Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1834,

BY CHARLES BOWEN,

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

CAMBRIDGE:

CHARLES

FOLSOM,

Printer to the University.

10362

PREFACE.

THE favorable manner in which the American Almanac has hitherto been received, induces us to hope that the public will not be disinclined to encourage a continuation of the work. The astronomical department has again been prepared by R. T. Paine, Esq., to whose Preliminary Observations we would refer the reader for explanations. Such explanatory remarks in relation to the different matters which are treated of, will be found in different parts of the volume, as render it unnecessary to speak particularly of them here.

The subjects which have received the most attention in this volume, are Banks and the Periodical Press; but in addition to these, there will be found a variety of miscellaneous matters, together with the usual register of the general and state governments.

Periodical Publications of various descriptions have, within a few years, increased with surprising rapidity; but from the ephemeral character of a great part of these productions, as well as from their number, it is impossible to give an accurate account of them for any assignable time, as some are constantly starting into existence, and others are disappearing. With respect to a few of the states, our efforts to obtain information have not been attended with the success that we could wish; yet the volume will be found to contain much information on this subject; and in the next, we hope to give further notices in relation to those states, which have least justice done them in this.

It is an undertaking of no small labor and difficulty to render accurate a work, which treats of such a variety of matters, many of them constantly changing, and which embraces such a multiplicity of facts, as the American Almanac. The best efforts to