Pica," without charge, a sufficient quantity for the agriculture of the country; but the government is very careful to prevent any portion of it being exported. The following is a translation of the provisions of the "commercial regulations" of Peru in relation to this subject. (See dispatch No. 98, April 18, 1852.)

CHAPTER 1, ARTICLE 14. "It is not permitted to anchor in any of the anchorages at the islands the property of the republic, without a written license from the government."

ART. 15. "Vessels which load with guano for abroad will do so only at the Islands of Chincha. Those loading it for the agriculture of the country will take it from Pabellon Pica,' or from the said island."

CHAP. 14. "Exportation."

ART. 114. Guano can only be exported in vessels chartered by the government or its agents."

CHAP. 23. "Confiscations, fines, and other penalties."

ART. 213. 66 Vessels anchoring at the anchorages of the islands the property of the republic, shall be confiscated, and if, besides, guano should be found on board, their captains and crews shall be delivered over to justice, to be tried as guilty of robbery."

See also the decree of Don Manuel Menendez, Acting-President of Peru, of the 21st of March, 1842, for the stringent formalities to be observed by Peruvian vessels going to the Chinchas or "Pabellon Pica," to load guano for the agriculture of the country. (Document to dispatch No. 114, dated October 25, 1852.)

A reference to my dispatches, Nos. 159, 164, 172, 187, 240, and 255, will show still further that no favors are granted in the exportation of guano from Peru to other nations not enjoyed by the United States. You will perceive, therefore, that the representation made to the Department, mentioned in dispatch No. 45, is entirely erroneous, and must have originated in mere rumor.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

To Hon. Wм. L. MARCY, Secretary of State.

J. RANDOLPH CLAY.

NEW ORLEANS HARBOR REGULATIONS.

The following is a correct copy of the several sections of an act to establish a Board of Harbor-Masters for the port of New Orleans, passed at the last session of the Legislature of Louisiana, and approved by the Governor, March 20, 1856. All laws contrary to the provisions of this act, and all laws on the same subject matter, except what is contained in the Civil Code and Code of Practice, are repealed :-

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A BOARD OF HARBOR-MASTERS FOR THE PORT OF NEW ORLEANS.

SECTION 1. That the act entitled "An Act to Regulate and Define the Duties of Harbor-Masters," approved 15th March, 1855, be and the same is hereby repealed.

SEC. 2. That the Governor shall nominate, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and appoint five harbor-masters, who shall constitute and be known as the Board of Harbor-Masters for the port of New Orleans, and whose term of office shall be two years: provided, however, that the Governor shall have the power to remove from office any of said harbor-masters upon satisfactory proof made to him of negligence, incapacity, or official misconduct.

SEC. 3. That each of said harbor-masters shall give bond, payable to the Governor and his successors in office, with two sufficient sureties, in the penal sum of twenty-five hundred dollars, conditioned for the faithful performance of the duties required of him by law.

SEC. 4. That said harbor-masters, under the rules and regulations to be established by the Board, shall have authority to regulate and station all vessels in the stream of the river Mississippi, within the limits of the port of New Orleans, and at the levees thereof, and remove from time to time such vessels as are not employed in receiving and discharging their cargoes, to make room for such others as require to be more immediately accommodated, for the purpose of receiving or discharging their cargoes; and as to the fact of any vessel being fairly and bona fide employed in receiving or discharging, the said harbor-masters are constituted the sole judges. And further, the harbor-masters shall have authority to determine how far and in what instances it is the duty of the masters and others having charge of ships and vessels to accommodate each other in their respective situations; and if any master or other person shall oppose or resist any harbor-master in the execution of the duties of his office, he shall for each offense forfeit and pay the penal sum of fifty dollars, to be sued for by the treasurer of the Charity Hospital of the city of New Orleans, for the use of said hospital: provided, however, that if any person shall consider himself aggrieved by the decision of any individual harbor-master, he shall be at liberty to appeal to the Board, and their concurrence shall be given thereto before such decision is carried into effect.

SEC. 5. That the Board of Harbor-Masters shall have power to demand and receive from the commanders, owners, or consignees, or either of them, of every vessel that may enter the port of New Orleans and load, unload, or make fast to the levee within the said limits, at the rate of two cents per ton, to be computed from the tonnage expressed in the registers of such vessels respectively, and no more. This shall not extend to chalands, flats, keel-boats, steamboats, or other vessels which are employed in the river trade, unless, upon the application of the person having charge of such chaland, flat, keel-boat, steamboat, or other vessels so employed, the harbor-master shall interfere and adjust any difference respecting the situation or position of such flat or boat, which difference the harbor-masters are authorized to hear and determine; in which case they may demand and receive from the party in default in the premises the sum of two dollars for every difference so adjusted, and no more.

SEC. 6. That it shall also be the duty of the said harbor-masters to superintend and enforce all laws of this State, and all laws of the city of New Orleans, for the preventing and removing of all nuisances whatsoever in or upon the levee of the city.

SEC. 7. That the said Board of Harbor-Master shall keep an office in a central part of the city, and may appoint such clerks and deputies as they think proper, but the deputies and clerks shall take an oath to perform truly and faithfully the duties imposed on the harbor-masters, and the said harbor-masters shall be responsible for their acts.

THE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP LAW.

Our attention has been directed to the fact that the Legislature of New York had under consideration, at its last session, an amendment of the Limited Partnership Law. It did not pass-for want of time, we presume. The proposed amendment meets, we believe, the approbation of merchants and business men very generally. There seems to be no good reason against the adoption of the bill reported. Many capitalists are now prevented from investing money in business as special partners, because they cannot take any part in the management of the business without becoming general partners. The present amendment is intended to obviate this difficulty. The bill is as follows:

SECTION 1. The 3d, 17th, and 23d sections of title 1, of chap. 4, of part ii., of the Revised Statutes are hereby amended so that the same, respectively, shall read as follows:

SEC. 3. The special partners may take part in the management and conduct of the business of the partnership, but only the general partners shall be authorized to sign for the partnership, and to bind the same.

SEC. 17. No special partner shall be made liable beyond the fund contributed by him to the capital, by reason of his taking part in the management or conduct of the business of the firm, but any special partner who shall sign the firm name shall be liable as a general partner upon every such signature.

SEC. 23. Any special partner may loan or advance money to the partnership, and stand upon the footing of a creditor of the firm therefor; and in case of the insolvency or bankruptcy of the partnership, for all such loans or advances, the special partner shall be entitled to payment, pro rata, with the other creditors of the partnership. In case of the insolvency or bankruptcy of the partnership, no special partner shall be allowed to claim as a creditor thereof, upon or for any other cause or consideration than for money loaned or advanced to the partnership, until the claims of all the other creditors shall be satisfied.

SEC. 24. This act shall take effect immediately; but any existing limited partnership shall remain subject to the provisions of the law regulating the same previous to the passage of this act.

MARITIME LAW IN TIME OF WAR.

The following declaration respecting maritime law, was signed by the plenipotentiaries of Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey, assembled in Congress at Paris, April 16, 1856.

The above-mentioned plenipotentiaries, being duly authorized, resolved to concert among themselves as to means of attaining this object; and, having come to an agreement, adopted the following solemn declarations :

1. Privateering is and remains abolished.

2. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods, with the exception of contraband of

war.

3. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under enemy's flag.

4. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective; that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy.

The governments of the undersigned plenipotentiaries engage to bring the present declaration to the knowledge of the States which have not taken part in the Congress of Paris, and to invite them to accede to it.

Convinced that the maxims which they now proclaim cannot but be received with gratitude by the whole world, the undersigned plenipotentiaries doubt not that the efforts of their governments to obtain the general adoption thereof will be crowned with full success.

The present declaration is not and shall not be binding, except between those powers who have acceded or shall accede to it.

IMPORTATION OF BREADSTUFFS INTO Sweden.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, May 13, 1856. The minister resident of the United States at Stockholm, Sweden, under date of the 17th ult., informs this Department that the term of the Swedish decree, permitting the importation into Sweden of breadstuffs and other articles of food until the 31st inst., has been extended by special decree until the 1st of January, 1857. A translation of the original decree having been published by the Department of State, this notice of the prolongation of the term is deemed important, and is therefore made known without delay.

JOURNAL OF INSURANCE.

DOES A MAN SHORTEN HIS LIFE BY INSURING IT?

The Evening Post publishes an interesting article on Life Insurance; a question that, like most others, has two sides. There are reasons, in the view of our cotempory, for believing that insurance of this kind, with all its advantages, creates what Jeremy Bentham calls, "sinister interests," unfavorable to the longevity of the insured. The Post says:—

It is only a few months since a house in this city was burned to the ground, and the wife and three infant children of the insurer were consumed. Although strong suspicions were aroused against him, the coroner's inquest subsequently acquitted But the horrible him of the charge of arson, and he was released from custody.

crime had been charged upon him, and the readiness with which the public acknowledged the possibility of its commission, showed that they had been prepared by past observation to recognise the possibility, and even the probability, of such wickedness, to gratify a lust for money.

The crime of arson is familiar to insurers against fire, and upon the same principle it need surprise no one to learn that the crime of murder is sometimes committed to secure the premium on a life insurance. The ways in which this is accomplished, though usually indirect, are manifold.

The investigations made by HENRY MAYHEW on this subject, as compiled from that gentleman's statements, are interesting and suggestive.

Mr. Mayhew, an English author of repute, who has exhibited a remarkable talent for statistics, and whose work on "London Labor and the London Poor" is well known in this country, has lately had his attention drawn to the reputed large number of suspicious deaths occurring in connection with life insurance companies, and has made them the subject of a rigorous investigation. He visited and examined the officers of thirteen of the largest offices in London, and the facts and inferences which he derived from these visits are so appalling, that we are induced to reproduce them for the benefit of our readers.

The first office which Mr. Mayhew entered, was a newly established one, as the splendor of its furniture indicated. The secretary, in answer to the inquiry how many suspicious deaths, connected with life insurance, had come under his notice, replied that he knew of none, and that he believed no such cases occurred. He had heard of a gentleman, the director of a fire office, who believed that all fires were the work of incendiaries. Another case of arson!" he would exclaim, as he entered the office the morning after a fire had occurred, "another villain has burnt his house down for the sake of the insurance money." The secretary added that, although he could call to mind no recent well-authenticated case of poisoning for the sake of the insurance money, it was quite certain that the lives of persons insured were frequently tampered with. They were encouraged to dissipation, drink, and the means of procuring drink were constantly placed within their reach, and there had been cases of men whose lives were insured, who had been urged to ride steeple chases by persons to whom their policies had been assigned.

At the second office visited, the secretary knew of the recent death of a gentleman in Scotland, whose life had been insured for a very large sum. Soon after the payment of the first premium, he was found dead on a moor, with the back of his head blown off. The mode in which he met his death had not been explained. The secretary assured Mr. Mayhew many times that more gambling in lives had taken place during the last two years than had ever been known before.

The third office was not a new one, but appeared to be under the direction of prudent, and even sagacious persons. The secretary remembered a very suspicious case which occurred in 1849, the year of the cholera. In the early part of that

year an application was made to insure the life of a lady for three thousand dollars, on which occasion a solicitor was referred to, who, however, did not live at the address stated. A short time after the payment of the first premium, the lady died-as it was represented—of cholera.

The Irish cases, he added, were the worst of all. As an illustration of this, he stated that recently a man had been insured in Ireland, and soon after had died. It appeared, on investigation, that the person whose life had really been insured, had never left Ireland; that he had fallen, some months previously, from a scaffold, and broken his ribs. and knew that he could never recover; and that he had been personated in London by the man who presented himself at the insurance offices, and was considered a remarkably good life to insure.

The secretary of the fourth office complained of the German cases.

He knew an instance of a German, who, after insuring his life in a London office, caused a report of his death to be circulated, and was absolutely present at what was supposed to be his own funeral. On the exhumation of the coffin, it appeared that it contained nothing but stones.

The following Irish case was obtained at the fifth office :-Tim Rooney had had his life insured, and the holder of the policy was anxious, if possible, to avoid paying the premiums, and to receive the sum insured during the life-time of his assignor. Finally, a premium became due, and he found himself unable to pay it. He had still a few days' grace, when, crossing the Liffey at night, with a party of friends, he saw a body floating on the stream. He lost no time in pulling it on shore, and then, with a look of pity, exclaimed :-" Why, its poor Tim Rooney!" His friends at first thought him crazy; but when he repeated, "Sure enough, its Tim Rooney," adding, "and hadn't I to pay the next premium on his life?" the whole party were courteous enough to understand him. Accordingly, the report was circulated that Tim Rooney had fallen into the Liffey. An inquest subsequently held confirmed the fact, the news of which in due time reached the insurance office. A certificate, signed by the coroner, and testifying as to the cause of death, was soon afterwards forwarded to the office, and the money for which Tim Rooney's life had been insured was paid to the proper person. Some time afterwards the agent met and identified Tim Rooney in Dublin streets, and reproached him with being still alive. Was not an inquest held on you?" inquired the agent. "That there was," replied Tim, "and I am told that twelve men sat on my body; but I am not at all dead for all that."

The secretary of the sixth office stated that the frauds on life insurance companies had increased considerably during the last two years. Sometimes rich men would insure the lives of mere paupers, merely as a speculation. He gave the following remarkable illustration of this practice. A man wrote some time since from the Limerick work-house to an insurance office, saying that his life had been insured for several hundred pounds; that he was in a bad state of health, and that he was prepared to give five distinct reasons why the company should not pay a farthing of the sum insured for. At present he felt that he was sinking fast, but if the company would place him in a comfortable house and feed him well, he was convinced that he should get better and live for many years. The letter also contained an earnest appeal for money, to be sent by return of post, for the purpose of prolonging the author's life and relieving the company from paying a large sum of money to the persons who had insured him. He thought that if brought to London he could distinguish himself, and live to a good old age. He appeared to have stated, in a previous letter, that he had met with a violent accident, which he now wished to explain away. My axidence," he wrote, "was a spark which fell in my eye"-after which he added that the company would do well to turn his abilities to account, as he was "a good clerk, and by profession a bricklayer."

66

This extraordinary epistle was accompanied by an affidavit, acknowledged before a magistrate, testifying to the false answers which had been given to the inquiries of the insurance company respecting the writer's life. An agent subsequently went down to Limerick on behalf of another company, which had received