sequence of the paucity of travel; but it is equally certain that the lower rates of the American routes have developed a much greater tendency to travel there than here. The manufactures of New England are the main source of the profitable local traffic of her railways, and this resource our roads do not possess. Besides the immigration and great business travel between the east and the west, one of their profitable items is in the large amount of female travel between New England and her western colonies. The young adventurer returns from the prairies to take back a wife from his native hills; perhaps a sister accompanies them " on speculation." In the course of events the wife returns to her mother, or the mother goes to her daughter, and a third passenger appears on the stage.

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On the one hand it is argued by the companies, that fifty passengers at ten dollars each, are more profitable than sixty at eight dollars; but if the number increase to seventy-five the reduction would pay. The increase would be the work of a little time, and might then possibly be attributed to the progress of the country, and not to the policy of lower fares. Such a bold experiment probably requires more faith and patience than our railways, in their present distressed state, can be expected to exercise. On the other hand it may be said that the trains must and go, whether full or not; that even if no more money were received, they cost the company scarcely any more when full than empty; and that increased facilities beget both trade and travel, to the ultimate gain of the railway. The position assumed by the companies is, that there exists a certain amount of travel which must go, and that any reduction to this would be so much loss. Perhaps a compromise might be arrived at, and the experiment tried by a wise and gallant discrimination in favor of women and children. At present, a respectable woman in Montreal cannot pass her Christmas with relatives or friends in Toronto short of an outlay of twenty dollars. The fatigue of a sixteen hours' journey, and the risk of a broken rail

(and neck), are such as to require decided temptations to travel; and it would be sound policy in railway companies to encourage a spirit of locomotion in that sex which is supposed to be attracted by every reduction in price, and which has both the leisure to travel, and the power of obtaining the ways and means from those who must remain at home. In their freight traffic the companies discriminate in favor of the long haul, and it is only in their passenger rates that the pro rata system is maintained. The principle that a half fare is better than none, is also admitted, where competition exists, in their through rates, between Chicago and Boston. It might be found equally wise to establish special through rates between distant cities in Canada, instead of treating them wholly as local points, and thus create a travel which does not now exist.

As to freight traffic, the rates must vary with the exist ence or otherwise of water competition, which is the only protection to the producer against excessive charges, there being no limitation by law to the freight tariff except the neglected sanction of the government. The greatest development of a legitimate and profitable freight traffic will be that which will arise from an abandonment of the attempt to compete with the water route, and the adoption of this as an auxiliary, particularly in the carriage of grain in bulk; which, from its mobility, can be shipped and transshipped by machinery, and with benefit instead of deterioration.

EXPRESS COMPANIES.

The public does not derive the full benefit from the rail ways which these great improvements on all previous means of communication are capable of giving, and the railways do not earn all they are capable of earning, in consequence of the monopoly accorded to a peculiarly American institution-the Express Company; a sort of imperium in imperio, enjoying the benefit of the franchise of the corporation,

without assuming its liabilities toward the public. The necessity for the rapid conveyance of very valuable small or perishable articles, a business of great importance and profit, which is conducted by the parcels delivery department of the English railways, was soon perceived; but in America, instead of this being done by the railways, independent companies were formed in which railway directors, superintendents, &c., became interested, contracting with themselves for the transport of the most paying freight, and flourishing as an Express Company while languishing as a Railway. The importance of the institution was greatly enhanced by the necessity which existed for some wealthy and responsible association, to whom could be committed the transport of specie, bills, and negotiable security, which either could not be intrusted to, or could not be transported by, the United States post-office. The railway companies confined themselves to the transport of passengers, and of freight by freight trains only; and in some cases they have entered into covenants with the express companies, that no passenger should be allowed to carry any thing but personal luggage with him, even by paying the extra baggage rate for the same. Under this system passengers on the Grand Trunk Railway have unexpectedly had small articles taken forcible possession of and handed over to the express; the owner going home without them, and receiving them some time next day, with charges several times greater than the extra baggage rate, and in some cases more than the value of the article. Fruit, which the passenger hoped to enjoy with his family while it was fresh, was depreciated one-half and charged more than its worth.

The impolicy of this system, besides the ill-feeling it engenders, is, that it discourages the passenger traffic, the most profitable of all. A country resident goes into the city expressly to make purchases, and naturally wishes, if their bulk permits, to take them with him in order to save time and cartage. The company's regulations would allow eighty or one hundred pounds of shirts, &c., in a trunk, but

not one-half that weight or bulk of any thing else; and when the purchaser once experiences the annoyance and the extortion, he will not a second time submit himself to it. But there is a still greater evil in the system. The company runs with the passenger train one car, about equally divided among the post-office, baggage, and express. The latter, with a limited space, and dealing only in the more valuable articles, keeps up its charges so as to exclude a large amount of articles requiring either quick transport or prompt delivery, and yet not possessing sufficient value to afford express rates; while, where it has the power by the bond, it plays the part of the dog in the manger, and will not let the railway company carry these in the half-empty compartment accorded to baggage. The express charges are arbitrary, irregular, and often prohibitory. The public have no remedy, because the railway company says: "We are not compelled to carry by passenger trains any thing but passengers and their luggage. If you do not like express charges you must wait for the freight trains." These are irregular, and no facilities are offered for, or proper care taken of, light articles, so that the freight trains are not available for these, even if time be unimportant. But perishable articles, such as fruit, fish, vegetables, require quick transport, and space and rates which the express cannot afford or will not accept; and the railway is thus confined to the limited amount of these, with many other articles of traffic, which the rich only can afford to consume.

It is a question whether the railway and post-office departments should not do the whole of the business now done by the express. It is certain that the revenue of both the former are materially reduced by the existence of the latter. But if the express be an institution as indispensable as either of the others, then it should be treated as such, and be put under similar regulations and restrictions. Above all, some provision should be made for a parcel and fast freight traffic, especially for articles which will not go

either by express or upon freight trains, and at rates sufficient to pay one profit direct to the railway, instead of two to the express. As to the value of the express traffic to the railway, it appears that the whole amount received by the Grand Trunk Company from express companies in 1860, over 970 miles of road, was $27,600, or less than twentynine dollars per mile per annum. This company complains that seventy dollars per mile is wholly insufficient remuneration for the carriage of the mails, which do not equal the express goods in weight, travel at the same speed, occupy the same car, and have, like the express, only one conductor; they must, therefore, be greater losers proportionally by the rates they have fixed for themselves, than by those which the post-office has fixed for them. Assuming that the way mail on accommodation trains together with extra mails per ocean steamers, make the total mail service double in value that of the express, it would seem that the company, by their own showing, either get too much for the mails or too little for the express.

CANADIAN GAUGE.

The gauge of the Canadian railways is five feet six inches, although this is not the exclusive one in use. The St. Lawrence and Champlain; Stanstead, Shefford, and Chambly; the Prescott and Ottawa; and the St. Lawrence and Industry roads, in all 147 miles, are of the American gauge of four feet eight and one-half inches.

Some energetic gentlemen in the city of Portland, ambitious of obtaining something of that railway aid which had contributed so much to the success of Boston, conceived the bold idea of tapping the St. Lawrence at Montreal by a railway over the route of the White Mountains, through the vast forests of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Canada. The distance is nearly three hundred miles, with an intervening summit of about one-third of a mile in height above the termini, the line having besides the frequent and severe curves and gradients usual to such