Of this stock debt the amount over due appears to be $3,021,249, besides the amount due at the expiration of certain charters, which amount, on the principle proposed by Governor Johnson of selling charters, may never become due. It then follows that the stock debt draws interest as follows:

In July, 1842, the Auditor of that State submitted to the Senate a return of the residence of the holders of the debt of that State.

There is no return recently made of the manner in which the stock is now held. It is probable, however, that the proportion is not changed, and that very considerable sums are still held abroad. The price now in the market is 78, and French fives in Paris are 72.

The interest certificates, issued as above for interest, have been disposed of as follows:-

Total...... 4,498,574 00 4,261,690 22 16,094 27 220,789 52 4,448 38 Should the policy be adopted of substituting a general banking law like that of New York for bank charters, a demand equal to $10,000,000 would immediately arise for the stock of Pennsylvania, and thus advance the price probably to a level of the 5 per cent of the Federal Government, namely, about par; and by so doing, as in the case of New York, draw some millions of the stock from foreign hands into those of the State bankers, by which operation an immense saving would be effected. Thus the above table gives about $25,000,000 owned out of Pennsylvania, being $1,250,000 interest per annum, equal to

300,000 tons of coal. If one half that stock should be drawn into the State, instead of paying away $600,000 per annum for nothing, the value would be retained in the State and accumulate its resources yearly, adding to its taxables and lightening the general burden. It would seem, however, as is usually the case when they prevail to any extent, that chartered influences are too strong to allow of any movement that militates against their interests, more particularly as appears to be the case, that the interests of the stockholders are not strongly represented in the State-a fact recognizable in the payment to them of the relief notes and taxing the debt.

It is to be observed, that the immense losses and expenditure of the State of Pennsylvania to develop her resources, have been of very little avail. As, for instance, her coal trade has grown up from nothing in 1825, to 3,000,000 tons per annum. Of this vast amount, but 192,511 tons came to Philadelphia upon the State works; the Union, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Delaware canals, and the Reading Railroad, all private works, delivered the remainder.

Art. III. THE PROPOSED RAILROAD ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA.

THOSE who have read the Cosmos of Baron Von Humboldt, must be deeply impressed with the novel, striking, and very interesting views there presented of the future progress and development of civilization in this country, as dependent upon and connected with the physical features of the vast continent we inhabit.

Without startling our practical readers with opinions that appear to be merely speculative or theoretical, (however true and pleasing we may regard them,) we will remark that it cannot escape the notice of the most superficial observer, that there must necessarily be a great dissimilarity between the wants, resources, means, and appliances of two people equally advanced in knowledge and the arts, one of whom exists in a compact and closely settled community, while the other inhabits a country of immense extent and of unbounded resources, the greater portion of which still remains to be conquered from the rude hand of nature. The most hasty glance at our present condition will suffice to satisfy the mind as to the real dependence of our national progress, both in form and amount, upon certain prominent and characteristic geographical peculiarities, such, for instance, as the broad and deep lakes of the North, the interminable rivers of the West, the lofty mountains of our central States, and the fertile savannahs of the South. It is undoubtedly true, that viewed in relation to these controlling causes, to favor the operation of which we seem to be eminently adapted by our spirit of enterprise, equally bold in conceptions and execution, the future development of society in the new world, offers to the contemplative mind the widest field of expectation and of wonder.

We already witness many striking effects of those causes. To some of them we have made a passing allusion. Another of these effects, and one immediately connected with the subject before us, is the character of those undertakings, whether public or private, by which the means of intercommunication, for the purposes of trade and travel, are established between remote parts of our territory. This character becomes more marked and peculiar, as the population of the country, and consequently its wants, are increased and ex

tended. To meet these wants, and to bring out, in a form of practical utility, the hidden means by which they may be supplied, there is never wanting some bold and ingenious mind that sees the true connection of things however apparently distant, and is ready to propose a scheme of improvement, by which that connection may be established.

A ready example of this occurs to every one in the junction of the Northern Lakes with the Atlantic ocean, and in the name of De Witt Clinton, the author of this project, from the execution of which his name has received a great and enduring fame. But such projects will always encounter, in their beginning, the opposition of less ardent and enterprising minds. They are, in fact, somewhat in advance of their time; and we, who read the history of their slow progress towards completion, have to admire no less the Antean vigor with which their authors rise up after occasional defeat, than the grandeur of the schemes themselves, so far outstripping the calculations of ordinary men.

It is worthy of remark that such grand projects rarely have their origin in the scenes of business, and of merely practical life. Commerce is a science, as well as an art-and it is not to be expected that those whose attention is engrossed by plans of individual profit and advantage, or by the multiplied and complicated details of the counting room, should always be possessed of the taste and leisure for studying the principles upon which their art is founded. Accordingly, the whole history and literature of commerce show that those ideas and rules of action that regulate the commercial intercourse between nations, those combinations and discoveries that open new channels of trade, and those theories that comprehend and explain the laws and principles of commerce, are derived from the man of thought and reflection-from the political economist, whether a student in his closet, or a statesman in office.

In the report of Mr. T. Butler King upon the RAILROAD ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA, which we intend to lay in a brief manner before our readers, we see the final step in the achievement of a great undertaking, precisely similar in character to those of which we have just spoken.

When Mr. King first brought forward his plans for a system of mail steam packet communication between New York and Chagres, and between Panama and Oregon, he was compelled to invite private enterprise by offers of assistance from the government, to secure the co-operation of government by urging the great and serviceable addition that these vessels would prove to the naval force of the country in time of war, and to overcome the opposition of his associates in Congress by arguments and persuasions addressed to their pride, their interest, and their local connections. He foresaw that this railroad was sooner or later to follow as the consequence of the mail packet system-that it would very soon be perceived that the chain of communication (to use the common figure) wanted yet a single link to be complete-and that the argument at present applied with so much force, "we have now established a steam communication on the water between New York and the Columbia river, but in order to make it perfect we must have some easy, certain, rapid, cheap, and permanent means of transit across the isthmus, without which our lives are subject to great expense, irregularity, and inconvenience," that this argument, so valid and so obvious, would be immediately stated.

The enterprise, which, a few years since, was regarded by many as one of doubtful utility, and at least as being a little premature, is likely to prove one

of the most magnificent schemes of the age, and we congratulate the author of it upon his well deserved success and honor.

But in the report before us, Mr. King has advanced far beyond his former position, (in respect, we mean, to this route across the isthmus,) by presenting some new and very remarkable views as to the effect of this road upon the general commerce of the world, of which it is to make this nation the great central seat and agent. These views, like those of Mr. King upon steam communication with China, are founded upon commercial statistics, collected with industry, and compared together with originality. From their combination, and a study of their common relations, Mr. King has been led to the discovery of new laws and channels of trade; and if the experience of the future should establish the correctness of those principles of commercial intercourse which he has been the first to announce, his name will be hereafter permanently associated with an important epoch in the commercial history of this country.

We will proceed to give a brief synopsis of the report.

It is based upon a memorial of Wm. H. Aspinwall, John L. Stephens, and Henry Chauncey, praying for aid from the government of the United States to construct a railroad across the Isthmus of Panama. The memorialists have procured a charter from the government of New Grenada, (originally granted to a French company, but afterwards forfeited,) which secures to them very extensive privileges on the isthmus, provided the work shall be completed within eight years, and be commenced within eighteen months from the date of their grant. The memorialists are unwilling to engage in a work of such magnitude, and so remote from our own borders, without efficient aid from the government; and the object of Mr. King in his report is, to show that it is the wise policy to extend such aid, and to point out the very striking practical benefits that are certain to result from the construction.

The first step in the course of the argument is to mention a fact, explaining the superior advantages possessed by Great Britain over ourselves, and other nations, by means of her maritime position. This part of the report is too interesting to be abbreviated.

"Great Britain is principally indebted to her skill in commerce and manufactures for her commercial ascendancy, but she is also indebted in no small degree to her position. She not only has the ports of the continent of Europe as her neighbors, but she is fifteen hundred miles, or two weeks, nearer than we are to all the other ports of the world, except the Atlantic ports of the American continent north of the equator and the West Indies. The cause of this is, that all vessels bound from our ports to places south of the Line, or beyond either of the capes, cross the Atlantic to the Azores or Western Islands, for the purpose of finding favorable winds, while vessels from British ports run down to the same latitude and longitude without the necessity of crossing the ocean, to avail themselves of the same advantages. This difference in favor of British commerce, running through our entire existence as a nation, has been a most serious obstacle for our merchants and navigators to contend with, and has of itself been a vast item in favor of the profits on British capital. Lieutenant M. F. Maury, superintendent of the Observatory, has, within two or three years past, proposed a more direct route for vessels bound from our ports to ports on the Atlantic side of the American continent, south of the equator and beyond Cape Horn, which will save about one thousand miles of the distance to those places, but all vessels bound round the Cape of Good Hope will be compelled to pursue the old route.

TABLE SHOWING THE SAILING DISTANCES FROM NEW YORK AND LIVERPOOL TO THE PRINCIPAL PORTS BEYOND OR AROUND CAPE HORN AND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

To Calcutta via Cape of Good Hope..miles

From Liverpool. From New York.

16,000

17,500

66

Horn..

Valparaiso via Cape Horn..

Callao

"The construction of the proposed railroad across the isthmus will not only do away this advantage over us, now possessed by European commerce and navigation, but will turn the tide in our favor.

"The average distance from Liverpool, London, and Havre, to Panama, is four thousand seven hundred miles; from New York the distance is two thousand miles; from Charleston one thousand four hundred; from Savannah one thousand three hundred; from New Orleans and Mobile one thousand six hundred; making an average distance from our principal exporting Atlantic and gulf ports of about one thousand six hundred miles to Panama. If, therefore, we admit, for the sake of the argument, that European commerce with the Pacific ocean, the East India and China seas, will take the new route across the isthmus-these will be a difference of three thousand one hundred miles in our favor. Add to this the one thousand five hundred miles now against us, and we find that we shall gain by this channel of communication, in our relative position to those parts of the world, a distance of four thousand six hundred miles, or of forty-two days. In the voyage out and home we shall have the advantage of our European competitors of nine thousand two hundred miles, and eighty-four days, as compared with the present route."

The gain to us in time and distance, here stated, is limited by the supposition that European ships will carry their own goods as much as formerly, intended for the Pacific markets, and will go freighted to the eastern terminus of the proposed railroad. That, however, adds Mr. King, will not be the case.

On the contrary, "the large number of vessels bound to the ports of the United States for cotton, rice, tobacco, lumber, flour, provisions, &c., will bring the freights for those markets as ballast or cargoes, whence they will be conveyed to the railroad in our own fast-sailing coasting vessels and steamers, which will also bring to us the commerce of the Pacific. This is very obvious, because, if European ships were to sail with full cargoes direct to the railroad, they would run the risk of being compelled to return without freight, or come to the United States for it. We are so much nearer to the isthmus than the ports of Europe, and our means of communication and information will be so frequent and certain, our lines of steamers and coasting vessels so constantly on the alert, and will move with such celerity, that heavy European freighting ships will find it quite impossible to compete with them. If this view of the subject be correct, and we believe it is, the construction of this railroad will throw into our warehouses and shipping the entire commerce of the Pacific ocean. Our ports are on the very way-side from Europe to the Isthmus of Panama, and our lines of steamers and packet ships across the Atlantic will come laden with the freights destined for that channel of trade. The commerce, therefore, from Europe to the East Indies, China, and the west coast of this continent, will be forced to pursue the old route or fall into our hands. The following table shows, stronger than language could express it, the saving in distance and time which will result to our commerce from the