(57) If once it was understood by the public that Government had taken the initiative, and was determined to assist and see carried out a great national work such as has been suggested, there is no doubt that many people who are now paying high poor rates would join together, and a variety of small Emigration Companies would be formed to assist poor people to emigrate, and these poor people would willingly and cheerfully quit their native land, when they had before them the certain prospect of immediate employment; and if the penny postage was added to the system, they would be nearer to England in the North American Colonies, than the poor people of England and Scotland were to each other only a few years back.
(58) “Four hundred millions of people yet to be introduced into communication with the rest of mankind! What a prospect for the merchant, the manufacturer and ship owner. But there is still a higher and holier prospect. Four hundred millions of active and intelligent human beings have to be brought within the pale of Christianity! Wary stepping, too, it will require to enable us to succeed in realizing either of these objects. To assist us, an abler man for the task could not be found than the author of the work before us.”—Liverpool Standard, Review on Montgomery Martin’s recent Work on China.
(59) “Nobody can doubt that the western coast of North America is about to become the theatre of vast commercial and political transactions, and it is impossible to estimate adequately the value which may soon accrue to every harbour, coal mine, forest and plain in that quarter of the globe.”—Morning Chronicle, 15th Feb. 1849.
(60) On which Line the mails could travel from Halifax to Frazer’s River in six days, and the electric telegraph connect these oceans—space vanishing under that magic power.
(61) See Montgomery Martin’s second edition on Railways, Past, Present and Prospective.