people in a Congressional election-the candidates being both men of remarkable ability and energy, and the popular mind being, in that district, still under the strain of the excitement which swept over the country du ring the fall just passed. The contest resulted in the triumph of Mr. Seddon, who, contrary to the expectations of his most earnest and best informed friends, was elected by a handsome majority, in that decided federal district. Shortly after this election, Mr. S. was united in matrimony to Miss Sally, the daughter of the late James Bruce, Esq., of Halifax County, Va., a young lady distinguished for her excellent sense and information, and for possessing, in a high degree, those qualities which render the Virginian lady so eminently a lady. On repairing to Washington to take his seat in the House of Representatives, Mr. S. soon became known as one of the ablest defenders of that states-rights school of politics, of which Mr. Calhoun is recognized as the great leader. He took an active part in the ordinary business of legislation, and at the first session delivered the speech upon the contest for the seat from Florida, between Messrs. Brokenborough and Cabell, upon which the writer believes the result to have turned; the question having been settled in favor of Mr. B., the friend of our subject. Ere that session ended, Mr. Seddon also delivered a very effective speech upon "the bill to protect American citizens in Oregon," the question upon which the great Oregon debate transpired, in which he maintained with consummate ability the view of the Oregon question taken by those of his peculiar school of republicanism; throwing his weight against giving the notice for the termination of the joint occupation to Britain, of course. He also spoke at length on the revenue bill of 1846, taking the free trade ground, and arguing with equal power against the constitutionality and the expediency of the principle of protection. At the ensuing session, on the resolution of Mr. Davis, calling on the President for information concerning the establishment temporarily, of a civil government in Mexico, Mr. Seddon also addressed the House in an elaborate speech, in which he defended the action of the administration in this connection with convincing force; holding that the President had not overstepped the bounds of the legitimate authority over the conquered territory, which vested in him, under the laws of nations, ast the representative of the conquering government. The close of the Twenty-Ninth Congress, it will be remembered, found Mr. Calhoun and his friends arranged in some degree of hostility to the administration, growing out of their difference upon the Oregon question mainly. Though Mr. S. was well known at home to coincide with Mr. Calhoun in this interruption of cordial relations with the late President, so great was his personal popularity, that he was promptly re-nominated for Congress; the convention at the same time taking care to adopt a series of resolutions intended to intimate, that though preferring to adhere to him as their standard bearer, the Democracy of the district did not endorse his views wherein they conflicted with those of the mass of the party in Congress. On being notified of the action of the convention, Mr. Seddon promptly repaired before them, and delivered a speech of great power upon the points in issue between them, and announcing his sense of the obligations resting upon him, not to accept the nomination unless the convention would consent to re-consider their action upon the resolutions in question, which he regarded as leaving room for an implied censure upon his Con gressional course. As the feeling between the two wings of the party then ran very high in Virginia, the anti-Calhoun wing, which was as largely in the majority in the convention, as throughout the district and state, declined re-considering their course upon the points mooted; which compelled Mr. Seddon to decline. Mr. Walter D. Leake, of Goochland, having then been nominated in his stead, was beaten by Mr. Botts, by an overwhelming majority. During the term of this Congress, Mr. Seddon applied himself with renewed energy to the practice of his profession, though he was compelled by declining health to repair to the more genial clime of Louisiana, where he remained for a season, returning much invigorated. In the last Presidential canvass he was found battling for the Democracy, wherever, in Virginia, the fight was hottest, and shortly after its close he was again called on to represent his party, and defend their principles in the ensuing Congressional canvass, having been nominated by the district convention without even the form of an opposition. Having in this struggle to contend against two opponents, the Hon. J. M. Botts, and Charles Carter Lee, Esq., in place of one, he met them at various places, and discussed before the people, all the great questions dividing parties. Mr. Botts, it will be remembered, represented the Clay, or Ultra-Whig party, and Mr. Lee, the Taylor Whig interest in the district. This canvass ended in his election, by a majority over the vote for both his opponents combined, much to the surprise of the leaders of both parties in the state. Since the commencement of the present session, Mr. Seddon has only taken occasion to address the House once, in a speech on the action of the present executive in relation to California, in which he made what public men generally at Washington regard as the strongest argument as yet made in the House of Representatives, against the legality and propriety of the policy of the administration, with reference to the question of the State Government formed in California. The writer regrets that the too great length to which this sketch is already drawn, precludes him from quoting copiously from this effort, so replete with sound conservative states-rights doctrine-which should be inculcated into every American heart and nind, if we are destined still further to increase our territorial limits. As an orator, Mr. Seddon is as graceful and impressive in manner, as he is effective as a reasoner; while he speaks the English language with as much good taste and purity as he writes it; which is an accomplishment rarely possessed by our public men, he is by no means wanting in that fervor of expression, which is a most attractive feature of American oratory. No other member enjoys more of the respect and confidence of the House, without which, the brightest talents are of little avail in the Congress of the United States, for the defence of measures of great or small importance. As, according to the Virginia custom, the competent and improving member is required to serve his district for many years, his character as a man, and a states-rights republican of the first order of ability, will probably secure to Mr. Seddon a long continuance in public life; until, indeed, his reputation shall become as firmly established throughout the Union, as it is in his own state, where the standard, by which statesmen are tried, is proverbially high. (TO BE CONTINUED.) FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW. MONEY has continued very abundant during the month, although a more active demand has sprung up, and the quantity of good paper offering has increased. The "lines" of the chartered banks are full, but they discount freely their receipts. The supplies of specie, the aspect of exchanges, with the general prospect abroad, are such as to encourage confidence and enterprise. Out of doors the supply of first-class paper is not large, but less known paper is abundant. The demand for the former is equal to the supply, very little goes better than 7 per cent.; short dates, 6 a 8 per cent.; long 8 a 12; on stocks at call, 4 a 6 per cent. The supply of Eastern corporation paper is large; railroad acceptances 8 a 10 per cent. The exchange market was active and the remittances large, but the supply of bills very considerable, and the rates closed at a decline. The larger portion of the sales were at 8↓ a 81⁄2, but good produce bills were had at 7 per cent., while leading drawers asked 84. Francs were less firm at 5 30 a 5 324; guilders 391 a 391; rix dollars, 77§ a 77; Marcs Banco, 34 a 35. The amount of stocks remitted has been quite large, and it is a feature of those remittances that they go direct to the Continent in fulfilment of special orders for investment. The political clouds that begin again to gather, admonish the sagacious of safe investments. The amount of specie in the Assistant Treasury has reached 4,386,240, but the amount in bank vaults does not diminish. At the Philadelphia mint gold certificate No. 585 is payable. All mines seem to be prolific. The amount of silver, in bars and coins, exported from Mexico last year, was $30,000,000, most of which went to England, and was thence exported to the Continent-a very considerable proportion going into the vaults of the Bank of France, swelling the reserve to an unusual amount. It is now two years since the gold productions of that wonderful country were first discovered, and about one since any considerable quantities reached this market. At that time the excitement ran very high, and the wildest expectations were indulged as to the receipts and their probable effects upon this market. The lapse of a year has somewhat sobered the views of the most sanguine, although the first accounts of the abundance of the metals are not only confirmed but known to have been slightly under-estimated. It is a singular fact, however, that abundant as the gold undoubtedly is, that the hardships of obtaining it and the hazards of the climate which surround it, counteract in a very great degree the eagerness with which it is sought. A large amount of capital in various shapes, has left the Atlantic States, in the possession of many thousand people, and the reflux of the tide has now commenced in something like earnest. The following official returns will show the degree in which the receipts of the metals increase at the mint. The gold first received at the mint was via Boston, in Dec. 1848, and the progress has been as follows: The increase is very rapid; thus, in the last two and a half months, nearly one half the only amount officially reported at the mints has come to hand. It has been estimated that an amount equal to at least one third of this sum is in private hands, not yet sent to the mint in consequence of the great delay which the operation of assay and coinage requires. The receipts in the United States are therefore in round numbers $15,000,000, of which nearly one half, say $7,000,000, has been realized since January. When we reflect that this specie is a direct addition to the money of the country, and not consumable goods, liable to be eaten and drank and wore out, as is the case with most all other productions received in exchange for our products-that it is a permanent creation of wealth—we are to consider that its continuance will soon produce very marked consequences. Notwithstanding the large importations of merchandize for the spring trade, the disposition to hold domestic goods, the demands for public works, the amounts absorbed in cotton, coffee, tobacco and linseed oil, together with the manifest speculation in real estate and the incipient movement in stocks, capital continues at this moment unusually abundant in quantity and low in rent. This extraordinary state of affairs evinces, in connection with the large demands which have been made upon New York for capital in the last five years, a very rapid accumulation of means. The demands of the Government for means with which to prosecute the Mexican war, fell to a very considerable extent upon New York city, and the stock so issued has since concentrated rapidly at this point, as seen in the following figures: Principal held.... Interest paid..... Jan. 1849. July, 1849. Jan. 1850. $35,108,170 .1,013,331 A portion of this interest is paid here on foreign account; but in a single year it will be seen over eleven millions will be drawn to this point. The demands for capital for other purposes have also been very unusual in the past five years, more particularly for building ships, houses and railroads. For the latter item, some $35,000,000 has been paid, mostly to the Hudson and Erie roads. The following table will show the number of houses and the tonnage built in NewYork for two periods of five years, together with the taxes paid and immigrants arrived: The style of houses and stores built latterly much exceeds in costliness that of former years, and it is probable that, although convenient houses, with the "improvements," can be built for less money than formerly in respect of showiness, yet the average cost is higher. Of the 1495 houses built in 1849, only 81 were less than two stories. At an average cost of $2,500 each, the cost for the five years would be $20,997,500. The tonnage built in the city may be averaged at the rate of $50, although some of it cost $100 per ton. At this rate for five years, the capital so absorbed would be $11,306,350. These two items will be $32,303,850, which, added to the $70,000,000 loaned the Government and railroads, makes $102,038,350 converted into fixed capital in five years, leaving floating capital more abundant than ever, while the taxes on this capital, it would appear, have doubled. It has also been the case that a demand equal to $10,000,000 for capital for California has been felt. Thus, at the latest dates there were in San Francisco 117,000 American tons. Of this, probably, 90,000 was from New-York. The old packet Oxford, 752 tons, lately sold for that market for $25,000, or $30 per ton, at which rate the whole tonnage would be $2,700,000, and the cargoes would be worth, probably, $9,000,000, making $11,700,000; but, inasmuch as nearly that sum has been received in gold, the capital has been replaced, while most of the ships will return. This great improvement in our means may be attributed, first, to a complete recovery from that speculative fever which in former years induced people to trade and consume rather than to labor and produce. There has been in the last five years a larger number of people productively employed in the United States than ever before, and their productions have profitably accumulated in the cities. These productions have been aided by the capital brought by immigrants from Europe. Of these there arrived of aliens at the port of New-York, in 1839, 220,788; of these, the commissioners report 36,000 as paupers, leaving 184,788 possessed of means. A number of these were doubtless assisted by friends already here. It may be estimated that 150,000 had an average of $100 each, making $15,000,000, or, for the five years, 600,000 persons, with $60,000,000, of which a considerable portion was expended along the great avenues leading to the West. It has also been the case that less capital has been lost by means of reckless credits to non-producers than formerly. The whole machinery of credit of those years was a severe tax upon active capital. At least $100,000,000 was spent in the establishment of banks that were to pay enormous dividends. Among the most gratifying changes which have been made in respect of the employment of capital, is to be considered the progress which manufactures, particularly of cotton, are making in the southern and western country. In former years, capital ran into banks, which only promoted speculation and extravagance; it is now more directly employed in productive purposes. Within the last twenty years a complete change has taken place in the economy and facility with which coal-engendered steam can be applied to manufacturing purposes. In that period, not only have improvements in the "science of the steam-engine" enabled the engineer to extract double the motive power for the same quantity of fuel, but discoveries of the supplies of the latter and the means of transporting it have reduced its cost one-half, thereby placing four times the power at the command of the manufacturer from a given expense of fuel, This great change in the motive power has been accompanied by others of an important character in all that appertains to "mills ;" and the result is, that "mill sites" and "water power," which once were considered indispensable to successful operations, gradually fell in importance to the level of steam, and have now so far sunk below it as to make the latter in almost all cases preferable. At the first glance, it would seem to be of little importance to the public at large, whether steam or water drove its mills; but a little reflection shows it to be of the first importance. With water-power, New-England possesses in its tumbling streams, amid sterile and profitless acres, not only immense wealth, but a monopoly so rigid as to compel the transportation of the raw material from the most distant points to its seaports, to be conveyed by its railroads to the favorable points whence the goods are to be conveyed thousands of miles for consumption. The expense of all this was the tribute paid by the consumers to the industry of New-England, put in motion by its "water power." She was not, however, satisfied that her ships enjoyed the freights and her merchants the profits; but she wished to add still more to her manufacturing gains, by excluding foreign competition by means of a high tariff. Her evidently increasing wealth stimulated emulation, and the discovery of almost numberless coal-beds throughout the country, at a moment when the capacity of these to rival "water power" became manifest, produced a new era in the manufacturing history of the country. Factories are now not confined to certain streams, where villages and towns must be built up to shelter the operatives. They can be erected almost at any point or in any city where labor is abundant, waiting to be employed. To the infinite horror of the manufacturing monopolists, "the loom is coming to the side of the crop" in a manner which they little anticipated, when they employed their long-eared trumpeters to preach the necessity of it. A large quantity of the outlay of manufacturing capiital, and consequently of the expense of production, was applied to the construction of dwellings for operatives, since none but these required them in the neigh |