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CANADA AND THE STATES RECOLLECTIONS 1851 to 1886.
BY SIR E. W. WATKIN, BART., M.P.
"_If the Maritime Provinces [of Britain] would join us,
spontaneously, to-day--sterile as they may be in the soil under a sky
of steel--still with their hardy population, their harbours, fisheries,
and seamen, they would greatly strengthen and improve our position_,
and aid us in our struggle for equality upon the ocean. _If we would
succeed upon the deep, we must either maintain our fisheries or_
ABSORB THE PROVINCES."
E. H. DERBY, Esq, Report to the Revenue Commissioners of the United
States, 1866.
[Illustration: The Duke of Newcastle, K.G.]
_In the absence of any formal Dedication, I feel that to no one could
the following pages be more appropriately inscribed than to_
Lady Watkin.
_On her have fallen the anxieties of our home life during my many
long absences away on the American Continent--which Continent she once,
in 1862, visited with me. My business, in relation to Canada, has, from
time to time, been undertaken with her knowledge, and under her good
advice; and no one has been animated with a stronger hope for Canada,
as a great integral part of the Empire of the Queen, than herself._
_E. W. WATKIN._
_ROSE HILL, NORTHENDEN,_
_2nd May, 1887._
PREFACE.
The following pages have been written at the request of many old
friends, some of them co-workers in the cause of permanent British rule
over the larger part of the Great Northern Continent of America.
In 1851 I visited Canada and the United States as a mere tourist, in
search of health. In 1861 I went there on an anxious mission of
business; and for some years afterwards I frequently crossed the
Atlantic, not only during the great Civil War between the North and
South, but, also, subsequent to its close. In 1875 I had to undertake
another mission of responsibility to the United States. And, last year,
I traversed the Dominion of Canada from Belle Isle to the Pacific. I
returned home by San Francisco and the Union Pacific Railways to
Chicago; and by Montreal to New York. Thence to Liverpool, in that
unsurpassed steamer, the "Etruria," of the grand old Cunard line. I
ended my visits to America, as I began them, as a tourist. This passage
was my thirtieth crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.
Within the period from 1851 to 1886, history on the North American
Continent has been a wonderful romance. Never in the older stories of
the world's growth, have momentous changes been effected, and,
apparently, consolidated, in so short a time, or in such rapid
succession.
Regarding the United States, the slavery of four millions of the negro
race is abolished for ever, and the black men vote for Presidents. A
great struggle for empire--fought on gigantic measure--has been won for
liberty and union. Turning to Canada, the British half of the Continent
has been moulded into one great unity, and faggotted together, without
the shedding of one drop of brothers' blood--and in so tame and quiet a
way, that the great silent forces of Nature have to be cited, to find a
parallel.
In this period, the American Continent has been spanned by three main
routes of iron-road, uniting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans: and one
of these main routes passes exclusively through British territory--the
Dominion of Canada. The problem of a "North-west Passage" has been
solved in a new and better way. It is no longer a question of threading
dark and dismal seas within the limits of Arctic ice and snow, doubtful
to find, and impossible, if found, to navigate. Now, the two oceans are
reached by land, and a fortnight suffices for the conveyance of our
people from London or Liverpool to or from the great Pacific, on the
way to the great East.
Anyone who reads what follows will learn that I am an Imperialist--that
I hate little-Englandism. That, so far as my puny forces would go, I
struggled for the union of the Canadian Provinces, in order that they
might be retained under the sway of the best form of government--a
limited monarchy, and under the best government of that form--the
beneficent rule of our Queen Victoria. I like to say our Queen: for no
sovereign ever identified herself in heart and feeling, in anxiety and
personal sacrifice, with a free and grateful people more thoroughly
than she has done, all along.
In this period of thirty-six years the British American Provinces have
been, more than once, on the slide. The abolition of the old Colonial
policy of trade was a great wrench. The cold, neglectful, contemptuous
treatment of Colonies in general, and of Canada in particular, by the
doctrinaire Whigs and Benthamite-Radicals, and by Tories of the
Adderley school, had, up to recent periods, become a painful strain.
Denuding Canada of the Imperial red-coat disgusted very many. And the
constant whispering, at the door of Canada, by United States
influences, combined with the expenditure of United States money on
Nova Scotian and other Canadian elections, must be looked to, and
stopped, to prevent a slide in the direction of Washington.
On the other hand, the statesmanlike action of Sir Edward Bulwer
Lytton, Colonial Minister in 1859, in erecting British Columbia into a
Crown Colony, was a break-water against the fell waves of annexation.
The decided language of Her Majesty's speech in proroguing Parliament
at the end of 1859 was a manifesto of decided encouragement to all
loyal people on the American Continent: and, followed as it was by the
visit--I might say the triumphal progress--of the Prince of Wales,
accompanied by the Colonial Minister, the great Duke of Newcastle,
through Canada, in 1860, the loyal idea began to germinate once more.
Loyal subjects began to think that no spot of earth over which the
British flag had once floated would ever, again, be given up--without a
fight for it. Canada for England, and England for Canada!
But, what will our Government at home do with the new "North-west
Passage" through Canada? The future of Canada depends upon the
decision. What will the decision be? How soon will it be given?
Is this great work, the Canadian Pacific Railway, to be left as a
monument, at once, of Canada's loyalty and foresight, and of Canada's
betrayal: or is it to be made the new land-route to our Eastern and
Australian Empire? If it is to be shunted, then the explorations of the
last three hundred years have been in vain. The dreams of some of the
greatest statesmen of past times are reduced to dreams, and nothing
more. The strength given by this glorious self-contained route, from
the old country to all the new countries, is wasted. On the other hand,
if those who now govern inherit the great traditions of the past; if
they believe in Empire; if they are statesmen--then, a line of Military
Posts, of strength and magnitude, beginning at Halifax on the Atlantic,
and ending at the Pacific, will give power to the Dominion, and,
wherever the red-coat appears, confidence in the old brave country will
be restored.
Then the soldier, his arms and our armaments, will have their
periodical passages backwards and forwards through the Dominion. Mails
for the East, for Australia, and beyond, will pass that way; and the
subject of every part of the Empire will, as he passes, feel that he is
treading the sacred soil of real liberty and progress.
Which is it to be?
Some years ago, Sir John A. Macdonald said, "I hope to live to see the
day--and if I do not, that my son may be spared, to see Canada the
right arm of England. To see Canada a powerful auxiliary of the Empire,
not, as now, a source of anxiety, and a source of danger."
Does Her Majesty's Government echo this aspiration?
Thinking people will recognize that the United States become, year by
year, less English and more Cosmopolitan; less conservative and more
socialist; less peaceful and more aggressive. Twice within ten years
the Presidential elections have pushed the Republic to the very brink
of civil war. But for the forbearance of Mr. Tilden and the Democrats,
on one occasion; and the caution of leading Republicans when President
Cleveland was chosen, disturbance must have happened.
We have yet to see whether Provincial Government may not, in the
Dominion, lead towards Separation, rather than towards Union. While one
Custom-house and one general Government is aiding Union, the Province
of Quebec accentuates all that is French; the Province of Ontario
accentuates all that is British: the problem, here, is how, gradually,
to weaken sectional, and how gradually to strengthen Union, ideas.
State rights led to a civil war in the United States: Provincial
Government fifty years hence may lead to conflicts in Canada.
In the United States there was no solution but war. Surely in Canada we
can apply the safety valve of augmenting British aid and influence. Why
not try the re-introduction of the red-coat of the Queen's soldier
--that soldier to be enlisted and officered, let us hope in the early
future, from every portion of the Queen's Dominions--as of the one
Imperial army;--an Imperial army paid for by the whole Empire.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY--ONE REASON WHY I WENT TO THE PACIFIC
CHAPTER II.
TOWARDS THE PACIFIC--LIVERPOOL TO QUEBEC
CHAPTER III.
TO THE PACIFIC--MONTREAL TO PORT MOODY
CHAPTER IV.
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAYS
CHAPTER V.
A BRITISH RAILWAY FROM THE ATLANTIC TO THE PACIFIC
CHAPTER VI.
PORT MOODY--VICTORIA--SAN FRANCISCO TO CHICAGO.
CHAPTER VII.
NEGOCIATIONS AS TO THE INTERCOLONIAL RAILWAY: AND NORTH-WEST
TRANSIT AND TELEGRAPH, 1861 TO 1864.
CHAPTER VIII.
NEGOCIATIONS FOR PURCHASE OF THE HUDSON'S BAY PROPERTY
CHAPTER IX.
THE RIGHT HONORABLE EDWARD ELLICE, M.P.
CHAPTER X.
THE SELECT COMMITTEE, ON HUDSON'S BAY AFFAIRS, OF 1857
CHAPTER XI.
RE-ORGANIZATION OF HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY
CHAPTER XII.
THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF 1748-
9
CHAPTER XIII.
THE HUDSON'S BAY POSTS--TO-DAY.
CHAPTER XIV.
"UNCERTAIN SOUNDS"
CHAPTER XV.
"GOVERNOR DALLAS"
CHAPTER XVI.
THE HONORABLE THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE
CHAPTER XVII.
1851--FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA: A REASON FOR IT.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE RECIPROCITY TREATY WITH THE UNITED STATES.
CHAPTER XIX.
THE DEFENCES OF CANADA.
CHAPTER XX.
INTENDED ROUTE FOR A PACIFIC RAILWAY IN 1863.
CHAPTER XXI.
LETTERS PROM SIR GEORGE E. CARTIER--QUESTION OF HONORS
CHAPTER XXII.
DISRAELI-BEACONSFIELD
CHAPTER XXIII.
VISITS TO QUEBEC AND PORTLAND: AND LETTERS HOME CANADA AND THE
NORTH ATLANTIC COUNTRY.
CHAPTER I.
_Preliminary--One Reason why I went to the
Pacific._
A quarter of a century ago, charged with the temporary oversight of the
then great Railway of Canada, I first made the acquaintance of Mr.
Tilley, Prime Minister of the Province of New Brunswick, whom I met in
a plain little room, more plainly furnished, at Frederickton, in New
Brunswick. My business was to ask his co-operation in carrying out the
physical union of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and through them Prince
Edward Island and Newfoundland, with Canada by means of what 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 importance of the
construction of this arterial Railway--initial, in the sense that,
without it, discussions in reference to the fiscal, or the political,
federation, or the absolute union, under one Parliament, of all the
Provinces was vain. I found, also, that Mr. Tilley had, ardently,
embraced the great idea--to be realized some day, distant though that
day might be--of a great British nation, planted, for ever, under the
Crown, and extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Certainly, in 1861, this great idea seemed like a mere dream of the
uncertain future. Blocked by wide stretches of half-explored country:
dependent upon approaches through United States' territory: each
Province enforcing its separate, and differing, tariffs, the one
against the other, and others, through its separate Custom House; it
was not matter of surprise to find a growing gravitation towards the
United States, based, alike, on augmenting trade and augmenting
prejudices.
Amongst party politicians at home, there was, at this time, of 1861,
little adhesion to the idea of a Colonial Empire; and the reader has
only to read the reference, made later on, to a published letter of Sir
Charles Adderley to Mr. Disraeli in 1862, to see how the pulse of some
of the Conservative party was then beating.
There was, however, one bright gleam of hope. That was to be found in
the, still remembered, effects of the visit of the Prince of Wales,
accompanied by the Duke of Newcastle, to Canada, and the United States,
in 1860.
Entertaining, with no small enthusiasm, and in common, these views of
an Anglo-American Empire, Mr. Tilley and I were of the same opinion as
to practical modes. We must go "step by step," and the Intercolonial
Railway was the first step in the march before us.
In the following pages will be found some record of what followed.
Suffice it here to say, that the Railway is made, not on the route I
advocated: but it is in course of improvement, so that the shortest
iron road from the great harbour of 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 England
trading to Hudson's Bay," has been annexed to Canada, and one country,
under one Parliament, is bounded by the two great oceans; and, as a
consequence, the "Canadian Pacific Railway" has been made and opened
for the commerce of the world.
Mr. Tilley, now Sir Leonard Tilley, is, at the moment, Lieutenant-
Governor of New Brunswick, having previously filled the highest offices
in the Government of the "Dominion of Canada;" and he has not forgotten
the vow he and I exchanged some while after our first acquaintance.
That vow was, that we neither of us would die, if we could help it,
"until we had looked upon 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 advice of Sir John
A. Macdonald, the Premier. I have, in the past year, fulfilled my vow,
by traversing the Canadian Continent from Quebec to Port Moody,
Vancouver City, and Victoria, Vancouver's Island, over the 3,100 miles
of Railway possessed by the Canadian Pacific Company, and have "looked
upon the waters of the Pacific from the windows of a British railway
carriage."
My impressions of this grand work will be found in future chapters.
"The Dominion of Canada" now includes the various Provinces of North
America, formerly known as Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Vancouver's Island, and
the extensive regions of The Hudson's Bay Company, including the new
Province of Manitoba, and the North West Territories; in fact, the
whole of British North America, except Newfoundland.
This territory stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, and
(including Newfoundland) is estimated to contain a total area of some
four million square miles.
As matter of mere surface, and probably of cultivable area, also, more
than half the Northern Continent of America owes allegiance to the
Crown and to Queen Victoria. So may it remain. So it will remain if we
retain the Imperial instinct. These noble provinces are confederated
into a vast dominion, with one 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 (circumstances
well favouring) by the exertions, influence, and faithfulness to
Imperial traditions, of Cartier, John A. Macdonald, John Ross, Howe,
Tilley, Galt, Tupper, Van Koughnet, and other provincial statesmen, who
forced the Home Government to action and fired their brother colonists
with their own enthusiasm.
At home, all honour is due to a great Colonial Minister--the Duke of
Newcastle.
Taking up, some years ago, a tuft of grass growing at the foot of one
of the grand marble columns of the Parthenon at the Acropolis at
Athens, I found a compass mark in the footing, or foundation--a mere
scratch in the stone--made, probably, by some architect's assistant,
before the Christian era. I make no claim to more than having made a
scratch of some sort on the foundation stone of some pillar, or other,
of Confederation. And I throw together these pages with no idea of
gaining credit for services, gratuitously rendered, over a period of
years and under many difficulties, to a cause which I have always had
at heart; but with the desire to record some facts of interest 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, the rule of her Majesty, and her
successors, over the Western Continent ought to attach. For, while the
idea of an union, of more or less extent, was suggested in Lord
Durham's time--probably by Charles Buller,--and was now and then
fondled by other Governors-General, in Canada, and by Colonial
Ministers at home--the real, practical measures which led to the
creation of one country extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific were
due to the far-sighted policy and persuasive influence of the Duke. The
Duke was a statesman singularly averse to claiming credit for his own
special public services, while ever ready to attribute credit and
bestow praise on those around him.
My first interview with the Duke was in January, 1847. He was then Lord
Lincoln, and the Conservative candidate for Manchester; in disgrace
with his father. His father was the old fashioned nobleman who desired
"to do what he liked 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 kind was the spectre of "ruin to the
country." They were quite honest in the conviction that the people were
"born to be governed, and not to govern." They probably saw in the free
importation of foreign food the abrogation of rent.
In 1847 Mr. Bright was the candidate for Manchester, whom we of the old
Anti-Corn Law League supported. The interview I refer to was actuated
by our desire to avoid an undeserved opposition; Lord Lincoln retired,
however, owing mainly to other reasons, including that of the
intolerance of a body of Churchmen regarding popular education.
A long period of wretched health compelled me for several years to
consume what strength I had left in the ordinary routine of daily
business. And it was not until 1852 that any further intercourse of any
kind took place between us. In that year I published a little book
about the United States and Canada, the record of my first visit to
North America, in 1851. And, if I recollect rightly, I travelled with
the Duke in the spring of 1852, probably between 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. Lord Lincoln had studied De Tocqueville; but he had not,
yet, seen America. He had, therefore, at that time many erroneous
views, which could only be corrected by the actual and personal
opportunity of seeing and measuring, on the spot, the country, which
always really means the people. This opportunity was given to him by
the visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada and the United States, in
1860. He accompanied the Prince in his capacity of Colonial Minister.
These casual glimpses of Lord Lincoln were followed by an interview
between us in 1857. In the meantime, it is true, he had had my name
brought before him during his term of office pending the 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 asked to call on the Minister
about it. It seemed to me, however, a duty impossible of execution by a
civilian, unless the condition of "full powers" were conceded,--and the
matter came to nothing.
In 1856 I was the Manager of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire
Railway. In that year a reckless engine, travelling between Shireoaks
and Worksop, threw out some sparks, which set fire to the underwood 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
my chief, and I took up the quarrel. In a note addressed from the
Library of the House of Commons, I asked for an interview, which was
somewhat stiffly granted. This was the note which led to our
interview:--
"CLUMBER,
"1 Decr. 1856.
"MY DEAR YARBOROUGH,
"Instead of placing the enclosed extraordinary production in the hands
of my Solicitor, I think it best, in the first instance, to send it to
you as Chairman of the M. S. & L. Railway, because I cannot believe
that either its tone or its substance can have been authorized by the
Directors.
"I am sorry to say this is not the first piece of impertinence which I
have had to complain of in reference to the damage done to my woods by
the engines of the Company, and neither Mr. Foljambe nor I have had any
encouragement to treat the matter in the amicable spirit which we were
anxious to evince.
"The demands now made by the aggressors upon the party aggrieved is
simply preposterous, and, of course, will be treated as it deserves. We
shall next have the Company, or rather, as I hope and believe, the
Company's Solicitors, demanding us to cut all our corn within 100 yards
of the line before it becomes ripe, and consequently inflammable.
"Your Solicitor knows perfectly well that the Company is by law liable
for damage done to woods; and, moreover, that such damage is
preventible by proper care on the part of its servants.
"I think the Directors ought to order their Solicitor to write to me
and others, to whom so impertinent a letter has been addressed, and beg
to withdraw it, with an apology for having sent it.
"I am sorry to trouble you with this matter, because I feel that you
ought not to be troubled with business in your present state of health;
but as you are still the Chairman, I could not with propriety write to
any other person.
"I am, my dear Yarborough,
"Yours very sincerely,
"NEWCASTLE.
"THE EARL OF YARBOROUGH, &c., &c."
Accordingly, I went to the mansion in Portman Square. I waited some
time; but at last in stalked the Duke, looking very awful indeed--so
stern and severe--that I could not help smiling, and saying--"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 sinking--against the advice of
many of his friends in Sheffield--at Shireoaks; and when he had done
with that, we talked, once more, about Canada, the United States, and
the Colonies generally.
After this date, I had to see the Duke on business, more and more
frequently. The year after the Duke's return from Canada, in 1861, he
happened to read an article I had written in a London paper, hereafter
given, about opening up the Northern Continent of America by a Railway
across to the Pacific, and he spoke of it as embodying the views which
he had before expressed, as his own.
In 1854 Mr. Glyn and Mr. Thomas Baring had urged me to undertake a
mission to Canada on the business of the Grand Trunk Railway, which
mission I had been compelled to decline; and when, in 1860-1, the
affairs of that undertaking became dreadfully entangled, the Committee
of Shareholders, who reported upon its affairs, invited me to accept
the post of "Superintending Commissioner," 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 being
able, not merely to serve the objects of the Shareholders of the Grand
Trunk, but that at the same time I might be somewhat useful in aiding
those measures of physical union contemplated when the Grand Trunk
Railway was projected, and which must precede any confederation of
interests, such as that happily crowned in 1867 by the creation of the
"Dominion of Canada."
I find that my general views were, some time before, epitomized in the
following letter. It is true that Mr. Baring, then President of the
Grand Trunk, did not, at first, accept my views; but he and Mr. Glyn
(the late Lord Wolverton) co-operated afterwards in all ways in the
direction those views indicated.
"NORTHENDEN,
"13_th November_, 1860.
"Some years ago Mr. Glyn (I think with the assent of Mr. Baring)
proposed to me to go out to Canada to conduct a negotiation with the
Colonial Government in reference to the Grand Trunk Railway. I was
compelled then, from pressure of other business, 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 responsibility and anxiety which I still have to bear. It
is doubtful, therefore, whether I could bring my mind to undertake so
arduous, exceptional--perhaps even doubtful--an engagement as that of
the 'restoration to life' of the Grand Trunk Railway.
"This line, both as regards its length, the character of its works, and
its alliances with third parties, is both too extensive, and too
expensive, for 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 of the traffic of the west, it cannot be
expected, for years to come, to emancipate itself thoroughly from the
load of obligations connected with it.
"Again, the Colonial Government having really, in spite of all the
jobbery and political capital alleged to have been perpetrated and made
in connexion with this concern, made great sacrifices in its behalf, is
not likely, having got the Railway planted on its own soil, to be ready
to give much more assistance to this same undertaking.
"That the discipline and traffic of the line could be easily put upon a
sound basis, that that traffic could be vigorously developed, that the
expenses, except always those of repair and renewal, could be kept
down, and that friendly, and perhaps improving and more beneficial,
arrangements could be made with the local government--is matter, to me,
of little doubt. 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. Baring to tie their reputations to any man,
however able or experienced, if it involved a sort of moral guarantee
that the result of his appointment should be any very sudden
improvement, of a character likely much to raise the _value of the
property in the market_, which unfortunately is what the
Shareholders very naturally look at, as the test of everything.
"To work the Grand Trunk as a gradually improving property would, I
repeat, be easy; but to work it so as to produce _a great success_
in a few years 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 myself as somewhat visionary for even suggesting it.
That way, however, to my mind, lies through the extension of railway
communication to the Pacific.
"Try for one moment to realize China opened to British commerce: Japan
also opened: the new gold fields in our own territory on the extreme
west, and California, also within reach: India, our Australian
Colonies--all our eastern Empire, in fact, material and moral, and
dependent (as at present it too much is) upon an overland
communication, through a foreign state.
"Try to realize, again, assuming physical obstacles overcome, a main
through Railway, of which the first thousand miles belong to the Grand
Trunk Company, from the 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 this Empire would be beyond
calculation; it would be something, in fact, to distinguish the age
itself; and the doing of it would make the fortune of the Grand Trunk.
"Assuming also, again I say, that physical obstacles can be overcome,
is not the time opportune for making a start? The Prince is just coming
home full of glowing notions of the vast territories he has seen: the
Duke of Newcastle has 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 another way across to
the Pacific:--the new gold fields on the Frazer River are attracting
swarms of emigrants; and the public mind generally is ripe, as it seems
to me, for any grand and feasible scheme which could be laid before it.
"To undertake the Grand Trunk with the notion of gradually working out
some idea of this kind for it and for Canada, throws an entirely new
light upon the whole matter, and as a 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. The enterprise could only be achieved by the co-operation
of the two Governments, and by associating with the Railway's
enterprise some large land scheme and scheme of emigration."
The visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada and the Maritime Provinces,
in 1860, had evoked the old feeling of loyalty to the mother country,
damaged as it had been by Republican vicinity, the entire change of
commercial relations brought about 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
beyond measure by the outbursts of genuine feeling on the part of the
colonists, was most anxious, especially while entrusted with the
portfolio of the Colonies, to strengthen and bind together all that was
loyal north of the United States boundary.
Walking with Mr. Seward in the streets of Albany, after the day's
shouts and ceremonies were over, Mr. Seward said to the Duke, "We
really do not want to go to war with you; and we know you dare not go
to war with us." To which the Duke replied, "Do not remain under such
an error. There is no people under Heaven from whom we should endure so
much as from yours; to whom we should make such concessions. You may,
while we cannot, forget that we are largely of the same blood. But once
touch 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-state election of President. Still less did the people, of
either England or the United States, dream of a divergence, consequent
on such an election, to end in a struggle, first for political power,
and then following, in providential order, for human freedom. A
struggle culminating in the entire subjection of the South, in 1865,
after four years' war--a struggle costing a million of lives, untold
human misery, and a loss in money, or money's worth, of over a thousand
millions sterling.
In our many conversations, I had always ventured to enforce upon the
Duke that the passion for territory, for space, would be found at the
bottom of all discussion with the United States. Give them territory,
not their own, and for a time you would appease them, while, still, the
very feast would sharpen their hunger. I reminded the Duke that General
Cass had said, "I have an awful swallow ('swaller' was his
pronunciation) for territory;" and all Americans have that "awful
swallow." The dream of possessing a country extending from the Pole to
the Isthmus of Panama, if not to Cape Horn, has been the ambition of
the Great Republic--and it is a dangerous ambition for the rest of the
world. We have seen its effects in all our treaties. We have always
been asked _for land_. We gave up Michigan after the war of 1812.
We gave up that noble piece, the "Aroostook" country, now part of the
State of Maine, under the Ashburton Treaty in 1841. 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, and a prouder lot: a lot to
_last_, because based upon institutions which have stood, and will
stand, the test of time and trouble. Unfortunately we have had a
"little England" party in our country. A Liberal Government,
immediately following the Act of Confederation, took every red-coat out
of the Dominion of Canada, shipped off, or sold, the very shot and
shell to any one, friend or foe, who chose to buy: and the few guns and
mortars Canada demanded were charged to her "in account" with the ruth
of the miser. If the Duke of Newcastle had been a member of that
Cabinet such a miserable policy never could have been put in force; but
he was _dead_. I venture to think that the whole people of
England, who knew of the transaction, were ashamed of it. Certainly, I
saw, a few years ago, that one member of the very Cabinet which did
this thing, repudiated the "little England" policy, as opposed to the
best traditions of the Liberal party.
The "little England" party of the past have tried, so far in vain, to
alienate these our fellow subjects. But, fortunately for the Empire,
while some in the mother country have been indifferent as to whether
the Provinces went or stayed, many in the Colonies have been earnest in
their desire to escape annexation to the States. The feeling of these
patriotic men was well described 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 great and growing nations, for such they were, with full and
unqualified power to act as they pleased, insisting on devoting their
honor, strength, and substance to the support of the common mother; and
not only to be called, but to be, sons." And Lord Shaftesbury asked,
"Whether any imperial ruler had ever preferred," as he said Canada had,
"love to dominion, and reverence to power."
Lord Shaftesbury's sentiments are, I believe, an echo of those of the
"great England" party; but, I repeat, "little England" sold the shot
and shell, nevertheless.
Whatever this man or that may claim to have done towards building up
Confederation, I, who was in good measure behind the scenes throughout,
repeat that to the late Duke of Newcastle the main credit of the
measure of 1867 was due. While failing health and the Duke's premature
decease left to Mr. Cardwell and Mr. W. E. 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 Cartier, John A. Macdonald, and John Ross, in
Canada; Samuel L. Tilley, in New Brunswick, and, notably, Joseph Howe,
in Nova Scotia, stood together for Union like a wall of brass. And
these should ever be the most prominent amongst the honoured names of
the authors of an Union of the Provinces under the British Crown.
The works, I repeat, to be effected were--first, the physical union of
the Maritime Provinces with Canada by means of Intercolonial Railways;
and, second, to get out of the way of any unification, the heavy weight
and obstruction of the Hudson's Bay Company. The; latter was most
difficult, for abundant reasons.
This difficult work rested mainly on my shoulders.
It may be well here to place in contrast the condition of the Provinces
in 1861 and of the Confederation in 1886. In 1861 each of the five
Provinces had its separate Governor, Parliament, Executive, and system
of taxation. To all intents and purposes, and notwithstanding the
functions of the Governor-General and the unity flowing from the
control of the British Crown--these Provinces, isolated for want of the
means of rapid transit, were countries as separate in every relation of
business, or of the associations of life, as Belgium and Holland, or
Switzerland and Italy. The associations of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia were far more intimate with the United States than with Canada;
and 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 Republic across their borders, with its obvious future,
offered with open arms, and especially to the young and ambitious, a
noble field, not shut in by winter or divided by separate governments.
Thus the gravitation towards aggregation--which seems to be a condition
of the progress of modern states--a condition to be intensified as
space is diminished by modern discoveries in rapid transit--was, in the
case of the Provinces, rather towards the United States than towards
each other or the British Empire. Thus there were, in 1860, many causes
at work to discourage the idea of Confederation. And it is by no means
improbable that the occurrence of the great Civil War destroyed this
tendency.
I remember an incident which occurred at a little dinner party which I
gave in Montreal, in September, 1861, to the delegates who assembled
there, after my visits, in response to the appeal just made to the
Governments of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, on the subject
of the Intercolonial Railway. It illustrates the personal isolation
alluded to above. The Honorable Joseph 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
have done more good by a free talk over this table, to-night, than all
the Governors, general and local, could do in a year, if they did
nothing' but write despatches. Oh! if you fellows would only now and
then dine and drink with us fellows, we would make a great partnership
directly." And the great partnership has been made, save only that
Newfoundland still remains separate.
In Canada the divisions between the Upper and Lower Provinces were, in
1861, serious, and often acrimonious; for they were religious as well
as political. The rapid growth of Upper Canada, overtopping that of the
French-speaking and Catholic Lower Province, led to demands to upset
the great settlement of 1839, and to substitute for an equal
representation, such a redistribution of seats as would have followed
the numerical progression of the country. "Representation by
population"--shortly called "Rep. by Pop."--was the great cry of the
ardent Liberal or "Grit" party, 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 people content to live in
modest comfort, to follow old customs, and obey old laws; to defer to
clerical authority, and to preserve their separate national identity
under the secure protection of a strong Empire. Indeed, it is
difficult, in 1886, to realise the heat, or to estimate the danger, of
the discussion of this question; and more than one "Grit" politician,
whom I could name, would be startled if we reminded him of his opinion
in 1861,--that the question would be "settled by a civil war" if it
"could not be settled peaceably," but that "settled it must be--and
soon."
The cure for this dangerous disease was to provide, for all, a bigger
country--a country large enough to breed large ideas. There is a career
open in the boundless resources of a varied land for every reasonable
ambition, and the young men of Canada, which 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. While progress will have its periodical checks,
and periodical inflations, there is no reason to doubt that before the
next century ends the "Dominion," if still part of the Empire, will--in
numbers--outstrip the present population of the British Islands.
Now, in 1886, all this past antagonism of "Rep. by Pop." is forgotten.
Past and gone. A vast country, rapidly augmenting in population and
wealth, free from any serious sectional controversy, free, especially,
from any idea of separation, bound together under one governing
authority, with one tariff and one system of general taxation, has
exhibited a capacity for united action, and for self-government and
mutual defence, admirable to behold.