we shall have an intelligent issue on this question honestly put to the country. So shall we be saved the humiliation of again demanding an answer to a question most derogatory to the honour of our country-Is sugar to be produced by the freeman or by the slave?

RAILWAYS IN BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.

THE establishment of a railway communication between the Atlantic, at Nova Scotia and the Canadas, is a subject which, during the last two years, has occupied much public attention, and seems now destined to be either altogether abandoned or left to the enterprise and resources of the Colonists themselves, who, seeing they have little hope of assistance from the Imperial Government, will probably accept the offers eagerly made to them by capitalists in the United States.

This alternative, when we consider the questions now agitating the minds of men, both in the United States and in Canada, is greatly to be deprecated.

The action of the bureaucracy of the Colonial-office, as we have had occasion to remark when discussing other subjects, however zealous and well-intentioned the minister, is too apt to be that of a drag on the wheels of progressive enlightenment and improvement. It must not, however, be forgotten that, in the North American provinces, there are various, and in some cases antagonistic interests to be reconciled and united before a great railway system, such as that now proposed, can be successfully carried out, and it was to effect this that the interference and support of the Colonial minister has been hitherto sought; and to some extent this assistance was accorded by Earl Grey, who, though he declined advocating an Imperial guarantee for the purpose, expressed his readiness to negociate in favour of a road traversing the provinces which should pass wholly through British soil; but, in consequence of some misunderstanding between his Lordship and Mr. Howe, the Colonial delegate, as to the exact course which the line should take, this arrangement has not been carried out. The present Government coming suddenly into office with their hands full of other matters, if not more important, at least more emergent, and with the speedy dissolution of Parliament before them, demanding an attention

that could not be postponed, the Colonial minister could not give that immediate and serious consideration to the formation of a railroad in Canada which the Imperial and Colonial interests involved in the carrying out of such a project imperatively demanded. The result of the coquetting of one Government, and the enforced inattention of another, has been, that the deputation who had come to this country upon the subject has been allowed to return with the impression that they must look to their own resources, or to the aid and encouragement of a foreign and rival state, for carrying out the proposed undertaking. Such then is the present position of a question upon which the great leaders of public sentiment, in this country, have been united in considering as of vital importance to the maintenance of those relations between the mother country and her North American colonies, and which is essential to the material prosperity of both. It may not, therefore, be out of place to call attention to some of the most important facts upon which such opinions have been formed, and which have induced many of the leading members of both Houses of Parliament to give their warm support to every measure tending to promote so important an object as inter-colonial railways. In so doing we may remark, that the vast and varied resources possessed by our North American Colonies can hardly be appreciated by persons who have not visited them, or who have not had access to peculiar means of local information. Perhaps no better authority upon the subject can be adduced than the celebrated report, made by Earl Durham, upon the affairs of these provinces. In reference to the resources of which, his lordship states that :

"No portion of the American continent possesses greater natural resources for the maintenance of large and flourishing communities. An almost boundless range of the richest soil still remains unsettled, and may be rendered available for the purposes of agriculture. The wealth of inexhaustible forests of the best timber in America, and of extensive regions of the most valuable minerals, have as yet been scarcely touched. Along the whole line of sea coast, around each island, and in every river, are to be found the greatest and richest fisheries in the world. The best fuel and the most abundant water power are available for the coarser manufactures, for which an easy and certain market is to be found.

"Trade with other continents is favoured by the possession of a large number of safe and spacious harbours; long, deep, and numerous rivers, and vast inland seas supply the means of easy intercourse, and the structure of the country generally affords the utmost facility for

every species of communication by land. Unbounded materials of agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing industry are there.

"The country which has founded and maintained these colonies at a vast expense of blood and treasure, may justly expect its compensation in turning their misappropriated resources to the account of its own redundant population; they are the rightful patrimony of the English people, the ample apanage which God and Nature have set aside in the new world for those whose lot has assigned them but insufficient portions in the old.

"Under wise and free institutions, these great advantages may yet be secured to Her Majesty's subjects, and a connection secured by the link of kindred origin and mutual benefits may continue to bind to the British empire the ample territories of its North American provinces, and the large and flourishing population by which they will assuredly be filled."

A more recent and hardly less powerful advocate of colonial interests, the Hon. Joseph Howe, of Nova Scotia, says, in reference to the same subject:

"Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are but the frontage of a territory which includes 4,000,000 of square miles, stretching away behind and beyond them, to the frozen regions on the one side and to the Pacific on the other. Of this great section of the globe, all the northern provinces, including Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, occupy but 486,000 square miles. The Hudson's Bay territory includes 250,000. Throwing aside the bleak and inhospitable regions, we have a magnificent country between Canada and the Pacific, out of which five or six noble provinces may be formed, larger than any we have, and presenting to the hand of industry and to the eye of speculation every variety of soil, climate and resource. With such a territory as this to overrun, organize and improve, think you that we shall stop even at the western bounds of Canada; or even at the shores of the Pacific? Vancouver's Island, with its vast coal measures lies beyond. The beautiful islands of the Pacific and the growing commerce of that ocean are beyond. Populous China and the rich East are beyond, and our children's children's sails will reflect as familiarly the sunbeams of the South as they now brave the angry tempests of the North. The Maritime Provinces which I now address are but the Atlantic frontage of this boundless and prolific region-the wharves upon which its business will be transacted, and beside which its rich argosies are to lie."

Now, at first sight, there may appear something exaggerated in the views taken by these statesmen upon this question, both as regards the boundless resources possessed by the country, and the possibility of their development to the extent anticipated. But we have only to look to the progress made by the United States within the last few years, and we shall then see what has been done by a people of the same race, the same religion, and possessing the same intellectual powers, towards effecting what is now desired to be accomplished in our own provinces. Why the British provinces have not yet made the same progress is a question much easier to ask than to answer. Perhaps one reason, and that not the least important, is that until very recently the inhabitants have had but little if any voice in the direction of their own affairs, and have been subjected either to the crude theories of the successive colonial ministers who have ruled in Downing-street, or to the narrow views of the provincial governors for the time being, and the selfish and ephemeral official oligarchy by whom they have been surrounded. Thus, while their persevering, industrious, go-ahead neighbours have been striving to turn every available resource of their country to account, the inhabitants of the British provinces have comparatively slept or chafed over their local grievances, and even now allow sectional jealously to impede the progress of those improvements which alone can rescue them and their best interests from the overwhelming competition of, if not absorption, by the rapidly advancing power and encroaching spirit of the United States. There is yet time to remedy this; but not a moment must be lost in binding these now disjointed provinces together by iron bands, in giving them a fixity of purpose, a community of interest, and by discarding all selfish or sectional feeling, promote the common weal of the whole.

To accomplish this several plans have been brought forward, but only three have actually received the attention of the local legislatures. The first scheme made public was a line from Halifax to Quebec. The proposition for making this road was founded upon a report made by Major Robinson, in 1848, to both Houses of Parliament, upon the results of a survey made by the Royal Engineers in the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada, in order to the selection of a line of railway which should serve as a trunk line through the provinces, and at the same time connect the interior with the Atlantic. Upon the general advantages presented by this route, the Report states

that:

"The opening up a large field for provincial improvements for the

settlement of emigrants, and by affording the opportunity, in addition to internal, of external communication, by means of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Bay Chaleurs, it will tend to develope in the highest degree the commerce and fisheries of the province of New Brunswick. "If a straight line be drawn from Cape Clear, in Ireland, to New York, it will cut through or pass close to Halifax. The latter is, therefore, on the direct route, and as the sea voyage across the Atlantic may be shortened by nearly three days in steamers, it is not improbable that on that account, when the branch line to St. John's is completed, and other lines to connect with those in the United States, the whole or the greatest portion of the passenger traffic between the Old and New World, would pass through Halifax, and over a great section of the proposed railroad."

The Report goes on to state :

"But the great object for the railway to attain, and which, if it should be able to accomplish, its capability to pay the interest of the capital expended would be undoubted, is to supersede the long and dangerous passage to Quebec by the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

"To make two voyages in a season, vessels are obliged to leave England earlier, and encounter the dangers of the ice in the Gulf much sooner than it is safe or prudent for them to do.

"The loss of life and property which has occurred from this cause, and returning late in the autumn, has been enormous; it cannot be ascertained, but probably it would have more than paid for the railway.

"An opinion may, however, be formed of it from the rates of insurance, which in the spring and autumn are as high as 10 per cent.—a much higher rate than to any other part of the world.

"The navigation of the St. Lawrence is closed for about six months in every year. During the whole of this period all the produce of the country is locked up, and necessarily lies unproductive on the hands of the holders."

Several instances of this might be given, as, for example :

"In the winter of 1847-8 the price of flour at Halifax and St. John was at 40s. the barrel, and it was being imported from the chief ports in the United States, even from as far as New Orleans, in the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time at Quebec, the price of flour was 25s. per barrel. A very great difference, which, had the railway been in existence, would not have occurred."

The Report states (page 23) :