market, protracting the period of their disposal, and thus enhancing its aggregate expense. At this point it was suggested by a western statesman that railway enterprises through the public domain should be endowed with a certain amount of public land, the price of the alternate sections being doubled in order to save the national revenue. The increased value conferred upon these lands by the presence of the railway was far greater than the increase of price demanded.

This experiment was tried in the case of the Illinois Central Railroad, the even-numbered sections for six miles on each side of the line being granted by act of September 20, 1850, to the State of Illinois in aid of its construction. The aggregate amount of land donated under this act was 2,595,053.60 acres, which, at the minimum price, amounted to $3,243,750. The double of this sum represented the aid that was supposed to be given thereby to the railway, viz., $6,487,500. But by retaining the land until the government lands along the line had been sold, the company was enabled to realize much greater prices. The company, on accepting the grant as assignee of the State, agreed to pay, in lien of all taxes, an annual impost of 7 per cent. upon the gross earnings of the road. Of the lands, 2,000,000 acres were devoted to construction, of which 435,908.24 acres remain undisposed of, in the hands of the company. To pay the interest on the bonds of the road, 250,000 acres were devoted, of which 12,745.90 acres still remain undisposed of. The remainder, 345,000 acres, were not directly devoted to any particular object; of this amount 12,745.90 acres remain at the disposal of the company. Of the total landed endowment there still remain 457,779.17 acres undisposed of. The average rates per acre of the lands already sold are, for construction lands, $11 35 per acre; for interest lands, $8 46; and for lands not specifically devoted, $12 84. The smaller rate of the interest lands may be accounted for from the fact that the earlier sale of these lands was necessitated by the bonded obligations of the company. From sales, including advanced interest, the construction lands have realized $17,763,001 26, the interest lands $1,949,886 73, and the unappropriated lands $4,255,848 79, showing a total realized to the company of $23,968,736 78. The lands undisposed of now average $12 55 per acre, at which rates they will swell the actual pecuniary aid derived from the landed endowment to $30,000,000, which is equal to the entire cost of the road and the equipment, entirely reimbursing the stockholders for their investment, while the profits remain undiminished. This road consists of a main line from Cairo to Dunleith, 560.95 miles, with a branch from Chicago, striking the main line at Centralia, embracing 146.50 miles. The gross earnings of the company for the past year amounted to $6,739,998, besides $641,000 upon leased roads in Illinois, and $1,442,484 on leased roads in Iowa; total, $8,823,482. The total expense of operating the main line and its leased lines, $4,924,594. The total net earnings over operating expenses amount to $3,898,888, from which, deducting charter-tax to Illinois and Iowa, and rent of leased roads, leaves. $2,887,376 as the amount subject to distribution among the stockholders.

At the time these lands were granted to Illinois the public debt of that State amounted to $14,000,000. It is now less than half that amount, the reduction having been mainly effected by the application of the railroad tax to the redemption of State bonds. When that indebtedness shall have been canceled it is estimated that scarce any necessity will remain for the levy of taxes for State purposes, the railroad tax proving probably sufficient to meet the expenses of all departments of the general administration. The above figures, however,

SALON DE 1847.

L'exposition du Louvre est plus pauvre que de coutume; mais pauvreté n'est pas vice, et nous n'aurions vu dans ce fait qu'un pur accident s'il n'était accompagné et en quelque sorte commenté par un fait beaucoup plus grave. Qui tient la tête du Salon, cette année, non-seulement aux yeux des artistes, mais encore à ceux du public? M. Couture et M. Clésinger. Or, que représentent-ils tous deux ? La seconde phase de l'introduction du sensualisme dans la statuaire et dans la peinture. Substituer au dessin et au style la passion et le coloris, en d'autres termes, la sensibilité à l'intelligence, le réel à l'idéal, voilà ce que se proposait la jeune école sous les coups de laquelle tomba l'école de David. C'était repousser une doctrine trop abstraite par des abstractions d'un ordre moins élevé ; mais ce qui prouve la bonne foi des vainqueurs, ce qui enlève à leur triomphe tout caractère de surprise ou de séduction, c'est que, pouvant s'adresser au public, ils le dédaignèrent et prirent les artistes pour juges. Novateurs désintéressés, ils faisaient consister non l'œuvre dans le succès, mais le succès dans l'œuvre, et si, tournant le dos à la spiritualité du style et du dessin, ils se livraient exclusivement à la recherche trop négligée du coloris et de l'expression, au moins se tenaient-ils dans les régions les plus pures de la sensibilité. Leur muse était austère autant que le comportait son but. Peu curieux de la beauté physique et des émotions qu'elle fait naître, ils s'inspiraient habituellement des passions qui prennent leur source dans la sensibilité morale et dans la sensibilité intellectuelle; ils cherchaient non à plaire, mais à remuer; et, quand ils se renfermaient dans la représentation du corps même, c'était moins pour y peindre la vie. que pour y peindre la souffrance et la mort. S'ils s'étaient rappelé que le dessin et le style sont la base immuable sur laquelle toute

real estate of these States will probably amount to three times the above sum, or $9,000,000,000. The creation of these values is due almost entirely to the landed policy of the Government, rendering the construction of these roads possible in spite of the scarcity of capital at the date of their inauguration.

For the construction of transcontinental roads the General Government has been compelled to rely upon corporations created by itself. These roads, generally termed Pacific, were inaugurated by act of Congress approved July 1, 1862, which provided for the construction of a line of railway and telegraph from San Francisco, in California, to Omaha, in Nebraska, and Wyandotte, in Kansas, on the Missouri, by lines diverging at the 100th meridian. The construction of the western portion of this line was confided to the Central Pacific Railroad Company, incorporated under the laws of California. The southern branch, from the 100th meridian eastward, was awarded to the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western Railway Company, now called the Kansas Pacific, incorporated by authority of the State of Kansas. For the construction of the Northern Branch to Omaha, however, the General Government was compelled to incorporate the Union Pacific Railroad Company. To each of these companies were granted the odd-numbered sections of unappropriated public lands lying on each side of the line of each road for ten miles, as subsidies to aid in their construction. In addition to these landed endowments, the Government loaned its credit to the amount of $16,000 per mile, over the less expensive portions of the line, with an increase to $32,000 and $48,000 per mile over the more difficult and expensive portions. By special statement of the Treasury Department, dated September 1, 1869, made in answer to a request of this office, it appears that the loan subsidy to these companies was as follows: To the Union Pacific, $26,638,000; to the Central Pacific, $24,371,000; and to the Kansas Pacific, $6,303,000.

These companies did not commence the prosecution of their work of construction until after the passage of the act of July 2, 1864, by which the land endowment was doubled and the companies allowed to issue first mortgage bonds, taking precedence of the Government bonds, which had previously the prior claim upon the roads and their equip ments. Under these acts of Congress, and with the assistance of the subsidies therein granted, these companies began the construction of the main transcontinental line across the intervening wilderness, the Central Pacific having previously constructed a portion of its line between San Francisco and Sacramento. The history of this splendid feat of engineering science has been given to the public in a variety of forms. It was completed on the 10th day of May, 1869, when a junction was made of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Roads at Promontory Point, and the transcontinental line completed.

This line embraces 1,914 miles from Omaha, Nebraska, to San Francisco, California, making connections with New York, which bring the transit of the entire continent to a little more than 3,000 miles. The express card time from Omaha to San Francisco is now within 52 hours, while, by selecting some of the eastern connections, the entire trip from San Francisco to New York may be traveled, on card time, within five days. There is reason to believe that even this limited time will soon be reduced. It will be remembered that one of the points of ridicule leveled at Sir Isaac Newton by Voltaire was the estimate of the former that means of locomotion would be devised whereby it would be possible to move 50 miles per hour. The mere possession of this idea was set down by the French wit as prima facie evidence that the mind of

Newton had become clouded. But what is this utmost supposition of Newton to what we see realized to-day? Loaded trains have averaged 50 miles per hour, while men on locomotives have doubled that rate. If we should question the possibility of enhancing the speed of railway trains so as to accomplish this distance between New York and San Francisco in half the present card time, or about sixty hours, we should place ourselves in danger of such ridicule by the next generation as Voltaire's skepticism has incurred in the present age. Indeed, the reduction of the time of transit from ocean to ocean to 50 hours is now talked of by railroad men as of probable realization at no distant period.

The Kansas Pacific Company, having surrendered to the Denver Pacific Company its franchises beyond the limits for which it was entitled to a loan subsidy from the Government, in accordance with the act of March 3, 1869, the last-named company has prosecuted the work of construction with such energy that it was opened from Wyandotte, its eastern terminus, to Cheyenne, for through travel and transportation, on the 1st of September last. The distance between those two points is 736 miles, making 2,134 miles from Wyandotte to San Francisco, by the line of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Roads, or 220 miles more than the distance from Omaha to San Francisco.

The operations of the Denver Pacific in the way of travel and transportation during the past year have not yet been published. The Kansas Pacific Company reports for the year 1869 the conveyance of 146,583 passengers, being an increase of 37,251 over the report of the previous year and a freight transit of 175,518 tons, being an increase of 51,141 tons over the aggregate of 1868. The gross earnings, $2,225,850, show a large increase, but this was counterbalanced by the increase of the operating expenses, reducing the net profits somewhat below those of the previous year, leaving but $839,670 against $873,669 in 1868. Of the other eastern branches of the Central Pacific Railway system, inaugurated by the act of 1862, the Central Branch has constructed a line of road and telegraph, 100 miles in length, from Atchison, in Kansas, on the Missouri River, to Waterville, in the same State. This is one of the branches contemplated in the original act, and authorized under the impression that this distance would enable it to intercept the extension of the Kansas Pacific, under its original requirement to strike the main line of the Union Pacific at the 100th meridian. The latter, however, having been permitted by special act to extend its line up the valley of the Kansas, the proposed junction of the Central Branch was rendered impossible. Two hundred and fifty miles of road will yet be required to complete this junction, and for this the company is applying for the extension of its landed and loan subsidy. This company has received a loan subsidy of $1,600,000 from the Government, which constitutes a second mortgage upon the road-bed and equipment. It declined to make any report of its operations of 1869 through the medium of Poor's Railroad Manual. Its authorized capital stock is $1,000,000, which, with $3,200,000, the proceeds of its first and second mortgages, makes an aggregate of $4,200,000, or $42,000 per mile, available for the construction of its line.

By act of July 23, 1866, a grant of ten alternate, odd-numbered sections on each side of the line was made to the State of Kansas to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph from Elwood, in Kansas, on the Missouri River, opposite Saint Joseph, westward through Marysville, to effect a junction with the main line of the Union Pacific road at a point not further west than the 100th meridian, said road to be denominated the Saint Joseph and Denver City Railroad. The road has

been built to Hiawatha, in Kansas, 41.67 miles, and has under construction, and, by this time, probably finished, another section of 69.41 miles, reaching to Marysville. The land grant of this company calls for 1,600,000 acres, with a present cash value of $4,000,000. It has issued its first mortgage bonds on the entire distance to Marysville, 111 miles, and contemplates a speedy construction of the entire line. Its authorized capital stock is $10,000,000. It proposes to strike the Union Pacific line at Fort Kearny. The Union Pacific Company has also constructed a branch from Fremont, 47 miles west of Omaha, to Sioux City, Iowa, from which it received a landed and loan subsidy equal to that awarded to the main line. Its loan subsidy amounts to $1,628,000. This road runs down the east bank of the Missouri to a point of junction with the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, and then crosses the river to Fremont at a sharp angle, giving a more direct route from Chicago to San Francisco than the line through Omaha. At the west end of the main Central Pacific Railway system is a branch entitled the Placerville and Sacramento Valley Railroad. It had, at the close of 1869, 26 miles completed from Folsom to Shingle Spring, with 13 miles yet to construct. It was endowed with 20 odd sections per mile, under the act of June 13, 1868. By the same act the same landed subsidy was granted in aid of the California and Oregon Railroad, from the north line of California to a point on the Central Pacific Road, to be selected by the company. That point has since been fixed at Roseville, 18 miles from Sacramento. It has been constructed northward 79 miles, and when completed will have a length of 313 miles. By the same act a similar grant was made to the State of Oregon to aid in the construction of a route continuing the line last mentioned to Portland, in that State. A company for the construction of this line has been incorporated by the Oregon legislature, and has constructed 20 miles of road, which has been accepted by the Government under the provisions of said act. The foregoing is a brief synopsis of the great Central Pacific Railway system and its branches, inaugurated under the act of 1862, and acts amendatory. The landed subdivisions accruing under the grants for the construction of these roads and branches amount to 35,000,000 acres, with a cash value at present of probably $100,000,000. Besides this, loan subsidies amounting to $60,860,320, of which the Central Pacific received $24,371,000; the Union Pacific, $26,638,000; the Kansas Pacific, $6,303,000; the Central Branch, $1,600,000; the Sioux City Branch, $1,628,320, and the Western Pacific, $320,000. These imperial subventions find no parallel in history, for no government has ever yet had command of material resources at all comparable with that which has been exercised by our General Government in the endowment of educational institutions and means of intercommunication; no fund at all comparable to our public land system has ever been placed at the control of any government. It is a social phenomenon in history, the general influences of which have already been partially developed, but its wonderful capacities for both good and evil are not yet unfolded. The immediate advantages of the completion of the initial line of transcontinenal railroad, with its dependent branches, are beyond our present computation. The reports of the Union Pacific Company, accessible in the preparation of this report, were somewhat meager, yet it was ascertained that the gross earnings of the first year, closing with April 1870, amounted to $8,407,852 78, and that the operating expenses were about 50 per cent. of this amount. The remarkably low cost of maintaining this line is attributed to the rainless climate exercising a much less destructive influence upon its materials of construction, and