The Hydraulic Press

Useful Expenditure.

There is much complaint made by some narrow-minded economists, because of the great expense which is occasioned the General Government by the various surveying and exploring expeditions which it has from time to time authorized and fitted out. These illiberal grumblers have no sympathy with the interests of science, which are those of mankind at large, and cannot discern how much the deprecated expenditures have done to elevate the national character, to promote our country's highest welfare, and to widen the domains of human fellowship and intelligence. If their mean policy had been pursued, we should never have had that magnificent coast survey which, besides its many benefits to navigators, has been productive of such important scientific results; nor should we have had that pacific embassy to the Japanese, which led to the opening of that wonderful country to the acquaintance and commerce of other nations. The various continental surveys and explorations that have given us such important and accurate knowledge concerning the great region lying between the Pacific and the Mississippi, would likewise never have been made had the counsels of the parsimonious prevailed.

The full value of these explorations can never be estimated. If they have cost the nation millions of money they have returned their cost directly, many fold, by increasing its store of natural resources and opening new avenues to industry. It is quite certain that the reports of Col. Fremont would have stimulated emigration to California, even had gold never been found here; and it is equally certain, that subsequent overland explorations have done and are doing a great deal toward hastening the settlement of new regions.

The recent peaceful settlement of the Paraguay difficulty, a difficulty that for a time threatened to result in just that kind of a war which a magnanimous people most dislike, strikingly illustrates how the noble expeditions mentioned may redound to the national advantage abroad. The scientific expedition to the La Plata, under Lieut. Page, in 1853, a full account of which has just been published, exalted our country in the esteem of Urquiza, the Argentine President, who extended to it his protection and assistance, and has since manifested towards our government the most friendly feeling. This he proved by his voluntary offer to aid in effecting an amicable settlement of our difficulty with his fat neighbor Lopez. The prompt appearance of our armed fleet may have had the most effect in moving the mind of Lopez to a bloodless compliance with the just demands of our government, but it is quite certain that the friendly intervention of Urquiza also had its influence. The exploration, the armed expedition, and the peaceful settlement, cannot but result in securing to the United States, amongst all the hybrid, unstable governments of South America, more becoming respect than they ever manifested before.

Such expenditures as we have referred to are really measures of economy, and it is to be hoped that no mistaken notions of retrenchment will cause them to be abandoned, so long as there remains unaccomplished a single great enterprise that demands more than individual ability. But there is one respect in which the great national undertakings alluded to could be further utilized. If cheap editions of the reports were printed and extensively circulated for sale, the amount of popular information on topics of great interest would be largely increased, the material advantages discovered would be sooner seized upon and developed, and the sentiment of attachment to our common country be more common and intelligent.