The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-06 00:00:00

The Hon. Mr. HINCKS was called upon to respond on
behalf of the members of the Provincial Parliament, and
said that had it not been intimated to him that day that
he would be called upon to respond on behalf of those mem-
bers, he confessed he should have accused himself of pre-
sumption if he had risen to do so. He saw around him so
many members of both the Upper and Lower Houses of
Parliament so much more capable than he could pretend
to be of doing justice to the toast ; but he should be
sorry to show any, the slightest, hesitation in returning
thanks for the very kind and cordial manner in -which
the last toast had been received. This was one of
those happy occasions when all, whatever might
be their differences of political faith, could join heart and
hand in promoting harmonious feelings with regard to
what he considered the most important interests of their
common country. He had the greatest pleasure in seeing
around him not only several of his colleagues in the Go-
veroment, and members of Parliament whose views as
supporting the' Government he might be thought more ap-
propiiately to represent, but also the leaders of the oppo-
sition, the hon. and gallant knight the member for Ha-
milton, and the hon. and learned member for Kingston.
And ho might say that the hon. and gallant knight had done
more perhaps than any other man in the province, not only
for that great railway with which his name would always
be inseparably connected, but for the railway interests of
the province generally, and he was happy on all occasions
to give him credit for it. Ho had come there as all the
rest bad probably come, for the purpose of listening, not
of speaking, and he was sure all present had listened with
great pleasure to the advice which the distinguished guest
of the evening had offered them, and he for one should be
most anxious to profit by that advice. He was quite
aware—as all who had any experience of these matters
must be—of the very great difficulty there was in laying
down a general rule about competing lines, though all
might perceive the evils of the present system. It would
b 3 difficult to decide exactly what was best, but he was
sure he might say, as well for himself as for the other
members of the Provincial Parliament of all parties' that
it would be their aim to frame such a system of rules ss
would best promote our railway interests. He had no he-
sitation in s:.:yirg that the object they had in view was not
to promote the interest of any one rai'road, but to foster
generally the railway interest of the country at large: Un-
less they could devise some satisfactory system to prevent
the evils which had been pointed out to them that evening,
they would ran great danger of turning away the stream
of capital which was now flossing into the country, and
which it was most desirable to have continued. He
had endeavoured bither;ao, as far as possible, to orga-
nise a system in Canada upon some sound basis. He
knew'he had been ,very much blamed for entering into
negotiations with his friend at the left (Mr. 'Jackson) at
the time he did, and not continuing his negotiations with
the Imperial Government; but he had since been more
than ever convinced that he had acted wisely on that oc-
casion, and he would give thorn one reason for thinking
aoi
ifnvsaai
without
eiatdahhnoafdoudrt offered
ft
nothinget roadrriebdu
tai
so. After all that had been done—after establishing a
line of railway from the extreme west to Trois Pistoles
sashadhai sioear
tagalapstbeentwteereend
Troisinto aplifas itrogiesemaenndtsmtoiractnomiopialie,tefotrhwe
into the east; after New Brunswick had done her share
atondHpcat
which
ton lgibM remainedaenriyraal
blame
nul contribution—afterreitvaoindaden, clyNa fpeigrrarlsbpoSu.n Scotia
t the
rie
this, jt had been found impossible to get the Ineuelial Go-
vernment to furnish sufficient aid to fill up +h H
he believed if any person in Britain was desirous of pro-
moting the interests of Canada, that person was the pre-
sent Secretary for the Colonies, the Duke of Newcastle.He was sure he would be boy ne out by his friend near him
who had recently been in communication with him in
England (the Hon. Mr. Ross), in saying that he had mani-
fested every desire to aid them in their efforts, but it did
not seena,possible to get over the great difficulties which
I prevented the action of the Imperial Government. Had
he continued to negotiate for Government aid before com-
mencing the road, he believed that there were so many
difficulties in the way that they might have waited for
years without getting the road. He was placed in a posi-
tion of great difficulty; but in order to carry out any ar-
rangement whereby the railway might be secured, he felt
it his duty, after a careful consideration of the circum-
stances of the case, to enter into preliminary arrangements
with the eminent firm represented by his friend on his left.
He did not hind the Government by these arrangements,
much less any one else—the Provincial Government being
the only parties he had any authority to bind—but he
had felt it his duty, in so far as his personal influ-
ence went, to carry out those arrangements in their
integrity. It was a matter of gratification that
the subject was not treated in Parliament as a party
question, but that he received a great deal of co-operation
from .the opposition members, numbers of whom voted
with him, while those who usually supported the Ministry
were ranged with his opponents upon this measure. We
believed it a most happy circumstance that a great railway
measure had been carricd by no party division. Before
sitting down he would take the oppor trinity of saying a
few words about a subject concerningwhich a great deal
t.
of misconception prevailed. He referred to the negoia-
tion 'of railway securities. Because people saw certainee
quotations of stocks in the newspapers, they
tTeesrecowulicilt
suppose that any quantity of similar securities sLounrdon market at
be
" floated off," as the phrase was, in the
t c than
similar. prices. There could be no grea ey z
this. No person who had any experience in the London
market would endorse such an opinion. He saw near
him a person who had negotiated a sale of a o•reatuan-
quan-
tity of stock in the market lately, he referred
to the Pre-
sident of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway, and he
might appeal also to his bon. and gallant friend (he was
certain he would permit him to call him so)
for Hamilton,. and the member for Kingston, and the gen-
tleman beside him (John Rose, Esq.), who hr d also visited
London on a similar business. They would all confirm
what he said. The quotations iu the rewspapers were
not those on which prices of actual sales had been made,
but those at which persons who had bought were willing
to se'l again. Every one knew the effect of overstocking
the market with any commodity. The commercial men
present would know for instance the effect of crowding
the market with large quantities of sugar or other staple
article. He saw a gentleman near him (Mr. bl`Dougall)
who could tell them the effect of throwing a few thousand
shares of railway or mining stock into the market here.
Similar effects would be produced in the London market
if too much were attempted to be done in this way, with-
out the perfect confidence and co-operation of London ca-
pitalists are secured • and unless our public works were
carried on with systematic caution, there would soon