I Cannot But Think That Such A Confederation Might Be Formed With
Great Advantage To All The Colonies And To Great Britain.
At
present the Canadas are in effect almost more distant from Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick than they are from England.
The
intercourse between them is very slight - so slight that it may
almost be said that there is no intercourse. A few men of science
or of political importance may from time to time make their way
from one colony into the other, but even this is not common.
Beyond that they seldom see each other. Though New Brunswick
borders both with Lower Canada and with Nova Scotia, thus making
one whole of the three colonies, there is neither railroad nor
stage conveyance running from one to the other. And yet their
interests should be similar. From geographical position their
modes of life must be alike, and a close conjunction between them
is essentially necessary to give British North America any
political importance in the world. There can be no such
conjunction, no amalgamation of interests, until a railway shall
have been made joining the Canada Grand Trunk Line with the two
outlying colonies. Upper Canada can feed all England with wheat,
and could do so without any aid of railway through the States, if a
railway were made from Quebec to Halifax. But then comes the
question of the cost. The Canada Grand Trunk is at the present
moment at the lowest ebb of commercial misfortune, and with such a
fact patent to the world, what company will come forward with funds
for making four or five hundred miles of railway, through a
district of which one-half is not yet prepared for population?
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