Canada and the States

Reason why I wen

at has since been called the "Intercolonial" Railway. That Railway, projected half a century ago, was part of the great scheme of 1851,-of which the Grand Trunk system from Portland, on the Atlantic, to Richmond; and from Riviere du Loup, by Quebec and Richmond, to Montreal, and then on to Kingston, Toronto, Sarnia, and Detroit-had been completed and opened when I, thus, visited Canada, as Commissioner, in the autumn of 1861. I found Mr. Tilley fully alive to the initial im

hes through United States' territory: each Province enforcing its separate, and differing, tariffs, the one against the other, and others, through its separate

al Empire; and the reader has only to read the reference, made later on, to a published letter of Sir Charle

e, still remembered, effects of the visit of the Prince of Wales, accomp

n Empire, Mr. Tilley and I were of the same opinion as to practical modes. We must go

Halifax, in Nova Scotia, to the Pacific may be secured. The vast western country, bigger than Russia in Europe, more or less possessed and ruled over, since the days of Prince Rupert, the first governor, by the "Merchant Adventurers of Engl

the waters of the Pacific from the windows of a British railway carriage." The Canadian Pacific Railway is completed, completed by the indomitable perseverance of Sir George Stephen, Mr. Van Horne, and their colleagues-sustained as they have been, throughout, by the far-sighted policy and liberal subsidies, granted ungrudgingly, by the Dominion Parliament, under the ad

grand work will be fo

, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Vancouver's Island, and the extensive regions of The Hudson's Bay Company, inc

ic Ocean, and (including Newfoundland) is estimated to

common Law, one Custom House, and one "House of Commons"-by a simple Act of the Imperial Parliament, the Confederation Act of 1867, passed while Lord Beaconsfield was Prime Minister and the Duke of Buckingham Colonial Minister. This union was effected quietly, unostentatiously, and in peace; and (circumsta

due to a great Coloni

cas

nterest which, hereafter, may, probably, be held worthy of being interleaved in some future history of the union of the great American provinces of the British Empire. I have another motive also: I should wish to contribute some information bearing upon any future account of the life of the late Duke of Newcastle. He is dead: and, so far, no one has attempted to write his biography. That may be reserved for another generation. He was the Colonial Minister under whose rule and guidance the foundations of the great measure of Confederation were, undoubtedly, laid; and to him, more than to any minister since Lord Durham, the credit of preserving, as I hope for ever,

with his own," and never would rebuild Nottingham Castle, burnt in 1832 by the Radicals. The son had cast in his lot with Sir Robert Peel and free trade. The father was still one of the narrow- minded class to whom reform of any k

rview I refer to was actuated by our desire to avoid an undeserved opposition; Lord Lincoln retired, however, ow

Rugby and Derby, and found him in possession of a copy of this little book, on which he had, faute de mieux, spent half-a-crown at the book stall at Euston. He recognised me; and it was my fault, and not his, that I saw no more of him till 1857, by which time, no doubt, he had forgotten me. Still our conversation in 1852 about America, and especially as to slavery, and the probability of a separation of North and South, will always dwell in my memory. Lor

Crimean War Some one had suggested to the Government to send me out to the Crimea to take charge of the Stores Department, at a time when all was confusion and mess, out there, and I was aske

d of one of the Duke's plantations-for he was then Duke-and he wrote to the Chairman of the Railway, the then Earl of Yarborough, in what appeared to me a very haughty manner. I therefore felt bound to defend

, "1 Dec

AR YAR

it best, in the first instance, to send it to you as Chairman of the M. S. & L. Railway, because

erence to the damage done to my woods by the engines of the Company, and neither Mr. Foljambe nor I h

reated as it deserves. We shall next have the Company, or rather, as I hope and believe, the Company's Solicitors,

w liable for damage done to woods; and, moreover, that such da

o me and others, to whom so impertinent a letter has been addres

ot to be troubled with business in your present state of health; but as you

y dear Y

very si

WCA

F YARBOROUG

ing-"The burnt coppice, your Grace." Upon this he laughed, held out his hand, placed me beside him, and we had a very long discussion, not about the fire, but about the colliery he, then, was

861, he happened to read an article I had written in a London paper, hereafter given, about opening up the Northern Continent of

mmissioner," with full powers. They desired me to take charge of such legislative and other measures as might retrieve the Company's disasters, so far as that might be possible. Before complying with this proposal, I consulted the Duke, and it was mainly under the influence of his warm concurrence that I accepted the mission offered to me. I accepted it in the hope of

at Mr. Baring, then President of the Grand Trunk, did not, at first, accept my views; but he and Mr. G

"13_th Nove

, to refuse what at that time would have been, to me, a very agreeable mission. Since then, I have grown older, and somewhat richer; and not being dependent upon the labour of the day, I should be very chary of increasing the somewhat heavy load of

or the Canada of to-day; and left, as it is, dependent mainly upon the development of population and industry on its own line, and upon the increase

been perpetrated and made in connexion with this concern, made great sacrifices in its behalf, is not likely, h

oubt. Any man thoroughly versed in railways and quite up to business, and especially accustomed to the management of men and the conduct of serious negotiation, could easily accomplish this. But after all, unless I am very much deceived, all this will be insufficient, for many years to come, to satisfy the Shareholders; and I should not advise Mr. Glyn or Mr

can only, in my opinion, be done in one way. That way, to many, would be chimerical; to some, incomprehensible; and possibly I may be looked upon my

ry on the extreme west, and California, also within reach: India, our Australian Colonies-all our eastern Empire, in fact,

shores of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific, made just within-as regards the north-western and unexplored district -the corn-growing latitude. The result to th

s been with him-and he is Colonial Minister: there is jealousy and uncertainty on all questions relating to the east, coincident with an enormous development of our eastern relations, making people all anxious, if they could, to get

means to this end doubtless the Canadian Government would co-operate with the Government of this country, and would make large sacrifices for the Grand Trunk in consequence. Th

t by free trade, and sectional conflicts. And the Duke, at once startled by the underlying hostility to Great Britain and to British institutions in the United States -which even the hospitalities of the day barely cloaked-and gratified beyon

h us in our honour and you will very soon find the bricks of New York and Boston falling about your heads." In relating this to me the Duke added, "I startled Seward a good deal; but he put on a look of incredulity nevertheless. And I do not think they believe we should ever fight them; but we certainly should if the provocation were strong." It will be remarked that this conversation between Seward and the Duke was in 1860. That no one, then, expected a revolution from an anti-slave-s

We have, again, been shuffled out of our boundary at St. Juan on the Pacific, under an arbitration which really contained its own award. The Reciprocity Treaty was put an end to, in 1866, by the United States, not because the Great West-who may govern the Union if they please-did not want it, but because the Great West was cajoled by the cunning East into believing that a restriction of intercourse between the United States and the British Provinces would, at last, force the subjects of the Queen to seek admission into the Republic. So it was, and is and will be; and the only way to prevent aggression and war was, is, and will be, to "put our foot down." Not to cherish the "peace-in-our-time" policy, or to indulge in the half-hearted language, to which I shall have hereafter to allude-but to combine and strengthen the sections of our Colonial Empire in the West-to give to their people a greater Empire still, a nobler history,

in December, 1862, by Lord Shaftesbury, at a dinner given to Messrs. Howe, Tilley, Howland and Sicotte, delegates from the Provinces of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. He said Canada addressed us in the affecting language of Ruth -"Entreat me not to leave thee, nor to refrain from following after thee"-and he asked, "Whether the world had ever seen such a spectacle as gre

of those of the "great England" party; but, I repeat,

Forster-and afterwards to Lord Carnarvon and the Duke of Buckingham-the completion of the work before the English Parliament, it was he who stood in the gap, and formed and moulded, with a patience and persistence admirable to behold, Cabinet opinion both in England and in the Provinces. At the same time George Etienne

a by means of Intercolonial Railways; and, second, to get out of the way of any unification, the heavy

ork rested mainl

the whole Maritime Provinces regulated their tariffs, as Canada did in return, from no consideration of developing a trade with each other, or with the Canadas, between whose territory and the ocean these Provinces barred the way. Thus, isolated and divided, it could be no matter of wonder if their separate political discussions narrowed themselves into local, sectional, and selfish controversies; and if, while each possessing in their Legislature men in abundance who deserved the title of sagacious and able statesmen, brilliant orators, far-sighted men of business, their debates often reminded the stranger who listened to them of the squabbles of local town councils. Again, the Great

ph Howe, then Premier of Nova Scotia, said, "We have been more like foreigners than fellow-subjects; you do not know us, and we do not know you. There are men in this room, who hold the destinies of this half of the Continent in their hands; and yet we never meet, unless by some chance or other, like the visit of the Prince of Wales, we are obliged to meet. I say," he added, "we

at whose head was George Brown, of the "Toronto Globe"-powerful, obstinate, Scotch, and Protestant, and with Yankee leanings. In fact, the same principles were in difference as those which evolved themselves in blood in the contest between the North and South between 1861 and 1865. The minority desired to preserve the power and independence which an equal share in parliamentary government had given them. The majority, mainly English and Scotch, and largely Protestant and Presbyterian, chafed under what they deemed to be the yoke of a non-progressive people; a peopl

ch possesses an excellent educational machinery, may now look forward to as noble, if not more noble, an inheritance than their Republican neighbours-an inheritance where there is room for 100,000,000 of people to live in freedom, comfort, and happiness

ree from any serious sectional controversy, free, especially, from any idea of separation, bound together under one governing authority, with one ta