amount, of $9,337,851, attributable to the fact that mortgages and consigned goods, together with the shipping as registered in the Custom-house, have been included in the personal property, for the first time, this year. The item of “steamers, vessels, and sailing craft," alone amounts to $1,637,400. The highest single assessment on the books is to the California Steam Navigation Company, $565,000-the taxes on which amount to $12,955.

The assessments on this year's rate of taxation, is two dollars and thirty cents on the hundred-of which seventy cents belong to the State, thirty-five cents to the free common schools, and the balance of one dollar and twenty-five cents will be appropriated to the payment of the interest, and to the sinking funds for the liquidation of the bonded debts, and to the payment of the current municipal expenses. This entire collection will therefore be thus set apart :

The auditor, in his last annual report, estimates the demands on the treasury, for the current year, as under :--For the bonded debts, $263,383; for school fund and current expenses, $340,500; total expenses, 1857-58, $603,783. To which must be added-for the bonded debts, 1856-57, $65,200; for outstanding indebtedness, 1856-57, $133,467; total estimated expenses, $802,250. To meet the above expenditures are the following sources of revenue, viz.:-The city and county taxes, 1857-58, $635,298; licenses, fines, rents, etc., 1857-58, $150,000; city and county taxes, 1856-57, $249,675; estimated total revenue, $1,035,973; estimated total expenses, $802,450; overplus, $232,523.

The above figures justify the gratifying conclusion that, if property owners will do their duty, the city's embarrassments will end with this fiscal year. In the estimated sources of revenue, we have not included the taxes delinquent prior to the existence of the present consolidated city and county government, (July 1, 1856.) as they are payable in the indebtedness of 1855-56, which will, it is anticipated, considerably more than absorb the entire floating debt of that year, both city and county.

ACT IN RELATION TO SAVINGS BANKS IN NEW YOKK.

The following act passed both branches of the Legislature of New York March 20th, 1857, and having been approved by the Governor, is now in force :

SECTION 1. The several savings banks or institutions for savings now incorporated, or which may hereafter be incorporated, shall, on or before the twentyfifth day of January and on or before the twenty-fifth day of July, in each year, make a report in writing to the Superintendent of the Bank Department, of the condition of such savings banks or institutions for savings, on the first days of January and July; which report shall be verified by the oath of the two principal officers thereof; and shall state therein the total amount due to depositors; the total amount of assets of every kind; the principal sum of each and every bond and mortgage, with the estimated value of the property on which it is based; the amount invested in stock, designating each particular kind of stock, and the estimated market value of the same; the amount loaned upon the security of stock, with a description of all stocks so held; the amount, if any, loaned on personal securities; the amount invested in real estate; the amount of cash on hand, or on deposit in bank, with the names of the banks where deposited, and the amount placed in each; and the amount loaned or deposited in any other manner than herein described. The report of January in each year, shall, in addition, also state the number of open accounts; the amount deposited, and the amount withdrawn; also, the amount of interest received, and the amount placed to the credit of depositors during the year preceding the date of such report.

Any willful false swearing in respect to such reports, shall be deemed perjury, and subject to the punishments prescribed by law for that offense. And if any savings bank or institution for savings, shall tail to furnish to the Superintendent of the Banking Department, its report at the times herein stated, it shall forfeit the sum of one hundred dollars per day for every day such report shall be so delayed; and the said superintendent may maintain an action in his name of office to recover such penalty, and when collected, the same shall be paid into the Treasury of the State.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the Superintendent of the Bank Department, on or before the twentieth day of February in each year, to communicate to the Legislature a statement of the condition of every savings bank and institution for savings from which reports have been received for the preceding year; and to suggest any amendments in the laws relative to savings banks or institutions for savings, which in his judgment may be necessary or proper to increase the security of depositors.

SEC. 3. Whenever any savings bank or institution for savings shall fail to make a report in compliance with this act, or whenever the Superintendent of the Banking Department shall have reason to believe that any savings bank or institution for savings is loaning or investing money in violation of its charter or of law, or conducting business in an unsafe manner, it shall be his duty, either in person, or by one or more competent persons by him appointed, to examine their affairs; and whenever it shall appear to the Superintendent, from such examination, that any savings bank or institution for savings has been guilty of a violation of its charter or of law, he shall communicate the fact to the AttorneyGeneral, whose duty it shall then become to institute such proceedings against said savings bank or institution for savings, as are now authorized in the case of insolvent corporations. The expense of any such examination shall be paid by the savings bank or institution for savings so examined, in such amount as the Superintendent of the Banking Department shall certify to be just and reason

able.

SEC. 4. No savings banks shall hereafter be required to make an annual report to the Legislature, any provisions in their charter to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. 5. The Superintendent of the Banking Department is hereby authorized to employ, from time to time, so many clerks as may be necessary to discharge the duties hereby imposed; the salary of said clerks shall be paid to them monthly, on his certificate, and upon the warrant of the Controller, out of the treasury; and it shall be the duty of the said Superintendent, in his annual report to the Legislature, to state the names of the clerks so employed, and the compensation allowed to them severally..

SEC. 6. It shall be the duty of the Superintendent to collect all the expenses incurred in the performance of the duty hereby imposed, including the salaries of the clerks, and such expenses shall be defrayed and paid by the savings banks and institutions for savings in proportion to the amount of deposits held by them severally, and when collected, the same shall be paid into the Treasury of the State. If any savings bank or institution for savings shall, after due notice, refuse or neglect to pay its proper share of said charges so allotted, then the said Superintendent may maintain an action in his name of office against such savings bank or institution for savings, for the recovery of such charges.

BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1837, 1847, AND 1857.

From the annual report for 1857, by the Secretary of the Treasury, on the condition of the banks throughout the Union, to which are appended tables for a series of years, we have compiled the following statistics, which present a comparative view of the principal features in the reports of the banks in 1837, 1847, and 1857-the returns being made near the 1st January in each year. We have

made the compilation with especial reference to the relative condition of the banks just before the suspension of specie payments in 1837 and 1857, with which we have introduced the statistics of the intermediate decennial period of 1847, when the financial condition of the country was much depressed. The suspensions in New York, which were immediately followed by the banks throughout the Union, took place on 10th May, 1837, and 14th October, 1857 :—

THE PROFITS OF JOINT STOCK BANKS IN LONDON.

It appears from the reports of the three joint stock banks, recently made, that their profits exceed all former statements. The London and Westminster (which has been, from its commencement, under the management of our esteemed friend, JAMES WILLIAM GILBART, the author of several very able works on the history and principles of banking) divided 18 per cent, with a surplus of £10,271; the Union Bank divided 25 per cent, with a surplus of £16,226; and the London Joint Stock divided 22 per cent, with a surplus of £9,246. The capital of the first named is £1,000,000 sterling, and of the other two, £600,000 each. With this small amount of capital, little more than £2,000,000 sterling altogether, the three banks hold deposits amounting in the aggregate to the enormous sum of £35,473,000, viz. :—

London and Westminster...
Union.

Joint Stock.

£13,900,000

10,875,000

10,698,000

These figures show an increase of more than six millions sterling upon the corresponding period of last year. The private deposits of the Bank of England are much less than the lowest of the above, which is most likely attributable to the high rate of interest allowed by these establishments.

STATISTICS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE.

PRICES OF ELEVEN ARTICLES FOR FORTY YEARS.

(PREPARED FOR THE MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE BY DAVID M. balfour, esq., of Boston, Mass.)

The figures in the subjoined table indicate the wholesale prices on the 1st day of January in each year. In all cases where the articles are dutiable, short price is indicated. Coffee and tea have been admitted free of duty since 1833:

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS FROM 1789 TO 1857.

(PREPARED FOR THE MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE BY DAVID M. BALFOUR, ESQ., OF BOSTON.)

1832 M'ch 3d, 1833, to Aug. 30, 1842 1,242,292,887 1,115,617,653 126,675,234
1842 Aug. 30, 1842, to Dec. 1, 1846 481,543,718-
1846 Dec'r 1, 1846, to J'ne 30, 1857 2,505,168,646 2,429,157,209

Total.

$7,635,535,474 $6,861,603,257 $790,898,033 $16,965,816 $288,855,478 $470,809,342 $79,152,103 $269,105,967