vantage to be obtained from making such a donation to our soldiers will be at all commensurate with the sacrifice to the other interests of the community. I may be very glad to give a man a dollar, says Susan Nipper, but it does not follow that I shall if it is to cost me two.

3d. Another reason against this ill-timed generosity is, that while it costs twice as much as the soldiers get, no considerable portion of it will ever be applied to a useful purpose. This is a matter that appeals to common observation. If a man gets a gratuity, how does he commonly spend it? Does he not at once think of some little luxury, elegance or indulgence which he has long wanted, but which he never would have paid for had it come from his daily earnings? What a man has no claim to, and has not expected, will always be looked at in this light. It is over and above his estimates of living, outside of his plans for the year; and will be very likely to go for some object, perhaps not hurtful, perhaps even well enough in its way, but certainly not of importance to demand that the laboring class should be more heavily burdened than at the present grievous times. And not only would the bounties (and they would be bounties indeed) be taken out of productive industry, but, in the case of each and every person receiving them, there would be a shock to the Principle of Frugality, which it is so desirable to cultivate, since from it is to arise the whole future wealth of the country. The same reason which makes it economically mischievous that a laborer should draw an hundred dollar prize in a lottery, would prove it injurious that six hundred millions should be distributed as a gratuity among any class in the community. This principle applies equally to all, and is true of the best and most discreet of our soldiers. But we well know that there are thousands and scores of thousands of our veterans, generous, gallant fellows as they are, who with three hundred dollars put into their hands by Government, would imagine they saw the finger of Providence pointing to a barroom, and be hurried away into one of those "good times" which leave only repentance and disgrace. Can we afford to spend so much money in this way, to take a sum so gigantic from our factories and farms, to lavish it on places of idle or vicious amusement?

The matter of first importance to any people is that wealth shall be applied reproductively. Upon this depends happiness, security, self-respect. Do we promote or hinder frugality by equalizing bounties!

4th. It would go far to render our National debt a perpetuity.

This is the great economical evil before us. If the people can be brought rightly to regard a national debt, which is always and only a national curse, it is now entirely practicable by strenuous effort and rigid economy to remove in a single generation the monstrous incubus which weighs upon our industry. Then all our interests may develop freely and strongly, political corruption will be materially lessened, and the condition of the lalaboring classes would more and more approach that of the ideal state.

But a glance will show that the addition of some hundreds of millions to the debt would make it far more hopeless, and would greatly discourage every effort to throw it off, except, indeed, by that way which ruins good name and fair prospects at once, repudiation. We need all the arguments we can urge, all the incentives we can apply, to bring the people to submit to that severe and painful taxation which alone can save them from the dismal financial condition of Europe. With such an addition to the debt as is here contemplated, escape would be almost impossible.

5th. It would bring in other waste of the public money. It would help every weak and foolish scheme of appropriation. As far as it has been discussed in the National or State legislatures, thus far, it has managed almost invariably to associate itself with some other attacks on the Treasury. In Congress, it went through with that savory item by which selfdenying members raised their own pay seventy odd per cent at a stroke. In the Massachusetts General Court, it took along a comrade through every stage of the passage. Nor is this association accidental. Wherever it goes it will have a crowd around. It is the very restoration of the Jews to every lobby agent in Washington. This is the curse of our polities. One wasteful appropriation is an argument for another, just as much as rolling half way down hill is an argument for rolling to the bottom. There is a league between all that seek the public crib, not the less formidable that it arises not from contract but from instinct. There is notsoever the relief competition about it, since logrolling only increases to become more costly. Every plunderer thinks well of any other scheme for bleeding Uncle Sam. "There is honor among thieves"-ten times as much, indeed, as between honest men for the interests of honest men may and do lie apart, but the pleasure of seeing "kindred and friends agree" may be had at any time for only looking into the Congressional lobbies.

At the present time, and with our American politics, a great danger lies before us. Extravagance and corruption were never more powerful and threatening than now. All good citizens, all honest men, all substantial property-holders should unite to condemn and defeat every scheme of public appropriation that does not show a sufficient and convincing reason for itself, to condemn and defeat their authors, agents and sympathizers at every point in their political career.

We have accumulated five reasons against paying out so many hundreds of millions for bounties, although we are aware that an influential weekly of New York has just discharged a new cannon of criticism; that no human institution or policy "is subject to more than two, or, in extreme cases, three or four sound logical objections." Five counts, it seerns, are fatal to a scientific indictment. What a relief it would have been to "meetin'-goers" in the olden time to have known as much as this, and choke the minister off at his "fourthly" with a stern "thus far and no further." Live and learn. Meanwhile, our readers may cross out just which one of our reasons they can best spare, to make up the sacred number four, and give validity to the remainder.

No! Let the unbought men of 1861 be content with their proud preeminence among the soldiers of the Union. To accept a bounty for the service they have rendered would be to accept something of degradation, at least something of derogation. "Three hundred dollars and a cow" are not needed to make up their recompense. They bear it about in their hearts. They shall surely find it in the congratulations of their countrymen. All that the nation can give without impoverishment and its moral and social evils should be given, not as bounty, but as pension; not promiscuously to the discharged, but with discrimination to the disabled and bereaved. Double, quadruple, if you please, the scanty dole on which the shattered veterans of the war must subsist, or which only half stops the mouths of an hundred thousand orphans; but save the country this wasteful, purposeless extravagance, having its beginning in the arts of the demagogue, and its end in no good whatever.

TUNNELS.

While much which modern research claims as discovery has proved to be what the world had long since forgotten, the construction of highways through mountains and avenues beneath the surface of the earth appears to be able to maintain its claim to originality. Former engineering skill conveyed water over chasms by expensive aqueducts; and the causey of King Solomon and the roads of the Incas of Peru, are examples of the former progress in this art of makingway over the gulfs which are sometimes apparently impassable. But the present method is bolder and more aggressive. Instead of "overturning mountains from their roots," they are pierced through their very centre. Chicago has done a greater feat; that of burrowing under the bed of Lake Michigan for a distance of two miles, to obtain a supply of water pure from the contaminations of foreign matters, and ample for the wants of the millions that are yet to make up the population. London has descended below the surface of the earth to excavate a thoroughfare, and even bridged the river Thames from beneath for the purpose. Now, the people of Chicago are preparing another tunnel under their river, and the capitalists of England are estimating the feasibility of a tunnel and railway under the Channel from Great Britain to France. In a former geological period the sites of London and Paris were under the same lake; how great the contrast if they should be connected by a subterranean and subaqueous railway.

Mr. Hawkshaw, one of the most successful engineers of the United Kingdom, has actually employed two years upon an investigation into the subject of effecting a submarine passage across the English Chanuel. Borings have been made in the neighborhood of Dover, and likewise between Calais and Boulogue, and also in the mid-channel, to ascertain the geological structure of the crust of the earth, and the practicability of the enterprise. We have not heard of his conclusions; but he proposes the construction of a tunnel which will communicate on the French side with the North of France Railway, and on the English side with the Southeastern and London, Chatham and Dover railways, so that there will be an unbroken line of railway communication between London and Paris. The excavation itself would be made from both ends; also from shafts in the channel. At the top of the shafts powerful steam engines would be erected for pumping, for drawing up the excavated material, and for supplying power to the machinery employed.

Mr. Joseph Dixon, of the city of New York, has patented a mode of constructing submarine and underground railroads that deserves favor able attention. His plan is to have a tunnel of iron cast in parts and sections, each part and section to vary as circumstances may require. For an underground railroad he would excavate the earth from the surface to the required depth and width; lower the various parts and fit them. For loose or watery scil, or in the case of a subaqueous railway, the sections would have closed sides; the arch and sides to be supported by columns or ribs when necessary, and the joints to be by tongue and groove, and to have felt or sacking between them, so as to render them watertight. In this way both the Hudson and the East river could be traversed

from beneath with ease, safety and celerity, which are not practicable with our present ferry-boats. Mr. Dixon is now pressing this mode of construction upon the members of the " West Side Association," and others interested in the project of a Broadway Underground Railroad.

The most magnificent tunnel scheme of the age, if not in the history of the world, however, is the Lake Tunnel of Chicago. We can think of no analogous undertaking to compare with it, except the Cloaca of Rome, constructed in the pre-historical period, for the draining of the lake and marsh which obstructed the growth of the city. The tunnel was obtained by the amended charter of Chicago, approved February 13th, 1863, and by act of Congress, approved January 16th, 1864. A Board of Public Works was created, with power to carry it into effect. The contract was awarded for $315,139; and the ground selected for the commencement of the work at the foot of Chicago Avenue. Ground was broken on the 17th of March, 1864, with appropriate ceremonies. After sinking a shaft the required depth, and lining it with an iron cylinder to protect it from the shifting quicksand, the work of tunnelling from the shore end was proceeded with.

From the shore shaft the tunnel extends two miles in a straight line at right angles to the shore. Its width is five feet, and the height five feet and two inches; the bottom and the top arches being exact semicircles. It is lined with brick masonry eight inches thick in two rings or shells; the bricks being laid lengthwise of the tunnel, with toothing joints. It had been contemplated by the contractors to make the brick for this purpose from the clay excavated by the workmen; but it was found to be full of little calcareous stones, which on burning were transformed into quicklime, rendering the bricks unfit for use. The bottom of the tunnel is 66 feet below water level, and has a gradual slope toward the shore of two feet per mile, which enables the emptying of the tunnel in case of repairs, the water being shut off by means of a gate. The work has been laid in brick eight inches thick all round, well set in cement. The lower half of the bore is constructed in such a manner that the bricks lie against the clay; while in the upper part they are wedged in between the brickwork and clay. This prevents any dangerous reresults from the tremendous pressure, which it has been apprehended might burst in the tunnel.

On the 24th of July, 1865, the crib for the eastern end of the tunnel was launched, towed out, and sunk in its place; Governor Oglesby and other citizens being present. On the 31st of December, the workmen having sunk the shaft, began to excavate toward their fellows, who had dug their way 4,825 feet from the shore. Their progress has been uninterrupted; and so perfect were the calculations of the engineers that when the two excavations met, on the 27th of November, they varied but nine inches from a right course, and one inch on the bottom.

What now remains is to remove the tramway used by the workmen, cleanse the tunnel, and arrange for the introduction of the water. For this latter purpose the top of the cylinder at the crib will be covered with a grating to keep out the floating logs, fish, etc. A sluice will be made in the side to let in the water, and a light-house built above to protect the crib from injury by vessels, and at the same time show the way to the harbor of Chicago.

The tunnel will deliver, under a head of two feet, twelve million

gallons of water daily; under a head of eight feet, thirty-eight millions, and under a head of eighteen feet, fifty-seven millions. The velocities for these quantities will be 1.4 miles per hour under a head of two feet; 2.3 miles under a head of eight feet, and 4.2 under a head of eighteen feet. It will be competent, under the latter conditions, to supply a million of people daily with fifty-seven gallons each. The cost of this work has been about six hundred thousand dollars.

The people of Chicago have now undertaken another enterprise; that of a tunnel under the river. The contractors have agreed to finish the tunnel for $271,646 04. They propose to complete it in March, 1868. The tunnel is to be on Washington street, about 1,800 feet long, and resting on a foundation of concrete two feet thick. The masonry will be protected by a heavy sheathing of lead. That part of the tunnel beneath. the bed of the river will be thirty-two feet below low water mark. It will be constructed in sections in coffer dams, so as to obstruct the channel of the river as little as possible. There will be two passage-ways for trains, eleven feet wide and fifteen feet high, and in the part under the river will be also a passage way to be reached by stairs at each end. The project is the first of the kind ever attempted in the United States.

In London the tunnelling enterprise has been perfectly successful. There were engineering difficulties to overcome such as are hardly to be expected elsewhere, the expansive character of the clay, the frequent occurrence of beds of sand and gravel, the sewers and drains-particularly the Great Fleet sewer, the gas and water pipes, the Grand Junction Canal, etc. But it was done at a total cost of $14,000,000, or $5,500,000 per mile, including the outfitting and stocking of the railway. The enterprise yields dividends; 5 per cent in 1863; 6 in 1864, and 7 per cent in 1865. The number of passengers carried in the first six months of 1863 was 4,823,457; in six months of 1864, 5,104,385; in six months of 1865, 7,462.823; in six months of 1866, 10,303,305. The revenue has increased; in the first six months of 1863 it was £53,058, and in the first six months of the present year, £102,947. These figures would seem to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed tunnel under Broadway as a remunerative enterprise.

The excavation of mountains to permit the carrying through them of railroad tracks is now a matter of every day occurrence. We may very properly denominate this the Tunnel Age. The Appenines of Italy, the mountains of Provence, the numerous hills of England and Wales have been disembowelled for this purpose. The Bergen Tunnel, near Jersey City, is the admiration of engineers. The Sand Tunnel on the Pittsburg and Connellsville Railroad has just been cut through, a length of 4,700 feet, a thousand more than the long tunnel on the Pennsylvania Central Railway through the Alleghanies between Altana and Cresson. A tunnel is projected through the Sierra Nevada in California, a length of 1,700 feet for the accommodation of the Pacific Railroad; and fourteen months have been assigned for the time to be consumed in the undertaking.

The Hoosac Tunnel, considered by many to be the Massachusetts Folly, is after all the greatest bore of the Western Continent. Under the auspices of Governor Andrew, the State of Massachusetts has undertaken the work, and is prosecuting it with energy. The cost has been more than three millions of dollars, a pretty serious matter for a little common