A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF BALTIMORE. 15

Prof. Morse, which commenced its operations in May, 1844, and affords in-
stant communication between Baltimore and Washington. This ingenious
application of the magnetic force to the immediate transmission of intelligence,
is destined to work astonishing changes in the intercourse and communications
between cities and countries. The population of the city is rapidly increas-
ing; trade is steadily improving ; manufactures are spreading on the adjacent 1
streams; and in the various branches of the mechanic arts, her workmen yield
to none in the land for faithfulness, taste, and skill. Of the education of her
children she is not unmindful; since she sustains twenty public schools, inclu-
ding one Male High School, and two Female High Schools, besides fostering
a large number of private institutions and two Colleges; and that her people
are alive to their religious interests, may be inferred from the fact that there
are in the city nearly one hundred churches, generally well supported, and
many of them new and of great architectural beauty. Of the healthfulness
of the city, some conclusions may be drawn from the statement that the deaths
during the past year were 2879. Among these were nine persons over one
hundred years old—one 104; one 105; one 114. and one 115.

Having thus sketched, though far more at length than we at first intended,
events connected with the settlement and progress of Baltimore up to the
present time, we proceed to remark, very briefly, upon the position and pros-
pects of the city.

It needs but a glance at the map of the United States, to see the great and
manifold advantages of her position. In the centre of the Union, on the great
line of intercourse between the North and South, eligibly situated on navi-
gable waters, easily accessible by sea, in the vicinity of an immense resource
of water power, within striking distance of regions of abundant fertility, and
already, by her greater proximity, a favored competitor with other cities for
the trade of the adjacent States, and of the great west, who can wonder that
her progress has been rapid in population and prosperity, and who can doubt
that she will yet rival the proudest cities of the continent, in all that consti-
tutes the true greatness of a commercial emporium ?

If, with the simple advantages of position, and in the face of difficulties of
intercourse with the country and of other impediments, Baltimore has flour-
ished, there can be no doubt that, when she is enabled fully to avail herself
of the additional advantages afforded by the improvements of the age in ease
and rapidity of intercourse and cheapness of transportation, her future will be
even more prosperous than her former career. These are rapidly coming
into action; and the time is not far distant when the branches of her Rail-
roads and Canals shall, like those of the tree mentioned by the psalmist, " go
to the rivers and the sea." These avenues of communication, branching off
in all directions,—to the East, to the North, to the West, and to the South,—
may be regarded as lines of radiation; by which the rays of an invigorating
trade shall here meet and combine, as in a common focus; not merely impart-
ing the glow of commercial prosperity to the centre, but also transmitting a
reciprocal advantage to every region within the reach of its extended influence.

With the Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad, the Tide Water Canal, the
Susquehanna Railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, with their branches,
and the many other modes of communication, by roads, rivers, and bay, our
city seems to stand ready, Briareus-like, to extend its hundred iron arms, and
to grasp all the elements of wealth and prosperity, held in untold abundance
in regions within its reach. That it can be done is evident, both from what
has been done and from a consideration of existing circumstances;—that it
must be done is certain; unless the people of Baltimore are willing to yield
the palm to other cities, less favorably situated, but more far-sighted and en-