DOMINION OF CANADA. 



215 



to nanght and his policy reversed. From his 

 seat in the House of Lords during the remain- 

 ing year of his life he did not often rise, but 

 occasionally lifted his voice in indignant or 

 sarcastic protest. The biographical details of 

 Lord Beaconsfield's career have been related 

 in an earlier volume (see DISRAELI, BENJAMIN, 

 in " Annual Cyclopedia " for 1877). 



DOMINION OF CANADA. Parliament, 

 having been summoned in December, earlier 

 than the usual time of assembling, in order to 

 act upon the Pacific Railway contract to which 

 the Government had pledged themselves, con- 

 tinued in session till March 18th. After the 

 terms of the agreement were published, a com- 

 pany of Canadian capitalists offered to build 

 and keep in operation the transcontinental 

 railroad on terms more favorable to the Gov- 

 ernment. Their proposition was to fulfill the 

 contract for a money subsidy $3,000,000 less 

 and a land subsidy 3,000,000 acres less than 

 the syndicate with which the Government had 

 contracted, and furthermore to submit to free 

 competition from parallel lines and roads con- 

 necting with the United States railroads, and to 

 forego the immunities granted to the syndicate 

 from general and local taxes and duty on im- 

 ported materials. They also offered to submit 

 to expropriation at any time on terms to be 

 settled by arbitration. The Liberals did not 

 press for the acceptance of these terms, but 

 argued that the Premier's bargain was mate- 

 rially poorer than the one offered by the Ca- 

 nadian syndicate, and that yet better terms 

 might probably be obtained if competing bids 

 were invited, while still contending that no 

 contract for the completion of the entire line 

 should be entered into at present. The Oppo- 

 sition gained no numerical strength during the 

 session, remaining in a small but strenuous and 

 formidable minority. Parliament was engaged 

 over the contract with the St. Paul syndicate 

 for the transfer of the portions built and the 

 completion of the Pacific Eailroad during the 

 whole of January. Mr. Blake brought in, as 

 an amendment to the bill, a proposition to dis- 

 regard the Government's provisional bargain, 

 and make the best terms for the Dominion 

 which could be secured by competition in the 

 open market. Upon the rejection of this prop- 

 osition, the clauses of the contract one by one 

 were made the subject of specific amendments. 

 The Government, in view of its inconsistency 

 with the national policy, altered the condition 

 by which the syndicate were granted a special 

 immunity from the duty on steel, and instead 

 made steel duty free for the space of one year. 

 On the 28th of January, in a sitting of seven- 

 teen hours, the Opposition offered eighteen 

 amendments, which were all voted down. On 

 the 31st the bill was passed at its third reading 

 by a vote of 128 to 49. 



The terms of the contract made provision- 

 ally by Sir John A. Macdonald with the St. 

 Paul syndicate, after his failure to induce Lon- 

 don capitalists to undertake the completion of 



the Pacific Railway, are detailed in the " Annual 

 Cyclopaedia" for 1880. They were ratified in 

 all essential particulars by the vote of Parlia- 

 ment. The company receive the sections of 

 the road already completed and under way, 

 the total cost of the property to be handed 

 over to them by the Government being esti- 

 mated at $32,500,000. They receive in addi- 

 tion a money subsidy of $25,000,000, and a 

 land subsidy of 25,000,000 acres. The total 

 subsidies allowed them for completing and 

 running the road for the specified term of years 

 are valued in the aggregate at $107,500,000. 

 The land they are allowed to select at will, 

 along the line of the main or branch roads, or 

 elsewhere in the unoccupied Northwest. The 

 portions of the line to be constructed by the 

 syndicate were estimated by Sandford Fleming, 

 the former Government engineer, at $48,500,- 

 000. The company are protected from com- 

 peting parallel roads, and from other lines 

 crossing the boundary, for twenty years. They 

 are also granted immunity from taxation for 

 ever, and are permitted to import all materials 

 free of duty. The right of the Dominion Gov- 

 ernment to regulate freight and passenger rates 

 is not to be exercised until the earnings on the 

 capital exceed 10 per cent per annum. The 

 company issued $25,000,000 of bonds secured 

 on their land grant, the amount for which they 

 were allowed to bond the land by the terms of 

 the charter. Of the total amount $5,000,000 

 are retained by the Government until the year 

 1901 as security for the completion of the 

 whole line, and its maintenance. The remain- 

 ing $20,000,000 they are allowed to sell for 

 what they will bring, the proceeds to remain 

 in the custody of the Government, and to be 

 paid over to the company as each twenty -mile 

 section is constructed. 



The letters patent to the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway Company were issued February 16th, 

 and the requisite $5,000,000 of stock were sub- 

 scribed for, and the deposit with the Govern- 

 ment of $1,000,000 made immediately. The 

 company was organized with George Stephen, 

 of Montreal, as president; Duncan Mclntyre, 

 of Montreal, vice-president; J. J. C. Abbott, 

 counsel ; Mclntyre, Angus, and Hill, executive 

 committee ; Charles Drinkwater, secretary and 

 treasurer; and A. B. Stickney, general super- 

 intendent of the Western Division. The Gov- 

 ernment transferred the Pembina Branch and 

 the completed portions of the Pacific Railway 

 to the syndicate in the beginning of April. 

 The company announced their intention of 

 rapidly pushing the construction of both the 

 eastern and western sections of the main line, 

 and of building a branch line from a point near 

 its eastern terminus to Sault Ste. Marie, and 

 another from a point beyond Red River to the 

 Souris coal-fields and the United States bound- 

 ary. The latter project discourages the con- 

 struction of an independent road from "Winni- 

 peg to the coal-mines, for which concessions 

 had been obtained, and the other proposed 



