The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-29 00:00:00

BOARD OF TRADE RETURNS.

The Board of Trade returns for the past month
have just been issued, and show a falling off of
£447,227, or about 4 per cent., in the declared
value of our exports, compared with the corre-
sponding month of 1860. Considering that the
returns for the preceding month showed an increase
of 51 per cent., that the totals of last year were the
largest ever known, and that such American de-
mand as has arisen for warlike stores and materials
was not much felt until within the last few weeks,
this result can hardly be considered discouraging.
The great falling of has been in cotton, woollen,
and linen goods, a fair trade being shown in a
majority of the miscellaneous items. A demand
appears to have existed for various descriptions of
yarn, and also for machinery, which may be taken
as evidence of the tendency to a revival of con-
fidence among Continental manufacturers. As
the exports to America show a reduction of about
£600,000 from those of April, 1860 (of which reduc-
tion £182,866 is under the head of metals, £129,068
cottons, £36,783 linens, £23,087 woollens, and
£132,028 haberdashery), our shipments to other
parts of the world must have been upon a full
scale.

The total exports in the first four months of the
year have been £38,574,462, against £41,834,347
in the corresponding period of 1860, showing a de-
crease of £3,259,885, or 71 per cent. The changes
have been as follows:

Increase. Decrease.
January — .. £1,021,796
February
• • 2,348,222
March
April — • • 447,227
Compared with 1859, there is a falling off of
£3,277,062, or also about 7 per cent.
With regard to imported commodities, it appears
that the arrivals of wheat were larger than in any
of the preceding months of the year, and perhaps
than on any former occasion. Their total value may
be estimated at £2,500,000, and the chief quantities
were from Prussia and America. The arrivals of
salted provisions were likewise heavy. The con-
sumption of other articles of food and luxury was
also large, cocoa, coffee, tea, sugar, wines, and to-
bacco all figuring for an increase.

CITY COMMISSION OF SEWERS.—Yesterday, at a
meeting of the Commissioners of Sewers, held at Guildhall,
Mr. Deputy Christie in the chair, Dr. Letheby, the medical
officer of health, reported on the state of 291 houses which
had been inspected during the last fortnight, 128 of which
were common lodging houses, and he submitted a list of 52
places for sanitary improvement. He likewise reported that
the markets had been duly inspected, and that the officers
had seized 2,9721 b, of meat, and 196 head of game and
poultry, as unfit for human food. Nearly the whole of the
meat had been seized in Newgate Market by Mr. Fisher
and Mr. Newman, and the poultry and game in Lcadenhall
Market by Mr. Davidson. 1,7681 b. were diseased, 373
putrid, and 831 from animals that had died from natural
causes. The mortality returns for the fortnight aro still
in excess of the average, the number of deaths being 121,
whereas the number for the corresponding period of the last
five years was only 93. Nearly half of the deaths were
among children of less than five years of age, the most im-
portant causes of death being measles and whooPinE,* -cough ;
the former was fatal in six cases, and the latter in 11, be-
sides which there were 13 deaths from hydrocephalus and
convulsions. Among old persons there were 24 deaths, one
of which was at the age of 100 ; the deceased was the widow
of an author, and lived in Clifford's -inn. 115 births have
been registered during the fortnight ; of these 61 were boys
and 54 girls,