CONTENTS OF NO. III., VOL. XXXV. ARTICLES. ART. I. WESTWARD SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. PAGE. 275 By E. L. MAGOON, D. D., of IL FIRES IN CITIES-LONDON AND NEW YORK. Peculiar Service and Peculiar Danger of Fire to Enlightened Communities-Advantages of great Commercial Cities illustrated by their rapid recovery from the effects of Conflagrations-Statistics of Fire in New York and London-Causes of the Disparity-Manner and material of building -Fire-proof Securities-Comparative use of Fire by their Populations-Lights-Official and Popular Carelessness-Use of Fire in Celebrations-Fires of July-Water advantages of the two Cities-Fire Departments-Public Discipline-Life Destruction--Preservers The Cause of the Causes. By ENOCH HALE, Jr., Esq., of New York......... 280 III. TRIAL BY JURY IN COMMERCIAL CASES. BY WILLIAM H. DE FOREST, Esq., of New York.. 302 IV. SOUTHERN RIGHTS AND UNION CONGRESS. By COL. WM. S. RAND, of New York 309 V. THE LUMBER BUSINESS IN THE STATE OF MAINE: Being an Acco nt of the mode of procuring Timber and Boards, commonly called Lumbering or Logging, in the principal Timber Regions of Maine ..... 314 819 VI. UNIFORM SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW: EMBRACING A FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC., ILLUSTRA TED WITH TABLES, ETC., AS FOLLOWS: Condition of the Money Market-Collections and Payments-Country Speculations-Movement of the Crops-Statement of the Deficiency in Breadstuffs in Europe and sources of SupplyA higher Standard of Inspection for Flour needed-The Stock Market-Loans taken and proposed-The Bank Movement-Receipts and Coinage of Gold - Imports and Exports at New York for July, and for Seven Months from January 1st-Imports of Dry Goods, and Exports of Domestic Produce. &c 327-335 New York Cotton Market. By CHARLES W. FREDERICKSON, Broker, of New York........... 835 VOL. XXXV.-NO. III. 18 PAGE. JOURNAL OF BANKING, CURRENCY, AND FINANCE. Gold and Paper Money-Excepted Errors.. The Mint of the United States ................. STATISTICS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE. Statistics of the Coffee Trade Production of Flour in 18 6 ............. Imports of Breadstuffs into the United Kingdom.-The Commerce of Algeria...... NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. Nautical Invention-Wrecks-Alarms Mediterranean Sea: Gallipoli, Dardanelles.-Fanar Bakcheh, Skutari.-Anadoli Light, Bosphorus.. Rumilli Light, Bosphorus.-Fidonisi Light, Black Sea Pontaillac Light, Kiver Gironde, France.-Red Light at the Narrows, Boston Harbor Fog Bells on Mount Desert and Matinicus Rocks, Coast of Maine.-Calibogue Sound LightVessel.-Gay Head Lighthouse, Martha's Vineyard Sound.-Buoy on Cross Ledge Shoal, Delaware Bay Notice to Mariners.-Lighthouse on Chandeleur Island, Coast of Louisiana ......... RAILROAD, CANAL, AND STEAMBOAT STATISTICS. Act of Louisiana relating to Steamboats.. 851 351 852 352 853 354 855 The Railroads of the United Kingdom in 1855.. Tolls, Trade, and Tonnage of the New York Canals. 855 857 858 COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS. Law of Limited Partnership in the State of Illinois......................... 860 JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES. Manufacture of Bibles in Philadelphin-Hardings' Publication Office Bullock's Blood pressed into Cakes for Sugar Refining.-Alumina in Soapstone... POSTAL DEPARTMENT. Information for Letter Writers, etc.-Instructions to Postmasters 370 Rates of Postage to Foreign Countries-East Indies, Java, Borneo, Labuan, Sumatra, etc., etc.. 872 STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE, &c. The Largest Nursery in the World 368 369 369 870 Does Wealth lead to the Physical Enervation of a Country?-Fine Crusted Old Port 880 881 382 883 384 885 386 387 888 389 890 391 392 893 894 THE BOOK TRADE. Notices of new Books or new Editions... 895-400 HUNT'S MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE AND COMMERCIAL REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1856. Art. I.-WESTWARD SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. EXACTLY at the era when the great European race was dismembered, the Latin tongue was disused. This had formerly been the universal tie between dissimilar tribes, and when it was sundered by such men as Dante, who rose to stamp the seal of their genius upon the idiom of the common people, science soared sublimely amid the new growth of national languages, and became the supreme and most universally uniting bond. When Italy had gradually become nationalized as one Italy, Spain as one Spain, Germany as one Germany, France as one France, and Britain as one Great Britain; and when that still mightier process of civilization, the Reformation, had supervened, ecclesiastical union was destroyed, and then it was that enlarged invention came to the rescue and supplied the conservative influence which was most in demand. Increased ardor in the pursuit of knowledge led to wider and more frequent intercommunications both mental and physical, while these in turn were encouraged and protected by the improved polity of aspiring States. A new voice even more cosmopolitic than contemporaneous creeds broke upon the roused and exulting peoples saying, "One is your master, Thought, and all ye are brethren!" Sciences lead most directly, and with greatest efficiency to general views; and, above all, natural law, that science which treats of inherent and universal rights, arose and was cultivated with propitious zeal. The dawn was begun, and the noon was not far off when in central Europe a great proficient in universal history could say: "The barr ers are broken, which severed States and nations in hostile egotism. One cosmopolitic bond unites at present all thinking minds, and all the light of this century may now freely fall upon a new Galileo or Erasmus." From the sixth to the fourteenth century the science of government, as laid down by Justinian, was illustrated by the labors and comments of numerous celebrated jurisconsults. The Byzantine legislation yielded on two essential points to the influence of Christianity. The institution of marriage, which in the Code and Pandects was only directed by motives of policy, assumed, in 911, a legal religious character; and domestic slavery disappeared gradually, to be replaced by serfdom. A charter was even granted to the serfs by the emperor Emanuel Comnenus in 1143. Irnerius, at the beginning of the twelfth century, opened the first lawschool in his native city, Bologna, and thenceforth that science absorbed republican intellects, and led to a clearer defining of civil rights. A passion for this study possessed even the gentler sex; as in the case of Novella Andrea da Bolonga, who was competent to fill the professor's chair during her father's absence, and delivered eloquent lectures on arid law. Sybillike, she took care to screen her lovely face behind a curtain, "lest her beauty should turn those giddy young heads she was appointed to edify and enlighten." Modeled after this pattern, law-schools spread widely, and the study of the Lombard and Tuscan municipal constitutions eventually roused the European communities to break the bonds of feudalism. The principle of personal and political freedom so indelibly rooted in each individual consciousness respecting the equal rights of the whole human race, is by no means the discovery of recent times. At the darkest hour of the middle period of history this idea of "humanity" in no mean degree existed, and began to act slowly but continuously in realizing a vast brotherhood in the midst of our race, a unit impelled by the purpose of attaining one particular object, namely, the free development of all the latent powers of man, and the full enjoyment of all his rights. In this department, as in all the rest, Florence was the seat of supreme mental power during the age of Leo X.; she fostered the genius which spread widely in beauty and might. In the fifteenth century, an ancient and authentic copy of the Justinian constitutions was captured at Pisa, and given by Lorenzo de Medici to the custody of Politiano, the most distinguished mediaeval professor of legal science. He corrected numerous manuscripts, supervised the publication of repeated editions, and prepared the way for all the great improvements which, in his profession, have since been made. Politiano and Lorenzo, as they together took daily exercise on horseback, were wont to converse on their morning studies, and this was characteristic of the intellectual life of that age and city. The vivifying light which began to pour on a hemisphere was especially concentrated on the Tuscan capital, and all the sciences simultaneously awoke from torpor under the invigorating beams. Like a sheltered garden in the opening of spring, Florence re-echoed with the earliest sounds of returning energy in every walk of scientific invention. The absurdities of astrology were exposed, and legitimate deduction was substituted in the place of conjecture and fraud. Antonio Squarcialupi excelled all his predecessors in music, and Francesco Berlinghieri greatly facilitated the study of geography. Lorenzo de Medici himself gave especial attention to the science of medicine, and caused the most eminent professors to prosecute their researches under the auspices of his name and bounty. Paolo Toscanelli erected his celebrated Gnomen near the Platonic academy; and Lorenzo da Volpaja constructed for his princely namesake a clock, or piece of mechanism, which not only marked the hours of the day, but the motions of the |