The American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for the Year ...

US10071:20 (1858)

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
GEORGE P. SANGER,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

CAMBRIDGE:

METCALF AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.

PREFACE.

THE twenty-ninth volume of the American Almanac, being the ninth volume of the third series, is now offered to the public. Unwearied pains has been taken to collect full, authentic, and varied information concerning the complex affairs of the general and State governments; and a mass of official documents and private correspondence has been digested relating to the government, finances, legislation, public institutions, internal improvements, and resources of the United States, and of the several States. It is hoped that the present volume will be found equal to its predecessors in fulness and accuracy, and that it will sustain the high character of the American Almanac as a trustworthy manual for reference and a full repository of useful knowledge.

The Astronomical Department has been prepared by Mr. George P. Bond, Assistant Observer at the Cambridge Observatory. The article upon "Terrestrial Magnetism" is concluded from last year. There is an interesting paper upon Stellar Photography. A page is devoted to the climate of Bengal.

In the Second Part of the volume will be found full lists of the Executive and Judiciary of the General Government, including the chief officers and clerks of the several Departments, and of the Court of Claims; of Collectors of Customs, of Postmasters in the principal places, of Army and Navy Pension Agents, and of the Indian Superintendents and Agents; of the Inspectors of Steamboats and their Districts; of the Army, and the various Military Departments and Posts under the new organization; of the Navy, the public vessels, and the Marine Corps; of our Ministers and Consuls in Foreign Countries, and of Foreign Ministers and Consuls in the United States. In the Navy List will be found the Navy Officers dropped or retired under the recent law. These lists have been corrected from official sources to the latest dates possible for publication. Later changes are noted in the "Additions and Corrections," at the end of the volume. The titles Commerce and Navigation, and Revenue and Expenditure, published each year in the Almanac, are full and complete abstracts of the public documents of the same name, and the tables connected therewith, and, with the Post-Office, Mint, and Public Lands, show the receipts and expenditures of the Government under their several heads, the public debt, the imports, exports, tonnage, coinage, sales of land, and the operations of the Post-Office Department, for each year since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The Quantity and Value of the Cotton, Rice, Tobacco, and Breadstuffs, exported each year, since 1820; the imports from and exports to Canada, &c., since 1851; the Cost of Custom-Houses and Revenue-Cutters, and other Expenses of the Collection of Customs; the Gross Revenue from Customs since 1825; the Cost of Coinage at the Mint and

Branches since 1794; and the Statement of the Marine Hospital Fund, by States, are given in the Tables. The rates of postage, with the inland and foreign mail service, are believed to be complete and correct. The Titles and Abstracts of the Public Laws and Joint Resolutions have been carefully prepared, and are sufficiently full, except for professional use. Among those this year of special interest are the Acts relative to the dropped Officers of the Navy; to enforce the Attendance of Witnesses before Congressional Committees, and to compel them to give Testimony; to increase the Pay of Army Officers; relative to Foreign Coins, and the Coinage of Cents; enabling Minnesota to form a State Government; to expedite Telegraphic Communication; relative to the exploration of the Parana and the tributaries of the Paraguay; to Grants of Land for Railroad Purposes; reducing the Duties on Imports; and for the Punishment of Certain Crimes. The Tariff of 1857 is digested and alphabetically arranged, and the decisions of the Secretary of the Treasury are added. Tables of Railroads in this country and in Canada, and of the surveyed routes to the Pacific; of Colleges and Professional Schools in the United States; of the Population of the several States at the decennial periods; of the Debts, Property, and Expenses of the States; and of the times of the State Elections and the meetings of the State Legislatures, are given. The information concerning the Individual States is as full as in former years. It is believed that nowhere else can be found collected such full details respecting the Executive and Judiciary, the finances, schools, charitable institutions, and pauperism and crime, of the several States. Should any one note inaccuracies or deficiencies therein, he is urgently requested to correct them. The European part of the work, revised from the best authority to the latest dates, gives the several States of Europe, with their form of government, the name, title, and date of accession of the reigning sovereigns, the area and population of the several countries. It also gives the Royal Family, the Ministry, and the Judiciary of England, and the Ministry of France. The Obituary Notices and Chronicle of Events have been prepared with care. The space is so limited, that many names and events which otherwise would be given are necessarily omitted.

The thanks of the Editor are particularly due to the Heads of Departments at Washington, and to his many contributors and correspondents, to whom the work is indebted for a great part of its value. A continuance of their favors is respectfully solicited. A work embracing such a multitude of facts must necessarily contain errors; persons who may detect any are earnestly requested to communicate them to the Editor. It is particularly desirable that these communications should not be anonymous. It is frequently a source of regret to the Editor, that he cannot suitably acknowledge the valuable hints and assistance of anonymous correspondents. It is a matter of some public interest, that a periodical which circulates so widely, both in Europe and America, and which is so universally trusted as a manual for reference, should be rendered as accurate as possible; and this end can be obtained only by the co-operation of many individuals. Communications should be addressed to the Editor of the American Almanac," Boston.

Boston, Mass., December, 1857.