CONGRESS. Before this number of the Magazine can reach our subscribers, Congress will have adjourned,-both Houses having passed a joint resolution for adjourning on the 30th day of June. Perhaps there has never been a session of this body, during which so little has been effected. Important subjects have been before it, but few of them have been brought to maturity. On every topic introduced, susceptible of a political bearing, the different parties have availed themselves of the opportunity to introduce their partizan politics. Discussions, all but endless, have ensued; and thus seven months have passed away, with no benefit to the country, and probably but little profit to individuals.

Among the most prominent incidents connected with the proceedings of Congress, not recorded in our last, are the Reports of the Committee, appointed to investigate the affairs of the Bank of the United States, made to the House of Representatives, and those made to the Senate by the Committee which had in charge certain resolutions relating to the affairs of the Post-Office Department. A majority of the committee last mentioned, reported a statement, of which the following is an abstract:

The report sets out with stating, as the result of the investigations by the committee, that the Department is largely insolvent. In addition to which, the committee report that the Postmaster General has, from time to time, borrowed large sums of money for the use of the Post-Office, without any authority of law. Some of these loans, it is stated, were made during the last session of Congress, at the commencement of which the Postmaster General had reported the Department to be in possession of a considerable surplus of funds. The report goes on to state the debts and credits of the department, as nearly as can be ascertained, whereby it appears that the General Post-Office is insolvent by eight hundred and three thousand six hundred and tweny-five dollars beyond all its resources.

Comparing the expenses of the Post-Office establishment for four years preceding the commencement of the present administration, with the four years following them, it is stated by the Committee that the expense of the last four years, exceeded that of the preceding four years, by three millions three hundred and thirty-eight thousand dollars. Within the last term of four years, it is true, some few mail routes have been established; but their aggregate expense bears but a very small proportion to the amount of the excess thus ascertained. This

excess of expenditure, and consequent insolvency of the Post-Office, is mainly attributed to mal-administration and favoritism in the making of contracts and extra allowances, of which the Report goes on to spread out in détail a number of particular cases, as a sample of the whole.

The Report declares the reports, statements and estimates of the officers of the Post-Office to be so erroneous and defective as little to be relied upon; so little, that unfavorable as are the conclusions which the committee arrives at, it is more probable that they fall far short of, rather than exceed, the reality. In proof of which, among other circumstances, it is stated that in the number of miles in a year traveled by the mails, as detailed in the annual report of the Postmaster-General, there is, by accurate computation, error to the amount of no less than seven millions two hundred thousand miles. The report points out also many discrepancies between the statements in the Blue Book (thus designating the biennial report of official expenses made to Congress) and official and other statements, as to the amounts of contracts, extra allowances, and contingent expenses, showing great inaccuracy and confusion in the accounts and administration of the Department.

The report also condemns the practice, which is proved to have prevailed, of pledging the Department for loans obtained by contractors, and in turn making use of the names of contractors to obtain money for the use of the Department. In connection with which, the committee allude to certain money transactions between contractors and individuals in office in the Department, which have come out in evidence before the committee, and which they particularize, but submit without comment to the Senate.

The contingent expenditures of the Department, the allowances of money to traveling agents, the payment of money to printers in various shapes, the employment of printers as contractors, &c. and other matters which "bring the patronage of the Government in conflict with the freedom of election," are handled with great force and some severity by the committee: and the Report ends, with a series of resolutions declaratory of errors, abuses, and defects, mostly imputable to the administration of the PostOffice, but in part also inherent in the system itself, which, in the opinion of the committee, have increased, are increasing, and ought to be diminished.

The minority of the committee at the same time, submitted a counter-statement, giving a view of the affairs of the department somewhat different from this, but admitted a deficiency in the finances of about $300,000.

The Bank Reports, so called, submitted to the House of Representatives, from their peculiar character, will not admit of an intelligible abridgement. The report of the majority attributes to the Directors of the United States Bank a variety of illegal and improper acts,

and closes with resolutions, declaring the charter to be forfeited, and instructing the Speaker of the House to issue his warrant, to bring the President and Directors to the bar of the House, to answer for a contempt of that body. The minority Report justifies the Bank, declares the proceedings of the House and Committee inconsistent with the Charter of the Bank, and the constitutional and legal privileges of the institution.

The discussions, which have grown out of the Removal of the Deposites of Public Money from the United States Bank, either directly or indirectly, have consumed more than half the time actually spent in debate, in both Houses. The Memorials and Petitions, from various parts of the Union, having reference to the same topic, have been almost

innumerable. Two Resolutions passed the Senate, the one declaring the reasons of the Secretary of the Treasury for the removal of the Public Deposites from the Bank of the United States to be unsatisfactory and insufficient, and the other requiring the deposites of public money to be hereafter deposited in the Bank of the United States. These, on coming up in the House of Representatives, were ordered to lie on the table.

AMERICAN TONNAGE. From the Report of the Secretary of the Treasury recently made to Congress, the regis tered, enrolled, and licensed tonnage of the United States amounts to one million four hundred and thirty-nine thousand four hundred and fifty and 21-95 tons, divided among the states and territories as follows:

owns more than one quarter, and has the largest amount of tonnage of any state in the Union, having upwards of seventy-six thousand tons more than the state of New-York. [Morning Post.]

of this state convened at Concord, on NEW-HAMPSHIRE. The Legislature the first Tuesday in June. It appeared, on counting the votes for Governor, that the whole number given in was 30,173, of which the Hon. William Badger had 28,542. Jared Williams was chosen President of the Senate, and Charles G. Atherton Speaker of the House of Representatives. Governor Badger communicated a message to both Houses, which gives an encouraging view of the social, civil, and financial affairs of the state. The agency of the legislature in improving the literary and charitable institutions, and in equalizing the duties of the militia, is strongly recommended.

VERMONT. An Anti-Masonic State Convention, consisting of about two hundred delegates, assembled at Montpelier, in the month of May. One of the resolutions censures, in very animated terms, the conduct of the Federal Executive. On the question of adopting this resolution, a spirited debate arose. In opposition to the resolution, it was urged, that the purpose of the party was not to put down the National Administration, but Masonry; and that the consideration of National politics was foreign to the object of the Convention. On the other hand, it was urged that the party, acting in accordance with the great principle of maintaining the supremacy of the laws, must rebuke all infractions of them, from whatever quarter they may proceed. Motions to lay on the table and to recommit the resolution were rejected, and it was adopted with few dissenting voices. Another resolution declared that the Convention could not consider Masonry as abolished, until all the Masonic bodies in the state shall have followed the example of those which have surrendered their charters, with the intention of entirely dissolving their connexion with the institution.

BOSTON ACADEMY OF MUSIC. The anniversary of the Boston Academy of Music was celebrated on the last Wednesday in May. The exercises consisted of the reading of the Annual Report, and the performance of several pieces of music by about two hundred of the pupils. The report embraced a view of the comparative estimation in which vocal music has been held in this and

other countries and ages; the causes of the generally low condition of the science among us, and the remedies. In discussing these subjects a striking view was presented of the inaptitude of the style of singing commonly practised in our churches to produce the effect for which it is designed. Early instruction upon correct principles is chiefly to be relied on to reform this evil. The Academy has aimed to promote the knowledge and practice of vocal music among the young, and to make it a branch of common education. Its kindly influences upon the character of children, the aid which it lends to their progress in other studies, by affording an agreeable relaxation, while it trains them to habits of order, obedience, and union, have been proved, by the experience of the past year, in the schools into which it has been introduced; and from whose instructors ample testimonials to this effect were referred to in the report. The professors of the Academy have instructed 2200 pupils during the year, of which 1700 were children. The Academy have expended more than six hundred dollars in the support of schools for gratuitous instruction, in which sum no estimate is made of the time and labor of the professors.

PREMIUM ESSAYS. Notice was some time since given by John C. Spencer of Canandaigua, N. Y. Benjamin F. Butler of Albany, and Philo C. Fuller of Genesee, that a deposite had been made with the Life Insurance and Trust Company of the city of New-York, subject to their control, for the purpose of procuring essays or lectures, on various subjects connected with scientific education, to be read in the common schools of the state. For the best series, on the application of science to the useful arts, they offer a premium of $200; on the principles of legislation, of $100; on the intellectual, moral and religious education of youth by common schools, the duty of affording such instruction, and the improvement of which the system is susceptible, of $250; on agriculture and horticulture, of $100; on political economy, of $100; and on astronomy, chemistry, mechanics, electricity, and magnetism, of $200. The time, within which these essays will be received, is now extended to the 1st of June next. The object is to obtain such as will excite attention and inquiry on the part of youthful minds, by striking and plain illustrations, dwelling rather on general principles and results than entering into minute details.

NEW ARTICLE OF TRAFFIC. The inhabitants of two or three of the lower towns in Barnstable county, Ms. have been engaged, for some time past, in collecting the bark of the root of the bayberry or wax-bearing myrtle, and deriving from the sale of it, a very handsome profit. The bark of the root, is valued by the druggist and compounder of medicines, for various uses, but principally for what are called hot medicines. The manner of preparing it for the market is very simple. The root is dug from the earth, and the bark cleaned of all filth, when it is removed from the stock, and perfectly dried. It is valued from two to three cents per pound; and, on reasonable calculation, it is presumed that Harwich, Chatham, and Orleans, have realized nearly one thousand dollars from its sale.

There are several species of this shrub, and it is to be found in almost all parts of North-America. The favorite soil for its growth, is light sandy land. The species above mentioned is generally known by the name of bayberry.

AMERICAN MAMMOTH. Professor Silliman of Yale College has recently delivered a course of lectures on geology, at Hartford. In the course of one of them he exhibited to his audience one of the joints of the back-bone of a huge Mastodon, or American Mammoth, recently discovered in excavating a raceway, in the western part of Berlin. The Connecticut Courant states that "the bone was in fine preservation, the principal change being in the color. It was probably one of the joints near the loins, where the back-bone (from this specimen) must have been about eighteen inches in circumference. This joint

has a bone rising from the top of the vertebral column, about fourteen inches, and sloping backward at an angle of twenty-five or thirty degrees. From the perfect condition of the bone thus accidentally discovered, there is reason to believe that a complete skeleton may be recovered, by a persevering and diligent search in the morass where the specimen in question was found. Such

a skeleton would be a noble memorial

of the vast animals which once roamed through New-England."

LEAD. The Galenian furnishes a ta

ble of the quantity of lead annually

made at the lead mines of the United States, from their first opening in 1821 to 1833 inclusive. The statement contains a remark, that the lead is less abundant this spring than at any preceding time, and that, comparatively