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PRODUCTION OF COTTON FROM STRAW.

A Nottingham (English) paper says:-"A circumstance extremely interesting to all engaged in textile manufactures, indeed to the whole community, has this week been communicated to us. An amateur chemist of this town, while engaged recently in testing the Chevalier Claussen's chemical process of making cotton, not having any flax straw at hand, tried it upon oat straw. To his astonishment, after the silica and gums, which enter into the composition of oat straw in greater proportions than in flax, had been dissolved, hé obtained a large quantity of good cotton. The opinion he formed from this and subsequent experiments is, that the common straws of this country may be profitably converted into cotton, thereby adding to the certainty and abundance of our future supplies. At any rate, the experiment is one which is worth testing to the fullest extent, and the hint here thrown out will no doubt induce persons most favorably situated for pursuing an investigation with advantage at once to undertake the task."

PROFITS OF MINING IN ENGLAND.

From twenty of the principal mines, on which there has been an outlay of £181,279. the proprietors have received back, in the shape of dividend, £985,481, and their property is now saleable in the Mining Exchange for £718,690, making in dividends and value of the shares £1,699,171 upon the outlay above named.

MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES.

"THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES."

TO FREEMAN HUNT, Esq., Editor of the Merchants' Magazine, etc. :—

SIR-I have read with much interest and instruction the article in your Merchants' Magazine on the "Fisheries of the United States." I believe, however, that the second chapter on that subject is based mainly on an historical error; namely, "that the arguments of the American Peace Commissioners of 1814, that we held our right in the fisheries by the same tenure by which we held our independence as a nation,' prevailed, and the right was left standing on the basis of 1783.""

If they "prevailed," it is not in any manner manifest. The right is not mentioned in the treaty, nor was it recognized by the British Government immediately after the treaty went into operation, which seems to prove that it was not admitted by them as alleged, but left an open question. The fact is the Commissioners of Peace agreed about little or nothing excepting to stop the war immediately. It was almost "a conclusion where nothing was concluded." If this was so, of course most of the disparaging remarks about the treaty of Messrs. Gallatin and Rush are unjust, and can be applied with more propriety to the Peace Commissioners of 1814, whose negligence or strong desire for peace caused them to leave unsettled or unexpressed our rights in that, as well as many other matters of great importance, even those about which the war was ostensibly made.

Sir Hugh Murray, in his work on British America, published by the Harpers in 1841, vol. ii., p. 132, says:-" At the peace of 1814 a singular and total silence was observed on the subject, (of the American fishing rights,) but on the attempt made by the Americans to resume operations, a discussion arose, when it was contended, on the part of the English ministry, that the war had canceled the stipulations of 1783, and that they had no longer any rights of fishery. The Americans, however, maintained that those terms formed a permanent arrangement, connected with the separation of the States from Britain, and must remain until expressly abrogated.

"After much reasoning on the point, a convention was concluded in 1818, by which they were allowed both to catch and dry on the unoccupied parts in the southern and western coasts of Newfoundland and on that of Labrador, but their vessels were not to approach nearer than three miles to any of the other British settlements. A singular feature in reg..rd to the former colony is, that England, on this occasion, gave what she herself was supposed to have renounced, and the Americans are said to have carried their point, though Captain Sweetland was told that the French would resist any attempt they might make.'

The very fact that the Commissioners, Gallatin and Rush, were sent to make a

treaty about the fisheries, proves that our government did not regard our former rights as perfectly secure to us by the treaty of 1814. It is not probable they were sent to merely make a new definition, because Mr. Hale himself admits that "he does not see that language could well be more clear and distinct" than that very old treaty of 1783. What, then, were they sent to do? Why manifestly to modify our claims to former rights; in other words, to make a new treaty by compromise.

I do not say that the American Peace Commissioners' claims were wrong, or that Messrs. Gallatin and Rush were not overreached; but I do say that the latter were authorized, under the circumstances, to modify in some way our ancient fishing rights, and therefore it is only fair to say that, if there has been wrong done to our fishing interest in that way, the Peace Commissioners and the United States Government are more to blame than Messrs. Gallatin and Rush. Respectfully yours,

CHARLESTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, April, 1852.

W. B. S.

FALSE-PACKED COTTON.

The London Chronicle has an article on the subject of false-packed cotton, from which we extract as follows:

The subject of false-packed cotton has recently attracted considerable attention, and a partial change in the system may be expected, but we think the matter still worthy of further consideration. At present, at any time during twelve months after sale, any cotton may be returned to the merchant, if it is considered to be "false-packed," that is, if the quality of cotton through the bale be shown to be inferior or dissimilar to the sample. It is not, however, returned to the merchant to be replaced by cotton equal to the sample, but is returned absolutely, and the invoice cost must be repaid, with charges. It is material to observe that cotton bought at low rates is seldom, if ever, returned when the markets have risen, and that cotton bought at high prices often comes back when there is some difficulty in proving the "false-packing." This is the natural result of such a system; and while the range of prices extends over twelve months, a considerable amount of injustice is incurred. It is now proposed to limit the time for the return of "false-packed" cotton to three months after sale; but we do not think that even this position entirely meets the justice of the case. We think it would be either more advisable to have no returns made after cotton has once passed the scale, or that, if returned, it be replaced by cotton of similar quality to the original sample, and not by a return of the invoice cost. It is argued that to have no returns of "false-packed" cotton allowed, would lead to confusion, by encouraging a fraudulent system. But on looking closer into the matter, it will be found that this would not be probable. In the first place, the principal cause of " false-packed" cotton is not fraud. Whenever weather is variable, and especially if the alternations of sunshine and rain be sudden and frequent, the cotton picked under these different circumstances passes through the same gins, and is often unavoidably baled without any proper separation of qualities, and in many lists which come to market, hardly a bale can be found that runs the same throughout; but this does not arise from any wish to defraud, but simply from a pressure of adverse circumstances. And yet, under the present system, the whole might be returned twelve months after sale; and instances have occurred recently, where large lots have been so returned at a considerable difference of price, by no means commensurate with the inconsiderable difference in quality.

The system of allowing no returns after the cotton has passed the scale has been tried at Havre, and no inconvenience has resulted from it. But supposing that manufacturers object to buy one quality, and run a risk of receiving portions of another and inferior quality, still the returns may be arranged on a fairer principle. If cotton bought at 8d. is to be returned when the value of the original sample has fallen to 4 d., it is evident that a return of the invoice cost is unjust. If the prices had been the reverse; if the so-called “false-packed" cotton had cost 44d., and was worth in the market, falsely packed as it was, something over 7d., with all due regard for the tender consciences of our manufacturers, we do not think the cotton would be returned. Under any circumstances it would surely sufficiently meet the justice of the case to give the buyer what he did buy, and take back the inferior bales delivered; the seller would thus only lose the difference between the qualities, and spinners would not be tempted by the bonus occasionally held out to them in a falling market to get rid of as much as they can of an injudicious purchase.

CHEAP OCEAN POSTAGE.

The Hon. CHARLES SUMNER recently made a motion in the Senate of the United States to the effect that the Naval Committee report on the subject of a reduced rate of postage across the ocean. At present the postage is so high as to act in a great measure as a prohibition of correspondence. It is altogether above the point of highest profit to the carriers. Mr. Sumner's remarks were very much to the point. He said:

A letter can be carried three thousand miles in the United States for three cents; but the reasons for cheap postage on land are equally applicable to the ocean. In point of fact, the conveyance of letters by sailing or steam packets may be carried out for less cost than the conveyance by railways. Besides, cheap ocean postage would tend to supersede the clandestine or illicit conveyance of letters, and to draw into the mail all mailable matter, which is now often entrusted to the pockets of passengers, or the boxes and bales of merchants. With every new facility of correspondence, there is naturally a new expansion of human intercourse; and there is reason to believe-indeed, well founded reason to believe-that with the increased number of letters, cheap ocean postage would be self-supported.

Further cheap postal communication with foreign countries would be of incalculable importance to the Commerce of the United States. And again, by promoting the intercourse of families and friends, now separated by the ocean, cheap postage would add to the sum of human happiness. The present high rates of ocean postagenamely, twenty-four cents on a letter weighing half an ounce, forty-eight cents on one weighing an ounce, and ninety-six cents on one weighing a fraction more than an ounce-are a severe tax upon all, burdensome especially upon the poor, amounting in many cases to absolute prohibition of all foreign correspondence. This should not be. It particularly becomes our country, by the removal of all unnecessary restraints upon foreign correspondence, to advance the comfort of European emigrants now making a home among us, and to destroy, as far as practicable, every barrier to free intercourse between the Old World and the New.

And, lastly, cheap postage will be a new bond of peace among nations, and will extend good will among men.

Such, sir, in brief, seem to me to be the reasons for which this measure is commendable. Much as I rejoice in the American steamers, which now vindicate for us a peaceful supremacy of the seas, and help to weave a golden tissue between the two hemispheres, I cannot consider these, with all their unquestionable advantages, an equivalent for cheap ocean postage. But, sir, I do not regard one as inconsistent with the other, and I hope both may happily prosper together. I hope the resolution, which is one simply of inquiry, may be adopted.

ELIHU BURRITT, the learned blacksmith, has been laboring with zeal and energy in Great Britain to secure the boon of ocean penny postage. England, through the influence and efforts of her ROLAND HILL, first gave to the world the idea and the fact of a system of cheap postage on land; and is doubtless ready to co-operate with the United States in the grand project of cheap postage on the ocean.

THE MERCHANT'S CLERK AND THE PLOWBOY.

The young man who leaves the farm-field for the merchant's desk or the lawyer's or doctor's office, thinking to dignify or ennoble his toil, makes a sad mistake. He passes, by that step, from independence to vassalage. He barters a natural for an artificial pursuit, and he must be the slave of the caprice of customers and the chicane of trade, either to support himself or to acquire fortune. The more artificial a man's pursuit, the more debasing is it morally and physically. To test it, contrast the merchant's clerk with the plowboy. The former may have the most exterior polish, but the latter, under his rough outside, possesses the truer stamina. He is the freer, franker, happier, and nobler man. Would that young men might judge of the dignity of labor by its usefulness and manliness, rather than by the superficial glosses it wears. Therefore, we never see a man's nobility in his kid gloves and toilet adornments, but in that sinewy arm, whose outlines, browned by the sun, betoken a hardy, honest toiler, under whose farmer's or mechanic's vest a kingliest heart may beat.

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THE MERCHANT PEDDLER, OR BUYING CHEAP.

Perhaps the reader may have a penchant, as a friend of ours has, for buying things cheap. We say perhaps—for it is a weakness with which many are troubled, and it is a most expensive one. There are many who have been tempted to lay up goods where moth and rust doth corrupt, merely because they were obtained cheap, but it is a poor policy, and patronizing peddlers is a still poorer one. One of these wandering Jews stept into a counting room a few days since, and, after warming his hands, turned to the gentleman occupying the seat of authority, just then busily engaged in weighing the evidence regarding the true cause of the recent Whig defeat, so admirably and differently attributed by the Atlas, the Daily Advertiser, and the Courier, and politely inquired if he would like to look at a vest pattern?

"No, no! Don't bother me. Very busy just now."

"It is the best article and the neatest pattern that you ever saw."

"Don't want any vest patterns."

“But just look, sir,"-and the pedler had a piece of vesting unfolded, which was really quite neat, and the cogitator, unable to unravel the political web, determined to unravel the web of the fabric. "All silk, sir; warranted, and sufficient for two doublebreasted vests, or three with rolling collars."

"What do you ask for it?"

"Twelve dollars. I bought it in Liverpool, and brought it over with me, and if you want it you shall have it for just what it cost me-twelve dollars."

"It is too much, sha'nt give any such a price-but will give you six dollars."

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O, my gracious," exclaimed the peddler, as if astonished at such an offer, "I can't think of it;" off he walked. In ten minutes the door was opened, and the peddler thrust in his head: "You may have it for ten dollars."

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"No," was all the reply he got.

"I will say eight, as the very lowest."

No, sir," and away went the peddler a second time. The gentleman was about relapsing into his revery upon the disputed question already mentioned, when the peddler re-entered boldly, and laid the vesting on the desk, exclaiming, "Well, give us six dollars, and it is yours." The money was paid, and the peddler was about leaving the door, when he turned round and took from his pocket another roll, and, undoing it, exposed to view a piece of vesting as far preferable to the other as the new building on the corner of State-street exceeds in height all its neighbors.

The gentleman at once made a proposal to exchange. The peddler could'nt think of such a thing; he did'nt mean to sell it on any account; he intended to keep it till he was able to have it made up for himself-but, after considerable trading and talking,

he gave it up, received his first piece and $2, and walked off-making eight dollars

for his piece of vesting. The gentleman, quite satisfied with the exchange, walked up to his tailor's at noon, threw down the piece, ordering him to cut off sufficient for one

vest.

"How many vests do you expect it will make?" inquired the tailor.

"Three, of course," was the reply.

The yard stick went down, and looking up, he informed the purchaser that it would make two, by piecing out the collar with black silk. The idea of measuring the article had not occurred to him before, but at this piece of news, he felt a kind of film spread over his eyes, a lightness of pocket troubling his ribs, while the letters s-o-l-d, by a delusion of his optical nerves, appeared to be written on the outer walls of all adjacent buildings. He then inquired the probable worth, and was informed that such vesting could be purchased at about two and a quarter per yard. This was sufficient. He has resolved never to patronize a pedler, but to extend his patronage to those good tax-paying citizens who have a local habitation and a name.—Evening Gazette.

A CURIOUS COMMERCIAL CUSTOM.

On the 10th of March, 1852, a singular old custom was revived in Hamburg. When the Exchange was thronged at high noon, two of the city drummers appeared in uniform before the entrance and beat a roll ten minutes long. Then over the great door of the Exchange they suspended a black tablet inscribed with the name of a bankrupt merchant who had absconded. When this was done the bell in one of the towers-the bell of shame-rang for two hours. The tablet remains for three months and a day. In many German cities the bankrupt, as a sign of his condition, is compelled to wear a straw hat for a year and a day.

THE LONDON TIMES ON COMMERCIAL AGENCIES.

A late number of the London Times, under the head of " Novel Commercial Inquirer,” has the following remarks on the American system of ascertaining the character and standing of merchants and business men throughout the country:

There appeared recently in the Times, an article giving an account of the steam communication in the United States, of its vast extent, and rapid increase within the last few years. Connected with the subject of commercial enterprise, which steam navigation has tended to develop in an extraordinary degree, we have heard of a novel system of protection, which has arisen out of the peculiar position of the traders in the Union, their go-ahead spirit of speculation, and the wide extent of their commercial transactions. There exists now in New York an office where, by the payment of an annual subscription, any person may obtain correct information as to the character, business habits, respectability, and responsibility of any commercial man in the Union. The establishment employs a manager and a number of clerks. Should a stranger come to New York or any other city for business purposes, and seek to open a credit account with any mercantile house, (as the Yankees do not always come provided with letters of introduction,) the party so applied to send the name and address of the applicant to the office of reference, where he is directly furnished with full particulars respecting him. Should the office not be at the moment in full possession of the necessary facts, the inquirer will be requested to call again in a few hours or the following morning. In the mean time, by the help of the electric telegraph, and their correspondents in all the principal towns of the Union, they are almost in every case enabled to obtain the required information in a few hours. They have books of reference for the several States regularly tabulated and indexed, so that on applying to the clerk of any particular State the required information can be furnished almost instantaneously. The importance of such a system in an extensive country, where commercial transactions must be carried on to a great extent upon the credit and character of the parties concerned, is manifest, and is another remarkable proof of the smartness of Brother Jonathan in accommodating himself to all the exigencies of his situation.

A PROVERB FOR MERCHANTS.

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." The extreme caution ridiculed by this proverb is of a kind which one would hardly have expected to be popular in a commercial country. If this were acted upon, there would be an end of trade and Commerce, and all capital would lie dead at the banker's-as a bird who was held safe. The truth is, our whole practice is of a directly opposite kind. We regard a bird in the hand as worth only a bird; and we know there is no chance of making it worth two birds-not to speak of the hope of a dozen-without letting it out of the hand. Inasmuch, however, as the proverb also means to exhort us not to give up a good certainty for a tempting uncertainty, we do most fully coincide in its prudence and sound sense. It is identical with the French, “Mieux vaut un 'tiens' que deux 'tu l'auras," "- -one "take this" is better than two "thou shalt have it;" identical also with the Italian ; E meglio un uovo oggi, che una gallina domani ;" an egg to-day is better than a hen to-morrow. It owes its origin to the Arabic-"A thousand cranes in the air, are not worth one sparrow in the fist."

A LADY SHIP-MASTER.

Amongst the fleet lately wind-bound in Lamlash, not the least, but perhaps the greatest wonder, was the good old brig Cleotus, of Saltcoats, which for more than twenty years has been commanded by an heroic and exceedingly clever young lady, Miss Betsy Miller, daughter of the late Mr. W. Miller, ship-owner and wood-merchant of that town. He was concerned with several vesssis, both in the American and coasting trade. Miss Betsy, before she went to sea, acted as "ship's husband" to her father, and seeing how the captaius in many cases behaved, her romantic and adventurous spirit impelled her to go to sea herself. Her father gratified her caprice, and gave her the command of the Cleotus, which she holds to the present day, and she has weathered the storms of the deep when many commanders of the other sex have been driven on the rocks. The Cleotus is well known in the ports of Belfast, Dablin, Cork, etc.

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