Let us say, finally, that if we have dwelt at such length upon the yet infant railway system of the Indian Empire, it is because India is a land that has a well-recorded history dating back nearly 4,000 years, with national monuments and buildings still existing, and in comparatively sound preservation, that were erected 400 years before Rome was created; and, last of all, BECAUSE of the now standing army of India, numbering 190,195 men, 71,880 first saw the light from Heaven in the United Kingdom. It is at that number our reinforcements will have to be never-failingly kept up, if we wish to avoid the dangers and horrors of a second Indian mutiny.
Postscript.—Immediately after page 271 was printed, we met a gentleman who, in consequence of his professional connection with Persia, has, for several years, made the subject of a communication from the north-western side of Asia Minor, through Persia and Affghanistan to India, his constant study. He takes a different view from us as to the starting point of the Long Railway, but in many other respects our opinions are identical. It is probable that they may be brought jointly before the public in a more detailed and substantive form, in the course of a few months. We may here mention that, as early as 1847, Mr. Austin H. Layard, M.P., was alive to the importance of this communication, for in his work on the “Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon” (London, Murray, 1853), he says, that the route of the Euphrates, the adoption of which he urgently recommends “must be the second Indian route until civilisation and Christianity afford a reasonable basis for those gigantic schemes which would carry a line of iron through countries almost unknown, and scarcely yet visited by a solitary European traveller.”
CHAPTER X.
CANADIAN AND AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS—THE RAILWAYS OF OTHER BRITISH COLONIES.
The progress of Canada—we speak of the whole dominion recently created by the confederation of Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick[110]—has been marvellous, and in no respect, perhaps, has the growth of the country shown itself in a more marked manner than in the development of its railway system. It was in 1848, or almost immediately after the completion of the magnificent canal system of Canada proper, and by which vessels of 800 tons could pass from the ocean to Lake Ontario, and vice versâ, that the Canadians discovered it was necessary, notwithstanding their unrivalled inland navigation, to combine with it an equally good railway communication—that was if they were to continue to be the carriers of the products of the western states through the valley of the St. Lawrence. They found that their neighbours to the south had commenced their railways in all directions, but more particularly to connect the cities on the Atlantic Coast with the Western Lakes, and accordingly in 1849 an Act was passed by the Canadian Government pledging a 6 per cent. guarantee on one-half the cost of all railways made under its provisions. Under this Act, the Northern Railway, which runs from Toronto to Collingwood, the Great Western Railway, which runs from Windsor on the Detroit River (opposite Detroit) to the Niagara River, and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic, now forming part of the Grand Trunk line, running from Montreal to Portland, were commenced. In 1852, however, the Government, fearing the effect of an indiscriminate guarantee, repealed the law of 1849, and passed an Act guaranteeing one-half of the cost of one main trunk line of railway throughout the province, and it was under this Act that the Grand Trunk Railway was projected. These terms were subsequently modified by granting a fixed sum of £3,000 per mile of railway forming part of the main trunk line. It is true that prior to these dates railways existed in Canada. There was, for example, the horse railway from La Prairie, nine miles above Montreal, to St. John’s, on the Richelieu River, which was opened in July, 1836, and was first worked with locomotives in 1837. There was also the horse railway between Queenstown and Chippewa, which was opened in 1839; but with these exceptions and the length of the Lachine Railway, a line running from Montreal for seven miles to the westward, the railway system of Canada cannot be said to have commenced until after the passing of the Railway Act in 1849, and even then it was not for about a year that any substantial progress was made. But after that date the works of the several lines were pushed forward rapidly, and in 1853 the lines from Montreal to Sherbrooke, from Toronto to Bradford, and from Hamilton to Suspension Bridge were opened. In 1854 the line between Montreal and Quebec was opened, the first train having carried Lord Elgin, who was then en route to England. In the same year the Great Western Railway[111] was finished to Windsor, and in the two following years the whole line from Montreal to Toronto, and thence to London was constructed, and in 1859 the entire Canadian Railway system was completed, including the keystone of its arch, the Victoria Bridge, the details of the construction of which will he found in a subsequent page.
Whilst, as has been already explained, the Government of Canada owns no portion of the 2,148 miles of railroad now constructed, although the moneys granted in their aid amount to upwards of £6,000,000, Nova Scotia has built and owns all the railways constructed in that province. They consist of a trunk line from Halifax on the Atlantic, by way of Truro, to Pictou, in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, with a branch line to Windsor, in the Bay of Fundy. The distance from Halifax to Truro is sixty miles, and from the main line to Windsor thirty-three miles. From Truro to Pictou the distance is also about sixty miles. The railways to both these points were completed in 1858; the total cost of construction, including the extension to Pictou, being a little over £8,000,000. The line from Halifax to Pictou was originally intended to form part of the European and British North American Railway, running from Halifax to the Great Lakes through British territory, and this has now all been accomplished, with the exception of the intermediate link through New Brunswick, from the St. Lawrence River to the Bay of Fundy. This incompleted section, the projected Intercolonial Railway will now fill in, so that within three years from the present time the dominion of Canada will have direct railway communication between its extreme limits—that is to say, the iron road will be laid between the ocean and the Great Lakes.
New Brunswick, like her sister maritime province, also owns a railway, being the line from St. John to Shediac—a distance of 108 miles. It is called the European and North American, and it is intended to extend the line westwards from St. John to the boundary line of the State of Maine, the present railways of that State being in like manner extended until a junction is effected between the two systems. With the completion of these extensions and the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, a passenger landing at Halifax will be able to take his train to any city in the States or in the Dominions. In addition to the European and North American Railway, New Brunswick possesses two other lines—the New Brunswick and Canada, eighty-eight miles long, running from St. Andrews to Woodstock, and the St. Stephen’s branch railway, a short line of eighteen miles in length. It is not unlikely that some portion of the Woodstock line may be utilised as part of the Intercolonial Railway; but, until the route of the latter is finally settled, it is impossible to say whether this will be so or not.