n by law to retire their currency except upon
reasonable notice of their intention so to do. Such legislation would
seem to be justified by the recent action of certain banks on the
occasion referred to in the Secretary's report.

Of the fifteen millions of fractional currency still outstanding, only
about eighty thousand has been redeemed the past year. The suggestion
that this amount may properly be dropped from future statements of the
public debt seems worthy of approval.

So also does the suggestion of the Secretary as to the advisability of
relieving the calendar of the United States courts in the southern
district of New York by the transfer to another tribunal of the numerous
suits there pending against collectors.

The revenue from customs for the past fiscal year was $198,159,676.02,
an increase of $11,637,611.42 over that of the year preceding. One
hundred and thirty-eight million ninety-eight thousand five hundred and
sixty-two dollars and thirty-nine cents of this amount was collected at
the port of New York, leaving $50,251,113.63 as the amount collected
at all the other ports of the country. Of this sum $47,977,137.63 was
collected on sugar, melado, and molasses; $27,285,624.78 on wool and its
manufactures; $21,462,534.34 on iron and steel and manufactures thereof;
$19,038,665.81 on manufactures of silk; $10,825,115.21 on manufactures
of cotton, and $6,469,643.04 on wines and spirits, making a total
revenue from these sources of $133,058,720.81.

The expenses of collection for the past year were $6,419,345.20, an
increase over the preceding year of $387,410.04. Notwithstanding the
increase in the revenue from customs over the preceding year, the gross
value of the imports, including free goods, decreased over $25,000,000.
The most marked decrease was in the value of unmanufactured wool,
$14,023,682, and in that of scrap and pig iron, $12,810,671. The value
of imported sugar, on the other hand, showed an increase of $7,457,474;
of steel rails, $4,345,521; of barley, $2,154,204, and of steel in bars,
ingots, etc., $1,620,046.

Contrasted with the imports during the last fiscal year, the exports
were as follows:

Domestic merchandise $883,925,947
Foreign merchandise 18,451,399
_____________
Total 902,377,346

Imports of merchandise