cal lesson that their true glory and prosperity consisted in union, and a generous regard for the welfare of the whole.

As a source of revenue to the State, there can be no question. Esti. mating its cost as before at ten millions of dollars, the interest on that sum would be, at 6 per cent, six hundred thousand dollars per annum. Probable cost of repairs, salaries of officers, including all expenses of working the road, would be seven hundred thousand dollars, making the annual disbursements of the company thirteen hundred thousand dollars. This estimate is based chiefly on the data furnished by the last report of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company of the income and disbursements of the main stem of their road, for the year ending September 30th, 1845. The income from the same data in the ratio of the length of the two roads, would be about one million five hundred thousand dollars. This, allowing the large sum of seven hundred thousand dollars for expenses, would leave still eight hundred thousand dollars, or 8 per cent on the capital stock. But this estimate is based upon the productiveness of the Baltimore and Ohio Road in its present unfinished state, in reference to which it is very justly remarked in the said able report, that the results of their road in its present unfinished state are but "the small dust of the balance, compared with those which may be expected when the work is completed to the Ohio River."

From the same report it appears that the whole number of passengers upon the main stem of their road, for the year 1845, was 202,450, and the aggregate passage money was $369,200 30. Now when it is considered that this work is still incomplete, and that the travel will be immensely increased when once it is extended to the Ohio, and that the Richmond and Ohio Railroad, from its more favorable location, would command even more travel than the Baltimore Road, it cannot be extravagant to estimate the travel on the Richmond Road to be equal at least to 150,000 through passengers annually. Assuming this as a basis, and estimating the fare through at only ten dollars, the annual income from this source alone would be $1,500,000.

The income from freight on the Baltimore Road for the year ending Sept. 30th, 1845, was $360,720 00, or nearly the same as its income from passengers. On this basis the aggregate income on the Richmond and Ohio Railroad could hardly fall short of $3,000,000. Large as this may appear, it will be found on reflection to be moderate in view of the rapidly increasing trade and travel of the West. In this view of the case, where is the wisdom of that policy which shrinks from the expenditure of $10,000,000 to accomplish results like these?

But again, from the experience of the past, we have abundant evidence that the increased value of real estate in Virginia should alone stimulate the legislature to the speedy accomplishment of this noble enterprise. In this point of view this road will most favorably compare with any road in the United States. Crossing the great valleys of Virginia at right angles, it at once opens an immense and fertile territory which is now secluded and shut up between her mountain ranges.

Looking at the statistics of New York, it appears that in 1825, the year when the Erie Canal was finished, the value of her improved lands was $174,024,175; and that in 1835, ten years afterwards, that valuation had risen to $241,385,050, showing an enhanced value equal to $72,361,475!

Now, then, there can be no reason why the enhancement of real estate in Virginia will not be in a greater ratio on the completion of her great work than it was in New York, for its present value is at its lowest depression, and although no data are at hand from which to estimate the present value of her real estate, it will certainly be safe to estimate the increased value of the same in ten years, resulting from the construction of this work, at $30,000,000. Another view of this matter will demonstrate the propriety, as a financial measure, of the construction of this great railway entirely on State account. There are in Virginia at least 41,600,000 acres of land. Now when we consider that lands are extremely depressed in price in this State when compared with lands in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and that this great central railroad when completed would infuse life and activity throughout the Commonwealth, removing in a great degree the causes which have so long and so low depressed the price of lands, and introducing thousands of enterprising citizens from other States, and millions of active capital, no sane mind can doubt that its effects would raise the price of lands throughout the State on an average seventy-five cents per acre. This would produce $31,200,000, in the enhanced value of real estate alone, without reference to the value of real estate in cities, towns, and villages. The consequent enhancement of property in the city of Richmond alone, would in ten years be more than half that amount.

It would undoubtedly be safe to predict that the taxable property, real and personal, would be increased within ten years from the completion of this great work, as its immediate consequence, at least $100,000,000. Vast as this sum may appear, it will be found far less than the ratio of increase of property in New York within ten years from the completion of the Erie Canal-and it should be considered, too, in making this comparison, that in 1825, the price of lands in New York were comparatively high, and the State in a highly prosperous condition-while lands at the West were very cheap, and the influence of the canal was to equalize the price of lands in New York and the West, by affording greater facili ties for the market of western products. But the case is far different with Virginia. She is pressed on the north, the east, and west, with a denser population than her own. The surrounding lands of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, are of no better quality, but command a price from 1 to 300 per cent higher. And the tendency of opening this great thoroughfare, and giving free course to trade and travel through Virginia, will be to elevate the price of her lands more than 100 per cent.

From the statistics accompanying the last census, it appears that while the sheep of New York produce 1.92 lbs. of wool per head, the sheep of Virginia, with little or no care, yield 2.25 lbs. per head. Their wool is also of a superior quality, and has gained the premium at several of the last annual fairs held at Lowell, Massachusetts. These facts are important, going to show the superiority of Virginia over New York as a wool-growing country.

In the counties along the line of the Richmond and Ohio Railroad, there was, in 1840, a population in round numbers of 300,000, and these counties, in 1840, produced about 5,500,000 bushels of corn, 1,500,000 of wheat, and about 300,000 pounds of wool. The great resources of iron, lead, salt, and lumber, are along this same line, and would originate a vast and rapidly augmenting business. Indeed, it may be affirmed, without fear

of contradiction, that no section of country in the Union, of equal extent, would furnish, in the quantity and variety of its mineral, agricultural and manufacturing products, more business for a railroad than this same central portion of Virginia.

No State of the Union should, at this time, be more densely inhabited than Virginia; and yet, a few facts will show how far short of her rank the Old Dominion falls in this respect. As compared with New York and the country north and west of the Ohio, the following shows the census at different periods, viz:

Thus it will be seen that, while Virginia, during fifty years, from 1790 to 1840, did not double her population, New York increased her population more than eight times, and the West more than thirty-seven times!

Had the ratio of increase been the same between New York and Virginia, the latter in 1840 would have contained more than 5,000,000 inhabitants, or more than four times her present number!

These are startling facts; and when it is considered that a large portion of the State lies west of the mountains, and in 1790 was mostly an unbroken wilderness, and to a great extent still remains so; and that, still farther west, in what was then a wilderness, have arisen new States, teeming with their millions of inhabitants, and more densely inhabited than this oldest State in the Union, it becomes matter of sober inquiry why Virginia falls so far behind her goal. New York, since she entered upon her great works of internal improvements, has nearly tripled her population; and it is highly probable that, had the Old Dominion entered upon the same policy with equal zeal, she would at this time number at least 3,000,000 inhabitants. Nor should the facilities of Virginia for ma nufacturing purposes be here overlooked. The falls of the James River at Richmond, and of the Great Kanawha and Cole rivers in the west along the line of this improvement, as well as the Grand Falls of the Potomac, and many others of less note, give to Virginia a pre-eminence in her natural advantages for a great manufacturing state.

Her immense mineral wealth is almost boundless. Gold, copper, lead, iron, coal, salt, limestone, marble, granite, alum-earths, soapstone, freestones, &c., abound within the State. These treasures of wealth would all be developed by the construction of the great work under consideration, but are now mostly buried in the bowels of the earth.

From the valuable statistics collected in Professor Tucker's excellent work, originally published in the Merchants' Magazine, it is shown that Virginia holds a high rank as an agricultural State.

Her agricultural products in 1840 amounted to.....

Those of New York were estimated at....

$59,085,821

108,275,241

68,480,924

Showing that Virginia holds the third rank among the States of the Union in the aggregate amount of her agricultural products.

*The Progress of Population in the United States in Fifty Years, as exhibited by the Decennial Census.

In reference to some of the great staples of agriculture, her rank is as

Thus it appears Virginia sustains the first rank in the Union in the production of tobacco, flax, and hemp; the third in relation to Indian corn, and the fourth in relation to wheat.

Virginia in 1840 raised 10,622,345 bushels of bituminous coal, and Pennsylvania 11,620,654 bushels. Of salt, Virginia produced 1,745,618 bushels, and New York 2,867,884 bushels; thus holding the second rank in the production of coal and salt.

In the production of wool, the order of the States is this: New York, Vermont, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In the products of the orchard, they rank thus: New York, Maine, Virginia.

Of wine, there was made in Virginia more than twice as much as in any other State; and there is no doubt that for wine and silk, her climate and soil are equal, if not superior, to any portion of the Union. These statistics are given to show not only the quantity, but also the variety of the productions of this great State, and as some earnest of what would be the wealth of Virginia when once aroused to the development of her im

mense resources.

In the interior and western portions of the State are extensive forests of pine, oak, white-wood, cherry, walnut, and other valuable timber, which would also find a ready market, and add greatly to the wealth of the Commonwealth. Nor should the famous and unrivalled thermal, chalybeate, and sulphuritted springs of Virginia, be overlooked in this connection. These delightful watering-places, with their sublime and beautiful scenery, would all be thrown open to hundreds of thousands of visiters, and become sources of immense income to the railroad, and of wealth and refinement to the interior of the State.

There is one other point of view in which the advantages of this work will most favorably compare with other lines of transportation from the West. From the most reliable sources of information, it appears that the present cost of transportation of a barrel of flour from Cincinnati to New York, via the Ohio and Erie Canal, Lake Erie, and the New York Canal, is $1 35. From the same place, via the Ohio River, Pittsburgh, and the Pennsylvania works, $1 40; and via New Orleans, $1 38. Besides this, there is usually an allowance of some ten or twelve cents to be made per barrel, for extra risk, and for soiling the barrel at New Orleans; which will make the cost in fact, by this route, about $1 50.

The cost of transporting via Richmond and Ohio Railroad, and the Delaware and Hudson Canal, would not exceed one dollar per barrel; and when the lines of transportation were fully established between New

York and Richmond, the expense would be still less. This consideration is of very great importance when we consider the vast quantities of flour, beef, pork, wool, hemp, and tobacco, which will pass over this road from the West, and particularly in view of the exportation of American produce to foreign markets. As it is now, it actually costs the planter residing within fifty miles of Richmond more to get a hogshead of tobacco to that market, than it does the planter on the banks of the Ohio, in Western Virginia, who ships his tobacco via New Orleans, or sends it up the Ohio via Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

Richmond and Norfolk will both become great commercial cities, and the centres of a large foreign trade. This is the true view which a Virginian, proud of the ancient renown of the Old Dominion, should take of this grand work. Disdaining a condition of commercial dependence upon the Northern cities, it should be his pride to contemplate the unbounded resources of his native State, and his grand aim to build up, on the waters of the noble Chesapeake, marts of commerce worthy of the Commonwealth.

If Virginia would be true to herself, Richmond and Norfolk would soon become powerful rivals to the other Atlantic cities, for the trade and commerce of the Mississippi Valley. As a convenient market for the products of that vast region, and an entrepot for its foreign merchandise, Norfolk would possess greater advantages than any other Atlantic city. A Virginian should calculate the distance from Cincinnati, the city of the West, not to New York, but to Norfolk and Richmond. Assuming, for the present, Cincinnati and New York as the great centres of trade in the East and West, the distance between them, by the great lines of communication already opened or in contemplation, will be seen by the fol lowing statement :

From Cincinnati to Guyandotte,........

thence by Richmond and Ohio R. R. to Richmond,............................

170 m.

400

Richmond to Washington,.........

Washington to Baltimore,.

38

Baltimore to Philadelphia,........

96

Philadelphia to New York,..........

86

From Cincinnati to Wheeling,...........

386

Wheeling to Baltimore, by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,....

So that the Richmond and Ohio Railroad will open the shortest route between Cincinnati and New York. Besides, it has the preference in being the most southerly route, and free from obstructions of ice and snow -avoids the risk of lake navigation, and taps the Ohio River so low as to obviate the difficulties of shoals and low water in that river.