262 REVIEWS. 



nntouclied and undisturbed, from the rich metallic deposits and 

 teeming granaries of the West*. If this condition of things could 

 be realized — if Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, and the other cities 

 of our western lakes, could be thus placed, as it were, upon the 

 actual seaboard — it is impossible not to admit that an extraordinary 

 impulse would be imparted to them, commercially and generally, 

 superinducing a rate of progress hitherto, as regards western Canada, 

 entirely unknown. The attempt to produce this state of things, 

 by the deepening of shallow places, and the construction of canals 

 at various points, has indeed been made ; but the work has stopped 

 far short of actual fulfilment. This has arisen from no inherent 

 difficulties, such as would render the scheme impossible, but from 

 a variety of accidental causes, some no longer existing, and none 

 possessing any actual power to arrest the work, if western voices 

 persistently and collectively demand its accomplishment, failure 

 has occurred hitherto, in many instances at least, from early errors 

 and mismanagement in the construction and supervision of the 

 canals and other engineering works resorted to for the purpose of 

 overcoming the natural obstacles to our inland navigation ; and 

 more especially from the now self-evident fact that the original 

 promoters of these works failed to foresee, or to make provision 

 for, the ultimate requirements of the Province. To these causes 

 must be added the general apathy of the west in reference to all 

 but local interests ; the changed current of ideas occasioned for a 

 time by the rise of our railway system ; and, above all, the active, 

 uncompromising jealousy of eastern cities, bent upon retaining, as 

 long as possible, the special advantages which they now enjoy. 



^Following the arrangement adopted in Mr. Kingsford's book, we 

 may discuss our existing canal systems under the following heads : 



• " The interior of ?f orth America is drained by the St. Lawrence, which furnishes for the 

 country bordering on the Lakes a natural higliway to the sea. Through its deep channel 

 must pass the agricultural productions of this region. The commercial spirit of the age 

 forbids that international jealousy should interfere with great natural thoroughfares, and 

 the Governments of Great Britain and the United States will appreciate this spirit, and 

 cheerfully yield to its influence. The great avenue to the Atlantic, through the St. Lawrence, 

 being once opened to its largest capacity, the laws of trade, which it has never been the 

 policy of the Federal Government to obstruct, will carry the commerce of the North-west 

 through it."— Report of Commissioners appointed by the State of Illinois, in 1863, to com- 

 municate with the Canadian Government on the subject of our canals. In referring to this 

 Eeport, Mr. Kingsford observes (p. 168) : " It is estimated that from the State of Illinois 

 alone, there has been shipped annually, for the last ten years, a surplus of food sufficient to 

 feed ten millions of people, and, at the same time, there has been a positive waste from the 

 inability to bring the crops profitably to market." 



