ABSTRACT
Yet Grey was not so wedded to laisser-faire ideas as to believe that Great Britain could do nothing to promote the colonization of her North American Provinces. They were receiving as many immigrants as they could cope with, but capital was by no means coming in as freely as labour. It was, said Elgin, futile to hope that the relation between population, capital, and occupied territory could be much affected by changes in the price of land; but, asked Grey, if the provision of employment for immigrants was the heart of the problem, and if private individuals could not provide employment, could not the problem be solved by undertaking public works? 1 Here was a matter in which the Imperial Government could obviously help. Help had been given to' Upper Canada in her financial difficulties at the time of Union by a promise of a guaranteed loan, and the guarantee had achieved its object. Could not this method be applied to the problem in its new form? The age of canals was closing: the age of railways had begun. What of the railway advocated by Durham to connect Halifax and Quebec? It was ofImperial interest that such a work should be undertaken: and it would certainly create, incidentally, an additional demand for labour.
