The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-01-31
EF See First Page for List Of Letters,
Correspondence of the Dispatch, &c.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
From the statements made in the late report
Of the Board Of Public Works, il is apparent
that the policy of Virginia has undergone a
great, and, with all the facts before US, we con-
fdently believe most beneficial change. Nor
has the change in public sentiment been less
radical or less important. But few years
ago. il was with the utmost difficulty that even
enlightened men could be made to credit the
necessity Of works even of the first rank
Whole ighborhoods-wholec ountes--whole
assemblages of counties-habitually set them
selves in OPPOSITION to improvements which were
to pass through their immediate neighborhood,
the only possible result Of which could be in.
creased facilities for the transmission of their
produce TO market. Men have been known TO
assemble in bodies for the purpose of resisting
the progress of public works through their
fields. Gentlemen of intelligence have been
known to declare, that they preferred the old
fashioned plan of trudging through the mud, to
any new.fangled improvement which they did
not understand. and would take no trouble to
comprehend. Powerfully slow in taking up
new ideas, Virginia, with wealth sufficient
TO establish mighty empire locked up in her
bosom, permitted her sister States, almost with
out exception, TO outstrp her in the race of i'm
provement and wealth, and their inevitable con-
comitants. social and political power.
Now, however, the case is exactly the re.
verse. The whole State has at last been
reused to its true interest, and there is scarcely
a neighborhood in which the subject of inter-
nal Improvements, in all its bearings, is not
we'll understood. For several years has this
spirit been growing, and the consequence has
been that few States. in the same space oftme,
have done more than Virginia. She has al
ready completed seven hundred miles of Rail-
way, while seven hundred more are in rapid
progress. She has finished $40 miles of Canal,
and about 5000 miles of Turnpike-all ofthem
Of the highest value to the agricultural interest
Of the State. The passion flor it is scarcely
less) for building Piankroads-the best species
Of improvement possible, when cheapness of
construction is considered-is every day in
creas;ng, and it has already borne fruit of value
in many parts of the State. This system of
works. when it shall have been completed,
will leave the State $20,000,000 in debit yet
her credit still stands as high as ever, and
her bonds command high premium all over
the world
1t is our desi gn in this article, and such 9TH
ers as we may hereafter possibly write upon
the subject, to follow the course indicated by
the report of the Board Of Public Works, and
to treat Of the great lines of Railway in the or
der there presented. In the first place, line
of road running the entire breadth of the State,
from the banks of the Potomac to North Caro-
lima, and crossing the great streams of the
State above tide-water, serves as a basis for the
entire system. At right angles to this base
line, run the four great improvements of the
State, and its principal rivers, SO that the pro.
ducts which may be brought down upon them,
may at once be transported to any point North
or South, as the owner may require. Let us
now speak Of the four great lines which we
have already said run at right angles to it.
The first of these in order, and by no means
the least in Importance, is the Danville Rail-
road. We have often descanted upon the me-
rits Of this road-upon the fertility THE coun-
Try tHIUuSI WHICH IL pdSSeS-dHu upon Inc
new trade which it is destined to bring to the
Eastern cities. 1t penetrates the best and most
abundant tobacco region in the world and we
have no doubt that its operations are destined
to swell enormously the amount of tobacco
grown in that region. 1t will lay not only the
counties in the neighborhood Of Danville under
contribution, but portion Ia large and rich
portion) of North Carolina also. The fertile
valley of the Yadkn is destined, through its
instrumentality, to become tributary to Rich
mond. An important fact in connection with
this subject should not be overlooked. When
the road shall have reached Danvlle, there
will be wanting but a single link of twenty
five miles, between Danville and GreensbC-
rough, to full Railroad communication be.
tween this city and Montgo emery in Alabama
When that point shall have been placed in
communication with New Orleans, as it soon
- will be, by improvements already contempla
ted, the travel from New Orleans 10 the North
must take this, the shortest and most elgi; le
route, in preference to every other.