Deep Cut down into those treacherous quicksands was avoided. It was necessary to do all this chiefly on credit, and a covenant was inserted in each contract that a percentage only was to be paid in cash, the balance "after the company obtained the means from the legislature; " so confident were the directors that parliament, like Jupiter, would help those who help themselves.

Although the frost did not leave the ground until the 15th of April, 1829, the dam across the Grand River, the aqueduct over the Welland, four locks at the Deep Cut, the cut at the mouth of the Welland, and twenty-seven miles of canal, were so far completed on the 9th day of October as to admit the passing of a vessel down the feeder; and on the 30th of November (the anniversary of its commencement five years before,) two schooners, one British and the other American, the "Ann and Jane" of York (Toronto,) and the "R. H. Boughton" of Youngstown, N. Y., passed up from Lake Ontario into Lake Erie.

The confidence displayed by the contractors, without which the works must have been suspended altogether, was a natural result of the vigor, ability, and integrity displayed by the projector of the work,-the Hon. William Hamilton Merritt, by whose extraordinary energy, perseverance and discretion all difficulties were surmounted. Of those out of the province, John B. Yates of New York, the largest private shareholder, who in 1827 became liable for a large amount in aid of the company, was its greatest benefactor. To show upon how few the labor fell, only eight Upper Canadians, viz., William Hamilton Merritt of St. Catherines, George Keefer of Thorold (who was the first president of the company,) John Henry Dunn, John Bev

*Since these lines were written, death has removed a man, who, with unflagging energy, ever pursued his object in the spirit of peace;—a politician who was not an office-seeker, and who loved his country more than self or party, a statesman often in advance of his countrymen-but not of his country—and a loyalist who so valued truth that he sought it even from the enemy— preferring to be misunderstood rather than to remain unarmed.

erly Robinson, William Allan, Henry John Boulton, D'Arcy Boulton, and Colonel Joseph Wells, of Toronto,-held sufficient stock to qualify them to become directors; and for these services they never received, or looked for, any compensation.

Parliament in 1830, by a majority of two, granted a loan of £25,000 (or $100,000,) which enabled the company to pay the debts incurred during the previous year. The whole expenditure to this period had been £272,795 (or $1,091,180.) To avoid the circuitous route by the Welland and Niagara Rivers, and the strong current in the latter, it was proposed to enlarge the feeder, as far as its course was directed toward Lake Erie, and cut a new channel, only seven miles long, to join that lake at Gravelly Bay; and for this purpose the aqueduct over the Welland had been made twenty-four feet wide. In 1831, £50,000 (or $200,000) was loaned by the legislature on condition that this amount would complete the canal and harbors, and that the company should pay the interest of the loan and one-half the principal; and John B. Yates, William H. Merritt, and Alexander Yates McDonell became sureties for these conditions. The work was retarded by fearful ravages of the cholera in 1832, but in 1833 the new outlet at Gravelly Bay (Port Colborne,) was brought into use. After this date the control of the work was in a great measure assumed by commissioners appointed by government to look after the large interest the province now had in the undertaking. In 1834, the capital was increased to £250,000 (or $1,000,000,)-the government subscribing for £50,000 (or $200,000,) stock by the casting vote of Mr. Speaker McLean, ever a friend to the work. In 1836, a committee of the house recommended the assumption of the work by the province, and ultimate indemnification of the shareholders, as an act of justice to the latter, who had been the means of conferring so great a boon upon the province; and in 1837 all government loans were converted into stock, and

a further appropriation of £245,000 (or $980,000,) to complete the canal in a durable manner, with stone locks, was authorized. In 1839, the purchase of the private stock was authorized by an act to which the royal assent was withheld; but, on the unanimous petition of the legislature, this was given in 1840; and the legislature authorized a grant of £500,000 (or $2,000,000,) to complete the work,only two members out of eighty opposing the grant,—a striking contrast to the state of feeling in 1834, when the company were saved from ruin only by the casting vote of Speaker McLean. Doctor Strachan, archdeacon of York, and member of the legislative council, the present bishop of Toronto, was always a firm supporter of the work, and by his vigorous pen contributed in no small degree, as early as 1825, in putting the true scope and bearing of this important enterprise before the country. Hon. W. B. Robinson, now a commissioner of the Canada Company, as government commissioner and superintendent of the canal, and subsequently as chief commissioner of public works for the province, was ever a fast friend to this great work.

The old Welland Canal had forty wooden locks, one hundred feet in length between the gates, and twenty-two feet wide between the walls, with seven feet water on the sills; and these endured from 1829 until 1845, by which time they were fully worn out. The section of the canal was twentysix feet wide at bottom, fifty-six feet on water-line, and eight feet depth of water. The cost of stone locks would alone have consumed all the company's resources, leaving nothing for excavations, dams, harbors, aqueducts, and bridges; and any attempt on that basis would have ruined the enterprise. By taking a vessel, of over one hundred tons, from lake to lake, in 1829, at an outlay of a little over one million of dollars, the company were sustained by the legislature-which up to that period had never given them more than £50,000 (or $200,000,) at a time, but which, ten years later, voted ten times as much for stone locks.

It is impossible, at this day, fully to appreciate the vicissitudes of such an undertaking by corporate enterprise in Upper Canada more than thirty years ago. We have only the successes before us;-the refusals, disappointments, sneers, and raillery suffered by the directors and their supporters are forgotten; but, so long as the St. Lawrence flows to the sea, Upper Canada will remember with pride and affection the men who could, at so early a day, carry such a vast enterprise to successful completion. Projects for organizing joint-stock companies in Montreal, the commercial metropolis of British North America, before 1820, for the comparatively insignificant Lachine and Chambly Canals, fell stillborn; and when the latter work was com menced by Lower Canada in 1831, with three-fourths of the import duties levied on the consumption of the two provinces in her treasury, it was suspended in 1835, and only completed in 1843,-requiring more than twice the time taken to open the Welland Canal. The Cornwall Canal, commenced by Upper Canada in 1834, was suspended in 1838 and not completed till 1843. If the provincial governments, with all the increase in wealth and population, of 1835 over 1825, found such difficulties, we may infer what the Welland Canal Company encountered and surmounted, and thus more truly appreciate the result.

The enlargement and reconstruction commenced immediately after the union, and the new stone locks were ready for passing vessels of the larger size, by way of the feeder, in 1845, and the main route was opened through in 1850. Doubts respecting the capacity of the Grand River as a reservoir have led to the lowering of the section between the Deep Cut and Port Colborne, so as to make Lake Erie (which is ten feet higher than the Welland River) the feeder. This lowering of the bottom, which is still in progress, is effected by dredges, the water not being removed; and, therefore, no further slides are anticipated.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CANADIAN CANALS, WITH THEIR COST.

Williamsburg Canals,..

Lachine

Lock Gates,

Improvement of Rapids,

Lake St Peter, expended by Government,..

Do. do. do. do. do. Harbor Commissioners,

Chamblay Canal,..

St. Ann's Lock and Dam,

t Includes cost of Dredging plant.