commenced. There were persons present from all parts of Europe even. It may be well to add here, in passing, that among those whom the news of the "actual commencement" attracted was Baron Kruder, then Russian envoy. Having taken a ride in a rail-car, named "Eolus," invented by E. Thomas, and which was used when the question of best locomotive power had not reached the present contest between caloric and steam, the Baron was so much pleased, and expressed such a strong desire to have his own country benefited by the invention, that Philip E. Thomas, the President of the company, caused a model to be constructed, with Ross Winan's friction wheels attached, and presented to him, to be forwarded to the Emperor. A scientific delegation from Russia soon followed, whose report induced the Emperor to send for Mr. Winans to superintend the construction of the first great railway in his dominions.

Of the doings of the tenth of January we were an eye and ear witness, as an invited guest. And a proud occasion it was. We regret that we have not room for a full description of it. The temporary arrangement by which the "Broad Tree Tunnel," since completed through the mountain barrier, was then safely passed by a train containing some five hundred officials and invited guests, was of itself a sufficient monument of the skill of the chief engineer, Mr. Latrobe, a gentleman whom we beg the reader, in passing, not to confound with his more widely known brother, John H. B. Latrobe, Esq., the eminent attorney of the company. It consisted of an ascent and descent, in a sort of "zig-zag "direction, by means of what would be technically called "Y" switches, whereby the train was first pushed up the mountain for an available distance, and then pulled down again a less distance obliquely, and then again pushed up, on the same principle that your horse will pursue his "winding way" over a pathless acclivity, if left to his natural instincts and muscular management. The train was thus passed over, in segments. As the occupants of these sectional trains of crowded cars passed and repassed each other, now gazing cheeringly upward, now downward, with the waving of banners, and the reverberations of music from an accompanying band, the puffing of laboring engines, and the smoky flames rolling from the steam-horse's nostrils, a tout ensemble of wild and fearful grandeur was presented, such as it would have been almost worth a pilgrimage to witness. Nothing less bold in conception and thrilling in execution, than the army of Napoleon scaling those immense barriers where "Alps on Alps arise," could furnish a parallel of sublimity and awe to this achievement of engineering science. The committee of arrangements, under whose charge this wondrous feat was performed, were Joshua Vansant, Jacob G. Davies, Benjamin Deford, C. M. Keyser, and J. J. Turner, all prominent citizens, and efficient directors of the road at the time.

At Wheeling, a warm municipal and popular welcome awaited us. Congratulatory speeches passed between the Mayor of that prosperous city, (Mr. Nelson,) and the Governor of Virginia, (Mr. Johnson,) on the part of the Old Dominion, and the President of the Railroad Company, (Mr. Swann,) and the Governor of Maryland, (Mr. Lowe;) and a grand Corporation Banquet closed the joyous scene of festivities, celebrating an event which was of far-reaching and incalculable import to the dwellers of the West and the East alike, whose swarming attendance attested their deep interest therein. Of this, we have already practical and tangible evidence. Aided, co-operatingly, by a line of capacious and attractive steamers, running between Wheeling and Cincinnati and Louisville, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is, at the

date of our writing, doing an amount of business which the reports of the indefatigable Treasurer of the Company, (Mr. Atkinson,) and of the retiring President, (Mr. Swann,) estimate at nearly double that of the corresponding periods of even 1852. Take the following exhibit in point:

The official returns of the business of the road for the past month, (March, 1853,) as communicated to the Board, confirm the gratifying prospects held out by Mr. Swann. As compared with the month of March, 1852, these returns show the following results:-

This gives an increase for March, 1853, over March of 1852, of $76,286 07 for freights, and $20,883 04 for passengers, making the total increase of receipts on the Main Stem of $97,169 11.

This shows that the increase on the Washington Branch was $21,771 64 for passengers, $1,243 06 for freight, making a total of $22,014 70.

The total receipts on the two roads (the Main Stem and the Washington Branch) were as follows:-March, 1853, $270,420 39; March, 1852, $150,236 58; making a total increase of $120,183 81.

The general commercial importance of the connections of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad with the great lines of Atlantic-ward trade and travel in the great West, will justify us in embodying, with the aid of the industrious and intelligent, though too modest unknown author of the book which has furnished a text to this article, a full sketch thereof in this place:

The Central Ohio Railroad, reaching from Wheeling through Zanesville and Newark to Columbus, and thence through Xenia to Cincinnati, is partly finished and in operation, and the remainder under contract with a prospect of speedy completion. The importance of this line to the city of Baltimore is very great, as it may give her the earliest railway connection with Cincinnati.

The Northwestern, or Parkersburg Road, branching from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Three Forks, (two hundred and eighty miles from Baltimore, and ninety-nine miles from Wheeling,) and striking the Ohio ninety miles by the river below Wheeling, is under contract, and rapidly progressing, with $3,000,000 of available funds, under the superintendence of B. H. Latrobe as chief engineer. When completed it will give Baltimore a connection with the Ohio River at this more southern point of Virginia, by a road three hundred and eighty-five miles in length, and only five miles longer than that to Wheeling, while the distance from Parkersburg to Cincinnati by the Hillsborough line of Railroad will be but one hundred and seventy-eight miles--making the total from Baltimore to Cincinnati by this route but five hundred and sixty-three miles, without any of the reductions of distance by future improvements in the location of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at and east of Cumberland that may hereafter be made.

On the completion of the road to Parkersbug, and thence via Hillsborough to Cincinnati, which may be expected early in 1855, passengers will be conveyed to Cincinnati in twenty-six hours-while those who prefer the slower but perhaps more agreeable water conveyance from Parkersburg to Cincinnati, can take the

alternative by losing twelve or fourteen hours of time. The steady perseverance with which the corporate authorities of Baltimore have sustained the charter of the Northwestern road to Parkersburg, by extending her aid to the amount of $1,500,000, whilst the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad has subscribed $1,000,000, and our citizens about $500,000, shows that a just estimation is placed on the importance of this great connection. It is believed that no step has heretofore been taken in reference to the internal improvement system of the state of Maryland, which has excited more interest both east and west of the Ohio River.

The Northwestern Road, connecting at Parkersburg with the Great Southern line of Ohio, via Jackson and Hillsborough, and through that channel with Cincinnati, and also through Maysville with the cities in Kentucky and Tennessee, and by a continuation of the "air line" through Cincinnati to St. Louis, and from thence to the Pacific, must command, in connection with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, a full share of the through travel destined for any point upon the seaboard north of Richmond.

The central lines through Ohio before adverted to, will also place the city of Baltimore in connection with the trade and travel of the vast and fertile region of Central Ohio through which it passes, including Zanesville, Newark, and Columbus, from which places various connections are made with other roads now in operation through all that section of the state to Lake Erie.

Other connections with the railway system of Ohio and the states west and north of it, will shortly be made, and will give to Baltimore her fair share of the increasing traffic of that populous country.

Thus it will be seen, that the anticipations of Messrs. Thomas and Brown, the originators and founders of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, when they asserted to their fellow-citizens that "nothing is now wanting to secure a great portion of the immense trade of the West to Baltimore, but the availing ourselves of the nat ural advantages which we possess, and the faithful application of the means within our power," have been most signally fulfilled by the construction of this truly great railroad across the Alleghanies to the Western waters.

The volume from which materials for this article have been freely drawn, contains portraits of the late Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, who, as we have seen, officiated so appropriately at the laying of the corner stone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Presidents Thomas, McLane, and Swann, and Mr. Latrobe, the chief engineer, and also a map of the road and its connections. In its typographical execution and arrangement, it is altogether creditable to the publishers. The historic and present facts it embodies cannot fail to be of service to the great enterprise whose honorable history and far-reaching usefulness it was designed to record and promote. With this impression, we have cheerfully aided to spread them before the commercial community.

Art. VI. BANK NOTE COUNTERFEITS AND ALTERATIONS: THEIR REMEDY.

THE confidence of the people in the bank note currency of New York has never been so firm as at the present time. This confidence it is for the interest, not only of bank stockholders, but of the people everywhere, to retain and increase; and under its present general banking law, if its execution is given to competent, faithful and honest officers, confidence everywhere in its paper issues will speedily be attained. Presuming, then, that the present law of New York is a good one; that if the securities deposited for circulating notes are received with the close scrutiny the law contemplates, no loss can hereafter fall upon the holder of its currency; that the million

are and the poorest laborer alike, whether storing away at night well filled vaults or a single note, may sleep confident that the morning light will bring with it no news of sudden calamity or base fraud, by which the accumulations of years, or the hard earned wages of a day, are made but worthless rags instead of the money they represent; that this law is really worthy of all the confidence it may receive, there still remains a formidable obstacle to the use of our present paper currency. The difficulty, to-day, is not so much in obtaining the confidence of the people in the genuine issues of legalized banking institutions, as in determining which are these genuine issues. When the counterfeiter becomes so skillful that, with his work, he deceives, not only those unacquainted with bank notes and the usual method of detecting his issues, but good judges; when even bank officers, themselves, receive false issues with false signatures of their own bank without detection, as in a late instance that came under our observation; when there are counterfeiters at work in every town, thriving in their lawless occupations, and when each issue of the press announces a new and still more ingenious result of their workmanship; there would certainly seem to be danger that the whole system of bank paper for currency may yet have to be abandoned. In such a state of things, not only duty, but imperative necessity demands of the banker a remedy against so rapidly a growing evil.

Of late the arts of the counterfeiter have been turned to a comparatively new branch of the profession. The counterfeiter, the educated in his calling, and prince among the rascals of his clique, still finds his trade full of danger and difficulty. The most ingenious of the race, in many cases, find their work, if not themselves, detected long before a "good circulation" is obtained. Their work, often prepared with great care and with expensive tools, is frequently detected and announced before enough is issued to well pay the printer. The part of their trade, therefore, known as the "alteration of bank bills" presents them with unequalled attractions. With no necessity for tools nor any of the implements of the old fashioned counterfeiter, requiring only a few easily obtained chemical substances, a fine quality of glue, and a pair of scissors, to complete their kit, a few hours will transform many an insignificant one to tens and twenties, apparently as good as ever issued. In these alterations the engraver, instead of being a hindrance, is frequently of decided service to the counterfeiter. In many instances, using the same die and vignette indiscriminately for the small denomination of one bank and the large denominations of others, the engraver has already destroyed much of the aid association might furnish in the detection of altered bills. The counterfeiter, taking advantage of this fact, and clipping, at pleasure, a die or word from one bill, with little ingenuity can change the denomination of another. To these alterations the notes of all banks are subject, and no art of the engraver has yet proved a barrier to such tricks. Not only is the prominent die that denotes the denomination entirely abstracted, and a new one replaced, but even the fine lettering of the border and the centre, with equal facility are exchanged. If the engraver uses large letters, these disciples of Lucifer either extract the impression entirely, or themselves use a similar letter for bills not provided with the preventive. Black ink, red ink, large letters, borders and stripes, although at first of good service, in the end seem to facilitate rather than retard them in the profession they so perseveringly continue to practice, and the work goes on, filling their pockets, and fleecing many an honest laborer or tradesman. Yet there seems to be, comparatively, little effort to prevent such transactions, A

thorough organization among bankers, and a fund provided for the purpose of detecting the counterfeiter, an effort to use but one, and that the best, kind of bank note paper, to increase the variety of engravings so that the same vignette shall not appear upon the issues of different banks, or at least upon notes of different denominations; to lessen the number and make more uniform the registers' signatures at the state department; these things, and others that may hereafter be suggested, would do much to make the business of the counterfeiter more difficult, and assist in his detection. To prevent the alteration of bank notes a simple remedy exists, yet untried, and which we have the confidence to believe might, if thoroughly tested, prove a perfect preventive. The bank teller detects the worst alterations from association, and, if the prominent engraving of a note is well remembered, he will not be deceived though the pasting process be done with the greatest degree of nicety. If, for instance, the vignette of some one dollar bill is known to be a blacksmith, the first glance at the engraving will convey to the mind its value, let the apparent denomination be what it may. If, then, the engraver, in making up the plate for a one dollar note, uniformly composes the vignette of one and only one prominent object, the two, three and five, in lik manner, always of two, three and five prominent objects; the ten always of more than five, and the twenty of more than ten, no matter what these objects may be, the poorest judge of money cannot be deceived with regard to their value. The fifty, the hundred, and the thousand dollar note do not circulate so generally, and are always received with more caution, so that alterations of that kind are comparatively uncommon. In order to make the bank note still more secure, every engraving, whether large or small, at the end or between the signatures, should also denote the denomination, until to alter a bill will be to deface its whole appearance. In engraving the different denominations of a bank, the vignette of the one should always be the smallest in size, the two, three and five gradually increasing, the ten covering one half of the length of the bill, and the fifty and hundred its whole extent. By this arrangement the engraver may add much to the beauty of a set of engravings, and need use neither the large red letters nor the heavy border, which so mar the general appearance of the bank note. We believe that thus, by the help of association, a preventive against all bank note alterations may be obtained, and we hope yet to see the plan tested by engravers and new banking institutions.

JOURNAL OF MERCANTILE LAW.

K.

LIBEL FOR COLLISION.

The United States District Court. In Admiralty, by Hon. Judge Judson. The Williamsburg Ferry Company vs. the steamboat Chelsea.

The libellants are an incorporated company, under an act of the General As sembly of the State of New York, and their steam ferry boats ply between Williamsburgh and Peck slip, New York; they were the owners of the steam ferry boat Oneota, which, on the 20th June, 1851, was made fast to the bulkhead, on the Williamsburgh side of the East river, at or near the foot of South Eighth street, in the village of Williamsburgh, undergoing necessary and needful repairs; that directly above the Oneota she was protected by the long South pier which guards the Jackson street ferry boats as they enter their dock on the