SOUTHERN ATLANTIC AND MISSISSIPPI RAILROAD.

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become one of grave and deep consideration to every individual in this western community. Other interests, however, have not cast) an indifferent eye on the vast and increasing commerce of the Mis-" sissippi Valley, but have been in their efforts untiring to open new passes into this land of promise.

"The sagacity of a Clinton at an early period projected a canal communication (which has in its result more than realized the most sanguine calculations of that distinguished statesman), between the Hudson and the Lakes and the north-western States.

"Under the influence of that most triumphant example have all of these States projected canal and railway connections between the western waters and those inland seas on which they border. All of these projects are in successful progress, some of them completed, thus diverting the trade of the upper Mississippi in a north-easter direction to the city of New York, which, in its magical strides during the last twenty years to commercial power, demonstrates the value of a trade which is only in its beginning.

"The State of Pennsylvania, with a like zeal, has constructed series of railroads and canals connecting the Susquehanna and De laware with the Alleghany, the favorable influences of which Pitts burgh and Philadelphia are already realizing.

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Maryland and Virginia are both on their march by railroads and canals to the West, and both seeking to tap the Ohio and divert it currents of wealth to the Chesapeake, and in anticipation, both Balti more and Richmond are now exhibiting strong evidences of a resus citating and animated commerce.

"Boston, though the last to commence, has, through the powe, of her capital and the acknowledged energy of her citizens, been th first to complete a gigantic work, prostrating rocks and mountains and intercepting the canals of New York at Albany-has recovered perfect and uninterrupted, her communication with the Lakes an the extreme portions of the Union.

"South Carolina, at an early period, had her attention directed t' a railroad communication with the Ohio, but, unsustained in tha enterprise to the end contemplated, she has since more wisely co-ope rated with her enterprising neighbor, Georgia, to complete a commu nication with the navigable waters of the Tennessee, with the conf dent hope which the call of this Convention would seem not to dis appoint, that the people of the West will not rest satisfied until the great work is extended, and like its rivers made to branch throug every part of the vast Valley of the Mississippi, and like its onwar population find no termini short of the Pacific.

"Your committee, therefore, in reporting on the interesting subje which has been referred to their investigation, feel encouraged to fin that they have not to develope or explain a new project, or to grop through all the uncertainties and speculations in a new theory, to e force its importance and its truth.

"The project of a railroad from the Atlantic to the Mississipp valley, is no new conception. It was long since presented to publ notice by Mr. Elliott, of South Carolina, in an able article in the the Southern Review; and at a more recent period was recommended h that veteran in the military service who continues to manifest his ze

in the great enterprise by taking his seat in this Convention. This enterprise, with more enlarged views, and in a more comprehensive, though more tangible form, now commands the favorable action of this intelligent Convention; in the character, and resources, and wants of the country through which various branch roads may be made to traverse; in the prominent points on the Mississippi, Tennessee, Cumberland and Alabama rivers, and on the Atlantic, which they will connect in close communion; and in the several physical features of the routes, demonstrating the practicability of them all.

"The main track of road from the sea-board passes along its whole line, through a mild parallel of latitude, not interrupted by the floods of spring, or by the ice and snows of winter. With the projected branches, it intersects the cotton-growing regions of Georgia, Alabama. Tennessee and Mississippi. It demonstrates, in one direction, on East Tennessee, the Switzerland of America, and on the western Valley of Virginia, beckoning to the Ancient Dominion to participate in the enterprise, and on many interior districts, rich in agricultural and mineral resources, but so secluded from all avenues of communication with markets, as to remain undeveloped.

"These roads locate their own highways of interior trade, as they originate the business that sustains them, and at the various termini proposed, they bring into intimate connection the ancient cities of Charleston and Augusta, with the modern cities of Macon, Knoxville, and Nashville, (and perhaps in the event, Mobile and New Orleans), with Natchez, Grand Gulf, Vicksburg, and the modern Memphis of the American Nile; a new city, but so imposing in its midway position and its commercial relations, as already to number 10,000 inhabitants, and so accessible to steamers as to have attracted the attention of the General Government as a suitable site for a naval depot..

"The preparation made at this point for the naval defenses of the country, still stronger enforces the importance of these roads for military purposes, in giving increased facilities for the transportation of troops and the materials of war; in enabling one army to defend two frontiers, and one crew to serve two fleets, as an enemy may either threaten the Atlantic or the Gulf frontier. It gives us as the basis of operations the chord, while the enemy has the arch of the circle to move on in his demonstrations of attack. In fine, by the magical power of steam, it gives wings to our arms, and enables us in our combinations to anticipate the movements of the enemy, and to realize the great problem of military success-Concentration of force and celerity of movement.”

Art. IV.-HOME AND FOREIGN GRAIN MARKET.

THE failure of the grain crop in European countries and conse quent stimulus afforded to operations in our own, are events which aturally enough attract the attention of all. We should be devoid if that sympathy which characterizes us as men, did we not experince some emotions of pain in contemplating a prospect of misery

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and want staring in the face so many millions of our fellow-beings. It is not possible at such a time to refrain our acknowledgments, as a nation, for that better fortune which has attended us, and for those rich and rare gifts with which we have been crowned. A season of unusual plenty has supplied our most ample wants, and enabled us to approach the world beyond with a full and overflowing hand. Nothing more than this could satisfy an American citizen of the excellence of the institutions under which he lives, and the unparalelled and inexhaustible resources of the soil he cultivates.

In every densely populated country, the most intense solicitude has ever been manifested in relation to the means of supplying, beyond the reach of contingency, an amount of bread-stuffs sufficient to meet and satisfy the necessary wants. That which is emphatically"the staff of life" must, beyond question, occupy a position of first importance. The destitution and famine which sometimes have prevailed in such countries, too fearfully illustrate the truth of this. If we take up the Statute Book of Great Britain, we shall have a forcible commentary upon the text. What legislation after legislation has she not resorted to? what schemes and policies adopted in hope, and abandoned in despair? what labors of statesmen-what devices of ministry-and all directed to the one end! Hundreds of years have passed away since her labors were begun, and has she arrived any nearer to their consummation? The most lamentable ignorance and short-sightedness has prevailed in relation to interests the most important of all. Her best minds are beginning reluctantly to confess it, and the people-the people, for whom all of this labor was undertaken, as it is pretended-are demanding now, wherein they have been benefited, and what the complicated and arbitrary provisions of the corn laws have achieved for the nation?

Great Britain presents at this moment a melancholy instance of excessive legislation-of laws based upon wrong principles and of ruinous tendency-of land proprietors sinking beneath their own devices, and of a population-a working and a toiling populationreduced to extremities of suffering and want.

We shall briefly consider the history of British policy in relation to the subject under discussion, furnish statistics of British corn trade, and exhibit the past and the present, as well as the future prospects of our own country, in the same connection.

The first corn system adopted in Great Britain was that of nonexportation. This prevailed for three hundred years prior to the reign of Henry VI. It was not seen here, that to prevent the ex- . portation of a commodity, was to prevent its production above the lowest wants of a country, and increase the danger of famine. In 1436, exportation was tolerated, but only with severe restrictions; and importation, which had hitherto been free, began now to be saddled with conditions. In 1562, exportation was placed on a footing more disadvantageous to it, by requiring the price to be four shillings per quarter higher at home, before it was allowed. In 1571, a duty on grain exports was adopted. This proved so unpopular in time, to the agriculturists themselves, that in 1672 it was taken off, and substituted by one more favorable to exportation.

A new system was now introduced utterly at war with those of a previous date. By the statute 1 William and Mary, a bounty was actually held out to exporters of five shillings on every quarter of wheat, while the price continued at or below forty-eight shillings: so singular has been the fluctuation.

For a number of years, under the operation of this system, there were large exports of grain, which, in ten years, drew upon the bounty fund to the amount of £1,515,000. Even this, however, did not have the effect desired. The severe and almost prohibitory restrictions on imports, adopted in an act of 1670, and the great augmentation of population, reduced largely the excess of exportation, and occasioned another important change in the policy of the country. A statute of 1773, admitted foreign wheat free of duty, whenever the price was above forty-eight shillings per quarter. The prices in 1772-3-4, were fifty, fifty-one, and fifty-two shillings.

The following table exhibits the position of Great Britain in relation to the corn trade, for the hundred years preceding the year 1800:

WHEAT AND FLOUR EXPORTED AND IMPORTED FROM 1697 TO 1800(WINCHESTER MEASURE).

The liberal toleration of grain imports by the statute of 1773, gave great dissatisfaction to the landed interests, who had weight enough soon to procure its modification, by raising the scale when imports would be allowed, with a nominal duty, from forty-eight to fifty-four shillings. The bounty upon exports was still continued. Thirteen years after (1804), the agriculturists cried out again, and raised the scale of imports still higher, viz.: to 66 shillings, when every kind of soil was at once taken into cultivation, even the poorest. Under this exclusive system, corn rose in 1814 to an unprecedented height, and millions of bushels poured into the kingdom, which occasioned new alarm to the landholders. A monstrous bill was prepared, which, had it been adopted in Parliament, would have proved absolutely ruinous to the interests of the poorer classes. Its only object could have been to keep up the prices reached in 1814. Wheat, when under sixtyfour shillings the quarter at home, was to be charged with a duty of twenty-four shillings; when it exceeded eighty-six shillings, the duty only then was to be one shilling, or nominal. The nation, almost by one accord, rose up in condemnation of so odious a measure, and the ministers had not face enough to press it into operation.

In 1815, Parliament having examined leading agriculturists, and they being unanimous in the sentiment that the inferior lands would have to be thrown out of cultivation under the law of 1804, agreed upon a new bill. By this, corn for home consumption was absolutely forbidden to be entered from foreign ports, unless when wheat was selling at eighty shillings per quarter in England, and other grain in proportion. This was intended to raise prices up to eighty shillings, and render them permanent at that. But the signal disappointment of these grinding and greedy interests is exhibited in the following table, taken from McCulloch, vol. i. p. 505.*

* Strange to say, a protest by ten Peers, and, of course, landholders, against this measure, was entered, in the House of Lords. This protest was drawn up by Lord Grenville, and went against all restriction whatever in the corn trade, arguing the question on high principles. We extract the 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th grounds of dissent.

"II. Because we think that the great practical rule, of leaving all commerce unfettered, applies more peculiarly, and on still stronger grounds of justice as well as policy, to the corn trade than to any other. Irresistible, indeed, must be that necessity which could, in our judgment, authorize the legislature to tamper with the sustenance of the people, and to impede the free purchase of that article on which depends the existence of so large a portion of the community.

"III. Because we think that the expectations of ultimate benefit from this measure, are founded on a delusive theory. We cannot persuade ourselves that this law will ever contribute to produce plenty, cheapness, or steadiness of price. So long as it operates at all, its effects must be the opposite of these. Monopoly is the parent of scarcity, of dearness, and of uncertainty. To cut off any of the sources of supply, can only tend to lessen its abundance; to close against ourselves the cheapest market for any commodity, must enhance the price at which we purchase it; and to confine the consumer of corn to the produce of his own country, is to refuse to ourselves the benefit of that provision which Providence itself has made for equalizing to man the variations of climate and of seasons.

"IV. But whatever may be the future consequences of this law at some distant and uncertain period, we see with pain that these hopes must be purchased at the expense of a great and present evil. To compel the consumer to purchase corn dearer at home than it might be imported from abroad, is the immediate practical effect of this law. In this way alone can it operate. Its present protection, its promised extension of agriculture, must result (if at all) from the profits which it creates by keeping up the price of corn to an artificial level. These future benefits are the consequences expected, but, as we confidently believe, erroneously expected, from giving a bounty to the grower of corn, by a tax levied on its consumer.

'Lastly. Because if we could approve of the principle and purpose of this law, we