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of immigration estimates the true average at $150 per capita, making the amount received from the 250,000 immigrants arriving at the port of New York in 1869 to be $37,500,000. It is not at all improbable that the aggregate contribution to the cash capital of the nation since the inauguration of our naturalization policy will reach a thousand millions of dollars.

But the money brought into the country by the immigrant is a small part of the financial value he has added to the country. This question of the economic value of the immigrant has been treated with considerable ingenuity by late writers. An intelligent and comprehensive estimate is found in the able treatise of Dr. Engel, of Berlin, director of the Prussian Statistical Bureau, on the price of labor. This writer distinguishes three periods in the economic life of man, two unproductive and one productive.

The first comprises the years of childhood and education up to the fifteenth year. The productive period of fifty years, from fifteen up to sixty-five, is fraught with the economic results of the entire lifetime. The subsequent period brings but small additions to these results. The accumulations of the active period, in a true adjustment of the economic forces of society, should be sufficient to meet the expenses of the prior state of pupilage, to maintain the productive power of the physical and intellectual machinery by a proper outlay, and, finally, to accumulate a sufficient surplus to meet the wants of the period of decline. The writer referred to estimates that in Germany the cost of raising a manual laborer for the first five years of his life is 40 thalers per annum; for the next five years, 50 thalers per annum; and for the next five years, 60 thalers per annum; amounting to 750 thalers. Mr. Kapp, in applying these estimates to America, considers that in this country the aggregate cost is about double what it is in Germany, making the average expense of raising and educating an American unskilled laborer 1,500 thalers, almost equal to $1,500 in currency. The cost of the female laborer he places at about $750, or one-half the cost of the male. The value of the immigrants, then, is to be estimated at the cost of raising native laborers.

About one-fifth of the immigrants are under fifteen, but this deficiency is more than compensated by the immense preponderance of the males over the females. But averaging the cost, by equalizing the proportion of males and females, we have a final estimate of $1,125 as the average economic value of immigrants to this country; and we can easily arrive at the conclusion that the additions of value created by foreign immigration amount to at least five billions of dollars, or more than double of what remains of our national debt. The total annual immigration being about 300,000 per annum, the aggregate resulting benefit is not less than $400,000,000, or a million of dollars per day. In the report of last year were presented statistics to show that at least one fourth of the present population is due to the influx of foreigners. The readiness with which they have adapted themselves to the requirements of our democratic civilization is an ample justification of the policy of naturalization.

But a feature of the case which should not be neglected in an estimate of its advantages is found in the wonderful progress which has been made in the disposal of the public domain-a progress which could never have been realized had the increase of our population been confined to the excess of births over deaths from the commencement of our history.

The grand total area of our public domain from its organization is

1,834,998,400 acres. Of this amount there had been disposed of under the land laws, up to June 30, 1870, 447,266,190.16 acres, leaving still in possession of the Government 1,387,732,209.84 acres. The rate of annual disposal is increasing, and must increase still more rapidly as the public surveys are extended to enable claimants to designate the legal subdivisions located upon the soil. Of the 198,165,794.67 acres which will inure to railroads and wagon roads, under the various grants of Congress, title had passed to only 23,430,270 acres up to the 30th of June last, leaving 174,735,524.67 acres which will soon be demanded by the beneficiaries. If twenty years should elapse before the last of these donations be certified or patented this item alone will require an annual disposal of public lands fully equal to the entire operations of the land offices and of this office at present. When we take into consideration the swelling tide of immigration and the increased rapidity, in all other departments, of appropriation of the public lands, we can reasonably anticipate a large increase over the present annual rates.

THE NATIONAL DOMAIN-HISTORICAL OUTLINE.

The term public domain is generally used in its widest sense, embrac ing the total area of the public-land States and Territories, the jurisdiction of which, as well as the title to the soil, once resided in the General Government.

According to the statement in the foregoing, and heretofore reported, the aggregate area of the public lands of the United States on the 30th of June, 1870, was 2,867,184.74 square miles, or 1,834,998,400 acres. This, however, embraces only that portion of the public domain coming under the jurisdiction of the General Land Office. The territory now included within the limits of Tennessee, according to the terms of the above definition, was as substantially a portion of said domain as Ohio or Indiana, yet the public lands in Tennessee were not disposed of under the direction of the executive department of the General Government, and hence have not been embraced in our annual reports. If the area of Tennessee, 45,600 square miles, or 29,184,000 acres, were added to the areas of the public lands officially reported, the aggregate actual surface would be 2,912,784.74 square miles, or 1,864,382,223 acres.

This territory was acquired by the Government, first, by cessions from States in the Union, and, second, by treaty with foreign powers.

By the definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain, concluded September 3, 1783, our national territory was defined as extending westward from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River, and from a line on the north of the lakes to the thirty first parallel, and the south boundary of Georgia, embracing 830,000 square miles, or 531,200,000 acres. Of this area 341,756 square miles, or 218,723,840 acres, were included in the thirteen original States constituting the American Union. Kentucky, Vermont, and Maine were subsequently erected out of territory claimed re spectively by Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, by virtue of grants from the British Crown prior to the Revolution. These States embrace 82,892 square miles, or 53,050,880 acres. The remainder of our original territory, including 405,352 square miles, or 259,425,280 acres, was held by Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, under grant from Great Britain, during their colonial condition. These territorial interests were surrendered to the general government of the Union by the last-named States at different times subsequent to July 4, 1776, and constituted the nucleus of our public domain. Those interests cover

the entire surface of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Tennessee, that part of Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi River, and all of Alabama and Mississippi lying north of the thirty-first parallel. In order to trace the chain of title by which the United States now hold these lands it will be necessary to review briefly the charters granted by the Crown to the different colonies. This is by no means of easy accomplishment, owing mainly to two causes: first, the ignorance, in the early history of this hemisphere, of the chorography of the North American Continent in those who drew these charters, and, secondly, a disregard on the part of English sovereigns of prior grants of the same territory. Serious conflicts of title and popular commotions, resulting in some cases in violence and bloodshed, grew out of these overlapping grants, indicating complications and obscurities sufficient to excuse misapprehension in early historians and publicists.

The first efforts to colonize our continent by the English were made under the reign of Elizabeth; patents were granted to Sir H. Gilbert, Sir Walter Raleigh, and others, authorizing settlements upon territories not actually in possession of any prince in alliance with the Queen, yet all attempts at settlement under these charters proved abortive; the Tudor dynasty passed away and several years of the first reign of the Stuarts had elapsed before the Anglo-Saxon race had gained a permanent foothold on this continent.

In 1606 James I, on application of Sir Thomas Gates, authorized the establishment of two colonies, named, respectively, the first and second colonies of Virginia. The first enterprise was confided to a corporation of citizens of London, and is often historically referred to as the "London Company." The territorial grant of the first colony covered a strip of sea-coast fifty miles broad, extending from the thirty-fourth to the fortyfirst parallel, with all the islands within one hundred miles of the shore. No settlements in the rear of these limits were to be permitted, except upon written license from the colonial council. To the second colony, consisting of citizens of the city of Plymouth, and hence called the "Plymouth Company," was assigned the tract between the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth parallels. The territory between the thirty-eighth and fortyfirst parallels was then embraced in both charters, but conflict of jurisdiction was avoided by providing that neither colony should establish a settlement within one hundred miles of any actual occupancy of the other.

This belt of three degrees, then, constituted debatable ground, the jurisdiction of which was to be determined by prior settlement. A noble provision in these charters excluded all feudal tenures, and required all the lands to be held in free and common socage, as in the English county of Kent. To this exclusion of tenancies in capite, or by kuight's fees, as in England, we may trace that liberalization of American civilization which finally surmounted all the legal superstitions of feudalism and culminated in the fundamental axioms of freedom which found such logical expression in the Declaration of Independence. The long delay in the occupancy of the American wilderness by a civilized population is now seen as an element of untold advantage to the cause of liberty and progress. The very difficulties of colonization compelled the English government to multiply the attractions, especially by liberalizing the land tenures. The democratic principle being thus firmly fixed in the social organism, we have no difficulty in tracing its revolutionary influence upon political institutions.

The attempts at settlement under the charter to the first colony of

Virginia proving failures, King James, in May 1609, granted a charter incorporating the London Company, under the title of "The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London for the First Colony of Virginia." The territorial limits of the colony were extended to embrace the whole sea-coast north and south within two hundred miles of Old Point Comfort, extending "from sea to sea, west and northwest," and also "all the islands within one hundred miles along the coast of both seas of the precinct aforesaid," evidently meaning the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Under this enlarged charter the first permanent settlement was made in 1611. In 1624 this charter of the first colony of Virginia was vacated by the court of King's Bench and its government confided to a royal commission. The company was soon dissolved, sinking £120,000 in the enterprise. In 1625 Charles I issued a proclamation alleging the judicial repeal of the charter and transformed the colony into a royal province. The chartered limits of the colony were subsequently reduced by including successive portions of it in other colonies. The territory of Maryland, Delaware, and North Carolina, with parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Georgia, were originally included in the jurisdiction of the London Company. The residuum of the original territory of the first colony of Virginia was claimed by the State of Virginia at the breaking out of the revolutionary war.

For several years after the permanent settlement of the first colony, the second Plymouth Company was unsuccessful, and finally became discouraged in regard to the establishment of colonies within its chartered limits. In November, 1620, the King, James I, granted a new charter to this company, reiterating the grants previously made, and designating the extréme territorial limits as the fortieth and forty-eighth parallels, "from sea to sea." This territory was named New England, and placed under the government of the "Council of Plymouth."

A number of Puritans, having been driven from England by the persecutions inflicted upon them during the reign of Elizabeth, had settled at Amsterdam, in Holland. Failing to obtain from James I a relaxation of the persecuting policy, they determined to seek an asylum in the wilder ness of North America, and first directed their attention to the valley of the Hudson. After tedious negotiations with the London Company for a settlement within the limits of the first colony of Virginia, they finally obtained a patent for a tract of land, but without explicit assurance of security in the rights of conscience. After some hesitation, they embarked their first company of emigrants upon the Mayflower at Delft Haven, and in November, 1620, the Pilgrims were landed at the present site of Plymouth. The place of their landing being outside the limits of the first colony of Virginia, their patent from the London Company was useless, and they were compelled to settle upon the territory of the northern colony, trusting to circumstances for legal authority. From this settlement arose one of the noblest reorganizations of society by colonization that history records. Overcoming herculean difficulties of climate and soil, the colonists achieved within the following decade such a measure of success and substantial progress that the Plymouth Company was induced, in spite of aristocratic and ecclesiastical prejudices, to grant them a charter in January, 1630, covering a tract lying between the Cohasset and Narraganset Rivers, and extending westward "to the utmost bounds of a country in New England called Pokanoket, alias Sowamset." The grant embraced also a tract lying fifteen miles wide along each side of the Kennebec River, which was subsequently incorporated with the province of Maine.

ment tombe, la tête est séparée, jetée ensuite, le corps tout habillé, dans un vaste tombereau peint en rouge, où pêle-mêle tout nage dans le sang. Car c'est toujours de même. Quelle horrible boucherie! Comme le cœur bat! C'est à ce moment qu'on voudrait être loin; c'est à ce moment qu'on voudrait être près et monter tout de suite si on était préparé à paraître devant Dieu, tant la mort, atroce pour ceux qui restent, paraît douce et facile à ceux qui s'en vont bien disposés, quand on songe aux circonstances où il faut vivre. Combien j'ai regretté de n'avoir pas suivi ces victimes en pensant que plus on avance, plus on abuse des grâces divines qu'on reçoit!

La maréchale monte la troisième. Il fallut échancrer le haut de son habillement pour lui découvrir le col. Impatient de m'en aller, je voulais avaler le calice jusqu'à la lie et tenir ma parole, puisque Dieu me donnait la force de me posséder au milieu de tant de frissonnements. Six dames passent ensuite. Madame d'Ayen monte la dixième. Qu'elle me parut contente de mourir avant sa fille, et la fille de ne pas passer avant sa mère ! Montée, le maître bourreau lui arrache son bonnet; comme il tenait par une épingle qu'il n'avait pas eu l'attention d'ôter, les cheveux soulevés et tirés avec force lui causent une douleur qui se peint dans ses traits. La mère disparaît, et sa digne et tendre fille la remplace. Quelle émotion en voyant cette jeune dame tout en blanc, paraissant beaucoup plus jeune qu'elle n'était, semblable à un doux et petit agneau qu'on va égorger! Je croyais assister au martyre d'une de ces dignes et jeunes vierges ou saintes femmes, telles qu'elles sont représentées dans les tableaux de quelques grands peintres. Ce qui est arrivé à sa mère lui arrive. Même inattention pour l'épingle, même douleur, même signe, et aussitôt même calme, même..... mort!

Quel sang abondant, vermeil sort de la tête, du col! « Que « la voilà bien heureuse!» m'écriai-je intérieurement, quand on jeta son corps dans cet épouvantable cercueil. Je m'en vais, mais je suis arrêté un moment par l'air, les traits, la taille de celui qui venait après elle. C'était un homme de 5 pieds 8 à

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