The preceding returns, and those which immediately follow, are presented to illustrate the chief object of the report, which is to show the value of the productions, and the rapid increase of the inland interchanges between different parts of the thirty-one States, and the importance of this inland trade.

It is a natural characteristic of the North American people, influenced by that stern spirit of co-operation which has so signally contributed to their present high position, to examine with interest the results of their labor as exhibited in the advancement of its material or intellectual strength. With the progress of the former, whether of commerce, manufacture, or agriculture, there will be a corresponding increase of a taste for literature, art, and the sciences.

It is gratifying to observe that no one interest outstrips any other interest, and that if one section of the Union is prosperous, there is a corresponding improvement in another section; and, in contemplating the happy state of the confederacy, we are proud to believe that "there has never been imagined any mode of distributing the produce of industry, so well adapted to all the wants of man, on the whole, as that of letting the share of each individual depend in the main on that individual's own energies and exertions."

The principle of private property has never yet had a fair trial in any country but this, and in no country where such conclusive proofs are furnished that the principle should be universally applied.

Doubtless, the successful application of so just a principle is chiefly owing to two causes-the perfect equality and protection of labor, and that prohibitory clause in the constitution preventing any State from levying taxes on the produce of another State; and although it has delegated to Congress the regulation of the "commerce with foreign nations and among the several States," the federal legislature has wisely left the latter totally unfettered and free.

Since the publication of Mr. Walker's celebrated report in 1847-'48, in which he estimated the internal trade of the country at three thousand millions, already mentioned, various causes, obvious to all, have conspired to greatly extend its area by increased facilities, and increased its value.

The railroads have increased from five thousand five hundred miles, costing about one hundred and sixty-six millions, to thirteen thousand three hundred miles, costing four hundred millions.

The imports and exports have increased from three hundred to over four hundred millions; the tonnage, inward and outward, from 6,700,703 to 10,591,045 tons; the tonnage owned. from 2,839,000 to 4,200,000 tons. The receipts into the treasury, exclusive of loans, have increased from twenty-six to over forty-nine millions; and the California trade, the whole of which does not appear in the published returns-the commercial phenomena of a commercial age-have also added a hundred millions to the national commerce, and, more than any event of the last forty years, have invigorated the navigating interest of the country, and to a great degree had a powerful influence over the commercial marine of the world; the whole contributing to swell the internal trade, and enabling the United States to own more than two-fifths of the tonnage of the world.

The inland trade moves in a circle: a larger part of the imports are made at the North, which pass to the South and the West-a greater part to the latter; while the southern States furnish the chief bulk and amount of exports.

The imports and exports, and tonnage inward and outward, of the principal commercial or Atlantic States, for the years 1825, 1840, and 1851, were as follows:

It is stated in another part of the report, that the resolution of the Senate referred to the trade of the lakes, and as the trade of the Mississippi valley would be justly entitled to a separate report, only general statements would be given.

The intimate connexion between the trade of the lakes and the Mississippi river, and the construction of various lines of railroads and canals to facilitate the transportation from the river to the lakes, and from the lakes to the river, the circuit made by the chief articles of imports and exports, the importance of the basin of the rivers Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi, the increasing value of the exports of the southern portion of the confederacy, particularly to the navigating interest of the North, render it necessary, however, to notice the chief outlets of the national products, as well as the chief inlets for the produce of other countries. Although the materials are not at hand to give the account in detail, it is hardly necessary to state that no report on the internal commerce would be acceptable to other portions of the confederacy if it failed to notice the commercial importance of the Southern Atlantic States, and their great commercial interests.

The advantages to be derived from the facilities now enjoyed by the travelling public, and for transportation of produce, are of a higher character than the additions they make to the wealth of the country. In case of an unfortunate war, particularly with a maritime power, by which our commerce with the ocean might be impeded, the means of intercommunication afforded by the rivers, canals, lakes, and railroads would still be enjoyed, and the domestic trade and commerce continue to be comparatively unmolested.

As great interest is now manifested as to what portion of the trade of the valley of the Mississippi shall seek a southern market, the following notes, prepared in part by Mr. Mansfield, of Cincinnati, will be found very useful and interesting by those engaged in that portion of the western trade. The line of separation referred to in these notes,

as dividing the northern from the southern trade, is by no means fixed or stationary, but varies from year to year, as affected by prices in different markets, rates of freight, &c.-the general tendency, probably, being to the southward.

NOTES ON THE AMOUNT AND TENDENCY OF OHIO COMMERCE.

The competition between the southern, or river route, and the northern, or lake route, to the ocean, has become so strong in the western States as to excite much interest as to the dividing line which separates the legitimate trade of the lakes from that of the rivers. It is desirable to know what portion of the country is best accommodated by the northern, and what by the southern route; and also to know something of the character of the articles which make up the principal trade of the different channels respectively.

This is at first sight a difficult question, because the lakes, and the public works connected with them, are closed for a portion of the year, during which the trade tends southwardly. But there is a certain method of determining it. Taking, for example, the arrivals and clearances at the extremities on the lake and on the Ohio river, and then comparing the result with the receipts and clearances at the intermediate ports, it will at once appear at what points the stream, southward or northward, terminates. First, then, to take the leading articles of groceries which depart from Cincinnati and Toledo, and arrive at various points on the Miami canal, we have as follows:

This table proves that groceries are transported in the Miami country both from the lake to the river and vice versa; but that a much larger portion go from the river than from the lake. An investigation of the receipts at the various ports of the interior proves that the country north of Piqua, Miami county, ninety miles from Cincinnati, is supplied from Toledo, and the country south of it from Cincinnati. A point on the Miami canal, about ninety miles from Cincinnati, is therefore the point of division between the trade in foreign articles derived from the lake and that derived from the river.

The above amounts are, of course, only a part of the whole trade distributed from Cincinnati; but they are sufficient for the purposes of this inquiry

It appears from an examination of the statistics of the interior ports, where their receipts are from the Ohio canal, that the supplies from the Ohio river extend as far as Newark, Licking county, about 120 miles from Portsmouth and 150 from Cleveland.

The Muskingum improvement extends to Dresden, on the Ohio canal, and the groceries are supplied from the Ohio, at Harmar, so far as to Zanesville, Muskingum county.

The following tables show the aggregate of the above articles respectively shipped through the southern and northern ports of Ohio, viz: