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The Deaf, Dumb and Blind-Age, Sex, Color and Condition.

DEAF AND DUMB.-No one thing, perhaps, better proves the value of the statistical details connected with our census, than its efficacy in pointing out the number of the unfortunate who come within the above designation, and who are unable to make known their own wants. Not only does it give us the aggregate in each state and in our whole country, but its unpublished details so designate and particularize the deaf mutes in the United States, that those who have been led to make their condition and improvement a special study, have now, for the first time, the means to arrive at the age, sex, color, condition, and wants of each. It will appear from the tabular statement annexed, that the number of white mutes in the United States amounts to 9,091, and the colored

133

to 632, of which 489 are slaves. The census of 1840 returned the number of white deaf and dumb at 6,685, and the colored at 979. The latter amount is clearly erroneous, and was calculated to create an opinion that the deaf mutes were so much more numerous among the colored population of the North than among the whites; in fact, there were, by the census of 1840, colored mutes returned for counties where fto colored persons existed. The proportion of deaf mutes among the colored is less than among the white population; and among the slaves the proportion is still smaller. Among the white population there ap pears to be one deaf mute to each 2,151 persons; of the free colored one to each 3,005; and among the slaves, one to each 6,552.

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The directors of several institutions United States. Such a work would be for the deaf and dumb memorialized Con- of great value to such institutions, but of gress, at its last session, to provide for the publication of a small volume, to be prepared by this office, in which should be given the name, age, sex, residence, occupation, &c., of each deaf mute in the

more consequence to the unfortunate class it would be specially designed to benefit. It would lead to the discovery of hundreds whose abode is unknown, and render available to those unable to

proclaim their wants the blessings of in- respecting the colored blind existed struction. In addition to its beneficent with the last census, as has been shown effects upon the afflicted, the information to exist respecting the deaf and dumb. thus imparted would furnish many interesting details, useful in a practical point of view. The method of deaf mute instruction was introduced from Europe thirty-five years ago. To study into the improvements effected there within that time, institutions in this country have sent, at different periods, commissioners into different portions of Europe, and the result of their investigations appears to have led to the conclusion, "that in the matter of intellectual instruction we have very little to learn from European schools; while in the very important point of religious instruction they are painfully inferior."

BLIND. By the preceding table, it will be seen that the number of persons in the United States who are destitute of sight is 9,702, of which 7,997 are white, and 1,705 colored-of which latter 1,211 are slaves. By the census of 1840, the number of white blind persons in the United States was returned at 5,030; the colored do., 1,892. The same error

INSANE.

We present a table giving the numbers and proportions of the deaf and dumb, blind, insane, and idiotic, among the white, free colored and slaves, respectively. From this table it will be seen that muteness and insanity are more prevalent among the whites, and blindness and idiocy among the colored. Among the white population there appears to be one blind person for each 2,445 persons; among the free colored, one to each 870; and among the slaves, one to each 2,645.

An analysis with respect to native and foreign population, made from the returns, by Harvey P. Peet, LL. D., presents the fact that the blind and insane are much more numerous among our foreign population, which he attributes to "homesickness, change of climate, and the various hardships of an emigrant's lot," which have a strong influence in inducing insanity, and perhaps blindness.

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The Insane and Idiotic-Education-Pauperism.

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institutions of the country on the first of June, 1850, or at the rate of one in every five free persons. The teachers number more than 115,000, and the colleges and schools near 100,000. We will endeavor to furnish, in a few weeks, a detailed statement of the condition of the American people as respects education, to which time it will be proper to defer extended remarks.

INSANE AND IDIOTIC.-The number of insane persons in the United States is given at 15,768-of whom 15,156 are whites, 321 free colored, and 291 slaves. The number of idiots returned is 15,706, distributed as follows: whites, 14,230; free colored, 436; slaves, 1,040. Total insane and idiotic, 31,474. Total whites, 29,386; total blacks, 2,086. By the census of 1840, these two classes of persons were returned together, (although not generally so understood,) and presented the following numbers: white insane and idiotic, 14,508; colored insane and idiotic, 2,926-total, 17,434. The returns make it appear that, with the white population in the United States there exists one insane person for each 1,290 individuals; among the free co- By the table annexed to this report lored, one to each 1,338; and among it will be perceived that the whole numthe slaves, one to each 11,010. With ber of persons who have received the respect to idiocy, the white population benefit of the public funds of the difpresents one to each 1,374 persons; the free colored, one to each 985; and among the slaves, one to each 3,080.

Want of time will not permit a sufficiently detailed examination to arrive at the causes which present these unfortunate beings in such greater number than they appeared in 1840. From the manner of taking the census of 1850, they could not be rated higher than their actual numbers; and it follows, therefore, that the returns in 1840 must have been deficient, or that an error occurred in placing the figures in the tables. A more particular examination of both sets of returns will be made, previous to the printing of the seventh census, in which it is hoped the discrepancy will be satisfactorily explained. Throughout our country increased attention is being paid to the amelioration of the condition of this class of our population, a feeling kept in active operation, and made to yield continually practical fruits, mainly through the instrumentality and devoted zeal of one American lady, whose reputation is not limited, and whose influence is not confined to her native country.

EDUCATION. It was intended to accompany this report with a tabular statement presenting the statistics of education in the United States. We are compelled to defer such table to a future period for want of time to complete it. It may be satisfactory to state that near 4,000,000 youth were receiving instruction in the various educational

PAUPERISM.-No state in the Union is without its legal provisions for the protection and support of the indigent population. In many states they receive a care and attention which places them in an enviable condition compared with some of the laboring classes of other countries.

ferent states for the relief of indigent persons, amounts to 134,972. Of this number there were 68,538 of foreign birth, and 66,434 Americans, while of the whole number receiving support on the first day of June, there were 36,916 natives, and 13,437 foreigners, making a total of 50,353 persons. Of those termed Americans, many are free persons of color. The entire cost of the support of these individuals during the year has amounted to $2,954,806. This aggregate may seem startling to persons who have paid but little attention to pauper statistics in our own and other countries; and it may be useful, and perhaps not amiss, to compare these facts with results as they are officially developed abroad.

In 1818, about $39,000,000, and during the years 1832, '33, and '34, more than $100,000,000 was expended for the relief and maintenance of the poor of England and Wales, exclusive of the immense expenditure of the poor-law administration in the unions and parishes. In 1842 and 43, the amount of $50,000,000, and during each of the years 1847, '48, and '49, there was expended $28,500,000 in England and Wales.

The entire number of paupers relieved by the public funds in England and Wales for nine years, from 1840 to 1848 inclusive, amounted to 13,193,425, equal to 1,649,178 persons per annum. In 1848, the number relieved was 1,876,541, by which it appears that one person in every eight was a pauper. The average number of those annually relieved, who are

It appears, from a report of Mr. Duchatel, Minister of Commerce, that 695,932 persons received public alms at their own houses.

States.
Maine

Whole No. of pau-
pers who receiv-
ed support with-
in the year end-
ing June 1st,
-1850-

Whole No. of

paupers on
1st of June,
1850

Annual

cost of support.

N'tve, For'n. N'tve. For's,
4,553 950 3,269 326 $151,664
747 1,998 186 157,351
314 120,462

N. Hampshire. 2,853
Vermont...... 2,043 1.641 1,565
Massachusetts 6.530 9,247 4,059 1,490
Connecticut... 1,872
New-York....19,275 40,580
New-Jersey.. 1.816

Rhode Island. 1.115 1,445

492 204 465 1,463 281

5,755 7.078

392.765

represented to have been "adult and public support. able-bodied paupers," amounted to more than 477,000; and it is, on British authority, asserted that in 1848 more than 2,000,000 persons in England and Wales The Netherlands, in 1827, with a popwere kept from starvation by relief from ulation of 6,167,000, contained 11,400 public and private sources. The total charitable institutions, which contributed public expenditure for the poor in Eng- to the support of 1,214,055 persons, about land and Ireland in 1848, amounted to one fifth of the entire population. $42,750,000. Within the past seventeen years, the poor-law fund expended in England and Wales amounted to $426,600,000. This enormous expenditure, accompanied as it is by immense private contributions, falls far short of relieving the wants of the poor of Great Britain. While her population embraces a large number of persons of princely estates, and other classes composed of individuals of every variety of income, combining with it ease, comfort, and elegance, the statistics of the nation prove that the substratum of pauperism or want is of a magnitude alarming to the English moralist and thinker, as well as the statesman, and of an extent and nature harrowing to all. The expenses of the organized benevolent institutions of France amounted, in 1847, to 52,000,000 francs. The number of distressed persons relieved amounted to about 450,000 annually. We have no means of arriving approximately at the number of paupers in France, as the institutions above referred to are confined to the cities and Missouri. large towns, while among the rural com- Wisconsin munes, which contain several millions California.. of landed proprietors, there are large numbers of persons in the receipt of

576 1,339 Pennsylvania.. 5,898 5,653 2,654

Dis. of Col....

185 4.356

Delaware..... 569 128 240
Maryland.. 2,591 1,903 1,681
Virginia...... 4.933
N. Carolina... 1,913
S. Carolina... 1,313
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45,837

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ART. V.-SHALL THE VALLEYS OF THE AMAZON AND THE MISSISSIPPI RECIPROCATE TRADE?

THE subject of South American trade, and especially that of the great empire of the Amazon, has been pressed by us in the Review, through the able pen of Lieut. Maury and others, with zeal and earnestness for many months past, and now that Congress is in session, we cannot allow the matter to flag. The following contribution presents many additional views which are new and striking, and deserving of serious consideration:

this great Amazonian water-shed are to be developed, and the measures and steps which the policy of commerce suggests for securing to the world the free navigation of the Amazon.

The triumphs of commerce are peaceful; its achievements are seen in the spreading of civilization, in the march of civil and religious freedom, and in the dispensation of thrift, prosperity, and wealth among nations, as well as to individuals.

We now come to consider the means From the statements which I have aland modes by which the resources of ready made, all must admit that the

Free Navigation of La Plata-Fertility of Upper Amazon. 137

valley of the Amazon is not only a great Amazon and La Plata, be considered country, but it is a glorious wilderness rapid traveling. Here, therefore, is the and waste which, under the improve- commencement of a new era in the ment and progress of the age, would business and the commerce of those two soon be made to "blossom as the rose." river-basins; and the first merchantWe have, therefore, but to let loose upon steamer, as she plows up those majesit the engines of commerce-the steam- tic streams with her rich cargo of forer, the emigrant, the printing-press, the eign merchandise, will be the signal for axe and the plow-and it will teem with a revolution in the trade and traffic life. which has been carried on there.

zon.

There is a line of steamers from England to Rio. The French are getting up a line, and the stock has been taken in it, from Marseilles to Rio. Brazil has a line from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata, via Rio, to the mouth of the AmaThe mouth of the Amazon is half way between Norfolk and Rio. I petitioned Congress, at its last session, for the establishment of a line of mailsteamers from some one of our southern ports to connect with the Brazilian line at Para, and thus put our merchants in direct steamship communication with Rio, Buenos Ayres and Montevideo, and so draw us closer to the Amazon.

The committee to whom the subject was referred reported in favor of it, and brought in a bill for its accomplishment. It was, however, not acted

upon.

But since that, events have occurred which make this line from the south still more important and necessary. The tyrant Rosas has been expelled from the continent; the navigation of the Rio de la Plata and some of its noblest tributaries have been opened and made free to the world. This government, with a most praiseworthy zeal, is fitting out a naval expedition to explore those streams, and to make known their navigability and the commercial resources of the countries drained by them, that our merchants may know how to send, what to sell, and what to buy

there.

Brazil has contracted for two lines of steamers on the Amazon, from its mouth almost up to its sources. These Amazonian lines are to run-one monthly between Para and Barra, at the mouth of the Rio Negro, a distance of nine hundred miles; the other, connecting with this at Barra, is to ply between that city and Nauta, in Peru, a distance of near three thousand miles from the sea. "Poling up the Mississippi" would, in comparison to the means at present employed for navigating the waters of the

Three millions of dollars' worth of produce now comes down the Amazon to Para.

Amazon" where this line of steamers is "The Peruvian portion of the Upper to go, "is," said Castelnau, who was then on his way home, after traveling through the fairest parts of South America, "the most beautiful country in the world; its fertility is proverbial." There is found the famous silk tree, which probut silk to the touch. There the labor duces a staple like cotton to the eye, of one man is worth but two and a half yards of our coarse cotton stuff the month-so abundant are the fruits of the

earth, so scarce the fabrics of the shop been removed from the influences of and loom, and so far has that country commerce. It is now just about to be brought within them.

But what are the opportunities which Americans will have for getting a fair share of this new business to which the free navigation of the La Plata and the introduction of steam upon the Amazon will give rise? I reply, very small, unless this southern line of steamers to the Amazon be established; otherwise all the intelligence from Brazil and the La Plata, all the advices concerning the markets, will go direct to England and to France by their steamers; and then, after the merchants there shall have had some ten days or two weeks the start of their American competitors in taking advantage of that intelligence, it will arrive here in the United States by the Cunard or Collins line of steamers from Liverpool.

Now and then an American clipper, happening at the mouth of the river, or in the offing at Rio, at the night time, may chance to bring intelligence to the United States sooner than it can go to Europe and then come over by steamer. But that is uncertain.

The free navigation of the Rio de la Plata is an achievement, and commerce

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