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The first point to be determined, in all such cases, is the probableamount of trade to be transported. This is the leading fact whichshould govern all the arrangements which are to be made with a viewto its accommodation; and the one which has probably elicited theleast attention of all in the construction of the railroads, great or small,of this country. There are some lines which were apparently in-tended for the accommodation of immense quantities of freight, in thedesign for which no computation was ever instituted for the purposeof ascertaining the probable amount of the trade, or the sum which thatquantity would authorize the company to expend for the purpose ofremoving given obstructions; and there are others on which the actualtonnage is so small that the directors have yet been ashamed to nameit to the public, although, in the construction of their road, they per-mitted arrangements to be made for its accommodation, on a scale ofmagnificence which could hardly have been justified in anticipationof the trade of India . More labour has been expended in the trans-portation of materials for the construction of many roads than wouldhave been required to effect the transportation without them of allthe tonnage which they are destined to transmit, for all time to come.

There is, accordingly, no return received for the absorbed capital;these works are failures, and they have failed in consequence of thedisrespect of the parties by whom they were destroyed, of the firstprinciples which should control every application of machinery toeconomical purposes—viz. to make the poioer proportional to theduty to be performed—and to expend no more money for any objectthan the value of the object toill warrant. Had this simple maximbeen kept constantly in view in the prosecution of the enterpriseswhich, in this country, have characterized the last twelve years—andbeen made the test of every plan and every arrangement—therewould have been no ruined companies, no railroad auctions, and pro-bably no failures.

In discussing the important questions incident to this subject, theobject has been to obtain fair average values of the points at issue,and to deliver the results of the investigation as free from algebraicalexpressions as is consistent with the necessary accuracy. In this viewseveral quantities, of subordinate consequence, have been overlooked,and the investigation is made to turn upon the essential considera-tions which rule the result. And this is sufficient; for it is in vain tohope for the attainment of perfect accuracy in questions of this nature,"where much uncertainty always prevails in the determination of thevalue of the data; and the solution which comes within 10 or 15 percent, of the truth possesses all the accuracy that is necessary to insurethe requisite confidence. It is not to such errors that companies may