The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1847-07-12


,ion of the general government undertaking
the Improvement of lakes, rivers, and
harbors We give them In full
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Ocean steam Navigation and the Magnetic
Tciegrnphs.
Steam communi cation between the old world
and the new, is Increasing at a rate truly aston
ishing year or two ago there were but a few
vessels in the trade, and now we have an arrival
and departure every few days; and, for the in
formation of those who have not watched its
progress, we will give list of the arrivals and
departures of the ocean steamers for one month.
On the fourth instant the Britannia left Liver
pool for Boston on the tenth the American
steamship Washington left Southampton for New
York this day, the twelfth, the French steam
ship Philadelphia will leave Cherbourg for the
same place; on the nineteenth the Hibernia
will leave Liverpool for Boston; and on
the twentieth, the new steamship Guadal-
culver will leave Liverpool for New York
The departures from this country will be as fol-
lows, excluding the Cambria, which sailed on
the first. The Caledonia will leave Boston on
the 10th: the Sarah Sands will leave New York
about the Goth the Union will leave here on
the 9th f; and the Britannia will leave Boston
on the first of August.
Steam navigation is yet but IN the bud, and
when il shall be in full bloom, no one can over
estimate the advantages that it will confer on
the United States, and, in fact, on the whole
world Its effects, thus far, are sensibly felt In
the promotion of commerce, and in furthering
the ends of peace, by drawing distant nations
into close proximity
A few years since voyage across the Atlantic
was slow, wearisome and protracted under
taking-but now, by means of steam, and
our splendid packet ships, it is looked upon
as pleasure excursion We can now almost
shake hands with our transatlantic friends,
separated from us by more than three thousand
miles, the same whom few years ago we looked
upon as strangers. A few years more, and the
word " foreigner" will become obsolete. There
will be, in no fact, no people foreign to another.
The whole race of man, through the mighty in
strumentality of steam and magnetism, will be
drawn together into one family. When that
time shall arrive, war will no longer be known;
and cannon balls and mortars will be locked up
in the Museums, as curiosities and remnants of a
barbarous age. These two wonderful agents
have only commenced the work which they are
destined to accomplish.
Let us reflect now what electricity has done,
and what it is destined to accomplish.
1t is only within very few years that our
illustrous countryman, Professor Morse, disco
vered its adaptation to the purpose OF commu-
nicating thought between the most distant
places and at the present time there are up
wards of seven thousand miles of telegraph in
operation, and in course of construction, in the
United States and Canada. Lines have recently
been constructed extending frsm Portland, II
the State of Maine, to Fredericksburg, in Vir
ginia, and, in week or two, it will be in opera
ton as far as Richmond. At the West, there
is line in operation to Wheeling, and in ,
very short time it will extend to Cincinnati, in
the State of Ohio. In the month of August there
will be aline, completed between Mobile and
New Orleans distance of one hundred and fif-
" miles When that line shall have been COM
pleted, we will be within three or four days OF
the latter city by means of the telegraph and our
southern overland express, and will receive
news from there fourdays in advance of the
mail line between Portland and Halifax, is
about TO be constructed, and will be finished
probably in another year, or less, by whlcR
the quotations of the foreign markets can be
made known throughout the whole country In
few minutes after the arrival OF the English
Cunard steamships; and which will bring New
York, Boston, and the extreme West and South
within nine or ten days of England.
Such are the wonders of the telegraph, and
such the benefits which it will confer on the
United States Were not the fact palpable and
plain before us, we might think we were indul-
cling in a dream. Our old men shake their heads
and know not what to make Of this state OF
things They rub their spectacles, and cannot
realize that such wonderful events as those we
have mentioned, and those which are about to
happen could have occurred or will occur in
their lifetime; while our young men are alive to
and can appreciate it all.
With magnetism on the land and steam on thu
ocean, we have the fact before us that within
few years the world has made aprodigous stride
in civilization and science. The earth, and thu
heavens themselves, have been made subservien
TO mans purposes; and if the United States
be Individually more benefited by it, we have
the proud consolation that it is to the In
genuity and intellect Of her own sons that
she is indebted. The names Of Fulton anc
Morse deserve TO be remembered as long as the
world retains its present shape. When 1t ceases
10 be round, then---what9
VISITING PLACES NEAR NEW YoRK.-There is,
perhaps, no city in the world, certainly there II
none in the United States, within ithe imme
date neiqhborhood of which there are so many
IL. - t..tI