that port offers advantages in respect to the matter of pecuniary profit. If we place our cotton on our sea-board, at a point where vessels may come and receive it with less expense, and in a shorter time than is required at other ports, there they will come to receive cargoes. This advantage we will have. The consequences which will follow the growth of a large commercial town on the sea-board may be readily foreseen. A large addition to the capital and resources of the State, an important addition to our influence on the Gulf, the creation of a great controlling centre of business and trade, a secure outlet for our great productions under our own immediate control, would be the results. The contributions by which we annually swell the stream of wealth which is flowing to the cities of our sister States would enrich our own, and a great commercial interest would be added to a great planting and producting interest. Under the natural operation of these influences, the State of Mississippi must take a high rank in the Union or out of the Union.

2.-THE TEHUANTEPEC ROUTE REVIVED.

THE early readers of the Review will remember the numerous papers which were published in it in advocacy of this great route, and illustrative by a thousand facts and figures of its manifold advantages over all others. We were, ourselves, one of the small party of seven or eight who met in a private office on Exchange Place, in New Orleans, ten years ago, when a discussion took place, which was reported in the papers of the next morning, and first introduced the subject in a practical shape to the people of that city. Immediately subscriptions were raised, and a company was incorporated, which conducted the most extensive surveys. Angry political discussions and scrambles intervened, and questions growing out of the action of Mexico in the premises-the result of which, was to destroy the enthusiasm which had been created, and well nigh to prostrate the enterprise. The scales have at last turned, and the recent mail contract entered into by the Government with the company, gives a new phase to the whole matter. The following remarks from the Washington States sums up many of the arguments in favor of this route:

That the route is the best, because the shortest and most healthy, has been very satisfactorily proved by the results of the survey of Barnard and Williams, and the reports attached to and embodied in their publication. Mr. P. E. Trastour reports that the Transit goes through a beautiful country, perfectly healthy, possessing mineral wealth, and offering, with a great variety of sites and climates, immense agricultural resources, from its superior soil. In the scientific report of Dr. Thomas Antisell, on the geology and mineralogy of the Isthmus, sufficient evidence is adduced to sustain Mr. Trastour touching the wealth and health of the locality. The mineral wealth of the Tehuantepec is of old recognition; and touching the health the report speaks thus conclusively:

Compared with other places selected for forming a junction between the two oceans, this Isthmus has peculiar advantages. With less alluvial land at the sea level, it is more healthy than San Juan de Nicaragua; and, from its more northern latitude, its mean annual temperature is less than that of Nicaragua or of l'anama. The latter place has, indeed, a temperature and climate truly torrid."

So much for health, which must be a primary consideration in all such enterprises. Coming next to the natural advantages of the position, it would seem that nature intended it for the highway of the world, no matter what the Emperor Napoleon may think of the Nicaragua line. Regarding it with reference to the growing necessities of American, European, Asiatic, or Austrian trade and travel, a few facts will set the mind easy as to Tehuantepec being the most favorable point at which communications between the oceans can be established. The following table, showing the distance of San Francisco from England, New York, and New Orleans, by the various routes, will sufficiently explain the pre-eminence of Tehuantepec :

Tehuantepec route.

Thus, England, by the Tehuantepec route, will save some 6,953 miles, or les sen the distance to California more than one-half what it is by Cape Horn, making the journey between three and five days less than by the other Isthmus

We need make no special deductions from these figures. Every child can see the importance of the Tehuantepec route, when written in such statistical simplicity.

In connection with the recent arrangement for the conveyance of the mails from New York to New Orleans in three days and ten hours, this line will lessen the trip to San Francisco several days, which will certainly be an advantage to our commercial community, to say nothing of strengthening the social and political ties between the Atlantic and Pacific States.

Then, again, China and India may be reached fourteen days sooner by this than by the Old World route, thus:

The statistics of travel exhibit the resources which must crown this route. Captain Cram's estimates show eighty thousand persons, and fifty-three thousand others in the Australian trade, as yearly crossing the Isthmus. The statistics since 1849 substantiate these figures. Being the shortest, healthiest, and cheapest route, of course it is but reasonable to suppose that all, or the greater portion, of this traffic will be by the Tehuantepec route. Thus the Government of the United States may well feel proud in extending its mail patronage to a company which will insure such character to the commercial enterprise of the Republic.

3-HOUSTON AND BRAZORIA RAILROAD.

THAT portion of the road which extends to Columbia is now ready for the iron, and that to Wharton is now being located.

The estimate of traffic on the road, as are all the estimates yet made in connection with the enterprise, is an exceedingly safe one. We copy it:

Passengers, both ways....

18,000

Down freights, including light and heavy merchandise, lum

This will considerably more than pay the running expenses and interest on the cost of the road, and with the natural increase which the roa' is sure to create in the traffic, will enable it, in a few years, to repay every dollar of the State loan from the earnings of the road.

4.-PROBABLE EXTENT OF STEAM NAVIGATION ON THE INTERIOR WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES;

INCLUDING THE RIVERS, BAYOUS, ETC., CONNECTED WITH THE MISSISSIPPI BY CHANNELS NAVIGABLE FOR STEAMERS. BY S. H. LONG, LT. COL. CORPS TOP. ENGINEERS.

-From a Report to Congress by Col. Abert, 12th January, 1848. See also Com

pendium of the Census for some similar statistics.

UNITED STATES AND RAILROAD EXPENDITURE.

5.-UNITED STATES AND RAILROAD EXPENDITURE.

235

A table showing the expenses of the General Government, exclusive of the public debt, and the population shown by census, during each decimal year, and 1857.

This table is worthy of attentive consideration. Since 1830 we have built nearly twenty-seven thousand miles of railroad, which have cost, on an average, $35,000 per mile, or about $945,000,000.

The following statement will show the number of miles annually opened, to the first of January in each year, since 1848, with their cost each year, and the total cost:

Number of Annual

Cost for
year.

Total cost.
$184,275,000

$32,620,000

216,895,000

The total receipts on the roads have been about twelve per cent. on their cost, and the net proceeds about five per cent. The following statement will show the receipts, running expenses, and net earnings to the 1st of January in

each year:

From these tables it will be seen that the amount annually expended in the construction of railroads since 1850 has largely exceeded the whole expenditures of Government, and that the railroad receipts for the same years have surpassed the Government receipts. Indeed the working expenses of railroads very nearly equal the working expenses of Government; and the entire expenditure is in the hands of a few men, who are accountable to no intelligent head for its use.Railroad Journal.

This includes expenditures from March 4, 1789, to December 30, 1791. + Estimated.

6. SOUTH CAROLINA RAILROAD.

THIS road continues to be one of the best managed and most prosperous roads of the South. The receipts of produce for the first five months of 1858, were as follows:

The increase in the up freights, during the first five months of 1858, amounts to $3,449 39; in the down freight to $17,241 30, and in minor sources there has been an increase of $45 32. The decrease in up passenger fare is $2,105 34, and in passage fare down, $3,242 46.

7.--MISSISSIPPI CENTRAL RAILROAD.

OUR interest in this road cannot easily abate, in whatever intervals of time or distance it is regarded, being akin to the interest of the parent in his offspring, although our claim is to a divided paternity. Years ago, alas! when youth and hope were a richer heritage than all that has been enjoyed since, under the boiling summer's sun, and at the risk of fevers and other bodily mishaps, we traveled, as a labor of love, with a friend, over nearly every foot of the route, with the view of awakening the people to a sense of its importance. It was a pleasant, though laborious undertaking; and we were treated with a good old fashioned, never to be forgotten, hospitality at every step, though regarded a little more visionary and impracticable than was altogether safe. Our Mississippi friends have since then worked bravely and boldly, and we rejoice to chronicle their doings:

The whole amount expended on the road thus far has been $2,500,000. income during the last fiscal year was $108,000.

The

The stockholders authorized the directory to issue bonds bearing ten per cent.,

to raise the amount which may be needed.

The old directors were all re-elected, except one, who declined re-election. The directors are:

From Marshal-A. M. Clayton, Walter Goodman.

Lafayette-Jas. Brown, M. M. Pegues.

Yalabusha-H. Torrance, A. S. Brown, P. R. Leigh.

Carroll-C. M. Vaden, G. F. Neill, Wm. Booth.

Holmes-A. M. West, E. Taylor.

Madison-J. R. Davis.

Walter Good man was unanimously re-elected President; A. J. M'Connico, Secretary; and W. F. Mason, Treasurer.

Bonds to the amount of $74,000 were sold since the directory met at this place; of this amount $14,500 was taken for the specific purpose of completing the road to Grenada, and of this $4,000 was contributed by citizens of Marshall; $1,000 by citizens of Lafayette; and $2,000 by citizens of Carroll.

President Goodman is sanguine that he can get the iron on liberal and accommodating terms in Europe, and with this view, and also to advance the financial operations of the Company, he expects to leave for Europe.