Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 3).djvu/157

 with power to resume the exclusive use of it at the conclusion of any agreement.

Hitherto the enterprise and energies of the colonies had been almost exclusively directed to the important objects of improving the internal navigation of the St. Lawrence from Lake Erie to Quebec, so as to place it in such a state of cheapness and efficiency as would make that route more advantageous as a port of embarkation for a sea voyage than any route through the United States.

In the case of the Welland Canal, Canadians could not fail to perceive that the passage of American vessels down and up had contributed to render it profitable. Indeed, the Welland Canal was used extensively by American vessels, as it was a short communication between the two great lakes, and, at the same time, admitted of the passage of large vessels, which, instead of entering the American Erie Canal at Buffalo, proceeded down Lake Ontario to Oswego, where goods are transferred to the canal-boats for transport to New York. In this way a large portion of the revenue from the Welland Canal was derived from the American trade, arising from the free navigation of a part of the internal waters of Canada, and thus Western Canada enjoyed the benefit of a navigation supported to a considerable extent by foreign commerce.

It was observed, further, that, if products from the Western States could be transported to the sea more cheaply through Canada than through America, the Canadian route would of course be