Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1854-01-06

| the treasury during said period, in pursuance o.
laws passed prior To 1852: for the State Lunatie
Asylum, SO 100; for the publication OF the Penn
syIvania Archives and Colonial Records, $23, l63
81: for the improvement OF the Slate peniien'ia
res. $3j 900; for the publication OF Professor 10
gers Geological Survey, $4,000; for the prepa
ration OF registration books, 81, 100 10; 10 til,
Snoar Valley and Deer Creek turnpike company
200.
il will readily be perceived, therefore, tha
| should the appropriations hereafter be confne.
strictly to the Ordinary expenses Of government
we shall have an annual surplus Re, euue exceed
ing one million Of dollars, applicable to the pay
ment of the funded debt. That such should bs
the policy of the State, after the complexion OF tn,
works now in progress, will not be doubted. Tn,
importance of such economy, in view Of the grea
end TO be aitained-,he liquidation of the public
debt-and consequent relief of the people from
taxation for State purposes, is too manifest for
gument. Entertaining these views, could not
give my assent to any new schemes of improve
ment by the State.
The operations on the public works for the veal
just cIose, do not present very fat,ering picture
far as relates to net revenue. The aggregate
amount of business was larger by twenty per cent
than that of any former year, and the gross receipts
amounted TO the sum Of 81 ,932 49J So, being an
excess Of but So, ,GS3 81 over the receipts OF
1852. This increase of tonnage without CORE
spending increase Of receipts is the Consequence
of a very great reduction in the rate Of tolls, a
measure, in the opinion Of the Canal Commission.
ers, demanded by public policy; and it may be
said that whatever has been lost TO the treasury
was given 10 extend commerce and trade. The
expend lures for the year, according TO the report
Of the Canal Commissioners, amounted 10 the sum
Of I,742 10, leaving net balance of S154 :
1872 5S; but as this sum does not include any poI.
ton of the cost of new locomotive engines and the
erection of farm bridges, the deduction of the pro
per proportion of these will leave the sum o
$70i, ,752 IS as the actual net balance.
The receipts and expenditures and general opera
tions Of the Columbia railroads exhibit an encour-
ing state of affairs, as they also do on the North
Branch canal and Delaware division; on the othe,
divisions Of the canal they are tolerabie but on
the Allegheny Portage railroad, the condition oi
affairs is entirely unsatisfactory. The system o
management heretofore practiced on that compli-
Gated and diiiicalt work, would seem to demand
speedy aud radical change. But the Executive
under the laws as they now are, having no contro
or direction the public works, it IS right and
proper that l should leave the explanation Of the
details OF their workings and management TO the
peoples agents, who have charge of the whole
subject.
l am, however, still entirely sangune tha
with the necessary change in the system OF man
age nent, the pno'ic Improvements Cd" oe "'ue u
yield very handsome revenue TO the treasury
indeed, even for the last year, had The expenses o"
the mountain division been confined TO reasona'
BILE sum, the nett revenues would have reached
near one million OF dollars. Relieved from these
absorbing demands by the construction oil the new
road, or IN some other way, and We shaii realize
by the year 1855, net profit equal TO the inieres,
on twenty-five millions or more of the public
debt.
The work on the railroad to avoid the inclined
planes on the Allegheny mountains, has no, pro-
gressed as rapidly as had been anticipated. l, i:
the opinion Of the engineer, however, as will ap-
pear on reference to his report, that should the
necessary means be promptly t"fnsheu' the en'fe
line could he completed during the coming yea,
The grading Tor a double track IS hnisheu WIN