not be less but
greater; and in the case of some of them, no man would pretend to say
how great might be the increase of dividends from the improved and
economical modes of working Railways, which, there is every reason to
believe, will day by day be freshly discovered." [_Bradshaw's Almanack,
1849_]. And who will say that L200,000,000 expended (even should such a
sum as that be required) in making a Railway Road from the Atlantic to
the Pacific through our own territories, and therefore completely under
our own controul, would not increase by a tenfold degree the value of
that property already expended in England? When the Railways now in
contemplation at home are finished, their total length will, I believe,
be about 10,000 miles, and the expenditure between 200 and 240 millions.
The length of the Railway proposed to go through our colonies may be
spoken of roughly as at about 4000 miles; but when we take into
consideration the relative value of land in England and our colonies,
and a thousand other Railway contingencies in a highly civilized
country, creating enormous legal, legislative and other expenses, we
naturally come to the conclusion that the outlay per mile must of course
be considerably diminished in the colonies. Taking it, however, at the
English expenditure of L24,000 a mile on the average, it would only cost
L96,000,000;[see Note 32]--L5,000,000 has been estimated as sufficient
for six hundred miles of Railway from Halifax to Quebec. But calling it
L100,000,000, and supposing the work to be five years completing, that
would only be at the rate of L20,000,000 a year, the interest of which
at five per cent. would be L1,000,000. Surely, then, such a sum as that
could be easily raised, even by the Hudson's Bay Company alone, upon the
security of their extensive and valuable territory. For so great a
difference would soon arise between the value of that territory as it
is now--merely the abode of Indians and hunters--and what it would be
then; with its clearings, its improvements, its roads, its trade, its
manufactures, and its towns, that any amount of debt almost might be
incurred. But our loyal colonies would no doubt equally enter into
securities to England, and be glad, in fact, to share their chance of
the profit; for these colonies, as well as the Hudson's Bay Company,
would be immense gainers. Still it may be argued, that unless it can be
shown that England herself would be a gainer, she would not be