The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-05-29

There has been good deal of crude speculation
of late upon the decrease of the rural population
of the Atlantic States, and upon the causes that
have operated to bring about so evident a result
Some journalists have attributed it to the mania
for migrating to the virgin lands of the West, as
atfording an ampler field for industrial enterprise
and more certain return for the labors of the
husbandman. Another reason also has been as
signed, aud that is, the isolated condition nsepa-
rable from the occupation of Farmer and the
reluctance on the part of the younger branches of
the family, to adopt vocation in which, though
the risk involved is small, the labor is great and
the profits are limited But this visible decline in
the population of the rural districts is by no means
confined to those who till the SOIL since its effects
are far more apparent in our inland Towns and
Villages, as may easily be verified by reference
to the latest census returns of New York and
Massachusetts. Now, whilst we admit, that a GER
tain restless desire to do better frequently stimu-
lates American yeomen to forsake their old home
steads in search of new lands, or in pursuit of a
new vocation, yet neither the want of local attach
ment with which our people have been frequently
charged, nor the attractions of pioneer life or of
life in the larger cities, sufficient to account for
either the stationary condition, or the gradual de-
cension of population at the old centres of inland
traffic If this new social movement was confined
to our own country, the explanation would be
much more difficult than it really is, now that we
know that European statistics indicate the progress
of a similar change. In France and in England,
the absorption of the inhabitants of the smaller
inland Towns by the great Commercial Cities, has
been for some years past the subject of remark,
ana various conJectures have been hazarded with
respect 10 the causes, which have operated to pro-
duce this modern phenomenon. Under the old
Laws OF Progress, the census shows reoular neri-
odical increase of population, varyino indeed in
annual per centage, according to location ond tho
ordinary accidents of trade IT, for instance Tondon
or Paris, or New York, or Baltimore oxb;b;,od -,
annual increase of five per cent in ponuat;on a.,
ratio of increase in the interior towns tbopo loo.
in degree, and more subject to fluctuaton was MOI
less liked and certain. Of late years we ratbor
from statistical tables, that revolution has tokor
place in this respect and that the tendency of Trade
and population is almost wholly directed towards
the great commercial centres. The reason of this
is obvious enough, if we take into consideration
the vast net work of Railways in Europe and in
the UNITED STATES. The extraordinary impulse
which this rapid mode of transportation has given
to inland traffic, is little short of marvellous
quarter of a century ago, our whole inland COM
merce was carried on by of ponderous
Conestoga wagons, carrying average freight of
some five thousand pounds in weight and moving
and occupying, at least week between two points
only hundred miles distant Even now, in those
districts which lie remote from Railway, the old
slow system continues in vogue. Strange as it
may appear the Town of Westminster in Carroll
county, only about twenty miles from Baltimore, is
yet in effect as remote as New York two hundred
miles to the Eastward.
In point of fact if we dispatch simultaneously