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The Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road. 



church had stood. The ancient burgers of Albany thought 

 that nothing could be an improvement which went beyond 

 its limits. The City of Hudson owed its origin to such 

 narrow views. Many years ago a number of persons from 

 the eastern states wished to purchase the ground at the 

 southern extremity of this city, called the pasture ; but the 

 Albany dons would not sell it, because they did not think 

 it right that population and business should go beyond the 

 old bounds. The consequence was that the immigrants 

 went and settled at the place now called Hudson. Some 

 years ago the Albanians wanted a bridge, but the project 

 was defeated by their quarrelling among themselves, 

 whether it should be opposite one wharf or the other. Some- 

 thing of that sort appears to be going on now. 



The speaker of the house, Clarkson Crolius, thought 

 that passengers and light freight might be easily conveyed 

 upon the road, but he conceived that heavy articles would 

 be transported on the canals, and the revenue of the 

 state derived from that source would not be dimin- 

 ished. It had been said, that rail roads in England had 

 almost superseded the use of canals. The reason might 

 be that the boats were small and the supply of water scant ; 

 the boats in England could, by the aid of machinery, be 

 placed with all their freight upon the railway carriages, 

 but he doubted if our heavy boats would ever be conveyed 

 in that manner. He would like to see the experiment of 

 a rail road tried in this country, and hoped the bill would 

 pass, and that the applicants would be permitted to make 

 the experiment at their own expense. 



G. W. Featherstonhaugh, in a letter to the mayor, said 

 that transportation of property from Albany to Schenectady 

 was seldom effected in less than two, and sometimes three 

 days. By rail road the communication between the same 

 points would be safely made, in winter and summer, in 

 three hours, at no greater cost than by canal, paying for 

 sixteen instead of twenty-eight miles. He regarded this 



