Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1851-03-27
The American Census Abroad.


The London AthenRum makes some
comments upon the extraordinary growth of
.his country, which, though true, would
have possessed much less interest had they
appeared in any American Journal.
Men in the habit of reading daily news
papers may sometimes observe, in small
type and carefully packed away in spare
corners of the broad sheet, queer looking
paragraphs, one half names and the other
half figures. Oiteu enough these paragraphs
are the result of much labor aud skilllul ar
rangement-but too frequently the reader
hurrles past them To the more exciting POI
lice reports or foreign correspondence. Yet
some Of them are well worth pondering--
In one, for example, we have Just read A
few returns of the new American census.
of such uausual significance, that we doubt
whether far-seeng. men will not regard them
as mrss -ass--s-iias 'h~~ ahe 6ne-. levuir-
ton abroad, OF the foulest murder at home.
The American census is not yet COM
pete; but the returns already received point
TO conclusions far beyond hope or expecta-
lion. Look at New York, for instance Ia
1870, it had a population of 1913 900; in
1880, 1900 in lS4O, 3l2 900. This
rate ofincrease was unparalleled IN the his
tory of statistics. But the population is
now said to have risen To the astonishing
number of $50 900 There are but two
large cities IN Europe in ten years more,
at the same rate OF progress, 1t will be lar
ger than Paris. la thirty years from this
date New York will, on the same terms, be
larger than Loudon
And it must be considered that the
commercial capital of America is not fed,
like our Manchester aud Liverpool, at the
expense of the country It's advance is the
type of that of an entire continent. In
1910 the population of S. Louis was 800;
IN 1880, 5000; in 1910, ii, 400; in 1850
It numbered 10000 SO far as the gener-
al nature of the retutns can be inferred
from the data at hand, the population Of the
/ Union will be about % 600 600. From the
year 1900, when the number was little
more than 5000 600. to 1910, when ii had
advanced to II 900 900, the decennial rate
of increase was about 33 per cent. This
rate would have given for 1850 population
of % 600, 900 only.
Material power has been developed E.
qnally with population. Great Britain a.
lone excepted, no State in Europe could
now maintain equal ornaments IN the field
for any length of time. THIS marvellous
growth is derangng all the traditions of
balance of power America Is not only
/ iirst-class State-n few years, ifno inter-
nal disorder shall occur, she will be the
greatest of ALL Should the lSi0-50 rate
of increase be maintained for fifty years her
population will then amount to l90, 600 900
nearly equal to that of the whole Contln-
entail Europe Were 1t possible to conceive
the same ratio maintained for another fifty
years, the census of 1850 would give the
astounding number of COG, 900, 900 Ger
man wars and French revolutions sink into
complete inslgnicance by the side OF con-
sideraions like these.
With such a comment, how well we
may understand the 'roars of laughter with
winch the American Senate recently recel-
we'd the menaces Of Austria When the
United States shook off the yoke of England,
their people numbered no more than 3,0O0,-
600 when they were last measured against
L European power, they we're not more than
100000. Ten years hence they will be
equal to France or Austria. There hardly
seems to be limit TO their growth. The
valley Of the Mississippi would alone sup
port the whole population of Europe. In ITS
vast OAsln, nations are now growing up ds
if at the bidding Of enchaatment.
"The valley already contains about thr-
teen millions Of lnhahltants-at the Begin
ming of this century 1t did not contain as
many thousands There Is a moral az well
as Notwithstanding on from conquest to
conquest, absorbing into itself less energet-
ic stocks, and planting from ocean 10 ocean
the treest institutions ever adopted by any
nation America is destined for its sole in
hertance the Spaniard and the Portuguese
will disappear as surely as the Gaul, the
, Dane and the Hollander have disappeared,
, and two centuries hence the English
; tongue will, no doubt, be spoken from the
Cape of Storms to the Frozen Oceans OF
the North !"
ATTENTION OF GREAT MHN TO suPPos-
ED LITTLE Tunes. Sir Philip Francis
once waited upon Burke by appointment, 10
read over to him some papers respecting Mr..
Hastings delinquencies. He called ON Mr..
Burke IN his way to the house of a friend,
with whom he was engaged to dine. He
found him in his garden. holding a grasshop-
IL.