DOMESTIC EXCHANGE.

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St. Louis.

TAXES AND PROPERTY OF ILLINOIS,

The following statement is derived from the last report of the Auditor of Illinois :

The whole amount of taxable property in the State for 1853 is assessed at $224,715,963; and the State and county tax alone is $1,973,317.

The following is the assessed value of those counties which return over four millions of dollars. It will be seen there is some difference in the rates of taxation, the cause of which we leave for others to determine :

SYNOPSIS OF THE ACT OF THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS CONCERNING WEEKLY RETURNA TO BE MADE BY BOSTON BANKS, AND MONTHLY RETURNS OF BANKS IN THE STATE OUT OF BOSTON-THE FIRST WEEKLY RETURNS OF BANKS IN BOSTON UNDER THE ACT.

By an act of the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts of April 15th, 1854, each bank in Boston is required to transmit to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, on every Monday morning, a statement under oath of the president or cashier, the amount of capital stock, the average amount of loans and discounts, specie actually in the bank, amount due from other banks, amount due to other banks, deposits and circusation for the several days of the week next preceding the said Monday. Section 2 of this act requires the Secretary of State to publish in one or more of the Boston daily papers, to be selected by him, a summary statement of the condition of each of the Boston banks for the week, compiled from the returns as made to the Secretary of State.

By section 3 of this act, each bank in Massachusetts, out of Boston, is required to make a similar statement, based on the condition of each bank on each Saturday of the month next preceding the first Monday of each month. Section 4 requires the Secretary of State to cause a similar summary of the monthly returns of banks out of Boston to be published in the same manner as is provided for in regard to the Boston banks. By section 5 the Secretary is authorized to select the newspapers, and the expenses of publication, when approved by the Governor of the Commonwealth. Section 6 of the act affixes a forfeit of five hundred dollars on every bank neglecting to comply with the provisions of the law, to be recovered by the Treasurer of the Commonwealth.

The Secretary is required to transmit to each bank in the State a blank form for the returns required by the act. This act took effect on the 1st of June, 1854. A

similar act was passed by the Legislature of New York during the session of 1853, and the first returns were made under its provisions for the week ending August 6th, 1853. A summary statement of the weekly averages of the New York City Banks, from the commencement, will be found in our usual "Commercial Chronicle and Review" for the month.

We publish below the first weekly statement of the condition of the banks in Boston, as prepared under the direction of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:

AVERAGE CONDITION OF THE BANKS IN BOSTON FOR THE WEEK PRECEDING MONDAY, UNE 5, 1854.

The following is the aggregate condition of the above-named thirty-six banks in Boston:

413,364

74,099

024,690 116,896 569,643

In the foregoing abstract, the cents in the various items, as submitted by the banks, are not given.

In the returns made by the several banks in Boston, of which the foregoing is the abstract required by the law to be published, there exists a want of uniformity under the particular of "amount due from other banks; a portion of the returns, including the bills and checks on other banks, while others omit these altogether. As there is no other head under which these items can appear in conformity with the provisions of the statute, and as it was the manifest intent of the Legislature that so important an element in the condition of these institutions should not be excluded from the returns, the several banks hereafter will include under the head "Due from other banks," the average amount of bills and checks on other banks held by them during the period covered by their respective returns.

E. M. WRIGHT.

CONDITION OF THE BANKS IN THE DIFFERENT STATES IN 1850-1 AND 1853-4. In the following statement are included, it is believed, all the incorporated banks that were in operation in the beginning of 1851 and the beginning of 1854, a few scattering ones excepted, and these consisting chiefly of banks that had but lately commenced business. In the State of Texas there is one bank; doing a small business, from which no returns have been received. In the States of California, Florida, Arkansas, and Iowa, and in the Territories of New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Minnesota, there are no incorporated banks.

In the returns from some of the banks of Pennsylvania, and those of some other States, a considerable amount of specie is believed to be embraced under the head of "specie funds," but the exact amount cannot be ascertained.