The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-16 00:00:00

IMPORTS AT ABERDEEN BY BRITISH VESSELS.
Vessels. Tons.
1834
1833
1836 ... 84
• 1837 ............ 96
1838
1839
1840
Compare these figures with those which show our
Imports by Foreign Vessels.
Vessels. Tons.
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
It thus appears that, while our imports by British
vessels have remained stationary during the last
six years, those by foreign vessels have increased
nearly three-fourths ! The reason is obvious to every
one who is in the least degreee acquainted with the crip-
pled state of our maritime commerce by our fiscal re-
strictions. Every vessel we build is taxed on one thing
or another. Her timbers are taxed if they are not hewn
out of half-rotten fir ; her planks are taxed, unless
they are cut front some landlord's estate at home,
who has the price in a great measure at his own
making ; her ropes, masts, sails—in short, everything
else is taxed that enters into her construction. And
then the food of the seamen is taxed, and that exor-
bitantly. The policies of insurance are taxed,
and, in some instances, the charters of her freight
are also subject to duty. In these circum-
stances, ss e cannot compete with foreign vessels
the cost of which, in most cases, is not over one-half of
the cost of British vessels. Foreigners are thus enabled
to offer carriage at a much lower rate of freight than Bri-
tish vessels can do; and the consequence is, that they are
taken up much sooner wherever lastage is in demand.
Some twenty years ago, the construction and equip-
ment of foreign vessels were so inferior, that British
vessels got a preference even at a considerable difference
of freight, but now that our restrictive policy has driven
our artisans, and, in some cases, our capitalists, to seek
for employment and invest their capital abroad, the
construction, and equipment of foreign vessels are
vastly improved—indeed so much so, that it is diffi-
cult to distinguish between some foreign vessels that
now enter our harbour and some of our best modelled
craft. The reciprocity system, too, has aided the trans•
fer of our imports to foreign bottoms—not that the
Reciprocity Act was in principle a bad act, but be
cause it was not accompanied by a general relaxation of
the restrictions on foreign imports of all kinds. No-
thing short of a general revision and modification of our
whole import tariff will save our shipping and commer-
cial as well as our manufacturing interests.
Before leaving our foreign imports, it may not be out
of place to notice a fact in the character of the goods
imported, as illustrative of that generosity and disin-
terestedness on the part of the landed interests for which
the landowners take to themselves so much credit. Of
what kind of goods has the increase of our imports
chiefly consisted ? Corn to feed our starving artisans ?
No. Timber to build them something like comfortable
houses? No. What then ? Bones to fatten the
landlords' land. And to show the landlords' disin-
terestedness and generosity, he will sacrifice the British
shipping for the sake of getting the manure a penny
a bushel cheaper, in consequence of being brought over
at a low rate of freight by a foreigner. Generous lam'
lords!

In farther proof that our shipping interest is suffering
from the unequal competition of foreigners, we call at-
tention to the following table, which shows that even
our exports are carried off by foreigners :
BRITISH VESSELS LEFT ABERDEEN AND PETERHEAD

IN BALLAST.

Vessels. - Tons.
1834
183.5
1836 ~...
1
1837 ..... ....... 88
1838 _ .
1839
1840 .. . 105 ..
Compare this with the number of
FOREIGN VESSELS WHICH LEFT ABERDEEN AND
PETERHEAD IN BALLAST DURING THE SAME PERIOD.
Vessels. Tons.
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
Here again the foreigner has the advantage ; and
perhaps the British shipowner never felt the force of
this fact more than he does at the present moment ; for,
just at the time he was calculating on getting fair freights
to the Baltic, the foreign vessels that have come over
with grain are taking cargoes of herrings from
every part of the coast, at freights that would be
ruinous to our shipowners. The sliding scale has
fallen to the lowest point exactly at a time when we
have goods to export ; and as the foreigners must go
home, they will take anything rather than ballast.
In the second place, our manufacturing exports are
falling off. Aberdeen, a short time ago, sent a great
deal of goods across the Atlantic, but our exports to
that market have declined very rapidly, as will be seen
from the following table, taken from the same source as
the others :
GOODS EXPORTED TO AMERICA FROM ABERDEEN.
1834 .
183.5
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
Now, with such facts as these staring us in the face,
was it not time to memorialise her Majesty not to pro-
rogue Parliament until something definite bad been pro-
posed by Government with a view to ameliorate the
condition of the people? Situate as we are upon the
outskirts of the country, and favourable as our position
is for carrying on a large in trartaitu business with the
towns and villages farther north, we may be yet spared
awhile from witnessing "such an intensity of distress as
has been prevailing for these three years past in some
other parts of the kingdom ; but the indications of dis•
tress are.now palpably manifest, and nothing will save
us but united and determined exertion for a total repeal
of the Corn-laws, and a general modification of our
whole system of fiscal duties.

ARISTOCRATIC EXPENDITURE.--It were a
curious and not unimportant exercise to inquire into the
modes and means of living which obtain in the higher
and humbler classes of metropolitan society. Of course
the expenditure of aristocratic families varies with the
circumstances and habits of the respective heads of those
families ; but if I were to express an opinion as to the
average annual expenditure of each of the 2,000 or
3,000 titled families who live in London, that opinion
would be that such average expenditure is about 12,000/.
I have often thought that, if the sum thus yearly dissi-
pated on the follies and extravagancies of one family,
were judiciously distributed among the poorer classes of
our metropolitan population, how vast would be the ag-
gregate amount of happiness of which it would be pro-
ductive. Supposing, for example, it were divided into
sums of 12/., and that the amount were given to as many
families as there are 12/. in 19,000/., the benefaction
would raise no fewer than 1,000 families, at present en-
during all the horrors of want, to a condition of compara-
tive comfort.—Lights and Shadows of London Life, by
the Author of " The Great Metropolis."
EXTENSIVE ROBBERY OF JEWELLERY.—On
Thursday information was sent round to the various po-
lice-stations from the D division of police of the follow-
ing extensive robbery of jewellery which had taken place
between five and eleven o'clock on Wednesday night, at
,
the house of Mr. Phelps, the landlord of the Dog and
Duck Tavern, Princes-street, Bedford-row, when
the
ae-
loi..
lowing articles of jewellery were stolen :—A ,
'a
bottomed silver repeater, maker's name unknown,mker s
and
a silver guard; a silver hunting-watch, single-cased,
chain, and
two gold seals, one of the seals plain
name Richard Kimber ; one silver watch,,
dog engraved upon it ; one goldl, . thr
chased 'seal and
ee plain gold
the o th er wiatli
ring, a blood stone in the sea
se
d ring set with pearls
and emeralds ; one
shirt studs ; one gold ring
brooch set with paste ; one gold
cornelian stone
ditto with a square
t with pearls ; one gold
on a swivel ;
gold ring set with dia-
monds; of earrings towith emeralds; one ditto, paste; one
one ditto set
one gold
match
; onech in the shape of a lyre,
ditto with a ‘ yellow stone ; one ditto paste and emerald,
ditto set with amethysts ; one ditto set with jet ; one
one r
ditto paste and garnet, and a rin. g in the shape of a
fox.
The whole
loftitihieevaesboalliee vsaulpupaobsteedptroopielia•tlye
was
stehed
kept
up stairs, and the
an opportunity and to have gone up stairs unperceived,
andleft the house in a similar manner.

COMMERCIAL AND MANUFAC-
TURING DEPRESSION IN ABERDEEN.
(From the Aberdeen Herald.)
The first resolution passed at the public meeting
held in the Court-house, on Tuesday week, was to the
following effect :
" That, although the city of Aberdeen has been hi-
therto spared from witnessing such an intensity of dis-
tress as has been prevailing for these three years past
in some other parts of the kingdom, it has endured its
full share of that general commercial depression which
has led to a falling off in the public revenue, and a great
diminution in the value of almost every kind of pro-
perty,"
In proof of the averment that Aberdeen has " en-
dured its full share" of the general commercial depres-
sion that now prevails in other parts of the kingdom,
we take leave to submit the following facts. In the
first place, our shipping interest has been in a de-
clining state for some time back. This has not been
owing to any falling off in the amount of our imports,
but from the gradual transfer of our import trade to
foreign bottoms. This ;yid best appear from the fol-
lowing returns carefully collated from the Custom-house
entries :