o become a
great commercial centre--all meant hope and dividends deferred.
Finally, the management was working at long range: the road did not
enjoy the vigilant inspection or the public support that would have
attended control by Canadian interests.

The Grand Trunk did Canada good service, well worth all the public aid
that was given. It would probably have given better service, and its
shareholders could not have fared worse, had the plans of Galt and his
associates not been interfered with, and the line been built gradually
under local control.

While the building of the Grand Trunk was the main achievement of the
period, it was by no means the only one. The fifties were the busiest
years in the railway annals of older Canada. In 1850 there were only
66 miles of road in all the provinces. In 1860 there were 2065, of
which over 1700 had been added in the Canadas alone. The Great Western
and the Northern were pushed forward under the provisions of the
earlier Guarantee Act; roads of more local interest were fostered by
municipal rivalry. Their building brought unwonted activity in every
{85} branch of commerce. A speculative fever ran through the whole
community; fortunes were made and lost in the provision trade, and land
prices soared to heights undreamed of. This mood was the promoter's
happy chance, and still more charters were sought. The pace quickened
till exhaustion, contagious American panics, poor harvests, and the
Crimean War--which first raised the price of the wheat Canada had to
sell, but later raised the price of the money she had to
borrow--brought collapse in 1857.

In this boom period jobbery and lobbying reigned to an extent which we
rarely realize in our memory of the good old times. Railway
contractors were all-powerful in the legislature, and levied toll at
will. The most notable 'contractor-boss' of the day was able, dealing
with the Great Western, to hold up a bill for double-tracking until
assured of the contract himself; dealing with the Grand Trunk, to force
from the English contractors a share in the enterprise before
consenting to help their schemes through; with the Northern, to collect
$100,000 as a condition of securing from the government the guarantee
bonds before they had been rightly earned. Municipal officials were
bribed to help bonuses {86} through. Existing roads were blackmailed
by pedlars of rival charters. Glaringly fraudulent prospectuses were
issued. On