The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-31 00:00:00

TRADE OF JEDDAH.

Among the places from which reports of British
consuls have been received at the Foreign-office,
and published this year, is Jeddah, which is built
on the edge of the Red Sea, in a sterile district,
where occasionally several years pass without rain.
There are few inhabited districts so completely de-
pendent on other countries for their existence. It
is difficult to obtain zorreetAradamceunts from the
customs officers, partly from the hatred' Cif Abe,
natives towards Christians, and their desire to ex-
clude them altogether from what they consider the
Holy Land; but the consul, confining himself to
the trade as deduced by himself from the manifests
of the square-rigged vessels, nearly all British, re-
ports that in 1861 they brought goods of the value
of £672,657 ; among them English cotton goods of
the value of 868,000 dols., and Indian cotton goods
of the value of 320,000 dols. The imports from
Great Britain and her dependencies are greater
than from all other nations put together. Of the
articles imported four-fifths are sent inland, and
dispersed over the peninsula. Barley, which is im-
ported from Egypt, is cheaper here than there; the
Government import it for the troops, who sell it.
There is no fixed tariff for goods; they are valued at
such sum as the official thinks fit to demand and the
merchant to pay, but the amount is rarely settled
without a dispute. The coffee-growing country is
in the Yemen, 300 miles to the south, but very little
genuine Yemen coffee is procurable in Europe. The
industry of Jeddah consists of dyeing English
cotton manufactures, fishing, diving for black
coral, and fashioning it into beads and mouth-
piece for cigars. There are no banks in the coun-
try; those who save money usually conceal it in
some secret place, and sometimes die without hav-
ing disclosed the spot. Jeddah has a population of
about 18,000, of whom 1,000 are British Indian
subjects; and during the four months of the pil-
grimage the number is increased to 40,000, at
times to 60,000, of whom at least 12,000 are British
subjects. At Mecca and Medina there are always
about 2,000 British subjects, most of them pilgrims
who have spent all their money and cannot return
to India. It would save much money were they
obliged, like the French and Dutch Mussulman
subjects, to prove that they have sufficient money
to enable them to perform the pilgrimage and re-
turn. There is no employment for them at Jeddah;
the private buildings are executed by slaves of the
master masons, and there are no public works, or
even repairs, for everything is allowed to go to
ruin. The importation of fresh slaves into Jeddah
is now forbidden, but almost as many arrive as
formerly, and they are sold publicly every morning.
They are landed at night along the shore, and enter
Jeddah in the morning through gates guarded by
soldiers, who could recognise and stop them with
ease. The climate of Jeddah is trying to Euro-
peans on account of its great heat; the temperature
rose to 132 deg. in 1859, and many camels died. In
August, 1860, it was from 100 deg. to 110 deg. day
and night for a fortnight. But though the morta-
lity is great, it is due not so much to climate as to
neglect of sanitary measures. There are no roads,
further than as the constant track of camels has
made them, but the advanced Mussulmans talk of a
railway to Mecca. The great opposition would be
from the Bedouin camel men, but the prejudices of
the Arabs could be overcome were the Sheikhs
given to understand that a yearly payment would
make it to their interest to prevent the line being
damaged. The gates of Jeddah are shut for half
an hour on Fridays during midday prayer, from a
tradition that the Christians might take advantage
of the men being in the mosques to seize the town
—a custom rather flattering to the prowess of
the 12 Christians at Jeddah. The sea on this
coast is gradually receding, owing to the formation
of coral reefs. There is a corn depot at Jeddah, not
200 years old, with a gate flanked by two towers,
whieh evidently defended the quay, but it is now
300 yards from the sea.

REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S QUAR7ERLY

.REIU.RN.

The quarterly retura issued by authority of the
Registrar-General comprises the births and deaths
registered by 2,199 registrars in all the districts of
England during the summer quarter that ended
on September 30, 1862 ; and the marriages
in 12,585 churches or chapels, about 4,672
registered places of worship unconnected with
the Established Church, and 637 superintendent
registrars' offices, in the quarter that ended on June
30, 1862. The total number of marriages in the
spring quarter of 1860 was nearly 44,000 ; in that
of 1861 it was about 42,000 ; and in the same quar-
ter of the present year it fell to 40,771. The annual
marriage-rate in the spring quarter of this year,
viz., persons married to a hundred in the /ovum-
tion, was 1-610. This proportion is lower than any
result obtained in the same season during an
tended series of years, for in the ten years 1852-61
it fell to its lowest point, which was 1.638 in 1856 ;
and the average of the whole series is 1.709. The
decrease in the marriages of all England was 5.2
per cent. ; and it may be inferred that a large por-
tionfamilies
of that class of the population by which
are established did not consider that their circum-
stances justified the formation of fresh alliances.
Lancashire in its season of calamity has borne wit-
nessde w
to the operation of a law
offfect pru in nce
mosthi which
of
has not been without its °
kingdom.
the other parts of the
and of these there ap-
is divided into 26 distri_otsePst
Derby alone a Conti.pears to have been in.w
0 fees in three June quarters
nuous increase of Ina_el:
that district wore 375,
(1860-62); the nuirbe
434, 460. The returns of Ashton, Blackburn, and
leerdfrom the list as signal instances
Preston are se: ate being depressed when hard
of the marriag
times have fallen . e
total number o
on the industry of a people Th
f births in the quarter that ended
30th September was 172,237. It showed an increase
of 4
~, above
wethe mean of two previous summer
quarters
- '42i
(1860-61). The birth-rate was 3.356 per
cent. of the population, agaitst an average of 3.285
in ten corresponding quarters (1852-61). The
excess of births over deaths in the last quarter was
80,012. The natural increase of the population was,
therefore, at the rate of 870 daily. The number of
emigrants to all parts who left ports in the United
Kingdom where there are emigration officers, in the
three months that ended 30th September, was
33,240; and in this number the English emigrants
may be stated approximately as 12,866. The emi-
gration to the Australian colonies has increased;
the English, Irish, Scotch, and others who went
thither last quarter were 12,071; in either of the two
previous summers they were little more than 7,000.
British North America also drew a larger company.
The number who sought the United States was
14,170, the number in the same quarter of 1860
having been 21,104 and in that of the following
1 year 6,348. Of the 12,866 English who emigrated
about 5,265 went to the United States, and 6,536 to
the Australian colonies. The average price of Con-