834 • [Assembly 



rectly affects the interests and advancement of Essex county. 

 No false and contracted jealousies, excited by alarm for the pros- 

 perity of other public works, should resist or retard this great pur- 

 pose. A commerce such as floats upon the western lakes, that 

 Increases at the rate of seventeen per cent, each year, and which 

 throngs by its excesses, every avenue that is formed, demands, 

 and will sustain all the facilities for its accommodation that 

 human energy or enterprise can create. The space of twenty 

 miles intervening between Caughnawaga and Lake Champlain, 

 is the only remaining obstacle to a direct communication between 

 that lake and the great thoroughfares of the west. 



The construction of a ship canal, which shall form this link, 

 may be pronounced a fixed and unalterable purpose in the policy 

 of the Canadian government, that public sentiment has initiated 

 and strongly fortifies. A charter has been granted by the pro- 

 vincial parliament, to a company to be organized for this object; 

 surveys and estimates have been completed, and it is computed 

 that the work may be accomplished at a cost not exceeding five 

 hundred thousand pounds. 



A measure connected with the proposed canal is contemplated, 

 which demands earnest consideration, from its bearing upon the 

 future commerce of Lake Champlain. A survey of the rapids 

 and obstructions of the St. Lawrence, above Montreal, is in pro- 

 gress, under the auspices of the Canadian government, and is so 

 far matured, that the ablest engineers assume its entire practica- 

 bility. It is computed that an expenditure of X3,000 in erecting 

 dams and blasting rocks which now obstruct the channel, will 

 enable vessels of 500 tons to pass down the river to Montreal, 

 with perfect ease and safety.^ 



* 



It is estimated that a steamer descending the St. Lawrence, 

 and passing through the projected canal from Caughnawaga, 

 might reach any port on Lake Champlain in four and a half days 

 from Cleaveland, and deliver coal at less than 4J and flour at 



• Report of commissioners of public works, Canada, 1&51. 



