Still, With Civil War Just Commencing, Who
Could Tell?
"Sir," said old Gordon Bennett to me one day, while walking
in his garden, beyond New York, "here everything
Is new, and nothing is
settled." Failing health, brought on by grievous troubles, compelled
the Duke to retire from office in the course of 1864, and on the 18th
of October of that year he died; on the 18th October, 1865, he was
followed by his friend, staunch and true, Lord Palmerston, who left his
work and the world, with equal suddenness, on that day.
But from that 17th July, 1861, I regarded myself as the Duke's
unofficial, unpaid, never-tiring agent in these great enterprises, and,
undoubtedly, in these three years, ending by his retirement and death,
the seeds were sown.
CHAPTER VI.
Port Moody - Victoria - San Francisco to Chicago.
At "Port Moody," and even at the new "Vancouver City," I felt some
disappointment that the original idea of crossing amongst the islands
to the north-east of Vancouver's Island, traversing that island, and
making the Grand Pacific terminus at the fine harbour of Esquimalt, had
not been realized. Halifax to Esquimalt was our old, well-worn plan.
The "Tete Jaune" was our favoured pass. This plan, I believe, met the
views both of Sir James Douglas and the Honorable Mr. Trutch. But I
consoled myself with the reflection, that if we had not gained the
best, we had secured the next best, grand scheme - a scheme which, as
time goes on, will be extended and improved, as the original Pacific
Railways of the United States have been.
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