A treaty was concluded between the United States and Mexico, by which a purchase was concluded by the former government of that part of New Mexico called Arizona.

Congress, in March, passed an act appropriating one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to defray the expenses of the necessary surveys and explorations of different routes to determine the most practicable line for a railroad to the Pacific. In accordance with the act, four different parties were organized and sent out to make surveys of as many different routes. These parties were fitted out in the most complete manner, with a view to collect all possible information relative to the physical characteristics of the region traversed, including its topography, its elevation above the sea, its climate, its geology, its botany, and its natural history, as well as all details bearing upon the actual construction of the road. In the next year Congress made additional appropriations, and three more exploring parties were organized for the same purposes.

An expedition, consisting of four vessels and a supply-ship, under the command of Captain Ringgold, sailed from Norfolk, Va., in June, to make a thorough exploration of proper routes to be pursued by our vessels between San Francisco and China, and of the whaling-grounds of the Sea of Okhotsk and Behring's Straits.

An expedition, fitted out at the joint expense of the government and Mr. Henry Grinnell of New York, to continue the search for Sir John Franklin in the Arctic regions, sailed from that city on the 31st of May. It consisted of a single vessel, named the Advance, with a company of seventeen persons, under the command of Dr. Kane, and with provisions sufficient for two years, independent of what might be gained by hunting.

The New York Crystal Palace, erected by private enterprise for a universal industrial exhibition, on Reservoir Square, at Sixth Avenue and Forty-second Street, in the city of New York, was formally opened on the 14th of July. The occasion was marked by the presence of the President of the United States and some of his Cabinet officers.

The yellow-fever devastated New Orleans during the summer months, and large contributions of money were raised in many of the Northern cities in aid of those rendered destitute by the scourge in that city. The mortality at times exceeded two hundred and fifty a day, and the total number of deaths from the disease was about seventy-two hundred. The discase also raged in other Southern cities. One sixth of the total popula tion of Vicksburg died of it, and about twelve hundred in Mobile.

The Middlesex Canal, in Massachusetts, was abandoned, and its banks were soon afterward levelled, and parts of the channel filled up. The introduction of railroads ruined its business, Madame Sontag, one of the most renowned singers of Europe, made her first appearance on the stage in America at Niblo's Garden, in New York, on the 10th of January. She afterwards

sang in the principal cities of this country, and then went to Mexico. Upon her return trip from that country she was attacked with cholera, and died at Vera Cruz in the next year.

The celebrated Irish exile, John Mitchel, made his escape 'from Van Diemen's Land, and reached New York, by way of San Francisco, on the 29th of November. He attended a public banquet on the 8th of December, given in his honor by the authorities of Brooklyn, and on the 19th was complimented by another from citizens of New York.

The zinc-works at Bethlehem, Pa., went into operation on the 12th of October.

The first locomotive constructed in Chicago was built this year. A company was also formed at that city for making

cars.

The first successful steam fire-engine constructed in this country was completed early in the year at Cincinnati. A paid firecompany was organized in that city, and it was the first one established in this or any other country.

The New York Clearing House, an association of fifty-two banks of the city of New York, went into operation on the 11th of October.

The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, from Chicago to Freeport, Ill., was completed its whole length, a distance of one hundred and twenty-one miles, and opened for travel on the 4th of September. This road was subsequently absorbed in the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad system. The entire line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and that of the Boston, Concord and Montreal, and of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence, connecting Portland with Montreal, were completed this year. The New York and Erie Railroad made its eastern terminus at Jersey City in November, instead of Piermont. The Albany and Schenectady, the Utica and Schenectady, the Syracuse and Utica, the Auburn and Syracuse, the Auburn and Rochester, the Tonawanda, and the Attica and Buffalo railroads, were all consolidated into one corporation, called The New York Central Railroad Company.

The first telegraph-line in California was completed on the 22d of September. It extended from San Francisco, eight miles, to a point nearer the sea, and was built to give early information of shipping arrivals. A telegraph-line between San Francisco and Marysville, a distance of two hundred and six miles, went into operation on the 24th of October.

The Brooklyn City Railroad Company, of Brooklyn, N. Y., was incorporated on the 17th of December. Cars commenced running for the first time on the 3d of July of the next year.

A fire occurred on the 10th of December, in the building occupied by Harper Brothers, in New York, and destroyed property valued at over one million of dollars. All their buildings, the machinery, and stereotype plates, excepting those stored in vaults under the sidewalks, were ruined.

A collision took place between two trains at the crossing of the Michigan Central and Northern Indiana railroads, near

1854

Chicago, on the 23d of April, by which about twenty persons were killed outright and a large number injured. A sad disaster occurred on the New York and New Haven Railroad on the 6th of May. A drawbridge of sixty feet in width, across the Norwalk River, was opened to admit the passage of a vessel. A train advancing at unusual speed, in broad daylight, rushed into the opening and was plunged into the water. Over fifty persons were killed, many of whom were physicians returning from a convention held at New York.

Public attention was engrossed at that time upon receiving intelligence of the loss of the steamship San Francisco, which was wrecked off the coast of South Carolina, in the latter part of December. The vessel was new, and was on her first voyage at the time of the disaster. She sailed from New York on the 22d of December, with seven hundred persons on board, nearly five hundred and fifty of whom were United States troops bound for California. On her third day out the ship encountered a violent gale, and it soon became so fierce and the sea so heavy that the starboard paddle-box was stripped, her smokestacks carried away, and about one hundred and fifty of the troops and officers were washed overboard. The ship became utterly unmanageable, and drifted from day to day, until she came near the latitude of Boston, where the survivors were rescued by passing vessels. Nearly two hundred lives were lost by the disaster. The steamer Independence was lost on the island of Margitu, off the coast of Lower California, on the 16th of February. She struck on a hidden rock, and received so much damage that it was found necessary to run her ashore; in doing this the vessel took fire, and the passengers and crew were driven overboard into the surf. One hundred and twentynine persons were lost. On the 11th of April, thirty-one persons were killed by the bursting of a steam-pipe on the steamship Jenny Lind, while the vessel was on her passage from Alviso to San Francisco. Thirty-eight persons lost their lives by the burning of the steamer Ocean Wave, on Lake Ontario, the 20th of April.

In January, a bill was introduced in Congress which provided for the establishment of two Territories, one to be called Nebraska and the other Kansas, to consist of the vast tract of country stretching from the western borders of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota, to the Territories on the Pacific, and from the British possessions on the north to the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude on the south-almost twice as large in area as the thirteen original States. By the bill, it was provided that the people in those new Territories were left free to decide the question for themselves, whether they would allow or prohibit slavery within their domain; by which provision, if passed, the Compromise Act of 1820-21, which provided that the institution of slavery should be allowed in Missouri and be prohibited in all territory north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, would be effectually repealed. The bill was finally passed after a protracted and violent debate of about four

months, during which period the slavery question was aroused in all its strength and vigor in Congress and the country at large. The whole North became violently excited; public meetings were held by men of all parties, and petitions and remonstrances against the measure were poured into Congress while the debate on the subject was progressing. One of these petitions was signed by three thousand clergymen of New England. As soon as the bill became a law, there commenced a desperate struggle between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery people of the country for an immediate and complete supremacy in Kansas, the most southerly of the two territories, which lay directly west of Missouri, and for future domain in all the States that might be formed from it. To this end, emigration to Kansas from the free States was at once urged by the opponents of slavery, and on the 24th of July, an emigrant-aid society was formed in Boston. This movement excited the friends of slavery to vigorous action, and in Missouri combinations were at once formed to counteract it. Very soon great numbers commenced flowing into Kansas from the free States, and by October several towns were founded by them. The Missourians also went into the Territory and founded towns on the Missouri River. In October, Alexander H. Reeder, who had been appointed governor by the President, arrived in Kansas. During the rest of the year much ill-feeling was engendered by disputes, boasts, and threats between the opposing parties in the Territory.

An event occurred at a region of Nicaragua, on the Caribbean Sea, known as the Mosquito coast, which came near menacing the friendly relations existing between the British Government and the United States. The chief town on the coast was San

Juan or Greytown. In the spring property belonging to American citizens in the vicinity, it was alleged, had been stolen and conveyed within the town. A demand was made on the authorities for its restoration; it was refused, and the United States frigate Cyane having been sent there, bombarded, the town on the 13th of July. The commander of the British ship Bermuda, lying there, protested against the bombardment, and claimed that the place was under British protection. The act was denounced by the English press as an insult to Great Britain, but the government did not consider the question of sufficient gravity to justify a disturbance of the friendly feelings of the two nations.

Congress passed an act granting to a private company the right to establish telegraphic communication between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, with a grant of a right of way two hundred feet in width.

In May, the feelings of the people of Boston were greatly agitated at the rendition in that city of a fugitive-slave named Anthony Burns, who was conducted to the ship that was to carry him back into slavery, under the guard of a large police and military force to prevent his rescue. Public meetings were held by the indignant inhabitants, and many of them draped their houses and stores in mourning

A copy of a treaty with Japan arrived at Washington by the way of Honolulu, San Francisco, and Panama, on the 12th of July, and was promptly ratified by the Senate. A certified copy of the ratified instrument was at once despatched to Japan by special messenger. The treaty was secured by Commodore Perry, who had been instructed by the United States Government to proceed to Japan with a large. squadron which would command the respect of that empire, and he was invested with extraordinary powers, diplomatic as well as naval, to procure it. By its terms admission to Japan was allowed American citizens for purposes of trade, and depots of coal were permitted to be established there for our steamers crossing the Pacific. Commodore Perry took his departure from Norfolk, Va., on this expedition the 24th of November, 1852, in the United States steamer Mississippi, and was followed soon afterward by other ships, and their number was augmented by more vessels stationed in Asiatic waters which joined the squadron on its arrival there.

The cholera visited Chicago and caused the death of over nine hundred of the inhabitants, in the month of July. There were six hundred and fifty of the inhabitants of Brooklyn, N. Y., who died of that disease during the summer.

Much excitement prevailed in San Francisco upon the dis covery of forgeries of the city comptroller's warrants of more than one million of dollars which had been committed by Henry Meigs, who had absconded the country.

In February the water-works constructed by the city of Chicago were completed, and consisted of a timber crib built out into the lake six hundred feet from the shore, through which the water ran into a well, whence it was pumped up to the top of a cast-iron column one hundred and forty feet high, and thence conducted to reservoirs, capable of holding a night's supply, established in each of the three divisions of the city. Water was also supplied this year to the inhabitants of Jersey City, and of Nashua, N. H.

Sacramento was made the capital of California by an act of the State Legislature.

The first spelter made from Lehigh ores was produced this year at Bethlehem, Pa.

Guilia Grisi and Signor Mario commenced a season of operatic performances at Castle Garden, in New York, on the 4th of September. On the 2d of October, the New York Academy of Music on Fourteenth Street was first opened to the public, on which occasion Grisi and Mario appeared there in the opera of Norma.

The Great Western Railroad of Canada was completed and opened for travel on the 17th of January, affording communication between Detroit and Niagara Falls. In February the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad was completed from Chicago to the Mississippi, a distance of one hundred and eighy-two miles. The Illinois Central Railroad, extending from Cairo, at the mouth of the Ohio River, to Dunleith, in the extreme north