The Empress of India is intended to be the pioneer of three fast mail steamers, built by the Barrow Shipbuilding Company for service in connection with the Canadian Pacific Railway, between Vancouver and the ports of China and Japan, thus forming the last link in the new route to the East through British territory. Her sister ships, the Empress of China and Empress of Japan, are to be ready in April next. These three ships all fulfill the requirements of the Board of Trade and of the Admiralty and Lloyd's, and are classed as 100 A1. They will also be placed on the list of British armed cruisers for service as commerce protectors in time of war. For this service each vessel is to be thoroughly fitted. There are two platforms forward and two aft, for mounting 7 in. Armstrong guns. These weapons, in the case of the Empress of India, are already awaiting the vessel at Vancouver. The Empress of India is painted white all over, has three pole masts to carry fore and aft sails. She has two buff-colored funnels and a clipper stern, and in external build much resembles the City of Rome. Her length over all is 485 feet; beam, 51 feet; depth, 36 feet; and gross tonnage, 5,920 tons. The hull, of steel, is divided into fifteen compartments by bulkheads, and has a cellular double bottom 4 feet in depth and 7 feet below the engine room. There are four complete decks. The ship is designed to carry 200 saloon passengers, 60 second cabin, and 500 steerage--these last chiefly Chinese coolies, for whose special delectation an "opium room" has been provided on board.--_Daily Graphic_. * * * * * CHICAGO AS A SEAPORT. The prairie land in the southwest corner of Lake Michigan, which, seventy years ago, was half morass from the overflowing of the sluggish creek, whose waters, during flood, spread over the low-lying, level plain, or were supplemented in the dry season by the inflow from the lake, showed no sign of any future development and prosperity. The few streets of wooden houses that had been built by their handful of isolated inhabitants seemed likely rather to decay from neglect and desertion than to increase, and ultimately to be swept away by fire, to make room for the extravagant and gigantic buildings that to-day characterize American civilization and commercial prosperity. Nearly 1,000 miles from the Atlantic, a greater distance from the Gulf of Mexico, and 2,000 miles from the Pacific, no wilder dream could have been imagined fifty years ago than that Chicago should become a seaport, the volume of whose business should be second only to that of New York; that forty miles of wharves and docks lining the branches of the river should be insufficient for the wants of her commerce, and that none of the magnificent lake frontage could be spared to supply the demand.