[1887] Canada And The States Recollections 1851 to 1886.

Description

First Edition, Folding Maps, Scarce

In the publisher's original cloth binding. Frontispiece of a bust of the Duke of Newcastle. 2 folding colour maps, one of British North America and one of the railway routes through Canada and North America. Collated complete. Undated, dated through copies held at the British Library. Sir Edward William Watkin, 1st Baronet (1819-1901) was a British M.P. and railway entrepreneur. He was an ambitious visionary, presiding over large-scale railway engineering projects. In 1861, he was sent to Canada by the Colonial Office to promote the Confederation of the British North American colonies, and to investigate the feasibility of a transcontinental railway and the transfer of Hudson's Bay Company lands to the government. He became president of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada. Watkins recollections on his visits to Canada and the United States contain information on the organisation and history of the Hudson's Bay Company, and on the early beginnings of the Canadian Pacific Railway.