UNITED STATES TREASURER'S STATEMENT, OCTOBER 25, 1852. TREASURER'S STATEMENT, SHOWING THE AMOUNT AT HIS CREDIT IN THE TREASURY, WITH ASSISTANT TREASURERS AND designated DEPOSITARIES, AND IN THE MINT AND BRANCHES BY RETURNS RECEIVED TO MONDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1852; THE AMOUNT FOR WHICH DRAFTS HAVE BEEN ISSUED, BUT WERE THEN UNPAID, AND THE AMOUNT THEN REMAINING SUBJECT TO DRAFT. SHOWING, ALSO, THE AMOUNT OF FUTURE TRANSFERS TO AND FROM DEPOSITARIES, AS ORDERED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. Depositary at Buffalo, New York. Depositary at Baltimore, Md..... ...$2,486 66 Mint of the U. S., Philadelphia, Pa.. Total...... Deduct suspense account. Add difference in transfers Net amount subject to draft....... Transfers ordered to treasury of the U. S., Washington, D. C.... Total....... Transfers ordered from Depository at Chicago, Illinois...... .... $16,768,821 25 $650,000 00 300,000 00 100,000 00 180,000 00 Total...... $1,230,000 00 $120,000 00 2,500 00 $122,500 00 BANKS UNDER THE GENERAL BANKING LAW OF ILLINOIS. We give below a statement of Banks organized under the general Banking Law of the State of Illinois; amount of capital stocks as set forth in their certificates of organization; amount of public stocks deposited with the Auditor, as security for circulating notes; value of the same, and the amount of circulating notes delivered to the Banks, October 9th, 1852: The following named banks, projected in Illinois under the general law of that State, have filed certificates, but no securities have been deposited, and no circulating notes issued: The scarcity of silver since gold has been so abundant, is seen in the following statement, showing the comparative amounts of gold and silver bullion in the Bank of England at several periods :— a Organized January 13, 1852. Organized May 26, 1852. • Organized April 26, 1852. d Organized June 14, 1852. The amount in general circulation in England, has been much reduced recently by the emigrants to Australia, who have taken out silver in preference to gold. Silver in the colonies is received as a legal tender for all payments, while in England it is only a legal tender for payments of 40s. and under. To lessen this out-going of silver coin to Australia, it is proposed to make the laws in the colonies conform to the parent country. The British government were about to order a large issue of new silver coin. The price of silver, and the alloyed rate of the coinage, pays the government well for supplying the public with a sufficient amount for circulation. At the last accounts, the market price for dollars was 4s. 10 d., and for silver 68. 4d; while the rate at which silver is coined at the mint into English silver is 5s. 2d. BRITISH POST-OFFICE SYSTEM OF REMITTING MONEY. Independent of carrying letters, the Post-Office Department of Great Britain has of late years assumed a new and most important function to the public, that of a medium for the safe remittance of small sums of money from one part of the United Kingdom to another. The working of this system is thus stated in the London Economist: So late as 1840, the number of money orders issued in the United Kingdom was but 188,921, representing a sum of £313,124; while in 1851 the number of orders issued had increased to no less than 4,661,025, and the amount to £8,880,420. The average amount of each order in 1840 was £1 13s. 2d., and in 1851 it was still only £1 18s. 1d. It is, therefore, clear that the large increase in the aggregate amount has not arisen from the introduction of a new class of business, which can be supposed to interfere with the transactions of ordinary banks. The following table shows the pro of this department of the Post-office business since 1840: RETURN OF THE NUMBER AND AMOUNT OF MONEY ORDERS ISSUED AND PAID IN THE UNITED KINGDOM DURING THE UNDERMENTIONED YEARS. For the last year the total amount was divided between different parts of the United Kingdom as follows: The entire cost of the establishment and other expenses, incident upon this branch of the Post-office business, is returned as £69,922, while the amount of commission received by the Post office is £77,420,-leaving, therefore, a small profit of upwards of £7,000. These facts will be regarded with great satisfaction by the numerous, active, and energetic persons throughout the kingdom who took a warm interest in promoting this, one of the greatest practical reforms of modern times. SHIPMENTS OF gold dust at SAN FRANCISCO. The manifested shipments of gold dust (according to Hussey, Bond & Hale's Circular) for three months, ending September 30th, 1852, has been as follows: The entire product of gold since the discovery of California mines to July 1st, of present year, is estimated at $174,780,877. WEIGHING DEPARTMENT OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND. One of the most interesting and astonishing departments within the whole compass of the Bank of England is the weighing department, in which, with the rapidity of thought, and a precision approaching to the hundredth part of a grain, the weight of the gold coins is determined. There are six weighing machines, kept working by the same agency which applies all mechanical power in the band, and three weighers attend to these. Rolls of sovereigns, or half-sovereigns, are placed in grooves, and are shaken, one at a time, by the motion of the machine, into the scale. If they are of standard weight, they are thrown by the same mechanical intelligence into a box at the right hand side of the person who watches the operation; if they have lost the hundredth part of a grain, they are cast into a box on the left. Those which stand the test are put into bags of 1,000 sovereigns each, and those below par are cut by a machine, and sent back to the mint. Between one thousand and two thousand light sovereigns are thus daily sent out of circulation. The silver is put up in bags, each of £1,000 value, and the gold into bags of a thousand, and then those bagfuls of bullion are sent through a strongly-guarded door, or rather window, into the treasury. The treasury is a gloomy apartment, fitted up with iron presses, which are supplied with huge locks and bolts, and which are perfectly fire-proof. Gold, silver, and paper money, ready for circulation, to the amount of £22,000,000 sterling, were in the treasury when we visited it. One of the gentlemen in that department placed 1,000 sovereigns in our hand, and, at the same time pointed to seventy bags full of gold in a little recess which he had thrown open, making, in all, the modest sum of £70,000. He placed notes of half a million also upon our palm, which, no doubt, had its own sensation as the precious deposit trembled on its top.-Hog's Instructor. NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. THE AMERICAN NAUTICAL ALMANAC. We learn from Silliman's Journal of Science, that the first volume of the American Nautical Almanac, published by authority of Congress, will appear in a few weeks. It has been prepared under the supervision of Lieut. C. H. Davis. U. S. N. It is stated that this work will be a material improvement on the British Nautical Almanac, in having more current lunar tables, which give more accurate predictions, as tested in the case of the eclipse, July 28, 1851. * * * "At Washington, the British almanac was in error for the beginning of the eclipse 78 seconds, and for the end 62 seconds. The American almanac was in error for the beginning only 13 seconds, and for the end only one second and a half." * "The errors exposed in this eclipse may give rise to an error of from 15 to 20 miles in the determination of the longitude at sea by means of lunar distances, and to an uncertainty of twice that amount. The possibility of such an error, arising from this source, is removed in the American ephemeris.” There are other points of superiority; one of the principal being "a more complete, full and accurate table of latitudes and longitudes, particularly of American latitudes and longitudes, than is now anywhere to be found," and the other relates to the tide tables and other practical information concerning the tides. The announcement of the American work has reduced the price of the British from 5s. to 2s. 6d. OF ENTERING THE CHANNEL OF THE BAY OF SMYRNA. AUGUSTUS STATFORD, Secretary of the Lords Commissioners of the Admirality, has transmitted to Capt. G. A. HALSTEAD, Secretary, Lloyd's, for the information of the committee for managing the affairs of Lloyd's, the following extract from a letter which has been received from Commander Spratt, of her majesty's surveying vessel Spitfire, relative to alterations in the marks for entering the Channel of the Bay of Smyrna: H. M. STEAM VESSEL SPITFIRE, Smyrna, August 26th, 1852. SIR:-Having, since my arrival at this port on August 13th, been enabled to examine the Spit of the mouth of the Hermes, upon which a beacon was placed in 1842, and having ascertained that it has considerably grown out by the depositions from that river since that time, I therefore felt it my duty, as early as possible, to inform you of the fact, for the benefit of the merchants and captains interested in the navigation of this gulf, and to point out to them that the marks given in a copy of a chart of the "Channel of Bay of Smyrna,” by Captain Graves and the officers of H. M. S. Beacon, which was then published at this port, viz:-"That the north end of the old castle on Mount Pagus, on which the south end of Sanjac Castle, clears the Mermer Spit," is no longer true, the spit having grown out beyond those marks. It is now necessary to substitute the following for the former marks:-A large and conspicuous tree with a house under it, which appears to the south of Sanjac Castle, on with the north end of the old castle on Mount Pagus. This latter object will in consequence be more than twice its breadth open to the south of Sanjac Castle, instead of touching it as by the old marks. N. B.-This spit is the only one of such rapid increase as to sensibly affect the navigation of the channel in a few years. But it is one of least danger where a proper look-out is kept, since the reeds growing on the lips of the river are within a cable's length of the extremity of the spit, and the shallow bar is generally seen to break, or with trunks of trees aground upon it. As the other spits extend some distance from dry land, they are not easily indicated; the marks for them being very distant and indistinct. It is therefore the more to be regretted that the buoys formerly placed upon these spits, by the subscription of some few merchants, have been entirely removed through the apparent want of interest, or care about their preservation, by the local authority. The consequence is, that many vessels now ground upon these spits, much loss of time and expense follows, which often is far more than would be the cost of replacing and maintaining such necessary guides to a great commercial port. Finding that notice of their entire removal is not generally known, strangers arriving at the Port of Smyrna are thus often placed in a difficulty. (Signed.) T. SPRATT, Commander. OF THE LIGHT ON THE ISLAND OF SEIRO. James Booth, under date Whitehall, September 24, 1852, has, under the direction of the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council of Trade, transmitted to Captain G. A. HALSTEAD, R. N., Secretary at Lloyd's, for the information of the committee managing the affairs at Lloyd's, and in order that it might obtain publicity, the subjoined translation of a notice issued by the Danish Marine Board, respecting a new light established on the Island of Seiro, at the northern entrance of the Great Belt, and which will be lighted for the first time on the 25th October, 1852. "On the so called Guiben, on the northmost point of the same Island of Seiro, lat. 55° 55' 10" north, and lon. 11° 5' 9" east of Greenwich, a revolving light will he established on a tower 50 feet above the land, and 100 feet above the sea. "The new light, which will be lighted for the first time on the 25th inst., and will thereafter be kept burning the same time as all the other lights in the kingdom; viz:From half an hour after sunset until sunrise, will consist of eight lamps with reverberators, which will take six minutes to each revolution, so that they show a strong light, lasting between 12 and 15 seconds, every second minute. "The light will show all around the horizon for the distance of 3 to 4 miles, (14 to 16 miles English.) "Marine Board, September 10, 1852. |