When the treasury notes of the federal government were at a discount in 1842, the whole customs revenues of the government for the year were but $18,000,000, and the treasury notes outstanding amounted to $10,093,426. It is pretty evident, notwithstanding that the notes were receivable for customs, that at a time when business was slack and money tight, there was not sufficient demand for the notes to pay government dues to sustain them at par, and the stagnation of internal business diminished the demand for the notes in the operations of exchange. As the matter now stands, the Secretary proposes to raise the revenue from customs to $30,034,057 per annum, by reducing the rates; if, therefore, he should issue in treasury notes the whole amount of his estimated, deficit say, in round numbers, 20 millions, the amount outstanding would be no more disproportionate to the revenues of the country than they were in 1842; and if during the year the war expenditure should cease, the same cause would probably, by stimulating trade, still farther enhance the customs and absorb the notes, thereby extinguishing the debt by its own operation, speedily and with little cost. If, on the other hand, the debt should be contracted, to avoid a temporary inconvenience, on a term of years, the double inconvenience of a surplus on hand and an extensive out

The quantity of sugar raised in this country amounts to 200,000,000 pounds, and the price is advanced $5,000,000 by the duty: hence, laying a duty of 20 per cent. upon all these articles will diminish the actual tax to the consumers $3,000,000; or, differently stated, in average families 7 lbs. of sugar is used, with 2 lbs. coffee and lb. tea per week; the tax on the sugar is now 17 cents: if the tax upon all three articles were 20 per cent., it would amount on the whole to 14 cents, or the consumers would pay 34 cents per week less than they now pay.

Thus far, although the money and produce markets have been greatly

standing debt would be encountered for a long season. The quantity of treasury notes that may be kept afloat will be greatly enhanced by the operation of the Independent Treasury, which will restrain, to a great degree, the swindling banking system that now frequently fills the channels of exchange with a baseless and spurious paper, alike injurious to the operators and the public.

Among the changes proposed in the tariff by the Secretary, is the imposition of taxes on tea and coffee, heretofore free. Those duties are alluded to as "war measures." It is certainly desirable that, if sufficient revenue can be derived from low duties on all other articles, that tea and coffee should be exempt; but we are far from subscribing to the soundness of that policy which taxes sugar 100 per cent., and allows tea and coffee, its accompanyments, to go free, on pretence that a tax is removed from the necessaries of the poorer classes. The absurdity of the plea becomes evident if we turn to the treasury reports, and observe the quantities of each consumed and the amount of duties paid by each. Tea and coffee are imported altogether-none is produced in this country. Of sugar about twice as much is produced as is imported, and the price of the whole mass is raised to the extent of the duty.The following quantities of the three articles were imported in 1845:

disturbed, and serious calamities have overtaken the large class of dealers in agricultural produce, the war and its consequent expenditures have as yet had but little agency in producing the difficulties. In fact, it may be a question whether the expenditure by the government of the surplus on hand, and its consequent withdrawal from government banks and dispersion in the general markets, will not have a better effect than to allow the money to continue the instrument of alternate oppression and undue speculation, which it has been during the last two years. The first effect of the hostilities at New-Orleans, was to shake credit and paralyse bill

The purchases of the banks are mostly 60 days bills, and at one time their northern credits reached $4,000,000 in addition to the government credits drawing money from the deposit banks for expenditure at the south. The banks bought thus largely at the low rates and checked at par, realizing large profits from the difficulties they helped to create. When the institutions again became sellers, the market was eased considerably there. The chief difficulty which has disturbed in the markets has grown out of the great fall in produce, consequent upon the disappointment in relation to the large crops in England, and the enormous supplies which the high speculative prices of last fall sent forward to market. The progress of popular opinion in England in relation to the removal of duties upon corn has been slow but effective; and last fall the failure of the crop of potatoes in Ireland

May 16. 6 a7 3 a 4 a 24

May 20. 6 a7

dis.

3

a 4

May 27. 64 a 74 3 a 31 dis.

Jnne 16.

71 a 77

14 a 21

2

a 2

34 a 2

gave an impetus to the movement and agitators produced a strong belief in the deficiency of the English crops of grain. Excitement ran high, being fostered by political agitators until it reached nearly a panic, and drove the first Minister of the Crown into proposing the removal of duties. The fears in relation to the crop seem to have most seriously prevailed from August to November, during and immediately succeeding the harvest. Prices under this influence appear to have reached their highest point in the first week in November. As an indication of the state of affairs, we compile from official returns the following statement of the price of grain on the 5th of each month, the quantity imported and duty paid, the rate of duty as governed by the six weeks average, and the quantity of wheat and of wheat flour remaining in bond on the 5th of each month.

PAID

1845 May.

1845 June.

1845 July..

..18,092....20....363,372..

.364,278.

..13,038....26....311,025......243,551

271,228

....

265,622

.262,691

265,967

...14,859....20....331,133.

6,478....20....298,327.

257,372

238,825

233,015

.226,605

224,632

5,376....17.... .445,082. .222,292

47 7...... ...47 11.

240,048

generally, and the reclamations on millers, banks and forwarders have been large, involving failures in almost every stage of the transaction. For the general business of the country it is perhaps fortunate that the producers of the crops, who are in general the consumers of goods, obtained fair prices for their produce, and so far the basis of general trade is sound. In looking forward, however, to the fall trade, we observe in all directions a great accumulation of stocks without any very good prospects of such a demand as shall advance prices. It is the case, indeed, that when wheat and wheat-flour falls so low more of it is consumed. The eastern manufacturers use more wheat and less rye and Indian, and it enters more into general consumption abroad.

There is no doubt but that the foreign demand will be fair to good; but the export must be large to relieve the markets and allow the new crops to open at remunerative prices to the farmers; at the present rates for general produce no considerable profits can be realized by the farming interest, and a decline in their profits is certain to be followed by a languid fall and winter trade. The

orders for foreign goods are understood to be very limited; and the state of exchanges at this season of the year, when they usually rise and become firm, is an indication that such is the fact. The rate of sterling for the packet of the 1st of July last year was 93 a 10, and this year dull, 7 a 84. The scarcity of money may, to some extent, have affected prices this year, but as a general thing the demand has been less than the supply, more so than is usually the case at this season. The state of the markets abroad are such as might promise improvement but for the distrust which hangs over the railway movement.The desire for railway speculations appears to be still good; in fact, all those who possessed shares when the bubble burst are naturally anxious to become relieved of the burden; as they are a numerous and influential class, the probabilities are they may succeed in again producing a speculation. The number of newly-authorized roads is such as to require an incredible outlay of money, perhaps $300,000,000; a sum too large to transfer from one employment to another in a short space of time without producing great embarrassment.

Memoirs of the Administration of Washington and John Adams. Edited from the papers of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury. By GEORGE GIBBS. 2 vols. New-York.

THE two volumes before us form a very valuable contribution to the history of the times, when the conflicting elements of resistance having successfully severed this mighty continent from the domination of Europe, were just crystalizing as it were into the pure imstitutions that have now become consolidated by time. At a time when everything was unadjusted, when theories were to be reduced to practice, when among the multitudinous forms of government of which the world had previously exhibited the working, the monarchy of England had up to that time best stood the test of practice; when the best

and wisest men were anxious only to construct a government to hand down to posterity free from the objections that had manifested themselves in others, there was naturally a great indisposition in many quarters to embark in one altogether new. There were also a great number who, from honest conviction, distrusted the ability of the people to absolutely govern themselves; men who supposed that society should be divided into classes, with special privileges to the higher ranks, in order to ensure its well-being and the preservation of that order without which the commonwealth could not prosper, and that a strong federal government with its powerful patronage and splendid machinery could alone effect it. It was but natural that such opinions should be entertained, because the world had given no example of an absolute political equality among

citizens of any nation. That these persons violently contended for their opinions, because they supposed that the welfare of the state required their adoption, is not to be wondered at. At this day, when party animosities have subsided, and time has demonstrated in the progress of republican principles the great errors of those who distrusted the virtue of the people or their capacity for self government, and triumphantly sustained those sagacious statesmen who saw and resisted danger in every removal of power from the hands of the people, it is both instructive and interesting to be carried back to a personal acquaintance with those who took an active part in the government of those days. The private letters of men to their confidential friends and adherents are perhaps the best means of becoming acquainted with their motives, and of throwing light upon contemporary events that would else but be imperfectly understood by the student of history. The letters of Mr. Wolcott, as edited by his grandson Mr. Gibbs, are eminently calculated to display the interior workings of the government machinery of those days. Mr. Wolcott was a working member of the government, and from the auditorship of Connecticut was transplanted to that of the federal treasury, and finally rose to succeed Mr. Hamilton as head of the department. The general reader will find much of value in these volumes.

Achievements of the Knights of Malta. by ALEXANDER SUTHERLAND, Esq.: Carey & Hart; Philadelphia: Burgess, Stringer & Co.; New-York.

This order of soldier-monks may be said to be the connecting link between the days of chivalry and our own time. They have stood sentinel for Christendom for near nine hundred years, and their battlements of Malta as long frowned over the Mediterranean, and defied the power of the heathen world; originating in the crusades against Jerusalem in the 11th century, it perished in the crusade of Europe in the 19th century. The nine centuries of its existence are fraught with an intense interest, which is ably kept up in the volumes before us.

the social history of the most powerful people of modern times, demands. The accounts and illustrations of the Roman relics, given in these three numbers, are interesting in a high degree. The Romans laid the foundation of that greatness, which, taking date with the Norman conquest, steadily progressed, until, in our day, it has apparently reached its culminating point. The vigorous and intelligent race that occupy the islands of the North Sea, have swollen beyond the capacity of those islands to support. Their name has become terrible in all quarters of the world; but the race has now been transplanted to the western continent, where the breadth of land and natural resources are as boundless as the enterprise of the people. Like a plant nourished in a flower-pot, until its vigor is developed, and then placed in the earth, where henceforth it will thrive, uncircumscribed by narrow bounds, the Anglo-Saxon race has even now commenced the era of its greatness. The majority of those now living will see the power of the English islands wane before the greatness of the Union. How interesting, and how important, then, becomes an intimate acquaintance with the social progress of that people, whose destiny is now before our eyes undergoing so great a change.

The American Angler's Guide, being a compilation from the works of popular English authors, from Walton to the present time, with the opinions and practices of the best American anglers. Burgess, Stringer & Co.: New-York.

This is the season when the city popu lation, relaxing from the constant worry and drive of money getting, relaxes itself, and seeks the cool shades that overhang murmuring brooks; very many of them are expert anglers, and well understand the pure joy of extracting a trout from his element, in a scientific manner. Others again are entirely benighted on the subject, although they may affect to be among the initiated. Let none of them fail to take with them a copy of the beautiful pocket edition, bearing the above title. It will instruct the wisest, while it will amuse all.

Pictorial History of England. Harper and Brothers.

THE numbers of this valuable work, which we noticed in the June number of this Review, appear in regular succession, and we are pleased to learn, are attracting that attention which their importance, as

Results of Hydropathy; or, Constipation not a Disease of the Bowels, Indigestion not a Disease of the Stomach. By EDWARD JOHNSON, M.D. Wiley & Putnam, New-York.

This is an interesting work to very many, and the subject is ably treated by the author.