CONTENTS OF NO. V., VOL. XXXV. I. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE: AN ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF SCIENCE, FOUNDED AT WASHINGTON IN 1840 581 ....... IL THE COTTON TRADE: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. By J. B. Griddle, Esq., of New Orleans, Louisiana.. 549 ......... III. COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CITIES OF THE UNITED STATES. No. XLV. DETROIT, MICHIGAN 554 IV. MARINE MEMORANDA OF LIGHTNING. By E. MERIAM, ESQ., of Brooklyn, New York...... 571 JOURNAL OF MERCANTILE LAW. Action to Recover Balance of Freight...... 586 587 Action for Loss of Smuggled Goods COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW: EMBRACING A FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC., ILLUSTRATED WITH TABLES, ETC., AS FOLLOWS: Stringency in the Money Market-Difficulty in making Collections-Character necessary to Credit Ingenious Frauds and Forgeries-The Usury Laws-Political Excitements-Marine Insurance, and why it is not Profitable-Product of Gold, and Business at the Assay Office and Mints-The Bank Movement-Imports and Exports at New York for September-Revenue from Cash Duties-Comparative Shipments of Domestic Produce-Supplying Europe with Breadstuffs-Drain of the Precious Metals-Financial Crisis in Europe, etc., etc.... 588-598 New York Cotton Market. By CHARLES W. FREDERICKSON, Broker, of New York ........... 598 JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. Finances of Maryland... Dividends and Profits of Banks in South Carolina.. Condition of the Bank of Charleston in 1855-56 PAGE. 599 600 600 601 The Precious Metals-Gold and Silver Value of Real and Personal Property in Brooklyn in 1855–56. Condition of the Banks of New Hampshire.-Income and Expenditure of the United Kingdom. 602 Boston Bank Dividends, and Value of Stock in 1855 and 1856.. 603 604 606 Export and Consumption of Cotton.-Entries and Clearances of Vessels at Mobile COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. The Baltimore Board of Trade. Drift Wood-The Currents ................. NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. Lighthouse at Edgemoggin Reach, Maine.-Princes Channel, entrance to the Thames 618 614 615 616 617 Buoys in Boston Bay and Harbor.-Bell Buoy on Deep Hole Rock, Cotuit Vineyard Sound, Mass. 618 Lighthouse at Absecum, New Jersey.-Cape Race Light, Newfoundland 618 Lighthouse on Cape Hancock, W. T.-Lights of the Dardanelles at Cape Hellas and Gallipoli... 619 Beaver-Tail Lighthouse, entrance to Newport Harbor, R. I...... Fog Bell at Point Bonita, North Head, San Francisco Bay Cotton Crop of the United States.-A Qurious Question in Agricultural Statistics.... Miles Run to One Cord of Fuel.-Railroad Fares between New York and the West. Fuel for Locomotives-Coal and Wood ......... JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES. A Manufacturer a Peer Bar-Iron: Improvement in its Manufacture. Prince Napoleon on British Manufactures.-Gold Fields beyond the Mountains Improved Candle Manufacture.-The Gold Fields of Australia. Personal Expenditure.. The Fancy Fur Trade.. Rising in the World... MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES. The Uses of Astronomy to Commerce and Navigation Despicable Tricks in Trade. Scripture Prices.-Coffee: How to test it scientifically How Boston Merchants enjoy themselves.-Poetry of Commerce... THE BOOK TRADE. Notices of new Books or new Editions... 629 680 631 632 683 HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. NOVEMBER, 1856. Art. I. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE: AN ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF SCIENCE, FOUNDED AT WASHINGTON IN 1840. IN what follows, we intend to give a history of the National Institute, an association for the advancement of science, organized at Washington, under the implied auspices and patronage of the government, in 1842. We have said that it was organized under the implied auspices of the government, as a fact to be inferred from the manner of its institution, and from the position, character, and employments of its first members. It was incorporated by an act of Congress in the year above mentioned. Its first patron was the President of the United States; its first president a Secretary of War; and the original corporators and first officers of the society consisted of Senators, Representatives, Governors, Judges, chiefs of Departments and Bureaus; the elite and distinguished of the Army and Navy, and other professional employees in the service of the government. In the first year of its existence, nearly all the science of the country was found enrolled in its service. The diplomats of foreign nations resident here, and of our own resident abroad, vied with each other in offerings to its library and cabinet: it had established an extensive correspondence with the scientific institutions of the Old World; and contributions in every branch of science and art came to it, unbidden, from every quarter -not only from this continent, but the other-from England to the Indies, and from Lapland to the Cape of Good Hope. Such a commencement would certainly have indicated that the society was acting under the certain or promised protection of the government, and was destined to fill a high place among the scientific institutions of the world. At least, we run no risk in asserting, without further evidence, that at this time the nationality of the institution was fully acknowledged, and the government understood to be pledged to its support. We are therefore not a little surprised, within two years after a commencement of such promise, to find the Institute memorializing Congress, not for an endowment or for any official patronage, but for the appropriation of a sufficient sum of money to enable it to pay charges for transportation of books, minerals, specimens of natural history, and works of art, many of them of great value, which had been sent by distinguished scientists of other countries-which charges, up to that time, and to a very considerable amount, had been paid by the private contributions of members residing in Washington. This memorial, and others which succeeded it, though presented in the Senate by Mr. Woodbury and Mr. Cass, and in the House by Mr. Adams and Mr. Marsh-neither of whom would be apt to advocate any application liable to a constitutional objection-produced no effect. Packages of great value were allowed to lie in the public stores and customhouses of the large cities, liable to be sold for duties and dues of transportation; or, if rescued from this fate by the munificence of some liberal individual, and sent to Washington, the case was not much bettered. Not a few of the packages thus ransomed from the tender mercies of weighers, measurers, inspectors, and auctioneers, are still to be found-the boxes rotted, moldy, and broken-in the crypts, corridors, and blank places of the Patent-office. An intelligent and public-spirited traveler, who brought with considerable pains and no little expense, eight or ten years since, a fine specimen of Cervus Canadiensis, or great American elk, whose head and hoofs alone would be accounted good prize to any academy of natural science, after leaving it in such charge until the hide and hair began to show unmistakable tokens of decay, at length reclaimed the antlers on his own account-the only portion then susceptible of preservation. This untoward turn in the affairs of the Institute might, at first, seem to have been only a peculiar phase of one of those patriotic projects, which begin by asking leave to use private means in accomplishing some purpose of public interest or benefit, and conclude by demanding from Congress ninetenths of some sum or other of which they have paid or hypothecated the remaining one-tenth, the whole profit of the investment accruing to themselves. The case of the Institute was, however, in no respect like this. By the act of incorporation it might be made the curator of all contributions to science, coming as well from government expeditions and officials, as from other mere private sources; while at the end of its corporate term, which was limited to twenty years, all the public property thus acquired reverts unconditionally to the government, to be disposed of at its pleasure. There appears, therefore, to have been no personal, interested, or mercenary consideration in the way of the application to Congress, and its want of success must be attributed to other causes. Previous to any application to Congress for pecuniary assistance, (in July, 1841,) the Institute, finding its private means altogether inadequate to the preservation of its collections, had made application to the Commissioner of Patents to allow a portion of them to be placed in the hall of the Patent-office. The application was promptly acceded to by the Commissioner and Mr. Webster, the then Secretary of State. The portion thus transferred was the beginning of what is now known as the gallery of the Patent-office, though originally belonging to the National Institute. Had there been any question of the constitutionality of providing funds for preserving and exhibiting collections thus made for the use of the gov ernment, it would seem to apply equally against affording place and accommodation as against funds, and as conclusively against the act of a Department as against an act of the Legislature. Besides, a few months before, (in March, 1841,) an appropriation had been made by law for receiving and arranging the collections brought by the exploring expedition, and the National Institute had been designated as the curator. There is something strange and unaccountable in the fact, that an organization of such promise should suffer so immediate a reverse, and the strangeness will not be essentially diminished until we shall have become acquainted with the cotemporaneous occurrences of that time, and the persons concerned therein. This is an advantage which the writer of this paper can boast of in but a small degree. What of history is to follow will be drawn principally from documents which can be referred to. As an hypothetical cause not coming properly within the scope of an historic paper, we may venture to suppose that political influences and associations had no inconsiderable effect in this matter. The project of a National Academy of Science had been first set in motion under the Presidency of Mr. Van Buren, and this eminent person and those of his Cabinet show themselves as the principal and most energetic patrons of the National Institute-the first embodiment of this idea. It was not likely to find a kind nurse in the administration which followed; for, as a general rule, politicians regard scientific interests merely as popular or unpopular, or as they affect partisan measures: they uphold every project of their own, and decry every one that is not. In this case, when, after a few years, times seemed more propitious for building on the former foundation, the ground was found pre-occupied by a growth of fresher and stronger associations and interests, and the National Institute was left to its own resources. Thus deprived of patronage and endowment, it has continued to struggle onward to the present dayholding by sufferance its regular meetings in a spare room of the Patentoffice; receiving constantly valuable additions to its cabinet and library, which have been so far permitted to remain, mostly in the same state in which they were received, in the cellarage of the building, and publishing at long intervals short bulletins of its proceedings, with original scientific papers, some of them of much value. It is for the purpose of attracting public attention to this institution that the present paper has been written. To give a synopsis of its history; to indicate, as near as may be, the causes which have produced its present decrepitude, and to make one effort to save its valuable collections from total loss, is the sole object which the writer has proposed to himself. Even if it shall be found of no service in a remedial point of view, it may at least perform one important function of all true histories, and contribute to the general fund of recorded experience. The history of literary and scientific institutions will not be found in the journals of their proceedings or their official acts and papers, any more than the history of the politics and government of the country is to be found in the journals and laws of Congress. Motives of a mere personal and interested characterfamily and political influences, private friendships, enmities and jealousies, |