rest of the journey made with
somewhat greater speed, if not much greater comfort.

The twenty years which followed 1830 saw the steamboat in its prime.
The traveller going westward from Quebec in 1850 had a simple task
before him: a change at Montreal was the only necessary break in a
relatively comfortable and speedy journey. Two days now sufficed for
the trip from Montreal to Toronto. In the United States, river boats
had been evolved which far surpassed anything Europe had to offer in
luxury and speed. Canadian business men were not far behind, and the
St Lawrence lake and river route was well supplied with crack steamers,
of the Royal Mail and rival lines, or with independent boats. The
competition was at times intense, both in fares and in speed. Many
Canadians of the day, absorbed in the local or personal rivalries of
these boats, and impressed by their magnificence and reliability, were
convinced that the last word in transportation had been said. Yet, on
the lake and river, winter barred all through traffic. The main
turnpike roads of the interior were greatly improved, but even on these
long-distance traffic was expensive, and the {26} by-roads, especially
in the spring and autumn, were impassable except at a snail's pace.
For traffic of town with town and province with province some means of
transport less dependent on time and tide was urgently needed.

[1] Isaac Weld, _Travels through the States of North America and the
Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada_ (Fourth Edition), p. 300.

[2] Shirreff, _A Tour through North America_, p. 143.

{27}

CHAPTER III

THE CALL FOR THE RAILWAY

National Unity--The Fight for Western Trade

We have seen how in England a succession of workers almost apostolic in
continuity had brought the steam railway to practical success, and how
in Canada, before the railway came, men were making shift with bateau
and steamer, with stage-coach and cart and caleche, to carry themselves
and their wares to meeting-place and market. Now we may glance for a
moment at the chief hope and motive of those who brought the locomotive
across the seas.

In all but the very earliest years of railway planning and building in
Canada, two aims have been dominant. One has been political, the
desire to clamp together the settlements scattered across the
continent, to fill the waste spaces and thus secure the physical basis
for national unity and strength. The other has been