Statistical view of the Tonnage of American and Foreign Vessels arriving from, and departing to each foreign country, during the Years ending on the 30th day of September, 1837, 1838, and 1839.

Total

1,299,720|1,266,622 765,703 756,292 1,302,974 1,408,761 592,110 604,166 1,491,479 1,477,929 624,814 611,839|

Statement exhibiting the Number, Tonnage, Crews, and National Character of the Foreign Vessels that entered into, and cleared from, the United States, during the Year ending on the 30th September, 1839.

SHIPS' PAPERS, the papers or documents required for the manifestation of the property of the ship and cargo, &c. They are of 2 sorts; viz. 1st, those required by the law of a particular country-as the certificate of registry, licence, charterparty, bills of lading, bill of health, &c.-(see those titles)-required by the law of England to be on board British ships; and, 2dly, those required by the law of nations to be on board neutral ships, to vindicate their title to that character. Mr. Serjeant Marshall, following M. Hubner (De la Saisie des Bâtimens Neutres, tom. i. pp. 241-252.), has given the following description of the latter class of documents:

1. The Passport, Sea Brief, or Sea Letter.-This is a permission from the neutral state to the captain or master of the ship, to proceed on the voyage proposed, and usually contains his name and residence; the name, property, description, tonnage, and destination of the ship; the nature and quantity of the cargo, the place whence it comes, and its destination; with such other matters as the practice of the place requires. This document is indispensably necessary for the safety of every neutral ship. Hubner says, that it is the only paper rigorously insisted on by the Barbary corsairs; by the production of which alone their friends are protected from insult.

2. The Proofs of Property.—These ought to show that the ship really belongs to the subjects of a neutral state. If she appear to either belligerent to have been built in the enemy's country, proof is generally required that she was purchased by the neutral before, or captured and legally condemned and sold to the neutral after, the declaration of war; and in the latter case the bill of sale, properly authenticated, ought to be produced. M. Hubner admits that these proofs are so essential to every neutral vessel, for the prevention of frauds, that such as sail without them have no reason to complain if they be interrupted in their voyages, and their neutrality disputed.

3. The Muster Roll.—This, which the French call rôle d'équipage, contains the names, ages, quality, place of residence, and, above all, the place of birth, of every person of the ship's company. The document is of great use in ascertaining a ship's neutrality. It must naturally excite a strong suspicion, if the majority of the crew be found to consist of foreigners; still more, if they be natives of the enemy's country.-(See SEAMEN.)

4. The Charterparty.—Where the ship is chartered, this instrument serves to authenticate many of the facts on which the truth of her neutrality must rest, and should therefore be always found on board chartered ships.

5. The Bills of Lading.-By these the captain acknowledges the receipt of the goods specified therein, and promises to deliver them to the consignee or his order. Of these there are usually several duplicates; one of which is kept by the captain, one by the shipper of the goods, and one transmitted to the consignee. This instrument, being only the evidence of a private transaction between the owner of the goods and the captain, does not carry with it the same degree of authenticity as the charterparty.

The Invoices. These contain the particulars and prices of each parcel of goods, with the amount of the freight, duties, and other charges thereon, which are usually transmitted from the shippers to their factors or consignees. These invoices prove by whom the goods were shipped, and to whom consigned. They carry with them, however, but little authenticity, being easily fabricated where fraud is intended.

7. The Log Book, or Ship's Journal.-This contains a minute account of the ship's course, with a short history of every occurrence during the voyage. If this be faithfully kept, it will throw great light on the question of neutrality; if it be in any respect fabricated, the fraud may in general be easily detected.

8. The Bill of Health.-This is a certificate, properly authenticated, that the ship comes from a place where no contagious distemper prevails; and that none of the crew, at the time of her departure, were infected with any such disorder. It is generally found on board ships coming from the Levant, or from the coast of Barbary, where the plague so frequently prevails.

A ship using false or simulated papers is liable to confiscation.—(Marshall on Insurance, book i. c. 9. § 6.)

SHOES (Du. Schoenen; Fr. Souliers; Ger. Schuhe; It. Scarpe; Rus. Baschmaki; Sp. Zapatos), articles of clothing that are universally worn, and require no description. The shoe manufacture is of great value and importance. The finest sort of shoes is made in London; but the manufacture is carried on upon the largest scale in Northamptonshire and Staffordshire. The London warehouses derive considerable supplies from Nantwich, Congleton, and Sandbach, in Cheshire. During the late war, the contractor for shoes generally furnished about 600,000 pairs annually.-(For an estimate of the value of the shoes annually manufactured in Britain, see LEATHER.)

SHUMAC OR SUMACH (Ger. Schmack, Sumach; Fr. Sumac, Roure, Roux; It. Sɔm-maco; Sp. Zumaque; Rus. Sumak). Common shumac (Rhus Coriaria) is a shrub that grows naturally in Syria, Palestine, Spain, and Portugal. That which is cultivated in Italy, and is improperly called young fustic, is the Rhus Cotinus. It is cultivated with great care: its shoots are cut down every year quite to the root; and, after being dried, they are chipped or reduced to powder by a mill, and thus prepared for the purposes of dyeing and tanning. The shumac cultivated in the neighbourhood of Montpellier is called rédoul or roudou. Shumac may be considered of good quality when its odour is strong, colour of a lively green, is well ground, and free from stalks. Italian shumac is used in dyeing a full high yellow, approaching to the orange, upon wool or cloth; but the colour is fugitive. Common shumac is useful for drab and dove colours in calico printing, and is also capable of dyeing black.-(Bancroft on Colours, vol. ii. p. 100.)

The entries of shumac for home consumption amounted, at an average of 1832 and 1833, to 138,241 cwt. a year. The imports are almost entirely from Italy.

Shumac, the produce of Europe, may not be imported for home consumption except in British ships or in ships of the country of which it is the produce, or from which it is imported, under penalty of confiscation, and forfeiture of 1007. by the master of the ship.—(3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 54. Q) 2. and 22.)

SIERRA LEONE, an English settlement, near the mouth of the river of the same name on the south-west coast of Africa, in lat. 8° 30′ N., lon. 13° 5′ W.

Objects of the Colony.-This colony was founded partly as a commercial establishment, but more from motives of humanity. It was intended to consist principally of free blacks, who, being instructed in the Christian religion, and in the arts of Europe, should become, as it were, a focus whence civilization might be diffused among the surrounding tribes. About 1,200 free negroes, who, having joined the royal standard in the American war, were obliged, at the termination of that contest, to take refuge in Nova Scotia, were conveyed thither in 1792: to these were afterwards added the Maroons from Jamaica; and, since the legal abolition of the slave trade, the negroes taken in the captured vessels, and liberated by the mixed commission courts, have been carried to the colony. The total population of the colony in 1831 amounted to 31,627, of which 18,073 were males, and 13,554 females. The whites make but a very small fraction of the population.

Success of the Efforts to civilise the Blacks.-Great efforts have been made to introduce order and industrious habits among these persons. We are sorry, however, to be obliged to add, that these efforts, though prosecuted at an enormous expense of blood and treasure, have been signally unsuccessful. There is, no doubt, much discrepancy in the accounts as to the progress made by the blacks. It is, however, sufficiently clear, that it has been very inconsiderable, and we do not think that any other result could be rationally anticipated. Their laziness has been loudly complained of, but without reason. Men are not industrious without a motive; and most of those motives that stimulate all classes in colder climates to engage in laborious employments, are unknown to the indolent inhabitants of this burning region, where clothing is of little importance, where sufficient supplies of food may be obtained with comparatively little exertion, and where more than half the necessaries and conveniences of Europeans would be positive incumbrances. And had it been otherwise, what progress could a colony be expected to make, into which there are annually imported thousands of liberated negroes, most of whom are barbarians in the lowest stage of civilisation?

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Influence of the Colony upon the illicit Slave Trade.-As a means of checking the prevalence of the illicit slave trade, the establishment of a colony at Sierra Leone has been worse than useless. That trade is principally carried on with the countries round the bight of Biafra and the bight of Benin, many hundred miles distant from Sierra Leone; and the