There would seem to be no occasion for a double road throughout. Indeed, with the traffic properly methodized, starting from either end at the same time daily, and never varying the starting hours throughout the year, a double track would in large part, for a long time, be comparatively useless. We would begin with a single track, with 500 miles of second track distributed over five or six different localities where the times of opposite trains coincided. This would give at these places a margin of three to four hours for the opposing trains, sufficient, except in extreme cases, to neutralize all irregularities. This 2,000 miles of single track, and 500 miles of second track, with all appurtenances, we will assume to cost one hundred and twenty-five (125) millions of dollars.

Although we do not attach much consequence to any estimate which can now be made of the returns of the road, believing that were it not to pay fully the interest on its cost for five or ten years after its construction, it would still be a most desirable, necessary, and important investment for the country-yet, from such imperfect data as are within reach, the following estimate of its probable business is presented.

From statistics embodied in the Tehuantepec Survey Report, the passengers between California and the Atlantic States, by sea and by land, are found to average for three years preceding 1852, 138,624 yearly.

A statement of the arrivals and departures at San Francisco in 1852, gives the following results:

If we take into account the natural increase of population in the country, the increase of its travel caused by railroad facility, and the low cost of transit, so much lower and shorter than by any other route or mode of passage, it would not seem unreasonable to assume the through travel for both ways annually at

160,000 through passengers, at $60... 30,000 way passengers, at $10 of average.

The sperm oil from the whale fisheries would, at certain times, bear the cost of railroad transportation. So would, at any time, the teas, silks, and spices of China and the Japanese and other islands. Much of the supplies for the shipping of the California ports would be sent overland, and the interior settlements created by the road, and connected with the defenses of the country, would receive their supplies by the railroad. Guided by such statistics as are within our reach, and guessing at the rest, we add for freight—

60,000 tons through freight, at $40....

$9,600,000 300,000 $9,900,000

$2,400,000

The above amount of income, at least, will be required to meet the expenses and liabilities of the road.

It may not be amiss to remark, that the 125 millions required, would not, under any circumstances, represent money to be drawn from the public treasury. Were the government authorized directly to construct the road, the money would still be obtained solely on its credit, and its bonds would pass from hand to hand safer than any bank bills, however guarantied, and interfering, therefore, but little with the general distribution of capital. The government would be responsible for the interest of the money so procured, until that money took another shape than United States bonds; and were it to make the road through its own agents, and sell it after completion below its cost, including in that cost the interest paid while in process of construction, the difference would be the loss, and the sole loss, to the govern ment.

Such a railroad must be well protected during its construction, and for a time after it is in running order; and the expenses of the troops necessary for this purpose may by some be considered as chargeable to the road— though troops will be wanted in that country under any circumstances.

All the water stations and wood stations must have men attached to them able to defend them from the Indians. At many of the stations settlements would spring up, and at others, such as where the engine-houses and machine shops were located, there would be a sufficient number of hands in the employ of the road to protect its property from outside depredation. There would remain, however, a great many points which would not be safe without the protection of government troops; and even at the principal stations of the road, small detachments of U. S. troops would be wanted to secure respect for the laws, and give effect to the rules and discipline of the road. So, during the construction of the road the contractors would be entirely at the mercy of the men, unless a sufficient force of troops was known to be established at intervals along the line. This scattered force, to be efficient, would vary probably, as the work progressed, from 400 to 800 men. They would control Indians and laborers, and would be in the way of making the needful negotiations to extinguish the Indian titles to the country.

M

How is the route of the road to be determined? Can a commission of men skilled in engineering be found, standing sufficiently aloof from political and sectional influences, to hom may be left the selection of such a route as shall best serve the object in view, concentrating all efforts on one line now, and leaving the construction of branches into that line from other important points at either end to further legislation?

Unquestionably such a commission can be found; but would Congress agree upon it? No other mode so simple and satisfactory to the country, and just in itself, can well be found to meet the difficulties of the question. Such a commission might be composed of three skilled men, and two of them should consist ex-officio of the Colonel of the U. S. corps of Engineers, and the Colonel of the U. S. corps of Topographical Engineers, at this time being Gen. Totten and Col. Abert. It would not be difficult to find a third in either of these corps equally satisfactory; but the third, besides being an engineer, should be one of long practice in railroad engineering. Capt. W. H. Swift, of the Western Railroad of Massachusetts, Benj H. Latrobe, of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, or John Childe, of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, may be named as in every way qualified. But in order that the board should be efficient and harmonious, the selection of the third should be left to the two commissioners first suggested.

But in what way shall such a road be built? Directly, by means of gov ernment funds under the control of such a commission? or indirectly, through the medium of grants of land to outside companies?

In whatever way it is to be built, the funds can only be obtained by government assistance in one shape or other. The government must by its credit, or its lands, or both, render the securities safe, and it is only by government indorsement in this way that the necessary funds can be obtained. Now, such being the case, we believe that the cheapest mode of procuring the funds will turn out to be the best, and the cheapest mode, out of all question, must be by the direct issue of the United States bonds as wanted. These bonds can be negotiated at six per cent interest, and a premium obtained for them, which will to that extent reduce the cost of the road. Furnished with such means the commission could let the road in sections of fifty or one hundred miles, to responsible parties, on the most favorable terms which the circumstances would admit of.

If lands are given to companies by which to construct the road the lands must be surveyed, mapped, and lotted, and a scheme of bonds founded on them, mortgaging the lands and the road for the security of the bondholders, This machinery will use up money. The bonds will not be worth in the market as much as the simple bonds of the United States, and seven per cent of interest, instead of six per cent, will probably be allowed on them. The parties who undertake all this, look besides to make large profits by the transaction-profits that are altogether independent of the profits to be made by the actual constructors of the road, and form so much addition to the cost of it.

Supposing the road to be built by such a commission, or ctherwise, for the United States, shall the United States hold it and continue to operate it, as has been suggested? Common experience would say not. Let the United States get rid of it as soon as it is built, and place it then in the hands of private companies, and let all who use it, government or private citizens, pay for the service rendered as they would on any other road. We may rest assured, that if government stipulates for service without pay, as it has done in grants of land lately to States, the service will be ill performed, and the parties will not rest until they contrive to get rid of any such obligation.

Such a road, if operated by the government would become a nuisance. The officials would be appointed for political reasons. They would be beyond the correction or control of the usual influences. The road would be badly managed, unsafe, and irregular in its operations, as a matter of course. But by transferring the road to the action of several private companies, the influence of the common law and of the public press would come into play to secure its efficient management.

In the construction of the road by a commission, constituted as has been suggested, these objections would not come into play. The engineer offi cers of the army have proved themselves to be beyond the influences which in some other departments of the government distribute contracts and offices to political favorites. The works of fortification along the coast, and such civil works as have been entrusted entirely to them, have been executed considerately and economically, and with quite as much insistance on the true performance of contracts, as obtains in railroad civil engineering.

If the road is placed in the hands of large companies, in the fancy of keeping it beyond government influence, we know, from the complexion of

some of these companies, that it would be merely placing its means and organization in the hands of a political party in another way, and such a company will be less directly responsible than would be the government; and should the location of the road be left to be determined by any company to whom it may be intrusted, on the supposition that its interest will guide it to the most expedient or direct route, we may surmise that the same interest would incline the location of it in favor of any State which offered the largest inducements thereto. This is not said in condemnation of any companies formed to this end, but simply as what would be the result of the self-interest which governs the actions of companies as of individuals. But the people at large are not much interested in the manner of construction of the road, nor the form of the assistance which Congress may tender it. Provided that it be undertaken in a way to secure its speedy completion, they will rest comparatively indifferent to its intermediate aspects.

These remarks in regard to the details of this great enterprise, could not be well avoided, for the difficulty is, after all, mainly in adjusting the details.

The United States cannot afford long to stand still on this project. It is the legacy of the Mexican war, and our acquisitions on the Pacific coast, and a legacy likely to become prolific of wealth and greatness. We cannot occupy efficiently the immense interior plains without it; we cannot properly invigorate our share of the Pacific trade without it; and we cannot strengthen and maintain our connection with the Pacific States without it. The question is not unfairly stated to be-either the most rapid and efficient mode of communication across, or else, in all probability, two independent and unfriendly republics.

Art. II.--COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.

NO. III.

EARLY ADVENTURE UPON THE ATLANTIC-ANCIENT GEOGRAPHICAL THEORIES-PROGRESS OF THE NORTHMEN-FEROE ISLES-ICELAND-GREENLAND-ITS COMMERCE WITH NORWAY-VINLAND

FUR

AND TIMBER TRADE-SARACENS-MADOC-MARCO POLO-ORKNEY ADVENTURE-BISCAYAN DISCOVERY-UTTER LOSS OF AMERICA-PORTUGUESE-BEHEM-DIAZ-COLUMBUS-STATE OF EUROPE-FINAL DISCOVERY OF AMERICA-PROGRESS OF EXPLORATION, CONQUEST, SETTLEMENT AND COMMERCE IN AMERICA AND OTHER PARTS.

THE Commercial history of the United States would be incomplete, without reference to the maritime connection of Europe, anciently, with America, if such existed; or, if not, to its adventures, commercial, explorative, or accidental, upon the great OCEAN between them, belonging equally to the two continents, and while separating them and seeming an obstruction to their intercourse, forming yet, in reality, the most feasible and speediest channel of intercommunication possible between regions so remote. In the navigation of that Ocean, while America had not yet a sail upon its waters, nor a port upon its shores, she had forever an equal interest with Europe: the navigator, since all outward progress of the latter, lessened the distance which hid from her the knowledge of the former, and brought nearer to the western world the day of discovery, of civilized occupation, of Commerce, and of the general development of wealth, population and power. Could any one have been, from the outset, a passive observer from the American

Beside

shore, of the progress of European navigation, with what intense concern would he have watched the gradually approaching line of western attainment, as successive keels ploughed their nearer and nearer furrow. the practical adventure of ancient Europe, their mental explorations in this direction also eminently deserve our notice.

We have already shown that the seas are not, at least in that degree which many suppose, an obstacle to human movement, and have illustrated the propensity of men in a rude state, to wanderings both by land and warter. The Atlantic, certainly, was ever more formidable to the navigator than the Pacific, and as in connection with this fact, we know the progress of population westwardly to have been, in the early ages, much slower than in the opposite direction, it would be certain, without the evidence offered within America herself, that the discovery by Asia was long anterior to that effected by Europe. But, without endorsing all the fanciful speculations advanced upon this subject, we see abundant reason to believe that America was discovered and occupied by Europeans, long before the time of Columbus. It is not impossible, we might say hardly improbable, that even in their barbarous state, people from some part of Europe may have reached America, as we know that at several times, American Indians have, in their small canoes, been safely driven across the ocean to the shores of the other continent. And if we take away the fruit of accident in maritime exploration, how much would our geographies be impoverished. It is probable that the Esquimaux population, in the north-eastern regions of America, is the product of a European adventure, made even before the time of the alledged discoveries of the Scandinavians. No considerable migration from Europe could, however, have anciently reached the United States, or any other more southern part of the continent, unless afterwards the people so coming were extinguished, as their influence, even if mixed up with the original population, could not escape detection. Several theories have been broached regarding the very early colonization of America, by the barbarous people of northern Europe, but they rest, of course, on no sure foundation. The antiquarians of Copenhagen have given much attention to this point, and have fixed upon the period B. C. 1200, as the era of a navigation from Denmark, or the regions thereabout, to America.*

The Greeks and Romans were both in the ATLANTIC, and are both stated to have reached Britain, as the Phenicians had done before them; the object of the Greeks being the very profitable trade in tin, obtained at or near Cornwall, that of the Romans conquest. But neither of these nations made any explorative effort directly outwards on the ocean. From the voyages and travels of their own adventurers, however, combined with those of other nations, which the Greeks, especially, carefully collected and studied, assisted by their philosophical genius, they obtained some ideas relating to geography, which for their times and means were remarkably correct, and which were not barren of result upon the great era of discovery following so long afterward.

Plato, in his Timaus, mentions the island of Atlantis, as having formerly existed in the ocean, far beyond the pillars of Hercules, and as being of vast

At that time, nearly all of Europe was completely savage, and the population of its western regions was very small. The Greeks were just beginning to get a little adventure. Troy was yet in the hight of her glory. Phenicia was yet far beneath her maturity, and Carthage was 350 years in the future. It was 500 years before the Goths, the parent of the Teuton and Scandinavian races, reached Europe, and 750 years in advance of the Sclavon advent, from which came the Russian, Polish and Bohemian populations.