were offered at all prices. Here, as at Frankfort, the indiennes were sold at three gros the ell. The excessive dearness of provisions has rendered the sale of merchandise insignificant. Numerous failures having also weakened credit, orders of all sorts have been astonishingly lessened, and sales have been necessarily forced at any price."

It was not till about June that any revival in the commercial interests of Britain began to be felt. The iron trade appears to have been among the first that exhibited decided symptoms of improvement. France, from the want of iron in her coal districts, found herself reduced to an inevitable state of dependence upon us for this commodity. At the works in Wales, Staffordshire, and Shropshire, the orders were so extensive, that the iron-masters could not find hands to execute them. At the same time, the vast and suffering staple of the cotton trade was sensibly revived by considerable orders from South America. The numerous unemployed weavers now all obtained work, first at low wages, but these gradually encreased till they became sufficient for the comfortable subsistence of the work man and his family. A somewhat illusory impulse was derived from an insurrectionary movement in the southern provinces of Brazil, which was supposed to present an extensive opening, and numerous shipments took place thither on speculation. The entire consumption of cotton wool in the British manufactories was this year estimated at 92,000,000 lbs. exceeding by 20,000,000 that of 1816. Similar good fortune attended the lace of Nottingham, the silk of Spitalfields, and those branches of the woollen manufacture which had exhibited marks of decay. At Bristol, Newcastle, Leith, and other ports, the entry and departure of shipping was observed to be much more brisk than at any period during the last three years. Liverpool and Glasgow

were peculiarly cheered by the first returns derived from the lately opened trade to India. Several articles, which had been sent out in despair as unsaleable here, had been eagerly bought up with a wish for more; and many commodities had been sold at a profit of 100 per cent. It was even found, that Hindostan, the mother country of muslin and cotton manufactures, afforded a market for those of Glasgow and Paisley, even burdened with all the expences of freight; so wonderful had been the effects of British skill and machinery.

The animation inspired into the commercial world by the favourable aspect of affairs, was enlivened by the hope that it would be permanent, and would finally terminate the general stagnation, which had been felt as the first consequence of peace. Towards the close of the year indeed the demand in all these branches sensibly slackened; but it was still hoped that this might be only the remission usually felt at the season. How far this good omen was fulfilled, will appear hereafter.

We shall conclude with some detached notices applicable to some particular quarters of the world.

AMERICA.

It appears that the value of the exports of the United States, for the year ending the 30th of September, 1816, was, dollars 81,920,452, of which 64,781,896 were of domestic materials, and 17,138,556 of foreign.

The following view of the state and prospects of the manufacturing interest in America, is given in a letter written early in the present year.

"The war set the Americans forward in manufacturing, say fifty years, owing to the duties being very high, (but they are greatly reduced since the peace,) and British goods sold during the war, from two hundred to

three hundred per cent. advance higher than usual. From the low price at which British goods have been sold since the peace, the American manufacturers have not only given up, but most of them have been totally ruined; this is the case on the sea-coast, and for at least a hundred miles back. There may be some on a small scale still further back; but these must give up also. You say, from the reduced price of labour, British goods will come out lower than ever: if so, adieu to all manufacturing here; their advance during the war is all gone back and done away.

"You must not form an idea of a manufactory in America from those in Britain. A person here setting up three or four jennies for spinning sixty or seventy spindles each, is looked upon as a great manufacturer.

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"As for any other nation interfering with Britain in the American markets, know that Britain will carry away teen parts out of twenty of the whole trade of supplying the United States with manufactures. The trade with France is already coming to a close. They are anxious to deal with the Netherlands, as they say they are the only free nation in Europe, except Britain. But I believe it is because they are able to give them long credit; for gold and credit are the idols the Americans worship. The only articles they can furnish to advantage are a few laces, lawns, toys, cambrics, and linens; this last article comes in abundant supply also from Hamburgh, Bremen, and Ireland."

States; or of the countries of which those goods are the growth, produce, or manufacture.

2. In all cases of contravention of the preceding article, the ship and cargo to be confiscated.

3. Bounties and allowances now granted to fishing-boats, to be refused to all but those of which the officers and three-fourths of the crew are citizens of the United States.

4. The coasting-trade is confined to native vessels and seamen.

5. A tonnage-duty is imposed upon vessels,though belonging to the United States, which shall enter a port in one district from a port in another district. (This is subject to exceptions).

6. A tonnage-duty is levied on American vessels arriving from foreign ports, unless two-thirds of the crew be citizens of the United States.

Statement of the Mexican Coinage for the year 1815.

Gold, 486,464 dollars.
Silver 6,454,799 do.

Total 6,941,263.

Besides the above, 101,365 dollars of copper money has been coined, which for the first time commenced in

1814.

Prior to the present revolution, the coinage of Mexico for some years was never less than twenty-six millions of dollars; so that at this rate, calculating seven years war, from this section of Spanish America, the world has lost an influx of precious metals equal to 149 millions of dollars.

RUSSIA.

St Petersburgh, March 8.-The amount of goods imported into St Petersburgh last year, was above 90 millions of roubles; and that of goods

exported, nearly 77 millions and a half.

The extraordinary trade in corn has lately doubled the number of strangers at Odessa. That sea-port seems in a fair way of becoming one of the most considerable towns of the Russian empire its increase proceeds in a manner beyond all conception.

This prodigious exportation of grain from Odessa forms a striking article in the German papers. They state, that last year there were exported from that place, in 1966 ships, goods to the value of 5,406,000 roubles, and only to the amount of 408,600 roubles imported. Among the 846 large ships which arrived, were 407 Russian, 258 English, 101 Austrian, 25 French, 23 Turkish, 15 Swedish, &c.

Sweden.

The importation of coffee being found to amount to 3,317,000 lbs., which was reckoned to be half the

value of Swedish iron exported, the military chief of that kingdom fancied that the trade of the kingdom would be improved by prohibiting the introduction of coffee at all, to which was added a similar prohibition against wines, foreign spirits, and all cottons except those imported direct from India in Swedish vessels. Soon after, the use of Swedish coffee, or any thing resembling coffee, was prohibited, as affording a cover for the introduction of the real drug. It was thus asserted that an improvement would be made in the exchanges; yet soon after all the principal Banks in Stockholm broke, and at Christiana all business was at a stand, the merchants remark. ing, "because no foreign goods may be brought to our markets, our productions meet with no sale abroad." No redress, however, seems to have been afforded, the peasantry throughout the country being inflamed with a patriotic and ignorant zeal to wear the manufactures and use the commodities of their own nation only.

THE plan and limits of this work necessarily restrict us to a brief consideration of the most striking circumstances in the history of the public health during the year 1817; of these, the facts connected with the propaga tion of Typhus Fever, are by far the most important. There were comparatively few large towns or districts in the empire which did not suffer under this calamity; but we propose, in the following sketch, to confine ourselves solely to the Statistics of Fever, if we may so express ourselves, as they are to be collected from the records of the

public institutions of London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin, and from the works of the physicians who have practised in those cities, and favoured the world with their opinions.

As there is great reason to suppose, that in numerous instances febrile contagion has been conveyed from Glasgow to Edinburgh, and as it is highly probable that it has been imported into the former city in particular, and into the western part of Scotland in general, as well as into England, by means of the vast influx of Irish la bourers, we shall begin by submitting

to our readers a few facts connected with the progress of fever in the sister island. The Fever Hospital of Dublin, which was opened in 1804, admitted in that year 422 cases only; in 1810, when fever became very general all over Ireland, 1774 patients were admitted; and in 1817, the admissions amounted to 5745. In another hospital in that city, (the Hardwicke,) the cases of fever increased, between the years 1813 and 1817, from 1842 patients to the enormous number of 8915. The progress of fever was nearly in a similar proportion all over the country. In a northern district, of which Stra. bane was the principal town, little short of a fourth part of the population was affected, and of these not fewer than 1 in 9 died. We would not be understood to say, that we owe our Typhus exclusively to Ireland; unfortunately, too many of its causes have existed among ourselves, for we believe it to be a fact beyond all dispute, that the disease frequently derives its origin from poverty, and its concomitants, hunger, cold, and rags, aggravated by filth and intemperance, conjointly pressing upon the desponding inhabitants of insufficient and over-crowded lodgings,--a state of society which has been but too prevalent since the late peace.

From the year 1812, Typhus Fever was steadily gaining ground in Glasgow and its vicinity; its progress was so rapid, that it nearly doubled its numbers every successive twelve months between 1812 and 1817. This is proved by the state of the admissions into the Infirmary of that city, which, for the successive years, were as follows: 16-35-90-230-399-714.† The

mortality by fever kept pace with this increment, and the deaths doubled annually during the same period. The male sex were found to suffer much more, comparatively, than the female, although the number of females who were attacked with the disease considerably out-numbered the males; by one calculation made in the Infirmary of Glasgow, the proportion was 1 death in 9 males, and 1 in 16 females; by another calculation, the proportion was 1 in 7 among the males, and 1 in 142 among the females; the general average of deaths in both sexes, was L in 10.

In Edinburgh, as in all other large towns, fever always exists more or less in the sordid habitations of the poor; and some closes and houses, particu larly those employed as lodging-houses for the lower orders, are never with out cases of the disease. We have it upon the authority of an able physician, that for the last twenty years, he has never known that part of the city called Portsburgh, free from continued fever ; and on a personal examination of the district, he found that disease in almost every house. In the spring of 1816, every one of the children in the West-Kirk Poor-House, about 160 in number, suffered from an attack of fever, of whom two died; and between 30 and 40 of the aged poor were also affected, of whom more than a third were carried off. In the autumn of the same year, every child in the City Charity-Workhouse, to the number of 200, and about 50 other individuals belonging to the institution, were attacked with fever; of these latter about 1 in 12 died, but all the children recovered. In the year 1817, not

an individual in either of these extensive asylums for the poor was affected; nevertheless the disease was much more prevalent than usual throughout the city. It was for some time supposed, that the increased admissions into the Royal Infirmary, were produced from the exertions of the medical officers of the two Dispensaries, and the active agents of the Destitute Sick Society, in consequence of which almost every case of fever throughout the city and neighbourhood was brought to light, and was immediately recommended for reception; but subsequent experience has given great reason to suppose, that this increase was not apparent only, but founded upon an actual increase in the numbers of those affected with the disease. By the reports of the New Town Dispensary, it appears, that during the three months ending in December 1, 1816, the cases of fever registered at that institution, amounted to no more than 1 in 6144 of the whole applications for relief; but, in the three months ending March 1, 1817, they increased to 1 in 3217. In the next three months, the increase was still progressive, and amounted to 1 in 203. During the quarter between June and September, the fever cases diminished somewhat in number, their proportion being only 1 in 24 of the whole; but for the ensuing quarter, which terminated on December 1, 1817, they had arisen to an amount of nearly double, being one in 1215. It was also found, that while at first the disease was confined to certain small districts, in the course of the season it became pretty generally diffused over the town. It is a well-known fact that the extremes of heat and cold are unfavourable to the spreading, or even to the existence of Typhus Fever; but the heat of our weather in Scotland never arises to that degree which is found to be incompatible with the presence of the

disease, and the diminution of its ravages in the months between June and September is, in a great measure, to be attributed to that free exposure to the open air, which the persons and habitations of the poor undergo, at a season when there is no temptation to seek for increased warmth by crowding within doors, and shutting up every avenue by which a free ventilation might be established.

In the Royal Infirmary, which was supplied with patients from the Dispensary, the returns of which we have already quoted, as well as from the Old Town Dispensary, and various other sources, there were treated during the first ten months of 1817, 347 patients, of whom 21, or 1 in 16¦¦ died; the actual numbers dismissed cured for the two preceding years could not be ascertained; but the deaths by fever for each of those years was only 12, so that there is every reason to suppose the number of fever cases admitted into the house were greatly increased in the year 1817; indeed, several additional wards were appropriated for the reception of these cases, and at length a separate establishment was fitted up at Queensberry House by the managers of the Royal Infirmary. The history of this excellent institution does not come within the period of the present report, as it was not opened until the 3d of February, 1818.

Fever was not particularly prevalent in London before the autumn of 1816. In September and October of that year, fever, manifestly contagious, appeared in the courts about Saffron Hill, and among some young people employed at a silk manufactory in Spital Fields, but who resided with their families. Contrary, however, to what has been observed at Edinburgh, it subsided on the approach of winter, but again reappeared in March, in the vicinity of Essex Street, White-chapel, where the