A Letter from Major Robert Carmichael-Smyth to His Friend, the Author of 'The Clockmaker'Carmichael-Smyth, Robert
History
A Letter from Major Robert Carmichael-Smyth to His Friend, the Author of 'The Clockmaker'
Carmichael-Smyth, Robert
Great Britain -- Colonies -- America; Haliburton, Thomas Chandler, 1796-1865; Railroads -- Canada; Transportation -- Canada
(8) I regret I cannot say when exactly, nor where, his Grace gave his
opinion on this subject, and I regret this the more, because I cannot
give his Grace's exact words; but of the fact I have no doubt, and I
must only trust to your forbearance and memory when I cannot point to
the day and place.
(9) "Not long since a very general ignorance prevailed respecting the
Western Coast of North America, and no less general apathy."--_Rev. C.
G. Nicolay, 1846._
(10) "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."--_Clockmaker, 1838._
"We ought to be sensible of the patience and good feeling which the
people of Canada have shown in the most trying circumstances."-_Mr.
Labouchere, Debate on Navigation Laws._
(11) "Considering all the natural and acquired advantages that we
possess for this purpose, it should rather create surprise and regret
that our commerce is so small, than engender pride because it is so
large."
"We may conclude then that improvements in production and emigration of
capital to the more fertile soils and unworked mines of the uninhabited
or thinly peopled parts of the globe, do not, as it appears to a
superficial view, diminish the gross produce and the demand for labour
at home, but, on the contrary, are what we have chiefly to depend on for
the increasing both, and are even the necessary conditions of any great
or prolonged augmentations of either; nor is it any exaggeration to say,
that, within limits, the more capital a country like England expends in
these two ways, _the more she will have left_."--_J. S. Mill, Polit.
Econ._
(12) For "a very large amount of capital belonging to individuals have,
of late years, sought profitable investment in other lands. It has been
computed, that the United States have, during the last five years,
absorbed in this manner more than L25,000,000 of English capital." And
how much more, it may be asked, has gone to the continent of Europe and
elsewhere?
"When a few years have elapsed without a crisis, and no new and tempting
channel for investment has been opened in the meantime, there is always
found to have occurred, in these few years, so large an increase of
capital seeking investment, as to have lowered considerably the rate of
interest, whether indicated by the prices of securities, or by the rate
of discount on bills; and this diminution of interest tempts the
possessors to incur hazards, in hopes of a more considerable
return."--_Mill's Political Economy._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
A Letter from Major Robert Carmichael-Smyth to His Friend, the Author of 'The Clockmaker' — John Shaqi
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