The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-08 00:00:00

227,772,240 I £27,772,240
M. MARSHALL, Chief Cashier.
Dated the 6th day of March, 1851.

BANKING DEPART/UV T.

X. -
Proprietore'capitah. 14,553,000
Rest •• .... • . 3,610,954
Public deposits (in-
chiding Exchequer,
Commissioners of
National Debt, Say-
ings-banks, and Di-
vidend accounts)" 7,794,344
Other deposits • . .. • . 9,521,505
Sesen day and other
Bills .. . • • .• • • • . 1,053,596

Government securi-
ties (including Dead
Weight Annuity) .. 14,145,696
Other securities .. .. 13,174,857
Notes .. .. .... .... .. 8,536,666
Gold and silver coin .. 676,181

£36,553,399

£36,533,399
d. MARSHALL. Chief Ceshier.
1.

Dated the 6th day of March, 18-;

BOARD OF TRADE RETURNS.

Prosperity is a thing which it will not do to be
always talking about. Something tells us that boasting
is ominous of a check, and the mere love of change re-
N olts from continual success. It is, then, from no choice
of our own limit we find ourselves again and again pa-
rading the unsatisfactory state of our manufactui es and
commerce. There is a necessity, however, to state the
simple facts of the case in reply to the daily insinuations
heard to the contrary effect. Notwithstanding the
enormous and undeniable increase in exports and im•
ports exhibited by the returns for the year 1850, every
artifice is employed to neutralise or mystify that fact,
and to divert the attention cf the ill-informed to some
minute or accidental circumstance that seems to
tell the other way. If fashion has deserted one
fabric for another, if the season has not been pro-
pitious to flannels and furs, if a scanty crop of
cotton has to a certain extent stinted the manu-
facture, if there has been a strike, or if a correspondent
reports that on such a day the demand for such an
article was less brisk than on that day week, there are
journals, and there are even statesmen, who are ready,
to congratulate the public on oar boasted prosperity be-
ing not quite so real and universal as it was said to be.
Such cavils, sometimes dropped in a parenthesis, some-
, times blown into articles, show how deeply the present
state of our manufactures and commerce is felt in its
bearing on the question of " free trade." No subter-
fuge can avoid the conclusion that if we are export-
ing more than we ever exported, and importing more
than a e ever imported, there must be more em-
ployment and wages than ever ; while the vast
eruount of imports entirely disposes of the hack-
nied objection that our prosperity is limited to
only a portion of the community. With this importance
conceded on all tides to the returns of trade, we are
under the necessity of asking the attention of our readers
to their present results.
The returns published on Wednesday are for the month
ending Feb. 5, that is, for the first month of the year. To
begin with the articles of food entered for home consump-
tion. Coffee, which from various causes has lately suffered
a check, stands in this table at 2,890,4681b.' against
2,848,2081 b. entered in the corresponding month of 1850.
Wheat stands 328,483 quarters, against 141,762 quar-
ters; wheat meal, 411,979 cwt , against 258,252 cwt.;
currants, 29,282 cwt., against 23,335 cwt.; lemons and
oranges, 69,159 chests, against 61,556 chests; butter,
21,449 cwt., against 14,446 cwt.; cheese, 28,738
cwt., against 23,506 cwt.; eggs, 6,127,555, against
4,868,384 ; tea, 4,619,8571 b., against 4.216,2801 b. ;
wine, 616,522 against 511,000 gallons. In sugar and
tobacco there has been so slight a decrease that they
may be regarded as stationary, while in a few other
items, such as cocoa and spirits, there has been a fall-
ing off, admitting of obvious explanation. But,
on the whole, the quantity and value of the
articles of food, of comfort and luxury, entered
during last January were very considerable. By this
time we need scarcely remind our readers that this quan-
tify, being entered for consumption, indicates the demand,
as a tradesman in the ordinary course of his business
replaces his stocks as fast as they are drawn on by his
customers. The articles we have mentioned aro consumed,
if not all by all classes, at least by all departments of in-
dustry, by the agricultural as well as by the manufactur-
ing population, and when the increase is considerable it is
impossible that it should be owing to an increased de-
wand by only one set of customers. Such, indeed, we
know not to be the case. There is, we are aware,
another solution attempted for these facts. It is partly
conceded that the agricultural labourer, as well as
the artisan, is living in unusual comfort ; but it is
alleged that while the artisan is earning his comforts
in a manner remunerative to his employers,
and therefore likely to last for some while, the
labourer is, in fact, receiving his as a species of gratuity
from his employer, for work which is not remunerative,
and which therefore cannot long be afforded. We are
not now going to discuss a theory which bears such
marks of being made for the occasion ; but we do not
assent to it.

Among other articles of domestic, or manufacturing,
or agricultural use, we find 7,338 tons of guano imported,
against 1,358 tons in the first month of 1850; hemp,
36.259 cwt., against 28.424 cwt. ; hides, untanned,
42,888 cwt., against 24,715 cwt.; tanned, or otherwise
dressed, 322,0921 b., against 82,1781 b. ; mabony,
2,017 tons, against 1,075 tons; palm oil, 43,846 ct.
against 24,896 cwt.; raw silk, 513,3381 b.,
againstaainst
467,5661 b.; sheep and lambs' wool, 3'611'9881"h-el It
1,957,6321 b. These items all speak for themosethe
would be difficult to assign any
em-
ployment sad prosperity which largesoidimi
of raw materials certainly indicate 0 n importation
But it is alleged that our ex tso keepa° nn
pace with
our imports; that while we arbePe
°gireonoeurltirsileYs ,accepting
e andnot
return, and that thus
consuming the produce of of.
of obigations is s() generous as to take oursin
tho balance of trade, or rather
The day, it is said, must come,
turn-
ing against us.
oyuerrynedigeehpboiunrsthweiirll
hmnaltes,thedisco-
soon or late,
very that we and will
y demand prompt payment in the promptest'and
most available form— that is, in all our silver
swthanend
and gold. When such apprehensions aro enter-
tujued, it is consolatory to End that our ex-
ports aro not so considerably in arraar —in fact,
that, at a rough conjecture, which is nearly all that can
bo arrived at, imports and exports are pretty touch in
equi!ibrio. Here are some of our exports. We will con-
fine ourselves to the comparison of quantities, letting the
comparison of values alone for the present. We find
the export of soda 54,439 cwt., against 32,475 cwt. in
tho corresponding month of last year; beer and ale,
17.543 barrels, against 14,316 barre Is ; candles, 234,749113.,
against 200,37315.; coals and culm, 171,421 tons, against
134.770 tons; cotton manufactures, 114,000,000 yards,
egaiast 94,000,000 yards ; earthenware, 5,977,163
places, against 5,060.628 pieces ; glass bottles,
24,610, cwt,, against 19,401 cwt.; linen manufactures,
10,882,437 yards, against 9,149,865 yards ; sewing
thread, 150,0001 b,, against 141,0001 b. linen yarn,
1,122,0001 b., against 786,000 lb.; pig-iron, 8,568 tons,
against 3,681 tons; bar, bolt, and rod iron, 32,177
tons, against, 30,281 tons; wrought iron of nl.l kinds, 7,041
tons, against 6,406 tons. silk stuffs, handkerchiefs, and