an aggregate capital of $1,400,000; 11 Mutual General, with a capital of $1,487,025; 6 Life Mutual, with a capital of $1,400,000; 2 Health, with a capital of $203,175; and 1 Life and Health, with a capital of $100,000.

Internal improvement has gone on apace in this state. Its railroads extend in all directions, and in 1850 there were 551 miles completed, and 65 miles in progress. The cost had been to the last of December, $17,498,599. The principal of these are the Housatonic, 73 miles; the Norwich and Worcester, 58 miles; the New Haven and Hartford, 36 miles; the Hartford and Springfield, 20 miles; the New York and New Haven, 46 miles; the Hartford, Providence, and Fishkill; the Naugatuck; the New London, Willimantic and Palmer, etc. There are others projected, and which will be finished at an early date. The canals of this state have been principally filled in, but there are several short cuts on the Connecticut River, which have been built to improve its navigation. The turnpikes and other roads are generally well kept.

Education in this state is universal, and the system of common schools very perfect. In 1850 there were 217 school societies and 1,649 school districts. The number of children attending them was 92,055. The teachers, etc., are paid from the proceeds of the school fund, which now amounts to $2,076,602, and yields interest to the amount of $137,449 annually, or about $1 50 to each child educated. A Normal School has lately been founded for the training of teachers, the attendance on which is free to one pupil from each school society. Schools or conventions for the same purpose are also held in each county annually. The whole system is under the direct supervision of a State Superintendent.

The American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and the Retreat for the Insane, both at Hartford, are supported chiefly by the state. In May, 1850, the former had 210 inmates, of which 32 were from Maine, 23 from New Hampshire, 19 from Vermont, 75 from Massachusetts, 7 from Rhode Island, 8 from South Carolina, and 26 belonged to this state. Each of the states named supports its own afflicted. The Retreat for the Insane is also open to patients from other states.

Yale College, at New Haven, is one of the oldest literary institutions in the United States, and numbers among its alumni the greatest-names of American history. It was founded in 1700, and derived its name from one of its earliest patrons. In 1850 it had 23 professors, and an aggregate of 555 students, viz., in the Academic department, 432, of which 93 were seniors, 91 juniors, 122 sophomores, and 126 freshmen; in the Theological department 38; in the Law department 26; in the Medical department 38; and in the department of Philosophy and Arts 21. From its foundation to 1850 it had graduated 5,932, of which 2,962 were then alive; and of the total graduates, 1,562 had been ministers, and of these 724 were still living. Trinity College, at Hartford, is an Episcopal institution, and was founded in 1824. In 1850 it had 9 professors and 74 students. Its library contained 9,000 volumes. The Wesleyan University, at Middletown, was founded in 1831, and had in 1850, 8 professors and 124 stu dents, with a library of 11,123 volumes. The Theological Institution, at East Windsor, is directed by the Congregationalists, and represents the old school elements of Connecticut theology. It was founded in 1822, and had in 1850, 4 professors, 52 students, and to that period had educated 596 persons. A professor of Ecclesiastical History has since been added. There are, besides these colleges and schools, a large number of acadamies, seminaries, and grammar schools, which have a good reputation, and attract to

their sphere students from the adjoining states. Some of these are endowed establishments.

The principal religious denominations are the Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, and Episcopalians. The Congregationalists have 206 ministers, 267 churches, and 35,158 communicants; the Baptists, 111 churches, 89 ministers, and 16,230 communicants; the Episcopal Methodists have 148 ministers, and about 22,000 church members; and the Protestant Episcopalians have 106 ministers, and 9,360 communicants. The denominations having smaller numbers are the Universalists, 14 churches; the Roman Catholics, 9 churches; the sects of Methodists (otherwise than Épiscopal), in all, 8 churches; the Second Adventists, 8 churches; the Christians (par excellence), 5 churches; the Freewill Baptists, 1 church; the Presbyterians, 5 churches; and the Unitarians, 4 churches. The Jews have two synagogues.

The Constitution of Connecticut, framed in 1818, grants to every white male citizen of the United States, 21 years of age, who has resided six months in his town, and who is seized of a freehold of the annual value of $7, the right of voting, and every voter is eligible to any elective offices not expressly excepted. The elections take place on the first Monday in April, annually.

The Legislature, or General Assembly, is composed of a Senate, to consist of not less than 18 nor more than 28 members, chosen by districts, and a House of Representatives, the members of which are chosen by towns. No special qualification is needed for membership, only that those chosen must have also the right to vote. Senators and Representatives are elected by a majority of votes. The Legislature meets alternately at New Haven and Hartford, annually, on the first Monday in May.

The executive authority is vested in a governor, who must be a voter, and 30 years of age or upward. He is chosen annually by a majority of votes. A lieutenant governor is also chosen at the same time in the same way; as also a secretary, treasurer, and comptroller. The powers of the governor extend only to granting reprieves, and he may veto a bill of the Legislature, but a majority of both houses may pass it subsequently and make it law.

The Militia of the state numbers 57,719 rank and file, of which 53,240 are infantry, 692 cavalry, 2,083 artillery, and 1,704 riflemen. It forms one division, two brigades, and eight regiments; one regiment being apportioned to each county.

The total resources of the Treasury in 1849-50 amounted to $122,346, of which sum $73,557 was raised by tax, and $37,053 from bank dividends. The expenditures amounted to $118,392, viz., General Assembly, $25,986; executive salaries, $14,150; contingent expenses of executive, $15,399; judiciary, $49,002; and other salaries and contingencies, $13,821. Connecticut has no public debt, except one to the school fund amounting to $58,212, against which the state holds productive bank stock to the amount of $406,000. The counties and towns assess their own taxes.

The eight counties of Connecticut are subdivided into 147 townships, and contain six cities, viz., Bridgeport, Hartford, Middletown, New Haven, New London, and Norwich; and also 12 boroughs, viz., Danbury, Essex, Guildford, Litchfield, New Britain, Newtown, Norwalk, Southport, Stamford, Stonington, Waterbury, and Willimantic. New Haven and Hartford

are alternate capitals of the state.

NEW HAVEN lies on the sea coast, and is a place of considerable com

mercial and manufacturing importance, and one of the most beautiful cities of the Union. It is laid out in two parts: the old town and new township. The streets are so arranged as to form regular squares, and in those parts appropriated exclusively to residences, almost every house has a garden in front, with flowers, vines, and overhanging trees. The State House and Yale College are the most conspicuous of the public buildings; but New Haven is no less renowned for the number than for the taste and elegance displayed in its church buildings. Population, 22,539.

HARTFORD is situated on the Connecticut River, 50 miles from its mouth. The city is beautifully located, but not very regular in its street lines. It is a place of considerable trade, and on the lines of several railroads. The State House and City Hall are the prominent buildings; but Washington College, the American Asylumn, the Retreat for the Insane, the Athenæum, etc., claim alike the attention of the traveler. The American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb is the oldest institution of the kind in the United States. Besides these, the city contains a large number of church buildings, much admired for their architectural chasteness. The old Charter Oak is still standing here, a historic relic of much interest to the sons of New England. The trunk of this venerable tree, which sheltered the colony from the tyranny of Andros, now measures 21 feet in girth. Population in 1850, 17,966.

MIDDLETOWN, 14 miles south of Hartford, is a port of entry, at the head of ship navigation on the Connecticut. It is a beautiful city, and contains, besides the Court House, and a number of handsome church edifices, the Wesleyan University, which occupies a commanding site in the upper part of the city. The place was first settled in 1651, and was incorporated in 1784. In 1850 it contained 9.211 inhabitants.

BRIDGEPORT, situated on the Sound, is the southern terminus of the Housatonic Railroad, and has hitherto been the starting point of winter travel to Albany and the north from New York City. Population, 7,558. NEW LONDON and NORWICH, both on the Thames, are also important places, and have considerable commerce. New London is one of the prin cipal whale-fishery stations in New England, and in 1850 had 9,006 inhabitants. STONINGTON, farther east, lies on the Sound, and is also a great fishing station. Regular communication by steamboat is kept up with New York from all the cities above-mentioned, and with the interior, and New York and Boston by Railroads. The principal towns in the interior are chiefly engaged in the manufactures, and all are distinguished for their neatness, cleanliness, and that civic order which has ever marked the condition of the inhabitants.

The territory of Connecticut originally comprised two colonies, that of "Connecticut and that of New Haven." The Connecticut colony was first settled at Hartford, by emigrants from Massachusetts, in 1735, and the colony of New Haven, in 1638, by emigrants from England. In 1662, a charter was granted by Charles II., with ample privileges, uniting the two colonies under one government; but the colony of New Haven refused, for some time, to accept the charter, and the union did not take place until 1665. The charter was suspended in 1687 by Sir Edmund Andros; but was again restored after the Revolution of 1688, and formed the basis of the government until 1818, when the present constitution was framed.

THE MIDDLE STATES.

THE geographical position of the states comprised in this section of the Union, has determined its nomenclature. With some exception, this territory was formerly known as the New-Netherlands, and was first planted by the Dutch. On one side were the colonies of New-England, and on the other those of Virginia, a country originally co-extensive with what are now termed the Southern States. Thus centrally dividing the two great English settlements, and occupied by a nation not always at peace with Great Britain, the interests of the English settlers became identified with the occupation by them of the whole, and, as a consequence, it was not long before the British government determined upon taking possession of the country, and destroying a competitor and an enemy at one and the same time. This act was consummated in 1664; after which period to the conclusion of the peace of 1783, the whole Atlantic region remained, with little exception, in the undisputed occupation of the mother of nations." This section is bounded on the north by the great lakes, the St. Law rence River and the provinces of Canada; south by "Mason & Dixon's Line," which divides it from Virginia; east by the states of New-England and the Atlantic Ocean, and west by portions of Virginia and Ohio. It lies between the latitudes of 380 and 45° north, and the longitudes of 720 and 810 west, and comprises the states of New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. Its length, from north to south, is 460 miles, and its breadth, from east to west, 370 miles; the area is about 114,484 square miles, or 73,269,760 acres.

The advantageous situation of the section-the beautiful diversity of features which distinguishes it-the natural facilities for intercommunication which it enjoys, and the energy which has ever prompted the inhabitants in their several callings, have unitedly elevated the states comprised within its borders to a proud pre-eminence in all that conduces to wealth and national grandeur. Without derogating the substantial interests of the surrounding states, those of the middle section may claim the combination of all that is useful and artistic, which cannot but influence their social and industrial position. While the states to the north and east are confined to the production of one description of staples, and those of the south and west to others, the middle states, enjoying a climate intermediate, and other sectional advantages, produces alike those of each, and with these and the uninterrupted facilities they enjoy in their relation with all the states and with foreign countries, their continued and ever increasing prosperity has been assured.

Mountains, vallies and plains,-lakes, rivers and capacious bays, diversify the topography of this section, and combine in grandeur and magnificence to promote the great interests of the inhabitants. Running from the northeast to the south-west are the Alleghanies,-a mine of inexhaustible wealth, producing coal, iron and other useful minerals. On the north and west the great lakes and the St. Lawrence form an outlet for commerce; and the rivers flowing in a southern direction to the Atlantic, convey to the coast the productions of the interior, which are received by the merchants of the large Atlantic cities, and transported hence from the magnificent harbors, which indent the shores, to supply the commerce of the world with the varied wealth of this bountiful region.

The Middle States, though originally peopled by the Dutch, whose descendants still form a large moiety of the inhabitants in the older settled parts, have a most heterogeneous population. Every nation of the world has contributed its quota, but the chief portion of the aggregate of the inhabi tants is of British origin, and the institutions of the country are essentially a counterpart of the institutions of that enlightened nation. Society, however, in these states cannot be said, except generally, to possess any distinctive aspect, and not unfrequently whole localities may be found in which the immigrant inhabitants still retain all the habits and peculiarities of the na tion from which they sprung: thus, in some parts of Pennsylvania the people are decidedly Dutch, using their primitive language, and tenaciously adhering to the habits and feelings of " faderland," while in other sections the descendants of other nations still retain their several and ancient customs. This state of society, however, though it has some inconveniences, is not irreconcilable with harmony, and the utmost friendship exists among this variety of nationalities; and that fraternization, which liberty and a community of rights engenders, tends to cement a compact of peace and congenial intercourse which, in other countries, is frustrated by the devices of despotism and conflicting interests. These elementary contributions of the people of all nations must eventually coalesce and form a body, compact and whole, and a new nationality possessing in combination the knowledge, the genius, and the talents, in learning and the arts, of the whole civilized world, and that commixture of physical essences which are believed to improve the race in which the combination is effected: the steady industry of the German family, the quick perception and martial energy of the Celt, the commercial spirit and the prudence of the English, and the patriotism of the whole, will be combined in the future races who will inhabit these states, and be productive of a unity that will eclipse in physical and moral power the unmixed nations of the world, and assume a destiny grand and imposing, and to which no equal shall elsewhere be known. The advantages of this commixture of nationalities will be felt throughout the whole confederacy; and while we see the countries further south, from which hitherto the civilizing influence of foreign immigration has been excluded by the policy of selfish rulers, subject to all the horrors of national incapacity, and liable to everrecurring internal hostilities, we shall behold in these states that power and harmony which are the inheritance of a physical and moral completeness, and the birthright of freemen.

The progress which the people have already made in every department of life, and the increase of their numbers, has been rapid and astonishing. The few who first settled at New-Amsterdam, now New-York, at the commencement of the 17th century, and at Philadelphia and other places, at a later period, have extended their limits to their present dimensions, and increased to a population of 6,500,000 souls. They have rapidly passed from the hardships of settlement and colonial servitude, and now enjoy all the facilities and conveniences of older nations, and have in prospect all the glories which are sure to attend the progress of a people who are devoted to liberty, and a reciprocal communion with the world at large. The several states forming this section will be considered separately.