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 NewYork.

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 excced those of all the NewEngland States. Nearly four hundred sea vessels ar rive 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 three 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 twenty-eight; in the country, one in thirty-five; and in the most 'healthy parts, one in fifty-five.

The aggregate salubrity of the United States surt passes that of Europe; the males are, generally, active,

robust, muscular, and powerful, capable of great exertion and endurance; the females display a fine symmetry of person, lively and interesting countenances, frank and engaging manners. Neither the men nor the women exhibit such ruddy complexions as the British, Dutch, Swedes, Danes, Russians, Norwegians, and the northern Europeans generally. The Americans average a longer life than the people in Europe; where only three, out of every thousand births, reach the ages of eighty to ninety years; whereas, in the United States, the proportion is five to every thousand.

The population of the whole United States has, hitherto, doubled itself in rather less than twenty-five years. The New-England States, of course, do not retain their proportion of this increase, because large bodies of their people migrate annually to the western country; which, in consequence, has increased much faster than do the States on the seaboard. Kentucky, for example, has increased eighty per cent. in ten years; Tennessee, ninety-five; Ohio, one hundred and eighty; Louisiana, one hundred and fifty; Indiana, eight hundred; Mississippi Territory, one hundred and sixty; Illinois Territory, seven hundred; Missouri Territory, six hundred; and Michigan Territory, six hundred;-while, of all the Atlantic States, the greatest increase is only forty-four per cent. the population growth of New-York; and the least is twenty per cent. that of Virginia. So that, in the course of a few years, the States will range, if the future be like the past, as to their aggregate population in the following order; New-York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, North-Carolina, Massachusetts, South-Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, Georgia, New-Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Louisiana, New-Hampshire, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Illinois, Delaware, and RhodeIsland.

Although the Western Country draws off large migrations from the Atlantic States, particularly from New-England, yet the annually-increasing surplus of population in those States has become so great, that

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they will not very sensibly feel the drain; because the whole of the annual increase will never migrate in any given year, until the older States shall be overstocked. Massachusetts proper, Connecticut, and Rhode-Island, appear to be approximating to that point; for their pulation averages a very slow increase; and they furnish, yearly, great numbers of recruits to the Western Country. As long as the Federal Union lasts, every succeeding year will diminish the relative importance of New-England in the American commonwealth, by rendering her population and resources less and less proportionate to those of the Western States, whose preponderance in the national councils is already begun to be felt. Supposing, however, that the national councils shall be directed for the benefit of the whole United States, and not, exclusively, or too abundantly, for the local interests of some particular districts, then no injury can accrue to the older States, on account of their annual migrations to the west: because, by augmenting the population and resources of the Union at large, they do, in fact, augment their own strength, as an integral part of that Union. If otherwise, indeed, but it is not pleasant to indulge in ill-omened anticipations sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.

The migrations to the west, at present, are supposed to average one-third of the annual increase of the older States; to this, add the importation of foreigners from Europe, and the growth of their own native stock of population, in an extensive country, a fertile soil, and a favourable climate, and it requires no great skill in political arithmetic to calculate how soon the Western States will outweigh all the rest of the Union in the general government, by the mere force of a more numerous people. An overstock of inhabitants must always be measured by the habits and manners prevalent in any given country. In the earlier stages of barbarous life, for instance, such as our aboriginal Indians pursue, one hunter for every square mile is considered by them a full stock; and when there is more than this proportion, they say, "it is time for our young men to

go to war, or we shall starve." Hence arises their merciless mode of fighting, and extermination after conquest, so common to all savage hostilities. In the next, or pastoral state of human society, an increase, at the rate of three or four to each square mile, takes place; as is seen in Arabia, and other parts of Africa, and in Asia. In the more advanced stages of social life, in countries where agriculture and commerce prevail, the rate of population varies from three to three hundred for each square mile of territory, according to the different degrees of advancement in the arts of civilization, and commercial, horticultural, agricultural, mechanical, and scientific pursuits. In the most populous parts of China, there are upwards of three hundred persons to each square mile; in England, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Italy, the average is two hundred; in France, one hundred and fifty; in Scotland, seventy; in Massachusetts, Rhode-Island, and Connecticut, fifty-two; New-York, twenty; Virginia, fifteen; the whole United States, four.

It is a fact worthy of observation, that in the State of Virginia there appear to be three distinct races of people; those on the seaboard, up to the head of the tidewater, are a sickly, indolent, feeble tribe; from the head of the tidewater to the base of the Blue-ridge the soil is inhabited by as fine, robust, athletic, powerful a body of men as may be found in the world; on the ridge of the Blue-mountains the population is less in stature, but extremely active, hardy, strong, and enterprising.

The rapid increase of a healthy and vigorous population implies a flourishing state of agriculture; and, accordingly, the United States, during the last twenty years, except 1808 (the embargo year), and 1814, in addition to maintaining their own fast-growing population, have, on an average, exported one-fourth of their agricultural produce. For the tables, showing these exports, from the year 1791 to 1816, both inclusive, the reader is referred to Mr. Pitkin's Statistical View of the United States. Agriculture, as a science, is im