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of fertile territory, yet uncleared, is immense; and any one, in any vocation, manual or mechanical, may, by honest industry and ordinary prudence, acquire an independent provision for himself and family; so high are the wages of labour, averaging, at least, double the rate in England, and quadruple that in France; so comparatively scanty the population; so great the demand for all kinds of work; so vast the quantity, and so low the price of land; so light the taxes; so little burdensome the public expenditure and debt.

The recent convulsions and distresses of Europe have, during the last two or three years, thrown a more than usual quantity of foreign emigrants into the United States.

For the rapid increase of population, however, this country is much less indebted to foreign emigration than is generally believed. The number of emigrants from other countries, into the Union, has not averaged more than five thousand annually, during the twenty-five years preceding the peace of Europe in 1815; and full half that number have, during the same period, migrated from the United States, partly into Upper Canada, and partly as seafaring adventurers, all over the world. The proof that this country owes the rapid increase of its population chiefly to its own exertions in that universal domestic manufactory, the production of children, lies in the fact, that the average births are to the deaths, throughout the whole United States, as 100 to 48; in the healthiest parts, as New-England and the Middle States, as 100 to 44;-in the least healthy, namely, the two Carolinas and Georgia, as 100 to 52.-The annual deaths average, throughout the United States, one in forty; in the healthiest districts, one in fifty-six; in the most unhealthy, one in thirty-five. There die, annually, in all Europe, in great cities, one in twentythree; in moderately-sized towns, one in twenty-eight; in the country, one in thirty-five; and in the most healthy parts, one in fifty-five.

The aggregate salubrity of the United States surpasses that of Europe; the males are, generally, active,

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robust, muscular, and powerful, capable of great exertion and endurance; the females display a fine symmetry of person, lively and interesting countenances, frank and engaging manners. Neither the men nor the women exhibit such ruddy complexions as the British, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, Russians, Norwegians, and the northern Europeans generally. The Americans average a longer life than the people in Europe; where only three, out of every thousand births, reach the ages of eighty to ninety years; whereas, in the United States, the proportion is five to every thousand.

The population of the whole United States has, hitherto, doubled itself in rather less than twenty-five years. The New-England States, of course, do not retain their proportion of this increase, because large bodies of their people migrate annually to the western country; which, in consequence, has increased much faster than do the States on the seaboard. Kentucky, for example, has increased eighty per cent. in ten years; Tennessee, ninety-five; Ohio, one hundred and eighty; Louisiana, one hundred and fifty; Indiana, eight hundred; Mississippi Territory, one hundred and sixty; Illinois Territory, seven hundred; Missouri Territory, six hundred; and Michigan Territory, six hundred; while, of all the Atlantic States, the greatest increase is only forty-four per cent. the population growth of New-York; and the least is twenty per cent. that of Virginia. So that, in the course of a few years, the States will range, if the future be like the past, as to their aggregate population in the following order; New-York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, North-Carolina, Massachusetts, South-Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, Georgia, New-Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Louisiana, New-Hampshire, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Illinois, Delaware, and RhodeIsland.

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Although the Western Country draws off large migrations from the Atlantic States, particularly from New-England, yet the annually-increasing surplus of population in those States has become so great, that

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they will not very sensibly feel the drain; because the whole of the annual increase will never migrate in any given year, until the older States shall be overstocked. Massachusetts proper, Connecticut, and Rhode-Island, appear to be approximating to that point; for their pulation averages a very slow increase; and they furnish, yearly, great numbers of recruits to the Western Country. As long as the Federal Union lasts, every succeeding year will diminish the relative importance of New-England in the American commonwealth, by rendering her population and resources less and less proportionate to those of the Western States, whose preponderance in the national councils is already begun to be felt. Supposing, however, that the national

councils shall be directed for the benefit of the whole United States, and not, exclusively, or too abundantly, for the local interests of some particular districts, then no injury can accrue to the older States, on account of their annual migrations to the west: because, by augmenting the population and resources of the Union at large, they do, in fact, augment their own strength, as an integral part of that Union. If otherwise, indeed, but it is not pleasant to indulge in ill-omened anticipą, tions--sufficient for the day is the evil thereof,

The migrations to the west, at present, are supposed to average one-third of the annual increase of the older States; to this, add the importation of foreigners from Europe, and the growth of their own native stock of population, in an extensive country, a fertile soil, and a favourable climate, and it requires no great skill in political arithmetic to calculate how soon the Western States will outweigh all the rest of the Union in the general government, by the mere force of a more numerous people. An overstock of inhabitants must always be measured by the habits and manners prevalent in any given country. In the earlier stages of barbarous life, for instance, such as our aboriginal Indians pursue, one hunter for every square mile is considered by them a full stock; and when there is more than this proportion, they say, "it is time for our young men to

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go to war, or we shall starve." Hence arises their merciless mode of fighting, and extermination after conquest, so common to all savage hostilities. In the next, or pastoral state of human society, an increase, at the rate of three or four to each square mile, takes place; as is seen in Arabia, and other parts of Africa, and in Asia. In the more advanced stages of social life, in countries where agriculture and commerce prevail, the rate of population varies from three to three hundred for each square mile of territory, according to the different degrees of advancement in the arts of civilization, and commercial, horticultural, agricultural, mechanical, and scientific pursuits. In the most populous parts of China, there are upwards of three hundred persons to each square mile; in England, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Italy, the average is two hundred; in France, one hundred and fifty; in Scotland, seventy; in Massachusetts, Rhode-Island, and Connecticut, fifty-two; New-York, twenty; Virginia, fifteen; the whole United States, four.

It is a fact worthy of observation, that in the State of Virginia there appear to be three distinct races of people; those on the seaboard, up to the head of the tidewater, are a sickly, indolent, feeble tribe; from the head of the tidewater to the base of the Blue-ridge the soil is inhabited by as fine, robust, athletic, powerful a body of men as may be found in the world; on the ridge of the Blue-mountains the population is less in stature, but extremely active, hardy, strong, and enterprising.

The rapid increase of a healthy and vigorous population implies a flourishing state of agriculture; and, accordingly, the United States, during the last twenty years, except 1808 (the embargo year), and 1814, in addition to maintaining their own fast-growing population, have, on an average, exported one-fourth of their agricultural produce. For the tables, showing these exports, from the year 1791 to 1816, both inclusive, the reader is referred to Mr. Pitkin's Statistical View of the United States. Agriculture, as a science, is im

proving rapidly; and agricultural societies are established in Massachusetts, New-York, Pennsylvania, and some other States, for the purpose of ascertaining the modes of tillage, pasture, and grazing, best adapted to the different districts of the Union. The chief articles of agricultural export are wheat, flour, rice, Indian corn, rye, beans, peas, potatoes, beef, tallow, hides, butter, cheese, pork, &c. horses, mules, sheep, tobacco, cotton, indigo, flax-seed, wax, &c. &c.-The following statement shows the value of agricultural exports, constituting vegetable food, in particular years, namely:

In 1802, 12,790,000; 1803, 814,080,000; 1807, $14,432,000; 1808, 82,550,000; 1811, 20,391,000; 1814, 82,179,000; 1815, 11,234,000; 1816, $13,150,000.

The United States far surpass Europe in navigable capacities; their rivers are more numerous, more capacious, and navigable a greater distance. The Hudson, or North river, that ministers to the convenience and wealth of the city of New-York, and is, by no means, to be reckoned among the largest of the American rivers, is navigable for sizeable craft nearly two hundred miles from the Atlantic. Some notion may be formed of the facilities for internal navigation in this country, by casting the eye over a map of the United States, and tracing the course of some of the principal rivers; for instance, the Missouri, the Arkansas, the Red River, the La Plate, the Ohio, the Tennessee, and, above all, the Mississippi, the eastern extremity of whose stream is the headwater of the Alleghany, in Pennsylvania, about two hundred miles northwest of Philadelphia. Its western extremity is the headwater of Jefferson river, about 550 miles from the Pacific ocean; making a distance between these two extreme points of 1700 miles, in a straight line. Its northern extremity is a branch of the Missouri, about 570 miles west by north of the Lake of the Woods. Its southern extremity is the south pass into the Gulf of Mexico, about a hundred miles below New-Orleans; making a distance, between its extreme north and south, in a

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