Statement showing the description and value of exports from Leeds to the United States from October 1, 1861, to September 30, 1862.

Recapitulation of the four quarters of the year ended September 30, 1861.

£ 8. d. 87,935 2 9 58,529 1 0

35,698 2 1

At $4 84 to the pound sterling, equal to..

$1,034,537 48

Showing an increased value of exports to the United States in favor of the year ended September 30, 1862, of $341, 065 99.

CARDIFF.-CHARLES D. CLEVELAND, Consul.

JANUARY 23, 1862.

Since replying, on the 20th, to yours of December 24, 1861, relative to a reduction of the expenditures for the relief of American seamen, two things have occurred to me relative to this subject.

First. There are men constantly coming to this consulate pretending to be American sailors, who are not, and unless great care be exercised very unworthy persons may be aided. I have been on the point of assisting such two or three times, and, of course, putting my government to the expense, when further inquiries have revealed their true character. Consuls, therefore, and especially those who have but little experience, should be particularly guarded against such deceptions.

Second. Captains of vessels are not sufficiently careful to secure American sailors when, as I have reason to believe, they might do so if they would use more diligence. If they were obliged to pay a fine of 10s., or $2 50, or $5 for every foreign seaman they shipped, and if such fees were reserved by the consul for the relief of really deserving cases, the expenses now charged to the government in this department might be considerably lessened. As it is, the captains come to me and ask for an "inability certificate," and I give it to them for fifty cents, on their affirmation that they were unable to procure a crew of two-thirds American seamen.

OCTOBER 23, 1862.

Having ascertained the number of American vessels that have arrived at the chief ports of entry in Great Britain and Ireland from the 1st of January to the 30th of September, 1862, I have thought it might be of some service to send a tabular statement of the same, which I herewith annex.

By this you will perceive that Cardiff ranks the third in the number of

vessels entered, as it is, doubtless, the third consulate in importance in "the kingdom."

Comparative statement of the number of American vessels arrived at the principal ports in Great Britain and Ireland from the 1st of January to the 30th of September, 1862, inclusive:

Besides these 8, a little over 100 touched at Cork for orders.

52 vessels.

16 vessels.

10 vessels.

8* vessels.

9 vessels.

Tabular statement of the exports from Cardiff from January 1 to September

1, 1862.

Tabular statement of the quantities and value of coal and iron shipped from Cardiff, from January 1 to October 1 of the years 1860, 1861, and 1862.

BRISTOL.-ZEBINA EASTMAN, Consul.

SEPTEMBER 10, 1862.

Seeing in the consular instructions that United States consuls are expected to make reports from time to time in regard to matters which come under their observation seeming to extend the commercial interests of the country, I have thought it might not be wholly without use to present some of my first impres sions respecting the commercial relations between this port and the United States.

First. I have considered it one of the inevitable results of the present rebellion that, whenever order shall be restored, there will be very different relations in regard to the current of commerce. The monopoly of the cotton supply will be broken, and, in all probability, our nation will soon more than make up its loss of export in cotton by enlarged exports of breadstuff and other provisions which the northwestern States furnish so largely. It would, at least, seem the part of wisdom to encourage the extension of this kind of trade, and prepare the public mind for changes of the character that must be inevitable.

Now let me state some facts from which, no doubt, there will be many enterprising men to draw practical, probably profitable, conclusions.

One of the first astonishing facts which a traveller and a stranger attempting to live here is compelled to learn is the remarkably high price of everything pertaining to the expense of living. England is the most expensive country in the world in the item of provisions. It is evident there is a subject which is already forced on the notice of the nation and will become more and more essential, of more importance than the cotton supply, and that is the bread supplycheap bread for the people. The spirit of foresight, if not prophecy, is now enough upon me to ask the thoughtful man of Chicago to consider what answer the English nation will give to the call for bread five years from the present time, whatever may be the character of that settlement she is now anxiously looking for in regard to the cotton question. If it was said nearly two thousand years ago, in a spiritual sense, that man could not live by bread alone, can it not now be asked as emphatically, in a literal sense, can a nation live by cotton alone?

It is now certain that England will not hereafter look exclusively to the United States for cotton. The madness of the cotton States in grasping at the shadow cast in the pit of independence beneath their feet, in the greediness to hold the shadow as well as the substance, have let the substance drop from their teeth. Cotton is no longer king. Now will swing back, in a remarkably short period of time, the destiny of our country to the national equilibrium from which it has been jostled the last two generations by slave labor, to what Jefferson said was the commercial mission of America, to " give bread to the world." I wish the men of Chicago-those who hold the keys of this great commerce, being located in and holding the destiny of the greatest grain market in the world-to be wise in season, and prepare for the coming time. Thus much, and enough for the present, of the ideality which moral philosophers say always precede the reality.

I take the last list of Liverpool wholesale prices of the principal articles of provisions, such as are exported from Chicago, and I compare them with the prices in the last Tribune:

I find wheat in Chicago at 70 cents; here it is $1 80-more than double the price. Flour in Chicago is $3 25 to $3 60; here it is $7 10-double. Indian corn in Chicago is 224 cents; here it is 90 cents-four times the value. Pork in Chicago $9; here it is $17 to $19-double. Hams and lard, 6 cents; here 12 cents-again double. (In the matter of pork, in the hog, I see it is worth in Chicago 2 cents; here, a day or two ago, an Englishman from the country en

deavored to persuade me that he was selling the half of his "fatted pig" under the market price, at 14 cents a pound.) Beef, in barrel, at Chicago is worth $9; here it is worth $18-double again. Butter, a choice article, which I suppose can be bought at Chicago at 12 cents, will wholesale here at 22 to 25 centsthis, too, about double the price. I have paid 32 cents a pound for butter, which I could have bought at Chicago, when I left, at 10 cents.

These are all among the common articles of subsistence, and their prices above the indispensable cost of living, which cannot be shirked by even the poorest classes. Perhaps they are not usually quite as high as at present, but there cannot be much reduction from the prices so long as the general order of things remains as it does. For some time to come the general average must rule high compared to the prices in Chicago. Does it not show how sadly the laws of trade are out of joint when there is such a great disproportion? There is a power of self-interest that ought to attract the attention of Chicago merchants and shippers to equalize this unequal balance of things. Illinois wants higher prices-England wants lower-and the shipper wants a fair price for transportation. Thus all will be benefited. Those who take the initiative I hope will be doubly rewarded for their pains and risks. It must be absurd to believe that it will cost as much to transport our western produce from Chicago to Bristol, as it does for the farmer to raise and send it to market. The great interests of the west call for an investigation into the cost of transportation, and such plans perfected as will insure the transportation of her surplus produce into European markets at a remunerative price, and not a robber price. Last fall, when the price of flour rose in the English market, your railroads immediately clapped on one dollar a barrel for transportation, and the western farmer got no benefit from the rise; he still has to sell his grain at a starvingly low rate, while in England, to the laboring man, it was starvingly high. Thus men were ruined at each end, while the shipper made no more than he should have done by carrying it at a reasonable rate, and receiving back a paying freight.

The item of lumber is another product from Chicago and the lakes, in which a good paying business can be done. In Bristol lumber of the common grade (the lowest sold in this market) sells at three times the Chicago price; the upper grades five times the Chicago rates. But Chicago lumber is not adapted to an English market. The habits of the people and the style of manufacture are so different, that they will not, at first, readily receive our western lumber; and, if we would have them buy our timber, we must bend to their customs. I hope to furnish a description of the lumber trade here after closing this item of my subject, by saying, that when lumber, which is a dead article in Chicago at $8 to $12, will bring ready cash from $30 to $60 per 1,000 feet, it is time some enterprising man should settle the matter whether or not there is anything to be made in lumber trade with England. If there is an honest penny to be turned here, then let us see what there is on the other side. While England needs our corn, wheat, pork, &c., and we want to sell them, she has many things which we want, and which she wants to sell. It is a fair exchange to take the product of her mines and shops for the product of our prairies and the labor of our farmers. It is said that the Morrell tariff lies directly across the path of this mutual benefit. But the Morrell tariff is not a perpetual institution. The Chicago business man will be better able to judge then, if he cannot now trade with England, and pay the honest revenue to the government, which it now needs, (if it ever needs a revenue,) and look to the future for an amendment of the tariff. It is my business to report the facts. Let more practical men see if they can dovetail them to a profitable conclusion.

'These facts are, that there are here large quantities of crockery ware made especially for the American market, now on hand, which has no demand in any other market, and can now be purchased at a deduction equal to the percentage of the tariff. The same is, probably, true of cutlery. There are many kinds of

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