Excerpt from Railways and Other Ways: Being Reminiscences of Canal and Railway Life During a Period of Sixty-Five Years

The last six or seven decades have been fraught with wonderful inventions and discoveries, coming so thick and fast upon each other that the human mind is almost bewildered when it meditates upon them. It is safe to say, however, that nothing has done so much to bring nations together, and to advance the interests of their inhabitants, as those of the Locomotive and the Steamship.

The author has watched the rise of these mighty pioneers of civilization from their infancy to their present gigantic growth; and, from his long experience of the carrying industries in both England and Canada, has ventured to make some remarks connected with the management of them, more particularly as regards the movements of freight and freight rates, questions which are frequently being discussed by Governments and the public in all countries.

The author's long and intimate connection with the two. Canadian railways, the Grand Trunk and Great Western (now forming one system), since their opening forty years ago, must be stated as a reason for his giving more than ordinary prominence to the sketches and memoirs of the men who have had the manage ment of these railways, and of those who are still the active workers on that of the Grand Trunk, who in most cases have grown from youth to mature age in its service. It makes it the more desirable, perhaps, that the reminiscences of the early Grand Trunk Railway should be recorded, from the fact that many of the documents con useted with its early history were destroyed by the burning of the general offices at Point St. Charles, Montreal, many years ago.

The subjoined synopsis of the book, Railways and Other Ways, will give a fair idea of the character of the work.

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