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kinds. Upon this is founded the progress and prosperity of the great city of New York; the promptness, ability, punctuality in meeting engagements, fear of dishonor, and great energy of this business community are known all over the commercial world. By these means New York might gain so reliable a basis for its currency, that if it only so restricts its issues as to keep within bounds, and not get to overtrading, she may become before many years the regulator of the money markets of the world. The misfortune, however, with this theory is, that when once a community has acquired such a basis for its currency, if it should be without restrictions, credit becomes so expanded, and there is such a vast issue of promises to pay, that overtrading follows, which brings about, at the will of the banks, a curtailment of credits, panic, and collapse. This is an evil, but it is an evil which belongs to every currency. It is one, however, which can be guarded against, and here the State may do some service, not by making issues, but by passing laws which will prevent them. Until the State does step in we never can have a secure basis, not even if that should be real estate or gold. Establish confidence, but not unlimited credit and issues. Now this, it appears to me, can only be done by putting in force the old fashioned Democratic doctrine, responsibility of Bank Directors, by requiring security, or making them individually liable, or some such restraint; and in place of overtrading and panic we will beget

CONFIDENCE.

THE DIRECTOR OF THE MINT ON THE GOLD COINAGE OF THE UNITED STATES. The following letter from the Director of the Mint at Philadelphia to the Treasury Department explains itself, and fully disproves the complaints which have occasionally been put forward from Europe of a want of uniformity in the value and fineness of the gold coinage of the United States :

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MINT OF THE United States, PHILADELPHIA, April 2, 1852. SIR:-In the Appendix to a Report relative to coinage lately made to the Senate by the Hon. Mr. Hunter, Chairman of the Committee of Finance, I find two letters from the Hon. Abbott Lawrence, our minister to England, one dated December 13, 1851, the other dated February 19, 1852, in which assertions are made tending to discredit the accuracy of the assay of the gold coins issued from this Mint and its

branches.

The statements made are so injurious to this department of the government, and indirectly to the government itself-and are, moreover, so entirely at variance with the facts as officially ascertained by me, and heretofore communicated to the departmentthat it becomes a matter of great regret that they should have found publicity and apparent countenance, in a document of such authority and importance. I feel it to be my duty to seize the first opportunity to make a concise statement of facts bearing on the subject, from which you will perceive that the highest credit is given to our assays in London and Paris.

1st. In a statement prepared at the French mint, it appears that there were deposited there, for coinage, in the year 1851, over seven millions of dollars in American gold, of every denomination, which were received at the standard of assay required by our laws, viz., 900 thousandths.

2d. By a circular of the Bank of England, dated February 4th last, American, French, and Dutch gold coins, are purchased by weight at the same fixed price. The standards of fineness in the gold coins of those countries being the same, it follows that the assay of American coin is held in the same esteem as that of France and the Netherlands.

3d. Dr. Joseph W. Farnum, of the United States, now in London, who possseses unusual facilities to obtain information on the subject, in a letter of April 7, 1851, writes as follows: "A few days since I had an interview with Mr. Hazzard, the chief of the bullion office of the Bank of England, who informed me that the results of the assays of United States coin were more uniform than those of any other coin received by the bank, not excepting even their own. He showed me the reports of more than one hundred assays of United States coin, giving one uniform result of W. 18." This is the fraction by which coins of 900 thousandths fine would be reported by the bank assays.

4th. The same correspondent, in a letter of November 26th last, states that Messrs. Sharps & Wilkins, and Messrs. Butt, Son, & Co., bullion dealers, of London, report, that the assays made for them of American gold coin averaged W. 18, corresponding to our standard. He adds: "These latter gentlemen, Butt, Son, & Co., to-day inform

ed me that they believed the American gold coin to be more uniform than any other, with the single exception of the Russian."

5th. In consequence of the large fraction used in reporting assays for the Bank of England, (namely, the eighth of a carat grain or 1 3-10 thousandths,) a very minute variation from our standard of 3-10ths of a thousandth, causes a report a fraction below W. 1, viz., W. 14; which could not be the case if a small subdivision of assay were made use of, say one-sixteenth of a carat grain. From the same cause we, on the other hand, gain no advantage if our coios are slightly better than standard. I had occasion, a short time since, to make some remarks upon this point, which were submitted to Messrs. Mocatta & Goldsmid, melters to the Bank of England.

In their reply they concede that, by the present custom of assay for the bank, a variation from the true quality might be reported; and they add that, if a more minute subdivision of parts were made in reporting assays of gold, they "think it most probable that the average quality of United States coin would be found quite up to the legal standard."

I think no further evidence can be necessary to show the entire credit given to the assay of the coins issued from the mints of the United States. Other statements could be furnished corroborating this fact, but they are withheld.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Hon. THOMAS CORWIN, Secretary of the Treasury.

GEO. N. ECKERT, Director.

STOCK SECURITIES OF NEW JERSEY BANKS.

A STATEMENT OF THE SECURITIES HELD BY THE STATE OF THE BANKS ESTABLISHED UNDER THE GENERAL BANKING LAW OF NEW JERSEY.

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Mr. Bourdelon, State Auditor, in his report on the receipts and disbursements of the revenue during the years 1850 and 1851, gives the details of the State debt as follows:

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Of the trust funds the largest item is one of $479,919 14, due the Government of the United States, it being received by Louisiana under the deposit act. The seminary funds in the hands of the State amount to $120,038 14. Of the trust funds, $756,411 are due on demand, and the rest of these fall due at different dates between 1855 and 1872.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION of the UNITED STATES IN 1850–51.

PART 1.-COMMERCE.*

The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, transmitting the Report of
the Register of the Treasury, of the Commerce and Navigation of the United States
for the year ending June 30, 1851, has just been published (Maroh 27th, 1852). Pri-
or to 1850, this document did not appear till some year after the expiration of the
fiscal or commercial year, as it was not printed until after it had been laid before Con-
gress at its opening in December of each year. At our instance, the Hon. JOHN DA-
VIS, United States Senator from Massachusetts, introduced a bill (see Merchants'
Magazine for 1851, vol. xxiv., page 355,) requiring this document to "be printed and
ready for delivery on or before the first day of January next ensuing the close of the
fiscal year to which the report relates." In 1850 it was printed and laid before Con-
gress but a few days after the period specified by the act referred to; but this year it
has been delayed nearly two months beyond the required time. There is, as we have
before stated, no necessity for delaying the printing of the report to even the first
Monday in January, as there is abundance of time from the close of the fiscal year on
the 30th of June, to the first Monday in December, to prepare and print it.

We now proceed to record, in the pages of the Merchants' Magazine, the tabular
statements of the report, which it has been our habit of publishing from year to year.

VALUE OF DOMESTIC EXPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES.

SUMMARY STATEMENT OF THE VALUE OF THE EXPORTS OF THE GROWTH, PRODUCE, AND
MANUFACTURE OF THE UNITED STATES, DURING THE YEAR COMMENCING ON THE 1st
DAY OF JULY, 1850, AND ENDING ON THE 30TH OF JUNE, 1851.

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* The crowd of valuable matter prepared for the present number of the Merchants' Magazine,
compels us to defer the publication of the usual tables relating to the "Navigation of the United
States" until June.

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VALUE OF DOMESTIC EXPORTS TO EACH FOREIGN COUNTRY.
VALUE OF THE DOMESTIC EXPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES TO EACH FOREIGN COUNTRY,
AND TO DOMINIONS OF EACH FOREIGN POWER, DISTINGUISHING THE AMOUNT SHIPPED
IN AMERICAN AND FOREIGN VESSELS, FOR YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1851.

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