alongside
the _Sirius_, a steamer which had successfully crossed the Atlantic,
and was now on her return to England. The captain of the _Tyrian_
determined to send his mails on board. Howe accompanied them, took a
glass of champagne with the officers, and returned to the {94} brig.
Then the _Sirius_ steamed off, leaving the _Tyrian_ to whistle for a
breeze. On their arrival in England, Howe and Haliburton succeeded in
combining the chief British North American interests in a letter to the
Colonial Office. That much-abused department showed sympathy and
promptitude. Negotiations were entered into, contracts were let, and
in 1840 the mails were carried from England to Halifax by the steamers
of a company headed by Samuel Cunard, a prominent Halifax merchant,
founder of the line which still bears his name. At once the distance
from England to Nova Scotia was reduced from fifty days to twelve.
Certainty replaced uncertainty; danger gave way to comparative
security. It was the forging of a real link of Empire.

A decade later Howe saw that the railway could play the same part. At
this time the question was being discussed in all the provinces. Nova
Scotia wished to link her harbours with the trade of the Canadian and
American West and of the Gulf of St Lawrence, so as to be at least the
winter port of the northern half of North America. New Brunswick
wished to give to the fertile valley of the St John and the shores of
the Bay of Fundy {95} an exit to the sea, and to unite them with the
American railways by a line from St John to Portland. The need of
Canada was still more pressing; between 1840 and 1850 she had completed
her St Lawrence system of canals, only to find them side-tracked by
American railways. A line from Montreal to Windsor, opposite Detroit,
became a necessity.

It is characteristic of Howe that he was at first attracted by the
thought of what might benefit Nova Scotia, and that he gradually passed
from this to a great vision of Empire, in which his early idea was
absorbed though not destroyed. His first speech on the subject was
delivered on the 25th of March 1850, and is chiefly notable for his
strong advocacy of government construction. In July a convention to
discuss the matter was called at Portland, to which the Nova Scotian
government sent a more or less official representative. This gathering
passed resolutions in favour of a line from Portland to Halifax through
St John. But Maine a