner of the eternal love of heaven. Who would not rejoice for himself or for others to exchange for such a prospect of hope, activity, and healthfulness, the scenes of misery and wretchedness which the crowded and filthy dens of the poor too often present in the huge ill-drained, ill- ventilated, and dark and gloomy clusters of their sad abodes, tenanted amidst oaths, drunkenness, impurity, and discontent, imtil at last death releases from a hfe but too frequently embittered by aggravated sickness, and hurries the victims of sin and misery to the grave, which knows no change and no repentance. It remains to show that these objects can be reproduc- tively accomphshed. The following computations can only be approximate, unless much more vast and detailed calculations are THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 107 led to exer- ding to his it, and the le provided, lied to pur- rhere would id common alth of the nost perfect who would ctical form, All but the under such ve and love suffering of 'e to doubt > might not prove the Who would change for ■ulness, the le crowded 1 the huge ay clusters imkenness, h releases aggravated sery to the nee. reproduc- 3roximate, ations are entered into than appears desirable in the present paper. As there is a balance in favour of every part, an isolated instance may illustrate the system, though it must fail to show the power conferred by the aggregate amount. The one thousand first-class emigrants and the price of land per acre are merely taken as convenient units of computation. It is immaterial whence the funds for the support of the second-class emigrants, for the works, or for the Association generally, may be, in the first instance, derived. So, too, the rate of repayment in the second table is assumed as a just and reasonable one, and, as in every other instance, the rates of income have been taken at lower, and those of expenditure at higher figiu-es, than are actually in practice. The extent of power only, not the practicability of the Association, depends on any of these amounf;s, and they would only affect the numbers that could be reclaimed from utter indigence in propor- tion to that of emigrants of the first class settled through its agency. Computations » Section I. — The * Homes' It will be perceived that the calculations of Table I. are based on the assumption that the sum produced '^',^ the first land settled with first-class emigrants through the agency of the Association, should be devoted to the support of the Homes. The proportion in which this would be necessary would obviously be very small after the first beginning, the only expenses increasing in direct proportion to numbers being those of superintendence, 108 ON TUE UNION OF As from the first introduction of the emigrant he is required to earn the means of his subsistence by labour, the sum allowed for buildings, &c., probably very much exceeds the actual cost. Nor is it an amount that would continue, enlargement and repair being executed by local labour; but it has been deemed best to rate it highly in the first instance, on account of the uncertainty which must attach to the cost of ground in the various situations required. But even with a rented house and painted board a beginning would be possible, only it would be necessary, if no land were held as security or bank, to confine the first operations to the reception of the present class of emigrants, imtil from the advan- tages of pre-arrangement and combination on even so restricted a scale, the means of extension were gradually secured. Small as these means might be, they would contain the germ of reproduction, and the epitome of the whole scheme. Table I. — Computed Expenses of 2000 individuals, — viz. 1000 emigrants from each class, — calculated for the period of One Year of th6 commencement, (the income from lOOQ frst-class emigrants being merely taken as a scale of computation.) INCOME. - '' Profits on maintenance of 1000 individuals of the ? first class, taken at Id. per day per head . .^1,520 Profit on their transport to British North America, and to the place of ulterior destination, 1/. per „r/-;'- head 1,000 , Price of territorial settlement, - at 25 acres per ; head, II. per acre ..." 25,000 Profits on rations supphed up to period of the first harvest 1,520 . , ^29,040 If THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 109 it he is labour, 7 mucli it would jted by rate it ^rtainty various use and only it irity or ception advan- Jven so adually would J of the z. 1000 of One 'st-class ) ; > 10 >^ EXPENDITURE. Expenses of maintenance of 1()00 individuals of the • second class, at 15/.* per head per annum . j£; 15,(300 EXPENSES OP STAFF. 1 Superintendent .=^500 2 Clergymen 800 4 Lay assistants and schoolmasters . 400 10 Masters of various crafts . . . 800 I Surgeon '300 1 Apothecary 100 ^2900 , One half t chargeable to second class . . . 1,450 Expenses of ground, buildings, including ': church, schools, hospital, baths, wash- houses, &c 20,000 One half chargeable to second class . . . 10,000 ^26,450 To obtain, however, some more adequate idea of the working of the system when in full operation, it may be well to examine a similar table, computed after the supposed working of the Association for several years. In the second year no building expenses need be allowed, (the labour paid for by maintenance, and thus already computed, being amply sufficient,) but the ex- penses of transport begin. So that To 26,450/. less 10,000/., (see Table I.), that is, to £\6,450 Must be added The expenses of transport to British North America, and to places of ulterior destination, at 7/. lOs. per headt 7,500 .... - „ - . .. .£23,950 * From 10/. to 13/. per annum is the cost at Unions, t The other half being included in the charges to the first class. X This liiay be perhaps extravagantly high, when it is consi- dered that provisions are already reckoned in the tables. p 3 110 ON THE UNION OF In the second year, therefore, 1000 first-class emi- grants yielding an income of 29,0 10/., would support 1210 of the second class at 24/. per head. It will be sufficient to exemplify the plan, to assume that half the number of individuals admitted may be able to obtain the necessary character to qualify for immediate emigration. Table I. has been entirely confined to the elucidation of the Homes. The expenses of transport have therefore not been introduced into it ; but the amount will be the same, if the proportion of that year is included in the following one. On this supposition 1105 Cinigrants, or half of 1000 + 1210 would be shipped the second year. The number in the third year would be the same ; in the fourth it would rise to 1210, and so far as the proceeds from 1000 first-class emigrants alone are concerned, it would remain at that point. Year 1. Year 2. Years. Year 4. Total. Admitted .... 1000 1210 1210 1210 4630 Shipped : On establishment of character, 1105 605 605 2,305 On expiration of probation, 500 605 1105 Thus in four years 4630 individuals would be admitted, tlu-ough the instrumentaUty of the four one-thousand first-class emigrants, leaving in each year a balance of upwards of 800/. for contingencies ; 3415 of these would be either already ' settled,' or on the works of the Asso- ciation. Granting the privilege of settlement on bond or credit, to those who might have been enabled to prove a good character, 2415 would, according to the propor- tion assumed, be estabhshed, either territorially, or in branches of industry connected with the Association. Such persons would be indebted to the Association for maintenance, transport, land, rations, &c.; the title deeds or shares being retained as security for the payment of THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. Ill the interest and . instalments. The repayment would begin when the fruits of the first harvest sliould he gathered. It will be a sufficiently near approximation to reckon the number at 2400, and to consider tlicm as settled at equal intervals of time, or 800 annually. On the assumption that the actual emigration should begin with the second season, the repayments will begin to be available in the third year. Making the rate of interest 5 per cent., the computations for the fifth year, accruing from the continuance in the system, would be somewhat as follows: — Table II. — Showing the Income of the Homes computed for the Fifth Year : 1000 first-class emigrants having been settled in each of the Four preceding Years, and second-class emigrants, supported as per foregoing statements, INCOME. Profits and land sale on 1000 first-class emi- grants (see Table I.)* ^'29,040 Third instalment and interest fi-om second-class emigrants, settled in the second year . . . 5,280 Second instalment and interest from second-class emigrants, settled the third year .... 5,520 First instalment and interest from second-class emigrants, settled the fourth year .... 5,7^0 ■■U j^45,6(K) EXPENDITURE. Expenses of second-class emigrants, per thou- sand, at 24/. per head j€24,000 As the objects in view are of a far higher intention than the ordinary purposes of a poor-law union, the staff" " '" * The sums derived firom the first-class emigrants can be reck- oned upon for the year current, as they would be received imme- diately : repayments would only fall due at the expiration of the year. 112 ON THE UNION OP I I expenditure has been rated far above the usual practice. The cost of maintenance, tliough also at a liigh rate, admits of a further increase of 2/. lOs. Gd. per head, without causing any excess. Thus the resources of the first twelve months, necessarily the most expensive time, show a favourable balance on the receipts and expenses of 1000 emigrants from each class. And, as has been said, by proportioning the number of the second class supported to the receipts derived from the first class, a self-regulating balance is at once given to the funds of the Institution. These respective sums would be thus derived : ' Debt of 800 emigrants, at 24/. per head, .£19,200 Interest at 5 per cent j^960 First instalment of 6/. per head r . . . . 4800 Interest on remainder — viz . Second instalment of 61. per head Interest on remainder — viz 9600 480 r - Third instalment of 6/. per head Interest on remainder — viz. . Fourth and last instalment of 61. per head 6760 14,400 • • 720 4800 5520 9600 • • 480 4800 5280 4800 I . . 240 4800 .£5040 In the fifth year, therefore, 1900 emigrants would be supported through the same instrumentality which in the first and following years supported between 1000 and 1200, exhibiting the amply fructifying powers of the system. THE DOMINIONS OF liREAT BRITAIN. 113 Section II. — The IVorks. It is proposed to defray the expenses of the works by the proceeds of tlic agricultural or industrial settlement of the second-class emigrants, or those reclaimed, sup- ported, and finally settled through the agency of the Association. The funds of the ' Homes,' when in full operation, admit (as appears from the preceding table) of the num- ber of these latter being in the proportion of two to one to the first-class emigrant. Continuing to reckon twenty-five acres as the size of the most eligi^^le farm on which a labourer can begin his career as an indepen- dent farmer, and 5/. per head as the additional sum required for seed, implements of husbandry, &c., every one-thousand first-class emigrants supplying the means of relief for two thousand second-class emigrants, would Airnish also, through the latter, 60,000/. for the con- struction of the Works. And, as by the previous supposition one-half are allowed direct agricidtural settlement, and the capital is repaid by instalments with interest, there would be a farther sum of 4250/.* From every 2000 persons, there- Id be h in 1000 ES of ♦ Derived in the following manner : Debt of 1000 labourers on agricultural settlement, ^30,000 First instalment at 5/. per cent. . First instalment at bl. per share . Second year's interest on remainder Second instalment Third year's interest on remainder Third instalment of 10/. per share Fourth year's interest on remainder Fourth instalment of 10/. per share j€1500 . . . 5,000 . 1250 . . . 5,000 . 1000 . . . 10,000 . 500 . . . 10,000 ^^4250 lU ON THE UNION OF ; I f ■ I It h fore, that miglit be received into the Homes as vagrants, and that were brought to the scenes of operation, from 60,000/. to 64,000/. would be ultimately derived for carrying on the works. To obtain a just insight into the bearings of this part of the subject, it is necessary to compute the pro- bable number of emigrants, for although it has been shown from how small a beginning the entirety of the proposals may be accomplished, their highest efficiency depends no less upon the co-operation of numbers than upon the combination of purposes and that of instru- ments. In 1847,* the emigration to the British-Ame- rican colonies, was 109,680 To the United States 142,000 It is certainly not too much to expect that as soon as the principles of the Association are understood, emigration from Great Britain and Ireland to the United States would cease ; numbers of recent emigrants would return thence to the soil of their native empire ; but, assuming the present effect to be only to diminish the actual emigration to a foreign land by one-half, the computed number may stiU be the same, not only on account of the very great and general recent increase of emigration, but also because of the great stimulus to it which the proposed enterprise would necessarily afford. Upon this supposition there would thus be 251,689 emigrants of the first class proceeding to British America, supplying, as has been seen by Table I., the funds for double that number, or for 503,360 second- class emigrants, and these, according to Table II., and (,. ■« * In 1849, the number of emigrants exceeded that of the pre- ceding years by one-sixth. The impulse it has of late received is universally known, but an average year has heen piu^osely selected. THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 115 the corollarative remarks to it, would yield the labour of 251,680 men, and 15,60 i, 160/. as the fruits of one year's emigration towards the execution of the works. None of these calculations embrace the multiplying remuneration from the great route itself, a perpetually increasing source of revenue ; nor the enhanced and perpetually increasing value of alternate reserved lots, by which, in the very first instance, a property equal to that sold to the emigrants is retainer^ , nor the dividends or repayments of capital on the mining, fishing, manufac- turing, and other branches of the Association. pre- yed is lected. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE WORKS. The foregoing computations are the legitimate, and indeed the inevitable, deductions which flow from very moderate data ; from data lower, in fact, than the profit- able returns on similar investments actually made, inde- pendently of all idea of rendering the country the great scene and thoroughfare of the commerce between the hemispheres. Allowing, however, almost any amount of disagree- ment as to the degree of approximate correctness wliich these figures may present. It is still evident that no nar- row limit need be assigned to the scale on which the whole sci'ieme may be carri'^il out. Comprehensiveness of aim, and co-operation in execution, are its essential principles. Suffice it here to say, that aU failure, all shortcoming, may be attributed to a contrary course. Defects of system, errors of plan, and faults of execution, may all be traced either to isolation or timidity of aim. Existing work« in almost every country testify to the wastefiil extravagance thereby really entailed. A work, and a great work too, may be most admirably carried out to fulfil its design, but if that design fail to embrace llfi ON THE UNION OF Wi i& i •]■• ^fi* common and related interests, it must, to a greater or less extent, end in comparative failure. If, for instance, a communication be required for military purposes, it should at the same time be adapted to the commercial wants of its locality and terminations. Is its situation such as to form a link in a series of communications, future or existing ? The scale of its execution should at once rr^nder it suitable to these circumstances. Does it lie within an imperfectly mapped region? The most accurate and minute survey for general purposes should form part of the enterprise. Is it to be within a country yet unpeopled, and of which the existing intercourse between its parts or its extremities is i isuf- ficient to defray the expenses or to yield a fair return upon them ? A portion of the resources that it would be the means of developing ought to be secured to repay the cost and a^brd remunerative interest. These and kindred rules could all be supported by innumerable instances in which failure, or success, has been connected with their observance, or their violation. Precedents, however, to be valuable and acceptable as proofs, must be minute, and the principle is ^oarcely disputable, or Hkely to be disputed, however generally disregarded in practice. Whatever difficulties may in ordinary cases, especially in those of private enterprise, interfere with its more general adoption, none of them apply to the planning or execi^^^^ion of a scheme of the magnitude and varied aspects of the present one, of which the diflferent parts and interests, however diverse in character, blend and combine so intimately and so harmoniously as to be inseverable without general injury to all. , If, for instance, a comparison be made between the stupendous works of the country of the Netherlands, its circumstances and size, and those of the country and route before us, the conviction becomes irresistible and THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 117 overwhelming, that no labour which man is capable of performing could fail to be abundantly remunerative, when executed under all the favouring circumstances that unite in the grand field of British America, viewed as the connecting link between Europe and the Pacific, and the East. • The Netherlands had nothing but local resources to rely upon. It formed no connecting link between one country and another, much less between one world and another ; and far from boasting of rich and abundant re- soui'ces, its condition was that of a pestilent and barren marsh. It had no fine table lands and no magnificent rivers to assist in its reclamation. It has been rescued from a nearly submarine existence, and abides, so to speak, only by the sufferance of the waves. Its inhabi- tants possessed no varied store of mechanical skill ; the rudest manual labour was their only art; yet, by indefatigable industry, they raised a country of which two kingdoms and several provinces still attest the historical greatness. Though now shorn of maritime pre-eminence and of colonial possessions, their decadence can certainly not be attributed to their sp^ did works of utiHty, or to their astounding industry. It is, how- ever, worthy of remark, that since the loss of their colonial dependencies, they have lost their naval supe- riority, and have dwindled into insignificance. Holland, notwithstanding her decay, still expends 2,000,000 florins annually upon her dykes, and is at this moment engaged, at great expense, in endeavouring to add to her territory a portion of the Haarlem Sea. The inference is irresistible; and renders it unneces- sary to show, step by step, from the shores of one ocean to the other, how feasible and how desirable is the adop- tion of the most complete and comprehensive system and of the grandest scale, that it can entirely rely upon that perfection of development which it alone could elicit. 118 ON THE UNION OF The arithmetical aspect of the comparison between the respective circumstances attending the development of the originally submerged portion of the Netherlands and of British America is curious. It will scarcely be consi- dered too favourable an assumption to state the local resources of the two countries at that of their respective areaSj and the general inducements, and also the diffi- culties attending their improvement, inversely in the same ratio, yet if these premises be allowed, the result would be, to exhibit the development of British America as 1656^ : 1^, or 4,541,308,416 times more profitable and important than that of Holland. However strange such an array of figures, it is unne- cessary to speculate on its approximate correctness or im- probabiHty. The precedent afibrded by the Netherlands cannot be invalidated, or the resources of British North America denied. It places them in striking contrast, let the error in the amount of relative proportion be almost what it may. k : ( CONCLUSION. *r'!' Little remains to be added. The route has been shown to be the shortest, quickest, and best situated, the most healthy and the most comprehensive, that can be found between the hemispheres. It is also inviolable, and therefore of the utmost national importance. It would connect the most distant and most densely-populated regions of the globe, and knit together all the various parts of the British empire in a complete and indissoluble imion by identity of interests. It would be the means of peopling British America, and render it for the first time of practical value in some measure conunensurate with its intrinsic worth. That vast territory would be rescued firom the THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 119 condition of a wilderness scarcely trodden jy civilized man, and be transformed into an empire teeming with activity and life. A commerce would be called into existence, which even the quickest tracings of mental activity cannot easily follow. Its only limits would be those of the zeal and energy brought to bear on its de- velopment. The aspects of the whole colonial poUcy and practice of Great Britain would be placed u m the firm basis of imperial unity, and the maritime supremacy of the empire, under the effects of influences such as these, would not only be secured, but immeasurably elevated. It is important to a due appreciation of the whole enter- prise, to keep these results vividly before the mind. They are the end to be contended for, the object to be gained. Otherwise the more extended bearings of the question might be lost sight of in the close and minute inquiry into the details; and it is only by the correct appreciation of the relative proportion of the work to be done to the results which would attend it, that a right opinion can be formed of the practicability, and consequently of the real value, of the scheme proposed. It has, indeed, been shown, that the practicability of the details does not depend upon the magnificent results of the whole communication, however vastly these may multiply the inducements to its being undertaken; but that striking feasibility, which is manifested in every feature of the work, is estabhshed by the abounding preponderance of result over preliminary effort. Obstacles do truly intervene which require a propor- tionate instrumentahty to overcome them : difficulties great in themselves, indeed so mnf*U so, that unless they are regarded in connexion with the results of the whole enterprise, they assume something of that fabulous im- possibiUty, and might be regarded with something of that dread with which timidity ever invests distant objects of unfamiliar form. 120 ON THE UNION OF m It caunot but be that the formation of communications of such a character and comprehensiveness should be attended by serious difficulties. These are, moreover, vastly increased, because the line of communications ex- tends for a length of 3000 miles through a country for the most part uninhabited, at least by civilized man, and for ages strangely shrouded in the mysteries of supposed unprofitableness. To found an empire surpassing the extent of the known world in former days out of materials such as these, and to give new communications to the commerce of the world, to alter the directions of existing inter- course, to apply the experience of preceding ages, and the brilliant discoveries of art and science, made during the period of lengthened tranquillity with which God has blessed the boundaries of this nation, are undertakings that must be fraught with difficulty, and that, to be carried out successfully, must command patience, wisdom, zeal, and courage. It is not by underrating the obstacles that will in- evitably oppose themselves that they can ever be sur- mounted, but by the well-considered co-operation of the available means; and the goal, the crowning triumphs of the perfected achievement, should be kept constantly in view, to animate in that contest which awaits the outset of every great and arduous enterprise. Thus regarded, the preliminary labour necessary receives its just proportions. It is far from formidable when placed beside the inducements and facilities which abound, and equally characterize the component links and the entire communication. It has been seen that the route stands alone, not only in its general attractions, but in this singular feature, of consisting of a whole system of minuter parts, each forming a complete and independent means of intercourse, but all uniting in one grand and continuous whole. This TII£ DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 121 remarkable and admirable circumstance is the great leveller of all obstructing difficulties; but it does not sum up all the facilities, nor comprise all the induce- ments, which exist. If the country is uninhabited, it is intersected by countless navigable streams, opening its fertile districts in every direction. Is it in a wilderness and untenanted condition ? Its cultivation and owner- ship point out the means by which at once to people il, and to cross it with the required communications. Are inhabitants wanted ? Have we been losing wealth of infinitely greater value than even the most extended empty territory, in the flight, rather than the emigration, of thronging multitudes? The route offers labour's best market to the world ^ the soil, a home to every one in need. Amidst the multifarious resources, the development of the mineral and metallic wealth of the countiy must not be overlooked. Varieties of marble, of precious stones, of pottery, and colouring earths, of marls, of limes, manure, plasters, of ores, of copper, iron, and a diversity of metals, abound. The coal mines, situated along the route, but especially at its terminations throughout the Gulf provinces and upon the seaboard of the Pacific, deserve especial notice. They do more than facilitate the route ; they appear to unite with the other indications afforded by nature in pointing out a decisive intention. The metaUic wealth of Lake Superior has recently attracted great attention and interest. Masses of copper ore have been exhibited, of great purity, and extraordinary weight and size, and of proportionate value. The mines extend in almost unbroken succession along the greater part of the coast. Whole cargoes are brought down, consisting of huge masses of native copper ore. The yield is, generally speaking, quite unusual, amounting to upwards of 65 per cent., and increasing in richness in proportion to 122 ON THE UNION OF W. mi(, the deptli of the working. Iron ore is in similar abundance, and facility of transport is the great indis- pensable to the further development of these abundant sources of wealth. The minerd and metallic wealth of the Rocky Moun- tains would alone amply repay their minute and elaborate survey, and if the improvement of the Churchill river route be proceeded with, comparatively few and trifling obstacles are all that remain to render the great copper- mine region of the north accessible. Coal is in the im- mediate vicinity, and this amazing metallic deposit, which has been supposed to be for ever shut out from practicable use, would become readily accessible during a considerable portion of the year. The fisheries, which extend from one extremity of the route to another, afford also most interesting and wonderful inducements to the immediate and simul- taneous prosecution of the whole enterprise, and a cor- roboration of the facility with which it may be under- taken. It is well known that the ' British bank fishery of Newfoundland is,* to use the words of Sir Gaspar Le Marchant, governor of that colony, ' destroyed.' The route, however, and the maritime activity which it would inevitably create, point out the ready means by which it might be quickly restored, and British waters and fisheries would cease to be an exclusive mine of wealth, and an exclusive naval school to her most dan- gerous foes and most inveterate enemies. The fisheries, however, extend through all the waters of the route ; by sea, in rivers, or in lakes, they equally abound, and render the simultaneous colonization of the whole country a possibility unattended with danger. Com- bined with the wild herds scattered in countless numbers in the vast plains of the interior, and the profusion of game and wild fowl, they obviate all the possible cata- strophes which might otherwise ensue from the simul- THE DOMINIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 123 tancous occupation of so vast an extent of territory. Blights and failures in tlie crops are singularly liable to spread in countries altogether newly reclaimed ; similar, but often unfathomable, causes seem to carry desolation through tracts immensely wide ; but the partial failure, or even the destruction, of the crops, assuming these possible evils to occur, are deprived of their attendant horrors by the abundance of independent resources. This extraordinarj' combination of faciUties appears to bespeak the intention of an AU-wisc, Almighty, and All-bounteous Providence, that the stream of civilization should burst at once from shore to shore, through the wide domain, without danger, difficulty, or delay. They are unquestionably provisions of overruling love, which render such a course consistent with unparalleled advan- tage and glory to the empire. It has already been said that Mackenzie's vigorous mind, which descried the distant shores of the Pacific from the opposite coasts of the Atlantic, and which grasped successfully all the difficulties of crossing the then unknown continent almost alone, and which en- abled him to discover both the far western and the northern oceanic boundaries of the continent, did not fail to perceive and to point out the universal and supreme national importance of this enterprise, though hitherto in vain. Every day's experience and progress since his time has only added urgency and value to his correct and truthful testimony. Art, science, and the impending changes of the commercial relations of the world, combine to render the adoption of his suggestions scarcely optional. The East, the empire and the sta- bility of England herself, depend upon the issue. Humanity herself adds a yet unnoticed claim upon our energies. The Indians have appealed to the compassion and generosity of their white brethren and their ' Great Chief,' to 3end them more of the messengers of mercy. 124 ON THE UNION ETC. r ^f i\ the heralds of the gospel. Experience has proved that they gladly beeomc tillers of the soil ; trial has dis- proved the blasphemous assertion that the extinction of any race of men before the progress of another is an inevitable law. Cruelty and madness have rendered it a fact; but it has never been a law of God. The admir- able prison discipline which now happily distinguishes England, can also be thoroughly and fully carried out in many portions of the scheme, and this so far from in the slightest degree interfering with free labour, with very gi'eat advantage to every species of industrial de- velopment. ' This combination has been brought about by no pur- poseless fortuity. No mere imaginary chance has be- stowed these advantages upon Great Britain, and given her a mastery over the seas, and territory in every region of the earth. They are talents entrusted to her care for use. This world is the scene of national judg- ments and of national rewards. If England refuse her mission, how can she escape her fate ? But while she retains the opportunity, she may surpass her former glory upon that continent, of which the history warns her how, by duties too long aisregarded, the lustre of her glory may be dimmed. THE END, ■Jfts, Pfoi 'ovcd that has dis< inction of her is an mdered it he adrair- ;inguishes jrried out r from in )ur, with atrial de- J no pur- ' has be- ind given in every 3d to her nal judg- 3fuse her vhile she c former ry warns lustre of i '■r—-mA - ilt»^ of ATlulNTir AND PACtFlC OClLiNS. StattiteifilM (if*. 15 "J Jiegrte 'V, , f '^'