The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-10 00:00:00

" This brief sketch of Arctic discovery may serve to remind our
readers of its progress to the present time, and prepare thefi for
further discoveries, while it sufficiently illustrates our estimate of
tlig national character that in about fifteen years the ice-bound
coasts of a continent extending 110 degrees of longitude, i.e., as
wide as Asia, and twice as wide as Europe, has been traced by land
and sea, and its interior traversed in every direction. It cannot,
however, be doubted that the same amount of energy and capital thus
employed might have joined the Atlantic and Pacific by a path available
for commercial purposes, united the west with the east, poured the
wealth of the latter into the coffers of our merchants, and spread reli-
gion and civilization to the most remote corners of the globe."
Extracts from THE SUN, 16th February.
. . _ .

"According to the scheme disclosed in this remarkable pamphlet,
mails, rnerchandize. and passengers might be perpetually conveyed
to and fro between England and her colonial territories in the two
hemispheres without having to traverse the roads of Continental
Europe (which roads might be rendered impassable at any moment
by the outbreak of a general war), and without the necessity of
' having to double either the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn,
where the seas are as tempestuous as the voyages are circuitous;
and the intercourse between Great Britain and her most distant
and scattered possessions would not only be by this means less liable
to interruption, but it would be infinitely more rapid, and, in every
respect, more convenient. The proposed line of railway would link
together the two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic ; it would
stretch in a direct line across our colonies in North America; it
would commence at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and would terminate
at Frazer's River, pouring into the Gulf of Georgia ; it would com-
municate by steam-vessels with the ports of the United Kingdom in
one direction, and in the other would promote a continual inter-
change of commodities and intelligence with Pekin, with Canton,
with Australia, with New Zealand, with the Spice Islands, with
Ceylon, with Madras, and with Calcutta.
" The North American Railway from the Gulf of Georgia to the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, running from Nova Scotia by St. John's
through New Brunswick, across the St. Lawrence and Otawa, tra-
versing Upper Canada along the shores of Lake Huron and Lake iu-
perior, through the dominions of the Hudson'a Bay Company to the
south of Lake Winnipeg, over the chain of the Rocky Mountains to
the coast of the Pacific confronting the Island of Vancouver—this
enormous line of railway would then be the first substantial em-
ployment of that felicitous fact which has been intimated in the ex-
pression that the shores of the Pacific constitute 'the end of the West
and the beginning of the East.'
" It would form the great link required to unite in one powerful
chain the whole English race.' It would penetrate the enormous bar-
rier of the Rocky Mountains. It would, in a particular manner,
bind together the interests of, England, of the Hudson's Bay Com-
pany, and the Canadas. It would present a magnificent field for the
employment of gangs of convict labourers—criminals who by clear-
ing and enclosing lands, by constructing roads, and building bridges,
would be withdrawn from the diabolical contaminations of the
penal settlements, and would, unconsciously be instrumental in for-
warding the grand labours of civilization.

" It would pass through regions 'rich in mines of silver and copper,'
such as the vicinity of Lake Superior. It would draw into use the
abundant timber of the Oregon, the plentiful coal of Vancouver's Is-
land, the iron, lead, and tin, the granite, slate, and sandstone, the
oolites, the cattle, wool, hides, and tallow, the salted meat, the beef,
the pork, the wheat, the barley, the Indian corn, the apples, and
the rest of the nutritious vegetation which now flourishes uncon-
sumed in the length and breadth of the North American Continent.
" Such is the noble project of a Colonial railway suggested by
this patriotic pamphleteer."
Extract from THE SUN, 13th March.
"On the 16th of February we directed public attention to a
pamphlet, in the form of a letter, addressed to Judge Halliburton,
the immortal " Clockmaker"—a pamphlet in which a magnificent
scheme is proposed for the connexion of the Pacific and the Atlantic
by a railroad running through our North American possessions,
through the Canadas, and through the territories of the
Hudson's Bay Company, beginning at the harbour of Ha-
lifax, near Newfoundland. and terminating on Frazer's River,
opposite Vancouver's Island. Since then, it will have been
observed by our readers that the author of that remarkable
pamphlet, Major Robert Carmichael Smyth, has addressed a
letter to ourselves, in which he disclaims any of that dogmatic
egotism which is generally supposed to actuate the projectors of such
colossal enterprises. The pamphlet of Major Smyth, previously
printed for private circulation, sand written without any signature
upon the title page, has, subsequently to the appearance of our re-
marks on the 16th ult., been published in a complete and well-
digested form, accompanied by an illustrative map from the hand of
Mr. Wyld, the geographer. Now, that the plan may be regarded as
fairly bethre the public, we cannot but take this, the earliest oppor-
tunity, of reiterating our previous argument, that the noble scheme
suggested by Major Carmichael Smyth is one intimately associated
with the present condition and the future destinies, with the glory,
the greatness, and the prosperity of the British empire."
Extract from the BRITISH and ARMY DISPATCH, 16th February,
before the Pamphlet was Published for General Circulation.
" This pamphlet is from the pen of an *dicer of rank, whose long
residence on service in North America has enabled him to offer to
the public some valuable suggestions on the subject of the extension
of railway communication on that vast continent, in the further ex-
tremity of which new ground has lately been broken in the progress
of civilization. The pamphlet purports to point out means for the
employment of the people and capitpl of Great Britain in her own
colonies, by undertaking a great national work, and thus opening
the shortest road to the most extensive regions of wealth ever
before at the command of any nation in the world (not regions of
gold, but for commerce and industry), and opening to Great Britain
a new outlet for the superabundant population of her soil, and new
markets for her labour. With great minuteness and considerable
local knowledge the author traces the means by which the far apart
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans shall be made easily communicable, and
urges that on that part of the line where the district labour and ca-
pital is sufficient, it shall be undertaken by the residents, and where
population is too thin, the remedy can be supplied by English capital
and convict labour.

" The pamphlet is altogether well worthy of perusal by all who
are interested in the progress of the great tide which is now so
strongly setting ' westward.' "
Extract from the BRIGHTON GAZETTE, Bth March.

" One consequence of the recent discoveries in California has been
the renewed and zealous discussion of various plans heretofore sug-
gested for opening a direct communication between the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, instead of the present circuitous and hazardous route
by Cape Rom. A general feeling seems to have hitherto prevailed
in preference of a water line by the river and Lake of San Juan de
Nicaragua ; and certainly, as compared with the Isthmus of Darien
or that of Tehuantep,c, there can be little doubt of its superior eli-
gibility. But we think that the views developed in the able pamphleg of
Major Carmichael Smyth will go far towards effecting a revolution in
public opinion. For the United States the route above-mentioned
may be a sufficiently desirable one ; but the author of this pamphlet
contends—and therein he will have at least every Englishman on his
side—that such a communication ought, if possible, to be made
within the limits of our own territory.

" In a question like this the advocates of Colonization must feel a
strong interest ; for 'let England her Northern American, colonies,
and the Hudson's Bay Company, join heart and hand, and with the
great power of steam which it has pleased the Almighty to place at
the command of man, there will soon arise a work that will be the
wonder and admiration of the age—and such a mercantile and ce-
lonizing road will be open to Great Britain, that at no future period
(at least within the imagination of man), will she ever again have to
complain of too great a reputation on her soil, and too small a market
for her labour." This Letter is addressed to the Clockmaker,' and
who will not echo the exclamation of that distinguished writer—
' Oh, squire, if John Bull only knew the value of these colonies, he
would be a great man, I tell you—but he don't.' "
Extract from the RAILWAY TIMES, March 11.

" There is work to be done—wealth to be opened up—men's bodies
and souls to be saved—the press teens with suggestions, plain,
practical, and operative—yet not a ray of intelligence, of apprehen-
sion, not a sign, not au expression indicative of activity, escapes
from the chief of the Colonial-office, or his fussy, yet do-nothing,
subordinates.

"We shall revert to this topic in our next, and lay before our
readers the able, invigorating arguments of Major Robert Carmichael
Smyth, in reference to the subject of a British colonial railway corn-
munication between the Atlantic and Pacific.