of the
present year is 13,079. The whole amount expended for pensions during
the year is estimated at $1,400,000. The number of land warrants issued
for Revolutionary service is 12,588; and for the war of 1812, 28,978.
The number of claims presented for service in the Mexican war is 81,373,
and for scrip in lieu of land, 3332, making a total of 84,705. The
number of claimants under the general Bounty Land Law of the last
session of Congress is estimated at 250,000. The sales of Public Lands
during the first three quarters of 1850 have amounted to 869,082 acres;
the amount sold in 1849 was 1,329,902. The amount located by Mexican
bounty land warrants during three quarters of the present year was
1,520,120, against 3,405,520, during the whole of last year. The
aggregate amount disposed of in three quarters of 1850 was 2,815,366--in
1849 it was 5,184,410. The revenue derived from the sale of public lands
has averaged about a million and a quarter of dollars per annum, for the
last fifty years, above all expenses. The extension of our Land System
over our possessions on the Pacific is strongly urged; and a commission
is suggested to adjudicate on all questions of disputed titles to land
in California. Mr. STUART recommends the sale of the mineral lands, in
fee simple to the highest bidder at public auction--in lots small enough
to afford persons in moderate circumstances the opportunity of being
bidders. The annexation of Texas and our treaty with Mexico, have added
about 124,000 Indians to our population; many of them are fierce in
their disposition and predatory in their habits. Further legislation for
the protection of our people from them has become necessary. The
Secretary urges the necessity of a highway to the Pacific; whether a
railway, a plank road, or a turnpike would be most expedient, he says,
can only be determined after a careful survey of the country and its
resources shall have been made. He suggests the propriety of authorizing
an immediate survey. The establishment of an Agricultural Bureau is
urged, and statements are made of the steps taken in securing the census
returns.

Several of the State Legislatures are now in session, or have been
during the past month. In several of them action has been taken upon the
general question of Slavery. In VERMONT a bill was passed for the
protection of persons who may be claimed within that state as fugitive
slaves. This bill provides (1.) That it shall be the duty of