RAILROADS IN FRANCE. The official return relative to the working of railroads in France, in 1862, compared with 1861, has been published. It shows that the total length of railway worked on the 31st December last was 11.074 kilome tres, which are 6,921 miles; and that at the corresponding date of 1861 the length was 10,090 kilometres, or 6,306 miles. The total receipts of 1862 were 475,958,364f, or $95,191,673; and of 1861, 461,547,888f, or $92,309,578. The railways are divided into two classes-one called "Old Network," which means the lines originally conceded to which the government gives no guarantee; the other the "New Network," which signifies prolongations or embranchments of the same or new lines to which interest is guaranteed. The following are the principal features in the return (the kilometre is five-eighths of a mile :) RAILROADS IN NEW YORK. The official report of the State Engineer on the Railroads of New York has been laid before the Assembly. Sixty-six companies have made reports, and sixteen neglected to report, showing eighty two companies in the State. The report shows the amount of capital stock as per charter and acts of Legislature.. $102,054,400 Amount capital stock paid in.. 87,404,685 $69,067,988 Length of roads in operation, &c., excluding city roads. 2,700 Samé, excluding city cars.. 12,870,455 Number of miles traveled by passengers, city roads not included..... Miles run by freight trains. Number of tons carried.. Total earnings.... Of city roads... funds, &c..... Of which city roads... Number of passengers killed. Of which on city roads.... 344,380,369 9,596,696 6,506,173 $29,507,180 2,344,051 Total payments, including dividends, amount to surplus, 26,221,180 2,431,607 22 6 city roads...... Number of passengers injured.. Of which by city roads... Number of employees killed.... Others than employees and passengers killed.. Others than employees and passengers injured.. Total killed (city roads 12). Total injured (city roads 31)... Average cost per mile of road and equipment, excluding Average cost per mile of single track.. 45 21 51 80 42 153 115 $50,396 50 32,386 24 THE REPORT ON THE HOOSAC TUNNEL. We give below a few extracts from the report of the commissioners appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts to take possession of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad property, and inquire into the best method. of completing the line. The tunnel itself is of course the part of the work which was the chief object of attention for the commissioners. The mountain under which the tunnel has to pass has two summits, the eastern, 1,415 feet above the grade of the road, and the western, 1,704 feet above, with a swampy valley lying between, which is 801 feet above the grade. The length of the tunnel, as heretofore reported to the Legislature, is 24,100 feet; as found by survey it is 25,574 feet, and as proposed by the commissioners is 24,586 feet or 4.66 miles. From the east end the tunnel has been driven 2,394 feet, through mica and talcose slate, with veins of quartz, and quite regular in structure. At the west end the rock is for half a mile silicious, covered by clay gravel and boulders, full of water and difficult to work; but the chief formation appears to be that first described, which is quite uniform in structure, the dip of the strata being favorable for working and for keeping out of water. In their investigations as to the completion of the work, the commissioners consulted freely through Mr. SгORROW the results of foreign experience. Of the tunnels described in the report we can only notice two or three. The Almondsbury Tunnel, now being built on the Bristol and South Wales Junction line in England, although for a single track and but of a mile long, is to be 17 feet wide at the rails, 18 at the widest part, and 19 feet high above the rails. The Hauenstein in Switzerland, a mile and-a-half long, with a rising grade of 132 feet per mile, is 26 feet wide and 20 feet above the rails. The great Mont Cenis Tunnel under the Alps is to be seven and-a-half miles long, and has been carried 1,268 yards. It is to be 26 feet 3 inches wide at the widest part, and 20 feet 8 inches high above the rails. This work is going on without shafts, and the tunnel is to ventilate itself by the current of air which will set towards the Italian end, which is the highest. The Kingwood Tunnel, on the Baltimore and Ohio Road, is three-fourths of a mile long, 22 feet wide, and 21 feet high above the rail, and is very badly ventilated. The foreign authorities who were consulted were unanimously of the opinion that the present section of the Hoosac is too small, and that a shaft near the middle of the tunnel would be found indispensable. In the Mont Cenis Tunnel the progress now made is upwards of forty yards per month, and has averaged from the outset with hand labor 221 yards per month. The commissioners estimate that with hand labor the Hoosac Tunnel could be completed in eleven years and four months; or working the end faces with machines and the interior faces by hand, in 74 years; and they therefore set 8 years as a reasonable estimate of the time necessary to complete it. Their estimate of cost the commissioners base upon hand labor, regarding the use of machinery as in some degree experimental, and using any savings affected by it to offset unforeseen expenses, foreign experience showing that machine labor, if it saves time, does not usually save money. They make their estimate of cost as follows: 988 feet of open cutting. $60,000 Enlarging present tunnel 69,000 Sinking shaft 1,027 feet deep... 262,768 Excavating tunnel, 1,350 feet at $200, and 20,936 feet at $5 per cubic yard. 1,944,880 Superstructure.. 60,000 Contingencies, engineering, etc.. 299,581 Interest at 5 per cent compounded for eight years of work. 522,094 Total $3,218,323 Including $1,431,447, the value of labor already expended, cost of rolling stock, etc., this makes the total cost of the road and tunnel, $5,719,330. The commissioners arrive at the conclusion that on the tunnel line there would be a saving of five per cent in cost of transportation, which with the reduction of distance would make ten per cent between the Hudson River and Boston. In comparing the tunnel route with the Hudson River line to New York, they find that during open navigation, when freight goes from Albany to New York by water, the rates to New York would be less than to Boston-offset, however, by smaller storage expenses and perhaps by saving a transshipment at Troy-leaving a margin in favor of New York against the shorter distance from Boston to Liverpool. In the winter months, however, a much larger margin is found in favor of Boston. The commissioners find that New York has invested in lines of connection with the West about $65,000,000; Pennsylvania and Philadelphia about $40,000,000; Maryland and Baltimore about $12,000,000; individuals in these States and cities about $117,500,000; Canada about $75,000,000; the State of Massachusetts $5,000,000, and individuals, with the city of Albany, $11,000,000. In conclusion, the commissioners express an opinion that the work should be undertaken by the commonwealth and completed as soon as possible, with due regard to economy. THE POLISH FINANCES. The Polish Committee in Paris is endeavoring to obtain a loan of two million dollars. The Polish emigrants in the French capital have supplied considerable sums, but they are insufficient, and large purchases of arms are required. Among the collections ordinarily made in the churches in Poland at the Easter fetes, the most fruitful this year has been that for the insurrection. More than one hundred thousand roubles, it is said have been raised in this way. A particular mark has distinguished the box destined for this collection, and the persons who come to the church recognize it at once. In the common feasts which take place at this time of the year, the well-to-do families have all invited the workmen, and the citizens have renewed their oaths of fraternity. Those who have eaten together will, perhaps, die together to-morrow. FOREIGN POSTAGE-WHEN TO BE PAID IN COIN. The Post-office Department has just issued an order to postmasters directing that from and after the 1st of May, to collect in specie, or its equivalent, all postages due on unpaid letters received from foreign countries in the mails dispatched to this country from Great Britain, Ireland, Prussia, France, Hamburg, Bremen, or Belgium. The order at present applies only to those mails. On outgoing letters the existing regulations remain unchanged. Under the existing postal arrangements, postages collected on foreign letters must be accounted for to the foreign government in specie or its equivalent. THE COTTON QUESTION. EXPORT OF COTTON FROM AMERICA. THE Courrier du Dimanche publishes the following despatch, addressed by M. DROUYN DE L'HUYS to the French Minister at Washington several months ago: Paris, Nov. 15, 1862. "I have read with particular interest the fresh information which you send me as to the measures by means of which the Federal authorities think they may facilitate the exportation of cotton from New Orleans. Mr. SEWARD stated with satisfaction, in his letter to you of September 11, that the exportation of cotton from that city for Europe was now freed from all hindrance, and that trade had now to encounter no other obstacles than such as it might meet with from the Confederate Government. He moreover, on the 4th of October following, communicated to you the text of certain instructions then recently addressed to the Treasury agents, with the view of preventing them, in carrying out the confiscation law, from doing anything, either on the ground of the origin of the goods, or of previous transactions respecting them, to interfere with the operations of buyers. Without denying the more favorable disposition of Mr. SEWARD, it is not the less true that Europe finds nearly as much difficulty as ever in getting cotton from the United States. In point of fact, the Federal Government still leaves in full operation some of the restrictions which, either directly or indirectly, it opposed to the exportation of that material. For instance, the exchange of cotton against European goods continues. to be hampered, not only by the positive prohibition to import various kinds of merchandise to New Orleans, and particularly brandies, but also by the power given to the custom-house authorities, and the American consuls in foreign ports, to prevent the exportation to New Orleans of several other articles, among which is wine. "While admitting that the instructions lately sent to the Treasury agents tend to mitigate the effects of the confiscation law by a liberal interpretation, I nevertheless persist in considering the maintenance of art. 2 of the regulations of August 28 last, which prohibits the transport of bullion to the Confederate States, and any payment in gold or silver of merchandise bought in those countries, and which orders the confiscation of all such merchandise whatever as shall have been paid for in metallic currency, as a very serious obstacle to the exportation of cotton. The Secretary of the Treasury observes, it is true, that cottons purchased of the Confederates may be paid for either in Federal paper or in bills upon the Federal banks, in whose hands the buyers may lodge specie to pay for their purchases; but it seems to me very improbable that the present holders of cotton would consent to that mode of payment. Mr. CHASE points out, moreover, the utility for all of us not to give the Confederates, by supplies of specie, fresh resources for carrying on a war of which Europe, as well as America, feels the disastrous effects. But there is nothing to justify the supposition that the interdiction of these exportations of specie would have any effect in abridging the duration of the struggle. I therefore observed with pleasure in Mr. CHASE's letter to Mr. SEWARD & passage which indicates a settled intention to allow cotton to be paid for |