The average duration of life in New York, compared with that of several other cities, is as follows:

The causes, which under equal circumstances of climate, locality, &c., would be expected to give new York a larger mortality and a lower period of life are so evident that we need not here particularize them. In the result, as above given, the position of New York is, all things fairly considered, quite as advantageous as the average of the places put in comparison.

PAUPERISM.

The Alms-House Department of New York supports about 6,000 paupers, and furnishes aid, yearly, to about 35,000 to 40,000 others, at an expense annually of about $400,000.

CRIME.

During the year 1851, there were received at the City Prison 16,522 persons, making, with 221 remaining January 1, 16,743. Of these, there were 12,955 discharged, 3,390 sent to the Penitentiary, and 192 to the State Prison, and 3 were executed. In the Courts of Oyer and Terminer, General and Special Sessions of the Peace, there were 2,494 convictions; of which, 8 were of murder; 8 of manslaughter; assault with intent to kill, 8; assault and battery, 708; riot, 6; forgery, 17; burglary, 47; keeping disorderly houses, 15; bigamy, 1; incest, 1; grand larceny, 105; petit larceny, 1,530. In 1836, the whole number of convictions was 854, or about 1 for every 315 inhabitants; in 1851, estimating the population at 550,000, the convictions were 1 to 225 inhabitants. In Boston the convictions were, in 1835, 290, or 1 in each 271 of the population; in 1840, 261, or 1 in every 358; in 1845, 436, or one in 262 of the population, were convicted in the courts of crime. In London, about 1838, the annual convictions were 3,300, or about 1 in 415 of the population.

EDUCATION.

The amount appropriated for schools in this city, for the last year, was $221,773 59. The whole number of pupils in the schools for the year ending February 5, 1851, was 107,363; average attendance, 40,055. The number of public schools, was 114; ward schools, 72; corporate schools, 21-total, 207. The average cost per scholar was about $6 87.

The number of adult people unable to read and write was, by the census of 1850, as follows:

The 12th Ward, it will be seen, is the best off in respect to education, and the 6th is in the worst state. Of the total number in the city unable to read and write, 16,449 are of foreign birth, and 2,358 only are natives. Of the latter, 1,667 are negroes. Of the whole number of white adults unable to read and write, 4,869 are males, and 12,271 females.

In Boston, the average expenditure for public schools is near $8 per head for all the children of 4 to 16 years of age, and about $12 for each scholar. In the State of Massachusetts, the expenditure per head for each child, annually, is about $3. The expenses of the public schools of Philadelphia, for the last year, are estimated at $435,938, or about $5 per head for the children of 5 to 15 years.

This table gives about one church for every 2,100 of the population. In 1836, the number of churches was 150, or 1 to about 1,850 of the inhabi tants. The average number which can be accommodated in these churches is probably about 800, or about 200,000 altogether. Religious provision is therefore made for less than half of the population.

In Philadelphia there are within the city proper 84 churches, with 83,171 seats, the population being, in 1850, 121,417; and in the city, and its principal suburbs, there were 247 churches, with 185,539 seats, to accomodate a population of above 400,000. In Boston, in 1845, there were 78 churches, and 21 halls used for religious purposes, having 84,174 seats for a population of 114,366, providing for about 74 out each 100. Baltimore, in 1850, contained 106 churches, or 1 for 1,783 inhabitants. Lowell, in 1845, had 33 churches, or one to 874 inhabitants.

FIRE DEPARTMENT.

There are above 2,000 men attached to the Fire Department, and there were, last year, 34 fire-engines, 49 hose-carriages, 8 hook and ladder trucks, with 40 ladders, and 58,500 feet length of hose.

MILITIA.

The city of New York comprises the First Division of the New York State Militia, in which are enrolled about 45,000 men. What is called the volunteer, namely, the uniformed militia, numbers about 4,000 men.

CROTON AQUEDUCT.

The Croton Aqueduct is 40 miles in length, the greatest interior width is 7 feet 5 inches, and its greatest interior hight 8 feet 5 inches, and it is capable of discharging 60,000,000 gallons of water daily-the minimum. flow being 27,000,000 gallons daily. When first constructed, a journey was accomplished through its whole length, by several persons, on foot, and afterwards it was navigated through by four persons in a boat. The cost of construction was $9,000,000. The Cochituate Aqueduct, of Boston, is only about 20 miles in length, and its greatest capacity of delivery is 14,000,000 gallons daily, the average supply being about 10,000,000 gallons. The cost was $5,000,000.

POLICE.

The police department of New York comprises about 900 men, and its annual expense is about $500,000.

MARKETS.

There are fourteen principal markets in different parts of the city, besides any number of licensed stalls, green-grocers' shops, &c.

THE PRESS.

There are in New York 20 daily papers, with a circulation of above 200,000, and the yearly value of which must exceed half a million of dollars. In Boston, in 1845, there were 15 daily papers, with a circulation of 53,172, and a yearly value of $216,776. There were 350 daily papers in the United States in 1850, having a circulation of 750,000, so that New York furnishes nearly one-third of all the daily papers circulated within the Union. In a year, the circulation of the daily papers of New York numbers exclusive of extras, and all editions after the first, about 60,000,000 copies; while for the empire of Great Britain, the number of stamps issued for newspapers of all kinds, in 1849, was but 72,447,707. The total circulation of papers of all sorts, published in London, in 1850, was 21,269,840, only about one-third the circulation of the daily papers of New York.

NEW YORK STOCK AND EXCHANGE BOARD.

The objects of this association are, as its name implies, the buying and selling of stocks, specie, &c., no sales being made at the board for a less amount than $500. The fee of admission is $400, and the board is gov erned by a constitution and by-laws. Fictitious sales or contracts are forbidden under penalty of expulsion. The hour of meeting is at 10 o'clock, A. M., daily, at their hall in the Merchants' Exchange, and again informally at 21 o'clock, P. M.

THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Was organized in 1768, for promoting the general commercial and navigating interests of the city. It received a charter from George III., in 1770, which was renewed and modified in 1784. Its meetings are

held on the first Tuesday in each month, and the general interests of Commerce, foreign and domestic, are the subjects of discussion. It has two principal committees, one called the "Committee of Arbitration," the other, the "Committee of Appeal." The business of the first is the adjustment of mercantile differences; and the other is to decide in cases where an appeal is made from the decision of the "Committee of Arbitration." An appeal can be made only when the amount at issue exceeds $100; and if the committee are unanimous in their decision, not unless it amounts to $500. Merchants, or those connected with Commerce, are alone allowed membership, but a limited privilege of arbitration is extended to those who are neither members nor eligible to membership.

Art. III.-TRADE AND COMMERCE OF NEW ORLEANS IN 1851–52.*

In the Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review for November, 1848, (vol. xix., pp. 503-518,) in our series of papers relating to the "COMMERCIAL CITIES AND TOWNS OF THE UNITED STATES," we published a carefully prepared sketch of the commercial and industrial history of New Orleans, and from year to year, since the establishment of our Journal, we have embodied in its pages full statistics of the Trade and Commerce of that city, as furnished to our hands by the New Orleans Price Current, one of the best-conducted journals of its class in the United States; and in November, 1851, (vol. xxv., pp. 545–558,) we published the annual review of the Price Current, remarking, at the time, that as these reports embraced a comparative view of the progress of trade and Commerce, which imparted to them not only a present, but prospective, and even an historical value, we should continue their republication from year to year. The Price Currents of our commercial cities are more or less local in their character, and limited in their circulation. Our Journal, on the other hand, is national and even cosmopolitan in its objects, more convenient for preservation, and designed as a standard work of reference in all time.

The plan adopted by us in reference to New Orleans, and the principal commercial cities of the Union, we have reason to know, meets the approval of intelligent merchants throughout the country, and is, as we have before remarked, well calculated to give completeness and impart to our Magazine that nationality of character which it has been our aim from the start to maintain.

The editors of the Price Current, in presenting their annual statement, congratulate the community of New Orleans and country upon a season of unrivaled prosperity, and after a few pertinent preliminary observations, proceed to give the following statement of the Trade and Commerce of New Orleans for the twelve months ending August 31, 1852.

The value of products received from the interior since 1st September, 1851, is $108,051,708 against $106,924,083 last year. The value of the exports of American produce for the year ended 30th June last, according to the custom

For full statistics of the Commerce, &c., of New Orleans for the year 1851-52, see Comm CIAL STATISTICs," in the present number of this Magazine.

house records, was $76,344,569 against $81,216,925 last year. Of this amount $48,076,197 was to foreign ports, and $28,268,327 coastwise. The value of foreign merchandise exported during the same period was only $44,780. These figures exhibit a decrease in the total exports, as compared with last year, of $5,273,526. In the exports to foreign countries the decrease is $6,312,986, but there is an increase coastwise of $1,039,460. There has been a material falling off in the operations of the Branch Mint, the total deposits of gold and silver, for the year ended on the 31st July, 1852, being $6,103,650 against $9,107,722 last year. Of the gold, $5,821,695 was from California, against $8,152,878 from the same source last year. The coinage in the same period has been 675,500 pieces gold, value $6,370,000, and 1,488,000 pieces silver, value $235,600. Total 2,163,500 pieces, value $6,600,000. Last year the total coinage was $10,044,500.

COTTON. This article has long been, and is likely long to be, the leading staple of our Commerce; and that its importance is not waning is evinced by the fact that the receipts of the past year, at our own port alone, reach nearly a million-and-a-half of bales; or an excess over any previous year of nearly two hundred and fifty thousand bales. Yet with this large increase we have the pleasure of saying that there probably has never been, in the whole history of the cotton trade, a season more satisfactory in its general course and results than the one just closed. We propose to review, as briefly as possible, the leading features of the market's progress.

The first bale of the new crop was received here on the 25th July, which was seventeen days earlier than the first receipt of the previous year, and the earliest arrival since 1844. The total of new crop received up to 1st September was 3,155 bales, against 67 bales the year previous, and 477 bales in 1849. The early sales of the new crop were at 8 a 84 cents for middling, and 8 a 9 cents for good middling to middling fair, which was a higher opening of the market than could have reasonably been anticipated, as the previous season had closed most disastrously, and the impression was general that the crop would be likely to be a very full, if not a very large one. In the early part of September, though, a still higher range was attained, the quotations having reached 9 a 94 cents for middling to good middling. From this point, however, the market began to yield under the pressure of increasing supplies, but the decline was very gradual, the market touching 64 a 7 cents for middling about the middle of October. For a strict classification of middling this was the lowest point of the season, and the market remained steady up to the first week in November, when increased demand, especially for middling to good middling descriptions, and their comparative scarcity, caused a slight upward movement in prices, which continued to maintain a remarkable degree of steadiness up to near the close of the season. The following tables, which we have prepared from our records, will illustrate more fully the movement in our leading staple.

A reference to these tables will show a steadiness and regularity in prices during the leading business months which has no parallel in any previous year; for it will be seen that from October to May, within which period nearly the whole of our supply was disposed of, the extreme fluctuation for the whole time was but half a cent per pound. The whole season gives an average of 8 cents per pound, against 11 cents last year. The average weight per bale we have ascertained to be 438 pounds, which would give an aggregate weight for the portion of the crop received at this port of 625,982,154 pounds.

TABLE SHOWING THE QUOTATIONS FOR LOW MIDDLING TO GOOD MIDDLING COTTON ON THE FIRST OF EACH MONTH WITH THE RATES OF FREIGHT TO LIVERPOOL, AND STERLING BILLS, -AT SAME DATE.