1 Indiana 5 and 24 per cents. Ohio 6 32 Missouri 6s, Virginia 6s, Louisisna 6s, per cents. 2 Indiana 5 and 24 per cents. 3 Indiana 5 per cents. Missouri 6 pr 4 Indiana 5 per cents. cts. 5 Indiana 5 and 2 per cents. Virginia 6 per cents. 6 Virginia 6s, Michigan 6s, Indiana 5s, Missouri 6 per cents. 7 Louisiana 6s, Indiana 5 and 24 per cts., Virginia 6 per cents, Tenn. 6 per cts. 8 Indiana 5 per cents, Michigan 5 per cents, Penn. 5 per cents. 9 Indiana 5 per cents, Virginia cents, Louisiana 6 per cents. per 10 Michigan 6 per cents, Indiana 5 per cts. 11 Indiana 5 per cents, Virginia 6 per cts. 12 Indiana 5 per cents. 13 Indiana 5 and 2 per cents. 14 Indiana 5 per cents. 15 Indiana 5 per cents, Penn. per cents, Virginia 6 per cents. 16 Indiana 5 and 24 per cents, Georgia 6 per cents. 17 Indiana 5 per cents, Virginia 6 per cts. 18 Indiana 5 per cents, Missouri 6 per cts. 19 Virginia 68, Kentucky 6s, Indiana 5 and 24 per cents. 20 Indiana 5 per cents, Missouri 6 per cts. 21 Virginia 6 per cents. 22 Indiana 5 per cents, Missouri 6 per cts. 23 North Carolina 6 per cents, Louisiana 6 per cents. 24 Indiana 5 and 24 per cents, Missouri and Louisiana 6 per cents. 25 Indiana 5 per cents, Kentucky 6 per cts. 26 Indiana 24 and 5 per cents, Missouri 6 per cents. 27 Virginia 6 per cents. Tennessee 6 per cents. 33 Virginia, Georgia and Kentucky 6 per Indiana 24 and 5 per cents, Penn. 5s, Tenn. 5s, Louisiana 6 per cents. Louisiana 6s, Ind. 5 and 2 per cents, North Carolina 6s, Tenn. 6 per cents. 40 Missouri and Louisiana 6 per cents. 41 Virginia 6 per cents. 42 Pennsylvania 6s, Indiana 5 per cents. 43 Virginia 6 per cents. 44 Indiana 5 and 24 per cents, Missouri and Virginia 6 per cents. 45 Indiana 5 per cents. 46 Missouri 6s, Kentucky 6s, Georgia 68, and Indiana 5 per cents. 47 Louisiana 6 per cents. 48 Louisiana and Virginia 6 per cents. 49 Indiana 5 per cents. 50 Louisiana 6 per cents. 51 Carolina and Virginia 6 per cents. 52 Pennsylvania 5 per cents. 53 Pennsylvania 5 per cents. 54 North Carolina and Virginia 6 per cts. 55 Virginia 6 per cents. 56 Indiana 24 per cents. 57 Kentucky 6s, Tennessee 6s, Indiana 5 58 Georgia 7s, Carolina 6 per cents. 60 Virginia 6 per cents. 61 Pennsylvania and Indiana 5 per cents. 62 Virginia 6 per cents. 28 Indiana 5 and 24 per cents, Virginia 63 Louisiana 6 per cents. 6 per cents. 29 Virginia and Ohio 6 per cents. 64 Virginia 6 per cents. 65 Louisiana 6 per cents. 30 Indiana 5 per cents, Virginia 6 per cts., 66 Virginia 6 per cents. Louisiana 6 per cents. 31 Virginia 6 per cents. 67 Virginia 6 per cents, Indiana 5 per cts. The Pennsylvania 5 per cents are received for a basis at 83 to 85 per cent. Indiana 24 per cents are received at 50 to 55 per cent. The State has and will be purchasing this class of stocks at 62 for liquidation. We have also paid off over $100,000 of the principal of our State debt, and will soon return a larger amount. Many of the banks are retiring their circulation, and since this was made out, $100,000 circulation has been returned, and bonds taken up. Every day this is going on. CONDITION OF THE NEW ORLEANS BANKS. STATEMENT OF THE NEW ORLEANS BANKS, CONDENSED FROM THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF CURRENCY ON THE LAST SATURDAY OF AUGUST, 1854. CASH LIABILITIES. THE NATIONAL DEBT OF ENGLAND. The English national debt was greater in the year 1815 than at any period before or since, viz.: £816,311,000. Its progress since the year 1801 was very rapid, until the conclusion of peace with France, viz.: Unfunded debt. Year. Funded debt. 1801. £447,043,000 £17,590,000 Annual cost. £21,956,000 1805. 573,529,000 25,253,000 19,818.000 1810. 624,301,000 39,164,000 23,081,000 1815.. 816,311,000 57,951,000 31,105,000 1820... 801,565,000 36,900,000 30,476,000 1825.. 778,128,000 32,398,000 29,460,000 1830.. 757,486,000 25,495,000 29,164,000 1835... 750,692,000 28,521,000 28,474,000 1840. 766,548,000 20,951,000 29,605,000 1845...... 769,193,000 18,404,000 28,265,000 1850... 1851. 1852. 773,168,000 17,758,000 28,090,000 765,126,000 17,742,000 28,017,000 761,622,000 17,742,000 27,875,000 Stock of the Bank purchased from the State. + Bonds deposited with the State Auditor. "SAVINGS BANKS-HOW THEY GET RICH." The Albany Atlas publishes under the above caption some editorial remarks and suggestions which deserve the attention of our state legislatures. In republishing them, our cotemporary of the Wall Street Journal, who has "printed column after column on the subject,” trusts that the coming legislature of New York will thoroughly investigate it. The Atlas says, as will be seen below, that a million dollars, including interest, of unclaimed deposits, are lying in the savings banks of New York, while the editor of the Journal thinks that instead of that amount, there are not less than five millions of dollars due the widows' and orphans' fund. We should say that there were at least $3,000,000 in all the savings banks, now unclaimed. We therefore hope the subject will be investigated not only in New York, but in some other States. We shall endeavor to recur to the subject, in the pages of the Merchants' Magazine, at an early day. In the meantime we give below the remarks of the Atlas: Some of the most magnificent structures in New York and Philadelphia are savings banks, built from the deposits of the "laboring people," and to many it seems a sort of mystery how this can be. Men grow rich, build fine houses, sport carriages, and make a great dash in the world, out of the successful management of these same "benevolent institutions," and a good many people wonder how this can be. Depositors die without drawing out their deposits. They are strangers, and no heir appears to claim the money. Many deposit secretly-some actuated by a miserly and avaricious disposition, some to avoid publicity and to evade creditors, and when they die the secret of their deposit dies with them. These unclaimed deposits remain, and are regarded as the legitimate property of somebody besides the depositors. This is one source of profit, and a very large one. Savings banks, as a general thing, are connected with banks of discount and deposit, and whatever the theory may be, in regard to investment, the deposits in some shape come to be substituted for, or at all events used as capital on which the latter banks operate. Judiciously managed, the banks of discount and deposit pay a dividend (including surplus funds) of from eight to twelve per cent. This leaves a margin of from three to seven per cent between the interest paid and the interest received on the deposits, and this is another source of profit. There may be, and doubtless are, other advantages derived from the use of these deposits, but these alone show how this sort of "philanthropic institutions" may be and are made to pay. Now, we by no means intend to say one word against savings banks, against their policy when established, or the manner in which they are generally managed. We regard them as good things, and beneficial to the people. But their claim to the character of benevolent institutions is apocryphal, to say the least of it. There is one thing in which the people of this State have an interest, rights which they should insist upon, and we affirm that the legislature fails in its duty if it does not provide for the enforcing of these rights. When a man dies without kindred and no heir appears to claim his estate, it goes by the law to the State, and its proceeds go into the public treasury, to be disposed of as the people through their representatives may direct. This is right, in strict accordance with the principles of natural equity, for property which no living individual has labored for, which no individual living has created or accumulated, nor has any legal right to appropriate, should be used and disposed of for the benefit of all. There are now to-day lying in the savings banks of this State, according to the most intelligent estimate, more than one million, including interest, of unclaimed deposits. These deposits (assuming that they have not been squandered or applied to individual uses) were made in small sums, by strangers, foreigners, men without known kindred, by sailors, soldiers, servant men and servant women, who have "died and made no sign." These deposits have lain there for years, some ten, some twenty, some thirty, and some forty or fifty years, and no heir ever has or ever will in all probability, appear to claim them. To whom do these heirless treasures belong? Not to the trustees of these institutions, for they are abundantly paid for the care bestowed upon their management. Not to the other depositors, for they can claim only their own. They belong of right and by the law of the land to the public treasury, upon the principle that the State is heir to the heirless. Should not the State claim its own? Is anybody wronged by it? Are anybody's rights invaded? If it is asked, What if the heirs appear to claim the inheritance! is not that inheritance as safe in the hands of the State as in those of the trustees? And will not the State be as ready to restore it to the rightful heir as the trustees will be? And see what good could be done with this million. These unclaimed deposits were made as we said, by sailors, soldiers, servant men and women, and laboring poor people. Let them be applied for asylums, schools, and hospitals for the poor, the class that furnished them. In this way the duty and the interests of the State will be served, the right thing will be done, and no man will be wronged. There are other matters connected with some of these "philanthropic institutions" which the legisla ture should understand, and which the people should know, but of which this may not be the proper time to speak. CONDITION OF THE BANKS IN BOSTON. In the Merchants' Magazine for July, 1854, (vol. xxxi., pages 97-98,) we gave an abstract of the Massachusetts act of April 15th, 1854, requiring a weekly statement of the condition of the banks in Boston, and monthly returns of those in the State out of Boston. This act went into operation in June, and the first weekly statement was published on the 5th of that month. In the number of this Magazine alluded to above we gave under our abstract of the law, the first statement, showing the condition of each bank in Boston on the 5th of June, 1854. The following table, which we have compiled from the official returns made to the Secretary of State, shows the leading features of the banks in Boston, each week, since the 5th of June (when the act took effect,) to the present time, (Sept. 18th, 1854.) 30,762,892 49,220,001 2,952,760 13,183,196 8,099,089 2,839,025 12,738,605 9,158,459 2,807,795 12,917,429 8,562,122 31,014,985 31,108,085 2,934,940 12,672,918 8,541,494 30,953,135 49,625,045 2,574,786 13,159,032 7,859,255 30,966,460 50,335,806 2,904,012 13,567,854 8,207,597 50,907,742 13,504,750 8,184,828 31,067,960 51,335,439 2,858,634 31,088,185 51,589,519 2,872,742 51,857,522 52,102,498 2,584,491 2,873,393 13,367,561 8,087,003 The per centage of taxation at this time is less than at any former period in the present century. During the war period of 1800-1810 it was £5 11s. per head, now it is less than £2. At the five decennial periods of the present century the total taxation was as follows: The greatest amount realized by Great Britain during any one year was in 1813£108,397,000, and in 1814 £105,698,000. This included sums raised by loans. Da ing these years taxation was at its highest point, viz.: £68,748,000 in 1813, £71,131,000 in 1814, and £72,210,000 in 1815. Taxation, in amount and per capita, has since materially lessened, and the net produce in 1852 was £48,803,283. RATES OF EXCHANGE IN NEW ORLEANS. The following table shows the comparative rates of exchange at New Orleans on London, Paris, and New York, on the first of each month for the three years specified, on sixty-day bills: RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE UNITED STATES. The receipts of the United States for the quarter ending June 30th, 1854, according to the official statement of the Register of the Treasury, were as follows: The expenditures during same time were for civil, miscellaneous, and foreign intercourse, $3,842,906; payment under 3d article of treaty with Mexico of Dec. 30, 1853, $7,000,000; pensions and Indian department, $401,726; war, including army proper, fortifications, armories, and arming militia, horses, &c., $3,074,701; navy, including pay of navy, steam mail-service, &c., 2,593,002. The payments of interest on public debt, redemption of stock, and premium on stock redeemed amounted to $6,882,765. The entire disbursements of the Treasury during the quarter amounted to $23,745,102. HOW TO PREVENT BANK NOTE COUNTERFEITS. We find in one of our exchanges, the following suggestions, as to the means for the prevention of bank note counterfeits: Let the presidents of all the banks in this city, or even all in the Union, have a meeting by appointment at some central point, and resolve upon this method. First, appoint one manufacturer of bank note paper, to manufacture, for each Lank that may have a representative at the meeting, paper of a reddish or bluish cast, each bill hav ing upon it the name of the maker, president, and cashier of the bank for which it is intended, in what is called a water line, as in the old English letter paper. Let it be secured by patent, and the restrictions imposed upon the maker, be as stringent as those upon the manufacturer of government envelopes. Few bills are in circulation so well executed as to deceive the initiated, and with the above guard placed upon them, the making of counterfeit paper money would pay the manufacturers but little profit, and would force them to seek some more honorable or dishonorable employment that would pay them better. The expense to each bank would be of no account whatever, when compared with the check upon roguery which this plan suggests. |