England in 1833 was 14,948 bales; in 1856, 166,640 bales. Even the gold discoveries have not diminished the supply. The Cape colony has also shown a great increase. In 1842, the imports were 6,431 bales; in 1830, 50,580 bales. While the South American farmers send us their 50 pound ballots of alpaca, and make us pay from 50 cents to 75 cents per pound, the Greek merchants charge us similar rates for goats' wool of Asia Minor. In 1846, 5,231 bales went into England; in 1856, 13,427 bales of 160 pounds. India and China contributed 45,550 (3 cwt.) bales last year, against 12,550 in 1851.

These large colonial supplies have entirely broken up that monopoly which the Spanish and Germans held for over a quarter of a century. Now, continental buyers can make better bargains at the English sales. You will see the falling off in continental supply:-British imports from the continent, 1836, 61,632 bales; 1846, 52,922 bales; 1856, 18,401 bales.

Bradford alone consumes, it is estimated, one-half the wool production of the British Isles. The returns are not easily obtained. In 1800, it was estimated at 384,000 packs of 240 pounds each; in 1846, McCulloch gives 540,000; and in 1851, it had increased to 820,000 packs. The total imports of colonial and foreign wool into England were, in 1855, 329,205 bales; in 1856, 375,035 bales. Official papers give 1,306 woolen and 493 worsted mills under full steam in 1849, employing, directly and and indirectly, more than half a million workmen.

While Yorkshire works day and night in turning out the wool, Lancashire blackens the sky with smoke in putting the cotton into shape. Australia supplies the one-America the other. In 1856, the cotton consumption of Great Britain was 2,257,845 bales; Continental Europe, 1,364,000 bales; United States, 770,239 bales; total 4,392,084 bales. One can hardly credit the returns that mark the increase in this important staple during the last ten years. The import of cotton into England in 1846 is stated at 467,856,274 pounds; in ten years, 1856, it increased to 1,014,495,622 pounds; towards which total the United States contributed 803,563,430 pounds, while India gave but 147,436,266.

Denmark, you are aware, has talked the powers into signing the convention on the Sound Dues, March 14. England pays $5,625,000. Parliament may not indorse the act of her minister. Russia followed suitand the German States, so traditional in their policy-and even France has not been backward-all have signed the paper, save the United States -as always may she be, alone in her glory.

Lord Palmerston's revenge is complete. He has gained much more than he had lost. He is again in power-again England's ruler. The Manchester party has fallen! Cobden, Bright, Gibson, and Layard are out of the ring; but Lord John Russell has taken his seat for London. The English people will always vote for war! Eighty years ago a Parliament was elected to fight us in the West to the death-so has it been to-day returned to carry on the war in the East. Nothing later from China.

Lord Ellenborough says that the war has clogged the wheels of the Indian trade; embarrassed government, who have sunk about $4,000,000 in the 22 per cent depreciation on opium; upsets commerce; ruins the merchants; and is already a loss of $20,000,000 to England. The Hon. Company, he says, have tried in vain at 4, 5, and now as high as 7 per

cent, to get their $15,000,000 loan. Who wonders, when in six weeks' time the Bengal banks advanced their rate of interest from 6 to 14 per cent? The local controversy looks like a national war. The Canton lorcha may sink the ship of State, unless the emperor gives up the fight. The philanthropists, the missionaries, the moralists, are all with their "paper bullets of the brain," battling against the merchants and the warspirit of England without effect.

Cushing's treaty of 1844 expires about this time. Let us hope that Mr. Read will take good care of the Americans. The "Empress of China," just seventy-three years since the year after we signed that national contract with Great Britain-was the pioneer. That voyage was successful, and China since then has given our people good returns. China is a garden-not a desert. Our commerce with her is in the future. Tea we must have, though once we threw it into Boston harbor! Silk also must be imported, for the silk worms are dying in Europe!

During the past four years the decreased supply on this side accounts for increased importations. Since 1837, France alone shows a falling off in the value of silk worms from $23,400,000 that year, to $13,400,000 the past twelve months!

Shipping on all sides seeks vainly for good employment. Even guano charters are hard to obtain-yesterday the agents answered "No." French farmers want guano; French soil is equally agreeable; but France, in this case, forgets the farmer, and protects the shipowner. Seven dollars a ton is levied on all brought in foreign bottoms. French ships don't like guano freights, and as only 30,000 tons head annually towards the Pacific, the Americans get most of the cargoes. Hence, while England consumes her 200,000 tons per annum, little Belgium her 50,000, France only got 32,000 in 1856, and 19,000 in 1855. In England, the imports, in the face of demand and rise in price from $55 to $65 per ton, have dropped from 305,061 tons in 1855, to 191,501 tons in 1856. Montaigne & Co., for France, like Bareda Brothers, for America, and Gibbs & Co., for Great Britain, make the charters direct, or through their agents, and when they change the rates they seem to give the wink to each other! How natural!

The Magazine desires "permanent not transient" articles. Well, you will find some facts crowded into this number. I will try and be consistent, though I touch on many subjects. I will avoid repetition as much as possible, but keeping no copies, and memory none of the best, you may note some eating of words.

Don't, I beg of you, because I introduced my remarks with bubbles, and found some similarity in the present times, suppose for a moment that I think the world is coming to an end! Perhaps now there is more method in the madness. Things have changed since Newton saw the apple fall-Watts the kettle boil. Whales are scarce upon the ocean, yet gas increases with the coal. Railways pass every village, yet the stagehorses continue to find employment. Penny postage gives more revenue than the shilling. Steam has cut the ninety days' passage to New York to ten. The telegraph makes the talking distance nothing. With one spare shirt we soon may voyage round the world. If such things happen, why shouldn't money be on a pinch. The "Persia" will tell you of the state of affairs. Last week Messrs. J. R. Brown & Co., of London and Sunderland, failed for $1,600,000! Three days since the old-established

house of Green & Co., Paris, closed their doors for a heavy sum-a bad South American account the alleged cause. Depositors are much embarrassed those with their credits traveling in Europe are cut off from supplies! "Tis hard for the students.

In 1825, seventy banks failed in six weeks-we have not come to that yet. Credit and business, I am told, are perfectly sound, though high prices for raw material are telling upon the manufacturers of England. Credit, like a monument, will stand, if you don't touch the foundation. Throw the stones off from the top of the pyramid of Ghizeh, and you may work till the last day-commence to undermine, and the fabric may totter. Therefore, the failures and the frauds of the day may only be the topmost stones, leaving the general body of credit firm as the rock of Gibraltar. Judge for yourself.

Yours, my dear sir, most respectfully,

G. F. T.

Art. IV. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES.

NUMBER XLVII.

BURLINGTON, IOWA.

THE city of Burlington, the county-seat of Des Moines County, Iowa, is situated on the Mississippi River, about 245 miles above St. Louis, at the mouth of Flint Creek. This small stream was called by the Indians Shokokon, the name being transferred from that of the bluff at its mouth, (which is now occupied by the city,) and which was so named from the abundance of flint (properly "chert") found on its surface. The white settlers at first named the bluffs Flint Hills. In speaking of this circumstance, Mr. W. A. J. Bradford, in his "Notes on the Northwest," (1846,) makes a suggestion which we could wish had been acted upon, for the name of Burlington has now been given to some twenty-five or thirty towns and townships in the Union. He says, "the Indian appellation, or mineral feature to which it was owing, should have furnished a name to the modern town, and Shokokon, or Chertburg, would have as good sound and more sense than the thread-bare Burlington." Like most of the towns on the Mississippi, Burlington is built both upon the level plain of bluffs and upon the slope descending to the river's edge. The summit of the bluff-bank is about 200 feet above the water in the river, and is reached by a gradual ascent, it being some four squares from the levee.

The latter now forms a fine steamboat landing, and the space surrounding it, and along the creek, will probably be sufficient for the business, manufactures, etc., of the city for years to come. Thus the outlines of the location of the city may be roughly compared to an amphitheater. Its elevated portion, chiefly devoted to residences, overlooks much rich and delightful landscape, with fine improvements. The following paragraph is from the Hawk-Eye, a newspaper of Burlington :

"The scenery cannot be excelled in the world for beauty. The river, with its woody islands, stretches away to the north and south, until, enchanted by distance and mellowed by the sunlight of our Indian summer, it seems a fairy, magic dream

land, too beautiful to be real. Opposite, and reposing in the distance, are the majestic bluffs on the Illinois side. Although nearly half a score of miles from us, many farm-houses can be seen. But no pen can adequately describe the beauty of the scenery presented. We shall not attempt it. Suffice it to say that when we first looked upon it, we understood the emotions of De Soto, when, after a perilous journey through a trackless wilderness, he first beheld the Father of Waters.'

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As a location for health and beauty, there is no better upon the river from its mouth to the Falls of St. Anthony. Being upon the west bank, all the miasma of the river is carried away by the west wind, which prevails nine-tenths of the time. As a business location, there is none above St. Louis enjoying as advantageous a location in any point of view. The largest place in the State-excelling in capital, business, and population-she has so far preserved her relative position, and has steadily advanced in population, business, and wealth."

The site of this city is perhaps the only one favorable for a large town on the river boundary of the county, since the bank of the river is, for the greater part, a low bottom. The land throughout the county is excellent, and is considered by many to be unsurpassed in the State. Only twenty-five years have elapsed since the regular settlement of Iowa was begun. The territory embraced within the bounds of the State, has been purchased of the Indians by four different treaties-viz., in 1832, 1836, 1837, and 1842. The first, commonly called "the Black Hawk purchase, made in September, 1832, comprised a section of country extending nearly 300 miles north from Missouri, and of unequal width, bordering the Mississippi River. In the same year the settlement of Des Moines County was commenced by David Tothers, who located three miles southwest of what is now Burlington. The next settlement was made by S. S. White and Amzi Doolittle, who were the proprietors of the original town. Additions were laid out in the order in which they are named, in 1836, by David Rorer, Amos Ladd, Enoch Wade, Isaac Leffler, G. W. Kelley, and others since.

In 1836 the Territory of Wisconsin was organized, then including the region of Iowa. Its first Legislature met October 25th, 1836, and, according to one of its enactments, the old "town of Burlington" was organized and incorporated April 29th, 1837. In the fall of 1837 the Legislature met at Burlington. By the act of January 19th, 1838, the "city of Burlington" was organized in February, 1838, under a charter. On June 12th, 1838, the separate Territory of Iowa was formed by act of Congress, and on July 4th, ensuing, it was formally established.

Owing to the location of the land sales at Burlington, and the temporary seat of government also, this place experienced a more rapid and substantial growth than any other in Iowa. In 1839 the capital was located at Jowa City, before any settlement had been made there; but this change did not break down the prosperity of Burlington. From 1840, when its population was about 1,200, it steadily increased in all the essentials that go to make up a thriving city, until 1850. By the census in June of that year, the city contained 4,082 inhabitants, and the township, exclusive of the city, 1,219-aggregate, 5,301. The State census of 1854, reported 7,306 inhabitants in the city, showing a very rapid rate of increase. But its growth during the last three years has been still more remarkable-its population in January, 1857, being estimated at over 15,000 inhabitants. This increase appears to have been mainly owing to its obtaining the advantages of railroads. The increase in mercantile and mechanical busi

ness, during the same period, was proportionally much larger, showing that the increase in the population of the surrounding country was fully equal to, if not greater than, that of the city. From its position, Burlington has a large tract of country commercially tributary to it, and this advantage it will retain through its present and future railroad facilities.

The rapid growth of Burlington has been unfavorable to the erection of structures notable for architecture; yet a considerable proportion of the business buildings and dwelling-houses recently erected, are both substantial and ornamental.; The city probably contains a larger number of stores, shops, and warehouses, and of neat dwellings, than any other of corresponding size in the West that has been so quickly built up. The streets near the river are completely lined with business establishments. The dwellings are generally built on large lots, affording ample ground for gardens. Marion Hall is a fine building, and is leased, for a term of years, for the city court-house and the county offices.

In 1856, the authorities erected a commodious markethouse. The gasworks were commenced in the spring of 1855, and cost $65,000; and in January, 1856, the city was lighted with gas. There are fifteen churches, of which the Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Roman Catholic denominations, each have two. There are two large public schools, each having a good building that cost $4,000. The Burlington University (Baptist) was incorporated in 1852, with collegiate powers, and was opened in 1854 in its preparatory departments. It has an elegant brick edifice, three stories high, and is in a prosperous condition. The Burlington Commercial College, L. H. Dalhoff, Principal, is a branch of the Mercantile College of Pennsylvania, incorporated by the Legislature of that State. The Iowa Historical and Geological Institute, one of the most important. institutions in the State, is located in this city. It was organized December 18th, 1843, and incorporated December 31st, 1850. On January 16th, 1853, it met with an irreparable loss in the total destruction by fire of its library and cabinets. The library contained files of newspapers since the organization of the Territory and State, a great many papers pertaining to the early history of the State, with 2,000 pamphlets and 800 volumes. The cabinets were very extensive, illustrating the natural history of the State. The Institute had a collection of Indian relics numbering about 400, including nearly all the paraphernalia of Black Hawk. Although completely prostrated by thi great loss, the Institute has been revived, and is again engaged in collecting and preserving historical matter of all kinds, especially that relating to Iowa. Four newspapers are published, of which two-viz., the Iowa State Gazette and Burlington Hawk-Eye-are issued daily.

The first attempt to collect and publish a correct and full statement of the trade and business of Burlington, was made in 1856, by Messrs. L. G. Jeffers and H. H. Hartley, who then published a pamphlet, entitled "Business Directory and Review of the Trade, Commerce, and Manufactures of the City of Burlington, Iowa, for the year ending May 1, 1856." In the preceding winter, or on December 11th, 1855, a few merchants and citizens organized the Burlington Board of Trade, and we now have their "First Annual Report, for the Year 1856, by L. H. Shepard, Secretary." The statistics which it contains were collected by the secretary alone, (owing to the negligence of the committees appointed for the purpose,)