Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Total....... ...37,104,374 6,041,850 5,508,560 31,019,089 11,045,740

Nearly all the surplus capital in the neighborhood of Boston has been taken up for those purposes. In New-York large sums have also been required for similar objects, and the federal government alone has taken $57,000,000 since May, 1846. Altogether, at least $150,000,000 has been drawn from the usual sources whence commerce and industry is supplied with capital, and expended in unusual objects, at a moment when the capital employed in foreign trade has been so adversely influenced. There never was before a tine in the history of our country, where any considerable public loans could be obtained without contributions from abroad; and yet, as we have seen, there has, for two years, been expended $75,000,000 per annum, for various public purposes, without producing any other effect than a rise in the value of money to 7 per cent. at a moment when the foreign trade is greatly distressed through revolutions and convulsions abroad. This is a most remarkable and gratifying aspect of our financial resources. It is true that the takers of the last government loan have rather over estimated their resources, and have been obliged to place some $3,000,000 in the London market to aid them, while, as above stated, about as much more has been taken by voluntary subscription from almost all countries of Europe.

These large operations could not have been carried through but for a combination of circumstances in England and the United States, aided by the failure of the English harvests, which compelled the removal of many duties there upon articles of food. The value of the food exported from the United States has been as follows:

VALUE OF VEGETABLE FOOD EXPORTED FROM THE UNITED STATES FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDING WITH JUNE.

[blocks in formation]

Through the favorable state of the foreign markets, about $73.000,000 of farm produce, which otherwise would not have been available at all, was converted into active capital. Daring the past 6 aouths tuis element of prosperity has been in abeyance. England has has not required muca food, and the revolutions of Europe have checked that general increase of consumption which asually attends low prices. A change is now being again produced for the better, and the exports of the six months ending with December, will more than double that for the same period alone, and the money market is daily becoming more easy.

The exports of produce from the United States to Great Britain and Ireland, are now being freely made, and reach a very important figure, far exceeding the amounts sent forward for a corresponding season of last year. They have been as follows:

EXPORTS OF UNITED STATES PRODUCE TO GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, SEPT.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

110,562.

This export is pretty large, amounting for the last twenty days to a value as follows:

Flour, bbls...

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

This is the value of the exports of five articles only, per week, to Great Britain; an amount considerably in excess of the imports from that quarter, and quite equal to the weekly imports of the whole Union.

In the face of this large export of produce now going on, the quantities received from the interior, although increasing weekly, and already in excess of any year prior to 1847, are, nevertheless, less than last year.

The supplies of bread-stuffs are much in advance of any year prior to 1847, and of other articles of produce, with the exception of wool, largely in excess of even that year. The articles of bacon, butter, lard and cheese show a prodigious increase: yet prices for these large quantities are nearly as high as last year, as follows:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

It would appear that the value of the butter brought down last year was $2,703.077 and this year $2,771,058. It is probable that the aggregate quantities brought down before the closing of the canals, will not suffice for the home and export demand-more particularly that that of England is likely to be large. The following table shows the quantity of grain and flour imported into England for several years, and 8 months of 1848:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

In the year 1845, after three good harvests, there was imported a quantity of grain and flour equal to 19,839,360 bushels of grain. This quantity in 1846 was greatly enhanced, and also the price, by the failure of the potatoe crop. A recurrence of that misfortune in 1846 produced the enormous import indicated in the table, and which did not prevent a rise to famine prices. The crop of 1847 was good, but there has been required a quantity equal to 27,266,000 bushels in aid of that good harvest, and this supply has not sunk the price very low. This year the crop has again failed, and the quantities required must be very large.

GOSSIP OF THE MONTH.

M. POUSSIN. We publish with great pleasure the following admirable speech of the French Minister before the Historical Society of New-York. It was listened to by a numerous audience, and greeted with. general applause. The journals have very widely re-produced it with marks of commendation. The discourse has a value apart from its being an expression of the sentiments of France at this moment towards this country. Nothing could be more cordial, nay, fraternal, than the spirit which pervades the eloquent language of M. Poussin, and the early and certain effect of such inspirations must be to lead to a closer union than ever before between France and our country, whose interests are so singularly identified. Aside, again, from these considerations, the improvisation of M. Poussin has a high interest derived from his own history and merits. He is well and universally known in this country from his long residence in the United States as a distinguished member of our engineer corps, when attached to the person of Gen. Bernard. It is risking nothing to say that no living Frenchman possesses from residence and study a tittle of the information of our country which M. Poussin has so constantly displayed in his numerous productions and discourses. It is just this knowledge, united to his numerous and amiable qualities of character; his long devotion to republican principles, when their profession was neither profitable, nor creditable, even, that M. Poussin is the man before all others to fill the situation he now holds, and to promote the mutual inter ests of the two countries, to which he has at different periods of his life consecrated his time, his faculties and his best efforts. Whatever changes may botide the government of France, we are sure that we speak the sentiments of the country generally when we say, that no selection of a diplomatic representative could possibly give greater satisfaction than that already made in sending M. Poussin to the United States; and we know of no better mode in any new government that may succeed in these unstable times in France of con ciliating the kindly disposition of this country, than in confirming the judicious appointment of M. Poussin.

At a stated meeting of the New-York Historical Society, November 7, 1848, the Hon. LUTHER BRADISH, First Vice-President, in the chair. The minutes of the last meeting were read by Mr. WARNER, Recording Secretary, and approved. Mr. WETMORE introduced to the presiding officer His Excellency, M. Poussin, the French Minister, who had accepted an invitation to be present at the meeting of the Society. Mr. BRADISH, in the following terms, then introduced M. Poussin to the Society :Gentlemen of the Society:

It is with peculiar pleasure that I announce to you that the Society is this evening honored by the presence of His Excellency Major Poussin, the first Minister sent from the French Republic to the Republic of the United States. In our distinguished visitor, on this occasion, we have not only the highly accomplished and worthy representative of his own country, but in him, we may also claim a fellow citizen; for it will be recollected by the members of this Society that Major Poussin was for many years in the service of the United States, in intimate association with our own excellent and deeply-loved General Bernard. During this long period of distinguished and faithful service in our country, he became minutely acquainted with our interests and our institutions; and evinced, on all occasions, a marked friendliness for the former, as he did a deep and cordial sympathy with the latter. His return to us, therefore, under present circumstances, is peculiarly gratifying to our personal feelings; while his appointment and arrival as the first Minister from the young French Republic to our country, constitutes an historical fact as full of present interest, as it is of future hope. In it we see a sure pledge of the cordial and ever brightening relations between the two great Republics.

But I may not enlarge. I have, therefore, now the honor of presenting to the Society Major Poussin; and I ask you, gentlemen, to rise and unite with me, as I know you will

most cordially, in welcoming among us this distinguished representative of his own country, and our own cherished fellow-citizen.

M. POUSSIN thereupon rose, and addressed the Society, in the following terms:Gentlemen-I am happy in meeting, in the City of Jay, and Hamilton, and Morris, a Society so distinguished, and presided over by one of the most illustrious of those men who by birth were countrymen of mine, and for their love of liberty are countrymen of yours; I mean the great Gallatin, who came here in youth to assist your fathers, and with them was born again into the glorious nationality which is the admiration and hope of the world. And it is a pleasure to be surrounded by a society of freemen, organized chiefly for the purpose of preserving all the facts that relate to the birth and nurture of Liberty, and her noble children, the institutions of the American Republic. Your labors in this respect command the interest and good wishes of mankind.

Genti men-I rejoice at finding myself once more in the midst of this great community, whose high privilege it is to give to the world the most satisfactory evidences of the practicability of a large nation governing itself. Yes, gentlemen, the incontestable and incontested merit of your democratic institutions, the proof of their admirable influence on society at large, as on the individual, is that they are founded on the equal diffusion of knowledge throughout all ranks: on the commercial, agricultural or manufacturing, mechanical or operative classes. That is the true touchstone of your democratic fabric; and you should be proud of it.

I contest the saving of certain writers, who are sanguine in ascribing to the privileges of your favored land, or to the one origin of your race, or to the peculiar structure of your nerves or muscles, your successful and prosperous march as a ration, under the glorious banner of liberty. All these exterior elements are the invention of our numerous enemies, who watch with some apprehension for their long enjoyed privileges, the ascendant march of democratic principles throughout the world. I reject them all as unfounded in truth, and because they have for their object to discourage the human race of making lawful efforts to raise itself in the scale of self-estimation and dignity.

God, gentlemen, has not made liberty for one set of people, or for a class of men. All men have been created, and are born, to be free, and to enjoy equal rights all over the world.

Your favored land! they say. Surely, most assuredly, may they say favored; but not more so, permit me to say, in the point of fruitfulness or adaptation to all the arts, and to satisfy all wants of man, than any other part of the two great continents. Look at your own doors, Mexico or Central America; farther south, the rich basin of the Amazon, or the Oronoco. Cast your eyes on that all-beautiful spot of Europe, occupied by my glorious country, and inhabited by my laborious and spirited countrymen; cross the Pyrenees or the Alps, range down the valleys of the Guadalquiver, of the Rhine or of the Po, and tell me whether the Almighty has been more bountiful to the one people than to the other? Do not let us mingle the name of God in the repartition of goods here below, solely depending upon the WILL of the people.

The origin of your race! But how does it differ from any other? Do I not see among the thirty brilliant stars of your constellation whole territories settled by men of as great diversity of origin as old Europe can present? Do I not read the daily proofs of it in the special organs entrusted with their local or personal interests: German, French, Spanish, Italian, Scandinavian or English newspapers? And, in fine, if I turn the leaves of your history, do I not find in all those glorious records, names classed with that of the model of men, "the great Washington." and which my national and official character will not allow me to recall here? Your nerves and muscles! Since when, then, will this new distinction be started by stolid minds, which are always devising a reason, false or true. for what they cannot comprehend? Indeed, this is the last blow aimed at classing people; those who can be free and those who cannot. Why not say at once: among privileged ones, who will not work, and those doomed to work?

My nature, gentlemen, revolts at this extreme of self-infatuation; and I must say that I can, on no occasion, tolerate the idea of the mensuration of man's capacity for this or that avocation, by the actual development of his nerves and muscles.

Now, gentlemen, permit me to touch a subject of vital importance in the present circumstances, in which the whole world is carried on by the example of my noble country and to arrive at my end, allow me to retrace, in very few words, the influence which the PRESS rightly exercises in your own country.

In your happy social organization, where those who cannot read or write form a very small minority, the newspapers have become the ordinary channel of all free discussion, referred to by every one, and supported by all.

It is not given to one paper or to some papers only to lead public opinion; it is the opinion of the people that gives life, on the contrary, to such or such a paper; but as every one can express his opinion, it follows that on each important question, the writers

or editors of papers form instinctively a kind of great congress or meeting charged with discussing its merit or demerit; and thus they prepare the concentrated action of the great fractional portions of the community on the particular point at stake.

This is, gentlemen, we must acknowledge, a great privilege enjoyed by the press in this enlightened society, and one which must tend to give it more and more a high and dignified character, if it will respond to its great responsibility.

The more enlightened a society is, the more important it is for the conductors of the press to be dignified by intelligence as by personal character; and I am proud to say, gentlemen, such is the tendency of all public organs in the United States.

They are all aware, that if your system of Common Schools, or general education, is the great basis on which rest your democratic institutions, it is likewise on the great trading principles, and the co-existence of a free and enlightened press, that your astonishing prosperity rests. Now then, gentlemen, for the point, the most at my heart, and I am sure at yours:

If the press exercises such an influence on your great and prosperous community as I have very imperfectly suggested, of how much more importance cannot it be to the success of OUR great cause, by becoming for our uncertain steps in the path of rational liberty in Europe, a true beacon, a guide, a cheering star.

The labor of the press in this happy land of yours is almost accomplished; you bave but to keep up the sacred fire where elements abound; but on my side of the water, on our great eastern continent, every thing is to be achieved.

How is this to be accomplished? By attacks, by threats, by declamations for or against this or that form? No, gentlemen; nothing is to be gained by levelling daily attacks against men or measures indiscriminately, except to excite passions, hatreds, or prejudices.

A higher order of assistance, indeed of brotherly duty, is devolved on you; I allude to the actual moral and practical aid that the American Press can give us in the transformation now going on of monarchial into democratical institutions.

It is by countenancing our daily efforts, in presenting our people with the more parallel features of your own history with our own present struggling state, that you can advance the area of rational general liberty; and not by assaulting, and rendering your selves the distant echoes of prejudiced minds or of preconcerted enemies to the new institutious.

It is by allowing largely for the immense difficulties which cross yet our path, and cheering our partial success in overthrowing them or turning them round, that you can impart new abilities to our men, to our society.

We cannot dissimulete a fact: "The light which now strikes old Europe as a solar ray. comes from the West." That light has already produced a first and marvellous effect: everybody has measured by it the shadow of his neighbor on the land of his birth, and has not seen any difference in the projection. Continue then to keep up the intensity of your light, and I am certain our people will succeed in reading the pages of the Book of Truth in the same light as you.

THEATRICALS.

THEATRICAL.-The Italian Opera threw open its doors on the first day of November, under the direction of Mr. Fry, whose advent had been trumpeted in the newspapers to a degree that we feared would be inimical to his success. We sincerely wish Mr. Fry success in his management, both for the benefit of his pocket, and our own en joyment; but he lacks theatrical experience, and moreover is so pestered with friends ready to approve his least considered acts, that without the advantage of some disinterested advice, he stands in danger of running on a lee-shore with all his sails set. We shall undertake this task for him from the motives already assigned. We shall plainly suggest the palpable errors he has committed, and predict with full confidence the certain result which awaits him unless he changes his tactics. We trust he will take our counsel in good part, for we cordially desire his triumph over doubts, difficulties and dangers.

The monster folly Mr. Fry has committed is the amount of expense into which he has unnecessarily launched. His orchestra and chorus are needlessly numerous, and would be just as attractive if reduced one-half. He makes his injudicious expenditure a plea for a still greater fault, that of doubling nearly the ordinary number of representations, under the name of "Extra Nights." In the largest capitals of Europe three nights are

« EelmineJätka »