Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 14).djvu/186

 "4. The annual application of $60,000 of the moneys arising which the State may derive from the sale of unappropriated lands, shall be pledged for the payment of said debt and the interest thereof. And they shall have power to apply any unappropriated money in the treasury to make good any deficiency or suspension in the payment of said funds.

"5. The said Committee shall, at the opening of the next session of the Legislature, report a plan of finances for the execution of the whole of said canals, and also of a sinking fund for the extinguishment of the debt.

"In this same communication it was stated that 400,000 tons of freight were carried annually on the Hudson River.

"Thus De Witt Clinton laid the foundation of our canal financial system. He estimated that ten million tons annually would be carried upon the canals; that the cost of a ton for transportation from Buffalo to Albany would be $3.00."

The expenses of the engineering department to April 2, 1817, had been $14,462, and the total for exploration and surveying