the United States, the Department relies with confidence upon the vigilance of consuls, for the detection of any abuses that may be committed, or any unfair practices that may be supposed to exist, in regard, not only to the declaration of the original cost or export value of foreign merchandise, but in all the charges, discounts, bounties, &c., incident to the business of preparing goods for the markets of the United States, as well as for their promptness in reporting all the particulars to the Department.

The Board of General Appraisers being permanently organized at New York, you will oblige the Department by forwarding to them occasionally (directed to the Chairman of said board) such price currents, manufacturer's statements of prices, or mer chant's printed circulars or prices, or any other general information as may be within your reach and that you may consider useful to them in the discharge of their duties, Your attention is also directed to the 8th and 11th sections of the Act of Congress of the 1st March, 1823, in which it will be seen that a Consular certificate is required in all cases of invoices of goods exported by the manufacturers thereof in whole or in part for their account, notwithstanding another owner in part may reside in the United States. This provision of the law of 1823, the Department has reason to believe, has been hitherto overlooked in many instances.

But under no circumstances should a Consul administer an oath, unless he be au thorized so to do by the laws of the country, in which his consulate is situated, and unless the laws of that country regard the oath so administered, when falsely taken, as perjury, and prescribe an adequate punishment for the offense.

When the laws of a foreign country do not authorize Consuls to administer the oath, it should be taken before the nearest local magistrate whose legal competency should then be certified by the nearest Consul, as already directed.

It will be incumbent upon you, therefore, to inform yourself immediately upon these two points, and to form your action accordingly, in all future cases of granting certificates to invoices, and to advise the Department promptly thereof.

If a Consul ascertains, and has reliable evidence of the falsity of an oath, either administered by him or by a local magistrate whose certificate he has authenticated, he should notify the Department, which will transmit to him the original invoice and oath, to be used, if deemed expedient, in a prosecution for perjury.

You will, of course, take care to give immediate publicity to the material points in these instructions, within your district, that the change in the system of granting certificates to invoices, which will be material and important, may cause the least possible embarrassment to traders and shippers.

In acknowledging, as you are especially requested to do, the receipt of these instructions, such suggestions in relation thereto, as may occur to you, will be respectfully considered. A copy has been furnished to the Collectors of Customs of the United States, for their government.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES GUTHRIE, Secretary of the Treasury.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS, NO. 10.-TO COLLECTORS OF CUSTOMS.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, September 21st, 1853. SIR-Information has been received at the Department, that the 4th section of the law of the 28th March, 1796, for the protection of American seamen, is subjected to serious abuses in foreign ports, by the transfer or sale, to foreign seamen, of the certificates of citizenship issued under that law.

In the present peaceful position of the greater proportion of those countries to which the commerce of the United States extends the protections, so called, granted to American seamen, naturalized or native, are of little other practical value than to enable them to demand the aid and succor of the American Consul in a foreign port, in case of sickness or other disability; but, aware as they are of the facility of procuring the renewal of these "protections" on their return to the United States, they very often do not scruple to transfer, for a consideration, the right to such aid and succor, to a foreign seaman, who, in case of such sickness or disability, is thus enabled to avail himself of the provision made for American citizens in due course of law.

Consuls might interpose some check to the abuses referred to, by strict investigation, in cases where there exists in their minds a suspicion that the sick or destitute seaman, claiming relief under a protection, is not the individual to whom the same was originally issued; and if satisfied on that point, by withholding the relief demanded.

Under the existing law, the Department is without the power essentially to correct the impositions referred to, and deems it therefore expedient to call your especial attention to the subject, requesting you to use every vigilant care in issuing certificates of citizenship under the law already cited, especially in reference to the proofs adduced at the time by applicants for said certificates.

You will perceive by the annexed General Instructions, No. 9, (to consuls) that important changes have been directed to be made in the manner of granting consular certificates to invoices of goods destined for the United States, and you are requested to give such instructions as will conform therewith in your office.

You will further report to this Department, any case, in which you may have reason to believe that a shipper or importer has sworn falsely, or in which it may appear that a consul has deviated from these instructions, by exercising his functions within the proper district of one of his colleagues.

A copy of these instructions has been furnished to the consuls of the United States, for their government.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAMES GUTHRIE, Secretary of the Treasury.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS, NO. 11.-TO COLLECTORS AND OTHER OFFICERS OF THE CUSTOMS. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, September 22, 1853. It appearing from the abstracts of duties on merchandise imported, transmitted to this department from the lake and frontier ports, that great diversity of practice prevails in the classification of articles of wood, under the tariff act of 1836, it is deemed expedient, in order to the establishment of uniformity in the charge of duties at the several ports, to give the views of the department in reference to the various descriptions of the article in question as imported.

The several varieties of wood specifically provided for in the tariff act, are as follows:

In Schedule B, charged with 40 per cent duty-Manufactures of cedar, ebony, granadilla, mahogany, rose, and satin woods.

In Schedule C, charged with 30 per cent duty-Baskets of osier, willow, etc., not otherwise provided for; brooms, canes and stick for walking, finished or unfinished, carriages and parts of carriages, corks, manufactures of the bark of the cork tree, fire wood, frames and sticks for umbrellas, parasols, or sunshades, finished or unfinished, cabinet or household furniture.

Under Schedule E, charged with 20 per cent duty-Barks not otherwise provided for; boards; cedar, ebony, and granadilla woods, unmanufactured; lath; mahogany unmanufactured; osier prepared for basket-makers' use; planks; rose-wood and satinwood unmanufactured; spars; staves; timber, hewn and sawed; and timber to be used in building wharves; willow prepared for basket-makers' use.

In Schedule F, charged with 15 per cent duty-Bark, Peruvian and Quilla; cork-tree bark, unmanufactured.

In Schedule G, charged with 10 per cent duty-Ratans and reeds unmanufactured. In Schedule H, charged with 5 per cent duty-Brazil wood, and all other dye woods

in sticks.

By the provisions of schedule C, in addition to the specified articles classed therein, a duty of 30 per cent is levied on all manufactures of wood, or of which wood is a component part, not otherwise provided for, and also upon wood unmanufactured, not otherwise provided for.

Under these general provisions, a duty of 30 per cent is to be charged on the following named articles, questions in regard to which have been submitted to the department, viz:-Arks of boards, logs, etc.; barrels; beams; boards, when dressed or planed, tongued or grooved; shinglebolts, eaves troughs, fence rails, hogsheads, headings, hoops, knees for boats and ships; lasts, finished or rough, saw logs, and logs of all kinds of wood, except those excepted in schedule E; palings, pick-ts, poles, posts, rafts of logs, rollers, shingles, slabs, shooks, spokes for wagons, etc.; staves, if dressed; and railroad ties.

In place of the indefinite term “lumber,” as it appears in the abstracts, although not used in the tariff act, it is desirable that the particular designation of the articles in view should be given, as "boards," " plauks," rough or dressed, etc., as the case may be.

The occasion is taken to call the special attention of the collectors and all other offi cers of the customs, of the frontier and lake ports, to the attempts which there is rea

son to believe have, and may be again made by unscrupulous traders, to effect the illicit introduction of dutiable articles into the United States, from the adjacent foreign possessions, by the agency of Indians passing into the United States under the sanction of the 105th section of the general collection act of 3d March, 1799

This provision of law exempts from the payment of duties the “peltries," and "proper goods and effects," of the Indian, "unless the same be goods in bales or other large packages, unusual among Indians, which shall not be considered goods belonging bona fide to Indians, nor be entitled to exemption from duty."

The officers of the customs will therefore refuse the free entry of goods brought across the boundary line by any Indian, unless from a close examination of the case, he is satisfied that they belong bona fide to the Indian bringing them; and in cases where there is reasonable cause for suspicion of intended fraud, will at once seize the goods, and cause the proper judicial proceedings to be instituted against the same, as forfeited under the laws. JAMES GUTHRIE, Secretary of the Treasury.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS, NO. 12, TO COLLECTORS AND OTHER OFFICERS OF THE CUSTOMS. Concerning allowance for discounts, under Acts of the 20th April, 1818, and 1st March, 1823.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, October 6th, 1853,

It appearing from representations made to this Department from several of the collection districts, that more specific instructions than have heretofore been given, are required in relation to the allowance of discounts on invoices of imported merchandise, your special attention is called to the subject.

By the 21st section of the supplementary collection act of 20th April, 1818, it is provided:

"That no discount shall be allowed on any goods, wares, or merchandise, subject to ad valorem duty, admitted to entry, unless the importer shall expressly state, on oath or affirmation, that such discount has been actually and bona fide allowed to the owner or owners of such goods, wares, or merchandise, in the payment made for the same." The supplementary collection act of 1st March, 1823, in the 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th sections, prescribing the oath or affirmation to be taken by the owner, consignee, importer, or agent, as the case may be, before their being admitted to entry, requires that it shall be declared under such oath or affirmation," that the invoice contains no discounts, bounties, or drawbacks, but such as have been actually allowed."

In view of these provisions of law, remaining still in full force, it is directed that, in all future cases, on the oath or affirmation so required being made, and not before, the discount noted on the face of the invoice, may be taken and considered in determining the cost of the goods; it being, however, expressly understood that this is not to prevent the appraiser from exercising any part of the authority vested in him by law, in ascertaining, estimating, and appraising the true market value of the merchandise, and the dutiable value of the same; in the performance of which duty it must be observed, no discount can be allowed that will reduce the goods below their true market value; and that no regard can be had to discounts depending upon conditions to be performed by the consignees on the arrival of the merchandise.

The foregoing regulation will necessarily supersede any existing rule fixing and determining the rate of discount to be allowed on certain specified articles.

With every disposition to allow all actual, fair, and reasonable discounts, the Department is called upon by a sense of official duty, to enjoin upon the Officers of the Customs continued vigilance in guarding the revenue from abuses in this particular. Instances have occurred where an invoice has exhibited a discount greater by 21 per cent than that shown on each of several other invoices of precisely similar goods, from the same foreign house, and imported in the same vessel, at the same time; the said 24 per cent raising the discount claimed just so much higher than the usual rate, as to form an offset to the charge for commissions required to be added in ascertaining the dutiable value of merchandise.

In such cases, or others exhibiting a ground for suspicion of intended fraud, it will become the duty of the Collector to consult with the District Attorney of the United States, on the propriety of instituting legal proceedings appropriate to the case.

JAMES GUTHRIE, Secretary of the Treasury.

FOREIGN POSTAGE ON LETTERS AND PERIODICALS.

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, August 4, 1853.

Pursuant to authority vested in the Postmaster General, and by and with the advice and consent of the President of the United States, (which advice and consent more fully appear by an instrument in writing this day filed in the department,) and with a view to make better postal arrangements between the United States and Europe, particularly with the government of Bremen

It is hereby ordered, That from and after the 15th of August, 1853, the postage on a single letter to Bremen, by the Bremen line, be reduced from 20 to 10 cents; which rate is to be charged also on letters to and from Bremen, for all States beyond Bremen whose postage to Bremen shall not exceed 5 cents the single rate. On letters for States beyond Bremen, whose postage to or from Bremen is over 5 cents, the single rate between the United States and Bremen shall be 15 instead of 10 cents; the postage beyond, whatever it may be, to be added to the said rate of 15 cents.

On all pamphlets and magazines mailed within the United States for, or received from, any foreign country, (except Great Britain, the British North American Provinces, and the west coast of South America,) the postage shall be at the rate of one cent an ounce, or fraction of an ounce, instead of two cents, as established by the order of 25th of May last. And whenever the British government shall reduce their postage on works of this kind from the present rate of 4 cents to 1 cent an ounce, the same reduction may be made in the United States postage to and from Great Britain.

OF THE IMPORTATION OF PLATINA.

The following letter from the Secretary of the Treasury to the Collector of the Port of New York, settles the question as to the importation of manufactured Platina.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Saturday, August 27th, 1853. SIR:-The attention of this Department has been given to certain questions arising at some of the ports of the United States on importation of Platina, as to its proper classification under the existing Tariff Act, the same description of article being at one port considered by the appraisers "unmanufactured," while at another port it is returned by them as "manufactured Platina."

In order to the establishment of a uniformity of practice in the several collection districts, it is deemed proper to advise you, that on due examination of the subjectit being satisfactorily shown that Platina, in an absolutely crude state, is never imported into the United States-the Department has therefore decided that the exemption from duty, provided in schedule 1 of the Tariff Act, of " Platina unmanufactured," extends to and comprehends Piatina imported either in ingots or, as in the cases before the Department, in the form of sheets, used in the manufacture of retorts and other vessels, or in that of fine wire, as used by the dentists in the manufacture of pivots for artificial teeth; or, generally, to the substance Platina, in any shape or form not constituting an article suitable for use, without further manufacture.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES GUTHRIE, Secretary of the Treasury.

REGISTER OF VESSELS IN UNITED STATES.

The following Act was passed during the second session of the 32d Congress of the United States:

AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY TO ISSUE REGISTERS TO VESSELS IN CERTAIN CASES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he hereby is, authorized to issue a register or enrolment for any vessel built in a foreign country, whenever such vessel may have been or shall hereafter be wrecked in the United States, and have been, or shall hereafter be, purchased and repaired by a citizen or citizens thereof: Provided, That it shall be proved to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury that the repairs put upon such vessel shall be equal to three-fourths of the cost of said vessel when so repaired.

Approved December 23, 1852.

CUSTOMS ACT OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

The following" Act to increase the import duties on certain kinds of merchandise" has been "enacted by the king, the nobles, and the representatives of the Hawaiian Islands, in Legislative Council assembled," and is now in force.-

SECTION 1. That there shall be levied on all goods, wares and merchandise imported into this kingdom, from any port in China or the Philippine Islands, a duty of fifteen per cent ad valorem upon the invoice cost thereof; provided, however, that no more than five per cent duty shall be levied on the article of Rice, and further provided that this shall not be construed into a repeal of any part of" An Act levying specific duties on Sugar, Syrups of Sugar or Coffee," passed June 6th, 1852.

SEC. 2. The increase of duties provided for in the first section of this Act, shall not affect goods, wares or merchandise, which are the growth or manufacture of any foreign country having a treaty with this kingdom.

SEC. 3. In order to prove that any goods, wares or merchandise, imported into this kingdom, from any of the ports of China or the Philippine Islands, are the growth or manufacture of some other country having a treaty with this kingdom, it shall be necessary for the person entering the same at the Custom-House, to present to the Collector of Customs a certificate to that effect upon the resident Hawaiian Consul, or in default of such Consul, from the Consul or Commercial Agent of such other country, at the port in China or the Philippine Islands, from whence such goods, wares or mer chandise shall have been brought to this kingdom; and the persons entering the same at the Custom-House shall make oath that such goods, wares or merchandise are not the growth or manufacture of China or the Philippine Islands, to the best of his knowledge and belief.

SEC. 4. This Act shall take effect at the expiration of six months from the date of its publication in the Polynesian newspaper.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

STATISTICS OF THE TRADE AND COMMERCE OF NEW ORLEANS.

In preceding pages of the present number of this Magazine, we have given the annual statement of the Trade and Commerce of New Orleans for the twelve months ending August 31st, 1853, as originally prepared for the New Orleans Price Current. The subjoined statistics of imports, exports, arrivals and clearances of shipping, prices of produce, merchandise, etc., are derived from the same reliable source. In the Merchants' Magazine for November, 1840, (vol. iii.) we published tabular statements of the trade of New Orleans from 1830 to 1810, which in conne :tion with similar statements in succeeding volumes, forms a complete statistical history of the commercial growth of that city from 1830 to 1853, inclusive.

TABLE SHOWING THE RECEIPTS OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES FROM THE INTERIOR DURING THE YEAR ENDING 31ST AUGUST, 1853, WITH THEIR ESTIMATED AVERAGE AND TOTAL