Statement showing the quantity of some of the principal articles of imports into the port of Mobile during the last five years ending August 31,

The total value of the foreign imports at Mobile, during the last two years, may be seen by the figures annexed:

This shows an increase of about sixty per cent. in one year, which is certainly very handsome, and augurs well for the future prospects of Mobile in the direct import trade.

The present may well be termed the railway era; and, perhaps, there is no other place in the whole confederacy likely to experience greater benefits, in proportion to its present population, from such improvements than Mobile. The railways now in progress, terminating at that point, must constitute her the entrepôt of foreign supplies for a very large extent of country.

The annexed table will show the tonnage entered from and cleared to foreign ports, in the district of Mobile, during a long series of yearsfrom 1826 to 1851, inclusive. For reasons explained elsewhere, the tonnage cleared best exhibits the amount engaged in the export trade of that city.

FLORIDA.

The geographical position of this State, the peculiar productions to which its climate and soil are adapted, its extensive seacoast, and numerous rivers and harbors, and its various and valuable resources, and especially its important relation in respect to the commercial and navigating interests of the other States, render a particular notice of it in this report peculiary appropriate. Communications addressed to the undersigned by citizens of that State, in response to notes requesting information for such notice, are published herewith. Some of the documents accompanying these letters are appended. The information contained in these letters and documents in relation to the internal improvement of the State, and of its rivers and harbors, to its productions and resources, and its present trade and commerce, and that anticipated, is so copious that it is not deemed necessary to make any additions. Though these papers are voluminous, and though there are matters mentioned in them not directly pertinent to the object of the resolutions of the Senate, under which this report is made, and notwithstanding the undersigned may not coincide with the intelligent writers in all respects as to some matters they refer to, yet it has been considered just to them, and to the State, not to exclude any part of them. A paper respecting "the Gulf of Mexico and Straits of Florida," prepared chiefly from notes and data furnished by an intelligent and distinguished officer of the engineers, and a map made by the "Coast Survey," to accompany that paper, are also herewith published, as being of general and national interest, and especially to the trade, commerce, and navigation of the United States.

As stated in the papers now published, though Florida can furnish ample and superior materials for ship-building from her inexhaustible forests, but few vessels are built in that State; and in fact most of those employed, and even most of those owned in Florida, are owned and navigated by citizens originally from the northeastern States. The business of wrecking on those dangerous coasts and reefs is also pursued principally by the same class of persons, now residents of the keys, and other residents, emigrants from the Bahamas, who have become citizens of the United States, and by Cuban Spaniards. It may also be observed, that intelligent persons, acquainted with this subject, have suggested that, upon a rigorous exclusion by the British imperial and colonial governments of our fishermen from just participation in the northeastern fisheries; the latter may find in those at the southern extremity of the Union, resources for similar employment, equally profitable to them, and as advantageous to the confederacy; and that the realization of such prediction may injuriously affect the trade and interests of the British colonies. One great advantage of the southern fisheries is, that they may be carried on throughout the year. Such diversion of the occupation of our hardy eastern fishermen from the fisheries now used by them to those appurtenant to the State of Florida, would also be accompanied by a large increase of the vessels built in that State by mechanical labor now employed in the eastern States in such business. The injurious effect upon the similar interests of the British colonies can readily be anticipated, and particulary when it is consid

ered that, in the climate of Florida, mechanical labor can also be employed without cessation throughout all seasons.

The papers now published refer to other matters worthy of investigation and deliberate reflection by the statesmen of this confederacy. The great importance to the commercial and navigating interests of the Atlantic ports and of the gulf, extending beyond the Isthmus of Panama, of completing at an early period the fortifications at Key West and at Tortugas-of expediting the valuable labors of the "Coast Survey" in that quarter-of erecting proper light-houses, beacons, and buoys, &c., on the keys and coasts-of making Key West a naval station and a principal commercial depot and rendezvous for our shipping, and a point for the deposite of coal and provisions in large quantities, and of having a public navy-yard there is strongly and cogently contended for in those papers. Doubtless, when the extensive fortifications now in progress at the two points designated are completed, our naval vessels, though of inferior force, can readily, in case of war with any other nation, by operating from Key West and from the Tortugas, owing to their peculiar position, keep the Carribean sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the straits of Florida, and the entire southern coast of the United States, free from the depredations of any naval enemy. When steamers become more generally substituted for sailing-vessels, the long and circuitous voyage that large vessels from Atlantic ports to the Gulf of Mexico, and further south, now often make through the Mona passage, or through the "Windward passage," and going on the south side of Cuba, (and around Cape Antonio, when bound into the gulf,) can be avoided, thereby saving several hundreds of miles of navigation generally with unfavorable winds. It has been estimated that exceeding four hundred millions of dollars in value in ships, merchandise, and produce, (a large proportion of the two latter items from and to the valley of the Mississippi,) annually passes near to Key West and Tortugas, and can be protected or controlled from such points. By the completion of the proposed improvements of the routes of passage or transit between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, at Atrato, at Panama, or at Nicaragua, and especially if the route at Tehuantepec should be made susceptible of passage by a canal or transit by a railroad, the amount of property that will pass near to the two points designated will be immensely augmented.

Amongst the topics referred to in the papers now published, is the alleged probability of the extensive substitution, before the lapse of many years, of oils produced from the turpentine and rosin of the southern States, for spermaceti and other oils. If full credence is yielded to the writer's anticipations-that resinous oil (recently highly improved as to its manufacture) is destined to affect the profits of the labor and capital of the eastern States, now so extensively employed in the whale fisheries, and already greatly reduced by the decrease of the sperm whale this subject becomes one worthy of grave consideration. It is alleged that, on account of its cheapness, resinous oil is already employed in the adulteration of most other expensive oils, and that it is beginning to be much used for machinery, for various manufactures, and for lights. in lieu of other oils.

Reflection upon the suggestions just adverted to, and others contained in the letters respecting Florida, annexed hereto, and the accompanying statistical data, shows how closely blended, and intimately interwoven with each other, are the interests of the most remote sections of this confederacy, and how strong the bands are by which the perpetuity of our glorious and happy Union is secured. If the interests of one kind of industry in one section are assailed and injured by foreign illiberality, there soon opens in another part of this vast empire a new field for employment of a congenial character, to which that industry can be profitably applied. And they show that, upon the decrease of an important article of commerce, and valuable for use to the whole country, the enterprise and ever-ready inventive talent of our countrymen soon find new and fully commensurate means of supplying the necessities of civilized life and the wants of commerce. A cheap substitute for the product of distant seas is obtained from our illimitable and exhaustless forests, and new employment in its procurement and manufacture.

The suggestions in the paper upon the "Cotton Crop of the United States," appended hereto, and in relation to the vast capabilities of that region of this continent designated therein as the "Cotton Zone," (as yet but partially developed,) and as to the effect of the increased production of that highly important staple upon the destinies of this confederacy, deserve deliberate attention and reflection. This topic has been heretofore alluded to in this report, but it is deemed proper to publish the fuller statistical data in relation to cotton afforded by this paper, compiled from the best authorities. The influence of the interests of that region, and of the commercial and navigating interests of other sections, based upon and connected with it, is, in the conduct of the government of this country, conducive to the preservation of peace with other nations, and especially with those nations that afford profitable markets for that product. The restraints imposed by self-interest upon those foreign governments which must look to such products as the means for employment of several millions of manufacturing laborers, and hundreds of millions of capital, and as the basis of their commercial prosperity, from heedlessly engaging in disputes, or coming into collision with us, are much more powerful and effective in the preservation of amity than treaty stipulations, however formally and solemnly concluded.

The treasury tables show the value of all our domestic exports to foreign countries, for the last ten years, to be about $1,258,332,000; the annual average value to be about $125,583,000. Of these the south and southwestern States (being the region before mentioned as the "Cotton Zone") have, in the same period, exported upwards of $651,767,000 worth of cotton, being an average amount of $65,176,700 in each year; and it is estimated that upwards of $40,000,000 is now annually used for home consumption, and for manufacture in the United States for exportation. The aggregate amount exported in 1849 and 1851, of the crops of cotton of 1848 and 1850, exceeded two thousand millions of pounds; and the avails of the exports of the crop of 1850 amounted, alone, to $112,315,317. The same tables show the production, exportation, and home consumption of rice, and other products of