vona, sails. There are besides 3 manufactories of starch, 8 of tinder and lucifer matches, 22 of castor hats, 2 of straw hats, 19 of wax, 9 of tallow candles, 2 of sealing-wax, 2 of strong glue, 3 of red bonnets, eastern fashion, 2 of nautical instruments, 5 of musical instruments, 13 of liquors, 10 of perfumery, 12 of chemical preparations, 1 of oil-cloth, 7 of sails and flags, 3 breweries, 12 rope manufactories, 134 foundries, 2 type foundries, 13 typographies, 1 extensive powder mill, 120 cabinet makers, &c.

There are in Genoa 15 eating-houses, 400 taverns, 200 greens and legumes retailers, 40 cook and pie shops, 200 fruit stands, 42 back. ers, 110 retailers of wood and coal, and 50 coffee-houses; among which, though small, are to be remarked Il Gran Cairo and La Costanza. Among the large number of hotels, the most conspicuous are Le quattro Nazioni, La Villa, Londra, La croce di Malta, and Fedar.

The Porto-franco, (free port,) established by the republic in 1751, is an enclosure composed of 11 wards, containing 370 stores, more or less spacious, where are deposited the rich goods and productions of all parts of the world, and where they can remain for any length of time free of charges; then, if they are exported to foreign countries by the land route, they are not subject to any duty, but, should they be exported by sea, they must pay a duty of from 60 to 120 centimes for every kilogram, according to the quality of the goods. Those alone which are introduced for the consumption of the city and the state, are subject to duties more or less high, regulated by the tariff of the government.

The ports of the Duchy are on the east river, Camogli, Porto-fino, the Badia di Lastori, the Gulf of Rapallo, and the spacious and safe Gulf of the Spezia, where is situated a larger and more convenient plague-house than that of Bisagno, near the city. On the west river are the ports of Savona, Monaco, Porto-Maurizio, St. Remo, and the large Gulf of Vado.

The celebrated Bank of St. George, founded in 1407, is one of the oldest banks of discount and deposit in Europe. Genoa was for a long time a dangerous rival of Venice, to whom she disputed long the empire of the seas, and divided with her the trade which was carried on with Egypt and all the ports of the east and west. The rivalry which existed between these two powerful republics was the source of many bloody wars, in which Genoa distinguished herself for her superiority, and for two long centuries she obtained many advantages over Venice; till, at the end of the fourteenth century, Andrea Contarini, the Doge and general of the Ve nitian forces, by a stroke of lucky despair, in the celebrated battle of Chioggia, secured to his republic the rule of the seas.

The maritime commerce of Genoa suffered considerably from the vicissitudes of time. The navigation of the Atlantic rose on the ruin of that of the Mediterranean, and the vast populations to whom Genoa and Venice carried the precious productions of the eastern world, now go di rectly to supply themselves at the source. This was the consequence of events which no human foresight could prevent, and the Genoese are en titled to a great deal of credit, for struggling energetically against the force of unfavorable circumstances. They have succeeded by their ingenuity to create, so to say, a new world to exercise their natural genius for com

merce.

The present maritime commerce of Genoa is directed particularly to South America, Mexico, the West Indies, England, and almost every port

of Africa, Asia, and the Black Sea. The trade of Genoa with the east has of late years considerably decreased. Marseilles, Leghorn, and Trieste have now a more extensive trade with those places. One of the principal causes of the falling off of that trade is, in my opinion, the want of a convenient plague-house to purify the merchandises; that of the Varignano, though an excellent and splendid building, being too distant from the city; and that at the mouth of the Bisagno, besides its not being sufficiently large, is built on a coast exposed to every wind, which renders very uncertain the time of the landing and of the shipping of the goods, and often occasions delays injurious to captains and merchants.

The Sardinian navy is known and appreciated in every sea-19 steamboats, 4 Sardinian, 5 French, 6 Neapolitan, and 4 Tuscan, keep up active and regular communications between Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Civita Vecchia, and Naples. Two more lines of steamboats were destined for the communications between Genoa, Marseilles, and the different ports of Spain; but the political troubles of this last country have suspended their operations. Three magnificent royal steamers are employed to keep up a periodical communication between Sardinia and the States of Terra Firma; three more of private concern are employed to make trips between Genoa, Nice, and Leghorn.

The Indicatore of 1846 gives for Genoa 22 banking-houses, 218 merchants having stores in Porto-franco, and several hundred other merchants, traders, mercers, &c. The Genoese merchant is shrewd, active, assiduous, economical, enterprising, and scrupulous in keeping his word. Busi ness is transacted in Porto-franco till 3 P. M., and in the little square of the banks in the afternoon till evening.

The price of goods is generally established in a nominal currency called fuori banco, and afterwards reduced in new livres of Piedmont. 100 livres fuori banco-33 new livres of Piedmont. In the shops of the city they generally sell in a currency called abusive. 100 livres abusive 80 new livres of Piedmont.

The interior trade of Genoa is principally with Piedmont, Lombardy, Switzerland, Parma, Piacenza, &c. Genoa supplies them with West India products, especially with large quantities of muscovado sugar for the refineries of Milan, cotton, indigo and other dyes, drugs, spices, oil of her two rivers, tunny of Sardinia and other salt fish, leather, pepper, fruits, &c., which she exchanges with their different manufactures, and many natural productions of Upper Italy, as Bologne hemp, Cremona flax, silks, cheese, butter, grains of Lombardy, silk, hemp, and rice of Piedmont, &c.

OFFICIAL LIST OF THE GOODS CLEARED BY THE CUSTOM-HOUSE OF GENOA, AND PASSED FROM THE COMPTROLLERY OF ST. LAZZARO IN THE YEAR 1844.

The grain trade of Genoa is very important, not only on account of the home consumption, which is principally supplied by the Island of Sardinia, by Piedmont, and Lombardy, but for the extensive depots which are there i formed of the grains of the Black Sea, of the Azoff, and the Danube. This important trade is carried on by Genoese merchants on their own account, because, in consequence of the heavy differential duties establish. ed in 1825 on breadstuffs and liquors in favor of the Sardinian flag, all large shipments of grains took the direction of the near port of Leghorn. By the active commercial intercourse which our vessels keep up with South America and the West Indies, we have always abundant supplies of colonial productions and leather. Genoa is the first depot for leather in the Mediterranean; and, leaving London aside, which is at present the first mart of the world, Genoa disputes with Anvers the supremacy, above all other cities of Europe, in this branch of commerce. Every year arrive in our port several cargoes of pepper, which find always ready cash pur chasers. The cotton trade is decidedly in decadence, for want of a con venient quarantine. The manufacturers of Milan, Switzerland, and Piedmont get their supplies mostly from Marseilles and Trieste. Piedmont alone uses 26,000 bales of cotton, and in the last six years the average supplied by Genoa was only 3,200. The exemptions of Nice are very injurious to the commerce of Genoa; for, in consequence of them, Turin gets from Marseilles, by way of Nice, its supplies of colonial staples and other goods. It is Marseilles, likewise, that supplies Piedmont and Swit zerland with cotton, while Trieste and Venice (the former particularly) draw to themselves many orders from Lombardy.

LIST OF NATIONAL and foreign VESSELS ENTERED IN THE PORT OF GENOA FROM 1839 TO 1844.

LIST OF STEAMBOATS ENTERED IN THE PORT OF GENOA IN THE YEar 1845.

14,042

OFFICIAL LIST OF NATIONAL VESSELS IN THE PORT OF GENOA TO DECEMBER 31, 1844.

Art. III.-COMMERCIAL CITIES AND TOWNS OF THE UNITED STATES.

NUMBER XII.

OUR CITIES-ATLANTIC AND INTERIOR.

ALL people take pride in their cities. In them naturally concentrate the great minds and the great wealth of the nation. There the arts that adorn life are cultivated, and from them flow out the knowledge that gives its current of thought to the national mind.

The United States, until recently, have had large cities in the hope rather than in the reality. It is but a few years since our largest city reached a population of one hundred thousand. Long before that period, sagacious men saw, in the rapid growth of the country and the aptitude of our people for commerce, that such positions as those occupied by Philadelphia and New York must rapidly grow up to be great cities. This, however, was by no means the common belief in this country; and our transatlantic brethren treated with undisguised ridicule the idea that these places could even rival in magnitude the leading cities of their own countries. New York is now sometimes called the London of America. Not that those calling her so suppose she will ever come up to that mammoth in size and importance, but because she holds in the New World the rela tive rank which London holds on the Old Continent.

It is believed that few persons, at this time, have a sufficiently high ap. preciation of the future grandeur of New York; and yet fewer can be found who doubt that she will always continue to be the commercial capital of America. If this should be her destiny, the imagination could hardly set a limit to her future growth and grandeur. It would be presumptuous to say that her population might not reach five millions, within the next century and a half. Of the few persons who have doubted her continual supremacy, most have given the benefit of the doubt to New Orleans. This outport of the great central valley of North America was believed to command a destiny, when this valley should become well peopled, that might eclipse the island city of the Hudson.

Some twenty years ago, the writer, then living in a south-eastern State, was convinced that the greatest city must, in the nature of things, at a not very distant day, grow up in the interior of the continent. Of this opinion he thinks he was the inventor, and, for many years, the sole proprietor. If it had been the subject of a patent, no one would have been found to dispute his claim to the exclusive right to make and vend, (if that could be said to be vendible which no one would be prevailed on to take as a gift.) That such an opinion should appear absurd and ridiculous, may very well be credited by most people, who consider it not much less so now. The largest city of the interior was then Cincinnati, having scarcely 20,000 inhabitants; and the sum total of all the towns in the great valley scarcely exceeded 50,000. St. Louis at that time had but 5,000, and Buffalo about the same number. Here, then, was a basis very small for so large an anticipation. Who could believe that St. Louis, with 5,000 people, could possibly, within the short period of 150 years, become greater than New York, with a population of near 200,000? But what seemed most ridiculous of all was, that the future rival of the great commercial

emporium should be placed a thousand miles from the ocean, where neither a ship of war nor a Liverpool packet could ever be expected to arrive. Since 1828, some changes of magnitude have taken place; and the writer's exclusive right might now be questioned. There are now other men, considered sane men, who believe the great city of the nation is to be west of the mountains, and quite away from the salt sea. Governer Bebb, in a late address before the Young Men's Library Association of Cincinnati, expressed his decided belief that Cincinnati would, in the course of a century, become "the greatest agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial emporium on the continent." There are other men, now, not much less distinguished for knowledge and forecast than Governor Bebb, who entertain the same belief. What has wrought this change of opin ion? Time, whose business it is to unfold truth and expose error, has given proofs which can no longer be blinked. The interior towns have commenced a growth so gigantic that men must believe there is a power of corresponding magnitude urging them forward;-a power yet in its infancy, but unfolding its energies with astonishing rapidity.

Let us make some comparisons of the leading eastern and western cities. New York was commenced nearly 200 years before it increased to 100,000 people. Cincinnati, according to Governor Bebb, has now, fifty years from its commencement, 100,000 inhabitants. Boston was 200 years in acquiring its first 50,000. New York, since 1790, when it numbered 33,131, has had an average duplication every fifteen years. This would make her population in 1850, 530,096. This is very near what it will be, including her suburb, Brooklyn.

Cincinnati has, on the average since 1800, when it had 750, doubled her numbers every seven years.

It appears from this table, that, on the average of fifty years, Cincinnati, the leading interior town, has doubled her population every seven years: while New York, on the average of sixty years, has scarcely doubled hers in every period of fifteen years. If New York is compared with Cincin nati during the same fifty years, it will be seen that the period of her du plication averages over fifteen years. She had, in 1800, 60,489. Doub ling this every fifteen years, she should have, in 1850, nearly 650,000. This number will exceed her actual population more than 100,000, whereas Cincinnati in 1850 will certainly exceed 96,000.

Let us now suppose that, for the next fifty-four years after 1850, the ratio of increase of New York will be such as to make a duplication every eighteen years, and that of Cincinnati every ten years. New York will commence with about 500,000, which will increase by the year

1868 to.......... 1,000,000 | 1886 to.......... 2,000,000 | 1904 to....... 4,000,000 Cincinnati will commence in 1850 with at least 100,000, which will double every ten years; so that in