The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-07 00:00:00

previous charters have no real bearing on the Great
Western case, and they appear only brought in for the
purpose of most injurious insinuation against parties
now connected with the Grand Trunk. They must,
however, be airwered.
f‘ Tlie coupeAken by Messrs. Holton and Galt in
oliposing the epeAl of the charter of the Montreal and
Kingston Railroad was, and is, fully before the public.
They were never interested in the construction of any
part of the then proposed Grand Trunk line, but acted
simply as the custodiers of a charter which they believed
they could carry out advantageously. The reasons for
the withdrawal of their opposition were, and are, per-
fectly patent to the public, and their names were added
to the official direction under the new bill as an acknow-
ledgement of their position, and a pledge that the points
they had contended for would be fairly recognised.
" These gentlemen were at the time in no way con-
nected with the Toronto and Guelph Railway, for which
they only became contractors—not by the award of the
Grand Trunk in London, as insinuated by the Great
Western report, but after fair and public competition in
Toronto, with .above 40 opponents, this contract was
given them on the 26th November, and the extension to
Sarnia a few days after, while the arrangement for the
withdrawal of their opposition took place at the end of
October, a week after Mr. Jackson had left Canada for
England. No communication, therefore, was or could
be had with that gentleman, nor was his assent in any
way sought or required.
"There was not at that time the slightest idea of
amalgamating the Toronto, Guelph, and Sarnia line
with the Grand Trunk, as is best shown by the fact,
that the first amalgamation bill, passed in consequence
of the arrangements for the repeal of the charters, made
no provision for such amalgamation, nor was it made
possible until the amended bill passed in March last.
" The insinuation in the report that the withdrawal of
opposition bj' Mossrs. Holton and Galt was conditioned
in such amalgamation, is therefore entirely unjustifiable.
Equally so is the statement as to the course of the Go-
vernment in relation to the extension of the Toronto and
Guelph line to Sarnia. The Government took no pro-
ceeding in the matter whatever, its members voted as in
every other open question,' the bill passed through its
ordinary stages, and, notwithstanding the adverse report
of the committee on railroads (at which the chairman of
the finance committee of the Great Western presided),
was passed -by the house as being imperatively required
by the populous and extensive region it traverses.
"The truth of the statement put into Mr. Jackson's
mouth relatiVe, to the Toronto, Guelph, and Sarnia line,
may be judged of from the simple fact, that that gentle-
man had left Canada before the extension to Sarnia had
an existence at all.

" His statement was in substance simply that as a con•
tractor, he would undertake no work west of Toronto.

The Great Western report, page 13, speaks of the To-
ronto, Guelph, and Sarnia line as running through a
comparative wilderness and as wanting the co-operation
of the local municipalities'--a statement sufficiently an-
swered by the simple rejoinder, that the only section of
that line from Toronto to Guelph (50 miles) which there
had been time to proceed with before the amalgamation,
runs through as well-peopled and fertile a country as
any in Canada ; and this section alone had received no
less municipal aid than 170,0001., or actually a larger
sum than the entire amount of si-nilar aid given to the
Great Western itself.

'The result of the whole Parliamentary proceedings
of the first part of last session, stripped of the c comments
of the Great Western report, is, that Parliament and
the Government granted a charter under the name of
the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada to certain parties
to which in accordance with previous acts, provincial aid
of 3,000/. per mile was given, and by which it was pro-
vided that, to protect the provincial interests in advanc-
ing so large a sum, the Government should nominate a
certain portion of the directors. Parliament also passed
au act permitting the amalgamation of the several char-
tered companies included in the Main Trunk line, and
which were to receive, or had received, provincial aid,
including the Quebec and Richmond, St. Lawrence and
Atlantic, and Great Western Railway Companies, but
not including.the Toronto, Guelph, and Sarnia line.
"Parliament also granted an extension of the Toronto
and Guelph Company's Charter to Sarnia, without any
provincial aid or privilege whatever.
"Apart from the parliamentary proceedings, it may
suffice briefly to repeat, that Mr. Jackson left Canada
before any of these acts were passed, and that not the
slightest attempt or proposal had been made for the
amalgamation of the Toronto and Guelph Company with
the Grand Trunk.