sensible improvement in this respect has occurred within the last
few years, to which we shall elsewhere advert.

It will be in their trade, their resources, their activity, and
their influence on the rest of the world, as well as in their
population, that the towns of Manhattan will be first entitled to
rank with the larger capitals of Europe. So obvious, rapid, and
natural has been the advance of all the places, that it is not
easy for the mind to regard anything belonging to them as
extraordinary, or out of rule. There is not a port in the whole
country that is less indebted to art and the fostering hand of
Government than this. It is true, certain forts, most of them of
very doubtful necessity, have been constructed for defence; but
no attack having ever been contemplated, or, if contemplated,
attempted, they have been dead letters in the history of its
progress. We are not aware that Government has ever expended one
cent in the waters of Manhattan, except for the surveys,
construction of the aforesaid military works, and the erection of
the lighthouses, that form a part of the general provision for
the safe navigation of the entire coast. Some money has been
expended for the improvement of the shallow waters of the Hudson;
but it has been as much, or more, for the advantage of the upper
towns, and the trade coastwise, generally, than for the special
benefit of New York.

The immense natural advantages of the bays and islands at the
mouth of the Hudson have, in a great degree, superseded the
necessity of such assistance. Nature has made every material
provision for a mart of the first importance: and perhaps it has
been fortunate that the towns have been left, like healthful and