EXPORT OF COTTON AND BREADSTUFFS FROM THE UNITED STATES TO GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, SINCE 1ST SEPTEMBER, 1848. This export is very considerable, and the prices have been remunerative. The quantities of grain that have been imported into Great Britain for several years, have been as follows: : IMPORTATION OF BREADSTUFFS INTO GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.* Wheat flour.... 436,878......980,645....950,195.....3,198,876.....6,329,058....1,765,475 Oatmeal and The last year was one of good harvests, and these continued large imports have been the result, to a considerable extent, of the desire in Europe, in consequence of politica! trouble, to realise money for produce, and the influence of the final removal of the corn duties of England, February, 1849. It is found to be the case, however, that the consumption of fine grains for food received a severe check by the high prices which prevailed in 1847, when the averages were higher than they had previously been since 1813. After the severe distress which such famine prices cause among the laboring poor of England, it requires several years of low prices and healthy business, to restore the wonted demand of the better sorts of food; and it is not impossible that the continued influx of grain into England may reduce the prices so low, as to diminish the English production. Up to the present time, however, the rates are remunerative, and the quantities going forward exceed those of last year; and with the improving prospects of cotton which the continued low price for food, money, and labor hold out, the present low range for exchange will doubtless be attended with an import of specie, and this state of the exchanges tends to promote the scarcity of money. This latter is a singular reason to ascribe for the scarcity of money, but nevertheless such is the temporary effect of the movement. The specie operations are on an extensive scale; and, as this is the season when, from the pressure of the great crops of cotton, rice, and tobacco, added to the unusual exports of farm produce, bills are most abundant, the greatest exertions are made by bill-houses to become possessed of them. In this city bills are 5 a 5 per cent., and falling. This is the price for 60-day bills, that may be readily discounted in London for 24 per cent. per annum; and usually it is a cash price. It happens now, however, that the bill-houses pay out their obligations at 60 and 90 days in exchange for sterling bills, and those obligations are discounted by the banks. As thus: if 1,000 bbls. of flour are shipped, and drawn against for £2,000, the bill is sold to Brown & Brothers for their note at 60 days, instead of cash. That note is a very desirable species of paper for the banks to discount, and large sums are absorbed for that purpose. The arrival of the specie will necessarily cancel many of these obligations, and produce a plethora. The packet of April 7th brought $500,000 in specie, and the Cambria $300,000. Therates of sterling bills have been as follows for several packets: The market closed a little more firm at an advance. The price for sterling is the extreme rates-good bills being had at the low figure. At these rates considerable sums have been taken for the importation of specie; and it is estimated that, including $1,000,000 of Massachusetts 5 per cent. sterling stock, forwarded from Boston, $5,000,000 in specie will in all May return to Boston and New-York; and of this the Europa brought the first instalment. In view of this state of affairs, at a time when stocks of cotton and some other produce are diminishing, the spring imports nearly over, and the canals about to open to promote payments from the interior, the banks are becoming more disposed to lend, and the market is in some degree relieved; that is to say, when commercial men do not want money, the beneficent corporations are more willing to lend it. It may well turn out, however, that, owing to the tardiness with which California adventures are crowned with success, the payments from the country will be considerably affected by the "fever" which has prevailed. It has operated more or less in all sections of the Union to cause the appropriation, to an extraordinary and enticing enterprise, of those active means usually appropriated to the purchase of necessary goods and family comforts, as well as to the discharge of store bills. Many a family scrimps its allowance of necessaries, curtails its purchase of comforts, and defers its payments, in order to swell the outfit of some member of it about to seek in California the means of their common fortunes. Considerable stocks of capital and not a little money, have thus been sent away; and until successful enterprise shall have restored the means of purchase and payment, more or less difficulty in making collections will probably be experienced by city merchants. It was doubtless the case early in the season, that many, if not most dealers supposed, that before the opening of the spring trade, some realization of the brilliant accounts that reached us would have taken place, and the failure of those hopes has enhanced the difficulty of meeting the extended obligations they prompted. The fact that importations of specie may facilitate borrowing by those merchants who are disappointed in collecting what is due them, does not much improve the state of affairs. It is the bank mode of relief-lending instead of paying. It has been the case, however, that the check given to prices by the high rate of money has promoted the export of produce, and thereby laid the foundation of a healthier state of business. (fr.) 5.433 a 5.42 Hamburg, Marc Banco, 38 a 381 34 a 35 Specie is now abundant in London, and the rate of money not more than 24 a 24 per cent. per annum, while in New-York it is 12 per cent. per annum. It is evident that such a discrepancy cannot long exist between two points so closely connected The amount of specie now in the New-York banks is about one-half what it was in 1847, viz: about $4,500,000; but exchanges are from every point of the commercial world in favor of New-York-being on the leading points as follows: EXCHANGE IN NEW-YORK. April, 1847. Bills on London, 60 days' sight (£) 5 a 53 per ct. prem....... 66 66 dis.... } 66 dis. Philadelphia, prem..... par a dis. 66 dis. Richmond, Checks,. dis........ 1 a 14 dis. dis. dis........ 14 a 14 46 dia. dis.......... 14 Columbus,.. dis. Τα 46 dis... Τα dis. Mobile, Specie Checks,.. New-Orleans,.. St. Louis, Specie Checks,..1 The amount of specie that flows in from the interior is estimated by bullion brokers at about $200,000 per week, and the export has nearly ceased. With the opening of the canals, which will take place this year, May1, the payments from the country are expected to be prompt and large. The state of the money market here and in Boston for some weeks has been favorable to the profits of the banking institutions. The Boston banks have all declared their semi-annual dividends on $19,170,000 of capital, amounting to $726,890-an increase of $6,100 over the dividends of the previous six months. This dividend averages 7 per cent. per annum; and when we remember that to take more than 6 per cent. interest is forbidden by the laws of Massachusetts, we have an indication of the benefits which the privilege of creating money confers upon corporate stockholders. This high rate of profits has, of course, drawn more capital into the business; and since October last the Grocers' Bank, with a capital of $250,000, has gone into business, and the Boylston Bank has increased its capital $50,000-making an increase of $1,000,000 bank capital in that city since the Independent Treasury (which was to have destroyed banks) went into operation in 1847. The quantity of goods received during the quarter ending March 31, has not been large; but the tardiness of the western trade, the tightness of money, and the low rates of exchange, all combine to induce holders to realize. The rate being now for good bills 54 per cent., there is a difference of 5 per cent. in favor of the importer as compared with last fall, when the rate for sterling was 11 per cent.; and also last year, when the rate was at the specie exporting point. It will be observed that, notwithstanding this fact of a low rate of bills, which virtually reduces the tariff 5 per cent., the import of goods is rather less than for the same period last year. The importation of goods for the quarter ending March 31, has been, for four years, as follows: IMPORTS-PORT OF NEW-YORK, QUARTER ENDING MARCH 31. 1846...... .$202,225.. $1,943,741. ... ... Dutiable. Amount of duties. $17,678,629... $5,336,229. ... 1847 ..2,655,454. .1,550,508. ..... Per cent. 25 2-5 ........ 25 The average duty collected under the present tariff is, in fact, but 5 per cent. less than the corresponding period of 1846, when the high tariff of 1842 was in operation, and the rate of bills producing as great a difference between the imports this year and last, as did the change in the tariff between that year and 1846. Thus the importer of goods, who last year had to remit at 11 per cent., can now do so at 5: hence the average duty of 25 per cent. is reduced to less than 20 per cent. The value of goods ware housed in the port of New-York for three successive quarters, have been as follows: Warehoused.. Duties,...... 3d quarter, 1848. 4th quarter. 1st quarter, 1849. 1st quarter 1847. 2,588,859. 1,398,829 ......814,103. .426,923 The quantity of goods entered for warehousing this year is very considerably larger than last year, reaching 10 per cent. of the dutiable imports, an indication of the growing favor of the system, as well as of the pressure for money which has induced importers to avoid the duties as long as possible. The exports of goods this year are, as compared with last year, as follows: EXPORTS-PORT OF NEW-YORK-QUARTER ENDING MARCH 31. 321,613.. ..93,007......195,852......10,196,859.......10,807,331 Notwithstanding that, exchanges are so much more in favor of the buyer this year, the importations of goods are less. The direct cause of this is, probably, the improved state of the foreign markets for the consumption of their own goods. The operation of the present tariff, by adopting the appraisement system to the ad valorem principle, insures a steadier revenue and more reliable protection to honest importers and manufacturers, because it prevents fraud. Under the enormous duties imposed by the tariff of 1828, it was not to be wondered at that the importing business became demoralized-that honest importers, unable to compete with goods, for the smuggling of which the law offered so high a bounty, should gradually give place to those who entered the business, because the laws made fraud profitable; and those frauds, under the specific system, were infinitely more difficult to detect than under the present ad valorem system. As thus, an invoice of woollea cloths taxed by the square yard, would require actual measurement by the officer to verify the invoice. Under the present system, a ship brings a great number of invoices of the same goods to different people, and also commercial circulars from responsible houses, giving prices accurately. A mere inspection of these invoices by the appraiser, will at a glabee detect any important undervaluation in one, and the law applies a prompt remedy viz: for the officer to mark up the invoice, and if the importer objects he can call a jury, which, in case of intended fraud, he wisely avoids. The condition of Mexican, Spanish, French, and all importing business conducted under high duties, indicates the degree of demoralization to which our own commerce was rapidly approximating under the tariffs of 1828, '32. The frauds discovered under the castoin-house committees in those years, were a startling admonition upon that subject. NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 1.-CALAYNOS: a Tragedy. By George Boker. Second Edition. Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co. In judging of a drama, the question that most naturally arises is, whether it was composed for reading, or for acting-for the closet or the stage. If the former be the case, we must turn our chief attention to the expression; if the latter, we must look principally to the effect. If a play be meant to be represented, it should possess certain conditions of plot, action, and scenic propriety; if on the contrary, the dramatic form be given to a poem, merely for convenience sake, less stress need be laid upon adaptation to the boards, and infinitely more upon language, detail, and finish. In fact, a tragedy to be acted, and a tragedy to be read, bear no more resemblance to each other than a stump speech and a lecture, an improvisation in the senate, and its revised report in the newspapers of the morrow. Accordingly as we apply either standard to the play now under notice, a different judgment must be passed. In our opinion, it would hardly bear the foot-lights. It is almost entirely devoid of situations or coups de theatre, as our masters in the machinery of art would say. The plot is anything but lively. The incidents are few, and somewhat languid in their developement. The characters describe themselves, or are described by others, instead of gradually unfolding themselves by their conduct before the audience. Besides, they seldom bear that degree of resemblance to real life which the drama requires. It would be well if Mr. Boker had redeemed the promise conveyed in his prologue: The characters in the play will not bear investigation by the author's own standard. Calaynos is a hero of epic, not dramatic proportions, a sort of pius Eneas. With the exception of a rather hasty temper, which he controls in a praiseworthy manner, we see but little harm in the man. Everything about him "leans to virtue." We can perceive no "bad and good alternate" in his composition. True, he conceals his Moorish origin from his wife; but with the best possible intention. He himself justifies this his "sole crime," as Don Luis very properly calls it: "I only kept it back to save her pain; I feared to lose respect by telling her." On the other hand, it would puzzle the shrewdest casuist to detect any "leaning to virtue," in that unfeeling mouster of iniquity and ingratitude, who struts in this play under the name of Don Luis. All his "interests and feelings" are "base" none are "good." None seem to "draw towards heaven;" but they all do most distinctly and perseveringly pull "the other way" with a vengeance. Some fair speeches he makes; for instance, in allusion to virtue: "I tell you I have met it everywhere, In halls and hovels; and have oft retired, But this only makes his villainy doubly villainous. Profligates do not talk thus of female chastity. They look upon it as the chief charm and allurement of a woman, and they contrive to argue away its rebuking influence, by ingenious sophistry. They generally insist, and speciously maintain that chastity is miscalled a virtue. They con |