no interest being allowed on the proceeds of those lands,) is reduced to $62,121,717.12. This shows an average cost, of the whole body of land, of 14.41 cents per acre. It is further shown that the average cost of surveying, including the salaries of Surveyors-General, their clerks, and the expenses attending the surveys, amounts to 2.07 cents per acre. And it is also shown, that the average cost of selling and managing the public domain amounts to 5.32 cents per acre. The summary we quote entire: Average cost of purchase and extinguishing Indian titlę, Per Acre. 14.41 cents. ...$136,772,077 32 Aggregate amount received from the sale of public lands to Janu- 3,176,059 44 133,596,017 88 Deduct, also, cost of purchasing the public domain, $61,121,717 12 6,369,838 07 7,466,324 19 74,957,879 38 58,638,138 50 Add amount of purchase money received in 1849, fourth quarter partly estimated,.. 1,743,075 29 Aggregate actual net receipt from public lands over and above every cost, 60,381,213 79 If to this be added the value, at $1.25 per acre, of the lands granted for military services in the revolutionary, late, and Mexican wars, (fourth quarter 1849 estimated,) it would be 11,814,425.83 acres, at $1.25 per acre, It would make the aggregate receipts, And if to this be added the value, at $1.25 per acre, of the lands donated for schools, universities, asylums, and internal improvements, individuals and companies, seats of government and salines, 21,827,433 69 acres, at $1,25, Making the aggregate, 14,768,032 29 75,149,246 08 27,284,292 11 .$102,433,538 19 And it is further shown that, at the same estimate of expenses, etc., the government, as the custodian of the public lands, will have, eventually, received from their sale, over and above the total expenditure, the very considerable sum of $439,570,570.46. This, it will be remembered, does not embrace the new territories of Oregon, Washington, Utah, or New-Mexico. We have seen it stated, and urged with much vigor, that Mr. Wilson's figures are greatly exaggerated; that he proceeds upon the supposition that all of the public lands are equally good and alike desirable, while, in fact, one considerable portion must be set down as barren desert, another as covered with mountain ridges, and a third as low swamp. Who doubts this?. Is any one so unreasonable as to believe that between the Mississippi and the Pacific there is nothing but fine farming land? The geography of the country is proof positive to the contrary; we know that there are both mountains and deserts, and the fact that some thirty or forty millions of acres have been already granted to the States as "swamp and overflowed lands," is proof that there is some little of that kind. There are sandy deserts, impenetrable wastes, and rocky ridges; there are localities, not only inhospitable but inaccessible, where the beasts of the field may make their lair in perfect security even from the step of the adventurous hunter; where the foot of man has never trodden the soil, and where centuries will make no change. If this be so with some of the country, it is not so with the larger part; and there is no question but that a great portion of that which, in the eyes of the present generation, is valueless, will, in the course of years, be ranked among the most valuable. The spread of settlements, opening new fields to the hardy sons of toil, the increased means of intercommunication between distant points, and the rapid development of the mineral and agricultural resources of the West will advance this result more speedily, perhaps, than we would be willing to assert, or our readers to believe. Certainly, judging of the future by the past, there is every reason to believe that a few years will make a great change in the character of the Western country, especially that portion lying between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, embraced in the territories of Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska. The great natural re sources of the former will make it the chosen home of adventurous spirits from all sections of the country, and the interest awakened in the minds of the people by the excitement attendant upon the organization of the two latter has given them great importance, and already induced an immense tide of emigration thither. This tide will still flow on, and we will ha zard the assertion that Kansas and Nebraska will, ere long, rival in prosperity the most flourishing of our Western territories. That the benefits resulting from the sales, etc., of the public lands have not been confined to the new States, or those in which they are situated, is apparent from the foregoing; when such considerable revenues are known to have accrued to the federal treasury from this source, it must be conceded that all of the States have been participants in the advantages. The assertion to the contrary is no new thing; it has been reiterated time and again, and generally by those whose limited knowledge has induced the unfounded assertion, or whose overweening prejudices have prevented their ascertaining the true state of facts. The Commissioner, in his report for 1854, treats the subject in an able manner, and we will briefly review the arguments made use of by him to sustain his point. We quote from page 15 of the Report: "The bounty lands for services in the Revolutionary war, and that of 1812, flowed mostly to citizens of the old States, and say one half of those for services in the Mexican war. "The amount actually paid to the old States, under the act of 4th September, 1841, and of the surplus revenue is, of course, charged to those States. "As the proceeds of the public lands went into the treasury, and were applied to aid in defraying the expenses of the government, the necessity was thus obviated of increasing the tariff to that amount. The tariff, it is admitted, bears more equally on the entire population of a country than any other tax. The old States originally, and until within a few years, were vastly more populous than the new, and this relief, therefore, applied in the same proportion. Suppose, then, that for the entire period of the operation of the land system, the average proportion of the population of the old States to that of the new was as three to one; on this basis the people of the old States would have been benefited by three fourths of the proceeds of the public lands, and those of the new States by one fourth of those proceeds. "To state the account, then, on this hypothesis, the old States are chargeable with the amount of lands given as bounties in the Revolutionary war, and that of 1812, including that under the acts of 1850 and 1852 One half of the act of 1847, say 6,477,880 acres, equal to $24,011,620 00 8,097,350 00 409,912 42 113,676,758 67 $146,195,641 09 The benefit of which has flowed chiefly, if not entirely, to the people of the old States. This amount, it will be remembered, is exclusive of the sum of more than forty-eight and a quarter millions net receipts for imports at the ports of Florida and Louisiana, which went into the treasury, and by which the people of the old States were proportionably benefited. "One of the greatest benefits, however, to the old States, and that which can not be estimated by dollars and cents, was the opening given by the new to the ambitious and enterprising citizens of the former, and the facilities furnished them by government of obtaining valuable farms at mere nominal prices. They have also enjoyed immense benefits from the products of the West, the supply being vastly increased thereby, and the cost proportionably reduced." The report then proceeds to exhibit the benefits which may be said to have accrued exclusively to the people of the new States, showing a total of upwards of ninety millions in dollars and cents, leaving a balance in favor of the old States of $56,195,641.09. It must be here observed that, since the estimates from which we have quoted were prepared, a measure has been adopted which will secure still greater benefits and advantages to citizens of the old States. We refer to the bountyland law passed at the last session of Congress, and known as "The Old-Soldiers' Law." This act extends bounties to many who have been engaged in the various wars in which our country has been involved, and who were excluded from the several grants heretofore made; it also grants to those who have already received bounties of less than one hundred and sixty acres of land, such a quantity as will make up that amount. While upon this subject, we may as well endeavor to do away with the erroneous impressions which exist relative to the quantity of land necessary to satisfy this grant. This has been variously stated as being between twenty-five and two hundred millions of acres. The law, as originally proposed, would doubtless have required an immense amount of land, perhaps one half of the largest amount above named, but, by the amendments introduced before its final passage, the quantity requisite to its complete satisfaction was most materially reduced. The requirement of "record evidence of service" will be the means of limiting the benefits of the act only to those who were regularly enrolled in the service of the country. From the Washington Union we extract the following estimate of the amount of land which will be absorbed by the new law, namely: Short service, (less than one month and over fourteen days,) Naval service, Wagon-masters, etc., Revolutionary, All others, At 160 acres each, Total, Acres. 4,800,000 15,000,000 The warrants issued under this law will, no doubt, be located upon the most valuable lands, and not upon such as by the act of 4th August, 1854, have been reduced in price to twenty-five or fifty cents, or even one dollar per acre. Continuing the estimate at $1.25 per acre, and also estimating that one third of the benefits of this act will flow to citizens of the old States, we have a further advantage to them of nearly fifteen millions of dollars. But it is not alone by these direct means that the advantages to the old States must be shown; these, indeed, tell the exact amount of advantage in dollars and cents, but no figures can show the benefits which indirectly have flowed to the people of the old States; the enlarged field for agricultural and commercial enterprise; the profitable source for the investment of capital, not only in public works, but in the bringing to light of the great mineral resources of that vast section of country, embracing as it does, the iron of Missouri, the lead of Illinois, the copper of Lake Superior, and the gold of California, are all advantages to the old States which have accrued to them from the governmental supervision of the public lands. The poor have been provided with homes at a price within the reach of every man, and by this means the old States relieved of the surplus population which clogged the wheels of progress by promoting too great competition, and among the hardy pioneers of the West has grown up a race of sturdy republicans whose very existence lends strength and stability to our institutions; who are 'good citizens in time of peace, and bulwarks of defense against the horrors and devastations of war. We have also stated that the policy of liberal grants for works of public benefit, such as railroads and canals, if made under wholesome restrictions, would receive our cordial sup |