Canada today is a power among nations, with a great and growing influence in world affairs. Canada in 1850 was a patchwork of discontented colonies, groping their way toward united nation-hood. But Canadians then, as they do today, faced the future with confidence in themselves and faith in their destiny.
In that middle year of the 19th century, Upper and Lower Canada were joined uneasily under the Act of Union, enacted nine years before. Just a year before, in 1849, a wise and determined British Governor had stood firm in the face of mob violence, refusing to interfere with a decision of parliament, and responsible government for Canada had emerged as an established fact.
Kingston was a brawling, colourful garrison headquarters, already incorporated as a city of 7,000 people and beginning to see the development of thriving industries. No tourist attraction then, but a stout and modern military citadel.
Fort Henry was but a few years old, proudly guarding the harbour entrance. Kingston's representative in the parliament of United Canada, then meeting in Toronto after trial periods in Kingston and Montreal, was a tall, forthright young Scottish lawyer who showed promise of becoming a leader in the Tory ranks. His name was John A.
Macdonald.
The steam railway had not yet come to Upper Canada when, in that year of 1850, the firm of Messrs. Tutton & Duncan established a general machinery and engine works at Kingston, on the site of the former Drummond shipyard.
This firm, of which the Canadian Locomotive Company, Limited of today is the direct descendant, served chiefly the lake and river transportation industry, making the great "walking beam" engines and wood-burning boilers of the impressive side-wheel steamboats of that day.
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