an hour," the conscientious man of science admitted the fact, and the dangerous admission of but half of what he accomplished startled the committee and nearly lost him the case. The success of the Liverpool and Manchester lines, however, was soon appreciated, and Massachusetts at once entered the field. Her first effort, and one of the first lines finished in America, was the Quincy Railroad; then followed the Worcester; the Lowell and the Providence opened in 1834-5; then the Easton, Boston and Maine, Western, Nashua, Norwich and Worcester, Taunton, New Bedford, Fitchburg, Old Colony, and a net-work of railroads now in progress, overspreading the entire surface of the state, so widely disseminated that ere many months have elapsed, few points will be found in the Old Bay State more than one hour's ride from the cars.

The railroad system of Massachusetts has made such progress that it connects her great seaport not only with Albany and Lake Erie, but also with the principal towns of all the New England states, save Vermont, and is rapidly advancing across Vermont, via. Windsor, Montpelier and Burlington, to Lake Champlain, northern New York and Canada. Under the mighty impetus thus given, the march of Massachusetts has been onward ; manufactures, agriculture, commerce, and the arts have flourished; prop. erty has advanced in value; the cost of transit has fallen; population has been retained and drawn in from other states, and Boston, the commercial capital, is pressing onward with renewed vigor. In 1830 the population of Boston and its immediate suburbs, Charlestown, Cambridge and Roxbury, was, by the census, 81,500; in 1845, by the census, it is 155,000, showing a gain of 73,500, equal to 90 per cent in fifteen years. In 1830 the valuation of Boston was $59,586,000; in 1845 it is $135,948,700, showing a gain of $76,263,700, or equal to 128 per cent.

The progress of the state itself, although not as rapid as that of Boston, has been striking also. In nearly all directions new structures meet the eye; value has been given to forests, quarries, mill-sites, and produce in the interior, and it is safe to predict that the census of 1850 will give to the state a population of 1,000,000, and a valuation of $500,000,000, and to Boston and its suburbs a population of 200,000, and a valuation of $200,000,000. It would not be just, however, to ascribe all this to the railroad system; a part is doubtless due to commerce, manufactures, and the fisheries; but the improved system of communication has given to them a vast impulse, and they have exerted a powerful influence on the system itself. Tusserene, in his report on the Belgium railroads, informs us that the tonnage of arrivals and departures increased fifty per cent in two years at Antwerp, and thirty per cent in one year at Ostend, on the completion of single lines of railways. If single lines have done so much, how much may be ascribed to seven distinct lines leading from Boston?

CHARACTER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS RAILROADS.

The art of constructing railroads has been and still is progressive. At the outset it was thought essential to secure the most favorable gradients, and great expenses were incurred to reduce them below thirty feet to the mile on the Worcester and Lowell railroads. Deep trenches were dug and filled with broken stone for foundations, and stone sills, or sleepers, were introduced at great cost on one of the lines. The early engines were of moderate power, but were soon made more efficient, and the improvement of motive power obviated most of the objections to higher gra dients, and on some of the modern lines gradients of forty, sixty, and even

eighty-three feet to the mile have been introduced, and in practice. Thus far roads with gradients of forty feet have been run as cheaply as those more level. Surface roads conforming to the undulations of the country are thus constructed, and the absence of deep cuts and embankments exposed to the action of the elements, lightens their burthen of repairs. Most of our lines have single tracks, and for these the road-bed is usually formed twenty-four feet wide in the cuts, and fifteen on the embankments. Five rods is the usual width of the surface taken for a road, and the fences are now constructed by the companies. In place of broken stone, a bed of gravel or sand, well elevated above the drains, is now generally adopted as a foundation; all clay is removed, and water, the great enemy of railroads, courted away by a careful system of drainage. The stone sills, although at first thought most durable, have been found liable to break, and more costly and less elastic than wood. To avoid a jar, the Blacksmith places his anvil on wood, and such is the jar on stone foundations, that the wear of cars and engines, both in Europe and America, has been diminished by substituting wood for stone. The rails are now generally laid on sleepers or cross-ties, averaging seven feet by eight to twelve inches, and hewn on two sides, beneath which are hemlock sub-sills. The second growth chestnut has been found most durable for ties, and the most approved distance is two feet six inches from sleeper to sleeper. Across these are placed the rails; these are rolled iron, averaging 18 feet in length, and weighing usually 56 to 60 lbs. per yard. The pattern in most general use has a flat base, with a flat or rounded head; the base rests on the sleeper, and is attached to it by spikes with heads lapping on the rail, and the ends of the rail are connected and confined by clasp chairs of iron. At the outset, rails of various patterns were adopted. On the Worcester, a light edge rail of 39 lbs. to the yard was used, but was found inadequate, and which has been partially replaced with a rail of 60 lbs. to the yard. On the Lowell, the fish-belly rail of 35 lbs. to the yard has been tried, condemned, and replaced by one of 60, but as yet no good rails of the modern pattern and size have given indications of failure. A few of indifferent iron, whose upper surface had been rolled too thin, may have occasionally split at the edge, but in other particulars even ten years' use seems to have made little or no impression, and the problem is still unsolved, how long will they endure?

The engines now in use, and the proximity of the sleepers, favor the endurance. In England, ten to twelve thousand pounds weight is often thrown upon a driving wheel, but in Massachusetts eight thousand pounds is the maximum, and on many lines the average is from five to seven thousand pounds only. With cautious use, a long duration, and freedom from repairs may be anticipated for the best rails. The plate rail has received little or no countenance in Massachusetts. Its insecurity and instability-the inequality of surface which attends its use-the loss of speed and diminution of power which it entails, and extra cost of maintenance, which must exceed the interest on the extra cost of a heavy rail, have deterred directors and engineers from adopting it. As the first president of the Western Railroad once happily expressed it, "he would not have for a railroad a hoop tacked to a lath." The only specimen in Massachusetts is the upper section of the Housatonic line, which runs in from Connecticut, and a new association is prepairing to replace it with a heavy rail. The success and popularity of the system may be ascribed in a great degree to the choice of the rail.

COST OF MANAGEMENT.

When the Chevalier de Gerstner visited the United States in 1838, the average cost through the Union of running a train, was reported by him to be one dollar per mile run. In 1840, Professor Vegnalles, an eminent English engineer, in his report to the British Association, makes, as the result of a careful analysis of many English lines, an average cost of three shillings, or 72 cents per mile. In Massachusetts the average is not far from 65 cents per mile, while three of the more recent lines have actually run for the last two years, with a large traffic, at less than 40 cents per train a mile, and in all the lines the average size of the trains has greatly increased in addition. The first engines on the Liverpool and Manchester line, from which our earliest patterns were copied, are stated, in the report of Teisserenc, to have run but seven thousand miles each year, at a cost of £400 for repairs, or 29 cents per mile run. The Boston engines of the present day, with six to eight wheels, four fold the tractive power, and far lighter on the rail, perform with ease twenty-eight thousand miles a year, at a cost for repairs of three cents per mile run. In the wear of cars the improved axles, chilled wheels, the trucks and elongated frames, soft metal boxes for the journals, and springs beneath and between the cars, have effected an almost equal improvement. The training and discipline of operatives, establishment of inflexible rules, arrangement of depots, increase of reserved stock of engines and cars, judicious purchase and preparation of fuel, improved rails and adjustment of track, and increase of traffic, have all tended to reduce the cost of management, and it may be safely stated that the cost of conducting the business has been reduced more than fifty per cent.

In the printed report of the directors of the Boston and Worcester Railroad Company,* dated April, 1840, it is stated that the cost of transporting a ton between Worcester and Boston, including loading and unloading, was, in 1835, $23, and the number of tons carried 9,359; in 1839, it was $194, and the number of tons carried 29,108. In 1844, the Worcester Company, in a case with the Western Company as to tolls, claimed that the cost, in 1843, was $1 per ton-amount carried, 88,324 tons; but the Western Company would concede but 57 cents per ton, objecting to large items of deterioration and repairs, as belonging to prior years. The medium between them is 88 cents per ton, doubtless not far from the actual cost, which continues to decline with the increase of traffic. The cost on the Fitchburgh is materially less. The modern lines, with superior road-beds and rails, improved engines and cars, and less outlay on cuts and embankments, have, of course, the advantage in the race; but the managers of the old lines are generally aware that their policy is like that of the factories, "to work out the old and work in the new," and to keep pace with the progress of events; and their first choice of routes, and the business concentrated on their lines by an earlier start, aid them in their efforts.

Already railroads have decided advantages over canals in the monopoly of mails, passengers, and the business of six months of winter. Canals

in a long series of years have reached, or nearly attained, their highest

In 1845, the accounts of the Fitchburgh Railroad Company indicate that the cost of transporting freight, exclusive of loading and unloading, will be less than one cent per ton a mile.

point of perfection. Railroads, on the contrary, are yet in their infancy, and yet susceptible of improvement; have an indefinite capacity for trains, and with each increase of trains the cost of transit diminishes.* A great further reduction in the cost of transportation by railroads in Massachu setts may be relied upon as certain.

INCREASE OF TRAFFIC.

The ratio of increase on the lines of Massachusetts, has kept pace with the extension of the system. At a reduction of charges, and a diminution of cost, the business has doubled at least once in eight years, and this increase promises to be progressive. Occasionally, a disastrous year, an error in policy, or a rival line, causes a temporary reaction; but the vacuum is soon filled, and the traffic again overflows. The question most frequently discussed by directors is, how many new cars and engines shall we order?" and "how shall we enlarge our depots ?" At first, two or three acres were thought ample for a first class depot; a few years after this, the author was thought extravagant in advocating twenty for the Western and the Fitchburgh lines. The question now is, "will twenty be sufficient?" The London and York propose fifty for a metropolitan depot; and when we consider the result produced by the combined effects of reduced charges, extension lines, and the growth of the country, a liberal provision for depot grounds will be found most judicious. Our commercial cities provide extensive water fronts, miles of stores, docks, piers and levees for the reception of navigation; and when railroads are to receive and deliver, as they now do annually at Boston, half a million of tons, and the ratio of increase is ascertained, space must be provided.

THE POLICY OF MASSACHUSETTS IN HER CHARTERS.

The great question of the Warren and Charles River Bridges, inspired Massachusetts with a salutary caution in granting her charters. The Charles River Bridge claimed under a general grant of a toll for a long term of years, an exclusive right, which, if enforced, would have given the proprietors in 1844 a net income of $65,000, or about one hundred and fifty per cent per annum. This case was decided about the date of our earliest railroads. To secure the public, and obviate all questions for the future, Massachusetts has reserved to herself the right of reducing tolls, if the income exceeds ten per cent, and a right of purchase after twenty years, on payment of the principal and ten per cent income, deducting the tolls received. England has been more liberal in her charters. In a country where money produces less than in Massachusetts, she allows the income to reach ten per cent, reserves the right to buy, but provides that in such event, she will, if the road earns ten per cent, pay therefor a capital that shall produce ten per cent at twenty-five years purchase, or at the rate of four per cent per annum. She virtually stipulates to pay a premium of one hundred and fifty per cent to each successful enterprise,

*With respect to the repairs of the road and track, the annual average cost in Massachusetts, has been less than $400 per mile of railroad, which is considerably less than the average annual repairs of the Erie canal; as the principal part of the repairs is independent of the amount of traffic, consisting in renewal of culverts, bridges, sleepers, embankments, and clearing the cuts, but a trifling amount of repairs will fall on an increase of traffic.

In 1839, the entire expense of repairs, inclusive of supervision, on the New York canals, were $421,678 90, an average per mile of $658 87, losing not far from 26-100 per ton a mile, and the cost of freight not far from 90-100 of a cent per mile.

while Massachusetts is to pay par and ten per cent. A successful stock, therefore, rises in England from one hundred to two hundred and fifty, while in Massachusetts it has in no case exceeded forty per cent premium. But the stimulus in England is too great; it has apparently crazed the whole community, both male and female. In Massachusetts it is sufficient to enlist the wary capitalist, and the enterprising and spirited merchant, who expects an accession of trade, as well as large dividends; it has created a race of engineers, managers, and contractors, who look for business to branches and extension lines, some of whom embark largely in the new lines as proprietors, as well as contractors, and both directly and indirectly impel the system onward.

One topic remains untouched, which has occasioned much discussion on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly during years of depression, but it would be impossible to compress it within this article. It is a topic of deep interest. Mountains may be tunnelled or surmounted, deep rivers may be bridged, and remote regions united by iron bands, but tariffs of charges may be interposed, more impassable than mountains, streams, and boundaries. An injudicious tarifi, if too high, may prohibit trade, or throw it on rival cities; or if too low, may undermine the prosperity of the improvement itself.

The tendency of the rates has been rapidly downward, and with beneficial results, both in Massachusetts and in England; the reduction of the cost of transit at least one-half, demonstrates the power to carry with profit at half the original rates; reduced charges will open new fountains, but the charges still vary on the different lines, and the subject may be better discussed in a future number.*

E. H. D.

Art. III.-NEW YORK AND ERIE RAILROAD.

We have for a length of time intended to present to our readers some notice of this important work, which, considered in relation to the commerce of the city of New York, connecting it as by one link with the lakes, and thence with the mighty valleys and rivers of the west, is especially worthy of notice in a work like this; and which, by its length, its topographical relations, and the number and extent of its tributary branches, is, in this era of steam-power avenues, entitled to be considered the greatest work of

the age.

The public we suppose are not yet prepared fully to appreciate the merits and importance of this undertaking; nor do we feel prepared by any means to do it the justice which it appears to us to deserve. The more we reflect on the bearings of it upon the interests of the city of New York, and the long line of country through which it passes, and compare its tendencies with those of similar works extending from the Atlantic cities, the more are we convinced that its importance is not, and cannot yet be, generally appreciated. Before its magnitude or its utility can be properly estimated or felt, it must be completed with a double track, occupied by ten thousand cars, and transporting thousands of passengers, and many thousands of

The railroads of Massachusetts are eminently successful. The net income of 1845 will average nearly eight per cent, and the stocks average about ten per cent above par.