ould supply the
population of the region tributary to them, respectively, with dry
goods, crockery, hardware, paints, oils, and all kinds of imported
merchandise, at a cheaper rate by a considerable per centage, than
they could be purchased at New York, or any city on the Atlantic.
Detroit would be much nearer Liverpool than Buffalo now is by the
usual route, and Chicago and Milwaukee would be almost as near,
practically.

A few figures will show the decided advantage of water over rail as a
medium of transporting the bulky products of the West to market.

It has already been shown that a ton of any kind of freight cannot be
laid down at Portland from Detroit, by rail, under $8.80, without a
loss to the stockholders, nor to Boston under $9.65, except with the
same result; nor at New York _via_ the Great Western, New York
Central, and Hudson River roads under $6.82, without actual loss to
those roads, so that the case would stand thus:--Detroit to Portland,
per ton, _via_ G. T. R., $8.80; Detroit to Boston, do. do., $9.85;
Detroit to New York, $6.82. Add $4.00 per ton for ocean freights, and
we have in each case respectively, $12.80, $13.85, and $10.82 per ton
to Liverpool.

Now we maintain that a screw steamer of 1800 tons burden, costing,
when completed, $150,000, can carry much cheaper than a road like the
Grand Trunk, costing $60,000,000, or the New York Central and its
connections. A steamer of that capacity would carry 1,500 tons of
freight; 600 tons of coal would run her across the Atlantic, and she
could coal from Chicago or Detroit to Newfoundland, and from the
latter point to Liverpool. By doing this, she could carry 300 tons
more freight than if she coaled for the entire voyage from Chicago to
Liverpool. All the principal exports and imports of Michigan, Indiana,
Western Ohio, Kentucky, &c., would find their way to Detroit, and this
point would of necessity become the great centre of the direct trade
between Europe and the States above mentioned.

Two steamers per week could be run with profit on the route during the
season of navigation; each steamer would make two round trips and a
half per season of seven months' navigation, allowing two months for
each round trip. At this rate sixteen ocean steamers would be required
to make up a semi-weekly line, and were the Canadian canals enlarged
and ready for use by the middle of next April, there would be at once
sufficient trade to sustain them, at much cheape