as can be done with better economy than to sustain those designed to
be superseded" and "are exposed to great and permanent injury." There
was nothing forceful in this recommendation. He still kept the middle
of the road, but his request practically amounted to the completion of
some of the new work. It meant the finishing of the Schoharie
aqueduct, improving the Jordan level, enlarging the locks of the Erie
canal, and going on with the construction of the Black River and
Genesee Valley canals.

The Radicals, realising the seriousness of the situation, now rested
their hopes upon an elaborate report by Robert Dennison, chairman of
the Senate canal committee. It was a telling blow. It attacked the
estimated, as compared to the actual, cost of the canals, charging
engineers with culpable ignorance or corrupt intention. The Chenango
canal, it said, was estimated to cost $1,000,000; it actually cost
$2,417,000. The first estimate of the Black River canal called for an
expenditure of $437,000; after work was commenced, a recalculation
made it $2,431,000. It cost, finally, over $2,800,000. The Genesee
Valley canal presented even greater disparity, and more glaring
ignorance. The original estimate fixed the cost at $1,774,000.
Afterward, the same engineer computed it at $4,900,000; and it cost
over $5,500,000. The State would have made money, the report said, had
it built macadamised roads, instead of canals, at a cost of $4,000 a
mile, and paid teamsters two dollars a day for hauling all the produce
that the canals would transport when finished. In conclusion,
Dennison declared that work on the canals could not be resumed without
laying an additional direct tax. This statement touched the
pocket-books of the people; and, in the opinion of the Radicals,
closed the discussion, for no Democrat, confronting a presidential and
gubernatorial election, would dare burden his party with another
direct canal tax.

Horatio Seymour, chairman of the canal committee of the Assembly, now
appeared with a report, covering seventy-one octavo pages, which
illuminated the question even to the enlightenment of Michael Hoffman.
It was the first display of that mastery of legislative skill and
power, which Seymour's shrewd discerning mind was so well calculated
to acquire. The young Oneida statesman had been a favourite since his
advent in the Assembly in 1842. His handsome face, made more
attractive by large, luminous eyes, and a kind, social na