The act directing the taking of the census contains the following proviso, viz :— State paupers and convicts in the state prison, shall not be numbered: also, the inmates of the several hospitals, jails, and houses of correction, and the students in colleges, academies, and high-scools, shall not be numbered in the census of towns to which they do not belong. MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. LECTURES FOR JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1841. The numbers in attendance on the interesting and popular course of lectures at Clinton Hall, now in progress, has thus far been highly respectable. The terms of admis sion are quite reasonable, and we trust that those who have not already, will avail themselves of the privilege of attending the remainder of the course. We give below a syllabus of the lectures for January and February. MONDAY, Jan 11.-A POEM BY WILLIAM CUTTER, Esq., a member of the Association. TWO LECTURES BY JOHN L. H. m'cracken, ESQ. TUESDAY, Jan. 12.-1. On Mexico. FRIDAY, 46 15.-2. The Influence of Commerce upon Character. TUESDAY, Jan. 19. On the Doctrine of Chances. 22. } ONE LECTURE BY BENJAMIN D. SILLIMAN, ESQ. MONDAY, Jan. 25.-Ancient Commerce. ONE LECTURE BY JOHN DUER, ESQ. WEDNESDAY, Jan. 27.-The State Debts of the United States, with their Resources. (This Lecture will be free.) ONE LECTURE BY MATTHEW C. PATTERSON, ESQ. FRIDAY, Jan. 29.-The Reformation, its natural causes, and its influence on Civilization. TUESDAY, Feb. 2.-ONE LECTURE BY HON. WILLIAM INGLIS. ONE LECTURE BY J. PRESCOTT HALL, ESQ. FRIDAY, Feb. 5.—An Essay upon the history and character of the aboriginal inhabitants of North America. TUESDAY, Feb. 9. -ONE LECTURE BY THE REV. EDWARD Y. HIGBEE. ONE LECTURE BY THOMAS W. TUCKER, ESQ. FRIDAY, Feb. 12.-On the Merchants of the time of Queen Elizabeth FRAZIER'S PATENT STOVES. This stove is of convenient form and model, combining beauty with utility. Its inventor is Mr. William Frazier, of Brooklyn. Sheet iron is principally used in its construction, as being most conducive to warmth and also to economy. The furnace is well protected with brick, and all the parts exposed to the action of the fire. The patentee rests his claim of originality as the inventor of this stove in the addition of an apparatus called a radiator, and formed of a cylinder that is divided into four equal compartments, by partitions of sheet iron. The heat from the furnace is conveyed into one of these compartments from the top, and enters the other from the bottom. An air tube passes through each of the divisions of the cylinder, and thus diffuses a pleasant warmth, that can be easily controlled, through an apartment of almost any size. We cheerfully commend this stove to the attention of the public, from a personal knowledge of its excellent qualities OUR FOURTH VOLUME. A FEW WORDS TO THE PUBLIC. The present number of the MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW, commences a fourth volume. Starting at an inauspicious period, when the commercial community was laboring under great embarrassments, it has advanced, by the cordial support of a large portion of the mercantile and business class, to whose interests it is devoted, to a degree of prosperity, it is believed, unexampled, when we consider the short period (18 months) since its first establishment. This we attribute in a great measure to the peculiar and original character of the work. It is designed to apply itself to the practical tendencies of the age and the progress of our country, and to the wants of that large portion of our population comprised by the merchants, and also to develop an interesting form of commercial literature. Of the nature of the work, it may be proper to state that it is entirely national in its objects. It is linked to no particular section of the republic-to no sect, and to no party. Its main design is to cast abroad, over the whole country, whatever of light it can furnish regarding the various important interests which concern our commercial population; and also to set forth the trade and commerce of the most prominent commercial nations abroad. It is also an organ for the liberal and judicious exposition of those principles that concern the business classes, and which constitute a fertile topic of discussion in our own country. The editor of the Magazine cannot, of course, be understood to endorse or commend all the views expressed upon its pages, as they proceed from various minds; but he invites a free exhibition of facts and opinions, in order, if possible, that truth may be elicited. It is conceived, that in the vast and various resources of our republic, and the extraordinary enterprise of the people, as well as in the interests relating to its prosperity, there is an ample field spread out for the present work; and its cultivation thus far, by this journal, has been attended with its measure of reward. We thank the public for their cordial support, and hope not only to deserve its continuance, but such an increase as will stimulate us to renewed efforts to enhance the utility and value of the work. Since its commencement, we have had time more thoroughly to model and perfect our plan, and to be supplied from different sections of the union, with such intellectual aid as to render it-what it should be-a periodical adapted to the wants of the commercial public. We again repeat, that well-written papers, falling within the scope of our work, from intellectual and practical men, will receive all due consideration. In order to supply the demand for complete sets of the work from its commencement, we have reprinted the first volume, so that orders for the three volumes (bound or in numbers) can now be promptly answered. Persons residing out of the city, who may wish to become subscribers, are reminded that, by a regulation of the Post Office Department, "Postmasters may enclose money in a letter to the publishers of a periodical, to pay the subscription of a third person, and frank the letter." ACCOUNTANTSHIP. We have received several answers to the question in our October number, most of which are correct in principle, but all contain some errors in calculation, particularly in the interest. We therefore defer publishing the solution until our young friends have had another trial, as we are fully assured they are all capable of correcting their errors. That their answers may agree, it may be well to state that legal interest is to be calcu lated, viz: 365 days to the year, at 7 per cent HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE. FEBRUARY, 1841. ART. I.-AMERICAN STEAM NAVIGATION. THE growing importance of navigation by steam in this country, and the direct bearing which it exercises upon the various interests of our commerce, induce us to devote the present paper to a consideration of the progress and influence of this newly discovered power. In accordance with that plan, we shall trace the origin of the invention from its first dawning to its full development, and attempt to sketch the physical and moral consequences that it will produce upon the nation. In exact proportion to the extension of political freedom and the diffusion of popular intelligence, has been the advance of invention in the useful arts, or those arts which are calculated to bestow practical benefits upon the great bulk of men. As political power has been diffused among the great mass of men, the human mind has been directed to those inventions that were calculated to confer solid benefits upon the mass. Among the most important of these useful inventions is the discovery of the mariner's compass, the arts of printing and cotton spinning, and last of all, the science of navigation by steam, everywhere displaying its triumphs upon the rivers, the lakes, and the oceans of the world, the crowning victory of the mechanical philosophy of this nineteenth century. It was in this country that the genius which perfected this discovery first burst forth into full strength. By the generous and then judicious legislation of the state of New York, that genius was fostered until it brought forth the discovery in its full practical success. It was from the crowded shores of its metropolis that the first successful steamboat was launched, and around the cultivated fields and picturesque hills and blue headlands and bays and islands of this port, that its fabrics first played. It was upon the rivers of this state, and the lakes that wash its furthermost shores, that the most elegant models of steamships have been constructed, and here it has performed its most glorious triumphs. To the state of New York, with one side resting on the sea and the other upon the great lakes, with Niagara thundering upon its western boundaries, and its eastern sea-coast serenaded by the roar of the ocean; this empire within itself, combining agricultural and commercial advantages in a remarkable degree, with a population for the most part sprung from the New England hive, moulded, in due proportions, with other elements,-a population distinguished for its enterprise, liberality, and perseverance:— to New York, holding in its right hand the trident of the waters, and in the left the plough of the western prairies, belongs the fitting credit of first setting afloat this power-the crowning glory of its commercial victories. Our broad and fertile empire is enriched by channels of commerce, that intersect the territory and surround its coast. The eastern sea-board, from Maine to the capes of Florida, embracing numerous productive states, is washed by the waves of the Atlantic, and this line of coast is indented at frequent points with convenient and safe harbors, for shipping from every foreign port. The rivers rising east of the Alleghany Mountains, constituting about one hundred in number, course nearly the whole extent of our Atlantic states, and are, in a great measure, navigable. In New England we find the Penobscot, the Kennebeck, the Merrimack, the Connecticut, and the Thames, winding through a very extensive tract of country, and furnishing avenues for commerce from a convenient distance in the interior to their outlets upon the sea. Advancing from that section of the country to New York, we meet the Hudson, taking its rise in the neighborhood of Lake Champlain, and flowing for the distance of two hundred and fifty miles in nearly a straight line, through rich plain and cloud-crowned highland, along village and through valley, adorned with the beauties of nature and art, from whose borders the blue mountains swell and sweep away like the most gorgeous creations of the pencil, bearing the tide of a fruitful commerce through a channel of one hundred and fifty miles, from the political capital of this great state to the broad bay that expands before us. The Delaware soon meets our view, a river navigable for steam-vessels of the largest class to Philadelphia, and thence to Trenton. The Patapsco is now reached, which flows to the port of Baltimore. The Potomac, springing from the Alleghany Mountains, and broadening to an extent of seven and a half miles at its entrance into the Chesapeake Bay, itself an inland sea, is ploughed by ships of the largest class to the city of Washington, a point about one hundred and three miles from its mouth. The Rappahannock, the York, the James, the Roanoke, the Pamlico, the Ashley and Cooper, the Savannah, the Apalachicola, and the Mobile, each affording channels for steam navigation, water the most fertile portions of the south. We proceed to the western border of our state, and a chain of inland seas, the largest upon the earth, spreads itself out for thousands of miles, through luxuriant forests, from the shores of New York, beyond Mackinaw, to the granite-bound cliffs of Lake Superior. Starting from Pittsburg, at the base of the Alleghany Mountains, we sail along the Ohio, in a course of nine hundred and forty-five miles, where its flood mingles with the Mississippi, and here the father of waters is unfolded in all its grandeur. Stretching from New Orleans to St. Louis, a distance of nearly twelve hundred miles, it is met by the Missouri, that opens an uninterrupted navigation for two thousand five hundred and thirty-two miles, from its mouth to the falls which obstruct it. Besides this grand tributary, the Mississippi receives the Illinois, the Red River, the Arkansas, the White River, and numerous other navigable streams that have not been described, and which wind far away into the |