It is now fifty-six years since the adoption of the Constitution, and yet, strange to tell, little has been done by authority under it, to present in an authenticated form a satisfactory account of our population, and the employments in which it is occupied.

No adequate attempt has been made until the last Census of 1840, to inquire into the general industry, so as to give an idea of what progress was making in the all-important branches of Agriculture, Manufactures, Commerce, and the Arts. And now that we have before us the sixth Census, taken under the Act of Congress, great doubts are entertained of its accuracy in many very interesting particulars. So far as regards the

population of the Union, it is no doubt sufficiently correct; at all events, as it is the only medium through which we can ever arrive at any result upon that point, we must be content to use it, and draw upon it for such knowledge as it contains of our progress and actual condition.

Numbers, although sufficiently important in many respects, are far from possessing so great an interest as would be derived from a correct knowledge of the manner in which our people are employed; and it is in the hope that we may be enabled in due time, through private means, to attain this desirable object, that this work is undertaken.

For if there be any one publication more vitally interesting to the American people than another, it is surely one conveying a knowledge of our actual progress in the scale of nations; and it is precisely that information which it is the object of this work to impart-for it is now nowhere imbodied and placed on record. It is proposed to present a picture such as has