In The annexation of the Floridas and Louisiana has added an immense seacoast to the Union, but the shipping has not increased.* It is to be remarked, however, that, owing to various improvements and the general peace, vessels perform voyages in much less time than was required thirty years ago. 1807 the registered tonnage was 984,269, and the tons entered in the year, 1,088,876, being but little more than an average of one voyage per annum. The registered tonnage in 1846 was 937,901, and there entered in the year, 2,151,114 tons, being a little more than two voyages in the year. This increase of trade has barely sufficed to transport the increasing crops of cotton. In 1807 the cotton exported was equal to 50,000 tons measurement; in 1845 it was equal to 750,000 tons, which leaves but an increase of 300,000 tons for all the remaining business of the Union. The consequence of this state of affairs is that strangulation of trade now presented for want of shipping. The demands of Europe for farm produce are immense, and the surplus ready to be sent forward is equal to them, yet there is no adequate means of transportation. The exports of the two articles of wheat and corn from the port of New-York alone, from January 1 to November 24, were 270,091 quarters more than last year, and required 40,000 tons of shipping for the transportation. As, however, the insurance companies refuse to take risks on a vessel loaded more than half with grain in bulk, it requires 80,000 tons. This extra demand had the effect of raising freights to such an exorbitant rate, as to deprive the farmer of all benefit from the foreign demand. Ships charged 30 cents a bushel for grain, and $1 32 for a barrel of flour. The inland freights were no less exorbitant, by reason of the press of business, with an inadequate supply of the means of transportation. Of what benefit is it to the Ohio farmer that flour is $7 in Liverpool, if it costs $4 to get it there? This inadequacy of means has resulted necessarily and directly from the discouragement of commerce under the protective system. Prior to 1828 the amount of tonnage lost at sea, condemned and sold to foreigners, was not deducted from the amount annually reported registered. In 1829 that deduction took place to the extent of 156,315 TABLE SHOWING THE REGISTERED TONNAGE EMPLOYED IN THE FOREIGN TRADE AND WHALING-THE ENROLLED AND LICENSED EMPLOYED IN COASTING TRADE, FISHERIES AND STEAMBOATS. 1836.. ..753,094.. ..144,680.. .127,241. 54,036..... 101,796. .....610,654 453,926.. .63,052. ..98,322. ....615,300 ..575,087.. ...68,568.....107,670.. ..751,325 .752,454 ....642,892.....101,306.....111,924................. ..856,122 ..665,120.....127,181.....136,817. 727,921..... .145,102.....111,304.. ..901,468 ....929,118 ..984 327 803,320.. 153,660.....129,257......1,086,237 .119,629.......850.473.....190,632..... 131,942. .661,144.....122,474.....117,850. .131,845.. ..136,926.. ..157,405.. .932,725.....174,342..... 77,873.. .151,612.......820,704.....225,049..... 71,278......1,117,031 1843.......851,551....5,373....152,374. .844,661 73,142......1,149,297 1844.......893,561....6,909....168,293.......844,345.....265,269.....101,715......1,211,319 1845.......897,985....6,491....190,695.. ...903,691.....319,527......98,610......1,321 828 1846.......937,019....6,286....186,980.... .948,264.....341,606.....108,979......1,399,290 .1,173,047 .963,673.....189,878... .108,682. ..1,262,233 ..978,510.....198,184.....104,304......1,280,998 .1,184,930 .231,494... registered, 313,832 enrolled; and in 1830 a further reduction of 63,108 tons registered, and 26,199 enrolled, was made. These reductions are apparent in the table. Such a reduction had previously been made in 1818, and the figures for 1821 are nearly accurate. After the year 1828 the reduction was made annually, and allowance made for enrolled vessels that took out registers. The only actual decrease in tonnage is in the bounty-fed cod and mackerel fisheries. In the nineteen years embraced in the table, this branch of industry received from the government $5,700,000 in bounties, or more than the value of the whole tonnage in the business!—a remarkable instance of the evil influence of protection; all the other branches of commerce, particularly the whaling and steam interests, were exposed to onerous protective taxes on iron, cordage, &c. The whaling tonnage, under every disadvantage, has increased 700 per cent.; and the tonnage employed in the foreign trade has grown 40 per cent., while the coasting tonnage, including sloops and canal boats, has but doubled in a period when the population and surface of settled country has doubled and trade quadrupled.— When we reflect that, according to the census, out of 5,000,000 active persons in the United States, 3,700,000 are employed in the production of bulky articles of transportation, and that necessarily every additional bushel of grain, bale of cotton, ton of coal, or hhd. of tobacco produced, must enhance the demand for inland tonnage, if there is any market to which to send it, we become struck with the importance of cheap transportation. If there is no market, or the expense of sending thither is too great, there is no transportation. In the period embraced in the table, the Erie Canal has been built, and from 1825 to 1845 its business increased to 1,977,565 tons. The arrivals of produce at New-Orleans, from the western states, have more than quadrupled, and the steam tonnage on the lakes and western waters vastly increased. At the south the crop of cotton has increased from 700,000 to 2,400,000 bales, requiring 500,000 tons of internal tonnage additional; or, to recapitulate these items, cotton has increased 1,400,000 bales, equal to 280,000 tons weight; Pennsylvania coal 2,500,000 tons; and Erie Canal tonnage, say 2,000,000 in round numbers-making of three items an aggregate of 4,780,000 tons more transportation than in 1825! All these elements have failed to add to the coasting tonnage more than 400,000 tons for the whole Union; this is partly owing to the greater activity of vessels and to railroads. The Reading Railroad carries nearly half the coal. The reason is very apparent, in the burdens that ship-builders have been subjected to, under the tariff, on the materials employed, and the discouragement the employment of ships has met with from the operation of the tariff, in not only taking from them their home freights, but by gradually discouraging exports. Navigation, which is simply the transportation of articles to be sold and goods brought back in exchange, cannot exist where the government avowedly enacts laws to prevent that exchange. In the first place, in relation to ship-building, the following is a statement of the dutiable material used in the construction of a ship of 500 tons, with the English duties as compared with those of the United States : ENGLISH AND AMERICAN DUTIES ON THE MATERIAL OF A SHIP OF 500 Tons. The American builder suffers a tax of $1,842, or $3 50 per ton more than the British ship-manufacturer on the same articles; and this is done by Congress to "protect" him! The dear ships of the U. States are sent upon the ocean loaded with a tax four times as large as that on British ships, to compete with them. They, it appears, are in consequence forced to come home with a coal ballast. After the vessels are built, they are to be employed, and Congress enacts a tariff avowedly to prevent foreign goods from coming into the country in competition with those of domestic growth. Here, then, is one-half of the means of employing the shipping sought to be cut off.— Gradually it is found, that as the proceeds of produce sold abroad cannot be got back on favorable terms, less is exported; the other half of the business begins to decline, freights fall, and vessels are sold to foreigners and cease to be built. The cotton trade has alone maintained the external commerce of the Union for the last twenty years; and now, when a demand for tonnage to transport farm produce springs up, it cannot be obtained in adequate supply. The progress of ship-building in the United States, and the quantity annually sold abroad to foreigners, lost at sea and condemned, is seen in the annexed compilation from the careful reports of the Treasury Department.* It is remarkable in this table, that the only years in which there was an actual decrease of tonnage, were the first two years of the operation of the tariff of 1828, viz.: in 1829 and 1830, and in 1843, when the present tariff came into operation. This is, at least, a most remarkable coincidence. It is further observable, that in 1828-'9, the sales of ships to foreigners were much larger than usual; and in 1843, they were 16 per cent. larger than in 1842, the new tariff having diminished their employment. In 1840-'1, the tonnage sold to foreigners was larger, because the Russian and Mexican vessels, built here by order of those governments, went to swell the amount. The tonnage built in 1843 was smaller in that year than in any one year since 1829. The anti-commercial policy of the Government in 1843, and the indirect taxes upon ship building, discouraged the construction of vessels, either for sale or employment. Again, it is observable that when a modification of the tariff, on compromise principles, became certain in 1832, the process of ship building went on with a vigor greater than ever. The same result was apparent after the election of 1844. Let us now turn to the enrolled tonnage, and we shall find the same features presented in a most remarkable manner. In the year 1829, the first of the operation of the tariff of 1828, a smallest amount of tonnage was built than in any year of the series down to 1843, the first of the operation of the tariff of 1842, when the tonnage built was less than ever. The embargo upon our external trade operates, of course, like a charm in sinking freights, and diminishing the demand for vessels. At such times, as many as possible are sold abroad, for the trade of other countries, and the "manufacture" ceases. What benefit do the growers of hemp, or the makers of cordage and cables, derive from this state of things? Is it an object to make expensive ships to be kept afloat empty? Assuredly not. Under the new tariff the taxes are diminished. Hence the legitimate desire to build more ships. It appears above that it requires 1000 lbs. of hemp per ton burthen. The registered and enrolled tonnage built in 1842, amounted to 129,083 tons, requiring 3,227 tons of hemp. The tonnage built in 1843 sunk under the tariff to 63,617, requiring but 1,580 tons hemp, a decreased demand of 1,647 tons, a very sufficient cause for the fall in price, which was as follows: In 1845, there were 146,017 tons built, requiring 3,504 tons of hemp, an increased demand of 2,000 tons hemp over 1843. Hence the advance in price. While the use of hemp is thus discouraged, Congress puts a tax upon the foreign article to encourage the grower. Suppose Congress, imitating the act of Parliament, of 1750, should enact a sumptuary law prohibiting the use, in the United States, of printed cotton goods for dresses, and should then impose a tax upon the foreign article to protect the domestic printer! would home industry be much encouraged? The high duties imposed by the tariff of 1842, upon canvass, hemp, and cordage, induced ships to buy their sails and rigging abroad. The growers of American hemp finding the demand decreased, asked for protection, when they meant increased consumption. This latter will inevitably result from the high freights now being obtained for produce to Europe. Congress can do nothing in the premises but to remove restrictions upon the homeward cargoes of vessels, and thereby encourage their demand for hemp. Through all departments of industry the same leprosy runs. All manufacturers want to make small quantities at high prices, because the triple saving of raw material, manual labor and transportation, flow from such a result of protection. Without protection they have to turn attention to such improvements as will enable them to "indemnify themselves by larger quantities at less prices," as the Courier judiciously expresses it. The effect of present freights will doubtless be under the new tariff to multiply shipping, both internal and external, until they fall to a proper level, by which means the farmer will obtain his share of the profits on exports. If, however, by any means a change in the now liberal policy of the government should be attempted, the same paralysis will again overtake shipping that the above table indicates, as the consequence of the tariff of 1828 and 1842. It is a self-evident fact, that produce cannot be permanently exported in any quantities, unless the proceeds return in the shape of the products of foreign industry. For one year, specie may answer, but not longer. The whole welfare of the farmers and planters, the revenues of the states, and the credit of many of them, depend on the perpetuity of the low tariff, that shipping may increase, and the produce of the United States flow freely into the lap of Europe. THE LIFE OF GOETHE. In an article in our last number, on the " Autobiography of Goethe," recently issued in the excellent series of "Books which are Books," by Wiley & Putnam, we promised to recur to the subject, and we now proceed to redeem our pledge. It will be impossible, however, by any such rapid sketch as is suitable to the pages of a magazine, to convey to the reader the remotest conception of the exceeding fullness and richness of Goethe's own masterly outline of his career. He talks truly, as Mr. Carlyle says, like a patriarch instructing his children-genially-sometimes, we might say, even garrulously, but always pleasantly, and with a most charming simplicity and naiveté. Having reached an extreme old age, and been acknowledged universally as the great Corypheus of German literature-the finest modern literature of the world-his friends and admirers, consisting almost of the entire German nation, were naturally desirous that he should relate the history of his life. This he undertook willingly; and as his life spread over the whole period during which German letters were born and had grown into maturity, he was obliged to interweave with his narrative frequent delineations of his most celebrated contemporaries. All the causes that conspired to modify the aspects of general history are touched upon, as well as the local and individual circumstances that controlled his destiny. We do not hesitate to say, that his account of himself is one of the best autobiographies extant, and is, in fact, not only an elaborate portrait of the author himself, but a complete picture-gallery of most of the literary dignities of his father-land. Goethe's natural endowments and earlier circumstances were alike adapted to the developement of the Poet. Frankfort-his birthplace-pleasantly seated amid gardens and green fields on the silver-flowing Maine, while bristling with ancient associations, was beginning to be animated with modern activity. Its fairs and coronations; its quaint old customs and fantastic parades; its cloisters, and trenches, and walls, mouldering away with their forgotten uses, contrasted strangely with the bustle of commerce, just awakening from its medieval sleep. Such a blending of imperial and courtly splendors with the substantial, sturdy enterprize of free-burghers, might have impressed any imagination; but on such an one as we have now, to deal with, its effects were peculiarly striking. Our little Wolfgang, with an organization so sensitive, that already, in his ninth week, as Bettina amusingly tells us, he had strange troubled dreams, who could be convulsed by a look at the moon, and whom the presence of any deformity vehemently moved, yet passionately affectionate withal, and insatiable in his thirst for nursery rhymes and tales, (of which the good mother had an abundance,) was richly nourished and expanded by both the gloom and the glitter of his native city. A genial, black-haired, black-eyed, handsome child, he absorbed all influences with a keen relish, yet in calm thoughtfulness. The healthful soul in his vigorous body accepted whatever life presented with grateful joy. For the most part, he saw existence on the sunnier side, in long rambles into the country with cheerful friends; in rural avocations and sports; in views of art; in coronation-magnificence, and in the various pleasures that wait on competence; yet the darker aspects were not wanting, as we find, in those fearful visits to the Jews quarter; in the skulls of state criminals, grinning from the highways; in the burnings of books; in the seven years' war, with its excitements and |