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ciently protect the public interests; that the tendency of charges is towards a minimum, the same as in other undertakings. This statement is not borne out by the facts. There are but few points touched by rival railways, and except at these points, railways are practically monopolies. If the different railway trains running upon each road were run by different corporations, then there might be general competition, but not otherwise. Experience proves that combination is not an improbable thing between managers of rival railways. The number of these corporations must ever be so limited, that combination will always be practicable. The charges on railways, both for freight and passengers, wherever they are private property, are illregulated and variable. It is to the interest of the public to have the greatest amount done at the least possible cost. The reverse of this is to the interest of the railway companies. If a company, by diminishing charges, could increase their business, it would not be voluntarily done unless the ratio of increase of business was greatly in excess of the ratio of the diminution of charges. Every one who has taken the trouble to look into railway statistics, knows well that it has been a common occurrence to increase the earnings by a reduction of the rates. This increase was not brought about by drawing away traffic from rival lines, but by the stimulus given to commerce, that rendered travel and traffic profitable, which were not so before the reduction was made. It is said that the receipts per train, at a penny fare, from Shrewsbury to Upton Magna, in England, were £11 15s. 8d., and at a fare of 3d., the receipts fell to £4 4s. 11d. per train. The receipts per train from Shrewsbury to Walcot, at a penny fare, were £14 175. 7d., and at 6d. fare they fell to £4 5s. 5d. We do not refer to these statictics to show that the railways of Canada would, in all cases, largely gain by a considerable reduction in their charges. If it were believed that this would be the immediate effect of reduced rates, the

reduction would be made. There can be scarcely a doubt, from the results of such trials elsewhere, that the ultimate gain here would be considerable. But men who wish to dispose of railway stocks and bonds, are not likely to consider what may be advantageous to a company after they have ceased to have any personal interest in its welfare.

It is not in the management of railways alone that the interests of railway companies are against the interests of the public. They endanger, if they do not destroy, the independence of Parliament. Corruption taints the majority of railway enterprises from their inception to their completion. Charters are sought, not infrequently, for purposes of speculation. Sometimes they are used to blackmail existing railway lines. However much a railway may be needed, a charter is seldom obtained without difficulty and stock is bestowed for Parliamentary support. The names of well-known railway men are sought to give credit to the projected enterprise, a number of shares are tendered them for their "eminent services" and they are seldom declined. At every step taken, some one is paid for his support, or some other for his opposition. When a railway scheme is fairly launched, it finds a large number of friends-engineers and professional contractors, the owners of rolling mills and the builders of cars and locomotives. The getters of land grants, and the traders in railway stocks, all come to its aid, and, it may be, experience its bounty. These constitute the grand army of a private railway enterprise. Besides these, there is a numerous band of camp-followers, who expect, in a variety of ways, "to reap where they have not sown," but about whose special services nothing need be said. It is this numerous host of allies and followers which "can kill or keep alive" a railway project and, because they have this power, must be paid, that add to the cost of every rival railway undertaking.

It is not our purpose in this article to discuss the general question of railway reform.

himself on behalf of his cestui que trust, is equally applicable to him. It is not enough that a public man shall act honestly; it is important that the public should think so; and in order that this may be the case, care must be taken that his public duties and his private interests are not made needlessly to conflict with each other. In the case of the Canadian Pacific Railway enterprise, it would seem that this and other important principles of parliamentary government scarcely received sufficient consideration at the hands of the first Parliament of Canada. It is the most gigantic railway ever undertaken, and its relations to the Government and Par

We have simply indicated our conviction that the question of ownership is yet an open question and that there are considerations, both commercial and political, unfavourable to the system of private ownership. There can hardly be a doubt that if the Canadian Parliament and the Provincial Legislatures were to take the whole subject of railway economy and railway management in hand, and secure a full report, not only of the traffic, but of everything relating to the railways of the country, they would confer a substantial benefit upon the public. But this is not all. The people of Canada will be forced to consider, if they wish to avoid being led on to disaster, the relation in which her pub-liament ought have been well considered. lic men stand to gigantic railway enterprises. Who has not become familiar with the history of Fisk's Erie Railway speculations; of Tweed and Sweeny's peculations and City Hall contracts of Judge Barnard's prostitution of a Court of Justice to railway rings. We cannot say these things are impossible here. It is true the like have not happened. But it must not be forgotten that the opportunity has been wanting. These things were so, not because men were wanting in intellectual capacity, but because great temptations were presented and they were too strong to be resisted. Human nature is, in all civilized communities, much the same. What has happened in New York is likely to happen in Montreal and Toronto under similar circumstances. The country ought to have—it is possible—a triple guarantee for the upright conduct of those to whom they entrust the management of the affairs of the state-the high character of public men, a healthy public opinion, and an efficient law. The law ought not to allow a representative of the people to be put in a position that he may be suspected of acting in a particular way, not from considerations of public utility, but for his own private advantage. A member of parliament is a trustee of the country, and the policy of the law which forbids a trustee dealing with

From the eastern extremity, upon the Upper Ottawa, to Victoria, in British Columbia, the distance is not less than 2,700 miles. A road of this length requires a large population to furnish it with the ordinary amount of local traffic. At present there is a popu lation of less than 30,000 in the country it will traverse. In its construction 6,600,000 cross-ties, and at least 270,000 tons of iron will be required. It will take 540 locomotives, of 65,000 horse-power, and 8,000 cars properly to equip it. It will consume yearly 270,000 cords of wood and, to keep the road in repair, 40,000 tons of new or rerolled rails, and 800,000 cross-ties will be needed. This is no exaggerated statement. The Union and Central Pacific Railway, extending from Omaha to San Francisco, a distance of 1,904 miles, has 334 locomotives and 6,649 cars. The New York Central, measuring the second track, is a line of 1,522 miles in length, and is equipped with 400 locomotives and 9,603 cars, not counting dummy engines, city passenger cars, or gravel cars for the service of the road. The operating expenses of the Union and Central Pacific Railway in 1871 were about ten millions of dollars and the gross earnings upon through traffic, $6,650,000. When we consider the length of the Canadian Pacific and the unsettled country

through which it will run, $13,000,000 a year will not be thought an extravagant estimate for operating expenses; and yet it is nearly twice the amount of the gross earnings of the American road upon its through traffic. The roughly-estimated cost of the Canadian road is $100,000,000-less than one-half of the actual cost of the only Trans-continental railway yet completed, which is at least 700 miles shorter. We are aware it is said that the gradients upon the Canadian line are much easier, and the mountain passes much lower, and that the cost of construction must be proportionably less. But these estimates afford but very imperfect data for estimating the cost of building a railway. From Trucker to Ogden City, a distance of 628 miles, the American road passes over a table-land about 5,000 feet above the sea level, and from Wassatch summit to Cheyenne, a distance of 462 miles, it is nearly one and a half miles above the sea level. From the Missouri River to Cheyenne, a distance of 517 miles, there is a uniform grade of about ten feet to the mile, Cheyenne being about 5095 feet above Omaha. From Cheyenne to the summit of the mountains the distance is 32 miles and the grade eighty feet to the mile. "The elevation," says Mr. Poor, "of this vast plain, from which the Rocky Mountains rise, is so great that these mountains, when reached, present no obstacles so formidable as those offered by the Alleghany ranges to several lines of railroad which cross them."

British Columbia has been described as a sea of mountains. The whole province consists of a succession of mountain ranges, rising, it may be, to no extraordinary height, but being not the less formidable obstacles, on that account, to the construction of a cheap railway. The country between the Upper Ottawa and Lake Winnipeg is wellnigh an unknown land. This much we do know that the snow falls deep and lies long in the basin of Hudson's Bay; that the cold of winter is intense, and it is extremely

doubtful whether a railway can be worked there in the winter season. In a country without inhabitants, in which the ground freezes to the depth of ten or fifteen feet, where there is that depth of earth to freeze; in which the thermometer sinks to 40 degrees below zero, it is not easy to understand how passengers are to be made comfortable, how water tanks are to be kept open, or how employés are to be saved from perishing on account of necessary exposure to the cold. No one, can look at a map of the country without being impressed with the idea that the cost of construction must be enormously enhanced from the position of the road. The Union and Central Pacific Railway began and ended in a settled country. The road connected thirty millions of people upon one side of the mountains, with one million upon the other side. It connects the greatest commercial emporium of the Pacific with the cities of the East. It had a labour market at hand. The Canada Pacific will pass through a country from which supplies cannot be had and which, from its isolation, is difficult of access. There are at present several Pacific Railways under construction in the United States. One from New Orleans to El Paso in Texas; one from Little Rock to El Paso and thence to Colorado and San Diego. One through New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California to Santa Barbara, upon the Pacific Coast, and the Northern Pacific from Lake Superior to Puget Sound. The road from New Orleans to Houston, in Texas, is to be completed within two years. Colonel Thomas A. Scott, late president of the Union Pacific Railway, has now under his management the building of the Southern Pacific Road. Already 500 miles have been put under construction, and it is proposed to complete the entire line within three years. This road will lie south of the snow limit and will, during the winter season, at least, possess a decided advantage over its more northern rivals.

What we have said is sufficient to show that the demand for labour in railway construction is likely to be very high for some years to come; that, for physical reasons, it will be more difficult to procure it for the Canadian Pacific than for its rivals; and that, other things being equal, the cost will be proportionately greater. With four transcontinental railways in operation, competing for through traffic, it can scarcely be hoped that the most favoured line will be able to secure a greater tonnage of freight than that now carried between Omaha and San Francisco, which yields a gross revenue to the company of about $3,000,000 a year-one seventh less than the gross revenue from the carriage of through passengers. Assuming that the Canadian Pacific road will be equally fortunate, and that as large a percentage of Canadians will pass over it as there are of Americans travelling by the Union and Central Pacific, the gross earnings of the Canadian road, from through traffic, would be $3,350,000 annually. The population which is to create a local traffic has yet to be found and taken into those northern regions. The coal, the metallic ores and the lumbering districts from which freights may be drawn, have yet to be discovered, and may be found at points not accessible from the railway. One may ask why was something not learned of the geology of the country before such a gigantic work was undertaken? We know of no other reason than this, that the majority of the late Parliament preferred taking a leap in the dark.

There are three political considerations connected with this railway well deserving the attention of the people of this country: -Ist, the circumstances under which the country was irrevocably committed to the scheme; 2nd, the mode in which the Government propose to aid the enterprise, and 3rd, the relations which are likely to subsist between the Parliament and the company,

until the work is completed.

It seems like a work of supererogation at

this day, to be obliged to assert gravely that Parliamentary government exists only so long as the government of the country is carried on in consonance with the well understood wishes of the people. The people of this Province long contended for representation based upon population. This principle is without meaning, unless it serves to secure to the political opinions of a majority of the people a preponderating influence in Parliament. So long as elections took place for no other purpose than to put the affairs of the country into the hands of a body of men independent of the Crown, it mattered little whether constituencies were equal or unequal. The vote was oftener a certificate of capacity or fitness, than an endorsation of political opinions. But this is no longer the case. Since the days of the younger Pitt there has grown up a great power in the State, known as public opinion. The news paper and the magazine have been added to the rostrum. Men read and think and form opinions; and Parliament is but one of the educating forces of to-day. The discretionary power of Parliament is every day diminishing, because the convictions of the people upon questions of public policy are day by day becoming clearer. formed the Government, of which he is now the head, no one could be at a loss to know what would be its policy, because the sense of the country had been taken upon every one of the important questions with which he subsequently dealt and which he was pledged to make the policy of his Government, if called upon to form one. It is now, in England, a maxim practically recognized by both political parties, that no important measure shall be carried through Parliament and receive the sanction of the Crown, the principle of which has not received the po pular sanction at an election. Why should a different practice prevail in this country? Ought not those who favoured the Pacific | Railway scheme to have set forth their views formally in the House, and have gone to the

When Mr. Gladstone

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country upon this scheme as a part of their policy? The view taken by the public of so important a matter is many sided. It is always broader, and generally safer, than that taken by politicians who assume that the people have not the necessary capacity to reach a safe conclusion upon important questions of State policy. This reference to the people finds its justification upon the same grounds as trial by jury. In trial by jury we have the people arrayed on the side of the law; and the law is made flexible by being applied according to popular apprehension. So where the policy of the Government has réceived popular sanction, it is sustained by the sympathies of the country. There is little danger of domestic disturbance, and those upon whom the burdens fall will submit to them all the more patiently, having voluntarily assumed them.

It is proposed in this railway scheme to give, as a bonus to the company which may be formed to construct the road, $30,000,000 and 50,000,000 acres of land. Any one who will take the trouble to read the provisions of the Railway Act, will see that Parliament has not only surrendered to the Ministry its right, or, we should rather say, its public duty of controlling the payment of the sums to which the company may have become entitled, but it has provided no certain basis of determining what this sum is. The road is not divided into sections of greater or less difficulty by the law. No degrees of difference are indicated by the amount of bonus per mile assigned to different parts of the road. It is not stated that the estimates of the engineers shall form the basis of the calculation in determining the amount of the bonus to which the company may have become entitled; so that the Mi nistry have a very wide margin of discretion in dealing out the bonus to the company. Land grants to railways have hitherto been a favourite way of aiding railway projects in the United States. Upwards of 10,000 miles of railways have been built that have

been so aided, and there are several thousand more in process of construction. At least 200,000,000 acres of public domain have there been applied in this way, and it is now extremely doubtful whether the public have been served by this policy. It is quite clear that this will be the policy of the Fedral Government no longer, as we find both candidates for the Presidency pronouncing decidedly against it. The Illinois Central Road was one of the first aided in this way. By an Act of Congress, passed in 1850, 2,595,000 were granted to aid in the construction of the road from Cairo to Chicago and Duluth-7071⁄2 miles of road in all.

Up to this time 2,179,390 acres have been sold from which the company have realized the sum of $25,000,000; and the 415,910 acres unsold, are held to be worth $12 50 per acre. The company are likely to realize from the sale of these lands a sum greater than the cost of the railway. Congress granted to the Kansas Pacific Railway 6,000,000 acres in Kansas and Colorado; within three years 615,625 acres were sold for $1,676,059, and three millions more were mortgaged for $5,500,000. The lowest price was obtained during the first year, when they averaged $2 51; in 1869, the year following, the average was $2 62; in 1870, $3 13; and in 1871, $4 31 per acre. And this, too, in a tract of country known as the great American Desert. The average price realized by the Union Pacific Railway Company for lands sold prior to January, 1871, was $4 46 per acre. Every year the price of land, in the districts ceded to railways, is enhanced in value, and, after the settlement of a sparse population has been secured, the railway companies do not make haste to sel unless their financial circumstances force them to put their lands into the market. There can be no doubt then, that a bonus of 50,000,000 of acres is an immense contribution towards the construction of a railway. Assuming that, of this vast area, but one fourth is fit for settlement, these

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