wards increased, at the suggestion of the Uni-composts judiciously applied, and blooming ted States government, to six feet in depth; and producing with something like their prisand in width, ranging from sixty to fifty feet. tine fertility. The spirit of improvement did The route was immediately selected, and the not rest with these. The man of smaller work commenced. means imitated their example, and profited by their experience. The barren wastes of the last generation are becoming smiling fields, groaning with yellow harvests, and rich meadows waving with sweet-scented grasses; the voices of a thriving rural population sound like music once more in the long-deserted ranges; and the last 'old field' of Maryland will soon yield to the onward progress of agricultural improvement." "While these measures were in progress, the people of Baltimore began to entertain fears that the work would interfere with their prosperity, and build up the District cities at their expense. They doubted the feasibility of constructing the lateral canal; and a railroad to the waters of the Ohio was determined upon. In February, 1827, a public meeting was called in the city, and a memorial preferred at once to the Legislature. It was assert- Although Maryland is among the small ed that the route of the railroad was the only states of the Union in point of territorial dipracticable one-that is, shorter by one hun-mensions, her geographical position is one of dred and forty miles than that by the canal, the best. She is surrounded by rivers and and that it could be opened at an expense less by seven millions of dollars. In ten days after the application, a charter was granted by the Legislature. bays which discharge the products of several states into her bosom. Her soil is rich and fertile in the growth of grain and tobacco; and, what is strange, the mineral resources of copper, iron, coal, and even gold, are to be found within her borders. It is well known that lands which abound in mineral ores are generally very barren. "The railroad company were allowed to pass along on a line parallel with the canal to Harper's Ferry, at which point it crossed to the Virginia side. The state subscribed for five thousand shares of its stock, and authorized the city of Baltimore to subscribe for thirty thousand shares. Not long after, 'The Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad' was projected from Baltimore to York. A branch of Stocks of the Farmers' Bank of Maryland. $190,000 00 the Baltimore and Ohio road was turned towards Washington, and a lateral road to Annapolis was connected with it. The failure of the canal, beyond Harper's Ferry, for want of funds to continue it, rendered it necessary for the Legislature to take the matter into consideration. In 1835, it provided for a subscription of three millions to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal-three millions to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad-half a million to the Maryland Cross-cut Canal to Baltimore-half a million to the Annapolis and Potomac Canal -and one million to the Eastern Shore Railroad. The amount of the state's interest in the canal in 1839 had swollen up to the sum of $7,197,000. The Tide Water Canal Company, and the York and Wrightsville Road, was supported by state bonds, for which the company's tolls were pledged. The property of the state consists of the following items: PRODUCTIVE PROPERTY OF MARYLAND. Bank of Baltimore. 174,000 00 Due from sheriffs, clerks, collectors, in spectors, and auctioneers... 2,666 77 662,813 68 192,500 00 Total productive.......$3,451,477 11 UNPRODUCTIVE PROPERTY OF MARYLAND. "Agricultural societies were formed throughout the counties-a state association was assembled--an excellent journal* established to advocate the cause of the noblest of all pursuits the education of the soil. Men of en terprise turned their attention to the restora- Bonds of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal tion of these barren wastes, and soon presented to the astonished eye of advocates of the ancient system, the 'old fields suddenly renovated by the power of lime and guano, and The death of John S. Skinner, formerly editor of the "Sportsman's Magazine," is much lamented throughout the agricultural world. He was recently the editor of a journal called "The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil." We learn that a monument is about to be erected to his memory. Company... Baltimore and Susquehanna the Potomac Company.. Baltimore and Ohio Rail- Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company. $2,000,000 00 1,884,045 29 30.000 00 13,280 00 120,444 44 3,000,000 00 5,000,000 00 50,000 00 Due from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, for interest,... Due from the Baltimore and Susquehanna R. R. Co., for interest.. Penitentiary, for premium, principal and interest. 925,905 76 The population of Maryland, according to 59,096 64 the census of 1850, the returns of which have Total unproductive....$16,999,623 95 been lately completed, shows the following 20,442,071 06 results in comparison with that of 184 : Grand total..... The above table shows an increase in the population of the state during the past ten years, of 107,573. The increase in the whole state during the ten years between 1830 and 1840 was but 20,527, whilst the increase in Baltimore alone was 21,888; so that, in fact, the population of the state, leaving the commercial emporium out of the question, had decreased during that decade, 1,361. Deducting the increase in Baltimore from the whole increase, as shown by the present census, there is left, as the increase for the counties alone, 41,004. The total free black population of the state, as shown above, is now 73,158; in 1840, it was 61,937-showing an increase of 11,221. In 1840, the whole number of slaves in the state was 89,719, whilst there are now but 89,178-showing a decrease of 541. The increase of population in Baltimore City is 66,499,-which is nearly two thirds of .575,140.................467,567 the whole increase of the state. Baltimore County shows the next greatest increase, being 9,522; Alleghany next, 7,133; Frederick next, being 3,510; and Somerset next, 2,954. Carroll County, it will be seen, is the only county in the state that shows a decrease in its population, having fallen off 2,122 since the last census. This decrease has doubtless been caused by its neglect to avail itself of a direct railroad connection from the heart of the county with Baltimore City. According to the last report of the Secretary of the Treasury upon the Banking System of the United States, the banking capital of Maryland was, in Baltimore Sun. Annapolis...... Farmers' Bank of Maryland.. George Wells.. David Shriver. Cashier. Capital 298,000 112,987 .Farmers' Bank, (Branch).. Frederick. 66 .... Mineral Bank................Thomas J. McKaig......Joseph H. Tucker...........169,137 Ellicott's Mills.. Patapsco Bank... ..Thomas B. Dorsey...... B. U. Campbell..... Easton.... .Theo. R. Lockerman....Richard Thomas... ....Richard Potts.... ....Godfrey Koontz.. .271,575 250,000 .125,430 150,000 ,250,000 50,000 ..... 60,090 50,000 .135,000 66 66 ......Farmers' and Mechanics'..... William Tyler. .......Thomas W. Morgan.... ..Frederick County Bank. .... Alexander B. Hanson...James H. Williams.. Hagerstown.....Hagerstown Bank..... ...Alexander Neil...... Elie Beatty. Port Deposit.... Cecil Bank.. ....Jonathan Tome.........A. Anderson................ Westminster.... Bank of Westminster... ...Isaac Shriver..... ...John Fisher............ ... Farmers' and Mechanics'.....Jacob Mathias.. Jacob Reese... Williamsport....Washington County Bank.... Daniel Weisel..........John Van Lear, Jr... Country.....Total, 12 Banks......... . Circulation, $1,200,000..Specie, $400,000. Capital, $1,997,079 Baltimore street. Bank of Baltimore..........James H. McCulloh.....C. C. Jamison....... North street.....Chesapeake Bank...........John S. Gittings.. James Lownds. Baltimore street Citizens' Bank..... .....Adam Denmead Wm. L. Richardson Howard street...Commercial and Farmers'...Thomas Meredith.. .Trueman Cross...... South street..... Farmers' and Merchants'... J. Hanson Thomas......John Loney.. .William E. Mahew.......Thomas B. Rutter....... ..John J. Donaldson...... Aquila P. Giles.... Gay street....... Marine Bank................Jacob Bier............. .Philip Littig, Jr...... North Calvert st. Mechanics' Bank..... ...John B. Morris....... . James W. Allnut..... Gay street....... Merchants' Bank...... ...James Swan..... Daniel Sprigg. North Charles st.Union Bank of Maryland.....John M. Gordon........Robert Mickle.. Eutaw street.... Western Bank.. ...Chauncey Brooks......James H. Carter... ...Circulation, $2,060,000..Specie, $2,127,000. Cap'l. $7,140,316 POPULATION OF BALTIMORE. Slaves, Free Cold. White, Total. 1790.....1,255.... 323....11,925... 13,503 1800.....2,843.... 2,771.... 20,900... 26,514 1810.....4,672.... 5,671....36 212... 46,555 1820....4,357....10,326....48,855... 62,738 1830.....4,120....14,790 ...51,710.. 70,620 1840....3,212....17.980....81,321. 102,513 1850....2,946....24,625...141,441...169,012 In its increase in wealth, Baltimore has kept pace with the increase of its population. In 1808, the value of taxable property in the city was computed at $2,522,780. The following is the official estimate of the value of the property, and the number of houses erected in the city for the last six years: ....... .$9,137,395 than they affect the commercial or mercantile character of the city, is no part of the design of this article. The Merchants' Exchange, at the corner of Gay and Lombard streets, is a spacious building, 225 feet long by 141 feet wide, and contains, besides the usual reading-room, and the room for the meeting of the merchants, the custom-house, bank, telegraphic offices, a hotel, &c. The room in which the merchants' meetings are held is fifty-three feet square, has upon its east and west sides colonnades, the columns of which are of fine Italian marble, each a single block, and it is lighted by a dome 115 feet above the street. The total value of goods shipped from Baltimore during the year ending June 30th, 1849, was $8,000,600; of which $7,786,695 were of articles of domestic produce, and $213,965 of foreign articles. The exports were in 634 vessels, with a tonnage of 149,928 tons, and employing 6,335 men in their navi gation. Of the above, 491 vessels were Ame rican, and 145 under the flags of eighteen different foreign nations. The foreign imports into Baltimore during which $4,613,219 were in American vessels. the same time were valued at $4,976,731, of The foreign imports were received in 484 vessels, of the tonnage of 110,068, and manned by 4,581 men. The total number of vessels owned and registered at Baltimore on the 30th of June, 1849, was 134,025.35 tons-53,624.75 tons being engaged in coasting, and 11,464.28 tons in steam navigation. In the same year there were built in Baltimare 9 ships and barks, 8 brigs, 41 schooners, 5 steamers, with the ag gregate tonnage of 12,199.66 tons. (See Bal The city now contains upwards of an hundred churches, three universities, four colleges, and many beautiful and commodious public buildings. To notice these, however, further timore.) • Bankers' Magazine, both of which places were plundered by the French in 1633, who claimed the whole country east of Pemaquid Point. In 1635 the French sent an armed vessel to the trading house at Penobscot, and took possession of it, paying the traders for their goods in bills on France. The traders were sent home to Plymouth. An attempt was made to regain the place, but without success; and the French held it many years. MAINE-ITS EARLY HISTORY-PHYSICAL among the oldest in the United States; but ASPECT AGRICULTURAL AND MINERAL RE- they did not prosper, and were only fishing SOURCES-COMMERCE-MANUFACTURES-GOV-stations. Settlements of stragglers continued ERNMENT-FINANCES-POPULATION-SCHOOLS, to be made eastward along the coast. In COLLEGES, &C., &c.-In the year 1603, a com- 1625 there was a settlement at what is now pany of Bristol merchants fitted out an expedi-York, and another at the mouth of the Saco. tion of two small vessels, under the command of In 1632 the people of Plymouth established Martin Pring, for the purpose of exploring the a trading-house on the Penobscot, and one at shores of America north of Martha's Vineyard Machias, at the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, and Massachusetts Bay, and of opening a trade with the natives some very flattering notices having been received of that portion of the New World from Bartholomow Gosnold, who had visited it the year before. Pring landed on the coast of Maine, in June, 1603, discovered some of its principal rivers, and returned to England. In 1606 he repeated the voyage, and made a more accurate survey of Maine than before. The whole country, from the mouth of the Hudson to New-Brunswick, In 1635, the Council of New-England surwas in the same year granted by James I., of rendered their patent, and their territories England, to a body of "knights, gentlemen, fell to eight different proprietors. Gorges and merchants," in England, called the Ply-was one of them; and to his territories, lying mouth Company. This company sent out a between the Kennebec and Piscataqua, he colony of planters, under George Popham, gave the name of New-Somerset. He sent who landed at the mouth of the Kennebec out his nephew, William Gorges, as his depriver on the 21st of August, 1607, and uty, to establish a government over the setcrected a few rude cabins, a store-house, and tlements. A general court was held at Saco. some slight fortifications. Forty-five only of In 1639, Gorges, who for thirty years had the emigrants remained at the place, which been engaged in colonization projects, and they called St. George; the rest returned to who had lost by them some $98,000, obtained England in the following December. The a royal charter for his American provinces, place where this colony, usually called the and changed their name to Maine, in honor, it Sagadahoc colony, passed the winter, is now is conjectured, of the Queen of England, who the town of Phippsburg. The winter was had some feudal relation with the French extremely severe, and the poor emigrants province of that name. It had, however, suffered from famine and hardships of every description. Their store-house was destroyed by fire, their commander died, and in the following year they abandoned the settlement, and returned to England. The principal object of trading vessels to the American coasts, at that early period, was the collection of furs and skins, and of sassafras, then becoming fashionable in England, as a medicinal drug. Pring took home with him one of his vessels entirely freighted with sassafras, and the other with furs and skins. The next settlers on the New-England coast were the Pilgrims, at Plymouth, in 1620, from whom settlers gradually extended to the coasts of Maine. Gorges and Mason, two Englishmen, had long been engaged in trafficking on these coasts. In 1621 Mason obtained the grant of a tract of country, extending from Salem to the mouth of the Merrimac; and in 1622 Mason and Gorges, together, obtained a grant of the whole tract from the Merrimac to the Kennebec, which they called Laconia. They sent out a colony of fishermen, who settled at the mouth of the Piscataqua, where Portsmouth now stands. Others, fishmongers from London, settled at Dover, eight miles up the river. These settlements, in what is now New-Hampshire, are been long the custom of the planters and fishermen of the whole New-England coast, to designate it as "the Main," to distinguish the main 1.nd from the islands. Gorges, who appears to have had somewhat pompous and inflated notions of things, attempted to erect over his fishmonger subjects a stately government, consisting of a lieutenant, chancellor, marshal, admiral, (though he had no navy,) and other high officers, who, together with eight deputies chosen by the people, were to constitute the general court, or legislative council. little hamlet of Agamenticus he chartered as a city, and changed its name to Georgiana, in honor of himself. The When the civil war commenced in England, Sir Fernando Gorges adhered to the king, and his enemies succeeded in getting wrested from him all his territory north and east of the Saco. Gorges died in 1847, and in 1652 his little province was annexed to Massachusetts, and Georgiana changed to York. The heirs of Gorges contended with Massachusetts for Maine until the year 1677, when they sold all their right and title to it for the sum of £1,200. The province, as claimed by Massachusetts, under this purchase, did not extend east of the Kennebec. The French claimed all east of that as part of Acadie; | On the west, the line follows the high lands and New-York, then governed by Andros, from that lake in a south-west direction to the claimed all between the Kennebec and Pe- north-east corner of New-Hampshire, which nobscot. Andros built a fort at Pemaquid, state forms part of the western boundary. and purchased peace of the Indians, who had The Atlantic is on the south. nearly depopulated the white settlements, by agreeing to pay them an annual tribute of corn-a peck for each English family. From 1670 to 1712, the English settlements in Maine suffered much from the incursions of the Indians and French. Some of the towns were completely destroyed, and large numbers of people massacred. The government of Massachusetts offered a reward of $132 for every grown Indian taken prisoner. By the treaty of Utrecht, in 1712, France yielded to England all her claims to Acadie, and thus the Indian massacres in New England ceased. Of all the flourishing settlements on the coast of Maine, however, only three were left, the others having been destroyed. Maine being incorporated with Massachusetts, its history is merged in that of the latter, and we hear nothing more of it until after the Revolutionary War. In 1785 its population was so increased that a convention of the people was held at Portland, to consider the expediency of erecting themselves into an independent state. Maine is the largest of the New-England States, having an area of 30,000 square miles, or more than four times the area of Massachusetts. Maine is diversified, of an uneven surface, but not generally mountainous. Near the sea the land is mostly level. Farther inland, it becomes hilly, and finally mountainous. Mount Kotahdin, the highest elevation, is 5,300 feet high. In the interior there are a number of small lakes, noted for their scenery. Maine has a sea-coast of over 230 miles, indented by numerous bays, and protected by numerous islands. It has more good harbors than any other state in the Union. The land on the sea-coast, for from ten to twenty miles inland, is not very fertile, but improves in quality as one leaves the coast. In the northwest and south-east parts, the soil is light and indifferent. Between the Penobscot and Kennebec there are lands equal in fertility to any in the Union. The climate of Maine is subject to great extremes of heat and cold, ranging from 100° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, in summer, down to 27° below zero in winter. It is, however, generally healthy. The season of vegetation does not continue in vigor more than three and a half months in the year, its greatest length being from the 21st of April to the 16th of October. Portland was first settled in 1632, and purchased by Gorges in 1637. In 1675 it was destroyed in the Indian war, and again in 1690 by the same enemy. It was rebuilt in 1715, and in twenty years afterwards its trade in lumber was extensive, so that it supplied the British navy with masts and spars, which Maine has a number of fine rivers. The were chiefly exported in foreign vessels. At Penobscot, 250 miles long, is navigable for the commencement of the Revolution, Port- large ships to Bangor, 52 miles from the land had a population of 1,900, and a port ocean. The Kennebec, 250 miles long, is tonnage of 2,555. It had 230 houses, and a Congregational and Episcopal church. In 1775 it was bombarded by the British, and 136 houses, including the principal public buildings, were destroyed. The place was at that time called Falmouth, which was changed to Portland in 1786. It is now the largest town in Maine. It was not until 1802 that another effort was made by the people of Maine to become a separate state. În 1788 the people opposed the ratification of the federal constitution, chiefly on the ground that it might prove an obstacle to their favorite project of becoming an independent state, which was not effected until 1820. The boundaries of Maine, as fixed by the late treaty, are the result of a controversy with Great Britain of a quarter of a century's standing, and one which came near involving the two countries in a war. By the treaty, the St. Croix, and a line running due north from the monument at its source to the St. John's river, form the boundary on the east. On the north, the line follows the St. John's and St. Francis rivers to lake Pohenagamook. navigable for large ships 12 miles, to Bath, and for vessels of 100 tons, 42 miles, to Augusta. The Saco is navigable only six miles. The entrance and exit from the rivers of Maine are very much facilitated by the high tides which prevail there. At Bangor, 52 miles from the sea, the tide rises seventeen or eighteen feet. It is computed, that at least one tenth of the surface of Maine is covered with water, so numerous are the lakes and ponds in the interior. Lake Moosehead, the largest, is 50 miles long, and 10 or 12 broad. Penobscot Bay is 30 miles long and 18 wide. Casco is 20 miles long. Maine is noted for its fisheries, lumber, and ship-building. Its other products are grass, flax, and all the different kinds of grain; but the season is often too short for Indian corn, The wild lands produce vast quantities of timber and lumber, which may be regarded as the staple production, the annual amount exported being from 10 to $15,000,000. The state is well adapted to grazing and wool growing, the amount of wool being several millions of dollars annually. Lime, marble, |