The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1858-07-29
farn,Ue,, OF Portland.


The rapid development Of this prosperous port OF
Maine n attracting much attention. The eonuec.
ton of tdewater at Portland with the 81 Lawrence
has given an impetus to the growth and trade OF
that city which its most ssnguine citizens bad not
anticipated. A correspondent OF the New York
Journal Of Commerce speaks Of large warehouses,
regular lines Of steamers from Europe and the Bri.
ti.h Provinces. magnificent blocks OF business
bnildinss, sbeautifnl and superb private edifces,
the surrounding hills built over, and more than
eli. conn+xion by railway within few hours OF
Detroit and Chicago on the one hand, and Quebec
On the other. Thousands upon thousands OF bar
rels Of -four reach the Atlantic seaboard at PORT
land from the Great West, while the distant prai-
RES Of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, are being
peopled BY New England emigranss, who. fhayiug
abandoned the former more Southern routes,) go
by the Grand Trunk Railway to their new homes.
The report on the canals OF New York. recently
made before the Legislstureat Albany, enumerates
the rivals With which these canals have to con-
tend, aud after speaking Of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad and the iron way from Philadelphia to
Pittsburgh, thus mentions the most gigantic en-
terprise of slI:
sThe Grand Trunk Railroad, In Canada, Is the
last AID By far the greatest IN its cast aud extent
Il 10 70 cost over sixty millions OF dollars 1t ex
tends from Q1ebec aud Montreal 10 Canada, and
from Portland Ia Maine TO Port Sarinia at the foot
Of Lake Huron. and from thence TO Grand Haven,
IN Michigan. Opposite to Milwaukee a road is be-
ing extended by an English proprietary. This
road Is che pride of the provincial government,
and IL powerfully sustained BY EngIand.'
10 confirmation Of this, one Of the New York pa
pers, 10 . recent article, remarks as follows:
Statistical returns Of the trade and shipping OF
the lake ports and Of the ports of Quebec and Mon
treai 10 Canada. for the past year. exhibit very
striking falling "a in the receipts OF Canadian pro-
duce at the lake ports OF the United States aud
corresponding increase In the business a fhe
Canadian ports. Nor is this all, Other tables,
equally authentic, reveal the fact that while the
Canadian farmers aud millers are withdrawing
from canals and railways the traffic they used
to afford them, a large number OF our western
merchants in Illinois. Iowa Wisconsin and Mich
are importing their supplies from Europe by way
OF st lawrence and the Canadian railways, Instead
Of deriving them, as they used TO do, FROM New
York Philadelphia, by our Internal lines at com.
municatiop. 10 word, the present tendency OF
traffic is for some reasons or other to desert the
great channels which connect the West with the
seaboard through the State OF New York, and to
seek those channels which Canadian eater
prise has lately opened in the shape OF the Gfand
Trunk railway, and the line OF the Canadian stea-
mers to Europe"
Gen. Cass. who recently passed ever the Grand
Trunk Railway to his western home, writes a let
ter In which be makes some startling estimates OF
the future importance of Portland. He predicts
that "ten years hence Portland will want more
than one hundred acres Of freight car room and
several Levathans will probably be regularly ply
ing between It and liverpool; aud the tide of for
eign immigration will be to and through Maine
and not New York In .ffty years from this time
Portland ,eW rirsl ISew lort an population,
commerce and ,osahh. and IN one hundred gears
areeed her fts all these bangs~
Gen. Cass argues that the day Of the New York
Canals is over; that trade and travel from and TO
the vast northwest regions, will seek the cheaper
and shorter route [by coo miles, through Maine TO
Europe; that New York cannot compete with the
navigation of the Lakes, the ST. lawrence, the
SUP CANALS of Canada, and the deep harbor of
Portland Greater changes than those which Gen
Cass predicts in the course of trade In the next
century have occurred within the last fifty years
but the tremendous capital and energy Of New
York will not let the sceptre pass without strIg
&c from the Empire State. In the mean tine
what Is Virginia doing, which presents to the great
valley Of the Mississippi the shortest route to the
Atlantic, aud which, in the wa ters Of the Eliza
beth and the York has the only harbors in North
America which can compare with Portland7