LETTERS TO EARL GREY.

London, 5 Sloane Street, November 25th, 1850.

MY LORD, Having, at the interview with which I was honored on the 18th instant, received Your Lordship's instructions to place before you, in official form, the arguments on which, as a representative from the Province of Nova Scotia, I base my application for the guarantee of the Imperial government, in aid of the public works projected by the government of that Colony, I beg leave, with all respect, to call Your Lordship's attention to the following statement and observations:

Regarding the period as rapidly approaching, if it has not actually arrived, when railroads must be laid down through her most advanced and prosperous counties, east and west, Nova Scotia is called to decide, with the experience of the world before her, upon the measures to be adopted to secure for her people, at the least expense, with the slightest risk, and in the shortest time, these great modern improvements. Her people have been accustomed to free roads; no toll-bars exist in the Province. Her roads, made at the public expense, belong to the country, and are emphatically the Queen's highways. In the few instances where she has deviated from this policy, in respect to bridges or ferries, the cost and the inconveniences of monopoly have tested its value.

Railways are highroads of an improved construction. They are as essential to our advancement and prosperity now, as common roads were in the olden time. The service which the government has performed for a hundred years in respect to the common roads, which probably measure eight thousand five hundred miles, we believe it to be capable of performing in regard to railways. The administration is content to assume the responsibility, and the people, including an immense majority of all political parties, are willing and anxious that they should.

If our government had means sufficient to build railroads, and carry the people free, we believe that this would be sound policy. If tolls must be charged, we know that these will be more moderate and fair, if government regulate them by the cost of construction and management, than if monopolies are created, and speculators regulate the tolls only with reference to the dividends. If there be risk or loss, we are conten to bear it. If the traffic of the country yields a profit, we would apply the surplus revenue to the opening of new lines, or to the reduction of the cost of transportation.

Were a railroad to be constructed in Nova Scotia, for the accommodation of internal traffic alone, we should perhaps decide to lay a line

through our western counties first, these being the most populous and improved.

An intercolonial railroad, in which the adjoining Colonies feel an interest, offers more general advantages than a mere local line. Hence the interest felt in the Quebec railroad, which would have drawn to Halfax much trade from the St. Lawrence, and opened up to colonization large tracts of wilderness lands, both in Canada and New Brunswick. This line requiring £5,000,000 sterling to complete it, the united resources of the three Provinces are inadequate to the work, without very liberal aid from the British government; that aid having been refused, the project has been, for the present, reluctantly abandoned.

A railroad to Portland offers many advantages which one to Quebec does not. It will cost only about half as much. It must run, nearly all the way, through a comparatively improved country. It would connect Halifax with St. John (and by the river, with Fredericton), and the larger towns of New Brunswick; giving to all these, with the villages and agricultural settlements lying between them, most desirable facilities for internal traffic.

The Portland railroad would secure to Nova Scotia the advantages which nature designed her to enjoy; connecting her with all the lines running through the American continent, and making Halifax a common terminus for them all. No American steamer, which did not touch at Halifax, could thenceforward compete, in priority of intelligence and the rapid transit of passengers, with those which did.

From New York to Liverpool, the shortest sea line measures three thousand one hundred miles; that usually traversed is three thousand three hundred.

making the whole land and sea distance one hundred and fifty-nine miles more than the present sea passage. But the sea voyage, by the one

route, would be one thousand one hundred and seven miles shorter than by the other.

To run these one thousand one hundred and seven miles by steamboat, at twelve miles an hour, would require ninety-two hours; to run them by rail, at thirty miles an hour, would require but thirty-six hours. This route would therefore save, in the communication between Europe and America, fifty-six hours to every individual, in all time to come, who passed between the two continents; the sea risks to life and property being diminished by one third of the whole.

The States lying east of New York will be benefited in a ratio corresponding with their relative distances from that city. A merchant travelling from London to Portland, not only wastes fifty-six hours in going to New York, but must turn back and travel four hundred miles on the route to Halifax besides, which will require thirteen hours more.

It is clear then, that when the line across Ireland is completed, and that from Halifax to Waterville (from thence the lines are continuous all over the United States), this route may defy competition. No business man will travel by a route which leaves him fifty-six or sixty hours behind time, which gives to others dealing in the same articles, and entering the same markets with the same information, such very decided advantages.

No person travelling for pleasure, will waste fifty-six hours, at some peril, on the ocean where there is nothing to see, who can, in perfect security, run over the same distance by land, with a cultivated country and a succession of towns and villages to relieve the eye.

The Americans assembled at the Portland Convention pledged themselves to make this line through the territory of Maine. Capitalists and contractors in that country profess their readiness to complete the whole through the British Provinces, provided acts of incorporation are given to them with liberal grants of land and money in addition.

For various reasons, the government of Nova Scotia are reluctant to permit this to be done.

They are unwilling to surrender that which must become forever the great highway between the capital of Nova Scotia and her eastern counties, to the management and control of foreign capitalists.

They believe it to be, My Lord, equally sound provincial and sound national policy, that that portion of what must become a great highway of nations, which lies within the territories of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, should be kept under British control; and they believe that the security and defence of the maritime Provinces are involved in adherence to that policy.

They believe that the honor of the Crown is concerned in this question, to an extent which calls upon them to pledge the entire credit and resources of the Province, that it may not be tarnished. Having done this, they believe that the Imperial government ought to take at least sufficient interest in the question to enable them to enter the English money market on the best terms, and effect a large saving in the expenditure required.

Money is worth, in the United States and in the British Provinces, six per cent. Suppose this railroad to be constructed by American or Provincial capitalists, it is evident that our portion of it, which will cost £800,000 sterling, must pay £48,000, sterling, or £60,000 currency, over and above its working expenses.

With the Imperial guarantee, we can obtain the funds required at three and a half per cent., reducing the annual interest to £28,000 sterling, or £35,000 currency.

The government of Nova Scotia believe, that if British capital, so much of which flows into foreign States, where it is always insecure, and in times of trial is found to have invariably strengthened our enemies, can be safely invested in the Queen's dominions, the Imperial government should take an interest in its legitimate employment; and they are quite prepared to invest an equal sum to that now required, in building a line through the western counties of Nova Scotia, whenever the eastern pays its working expenses and interest on the sum expended.

They believe that, even if the Province could raise this amount of capital, to withdraw so large a sum from the ordinary channels of circulation, where it is beneficially employed, and earning interest and profits, would cramp the trade of the country, and produce, on a small scale, embarrassments similar in their nature to those experienced in the parent State.

They believe that a low rate of interest would lead to the establishment of a low rate of fares, of which every Englishman passing over the line would feel the advantage.

They are prepared to carry the British and American mails at reasonable rates, and to authorize the British government to pay the amounts contracted for, to their credit on the loan.

They believe that Her Majesty's government legitimately employed their influence in securing, by the Nicaragua treaty, a passage for British subjects and commerce to the East. They believe, that to control the great highway to the West, and to secure to a British Province the advantages of oceanic steam navigation, would be an equally legitimate object.

They believe that, if Her Majesty's government takes the lead in these noble North American enterprises, they will make the Queen's name a tower of strength on that continent.

They apprehend, that if the Colonists are driven to seek sympathy and assistance from the United States, in aid of their public works; to become large debtors to their capitalists, at extravagant prices; to employ their citizens habitually in the bosom of their country, a revulsion of feeling, dangerous to British interests, will be created, which statesmen should foresee and avoid.

Whether, my Lord, it was prudent in the Provincial government to ask for the Imperial guarantee, I would respectfully suggest that it is now too late to consider. The refusal will wound the pride of every Nova Scotian, and strengthen the belief that England is indifferent to the industrial development of the maritime Provinces; that she has no policy, by backing which their inhabitants can be elevated to fair competition with their republican neighbors; and that when they ask her countenance and coöperation in measures which are as essential to the national dignity and security, as they would be productive of internal improvement, the reply, though courteous, shuts out hope.

An impression prevails in the Lower Provinces, that either from the immediate presence in Canada of noblemen generally standing high in the confidence of the ministry at home, or from the sensitive irritability with which all parties resort to open violence in that Province, more weight is given to representations affecting her interest than to those which concern the maritime Colonies. Nova Scotians, compelled to sacrifice £22,000 a year in the completion of a national work, by the refusal of the Imperial government to guarantee to the capitalists of England the interest on this loan, cannot fail to contrast the relative position in which they are placed by that refusal. That they may not copy the evil examples by which a larger share of fraternal consideration will appear to them to have been secured, shall be my sincere and anxious prayer.

The Canadas, seeking responsible government in the French mode, resorted to armed insurrections, which cost England 4 or £5,000,000 to suppress. Immediately after the restoration of tranquillity, the British government lent the Canadas £1,500,000.

Had the maritime Provinces participated in those rebellions, every regiment that marched through them in the winters of 1837 and 1839 would have been cut off. They did not. They adhered to their allegiance, and denounced the rebels. They cheered the soldiers on their winter marches, and provided for their wives and children. Yet Canada