their differently coloured streams--contained the prophecy of a future
great high road to the then mysterious East, to China, to Japan, to
Australia; and it is to the Sieur de la Salle, who, 200 years ago,
bought lands above the rapids from the Sulpician Fathers of Montreal,
and began his many attempts to reach the lands of the "setting sun,"
that we owe the name; while the resolution of Sir Charles Tupper,
carried in the Dominion Parliament, finally embodied in an Act which
received the Royal assent on the 17th February, 1881, and was opposed
throughout by the "Grit" party, was really the practical start. It
would be inadequate to write of the Great Canadian Pacific Railway
without some reference to the history of railways in Canada itself.

In the interesting book, "Rambles on Railways," published in 1868, it
is remarked that great as has been the progress of Canada, in no
respect has the growth of the country shown itself in a more marked
manner than in the development of its railway system. It was in 1848,
or almost immediately after the completion of the magnificent canal
system of Canada proper, and by which vessels of 800 tons could pass
from the ocean to Lake Ontario, and _vice versa_ (ships now pass
from Chicago to Liverpool of over 1,500 tons burthen), that the
Canadians discovered it was necessary, notwithstanding their unrivalled
inland navigation, to combine with it an equally good railway
communication; and accordingly, in 1849, an Act was passed by the
Canadian Government pledging a six per cent. guarantee on one-half the
cost of all railways made under its provisions. In 1852, however, the
Government, fearing the effect of an indiscriminate guarantee, repealed
the law of 1849, and passed an Act guaranteeing one-half of the cost of
one main Trunk line of railway throughout the Province, and it was
under this Act that the Grand Trunk Railway was projected.