The 10th and 11th clauses are so important that we deem it proper to quote them word for word, and lay them before you.

[The sections quoted by M. Rodet are those which authorize the Queen in Council, in case it is made to appear that English trade or navigation is subjected in any foreign country to any restrictions, as to voyage, freights, or duties, to impose similar restrictions upon the trade and navigation of that country.]

This act, as you see, gentlemen, is addressed to all nations. Several have, already, responded; the United States, first, and then Sweden accepted its terms without reserve.* The Low Countries are now considering what course they can adopt; and the majority of those states which have already formed treaties of reciprocity with Great Britain, in Germany and North and South America, can hardly do less than conform. As to ourselves, the position of France is this:

At present, our relations with England are regulated by the treaty of 26th January, 1826, which stipulates reciprocity in navigation and duties, on the footing of equality, for the vessels and products of the two countries.

France reserves to herself the right to exclude from her home consumption products of Asia, Africa, and America, imported from England, or in English ships, as those articles might be excluded from Great Britain, if imported from France, or in French ships.

The limit of this Convention is ten years, and then twelve months after a notice of revocation by either power.

Two articles have been added, by which France is authorized to admit her vessels to the open ports of the English colonies. This privilege was regulated by an order in Council of Great Britain, which enumerates the articles allowed to be imported. Wines are not included, and are even excluded expressly, by a new order of 16th December, 1826, which, however, extended to the Island of Maurice the privilege which at first applied to the West Indies alone. An order in Council of 10th July, 1827, includes in the countries whose ports are opened, Ceylon, Cape of Good Hope, and all the countries lying within the limits of the charter of the East India Company.

On the other hand, France, by ordinance of the 8th February, 1826, declared her intention to exercise the right of exclusion, reserved by article 2 of the treaty of 26th January; and since then, whenever there has been occasion to obtain from England any articles not the product of Europe, it has been necessary to convey it to Belgium, Holland, or any other friendly power, before introducing it into France.

Raw silk, silk handkerchiefs, unbleached and printed, rum, arrack, and tafia, as well as cashmere shawls, which may be imported direct from England, are excepted from this prohibition.

Notwithstanding Great Britain's express abolition of the provisions of the old navigation act, the French government seems to consider the terms of the ordinance of 8th February, 1826, or of the treaty of 26th January, to which it led, as in full force. The Journal du Havre, of Tuesday, 8th January last, publishes a custom-house circular, containing two lists:

1st. One of articles which may be imported from England, with a certificate of European origin.

Mr. Rodet's statement is not strictly accurate, as respects the United States. This country has passed no act since the English Navigation Law, with reference to, or based on the provisions of that law. No legislation, in fact, was necessary. England, by the law, brought herself within the purview of an old act of Congress, and, in fact, accepted our terms of reciprocity, rather than we hers. See Merchants' Magazine, October, 1850.

2d. The second of articles, which being evidently the production of countries out of Europe, continue to be excluded from consumption.

5. At our ports, and centers of production, there is a general impression that the effect of the operation of the act of 20th June, 1849, will be felt among ourselves—some say to our advantage, others to our disadvantage. By what means can this advantage be secured, or this disadvantage prevented? This is the difficulty, and before going further we must examine the laws under which we are living.

Apart from the fisheries, to which we allow bounties, and the colonies whose navigation is favored by law, we find that, with a few exceptions in the importation of goods from abroad, the French flag is favored in proportion to the length of the voyage.

Coffee, for example, pays seven or eight different duties, according as it imported in French ships. First, from the French colonies beyond the Cape; second, from the French colonies within the Cape; third, from the possessions in the west of Africa; fourth, from India; fifth, from India beyond Sunda Straits; sixth, from other countries out of Europe; seventh, from warehouses in Europe, in foreign ships; eighth, from all countries, excepting where there is reciprocity; ninth, importation prohibited in foreign ships, and even in French ships, from certain points, England, for instance. Such are the various regulations to which coffee may be subjected, if imported for consumption. But it may be always warehoused, and reëxported. Our tariff is thus embarrassed with differential duties on every article; every one of these duties was enacted for special reasons, and has given rise to partialities.

On the other hand, England offers a simple tariff, equal to all, and she also says:

A foreign ship, therefore a French ship, may go to any point of the globe; may there take in cargo, carry it to England, and land it for consumption, on terms of equality with an English ship, and this is what has already been done by many ship-masters.

Our position being thus defined, the following questions at once arise:1st. Shall the ordinance of 8th February, 1826, remain in force, whose basis is a provision of the old English act, repealed by the act of June 26th, and shall the articles enumerated in the circular of the Director General of the Customs of 8th January, 1850, be still excluded?

2d. If France admit those articles coming from England, as she does when imported from Belgium and Holland, should differential duties, according to nationality of vessel, be retained?

3d. France having entire control over her own tariff regulations, and the arrangement of their details, shall she allow herself to be influenced, with respect to the import trade, by the threats implied by articles 10 and 11 of the act of 29th June, 1849?

4th. What would be the probable effect of legislative changes:-First, upon our trade with different countries? second, upon our manufactures? third, upon our navigation? fourth, upon our colonial possessions, reduced as they are to their present miserable condition? fifth, shall our ship-builders, whose skill is beyond dispute, be allowed to sell to British owners?

Allow us, gentlemen, here to close this brief and imperfect survey of an important subject. Our aim has been to facilitate your investigation and decision. There is much interest felt at our ports; the most opposite opin

VOL. XXIV.-NO. I.

3

ions are expressed. For ourselves, we dare not express an opinion, as to the course you should resolve to recommend to government. It calls for serious thought and profound deliberation.

Art. III-INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

A SKETCH OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT CONDITION OF INTERNAL

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

NUMBER V.

WM. L. MARCY was chosen Governor in 1832, and in his first message, in January, 1833, he laid down a rule, which, if fairly carried out by the Legislature, was well calculated to preserve a proper equilibrium between the progress of internal improvements, and a wholesome condition of the finances. He said:"In my judgment, the first object of inquiry should be, to ascertain the amount of expenditure a proposed work will involve; and the next, the amount of revenue that may be derived from it. If the revenue promises to be sufficient to keep it in rapair when finished, to defray the expenses of superintendence, and the collection of tolls, and meet the claims for interest on the capital expended, sound policy requires that it should be constructed." "Should the proposed work be connected with those now in operation, the effect it might have on the productiveness of them should also be regarded, and to a reasonable extent, influence your decision." In reference to the Chenango Canal, he stated that it passed through an "interesting section of the State;" commended it to the favorable notice of the Legislature, and expressed a strong desire that its merits, if brought within the rule laid down, might induce them to authorize its construction. Mr. Stilwell, chairman of the canal committee, made a favorable report on the Chenango Canal, and an act passed the House for its construction, by a vote of 77 to 12, and the Senate by a vote of 17 to 10.

In regard to the general fund the Governor said :-" At the period when the State tax was discontinued, I had the charge of the financial department of the government. Disapproving of the policy of impairing the general fund, I recommended the continuance of the tax; and in subsequent years I deemed it my duty to urge a return to it. It would be useless to attempt now to determine whether the policy thus recommended, and I believe every year since urged upon the Legislature by the head of that department, and for the three last years by the executive, was preferable to the course which has been pursued. We are now brought to a condition in which the expedient heretofore used for meeting the demands on the Treasury can no longer be resorted to, and a new system of revenue must be devised." The expedient referred to, was the act of using up the capital of the general fund to meet the annual expenses of the Treasury, and that capital, at the time of making the message, was nearly exhausted.

The message referred to the movement commenced in the preceding year, for releasing the auction and salt duties from the canal fund by an amendment of the constitution, and restoring them to the general fund; and urged the

justice of reimbursing the Treasury for all advances made to it from the canals, as soon as the canal debt should be paid.

Acts were passed at this session incorporating six railroads, three of which have been constructed or commenced, viz:-Buffalo and Black Rock, Utica and Schenectady, and Whitehall and Rutland.

A resolution was passed confirming an amendment of the constitution proposed in the preceding year, for reducing the tax on salt manufactured in the western district, from 12 to 6 cents per bushel..

An act passed for an additional canal commissioner, and Michael Hoffman was appointed by the Legislature. At the same session, A. C. Flagg was chosen Controller, in place of Silas Wright, who was elected Senator, and John A. Dix, was appointed Secretary of State.

Gov. Marcy, in his annual message in 1834, after alluding to the rapid increase of the trade of the lakes and canals, adds:-"It has already become quite evident that the capacity of the Erie Canal will not much longer be adequate to the exigency of the business on it. The improvements which will soon be required, are double locks to facilitate the passage of boats, and the enlargement of the canal in its width and depth."

The canal commissioners made a special communication to the Assembly on the 29th of January, in favor of doubling the locks east of Syracuse and re-building the acqueduct at Rochester. An act passed (chap 312) authorizing the canal commissioners "to construct a second set of lift locks, of such dimensions as they shall deem proper, on the Erie Canal, from Albany to Syracuse." Preparations were made in the summer of 1834 to carry this act into effect, but at the session of 1835, an act passed for enlarging the Erie canal in its whole extent, and the act of 1834 was suspended. Also, to re-construct the acqueduct across the Genesee River, at Rochester, with forty feet water-way. Another act was passed authorizing the Governor to ap point an engineer to survey a route for a railroad from New York through the southern tier of counties to Lake Erie, and appropriated $15,000 to be paid from the Treasury. Acts were also passed incorporating ten railroads, five of which have been constructed, viz:-Auburn and Syracuse, Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Long Island, Lockport and Niagara Falls, and Saratoga and Washington. Acts were passed for the survey of a ship canal, from Greenbush to New Baltimore, on the plan of E. C. Genet; also a canal from the High Falls of the Black River to the Erie Canal; from Rochester to Olean, and a branch to Dansville; and a resolution for the survey of the inlet from the head of Cayuga Lake to Ithaca.

In the first annual report made by A. C. Flagg as Controller, in 1834, he recommended a settlement of the account between the Erie and Champlain Canal Fund and the general fund. The report said :-" The canal fund has actually received from auction and salt duties, from the year 1817, to the 30th of September, 1833, the sum of $4,736,017 27. If the canals had not been aided by these auxiliary funds, and money had been loaned in lieu of them at the rate of 5 per cent interest, compounded annually, it would make a total of $6,671,554 64, as the actual amount of benefit to the Erie and Champlain Canal Fund, from the receipts of auction and salt duties." The report recommended that the canal fund should be charged with the amount it had received from the general fund, with interest, and that the constitution should be so amended as to authorize the commissioners of the canal fund to commence paying the instalments to the Treasury, as soon as a sufficient sum had been collected from the canal revenues, to pay the canal

debt. The committee on Ways and Means of the Assembly, consisting of Melancthon Wheeler, M. Myers, Amasa J. Parker, Asa Clark, Jr., and M. H. Cash, brought in a bill to carry this recommendation into effect, but it did not become a law. This bill proposed to charge to the canal fund, for the benefit of the general fund, something more than $5,500,000, with interest thereafter, at the rate of 5 per cent per annum. This would have given to the general fund about the amount which is secured to it by the 7th article of the new constitution.

The Legislature, instead of adopting this course, passed a resolution to amend the constitution, so as to restore the auction and salt duties to the general fund, as soon as a sum sufficient to pay the canal debt should be collected and safely invested. This amendment was consummated in 1835, and to this extent furnished aid to the general fund, on which the deficiencies of the lateral canals were charged.

For I

The message of Gov. Marcy, in 1835, after alluding to the act of the previous session, for doubling the locks on the Erie Canal, says :— -"I regret that this measure was not accompanied with another almost equally necessary, providing for the enlargement of the capacity of the canal. deem it important that the new locks should be made with reference to the latter improvement. As the commissioners have not yet begun to construct them, it is worthy of your consideration whether you should not now authorize this enlargement, and direct the new locks to be made in conformity thereto." Referring to the proposition to restore the auction and salt duties to the general fund, the message said:-"These sources have contributed to the canal fund, $5,000,000; and you ought now to settle the question, whether any and what part shall be returned to the Treasury. If it shall be determined that none of it shall be refunded, then, in my opinion, the levying of a general tax is inevitable, and should not be delayed."

Benjamin Wright, who had been selected by the Governor to survey the route of a railroad from the Hudson to Lake Erie, made a report, (Assembly Doc. No. 107,) in which the expense of this road, 483 miles long, was estimated to cost $4,762,260, not including land damages.

The canal commissioners made a special report to the Assembly, (Doc. 143,) on the 30th of January, giving an estimate of $1,167,000 for doubling the locks from Albany to Syracuse, and $242,000 for constructing a new acqueduct at Rochester; at the same time, they recommended the simultaneous enlargement of the Erie Canal. "The settlement of these points," says the report, "decides the future utility of the canal. If in the spirit of an enlightened and liberal policy, adequate capacity shall be afforded to the canal, our western brethren will be accommodated and their comforts increased; the revenues of the State will be augmented; a rich and increasing commerce will excite and reward the industry, enterprise, and skill of our citizens in agriculture, arts and commerce; and the State, by affording the utmost facility to that intercourse of trade, which improves the moral and social relations of civilized life, will at once confer on its own citizens the most lasting benefits, and on all others in the only measure in which a bountiful Providence permits States to do them good, the greatest benefits and blessings." This report was signed by S. Van Renssellaer, Michael Hoffman, S. Young, Wm. C. Bouck, and Jonas Earll, Jun.

In the Assembly the subject was referred to the canal committee, of which David Wager, of Oneida, was chairman. This committee made a report in accordance with the views of the Governor and commissioners on the 5th of