The idea of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean by a railway through British territory had long been a cherished vision of British and Canadian statesmen, railway engineers, and travellers in the far West; but owing to the vastness of such an enterprise for a people of four millions, a “baseless vision” it continued to be until after the confederation of the provinces in 1867. Twenty years before that time, Major Carmichael Smyth, writing to “Sam Slick,” advocated the construction, by convict labour, of a trans-continental railway through British territory, and prepared a map on which the possible route of such a railway was marked—almost identical with that of the Canadian Pacific Railway.[29] Hon. Joseph Howe, in course of a speech made at Halifax in 1851, said he believed that many of his auditors would live to hear the whistle of the steam-engine in the passes of the Rockies, and to make the journey from Halifax to the Pacific in five or six days. Hon. Alexander Morris, in his lecture, “Nova Britannia,” delivered in 1855, predicted the accomplishment of such an enterprise in the near future. Judge Haliburton, Sir Edward Bulwer, Sir George Simpson and other _savans_ had all prophesied after the same manner. Sure enough, it was one of the earliest measures that came to be discussed in the first Parliament of the new Dominion. Preliminary surveys were commenced in 1871 by Sandford Fleming, chief engineer, and the work of construction by the Government followed soon after. But it early became apparent that Government machinery was ill adapted for successfully dealing with a work of such magnitude, and one unavoidably leading to political complications. It was therefore resolved to have the road built by contract. Finally, in 1881, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company was organized, the prime movers of the enterprise being Messrs. George Stephen and Donald A. Smith, of Montreal. At this time the Government had under construction 425 miles between Lake Superior and Winnipeg, and 213 miles in British Columbia. This company undertook to complete the railway from Quebec to Vancouver, a distance of 3,078 miles, within ten years, for which they were to receive $25,000,000 in money, and twenty-five million acres of land, together with the sections of railway already under construction by the Government, the entire railway when completed to remain the property of the company. Such was the energy of the contractors and the skill of their engineers, the railway was completed in one-half of the time stipulated; for on the 7th of November, 1885, the last rail was laid on the main line, and by next midsummer the whole of the vast system was fully equipped and in running order. The opening of the Canadian Pacific Railway was followed by an immense development of traffic.