Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/753

Rh STATES.] AMERICA 711 13. Patagonia; 14. Costa Rica, 15. Mosquitia ; 18. Gua temala ; 17. Honduras ; 18. Nicaragua ; 19. San Salvador ; 20. Hayti; 21. San Domingo. The colonies belong to Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, France, and Spain. Patagonia is merely the geographical name of a district of Chili, occupied by independent tribes of Indians; Mos quitia, or the Mosquito coast, is a small Indian state ruled v &amp;gt;y a native king ; and Hayti is a negro republic proclaimed in 18G7. For detailed accounts of these various states and colonies we refer to the articles under the proper heads. At present we must confine ourselves to a brief notice of the more important ones. United The United States were colonised a century later than States. Spanish America; but their brilliant and rapid progress shows in a striking light how much more the prosperity of nations depends on moral than on physical advantages. The North Americans had no gold mines, and a territory of only indifferent fertility, covered with impenetrable woods ; but they brought with them intelligence, industry, a love of freedom, habits of order, and a pure and severe morality. Armed with these gifts of the soul, they have converted the wilderness into a land teeming with life and smiling with plenty ; and they have built up a social system so pre-emi nently calculated to promote the happiness and moral im provement of mankind, that it has truly become the &quot; envy of nations.&quot; The republic is bounded on the north by Canada, on the south-west by Mexico, and on the other sides by the sea. At present (1874) it consists of thirty- seven states, with one district and eleven territories, which 1 itter will be converted into states as soon as each acquires a sufficient population. The extent of the country, including the Indian lands stretching west to the Pacific Ocean, over which it claims a right of pre-emption, embraces 3,603,844 square miles of land. The agriculture of the United States partakes to some extent of a tropical character. The sugar cane is cultivated in Louisiana, Florida, and other states as far north as the latitude of 31|. Cotton is raised in all the south-east states S. of the 37th parallel, and tobacco chiefly in the middle states. Wheat succeeds in the middle and northern states, and maize thrives in every part of the Union. Agriculture is conducted with considerable skill; but the &quot;high farming&quot; practised in England would not pay in America, where money is of much value and land of little. Scarcely any portion of the soil is rented in the United States : the fanners are almost universally proprietors ; and when their property is extensive, which rarely happens, it is soon broken into small occupancies under the law of equal division. The advance the Americans have made in manu factures may be judged of from the fact that in 1870, according to the census then taken, there were upwards of 35,000 operatives employed in 969 cotton factories, and 77,870 in 1938 manufactories of woollen goods. The iron industries gave cmploymentto upwards of 140,000 hands, the iron produced in the country reaching nearly two millions of tons. In the useful arts generally America is on a level with France and England. The internal commerce of the United States is conducted with extraordinary spirit. The amount of capital expended on roads, canals, harbours, bridges, and other public works, is very great. The length of the lines of railway open for traffic now exceeds 70,000 miles, and is rapidly increasing. The extent of the foreign trade of the country, and the amount of its shipping, place it next to Great Britain in the list of commercial nations. The population of the United States in 1870 was ) by census 38,ooS,3/l In i800 it was 5,308,483 Increase in 70 years 33,249,888 Since 1800 the rate of increase has been remarkably uniform at nearly 3 per cent, per annum. In 1871 the number of immigrants was 346,938, of whom 198,843 migrated from the British Isles, 107,201 from Germany, 6030 from China, and the remainder from British North America, Sweden, Norway, France. Austria, Italy, Switzer land, Denmark, and Russia. Slaves were first introduced in 1619. In 1775 slavery was abolished in Rhode Island; in 1780- Massachusetts abolished it ; then numerous northern states followed, and in December 1865 slavery was abolished throughout the United States. By subsequent amendment of the constitution all negroes were admitted to all the privileges of citizenship. Thus it was enacted on March 30, 1870, that &quot; no discrimination should be made in the United States among the citizens of the United States in the exercise of their elective franchise, or in the right to hold office in any state, on account of race, colour, nativity, property, education, or creed.&quot; Every person born or naturalised in the United States is recognised to be a citizen thereof. The American government is a pure representative de mocracy in which the people are recognised as the fountain of all power; and the sole object of all its mechanism is to give effect to their deliberate opinions. The federal government and the governments of the separate states are constituted on the same plan. The legislature consists in every case of two bodies, a House of Representatives chosen for one or two years, and a Senate for a period varying from two years to six all chosen by popular election, except in the case of the Federal Senate, which is elected by the legislatures of the thirty-seven states. The President holds his office for four years, but is occasionally re-elected for four years more. The characteristic facts in the condition of America are the non-existence of titles, of privileged classes, of corpora tions in our sense of the term, of a landed aristocracy, of mendicity except to a very limited extent, and of au en dowed church ; the cheapness and efficiency of its govern ment, the universality of education, the omnipresence of its periodical press, the high feeling of self-respect which exists in the very humblest classes, and the boundless spirit of enterprise which pervades all classes of society. The higher classes are less polished than in England, the middle are perhaps less carefully instructed ; but the American people, taken collectively, are at least as well educated and have as much intelligence and manliness of character as any other nation in the world. In 1867 the territory formerly known as Russian America was purchased by the United States, and called Alaska. It occupies the north-west corner of the continent, and extends along the coast as far south as Mount Elias, where it is bounded by British Columbia and the southern end of Prince of Wales Island, in 54 40 N. It comprises an area of about 570,390 square miles. Furs and fish are the most valuable commodities. Sitka is the capital. It is situated on an island in 57 2 45&quot; N. and 135 17 10&quot; W. It has a population of over 2000 persons. The Yukon river, which is about 2000 miles long, flows through the territory. British North America is bounded on the south by the Britisl United States, on the north by the Arctic Ocean, and on North the west by Alaska. In 1867 the provinces of Ontario Ameri (formerly Upper Canada), Quebec (formerly Lower Canada), Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba (formerly Hudson s Bay Territory), and British Columbia, were united under the title of &quot; The Dominion of Canada,&quot; while Newfound land and Prince Edward Island still remained independent. The executive power is vested in the sovereign of the British empire, but is carried out by a Governor-General and Privy Council. The Parliament consists of a Senate and a House of Commons. The senators are nominated for life