PEOPLE AND CITIES IN AMERICA.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 73, 8 December 1855, Page 3

PEOPLE AND CITIES IN AMERICA.

[From the At7ienaum.~\ Population spnads over a surface m agricultural regions, and converges to a point m manufacturing or commercial districts. About five millions, out of the total number of twenty three millions of souls, are described as persons engaged m distinct occupations : two millions and a half to trade, manufactures, mechanics, and mining, and one million to labour " not agricultural." Pursuits requiring education absorb about 200.000; the civil service, 24,000; the army, only 5,000. In Great Britain ships and factories fill the highest rank of figures, and the land ihe second; m America the order is reversed. The profession of the sea is followed m both countries by nearly equal numbers, as well as " pursuits re. quiring education." The golden catalogue of "persons enjoying independent incomes," though containing half a million of names m Great Britain, does not occur m the United States Census. More than 2,000 individuals returned themselves as artist 9, upwards of 700 as actors, 1,300 as editors, and no more than 82 as "authors," while 355 declare themselves to be publishers. Therefore, one of two things must be understood ; either each American writer produces enough to keep four publishers and a fraction m business, or upwards of three-fourths of the American publishers thrive by piracy and reprint. The educational statistics are interesting. No less than a million of male adults are described as unable to read or write— a large number for the United States, though "beautifully less" m comparison with the figures which represent popular ignorance m Great Britain. There are 15,000 public and school [ libraries, containing upwards of 4 600.000 volumes, and 2,500 periodical publications circulating annually 426,000,000 millions of copies: of these, 568 are literary, 83 "neutral," 191 religious, 53 scientific, and 1,630 political. In the long re capitulatory of provinces, counties, and cities, some curious and some hallowed names meet our observation : we are amused to find Athens, Corinth, and Troy. We notice the singular fancy of giving to districts such names as Anne-Arundel or Angelina; Vermillion and Jaspar indicate, perhaps, some natural phenomena; Washington and Franklin are intelligible at once, and do. as much honour to the citizens who named them as to the men whose acts they commemorate; but Raleigh is a name which makes us pause to inquire into the fortunes of this city of North Carolina, where the great Englishman planted many a seed of social happiness and political glory. North America no historical associations ! Why, the " City of Raleigh," though neither ancient nor vast, has more meaning to the readers cf English history than all the masonry m the Valley of the Nile, and perhaps not less than many of the castles which, with their fractured walls and moss-wrapped turrets, we cherish among us as temples of the lares and penates of the land ! Raleigh has a population of 4.518. It lies m county Wake, m Carolina —that " delicate garden abounding with all kinds of odoriferous flowers," of which the deputies of that unhappy knight took possession m the name of Queen Elizabeth. Here did Raleigh determine to found a state and " the City of Raleigh." In this city, while yet a hamlet, Virginia Dare, the first English child, was born on American noil ; but the hamlet never rose to be a city, and the name of its founder disappeared. James the Fin* gratified himself by consigning a paralytic old man to the block, and by reducing his family to beg* gary ; but Stuart malevolence could not obliterate

the traces which the bero.of great enterprises had left on the American soil. Nearly two centuries afterwards, the State of North Carolina, by " solemn act of legislation," revived m its capital "The City of ttaleigh," tthich graddally prospers and may emulate m future the most noble and brilliant cities of Europe. In such histories there is a perpetual cbarm.