if their peculiar advantages of an exuberant soil and genial climate were appreciated abroad, would soon be filled with a numerous, industrious, and hardy population.

To effect these various objects, union among our merchants is the first requisite, and to establish it we must once more suggest the expediency of an efficient organization, which for these, and all other purposes affecting our commercial welfare, should be the rallying point of our entire mercantile community. As we have before stated, something more is required than mere individual effort; and a chamber of commerce, organized on a sufficiently comprehensive basis, would, we suggest, meet the exigency and supply the want. Such an organization, with subordinate departments for the various branches of our business-boards of trade, for example, for cotton, sugar and molasses, tobacco, western produce, groceries, dry goods and imports, and navigation, which should receive periodically the reports of these several bodies, and act upon their recommendation for the general benefit with united power, could not fail to have a powerful influence.

The entire business of the city would thus come directly under the supervision of the chamber, and whenever it might be expedient to influence either municipal, State, or federal legislation, for the common interest, it could be done more efficiently by such a mercantile agency than by almost any other means. Opportunity would be afforded for the comparison of the various taxes on our trade with those of other cities, which, developing whatever is impolitic, wrong, or oppressive, would lead to its correction or removal; those internal improvements which prove of the most practical benefit to the city would be encouraged and promoted; and every enterprise calculated to increase our population and wealth would receive from it an active stimulus.

The chamber of commerce of New Orleans should embrace within its sphere all our domestic, interior, and foreign relations; it should take a comprehensive view of the field before it, and act with the circumspection, judgment, and energy, characteristic of the mercantile class.

An annual development of the trade of our city from such a source, comprehending detailed reports from each of the important interests we have designated, could not fail to have a beneficial influence in attracting, by its exposition of our resources, a productive population, and stimulating every remunerative branch of business.

If the people of New Orleans could be induced to unite for the promotion of its commercial and industrial improvement, independent of the tyranny of party, and superior to the in

fluences of cliques, and classes, and individual interests, there can hardly be a doubt that a cheering change would be soon manifest in our progress, and that our southern emporium would attain that commanding position to which she is entitled by her unequalled natural resources.

MINING AND MANUFACTURES.

COTTON MANUFACTURES.

At a recent meeting of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, some interesting statements were made by the president, Mr. Bazly, upon the cotton manufacture of Great Britain. From his remarks we quote the following:

"In looking at the state of our foreign trade, he found that America was one great cause of the embarrassment that had prevailed amongst commercial classes in this country. The people of America were no doubt seriously embarrassed by the state of their financial arrangements; but they seemed to overlook the fact that they were paying for their manufactures through their protective system a much larger amount, year by year, than had been involved by their unfortunate system of banking. He computed that not less than 30 millions sterling per annum were absorbed in the United States by the absurd protective system that ruled there. He hoped that the people of America would direct their attention to the cause of their suffering; and that we should, at no distant day, have a reduced tariff from that great and growing country. (Hear, hear.) Our exports to France were really very trifling; and the same unfortunate policy prevailed in France that prevailed in the United States. He had calculated, upon moderate estimates, that the people of France were now paying upwards of 50 millions sterling per annum, as the price of the protection with which they were blessed. (Hear.) France would probably be the richest country in Europe, if a liberal commercial tariff were established; but there must almost of necessity be great embarrassment so long as this false policy was maintained. We looked for a relaxation of the restrictive tariffs in every part of the world; and the example of England, he had no doubt, was really producing the most beneficial effect with every existing government. He would not anticipate the contents of the report by alluding to other subjects; but he would inform gentlemen present that some months ago he was called upon by the eminent publishers of Edinburgh, the Messrs. Black, to

revise an article in the Encyclopædia Brittannica, upon cottor and cotton manufacturers. He wrote a new article upon cotton, and considerably enlarged the article upon cotton manufacturers; and in the course of the enquiries and investigations he was led to make, he had been enabled to prepare a table, which he regarded as of some importance, for it was the first time that the manufacture of cotton had been shown in the way it was shown in the table. The Board of Trade very kindly gave him all the facts which he required from the department; and therefore, in the calculations he had made, he had depended entirely upon governmental authority. The Board of Trade, in publishing the returns of the exports of cotton, had usually stated the gross value sent out of the United Kingdom; but he had ascertained to what particular country every parcel of cotton manufactures was sent during 1853; he was thus able to show the value of the goods sent to each country, and by comparing that with the population, and ascertaining the amount per head, we should be able to define more correctly than upon any other principle the extent of our trade with any particular country.

"In the British dependencies in the East Indies we had a population of 150 millions; and the value of cotton manufactures exported to them in 1853 was £5,680,000, or equal to 9d. per head. To Russia, with its population of 67,000,000, our exports amounted to £180,000, or equal to 6-10d. per head; but to those parts of Russia supplied through ports in the Black Sea, with a population of 3,000,000, our exports amounted to £13,000, or 14d. per head. France had 36,000,000 (or nearly 37,000,000) of population; and to France, in 1853, we sent cotton manufactures to the value of £155,710, or at the rate of 1d. per head. To British North America, with a population of 2,456,000, we exported £749,000 worth of cotton manufactures; which was equivalent to 6s. 14d. per head. The United States, with a population of 27,000,000, took to the value of £4,182,901, or at the rate of 3s. 1d. per head. By the assistance of his friend, Mr. John Leisler, of this city, an eminent foreign merchant, he had been enabled to approximate as nearly as possible to the value of cotton manufactures consumed in Great Britain and Ireland; and he found that while our exports amounted to £32,712,000, we retained at home not less than £21,224,000 worth of cotton manufactures showing that the people of the United Kingdom consumed our staple manufacture at the rate of 15s. 5d. per head per annum. The result in gross was this: "To the population of the globe, about 850,000,000, Great Britain supplied cotton manufactures to the extent of very

nearly £54,000,000 sterling, being an average of 1s. 34d. per head. The £53,000,000 or £54,000,000 sterling representing the products of the cotton industry of Great Britain and Ireland, might be regarded as one-half the cotton industry of the world. Foreign countries, besides taking one-half of the raw cotton sent into the market, received large supplies of cotton yarn from Great Britain; and in Asia and Africa cotton was still largely spun by hand. Hence the cotton industry of the world might be valued at £120,000,000 sterling, which would give an average consumption per year, for every man, woman and child upon the globe, 2s. 93d. worth of cotton manufactures, or about fourteen yards each per annum of excellent calico."

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

EDUCATION IN TEXAS.

Texas has one of the largest school funds in the Union, as appears from section 1 of the school law of Texas, which reads as follows:

"SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the State of Texas, That the sum of two millions of dollars of the five per cent. bonds of the United States, now remaining in the treasury of the State, be set apart as a school fund for the support and maintenance of public schools, which shall be called the special school fund, and the interest arising therefrom shall be apportioned and distributed for the support of schools as herein provided."

The State is divided into school districts, with three trustees to each. The chief justice and county commissioners constitute a board of school commissioners for each county, whose duty it shall be, during the year eighteen hundred and fiftyfour, to form their respective counties into school districts of convenient size, and number the same, so that each district in a county shall be known by its appropriate number. Provided, however, that in forming said districts the convenience of neighborhoods shall be regarded as much as possible, and each school district shall contain a sufficient number of children for the maintenance of a school.

It is the duty of the assessor and collector of each county in the State to make out a list of all the free white population in his county between the ages of six and sixteen years, particularly designating the number of persons between such ages in each school district, and transmit the same under his

hand and official signature to the county clerk of the county, and a certified copy thereof to the treasurer of the State, on or before the first day of July, in each and every year.

The fund is distributed to each county "according to the number of its population of scholastic age," between six and sixteen. The money is applied only to the payment of teachers. Each county must furnish its own school-house and fixtures before it can draw any of the fund. If the fund is inadequate to pay the teachers, the trustees are required to collect the balance from the patrons of the school.

The treasurer of the State is ex officio superintendent of the common schools. The law reads as follows:

"SEC. 16. That the treasurer of the State shall be ex officio superintendent of the common schools in this State, and it shall be his duty, immediately after the first day of September, in each and every year, to record the abstracts of children of lawful age in the different counties and apportion the moneys as herein contemplated, distributing to the several counties the amount to which each is entitled, according to its scholastic population, ascertained in the manner herein prescribed, and also for the amount due for the tuition of children exempt from tuition fees; and it shall further be the duty of the treasurer of the State to provide the necessary record books, to be by him kept exclusively for recording abstracts, as herein contemplated, and keeping a full and perfect account of all investments and moneys belonging, or in any way appertaining, to the common school fund of this State, and all apportionments and distributions of money by him made for common school purposes; and he shall report to the governor annually, on or before the 1st day of October, the condition of the common school fund, and also make to each regular session of the legislature such suggestions in relation to the common school system as may be deemed advisable; that the fiscal scholastic year shall commence on the 1st day of September, and end on the 1st day of August in each and every year, from and after the 1st day of September next."

COAL TRADE OF PITTSBURG.

According to a report read before the Pittsburgh Board of Trade, the amount of coal shipped from that port during the year ending September 1st, 1855, was 14,140,048 bushels floated in boats and flats, 507,277 bushels by canal, and 19,114,450 bushels in barges towed by steam tugs,-making an aggregate of 33,761,775 bushels.