Great Britain has 12,000; France, 1,719; Spain, 3,000; Belgium, 578. Illinois comprises about twice as many square miles as all these countries combined, and one-seventh of all the known fields on this continent lies within the bounds of this State. Her aggregate of coal, sold for one-seventh of a cent per ton, would pay the national debt. At the present rate of consumption, the coal deposits of England will be exhausted in 250 years. Then she must extend her dominion or import her fuel. At the same rate of consumption, the coal in Illinois would last 120,000 years.

ANNUAL PRODUCTS.

Illinois has for many years produced more wheat than any other State in the Union. In 1875, she raised 130,000,000 bushels of corn. This is onesixth of all the corn product of the Union. Two million seven hundred and forty-seven thousand tons of hay was harvested-nearly one-tenth of all the hay gathered in the United States. The hay of Illinois is equivalent to the cotton crop of Louisiana. Her farm implements are valued at $211,000,000; her live stock is only outvalued by that of the Empire State. In 1875, she had 25,000,000 hogs and packed 2,113,845, nearly one-half of all packed in the United States. The whole world is the market for the pork of the West, and the demand is increasing. The working classes of Europe are partial to American cured bacon and hams.

An apt writer has thus grouped the excellencies and advantages of the Prairie State:

"Depth and richness of soil; per cent. of good ground; acres of improved land; large farms; number of farmers; amount of wheat, corn, oats and honey produced; value of animals for slaughter; number of hogs; amount of pork ; number of horses-three times as many as Kentucky, the horse State."

This State is only second in many other great interests. Here are some of the most important: Value of farm implements and products, of live stock and tons of coal mined. Her educational advantages and interests are superior. She has a permanent school fund only second to any other State. lishes great numbers of books, maps and newspapers.

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The shipping of this State ranks next to the metropolitan port-New York. Illinois is third in colleges, teachers and schools; cattle, lead, hay, flax, sorghum and beeswax.

She is fourth in population, in children enrolled for public schools, in law schools, butter, potatoes and carriages.

She is fifth in value of real and personal property, in theological seminaries and colleges exclusively for women, in milk sold, in boots and shoes manufactured, and in book-binding.

She is seventh in the production of wood, though the twelfth in area. Some forests have been planted, and now more wood and timber are growing

than the land produced thirty years ago. This is a matter for farmers to consider. The dearth of wood, of shade, forest and fruit trees on some of the most valuable prairie farms, might, in a few years, with moderate expense and little care, be obviated. A few acres less of wheat would, in many instances, secure more vigorous health to the families, more pleasure to the eye, more fruit, more comfort for the cattle. The farmer may cultivate his tastes for the beautiful and refined, with his acres, and make a home for his children that will aid in developing the finer qualities of mind and heart, and thus in no wise necessarily unfit them for the sphere in which they were born. Honest labor, rewarding toil, homely industry, may band with gentleness of soul, love of the beautiful and polish of manners; and all these may unite to form the true nature's gentleman or gentlewoman.

Illinois has completed 6,759 miles of railroad, worth $636,458,000; 3,245 engines and 61,712 cars are in use; these would make a train long enough to cover one-tenth of all the roads in the State. Stations are five miles apart. More than two-thirds of the land is within five miles of a railroad. Last year, 15,795,000 passengers were carried 36 miles. This is equal to taking the entire population twice across the State. A large financial interest is merged in the Illinois Central Railroad. It was incorporated in 1850. The State gave each alternate section, for six miles on each side, and doubled the price of the remaining land. The road received 2,595,000 acres and pays to the State one-seventh of the gross receipts. The State received, in 1876, $35,000; has received, in all, $7,000,000. Annual receipts from the canal are $111,000.

Illinois manufactures, annually, $205,000,000 worth of goods. This compares favorably with New York and Pennsylvania. From 1860 to 1870, her manufacturing establishments increased 300 per cent.; capital employed, 350 per cent.; amount of product, 400 per cent.

From these dry statistics, which are of incalculable interest as a measurement of agricultural, commercial and financial progress, turn to the contemplation of some of the

GENERAL FEATURES OF THE STATE.

From the eloquent Centennial oration, delivered by Dr. C. H. Fowler, at Philadelphia, by appointment of Governor Beveridge, we copy some fine paragraphs containing items of universal interest:

"The great battles of history that have been determinative of dynasties and destinies have been strategical battles; chiefly the question of position. Thermopyla has been the war-cry of freemen for twenty-four centuries. It only tells how much there may be in position. All this advantage belongs to Illinois. It is in the heart of the greatest valley in the world, the vast region between the mountains-a valley that could feed mankind for a thousand years.

It is well on toward the center of the continent. It is in the great temperate belt, in which have been found nearly all the aggressive civilizations of history. It has sixty-five miles of frontage on the head of the lake. * * It has, altogether, 2,000 miles of water front, connecting with and running through, in all, about 12,000 miles of navigable water, including rivers and canals.

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"But this is not all. These waters are made most available by the fact that the lake and the State lie on the ridge running into the great valley from the Within cannon shot of the lake, the water runs from the lake to the gulf. The lake now empties at both ends-one into the Atlantic and one into the Gulf of Mexico. The lake thus seems to hang over the land. This makes the dockage most serviceable; there are no steep banks to damage it. Both lake and river are made for use. The climate varies from Portland to Richmond; it favors every product of the continent, including the tropics, with less than half a dozen exceptions. It produces every great nutriment of the world, except bananas and rice. It is hardly too much to say that it is the most productive spot known to civilization. With the soil full of bread and the earth full of minerals, with an upper surface full of food and an under layer of fuel, with perfect natural drainage and abundant springs and streams and navigable rivers, half way between the frosts of the north and the fruits of the south, within a day's ride of the great deposits of iron, coal, copper, lead, zinc, containing and controlling the great grain, cattle, pork and lumber markets of the world, it is not strange that Illinois has the advantage of position.

"This advantage has been supplemented by the character of the population. In the early days, when Illinois was first admitted to the Union, her population were chiefly from Kentucky and Virginia. But, in the conflict of ideas concerning slavery, a strong tide of emigration came in from the East, and soon changed this composition. In 1870, her non-native population were from colder soils. New York furnished 133,290; Ohio gave 162,623; Pennsylvania sent on 98,352; the entire South gave us only 206,734. In all her cities, and in all her German and Scandinavian and other foreign colonies, Illinois has only about one-fifth of her people of foreign birth. '

MILITARY STRENGTH AND PATRIOTISM.

From the time when the call of Governor Reynolds, in 1832-33, stimulated the pioneers of the State, and the people drove Blackhawk and his warriors across the Mississippi, until the memorable hour when Abraham Lincoln at the head of the nation said, "The country needs the sacrifice," Illinois has nobly consecrated her sons to the vindication and defense of the country. They have been no laggards from the front, no cowards in the battles of the Republic.

For the Mexican War that broke out in May, 1846, 8,370 men volunteered; only 3,720 could be accepted. In the war of the Rebellion, 256,000 men were

enrolled for the State regiments, and through other States 290,000. This was a larger number than all the soldiers of the Federal Government during the war of the Revolution. The law of Congress only required men from twenty to forty-five years of age; but Illinois sent them freely from eighteen to fortyfive. The people were so eager to go they did not seek to correct the enrollment; 20,844 were sent for ninety or one hundred days, for whom no credit was asked. Numbering one-thirteenth of the population of the loyal States, she sent regularly one-tenth of all the soldiers. Sherman marched forty-five regiments from Illinois in that grand sweep to the SEA.

Illinois soldiers brought home 300 tattered flags. The first United States colors that were victoriously planted at Richmond was an Illinois flag. She sent nurses to every field and hospital to care for her sick and wounded.

Among all her grand statesmen and immortal heroes, the name of the martyr President will glow as if every letter were a star of the first magnitude, through all centuries to come.

Dr. Fowler says: "The analysis of Mr. Lincoln's character is difficult on account of its symmetry. In this age, we look with admiration on his uncompromising honesty. And well we may, for this saved us. Thousands throughout the length and breadth of our country, who knew him only as 'Honest Old Abe,' voted for him on that account; and wisely did they choose, for no other man could have carried us through the fearful night of the war. When his plans were too vast for our comprehension, and his faith in the cause too sublime for our participation; when it was all night about us, and all dead before us, and all sad and desolate behind us; when not one ray shone upon our cause; when traitors were haughty and exultant at the South, and fierce and blasphemous at the North; when the loyal men here seemed almost in a minority; when the stoutest heart quailed, the bravest cheek paled; when generals were defeating each other for place, and contractors leeching out the very heart's blood of the prostrate Republic; when everything else had failed us, we looked at this calm, patient man standing like a rock in a storm, and said: 'Mr. Lincoln is honest and we can trust him still.' Holding to this single point with the energy of faith and despair, we held together, and, under God, he brought us through to victory.

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"His practical wisdom made him the wonder of all lands. tainty did Mr. Lincoln follow causes to their ultimate effects, that his foresight of contingencies seemed almost prophetic. He is radiant with all the great virtues, and his memory shall shed a glory upon this age that shall fill the eyes of men as they look into history. Other men have excelled him in some point, but taken at all points, all in all, he stands head and shoulders above every other man of 6,000 years. An administrator, he saved the nation in the perils of unparalleled civil war. A statesman, he justified his measures by their success. A philanthropist, he gave liberty to one race and salvation to another. A moral

ist, he bowed from the summit of human power at the foot of the Cross, and became a Christian. A mediator, he exercised mercy under the most absolute abeyance to law. A leader, he was no partizan. A commander, he was untainted with blood. A ruler in desperate times, he was unsullied with crime. A man, he has left no word of passion, no thought of malice, no trick of craft, no act of jealousy, no purpose of selfish ambition. Thus, perfected without a model, and without a peer, he was dropped into these troubled years to adorn and embellish all that is good and all that is great in our humanity, and to present to all coming time the representative of the divine idea of free government. It is not too much to say that away down in the future, when the republic has fallen from its niche in the wall of time; when the great war itself shall have faded out in the distance, like a mist on the horizon; when the Anglo-Saxon language shall be spoken only by the tongue of the stranger, then the generations looking this way shall see the great President as the supreme figure in this vortex of history."

RELIGIOUS, EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS AND MORALS.

Dr. Fowler says the State was born of the missionary spirit. Rev. Mr. Wiley, pastor of a Scotch congregation in Randolph County, petitioned the Constitutional Convention of 1818 to recognize Jesus Christ as king, and the Scriptures as the only necessary guide and book of law.

Rev. J. M. Peck was the first educated Protestant minister in the State. He was settled at Rock Spring, St. Clair County, in 1820. He published the first gazetteer of Illinois. The first College was started in 1828, in Lebanon, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, and named after Bishop McKendree. The next was Illinois College, at Jacksonville, in 1830, supported by the Presbyterians. In 1832, the Baptists established Shurtleff College, at Alton. The Presbyterians built Knox College, at Galesburg, in 1838, and the Episcopalians Jubilee College, at Peoria, in 1847. The State can now boast of one well-endowed University-the Northwestern, at Evanston, with its magnificent edifices, six colleges, ninety instructors, 1,000 students, and $1,500,000 endowment.

Illinois owns $22,300,000 in church property, and has 4,298 church organizations. Nine million five hundred thousand copies of religious papers are issued annually in the State.

The material resources of Illinois, vast as they are, are surpassed by educational facilities and institutions. The compact of 1787 devoted, irrevocably, one-thirty-sixth of her soil to common schools; and the first law inscribed upon the statutes, in 1818, gave three per cent. of all the rest to education.

We have 11,050 schools, and by the old compact, there can be no legal interference with the Bible in the public schools. We have more volumes, in public libraries, than Massachusetts. Of the 44,500,000 volumes in the