An Account of the Tonnage of the Vessels engaged in the Cod Fishery of the U. States, and of the Allowances, &c., paid to them from 1848 to 1857, both inclusive.

In the year ending the 30th of June, 1858, the Americans had 110,856 tons shipping engaged in the cod fishery. During the same year they exported 161,269 quintals of dried, and 30,470 barrels and 3,375 kegs of pickled cod; their aggregate value being 684,445 dollars.

"The Americans follow two or more modes of fitting out for the fisheries. The first is accomplished by 6 or 7 farmers, or their sons, building a schooner during winter, which they man themselves (as all the Americans on the sea coast are more or less seamen as well as farmers); and after fitting the vessel with necessary stores, they proceed to the banks, Gulf of St. Lawrence, or Labrador; and, loading their vessel with fish, make a voyage between spring and harvest. The proceeds they divide, after paying any balance they may owe for outfit. They remain at home to assist in gathering their crops, and proceed again for another cargo, which is salted down, and not afterwards dried: this is termed mud-fish, and kept for home consumption. The other plan is, when a merchant, or any other, owning a vessel, lets her to 10 or 15 men on shares. He finds the vessel and nets. The men pay for all the provisions, hooks and lines, and for the salt necessary to cure their proportion of the fish. One of the number is acknow. ledged master; but he has to catch fish as well as the others, and receives only about 20s. per month for navigating the vessel: the crew have five eighths of the fish caught, and the owners three eighths of the

whole.

"The first spring voyage is made to the banks; the second either to the banks, Gulf of St. Lawrence, or the coast of Labrador; the third or fall voyage, is again to the banks; and a fourth, or second fall voyage, is also made, sometimes, to the banks."—(M Gregor, vol. i. p. 220.)

It is stipulated in the first article of a convention between Great Britain and the United States, signed at London, 20th of October, 1818, that the subjects of the United States shall have liberty to take all sorts of fish" on that part of the coast of Newfoundland from Cape Ray to the Rameau Islands, on the western and northern coasts of Newfoundland from Cape Ray to the Quirpon Islands, on the Magdalen Islands, and also on the coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks, from Mount Joly, on the southern coast of Labrador, to and through the Straits of Belleisle, and thence northwardly indefinitely along the coast, without prejudice, however, to any of the exclusive rights of the Hudson's Bay Company; and that the American fishermen shall also have liberty, for ever, to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks of the southern parts of the coast of Newfoundland here above described, and of the coast of Labrador; but so soon as the same, or any portion thereof, shall be settled. it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish without previous agreement for such purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the ground. And the United States hereby renounce for ever any liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry, or cure fish on or within 3 marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbours of his Britannic Majesty's dominions in America not included within the above mentioned limits." The American fishermen are, however, admitted into all bays, &c. for the purpose of shelter, of repairing damages, of purchasing wood, and of obtaining water, and for no other purpose whatever; and when there, they are to be placed under such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent their abusing the privileges hereby reserved to them.

Cod Fishery, French.-France has always enjoyed a considerable share of the cod fishery. The following Table shows the extent to which she has latterly carried it on.

Account of French Ships, Crews, &c. engaged in the Cod Fishery, with the Produce thereof, from 1852 to 1857 inclusive.

But notwithstanding the apparent prosperify of this branch of industry, it may be doubted whether it be really so beneficial to France as would at first sight appear. It depends more upon artificial regulations than upon anything else. Foreign cod is excluded from the French markets by the oppressive duty with which it is loaded; and the comparatively great demand for dried fish in Catholic countries renders this a very great boon to the French fishermen. But it is admitted that this would not be enough to sustain the fishery; and high bounties are paid to those engaged in it. These, however, have ⚫ been reduced of late years; and they will probably, in no long time, undergo still further alterations. St. Pierre and Miquelon, small islands on the coast of Newfoundland, belong to the French. Their right of fishing upon the shores of that island, and upon the great bank, was replaced, in 1814, upon the footing on which it stood in 1792. This concession has been much objected to by M'Gregor and others: we believe, however, that they have materially over-rated its influence.

COFFEE (Ger. Koffe, Koffebohnen; Du. Koffy, Koffiboonen; Da. Kaffe, Kaffebönner; Sw. Koffe; Fr. It. and Port. Caffé; Sp. Café; Rus. Kofé; Pol. Kawa; Lat. Coffea, Caffea; Arab. Bun; Malay, Kawa; Pers. Tochem, Kéwéh; Turk. Chaube), the berries of the coffee plant (Coffea Arabica Lin.). They are generally of an oval form, smaller than a horse-bean, and of a tough, close, and hard texture; they are prominent on the one side and flattened on the other, having a deeply marked furrow running lengthwise along the flattened side; they are moderately heavy, of a greenish colour, and a somewhat bitterish taste.

Historical Notice of Coffee. The coffee plant is a native of that part of Arabia called Yemen — terris faba missa Sabais; but it is now very extensively cultivated in the southern extremity of India, in Java, the West Indies, Brazil, &c. We are ignorant of the precise period when it began to be roasted, and the decoction used as a drink, though the discovery is not supposed to date further back than the early part of the fifteenth century. No mention of it is made by any ancient writer; nor by any of the moderns previously to the sixteenth century. Leonhart Rauwolf, a German physician, His work Coffee was,

is believed to be the first European who has taken any notice of coffee. was published in 1573, and his account is, in some respects, inaccurate. however, very accurately described by Prosper Albinus, who had been in Egypt as physician to the Venetian consul, in his works de Plantis Egypti, and de Medicina Egyptiorum, published in 1591 and 1592.

A public coffee-house was opened for the first time, in London, in 1652. A Turkey merchant, of the name of Edwards, having brought along with him from the Levant some bags of coffee, and a Greek servant accustomed to make it, his house was thronged with visitors to see and taste this new sort of liquor; and, wishing to gratify his friends without putting himself to inconvenience, he allowed his servant to make and sell coffee publicly. In consequence of this permission, the latter opened a coffee-house in Newman's Court, Cornhill, on the spot where the Virginia Coffee-house now stands. Garraway's was the first coffee-house opened after the great fire in 1666. — (See the learned and elaborate treatise of Moseley on coffee, 5th ed. p. 15.)

M. de la Roque mentions that the use of coffee was introduced into France between 1640 and 1660; and he further states, that the first coffee-house for the sale of coffee in France was opened at Marseilles, in 1671.-(Voyage de la Syrie, tom. ii. pp. 310— 319.) It was hardly, however, known, except to a few travellers who had visited the East, till 1669, when it was introduced to the best society in Paris by Solyman Aga, ambassador from the Grand Seignior to Louis XIV. It immediately became fashionable; and the taste for it having been quickly diffused, a coffee house was opened for its sale in 1672, which, in no long time, had several competitors. (See the excellent work of Le Grand D'Aussy, Vie Privée des François, iii. 127. ed. 1815.)

Some time between 1680 and 1690, the Dutch planted coffee beans they had procured from Mocha, in the vicinity of Batavia. In 1690, they sent a plant to Europe; and it was from berries obtained from this plant that the first coffee plantations in the West Indies and Surinam were derived.

In

Progressive Consumption of Coffee in Great Britain. Influence of the Duties. — In 1660, a duty of 4d. a gallon was laid on all coffee made and sold. Previously to 1732, the duty on coffee amounted to 2s. a pound; but an act was then passed, in compliance with the solicitations of the West India planters, reducing the duty to 18. 6d. a pound; at which it stood for many years, producing, at an average, about 10,000l. a year. consequence, however, of the prevalence of smuggling, caused by the too great magnitude of the duty, the revenue declined, in 1783, to 2,8697. 10s. 10d. And it having been found impossible otherwise to check the practice of clandestine importation, the duty was reduced, in 1784, to 6d. The consequences of this wise and salutary measure were most beneficial. Instead of being reduced, the revenue was immediately raised to near three times its previous amount, or to 7,200l. 15s. 9d., showing that the consumption of legally imported coffee must have increased in about a ninefold proportion! striking and conclusive proof, as Mr. Bryan Edwards has observed, of the effect of heavy taxation in defeating its own object. -(Hist. of the West Indies, vol. ii. p. 340. 8vo. ed.) The history of the coffee trade abounds with similar and even more striking examples of the superior productiveness of low duties. In 1807, the duty was 1s. 8d. a pound; and the quantity entered for home consumption amounted to 1,170,164 lbs., yielding a revenue of 161,245l. 11s. 4d. In 1808, the duty was reduced from 1s. 8d. to 7d.;

-a

* Charles II. attempted, by a proclamation issued in 1675, to suppress coffee-houses, on the ground of their being resorted to by disaffected persons, who "devised and spread abroad divers false, malicious, and scandalous reports, to the defamation of his Majesty's government, and to the disturbance of the peace and quiet of the nation." The opinion of the Judges having been taken as to the legality of the proceeding, they resolved, "That retailing coffee might be an innocent trade; but as it was used to nourish sedition, spread lies, and scandalise great men, it might also be a common nuisance!"

and in 1809, no fewer than 9,251,847 lbs. were entered for home consumption, yielding, notwithstanding the reduction of duty, a revenue of 245,856. 88. 4d. The duty having been raised, in 1819, from 7d. to 1s. a pound, the quantity entered for home consumption, in 1824, was, 7,993,041 lbs., yielding a revenue of 407,5441. 4s. 3d. In 1824, however, the duty being again reduced from 18. to 6d, the quantity entered for home consumption, in 1825, was 10,766,112 lbs., and in 1831 it had increased to 22,740,627 lbs., yielding a nett revenue of 588,7511.

The rapid increase in the consumption from 1825 to 1832 must not, however, be wholly ascribed to the reduction of the duty. This, no doubt, had the greatest influence; but a good deal is also owing to the low price of coffee from 1824 to 1830; and also to the great reduction during the same period in the price of low brown sugar (fully 1d. per pound), a cheap and abundant supply of which is indispensable to the extensive use of coffee.

These statements, which are principally deduced from the accompanying account, No. I., refer to the consumption of Great Britain only but the account No. II. includes the United Kingdom, and is brought down to 1858 inclusive. The most remarkable features in this account are the reduction of the duty on coffee from the East Indies and Ceylon to the same level as that on coffee from the West Indies, and the farther reduction of the duty on coffee from British possessions in 1842 to 4 d. per lb. The equalisation of the duty on East and West India coffee had become indispensable after the rapid decline in the supplies from the West Indies consequent to the emancipation of the slaves; for as foreign coffee was burdened with a high discriminating duty, the price of British coffee must otherwise have risen to such a height as materially to interfere with the consumption. The latter, indeed, has not increased since 1887 in the ratio that might have been expected from the increasing population and wealth of the country, and since 1847, when the consumption amounted to 37,441,373 lbs., it has declined, having been in 1858 only 35,208,932 lbs.

The stationary or declining state of the consumption of coffee may, however, be easily explained. We have seen how rapidly the growth of chicory has extended in this country (art. CHICORY); and its substitution for coffee has no doubt prevented the increase of the latter. The adulteration of coffee with chicory was, indeed, authorised by a Treasury Minute passed in 1840. But the well-founded objections made to this extraordinary attempt to legitimise a proceeding by which the revenue as well as the public was defrauded, led to the repeal of the Minute referred to in 1852. The sale of coffee mixed with chicory was then prohibited. Inasmuch, however, as this prohibition could not be made effectual, a new Minute was passed in 1853, permitting the sale of coffee intermixed with chicory, provided the parcels containing, such compound be labelled MIXTURE OF COFFEE AND CHICORY. And we do not well see what more can be done in the matter. Dealers who supply chicory, or a mixture of coffee and chicory, to customers who order coffee, are swindlers who ought to be adequately punished. But if customers order chicory, or coffee alloyed with chicory, there neither is nor can be any good reason why they should not be supplied with the article they want. It is supposed that at present (1859) about 12,000 tons of chicory and other matters used in adulterating coffee, are annually disposed of, in part avowedly, according to law, and in part fraudulently.

Under such circumstances the best thing that can be done by those who have the opportunity, and who wish to make sure of getting genuine coffee is to buy it before it is ground; and as a mill for grinding may be bought for a small sum, and coffee is sold ready roasted," there is, in this way, no great difficulty in obviating adulteration. Those who use ground coffee will also be pretty secure against fraud if they resort only to first-class shops.

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It is seen, from the accompanying tables, that the duty on foreign coffee was reduced in 1844 to 6d. per lb. And, following up the example set in the case of the sugar duties, it was farther reduced in 1851 to 3d. per lb. that is, to the same rate of duty that was then laid on British colonial coffee. The duty on all descriptions of coffee, after being raised to 4d. per lb. in 1855, was again reduced in 1857 to 3d. Hence it follows, that while we place our colonists on the same footing with the foreigner, we give the chicory growers a protection against them both of 3d. per lb. or 28s. a cwt. And though it would be very difficult, or rather quite impracticable, to subject chicory to a duty, every effort should be made to prevent the substitution of adulterated for genuine coffee.

II. An Account of the Quantity, in Pounds Weight, of Coffee imported into the U. Kingdom, the Quantity retained for Consumption, the Produce of the Duties, and the Rates of Duty on the same, in each Year from 1820.

III. An Account exhibiting the different Sources whence the Coffee imported into the U. Kingdom in 1857, was derived, with the Quantities imported from each, the Total Quantities retained for Home Consumption, and the Computed Value of the Imports and the Duty.

This table is interesting inasmuch as it not only shows the sources whence we derive our supplies of coffee, but the estimation in which the products of different countries are held in the mercantile world. The introduction of tea and coffee, it has been well remarked, "has led to a wonderful change in the diet of civilised nations, a change highly important both in a moral and physical point of view. These beverages have the admirable advantage of affording stimulus without producing intoxication, or any of its evil consequences. Lovers of tea