in bottle, the gallon, 1s.; cigars and snuff, the pound, 3s.; coffee, chicory, and chocolate, the pound, 2d.; iron, rod, bar, bolt, hoop, and sheet, not otherwise manufactured, the cwt., 1s.; salt, the cwt., 18.; spirits, and strong water of every kind, sweetened or otherwise, of any strength not exceeding the strength of proof by Syke's hydrometer, and so in proportion for any greater strength than the strength of proof, the gallon, 8s.; sugar, raw and refined, of all kinds, and treacle and molasses, the pound, d.; tea, the pound, 3d.; tobacco, the pound, 1s. 3d.; wine, in wood and bottle, containing less than 25 per cent of alcohol of a specific gravity of 825 at temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the gallon, 3s.; wood of all kinds, not manufactured into furniture, the cubic foot, 2d.; boots and shoes, hats, apparel of all kinds, and all materials for making apparel, jewelry, cutlery, clocks, watches, and patent ware, and all silks, woolen, cotton, and linen manufactures, (except corn and gunny bags, and woolpacks,) sperm, stearine, and wax candles, (measuring outside the packages,) the cubic foot, 3s.; all other goods, wares, and merchandise, (measuring outside the packages,) the cubic foot, 18.; or at the option of the principal officer of customs at the port of entry at which the same shall be imported, the cwt., 2s. A drawback of the whole of such duties is allowed for wines intended for the consumption of the officers of her Majesty's troops serving in that colony, and of the officers of her Majesty's navy serving on board any of her Majesty's ships in the seas adjoining thereto. DAMAGE ON MOLASSES. United States Treasury DEPARTMENT, January 15, 1858. SIR-You are informed that so much of the 407th section of the General Regulations, which relates to the allowance for damage on molasses, souring on the voyage, is hereby repealed; and that molasses will hereafter be embraced in the list of articles required by 404th section of said regulations, to be submitted to this Department, for authority for allowance for damage by souring on the voyage. The importers must furnish satisfactory proof that the molasses, when shipped, was sweet, and became sour during the voyage of importation; and, also, the relative market value of sweet and sour molasses at the date of shipment; which proof will be submitted by you to the Department with your report of facts. I am, very respectfully, HOWELL COBB, Secrerary of the Treasury. A. W. AUSTIN, Esq., Collector, &c., Boston, Mass. REGULATIONS OF TOBACCO MANUFACTURERS IN VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA. The Virginia and North Carolina tobacco manufacturers met in convention at Richmond, in the forepart of December, 1857, and adopted resolutions that agents for the sale of manufactured tobacco shall, after the first of July, 1858, limit their credits to four months; shall make no allowance from the actual weights of tobacco; shall state the names of purchasers, and agents shall not deal in manufactured tobacco on their own account, or have any intervention with brokers. It was also resolved to petition Congress to make it felony for the manufacturers and dealers of tobacco in any one State to use the name of any other manufacturer, or the name of any other State, or any other town or district in another State, in branding their tobacco. SALE OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN PHILADELPHIA. The Select and Common Councils of the city of Philadelphia, recently passed an ordinance to regulate the sale of fruits and vegetables in that city, the principal portion of which is as follows: "It shall not be lawful for any person to sell within the limits of the said city any potatoes, tomatoes, peaches, pears, plums, apples, or other fruits or vegetables, requiring measurement by any other measure than the bushel and its divisions; and each bushel of white potatoes to weigh sixty pounds to the bushel, and fifty pounds for sweet potatoes to the bushel, and for each and every sale hereafter made by the basket, or by any other measure or measures than those herein designated, the person or persons making the same shall forfeit and pay the sum of five dollars, to be recovered by suit in the name of the city of Phila delphia, in like manner as similar amounts are now recoverable by law, one-half to be paid into the city treasurer, and the other half to the person or persons prosecuting for the same." JOURNAL OF INSURANCE. MARINE INSURANCE-GENERAL AND PARTICULAR AVERAGE. We herewith publish the synopsis of two cases, under the above title of law, that were recently tried and decided before the Queen's Bench, England. Lord Campbell, Chief Justice. We make use of the report in the Canada Insurance Gazette, which is evidently copied from an English journal. The cases are closely connected, and elucidate an important principle. In both the same question arose, under very similar but distinguishable circumstances, as to what losses are subject to general average, i. e., to proportionable contribution and compensation from the parties interested in the ship and cargo jointly; and what belongs to particular average alone, i. e., are subjects of compensation from that one or more of the above interests alone for whose exclusive benefit the expense of making good the loss was incurred :— In Job. v. Langton, 26 L. J. 97, Q. B., the defendant had underwritten a policy of insurance on a ship of which the plaintiff was owner. While the policy was in force the ship met with an accident and went ashore. Consequently it became necessary to discharge the cargo, which was done; and subsequently the vessel was got off and taken back to port, and repaired at considerable cost. In the meantime the cargo had been forwarded to its destination by another ship; but for the purposes of this case it was agreed that it should be taken to have been so forwarded by the ship in question. The question for the Court on these material facts was, whether the defendant was bound to contribute to the above specified cost as incurred for damages within the policy on the ship, or whether he was entitled to claim an abatement on the principle that such costs were incurred jointly for the benefit of the ship and cargo, and therefore properly apportionable as general average between the parties liable on these distinct interests. The Court held that the loss was one falling under particular average, and belonging exclusively to the owners and underwriters of the ship, and that it was not to be apportioned between the latter and the persons interested in the cargo. Up to the time when the cargo was discharged the loss was one of general average; but as soon as the cargo was discharged the subsequent expenses incurred in making a channel for the ship and tugging her to Liverpool, where she was repaired, were for the benefit exclusively of the ship, as much as the repairs which were admitted to be so. But the Court, in laying down the doctrine, stated that they did so because, according to the special facts, it did not appear to be for the benefit of the cargo that the ship should be got off and repaired. But Lord Campbell, C. J., in delivering the judgment of the Court, said:"We do not say that there may not be a case where, after a fortuitous stranding of the ship and the cargo has been unloaded, expenses voluntarily incurred by the owner of the ship to get her off, and to enable her to complete the voyage, whereby the cargo, which otherwise must have perished, is carried to its destination, may be general average, as the stranding of a ship with a perishable cargo on a desert island in a distant region of the globe. But in the present case the owner of the ship, after the cargo was discharged, appears to us to have done nothing except in the discharge of his ordinary duty as owner, and for the exclusive benefit of the ship." In Moran v. Jones, 29 L. T. Rep. 86, the facts were very similar. The plaintiff was owner of the ship, and had insured freight on a policy underwritten by the defendant. The ship had incurred damage, and part of the cargo had been consequently removed in order to allow of repairs, and when they were completed the unshipped part of the cargo was again shipped. The distinguished point between this part of the case and the preceding case appears to have been in the fact, or inference drawn by the Court, that the cargo had never been actually out of the custody of the master of the ship, and that therefore the repairs subsequently to the removal must be considered as having been made as much for the benefit of the cargo as for that of the ship. The Court held the case to be one of general average, in which the loss must be duly apportioned between all the respective interests, viz., ship, cargo, and freight. The Court said:" In Job v. Langton we considered that the goods had been saved by a distinct and completed operation, and that afterwards a new operation began which could not be properly distinguished from the repairs done to the ship, in order to enable her to pursue the voyage. But in the case on which we have now to adjudicate the goods were put into a lighter by the master of the ship, along with the materials of the ship saved from the wreck, and they remained in the custody and under the control of the master till the ship was repaired, when they were reloaded in the ship and carried forward, without the interference of the owners of the goods, to their destined port." PAYMENT ON DIVIDENDS BY INSURANCE COMPANIES IN CANADA. We give below the substance of an act relating to all the insurance companies of Canada. Its principle feature is that no dividend or bonus be declared or paid, unless from the surplus earnings or profits arising or made from the business of such companies, over and above their paid-up capital : "If the managers, directors, or trustees of any fire, life, marine, or other assurance company, incorporated by the Legislature of Canada, or of Upper Canada or Lower Canada, shall declare and pay any dividend or bonus, out of the paidup capital of said company, or when the company is insolvent, or which would render it insolvent, or which would diminish the amount of its capital stock, such managers, directors, or trustees who may be present when such dividend or bonus shall have been declared, and which said dividend shall be paid, shall be jointly and severally liable for all the debts of the company then existing, and for all that shall be thereafter contracted while they shall respectively continue in office; provided always that if any of such managers, directors, or trustees, shall object to the declaration of such dividend or bonus, or to the payment of the same, and shall at any time before the time fixed for the payment thereof, file a written statement of such objections in the office of the company, and also in the registry office of the city, town, or county where such company is situated, such managers, directors, or trustees shall be exempt from such liability." PHILADELPHIA INSURANCE COMPANIES. We give a list of the Philadelphia Insurance Companies, which specifies the date of the organization of each, its authorized capital, subscribed capital, paidup capital, and assets, deriving it from a table in the New York Insurance Monitor, prepared in September, 1857, by its editor, who remarks, that "in the absence of any official returns from Philadelphia companies, we give the amount of paid-up capital or assets as stated by the several companies on inquiring at their offices." We omit a column of his table which specifies the "kind of busi ness done" by each company, as this is generally indicated by the name of the company; but we have compiled from the column, a summary, viz. :-The whole number of companies enumerated is 49, and they are thus classified :--Fire, Marine, and Inland, 22; Fire only, 14; Fire, buildings only, 2, (the first two in the list ;) Fire and Life, 1; Fire and Live Stock, 1; Fire and Life, Marine and Inland, 1; Life, Trust, and Annuities, 3; Life and Trust, 2; Marine and Inland, 3--each of which is of the "Mutual" class. Besides the above, there are a few district Mutual Fire Companies doing a limited local business in insurance on buildings : Date of organ'n. Name of Company. Authorized Subscribed Paid-up capital 1752 Philadelphia Contributionship . American Life Insurance and T. Co... 1850 U. States Life Insurance, A. and Tr. Co. 1851 Poiladelphia Insurance Company... 1853 Independent Mutual Insurance Co.... 1853 Equitable Mutual Insurance Company.. 1853 Girard Fire and Marine Insurance Co.. 1853 Commercial Mutual...... 1810 American Fire Insurance Company... 1827 Franklin Fire Insurance Company.... 1854 Commonwealth Insurance Company.. 1851 Anthracite Insurance Company. 1852 Hope Mutual..... 1851 Western Insurance Company.. 1854 Phila. Mutual Fire and Live Stock.. 1854 Merchants' Insurance Company. 1854 Mechanics' Insurance Company. 1855 Merchants' and Mechanics'.. 1855 Farmers' and Mechanics' 1856 Continental.. 1,000,000 1856 Howard Fire and Marine... 1856 Quaker City Fire and Marine. 1756 Fame Fire.. 1857 City Fire. 1857 Kensington Mut. Fire and Mar. Ins. Co. 1856 Neptune Insurance Company. * Assets. + Formerly Odd Fellows Mutual, CREDITS ON MARINE RISKS IN PHILADELPHIA. We learn that the Board of Underwriters of Philadelphia have adopted a new scale of credits to be allowed on marine risks, which is essentially as follows:— On single risks, “to or from ports in the United States or British Provinces," the credits to be reduced from three to two months. "Out and home, on same risks," from four to three months. On risks to or from the west coast of America, and to the Sandwich Islands," or vice versa, the credit to be four months instead of six months. "Out and home," six months instead of eight months. On open policies, "from all foreign ports to ports in the United States," six months. On all inland open policies a credit of eight months. All open policies when full, to be closed until a new credit be opened. Premiums under $50 to be considered as due in cash, but when the accumulated premiums of any one party, during any one month, exceed $50, a credit of two months may be allowed. All premiums to be settled, according to contract, before the delivery of the policy. Premiums for time risks, for one year on vessels, to be settled by two notes-one-half the amount at six months, and the other half at twelve months; and in case of non-payment at maturity of the first note falling due, then the policy thereafter to be void and of no force. The same rule to be applied to all risks of shorter periods than twelve months. POSTAL DEPARTMENT. EXTENSIVE USE OF POSTAGE STAMPS AND STAMPED ENVELOPS. From the annual report of the Postmaster-General of the United States for 1857, we learn how extensive has become the use of postage stamps and stamped envelops. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1857, the gross revenue (exclusive of $700,000 from government for franked matter) was $7,353,951 76; of which $5,447,764 51, or somewhat more than three-fourths of the whole, were from "stamps sold "—this item including stamped envelops. The receipts from "letter postage" were $983,207 24. The expenses during the same year for postage stamps amounted to $30,638 80, and for stamped envelops, $63,597 74. From another source we have the subjoined statistics, which have the appearance of authenticity. According to this account, the number and value of stamps contracted for by the Post-office Department from January 1 to September 30, 1857, were as follows: Or, in all, over one hundred and thirty millions of stamps, equal to three million six hundred thousand dollars. MAILS FOR CENTRAL AMERICA, (PACIFIC SLOPE.) We are requested by the Post-office Department to direct public attention to the arrangement made in January, 1857, for dispatching a regular monthly mail to San Jose de Guatemala, La Union, Acajulta, Realejo, San Juan del Sur, and Punta Arenas, seaports on the Pacific slope of Central America. This mail is |