Shareholders very naturally look at, as the test of everything.

"To work the Grand Trunk as a gradually improving property would, I
repeat, be easy; but to work it so as to produce _a great success_
in a few years can only, in my opinion, be done in one way. That way,
to many, would be chimerical; to some, incomprehensible; and possibly I
may be looked upon myself as somewhat visionary for even suggesting it.
That way, however, to my mind, lies through the extension of railway
communication to the Pacific.

"Try for one moment to realize China opened to British commerce: Japan
also opened: the new gold fields in our own territory on the extreme
west, and California, also within reach: India, our Australian
Colonies--all our eastern Empire, in fact, material and moral, and
dependent (as at present it too much is) upon an overland
communication, through a foreign state.

"Try to realize, again, assuming physical obstacles overcome, a main
through Railway, of which the first thousand miles belong to the Grand
Trunk Company, from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific,
made just within--as regards the north-western and unexplored district
--the corn-growing latitude. The result to this Empire would be beyond
calculation; it would be something, in fact, to distinguish the age
itself; and the doing of it would make the fortune of the Grand Trunk.

"Assuming also, again I say, that physical obstacles can be overcome,
is not the time opportune for making a start? The Prince is just coming
home full of glowing notions of the vast territories he has seen: the
Duke of Newcastle has been with him--and he is Colonial Minister: there
is jealousy and uncertainty on all questions relating to the east,