table. It is evident that, until importations again rally, the retail prices of dry goods will materially advance, with a somewhat limited variety for ladies to select from at that. Our table compares the value of imports of all kinds at this port, and also of dry goods, since the 1st of October last with the corresponding period of the year previous :—

The following comparative statement of the principal articles exported from the United States, and imported into Calcutta, for the five years ending December 31, 1857, we copy from the late Annual Report of the Boston Board of

IMPORTATIONS OF RAGS INTO THE UNITED STATES.

The import of rags into this country is large, reaching for the year 1857. 44,582,080 lbs., valued at $1,448,125. A correspondent of the Portsmouth Journal gives the following particulars relative to the origin of the rags :The importation of foreign rags into the United States for 1857 was 69.461 bales; 35,591 of which were from Italy, but only 1,489 bales of these came from Genoa. Of the rags from Italy, rather more than one-third are entirely linen -the balance is a mixture of linen and cotton; and about the same proportion

exists in the rags from Trieste. From Trieste you will notice that only 3,183 bales were received in 1857, while 12,077 bales were imported from Great Britain. About 2,000 bales were also imported from Bremen and Hamburg, both of which are free cities.

France strictly prohibits the export of rags, and so does Rome. The few coming from Ancona (a Roman province) being by special permission, on payment of large fees. Prussia and Germany generally impose so high an export duty on rags as to stop the trade.

The exports from Alexandria and Smyrna are collected chiefly in Asia Minor ; and the collection and sale is confined to only one or two parties, who have the monopoly from the government, subject, however, to the restriction, that all domestic demand must be supplied at a fixed price, before any export is allowed. It is so also with the rags from Trieste, which are collected in Hungary under government restrictions, and only the surplus over the domestic demand can be exported.

Quite a large portion of the rags shipped from Leghorn are collected in Egypt and Barbary, and brought to Leghorn, where they are sorted, packed, and sold for export to the United States or elsewhere.

IMPORTS OF RAGS INTO THE FOLLOWING PORTS IN 1857.

The following is a summary of the number of vessels, capital, and persons, etc., employed in the cod and mackerel fisheries from Massachusetts ports

COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS.

BLANK COPYING BOOKS.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 1, 1858. SIR-I acknowledge the receipt of your report, under date 2d instant, and accompanying papers, in regard to the appeal of Mr. Richard Mosely from your decision as to the rate of duty to be assessed upon certain articles of merchandise imported by him in the steamship "Niagara," from Liverpool, and invoiced as " copying books." The books in question, as imported, are composed of blank leaves, and are intended and used solely for the preservation of copies of writing transferred to them by means of a press. It appears from your report that you assessed duty on the articles in question at the rate of 24 per cent, under the classification in schedule C of the tariff of 1857 of "manufactures of paper, or of which paper is a component material, not otherwise provided for," not regarding them, as claimed by the appellant, as falling within the classification of "blank books, bound or unbound," in schedule E, the terms of which you think applicable only to "volumes of blank paper intended for any species of writing, as for memoranda, for accounts or receipts." The books in question, in the opinion of the Department, should be regarded as embraced in the classification of "blank books, bound or unbound," in schedule E of the tariff of 1857, and subjected to the duty, at the rate of 15 per cent, imposed on the articles designated in that schedule. That the books in question are "blank" is admitted, and it must, it would seem, be also conceded that they cannot be discriminated by any well-defined line of distinction from what are known as "blank books" in common parlance. A difference in the classification and rate of duty ought not, in the opinion of the Department, be made to depend upon the fact that the writing is to be transferred to the volume by a press instead of a pen. The decision is therefore overruled, and the articles in question are entitled to entry as "blank books, bound or unbound,” under schedule E of the tariff of 1857, at a duty of 15 per cent. I am, very respectfully,

HOWELL COBB, Secretary of the Treasury. A. W. AUSTIN, Esq., Collector of the Customs, Boston, Mass.

HEMP CARPETING.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 1, 1858. SIR-Messrs. Wyman and Acklay have appealed to this Department from the decision of the collector at Boston, assessing duty on an article invoiced as Dutch carpeting" at the rate of 24 per cent, under the classification in schedule C of the tariff of 1857, of "carpets, carpeting, hearth rugs, bed sides, and other portions of carpeting, being either Arbusson, Brussels, Ingrain, Saxony, Turkey, Venitian, Wilton, or any other similar fabric." The appellants contend that the article in question, being manufactured of hemp, should be charged with duty at the rate of 15 per cent, under the classification in schedule E of the tariff of 1857, of "manufactures of hemp, not otherwise provided for." Dutch carpeting" is a fabric differing from some one or more of the descriptions of carpets specially named in schedule C only in the material of which it is composed, the former being of hemp and the latter of wool; and the question is presented, whether carpeting composed of hemp can be regarded as a fabric similar" to the enumerated varieties, within the meaning of the law. The Department is of opinion that that term has reference as well to the material of which the fabric is composed, as to the mode of manufacture or the use for which it is designed, and that the article in question should be charged with duty at the rate of 15 per cent, under the classification in schedule E of "manufactures of hemp, not otherwise provided for." The decision of the collector is therefore overruled. Very respectfully,

A. W. AUSTIN, Esq., Collector, Boston, Mass.

HOWELL COBB, Secretary of the Treasury.

CAUSTIC SODA.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 2, 1858. SIR-The Department has had under consideration an appeal by Messrs. Pickering, Winslow & Co., from the decision of the collector at Boston, as to the rate of duty to be assessed on an article imported by them in the ship “ W. F. Stover," from Liverpool, and described in the invoice as "caustic soda." The collector assessed duty on the article in question at the rate of 15 per cent, in pursuance of the provisions of the 1st section of the tariff act of 3d March, 1857, it not being enumerated in any schedule of that tariff. The appellants concede that" caustic soda" is an unenumerated article, but they claim its entry at the rate of 4 per cent, the duty imposed on "soda ash," designated in schedule H of the tariff of 1857, by applying the provisions of the 20th section of the tariff act of 1842, it being assimilated, in their opinion, by the uses to which it is applied, to " soda ash," and by force of that provision should be subjected to duty at the same rate. The tariff act of 1857 prescribes expressly the rates of duty to be levied on soda in several of its forms and combinations— "carbonate of soda," nitrate of soda, refined or partially refined," and "natron" or mineral soda," in schedule G, and "soda ash" and "nitrate of soda, crude,” in schedule H. Caustic soda" is not specified in any schedule of the tariff under that name, nor is it embraced in any of the combinations or forms of soda expressly designated in that act. The appellants allege that "caustic soda " is applied to the same uses as "soda ash," and ought, as an unenumerated article, by force of the provisions of the 20th section of the tariff act of 1842, to be subject to the duty specially imposed on the latter. It is represented that "caustic soda" and "soda ash" are both used in the manufacture of soaps and for bleaching purposes; but "soda ash," it is understood, is not applicable to those purposes until it has been converted into "caustic soda." "Soda ash," therefore, in the condition in which it is imported and known in commerce, and to which, under that designation, the law imposing the duty upon it must be presumed to have reference, is not applicable to the uses to which the article imported and known in commerce as "caustic soda " is applied, and cannot, therefore, be brought under the same duty by force of the provisions of the 20th section of the act of 1842, by reason of a similitude in the uses to which they may be applied. The decision of the collector assessing duty on the article in question at 15 per cent, as unenumerated, in pursuance of the provisions of the 1st section of the tariff act of 3d March, 1857, is affirmed. I am, very respectfully,

A. W. AUSTIN, Esq., Collector, Boston, Mass.

HOWELL COBB, Secretary of the Treasury.

CHLORURE D'OXIDE DE SODIUM.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 3, 1858.

The

SIR-The Department has had under consideration appeals of Messrs. Carnes and Haskell, and Edward Gaudelet, from the decision of the collector at New York, assessing a duty of 24 per cent on an article known as "chlorure d'oxide de sodium," or liqueur disinfectante de labarraque," as a "medicinal preparation, not otherwise provided for," in schedule C of the tariff of 1857. applicants contend that the article in question is not a medicinal but a chemical preparation, used chiefly as a disinfecting agent, and claim to enter it as an unenumerated article dutiable under the 1st section of the tariff act of 3d March, 1857, at the rate of 15 per cent. The article in question is no doubt susceptible of a medicinal use, but not to an extent that would authorize it to be treated as embraced within the classification of "medicinal preparations" in schedule C of the tariff of 1857. It is a chemical preparation not specially named nor embraced in any general designation in any schedule of the tariff of 1857. As an unenumerated article it is chargeable with duty at the rate of 15 per cent, under the 1st section of the tariff act of the 3d March, 1857. It cannot be placed, as an unenumerated article, in any schedule of the tariff, by assimilation to any designated article, by force of the 20th section of the tariff act of 1842. Chlo ride of lime, which it resembles in its quality as a disinfectant, is used principally in

the arts, and is enumerated in schedule H of the tariff as "bleaching powder or chloride of lime," a use to which there is no allegation that the "chlorure d'oxide de sodium" is applied. The decision of the collector is therefore overruled, and the article in question is entitled to entry as an unenumerated article at a duty of 15 per cent. Very respectfully,

HOWELL COBB, Secretary of the Treasury.

AUGUSTUS SCHELL, Esq., Collector of the Customs, New York.

GENEVA ENAMELED PAINTING.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 3, 1858.

SIR-I acknowledge the receipt of your report under date of the 19th of January last, in regard to the appeal of Messrs. Mulford, Wendell & Co., from your decision charging a duty of 24 per cent on an article called a " Geneva enameled painting," as embraced either in the classification of schedule C of "manufactures, articles, vessels, and wares, not otherwise provided for, of brass, copper, gold, iron, lead, pewter, platina, silver, tin. or other metals, or of which either of those metals, or any other metal, shall be the component material of chief value," or in that of "jewelry, real or imitation," in the same schedule; the importers claiming to enter it free of duty under the classification in schedule I of "paintings and statuary." The article, in the form in which it is imported, is not a brooch, breastpin, or other personal ornament, or fitted for such, without further manufacture. It is merely an enameled painting on a metallic base, to be converted by further manufacture into ornaments for the person. In that view, it cannot be regarded as in the classification of schedule C of the tariff of 1857, of manufactures of metal or jewelry. Nor can it be held to be a "painting on glass," specified in that schedule. The paintings under consideration are on an article not known in commerce as glass, and are exclusively used in the manufacture of personal ornaments, while "paintings on glass" are paintings executed in the ordinary mode on common plate or sheet glass and used for shades, windows, and other like purposes. Nor can the article in question be entered free of duty, as the importers claim, under the classification of "paintings and statuary " in schedule I of the tariff of 1857. "Paintings," as defined under the tariff of 1846, are works known as objects of taste, not intended as merchandise. The act of 1857 merely relieves them from that restriction, admitting them to free entry for whatever purpose imported. Thus defined, they are clearly distinguishable from the articles in question, which are intended not as mere objects of taste but as personal ornaments, and are not known commercially or otherwise as “ paintings." Your decision is therefore overruled, and the articles in question are entitled to entry at a duty of 15 per cent, under the provisions of the first section of the tariff act approved March 3, 1857. Very respectfully,

HOWELL COBB, Secretary of the Treasury.

AUGUSTUS SCHELL, Esq., Collector of the Customs, New York.

MARROW FOR TOILET SOAP.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 3, 1858.

SIRA question as to the rate of duty chargeable, under the tariff act of 1857, on an article described in the invoice as "marrow for toilet soap," has been brought by appeal before this Department from the decision of the collector at New York, by Messrs. R. & G. A. Wright, of Philadelphia, the importers. It is claimed by the importers that the article is entitled to entry at the rate of 8 per cent, under the classification "tallow, marrow, and all other grease and soap stock and soap stuffs, not otherwise provided for," the collector assessing duty at the rate of 24 per cent, under the classification in schedule C of balsams, cosmetics, essences, extracts, pastes, perfumes, and tinctures, used either for the toilet or for medicinal purposes." The collector was, in the opinion of this Department, clearly right in assigning this article to the above named classification in schedule C, and in assessing the duty at 24 per cent. The article is not imported in its natural condition, but has been highly perfumed, and, perhaps by other process also, fitted for the use of the toilet, and does not differ, it is believed, in any essential respect, from an article sold in the