In regarding the above figures and the increase shown between the years 1860 and 1861, it must of course be borne in mind that during the latter autumn no corn or wheat was carried into the Southern States, and that none was exported from New Orleans or the mouth of the Mississippi. The States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana have for some time past received much of their supplies from the north-western lands, and the cutting off of this current of consumption has tended to swell the amount of grain which has been forced into the narrow channel of Buffalo. There has been no southern exit allowed, and the southern appetite has been deprived of its food. But taking this item for all that it is worth,--or taking it, as it generally will be taken, for much more than it can be worth,--the result left will be materially the same. The grand markets to which the western States look and have looked are those of New England, New York, and Europe. Already corn and wheat are not the common crops of New England. Boston, and Hartford, and Lowell are fed from the great western States. The State of New York, which, thirty years ago, was famous chiefly for its cereal produce, is now fed from these States. New York city would be starved if it depended on its own State; and it will soon be as true that England would be starved if it depended on itself. It was but the other day that we were talking of free trade in corn as a thing desirable, but as yet doubtful;--but the other day that Lord Derby who may be Prime Minister to-morrow, and Mr. Disraeli who may be Chancellor of the Exchequer to-morrow, were stoutly of opinion that the corn laws might be and should be maintained;--but the other day that the same opinion was held with confidence by Sir Robert Peel, who, however, when the day for the change came, was not ashamed to become the instrument used by the people for their repeal. Events in these days march so quickly that they leave men behind, and our dear old Protectionists at home will have grown sleek upon American flour before they have realized the fact that they are no longer fed from their own furrows.
I have given figures merely as regards the trade of Buffalo; but it must not be presumed that Buffalo is the only outlet from the great corn lands of Northern America. In the first place no grain of the produce of Canada finds its way to Buffalo. Its exit is by the St. Lawrence, or by the Grand Trunk Railway, as I have stated when speaking of Canada. And then there is the passage for large vessels from the Upper Lakes, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie, through the Welland Canal, into Lake Ontario, and out by the St. Lawrence. There is also the direct communication from Lake Erie, by the New York and Erie railway to New York. I have more especially alluded to the trade of Buffalo, because I have been enabled to obtain a reliable return of the quantity of grain and flour which passes through that town, and because Buffalo and Chicago are the two spots which are becoming most famous in the cereal history of the western States.