of
years, at the expiry of which the works themselves would have become
the property of the nation. Never was there such a prospect afforded
to a statesman of relieving the country, by its own internal
resources, of a great part of the national debt. Public works are not
unknown or without precedent in this country; but somehow or other
they are always unprofitable. At the cost of upwards of a million,
government constructed the Caledonian Canal, the revenue drawn from
which does not at the present moment defray its own expenses, much
less return a farthing of interest on this large expenditure of
capital. Now it is very difficult to see why government, if it has
power to undertake a losing concern, should not likewise be entitled,
for the benefit of the nation at large, to undertake even greater
works, which not only assist the commerce of the nation, but might in
a very short period, comparatively speaking, have almost extinguished
its taxation. It is now, of course, far too late for any idea of the
kind. The golden opportunity presented itself for a very short period
of time, and to the hands of men far too timid to grasp it, even if
they could have comprehended its advantages. Finance never was, and
probably never will be, a branch of Whig education, as even Joseph
Hume has been compelled a thousand times piteously and with wringing
of the hands to admit--and whose arithmetic could we expect them even
to know, if they admitted and knew not Joseph's? But this at least
they might have done, when the progress of railroads throughout the
kingdom became a matter of absolute certainty. The whole subject
should have been brought under the consideration of a board, to
determine what railways were most necessary throughout the kingdom,
and what line would be cheapest and most advantageous to the public;
and when these points had once been ascertained, no competition
whatever should have been allowed. The functions of the Board of
Trade were not nearly so extensive; they had no report of government
engineers, and no _data_ to go upon save the contradictory statements
of the rival companies. Hence their decision, in almost every
instance, was condemned by the parties interested, who, having a
further tribunal in Parliament, where a thousand interests unknown to
the Board of Trade could be appealed to, rushed into a protracted
contest, at an expenditure which this year is understood to have
exceeded all precedent. We have no me