The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-02-21

having the most independent carriage Of any
boy he ever saw, and he then predicted, "that
young fellow will make noise in the world be-
fore be dies" George Law struggled at hard
| work in subordinate positions for year or two
but soon embarked in enterprising undertak-
| ings, and became large contractor on railroads
and canals, from which his sound judgment
practical sense, and industry, and perseverance,
enabled him in two or three years to accumu-
late a handsome fortune. But he was not salts.
| fled with competency, and WAS determined to
| be a millionaire. He became connected with
extensive internal improvements in North Car
DINA, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New jersey,
as well as in this State There is no man in
the United States whose name is more idanti-
fled with such works in the States mentioned
thun his. After his removal to this city, some
years since, he became engaged in the construc
ton of the Harlem High Bridge" one Of the
finest structures of the kind in the world. He
also built the Oregon" and other large steam
boats, and became the chief owner OF the "Dfy
Dock Bank" Subsequently, he embarked in
the establishment of the .United States Mail
Steamship company" between New York and
Chagres, and New Orleans and Chagres, to
which the federal government contributes two
hundred and ninety thousand dollars per annum.
In conjunction with this line, he established Il
line on the Pacific side, from Panama to San
Francisco, in which he employed several supe-
rior steamships. Recently these vessels have
been exchanged for those Of VIM. H. Aspin-
wall Il Co, on this side of the continent, and
Mr.. Law il NOV the principal owner of nine
large steam ships on this side, plying MS regu-
lar mil packets between New York, Charleston,
Savannah, New Orleans Havana, Kingston
Jam }, and Chagrcs. Ia connection with j. S.
Stevens, esq, and others, he owns the railroad
across the Isthmus of Panama, which, it is anti
cipated, will be completed and in full operation
during this year.
The monuments of Mr.. Laws enterprise
ability, and energy, in his own country, would
satisfy any man of ordinary aspirations; but
they seem to have merely whetted and aroused
his ambition The Panama passage has been
talked of, and written about for more than two
centuries, by the English, and French and
Spaniards Canals have been projected at diff.
ferent times Railroads have been contemplated
for twenty years over the Isthmus, and SURVEYS
and estimates made; but Mr.. Laws attention
had not been devoted to it but few months D.
fore the work was underway, and already up
wards of twenty miles are finished. He saw
that this work would be of immense import.
ance, not merely to this country, but to Europe;
for once in operation, and the English Mediter
ranean route to China and the West Indies, via
the Isthmus of Suez, will be gi en- up; for the
entire Atlantic trade to China, to the East In
dies, to Japan, to the Pacific island west coast OF
South America, and to Australia, must go over
this road, rendering it, doubtless, the most pro-
fitable stock in the world. He now visits the
lsthmus, we learn, 10 project and locate docks,
and to direct other improvements connected
with the railroad. No one doubts Mr.. Laws
pecuniary ability. 1t is estimated that he is
worth from five TO seren millions, and his for
tune is daily and hourly augmenting by his ac-
tivity and enterprise, regulated by great practical
foresight. If Mr. Law would 60 into Wall
street, which, since the discontinue of all the
great men there, is without any expanded intel
ect to control monetary operations, his genius
would soon effect revolution and reform in
the financial world. Things would be carried
on upon large and magnificent scale, and he
would be worth more to the financial credit of
New York, than regiment of the small specu-
lators that now have the sway. His letter above
shows, that his genius is not cramped or limited
TO mere speculatons of peace or ordinary mat
ters; but compasses the drift Il European
events, and the requisite means of meeting them.
we ItBdiu hT.' 1aW . vTOHuHCtUTuSU(O, ABOVE
given, as the most important public document
of the day. The republican patriots of Europe
have in it practical means pointed out to them
of doing something. Talking and writing mere
ly, will never effect any change there. The Lon
don Times, Galignani, and the NIoniteur Of
Paris, WILL of course, insert this notice. and If
the revolutionists have any discretion, they will
dispatch an agent to this city Immediately, with
the ''wherewith" to make proper arrangements.
George Law is their man. No one man, no ten
men, in the United States can do what he can
for them. He is yet young, being scarcely
forty, and of large stature, standing, perhaps,
six feet three inches high, and well proportioned
Though Mr. Law, in early life, was not favored
with classical education, he has cultivated and
improved his mind by laborious application, and
by extensive travel in this country and in Eu-
rope. He is of the same family us the famous
banker, John Law, the author of the Mississippi
and South sea schemes in France and England
at the first part of the last century, and which
would probably have succeeded, but that fools
and knaves took their management out of his
hands. His ancestors were nearly allied to
those of Lord Peterborough, late Chief Justice
of England, and of Edmund Law, formerly of
Washington city. Everything that Geo. Law
touches seems to turn into gold, the same as if
touched by the wand of Midas He is, in him
self, placer-a quartz rock, richer than Colonel
Fremont's Mariposa diggings. He will proba-
bly, make out of his late canal contracts, in this
I State, amounting to several hundred thousand
dollars, say fifty per cent clear profits, and still
the State will be the gamer by his great expe
rience and skill in such works. The practical
means and measures adopted by George Law,
in behalf of repubcanism in Europe. are worth
all the speeches and efforts Of forty Kossuths in
half century, and the revolutionary committee
TO boot.
Foreign Miscellany.
correspondent of the Dublin Telegraph
says The President constantly declares, I" NV
uIfcle was the Napoleon of war--my desire is
| to become the Napoleon of peace" A distin