The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-03 00:00:00

SHIPPING RETURNS.

The shipping returns of the Board of Trade for the
month ending the 30th of November confirm the indi-
cations of the activity of trade presented by the export
tables, and show a considerable Increase in the extent of
tonnage employed. This increase is chiefly in foreign
vessels, which, owing to the absorption of English
vessels for Government purposes, are required to supply
immediate wants. Annexed are the general totals of
entries and clearances :
Entered inward :

TONNAGE FOR MONTI/ ENDING
Dec. 5, Dec. 5, Nov. :30,
1853. 1854. 1855.
British vessels 441,159 413,842 376,916
United States' vessels
Other countries 202,039 136,913 198,414

713,283 605,265 648,985
The clearances outward were :--
1853. 1854. 1855.
British vessels 324,293 342,655 382,928
United States' vessels
Other countries 203,570 153,251 191,643

606,023 567,017 681,106

With regard to the coasting trade, the returns show
that the tonnage entered inward was 1,037,539 in the
month ending Dec. 5, 1853 ' • 1,087,265 in 1854 ; and
in the present return it is 998,641, including 16 foreign
Vessels, of an aggregate burden of 4,203 tens. The
clearances outward were 1,135,508 tons in Dec., 1853 ;
1,109,089 iu 7854; and 1,125,320 (including 2,905 tons
of foreign) in 1855.

RUSSIAN COMMERCE GN THE CASPIAN.

A Hertfordshire incumbent, in writing to the Times,
says :—Sir,—" I owe it to your correspondent in to-
day's paper, who signs himself An Old 52d,' to explain
the difficulty which he finds in reconciling my calcula-
tions of the commerce on the Caspian with the statistics
of the Board of Trade. My data are the same as those
of which he has made use, hut I have taken the average
of the four years 1849-1852, whereas he has confined
himself to the last year of that period.
" He is quite right in his conjecture that in my esti-
mate of the Caspian commerce I confined myself to the
consideration of that between Russia and Persia ; and I
did this, because no other country has any port on that
sea. It is true that there is a small traffic with Khiva,
through the Caspian ; but, independently of its extremely
small amount, it is of such a peculiar kind that if the
water communication with Astrachan were cut off, the
whole of it might be easily transferred to one of the other
routes, which ne number of British cruisers on the Cas-
pian could affect. Your correspondent must not imagine
that the trade with the Kirghese steppes and that with
Bokbara, Taschkend, and Kokham, which he sees set
down in the excellent statistical tables which he quotes,
is a sea-borne traffic. If he will refer to a most instruc-
tive book, which was much read when it first appeared
—I mean 'Burnes's Travels into Bokhara'—he will see an
account of the different routes by which the Asiatic trade
of Russia is carried on. In Burnes's time the main road
to Bokhara was by way of Mung Kislak, on the Cas-
pian, but now the tables show that the Khivan trade—
which is the one that passes by that route is ♦ery incon-
siderable—a result which I should be disposed to inter-
pret by the conjecture that the improved navigation on
the Indus had brought British manufactures by way of
Affghanistnn into Khiva, and forced out the Russian.
"The traffic with the Kirghese steppes passes, I have
no doubt, by Orenburg and Samara. If your correspon-
dent will look down the proper column of the tables, he
see that its principal items are cattle and skins, the
latter of which are most probably at this moment pro-
tecting from the inclemency of the weather troops des-
tined in the early summer to be brought into the Crimea.*
"The trade with Bokbara, and that with Taschkend,
which appear in the tables, are, apparently, that com-
merce whioh Burnes describes as taking place by way of
Troiteki and Kuzzul•jur respectively.
"As the only question which I desired to illustrate
was the effect likely to be produced by the destruction
of Russian trade on the Caspian—supposing such a thing
possible—l was unwilling to introduce the mention of
the above topics in my last letter.
" I trust your correspondent does not understand me
to disparage his recommendation of military operations
in Inseritia. and Georgia. If I had thought it becoming
to offer any opinion upon such a subject, it would have
been one in hearty concurrence with his views. But,
although I have no more doubt than he that our enemy
is trying, and always will try, to push on to India, I am
one who thinks that Great Britain is more likely, through
the silent but effective operation of manufactures and
commerce, to get to the eastern bank of the Oural, than
her rival, by a widely different agency, to reach the
western bank of the Indus. All that we really want is
a spirit of patriotism in officials, sufficient to overcome
the habit of jobbing and nepotism which seems engrained
in English society.—in the lower and middle classes,
perhaps, even more than the highest. The throwing
open of the Indian service to all meritorious candidates
is, I believe, a firmer security for the stability of our
Indian empire than "a Gibraltar i❑ the Caspian ' would
be. It will put us, pro tanto, on a level with the Czar,
who has no constituents to humour and no political
party to keep together; and accordingly, as facts prove,
generally experiences no difficulty in finding "the right
man for the right place."

* At Samara there is a winter fair for peltries, and the
Kirghese lambskins, remarkable for their extreme softness
and warmth, are said by Pallas to sell for a very high price
in Moscow and Bt. Petersburg.