will to direct it. Considering as I always have, that it is only a continuation of the Erie canal-that it will promote correspondent advantages, and that it is identified with the stability of our government and the prosperity of our country, I own that I feel a more than common solicitude on this subject. I have the honour to be, very respectfully,

MICAJAH T. WILLIAMS, Esq.

Your most obedient servant,

One of the Canal Commissioners of the State of Ohio.

DE WITT CLINTON.

Communication from his Excellency Governor Clinton, relative to the Morris and Delaware Canal.

Governor Clinton has been so good as to visit, with the president of the company and the canal committee, the inclined planes at Rockaway, and to inspect the eastern division of the canal from the summit level to the Hudson, at the city of Jersey.

The inclined plane was put in operation while he was there, and he with the committee and a large number of persons, in all not less than forty, passed on the inclined plane, in a large and heavy scow, loaded with a quantity of stones, from the upper to the lower level, and from thence back into the upper level. The transit from one level to the other, a difference in height of fifty-two feet, was made in eight minutes.

The following is the communication to the president of the company from Governor Clinton, which expresses his opinion of the inclined plane, his views of the progress of the work, and of the practicability and advantages of the canal.

SIR,

NEW-YORK, May 19th, 1827.

On the 23d of April, 1823, the legislature of this state, under the most favourable impressions of the benefits that would result to New-York as well

as to New-Jersey, from a navigable connexion between the rivers Hudson and Delaware, by the contemplated route of the Morris Canal, directed the canal commissioners to cause a survey and estimate to be made by one of our experienced engineers, with a view to facilitate a measure considered so important. The canal board instructed their chief engineer, Mr. Benjamin Wright, to perform this duty, and as president of that board, I accepted an invitation to attend at the same time. After having viewed the whole line, we submitted our opinions on the 24th of October of that year, to the commissioners of New-Jersey. They are of the most favourable character with respect to the practicability and importance of the project, and they are now referred to as comprising our views in extenso.

It appears that this canal has been since undertaken under the auspices of an incorporated association, of which you are the president. And having recently in company with you, visited the eastern section of this work, I can certainly have no hesitation in giving my opinion of its present state and future prospects.

It is ascertained that the summit level is 890 feet above the eastern termination of this canal, and 840 above the western, making an aggregate of ascent and descent to be overcome, of 1730 feet. The great number of locks that would be requisite for this purpose, the expense that would attend their erection, and the delay that would result from the passage, render it necessary that some substitute should be adopted, and inclined planes have been proposed as the most advisable. The only doubt that can possibly be raised in reference to the completion of this canal, is as to the feasibility of this project. In England and France, inclined planes have been successfully adopted on a limited scale, and there is no reason why they may not be introduced on the Morris Canal, unless it may be, that a load of twenty-five tons may render that impracticable, which has been found easy for vessels of eight or ten tons. There is nothing in the objection that can be considered of a formidable nature: but the best demonstration in this as in all other cases, is actual experiment, and this has been exhibited at Rockaway; an inclined plane of fifty-two feet has been erected, and a vessel of large dimensions has been tried on it, without any inconvenience and with great rapidity. Having participated in a passage

up and down it, I can speak with confidence on the subject. The work may be greatly improved, and in its present state, it affords unequivocal testimony in favour of the utility, the practicability and the economy of the erection, and completely silences all cavils and objections.

I was not a little surprised to observe the progress made in the work in general; and I consider it quite easy to accomplish the whole, and to render it operative in July 1828. The funds have been applied with exemplary economy; what has been done, has been well done. The prospects of

abundant remuneration to the stockholders are very encouraging. The most productive sources of revenue will be furnished by this conveyance; viz. coal, iron, lime, copper, zinc, manganese, copperas, plumbago, turpentine, marble, lumber, manures of various kinds, the products of agriculture, and the fabrics of manufactures.

I should regret exceedingly if this important work should be lost to the public, for the want of three or four hundred thousand dollars. It is manifestly the interest of the stockholders to complete it, and co-operators may confidently calculate upon certain and ample returns for their advances. The estimate of the engineer has been verified by the prosperous progress of the works, and there is not a shadow of doubt as to the resulting advantages to individuals, and as to the immense benefits to the community.

Hon. C. D. COLDEN,

President of the Morris Canal Company.

DE WITT CLINTON.

Governor Clinton's Observations relative to the Hampshire and Hampden

Canals.

The following letter, (says the editor of the New-Haven Herald,) from the late Governor Clinton, will be read by all who feel an interest in the extensive internal improvements, in operation or contemplated, in this and the neighbouring states. The opinion and estimates of this scientific and disinterested person, whose experience in canalling operations was not inferior to that of any man now living, and who could not have been biassed by any interested motive whatever, are worthy of the greatest deference and respect.

To Samuel Hinckley, James Hillhouse, and Thomas Sheldon, Esqrs. a committee of the Hampshire and Hampden Canal Company.

GENTLEMEN,

In consequence of an invitation from the canal company, of which you are a committee, I had the pleasure to accompany you, and a number of other respectable gentlemen, interested in the cause of internal improvement, from New Haven in Connecticut to Barnet in Vermont. Our object was to inspect the Farmington and the Hampshire and Hampden canals, which are in a train of rapid completion, and to explore the valley of the Connecticut river, with a view to the further extension of artificial navigation. In the performance of this tour I experienced the most hospitable attentions from you, and the inhabitants of the country through which we passed, and which it affords me no common pleasure to acknowledge. Having no other object in view than the interest of internal improvement, I should greatly regret if my visit was misconstrued into an intrusive intermeddling with the concerns of other states, or an officious interference with existing controversies. In the few observations which I intend to make, I shall not touch upon the comparative advantages of improved river or canal navigation, but shall confine myself exclusively to the practicability, advantages, and expense of constructing a canal, from the termination of the Hampshire and Hampden canal to Barnet in Vermont.

It is admitted on all sides that this measure is practicable. Indeed, any engineer pretending to deny it, would ruin his professional reputation, and would exhibit the extremity of ignorance. The only mode to impeach the proceeding, is to surround it with imaginary difficulties, to magnify the expense, and depreciate the advantages. Whether this course has been pursued I know not; but if it has, it reflects no great credit on the candour and judgment of those who have adopted it.

The route from Northampton to Barnet presents no insurmountable difficulties, and but in a few cases, extraordinary ones. Much greater ones have been overcome in the construction of the Erie canal.

The country on both sides of the Connecticut river is abundantly supplied with rivers and streams which run into that river, and which furnish all the water requisite for canal navigation. The high hills and mountains which adjoin the beautiful and fertile valley of that magnificent river, will be the sources of inexhaustible and perennial supplies; and the great precaution to be observed in constructing a canal, is to carry it above the highest floods of the Connecticut river, which, I believe, do not exceed twenty-five feet. If high bluffs extend into the river, they may in some instances be cut through, and in others the canal may be carried round them, as has been successfully done in the Erie canal, and at all events, and in the worst supposable cases, they may be avoided by aqueducts across Connecticut river. The whole difficulty will finally be resolved into a question of expense, and this is indeed the predominating consideration.

The expense of the Farmington canal extending from New-Haven to the Massachusetts line, and about fifty-six miles in length, has been estimated at 420,000 dollars, and the Hampshire and Hampden canal, from the south line of Massachusetts to Northampton, thirty miles, at 290,000 dollars. And it is believed that the works so far as completed fully establish the correctness of the estimates. This would not exceed 8000 dollars a mile. The distance from Northampton to Brattleborough is about forty-eight miles, and it is a very liberal estimate to put down the aggregate cost of a canal at 505,275 dollars. The distance from Brattleborough to Barnet is one hundred and seventeen miles, which at 9000 dollars a mile, would cost for a canal 1,053,000 dollars. The expense of the whole extent of a canal from New-Haven to Barnet would be upon the result of the finished works, and the estimate of the unfinished operations, less than 10,000 dollars a mile; and all our experience with respect to canals, since the construction of the Erie canal, demonstrates beyond doubt, that the maximum expense of any given canal of any considerable extent, not passing over or under high mountains, will not exceed on an average 10,000 dollars a mile.

The remaining inquiry is, whether the resulting advantages will warrant such a great and expensive undertaking?

A canal, as to its results, may be contemplated in a double view: First,