average of Europe--seventy-three and a third to the square mile. Massachusetts has one hundred and fifty-seven; Rhode Island, one hundred and thirty-three; Connecticut, ninety-nine; New York and New Jersey, each, eighty. Also two other great States, Pennsylvania and Ohio, are not far below, the former having sixty-three and the latter fifty-nine. The States already above the European average, except New York, have increased in as rapid a ratio, since passing that point, as ever before; while no one of them is equal to some other parts of our country, in natural capacity for sustaining a dense population. “Taking the nation in the aggregate, and we find its population and ratio of increase, for the several decennial periods, to be as follows: 1790 3,929,827 1800 5,305,937 35.02 per cent. ratio of increase 1810 7,239,814 36.45 “ “ 1820 9,638,131 33.13 “ “ 1830 12,866,020 33.49 “ “ 1840 17,069,453 32.67 “ “ 1850 23,191,876 35.87 “ “ 1860 31,443,790 35.58 “ “ “This shows an average decennial increase of 34.60 per cent. in population through the seventy years from our first to our last census yet taken. It is seen that the ratio of increase, at one of these seven periods, is either two per cent. below, or two per cent. above, the average, thus showing how inflexible, and, consequently, how reliable, the law of increase, in our case is. Assuming that it will continue, gives the following results: 1870 42,423,341 1880 56,967,216 1890 76,677,872 1900 103,208,415 1910 138,918,526 1920 186,984,335 1930 251,680,914 “These figures show that our country _may_ be as populous as Europe now is, at some point between 1920 and 1930--say about 1925--our territory, at seventy-three and a third persons to the square mile, being the capacity to contain 217,186,000. “And we _will_ reach this, too, if we do not ourselves relinquish the chance, by the folly and evil of disunion, or by long and exhausting war, springing from the only great element of National discord among us. While it can not be foreseen exactly how much one huge example of secession, breeding lesser ones indefinitely, would retard population, civilization, and prosperity, no one can doubt that the extent of it would be very great and injurious.