or are about to sail; nor shall they be permitted to make sail in chase of any enemy's vessel that may be in sight or signalled.

5. They shall not sail immediately after the departure of a vessel belonging to an inimical or neutral nation. If the vessel which sails first as well as that which proposes to follow be both sailing vessels or steamers, twenty-four hours shall be allowed to elapse between the departure of the one and the other; but if the vessel that sails first be a sailing ship and the other a steamer, the latter shall not leave until seventy-two hours afterwards.

6. During their stay in port the belligerents shall not attempt. by force or stratagem, to retake prisoners made of their fellow citizens who may be found in the same asylum, or to liberate prisoners of their nation.

7. They shall not be allowed into a neutral port to sell or dispose of prizes made from their enemy until the lawfulness of the prize shall be decided by the competent tribunals.

It is to be understood that the infraction of either of these seven conditions

will constitute a violation of the neutrality of the empire, subjecting those who infract it to the penalties therein declared.

And to make our neutrality effective, preventing and repressing those abuses which are being practised, the following means should be employed :—

1. To ascertain, before conceding an asylum, the character of the vessel and her antecedents in other ports of the empire, so that it may be decided whether the vessel shall be allowed to enter or remain, and for this purpose all vigilance should be used.

2. To observe the anchorage where the vessel may be, under the immediate surveillance of the police, and to watch for suspicious circumstances and places.

3. To keep a proper guard from the entrance to the sailing of the belligerent over the movements of the vessel, and to ascertain the character of all the articles that may be embarked.

4. To direct the police not to allow the landing for sale of any goods taken from prizes.

5. To prevent them from making prizes in the territorial waters of the empire, using force if necessary; and if any prizes be taken in these imperial waters they will be retaken by the forces of the government and restored to their lawful owners, as no sale of such goods can be considered legitimate.

6. No belligerent will be admitted into our ports which has once violated the laws of neutrality.

7. To compel every vessel that attempts to violate neutrality to leave the territorial waters of the empire instantly.

8. Finally to use force, and in default of a sufficiency thereto, to protest solemnly and energetically against the belligerent, who, being informed and warned, does not desist from a violation of neutrality, ordering the forts and war vessels to fire on the belligerent who attacks his enemy on our territory, and on the armed vessel which attempts to sail before the time defined after the sailing of a vessel belonging to the other belligerent.

And inasmuch as the steamer Alabama, of the Confederate States, has openly violated the neutrality of our empire, infringing the dispositions of our circular of the 1st of August, 1861, making the Island of Rita the base of her operations for the purpose of carrying prizes there, and sailing thence to make others, which the bas caused to be burned after keeping them some days in the anchorage of the said island, his Majesty the Emperor has ordained that the said steamer shall Lever again be received into any port of the empire.

I renew to your Excellency the assurances of my greatest esteem and high consideration.

THE MARQUIS OF ABRANTES.

To His Excellency the PRESIDENT, &c., &c.

COMMERCE OF THE LAKES.

In the Report of the Chamber of Commerce of Buffalo for 1863 we have the following review of the commerce of the lakes, showing its rapid development:

The French in 1678 selected sites for the first trading posts, which was the commencement of the immense fur trade with the natives at the extremities of these lakes, first carried on by them, and afterwards by the English. In the following year the Chevalier de LA SALLE, on the 7th day of August, set sail in a small vessel named the “Griffin," (which by the permission of the Seneca Indians had been built at Cayuga Creek, six miles above Niagara Falls,) with a crew of thirty men, destined for Mackinac, at which place he arrived on the 28th day of the same month. The "Griffin" was laden with a cargo of furs, and with a crew of six men was ordered to return to Niagara. Encountering a storm she was lost with all her crew. She was the first vessel moved by sails on the waters of these lakes. Then every portion of the Great West was covered with its ancient forests. The sounds of the echoing axe or "church going bells" had never rung through their solitudes, and the battle for mastery was yet undecided between the wild beast and his wilder foe, the savage hunter.

Nearly a century later," August 28, 1763, the sloop Beaver' was lost at Cat Fish Creek, fourteen miles up Lake Erie." This vessel, with her consort, the "Gladwin," left Detroit on the 13th of August to procure troops and sup. plies for the fort, then beseiged by PONTIAC, and arrived at Fort Erie on the 22d day of the same month. When the " Beaver" was wrecked, her guns were lost, and all her cargo, except 185 barrels of provisions, which were taken by the "Gladwin" to Detroit, where she arrived on the 3d of September, with a cargo of 160 barrels of pork and 47 barrels of flour, which came to Fort Erie from New York, by the way of Oswego and Niagara, and was carted around the falls over a road built by STEDMAN, and finished June 20th, 1763. When the "Gladwin" arrived in Detroit River she was attacked by 340 Indians, embarked in canoes, who cut her cable, tried to cut holes in her stern, killed Captain HORSEY and another. These were the only vessels on the lakes at this time, of which there is any known record. In 1764, there is a record of arrivals and departures at and from Detroit, of the "Victory," "Boston," "Royal Charlotte," and "Gladwin." During this year the "Gladwin" made one trip to Mackinac, and three or four trips each were made between Detroit and Fort Erie. Such was the commerce of the lakes a hundred years ago. Forty-eight years later, in 1812, there were only twelve vessels on all the lakes. From a pamphlet published by JAMES L. BARTON, Esq., in 1846, the following is taken: "The steamboat 'Walk-in-the-Water' was built and first went on Lake Erie in the mouth of August, 1818." The Detroit Gazelle of May 14th, 1819, published the following, taken from the New York Mercantile Advertiser: "The swift steamboat Walk-on-the-Water' (her great speed may be judged of when it required ten days to make her trip to and from Buffalo to Detroit) is intended to make a voyage early in the summer from Buffalo, on Lake Erie, to Michilimackinac, on Lake Huron, for conveyance of company." She was the first and only steamboat on the lakes above Niagara Falls. She made an annual trip to Mackinac to carry up the American Fur Company's goods, in the years 1820 and 1821, but was wrecked in November, of the latter year. There was a small steamboat called the "Ontario," on Lake Ontario, that was built and launched in 1817. These were the only steamboats at this time on all the lakes. The loss of the "Walkin-the-Water" was supplied by a new steamer named the "Superio," which was built and launched in 1822. In 1826 or 1827, a pleasure party went to Greeu Bay from Buffalo, by a steamboat, which was the first steam vessel that ever entered Lake Michigan. In 1845 there were owned and running on the lakes,

above Niagara Falls, 52 steamboats, 8 propellers, 50 brigs, 270 schooners, making three hundred and eighty vessels of all classes, with an aggregate tonuage of 76.000 tons.

There are now in commission, and engaged in the trade of the lakes, 1,870 vessels of all classes, with an aggregate tonnage of 470,034 tons, valued at $16.720,800. The first vessel registered in the district of Buffalo Creek, was a small schooner named the Hannah," of 48 73-95 tons, built by CHARLES TOWNSEND, GEORGE COIT, and OLIVER COIT, the last named as master. The date of register is May 26, 1817. There are now registered in the district of Buffalo Creek, 307 vessels of all classes, with an aggregate tonnage of 96.156 tons.

Prior to the opening of the Erie Canal, in 1825, the trade upon the lakes was of little moment, and can scarcely be dignified with the name of commerce. No record is known to exist of the amount of trade on the lakes prior to 1815. In that year the number of arrivals and departures of vessels at and from Buffalo was 64. In 1863 the number of arrivals and departures at and from Buffalo was 15.376.

In 1835, the following description of property came from the State of Ohio, being then the only exporting State on these lakes, and passed through Buffalo via the Erie Canal, to tide water, viz.: 86,233 barrels of flour, 98,071 bushels of wheat, 2,565,272 pounds of staves, 6,562 barrels of provisions, 4,410 barrels of ashes, 149,911 pounds of wool."

"In 1845 the exports of Ohio and other States around the lakes, sent off by the same channel, were 717,466 barrels of flour; 1,354.990 bushels of wheat; 88,296,431 pounds of staves; 68,000 barrels of provisions; 34,602 barrels of ashes; 2,957,761 pounds of wool."

In 1856 the receipts at Buffalo were 1,211,189 barrels of flour; 8,465,671 bushels of wheat; 9,632,477 bushels of corn; 2,025,519 bushels of other grains, making an aggregate, including flour estimated as wheat, allowing five bushels for each barrel of flour, of 26,239,791 bushels.

In 1862 the receipts at Buffalo were 2,739,818 barrels of flour; 30.450,255 bushels of wheat; 24,288,623 bushels of corn; 2,634,730 bushels of oats; and 1,091.326 bushels of other grain-making an aggregate of 72,164,024 bushels, including flour.

In 1800, in all the territory west of New York and Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River, there were no considerable settlements, except in Ohio, which was then a territory containing a population of only 45,365. There was, by the census of 1860, in the lake basin, a population of 9,474,358, against 4,100,425 in 1840, and 6,080,609 in 1850.

The cereal product of the lake basin States was, in

In 1840 the surplus cereals moved to the seaboard out of the lake basin was about 5,000,000 of bushels, against 145,000,000 bushels in 1862.

The Erie Canal and the Mississippi River were, from 1825 to 1833, the only avenues of transportation for the products of the West to the seaboard. The surplus cereal products exported from those States bordering on Lake Erie, including flour estimated as wheat, were all included in the receipts at Buffalo, which receipts in 1836 were only 1,239,351 bushels.

The first grain received at Buffalo from Lake Michigan was in 1836, being a small cargo of 3,000 bushels of wheat from Grand Haven, Michigan, by the brig John Kinzie, R. C. BRISTOL, Master. The first grain received at Buffalo from Chicago, was a small cargo of 1,678 bushels of wheat, shipped by NEWBURY and DOLE of Chicago, October 8, 1839, on the brig Osceola, FRANCIS P. BILLINGS, master, and consigned to KINGMAN and DURFEE, Black Rock, now North Buffalo.

In the year 1862 the surplus cereals exported from Lake Michigan, were from

Such are the changes of less than twenty-five years. With such results before us, what may we reasonably expect will be the increase of the next succeeding twenty-five years, when all the circumstances are so much more favorable than were those of twenty-five years ago? The States bordering an 1 tributary to the lakes, embracing Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Dakota, have an area of 501,027,260 acres; only 56,221,908 of which were improved lands in 1860, against 26,680,340 acres in 1850. In the single decade from 1850 to 1860 no less than 25,146.341 additional acres were taken from forest and prairie and turned into farms. During this decade the population had increased 3,393,749, being 55 8-10 per cent, or an annual increase of over 5 per cent.

The annual increase in the population of the whole of the United States, since 1790, has been three per cent and a fraction. By this rule, which has proved correct through seven decades, applied to the remaining portion of this century, the population will be upwards of one hundred millions in 1900.

If this fertile region of the country shall continue to increase in population, at the same rate per cent for the remaining portion of the century, that it has during the last decade, more than half of the population of the United States in the year 1900 will be in the valleys of the lakes and the Mississippi.

The progress in internal improvements in these northwestern States, shows stupendous results. There were twenty-eight miles of railway in 1840; 1,354 in 1850; 11,782 miles in 1860. In 1830 these States had no artificial canals. In 1860, there were completed and in operation 1,556 miles of canals, besides nearly one thousand miles of slack-water navigation, answering all the purposes of canals.

Within the present limits of the United States and Territories there are three millions of square miles, which may be geographically divided as follows:

Pacific slope.

Mississippi and lake valleys.
Atlantic and gulf slopes....

.square miles

750,000 1,350,000

900,000

This great middle division of 1,350,000 square miles, embracing nearly onehalf the national domain, is drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries, and the Great Lakes; the waters of the former finding an outlet in the Gulf of Mexico, and the latter in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, through the River St. Lawrence, extending through 20 degrees of latitude and 30 degrees of longitude.

This vast area of country abounds with extensive deposits of iron, coal, copper, lead, gold, silver, and quicksilver; the coal being always near the iron deposits, and the quicksilver, near those of gold and silver; the former being necessary for the manufacture of the iron, and the latter for economizing the gathering of the more precious metals.

The rich alluvial soil of the Lake and Mississippi Valleys will make the richest and most productive agricultural district in the world. By the year 1900, the fifty millions of people inhabiting these valleys, dividing their labor between agriculture, manufactures, and trade, promoted and advanced by the productive wealth of the gold and silver mines of the Pacific slope, will, from necessity, give life and vigor to a domestic commerce that will be equal to that of all Europe, and from which will result a more extended foreign commerce than has ever been the lot of any nation to enjoy.

There is no country on earth that has so many natural advantages for a large

and extended internal trade, or can be so easily made available by artificial aids, as the great West and northwest. The Mississippi River and its tributaries, the Missouri and its tributaries, the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Cumberland, the Red River, the Arkansas, embracing many thousands of miles of river navigation, can, by the construction of a ship canal of less than a mile, from Big Stone Lake to Lake Traver, in Minnesota, be navigably connected with the Great Red River of northwest British America. This river is navigable seven hundred miles to Lake Winnipeg. This lake receives the Saskatchawan, which is navigable seven hundred miles to a point (Edmonston House) within one hundred and fifty miles of the gold mines of British Columbia.

"A report to the New York Chamber of Commerce made in 1858, announces that the region of Lake Winnipeg, like the valley of the Mississippi, is distinguished for the fertility of its soil, and for the extent and gentle slope of its great plains, watered by rivers of great length, and admirably adapted to steam navigation."

"It will, in all respects, compare favorably with some of the most densely peopled portions of Europe. In other words, it is admirably fitted to become the seat of a numerous, hardy, and prosperous community. It has an area equal to eight or ten first class American States. Its great river, the Saskatchawan, carries a navigable water line to the base of the Rocky Mountains. The navi gable waters of this great sub-division interlock with those of the Mississippi. The Red River of the North, in connection with Lake Winnipeg, is navigable for eight hundred miles directly north and south, and is one of the best adapted for steam in the world, and waters one of the finest regions on the continent. Between its head waters and St. Paul, in Minnesota, a railroad is in process of construction, which, when completed, will open a half million of square miles of territory for settlement."

The commerce of Minnesota, with Selkirk and Saskatchawan, doubled in 1860. The Carriboo is rapidly filling up with a mining population. This will necessitate the prompt organization and settlement of British America, that is, of the plains of the river basins, converging to Lake Winnipeg, aud closely connected with our northwestern States. What all this vast region is to Minnesota now, all of the country west of New York and Pennsylvania, east of the Mississippi and northwest of the Ohio River, was to the Middle States, fifty years ago.

The improvement of the Fox River, which can be done at comparative small cost, will make a navigable highway from Green Bay to the Mississippi River. The enlargement of the Illinois Canal, and the improvement of the Illinois River, will make still another navigable highway between the Great Lakes and the Father of Waters.

These connecting links in the great interna! water highway being completed, the proposed improvement of the Canadian canals will, when accomplished, extend an arm of the sea from the Gulf St. Lawrence into the heart of the great West, while from the sunny South comes another arm from the Gulf Mexico.

Between these two great water highways is a projected canal from the Ohio River, through Virginia to the ocean; besides the Pennsylvania canals, and the canal system of New York, with its trunk lines, the Erie and Oswego. New York need never very much fear this Southern arm of the ocean, but the Northern arm has power now, and when the plans and purposes of the Canadian Provinces shall have been carried out, there will be such an augmented power as to sweep onward to the ocean, via the St. Lawrence, nearly all the vast prospective commerce, the infancy of which has been shared by the Empire State.