COMPARATIVE STATEMENT SHOWING THE COUNTRIES IN WHICH WERE BORN PASSENGERS ABRIVING IN THE UNITED STATES FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES DURING EACH OF THE LAST FOUR YEARS. 1858. 1859. Total..... 23 1 1 .... 3 24,060 20,676 172 21,600 21,780 11 34,227 929 155,509 COMPARATIVE STATEMENT SHOWING THE OCCUPATION OF PASSENGERS ARRIVING IN THE UNITED STATES FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES DURING EACH OF THE LAST FOUR YEARS. 1856. 1857. Merchants .... 11,105 1858. 1859. 12,114 10,217 12,495 Mechanics.... 11,995 18,092 Mariners 1,109 826 Miners 9,510 Farmers. 16,828 Laborers 21,696 Lawyers... 113 166 Physicians and surgeons 253 COMPARATIVE STATEMENT SHOWING THE AGE OF PASSENGERS ARRIVING IN THE UNITED STATES FROM foreign counTRIES DURING EACH OF THE LAST FOUR YEARS. STATEMENT OF THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS ARRIVING IN THE UNITED STATES BY SEA FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES, FROM SEPTEMBER 30, 1843, TO DECEMBER 31, 1859. According to the census as taken by the Assessors during the last year, the population of the Territory of Kansas is put down at 69,950, of which 406 are colored persons, and there are 21,628 voters. Leavenworth County is the most populous, containing 12,122 inhabitants. This census is incomplete, as there were no returns received from the counties of Clay, Dorn, McGee, Osage, Riley, and Wilson. * Of this number 7,818 were under 21 years of age, and 10,945 were above 21 years of age. MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES. THE BASIS OF PROSPERITY. The astronomer who would accurately trace the wonders of the firmament must take his view from an observatory that is not liable to be shaken. His stand should be immovable. No outward passing influence should jar it, or cause the least vibration or tremor. The slightest motion of his observatory will produce errors of immense magnitude. The object at which he is gazing may be thrown out of its true position, millions of miles, by a hair breadth error at the point of observation. All this is easily and generally understood, as it relates to astronomical observations. But it is not always considered that an analogous rule applies to every kind of observation and knowledge, and that in no case can we accurately judge of things, unless we view them from the right stand-point, as the Germans phrase it. Before we pronounce confidently in reference to any event yet future, we must be quite sure that our observatory is firm, solid, standing on a rock-that it is shaken by no wind of selfish interest, or gust of blinded passion-that it is surrounded by no mist of prejudice or error--in short, that it is the true point from which to see things as they are, in their real place and just proportions. How often is the mercantile world thrown into confusion and chaos, by dis regarding this simple, common-sense principle! Mercantile success, we all know, depends very much upon a sagacious calculation of the probabilities of the future. The young merchant looks to the future for that competence which is the object of his labors; and his hope is realized in proportion as he is skillful in anticipat. ing the phases and wants of that future. The sagacious merchant infers, from certain appearances of the present, that such and such will be the condition and wants of the coming season, and he prepares himself to meet that condition and those wants; and prosperity is the reward of his foresight and care. He judges, from information which he has carefully collected, and from appearances which he has watchfully noted, that a certain crop will be short, or a particular description of goods scarce; he estimates the demand and the prices which a short supply will occasion; he takes care, in good season, to obtain the control of as much of the article to be supplied as he can dispose of; and, this done, he can coolly count his gains, weeks or months before they are realized, with as much confidence as if they were already in his hands. The two principal conditions of success in mercantile calculations appear to be, a sound and well-informed judgment, and a regulated and reasonable desire of gain. The inordinate, grasping anxiety of wealth, which characterizes many men, is, in a large proportion of cases, a passion fatal to their success. It blinds the judgment, and misleads it into visionary schemes and ruinous speculations; and an ample experience shows that men of the coolest, most deliberate habits, when they have once yielded to the passion for wealth, are no longer capable of reasoning wisely. Of the other qualification-namely, correct information, as a condition of mercantile success-it seems hardly necessary to speak. 'Knowledge is power," says the great master of English philosophy. Not less in mercantile |