far north as 62°. Wheat can scarcely be grown with profit at 62°; and tobacco seldom thrives northward of Gefle, (60° 40'.) The oak does not grow spontaneously above Gefle, but when planted, thrives at Sundsvall, 62° 30';) it is, however, found about Grontheim, (63° 21',) near the Norwegian coast. Cherries and maple (acer platanoides) occur as high as 63°, ash and willow at 62°, and elm and linden at 61°. Beach woods are not found north of 57°, but single trees two degrees higher. The grape may be ripened in hot-beds at 60°. At 3,200 feet below the snow line, the spruce fir (gran) no longer grows, and the grayling is not found in the streams. The bear roams no higher; the blueberries do not thrive, and barley does not ripen. There are, however, humble human dwellings within 2,600 feet of the snow line, whose inhabitants live by fishing and grazing. The pine (pinus silvestris) ceases to grow at 2,800, and the birch at 2,000 feet below the limit of perpetual snow. The charr (salmo alpinus) is the only fish that exists in lakes at this latter elevation. Bushes, and dark thickets of dwarf-birch, (betula nana,); are met, and cloudberries ripen 400 feet higher. The glutton (mustela gulo) haunts these lofty regions. Above this, no bushes grow, and the brooks are fringed with brownish Alpine plants. No berry but the heath blackberry (empetrum nigrum) ripens, and higher than 800 feet below the snow line, the nomade Laplander scarcely pitches his tent. According to long-continued observations, taking the whole kingdom together, out of seven years, three yield good, and three indifferent crops; and, in one, there is a total failure. The following table shows the average yield of various crops, over and above the return of the seed, for the ten years between 1822 and 1832, and the estimate is certainly not above the truth: The increase of the population of Sweden, since 1751, is exhibited in the following table: In 1840, the population of the cities amounted to 303,146; that of the country to 2,835,741. The number of households was 585,706, averaging 5 persons each. In the country, every 39th person was a pauper; in the capital, every 21st, or 22d; in other cities, every 24th. The annual average mortality, for the whole kingdom, is 1 in 45; for Stockholm, 1 in 21; for all other cities, 1 in 33; and for the country, 1 in 473. In the time of Gustavus Vasa, Sweden exported breadstuffs and leather, and the export of breadstuffs in the reign of Gustavus Adolphus II., was computed by Oxenstjerna to amount to 168,000 barrels annually. On the other hand, the annual import from 1758 to 1776, was 315,000 barrels; from 1777 to 1790, 640,000; from 1791 to 1802, 366,000 barrels; from 1810 to 1816, 233,000. Sweden still imports many products which her own soil might well supply; such as horses, black cattle, swine, meats, butter, cheese, tallow, hides, flax, wool, &c.; but with regard to breadstuffs, the case is reversed, and in 1840, she exported 125,000 barrels; in 1841, 130,000; and in 1842, 113,000. According to the quinquennial report for 1842, the total mean annual crops of the five years next preceding, were (in barrels of 36.29 English gallons) as follows: Wheat. 240,085 Peas. Potatoes. Rye. From the same report, we give the number of domestic animals, as follows: The quantity of land in Sweden which is covered with timber, or suitable to its growth, is about 1,100 square miles, Swedish, (50,000 square miles, English ;) or, in round numbers, 25,000,000 tunland, (30,000,000 acres, English ;) and the annual consumption of wood and timber is estimated as follows: Fuel, at one fathom of 144 feet loose, or 100 feet solid measure, per head.. 375 lbs. Fathoms. 2,800,000 In the iron manufacture, 40 barrels (tunnor of 36.29 gal. Eng.) of char- 1,280,000 720,000 For distillation, at 1 fathom for 40 kannor, (23.04 Eng. gal,) for 22,000,000 kannor.... 550,000 Equal to cords English (740,740,740 cub. feet English)..... 5,787,038 The annual growth of wood and timber is variously estimated. A tunland (1,221 English acres) may support 500 trees of suitable size for cutting, averaging from 40 to 50 cubic feet each. The Swedish iron-masters find that they cannot take above one-half last of charcoal per tunland, annually, without injury to the forest-that is, six barrels, of 6 cubic feet each, or 37.8 cubic feet of coal (for which is required 48 cubic feet of wood) per tunland, equal to 54.27 cubic feet, English, per English acre; and this, of course, is the annual average growth of wood. General Akrell, in the illustrations to his map of the district of Westeras, calculates that a tunland will yield ten fathoms of wood every thirty-sixth year; and the Superintendent of that district, in his late Quinquennial Report, estimates that Ferr Forest yields at the rate of 6 barrels coal per tunland, annually. Chief Huntsman Segerdahl computes the aunual growth, per tunland, of birch, at 44 cubic feet; of oak, at 56; of larch, at 70; of spruce fir, (gran,) at 76; of aspen and willow, at 80. Behlen states that the pine, (tall, pinus silvestris,) is not fit for cutting in the north of Europe, before the age of 160, or 170 years; or, in some cases, 140. Art. IX.-" GRAY'S NATURE OF MONEY." FREEMAN HUNT, Esq., Editor of the Merchants' Magazine : DEAR SIR-I have read with great pleasure and profit the "Lectures on the Nature and Use of Money," by John Gray, Esq., delivered at Edinburgh, which you kindly furnished for my perusal. My views in relation to the soundness of his principles, and the truth of his theory, I prefer to postpone, till more thoroughly studied. Permit me, however, to suggest, that their publication as articles for your Magazine would, doubtless, meet the wishes of the author, and would prove highly interesting to your readers disposed to study the subject, MONEY. There is boldness and originality, with a tinge of egotism in the lectures -the former highly interesting, and the latter, to an American, unpleasant, but which may be quite consistent with the habit of his country. He convinces his reader that he is in earnest, is competent to the illustration of his subject, thoroughly satisfied of the truth of his principles, and is by no means sparing of the assumed errors of those, whose theories, it is the object of his lectures to attack and overthrow. His first and principal position is-"That man, collectively, should know no limit to his physical means of enjoyment, save those of the exhaustion either of his industry or of his productive powers: whilst we, by the adop tion of a monetary system, false in principle and destructive in practice, have consented to restrict the amount of our physical means of enjoyment to that precise quantity which can be profitably exchanged for a commodity, one of the least capable of multiplication by the exercise of human industry of any upon the face of the earth." His position in another form is, that the capacity of society for production is ample for the supply of all the wants of all its members; but by the adoption of gold as the medium of exchange, we are prevented from the free exchange of products, and hence the want and misery which exist. His next position is-and this he shows to be the positions of Mr. Mill and Mr. McCulloch-" That production can never be too rapid for demand. It never furnishes supply without furnishing demand, both at the same time and to the same extent." "It is clear, therefore, that a universally increased facility of production can never be the cause of a permanent overloading of the market." And that but for the defects of the monetary system in use, "Production would really and practically become the cause of demand—or, in other words, it would, speaking of aggregates, be precisely as easy to sell goods at a reasonable profit, as it is now to buy them at a reasonable price, and that ad infinitum." These are bold propositions truly; and now for the difficulty. The object of society is the production and exchange of values in all the variety of forms requisite to meet its wants. By the subdivision of labor its power Forst-und Jagd Zeitung for 1842, p. 134. is increased, and every subdivision increases the necessity of exchange; a medium of exchange is, therefore, the essential instrument of production equally as of consumption. If this is inadequate or incompetent, there can be no progress. Gold is assumed to be entirely incompetent to the end intended. It cannot be a medium of exchange, because its quantity is so nearly fixed that it cannot adapt itself to the increase of values. It can never measure values, because its relations to them is changed by every increase of their quantity. The increase of values, while measured and exchanged by gold, can, therefore, only proceed to show degrees, and then only with frequent suspensions, to give time for gold and values to adjust themselves to each other when the prospect may again commence, to be again interrupted. The remedy here the lecturer does not obtrude his plan as the only practicable or even the best. It is the best he has yet been able to devise; but having established his principle, he is quite content that a better plan than his shall be devised and adopted. The detail of his plan is too lengthy for my sheet, suffice it to say that it consists in the establishment of a money of credit, to be issued by the State, which it shall give to every holder of property in sums equal to the amount ready for sale, in the hands of its owner, where it is to remain for sale-without interest-and on security being given that the money of credit for which the property shall be sold, shall be returned to the State. This money of credit to be a legal tender for all transactions, and become the exclusive money of the nation, except the fraction of the pound, which are to be silver and copper, as at present. In the illustration of his theory of money, there are some ideas evolved which will be startling to our American ears. "Every shilling paid by the mercantile community of these realms to the Bank of England, Scotland, or Ireland, or to any other bank of issue, in the name of interest of money, is not merely so much money madly thrown away, but the act of paying it is a downright absurdity." This will hardly pass current in Wall-street; yet, perhaps, the street would be troubled to furnish logic sufficient to disprove his position. Mr. Gray is a thorough advocate of Free-trade, an admirer of Mr. Cobden, though he fully exposes his absurdity as a bullionist. He has also an ingenous method of dispensing with all the cumbrous machinery of excise and customs duties, and of collecting the revenue of Government in a manner highly simple and equitable, which would meet the views of the "Free-trade League." Yours truly, GEO. BACON. JOURNAL OF MERCANTILE LAW. THE ENGLISH LAW OF BILLS OF EXCHANGE, ETC. We commenced in this department of the Merchants' Magazine, March 1850, (vol. xxii. page 314,) the publication of a series of papers on the English Law of Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes, extracted from the London Bankers' Magazine, remarking at the time, that as the English Law on this subject was very generally referred to, and the decisions cited in most of our Courts, the transfer of the articles to our Journal would doubtless be acceptable to most of our commercial and legal readers. In that article, the first of the series, the points connected with form and requisites of bills, notes, and letters of credits are dis cussed, and the cases referring to the rights and liabilities of the different parties to these instruments are investigated. The second article of this series was published in the Merchants' Magazine for May, 1850, (vol. xxii., page 643.) It relates to the law of joint and several bills of exchange, and promissory notes, and foreign notes, and bills, as distinguished from inland bills. In the number for June, 1850, (vol. xxii., page 637,) we published the third of the series, touching some hints relating to the form of bills of exchange and promissory notes. We now find in the same Magazine for December, 1850, (pages 741 to 743,) a fourth paper, "on the effect which a Bill of Exchange has upon the debt or consideration for which it was given," which we here subjoin: ON THE EFFECT WHICH A BILL OF EXCHANGE HAS UPON THE DEBT OR CONSI DERATION FOR WHICH IT IS GIVEN. This is an important part of the law relating to Bills of Exchange, and involves points connected with the leading rights and liabilities of all the parties to such instruments. The general rule on the subject is, that, when a Bill of Exchange is given by one party and received by the other for and on account of a debt, such debt cannot be sued for during the currency of the bill. Simon v. Lloyd, 2 Compton, Meeson, and Roscoe, 187. In Chitty on Contracts, page 767, it is stated-" Until the bill has been dishonored the remedy for the debt is suspended, whether the instrument were payable to the creditor only, or be payable to him or order, and is therefore negociable." But this is not correct. The bill must be a negociable instrument to suspend the creditor's right to sue.This point arose and was discussed in the recent case of James v. Williams, 13 Meeson and Welsby's Report, 828. The facts are set forth in the judgment which we shall give at length, and it will be found to bear out the assertion that it is necessary the bill of exchange should be negociable in order to suspend the right of action for the consideration. 66 The following is the judgment of Mr. Baron Alderson in the case of James v. Williams above referred to. His Lordship said :— The counsel for the plaintiff in this case moved to enter the judgment non obstante veredicto, on the ground that the plea was bad. The plea stated that the defendant had delivered to the plaintiff certain bills of exchange, amounting to more than the sum of £100, which was the amount of the bill of exchange for which the action was brought, and also amounting to a large and sufficient sum for and on account of, among other things, the sum of money mentioned in the bill of exchange in question. Now the rule which is laid down in Kearslake v. Morgan, 5 Term Reports, 513, and which has been confirmed in modern cases in this court, is, that when bills of exchange are stated to have been delivered for and on account of a promissory note in the declaration, or of any other sum of money in the declaration mentioned, that then it is to be taken as a conditional payment. But that the rule is confined to negociable instruments alone; and it must appear on the face of the plea that the plaintiff took an interest in the negociable instrument. Now all that appears on the face of this plea is, that the defendant delivered these bills of exchange which are not stated to be negociable for and on account of the debt in the declaration. That is therefore no averment in the plea, which calls upon the defendant to show that these were negociable bills, and in the absence of that averment, or in the absence of any averment which makes it necessary for the defendant, in case any issue had been taken upon it, to have proved that fact, the plea is bad in substance; and though we agree in the view which Mr. Williams took in his argument, that you must give to every averment in the plea a sense, if it contains ambiguous words, which would make the plea good rather than bad, yet in this case there are no words tending to show that these bills of exchange were negociable, and consequently there are no words to which that principle can apply. We say nothing upon the question, whether or not the other words in the plea on which Mr. Williams relied would have done; but we entertain grave doubts whether the averment of the bills of |