metres of earth-work finished between Badajos and Merida. This inactivity appears to be more the result of political calculation than of any other cause. The Spanish Government is evidently unwilling to raise Portuguese commerce by a line of railway which, when completed, must have the immediate effect of making Lisbon the port of Madrid, and, to some extent, the metropolis of the Iberian peninsula.

CANALS OF NEW YORK STATE.

The Auditor of the Canal Department, in his report submitted to the Legislatare, gives in detail the expenditures on account of the several canals of New York State, for the year ending September 30, 1863, and the tables for previous years.

The following is a summary statement of the amounts so expended by the several Canal Commissioners during the fiscal year 1863, the particular items of which are fully exhibited in the tables appended to the report:

KIPENDED BY THE CANAL COMMISSIONERS, INCLUDING THEIR SALARIES, FOR THE FISCAL TEAR, ENDING 30TH SEPTEMBER, 1863.

The following sums were in the hands of the Canal Commissioners at the

The expenses of the engineer corps on the several canals in this State during the last fiscal year, amount to the sum of $36,892 29. distributed among the several canals, as follows:

Such expenditures are

$5,190 91

8,305 87

$1,168 67

3,255 36

4,424 03

$592 95

1,579 21

2,172 16

$908 09

901 46

1,809 55

$504 54

1,032 67

1,537 21

1,316 04

1,695 11

2,279 07

8,162 34

$36,892 29

The expenditures of the Engineer Corps on the several canals of the State for the last eleven years, has been as follows:

The following statement gives the amount of expenditures for repairs by the Superintendant and Canal Commissioners, including payment to contractors for repairs on each canal, &c., for the years ending Sept. 30th, 1862 and 1863:

REPORT OF HON. SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, SUBMITTED TO THE INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL CONGRESS.

(MR. RUGGLES to Mr. Seward.)

BERLIN, September 14, 1863.

SIR In pursuance of your instructions accompanying the appointment of the undersigned as representative of the United States of America. at the international statistical congress at Berlin, in September, instant, he embarked for Europe in the German steamer, after receiving his commission, and reached Berlin, after some detention on the Atlantic, on the afternoon of the 6th of September. No business of importance had been transacted in the congress up to that time, except the presentation of the credentials of the delegates.

On the 7th of September, the credentials of the undersigned were presented and approved, at which time representatives from the following countries, stated in alphabetical order, had been duly admitted, viz:

The United States of America, Anhalt-Dessau, Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, the Danubian Provinces, Denmark, France, Frankfort, Great Britain, Hamburg, Hanover, Holland, Holstein, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse Darmstadt, Italy, Lubeck, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Norway, Oldenburg, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Saxe-Coburg, Saxe-Weimar, Saxony, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Wurtemburg.

The representatives of most of the nations above specified made reports to the congress on the statistics of their respective countries, which will be duly pub lished in German and in French, in the official proceedings or " Comte Rendu of the congress. In general, the proceedings and debates were in the German language, but to some extent in French and English.

Through some accidental and unintentional omission, none of the States of South America, or of Central America, sent delegates to the congress, although Brazil, especially, had been represented in preceeding sessions of the congress. The name of the undersigned was erroneously entered in the printed and published lists as delegate from North America," but on his application the error will be corrected in the official report of the proceedings.

On Friday, the 11th of September, being the sixth day of the session, a statis

tical report was presented to the congress by the undersigned, in behalf of the United States of America, of which a copy is herewith transmitted.

It is proper to state that the composition and character of the congress, as shown by its proceedings and published reports at the preceding sessions, was merely statistical," and in no respect economical or political, rendering it proper and necessary to refrain in the report from any speculations or deductions as to the practical use or employment of the resources ts be statistically exhibited, or any political discussion of the character, conduct, or possible result of the pending insurrection against the government of the American Union; but rather to present the cardinal elements of its material strength and resources, past and present, in such arithmetical and statistical form as should furnish, of itself, to the congress and to the countries therein represented, sufficient elements for any necessary conclusions.

Again, it was desirable and necessary, for the purpose of securing the publication and circulation, to any considerable extent, of such a statement, to condense the facts as far as practicable, to select only the most prominent, and to seek, by a well-defined outline, to present the subject clearly and distinctly.

Keeping these considerations in view, the report was therefore contined mainly to the four cardinal elements of our national strength, embraced under the heads -Territory, Population, Agricultural Production, and Precious Metals. It is not denied that other branches, though comparatively less important, might also have been added; but, under the circumstances, those presented were thought sufficient for the present purpose.

In view of the insurrection still affecting the industry and products of a certain portion of the Union, and rendering it difficult to state or estimate their present value with any statistical accuracy, they were not embraced in the report to the present congress, under the belief that the full restoration of tranquility before the next session, in 1865, will then enable the representative of the United States to fully supply the deficiency.

The present session has been signalized by the adoption of important resolutions in respect to a uniform system of weights, measures and coins, for the use of the civilized world, and materially affecting the United States of America. A large commission, embracing representatives of high attainments from fourteen different nations and countries, was instituted at the congress of 1860, held in London, to report a system for consideration at the present session. The undersigned, on taking his seat in the body, was invited, on behalf of the United States, to confer aud unite with that commission in its proposed and forthcoming report. A draught of that report had been printed, presenting, in review, the different nations which had adopted, or were disposed to adopt, the metric system of weights and measures, but in which it was stated that "the Confederate States of America have expressed a desire to introduce the metric system of weights and measures." The undersigned, on perceiving the statement, protested at once against its propriety, or its admission into the report, on the ground, that" the Confederate States," so called, had no separate, national, lawful existence, but still formed integral portions of the United States of America. The objection was acquiesced in, and the words in question were modified so as to read, “Some of the States of America have expressed a desire," &c., &c. That statement is known to be true in respect to some of the States of South America, and possibly as to some of the States of our American Union.

The proposition presented by that commission to the congress in respect to weights, measures and coins, looking to an eventful change in the weights of the Briush sovereign and of the American dollar, to reduce them to even multiplies of the trauc, with the modifications which these propositions underwent in the congress, are of so much importance and gravity, that the undersigned will require some little time for reporting them fully, with the necessary accompanying documents, to the government of the United States. He will seek to do so with all practicable despatch after his return to America. The subject necessarily embraces the grave and difficult question as to the relative value of gold and of

silver, present and prospective, and the proper adjustment of the coins of both metals, to keep pace with the fluctuations in their production and supply. For this purpose, the undersigned thought it necessary to propose, at the conclusion of the report on the metalliferous regions of the United States, that the subject of the production of gold and silver should be investigated by a commission to be instituted by the international statistical congress; but on full consideration by the section to which the subject was referred, it was decided, and perhaps properly, that the investigation could not be properly made by the congress, which was statistical and not economical in its aims, and that the necessary inquiry might better be left to the governments of the three great gold-producing countries, being the United States, Great Britain in respect to Australia, New Zealand, and British America, and Russia; and more especially as the inquiry, to be of any practical value, must be conducted under the authority and direction of those respective governments. Meanwhile the decided opinion has been expressed by the delegates in the present congress from Great Britain and from Russia, that it may be reasonably expected that the necessary inquiries on a subject so important to the currency of the world will be prosecuted by those governments with all proper efficiency and despatch.

During the session of the present congress a resolution was passed, on motion of Professor SCHUBERT, of the University of Konigsburg, that it was "advisable, and very useful to the general interests of statistical science, that of all official works and communications published by statistical bureaus, one copy shall be given to all the universities and high academies of the States of Europe, to be preserved in their libraries." A motion made by the undersigned, at a subsequent day, and seconded by Professor SCHUBERT, was unanimously passed by the congress, that the resolution be modified and enlarged "so as to include the public libraries in six of the principal cities of the United States of America, to be designated by the State Department at Washington."

The congress adjourned on the 11th of September, after having received the marked hospitality and consideration of the government of Prussia, and the inhabitants of Berlin.

Of the period of thirty days after the adjourment allowed to the undersigned for returning to the United States, he will employ the first two weeks in visiting Russia to collect the statistics of the product of gold in that country, and for which purpose the representatives of that government in the congress, and also the Russian minister at Berlin, have courteously afforded him important facilities.

The undersigned has the honor to remain, with high respect, your obedient servant,

SAMUEL B. RUGGLES.

His Excellency WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State, &c.

INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL CONGRESS AT BERLIN.

REPORT FROM THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Mr. SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, delegate from the United States of America, presented the following report:

Mr. President and gentlemen of the International Statistical Congress:

The government of Prussia having specially requested, through its minister at Washington, his excellency the Baron GEROLT, that the Government of the United States should send a representative to the international statistical congress, to convene at Berlin on the 6th of September, 1863, the President of the United States, on the 14th of August, appointed the undersigned to that office. The session of the congress being so near at hand, the undersigned was necessari