braggadocio come to Canada from the Northern States, and therefore
the Southern cause is at the present moment the more popular with
them.

I have said that the Canadians hereabouts are somewhat slow. As we
were driving back to Sherbrooke it became necessary that we should
rest for an hour or so in the middle of the day, and for this
purpose we stopped at a village inn. It was a large house, in
which there appeared to be three public sitting-rooms of ample
size, one of which was occupied as the bar. In this there were
congregated some six or seven men, seated in arm-chairs round a
stove, and among these I placed myself. No one spoke a word either
to me or to any one else. No one smoked, and no one read, nor did
they even whittle sticks. I asked a question, first of one and
then of another, and was answered with monosyllables. So I gave up
any hope in that direction, and sat staring at the big stove in the
middle of the room, as the others did. Presently another stranger
entered, having arrived in a wagon, as I had done. He entered the
room and sat down, addressing no one, and addressed by no one.
After awhile, however, he spoke. "Will there be any chance of
dinner here?" he said. "I guess there'll be dinner by-and-by,"
answered the landlord, and then there was silence for another ten
minutes, during which the stranger stared at the stove. "Is that
dinner any way ready?" he asked again. "I guess it is," said the
landlord. And then the stranger went out to see after his dinner
himself. When we started, at the end of an hour, nobody said
anything to us. The driver "hitched" on the horses, as they call
it, and we started on our way, having been charged nothing for our
accommodation. That some profit arose from the horse provender is
to be hoped.

On the following day we reached Montreal, which, as I have said
before, is the commercial capital of the two Provinces. This
question of the capitals is at the present moment a subject of
great interest in Canada; but, as I shall be driven to say
something on the matter when I report myself as being at Ottawa, I
will refrain now. There are two special public affairs at the
present moment to interest a traveler in Canada. The first I have
named, and the second is the Grand Trunk Railway. I have already
stated what is the course of this line. It runs from the Western
State of Michigan to Portland, on the Atlantic, in the State of
Maine, sweeping the whole length of Canada in its route. It was
originally made by three companies. The Atlantic and St. Lawrence
constructed it from Portland to Island Pond, on the borders of the
States. The St. Lawrence and Atlantic took it from the
southeastern side of the river at Montreal to the same point, viz.,
Island Pond. And the Grand Trunk Company have made it from Detroit
to Montreal, crossing the river there with a stupendous tubular
bridge, and have also made the branch connecting the main line with
Quebec and Riviere du Loup. This latter company is now
incorporated with the St. Lawrence and Atlantic, but has only
leased the portion of the line running through the States. This
they have done, guaranteeing the shareholders an interest of six
per cent. There never was a grander enterprise set on foot. I
will not say there never was one more unfortunate, for is there not
the Great Eastern, which, by the weight and constancy of its
failures, demands for itself a proud pre-eminence of misfortune?
But surely the Grand Trunk comes next to it. I presume it to be
quite out of the question that the shareholders should get any
interest whatever on their shares for years. The company, when I
was at Montreal, had not paid the interest due to the Atlantic and
St. Lawrence Company for the last year, and there was a doubt
whether the lease would not be broken. No party that had advanced
money to the undertaking was able to recover what had been
advanced. I believe that one firm in London had lent nearly a
million to the company, and is now willing to accept half the sum
so lent in quittance of the whole debt. In 1860 the line could not
carry the freight that offered, not having or being able to obtain
the necessary rolling stock; and on all sides I heard men
discussing whether the line would be kept open for traffic. The
government of Canada advanced to the company three millions of
money, with an understanding that neither interest nor principal
should be demanded till all other debts were paid and all
shareholders in receipt of six per cent. interest. But the three
millions were clogged with conditions which, though they have been
of service to the country, have been so expensive to the company
that it is hardly more solvent with it than it would have been
without it. As it is, the whole property seems to be involved in
ruin; and yet the line is one of the grandest commercial
conceptions that was ever carried out on the face of the globe, and
in the process of a few years will do more to make bread cheap in
England than any other single enterprise that exists.

I do not know that blame is to be attached to any one. I at least
attach no such blame. Probably it might be easy now to show that
the road might have been made with sufficient accommodation for
ordinary purposes without some of the more costly details. The
great tubular bridge, on which was expended 1,300,000 pounds,
might, I should think, have been dispensed with. The Detroit end
of the line might have been left for later time. As it stands now,
however, it is a wonderful operation carried to a successful issue
as far as the public are concerned; and one can only grieve that it
should be so absolute a failure to those who have placed their
money in it. There are schemes which seem to be too big for men to
work out with any ordinary regard to profit and loss. The Great
Eastern is one, and this is another. The national advantage
arising from such enterprises is immense; but the wonder is that
men should be found willing to embark their money where the risk is
so great and the return even hoped for is so small.



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