could not, from the absence of materials, have been written in America. Mr. Wheaton could not have brought to completion his learned and elegant history of the Northmen, except in Europe. The admirable work of Ferdinand and Isabella, by Mr. Prescott, though written on this side of the Atlantic, was chiefly dependant for its materials on the other.

"The library of Philadelphia is upwards of a century old. Its late highly intelligent librarian, computes the present number of volumes at 46,000; a number exceeding, it is true, any other library on this side of the Atlantic, but not commensurate with the growing wants of the literature and science of the city. The Royal Library of Paris, less than half a century ago, numbered only 80,000 printed volumes and MSS. It now presents in its totality, upwards of 700,000 volumes! The British Museum founded long since the establishment of the Philadelphia Library, now amounts to 240,00 volumes. The value of a library, it is true does not depend upon its numerical superiority alone; but there is no doubt. from the bibliographical knowledge which guards the Royal Library of Paris, and the British Museum, that the excellence of their contents is in proportion to their number. "It becomes a wise and enlightened people, intent upon a high destiny, to adopt the means necessary to subserve it. It was one evidence of decay, that in a luxurious age of the Roman empire, the reading of Roman senators was confined to Marius Maximus and Juvenal. In a country in which native energy has not been debilitated by luxury; where mind, entrameled, roves with perpetual activity, explores new regions of thought, and penetrates new sources of truth and intelligence; where every man is a reader, and all have a keen appetite for knowledge; the means should be multiplied commensurately with its importance and necessity. Without dwelling longer upon a theme which might be amplified by so many reflections, it is enough to say, that no act would confer higher literary glory upon the United States, than adding to the treasures of its public library. The government of France requires a copy to be deposited, in the Royal Library, of every work which is issued from the press, throughout the kingdom. A similar regulation obtains in Austria and Russia, for the benefit of the royal libraries of Vienna and St. Petersburg. From the operation of so wise and salutary a provision, these libraries are monuments of honour and renown to those despotic nations. The British Museum, which has proved, in England, the great nursery of merit, the light of genius, the ladder to eminence, has been fostered by the same liberality, aided by the direct munificence of the sovereign. Congress has already purchased the papers of Washington and Madison. It could present adequate inducements to private persons for the opening of their private cabinets, in which are deposited those documents which are so material to illustrate our national history, and transmit our national fame. It could enact a law similar to those which augment the libraries of France and England, Austria and Russia. It could enrich the present collection, by a purchase now offered to its acceptance, of the greatest treasure of one of the greatest bibliopolists of this bibliothecal age."

Great sale of Cattle.-Mr. Wolbert's sale yesterday, for Mr. Whitaker, of high bred, improved short horned cattle, at Powelton, was well attended. We give the prices of some of the animals:

Chillicothe, Lacon, Henry, Webster, Hennepin, Enterprise, Peru, Rockwell,

W

2

21

30

do.

e

12

33

55

do.

W 12

45

5

do.

W

8

53

5 do.

200

10 population 400

Mouth of Sangamon

decrees as follows:

Article 1st. During the financial year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine to one thousand eight hundred and forty, all the Wines imported into Brazil, and all Liquors of foreign produce, shall pay at the Custom-house, a duty of fifty per centum, including therein all charges to which such articles were subjected until the present time, with the exception of those of storage.

Section additional. All Wines and Liquors being the produce of countries with which Brazil has existing treaties, are exempted from the foregoing provisions.

Art. 2d. The entry of Liquids in general, and of Wheat Flour of foreign produce, shall be made according to the prices fixed by a weekly valuation, to be made at each Custom-house, by a committee composed of capable persons, of whom the Collector of the respective Custom-house shall be

one.

Candido Baptista de Oliveira, of the Council of his Imperial Majesty, Minister and Secretary of State for the Foreign Affairs, and charged by interim of Finances, and the Presidency of the Tribunal of the National Public Treasury, will so understand its provisions, and cause them to be executed, issuing for that purpose the necessary orders.

the price in the present instance. Thus have the anticipations of the enterprising Currant River Mining Company been realized, by finding for its "first fruits" a market in Baltimore.-Baltimore Price Current.

Large sale of Morus Multicaulis. The annexed is a corect statement of the number, prices, and proceeds of the Morus Multicaulis, the property of Mr. Physick, sold September 18th, by C. J. Wolbert, Auctioneer, at the Highfield Cocoonery, Germantown, Pa. The trees were sold as they stood in the ground, those under 12 inches to be rejected. Owing to a thin soil and close planting, the sizes of trees were generally small, and the branches few, the being about 24 feet. The purchasers were generally from a average height, according to estimates made on the ground, distance. The largest portion being from Illinois, Missouri, and other Western states. The price, it will be seen, averaged 50 rows, averaging 1200, say 60,000 a 30 cts. $18,000 CO 31 23-100 cts. per tree, equal to 124 cts. per foot. 20 rows, averaging 1000, say 20,000 a 273 cts. 10 rows, averaging 1150, say 11,500 a 35 cts. 52 rows, averaging 1150, say 59,800 a 37 cts. 30 rows, averaging 1200, say 36,000 a 25 cts. 55 rows, averaging 1150, say 63,250 a 324 cts.

10 rows, averaging 850, say 8,500 a 173 cts.

1 row, averaging 1000, say 1,000 a 22 cts.

5,500 00 4,025 00

22,425 00 20,556 25 9,000 00 225 00 1,487 50

$81,218 75

And by comparing the loans and discounts with the returns made June 7th, the latest date to which full returns have

PEDRO DE ARANJO LIMA.

CANDIDO BAPTISTA DE OLIVEIRA.

New York, 12th September, 1839.

DIONIZIO DE AZEVEDO PECANHA,
Consul General.

The Mississippi, according to the account of the pilot who has lived at Belize, a small village on the present bar, nineteen years, has, by its deposits during that period, pushed its delta into the Gulf of Mexico, two miles and a half long the whole length of the seaboard; which, including its four or five mouths, the alluvial lands between them and the creeks, or bayous, comprise a line of advance into the ocean of about one hundred miles in length. This being multiplied by its breadth of two and a half miles, gives an addition of two hundred and fifty square miles to the continent of America in nineteen years.

Sale of the Missouri Copper,-We stated sometime since, that a parcel of about 29,000 lbs. of Pig Copper, from one of the Missouri mines, the property of the Currant River Mining Company, had been shipped at New Orleans and consigned to a house in this city, for sale. In due time the article safely arrived, was advertised in the papers, and the result has been a sale of the whole consignment to a very distinguished manufacturer in this city, who was prompted to operate as well from motives of patriotism, as to possess an article which compared in appearance with the best Peruvian that he had been accustomed to use; and the price which governed at the last sale of Peruvian was adopted as

time,

100,555 85 A valuable testimonial.-A handsome mahogany box containing a splendid massive silver waiter, twenty-one inches in diameter, with highly ornamental decoration, has been left in charge of the Mayor of the city, until called for by the person to whom it is addressed. It was brought from Belfast, Ireland, and bears the following inscription:-Ledger.

"Presented to MICHAEL ALLAN, Esq. of Pittsburg, United States, formerly of Litterkinny, Ireland, by his creditors, as a testimonial of their high opinion of his upright and honourable conduct in paying in full the balance of their accounts, although previously discharged from all legal obligations. Signed in behalf of the creditors at large. Belfast, April 1839."

JOHN MCCLEERY.

The packet ship Memphis, NICHOLS, master, arrived at Liverpool on the 6th ult. from New York, in seventeen days passage.

The UNITED STATES COMMERCIAL AND STATISTICAL REGISTER, is published every Wednesday, at No. 79 Dock street. The price to subscribers is Five Dollars per annum, payable on the 1st of January of each year. No subscription received for less than a year.— Subscribers out of the principal cities to pay in advance.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM F. GEDDES, No. 112 CHESNUT STREET, Where Subscriptions will be received.

VOL. I.

The Silver Scheme.

It appears that troubles originating from the condition of the currency are not peculiar to our own times. In the earlier periods of the colonies they were as much perplexed about money matters as are our financiers of the present day. The state of exchanges between this country and England, and the scarcity of gold and silver, in consequence of the large importations from the mother country, and the difficulty of paying debts there, have alike, at all periods of our history, occasioned the invention of new schemes. In looking over the General Magazine, published by Doctor Franklin in 1741, we find numerous articles and plans in relation to the subject, some of which, as they may amuse, if they do not instruct the reader, we shall occasionally insert, It seems from Doctor Franklin's introduction, (as we suppose it to be) that the currency of Massachusetts was at this time in a peculiarly deranged condition, and that two "schemes" were resorted to or proposed; one called the "Silver Scheme" and the other the "Manufacturing or Land Bank Scheme," The first of these follows, the Doctor's preface.

"New England is the most unhappy in its paper currency of any of the colonies, Carolina excepted. Their bills of credit continually sinking in value, to the great detriment of the creditors of the province, occasioned several strict instructions from the crown, sent over to the Governors from time to time, to restrain the large and frequent emissions made of those bills. The last of which instructions directs, that no more than thirty thousand pounds should be ever current in that province at the same time; which sum was computed to be nearly the annual charge in support of the Government; this was thought by the people, much too small a currency to carry on the commerce of the country, all their former bills being to determine in the year 1741; and therefore they made frequent applications to the King, to have that instruction withdrawn; but in vain, His Majesty at length "sig. nifying his high displeasure at these repeated applications upon points that had already been maturely considered and determined by His Majesty in council." They then caused a memorial and petition to be presented to the House of Commons, setting forth the hardships they were subjected to by that instruction, and praying, " that the House would become intercessors for them to His Majesty, that he would be graciously pleased to withdraw the said instruction. Upon which the resolve of the House was, that the complaint contained in the memorial and petition was frivolous and groundless, a high insult upon His Majesty's Government, and tending to shake off the dependence of the colony upon Great Britain, to which by law and right, they are and ought to be subject." The people having no longer any expectation of a currency from the Government, began to cast about for methods of furnishing themselves with something that might supply its place. And in the last summer two several schemes were set on foot for that purpose commonly called the Silver Scheme, and the Manufactory Scheme, which as they have rent the country into violent parties, and the dis

*Not equal to 10,0001 Proclamation Money. + Minute of Council, May 10, 1733. VOL. I.-28

No. 15.

putes about them still subsist in their public papers, and are like to continue; some extracts from them may not be improper to be hereafter inserted in these Magazines. We shall give our readers in the first place, the schemes at length.That which is called the Silver Scheme, is as follows, viz:

Whereas the silver and gold, which were formerly our me dium of exchange, have been exported to our mother country, thence; and for many years our affairs and business, have in payment for the manufactures we have received from been transacted with bills of credit in lieu thereof. And foras much as the bills of credit emitted by the province of the Massachusetts Bay, are grown scarce, by their return into the pub and in a short time the remainder is by law required to be lic treasury, according to the periods that have already arrived, brought in, and consumed to ashes; and whereas it seems very difficult, if not impracticable, so suddenly to procure silver and gold sufficient for the management of our trade and commerce, Therefore for remedy in this case, we, the subscribers have agreed on the following articles, viz:

I. That as soon as conveniently may be, there he emitted one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, in bills or notes of hand, of the following denominations, viz: ten pounds, fifteen shilling, ten shilling, seven shilling and six penny, five pounds, three pounds, forty shilling, twenty shilling, five shilling, and two shilling and six penny, bills all to be redeemed and paid with coined silver of sterling alloy, at twenty shillings per ounce or coined standard gold at fourteen pounds fifteen shillings per ounce, both Troy weight, by the last of December Anno Domini 1755.

II. The following gentlemen, viz: Edward Hutchinson, Samuel Welles, James Bowdoin, Samuel Sewall, Hugh Hall, Joshua Winslow, Andrew Oliver, Esqrs. Edmund Quincy, Thomas Oxnard and James Bouteneau, merchants, shall be the directors or committee, to manage the affairs of the subscribers to this scheme; which directors shall sign the bills or notes, and become obliged to the possessors of them; the tenor of which bills to be as follows:

BILL FOR FORTY SHILLINGS,

We jointly and severally promise to pay, to Isaac Winslow, merchant, or order, in Boston, two ounces of silver, sterling alloy, or two pennyweight seventeen grains of standard gold, both coined and Troy weight, by the 31st December 1755. Value received,

Boston, New England, August 1, 1740.

III. To enable the directors or signers of the bills to redeem or pay them as before, and defray the incident charges; every subscriber or undertaker for one thousand pounds, shall annually, during the space of fifteen years, from December 31st, 1740, pay to the said directors, eighty-eight ounces and an half of silver, or six ounces of gold, both of the quality respectively, and weight as aforesaid; and shall execute fifteen bonds accordingly; and every undertaker for a less or greater sum, shall be obliged to pay in proportion; the bonds to be made payable in each year, by the 31st day of December, Nevertheless, it is understood and agreed, that the said dis rectors may covenant with, and shall accordingly execute in struments to the undertakers, that inasmuch as the said directors will have great occasion for silver or gold one month sooner annually, than the undertakers are obliged by the aforesaid bonds to pay them, they the said directors will ac cept of fifty seven ounces and an half of silver, or four ounces eleven pennyweight and thirteen grains of gold, both of the

respective quality and weight aforesaid, from the undertaker of one thousand pounds, if he shall pay them annually by the 30th of November, and the directors may agree with the subscriber or undertaker for a lesser or greater sum to pay in the same proportion.

removed director or directors, his or their heirs, executors and administrators, from all damages which may arise from what he or they may have done in the service, or at the desire of the company.

IX. No person shall subscribe or undertake for less than five hundred pounds, nor more than eight thousand pounds; and every subscriber for five hundred pounds shall have one vote, and all the other subscribers shall vote in proportion; but it is to be understood, that no person who by purchase, inheritance or otherwise, may be owner of more than eight thousand pounds, shall have more than fifteen votes, how great soever his interest may be.

V. Every subscriber or undertaker shall become obliged to the aforesaid directors to indemnify and save them harmless, as to any act or acts of government they may be obliged to comply with, or as to any damage they may sustain in redeeming, or paying the said notes or bills to be emitted, or in letting out the silver or gold as hereinafter directed, or by any deficiency, or other neglect of the company, or either of them; the said damages or deficiencies to be paid or made up, in proportion to each one's subscription, including the directors as subscribers.

VI. Whereas, at and after the expiration of the first of the aforementioned fifteen years, there will be considerable sums of silver and gold in the hands of the directors, it is agreed and covenanted, that the said directors, may let or hire out the said silver or gold to such inhabitants of this province as shall desire the same, for the space of thirteen calendar months, and no longer at one time, the borrower giving full and undoubted security for the payment of it within that term, with interest at the rate of six per cent. per annum; nevertheless, it is agreed and concluded, that if the said di rectors shall judge that they shall have occasion for said money sooner than the said bond specifies, they may agree to give any proper instrument to the borrower to secure and assure him, that upon paying the sum borrowed, with interest at the rate of four per cent. per annum, so much sooner than by bond he is obliged, as the directors' occasions require, and the instrument they give the borrower specifies, this bond shall be delivered up to be cancelled.

VII. The directors shall keep fair accounts of their doings in the service of the company, and the company shall meet annually on the second Tues lay in January at some suitable place in the town of Boston, of which they shall have convenient warning from the directors if in Boston, or within four miles; when and where they shall lay before the company the state of the company's affairs from year to year, and at the expiration of the aforesaid term of fifteen years, shall deliver and pay to each subscriber or undertaker, his executors or administrators, his proportionable part of all the nett profits of the aforesaid emission of notes, and of their letting or hiring out the silver or gold aforesaid, or any other way arising from the company's interest as aforesaid.

VIII. No person shall be chosen a director unless he subscribes or undertakes, at least for one thousand pounds; and whosoever is so chosen, shall before he enter on the service, covenant and agree that in case of his death, or that another is chosen in his stead, he, the said director, his heirs, executors or administrators, will resign to the company or their order, every thing in his hands belonging to the company, as soon as may be, not exceeding one month after his death or removal. And it is hereby agreed, and to be understood, that the company may at any annual meeting in January during the first fourteen years of the term of fifteen years aforesaid, if they shall find it needful, remove one or more of the directors, and choose one or more new directors, in the room or stead of one or more who were directors before; the company giving sufficient security to indemnify the deceased, or

X. Whereas we are very apprehensive that the receiving and passing the bills of the neighbouring governments, which have not any good foundation to secure their value, promis

this province, and very much tend to depreciate these bills, though on the most sure bottom; we the subscribers therefore agree and promise, that we will neither directly nor indirectly, by ourselves nor any for us, receive any bills that shall be emitted hereafter by the neighbouring governments, unless redeemable by silver and gold aforesaid, or that have some solid and equivalent fund. And as to bills heretofore emitted, we agree and promise that we will receive and pass them, with such allowance or discount, as this company shall agree upon by major vote from time to time, at two meetings yearly, the one in the month of January and the other in the month of July; and that we will wholly refuse in all trade and business, and for all debts due, the notes that may be emitted by the subscribers to the bank commonly called the Land Bank or any other scheme of the like nature. And that we will do every thing as much as in us lies, to make this emission a common currency, and prevent these bills being hoarded up or depreciated.

XI. Every subscriber or undertaker shall be obliged at the desire or demand of the company or directors, to give such further and better security as they shall judge needful.

XII. The directors may call a meeting of the company at any time when they shall judge it needful, giving due notice thereof, and shall be obliged to call a meeting at any other time when the undertaker of one quarter part of the sum emitted by the company shall desire it, by writing, under their hands, signifying the occasion of their desire. And it is agreed and understood, that in every meeting of the company before they shall be capable of acting, there shall be present either in person or by proxy, in writing, under the hands of the undertakers, so many as shall make one third part of the sum originally subscribed for.

XIII. The directors shall be allowed and paid fifty pounds each man per annum for their service, besides their allowance for signing the bills, which shall be twenty shillings to each director for every thousand bills he shall sign, and the indorser for signing in the same proportion; and the said -directors shall be allowed a clerk or clerks, and other officers, as shall be judged needful, who shall be paid by the company.

XIV. The directors shall from time to time take care that every undertaker, subscriber or borrower, fully comply with his obligation and on failure shall forthwith put his bond, or other obligation in suit.

XV. The company may at their annual meeting in January make such by-orders and rules, as they shall judge for the benefit of the company; and at any other meeting, provided notice be given of the rule or order desired in the warning for the meeting; always provided that no such rules or orders shall be any way inconsistent with any article or articles in this scheme, which are hereby declared to be fundamental and unalterable.

XVI. The directors shall let to hire no silver or gold belonging to the company at any time in the two last years of the aforesaid term of fifteen years; and shall at the expiration of the fifteen years of said term, pay to every possessor or proprietor of a twenty shilling bill or note of the aforesaid emission, one ounce of coined silver of sterling alloy, or thirtytwo grains and an half of coined standard gold; and to every other possessor or proprietor of a less or greater sum in the same species and proportion at their delivering the said bills or notes to them the directors, upon which they shall be con