be taken as a precedent for the future-if the highest grade of capacity, skill and integrity has already been marshalled to the work, then are our Railroads worthless to the state, and in a financial point of view, the sooner they are disposed of or abandoned, the better. The undersigned does not of course assume to say, much less to determine that any one of our officers has during the past season acted upon this hypothesis, nor that the public opinion, said to be in favor of a sale of the roads, is based upon any such action.

The undersigned has felt inclined to examine and discuss the proposition to sell as a financial measure purely. The settlement of questions of authority and legality takes precedence in the order of discussion in that point of view. Very little difficulty was anticipated in the ascertainment of what the state had to sell; the undersigned supposing that those who seek to plume themselves upon being the originators of a brilliant stroke of policy, having possessed the power, would ere this, as a matter of course, have removed every legal obstacle to a sale, by procuring and perfecting good and sufficient deeds of conveyance to the state in tee simple of all necessary real estate. Upon application to the proper officer, however, he ascertained, what the public perchance may be astor.ished to learn, that for very considerable portions of the road, no conveyance of the right of way had ever been obtained, and that too, at points where heavy expenditures have been incurred and spacious buildings erected necessary for the use of said roads. At the very starting point in Detroit it is seriously questioned whether the state have a good title, and whether the warehouse building belongs to the state. At Marshall, at Battle Creek, and other important points the undersigned is credibly informed that large portions of the road are held under a simple agreement to convey upon a condition precedent, and which the state has not performed as stipulated, thereby forfeiting the right to enforce such agreement.

The undersigned as chairman of the committee on finance has had possession of the blank form of the deeds used in' attempting to secure the right of way, aad although he is informed on good authority, that still more restricted grants have been made in several cases, among which may be named the one covering the right of way across the Woodbridge farm, so called, and which contains in terms an ab

solute reverter upon the state ceasing to use the Railroad, yet for the purpose of showing the most favorable title, he will here present some extracts from the one before him. The parties are: The citizen to "the people of the State of Michigan."

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The words of grant are: "Do grant, release, relinquish and con

vey to the parties of the second part, all," &c.

The habendum clause is of the same tenor:

"To have and to hold the same and every part thereof to the peo"ple of the State of Michigan forever."

The limitations, restrictions, uses, trusts, and power of avoidance are as follows:

"Provided, That the said conveyed lands shall be used and occu"by the people of this State, for the purpose of constructing thereon "the Railroad. And for the purpose of erect

ing all necessary buildings, locks, lock-houses, wells, wood-houses, "sheds, engine and car-houses, and such other purposes as the com"missioners and engineers having charge of the work may require. "And if the said lands are not used for the purposes aforesaid within "the term of

" void."

years, then this indenture shall be null and

From the lapse of time, the undersigned has not the means of ascertaining by whom the above draft of a conveyance was made, but it may be fairly presumed, that in view of the disastrous consequences resulting from their want of skill, those gentlemen would hardly feel warranted in applying to themselves the language of the prophet, "we are the men, and wisdom will die with us."

The want of conveyances to the state of any postion of the routes, would unquestionably seriously embarrass the sale of our public works at their otherwise just value; for the simple reason that no company would willingly encounter expensive and protracted litigation. But when we likewise discover that the conveyances obtained, contain no clause authorizing a transfer, assignment or sale by the state, that they are simple releases in trust for special uses, to be exersed by the state alone, with the power of avoidance for non-user by the state, retained therein to the grantor, the case assumes a novel and startling aspect; and the undersigned respectfully submits, that the state has acquired thereby and thereunder, no right superior to

the easement of a public highway, where, by the failure to apply it to "public uses," the easement even, lapses to the owner of the fee.

What is the benefit to be derived from a sale of our public works? The answer is appropriately given in the last annual messsage, it “is "principally as a means of discharging in whole or in part the debt "due from the internal improvement fund. For this purpose it must "be regarded as a relief measure, and unless the amount received, "should be such as to cancel this debt, or to afford essential relief from "it, the object of a sale would be defeated." Were those roads to be sold for an amount equal to their cost and ten per cent. added, a large deficiency would yet remain to be met by direct taxation. But will any sane man contend that those roads will bring the above sum, by the simple quit claim of all rights thereto, held by the state under the present broken, rickety and rotten, trust-tenure? Certainly not! What then? In order to get our price, are we to convey with a guaranty to secure to the purchasers a valid conveyance of the right of way? Were it legal so to do, the result would inevitably be, that a nominal sum only, would ever find its way into the treasury, after deducting the amount appraised for damages cs between the company and the owners. Hence, in either alternative, the great "object of a sale would be defeated; as it would, owing to the defect of title, neither "cancel the debt" nor "afford essential relief from it." If then, the legal and financial impediments to a sale are here properly presented, the undersigned would respectfully commend to the especial notice of the originators and propagandists of the project, that choice combination of wit and wisdom contained in the celebrated aphorism of Madam Glass: "to dress a Hare, you first must catch him."

To the citizens of Michigan, a majority of whom are said to be in favor of a sale, the undersigned has attempted, in the preceding pages, to point out the embarrassments attending even the incipient steps towards such sale. To them the explanation was due, and that Senafor would prove recreant to his trust, who from motives of personal popularity, would withhold it. Public, as well as individual opinion, can in no case constitute a reliable and imperative rule of action, unless the same is based upon correct intelligence and authenticated facts. Blind obedience to instructions founded in error, forms no

part of the duties or obligation of an upright Representative. As a faithful sentinel, ke is bound, not only to point out the pit-falls where both men and principles may stumble and be lost, but to shield from encroachment, and defend from assault the varied rights and interests committed to his charge. "A masterly inactivity" is out of place in his business calendar.

The undersigned is well aware, that the charge of uncompromising hostility to a sale, has been perferred against him and widely circulated. Entirely in advance of either trial or condemdation, a few of his peculiar friends have already prepared for him the block, and now impatiently await the signal for the upheaval and descent of the ponderous axe. Such men can neither excite his hopes or fears. From them he will never retreat-before them he will never crouch-and to them he will never appeal.

To others, and especially his democratic fellow citizens, his position is both cheerful, and easily defined. "No man or set of men are entitled to exclusive or separate privileges." Every grant of such privileges being an actual transfer to its extent, of power reserved to the masses, can only be justified upon the plea of "promoting the general welfare." Here lies a marked distinction between such grants by a monarchical and a republican government, a disregard of which has caused in many a democrat, a wreck of principle. In the one case power is centred in the crown, in the other it is reserved to, and diffused among the masses. A grant by the crown, enlarges individual rights; a grant by the people, abridges equal privileges. Hence the argument drawn from kingly practice is, to us, without analogy, and destitute of point. With us then, all "monopolies of associated wealth, are encroachments upon our reserved natural rights—a species of "black mail" levied upon industrial pursuits, and may become dangerous to civil liberty in proportion to their motive power upon community. The creation then, of a monopoly by perpetual charter, possessing the fearful powers for evil, contemplated by the advocates for a sale, involving as it does, a sacrifice of strict democratic principle, can only be justified upon the plea of pressing exigency, as freemen in the hour of peril, may yield per force to the despotic rigor of martial law.

Thus in the present instance, such pressing exigency would imply

that we are greatly in debt-that our governmental faith requires the payment of that debt-that the State has no other means of payment, and that a sale would liquidate or greatly reduce the sum demanded. In other words, such sale must be regarded as essentially a relief measure, by the adoption of which, the benefits conferred will more than countervail the injuries inflicted, or the evils feared.

Let, then, the advocates for a sale, who are daily asserting the existence of a stern necessity for the measure, come forward, and by facts and figures, demonstrate the above successive propositions going to establish the milder case of a pressing exigency even-let them remove the impediments to a sale at cost and charges, with an equal corresponding reduction of our public debt-let them shew that the principle sacrificed is of less value than the cash received, and I am with them, and for a sale with proper restrictions. But until those propositions are thus established, the undersigned must be permitted still to adhere to his opinion that the impediments set forth in this report, are sufficient "to defeat the object of a sale." Entertaining this view of the matter, he has abstained from all argument upon the expediency or policy of the measure, except in so far as relates to legal and financial obstacles, and the statement of a few plain political axioms. In thus withholding any expression upon the numerous collateral questions involved, the undersigned has felt himself controlled by an abiding conviction, that a preliminary business report should contain a state of facts, rather than the minute deductions of elaborate reasoning; at the same time insisting that his silence now, cant with propriety be construed either as a waiver of his right to discuss the same at the proper time, or as the declinature of a challenge to combat for democratic principles, "hilt to hilt."

F. J. LITTLEJOHN.