R.B., Bristol.—From the great press of room last week we were obliged to omit everything that did not appear of very pressing haste. In the Preliminary Number we have used no statistics but such as we have derived from official sources, and we shall always be glad to give the authority on which any statistical statement is made. The statement of the quantity of sugar exported from Java and Madeira, page 10 of the Preliminary Number, will be found in Part VIII, 1838, page 408, of the Tables of Population, Revenue, Commerce, &c., presented by the Board of Trade to both Houses of Parliament, from 1826 to 1837;—and the quantities, from 1837 to 1841, are derived from the Dutch official accounts.
H.H., S—— court, London.—The returns showing the quantity of flax imported up to the 5th of August, viz., 774,659 cwts., are official, but do not distinguish the ports from which it was shipped. The latest year for which such distinction has been made to this time is for the year 1841; for which, or any preceding year back to 1832, we shall be glad to furnish the particulars: for example, in 1840 the imports of flax and tow were—from
| Cwts. | |
| Russia | 870,401 |
| Denmark | 1,094 |
| Prussia | 135,590 |
| Germany | 8,105 |
| Holland | 113,108 |
| Belgium | 80,748 |
| France | 43,295 |
| Gibraltar | 19 |
| Italy and the Italian Islands | 746 |
| The Morea | 3 |
| Turkey | 107 |
| Egypt | 12 |
| United States | 1 |
| Guernsey, &c. | 11 |
| ———— | |
| Total - 1,253,240 | |
C.D.F.——, near Rochdale.—The question connected with the New Customs Amendment Bill has engaged our best attention, but its investigation has raised two or three very nice points of international law, on which we are now taking the best opinion which can be obtained, and before our next number we shall be able to give a reply as satisfactory as can possibly be obtained from any quarter on this important but very nice question. We have now before us the whole of the particulars of the treaties in question, but we wish to make our reply valuable by giving the best legal construction on some disputable points. This, however, is only another of those daily evidences which we have of the absurdity and inconvenience of a great commercial country like this attempting to regulate its laws and transactions by treaties, which, however convenient they may be when made, may, by the ordinary course of events, be rapidly changed.
POSTSCRIPT.
LONDON, Saturday Morning, September 16, 1843.
Stock Exchange, Half-past Eleven o'Clock.