6.--The Age; a Colloquial Satire. By PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, author of “Festus." 12mo., pp. 208. Boston: Ticknor & Field. We have neither had the patience nor the time to wade through this satirical production of Mr. Bailey's, and are, therefore, not well qualified to say much concerning it, more than that his shafts seem directed, pretty generally, at humanity, occupying nearly every estate of human life. But we opine Mr. Bailey has found it as hard to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues. For instance, the critics, those lampooners, of whom he says "Writers in whose narrow views All high is false, all low life only true; Who own no taste as sound, nor purpose valid, Like leopards lick and paw each other's faces." These are parlous words, Mr. Dissectors, and we advise you to take a back seat forthwith, for he is evidently after you with a sharp quill. 7.—Shamah in Pursuit of Freedom; or, the Branded Hand. Translated from the original Showiah by an American citizen. 12mo., pp. 600. New York: Thatcher & Hutchinson. This narrative appears to be a series of letters by the chief of a tribe of Kabyles, who inhabit the high regions among the mountains of Algiers, addressed to his brother, while on a tour of travel and adventure in the United States. The translator says of this people, that morally and physically speaking, the Kabyles are among the noblest in the world, imbued as they are with a passionate love of liberty, which, though often assailed, has never yet been overthrown by any neighboring power; and of Shamah himself, that he is a self-made man, opening rare and profound depths of thought, and sometimes even disturbing deep fountains of wisdom, with no other guide than the few books that come in his way to direct him. For ourselves, we can discover no such high attributes in the chevalier, more than a somewhat musical flow of language, mixed up with a great deal of unreal and high-wrought sentiment, which would go to proclaim Shamah rather a clever Lothario than a practical philosopher, who views things in the true light in which he finds them. 8.-Courtship and Matrimony: with other Sketches from Scenes and Experiences in Social Life, particularly adapted to Every-day Reading. By ROBERT MORRIS. 12mo., pp. 508. Philadelphia: T. B. Peterson & Brother. We have been most agreeably disappointed in our examination of this book, supposing, from its title, it to be one of the many ephemeral publications that have become so common on this and kindred subjects, whose wretched sophistry is fruitful of the most pernicious influences; but, on the contrary, we find it as far from fraud as heaven is from earth, wrought in gold, breathing forth a spirit of clear, common sense, and presenting life in its purest and most practical aspects. It is in every respect a family book-one intended for every-day reading--one which no family, especially those who have children growing up around them, should be without--and one which cannot be perused without inspiring more or less good feeling and sensible reflection in the minds of all who look into it. MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE. Established July, 1839, by Freeman Hunt. VOLUME XXXIX. NOVEMBER, 1858. NUMBER V. ART. CONTENTS OF NO. V., VOL. XXXIX. ARTICLES. PAGE L CONSIDERATIONS IN REGARD TO STEAM ON THE ERIE CANAL. The State Policy-Why Steam has been Ignored so Long-The Large, Full, Duck-breasted Bow, with the Diminutive Propeller-blades, is as unfit for Marine Locomotion as the Dog is for Swimming-The Increased Duty of a Proper Mechanical System of Propulsion We Need to Know the Want of Mechanical Fitness-The full efficiency of the small Quantity of Power by Horse-A given Quantity of Power by Horse costs many times the same Quantity by Steam-The Chief of the Power of the Steam is now Anti-mechanically Wasted-The great Requirement for Canal Propulsion-System Required for Canal Transportation-Three Classes-First and Second Classes must have Builds better Constructed for Speed-Relative Moving Powers at Different Speeds - Steam is a Financial Necessity to the State-Limitation in Living Ability of New York Central Railroad to Carry Freight, etc., etc. By H. BOYNTON, Esq., of New York.. 531 II. SUGAR: ITS PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION. General State of Trade-Effects of Exchanges-Introduction in Europe-Its Dissemination -Transplanted to AmericaGrowth in the Islands - Brazil and Louisiana-Two Chemical Sugars -Several Sorts of Each-Cane Sugar, its Total Product-Palm Sugar-Maple Sugar-Beet-root-Beet-root Production in France-Total Product of sugars-Production of Cane and Beet-root Sugars -Beet-root in the Zollverein-Beet-root Sugar in France-Yield of Cane and Beet Sugar per Acre-Philippine Islands-Mauritius-Bourbon-Want of Labor -SorghoConsumption of Sugar-Extension in France-Chemical Sugar-Markets for SugarLouisiana-Fluctuation-Consumption in the United States-Price-Import and Domestic Growth-Consumption per head in G. B., France, and U. S.-Future Consumption... 545 III CAUSES OF THE RECENT COMMERCIAL DISTRESS: WITH REFERENCE TO THE LAWS FOR REGULATING THE ISSUE OF BANK NOTES. Currency Question-Law of 1819-Long Discussion-A Sovereign-Fixing Valne-Nature of a PromiseBank of England Charter-Committee Ordered - Names of Committee-Report-Increase of Gold in Europe-Remission of Duties-Increase of Circulation-Small Notes-Silver Coin-Large Notes-Joint-stock Banks-Small Deposits-Foreign Trade-Import of Gold -Economy of Capital-Bullion in Bank-Exports of 1853-Russian War-Gold Hoarded in the East-Act of 1844-Course of Trade-Affairs, August, 1857-American NewsSuspensions in New York-Bank Failures-Alarm in London-Bill-brokers-1847 and 1857-Affairs of Thirty Houses-Abuses of Credits-Failure of Five Houses-Individual Incapacity-Monetary Alarm-Government Action-No system of Currency Perfect.... 558 IV. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. No. LVIIL DAVENPORT, IOWA. Situation of Davenport-River Connections-Back CountryRailroad Connections-Wealth of Iowa-Length of Railroads-Buildings in DavenportGas-Population - Expenditure Aggregate Business Banking - Analysis-ales of Merchandise-Local Business-Crops-Wheat-Barley-Grain and Provisions - Commission Business-Increase of Crops - Low Prices-Manufactures-Board of Trade ReportLumber Trade-Freight-River Tonnage-Bridge-Railroads and Navigation-Comparative Business-The Future. V. AN EAST INDIES TO THE UNITED STATES. European Population - No Great Wars-Men Absorbed by Colonies-Emigrants more Valuable than soldiers-Wise Government Policy-No Fighting-men-Value of Colonies-Hardships of the West-Importance of Islands - Poverty of the Professions-Want of United States Colonies-Importance of South America-Prosperity of Australia. By J. C. BATTERSBY, ESQ, of New York 568 VI. GARBLINGS: OR, COMMERCIAL COMMODITIES CHARACTERIZED. No. XI. TEA. Character of the Plant-How Cultivated-Times of Gathering-Varieties of Tea -Processes of Preparation - Scenting-Character of the Chief Varieties-Varieties of Green and Black-Uses and Constitutional Effects-National Use-Universal Influence of Tea--Chemical Constituents-Physiological Effects--Nutritive Properties--TheineClimatic Adaptation - Suited to the United States - Counterfeits and Adulterations -Poisons, how to detect them JOURNAL OF MERCANTILE LAW. Power of Brokers to Sell or Pledge.. Liquor Law in Massachusetts 562 571 577 578 579 580 COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW. State of Business--Bank Balances--Increase of Means in New York-No Speculative Bank Loans Clearing house- New York and Philadelphia-- Comparative Loans-ClearingsStocks and Rents--Specie-Abundance of Money--Bank of France--Rate of Interest-Bank of Great Britain-Movement of Crops and Specie--Large Accumulation-Diminution of Currency-Disposition of Specle--Means for the Future--Exchanges--Export of Specie--Assayoffice-Table of Exports-Nature of Specie Exported--Federal Treasury--Prospects of New Loan-Stagnation of Business-Currency-Suffolk Bank-Course of Imports............582-590 VOL. XXXIX.-NO. V. 34 JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. Specie in the United States City Weekly Bank Returns-Banks of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Providence, Pittsburg, St. Louis. Condition of the Banks of Massachusetts from 1854 to 1858. Boston Bank Dividends-1857 and 1858.. Public Debt of Massachusetts at the Periods Named.--Finances of Tennessee.. PAGE 590 592 593 596 598 599 600 Valuation of Taxable Property in Kings County, New York.. STATISTICS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE. Cotton Crop of the United States.... Value of Produce of the Interior at New Orleans.-Fisheries of Massachusetts Commerce of Memphis, Tennessee.--Export of Cotton from Mobile. COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. General Regulations to Collectors........ Casks of American Manufacture. Labels.-"Cudbear."--Root of Quick Grass.. Ground Peas or Pea Nuts... Empty Chronometer Boxes.--Books Imported by American Tract Society. Class, Cut........ New Lighthouse at Barnegat, New Jersey.... 601 602 604 605 608 609 610 611 (12 612 613 613 618 Beacons on Points Hayley and Bunbury, Australia.-Light at Rio de la Hacha, New Granada.. 614 Lights on High Whitby-England, East Coast..... NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. Range Lights on the North Front of Amelia Island, Florida... Fixed Light at Reggio--Mediterranean, Coasts of Italy and Greece... New Jersey Insurance Law.--Fire Insurance...... Postages.-Telegraphic Communication in Great Britain. RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. Memphis and Charleston Railroad Company.-Sale of the Pennsylvania Canals.. JOURNAL OF MINING, MANUFACTURES, AND ART. STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE, &c. Railway Iron Mills at Brady's Bend, Pa-Facts about Type-founding. Improvement in Manufactures Ninth Annual Ohio State Fair Economical Hints to Farmers.-Sugar Crop of Louisiana.. Vintage of France.--Silk in Austria.... Agriculture in Illinois.. Population of Different Countries.. Population of Cuba.-Population of France........ Obituary of a Boston Merchant 659 STATISTICS OF POPULATION, &c. 641 642 643 MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES. 645 645 648 649 Making and Saving Money. The Coal Trade Five Hundred Years ago.-British East India Company.. HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. NOVEMBER, 1858. Art. I. CONSIDERATIONS IN REGARD TO STEAM ON THE ERIE CANAL. THE STATE POLICY-WHY STEAM HAS BEEN IGNORED SO LONG-THE LAEGE, FULL, DUCK-BREASTED BOW, WITH THE DIMINUtive propelLER-BLADES, IS AS UNFIT FOR MARINE LOCOMOTION AS THE DOG IS FOR SWIMMING-THE INCREASED DUTY OF A PROPER MECHANICAL SYSTEM OF PROPULSION -WE NEED TO KNOW THE WANT OF MECHANICAL FITNESS-THE FULL EFFICIENCY OF THE SMALL QUANTITY OF POWER BY HORSE-A GIVEN QUANTITY OF POWER BY HORSE COSTS MANY TIMES THE SAME QUANTITY BY STEAM-THE CHIEF OF THE POWER OF THE STEAM IS NOW ANTI-MECHANICALLY WASTED-THE GREAT REQUIREMENT FOR CANAL PROPULSION—SYSTEM REQUIRED FOR CANAL TRANSPORTATION-THREE CLASSES-FIRST AND SECOND CLASSES MUST HAVE BUILDS BETTER CONSTRUCTED FOR SPEED-RELATIVE MOVING POWERS AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS-STEAM IS A FINANCIAL NECESSITY TO THE STATE LIMITATION IN LIVING ABILITY OF NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD TO CARRY FREIGHT-HYPOTHESIS UPON WHICH THE STEAM SYSTEM IS CLASSIFIED-THE SUCCESS BY CANAL STEAMERS IS THUS FAR UNDER THE UTILIZED POWER OF ONE-FOURTH TO ONE-THIRD OF THE STEAM-INFIDELITY AS TO THE PRIMARY STEPS OF TRUE PROG RESS-ESTIMATE OF PROFITS ON THE BASIS OF FLOUR BY STEAM AT PRICES BELOW THE LIVING ABILITY OF RAILWAYSRELATIVE PROFITS BY HORSE AND STEAM-THE HYPOTHETICAL INCOMPLETENESS DOES NOT INVALIDATE ITS RELIABILITY-STEAM CAN ACCOMPLISH WHAT IS HERE SET FORTH. THE most immediately important subject touching the great internal commercial interests of this State, as the gateway between the Atlantic and the Northwestern Lakes, has been presented to the public by recently occurring events in the trials of steam upon the canal, and which is an initiatory step of commanding importance, more by virtue of drawing attention to the subject, which attention will carry it forward to success, than by virtue of the actual attainments yet made by the trials by steam, which trials are more valuable for showing what they cannot do, than for showing what they have done or can do. It is one of the singular events of commercial history that the great outlet of the commerce of the Northwestern Lakes has withstood the progress of steam, and forbade it its waters so long, and that capitalists and the State have enjoyed the advantages of steam on all other thoroughfares, than upon that one which alone floats more freight between tide-water and the "great water-shed" of the Northwest than all other State resources by far; and than upon that one which alone could hold its being with a breath of vitality, drawing such breath by the slow, costly, incompetent, and inefficient tread of the horse and the mule, as day and night they have these long years, outnumbering a generation of commercial men, toiled to bring to this city its life-giving necessities, and the chief support of its immense commerce. It is the more strange that steam has been ignored for the canal, because of its universal notoriety for cheapness of motive power, the economy of which, in such of the useful arts as have used it under the most perfect mechanical development, for a single one hundred pounds of coal, has done the equivalent work of ten horses for eight consecutive hours. The costs are, therefore, as 100 pounds of coal to the keeping of 10 horses per day. The State policy of the past is now written stupid and shortsighted for incompetency to put steam successfully upon the canal, and for suffering steam overland-by virtue of steam over horse and mule power-to encroach upon the rights of the canal, by bringing from the lakes in years just passed, as regards shipments from Buffalo, nineteen-twentieths of the flour, and to soon claim wheat and corn also by scores of millions of bushels. But the canal has a birthright inheritance which should not be slothfully and shamefully sacrificed by the State to foster the prejudices due to the favor of some ten thousand horses and mules, instead of superseding them by some two thousand engines, which can do from 50 to 100 per cent more work, at less than present cost, and in much less time of transit. The encroachments by the several competing routes to the Atlantic having already compelled large reduction in rates of toll per ton, in order to save to the canal, by thus soliciting freight, a living revenue, are also dictating terms to the State and canal interests generally, in regard to the great carrying trade of the West. These facts, with the recent enthusiasm properly engendered by the instructive tendencies of the few canal steamers, coupled with the fact that the railways are now carrying large quantities of freight at prices per ton considerably below the amount charged in their reports for three years past to their expense account for freight, call loudly upon those who will nurture and sustain the immense constructive expenditure by the State, and its increasing liability for its enlargement, to control the present and the increasing demands of the inter-commerce of the West and the Atlantic, by the proper substitution of the economy of steam for the expensive motor now used. The true cause why steam has been ignored so long, is because the mechanical means of applying it has not been such as to bring out and establish its true and highest economy; for the common paddle-wheel, whether upon the sides or at the stern, or screw propeller, has not been so constructed-and because they are, neither of them, adapted to such construction as to give an area of retrograde action upon the water nearly approximating to a sufficiency for a fulcrum from which to move the boat-the full duck-breasted bows of a canal-boat, five feet or more under water, requires a large and adequate fulcrum action upon the water, in order to cause the bow displacement. It is not far from a correct, common-sense view of the case, to look at the submerged bow of a full loaded boat, and then at the diminutive blades of the screw of the Cathcart or those of the Sternberg, and say, what can |
