How can it be expected that a merchant will attend to instructions that would in many cases have a direct tendency to injure the business in which he is engaged? His knowledge of the sources and facilities of trade are a part, and a most valuable part, of his capital. If his observation and experience qualify him to make those suggestions which the department requires, his interests will strongly dictate his silence; and the information which, if generally diffused, would be available to many, will be sacrificed to subserve the narrow purposes of a few. The position of a consul, particularly in the ports of semi-civilized nations, makes him frequently the only possible correspondent of our merchants at home. It is often the case that our enterprising commercial men, anxious to extend their business, to find out other channels, or open new sources of trade, seek the necessary information of the consuls who are upon the spot, or who are nearest to the proposed scene of action; of course they are entirely at the mercy of an interested man. If engaged in the same business, is it at all likely that he will encourage the interference of a strangerthat he will freely communicate correct information as to the nature and prospects of the proposed trade-the kind and quality of goods proper for the market, and the best methods of conducting the business? It is not necessary that he should state any thing that is positively false. The sensitiveness of capital is proverbial. Like the well-known plant which folds its leaves at the lightest touch, it shrinks and contracts beneath even the slightest breath of discouragement. The determination to the adventure is perhaps but half formed. There is a disposition to do something, modified by a general idea of its practicability, and profound ignorance of its details. An answer is received from the consul; no one statement in it is perhaps incorrect, but the prospects of profit are touched upon lightly, and the difficulties and obstacles forcibly depicted. The general tone of the answer is against the proposed investment, and the scheme, which perhaps if carried into effect might have been eminently successful, is dropped. The experience of a number of our merchants at home will verify the truth of this remark, and the experience of our consuls abroad could furnish countless instances. We think it not too much to assert that fully one half of them have had opportunities—we do not say that they have improved them—to increase their own business, or that of the house for whom they act as agent, at the expense of the general interests of the country; to exercise the influence of their office in obstructing the establishment of rivals, and to nip in the bud the shoots of commercial enterprise, which if suffered to take root and to spread forth their branches, might in the end overshadow the little shrubs which they have themselves planted.

Another and a sufficient reason for debarring consuls from engaging in business, and for confining them to the duties of their consulate, is, that these last, when properly performed, are fully sufficient to occupy the whole of their time and attention. Government would then have a right to insist upon the rigid performance of the general duties of the consulate. The corps might then reasonably be expected to make itself master of a complete knowledge of the countries through which it is distributed. Every department of physical science could be placed within the scope of its observation. Natural history in all its branches, geography, meteorology, agriculture, manufactures, commercial customs and laws, peculiar features of political and social institutions, character of the people, and in fact every

thing that, however remotely, can have the slightest bearing upon any of the great interests of our country. What a mass of well-digested information could thus be collected, available to the government of the United States, both in conduct of its foreign relations, and in its domestic legisla tion, and useful to the whole people! Consuls would be foreign agents of public instruction, as well as guardians of commerce. The results of their observation and industry could be rapidly disseminated, and their collections and illustrations in time adorn the museums and laboratories of every college and school in the country. The French are deriving in this way the greatest possible advantage from their consular establishment. Their consuls are salaried agents, confined to the duties of their office, which are diversified, onerous, and rigidly performed. The English have also long since perceived the imperfections of their former system, and no longer allow persons filling consular offices to engage in other pursuits.

This last observation suggests another objection to a combination of the business of consul and merchant. It is the loss of that respect and consideration which attaches to the consulates of other powers. In this particular we are compelled to take the notions of foreigners as we find them. We must yield to what we cannot alter. The consuls of other nations, supported by salaries from their governments and rendered independent of trade with its ceaseless turmoils and vexatious details, consider themselves to have greater dignity, and have conceded to them by the authorities of the country in which they reside, a higher official elevation and more social consideration than is given to the American members of the corps. It must be acknowledged that there is something very undignified and incongruous in the position of our consuls. One hour strutting in municipal processions, or flourishing at diplomatic dinners and levees, in all the glories of chapeau, epaulettes, and small-sword, and the next fighting with some obdurate Yankee skipper for his miserable fees; now defending the cause of an injured American citizen, and anon interrupted to dispose of a piece of sheeting or a barrel of sugar.

Should this great reformation in our consular system be effected, it will be essential that the method of compensation by fees should be changed. In more than one half of the ports where it is necessary to have consuls, the fees are insufficient to furnish a bare subsistence, while in a few others they reach an amount far beyond a proper support or a fair remuneration for the labor for which they are collected. The whole plan is fraught with the most injurious consequences. Upon this point Mr. Livingston strongly expresses himself. He says, "the subject is one that has engaged my close attention since I have had the direction of the department, and I have no hesitation in giving a decided opinion that the exaction of fees has been the source of misunderstandings between our consuls and masters of vessels, injurious to the reputation of the country-that it is degrading to the officer who is obliged to wrangle for them-is unequal in its operations-oppressive to our commerce, and ought either to be wholly abolished or so modified as to make the operation of the system more equal, by apportioning the amount to the size of the vessel, or if possible to the value of the cargo."

All consular fees are taxes upon commerce, and the question is justly asked, why such taxes are imposed? Are they just? Are they equal? Are they easily collected? Why should commerce, which already bears a great proportion of the expense of government, be taxed for the support of

a particular set of officers? To this last the report to which we have alluded conclusively replies, that it is no answer that those who derive the benefit should pay the expense. "It is not for the sole benefit of the ships which touch at a consular port that the consular office is created, the whole country is interested in the establishment. The concerns of its general commerce, the protection of its citizens abroad, its reputation is concerned. But the principle itself is a false one. Public offices are established for the general good, and though particular individuals may have more occasion for the exercise of these functions than others, yet those who are under the necessity of applying for their interposition never can with justice be exclusively taxed for the expense of the department which is organized for their protection. The judge receives a salary, yet not one tenth of the community are suitors in his court. So of all the salaried offices of government. All the exceptions to the rule are abuses. The evils of such a system are apparent. The question of compensation varies according to the place and circumstances of the time. It can rarely be accurately known. The collection gives rise to illegal exactions and oppressions, to disputes, to the loss of official dignity, to the suspicion of bad motives where even they do not exist. In no case are these evils more apparent than in the case of consuls. At a distance from all superintendence, they have greater opportunities for illegal exactions, and that very circumstance makes them more liable to suspicion."

An argument may perhaps be drawn in favor of the continuance of the exaction of fees, from the wants of the treasury. When the change was so strenuously urged by the secretary, the receipts of the customhouse were fully sufficient to defray the expenses of the government; now with an empty treasury, many who would otherwise advocate the measure, might object to add to the burdens of the government the comparatively trifling sum of two hundred thousand dollars-the sum which would be required to support an efficient consular establishment. This argument, which is of but temporary importance, can however have no influence upon the question of prohibiting consuls from engaging in business, and of compensating them by regular salaries. If the government, in its necessities, is compelled to continue these exactions upon commerce, let them be collected and paid into the treasury. The consular fees will more than balance the expenses of a salaried corps, and the government will be able to pocket something by the change.

We have not the means at hand of knowing the precise number of consuls employed. As our commerce expands itself, the number must of course be increased. At the time of Mr. Livingston's report, their number was stated at one hundred and fifty-six, and it was proposed to classify them as follows:

$60,000

126,000

Thirty consuls, with salaries averaging $2,000 One hundred and twenty-six vice-consuls and commercial agents, with salaries averaging $1,000 A hasty calculation convinces us that forty consuls would be none too many. They should be divided into three classes as to their pay, which should be regulated partly by the general importance of their stations, but principally by the expenses of living. The first class might receive $2,500; the second $2,000; and the last $1,500. Twenty-five hundred dollars in Liverpool or London may be considered nearly an equivalent to two thousand in Havana and Marseilles, or fifteen hundred in Malaga or

Cadiz. In case the fees that are now exacted are continued, the consul might in addition be allowed a small per centage upon his collections, in no case to exceed $5.00. Thus, while independent of the fees, he would have an inducement to collect them for the government, and his pay would in a slight degree depend upon a portion of the actual labor performed.

The office of vice-consul, now we believe unknown to our laws, ought to be created, and its powers and duties, as in the case of consuls, accurately defined. Their salaries might vary with propriety from eight to twelve hundred dollars, with a small per centage upon their collections.

Commercial agents would form a third class. They should be regularly commissioned upon the nomination of the head of the consulate within whose bounds they reside, and their duties and rank in relation to consuls and vice-consuls established by law. Their compensation might be from two to five hundred dollars, without prohibition of other business.

It strikes us that a novel feature might also be added to the system which would very much increase its efficiency, in the appointment of two or three officers, who might be styled consular superintendents. They would be the mere agents of the department of state, or the consular bureau, for collection of information in relation to the true state of the various consulates; a means by which the government could exercise that surveillance over its officers abroad that it does over its officers at home. Consuls are much less under the eye of the appointing power-much less under the espionage of the public press and party jealousy, and consequently much more exposed to temptations to official misconduct than officers who reside at home. They are more free to neglect their duties or abuse their powers. The superintendents should have power to enter the consulates, examine the records and accounts, ferret out abuses, inquire into charges of misconduct, and report in full the result of their investigations to the department. A thousand instances of irregularity or neglect, which never come to the knowledge of the government, would be prevented by this supervision. It would also have a good effect upon personal as well as official conduct. Four such superintendents, or perhaps three, would be all that would be necessary to visit every consulate once a year; and as the visits would be irregular and at uncertain times, the consular offices would be kept constantly ready for their reception. We are convinced that some such plan would be eminently useful, and that it is required.

No one can doubt that a consular establishment, founded upon the plans which we have considered, would be far more efficient and creditable to the country than the present very imperfect system. Reformation is imperiously demanded by the wants of commerce, the general interests of the country, the character of our people, and the dignity of our government. Should the change ever be effected, we may, in the language of Mr. Liv. ingston, "then expect to see these important offices filled, as they should be, by men of talent, education, and respectability of character, who would be the protectors, not the rivals, of our merchants; who would command the respect of the functionaries of the ports in which they reside, do honor to our national character, and whose whole time would be devoted to the duties of their office." We can also then insist upon it, that a consul shall be a representative of American manners and feelings; that he shall combine simplicity with a proper degree of refinement, and give the lie in his own person, to the oft asserted connection between democracy and disgusting insolence or boorish vulgarity.

ART. II. THE OREGON TERRITORY.

It was long after the discovery of this continent by Christopher Columbus, before it became known in its full extent to the civilized portion of mankind. In the year 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who was at that time the governor of a colony of Spain, located at Darien, on the coast of the Atlantic ocean, while directing a march across the mountains in that vicinity, found his progress interrupted by an immense sea stretching off into the western horizon. The publication of this discovery led at once to the conjecture that this was the great Southern ocean, the search for which had so long inspired and baffled the zeal of navigators. From its juxtaposition to the Atlantic, it was supposed that the two seas were connected with each other, and the aim thereafter was to discover the spot where their waters intermingled. It was calculated by the Spanish adventurers that this point must lie somewhere in the neighborhood of the Isthmus of Darien, and their researches were mostly directed towards that region. In the mean while Fernando Magellan, a distinguished Portuguese navigator, having in vain importuned his own government, lent himself to the service of Spain; and in the year 1519 made a voyage to the East Indies, through the strait which now bears his name. This important discovery was regarded as demonstrating the practicability of circumnavigating the globe. But the route which it opened to the East Indies was found to be long and perilous, and the advantages resulting, hardly compensated for the difficulties encountered in prosecuting the trade through this line of communication. A still more interesting and important discovery was made in the year 1517, which revealed to the astonished world the extensive and flourishing empire of Mexico. It was subsequently conquered by Hernan Cortez, who marched to its capital, dethroned its monarch, struck terror into the hearts of his subjects, and reduced his magnificent kingdom to the dominion of Spain. Having firmly established his authority, he immediately commenced exploring the seas and country adjacent. By his splendid and fortunate enterprises having discovered that the interior country was unoccupied by any powerful tribes, and that the two great oceans were wholly separated from each other, he directed his expeditions toward the northwest, whither he penetrated as far as the southern entrance to the Peninsula of California, which he supposed to be an island. Hurtado, Mendoza, Ulloa, Coronado and others, successively pushed on these researches until their discoveries included the whole of New Spain. They accomplished no further laudable results, however, than to explode the idea of the existence of the magnificent and opulent cities of Cibola, which had so long fascinated and bewildered the imaginations of adventurers. The descriptions given of these voyages and discoveries, are very obscure and imperfect. They were generally written by persons who were unacquainted with the geography of the earth, who knew nothing of the advantages derived to navigation from astronomical observations, and who seem to have paid no regard to latitude or longitude. These circumstances have caused a great degree of inaccuracy in their statements, and render it almost impossible to determine the localities of the places they pretend to describe, or the actual extent of their discoveries. We are left almost entirely to conjecture in supplying these deficiencies, till we come down to the narratives given of the voyages of Juan de Fuca, in the year 1592.