and neutral in politics. All these journals enjoy a large daily circulation; and the weekly and semi-weekly circulation of the Atlas, Argus, and Journal, is very extensive. The Argus is the State paper, and is obliged to insert all advertisements required by law to be published in the State paper, gratuitously. Its income from this source was formerly from $8,000 to $9,000 per annum. The State printers are Reed, Parsons & Co., who have contracted to do the work for 16 cents per thousand ems. Large fortunes have been made in former years by the proprietors of the Argus and Journal, from the State printing-the prices then paid being three or four times greater than the rate now paid.

The printing house of Van Benthuysen & Co. is one of the most extensive and complete establishments in the country. It comprises a stereotyping foundry, a bindery, and all the departments requisite for the transaction of a large publishing business. The number of operatives is about 100; number of steam presses, seven; of hand presses, five. It was in this establishment that steam power was first introduced in the United States, as an auxiliary of the press, by the late Shadrach Van Benthuysen, in the year 1824.

MANUFACTURES. Albany has become, within a few years, one of the first manufacturing cities in the State. By the census of 1840, the amount of capital invested in manufactures in Albany, was estimated at $1,735,000. Since that time the amount has probably doubled. The principal branch of manufactures pursued here is that of iron, which is manufactured into stoves, steam-engines, and castings of every description. The foundries of Franklin, Townsend & Co., and Jagger, Treadwell & Perry, are actively employed in turning out castings of the heaviest description and the largest dimensions. The foundries of Vose & Co., Rathbun & Co., McCoy, Clark & Co., J. C. Potts, and several other establishments of smaller extent, are chiefly employed in the manufacture of stoves, which find a ready market throughout the Eastern, Middle, and Western States, and the Canadas. The amount of capital invested in the iron manufacture is estimated at $900,000. The number of stoves cast annually are 75,000. Number of operatives employed in iron foundries, 950.

The Albany Iron Company's works are situated at Troy, and are owned by Corning & Co. of the former city. The product of this establishment in rolled iron, nails, spikes, &c., is not far from $400,000 per annum. A large interest in the Troy Iron and Nail Works, was owned until recently, by citizens of Albany. Albanians are also large stockholders in the Cohoes Water Power Company, of which Stephen Van Rensselaer is President.

The Albany Argillo Works were established about two years ago, with a capital of $100,000, for the manufacture of glass and argillo ware. The manufacture of glass has been abandoned, but that of argillo is still continued. Argillo is the name given by the patentee to a new description of ware made of blue clay, but of the hardness, and more than the beauty of marble. It is fashioned into door knobs, table tops, floor tiles, and a variety of other forms, and promises to become a highly important branch of manufactures.

The business of malting and brewing is carried on to a great extent in Albany, and employs a large amount of capital. Six breweries and malt-houses of the largest dimensions were erected in this city the past year, and the whole number of such establishments is about twenty. The demand for malt liquors is daily increasing in the United States, and Albany ale and beer are found not only in every city in the Union, but likewise in the West

India islands, in South America, and in California. The annual product of the breweries of Albany is estimated at 80,000 barrels of beer and ale. Capital invested, $500,000. Bushels of barley purchased annually 500,000.

The inaufacture of hats, fur caps, and other articles made of the same material, is carried on very extensively in Albany. The value of hats and caps annually made is estimated at $1,000,000. One establishment, that of Prentice & Co., employs 700 hands. Whole number of hands employed in this branch of manufacture, over 1,000; principally females.

There are, in Albany, fifteen manufactories of soap and candles, four of tobacco, four plane factories, several steam saw and planing mills of large dimensions, an extensive manufactory of carriages and railway cars, owned by James Goold & Co., and five of smaller dimensions, chiefly occupied in the manufacture of light pleasure carriages and sleighs. In this branch of manufacture, Albany enjoys a deservedly high reputation, which is every day increasing in extent as well as in degree.

There are in this city two large manufactories of fire-brick and pottery, which have yielded, in a few years, handsome fortunes to their proprietors. Locomotive engines of the largest size are constructed in the machine shops of the Albany and Schenectady Railway Company. Their performance has proved highly creditable to their ingenious builder.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS. The capitol is finely situated at the head of Statestreet. In point of size or architecture, it is without pretensions, being a plain edifice of brown stone, with white marble portico in the Doric style. It was erected in the year 1807, at the cost of $173,000. The capitol contains chambers for the two branches of the Legislature, offices for the Executive and Adjutant General, and rooms for the State Library and the Court of Appeals.

The STATE LIBRARY, instituted in the year 1818, contains about 18,000 volumes, one-half of which relate to law jurisprudence and legislation, and comprise the proceedings of Congress, of the British Parliament, the French Chamber of Deputies and Chamber of Peers, and the proceedings of the Canadian Parliament; the remainder is of a miscellaneous character, well-selected and comprehensive, chiefly in English, and peculiarly rich in all that relates to America, though the recent purchase of the Harden collection of the books are alphabetically arranged, are generally handsomely bound, and are kept in admirable order. Among the more valuable works in the Library may be mentioned Audubon's Ornithology, the great work on Egypt, published by the French government, a magnificent work descriptive of Pompeii, published by the King of Prussia, and Catherwood's views of the Antique Monuments of Central America. The library increases steadily at the rate of about 1,500 volumes per annum. The increase last year, in consequence of the reception of the Vattemare collection, exceeded 1,800 volumes. The State Library of New York bids fair to become one of the largest and most useful libraries in the country.

The STATE HALL was completed in the year 1843, at a cost of $350,000. It is built of white marble, is fire-proof, and sufficiently large to accommodate all the State officers. It is a plain, massive edifice, but not remarkable for architectural beauty.

The CITY HALL is a handsome edifice of white marble, surmounted with a gilded dome, the only one in this country. It cost about $120,000, and accommodates the city and county courts and officers.

The ALBANY ACADEMY was erected in 1804, at a cost of $100,000. It is

built of brown free-stone, and is deservedly admired as one of the most elegant and tasteful structures in the Union. It is in the Italian style of architecture, and contains lecture and recitation rooms for 400 pupils, and two dwellings for the Principal and the Professor of Ancient Languages. Dr. Theodoric Romeyn Beck has recently resigned the post of Principal of the Albany Academy; an office which he filled with consummate ability and success for more than thirty years.

The ALBANY FEMALE ACADEMY has been established about twenty years. It occupies a large and elegant building in Pearl-street, valued, with the site, at $50,000. Number of pupils about 300.

The ALBANY EXCHANGE was erected in 1838, at an expense of $350,000, land included. It is a large and elegant edifice, of Hallowell granite, and contains the Post Office, Young Men's Association Lecture-room, Readingroom, and Library, a number of offices and shops, and a large Rotunda, in which the Board of Trade hold daily meetings.

The PENITENTIARY is a large building in the Norman Gothic style of architecture, recently erected at the expense of the county. There are few more capacious prisons erected by the State governments, than this Penitentiary of the county of Albany. Cost of erection, from $80,000 to $100,000.

The church edifices of Albany are numerous and of ample dimensions, although few of them are characterized by architectural beauty. The interior of the Dutch Reformed Church in Beaver-street, forms an exception to this rule, being one of the most elegant interiors in the Union. It is in the Corinthian style of architecture. The exterior of St. Peter's Church is also in fine architectural taste, as well as the Roman Catholic Church in Ferry-street. The congregation of the Rev. Dr. Campbell are now erecting a fine Gothic edifice, which will be a prominent ornament of the city. A Roman Catholic Cathedral has recently been commenced on Lydius-street, about 100 feet above the river, which will be, when completed, the largest church in the State. Its dimensions are 180 feet by 115, with two towers, each 280 feet in height. The architecture, Gothic; the material, brown free-stone. Estimated cost, $600,000.

The hotels of Albany are numerous and capacious. The Delaware House is a large and elegant structure, five stories high, in the Italian style of architecture, and similar in its exterior appearance to the old palaces of Florence. Stanwix Hall will accommodate several hundred persons in comfortable style. Congress Hall, near the capitol, is one of the most elegant and recherche hotels in America. The City Hotel, the Mansion House, and the American, are all hotels of the first class. The number of travelers passing through Albany annually is estimated at 1,500,000. It is, therefore, one of the greatest thoroughfares in the world, and requires a greater extent of hotel accommodation than many cities of twice its population. A new hotel, as large as the Astor House, is projected, and will probably be commenced in the spring, on the vacant space recently occupied by the Eagle Tavern, and other adjacent buildings destroyed by the great fire in August last.

The STATE NORMAL SCHOOL will soon be handsomely accommodated in a new edifice, now in course of erection by the State, on the corner of Lodge and Howard streets, immediately in the rear of the old State Hall. This school enjoys a high reputation among similar institutions in the United States, and has already been productive of beneficial improvements in the method of teaching and managing the common schools of New York. It

therefore deserves, and doubtless will continue to roceive, the fostering patronage of the State.

THE GREAT FIRE OF 1848. On the 18th of August of the present year, a fire broke out in a stable on Herkimer-street, near the river, and extended rapidly over a space of several acres, consuming 436 buildings, and a vast amount of merchandise, furniture, and other property. A large proportion of the buildings destroyed were of brick, and many of them were among the most substantial warehouses of the city. The fire burned about six hours, and was finally arrested by the blowing up of a building on Broadway, near Hudson-street, and by a providential change of wind and fall of rain. The estimated loss by this fire was about $1,300,000, of which less than onehalf was covered by insurance. The burnt district is beginning to assume already a new aspect; about 200 fire-proof buildings being now in course of erection there, which will be, when completed, an ornament to the city, and an effectual protection from similar conflagrations in that quarter for the future. By a recent law of the Common Council, no buildings, unless covered with fire-proof materials, can be erected east of Park-street; that is, within one mile of the river.

COMMERCE. By the last census, there were, in Albany, 53 commission houses, 35 importing houses, 137 wholesale houses, 440 retail dry goods, and 612 grocery and provision stores. There are six banks in Albany, with an aggregate capital of $2,046,000; three insurance companies, with a capital of $600,000.

POPULATION. The population of Albany increased very rapidly after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In 1790, its population was only 3,506. In 1800, it was 5,349. In 1810, 10,762. The following table shows the population of Albany at different periods since the year 1755:

In 1850, the population of Albany will probably reach 50,000 souls, or ten times its population at the commencement of the present century. None of the old cities in this State, or New England, have increased in an equal ratio, except Brooklyn, which is, in every respect, a suburb of New York, and not, therefore, properly to be compared with any other city.

It will be seen, from the above table, that the increase of the population of Albany has been uniform, with the exception of the ten years from 1810 to 1820. This period included the last war with Great Britain, and the years of commercial depression which immediately succeeded it. Erie Canal was opened in 1825. From that year the population began again to increase with great rapidity, and nearly doubled in the ten years between 1820 and 1830. The Western Railway of Massachusetts, connecting Albany with Boston and the interior of New England, was opened in 1842. This great work, also, has exerted a very perceptible influence upon the population of Albany. The increase of inhabitants in five years, from 1840 to 1845, was nearly 8,000.

THE STATE CANALS. The completion of the Erie and Northern Canals, in the year 1825, marks the commencement of a new era in the commercial annals of Albany. From 1810 to 1820, its population increased from 10,762 to 12,541 souls, or less than 1,800. From 1820 to 1830, it increased from 12,541, to 24,216 souls; nearly 12,000, or 100 per cent in

ten years. Its trade increased in an equal ratio. The transportation business on the river and canals became at once an important feature in its commerce, and, in course of time, conferred wealth upon hundreds, and a competence upon thousands, who began life as wagoners on the Great Western Turnpike, as drivers on the canal, or as cabin boys on the North River sloops. The construction of the State Basin, which was completed at the same time with the Erie and Champlain canals, added incalculably to the commercial facilities of Albany, by enlarging the area of its docks, and affording a safe and commodious harbor for every description of river and canal craft.

In 1834, the value of all the property delivered by the canals at tidewater was $13,405,022. In 1847, (an extraordinary year, in consequence of the great foreign demand for breadstuffs,) the value of all the property delivered at tide-water was $72,365,986. The following facts, in relation to the immense transportation business transacted in 1847, on the canals of New York, through the port of Albany, are derived from official sources:— Amount of flour received at Albany, 2,376,675 barrels; of wheat, 1,296,625 bushels; of corn, 2,995,563 bushels. Tonnage of property delivered at tide-water, (Albany and West Troy,) 1,708,933 tons; being an increase of 346,614 tons over 1846. The up tonnage for 1847 is estimated at 287,000 tons. Aggregate, 1,995,933 tons.

The value of property delivered at tide-water in 1847, is $72,365,986; an increase of $20,860,730 over 1846. Estimated value of property cleared from tide-water on the canals, in 1847, $93,000,000. This would give an aggregate of $165,365,986; an amount greater by $18,820,347, than the value of the entire imports into the United States for the year ending July, 1847; and greater, by $6,717,364, than the value of the entire exports. PORT OF ALBANY. The number of vessels arriving at, and departing from the port of Albany, during the year 1847, was as follows:

The tonnage of this port has increased very rapidly during the last ten years, as will be evident from the following table, copied from the customhouse books:

Increase in ten years more than 100 per cent.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that from 1838 to 1847, there was a steady yearly increase of business on the river, and that during 1847 the ratio was much greater than any previous year. This, it will be remembered, was a season of unusual prosperity; there was a great demand for breadstuffs from abroad, and everything in the shape of a water craft, that would float, was brought into active service. If this year is thrown out, our table will show a steady, healthy increase of river business from 1838 to