54,192. A manufacturing town. Cause of growth, abundance and cheapness of coal found in the vicinity, with a good supply of free-stone, slate, etc. The town is built mostly of free-stone.

"Bury, England.-A large manufacturing town, consisting of 4,360 acres. Population in 1821, 13,480; in 1841, 77,496. In the parish of the same name, and which includes this town, are extensive quarries of building stone, and nine wrought coal mines.

"Carlisle, England.-A manufacturing town, supplied with coal from places varying from twelve to twenty miles distant. Population in 1801, 10,221; in 1821, 15,486; in 1841, 36,084.

66 Charleroy.-An important manufacturing town in Belgium, situated in the centre of the great coal basin of Charleroy. In 1836 it had seventy-two mines in active operation, producing 900,000 tons of coal per annum. Iron abounds, and also quarries of marble and slate. Its furnaces give employment to 3,000 men, and during the winter season 4,000 men are employed in making nails. Its coal, iron and stone have made it what it is.

"Derby, England-A manufacturing town, with both water-power and coal. Population in 1841, 35,015; in 1811 it was only 13,043.

Durham, England.-In 1821 this city had a population of 10,282; in 1831, only 10,520. About this time extensive collieries were opened, and population immediately increased, so that in 1840 the number of its inhabitants was put down at 40,000. Previous to this it was one of the dullest cities in the kingdom. Stone, lime, coal and iron abound.

"Huddersfield, England.-The township consists of 3,950 acres, and had a population in 1801 of 7,268, in 1831 of 19,035. The population of the parish in 1840 was estimated at 40,000. It is one of the principal seats of the woollen manufacture, and stands in the midst of a rich coal field. There is also an ample supply of water-power.

"Johnston, Scotland.-The rise of this town has been more rapid than any other town in Scotland. The ground on which it stands began, for the first time, to be fued, or let, on building leases, in 1781, when it contained only ten persons. Its population in 1840 is set down at 7,000. Its growth is owing to the introduction of manufactures, it being situated on a fine water-power. It has several foundries and machine-shops, and near the town are four collieries.

"Leeds, England.-A_celebrated manufacturing town, and the great centre of the woollen cloth trade. Population of the town in 1831, 71,602. Its eminence is owing partly to its advantageous situation in a fertile country, intersected with rivers, and partly to its possessing inexhaustible beds of coal.

"Leigh, England.—A manufacturing town, with a population in 1841 of 22,229. In 1831, according to Mr. Baines, upwards of 8,000 persons were employed in spinning and weaving cotton and silk, both by hand and power looms. Its industry and growth is promoted by its abundance of coal and lime.

"Lowell, Massachusetts.-Population in 1820, 200; at the present time, 35,000. Cause of growth, its great water-power.

"Lawrence, Massachusetts.-Present population, 7,500. Four or five years ago it was but a school district. Its water-wheels have graded streets, and lined these with splendid edifices on alluvial land so poor that it would not average a crop of 15 bushels of corn to the acre without artificial enrichment.

"Manchester, New-Hampshire, in 1835 was a small hamlet; in 1840 a few mills had increased its population to about 3,000; it is said to contain now about 17,000 souls. Although it is in a hilly and barren country, and receives its materials and sends its products over about sixty miles of rail-road, it is still growing with rapidity, because it has the motive-power of the Merrimac.

acres.

"Manchester, England.-The great centre of the cotton manufacture in Great Britain, and the principal manufacturing town in the world. Manchester and Salford are separated by the small river Irwell, and form one town, covering 3,000 The population of the town and suburbs, including Salford, in 1801, was 95,313; in 1831, 239,3-8; and in 1841 was estimated at 360,000. Manufacturing has made Manchester. The steam engine, with other improved machines for working up cotton, have made its manufactures, and the coal from the inexhastible coalfield, on the edge of which the city is situated, has fed the engine. Hence the modern growth of Manchester is ascribable to its coal.

"Merthyr Tydvil, S. Wales.-Population 27,460 in 1831; in 1841, 34,977. It

is remarkable for its iron works, and is wholly indebted for its prosperity to its rich mines of coal, iron ore and lime-stone. Towards the middle of the last century it was an insignificant village, and in 1755 the lands and mines for several miles around the village, the seat of the great works now erected, were let for ninety-nine years for £200 a year.

"Newcastle-upon-Tyne.-Population in 1831, 53,613; in 1841 estimated at 65,000. It owes its importance, if not its existence, to its convenient situation as a place of shipment for the coal wrought in its neighborhood.

"Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.—The population of Pittsburg for each decennary period from 1800 was 1,565, 4,768, 7,248, 12,542, 21,115. With its dependences it has a present population of about 100,000; and although it has lost the greater part of its transportation and commercial business, it is now growing more rapidly than ever. The copper ore of Lake Superior, the lead of Illinois, the wheat of Michigan, the cotton of Tennessee, and even the iron and sand of Missouri, are transported to and combined by the power that lies in the Pittsburg coal.

"Oldham, England.-A large manufacturing town, chiefly cotton. Population in 1841, 42,595. In 1760 it comprised only about sixty thatched tenements. In 1839 it had two hundred manufactories, set in motion by a steam-power equal to 2,942 horses, and employing 15,391 hands. It has an abundant and immediate supply of excellent coal.

"Rochester, New-York.-Population in 1820, 1,502; in 1830, 9,269; in 1840, 20,191. It owes its great advantages and rapid growth to its vast water-power, created by the falls in the Genesee river.

"Sheffield, England.-Noted for its hardware, cutlery, etc. Population of the parish in 1801, 45,755; in 1831, 91,692; and in 1841, 110,801. Its manufactures are extensive, and known the world over. Coal and iron have made the city.

"Wolverhampton, England-This town, or rather the district including the town, comprises 16,630 acres. Its population in 1831 was 67,514. In 1841 the popula tion of the town alone was 36,189. Wolverhampton, and the places in its vicinity, owe their rapid rise to the mines of coal and iron-stone.

"Other illustrations, such as Pottsville, Cumberland, Wheeling, Pomeroy, etc., might be adduced, but those already given are believed to be sufficient to indicate the tendency of men at the present time to cluster around and to build their homes in such localities as afford them the great staples and materials upon which they may bestow their labor, and for which they may receive the largest rates of compensation." Cannelton Economist.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.

SOUTHERN COMMERCE AS INFLUENCED BY THE GULF STREAM.

Ar a late meeting of the Scientific Association, held at Charleston, S. C., Lieut. Maury read a paper upon the influences the discovery of the Gulf Stream has had upon the commerce of that city, which is so able and interesting, that we need no apology in presenting it to our readers.

"Lieut. Maury said, that before the Gulf Stream was known to practical navigators, the course of trade between England and America was such, as to make Charleston the half-way house between the mother country and the New England States, including Pennsylvania and New-York.

"At that time, the usual route of vessels bound to America was to run down on the other side towards the Cape de Verdes, and until they got the N. E. trades, and with them to steer for America. This route brought them upon the coast of the Southern States, where their first landfall was generally made. Then steering to the northward, they drifted along until they made the Capes of the Delaware, or other headlands to the North.

"If now, as it often happened in the winter season, they were driven of the coast

by snow storms and westerly gales, instead of running off into the Gulf stream, 28 vessels now do to thaw themselves, they stood back to Charleston or the West Indies, where they would spend the winter, and wait until the spring before making another attempt.

"It should be borne in mind that vessels then were not the sea boats or the sailers they now are. Lieut. Maury had the log-book of a West India trader in 1746. Her average rate of sailing, per log, was one mile the hour.

"The instruments of navigation were rude, chronometers were unknown, and lunars were impracticable, and it was no uncommon thing for vessels in those days, when crossing the Atlantic, to be out of their reckoning 5o, 6o, and even 10°. And when it was announced that a vessel might know by consulting the water thermometer, when she crossed the eastern edge of the Gulf stream, and again when she crossed the western edge, navigators likened the discovery to the drawing of blue and red streaks in the water, by which, when the mariner crossed, then he might know his longitude. "The merchants of Providence, R. I., Dr. FRANKLIN being in London, sent a petition to the Lords of the Treasury, asking that the Falmouth packets might run to Providence instead of to Boston; they maintained that though Boston and Falmouth were between Providence and London, yet that practically the two former were further apart, for they showed that the average passage of the London traders to Providence was fourteen days less than the packet line from Falmouth to Boston.

"Dr FRANKLIN, on being questioned as to this fact, consulted an old New-England Captain, who had been a whaler, and who informed the Doctor, that the London traders to Providence were commanded for the most part by New-England fishermen, who knew how to avoid the Gulf stream, while the Falmouth packets were commanded by Englishmen who knew nothing about it.

"These two drew a chart, which was published at the Tower, and the Gulf stream, as laid down there by that Yankee whaler, has been preserved upon our charts until within a few years.

"At the time that Dr. FRANKLIN made it known how navigators, simply by dipping a thermometer in the water, might know when they entered, and when they cleared the Gulf stream, Charleston had more commerce than New-York, and all the New-England States put together.

"This discovery changed the route across the Atlantic, shortened the passage from sixty to thirty days, coming this way, and consequently changed the course of trade also.

"Instead of calling by Charleston as they came from England, vessels went direct to the port of their destination; instead of running down to Charleston to avoid a New-England snow storm, they stood off for a few hours, until they reached the tepid waters of the Gulf stream, in the genial warmth of which the crew recovered their energies, and as soon as the gale abated they were ready for another attempt to make their haven.

"In this way the northern ports became the half-way-house, and Charleston an outside station.

"This revolution in the course of trade commenced about 1795. It worked slowly at first, but in 1816-17, it received a fresh impulse from Jeremiah Thompson, Isaac Wright and others, who conceived the idea of establishing a line of packets between New-York and Liverpool. This was at a period when the scales of commercial ascendancy were vibrating between New-York, Boston, Philadelphia and other places. The packet ships of the staid New-York quaker turned the balance. Though only of 300 tons burden, and sailing but once a month, they had their regular day of departure, and the merchants of Charleston, Philadelphia, etc., found it convenient to avail themselves of this regular and stated channel for communicating with their agents in England, ordering goods, etc. Those packets went on increasing in numbers and size nntil now; at the present day we have them building of 2000 tons, sailing every day, and running between New-York and every fifth-rate sea-port town in the United States, and to many foreign ports.

"Thus an impulse was given to the prosperity of New-York; one enterprise begat another, until that city became the great commercial emporium and centre of exchange of the new world; and all these results are traceable to the use of the water-thermometer at sea.

"Other causes, doubtless, have operated to take away from Charleston her relative commercial importance-but the primary cause was that discovery which removed Charleston from the way-side of commerce with Europe, and which placed

her on the outskirts of the great commercial thoroughfares, and away from the situation which she occupied.

"In consequence of the improvement since made in navigation, ship building, etc., Lieut. Maury, remarked that a ship could now go from New-York to New-England, and back, in less time than, when Charleston was the half-way house, she could get to Charleston from London.

"He therefore submitted whether this fact were not sufficient to turn the scales of commerce, and he claimed the fact to be due to the influence of the Gulf stream upon the course of trade, and the water-thermometer was the key to it all."

2. TRADE WITH CHINA.

THE opening of the gold mines of California, and the constant intercourse between the United States and the North Pacific, consequent upon the emigration of an immense number of our citizens to that territory, leads us to inquire with more than ordinary interest into the condition of the trade of that part of the world, and among the countries which attract attention, China is the most prominent. The projected lines of communication between the United States and North Pacific, one or the other of which must, at no very distant day, be commenced, will, in point of time, greatly reduce the distance between the United States and the Celestial Empire, and thereby afford to our citizens superior facilities for commencing and carrying on with the Celestials a most important traffic. The opening of this trade would tend to stimulate the Chinese to cultivate intercourse with our country, as it also would to relieve them from that odious traffic, to which we may say they are now in bondage -the opium trade. This has been forced upon them by British India, and it is continued only because, compared with England, China is the weaker vessel. The latter would not willingly submit to a traffic which has such a baneful effect upon the interests of their whole Empire. Increased intercourse with the United States would tend to relieve the Chinese from this odious business, this system of robbery, by which one hundred million of people are enslaved for the profit of a few noble families in England. It will be the interest of the people of the United States to use all honorable means to abolish this traffic, as we can never expect to introduce our manufactures into China to any extent so long as England, with opium in one hand and the sword in the other, compels the Chinese to purchase that which keeps their markets in a state of continued depression by reason of the constant and enormous drain of specie for which no return is made except in that which reduces the moral condition of the people to that of the beast, and even lower.

This opium trade with China commenced in 1774, when England succeeded in stationing an opium ship at Whampoa, but the trade did not flourish much till 1821, when Linton Island became the chief market for the sale of the drug. About that time from three thousand to four thousand chests were sold per annum, worth some three million dollars, and in the next year (1822) the amount rose to twelve thousand chests per annum, and increased to forty thousand chests in 1847, when the trade produced war. In the conflict the Chinese were defeated, and since the peace the trade has continued to increase, and in 1849 there were consumed forty-nine thousand chests, for which forty million of dollars in pure silver was paid. The following is an official statement of this business for the last twenty-seven years.

The increase in the consumption of the drug in the last ten years, it is seen, has been very great; and although there has also been an increase in the exports of Chinese produce, yet the export of the precious metals in the adjustment of the balance adverse to China, has reached the annual sum of ten millions of dollars. Previous to the traffic in this pernicious drug, China was the recipient of the precious metals from the Western country, in adjustment of the balance in her favor. The opium traffic is not the only obstacle which England has thrown in the way to keep in a state of depression the Chinese Empire. She has imposed upon the tea imported

into the United Kingdom an enormous tax, amounting to nearly three times the value of the article itself. Under such a load of taxation it is impossible for the tea trade to expand. In 1847, the value of the tea exported from China was £2,749,577, and the duty paid on tea in the United Kingdom the same year was £5,067,042. In 1848, the exports of tea from China amounted to £1,909,000, and the duties paid in the United Kingdom to £5,310,527. Thus it is seen that the Chinese have to contend at home against the demoralizing effects of the opium traffic, forced upon them by England, while at the same time their commerce with England is depressed by the enormous tax placed upon their products for the purpose of sustaining an exhausted and sinking treasury. It is easy to see, therefore, that in carrying on a trade with China, the United States would have none of those prejudices naturally arising from the present and past relations of China and England to overcome.

If, therefore, the trade of British India could be revolutionized, and the constant drain of specie from China, by which the country is impoverished, stopped, we might find among the numerous people of the Celestial Empire an important market for our manufactures. This, however, we can hardly expect unless other nations support the Chinese in enforcing their own laws on their own territories. This will doubtless be the case, for it is hardly possible that such extortion could be carried on without attracting the attention and inducing the interference of rival Governments. A brief account of the manner of raising the opium will show how the producers, as well as the consumers, are imposed upon. The plan is this: All the lands are surveyed and marked every year; the farmers are then required to cultivate poppy. When the plant is nearly ripe the native officer of each village, appointed by the English Indian Government, makes a circuit and estimates the yield of opium. The farmer is then compelled to deliver the quantity estimatad at the price fixed by the English Indian Governor. If he fails to cultivate poppy, or deliver the estimate, his property is subject to confiscation and himself to exile. The Government agents are also always so far in advance to their farmers, that as debtors they are doubly slaves. The chests thus obtained cost the Government three hundred rupees, say $136 each, and then the Government sells in Calcutta, to the opium merchants, at an average of fourteen hundred rupees, $369 each, being a profit of $493 per chest. This on 40,000 chests, gives a net revenue of $17,320,000 per annum. They also draw a tax of $150 per chest on 20,000 chests per annum, and the officers of the Government admit that without it the Government could not be carried on.

3. CONDITION OF THE BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES. COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE CONDITION OF THE BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES.-JANUARY