_QUEBEC, MONTREAL, OTTAWA._
Montreal--Ship Channel--Hon. John Young--St. Lawrence Canals--
Indifference of Quebec--Quebec Interests Sacrificed--Need of a
Bridge at Quebec--Montreal Trade in Early Times--Beauty of the
City--Canadian Pacific Railway--Ottawa--The Social Influence
of Government House--Kingston.
It is only within the last half century that the commercial advantages,
geographically, possessed by Montreal have been understood and
developed. It is not possible to enter into the history of the
remarkable works, extending east and west, which have secured to this
city its commercial success. They may, however, be briefly mentioned.
To the east a ship channel has been dredged through Lake St. Peter to a
depth of twenty-five feet, to admit of the passage of ocean steamers.
The original depth over the St. Peter flats was eleven feet. This
gigantic work, commenced in 1840, has been continued until the present
day. The excavation extends for a distance of seventeen miles, over
shoals irregular in depth. At this date the sum of $3,500,000 has been
expended in the work. The further deepening of this channel to admit
the depth of twenty-seven feet six inches is now in progress, and to
obtain this depth throughout above Quebec the shoals of the River St.
Lawrence itself above and below Lake St. Peter must likewise be dredged.
There is but one parallel to this work in the world: the improvement of
the Clyde, which has been continued for one hundred years. Originally
only vessels drawing three feet six inches could reach Glasgow. From
time to time this depth has been increased, until it may be said that
at this date ocean steamers of the largest draught are found at the
Broomielaw. Hence Glasgow, by artificial means, has become one of the
most important ports in the United Kingdom; and similarly Montreal,
although a thousand miles from the ocean, is now one of the chief
seaports of the Dominion, and, judged by the standard of Customs
receipts, must be held to be the first.
In connection with the improvement of the St. Lawrence, between
Montreal and Quebec, indeed with regard to much which has increased the
prosperity of Montreal, one name rises into marked prominence, that
of the Hon. John Young, so long and so honourably known in that city,
and still so well remembered. It was owing in a great degree to his
energy and capacity that the deepening of Lake St. Peter was completed
according to the original design. It may also be said that he was one
of the first to recognize the necessity of an increased sufficiency
of depth of channel above Quebec, if Montreal was to remain the
unquestioned port of the ocean steamer. A project which he advocated
to his death, and which until a great extent he was instrumental in
placing in its present satisfactory condition, so that in no great
number of years the depth will be attained.
To the west of Montreal several canals have been completed to overcome
the rapids of the St. Lawrence, the last of which is the renowned Falls
of Niagara, and which our grandsires held to be so insuperable as to
bar settlement on the upper lakes. These works are a marked feature
of Canadian enterprise, and in themselves an important chapter in the
history of canal construction. Nowhere in the world, on a line of
navigation, are such locks to be seen. Those of the Lachine Canal are
two hundred and seventy-five feet in length, forty-five feet wide,
with twelve feet of water in the sills, so constructed that, without
interruption to traffic, they may be increased to fourteen feet.
The enlargement of the whole navigation of the St. Lawrence, now in
progress, is on a similar scale. It is by the central and commanding
position which these works have created for Montreal that the city has
attained its present supremacy.
For a time Quebec enjoyed to the full extent the control of the ocean
shipping trade, but the day the channel was formed through the flats
of Lake St. Peter for the passage of seagoing vessels the monopoly was
broken and the trade diverted.
The City of Quebec has long complained that its commerce was
languishing, among other causes, from the persistent efforts of
Montreal to control it. The deepening of the channel between the two
cities has accomplished more than was even hoped for by its far-seeing
projectors, for most of the seagoing steamships steam past Quebec, to
find at Montreal the point of transfer for their western freight, and
the point where it is most convenient to receive a cargo. There is a
recorded saying of the Hon. John Neilson, a well known public man of
forty years back, that there are two advantages Montreal could not take
away from Quebec: the Citadel and the tide. Evidently meaning by the
former that tourists would always visit the city to see what only could
there be found, and that Quebec, by constructing tidal docks, had the
means of bringing to her harbour vessels which, from their draught,
could not ascend the river to Montreal. The persistent, well-directed
efforts of Montreal, however, have been to concede no such advantages.
What, in the meantime, has been the course of Quebec? It is well known
that at this hour great efforts are being put forth by Halifax public
men to establish Halifax as the winter shipping port of the Dominion.
It is contended that the Intercolonial Railway is a national work,
constructed with public money, and that it is precisely to meet an
emergency of this character, to prevent the diversion of the winter
freight to the United States ports, that one of the main causes of
its construction can be found. The City of Quebec, labouring under a
depression of its trade, gave its strongest support to the project of
the North Shore Railway, with its prolongation to Ottawa, and even
contributed $1,000,000 towards its establishment. In the eye of the
Quebec merchant it is a national work, the object of which is to extend
to Quebec, by railway, the same facilities for transhipment of freight
which is now possessed by Montreal. The Province had a plain policy
to follow. It was of paramount importance that she should retain full
control of the line to Montreal and Ottawa, and that it should offer,
at both points, perfect facilities for the transfer of traffic to
and from the competing railway lines: the Canadian Pacific and Grand
Trunk. The effect would have been to restore a share of the trade in
shipping freight which Quebec had previously enjoyed. Moreover, as
the navigation is confined to the summer months, it would appear to
be clearly the policy of Quebec to develop and complete her railway
connections to the east, so that the traffic in winter would flow
in a continuous stream over the North Shore line, and be carried
onward to the winter shipping port at Halifax. To carry out this
theory successfully the St. Lawrence would have to be bridged as near
Quebec as practicable. In the vicinity of the city, some few miles
south, there is a site adapted for such a bridge. The shores of the
river are high, and the deep-water channel can be crossed by a single
span, lofty enough for the tallest masts of a vessel to pass beneath.
Modern engineering has rendered the project not only possible but
comparatively easy, for it has reduced greatly the time and the cost
which some years back would have been held necessary to consummate the
project. The railway connections, equally of the City and Province of
Quebec, I may add of the Dominion, will always remain incomplete and
unsatisfactory without such a bridge. With this structure the whole
conditions of the problem would be changed. At all seasons of the year
it would facilitate the arrival and increase the number of tourists.
It would have the effect of augmenting traffic on both the North Shore
and Intercolonial Railways. It would extend provincial as well as local
advantages to commerce generally, and it would go far to establish
Halifax as the winter port of the Dominion. Moreover, it would affect
all this result without the sacrifice of one single Canadian interest.
There is much in the late policy of the Government of Quebec to
astonish and bewilder all who study the laws of trade. It has been
remarked that the City of Quebec felt its interests to be so deeply
concerned in the completion of the North Shore Railway that it voted
$1,000,000 to secure its establishment. Throughout the Province the
railway was advocated for many years; it was fostered and cherished,
and held to be the key to its future prosperity. Nevertheless the
Provincial Government has deliberately sold all its interest in the
work, and has passed over its control to a railway company whose
interests lie in an entirely different direction. They have thus
sacrificed the one chance of extending a fostering hand to local trade
and regaining the prestige of the Ancient City. Indeed, the Provincial
Government stands in relationship to this railway as if it had never
been constructed as a public work. As I am writing I read in the
newspapers that the present tariff of charges between Montreal and
Quebec, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, on certain articles
of freight, is thirty-three per cent. higher than between Quebec and
Halifax, a distance of six hundred and eighty miles! Possibly an
extreme case; but can any fact bear stronger testimony to the sacrifice
which has been made of the interests of the City of Quebec? It is long
since there has been such an abandonment of a position from which
so much might have been hoped, and, strange to add, the sacrifice
has been made without a protest, without a remonstrance from those
most interested. It would seem that there is a failure to understand
the extent of the advantages which have been thrown away. If there
be any truth in the adage that misery likes company, it may be some
consolation to the people of Quebec to know that the shadow of this
unfortunate transaction has been equally cast over the fortunes of the
Intercolonial Railway and on the prosperity of the City of Halifax.
It seems to me that the error committed cannot too soon be rectified.
Indeed, it is a case in which the intervention of the general
government is both justifiable and necessary. The Intercolonial
Railway, owned and operated by the Dominion Government, extends from
Halifax to a point opposite Quebec. It connects only with the Grand
Trunk Railway. The interests of the Grand Trunk Company call for
the transport of freight to Portland, in the United States, rather
than its transfer to Halifax. The Intercolonial was established for
national purposes. Strong reasons present themselves why it should not
terminate at Chaudière Junction, but that its outlet should be Ottawa.
This policy of extension to the capital would involve bridging the St.
Lawrence at Quebec and of obtaining control of the railway to Ottawa.
Such a connection would admit of the exchange of traffic with the
competing lines on equal terms at Montreal and Ottawa, and would remove
from Quebec, from the Intercolonial Railway and from Halifax the
serious disabilities under which they now labour.
Under French rule Montreal had simply a monopoly of trade with the
Indians, and no attempt was made until a later period to overcome the
natural impediments which lay in the way of its advancement. It was not
until some years after the conquest, when Western Canada, now Ontario,
became a field for settlement, that any improvement of the navigation
of the St. Lawrence was attempted. Some rude canals, with narrow locks,
were early formed to enable the Durham boats, then the only means of
transit, to pass up the Cascade, Cedar and Coteau Rapids. The present
canals were the impulse of a later date. In the early days of Canada
commerce was not of the importance it has now attained. There was a
chronic state of war, first with the red man for the possession of the
country itself; secondly with the English and the southern colonies for
the traffic with the Indians. The scene of the struggle was generally
on the borders of the great lakes, and then, as now, the main effort
was put forth to determine whether the products of the west would pass
by the Mohawk to the Hudson, or whether it would follow the course of
the St. Lawrence to the sea.
Montreal, at this period, was virtually the end of French settlement,
and the population was small. At the present day Montreal is a city,
with its suburbs, of nearly 200,000 inhabitants. Most of the old French
landmarks are disappearing, one by one, and there remains little
of material form to recall French rule. It may almost be said that
the language, and that portion of our laws which owes its origin to
France, are all that remain to remind us of her power. Her criminal and
commercial law is English; the other divisions of her jurisprudence
retain their early impress. There remains, however, the Roman Catholic
form of worship, the most marked heirloom of those days which the
French Canadian has most jealously retained. Montreal, socially, is
now characterized by those features which wealth, proceeding from a
long and prosperous commerce, stamps upon a community on this side
of the Atlantic. On all sides you see palatial residences and highly
cultivated grounds. The main business streets are marked by unusual
architectural embellishments, for which the limestone quarries in the
neighbourhood furnish the best of facilities. The wharves in front of
the city, with the stone revetment wall, have not their equal on the
continent. The canals have already been referred to, and I know nowhere
else where such works are to be seen. The Canadian canal is a river,
and not a small one, and the vessels which pass through it are of no
ordinary size. There is much material success; and this commercial
element has gathered together a busy, anxious, enterprising, pushing
population, with all the accessories in connection with it which wealth
gives. But I must turn to the matters which have brought me to Montreal.
I had a long and important interview with the Directors of the Canadian
Pacific Railway. They desired me to proceed to British Columbia on
a special professional service, and, if practicable, they wished me
to pass over the line west of Winnipeg to examine the passes of the
Rocky Mountains. It was agreed that I should start without delay. Some
preparations are always necessary for such a journey, and to cross
the mountains over an almost untrodden path I required strong, rough
clothing and unexceptional protection for the feet.
I took the afternoon train for Ottawa. In Montreal the terminus of the
Canadian Pacific Railway is at Dalhousie Square. It extends from Notre
Dame street, at a lower level, to the quay, and it would be difficult
to find a more striking site for a railway station. For upwards of a
mile the line runs along the side of the harbour, and you have in view
the bold landscape produced by the river and St. Helen’s Island. To
the west Victoria Bridge stands out in bold relief, and, in spite of
its massiveness, it spans the river with the most graceful of lines.
The harbour of Montreal during the season of navigation is always more
or less full of shipping, among which the ocean steamer predominates.
In winter it presents a totally different appearance. The river is
a field of ice, often cumbered with Cyclopean masses, distorted by
“shoves” into most picturesque forms, often a scene in all respects
striking and rarely met. The railway, on leaving Montreal, passes
through a really charming landscape. Crossing two branches of the St.
Lawrence, at Sault-au-Recollet and Rivière-des-Prairies, it touches
the River Ottawa, and continues generally in sight of the river till
it reaches the capital. Twenty miles east the line passes directly
over the falls of Le Lievre, at Buckingham, which form an object of
special attraction. On approaching Ottawa we cross the long iron bridge
over the river, and see the city lying before us, and the outline of
the Government buildings, with their peculiar architecture, almost
suggesting that you are entering some mediæval city.
At no period of the year, except during the three months when the
House is in session, is there any particular animation in the Capital.
Parliament meets in February, occasionally in January, and continues
its sittings until April or May. From Christmas to the opening of the
House the Government offices are unusually active in the preparation of
documents to be laid before Parliament. Strangers arrive a week before
the day of the opening. There is a constant succession of new faces
in the streets. The Ministers commence their series of dinners, the
intention of which is to affirm their political influence, but clothed
with all the graces of social attraction. Those in the city proper who
can entertain do so at this season. The Club, which for the remaining
nine months can number in its rooms its visitors by tens, is then
crowded, and the hotels are full of busy, bustling individuals engaged
in the many schemes which await the countenance of Parliament, and the
dining-room in the evening has the fullest attendance.
Few cities of the size are more lively under this aspect than Ottawa
during the session. A few days after its close another story is told.
Government House, which for the last ten years has been the scene of so
much polished and plenteous hospitality, becomes tenantless. The two
previous Governors-General, Lord Dufferin and Lord Lorne, endeavoured
to bring side by side all that was estimable and prominent in the
capital. There was something so cordial, so unaffectedly hearty in the
welcome given to all, that no one went there without pleasure or left
without regret. The invitations were not confined to a comparatively
narrow clique. No hospitality could be more genial, more liberal
or more unaffected. Twice a week, or so, there were skating and
tobogganing parties. Once a week there were state dinners, frequently
on other evenings guests were gathered around the private table. Lord
Dufferin inaugurated a series of private theatricals. He was also
followed by Lord Lorne in his desire to add to the common happiness,
as indeed in all that was excellent which Lord Dufferin commenced.
No balls ever were more pleasant than those given at Ottawa under
their regime. There is a delicacy in writing all this, as both these
distinguished men are in active political life, and it is not easy to
speak of the actors in our Canadian drama who yet play a part in the
wider Imperial life. Equally difficult to venture to allude to the
Countess of Dufferin, who exercised such a healthy influence on the
society in which she mixed. The more exalted position of H. R. H. the
Princess Louise makes it more embarrassing to refer to her presence;
but who that has, in any way, been brought within her influence can
forget all the associations which it suggests, not those of rank, but
the more durable impress of genius, of excellence, with the most simple
and unaffected manner, blended with a consideration for others which
delighted everyone.
I remained a few hours in Ottawa, and took the night train for Toronto.
We start from the Canadian Pacific station, at which I had arrived,
and follow the line to Brockville. Brockville is a town of importance
on the St. Lawrence, at the lower end of that interesting reach of
forty miles which embraces the Thousand Islands. During the night the
Pullman is connected with the Grand Trunk train, and we proceed on our
journey as if we were travelling on the system of lines we started
on. There is no tax imposed on travellers, as at Moncton on alternate
nights turning you out of your berth at three in the morning. When you
awake you are still proceeding onward on the western journey. We pass
Kingston at night, a town which has grown around Frontenac’s fort,
erected in 1672. Its site is still a barrack used for the Military
College. Kingston has the advantage of a finely settled country in its
rear; it has an ancient look, and is substantially built of limestone.
Its position at the junction of Lake Ontario with the St. Lawrence, and
the presence of many owners of craft, cause some activity during the
season of navigation. Kingston is also known as the seat of Queen’s
College and University, in which, personally and officially, the writer
has the greatest interest.
There is a restaurant car attached to the train, and one can obtain
any breakfast he may require. After breakfast one generally becomes
critical, for thought is turned outward. As we are moving onward it
struck me that the farming between Trenton and Cobourg was not of a
high character. At no season should thistles and weeds be seen in the
fields, certainly not at the period when they are going to seed, and
even a few slovenly farms will disfigure a whole district. The grain
crop is later than usual, but is fast ripening, and in this section of
the country not without promise. West of Cobourg the land is among
the best in the world. Nowhere is agriculture more careful. There is
scarcely any land remaining uncultivated, and no one but can be struck
with the fertility of the district through which we are passing.