81.3 in August, and 80.8 in Decem ber. In 1819 The average price was, in January, 79.3, in June, 68.10, in December, 66.3. In 1820: It had risen in August to 72.5; but in December it fell to 54 6. In 1822: Early in the season the price of Wheat was about 50; but in December the average price was 38.11. In January, 1823, the average price was 40.4; and rose in June to 62.5; and fell again in October to 46.6; in December it rose again to 50.8. In March, 1824, it was 65.6, but it declined to 55.4 in December. In May, 1825, it was 68.9; in September, 66.7; in December, 63. In January, 1826, it was 60.3; and fell in March to 55 7; and closed in December at 55 8. In 1827: It was in January, 53.6; in July, 596; in August, 57.11; in September, 55; in December, 50.2. In 1828 It was in May, 55.3; in June, 54.9; in July, 54; in November, 73; in December, 71.8. In 1829: Much of the crop being of bad quality, sold for 50; best quality brought an average of 72.6. In 1830: In January it was 54.4; in April, 63.11; in August, 70.5; in October, 60.10; in December, 64.11. In 1831 In February Wheat sold for 71.10; in August it was 61.11; in December, 58.3. In 1832: It was 61.5 in July; in December, 52.6. In 1833 It was 51.1 in January; and 51.6 in June; in August, 53.5; in December, 47.10. In 1834 It continued to fall from 45 in the early months throughout the year, till, in December, it sold for 39.6. In 1835 Wheat sold in April for 37.10; in July, 41; but it fell again in December to 35.4; being but little more than one-fourth of what it brought at the close of the last century. In 1836: In January the price was 36; in June, 48.11; in October, 46.4; in December, 57.9-an advance of seventy per cent. upon the price of December, 1835. In 1837, it fell again, till in May it was 52.10; in June, 54.9; in August, 57.5; in Sept., 54.11; in December, 51.3. In 1838 In January, 53.5; in February, 55.5; in March, 56.6; in August, 73.8; in September it fell to 64.9; but it rose again till, towards the last of December, it was 78.4. In 1839: In January it reached 81.6; in April it fell to 70.1; in July and August it was 71.8; in December, 66.11. We have Tooke's prices no later than this year, and therefore have only the price, on the 1st of November, to 1843, as given in Parliament by Lord John Russell, as follows: In 1840, November 1st, 63; in 1841, November 1st, 63.2; in 1842, November 1st, 50. In 1843 The price in February was 51; in June, 49; in August, 62; in December, 51.8. In June, 1844, it was 55.8; in Aug., 40.1. In 1845: In June, 47.10; in August, 57; in December, 58.6. In January, 1846, it was 56.3; in March, 54.10; in August, 47.5; in October, 59.10; in November, 62.3; in December, 60.3. In 1847, up to the present time: January 2d, 64.4; January 20th, 73.3: February 6th, 73.10; February 13th, 71.10; February 27th, 74.6; March 20th, 75.10; March 27th, 77; April 10th, 74. From these data we make the following table, adding the prices at the same time in Baltimore, Maryland. Prices of Wheat in England and America during the following years: We would particularly call the attention of those concerned to the extreme fluctuations in the English grain market, shown by this Table, rendering, in common years, shipments from this country a perfect lottery. It is probable, that since the removal of the duties, and the consequent average fall in prices, these fluctuations may not be so great as formerly; still it is a notorious fact, as is fully shown by the Mark Lane newspaper, that the prices fluctuate from week to week as the weather is fine or discouraging, or the foreign imports greater or less; and that no satisfactory calculation can be made here of what prices may govern, when our shipments may arrive. The grain trade of England is in the hands of the most astute speculators, who have agents in every part of the United Kingdoms, and scattered all over the continent of Europe; and the proximity of the great exporting ports of the northern part of Europe, which, as we have shown, furnish at least three-fourths of all the grain that is imported into England, gives these spec. ulators the opportunity, on any rise, to pour in their shipments from thence, so that before any shipments made from America can arrive, the market gives way to the increased supplies. The writer has had, for a long period, an intimate knowledge of the English corn market, and feels no hesitation in recordjng the opinion that few seasons have occurred since 1816, in which shippers of grain or bread-stuffs from the United States to Great Britain, have received remunerating prices, however flattering were the prospects in advance. Moreover, it may be farther remarked in relation to the future, that the recent scarcity and consequent high prices, will cause a greatly increased growth on the Continent, which, far from augmenting the chances of profit on shipments from this country, will have a tendency to diminish them. Let us not, however, be supposed not properly to appreciate any market which Great Britain may hereafter afford us for our bread-stuffs and provisions; for whatever they may sell for, is a clear national gain to us, and therefore highly valuable; in addition to which, it gives valuable freights to our shipping. This whole article, and these particular opinions, are put forth solely with a view to keep the past before us, that we may not suffer the present very uncommon state of our foreign grain trade, arising solely from the causes already named, to induce us to anticipate for the future sources of national wealth, which cannot be realized; and this more particularly, as those now high in office falsely represent the prosperity, which proceeds from no other cause than the famine in Europe, to have had its origin in the reduction of our import duties,under the Tariff of 1846, when every tyro in commerce knows that, but for this rise abroad in breadstuffs and provisions, the injudicious measures of the present administration would have brought wide-extended ruin to our Having stated the prices which governed from 1816 to 1847, we now proceed to show the quantity produced in England and Ireland, and what proportion of the consumption is imported. The quantity of wheat produced in the whole island of Great Britain is estimated by Mr. M'Culloch and other writers at about thirteen millions of quarters, equal to 104 millions of bushels. The produce of Ireland is stated to be about one million of quarters, or eight millions of bushels, of which one-half was annually sent to Great Britain, previous to the year 1838-since that year the quantity shipped thither from Ireland has diminished. The following is an abstract from parliamentary documents, showing the amount of wheat imported into Great Britain from 1760 to 1840: Annual av. import'n.) Comparative Statement of the Quantities of Wheat Imported into the United King dom, during the years 1831 to 1840. 1,836,529 391,417 248,171 133,091 42,628 168,648 455,871 1,231,460 2,634,556|1,993,405 The quantities imported into Great Britain in 1841, '42, and '43, as we have already given them in the first table of this article, when summed up, present the following results : In 1841 in quarters 2,814,138 or bushels 22,518,704 Not four per cent. of the quantity imported in 1841-about four per cent. of the quantity in 1842-about seven per of the quantity imported in 1843-aver aging for the three years about five and one-third per cent. We have not the data before us to show the present falling off of the im portations into England from France, Russia, Prussia, and Germany; but we have no doubt when these can be obtained, the whole secret of the great demand at present sustained for our breadstuffs will be made fully manifest, and will clearly prove that we are indebted for it, to the short crops of the last year throughout Europe; and that therefore we have made a liberal allowance in fixing the average quantity which Great Britain will require, at two millions of quarters or sixteen millions of bushels; and that the United States will not in future supply of that quantity much more than one million of bushels, while the remaining fifteen millions will be supplied by the continental nations of Europe. But suppose we should even supply double that amount, what a trifling proportion is that of our crop, which was estimated by the report of the commissioner of patents to be in 1845, 106,548,000 bushels, as per following table: Thus, if our estimate be correct, our exports to Great Britain will not exceed one per cent., and if that be doubled only two per cent. of our crop, estimating it upon the crop of 1845; whereas the quantity of Wheat grown in the United States will doubtless greatly increase from year to year. It is the party slang of the day, to attribute the recent large exportations of grain and provisions to what is called Free Trade, but which in truth is nothing more than the necessity to which Great Britain is reduced of favoring her manufacturers by removing the import duties on the raw material and on breadstuffs and provisions, when surely none but the most ignorant can for a moment doubt that had the tariff of 1842 remained in full force, we should have furnished the exhausted and famine-stricken portion of Europe with precisely the same amount of food to save them from a hopeless destitution. Nothing, therefore, but the tariff system, which has fostered our manufacturing and mechanic industry, has enabled us to lay their specie under contribution-as it must be obvious that but for the amount of manufactures now made at home, instead of the specie that has come to us, we should have been deluged with the proceeds of the pauper labor of Europe in return for our breadstuffs and provisions, to the destruction of American skill and industry. How far the tariff of 1846 may injure us we will not pretend to prophecy, but we have no hesitation in declaring our most thorough conviction, that if Mr. Walker's principle of collecting the largest amount of revenue at the lowest rate of duties shall be submitted to, then the paralyzation of our resources must be the result, and American labor find a much lower level, to the demoralization of the great mass of our citizens and the destruction of the real independence of the nation. We would by no means, as we have said, underrate the advantages our country has derived from the very large shipments of grain and provisions which the distresses of Europe have enabled us to furnish them, for the current year. We consider it as the only thing which has saved us from a state of depression such as we have seldom witnessed. Our object is to state the facts, which are proven by a reference to the experience of many years in the Wheat trade, that our farmers and merchants may not be led into erroneous calculations for the future. It is highly probable that, for one or two years to come, we may profit by the extreme scarcity in Europe of vegetable food of all kinds; as it will require some time for Europe to reinstate its full supply, and have the usual quantity left on hand at the close of the year. Doubtless, also, our commerce in Indian Corn will experience a great increase over former years. The value of that grain as a substantial aliment has been fully tested, during the present season of trans-Atlantic famine; the European palate is becoming accustomed to it, and the power which exists for its increased production in the Southern States, may prove of immense advantage to that quarter of the Union, and enable them to substitute it in some degree for cotton, the lessening of the cultivation of which is so important to sustain a remunerating price. The investigation of this subject gives rise to many other considerations, so closely connected with it, that we must ask the indulgence of our readers while we give our views respecting some of them. One of the great arguments produced by Mr. Secretary Walker in his notorious report on the Tariff, at the last session of Congress, against protective duties on manufactures, is, that a few of the Western States can supply any deficiency of grain that England, or Europe, may at any time require: hence he argues that the United States should give up manufactures, and increase the cultivation of grain. The writer of this article combated this doctrine in the National Magazine, in a review of that report, and in doing so, took the ground that we could supply all agricultural produce that would at any time be required of us, with our present force engaged in agricultural pursuits; and he is now enabled to appeal to existing facts as triumphantly sustaining the ground then taken. Such a state of destitution in vegetable food as is now prevalent in Europe, has scarcely ever before existed; and what has been the result? Let our immense exportations recently made, answer this question. And let it also be remembered that this has occurred without the slightest preparation for it, from the crop that was grown, without any anticipation that an increased demand would take place." But," reasoned Mr. Walker, "foreign nations will not buy our grain unless we will increasingly take their manufactures." Whence, then, we would ask, the immense importations of specie which are daily flowing in upon us, until they have already exceeded twenty millions of dollars? Greatly may the Secretary of the Treasury console himself that his ignorance of the nature of trade has been so fully demonstrated; for we risk nothing in the assertion, that but for this influx of specie, his Tariff of 1846, his Sub-Treasury, and his unlimited Warehousing System, would have produced such a revulsion in trade, that he would not have been enabled to negotiate his loan, nor would any bank this side of Boston have been in a situation to continue specie payments up to this time. Of the same stolid ignorance of the course of trade, and the actually existing state of things, are the congratulations that fill the high party presses that the Tariff of 1846 is working well for the country. That law has been but five months in operation, and has as yet produced no other effect than to cause a fall in price on all foreign and domestic manufactures, which has severely injured those who deal in them and had stocks on hand, and to introduce cotton goods, prints, &c., which are commencing to interfere with the home industry. No man living can at this time form the slightest accurate judgment of what will be the eventual injurious effect of the policy commenced by the present administration. One thing we think is clear, and that is, that the country is wholly opposed to it. The recent elections have already done away with the large majority of the supporters of "the party" in the last lower House of Congress. And we confidently trust that when all the elections for the next Congress are over, a Whig majority in that body will at least have an opportunity of overhauling the wasteful expenditures of the public money in an unrighteous war, and of showing up to the country the reckless manner in which the public interests have been sacrificed to sustain an unscrupulous party, ready and willing to immolate the best interests of the Union in the rain hope of ministering to their insatiable thirst for place and power. MISCELLANY OF THE MONTH. EUROPE continues to be agitated in almost every part of its extent. In England a severe pressure in the money market has followed the demand for foreign grain, and the ravages of the famine in Ireland continue unchecked. The ministerial scheme of education has been very ably discussed, and although it encountered an intensely bitter opposition, chiefly on pseudc-religious grounds, it has passed the House of Commons by an overwhelming majority. The proposition is simply to appropriate £100,000 per annum, to the aid of schools, each receiving |