I Do Not Know That Blame Is To Be Attached To Any One.
I at least
attach no such blame.
Probably it might be easy now to show that
the road might have been made with sufficient accommodation for
ordinary purposes without some of the more costly details. The
great tubular bridge, on which was expended 1,300,000 pounds,
might, I should think, have been dispensed with. The Detroit end
of the line might have been left for later time. As it stands now,
however, it is a wonderful operation carried to a successful issue
as far as the public are concerned; and one can on]y grieve that it
should be so absolute a failure to those who have placed their
money in it. There are schemes which seem to be too big for men to
work out with any ordinary regard to profit and loss. The Great
Eastern is one, and this is another. The national advantage
arising from such enterprises is immense; but the wonder is that
men should be found willing to embark their money where the risk is
so great and the return even hoped for is so small.
While I was in Canada some gentlemen were there from the Lower
Provinces - Nova Scotia, that is, and New Brunswick - agitating the
subject of another great line of railway, from Quebec to Halifax.
The project is one in favor of which very much may be said. In a
national point of view an Englishman or a Canadian cannot but
regret that there should be no winter mode of exit from, or
entrance to, Canada, except through the United States.
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