lector of New York, who gave evidence that from the act of 1828 to that of 1832, the articles in question had, in pursuance of orders from the treasury, been charged with the duty on clothing ready made, and not with the duty on hosiery. And the defendant's counsel insisted that the Court should charge upon this new evidence, that the act of congress of 1832, must in judg ment of law be deemed to have reference to the then existing practice of the treasury department and its circulars to collectors, and that therefore, in this construction of the law, the articles were to be deemed as falling under the term ready-made clothing, and not under the term hosiery. The plaintiff's counsel, to the contrary, insisted, that the words in the law must be construed as they would be understood in their common or commercial use; and not in any peculiar sense or use, practised by the treasury, and as such, known to congress. That the law was made to govern not the members of congress, but dealers in the article to whom the law was most addressed, and whose understanding of its terms should control. The Court expressed doubt upon the question; and with the assent of the parties pro forma, charged that the jury were to be governed by the usual and well known name of the article, and meaning of the words of the law, as understood generally in commerce at the date of the act. A verdict was rendered for $2,400, and the cause was carried up, by a writ of error, to the Supreme Court of the United States. D. Lord, jr., for plaintiff. B. F. Butler, for defendant. MERCANTILE LITERATURE. Evils and Abuses in the Naval and Merchant Service Exposed; with Proposals for their Remedy and Redress. By WILLIAM M'NALLY, formerly of the U. S. Navy. Boston: 1839. Cassady & March. 12mo. pp. 202. THE Volume before us is descriptive of evils that exist in the naval and merchant service. Mr. M'Nally has given real names and characters, bestowed praise or blame where he thought it was was wanted, and given his reasons for so doing, leaving the reader to judge how far his statements could be relied upon. He professes to have carefully avoided all coloring or embellishment. In a work of this kind, a writer, in order to promote the object he has in view, should avoid party political allusions if possible; this the author has not done, but he wishes to be understood as not having imbibed the opinions of any political party, as it is a subject of which he professes to know but little. The promi nent distinction between the existing parties, according to his views, is "that one is in office and wishes to remain there, and that the other is out, and wishes to get in;" a distinction, in our apprehension, which neither party would very willingly admit. We would however recommend the volume to the attention of navigators, as containing hints and information that must prove highly useful. MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES. COTTON TRADE OF INDIA. We find in the London Athenæum an account of a late meeting of the Asiatic Society. At this meeting, a paper was read by General Briggs "on the Cotton Trade of India." It appears from the Athenæum that one of the principal objects of this paper was to show that the people of Hindostan are as capable of furnishing Europe with cotton as the inhabitants of North America; and that, under proper arrangements, both the quantity and quality of their produce would fully suffice for all requirements of our manufacturers, without the necessity of our relying on the slave labor cotton of America. The paper began with a calculation of the quantity of cotton actually used in dress by the natives of India. Specimens of the several articles of costume were exhibited; and it was shown, that the dress of the male Hindoo contained 24 square yards, and that of the female about 8 square yards, which, allowing that they were renewed, on an average, at least once a year, the consumption would amount, among the whole population, to 374,000,000 pounds; and it might be fairly inferred, from the various other domestic uses to which cotton was applied in India, that as much again was so employed, making a total annual consumption, by the natives themselves, of 750,000,000 pounds. The quantity imported into England is from 4 to 500,000,000 pounds annually, and this is chiefly raised in America, not more than one tenth coming from India. The question naturally arises, why should this be? The causes of the supply from India, Gen. Briggs stated, were closely connected with the administration of the country; he should not farther allude to them in that place, but would proceed to demonstrate his position, that India might supply cotton sufficient for the manufactures of England, and if necessary, for the whole world. It is needless to follow the details presented; but the result of a great number of statements and reports from the best sources showed evidently that scarcely any portion of the surface of India was unfit for the growth of some kind of cotton. The great table land of the Dekkan, the soil of which is formed of the debris of trap-mountains, is the cotton soil, par exellence, and is suited to the gossipyum herbaceum, the indigenous cotton of India. This soil lies upon limestone. It is rich vegetable matter, and is retentive of humidity; but in hot dry weather, it cracks into large fissures. It is at that season hard and clayey, and brittle, like coal. The clayey soil, so fit for the indigenous plant, is unsuited to that of America, which grows best in a light, dry, silicious soil; and as most former attempts to introduce the American cotton into India have been made upon the rich trap soil of the country, they had necessarily failed. But the soil best adapted to American seed is also found in India, near the coasts, where the aboriginal plant does not succeed. This was proved at the various experimental farms established by the East India Company, and on which the American plant was growing to perfection. In order to point out the differences which existed between the various sorts of cotton in use, a diagram was exhibited, showing various lengths of the fibres of different kinds. In many specimens of cotton, the fibre had a flat tape-like appearance; while in others it looked like a string of oval beads, pointed at each extremity. Some kinds were more cylindrical than others, and the Surat and Sea Island cotton is thickest and narrowest, and the Tavoy and New Orleans flattest and thinnest. In length of staple, the American surpasses the East India; but the latter was the finest. Some idea of the extreme minuteness of the fibre of cotton might be formed from the fact, that it required thirty43 VOL. II. NO. IV. five fibres to make the smallest thread spun at Manchester, 350 hanks of which weighed only one pound, and would measure 165 miles in length. But it had been shown that the natives of India could spin thread with the hand, four of which would be required to make up the bulk of one made by machinery at Manchester. THE WHALE FISHERY. Captain Dupetit Thouars, commander of the frigate Venus, has returned to Paris from his station in the South Seas for the protection of the French whale fishery, and has addressed a long report to the Minister of the Marine, containing the results of his experience as to the actual condition of this fishery, and the improvement to be introduced into it. It is to the following effect: Captain Thouars goes into great detail as to the equipment of the vessels, which he recommends should never go beyond 350 to 450 tons, and should be specially constructed for the purpose. The captains of whalers, he strongly recommends, should not be expected to go out in the harpooning boats, but should always remain on board their vessels; and the practice of having two captains, one for the vessel, the other for superintending the actual operations of the fishery, should be abolished, as destructive of discipline among the crews. The under officers of the vessel, on the other hand, he considers, should be active men, well acquainted with all the manual details of the service. Capt. Thouars exclaims loudly against the system so very prevalent among American whale fishers, of allowing the sailors to get into debt ashore, and of the owners giving security, or advancing the money for them, at a rate of interest often amounting to 40 or 50 per cent., a practice destructive of all habits of prudence among the men. He then gives several specifications of the different kinds of whales found in the South Seas, and the localities where they are most abundant, stating that most of them are known to and are pursued by the American and English whalers, especially the cachalot, sperm or white whale, whereas the French captains have hitherto confined themselves only to the common or black whale. He also gives a full account of the usual times of leaving Europe adopted by British whalers, and points out various improvements in this respect which may be adopted by the French captains. The principal rendezvous for the whale ships, Captain d'Urville states to be the Sandwich Islands, Otaheite, and New Zealand; at the former of these stations sometimes 60 French whalers are assembled together, at the second 20, at the third 40. At all these places, when the whalers are in, the most unbounded licentiousness and disorder prevail among the crews, and call imperiously for the establishment of consuls or other authorized agents on the spot. Captain d'Urville strongly urges the necessity of sending out agents of this kind with out delay, and more particularly to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand, where a British resident, who performs the functions of “a constable and police magistrate,” has been long settled. England and the United States, the Captain adds, have several vessels of war, during the course of each year, to visit these fisheries, whereas France sends only one occasionally; he therefore recommends government to adopt more efficient measures of this kind. The remarks of Captain Dupetit Thouars, are, we apprehend, in the main, correct. But we think he is out of his reckoning when he says that the owners of American ships allow their men to get in debt ashore, and then extort 40 or 50 per cent, interest on advances to rescue them from embarrassment. FIRST PUBLIC SALE OF THE NEWLY DISCOVERED ASSAM TEA. It is stated in the St. James Chronicle, that the Commercial Sale-room in Mincing Lane, where the public tea sales are held, was crowded at the hour of sale, in consequence of its being known that the whole of the Honorable Company's recent importation of Teas from their territories in Upper Assam, India, were to be sold. Mr. Thompson was the tea broker selected by the company to offer these teas for sale. They consisted of three lots of Assam Souchong, and five lots of Assam Pekoe. On offering the first lot, which was Souchong, Mr. Thompson announced that each lot would be sold, without the least reservation, to the highest bidder. We never before witnessed such excitement as prevailed when the first lot was competed for. The first bid was 5s. per lb. a second bid was made of 10s. per lb. After much competition, it was knocked down for 21s. per lb., the purchaser being Captain Pidding, the proprietor of Howqua's Mixture Tea. The second lot of Souchong was bought for the same person for 20s. per lb. The third and last Souchong sold for 16s. per lb., Captain Pidding being the buyer. The first lot of Assam Pekoe sold for 24s. per lb.; after much competition, every broker appearing to bid for it, it was bought for Captain Pidding. The second, third, and fourth lots of Assam Pekoe fetched the respective prices of 25s., 27s. 6d., and 23s. 6d. per lb., and were also purchased, like the previous lots, for Captain Pidding. For the last lot of Pekoe, which was the last of the tea to be sold, a most exciting competition took place-there were near sixty different bids made for it. It was at last knocked down at the extraordinary high price of 34s. per lb. Captain Pidding was also the purchaser of this, and has thereby become the sole proprietor of the Assam, as well as the Howqua's Mixture Tea. The general opinion of the collected tea brokers and dealers, with whom the room was crowded, was, that the Assam tea is not only valuable as a curiosity, but that the tea itself is of very superior quality, being of a pleasant flavor, and of such strength that some asserted that the fifth water from it was as strong as the first. The fact of Captain Pidding having become the sole purchaser of the whole of this seemed to excite a great sensation; it was whispered that he intended to allow small parcels of it to be sold by each of his agents at prime cost, and in such small quantities as to allow of the greatest number of people trying, by tasting it. SPECULATING AND FAILING. This is the age of speculations; but however promising they may be, (and there is no lack of promises in any of their prospectuses that we have encountered,) there is always a certain bitter in the midst of their sweets-always a lingering fear that their end may not be quite so flourishing as their beginnings, and that the dropping of the curtain may find the bubble burst, and the unfortunate speculator in jail. The absence of downright certainty in any undertaking is a great drawback on its desirableness. Yet amidst all this uncertainty, it is very satisfactory to know that there is one speculation in which it requires nothing but a little observation, and the use of one's own judgment, to render quite as money making a concern as a general balloon-navigation company to all-excepting to original proposers. The speculation is—to fail ; and there is but one art and mystery in it-to fail at the right time; not for a few paltry dollars, which are rigorously taken from you, but a good slapping sum at once; enough to strike your creditors with reverence for your greatness, and respect for your misfortunes. At the very worst, they will allow you a comfortable maintenance out of their own money, and perhaps present you with a silver dinner set in token of their gratitude for your allowing them to recover a shilling in the pound. And in circumstances like these there is always this comfort, that the remaining nineteen shillings enable you to fill the silver dishes with turtle and venison, and all things else in a concatenation accordingly. |