force would amount to 150,000 men. The number of enlistments for the year ending September 20th, 1855, was 10,546; loss by death, discharge, and desertion, 5,500. The whole territory of the United States is divided into five great departments, in which there are twenty-six arsenals and ninety-eight forts, most of which are garrisoned.*

Their militia is calculated at upwards of 2,000,000. It may be said that every man in the Republic is a trained soldier, disciplined to arms. Every year calls out a new army of local soldiery from among the peasantry; they thus train the entire rustic population. America could, if necessary, bring 3,000,000 of men into the field. The profession of arms is not merely the profession of the few, but the practice, the pride, and the pastime of the many. But America has not the qualities of a military nation,-rather those of a great agricultural and commercial, of an industrial and colonizing one. War is a game which, if America is wise, Congress will not play at. Her interests are all on the side of international amity; and her national motto should be, PEACE, Industry, AND UNION. Rome was an aggressive and conquering, but not a governing nation, and she therefore fell;-she fell like Carthage, a victim to her degenerate army system.

Prompt and eager to settle every petty quarrel by invading and annexing her neighbours' territory, Rome played out her game and lost her empire. Had the Romans yielded to the Italians rather than drive them to revolt, and to have to arm Numidians and Gauls against them, no inevitable fate would have quenched Rome, and freedom, and civilization, beneath the feet of Germany. Had Pericles, the great Athenian general, made any moderate concessions to save Spartan honour, instead of at once rushing recklessly to arms, he would have saved Greece from Macedonian despotism and spoliation. The fascinating desire to possess Italy proved fatal to Carthage.+ The love of conquest, like that of money, seems to grow with that it feeds upon.

America, like Russia, is invulnerable in defensive war, and would force back any invader to his dominions, a wiser man and a smaller potentate than when he left them; but should she move aggressively, she is as vulnerable as the rest of the world,

* American Almanack.

+ Merivale on Colonization, from Eclec. Review,

ARMY EXPENDITURE.

73

and her defects and weaknesses would become apparent. While America is not free from foes within her territories, there is hardly one line of her frontier that is not beset with enemies. Let both America and England beware! War brings with it, too, other evils than a just retribution for pride of empire and lust of dominion.

The cost to America of her army for the last six years ending 1851, including the Indian department, is, according to official statement, the enormous sum of 66,000,000 of dollars. Let America cultivate the arts of peace, and she will not only escape a national debt, but always have a surplus revenue,she will then continue to be rich, glorious, and free.

E

CHAPTER VIII.

VAST AND RAPIDLY INCREASING COMMERCE-Home and foreign. Imports and exports. Tonnage. Magnificent lines of river and ocean steamers. Canals, railroads, and electric telegraphs. Naval architecture and shipping. Agricultural products. Manufactories and manufactures. Their character and variety. Principal districts in which established: Lowell, &c. Wealth of the United States. How or from what source principally derived. Its quality. General distribution. Comparative absence of poverty throughout the Union. tentment and happiness of the working classes. Active enterprising habits of all classes. Prevailing mania for the possession of wealth.

General con

Enjoying, as she does, the full benefits of her fertility and her situation, unencumbered by the restraints of jealous monopolies such as existed during her subjection to Great Britain, the commercial power of the United States is the second in the world.

The commercial marine of the United States is only inferior to that of England. These two great nations divide the dominion of the sea, and the carrying trade of the world.

In 1852, the number of trading vessels belonging to the United States was 1,444. Their tonnage was estimated at about half that of Great Britain, or 351,494 tons.

Within the last ten years the imports and exports have increased from 300,000,000 to over 400,000,000; the tonnage, inward and outward, from 6,700,703 to 10,591,043 tons;* the tonnage owned from 2,839,000 to 4,200,000 tons.

These facts are more than substantiated by a later estimate of an American journalist.

The total tonnage of the whole civilized world, excluding only China and the East, consists of about 136,000 vessels of 14,500,000 tons. Of this total tonnage, 9,768,172 belong to Great Britain and the United States; so that, excluding these two great maritime nations, the total commercial tonnage of the remainder of the civilized world is but 4,500,000, or less than

* In the year ending June 30th, 1852, the imports into the United States from Great Britain and Ireland were valued at 90,628,339 dollars, and the exports to 115,569,975 dollars.-Chambers's Journal.

that which either Great Britain or the United States individually possess. Even France, which comes next in the scale, is insignificant in comparison, being but 716,000 tons against 5,043,270 for Great Britain, and 4,724,902 for the United States. Italy and Sardinia stand next to France, then Holland, Prussia, Spain, Norway, Sweden, &c.

The comparative entrances and clearances of Great Britain and her colonies, and the United States, in 1854, were as follows: Great Britain and colonies, 42,563,362; United States, 40,000,000. It would appear from this calculation that the tonnage of the United States is only one-sixteenth less than that of England. This fact, when taken in connection with its present rapid increase,-the shipping of the United States within the last ten years has been quadrupled, while her population has been only doubled,-shows how short will be the time required to overbalance the advantages which Great Britain now possesses, and to place the United States first in the rank of commercial nations.*

It is, indeed, asserted that the American tonnage is now, in 1856, 5,400,000 tons, having increased 410,000 tons during the past year,-an increase larger than the whole tonnage of Spain, Portugal, and Russia combined, and will make a fleet of 5,400 ships of 1,000 tons each, while that of England is said to be 5,200,000 tons. The number of vessels built in the United States in the year ending June 30th, 1854, was 1,774; tonnage of the same, 535,636. Total tonnage of the United States at the same rate, 4,802,902 tons; of which, registered, 2,333,819; enrolled and licensed, 2,469,083; in whale fishery, 181,901; coasting trade, 2,273,900; cod fishery, 102,194; mackerel fishery, 35,041; steam navigation, 676,607. Whole number of American vessels entered during the year from foreign countries, 9,455; of foreign vessels, 9,648; total, 19,103. Whole number of American vessels cleared for foreign countries, 9,570; whole number of foreign vessels, 9,503; total, 19,073. Crews of American vessels entered, men, 135,927; boys, 726; total, 136,653: crews of foreign vessels entered, men, 100,243; boys, 1,212; total, 101,455. Crews of American vessels cleared, men, 141,128; boys, 797; total, 141,925: crews of foreign vessels cleared, men, 98,617; boys, 1,196; total, 99,813. The

1856.

Blackwood, June, 1854. Lon. Jour., 1856. American Paper, Philadelphia,

total tonnage of the United States, June 30th, 1855, was 5,212,001 tons; of which, registered, 2,535,136; enrolled and licensed, 2,676,864; including 859,446 in whaling, fishing, and steam navigation. British tonnage in 1854, 5,043,270 tons.*

Their commerce extends to all parts of the earth, and embraces the products and manufactures of all nations, from the barren coasts of Labrador to New Holland, the South Sea Islands, China, India, and the continents of Africa and Europe; and from the north-west region of America and the West Indies, to the isles of the Pacific Ocean and Cape Horn.

The foreign trade exhibits an aggregate of 80,000,000 of imports and exports; while no part of the world presents such an extensive inland commerce; this greatly exceeds the foreign; while the shipping in 1852 amounted to 5,000,000 of tonnage, and is annually increasing at the ratio of 300,000 tons. The value of inland imports for the year ending June, 1855, was 304,562,380 dollars; of the exports, 275,796,320 dollars. The commerce of the valley of the Mississippi alone was estimated. in 1850 at the value of 439,000,000 of dollars, being double the amount of the whole foreign commerce of the nation.

The increase of lake tonnage for the year ending June 30, 1855, was a fraction less than 19 per cent.

A greater amount of tonnage enters and clears on the lakes between the United States and Canada, than between the United States and any other foreign port.

The lake tonnage for 1855 was 345,000 tons, which, valued at 45 dollars per ton, is 14,838,000 dollars.

The present value of lake commerce (exclusive of Presque Isle and Macinac, not reported) is 608,310,320 dollars.

The value of property exposed to perils of lake navigation, is greater than all the merchandise exported from the United States to all foreign countries, or imported from all foreign countries to the United States.

The seven Lake States-New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin,-have a population of 9,784,550, while the other twenty-four States have a population of 9,768,448, leaving a balance in favour of these seven States over the twenty-four States, of over 16,000. difference is increasing daily.

* Christian Almanac, 1857.

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