“That your Committee obtained the evidence of Colonel McDougal, Adjutant General of Militia, which is appended to this Report;
“That besides providing an admirable harbour of some seventy or eighty miles in length, capable of being made almost impregnable against attack, the great natural facilities for ship-building and for obtaining supplies of timber, would enable the Bay of Quinté to be used to great advantage for the repair or construction of ships of war;
“That on reference to the Journals of the Legislative Assembly of 1845, Your Committee found the record of a letter dated 7th January, 1840, signed by R. B. Sullivan, then Commissioner of Crown Lands, which was furnished as a report on the whole question of the Murray Canal, for the information of the House, in reply to an Address to His Excellency, under date 17th January, 1845.
“Your Committee have deemed it expedient to quote fully from this Report for the information of Your Honorable House.
“1st. Extract.—The suggestion of constructing the Canal by a grant of money instead of the appropriation of Crown Lands to that object, was adopted by the Legislative in an Address of the 16th February, 1838, to His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, on the subject, with the trust that in the estimation of amount to be granted in lieu of the reservation, due regard may be had to the increased value to which these lands may have attained. His Excellency, by answer of 26th February, was pleased to concur with the Address.
“Extract No. 2.—I would respectfully recommend to His Excellency to fix upon some specific sum which may be charged upon the Crown Reserve, and made payable out of its first disposable proceeds toward the completion of the Canal, and which, upon the cession of the Crown Revenue to the Legislature, will be considered a payment for which the faith of the Government is pledged and provided for in any Bill which may be passed for the granting a civil list in return for the cession of the Revenue.
“That Your Committee examined a work, composed in the year 1826, by Major General Sir James Carmichael-Smyth, Baronet, entitled, Precis of the Wars in Canada from 1755 to the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, the said work having been published for the first time in 1862, by Sir James Carmichael, Baronet, son of the author. That this work contains the following statements, which may fairly be quoted in favor of the construction of this Canal.
“In the dedication of this work to His Grace the Duke of Wellington, the author makes the following remarks:—
“The events of these wars afford, in my opinion, a demonstration as clear as that of any proposition in Euclid, of the impossibility (under Divine Providence) of these Provinces ever being wrested from under Her Majesty’s authority by the Government of the United States, provided we avail ourselves of the military precautions in our power to adopt, by establishing those communications and occupying those points which posterity will one day learn with, if possible, increased respect for Your Grace’s great name, were principally suggested by Your Grace.”
At page [202] he writes as follows:—