272 REVIEWS. 



and of Brindley ; of Smeaton's Forth and Clyde, or Telford's Caledonian, could 

 have failed to see the necessity of connecting the two lakes by artificial navigation. 

 The Erie Canal was during this period, either proposed or in course of construc- 

 tion, and its example must have stimulated the appreciation of the geographical 

 advantages apparent in the Niagara peninsula. The war of 1812, however, gave 

 the great spur to thought. It has been seen also in the case of the Lachine Canal> 

 that Sir George Prevost pointed out its necessity ; and the news of that recom- 

 mendation would be suggestive in the western world, of what was needed there. 

 In the account of the Cornwall Canal, mention has been made of Gourlay and his. 

 views of the improvement of the Saint Lawrence. The description of them shows 

 how imperfectly he understood the subject, and how visionary were his ideas. 

 Such however as he was, so far as the enquirer can judge by existing records, he 

 may be mentioned as the first who gave any defined views in writing on the sub- 

 ject; this was in 1819. And in his " Statistical Account of Canada," published 

 in London in 1822, he furnished a map of the District, and pointed out the 

 necessity of a Canal. He had, however, very crude ideas of what the work should 

 be and although his opinions are enunciated with much positiveness, his know- 

 ledge of the subject was evidently superficial to a degree. The friends of the 

 late Mr. Merritt assert that he communicated the idea to Gourlay. It is a fair 

 inference, that Gourlay can claim no particular originality of design ; and if the 

 thought in the first instance came from Mr. Merritt, is was a mere echo of a gen- 

 erally expressed opinion. But whoever the originators were, very little inerit is 

 due to them; for a wilder, more ill considered scheme than the one originally put 

 forth, one shewing more ignorance and recklessness on the part of the projectors, 

 it is scarcely possible to conceive. 



The public accounts show the cost of tbe work to be about six and a half 

 millions of dollars. The original estimate was £26,000, or $104,000. 



The first idea of the route was to run up the natural waters of the Welland 

 River or Chippewa Creek, and to pass across the township of Thorold, tunnelling 

 through the high ridge of land about a mile and a half wide, and then proceeding 

 direct by Canal to the brow of the high land. The latter was to be descended 

 and overcome by a Railway connecting, by means of another Canal, with tiie 

 navigable waters of Twelve Mile Creek, by which egress to Lake Ontario should 

 be effected. The navigation was simply to be for batteaux and barges. 



This project was put prominently before the world in 1823 ; an engineer of the 

 name of Mr. Hiram Tibbett furnishing the description of the route. Public meet- 

 ings were called, circulars were sent, and an address to the people of Upper and 

 Lower Canada authoritatively disseminated, in which the probable expense of the 

 undertaking was named at £22,125. Early in 1824, a petition was sent to the 

 Legislature asking for an Act of Incorporation for a Canal, to admit boats of from 

 20 to 40 tons, and at the same time defining the route. Tbe capital was named 

 at $150,000, being 3,000 shares of $50 each. The work was commenced on 30th 

 November, 1824, ' and as a proof how little the subject had attracted public 

 enterprise at the time,' says an official document, ' not half a dozen gentlemen of 

 capital or influence in the district attended this ceremony.' The actual amount of 

 stock subscribed at this time cannot be authoritatively given, but as the sum 



