THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



9 



steamers have been signed, and the building is about 

 to be coiniuenced at JMcvv York. The slups'are to be 

 2,500 tons eacli, and 300 leet long. Eacu is to have 

 two engines of -100 iiorse-povver — equivalent to 1,0-10 

 horse-power by English computation. The two are to 

 be finished in IS months, and then the other two will 

 be commenced. 



The great steam frigate Mississippi, built by the go- 

 vernment at Philadelpnia, was lately launched. 



A very destructive hre occurred at St. Louis on the 

 3d. Also a tire in New Vork, (of buildings erected 

 on the iormerly buint district,) of which ilie loss is 

 more than ;;^;>0u,000. 



The premium paid in Petersburg for exchange on 

 New York has gradually risen from -f to 5^ per cent., 

 which is the present price. This is an indication of 

 the growing depreciaiion of the paper money of our 

 banks. 



From January 1, 1S41, to April 1, the outstanding 

 debts of the Jb'armers' Bank of Virginia, (that is, 

 the amount due Irom all borrowers,) was increased 

 .'yl4S,342 by the amount of new loans exceeding all 

 payments of previous debts ! ! ! In the same time its 

 stock of specie was diminished by $22,051. No won- 

 der that the bank authorities can boast of having made 

 net profits during that time at the rate of 10 per cent, 

 per annum. Query. At this rate of " c«rtoj7i/ig"" its 

 discounts, and of reducing its liabilities, when will this 

 bank be able to resume specie payments ? . 



It is given out and understood that the Bank of Vir- 

 ginia will declare a dividend in July. If so, we pi'e- 

 sume that it will be out of the capital stock. This 

 has been a mode of sustaining the credit of many 

 banks and other joint stock companies. 



"We have been shown a fine specimen of coal, recent- 

 ly found in the neighborhood ol Scotland Neck, Hali- 

 lax County, which very much resembles the anthra- 

 cite, and to all appearance would burn 'equally as 

 well. There are indications, it is said, of an exten- 

 sive coal formation where this specimen was found, 

 which will, no doubt, be thoroughly explored.'" — lia- 

 leigh {N. C.) Register. 



"The recent appalling overdratts at the State Bank 

 have excited an investigation at the Bank of Louisiana, 

 by which it is found that about $80,000, some say 

 $100,000 are found missing. The search was first 

 induced by the Cashier, Mr. Leveiich, when it was 

 found that Mr. Collson, who is said to have been over- 

 drawn $20,000 at the State Bank, was the discount 

 clerk at the Bank of Louisiana. We are not able to 

 say if any discrepancy occurs in Mr. C.'s books, but 

 it is certain that he and the receiving teller of the 

 Bank of Louisiana have absconded. The latter has 

 pocketed, it is stated, about $SO,000, received in two 

 deposites on Friday and Saturday last." — N. 0. Cres- 

 cent City. 



A report that the President steam-ship had gone to 

 Madeira has been put in circulation, but on such very 

 slight grounds of probability that we did not think it 

 worth mentioning; and would not now, except that other 

 papers, in publishing the report and its very insuffi- 

 cient grounds, express the opinion that "these facts 

 seem to justify a belief that the steam-ship is safe." 



Saturday, May 22, 1S41. 

 Another, and the greatest outrage of the kind, hns 

 been committed, by a British cruiser on the brig A. 

 E., of Baltimore. She was taken possession of b)' an 

 armed boat's crew from the British brig of war Per- 

 sian ; and by the crew of the boat, and by the Persian, 

 kept 19 days, during which time her cargo was ran- 

 sacked, provisions consumed, and goods destroyed, 

 without regard to the rights, or the papers, of the 

 American vessel, and more like pirates, than naval 

 officers of a friendly power. At last, after this deten- 

 tion and spoliation, the American vessel was released. 



It is remarkable, that in all tlie sundry recent cases of 

 unlawful search or captm-o, not one of the American 

 vessels was found to bo justly obnoxious (o the sus- 

 picion which formed the jiretext for the outrage. 

 And, even if actually they had been slavers, tliiit 

 would be for our government to punish, and the Bri- 

 tish government has no right of search in any'case, 

 of American vessels. This course of outrage on 

 our rights must be stopped. 



The former province of Yucatan, which not long 

 since threw olftiie connexion with Mexico, has I'oniied 

 a republican constitution and establislietl a regular and 

 independent government. 



The Philadelphia Ledger of the ISth says—" The 

 prospect of the payment of the interest due in July 

 by the three states of Pennsylvania, Illinois and In- 

 diana, is sufficiently doubtful. Mississippi and Flo- 

 rida of course cannot pay. In Pennsylvania* some of 

 the banks of the interior have accepted the provisions 

 of the relief bill, and already issued the small notes 

 which it authorizes. The city banks have not accept- 

 ed it, and probably will not ; the Bank of Philadel- 

 phia has rejected it decidedly." — This " relief law" 

 must be even worse than we had supposed, when the 

 banks themselves reject the almost unlimited power 

 which the law olleis to them to defraud the public by 

 irredeemable issues. 



" Commodore T. Ap C. Jones has been appointed 

 to the command of the Pacific squadron, and will 

 hoist his flag on board the United States ship Indepen- 

 dence." 



" It is stated in the Charleston Patriot, as proving 

 tlie nonorable character of the merchants of that city, 

 that the whole sum put in suit by the collector of that 

 port, during a period of twenty-one years, is but 

 twenty-nine dollars and seventeen cents." 



Mitchell the forger, and late M. C. has been brought 

 from Canada to the city of New York in irons, and 

 committed to jail. 



" Mississippi will not be represented at the extra 

 session of Congress. Gov. McNutt has declined call- 

 ing an extra session of the Legislature for the purpose 

 of appointing a period for the election, and does not 

 consider himself authorized to order an electon with- 

 out the intervention of the Legislature." — Phil. Led. 



" Five Portuguese slavers, with upwards of one 

 thousand slaves on board, were taken into St. Helena 

 on the 26th of March, having been captured on the 

 west coast of Africa, by the British naval force on 

 that station." — lb. 



" Mr. Barker, the cashier of the Branch Bank of 

 the state of Georgia, is reported to have decamped 

 with $73,000 of the bank's money." 



The Alabama legislature has passed an act sanc- 

 tioning the suspension of payments indefinitely b}' the 

 banks of that state. 



The authorities of the branch Exchange Bank of 

 Petersburg deserve to have credit for a most wonder- 

 ful improvement in their execution, in the endorsinc 

 of their bank notes, (when compelled thus to make 

 them bear interest,) since we reported the very re- 

 markable manner in which they first performed this 

 unpleasant requirement of the new law. In all the 

 subsequent cases of demand by holders of their notes, 

 the endorsements have been written (very different- 

 ly from the first) quite legibly, and in good black ink, 

 and moreover on the backs of the notes; and therefore 

 required no printed label of explanation, or evidence 

 of the obligation, as at the first essay. The authori- 

 ties shall not want for enough practice to keep them 

 up to this very commendable mark of improvement. 

 We hope that every bank in Virginia will be com- 

 pelled thus to mark their own dishonoring of their 



