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half-way house for coal, watering, and provisioning the vessels employed in the California trade.

1st. The distance from New York to Central America, is less on a line passing through Key West, than measured via of Havana; and from New York to Tehuantepec the advantage of distance is greatly in favor of Key West.

2d. A steamer bound to Chagres via of Havana, must twice cross the Gulf Stream. and in a diagonal line stem its rapid current for full twenty-four hours. If passing through Key West, the steamer would keep upon the edge of the stream, where the eddy would be in its favor and the crossing of the Gulf avoided.

3d. Smoother seas and calmer weather are found upon the edge of the Gulf Stream than in its center, particularly in that part lying between Savannah and Tortugas, which would lessen the passage made via of Key West.

4th. A steamer can enter the harbor of Key West at any hour of the night, immediately enter at the custom-house, make fast alongside of the coal wharf, and, without a moment's delay, proceed to coaling and watering, and, if necessary, leave before dawn of day. Should she take the Havana route, and arrive off the Moro Castle after sun-down, she must anchor and wait until 9 o'clock on the following day, before any communication is made with the shore; and the day is well nigh gone before coaling is commenced, thus consuming nearly twenty hours of her valuable time.

5th. A steamer can be coaled at Key West, as has been fairly proved, in less time than at Charleston, as soon as at New York, and in one-fourth of the time consumed at Havana.

6th. Vessels not wishing pilots, can enter the harbor of Key West free of pilotage; at Havana, pilotage is invariably enforced.

7th. Coal can be landed as cheap, can be stored in yards in immediate proximity to the landing, and be placed in the bunkers by man or horse power, in less time and at less expense than at Havana, where the coal is passed on board in baskets from launches alongside, a slow and tedious process.

8th. Provisions of all kinds can be purchased, at prices in favor of Key West, to the amount of duty levied on the same at Hivana-they all being exported to that city from the United States. Fresh meats are sold at less rates in our now small market, than the steamers pay the Havana butchers. Were there an increased demand, prices would come down. Tampa Bay, two days' sail from Key West, is perhaps the finest cattle market in the South. Full grown cattle can be bought in that town, to an unlimited extent, for $10 per head. Green turtle, weighing from one to five hundred pounds, abound on our coast, and can be delivered for three cents per pound. No better meat can be taken to sea than turtle. It can be kept for twenty days alive, requires no food nor care save watering, and the entire animal is eatable. It can be roasted, stewed, boiled, fried, force-billed, and souped, to satisfy the appetites of salted Californians. The fish market of Havana is supplied by our smacks, so there can be no competition in that line. Our waters are alive with the finest varieties, and we could fill half the markets in the States.

9th. The only articles that Havana could furnish the steamers at less rates, are fruit and vegetables. But we doubt whether she would be able, in one year from the day that Key West is male a depot, to compete with the Yankees of Florida in these productions Should there be a demand to justify the expenditures, half the State would be turned into fruiteries and vegetable gardens, and the result would show that the Spaniard, with his rich soil and mild climate, had found a successful competitor. 10th. There is no sweeter water carried to sea than that afforded by our large cisterns. Rain water never becomes sour, nor does it acquire an unpleasant bilgey taste; but it improves with age, and remains pure for years. Our water is superior to the Havana River water, and is sold for the same sum.

11th. Passengers meet, at Key West, with no obstacles in landing. There are no landing permits, nor passports, nor boat hire, nor danger of any kind in getting on shore. Nor is there extortion of any kind. They are upon the soil of freedom, and among their own people. The above are some of the reasons why Key West should become a depot for the United States Mail Steamships.

12th. A telegraphic wire can be carried across the Key and along the coast, connec ting at Savannah with the New York lines, at as little expense as over any like distance in the States, and thus enable the California news to be published in New York four days in advance of the mails. As no wire can be carried across the Gulf, from Havana, a telegraph is impracticable from that city.

STATISTICS OF POPULATION, &c.

EMIGRATION FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM.

The twelfth general report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, for the year 1851, has just been printed, and presented to both Houses of Parliament. The report is the most interesting and elaborate which has yet appeared, and the growing importance of the subject must command for it the attentive consideration of the public. The Commissioners state that the total emigration from the United Kingdom in the twenty years ending with 1851, has amounted to 2,640,848; but of this emigration more than one half has taken place in the last five years-the largest number who emigrated in any one year having been 129,851, in 1816. The numbers who emigrated within the last five years were as follows:

1847... 1848.

1849.

258,2701850..

248,089 1851.
299,498

280,849 335,966

It will, therefore, be seen that, although the progress has not been uniform, the general result shows an immense increase, the emigration in 1851 having exceeded the largest emigration of any preceding year by 36,468, or 12.17 per cent, and the average of four years by 61,290, or 23.66 per cent. Such an emigration, if drawn equally from all parts of the United Kingdom, would seriously affect the progress of popula tion. But the rate at which it is now proceeding, so far exceeds its rate during the majority of the years included in the last censu, that, unless some very great change takes place shortly, or the loss be supplied from other quarters, the next census will show a much larger reduction of the population than the last. The emigration of 1851, while it nearly doubled the estimated average emigration of the preceding ten years, exceeded any probable increase of the population by nearly 4 to 1. But this calculation, unfavorable as it appears, is clearly below the truth, for the classes who emigrate include a large proportion of the youngest, the healthiest, and most energetic of the adult population, on which the excess of births over deaths mainly depends. Upon the prospect of the extinction of the Irish race in Ireland, the Commissioners

say

"We should be disposed to believe that those who remain at home, including an unusual proportion of the old, the most feeble, and most destitute, do not, at the most, do more than replace by births their losses by deaths. If such be the case, it would follow that the annual decrease of the population in Ireland is not less than the annual amount of the emigration, and that unless the emigration be soon arrested, the country will be deserted by its original population."

The money sent home from North America during the four years from 1848 to 1851, or contributed as prepaid passage money, amounted to no less a sum than £2,947,000. The amount so paid in

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Of the whole number who left the United Kingdom in 1851

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Of the number who made the United States their destination

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To the 267,357 who proceeded direct to the United States must be added 18,000

who went through Canada, making a total of 285,358 emigrants from the United Kingdom to the United States during the year, or about seventeen-twentieths of the whole unassisted emigration. But, although the number of emigrants who settle in the British North American Provinces has not increased, and is not likely to increase at all in proportion to the general emigration, it must be borne in mind that the emigration to those Provinces has not fallen off, but, on the contrary, has maintained a fair progress up to the present time. During the four years preceding 1847, that emigration amounted to 121,684, or 30,421 a year. During the four years ending 31st December last, it amounted to 147,998, or an average of 36,999 a year.

The year 1847 is excluded, because it was an exceptional year, which could not fairly be taken into account. The Commissioners believe that, including transient em. igrants, an immigration of from 35,000 to 40,000 is sufficient in ordinary years to supply the labor market of British North America. The amount expended out of the public funds for the conveyance of emigrants was, up to the end of 1851, about £800,000, of which about £4,500 was derived from Parliamentary votes for sending out free emigrants to those colonies which have received convicts, and £102,000 obtained from the emigrants themselves. The remaining sum of about £650,000 was furnished from the land revenues of New South Wales and South Australia, or the general revenue of the Cape of Good Hope.

The emigration which has taken place during the first four months of the present year promises to exceed that of any former year. The discovery of gold fields in California and Australia has, of course, tended to swell the tide to a great extent; but, even if those discoveries had not taken place, there is every reason to believe that the emigration of 1852 would have been unparalleled. The total emigration from the twelve ports in the United Kingdom, at which there are emigration officers, amounted to 103,216. Of these

Went to the United States..
To British North America
To the Australian Colonies

To other places......

83,029

8,104

11,259

885

Assuming that the tide of emigration, during the remaining eight months of the year, does not exceed the rate at which it flowed in the months of January, February, March, and April, the total emigration in 1852 would amount to 412,864 persons, being an excess, as compared with 1851. of no less than 155,492. In all probability, however, the emigration from the United Kingdom, during the present year, will consideraly exceed 500,000 persons.

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POPULATION AND TERRITORY OF THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE IN 1851.

Upon an extent of 664,400 square kilometres, (a kilometre is equal to 1,093 yards -i. e., 6 yards less than five-eighths of our mile,) the Austrian Empire possesses, according to the last census taken in 1846, a total population of 37,443,000 souls. Thus, with an extent of territory greater by some thirty thousand square miles than France, Belgium, and the Netherlands united, its population is about seven millions less than that of those countries. Broken up into grand territorial divisions, or natural groups of provinces, the figures above are thus distributed :

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Compared with the whole population and the whole territorial extent of the Austrian Empire, the several provincial divisions above, present the following proportions:

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Concerning the Hungarian provinces the results above offered are not given as exact.

They are approximative only. Since 1846, the date of the last census, the annexation of the city and territory of Cracow has added 500 square miles to the superficial extent of the Austrian Empire, and 141,000 to the number of its inhabitants; and as the population of the empire increases usually at the rate of 1 per cent per annum, the total population in January, 1848, may be estimated at 38,333,000 souls.

Political troubles and internal wars have not admitted of any sensible augmentation since that period. During the peace which lasted from 1821 to 1840, the general increase of the population, according to the calculations of Dr. Beecher, was about 6,000,000 or nearly 20 per cent. The increase was greater than that of France, though less than that of England, Prussia, or Russia.

The great territorial divisions above mentioned are subdivided as follows:

The German countries of Austria comprise Lower Austria, with Vienna, its capital; Upper Austria, with Saltsburg, the Tyrol, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola; the Littoral, or sea-board, with Trieste, Bohemia, Moravia, and Austrian Silesia. Upper and Lower Austria are the only provinces of the empire exclusively inhabited by Germans. The Sclavonians are numerous, and in some parts predominate even, in the other provinces-with the exception of the Tyrol, whose southern valleys have an Italian population. The Italians also predominate in the ports of the Littoral.

Austrian Poland comprises only Gallicia with the former Republic of Cracow, and the Buckovina, which was once a Turkish province. The Poles and the Ruthenes or Bousniaks (people of Russian origin) form the mass of the population; but among them are also found many Germans, Moldavians, Armenians, and above all, Jews.

Austrian Italy is composed of Lombardy and the Venetian States, and is inhabited by a mixed population of foreigners.

The Hungarian and Illyrian counties are composed now of Hungary proper and Servian Woyvodia, lately formed, and which corresponds in the main to the former Banat of Temiswar; Transylvania, which, united to Hungary during the revolution, has again been separated; of the Illyrian Banat, composed of Croatia and Esclavonia, former dependencies of the Hungarian crown; and finally of Dalmatia, between Turkey and the Adriatic.

The Hungarians, or Magyars, predominate in Hungary and Transylvania; and the Illyrian Sclavonians, (Croats, Servians, Dalmatians, and Morlachiaus,) prevail in the provinces, which extend to the south of the first of these two countries. The Wallachians, or Romanians, form an element in the population of Transylvania, as dense as that of the Slovachians in the north of Hungary. The Germans, everywhere numerous in the cities, are found too among the farmers of what is called the Saxon country, and in some Hungarian districts. There are also Jews, and many wandering Bohemians, or Gipseys, &c.

In the provinces bordering on Turkey, excepting Dalmatia, military government prevails. The seaports of this last province-partly inhabited by Italians—are, with the port of Fiume, the only sea ports in that vast extent of country.

The average density of the population in Austria, though less than that of Great Britain and France, is greater than that of Prussia. The most populous provinces of the empire, in proportion to their extent, are Lombardy, which exhibits the maximum of 122 inhabitants per square kilometre; the Venetian States; Moravia; Bohemia; and Lower Austria. The least populous provinces, on the other hand, are the Tyrol, containing but 30 inhabitants to the square kilometre, (a minimum which is explained by the country's being covered with gigantic mountains;) the military frontier of Illyrian Hungary; Carinthia; Carniola, and Transylvania.

The population of the empire is divided into about 800 cities, 2,500 market towns, (bourgs,) and 65,000 villages. The largest number of cities is in the German provin ces. The Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom has fewer communes, large enough to be called cities, but has more important capitals. The Hungarian countries, where capital cities are more rare, possess many large market towns, and populous villages, striking by their size, but which bear the mark of Asiatic rather than of Western civilization.

In general it is remarked that in Austria the concentration of the population into large cities is still less than in other parts of Germany and in France, and much less than in England, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Nevertheless, there are to be found in the Austrian States, according to the census of 1846, 136 communes, of which the civil population exceeded 10,000, to wit:-5 communes containing more than 100,000 inhabitants each; 9 containing between 40,000 and 100,000; 10 containing between 80,000 and 40,000; 15 containing between 20,000 and 30,000; and 97 containing between 10,000 and 20,000.

In 1846, the population of the 13 principal cities, which by their size, or from their commercial importance, were of the most prominence, was, excluding foreigners and troops in garrison, as follows:

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Including the population immediately outside of Trieste proper, the number of inhabitants of that city would be 80,000.

It is important to add concerning the Hungarian and Italian cities which suffered most from the events of 1848 and 1849, that the figures in the above table may be found now too high. The population of Pesth, for instance, has been reduced to 84,000.

According to Springer, the number of inhabitants in the Austrian Empire engaged in industrial occupations, strictly so called, (and who concentrate, from preference, in cities and market towns,) was increased between the years 1821 and 1840 from 2,300,000 to 3,000,000, while the agricultural laborers constituted a solid mass of 23,000,000 souls.

MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES.

"NAVAL DRY-DOCKS OF THE UNITED STATES."

In the Merchants' Magazine for August we briefly reviewed the work of Mr. Stewart, on the Naval Dry-Docks of the United States, giving at the same time a few extracts. Subsequently, we received a note from W. J. McAlpine, Esq, charging Mr. Stewart with plagiarism. That note we published in our October number. We now, in justice to the author of the work on Naval Dry-Docks, &c., give place to the subjoined explanation of Mr. Norton, the publisher, who, we presume, speaks by the authority of the author:—

FREEMAN HUNT, Editor of the Merchants' Magazine, etc. :—

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DEAR SIR: My attention has been called to a letter published in the October number of your valuable Journal from Wm. J. McAlpine, in which he states that the extract in your August number, taken from Naval Dry Docks of the United States," of which work I am the publisher, was nearly word for word published some two years and a half since in Appleton's Dictionary of Mechanics and Engineering, and that he thinks it due to the Messrs. Appleton, who have the copyright of the Dictionary, and to himself, the contributor of the article referred to, to correct your notice of the work in question.

In justice to all the parties interested, I beg leave to state that, so far from having infringed upon the copyright of the Messrs. Appleton, the article as it appeared in their (Byrnes') Dictionary in May, 1850, was published in the supplement to the New York Tribune, July 6th, 1849, WORD FOR WORD," over the signature of Richelieu," which name has been adopted for years past by a well-known writer for that paper, and for which he would have received due credit, had it not been recorded "word for word" at the Navy Department in October, 1847, nearly two years prior to the date of the article in the Tribune.

By reference to the preface of the "Naval Dry Docks," you will notice that the author states that "care has been taken to refer constantly to the official records of the Navy Department, and the reports of the engineers of the several docks during their construction, for valuable and reliable information," and a perusal of the book will show conclusively, I think, that the author has given (as I know it was his desire) "honor to whomsoever honor is due."

CHARLES B. NORTON.

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