been given. In company with it, the time that will probably be occupied in the voyage by the Pacific Railway route, we take the present average performance of the mail and commercial steamship lines across the Atlantic as a standard for the entire sea route, and extend to the Pacific terminus the the present rate of speed by railway hence to Chicago, which is about twenty-five miles an hour on the express passenger trains. This would give 130 hours for the eutire journey overland, although it is little likely that for some years after the first completion of the road, in about 1870, the trip will be made in less time than 150 hours, or six days and a quarter. Allowing ten days for the trans-Atlantic, and seventeen for the trans-Pacific voyage, with one day each for the connection at San Francisco and New York, and the entire journey would be made in the following time:

This is no fancy, but a practical reality, the proof of which only avaits the development a few years hence of the favorable commercial conditions. Those who lament over the present "slow time" made by the China Mail steamers of the American line need not be discouraged, for their so-called "slowness" is the salvation of the enterprise. They make all the speed that their trade now requires or justifies, all that was made under like circumstances on the Atlantic, and whenever a trade springs up which demands on the Pacific the same speed now made on the Atlantic it is demonstrable that the demand will be met.

There can be no question then, that the bulk of all the mails, passengers and valuable merchandise passing between New York and Europe and Japan and China will cross the Pacific Railway. The course of exchange must inevitably follow the mails. But all except the more valuable cargoes must long continue to take the ocean routes, whether by sail or steam, for two reasons: 1st. They cannot pay any rate of freight at which the Pacific Railroad can take them, in view of the increased cost of transportation by railway as compared with that by steamship or sail, and especially of the heavy cost of the former west of the Mississippi; the probable railroad charge for a ton of ordinary merchandise between this port and San Francisco has been estimated at $117, gold, while the entire charge for a ton of tea by steam from Shanghae to New York is only $35, and by sailing ship $15 to $20. 2d. The Pacific Railway cannot for some years be expected to furnish the facilities required for the movement of large bodies of freight, as will be seen by a simple calculation. Supposing the road to attempt to transport the 230,000 tons now carried between New York and San Francisco,

at an average speed of 15 miles an hour; this would be about 700 tons a day, or 100 car loads, each train would reach its destination in 13 days, and, with only 2 days given for unloading and reloading at either terminus, would be at the starting point ready for a second trip in thirty days; thus not less than 3,000 cars would be needed for this trade alone, in addition to the vast number required for other through and local express, passenger and freight traffic.

From the foregoing statement it will be seen that the time occupied by mails, passengers and express freight in the journey between London. or New York and Japan or China by way of San Francisco will compare with the existing routes, after the completion of the Pacific railway, and as soon as its full efficiency is reached, as follows:

This difference in time will inevitably turn the current of travel, trade and exchange into the American channel. At the same time-and especially if, as seems likely, the constitutional vices of the Chinese Custom House, on which Hong Kong flourishes, be removed-the British. colony at that point will probably lose its rank as the chief port of the Far East, and transfer the commercial crown to one or other of the northern ports of China or Japan; this change, however, will be but relative, if it occur at all, for the new communications can hardly do otherwise than largely increase the traffic of which Hong Kong is now the centre.

Those who have watched the development of trade and travel consequent upon the opening of regular railway communication, even under circumstances apparently the most adverse, will hardly be surprised at any increase in volume or change in character which the Eastern trade may take on, as a consequence of the opening of the new highway across this continent. That articles will be interchanged heretofore unknown to this commerce, and by persons previously unfamiliar with its operations, is but the simplest form of the new growth. Things now regarded as curiosities or rare luxuries, much as sugar or tobacco in the times of Drake or Raleigh, will come to be staples common as those articles to-day. This is the history of all commerce.

Again, New York will soon cease to pass through her Custom-House the teas and spices consumed west of the Alleghanies. These must naturally come by rail from San Francisco, and with them products now unknown beyond the smell of salt water, or known only to be stared at.

West of the Rocky Mountains an immense area, quite uncultivated, but of fertility so fabulous that the mere statement of it excites a smile, certainly of surprise, perhaps of incredulity, and mines of precious metals and all useful minerals, whose mere surfaces have as yet been but irritated, invite all the starving population of the world to come and there find labor and its rewards. To China, with her dense population, estimated at four hundred million souls, and an inability to feed these numbers, so evident that, in spite of all the industry and frugality of her people, rebellions which are in fact only gigantic bread riots are chronic, and infanticide is common;-to China we naturally turn for the source whence this population is hereafter to be supplied. The demand and supply are separated only by the Pacific Ocean. This movement of population has already begun. The Chinese Government, which, in its care of its subjects, is notably the most paternal in the world, now recognises its interest in promoting the general welfare by encouraging and facilitating the emigration of its surplus numbers. In our own country, ignorance, always the most expensive of luxuries whether for individuals or nations, still opposes, with a bitterness which can only come from prejudice so born, the immigration of the Chinese on several pretexts, alleging that they are immoral people, an idle race, irreligious, and the like: all of which they are not. Noted for the practical morality which governs their lives, for their steady industry, for their rare frugality, these Chinese immigrants form the best laboring class that has come to the shores of America during this century. Their influence upon us, and ours upon them, for good or evil, must largely depend upon the spirit in which they are received; but however that may be, their coming, and in millions, is foredoomed by the unalterable conditions of the case, and can only be turned aside by staying the march of our material prosperity.

Thus a mighty empire bids fair to arise on the Pacific slope peopled by a new race or a new admixture of races. The commercial results must be obvious.

San Francisco will naturally become the great entrepot and depot for the greater and more valuable trade between the United States and China and Japan, which we have assumed will be carried on by steamers across the Pacific, and by rail or steamer between the Atlantic and Pacific States. Valuable goods of all kinds and all small shipments, such as are sent by express in this country, passing between Europe and the Far East, will be gradually diverted to this route as its advantages become known.

The exchange of precious metals, which now flow from their sources to London, as into a great reservoir, and thence to the various points of distribution in India, Egypt, China and elsewhere-will this be changed? When ?

There is no natural reason why silver should be taken from the mines of Mexico or Peru by way of Panama to England for the purpose of being exported to China or India, now that a bridge has been thrown across the short gap that formerly seperated producer from consumer. Shipped to San Francisco, it is in a few days within the control, by telegraph, of its actual or ultimate owner, the London banker. All exchange is finally a question of cost of transportation. Why should he pay a high freight to get it to a cheap market, when for a low freight he can in less time place it in a dear market? The conclusion is irresistible that all exchanges of the precious metals between Europe and America and China, Japan and India will converge at San Francisco, which will thus become the "centre" of these exchanges at least, if not indeed of those "of the world," as her more ardent citizens are wont to predict. "The centre of exchange of the world" is and must ever be where the commerce of the world settles its balances; in other words, where those balances can most conveniently be settled. Other elements than the most important one of facilities for frequent, rapid and reliable communication enter into this problem; chief of these is the possession of the accumulated capital by which that commerce is carried on. To-day London holds this golden master key, as Byzantium, Carthage, Venice, Lisbon once held it. Exchanges are settled in London for the same reason that a merchant does business in his own counting house. Whether this condition will be changed by the bodily transfer of the capital itself, or by the drying up of the sources of its growth in one place and their breaking forth afresh in another, it would be useless now to speculate. That the trade of America with the Far East will grow vastly in value and importance; that it will be mainly controlled at New York; that the race between New York and London for the first place will be hotly contested; so much seems clear.

THE BREADSTUFFS TRADE.

The recent general decline in the price of flour and grain is the result of considerations relating to the prospective harvest. There appears to be no dissent in any quarter to the conclusion that present prospects warrant lower prices for breadstuffs; there is, however, some difference of opinion as to what extent of decline may be reasonably expected. Present prices range 10@15 per cent lower on flour than at the beginning of the year, and on wheat 74@124 per cent, while corn is about 25 per cent lower. For the purpose of illustrating the course of prices, from Jan. 1st

to the present time, we present the following comparative quotations of breadstuffs at New York at stated periods:

Considering that, at the beginning of the year, stocks at New York were unusually light, owing to the premature closing of the canals, and also the consequent locking up of a large quantity of grain, which at that time gave a factitious firmness to the market, the decline can hardly be considered an unwarranted one. The receipts at this port since January 1st have been unusually large. How they compare with these for the same period of last year appears from the following statement:

RECEIPTS OF BREADSTUFFS AT NEW YORK FROM JAN. 1 TO JUNE 19.

The export movement has of course taken off a large amount of this liberal supply. The shipments from this port from Jan. 1 to June 19, compare as follows with those of the same period of 1867:

EXPORTS OF BREADstuffS FROM NEW YORK, FROM JAN. 1 TO JUNE 19TH.

It will be seen from a comparison of the two tables, that the increase in the exports is not at all equal to the gain in the receipts. We have received of flour 312,835 bbls. more than in 1867, and have shipped only 179,049 more than then; of wheat our receipts are 3,035,860 bushels more, and our exports 2,586,975 more; of corn we have received