It was therefore to be considered as payable in cash, and therefore negotiable. Verdict for plaintiffs on the first check, $5,690; and on the second check, $4,700. INSURANCE-DAMAGE BY COLLISION. A case was decided in Louisiana, several months ago, involving an interesting point of law, upon which there seems to be some difference of opinion, even among those "who ought to know." It was a libel, filed by the owners of the ship Harriet, against the ship Louisville, for damages done to the Harriet by the careless or negligent conduct on board the Louisville, when she was lying at anchor outside the bar, at the mouth of the southwest pass, one of the outlets of the Mississippi river, by which collision the Harriet was injured in the sum of $2,701 07. It appeared at the trial, before Mr. Justice M'Kinley, that the Harriet was outwardbound, and came to anchor immediately in the thoroughfare of one of the passes; and that, too, after having been run foul of by another vessel, while at anchor about a year before, in the same place. She was run foul of by the Louisville; the latter having drifted and become unmanageable by the wind dying away. Upon these facts, the judge decided that, even if it had been possible to have avoided the collision-had everything been done that it was possible to do on board the Louisville-yet, so far as the Harriet was concerned, the Louisville was entitled to the full use of the thoroughfare of the pass. The master of the Harriet, having obstructed it, with a full knowledge of the danger of doing so, was guilty of such misconduct as to deprive the owners of the Harriet of any right of action against the owners of the Louisville. The court admitted that if a ship be at anchor, with no sails set, in a proper place for anchoring, and another ship, under sail, occasions damage to her, the latter is liable. But the place where the Harriet was at anchor was an improper place, and her owners must abide the consequences of the conduct of the master. The owners of the Harriet, being dissatisfied with this decision, carried the case up to the Supreme Court of the United States, and it was argued at the last term of this court in Washington. The judges were equally divided in opinion; and, of course, the judgment of the court in Louisiana was not reversed. COMMON CARRIERS-TRANSPORTATION OF MERCHANDISE. In the District Court, Philadelphia, November, 1843, an action was brought by the individuals composing the Union Transportation Company vs. Charles Field & Son, to recover freight for the transportation of a large portion of one thousand and twenty-eight bags of coffee from New York to Philadelphia, and the delivery of the same, or the major part thereof, to the defendants. It appears that the coffee was delivered to the transportation company in separate parcels, and at different times, by Sheldon & Brother, of New York; and that one parcel, consisting of twenty-five bags, was destroyed at the New York wharf, by the sinking of one of the company's barges. The defendants claimed damages for the loss of this coffee, which was admitted to be of amount sufficient to defeat the present action. But unliquidated damages cannot defeat an action unless they arise out of the transaction upon which the suit is founded. The plaintiffs, therefore, contended that each shipment of coffee was a separate transaction, and excluded the damages of the lost goods from being set off against their claim for freight; while, on the other hand, the defendants labored to prove that the contract to transport the whole one thousand and twenty-eight bags was entire; that the sending it in parcels was only for the sake of convenience, and that any loss on any parcel ought, therefore, to be deducted from the whole amount of freight claimed. After the charge by Judge Jones, which sustained the points made by the defence, before reported, and after the jury had retired, the counsel for the plaintiffs withdrew the case, by suffering a non-suit. COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1842. WE are indebted to the politeness of the Hon. Levi Woodbury, United States senator from New Hampshire, for a copy of the "Report from the Secretary of the Treasury, communicating the annual statement of Commerce and Navigation of the United States for the year ending September 30th, 1842." From this report, it appears that the exports during the commercial year ending September 30, 1842, amounted to $104,691,534, of which $92,969,996 were of domestic, and $11,721,538 of foreign articles. Of domestic articles, $71,467,634 were exported in American vessels, and $21,502,362 in foreign vessels. Of the foreign articles, $8,425,389 were exported in American vessels, and $3,296,149 in foreign. The imports during the year have amounted to $100,162,087; of which there was imported in American vessels $88,724,280, and in foreign vessels $11,437,807. 1,510,111 tons of American shipping entered, and 1,536,451 tons cleared from the ports of the United States; 732,775 tons of foreign shipping entered, and 740,497 tons cleared during the same period. The registered tonnage during the same year is stated at. 975,358.74 1,045,753.39 Total tonnage,......................... Of registered and enrolled tonnage, amounting, as before stated, to.............. 71,278.51 2,092,390.64 2,021,112.18 151,612.74 The total tonnage of shipping built in the United States during the year ending on the 30th September, 1842, was as follows:-Registered,........................... Enrolled, Total,........... 54,532.14 74,551.50 129,083.64 In the Merchants' Magazine for November, 1843, (pp. 469, 470, and 471,) we gave, in advance of the appearance of the treasury report, the official statistical view of the imports from, and exports to, each foreign country; and also of the tonnage arriving at, and departing to, each foreign country during the year 1842. We now proceed to lay before our readers other condensed statements of our commerce and navigation, selected and compiled from the document before us, as follows: DOMESTIC EXPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Official summary statement of the value of the Exports, of the growth, produce, and manufacture of the United States, during the year commencing on the 1st day of October, 1841, and ending on the 30th day of September, 1842. COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES, 1842. The following table exhibits a comparative view of the commerce of the United States |