unlimited extent, equal at least, in proportion to their numbers, to one-half of that we now enjoy with the ignorant, improvident, and indolent negroes of Hayti? and if so, our trade with continental and insular Asia, Japanese Empire, and Austral Asia, must very soon amount to $650,000,000 per annum, a sum about three times as large as our present exports to all the world.

They are simply absurd.

It must be remembered that few people will go to China and the East Indies for pleasure, and that a steam line across the Pacific cannot command passengers like an Atlantic line; will the trade bear so large a tax as $2,854,588, which, according to the report, would be necessary in order to make the company whole. How can the cheap and bulky article of tea bear steamer freight, to say nothing of an overland carriage where it must be handled several times-imagine a chest of Congou going, per steamer and railroad, from Shanghae to England in thirty-nine days!

In pages 26 and 27, we find the following:

But while securing the cotton trade of China, we also as certainly, by the same means, secure the silk and tea trade of that country, amounting to twenty-eight or thirty millions of dollars per annum. These articles would bear transportation over a railroad across the continent; but even if the transportation was confined to a route across the Isthmus, there would be advantages in such a course of trade, additional to those which are desired, and which have been before argued, from the shortening of the distance to be traversed, and the time occupied in transportation. Cargoes, as we have already seen, may be conveyed from Shanghae to Liverpool, by way of Tehuantepec, in about thirty-nine days; whereas, by the present sailing route of the British vessels, it requires from one hundred to one hundred and fifty days to go from China to England. The British sailing route crosses the equator twice, and the tropical climate heats and destroys or greatly injures the best teas, as well as all vegetable and animal products designed for human subsistence, which difficulty is entirely avoided by the higher latitude, and uniform temperature of the proposed American route. With these decided advantages, our merchants will be able to supply the British markets with a better article of tea than can be possibly obtained at present, and at a cheaper rate, and consequently this valuable trade must fall into our hands.

The committee believe that an extensive and lucrative trade can be opened with Japan, in cotton and woolen groods, through the Chinese merchants located at Chapua, who enjoy the exclusive privilege of trading with Japan. That empire contains a population never estimated at less than fifty millions of inhabitants; and as they have no sheep, while woolen clothing is suitable during the winter throughout the whole empire, a demand might be created for a very large amount of coarse woolen goods. It is said that the mineral resources of the country, particularly in tin and copper ores, which have been lately in great demand, are sufficient to provide returns for immense imports.

The great agricultural interests of our country will be materially advanced by the establishment of the proposed lines of communication. When a rapid and free intercourse shall be established between our people and the millions of Asia, the exclusive policy of the Chinese race must yield to American energy and enterprise. The customs, manners, feelings, and wants of that numerous people will be slowly, yet no less certainly, changed. New habits and new modes of living will be introduced among them. The laboring classes will cease to live and die on their unchanged diet of rice, when they find that they can obtain from our shores a more wholesome and nutritious food, in the shape of meat and bread. When they have learned to use these articles, and acquired a taste for them, they will be considered necessaries of life, and essential to their comfort and happiness.

A late writer named Huc quotes it at 70,000,000.

It is quite idle to talk of supplying England with teas by way of America across the Pacific, and it is very doubtful if any considerable portion of the demand for the United States would go that way; raw silk as well as manufactured silks might take that course. Tea, when well stowed in a good ship, bears the voyage round the Cape without injury, but it is packed in such frail packages that it will not bear much handling, and if we are to supply England with tea, we must supply China with lumber and nails to

make better chests!

We are told also, that we are to supply China and Japan with woolen and cotton goods, to a large extent? In page 24 we see that the whole production of the world in cotton is 2,000,000,000 of pounds, of which twothirds is grown in the United States, 450,000,000 in British India, and the balance, about 217,000,000, in China, Africa, and South America. Now the fact is, that every one of the 350,000,000 of Chinese, wear's cotton in some shape or another, excepting a few paupers and they cant afford to wear anything, judging from this fact, and from the important fact that the price of our cotton fabrics and those of England, as well as the raw cotton of India, (of which some 240,000 bales go annually to China,) is mainly influenced by the state of the cotton crop in China, it would seem probable that these 350,000,000 of people must raise as much cotton as we do, or that they must wear silks, or go naked. We know nothing certain of the amount of the Chinese cotton crop, except that it must be very large. It is not at all probable that the Chinese and Japanese will want any more of our products than they can pay for in tea, silk, matting, etc. Supposing that the Chinese and Japanese have been naked and hungry for the last few centuries, and that we can clothe and feed them cheaper than England, how, let me ask Mr. Cabell, are they to pay for being fed and clothed?

It is quite as reasonable to suppose that they will want our beef and pork and our flour, as it is to suppose that they will require any considerable part of our raw cotton and our cotton fabrics beyond what they have received during the last ten years, and beyond what they can pay for in tea and silk.

The report goes on to say a great deal on the subject of change of habits in the Chinese and Japanese, and to give reasons why we should enlarge our commercial intercourse with them.

It is true that they might like to change their diet and their wardrobes, but how are they to pay for these luxuries, and in what articles of Commerce that we want, besides 30 to 40 millions pounds of tea, a little silk, matting, cassia, and China ware? How are we to be paid, that is the question? The report also alludes to the article of tobacco, I quote from page 27

The committee also believe that a considerable trade in the article of tobacco may be established in China. Martin, the writer before quoted, informs us that an inferior kind of tobacco has been recently introduced and extensively cultiva ted in China. It is called yere, (smoke,) and differs very materially from the American tobacco, as it is very mild. It is used by all classes, including boys and girls, and it is difficult to perceive any good reason for supposing that when the superior American article shall be introduced there, it will not be received with as much favor, be as highly appreciated, and as extensively used, as it has been in every other country where it has been introduced. Should the Chinese not prove an exception to the general rule, we may reasonably expect to secure a market in their countries for a quantity of tobacco, almost equal in value to our present exports of that article, because the number of people in China is believed to be greater than the whole number of our foreign consumers at the present time. The exports of tobacco for the year ending the 30th of June, 1851,

amounted to $9,219,251, and as we have seen, it is not at all improbable that we may be able to treble that amount, by introducing it into the Chinese markets.

It is really astonishing to find intelligent men, like the Hon. Mr. Cabell, putting such crude views as this into print for the purpose of enlightening Congress? He says (quoting Montgomery Martin,) that all the inhabitants of China use a mild kind of tobacco. I am aware of this fact, therefore be fore we can give them any Virginia tobacco, we must get rid of the native crop as well as the native taste; it is really too absurd an idea that we are to send them our tobacco by railroad and steamship, or in any other way.

I might occupy much time and space in commenting on the untenable ground assumed by this report in a commercial point of view, but I will pass on to what is said on the proposition in a naval point.

Here it is assumed that these twelve steamships would be necessary, in case of any sudden war, to protect the twelve hundred ships and the thirty thousand men employed in the Pacific wh ling business and in the India and China trade, and that they could do this to a great extent. But I imagine Mr. Cabell does not mean to say that these ships and men are trading within the limits of the steam line all at once; it is probable that in case of any sudden war, many of these ships would be captured, or would be safely hauled up in neutral or home ports, long before the steamships could be prepared to protect them against any formidable enemy.

These ships might be useful so far as they would go, and as their employment as war ships would cut off the supply of congou to John Bull, he would soon have to come to terms; and as for any other enemy, we could keep him at arm's length without the aid of steam ships.

It is too true that we should be in a "poor fix " for want of steamers and men of war, in case of a war with any maritime nation, and there is no question but that our navy ought to be much increased, and it must be done long before any railroad and steamship communication with China can take place under the United States flag. In this report it is assumed that the steamships are to be superior to any now afloat, especially in speed, they are to be invulnerable to accidents, and while we are making this immense progress our cousin John is to set still and look on; he is quietly to see us "bag" all the profits; his ships (excepting only the line from Calcutta to China,) are to go only eight or ten knots, while ours are to go fifteen; in short, we are to have no competition, on the contrary, the means now in use under the British flag, are to be made subs rvient to this plan.

The report winds up by recapitulating the many striking advantages to accrue to the United States, in the following language:—

For the encouragement of the great enterprise which the memorialists propose, they ask nothing at the hands of the Government but the proceeds of the mail matter which they shall carry, along with the privilege of purchasing at government price, fifty sections of land in Oregon. The assistance thus asked does not involve the expenditure of a single dollar from the national treasury, but as has been before shown, will add immeasurably to the future revenue of the country.

In addition, the committee will briefly and rapidly recapitulate the actual results which must necessarily follow this undertaking. It will furnish the means of carrying the freight, mails, and passengers from the great emporium of China to New York in forty-two days less time, and to England in twenty. one days less time than that now consumed by the present British overland route. The proposition for this service is at the same time more favorable than any contract of a like nature, either in England or the United States. It will

extend our commerce-open new facilities for labor and enterprise-greatly increase the home consumption and foreign demand for breadstuffs, and by opening a new market for cotton, cotton manufactures, and tobacco, powerfully stinulate and encourage the manufacturing and producing interests.

It will change the whole career of commerce and lead it across this continent, giving to our countrymen the entire control of the Asiatic trade-a trade which from time immemorial has built up the political, commercial, and maritime supremacy of the nation who has enjoyed it-which has been instrumental in making that little Island of the North Sea the great commercial heart of the world, whence received from the extremities, flow again through a thousand channels, the treasures of every clime and of every sea, and given to Great Britain a power and predominance, before which the majesty of Rome in her palmiest days sinks into comparative insignificance.

It will furnish a ready and efficient means of national defense for our Pacific seaboard, without the annual expensive burden which must per force attach to an increased naval establishment.

And, finally, it will develop, strengthen, and enrich, that great territory of the Pacific, which, in consequence of its remote and isolated position, appeals most directly to the central government for its care and support.

In regarding the present and looking earnestly into the future, who can read the oracle of our national destiny? Crippled as our energies now are, pent up within the restraining bounds of a too cautious policy, we have yet within our great system an expansive power which only needs the firm encouraging hand of wise legislation to set free. The vast Commerce, of which the mighty and majestic Pacific will be the theater, is now within our grasp, the means by which to become the first maritime, commercial, and political power of the world, are stretched out before us. Should we pause in the effort to secure this supremacy? Should any temporizing, timid spirit, be permitted to check at this stride of progress? The teeming millions of the eastern slope of Asia, without a single obstacle to intervene, are spread out almost face to face with the extensive possessions of the western slope of this continent. The State of California and the Territory of Oregon have the same claims to our support and assistance as Massachusetts, New York, or any of the Eastern States. Even were it not true that the benefits of this trade will be enjoyed by the old States, is not the fact that Oregon is but 5,000 miles from Shanghae, (whilst the present trade takes us over a course of 15,000 miles,) a sufficient reason for the favorable consideration of a proposition like this?

To the Christian and philanthropist this enterprise appeals with irresistible force. The influence which such a regular and extended intercommunication must have upon the spiritual condition of the Asiatic races is incalulable. The mission which went out from the plains of Shinar, having girdled the globe, will then have completed its circle; and the religion of Christ, breathing a purer light, and causing a more perfect civilization in its progress, will, through the agency of God's own people, kneel again at the manger of Bethlehem. Then will the prophecy be fulfilled, and the universe, disenthralled, shall be filled with the knowledge and glory of the Messiah.

The committee have now discharged the trust reposed in them, and in submitting this report, may be permitted to hope that their brother members will give the subject a careful and impartial investigation, before acting in the premises. Knowing well the characters and standing of the parties to the undertaking, the committee feel conscious that this is a permanent and responsible, not a speculative enterprise. They and their associates are men of high reputation, acknowledged business capacities, and extended ample means. Feeling then the immense magnitude of this enterprise, and understanding the immeasurable benefits which must result to the country from its establishment, the committee beg leave to report a bill accordingly, to which they ask the favorable consideration of the House.

It is thus made quite clear to the committee that the memorialists are ac

tuated by no selfish designs, that their first aim is to enrich the United States, next, to feed and clothe the hungry and the naked three or four hundred millions of Chinese and Japanese; to introduce into these countries the best tobacco, and the various labor-saving machines, so that these benighted people may take their ease, smoke their pipes or their cigars, and wear their woolen sacks and coats gracefully, while the magical steam-engine will grind their corn and weave their Alabama cotton. I recommend the introduction of two or three hundred million baby-jumpers in order to mitigate the sufferings, and straighten the bow-legs, of the children now slung on their anxious mothers' backs; this alone would support one steam line if Uncle Sam will pay part of the expense, and it would so far improve the breed, that the emigration of Coolies to Cuba would be much more valuable than at present. It must not be supposed, because I criticise the report, that I have any unfriendly bias towards the Hon. Mr. Cabell or towards the memorialists, or that I have any objection to seeing a steam line on the Pacific. On the contrary, I think extremely well of a line of powerful auxiliary steamer; if properly constructed and fitted, they would be much better and much cheaper as mail steamers for the proposed route, as well as for vessels of war. They could use their canvas most effectively in the Pacific, by the routes I advocate, and in case of any accident to machinery, they could make good time under canvas; and as they would not be under steam more than half to two-thirds of the time, their machinery would be vastly more durable.

My only object in making these remarks, is to give the public some of my views founded on a long experience of the China trade: this trade must be to some extent progressive in imports, as well as exports, but this must be very gradual. I have no doubt we shall soon consume 50,000,000 lbs. of teas in this country, and that we shall always compete successfully with England in the coarser fabrics of cotton, and that we shall have access to China and probably to Japan, sometime during the present century; but the youngest inhabitant will not live to see the Celestials smoking Virginia tobacco as a people, nor cutting their paddy by the new reaping machine.

Some delay in the progress of China must result from the present unsettled state of the country, but when the rebels have done quarrelling with the imperialists and with each other, the progress will begin.

I am &c., &c.,

R. B. F.

Art. III-TRADE AND COMMERCE OF NEW ORLEANS IN 1852-53.

In accordance with a custom we adopted a few years since of transferring to our pages the annual reports of the leading commercial cities of the United States, we lay before our readers the able and reliable annual statement of the Price Current, Commercial Intelligencer, and Merchants' Transcript, published at New Orleans. In connection with the statements of previous years published in former volumes of the Merchants' Magazine, it affords a full history of the commercial growth of New Orleans for a series of years. The writer congratulates the community upon a season of general prosperity. To the planter ample crops and remunerating prices have been awarded; while the merchants of New Orleans have reason to be satisfied with the season's operations.