LIIRAKT
bureau Of railway economics.
. . . WASHINCTCN, D. C. ...
Calm Coiisldcralioiis relative to the Canal, addressed to
the Citizens of New Haven.
FeUoip Citizens:—The situation of Kcw-IIaven is different from
tliat of any other city or community. Like others, we have load¬
ed ourselves with a hea\7' debt; but unlike all others, we have-no¬
thing to show for our debt. -The whole hundred, thousand dollars
which we borrowed, is a total loss, and nothing can by possibility
■ ever be realized from it, either in the shape of income or repay¬
ment of principal. Eleven years hence, wc must tax ourselves
CO cents on the dollar to meet our debt, or again,borro wand leave
to our children the burden-of:our costly and visionary experi-
. ment. In the mean time, the interest of the debt must be annual¬
ly met, by. a tax which is already discouraging to our mechanics
and oppressive to industry, and which begins to deter capitalists
who would otherwise bo desirous of making investments here,
from bringing their property within .the reach of our ill-advised
and improvident management. .'
In this state of^ things, whiclr is peculiar to our unfortunate city,
it is proposed to incur a debt of another hundred thousand dollars,
to be expended upon that same canal.. Before you consent to this
addition to the city burdens, is it not wise to pause and look con¬
siderately at the subject f The Legislature has given us permis¬
sion to incur this debt if we choose to do it. By what means this
permis-sion has been obtained, I forbear to speak, as it may recall
unpleasant feelings in many of. our citizens. I wish to speak only
to your cool reason, and not to your excited passions. Let us,
therefore, forget' tlic past, and look only to the present and the
future. , •. .
It is admitted on all hands that a few of our citizens will beben-
efittcd, if the public can be induced to keep up a canal for their
use. Some lumber and coal merchants, wood and iron dealers,
large grocers, packet owners and shippers, derive, in a greater or
less degree, a profit from the use cf the canal. A few say, and
they are possibly correct, that their clear profits from business on
, the canal, amount to a thousand dollars a year. No ona will en¬
vy their prosperity, or desire to cut short their gains. It is a plca-
. sure to listo sec them succesiful in business; but some of us have
doubted the propriety of compelling those who get no profits from
• the canal, to be at the expense of keeping it up for the benefit of
those few who get their living, or part of their living, by it. We
do not very clearly see why the city should not furnish ships for
the West India traders, as well as a canal for the lumber dealers.
If we must give these men a hundred thousand dollars, manythink
it would be more economical and better for all parties, to put.it
directly into their pockct.s, than to give it indirectly, through the
circuitous and wasteful channel of the canal.
But it is said the city at large is benefitted by the canal, though
the profits go, in the first instance, into the .pockets of but a few.
It really seems td us to rcfiuire some hardihood to claim tliat the
canal Is a pt/fdic benefit—that it is not strictly and exclusively a
local concern, confined in its useful effects to gcogr*phical limits,
corre.5ponding in no reípectto our civil limits, after the contrary
has been admitted, and evcnrotcd in city'meeting, in respect to a
large portion, which has been set off from the city on that very
ground—three-fourths of the remaining part óPthe city having as
little interest in the canal as Fairllavcn. Butnevertheles.s, the ca¬
nal is claimed to be a public benefit. ; It is said wood is cheaper,
laborers are furnished with emplovment, mechanics settle here to
h e -31 u-
' <2 3 (2 -(-x.
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do business, trade comes to us from the baclc country, in conse¬
quence of our having the canal. Many of our citizens who, left
to their own reflections, would doubt the propriety of a general
tax for the maintenance of this work, have been induced by this
plea of the good of the city, to yield their support to the proposed
measure. If they saw clearly, as it in fact is, that the whole
scheme is devised to benefit a few at the expense of the man}'—
that the plea of public good is a deception and a pretence for the
purpose of enlisting voters, they would reject the proposal with
indignation. The plausible doctrine is put forth, that the prosper¬
ity of a part is the prosperity of the whole; and consequently, if
some twenty or thirty citizens make money by the canal, that the
whole city is benefltted. This doctrine is true in some cafes, but
not in others—and unfortunately not true in the present case. If
the mechanics could, by calling city meetings week after week,
and getting the Legislature to set off from the city all who were
opposed to their scheme, procure a vote to be passed to furnish
them at the public expense with materials to carry on their busi¬
ness, such as springs and trimmings for carriages, leather for boots,
saddles, harnesses, &c. it would doubtless enable them to make
money ; but would their prosperity, thus acquired at the cost of
the public, be the prosperity ot the city? This would be only ta¬
king the property of one-half to ,give it to the other half. The
amount of wealth in the city is not increased by the measure—it
is only shifted from one man's pocket to that of another. Some
lumber merchants, grocers, packet owners, and wood monopolists,
will make money if the city will furnish them a canal and keep it
in repair, at the expense of 2 or 300,000 dollars; but who else is
prospered by the load of taxes which this expenditure renders ne¬
cessary? If these men who want the canai can keep it up, at their
own expense, and prosper under it, then, indeed, their prosperity
would be that of the city. But if. their prosperity is to be derived
from taxes upon the city, the inore they are enriched, the more the
rest of the citizens are impoverished. As well might it be urged
that the tenants of a well filled alms house, supported at the ex¬
pense of the town, promotes its prosperity, as that the comfortable
profits of a few merchants from the canal, supported at the expense
of the city, promotes its prosperity.
- But let us examine a little more particularly the advantages
which the city is said to derive from the canal, such as furnishing
labor, cheapening wood, itc. If all this were true, it is still a ques¬
tion whether the same money proposed to be expended on the ca¬
nal, would not be more wisely and usefully laid out in some other
way. A carman, for instance, votes for the canal loan under the
expectation that he shall have employment in carting wood. Why
not vote to have the interest of the hundred thousand dollars paid
to him at once, without the labor of carting ? What is the use, so
far as he is concerned, in requiring him to spend a large portion
of the money which he gets, to keep a horse, when that might be
dispensed with, and all the money go towards the maintenance
of his family ? But if he must have employment in carting, to be
provided by the city, why not call a meeting, and vote that the ca¬
nal shall be filled up, and that he shall be hired to cart sand to fill
it up? It is just as easy to cart sand as to cart wood. But it is
said the canal lowers the price of wood, and while the carman
finds employment, the citizens are gainers by the cheapening of
their fuel. I shall not deny that men who have the means of buy¬
ing wood by the boat load, may get it a little lower than they
other wise would, in consequence of the canal. But I do deny
that the canal cheapens wood for those who buy by the cord or less
quantity. This last winter, canal wood has been retailed $2 per
3
cord liighcr than It was sold at from the carts. True, the carts
carried more than some poor persons could conveniently buy at
one time; and it was sometimes an accommodation to be abie to
procure a smaller quantity, though at a higher rate. But all such
persons can be accommodated without the canal as well as with
It. For S2 advance on the cord, men enough wll be ready to buy
v/ood from the carts, store it up in yards, and retail to all who w-ish
to buy in small quantities. After ail, it is a strange mode of cheap¬
ening wood, to spend a hundred thousand doliars upon a canal,
merely that monopolists may buy it all up, and then extort exorbi¬
tant profits from the poor, who must pay or perish with the cold,
unless they are protected from the distressing effects of the monop¬
oly, as they were a winter or two since, by the interference of be¬
nevolent men, who purchase wood and sell it out at cost. Still,
the advocates of the loan insist that wood is at least a dollar, if
not two dollars cheaper per cord, than it would be but for the ca¬
nal. And in proof, they say tliat wood has not risen in price in
proportion to other articles. This is true; but unfortunately for
the argument, it is true in other cities as weil as New-Haven.—
SVood lias not risen in Hartford, in proportion as other articles
have risen. This, surely,is not owing to the canal. The factthat
erery uhere the price of wood has kept down, while other things
have advanced, must be ascribed to some cause that operates ere¬
ry tchere. We cannot ascribe this effect to a canal in one place,
while the same effect exists in other places where there are no ca¬
nals. It must be owing to a cause wliich is general, and not local.
The introduction of coal into ail places that can be approached
by navigation, is such a cause, and will explain why wood has not
risen like flour, and corn, and potatoes.
As to mechanics coming here; if we wish to invite them to set¬
tle in New Haven, should we not make our invitation more accept¬
able, if we could offer them a city with light taxes, instead of one
oppressed with a frightful debt? It is one of the great privileges
of our country, that young mechanics can start in life with nothing
but skill and industy, borrow a little capital from some one whohas
money to let, pursue his business for a few years, and find himself,
long before he reaches old age, independent in his circumstances, if
not rich. Let another hundred thousand doliars be added to our
city debt, and the taxes on money at interest, be consequently in¬
creased, as they will be, to more than one per cent, upon it, and
where in New Haven, will a young mechanic find any money tobe
borrowed ? Assuredly, no monied man will be so regardless of his
own interest as to lend out his money here for C per cent, and pay
more than one per cent, of it for taxes, when he can lend it in the
state of New York for 7 per cent, and pay no taxes upon it.
As to the trade of the bark country, which the canal is to bring;
how many will share its profits? No one can estimate the number
at more than one tenth of the city. Is there no injustice in com¬
pelling nine tenths of the city to expend a hundred thousand dol¬
lars, to bring trade to the stores ot the other tenth?—in taxing the
merchants of Broadway, to furnish business for those of State-st?
If there was no injustice in the principle, it is a question of calcul¬
ation, which ought to be made by us as prudent men, what, on the
whole, will be the clear profit of the canal trade, aflerdeductingthe
interest of the $200,000 which the city will have expended in order
to sustain the canal? tVill it not be a losing business to tlie city,
even if the whole profits of the trade are carried to the account of
the city, and not to that of individuals? We have heardmuchs*id
about the great advantages ol a location at the mouth of a river—
that the canal is like a river, connecting with the vast region back.
AVho, it is asked, in the city of New York, would consent that th»
4
Hudson should be closed up? Will New Haven consent that her
grand canal, reaceingto the heart of New England, shall be given
up? As if, indeed, our canal was a Hudson river! The whole
value of a location upon a river depends upon the fact whether by
means of dt, extensive trade is brought to it. If the trade of a place
is not increased by location upon a river, of what ues is the ri¬
ver? What would Saybrook or Lyme, Milford or Stratford lose
in their trade, by closing up the Connecticut or Housatonic ! What
would Hamden lose by filling up the canal? New Haven would
lose something, I admit; but we are brought back to the question,
whether it is not better to submit to the loss, rather than incur the
certain, and vast expense required to avoid it. You, Fellow Citi¬
zens, must settle this question. In doing it, consider that the pro¬
fits of the canal, whatever they be, all go into a few favored hands ;
and that yoii, in order to retain those profits for their use, are in¬
cumbering your property with an immense debt, to be transmitted
as a sad inheritance to your posterity.
We have proceeded on the supposition that the canal will be per¬
manently sustained, if the proposed loan is granted, you have no
assurance, however, that the canal will be kept upthree years,•
even if you make the loan. The Company are under no obliga¬
tions to keep it up a moment after your money is expended. Five
years hence, nay, very probably, two years hence, this company
will assemble you in the State House, day afier day, till you are
dogged out, with the doleful tale—"our. funds are exhausted, and
unless the city lend us more money, the canal must be abandoned."
What will be your remedy? You must abandon it, or advance
more money. Is there a reasonable prospect, such a prospect as
prudent men in their own affairs would hazard their money upon,
that the hundred thousand dollars will give the canal a permanent
existence? If not, if the canal will not ultimately maihtain itself,
it is surely best to abandon it now. What then are its future pros¬
pects? We may get some light on this question from the expe¬
rience of other canals. In the report ofthe Comptroller of the state
of New York, on, the subject of its canals, is a remark worthy of
our deep consideration. He says, " The success which has atten¬
ded the construction of the Erie canal, cannotbe realized in regard
to canals or railroads on any other line in this state'. • The route of
the Erie Canal from lake Erie to the Hudson, connecting as it does,
the great lakes of the west and fertile regions which surround them,
with the Hudson river and the city of New York, possesses advan¬
tages for the accumulation of revenue, as a thoroughfare for trade
and emigration, which is unequalled perhaps,in the world. Because
this channel of communication has been found profitable, it does
not follow that a canal or a railroad can be constructed in any
other section and be equally profitable. On the contrary, it is es¬
tablished beyond a doubt, that canals constructed in other parts of
the state, in every instance, have failed to produce a revenue suf¬
ficient for their maintainance and thepayment of Interest on the cost
df their construction." The Comptroller says this is true in every
instance. The remark applies then to the Champlain canal—the
canal which connects New York with Vermont and Canada. Let
it be considered that there is no other medium of communication
between that great northern region and the city of New York.
And yet the canal fails to maintain itself. It has to be helped out
by the great Erie canal. Look atthe situation of our canal. It opens
a communication with Connecticut river at Northampton, and with
a country above, containing about twenty towns. It may well be
doubted whether those towns, if we had the whole of their trade,
would furnish transportation enough to pay the expenses of the
canal, and the interest of thecityloan. But,rememberthesetowns
5
have another outlet, provided mostly by nature, but improved by
art, through which they communicate with their ancient trading
place, Hartford, andthegreatemporiumcfthecountrj',Ne\vYork.
Soon, in addition, they are to have a communication with their
own metropolis, Boston, and with the Hudson river, by the railroad
now making across the state of Massachusetts. You cannot ex¬
pect, therefore, to have nil the trade even ol twenty tosvns. It is
at any rate to bo divided; in what proportions we know not. But
in the view of all, any thing short of the whole trade will, in the
end, be latal to the canal. That the stockholders of the Company
consider it a hopeless concern, in which no confidence can be pla¬
ced, is proved by their absolute refusal to invest in it another cent.
That even those most clamorous lor the loan, and most eager to
vote away the money of the city, look upon it as a desperate case,
is proved by their refusal to lend asingle dollartowards sustaining
a work, which they say is of vast value to themselves.
It has been very industriously given out and circulated, that the
whole of the hundred thousand dollars will never be wanted or
called for. I fear this is a designed deception. A moment's atten¬
tion to the able report of the Committee, who examined into the
alTairs and prospects of the canal company, will show that this is
a deception, whether designed or not.
From this report it appears, that there are 39 wooden locks to be
built of stone, (no one knows how soon, but say within 10 years,)
at an expense of S2,700 each, making - - S105,300
The annual ordinary repairs are estimated at $13,000
a year, making for ten years . . - 130,000
The extraordinary repairs arc estimated at $5000 a
year, making for ten years ... .50,000
The whole expenditure for ten years - - $335,300
being an average of $33,530 a year. That the canal can yield an
income of half that sum, no rational man acquainted with the sub¬
ject will believe. But suppose, contrary to all reasonable expect¬
ation, that the tolls shall amount to $20,000 a year; they will then
fall short of meeting the annual expenses $13,530. The company
will then want not only the 100,000, but $35,000 more, within ten
years. That this calculation is too favorable to the company, any
person will be convinced, who looks closely to the hopeless pros¬
pects of the canal. All admit that the canal cannot be sustained
unless it commands the trade of Northampton and the river above.
The desolate region through which the canal passes, from its north¬
ern to its southern termination, offers nothing to be regarded in
the support ol such anexpensive work. Unless the river trade can
be diverted into the canal, all agree that it must be abandoned.—
Can the river trade be so diverted 7 Yes, if the people of Hartford
do not object, and the people on the river are willing to pay more
for transportation on the canal, subject to all its delays and uncer¬
tainties, than on the river; not otherwise. Is Hartford wiliing to
reliiKiuish a trade which she has enjoyed for 200 years 7 Very pro¬
bably she will hold on to it if she can. The transportation compa¬
nies are, this very season, increasing their number of steamboats
arnl other boats, with a determination to engross the freights oí the
river. If at present prices, the freights cannot be commanded, prices
wili be lowered. The resources of those companies (not less than
$100,000) will enable them, if necessary, to make sacrifices in or¬
der to retain the river custom. But sacrifices cannot be necessary.
The freights from Hartford to New York,and from New Haven to
New York, are not essentially different. So far then as the inter¬
course between the region of Northampton and New York is con¬
cerned, the route to be chosen, other things being equal, depends
upon the comparative expense of transportation to Hartford and
6
tô New Haven: for when goods have reached those places, the ex¬
pense from both to New York is nearly the same. Let us then com¬
pare the two routes in some important particulars, having a bear¬
ing upon the cost of transportation.' The distance from North¬
ampton to Hartford is 45 miles ; from Northampton to New Haven
87 miles—difference in favor of the river 42 miles. The fall in the
river is 90 feet; the rise and fall in the canal is 520 feet—difference
in favor of the river 430 feet. The number of locks in the river is
10, in the canal 60—difference in favor of the river 50. In the river
there is at no time a want of water; in' the canala long continued
drought, a leak or a breach, stops navigation. The river always-
runs; the use of the canal is liable to frequent interruption, cau¬
sing delays most ruinous to merchants. The river opens early in
the spring and is immediately navigable; the canal always requires
for repairing some weeks. The boats on the river are moved by
steam; on the canal by horses. Nature has provided the river
and, with the exception of the locks, keeps it in repair without ex¬
pense to men; the canal is a work of art, constructed at great ex¬
pense, and requiring a vast and constant expenditure to keep it up.
To suppose, with such advantages enjoyed by the river, that the
canal can possibly stand a competition with it, appears to me, and
must appear to all who duly weigh them, one of the wildest dreams .
of a diseased imagination. " ,
The Committee whose report I have referred to, have made their
estimate of receipts from the canal, at $15,000 for the present year,
20 or 25,000 for the next, with an addition each succeding year of
5000, till they rise to 35,000 dollars a year. They'haVe not given
us the grounds of their estimates. We must take it therefore as
a mere guess, and that a wild one : for they make no allowance for
interruptions in the navigation by breaches in the canal, the carry¬
ing away of dams, or caving in of locks—none for embarrassments
in the business of the country. There is to be no over-trading, no
over-banking, no disturbance with foreign powers, no effect upon
manufacturers by the reduction of the tariff, no sub-treasury scheme
to derange the currency apd impair the credit system—in short no
revulsion whatever, but every thing is to go on forever with unin¬
terrupted and growing prosperity. AVill past experience justify
such expectations'? While our neighbor, the state of New York, is
increasing her bank capital, as it is called, and her paper money
based upon mortgages of city lots and fog, at the rate of $30,000,000
a year, and other states are following her hazardous example;
while our own "land of steady habits" is authorizing irresponsible
rail-road companies to pour out upon us half a million of shin-plas¬
ters never to be redeemed ; are we quite sure that there will be no
convulsion among the banks? Ifthat should happen) the tolls of the
canal will not pay the salaries of its officers. Three years hence
there is to be a contest about the tariff. It is possible there may be
some panic got up, in order to bring about a renewal of the tariff.
Manufacturing business, from that or some other pause,' may be
prostrated, and when it is, your tolls will hardly pay for collection.
I think, too, the committee place too much reliance on the gentle¬
ness and regularity of the elements, and (with all due deference to
Mr. Farnham) upon the skill of the engineer, when they estimate-
the extra expenses at only $5000 a year. . ,
Those who are in favor of this loan, meet us with the allegation
that they pay the greater partof the taxes—that the burden of this
loan, if it should turn out to be one, will fall chiefly upon them—-
and that we, who pay but little, ought not to complain. Our little
is our all. ■\Ve are less able to bear the loss of 10 percent, of our
income (which the canal loan will take from us yearly) than you
who have larger incomes. He whose income is $1000 a year can
7
part with 100 of It with lesa Inconvenience than he who has but 100
a year can part with ID. Some of the persons whose money you
are about to take by force, to maintain a canal for your benefit, are
widows and orphans who need alt their scanty income for subsis¬
tence. 'Whatever you take from them to put into the canal, you
take from the loaf that feeds them. Many must go hungry, that
the lumber merchant may get rich. 1 do wrong, perhaps, to waste
words In appealing to your humanity, or to a sense of justice—let
me speak to your interest. De itso, that you, the advocates of this
measure, have the greater part of the wealth. If you furnish the
precedent of combining to tax the less wealthy for your benefit,
you must not complain if, on some future occasion, the less wealthy
combine and tax you for their benefit. You may live to be the vic¬
tims of your own dangerous example—more especially dangerous
here in New Haven, where political zeal has unwisely admitted the
temporary residents of the city in connection with the college, to a
voice in our municipal affairs ; where, too, is placed an institution
whose officers and dependants, free from taxation themselves, may
impose unlimited taxe« upon the other citizens—an institution that
is a gainer from high taxes, having a large real estate in the city,
exempt from the public burdens, the rents of which will be increa¬
sed as ta.xation raises the rents of other property. When we see
the officers of this institution eager to load our city with a debt of
a hundred thousand dollars, and holding forth in favor of it at ca¬
nal caucuBscs, in order that the college may procure its wood a lit¬
tle cheaper, we see the forerunner of future and terrible evil. The
swarm of transient voters issuing from that institution, and now
uniting with you to suck our blood, will soon pass away, to be suc¬
ceeded by a new swarm, which may unite with us to tap the more
plentiful stream that courses in your veins. Pause, fellow citizens
who are rich. Set no examples to the poor which may be followed
by them to your destruction.
Our own experience has furnished a lesson not soon to be for¬
gotten, of the great danger of civil communities embarking in pe¬
cuniary enterprises. With high hopes and flattering prospects,we
invested ten years ago, a hundred thousand dollars in the canal,
and were promised a future income, that would meet the Interest,
and eventually extinguish the principal. It was certain that no
more would bo wanted, and every body knew that it would be a
safe and profitable investment. Where is the money? Wm. W.
Doardman, the old secretary of the Farmington Canal Companj*,
can tell us perhaps if he would, probably however he will not. All
we know of it is that it is gone, and can never be recalled. The
Sin0,000now wanted is, in like manner, to be a very safe loan; the
interest is to be paid back to us without fail; no more will be wan¬
ted, and not even all this ! But what is the security offered? A
mortgage of the property and franchise of the company. It is ad¬
mitted, as I understand, that the absolute property to be mortgaged,
at a fair valuation, is not worth over 7 or SOOO dollars. This then
Is of little consequence, in the light of a security for a loan of
çi(i0,000. But ihcjranchise is also to be mortgaged. The franchise
is the privilege of'^maintaining the canal and receiving the tolls.—
"What a blessed thing it would be to our city to have the privilege
of building the bridges from here to Northampton, and paying the
damages arising from any neglect—of restoringthose 39 old wood¬
en locks, as fast as they give way, by building them up with stone—
of repairing the destruction caused by every flood, or by every
villain who may feel inclined In any manner to injure the canal.
—But we are to have the tolls I S7000 a year—out of which is to
be paid the salaries of the officers—amounting to more than half
that sum! But can we be sure even of these inestimable privi-
s ,
leges 1 The Company has obtained from the Legislature of Mas¬
sachusetts and Connecticut, the property and franchise of the two
Companies incorporated by those States, subject to the provisions
of the two charters, and some further provisions contained in the
charter granted to the present Company by the two States. I can¬
not find in the charter, any power to mortgage the franchise.
Without the consent of the States from which the Company de¬
rives its existence, it cannot make a valid mortgage of its fran¬
chise. The. State of Connecticut, perhaps, (for thismaybe aques-
tion,) may have given an implied consent to this mortgage, by al¬
lowing the City to make the loan upon that security ; but Massa¬
chusetts has given no such consent—and without that, any convey¬
ance must be a nullity. A mortgage, under these circumstances,
appears to me nothing less than a stupendous fraud upon the hon¬
est, confiding .citizens of New Haven.
While the States of the Union are rushing into debt with the
recklessness of the profligate, it behooves the smaller communities
to beware. They (the States) can throw off the incumbrance
when it becomes intolerable, for there is no power above them to
compel payment. When the time to provide for their debts shall
arrive, the people then on the stage who have had no agency in
contracting, may refuse to discharge them. " Forfeited credit,
exhausted resources, broken pledges," may produce convulsions,
but will hardly enforce payment. But the smaller communities
cannot escape even thus. They are subject to a higher power, and
must pay. In.1850, when your present debt of $100,000 becomes
due, and nine years after, when the other proposed debt of $100,-
000 will be due, struggle as you may, and plead as you may, that
the corroding canker has eaten up your substance, still, the money
must be forthcoming; unless you can persuade successive Legisla¬
tures to set off from the City, portion after portion, till nothing is
left but the Public Square. Those capitalists, now so eager to dis¬
count the notes of the City, will be quite as eager to collect them.
And where, when that time comes, will be the taxable property of
these men 1 Will they leave it here to pay dollar for dollar on the
grand list? If they do, they have less ofthat wordly wisdom
commonly imputed to them.—No ! as the day of" reckoning" ap¬
proaches, you will find every taxable thing that can leave the city,
departing, and the burden of course doubled upon whatever can¬
not leave.
P. S.—It is currently reported, and believed to be true, that the
Packet Boat Company, sunk, by running their boats on the Canal
last summer, for only 10 weeks, NINETEEN HUNDRED DOL¬
LARS ! ! There is no prospect that these boats will ever run
again—the Company refusing to incur any further loss, and the
citizens whose charity is appealed to for help, turning away with
loathing and disgust. Thus a source of income, which it was said
would yield to the Canal $3000 a year, is dried up. So vanishes
this, as has vanished every other anticipation of any substantial
revenue, from that rotten, wasteful, deceitful concern. No man
can touch it, or have any thing to do with it, without being ruined.
APR 26 191!