Massachusetts Spy And Worcester Advertiser

CANALS.

"It has been proposed to make a Canal from the flourishing town of Worcester to Providence—a measure, however conducive to the advantage of both those towns, which will obviously be detrimental to the trade of Boston. That project must be abandoned! Why? Because it can be made apparent to the citizens of Worcester that there is a better plan, not only for the State at large, but for them."

After reading the above extract from the Boston Centinel, we were not a little curious to know what plan could be so much better for us, and for the State at large, than the Blackstone Canal, and found, on examination, that it was proposed to extend the great Erie Canal from Albany or Troy to Connecticut rivers, and thence passing some miles north of us, to be continued till it communicates with Boston harbour. Of what possible advantage this could be to us in particular, we cannot imagine.

The unexampled success of the New-York Canal has given rise to many similar projects in various parts of the country, some of which are feasible, and would be productive of great benefits to the community, while others are projected by those who do not sufficiently understand the subject, or are liable to some objection not anticipated by the proposer, and can never be carried into effect. Much as we should be gratified in believing the above proposed plan a good one, we are constrained to believe it altogether chimerical; and if the good people of the City of notions have their expectations as much excited as would appear by some of their papers, it is time for them to prepare for a disappointment.

A canal from Albany, across the country to Boston, might probably be constructed, but the obstacles would be great and numerous; and the advantages of it would not justify the necessary expenditure, nor would it produce the effects anticipated by its projectors. Much of the country through which it is proposed to carry it is hard, rough and broken. The lockage between Boston and Connecticut river cannot fall short of twelve or fifteen hundred feet, and that from the Connecticut to Albany probably as much more. Here then would be an amount of lockage four times as great as that of the whole length of the Erie Canal.

For the expense of constructing the Canal three millions of dollars is probably a low estimate. It cannot be pretended that the trade of the country through which the Canal would pass would be sufficient to justify any thing like this enormous expenditure. But it may be answered, as it has already been asserted, that if the Canal should be made, it would divert a portion of the trade of the Erie Canal from New-York to Boston, the two places being about equally distant from Albany; and herein we apprehend lies the deception. If by the construction of the proposed Canal such an effect could be produced, then there would remain no doubt of its utility. But if the Canal were completed and made toll free, the bare expenses of transportation through it from Albany to Boston would amount to more than the present cost of freight by Sloop Navigation.

It is evident, then, that the proposed Canal, so far as relates to the section west of Connecticut river, instead of turning the trade of the western country to Boston, would only afford a facility to the inhabitants of the western part of the State, and up and down the Connecticut, for the extension of their trade with Albany and New-York: and, instead of yielding an income, it is doubtful whether sufficient toll could be collected to pay the expense of repairs.

These remarks have been prompted by no other feelings than a wish to prevent a deception on the community, and a consequent disappointment. The spirit which originated the project is a good one, and worthy of encouragement when properly directed: but if suffered to exhaust itself upon schemes which cannot succeed, it produces a public evil by the discouragement which the failure of any project creates in relation to others of a similar character.

If there is any one route in New-England which offers greater inducements for the construction of a Canal than any other, it is that from Worcester to tide water: and had it not been for the absurd and unwise restrictions imposed by the Rhode-Island charter, it would probably ere this have been commenced. We are not without hopes that the Legislature of that State may yet be induced to consult their own interest by a removal of them, and that the plan may, before long, be carried into complete execution.