Henry IV. as late as 1600, had merely succeeded in securing his crown by force of arms, and had yet obtained little leisure to cultivate the arts of peace.

In both nations, finances, able seamen, and commercial knowledge were wanting; and to these moral, were superadded physical impediments to foreign colonization, arising from deficiency of population. Though thus retarded, nevertheless, the germ of national force existed, and the spirit to give that force effect, was annually gaining intelligence by means of the press, and preparing for that long and embittered rivalry in America, which gave ascendancy to English over French power on this continent.

SECTION III.

STATISTICS.

THIS department of the Repository, agreeable to the original plan, shall be appropriated to that branch of statistics most immediately connected with geography. The articles also of Section III. in the two first volumes, will be generally such as arise from and tend to illustrate the subjects of the Geographical and Historical departments.

Probably, for a protracted future period, a water communication through our mountains, will form a vital question of internal politics. The solution of this gigantic problem, like that of a north-west passage to China and India, may call into action the most enthusiastic feelings, and excite the highest exertions of individual talent. It has been said, with metaphysical correctness, that "no unproductive exertion can be made." Such has been thus far the result of speculation on canal navigation from the Atlantic rivers to the illimitable regions of the west. Calculations on practicability decried before experiment, as extravagant, have eventuated in joining Lake Erie to Hudson river. With all, however, already executed, national enterprise seems to be only awakened to the importance of the object. The people of the United States, as a nation, in assuming a high rank amongst the families of mankind, are also awarding a part of their resources, mental and physical, to the creation of new means of internal association.

In such a political course, pre-eminence is not attained and preserved by the mere possession of independence, but rests on the basis of intellectual and physical improvement; upon

the conception and execution of designs unprecedented for magnitude and utility. The canals of New-York, colossal as they are as examples of human abour, are only fine as specimens of what remains to be performed by consolidated national force. That man deserves the grateful meed of a public benefactor, who enlists his talents and fortune in tracing the incipient plans necessary to the development of such struc

tures.

Amongst the plans of internal improvement agitated in our general councils at the last session of Congress, 1823-4, one was a projected canal and lock union of the Atlantic waters with those of Lake Erie, by the route of Potomac, Monongahela, Ohio, Big Beaver, and either the Cayahoga or Grand river. In the execution of this line of artificial navigation, the whole United States is deeply concerned, but more especially so, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Mr. James Schriver of Uniontown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, deserves much credit for his services in the early development of the geographical features of the country intended to be traversed. This gentleman, early in 1824, published in Baltimore, a pamphlet under the following title:

"Account of Surveys and Examinations, with remarks and documents relative to the projected Chesapeake and Ohio, and Ohio and Lake Erie canals."

* The last session of Congress, appropriated one hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars, for internal improvement, almost the whole of which is to be expended in experiments-such as surveys, examination for routes of canals, &c. We subjoin a list of the acts of appropriation with the respective amounts annexed.

An act authorising the President to cause surveys and estimates to be made for such routes for Roads and Canals, as he may deem of importance in a commercial or military point of view, or for the transportation of the United States' mail. The sum appropriated, $30,000.

An act for making experiments with a view to the improvement of the navigation of the rivers Ohio and Mississippi.-The sum appropriated, $75,000. An act to make a road in the Michigan territory, from Detroit to the Ohio state line.-Length of the road seventy miles.-Sum appropriated, $20,000. An act to make a road in the Territory of Arkansas, from Memphis, in Tennessee, to Little Rock-distance one hundred and sixty miles.-Sum ap propriated, $15,000.

An act to make a road in the territory of Florida, from Pensacola to St. Augustine-distance three hundred and sixty-five miles.-Sum appropriated, $20,000.

The same act authorises the survey of routes for roads, from Cape Sable to the Suwaney river, and from Cape Florida to St. Augustine.-Sum appropri ated, $3,000.

These acts were all reported by the committee, of which our worthy representative, Mr. Hemphill, is chairman; and it will be found upon an examination of these acts, that scarcely a more judicious distribution of these funds could have been adopted.-U. S. Gazette, July 26, 1824.

This publication would deserve serious notice, if it contained nothing of value beyond its motto, which in few but clear and energetic words, thus depicts the reciprocal interests of the east and west sections of the United States:

"For my own part, I wish sincerely, that every door to that country, (the west,) be set wide open, that the commercial intercourse with it, may be rendered as free and easy as possible. This, in my judgment, is the best, if not the only cement, that can bind those people to us for any length of time -and we shall, I think, be deficient in foresight, if we neglect the means of effecting it."-WASHINGTON.

In addition to this text, upon which volumes might be written, Mr. Schriver's pamphlet contains a mass of judicious observation and instructive document, which are calculated to give ample reward to the statistical inquirer.

The number is few, who have duly weighed the entire importance of this subject; the following estimate, will serve to exhibit the comparative extent of that country of the west, the moral weight of which is in a state of rapid development. The whole land surface of the earth is, in round numbers :

Considered as capable of sustaining dense and cultivated population, at least fifteen millions of square miles may be deducted for unproductive tracts, leaving twenty-five millions for that part of the earth on which highly civilized society can exist.

The already organized states and territories of the United States, extend over one million one hundred and thirteen thousand square miles. Of this expanse, at least one million is capable of giving support to a very compact general population. This reduced area is, we see, equal to one-twenty-fifth part of the civilized habitable earth. In this estimate is excluded all the widely extended wastes of the west towards the sources of Missouri and Columbia rivers, and Pacific ocean. VOL. I.-G

No. 1.