This cotton has been manufac- nite building of equal extent is not tured into about 70,500,000 yards of cloth, which has sold at about nine cents per yard, averaging the different qualities and prices, thus producing a gross sale of $6,450, 000. PUBLIC WORKS IN NARRAGANSETT BAY. An extensive plan for the defence of the waters of Narragansett Bay was projected, and carried on to some extent, under the last administration of the General Government. The plan embraced the erection of a formidable battery at Fort Adams, on the southerly part of Rhode Island, another at the Promontory of Canonicut Island, called the Dumplings, one at Tiverton Heights, on the Main, and a Dyke across the West Bay, between Canonicut and the Narragansett shore. The estimated expense of these works, which when completed would render the bay inaccessible to a hostile fleet, was $3,000,000. Of this amount about 780,000 dollars was assigned to Fort Adams, the only part of the plan which is now in actual execution. This work is situated on a point which projects in a northerly direction from the south-west point of Rhode Island, called Brenton's Neck. Between this point and the Promontory of Canonicut Island is the main entrance from the ocean to Narragansett East Bay, and Newport Harbor. The prin cipal battery encloses an area of twenty-seven acres, and is intend ed to mount three hundred and sixty pieces of ordnance. The wall is of hammered granite, surrounded by a glacis, or sloped bank of earth, and is, in most places, already carried to its intended height. It is adapted to two tiers of guns, and it is believed that a continuous mass of gra to be found in America. The whole rear is to be fitted for quarters for the officers and soldiers, on a scale for the accommodation of 6,000 troops. Some idea of the formidable obstruction which this work will offer to an invading fleet may be gathered from the fact, that, at the north front, ninety-five guns, mounted in a wall absolutely impregnable, can be brought to bear at once upon a ship, during her passage along a line of view sufficiently extensive to allow of repeated discharges at different angles, and within range. A GIANT.-July, 1831. The Pawtucket Journal of a late date says-We yesterday witnessed the disinterment of the Hon. Joseph Jenks, one of the first Governors of the colony of Rhode Island, who died on the 15th June, 1740, ninety-one years ago. The skeleton was nearly entire, and in a better state of preservation than could have been expected. GovJenks was probably the tallest man that ever lived in the State, standing, when living, seven feet and two inches, without his shoes. His thigh bones, when taken up, measured eighteen inches. BANKS. The following is the aggregate of the returns, from the fifty-one banks in this State, made to the General Assembly at the October session, 1831 : ernor Bills of other Banks Deposited in other Banks Bank and other Stocks R. S. Stock $6,732,296 53 1,290,603 17 179,552 97 112,261 49 1,342,326 50 853,298 69 697,921 13 6,695,505 74 425.692 38 257,792 95 323,035 66 245,775 60 28,025 59 Real Estate Personal Estate 252,163 14 8,453 68 From the above aggregate it report of October, 1830, is $743,appears that the increase of Bank 485-and since June, 1831, of Capital in this State, since the $32,625. double to the amount of the taxes imposed to pay all the expenses of the State government. STATE PRISON. -From the Report of the Directors that institution appears to be advancing in $1,659.08 21,842,56 prosperity. The old prison began 6,117,75 to be used as a place of confine4,779,58 ment for British captives and Duties on Licenses Tax on list of 1829 37,453,70 Tax on non-resident Bank Stock 1,340,62 tories, from 1775 to 1780, but Forfeited Bonds, &c. Balance in Treasury 1,760,42 it did not assume the denomina13,773,31 tion and character of the real $89,527,02 New-Gate until the year 1790. Early in the last century, as appears from the Colony Records, the mines in Granby were wrought in pursuits of copper ore, and it is ascertained from undoubted authority, that they were wrought with more or less success until the commencement of the revolutionary war. The State, soon after that event, purchased the principal cavern, and converted it into a prison. A resolution exists among our State records respecting the prisoners working the mines, and this affords some evidence, to say the least, that the government were induced to purchase, under the expectation, that the prisoners might be profitably employed in mining. But this idea, if it ever existed, was soon abandoned, and the prisoners were put to other employments. That prison was always an incubus upon the State, and often drew as much from the treasury, as all the outsets of the present establishment, and that at a time when the prisoners were only two fifths as numerous as at present. Public sentiment, which at first began to set slowly against the old prison, became a strong current in 1825 and 1826, and in the latter year the resolution was passed establishing the present prison. In December 1829, NewGate was sold under the hammer for about $1,200, and was subsequently purchased by the Phenix Mining Company, who are proceeding with a due share of circumspection in working the mines. From the statement of the Warden, it appears that the income of the Prison for the year ending March 31, 1831, consisted as follows, viz. Smiths' Shop Coopers' do. Shoe do. Nail do. ELECTIONS-April, 1831.-The whole delegation to Congress (opposition) was re-elected. lowest on that ticket 10,033 5,260 BRISTOL. In this town, which contains a population less than two thousand, thirty thousand clocks, of different kinds, have been made within the past year, $818 96 averaging at least eight dollars 852 19 each; at which rate, the manufac4,003 23 ture of clocks in that small town 527 84 brings in an annual income of' $240,000. Bristol contains two large factories for making brass clocks, in which about 800 hands are constantly employed. LEGISLATION.- At the May Session, 1830, the General Assembly passed thirty-nine acts of a public nature. Among them was one entirely remodelling the criminal law of the State. By it, capital offences were reduced to three-treason, murder, and arson causing death. Other offences are directed to be punished by confinement in the State Prison, either for life, or for a term of years, varying from two to ten years. An act was also passed, declaring all persons believing in the existence of a Supreme Being, to be competent witnesses in courts of justice. A tax of one third per cent. was imposed on the non-resident stockholders of Insurance Companies. All debtors who had been discharged from imprisonment, or who were not liable to it, were to be considered as absconding debtors, and the creditors in that suit were authorized to proceed against their property in the hands of an attorney or agent. VERMONT. No one having a majority, it became necessary for the Legislature, at the October Session, to choose a Governor, and on the 32d ballot, Mr. Crafts was elected. Samuel Prentiss (opposition,) was also chosen to represent the State in the Senate of the U. States. LEGISLATION. The most important act passed at that session of the Legislature, was one allow ing the defendants in judgments on contracts, to appear before the court during the term in which judgment is given, to be examined touching his property, and authorizing the court, after administering the oath of insolvency, to entering a record thereof, and no execution was to be afterwards issued on that judgment, against the person of the defendant. A law was also passed, by which the property of absent debtors was subject to attachment in the same manner as the property of absconding debtors. Persons imprisoned for torts, were to be allowed to take the benefit of the act for the relief of poor debtors, after having been imprisoned a reasonable time. Resolutions were also passed, non-concurring in the amendment proposed by the Legislature of Georgia to the Federal Constitution, by which the present mode of choosing the President was altered, so as to deprive the House of Representatives of the power of electing, in any event: and in an amendment proposed by the Legislature of Louisiana, extending the term of the President to six years, and to render him ineligible after the first term. At the election in 1831, the votes stood, for William A. Palmer (anti-mas.,) 15,258 Heman Allen (nat. repub.,) Ezra Meech (Jackson,) Scattering 12,990 6,158 270 The anti-masonic ticket for counsellors was elected; and the Legislature, upon the 9th ballot, elected Wm. A. Palmer Governor. FINANCES, The Report of the Treasury Department for the year ending September 30, 1831, was as follows: $59,391 1831, for the expenses of the government; and a tax of five per cent. on all stock owned by the inhabitants of Vermont in foreign banks. A law was also passed at the November session, 1831, to provide a safety fund for the State banks. By that law a tax of three fourths per cent. on 1,569 1,443 the capital stock of the banks was 199 to be levied annually, until four 369 and a half per cent. should be 3,463 paid into the treasury, to provide a 639 fund for the redemption of the 3,137 2,569 notes and debts of insolvent 4,408 banks. Whenever the bank fund should be reduced, by the demands $72,072 upon it, below four and a half per $12,443 cent. on the capital stock of the 4,138 contributing banks, the annual tax 17,337 of three fourths per cent. was to be 4,286 levied, until the deficiency should 240 be made up. Three bank com5,936 missioners were to be appointed to 2,404 examine the condition of the 9,586 2,475 banks, with power to apply to the Court of Chancery to close the 62,879 concerns of any bank, whose condition is suspected. The general 27,723 features of the system resemble 9,586 those of the New-York bank fund 37,309 system; for an account of which, 1,041 vide Vol. III. p. 26.] 2,550 36,268 May 10, 1831.-A steamboat, laden with merchandize, arrived at Windsor, on the Connecticut river. [A tax of three cents on the dollar, on the polls and rateable estate, was assessed on the list of Finances. For the year ending September, 1831. Principal and int. on do. of liter ature fund Principal and int. on loans to First payment on sales of lands 18,528,86 29,322 90 47,898 18 Fees from state offices 1,658 78 Bank fund 27,084 70 Receipts. Bank dividends 18,103 80 Canals, tolls, revenue, &c. $1,202,531,31 Principal and int. of the loan of 1792 39,604 35 for lands of the general fund 72,047 80 Ditto of the loan of 1808 49,616 35 Principal and int. on do. of com Arrears of county taxes and mon school fund 35,263 09 interest 30,279 87 |
