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Date: 1864-03-19
By: Duke of Newcastle
Citation: Despatch from the Duke of Newcastle to Lieutenant Governor Arthur Gordon (19 March 1864) in UK, HC, Return to an Address of the Honourable The House of Commons, dated 30 June 1864; for Copy of Correspondence between any of the North American Provinces and the Imperial Government, relating to their Application for Assistance in raising a Loan for an International Railway (1864).
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Downing-street, 19 March 1864.

Sir,

I TRANSMIT to you, for your information, a copy of a correspondence which has passed between this Department, the Treasury, and Mr. Watkin, the President of the Grand Trunk Railway, on the subject of the proposed Intercolonial Railway.
From, this correspondence you will learn the understanding upon which Her Majesty’s Government are prepared to accede to the proposition now submitted to them, with regard to the construction of a line of Railway between Truro and the Bend, in the Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, as a part of the larger project for completing the railway communication between Halifax and Quebec.

The question whether this section of the railway should be at once undertaken is, of course, entirely for the decision of the Provincial Legislatures. I need hardly say that I shall myself view with interest any step which tends to facilitate the completion of the plan contemplated in the negotiations of 1862-3.

I have, &c.
(signed)           Newcastle.