in the June number of your Magazine. The writer proposed in that article to investigate a method of computing interest in common use, showing its origin, to deduce from it another shorter in its application, and, finally, to estimate the error involved in both without disturbing the equanimity of any in the practice of short hand methods of computation, which all who have much to do soon learn to employ-methods in which the calculation is mostly mental, and of which the intermediate steps are not written at length. Old Rapid claims to have solved the example, at 9 per cent, in four figures. Permit me to suggest, that if he had employed a good interest table he probably could have done it without the use of any. PHILADELPHIA BANKS-CAPITAL AND DIVIDENDS. B. S. O. The banks of Philadelphia, with the exception of the Bank of Pennsylvania and the Bank of North America, which declare in January and July, made public their semi-annual dividends in May, 1857. The amounts respectively made, compared with those declared at the last three dividend periods, we present below:Nov., May, Nov., May, Banks, Capital. 5 1855. 1856, 1856, 1857. Am't. 5 5 $98,449 31 31 43,750 57,500 40,000 6 5 5 5 5 9 The dividends for May, 1857, it will be seen, are less than at either of the preceding periods with which we have compared, though with most of the banks they are the same. The whole amount which will come on the market by the payment of these dividends, is $451,815. The capital represented by these dividends is $9,387,580. THE STATE DEBT OF CALIFORNIA. The California State Register furnishes the following carefully prepared synopsis of the debt of that State. The exact amount and nature of this indebtedness has never been fully understood by persons outside of the State, nor, according to the Register, by those in it. The late decision of the Supreme Court, which in substance declares the surplusage of our indebtedness over three hundred thousand dollars, to be null and void, and unconstitutional, by article 8th of our State compact, gives peculiar interest to this statement, which has been arrived at by great expense and labor on the part of the editors of the State Register. In former numbers of the Merchants' Magazine we have published exhibits of this debt, (the last of which was in April, 1857, vol. xxxvi., p. 469,) but none so Outstanding bonds, 3 per cent, 1850, and interest... Outstanding bonds, 7 per cent, 1855, due 1870.. Outstanding bonds, 7 per cent, 1856, due 1875... Balance of war debt, not assumed by the Federal government.. School fund debt-amount due that fund by the State for school lands appropriated....... Outstanding Controller's warrants. Salaries due for which warrants have not been issued.. $6,888 95 150,000 00 1,389,600 00 700,000 00 984,000 00 218,020 91 464,000 00 404,447 12 • 24,474 60 We publish below an officially authenticated copy of the amended banking law as it passed the last session of the Legislature of Illinois. It was approved February 14th, 1857. The taxing of the banks the same as other property, and the right to take 10 per cent interest, are most important features-the first taking away one of the most serious objections to the old law, and the other permitting the banks to take a reasonable per centage for the use of their money. The banks are forced to redeem without unreasonable delay, and in packages. AN ACT TO AMEND AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A GENERAL SYSTEM OF BANKING, PASSED FEBRUARY 15TH, 1851, AND THE ACT AMENDATORY THERETO. SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:-Every banker or banking association organized or doing business under the laws of this State, shall transact all business in the name of the bank, at the place at which the notes of such bank be dated, and at the location specified in the certificate directed to be made by the 17th section of the Act approved February 15th, 1851, authorizing a general system of banking, and not elsewhere. Provided, That no bank shall be located in any place other than in some city, town, or village in this State, having a population of at least five hundred people. SEC. 2. All bank-notes issued by any banker or banking association or institution of this State, shall be redeemed by the banker or banking association issuing the same, in such sum or sums as shall be presented for redemption, and on demand shall redeem such note or notes, sums or sums, as may be presented for redemption, in the legal coin of the United States. SEC. 3. In case any banker or banking association being the maker or makers of any circulating note or notes, countersigned and registered, as provided in the "Act to establish a system of banking," passed February 15th, 1851, shall at any time hereafter, on lawful demand, during the usual hours of business, at the place where such notes are payable, fail, neglect, or refuse to redeem the same in the legal coin of the United States, then the notes of such bank or banking association, after having been presented for payment, and payment thereof having been refused in such legal coin, may be protested in any and whatever amount so protested by a notary public, or by any two householders, under oath, in the County in which said bank is located, or being obtained, shall refuse to act. The notary public or such two householders to designate the numbers, letters, and denominations of such protested bills or circulating notes, when the bill so protested shall be presented to the Auditor, with the protest accompanying the same, who shall forthwith notify such bank by mail to pay the same, and he shall hold the said bills or notes for ten days from the time of receiving the same. If the said bank issuing said bills or notes shall neglect to pay the same with 12 per cent interest per annum thereon from the date of such protest, together with all costs and protest fees and expenses, then and in such case, after the expiration of the said ten days, as herein provided, as provided in the 14th and 26th sections of the act to which this is an amendment :-Provided, That in presenting notes or bills for payment under this section, the party presenting the same shall not be required to present or receive redemption of each note or bill separately, but the whole amount presented shall be treated a though it were a single obligation of that amount. SEC. 4. The second section of an act entitled an "Act to establish a general system of banking," approved February 15th, 1851, is hereby amended so as to provide that all the stocks of the United States, and of the several States on which interest is regularly paid, including the stocks of the State deposited with the Treasurer, under the provisions of the last named act, shall be valued at a rate 10 per cent less than the market price of such stocks, to be estimated as provided in said sections:-Provided, That such stocks shall, in no instance, be received at a rate above their par value. SEC. 5. Any bank, banker, or bank association, doing business under the provisions of an " Act to establish a general system of banking," approved February 15, 1851, and the various acts in addition thereto and amendatory thereof, shall not be authorized to take or receive a greater rate of interest or discount, in any real or personal security, than 10 per cent per annum; but said interest may in all cases be received in advance, and in the computation of time thirty days shall be a month, and twelve months a year. So much of the 28th section of an "Act to establish a general system of banking," approved February 15th, 1851, as is inconsistent herewith, is hereby repealed. SEC. 6. The capital stock of every bank or banking association, paid in or secured to be paid in, except so much thereof as is invested in real estate, which shall be taxed as real estate as herein provided, together with the surplus profits or reserved funds, and also the real estate of every such company, shall be listed by the president or cashier thereof, and assessed and taxed in the same manner as other personal and real estate of the county and the town in which such bank or banking association is located. SEC. 7. Sections 20 and 21 of an "Act for the assessment of property," approved February 12, 1853, and sections 20 and 21 of an "Act for the assessment of property and the collection of taxes in counties adopting the township organization law," approved February 12, 1853, are hereby repealed. SEC. 8. The 6th section of an " Act to establish a general system of banking," shall be so construed as to require any bank or association established under said act to have a bona fide cash capital of at least $50,000, actually put in in good faith for the purpose of remaining in such bank or association as capital, and the Auditor shall satisfy himself of such fact before he shall issue any circulating notes or bills to any such bank or association, and for this purpose he is authorized to examine any and all officers, stockholders, agents, and employees of such bank or association under oath, and to take all measures that he may deem necessary to determine that fact. The evidence required by this section shall be in writing and shall be filed in the Auditor's office. SEC. 9. No more circulating notes shall be issued under any circumstances to any bank or association, organized under said act, until the Auditor shall be satisfied that such bank or association has such actual capital as is required in the first section of this act. MINT REGULATIONS RELATING TO FOREIGN COINS AND COINAGE OF CENTS. The Director of the Mint of the United States has given notice, under date of April 27, 1857, of the following regulations for carrying into effect the "Act relating to foreign coins and to the coinage of cents at the Mint of the United States," approved February 21, 1857, which was published in the Merchants' Magazine of April, 1857, (vol. xxxvi., p. 470:)— 1. On and after the twenty-fifth day of May next, applications may be made at the mint for cents of the new issue in exchange for "the pieces commonly known as the quarter, eighth, and sixteenth of the Spanish pillar dollar, and of the Mexican dollar," at the nominal rates of 25 cents, 124 cents, and 64 cents respectively; or in exchange for the copper cents heretofore issued; and the persons so applying will be attended to in their order, daily, between the hours of nine and two o'clock. ver, 2. The silver or copper coins thus offered must be in even sums of five dollars by count, and, for the present, not exceeding fifty dollars; and in the case of silthe sizes or denominations must be assorted and kept separate, so that any one package shall contain exactly five dollars, or a multiple thereof, of quarters, or of eighths, or sixteenths. Care must also be taken to exclude from the silver any other kinds of coin than those specified in the law. A memorandum or label must be presented, showing the value, by count, of the pieces offered, and the denominations thereof; and in the case of copper, it must state that they are lawful coin of the United States. Such pieces of silver as are mutilated, or so much worn as to be illegible, or as have any appearance of being counterfeit, will not be received for the new cents; but packages containing the same may be exchanged at another office in the mint for silver coins of the United States. To prevent uncertainty as to what parcels (containing mutilated pieces or such as are worn smooth) will be rejected, it may be stated that if five dollars, by count, of quarter dollars shall outweigh $4 80 of United States silver coins of the present standard, or if the same amount, by count, of eighths shall outweigh $4 50, or if the same count of sixteenths shall outweigh $4 30. they will be received at their nominal value in exchange for the new cents; and it may save disappointment if holders will ascertain this before offering them, which may readily be done by the use of an ordinary balance. 3. The reasonable expenses of transportation of the new cent, in sums of fifty dollars, to any point accessible by railroad and steamboat, will be paid by the mint. 4. Provision being made by the act for the receipt of the kinds of silver coin already specified "at the Treasury of the United States and its several offices, and at the several post-offices and land-offices," at the rate of twenty cents for one-quarter of a dollar, ten cents for one-eighth, and five cents for one-sixteenth, with a view to their transmission to the mint for recoinage, the coins so transmitted will be received at the mint at these rates, the silver coins of the United States returned therefor, and the expenses of transportation both ways will be paid by the mint. 5. In compliance with the sixth section of the act, whenever the Treasury Department shall designate any "assistant treasurer, depositary, or other officer of the United States," who shall be charged with the business of making exchanges of the new cent, and shall issue a draft on the Treasurer of the Mint in favor of such officer, payable in cents of the new issue, the same will be transmitted in the order of the application, and the expenses of transportation will be paid by the mint. 6. To avoid an undue pressure at the outset, and to further some of the main objects of the law, the exchanges for the present will only be made for the silver coins specified, and for the copper cents heretofore issued; and due notice will be given when the mint is ready to receive the gold and silver coins of the United States in exchange for the new cents. 7. The Spanish and Mexican silver coins will still be received as heretofore, by weight, at the rate of 1224 cents per standard ource, in exchange for silver coins of the United States, at the option of the holder, but not in less sums than twenty dollars; except that, if a less parcel is rejected when offered for cents, it may, to save trouble to the holder, be presented for exchange for silver. JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN, Director of the Mint. STATE DEBT AND SECURITIES OF MISSOURI. The debt of Missouri, now about $12,000,000, has been mostly created in aid of four roads-the Pacific, North Missouri, Iron Mountain, and the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, for which it issues bonds as the roads progress. The State holds a first mortgage on all the roads. The Pacific road, now open to Jefferson City -125 miles-has been earning expenses and interest on the State debt, and by the 1st July will be opened fifty-two miles further. The other roads will be completed, we understand, within the year, to such parts as will enable them to earn expenses and State interest. The Pacific and Hannibal and St. Joseph roads have government grants for nearly 2,000,000 acres of land. These roads will develop the industrial resources of the entire State. About $10,900,000 bonds have yet to be issued from time to time up to the completion of the unfinished roads. This is certainly a not unpromising condition of things for a State possessing the territorial extent and mineral wealth of Missouri. But $1,000,000 more is required to complete all the roads and stations, when they will begin to be remunerative. The impulse given to immigration into Missouri by auspicious movements of the emancipationists and the rapid occupation of Kansas, which must be tributary to her prosperity, ought, in the natural course of things, to send soon all her State securities above par. NATIONAL DEBT OF GREAT BRITAIN. According to recent official returns, the national debt existing on the 31st of March, 1856, was £775,312,694, of which $3,007,775, bore interest at 2 per cent; £769,000,280 interest at 3 per cent; £2,871,515 at 34 per cent; and £433,124 at 5 per cent; making an annual interest of £23,267,361. In the year ending 31st March, 1851, there was effected a reduction of interest of £37,236, by stock purchased with Sinking Fund, transferred and unclaimed. There was also an increase of interest of £747,243, by stock created by loans and by Exchequer Bills; besides £116,000 annuity for thirty years, ceasing payment on 5th April, 1855. The debt created in the year amounted to £24,908,134, of which £3,333,250 was created by Exchequer Bills funded. The debt redeemed in the same year was £1,241,257. The capital stock canceled in each year in exchange for terminable annuities, from the 1st September, 1808, to the 31st March, 1856, amounted to £50,391,074, and the long annuities canceled £165,880. The largest amount canceled was in 1831, when it was £8,737,094; and in 1835, £6,500,169. In other years it varied from £500,000 to £2,500,000. In the year ending 31st March 1856, there were in existence £1,955,248, created under various loans, which will expire in 1850 and 1860; £585,740 annuity purchased by the Bank of England, which will expire on 5th April, 1876; £116,000 annuity, created by the loan of £16,000,000, which will expire on the 5th April, 1885; and £47,114 the Tontine annuities payable in England and Ireland. |