ved medium of communication between New York
and Philadelphia.

The able reviewer--for right able he was--must have been either an
American or one well acquainted with the face of the country, its trade,
the people, their present condition, and future prospects. The
statistics of the States in question were at his finger-ends; he
produced sound evidence in support of each proposition he advanced; and
the argument thus sustained went to prove, beyond all doubt, that the
spirit of speculation was in this, as in many other particulars, leading
the American people to the verge of madness, and their country to
certain bankruptcy. That in leaving their magnificent lakes, their
endless rivers, and the smooth waters of their coast,--the highways
created by Providence for their use, and amply sufficient for their
purposes--to waste their wealth, distract their commercial views, and
agitate their politics in the projection of railroads that could never
be completed, or, if completed even, would not pay, in our time, the
expense of repairs, or endure the severity of the climate; to construct
which the material must be imported from England, and after every severe
winter would require to be renewed, was, in effect, quitting the
substance for the shadow, and, if begun in folly, could not fail to end
in ruin and disappointment.

I never in my life perused any article more philosophical in spirit or
more conclusive in argument; the scheme was clearly shown not only to be
absurd but impracticable, and the projectors proved either to be
presumptuous imitators, or men profligately speculating upon the
ignorant credulity of their fellow-citizens.

I closed the review, in short, admiring the clear judgment and practical
farsightedness of the writer; pitying the Yankees, for whom I cherished
a sneaking kindness, and inwardly hoping that this very clever
exposition of the folly of their seeking to counteract the manifest
designs of Providence, which had so clearly demonstrated their paths,
might produce as full conviction on their minds as it had on mine.

Well, I forgot the article and its subject, and was only reminded of it
by finding myself one fine day whisking along at the rate of twenty
miles an hour over a well-constructed railway, one of a cargo of four
hundred souls. The impossibility had, in fact, been achieved; and, in
addition to the natural roads offered by Sea, Lake, and River, I found
railways twining and locomotives hiss