e turned to the British
government. In 1857 and 1858 dispatches and deputations sought aid,
but sought it in vain. When the Civil War broke out in the United
States, official British sympathy was given to the South, and the
_Trent_ affair showed how near Britain and the North were to war, a war
which would at once have exposed the isolated colonies to American
attack. The military argument for closer connection then took on new
weight with the British government, and it proposed, to a joint
delegation in 1861, to revert to its offer of ten years earlier--to
guarantee a colonial loan for a railway by an approved route. The
colonies opposed the demand for a sinking fund, and again agreement was
postponed. In 1863 Canada suggested that, as the British government
had made an approved route an essential condition, a definite survey
and selection should be undertaken forthwith. It was agreed that a
commission of three engineers should be selected, one nominated by
Canada, one by New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and one by Great Britain.
Canada nominated Sandford Fleming, a distinguished Scottish-Canadian
{107} engineer, who had been connected with the Northern and other
Upper Canada enterprises. The other authorities paid him the
compliment of naming him as their representative also, to facilitate
the work. During the progress of the survey negotiations for the union
of the provinces had begun, and when Confederation came about in 1867,
the building of the Intercolonial at the common expense of the
Dominion, with an imperial guarantee to the extent of L3,000,000, was
one of the conditions of union. The old difficulty as to the route
through New Brunswick was still to be settled. Again western and
southern New Brunswick struggled against the north and against far east
Quebec; again Halifax and St John found plausible arguments to uphold
their respective interests. Finally, the views of Sir George Cartier
and Peter Mitchell triumphed in the Cabinet councils, and in March 1868
the engineer-in-chief advised the selection of the roundabout Bay of
Chaleurs route--roughly 'Major Robinson's line'--ostensibly because
safer from American attack, nearer possible steamship connection with
Europe, and no worse, if no better, than the other routes in
potentialities of local traffic.

The construction was entrusted in December {108} 1868 to a commission
of four; six years later the minister of Public Works took over direct
control