30-Memoirs of his own Time, with Reminiscences of the Men and Events of the Revolution. By ALEXANDER GRAYDON. Edited by JOHN STOCKTON LITTELL, Member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Linsday & Blakeston. The volume whose title we have quoted contains an autobiographical account of the progress of the author from his early youth, as well as the various vicissitudes which he encountered during a long and active life. From the period which it embraces, involving a most important juncture of our political history, it is enriched with interesting sketches of events and persons with whom he was conversant, and which could hardly have been preserved unless in the familiar form of a diary. It also abounds with many judicious and solid remarks respecting the state of parties in the country at that period, and presents a faithful transcript of the life and opinions of the author. Entering upon manhood at the commencement of the American Revolution, and himself a witness of its progress and consequences, he seems to have delineated faithfully some of the most prominent features of that remarkable epoch, and has given us an interesting and valuable work. 31.-Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons, illustrating the Perfections of God, in the Phenomena of the Year. By the Rev. HENRY DUNCAN, D. D., Ruthwell. Summer. New York: Robert Carter. In the Merchants' Magazine for May, we had the pleasure of noticing the first of this excellent series on the seasons. It will be recollected that the volume referred to, in that notice, was devoted to "Spring." In this, the arguments for the Divine perfections, drawn from the works of Nature, entered into in the former, are continued. In this, as in the other volume, the author commences with a view of the various economical arrangements by which the season is distinguished, and rendered salutary; thence passing to the consideration of vegetable life; and thence again to that of the varieties, powers, and functions of animal life; keeping always in view the reference which everything evidently bears to the Rational Man, whom it has pleased the Absolute Being to place in this lower world; or, at all events, to subject to the operation of the senses. 32.-The Confessions of a Pretty Woman. By Miss PARDOE, Author of "The City of the Sultan," etc. Harper's Library of Select Novels, No. 84. 8vo., pp. 200. New York: Harper & Brothers. 33.-Chronicles of Clurnook, with some Account of Bellyfulle. By DOUGLAS JERROLD. 8vo., pp. 59. New York: Harper's Library of Select Novels, No. 83. 34.-Facts and Important Information for Young Men on the subject of Masturbation; with its Causes, Prevention and Cure. 18mo., pp. 68. Boston: Bela Marsh. [A little treatise highly recommended by eminent medical men, and moralists.] FALL SALES OF BOOKS, PAPER, &c. It affords us pleasure to state, that Messrs. James Ewing Cooley, John Keese, and Horatio Hill, have formed a connection in business for the purpose of conducting an annual trade sale of books, paper, stationery, stereotype plates, &c., and that their first sale is to take place in New York city, on Tuesday, August 18th, 1846. The long acquaintance and extensive business intercourse of these gentlemen with booksellers throughout the United States, and their eminent qualifications, derived from a large experience in every department of the trade, is a sufficient guaranty, that it will be conducted in the most satisfactory manner to all parties, If a large capital, untiring industry, intelligence and integrity, form any part of the elements of success, these gentlemen are quite sure to reap the reward of their present enterprise. ENLARGEMENT OF THIS MAGAZINE. With the present number we commence the FIFTEENTH semi-annual volume, and enter on the eighth year of the existence of the “Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review." Encouraged by the steady support extended to our enterprise, we have determined on still further increasing the size of our Journal; and, as will be seen by referring to the folio of this page, the present contains one-sixth more than any number published for the last five years, and we may add, one-third more matter than any number issued during the first two years of publication. The Merchants' Magazine is now larger than any other five dollar periodical; and if we take into account the extra expense for the mechanical labor, to say nothing of preparing, statistical works, (nearly double the ordinary letter-press publications,) it is, we have no hesitation in affirming, the cheapest in this or any other country. By a continuance, however, of present support, and the addition of a large class of persons, whose knowledge would be extended, and whose interests promoted, we hope to be able still farther to increase the usefulness, and extend the influence of the Merchants' Magazine. THE MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE, Established July, 1839, BY FREEMAN HUNT, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. VOLUME XV. ART. CONTENTS OF NO. II., VOL. X V. ARTICLES. PAGE 1. ELEMENTS OF COMMERCIAL LAW. By J. K. ANGELL, of Rhode Island, author of several standard Law Works....... 131 II. OPENINGS FOR THE EXTENSION OF AMERICAN COMMERCE. Embracing brief notices of the Present State, Productions, Commerce, &c., of the Comoro Islands, Abyssinia, Persia, Burmah, Cochin China, the Indian Archipelago, and Japan,............. III. THE NAVAL FORCE AND COMMERCE OF THE WORLD. By JAMES H. LANMAN, of Pennsylvania,.. 137 146 IV. QUARANTINE LAWS AND REGULATIONS. By ABIJAH INGRAHAM, M.D., of N. York, 152 V. TRADE AND COMMERCE OF ST. LOUIS. St. Louis-Its Early History-PopulationLocation and Commercial Advantages-Shops and Buildings-Value of its Commerce, Manufactures, &c.-Wheat, Flour, Tobacco, Beef, Pork-Arrivals and Clearances of Steamboats and Tonnage-Imports into St. Louis-Lumber Trade-Importance of improving the Harbor, &c. 162 VI. CHEMISTRY APPLIED TO COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES. A New, Simple, and Accurate Method of ascertaining the Commercial Value of Potash and Soda. Translated from "Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie," of MM. Fresenius and Will,. VII. A HAMBURGH MERCHANT IN HIS COUNTING-HOUSE. Translated from the German, by THOMAS PRENTICE KETTELL, of New York,. VIII. THE NATIONAL FAIR AT WASHINGTON,. 171 177 181 EMBRACING A FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC., ILLUSTRATED WITH TABLES, ETC., AS FOLLOWS: State of the Money-Markets in England-British Exports from January to May, 1846-Import of Raw Materials-Tropical Products entered England for Consumption-Sugar, Tea, Cape, &c.— 'Ability of Nations to Manufacture-Modification of European Tariffs-The New Taruf Bill of the United States-Import of Goods from Great Britain, in 1845, with the Ad Valorem rate of Duty paid, and the rate chargeable under the proposed Tariff-Provisions to prevent Fraud-Bank Facilities and Credits-Prospect as to Prices-Port of New York, Imports and Exports-Exchanges-Amount and Location of the United States Deposits-Revenue and Expenditure of the United States Government-Its Effect upon the Market-The Sub-Treasury-Opposition to the Warehousing Bill, &c. &c....... 188-193 COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. PAGE Quarantine Regulations for the Port of New York, embracing the Act of the State, passed 1846, 194 NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. Shoal in the Sooloo Sea,........ French Islands of St. Peter and Miquelon,.. Light-house on the Gronskars,..... 197 200 201 ..... 201 JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY AND FINANCE. Coinage of the United States Mint and Branches, in 1845,... 202 Deposits and Coinage of Silver and Gold at the Mint of the United States and Branches, in 1845, 202 Copper Cents coined in 1845,........ 203 Deposits of Gold at the United States Mint and Branches, for Coinage, from Mines in the United States, in each year, from 1824 to 1845,........ 203 Amount of Coinage at the Branch Mints, from the commencement of their operations, to Dec., 1845, 204 Value of the Whole Coinage of Gold, Silver, and Copper, and Number of Pieces coined in each year, from 1793 to 1845,.. 205 206 208 Banks of the State of New York-Comptroller's Report,... Finances of the United States-Statement of the Secretary of the Treasury,..... Capacity of Railroads for business.-Reading Railroad, Receipts in 1844 and 1845,.. STATISTICS OF POPULATION. 208 209 209 210 210 Immigration into the United States, first six months of 1846,.. Progress of Population in Boston, from 1742 to 1845...... Population of Boston by different Censuses, from 1742 to 1845,............... Population of the Austrian Monarchy, by the last Census, JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES. 210 ..... 211 211 211 ... 211 Wages of Women in Factories in New Hampshire and Massachusetts,- American Iron and Steel Manufactory,.. COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. Enterprise of Manufacturers of Massachusetts.-Mineral Resources of Alabama,. Price of Flour, Wheat, and Corn, at Baltimore, on the 1st of each month, in each year, from 1839 to '46, 214 Export of Teas from China to the United States and Great Britain,..... 215 Exports of Lard and Cheese from the United States to different countries in 1844 and 1845,...... 216 Quantity of Grain taken out of Bond, in the United Kingdom, for the last twenty years,......... 216 Wheat entered for Consumption in the United Kingdom, for the last eleven years,............... 216 MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES. A Commercial Absurdity-Exchange on England,................ A British Creditor's Liberality to a Fraudulent Debtor,. OUR CORRESPONDENCE. Questions of the Correspondent of the London Morning Chronicle answered,.. Montreal Free Trade Association.-Canadian Economist,.... 217 218 218 219 219 220 Letter from the Montreal Free Trade Association, to the Editor of the Merchants' Magazine...... 220 THE BOOK TRADE. Notices of twenty-two new Books, &c.......... ... 221-224 HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE. AUGUST, 1846. Art. I.-ELEMENTS OF COMMERCIAL LAW. "Together let us beat this ample field," Try what the open, what the covert, yield."-POPE. It is an impressive development of the graciousness of the Creator, so to have ordained, that the propensity to acquire wealth, so generally implanted in the bosom of His creatures, should, under moral and religious restraint, be made instrumental, through the medium of Commerce, in diffusing inestimable blessings. That Commerce and civilization go hand in hand, in their progress, is proverbial. But perhaps the fact was never more strikingly exemplified, than by the commercial municipalities which eventually constituted the confederacy of the "Hanse Towns." The cities which gave birth to that confederacy were the nurseries of social amelioration; while in strong contrast, was the sad picture of Europe in general, exhibiting intellectual apathy and moral degradation. The history of Commerce is a very essential portion of the history of the ancient and modern world, and the history of commercial law, affording a rich treasure of scien tific and practical knowledge, is of course embraced by it. Commercial law is the production of time and experience. The basis upon which it rests, is the ethical maxim of measuring the rights of others, by the standard of our own; or, as it is expressed by scriptural injunction, of doing to others as we would have others do to us. With such a basis for support, it is no cause of wonder that it should have survived the surprising number of civil and political convulsions that are faithfully and vividly depicted upon the pages of ancient and modern history. In a savage, and even in a pastoral condition of mankind, no systematic mode of commercial traffic can reasonably be looked for. The utmost extent to which trade can be prosecuted, in either of those conditions, is an exchange of one of the necessaries of life for that of another. The use of money is indispensable to a system of trade, the effect of which is to divide personal property into minute parts,* and thereby afford a chance of Dr. Johnson, in describing the simple manners of the inhabitants of the Hebrides, says, "In towns, he who has a shilling, may have a piece of meat; but where there is no Commerce, no man can eat mutton, but by killing a sheep." profit, and provoke a spirit of hazard and adventure. When that point is arrived at, the following are the consequences:-1. Matters of dispute arising out of commercial transactions. 2. The establishment of tribunals for the determination of such matters of dispute. 3. Precedents to be thereafterwards followed. 4. COMMERCIAL LAW. Commercial law is either positive or prescriptive. It is proposed to treat of the former as primordial. Positive commercial law is the progeny of legislative policy and action. In other words, it consists of legislative enactments, like the statutes of the British Parliament, and those of the American Congress, and of those of our respective State legislative assemblies. It has ever been, and ever must be, an unfortunate fatality attending positive law, indispensable as it is in affording the greatest facility to the operations of Commerce, to open a capacious avenue to litigation. This proceeds both from the short-sightedness of the human intellect, and the indigence of language. Digested and framed even by the judgment, and under the supervision of men conspicuous for deep sagacity and eminent for profound professional learning, positive law is still beyond exemption from the cause of complaint just mentioned. In evidence of this, it is only necessary to refer to the highly extolled statutes of frauds, bankruptcy, and insolvency. The controversies that have proceeded from legislation upon each of those subjects, and which have been adjudged and determined by the tribunals of judicature, are almost countless. It is nevertheless true, that such statutes, especially after revision, modification and alteration, from time to time, to suit exigencies at first unforeseen, are of inappreciable value in rendering encouragement to commercial enterprise, and in sustaining at the same time the predominance of the universally recognized principles of justice and equity. Still, the lamentable fact stated, makes it a duty imperative upon legislative functionaries, in digesting and arranging commercial enactments, to study to avoid, as much as is practicable in accomplishing such work, giving occasion for doubt and disputation, after they are promulgated. A more provocative infliction upon a merchant cannot well be conceived, than when he is in the haste of business, and has occasion for a reference to a commercial act of Congress, or of a State, to determine him how to proceed in a particular negotiation, to be at a loss to comprehend what it all means. It becomes indeed a very serious matter with him, when he is thus constrained to suspend his wonted mercantile promptitude of action, for professional consultation, and then ultimately find himself in the meshes of an expensive lawsuit. Upon the importance of lucidness of language and plainness of expression of intention, in the framing of positive commercial ordinances, a great degree of stress was placed by Lord Mansfield. That illustrious and astonishingly astute judge, (though he has been, at times, captiously objected to, as being too great a latitudinarian, in the discharge of his judicial functions,) frequently remarked, it has been said, that the certainty of a rule was often of more importance, in mercantile cases, than the reason of it. A settled rule, he maintained, should be preserved for the security of property. This is an admonitory suggestion to those who constitute the legislative department, which they are bound by their peculiar duty to respect and observe. Professional men are well aware that many of the acts promulgated from the halls of legislation are so incautiously and crudely prepared, that to determine with any tolerable degree of accuracy, of the intention which dictated them, is a task of ex |