It is often remarked that a repeal of the corn laws in England would not increase our trade with that country, as our market vibrates upward or downward according to the prices in England. That this is the fact, under the present system, there can be no doubt. At present we have no market there, and consequently are not prepared to supply a demand from thence. Let there be a permanent open market, and the quantity needed will be produced, be it more or less. The same reasoning would prove that Great Britain cannot get a supply from any quarter. The market in Dantzic, as before shown, under the demand from England, rose in 1838 from 24s. 1d. to 61s. 2d. The French, on a failure of the English harvest, have closed their ports and prevented the exportation of corn at any price. All that is wanted for this country, is an open market and a fixed duty, or free importation, and we can furnish any quantity that may be required.

A feeling of self-interest as well as of philanthropy, may lead us to hope that the day is not distant when the corn laws of England will be repealed. The success of the conservatives at the late election by no means settles the question, the result having been brought about by a union of parties diametrically opposed in their principles, and agreeing only in a single point-opposition to the Melbourne ministry. The influence enlisted in favor of a repeal is already so great, that action on the part of the new ministry cannot much longer be postponed or evaded. The people of England are crying out for repeal, and their cry must be heard.

NOTE. As a further illustration of the risk attending shipments of flour to England, we give the following quotations from a speech of Wm. Cripps, Esq. of Nottingham, at a great meeting held in Derby a few months since:

"Last year, by way of making returns to this country, his house in New York pur. chased 12000 barrels flour."-" He paid duty on 1949 barrels, viz, £801, and sold 4675 barrels in bond. If he had paid duty upon that also at the time he imported it, which was between the 18th of April and 15th of May last, the duty would then have been £2,729. But if he had waited till the last week in August, the duty would have been only £520. The first week in October the duty on the same lot would have been £4,112; the first week in November it would have been £4,719; and the first week in December £5,133!

"Such was the risk a merchant runs in importing flour from the United States."— “He had once imported flour, but he should deserve to be branded as a gambler, and have his credit destroyed, if he were to venture again upon a like experiment."

ART. V.-MICHIGAN: ITS COMMERCE AND RESOURCES.

THE young but improving state of Michigan exhibits, in the extent and fertility of its territory, as well as in the lake navigation by which it is surrounded, extraordinary agricultural and commercial advantages. With a territorial domain embracing an area of about sixty-five thousand square miles, it presents a soil of unequal quality, but the greater part is favorable to cultivation. The two grand divisions of the state are the upper and lower peninsula: the upper, a comparatively cold, rocky, barren, primitive and mountainous region, stretching along the shores of Lake Superior; and the lower, a more level and alluvial soil, distinguished for its agricultural production.

The lower peninsula consists of several species of soil, and in its different parts is distinguished by a marked difference in its scenery. Along the borders of the lakes the land is low and level, stretching in a belt from eight to fifteen miles broad upon their shores, and is covered with dense masses of forest, which in summer, when the vegetation is in full bloom, cast upon the earth an almost continual twilight. The soil composing this species of land is a deep-brown clay, which is productive of the ordinary crops that may be found in this latitude, or of a deep and black vegetable mould that yields abundant harvests. As we advance across the belt before described, we arrive upon a more undulating and picturesque region, not broken so frequently as the low tracts which we have mentioned by marshes and creeks, but extending in sweeping undulations over a dark sandy soil that changes into black on exposure to the sun when turned up by the plough. Here and there a grove of dense forest is sprinkled over the face of the scenery, which in some districts extends through nearly entire counties; but the larger portion of the soil is composed of what are termed "oak openings," that consist of scattered oaks, separated by the distance of between ten and a hundred feet, the landscape being occasionally variegated by rivers, small streams, and little lakes, which dot the country at frequent points, and constitute a beautiful feature in its aspect. In those parts of the territory last described the soil is dry, presenting in the openings generally excellent roads, while in summer a gorgeous carpet of purple flowers covers the whole surface of the earth. In passing through the interior we not unfrequently come upon a different species of land covered with burr-oaks, situated from ten to fifty feet a part, which are denominated burr-oak plains. These tracts are generally esteemed by the farmers as of the greatest value, inasmuch as the soil, consisting of a deep-brown sand, is highly productive of wheat crops, and may without difficulty be cleared, from the small size of the scattered trees by which they are covered. The kind of soil to which we last alluded sometimes borders on other species of land which is entirely distinct from any that we have mentioned, and which is denominated "prairies," that are either wet or dry. The dry prairies are deemed the most valuable species of soil, being generally preferred by the farmers for cultivation, free from trees, and composed of a deep jet-black vegetable mould. This kind of land is without doubt the most productive of any soil that can be found in the state, yielding very large crops of corn and other grains; the wheat which it produces, however, being less clean than that which is found in the timbered lands and oak openings. Another species of land is

termed barrens, and is composed of a rolling country, with a dry and sandy soil, covered with a thin layer of stunted oaks or bushes, which produces very good, although not the largest crops. These different species of soil, while they present to the traveller a beautiful configuration of scenery, and afford a variety of products, cause the territory to be impressed with much greater interest on that account.

Of the upper peninsula, much cannot be said in favor of its agricultural advantages. The soil is cold and primitive, broken by mountain chains and rugged cliffs; yet its mineral resources are said to be considerable, particularly the production of copper, a rock of that metal of many thousand pounds weight, now lying within its boundaries upon the shores of Lake Superior, at the mouth of the Ontonayon river. Although from recent geological investigations there appears to be no doubt that it is possessed of very great mineral wealth, still it will be probably a long time before its shores will be permanently colonized. Even now among the loose stones found along the Lake Superior coast, the different minerals of prase, jaspar, carnelian, agate, sardonyx, and others of some value, are discovered.

The mineral resources of the state are as yet but partially developed. The soil of the lower peninsula, as has been before remarked, is of alluvial formation, and ledges of sandstone are perceived in the counties of Hillsdale, Jackson, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Livingston, Eaton, Barry, Shiawassee, and Clinton, besides other portions of the state. A species of slate of a green color is also perceived upon the shore of Lake Huron, and indications of coal are apparent in the counties of Ingham, Eaton, and Shiawassee, and gray limestone abounds in different parts of the state. Beds of gypsum or plaster occur upon the banks of the Grand river, near the Grand Rapids, which will prove of importance to the state in future time, while salt springs for the manufacture of salt are scattered through a considerable portion of that part of the territory upon the banks of this river, as well as in various parts of the interior. Bog iron ore, clay, marl, and sand, besides numerous springs, tinctured with mineral qualities, are discovered in the eastern counties. Among those that may be mentioned are sulphur springs, which are found not only in the eastern portion of the peninsula, but also in the interior.

We have alluded to the streams that abound in the interior, which, although tending to adorn the scenery, and furnishing water-power for the propulsion of sawmills, gristmills, and other establishments worked by machinery, are not generally favorable for navigation. Among those which may be mentioned as the most prominent, are the Raisin, the Grand river, the Kalamazoo, the St. Joseph, the Huron, the Clinton, the Saginaw, and the Ontonayon. The Detroit, the St. Clair, and the St. Mary's, may be properly termed straits, which connect the eastern and more level portion of the state. In the eastern part of the state, or that portion which is generally level and low, the streams and rivers run slow and sluggish; but as we advance into the interior portion, where hill and dale abound, the streams course more rapidly over their beds of clay and sand. Among the most beautiful streams of the interior is the St. Joseph, which, though shallow, is transparent, and watering banks of great fertility, comprised of oak lands and prairies, flows into Lake Michigan. The Kalamazoo is also a streamlet, narrow, although of considerable transparency and beauty, which, watering some of the richest portions of the state, empties

into the same lake. But the largest river in the interior of the state is the Grand river, which affords not only a convenient channel of navigation for a considerable distance from its mouth, but also extensive manufacturing advantages that are now partially improved.

The feature which peculiarly distinguishes the state from any of those of the west, and renders it most favorable for inland commerce, are the great lakes which wash its shores, we mean Lake Erie, St. Clair, Huron, Michigan, and Superior. Constituting a vast chain of inland communication, embracing not only Michigan, but Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, they afford a line of inland sea-board which is probably unexampled in any country, extending for thousands of miles from the remotest forests upon the borders of Lake Superior to the western boundaries of New York, and will doubtless in future time be the grand commercial avenue between this portion of the northwest and the eastern markets. With the gradual advance of emigration into this portion of the west, the light canoe of the Indian is giving place to the fleets of vessels and steamships that now dot their surfaces.

The larger lakes, as well as the interior waters of the state, abound in fish, some of them of the most valuable sorts, which are now taken in Lake Superior during the summer by the American Fur Company, whose traders are found scattered at widely separated points along its shores. Among those of a superior sort are the Mackinaw trout, the white fish, sturgeon, salmon trout, muskalunjeh, pickerel, pike, perch, herring, the rock bass, the white and black bass, catfish, trout, and gar, which constituted, during the earlier condition of the country, a very valuable article of food, as they do now of commerce. Among the most prominent of these are the white fish, which are not only peculiar to the lakes, but from the first colonization of the territory by the French explorers, have been highly celebrated; large quantities of trout, as well as the white fish, are taken upon the lakes and shipped to Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania.

The subjoined statement derived from the Detroit Daily Advertiser, exhibits the progress of the lake fisheries at different periods, from 1835 to 1840: "With the immense business which is destined to be done on the western lakes, that of the fisheries should not be overlooked, as it has already become a considerable item of exports.. The number and varieties of fish taken, are worthy of notice, and it is stated that no fresh waters known, can, in any respect, bear a comparison.

"From the earliest period of the settlement on the shores of the lakes, fishing has been carried on to supply the inhabitants with a part of their food, but not until the past five years has fish become an article of export. Since that time, the business has rapidly increased. The number of barrels taken, so far as information can be gathered, in 1835, was 8,000, and in 1840 it reached 32,005 barrels.

"The weight to which some of the fish attain is unparalelled except in the Mississippi-as follows:

"The varieties usually taken for pickling are, trout, pickerel, white fish, and Sisquoelle; the latter, however, is to be found only in Lake Superior. "Since the projected canal at the Sault Ste. Marie has been suspended, Yankee enterprise, at great expense, in the absence of artificial locks, has surmounted the difficulty of getting over the falls leading from Lake Michigan to Lake Superior, and within the two past years, two vessels, by means of slides, rollers, &c., have reached the upper lake.

"Three vessels have also been built on Lake Superior by the American Fur Company. The two former vessels will hereafter be engaged in the fishing trade, in freighting salt, provisions, &c., to various points on the lakes, and returning with fish. Heretofore the American Fur Company have monopolized the trade. This will open a new era in the upper

lake fisheries, as they are said to be inexhaustible. "From the following table, of the amount of fish barreled, which was obtained from various sources, the rapid increase of the business will be seen:

"The average price of fish per barrel, for the five past years in Detroit, is 8 dollars, which gives a total value of the business in 1840, at two hundred fifty-six thousand and forty dollars. Thus, in its infancy, it adds this large amount annually to the wealth of Michigan; gives employ