Among the steamers constructed in 1849 was the fine steamship Republic, 852 47 tons, since purchased by George Law & Co., of New York, and sent to the Pacific, to run between San Francisco and Panama. Other vessels of this class are now on the ways, and their construction gives promise of becoming an important branch of ship-building. It is apprehended that their machinery will not suffer by comparison with the best yet manufactured. The following table is a correct monthly record of all the arrivals and the clearances to foreign ports in 1849: FOREIGN. ARRIVALS. COASTWISE. CLEARANCES TO FOREIGN P'TS. Ships. Barks. Brigs. Sch'rs. Ships. B'ks. Brigs. Sch'rs. Total. Ships. B'rks. Brigs. Sch'rs. To'l. 8 1 10 25 64 134 10 8 28 18 64 January 7 6 13 Febru'y 7 5 16 March. 7 5 31 Total. 86 73 245 113 45 136 227 1,183 2,108 107 97 261 147 612 Of these 2,108 arrivals 517 were from foreign ports, and 1,591 coastwise. The vessels were: 24 117 195 10 5 20 15 50 10 16 136 13 18 110 206 7 9 22 12 50 The following table will show the aggregate clearances to, and arrivals from, foreign ports, for each of the last five years : The position of Baltimore is peculiarly favorable for intercourse with the West Indies and South America; and in consequence this trade has always formed an important item in her foreign trade. Thus, in 1849, she received from the West Indies 12,590 hogsheads and 5,654 barrels of sugar, and 5,833 hogsheads, 499 tierces, and 112 barrels of molasses; while of the 205,945 bags of coffee entered at the port, 168,618 were from Rio Janeiro, from which port New York, during the same time, received but 172,266 bags, or 6,352 bags less than Baltimore. The coastwise trade, conducted by steamers, barges, schooners, barks, brigs, and ships, is extensive and profitable. There are regular lines to Boston, Providence, Hartford, New York, Norfolk, Richmond, Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, and several smaller places on our coast, which afford every desirable facility of transport for passengers and freight. But whatever advantages for foreign or coastwise trade Baltimore may derive from its favorable situation on the Chesapeake, these are not the only, nor the chief advantages accruing to it from being located on this matchless estuary. The deep indentation of this bay brings the city, planted so near its head, nearer to the great western waters and valley than any other city on the Atlantic coast. This fact early pointed it out as the most eligible terminus of the great line of travel which should unite the East with the West. Besides, the easiest route which could be pursued herefrom to that great land of promise must lead through tracts not only of remarkable fertility, but also through regions rich almost beyond compare in mineral wealth. Western Maryland, because of its wildness, has often been styled the Wales of America; and although this roughness presented apalling obstacles to the prosecution of the work which should form the great connecting link of the opposing slopes of the Alleghanies, yet it was alluring as an indication of the granite, copper, iron, and coal, to say nothing of finer ores which might be found beneath this rough exterior. The fact, too, that New York, by means of the Erie Canal, was brought into a more expeditious and sure communication with Ohio, and all the northern part of the Great West, and that Baltimore, in consequence, was fast losing the trade of that important section of country, aroused the jealousies as well as the fears of her enterprising merchants, and impressed them with the necessity of providing for themselves greater facilities of transport for travel and merchandise. Accordingly, in the year 1827, sundry leading citizens took the initiatory steps of this gigantic undertaking. At this time railroads were hardly known in America; and their practicability, on a scale so extended, had not been tested abroad. The project, therefore, of constructing a road, four hundred miles in length, through a wildly rugged and mountainous country, and surmounting an elevation of 3,000 feet was certainly a bold one. The cost, it was originally supposed, could not exceed $5,000,000, while it would probably be less than that. The act of incorporation gave the company a capital of $3,000,000, and power of increasing it to $5,000,000, in shares of $100 each. Subsequently the company projected a branch road--from the Relay House, nine miles from Baltimore-thirty-one miles in length, to Washington, D. C. The company's books were opened in March, 1827, the whole of the required amount subscribed in a few days, and the work pressed on and partially put in operation in 1830, the aggregate revenue of the year being $14,711. In 1834 it went into operation as far as Harper's Ferry, Virginia, eighty-two miles from Baltimore. In 1839 preparations were made for continuing and completing the road to the Ohio River, and it was opened as far as Cumberland, Maryland, 179 miles, on the 3d day of November, 1842, which place has since been its western terminus. The cost of constructing and equipping the road thus far has been $10,096,571, or $56,405 per mile. From Cumberland to the Ohio River at Wheeling is 211 miles. This distance has been carefully surveyed, within the last two years, the road located, most of it put under contract, and it is now hastening to its completion. The face of the country presented formidable obstacles, and the work, when finished, will be one of the most stupendous in the world. Within a hundred miles of Cumberland there are to be no less than five tunnels, four of them less than 500 feet each in length, while the fifth, "Kingwood Tunnel," is 4,100 feet long, excavated through solid rock by means of three vertical shafts, each about 167 feet in depth. When this road shall be completed, and Baltimore united with the great valley by one unbroken track 390 miles in extent, she will be fifty-five miles nearer than Philadelphia to Columbus, Ohio; 200 nearer than New York by her northern route; and 300 nearer than Boston. The unhealthy climate of New Orleans deterring multitudes of the western merchants from having recourse to her market, and Baltimore being the nearest point upon the Atlantic seaboard, it is but reasonable to expect that a large portion of the trade of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and of the whole valley of the northern Mississippi will be poured into her lap; nor is it easy to conceive of any contingency which can deprive her of these advantages. At the present time the business of this road is performed by 63 locomotives, 77 passenger, and 1,201 freight cars. The passenger trains during the year 1849 ran an aggregate of 220,557 miles, and conveyed 336,882 passengers. The burden trains transported 351,655 tons of freight, and ran an aggregate of 785,229 miles, while the entire receipts of the road amounted to $1,241,205, and the net to $596,571. The total dividends, since the road went into operation, have been $1,089,138, and the surplus reinvested $3,096,638. The following table will show the whole number of passengers, (including those passing over the Washington branch,) and the total amount of freight with the receipts from each, for each year since the road went into operation -the in each case ending with October 1st:years Total...... 725,288 1,213,664 351,655 846,708 1,241,205 3,294,397 $4,237,857 2,187,907 $5,611,549 $9,864,117 Since the completion of the Washington branch, in 1835, the ratio of the passengers passing over it annually, compared with those over the main stem, is very nearly that of seventeen to fifteen. The freight transported eastwardly has been about double that transported westwardly, though subject to considerable fluctuations from year to year, and for the last three years showing a steady and decided increase in the ratio, till, in 1849, the eastwardly bound was 287,894 tons, while the westwardly was only 63,761. The heaviest items of freight carried westwardly were sugar, 1,102 tons; fish, 1,352 tons; groceries, 11,612 tons; dry goods, 9,918 tons; grain, 7,114; iron, 3,134 tons; plaster, 4,724 tons; bides, 1,023 tons, &c., &c. The oysters transported amounted to 186 tons, 6 cwt., and 17 pounds, or 417,329 pounds. The leading items conveyed eastwardly were flour, tobacco, coal, live stock, granite, iron, limes, soap-stone, &c., &c. Most of these articles were worthless to their producers, from their decaying nature, or the great cost of transportation, before the construction of this road. Granite of fine quality is quarried near the road, about 28 miles from the city, and wrought to a considerable amount for building and other purposes. The amount received in the city in 1849 was about 0,000 cubic feet. In the immediate vicinity of this is found the best soap-stone, probably, which is quarried in the world. Its discovery led to the formation of the "Maryland Soap-Stone Company," incorporated at the last session of the Maryland Legislature. Four years' working of the quarry has demonstrated the quantity to be abundant, and its extensive use in different parts of the Union for the same time has shown its solidity, strength, and purity. Its many economical uses for withstanding the action of fire, water, acids, &c., and the recency of its introduction, entitle it to a passing notice. Capable of being sawn, bored, turned, planed, and screwed together, with similar tools and almost as much facility as the harder kinds of wood, it is finding its way rapidly and acceptably into use, not only for fire purposes, but also for many places where wood soon decays, or becomes disagreeable from moisture-such as shelving, linings to refrigerators, as a base-board in dwellings where the floors are of marble, for water-tanks, bathing-tubs, kitchen-sinks, &c., &c. It is found peculiarly adapted to the manufacture of rolls for dressers in cotton factories, neither warping, expanding, nor contracting, and withstanding the acids of the fermented paste used in sizing; and being eco nomical and durable, large quantities have been, and are now being manufactured and used for that purpose, by the best cotton-mills in New England and other parts of the Union. It has scarcely been introduced into Europe as yet, but there is every reason to believe that at no distant day it will form an important article of export. When the spirit of internal improvement had once been fairly aroused by the projectors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, it sought other objects on which to spend itself, and forthwith the design of a direct route to the valley of the Susquehanna was conceived, a charter obtained, and the road put under contract. A variety of causes, which it is unnecessary to enumerate here, conspired to delay its completion, and it was not until 1838 that this the Baltimore and Susquehanna-railroad was completed-57 miles to York, Pennsylvania-and put in operation. Its cost was about $3,500,000. A continuation from York to Harrisburg has been for a twelvemonth under contract, and at an early day will be completed. It has already a branch to the town of Westminster, and is connected with Phila delphia, via Columbia, by the Wrightsville Road, passing through the rich and fertile counties of Lancaster and Chester. The road from Columbia to Middletown will be opened within a few weeks; the Cumberland Valley Road in the course of the coming autumn, and the great Central Railroad of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1851. The road will thus circle in its arms the whole of the magnificent Keystone State, many of whose products must seek in Baltimore their commercial depot. In anticipation of this vast and certain increase of business, the company have, at an expense of $50,000, constructed in Baltimore, during the past year, under the direction of Messrs. Niernsee and Nelson, architects, the most spacious and commodious depot, to be found south of New England. It is tastily constructed of brick, freestone, and granite, and is 350 feet in length, by 110 in breadth. The business of the road is performed by 14 locomotives, 18 passenger and baggage, and 377 freight cars. There was conveyed over the road in the year 1849 a tonnage of 406,605,408 lbs., the receipts from which amounted to $187,777 49, being an increase from the previous year of 61,686,765 lbs. of tonnage, and $27,397 86 of revenue. The passengers passing over the road, meanwhile, numbered 132,981, and paid to the company $80,115 78; an increase of 7,921 passengers, and $6,629 12 revenue. The quarries on the line of this road, about 14 miles from the city, furnish it with most of its marble for building, and other purposes. The consumption of this article in 1849 was about 55,000 cubic feet, to 5,000 of eastern, and 4,800 of Italian. The transportation of milk and market produce over this road to Baltimore is beginning to assume considerable importance, and the company have had constructed large cars for the special accommodation of this branch of their business. Their transportation of milk the last year was 126,401 gallons. The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore is the only remaining railroad which has Baltimore for its terminus; and this was constructed rather as a necessary link in the great chain which should unite the North and East with the South and West, than from any consideration of private advantage to accrue from it to Baltimore. It is 97 miles in length, and was constructed and equipped at an aggregate cost of $4,844,493, or about $50,974 per mile. All efforts on the part of this company to obtain from the Legislature of the State of Maryland permission to bridge the Susquehanna have as yet |