No fact in trade would be better known than the price of gold, and no respectable bank could take the slightest advantage by charging more than the market price-it would be looked upon as utterly discreditable, and equivalent to an offer of payment in half-dimes or a virtual refusal. It would in fact ruin the credit of a bank to resort to such an expedient. The truth is, that such a system would turn the whole bullion business into the hands of dealers in bullion, in all seasons of a high market price, because they would pay higher for the article than the banks, and sell at the same price, besides furnishing facilities in packing, shipping, insuring, &c., which the banks would not do.

In all the ordinary transactions of trade and banking the system proposed would scarcely be regarded, it would only operate effectively upon foreign exchanges, and the foreign import trade, and upon that with the desirable results of a check upon overtrading, of rendering our foreign Commerce less irregular, and of keeping it more in the hands of our own merchants, who best understand the wants of the country. Whatever inconveniences might be encountered by this system would be trifling, compared with those suffered now in times of a high foreign exchange, and which fully justify any measure which offers a fair prospect of relief. It is bad policy not to let well-enough alone, but it is sheer stupidity to suffer ills without an effort to help ourselves, which a very moderate exercise of common sense would rectify there is courage in endurance of that which admits of no remedy, but shameful cowardice in suffering what we can justly and by our own strength repel.

If some remedial measure be not adopted at an early day an embarrassment will overtake us in regard to our coinage of gold dollars. These coins are now circulating freely in many parts of the country where paper dollars are not tolerated, and as they correspond in name and legal value with our dollar of account, they will exert a mischievous and disturbing tendency as soon as they begin to depreciate. A portion of the difficulty in regard to the gold coins already issued, and made a legal tender at the present price, might be met by making the present gold coins a legal tender, as now, to the extent of a hundred dollars, or any less sum. If we should discontinue

our present coinage of gold, and confine the operations of the mint, as to gold, to refining, weighing, and stamping ingots of convenient size, our coins would continue to circulate as now, until the price rose under the operation of the present unfavorable exchange, and then, being worth more than the legal price, they would cease to circulate. Or when exchanges become favorable, and gold falls below par, the coins would be kept in circulation by a provision making them a legal tender to the amount of a hundred dollars.

It would be a strange infatuation to hazard the single gold standard as a measure resulting from, and as a remedy for the scarcity of silver. No plan of keeping silver away from the country could be more effectual than overvaluing gold; or, what is the same thing, keeping it up to the same legal value, when it is depreciating in the market on the one hand, and debasing our circulating silver coin on the other. No silver would come here under such a system, unless expressly imported and paid for at a high price as expressed in gold. If the measure of debasing the smaller coins be expedient at this time, about which there is room for doubt, another regulation should accompany it which would secure us our fair proportion of silver. The debased coins being a legal tender to the amount of only five dollars,

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let all other silver coins and bullion be a legal tender at the market value. This would be a perfect security against that home depreciation of silver which drives it away, and would be certain to bring us such a supply as we may require, or as our market may demand.

Great misapprehension exists as to the importance of legal tender, and more especially the necessity of fixing the price at which gold or silver must be tendered.

It is not probable that of the money transactions in this country one dollar in one hundred millions ever takes the form of a legal tender, or that one person in one hundred thousand has ever seen a transaction in which the parties had the provisions of that law in view. Of those which do take place under actual contemplation of the law, a large proportion is made in bank-notes, which the law holds good, if the party to whom they are offered does not object and require tender of the precious metals. The truth is, that the large transactions of trade which are adjusted by books of account, promissory notes, bills of exchange, bank-notes, and bank-checks, in which gold or silver are neither employed nor thought of by those concerned, are so immeasurably greater in amount than those in which coins are employed, that it becomes proportionably more important to protect the money of account in which the values and prices of these operations are expressed, than to have any reference whatever to regulation of legal tender. It is only necessary to provide coins for the retail trade, and to protect them by a fixed price, at which they shall be a legal tender to a restricted amount.

It is a mistake to suppose it would be a great inconvenience to make gold and silver a legal tender in sums over a hundred dollars at the market price. In England, where gold only is the legal tender, sovereigns are in the banks always weighed, in sums even no greater than £20. By this means they keep their coins full weight, as when by friction or otherwise they lose a penny of their value they are rejected. So that while the coinage of sovereigns is a convenience it does not practically save the necessity of weighing. If the vigilance of the banks and merchants of England were relaxed in the least in regard to the weight of gold coins, they would be immediately assailed by clippers and sweaters and reduced to the lowest point at which the public would take them. This is an inconvenience we have not yet encountered, as our gold coins have not been long enough in circulation to be much worn, but as soon as the public become familiar with them in that state the new coins will be seized upon, as they come from the mint, and reduced to the ordinary appearance and weight of those which have been long worn. So that if gold continues to circulate among us, weighing coins will have finally to be resorted to, and a strict rejection of light coins enforced.

If both gold and silver were, however, in sums over one hundred dollars to be treated as bullion it would give no trouble, and be scarcely ever noticed in the ordinary transactions of business. Large transactions in coin and bullion are confined to the banks, and a very few dealers in bullion, and they would manage their business in that case exactly as they do now, taking mint weights as their guide when it suits them, and weighing when they think it necessary. If they could receive their bullion from the mint in bars or ingots, pure, accurately weighed, and in suitable form for packing, they would be saved immense trouble, and some risk would be saved in regard to coins which come to them from the public in such an infinite variety of deterioration, as makes it almost impossible to avoid loss. The

very fact that such coins are permitted to circulate at all shows how little regard is paid to the fixed price and legal tender regulations; for a coin which has lost 2 or 3, or 5 per cent of its weight is no longer the coin contemplated by the law, and is not in fact a legal tender. The people will take such light coins just as long as they please, whether they are made a legal tender or not. It is not desirable that they should be current after they have lost even as much as 1 per cent of their value, as the increasing depreciation increases the difficulty of overcoming the evil at the last. Every one knows what a serious nuisance the light Spanish American coins had become before the disappearance of the new silver coins restored them to favor again.

It is in truth not only the soundest, but in the long run, the most convenient policy to leave all large transactions in bullion to be adjusted by weight, and at the market value. A sufficient amount should be issued in coins for the retail trade, and these it may be necessary to protect by special legislation, in such manner that they cannot readily be withdrawn from that use. No coin should be issued of gold or silver corresponding with the money of account, because it should be defended from every disturbing influence with careful vigilance. This system would bring to an end the absurd practice of coining large quantities of gold and silver at a heavy expense, blending alloy with the pure metal in such exact proportions as requires the utmost delicacy of management, and employing the most expensive processes of adjustment in regard to the uniform weight, as well as quality of coins, which are in a few weeks or months to return to the furnace and go through the same process.

Our mint has in the last three years issued gold coins to the value of over a hundred millions of dollars, of exquisite workmanship and perfect adjustment, not surpassed in these respects by the productions of any other mint, at an expense of several hundred thousand dollars; all of which labor and skill is as entirely lost to the country as if sunk in the sea; the coins have left us as fast as issued, and the workmanship of other mints has given them another face. This gold could have been refined, and issued in ingots at less than half the expense, and would then have been equally available in payment of our foreign debt.

Art. 1.-THE COMMERCE OF ST. THOMAS.*

DESCRIPTION OF TOWN AND HARBOR OF ST. THOMAS-CUSTOM-HOUSE-DUTIES AND PORT CHARGES -QUARANTINE-BRITISH POST-OFFICE AGENCY-BANKS-FOREIGN NATIONS REPRESENTED-BURGHER COUNCIL-COUNTRY TREASURY, ITS INCOME AND EXPENDITURES—REVENUE AND DISBURSE MENTS OF THE KING'S CHEST-COMMERCE OF ST. THOMAS-ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DANISH WEST INDIA COMPANY TO THE PRESENT day.

THE Island of St. Thomas lies in latitude 18° 20′ 42′′ N., and longitude 64° 48' 9" W. Its length is about thirteen miles east and west, with an average breadth of three miles. It has St. Croix on the south, distant forty miles, and Porto Rico on the west, distant thirty-six miles.

The harbor and town lie about midway of the island on the south side. The harbor is formed by a branch of the main range of hills reaching round

⚫ A Historical account of St. Thomas, W. I. &c. By Rev. John P. Knox of St. Thomas,

on the east, and a key on the southwest and west, joined to the shore by a low neck of land. Its shape is nearly that of a parallelogram, extending east and west 2,472 yards, or about one and a half miles. From the fort at the head of the harbor across to the extreme east point, it is the same distance. The opening out to sea, or from the east to the west point, (on both of which are erected small batteries,) is 1,030 yards wide. There is thus anchorage ground for a very large number of vessels. Owing to the trade-winds, the swell from the ocean seldom enters the harbor with any force. Vessels there lie easy at anchor, and as there are no wharves to which they can moor, their cargoes are discharged and received with safety by lighters.

The town lies around the north side of the harbor, and is built partly upon the level, and partly upon three hills, which abut down from the high range nearly to the shore, with savannas between. The main street runs parallel with the shore, at the distance of about one hundred yards. From the center of the town towards the west, on this street, are located all the commercial houses. The stores are substantial fire-proof buildings, generally of but one story, and often reaching from the street to the wharf, a distance of from 300 to 400 feet. A few other streets to the north run parallel with the main street. The rest cross these at right angles, and reach up into the savannas. A small public garden, tastefully arranged, lies between the "king's wharf" in the centre of the town and the fort. There is also a small public square in the east savanna, crossed diagonally by a wide street, and partially planted with cocoa-nut and tamarind trees.

The town contains many stores and dwellings of every description, with a population, according to the census of 1850, of 12,383 persons. In the country there are on the estates 1,283 persons, making the total population of the island 13,666.

The markets are held in a small square on the main street, and in a narrow alley leading from the main street to the sea-shore. At the end of this street are the butchers' stalls; vegetables, fruits, and fish, are sold from trays on the ground.

The scene presented on entering the harbor is exceedingly picturesque and beautiful. The range of hills in the background, with their dome summits swelling up to the hight of 700 and 1400 feet; the town giving the appearance as if built entirely on the sides of the hill; the bright-colored houses with their red and tiled roofs; the two old towers, and the harbor covered with its shipping, and boats plying in every direction, give an exquisite view, unsurpassed in all the West India Islands. Travelers have awarded it this praise, and some have compared it favorably with the view of Funchal in the Island of Madeira.

The Custom-House is under the charge of an intendant of the royal customs. It receives all manifests, and only requires the consignees of goods to present an account and value of their goods, upon which account the oneand-a-quarter per cent customs are collected. It has no power to demand invoices, and therefore has no means of guarding against fraud, save by comparing the merchants' accounts with their manifests.

The harbor is under the charge of the "captain of the port." The charges paid to his department are, for vessels discharging or receiving cargo, $6 40 per 100 tons. There are also paid into the custom-house, as additional charges, between 45 and 50 cents per ton on European vessels, and between 19 and 22 cents on vessels from this side of the Atlantic. An

effort is now being made by the intendant of customs to equalize these latter charges, and make a difference in the same according to the amount of cargo discharged or received.

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Steamers belonging to the "Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company" are exempt from port charges. Vessels also bringing coal for their use, are nearly altogether exempt. No vessel can leave the harbor without a permit from the fort, for which is paid, for a ship, $2 56, a brig, $1 28, a topsail schooner, 64 cents-all others 32 cents. Should a vessel attempt to weigh anchor without this permit, or having left debts unpaid, she is at once brought to" by the guns from Christian's-fort, and afterwards if the first prove insufficient, from the batteries guarding the mouth of the harbor. The gauntlet is sometimes run, however, to the no small interest and amusement of the residents upon the hills, but not for the vessel, should she ever return to St. Thomas. Captains, on their arrival, must report all passengers at the police-office. They must see, too, that each passenger they take away is provided with a passport. The charges for these are low, and vary according to the place of destination.

A Quarantine Commission exists connected with the port, consisting of the police master, captain of the port, intendant of customs, and the king's physician. Some port or country is generally under the ban as an infected district.

The British Post-Office has its agent in St. Thomas, Peter Van Vleirden, Esq., for the mails brought by the Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company. No other post-office exists; and letters brought to the island by other vessels, are distributed either through a private letter-office, or by consignees, free of charge. It is deeply to be regretted that no postal arrangements exist in the United States by which letters could be regularly mailed for St. Thomas, by the steamer Merlin. Letters mailed in New York now, only reach the island by the way of Havana.

The Banking institutions of the island are "the Bank of St. Thomas," and a branch of the Colonial Bank of London, both established in 1837. There is also a savings bank in a flourishing condition, opened in 1847. It does not discount.

The island also enjoys the advantages of a united insurance company, organized in 1848, and a marine railway.

The following nations only are represented at St. Thomas :-Spain by a consul, France by a vice-consul, the United States by a commercial agent, the Republic of Venezuela by a commercial agent, and Sardinia by a consul.

A Burgher Council, composed of five members, elected by ballot, have hitherto taken charge of the municipal affairs of the island. They discharge their duty without remuneration. Their proceedings are not made public, save in an annual report of all incomes and expenses. Chosen from among our most worthy citizens, they have always discharged their duty with great faithfulness, efficiency, and economy. The country treasury being under their control, the following condensed report for the year 1850, will show its resources and expenditures.

Resources. House and building tax, $12,617 83; store and shop tax, $7,985 34; bakers' tax, $306 25; butchers' tax, $337 50; cart tax, $81 50: burghers' briefs, $412 80; passports, $1,200 46; tavern and billiard licenses, $760 80; vendue sales, $672 87; sundries, $1,178 45. Total, $25,553 69.