The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-24 00:00:00

A COMIC DAGUERREOTYPE.

Under ;1: A Shareholder's Four
Phases " being a species of Comedy of Errors,
a strange sort of broadsheet has just been
published from original photographs. The engrav-
ings represent the same countenance under four very
different aspects—namely, when receiving "The allot-
ment," when hearing there is "No allotment" when
finding " Shares down," and last of all when
" Smashed up." The effect is ludicrous enough, but
would be somewhat more agreeable if the face of the
individual portrayed were not so abominably ugly.

NORTH ANIERI t AN KAILWAY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN
Sig,—l um pleased to notice in your excellent paper
of the 12th instant that you are favourably disposed to-
wards the projest for constructing a railroad to connect
with the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, to which subj. ct
I have devoted exclusively more than nine years, but
yeu say, "we coincide with the view expressed to the
effect, that Mr. Whitney is altogether incorrect in as-
serting the greater facilities of earning the proposed
railway through the United States than through the
British territory. " I should not remark upon this had
I not already declared to the English public that " a
route from near to Qaebec in a line almost direct to the
Rocky Mountains, is quite as feasible as on the Ameri-
can side." I have also publicly expressed my fears that
during the present season the lands on the American
side may be so far occupied by the rapid settlement
which is there taking place as to defeat the work, and
then there could be no hope for its accomplishment, ex-
cept on the British side, where I believed my plan might
be carried out, though with more difficulties.' A little
examination of the facts connected with the subject
must, I think, satisfy the practical mind that I am right.
In the first place, the lands, though the soil may be
equal, are not as well adapted to settlement; all to be-
yond Lake Superior the country is covered with heavy
timber. To partially clear an acre for a crop would cost
lot. or 21. The emigrants are unaccustomed to such
clearing, and could not do it all to toy extent, and be-
sides the climate is not so favourable as on the American
side, where, too, the country is mostly prairie, ready for
' a crop, and where the tide of emigration is setting
with a force not easy to be cheoked;or diverted, and is
now drawing from the Canada side probably one-half of
all who go there from this country. The settlement on
the American side is such that there can be no doubt,
the sale of lands would furnish means for the work
quite as fast as it would be wanted. This settlement is
so rapid, and extending west and north so fast, that the
work must now be commenced several hundred miles
north of where it might have been done five years ago.
The number of acres located by actual purchase, and for
soldiers' bounties during the last year. and nearly all in
this direction, Exceeded 5,000,000. The settlement in
Wisconsin, between !At Michigan and the Mississippi,
has fur several years exceeded 100,000 souls per annum;
in lowa, south of the Mississippi, over 50,000 per annum;
and in Minisota, north of the proposed line, the settle-
ment for last year was estimated at over 50,000. From
these facts, who can doubt, if the work were commenced
on the American side, that it would go on from the pre-
sent momentum of settlement with certainty and great
rapidity? Capitalists and practical business men, both
here and in the ,United States, have confidence in my
plan. and though there is to be no stock and no divi-
dends to look to as a reward for investment, still the
laud, under the plan proposed, is considered to be the
very best basis of mi ans, and immediately available to
soy necessary amount; because, so fast as sections of the
road could be completed, the sale of the lands would
commence, the avails of which would be subject to the in-
vestment made upon them, and the security always in-
creasing, from the increased value which the road and
settlement 4 ould impart to the remaining unsold lauds. The
public mind both in Europe and America seems to
have sett ed that this road must be constructed, and that
my pl,n can accomplish it, without cost to a nation or
to the world. Now it is clear that two roads cannot be
censtructed were two commenced, one on the British
and the other on the American side; the better climate,
the better adaptation of the lands to settlement on the
American side, would with the already formed current
of emigration draw from the British side to it.
As the question for the American side must be decided
by next March, and no one proposed to undertake the
construction of the road, I would suggest that it might
be as well to wait to that time. And I will repeat what
I have before sai , that "this is a work for the world;
it is my desire that it may be considered as the world's
highway. The lands are the only source of means for
it any where, and should they, as I very much fear, be no
longer available in my own country, then it is the desire
of my heart that it may be accomplished through British
territory.—Respectfully yours,
ASA WHITNEY.
London June 23, 1851.

The diamonds worn by the Marchioness of Lon,
donderm at the etkatusaa ball, ivere of the value el 150,0001.