in like manner, receive some better wages, and are always sure of steady employment.

Cabinet-making is also a tolerably good business; wages about eight dollars per week in the Atlantic states, though somewhat less in the interior. But this disparity is made up by the differences in the general expenses of living, house rent, fuel, &c. Veneering is much used in making up furniture, and generally executed in a very superior manner. There being no duties imposed on the introduction of foreign mahogany, it is imported in large quantities, and of the finest description, from Saint Domingo and elsewhere. Furniture of all kinds, is generally of the best materials, more reasonable in its cost than in England, and in a great part modelled after the latest Paris and London fashions. The import duties being also considerably reduced on the importation of foreign marble, such is admitted into all parts of the United States at a comparatively moderate cost, and made to form a considerable and elegant auxiliary in the manufacture and making up of household furniture; large quantities of which are exported to foreign markets, especially to the states of South America. The value of these shipments in the year 1837 amounted to 265,421 dollars, in 1838 to 281,683, and in 1842 to 299,997 dollars, with the amount progressively increasing. Chair-making of the inferior kinds, manufactured principally from the maple and cherry tree, is, in many of the states, especially in New Jersey, a distinct and profitable business, and

is extensively carried on, both for domestic use, and for exportation. Journeymen are proportionably and equally well paid with cabinet-makers. The statistical returns made by order of the Federal Government, 1840, states the annual value of the furniture manufactured in the United States, at 7,555,405 dollars, with a capital invested therein of 6,989,971 dollars, giving employment to 18,003 persons.

Turners, carvers, and gilders, especially the former, are in fair request. These trades, which are in great part dependent upon each other, are better supported in the Atlantic states than in the interior; the wages about ten dollars per week. Carvers receive something more, and from the demand for imitations for the highest specimens of architectural work, also the ornamental carving of shipbuilding, are well rewarded, according to the capacity and skill employed.

Ship-building is certainly one of the most remunerative and best supported trades in the United States. A good hand need never remain idle, either in the Atlantic, or northern states, bordering on the lakes; or even in the interior, on any of the large western rivers. He is always tolerably sure of employment and good wages, generally averaging about twelve dollars per week. In the southern ports, where there is also a great demand, the wages are somewhat higher, varying from fourteen to fifteen dollars per week. There are few, who with steady conduct, and the practice of the least

frugality, may not be able to put by money, and at the same time live comfortably. Caulkers, mast, block, and sail makers, are also proportionably good trades, and well paid. Nothing can surpass the symmetry and beauty of the American merchant shipping, finished off and provided, as they certainly are, in the best possible manner. They are a credit to the nation, and well worthy of the imitation of ship builders, and ship owners of other countries. The value of ships and vessels built in the United States in 1839, according to official returns, is estimated as the average also of other years, at 7,016,091 dollars.

Masonry, especially bricklaying, is an excellent trade throughout every part of the United States. The taste for improved brick buildings, which are every way superseding the old style of frame houses, ensures to a good workman constant employment, and remunerating wages. Nothing can exceed the elegant-the perfectly unique style and finish of some of these buildings, surpassed by none other in any part of the world. The fronts are usually made of a peculiarly fine description of brick, which is moulded to a perfect smoothness, and jointed in the work with an extraordinary neatness and precision, altogether unusual in the buildings of the old country, the entire coloured red, the joints neatly marked out in white lines; the whole relieved with white marble or tastefully ornamented with cut stone window lentels, sills, marble steps, balustrades and porticos of the same material, which,

together with outside green venetian blinds, or shutters, indispensable to every respectable house in the summer season, presents an exceedingly neat, cleanly and cheerful appearance, the usual characteristic of the generality of the American cities.

Substantial brick buildings are every where putting aside the old style of wooden houses, and enlarged and improved thoroughfares assuming the place of the crowded, pent-up streets of the early settler, in the eastern cities. The rapidity in the execution of any new design with this latter object, is generally in keeping with the " go a-head" principle on which every undertaking in the United States, dependent on general or individual industry and perseverance is conducted. The task has only to be assumed by the corporation or municipal body of any city or town entrusted with its revenues, and the management of its affairs, when every difficulty is made to give way to its accomplishment.

We happened to be in the city of New York when it was determined to enlarge and open Chapel street, then a narrow and confined way, and to which our business directed us on this occasion; when we observed placarded on the doors of several of the houses on either side, printed notices, directed to their several occupants or owners, intimating to the effect, that the late grand jury of the city of New York had presented each house a public nuisance, and that in consequence such house or houses were required by the corporation of said city to be levelled to the ground, or otherwise removed out of the way, some fifteen or twenty feet from their then frontage,

or according to the width required to be added in the intended enlargement of the said street, within six months from the date of such notice; otherwise that proceedings would be instituted against the owners or occupants of said houses respectively, and the houses levelled by the corporation, at the cost and expense of these several parties. A committee, or jury, it is true, was empannelled to assess the amount of any actual injury to be sustained by these individuals, and to whom some very inadequate compensation, as we were afterwards assured, was made. Some of the houses were accordingly prostrated, and the asserted nuisance abated in the others, by a device that is seldom practised in this country, and an entire new street, or rather an old street with entire new features created instead, that now forms the convenient thoroughfare of West Broadway.

It appeared that several of the houses, principally of large size two-story brick buildings, in some instances, three stories, had small gardens or yards in the rear, attached or belonging to them, which suggested the contrivance of removing back the entire buildings the required distance, instead of their being pulled down. The project was one well suited to the inventive mind and faculties of the American citizen, and was finally accomplished in every instance, without the occurrence of a single casualty, and without the inmates of some of the houses deeming it necessary to leave them while in progress of removal. The plan has since been adopted in other parts of the Republic, with similar