by changes and removals while the work was progressing, and hence each enumeration district should be small, and its boundaries precisely defined. The population should not be returned by families, or dwellings, but the precise name, sex, age, relation to the head of family, nativity, profession, civil condition, etc., of each person should be reported in full.

A period of the year should be selected, when the people are mostly at home, and the beginning of the civil year will generally be found to possess, in this and other respects, many advantages.

One of the chief difficulties that have attended a census, has arisen from suspicion that some scheme of taxation or revenue was to be based upon it. This obliged the Belgian government, in 1846, to publicly declare the measure to be entirely free from financial schemes. The suspicion of political and partizan operations has, in some cases, and not without color of reason, been excited by the exclusive appointment of enumerators of one party.

Other difficulties in obtaining the census of the population, arise from foreign languages, want of knowledge respecting age, and sometimes a weakness in attempting to conceal it. In one of the colonial censuses of New York, the object of the enumeration was in part defeated, by a superstition that a sickness followed the last numbering of the inhabitants, obviously derived from the Scriptural account of the pestilence among the Israelites, in the time of David. In the New York State census of 1855, one of the marshals in New York city found difficulty from suspicion that a military conscription was intended.

A prominent source of error in a census, arises from the ignorance of the people themselves, concerning the facts required. This applies with peculiar force to agricultural and manufactured produce. The land devoted to particular crops is seldom surveyed, and the product when used on the farm, is sometimes not measured. Except in large manufactories (where system is indispensible,) the exact amount and value of materials used and products sold in the course of a year, is not easily found; and the answers concerning these inquiries, even when made with the best intentions, are often but little better than very poor guess work. desire to avoid rivalry or taxation on the one hand, or to create an undue credit or reputation on the other, may in some instances lead to under or over estimates. More than all of these, the mixed and doubtful character of many manufactories, renders an attempt at classification absolutely impossible, without the exercise of more care and attention than is often allowed.

The

Statistics of agriculture and manufactures when they extend to estimates of quantities and values, may therefore be regarded as liable to considerable uncertainty, as given in a census, and my observation tends to the conclusion that they should be disconnected from it, and made separate and special subjects of inquiry. Full and authentic statistics of these great elements of national wealth are of vital interest to those engaged in their production and might justly be obtained at their expense. Recognising this principle, the interests concerned in the United States, in the production of iron from the ore, are at the present time, by votuntary association, procuring the statistics of this manufacture through the agency of competent persons, who are to visit each furnace, and collect from their ledgers and books every fact relating to the business. Such associations in the several branches of productive industry, cannot fail to collect results incomparably superior to the hasty returns of a census.

It is worthy of inquiry, whether agricultural societies, acting through township, district, or county, and central organization, and clothed by law with sufficient authority, might not secure the most authentic returns of agriculture, with the greatest economy, and these from year to year, instead of at intervals of five or ten years, as in the ordinary personal

census.

Beyond the original faults of the first returns, and the slight risk of loss, (which may be prevented by a duplicate filed in some local office of record,) there need be no further sources of error in a census. The summary may without difficulty be accomplished under such checks and regulations, as to produce uniformly correct results. of the arrangements for this end would scarcely possess general interest. Some of the operations are of a very simple and mechanical character, and even mechanism itself may be advantageously applied.

A detailed account

The difficulties which oppose the obtaining of correct census are only to be overcome by the increase of intelligence, the avoidance of partizan or sectarian feeling in appointments, and especially by the diffusion of correct ideas of the true objects of the enumeration, and of the public, social, and individual advantages arising from it.

When these have been removed it will be apparent to all that while personal items become lost in the general averages, and the wealth and industry of the individual are merged in that of the nation-there arises from the combination of seemingly incongruous facts, a series of beautiful proportions of harmonious relations; not simply curious coincidences, but general laws, founded upon principles as immutable as those of the physical universe, and incapable of change without disturbing the foundations of human society.

What can be more uncertain than the details which the census obtains concerning a single life! How little of concert or system there appears in the ages and conditions of those marrying-how much of apparent chance in time and cause of death-or the sex of birth! And yet, when we aggregate these items, there is noticed a certain definite relation existing between the different ages, sexes, and classes, which constitutes a normal standard, and that while different countries may exhibit variations within certain limits peculiar to themselves, and arising from specific causes, yet any essential departure from the due proportion impairs the balance of society, and unless corrected, leads sooner or later to national weakness and disaster.

An undue proportion of single persons, for example, may indicate either inordinately high prices in the necessaries of life, opposing the tendency to marriage, or a decline in morals of still graver consequences to the public welfare. An excess of widows and orphans has, from time immemorial, been the sequel of wars and pestilence.

It is apparent, that the immediate present and effective vigor of a country depends upon the number of young and middle-aged males, upon whom devolves the heaviest labor of the farm, the mine, the manufactory, and the public works, as well as the entire service of the army and the navy, and most of the interests employed in the production and distribution of wealth. But the years of man are few and quickly spent. The decrepitude of age succeeds the vigor of manhood, and needs in its turn the support of those whom it fed and protected in infancy and childhood. Man has a double duty to perform-to pay up the interest of borrowed

capital, in the support of aged parents, and to invest funds for his own future support, in the proper training and education of his little ones. The hallowed associations of home, with all its endearing relations, must have their influence in order to develop the greatest amount of permanent national as well as individual happiness and prosperity.

A country is truly rich and powerful that contains, not the greatest sums of hoarded or invested wealth, but the greatest number of happy families; not the heaviest armaments and costliest array of defenses against foreign invasion, but the greatest number of intelligent and industrious home and-country-loving citizens, who, knowing the value of domestic happiness, and of civil and religious liberty, from their enjoyments, are ready to yield their lives and fortunes in their defense.

It is the duty of every government to know the elements of its own strength; to understand the enfeebling tendencies which may be secretly operating within it, and by a timely and judicious course of administration, or exercise of law, to correct these tendencies by modifying their

causes.

Art. VI.—OLD FOGYDOM IN TRADE AND COMMERCE.

As the term "Old Fogy" is very frequently applied to the merchants of Louisville, in an opprobrious sense, it may perhaps be as well to inquire how far the implied censure is just, and what is meant by the designation. Old fogydom in society is applied to those who prefer the courtliness and grace of former days to the flippancy and impudence of modern times. In literature, the old fogy is he who prefers Spencer to Stowe, Francis Bacon to Fanny Fern, and Love's Labor Lost to the Lamplighter. In religion, the old fogy preaches the maxiin of "peace on earth and good will to men," rather than the more modern dogma of " a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other." In politics, he is the old fogy who seeks the good of his country rather than of his party, who is more a patriot than a politician. In art, the old fogy prefers the solid grace of the Italian to the glittering gorgeousness of the French school. In commerce, old fogydom is content with results of honesty, industry, and probity, without seeking, at the possible expense of these, to acquire wealth and fame in a

day.

What state of society is that, then, which makes this term one of opprobrium, and to what degree of impertinence will not youthful folly be led? It would be well for the community if the opprobrious use of this soubriquet involved merely a question of impertinence. It does far more than this. Its tendency is to destroy in the young mind all reverence for the past and its legacies; to uproot those ideas of justice, propriety, and honor, which are the result of centuries of experience and thought; to substitute expediency for correctness, and to make success, no matter how attained, the test of merit.

It is perhaps out of the province of the REVIEW to inquire into all the evils which are likely to follow the spread of that spirit of mistaken independence which mocks at established usages and laughs at the experience of centuries; but it is certainly within its duty to show what commercial evils may grow out of a too great preponderance of "Young American

ism." It is not denied that the self-sustaining spirit which Young America shows contains much that is noble and worthy of praise. It is this very spirit which has reclaimed a hemisphere from barbarism, which has unburied the treasures of the modern El Dorado, and which promises peace, plenty, and protection to half a world. Self-reliance, boldness, and energy, are noble characteristics, but they need judgment, discretion, and experience, to make them available. The former are the boast of Young America, the latter they affect to despise, though these may attain success without the former, those have but little likelihood of gaining their ends without the latter.

Old fogydom, properly so called, merits contempt, but one must be careful that the term is correctly applied. He is the true old fogy in business who follows the beaten path of his predecessors irrespective of the changes which time has made around him; who buys his wares in the same places and at the same prices from year to year, without knowing or caring for the state of the markets or the changes of trade, who refuses to take advantage of the facilities for commerce which time has placed in his way; who pursues an unvarying routine of daily duties, not because they are best or most necessary, but because they are customary to him; who sleeps in lethargy while all is activity and bustle around him; who lives in the past, and looks neither to the present nor the future; who despises improvement and desires no change, because he believes none can be made for the better. Such is the true old fogy of trade-a character sufficiently despicable, yet hardly worse than its opposite, and certainly not so frequently met with in the world of commerce. The opposite of the old fogy is that restless spirit whose first article of faith is contained in the maxim that "whatever is, is wrong;" who believes that the means which have once been employed to attain an end can never be used again. IIe does not dream of securing an independence by laborious industry. Such means are too slow for his genius; his fortune must be made in a day. He is rapid for improvement. He would build a railroad from his home to the market place, and carry his neighbors' baskets at so much a head. His scent is keen for a speculation. He enters with his capital of a hundred dollars into a speculation involving a hundred thousand without a thought of where the means are to come from. He buys tobacco on credit, and as his notes are protested, he enters into a magnificent trade in pork to repay them. He is careless of his name, for he knows that he will succeed by and by, and then he can establish his credit. He does not believe in the drudgery of a daily routine of business. His life is a series of electric sparks. He asks in New Orleans when he will get a reply to his dispatch to New York; and when he is told that he must wait fifteen minutes, he thinks he had better get on his horse and go after it. He mistakes physical restlessness for mental power. He lives fully impressed with his immense usefulness to the world; yet he dies, and his very grave is forgotten.

Which of the two characters described above is the most hurtful to society? The injury which the former does is done to himself and to his family; the other inflicts a wrong upon the community which is only bounded by the extent of his transactions. It may be objected that these characters are extreme. This is true; but it is only by extremes that we are to gain a fair judgment of the tendency of those ideas which govern the world.

Let us now inquire who are the men so ill-naturedly branded as old fogies by the "Young Rapids" of the day. They belong to neither of the classes described above. They are the happy union of the reflectiveness and discretion of the one, with the energy and activity of the other. They are the true "solid men of business." Is a scheme of public improvement proposed, they stop to count its cost; they consider carefully its value and their own resources, and if both are practicable, they embark in it at once. If, however, either should be found wanting, and they refuse to lend it their aid, immediately they are branded "old fogy." Is a vein of coal or a mine of iron hawked about the streets by some speculator, they must take the stock and develop the resources, or they are old fogies. Does a company of land-owners demand a railroad to a new made city, they must build it, or rest under the charge of old fogydom. Does some juvenile hero of the second class show them in his maiden speech how to enlarge the limits of their city, and render its prosperity certain, they must adopt his views and spend their money to try his plans, or he will raise the cry of old fogy.

Who gives to your city its reputation for wealth, for mercantile credit, for honorable dealing? Who builds your public institutions and your private palaces? Who indorses your note, and upon whom do you rely to get that note cashed? It is he whom you have abused as an old fogy. When you point with pride to the best and most reliable among your business men, do you forget to mention the names of those you are used to call old fogies?

Your progressive spirit is a worthy and an honorable one. Your age is the age of action. Form then your plans; set your restless mind at work; labor earnestly and zealously for your own good and that of the community, but do not suppose because your mind is fresh and active that your judgment is immaculate. Do not mistake the caution of experienced maturity for the lethargy of old fogydom. Lay your plans before the so-called old fogies of your neighborhood; and if they approve them, prosecute them vigorously and earnestly to the end. If they doubt or deny their efficacy, go back to your closet and make yourself sure of their success before you attempt them in the face of the experience, talent, and judgment, raised against you. If you then succeed, you will, for the first time, have the right to sneer at what you call "Old Fogydom."

Art. VII.-WHY MERCHANTS ARE LIABLE TO FAIL IN BUSINESS.

THE Prairie Farmer, though rather severe in the following essay, tells some truths, which it would be well for our merchants to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. So intimately connected are the interests of agriculture and commerce, that we need not be surprised to find the Prairie Farmer reading a homily to the merchants of the land.

Few things are so precarious as commercial credit. Men who have borne up under repeated losses of thousands of dollars, have in the end gone down before so informidable a thing as a doubt. First a surmise, then a suspicion, next a pressure, at last a protest, followed by a failure-such is the brief history of the downfall of many a dealer in foreign fabrics,