4 cts. per b.

similar circumstances, to deliver it in a coal boat on the Potomac; but let this sum be doubled, and say that coal in boats will cost two cents, 2 cts. per b. Tolls.-The tolls charged on the Pennsylvania canal for transportation of coal, is half a cent a ton per mile, which, at 28 bushels per ton, will be nearly Freight. A boat carrying 1,680 bushels, travelling two miles per hour or 48 miles in 24 hours, (less than the usual speed,) will reach tide in 44 days; it will require, say two men, $2, a boy and horse 75 cents each, making $3 50 per day, or $15 75 for the trip, equal to nearly It is presumed that the returning freight from Washington and the Baltimore rail road will at least pay expenses, but suppose there be no return loading, charge as above, Profits. Add for profits $32 per load more than 25 per cent on the whole capital employed,

1 do. do.

1 do. do.

2 do. do.

10 cts. per b.

21

12 cts. per b. The committee have thus adopted the most liberal allowances, more than they believe will be the actual cost, and they feel confident that the strictest scrutiny into all the elements of the calculation cannot increase the price they have adopted.

If then the bituminous coal from Cumberland can be delivered at tide, for this sum, of course it can be transported coastwise to all our Atlantic ports and towns cheaper than it can be obtained from any other part of the world; and if so, can there be any assignable limit to the demand?

Let us see whether this position is sustained by facts. The cost of transporting coal from Philadelphia to Washington, (as a regular business and not as ballast,) is $1 50 per ton, or 5 cents per bushel; to Baltimore, coastwise or by rail road from Point of Rocks, 4 cents per bushel: to Boston $2 per ton, or 7 cents per bushel, and it may be carried to Charleston, or the most distant of our sea ports for 8 cents per bushel, which is more than is received by importers from Liverpool. viz: cost at Liverpool 123, duty 6 cents, deduct, also, insurance, commissions, wharfage, &c. and it leaves less than 8 cents for freight. Apply these facts, and the cost of Cumberland coal will be in our principal cities as follows. viz:

In Washington, Alexandria, and Georgetown, (per bushel) 12 cts. Present price $7 per ton, or 25 Saving, 121 At Washington, 12 Freight, 4

In Baltimore it will be 16 cts, viz:

16

Present price 25

Saving, 84

In Philadelphia it will cost 17 cents, viz:

At Washington 124 Freight now paid 5

171

Saving, 12

Thus it appears, from well authenticated facts, collected with great pains, that Cumberland coal can be delivered, coastwise, at all our Atlantic cities and towns, cheaper than it can be obtained from any other part of the United States, or Europe; and of course the capacity of the canal to furnish it will be the only limit to the supply required.

What, then, will be the capacity of the Canal, and the amount of tolls? It is stated by Sir John Sinclair, in his statistics of Scotland, that there was transported in 1824, to the city of Glasgow, (with a population of 147,043,) on the Monkland Canal alone, 1,690,653 tons of coal, equal to 47,338,284 bushels, which, at the rate of half a cent a ton a mile from Cumberland to Washington City, would amount to $1,893,529, equal to 30 per cent, upon $6,000,000, the whole estimated cost of the Canal to the coal mines at Cumberland. The dimensions of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal are greatly superior to those of the Monkland Canal. The tonnage on the Schuylkill Canal, engaged principally in the transportation of coal, was equivalent to 12,483,672 bushels; and the coal actually consumed in Philadelphia, in 1833, (independent of the amount exported from thence) amounted to 11,565,000 bushels. This amount alone, if transported on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, would have yielded at a half cent a ton per mile, 462,600, nearly 8 per cent, on its entire cost.And it is ascertained that the City of Pittsburg, with a population, at the last census, of 12,568 souls, consumed, in 1833, 7,665,300 bushels of coal, much of it in her numerous manufacturing establishments. The popula tion to be immediate?y supplied with Cumberland coal, is as follows:

The District of Columbia,
The City of Baltimore,

The counties and towns in Virginia and Maryland, bordering on the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay-population.

40,000 80,620

557,650

Aggregate, 678,270 Suppose the whole of this population, together with the amount exported to other places, shall not amount to more than thrice the quantity consumed in the city of Pittsburg, whose population is not one-third of that of the District of Columbia alone, scarcely two-thirds of that of the city of Washington; and the tolls at half a cent a ton per mile would amount, on this limited quantity, to 919,336 dollars, equal to 15 per cent, on 6,000,000 dollars, the entire cost of the canal to Cumberland. These calculations may seem extravagant, but the facts on which they are founded are well established; besides the fact is notorious, that the tolls on some of the coal canals in England, amount to 40 per cent upon the capital, and shares of stock of £100 are selling in the market for £725. The Mersey and Irwell Canal is an instance of this kind. Coal is, however, but a single item: superadd to this the various other

berland.

But these considerations (merely pecuniary) dwindle to a point, when compared with the higher and nobler objects of uniting and binding together by the ties of interest and intercourse, the great geographical divisions of our country; of connecting, by the nearest and best communication that can be devised, the metropolis of Maryland and the seat of the Federal Government, with the great valley of the Mississippi and the Lakes, thereby attracting a portion of their rich and abundant commerce in this direction, and at the same time opening and rendering productive the richest mines of coal and iron in America, now buried and useless in the bowels of the Alleghenies. These objects alone are worth the whole sum required, even if the investment should never yield one dollar of revenue.— When the canal reaches the Coal mines its completion to Pittsburg is secure-its practical results, the benefits and blessings it will every where diffuse, will commend it to the favor of all; but independent of this the high price of the stock in the market, (at least equal to that of the Schuylkill canal, now more than 100 per cent above par,) would at once secure the subscription by States and individuals, independent of the United States, to the balance of the stock necessary for its entire completion. If the means were now afforded to extend the work to Cumberland, it is confidently as serted by practical engineers that the work could be completed in 18 months.

Having shown, as they trust satisfactorily, that coal alone will yield an ample revenue, the Committee will notice briefly the other sources of revenue referred to above: The second of which is

2. Lumber. By referring to the various reports de scriptive of the country and its resources, through which the canal passes, it will be seen that the finest forests of timber in the world are found skirting the Canal for more than 100 miles of its extent, especially on the Virginia shore, where water power is found in abundance on the spot to convert it into lumber. In 1826 there were 150,226 tons of lumber transported on the New York Canal, which if carried 125 miles on the

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, at a cent a ton per mile, would yield $187,780 per annum, equal to three per cent on the capital.

3. Lime.-Lime stone and coal are found together in vast quantities on this canal, under similar circumstances. Lime is made and sold at the kiln in the West for 4 cents per bushel: double this, and say it cost 8 cents, and 6 cents for transportation, the same as coal, and it can be delivered in Washngton city for 14 cents per bushel. At this price it would not only supply all the common uses of lime, but constitute the cheapest and best manure to fertilize and restore to the highest state of productiveness the now barren and impoverished lands on the Potomac and Chesapeake, both in Maryland and Virginia, and of course would become a source of immense revenue on the Canal, second perhaps only to coal. The amount of tolls on this article we will not attempt to estimate.

4. Iron, Marble, and other Minerals of the Alleghenies. The fact that Iron ore is found in the greatest profusion,

and of the best quality in the coal region, is well ascertained, and that marble of superior quality abounds on the line of the canal is equally certain. The beautiful marble composing the columns of the Capital was quarried out of the bed of the Canal, about 42 miles from the city. The tolls on these articles the committee will not undertake to compute, but it is obvious that they would be very considerable.

5. The Fisheries.-The revenue which may accrue from the fisheries cannot be computed with any kind of which they can be transported, and the low rate at certainty; but when the facility and cheapness with which they can be supplied at the Potomac Fisheries, no doubt it would be considerable. The price of herring is said to be 25 cents per 1000, and shad $1 50 per 100, and the quantity is so great that fish is a common manure to enrich the lands in the vicinity of the fisheries on the Potomac. Fish could be profitably carried to Cumberland as back loading in canal boats for 25 cents per barrel to Cumberland, which is double the amount paid for Coal, the weight being only equal to 24 bushels of coal, the freight and tolls of which are estimated at 5 cents per bushel.

6. Water Power will be equal to almost any demand, and its productiveness must depend upon the number of manufacturing establishments which the very reduc ed price at which fuel, the raw materials, and the subsistence of labor can be supplied by the canal, will bring into existence along its line, and at its termination.

7. The productions of Agriculture. And 8th. The transportation of Merchandise, passengers, &c.-The Committee will not extend their report (which they are anxious to make as brief as possible) by going into a detail of the infinite variety of facts, calculated to show the prolific nature of these very fruitful sources of revenue. It is well known that they alone contribute most of the tolls received on the New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio Canals, deriving, as they do, very little from coal and other minerals abounding on this; besides, when we advert to the other advantages enjoyedby the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, in reference to distance, dimensions, climate, and continuity of canal transshare of the commerce and trade of the western states, portation, no one can doubt that it will enjoy a liberal whose population, judging from the past, will soon ex ceed that of the East; but, even if this canal were in all respects inferior to those of New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, their absolute inadequacy to give vent to the increasing trade and commerce of the West, resulting from its growth in wealth and population, would force upon this work tonnage equal, in time to its utmost capacity.

Such are the bright prospects to which the patriotic and enlightened contributors to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal may confidently look forward, if the means of its completion are afforded-and the Committee appeal to every candid man to say, whether the facts stated have not fully sustained the declaration with which they set out, that this canal will afford a more profitable investment of funds than any similar work in our country-justifying an appeal even to private capital, looking alone to profit, to seek the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, as affording a more safe and productive investment of funds than any other now open to them in the United States.

Coal Canals have been invariably profitable in all countries, often exceeding in tolls the most sanguine anticipations of the friends of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In Great Britain, the profits on Coal Canals have varied from 10 to 170 per cent, per annum, as appears by the following list, taken from a London price current of Canal stocks, of October, 1832:

Male, born in Philadelphia, Do. do Pennsylvania, Other states of the Union, Female, born in l'hiladelphia, Do. do Pennsylvania, Other states of the Union, Males, 983,

693, Females,

-1,676

1,587: within 89 of the entire number of American Paupers. Of the entire population of the Almshouse and Hospital, about 6 per cent. are children, and of the residue, 75 per cent. have been reduced to pauperism by imtemperance. On the 14th of this month, the population had increased to 1,548 persons in the Hospital and Almshouse. The children in the Asylum are not included in the above account. There are about 125 children in that department, making the entire population of the Institution on the 1,382 persons. 4th inst. 1,673 persons. SAMUEL H. FISHER, Agent. By order of the Board, GEORGE W. JONES, President.

January 10th, 1835.