increased at the rate of 240 per cent in the same length of time. But this statement affords a very inadequate comparison, for during the period we have taken, the New York State works were in full operation, whereas some of the principal Canadian works only began to yield a revenue at different dates during the period. For example, we have only five years' revenue of the Welland Canal, which yielded more than one-third of the whole revenue in 1847; only three years of the Beauharnois Canal, which yielded last year £3,959; and only one year's revenue from the Williamsburg Canal, We understand there is a considerable increase in the tolls of 1848.

PUBLIC DEBT. It is worth while to compare the revenue of these works with the obligations of the Province to the public creditor. The interest on the whole Provincial debt in 1847, was £148,264. We have seen that the public works in the same year yielded £42,557 of net revenue; the enormous difference between that sum and the gross receipts arising from the deduction of £31,307, for repairs. This is an unusual charge, and should not of course be made to fall upon one year. That item, on an average of the six years, which is the only fair manner of arriving at the actual net revenue, was but £10,500. These figures show that our public works would average net profits, at the same rate of gross receipts as in 1847, of £63,364 -42 per cent of the entire interest on the public debt. In spite of all the ridicule which has been thrown upon these works, and upon their author -in spite of all the grumbling of some of the ultra Lower Canadians, of French origin, as to the debt which has been created by their construction, it is every year made more manifest that our public works will shortly yield a surplus revenue, which the present malcontents will be very happy to share. It is very instructive with reference to this subject, to remember that the Chambly Canal-the only one entirely unconnected with Canada West -is the only one which does not yield a revenue, and that this work is a yearly expense to the Province of about £200.

The taxes paid by the people of Canada for the purposes of the Provincial Government, is comprised in the following items. Customs, excise, light-house and tonnage duties, bank imposts, militia commissions, and va

rious fines and forfeitures.

The whole of these amount to £429,044 per annum; about 5s. 8d. per head.

EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. There is some difficulty in comparing the extent of our over sea trade, with that which is transacted with the United States, owing to the different manner in which the quantities are respectively estimated.

In 1848, there was here as elsewhere a very great falling off in almost every description of business, so that neither our imports nor exports by sea equalled in value those of any preceding year since 1843. The actual value of exports by sea, in currency, as given in the official tables for 1848, is £1,749,167, which is less by £831,125 than in the preceding year; but no doubt a portion of this difference is to be imputed to the lower prices of all kinds of articles. The reduction in the value of exportations is, in round numbers, about 33 per cent, and the reduction in prices appears from a rough inspection of the tables in the Broker's Annual Circular, to account for 10 to 15 per cent of this difference. On the other hand, the exportation to the United States has greatly increased since 1847 :-

If we add 15 per cent to this, to represent the difference in values, caused by lower prices in 1848, we shall have a total increase of southern trade equal to £462,301 currency. Let us see, then, what may fairly be set down as the whole decrease, in quantity, of our exports last year. The apparent decrease by sea, reckoning in value, was £831,215: less, for decreased prices, at say, 11 per cent on the whole export of 1847, £294,841 for actual decrease, as representing quantity, £536,284; increased export to the United States, £462,301; will leave for the actual diminution of the trade of the whole Province as representing quantity, only £73,983. For the exports of Canadian goods to the United States, we have taken the American Customs returns of goods entered there. It is certain, however, that this must be very far below the true value. The returns from our own custom-house is as follows, for 1848:

"And to this," says Mr. Crofton, "we might add a very liberal per centage; for, on the most minute inquiry among persons capable of forming an estimate on such matters, it has been universally asserted that many of the articles, particularly lumber, are far underrated, pine lumber especially; we have certain returns from several saw-mills in Upper Canada, by which it appears that even in those which have given in the quantity manufactured, the produce was upwards of 200,000,000 of feet, and as the consumption does not equal one-half of that amount, we have nearly double the quantity stated for export, that is, allowing the produce of the Lower Canada sawmills to balance the quantity exported by sea."

We have yet to add the fisheries. We shall then have the following account of our exports, for 1848:

The imports by sea, in 1848, were £2,107,264 currency, to which are to be added the imports from the United States.

We shall conclude this review by a statement of the quantities of several articles of general consumption, imported into Canada; it fully bears out the remark of Mr. Crofton, that "in no country do the agricultural classes enjoy a greater degree of comfort, or are liable to fewer privations." Of sugar and molasses, there were imported, in 1847, 20,673,389 lbs.; add maple sugar, 6,463,845 lbs. 27,137,234 lbs.; or nearly 184 lbs. to each person, besides the large quantity which is believed to be smuggled. Of

coffee, 1,101,621 lbs. paid duty in 1847, and 1,018,803 lbs. in 1848-11 oz. per head. Of tea, the average quantity which pays duty annually, is estimated at 2,817,440 lbs., and the smuggled at 432,560 lbs.=3,750,009 lbs. ―to 2 lbs. 4 oz. per head. The importations of foreign coffee and tea, in the United States, as quoted in the appendix from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury to the United States, was, in 1848 respectively-coffee, 8,200,000 lbs. nearly 6 oz. per head; and tea, 6,217,111 lbs.=nearly 5 oz. per head. The quantity of wine and spirits which paid duty in Canada, in 1847, was 553,849 gallons, with 2,134,721 gallons of whiskey distilled in the country; and in 1848, 392,580 gallons, with 1,905,150 gallons of whiskey distilled in the country. The average of the two years is, therefore, 1 gallons per head, men, women, and children-an indication of tolerably hard throttles in Canada.

The compilation of these figures and calculations have occupied many hours of labor, even to the writer who has prepared them in their present state, after the greater portion of the facts had been collected and digested in the report of the Statistical Board; but it has been to us, at least, a labor of love. For it is too much the fashion, not only among our neighbors on the other side of the lines; nor of strangers who pay us a passing visit-it is too much our own fashion to be perpetually depreciating the country in which we live. Hence, the very natural shyness of persons who, desiring to leave England for some country of better promise, avoid Canada, lest their prospects should be deteriorated rather than improved-hence the difficulty of obtaining capital for works, which need only be understood, to command an affluence of money seeking profitable investment-hence much of that yearning for a new state of political existence, which, when magnified by distance, alarms the capitalist still more, lest his funds, if invested here, should be dissipated by intestine commotions. Nothing can be more conducive to our prosperity and advancement, than a well-founded confidence on our own part, that we are, in spite of occasional reverses, prosperous and advancing, and the diffusion among strangers of that information, which will create a general opinion of a similar character abroad. Lord Sydenham, in one of his letters, remarking on his reasons for preferring Kingston to Montreal, concludes thus :--" Besides, there is no pleasure in working for fellows who are always wanting to cut each other's throats." If we can convince the world that there is no danger of having one's throat cut in Canada, and a certainty that the property brought here, with judicious management, will shortly become ten-fold, we shall soon find Canada a favorite place of settlement; and the publication of such facts as we have given above, are the best means of producing this conviction.

Art. V.-COMMERCIAL CITIES AND TOWNS OF THE UNITED STATES.

NUMBER XVIII.

THE CITY OF TROY, N. Y., AND THE TRAde of the nEW YORK CANALS AND THE

HUDSON RIVER.

AN article on the "Commerce, Manufactures, and Resources of Troy," was published in the June number of the Merchants' Magazine for 1846, Vol. XIV. Early in 1848 an article was prepared and published in a daily paper, intended to be in continuation of the commercial statistics of Troy, as connected with the canals, and as given in the former for the year 1847. In June, 1848, a further article was prepared, and also published in a daily paper, on the "River Commerce of Troy and Albany." These papers were all furnished by the same hand, the present writer.

A writer in the July number of the Merchants' Magazine for the present year, in an article entitled "The City of Albany," treats, among other things, of "the State canals," bringing down their business to the close of the year 1847. So far as his statements extend, the trade of the canals is correctly and truly given. Having omitted, however, to state that that trade, at the termination of the canals, is divided between the two cities, or in any manner to refer to its connection with Troy, an inference is broadly given, unjust to the one, and not quite warranted by facts, of the other city. Justice to both cities, and to the readers of the Merchants' Magazine, suggests this as a fit occasion to give such extracts from the newspaper articles referred to, as shall set the matter right, and leave no room for misapprehension.

By a wise forecast in the construction of the canals, two markets were opened at their intersection with the Hudson, and where all transhipments to the seaboard must be made, to all interested in the business of them. A spirited and active competition for a participation in this trade, has consequently existed from the completion of the canals, but it is believed to have been an honorable and healthy one. While transport charges and mercantile profits have been reduced, thus essentially benefitting the vast country employing the canals, west and north, no doubt the growth and prosperity of both cities have been very much advanced by it.

Before proceeding to the extracts, it may be proper to state, for the benefit of such readers as may be unacquainted with the local situation of the two cities, that Troy is situated at the head of the natural navigation of the Hudson; the navigation is continued by means of a dam and lift lock only four miles above, to Waterford, in Saratoga county; that Albany stands six miles below Troy; that the State canals all terminate in, and are lateral to, the Erie Canal, except the Champlain; that the Erie and Champlain terminate in a Junction Canal, a short distance above Troy; that the Junction Canal connects with the river by two terminations, one at West Troy, the other at Albany; that West Troy has grown up on the business of the canals centering at Troy; is separated from it only by the river, some eighty rods wide, and is essentially, in all business interests, a part of Troy; and that the claim of Troy for the canal trade of this point, is undisputed.

But to the extracts:

New York may well be proud of her canals, and of the rich results of her canal policy. She now only requires to engraft upon those improvements a general railroad system, which shall embrace every important

thoroughfare in the State, before it is considered complete, to assure to herself, through all coming time, that ascendancy in the commerce of the country, for which her natural position so eminently fits her. Railways afford the means of rapid travel and transport, which the advancing spirit of the age now demands, and for which nothing else can provide. Let legislative sanction be freely given to private enterprise, and the time is not distant when this State shall become an example to others in railway advantages and enterprise, as she long has been in her canal system.

The citizens of Troy cannot be indifferent to these statistics. Their interests are interwoven with those of the canals. The rapid growth and prosperity of the city has mainly resulted from the advantages of these channels of trade. It is ground of encouragement to note the constantly increasing canal business of the city, and the successful competition she is enabled to maintain with other older and more populous markets, in the canal trade of the State.

The following statements are gathered from the returns made to the Canal Department of the Controller's office, and their correctness are entitled to entire confidence:

BUSINESS OF THE NEW YORK CANALS FOR 1847-CANAL TOLLS.

The amount received for tolls, fines, and penalties, from the canals of this
State, during the season of 1847, was...

Received during 1846

Excess in favor of 1847..

$3,635,380

Of this amount there was received from the

Number of canal boats cleared at each office, each clearance denoting an arrival and departure:

West Troy. $11,630 | Albany... $12,637 | New York.. $1,560 | Total..... $25,827

All boats arriving at tide-water are required by law to report at the place where they enter the river, consequently, those discharging at New York are included in the returns either of West Troy, or Albany, and therefore are twice reported.

It should be remarked, in reference to the number of canal boats navigating the canals during the year 1847, that there were added in that year 1,500 new boats to the canal tonnage, averaging about 80 tons each. This