In The Interesting Book, "Rambles On Railways," Published In 1868, It
Is Remarked That Great As Has Been The Progress Of Canada, In No
Respect Has The Growth Of The Country Shown Itself In A More Marked
Manner Than In The Development Of Its Railway System.
It was in 1848,
or almost immediately after the completion of the magnificent canal
system of Canada proper, and
By which vessels of 800 tons could pass
from the ocean to Lake Ontario, and vice versa (ships now pass
from Chicago to Liverpool of over 1,500 tons burthen), that the
Canadians discovered it was necessary, notwithstanding their unrivalled
inland navigation, to combine with it an equally good railway
communication; and accordingly, in 1849, an Act was passed by the
Canadian Government pledging a six per cent. guarantee on one-half the
cost of all railways made under its provisions. In 1852, however, the
Government, fearing the effect of an indiscriminate guarantee, repealed
the law of 1849, and passed an Act guaranteeing one-half of the cost of
one main Trunk line of railway throughout the Province, and it was
under this Act that the Grand Trunk Railway was projected.
These terms were subsequently modified, by granting a fixed sum of
3,000l. per mile of railway forming part of the main Trunk line.
It is true that prior to these dates railways existed in Canada. There
was, for example, the horse railway from La Prairie, nine miles above
Montreal, to St. John's on the Richelieu River, opened in July, 1836,
and first worked with locomotives in 1837; there was also a horse
railway between Queenstown and Chippewa, passing Niagara, opened in
1839, and over which I travelled in 1851; but with these exceptions,
and the Lachine Railway, a line running from Montreal for seven miles
to the westward, the railway system of Canada cannot be said to have
commenced until after the passing of the Railway Act in 1849, and even
then, it was not for about a year that any progress was made.
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