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supply, by far the greatest part of the oil has been obtained from them. The effect of their cessation may be pretty accurately expressed in figures. The production has fallen from 12.000 bbls, to something like 400 bbls. a day. But it does not, by any means, necessarily follow that this low figure is not capable of great future augmentation. Up to this tie, the greater part of the oil, which is estimated altogether at 300,000 bbls., has been taken from an area of about two square miles. When we take into account that the anticlinal in which the oil is found traverses the entire peninsula of Upper Canada, between almost the most distant points that could be selected, it would be rash to conclude that this vast subterranean reservoir is not capable of being made to yield up an enormous amount of hitherto hidden treasure.

The spouting wells were sure to become exhausted, and what has now happened in regard to them must have been foreseen by all who took the trouble to understand their nature. Other spouting wells may be found, but it is evident that if any of the wells are to give a permanent supply, it will be those from which the oil is pumped. Hitherto there has been a monstrous waste of oil, arising chiefly from not having the spouting wells, when oil was first struck, properly under control. According to some estimates, about one-half the entire quantity of oil brought to the surface has been lost in this way. It is a matter of speculation whether another flow of oil may not be got below the bed of the exhausted wells, and we learn that this point is to be settled by sinking a trial well to the depth of 1,000 feet. In Pennsylvania success was obtained under like circumstances, and the precedent gives hope of a like result in this case.

POSTAGE ON BOOTS, ETC.

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, APPOINTMENT OFFICE,
Washington, January 3d.

Many postmasters persist in sending through the maiis packages of clothing, boots, etc., charging thereon only one cent an ounce for postage. This is a palpable violation of the law and regulations with which every postmaster should be familiar. The packages are held for the legal postage at the distributing offices, or office of delivery, accumulating to such an extent as to be greatly annoying to these officers, and, in a large ma jority of cases, never reach the parties addressed, thus causing a loss to the parties sending.

The law and regulations clearly define what is mailable matter, and prescribe what amount of postage is to be charged thereon, and further provides that all other matter or thing, if sent by mail, is subject to letter postage.

To prevent further loss to parties interested, and the improper interruption of business at the large offices, all postmasters are required to make themselves fully acquainted with the laws and regulations relating to the postal service; and the mailing of packages hereafter, of the character referred to, by any postmaster, without the proper postage being prepaid by postage stamps, will be considered good cause for removal.

(Signed.) ALEX. W. RANDALL, 1st Asst. Postmaster-General.

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Verner's Pride. By Mrs. HENRY WOOD, author of the " Earl's Heirs," "Life's Secret," "The Channings," etc. Philadelphia: T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS. In two volumes. Price 50 cents each.

We have Mr. LONGFELLOW's authority for declaring that it is a sublime thing to suffer and he strong, but we can only give our own for the assertion that we have been achieving sublimity this long time. Concealment has been preying upon the editorial cheek until we are threatened with a moral lockjaw, and our constitution can no longer support such depredations. We seek relief by candor. There is a defect in Mrs. Wood's style which is exasperating beyond expression; we should long ago have spoken of it, but for the fact that it was commented on by several of our contemporaries, and we considered that sufficient. To speak of it, is to remedy it, we said to ourselves, and in silence awaited amendment; but the next book showed no improvement, nor the next, and in this last work, the error glares upon one from every page with a persistency that is unendurable. Like, is a good Saxon word, quite unobjectionable in its proper place, but it becomes woefully unpleasant when abnormally situated, and in Verner's Pride it crops out in every direction, in the most monstrous and preposterous connection.

If it is an established law in Ethics that a man should pay his debts before he makes presents, or that a philanthropist should relieve his suffering neighbor before sending swaddling bands to Bush babies, it is even more imperative upon an author to be thoroughly master of the sober beast Syntax, before he mounts unbridled Pegasus for a flight. The most talented, the most imaginative, the most prolific writer in the world, will only mutilate or squander his best gifts, without a patient and special reference to such prosaic things as spelling and grammar. We doubt whether SHAKSPEARE'S most devoted adinirers would be quite as enthusiastic if he had represented the courtly Polonius as exclaiming, “To thine own self be true, and it must follow like the night the day," etc., or if he had made wrathful Mark Antony ejaculate, "I am no orator like Brutus is, but like you know me all, a plain, blunt man." To go beyond SHAKSPEARE, and mar the pure simplicity of the Scriptures by such abuses, only gives a still stronger contrast. The very children would cry out against such enormities as "Like thy days are so shall thy strength be,” or “ Like ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." If SHAKSPEARE and the Sacred Word can suffer from such substitution, its effect upon ordinary writing must be doubly disastrous.

It becomes the more disagreeable the longer it is persisted in, and develops from a heedless inaccuracy into a wilful delinquency. It is a pity that a matter so easily remedied should be allowed to spoil so good a book as Verner's Pride. If not equal to the Channings," which we consider an admirable novel, and by far the best thing ever published by Mrs. Wood, it is at least superior to her other works; the plot is continued with great ingenuity and is very interesting; Jan is a splendid character, and Master Cheese very amusing in his fat way. The hero, we love for his many noble qualities, notwithstanding two drawbacks to our enthusiasm. The first is, that he is undeniably a little tender about the brain, and the second, that his extreme delicacy is spotless, and rather of a remittent type. He allows his love for the heroine (who is an uncommonly nice girl) to appear while his first wife is living, but after she is dead, and the way is open, pangs of honor seize him and he resolves to conceal

his affection, because his circumstances are depressed. This obstacle being removed, by his coming into a fortune, the reader expects an immediate proposal, a wedding and the end. But the hero is then attacked by the violent conviction that it is his duty to ask the consent of the young lady's father first, and as he is in India, there is Decessarily a considerable delay. Meantime the heroine has a good time growing thin and ruining her best pocket handkerchiefs with frequent secret tears, as far as the last chapter, when everything is made suddenly right. The whole Pickaby affair is a capital story by itself, full of the purest fun and entertainment, and is quite equal to some of DICKENS's best humorous sketches.

The New American Cyclopædia; a Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by GEORGE RIPLEY and CHARLES A. DANA. Volumes Sixteen. New York: D. APPLETON & Co., 443 and 445 Broadway.

This is the last volume of this admirable work. The first was issued, as our readers probably remember, in 1858, and, as during these five years it has been going through the press, all have had an excellent opportunity to form a correct judgment of its merits or demerits. To us, however, it is but just to say, it has become an invaluable resource, in the prosecution of our every day duties. One can find within its pages an inexaustible fund of accurate and practical information on almost all questions and subjects of art, science, biography, history, law, medicine, political economy, etc. In connection with the publication of this great work, we have learned some interesting statistics that may be interesting to the reader. Its publishers, we understand, have invested $415,000 in this literary venture. The amount paid to contributors, and for making the stereotype plates, up to December last, was $148,700. The other expenses on 217,550 copies of the first fifteen volumes printed, were, for paper $111,500 printing $17,500, binding $110,000, advertising, circulars, etc., $20,000. Add to this the cost of paper, printing, and binding 10,000 copies of vol. xvi, $10,500, and an item denominated sundries, $1,800, and we have a grand total of $415,000. The number of titles or subjects treated is said to be about 27,000. The sixteen volumes contain 13,801 pages, which have 52,000,000 ems, printer's measure. To print the edition called for of the first fifteen volumes required 12,094 reams of white paper; and to print 10,000 copies of the sixteenth volume consumes 556 reams more. The work has been circulated entirely by subscription, and it had obtained at a recent period not less than 17,000 subscribers. Of this number 12,000, we are informed, live in the free, and 5,000 in the slave States; of the latter, Louisiana contributed the greatest number.

A staff of twenty-five regular writers was engaged, most of whom had desks in a large office furnished with a very extensive library of books of reference in various languages. The editorial labors of revising the articles as written, and again revising the proof-sheets, employed not only the two editors, but five or six other gentlemen, especially competent for this work, who verified dates and other figures, and, so far as is possible to human handiwork, made each page perfect.

We think that the Messrs. APPLETON deserve great credit for the excellent manner in which they have supervised this work, and are glad to know that it has proved to them, what it really is, a success.

Appleton's Annual Cyclopædia for 1862.

D. APPLETON & Co. have rapidly passing through the press the second volume of the new annual publication, which was received with such favor by all classes of the community. Its contents embrace the material and intellectual progress of the year, particularly in this country; the important civil and political measures of the Federal

and State governments; an accurate and minute history of the struggles of the great armies and the many battles. illustrated with maps of the country and plans of the actions, taken from official copies; the proceedings in the Confederate States to maintain the war and establish their government; the debates of the Federal and Confederate Congresses; the financial measures of the government, the commerce, etc; also, the progress of foreign nations, including the Mexican Expedition; the ignominious flight of Otho from Greece; the Tae-ping Rebellion in China; the cautious march of the Russians into Persia, their intrigues in A fghanistan, and their march to the Chinese frontier; the Cochin China war; the distress of the Lancashire operatives; the stoppage of the looms of Mulhouse and Lyons; also, the developments in the physical sciences; the progress of literature, mechanical inventions, and improvements; the religious statistics of the world, and biographical sketches of the emiment persons deceased in 1862.

As an evidence of the high estimation in which the volume for 1861 is held in Eng. land, we append the following notice from the Lon lon Daily News:

“This valuable work contains, as nearly as may be, materials for the complete his tory of America for the year. It embraces the political, civil, military, and social affairs of the Western Continent for that period. It preserves all the public documents for the future historian, records the biography of men who have played a distinguished part in the great events that have occurred during the year, and gives full statistics of the condition of the nation, with the state of its commerce, finance, literature, science, agriculture, and mechanical industry. The work is a decided improvement upon our Annual Register. It comprehends a much wider circle; indeed, it excludes scarcely anything connected with the national life. It gives the authorities and original pieces upon which its statements are founded; and the alphabetical arrangement, though it breaks up the historical connection of the contents, renders them very easy of reference. We cannot imagine a more useful book for immediate use to any one interested in what is taking place in the United States. Were our members of Parliament, who take an annual opportunity of displaying their ignorance before their constituents. docile enough to consult the pages of this authentic work, they would not be so frequently exposed to the reproach of delivering opinions formed upon the most distorted views of American affairs. Nor will the value of the work cease with the immediate interest it is calculated to excite. Every succeeding year will add to it. As the colors with which imagination, prejudice, and passions surround the solemn events now occurring amongst our Transatlantic kinsmen fade with time, so will the truthful records of these annual volumes become more distinct and more precious to the historical inquirer. Should the work be continued, as it deserves to be, during a long series of years, America will have to boast, among other things, of possessing the fullest and best arranged repertory of history in the world." Appletons Railway Guide.

The Messrs. APPLETON have just issued their Railway Guide for April. They continue to keep it up to the high standard it has always held, making it invaluable to the traveler. We notice also that they now publish a smaller volume (Railroad Guide) for ten cents, which contains much information, and will, we think, become quite popu lar among those who propose taking short journeys, and do not wish therefore to purchase the larger book.

Somebody's Luggage. By CHARLES DICKENS. Philadelphia: T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS. Price 25 cents.

Mr. DICKENS's books are sure to be read whatever their merits may be, for his worst writings are better than some people's best. The present volume contains certainly several very trashy stories, and yet, after the DICKENS fashion of late days, we find among the rubbish a few gems of sufficient value to redeem the whole. The narrative of Mary Carwcour is passably good, but the last tale in the book, the account of Dick Blorage and his Chair of Truth, is altogether charming, and is of itself worth all the rest of the Luggage.

THE

MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE

AND

COMMERCIAL REVIEW.

Established July, 1839.

EDITED BY

WILLIAM B. DANA.

VOLUME XLVIII.

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CONTENTS OF No. IV., VOL. XLVIII.

COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW.

Gold Movement-Speculation-Counter Speculation-Restrictions on Tranɛac-
tions-New York Bill-Change in Dealing—Insecurity of Property-Views
of the Secretary-General Review-Currency-Free use of Property—
Evils of the Fluctuation-Evasions of the Law-Borrowing on Stock-Gold
Movement-Decline in Bank-Claims of Creditors-Arrears of the Treasury
-Demand Notes-Duties on Gold-Government Securities-Deposits-
Interest Increased-Exchange-Ruinous Effect on Imports-Check to Ex-
ports-Great Fluctuations—Imports at New York-Exports...

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