Internal Improvements [pp. 449-456]

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
is carried on upon the most arid mountains, which probably stunts the shrub, but improves the flavor of the tea. In most cases the excellence of vegetable productions
is proportioned to the aridity of the soil, which occasions a diminution in quantity,
while it improves the quality. Thus the olives of Attica were the most prized in antiquity, as the honey was the sweetest and most fragrant. For the same reason it
can scarcely be doubted that the superior teas of Japan are unrivalled for aroma and
delicacy of flavor. It is in no way inconsistent with such an opinion that the wealthier
Japanese set a high value on the finer teas from China, because, all the world over,
mankind are fond of variety, and especially commodities brought from a distance.
"Among other articles of Japanese export we must reckon the finest rice in Asia,
or perhaps in the world, since even that of Carolina shrinks from coinparision with it.
To this we might add a long catalogue, such as provisions, deer and goat-skins, flax,
hemp, exquisite earthenware, varnish, red naphtha, medical drugs, odoriferous gums,
amber, ambergris, and pearls; but the wealth which that immense group of islands
could supply to commerce, were their industry emancipated from all trammels, cannot now be conjectured, because the half civilized natives are incapable of appreciating
the resources of their country, and prevented by their barbarous government from
converting to useful purposes the natural riches which time or accident has discovered to them.
"W e shall not here insist on the increase of our knowledge of mankind that must
accrue from a thorough investigation of Japan, for such considerations weigh only
with the few: to these, however, it would be no small satisfaction to be able to penetrate into that extraordinary system of ideas, ethical and metaphysical, which make
up the politics and religion of these secluded people. When the country was formerly
accessible, most travellers were incompetent to enter upon abstruse researches, in ethnology, physiology, ethics, politics, or metaphysics. They limited their observation
to the most obvious phenomena of nature and society, and would immediately have
been lost in the attempt to grasp the subtle theories prevailing among the strange and
secluded nations they sometimes visited. Even now travellers equal to the task of
refined observation are few. Not one in ten thousand can emancipate himself from
the maze of the notions in which he was educated. Almost every man carries about
with him a little moral and intellectual Europe, from the level of which he judges and
condemns whatever is new or strange to him, or above or below his comprehension.
Still more remarkably was this the case when Japan was visited by Kempfer and the
Jesuits, and the more recent travellers, such as Thunberg, Titsingh, Siebold, and
others, who possessed still fewer qualifications for appreciating correctly an extraordinary people.
" But, as we have said, it would be beside our present purpose to enter into considerations like these, our object being to convince the manufacturing and commercial classes of Great Britain that a vast and wealthy market might immediately be
thrown open to their goods, could they be persuaded to bestir themselves, and exert
that legitimate influence which they obviously possess on the proceedings of ministers."
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
1. ALABAMA-MOBILE AND CHICAGO RAIL-ROAD.
Alabama begins now to exhibit with her manufactures and internal improvements,
much of the interprise and spirit of her sister State of Georgia. The following from
the National Intelligencer of a late date, condenses many valuable particulars.
The best route for this great improvement has been ascertained by elaborate surveys. It passes through five States, as follows: sixty-two and a third miles in Alabama, two hundred and seventy-one miles in Eastern Mississippi, one hundred and
nineteen and one-third miles centrally in Western Tennessee, thirty-nine and onethird miles in Western Kentucky, and three hundred and seventy-five miles centrally in Illinois; making the distance from Mobile to the mouth of the Ohio river
four hundred and ninety-two miles, and the entire distance, from the Gulf of Mexico
to Lake Michigan, eight hundred and sixty-seven miles. Its general course, from
29 VOL. 1.
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