THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. (From the Times' Correspondent.) New York, June 29.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume X, Issue 681, 6 January 1854, Page 3

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. (From the Times' Correspondent .) New York, June 29.

The projected railroad from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacifio Ocean is now exciting a very general interest throughout this country. It is the theme of universal discussion in conventions, State Legislatures, and public bodies of every description. Information on the subject is read with avidity, and the Federal Government has taken hold of the matter with earnestness. Since all doubt is now removed about the early construction of this great continental highway, which is destined to affect in a greater or less degree the fortunes of every civilized nation, I have thought it worthy of special attention in my correspondence. I shall, therefore, devote this letter exclusive y to that subject. The revival of the idea of a westward route to India— for this Pacific Railroad is nothing else — recals to us the original project of the Genoese discoverer, who, in attempting to realize his desire, stumbled on the New World. It reminds us of the brilliant and more correct conception of ,tho intrepid Is. S^lle, who, nearly two centuries

later (1680) thought he saw in the chain of the great inland lakes of America a way open to India, and plunged off into the valley of the Mississippi only to find a grave. And now, when two more centuries have almost elapsed, this magnificent project, which originated in the Old World, is again revived, with the certainty of being accomplished, and with results vastly broader to mankind than were ever before conceived. The Pacific Railroad has grown into sudden favour with all sections and parties. Nobody is opposed to it,— every body says it must and shall be made. It has become the hobby of demagogues, and is working in the brain of statesmen. Everybody wants some share in the glory of the work, and every body is disposed to help it along. Twelve months ago it was the object of^ ridicule ; now it is the object of universal laudation. The last Congress, under the pressure of public opinion, appropriated 100,000 dollars for the survey of three distinct routes 'to the Pacific— all within the territory of the United States, lying between the British possessions on the north and the States of Mexico on the south. I shall, at present, glance at only one of these, since on one only have the surveys actually been commenced, and hence we have no certain data to guide us in I speaking of the rest. Governor Stevens, who has charge of the northern route, was first in the field, and his survey will probably be first completed. He is a man of first-rate ability — energetic, clear-headed, and sagacious ; aud perfect master of whatever he undertakes. As early as the first of May he had reached St Paul, in the territory of Minesota. He has under him an efficient corps of scientific men, and his expedition is completely equipped. Information already received from him represents the route as decidedly favourable for a railway. For about 200 miles westward of St Paul, the proposed line passes a country watered by navigable streams, heavily wooded, and abounding in fine stone — considerations of great importance in such an enterprise Beyond this district broad praries stretch away to the base of the Rocky Mountains, diversified with streams and occasional forests. Beyond the mountains Governor Stevens has two parties under his general supervision, working simultaneously from the. ocean — one (Captain M'Clelland's) commences at Puget's Sound, and the other (Lieutenant Saxton's) at the mouth of the Columbia River. Even should Steven's route not be adopted for the railway (and, owing to reasons I may hint subsequently, I presume it will not be, unless it is far more feasible than either of the others), his contributions to geographical and scientific knowledge will be of great practical value to the' nation, and hasten the occupation of an immense and fertile region of country — larger in extent than France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy— of which we may now say we have scarcely any exact knowledge whatever. This belt of territory of which I speak lies precisely within those degrees of latitude which the early settlers of New England and their desendants have always liked best — that portion of the United States which stretches from Virginia as far north as 500 of latitude. One who looks with any care at the history of the colonization of this continent will discover that these are the latitudes most resorted to by the nations of the central and northern parts of Europe. About nine-tenths of the 600,000 immigrants those countries now annually furnish us fix their homes within the latitudes which bound the limits of Steven's survey. The Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic races have little affinity for African slavery, or the enervating climates where that institution generally prevails. The great porportion of European emigrants choose our northern } latitudes ; and so complete and economical are the arrangements now made for them, that the chief part of the Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Scotch, and Welch who reach New York do not land at all, but are immediately reshipped for the " west. " Hundreds of thousands thus travel from 1,000 to 2,000 miles through the heart of the country before they reach their final destination. Most of them settle j at last within the latitudes of which I have spoken, where there is neither the oppression of heat nor slavery. The information, therefore, that will be furnished by Stevens's report and survey will have not a little to do with the wellbeing of the millions Europe is yet to send to our shores. We have found that our western territory got filled up with population as fast as we gained an exact knowledge of its geography and facilities The ligh-t which Governor Stevens will shed over a region so little known will impart a new and almost electric impulse to the progress of population in a direct line from New York to the mouth of the Columbia River. There lies what is now the territory, and what will soon be the State, of Oregon. It has long been in the process of settlement. The operations of the English and American fur traders had made that coast, with much of its interior and the road to it, known to our people ; and in 1845, before the Mexican war began, — while California was yet a Mexican province, and its gold mines were unknown, — Oregon was rapidly filling up with eastarn people. Emigration to that quarter was for a while arrested by the rush to California, but when the first fury of the gold fever subsided, Oregon again resumed its importance, which, as an agricultural district (larger than France), will be the seat of a powerful and rich empire. It assimilates closely to New England in its early settlers, its soil, its climate, and its domestic institutions. It is filling up with the hardiest, the bravest, and the best population in the United States. It has grown steadily, but vigorously. It will turn out no civic mushroom, as too many colonies have, which have been planted in the heat of cupidity by speculators in gold. Oregon is the purest Anglo-Saxon community beyond the limits of New England. I have thus dwelt on the latitudes of the northern route for the Pacific Railroad, because these reflections seem to be entitled to ethnological aud economic importance for one who would understand the drift of population and civilized life in the New World. The common objection urged against Governor Stevens's route is the winter snows; but there is little force in this objection. From all accounts snow falls quite as deep on the mountains 1,000 or 1,500 miles to the south. Fremont's last expedition, with which the world is familiar, crossed the mountains nearly or quite 2,000 miles south of the Columbia River; and yet it is known that this expedition suffered more from the eol'l than any other we ever sent to the Pacific. Several of the men and all the animals perished. The real objections to Stevens's route are of quite a different character. The recent Memphis Convention disoussed this question in some of its principal aspects. Its members, doubtless, spoke the sentiments of the southern states on tha subject. The south will oppose the northern route. They want to have the road run through slave territory as far as

slave territory goes, especially through the great cotton districts of Texas and Arkansas. Hence they desire to connect it with the great Central Texas Railroad enterprise, which, if carried out, will surpass in magnitude the Erie road, which connects New York with Lake Erie, a distance of nearly 500 miles. General Hunt, who has long been one of the foremost men in Texas, and the champion of the southern route, used the following language the other day in the Memphis Convention : — " Yesterday I remarked, when the honourable and venerable gentleman from Louisiana, Judge Moore, made reference to the necessity of the passage of a road from the lower mouth of the Mississippi to California, through the State of Texas, that Texas would grant lands to such a road ; and I took occasion to state, -furthermore, to the Convention that there had already been granted to the Texas Central Railroad Company a charter to pass with a road through the whole extent of the state, with a grant of eight sections of land of 640 acres to each mile of road that might be constructed by the company within the limits of -Texas. I also stated that the route contemplated of the main trunk of that road to Red River, and the course of its branch road from Red River, were within the limits of Texas, New Mexico, and California, in the direction of San Francisco and San Diego I alluded to the readiness with which the Texas Central Railroad Company would listen to and entertain with the greatest consideration propositions from the St. Louis, Cairo, Memphis, Little Rock, Games' Landing, Vicksburg, and New Orleans Companies, whose roads point towards Texas in their course to California, to unite with them in constructing the road from the valley of the Missisippi, through Texas, to the Pacific Ocean ; and I noticed in the report of the committee this morning, that the valley of, and not the Mississippi river itself is proposed as the starting point for the main trunk road." It is somewhat to be apprehended that the ultimate location of the route may revive, and perhaps greatly inflame the slavery quarrel, and thus, among other bad consequences which this agitation is sure to bring with it, delay for a while the action of Congress in reference to the Pacific Railroad. That action is needed, for without Government aid the road could not be made for a long time to come. The next question that arises is, how this stupendous work is to be accomplished, — by the money of the national Government, or by private capital guaranteed by the public credit and aided by the public lands ? The south has always opposed every attempt to get the aid of the Governmeet to build public works. The Virginia school of politics has clung with more tenacity to a strict construction of the constitution than any other principle. It concedes to Congress no powers except those specifically conferred. All its efforts have hitherto been put forth to limit Federal and increase State sovereignty. It has been hostile to what is called public improvements at the expense of the General Government, hnt, so important is this Pacific road deemed to the southern States, that it will encounter no opposition from that quarter if they are satisfied with the route. The prevailing opinion in the Memphis Convention, and throughout the south, seems to be in favour of granting liberal donations of the public domain, with, perhaps, the loan of the public credit, by guaranteeing the bonds of the company, taking back a lien on the road itself. Since the famous vote of General Jackson on the appropriation of money for completing the Cumberland road; Congress has given no money, I believe, for qny road whatever — not even in California or any of our newly-acquired States or territories, where roads of all descriptions are so much needed. But Congress has frequently given tracts of land to aid these private enterprises, and it will continue to do it, particularly for the Pacific Railroad. If this plan is adopted and a company well organized, 100,000,000 dollars (the estimated cost of the road) would soon be raised. The security to the lenders would be ample, for the amount of land along the line of the road would, when the road was done, be worth far more than the cost of the road itself. The revenue of such a road would of necessity be very great. If only the same number of passengers went over it a.B now regularly cross the Isthmus to and from California, at 200 dollars per head, it would give the road an income of from 40,000,000 io 50,000,000 dollars. But the freight business would be incalculable The commerce of the Pacific Ocean , and the Eastern Asiatic world would flow through this new channel. New York would be brought within 20 days of Can ton— nearer than England can -ever be. It is thought, too, that so vast would be the influence upon the commerce of Europe, it would not only affect the business now done by the Cape of Good Hope, but, perhaps, in the end, change the channels of European and Asiatic commerce. Be this as it may, the Pacific Railroad, if it be ever completed, seems likely to affect the business of the entire world.