The Express.
London, England, 1859-02-16 00:00:00

THE UNITED STATES.

(110 N ova OWN

NEW YORK, Fin. 2.

The Pacific Railroad Bill, after hanging for a Meg
time in suspense, has at last received in quietus, and
has been thrown out, though it is difficult to my
what wee the prevailing reason for its rejection.
The one which actuated the Republican members in
voting against it is, however, abundantly clear. It
was proved beyond question that the scheme could
not succeed on a commercial basis. Even if a private
company could raise the amount of capital ncceuarg
to carry It oat, it would be impossible for them to
carry freights at rates which any known commodity,
except silk, would bear. The lowest charge, so low
as barely to pay expenses, would be three time'
higher than the cost of transport round Cape Horn
or acre's the Isthmus. As to the passenger traffic,
it would, of course, be large for a line of railroad
three or four hundred miles long, but for years to
some was certain to be ridiculously small for a line
two thousand miles in length.
The commercial aspect of the cue being thus dis-
posed of, it remained to consider it as a military or
political route, to be constructed by government.
That it would be well to have such a road—that
California and all the territory on the Pacific coast
would thus be linked more firmly to the Union—that
it would facilitate the protection of that region
against the ravages of a hostile fleet in ease of a war
with a great naval power, and that it woeld hasten
the settlement of the intervening weenie, there was
no question on any side. But then there prevailed,
as I have said in a former letter, the widest difference
of opinion as to the line which such a route
should follow. The South claimed it for the
sandy deserts of New Mexico—the North, for
the fertile plains of Oregon ; but each with
political objects in view, and each was despe-
rately tenacious of its own ideas. To end the
stzeiihethere came the crowning and crushing oh-
s notorious corruption of the Admirustra-
tins. Ten millions of dollars would fall short of the
sum required to construct the poorest line of rails
from the Mississippi to the Pacific, establish posts
along it for its protection, depots for food, fuel, re-
c-a...; and this enormous sum would all pass
h the fingers of the Executive, and be expended
la yon its favourites. The contracts alone
would offer such facilities for jobbing es no adminis-
tration has ever enjoyed, and none was ever less fit
to be trusted with them than the one now in power.
When such acts of profligacy are committed
with an empty treasury and scanty powers SS
have been disclosed in reference to the recent saber,
two moderate sired forts and in the beading of five
war sloops, and the dealings of Mr. Buchanan with
the public printer, what would not be done with an
enormous credit in the public purse, and in the con-
struction of a work of such magnitude as two thou-
sand miles of railroad through a wildenten ?
The news that the English and French admirals
in the gulf are resorting to measures of coercion
against-Vera Crux, to compel the appropriation of the
customs' duties to pay the interest on the claims of
English and French creditors, is exciting ernsatio*
here, as being an interference in the "domestic
affairs" of Mexico. There is some truth in this,
but it would be hard to tell how anybody is to be
needs pay his debts without meddling witk his
domestic arrangements.