TABLE

Showing the New-York Majorities at the Presidential Election

of 1856.

Up to June, 1857, a total of $61,814,620 in money, and large donations of land, had been paid to Revolutionary soldiers or their widows. During the past year 41,483 warrants for bounty land have been issued, requiring to satisfy them 5,852,160 acres of public land. The number of warrants issued under all the Bounty Land Acts of Congress from the Revolutionary War to the present time is 547,250--requiring 60,704,942 acres of land.

181 Richmond...

814

182 Rockland

858

101 Schoharie..

461

1098

150

THE MINT.

It is lawful for any person to bring to the Mint gold and silver bullion to be coined; and the bullion so brought is there assayed and coined as expeditiously as possible, and if of the United States standard, free of expense to the person or persons by whom it has been brought. But the Treasurer of the Mint is not obliged to receive, for the purpose of refining and coining, any deposit of less value thar one hundred dollars, nor any bullion so base as to be unsuitable for minting. And there must be retained from every deposit of bullion below the standard such sum as shall be equivalent to the expense incurred in refining, toughening, and alloying the same; an accurate account of which expense on every deposit, is kept, and of the sums retained on account of the same, which are accounted for by the Treasurer of the Mint with the Treasurer of the United States.

The annual report of the Director of the Mint gives the following statement of the deposits and coinage at the various mints, for the year ending June 30, 1855:

From June 30, 1855, to June 30, 1856, there were coined 1,582,146 double eagles, 107,490 eagles, 865,671 half eagles, 57,100 three dollar pieces, 877,834 quarter eagles, 792,110 gold dollars. The value of the gold coined in fine bars was $21,956,327.16; in unparted bars, $3.746,136.52. The total gold coinage in value for this period was $62,155,413.68; the total silver coinage, $5,355,061.04; the total copper coinage, $17,455.84. The whole number of pieces coined in this period was 26,088,781. Their value was $67,527,980.56. The deposit of gold at the Mint and Branches during this period was $60,085,906.90, of which $59,608,609.50 was from California.

POST-OFFICE STATISTICS.

From the Postmaster-General's Report.

The total number of Post-Offices in the United States at this time, (Nov., 1857,) is 27,148, of which 368 are of the class denominated Presidential, the incumbents being subject to appointment by the President and Senate. On the 30th of June last, 7888 mail routes were in operation, with an aggregate length of 242,601 miles, of which 22,580 miles were by railroad, 15,245 by steamboats, and 49,329 by coach. The total annual transportation of mails was 74,906,067 miles, costing $6,622,046. The cost of transportation was relatively as follows: By railroad, ten cents and five mills per

mile; by steamboat twenty-two cents a mile; by coach, seven cents and four mills a mile. The length of railroad routes has been increased 2207 miles and the length of steamboat routes is increased by 294 miles. The number of mail contractors is 6576. During the year the length of coach routes has been reduced 1124 miles, and the annual transportation 24,061 miles. The cost of the Utah routes was increased $17,500, by the allowance of additional pay, without increased service, on the route between Salt Lake and San Pedro.

The receipts of the Department for the year were $7,853,951, and the expenditures, $11,508,057. Allowing for certain special provisions on the account of revenue and expenditure, the deficit is stated at $3,453,718.40. The increase of expenses this year is five per cent in the amount of annual transportation, and 9 7-10 per cent in cost.

The estimates for 1858 are as follows: Expenditures, $12,053,247; Revenue, $10,584,074; leaving the sum of $1,469,173 to be appropriated by Congress to defray the expenditures of the coming year.

U.S. TREASURY STATISTICS FOR 1857.

The Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, (November, 1857,) gives the following figures:

Government expenditure during the fiscal

year ending June, 1857..

.$70,822,722

Divided into these items:

The budget of expenditures for the current fiscal year, to end June, 1858, is made $74,968,058.

The balance in the treasury, July

1st, was...

Revenue to 30th Sept

Estimated to 30th of June.

$17,710,114

20,929,819

36,770,000

-$75,369,938

The revenue, consequently, will exceed the expenditure, provided the estimates are near the mark.

The public debt was reduced, on the 1st of July, to $29,060,396. The treasury department has since purchased $3,895,232, leaving only $25,165,154 of public debt.

RAILROAD CAPITAL AND DEBT.

Annual income $48,406,488, and interest on debt $25,098,208.

THE disastrous panic of 1857 was attended with one good result. It threw a vast amount of desirable labor into this great civic undertaking, and it is more than probable that we shall during the present summer reap some of the good effects of this accidental activity. A portion of the park-probably the Parade ground and the "Circuit"will, as it is understood, be ready for the use of citizens during the present year, and in rapid succession other features of this great recreation ground will be opened to public use. It will, however, be four or five years before it presents, in miniature, the appearance designed by Lieutenant Viele, the Chief Engineer. Our children will see it in a state of perfection, which we can not hope to realize in our days. But considering the magnitude and novelty of the undertaking we have no reason to complain of delay. A brief history of the Central Park, with an account of what is to be done up to the present time, will, it is believed, be interesting, We are indebted to the First Annual Report of the Chief Engineer for our facts.

The importance of open places for public recreation has attracted a large share of attention during the past few years. A noticeable deficiency in a provision of this kind was felt to exist in New-York-the great metropolis of the Western World. The public mind became ripe for a proposition, and, accordingly, on the 5th of April, 1851, Hon. Ambrose C. Kingsland, then Mayor of the city, transmitted to the Board of Aldermen a special message setting forth the limited extent of the places devoted to the public; their inadequacy to the wants of any class of the people, and the necessity, both in a moral and sanitary point of view, of securing a more extended area for the purpose of public recreation.

This message was referred to the Committee on Lands and Places, who concurred, and suggested "Jones' Wood" as suitable for the required purposes. Having been approved by the Common Council, an application was made to the Legislature, and on the 11th of July, 1851, the "Jones' Woods Park Bill" was passed by that body.

During the passage of this act, there was a good deal of wholesome discussion concerning the merits of the proposed site, and owing to doubts awakened by the same, the Board of Aldermen on the 5th of August, 1851, passed a resolution appointing a special committee to examine and report whether there was not within the limits of the city a piece of ground more suitable for the purpose of a public park than that designated in the act. In due time this Committee reported in favor of the piece of ground lying between the Fifth and Eighth Avenues, and extending from Fifty-ninth to One Hundred and Sixth streets. This location was found to have many advantages, and, accordingly, the Legislature passed, on the 23d of July, 1853, an act for taking the ground now known as the Central Park. The act relating to "Jones' Wood" was, after some difficulty, repealed.

On the 17th of November, 1853, five Commissioners of Estimate and Assessment were appointed, and in July, 1855, they issued their report, which was confirmed the 5th of February, 1856. On the same day, the Comptroller communicated to the Common Council the draft of an ordinance for the payment of damages awarded by the Commissioners. It may be mentioned that the operations of the latter were greatly retarded by the many conflicting interests they had to reconcile, and the purely interested opposition they had to contend with. Hard battles were fought on every desirable spot of the Central Park.

On the 19th of May, 1856, the Common Council adopted an ordionance, creating the Mayor and Street Commissioner Commissioners of Central Park, with power to employ the necessary persons to execute the repeatedly expressed wishes of the people, and appropriating certain funds to carry out the provisions of the ordinance.

The Board entered at once on the discharge of its duties, and invit»1. tions were sent to a number of well-known citizens, whose taste and experience were solicited to form a consulting board. These gentlemen met on the 29th of May, 1856, and elected Washington Irving as President. Various plans were laid beford the Board, all more or les adapted to the topographical peculiarities of the ground, and, finally, that presented by Lieutenant Viele was selected as the best and most A picturesque.

We will now condense from the Engineer's report, a topographical and general description of the grounds appropriated for the Central Park. On the eastern slope of an elevation running along the western side of the Island, lie the grounds of the Park. They extend from Fifty-ninth street on the south, to One Hundred and Sixth street on the north, and from Fifth to Eighth avenues. The lower extremity is about five miles from the Battery, and the upper extremity the same distance from the northern end of the Island. From the western side to the Island is three quarters of a mile, and from the eastern side to the East River nearly a mile. It is two miles and a half long, and half a mile wide, or as long as from the Battery to Union Square, and as wide as from the Bowling Green to the City Hall. It is seven times larger than the united area of all the other squares and public places in the city.

There is naturally a gradual slope from west to east, and five latera! depressions and corresponding ridges, dividing the Park transversely. These ridges are not continuous, but are very much broken, forming a series of hills and valleys, intersected by streams, which, under the hands of the engineers, will throw off their muddiness, and become aitractive. All the intended improvements are based on the natural con figuration of the surface. "The hills, the valleys, and the streams, are nature's pencilings on the surface of the earth, rivaling in their pictured grace the most beautiful conceptions of the finite mind; to alter them would be desecration; to erase them, folly!" The arrangement of trees, shrubs, and vines, will be a harmonious blending of all that is beautiful in light and shade, in color, size, and shape. To know the character and habit of trees, the various tints of their foliage in the changing seasons, to adapt all these to the character of the ground,