feelings he had great reserve. An unspotted life was his only religious profession. Throughout his lingering illness he manifested the resignation of a Christian. The excellent woman who watched over him with a mother's care, witnessed that not a single complaint or murmur escaped his lips. In peace and serenity his spirit ascended to God, who gave it. He was buried from the family mansion in Charlestown, the residence of Mr. William Hurd, and his remains were taken to Mount Auburn, their final resting-place. Every mark of respect which sincere affection could dictate was paid to his memory.

COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF BEIRUT IN SYRIA.

The Eastern correspondent of the Boston Traveller furnishes that journal with some interesting information relating to the commercial importance of Beirut in Syria. The following are some of the facts stated:

In 1844, the population of Beirut was only 8,000. In 1853, it was estimated at 30,000, and the estimate now is about 60,000, as our correspondent states. Its distance from Damascus is 57 miles, and it is the seaport of that city, as Ostia was of ancient Rome. Its principal imports are cottons, muslins, hardware, and colonial produce-articles which constitute our principal exports to the Levant, and in which we ought to be able to compete successfully with either of our three rivals in the Turkish trade-England, Austria, or France. Wool is the principal article of export to this country, and under the impetus which the adjustment of the duty on wool by the new tariff bill will communicate to our manufactures, our trade with Beirut must increase rapidly. It has many obstacles with which to contend, for it is yet in its infancy, the first cargo of refined sugar having arrived there from Boston only three years ago. But our Turkish commerce is in enterprising and experienced hands, and has been too long established with other parts of the Levant, not to be conducted shrewdly and profitably. Our American cottons are considered at Beirut superior to the English. There is an United States Consulate at the port. Its incumbent, under the last administration was Rev. Henry Wood, of Concord, New Hampshire. Mr. J. N. Johnson, of Providence, Rhode Island, has been appointed to the office by Mr. Buchanan. The consul wrote to the State Department in October, 1855, that he had the best authority for believing that such was the case about cottons, but that the people were slow to purchase, "owing to the power of old ideas and habits, since the pieces of American goods do not uniformly contain the same number of yards, like the English pieces." He adds that it "would be of great service to our manufacturers it they understood this fact, and would regard it." In its trade, at present, England holds the first rank, France the second, Austria the third. The imports and exports exceed $10,000,000, and the tonnage employed averages 250,000 tons yearly.

A PERSEVERING MERCANTILE DRUMMER.

The Boston Post tells a story of a case of perseverance on the part of a dry goods drummer. According to the Post, the gentleman drummer, seeing the name of a Western trader registered at one of the hotels, who he knew would be a desirable customer, and anxious to secure him first, our drummer sat down in the office of the hotel to watch the key of the Western man's bedroom till he should come in to claim it; but something kept the stranger out very late, and the drummer fell asleep. When he awoke, he found that his customer had escaped him by coming in and going to bed. The drummer gave it up for that night, but early on the next morning he repaired to the door of the gentleman's bedroom, and seeing his boots, he, with a lead-pencil, marked them across again and again, until they could not be mistaken, and once more took up his position in the office-but this time near the stairs, where he could examine the boots of all who came down. Finally he discovered the ones with the well-known marks upon them, when he cordially addressed the wearer by his name, as if he had known him for years, and probably sold him a large bill of goods.

THE CHANCES OF MAKING MONEY BY LOTTERY TICKETS.

The following anecdote, related by "an old merchant" of Augusta, Georgia, fairly illustrates the chances for making money by buying lottery tickets. We should say, in the long run, that the chances of drawing prizes, over and above the investments made in lottery tickets, and being struck by lightning in the winter, were about equal. But hear the experience of an old merchant and his friend :

After I had failed and settled up pretty much all my old business, I had yet several little confidential debts that I wished very much to pay. I had one hundred dollars in cash-every cent I had in the world-and determined to buy lottery tickets with it, in the hope of drawing a prize, and then pay off all I owed, and so be free once more. Before purchasing the tickets I called upon an old friend, to whom I owed the largest amount, to consult him as to the best means of investing. I opened to him all my hopes and intentions. He applauded my motives, but remarked :-" The lottery appears to be a new thing to you, but it is an old one to me. At the time when lotteries were rather new in Georgia, nine others and myself entered into a partnership, which was to last for ten years. We each contributed $3,000, making the handsome capital of $30,000, which was to be used only in buying lottery tickets. Now, with all this money, all our smartness and great facilities, which you know nothing of, for buying, how do you think we stood at the end of the ten years?"

I remarked that they must have coined money.

"Well," said he, "of the original $30,000, we received back $25,000, and lost the interest, then at 8 per cent, on the whole for ten years. The $30,000, if invested at simple interest for the ten years, wou'd have returned us $54,000, and at compound interest, $64,763. Thus, you see, to sum it up, we lost the compound interest on $30,000, for ten years—

"This, sir," he continued, " is my first and last experience in lotteries, and you may act on it as you choose."

Well, as I had determined to invest, I did so, and it was the last I saw of my $100. It was my first and, to this time, my last attempt to make money by buying lottery tickets.

COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES OF GREAT BRITAIN.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON, in his "English Traits," thus describes the peculiar advantages of the position of England's sea-girt island :—

England is anchored at the side of Europe, and right in the heart of the modern world. The sea which, according to Virgil's famous line, divided the poor Britons utterly from the world, proved to be the ring of marriage with all nations. It is not down in the books--it is written only in the geologic strata--that fortunate day when a wave of the German Ocean burst the old isthmus which joined Kent and Cornwall to France, and gave to this fragment of Europe its impreg nable sea-wall, cutting off an island of eight hundred miles in length, with an irregular breadth reaching to three hundred miles; a territory large enough for independence enriched with every seed of national power, so near, that it can see the harvests of the continent, and so far, that who would cross the strait must be an expert mariner, ready for tempests. As America, Europe, and Asia lie, these Britons have precisely the best commercial position in the whole planet, and are sure of a market for all the goods they can manufacture.

A LONDON STATIONER AND SCRIVENER.

We find the following description of POUNCE, a scrivener, copied into the Liverpool Albion from a new work entitled "The Little World of London." The business marts, the great and little emporiums of the world, have their curiosities of character. Pounce, as here described, is one of them :

The next tenant of the fortunate shop was the very antithesis of Finnigan, and was no other than little Pounce, the notary and law-stationer, who had an utter contempt for wigs, and wore his own head as bald as one of Finnigan's own blocks. Polished and shining, his little round pate was seen, on a gloomy day, glimmering in the darkness of the shop like the red, round moon in the fog of a November night. He filled his window with bodkins, spikes, and circular prickers; with bundles of red tape and scaling-wax, and round and flat rulers; with inkstands and pencils, and India-rubber, and bundles of cut quill-pens, with their noses baptized in ink; with bottles of Walkden's best Japan and Scott's blue; with reams of copy-paper and rolls of vellum, and huge sheets of parchment, with "This Indenture" and a blue stamp at the upper left-hand corner. Instead of a blind, he hung whole fathoms of engrossed vellum across a brass rod, and there he sat at a desk behind them, plowing away with his pen, and spelling every word as he wrote it with his lips, so plainly that one might almost read from his grimaces as easy as from his writing; when he did write, that is to say, which was not oftener than he could help, and only when all his clerks were fully engaged. Pounce came into the world to rub his hands, and he never seemed to do anything else with such thorough good-will and energy. He must have used whole tons of Hood's "invisible soap," and oceans of "imperceptible water," for he rubbed from morning to night the moment his fingers quitted their grasp of anything. He rubbed when he was taking an order, or giving directions for its execution; he rubbed while waiting for his dinner at the chop-house, and laid down his knife and fork to rub a dozen times during its consumption; he rubbed half the time he was serving a customer, and all the time that there was no customers to serve, and nothing else to occupy his hands. Of course he rubbed on, and got on, as his predecessor had done in the fortunate shop. When he went away, it was into larger premises, fitted to accommodate a larger staff, and situated somewhat nearer 'Change.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT LENDING MONEY.

The following paragraph, which we find floating in several of our exchanges, without credit, so well accords with our own experience in the matter of lending, that we are induced to give the readers of the Merchants' Magazine the benefits of the correct teaching it so concisely conveys :

:

"Can you discount your account, sir ?" said a mechanic to one for whom he was executing a contract. "I lent some money to a friend I thought was certain to pay, but he has disappointed me, and I have no money to pay my hands with to-night." The world is full of such lenders, and aye! and of such borrowers too. Will people never learn that the lending of money, so generally considered an act of friendship, is generally the reverse? Will they never realize that still more it is frequently an act of injustice to the lender's creditors? For the lender again jeopards, as in the case of the mechanic, his own capacity to pay promptly those he owes. Few men have a right to ask others to lend them money. Perhaps even fewer have a right to lend. If you ask a tailor to give you a coat, or even to loan you one, would he not think you either impertinent or a fool? Yet money is as much an article of merchandise as a coat. The lender loses interest and hazards the principal, which is a greater risk than even the tailor runs. Rich men, who can pay their debts over and over again, and who have no family with a claim upon them, may afford to lend; but other people cannot. When borrowers have to raise money, by giving security, there will be less money lost; for there will be no lenders for friendship to be deceived, cheated, and ruined.

ANECDOTE OF A BANKRUPT MERCHANT.

The St. Louis Leader tells the following story of a merchant of that city, and assures the reader that the relation is simple fact; and more, that the occurrence of "good luck" recorded took place in 1857, not a week before it was published in the Leader :

Not over a dozen years ago, a merchant of this city, well known and highly respected, failed in business, and after settling up his affairs, gave to his principal creditor a deed of trust on certain real estate, to secure the payment of $12,000. At the time the property was barely valued at that, so the creditor put the deed in his safe, and there, so far as he was concerned, the matter ended. The merchant, broken down, disappointed, poor, but yet enterprising, went South, visited California, Mexico, and South America, speculated, made half a dozen fortunes, and lost them again. A few weeks since he returned to the city, sick, travel-worn, needy, and disheartened. By chance, he met his old lawyer, a gentleman high in his profession, and who is deservedly respected. After the first greeting, the lawyer remarked, "I am glad to see you back, and as you seem to be in want of funds, the sale will be just in time."

The merchant looked hard at his friend, and finally said, "Sale! what sale? I've got nothing to sell."

"Nonsense, my dear fellow, you are richer than you imagine. Don't you remember the deed of trust I drew up for you some twelve years ago?"

"I do; what of it?"

"Well, at that time the property would not have realized the sum, so it was let lie; but it is now in the market, and I expect to close a contract for its sale this week."

"You amaze me; what price do you expect to get?"

"I've asked $86,000, and shall get it, too. Your debt and interest will amount to $21,000, or thereabouts, so you'll have $65,000 to go upon."

The sensations of the party may be "more easily " imagined than described, as the penny-a-liners have it; but one thing is certain, Mr. A. went home a happier man than he had been for ten years at least.

"CHRISTIAN CLERKS."

We cheerfully give place to the following notice, originally published in the Independent. If by Christian clerks the writer means young men of integrity, who "fear God, and work righteousness," rather than members of this or that sect, we can heartily indorse the object contemplated by the "Employment Committee" of the Young Men's Christian Association of New York. We make this remark, because we have been told that none but what are theologically or technically termed "Evangelical" Christians are admitted as members of the association; and because we believe that good Christians and good men are to be found in every church, sect, or denomination in Christendom.

Merchants often wish some guaranty of the moral character of young men who seek employment in their stores. Young men of principle are especially in demand. The Young Men's Christian Association have undertaken to act as a committee of inquiry between merchants and clerks, consulting the best interests of both parties. A committee of judicious, candid, and reliable gentlemen has been appointed by the association to act as an "Employment Committee." This committee are now prepared to receive applications from merchants and others requiring clerks. A register is kept of young men desiring employment, and employers will find this a most desirable medium for obtaining worthy and capable assistants, and will also essentially aid the association in making this branch of their operations effective. Communications may be addressed to the Employment Committee, at the rooms, 32 Waverly Place, New York.

DRY GOODS AND BRANDY.

The following characteristic anecdote, with a moral, we copy from the Independent, the commercial editor of which is understood to be connected with one of the largest silk houses in New York, and familiar with the modus operandi of more than one branch of our city trade :—

If a vacancy occurs in a jobbing or importing house in New York, almost the first question proposed to the applicant for the place is, "How many goods can you sell?" If the answer is "fifty thousand," or a 66 hundred thousand," that settles the question, and the young man is accepted. Of course he must not steal, and he is therefore charged by his new employer that "honesty is the best policy.' If he drinks, even to intoxication, when away from business, it is a matter of some regret-but, after all, of no very great consequence, provided he can sell his "fifty thousand." A large and very respectable dry goods establishment, in this city, thought best lately to dispense with the services of one of these "fifty thousand" salesmen, because he would get drunk on brandy. Every few days, in spite of all entreaty and expostulation, he would disgrace both himself and his employers, but, notwithstanding, in the course of a year he would sell more than his "fifty thousand." The young man, with a bold face, sought another situation with one of our merchant princes. He declared emphatically that he could sell his “fifty thousand." The engagement was concluded, aud, as a mere matter of form, our merchant prince sent his confidential clerk to inquire about the integrity of his new salesman. He was told that the young man could sell his "fifty thousand" easily, but that every now and then he would get drunk on brandy. This fact was faithfully communicated to headquarters. "He drinks brandy does he," said the merchant prince; "is that all you can find against him? He'll do. Why, I drink brandy myself-that's no objection!" Before that young man, now, the way is broad to destruction. Merchants of New York, is that the road to prosperity? Take warning, for your own sons may be witnesses.

THRESHING OUT DEBTS IN ILLINOIS.

A certain mercantile firm in Illinois, (well-known to the commercial editors of the Independent,) firding on their books a large amount of unsettled accounts against farmers coming in slow, resolved upon the following expedient to "fetch 'em to terms." Having a good pair of working horses, it was decided that one of the partners should purchase and take the command of a threshing-machine, visit every farmer indebted to them, thresh out his wheat, then take their pay, and go to the next upon the same errand. The plan succeeded well. It is unnecessary for us to say that the firm we allude to is in good credit in New York, and will doubtless continue to be. In view of these facts, we would say to all Western merchants, if the farmers don't pay, thresh 'em out. As it is expected there will hereafter be an extraordinary demand for first-rate threshing-machines, the Independent offers to open its columns to all advertisers in that line, on reasonable terms.

THE COOLIE TRADE IN CUBA.

Information has been received from a correspondent of the Department of State at Havana, from which it appears that in 1856 there were the following arrivals with coolies :-Three Spanish vessels with 892; seven English with 1,846; four American with 1,910; and one Dutch with 319; total, 15 vessels, with 4,967 coolies. During the first quarter of 1857, there were four Dutch arrivals with 1,500 coolies; one Peruvian with 340; one American with 341; and one English with 435; total, 7 vessels, with 2,616 coolies.