161

80

83

Number of lunatics in city asylum supported by this commis

sion, during the year

Number of licenses issued to emigrant boarding houses

Number of licenses issued to runners

"The great amelioration of the mode of carrying passengers since 1848 has continued generally to exercise its beneficial influence during the last year. Some few exceptions, chiefly in foreign vessels, have, by the disease and mortality produced from defective ventilation, crowded ships and bad food, strongly attested the importance of the general improvement and the necessity of rigidly enforcing all laws for the prevention of such

evils.

"From the general character of the shipping transporting them, and also to a large extent from their own character and means, a great part of the year exhibited a better personal condition of the passengers than the average; but during the latter months a considerable portion of the emigration from Ireland has been of a necessitous and suffering class.

"The whole number of persons who have, in various ways, been chargeable to the Cominissioners for occasional temporary aid, up to long continued support and medical care, was over 50,000, or above 10,000 more than during 1849. This increase naturally results from the annual increase of the whole number entitled to claim assistance until the expiration of five years from the time of commutation. In the last year, the necessitous portion of the emigration for above three years and a half, in all parts of the State, claimed assistance. The whole number of commuted persons still living is probably not much less than one-third more than those of the preceding year. Thus it will be seen that the increase of persons actually demanding aid is in a less proportion, indicating how large a number have found the means of independence or self-support since their arrival on these shores."

COLONIZATION.

The American Colonization Society, during the period of its existence, has sent 6116 emigrants to Africa, as follows:

This does not include the number, about eight hundred, sent by the Maryland Colonization Society, to its Colony in Liberia. The first expedition of the Society left New York in February, 1820, with 86 emigrants. Since then passengers have been dispatched in eighty-three vessels. The largest number taken out in one vessel was 338-in the ship James Perkins, which sailed in December, 1831.

The receipts of the Society from its organization in 1817, to December 31, 1850, were $913,636. The amount expended by State societies, during their independent action, was about $312,000-thus making a total of $1,225,626 83, which represents the cost of colonization since the organization of the Society.

THE RAILROADS OF THE UNITED STATES.

The following account of the Railway Enterprises in this country up to Jan. 1, 1851, has been compiled from recent statements in New York and Philadelphia papers, and from other sources.

The Railway system was commenced in the United States about twenty-three years since, viz: in 1827, when a short road

in Massachusetts, called the Quincy Railroad, three miles in length, was constructed. In 1828, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was commenced, and thirteen miles of it put in operation at the close of the year 1829. About the same time, or shortly afterwards, the Mauch Chunk Railway, of nine miles, and the Lackawaxen Railway, sixteen miles, in Pennsylvania, were completed, and used for the benefit of the coal trade. Locomotives, moved by steam power, were not, however, used in this country on railroads until after the trial made in England, on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad, in 1830, when wonder was excited by a speed or twenty-eight miles per hour having been obtained by a locomotive engine, with thirty passen

gers.

On the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, cars were drawn by horses at the rate of thirteen miles per hour. The Railroad first undertaken in the State of New York, was the Mohawk and Hudson, now called the Albany and Schenectady, sixteen miles. in length, which was commenced in 1830 and completed in 1833. On this railroad, steam power was introduced.

The following table, approximating to correctness, shows the progress of railroads in the United States, from their comraence-. ment, in 1827, to the close of the year 1848:

At the close of the year 1849, more than seven thousand miles were in operation, and the total cost exceeded two hundred millions of dollars; but as the number of miles of railroad constructed in 1849 was about twelve hundred, it follows that the amounts above stated for 1848 are under the true quantities. The number of miles constructed for five years, from 1845 to 1849, inclusive, are stated, viz:

but

The accounts for the year 1850 are not yet fully made up; the number of miles of rails laid down during the year, including those roads nearly ready for operation, we think will exceed those of any previous year. In July, 1850, the following statement was published, which we presume was nearly correct at

that time; if so, about one thousand additional miles of railroad have since been in operation

7677

Total amount of miles of railroad in the United States,

Below we present a table of the different railways in operation in the United States, on the 1st of January 1851, giving the length, the cost, and the rate of passenger fare per mile, given to the thousandth part of a cent, so far as the information has been obtained: