The indebtedness of the city on the 1st October, 1865, was as follows, viz. : This amount with the outstanding scrip and orders, perhaps about 7,000, which with about $10,000 the city will require to borrow to pay interest in New York and expenses, up to January 1st, 1866, will make the entire indebtedness of the city at that date, $420,227 65. The assessed valuation of the city on the 1st October, 1865, was follows: Real estate ... Personal property. $2,950,000 1,435,000 National bank stock. 900,000 Total.... $5,285,000 The city levy of 18 mills on the above amount including National bank stock stock, will yield about..... Less discount and collection.... $78,930 7,000 Add revenue from wharfage $12,000; licenses $12,143; bridges $7,000; city justices' courts $4,500; and market and pound 2,000 Total estimated revenue for 1865-66. The city expenses will be-mayor and alderman $3,300; police force $7,800; city attorney, clerk and treasurer, each $1,000, $3,000; city comptroller, jailor, pound master and market master, each $600, $2,400; city justices $450..... Streets $1,500; fire department $1,000; prison $1,000; incidental $8,000; printing, &c., $1,500... .$18,450 37,648 $149,573 27,500 Interest and exchange on 7 per cent bonds.... 28,977 on 12 per cent bonds and bills pay able... Balance to credit.... $30,406 If the assessment of the National bank stock be sustained by the courts, there will be an additional amount of...... 16,200 Total balance to credit.. $46,608 -which may be applied to cancel the bills payable. The city indebtedness will then stand as follows; With a prospect of an early completion of the railroads converging on the city and the advance of real estate, the city's credit can be easily sustained, and the amount of borrowed money paid off next year. THE CITY DEBT OF TORONTO. The amount of the debenture debt in December 31, 1864, of Toronto, Canada, was $2,383,584 99. The purposes for which this debt was contracted were: It is not remarkable that the measures adopted by the several State Legislatures for protecting insurance companies organized within their own States, should give rise to an attempt to secure from Congress a general insurance law, superseding all State legislation, and placing insurance upon an equal footing in all parts of the United States. The insurance interest in each State has sought to shield itself from the competition of companies in other States by procuring enactments imposing disabili ties upon outside corporations. Such restrictions have materially retarded the progress of the insurance interest, and have so far been injurious to the public welfare. The aim of such measures is to establish a monopoly. The public good requires that the people shall have freedom to insure with whatever companies offer the most advantageous terms of insurance. If the companies in a given State are unable to hold their own against the exercise of such freedom, it can only be because they do not possess the proper requisites for transacting an insurance business efficiently. Laws checking the competition of companies from other States, are, therefore, simply a premium upon inefficiency, and tend directly to encourage and consolidate bad management. The supposition that any State can have interests antagonistic with those of other States is unsound in principle. It is to the interest of the citizens of every State to have the cheapest and safest insurance that can be found; and the true protection that should be afforded by a legislature, is to see to it that insurance companies from all parts of the country have unrestricted freedom to insure within the limits of the State. That is the protection of the people; restrictive nsurance laws are the protection of a class of capitalists, as against the people. Such legislation is unworthy the spirit of a great and free country. It is precisely the same in principle with the petty prohibitions by which the commerce of European nations has been dwarfed, and international jealousies, pregnant with hostilities, have been generated. If it be desirable to protect the insurance com panies of a State against those of neighboring States, it is equally so to impose restrictions upon the manufactures and the labor of other States; and thus the principle, carried out to its legitimate bearings, would lead to a system of prohibitions which would compel the people to buy everything in the dearest market, and to deprive them of every advantage enjoyed by other States. This restrictive legislation overlooks the very important fact that that there are certain States which possess peculiar facilities for the employment of capital in insurance. In the East, for instance, there is always a larger amount of sur plus capital than in the West; the result of which is that the rate of interest is lower, and insurance can therefore be afforded at lower rates. At the point where surplus money centers, there also we may expect to find the best financial talent; so that insurance associations in such places are likely, as a rule, to be better managed than elsewhere. The following statement showing the number, asse's, and risks of insurance companies at the chief points, taken from the census of 1860, will illustrate how far this tendency regulates the distribution of insurance capital: Thus it appears that, in 1860, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut covered more than three-quarters the insurance risks of the country. This is not a mere accident; it arises from the fact, evidenced in the above figures, that the companies of those States afford a broader basis of security. In New York, the capital and assets are over 54 per cent of the amount at risk; in Massachusetts nearly 1 per cent; in Connecticut about 2 per cent; in Philadelphia 4 per cent; and in New Orleans 3 per cent. With this great advantage as to secu rity, in behalf of eastern companies, it is not surprising that they should command preference. What State can legislate for the exclusion of the insurance agencies of these States; without driving its citizens to insure where there is less security for covering their risks? And, on the other hand, what conceivable motive can the legislators of the Eastern States have for resorting to petty exclusive legislation upon this question? But while it is a grave economic error to repress the free operation of insurance by State legislation, it would be a still worse policy to seek relief from these vexatious obstructions by placing the whole insurance interest of the United States under Congressional regulation-a course which is at present being ac tively agitated by a portion of the insurance associations. This movement is a fresh illustration of the prevailing mania for surrendering individual control into the hands of the general government. Fortunately for the liberties of the people, the Constitution confers upon Congress no authority to assume control over such affairs; and even were it otherwise, the chances are that the uniformity of regulations under which the insurance interest of the country would be placed would prove simply an uniformity of embarrassments. If insurance must be fettered let the bonds be imposed by the weaker power, and not by the powerful central government; and, as a remedy for the evils we have discussed, let every State repeal every restriction it has imposed upon the operations of insurance companies organized in other States. INSURANCE AGAINST ACCIDENTS. One of the most popular systems of indemnity ever put into execution and use, and one which has grown universal in a very short space of time, is the insurance against the accidents to which human beings are liable. Nothing can be more beneficial to the regular traveler, to the tourist in search of health, pleasure, or the wonders of our country, to any one, in fact, who moves to any extent from place to place. None can tell how soon a misplaced switch, an open drawbridge, or the decayed timbers of a bridge may derange a train's operations, and cause loss of limb, and even of life to the passengers thereon. We read daily, and have for years read of these accidents, but until quite recently there has been no security as far as indemnity for such accidents is concerned, in the shape of a policy of insurance. Hitherto, a railroad company was the only responsible party, and then only so far as carelessness or mismanagement upon its part went. Occasionally by bringing the matter in a court of justice, after long and expensive lawsuit, parties were finally recompenced for their losses. When this occurred it had to be plainly shown that the railroad company was the party which had committed the mismanagement. Those persons who were so unfortunate as to fall off a platform while standing thereon in direct violation of the company's orders and notices to that effect, had to suffer themselves, and nothing securing to their friends an annuity was dreamed of. A man who who happened to lose an arm while leaning from the open window of a railroad car, the same way. Now, however, it is quite different. Companies are springing up all around for insuring against such accidents as we have spoken of. Parties now who travel take as naturally to an accident policy as a horse to cats. Railroad companies, even themselves, have gone so far as to allow an insurance company to assume the risks to assume the risks to whicg they were formerly liable. It has, indeed, become a legitimate system of insurance, and is no more, where it has been introduced, looked upon either as a novelty or an experiment. We look upon Accidental Insurance as a necessity, and Accidental Insurance Companies (sound ones) as a blessing, and the development of the progressive spirit of the age in which we live. MINES AND MINING STATISTICS. LAKE SUPERIOR MINING. THE copper of Lake Superior is native, i. e, it is the pure metal and not an ore-mixed but not alloyed with other substances. There are but two or three ore mines in the Upper Peninsula, and none of them are as yet of comparative importance. The copper is found in different strata of rock, both on the surface and at various depths in the earth. It is deposited in immense masses, in small nuggets, and in grains diffused throughout the rock. The geological laws governing these deposits are complex, and far from being fully ascertained. The belts of rock, in which the mineral is found, are called lodes or veins, these terms being generally used indiscriminately, although there is some slight technical distinction in their meaning. The surface indications of the existence of copper are not very marked and furnish no reliable evidence as to the richness or extent of the underlying deposits. When its copper-bearing rocks are parallel with the adjacent strata, they are said to run with the formation, but when they strike them at an angle they are said to run across the formation, and are called fissure veins. A high and precipitous bluff, if the indications justify it, is selected for the location of a mine, as greatly facilitating the operations on the surface, and affording important advantages for ascertaining the extent and value of the mineral deposits. A gang of men commence at the top of the bluff, mining downward, digging a pit generally seven by twelve feet in dimensions. This is called a "shaft," and the work of excavation is termed "sinking." A shaft is either perpendicular, or else "sunk upon the vein," that is, in the strata of cop. per-bearing rock when that has been reached, before taking its " dip" or slant. Every mine possesses at least two shafts, and usually more. At a certain depth from the surface, generally about 10 fathoms, a tunnel, seven by five feet in dimensions, is started horizontally, running along the vein and connecting with the other shafts. This is called a "level," and the work of excavation in this case is termed "driving." The shafts are some hundreds of feet apart, and when thus connected, a strong current of air blows through the mine, giving it thorough ventilation. The work continues still deeper. The shafts are sunk 10 fathoms more, and connected by another level, and so on ad libitum, and in the mining vernacular these successive galleries are spoken of as the "ten-fathom |