MR. WHITNEY'S ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC RAILWAY.
Most of the readers of the Spectator have a general idea of the project for building a railway across the North American continent, which Mr. Asa Whitney has for some years kept before the American public. It would appear that now, just when the mass of his fellow-citizens have been converted to a belief in the feasibility of his plan, the progress of private settlement in the North-western States of the Union is beginning to make the possibility of carrying it out within the territories of the United States a matter of doubt. Under some apprehension upon this point, and not perhaps without a shrewd calculation that British rivalry may quicken the development of the scheme in his own country, if it should still be practicable there, Mr. Whitney has come over to England, and published in the columns of the Times and Morning Chronicle letters giving a more detailed explanation of his objects and plans than had pre- viously appeared among us.
The objects are stated with cosmopolitan breadth. From Europe a surplus population of 300,000 to 400,000 must yearly be cast off to seek new homes. China with her hundreds of millions of souls is obliged to destroy life to pre- serve it ; that is, to destroy one person so that another of greater hope and promise may have sufficient food to sustain life. China has no mercantile marine competent to carry off her millions to the islands of the Pacific and the Western slope of the American continent, as Europe has to transport her surplus to the Atlantic slope of the American continent. The building of a railway from one side of the American continent to the other will at once facilitate the settlement of the illimitable lands which are open to the European populations on the Atlantic slope of America ; while, by carrying the Anglo-Saxon girdle across the continent to the Pacific shores, it will place European intellect, energy, and commerce, at the service of Eastern Asia for the distribution of its surplus millions over the myriad islands of the Pacific, the expanses of Australia, and the fertile and temperate region, as large as Europe without Russia, which stretches from California through American and British Oregon to the North.
Can such a railway be built ? and if built, will it afford a means of transit preferable to those now existing or capable of development? Mr. Whitney answers both questions in the affirmative. The existing routes are—by the Mediterranean and the Isthmus of Suez, by the Cape of Good Hope, by Cape Horn, and by the Isthmus of Panama. The first route never can be of use for commerce, or for the emigration of nations. The course of merchandise from India is still round the Cape of Good Hope ; and it is the opinion of engineers and merchanta- among the former, of Mr. Robert Stephenson—that if the Isthmus of Suez were swept away, the dangers of navigation, the cost of insurance, and the deterioration to goods from climate, would prevent that route from becoming the highway of Eastern commerce. There remain the two routes by the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, and the third route across some portion of the narrow isthmus which connects the two American con- tinents and separates the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
From a globe you can get an accurate idea of the distances by these routes with far more readiness than from maps and calculations. If you take a piece of string and place one end of it on Liverpool or London, you will find that nearly all the points on the Western coast of North America are at equal distances, over the bulge of the earth's crust, from England. It is about 5400 miles to Panama, and about 5480 miles to Vancouver's Island. Then if you make Panama or Vancouver's Island your fixed point, you find that it requires less string to reach any one of the centres of population in the Polynesia, or on the coast of Australia, or on the coast of Asia, from Vancouver's Island than from Panama. Even to the Pacific groups of the Marquesas and the Low Archipelago, the distance is shorter from Vancou- ver's Island; to New Zealand it is still more against Panama ; from New Guinea and the Northern coast of Australia it is half the breadth of North America further ; and from Canton it is the whole breadth of North America and half way across the Atlantic further. In point of mere distance, then, the route across North America is shorter than that across Central America, to every place in the Western Pacific, to New Zealand, Auatralia, New
Guinea, and the whole of the Asiatic coast from Japan to Singapore. If now you take your string and compare the distance to these places by Panama and by Cape Horn, you again find them rather against the Panama route.
And lastly, if you measure the route round by the Cape of Good Hope, you find a saving of distance by that route to all places as far as Sydney on the Eastern coast of Australia and Canton on the Eastern coast of Asia. But this is not all : the Panama route is the most time-consuming, both to sailing and steaming vessels, from adverse trade winds and ocean currents. Sailing-vessels in going between Panama and England on the At- lantic side, and between Panama and the Asiatic or Polynesian ports on the Pacific side, would have to forsake their own direct course, and go indirectly into the course of vessels running directly between London and New York or Cape Horn on this side, and between Canton and Vancou- ver's Island or Cape Horn on the other side. From London to Pa- nama the best course is pretty direct ; but from Panama home again, the best course is to go round the Havannah, up the North American coast with the Gulf stream to Long Island, and then across from Newfound- land in the very track of the New York liners. From Panama across the Pacific the best course would be with the trade winds to the Sandwich Is- lands—the very point to which a ship could come in about two-thirds of the distance from Vancouver's Island ; and thence onward in the same track with ships from Vancouver's Island to Canton. For more Southerly points of the outward voyage the trade winds would more favour the voyager from Pa- nama ; yet he would still have further to go than from Vancouver's Island, or than from Cape Horn. But the homeward voyage to Panama, from Poly- nesia, from Australia, or from the Asiatic coast, would be immensely against Panama. Owing to the trade winds which blow constantly Westward from Panama, no ship can cross the Pacific directly Eastward to that port : from the South all ships are obliged to sail "on a wind," in a great angle till they get into the same track which vessels take in going to Cape Born ; and then tacking Northward, they must beat up the whole of the coast of South America to Panama. Ships coming from points Northward of New Guinea must in the opposite mode go down the China coast to Japan, and crossing under the Fox Islands, must sail up the Oregon coast, and actually pass Van- couver's Island, to come to Panama. In actual time consumed the voyages -outward would be longer, and the voyages homeward would be some weeks longer over the Panama route than over the route either by Cape Horn or by the Cape of Good Hope. Were there an open strait at the Isthmus of Mexico, a ship would not come home that way ; for the voyage would take 120 days by that route, and might be made in about 99 by the Cape of Good Hope Against these distances and times Mr. Whitney sets the times by his rail- way from Lake Michigan—up to which the existing system of railways is already nearly completed—across to the Pacific coast of Oregon at Vancou- ver's Island or Puget Sound. First for passengers : from Liverpool to Hali- fax at present rates ten days ; across the continent, at thirty miles an hour, four and a half days; to China by steam, fifteen days : altogether 29} days. For freight, the journey would be performed by rail and sail in 58 days. The saving of time is about one-half for freight, and two-thirds for pas- sengers, to Canton. The relative cost he calculates thus. Freight between Liverpool and New York, 3 dollars, or 13s. 6d. : take half a ton of young hysou teas, of which it requires two tons measurement to make one ton weight, and which has about the average bulk and weight of freighted com- modities ; charge half a cent (a farthing) per ton per mile—a high rate for a line which has no dividends to pay ; from Canton to the Pacific station of the railway, ti dollars would be a high freight ; across on the road to Lake Michigan, 2000 miles, 5 dollars more; thence to Halifax, 1000 miles, at a cent per ton on dividend-paying lines, 5 dollars more ; transshipments would raise the total freight from Canton to Liverpool to 17 dollars 90 cents. The present rates average 20 dollars. There is thus a direct saving of ten per cent on the freight ; besides the advantages gained in speed, insurance, and in the condition of the commodities, from their continuous passage through a temperate climate. Beyond the effect on Asiatic freights there would be the effect in bringing the food produce of the great Mississippi valley within reach of the European millions. The Southern, the Central, and the Northern States of the Union, and Canada, are all pushing their railway systems forward into the great basin of the Mississippi; and when the Halifax and Quebec and Montreal roads are joined on to the Canadian line from Niagara to Michigan, England too will have her line direct to that boundless region of fertile lands. When all those ways are completed, the Western farmer " will supply flour at the Atlantic cities for 3 dollars to 3% dollars per barrel, Indian corn at 40 cents per bushel, and meats equally low."
These explanations bring us to the particular features of Mr. Whitney's project. He chooses for his point of departure the shore of Lake Michigan ; and boldly striking Westward, he threads the Rocky Mountains at one of se- veral practicable tracks where the range sinks into a chain of comparatively low hills, and so he comes to the Pacific shore at the mouth of the Frazier's river. The whole distance is about 2030 miles. Of this space the first 800 miles are the finest agricultural land in the world ; the next 1100 miles are not as a whole eligible for settlement, but they contain ex- tensive tracks of fine land, and abundance of timber ; the 100 miles at the Pacific end of the line, again, are of as good quality as the best lands at the opposite end. The peculiarity of Mr. Whitney's scheme consists in the fact that these lands are now open wilderness, inaccessible to the settler, and dis- posable by the state. If they were not wilderness, the line could not be made. The scheme is this. The Federal Government is asked to grant Mr. NVhit- ney a belt of country sixty miles broad along the whole length of his line, from Lake Michigan to the Pacific, at the price of ten cents per acre for the seventy-eight millions of acres which such a tract would be equal to. The whole enterprise is based on the eight hundred miles of good land at this end of the line : " because in the immediate vicinity of this land settlement is now taking place," "and the facilities which the building of the road would give to settlement would beyond any reasonable doubt cause a demand for this eight hundred miles faster than the avails therefrom could be profitably applied to the work." The first proceeds would be applied to completing a section of the road ten miles long; the completion of this section would draw settlers to the lands on the margin of the line, and provide funds for further pushing the line. Only half the lands of each section of ten miles in the fertile eight hundred would be expended; the other half would be invested, to be ready for the time when the mountainous broken and poorer country shall be entered, which will not fully pay for the cost of carrying the line through it, though some of the land there is very good. Thus the enterprise will be self-sustaining throughout. The settlement will be con- ducted at about the rate of 19,000 families of five persons each in the year, on the blocks of fertile land ; and the process of construction throughout will be completed in about fifteen years. When Mr. Whitney has paid ten cents per acre to the Federal Government, and completed the line, the line is to vest in himself, to be kept in operation and repair at a rate of tolls only sufficient for that purpose; and the surplus of the unsettled land is to be his profit for the undertaking. Mr. Whitney gives his reasons for the appeal now made to this country. It would seem that the strongest opposition now made to it is founded on its practicability. "The question of the adequateness of means in the plan proposed is now so well settled in the United States, that those who at first ridiculed the plan, and declared it impossible to build such a road through a wilderness, and that the land could never be sold to furnish sufficient means for it, &e., are now violent in their opposition because it is feasible, and the lands would, by building the road through them, be made of far greater value than the amount of outlay for its construction, and give too great an amount of wealth to one individual." These reasons will probably be no influential nfluential to oppose the scheme, but they have unfortunately hin- dered it already to an extent possibly fatal. "The people almost universally throughout the Union, through the press, large public meetings, and twenty- one State Legislatures, by almost unanimous votes of the two Houses of each, have declared in favour of this, and urged the favourable and decided action of Congress on it ; and different Committees in both Houses of Congress, for the last five years, have been unanimous in its favour, and reported to the two Houses bills to carry it into effect. At the last session it was ascertained that there was a large majority in each House in its favour, and to the last day of the short session it was believed it would have been passed into a law: but the excitement and unsettled feeling relative to the slavery question, to- gether with the rules of the House requiring a two-thirds vote to take up any bill out of its order, caused this, with other important bills, to remain with- out action ; and such has been the case at former sessions. The slavery question has absorbed all action—all feeling ; but that subject is now at an end, in Congress at least, and there can be no reasonable doubt the bill will be passed into a law early at the coming session. The old and lead- ing Members who have been reelected have promised to make this the great question, and to use their influence to press the bill through as speedily as possible ; and the newly-elected Members will come direct from the people, with new and strong influences in its favour. That the bill will be passed into a law at the coming session I have no doubt, should I continue to desire it : but settlement is progressing so rapidly at the first end of the route, where timber, materials, and facilities for commencing and carrying out the work, as well as for settlement also for the immense dis- tance where such materials do not exist, that it may be feared, even after the bill shall have been enacted into a law, it would not be possible to ac- complish the work." He says in conclusion—" Although it has been the hope and desire of my heart, as well as may incessant toil for the best part of my life, that my own country might own and for ever k ossess. the glory of having achieved this work, still, without the lands, which are the only possible ba- sis of means and facilities, it would be impossible ; and should it appear, as I fear, that they are already occupied, then there is no hope but in England. It can be built on British soil, though with far more difficulties—the route is quite as good ; and it then becomes England's birthright to bring together and harmonize the entire human family. It is for the world ; and the hope, desire, and prayer of my heart is, that it may be accomplished for the world.'
The project of Mr. Whitney was explained by himself, on Monday evening, to a meeting of the Geographical Society, assembled at King's College under Sir Roderick Murchison. Mr. Robert Stephenson, Mr. Vignolles, Captain Fitzroy, RN., Sir Edward Belcher, R.N., Colonel Lloyd, Major Carmichael Smith, Mr. Trelawney Saunders, and the Re- verend C. G. Nicholay, criticized the plan from their respective points of view as engineers, navigators, and scientific philanthropists. Mr. Ste- phenson took Mr. Whitney's engineering facts as correct, and stated his opinion that the question is a purely commercial one of the relative cost at which passengers and freight can be carried. Mr. Vignolles acknowledged the magnificence of the idea, but thought we must be content with the sea as the cheapest highway. Cap- tain Fitzroy stated that the route to Canton by Panama is 11,200 miles ; by Oregon full 10,000 miles ; and by the Isthmus of Suez 9500: if a canal route by Panama is opened, he as a sailor should take that route as a matter of course ; for no canal will ever be made at Suez ; the idea of climbing 7000 feet by a railway across the Rocky Mountains is unprece- dented in engineering • while the voyage by Panama would be excellent outwards, and not inferior to that round either of the two Capes home- wards. Colonel Lloyd believed it would take 220 years to build Mr. Whitney's railway. Mr. Whitney observed that his plan was misunder- stood by Mr. Stephenson : it has nothing to do with any capital or divi- dend question, and its main objects are settlement and civilization. His engineering and voyaging facts are supported by experience, and are ad- mitted in America. The other speakers assisted Mr. Whitney in rein- stating the scheme on this foundation, and gave his views a warm support: A correspondent of the Globe describes the last moments of the late Mr. Shell. "Mr. Shed was in his bedroom, and had just finished dressing for church, when he told Mrs. Sheil that he felt a spasm in his stomach, fainted, and lay upon the bed. He recovered, and took some colchicum, which he had generally at band; fainted again, recovered, and took a little brandy, and opium. He fainted a third time, and expired in the arms of Mrs. Shell. He was sixty-two years of age. He often expressed his wonder that O'Con- nell should have turned towards Italy in his decline. They both died in the month of May."
Prince Metternich left Brussels on the 9th instant, with his wife and family, for Johannisberg. Before his departure lie was admitted to a private audience of the King of the Belgians.
Colonel Sibthorp has been to the Exhibition ! The Lincolnshire Chronicle reports that he spent nearly a whole day in the building, apparently very well pleased.
The Neptune steamer, which was specially selected to bring the first por- tion of the Russian contribution to the Great Exhibition of Industry, was wrecked on her return voyage, in the Sound of Elsinore, on Sunday sen- night. She had about forty passengers and a very valuable return cargo of goods on board, and made the Elsinore light at about half-past ten on the Sunday night. When about ten miles beyond Elsinore, "she bounced sud- denly into a dangerous reef of rocks on that part of the coast called Swine Bottoms, off Loganas," and in about an hour was full of water to her main decks. At her signals boats came off both from the Sweden and Jutland coasts, and all her passengers were safely rescued : some portion of the cargo was also saved. The Neptune is iron-built, and from that fact may be gotten off the sharp rocks which perforate her ; but her chance is bad. Another steamer has been placed on her station : so that if the Russian Government still retain as great a confidence in the mercantile service which our capital- ists have established between the Thames and the Neva as it places in its own naval service, the remainder of the Russian contribution to the Expo-
sition of Industry yet suffer no delay from the accident.
Two men of colour, apparently Hindoos, have been shooting sparrows in Cumberland hay-market, after their own fashion. They waited until the game settled on some spot within the reach of their projectile range, when, by applying a bamboo cane to their mouths, they dismissed a shot at the ob- ject of their aim, which in five instances out of six was sure to be attended with fatal effects. The pellets they made use of consisted of hard clay, re- sembling boys' marbles ; and it was astonishing with what accuracy and precision these expert fowlers struck the birds. Within fifteen paces of the object their aim proved unerring ; and during the short interval of time they continued to exercise their sportive pursuit, they managed to secure nearly two dozen sparrows, which they consigned to a small basket, and walked out of the market.
On the morning of the 4th instant, the mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland were white with snow which had fallen during the night.
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