The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1889-06-19
IMPERFECT EnRESlGAI.

lMfEhteGI FuktSlGhI,
Mr.. James A. Briggs sends TO the
Tribune paragraph from the Bos-
ton Courier Of June 27, 1927, then
edited by Joseph T. Buckingham,
one of the ablest and most liberal
of New England editors. 1t was
but sixty-two years ago that he thus
spoke of the projected railroad from
Boston to Albany:
"Alcibiades, or some other great
man of antiquity, 1t is said, cut off
his dogs tail that QuidnuacS might
not become extinct from want of
excitement. Some such motive, we
doubtSRot, moved one or two Of our
natural and experimental philoso-
pliers to get up q project for rail-
road from Boston to Albany "a pro-
ject which everyone knows, who
knows the simplest rule in arith-
metic, to be lmpracticable, and at
an expense little less than the mar
ket value of the whole territory of
Massachusetts and which, if prac-
ticable, every person of common
sense knows would be as useless as
a railroad from Boston TO the moon"
The road was built, and there is
no more prosperous road in the
country.
Mr., Briggs, in quoting this anus
ing paragraph, adds another illus
tration to the folly of this kind Of
argument from anticipation. The
chief objections to the adoption Of
the Constitution q hundred years
ago have been shown by experience
to be unfounded, while the one point
which passed without criticism, the
system of Presidential elections,
proved to be the most unsatisfactory
of all its provisions. In the same
way every proposed reform is OPP
posed by lugubrous or whimsical
anticipations. When Romilly pro-
posed to abolish hanging for stealing
a pocket handkerchief, the law
officers of the crown said that the
reform would endanger the whole
criminal law of England. When
the bill abolishing the slave trade
passed the House of Lords, Lord
st. Vincent stalked out, declaring
that he washed his hands of the ruin
of the British Empire. The old
Greenwich pensioners, when they
saw steamer upon the Thames
protested that it was contrary tc
nature. Under Charles ii. there
was fierce opposition to street
lamps. Mr.. Buckingham might
have recalled Jefferson's remark
when New York explored the route
for canal, that it was defensible in
theory, and was fine project that
might be executed a century hence
or, still more to the point, the sage
observation of Chancellor Living
ston in 1911, that a railroad shoe
with iron to move heavy weights
four miles an hour was ingeniou!
and perhaps theoretically defensi
BILE, but, upon the whole, the roac
would not be so cheap or convent
ent as canal,
Our hindsight perpetually laugh
at our foresight, but we go on, ant
vaticinations like these are reall,
regarded as arguments. But there i
another strain which in this year W,
may fifty recall. AS soon as the Re
volution ended, Washington made
tour, which he describes in letter
+ through Lakes George and Champ
, lain to Crown Point, then up tn
Mohawk River to Fort Schuyler
crossing over to Wood Greek, which
emptying into Oneida Lake, afford
waterway to Ontario. Then h
went to the eastern branch of th
Susquehannah, and saw the Lake o
Otsego, and the portage at Canajo
f harie between that lake and the Mo
hawk River. He made no prophecy
n but he adds that when he saw tn
e vast opportunities opened by nature
to this happy country, he could onl,
e say, "Would to God we may have
e wisdom enough to improve themn
Edward Everett happily quoted this
1 letter at great meeting in Bostol
i to promote the completion of tn
r subscription to build the railroad
r which Mr.. Buckingham eight year.
before knew not only to be imprac
ticable but as useless as railroad
8 to the moon, and whose stock ol
the 9th of March Of this year sol'
| at PA to 216-a higher price tha
t that of any other railroad stock i
: the country.-G Harper's Weekly.