Page:The Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt.djvu/90

LIFE AND TIMES OF SIR A. T. GALT Portland and Boston was introduced by a race arranged by Poor and the Boston agents. An English ship was shortly to arrive at Portland and to proceed at once to Boston; it was agreed that an express should start from each port immediately upon arrival, Portland being favored by distance, Boston by its partially completed railways. The Portland agents stationed relays of teams from five to fifteen miles apart, and marked out the road by evergreens stuck in the snow. They had the triumph of seeing a coach and six arrive in Montreal twelve hours ahead of its Boston rival; the 280 miles had been covered in 20 hours.

Whether moved by this victory or by more prosaic arguments, the Canadian legislature in March, 1845, incorporated the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad Company, with power to build to the New Hampshire border, there to join the Atlantic and St. Lawrence, running to Portland, and chartered by Maine and New Hampshire. Its capital was put at £600,000, Halifax currency, or $2,400,000. Maximum rates—five pounds per ton for freight and thirty shillings per passenger for the whole 125 miles to the border, and proportionate rates for shorter distances—were named, and it was provided that half of any surplus profits over twelve per cent were to go to the province. A provisional committee was struck, including Peter McGill, Wm. Molson, George Moffatt and John Torrance, prominent among Montreal merchants, John Fotheringham of the City Bank, A. N. Morin, then in parliament and later to be joint premier, Samuel and Edward HaleSamuel Brooks and Edward Hale [sic], members for Sherbrooke town and county, A. T. Gait, and others.

The terminus chosen and the charter secured, the next step was to obtain the capital. The provisional directors expected to be able to raise the whole amount from private sources, partly in Montreal and the Townships, but mainly 64