American born, 262,500 187,500 Of the first class (262,500), we may safely assume that about one-half are provided for by inheritances, while the others purchase new lands. The emigrants must of course all purchase new lands, or the farms of those who must, in their turn, purchase anew. The whole of the emigrant farming people must be provided with lands. The total number of persons to be provided with lands on the basis of the population of 1848 is, then : American born, Emigrants, Total, 131,250 187,500 318,750 The provision, however, is to be made by families, and not individuals; and the proportion of heads of families to the whole number of persons is about 1 in 6. There are, therefore, on the above calculation, 53,125 tracts of public land required to supply the actual demand of the farming people for land. The public land is now sold in tracts of 40, 80, 160, 320, and 640 acres each. It is well known, however, that the emigrants purchase, in nine cases out of ten, very small tracts of land. We assume 80 acres for each family as the amount required by actual settlers. This gives us for 53,125 tracts, the aggregate of 4,250,000 acres of land required in 1848 for actual use and settlement. This is the theory. If it be correct, it will not vary very largely from the sale of public lands, when there is no speculative fever to create a false demand. Let us see how they correspond. We find the entries of public lands in 1848 to be thus: Deducting from this total the state and internal improvement selections, and we have 4,233,763 acres entered for use and settlement, almost the very same amount we had arrived at by the theory of increasing population! The increase of land entries, in the three years prior to 1849, were as follows: This increase is very large; but it must be recollected that in these three years emigration was immensely increased by the European famine of 1846. The emigration in these three years exceeded, by 350,000 persons, what it would have been under the former proportions. This number of emigrants would require about 3,500,000 acres; so that, if the fluctuations occasioned by foreign emigration were left out of view, the actual increase of the sales of public lands would be found to proceed exactly in proportion to the increase of population at home. There are two disturbing causes of the irregularity in the amount of land sold. These are speculation and emigration. The latter we know, and can estimate exactly; but the former (speculation) we may anticipate, whenever the paper currency is largely increased; but we cannot tell exactly its effect. In 1835, 1836, and 1837 a most enormous speculation in public lands occurred. Many of the highest official officers of the government were involved in it, and few speculative bubbles have ever exceeded that in extent and power. Full twenty millions of acres were in those three years taken by speculators alone. The consequence was, that for the next five years the sales of public land greatly fell off. By 1845, however, the sales had got into the ordinary channel, and since then have regularly increased. The sales of 1849-50 will be about five millions of acres per annum. We can easily form an idea, from the above data of the rate, at what time the lands of new states will be occupied and settled. The state of Ohio contains about twenty-five millions of acres. The annual sales of public lands is five millions. Consequently the sales of public lands amount to the whole surface of the state of Ohio each five years. In ten years, then, two new states would be entirely occupied by settlements, provided the lands were all arable. But they are not. We must allow full onethird even of the best states for non-occupation in the first generation, by reason of inferior soils. The conclusion of the whole, then, is that the people of the United States actually progress, in the purchase, settlement, and occupation of new lands, at the rate of three average sized states in each ten years. -Cincinnati Chronicle. CENTRAL AMERICA. The reader will find among our documents, at page 554, a convention between the United States and Great Britain to facilitate the construction of a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, by the way of the river San Juan and the lakes of Nicaragua. This work, when completed, will open to the commerce of the world the resources of a great country, hitherto but little known. To give some idea of the extent and value of Central America, through which this canal will pass, and of the route of the canal, we make the following extracts from the Westminster Review and from the Washington Union, as containing the best information on the subject which we have seen. We copy first from the Westminster Review. The certainty of these two routes of Panama and Nicaragua being speedily carried out, in a more or less perfect degree, places the rapid settlement of Central America beyond all doubt; and hence gives to all personal descriptions of the country, such as those which have been furnished by Mr. Baily and Mr. Byam, an interest that comes home to our daily business. Let the reader imagine what must be the effect even of an annual transit of 50,000 or 100,000 adventurous and well informed people through a strip of country scarcely one hundred and fifty miles broad, yet commanding the ocean intercourse with Europe on one side, and with Asia on the other, favourable to health, and abounding at the same time, owing to the inequalities of its surface, with every natural product that can be found distributed elsewhere between Scotland and the tropics, and an impressive idea of its coming destiny will be awakened; but let the glance be carried farther, to the period of the completion of the canal, and then let it be remembered that within this strip of land lie two calm, yet deep and extensive lakes, that seem, as we look upon them in the map, like huge natural docks in the centre of the world, intended to receive the riches of a universal commerce; and in the contemplation of what is yet to be realized, the mind will. almost beat with impatience against the slight barrier of time. which yet remains between us and its accomplishment. That Central America possesses inherently all the essentials to attract a dense and vigorous population, is a fact that has rarely been doubted by those Europeans or Americans who have visited the country, and all the publications before us tend to confirm it. The researches of Mr. Stephens showed that it had been largely peopled by an aboriginal race of a remarkable character, and the size of its towns and its architectural remains give evidence of comparative prosperity under the old Spanish dominion. Leon, the principal city of Nicaragua, was formerly noted for its opulence, and once contained 50,000 inhabitants, who were among the most peaceful and industrious people in the country; while it has now, it is said by Mr. Baily, not more than one-third of that number, and half the place is in ruins. This is simply owing to the wretched revolutionary contests that have gone on without intermission since the declaration of independence, and which are invariably got up by a handful of military vagabonds, who would be swept away in the course of four-and-twenty hours, or who, rather, would never dare to show their faces, if a hundred Englishmen or Americans were in the district to stimulate the well disposed to confidence. "The fact is," says Mr. Byam," that every revolution effected in all the republics, from Chili to Mexico, is brought about by such a mere fraction of the population that it seems a wonder to an Englishman that the great majority do not rise and speak out, 'We wish to be quiet; we do not want revolution and murders; nor do we wish to be subjected to forced contributions of money, cattle, and personal service; and, above all, we are nine out of ten in number against your one; and the great majority will not consent to be plundered by the small minority, who are only dissolute ruffians.'" If the reign of peace were established, (and even now it may be considered that such is almost the case, for after the present year we shall hear no more of disturbances in Nicaragua,) the progress of the country, apart from the effects of a large European immigration, would of itself be steady and considerable. With regard to health, the varied productions of Central America give the best evidence that whenever the country shall be opened up by roads and steamboats, and all the locomotive appliances of modern science, there will be no condition of person who may not, by ordinary attention to the natural laws, enjoy in this territory all the physicial power of which his constitution may be capable. Wherever it is possible to reach, by a few hours' journey, districts in which wheat, barley, and all the ordinary fruits and vegetables of Europe may be grown in perfection, there can be little fear that any thing will be wanting in the way of climate to ensure the preservation of bodily vigour. Even in its present state, Central America, on the whole, has no bad reputation regarding health, although the advantages offered by its configuration, in enabling the inhabitants to vary their climate according to their requirements, might as well not exist, since roads can scarcely be said to be known, the best rate of progress being about twenty miles a day, and mule paths through thick woods, without resting places at night, being usually the only features of a traveller's track. Yet, on the banks of the San Juan, and in other parts of Nicaragua, there are elevations that would afford the most beneficial sites for farms and residences; while in Costa Rica, San Salvador, and indeed in all the states, table lands more or less abound, where any condition of climate may be obtained in a few hours. In Guatemala may be seen fields of wheat and peach trees, and large districts [resembling the finest part of England on a magnificent scale.] Valuable mineral and thermal springs are likewise distributed over the various localities, and there are other adjuncts of a curative kind, which may possibly be found to yield extensive results, and to present even a temptation to some classes of invalids. Amongst these is an animal called the manatee, between a quadruped and a fish, about ten feet long, weighing from five hundred to eight hundred pounds, affording excellent food, and possessing a medicinal quality apparently analogous to the cod-liver oil, it being alleged to be strikingly effectual as a speedy cure for scorbutic or scrofulous disorders. "The blood is said to become purified, and the virulence of the complaint, thrown to the surface of the body, quickly disappears.' "Although Central America," observes Mr. Baily, "occupies the middle space between the equator and the tropic of cancer, consequently lying within the torrid zone, the temperature may be said to be relatively mild, and, taken altogether, it undoubtedly is salubrious;" and this, it must be remembered, is the testimony of an English officer, who has resided in the country from choice during the best part of his life. The places most prejudicial to health lie on the northern coast and the Mosquito shore, where endemic and intermittent fevers are not unfrequent. The Pacific coast is exposed to a temperature equally high, or nearly so; but is much more salubrious, and seldom visited by epidemic. or contagious diseases. In point of natural riches, Nicaragua and Costa Rica have usually been spoken of amongst the various states as possessing the most abundant resources, but they all teem with rewards for industry, such as is almost unknown in any other part of the globe; and, upon a review of the claims of each state in this respect, it is hard to decide which has the greatest capabilities. In the plain of Nicaragua the fields are covered with high grass, studded with noble trees and herds of cattle. Cocoa, indigo, rice, Indian corn, bananas, and cotton are here produced, and mahogany, cedar, and pine abound in the forests. On the eastern side |