The Sun.
London, England, 1820-12-30 00:00:00

SPANISH NEW TARIFF.

MADRID, DEC. 13.—We have received im-
portant observations on various articles of the
new tariff of customs, and our attention has been
called, among others, to those relative to iron
hoops, which we receive from England and Hol-
land. These hoops ( arcos ) are not made in
Spain ; and what is more, the art of making
them is unknown ; whence it results, that it will
cost thrice as much to hoop a cask with hoops of
the Peninsula as with foreign ones. The expences
of carriage will be a little more, or at least as
much as from England, because as we have not
internal means of communication, they must be
embarked from our northern ports for Catalonia,
where there is the greatest consumption of them,
and the freight from Bilboa is as great, or
greater, than► that from Portsmouth. The same

observations will apply, for the same reasons, to
line printed cottons, which our manufacturers do
not know how to execute. We readily agree
that our industry should be protected, by hin-
dering the competition of foreigners to the pre-
judice of our own manufactures, since, in spite of
all theories, this is the conduct of the most-en-
lightened nations. But, allowing that our ma-
nufactures ought to receive encouragement,we can-
not believe that this should authorise a monopoly
to the injury of other interests that merit regard.
These casks, which must be hooped at a triple ex-
pense, carry all over the world the fine brandies of
Deus, and this increase of expense may operate
very unfavourably on the sale of that most im-
portant article. As for the prohibition of fine
printed cottons, it is equivalent to an express
order to smuggle them into the kingdom. These
cottons are so very generally used, that the
women hardly wear any thing else at home,
especially in some provinces. In Catalonia they
cannot give these articles those bright and desir-
able colours which so much recommend them,
nor have they that taste and elegance in the pat-
terns, which are their chief merit. Will our fine
ladies wear the stuffs which were formerly taken
for the mulatto women of the Rio de la Plata ?
(Miscellanea, Dec. 14.)

INUNDATION OF THE NII.E.—The celebrated
traveller, BELzoNt, in passing up the Nile, witnessed one of
those dreadful calamities, to which the natives of certain
districts of Egypt are occasionally subject. The river, in
ISIS, rose three feet. and a half above the higheSt mark
lett by the preceding inundation, and with such rapidity
that many villages, with their inhabitants, were entirely
swept away. ' I neversaw,' says Mr. Belzoni, any picture
that could give a more correct idea of a deluge than the valley
of the Nile in this season. The cottages, being built of earth,
could not stand one instant against the current, and no
sooner did the water reach them, than it levelled them with
the ground. The rapid stream carried off all that was before
it; men, women, children, cattle, corn; every thicg was
washed away in an instant, and left the place where the vil-
lage stood without any thing to indicate that there had ever
been a house on the spot.' It was one vast ocean, out of
which arose numerous islands and many magnificent ruins.
On our right' says Belzoni,' we had it .e high rocks and the
temples of Gurnon,t he Me ninonium, the extensive buildings of
Medinet Alio°, and the two Colossal statues which arose out tit
the Ovate► like I he light houses on sonic of the coasts of Europe.
On our left, we hat! the vast ruins of Carnal; and Luxor; to•t he
east of which, at a distance of eight miles, ran tEe Alokattuni
chain of mountains, forming the boundaries of this vast lake
as it appeared from our boat.' Such, however, is the bounty
of nature, that the damage in this country is speedily repaired.
On our way down,' he observes, it was pleasing to see the'
difference of the country ; all the lands that were under
water before, were now not only dried up, but were already
sown; the muddy villages carried off by the rapid current
were all rebuilt; the fences opened; the fellahs at work in
the fields, and all wore a different aspect ;' yet it was then
only fifteen days since the waters had subsided.

Mr. GORE LAN TON has directed 1001. to be
distributed amongst the poor in the several
parishes where his estates are situated.