The manufacturing interests of Illinois are still in their infancy, but the time is not distant when its manufactories will cope with those of the older states. Steam mills for flouring and for sawing timber, have been erected in the southern and middle portions of the state, and are rapidly increasing in number: while mills driven by water-power are in operation at the north. It is worthy of remark, too, that in those portions of the state not supplied with a constant water-power, coal and wood for fuel abound. The best water-power is found in the northern part, and it has already been improved to a considerable extent. Mills for various purposes have sprung up along the streams, particularly along Rock river and its branches, and the Illinois and Fox rivers. The Illinois and Michigan canal also furnishes an admirable water-power, superior probably to any other in the west. The rapids in the Fox river, four miles above Ottaway, have a descent of sixteen feet, and an abundant supply of water at all seasons of the year, while, from the rapids down, the river has such a descent as will enable its waters to be used for propelling machinery. The improvements on the Great and Little Wabash, and the Kaskaskia, will also make the waters of those streams available for hydraulic purposes, and whenever mills shall be required there is nothing to prevent their rapid multiplication. In 1839, the number of flour, grist, and saw mills, was 1,502, and the value of manufactured products, $2,306,619. Education. The same provision has been made by congress for the support of schools in Illinois as in the other new states. The public lands are surveyed into townships six miles square, containing 36 sections, of 640 acres each, and the section numbered sixteen, in every township, is given to that township for educational purposes. Besides this provision, which applies only to the local townships, three per cent of all the public lands within the state, sold, or to be sold, after its admission into the Union in 1819, are to constitute a fund for the support of education, under the direction of the state authorities, provided that one sixth is to be exclusively devoted to the support of a college or university. Two entire townships, or 46,080 acres, have also been bestowed for the support of education, which, with a moiety of the surplus money divided between the states, constitutes a fund which is estimated at about three millions of dollars, a large portion of which, however, will long be unavailable. The interest which resulted from the education fund in 1839, and which was divided according to the law, was $44,326. But the state lacks a well organized system of common schools, without which education can never generally prevail. Besides several respectable academies, there are in this young state six institutions which take the name of colleges, viz: Illinois College, at Jacksonville, under the direction of the "new school" Presbyterians; McDonough College, at Macomb, belonging to the "old school;" Shurtleff College, at Alton, which takes its name from Dr. Shurtleff of Boston, who made it a munificent donation; McKendree College, at Lebanon, St. Clair county, belonging to the Methodists; and Canton College, in Fulton county, and Belvidere College, in Winnebago county, two new institutions which have only recently been chartered. But notwithstanding this great show of literary institutions, it will probably be found that education languishes in Illinois, as indeed it does in most new states. The foundation which is laid, however, in the prospective education fund, is of great importance, and we may confidently expect that the intellectual resources of this vast and beautiful region will ere long be as abundant as its physical. The following particulars are derived from a tabular statement prepared * For a statement of the population of each county in the state of Illinois, taken at the census of 1840, and the number of square miles in the several counties, see Merchants' Magazine for October, 1841, page 391. students at public charge, 1,318 66 66 white persons over 20, who cannot read and write, 28,780 155 ART. V.-DUTCH COMMERCE. OF COMMERCE-IMPROVE DUTCH TERRITORY AND POPULATION-SYSTEM THE following official report on Dutch commerce, was recently addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, by M. Bois le Comte, French Minister at Hague. Exhibiting, as it does, a clear and comprehensive view of the present condition of Dutch commerce, from an authentic source, it will be found not only interesting to our commercial readers, but valuable for reference: "When I exposed to the predecessor of your excellency what remained to Holland of its ancient maritime and commercial power, I tried to establish, by official calculation, the political influence and the produce of her colonies. I am to complete this work with the assistance of the results obtained during the year 1839, and the documents presented to the States General in 1840. "The same uncertainty continues as to the real state of the population of those colonies. The Dutch Government itself has but approximate and vague valuations in this respect. M. Beau gives the number of the population of Java as eight millions, but he reduces that of the other islands in a great degree, by the observation that culture and social organization alone can produce a great development of population. As to Sumatra, I should prefer to his estimations, which are evidently too low for that island, those of MM. Vanden Bosch, de Capelle, and Nahuys, who give the number of its population as five or six millions; but nothing contradicts his opinion that the population of Borneo does not exceed three millions, that of the Celebes two millions, and the Moluccas 500,000. This would give twenty millions of inhabitants to a territory three times as large as France, the half of which is governed by the Dutch themselves, or by princes named and directed by them. "In the Dutch Indies there are 10,000 Europeans, including the army, and 30,000 negro slaves. By emigration, partly permanent and partly periodical, there are about from 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese in the Dutch Indies, of whom 100,000 are in Java alone, men who are both useful and dangerous-brokers, retailers, artisans, and cultivators; they perform every service which requires most intelligence and activity. At Java they manage plantations of cane and tea; at Sumatra that of pepper; at Riow that of palm trees;* at Gamba and at Banca, the working of the tin mines; and at Borneo that of the gold mines. "The English census, in 1815, gave the number of the population as 4,500,000. The population has doubled in fifteen years from the increase of health in the population, and from the disappearance of the small-pox, which made as much ravage in Java as the plague in Turkey, or the yellow fever in America. "No change has taken place in 1839 as to the general system of commerce. The ports before named in each of the islands receive foreign vessels, the Moluccas alone are forbidden theirs; the Government, which has reserved to itself the purchase of spices, keeps up the monopoly of opium and salt. Strangers are allowed to establish themselves in the ports open to commerce. It is forbidden to penetrate into the interior. Three entrepots in the island of Java (Batavia, Samarang, and Sourabaya,) and two free ports, one at the northern extremity of the Neerlandish Archipego, and the other at the southern, Riow and Coupang, complete the system. "The improvements of agriculture commenced by Count Vanden Bosch have not only been realized, but exceeded by the harvest of this year. I here annex the statements of the exportation of Java in 1838. I compare it with that of 1790, under the old company, and with that of 1828, under the government which preceded that of M. Vanden Bosch. "The separation of Belgium, where the industry of the United Low Countries had been concentrated, caused the metropolis to despair of taking part in the provisioning of her colonies of 1830. King William has succeeded in conquering the difficulty, and in reviving the manufacturing industry of Holland, and in enabling the Dutch to furnish the Javanese with their cotton stuffs, which are their principal articles of importation from Europe. Thus this branch of commerce has doubled in the space of ten years, and yet the European manufacture has not destroyed native industry at Java, as it has been the case in the Indies. The population of Java, itself supplied in a great measure from Europe, sends to the other islands two millions' worth of linen of an inferior quality. Cloth and silk, which are only made use of for the clothing of priests and princes on days of ceremony, are very little bought in these possessions. The total amount of the importation of Java in 1839 was eighty millions of francs: forty-five millions coming from Holland, thirteen and a half millions from England, 876,000f. from France, 1,300,000 from Hamburg and Sweden, a million from the United States, and the rest from Asia. The exportations have "The Hague Gazette denies that the Chinese cultivate pepper at Sumatra, or the palm at Riow. It is the gun called terra japonica which M. Bois le Comte must have mistaken for the produce of the palm. "According to the official statement of the commerce of Java, in 1839, the total of importation was 68,000,000 of francs, of which about 32,000,000f. from Holland. 8,000,000f. England. France. Hamburg, Sweden, Denmark, and Bremen. America. The Cape of Good Hope, Bengal, and the rest of Africa. risen to 136,800,000f.; 100,820,000f. for Holland, 4,300,00f. for France, 1,000,000f. for Sweden and Germany, 2,050,000f. for the United States, and the rest for the Asiatic countries.* They consist of few natural pro ducts, but of great value. "I beg your excellency will permit me to illustrate these figures by a few points of comparison : 80,000,000 7,000,000 The Dutch colonies of America in 1839 "The commercial relations of Sumatra, and of the other islands in the Sound, carried on in a great measure by the natives, cannot be estimated here; a part entering Java, from thence to pass into Europe, contributes to increase the commerce of this island. * "According to the same document, the exportations in 1839 amounted to about 120,000,000f. 81,000,000f. for Holland. 4,000,000f." England. 1,600,000f." France. 1,200,000f." Denmark, Sweden, Hamburg, and Bremen. 200,000f. 66 Spain, the Isle of France, Bengal, China, Japan, &c. 23,000,000f." The Indian Archipelago. "According to the official statements, the exportations of 1839 consisted of the following articles : |