any comparison of the respective merits, as to speed and beauty, between the different descrip tions of vessels in the two nations. "But the growth of our internal communications, in other respects, are quite as worthy of in the United States, 13,219 miles of completed note. On the first of January, 1853, there were they set selected portions of the States against her as a whole, and because the Western States are growing, to the extent of the native portion of the immigration, at the expense of the others. Of the increase of the Western States a large portion consists not of rail-road, 12,928 miles of railroad in various additions to the country as a whole, but of mere removals from one part of it to another; while the increase shewn to have taken place in Canada West, is an increase on the whole. To return again, however, to our iriend, Jonathan : "I will begin the answer, where every thing human begins, with our physical and external relations to the earth and man. Our gross annual product in 1851, was $2,445,300,000; that of Great Britain, as given by Spachman in 1846, was $1,182,221236. Other staticians have made the amount much larger than this, but, as I think without sufficient grounds. "Here also is a table, corrected from the Belfast Mercantile Journal, which shows the amount of the shipping and tonnage, entered and cleared by the leading nations of the world. stages of progress, and about 7,000 miles in the the next three or four years-making a total of hands of the engineers, which will be built within 33,155 miles of rail-road which will soon traverse the country, and which, at an average cost of $30,000 (a well ascertained average) for each mile of road, including equipments &c., will have consumed a capital amounting to $994,650,000, as follows: 13.227 miles completed $396,810.000 357,840,000 210,000,000 Total $994,650,000 or in round numbers-$1,000,000,000-one billion of dollars: a sum which, at six per cent, would yield $60,000,000 annually, or more than sufficient to cover all the expenses of the United States government and of the governments of every State composing the United States-if administered with republican economy. "Now compare with the foregoing, what has been done in the railroad line abroad. Here is & statement from late received authorities: Miles. Aggregate. Cost per Mile. 6,800 $1,213,000,000 $177,000 6,197 7.017 Great Britain and 1.099,771 772,995 7,969 806,766 8,163 "But of the vessels and tonnage which belong exclusively to each of these nations, the follow-France ing statement will give a clearer account: Belgium Italy "It will thus be seen that the United States are close under the lee of Great Britain, and far in advance of all other nations; but at the comparative rates of increase of these two leaders, it will only take us five years to get the start of Great Britain ! "Of the rate at which our import and export trade, with our tonnage, increases, the subjoined comparison of two separate dates, will convey some instructive hints: "Or, in other words, our exports and imports have more than doubled in value in ten years, and our tonnage nearly doubled. "The steam marine of Great Britain was reckoned in 1850, at 1,200 vessels, including ferry boats and canal barges; that of the United States in 1851, was 1,489, which were divided as follows:-Ocean steamers 95, tonnage 91,475; propellers 119, tonnage 27,974; ferry boats 130, tonnage 22,744; first class river steamers 1,145, tonnage 275,000. Other computations make the number of steamers 1,800, but I prefer the lowest statement. At the same time, I forbear 16,142 $2,159,068,000 "The canals of the United States are 5,000, miles in length; the electric telegraph wires 16,000; and the rivers actually navigated 47,355 miles by the shore line. "It is worth while to remark, that these successes refer only to the developements of the past, and insufficiently indicate the more accelerated and prodigious strides we shall make in the future. They have been achieved in the midst of difficulties of every kind-difficulties incident to the want of wealth, of machinery, of skill, and of a knowledge of the best industrial methods. But in the future these defects will be repaired; every new discovery in practical art will quicken the passage to others, and the attainment of accumulated capital will put within our command resources that are now utterly beyond our reach. Our people have already spread themselves over the long extent of the Pacific coast, and are opening new springs and channels of trade in these vast and fertile regions. They will soon enter into the competi tion for the opulent trade of the East. A ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama, or a railroad to California from the Mississippi Valley-projects now vehemently agitated-will bring us nearly two thousand miles nearer to China and the East Indies, thau any of the nations which have heretofore possessed the lucrative trade of Asia. What the result must be, as well upon the reduction of the commerce of other nations as upon the growth of our own, no one who comprehends the increasing and indomitable enterprise of the Americans need be told. with an unexampled adaptability to circum- "Let our neighbors the despots know this, will "It behoves England especially to take this you? and tell them, too, not to be so shallow as uggestion into profound consideration. With an to try to account for this vast and increasing pros ambition on the part of Russia, to extend her pos-perity, as they have hitherto done, by ascribing Bessions down to the Mediterranean, so as to form it to the extent of our landed possessions. Russia a complete barrier to European trade in Asia, she has land enough in all conscience; is a young has a vital interest in this movement. Should the nation, moreover; yet Russia cannot compare despotic powers of the continent cut off or inter- with us, in solid and swift developement. Your rupt the possibility of her overland communica- Colony of Lower Canada has plenty of land; but tion with the prolific magazines of Southern and how far it lags behind the States which are only Eastern Asia, England will have none but the old separated by a river! There is a whole continent routes of travel left her, in which event, the route of fertile land in South America, but where is the across America would soon absorb the entire trade population, the trade, the thrift, the peace? No! of the east. As the Argosies of the East once this land theory will not suffice; it cannot hold passed from Venice and the Italian Republics into water: and it were better for your aforesaid her own hands, so they may hereafter pass from neighbors to concede at once, that we are what hers into those of the western world. But this is we are, because of those free institutions, which anticipating! give the reins without a curb, to the native enter prise of the people. We are prosperous because we are free, as every nation is prosperous just to the extent of its freedom, which is so abundantly evinced by your own history. "It must be confessed, however, that a nation's, like a man's life, consisteth not in the abundance of the things that it possesses.' All the wealth of the world would do us no good, if it were unaccompanied by the richer treasures of intelligence, virtue, and religion. It is a part of my task, therefore, to show the effects which democracy has had upon these; and, I think, in pursuance of it, I shall be able to make it clear that we are ple as you can find; or in other words, that our about as well-educated, moral and orderly a peointellectual, social, and religious progress has kept pace with our physical developement." "You are a sensible man, John; no man more Bo; and will appreciate these facts, which I italicize, to impress them on your mind. Our annual product surpasses that of Great Beitain; our domestic commerce also surpasses yours; our foreign tonnage is almost equal to yours, and in five years will be greater than yours; our means of internal communication by railroad equal yours, with the Continent thrown in; our telegraphic lines exceed yours, by nearly the same measure; and in every other physical element of national superiority we can well consent to hold the candle to you. Jonathan does not add-I presume his modesty alone prevents it-that all this, too, has been done without the aid of European men and money; and that to "inventive, intelligent, daring, invincible, and sound-principled We need not say anything more abont Americans" alone are the praise, honor, and Jonathan's possession of these qualities--poor glory to le ascribed. Who refused to allow fellow, we do not wish to be too severe on him, Irishmen to assist in our public works? In- and, as in the former part of our letter we vincible Jonathans! Who spurned the loan touched on the subject already, we will not of English gold? intelligent, well-principled again bring it forward, especially as we have republicans. Who have no equals in the world no room just at present, and must defer to next for the dexterity with which they wield the month the proof that, while Brother Jonathan pickaxe and the spade? same response! Who is boasting of his superiority, we are in reality, can with truth boast that, in all their manu- surely, and not slowly, laying the foundafactories and workshops, to native talent alone tion of the power, which will in time to come are they indebted? inventive Yankees! Who are daily, from their simplicity of heart and honesty of purpose, in all trading transactions becoming the victims of calculating Palanders? the innocent down-easters with swallow-tailed coats!—and so, ad infinitum, promising to endow England with a new A DEAD CERTAINTY.-Mr. Naysmith has been might the instances be multiplied where Jon-tructive engine." We doubt if it can be half so “desathan is victimized. One mere question re- destructive as the railway engines England has mains for Jonathan to ask. Who are always already got. the foremost to recognize benefits conferred, and who are so impatient under obligations or bonds, whether pecuniary or otherwise, that they invariably get rid of them somehow? Men balance the influence possessed by the States Till next month, dear Major, farewell. the price of Cochin China fowls is so enormous, PRECIOUS POULTRY.-Hens rear ducklings; but that their chickens can only be raised by geese. MAXIM FOR THE ADMIRALTY.-You may take a ship to the water, but you can't make it swim ·་ THE CANKER ROSE AND THE THORN. "But my fause luve he staw my rose, Burns. It was a lovely May eve. Nature rejoicing in her "Eleanor, is this your love? Is it kind thus to embitter the last few minutes that we may be together, with doubts and jealous fears?-True love is trusting." "Who have I on earth but you to love? Who has ever loved me as you have done my only friend in adversity and sorrow. When the world frowned upon me, you only smiled, soothed and cheered me." "How can I forget you? my all in life, my first, best, only love!" He stopped and gazed tenderly, but reproachfully, into her eyes,-they responded sadly to his glance. "Forgive me, dearest Walter, if I have pained you. I was thinking of my dream, and a yet more singular circumstance, in its partial fulfilment." "I know you are fanciful, and deal much in the vain theory of sympathies, and dreams, and warnings. Tell me your dream?" walk, with you, dearest, at my side. I bade you 'Yesterday you were walking in the garden with me, the two Evelyns were with us-we were in the rose-alley; you gallantly plucked roses for them-you gave me none. I noticed the omission-you hastily snatched a bud from the bush and placed it in my hand, a thorn lacerated my finger-see here is the wound; I looked upon the bud-a canker was in its very core. The thorn and the canker dwelt upon my mind. Was it not a singular coincidence ?" "A mere coincidence, favored by your fancy. You are too imaginative, Eleanor; check this weakness, lest it prove your bane. We have other things to talk of to-night, than an idle dream." A cloud darkened the brow of Walter Tyrrel, as he said these words. There was something harsh and unloving in the tones of her lover's voice, that smote the ear of Eleanor Danvers. The thorn was already rankling in her heart. The lovers parted that evening, with many vows and protestations on the part of the young soldier, to love on-love ever. Eleanor said less but felt more; hers had been no summer love-"like winter's sun it rose in tears," like it, was destined to set in clouds and darkness. Time rolled on, and in its course brought many changes. Walter Tyrrel had run a noble career in arms, on many a well fought field in Spain his blood had been shed. The world smiled on the young warrior. The dark-eyed daughters of Spain had also smiled upon him. Honors poured upon the poor friendless grandson of the curate of Ashfield, he was now an officer of high rank in the service, but the love of his youth, his faithful true-hearted Eleanor was forgotten; the canker-worm was in the rose, the thorn was lacerating her heart. And now we pass an interval of ten long years: the girl of seventeen was matured into the woman "It was simple, Walter, but it pained me, and of seven and twenty,-many had sought her hand the thought still dwells on my mind-the convic-in marriage, but none had won her love. Of tion that it will ultimately be fulfilled haunts me. Walter Tyrrel she had long lost all trace, she If I tell it you will laugh at me." fondly mourned him as dead, and trusting, vainly "Tell it. I will not laugh-I am in no merry believed that her name was on his lips when he mood," he gravely replied. met a soldier's fate on the battle field. "I dreamed that I was walking in the rose It was about this period that Eleanor received a kind and pressing invitation from a noble relative residing at Helmsley Hall, to share in the festivities of her cousin Matilda's bridal. Among the groups of graceful, lively, English girls that moved so joyously among the terraced walks and flowery parterres of the garden at Helmsley, there were not two more distinguished beauties than Matilda Hammerton and her cousin Eleanor, but there was a marked difference between the cousins; Matilda was fair and sylph-like, her eyes were blue and joyful, she looked so radiant ly happy as if a cloud had never dimmed the sunshine of her life; but in the large, dark eyes, classic outline, and purely pale complexion of Eleanor there was an expression of something allied to melancholy, on which the eye of the beholder would rest with more than common interest, and sometimes wonder at its quiet sadness. Eleanor had heard much from her cousin in praise of the bridegroom elect, the noble handsome, gallant Sir Walter D'Eyncourt, and with feelings of more than common curiosity she awaited the arrival of the object of her cousin's love. The lively bride, with her sisters and bride'smaids, were assembled on the lawn and on the balcony, to meet and welcome Sir Walter as the carriage drove up to the hall. in a shrine, holy, untouched, locked up from every eye but her's, the poor, trusting devotee. Unable to endure the eye even of her attendant, the unhappy Eleanor left her chamber, and wandered forth in the twilight; there, cast down upon the grass beneath the overhanging shade of boughs, in a lonely recess in the garden, she vented her anguish. A tall figure approaches through the gloom,the pulse of her aching heart seemed stopped,— that tall majestic form that bends to lift her from the ground, is the same Walter on whose arm she once had hung so fondly. "I did not think, Eleanor, that we should thus have met," he said in deep tones. “My Eleanor look up." "Call me not yours," she said, in chiding accents, we have met in an evil hour-met but to part for ever." "It had been better, indeed, that we had never "But it must be met, or never parted," he said. so,—and I must sacrifice my once beloved one to my ambition. I cannot now retrace my steps, or break my vow to Matilda,-you see the impossibility of that." He paused "Do not part from her now, it would break her heart-mine is already broken," hurriedly responded his companion. "But what matters it to An expression of surprise, and suddenly sup- you? Sir Walter D'Eyncourt. You will have a pressed emotion, on the part of Sir Walter, was younger, a fairer, and a richer bride.—One who met by a glance, something akin to despair and loves you, but not as I have loved you-in poverty, horror, on that of Eleanor Danvers, as, bowing in sorrow, through good report and through ill low before her to conceal his confusion, he return-report-she has loved you in sunshine, I in storm ed the introductory greeting with the cousin of and thus am I requited." his betrothed. Pale, statue-like, her arms tightly folded across her heart as if to keep down its agonizing throbbing, stood the unfortunate victim of forgotten love. How shall we describe the feelings of the deserted one as she withdrew from the painful sight of her cousin's joyful raptures. The thoru was piercing to her inmost heart, the canker worm was destroying the silken folds of the rose. Alas! for human love, for it also hides in its depths the seeds of human woc. Ten years had passed since they parted in the garden at Ashfield Priory—and how had they met? No longer the young, the loving Walter Tyrel the obscure grandson of the old curate, but the admired, the courted of all beholders, the fortunate heir of Sir Walter D'Eyncourt, a distant relative, whose name he had taken when he inherited his wealth, and now the affianced husband of her cousin—a beauty and an heiress. Alas! for man's ambition and woman's love. In her heart his image had been hidden, as an idol There was a darker shade on the brow of Sir Walter.-Yes, she, that broken-hearted woman who now bent beneath his stern, cold glance, as a snow-drop beaten down by the hail-storm of winter, had been long years ago his only friend and comforter, had clung to him in adverse fortune, cheered and sustained him by her smiles, had been his guiding star in the stormy path of life,—and how was she requited. How was her dream of faithful love dispelled when he spoke to her of his bride, and even dared to bid her command her feelings, for his sake, and take her part in the approaching ceremony as her cousin's bridesmaid. With dull apathy she listened to his request,the words rang in her ears, but she seemed unable fully to comprehend the meaning of his words. With fixed, expanded eyes she gazed upon him. Alarmed at her strange, ghastly look, and passionless manner, Sir Walter took her icy hand in his. "Eleanor," he said “we have a part to play in this sad drama of life-you must forget that we have ever loved, that we even met." She answered only by one deep, heavy sigh,— the sound smote on the ear of Sir Walter, the muscles of his face moved convulsively. He pressed her icy hands in his, but she proudly withdrew them, and waved him from her. Awed by the dignity of her despair he dared not again look upon that marble tearless face, those eyes from which no tear-drop fell. The man of the world smothered the remorseful feeling that had been awakened in his heart. She is yet young,—yet lovely, she will call up her woman's pride to smother this dream of early love -the romantic creation of her fancy. Thus argued the sophist as he retraced his steps, and once more sought the side of his betrothed. Of Eleanor he saw no more that night. The bridal morn dawned gloriously,—never had the villagers of Helmsley seen so gay a pageant, every face was decked with smiles, and flowers were strewed, and bells rung joyously. Two and two came the bride's-maids, and groom's-men. The bride, radiant in beauty and happiness chastened by tender emotions, was the centre of attraction, One alone was marked by her striking contrast to the rest of the happy group that surrounded the altar. This one was Eleanor Danvors-a deadly pallor was on her brow, her lips were white and closely compressed; her raven hair fell in heavy masses on her ashy cheek, damp and uncurled, from beneath the white veil and chaplet of white roses which she wore.-A strange unearthly glare was in her dark eyes, and once she reeled with dizzy movement as if she would have fallen. "It is nothing," she said, and faintly smiled as her companions whispered their fears that she was ill. "I shall be better soon," she said, "the pang is past." That night who so gay as she among the dancers. Sir Walter D'Eyncourt watched her with stolen anxious glances-was her gaiety feigned, or had her pride come to her aid to heal her sorrows. Once, when they met in the mazes of the dance he pressed her hand, but she recoiled from his touch as from an adder, or some deadly thing, and his eye sank beneath the look that met his—it spoke volumes of concentrated anguish, of stern resolve and bitter withering scorn.-How had a few short hours turned the deep fount of tenderness to gall within her breast. The night was far advanced, the bride had left the ball-room, the revellers one by one were retiring from the banquetting hall.—Suddenly a cry was heard, so wild and peircing that it rose above all other sounds; it fell upon the ears of the astonished guests with terrible distinctness—then there were hurrying feet and a wild tumult in the gallery above the council hall,-for an instant the ghastly form of Eleanor Danvors was seen poised on the stone balustrade, her long black tresses, divested of the chaplet and veil, hung all dishevelled round her fair neck and shoulders, her garments were disordered, and her pale face and wildly glancing eyes bespoke the fearful state of mental agony to which that fierce conflict of grief had reduced her.-That thrilling cry was echoed back by the horror-stricken spectators as she cast herself down upon the pavement below. And still the superstitious peasantry declare, though nearly a century has passed over, that the cry of the broken-hearted may be heard at midnight, and her form, clothed in white garments, may be seen hovering like a bird with outstretched wings in the gallery above the council hall. Sir Walter D'Eyncourt left the country with his bride, and though he lived to be an aged man was never The canker and the thorn was seen to smile. transferred to his own heart Oaklands, Rice Lake. THE INFANT. C. P. T. I saw an infant-health, and joy, and light Last I beheld it stretched upon the bier, Rydon Hall. A SHORT THEATRICAL CATECHISM.-Q. What order do the Press Orders belong to? A. The order of the Flecce. A YOUTHFUL PARTY.-Six admirals dined together one day last week at Portsmouth, and their united ages amounted to 556 years. The youngest of the party, who was not more than 73, is anxiously waiting for his turn to be called into active service. It is strongly feared by his friends, however, that his age will stand materially in his way, as he is considered far too young at present to be appointed to any responsible post. The other admirals join their ships (gout permitting) in a few days. |