dominion equal to nearly one-fifth of the whole surface of the globe; but her main strength must always depend upon the resources, intelligence, spirit, and character of her native population in the British Isles. If these fail, her colonial empire will be soon dissipated into thin air. The following table shows the gross population and surface of the four quarters of the world.

The following tables show how fast the people increase in an extensive country, under the auspices of free and popular institutions. In the year 1749, the whole white population of the North American colonies, now the United States, amounted only to 1,046,000 souls, in the following proportions, as to the respective colonies, now states:

What the national capacities of the State of NewYork are, may be inferred, not only from her territorial extent, which is ten thousand square miles larger than all England and Wales taken together, but also from the fact, that she has already, in 1817, outstripped every other State in the Union, in the number of her population; although, at the close of the revolutionary war, in 1783, she did not contain half the number of souls which the States of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia respectively possessed. The

following facts will show how rapid has been the growth of some particular places in the United States. In the year 1783, the population of the city of NewYork was only 26,000; in the year 1790, 33,000; in 1800, 60,439; in 1810, 93,914; in 1817, 122,000thus multiplying four times in thirty-four years. Its harbour, formed by the union of the Hudson with the strait of the Sound, called East river, makes a roadstead capable of containing all the navies of the world. Its commerce far surpasses that of any other city in the Union, and in the course of a few years will be second only to that of London. It imports most of the goods consumed between the Raritan and the Connecticut, a coast of 130 miles, and between the Atlantic ocean and the lakes, a range of 400 miles. In the year 1816, the foreign imports into the city exceeded fifty-six millions of dollars.

Fifty years since, no such place as Baltimore existed; and now it is a city, abounding in commerce, wealth, and splendour, and contains a population of nearly sixty thousand souls.

In the year 1770, there was not a single white inhabitant in all Kentucky; in 1790, there were 73,677 souls; in 1800, 220,960; and now, in 1817, nearly 700,000. In 1783, the city of New-Orleans was inhabited by a few miserable Spaniards, who carried on a small smuggling trade. Now, in 1817, it numbers nearly 40,000 inhabitants; and its exports, during the last year, exceeded those of all the New-England States taken together; the steam-boats have been found able to stem the current of the Mississippi; and, henceforth, the struggle to engross the foreign trade of the whole western country will be between New-Orleans, New-York, Montreal, and Philadelphia. The difficulty of ascending the Mississippi, had, until the experiment of the steam-boats, prevented New-Orleans from supplying the western States with foreign merchandise, which was purchased cheaper in New-York or Philadelphia, and carried by land to Pittsburgh, at the confluence of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, and

thence down the Ohio, to the various settlements on its banks, than it could be transported up the Mississippi and the Ohio. The chief part of this immense and rapidly augmenting commerce will fall, of course, to that place which can supply foreign goods at the lowest rate; the difference of price depending chiefly on the expense of internal transportation. At present, Montreal seems to have the advantage over her rivals. The single portage, at the falls of Niagara excepted, there is a free navigation for vessels from Montreal to Lake Erie, and the vast extent of waters beyond. Unless, indeed, the canal, to be opened between Lake Erie and the Hudson, may succeed in diverting the trade of the western country from Montreal to New-York.

The population of New-Orleans is rapidly increasing by emigrations from all the other States in the Union, and from almost every country in Europe. The exports of Louisiana already exceed those of all the NewEngland States. Nearly four hundred sea vessels arrive and depart annually. And about one thousand vessels, of all denominations, departed during the year 1816, from the Bayou St. John, a port of delivery in the Mississippi district, and were employed in carrying the produce of the Floridas, belonging to the United States. Six hundred flat-bottomed boats and thrée hundred barges brought down, last year, to New-Orleans, produce from the Western States and Territories. Ten millions of pounds of sugar are made on the Mississippi alone. And twenty thousand bales of cotton are exported annually.

If the population of the United States shall increase for the next twenty-five years, in the same ratio that it has increased during the last twenty-five years, what European country, single-handed, will be able to compete with them, on the land or on the ocean; or what European power will be able to preserve its American colonies, whether in the West-Indies or on the continent, from their grasp? And why the population should not increase as rapidly, in time to come, as in the past periods, it is difficult to prove; for the extent

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 twentyeight; 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,