The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-25 00:00:00

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

Since the year 1845 a vast variety of notices have
appeared respecting the Halifax and Quebec
Railway, both in the British and in the
colonial journals. Observing, however, the
copy of an address from the House of
Assembly of New Brunswick to the QUEEN on this
subject, in a number OF the Colonial Watchman,
received by the last mail, and also a communication
relative to what passed on the 27th of April last,
when Lord JOHN RUSSELL received a deputation
from the Canadian Land and Railway Association,
we consider the present a fitting moment for recalling
public attention to a matter of which the Governor-
General of Canada, in a dispatch to Earl GREY in De-
cember, 1848, thus spoke :—" On the vast import-
ance of the intended work, whether as affecting im-
perial or provincial interests, I feel that it is altogether
unnecessary to insist. The subject has long been be-
fore the public, and its manifold recommendations
have been ably stated in various publications, official
and unofficial, as well as
_in the valuable reports of
the surveying engineers. I cannot, however, refrain
from observing that while on the one hand no under-
taking seems to me so well calculated as this to
connect the provinces together, to promote the interests
which they have in common, to inspire them with a
consciousness of their own strength, and thus to
fit British North America for the fulfilment of
its high destinies ; so, on the other hand, none appears
to be more likely to increase the population, extend
the trade, and develop the local resources of each ;
and if this remark be true as applied to Canada, still
more emphatically does it hold good of the lower
provinces."
The project of connecting Halifax and Quebec by
a trunk railway, crossing New Brunswick, and
systematically settling the vacant lands on the
route (extending to no less than 300 mileF, and
capable of comfortably locating one million of
emigrants), was brought under the attention of the
Home and the Colonial Governments in July, 1845,
by memorials from the registered promoters,
viz., Sir RICHARD BEOUN, Bart., and Messrs.
HAMILTON, HOARE, BRIDGES, VALENTINE, &c. These
memorials procured to the gentlemen to whom the
merit of originating this vast enterprise exclusively
belongs the strongest assurances of co-operation and
support, both from the Colonial Minister (then Lord
STANLEY) and from the heads of the Colonial Execu-
tive. They were signed by order and on behalf of
the promoters and provisional board of the Halifax
and Quebec Railway Company, at a meeting held on
the 17th of the month cited, by the Hon. Baronet
above named ; they showed that steps were in pro-
gress for setting on foot in London a public com-
pany for the purposes already stated, and—considering
the magnitude of the undertaking, and its vast com-
mercial and political itnpvtance —they prayed for
certain facilities, and such countenance and assistance
as might ba necessary to obtain for the promoters
the confidence and co-operation of the British public,
and all others locally interested.
The reply to these memorials of Lord FALKLAND,
Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, assured the pro-
moters that he " conceived the contemplated railway
would, if carried into effect, be productive of so much
benefit to the province under his administration that
he would most willingly do everything in his power
to forward the views of the projectors." His Excel-
ceilency Sir W. COLEBROOKE, Lieutenant- Governor
of New Brunswick, announced to the promoters that
" there was a very general disposition to facilitate and
promote the undertaking in that province; that he
hoped by the next packet to forward to them informa-
tion of the proceedings of local associations taking an
interest in the subject ; and that, in compliance with
their request, he had communicated with her
MAJESTY'S Government on the subject by the
same mail." And third, the answer from the
late Lord METCALFE, Governor-General of
Canada, was to this purport—" His :Excellency
in Council had given to the memorial of the
promoters that degree of consideration which the vast
importance of the subject merits; that a chain of
steam communication from England to Quebec was
calculated in a high degree to promote the interests
and advance the prosperity of Canada, and was an
undertaking well worthy of the countenance of the
Canadian Government, and of the people of that and
the neighbouring British provinces ; that the Go-
vernor-General, without being in possession of more
information regarding the proceedings of the company
projected by the memorialists, was unable to do more
than to assure them that they might rely upon the
Government of Canada for whatever protection and
aid it might be consistent to render ; and that where
the railway might pass through the unconceded lands
of the Crown, it would confer the right to the com-
pany of using what was necessary for the purposes of
the railway."

In consequence of these proceedings, and the man-
ner in which the views of the promoters were re-
sponded to by the people in the colonies, Mr. GLAD..
STONE, on succeeding to the Colonial-office seals, in
1846, appointed a body of surveying officers to exa-
mine the country, and in 1848 the final report of
this Commission was printed by order of her MA-
JESTY. Further, since then the three Legislative
Assemblies of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova
Scotia have passed resolutions to grant the sum of
20,0001. each yearly, for twenty years, as a bonus to
the shareholders of the company ; and also several
million acres of superior land, available for settle•
ment and colonization.

At this juncture, then, we find that a new body,
taking to itself the title of " The Great Canadian Land
and Railway Investment Association, instituted by and
for the benefit of the Working Classes, and on a plan
whereby the subscribers may, by small periodical
payments, become proprietors of shares, and ulti-
mately of freehold allotments of land in British North
America," seeks to obtrude itself between the pro-
moters of the Halifax and Quebec Railway and the
Home aovernment, and to take out of the hands of
the former their right in the project. The exe-
cutive provisional committee of this Great Canadian
Association now or lately comprised Mr. Rowland
Wilder, William Pillivant, Mr. John Weston,
William Harrower, John Pitt, Mr. Richard Mills,
and John H. Lake, all, we presume, or most of them,
working men. The solicitors are, or were, Messrs.
Bourdillon and Son ; the manager, Mr. Duncan
Campbell, and the secretary, Mr. A. Campbell.
How these persons could induce Lords STANLEY
and MONTEAGLE to accompany a deputation to Lord
Joan RUSSELL, or how Earl GREY, after the com-
munications which he has received from the pro•
rooters of the Halifax and Quebec Railway, could sit
by and allow the Premier to fancy that he was deal-
ing with the originators of the project, retna'ns to be
explained. Wonders, they say, shall never cease.
But certainly it beggars belief that after the laborious
attention which Sir RICHARD Baous and his
associates in this great measure have for five years
given to its advancement, and the constant commu
nications passing between them and the Colonial-
office, Lord JOHN RUSSELL should be allowed thus
to commit himself with other parties.

CONSECRATION OF THE LORD BISHOP OF MON-
TREAL.—(Tats DAY.)—St. James's-day being appointed
tor the consecration of the Bishop of Montreal, it took place
this morning at Westminster Abbey. There was a very
crow.dea attendance on the occasion. The service (a full
by several
inggecnotralemmeenheefdr,ohmis
Lordship,
Paul's
musical one, the splendid choir of the Abbey being assis.ed
nthe
his
rChapelnche
resatendd
was led to the Communion-table • •
the Queen's mandate having
been read, the oaths of the Queen's supremacy and
obedience to the Archbishop having
a been administered in
due form, his Lordship was el consecrated.. The Bishop
of Montreal having put on resttheare of the episcopal habit,
then knelt down, and after the " Veni "
chaunted.. the. ceremony of laying on of handsretatoiri• had been
place;. the
administering of the sacrament concluded the interesting
interesting cere-
mony. The ffertory on the occasion will be devoted to the
increase of the Colonial Bishol s' Fund.
No man will ever fully End out what he is by
mere survey of himself. He must explore if he would knowa
himself. —Eliza Cook's Journal.
RUTLAND TESTLMONIAL.—A colossal model of the
bronze statue of his Grace the Duke of Rutland, destined to
be erected in the market-place at Leicester, has been sub-
mitted to inspection at the studio of the artist, Mr. Edward
Davis. His Grace is pourtrayed in the testimonial, at the
moment of his receiving the address presented to him by the
county deputation, on the day when he completed the fiftieth
anniversary of his Lord
Lieutenancy of Leices!ershire. Al-
together
the statue, measuring- eight feet !line inches in
height, reflects the highest credit upon the artistic skill of Mr.
Davis, whither it be viewed in regard to the attitude, the
costume, or the expression of the features.