THE AMERICAN ALMANAC AND REPOSITORY OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE, FOR THE YEAR 1853. BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, SON AND COMPANY. PARIS: HECTOR BOSSANGE. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by GEORGE P. SANGER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 7037 41-63 PREFACE. THE twenty-fourth volume of the American Almanac, being the fourth volume of the third series, is now offered to the public. Unwearied pains have been taken to collect full, authentic, and varied information concerning the complex affairs of the general and State governments; and a mass of official documents and private correspondence has been digested relating to the government, finances, legislation, public institutions, internal improvements, and resources of the United States, and of the several States. It is hoped that the present volume will be found equal to its predecessors in fulness and accuracy, and that it will sustain the high character of the American Almanac as a trustworthy manual for reference and a full repository of useful knowledge. The Astronomical Department has been prepared by Lieut. Charles Henry Davis, U. S. N., Superintendent of the American Nautical Almanac. We have received, through the favor of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey of the United States, authentic geographical positions and corrected establishments of the principal ports of the United States on the western coast, which have enabled us to introduce the principal points of California and Oregon into the calendar pages for this year. The article upon "The Recent Discoveries in Astronomy, relating to the Comets," with its full collections and citations of authorities, will be found to be, not only exceedingly interesting, but very valuable for reference. The Meteorological Information is, as usual, full and varied. In the Second Part of the volume will be found full lists of the Executive and Judiciary of the General Government, including the chief officers and clerks in the several Departments; of Collectors of Customs, of Postmasters in the principal cities, of Army and Navy Pension Agents, and of the Indian Superintendents and Agents under the new organization of that department of Congress; of the Army, and the various Military Posts, Military Divisions, &c.; of the Navy, the public vessels, and the Marine Corps ; of our Ministers and Consuls in Foreign Countries, and of Foreign Consuls in the United States. These have all been corrected from official sources to the latest dates possible for publication. Later changes are noted in the "Additions and Corrections," at the end of the volume. The titles, Commerce and Navigation, and Revenue and Expenditure, published each year in the Almanac, are full and complete abstracts of the public documents of the same name, and the tables connected therewith, and, with the Post-Office and Mint, show the receipts and expenditures of the government under their several heads, the public debt, the imports, exports, and tonnage, the operations of the Post-Office Department, and the coinage of the Mint for each year since the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The exports for the last four years are given in detail. The rates of postage are under the new laws, and these, with the inland and foreign mail service, are be |