Operations of the Macon and Western Railroad for the last ten years.

Total $13,533,340 $12,485,550 $1,203,000 $1,023,918 $1,823,814 $2,984,459 $1,484,710 $1,499,949 Average. $1,353,334 $1,248,555 $120,300 $102,391 $182,381 $298,465 $148,471 $149,994

3.-GREENVILLE (S. C.) AND FRENCH BROAD (N. C.) RAILROAD.

From a recent report in regard to the survey of this important line, we extract what is said by the President, N. W. Woodfin, Esq., touching the practicability of the work :

Having now before us satisfactory evidence of the practicability of our line, and at less cost than at any other crossing of the Blue Ridge, no difficulty stands in the way of an,early construction of the road, except the subscription of the necessary sum for its completion. And this it would seem cannot long embarrass us if we but resolve to embark in the work and to persevere. It cannot be doubted that when the facts are made known to those directly interested in the enterprise, they will unite readily with us, and the necessary sum be raised with little delay.

Already over seven hundred thousand dollars is subscribed, though the country has not been canvassed except on a small portion of the line, and no reasonable doubt exists that on presenting the subject fairly to others, a like liberal course will be pursned by them. If so, the requisite sum will be readily raised. It is confidently expected that liberal individual subscriptions will be made by the citizens of Spartanburg and Union Districts, S. C., and it is proposed to make district subscriptions in both, so that more than one million of dollars must be raised North of Columbia, S. C.

It is not to be feared that the cities of Columbia and Charleston, and the State of South Carolina, will supply the remaining sum, when furnished evidence of the readiness and ability of the company to accomplish so large a proportion of the work. The most effectual appeal that we can make for aid will be made by showing a disposition to help ourselves.

It will be seen by the accompanying report that $2,132,278 will complete the road from Spartanburg Court-House, S. C., to Asheville, N. C., and no one acquainted with Mr. McCalla will doubt the fairness of the report. If. then, the State of South Carolina will subscribe one half of this sum, after we shal have first provided for the other half, and will direct the payment of each instalment of one hundred thousand dollars as soon as individuals and companies shall have first paid in a like sum, we shall at an early day have the road completed as far North as Asheville, N. C.

4.-RAILROADS OF TENNESSEE.

We have received, in pamphlet form, the Report for 1859, of H. F. Cummins, Railroad Commissioner for the State of Tennessee, and extract the following statistics:

til

Memphis and Charleston..

$6,188,033 $743,729 $2,700,000 $443,616 $1,330,812 $552,776

East Tennessee and Virginia.
Winchester and Alabama...
McMinnville and Manchester
Louisville and Nashville...
Tennessee and Alabama.

408,477
590,623 56,816

406,000 5,000 47,615 *19,829

5,994,099 401,845 1,540,000 426,380 426,061 199,204 1,185,053 76,016 860,000 204,544 75,129 27,550

$27,078,545 $2,149,350 $11,052,449 $2,033,605 $3,433,579 $1,543,275

$2,300,411 $141,144 $1,361,000 $145,000 $150,015 $62,157 1,237,900

100,500

70,000

9,332,629 724,731 4,306,786 726,546 844,171 417,356
857,949 34,600 612,000 60,900 9,359
549,897 10,038 320,000

1,872

$41,728,000 $3,160,364 $17,737,235 $3,019,513 $4,437,125 $2,024,661

5.-WILMINGTON AND WELDON (N. C.) RAILROAD.

The Annual report of the Hon. Wm. S. Ashe gives the following gratifying facts:

The difference between the receipts and the expenses for 1859 shows that we have made nearly 18 per cent. on our capital stock. These profits have been absorbed in the contribution of 4 per cent. to our sinking fund-5 per cent. to payment of interest on our debt, including premium on exchange, and 8 per ceut. in dividends to our stockholders, leaving a small balance on hand. Our profits, indeed, are not as large as they were for the year ending October 1st, 1857; but when it is recollected that at that time we had the benefit of an exclusive through ticket between the Northern and Southern States, (the only rail connection between these points being over our line) and that then the outside steamers from Charleston, Savannah, and New-York, were not running in opposition to us, we are truly astonished that the difference is not much greater. During the last twelve months, four new lines of rail connections, (each earnestly and energetically competing with us) have been established. The outside steamers, formerly only a few screw propellers, have increased from seven to sixteen, and are now of the largest class of side-wheel steamers. The immense amount of freight which they carry enable them to transport passengers at a greatly reduced price. Under these circumstances, we repeat, that the amount of our through travel for the last year should give to the stockholders most reliable assurance of future prosperity. But while the elements of opposition to the great Atlantic Trunk Line have been thus fully developed, the managers of this line have not been remiss. New connections with it (both North and South of us) are in rapid progress of construction, which will not only insure greater despatch of travel, but must diminish expense. Before the end of another year, the Wilmington and Seaford Road will be extended to a point on the Chesapeake Bay, about eighty miles north of Portsmouth, and passengers can then be carried from this point to New-York in eight hours less time than is now required for the same service. Early in January, the road across the Peninsula of Florida, from Fernandina to Cedar Keys, will be completed. This work, in connection with a daily line of steamers from Charleston to Fernandina (already established) will put us in close connection with the vast travel of the Gulf of Mexico.

6.-NEW-ORLEANS, JACKSON AND GREAT NORTHERN RAILROAD.

From the recent memorial to the Legislature of Mississippi, prepared by the President of the Road, John Calhoun, Esq., we learn, that, since the commencement of the work in 1852, the Company have received in round numbers, the following amounts of money from subscriptions to stook, loans, and from the earnings of the Road:

MONEY ON LOAN.-On Bonds payable in 1866, secured by first mortgage on rail-
road from New-Orleans to Canton, including the franchises of the Company and
all its property,..
Money borrowed from the State of Mississippi, payable in 1864, secured
by same amount in first mortgage bonds,..

$ 884,000
$2,000,000

939,092

-$3,823,092

$430,450

269,962

700,412

3,000,000

.$185,000
20,000

205,000

$ 709.130
1,179,544
55,000

1,943,674

$9,672,178

This statement shows the amount of means which the stockholders have placed at the disposal of the directors, and also the several sources from which money has been derived. "We do not," says the President, "wish to make invidious comparisons, but our records show that our railroad, when completed, will be 410 miles long; that eighty-seven miles of the road are within the State of Louisiana, and 323 miles will be within the State of Mississippi; that the State and people of Louisiana have thus far contributed 3.823,092 dollars, and the State and people of Mississippi 700,412 dollars, toward the construction of the great highway in which the happiness and prosperity of the people of the two States are equally identified.

DEPARTMENT OF MISCELLANY.

1.-AMERICAN TIMBER FOR SHIP-BUILDING.

A FEW months since we published an article upon the defective and rotten condition of a portion of the planking and ceiling of the steam frigate Minnesota, now undergoing repairs in Charleston navy yard, because we believed our Navy Department had been imposed upon by the parties who furnished the timber, which had decayed so rapidly. The article was extensively republished in English papers, and was referred to as an argument against the use of American timber for ship-building. Now, such an inference, from our remarks, is not logical, neither can it be sustained by the facts of experience. We cited the Minnesota as an exceptional case, and expressed our surprise that she should have been planked with such timber, when so much timber of undoubted quality could be easily obtained. The contract to furnish her planking was probably a political job, which the navy yard officers knew how to manage without running the risk of being removed. On the other hand, the planking and ceiling of the frigate Merrimac, built in this vicinity, was properly seasoned before used, and a sounder ship cannot be found anywhere. The same may be said of nearly all our ships-of-war. Take for example the old line-of-battle ship Ohio, now at Charlestown; we believe there has not been a plank put into her for the last twenty years, if not thirty-the Vermont is equally sound-in a word, with one or two exceptional cases, the causes of which are well known, our navy is probably the most durable in the world, because the timber of which the ships have been built, is the best. Our live oak is harder than East India teak, and as durable, and of this our navy is framed; our white oak along the seaboard is so inherently sound, that it may be used without seasoning, and our hard pine knows no decay but tear and wear. Our navy yard authorities, who have made the qualities of wood the special subject of experiment, assure us, that our white oak, for the purpose of ship-building, is not only stronger, but more durable, than either English or African oak, and that our live oak is unrivalled the world

over.

In support of these assertions, we may refer the English to the condition of the frigate Essex, which they captured in 1814. She was built in 1798, and continued fit for service, without any sign of decay, to 1837, when she was sold, not because she was unsound, but because a new class of vessels superseded that to which she belonged.

We believe that English and African oak and East India teak, are good woods for ship-building, and that the condition of the ships of the English navy are generally sound, yet there are cases of rot which might be cited, as exceptional, not to prove that their timber was naturally and inherently bad-as the English have asserted to be the case, because the Minnesota's planking was found partly defective and decayed-but to show that the timber had not been properly seasoned, or had been subjected to influences out of the ordinary

course.

The frigate Vernon is a case in point. Built with the utmost care, under the immediate inspection of Sir Wm. Simonds, at the end of four years she was found very rotten. We believe she has been since condemned. The " Foudroyant "line-of-battle ship, in four years, had to be nearly rebuilt, in consequence of dry rot. The Eden, of twenty-six guns, in two years, was so decayed that

it was necessary to remove all her wales, the sheer-strake, and a considerable portion of her top-sides. Large quantities of fungus covered her timbers. The Isis, built in 1840, seven years afterward, had seventy-eight timbers taken out rotten; all the ceiling in the hold: mast-steps, and timber-strakes, were also decayed. Several other cases, even of a recent date, might be cited to show that the British navy is not rot-proof; but we will turn from the navy to the merchant service.

The West India Mail steamers Clyde, Tweed, Tay and Teviot, all first-class vessels, built without regard to cost, within the past six years, in consequence of dry rot, have had to be repaired at an expense of $300,000. There is little doubt that dry rot is more general among British than American shipping, and that the latter last longer because built of more durable materials. The British generally fasten and season their ships more carefully than we do, and provide them with better pumps, and heavier ground tackle, and to these, not to the superiority of timber, may be attributed their age. We refer to the mercantile marine alone; our navy, we contend, though small, is the model navy of the world in the durability of its ships, and to keep it so, is the object of exposing any of its defects that may come to light, with a view of having them guarded against in future. The Scientific American, which copied the facts in relation to the Minnesota from the Traveller, will probably be as much surprised as we were to see that they have been urged as an argument against the durability of American ship-timber.-Boston Traveller.

2.-SLAVERY IN BRAZIL THE PAST AND FUTURE.

A very interesting letter recently appeared in the Charleston Mercury, written by a correspondent at Rio Janeiro, who signs himself J. R. H. It exhibits the empire of Brazil as affected by slavery in a manner which has never been done before, and we commend the letter to the attention of our readers :

"Brazil and the Southern United States of North America are the only sovereign governments of the Western Hemisphere that protect, by law, the institution of African slavery, Cuba being but a colony of Spain. The progress and present condition of this empire, so rich with nature's choicest gifts, are then to us matters worthy of investigation. Unfortunately, at the outset, we encounter the difficulty of obtaining information, and it becomes necessary to draw one's inference from works written either by Northerners or Europeans. The volumes of Herndon and Gibbon relate more directly to the Amazon and its tributaries, while Maury's letters are glowing word-pictures of what that region might be. The best American book is, perhaps, by Kidder and Fletcher, two missionaries who came to Brazil to distribute Bibles and preach to sailors. It is not a part of my intention to consider the amount of good done, and the number of Catholics converted by these gentlemen-though the dropping of Bibles in Brazilian highways would seem to promise the same success as the attempt to catch sparrows by sprinkling salt on their tails. Messrs. Kidder and Fletcher-for it is impossible to separate the two in their joint authorship-have what may be mildly called, free-soil' tendencies, and all, therefore, they say on the subject of slavery, must be taken cum grano salis.

"The slave-trade with Africa was finally and positively suppressed in 1850, and so far as I can learn, there is now no natural increase to the slave population of the country. The planters of Brazil are sorely put to it for labor, and slaves are as valuable as they are with us. Advocates for the re-opening of the trade with Africa are numerous, and a journal of Rio Janeiro advises it as the only remedy for the growing evil.

"The exports of Brazil are valued at sixty millions of dollars, about half what our cotton crop sells for, yet Brazil has over three millions of slaves, about the number we have. Hence we make more of our labor than she does. There has been an undeniable increase in the amount of her productions since 1850, due doubtless to the improved expertness of the negroes in cultivating the land, and the increased investments in coffee estates over those of sugar and cotton. This decided improvement in the agricultural returns of the country has been receivVOL. III.-NO. IV.

8