CANALS AND OTHER PUBLIC WORKS OF OHIO. The annual report of the Board of Public Works of Ohio, has been published. In the absence of a copy of the official document, which has usually been furnished for our use by a correspondent of the Merchants' Magazine, we adopt the carefully condensed summary of the Cincinnati Atlas: The amount collected on the canals for the last five years, excluding fractions, sums up as follows: 1847, Gross sum collected on all the Canals, $805,019 785,882 789,377 759,852 856,352 The greatest amount of tolls collected in any one year previous to 1847, was $612,302. The excess of collections in 1851, over any preceding year, is more than $50,000, and that, too, at a lower scale of tolls than ever before prevailed. On the Ohio Canal but little increase is shown, while on the southern end of the Miami Canal, business has steadily increased, notwithstanding the railway and other competition. The tolls collected last year were: The number of Superintendents on this canal have been reduced from sixteen to thirteen. On the Miami and Erie Canal the receipts were: The receipts for 1851 amounted to 24 per cent on the cost of this work. WALHONDING CANAL-A serious breach in this canal in May last, affected very seriously the revenue anticipated from this work. WESTERN RESERVE AND MAUMEE ROAD.-The receipts on this road were $12,745' being an increase of $1,177,01. It is suggested that the excess of tolls over expendi tures on this road be expended in extending the road to the Miami and Erie Canal which would add much to its usefulness. NATIONAL ROAD.-The total receipts of this road for 1851 were $38,577 11, the amount in 1850 was $42,636 08, showing a decrease of $4,058 97. OHIO AND PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD. FREIGHT TARIFF ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, JANUARY, 1852. The company will not undertake to transport freight beyond the capacity of the engines and cars which it may have for that purpose. No car is to carry more than 12,000 pounds, or six tons, which is to be considered a car load. No freight train is to wait to load freight, if that will cause it be behind time so as to delay any other train. Freight is divided into three classes :-Flour in barrels, live stock, and miscellaneous freight. The lowest charge on a barrel of flour will be ten cents, and per car load of 60 barrels, $6; except for distances under ten miles, for which it will be $5. The lowest charge on miscellaneous freight for any distance, however short, will be one dollar per ton. Flour per Mis. freight. Mis. fr't per 100 lbs. p'r o'r l'd. Cents. Dollars. 7. 00 To Pittsburg. Cents. Flour per Live stock per car load. 7.00 Darlington... All freight to or from Pittsburg to be considered as through freight, and charged according to the foregoing table. Through freight to have the preference of way freight. Miscellaneous freight, between way stations, to be charged five certs per ton per mile. Special contracts may be made for the transportation of lumber, &c. TOLLS ON THE JAMES RIVER CANAL IN 1852. The following rate of toll, upon a number of important articles, has been adopted by the above company for the present year, namely: New rate. Old rate. PUBLIC WORKS OF PENNSYLVANIA. A resolution was submitted to the Senate of Pennsylvania, on the 9th of February, 1851, calling upon the Auditor General and State Treasurer for information as to the real cost, receipt, and expenditures of the lines and divisions of State Improvements which that gentleman has promptly answered, and which we here subjoin, in connection with a summary view of the cost revenue, and expenditures of the several State works of Pennsylvania. ACCOUNTANT Department, HARRISBURG, Feb. 9, 1852. Hon. JOHN H. WALRER, Speaker of the Senate. DEAR SIR-In compliance with a resolution of the Senate, adopted on the 24th ult., calling upon the Auditor General and State Treasurer, for a Statement relative to the cost, revenue, and expenditures of the several lines, or divisions, of the Public Works of Pennsylvania, we have the honor to transmit herewith the required information, which will be found to comprehend a period from the commencement of our internal improvement system to the close of the last fiscal year. It may be proper to remark in explanation of the statement, that the cost of the works embraces everything in the way of construction proper, as well as all other items properly chargeable to that ac count. The revenue comprises the amount actually paid into the State Treasury, whilst the expenditures are made up of all disbursements (whether of an ordinary or extraordinary nature) attendant or consequent upon the operation of the works. In short, it is believed that nothing has been omitted or erroneously included in the statement, to render it other than a full, fair, and unreserved exposition. The revenue strictly belonging to a particular line cannot, of course be ascertained, as tolls are paid at the end of one line through to the termination of another. No other mode, therefore, could be adopted, than to apply the tolls to the several divisions, according to the offices at which they were received-the amount received at Northumberland being apportioned to the three lines terminating at that point. The course thus pursued, however, although it may affect the details somewhat, as to the question of profit and loss, when applied to a particular line, cannot, in any manner, do so with regard to the aggregate of the lines. The recapitulation may, therefore, be taken as presenting a correct statement of that question, applied to the public works in general. E. BURNS, Auditor General, COST, REVENUE, AND EXPENDITURE OF THE STATE ROADS OF PENNSYLVANIA. Grand total....................... $20,768,307 34 $21,119,680 53 $15,151,817 64 817,779 74 5,819 67 143,911 94 512,360 05 38,312 29 210,360 00 $22,093,447 13 $21,163,812 49 $15,506,089 58 7,712,531 69 70,782 67 17,584 93 157,731 14 70,782 66 1,348,384 14 $30,057,077 56 $21,163,812 49 $16,925,256 38 To the above amount of expenditures may be added $6,400 paid for the use of patent rights, and if it be desired to connect with those expenditures the amount paid for interest on the loans pertaining, directly or indirctly, to the public improvements, the aggregate amount of said interest, to the close of the fiscal year 1851, may be stated at $30,735,213 32. RAILROAD PROGRESS IN VIRGINIA. The public works for which the State raised recently a loan, are fast progressing. Four great lines of railway will shortly cross her territory; one of them through Piedmont, east of the Alleghanies and south of James River, to North Carolina; a second to Tennessee, through which it will be extended to the Mississippi; a third to the Ohio, at the extreme southern portion of the State of Ohio; and the fourth across North-Western Virginia to the Ohio, near the lakes. The annexed table presents a condensed view of railroad progress in the State, together with the interest of the State in their capital stock: Appomattox Railroad, (late City Point) Miles in Miles Capital State stock. interest. $100,000 $600,000 21 21 289,100 Capital stock, (leaving out Baltimore and Ohio Railroad) LOSS OF LIFE ON RAILROADS IN MASSACHUSETTS. $16,117,100 00 7,364,433 33 It may be a common impression that railroad accidents are rapidly on the increase; but the following table, prepared with some care from official reports to the Legislature of Massachusetts, for the last five years, establishes the fact that upon the whole, and in view of the great accumulation of travel, they are on the decrease : 100 1,500,000 240 99 ..miles 1,6021 6764 in progress, (under contract).. 6364 From the above table, it will be seen that the average number of accidents for the year 1851, on the miles traveled, should be 111, whereas it was only 93; and the average number of accidents to passengers transported for that year should be 34 whereas it was only 12-say 8 killed and 9 injured; while at the same time, it will appear that accidents to persons strolling on the track, or in positions where they have no occasion to be found, are on the increase; and it is a matter of serious consideration whether the Legislature should not interpose to abate the evil, by attaching some penalty to such trespassers. OUR INTERIOR COMMERCIAL CENTERS. Our interior Commerce has several centers-one is at Pittsburg, at the head of the Ohio River; another is at Buffalo, at the foot of Lake Erie; a third is at Chicago, at the head of Lake Michigan; and a fourth is at St. Louis, below the out-flow of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. There is also an immense Commerce that centers midway of the Ohio Valley, reaching up the Muskingum, the Wabash, the Cumberland, and other natural streams, and back into Ohio and Indiana, by artificial channels. Statistics, showing the radiations of trade and travel from these commercial centers, are interesting and valuable. We glean the following from a report lately made to the Senate by the Secretary of the Treasury:Travel to and from Pittsburg, 1851... St. Louis Chicago .passengers 466,856 367,795 Total during year ending June 30, 1851........ Ferryboat passengers are included, and the number of passengers at Cincinnati, Detroit, &c., are thereby largely increased. INFLUENCE OF RAILROADS. The Hon. CHARLES SUMNER, United States Senator from Massachusetts, in a late speech, thus eloquently and classically describes the influence of railroads on civilization. It would be difficult to exaggerate the influence of roads as a means of civilization. This, at least, may be said: where roads are not, civilization cannot be; and civilization advances as roads are extended. By these religion and knowledge are diffused; intercourse of all kinds is promoted; the producer, the manufacturer, and the consumer, are all brought nearer together; Commerce is quickened; markets are opened; property, wherever touched by these lines, is changed as by a magic rod into new values; and the great current of travel, like that stream of classic fable, or one of the rivers of our own California, flows in a channel of golden sand. The roads, together with the laws of ancient Rome, are now better remembered than her victories. The Flaminian and Appian ways-once trod by returning pro-consuls and tributary kingsstill remain as beneficent representatives of her departed grandeur. Under God, the road and the schoolmaster are the two chief agents of human improvement. The education begun by the schoolmaster, is expanded, liberalized, and completed by intercourse with the world; and this intercourse finds new opportunities and inducements in every road that is built. Our country has already done much in this regard. By a remarkable line of steam communications, chiefly by railroads, our whole population is now, or will be soon, brought close to the borders of Iowa. The citizens of the southern seaboard-Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile-are already stretching their lines in this direction; while the traveler from all the principal points of the northern seaboard-from Portland, |