The extreme duration of life reported in the present census was 120 years; and the number 100 years old and upwards was ninety-two. The number of persons of extreme age in a given country is found to be but an uncertain indication of the general average of human life.

The number of our population in 1855, born in the several States of the Union, and in foreign countries, is as follows:

The number of churches in the State is 5,077; value of churches and lots, $27,769,328; number of sittings, 2,141,159; number of persons usually attending, 1.124,211; number of church members, 702,384; salaries of clergy, including the use of real estate, $2,411,683.

The number of newspapers in the State is 559, and of other periodicals, 112. Aggregate circulation of dailies, 312,783; semi-weeklies, 40,387; weeklies, 1,294,340; semi-monthlies, 264,600; monthlies, 1,287,650.

Without attempting to give a further analysis of this census, we extract the following comparative statement of the population of New York State, by

PROGRESS OF POPULATION IN LONDON.

We have compiled with great care the following table of the births and deaths in the city of London, from November 25, 1854, to December 1, 1855, from the returns of the same, as registered within the several municipal precincts. The

largest number of births registered, it will be seen, was in the week ending March 31, 1855, reaching to 2,099; the proportion of the sexes, unfortunately, was not stated, as was the case in a number of instances, both in births and deaths. The greatest number of deaths was in the week ending January 27, 1855, being 1,630; and in the week previous the deaths exceed the births by 35.

MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES.

MEDITATIONS ON A RAILROAD BOND.

We transfer to our pages some verses from the Hartford Courant, which may amuse, if not instruct, some of our readers :

It is a very pretty thing,
And charmingly engraved;
As neatly gotten up a cheat
As ever broker shaved.
And I have quite a lot of them

All safe and snug at home,
Enough to make a picture book
As large as Gibbon's Rome.

I know I bought them very cheap,
At only eighty-three-
Indeed, we higgled quite a time
Before we could agree;

"What! eighty-three for ten per cents,
Dear sir, you must be crazed—
Yet I shall have to let them go,
For money must be raised."

Before that very week was out
I thought I smelt a rat;
For I was told that I could buy
For even less than that.

My neighbor bought at seventy-six,
I never asked him how;
But I am very glad to learn
That he has got them now.

Those thousand dollar promises

Are printed by the ream!
And being secured by mortgages,
How very safe they seem.
Moreover, I reserved the right
To change them into shares,
Whose income by-and-by would be
A fortune for my heirs.

The coupons-those delicious things!
How temptingly they look,
As beautifully lithographed
As Olney's Copy-book.

Yes, there they are-not one cut off-
The ranks are perfect yet,
And like to be, for all that I
From them shall ever get.

Ah, well-the dream is over now,
And so I sit and sigh,

And curse the day when oily tongues
Persuaded me to buy;

I spend my time with tearful eyes,
O'er the delusive shams,
In singing sad lugubrious hymns,
And penitential psalms.

OBITUARY OF A NEW YORK MERCHANT..

The commercial community have been called upon, during the past month, to regret the demise of one of its most intelligent merchants and citizens.

John R. Peters, who died at his residence in New York April 23, was one of the prominent men of a generation which is fast passing away. He was the eldest son of General Absalom Peters, of Hebron, Connecticut, and was born at Wentworth, New Hampshire, in 1783. He commenced his business education in Groton, Massachusetts, in the same establishment with the late Amos and William Lawrence, of Boston; went from there to Troy, New York, (where he carried on a successful business for several years,) and came thence to this city in 1814, where he has resided ever since. As one of our leading merchants for a number of years, he did much by his enterprise in developing the cotton trade of the South, where he had extensive business connections for many years, and sent (in 1816) the first vessel cleared from this port for Mobile, then so little known-although an old settlement-that he could get no reliable information concerning its locality except from Aaron Burr. Possessing a strong and active mind, untiring industry and energy, and taking great interest in the progress of the city, he had retired from business but a short time when he was elected to a seat in the Common Council, in which he continued as a leading Democrat for several years, and was instrumental in projecting and carrying out some of the most important city improvements of the day. After leaving the Common Council, he held the office of "Commissioner of the Almshouse " for several years, and introduced some important changes into the management of that department. We will mention one as an indication of the character of the man

The children in the almshouse, of whom there were a large number, were attacked with malignant opthalmia, which was spreading so rapidly that the doctor recommended immediate removal of all the children to a roomy and healthy locality, as the only means of saving the eyesight of many. Mr. Peters urged upon the city, as they owned the proper place, the necessity of purchasing the "Long Island farms," opposite Blackwell's Island, for the purpose. As the project was likely to be defeated by some of the authorities not aware of the necessity of the case, Mr. Peters purchased the property on his own responsibility, and had the children moved immediately. The results justified the wisdom of the proceeding, after proving which he sold the property to the city at the price he gave for it, although, as he informed them, fully aware of its rapidly increasing value, on condition they would retain it for similar purposes. As the offices held by Mr. Peters were at that time purely honorary and the duties very arduous, if properly discharged, and his property and health had become impaired by strict attention to the interests of the city, he retired from office to devote himself to his family growing up around him, and his numerous friends. He was eminently a social man, witty, and possessed of an inexhaustible fund of highly interesting and original anecdote, which he told in an inimitable manner, and no doubt had as extensive a personal acquaintance as any man in the United States. He had been growing infirm for the last four years of his life, but kept up his interest in the events of the day till the last, spending his summers at his country seat at Saratoga Springs, as the most ready means of enjoying the society of his old friends from various parts of the Union, who will miss his familiar face. Confined to his room for several weeks past, he gradually faded away, surrounded by his family and friends, and in the possession of his faculties up to the day of his death, when, after several hours of quiet unconsciousness, his spirit passed away with the setting sun, as gently as an infant sinks to rest.

COTTON IN SAN SALVADOR.

A correspondent of the San Francisco Bulletin furnishes that paper with a letter written by H. G. Foote, H. B. M. Consul at San Salvador, upon the resources of that Republic. Mr. Foote has long resided in the State, and is engaged in raising cotton and coffee, as well as in attending to the interests of Great Britain. We extract that portion of the letter which relates to cotton growing:

I am planting according to my capital, slowly and surely, both coffee and cotton. The cotton of this country is of a beautiful fiber, short staple, and as fine as silk. In no part of the world have I seen such a fine staple as that in a parcel grown near Izalco. My own small crop is not a bad specimen, although grown between my coffee trees. On some of the shrubs I counted ninety to one hundred bolls.

The climate is peculiarly adapted to cotton planting. We plant in August. From the time of planting until the boll is formed and ready to burst, we have warm gentle showers, and only occasionally heavy ones; but having intervals of sun, the rains never drown or injure the plant. This continues until about the end of the month of November, when the rains cease altogether, the boll bursts, and the cotton shows itself, fine, white, and unsullied. Nature has done all for Central America-man, nothing as yet-but it is impossible that a country so blessed in climate and productiveness, can remain much longer unknown to the world.