COMMERCE OF GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS. During the year ending June 30th, 1853, there arrived at Gloucester, from foreign ports, 24 American vessels and 183 foreign vessels. Total number of arrivals from foreign ports 207. These vessels brought cargoes of molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, salt, coal, wood, lumber, &c., &c. In the same time 204 vessels cleared for foreign ports. Gloucester owns nearly 31,000 tons of shipping; being 500 tons more than the port of Salem, and 5,000 tons more than Portsmouth, N. H. 41 vessels were built last year, being more in number than in any district in New England, except Waldoboro', Bath, and Boston. The vessels built at Gloucester averaged a little more than eighty tons each. The present season will show a great increase of tonnage built in that district. Newburyport and Boston are the only places in Massachusetts that exceed Gloucester in the amount of tonnage built last year. COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. NEW INSPECTION LAW OF MARYLAND. The provisions of the law passed at the late session of the Maryland Legislature, to "regulate inspections in the city of Baltimore," are as follows: SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That from and after the first day of May next, on which day this act shall go into effect, any free white citizen of the State of Maryland, on application to the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas in the city of Baltimore, and paying to the said clerk, as the case may be, the sum hereinafter named, shall be entitled to receive a license to act as inspector of the article mentioned in the license, and the several sums to be paid for licenses shall be as follows: For a license to act as inspector of leather, $150; for a license to act as inspector of lumber, $150; for a license to act as a gauger of casks and inspector of liquors, $150; for a license to act as inspector and corder of firewood, $150; for a license to act as inspector of lime, $150; for a license to act as inspector of ground black oak bark, $100; and for a license to act as inspector of coal, $150; and no license shall authorize any inspector to act as such out of the limits of the city in which the same may have been granted; and any person licensed to act as inspector in said city, and who shall act as such in any city in which he has no license, shall subject himself to the penalties hereinafter provided for the punishment of persons acting as inspectors without license; and no license shall continue in force for a longer period than one year from the day of its date. SEC. 2. And be it enacted, That any person not having a license to act as such inspector, who shall act as inspector of any of the articles named in the first section of this act, shall forfeit and pay to the sheriff of the city, as the case may be, a sum equal to double the price of the license to act as inspector of said article, as prescribed in the first section of this act, and penalty to be imposed as a fine by the court having criminal jurisdiction in the city on presentment or indictment by the grand jury, and conviction in due course of the law, and one-third of the penalty shall be paid by the sheriff to the informer, who is hereby declared competent as witness, and the residue shall be accounted for by the sheriff to the treasury of the State, as other fines and forfeitures are required to be accounted for: provided, however, that nothing in this act shall be construed to forbid the manufacturer or the actual and bona fide owner of any article or merchandise from marking or stamping thereon, or on the package containing the same, the quantity or quality of the same. SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That any person or persons may buy or sell, export or otherwise dispose of any of the articles mentioned in the first section of this act, without having the same inspected, measured, or gauged by any inspector, but in all cases of difference between the buyer and seller, as to the quantity, quality, or measurement of any of the said articles, either party may call in any inspector of the article authorized to act in the city where the article may be situated, and the judgment of the inspector shall bind the parties. SEO. 4. And be it enacted, That the fees for inspections shall be the same as those now fixed by law; no person shall be entitled to license or inspect, or shall act as in spector of any article in the manufacturing, vending, or trading in which he is engaged individually or as a partner, or as an agent, clerk, or employee of a trader, vender, or manufacturer, and that before any person shall act as inspector under the provisions of this act, he shall take and subscribe an oath in the usual form, that he will honestly and faithfully discharge the duties of said office, to be administered to him by the clerk of the court granting the license at the time said license is granted. SEC. 5. And be it enacted, That fish imported into the city of Baltimore, which has been inspected in any other State of the Union, shall not be subjected to re-inspection, unless expressly required by the buyer or seller. SEC. 6. And be it enacted, That all sums of money received by the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of the city of Baltimore for license under the provisions of this act, shall be accounted for and paid into the treasury at the times and in the manner required in regard to moneys received for licenses to retailers of merchandise. SEC. 7. And be it enacted, That the qualities heretofore existing by law in any kind of lumber or timber sold in the city of Baltimore, shall be abolished, and hereafter it shall be sold by measurement. SEC. 8. And be it enacted, That the licenses hereinbefore required to be issued by the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of the city of Baltimore, shall be prepared and countersigned by the controller of the treasury department, and the said clerk, shall, on or before the first Monday of May in each year, and as often thereafter as may be necessary, make application to the said controller for such number of said licenses as may probably be signed by the said clerk for one year. COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS AT SAN FRANCISCO. Important changes have been made in the schedule of charges on sales, forwarding insuring, etc., merchandise. The following are the rates of commissions, charges, etc., as revised, corrected and adopted by the Chamber of Commerce, San Francisco, November 3, 1853: SCHEDULE 1ST.-RATE OF COMMISSION ON BUSINESS WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND Sale of merchandise with or without guaranty..... per cent. 10 5 74 Goods received on consignment and afterwards withdrawn on invoice cost.. ま Purchase or sale of vessels... 24 Collecting freights... 24 Collecting general claims Purchase and sale of specie, gold dust, or bullion.... 1 Entering, clearing, and transacting ships' business on vessels with cargo from foreign ports. $200 200 50 per cent. 5 10 24 Entering, clearing, and transacting ships' business on vessels with cargo from Collecting and remitting moneys on sums over $500.... Receiving and paying, or remitting moneys from which no other commission is derived.... ..per cent. Landing and reshipping goods from vessels in distress, on invoice value, or in its absence, on market value..... ..per cent. Receiving, entering at the custom-house, and forwarding the goods, on invoice amount. Effecting commission marine insurance, on amount insured.. Do. on sums over $5,000.... - per cent. SCHEDULE 2D.-RATE OF COMMISSION ON BUSINESS WITHIN THE STATE, WHERE NO SPECIAL AGREEMENT EXISTS. Sale of merchandise with guaranty..... Purchase and shipment of goods, with funds or security in hand. Do. without funds or security in hand.... Sales of bills of exchange with indorsement... SCHEDULE 3D.-RATES OF STORAGE ON MERCHANDISE. 10 21 Measurement goods per month $2 per ton of 40 cubic feet. Heavy goods $1 50 per ton of 2,000 pounds-or in either case the amount actually paid. The consignee to have the option of charging by weight or measurement. A fraction of a month to be charged as a month. SCHEDULE 4TH.-CONCERNING DELIVERY OF MERCHANDISE, PAYMENT OF FREIGHTS, ETC. When no express stipulation exists, per bill of lading, goods are to be considered deliverable on shore. Freight on all goods to be paid or secured to the satisfaction of the captain or consignee of the vessel, prior to the delivery of goods. Goods must be received by the consignee after notice being given of the ship's readiness to discharge in five days, when not otherwise stipulated in the bill of lading. After the delivery to the purchaser of merchandise sold, no claims for damage, deficiency, or other cause, shall be admissible, unless made within three days, and no such claims shall be admissible after goods sold and delivered have once left the city. SCHEDULE 5TH.-CONCERNING FOREIGN BILLS OF LADING. When foreign bills of lading do not expressly stipulate the payment of freight in a specific coin, foreign currency shall be reckoned according to the United States value thereof, and payment may be made in any legal tender of the United States. Where foreign bills of lading expressly stipulate that the freight shall be paid in a specified coin, then the same must be procured if required, or its equivalent given, the rate to be determined by the current value at the time in San Francisco. SCHEDULE 6TH.-CONCERNING RATES OF TARES. To be allowed as by custom in New York. The Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco was organized May 1, 1850; Incorporated November 3, 1851. Officers for 1853: President, Beverly C. Sanders; First Vice President, Geo. Lewis Cooke; Second Vice President, Geo. Clifford; Secretary, Treasurer, and Librarian, Lewis W. Sloat; Committee of Appeals, D. L. Ross, S. B. Thomas, J. J. Chauviteau, Edwin Herrick, W. T. Coleman, I. Friedlander. MACUQUINO CURRENCY, ISLAND OF PORTO RICO. TO COLLECTORS AND OTHER OFFICERS OF THE CUSTOMS. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, May 1st, 1854. Since the date of the General Instructions, No. 21, transmitted to you on the 10th ultimo, this department has been advised by the consul of the United States at St. Johns, in the island of Porto Rico, that the authorities of that island bad determined, on the 20th March last, that, after that date, the value of the silver dollar of the United States of the coinage of 1853 and after, should be at the rate of one hundred and eighty cents Macuquino, or eight per cent premium over the Macuquino currency of the said island of Porto Rico. You will be regulated accordingly, in your estimate of duties on invoices of goods from said island arriving at your port. JAMES GUTHRIE, Secretary of the Treasury. JOURNAL OF INSURANCE. LIFE INSURANCE. CONSTRUCTION OF INSURANCE POLICY-CREDITOR'S RIGHT TO INSURE HIS DEBTOR'S LIFE. The Supreme Court of New York (City) made in April, 1854, the following decision in the case of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York vs. Ambrose Wager, Judge Mitchell on the bench : This was an action to recover back the amount of a policy of insurance paid to defendant, on the ground that the policy was fraudulently obtained. It appeared that in the year 1845 the defendant effected with plaintiffs a policy of insurance on the life of W. Frisbee, of Rhinebeck, for $2,500. Frisbee lived for about six years after the policy was effected, and then died, and the plaintiffs paid the amount of it to the defendant. They now seek to recover it back, on the grounds that when the policy was effected, and for some time before, Frisbee was in consumption, and also that he was not indebted to the defendant to the amount of the policy, or to any extent. Medical and other witnesses were examined at both sides, as to Frisbee's health at the time the policy was effected, and afterwards; from which it appeared that for many years before his death he was affected with chronic bronchitis, and that he sometimes spit blood; but it did not appear that the spitting of blood was of such a character as to denote consumption, or disease of the lungs. It also appeared, that when the policy was made the plaintiffs were informed that he had a chronic bronchitis. As to his not being in debt to the defendant, several witnesses, who were intimate with Frisbee, testified that they were not aware that he was indebted to the defendant. But the negative testimony was met by the positive testimony of other witnesses, who deposed that defendant was constantly in the habit of advancing money to Frisbee. The court charged the jury. The two most important questions for them to determine were, first, had Frisbee a spitting of blood within the meaning of the policy, or any disease that would shorten life? If he had either of those diseases, the plaintiffs were entitled to recover. If he had neither of those diseases, the plaintiffs cannot recover on that ground. Or if he had either or both of those diseases, and that defendant had no knowledge of it, then the plaintiffs cannot recover. There must have been one or the other of those diseases, and it must have been known to defendant. As to the meaning of "spitting of blood," the definition I give of it is, any spitting of blood which would tend to shorten life, or be as dangerous to life as any one of the diseases mentioned in the policy, being rupture, fits, dropsy, asthma, or spitting of blood. But it must have existed at the time the policy was effected, or antecedent to it. The only other question of law is, as to the rights of the company to recover, because the defendant had no interest in the life of the person insured. It is said that he had an interest in it, because he was his creditor. If he informed the company, when the insurance was being effected, that it was made for what was then due to him by Frisbee, and also for what advances he would afterward make him, then those advances would be protected by the policy. But if the whole of those advances did not amount to $2,500, then he would be entitled to no more than he advanced; and if he recovered $2,500, and there was not so much due to him by Frisbee, then the company would be entitled to the difference. In regard to Frisbee's state of health, there was no doubt that in 1841 he had a chronic bronchitis, and that from that time to his death he had a severe cough in the morning, and threw up mucus, and was relieved; but it was not very frequent or severe, as it only required the attendance of a doctor twice. But that does not come within the medium of the policy, and I think the fair conclusion is, that at the time the policy was made, Frisbee was not in consumption. If after the policy was made, defendant had knowledge of Frisbee's state of health, that would not affect the policy. If it were a mere wager policy, the plaintiff's are entitled to recover. But if the jury come to the conclusion that advances were made by defendant to the amount of the policy, and that Frisbee, at the time the policy was made, had no disease within the meaning of the policy, or that if he had it was unknown to defendant, then they should find for defendant. Verdict for defendant. The court also awarded $100 to the defendant, on the ground that the suit was improperly brought. PROPERTY DESTROYED BY FIRE IN SAN FRANCISCO. A late number of the Alta California contains an elaborate account of the third annual celebration of the San Francisco Fire Department. After the reading of an ode written for the occasion, the Hon. EDWARD STANLEY delivered an oration, from which we make the following extract, showing the loss of property by fire since May 4th, 1850: "With all the energy of our people, aided by some of the best from other climesby the lively, impetuous, enterprising countrymen of Lafayette-by the indomitable energy and resolute spirit of the English and Irish-by the industrious and steady German, much was still wanting. This want was supplied by the organization of our fire companies. For in 1849, when men of foresight and judgment began to believe a city would be founded here, when stores were erected and dwelling houses built, the fire came, and in a few hours how many bright prospects were blasted! How many houseless and unprotected heads were wandering here, that a few hours before were comfortable, and calculating on long years of happy enjoyment? How many millions of property were destroyed by fire in a day, before your organization ? Let a few facts, which an intelligent gentleman, an active member of one of your companies, has furnished me, answer: On December 24, 1849, fire destroyed property amounting to.... In one year.... On May 4, 1851, property amounting to.. In eighteen months. Fires since that time ... Total. $1,250,000 4,250,000 3,500,000 1,000,000 250,000 1,000,000 $11,250,000 12,000,000 2,500,000 $25,750,000 1,500,000 $97,250,000 In a period of eighteen months, more than twenty-five millions were destroyed; since that time, more than two years, not two millions! not as much as was destroyed at a late fire in New York. And may we not now, when with pride we behold what our city now is, may we not say, if you seek for any monument of what our firemen have done Walk through our streets and look around you?'" The number of insurance companies in the country is not known; but it is to be presumed that few, if any of them, except in the cities above-mentioned, have any foreign stockholders. |