redemption. It is payable out of a fund arising from tolls on boats passing through said lock, and in that fund there was, on the 1st of December, 1851, applicable to a further payment of the principal and interest of said loan, the sum of $3,620 53. The loans over due, as well as those becoming due, may be thus stated, viz:Amount over-due and unprovided for $3,081,159 69 STATEMENT SHOWING THE INDEBTEDNESS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA ON THE 1ST DAY OF DECEMBER, 1851-DERIVED FROM THE REPORT OF THE AUDITORGENERAL. By the 55th section of the act of 15th April, 1851, the State Treasurer was authorized to borrow, on temporary loan, $98,000, to be applied to improving the curves on the Columbia Railroad. This was done. But as the amount is reimbursable out of the proceeds of the sale to the Reading Railroad Company, of the Schuylkill viaduct and the railroad leading there from to the city of Philadelphia, and is a mere anticipation of some of the instalments from that company, it is not embraced in the above statement, nor in the table of loans. COINAGE OF THE MINT AT DAHLONEGA. The coinage at the Branch Mint at Dahlonega, for 1851, was as follows: COINAGE OF THE NEW ORLEANS MINT IN 1851. We give below a statement, derived from the officers of the Mint, of the deposits and coinage at that establishment for the year ending January 1, 1852 :— STATEMENT OF THE DEPOSITS AND COINAGE AT THE BRANCH MINT, NEW ORLEANS, DURING By reference to the above statement, it will be observed that the amount coined exceeds that of deposits by nearly one million of dollars. DEBT AND FINANCES OF MICHIGAN. The funded and fundable debt of the State not yet due is as follows:— Full paid $5,000,000 loan bonds, due January, 1863. Adjusted bonds, due January, 1863.. Internal Improvement warrant bonds, due January, 1870. Total....... $100,000 00 100,000 00 100,000 00 20 000 00 40,000 00 180,000 00 275,732 83 234,200 00 $1,049,932 83 .... 1,503,336 30 15,000 00 The part paid of the $5,000,000 loan bonds outstanding, will, if funded Making the total funded and fundable debt not yet due....... $2,568,269 13 The amounts due the educational funds are considered permanent loans, and will probably so remain—at least until the other portion of the State indebtedness shall have been cancelled. FUNDED DEBTS OF MARYLAND. We compile from the annual report of the Treasurer of the State of Maryland, for the fiscal year ending December 1st, 1851, to the General Assembly of Maryland, the following statement of "Funded Debts contracted by the State, as of 1st December, 1851" e For account of the Baltimore and Department of the Baltimore University. c For the service of the Maryland Penitentiary. d For account of the Washington Monument in Baltimore. Ohio Railroad. f For account of the Baltimore and Washington Railroad. g For account of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. h For account of the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad. i For account of the Annapolis and Elk-Ridge Railroad. j For account of the Susquehanna and Tide Water Canals. k For account of the Eastern Shore Railroad. FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE UNITED STATES, EXCLUSIVE OF TRUST FUNDS, FROM OCTOBER 1, TO DECEMBER 31, 1851. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, REGISTER'S OFFICE, January 30, 1852. 167,999 55 2,063 87 Premium and commission on purchase of stock loan of 1847. Total.... $14,943,023 51 EARLY CURRENCY IN MAINE. Long before any permanent settlements were made on the shores of Maine, there was an extensive Commerce carried on with the Indians of that territory by the fleets which annually came from Europe for fish and peltry. In such intercourse, cash was scarcely known. The natives were ready to barter large amounts of skins for beads, knives, hatchets, and blankets, and especially for tobacco, powder, shot, guns, and strong water. Philanthropists, who desired the highest welfare of the red man, and sought to bring him under the salutary restraints of the Gospel, according to the professed purpose of every charter for American colonies, perceived that the most of such merchandise tended to demoralize and render him a dangerous neighbor. They petitioned and obtained restrictions. Their benevolent action, as usual in attempts to suppress gainful but deleterious customs, caused much excitement among the numerous traders, who set more by their own interest than they cared for others' ruin. The article of peltry, so abundantly offered by the natives and so eagerly sought by foreigners, was received and passed as cash by the colonists. Another commodity, adopted by them from the aborigines, for a similar end, was wampum. This was brought from Manhadoes, afterwards New York, on a voyage thither in 1628. It is thus described by Governor Bradford :-"That which in time turns most to our advantage is, their now acquainting and entering us into the trade of wampum. By which and provisions, we quite cut off the trade both from the fishermen and straggling planters. And strange it is, to see the great alteration it in a few years makes among the savages. For the Massachusetts and others, in these parts, had scarce any, it being only made and kept among the Pequots and Naragansetts, who grew rich and potent by it; whereas the rest, who use it not, are poor and beggarly." Here we have the position, long assumed by the great body of the civilized, that a circulating medium, aside from the fruits of the field and of the chase, tends to enrich and strengthen a people, confirmed by the experience of men in a state of nature. Roger Williams, in his observations on such money of the New England Indians, gives the succeeding account:-"Their own is of two sorts, one white, which they make of the stem or stock of the periwinkle, when all the shell is broken off; and of this sort, six of their small beads, which they make with holes to string their bracelets, are current with the English for a penny. The second is black, inclining to blue, which is made of the shell of a fish, which some English call hens-poquahock; and of this sort, three make an English penny. One fathom of this their stringed money is worth five shillings." UNITED STATES TREASURER'S STATEMENT, JANUARY 26, 1852. TREASURER'S STATEMENT, SHOWING THE AMOUNT AT HIS CREDIT IN THE TREASURY, WITH ASSISTANT TREASURERS AND DESIGNATED DepositARIES, AND IN THE MINT AND BRANCHES, BY RETURNS RECEIVED TO MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 1852, THE AMOUNT FOR WHICH DRAFTS HAVE BEEN ISSUED BUT WERE THEN UNPAID, AND THE AMOUNT THEN REMAINING SUBJECT TO DRAFT. SHOWING, ALSO, THE AMOUNT OF FUTURE TRANSFERS TO AND FROM DEPOSITARIES, AS ORDERED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. Transfers ordered to Treasury of the United States, Washington. Transfers ordered from Mint of the United States, Philadel., Pa.. $360,000 00 400,000 00 575,000 00 50.000 00 120,000 00 $1,505,000 00 23,540 00 |