nent.

means of social being, to a more remarkable degree than had ever been known in the history of the whole eastern contiAnd if we go onward and visit the banks of the Ohio, the Wabash, Mississippi, and Missouri, we shall find towns, villages, innumerable cultivated farms, a teeming population, well organised governments, and all the details of commercial and social intercourse, established on a firm basis, and going into an harmonious operation, over an immense space of country, where thirty years ago scarcely a vestige of civilisation could be traced.

The growth of our cities on the seaboard, if it has been comparatively less rapid, than that of some parts of the interior, has nevertheless exceeded anything with which history acquaints us in the eastern hemisphere. Within the last thirty years the population of Philadelphia has increased to a number three times as great as it was at the beginning of that period, New York to a number four times as great, and Baltimore to a number five times as great. New Orleans has now more than three times the amount of population, which it had when the purchase of Louisiana was made by the United States. But among all the cities, whether of America or of the old world, in modern or ancient times, there is no record of any one, which has sprung up so quickly to as high a degree of importance as Baltimore. At the commencement of the revolution it was a village of five thousand inhabitants, and at the close of the war it had increased to no more than eight thousand. In magnitude it is now the third city in the Union, and has held that rank for nearly twenty years.

Odessa and Liverpool have been often mentioned as cities of the most rapid growth of any in Europe, but these have not equalled the cities in the United States. As to Odessa,

it can hardly be compared with any other city, inasmuch as its rise and prosperity have depended on causes peculiar to itself. The building of Odessa was first begun by the Russian government thirty years ago, and from all the aid which it has received by being a free port, and from the royal patronage in erecting piers, wharves, and warehouses, and inducing farmers to settle in the neighborhood by donations of land and other privileges, the city has not yet been forced up to a population of more than about thirtysix thousand. In the last twenty years it has a little more than doubled.

The increase of Liverpool, although at one time rapid, has never been equal to that of New York.

A brief outline of the progress of Baltimore, together with a few remarks touching the causes, which contributed to its sudden elevation, will not be without value in illustrating the commercial history of this country, and showing what can be attained by opportunity and enterprise, under a government which affords the one and fosters the other. Maryland, like New England, owes its first settlement to a love of religious freedom, and a regard for the rights of conscience. As early as 1621, Sir George Calvert, afterwards made lord baron of Baltimore in Ireland, obtained from king James a grant of a part of the island of Newfoundland, where he resolved to establish a colony, which should be an asylum for such Roman Catholics as chose to relieve themselves by emigration from the persecutions of the times. In this colony he lived himself for a few years, till he found the climate and local disadvantages an insuperable bar to its prosperity. He then visited Virginia, and the country on the Chesapeake Bay. When he returned to England the king consented to give him a grant of the territory, which now constitutes the state-of Maryland, but before the charter could be adjusted, lord Baltimore died. His title, and the mass of his fortune, were inherited by his eldest son, Cecilius Calvert, who obtained the charter and prosecuted the design of his father. Two hundred persons were collected, who agreed to go out and begin the settlement of a colony under the charge of Leonard Calvert, appointed by his brother governor of the territory. They entered the Chesapeake in February, 1634, and debarked at a place, which they called St Mary's, on the north bank of the Potomac, and near its junction with the Chesapeake. Here they established themselves, formed a government, lived in peace with the Indians, and enjoyed as speedy and wide a prosperity, as new colonists could possibly expect under similar circumstances.*

*It is a curious fact, and one which reflects the greatest credit on these early colonists, that fifteen years after they first landed, the general assembly of the people passed an act, entitled An Act concerning Religion, in which the great principles of religious toleration and liberty are recognised in their fullest latitude. The following is an extract from the act itself.

'Whereas the enforcing of the conscience in matters of religion hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous consequence in those commonwealths

By reason of the liberal conditions offered to emigrants in lands and privileges, the colony increased, and a commercial intercourse with the mother country was gradually opened and extended. Tobacco was the chief product for exportation, although wheat early became an article of importance. As the inhabitants spread over different parts of the territory, a few villages sprung up here and there in places convenient for water communication, but for more than a century after the first landing of the colonists, commerce seemed not to be verging to any particular point.

The site where the city of Baltimore now stands was partly a wilderness, and partly cultivated as a farm, in the year 1729, when an act was obtained from the Assembly for laying out sixty acres of land into lots, and erecting a town on the north side of the Patapsco. The concerns of the proposed town were entrusted to seven commissioners, who were appointed for life, and empowered to fill their own vacancies. These persons bought of the owner, Mr Carroll, the sixty acres of land at forty shillings an acre, to be paid in money, or in tobacco at one penny a pound. This tract was that portion of the present city, which is situated at the head of the basin, or inner harbor. Although the original limits of the

where it hath been practised, and for the more quiet and peaceable government of this province, and the better to preserve mutual love and unity among the inhabitants, no person or persons whatsoever, within this province, or the islands, ports, harbors, creeks, or havens thereunto belonging, professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be any ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced, for, or in respect of, his or her religion, nor in the free exercise thereof, within this province, or the islands thereunto belonging, nor any way compelled to the belief or exercise of any religion against his or her consent, so that they be not unfaithful to the lord proprietary, or molest or conspire against the civil government established, or to be established in this province under him or his heirs.' Bacon's Laws, 1649, chap. 1.

This law was passed by an assembly composed entirely of Roman Catholics, and is the more remarkable, as being the first legislative act, it is believed, which is recorded to have been passed by any government in favor of unlimited toleration. Penn's memorable law to this effect, for the regulation of his colony, was not made till more than thirty years afterwards, that is, 1682. There is a remarkable coincidence in the spirit of the two, as will be seen by the following clause in Penn's law, which declares-that all persons living in the province, who confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and Eternal God to be the creator, upholder, and ruler of the world, and hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in nowise be molested for their religious persuasion, or practice, in matters of faith and worship.' This law, it must be remembered, was the result of the enlightened views and benevolence of a single individual, while that of Maryland was the spontaneous act of an assembly of the people.

town were enlarged from time to time, it does not seem to have flourished. There is now extant a plan of Baltimore taken by Mr John Moale in 1752, at which time it contained only twentyfive houses. Two vessels were owned in the place, a small brig and a sloop. Mr Griffith thinks the town received an increase soon after in consequence of Braddock's defeat, as this event made the savages more lawless, and deterred many persons from settling in the interior. In 1756 a body of French neutrals from Nova Scotia, who left that country when it was taken by the British, sought a refuge in Baltimore, where the greater portion of them remained. A few of the original French emigrants are still living in the city at a very advanced age. 'Several houses erected from timber cut on the lots by themselves, and yet standing, were occupied by some of them more than sixty years.' About this period, or soon after Braddock's defeat, the inhabitants of the town were expecting a visit from the Indians, and the women and children were put on board the boats in the harbor, that a safe retreat might be secured for them in case of immediate danger.

From this time till the revolution the town increased very slowly. No newspaper was established till 1773, before which, merchants were obliged to send their advertisements to Annapolis or Philadelphia. Fairs were held at stated periods, and the facilities of interchange were thus promoted, but Baltimore had not yet become the chief town of the province, nor gained that commercial ascendency, which gave indication of its future growth. During the revolution the spirit of enterprise began to show itself, capital centered gradually at Baltimore, privateers were fitted out with suc cess, and as thriving a trade was kept up, particularly with the West Indies, as the circumstances of the times would allow. An unfavorable change occurred immediately after the peace, owing to the general depression suffered by every part of the country. The staple productions of Maryland, and of course the principal articles of export from Baltimore, were then, as they ever have been, tobacco wheat, and Indian corn.

The tobacco trade was always one of great importance to the state and the city. Before the revolution, this was carried on almost exclusively by foreign agents, who resided at

the landings on the Chesapeake, and the rivers flowing into it, and received the product from the hands of the planters, to whom they usually made advances. It was shipped on account of the planters, and the profits of exchange went to the agents, and were thus carried out of the country. These agents were British, or Scotch, and the breaking out of the revolution interrupted this species of trade. As soon as peace was declared, however, it was resumed again by the British merchants, who had establishments at Annapolis, Upper Marlborough, Bladensburgh, Elkridge Landing, and other places on the rivers. By this process a great proportion of the Maryland tobacco, which was consumed on the continent of Europe, that is, in Holland and Germany, was carried to its ultimate market through the channel of England. Baltimore had but a comparatively small share of this trade till 1784, when an extensive commercial establishment from Holland was formed there, which made large purchases of this staple commodity on Dutch account. This example was followed by merchants from Hamburgh and Bremen. Under these changes the transportation was chiefly in foreign. bottoms, but at length the Baltimore merchants themselves, as they gained means and shipping, took the lead in this traffic, and its profits were turned to stimulate their enterprise, and increase their resources. The British establishments gradually disappeared, Baltimore became the best market, and drew to it nearly all the tobacco produced in the

state.

The amount of the tobacco crop in Maryland has ever been fluctuating. Before the revolution it was sometimes as high as 20,000 hogsheads annually; at the close of the war it was not more than 10,000, and it has since varied between that amount and 35,000. In the year 1823, the quantity exported from Baltimore was 21,733 hogsheads, and the crop of the state for 1822 was estimated at 28,000, the remainder having been shipped from the District of Columbia. The average weight of a hogshead is about 900 pounds. The first purchase from the planters is commonly made by persons, who attend the inspection houses for that purpose, and from whom the article passes by another sale to the exporter. No article demands a more practised skill in judging of its quality or a closer attention to the details of trade, as