collector of the port whence the goods are exported, the certificate, under seal, of the collector of the foreign port to which they are exported; said certificate being endorsed on a duplicate of the manifest, stating that the identical goods were landed and entered at said foreign port, and the du ties paid on them; also, the affidavit of the master of the vessel in which the goods were exported, attesting these same facts. If such goods are brought back again into the United States, they shall be forfeited, and the person bringing them shall be fined $400. 21⁄2 per cent. of the amount of duties paid shall be deducted from the drawback. The Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe rules and regulations, not inconsistent with existing laws, for carrying this act into effect. March 3, 1845.

No. 41. Civil and diplomatic appropriations. See abstract on page 143. March 3, 1845.

No. 42. Indian Department appropriations. See abstract on page 143. March 3, 1845.

No. 43. Improvements in Iowa. See abstract on page 143. March 3, 1845.

No. 44. An Act to establish certain post routes. March 3, 1845.

No. 45. An Act supplemental to the Act for the admission of the States of Iowa and Florida into the Union, and for other purposes. Eight entire sections of land are granted to Florida for fixing the seat of government; also, section No. 16 in every township for their public schools; also, two whole townships, in addition to the two already reserved, for the use of two seminaries of learning, one to be on the east, and the other on the west, of the Suwannee river; also, five per cent. of the net proceeds of the sale of public lands, for the purposes of education. All the United States laws not locally inapplicable shall have effect in Florida as in the other States. The said State shall compose one judicial district, to be organized like the Kentucky district; the judge of this district may hold extra sessions when he thinks the public interests require them. (See page 111.) The salary of the district judge shall be $2,000; of the district attorney, $200 besides fees; of the marshal, $200 and fees. The salary of the district judges of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, shall hereafter be $1,500 per annum. March 3, 1845.

No. 46. An Act supplemental to the Act for the admission of the States of Iowa and Florida into the Union. United States laws, not locally inapplicable, shall have effect in Iowa as elsewhere. One district court is established in the State, organized like the Kentucky district, of which two sessions annually shall be held at the seat of government; salary of the judge, $1,500; attorney and marshal as in Florida. In lieu of the propositions submitted to Congress by the Iowa convention, the following propositions are submitted to the Iowa legislature, and, if accepted by that body, shall be binding on the United States. 1st. Section, No. 16, in every township, or other lands equivalent thereto, shall be granted for

the use of schools. 2d. The 72 sections of land already reserved for a University, are conveyed to the State, for the use of said University. 3d. Five sections of land are granted for the erection of public buildings at the seat of government. 4th. All salt springs in the State, not exceeding 12 in number, with six sections of land adjoining each, are granted to the State, not to be leased or let, however, at any one time, for a longer period than 10 years, without the consent of Congress: Provided, that this grant shall not extend to any salt spring now owned by one or more persons. 5th. Five per cent. of the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands in the State shall be granted for making public roads and canals. These five propositions are made on condition, that the State shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the public lands within the same, nor tax these lands while they belong to the United States, nor tax non-resident proprietors higher than resident, and that bounty lands granted for military services in the late war, while held by the patentees or their heirs, shall be exempt from State taxation for three years after the date of their patents respectively. March 3, 1845.

No. 47. Navy appropriation bill. See abstract, page 143. March 3, 1845.

No. 48. An Act relating to revenue cutters and steamers. No revenue cutter or steamer, except such as are now building, shall hereafter be built or purchased, except an appropriation therefor be first made by law. Passed in spite of the President's veto. March 3, 1845.

XII. REGISTRATION OF BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, & DEATHS.

THE Legislature of Massachusetts, in 1842, passed a bill providing for a general system of registry of births, marriages, and deaths, throughout the State, which law, revised and improved in 1844, is still in force. Such a system is much needed in this country, and it is to be hoped that the example now set will soon be followed by other States in the Union. In order that they may have the benefit of the experience already obtained in arranging the details of such a system, we will give an outline of the law as it now exists. Every sexton, or other superintendent of a burialground, is required to make a return every month to the town clerk, respecting every person whose burial he has superintended during the preceding month, and he receives five cents for the return of each death; he is to specify in each case the date, name, sex, whether single or married, age, occupation, place of birth, names of parents, and the disease or cause of death. Every clergyman or magistrate celebrating a marriage is required to make a return of the same to the town clerk in the course

of the next month, mentioning the date, place, name of the officiating person, names of the parties married, their residence, whether they were single or had been previously married, the occupation of each, and the names of their parents. The school committee of each town, or some person authorized by them, is required to ascertain in the month of May annually, by direct inquiry, the number of births in the town during the preceding year, and make return of the same to the town clerk, receiving five cents for the return of each birth; the return must show the date of the birth, the place, name of the child, (if named) sex, names of the parents, their residence, and the occupation of the father. The town clerk is to record all the facts thus returned to him in books kept for the purpose, receiving eight cents for the record of each birth and each death; and he is to send each year an attested copy of his record to the Secretary of State. Blank books of record, blank forms of returns, and letters of instruction are furnished by the Secretary to the town clerks; and suitable penalties are provided in case either of the officers mentioned should neglect the duties assigned to them. The Secretary prepares each year an abstract of all the returns, the facts being properly classified and tabulated after the model of the most approved European system.

There can be no doubt of the great utility and interest of the statistics thus collected. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Massachusetts Medical Society, had petitioned for the passage of the law, believing that the returns would be full of interest and instruction for the legislator, the political economist, the lawyer, and the public generally. Systems of registry now exist in nearly all the kingdoms of Europe; and in England particularly, where the plan is of recent introduction, the five or six annual reports of the registrar-general that have been published, being drawn up with much ability, have excited great interest, have thrown much light on the progress and laws of population, have assisted in determining important questions in science, and promise to have considerable effect on legislative and commercial proceedings. Registration is doubly important in the United States, in order not only to determine some domestic questions of much moment, but to obtain grounds of comparison between English institutions, morals, habits, etc., and our own. The annual returns in Massachusetts, very defective at first, owing to the inexperience and negligence of town officers under a novel system, have gone on rapidly improving, and promise soon to afford results of great accuracy and the highest importance. In the conduct of lawsuits, in settling questions on which the peace of families and individuals, and litigated claims to property, depend, it is often essential to obtain legal evidence, which such public registers alone can furnish. The facts respecting every birth, marriage, or death, which is asserted to have taken place within the State, can be ascertained from an official record in every

town, and from an attested copy of all these records in the office of the Secretary of State. Dr. Palfrey, the Secretary of State for Massachusetts, to whose exertions the present success of the system is mainly to be ascribed, says that "in several cases which have come under the notice of this office during the past year, the most serious difficulty has occurred in proving a title to a valuable pension for revolutionary services for want of evidence of the marriage of the widow interested in the claim." The tab. ular abstracts of the returns, also, are not matters of mere speculative curiosity; they are not only of use in determining difficult questions in economical science, but they become the actual basis of legislation, and of the proceedings of individuals and joint stock corporations. The value of a widow's dower, or a life estate, which our judicial tribunals have frequent occasion to determine, can be ascertained only by reference to these tables; nearly all the business of life insurance companies is directed by calculations based upon these abstracts. The law of increase of the population, and the comparative rate of mortality or the probable duration of life, in different districts, in town and country, and in divers occupations, can be determined only by reference to them. They furnish valuable aid to medical science, by showing the comparative prevalence and fatality of different diseases in various parts of the country, and by throwing light on the causes which tend to spread or to limit particular maladies. The direct practical effect of important measures of legislation and divers projects of philanthropic reform on the well-being and increase of the population, can be fully ascertained only by the aid of such tables. Considering the great extent of territory of the United States, the diversity of climate and employments, and the intermingling of races consequent on the vast immigration into the country, it is most desirable that such systems of registration should be established in all the States; for the principles derived from European experience are not applicable here, where the population is so dissimilarly situated.

As the returns in Massachusetts are yet incomplete, many curious questions, which depend on a comparison of the total population with the whole number of births, marriages, and deaths occurring in the State, within one year, cannot be determined by them; these must be left for the experience of future years, when the details of the system shall be perfected. But for certain purposes, the returns may be depended upon as far as they go, and the inferences drawn from them conform to known laws of population, and to the experience of other countries. Thus, of the whole number of births reported within one year, 7,399 were of males, and 7,042 of females, the latter being to the former in the proportion of 100 to 105-07. This accords closely with that wonderful law of Providence believed to obtain over the whole world, according to which the male children born always exceed the females in the proportion very

nearly of 105 to 100, or 21 to 20.* Yet the census of 1840 showed that there were more women living in Massachusetts than men, by 7,672, the numbers being 368,351 females to 360,679 males. And this excess of female population was found to exist throughout New England, except in Maine, the excess in New Hampshire being as great as 4 per cent. This discrepancy is easily accounted for. Emigration is constantly going on from the older States to the newly settled parts of the country, and for obvious reasons more males migrate than females. Hence, the census shows a great excess of males in the new settlements. In Illinois, the male population is to the female as 113 to 100; in Wisconsin, it is very nearly as 155 to 100, or more than 3 to 2. Take the whole country together, so that the new settlements shall balance the old, and the general law holds. The number of white females in 1840 was 6,940,161; and of white males 7,249,434; which numbers are in the proportion of 100 to 104.6.

The returns

To return to the system of registration in Massachusetts. of marriages are obviously too defective for comparison with the total population, but not so for comparison with each other. It appears from a return of ages, that the men do not marry at as early an age here as in England, while the reverse holds true with regard to the women. The average age of bachelors at their marriage is 25.87 years, while in England it is 25-45; but the average age of maidens at their marriage is 23-29 years, while in England it is 24:30. Taking in also the ages of the widows and widowers at the period of their second marriage, and of a few others whose “condition,” (i. e. whether they had been previously married or not,) is not stated, and the average age of the males at the time of marriage is 28.84; of the females, 24-26;-in England, the numbers are 27.45 for the men, and 25-46 for the women. To account for the rapid increase of population in this country, we must suppose not only that marriages are more frequent and more prolific, but that they are probably contracted at an earlier age than in Europe. The differences above shown do not seem enough in favor of this country. Probably, the number of marriages returned is not large enough to afford a fair average; and more complete returns in future years may show that the males, as well as the females, in this country, marry at a younger age than the English do. The registration returns in England demonstrate that one fifth of the inhabitants who arrive at a marriageable age never marry; and that the women, who are marriageable at 17 years of age, do not marry till they attain the mean age of 24.3 years. This shows that prudence, or what Mr. Malthus calls the "preventive check," has a greater effect in that country than is commonly imagined. Mr. Farr calculates that if, instead of beginning to marry at 18, none of the women married till 23, and the mean age of mar

* In Prussia, the experience of 15 years showed the proportions to be 105 9 to 100; in England in 1840, it was 104 9 to 100.