Volume 10 - Section V - ElectricCanadian.com

376
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS OVERLAND
the position it had lost from the overshadowing influence of
Boston.
The interest of Portland in connection with Canada
had begun as early as 1835, when Colonel Long, an officer
of the United States Topographical Corps, accompanied by
Captain Yule of the Royal Engineers, made a reconnaissance
from Belfast, Maine, to Quebec. In the following year the
State of Maine granted a charter to the Belfast and Quebec,
which was the precursor of the Atlantic and St Lawrence.
In 1844 the residents of the Eastern Townships became
interested in the question of rail connection with the United
States seaboard, alleging that the bad roads prevented the
proper marketing of their grain. In the same year John A.
identified with the earlier
Poor, whose name is inseparably
railway history of Maine, visited Montreal with William C.
Preble, the president of the Atlantic and St Lawrence, and
conducted an active propaganda. Letters having appeared
in the Montreal papers advocating the superior advantages
of the Boston connection, he retorted by showing that Port
land had especial advantages as a winter port, and was only
246 miles from Montreal as against 351 miles to Boston.
It was prophesied that the route would earn from six per
cent to seven and a half per cent.
At first the hitherto existing commercial advantage which
Montreal had possessed under the preferential policy caused
the merchants of that city to be indifferent, but with the
passing of this policy the advantage of Montreal was gone,
and, spurred on by necessity, the merchants came out in
favour of the Portland line. It became the general belief,
expressed in the Canadian Economist of May 9, 1846, that
The Portland Railroad is not simply a measure of
advantage to Montreal, but an essential condition of
her continued prosperity. Without it her trade instead
of increasing will, in our opinion, decline, and with a
declining commerce will come its attendants, a diminish
ing or at best a stationary population, and a decrease
in the value of real estate.
Once interest in American rail connections began, the city
of Montreal became enthusiastic, and added thereto the idea