province, was to be
postponed indefinitely. Hincks determined to endeavour to save the
situation. Accompanied by John Young and E. P. Tache, he visited
Fredericton and Halifax early in 1852, and hammered out a compromise.
New Brunswick agreed to join in the Halifax to Quebec project on
condition that the road should run from Halifax to St John and thence
up the valley of the St John river; Nova Scotia agreed to this change,
which made St John rather than Halifax the main ocean terminus, on
condition that New Brunswick should bear five-twelfths as against its
own three-twelfths of the cost. It remained to secure the consent of
the Imperial government to this change in route, and accordingly
Hincks, Chandler, and Howe arranged to sail for England early in March.
Hincks sailed {66} on the day agreed; Chandler followed a fortnight
later; Howe, repenting of his bargain, postponed sailing a fortnight, a
month, six weeks, and then announced that because of election pressure
he could not go at all. Hincks and Chandler found in office in London
a new government which appeared biased against the valley route. Upon
a peremptory request from Hincks for a definite answer within a
fortnight, the British Cabinet, in spite of the previous promise to
consider the route an open question, declined to aid any but a road
following Major Robinson's line. The negotiations broke off, joint
action between the provinces failed, and each province switched to its
own separate track.

[Illustration: Sir Francis Hincks. From a portrait in the Dominion
Archives]

Howe steadily maintained the policy of state ownership, but had unusual
difficulty in carrying Nova Scotia with him. The great English
contracting firm of Peto, Brassey, Betts and Jackson, whose operations
in the other provinces will be discussed at greater length, offered to
find the necessary capital if given the contracts on their own terms.
Many Nova Scotians were dazzled by the promises of the agents of this
firm, and Howe in 1853 was forced to agree to their proposals. The
contractors found themselves unable to make {67} good their promises,
in face of panics on the stock market in England, and in the following
year Howe's original policy was sanctioned. He himself retired from
political life for a time in order to carry through, as one of the
railway commissioners, the policy he had steadfastly urged.

It was on June 13, 1854, that the first sod was turned for the
constr