chased by him as the property of one of his debtors. The consignee, who resided in another state, having since died, plaintiff offered the clerk of the consignee as a witness. On an objection to his testimony, on the ground that his only knowledge of the matters in controversy, being derived from a correspondence between the plaintiff and consignee, not produced nor accounted for, was not the best evidence: Held, that his testimony was admissible, and that plaintiff cannot be supposed to have the means of procuring the books and papers of the deceased, nor the letters written to him.

This was an appeal from a judgment of the Parish Court of New Orleans. There was a judgment below in favor of the plaintiff, which was affirmed on appeal.

GANNON v. MCGAWLEY.-MCGAWLEY v. GANNON.

Action to recover an amount due for drayage, and defence that the price claimed exceeded the value of the services. Plaintiff having proved by a witness that defendant had agreed to pay a certain price therefor, the latter offered to introduce evidence to show that the usual price was less. Held, that the evidence was admissible, defendant having a right to introduce evidence to contradict plaintiff's witness, or to establish a different price.

The defendant in an action for an amount claimed for drayage, having previ. ously sued plaintiff, in another court, for a sum alleged to be due to him also for drayage, it was agreed between the parties that the latter suit should be transferred to the court in which the first was pending, to be tried immediately after the first suit. The two suits were ordered by the court to be consolidated and tried together. Held, that when the suit was filed in the court to which it was transferred, it became a part of its records, and was under its control in the same manner as if it had originated there, and that the two actions were properly consolidated.

McGawley is appellant from a judgment of the Commercial Court in these suits, in favor of her adversary, for a balance due for drayage. The judgment of the lower Court was affirmed on appeal.

GURLIE v. FLOOD.

A judgment discharging the future property of an insolvent who had made a cessio bonorum from all proceedings for the recovery of debts previously contracted, though it may not have strictly conformed to the law under which it was rendered, will be conclusive against a creditor who was a party to the proceedings, and took no appeal therefrom within the time prescribed by law.

One who was a creditor of an insolvent at the time of his surrender, cannot take out an execution against property subsequently acquired. Property acquired since the cession cannot be proceeded against by any of the creditors individually. It must be abandoned for the benefit of all the creditors, and those who have become such since the first cession must be paid in preference to the others. C. C. 2.173.

This was an appeal from a judgment of the Parish Court of New Orleans, making absolute a rule taken by defendant on plaintiff to show cause why a fi. fa. should not be set aside as having been illegally issued. The judgment below was affirmed.

GAILLARD V. THE CITIZENS' BANK OF LOUISIANA.

The managers of a bank, appointed under the provisions of the 29th section of the act of 14th March, 1842, providing for the liquidation of banks, may be sued for any cause of action, though arising under the administration of former boards of directors.

Though a bank has been put in liquidation under the 29th section of the act of 14th March, 1812, and an order has been made staying all proceedings against it, a creditor may sue the bank in the court before which the proceedings for a liquidation are pending, where he only prays for a judgment recognizing his claim, and ordering it to be paid in course of administration.

The plaintiff appealed from a judgment of the District Court of the First Dis

trict, dismissing his suit against the Citizens' Bank, on the ground that the claim should have been established in the concurso, contradictorily with the creditors of the bank. The judgment was reversed, and the case remanded for further proceedings.

MANDION T. THE FIREMEN'S INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW ORLEANS.

A stockholder in an insolvent company, a part of whose subscription is unpaid, cannot, by a donation to an insolvent individual, made to get rid of his liability for such unpaid stock, avoid his responsibility as a stockholder. A creditor, having a fieri facias against the company, may proceed against him in the manner pointed out by the 13th section of the act of 20th March, 1839, and, on proving that the donation was not real, recover judgment for any balance due on the stock. James Calloway appealed from a judgment of the Commercial Court, condemning him to pay a balance due on stock of the Firemen's Insurance Company. The judgment of the lower court was affirmed.

MANDION . THE FIREMEN'S INSURANCE COMPANY.

Where stock on which a balance was still due on account of the original subscription, was transferred to a third person merely to secure a loan, and, on payment of the loan, was retransferred, such third person will not be liable to creditors of the Company for any balance due on the shares, where the transfer, though an absolute one on its face, was not signed and accepted so as to preclude him from showing that it was intended only as a security.

The plaintiff appealed from a judgment of the Commercial Court in favor of Spangenberg, discharging him from a liability for the balance due on certain shares of the Firemen's Insurance Company, transferred to him by Ferriday as collateral security. The judgment below was affirmed on appeal.

SHELDON T. THE NEW ORLEANS CANAL AND BANKING COMPANY. The mere seizure under a fi. fa. of a judgment in favor of a debtor, does not divest the property of the latter, and transfer it to the seizing creditor. It gives him at most a right to proceed and sell the judgment, and to be paid by preference out of the proceeds. A fi. fa. is the warrant of the sheriff, authorizing him to seize property and keep it, and to sell it to satisfy the judgment under which it was issued. When a seizure has been made, the sheriff is not bound to return the writ, though it have subsequently expired. He may retain it, and sell the property seized; if he returns the writ, he will be without authority to hold, or dispose of the property; and any privilege resulting from the seizure will cease to

exist.

Where the proceeds of property seized and sold under a fi. fa., are claimed in virtue of a previous seizure under a fi. fa., the claimant must oppose, by way of third opposition, the application of the proceeds to the satisfaction of the second execution. C. C. 396, 397, 401, 402.

This was an appeal from a judgment of the District Court of the First District, in a contest between certain creditors of the plaintiff, Sheldon. The judgment below was affirmed.

SUCCESSION OF DURNFORD-MCDONOGH, APPELLANT.

The obligations of a warrantor depend upon the law in force at the time of the sale.

Under the Code of 1808, the vender was bound, in case of eviction of the purchaser, to pay him, in addition to the price, &c., the increased value of the property at the date of the eviction, though the purchaser did not contribute to such increase. Book III., tit. VI., arts. 54, 57. The original price, added to the rents and profits, does not necessarily constitute the measure by which the liability of the warrantor is to be measured; other things must be taken into consideration; and the general rule, that damages are to be measured by the loss actually sustained, and not by the gains of which the party has been deprived, is inapplicable.

The curator of a succession having credited himself in his account with a sum

exceeding the amount of the assets of the succession in his hands, claimed in consequence of his eviction from land sold to him by the deceased, on the opposition of the heirs it was decided, that the claim of the curator, so far as it exceeded the assets in his hands, was prescribed; and judgment was rendered allowing his claim to the amount of such assets. On appeal: Held, that the claim was an entire one, arising from the same cause, and could not be prescribed in part; and that the account should be homologated.

McDonogh appealed from a judgment of the Probate Court of New Orleans, allowing him but a part of a claim set up by him as the value of certain lands sold to him by the deceased. The judgment below was reversed, and instead of $9,809 26, the appellant was allowed a credit of $18,000.

DELAVIGNE, SYNDIC, v. GAIENNIE, et. al.

A recorder of mortgages cannot be compelled to erase a mortgage without making the mortgagee a party to the proceedings, unless a judgment ordering the erasure has been rendered contradictorily with the latter.

Where a mortgage has been erased in pursuance of a judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, rights acquired by subsequent mortgagees, before any proceedings to annul the judgment, will not be affected by any illegality in it. Third persons are not bound to look beyond the judgment, which, if rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction, must have its full effect, and can only be annulled by a direct action. Aliter, as to the parties themselves, or their ayans-cause with notice; as to them, the rights of a mortgagee cannot be affected by any order or decree in a case to which he was not a party.

The Citizens' Bank appealed in this case from a judgment of the District Court of the First District in favor of the plaintiff, ordering the reinstatement in its original position, of a mortgage in his favor, (which had been erased under a judgment of Court) and giving him a preference over the appellants, who were subsequent mortgagees. The judgment below was reversed, and the petition dismissed.

BARKER et. al., v. PHILLIPS.

The property of a debtor being the common pledge of his creditors, every act done by him with intent to deprive them of their eventual rights upon his property, is illegal. C. C. 1,963, 1,964.

Where one purchases property from an absconding debtor, with notice that his object in selling was to deprive his creditors of their recourse upon it, and such purchase operates to their injury, it will be annulled. C. C. 1,973. But the purchaser, though in bad faith, will be entitled to a restitution of so much of the consideration, or price paid by him, as he shall prove to have enured to the benefit of the creditors, by adding to the amount applicable to the payment of their debts.

C. C. 1,977.

The intervenor, W. Haynes, claiming to be the owner of certain goods by purchase from the defendant, appealed from a judgment of the Commercial Court in this case, dismissing his intervention. The judgment was affirmed so far as it annulled the sale to the intervenor; but the latter was decreed to receive, out of the proceeds of the goods, a portion of the price paid by him, which he might prove to have enured to the benefit of the attaching creditors.

CLARK V. HARTWELL.

Where a party notified by his adversary to attend at a certain hour at a commissioner's office for the purpose of taking the deposition of a witness, attends at the appointed hour, and waits for half an hour without the commissioner's appearing, and leaves, and after his departure the commissioner arrives, and proceeds to take the deposition, it will be inadmissible on the trial.

The defendant appealed from a judgment of the Parish Court of New Orleans, rendered against him in an action for the contract price of a tomb. The judgment below was affirmed.

COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW.

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STATE OF THE COMMERCIAL WORLD-UNITED STATES FINANCES-REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE OF NEW YORK STATE CANALS-NEW YORK CANAL DEBT-DEBT OF PENNSYLVANIA-QUANTITIES OF IRON TRANSPORTED OVER TWO LINES OF RAILROAD, FROM PHILADELPHIA TO NEW YORKDEBT OF MICHIGAN-MICHIGAN RAILROAD EARNINGS-FINANCES OF MARYLAND-DEBT OF SOUTH CAROLINA-KENTUCKY STATE DEBT-KENTUCKY SOURCES OF REVENUE-AMOUNT OF BONDS ISSUED BY THE STATE OF GEORGIA TERRITORIAL DEBT OF FLORIDA-TAXABLE VALUATIONS, AND DEBTS OF THE STATES OF OHIO, INDIANA, KENTUCKY, MICHIGAN, GEORGIA, PENNSYLVANIA, AND NEW YORK-CANAL TOLLS OF THE STATES OF NEW YORK, OHIO, AND PENNSYLVANIA, ETC., ETC., ETC.

THE state of the commercial world is evidently approaching a crisis, brought on by the workings for thirty years of peace, of systems of commercial legislation and finance, that had their origin in, and their operation during, almost constant wars in Europe. The commercial policy of England, since the peace of 1815, has been undergoing a constant and gradual change, in the relations of restrictions and ameliorations of those prohibitions which formerly pervaded her commerce to a very great extent. In the same period, during which, these changes have been brought about, her population and manufacturing industry have advanced in a much greater degree than ever before. Although in almost every other particular, England has become more liberal in her policies, she has hitherto adhered to a strictly protective system, in relation to her corn laws. That is to say, by the operation of the sliding scale of duties, she has maintained in England a price for food higher than that of other countries. By those means, the production of homegrown produce has been promoted to a very great extent; not, perhaps, that her farmers generally have reaped a greater reward for their industry than those of other countries, because large tracts of poor lands have been brought under cultivation, that under a state of free trade could not compete with those better suited to the culture. In keeping prices at a level which would remunerate production in such locations, those of more favored regions have necessarily derived large profits, and the aid of science has been called in to extract from all locations, as far as possible, sufficient for the consumption of the whole population. The latter has, however, now swollen beyond the capacity of the land to feed; and the time has come, not only to draw large supplies from abroad, but to do so on such terms as will make food come as cheap as possible to the people of England. The entire repeal of the duties on food, is therefore expected to be the great result of the present session of parliament, a result which will doubtless affect, in a most extraordinary manner, the interests of the whole commercial world. The event is looked for with the greatest interest by the mercantile community. We are inclined to think that the effect of an immediate entire repeal of duties, will have far less immediate influence upon affairs than is apprehended. The supply of corn in England is very large, larger than ever, and prices of food are by no means high in England, and do not greatly exceed those of the continent; consequently, a more favorable time to open the ports could not be devised. A very large trade must, however, ultimately grow up in breadstuffs; an equalization of prices all over the world, will bring the public lands of the west in competition with all others, and a good deal of the poor land in England will be turned into sheep-walks, thus increasing the demand for foreign corn, also enhanced by the low prices that a free port will bring about.

Political affairs also seem to be approaching a crisis, although nothing material has occurred to affect commercial affairs since the date of our last number. Money has continued high in price, and difficult to be obtained, by reason rather of the indisposition to lend during the present state of uncertainty, than of any over-demand. A great deal of

money has been paid off by some of the governments, and the gradual approximation to restored credit, by the delinquent states, is calculated to have a very beneficial influence upon the commercial world, as soon as the present state of uncertainty shall have passed. The operations of the federal treasury have been during the past year as follows:

The federal government has reduced its debt during the year by the payment of the loan of 1841, due January, 1845, and the retirement of the outstanding treasury notes. The expenditures for the year ending July 1, 1846, are estimated to exceed the revenues by $2,807,051 90, unless the tariff is so reduced as to admit of an increase in the customs revenues. On the whole, the finances of the federal government are in a flourishing condition. Those of the state of New York are in a still better condition, and large reductions of the outstanding canal debt have taken place, being paid off as they fell due, out of the surplus revenues of the canals. During the past year the revenues and expenses of the canals have been as follows:

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE ON NEW YORK STATE CANALS.
Revenue.

Expenses.
Interest of debt,.......
Given to general fund,...
Repairs, &c.,...........................

$1,057,474 10

200,000 00

703,104 54