that while the whole country, and particularly the West, had undergone a wonderful development requiring for its accommodation a corresponding increase of commercial facilities, that New England had stood still for a quarter of a century. The fact that a great State like Massachusetts, with a great emporium like Boston, should have but a single line of direct communication with the West, and that it should supinely stand still and refuse to add to it, notwithstanding the yearly demonstrations of its growing inadequacy, seemed so strange as to justify remark. The other fact that the transit of freight to and from Boston should be almost stopped by the inability of that single railroad to handle it--thereby increasing rates and compelling purchasers as well as sellers to go to New York--also seemed to be inconsistent with our traditional ideas of eastern shrewdness. Our remarks have received additional force by the fact, subsequently learned by us, that there are at the present time between four and five hundred car-loads of Boston-bound freight lying at Albany and Greenbush awaiting cars for its movement to its destination, while there exists no stoppage whatever of New York freight, thus demonstrating clearly the inadequacy of the Western road to answer the demands made upon it.

Since that article was penned, information has reached us to the effect that our Massachusetts neighbors have at last waked up to the importance of the subject, and are about to enter vigorously upon the work of providing another avenue of trade between Boston and the West, by what is known as the Greenfield route which embraces the long talked of Hoosac Tunnel. This great enterprise has enlisted the energies of the engineers and railroad men of Massachusetts for more than thirty years, with constantly varying prospects of success, and at last seems in a fair way of being accomplished.

The high range of hills which runs along the whole western line of Massachusetts, for a long time baffled the efforts of railroad engineers; and the rival claims of competing routes distracted the popular mind, and delayed the construction of either. The most eminent engineers preferred the Northern, or Greenfield route involving the Hoosac Tunnel as being the most direct and feasible. In the struggle which followed, the Southern route was successful, and the Western road was built and opened in 1842. The other route was also constructed after a time, upon either side of the proposed tunnel, but for lack of the completion of that great work, has never been anything but an avenue for local travel and traffic.

The whole length of the proposed tunnel is 25,574 feet, and the estimated cost of construction is about three and a quarter millions. When we consider the vital interest which the citizens of Massachusetts have in the completion of this work, and the enormous interests to be served by it, the sum required seems absolutely trivial, and the withholding of it really parsimonious as well as foolish. We are pleased to learn that the State is at last about to lend a helping hand to this great enterprise, which will guaranty its speedy completion. This is an indication of wisdom upon the part of our neighbors, albeit it comes somewhat tardily.

Almost all the other States that lie between the great West and the Ocean have pursued a very different policy from that of New England, and with very favorable results. New York, which was the pioneer in the matter of internal improvements, not only built her great Canals, at a cost of over $62,000,000, but also aided largely in the construction of her great through lines of railroads. It contributed to the Erie road $3,000,000, which is now seen to have been a good investment despite the fact that it was entirely lost to the State. The same policy was pursued by Pennsylvania and Maryland, with equally happy results.

We congratulate our New England neighbors, and, especially, the citizens of Boston, upon the improved prospect of the completion of the Hoosac Tunnel, and the opening of another great route to the West, through, instead of over the mountains which lie between them and us. We trust that the obstructions which have existed, and still exist, in the channels of commercial intercourse between New England and the West will speedily be removed, never again to be manifested in freight blockades or threatened diversions of trade."

The statements contained in these two articles are substantially true; and they are not only interesting, but important, as throwing much light upon a subject which will, doubtless, occupy much of the attention and time of the Legislature: for the Western Railroad managers have already opened their annual attack upon the Hoosac Tunnel, through their well known agents and tools, Bird, Harris and Seaver, who shamelessly advocate the entire abandonment by the State of an enterprise to the completion of which her word, and bond, and honor are irrevocably pledged.

The Western Railroad Company was organized in January, 1836, and its road was completed in 1847, having received aid from the State, during the period of its construction, to the amount of five millions of dollars. The terms upon which State aid was granted were very liberal, as they should have been; for the opening of this line of road had become as much a necessity to the development of the commercial and industrial interests of Massachusetts and the wants of her whole population, as the establishment of schools and churches had ever been to her moral or educational welfare. The involvement of the State in so great an enterprise was strenuously resisted by timid and narrow minded legislators; but the representations of those sagacious and far seeing men who had devoted themselves to the work, prevailed, and Massachusetts was, thus early in the history of railroads, committed to a policy which has, within a few years, not only trebled her productions and wealth, but made her the first and foremost of all her sister States which are honored for enterprise, prudence and wisdom. Many of the short sighted legislators, who voted against granting State aid to the Western Railroad Company are now living, but we doubt if one can be found who is not ashamed of his action.

The increase of business over the Western road since the first year of its operation, would seem incredible, were it not so thoroughly established by the figures of its early and later annual reports. Yet, with a double track nearly to Albany, and every means which ingenuity can devise, or money procure, at their command, its managers are unable to meet the demand upon it its capacity is nearly exhausted and was, long ago, so great is the pressure against our western border, from the overflowing granaries of the West. From a feeble association, begging for assistance at the doors of the State House, the Western Railroad Company has become a powerful corporation. Its certificates of stock, which, about the time the road went into operation, were a drug in the market at $40, now command $130 to $150. Yet it is a fact that on the first day of last November, five hundred car loads of freight were delayed at Albany, and could not be transported over the Western road in less time than ten days. And the inability of this road to meet our public needs, and the demands made upon it, from the West, is no new thing; it has been so, for years, though four competing lines have opened since 1850, which, together, transport about the same amount of through freight as the Western road. The bridge over the Hudson at Albany, the completion of the double track, and better management might afford a temporary and partial relief. But if these improvements had been already effected, they would not have prevented the freight blockade at Albany last fall.

Should our friend of the Salem Gazette, or any of the editors who