and revenues, sure and unfailing, equal to the support of her government and the payment of all her existing debts and I here proclaim, that without embarrassment, or cause for embarrassment, she could with the expenditure of a sum but little exceeding that which the city of New York has expended on this aqueduct, complete to the utmost mile, all her unfinished canals and railroads. If the city, with three hundred and twelve thousand inhabitants, can expend on a single undertaking twelve millions of dollars, cannot the State of New York, with two and a half millions of people, and comprehending within its limits this very city, sustain the further burthen of seventeen millions, required to finish

works now in progress ? The proposition demonstrates itself. We want only time, and not much of that. Let us dispel, then, the clouds which obscure our vision, look at the brightening sky and put forth every energy and submit to every burthen, even to each citizen's taking the spade in his own hands to complete the New York and Erie, and the

304 CELEBRATION OF THE New York and Albany Rail Roads, the two unfinished lateral Canals, and the enlarge, ment of the Erie Canal.

One more reflection and I shall have done. This aqueduct, like all our other public works, was undertaken not only for the present but for the future. Its capacity is graduated not to supply the wants of the present population of the city, but to meet the exigencies of the million, who, within half a century may be congregated upon Manhattan Island. Shall that million be allowed to plant here their hopes and their homes ? That result depends on the completion of the public works of this State, and those of the communities with which we are connected.