New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-04-01
Neh Orleans 9ailp Crescent.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, APRIL 1, 1857.
Talk on 'Change-nIouth of the River.


The most important topic Of comment yesterday
the large fleet of vessels which has arrived dur
ing the past forty-eght hours. The easterly winds
that have prevailed for the last few days increased
the trade. 1t is the general belief that but little
amelioraton can be expected until the river recedes.
1t strikes that the general government had better
contract with the towboat associations of our city
to keep the channel open at SO much per annum-say
100000 or $40, 900. The sum now appropriated say
1885 ,OOO would have kept an open channel for five
years, the same as it three years ago when the
association cleared it out. This, we think, would
have been more judicious course than going into
experiments which may or may not be beneficial
but while these experiments are in progress the
mighty commerce of fifteen States and territories is
being subject to immense losses, hardly calcuable by
ordinary arithmetic Is it not reasonable t.. include
that the commanders of the towboats who have fol-
lowed the navigation of the delta of the Mississippi
for years. and some of them for more than half the
period of time usually allotted to mans life, with the
pilots who have watched the course of the river the
shiftings and changes of the bar, and the mud and
channels better informed of what is required than
those who have not resided within hundred or per-
haps thousand miles of the work proposed to be
undertaken True, tis admitted that the contractors
for the removal of distinctions do not receive any
compensation until the work is performed to the
satisfaction of the Engineer Department or rather the
Government. But what does that signify when ves
sells are detained for weeks and months by the OBJ
structons which ought to have been removed last
November2 If our memory serves us correctly, the
time for proposals to do the work acted on last
November. We are willing to admit that we have a
partality in degree for old "fogyism.'' If the
former method of keeping the channels open was
governed by antiquated notions-of course controlled
by practical vews-wby it appears that the authori-
ties would have pursued q far wiser course by en-
poying the contractors at the rate of $780, 900
per annum, and exacting penalty Of 81 900 for any
ship or vessel of specified draft of water, that
might be detained twelve hours on the bar. With
such similar regulations, we should seldom hear OF
vessels of eighteen or twenty feet draft being de-
| tanned for want of sufficient water.
We have no confidence that the work now going on
will stand an ordinary southeast gale. We have seer
spes and timber, of every size and kind, driven into
the Mississippi every year for about twenty-five years
If any can inform US how many times they have
been replaced, and how many more times the system
of spes and posts have been discarded we shall be
enlightened, and the commercial community of New
Orleans vii. be glad to know when the channels O
the Mississippi are likely to be opened. Practca
engineers on change seem to express great doubts o
the work now going on. In the meantime, we shal
be glad to know the condition of affairs at the South
West Pass.
The mail yesterday came through with dates as lat
| as due. a..