1,340,079,356 96

BANK OF FRANCE.

The Moniteur, of February 14, has published the following returns of the Bank of France, made up to the 13th February. The figures of the previous month, and of the corresponding period in 1860, are added:

New reserve,....

do. in real property... Notes and circulation of the bank and branches,..

Drafts drawn by the bank on the branches, or the branches on bank, and payable at Paris or in the Provinces,.. Acknowledgments for money deposited, and payable at sight at Paris or in the branch banks,... Treasury account current creditor, Accounts current at Paris, .

do. in the branch banks, Dividends payable,... Interest and dividends on securi

ties transferred or deposited,... Various discounts and interest at Paris and in the branches,.... Re-discounts of the last half-year at Paris and in the branches,... Sundries,

Total,....

797,835,925 0

762,148,725 0

735,839,025

5,597,709 50

5,795,185 49

QUARTERLY STATEMENT OF THE BANKS OF OHIO.

The statement of the banks of Ohio, as made to the Auditor of the State, for the quarter ending on the first Monday in February, compares as follows with the same quarter last year:

The following is a comparison of the several classes of banks:

INDEPENDENT BANKS.

Feb., 1862. $ 179,967 227,281

807,471

Feb., 1861. $ 141,986 112,914 1,198,748

1,252,765

830,531

483,200

A decrease in the capital of the free banks, of about half a million, is shown; but this is probably owing to an omission of the returns of the Bank of the Ohio Valley.

PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES ON MARCH 1ST, 1862.

We have prepared the following table, showing the present public debt of the United States, from official sources:

JOURNAL OF NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

I. GALANTRY LIGHT-HOUSE, NEwfoundland.-II. FIXED LIGHT on ZafaraNA POINT, RED SEA, GULF OF SUEZ.

NEWFOUNDLAND.-GALANTRY LIGHT-HOUSE.

OFFICIAL information has been received that from and after August 10th, 1862, the present fixed light on the point of Galantry will be replaced by a flashing light, (flashes every 20 seconds,) varied by a red flash succeeded by two white flashes. Latitude, 46° 45' 30"; Longitude, 56° 7′ west of Greenwich. The light is elevated 210 feet above high water, and will have a range of 18 miles. The light will be obscured on the north by the high bluffs of St. Pierre.

Range lights for entering from the southeast.

From and after October 1st, 1862, the entrance to the roadstead of St. Pierre from the southeast will be marked by two small fixed lights, one of which (a white light illuminating of the horizon) will be situated on the rocks at Cannon Point instead of the present beacon, and the other (a red light) on the level north of the city.

The white light will be elevated 36 feet above high water, having a range of 6 miles, and the red light will be elevated 63 feet above high water, with a range of 3 miles.

The line joining these two lights will mark the best water between the extremity of the Bertram Rocks and Isle aux Chiens.

The position of the red light is such that any one coming from Colombier and turning into the northeast channel, upon seeing it to the left of Cape l'Aigle, will be in no danger from the shoals off Cape Rouge.

The present light at Galantry will be discontinued during the three nights preceding the time fixed for the exhibition of the revolving light, i. e., on the 7th to 8th, 8th to 9th, 9th to 10th August, 1862.

FIXED LIGHT ON ZAFARANA POINT, RED SEA, GULF OF SUEZ.

Official information has been received, that on and after the 1st day of January, 1862, a light would be exhibited from a light-house recently erected on Zafarana point, on the western coast of the Gulf of Suez, about 52 miles to the southward of the town of that name.

The light is a fixed white light, placed at an elevation of 83 feet above the level of high water, and should be seen, in clear weather, from the deck of a vessel, at a distance of fourteen miles.

The illuminating apparatus is dioptric, or by lenses, of the first order. The tower is round, built of stone, and 82 feet from base to vane, with the keeper's dwelling to the westward. It stands on a low gravel ridge, about fourteen feet above high water, in latitude 29° 6' 20" N., longitude 32° 44′ E. of Greenwich, as recently found by Captain MANSELL, of H. M. S. FIREFLY, and which agrees with MORESBY's chart of the Red Sea of 1834, but differs from the admiralty chart. The exact position of this light-house will hereafter be determined.

The mariner is cautioned that shoal water extends about a mile from the point, having ten fathoms close to its outer edge.

COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS.

PROPER CLASSIFICATION UNDER TARIFF ACTS, OF CERTAIN ARTICLES OF FOREIGN MANUFACTURE AND PRODUCTION.

EXTRACT OF SAFFLOWER.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 23, 1862.

SIR, I have carefully considered the case presented in your report of the 11th ultimo, of the appeal of J. WUNDERLICH, Esq., from your decision levying a duty of 20 per cent., under the provisions of the 24th section of the tariff act of the 2d March, 1861, on the "extract of saf flower," as an unenumerated article manufactured in whole or in part.

"Safflower" is in terms exempted from duty by the tariff act of 2d March, 1861, and the importer claims, on that ground, a like exemption for the "extract of safflower."

The provisions of the tariff laws make a distinction, in many cases, in regard to the rate of duty between the crude and the prepared or manufactured article; and in reference to "safflower," while it makes a specific provision for the flower in its crude state, it makes none for any "extract" or preparation of "safflower," but leaves it to fall under the general classification of "all articles, manufactured in whole or in part, not otherwise enumerated or provided for," upon which is imposed a duty of 20 per cent.

Your decision in this case is approved.
I am, very respectfully,

S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury.

HIRAM BARNEY, Esq., Collector, &c., New-York.

OLD YELLOW METAL.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 23, 1862.

Sir, I am in receipt of your report on the appeal of Messrs. SWIFT & ALLEN from your assessment of duty at the rate of 20 per cent., under the tariff act of March 2, 1861, on "old yellow metal" imported by them. The 19th section of that act imposes a duty at the rate of 10 per cent. on brass, in pigs or bars, or when old and fit only to be remanufactured." The importers claim, in this case, to enter the "yellow metal" as "old brass," because it resembles brass in the nature of its component materials, although they are not combined in "brass" and "yellow metal" in the same proportions.

The tariff act of 1842, which regulates the assessment of duties on unenumerated articles by the resemblance they bear, in certain particulars, to enumerated articles, cannot apply in this case, because "yellow metal" must be held to be embraced either in the provision in the 22d section of the tariff act of March 2, 1861, for "manufactures, articles, vessels and wares, not otherwise provided for, of brass, copper, gold, iron, lead, pewter, platina, silver, tin or other metal, or of which