COMMERCIAL HONESTY.

The Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER recently delivered the inauguratory lecture before the Mercantile Library Association of Boston. The lecture was entitled "The Bargain Makers." In that portion of his lecture referring to the laxity of morals which is said to exist in commercial circles, and necessary to its success, he says:

"It is an aspersion on commerce, to be disdained by every man, that it makes laxity of morals indispensable to success. Practical commerce is founded in equity. Beginning in the warts of men, every step, when best conducted, is deficient. Benevolence and public good, based in equity, are the thoughts that God had when he ordained commerce, and therefore it is that in spite of the short sighted ambition of men, commerce works out the largest measure of public good, and world-wide beneficence. It is, therefore, not necessary that men should be less than honest in order that they may be successful merchants. I put my foot, as on scorpion's eggs, upon that maxim that a man must be dishonest to succeed.

"Success requires that a man should be the largest pattern of a man; it is the half and quarter part of men, it is the infinitesimal men who have degraded commerce. The great want in bargain makers is moral faith. Men are seldom found who dare to trust themselves implicitly to their principles. The last thing men learn to trust is the inevitable safety of truth and principle. They esteem truth, they respect honesty, they revere honor, but they dare not follow them except in the sunshine and on the ground, and when these divine qualities come to them walking a tempestuous sea in the night, and bid them come forth from the tossed ship, then, like Peter, they sink; but alas! unlike Peter, no hand plucks them from the wave, and down they go to the mud at the bottom."

The relations of commerce to politics were next touched upon, and the essential relations of commerce to the public weal declared to be such that there could be no justification of political selfishness, for anything in commerce that goes wrong, in the matter of politics and true public weal, is a blunder, and blunder means a crime and universal laughter. It is a wrong known and laughed at, and being laughed at, is next to perdition in common folks' estimation. The permanent well-being of commerce depends upon the moral life of the whole community. All forms of social vice, all demoralization of public opinion, all circumscription of human right, all limitations of the condition of the citizen, are a damage in the end to commerce.

Political life, founded upon political justice, and the contentment of the citizen, built upon the recognition of all his rights, is the very prosperity and permanence of commerce. It is not the church nor the pulpit that needs morality most, although they might still use profitably a little more; it is not art and refinement that most require to stand upon equity and purity; every wheel that revolves in a factory is a plea for justice, every thread in the loom, every blow on the anvil, every machine, every shop, every store, if the voice of their necessity could be heard, would plead for rectitude and justice between man and man; every man damaged by injustice in a community, is a lack in that community, its laws and institutions; and where a whole class of men is wronged, the whole ship drinks water, and must be instantly bailed or sink. Therefore it is a shame that the merchant should ever weigh in his scales moral principle against profit. The men in our land, who have sold their political principles for pelf, have been paid in bankruptcy, thank God! So long as the divine example of Christ shall teach the world that death for the sake of recitude is resurrection into

immortality; so long shall everywhere the example of Judas teach that they who sell Christ for pieces of silver, shall at last in their despair cast down their profits and hang themselves. And in all questions of public morals, all questions of religious freedom, all questions of right and wrong, that merchant who takes the side of injustice, is a suicide, and if angels were to write the man's epitaph on his tombstone, it would be found in one word-"fool!" The ways of God are straight, and no man can pervert the inflexibleness of Divine justice. Not into the nature of man himself is the necessity of rectitude wrought more than into the framework of human society. The way of integrity may seem hard, but it ends in the orchard and the garden, as sure as there is a God; unmistakable flowers may blossom in the ways of wrong, and the blandishments of deceit may wile men into fancied security, but the end is inevitable destruction here and damnation hereafter.

BANK COMMITTEE OF 1856.

REPORT OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE BANK ACT COMMITTEE, 1856.

Mr. CHAPMAN, manager for the great house of OVEREND, GURNEY & Co., gave evidence as follows before the bank committee of 1856.

Five joint-stock banks in London hold £35,000,000 of deposits, and allow interest upon them about one per cent under the bank charge. The Bank of England never allows interest on deposits, and its private deposits have remained stationary for many years. The largest bills are drawn in the East India and China trades. The Irish banks are required to have their specie in four fixed places of deposit; the Scotch banks are allowed to retain their own bullion. The use of large notes in England is greatly decreasing, while that of £5 or £10 notes is greatly increasing. The gold coinage in circulation in the kingdom is estimated at £59,000,000. The Bank of England holds upwards of forty government accounts. A Bank of England note is not a legal tender in Scotland or Ireland. The English country banks are £1,000,000 below their authorized issue; the Scotch and Irish are as much above it. The Court of Chancery has generally from £300.000 to £500.000 in the Bank of England. The governor of the bank can raise the rate of interest without consulting the court of directors if he chooses; £4,000,000 out of £6,000,000 of the dividends every quarter go into the hands of the bankers. The deposits of the banks in Scotland are no less than £50,000,000, and the gold held by them under £1,000,000. In 1852, first-class bills were discounted as low as 14 per cent.

There is more than one capitalist who can withdraw from the circulating medium £1,000,000 or £2,000,000 of notes, if they have an object to attain by it -to knock down the funds and create a scarcity. One morning there was a great demand for money in the Stock Exchange; nobody knew how it was; a person came and asked me whether I would lend money; I said "certainly." He said, "I will take £50,000 of you at 7 per cent." I was astonished; our rate of money was much below that; I said, "You shall have it." He came back for £50,000 more at 7 per cent. He afterwards came back for £100,000 at 8 per cent, and again came back for some at 8 per cent; I said, Sir, I am frightened, I do not know what this means." It afterwards turned out that there

had been a sudden withdrawal of money from the market, which created the immense pressure. I did lend a large sum at 8 per cent; I was afraid to go beyond; I did not know what was coming; but it is in the power of great capitalists to do that under a very low state of the circulating medium.

We have had an extraordinary amount of bullion arriving from Australia, and even from America, entirely beyond all calculation, coming from the bowels of the earth, which has kept us alive during this extraordinary demand upon us for war and other purposes. We have looked to the arrival of these vessels from Australia, as much almost as to anything else, to know whether we were safe in going on with our business. The destinies of the country seem to have hung on their arrival.

Commercial capital does not consist in money alone; capital is in a man's intelligence, in a man's stability of character, and a variety of things, which give him that position in the community which we call capital.

Capitalists avail themselves of these crises to make enormous profits out of the ruin of the people who fall victims to them. There can be no doubt about it.

DAYS OF GRACE ON COMMERCIAL PAPER.

A correspondent of the New York Evening Post furnishes the following information upon this subject :

In the following States of the Union it has been provided by statute that days of grace be allowed on bills of exchange payable at sight:-Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin.

In the following States, days of grace are allowed on bills of exchange payable at sight, although not enacted by statute-Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas.

In Louisiana a decision has been made in one of the inferior courts, allowing days of grace on sight bills, but the usage is to pay on presentation.

In Vermont and Connecticut days of grace are disallowed by statute on bills payable at sight.

In the following States, days of grace are not allowed on bills payable at sight, by the usage among banks and merchants, but no legal decisions have confirmed this usage law-Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee.

In Arkansas, the statute provides that "foreign and inland bills shall be governed by the law of merchants as to days of grace, protest, and notice."

THE STOMACH AND THE MIND.

Much of our conduct depends, no doubt, upon the character of the food we eat. Perhaps, indeed, the nature of our meals governs the nature of our impulses more than we are inclined to admit, because none of us relish well the abandonment of our idea of free agency. Bonaparte used to attribute the loss of one of his battles to a poor dinner, which, at the time, disturbed his digestion. How many of our misjudgments--how many of our deliberate errors

how many of our unkindnesses, our cruelties, our acts of thoughtlessness and recklessness, may be actually owing to a cause of the same character? We eat something that deranges the condition of the system. Through the stomachic nerve that derangement immediately affects the brain. Moroseness succeeds amiability; and under its influence we do that which would shock our sensibility at any other moment. Or, perhaps, a gastric irregularity is the common result of an over-indulgence in wholesome food, or a moderate indulgence in unsuitable food. The liver is afflicted. In this affliction the brain profoundly sympathizes. The temper is soured; the understanding is narrowed; prejudices are strengthened; generous impulses are subdued; selfishness, originated by physical disturbances which perpetually distract the mind's attention, becomes a chronic mental disorder; the feeling of charity dies out; we live for ourselves alone; we have no care for others. And all this change of nature is the consequence of an injudicious diet.

THE SOCIETY ISLANDS AND THEIR ORANGE TRADE.

Since the discovery of gold in California, a large trade in oranges has sprung up between that country and the Society Islands, where this delicious fruit grows in great profusion. Most of the oranges come from three islands of the group -Tahiti (where the French have a garrison,) Hauhina, and Roetea. About 5,000,000 of oranges are annually exported, for which about $7 50 per thousand is paid, delivered on board ship. The trade is in the hands of a few foreign merchants at Papute, in Tahiti, who take foreign goods in exchange for the fruit, which is gathered and brought to them by the natives. The oranges are passed down from the trees by youngsters, and gathered by the women into baskets made of the leaves of the cocoanut tree, and taken thence to the place at which the vessel is lying to receive them. There they are placed in a long thatched house, and when collected in sufficient numbers, are wrapped in leaves by the women. A smart woman will wrap 1,200 oranges in a day, by which she can earn about eighty cents. The fruit grows luxuriantly in every direction, in gulleys and ravines which run from the seaside up the steep mountains. The oranges grow wild, but the trees are claimed in districts by different natives, through hereditary descent. Before the California trade gave a special value to the fruit, it was free as water, and almost as common. The natives formerly made an intoxicating liquor, called orange rum, from it, but this practice is now given up. The orange season commences in February and ends in September, during which time the trees may be seen at once in the various stages of blossoming, green and half yellow, and ripe fruit. In the spring time the fruit is picked green; in the summer, half yellow, and in the fall full ripe, those being the conditions in which they are found by experience to keep best for exportation. California consumes nearly the whole crop of fruit.

WEIGHTS.

The standard of weights was originally taken from the ears of wheat, whence the lowest denomination of weights we have is still called a grain.

THE BOOK TRADE.

1.-Engineering Precedents of Steam Machinery; embracing the performances of steamships, experiments with propelling instruments, condensors, boilers, &c., &c. By B. F. ISHERWOOD, Chief Engineer United States Navy. 8vo., pp. 231. New York: Bailliere Brothers.

The contents of this work consist of several papers relating chiefly to boilers and fuel, though incidental subjects are treated as they arise in natural connection, and are accounts of experiments ordered by the United States Navy Department, and made by boards of naval engineers, of which the author was a member. The first paper describes the experiments made at the New York Navy Yard, to determine the comparative evaporative efficiencies of the hard, or anthracite, the Trevorton, semi-anthracite, and the Cumberland, semi-bituminous coals, the three kinds in general use for steam vessels and land engines in the United States. The third is taken up with an account of the experiments made with the Prosser boiler, as is the fourth and fifth with those patented by Messrs. Ellis and Chief Engineer D. B. Martin, United States Navy. The importance of this scientific analysis can readily be comprehended when the immense amount of coals consumed in generating steam is considered, and the saving which thereby can be attained by a correct knowledge of the relative value of each system through the aid of these experiments, which, bearing as they do the seal of the government, entitles them to the fullest confidence.

2.—Archaia; or, Studies of the Cosmogony and Natural History of the Hebrew Scriptures. By J. W. DAWSON, LL. D., F. G. S., author of "Acadian Geology," &c. 12mo., pp. 400. Montreal: B. Dawson & Son; also for sale by D. Appleton, New York.

This work is the production of a teacher of geology, and is the result of a close study of those parts of the Bible having to do with the creation, and the affinity or relation they bear to the geological theories held at the present day. To theologians and those in pursuit of the knowledge we have of God and his works, both natural and revealed, this is a very interesting as well as valuable book, being written in a clear and perspicuous style which readily presents to the mind of the reader the precise ideas of the author, free from all verbiage; presenting on the one hand to naturalists a summary of what the Bible does actually teach respecting the early history of the earth and man; and on the other a view of the points in which the teaching of the Bible comes in contact with natural science at its present stage of progress. Thoughtful, intelligent readers will find in this volume that which will repay them both the cost of the volume and the time spent in its perusal.

3.-Loss and Gain; or Margaret's Home. By ALICE B. HAVEN. 12mo. pp. 315. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

Embraces a most pleasing and instructive story. Its tone is spirited, and many of its passages sparkling. The authoress has a pen for the tender and sentimental, which, in some paragraphs, displays itself admirably, and, as a whole, is far above the average, both in point of moral and instruction, of the mass of publications of this sort.

4.-Earnest Bracebridge; or, School Boy Days. By W. H. G. KINGSTON. 12mo., pp. 344. Boston: Ticknor & Field.

Here we have a fine christmas present in a beautifully illustrated and earnestly written tale after the style of " School Days at Rugby." filled up with a venture, and told in that happy strain which is sure to enlist the attention of the young.