and turn our resources, if they can be safely used, to complete our railroad system? The west will soon think so -the north and the south are already of this opinion. The improvements in the locomotive engine, and its capacity to draw large loads, at cheap rates, is claiming the attention of our neighbors. Massachusetts with her great western railway, will soon have a line from Boston to Buffalo. This will soon convince us in New York, that we must depend on something more efficient than canals and the Hudson river, to compete with our enterprising and prudent neighbors.

J. E. B.

[The great importance of the following report induces us to publish it entire, with the exception of the details of the property, depots, &c. which are of no use to the professional reader, and occupy many pages of the pamphlet.

It may be remarked that this report contains the first complete description ever given of these works by the company.]

REPORT OF THE JOINT BOARD OF DIRECTORS, TO THE STOCKHOLDERS OF THE DELAWARE AND RARITAN CANAL, AND CAMDEN AND AMBOY RAILROAD AND TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES, ON THE COMPLETION OF THEIR WORKS; WITH THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE STOCKHOLDERS AT THEIR MEETING ON THE 29TH OF JANUARY, 1840. The works of the Delaware and Raritan canal, and Camden and Amboy railroad and transportation companies, are all completed in the best manner, and the heavy expenditures constantly accruing during the progress of their construction, are now at an end, upon which auspicious events, the directors offer their hearty congratulations to the stockholders.

A detailed statement of the property, owned by the companies, of all moneys received and payments made on account of the same, with the books of entries, authenticated by vouchers for the smallest sums expended, are herewith submitted for your inspection.

The management of your affairs, either good or bad, as you may this day determine, devolves upon the present board of directors. They have superintended them from the commencement to the present moment, and they welcome you most cordially to this examination, and hope for their credit, as well as your own and the public satisfaction, that you will give to it, the character of a most thorough and rigid scrutiny.

The accompanying statements will so clearly show the value of your canal and railroads, and the unexampled prosperity of the companies, that the directors feel it necessary to make some apology for indulging themselves in a single remark on the subject, and hope to find there excuse in the pride they feel in having directed these works, from their begining to their final and triumphant completion. Formerly the passage between Philadelphia and New York occupied from eleven to twenty hours; and was performed with great personal discomfort, and no small hazard of limb and life. Merchandize was transported from city to city at great expense of insurance as well as of freight, and subject to all the difficulties, uncertainties and dangers of a coasting voyage. Now passengers are carried from city to city, during the most inclement seasons, in from six to seven hours, and with nearly the same comfort as they enjoy at their own fire sides. Merchandise is transported in less time, with less expense, and with an entire saving of the insurance.

They congratulate you on the immense public good that you have done. You have, at a less cost than other works of like magnitude, finished the

greatest and most valuable part of a system of internal improvement, you have completed for your country the most important link in the chain of communication between the northern and southern sections of the United States, which will afford to the general government the means of transporting their troops, and all the munitions of war, as well as the mails, in much less than half the time heretofore occupied, and at prices, which in comparison with like transportation during the last war, will save many millions of dollars to the public treasury. You have been mainly instrumental in bringing New York and Philidelphia in close proximity; in increasing the intercourse between these cities, from fifty-two thousand to one hundred and eighty-one thousand five hundred persons a year, and in reducing and equalizing the price of travelling, and also of fuel in New York and in the Eastern States. But while you have had such high aims for the general good, you have nevertheless regarded the interests of New Jersey as the chiefest thing;" nor have you in our judgment miscalcu lated those interests.

You have constructed for sixty-five miles, through the heart of New Jersey, the most spacious canal, which adds year after year, thousands to the value of her agricultural interests, while it carries with it wealth and happiness to her citizens generally, and which may be referred to, as a lasting monument of the sagacity of New Jersey statesmen, and of your patriotism and munificence.

Besides making this expensive canal for them, you now furnish to the State of New Jersey an annual sum sufficient to pay the expenses of the State Government; and which will no doubt increase, so as to enable her to lay by the means to purchase all your works at the expiration of the lease, which you hold under her.

It is a matter of especial congratulation, that these gratifying results to the puclic have been obtained under the protection and patronage of various Legislatures, without distinction of party, and without any infringement of private rights, and may well stir up the pride of Jerseymen, when they look around and see the mortification and embarrassments, which have followed other systems of improvement adopted by different States of the Union. We, therefore, most earnestly congratulate you upon these public benefits, which through you have been achieved.

We now proceed to say a word or two in relation to the value of your property, and the tenure by which you hold it. Although you have paid for it, and New Jersey has not advanced or even loaned one dollar towards it, still the fee is in her, not in you. You are the lessee for a term of years only, and the State can, after re-imbursing you, dissolve the corporations; the railroad at the expiration of thirty years from and after its completion; and the canal at the expiration of fifty years from and after its completion. The relation that exists between you and the State, is simply that of landlord and tenant, with leave to improve, under limitations and restrictions, dictated by the State, on full advisement, accepted by you, and ratified year after year by different Legislatures, with all the solemnities of constitutional enactments and plighted faith; and it is with high emotions of State pride that we thus publicly bear witness, that amid all the taunts and reproaches heaped indiscriminantly upon corporations; amid the most earnest and plausible supplications of intriguing and designing men, amid the most extravagant offers of remuneration, New Jersey, her people, and her Legislators have stood firm to their own laws, and have invariably treated with contempt all efforts made to seduce her from her honor or her obligations towards you; and you may rely upon it that she never will allow you to be disturbed in the enjoyment of your corporate rights, especi

ally as it has been your pride and constant endeavor to observe, on your
part, the obligations you are under to the State. And why should she?-
It is alike her interest, as well as her duty and wish to maintain inviolate
her contract with you. She has leased for a valuable consideration, the
rights you possess by your corporations, for the periods before specified.
And what is thirty or fifty years in the lifetime of an Empire? Scarcely
time enough to give a fair opportunity to determine whether your untried
and adventurous experiment would succeed. The State is satisfied with the
lease; she gives nothing, and gains every thing; she has furnished to her
own citizens and the public, a communication as cheap, safe and expedi
tious as any in the country. Not only have these important works been
secured, but the companies by their contract are restricted to the sum of
three dollars for the transportation of passengers from city to city. If there
is truth in experience and figures, you ought likewise to be satisfied your
property, after a careful examination, is thought to be worth more than you
have paid for it, if judged by the cost of other works of like kind here or
abroad. The works have been constructed with rigid economy, having a
proper regard to their durability, and will compare advantageously with
any other, either in this country or elsewhere. A distinguished engineer
from England, has recently examined them with attention, and has pro-
nounced this opinion. The great object with the directors has been to pre-
serve your capital unimpared; and so to construct the works as to keep
them as far as possible from deterioration, and up to this time they are as good
as the day they were first used. They have become settled and firm.—
Your capital, therefore, is not only quite safe, but has been improved.
We will now inquire how profitably it has been invested.

The receipts for the last six months show a profit of seven per centum, which, considering the depression of all kinds of business, is, in itself, enough to satisfy you as to the value of the investment. But to make assurance doubly sure," let us look throngh the accounts for years past, and ascertain whether these receipts have been the effects of sudden and unexpected good fortune, or the quiet and natural result of a regular increasing business. It will be seen that there has been, from the commencement up to the present time, a regular and progressive increase of nett profits. As will appear from the following tabular statements, which have been taken from the books of the company by the committee, and may be relied upon as the true results of the several designated years:

An annual statement, showing the number of passengers and tons of mer chandise transported across the State over the Camden and Amboy railroad.

Columns A. A. show the relative increase or diminution, of the number of passengers and tons of merchandise transported across the State. The year 1833 being estimated at a hundred.

Yearly statement of receipts and comparative statement of the same.
No. 1, Dite. No. 2, Gross amount of receipts. No. 3, Comparative
statement, showing the relative proportion that the receipts of the differ-
ent years bear to the receipts of the year 1833. No. 4, Gross expo ndi-
tures. No. 5, Shows the relative propoition that the expenditures bear to
the receipts of the year 1833. No. 6, Nett gain. No. 7, Shows the
relative proportion of the nett gain to the receipts of the year 1833.

From this statement it appears that there has been an annual increase of the nett profits of the companies of 20 per cent.

From the derangement of the monetary affairs of the country, and the stagnation of business for several years past, it will be at least fair to judge of the future prospects of the compinies by the past. Supposing then there should be no greater increase for the next seven years, the nett profits will be in seven years from this time, one million and forty-two thousand dollars; from which deducting the interest on the loans, viz. one hundred and ninety thousand dollars, will leave the sum of eight hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars, or a dividend of upwards of 28 per cent. per annum.

It would inke this report too long to enter into all the particulars that might be stated, fully to illustrate the causes of such a constantly increasing business. The following may serve to give you some idea of it, and of the progressive value of the investment. Two years since, at the request of some market people, in New Jersey, a line called the pea line, with two cars, was occasionally started from Camden to New York, with no other view or expectation than the accommodation of a very useful and respectable class of men. This line has steadily increased, until it has become profitable beyond all expectation. During the past year, it has been running daily, sometimes taking with it as many as sixteen cars laden, at the appropriate season, with peas, peaches, potatoes, asparagus, cabbages, live stock, and upon one occasion, (as incredible as it may seem) thirty tons of green corn. This connected with the gradual increase on the other lines, will enable you to judge, what you may fairly expect in a few years hence; always bearing in min 1, that the expenses do not increase in the same ratio with the receipts, because the same capital can do a larger business, whilst the interest to be paid remains the same.

(To be continued.)

A GOOD MOVE ON THE WESTERN RAILROAD.-At the annual meeting of the stockholders, held on the 12th inst. it was voted unanimously, to instruct the directors to reduce the rates of fare and freight between Boston and Springfield one-third. The rates will be now 2.50 from Boston to Springfield, for passengers, and 3.75 per ton for freight. Thus inviting to the Boston market the trade of the whole Connecticut valley, by the strongest inducement, viz., a cheaper rate of fare and of freight than to any other market for sales or for supplies- Boston Gazette.

1

We request the attention of our readers to the article in this number entitled "English and American Railroads." We have reason to believe that it comes from a gentleman who from vast experience and information, knows when and where to institute comparisons, and independently of the merit of the article, its authority renders it worthy of notice.

In the number of this Journal for April 1st, we published an article containing strictures upon Prof. Renwick's paper, appended to the last edition of Tredgold on the Steam Engine, etc. The tone of these remarks is not as calm and philosophical as it might be, we should rather say-as it ought to be. Had the writer been more sparing in his epithets, and exhibited less warmth of manner, we think far more weight would have attached to the article in question, than in its present form. However, we are not now about to quarrel with words-neither do we profess an intimate acquaintance with the detail of certain historical questions-but we propose at present to point out a few portions of the paper which appear to need particular notice.

The following remark occurs in the paper of Prof. R. "in a treatise on the steam engine, which it is believed had some influence in the improvements that have since been made in navigation by steam, it was demonstrated, that a power of a given engine might be doubled by loading the safety valve with 57 lbs. per square inch, and cutting off the steam when 1-8 of the cylinder has been filled, and a saving of 2-5ths of the fuel effected at the same time." It is thus replied to by Mr. Ward. "If by a given engine,' in this passage, is meant one worked by steam of the force of 4 or 5 lbs. per square inch, we have to remark, with due deference to the demonstrator, that practice has, and ever will, and inevitably must prove this and all similar demonstrations, to be drawn from erroneous premises." If this is correctly understood by us, it is, we conceive a most sweeping assertion,