On the other hand, the military defences which it is deemed necessary to erect in time of peace for the security of the Champlain frontier, will cost only about two thousand dollars per gun; the whole expenditure not exceeding, at most, two millions of dollars! It is not to be denied that a water communication between the Mississippi and the northern lakes will have great commercial advantages, and that, in case of a protracted war, auxiliary troops and military stores may be drawn from the valley of the Mississippi to assist the North and East in preventing any great accessions to the British military forces in the Canadas.

We speak only of the policy of expending vast sums of money on this _military_ ( ?) _project_, to the neglect of matters of more immediate and pressing want.

We have nothing to say of its character as a _commercial project_, or of the ultimate military advantages that might accrue from such a work.

We speak only of the present condition and wants of the country, and not of what that condition and those wants may be generations hence!] [Footnote 28: There are no books devoted exclusively to the subjects embraced in this chapter; but the reader will find many remarks on the northern frontier defences in the histories of the war of 1812, in congressional reports, (vide House Doc.

206, XXVIth Congress, 2d session; and Senate Doc., No.