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of home manufactures. In 1821, the exports amounted to 64,974,382 dollars, which was below the average of the five preceding years. The exports of 1825 exceeded 92 millions of dollars; those of 1826 were only 78 millions, while the imports were 85 millions. On the other hand, the proportion of the foreign trade carried on in native vessels, has been steadily increasing.

The present revenue of the Republic is derived principally from duties upon imports. The mean revenue of the years 1826, 7, 8, was 25,022,552 dollars, or 5,317,2927. sterling, of which 4,474,000l. was derived from the Customs; the remainder arising from the sale of public lands, internal revenue, loans and treasury notes, direct taxes, and miscellaneous. The mean expenditure of those years was 4,982,8397., of which 2,347,4231. was appropriated to paying the interest of the public debt, and reducing it; the expenditure on the military department was 818,7007.; on the naval department, 816,7697.; and the remainder comprised the civil list, foreign intercourse, revolutionary and other pensions, and the Indian department. Exclusive of the revenue of the General Government, the Twenty-four States have each a separate revenue, amounting collectively to about 1,704,000l.,* and, with the revenue of the General Government, to 7,021,000. It is calculated, that every free individual in the Union contributes to the revenue, one way or other, about 14s. 6d. yearly. Small as this sum ap

• The revenue of Pennsylvania is the largest, being more than a fourth of the aggregate total. In other words, the taxes levied by that State, are four times heavier than in the New England States, being at the rate of 1 dollar 98 cents for each individual. The revenue of New York, is next in amount, and approaches to another fourth of the total.

† Each person pays to the State Government, on the average,

pears, it is large in proportion to the aggregate income of the country; and as the tariff duties from which the revenue of the General Government is derived, are levied avowedly for the fostering of the native manufactures, which are confined to the Northern and Middle States, the agriculturists of the Southern States loudly complain of the unequal and burdensome taxation. This revenue must therefore be regarded as somewhat precarious; and should the repeal of the tariff law be effected, some more direct mode of taxation must be resorted to, to meet the demands of the public creditor.

The States in which the greatest attention is paid to manufactures, are Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. The principal manufactures are those of cotton and woollen cloths, of iron, and of leather. In 1820,

71 cents, or 3s. annually; to the General Government, 2 dollars 21 cents, or nearly 9s. 5d. But, excluding the slaves, the proportion is, to both the State and the General Government, 3 dollars 40

cents.

"The tariff was established, by small majorities in both houses, in 1824, and the duties imposed by it on manufactured goods, varied, according to their descriptions, from 25 to 40 per cent. on their value. These duties, enormous as their rate appears, were found insufficient to render the fabrication of most goods a profitable concern. It was proved in evidence before a committee of the Congress, in 1827 and 1828, that most of the manufacturing establishments had been losing concerns. In woollen goods, it was shewn, that the raw material was 40 per cent. higher than in Europe, while the cost of implements, and especially the price of labour, still further exceeded that of England. The Congress therefore increased the rate of duty on every species of European goods in a very high degree: in some instances, the duty imposed on coarse woollen goods was raised to 160 per cent. on their first cost.......... It is natural that the Southern States should loudly complain of being thus grievously burdened with taxes, not for the general purposes of the whole of the States, but to support the unnatural and artificial trade of some of the northern people."-Quart. Rev. No. lxxvii. pp. 244.

the number of inhabitants engaged in manufactures, was 349,506, of whom 218,116 (or nearly two-thirds) were resident in the nine States north of Delaware Bay. It was not till the imposition of the embargo in 1807, that any considerable impulse was given to this branch of industry. It received a serious check on the cessation of the restrictions in 1815, but has been on the increase since the year 1818,-owing chiefly, however, to that system of commercial restrictions which is exciting at this moment so serious a contention between the different sections of the Federal Union as almost to endanger the Constitution.

The complicated contrivance of a Federal Republic, must still be viewed as undergoing in America the test of experiment. "To what limits such a republic might, without inconveniency, enlarge its dominions, by assuming neighbouring provinces into the confederation; or how far it is capable of uniting the liberty of a small commonwealth with the safety of a powerful empire; or whether, amongst co-ordinate powers, dissensions and jealousies would not be likely to arise, which, for want of a common superior, might proceed to extremities; are questions," remarked Dr. Paley, "upon which the records of mankind do not authorize us to decide with tolerable certainty. The experiment is about to be tried in America upon a large scale.' As such it appeared to the illustrious "Father of his Country," when, on the happy day of his inauguration as President, he used these memorable words. "The destiny of the republican model of government is justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked on the experiment intrusted to the American people." Since then, the

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* Paley's Moral. Phil. Book vi. c. 6.

† Hale, p. 343.

Thirteen States have increased to Twenty-four; and the territories which form at present the waste lands of the Republic, are, in the hands of the General Government, a sort of geographical empire, the determinate political shape of which, time must decide.

The sinister prediction, that the American States would soon be dissevered, and form separate empires, having discordant interests, and possibly at variance with each other,—is adverted to by Dr. Dwight; who meets it with the remark, that the mere separation of the American empire into independent districts, would not of itself prevent or destroy the prosperity and happiness of the commonwealth. "Small states," he observes, "when safe from foreign invasion, have been usually happier than great ones. The limited powers of the human mind seem hitherto to have been incompetent to direct with success the internal affairs of a great empire, so as to secure to its inhabitants that degree of happiness which has been realized in states of a moderate extent. The present arrangement of the American territory was intended to promote the internal prosperity of the people by the division, and their safety by the union, of the States. How far it will answer this end, is yet to be proved. For ought which man can foresee, other divisions, and other unions, may be necessary.' "In our country," says another intelligent American writer, "all is yet new and in progress; nothing has received its finish; neither its moral nor its physical

Dwight's Travels, vol. iv. p. 513. "Should these hereafter take place," adds the learned Writer," New England and New York will, almost of course, be united in the same political body, The inhabitants are now substantially one people; their interests of every kind are inseparably blended; and not a natural or rational cause of division can be found in either their physical or moral circumstances,"

development is complete; and the theorist can only pronounce, that, thus far, it has, in an admirable degree, subserved the substantial ends of human society."

Waiving any reflections or speculations of our own in this place, we hasten to commence our topographical survey of the country with a description of what may be regarded as its commercial metropolis, though not the federal capital, the London, though not the Westminster, of the United States.

* North American Review, No. liii, p. 451.

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