The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-10 00:00:00

Coals ,by railway and ,canal from Ist Jan. to
31st .Dec., 185 t
1,161,036

1855

' Increase in present year 110,614
Thoi weather throngliOut.becember was not of a cha-
rActz favourable to consumption, and the, trade ditripg
ti?e month was continuously depreseed, "With' scarcely
any change from the prices prevalent in November-
viz., about 19s. for best Wear„and 17s. for the best Tyne
, house coals.. Stearri sorts have .also' ruled very. low,
• sellib it 15s. to 163: 114 re igh have- shared -in the de-
pression, and,hayebeen at 7s. tide, and 7s.l3d.,.whiCh are
lower rates than we recollect for many winters. *Sevetdri
shiPOineisi declining to charter' On these tern F, have
laid their vessels up..- • .) :;
The importation sea-borne in December exceeded that
'of the cevesponclim:.; tieinth last...year by 107,000 rons,
tint the supply hi Deceinbilr, tp coif nary
winds, was much belbw an• Still prices' at the
close of 1855 were some shillings below those which ob.
tained throughout the previous autumn,, and doubtless
the effect has' been to torte extent that the public re
frained last year from:laying:ill their usual stocks..
We give below a statement; of the importatims of sea-
borne coal in the last three years (classifying the several
sorts as correctly as possible) together with the quanti2-
ties sent by railway and canal in the same periods.:

185.1: 1851 J,856.
Tyne House Coals , 277,637 265,221 226,086
Snodezland &,Seahana Do. 915,816. 802,696 43,010
Hartlepool& Stockton Do. 590,952 524.530 509,409

Total House Coals 1,781,405 1,592,450 1,668,505
Stoim"

Gas

Coking
Manufacturing
Welsh
Yorkshire

646,351 576,960 519,007

&c.

275,569' 220,789 248,182
200,627 183,750 1/1,020
86,144 120,789 147,466
31,911 32,474 ' 35,249
19,620 9,732 8,19)

Total seaborne
Coals by Railway & Canal 979,170 1,162,486 1,273,270

Total

4,678,731 4,179,3 M 4,393,154

It i3.out of our power to classify the portion by rail-
way and canal, except such as below, for the lait two
years the inland coals consisting of 50 or 60 curiously-
named sorts, we have no means of dividing them into
house, steam, &c.

1855. 1856.
, .
House coals from Wear, Sze 168,943 129,639
Gas,' coking, &c., from Wear, &c 52,746 , 31,801
Coke
Welsh
Inland

Total by rail and canal 1,162,435 1,273,270

As wa prognosticated some years .ago, the supply of
low class house coats from the Tyne is rapidly diminish-
ing, whilst similar competing sorts from the midland
counties show a great increase. The quantify carried
by the 'Great Northern Railway from Durham, which
in 1855 amounted to 221,690 tons, fell off to 164,440
tons in last year, and shows pretty clearly that our ship-
Owners have not much reason to fear their competition
in carrying coals from the districts north of York.
The main production of the Tyne district sent to Lon-
don consists of gas, steam, coking, and manufacturing
sorts. The gas and coking desCriptions have as yet, met
with little or no competition worth mining, but'eteam
and manufacturing kinds continue to be beaten back by
railway coals, which sell at prices• which' render it more
than doubtful whether any profit can •be left to coal-
owner or railway company.
We look with considerable alarm on the prospects of
our London trade for steam and manufacturing coals,
when, next year, the enactments of the Smoke Prohibition
Bill: will be extended to all steam vessels and factories
between London-bridge and the. Nore, though it is pro-
posed to pollute the water and the air with the sewerage
of the metropolis some 10 miles down the river. We fear
it is too late to agitate successfully for an abrogation.of
the act, but we think if our members and coalowners
had been as active as the proprie tors of the smokeless
Welsh coals, such an absurd extension of a highly penal_
law might have been prevented.
We subjoin an account c,f the coals on which City's
dues were paid by the several railway companies, &e., in.
the last three years :

1854. 1Y55. 1856.
Great Northern ';93,562 ' 517,603 591,435
North Western 271,011 339,657 443,672
Eastern Counties 167,958 145,327 126,775
Great Western i.... 84,59!, • :80,951 73,048
South Eastern ' 22,9'34 , 23,471 11,266
South Western
Grand Junction Canal 32,153 ', 23,251 25,295
Thames - lO6
Common Roads
1,960 1,403, no return.

979,170 1,162,486 1,2i1,700

A great increase in the quantity carried by the Lon-
don and North Western Company will 6e observed. This
company has within the last 12 months expended a con-
siderable sum in the erection of depots, sidings, trucks,
&c., and also in an elaborate systein of signalling to
enable them to carry a large addition to their already
enormous traffic, with what results the frequent acci-
dents reported (and not reported sufficiently) show. The
Great Western Company, we believe, are also bitten
with the same mania for coal traffic, and are preparing.
to carry largely, though, with their badly situated ter-
minus, they are placed at a great disadvantage compared
to their rivals. -

We concluded our remarks on the London coal trade
for 1855, by stating that the prospect for the ensuing
year was most cheering, and we must again 'repeat the
words as regards the trade for 1857.
It is probable that we shall not have so bad a
spring trade as prevailed last year, but in the face
of a competition of 1,273,270 tons per annum (about
equal to the yearly quantity sent to London from the
Tyne) it is idle to expect a fair range of prices, and much
higher rates (as we have bef -re said) would not be advis-
able. We think, indeed, it is a fair source of congratu-
lation that, considering the immense accession to the
supply of London which has sprung up only in the last
five or six years, we have not yet had to encounter as
low a range of prices as we have witnessed from our own
internal competition within a very short interval.
• It is to the cheapening of cost in getting to market
that we must mainly look for a means of successfully
competing with the railways ' • and that screw steamers
can and will eventually, with proper facilities, secure to
this district its pre-eminence in supplying the metropolis
with coals, we have very little doubt.
,The quantity of coals carried to London by
steamers -in -1856 amounted to 238,597 tons, against
85, 000,tonsin 1855. The war and the high freights offer-•
ing in some other trades have prevented their employ-
ment to the still greater extent we hoped for, and it will
be a,mattqr of some years before they come into general
use which we anticipated for them. Only four or five
screws were einployed regularly all the year. The
greatest number_of voyages was made by the Ross, D.
Mangles, which carried 36 cargoes, amounting to
23,205 Was. The Samuel Laing, since April, has made
31 voyages, carrying 18,464 tons.
We conclude with giving a statement of the quantities
of coals received into London from the several ports,
and a list of the entries of the Coal factors. We shall
next week give a few more statistics of the trade. '

Ships. Ports. Tons.
358 Newcastle
83 Seaham
177 Sunderland
196 Hartlepool and West Hartlepool
18 Stockton. and Middlesbro' 4,261
11 Blyth • 2,742
14 Scotch

34 Welsh
.80 Yorkshire, Ere

921

Factors. Ships.
Hill, Wood, & Hughes,2,lBB
Smith, Sour&ld, &Co 966
Dixon, Harris, &c 954
Marshall, Page, & Co Bl7 i
Hugh Taylor 714
S. Clarke 517
William Milnes 499

11,681
2,861

280,880

Factors. Ships.
Charleton and Watson 377
F, D. Lambert
Miller and Potter 227
Fenwick, Laroche, & Co. 205
Metcalfe & Son 46
Carr, Lamb, & Co ll
Agents ... 1,124

THE . MALLS.—SOUTHAMPTON, Jan. 9:—The Royal
Mail Company's steamship Tamar, Captain Jellicoe,
sailed to-day for Lisbon, Teneriffe, St. Vincent, Pernam-
buco, Bahia, Rio Janeiro, Monte Video, and Buenos
Ayres, with the Brazilian and River Plate mails, specie
value 15,000 t., jewellery value 25,800/., a full cargo, and
108 passengers, among whom are Capt. and Mrs. Piers,
Captain Prance, Drs. Barton and Rigo. The Spanish
screw steamer Hamburg, Captain Lagier, also sailed
this afternoon with 13 passengers and 650 tons of cargo,
for Santander, Barcelona, and Marseilles. The European
and Australian Royal. Mail Company's steamer Colum-
bia, Captain Pender, leaves on Monday .next with the
.mailsfor the Australian colonies. The United States
mail steamship Arago, Captain Lines, is to leave Havre
on Tuesday next, and Southampton on Wednesday, with
the French and English mails, for New York. The
Union Steamship Company's screw steamer Celt, which
put back on Monday, was taken into the graving-dock
on Thursday, and thoroughly examined by Mr. Job
ling (Lloyd's surveyor) and Mr. Ruble (engineering
surveyor to the Board of Trade). The vessel was, found
to be perfectly sound, in, every respect, and she will
leave here again to-marrow (Saturday) for the Brizile,
under the command of Captain Cook.