Note BY — LETTER XXI.

In 1836, the legislature of Indiana adopted a general system of public works, for the execution of which it authorised a loan of 10,000,000 dollars. The system embraces the canalisation of the Wabash and White River, the connection of the Wabash with the Maumee, and of Lake Michigan with the same river by canals, and a canal across the centre of the State from Evansville by Indianapolis to the Wabash and Erie canal. Appropriations were made by the same law for railroads from Madison and Jeffersonville on the Ohio to the Wabash canal, and in aid of the Lawrenceburg and Indianapolis railroad which has been undertaken by a company. [The State of Illinois has also made provision for a series of public works on an equally liberal scale; an act of 1837 establishes a Board of Public Works and an Internal Improvement Fund, and provides for the construction of a railroad across the State from north to south, reaching from the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi by Vandalia and Peru to Galena, being about 460 miles in length; of four roads crossing the State from east to west, namely, from Shawneetown on the Ohio to Alton on the Mississippi, from Mt. Carmel on the Wabash to Alton, from Terre Haute on the Wabash to Alton, and from Covington on the Wabash to Quincy on the Mississippi, and of another cross road from Bloomington, in the centre of the State to Warsaw on the Mississippi. These works are now in active progress, as are also some works for improving the navigation of the Illinois, Rock River, Kaskaskia and Little Wabash. The youthful State of Michigan has followed the example of these elder sisters, by establishing a Board of Public Works, and directing the construction of three railroads across the peninsula, from Monroe, Detroit, and Huron to Lake Michigan, and a canal from the river Saginaw of Lake Huron to the Grand River of Lake Michigan. There are also several railroads executed by companies in Michigan.—Transl.]