The Seventh Census of the United States has been published. The total population amounts to 23,267,408, including 3,179,470 slaves. The whole number of Representatives to Congress based on this population is 233.
An attack of "gold excitement," on a small scale, has appeared in Maine. It is reported and generally believed that the precious metal has been found in the Northern part of the State, in the streams which flow into the west branch of the Penobscot and into Moose River. The country is a high plateau, near the Canadian boundary, where, also, the tributaries of the Chaudiere take their rise. On the latter streams, it is said, the Provincial Government of Canada has been quietly carrying on mining operations for two years past. Several companies of adventurers from the towns of Maine and New Hampshire have started for the Northern Eldorado.
Several of the Western States have been visited by violent and destructive tornadoes. In the city of St. Louis, upwards of one hundred buildings were injured. The regions about Louisville, Ky., and Pittsburg, also suffered severely. During the last week in May an immense amount of rain fell in the Northern part of Illinois; occasional great freshets in all the rivers. The flood was greater than had been known for many years; the mill-dams and mills were swept away, and a great amount of property damaged. Two viaducts on the Indiana Canal were entirely destroyed. The grain crops of the Middle and Western States promise an abundant harvest. The cotton crop in South Carolina, the northern part of Georgia and the Tennessee Valley, has been considerably injured by the coldness of the season.
A serious riot occurred at Hoboken, near New-York, on Monday, the 26th of May. It was the holiday of Pentecost, and the German residents of the city, to the number of near ten thousand, crossed the Hudson to celebrate the day according to their national customs. They were beset in the afternoon by a company of rowdies, between whom and a German society of gymnasts an altercation arose, resulting in a general fight, in the course of which the Germans were grossly injured by their antagonists. Two persons were killed, and forty or fifty badly wounded. The rowdies all escaped, and of fifty Germans who were arrested, only ten were found to have participated in the affray. The riot, after lasting till 9 o'clock at night, was finally quelled by calling out the military. The inhabitants of Hoboken have organized a company for the prevention of disorder in future.
During the month of May Jenny Lind gave fourteen concerts in New-York, without any diminution of her wonderful success, the last concert realizing upwards of $18,000. At the close, the termination of her contract with Mr. Barnum, at the hundredth concert, was announced. On giving her first concert at Philadelphia, however, a new agreement was made, by which the contract was at once broken off, Miss Lind having then sung ninety-three times, on condition of her forfeiting the sum of $25,000. The concerts in Philadelphia, given on her own account, were very successful.
Several large defalcations in public officers have lately come to light. The Postmaster of Macon, Ga., failed for the sum of $50,000, part of which was the Post-office funds. He escaped by flight. The late City Collector of Baltimore is charged with a deficiency of $30,000 in the accounts of the Custom House, but has surrendered his property in trust, and expresses his desire to have the subject investigated. A man named Brown was recently taken to Washington by the Marshal of Michigan, on a charge of forging Land Warrants. A company of Mormons, under the government of a man named Strang, on Beaver Island, in Huron River, have got into difficulty with the authorities and the American citizens. They recently attacked two men by the name of Bennett, who were known to be hostile to their claims: killed one, and dangerously wounded the other. Strang and some of his companions voluntarily delivered themselves into the hands of the authorities, and are awaiting their trial.
In the Lake Superior region business of all kinds has become very active. The steamboats on the Lake are crowded with passengers and freight, and the country about the mines is improving rapidly. Lands are being cleared, roads laid out, houses built, and the region rapidly assuming the appearance of a permanent settlement. Several new mines of unusual richness have been discovered, and all the old shafts deepened and extended, with the most successful results. The prospects of the mines on the Ontmagon are equally favorable. Hostilities have again broken out between the Sioux and Chippewa Indians. Several of the latter tribe were murdered by the former, who formed into war parties, and marched against their enemies.
The first Centennial Celebration of the Pennsylvania Hospital took place on the 3d of June, in Philadelphia.—The cholera still appears at intervals along the Western rivers. There were 13 deaths in New Orleans during the week ending May 31st.—In the case of Scott, indicted at Boston for the rescue of the fugitive slave Shadrach, the jury were unable to agree upon a verdict. Although agreeing as to the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law, they stood equally divided on the question of convicting the prisoner. A new trial has been ordered.
A personal combat took place in the streets of Lynchburg, Va., on the 5th of June, between Mr. Saunders, a member of the State Convention, and Mr. Terry, Editor of the Lynchburg "Virginian." Five shots were exchanged, and both parties so severely wounded that they died shortly afterwards.
The emigration across the plains has commenced, but will be much smaller than that of last year. It is calculated that 300 wagons will cross during the Summer, three-fourths of which will go to the Salt Lake and Oregon, and the remainder to California. Grass is abundant on the plains, but the snow is reported to be very deep in the mountains beyond Fort Laramie.