The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-31 00:00:00

JANUARY 31, 1850

Imports
Exports

Official va!un. Actual value.
••• 862000,000 ... 708,000,000
... 1,153,000,000 ... 956,000,C 00
SPECIAL COMMERCE.
_ _

Official value, Actual value.
Imports ... ... 556,000,000 ... 474,000,000
Exports 833.000,000 ... 670,000,000
Thus, from whatever point of view we regard these
figures, the same fact strikes the eye—viz., that the
amount of the exports greatly exceeded that of the
imports. What is the signification of this reversal of
the ordinary course ? It signifies that in 1848, work
being slack under the influence of the political crises,
we drew from abroad less raw material; it also sig-
nifies that the internal consumption having fallen off,
our producers were compelled to seek foreign outlets
at any cost, in ;which they were aided by the pre-
miums and sur-premiums granted by the Govern-
ment (to the amount of 21,399,4511. in 1848). There
is, therefore, no reason to rejoice at this circumstance.
The carriage by sea plays the most important part
in the general movement of our exchanges. It figures
for 71 per cent. In this movement the share taken
by our own navy is, unfortunately, anything but
considerable. We shall discuss the subject in a
special article.

Let us examine what goods and what powers oc.
cupy the first rank in the ensemble of our commercia
operations:—

- Goods—As regards the imports, cotton wool occu-
pies the first 'place, although the quantity was less
than in former years. The total quantity imported
was 80,000,0001. (official value), or 40,000,000 f.
(actual value), nearly the whole came from the
United States; 39,000,000 f. out of 40,000,0001.
There follows :—silks, 26,000,0001. (actual value);
coal, 39,000,000 f. ; common wood, 30,000,000 f. •
colonial sugar, 23,000,000 f.; olive oil, 21,000,00 d
undressed skins, 14,000,000 f. ; indigo, 12,000,000 f.;
and copper, 12,000,000 f. As regards the exports,
tissues figure most conspicuously.
Silk tissues alone figure for 139,000,0001. in the
mass of the value exported. Woollen and cotton
tissues occupy a far more humble place; the first
figure for 66,000,000 f., and the second for 44,000,0001.
(actual value).
After tissues come our wines, 43,000,000 f. ; corn,
nearly 37,000,0001.; dressed skins, 31,000,0001.;
brandies, 24,000,0001. ; toys, 24,000,000 f. and works
in metals, 12,000,0001.
It is interesting to ascertain what countries are
our best customers, what is the nature of the pro-
duce which they buy from or sell to us, by what
means our intercourse might be extended, and so on.
The following are the countries which furnish us
with the largest supplies :

Amount of the Imports,
1. United St 3,.7s Francs.
101,000,000
2. Belgium
..• ... 63,000,000
3. Sardinia 46,000,000
4. Russia ...
•.. 45,000,000
5. England . . 28,000,000
6. India ... •.. 24,000,000
7. Turkey ... 22,000,000
8. Germanic Confederation ... 21,000,000
9. Spain ... ••• 20,000,000
10. Switzerland ... .• ... 14,000,000
The above figures indicate the official values, which
are fictitious. The real values are as follows :

Francs.
1. Belgium 74,000,000
2. United Stato,l 57,000,000
3. Sardinia... ... ... ... 39,000,000
4. Russia ... ... 31,000,000
5. England... ... ••• ... 30,000,000
6. Germanic Confederation ... 23,000 000
7. Spain ... 18,000,000
8. Turkey ... 17,000,000
9. India
... 17,000,000
10. S vitzerland ••• 15,000,000
Thus Belgium 'passes from the second to the first
rank; the United States from the first to the second;
Sardinia, England, and Russia keep their places; the
Germanic Confederation and Spain rise at the ex-
pense of English India and Turkey. Switzerland
remains the last.

Coal constitutes the largest item of the commodi•
ties supplied from Belgium. In 1848 we took from
that country nearly 12,000,000 of metrical quintals,
valued at 26,000,000 f. Cast iron figures f )r 5,500,000 f. ;
horses for an (qua' sum; linens for 3,000,0001.; and
woollens (en masse) for 3,000,000 f. The Belgium
imports thus consist for the most part of raw material.
Cotton wool it is needless to say is the great staple
of import from America. In 1848 it figured for
57,000,000 f. After cotton comes tobacco, nearly
6,000,000 f. ; and oak staves, nearly 3,000,000 f.
Sardinia sends us twilled silks, olive oil, articles of
goldsmithery, and raw silks.
From Russia we receive nearly 17,000 000 f. of
corn. It is our granary of abundance. We also re-
ceive oleaginous seeds, linens, hemp, common woods,
and raw tallow.

Eogland pays for our own exports with coal
(9,500,000 f.), pure copper (3,500,0001.), cast iron,
iron, and steel (nearly 3,000,000 f.), and woollens,
en masse (nearly 2,000,000 f.)
From the Germanic Cmfederation we take com-
mon woods, refined sugar, and coffee (a rather curious
circumstance, as the Confederation has no colonies),
woollens, cattle, and leaf tobacco.

•
Spain supplies us with woollens, olive oil, oranges
and lemons Turkey with corr, grain, tobacco, and

We have recourse to the English Indies for indigo,
rice, and nitrate of potash. Out of a value of
17,000,000 f., indigo alone figures for 10,000,000 f.
Lastly, Switzerland sends us a little of everything,
it being the great transit country. It supplies us
with no staple commodity of its own.
Such are our most important purveyors.
Let us see now which are our most eager custo-
mers. They are as follow :

Amount of Exports.
Francs.
1. England 189,000,000
2. United States ... 116,000,000
3. Algeria 72,000,000
4. Bc!glum ... ... 66,000,000
5. Spain ... ... ... 63,000,000
6. Switz3rland
... 48,000,000
7. Sardinia 46,000,000
8. Germanic Confoderation ... 35,000,000
9. Brazil ... 16,000,000
10. Mexico ... 15,000,000
These are only the official values. If we take
the actual, we arrive at a different result. England
and the United States still march foremost. Algeria
yields the third rank to Belgium, and descends to the
fourth. Russia, which did not figure at all in the
above list, now takes the ninth rank, and Brazil falls
to the last.

What do we especially export to England ? Silk
tissues, 52,000,000`. ; corn, 14,000,00 V.; woollen
tissues, 12,000,000 E ; brandies distilled from the
grape, 10,500,000 E ; dressed skins, 10,500,000 E;
and wines, 5,000,000 E
Silk tissues also take the first rank in our exports
to the United States of America. The English race
in both worlds is the chief customer of our Lyons'
manutactures. The other exports to the States in-
clude woollens, cottons, wines, dressed skins, and
hosiery.
Next to England and the United States the Bel-
gians best appreciate our silk tissues. They pur-
chased more than 9,000,000 f. in 1848. They also
took 7,000,000 f. of woollen tissues, 5,000,000 f. of
corn, and 3,000,000 f. of woollen yarns.
The importance assumed by Algeria as an out'et
for our produce since the year 1843 is worthy of
special notice. In 1848 that colony took 11,000,000 f.
of our cotton tissues, and 6,000,0001. of our wines.
Cotton tissues are also the great element of our
trade with Spain, besides woollen and silk tissues,
linens, and hemp. We give the Spaniards clothing
in return for their oranges, nor do they lose by the
exchange, for we send them necessaries and take their
superfluities in return.

CHATUAM, JAN. AL-Private Robert Gordon, of
the 18th Foot (Royal Irish), was tried this day by a
court-martial at Chatham, for going into his barrack-
room end loading his firelock with ball cartridge. It is
supposed that he intended to do some serious injury to
Colour Sergeant 111‘Ilssain, being the non-commissioned
officer in charge of the prisoner's room. It appears that
on the 21st inst. the prisoner was confined in the guard-
room by the colour sergeant, and be Ras released by
the commanding officer of the battalion, after five days'
drill. At the close of the last day he went down to his
room, in which was the colour sergeant nursing his child,
when the prisoner deliberately took up his musket and
loaded it, bertha was secured before he had time to die
charge it. The court's decision is 001

by many this same novel reading is regarded as only
an intellectual dram-drinking. But is not this pre-
ferable to the intellectual total abstinence so
rigidly observed by Mrs. Le Grand and
many I') In her own humble phrase, she
is not dull. I say she has a decided talent at
making lemon cheesecakes, whip, &c.; she is what
is called a good market woman ; she is very fond of
her needle, and mending (her head, I promise you,
does not go Berlin wool-gathering); she is the only
woman I believe in, for sewing on buttons strong;
and, lastly, she has that excellent quality of being a
good listener, seldom speaking but when she has
something to say.
My dear girls, I have led you with a strangely va-
grant step, it is true, over a page of my crotchets on
that important topic, the ladies and matrimony. I
have drawn on life, not fancy, for my sketches and
observations ; may I conclude by hoping that such
A. B. C. hints as it was in my power to give may not
be useless to you, and by adding that I may, perhaps,
at no very distant period, write to you in a different
capacity than that of a young bachelor.

COMMERCE OF FRANCE IN 1848.
(From La Frew.)
The total value of our imports and exports
in 1848 was thus divided :—General commerce,
2,014,000,000 f. (official value), and 1,644,000,000 f.
(actual value); and special commerce, 1,890,000,000 f.
(official value), and 1,164,000,000 e. (actual value).
This total is thus subdivided :
GENERALCWIMERCE.

BIRTHS.

135,481 births were registered in the quarter
which ended on December 31, 1849. The births
in the corresponding quarters of 1845-8 were
131,219, 139,349, 127,267, 133,204. So that the
proportion of births to the population is 3.022 per
cent. in 1849, or greater than in the correspond-
ing quarters of 1847-8; it is less than in the De-
cember quarters of 1843-6. The births in the year
1849 were 578,087, which is the greatest number
ever returned in one year. The number of births in
1846 was 572,625, in 1847 only 539,965, and in 1848,
563,205. The estimated proportions to the population in
the six years 1844-9, were 3.263, 3.236, 3.364, 3.131,
3.223, and 3.264 per cent. The latter proportion
is equal to 1 in 31 (or 30.64) of the population ; 1
in 15.67 of the female population • and 1 in 7.33 of
the women at the ages 15.45. The number of per-
sons of the ages 15 and under 45 in the country was
on July 2, 1849, not more than 3,955,299 men, and
4,238,481 women, showing an excess of 283,189
women of the age 15-45 in England ; against which
a party of the army, seamen, and fishermen belonging
to England, but absent from the country in the middle
of the year, have to be placed.
The births, in the metropolitan districts of Surrey,
in Liverpool, and in Hull, where cholera was so fatal
in the summer quarter, were fewer in the December
quarter of 1849, than in the corresponding quarter of
1848.
BIRTHS AND DEATHS.-MOVEMENT Or POPULATION.
Tne births registered in the last quarter of 1849
were 135,481, the deaths 97,688 ; so that the natural
increase of which there is a record was 37,793. But
46,136 persons emigrated in the quarter from 11
ports at which there are Government officers, and
41,845 of the number left the three English ports of
Liverpool, London, and Plrmouth.* All the births
in England are not registered, the emigrants of
English birth are not distinguished, no account is
taken of the immigrants into England, and
Scotland and Ireland still remain almost the
only parts of the civilized world in which the firths
ind deaths are unregistered, so that the accui a e
statement, which might otherwise by proper arrange-
ments be so easily made of the movement of the
population of the United Kingdom, is impossible.
fhe excess of births over deaths in the year was
578,087-441,458=136,629.

STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

The deaths in the last quarters of the five years
18454-7-8-9, were 80,681, 108,937, 103,479,
92,447, 97,778. The rate of mortality in the quarter
was 2.181 per cent.; slightly in excess of the average
rate (2.165) of the 12 December quarters 1838-49.
['he lowest rate of mortality (1'898) was experienced
in the December quarter, 1845—the highest (2 529)
in the corresponding quarter of 1846.
If we take the complete years—the deaths re-
gistered in the five years 1845-6-7-8-9, were 349,366,
390,315, 423,304, 400,060, 441,458. The deaths in
1849 exceeded the deaths in 1845 by 920,92. The
average annual mortality of the 10 years 1838-47
was 2.213 per cent.; of the 12 years 1838-49,
2'243. The annual mortality was lowest (2.080 per
cent., or lin 48) in the year 1845 ; highest (2.493,
or lin 40) in the year 1849. The high rate of mor-
tality set in with an epidemic of what was called
diarrhosa and English cholera in the summer of 1846;
it was succeeded by influenza at the close of 1847 ano
the beginning of 1848; the Asiatic form of cholera
first distinctly showed itself in October, 1848, and
raged in many places with great violence in the
months of July, August, September, and a part of
October, 1849, when it generally subsided.
The returns of the other States of Europe are still
so much in arrear that there are no means of com-
paring them with those of England, but it is worthy
of remark that the mortality of England in 1849,
when cholera was epidemic, scarcely exceeded the
mortality of France and Sweden in ordinary years,
and was much less than the ordinary mortality of
Saxony, Prussia, Italy, Austria, and Russia.
LONDON.—The deaths in London from specified
causes were 12,818 ; of which 3,227 were by dise:,ses
of the zymotic class, 2,035 tubercular, and 2,133 by
pulmonary disease. Of the deaths 494 were by cholera';
482 by diarrhea►. All except about 20 of the deaths
from cholera occurred in October. 99 deaths from
small-pox, 338 from measles, 486 from scarlatina,
and 273 from hooping-cough, were registered ;
the numbers are below the average. Metria, erysi-
pelas, and syphilis, were less than usually fatal. 'rhe
deaths of the mothers in and after childbirth, were
116, or one death of the mother to 1.168 children
born ; a small proportion, not so low, perhaps, as it
should be, but much lower than it has been at the

same season in London, or, perhaps, in any other city.
Oae death from hydrophobia was registered in the
December quarter, 1845; none since. The registrar
of St. Martin••in-the-Fields, Charing •cross, remaks :
" Cholera has disappeared, but there is an extensive
field for improvement in the dwellings of the poor,
as well as in the drainage ; and a supply of water
in a state fit to drink, instead of the disgusting fluid
now so highly charged f is loudly demanded.'
SOUTII-EASTERN DIVISION. - Measles and
scarlatina prevailed in some of the parishes of Epsom ;
typhus and influenza in Guildford ; at Farnham,
Dorking, and the other districts of Surrey, the mor-
tality was below the average. The registrar cf
Frimley only registered six deaths. " This is lower,"
he says, " than I ever remember it to have been.
Owing to the alarm of the cholera, the people in this
district have been more guarded in their manner of
living ; and in consequence of the low price of almost
every article of food and clothing, the condition of
the labourer is considerably improved within the last
six months."

The general mortality in Kent, Sussex, and Hamp-
shire is lower than it was in 1848 ; yet small-pox,
scarlatina, and measles prevailed in many districts.
In Abingdon, Bradfield, Reading, Easthampstead,
and Windsor (Berkshire) the mortality was in excess.
Scarlatina and small-pox prevailed in Reading;
measles, hooping-cough, and small-pox in Windsor,
where 23 deaths from cholera were registered—the
last on October 31.

111. SOUTH MIDLAND DIVISION.—The mortality
was lower than in 1348 in Middlesex andliucking-

hamshire, Tightly higher in Oxfordshire, North unp-
tonshire, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, and Caa:-
bridgeshire. There was an excess in Hitchin from
cholera and typhus; in Great Marlow, High Wycombe,
from cholera, measles, and typhus. " The cases of
cholera and measles," says the registrar, " that have

proved fatal were in the town of Great Marlow. The
agricultural portion of my district is very healthy."
Twelve males died of cholera in the Wyccrnbe
workhouse. Cholera, diarrhcea, an i small-pox raised
the mortality in Northampton. Cholera prevailed in
Titchinarsh, Torapston, aod Peterborough. Cholera
broke out in BedtOrd, and in about 11,000 inhabi
tants 9 deaths were registered in the last 9 days of
September, 26 deaths in October and November. The
board of guardians was liberal ; medical relief was af-
forded in 829 diarrhcea cases. Aind the registrar believes
although they " were guided by higher and purer
motives than those of a sordid and calculating eco-
nomy, that the recent epidemic has cost them much

QUARTERLY RETURN of MARRIAGES
BIR7IIS, and DEATHS, REGISTERED in the' DIVISIONS, COUNTIES, and DISTRICTS V
ENGLAND.
PUBLISIIED By AUTHORITY OF THE RECISTIZAR-GENF.RAL
The following return comprises the births and
deaths which were registered in all the districts of
England by 2,189 registrars, in the autumn quarter
ending December 31, 1849; and the marriages in
about 12,000 chapels and churches, 2,869 registered
places of worship unconnected with the Established
Church, and 623 superintendent-registrars' offices, in
the quarter ending September 30, 1849.
The return of marriages is incomplete ; but the
numbers wanting are inconsiderable, and have been
supplied from the previous yearF. 11,turns of the
births and deaths have been receivel from every
registrar.

MARRIAGES.
67,578 persons were married in the quarter which
ended on September 30, 1849. E was the time when
the cholera was rife; yet the marriages exceeded in
numbers—and even in proportion to the population—
:he marriages in the correspondibg quarters of 1848
and 1847, and in every quarter since the summer 01
1838, except the summers of 1839, 1844-5-6. The
excess was chiefly in London, Middlesex, Surrey,
Norfolk, Herefordshire, Leicestershire, Nottingham-
shire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, the
West Riding of Yorkshire, and Cumberland.
The marriages were stationary or decreased
in Kent, Hampshire, Berkshire, Bedfordshire,
Canibridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk, Dovonshire, Corn-
wall, Sotnersetshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire,
Staffordshire, Warwickshirr, Rutlandshire, Lincoln-
shire, the East Riding of York-hire, Durham, Nortl -
umberland, and Westmoreland. In the towns and
manufacturing districts, the marriages as a general
rule increased ; in the agricultural, coal, and iron
districts they decreased ; but the deviation from the
average was on neither aide considerable. At St.
George's, Hanover-square, the marriages were 238,
or less than in the same season of 1845-6-7 ; in
the Strand, Holborn, St. Luke, Shoreditch, Beth-
nal-green, IVhitechapel, Bermondsey, and Lam-
beih districts the marriages exceeded the
average. In Brighton the marriages (163) were
considerably above the average; in Cheltenham
the marriages in the five summer quarters of 1845-9
were 112, 99, 90, 90, and 99. In Bristol, Wolver-
hampton, Liverpool, Leeds, and Hull, which suffered
severely from cholera, the marriages were depressed ;
in Bath and Birmingham about the average; in
Sheffield, Manchester, Stockport, Halifax, and the
manufacturing districts of the ssme class, the mar-
riages tvi ere much more numerous than in 1347-S,
and indicated the dawn of prosperity. The average
rate of marriage in the 11 preceding summer quar-
ters was .747 ; in the summer quarter of 1349 it was
.756 per cent. ; somewhat therefore for the whole
country above the average. Winter and summer are
the seasons in which the fewest marriages are cele,
brated in England.