our own country, and by the recent accounts published by Mr. David Stevenson, across the water, it would seem that there were in full operation in the United States, during the year 1837, fifty-seven railways, whose aggregate length exceeded 1600 miles, and that thirty-three others were then in progress, which, when finished, would not fall short of 2800 miles. Some of these works, it is well known, are owned by individuals by virtue of charters from the states through which they pass, and others are owned in the whole, or in part, by the states themselves. More than one hundred and fifty railway companies had then been incorporated, some of which are in progress, and many of them will shortly be in action. Different plans, however, seem to have been adopted in the mode of their construction, proceeding, as they have done, from separate legislatures and states widely separated, and possessing different kinds of soil suited to their tracks. Mr. Stevenson, to whom we have before alluded, states that here no two rail. roads are constructed alike. "The fish-bellied rails of some, weighing forty pounds per lineal yard, rest upon cast iron chains, weighing sixteen pounds each; in others, plate rails of malleable iron, two and a half inches broad, and half an inch thick, are fixed by iron spikes to wooden rafters, which rest upon wooden sleepers; in others, a plate rail is spiked down to treenails of oak or locust wood, driven into jumper holes bored in the stone curb; in others, longitudinal wooden runners, one foot in breadth, and from three to four inches in thickness, are imbedded in broken stone or gravel; on these runners are placed transverse sleepers, formed of round timber with the bark left on; and wrought iron nails are fixed to the sleepers by long spikes, the heads of which are countersunk in the rail: in others, round piles of timber, about twelve inches in diameter, are driven into the ground as far as they will go, about three feet apart; the tops are then cross-cut, and the rails are spiked to them."

We here subjoin a table of the railways in operation in the United States in 1840, and a list of the other railways now in progress.

TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL RAILWAYS IN OPERATION IN THE UNITED STATES, IN 1840.

LIST OF THE OTHER RAILWAYS NOW IN PROGRESS IN THE

The peculiar importance of the system of railroads to the United States, in a political point of view, can scarcely be overrated. Our broad commonwealth extending over so wide a surface, and with a population so various in their origin and diverse in their objects, must necessarily have distinct local views and principles, were they separated from the other parts in intercourse and trade. By the introduction of the system of railroads, rapid vehicles of communication are established between the several parts of the country, motives are furnished for travel, and ample means for the transportation of merchandise are provided. The great bulk of the people, who by the constitution are invested with the political power of the nation, circulating, as they do, through the different parts of the country, are thus made acquainted with the interests and feelings of the others, and must be blind if they do not perceive that the commercial fortunes and fate of each section is depending in a great measure upon the prosperity of the whole, for markets are provided in one section for the productions of each, producing, as they do, different materiel, which are required in the other parts of the country. Thus the political mind of the nation becomes liberalized, the republic is bound together by interests of trade and commerce, and railroads stand as iron bars running from state to state, which encircle the republic, and bind together the interests of the Union!

The advantages of railroads to the nation in an economical point of view, will be no less remarkable. Our extended territory, watered as it is so profusely by navigable streams and lakes, possesses distinct local advantages which may render important aid to the prosperity of the other parts. Our Atlantic seaboard, crowded with a dense population, and studded as it is with our most important cities, although containing a comparatively barren soil, has, it is well known, long derived its prosperity from commerce, and in that portion comprised by New England, the foundation of a system of manufactures has been commenced, and carried out against formidable obstacles with considerable success. If we turn to the south, we find its low and level soil producing harvests of cotton, rice, tobacco, and sugar, peculiar to itself, and which have heretofore been a source of great profit to its cultivators. Passing to the west, we find whole mountains of coal, and iron, and lead, and copper, as well as all other minerals required for use in developing the resources of a nation, besides a boundless agricultural territory, which will yield in unexampled abundance all the productions which are needed for the support of animal life, as well as the most important staples for exportation. It is the design and necessary consequence of our American railroads to construct safe, rapid, and cheap paths to these several sections of the country for the travelling community, and to provide vehicles for the transportation of their agricultural, mineral, and commercial products to the best markets, whether these markets are found at home or abroad.

As yet, the condition of railroads in the United States is in its seminal state. The policy which is to mark our national industry has not been thoroughly framed and settled. Indeed, what shall be the particular form of our currency, whether free trade, as it is called, or the protective system shall ultimately prevail, are questions which must depend upon future legislation. But whatever may be the political principles which divide the country, it is clear that all true-hearted men must concur in the propriety of developing the resources of the soil by advancing production. No records of the past, and we say it in no vain-glorious spirit, show an equal amount