Indiana has a similar plan in operation, for the completion of her Wabash Canal. Mr. Charles Butler has done for Indiana, what Colonel Oakely did for Illinois. For two sessions, Mr. Butler was successfully engaged at Washington, in aiding to procure a large grant of land to the State of Indiana, to complete the Wabash Canal to the Ohio River. Land, however, is not available property, and it became necessary to borrow sufficient money. For this purpose, a law was passed, through the exertions of Mr. Butler, creating a trust of the canal and its lands, for the repayment of a sum of money sufficient to complete it. The debt of Indiana is as follows:

This debt and interest was equally divided by law, one-half charged upon the State, and to be discharged by taxation, and the other half upon the canal, to be paid by its lands and operations. The domestic debt is receivable for State dues; hence the taxes available for the interest, will be impaired by the amount of that paper paid in. On the surrender of old bonds, the new stocks are issued, which will make the debt stand as follows:—

After 1857, the State stock principal will bear 5 per cent, amounting to $276,700, and the interest total, 2 per cent interest, being $49,662, and making together $326,362, to be paid by taxation. From January, 1847, to 1853, the principal draws 4 per cent, to be paid by taxation, the average 1 per cent to be added to the other interest, in 1853. The canal stock is to bear 5 per cent interest from January, 1847, and January, 1853; all back interest, and all arrears of interest on the new stock, to be funded in a 5 per cent stock. The revenues on the canal, after paying 6 per cent interest on the new loan, and necessary repairs, to be applied to the completion of the canal to Evansville. This complicated bill being passed, Mr. Butler had an arduous duty to carry it into effect, which, by the terms of the law, was to procure the surrender to the State agent of $5,545,000 of bonds, or one-half the debt, by June, 1847, and a payment of 5 per cent of the instalment. This, Mr. Butler accomplished on the 26th May, and surrendered to the State agent $6,500,000 of bonds. The agent of the State commenced the issue of the new bonds in the middle of June, and paid the first instalment of interest on the state stock on the 1st of July. For these services Mr. Butler received no compensation; but the bondholders, we understand, surrender to him one past due coupon on each bond, in acknowledgement of his services.

By these arrangements, the most important works of internal improvement, in the lake States, will be put in a state of usefulness, and already the influence upon the prices of the stocks has been considerable.

PRICES OF STOCKS IN NEW YORK, FIRST WEEK IN EACH MONTH.

The advance is very considerable during the past month, particularly in those stocks to the revenues of which we have alluded, as affected by the prosperous export trade of the country.

Under all these circumstances, money has become very cheap in New York; and the operation of the new system of finance in Mexico, is understood to be. such as to afford hope that sufficient will be derived to support the permanent occupation of that territory.

The advices which reached us to the 4th June, were highly favorable in a general point of view. Two weeks of fine weather, in connection with favorable accounts of continental harvests, had wrought a considerable fall in the prices of breadstuffs. The harvests, both of England and the continent, promised to be much earlier than was at first anticipated, and accounts of large quantities on the way from the Mediterranean and North of Europe, had contributed to inflate prices, and the fall in wheat was estimated at 15s. to 18s. per quarter; that is to say, a cargo of Dantzic wheat, of which the sale commenced in London, on the 19th May, at 105s., was closed on the 28th, at 85s.; after that period, a reaction and recovery to some extent was experienced. The enormous high prices had, to a considerable extent, affected consumption, and the fall had eased the money market. The public deposits in the bank were accumulating, on account of the taxes, and the Irish loan had increased, swelling the amount of "notes on hand," and giving the bank the means of discounting freely, which it did, at the rate of 5 per cent for sixty days' bills, and 5 per cent for longer; out of doors, the rate was 5 to 6 per cent. Inasmuch as that exchanges had been favorably affected by the stringent movement of the bank, it was feared that returning ease would again give an impulse to the export of bullion. The quantities of foreign and colonial produce imported, for the three months ending April 5, were large, while exports were less. The following were some of the leading imports :CONSUMPTION OF PRODUCE IN ENGLAND, JANUARY 5 TO APRIL 5, DUTY PAID.

In spite of this large consumption of produce, the imports of raw material have declined, and the export of goods also, but the latter not to an extent which the small import of raw material would warrant, showing that the home consumption of goods has diminished. The following is a statement of the cotton taken for consumption, and the value of goods exported :

When we reflect that the price of cotton has been much higher this year, we become aware that the balance of the cotton trade was considerably against England for the quarter. The cotton cost them much more money, and they obtain less for the goods. With this prospect, and the continual expenditure of the railroads, by which England's labor continues to be applied to fixtures rather than to exchangeable values, the future is not propitious.

MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES.

MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF BOSTON.

We have received a copy of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Report of this useful and well-managed institution. The past year appears to have been one of signal prosperity and success," far exceeding, in these respects, all previous years, whether we consider the number of members, the state of the treasury, the attendance upon the lectures, or the general favor it enjoys in the community." The present number of members is 1,108, exhibiting a gain of 225, since the last annual meeting of the Association. The library embraces 5,026 volumes, 375 of which were added during the year. The reading-room of the Association is well supplied with the best newspapers and magazines of Europe and America. The lecture system, adopted a few years since, has been quite successful. Every ticket to the course was sold within a few days after its public announcement. Of the 1,200 tickets issued, 775 were taken by members. The receipts from this source amounted to $1,650, which, after deducting the expenditures for lecturers, etc., of $1,257 43, left a profit to the treasury, of $392 57. The liberal donations made to the funds of this Association, will not leave it long without a suitable edifice. In the Report of last year, donations to the amount of $1,000 each, were acknowledged from the following gentlemen, to be applied to that purpose: Hon. Abbott Lawrence, Amos Lawrence, William Sturgiss, John Bryant, John P. Cushing, William Appleton, Samuel Appleton, Esqrs., and Hon. Nathan Appleton. During the present year, donations of from $25 to $500, have increased the fund to $9,225, which has been paid in and invested in substantial stocks. The Report of the President, MR. THOMAS J. ALLEN, is a model of brevity, clearness, and comprehensiveness.

The following is a list of the officers of the Mercantile Library Association of Boston, for the present year: Warren Sawyer, President; Thomas H. Lord, Vice-President; John Stetson, Corresponding Secretary; Charles H. Allen, Recording Secretary; James Otis, Treasurer; J. M. Richardson, John L. Lathrop, George H. Briggs, H. P. Chamberlain, W. H. Kennard, W. S. Tilton, George F. Woodman, and Custis Guild, Directors; J. M. Atkins, Jr., D. N. Haskell, Thomas J. Allen, W. N. Fairbanks, and E. C. Cowdin, Trustees.

MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF CINCINNATI.

The Twelfth Annual Report of this Association, a well-written document, covers thirty-two octavo pages, and is occupied in a great measure with the local concerns of the institution, which appear to be in a flourishing condition. A single paragraph from the Report, on this head, will not perhaps be uninteresting to the friends of these valuable associations:

"The career of the Association in the past year has been onward. It is free from debt. It has surmounted great difficulties, and borne itself in every good word and work, steadily and unobtrusively forward. It stands at this moment, stronger in numbers, spirit, and resources, than at any former period, and as we trust more deeply rooted than ever in the affections of its members, the respect and confidence of the community. We have been successful, but our success has not been accidental. Such success is ever found on the side of persevering industry. In the past, we have done well; in the future, we can do better. To insure this, it is only requisite that each member appreciate that he is in part chargeable with the task of maintaining the efficiency of the whole organization; that he owes to the Association the benefit both of his labor and example; and that it is his duty, as well as his privilege, to co-operate in the building up, in this community, of a noble and public-spirited institution, commensurate in some small degree to its growing wants, and which, in coming years, shall prove its pride and ornament. In watchfully providing for the present, we may safely leave the future to care for itself, if we do but remember that we are bound to transmit stronger and more prosperous, to those who shall succeed us, the charge we have received from those who have gone before; that we are amongst the humble pioneers of a great movement, responsible at home and abroad for its ultimate and triumphant success."

The Report then proceeds to give a business statement of the official transactions of the Board of Directors; and we are pleased to notice that a course of free lectures, or literary addresses, were delivered during the year by the active members of the Association-an interesting feature, and one which might be adopted by similar associations, in other cities, with advantage to the members. The library now contains about 5,000 volumes, the additions to which, during the last year, amounted to 536 volumes. Besides the lectures by active members, a course was delivered, during the winter, by some of the most distinguished statesmen, divines, etc., of the West; the introductory, being delivered by the Hon. James T. Morehead, of Kentucky, and the valedictory, by the Rt. Rev. Bishop McIlvaine. The lectures were largely attended, and the services of the lecturers rendered gratuitously. The society numbers 1,007 regular members, 198 being added to the number during the past year. The receipts into the treasury from all sources, for the year, amounted to $7,950; which, with the exception of about $200, was expended in enlarging the library, and for other purposes connected with its maintenance and growth. The following is a list of the officers of the Association for the present year: John W. Hartwell, President; George T. Stedman, Vice-President; James Lupton, Corresponding Secretary; Joseph C. Butler, Recording Secretary; E. B. Hinman, Treasurer; T. R. Biggs, James T. Annan, Benoni Sprague, C. Taylor Jones, and William I. Whiteman, Directors.

We cannot better close this brief notice of the Association and its affairs, than by extracting the just and manly sentiments of Mr. Hartwell, the Vice-President, in behalf of the Board:

"The Association now occupies an eminence, from which it may calmly look back upon the steep and rugged ascent up which it has toiled, and rightfully indulge exultation over the past, and felicitous anticipations of the future. The annals of no similar body in the Union exhibit a progress more rapid, or a career less chequered by failures and reverses. "If much has been achieved with feeble means and under many discouragements, what may not now be accomplished? Established as the institution stands, upon a firm foundation, and proudly conscious, though we be, that its influence has ever been conservative of good, nevertheless, it has not yet fulfilled its mission. Through the watchful and fostering care of its early frends, it has attained a vigorous growth and independence, which fit it for energetic action and widely extending usefulness. Its valuable property, its wellstored book-shelves, its crowded reading-room, and its rapidly augmenting list of members,

demand that it take rank with the foremost of our public institutions, and that it exert a controlling influence in moulding the character of its young men—the pride and strength of the Association-the future merchants of our city; that it advance the cause of knowledge and virtue; that it prove the friend of social order and public happiness; that it cherish laudable industry, generous enterprise, pure morals, varied intelligence, unimpeachable integrity, and the loftiest sense of mercantile honor.

"This can be done. This must be accomplished. As young men, the spirit of the age demands that we labor earnestly and heartily in the great cause of moral and intellectual advancement-that, as young men, we may do in our day and generation some good, the beneficence of which shall not die with us. As young men, let us see that we appreciate our position and fulfil our destiny;-too young, in every sense, to flag in our efforts;-too young, to halt in the onward march of the age;-too young, to fail in whatever noble undertaking we may have enlisted our energies.

"Let us remember that we are among the supports on which rests the character of our city for intelligence and self-culture. Let this suffice. Let us form a large conception of the character of the liberal and upright merchant, ever remembering that the keys of knowledge are in our hands-that the portals of her temple are open wide before us.

"Nor is it by the fleeting power of gold alone, that the annals of commerce have been rendered dignified and illustrious. It is true that money is power, but it is the heart and intellect that ennoble its uses; and wheresoever the name of Merchant' has been written in legible and enduring characters on the page of history, it has been the mind, and not the gold, that grasped the pen and inscribed it there.

"Let us, then, strive with manly, vigorous, and united effort,-many hands to labor with a single purpose to guide,-to build up for the Young Mens' Mercantile Library Association,' a reputation co-extensive with, and as enviable as that of Cincinnati itself."

SHOPPING IN ROME.

CHARACTER OF TRADES-PEOPLE-SHOPKEEPING MORALITY-NATALETTI'S SHOP THE BEST IN ROME. Our views have become so completely identified with the commercial matters of the age, that on taking up a new book, especially of travels, we run our eye over its pages to see if we can find anything that will be likely to interest the mercantile reader; and our estimate of the value of a work is apt to depend very much upon the information it contains pertaining to subjects connected with trade and commerce. Running over the pages of Mrs. Butler's (late Fanny Kemble) "Year of Consolation,” just published by Wiley & Putnam, we find a few passages of her experience of the morality of shopkeeping, &c., in Rome, which we consider of sufficient interest to transfer to our pages:-

"English people are the only honest trades-people that I am acquainted with, and I say it advisedly; for Americans are unpunctual, and an appointment is a contract with time for its object, and they are as regardless, for the most part, of that species of contract, as of some others of a different kind. I have now been six months in Rome, and have had leisure and opportunity to see something of the morals of retail trade; at any rate, in matters of female traffic, among the shopkeepers here. In the first place, the most flagrant dishonesty exists with regard to the value of the merchandise, and the prices they ask for it of all strangers, but more particularly of the English, whose wealth, ignorance, and insolence, are taxed by these worthy industriels without conscience or compassion. Every article purchased in a Roman shop, by an English person, is rated at very nearly double its value; and the universal custom here, even among the people themselves, is to carry on a haggling market of aggression, on the part of the purchaser, and defence, on that of the vender, which is often as comical as it is disgusting. In Nataletti's shop, in Rome, the other day, I saw a scene between the salesman and a lady-purchaser, an Italian, that would have amazed as well as amused the parties behind and before the counters of Howell & James, Harding's, &c. The lady, after choosing her stuff and the quantity she required, began a regular attack upon the shopman; it was mezza voce, indeed, but continuous, eager, vehement, pressing, overpowering, to a degree indescribable; and the luckless man having come for a moment from behind the shelter of his long table, the lady eagerly seized him by the arm, and holding him fast, argued her point with increasing warmth. She next caught hold of the breast of his coat, her face within a few inches of his, her husband meanwhile standing by and smiling approvingly at the thrift and eloquence of his wife; I think, however, she did not succeed. The shopman looked disgusted, which I am afraid is a consequence of their having adopted the English mode of dealing in that