of productive property is eight millions. The state for its guarantee is to receive one sixth of the nett proceeds.

The Citizens' Bank has received bonds to the amount of eight millions of dollars, can demand four millions more, and is conducted on the same principle as above described. The guarantee is on $14,000,000 of mortgages on real productive property. The state holds one sixth of the nett profits, which are only to be divided as the bonds are paid by the bank, and in the same proportion.

MISSISSIPPI. This state has issued bonds on the faith of the state to the amount of seven millions of dollars, and has subscribed that amount in the stock of two banks. MISSOURI has issued bonds to the amount of $2,500,000 to the State Bank of Missouri.

ARKANSAS has issued three millions of bonds to two banks in that state.

MICHIGAN. The proceeds of the public works as well as the faith of the state pledged for five millions — the lands set apart for the University pledged for the loan for that object. The loans to rail-roads are secured by pledge of the roads, &c. The interest on $100,000 issued to defray the expenses of the controversy with Ohio, is to be paid by a direct tax.

NORTH CAROLINA.-This state has set apart a large amount of funds for internal improvements and for the establishment of public schools, which is placed under the direction of two boards, styled the Literary and Internal Improvement boards. These funds, until required to meet specific appropriations by the legislature, are loaned out to individuals and corporations at six per cent. The state of North Carolina owes no debt.

TENNESSEE.-The interest on the state bonds subscribed to the Union Bank, was paid by the dividends on the stock, until the revulsion of 1837, after which the state paid the interest from the ordinary resources of the treasury. The interest on the bonds issued to rail-roads and turnpike companies is paid by the state, and the companies are required to reimburse the Treasury for the sum from time to time paid.

Statement showing the Amount of Stocks issued, and authorized by law to be issued, by the several States named below, in each period of five years, from 1820 to 1835, and from 1835 to 1838.

*Of this amount, about four and a half millions has been redeemed. Virginia has a war debt of $343,139 17, contracted previous to 1820. South Carolina has a revolutionary debt of $193,770 12.

Summary of the Amount of Stock issued, and authorized to be issued, for Banking, for Canals, Rail Roads, Turnpikes, and for Miscellaneous objects.

52,640,000 60,201,551 42,871,084 6,618,958 8,474,684 170,806,177

* Whole or part for improvement of River Navigation.

NATIONAL DEETS.

A Table exhibiting the National Debt of England, and other Countries, with the propor tion of such debt which falls on each individual, as furnished by Mr. Coby, in the British House of Commons, on the debate relative to the Corn Laws, March 12, 1839.

NAVIGATION.

ATLANTIC STEAM SHIPS.-GREAT WESTERN.

A table of all the passages of the steam ship Great Western, between Bristol and New York, from April, 1838, to July, 1839, showing the time of her departure from, and arrival at, each port, etc., etc., furnished for publication in our Magazine by RICHARD IRVIN, ESQ.

The shortest pas

The average of passages from New York to Bristol, 134 days. sage was 124 days; the longest, 15 days.

The average of passages from Bristol to New York was 16 having been 13 days, the longest 21 days.

days; the shortest

The average of all the passages, out and home, was fifteen days. The whole time employed in the first fifteen passages, excluding fifty-two days, during which the ship lay up refitting, was twelve months and one day. The whole time spent at sea, in the fifteen passages, was two hundred and twenty-five days. In these two hundred and twenty-five days, the ship must have sailed, in all, about fifty-one thousand miles, giving an average progress of two hundred and twenty-seven miles per day, and about nine and a half miles per hour, out and home, summer and winter.

By one of the passages from New York to Bristol, dispatches by the ship were received in Liverpool and London on the thirteenth day after leaving New York, say on the evening of the seventeenth of October, having left New York on the afternoon of the fourth of that month. By the same, and by one other passage, passengers and dispatches reached Paris, by way of England, on the fifteenth day.

TRANS-ATLANTIC STEAM SHIPS COMPANY'S SHIPS.- ROYAL WILLIAM AND

LIVERPOOL.

A table of all the passages of the Trans-Atlantic Steam Ships Company's ships, Royal William and Liverpool, between Liverpool and New York, from July, 1838, to June, 1839, showing the time of their departure from, and arrival at, each port, etc., furnished for publication in our Magazine by ABRAHAM BELL, Esq.

Average Royal William and Liverpool Average Royal William and Liverpool to

from England, eighteen days.

England, 15 days.

These passages are calculated from dock to dock, and, it will be observed, the Liverpool's passages are mostly made in the winter months, not the best calculated for making short runs. Her four trips to the westward have been made within forty-two hours of the same time. She has, with but one exception, made the southern passage; thereby lengthening her voyage, but avoiding the risk of running upon ice, and obtaining for her passengers mild and fine weather. On her May trip she took twentythree days later news to England; a few days before her arrival, she spoke a ship from Europe to New York, out fourteen days; she discharged her cargo in Liverpool,

took in another, and, before she again arrived in New York, spoke the same ship, yet on her voyage to the westward.

The Royal William made her last voyage in December and January, thus proving that a boat of her size may safely cross the Atlantic in the depth of winter.

CAPE COD HARBOR.

The attention of ship-owners and ship-masters has been lately called to Cape Cod Harbor, as of more importance than has been heretofore supposed. The want of a secure shelter for vessels, going from or to Boston and Salem, in time of a severe storm from the east, or north-east, has been long felt; and the harbor inside of Race Point, where the village of Provincetown has recently grown up, seems to have been neglected; whether from an ignorance of its advantages or not, we will not undertake to decide. But several persons of good judgment, and of the profession of sailors, have more recently examined it, and considered it quite safe from easterly gales, when an attempt to run into Boston or Salem would probably prove fatal. The harbor is nearly a league from the extreme end of the cape. But the curve of the cape is so great that it forms a safe riding-place for vessels when they could not remain at sea, nor reach any other harbor in the vicinity. Formerly there was great difficulty in getting ashore without wading, even from a large long-boat; because the shore is not very bold-and all will recollect how much the poor pilgrims, who settled at Plymouth in 1620, suffered in getting on shore from their boats, in November of that year, while the Mayflower lay in that harbor. But now there are wharves, and that inconve nience does not exist. The village is now quite large; and people can be well accommodated on shore. There are neither rocks nor ice in the harbor.

An intelligent clergyman gave some account of the harbor forty-five years ago, to the Massachusetts Historical Society; and said that it was his opinion, as well as of many others, "it was one of the best and safest harbors in the state." He says, it had not been generally considered of the importance it ought to have been; and adds, that proper directions should be given for entering it. This opinion has been confirmed, within a few years, by other intelligent men who have examined it. An officer in the service of the United States, for surveying the coast and harbors of Massachusetts, within a few years, has added his testimony to the same point. A pier of greater extent than any now erected may be needed, but it is not deemed essential. The most which is required, to experience the benefits of that harbor, is a true, but full description of the bearings and relative situation of a few points in the vicinity, and a conviction of the entire security of the place against injury in times of easterly storms and gales. It is also stated in a late paper published in the county of Barnstable, that the harbor at Provincetown, or Cape Cod Harbor, is one of the best in Massachusetts; and it is safe, whatever may be the direction of the wind. The earliest writer of the pilgrim band of 1620 says the shape of the land forming the harbor is like a hook.

We think the subject deserves attention, and that extensive publicity of the advantages to result from the use of the harbor, would render good service to navigation. Vessels now coming on the coast from Europe, and aiming for Boston, in the winter season, and in stormy weather, sometimes put away for Holmes' Hole, at the Vineyard, when they might gain the harbor of Cape Cod; where they would be within six hours' sail of their port. If they go to the Vineyard, they may have to remain there several weeks, and then have a dangerous passage to make round the whole length of the cape; and coasters, with flour, corn, etc., from southern ports for Boston, espe cially in the winter months, would find the benefit of making a harbor at Provincetown. An early writer says, "The curvature of the shore on the west side of Provincetown and south of Race Point, (inside the cape,) forms a cove of about three miles. There is good anchoring ground here, and vessels may ride safely in four or five fathoms of water, especially when the wind is from north, or north-north-east, to south-east." On Race Point there are now several huts, and they are about three miles from the village of Provincetown; most of the way is a mere sand-bank, but before reaching the settlement there is a piece of land covered with trees. In most places there is beach grass, which grows about two feet high. About two miles and a half from Race Point, the Humane Society have erected huts for the protection and relief of the shipwrecked mariners at or near this place. At the head of Stout's creek, in Truro, adjoining Provincetown on the south, there is another hut erected by the same society; and this last building is within an hour's walk of Provincetown. Vessels are frequently driven on shore in severe north-east storms, between Stout's creek, or East Harbor, and Race Point. To know of these huts may be important to seamen. Near the East Harbor,

or Stout's creek, near the bounds of Provincetown and Truro, there is a valley, not far from the ocean, where are two small dwelling-houses. More huts have been erected by the Humane Society in this vicinity. South of Stout's creek are the Clay-pounds, so called in Truro; the banks are high and steep, and are washed by the Atlantic Ocean. B******D.

SHIPS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING.

The frequent occurrence of this disastrous and destructive visitation, has, at length, awakened inquiry in England, as to the best means of preventing the direful effects of electrical discharges at sea. Information has been called for by the recently ap pointed naval commission, and this subject is one of those under their present consideration; and a Mr. Harris has submitted proposals to the commissioners, which have been received with favor. A late Liverpool journalist, in noticing this subject, says: "We have before us a catalogue of no less than one hundred and ninety-seven cases since 1793, in the British navy alone, averaging more than three every year, in which considerable damage was occasioned, and in many instances attended with the loss of human life. Oftentimes during the period of the war were British ships disabled by lightning immediately previous to entering into action, and frequently were they obliged from the same cause to quit cruising ground, which to retain was of the utmost importance.

"Ships, or rather the masts of ships, at sea, are the only prominent points exposed and opposed to the accumulated masses of electrical matter, which, striving to regain equilibrium, break through the atmosphere at the point rendered the least resistant by the towering masts diminishing the resisting medium, pass down the masts, and, encountering imperfect conductors, cause havoc in their course. The iron, frequent in the vane-staffs and trucks of mast-heads, presents a free point of attraction and passage for the electric fluid; and if this, or any other conducting metal, were continued down the masts and through the hull of the vessel, sufficient to influence the choice of the lightning, the discharge would be rendered harmless; because in no case will the electric fluid turn aside except for equally good conductors where there may be several. But in the absence of such conducting medium, the fluid seeks out a passage for itself, destroying substances of an imperfectly conducting nature which it encounters. In the present and common mode of building ships, no attention is paid to this important precautionary provision; and if, previously to going to sea, the stores include lightning conductors, the ship's husband considers he has fulfilled his responsible duty. These conductors, in the store list, are metallic chains, which, on the approach of a thunder storm, are hoisted to the mainmast head, the other ends being passed over the ship's side to trail in the water. If they should not trail in the water, but accidentally rest in the main or mizen chains, the destruction of the ship's side may probably occur. Without dwelling on the possibility of their not being forthcoming when required, if they should, in consequence of lying by, which in all likelihood they would be, more or less oxidized where the links join, perfect conduction would be impeded. In this case, it would be better had they not been there. To remedy this latter defect, a rope of metallic wires has been proposed; but, whatever he the temporary conductor employed, or however perfect it may be to conduct, we most decidedly give preference to fixed conductors. Our attention has been directed to this subject, and a desire created in us to bring it to the notice of nautical and commercial men, in consequence of witnessing the experiments of Mr. Snow Harris recently at the United Service Institution. He proposes to fit the mast and hull with a succession of overlapping metallic laminæ, so that the whole floating bulk should be in metallic connexion, and consequently a perfect, permanent conductor. The working of the masts are not in the least impeded, and even when struck, there is a continuous metallic surface presented to the electric fluid. The whole of the experiments, including a floating model ship on a large scale, fitted with the conductors, through which a powerful charge of electricity was harmlessly passed, were of the most satisfactory description."

BEVERLY FISHING TRADE.

The total number of vessels engaged in the fishing trade from this port, as we learn from the Salem Gazette, is 59, averaging 74 tons each; aggregate value, exclusive of outfit, $100,000; tonnage, 4350; Beverly hands employed, 306; others, 112. This is said to be the greatest amount of tonnage ever owned here. There are, in addition to those belonging to Beverly, several chartered vessels which sail from this port, and several others from the neighboring towns, manned in part or whole by Beverly hands, sufficient to make in all 400 Beverly men engaged in the business. The aggregate bounty on the vessels owned in Beverly, is 17,010 dollars; on those chartered, and which sail from Beverly, $1,628; making a total aggregate of 18,668 dollars.