purchases, or has prevented an extension of sale that might otherwise have been attained.

In regard to pickled fish, the worst evil, probably, is in regard to the inspection. The abuses in the cull and brand of mackerel have been so great, that pickled fish from the United States have suffered much disrepute in foreign ports, where buyers have often been subjected to heavy loss, by giving too much credence to the brand. The same has happened, too, within the country, until the evil has gone so far, and proved so vexatious, that no attention is now paid to the mark. If a merchant in Philadelphia buys a lot of mackerel in Boston, a reinspection must be made for his own satisfaction. Of course most of the mackerel packed or repacked in the United States, are inspected in Mas-achusetts. The laws of that State regarding the inspection are very deficient, and much devolves on the judgment and tact of the Inspector General of pickled fish. The individual who for a number of years previous to the last, held that office, in that State, was entirely incompetent to his duty, and nothing like a system was ever sustained, or apparently thought about during his administration. To the complaints of his deputies and the fishermen on one hand, and the merchants of New York and Philadelphia on the other, continually in his ears, he was either stupidly silent or peevishly irritable. At length annoyance on one hand, and persuasions elsewhere, induced him to resign, when candidates for the office, eminently qualified, and strongly supported by merchants, fishermen, and others desirous of a reform, came forward from Barnstaple, Wellfleet, Newburyport, and other fishing towns. But Governor Boutwell saw fit to overlook them all, with the body entire of their supporters, and to confer the office on a Boston Lawyer, a gentleman whose sole motive in seeking it was doubtless the expected emolument, and who is as well qualified, probably, for the office as either of his competitors would be, as a Boston paper remarks, for a seat on the Supreme Bench of the State. The new inspector will, perhaps, perform all the duties discharged by the late one, if he makes it a study to see how often he can find authority to reappoint his deputies in all the seaports of the State, so as to realize as much as possible from the $5 per head appointing commission; and how much individual and family speculation can be built up and protected by a shrewd exercise of inspectorial power. It is time, seriously, for the Legislature of Massachusetts to revise the laws of that State in relation to fish inspection, and more than all, to revise and reform the custom which has prevailed, rather than system, for some years past. Let us see what has been done, and how it has been done, and let some method be devised that will better these things; or if that is impossible, let the whole humbug of inspection pass away as soon as possible.

But whatever may be done in the case depending upon the action of a legislature, and of commissioned executive officiality, we hope in the other case, an improvement will be made, as it is in the hands of those whose interests are affected. "Salt is good," but how shall fish be made saleable and eatable if oversalted? The reform suggested, is almost the only mea sure left that promises efficient results. Of increased duties upon the importation of foreign fish there can now be little hope, and were they raised again to the standard of the tariff of 1842, they would prove inefficient, the colonists having now gained that start, and acquired that experience, knowledge of their own resources and our abilities, self-reliance, and ambition, which will enable them in almost any event short of a prohibition to our

markets, to be successful competitors. At any rate, they cannot be deprived by any action of our government, of the hold they have acquired in the foreign markets, and even a prohibition would, therefore, but half cure the evil. Our only resource is to endeavor to equal or excel our rival in the quality of our article. It will not do at all to go on in the old way. If we do the result is certain. Defeat, total and irremediable-to be driven out neck and heels with utter rout and confusion, from the pursuit we have followed and flourished in for two hundred years! One source of our popular income completely and forever cut off! One" occupation gone!" Our treaties with England, primary and re-definitive, to secure which we had so much hard and memorable negotiation, and risked so much in one instance (the peace of 1783) a dead letter! Our fishing vessels turned into the coasting trade, to diminish the profits of those already engaged in it-or allowed to rot at the wharves. And our land occupations overfilled by the continual labors of those, who, at most, worked in them before but half of the year! Or, to prevent this evil, our fishing towns deserted, and the demi-citizens of the ocean emigrating to the "Far West," to manipulate with strange implements the valley of the Ohio; and to search in the earth for the bulbs, having, perhaps, in their estimation, some affinity to the products of the sea, but found in so different a place, and caught in so different a manner !

Let our fishermen be awake, and adapt themselves to the circumstances existing, and those yet to come. In the present case, the British fish are preferred, because they deserve to be preferred by all sensible people-and as much here as anywhere, for our people are not patriotic enough to encourage home industry by eating chips and bones when they can as well, and as cheaply, have wholesome and palatable food. The reform proposed is easily made. Our fishermen kuow as well as the "Dagoes" and " Bluenoses," how to prepare fish well. They have as good judgment, as much skill, and as much understanding of the taste of fish-eaters the world over. Let the article be properly treated in the vessel, and nobody can doubt that the curing will be quite as perfect on our fine brush flakes as on the bare rocks and sands of Newfoundland and Prince Edward's.

The facts we have stated relating to the depression of the fishing interest, are no less true because there is no vehement outcry from the classes interested, and no less deserving attention from the nature of any one of the causes, if they are what we have stated them. Those engaged in some employments under circumstances of equal discouragement, would no doubt raise a bigger clamor. There certainly are now interests suffering far less, which, as the delegated, sometimes the paid, representatives of which make complaints far more piteous, and are regarded as eminently needful of sympathy from the people, and corresponding sympathetic legislation from Congress. But fishermen are not the class to besiege the doors, and distract the ears of legislatures, with cries for relief-they do not set afloat schemes for revising and reorganizing tariffs-they do not attempt, by corrupt bargaining, and log-rolling plots, to effect the enactment of special privileges to themselves-they have no bawling agents and traveling emissaries, skilled in political tactics, and fed by contributions, to take care of their concerns— they have never learned the habit of looking to the law as the source of production. The sturdy independence of character nurtured on the ocean, repels every such reliance, leaving to others to learn from experience the futility of all hope so conceived. What encouragement is voluntarily offered them they gladly accept; but they waste little time and effort in endeavors

to secure more. Their hardy energies are reserved for trial with the winds and tempests of the ocean; they seek the bounties of the great deep, and if it give generously to their solicitations, they will freely give up to others whatever may be caught with the bait of metropolitan influence.

Art. III-A NATIONAL CURRENCY-REAL ESTATE ITS BASIS.

NUMBER 11.

FREEMAN HUNT, Esq., Editor Merchants' Magazine :

In the October number of the Merchants' Magazine I contributed an article with the above title upon the subject of Banks, Specie and the Currency, wherein I sought to elucidate a favorite, though novel theory. I endeavored to expose the fallacy of the omnipotence of gold and silver as a medium of exchange, contending, that as ultimates, they were incapable and insufficient to answer the requirements of business. With an earnest conviction of the truth of my position I deprecated the present banking system as pregnant with evil, and urged its speedy abandonment as the only means of guarding the commercial world from periodical panics and alarms. For the justice of my reasoning, I appealed to the experience of the last quarter of a century, and truthfully demonstrated the baleful influence of these money-making machines.

The prerogative of creating equivalents is a sacred and responsible one, and should be delegated to the wisest and best. To the aggregate worth and intelligence of the community, as represented in the sovereign authority of the State, should alone repose the high and honored attribute of creating money. Entertaining these views I foreshadowed in the article referred to, a plan of State issues based upon the values of the nation, and redeemable, not in the arbitrary material called gold and silver, alike insufficient and incapable from its limited capacity and quantity, but in the farm and homestead these State issues were created to represent.

The promise written upon the face of bank paper is a mere fiction, and the theory of its having a metallic basis is an exploded humbug beneath the dignity of controversy. But the promises of the State made in behalf of its people, and issued to represent the property of that people, will not be impeached, every dollar of issue being but the figure of an intrinsic reality which is always ready for the hour of redemption. No theory heretofore broached by financier or legislator ever had in view such perfect and complete security as that system proposes. The specific guaranties are present and in possession before an issue is made. A specific bond and mortgage on specific property constitutes the basis of every issue, and no change of government nor overthrow of rulers, anarchy, or revolution, can affect or impair them. Convertible into all the essential elements of wealth, how superior such a redemption to the symbol only of the reality!

Money is merely designed and intended to facilitate the exchange of commodities too permanent or cumbrous to be passed from hand to hand, and in the fulfillment of this function it is of little moment as to the material of which it may be composed. The superiority of paper or parchment over every other fabric, from the facility of transit and count, is unquestioned

at this day. The experience of every hour attests this truth, and it only needs the signet of sovereignty and the assurance of government, which alone should create it, that among its archives are recorded the values which stand pledged for its redemption, to command for it universal confidence and circulation co-ordinate with specie. That it already meets the approval and approbation of all but those fiscal inquisitors sitting in the pride of stately nothingness over the fortunes and destiny of Commerce, the signs around me are too significant to doubt. Exercising powers derived from the legislation of a dark period, unblessed with even the rudiments of fiscal science, unlearned and unlettered in the theory of the currency, and guided by no lights of their own, they

"Grope their dull way on,

By the dim twinkling light of ages gone."

66

I am aware that I will shock the gray-haired ideas of the past, but my mission is innovation, and the organ of veneration is not large. I confess no reverence for the errors of by gone days and I could never learn to appreciate what the world terms " time-honored usages." Perchance this erratic and wanton fancy of mine, not content to travel the shadows of the valley, would fain soar to mountain altitudes, from whence it can descry the dawn whilst yet the unwakened world lies dark beneath." The twilights of the past no longer avail as guides for us whose ideas ever float on the stream of the future, anticipating aud foreshadowing each day's revelation. In this century of progress the mind has no limit to its vast conceptions. The most striking phrenological development in the American character, is the organ of ideality, and its controlling influence over every other development is manifested in the yearning thought, the bold conception, the speculative research, the grasping of the reality ere the shadow is defined! It has bridged the sea, it has channeled the desert, it has tunneled the mountain. It has linked in silent converse the far extremes of our stretching territory, and annihilated space. It hails from the snow crests of Nevada, and the granite cliffs of the Atlantic in an instant respond, as the electric wires in a nameless accent record an answering salutation, and it puffs its own renown as the whistling engine speeds over the iron roads of Russia and Austria, with "Norris of Philadelphia" on its side. Our pathways are our own, we pio

neer the world!

With such prerogatives of greatness and such honored distinctions we need not envy Europe the possession of the deceptive symbol of wealth which a darkling age seeks to treasure up. For these blessings we will gladly exchange the shining scales of our mountain streams, and sail each ocean latitude for golden continents to dazzle the dotard vision of the old world!!

And what are the grand results which flow from such an erroneous estimate of this symbol of wealth? The iron heel of tyranny is planted upon progress, and oppression's enervating shackles fetter the energies of downtrodden masses. Cloistered vaults teem with gold and silver, whilst acres are untilled, and famished thousands idle on the highways for want of harrow and ploughshare to cultivate the land! Turn to the mass of Europe, and from the Neva to the Adriatic, the mind sickens at the spectacle haggard humanity presents! Enterprise, prosperity, and every ennobling impulse are alien terms, whilst hunger, rage, and fury make volcanoes of cities whose swelling thunder grape-shot and bayonet can scarcely stifle!

Amazement silences the voice of declamation when I think of the woeful

misapprehension which exists on the subject of the currency. When men, or those who have the figure and the name of men, discourse of the terrible consequences which will result to the country from the shipment of coin; when the query, within the capacity of every school boy to answer, would solve the problem, "Is there nothing received in exchange for these dollars we send abroad?" A novice in fiscal science would give an answer which might mantle with a blush such hoary ignorance. Assuredly each dollar thus sent abroad returns to us in a thousand untold and unseen ways enriching, refining, and embellishing, by science and art, each homestead of our land. It has aided in building our cities, and the stately palaces and towering blocks which adorn them! It has developed the resources of our vast interior, and planted the harvest field where the prairy grass grew! It has builded our iron ways, excavated our inland channels and penetrated our hills! It has covered the ocean with our steamers, whose dusky forms paddle the waters of every latitude from the Polar to the Indian sea, and modelled that little craft to outsail the chanuel's pride, and to draw forth the bravos of the vanquished as the applauding peal announced the triumph of the America!

These are some of the great results which have flown to us from the exchange we have made. Yet the Solons of the bank parlor are startled from their propriety when the official bulletin gives publicity to the specie manifest of steamer or packet! It is fresh in our memory, and its recall at this time may give force to the seeming novelty of our views, as an evidence of the baleful and pernicious consequences resulting from the obligation of a gold and silver redemption, that the banks in 1837, when seeking the sanction of the community to gloss over the disgrace of a suspension, promised an immediate relief of the money market! In plain English, that they, the banks, the depositories of the only medium of exchange, would disgorge; and permit the public to have, what they, the banks, were expressly created to furnish, a medium by which the community would be enabled to cancel mutual indebtedness without the necessity of the grocer transferring his wares to the crockery man, and the tailor his to the shoemakers!

I am aware that it might be said that it is at the volition of the public that the banks thus retain in their possession four-fifths of the medium of exchange. I shall not attempt to gainsay so plain a truth. But is it not the result of fear which prompts the merchant and trader to keep large balances lest they find no favor at the discount board? A strange volition if this be true, and who will gainsay it? It is daily history! If I err not, it is an indispensable requisite toward the procurement of accommodations. It is the barometer of favor. How palpable the viciousness of such a system!

But why the promise of an easy money market in 24 hours after the suspension? Plainly that the banks, relieved of the obligation to redeem their notes in gold and silver, would let their issues circulate. I never could see the wisdom of compelling a redemption in a material so circumscribed in quantity as to preclude fiscal agents from providing Commerce with a sufficient medium to answer the requirements of business. If the symbol be so highly prized, why cannot the reality secure a kindred and an equal estimation. The banks had other values, and no one questioned their ability to meet their engagements! The whole error arises from the overweening and fanatical est mation given to gold and silver, making ultimates of a material limited in quantity, insufficient and incapable, and requiring Commerce to