not considered a good sign by political economists. The security offered by our government has undergone no change for the last thirty years, and as it gave £3 a year to receive £75 or £96, the interest of money in the market was comparatively high or low. To all borrowers a low rate of interest is advantageous; to all lenders, the reverse; and thus, as we are borrowers or lenders, we speak of a high price of the funds as advantageous or disadvantageous.

A high price of the funds being equivalent to a low rate of interest, whenever the funds have risen to par or above it, the interest of the national debt has been reduced, or an expectation has prevailed that it would be reduced. It is now talked of, but apparently without reason, as consols have declined, and their immense amount (about £380,000,000) will prevent the reduction of interest upon them, unless the interest of money remains permanently low, and consols rise and continue above par.

The first reduction of interest was made by Sir Robert Walpole in 1716, wher, being enabled to borrow at a low rate, he induced the national creditors to accept a lower rate than they had lent their money at. In 1794 a similar operation was carried into effect by Mr. Pelham, a brother of the then Duke of Newcastle. No similar reduction was possible from that period almost to our own times. In 1822 Mr. Vansittart reduced the interest on a 5 five per cent stock to 4 per cent; and in 1824, Mr. Robinson, the present Earl of Ripon, reduced the 4 per cent stock to 31. In 1830 Mr. Goulburn followed the same course, and reduced the new 4 per cents to 33; and in 1844 he reduced the 31 to 31, to become 3 per cent stock in 1854. By the several reductions of interest, it is estimated (what Sir Robert Walpole saved is not stated) that—

To which must be added the prospective saving to take place in 1854 of £625,000, and making a total annual reduction of charge by a reduction in the rate of interest of £4,188,000. Notwithstanding that reduction, the annual charge was not less in 1850 than £27,902,572; and we cannot flatter our readers with the hope of any further reduction at present. Californian and Australian gold has had no effect in raising price, very little effect in lowering the rate of interest, which was lower in 1844 than in 1852, and giving no reasonable prospect of, as some persons have said, facilitating the liquidation of the national debt.

ASSAY OFFICE AT ADELAIDE FOR AUSTRALIAN GOLD.

The government of Great Britain has appointed an assay office at Adelaide, at which gold, of a not less quantity than twenty ounces, shall be received and weighed, and a receipt given for the weight; the same shall then be assayed, converted into ingots, stamped, and delivered at a bank, to be named in the receipt, to, or to the order of, the owner, for the weight deliverable; two parts out of every hundred to be taken; one for the expense of the assay, and the other to be deposited in the treasury in case of the correctness being disputed. It may afterwards be reassayed. In exchange for such assayed and stamped gold, the banks shall pay at the rate of £3 11s. per ounce in notes, which they may issue to the value of the gold bullion they shall so acquire. The banks are allowed to issue notes to three times the value of their coin: so that for every £100 of coin they may issue £300 of notes. These proportions are to be strictly adhered to, under a penalty of £100 for every failure. Accounts to be furnished to the treasury every week of the notes in circulation, and the coin and bullion held. The notes of banks to be a legal tender, so long as they pay on demand in coin or bullion, by all except the banks themselves. Ingots stamped at the assay office shall be a legal tender by the banks in payment of notes, bills, and checks, at the rate of £3 11s. per ounce. Forgery, &c., to be punished with imprisonment and hard labor, for a period not more than fifteen years, and not less than two years. The act to continue in force for twelve months.

THE SMALL NOTE LAW OF MARYLAND.

The following is the law passed at the last session of the Maryland Legislatu re "to prevent the circulation of notes or bills of a less denomination than five dollars." SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That on and after the first day of October, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, it shall not be lawful for any person, firm, or association of persons, corporation or body politic, to pay out, circulate or receive in payment of any debt, any bank note, promissory note, or other obligation, payable to bearer, or indorsed in blank or to bearer, or any other note, token, scrip, or device whatsoever, devised or intended for circulation as currency, issued out of the limits of this State, of a less denomination than five dollars, under the penalty of five dollars for each and every offence, to be recovered by an action of debt in the name of the State, before any justice of the State.

SEC. 2. And be it enacted, That one-half of the penalty recovered in any case under the act shall go to the informer, and the residue shall be paid to the collector of county or city taxes for the use of the county or city where the same may be prosecuted for; and in all cases the informer shall be a competent witness.

SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That in case any person against whom any judgment may be rendered for the penalty provided by this act, shall not immediately pay the same and costs of the prosecution, or give security satisfactory to the justice rendering the judgment, for the payment, he shall be committed to prison, there to remain until the same shall be paid, or until the expiration of ten days from the date of the commitment, whichever shall first occur.

SEC. 4. And be it enacted, That from and after the first day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, it shall not be lawful for any bank, savings institution, corporation, or body politic, of this State, or for any person or association of persons, to make, issue or pay out any note or device, of the nature and character described in the preceding section of this act, of a less denomination than five dollars, under the penalty prescribed in the said section for each offence, and to be recovered in the same

manner.

CONDITION OF THE BANKS OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

The circulation, deposits, specie, and discounts of the Banks of South Carolina, according to the official statement of August 31, 1852, have been as follows:

In the Budget for the current year the income is stated at 60,000,000 francs, the expenditure at 69,300,000 francs. The income, divided by the number of the popu lation, gives an average of 19 francs 65 centimes of taxes per head.

The Pope's civil list, the keeping in repair of his palaces, of the museums, the expenses of the noble guard, the Swiss troops, the salaries of the Sacred College, of the Nuncios, and the Roman diplomatic body, cost annually.

.francs

3,300,000

The public debt amounts to...

21,000,000

The army costs..

10,000,000

Public works..

2,800,000

Public instruction.

The pensions amount to..

500,000 5,000,000

ARITHMETICAL ACCUMULATION OF MONEY.

KELLOGG, in his "Labor and other Capital," forcibly illustrates the accumulation of capital from various rates of interest. A late French writer says, that a sum of money, invested at 5 per cent, compound interest, is doubled in fourteen years and some months, quadrupled in less than thirty years, octupled in less than forty-five years, and so on. From this it would appear that if a centime had been placed out at such interest, pro bono publico, in the year 800, when Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the West, the 30,000,000 Frenchmen inhabiting the country at the revolution in 1830, would have enjoyed an income of 100,000,000,000 francs.

Such arithmetically true and economically impossible results of old deposits, are made the groundwork of some work of fiction; but writers of another class are obliged to attend to the obvious fact, that in order to effect such an accumulation of capital the business of the bankers and the wealth of the community would require the increase in the same proportion. Money does not breed spontaneously. The party to whom it is entrusted must use his money in such a way as to enable him not only to pay the interest, but to derive a profit from the transaction.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

STATISTICS OF THE TRADE AND COMMERCE OF CINCINNATI.

In another part of the present number of the "Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review" will be found a review of the Trade and Commerce 'of Cincinnati for the year ending August 31st, 1852. We give below tabular statements of the imports and exports, destination of specified articles, value of principal products, and prices of the same for the year ending August 31st, 1852. For similar statistics, for previous years, the reader is referred to the Merchants' Magazine for October, 1851, (vol. xxv., pp. 485-489,) and the volumes of this Magazine from its commencement in 1839:

DESTINATION OF SPECIFIED ARTICLES EXPORTED FROM THE PORT OF CINCINNATI DURING THE YEAR 1851-52, COMMENCING THE FIRST DAY OF SEPTEMBER, AND ENDING THE LAST OF AUGUST.

VALUE OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES IMPORTED INTO THE PORT OF CINCINNATI DURING THE YEAR ENDING AUGUST 31st, 1852.

[NOTE.-In the above, we have not included dry goods, hardware, queensware, and sundry miscellaneous articles which, with those mentioned, come under the head of merchandise. It would be utterly impossible to make an estimate of these articles, coal and lumber are also omitted-no correct statement of the amount imported being obtainable. In the above calculation we have given as nearly as possible the correct average value, and we believe the aggregate is below rather than above the actual amount. The value of the total imports at this port is not less than forty millions.EDITOR.]

IMPORTS INTO CINCINNATI FOR THE YEAR COMMENCING SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1851, AND ENDING AUGUST 31ST, 1852.