BANKS.-Louisiana State Bank. This building was erected in 1822, at a cost, including the ground, of $55,000. The plan was from Latrobe, and Benjamin Fox the architect. It stands on the corner of Royal and Bienville-streets, and presents rather a plain but neat external appearance. It is most substantially built; the lower story is heavily arched, and the banking apartments are completely fire-proof. Capital, $2,000,000. The Mechanics' and Traders' Bank is situated on Canal-street, occupying only an ordinary house, compared to some others, and requires no particular description. Capital, $2,000,000. The City Bank is a building of the Ionic order, situated in Camp, near Canal-street, and designed by W. L. Atkinson, architect. Its construction was commenced in 1837, and finished in 1838, under the superin. tendence of J. Gallier, at a cost of about $50,000. The banking room is admired for its elegant simplicity. Capital, $2,000,000. The Gas Bank. This building, in St. Charles-street, between Canal and Common-streets, is so closely squeezed in among others, that it has little opportunity to show off the beauty it possesses. It was erected in 1839, under the superintendence of Sidel & Stewart, at an expense of about $25,000, ground $25,000, making $50,000, and is every way well calculated for a banking house. The original capital was $4,000,000, but it was reduced to $180,000, and by request of the stockholders, the banking privileges have been withdrawn by an act of the Legislature of 1845. The Canal Bank has its entrance in the centre of the front on Magazine-street, of a substantial granite building which stands on that and the corner of Gravier-street. That portion of the edifice is very tastefully arranged after the designs of Dakin, the architect. It was erected in 1845. The residue of the structure is used for stores. Capital, $4,000,000. The Bank of Louisiana is a fine Ionic building at the south-west corner of Royal and Conti-streets, surrounded by a handsome court. The whole edifice is well arranged; the banking room in particular is admired for its good architectural effect, being sixty feet square, and of a proportionate height, with a fine gallery above. It was commenced by Bickle, Hamlet, & Fox, builders, in 1826, and finished the following year, at a cost of $80,000. Capital, $4,000,000. Banks' Arcade occupies the front of a square on Magazine-street, between Gravier and Natchez-streets, having a main entrance from each of those last named, to the Arcade, which divides the building through the whole length-being three stories high, and covered with glass, to exclude rain and admit the light. In the lower and second stories are offices of almost all descriptions; and the third is appropriated mostly to sleeping-rooms. The bar-room, opening on Magazine-street, is 100 by 60 feet, and 35 in height. It is handsomely embellished, has a gallery surrounding the upper story, and is a popular place for public meetings. It will accom modate 5,000 people on such occasions. This building stands in the centre of business, and, consequently, is a place of great resort for merchants and others. Erected by Thomas Banks in 1833, Charles Zimple, architect. City Exchange. This magnificent edifice, which is one of the greatest ornaments of the city, fronts on three streets-about 300 feet on St Louis, and 120 each on Royal and Chartres-street-the building being intended by the projectors to combine the convenience of a city exchange, hotel, bank, large ball rooms, and private stores. The principal façade, on St. Louis-street, may be generally described as being composed of the Tuscan and Doric orders. The main entrance is formed by six columns of the composite Doric order. Through this portico, access is had to the vestibule of the Exchange, a handsome, though simple hall, 127 by 40 feet. This room is appropriated to general business, and constantly open during waking hours. You pass through this into one of the most beautiful rotundas in America, which is devoted exclusively to business, and is open from noon to three o'clock P. M. This fine room is surrounded by arcades and galleries, always open to the publie, (Sundays excepted,) and its general appearance cannot fail to impress upon the mind a most favorable idea of its grandeur and beauty. The dome is most tastefully laid off in compartments, within which the magic pencils of Canova and Pinoli have portrayed allegorical scenes and the busts of eminent Americans, in rich fresco; a style of painting comparatively new in the United States. The floors of the gallery which engird the rotunda, and the winding stairs leading to them, are of iron. By a side entrance on St. Louis-street, access is obtained to the second story; the front of which, on this street, is occupied by a suit of ball-rooms and their dependencies. The great ball-room is magnificent in its size and decorations. The building also has a capacious entrance on Royalstreet, as a hotel that can accommodate 200 persons. At the corner of Chartres-street are the public baths. In the spring of 1840 this building was nearly burnt down, but, in less than two years, it was completely restored to its original splendor. The Commercial Exchange. This edifice is upon the south-west corner of St. Charles and Perdido-streets, fronting 103 feet upon the former, and running 100 upon the latter. The main part of the building is constructed of brick and stuccoed; the upper portion is purely Corinthian, the lower entirely Tuscan. The principal entrance, on St. Charles-street, is by a portico supported by two Ionic pillars, and the same number of pilastres, composed of granite. The vestibule is eleven feet deep, which admits visitors by three separate doors into the exchange saloon, the most spacious apartment of the kind in the United States; it being 70 by 100 feet, and 27 to the ceiling, which is supported by twelve well arranged and substantial pillars. At the rear of this public room are two others, intended for the accommodation of auctioneers, leaving only sufficient space on the left for the necessary offices and access to the second floor. The Merchants' Exchange, fronting on Royal-street and Exchange Place, was erected by a joint stock company in 1835-6, from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr. Dakin, architect. Both fronts are of marble, in a plain and bold style. The cost of the erection was $100,000. The Merchants' Reading Room-entrance from Royal-street and Exchange Place. This reading room occupied a spacious apartment in the second story of the Merchants' Exchange, and is under the patronage and control of the company interested in that building. It is generally sup plied with most of the newspapers of the country, and has received a patronage quite equal to the extent of its accommodations. For several of the preceding paragraphs, we are indebted to a little volume published in 1845 by B. H. Norman, Esq., entitled "Norman's New Orleans and Environs," a work embracing in a small compass a brief historical sketch of the territory and State of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans, with other matters of general as well as local interest. The following table, made up with great care by the editors of the New Orleans Price Current, will give a pretty accurate idea of the extent of the internal trade of that city. It shows the quantity and value of the principal productions of the interior received at New Orleans during the year ending on the 31st of August, 1848, with their estimated average and total value. QUANTITY AND VALUE OF PRODUCE RECEIVED AT NEW ORLEANS FROM THE INTERIOR IN 1847-8. QUANTITY AND VALUE OF PRODUCE RECEIVED AT NEW ORLEANS-CONTINUED. It will be seen that the above table gives the quantities and value of the different articles of produce received at New Orleans from the interior for the year 1847-8. In the following table we give the quantities, omitting that year, for the six preceding years: IMPORTS INTO NEW ORLEANS, FROM THE INTERIOR, FOR SIX YEARS, FROM THE 1ST SEPTEMBER TO THE 31ST AUGUST, IN EACH YEAR. Articles. Apples..... 36,932 14,518 12,092 425,163 492,700 1846-7. 1845-6. 1844-5. 1843-4. 1842–3. 1841-2. 39,612 26,775 26,515 43,969 67,803 26,443 25,213 12,892 19,563 16,568 13,505 8,358 19,070 13,588 9.220 350,000 1,203,821 1,453,798 1,288,109 60,982 96,601 111,324 16,585 IMPORTS INTO NEW ORLEANS FROM THE INTERIOR-CONTINUED. Coal, western.......bbls. Dried peaches.. 3,009 137 474 1,112 Dried apples... .bbls. 1,617,675 837,985 533,312 502,507 521,175 Furs........... ...boxes 439,688 45 Furs...... ...bundles 4,568 Hemp. .bales 38,062 Hides.. 76,490 Horns.. 3,870 35,132 Iron, pig. .tons 100 Lard..... .hhds. Lard... ..kegs 275,076 334,969 307,871 366,694 Lead.... 732,125 639,269 Lead, bar.... Lead, white Molasses....... ..bbls. 91,710 269,386 Onions...... 6,979 Oil, Linseed. 3,637 1,135 Oil, Castor......... Oil, Lard........ 1,818 Peach brandy.......bbls. Pickles.. kegs and bbls. 218 Potatoes......... ..bbls. 56,587 Pork...... 412,928 204,643 244,442 Pork... 231 ..hhds. 9,452 9,988 6,741 8,800 2,371 Pork, in bulk... ....lbs. 8,450,700 9,740,752 4,079,600 7,792,000 6,814,750 4,051,800 Porter and ale......bbls. 1,363 1,180 1,104 Skins, deer 1,939 Shot 4,714 Sugar ..hhds. 82,011 51,816 361,561 Staves..... 2,000,000 5,679,000 2,500,000 1,362,678 1,165,400 425,000 6,658 8,255 7,828 5,071 Tobacco, leaf......hhds. 67,555 Tobacco, chew'g..kegs 3,618 Tobacco........... .....bales Twine...........bundles 2,099 1,903 1,175 Whiskey 86,947 Window glass....boxes 2,066 Wheat..bbls. and sacks 833,649 86,014 118,248 134,886 A passage from the annual remarks of the editors of the Price Current and Merchants' Transcript will furnish the best illustration we can give of the foregoing table : "Our records show an immense falling off in the operations in the leading articles under this head during the past year, as compared with the season ending the 1st September last. It will of course be remembered by all that a famine in Europe had produced an extraordinary demand for breadstuffs, and the consequent elevation in prices brought forth from our well-filled granaries not only the abundant product of the then current year, but also the hoarded surplus of previous seasons. It was thus that our receipts here, as well as at the other shipping ports of the country, suddenly rose to double those of the year immediately preceding, |