pared to accommodate the business to be expected from Lawrence, and from the connecting roads then about to be opened into the interior of New Hampshire and Maine; all which preparations had been ordered or approved by the stockholders. In addition to these untoward circumstances, affecting unfavorable the income of the road, the loss of the Salmon Falls bridge and the Dover fire had their influence. All these circumstances operated together to prevent an increase in the net income of the road, corresponding to the increased means and the increased expenditure. The effect, however, was not greater than should have been expected from such a complication of causes all operating the same way. Notwithstanding all these disadvantageous circumstances, the net earnings of the road, over and above its expenses of operation and repairs, have been for the two years ending June 1st, 1849, an average of 8 per cent per annum, and for the worst twelve months of this time, the last year, the net imcome was full 7 per cent.

The result of this severe trial proves the unquestionable soundness of the enterprise; and it must give to the stockholders and the public the greatest confidence in the future prosperity of the road.

It is also clear, from the report, that, compared with other roads, it has been economically and judiciously managed.

"If," says the report, "we compare the cost of 'stations, buildings, and fixtures' on the Boston and Maine Railroad with the cost of the same items on the Fitchburg, Old Colony, Boston and Lowell, and the Eastern Railroads, we shall find the average cost of these items on the four last mentioned roads, (in proportion to their length,) has been over 50 per cent greater than that of the Boston and Maine.

"If we compare the entire cost of building and furnishing the Boston and Providence, the Boston and Lowell, the Boston and Worcester, the Fitchburg, and the Eastern Railroads, with that of the Boston and Maine, we shall find that the average cost per mile, of these five roads, is 30 per cent more than that of the Boston and Maine. The expenes of keeping in repair the engines and cars of the Boston and Maine Railroad for the year 1848 was 10 per cent less than the average of the other five principal railroads connecting with Boston, namely, the Boston and Providence Railroad, the Boston and Worcester Railroad, the Boston and Lowell Railroad, the Fitchburg Bailroad, and the Eastern Railroad. And if we except the Fitchburg Railroad, which had run but about three years at the time taken for this comparison, and whose furniture must have been nearly new, we have the average charge for this item of expense on the other four roads, 19 per cent greater than the same item of expense on the Boston and Maine Road, in proportion to the miles run. If we compare the general expenses of these five roads with those of the Boston and Maine for the same year, we shall find that the average expense per mile of maintaining and running these five roads, is (as before) 10 per cent greater than that of the Boston and Maine. And if, as in the other case, we leave out of the comparison the Fitchburg Railroad, whose track, bridges, &c., as well as the running apparatus, could hardly have required much repair during that time, we shall find that the average expenses of the other four were 18 per cent greater than those of the Boston and Maine. These comparisons are deduced from the official returns made by the directors of the roads severally, and some of these are only approximations to a strict analogy, though they speak a general truth.”

From a statement made by the superintendent we gather some facts touching the wages paid the men employed on the road. Five of the six passenger conductors are paid $600 and one $540 per annum; the wages of the engine men ranges from $40 to $60 per month, or $480 to $720 per annum; ticket masters receive from $156 to $720 per annum; the salaries of 14 firemen average $29 42 per month; the wages of 8 train baggage masters average $34 37 per month; the wages of 11 brakemen average $30 per month; freight conductors receive from $40 to $45 per month; gatemen, from $13 to $30 per month. The salaries of the president and superintendent are $2,000 each; the treasurer receives $1,500. We think the company are as economical in respect to wages and salaries as is desirable, in order to secure competent men. If they err, it is on the side of economy.

From the treasurers report it appears that the receipts of the corporation for the financial year ending June 1st, 1849, were, from passenger trains, $312,592 44; from freight trains, $170,137 01; for carrying United States Mail, $6,536 35; for rents, $4,462 38; showing the receipts to have been $493,728 18. The total expenditures for all purposes amounted, during the same period, to $240,691 14; showing the net earnings of the road for the year to have been $253,037 04.

The receipts of the road for the three months of June, July, and August, in the years 1848 and 1849, have been as follows:

We have endeavored to place before our readers a comprehensive abstract of the report, omitting a few details relating to the car and engine establishment at Lawrence, etc., as of little interest to the general reader. The report is one of more than usual interest, especially as many of its statements were elicited by a Committee of Investigation, appointed at a meeting of stockholders, who had, in a previous report, animadverted with a good deal of severity on the general management of the road The report of the Investigating Committee seems to have fallen to the ground, as, after the present report was made, the old Board of Directors were re-elected for the new year by a decided majority, and the stock of the company immediately advanced 3 or 4 per cent beyond its par value.

PROGRESS OF RAILROADS IN INDIANA.

We published in this department of the Merchants' Magazine for August. (Vol. xxi., p. 240—242,) a comprehensive statement of the railroads in Ohio, completed, in progress, and chartered, and in the September number (Vol. xxi., p. 340-342) a similar account of the railroads of Georgia. Almost every mail shows that the inhabitants of our Southern and Western States are fully aware of the importance of railroad communication. Indeed, Georgia, so far as the railroad enterprise is concerned, may be regarded as the "Massachusetts of the South;" Savannah is already the terminus of some 700 miles of railroad.

The Cincinnati Price Current furnishes us with the following statement of the roads in Indiana, completed, and those in course of completion, and also the contemplated routes. :

1. THE MADISON AND INDIANAPOLIS RAILROAD is completed, and in full tide of successful business, from Madison, on the Ohio River, 100 miles below Cincinnati, and passing through Vernon, Columbus, Edinburg, and Franklin, to Indianapolis-a distance of 80 miles. The stock of this road is very valuable, and yields a large dividend on its capital.

2. THE TERRE HAUTE AND INDIANAPOLIS RAILROAD, commencing at Terre Haute, on the Wabash River and Erie Canal, which is in a direct line between Indianapolis and St. Louis, and running through Green Castle, and an agricultural country, for a distance of 74 miles, to Indianapolis.

3. THE LA FAYETTE AND INDIANAPOLIS RAILROAD, commencing at La Fayette, also on the Wabash River and Erie Canal, and extending, in a south-eastern direction, to Indianapolis-a distance of 70 miles.

4. THE INDIANAPOLIS AND PERU RAILROAD, commencing at Indianapolis, and running through Noblesville to Peru, on the Wabash River and Erie Canal—a distance of 70 miles, in a north-east direction from Indianapolis.

5. THE INDIANAPOLIS AND BELLEFONTAINE RAILROAD, commencing at Indianapolis, and extending, in a north-eastern direction, through Pendleton, Andersontown, Muncietown, and Winchester, to the east line, dividing the States of Indiana and Ohio—a distance of 80 miles. At this point, it connects with the railroad to Bellefontaine, in Ohio, where it intersects the Cincinnati and Sandusky Railroad, and also connects with the contemplated road from Pittsburg. This road from Indianapolis, to connect with the Bellefontaine Road, will bring the heart of Indiana in almost direct communication with the eastern cities.

6. THE EDINBURG AND SHELBYVILLE ROAD, from Edinburg, on the Madison and Indianapolis Road, to Shelbyville-a distance of 16 miles.

7. THE JEFFERSONVILLE AND COLUMBUS RAILROAD, from Jeffersonville, on the Ohio River, to Columbus, situated 40 miles south of Indianapolis, on the Madison Road. This road is located, and 40 miles graded.

8. A road is located, and partly under contract, from Lawrenceburg to Greenburg, from which latter point it is to be extended to Edinburg, to intersect the Madison and Indianapolis Road, and thence on to Martinsville, to penetrate the inexhaustible coal region of White River, or to Shelbyville, thence to intersect the Edinburg, the Knightswown, and the Rushville Railroads, all of which center at Indianapolis.

9. THE SHELBYVILLE and KNIGHTSTOWN RAILROAD is 26 miles in length. This road meets, at Shelbyville, the Rushville Railroad, which runs, in the direction of Cincinnati, to Rushville, 18 miles in length; of which the grading is done, and on part of which the cars will run the present year. Thus, it will be seen that there are constructed, and in progress, 514 miles of railroad, as follows:

All these roads that are not completed, are in a rapid state of construction, by solvent companies, and they will, probably, be finished in from one to three years, when most of the business towns, and the richest agricultural portions of Indiana, will be connected by railroads, centering at Indianapolis, the capital of the State; and all these places will be in communication with the eastern cities, by means of the Bellefontaine Railroad.

RAILWAY LIFE ASSURANCE.

It seems by the London journals, that the new system of life assurance, in the event of accidents by railways, is now in operation over the London and North Western, and also the Lancashire and Yorkshire lines. The assurance tickets for a single journey, irrespective of distance, are obtained at the same time that the passenger takes his ticket; the first-class passenger paying 3d. insures £1,000; the second-class passenger paying 2d. insures £200, and the third-class for 1d. insures £500 in the event of loss of life, to be paid to their representatives; and they are entitled to compensation in cases

of personal injury. It is understood that tickets will be procurable next week over the Lancaster and Carlisle, North British, Caledonian, Edinburg and Glasgow, Chester and Holyhead, Eastern Counties, Cockermouth and Workington, Stockton and Hartlepool Railways; and that arrangements are in progress to afford the same accommodation to the traveling public on other lines as speedily as possible.

THE STEAM FORCE OF ENGLAND.

The following is a late official return of the steam vessels and horse-power belonging to the royal navy, whether in commission, in ordinary, or actually building. The return is as follows:-Available for war purposes, 4 line of battle, 1,800 horse-power; 23 frigates, 11,759 horse-power; 48 sloops, 14,862 horse-power; 28 gun vessels, 3,906 horse-power; total, 103 of 32,327 horse-power, and of these only 6, 3,280 horse-power, are in course of being built. The following is the total number of steamers in troopships, tenders, yachts, tugs, and packets:-Three troop-ships, 520 horse-power; 9 tenders, 661 horse-power; 6 yachts, 1,100 horse-power; 11 tugs, 740 horse-power; 32 packets, 6,620 horse-power. Total number, 51; horse-power, 9,640.

MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES.

THE CONSIDERATE MERCHANT: OR, PAYING AN OLD DEBT.

There is a moral in the following anecdote, which we consider too instructive to be lost to the readers of the Merchants' Magazine. It was originally published, we believe, in the Boston Transcript. We give it as we find it in the Home Journal, of N P. WILLIS and General GEORGE P. MORRIS. We have reason to believe that the story may be taken by our readers as substantially true:—

A merchant, very extensively engaged in commerce, and located upon the Long Wharf, died February 18, 1806, at the age of seventy-five, intestate. His eldest son administered upon the estate. This old gentleman used pleasantly to say that, for many years, he had fed a very large number of the Catholics on the shores of the Mediterranean during Lent, referring to his very extensive connection with the fishing business. In his day he was certainly well known; and to the present time is well remembered by some of the “old ones down along shore," from the Gurnet's Nose to Race Point. Among his papers, a package of very considerable size was found after his death carfully tied up, and labelled as follows:-"Notes, due-bills, and accounts against sundry persons down along shore. Some of these may be got by suit or severe dunning. But the people are poor; most of them have had fisherman's luck. My children will do as they think best. Perhaps they will think with me, that it is best to burn this package entire."

"About a month," said my informant, "after our father died, the sons met together, and, after some general reniarks, our elder brother, the administrator, produced this package, of whose existence we were already apprised, read the superscription, and asked what course should be taken in regard to it. Another brother, a few years younger than the eldest, a man of strong impulsive temperament, unable at the moment to express his feeling by words, while he brushed the tears from his eyes with one hand, by a spasmodic jerk of the other toward the fireplace, indicated his wish to have the package put into the flames. It was suggested by another of our number, that it might be well, first, to make a list of the debtors' names, and of the dates, and amounts, that we might be enabled, as the intended discharge was for all, to inform such as might offer payment, that their debts were forgiven. On the following day, we again assembled the list had been prepared-and all the notes, due-bills, and accounts, whose amount, including interest, amounted to thirty-two thousand dollars, were committed to the flames.

"It was about four months after our father's death," continued my informant, "in the month of June, that, as I was sitting in my eldest brother's counting-room, waiting for an opportunity to speak with him, there came in a hard-favored little old man, who looked as if time and rough weather had been to windward of him for seventy years.

He asked if my brother was not the executor. He replied that he was administrator, as our father died intestate. Well,' said the stranger, 'I've come up from the Cape to pay a debt I owed the old gentleman.' My brother," continued my informant, "requested him to take a seat, being at the moment engaged with other persons at the desk.

"The old man sat down, and putting on his glasses, drew out a very ancient leather pocket-book, and began to count over his money. When he had done-and there was quite a parcel of bank notes-as he sat, waiting his turn, slowly twisting his thumbs, with his old grey, meditative eyes upon the floor, he sighed; and I knew the money, as the phrase runs, came hard, and secretly wished the old man's name might be found upon the forgiven list. My brother was soon at leasure, and asked him the common questions-his name, etc. The original debt was four hundred and forty dollars-it had stood a long time, and, with the interest, amounted to a sum between seven and eight hundred dollars. My brother went to his desk, and, after examining the forgiven list attentively, a sudden smile lighted up his countenance, and told me the truth at a glance the old man's name was there! My brother quietly took a chair by his side, and a conversation ensued between them, which I never shall forget. Your note is outlawed,' said my brother, 'it was dated twelve years ago, payable in two years; there is no witness, and no interest has ever been paid; you are not bound to pay this note; we cannot recover the amount.' 'Sir,' said the old man, I wish to pay it. It is the only heavy debt I have in the world. It may be outlawed here, but I have no child, and my old woman and I hope we have made our peace with God, and wish to do so with man. I should like to pay it,' and he laid his bank notes before my brother, requesting him to count them over. I cannot take this money,' said my brother. The old man became alarmed. I have cast simple interest for twelve years and a little over,' said the old man. 'I will pay you compound interest, if you say so. The debt ought to have been paid long ago, but your father, sir, was very indulgent-he knew I'd been unlucky, and told me not to worry about it.'

"My brother then set the whole matter plainly before him, and, taking the bank-bills, returned them to the old man's pocket-book, telling him that, although our father left no formal will, he had recommended to his children to destroy certain notes, due-bills, and other evidences of debt, and release those who might be legally bound to pay them. For a moment the worthy old man appeared to be stupefied. After he had collected himself, and wiped a few tears from his eyes, he stated that, from the time he had heard of our father's death, he had raked and scraped, and pinched and spared, to get the money together, for the payment of this debt. About ten days ago,' said he, 'I had made up the sum within twenty dollars. My wife knew how much the payment of this debt lay upon my spirits, and advised me to sell a cow, and make up the difference, and get the heavy burthen off my spirits. I did so and now what will my old woman say! I must get back to the Cape and tell her this good news. She'll probably say over the very words she said when she put her hand on my shoulder as we parted-I have never seen the righteous man forsaken, or his seed begging bread. After a hearty shake of the hand, and a blessing upon our old father's memory, he went on his way rejoicing.

"After a short silence-taking his pencil and making a cast-There,' said my brother, your part of the amount would be so much-contrive a plan to convey to me your share of the pleasure derived from this operation, and the money is at your service.'"

Such is the simple tale which I have told as it was told to me.

THE TOBACCO TRADE.

VIRGINIA TOBACCO AGENCY, NEW YORK, October 8th, 1849. Mr. FREEMAN HUNT, Esq, Editor of the Merchants' Magazine, etc.

DEAR SIR-Many of my numerous customers making daily application by letter and otherwise, for correct information concerning the present unusual state of the tobacco market, I take this method of conveying such information, and it is given honestly to the best of my judgment.

At the commencement of spring trade, the stock of manufactured tobacco held in this, and all markets in the country, was higher than for several years past, and this continued so up to the present period. The consumption of manufactured tobacco increases yearly; new markets are continually opening to receive it; California alone, this year, has taken large supplies, and its production, owing to heavy losses incurred