The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-03-27
THE DAILY DISPATCH,

j nE DAlL DAOl ~ 81.
MONDAY MOANING. MARCH ~. 1854
SUBSCRIPTION TO EHE CENTRAL
RAILROAD.
On Friday we published an account of the
vote of Petersburg upon the proposition to
give the endorsement Of that city to the
bonds of the South-Side Railroad, to the
amount Of s30o,o0o The result was credit
able to the public spirit of Petersburg; ont OF
4a3 votes polled. only as were against the en-
dorsement. This Is somewhere about the
proportion with which the subscription TO the
Central Road was carried in this city last
Spring. and we trust not far from that with
which the additional subscription win be
carried the present Spring. If Petersburg.
in addition 10 her former subscription, which
was large, endorses the bonds of the South
Side Road to the amount Of 100000 now,
should not Richmond subscribe at least that
amount to the Central Road The South
side Road is not wholly for the benefit of Pc
tersburg. Much that traverses that Road
must come to Richmond The Central Road,
on the other hand, while it is great State
Improvement, will enure much more exclu-
siyely to the benefit of Richmond than the
South Side Road will to Petersburg. Then
why may not Richmond do even as much for
the Central Road as is Petersburg has done
for the South Side Roadl But it is not asked
that she shall do that much. Less than Pc
tersburg has done is asked Of Richmond; and
if she deserves to maintain her commercial
position, she will come forward with alacrity
and assist road so peculiarly tributary to
her wealth as the Central Road, out of its diff
culties. If she win not, then she ought to
retire dozen The line and gre Petersburg the
post Of honor and Importance orer her.
The leader in this paper of Friday, exhi-
bited the importance of the James River Ca
nal as the great improvement of the State,
and it presented in the proper light the rela-
ton of the Covington and Ohio Railroad to
the Canal That Road will put the Canal, at
its western terminus in possession of great
part of the magnif cent commerce it was pro-
.jected to obtain, and thus by increasing its re-
venues to an amount that viii put it in SOL
vent and prosperous condition, will enable
the company to go on with the water line to
the Ohio. No other event will so certainly
secure the construction of the Canal to the
Ohio, as the completion of the Covington and
Ohio Railroad. The Canal will build up in
Virginia cities such as exist in the Northern
States-that will number instead of tens of
thousands of people, HUNDREDS OF THOU
SANDS.
The Central Railroad is an essential part
of the Railroad system, which will accomplish
this great work. Complete the Central Rail-
road, and the Coyington and Ohio will fol-
low as matter of course But if the Central
Road is stopped at Marlborough, in Augusta
county, will a great Railroad be built from
the Ohio to Jacksons River and there end?
Certainly not. Is Richmond willing, then.
that the Central Road shall stop, and such a
consequence as this follow? If she is not
let her help the Central. If she is, then let
her abandon all hope of being great eaty,
and content herself with an inglorious future
of grass-grown streets-dilapidated gable
ends-broken windows, stuffed with old hats
and tattered garments, to keep out the wind
and monumental array of leaning and tot
tering chimnies, which, like the decaying and
falling tomb-stones of a graveyard, will be
fit mementoes of the long dead and buried
enterprise and prosperity of the capital of
Virginia.