f5i AGRICBTLTURAL, MUSEUM 



♦the post-office establishment. 



When we look back and see what our country was a 

 few years ago, and consider what it is now, we cannot 

 fail to be astonished at its growth. The old world fur- 

 nishes no example of the kind. Indeed, so rapid is tic 

 advance of improvement, that our minds are scarcely 

 able to keep pace with its progress, and we are almost 

 led to deny the evidence of our senses. — The traveller, 

 as he proceeds on his journey, passes a wilderness ; and 

 behold! on his return, as if by magic, the wilderness is 

 converted into a fruitful garden, and blossoms with a, 

 thousand sweets. 



One hundred years ago, the whole importations into 

 North America did not amount to -^2.000.000 annually. 

 Fifty years afterwards, the imports had increased to 

 twenty millions of dollars ; and in 1807, the auties alone, 

 on imports into the United States (making no deduction 

 for drawbacks) cxceedi'd twenty-six millions of dollars? 

 a sum equal to the export trade of Great- Britain to all 

 the world a century ago. 



Should no untoward circumstance interrupt the pros- 

 perity of our country, a few years will place us entirely 

 grndependcnt of the products of Europe, and our physi- 

 cal strength may bid defiance to the united clTorts of her 

 arms. 



Among the improvements in the United States, there 

 ii?, perhaps, no one that has advanced more rapidly, or 

 proved more extensively useful, than that of the transpor- 

 tation of the mail. There is not a man of literature or 

 business in the nation who does not constantly experience 

 its benefits. Yet very few give themselves the trouble 

 to reilect a moment on its importance. In point of public 

 utility, it holds a rank but little inferior to printing. Co- 

 pies may be multiplied at the press, but, without this es- 

 tablishment, how limited must be their distribution ! By 

 the extensive and rapid transportations of the mail, the 

 transactions of each part of the country arc circulated, 

 as if on the wings of the wind, through the whole. The 

 n^crcliAnt, without leaving his counting house, learns the 



