to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi. From Jackson to the head waters of Muscle Shoals; thence to the capital of Tennessee; thence to the falls of Ohio, the states through which it passes to be relied upon entirely for its accomplishment within their limits.

Western Roule.-On the top of the levee from Baton Rouge to Morganza; theuce on the best line to Cheneyville, the country being one of surpassing fertility; thence to the capital of Texas, directly west; thence to the Paso del Norte, and down the river Gila [but of course, gentlemen, continued Judge Preston, I don't believe in this] to the Gulf of California. The rich States of Texas and California, and the government of the United Sates, to construct the road westward from Cheneyville.

We stated that the friends of the Madison terminus of the Jackson rail-road organized themselves into a separate Convention. The following was its action: A. Hennen, Esq., was called to the chair, and P. G. Collins was appointed secretary.

On opening the proceedings, the chairman briefly addressed the delegates, and on a consultation being held, it was decided to be the best course to explain what reasons caused them to withdraw from the Convention in the manner they did. On motion of Henry B. Kelly, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted:

Whereas, The delegates to the New-Orleans and Jackson Rail-road Convention, favorable to the route via Madisonville, have felt constrained to withdraw from its deliberations, and when, as they deem it due to themselves, and to the public, to declare the reasons which impelled them to this course; therefore, be it

Resolved, That the refusal of the Convention to allow the advocates of the Madisonville route to be heard through their Engineer, Lieut. L. H. Smith, U. S. Engineers, who had surveyed the route, and the suppression of all discussion in favor of that route, by laying on the table the resolution in its behalf before its supporters had an opportunity of being heard, made it imperative on them to withdraw from the sittings of that body.

Resolved, That the foregoing resolution is not intended to have any application to the delegations from Mississippi, who magnanimously declined voting on the motion to cut off discussion.

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to lay before the public all the documents, &c., having reference to the Madisonville route.

Capt. Grice read the report of Thos. B. Harper, civil engineer of St. Tammany, who made a survey of the Madisonville route, pronouncing it a most excellent one, and putting down the total estimate of cost at $336,480. We have not room for the whole report, or we would publish it with pleasure. The report was followed by the reading of Capt. Grice's own report on the navigation of Lake Pontchartrain and the river Chifuncte, which was illustrated by a hydrographical chart of the river and lake, with the soundings, from one mile south of the light-house on this side of the lake, continuously to the town of Madisonville. Capt. Grice's report embraced the plan of the steam-boats which would be required for crossing the lake. Their cost he estimated at $70,000 a piece, and the expense of running them $15,000 per annum.

These reports were received with much applause, and adopted.

Lieut. Sinith then went into a lengthy argument on the practicability of the Lake or Madisonville route.

He then gave a detailed and argumentative statement of the probable travel which would give advantage to his favorite route-of its smaller cost, aud of the practicability of making peculiarly constructed steamers supply the place of a railroad over the lake. He also urged, that this route would successfully compete with the Mobile and Charleston projects, while an injudiciously located one, (such as that proposed by the other Convention,) would be wholly unable to make a like successful competition, as the cost of the road and the cost of transit would be greater, while the business would be less, that route being thrown some forty-eight miles from productive points, if by Lake Maurepas, and seventy-seven miles if by Baton Rouge. The river route was said to be a struggle at competi tion with the Father of Waters, while the other route would be in competition with Charleston and Mobile. After addressing the meeting for about two hours, Lieutenant Smith closed; and, on motion of Captain Grice, one thousand copies of his report were ordered to be published for general distribution.

SPEECH OF JAMES ROBB, ESQ.,

ON THE CONDITION OF THINGS IN NEW-ORLEANS, AND THE REMEDY.

It was with unaffected embarrassment that he appeared before them to address them on the momentous subject which occupied their deliberation. He came among them as a citizen among citizens, deeply interested with them in all that concerns the welfare and advancement of our city. The committee of which he had the honor of being the organ, had recommended a tax on property as the best, if not the only means, by which the rail-road movement can be put forward in this state. Why were we forced to this conclusion? It was because voluntary contributions had failed. Appeals to the liberality and sense of duty and of pride of our capitalists, had failed. There were other facts which prevented New-Orleans from aiding rail-road enterprises, which were indifferently understood by our own people, and not at all elsewhere. One of these facts was a powerful one, but this was no occasion for concealing or disguising it. New-Orleans is without public credit abroad. Other communities were enabled, through their foreign credit, to raise any sum required for public improvement. It was not so in NewOrleans. Until this state of things was repaired-until New-Orleans retrieves her credit abroad as well as at home, it was vain to hope, immense as were her national advantages, that she would proceed to her high destiny. Let us see what was the cause of this want of credit abroad.

New Orleans was at present burdened with four classes of debt, all pressing upon her with crushing weight, and devouring the substance of her people. There was the old city debt of three millions, contracted many years ago, for which we have nothing to show. When the bonds of the old city are presented to the mayor, he redeems them by drawing on the three municipalities at twelve months. Thus we have the debts of the three several municipalities, amounting in the aggregate to nearly seven millions. Of these municipalities, the second had the best credit; sometimes it paid-sometimes it didn't. The first was 'more uncertain; and the third didn't pay at all. Now, in this state of things, how could we expect to have credit abroad? What can a community like that of New Orleans achieve, without public credit? It was the life-blood of a great commercial city. A community, like an individual, cannot prosper without credit. Public opinion is the air we breathe. No man can prosper without securing public opinion in his favor. Communities are but the aggregates of individuals. No one can fold his arms, and say that he will get along without any aid or sympathy from his fellow-citizens; so no city or community can say, "we do not require credit abroad-we will repose upon our own resources." New-Orleans must have some credit abroad. To acquire it, she must fall in with the spirit of the age; she must take part in the great rail-road movement now going on throughout the country,-throughout the civilized world. Therefore, he was in favor of this tax upon property, by which the commencement of the enterprise may be made promptly, immediately, efficiently. There was no possibility of raising the money in any other manner. Our population was a peculiar one; it possessed elements quite different from those of other cities.

And here he begged to correct an error into which Colonel Walter had fallen, in his very eloquent and powerful speech. It was in his allusion to the merchants of New-Orleans, whom he described as too torpid and indifferent to the interests of our city. This was an error. The fault of the inert state of New Orleans was not due to our merchants. Our population consists chiefly of two classes; the first is composed of the large propertyholders, who live upon the princely revenues of their estates, acquired by inheritance, lucky speculation, or by long and successful business. The other class is composed of toiling, diligent merchants, who labor the whole year round, and employ their credit and capital in supporting themselves, and adding to the wealth of the community. Now, the latter have the will, but not the means, to aid all public works. Their hardearned means their capital-is absorbed in high rents, high interest, and by advances to planters. They must not look to them for the means of carrying on great works. There is no more enterprising, or public-spirited class of merchants in the world, than those of New Orleans; but taxed and burdened as they are, it is vain to seek help from them. You must go to those who have capital to spare-those who derive princely revenues from the merchants' toils-who, while they produce nothing in reality, hold and enjoy all the wealth in the community. He referred to our wealthy property-holders. (Loud and prolonged applause.) He was for putting the live coal on the backs of the dormant enterprise and liberality of this class of our citizens. It is to that class, and not to our merchants, to whom the friends of rail-roads must appeal in this city. He (Mr. Robb) had never appeared before the people in any public capacity, but on this question he would undertake to take the stump, and carry the people with him, ten to one, in favor of imposing this tax. (Great applause.)

Within the last year, three individuals died in New-Orleans, leaving fortunes which amounted to four millions. These persons belonged to a numerous and influential class, who had always opposed all public improvements and enterprises. They would do nothing to advance the city. They produced nothing; they neither toiled nor spinned; but from

the hard labor of others, they drew their large resources. He had in his eye a friend who, in the course of his residence in New Orleans, had done more to advance its welfare than all our rich men put together. He (Mr. R.) made no attack on these peopleon wealth. He was as steadily engaged in the pursuit of wealth as any man, but he maintained that those who bask in the sunshine of our prosperity-who enjoy the advantages of our admirable location, of the rich products that pour into our port, and of the commerce which whitens our seas, ought to contribute largely, liberally, magnificently to support and carry out those enterprises which are essential to our safety, essential to maintain the vantage ground we occupy, and to repel the attacks from various quarters which have been made on our prosperity. To avoid all danger, or risk of failure, he advocated the imposition of a tax on property. That would compel what a sense of duty and liberality cannot extort. (Great and prolonged applause.)

There were other peculiarities in the condition of this city and state, which retarded the enterprise of our people. He referred to the bank monopoly, which had been brought about by a constitution framed to get rid of all banks. What was the position of Louisiana? In 1836 and 1837, the excesses of the banks for years before produced their natural effect in the destruction of the whole system; they worked their own ruin, and scattered bankruptcy and embarrassment abroad in the land. Under the influence of this state of things, the State Convention engrafted on the Constitution a clause forbidding all banking corporations. This was good as far as it went. But unfortunately its operation was to consolidate a banking monopoly here, which, whilst it afforded but little aid to the people, shut out foreign capital, and imposed manacles on the freedom of trade more galling than those which the old system imposed. We were far from enjoying the freedom of trade which was promised us under the new constitution. We had in place of it one of the worst monopolies he ever knew in any community. He was a banker, and had, no doubt, profited by it, but he nevertheless condemned it as one of the very worst state of things that could be imagined for a young and productive State like Louisiana, which was now in the very infancy of its development, which had good lands that were yet untouched, and which commanded the trade of the most productive valley in the world. He was for unshackled freedom of trade. He did not wish to prosper by the opposite system, which was repulsive to all his feelings and principles.

And this monopoly was becoming more consolidated with the lapse of time. From 1849 to 1833, Louisiana will lose nine millions of banking capital. The charter of the city bank had expired,-that of the Mechanics' and Traders' would expire in two years, and the capital mostly held abroad, will be abstracted. Then there is the amount to be paid by the Citizens' Bank, of interest on the bonds of the consolidated bank, as well as that to be paid by the Union Bank,-making a total of nine millions, which will be drawn off from our city to enrich other countries. What is to supply this vacuum? Our commerce and trade increase, but can they continue to do so? Will they remain as they now are, if we have not the capital to support them? The truth was-and those who came here to ask the aid and sympathy of our people in public works, which would be beneficial to the city, must bear it in mindwe were shackled, chained, crippled by our legislature, which was either unwisely restrictive, or grossly defective. Here was a striking illustration of this defectiveness: In this great enterprise, which engages so much warm support and sympathy among our people, we are actually left without the means of forming a corporation, by the limitation of our corporation act.

Mr. Robb then referred to another great want of New-Orleans-it was the want of an external commerce. By external commerce, he meant that which was conducted by ships owned here, and plying between this and foreign ports, and exchanging the produce of our valley for articles of foreign production, needed by our people. Save a small trade with both Mexico and Texas, we were entirely destitute of this extensive and enriching branch of commerce. This is a defect which must be remedied, in order to make this the great city it was intended to be. All these, and other evils of our present condition, will be removed by manifesting a proper spirit in behalf of public improvements. The present movement he regarded as the commencement of this system. The Jackson rail road would mark a new era in the history of New Orleans. Let it be entered upon with ardor and energy, and New Orleans will soon attract foreign capital and industry; it will resume its onward march, and become one of the greatest cities in the world. He enlisted for the campaign. He hoped he might fail in everything, before he failed in this. (Great applause.) He could sink or swim with the Jackson road. The destinies of New Orleans were inseparably entwined with those of this road.

Mr. Robb then proceeded to remark upon the peculiar character of our population. The commercial class was made up chiefly of foreign agents and factors, who came here in the winter, boarded in hotels at $50 a month, hired offices, or corners of offices, and embarked foreign capital in trade; and, when they had accumulated enough, fly off, or send their money away, to be spent in distant countries. No city ever grew great by commerce alone. Go back as far as they might, select the most favorably located cities in the world, and they would find that their prosperity was transient, evanescent, compared with that of towns situated in the interior, where industry and labor were cultivated and flourished-where the mechanical and productive arts were encouraged. What gave

this character to our city? What has kept from it those large industrial classes which have built up other towns, that have not enjoyed a tithe of our advantages? He answered, it was the want of credit-of public credit, produced by bad management of our public affairs. The want of public credit causes demoralization. It poisons the very springs of our prosperity; it draws around our city a cordon sanitaire, which keeps away industry and capital.

It is this which has lost to New-Orleans nine-tenths of her natural advantages. When in London, last summer, he was asked by one of the greatest bankers of the city, why, with her immense commerce, did not New-Orleans pay the interest on her public debt? The question caused his cheek to mantle with the crimson of shame. Could any citizen present have heard the inquiry, without experiencing like emotions? Such a state of things such an insensibility to public opinion and want of credit, produces demoralization. When our government neglects to pay, banks will fail to pay, merchants will fail, citizens generally will fail, and thus a general demoralization will be produced. These evils must come upon them if they did not make strenuous, powerful, and energetic efforts to save the credit of our city. And yet, in this state of things, calling for the active exertions of all good citizens, our largest property-holders and capitalists were the most indifferent and inactive. They complained most, and did least. This habit must be eradicated in this city. To labor is the destiny and duty of all men. No man is justified in withholding himself from the care and responsibility of society-from the duty of sustaining the government and mingling in the discussions, and influencing the sentiments of the people, which are to pass into laws. He who participates in the advantages of the government, must share the burdens also.

Look at New-England as an illustration of the advantages of public credit. She carried out her extensive system by an unlimited extension of her credit, and her bonds always commanded a ready purchase. She rode successfully through a revulsion which greatly strained her means, and threatened her with embarrassment. But she maintained herself by her credit. Change the locality-come to the South, and who of our section can go North or to Europe, and raise money on railroad stock? Such a proposition is laughed at. And yet the South is really in better condition than the North-less involved, and more abundant in her resources. He would predict, that when a revulsion shall take place in the country, the solvent states would be found in the South.

Mr. Robb then proceeded to show the drawback upon the prosperity of New Orleans, attributable to her want of industrial classes. Everything used here was manufactured abroad. The hat he wore, the chair he sat on, the bed he slept on, were the product of the industry of some distant people. No city could prosper without a large industrial class. To create such a class in New-Orleans-to draw them here from other countries, it was only necessary to extend and facilitate the connection of this city with the great agricultural states. When they multiplied rail-roads, they multiplied industry; when they increased the facilities of getting to our city, of course, the crowds that would flock hither from the teeming valleys of the West, would seek here the articles of necessity and luxury which they require. He had nothing to say against the alarming statements which had been made of the loss New-Orleans has sustained by the superior enterprise of other states in extending their railroads into her valley. They must counteract these movements, by sending out their iron arms to beat back the invaders, and reclaim our fugitive trade. Rail-roads, too, would enable them to locate our population-to make them fixed and permanent. When, by rail-roads, our people can in a few hours, instead of consuming half the year, place themselves beyond the reach of an epidemic-when, too, a new and beautiful farming country is opened to them but a short distance from the city, there will be strong inducements which do not now exist, to locate here permanently, and our population will acquire a stable character. Then, too, the number of visi tors to our city will be vastly augmented by these rail-road connections. There is a great mistake in supposing that the transient population of our city is so large. He knew, from actual calculation, that more persons visited New-York in one month, than came here during the whole year. Let them increase the number of this population, for they were valuable contributors to our wealth-they support a hundred trades and professions, which constitute important elements of our wealth and industry. They purchase liberally from merchants, grocers, hardware dealers, from all the purveyers to man's wants and luxuries. In a few years, they would have at least 200,000 visitors in their city, who would average $100 each. This would produce $20,000,000, to be distributed in the very best manner to promote the prosperity of the city, among the various small trades and pursuits of industry.

It is for these reasons, fellow-citizens, continued Mr. Robb, that I support this railroad with all my heart and energy. I shall stand by it as long as I have a cent of means, or a particle of strength. I repeat, I will sink or swim with it. (Immense and prolonged applause) Gentlemen, your enthusiasm affords an earnest that you are thoroughly aroused to the importance of this subject-that you are really in earnest, and intend to cease not-nor tire, nor falter, until this great, this glorious work is accomplished. Go on, then gentlemen, for this tax on property. The people of the state are in a good condition to meet it; they have had good crops, good prices, are nearly out of debt, and ought to see

that the golden opportunity of securing and establishing their prosperity by rail-road improvements is not lost. In the city it is a matter of life and death. If we do not awake to the enterprise of the times, we might as well abandon the city altogether. But I have no forebodings of failure. The spirit of determination flashes from the eyes of all around me. Every countenance expresses the fixed purpose to push forward the good work. (Great applause.)

There are other reasons for encouraging and establishing these rail-road connections. They prolong our lives; and the great ambition of man is to increase the term allotted to him in this world. When, instead of six or eight days, we can go to Nashville in twentyfour hours, we have more time left for other pursuits and duties,-we are able to see more, to learn more, and to do more. Then, too, there are the great political benefits of this system, in bringing the people of distant portions of our country more closely together,binding them in iron bonds of mutual interest, intercourse and friendship. Thus we shall be able to soften the asperities and prejudices which too often alienate and divide the citi zens of our common country. We shall satisfy our distant friends that we are better than prejudice and sectional feeling have represented us. When we know each other better, we shall respect and honor each other more. We shall draw the bigoted fanatic of the North here to convince him that beneath the warm sun of the South, there prevails as noble a philanthropy, as pure a charity, as fervent a patriotism, as anywhere else throughout our broad land. (Immense applause.)

Gentlemen, resumed Mr. Robb, our fate and interest are blended with those of the Great West. We must draw closer the bonds of alliance and interest with this vast, productive, and energetic region of country. Ours must be the metropolis to which the eleven millions of this vast empire will send their representatives, to procure their supplies and luxuries, and to participate in the pleasures, amusements, and festivities of our city. The freedom of our manners, the gayety of our habits, the absence of cant, of cold hypocrisy and bigotry, and the absurd sentiments they inspire, all render this city a more agreeable resort than any other in the country to the people of the West. We have only to increase the facilities of getting here, when the people of the West will look as naturally to New-Orleans as the centre of the arts, of fashion, and of ideas, as the people of France do to Paris. (Great applause.)

I appeal, then, to all of you, Gentlemen,-to you, merchants; to you, property-holders; to you, capitalists; to the people at large I appeal, to ponder well on these important considerations, to gird up your loins, go to the work and never tire until we have a rail-road to Jackson,-nay, more, a road which shall take us to the capital of old Kentucky in thirty-six hours, and to the common capital of our glorious Union in forty-eight hours. (Iminense applause.)

2.-NEW-ORLEANS AND ATTAKAPAS RAIL-ROAD.

We had prepared a paper upon this road, and intended some remarks upon the report of Mr. Payne, &c., but as the whole subject has been acted upon in Convention, we prefer to present it complete in our next number. We have not space in the present.

3.-TEHUANTEPEC RAIL ROAD.

Mr. Benjamin has written a letter, explaining the action of the Mexican Congress on the treaty, giving the right of way, &c. The subject is still in the hands of the committee. We shall, before long, present the result of the surveys under Major Barnard.

DEPARTMENT OF MANUFACTURES.

1.-MANUFACTURE OF SHOES AT THE SOUTH-AMOUNTS WHICH MIGHT BE GAINED TO US BY ABANDONING THE IMPORTS OF SHOES, &c.

THERE are now many shoe factories in operation or going up at the South. The Richmond Dispatch thus speculates upon the subject:

"It has been estimated that ready-made shoes to the value of not less than five millions of dollars, are annually imported into the several Southern States from the North. We are not aware of the quantity taken in Virginia, but we have no doubt it is very large, since one house of this city (so we learn) imports annually to the amount of $100,000. We regard it as highly probable that the State of Virginia imports from the North, annually, shoes to the value of $2,000,000.