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of the extraordinary exportation; and that great and overstrained efforts were made in that year in various branches of our industry and commerce. It will, therefore, be a fair proceeding, if we form our estimate of the diminution of our foreign trade, by comparing the average exports of the three years, 1816, 1817, and 1818, with the actual exports of last year. It appears that the average exports of the years 1816, 1817, and 1818, amounted to 45,161,756.; thus exhibiting a deficiency in the exports of last year, as compared with the average exports of the three preceding years, of about 7,220,000. This is undoubtedly a great falling off: and the question which naturally suggests itself is, What are the branches in which this falling off has principally taken place? But before I proceed to that part of the subject, it is material that your lordships should consider what was the extent of our foreign trade, antecedently to the late war, and also during those years of the war in which it was most flourishing.

of a full half in the amount, as compared with the last year, and of above 3,500,000l. as compared with the average of our exports during the last three years. I allow that there has been some diminution in our exports to the East Indies; but it is to the state of the American market that the great diminution which has occurred in the export of our produce and manufactures is principally, if not exclusively, attributable.

which was touched upon by the noble marquis in the course of his observations) is to be traced to the state of the East Indian market. For two or three preceding years our trade to the East Indies had been pushed to an enormous extent;-to an extent, which it was impossible that any rational man could expect would be permanent. The other, and the chief cause of the diminution, is the decrease of our trade with the United States of America. If your lordships compare the exports to the United States of America, during the last year, with the exports during the preceding year, you will find that in all the great articles of our industry and commerce, the diminution has been a full half. In 1818, the exportation of cotton goods to the United States of America amounted to 2,432,3014; The exports of glass, in 1819 it amounted only to 1,109,138.; being a falling off of 1,335,1637. earthenware, hardware and cutlery, which, in the year 1818, were 971,285., were reduced in the year 1819 to 546,741. The amount of woollen In stating these returns, I must refer to the offi- goods exported to the United States of Americain cial value of the exports, not to the declared value, 1818, was 3,160,406.; in 1819 it dwindled down to as in the returns I have just quoted; because the 1,703 0241. In short, in all the great and leading returns, according to the declared value, were not branches of our manufactures, there was a falling made up during the earlier part of this period. Pri-off in our exports to the United States of America or to the French war, the foreign trade of this country was in its most flourishing condition, in the year 1792. The official value of all our exports in that year was 24,905,2001; of which sum the British manufactures and produce amounted to 18,336,000l. In the years 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810 and 1811, which were the years of the war in which our foreign commerce was in its most flou. rishing state, the official value of our exports of This leads me to the consideration of the cause British produce and manufactures, was, in the year ending the 5th of January, 1806, 25,000,000; (T of this diminution, and of the present condition of will, to save your lordships' time, state the sums in the U. States of America. The noble marquis in round numbers): in 1807, 27,000,000; in 1808, laying his grounds for the motion which he has sub25,190,000; in 1809, 26,000,000.; in 1810, 35,000-mitted to your lordships, made several observations 0007; and in 1811, 34,900,000. Those, as I have on the present state of trade in this country, the already observed, were the years of the war during truth of which I am by no means disposed to deny. which our foreign commerce was in the greatest I am as ready as any man to acknowledge that ceractivity. The official value of the exports in the tain branches of our trade are in a depressed state. year ending the 5th of Jan. 1820, was 35,625,6731. The noble marquis also truly says, that distress is This, however, I only mention by way of shewing not confined to this country; but that it afflicts evethat the diminution has not been below that which ry country in Europe, and has even extended itself was formerly considered as a condition of the great- to America. The noble marquis also truly says, est prosperity; admitting, as I must, that our foreign that this general distress is to be ascribed to the commerce has, during the last year, suffered a very extraordinary convulsions in Europe during the last material diminution, when compared with the years twenty years; convulsions which unhinged all the natural relations between nation and nation, and immediately preceding. even between man and man, convulsions which have produced the most extensive effects both on nations and individuals. Unquestionably, it was impossible but that the instability of property, the creation of fictitious capital, and all the other evils which arose during those convulsions, should operate in the production of great distress in every country, long after the re-establishment of peace should have caused the convulsions themselves to cease. But the peculiar circumstance of the times-that to which I wish particularly to direct the attention of your lordships and of the whole kingdom, is this,that, great as the distress is in every country in Europe, (and certainly it prevails more or less in eve

The first question for our consideration is-in what branch of our foreign trade has this diminution principally taken place? It does not appear that there has been much diminution in our Euro. pean trade. As compared with the average of the three preceding years, the diminution in our exports to the continent of Europe, during the last year, does not exceed 1,200,000l. Of this diminution, more than a half has occurred in the article of refined sugars; a trade which may be in a great measure considered as lost to us; as, since the opening of the West India colonies belonging to other states, and of the Brazils, in consequence of the restoration of peace, the continental countries have of course, become less dependant upon this coun-ry country in Europe, it is, nevertheless, at the try for this article of consumption. The falling off in the export of British produce and manufactures to the continent, does not therefore exceed 600,000l. With respect to Ireland, I am happy to say that our trade with that country is increasing. One great branch of the diminution which our foreign commerce has experienced within the last year (and

present moment greater in the United States of America than it is in any country in Europe. I de sire any of your lordships, or any other individuals who may be disposed to ascribe the distress under which we at present labor, to `our debt, to excessive taxations, to tothes, to the poor rates, or to any cause of that nature, to look at the United States of Ame

rica; and I think that they will then pause before they ascribe the distress which we, or any of the other countries of Europe are now suffering, exclusively or principally, to any or all the causes which I have mentioned.

My lords, there is no mystery in this. I have on a former occasion made some general observations on the subject. There is no mystery in the cause of the existing distress in the United States of America. That distress cannot proceed from any war in which the United States have been engaged; for, during the last thirty-five years, America has been at war only during two years. Nevertheless, she has felt the effect of the wars which during the greatest part of that period have raged in every other quarter of the globe. But how has she felt ti? During the whole of the late war America was the principal neutral power. During a part of that war she was the only neutral power. She enjoyed the most extensive carrying trade. She supplied this country, and she supplied other countries, with many articles which neither this country or other countries could at the time obtain elsewhere. What was the natural consequence? That America increased in wealth, in commerce, in arts in population, in strength, more rapidly than any nation ever before increased in the history of the world. In twenty years the United States of America made a greater progress than the same nation, in the ordinary and natural course of affairs, could have accomplished in forty years. But now all the world is at peace.-Every country, is at leisure to attend to its own condition, is diligently cultivating its domestic arts and industry. The state of America, my lords, at this moment is not so much the effect of present positive distress, as of extraordinary past prosperity. She must retrogade to a certain point. It is the result of former advantages which America exclusively enjoyed, which she must now reimburse (if I may use the expression) until she has returned to that which is her natural condition. I am far from saying this invidiously. On former occasions I have sufficiently shown my conviction that there is no country more interested than England is that the ⚫ distresses of America should cease, and that she should be enabled to continue that rapid progress which has been for a time interrupted; for of all the powers on the face of the earth, America is the one whose increasing population and immense territory furnish the best prospect of a ready market for British produce and manufactures. Every man, therefore, who wishes prosperity to England, must wish prosperity to America. I have stated these facts in order that the house may see the truth, and the whole truth, on this important subject; that it may not ascribe our distress to causes to which it is not principally attributable;-that it may be aware that we are only enduring a fate common to all; to that nation which has been at peace as well as to those nations which have been at war; to that country which has enjoyed the benefits of neutral traffic, as well as to those countries which have been deprived of it; to the United States of America, as well as to the various states of Europe. I have stated these facts to show that the distress which has fallen, not upon one or two countries, but upon the whole world, is the result of those political convulsions, which it is not now the ques tion, whether or not human policy and wisdom might have prevented; but the effects of which, it is the question, how far human policy and wisdom may mitigate?

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1817 135,473 1,850,034 1819 78,317 1,109,158 1818 141,363 2,432,501 1816 120,795 2,590,116 1815 195,050 4,623,817

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the world. To all parts of

19 1,703,024 L. 5,918 3,029,672 1,071,637 9,291,046 281 2,234,654 747,706 6,492,471 6,712 4,378,196 1,014,211 12.746,963 3,160,406 1,017,760 1,250 L. 8.129

1816 675,004 13,072,759 2,707,384 1,423,587 1,987,082 1,095,636 1,476,151 538,165 2,154,776 1819 669,403 12,388,833 2,707,612 1,027,395 1,316,539 1,155,173 1,408,005 464,370 1,527,622 1818 811,191 16,643,579 2,564,059 1,403,997 1,721,569 1,461.416 1,971,609 589,585 2,580,348 1817 795,842 14,179,021 2,131,629 1,295,440 1,197,875 1,209,063 1,729,898 482,757 2,502,198 1815 753,604 19,124,061 1,781,077 1,494,674 2,349,662 1,280,962 1,828,095 692,958 2,941,986 1814 479,518 17,393,796 2,907,277 1,122,771 1,033,236 1,143,357 1,732,691 624,749 3,260,445

8,930,384 645,858 4,755,883

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articles. All other

Tofal.

Department of Indian trade.

Though in the supplement to our last number we inserted a long and interesting article on Indian affairs, the following abstract relating only to the trade carried on by the agents of government, will be found interesting.

Receipts for the last ten years, From the several trading houses, in cash and drafts From the several trading houses, on account of sales of furs, &c.

For damaged merchandise sold

For interest on notes

$124,777 53
428,544 75
532 99
1,362 73

Cash received from the annuity fund,
for goods taken from the trade stock 186,098 17
From the treasury, for the salary of the
superintendent and his clerks
45,112 50
From the treasury, for the salary of the
factors and their clerks,
102,936 49
$889,364 16

Merchandise forwarded the several fac

Total,

Expenditures for the last ten years.

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$466,874 43
110,543 38
20,728 02
3,999 81

Salary of the superintendent and his clerks,

45,112 50 102,936 49 Total, $750,194 63

Army of the United States. Having recently published a detailed account of the distribution of the army of the United States, showing all the posts, &c. it is not worth while now to give more of a long statement just laid before congress, than the following summary:

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Navy of the United States,

ITS EMPLOYMENT AND CONDITION.

Letter from the secretary of the navy to the chairman
of the committee on naval affairs of the house of re-
presentatives.
NAVY DEPARTMENT,
December 11th, 1820.
SIR-I have the honor to acknowledge the re-
ceipt of your letter of the 8th instant, on behalf of
the committee on naval affairs, and to furnish, in
compliance with your request, the following state-
ment, which contains the information réquired.

Columbus, of 74 guns; Peacock, sloop of war, 18 guns; Spark, (brig) 14 guns;-these vessels are employed for the protection of our commerce in the Mediterranean,-to prevent the Barbary states from committing depredations on the persons or property of citizens of the United States. The Spark is principally employed as a despatch vesse! to and from the ports of Barbary.

Ontario, sloop of war, 18 guns;-in readiness to proceed to the Mediterranean, to relieve the sloop of war Peacock, ordered to the United States.

Constellation, frigate, 36 guns;-cruising in the Pacific Ocean for the protection of our trade and whale fi heries.

Mucedonian, frigate, 36 guns;-returning to the United States from the Pacific, after being relieved by the Constellation.

Congress, frigate, 36 guns; cruising in the Indian seas, and the several straits, to afford convoy and protection to our trade to and from China, and to give security against the native pirates.

Corvette John Adams, 24 guns; corvette Cyane, 24 guns; Hornet, sloop of war, 18 guns-cruising on the coast of Africa, for the suppression of the slave trade, and capture of piratical vessels-with instructions to cruise for the same purpose, on their return to the United States, off the coast of Guiana, and among the West India islands.

Enterprize, (brig) 14 guns; cruising in the West Indies, Gulf of Mexico, and occasionally round the Bahamas, and along the southern coast of the UnitAggregate. ed States.

17

687

507

No. 1

953

1,013

No. 2

955

1,024

No. 3

642

No. 4

459

No. 5 1,404

1,490

4,738

Strength of north division 4,413

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Lynx, schooner, 6 guns; Nonsuch, schr. 8 guns, cruising as the brig Enterprize; all these vessels being employed to carry into effect the several acts of congress for the suppression of the slave trade and punishment of the crime of piracy.

Gun-Boats Nos. 158 and 168; cruising for the same objects along the coasts of Georgia, Florida,

&c.

Three small vessels, mounting one gun each, are employed off the Mississippi in the protection of the trade and revenue of the United States.

The objects contemplated in the orders to the several ships and vessels of the navy are briefly explained against their names and stations.

As respects the force now employed in the Mediterranean, it is presumed to be not greater than the service and interests of the United States require for the purposes of protection; the other ships and vessels are cruising separately, and are considered necessary for the service to which they have been assigned.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most obedient servant,

SMITH THOMPSON.

Philip P. Barbour, Chairman
Naval committee, house of representatives.

Navy Department, December 18th, 1820, SIR-Your letter of the 15th inst. has been re

eived, and as most of the information required was to be furnished by the navy commissioners, it was referred to them. A full answer to your enquiries would, however, require much time to make the necessary calculations; and, as I understood from you in conversation on Saturday evening, that your object was to ascertain whether the time for building the vessels, authorized by the act of April 29th, 1816, for the gradual increase of the navy, might not be extended, without any material injury to the timber and materials on hand, and contracted for under the act, I have had a conversation with the commissioners on that subject, and their opinion is, that the time for building might be extended for three years, and only half a million, instead of a million of dollars, expended annually.

56,738 lbs of composition
89,640 lbs of lead

655,735 lbs of iron, and other articles, the whole cost of which will, probably, not exceed 350,000 dollars; which sum may be estimated as the probable cost of the materials yet to be procured for the construction of the ships. The materials for equipment, yet to be procured, will cost not less than 1,650,000 dollars. These materials essentially consist of cannon, carronades, shot, blocks, gun carriages, canvas cordage, paints, leather, water casks, boats, anchors, kentlege, cabooses, &c.

With respect to preserving "the materials of wood, by covering, or by immersion," it is believ ed that, by immersion, all the materials of wood, I take this opportunity to repeat what I mention used in the construction of ships of war, might ed to you in conversation, that the actual balance be preserved for a great length of time while in a on hand of the appropriation for the gradual in-state of immersion; but, whether immersion does crease of the navy is a little short of a million of not essentially injure the durability of timber, after dollars; the reason why a much larger balance ap. it is taken out of the water, is a question upon pears by the report of the secretary of the treasury, which the most experienced professional men differ is, that requisitions to the amount of the expendi- in opinion. tures had not been made on the secretary, and the On the one side, it is urged that the sap juices Treasurer, as agent for the department, had paid, of timber possess certain acescent fermentative out of moneys in his hands, for other purposes, ex- qualities, destructive in their nature and tendency; penses for the gradual increase of the navy, and for that their removal is indispensable to the preservawhich that fund was indebted to other appropriation of the timber; that water, being more fluid, in tions; this has now been rectified by a requisition, and the true balance appears by the books of the treasury.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

SMITH THOMPSON.

Philip P. Barbour, Chairman
Naval committee, house of representatives.

Navy Commissioners' office,

9th December, 1820. SIR--In reply to the queries propounded by the honorable Mr. Barbour, in his letter to you of the 24th ultimo, which you were pleased to refer to this board, the commissioners of the navy respectfully report:

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its natural state, than air, and the most penetrative of all bodies, excepting fire, finds its way through smaller pores, enters the timber, and neutralizes, dissolves, or displaces, these sap juices more speedily and effectually than can be done by any other advisable process.

While this hypothesis is, to a certain extent, admitted, that is, so far as to its being necessary that these sap juices should be displaced, it is contended, on the other hand, that their expulsion may be produced by other and more advisable means; less sudden, but more salutary in their operation, and unattended with any of the ills arising from immersion: that a succession of wet and dry divests the fibres of the wood of their natural tenacity, adhesiveness, and organization, when exposed in the open air; the wet swelling, and the dry separating, the soft fibres: that one of the tendencies of

That the "whole of the materials necessary for the construction and equipment of the vessels authorized by the act of 1816” have not been pro-immersion is, to render the wood porous, and subcured:

That, of the nine ships of the line, and ten frigates, authorized by the act referred to,

1 ship of the line has been built, equipped, and

sent to sea.

3 other ships of the line have been built and launched.

2 other ships of the line are now on the stocks, and nearly all the materials necessary for their construction have been procured.

3 frigates are now on the stocks, and the materials necessary for their construction are all procured.

That all the materials of wood, iron, copper, lead, &c. required for the other three ships of the line, and seven frigates, with the exception of the following estimated deficiency, have been procured, and are now deposited at the several building yards,

viz:

The deficiency estimated is,
30,000 cubic feet of live oak
140,250 cubic feet of white oak
2,032 knees

153,945 cubic feet of yellow pine
15,000 cubic feet of white pine
45,000 locust treenails
156,761 lbs of copper

ject it peculiarly to the action of the atmosphere; that, in this porous state, timber, confined, as it must be when brought into use, where there cannot be a free circulation of air, and where a greater or less degree of humidity must prevail, the interstices become filled with putrid, corroding matter, and decay ensues: that timber exposed to intense frosts, after immersion, by which it becomes water-soaked, or saturated with water, the pores of the wood become over-distended, and in that state remaining fixed, the elastic adhesiveness of its fibres, and their power of contraction, are destroyed: that a firm, adhesive, consolidated state of fibre, is essential to great durability: that this state never can be produced after the timber shall have been saturated with water, and its pores once distended: that, if the timber be not cut while in a vegetating state, and be kept under shelter, exposed neither to rain, to the heat of the sun, nor to piercing winds, yet having a free circulation of dry air, nature will expel the sap juices, without the aid of any artificial means.

It is further contended, that timber of close texture, such as live oak, or the best white oak, when once saturated with water, cannot, by any known process, be dispossessed of its maisture, in any reasonable time: that, when put into a ship, it

imparts to the surrounding atmosphere a degree | delivered into the yards in a dry state, has been. humidity, which damages the provisions and stores, considered one of the essential causes of their great and generates diseases among the crew: that tim- durability. ber, in a dry state, is not subject to the destructive effects of frost, one of the most insinuating and irresistible of all, operating on the texture of bodies.

Between the years 1636 and 1696, British timber became scarce, and foreign timber was, of necessity, resorted to. This foreign timber was, at that period, it is understood, almost universally Water swells and expands the pores of wood; rafted down the waters near which it grew; and and the fibres, thus expanded, become, when ex- to its having been thus rafted and exposed to wet, posed to frost, still more distended. The contexture was attributed the very rapid decay of the thirty of the wood, by frequent exposure to wet and frost, ships authorized to be built in 1677. Charnock loses its natural adhesiveness, and, by remaining observes, "the scarcity of British timber, which saturated, and in a frozen state, the pores become was complained of in the loudest terms so early so fixed in an unnatural state of expansion as to as the reign of Charles 1st, began to be felt very lose all power of contraction. This, it is observed, considerably after the conclusion of the last Dutch is the condition of the oak and pine imported into war; at the time the vote for building thirty new England from Canada; and to these causes the best ships had passed through parliament in 1677, much writers attribute the "dry rot," so destructive to labor and exertion became necessary, to collect as British vessels. The Canada timber is brought much as proved sufficient for the purpose. The down the St. Lawrence in large rafts, continues navy board, with every effort it could make, was months in water, and in that saturated state is unequal to the task; and the deficiency being landed and exposed to frost; every attempt to sea-through necessity supplied by foreign plank, in all son it, under cover, is unavailing; its pores never probability caused the early decay of the vessels close again, and when used as ship timber, dry rot in question." ensues, which, when once commenced, can never be arrested but by taking out all the pieces in any degree affected.

Experiments have been made to arrest the dry rot in ships, by sinking them for months in salt water, but without success. The texture of the wood was found to be essentially injured by being thus water soaked, and it became more subject to this disease than before it was sunk The ships were also injured in their fastenings, and the atmosphere within them was kept in a constant state of humidity, whence, among other ill effects, proceeded injury to provisions and stores, and sickness to the crew.

When timber begins to decay, it communicates and operates by infection on adjacent pieces, and there are no means of arresting a general decay but by removing every piece affected. Hence the importance of using none but timber sound, imporous, and well seasoned, in the construction of ships.

It is a remarkable fact, that there are at this time but two vessels in the British navy as old as the Sovereign of the Seas was at the time she was burnt, viz. the Sussex, a 90, and the Prospero, an 18 gun vessel.

Blackburn remarks, "the Rhine oak brought down that river from the forests in large rafts, remaining for months soaked in water, and afterwards landed and exposed to intense frost, sustains very material injury: the fibres of the wood being expanded in so powerful a degree, lose their na tural texture and remain porous, and the water it imbibes, changing its state and becoming corrosive, dry rot ensues." The French ships built at Antwerp a few years since, with the Rhine oak, were found in a state of decay from the dry rot, some of them even while building.

The oaks of North Europe, naturally porous, absorb much water, and from similar causes incur similar consequences. Hence, neither the Dutch nor the Danish ships are durable.

Among other considerations, the following facts The oaks of the United States, excepting probaare adduced, as sustaining the objections to immer-bly the live oak, are sufficiently porous to become sion: saturated in a short time; and, if exposed in this In the early periods of the British marine, the state to the action of frost or of extreme heat, simicustom, originating from necessity, was to trans-lar effects would inevitably result. The effect of port all the navy timber to the dock yards in ves-heat and cold is known to be similar in many resels; it was taken immediately to the yards and there landed in a dry state, without having been subjected to immersion; and no other timber than that grown in Great Britain was used.

In the year 1515, the Great Henry was launched, and without having sustained any essential repairs, she was fit for service in 1553, 38 years after she was launched, when she was accidentally burnt; after about 5 years' service, she was placed in a "pond," with a covering over her.

In the year 1636, the Sovereign of the Seas, "the first great ship ever built in Great Britain," after having been on the stocks two years, was launched; in the year 1696, it was determined to repair her; the frame was found perfectly sound, and, according to Blackburn, the timber was so firm and hard as almost to resist the edge of tools." By accident, she was burnt in the year 1696, after having been a number of years in service: she also was placed in a pond with a covering over her.

The timber with which these vessels were built having been conveyed to the building yards in vessels, and not in rafts, and having consequently been

spects; they both penetrate into substances in the same manner. A cannon, for instance, filled with water securely confined in it, will burst upon being exposed either to extreme heat or intense frost; and it will be remembered, that wood is far less tenacious than iron, and far more liable to the action of heat and cold.

The caks with which the ships are built at St. Petersburgh are brought down the rivers in crafts, from a very long distance in the interior, being sometimes two years on their passage. This method of bringing their ship timber to the building yards is resorted to, it is understood, from the ap prehension that rafting it would affect the durability of their ships. The Russians, for greater preservation, char the ends of the beams in such other timber as is practicable, and cover their ships with painted canvas, to preserve them from the snow and rain, and render them more durable.

Lescalier, a distinguished French writer, on the subject of timber, observes:

"Timber cut in good or bad season, preserves a greater or less degree of moisture. Some of it re

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