clothed with wood, except their highest summits. The BOOK ground is in general very fertile: the uplands afford rich LXXX. pastures, and the interval lands, along the rivers, heavy crops of hay and wheat. In the natural state the varieties of soil are distinguished by the growth of wood. Thus white oak and chesnut indicate a soil that is hard and stony, pitch pine one that is dry and sandy, white pine a soil light and dry, but deeper, spruce and hemlock a thin, cold soil, beech and maple a warm, rich loamy soil. It is observed that winter rye thrives best on new land, and maize or barley on old. The climate is severe but healthy: the ice lasts three months on the lakes and rivers, which are then crossed by loaded waggons. The State has only eighteen miles of sea-coast, in which is one excellent harbour, that of Portsmouth. It is chiefly an agricultural State, and has but little commerce. It has considerable manufactures of iron, cotton, and woollen, &c. the whole annual value of which in 1810 was estimated at 8,135,027 dollars. It has one college, which is not very numerously attended, about twenty academies, and by law every town is obliged to have one or more common schools. The inhabitants, who amounted to 141,885 in 1790, and to 244,161 in 1820, have the general character of the New-Englanders. They are tall and strong, industrious, well informed, and enterprising, frugal, religious, and jealous of their rights. Portsmouth, the largest town in the State, had 7327 inhabitants in 1820. The Governor, Senate, and House of Representatives, are all elected annually by the males of full age, paying State taxes.

Vermont is situated between Lower Canada, New Hamp- Vermont, shire, and New York, and contains 10,200 square miles of surface. It is a beautiful picturesque country, entirely inland, abounding in mountains, which are universally covered with wood,-with birch, beech, maple, ash, elm, and butternut, on the east side, and with evergreens on the west. The crops also feel the influence of these different exposures, for winter wheat, which is extensively cultivated on the east side of the mountains, does not thrive on the west. Maize,

BOOK barley, oats and flax, succeed every where, and the pastures LXXX. are excellent. The snow lies three months. The number

setts.

of inhabitants was 85,539 in 1790, and 235,764 in 1820. The value of its manufactures was estimated at 4,326,000 dollars in 1810. The State has two colleges, neither of which is numerously attended; it has an academy generally in each county, and common schools in all the towns. The Congregationalists and baptists are the most numerous sects. Vermont was attached to New York(a) till 1791, when it was created an independent member of the Federal Union. Its legislature consists of a House of Representatives only, which, with the Governor, is elected annually, by all the resident males of full age. There is no Senate, but there is a Council of Censors, elected once in seven years, whose business is to inquire whether the Legislature and Executive have done their duty, and whether the constitution has remained inviolate.

Massachu- The state next in order, as we proceed southwards, is Massachusetts, which embraces 7800 miles of surface. This state is uneven and hilly generally, and mountainous near its western extremity. The soil in the southern parts is sandy; in the rest of the state it is generally strong, and well adapted either for grazing or grain. The agriculture is better conducted than that of any other state except Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The average produce, per acre, of the good lands, is estimated to be thirty bushels of maize or corn, thirty of barley, twenty of wheat, fifteen of rye, and two hundred of potatoes. The ox is more used than the horse in agriculture. The population was 378,787 in 1790, and had increased to 523,287 in 1820. Massachusetts is in fact the most densely peopled, the richest, and perhaps the most highly civilized state in the Union. It has the principal share

(a) [Vermont was annexed to the colony of New York, in 1764, by the King of England, but the inhabitants refused to concur in the measure. By a convention, in 1777, Vermont was declared a free and independent state; in 1790 the controversy was amicably adjusted, and New York relinquished her claim for the sum of 30,000 dollars; and in 1791, Vermont was admitted into the onion.]-AM. ED.

of the American fisheries, and a greater amount of commerce BOOK and shipping than any other state.

Boston, the capital of the state, is a large handsome city, beautifully situated on a small peninsula in Massachusetts Bay, being surrounded on all sides by the sea, except where a long narrow neck connects it with the continent. The more ancient part of it is not very regular, and has very much the appearance of an old English town; but the more recent streets are spacious and regular, and the buildings generally very handsome. The harbour is one of the most safe and commodious in the United States, being secure from an enemy, and from every wind, and capable of containing five hundred ships. Boston is the seat of a very extensive commerce, both foreign and domestic, conducted by a people who unite extraordinary enterprise with great industry and perseverance. The public buildings, the wharfs, the bridges, all indicate the taste and activity of the community; and the vast capital vested in shipping, and the growing magnitude of the population, are proofs of its increasing wealth and prosperity. Boston may also be considered as the literary capital of the United States, so far as regards native publications, though the reprinting of European works is carried on to a greater extent in Philadelphia. It has the honour, too, of being the cradle of the revolution, and of American independence. Boston contained 43,298 inhabitants in 1820. (a) There are many other considerable towns, among which may be mentioned Salem, with 12,731 inhabitants, Newburyport 6852, Gloucester, 6384, and Charlestown 6591.

Massachusetts is extremely well supplied with seminaries for education, and the people are universally well inforined. By law every town containing fifty families is bound to maintain a common English school, and every town with 200 families must maintain a school for Greek and Latin. (b)

(a) [Population of Boston, in 1825, 58,281.]-AM. ED.

(b) [This law was repealed in 1824, with regard to all towns containing less than five thousand inhabitants; so that it is now left to the option of such towns, whether to support a school for Greek and Latin or not.]-AM. ED.

LXXX.

BOOK There are two [three] colleges in the State—one of which, LXXX. Harvard college, is the most richly endowed, and perhaps

Rhode Island.

the most efficient in the United States. Its property is estimated at 600,000 (a) dollars, (£132,000,) and its library contains 25,000 volumes. The Congregationalists are three times more numerous in this State than any other sect. The next in number are the Baptists. The religious austerity for which the Bostonians were formerly distinguished, has been greatly softened down, though it was not till 1798 that a theatre was opened in the town. Throughout this State, and in other parts of New England, unitarian doctrines are said to be making rapid progress. The government of Massachusetts is vested in a Senate and House of Representatives, chosen annually by all the male citizens of full age who pay taxes.

Rhode Island is the smallest State in the union, its area, which is 1360 square miles, not exceeding that of a middling English county. The soil is of moderate fertility, but the climate is held to be one of the most salubrious in the United States. It has a greater proportion of manufactures, in proportion to its population, than any other State, containing from 90 to 100 cotton mills, and a vast number of power looms. Its commerce is also considerable. The population of the State was 68,825 in 1790, and 83,059 in 1820. At the latter date Providence, its chief town, contained 11,767 inhabitants. (b) This State, unlike the other members of the federal body, has no written constitution, being still governed by the charter granted by Charles the Second, in virtue of which the people elect annually a Senate and House of Representatives, who ex

(a) [This statement is much too high. The property of Harvard College or University, exclusive of the public edifices, library, and other literary and scientific apparatus, produces annually about 20,000 dollars, of which 14,000 are applicable to the support of instructers, and occasional expenses. See the "Statement of the Income of Harvard College," made to the General Court, in 1824;-also a "Report of a Committee of the Overseers," made to that Board in 1825.]-AM. ED.

(b) [Population in 1825, 15,323.]-AM. En.

crcise the legislative power, and a Governor who exercises BOOK the executive.

LXXX.

The State of Connecticut lies between Rhode Island, ConnectiMassachusetts, and New York, and embraces an area of cut. 4670 square miles. The surface is undulating or hilly, the soil generally fertile. The climate, like that of Rhode Island, is very salubrious. The agriculture of Connecticut is of a very improved kind; and it abounds in manufactures of cotton, woollen, linen, leather, iron, tin, &c. It has also a considerable coasting trade, and is in all respects one of the most industrious thriving States in the Union. Its population has increased more slowly than that of any other State; being 237,946 in 1790, and 275,248 in 1820. But Connecticut and Massachusetts are the great nurseries of men for the western regions; and they send a greater proportion of emigrants across the Alleghanies than any other section of the republic. New Haven, (a) the capital had 7147 inhabitants in 1820. The people of this State are universally well educated, common schools being established in every town. Yale College, for the higher branches of education, is one of the most flourishing and best conducted seminaries in North America.

New York.-New York, which held only the fifth rank New York. among the States in 1790, is now the most populous and powerful of the whole. It embraces an area of 46,200 miles, which is one half larger than that of Ireland, though it forms but the twentieth part of the surface of the gigantic republic east of the Mississippi. But if we estimate its importance by the intelligence of the people, their physical, moral, and commercial activity, and the wonderful spirit of improvement they display, we shall find that this small community is entitled to take precedence of many second rate European kingdoms, and of the whole empire of Mexico.

The country displays every variety of surface, from the level and undulating to the hilly and mountainous. The

(2) [Hartford and New Haren are joint seats of government.-AM. Ep.