be supplemented, if possible, by a further dividend out of current
revenues, and they arranged to make similar provision for the remaining
$35,000,000 as it was sold. Over half the $16,000,000 necessary to
purchase this {157} annuity was deposited with the government at once
and security given for the early payment of the balance. Only success
could have justified such a locking up of the funds urgently needed for
construction, and success did not come, though for a time it seemed
probable. The sudden smash of the Northern Pacific, just completed by
Villard, brought the stock down lower than before the fillip had been
given. With sixteen millions locked up or pledged the company was in a
worse state than before.[7]

In this emergency Stephen and Smith and M'Intyre pledged their St Paul
or other stock for loans in New York and Montreal, but still the gap
was unfilled. They turned to the {158} government, requesting a loan
of $22,500,000, to be secured by a first charge on the main line. In
return, they agreed to complete the road by May 1886, five years
earlier than the contract required. The request at first was scouted
by Sir John Macdonald. Parliament would not consent, and if parliament
consented the country would revolt. Bankruptcy stared the company in
the face when John Henry Pope came to the rescue. He soon convinced
Sir John that if the Canadian Pacific smashed, the Conservative party
would smash the day after, and the aid was promised. The Cabinet was
won over, and Sir Charles Tupper, hastily summoned by cable from
London, stormed it through caucus, and the loan was made.

The funds thus secured were soon exhausted in rapid and costly
construction in the mountain and Lake Superior sections. The
government's blanket mortgage on the road made it impossible to borrow
elsewhere. So, after the Riel episode, to be noted later, a new
arrangement was made with the government by which the $35,000,000 stock
unsold was cancelled and an equal amount of first mortgage bonds
issued. Twenty millions of this issue and the unsold lands were
substituted for the government's security, and the remainder of the
bonds {159} sold at 95. This put the company once more in funds. The
relief came none too soon. In one fateful day in July, when the final
passing of the bill was being tensely awaited, the Canadian Pacific,
which now borrows fifty millions any day before breakfast, was within
three hours of bankruptcy for