The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-15 00:00:00

Our trade with America.

The following letters have appeared and show the fal-
lacy of the statements in the Time? City articles that wo
aro granting unlimited credit to American merchants :

"Jan. 10.

"Sir,—l think there has been a very important &elig-
nored both in your City Article of the Bth inst. and in the
leading article of yesterday in regard to our trade with
America, which requires correction ; and believing as I do
that it has been only an oversight on your part, as no
doubt you have only one desire to represent everything
fairly to the public, I take the liberty of calling your atten-
tion thereto.

"You have entirely omitted the imports of cotton into
Liverpool for the last few months of 1865, which have
amounted to 196,149 bales (since the Gth of October to the
31st of December), which, taken at the price of 20d. per
lb. (which is considerably below the average), shows a
total sterling value received from America of £7,682,502
to the credit of the American trade.

"Hoping you will insert this in your first impression,
"I am your obedient servant,

" W. M. C."

" London, Jan. 10.
Sir,—False commercial views which load to alarm aro
like a false alarm of fire in a crowded theatre, only of far
wider injury, and I trust to your sense of what is due
to
the commercial public, which attaches so much weight to
allth
that
"I find the value of enumerated exports from :Great
falls from your pen, to insert the following re-
marks
Britain to the United States in 1864 and 1865 for the 11
each year to be X 13,300,000, and £14,900,000 re-
months of
spectively, showing an increase of £1,600,000 in 1865 over
1864; and it must be remembered that the last few months
of 1864 were months of unusual commercial depression, and
restriction of business, so that the increase cannot be con-
sidered as indicating any unhealthy expansion of trade in
this direction. It is quite true that we have received less
corn, flour, petroleum, and gold and silver by about
£6,500,000 in the ten months of 1865 than we did in the
corresponding ten months of 1864, but it will be found that
the imports of raw cotton from the United States for the
12 months of 1865 aro 162,000 bales, against 970,000 bales
in 1861, and that
,this item would balance the account if it
does not leave us debtors, the respective values being
£15,000,000 and £8,000,000. This does not appear in the
Board of Trade tables, which have, I apprehend, misled
You ; but it is well known to all merchants and brokers, if
not bankers.

" We have no means of obtaining the cotton so much
needed but by increasing our exports, and if we are to get
100,000 bales a month of American cotton, which is worth
at least £3O a bale, or £3,000,000 per month, we must needs
export largely, and we have in addition to pay for the
corn, flour, petroleum, &e., that we may require to import.
" A calm consideration of this view of the trade will, I
hope, have the effect of modifying your opinions.
" I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

" VERITAS."

M. Bouley, one of the commissioners sent by the
French Government to investigate the subject of the
cattle plague in this country, read a paper last week
before the Academy of Medicine, in which he said that,
owing to a want of powerful and concentrated action on
the part of the Administration, the English graziers,
yielding to no other dictates but those of their own pri-
vate interests, had, immediately on being made aware of
the danger with which they were threatened, sent their
cattle to the markets, in order to get rid of them at once.
The consequence was a most rapid propagation of this
cattle typhus, and a mortality of not less than 64,000
head of cattle—an official statement which ho considers
below the truth. " England," added M. Bouley, " has
come to this pass because she has no confidence in the
veterinary art ; nor is this want of confidence quite
unreasonable ; for, with the exception of a few dis-
tinguished men, veterinary science may be said not to
exist among our neighbours, owing to the fact that it is
completely left to private enterprise." In Holland our
author states that the loss was still more considerable,
the action of the Government being powerless there as
in England. In Belgium, on the contrary, where Govern-
ment had both the will and the power to interpose, the loss
had only amounted to 600 bead of cattle. But it was in
France, especially, the prompt, active, and energetic inter-
ventibn of Government had been remarkable for its happy
results. While the rinderpest had cost England a sum of
not less than GOO millions of francs, the loss of Prance is
limited to 43 head of cattle, value from 16,000 to 18,000
francs, thanks to the wise preventive measures adopted by
the Administration, agreeably to the advice of men of
science, and thanks to the strict execution of those mea -
sures.