rection concentrical to the object, a wider field of vision is commanded.

REMARKS. In the manner of the present experiment, the first twelve of the preceding experiments, and many others, may be performed by transmitted light, by means of objects perforated in thin sheet-lead and adapted to the socket of a scioptic ball, or similar opening in a window-shutter; and these experiments differ from the former principally in the circumstances of superior brilliancy of the spectra and the inverted order of their colors.

To describe all the experiments of which this instrument is capable would be impossible; the foregoing are, however, sufficient to-illustrate its powers, and to conduct to others. What is here performed by the refraction of lenticular prisms may be also accomplished by the reflection of similar mirrors; add to which the other figures of the lenticular prisms before indicated, and a similar variety of annular prisms, and the variation of which the chromascope is susceptible, from the simple hand-glass to its combination with other optical instruments, and a new and wide field is opened for dioptrical experiment, adapted equally to instructive amusement and the advancement of science.

Upon the whole it has appeared, that whether we examine colors experimentally by the composition of the inherent or reflected colors of pigments, or by the transient or refracted colors of the prism they still present the same uniform relations; such also is the result of a like investigation of the transmitted colors of transparent liquids, by an instrument constructed for the purpose, of hollow glass wedges, filled with colored liquids, and graduated so as to denote the quantity of color in the light transmitted at each division of the wedges. By means of this instrument we are enabled to compound braids of colored light in an achromatic or neutral state, and at the same time to determine numerically the quantity of each primary, &c. which enters into the composition of the colorless ray. We are enabled by the same instrument to ascertain the proportion of each of the primaries which constitute any given hue, shade, or tint of color, &c. and have therefore denominated it a chromameter or color-gauge, of which only by the way, having already protracted these remarks, &c. beyond the proper limits of an Appendix.

OF

THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY,

IN OBEDIENCE TO A RESOLUTION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF 1st MARCH, 1819,

TRANSMITTING STATEMENTS

IN RELATION TO THE CONDITION OF THE

BANK OF THE UNITED STATES

AND ITS OFFICES;
;

ALSO STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO THE SITUATION OF THE DIFFERENT

CHARTERED BANKS

IN THE DIFFERENT STATES, AND THE DISTRICT
OF COLUMBIA, &c.

NOW FIRST PRINTED IN THIS COUNTRY.

LONDON:

A

REPORT,

&c. &c.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

12th February, 1820.

SIR: In obedience to a resolution of the House of Representatives, passed on the 1st of March, 1819, directing "the Secretary of the Treasury to transmit to Congress at an early period in the next session, a general statement of the condition of the Bank of the United States and its offices, similar to the return made to him by the Bank; and a statement exhibiting as nearly as may be practicable, the amount of capital invested in the different chartered banks in the several states and the district of Columbia, the amount of notes issued by those banks and in circulation, the public and private deposits in them, the amount of loans and discounts made by them, and remaining unpaid, and the total quantity of specie they possess; and also to report such measures as, in his opinion, may be expedient to procure and retain a sufficient quantity of gold and silver coin in the United States, or to supply a circulating medium, in place of specie, adapted to the exigencies of the country, and within the power of the government:" I have the honor to submit the subjoined report and statements.

Statement A exhibits the condition of the Bank of the United States and its offices, on the 30th of September, 1819.

Statement B exhibits the amount of bank capital authorised by law, during the years 1814, 1815, 1816, and 1817. As this

statement is founded upon the applications made to the Treasury under the acts imposing stamp duties, it is believed to be substantially correct. The average dividends upon which the stamp duty was paid, during those years, amounted to about 7 per cent. upon the nominal amount of capital; it is, however, a matter of general notoriety, that the dividends upon bank capital, actually paid, exceeded that rate. If it is assumed, that the dividends declared and upon which the duty was paid, amounted, during those years, to 10 per cent., then the capital actually paid in the year 1817, instead of being more than 125,000,000 dollars, as it is exhibited in statement B, will be found to be about 94,000,000 dollars; but, when it is recollected that after the first payment required by the charters of the different banks, they have generally gone into operation, it is probable that a considerable proportion of the remaining payments have added nothing to their active capital. This fact being assumed, and a deduction being made of the amount of permanent accommodation enjoyed by the stockholders, in their respective banks, the active bank capital of the United States may be fairly estimated at a sum not exceeding 75,000,000 dollars. That these deductions ought to be made, in an attempt to ascertain the real amount of bank capital, cannot, it is presumed, be contested. If a stockholder to the amount of 10,000 dollars has a permanent accommodation in the bank of 8,000 dollars, he has, in fact, but 2,000 of capital in the bank. This is equally true when a portion of his subscription has been paid with his own note, however well indorsed: so long as the note remains unpaid, it adds nothing to the real capital of the bank.

Such, it is believed, has been the process by which the capital of most of the banks has been formed, which have been incorporated since the commencement of the late war. Since that period, banks have been incorporated, not because there was capital seeking investment; not because the places where they were established had commerce and manufactures which required their fostering aid; but because men without active capital wanted the means of obtaining loans, which their standing in the community would not command from banks or individuals having real capital and established credit. Hence, the multiplicity of local banks, scattered over the face of the country, in particular parts of the Union; which, by the depreciation of their paper, have levied a tax upon the communities within the pale of their influence, exceeding the public contributions paid by them.

Statement C presents the condition of the state banks from which returns have been received, or have been transmitted by the Secretaries of State of different states, in conformity with the request of the Treasury Department. By comparing this statement with statement B, it will be perceived that it is very imper