"I Am Sorry To Trouble You With This Matter, Because I Feel That You
Ought Not To Be Troubled With Business In Your Present State Of Health;
But As You Are Still The Chairman, I Could Not With Propriety Write To
Any Other Person.
"I am, my dear Yarborough,
"Yours very sincerely,
"NEWCASTLE.
"THE EARL OF YARBOROUGH, &c., &c."
Accordingly, I went to the mansion in Portman Square. I waited some
time; but at last in stalked the Duke, looking very awful indeed - so
stern and severe - that I could not help smiling, and saying - "The burnt
coppice, your Grace." Upon this he laughed, held out his hand, placed
me beside him, and we had a very long discussion, not about the fire,
but about the colliery he, then, was sinking - against the advice of
many of his friends in Sheffield - at Shireoaks; and when he had done
with that, we talked, once more, about Canada, the United States, and
the Colonies generally.
After this date, I had to see the Duke on business, more and more
frequently. The year after the Duke's return from Canada, in 1861, he
happened to read an article I had written in a London paper, hereafter
given, about opening up the Northern Continent of America by a Railway
across to the Pacific, and he spoke of it as embodying the views which
he had before expressed, as his own.
In 1854 Mr. Glyn and Mr. Thomas Baring had urged me to undertake a
mission to Canada on the business of the Grand Trunk Railway, which
mission I had been compelled to decline; and when, in 1860-1, the
affairs of that undertaking became dreadfully entangled, the Committee
of Shareholders, who reported upon its affairs, invited me to accept
the post of "Superintending Commissioner," with full powers. They
desired me to take charge of such legislative and other measures as
might retrieve the Company's disasters, so far as that might be
possible. Before complying with this proposal, I consulted the Duke,
and it was mainly under the influence of his warm concurrence that I
accepted the mission offered to me. I accepted it in the hope of being
able, not merely to serve the objects of the Shareholders of the Grand
Trunk, but that at the same time I might be somewhat useful in aiding
those measures of physical union contemplated when the Grand Trunk
Railway was projected, and which must precede any confederation of
interests, such as that happily crowned in 1867 by the creation of the
"Dominion of Canada."
I find that my general views were, some time before, epitomized in the
following letter. It is true that Mr. Baring, then President of the
Grand Trunk, did not, at first, accept my views; but he and Mr. Glyn
(the late Lord Wolverton) co-operated afterwards in all ways in the
direction those views indicated.
"NORTHENDEN,
"13th November, 1860.
"Some years ago Mr. Glyn (I think with the assent of Mr. Baring)
proposed to me to go out to Canada to conduct a negotiation with the
Colonial Government in reference to the Grand Trunk Railway. I was
compelled then, from pressure of other business, to refuse what at that
time would have been, to me, a very agreeable mission. Since then, I
have grown older, and somewhat richer; and not being dependent upon the
labour of the day, I should be very chary of increasing the somewhat
heavy load of responsibility and anxiety which I still have to bear. It
is doubtful, therefore, whether I could bring my mind to undertake so
arduous, exceptional - perhaps even doubtful - an engagement as that of
the 'restoration to life' of the Grand Trunk Railway.
"This line, both as regards its length, the character of its works, and
its alliances with third parties, is both too extensive, and too
expensive, for the Canada of to-day; and left, as it is, dependent
mainly upon the development of population and industry on its own line,
and upon the increase of the traffic of the west, it cannot be
expected, for years to come, to emancipate itself thoroughly from the
load of obligations connected with it.
"Again, the Colonial Government having really, in spite of all the
jobbery and political capital alleged to have been perpetrated and made
in connexion with this concern, made great sacrifices in its behalf, is
not likely, having got the Railway planted on its own soil, to be ready
to give much more assistance to this same undertaking.
"That the discipline and traffic of the line could be easily put upon a
sound basis, that that traffic could be vigorously developed, that the
expenses, except always those of repair and renewal, could be kept
down, and that friendly, and perhaps improving and more beneficial,
arrangements could be made with the local government - is matter, to me,
of little doubt. Any man thoroughly versed in railways and quite up to
business, and especially accustomed to the management of men and the
conduct of serious negotiation, could easily accomplish this. But after
all, unless I am very much deceived, all this will be insufficient, for
many years to come, to satisfy the Shareholders; and I should not
advise Mr. Glyn or Mr. Baring to tie their reputations to any man,
however able or experienced, if it involved a sort of moral guarantee
that the result of his appointment should be any very sudden
improvement, of a character likely much to raise the value of the
property in the market, which unfortunately is what the
Shareholders very naturally look at, as the test of everything.
"To work the Grand Trunk as a gradually improving property would, I
repeat, be easy; but to work it so as to produce a great success
in a few years can only, in my opinion, be done in one way. That way,
to many, would be chimerical; to some, incomprehensible; and possibly I
may be looked upon myself as somewhat visionary for even suggesting it.
That way, however, to my mind, lies through the extension of railway
communication to the Pacific.
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