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 foreignstill more, if they be natives of the enemy's country.-(See SEAMEN.)

ers;

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. Sommaco; 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 1001. 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° 20′ 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 Noya 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?

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

mortality in the captured ships during their voyage to the latter is often very great. In fact, there is but one way of putting down this nefarious traffic; and that is, by the great powers declaring it to be piracy, and treating those engaged in it, wherever and by whomsoeir they may be found, as sea robbers or pirates. Such a declaration would be quite conformable to the spirit of the declaration put forth by the Congress of Vienna in 1824.-(See SLAVE TRADE.) And were it subscribed by England, France, the United States, Russia, &c., the Spaniards and Portuguese would be compelled to relinquish the trade; but unless something of this sort be done, we are afraid there are but slender grounds for thinking that humanity will speedily be relieved from the guilt and suffering inseparable from the traffic.

Climate of Sierra Leone.-The soil in the vicinity of Sierra Leone seems to be but of indifferent fertility, and the climate is about the most destructive that can be imagined. The mortality among the Africans sent to it seems unusually great; and amongst the whites it is quite excessive. Much as we desire the improvement of the blacks, we protest against its being attempted by sending our countrymen to certain destruction in this most pestiferous of all pestiferous places. It would seem, too, that it is quite unnecessary, and that instructed blacks may be advantageously employed to fill the official situations in the colony. But if otherwise, it ought to be unconditionally abandoned.

Commerce of Sierra Leone, and the West Coast of Africa.-Commercially considered, Sierra Leone appears to quite as little advantage as in other points of view. We import from it teak wood, camwood, ivory, palm oil, hides, gums, and a few other articles; but their value is inconsiderable, amounting to not more than from 40,000l. to 60,000l. a year. The great article of import from the coast of Africa is palm oil, and of this more than fifty times as much is imported from the coast to the south of the Rio Volta, several hundred miles from Sierra Leone, as from the latter. We doubt, indeed, whether the commerce with the western coast of Africa will ever be of much importance. The condition of the natives would require to be very much changed before they can become considerable consumers of European manufactures. It is singular, that speculative persons in this country should be so much bent on prosecuting, without regard to expense, a trade with barbarous uncivilised hordes, while they contribute to the neglect or oppression of the incomparably more extensive and beneficial intercourse we might carry on with the opulent and civilised nations in our immediate vicinity. The equalisation of the duties on Canadian and Baltic timber, and the abolition of the existing restraints on the trade with France, would do 10 times more to extend our commerce, than the discovery of 50 navigable rivers, and the possession of as many forts on the African coast. If, however, an establishment be really required for the advantageous prosecution of the trade to Western Africa, it is abundantly obvious that it should be placed much further to the south than Sierra Leone. The island of Fernando Po has been suggested for this purpose; but after the dear-bought experience we have already had, it is to be hoped that nothing will be done with respect to it without mature consideration.

I. Imports into the United Kingdom in 1829 from the Western Coast of Africa, distinguishing their
Quantities and Values.

II. Exports of British Produce and Manufactures from the United Kingdom, in 1829, to the Western Coast of Africa, distinguishing their Quantities and Values.

Exclusive of the above, we exported, in 1829, to the western coast of Africa, 161,431 worth of foreign and colonial merchandise; of this amount, 43,550l. worth went to the coast south of the Rio Volta.

Expenses incurred on account of Sierra Leone.-The pecuniary expense occasioned by this colony, and our unsuccessful efforts to suppress the foreign slave trade, have been altogether enormous. Mr. Keith Douglas is reported to have stated, in his place in the House of Commons, in July, 1831, that "down to the year 1824, the civil expenses of Sierra Leone amounted to 2,268,000l.; and that the same expenses had amounted, from 1824 to 1830, to 1,082,000l. The naval expenses, from 1807 to 1824, had been 1,630,000l. The payments to Spain and Portugal, to induce them to relinquish the slave trade, amounted to 1,230,000/ The expenses on account of captured slaves were 533,0927. The expenses incurred on account of the mixed commission courts were 198,000l. Altogether, this establishment had cost the country nearly 8,000,000Z.

The prodigality of this expenditure is unmatched, except by its uselessness. It is doubtful whether it has prevented a single African from being dragged into slavery, or conferred the smallest real advantage on Africa. The kings of Spain and Portugal have certainly turned their spurious humanity to pretty good account. We hope there is now, at least, an end of all attempts to bribe such monarchs to respect the rights of humanity, or the treaties into which they have entered.

For further deaths with respect to Sierra Leone, and the trade of Western Africa, see the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, No. 661. Sess. 1830.

SILK (Lat. Sericum, from Seres, the supposed ancient name of the Chinese), a fine glossy thread or filament spun by various species of caterpillars or larvae of the phalana genus. Of these, the Phalana allas produces the greatest quantity: but the Phalang bombyx is that commonly employed for this purpose in Europe. The silkworm, in its caterpillar state, which may be considered as the first stage of its existence, after acquiring its full growth (about 3 inches in length), proceeds to enclose itself in an oval-shaped ball, or cocoon, which is formed by an exceedingly slender and long filament of fine yellow silk, emitted from the sten ich of the insect preparatory to its assuming the shape of the chrysalis or moth. In this latter stage, after emancipating itself from its silken prison, it seeks its mate, which has undergone a similar transformation; and in 2 or 3 days afterwards, the female having deposited her eggs (from 300 to 500 in number), both insects terminate their existence. According to Radmur, the phalana is not the only insect that affords this material,-several species of the aranea, or spider, enclose their eggs in very fine silk.

Raw Silk is produced by the operation of winding off, at the same time, several of the

Dalls or cocoons (which are immersed in hot water, to soften the natural gum on the filament) on a common reel, thereby forming one smooth even thread. When the skein is dry, it is taken from the reel and make up into hanks; but before it is fit for weaving, and in order to enable it to undergo the process of dyeing, without furring up or separating the fibres, it is converted into one of three forms; viz. singles, tram, or organzine.

Singles (a collective noun) is formed of one of the reeled threads, being twisted, in order to give it strength and firmness.

Tram is formed of 2 or more threads twisted together. In this state it is commonly used in weaving, as the shoot or weft.

Thrown Silk is formed of 2, 3, or more singles, according to the substance required, being twisted together in a contrary direction to that in which the singles of which it is composed are twisted. This process is termed organzining; and the silk so twisted, organzine. The art of throwing was originally confined to Italy, where it was kept a secret for a long period. Stow says it was known in this country since the 5th of Queen Elizabeth," when it was gained from the strangers ;" and in that year (1562), the silk throwsters of the metropolis were united into a fellowship. They were incorporated in the year 1629; but the art continued to be very imperfect in England until 1719.- (See post.)

1. Historical Sketch of the Manufacture.-The art of rearing silkworms, of unravelling the threads spun by them, and manufacturing the latter into articles of dress and ornament, seems to have been first practised by the Chinese. Virgil is the earliest of the Roman writers who has been supposed to allude to the production of silk in China, and the terms he employs show how little was then known at Rome as to the real nature of the article:-Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres.-(Georg, book ii. lin. 121.)

But it may be doubted whether Virgil does not, in this line, refer to cotton rather than silk, Pliny, however, has distinctly described the formation of silk by the bombyx.-(Hist. Nat. lib. xi. c. 17.) It is uncertain when it first began to be introduced at Rome: but it was most probably in the age of Pompey and Julius Cæsar; the latter of whom displayed a profusion of silks in some of the magnificent theatrical spectacles with which he sought at once to copciliate and amuse the people. Owing principally, no doubt, to the great distance of China from Rome, and to the difficulties in the way of the intercourse with that country, which was carried on by land in caravans whose route lay through the Persian empire, and partly, perhaps, to the high price of silk in China, its cost, when it arrived at Rome, was very great ; so much so, that a given weight of silk was sometimes sold for an equal weight of gold! At first it was only used by a few ladies eminent for their rank and opulence. In the beginning of the reign of Tiberius, a law was passed, ne vestis serica viros fœdaret-that no man should disgrace himself by wearing a silken garment.—(Tacit. Annal. lib. ii. c. 33.) But the profligate Heliogabalus despised this law, and was the first of the Roman emperors who wore a dress composed wholly of silk (holosericum). The example once set, the custom of wearing silk soon became general among the wealthy citizens of Rome, and throughout the provinces. According as the demand for the article increased, efforts were made to import larger quantities; and the price seems to have progressively declined from the reign of Aurelian. That this must have been the case, is obvious from the statement of Ammianus Marcellinus, that silk was, in his time (anno 370), very generally worn, even by the lowest classes. Sericum ad usum antehac nobilium, nunc etiam infimorum sine ulla discretione proficiens. -(Lib. xviii. c. 6.)

China continued to draw considerable sums from the Roman empire in return for silk, now become indispensable to the Western World, till the 6th century. About the year 550, two Persian monks, who had long resided in China, and made themselves acquainted with the mode of rearing the silkworm, encouraged by the gifts and promises of Justinian, succeeded in carrying the eggs of the insect to Constantinople. Under their direction they were hatched and fed; they lived and laboured in a foreign climate; a sufficient number of butterflies, was saved to propagate the race, and mulberry trees were planted to afford nourishment to the rising generations. A new and important branch of industry was thus established in Europe. Experience and reflection gradually corrected the errors of a new attempt; and the Sogdoite ambassadors acknowledged, in the succeeding reign, that the Romans were not inferior to the natives of China in the education of the insects, and the manufacture of silk.-(Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. vii. p. 99.)

Greece, particularly the Peloponnesus, was early distinguished by the rearing of silkworms, and by the skill and success with which the inhabitants of Thebes, Corinth, and Argos carried on the manufacture.. Until the 12th century, Greece continued to be the only European country in which these arts were practised: but the forces of Roger, king of Sicily, having, in 1147, sacked Corinth, Athens, and Thebes, carried off large numbers of the inhabitants to Palermo; who introduced the culture of the worm, and the inanufacture of silk, into Sicily. From this island the arts spread into Italy; and Venice, Milan, Florence, Lucca, &c. were soon after distinguished for their success in raising silkworms, and for the extent and beauty of their manufactures of silk.-(Gibbon, vol. x. p. 110.; Biographie Universelle, art Roger II.)