lately, was all safely returned, to the last dollar. The State in which I live, and the national government, through which it is represented to the world, are, as I have explained to you, both free from reproach in all pecuniary affairs. In these three relations, then, private and political, I have a right to exemption from blame. Yet I find myself involved with the rest of the nation, in indiscriminate censure, because some of those who unite with us under the same government, Pennsylvania and Mississippi, are delinquent. Still I have no power to act there. The debts are too mighty for any private subscription to be of use. If the city of Edinburgh were indebted to foreigners for money borrowed for improvements of her own, the city of London would hardly undertake to repay it; nor would the ministry consent that the Chancellor of the Exchequer should include it in his estimate for supplies from the Parliament. Neither can it be expected then, that one State will pay for the other; or that the nation will pay for either. When the money was lent, these distinctions were clearly perceived; and a higher rate of interest was required and allowed, for the very reason that the faith of the nation was not pledged. To affect not to comprehend them now is something worse than idle. On the whole, nothing can be done but by the people of each delinquent State acting separately; and I have hopes that they will do all that is requisite at no distant period, for they seem to me to be fast recovering from the misfortunes that have embarrassed them, and indeed actually disabled most of them, within the last six years. However humbling the delay may be to us all, I think that those who will examine the subject will be convinced that, at least, there was no intention among any of us to defraud. You might suppose, from what you hear said, that no individual among us could get credit from Europe for any sum, however small. Quite the reverse is the truth. In commerce, our people get credit as far as it is at all desirable. Although much of the evil that has befallen our commercial world, of late, has arisen from the dangerous facility of obtaining foreign capital, there are, now, agents of European bankers in this country, ready, for a small commission, to furnish credit for new enterprises to the full extent to which it is prudent for any of us to engage in them.— Letter to a Lady in France: Boston, 1843. XXII. AMERICAN RAILROADS AND CANALS. * Receipts in 1844 much increaaed, being about 850,000 dollars. 1 19 850,000 ...... 66 Portsmouth and Roanoke. 78 1-2 66 .... Richmond and Fredericksburg 61 1-21,200,000 66 Richmond and Petersburg..... 22 1-2 700,000 66 Winchester and Potomac N. C. Raleigh and Gaston....... Wilmington and Raleigh. S. C. Charlestown and Hamburg 66 Louisville and Cincinnati. 32 500,000 84 1-2 1,360,000 161 .... 1,800,000 Ga. Central.................... 66 Georgia......... Ala. Tuscumbia.... 46 * We have not been able to procure the last report from Harrisburg. The total receipts for 1843 were 1,019,401 dollars; for 1844, 1,164,326 dollars, and the cost about 30,000,000 dollars. + The canals of Ohio are supported by a property tax of 5 1-2 mills on the 1,602,018 23,167 310 4,600,000 322,754 123,398 2,955,270 35,922 6,400 607,269 838 39,005 255,014 7,254 1,782 11,000,000 ... Germany has 152 miles of railway completed for every million of inhabitants; France, sixteen; Belgium, fifty; England, eightysix; United States, 222. Russia, after her first success, in a short road of sixteen miles, is now constructing a road from St. Petersburgh to Moscow, 400 miles long, superintended by American engineers, with Americans dollar. There are 853 miles of canal in the State, which yielded in 1843-471,623 dollars, and in 1844-515,393 dollars; the cost, 1st Jan. 1843, being 15,577,233 dollars. The increase of 1844 over 1843 is only 43,770 dollars, though the year 1844 has exhibited a greater increase throughout the country than ever before known. |