TRADE UPON THE Canals for THE YEAR 1853, EMBRACING THE TONNAGE, TOLLS, AND THE MOVEMENT OF THE TONNAGE, BEING THE EQUIVALENT NUMBER OF TONS MOVED ONE MILE.

The report of the Auditor, as before stated, does not furnish the means of showing a similar statement for each of the canals.

The whole movement of 1853 was equal to 700,000,000 tons moved one mile, or an average movement of nearly 165 miles for each ton. The average movement of the tonnage on the Erie Canal, excluding that of the lateral canals, is, probably, nearly 300 miles for each ton.

The average rate of toll in 1853 was 4 6-10ths mills per ton per mile, for the whole tonnage; 2 2 5ths mills, for the products of the forest; 4 1-10ths for animals; 5 for vegetable food; 5 2-10ths for manufactures, except salt; 6 2-10ths for merchandise, and 2 6-10ths mills per ton per mile for all unenumerated articles.

The comparative movement of each class, compared with the whole movement, is as follows:

Products of the forest, 24 per cent; agricultural products, 37 per cent; merchandise, 16 per cent; manufactures, 4 per cent; miscellaneous articles, 8 per cent. The comparative movement of some of the principal articles embraced in these classes is as follows:

1st. OF THE FOREST. Boards and scantling, 24 per cent of the whole movement of all articles on all the canals; staves, 4 per cent; timber, 5 per cent.

2d. OF THE PRODUCTS OF ANIMALS. Pork, 1 per cent; beef and bacon, 6-10ths; lard, 3 10ths; wool, 2-10ths; butter, cheese, and hides, each 1-10th of 1 per cent of the whole movement.

3d. OF VEGETABLE FOOD. Flour, 13 per cent, and wheat, 10 per cent; corn, 4 7 10ths per cent; oats, 8-10ths of 1 per cent, and barley, 2 per cent.

4th. OF MANUFACTURES. Salt, 2 per cent; pig-iron, 9-10ths of 1 per cent; and do mestic spirits 7-10ths of 1 per cent; castings, 6-10ths; bloom-iron, furniture, and leather, each 1-10th of 1 per cent of the whole.

5th. Merchandise, 10 per cent; and railroad-iron 6 per cent of the whole. 6th. UNCLASSIFIED ARTICLES. Coal, 3 7-10ths per cent; stone, lime, and clay, 2 per cent; and live cattle, sheep, and hogs, 5-1000ths of 1 per cent of the whole.

EFFECT OF STEAMER DAY AT SAN FRANCISCO.

To say that the semi-monthly occurrence of Steamer Day is an epoch in life in San Francisco, conveys but a faint idea of the importance of this day, and the effect thereof. The people of California and San Francisco, according to the Alta California, seem to count time from the 1st to the 16th of each month; or, in other words, from Steamer Day to Steamer Day. During the dullest season, go into California or Battery street, and everything is lively and brisk; which, to a stranger, would scem as if a tremendous business was being carried on. Not so. The merchant is engaged in "making up" his remittances; and when seen tearing through the street, is about visiting a neighbor to inquire if there is "anything over, to-day." Everything-trade, pleasure, money, and newspaper offices-is subservient to it. More especially is this the case during the present tightness of the money market.

There is no postponing your engagements. Steamer Day, and the promised payment of a certain note must be fulfilled, or steps are taken towards legal proceedings in a manner that induces you at once to "pungle." Go into a banker's, and a little door labelled "Private" is closed. Knock, and one of the clerks will inform you Mr. is busy, and there is no admittance to-day except on extraordinary business. Attempt to draw a check, and a grunting announcement, "Take your place in the line," is the prelude to half an hour's detention. Apply for a draft, and you are told it will be ready in one hour, and the amount required in advance, together with 3 per cent additional.

Ask some one of your acquaintance to return that loan, and he replies: "My dear fellow, it is steamer day, and my remittances must be made up, and I was about asking you for a further sum to help me out." By the way, the same man will tell you the next day that the steamer has just gone, and all his spare cash gone, too. Verily, steamer day is to him a convenient excuse to avoid settling with creditors, and to San Francisco what an imperial ukase is to Siberia, or a pronunciamento to a Mexi

can.

Human nature can be studied to advantage on this occasion. Go to the Post Office, and watch the small aperture through which letters for the "loved ones at home" are deposited. First comes a hardy miner, with long beard, greasy hat, uncombed hair, buckskin shirt, revolver and belt. He tremblingly drops his letter and walks away, as if in deep thought. Next comes a mechanic, with a smile on his countenance indicative of pleasure. Perhaps he has received a letter, and this is an answer. He feels proud of his calling, and firmly walks away, fully convinced that he will come again next" steamer day." Observe a moment longer, and you see a well-dressed oily faced man, with fobs and seals dangling from his vest, deposit a dirty yellow envelope, addressed perhaps to some of his kind in the East, where he learned to gamble. That is his secret, and we let him, pass on. An old man, worn down by age, comes tottering along, and, first wiping his "specs," he takes out a wallet, carefully undoes the fastening, and takes out a clean white letter without any envelope. What care is there! He looks at the direction: it is all right, and in it goes with the rest. Could he but see the basket emptied on the table, and the clumsy clerk hastily tie it in a bundle with many others, and all "mashed up" to one size, his feelings would certainly be indignant.

But we have wandered from our subject. Turn around from the box, and you again see the visible effect of Steamer Day. The newspaper stands are crowded, and the persons behind the counters have their hands full, administering to the wants of their customers. The steamer papers of the city, and other places in California and on the Pacific coast, are piled up, and an ocean of postage stamps is seen in a pasteboard box lying on the counter. We have known as many as 6,000 steamer papers to be sold by one of these stands on steamer day.

Everybody is surprised that steamer day occurs so often; and the day before, when all is still and quiet, we have heard persons ask, "When does steamer day come?" and a friend who is going home comes to you some day and tells you that to-morrow he will bid you farewell. Travel down to the steamer, the indirect cause of all the excitement, and there is Babel indeed. Friends recognize friends, and a rush to the gangway plank takes place-but hold! a string of unhappy individuals are leaving the vessel, and you cannot go on board until they are ashore. Getting on board, a 'scene takes place that defies description. Not a few who are toted on board the steamer are toted off, the range of their vision being rather limited. As the steamer moves away from the dock, friends are pelted with oranges, or pears, or wines. Bob

in a voice of Stentor, bawls out a blessing to Dick, who is all smiles and good nature, the outward coating of a swelling heart, and who promises to rejoin his friend as soou as practicable.

In short, steamer day is a sort of financial crisis, a commercial panic, and the next day its effect is plainly perceptible. The public pulse beats calmer. Everybody breathes freer and affairs again flow in their natural channel. It is impossible to conceive what would be the effect if we had no steamer day; and therefore we believe that its visit causes trade to take a new start-merchants to be brisk-bankers busyboot-blacks busier-stock-brokers happy-note-shavers more so-letter-writers anxious-post-office clerks disgusted-dock loafers excited, and newspaper people in a continual whirl of business for three days prior to and three days after steamer day.

HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE BOSTON AND LOWELL RAILROAD.

The Boston and Lowell Railroad was first opened to the public in June, 1835, and has therefore been in operation nearly nineteen and a half years. A committee, appointed four years before, to report upon the probable earnings of such a road, should it be constructed, estimated the amount of business thus: passengers 37,440, merchandise 15,217 tons-making the gross receipts $58,514 per annum. The difference between the estimate and the actual result is quite remarkable. Thus, during the last year, the number of passengers was 657,391, and merchandise 303,630 tonswhile the gross receipts were nearly half a million of dollars, or $434,600. Since the opening, up to January last, the trains had run 3,237,955 miles, and carried 125,000,000 of passengers one mile, without the loss of life or limb in the cars.

During the same period, seventy-five millions of tons of merchandise were carried one mile, with losses less than a quarter of one per cent upon the amount of freight earned. Two of the conductors, Col. Barrett and Josiah E. Short, and one engineman, Henry Brown, have been on the road from its commencement, and have trav eled over 500,000 miles each. Col. B. had a beautiful and costly badge presented to him some time ago; and during the past summer Mr. Short received a present of a superb gold watch, with from two to three hundred dollars, from the season-ticket passengers.

STATISTICS OF POPULATION, &c.

PRESENT POPULATION OF MEXICO.

According to the latest census of the population of the Republic of Mexico, published in the last Mexican papers, the entire number of inhabitants is 7,858,595,

There are 85 cities and towns; 193 large villages; 4,709 villages; 119 communities and missions; 175 haciendas or estates; 6,092 farms and hamlets.

POPULATION OF IRELAND FROM 1805 TO 1853.

EDWARD SINGLETON, Esq., the Secretary, Census Commissioners, gives, under date Census Office, Dublin, August, 1854, the subjoined return, showing the population of Ireland, from 1805 to 1853, as far as the same has been ascertained:

The number of persons returned for 1805 is the result of a computation made in that year by Major Newenham, based upon the returns furnished by the collectors of hearth money. The population for 1813 is partly the result of an enumeration and partly of computation, no returns having been made for the following places, namely, the cities of Limerick and Kilkenny, and the counties of Meath, Westmeath, Wexford, Cavan, Donegal, and Sligo. The population for 1821, 1831, 1841, and 1851 is taken from the census returns made in these years under specific acts of Parliament.

The population as shown in this return for the intermediate years has been computed from the increases which took place between the periods from 1805 to 1813, from 1813 to 1821, from 1821 to 1831, from 1831 to 1841, and at the same rate from 1841 to 1846. In 1847, and the succeeding years, a considerable decrease is known to have taken place, but the annual amount is not known.

FIGURES ABOUT THE POPULATION OF THE WORLD.

We find the following statements in one of our exchanges. We cannot vouch for the entire accuracy of all the figures. Some of the statements are undoubtedly correct; others we have not found time to investigate. Perhaps some mathematical student of the Merchants' Magazine-and there are many such-will enlighten us and our readers on the subject:—

The number of languages spoken in the world amounts to 8,064; 587 in Europe, 896 in Asia, 276 in Africa, and 1,264 in America. The inhabitants of the globe profess more than 1,000 different religions. The number of men is about equal to the number of women. The average of human life is about 28 years. One-quarter die previous to the age of 7 years; one-half before reaching 17; and those who pass this age, enjoy a facility refused to one-half the human species. To every 1,000 persons, only one reaches 100 years of life; to every 100, only six reach the age of 65; and not more than one in 500 lives to see 80 years of age. There are on earth 1,000,000,000 inhabitants; and of these 33,333,333 die every year, 91,334 every day, 3,780 every hour, and 60 every minute, or 1 every second. These losses are about balanced by an equal number of births. The married are longer-lived than the single, and, above all, those who observe a sober and industrious conduct. Tall men live longer than short ones. Women have more chances of life in their favor previous to being 50 years of age than men have, but fewer afterwards. The number of marriages is in proportion of 75 to every 1,000 individuals. Marriages are more frequent after the equinoxes-that is, during the months of June and December. Those born in the spring are the most robust. Births and deaths are most frequent by night. The number of men capable of bearing arms is calculated at one-fourth of the population.