emigrate to a land where civil and religious liberty have already been established upon firm foundations, rather than spend their lives and fortunes in a doubtful struggle. Hence, it is obvious that emigration is calculated to conserve and strengthen the despotic principles of European governments, by drawing off that class of their subjects most strongly opposed to despotism. The destinies of Great Britain were separated by the Reformation from those of the nations on the continent, and hence she presents many aspects of civilization peculiar to herself. Her Colonial system, in connection with commerce, by enlarging her natural resources, has fostered a spirit of progress, and imparted to her people many qualities which belong to a young and growing nation; while the conservative principles of her ancient institutions give a degree of consistency to her councils, and steadiness to her policy, that sustain her institutions and cause her power to be respected in every quarter of the Globe. Unlike continental Europe, the genius of the people and institutions of Great Britain tend to the enlargement of civil and religious liberty. And although the parent state still suffers under many evils derived from the feudal system, yet these are chiefly local in their nature, and do not follow the colonists to other lands. Hence, Great Britain may be regarded as the more immediate source of republican principles and the parent of a new order of civilization. The affinities between Great Britain and Continental Europe are gradually growing weaker; and if the latter should even become Cossack, yet the destiny of the former would not be materially affected by the change; she would still progress, as heretofore, in her great mission of introducing a new order of civilization in distant parts of the earth. While contemplating the different aspects presented by civilization from the earliest ages to the present time, we are forcibly impressed with the analogy between the manner, in which the diferent orders of animated nature succeeded each other in the history of the earth, to that exhibited by man in his social progress. We are taught by Geology that many successive orders of animals, now extinct, have existed in different ages of our globe, each advancing in degrees of development from the lowest and most simple forms of life, until the appearance of man upon the earth, a being endowed with faculties which enable him to comprehend the laws of his own nature; with power to multiply and en large the means of his subsistence; capable of intellectual and moral pleasures; and of improving, indefinitely, his faculties of enjoyment. And so, in tracing the history of civilization, we discover successive orders gradually arising from the chaotic elements of ignorance and barbarism, until we behold the beautiful and sublime development of our own American system. An order of civilization founded upon principles of universal justice; harmonizing and combining human science with the lights of revelation; diffusing knowledge and political power among the people of every degree, and calling into active and efficient operation the mental and moral qualities of every individual. And thus combining all the clements of progression, like the Christian philosophy, it is consistent with the highest development of humanity. Its chief elements are imperishable. And therefore, although in its progress it may present a great variety of aspects, yet we are compelled to conclude that it must be coexistent with the race of man. It is an off-shoot of British liberty, which must have perished with the parent tree had it not been transferred to the virgin soil of our continent. It possesses all the attributes of a new order, and it may be safely affirmed that the physical and social elements of Europe are incapable of producing another, similar in form, and possessing the same inherent and vital properties. It cannot originate in other lands; yet, with judicious culture, it thrives wheresoever transplanted. Even the African born upon our soil, though bred in bondage, when transferred to the tropical clime of his fatherland, carries with him the vital elements and energies of American civilization. A few thousand colonists, transported to Liberia by the praiseworthy exertions of American philanthropists, have already established there an order of civilization, and a form of government modelled in all respects after our own; while the French nation after a struggle of three score years has again declined into a state of despotism. No foreign hand was stretched forth to suppress the spirit of civil liberty in France or to sustain the rule of despotism. France was left to fight her own battles, and has fallen by her own hand. Under every form of government through which she passed, she has been powerful and respected abroad; but all her experimental forms of government were inconsistent with the genius and national elements of the French people, and consequently failed to secure the ends designed by their projectors. With such an example before us, and in view of the aspects of European civilization, and of the elements of which it is composed, who will risk his reputation for intelligence so far as to affirm that civil liberty could be established and permanently maintained in patriotic Hungary, even if Austria were to consent to her independence? We need not discuss the principles or policy of intervention on the part of this country in behalf of Hungary or other European nations. The idea was the offspring of American sympathy, excited to a high degree by the visit to our shores of the acknowledged chief of Hungarian patriots, and claims our notice, mainly, because of the evidence it affords that the love of civil liberty is a natural and cherished sentiment of the American people. That they should sympathize with Hungary was natural; and we are bound to respect their public demonstrations of regard for the cause of a people struggling for independence. But the doctrine of intervention is directly opposed to the genius, principles and policy of our American institutions. It will pass away with the occasion that gave it birth. In reviewing the subject of this paper, we find that the area of civilization was not materially enlarged from the time of Alexander the Great to the discovery of this continent. As it progressed westward, it declined in the East; and decay pressing hard upon its rear, no successful attempt has yet been made to re-establish civilization upon the ruins of a country once inhabited and despoiled by the ignorance and crimes of its own people. The land exhausted of its fertility, if not replenished by the hand of science, must have its sabbath of rest, and remain fallow, until the advancing column of civilization shall have made the circuit of the globe. The laws of nature are immutable. The aspects of Asiatic and European civilization present a gloomy view of humanity, but they are inscribed with lessons of profound instruction. To the statesman they teach the importance of equal rights, of universal education, and admonish him against the folly and danger of interfering with the quarrels or policy of foreign nations. To the teachers of philosophy and religion they show, that, though founded upon eternal truths, yet, without progress, their systems must decay and loose their vitality. And they proclaim to the tillers of the soil that to their hands have been confided the life-sustaining elements of nations, and, that a fearful accountability awaits the individual who deprives the earth of its vitality, robs it of its treasures, and makes a desert spot, where he should have made a garden. ARTICLE II. Population of the United States. Sixty years have elapsed since the first census of the people of the United States was taken, and it is very gratifying to find that, in that period from 1790 to 1850 inclusive-our population has increased from 3,929,827 to 23,257,723, thus showing an advance in population, never before experienced by any nation or people, of which a record has come down to our times. It is very gratifying to reflect that the power, prosperity and improvement of the United States have advanced with a rapidity and energy even exceeding our increase of population. And it is a source of great pleasure, that that advancement, there is just reason to believe, will probably progress with accelerated force, particularly in knowledge, and the general education of the people at large. As population is the ground work of all improvement, it has struck me, in my contemplations on this fruitful and interesting subject, that a tabular exhibition of our population, for the past sixty years, showing its regular increase, during each term of ten years, with such a steady and nearly uniform course, as to put it in our power to calculate, after each census, not only what will be the result of the next census, but of each year of the decade, would not only be interesting but very useful. Such a table will enable us to ascertain with sufficient accuracy, for all useful purposes, at the end of any year of the decade, the actual population, at that time, as well as of the succeeding census. Any small errors will be corrected by the actual census, at the end of each ten years, which will furnish correct data for calculating the next census and so on in perpetuity. In the annexed table the first column will show the estimated population of 1800 by adding to the actual population of 1790 one third, or 33 per cent. The second column shows the actual population, according to the census; and the third the number, more or less, which the actual shall vary from the estimated population. The same course will be pursued, after each census, till the year 1850 inclusive. In a second table I will show the results of our population, after each ten years for sixty years to come; and how the population after each year of the decade may be nearly ascertained. But I will postpone this table till I introduce and make some explanatory remarks on the first. Estimated. 1790 Actual popul. Population more or less than estimate. 64,565 168,348 1800 5,239,101 5,303,666 More than estimated. 1810 7,071,555 7,239,903 More than estimated. 1820 9,653,204 9,660,765 More than estimated. 1830 12,881,020 12,866,020 Less than estimated. 1840 17,181,360 17,068,666 Less than estimated. 1850 22,758,221 23,257,723 More than estimated. 7,561 15,000 112,694 499.502* It will be seen by the foregoing table, that the actual population exceeded the estimate by the census of 1800, 1810 and 1820 in the aggregate 240,474, and fell short of the estimate, by the census of 1830 and 1840, 127,694, making the aggregate excess of population, in fifty years over the estimate of 33 per cent. only 112,780, error averaging 2255 per annum. But by the census of 1850 the actual population exceeded the estimate of 33 per cent. 499,502. The cause of this excess will appear from the following facts collected from a table, in the July number of the Western Journal, for 1851, p. 241. From that table it appears that the number of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, from the year 1825 to 1849 inclusive, was 1,260,247. The number for the first fifteen years was 348,120, averaging for the decennial period of ten years 232,080. For the ten years 1840 to 1849 the number was 679,120, showing an excess over the preceeding ten years of 447,040, which added to the estimate of 33 per cent. to the census of 1840 would make the aggregate of the census of 1850-23,205,261. The actual number, according to the returns published in the Globe, was 23,257,723. This shows that the great excess over the estimate of 33 per cent. during the last decade, was occasioned by the great increase of foreign emigration. The average annual number of emigrants for the first fifteen years, in the table referred to, from 1825 to 1839 inclusive, was 23,208; and for the next ten years, from 1840 to 1849 inclusive, the average annual number of emigrants was 91,120. This exhibits a very great increase of emigration. But for the last three years, embraced by the table, from 1847 to 1849 inclusive, the number was 549,837, averaging per annum 183,279. At the same annual rate the number of emigrants for ten years, from 1850 to 1860, would amount to 1,832,279, whilst for the ten years, preceding 1840, the number was only 232,208, showing an increase of emigration during the next decade of 1,600,071. Upon the supposition that the emigration from 1850 to 1860 shall be equal to the average of the three years from 1847 to 1849 inclusive, this * For census to 1840 inclusive, see National Register, vol. 61, p. 113. |