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CREDITOR vs. DEBTOR.

The Boston Real Estate Register remarking upon the hazards of business says:-

The reverses which are likely to occur in active business life often bring us into painful pecuniary embarassments, from which it is sometimes almost impossible to extricate ourselves. When a person of naturally good heart, and having a high sense of mercantile honor, becomes thus deeply involved, having a heavy load of debts to which he is entirely unable to respond, he is in a position which none, I think, would envy, and only those possessing great energy of character are able to bear up against it with a proper degree of firmness. I sometimes think that creditors are somewhat harsh and unreasonable in their demands upon their unfortunate debtors. They often by their course of action put them to great and unreasonable expense, and that too without any prospect of benefit to themselves. By doing this they commit a great wrong. It is sometimes done in the hope that the debtor's friends may be induced to come forward to his aid. In pursuing coercive measures under such circumstances and for such a purpose, they to some extent prevent him from doing what every man outside of a prison wall should have the freedom of doing unmolested--that of earning by the sweat of his brow an honest subsistence for himself and family, without being annoyed and harrassed by suits at law against him after he has given up his property to the last cent's worth to his creditors. Every man should, if possible, meet his pecuniary obligations, but how many cases there are where it is entirely impossible for one to do so!

What, then, should be the true policy for the liberal, fair, and high-minded creditor to pursue in a case where the debtor's liabilities are of such great magnitude that there is no reasonable chance of his ever being able to meet them? especially when he cannot use his own name, and of course must content himself to remain in a subordinate position at a moderate salary in the employment of others, where his business talents cannot be brought into full exercise, because he is fettered with debts. It seems to me that when the debtor freely gives up his property even to the last dollar, that there at least he should be legally freed from his indebtedness, and be allowed the privilege of enjoying, as best he may, his poverty without being disturbed and persecuted by unrelenting creditors. I do not believe that creditors have a moral right to take mortgages upon the future of their unfortunate debtors and foreclose them as opportunities may occur. If so, creditors are but the life long masters and the debtors are the chained slaves, and the clankings of their chains must be the music to which in future they must keep step till they arrive at the confines of life, and go beyond the reach of writs and attachments, and pay the one great debt which we sooner or later all must pay--the debt of nature.

RECREATION.

The Hon. EDWARD EVERETT used the following language in a recent speech: The Americans, as a people-at least the professional and mercantile classes -have too little corsidered the importance of healthful and generous recreation. They have not learned the lesson contained in the very word which teaches that the worn out man is re-created-made over again-by the seasonable relaxation of the strained faculties. The old world learned this lesson years ago, and found out that as the bow always bent will at last break, so the man, forever on the strain of thought and action, will at last go mad or break down. Thrown upon a new last continent-eager to do the work of twenty centuries in two--the Anglo-American population has over worked, and is daily over-working itself. From morning to night--from January to December--brain and hands, eyes and fingers, the powers of the mind are spasmodic, merciless activity. There is no lack of a few tasteless and soulless dissipations which are called amusements, but noble, athletic sports, mainly out-door exercise, are too little cultivated in town and country.

MERCANTILE VIGILANCE.

The Philadelphia Commercial List makes the following just and well put remarks upon a high commercial quality :-

The present is the child of the past, and the future may be safely inferred from both periods, thus realizing the old maxim, that similar causes will produce like effects throughout all ages. On such bases, the calculations of commerce may be safely built up, requiring only judgment and experience in the architect. The most important element, however, in all trading transactions and speculations that one intended to reach into the time to come, is reliable information, as to prices, the stocks of particular articles on hand, the expected imports or exports, as the case may be, and their effects upon the markets. We were forcibly struck with the value of knowledge of this kind a few mornings ago, on entering the Corn Exchange, where several of our leading merchants evinced great sagacity with regard to the last cereal crops, and the prospects of the present year, not forgetting the probable foreign demand, and the yields of grain in other countries, together with the stocks in bond, and the quotable prices everywhere. Thus all their enterprises are superstructures erected on solid foundations. They are no visionaries. They enter into no negotiations without the most solid and substantial reasons for so doing, and for a series of years, acting upon rational principles, their efforts are usually crowned with success.

"Knowledge is power," saith an old proverb, and if in commerce we would attend to its teachings, losses would be few, and failures rare occurrences. But, unfortunately, there is in this country an inordinate desire to get rich hastily, by some sudden coup de commerce, and without consulting the signs of the times or the dictates of experience.. Thus the eyes are dazzled, and the mind is bewildered with golden dreams, which are never to be realized in a week, a month, or even a year, but which may yet be the fruits of patient industry and judicious observation, of narrowly watching the proportions of supply and demand, even in their minutest details. Similar rules will equally apply to speculators in cotton, sugar, tea, coffee, and other goods of large and inevitable consumption, for it should be remembered that their sale, like that of wheat and corn, is certain-but that in purchases and contracts alone may be discovered the true source of advantage for goods well bought are more than half sold. Prudence and foresight are the surest guides to profit and prosperity. If from good evidence a merchant becomes convinced that a certain article which is in constant demand will soon be scarce, or that any particular crop will be short, the prospect of a future advance is sure. He may, therefore, purchase liberally at moderate rates, with a certainty of sales at an increase. We throw these thoughts rather loosely together, but we are well convinced that they merit consideration. Care, vigilance, dicrimination, anticipated advantages eliminated from simple calculations and common sense principles, and undeviating integrity, are the true and grand elements that ennoble merchants of eminence. We are proud to be enabled to conclude with the remark, that we know many extensive business men in Philadelphia, to whom such attributes may be ascribed as parts of their very nature.

A LOST BANK BILL.

In the year 1740, one of the directors, a very rich man, had occasion for £30,000, which he was to pay as the price of an estate he had just bought. To facilitate the matter, he carried the sum with him to the bank and obtained for it a bank bill. On his return home he was suddenly called out on particular business. He threw the note carelessly on the chimney, but when he came back a few minutes afterwards to lock it up, it was not to be found. No one had entered the room; he could not, therefore, suspect any person. At last, after much ineffectual search, he was persuaded that it had fallen from the chimney into the fire. The director went to acquaint his colleagues with his misfortune,

and as he was known to be a perfectly honorable man, he was readily believed. It was only about four-and-twenty hours from the time that he had deposited his money; they thought, therefore, that it would be hard to refuse his request for a second bill. He received it, upon giving an obligation to restore the first bill, if it should ever be found, or to pay the money himself, if it should be presented by any stranger.

About thirty years afterwards (the director having long been dead, and his heirs in possession of his fortune,) an unknown person presented the lost bill at the bank, and demanded payment. It was in vain that they mentioned to this person the transaction by which that bill was annulled; he would not listen to it; he maintained that it had come to him from abroad, and insisted upon immediate payment. The note was payable to bearer, and the £30,000 were paid to him. The heirs of the director refused restitution, and the bank was obliged to sustain the loss. It was discovered afterwards that an architect, having purchased the director's house, had taken it down, in order to build another upon the spot, had found the note in a crevice in the chimney, and made his discovery an engine for robbing the bank.

Carelessness equal to that here recorded is not at all uncommon, and gives the bank enormous profits, against which the loss of a mere £30,000 is but a trifle. Bank notes have been known to light pipes, to wrap up snuff, to be used as curl papers, and British tars, mad with rum and prize money, have not unfrequently, in time of war, eaten them as sandwiches between slices of bread and butter. In the forty years between the years 1792 and 1832, there were outstanding notes (presumed to have been lost or destroyed,) amounting to one million three hundred and thirty odd thousand pounds, every shilling of which was clear profit to the banks.

A SILK ESTABLISHMENT.

The following sketch of a silk house at Spitalfields, is taken from the interesting volume by W. HENRY WILLS, entitled Old Leaves Gathered from House

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Along a narrow passage up a dark stair, through a crazy door, into a room not very light, not very large, not in the least splendid; with queer corners and quaint carvings and massive chimney-pieces; with tall cupboards, prim doors, and squat counters with deep dumpy drawers; with desks behind thin rails, with aisles between thick towers of papered-up packages, out of whose ends flash all the colors of the rainbow; where all is as quiet as a play house at day-break, or a church at midnight; where, in truth, there is nobody to make a noise, except one well-dressed man, one attendant porter, and one remarkably fine male cat, admiring, before the fire, the ends of his silky paws; where the door, as we enter, shuts with a deep, dull, muffled sound, that is more startling than a noise; where there is less bustle than at a Quaker's meeting, and less business going on than in a government office. The painfully neat man threads the mazes of the piles, and desks, and cupboards, and counters, to greet us, and to assure us in reply to our apology, that we have not made any mistake whatever, and that we are in the silk warehouse we were seeking; a warehouse in which we have previously been informed by one whose word we never before doubted, that there is "turned over" an annual average of £100,000 of good and lawful money of Great Britain.

A BIT OF PARIS GOSSIP.

The following gossip is told by a jeweler of Paris. The reader will please remember that the term "my aunt," is the slang phrase for the pawnbroker. The writer thus relates his experience:

We (the jewelers) are the victims of people in good positions-married, titled, possessing everything to avert suspicion; and of ladies in the highest social circles. These swindlers of aristocratic circles find it convenient to take from jewelers what money bankers and usurers refuse to give them. They boldly enter our shops, purchase and make us deliver to them many bracelets and many diamonds, which they will return in a few days, (so they say,) if they find nothing to suit with them. You can guess what takes place. The objects we confide to them go from our shop to the pawnbrokers. Time passes away; at first the jeweler hesitates to produce scandal, and he accepts notes for the goods which have been taken almost by force against his consent from the shop. At last the notes fall due; they are protested. What is the next step of our "patrons?" They offer to return the goods! And this is at the end of ten or twelve months, without interest or damages! So that we jewelers become the bankers of fashionable ladies and gentlemen pressed for money. I can instance facts and names for you; M. de took $60,000 worth of jewelry from seven or eight jeweler shops in Paris. A twelve month passed away, and nothing was paid; all had been sent to the pawnbrokers. A month ago M. de offered to return us the jewels, and hooted at the idea of paying us a sou for them. We threatened to bring him before the police court; he laughed at us. abandoned all thought of it, fearing the loss of time and money we would be at. Then there is M'me de- who took from us an immense quantity of jewels to show to her mother, as she said; but really to carry to her "aunt," and we could not get them back except by aid of the police. Really, we do not know how to protect ourselves against these filibusters of aristocratic circles, who are incomparably more dangerous than common robbers.

We

"VUELTA ABAJO" AND "VUELTA ARRIBA."

The Cuban Messenger, published at Havana, remarks :-As dealers in tobacco and cigars abroad are not generally acquainted with the words Vuelta Abajo and Vuelta Arriba, by which the different qualities of tobacco are distinguished here, we think it proper to explain that the first means the Western part or downward portion, (where the sun goes down,) and the latter means the Eastern part, or where the sun rises. As the best tobacco is cultivated in the district most fertilized by the rivers west from Havana, it is a very general thing for cigar manufacturers to assure that they employ the Vuella Abajo tobacco, even if it is not true.

THE FIRST LARGE SHIP.

The first large ship of war built in England was in the reign of Henry VII. She was named the "Great Henry," and cost £14,000.

BLANKETS.

Blankets took their name from THOMAS BLANKET, who, in 1340, first set up looms for weaving them at Bristol.

THE BOOK TRADE.

1.-History of the Republic of the United States of America, as traced in the writings of ALEXANDER HAMILTON and his contemporaries. By JOHN C. HAMILTON. Vol. vi. 8vo., pp. 619. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

This comprises the sixth of these handsome volumes, containing the documentary remains of one of our most illustrious statesmen, ALEXANDER HAMILTON. Great industry is exhibited by the author in collecting the materials of this voluminous work and preparing them for the press, such as the revolutionary correspondence, drafts of official papers, and miscellaneous documents, extending over nearly fifty years, and exhibiting a well digested history of the administration of those pure and great patriots, GEORGE WASHINGTON and JOHN ADAMS, while in the executive chair of the general government. The tract of time extending through these administrations is one of the most interesting in our po litical annals. Great public measures were then discussed. and the foundations of our national policy in many respects were then laid; for the government was then comparatively in its infancy. It is also true that the paramount records of the circumstances which marked that period have been too much neglected, and the character of the distinguished men who then figured in the public view and performed signal services for their country have been permitted almost to be forgotten. But looking calmly over these records, and the circumstances which marked them, we doubt much if the political scholar or statesman, in his researches after political truth, will not find much that is objectionable, which, if it be not set down in malice. at least bears much of the acrimonious spirit of party. That ALEXANDER HAMILTON was both patriot and statesman-among the first indigenous noble fruits of our republic-and that many of his measures of public policy-now mostly exploded-such as related to the establishment of the financial system of the government, were founded in wisdom, if not the very best that could be devised for the then infant republic, few will hesitate to accord; but that there were other contemporaries who labored as zealously, with as good faith, and with equal success, in the inauguration of those measures which have ended in bestowing on us what we now enjoy, we as fully believenames equally worthy the amenities of the historian, to the banishment of all illiberal prejudices and petty jealousies.

2.-Travels, Researches, and Missionary Labors, during an Eighteen Years' Residence in Eastern Africa; together with journeys to Jagga, Usambara, Ukambani, Shoa, Abessinia, and Khartum, and a coasting voyage from Mombaz to Cape Delgado. By the Rev. Dr. J. LEWIS KRAPF, Secretary of the Christian Institute at Basel, and late Missionary in the service of the Church Missionary Society in Eastern Africa. 12mo., pp. 464. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.

The name of the Rev. Dr. KRAPF has long been before the public in honorable connection with the attempts to introduce civilization and Christianity into the benighted continent of Africa, no less than as a pioneer of important geographical discoveries, and a most successful laborer in the field of Hametic philology. "His earlier missionary labore," says the publishers' notice, "were printed in 1843, and related chiefly to Abessinia and Shoa." The present volume, although also touching upon both, is chiefly confined to the terra incognita of our maps, the Eastern Coast, and the equatorial sections of Africa, the land of his boyish aspirations. The appendix gives details of language hitherto but oral, which he and his colleages at Rabbai Mpia have reduced to form and writing, and thus brought within the scope of future missionary efforts for the conversion of the heathen. Whilst Dr. LIVINGSTONE was proceeding from the South towards the coast of Mozambique, Dr. KRAPF and Mr. Rebmann were advancing from the North to the same point. The discoveries of Dr. LIVINGSTONE, no less than

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