NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON:
THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY.

1878.

"Glaught

lanet

Copyright, 1878, by
THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY.

Manufactured by

S. W. GREEN, 16 & 18 JACOB STREET,

NEW YORK.

UNIVERSITY

PREFAOE.

This volume aims to supply a want long felt for a compact and comprehensive reference book, giving the statistics of all nations, and especially of the United States, at the latest date and at a mod. crate price.

Other annual publications of great value occupy special fields. The Statesman's Year-Book deals with the political statistics of govern. ments, excluding miscellaneous information; the Almanach de Gotha is a cyclopædia of knowledge regarding the reigning dynasties of the globe ; the British Almanac and Whitaker's Almanac are replete with facts respecting Great Britain, paying little attention to other courtries. The Tribune, World, and Herald Almanacs have their full tables of elections in detail, touching but lightly upon other than political topics. McPherson's Hand-Books of Politics form an invaluable official record of political votes and movements. Major Poore's admirable Congressional Directory supplies the freshest official lists of Congress and the departments of the government. The Statistician, a comparatively recent candidate for public favor, issued at San Francisco, furnishes a wide range of carefully digested information.

To all these this volume is under obligation, and to official docilments and other publications too numerous to name. The Department and Bureau documents of the United States are rich in statistics of the greatest value, but so widely scattered in voluminous records and reports having little permanent interest, and so imperfectly io. dexed, as to baffle even the inquirer who has them always within reach. To glean the most important and practically useful facts out of the multitudinous reports concerning the Public Lands, the Finances, the Post-office system, the Tariff and Internal Revenue, the Currency, the Patent Office and Pension Bureau, Commerce and Navigation, the Army and Navy, the Reports of the Commissioner of Education, and the statistics of the Census, has been one object of the editor. To select, arrange, and condense the multitude of statistics derived from foreign as well as American sources, presenting them in compact tabular form, so that results may be quickly seized without laborious search, has been the chief aim. The editor's profession has taught

him the supreme value of moments; and if this book should prove a time-saving and useful manual to his countrymen, his highest ambi. tion will be gratified. The work is the fruit of many evening hours, lahorious, but welcomed as a relief from severer cares.

In a volume embracing nearly half a million of figures to be verified, errors are unavoidable, but it is hoped that they have been reduced to a minimum. Defects of arrangement will be observed, due mainly to the exigencies of fitting large matter into small space, and the continuity of related subjects is thus broken, though all will be readily found by the index.

The commanding importance of questions of economic science has led to the devotion of much space to financial topics, including coinage, currency, revenue, expenditure, public debts, taxation, etc., which it is thought will prove of more value and interest than nearly obsolete questions of party politics, or tedious lists of minor officials. The editor has no ambition to be ranked among statisticians, and distinctly disclaims responsibility in the tabular information presented for any thing beyond the accuracy of his compilations from other sources. In most cases the authorities are given, and the reader is left to his own judgment. For matters outside of the tables, the editor is wholly responsible. He here expresses his thanks to the officers of the National and State governments who have supplied him with information, and to the members of his family who have cheered and aided him in his labors.

105 C STREET, SOUTH-EAST, WASHINGTON, December 25, 1877.

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