in which he lives, and was born at a time when the births were but one-fourth of what they now are. In the same way, a person above seventy years of age belongs by his birth to a society eight times less than that in which he lives; or the present generation will furnish eight times as many men of the age of seventy as that in which he was born. Hence, also, the older states, where the population is least progressive, furnish the greatest proportion of aged persons, and the newer states the greater proportion of young.

Of 1000 persons in Connecticut, according to the census of 1810, 290 were under ten years of age, and 169 above forty-five years; but in the district of Maine, which added fifty per cent. to its population within the preceding ten years, there were in the same number of persons 369 under ten years of age, and 119 above forty-five. In the middle and southern states, the persons under sixteen form almost exactly one half of the population, or 502 in the 1000. But in Europe they are estimated to be only 331 in the 1000, and in England, according to the Carlisle Tables, $68 in the 1000.* The persons under middle age who remove from the thickly settled districts to the new states, and who either have families, or soon obtain them in their new situations, increase the proportion of young persons in the places they go to, and make the proportion of old persons greater in the places they have left,

Many travellers express surprise that the population of the United States should be spread over so great a

Malte Brun, Geog. Tom. II. p. 574, and Milne on Annuities;

surface when there is still so much land unoccupied in the eastern parts. But it is obvious that this must continue to be the case for a long time to come. Land of the first quality is, naturally, first occupied and brought into cultivation, and so long as land of this description can be had, in sufficient quantity, the price of corn will remain too low to admit of inferior soils being cultivated. But around the great cities, and generally in places where population is dense, there will not be a sufficient quantity of first rate soil to furnish the necessary supply of corn, which must, therefore, be raised on soils of the second quality, and at a greater cost. This, however, will not be done, so long as corn can be brought, at a less expence, from first rate soils at a distance. It follows, that while good land abounds at some distance, and the means of transporting its produce from one place to another are easy and cheap, there will be little inducement to cultivate very inferior soils, even in the most thickly peopled districts. Now, this is precisely the condition of the United States. They have an extensive and fertile back country, with the natural means of communication abundant and easy, and it costs less to raise corn in the rich lands of this back country, and convey it to Baltimore or New York, than to raise it on the worst soils around these cities. Hence, it will be invariably found, that, in the neighbourhood of populous cities, the price of corn has risen so as to render the cultivation of land of the third or fourth quality profitable. Thus the prices in Philadelphia are about double of those in the western parts

t

of Pennsylvania. But in distant places, where prices are low, only land of first and second quality makes an adequate return of profit, and in very remote districts, none but the very best soils can raise corn at so low a rate as to bear the expence of sending it to market.

One consequence of this state of things is, that rent exists in a very limited degree in the United States. It is now an admitted principle, that rent does not arise till the increased demand for corn renders it necessary to have recourse to inferior soils. When this takes place, farmers find it more advantageous to pay for the use of the good land, than to take the inferior for nothing, or to purchase it for a trifling sum. Thus rent begins, and as recourse is had to soils of a worse and worse quality, the good lands continue to rise in price,-in other words, rent advances. Except in the immediate neighbourhood of great towns, there is very little land let on lease in the United States, the price being so low, that any person who has the capital necessary to enter upon the business of farming, finds the purchase-money of the land a very small addition to his outlay. Hence, the aristocracy of landholders, the most important class in all other countries, has no existence in the United States. There are persons who hold great quantities of land, but it is held on speculation, and there are scarcely any who derive large revenues from leasing it. The farmers are almost universally the owners of the land they occupy, and these are seldom very extensive. The subdivision of estates among families breaks down

large properties, and the high rate of wages renders it difficult to conduct farming with advantage, on such a scale as to relieve the farmers from manual labour. Using only the best soils they have large returns, which is equivalent to high profits, and though few of them acquire great fortunes, many are wealthy, and the great majority are in easy circumstances, the situation most favourable both to virtue and happiness. Some of the southern planters, who are the richest class in the United States, have incomes as high as 80,000 dollars, many have from 12,000 to 20,000, but the incomes of the majority, probably, do not exceed from 3000 to 6000 dollars. The next class to the planters, in point of wealth, are the great merchants in the commercial cities, some of whom possess fortunes of a million of dollars. These, however, are not numerous. In a general point of view, the planters are the prevailing class in the southern states; the agricultural people in the western states; and the commercial in the eastern. In the middle states, the agricultural and commercial classes are more equally balanced. The classes of mechanics and manufacturers are most numerous in the middle and eastern states.

The high rate of profit afforded by the business of farming, necessarily extends itself to all other occupations; and hence, although the people of the United States live better than those of any other country, the clear returns are much greater, and the accumulation of capital more rapid than has ever been exhibited in the history of any nation. The valuations of 1799 and 1814 furnish curious information on this head.

From these it appears, that, in the fifteen years included between these periods, the value of lands and houses, (excluding slaves,) in the seventeen states, had, on an average, increased 160 per cent. or from 100 to 260. In South Carolina the increase was more than quadruple, being from 100 to 420; in Tennessee it was from 100 to 400; in Pennsylvania from 100 to 340; in New York from 100 to 269. The increase was least in the New England states, and, in general, was fully as great in the slave states as in the other states where the density of population was similar. The rate of increase for the whole is about 6 per cent. per annum, and the period of doubling eleven years. It will be seen, therefore, that capital accumulates with rather more than twice the velocity of population. The latter quadruples in forty-six years, but in the same period property augments sixteen fold. It is believed that no other country presents any thing like a near approximation to this rate of increase. But the distribution of this capital presents a distinction in favour of the United States no less gratifying. It is not collected into great masses, in the shape of overgrown fortunes, in the hands of a few individuals, but is scattered, in small portions, over the whole country, everywhere fructifying, and expanding into new improvements and enterprises, both private and public. Extensive concerns, and great establishments, which in other countries are supported by single individuals, are here carried on by joint stock companies. Not only is this the case with banks and canals, but with mills, steam-boats, woollen, cotton, and iron manufactories, and many other under