seasons correspondently greater. The table, however, shows conclusively that the climate of the New World, viewed in its general features, is, contrary to general opinion, less excessive than that of the Old. Comparing our eastern coast with that of Asia, the difference between the mean temperature of winter and summer is found to be 12 deg. 20 min. less; and comparing our western coast, notwithstanding the isothermal line is lower, with that of Europe, a difference of 4 deg. 60 min. less is exhibited. It may be necessary to add that, with the exception of the last, the author is not aware of the local position of these points of comparison-a consideration of some importance, inasmuch as the northern division of the United States presents, on the same isothermal line, a difference between the mean temperature of winter and summer, varying from 38 deg. to 54 deg.

Connected with this subject is the question frequently agitated, whether the Old Continent is warmer than the new. Volney and others have attempted its solution by a comparison of the mean annual temperatures of different places on both sides of the Atlantic; but to this mode of determining it, the objection at once presents itself, that the points of comparison represent opposite extremes in the climate of each continent. Indeed, the question in itself involves an absurdity; for, as the laws of nature are unvarying in their operation, and as similar physical conditions obtain in corresponding parallels of both continents, the same meteorological phenomena will be induced. It shows in lively colours the truth of the remark, that every physical science bears the impress of the place at which it received earliest cultivation. In geology, for example, all volcanic phenomena were long referred to those of Italy; and in meteorology, the climate of Europe has been assumed as the type by which to estimate that of all corresponding latitudes. In making a comparison of the two continents, it is, therefore, necessary that both points have the same relative position. Fort Sullivan, Maine, notwithstanding it is more than 11 deg. south of Edinburgh, Scotland, exhibits a mean annual temperature of 5 deg. lower; Bordeaux, which is parallel with Fort Sullivan, has an annual temperature 15 deg. higher; and the mean of Stockholm, in lat. 59 deg. 20 min., is about the same as that of Fort Sullivan, in lat. 44 deg. 44 min. These are not, however, legitimate points of comparison. Pekin and Philadelphia, each on the eastern coast of its respective continent, are fair examples, having the same latitude, a similar relative position, and consequently the same mean annual temperature. The same coast of each northern hemisphere, it has been seen, present little difference as regards annual temperature; but in the New World, by the same comparison, the seasons are less contrasted.

Does the climate of a locality, in a series of years, undergo any permanent changes? TABLE of Thermometrical Observations at Philadelphia at intervals of Twenty-five Years.

1771, 1772, & 1775

1798, 1799, & 1800

1822, 1823, & 1824

52 72 90 3 87 34.06 50.88 71.62 54.32 33.44 34.35 39.68 48.73 63.23 68.02 75.02 71.83 62.84 56 28 43.84 34.38 53 9296 5 91 33.02 52.44 75.03 55.21 32.86 32.20 40.25 54.36 62.70 72.33 76.27 76.50 67.20 55.70 42.73 34.00 54 90 96-7 103,32.23 52.11 76 1659.10 31.12 29.94 40 26 51.98 64.09 73.88 79.49 75.11 71.28 57.19 48.83 35.64

TABLE of Thermometrical Observations during Thirty-three Years, at Salem, Massachusetts, Latitude 42 deg. 34 min., Longitude 70 deg. 54 min.

1st Series

2nd do..

3rd do. 4th do. 5th do.

dg. m.

47 92 96-11 107 29.21 46.09 69.42 50.31 24.80 25.07 36.25 45.15 56.87 67.21 71.29 69.75 61.31 49.54 40.09 27.77 49 49 99-11110 28.00 47.30 71.57 51.10 26.62 27.99 36.16 47.44 58.29 68.42 73.45 72.85 63.65 50 90 38.74 29.40 49 79 99

3102 29.73 46.71 70.69 52.04 26.94 29.56 36.18 46.62 57.32 67.80 72.9471.32 64.14 51.99 40.00 32 6S 48 22 100 7107 27.68 45.11 68.70 51.40 24.23 27.22 33.75 46.32 55.26 66.00 70.48 69.63 62.57 52.28 39.36 31.58 47 65 101-11112 25.85 44.64 68.45 51.68 24.24 24.16 33.82 44.55 55.54 65.06 71.83 68.45 61.47 50.95 42.61| 29.15

Mean of 33 years 48.61 101-11112 28.09 45.97 69.77 51.31 25.44 26.96 35.32 46.11 56.28 57.01 72.01 70.52 62.70 51.15 40.01 30.18

The duration of winter at the city of New York is exhibited in the following table :

Consequently the mean continuance of winter is 164 days, or about 5 months; and as the earliest formed ice, in the ten years, was on the 14th of October, and the latest on the 15th of May, the extreme duration of frost is 213 days, or about seven months. In the more excessive climate of the interior of the state of New York, however, as for example at Albany, no month of the year is exempt from frost.

In Dr. Forry's work he traces with great pains the endemic influences of the climate and soil. To the latter, as much as to the former, the fevers of the country are to be attributed. In regard to malarial districts he recommends that they should either be thoroughly drained or submerged. Epidemics and endemics are found in America, as they are in Europe, to enter first into the habitation of the poor man.

The following table, drawn up by him, exhibits the ratio of pulmonary diseases:

It is thus seen that, with the exception of catarrh and influenza, the annual ratio of pulmonary diseases is lower in the northern than in the southern regions of the United States. It is in the middle districts of the United States, however, that pneumonia, pleuritis, and phthisis pulmonalis, are most prevalent, the peninsula of Florida having a lower average than any other region. It is found, too, that the same law obtains in regard to the mortality arising from this class of diseases, the deaths per 1000 of mean strength being as under :

70

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

EXTENSION OF TERRITORY, AREA, AND PROGRESS OF THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE States which, on the ratification of independence, formed the American Republican Union were thirteen; viz.,

Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The foregoing thirteen states (the whole inhabited territory of which, with the exception of a few small settlements, was confined to the region extending between the Alleghaney mountains and the Atlantic) were those which existed at the period when they became an acknowledged separate and independent federal sovereign power. The thirteen stripes of the standard or flag of the United States, continue to represent the original number. The stars have multiplied to twentysix, according as the number of states have increased.

The territory of the thirteen original States of the Union, including Maine and Vermont, comprehended a superficies of 371,124 English square miles; that of the whole United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 120,354; that of France, including Corsica, 214,910; that of the Austrian Empire, including Hunand all the Imperial States, 257,540 English square miles.

gary

The present superficies of the twenty-six constitutional states of the AngloAmerican Union, and the district of Columbia, and territories of Florida, include 1,029,025 square miles; to which, if we add the north-west, or Wisconsin territory, east of the Mississippi, and bound by Lake Superior on the north, and Michigan on the east, and occupying at least 100,000 square miles, and then add the great western region, not yet well defined territories, but, at the most limited calculation, comprehending 700,000 square miles; the whole, unbroken in its vast length and breadth by foreign nations, comprehends a portion of the earth's surface equal to 1,729,025 English, or 1,296,770 geographical square miles.

The thirteen New States were admitted when their population as territories increased first to 400,000, and from 1832 until 1840, to 47,700 in the following

order and periods, taking their number after the thirteen original states already enumerated.

Fourteenth, Vermont, admitted in 1791, with only one legislative assembly, and the executive lodged in a governor-both elected annually.

Fifteenth, Kentucky, admitted in 1792, with a house of representatives elected annually, and a governor and senate for four years-votes in this state are given openly, and not by ballot.

Sixteenth, Tennessee, admitted in 1796 with a governor, senate, and house of representatives, all elected every two years.

Seventeen, Ohio, in 1803, with a governor and senate, elected every two years, and a house of representatives annually.

Eighteenth, Louisiana, which was purchased in 1803, for 15,000,000 dollars, from France, was admitted as a state into the union in 1812. The governor and senate are elected for four, and the representatives for two years; the purchase of this country from France gave legal, as well as actual possession of all the countries watered by the Mississippi, and Missouri, as well as of a vast sea-coast along the Gulf of Mexico, to the United States; it might have been easily conquered, but it was far cheaper, exclusive of the justice, to have purchased the possession.

Nineteenth, Indiana, admitted in 1816, has its administration vested in a governor and senate, elected every three years, and a house of representatives annually.

Twenty, Mississippi, was admitted as an independent state in 1817, with a governor, elected for two years, a senate, elected one-third annually for three years, and an annually elected house of representatives.

Twenty-first, Illinois, admitted into the Union in 1818, has a governor and senate, elected every four, and a house of representatives every two years.

Twenty-second, Alabama, admitted in 1819, has a governor, elected for two years, and a senate and house of representatives. The latter and one-third of the senators are elected annually.

Twenty-third, Maine, admitted in 1820, elects its governor, council, and representatives annually by ballot.

Twenty-fourth, Missouri, which forms part of the territory purchased from France, was admitted into the Union in 1821. The governor and senate are elected to serve four, and the representatives for two years.

Twenty-fifth, Michigan, framed its constitution in May, 1835, and elected its governor and legislature in October following. The population amounted, by the census taken during the end of 1834, to 85,856, but from the unprecedented flow of emigration, arising from speculation in its fertile lands, the population

during the summer of 1839, exceeded 200,000. In 1810, the whole white population was under 5000. In 1820, they increased to 8896. In 1830, to 31,067. Such is the amazing progress of the far west.

Twenty-sixth, Arkansas, adopted a constitution in 1836, and has been since then admitted into the union. All elections are vivâ voce. The governor to hold office for four years, the senate to be elected for the same period, and the representatives for two years. The population of Arkansas amounted in 1810 to 1062. In 1820, to 14,273. In 1830, to 30,388. In 1835, to 58,134.

Besides the twenty-six states, which send representatives in number according to their population, to congress, there are the local governments of,

First, The district of Columbia, under the immediate administration of the congress, being set apart distinctly as a sort of common ground in which Washington, the capital of the republic and the seat of the supreme court, is situated.

Secondly, The territory of Florida ceded by Spain in 1821 to the United States; its government is vested in a governor and council.

Fourthly, Wisconsin territory, which previously was in its civil government under Michigan, but, in consequence of a population of 30,000 having suddenly flowed into it, an act of congress, passed in 1836, erected it into a territorial government, with a governor, who is also a superintendent of Indian affairs, a secretary, a chief-justice, and two assistant-justices. The position of this territory, and its soil and natural productions, leave no doubt that in less than five years it will have a population which will entitle it to claim admission as a representative state into the federal union.

The extension of settlements by the population of the United States does not, however, confine itself to the vast regions we have enumerated. In December, 1835, a meeting of ninety persons, chiefly Americans, assembled at Bahia, or Goliad, in Texas, and made a declaration of its independence. In March following forty-four delegates, three of whom only were Mexicans, or natives of the country, assembled at a place named Washington, and formally declared the state a republican government, independent of Mexico. Since that period the Mexicans have on every occasion been repulsed, and even their president, Santa Anna, was made prisoner; but afterwards released.

The vast territory of Texas, extending between Louisiana and the river Bravo del Niorte, occupies 301,000 square miles, or 192,000,000 acres of the most fertile regions in America, watered by numerous rivers, and its soil and climate adapted to the culture of cotton, rice, sugar-cane, indigo, tobacco, and all the productions of warm and hot countries. Here oak and other valuable and durable timber abounds. Its independence, as a sovereign republic, has been acknowledged by France, Holland, and England.

The statistics of the old provinces were obscure and uncertain at the com