that of issuing debentures bearing a fixed rate of interest, for the payment of which the roads are held as security. The British Government has, within a few years, guaranteed the interest upon the sum of $440,000,000 (gold) for the construction of railroads in India in order to enlarge the field of cotton supply. The responsibility of the same Government for railroads in her British American possessions cannot be less than $60,000,000. Here are about five hun dred millions of dollars of capital, raised on a government guarantee, for railroad extensions in two colonies alone! It is clear that private capital enough can be reached to build all our needed trunk-lines of railroad upon a government guarantee of interest upon part of the money. Without it, or some equivalent element of monopoly, it cannot be raised soon enough. The powers of borrowing corporations are so great, and their liability so slight, in general, that we suffer from too much corporate enterprise in theory and too little in practice. Judicious encouragement can send us ahead twenty-five years; but left to the cross-purposes and contentions of contending corporations, we may be kept back half a century of rightful progress. In this condition of things what can the General Government do; or can it do any thing to the purpose? The plan upon which the original Pacific Railroad was aided has been tried, and already we can see its results. We have yet to hear that, so far as the Government is concerned, it has suffered to the extent of one dollar by the experiment, and it is certain that the country at large will gain immensely. To the corporations comprising the Central Pacific Railroad Route were granted the Bonds of the United States at an average rate of $25,000 per mile (about half the estimated cost), which were to be repaid by the Companies either in services, or cash, or both, at maturity, and were meantime a subordinate lien upon the roads and equipment. Unfortunately, Congress has not called for the statistics on this subject, but from data at hand, we can The total of government bonds to be issued when the whole 2,500 miles are built, will be sixty millions, upon which the annual interest will be $3,600,000 in currency, to be offset by the government interest in the transportation of troops, mails, and supplies; and it is quite conceivable that in a short time the Government will be on the debtorside of the account. Now, it will not be doubted that the benefit to the government service, upon this 1,133 miles of railroad then built, was far beyond the $1,250,000 in currency, the rate of interest accruing at the time. The total amount of interest paid on account of Government Pacific Railroad bonds was probably less than $2,500,000, up to that date. Now, it is known that the freighting of military stores across the plains has cost from three to five millions per annum, to say nothing of the risk and loss attending wagon-transport. aside from the celerity, safety, and economy of troops, supplies, and mails, the Government is actually able to dispense with the frontier posts as the railroads reach them, and within a short time would be able to dispense with most of them. This, in fact, is the cheapest, the final, way of settling the Indian question. Agricultural settlement spreads from the railroad as it is pushed forward. Mining for the precious metals is placed within the line of steady and profitable occupation. Order and indus try spring up in the wake of the loco But motive. Can the Government, then, afford to withhold the necessary aid to extend the needed lines of railroad in the public territory? The bulk of the land west of the Mississippi is public domain. With easier access it becomes valuable; at present it is not. Would it not be better to curtail the grants of land, and instead advance a loan of the national credit, properly secured, sufficient to draw out an equal amount of private capital? The Pacific slope has to-day a total active population of nearly one million. It contains a greater variety of mineral and forest wealth than any equal area in the world is unsurpassed for pastoral and agricultural products. It has the attractions and the capacity for a dense population and busy manufactures; and the opening commerce with Eastern Asia promises to overshadow in importance that of the Atlantic Ocean. There are three lines of settlement across the intermediate territory, along which are important forts and posts. The Central Route, stretching from Omaha and Leavenworth by way of Denver, Salt Lake, Virginia City, and Sacramento, reaches San Francisco by a very direct line, following the 41st parallel of latitude. This belt is already provided with a railroad-line, aided by Government credit, as well as lands. It is being carried forward by the two powerful corporations-the CENTRAL and UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANIES-with unprecedented energy and persistence. At last accounts, the Western portion had completed 150 miles across the dreaded Sierra Nevada range, and were coming this way at the rate of 50 miles per month. The Eastern portion, equally active, have already reached the Rocky Mountains, and are hastening toward the point of junction at the rate of 25 miles per month. It is confidently believed that July, 1869, will see the continuous rails laid from New York to San Francisco, and that the time between the two points will be reduced to six days. From the information before us, it is easy to see that as long as this line has the exclusive business between the Mis souri and the Pacific, it must have more local and through business than it can well accommodate. Even now, in its unfinished state, the unjoined portions are earning very remarkable revenues, all of which are being invested in the construction. Particularly is this the case of the Central Pacific end, building from Sacramento eastward, which serves so large a proportion of the valuable mining regions of the Far West. A double track will be found necessary at no distant day. There are satisfactory reasons, however, why at least two other lines to the Pacific coast should be built as soon as possible. 1. They would be wholesome checks against the tendency to monopoly on the part of the existing single linea tendency which has already begun to develop. 2. The presence of an army in the Indian Territories demands some cheaper, speedier, and more reliable mode of communication than guarded wagon-teams. 3. The mineral and agricultural advantages of the country traversed would lead to an important increase in the taxable wealth of the country, and furnish a remunerative business to the roads. These two practicable lines lie more than three hundred miles apart from the Central Route, now nearly completed, and both of them have already a considerable military and industrial settlement contiguous to their route, which cannot be well served by the Central Route. Of these, the first and most necessary is the NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD, with its eastern terminus at St. Paul, or the head of Lake Superior, following the Valley of the Upper Missouri to the divide of the continent, and thence by the valley of the Columbia to Seattle on Puget's Sound, the second, and in fact only good harbor on the North Pacific Ocean after San Francisco. This line passes through the finest arable land, taps the rich gold regions of Idaho, and opens up Oregon and Washington-States whose natural advantages are compared to those of New York. Such a line would not vary far from the 46th parallel of latitude, while that of the Central Pacific lies near the 41st-the isothermal line on the Pacific slope sweeping far to the northward of the corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic water-shed. The second of the New Pacific Railroads should be designed to give to the East a double connection with San Francisco, the great, the overshadowing port on that coast. Southward from that city, for a thousand miles, there is no adequate harbor-the nearest being Guaymas, on the Gulf of California, and a Mexican port. The San Joaquin Valley, extending from the Bay of San Francisco nearly to the southern boundary, is described as one of the richest valleys in the world; one where the bulk of the best California wheat is raised, and which is capable of sustaining a population of five millions of people. This is the natural approach from the southward and the path of the southerly transcontinental line. By this route the high crossings of the Sierra Nevada range will be partially avoided, the mountains being turned rather than crossed; the elevation of the Tejon Pass is but about four thousand feet above sea-level. Thence to the Colorado River, at Fort Mohave, and on to the Sierra Madre, or Rocky Mountain chain, near Albuquerque, the line should cross Arizona and New Mexico, about the 35th parallel. This is the great repository of gold and silver, which the COMPANY. Northern Pacific... San Joaquin & Southern..... Oregon Branch. Montana Branch. Kansas Branch, E. D.. Memphis & Pacific...... Mexicans have been working, in a crude and imperfect way, for two hundred years, and the Aztecs for centuries before them. From the passage of this divide of the continent, near Santa Fé, it would seem as if the interests of the whole country would be served by two or more diverging branches, with subbranches leading to New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, Cairo, and St. Louis. In fact, several beginnings have been made toward a system of railroads leading from each of these points westward of the Mississippi, all of them tending in the direction of this passage at the 35th parallel. One of these lines, the Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division, more commonly known as the Kansas Branch, has been extended (with the aid of the Government) 700 miles west of St. Louis, or nearly to the Rocky Mountains, and is consequently the line west of the southerly system, and is only about 500 miles from the Rio Grande at Albuquerque. A better point of departure is found by a direct route southwest from St. Louis, and the South Pacific Railroad of Missouri have already a line in operation to the Gasconade River, 125 miles westward. The following tabular sketch indicates, with sufficient precision, the length of the vital lines, and for which government aid is asked : Or a total of 7,000 miles of railroad, upon which the Government is asked to assume an annual interest-charge which could not exceed $6,500,000 per annum, and which might be reduced, in the course of a few years, to nothing. The rate per mile has been placed lower than the existing ratio for the lines now Total..... building, as it is claimed, for each and all of the new lines, that they do not have to cross mountainous country. These sums of $20,000 and $10,000 per mile are a trifle under the probable cost of the lines; but, as under the existing law, first mortgage-bonds could be issued for an equal sum, there would probably be no difficulty about raising from private hands the sum sufficient to carry them through. It should be borne in mind, the Government is not asked to give one dollar; but simply to loan the use of these sums for a period of years, to take adequate security for the amounts, and to cancel the indebtedness as time lapsed by their service in its behalf; or if that were not sufficient, to call upon the companies to make good the deficiency. It will not, by the time the roads are done, have taken one dollar out of the treasury or out of the pockets of the taxpayers, as the amount of the interest advanced temporarily is less than the saving to the Government by the roads, to say nothing of the enhanced worth of all the public lands, and the increase of the general commercial activity. In fact, it constitutes no real addition to the national debt, as the property is held as security for the government advances. It will lessen the expenses of administering the government, and give us order and quiet throughout the whole public domain. It will bring us into nearer relations with China, Japan, and India, whose populous fields teem with the products we seek. Is there any better use to which the national credit can be put? It is the part of statesmanship to look forward, and rise with the spirit of the time. It falls to our lot, now, to map out and organize the work of the next generation, and to contribute our efforts toward bringing the whole world nearer to us, and every part of the country nearer to every other. IN TUNE. WHEN low upon the happy grass I lie, 'Mid all the merry carols of the birds, The sweet soft sounds of insect-stir below, A mournful undertone, too vague for words, Comes troubling the still peace with haunting woe. The grasses whisper to the bending corn, The keen-voiced cricket gossips to the bee, And, darting through the sparkling dews of morn, The stately swans go circling up the lake, -Beneath them fairer swans serenely move- It seems all Nature hath an answering speech; Then why, my heart, this undertone of doubt ? O lonely heart, set thine own chords in tune! For thee shall all creation have a voice, And flowers and birds and angels round the Throne, The heart that loveth, never is alone!" GERMAN UNIVERSITY LIFE. IN undertaking to condense floating reminiscences and idle reflections into a compact multum in parvo upon German University Life, I am somewhat apprehensive as to the limits of the parco. The theme is so interesting and so diversified that it threatens to grow indefinitely under one's pen. A few words of explanation at the outset may not come amiss. It is not the object of the present brief sketch to treat of the origin and educational functions of the German university system, but to indicate the salient features of life and study in the university towns, in order that the stayat-home reader may obtain some clear notions of this peculiar phase of studentlife. Those however who know by experience what it is to study in Germany, will perhaps find some entertainment in having their reminiscences of bygone hours refreshed in this informal manner. A German university might be characterized as a circle the circumference of which is everywhere and the centre nowhere. In rambling through the narrow streets of G for the first few days after my arrival, I was continually puzzled in trying to find out where the university really was. Every walk discovered some new building. It was not as it is in an American college, where the lecture-rooms, library, chapel, and dormitories are clustered in and around a centre-the campus, or college green. A German university really has no common rallying-place for all the students. There is the Aula, where applicants are immatriculated, where the treasurer keeps his books, the university court sits, and the carcer shuts its doors upon the young spirits whose love of beer has outrun their discretion. In quite another place is the Collegien-haus, where the majority of the lectures are held. In an out-of-the-way corner of the town is the chemical laboratory. Still farther off and in an opposite direction is the anatomical museum, where the medical course is pursued. Wholly outside of the town rises the dome of the observatory, while in another suburb blooms the botanical garden. The professor of agricultural chemistry meets his students in some cidevant mill. After I had passed upwards of three years in G―, and flattered myself with the belief that I was acquainted with at least the externalities of all the university buildings, I learned that a neat, well-appointed little farm, situated about a mile and a half from the town-gate, was the agricultural school connected with the university. Not long afterwards a cluster of shed-like buildings was pointed out to me as a veterinary school-also connected with the university. The students' habitations are as scattered as the public buildings. Each man lives by himself and substantially after his own fashion. Almost every house in the smaller university towns has one or more rooms let out to these quasi Bobemians. Such a thing as a dormitory after our fashion would be an abomination in the eye of a German. It would suggest too forcibly the school or the barracks. Frequently many students room in the same building, which is then called a caravansery or mill, while the inmates pass under the name of house-bones. A room itself is styled a booth or shanty. To enter a student's apartment is to "charge upon him in his booth." Shall we then charge upon one or two students in their booths? The first one happens to be of studious habits. We enter a medium-sized, uncarpeted room, furnished with a table, a sofa, a desk or secretary, some book-shelves, and two or three uninviting chairs. To one side of the main room is the sleeping chamber, through the open door of which we catch a glimpse of the wash-stand in |