These figures show not only diminished time of passage, but they speak of immense additional resource-capital that was formerly locked up four months in a flat boat being now turned over forty times in the same period. Now the Western waters are, or we should say at the breaking out of this war were, alive with steam tonnage, which carried forth the produce of the West, and returned with sugar, coffee, cotton, rice, tobacco, and merchandise of every description. The steam tonnage at the leading This increased tonnage does not express the growth of business, since, as we intimated above, by increase of speed the efficacy of a given amount of tonnage is forty times greater than formerly. In fact, it would require 12,000,000 tons to do the present amount of business at the old time, and the capital required for mere transportation would be $600,000,000 instead of $15,000,000, as it is now. The effect of the shortened time is also seen in the lower freights. In 1815, cotton cloth was 30 cents per yard, at which price four hundred pounds of cloth was worth $120. The freight from New Orleans to St. Louis was, at the same time, five dollars per one hundred pounds weight. In 1860 the same quantity of cloth was worth $44, and the transportation 40 cents, or 10 per cent of the cost. Thus it will be seen that the Western farmer for a bushel of wheat gets eight yards of cloth, instead of two as at the former period. The market for the manufacturer is thus greatly extended. So, too, the sugar of Louisiana goes up the river at $4 per hhd., instead of $60, as formerly, and the farmer has the benefit of the difference. We thus see what the past has done for the West, and what great promises the future holds out. We see, too, how important all these great avenues of trade are for her rapid development. She cannot afford to lose her railroad connections with the East, nor yet can she consent that the free navigation of the Mississippi should be interrupted. The two years of war we have passed through have given good proof of the necessity that exists for both of these connections with the markets, and the damage she must suffer were either to be closed. Much discussion has arisen, therefore, as to the course the Western States would take were the South to be successful in this war, and the lower Mississippi pass out of the control of the United States. We deem this question, however one of very easy solution. With God's help we propose to keep the Mississippi. But even if we fail in that, there can be no reason why the West should go with the South, for it is just as much benefit to the South as to the West that the navigation of the river be free, and on making a peace that point would of necessity be agreed upon, and the right be secured by treaty to both parties. Nor can it be said that a treaty would not long be respected by the South; that she would, in spite of it, interrupt our trade and shut up the river, if at any time she should imagine it to be for her interest to do so. We might reply that we could make her respect her treaties. But, waiving that question, it is still evident that a treaty would leave the right just as secure as it would be if the river belonged to this government alone. We could not guard against all contingencies in any case. For instance, although our government extends now, and did before the war, over all the States bordering on the river, yet that fact did not prevent the Southern States seceding and blocking up the river. And were the South allowed to go to-day, and the West with it, what would prevent Louisiana seceding to-morrow from the Southern Confederacy, interrupting the navigation of the river, and enacting over the same folly of which we are at present reaping the bitter fruits? But there is no necessity for arguing this question, as it is evident there is no reason why one should conclude that the free navigation of the Mississippi would be interrupted, simply because the river passed through All rivers thus situated are free in all nations to different nationalities. the dwellers on the banks. The Rhine, which descends from the Alps, has on its banks France, Switzerland, many German States, and Belgium, The Tagus and the Duro traverse Spain and it debouches in Holland. and find the sea in Portugal. The Elbe, in the Bohemian Mountains, traverses Saxony, Prussia, Mecklenbug, Hanover, Denmark, and reaches The Weser traverses Saxony, the ocean in the territory of Hamburg. The Danube traverses WurtemHanover, and Oldenburg to the ocean. burg, Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, Selavonia, and finds its outlet in the terThe Vistula passes from Poland ritory of the "sick man "-Turkey. into Prussia. The Po passes through many countries of Italy to lose The St. Lawrence skirts the State of New York to itself in Venitia. find the sea in British territory. In short, there is no large river of the world which finds the sea in the same nation in which it rises. Yet, of all the grounds of hostility which have arisen, interruption to river navigation has never been one. It is no doubt true that, as in the case of the Missispeace free sippi, interruption has resulted from war; but on the return of navigation has ever been the rule. Whatever, therefore, may be the issue of the contest we are now waging, this great avenue of trade which we have so long enjoyed will not, after the war is ended, be interfered with. From the statements made above it is evident that the West, rich in mineral and material wealth of every kind and with free and extensive means of communication with the markets of the world, has a future in store for it of unexampled prosperity. Its rich lands are even now feeding the world; but we think a greater source of wealth will be its manufactures the working up of its own abundant materials. The condition of the West now is not unlike that of New England on the occurrence of the war of 1812. Up to that time the leading interests of that section were fishing, exporting and freighting, while "free trade ” the cardinal political doctrine of the people. Great wealth had been ac was cumulated in the carrying trade during the wars of NAPOLEON, and the farmers of the valleys of the Hudson and Connecticut had become rich by the export of breadstuffs. The embargo and the war ending suddenly, stopped the whole current of that trade, and there was a reflux of capital from those employments, which accumulated at the financial centers, and finally took a new direction-running into manufactures. This new enterprise was pushed with New England's characteristic energy, changing, however, (as we think, unfortunately,) the political sentiments of the people from "free trade" to "protection." In the past ten years the West has, as we have shown, exceeded all other sections in prosperity. Population and capital have flowed in upon her, developing productions which have found a ready sale at good profits, while by means of the railroads the whole Western country has participated in the general prosperity. Now the population has grown somewhat in excess of the number which can readily be supported from agriculture, even if possessed of a large foreign market, and, as formerly in the East so at present in the West, manufactures are growing up and are succeeding, even in spite of the advantages of capital and long experience of the East. The census gives us the following figures in relation to the progress of the West in that direction: Eastern States... No. of Value No. hands. produced. 1,025,067 $1,298,207,058 Western States...... 8,567,249 34,80! 196,889,475 224,257,494 222,325 390,411,942 Thus it appears that the value per head of manufactures at the West is $46, and at the East $122, and that the West produces nearly one-third as much as the Eastern and Middle States. But the productions are of a coarser description, as is evident from the fact that at the West the raw materials are 60 per cent of the value produced, while at the East they are but 50 per cent. These manufactures at the West, it must be remembered, have grown up without any protection from the vast competition of New England capital, although that competition has been far more direct and effective than was that of foreign goods against New England at the close of the war in 1812. The principal kinds of manufactures produced, East and West, have been as follows, according to the same authority: on. These figures indicate the nature of the struggle that has been going Thus, articles like shoes and clothing have not as yet flourished at the West under the severe competition of the East, although the West has the advantage in respect to raw materials. But in the heavier articles, like iron, furniture, agricultural implements, steam engines, etc., which are protected at the West by the cost of transportation of the materials, the increase there has far outstripped the progress of the same branches at the East. These figures also indicate that all branches of manufactures are organized and ready for expansion. At such a moment war supervenes and closes the door to much of the usual trade of that region, by cutting off the Southern outlets. The employments of Western capital come to an end, and enterprise is turned in the direction of manufactures at the very moment when cotton, the raw material for $106,000,000 of Eastern manufactures, is no longer available, and the flax and wool of the West are becoming the materials for clothing. Thus the golden period for the West has arrived; he East having. no longer the advantage over her, and the usual employment for capital being cut off to a great extent, we shall soon find her expanding in this new direction and furnishing not only food but clothing for the world. Her fertile soil, aided by machinery, can, with the same amount of manual labor, furnish a larger surplus of food than any other region; while her raw materials, her minerals, her water-courses, and her railroads all combine with cheap food to make the West the region for the cheapest possible production of manufactures. The fruits of her rich soil will then find a market, not only directly but also in the shape of goods. England now imports food and material from the West, and, combining them with English labor, furnishes goods for the supply of the world. The Eastern States have also in the same way gained great wealth. But now the West is about to do that business for herself-combining her own labor, material, and food, and thereby becoming the center of manufactures. HUNGARY—ITS CHIEF PRODUCTIONS. BY LADISLAS KORIZMICS, OF PEST, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE HUNGARIAN EXHIBITION-COMMITTEE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 1862. The agricultural products, which are especially fit for exportation, are, wheat and flour, rape and rape oil, tobacco, wine, wool, timber, hemp. WHEAT AND FLOUR. Although the whole quantity of the wheat grown in Hungary (nearly 15,000,000 V. M.) is of good quality, still the wheat grown in the Banat, in the counties of Bács and Fehér, and in the plains adjacent to the river Theiss, is considered the best. The staple places for the corn trade are Pest, Mosony (Wieselburg,) Györ (Raab,) Törökbecse, Szeged, Nagy Kanizsa. Of these places, Pest being the most important market, the prices there may be regarded as the general average. These prices were in the year 1824.. 1 florin 21 kreuzers.t To Pest comes the corn by railways, and on the Danube; from thence it is conveyed to Vienna by the railway on the left bank of the Danube, or more generally by steam and common boats. From Pest also, and from that part of Hungary situated on the right side of the river, corn is sent to Trieste by railway. On this line the freightage for a hundred weight of wheat is now, from Buda to Trieste, 80 kreuzers. Of the Hungarian wheat a superior flour and grit is made, and from the barley a very good quality of groat is produced in large steam mills, of which the most important are at Pest and Buda, though some very |