POLITICAL troubles such as Canada went through about 1837 and after the union, when the battle for responsible government had to be fought, stand, as a rule, in the way of material progress. Our country was slow to recover from their consequences, and from 1840 to 1854, trade was depressed to a discouraging extent. We were at a standstill while our neighbours, whose condition always affects ours, were rushing forward at rapid strides in all the avenues leading to prosperity. In 1843 trade began to revive under the beneficial legislation of Stanley, whose Canada Corn Act (1843) admitted into England at a nominal duty, not only the wheat grown north of the line 45°, but also flour made out of American wheat. The premium thus offered to our industry caused a large amount of capital to be invested in flour mills, but scarcely had they been completed when Peel's great free trade measure (1846) swept away all the privilege the colony was preparing to enjoy under the previous act, and this brought upon Canada, especially the western section, a crushing blow to rising prosperity. Discontent naturally followed and obtained to such an. extent that it alarmed Lord Elgin. He wrote to Lord Grey: "I believe that the conviction that they would be better off if they were annexed is almost universal among the commercial classes at present."1 Another most objectionable piece of legislation, were the English navigation laws which cramped the commerce of Canada by restricting it to British vessels, whilst high duties transferred trade to the United States.

It was this stagnation in every branch of activity on the one side, compared with progress on the other, that fostered the annexationist sentiment which prevailed for a while about 1849, and which such eminent men as J. J. C. Abbott and L. H.

"Peel's bill of 1846 drives the whole of the produce down the New York channels of communication, destroying the revenue which Canada expected to derive from canal duties, and ruining at once mill owners, forwarders, and merchants.....We are actually reduced to the disagreeable necessity of paying all public officers, from the governor-general downwards, in debentures, which are not exchangeable at par. What makes it more serious is that all the prosperity of which Canada is thus robbed is transplanted to the other side of the lines, as if to make Canadians feel more bitterly how much kinder England is to the children who desert her, than to those who remain faithful.....If England will not make the sacrifices which are absolutely necessary to put the colonists here in as good a position commercially as the citizens of the States—in order to which free navigation and reciprocal trade with the States are' indispensable—if not only the organs of the league but those of the government and of the Peel party are always writing as if it were an admitted fact that colonies, and more especially Canada, are a burden, to be endured only because they cannot be got rid of; the end may be nearer at hand than we wot of."

Holton countenanced. They had lost faith in the resources of Canada and its institutions. It seemed to them that the only way to lift the country out of this slough of despond was to join its fortunes with the United States. Not such were Cartier's sentiments; with his buoyancy of spirit and his great foresight, he and his friends perceived the cause of the depression and its remedy; the obstacle to the growth of public wealth and the lever to remove it from the way. Stagnation reigned supreme then for the reasons just mentioned and also for want of rapid means of communication between the back country and the cities and between these and the markets of the world. How could Canada have access to them when shut off altogether from Europe and partly from the United States for eight months of the year ? It was only in 1849 that the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway (now a section of the Grand Trunk system) gave Montreal an access to the sea through Portland. As far back as 1846, Cartier was in the field advocating the construction of railways, and the deepening of the St. Lawrence channel in connection with a general improvement of our waterways. He worked in advance of his programme of later years which he condensed in these words : Our policy is a policy of railways. Henceforward, we shall find him taking a prominent, when not the first part, in all questions of transportation. He was not the man to take a despondent view of the situation. The possibilities of Canada in the line of material progress, appeared to his practical mind as they actually were and are —boundless. It was only necessary to create great veins and arteries, to put in motion the rich blood that the country contained and to create prosperity under new conditions of progress. That was the part that railways and improved navigation were called upon to play.

On August 10th, 1846, the citizens of Montreal were assembled to take into consideration the advisability of subsidizing the Montreal and Portland Railroad. Among the speakers of the day was Cartier, whose terse reasoning, and whose mastery of the question won the day in spite of a strong opposition led on by such important men as Messrs. Nelson and Gibb. It is interesting to note to-day the line of arguments used on that occasion. They show how deeply versed he was in political economy, how familiar were the requirements of the country to him. His speech would not have looked antiquated during the great debates of recent years in the Commons on the transportation problem.

In this age of democracy the people have as many courtiers and flatterers as kings of old. It is an out-of-date notion to teach the masses their duties at the same time as their rights. Cartier, despising the art of the comedian, relying alone on the good sense of the public, would not stoop to modern methods to gain acquiescence in any of his plans. It was, therefore, not surprising to find him 46 at this Montreal meeting handling the good but slow population of the city without gloves, railing at their inertia, reproving them for their want of ambition, which, to make it more apparent, he contrasted with the "feverish activity, the energy and spirit of enterprise of our neighbours." Some of the arguments used on that occasion might appear childish to-day, but we must not be unmindful of the fact that at the time he spoke some of his hearers were prejudiced as to the great usefulness of railways. He must, therefore, be excused if he told the Montreal audience "that every city that has had the advantage to become a railway terminus has seen the value of property doubled in a very short time, such as Buffalo, Newport and Boston." His arguments are more in harmony with modern notions when he gives Montreal this warning, "that her progress is dependent on her position as the head of navigation for the western trade; that the changes made in the corn laws are placing this trade in jeopardy, and that Montreal will not be able to hold it if she does not secure for herself the best means of transportation from the waters of the west to the ocean through our canals and railways." And on another occasion he added: "Montreal would be blind to her interests and would be the most backward city if she failed to accept the only means to bring back to herself that prosperity which is running away from her. It is her destiny to become the great shipping port of the west. Without railways and canals she will let pass this golden opportunity."

In this question of material progress, Canada then offered an immense field to his energy and to the business ability, remarkable in a lawyer, which came to him by atavism, as he once said in Quebec, his ancestors having spent their lives in trade pursuits. The first railway enterprise he became connected with was the Grand Trunk. As long as any part of that great line, with its many ramifications, remained incomplete, his efforts to achieve its success were untiring. His zeal for this national enterprise was so great that it led many to believe that it was not disinterested ; hence the numberless charges hurled against him in that connection. But they could not in any way diminish his activity, and when the Grand Trunk extended only over a few hundred miles, he prided himself in the House of Assembly in 1854, with having prepared the charter of that great highway: "I have been entrusted with the bill which has given life to the Grand Trunk, and I take more pride in that fact than in any other act of my life. Even to-day this railroad is the main cause of our prosperity. The Grand Trunk Railway company is giving work to 1,600 men, and has spent since 1852, £2,500,000."

The building of that road from the Atlantic shores to Chicago was in the general interests of Canada, but Cartier did not overlook the interests of his province, and, using his large influence with the company, he prevailed upon them to push their line along the St. Lawrence from Quebec to Riviere du Loup. His success in the matter reached the importance of a great feat, as the company were averse to the extension of their route in that direction, as no prospect of getting a compensation for the outlay could be held out to them. But Cartier had laid down this principle, that if the government's policy was to subsidize railways with a view of promoting the general interests of Canada, it was only fair that regions contributing their share of such subsidies should also receive rail communication. With the help of Sir E. P. Taché, he carried his point. His useful work in connection with railway enterprises in the St. Lawrence region did not end here. When the question of locating the Intercolonial Railway arose in the Privy Council, the majority of the ministers were inclined to run the line from Riviére du Loup directly to St. John, by the shortest route, whilst Cartier favoured the longer one, following the river shore through Rimouski, Bonaventure and Gaspd. He defended his plan with arguments derived from Major Robinson's report, the imperial engineer, who had made a survey of the country with the object of finding the most favourable route for the interprovincial highway. He had come to the conclusion that for military reasons, the line should run as far as possible from the American frontier. As minister of militia, Cartier took the same view, with the double desire of favouring three large constituencies of his province and securing the line of communication most useful for the defence of Canada. It was on this occasion that after a prolonged discussion, ending in a decided opposition to his plan, he left the council with the intimation that he would not return until his ultimatum had been accepted. Achilles-like, he remained eight days under his tent. Major Robinson's route was finally selected. Cartier well knew that in a crisis such as he had provoked there are men disposed to say everything rather than cause the downfall of the administration. It is then to Cartier's firm stand that the population of Rimouski, Bonaventure and Gaspd owe the 300 miles of railway which place them in communication with the civilized world all the year round.

The desire to create a military route after the Robinson plan did not alone actuate Cartier. There was also another powerful incentive to his conduct. The interests of this forlorn country, cut off from all markets during eight months of the year, appealed to his feeling, and he was bound to bring the worthy population of the lower St. Lawrence in contact with Quebec and Montreal. Had not the railway then been built on the route laid down by Major Robinson, there is no telling when their isolation would have come to an end, as that country seemed to offer limited inducement to investments. Cartier's name is therefore entitled to the grateful remembrance of this region, to which he has been a public benefactor.

During the session of 1872, it was Cartier's glorious duty to engineer through the Commons the first charter of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The construction of this route was one of the terms of the union of British Columbia with Canada under the act of the previous session, which had also been presented by Cartier. After a spirited debate of several days, the Canadian Pacific Railway bill went through its different stages, and when the speaker proclaimed that it was finally passed, Cartier sprang to his feet, shouting amidst the cheers of the House: "All aboard for the west/" His enthusiasm was quite natural. The Canadian Pacific Railway charter securing the building of the western route was the crowning work of confederation; without it the union of the British provinces from ocean to ocean would not be a real and accomplished fact. The great territories and British Columbia were too distant from the heart of. the country to receive any impulse from it. The Canadian Pacific Railway was necessary to bring about both the moral and material union so desirable. It was not Cartier's lot to go west, for his days were then numbered. All that now lay in store for him in connection with this great enterprise was endless troubles, ending in a terrible political catastrophe, whose final act he was not to behold.

Under the terms of the charter of 1871, the terminus of the transcontinental line was fixed at the south end of Lake Nipissing. It might be asked now why such a strange selection had been made. Election tactics sometimes compel public men to curious performances. The terminus was fixed at that out-of-the-way point because both Montreal and Toronto claimed it. Cartier explained to his friends, who urged upon him, in 1871, during the debate on the Canadian Pacific Railway bill, in view of his coming electoral contest of 1872, to declare that Montreal would receive the western trade over the proposed line: "We have been obliged to place the terminus far from your city and also from Toronto for political reasons, on account of the ambition of Toronto and Montreal. Now let both rivals build roads to Nipissing to try and get their share of the traffic. Of course you are bound to win in the race; traffic must come to the port nearest the European markets. It is of no use to attempt to place obstacles in the way of the natural flow of trade. But if I were to make the promise you consider necessary to ensure my reelection, I would injure Sir John's prospects in Ontario." The refusal of this pledge was used to full advantage in Montreal, and did considerable harm to Cartier in 1872. To place such facts before the public to-day is not to command esteem for the degree of enlightenment possessed by the public opinion of those earlier days.

Two competing companies had made bids to construct the road, the Allan company of Montreal and the Macpherson syndicate of Toronto, and they caused considerable worry to the government of the day. Efforts were made to merge the two organizations, but without success. Finally the government pronounced in favour of the Allan company. Then followed the darkest page in the history of Cartier, and one which must have saddened his last days. Sir Hugh Allan had been called upon by the government to subscribe large sums of money for the election of 1872. This leaked out through the indiscreet communications of Sir Hugh Allan to certain Americans, who gave the information to a member of the opposition. At the session of 1873, Lucius Seth Huntington rose in his place in the House, and on the responsibility of his seat in parliament undertook to prove that the Canadian Pacific Railway charter had been sold to Sir Hugh Allan, the consideration being a large electoral subscription. The charge was first referred to a committee of the House, then to a royal commission, who reported the evidence taken before them at a special session of parliament in October, 1873. Sir John Macdonald, who had been sustained at the winter session of 1872 by a majority of thirty-five votes, felt that during recess he had lost his control of the majority by reason of the damaging nature of the evidence produced, and resigned in anticipation of an adverse verdict of the House.

To condone such an offence against political morality as the acceptance of an electoral subscription to be used to carry a majority of constituencies was out of the question, and the House of Commons had no other honourable course open but to withdraw its confidence from the government. It is generally accepted that in all countries where government by party obtains, it is hard to avoid political methods which appeal to the selfish interests of men. As Earl Grey says: "A tendency to corruption, in that sense of the word, is the common evil of all free government." It is an offence difficult to bring to light, but when discovered it must be dealt with severely. As a rule, public opinion in Canada has shown itself disposed to take an indulgent view of contributions to election funds. And as an instance, five years after the Allan subscription, the Canadian electorate returned to power the men answerable for what was called the Pacific scandal.