Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1826-02-07

trade, which take the liberty to correct. In the
first place he estimates the quantity of coal boaed
down James River annually, at from six hundred
TO nine hundred thousand bushels; whereas it has
not, at any period, exceeded from TO 500, 900
bushels: and think may venture to assert that
If the present high tariff of toll shall be continued
upon that article, the quantity brought down will
not be likely to Increase.
The same writer also says, that there is paid not
quite one-iourih OF cent toll per bushel at pre-
sent; meaning, OF course, at the time he wrote
(26th Nov. las,.) In this he has also committed
an error. The toll heretofore charged upon coal
has been one dollar and seven cents on each boa,
ioad anu as the loads for the last six years, my
knowledge have not averaged 200 bushels each, il,
follows o! course that the toll paid has exceeded
one hall OF cent per bushel.
Peimi me now to Ray word to the policy
OF continuing the present high rate OF toll upon
the article OF coal. Ii thought by many intel
iigent gentlemen, al the time Messrs Briggs and
Gamble commenced the Improvement OF James
River, beginning at the lower arch, that such be-
ginning was at the wrong end, or, in other words,
the Improvement should have commenced high
up the river, and its trbstsry streams, so 10 have
invited to II a trade which II now wants. In
this opinion all now concur but the reason then
urged by the friends OF the was, that, by
finishing the first section up to Nladen's Adven-
ture, they would secure the coal trade, and at
once be put into the receipt of toll from tina, quar-
ter TO considerable amount: now let see how
lar their expectations have been realized. Has the
Improvement of the navigation hitherto, brought
to the river one single bushel of coal from any pit,
from which 1t was not previously brought
answer no. Not one solitary buShek Out of one
million three or four Sandred thousand bushels now
raised; nearly 900, 900 OF 1t is wagoned on the
rou'h SIDE OF the river, distance ot - or Ia
miles; some OF 1t too, lying within a mile and
quarter, some two and a halt IN les, and none
more than four miles from the river The question
VIII be, WHY is this! To hich answer, that
II Is because the mprov ement of the navigation as
IL ~ cailed) has not given those advantages and
facilities, IN due season promised, and be-
cause the toll OF and halt cents per bus4el is
TOO enormously high. The toll should he reduced
lei that be done and the million of bushels which
are now wagoned will, In all probability. be
brought TO market through the canal, and thereby
greatly augment the public rev enue
There ave other reasons, the soundness of which
VIII scarcely be questioned upon The slightest re
Election, why new and heavy burihens should not,
at this time. be put upon the coal trade 10 saw
nothing OF the large iinportatons of foreign coal
when we see companies formed III our sister states
win capital OF half million of dollars, with a
view OF bringing other coal into competition with
that OF Virginia; when, indeed, we see the former
already In the market TO the prejudice of the latter:
"ise' IS " poIitic In US, III a national point
OF view, so TO Increase the toll upon that ar
iicle as TO reduce it almost 10 certainty ofhaving
the northern demand cut off from us, aud thereby
adding some two 81 three hundred thousand dollars
TO balance OF trade which is already heavily "a
SalpG us! all this for the sake of Increasing
~ 70 Supposed, but falsely think, the revenue Of
The state some few thousand dollars. feel myself
confident that this state of things will not be al
lowed TO exist, and that, when the revisa! OF the
tariff, shall come before the legislature, the good
sense OF that body will at once shew the folly,
nay, the injustice of continuing the toll Of one
and half cents per bushel upon an article the va
iue OF which varies from TO eighteen cents, and
must In some few years, from the competition
likely to be mat with, be reduced greatly below
, that value.
g" "A Citizen of the West" will excuse the wri-
ter Tor having entered SO largely into a discussion
respecting the mere article OF coal: He confesses
that when he commenced this communication. il
was intended only correction OF a few errors
o. thai author, upon that part of his treatise which
was quite familiar TO this writer, but was drawn
along, not so much by IFS effect on the interests
oil golfers on James river, on that also of the
commonwealth MATTER OF FACT.