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New-York may thus continue to be, as it has hitherto been, a depot of foreign merchandise and a distributing mart for all parts of the world, at the same time offering the merchant the choice of the foreign or home markets during the whole term of three years.

Respectfully yours,

ARCHER & BULL, JOSIAH MACY'S SONS, FOGG BBOS., UDOLPHO WOLFE, A. A. Low & BROS., C. H. MARSHALL, W. W. DEFOREST & Co., M. HATHAWAY, GRINNELL, MINTURN & Co., GOODHUE & Co., HOWLAND & ASPINWALL, OLYPHANT, SON & Co., E. M. TIERS & Co., JOHN CASWELL & Co., BUCKLIN & CRANE, BOOTH & EDGAR, MAITLAND, PHELPS & Co., GOODRICH & WALKER, E. D. MORGAN & CO., CARY & Co., N. L. & GEO. GRISWOLD, ISAAC SHERMAN.

COLLECTOR BARNEY'S LETTER.

Custom-House, New-York, Collector's Office, Nov. 15, 1861. Sir, I have the honor to transmit herewith a memorial which has been addressed to me by some of the wealthiest and most respectable importers of this city, praying for a restoration of the warehouse system as it existed prior to August 5, 1861. I most cheerfully comply with their request that I should represent to the department the deep interest which is felt by the merchants of the city in the re-establishment of the privileges they enjoyed under the "Act to extend the Warehousing System," passed April 28, 1854, and I cannot do so more forcibly than by submitting the appeal which they, themselves, have prepared.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

HIRAM BARNEY, Collector.

Hon. SALMON P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury.

The State Auditor of Michigan reports to the legislature that the total available means in the treasury the past year were $1,230,001, including $523,083 derived from the war fund, and the balance from taxes, amount left over from the previous year, and other sources of revenue. The expenses

of the year have been $1,258,235, (or $28,000 in excess of receipts,) the war portion of the expenses being $539,428. Of this sum the government is sure to refund $500,000, or enough to turn upon that portion of the national tax which falls to Michigan. The deficit of $28,000 is more than balanced by the taxes due from the Detroit and Milwaukie and the Michigan rail-roads; from the former $22,000, and from the latter $35,000. The total debt of the State is $2,736,264, including $449,100 war loan bonds. The aggregate delinquent taxes returned in 1860 was $318,423 60. The State is debtor to the counties $33,633 01, and credited by $200,146 72.

The auditor's statement of the condition of the securities and circulation of the banks of Illinois, as they existed on Monday, the 6th day of January inst., shows that the total amount of outstanding circulation is now reduced to $1,415,076, secured by a total of bonds amounting to $1,411,772, estimated, we presume, at their present valuation.

STATISTICS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE.

I. TRADE OF ROXBURY. II. CITY TOBACCO TRADE. III. COMMERCE OF PORTLAND. IV. TRADE OF THE LAKES. V. EXPORT OF SEWING MACHINES. VI. CONSUMPTION OF WINE. VII. SHIP LOAD FOR NORTH CAROLINA. VIII. SALE OF SEA-ISLAND COTTON. IX. TIDE-WATER RECEIPTS. X. HUDSON BAY. XI. STOCK OF COTTON IN LIVERPOOL.

TRADE OF ROXBURY, MASS.

THE harbor master of the city of Roxbury makes the following statement of the commercial trade of that city during the year 1861:

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Phosphate of lime exported, 150 tons,...
The number of vessels employed was 280.

The city paid, during the year 1861, $47,483 34 for repairing streets and sidewalks.

THE NEW-YORK CITY TOBACCO TRADE.

There is a very general impression that the tobacco trade of this city is seriously affected by the rebellion in the Southern States. Such, however, is not the case. There has been a considerable advance in Virginia manufactured (plug) tobacco, and other tobaccos are held to some extent just now at speculative prices. There is an abundant supply in market at present, nearly as much, perhaps, as is usual at this season of the year. On the first of May the total number of hogsheads in the city was 12,180, of which 911 were Virginia; and on the first of this month there were 21,721 hogsheads on hand, 650 of which were Virginia and North Carolina tobacco.

There will be a very small tobacco crop in Virginia this year, and that of Kentucky will not be so large as usual. So far as this city is concerned, there will be no tobacco received from Virginia, as what little is manufactured will be demanded for home consumption at the South. Plug tobacco has consequently advanced, according to grades, from sixteen to forty or fifty cents per pound, and will advance still more. This kind of tobacco can be manufactured here without difficulty, and those who use the article need not fear a tobacco famine.

COMMERCE OF PORTLAND.

The number of foreign arrivals at Portland, for the month of November, was sixty-eight; comprising three steamships, six ships, ten barks, fourteen brigs, thirty-five schooners. There were twenty-three dutiable and forty-five free cargoes. The following is a comparative statement of the commerce of Portland for the month of November, 1860 and 1861, as it appears on the books of the custom-house:

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COMMERCE OF MONTREAL.

The clearances of sea-going craft from the port of Montreal, for the season of 1861, showed 494 vessels, representing 250,281 tons, against 229 vessels, of 116,748 tons, for 1860. The principal ports to which produce was exported, were:

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Should a war occur between England and the United States, a serious retrogression would take place in the shipments to and from that port.

EXPORT OF SEWING MACHINES.

The trade in sewing-machines already ranks among the most important of our national industries. For some time machine-sewing has, in this country, almost superseded the ordinary use of the needle in the manufacture of garments; but other countries are only just beginning to adopt the economizing invention. Certain of our enterprising manufacturers of machines have recently introduced their productions into the principal

VOL. XLVI.-NO. II.

14

cities of Europe, and the result has been quite an important demand for the American machines. The machines made here are cheaper, more handsome, and more complete, than those of English makers, and the probability seems to be that the Yankee machine will defeat the English one, even on English ground. The following statement of the export of machines from one port, for two months, shows the importance that this branch of manufacture is assuming:

EXPORT OF SEWING-MACHINES FROM NEW-YORK, FROM AUGUST 1ST TO OCTOBER 1ST, 1861.

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The above is from the United States Economist. Of the machines, WHEELER & WILSON'S comprise a large majority.

Total,..

..1,268 $64,149

THE TRADE OF THE LAKES.

The quantity of grain received here during the 253 days of navigation, is immense, as the figures will attest, and is divided as follows:

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Add to this the flour and grain received during the year by rail-road, and the grand total for 1861 will be over sixty-two millions of bushels ! No port in the world ever saw the equal of this.

To elevate and discharge this grain, we have seventeen elevators, with capacity of storage varying from 120,000 to 600,000 bushels, and an aggregate of 3,500,000 bushels. Each of these can elevate from a vessel 4,000 bushels per hour. Three new ones, now in process of erection, will give us, next year, storage room for 4,000,000 bushels.

The estimated amount of flour and grain at all the Lake ports west of this State, for the season of 1861, is 113,000,000 bushels; of which

there has been received at Buffalo, 62,000,000 bushels; at Dunkirk, 3,500,000; at Oswego, 18,000,000; at Ogdensburgh, 3,500,000; at Montreal, 15,000,000; making a grand total of one hundred and two millions bushels sent forward from the granaries of the West.

The quantity in store here is 1,500,000; Chicago, 3,500,000; Milwaukie, 1,500,000; all other Lake ports, about 3,000,000 bushels. Total now in store, say 9,500,000 bushels.-Buffalo paper.

CONSUMPTION OF WINE UNDER THE REDUCED DUTIES.

From official statements, just made up, it appears that, although the consumption of wine since the reduction of the duties may not have met the sanguine anticipations of the early advocates of that measure, it has still shown an increase of sufficient magnitude to demonstrate the impolicy of the previous almost prohibitory rates. It is also to be remarked, that the correctness of the arguments originally used, as to the extent to which wine would be taken into use if the duty were lowered to 1s. per gallon, has not yet been fully tried, the alcoholic test having acted most injuriously upon the trade, not only by the uncertainties and vexations inseparable from it, but also by causing the duty to be as high as 2s. 5d. on nearly all the wines imported as suitable for this country. The consumption of imported wines of all kinds in the United Kingdom, in the eight months from the 1st of January to the 31st of August last, has been 7,667,894 gallons. This shows an increase of 2,201,959 gallons, or 40 per cent., over the same period of last year, and of 2,856,877 gallons, or 60 per cent., over the same period of 1859. White wine is still more largely consumed than red, the proportions being 3,621,197 gallons of red, and 4,046,697 gallons of white; but the tendency of late has been so much in favor of red descriptions, that they seem likely soon to obtain a preponderance. Thus, while the consumption of red increased last year 65 per cent., the increase in that of white was only 24 per cent. With regard to the rates of duty paid under the alcoholic scale, it appears that only 10 per cent. of the total quantity came in at the shilling duty; about 44 per cent. came in at 1s. 9d., 83 per cent. at 2s. 5d., and 1 per cent. at 2s. 11d. The proportion imported in bottles, and which is included in the 2s. 5d. duty, was about 9 per cent. Last year the importations of wine, in anticipation of the reduction of duties, were extremely heavy, and greatly in excess of the consumption. This year the importations and consumption have very nearly gone hand in hand, the arrivals having been 7,844,505 gallons, and the deliveries 7,667,894 gallons. The arrival of French and Portuguese descriptions have been less than the consumption, but those of Spanish have been much in excess of it.-Travers' Circular.

THE UNPRODUCTIVE LABOR OF EUROPE.

Some correct statistics have been collected respecting the number of men employed in the armies of Europe, and it is really almost enough to make one despair of the progress of mankind to find that something like four millions of men, at the very lowest computation, are under arms, either for protection or the cutting of throats, as the case may be.

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