adly. If there is any meaning in words, Mr Hawes had promised
that the guarantee should include the Portland line. In the very
middle of a paragraph of concessions and stipulations occur the words:
'It is also to be understood that Her Majesty's Government will by no
means object to its forming part of the plan which may be determined
upon, that it should include a provision for establishing a
communication between the projected railway and the railways of the
United States.' Grey afterwards stated 'that nothing further was
contemplated in that passage than that Her Majesty's Government would
sanction such a provision for this purpose as the legislature of New
Brunswick may deem expedient to make {117} upon its own liabilities.'
A lamer excuse has rarely been penned. The whole letter deals with the
guarantee of the British government for 'the plan which may be
determined upon,' and neither by word nor by implication gives any
countenance to the idea that here in the middle of the paragraph, for
one sentence, the idea of an Imperial guarantee is dropped and that of
unaided provincial construction substituted.

What was Howe's explanation of his Lordship's tergiversation? It was
the same as that which he had for Hincks's _volte-face_. 'A powerful
combination of great contractors, having large influence in the
Government and Parliament of England, were determined to seize upon the
North American railroads and promote their own interests at the expense
of the people.' 'If ever all the facts should be brought to light, I
believe it will be shown that by some astute manipulation the British
provinces on that occasion were sold for the benefit of English
contractors and English members of Parliament.'

Put thus crudely the charge is absurd. The reputation of some of the
contractors who built the British North American railways is indeed
none too good. Howe scarcely {118} exaggerated when he wrote about one
of them to the lieutenant-governor that 'in his private offices there
is more jobbing, scheming, and corruption in a month than in all the
public departments in seven years.' But whatever Lord Grey's mistakes
in colonial policy, his long career shows him personally incorruptible,
and in some ways almost pedantically high-minded. The charge must be
put in another way. Grey was irritable, strong-willed, and inclined to
self-righteousness. Nothing is easier than for a self-righteous man to
confuse his wishes and h