QUARTERLY REPORTS OF THE NATIONAL BANKS OF BOSTON AND PHILADELPHIA. The following table shows the monthly range of sales of bank stocks at the New York Exchange Board of Brokers for the first six months of the current Below we give the returns of the Banks of the three cities since Jan. 1: NEW YORK CITY BANK RETURNS. Specie. Circulation. Deposits. Legal Tend's. Ag. clear'gs January 5. $257,852,460 12,794,892 32,762,779 202,533,564 65,026,121 486,987,787 January 12. 258,935,488 14,613,477 32,825,103 202,517,608 63,246,370 605,132,006 January 19. 201,500,115 63,235,386 520,040,028 January 26 63,420,559 568.822,804 February 2.. 251,264,355 16,332,98€ 32,995,347 200,511,596 65,944,541 512,407,258 February 9. 250,268,825 16,157,257 32,777, 00 198,241,835 67,628,992 508,825,532 Febru'ry16.... 253,131,328 14,792,626 82,956,309 196,072,292 64,642,940 455,833,829 198,420,347 63,153,895 443,574,086 198,018,914 63,014.195 46,534,589 March 9 262,1+1,458 10,868,182 33,409,811 200,2-3,527 64,523,440 544,173,256 197,958,804 62,813,039 496,558, 19 192,375,615 60,904,958 472, 02,378 255, 82,364 April 6..... 254,470,027 188,480,250 62,459,811 183,861,269 59,021,775 459,850,602 531,835,184 April 13.. 250,102,178 182,861,236 60,202,515 525,933,462 April 20.. 247,561,731 7,622,535 447,814,375 April 27. 247,737,381 7,404,304 33,601,285 187,674,341 67,920,351 446,484,422 250,872,558 9,902,177 33,571,747 195,721,072 70,587,407 559,860,118 200,342,832 67,996,639 524,319,769 201,436,854 63,828,501 503,675,793 May 25.. 256,091,805 14,083,667 33,697,252 193,673,345 60,562,440 431,732,622 442,675,585 184,730,335 55,923,107 461,734,216 180,317,763 243,640,477 9,399,585 242,547,954 7,768,996 246,361,237 10,853,171 247,913,009 12,715,404 249,580,255 11,197,700 251,243,830 8 73,094 33,633,171 179.477,170 62,816,192 442,440,804 33,542,560 186,213,257 70,174,755 493,944,356 494,081,990 521,259,463 33,574,943 199,435,952 73,441,301 491,880,952 33,596,859 200,608,886 74,605,840 481,097,226 107 4. Commercial Law, No. 35-Life Insur NO. ments... 1. Railway Extension and its Resu'ts.... 8912. The Growth of our Capital and Invest2. Debts and Taxation of our large Cities 3. The Insurance Business for 1866.. 111 13. Economy in Fuel.. PAGE. NO. PAGB 140 143 14. Typography and Type-setting machines at the Paris Exposition.. 144 15. How Mexican iver Mines are worked 148 16. Co-operative shipbuilding . 149 17. Russia, Prussia, Persia and India in Telegraphs.... 151 18. Egyptian Agriculture 152 8. Railroad Earnings for June and Second Quarter... 19. The Railway Report of India.. 153 131 20. The Traffic in Ship Timber..... 154 9. Debt of New Jersey. 132 21. Kailroad R ports 155 10. Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad.. 134 11. India Railroads and the Cotton Trade. 137 22. Commercial Chronicle and Review. 159 165 The following advertisements appear in our advertising pages this month: THE MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. SEPTEMBER, 18 6 7. PROPOSED FINANCIAL POLICY OF NEW YORK CANAL ENLARGEMENT, ETC. The Constitutional Convention of the State of New York, witnessed the somewhat extraordinary spectacle last week of receiving reports from two of their principal committees, adverse to each other. Of one of these, the Committee on Finance, Honorable Sanford E. Church, former Comptroller and Lieutenant-Governor, is Chairman; and of the other, the canals, Honorable Elbridge G. Lapham, of Canandaigua, is chairman. The subject about which the controversy has occurred is the enlargement of the trunk canals, and it will divide alike the Convention and the people of the State. Mr. Lapham believes that the exigencies of trade demand that as early as 1868 the Legislature should authorise the enlargement of a tier of locks and other incidental improvements on the Erie, the Oswego, and the Cayuga and Seneca Canals; while Mr. Church holds that they are ample for all the commerce which the West will have for them till 1882 at least. Another member of the Committee on Finance, Honorable Freeman Clarke, former Comptroller of the Currency, also made a report to the effect that there would never be further occasion for enlarging the canals, as the railroads were sure to perform all the additional transportation likely to be required. Amid these differences of the doctors the next two weeks of the Convention will probably be lively. Involving as the question does, the united interests of the State and its commercial metropolis, the decision should be carefully made. Under the present Constitution, the revenues of the canals, after payment of the expenses of superintendence, collection and repairs, are to be devoted to liquidating the interest and redeeming the principal of the State debt, taking in turn the canal 'debt of 1846, the General Fund debt and the canal debt authorised in 1854. Any enlargement of the locks or of the bed of the canal must be paid for by direct taxation, in case it should be authorised by the Legislature before the extinction of these debts. The Committee on Canals propose a revision of the organization of the Canal Department, abolishing the Canal Board, the Contracting Board, and the offices of State Engineer and Surveyor, Canal Commissioner and Canal Appraiser. The article which they have prepared establishes a Superintendent of Public Works, with five assistants; and continues the Auditor of the Canal Department. The Comptroller, Treasurer and Attorney-General are made Commissioners of the Canal Fund, and charged with the disposition of its revenues, and endowed with the power of appointments. The Auditor, Superintendent and Commissioners are empowered to fix the rates of toll, but are expressly restricted from reducing them till the present canal debts shall have been paid. One great difficulty in understanding the subject of State finance has been the meshy system of funds which exists, making it almost impossible to distinguish one from another. Thus besides the general fund, the common school fund, the literature fund and the United States department fund, there are numerous sinking funds for the liquidation of debts incurred by the canals and lending Comptroller's bonds to railroad corporations. Both the committees have undertaken to simplify the matter by consolidating the obligations of the canal department and the sinking funds set apart to meet them. But they do not attempt to do so alike, as each committee was moving in a different direction, so that it will be necessary to scrutinize their suggestions carefully in order to understand them aright. Mr. Lapham proposes to unite the following items of indebtedness, making of them one single "canal debt": The Canal Stock Debt of 1846. The Canal Enlargement Debt of 1854. .......... ........ $3,265.000 66 The several sinking funds for the redemption of these debts are accordingly comprehended in one canal debt sinking fund." The revenues of the canals, after paying the expenses of superintendence, collection and repairs, are to be placed in that sinking fund and appropriated annually by the Legislature as follows, namely: 1. To pay the interest and principal of the canal debt falling due during the year. 2. To pay the interest on the "general fund debt." 3. To pay the expense of completing the locks in the Champlain canal, not exceeding in the aggregate $300,000, and to the payment of any existing debt for canal purposes, till all such debt shall be liquidated. 4. After complying with these conditions, the remainder of the sinking fund shall be annually appropriated to furnishing necessary supplies of water to the Erie canal, to enlarging bridges and aqueducts on the Erie, |