FREE SHIPS MAKE FREE GOODS.

TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE EMPEROR OF ALL THE RUSSIAS.

Hon. FRANKLIN PIERCE, President of the United States, has issued a proclamation of a convention between the United States of America and his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, which was concluded and signed by their respective plenipotentiaries at Washington, on the 22d of July, 1854. The ratifications on both parts were exchanged on the 31st of October, 1854, by Hon. William L. Marcy, Secretary of State, and Mr. Edward de Stoeckl, the Russian Charge d'Affaires, on the part of their respective governments, and made public by the President on the 1st of November, 1854. Omitting the verbiage with which the official document opens and closes-we mean no disrespect to the "high contracting parties," for it is a time-honored formwe proceed to lay before the readers of the Merchants' Magazine," word for word,' every article of the treaty, as follows:

ARTICLE 1. The two high contracting parties recognize as permanent and immutable the following principles, to wit:

1st. That free ships make free goods-that is to say, that the effects or goods belonging to subjects or citizens of a power or State at war are free from capture and confiscation when found on board of neutral vessels, with the exception of articles contraband of war.

2d. That the property of neutrals on board an enemy's vessel is not subject to confiscation, unless the same be contraband of war. They engage to apply these principles to the Commerce and navigation of all such powers and States as shall consent to adopt them on their part as permanent and immutable.

ART. 2 The two high contracting parties reserve themselves to come to an ulterior understanding, as circumstances may require, with regard to the application and extension to be given, if there be any cause for it, to the principles laid down in the first article. But they declare from this time that they will take the stipulations contained in said article first as a rule, whenever it shall become a question, to judge of the rights of neutrality.

ART. 3. It is agreed by the high contracting parties that all nations which shall or may consent to accede to the rules of the first article of this convention, by a formal declaration stipulating to observe them, shall enjoy the rights resulting from such accession as they shall be enjoyed and observed by the two powers signing this convention. They shall mutually communicate to each other the results of the steps which may be taken on the subject.

ART. 4. The present convention shall be approved and ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of said States, and by his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, and the ratification of the same shall be exchanged at Washington within the period of ten months, counting from this day, or sooner, if possible.

BONDS OF MERCHANTS IN CHINA TRADE CANCELED.

The following letter from the Secretary of State, under date Department of State Washington, Nov. 9th, 1854, to Messrs. Goodhue & Co., Merchants, of New York, is of interest to a portion of the mercantile public:

GENTLEMEN: Referring to your communication inclosing a memorial, signed by the merchants of New York, engaged in the China trade, requesting that instructions might be given to the United States Consul at Shanghae, to cancel the bonds exacted from American merchants during the period that city was in possession of the Insurgents: I have now to inform you that the United States Consul at Shangbae has been instructed to cancel all bonds and obligations received at that Consulate, under the provisional rules for clearing ships, issued by Mr. Cunningham, the late Acting Consul, on the 9th of September, 1853, and return them to the parties to whom they respecttively belong, and rescind the said regulation.

I am, gentlemen, respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. L. MARCY.

THE RECIPROCITY TREATY IN CANADA.

The Inspector-general of Canada has issued the following public notice touching the Treaty between Great Britain and the United States:-

INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, CUSTOMS DEPARTMENT, Quebec, Oct. 18, 1854.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL in Council, has been pleased to order and direct, that, pending the action of the Lower Provinces, and the completion of any further measures required for giving entire effect to the Reciprocity Treaty recently concluded between Great Britain and the United States, the several articles mentioned in the schedule to an act passed in the present session of the Parliament of Canada, entitled “An Act for giving effect on the part of this Province to a certain Treaty between Her Majesty and the United States of America," and hereinafter enumerated, that is to say:

shall be admitted to importation into this Province from the United States, under special bonds to her Majesty, conditioned for the due payment of the customs duties legally chargeable at the time of importation on the articles so imported, in the event that the said Reciprocity Treaty and the act hereinbefore mentioned in relation thereto, do not go into operation and take full effect within six months from the date hereof, WM. CAYLEY, Inspector General

LETTERS BY THE BRITISH MAIL PACKETS.

The following is an approximate estimate of the number of letters originating in and destined for England, conveyed in the course of the year by the British mail packets, namely:

By the Peninsula and Oriental Company's packets, to and from India,

A letter sent from the United States to any place in France is invariably charged with double postage when inclosed in an envelope. This fact should be remembered by those writing to their friends in that country. In order to save postage, letters should be written very close on good, thin paper, and directed without an envelope. Letters without envelopes, weighing over 7 grains, ( of an ounce,) are charged double postage in France. A letter on light paper, without an envelope, sent by an American steamer, costs twenty-four cents to Liverpool, and seventeen cents from there to Bordeaux, France, making forty-one cents if single, and eighty-two cents if enveloped or over weight. If sent by a British steamer, there is an additional charge of ten cents.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

STATISTICS OF TRADE AND COMMERCE OF IRELAND.

We are indebted to the editors of the Mercantile Journal and Statistical Register, one of the most reliable commercial papers published in the United Kingdom, for the subjoined statistics of Irish trade, as taken from the British Board of Trade returns, The first of the tables below shows the amount of the revenue received at Irish ports in each year from 1845 to 1853, inclusive. The second table shows the quantity of wine, spirits, tobacco, tea, coffee, and sugar retained for home consumption in Ireland during the years 1845 to 1853; and the third table gives the quantity (in quarters) of certain breadstuffs imported into Great Britain from Ireland in each of the lastnamed years:—

1845.. 1846.

REVENUE RECEIVED IN IRELAND FROM 1845 TO 1853, INCLUSIVE.

1847.

4,692,462 1850......

CHIEF ARTICLES RETAINED FOR HOME CONSUMPTION IN IRELAND FROM 1845 to 1853,

Years.

1845.

1846.

1847. 1848. 1849.

1850..

1851.

1852.

1853.

Wine,

INCLUSIVE.

Spirits, Tobacco,

galls.

lbs.

galls. 618,464 6,481,251 5,579,234 5,851,632 668,214 7,638,993 5,871,888 6,618,211 633,945 7,995,120 5,949,691 6,975,959 512,319 6,267,588 5,101,139 6,513,853 549,755 7,282,598 5,138,314 6,713,272 524,662 7,228,809 4,737,267 6,383,316 515,735 7,621,549 4,604,083 6,410,263 499,131 7,753,016 4,457,980 6,573,278 586,809 8,348,047 4,624,141 7,832,235 880,516 487,705

1,013,399

684,840 467,701

QUANTITY OF GRAIN EXPORTED TO GREAT BRITAIN FROM IRELAND.

COMPARATIVE COMMERCE OF OUR CITIES.

A correspondent of the Courier and Enquirer at Washington, gives the following tabular statement of the revenue for a single month, (September, 1853-54,) which furnishes at a glance the relative importance of several of our principal commercial cities, in so far at least as our import trade is concerned:

REVENUE OF SEVEN CITIES FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER.

NEW ORLEANS EXPORT OF PRODUCE AND MANUFACTURES.

Col. THOMAS J. BURKE, Export Abstract Clerk at the New Orleans Custom-house, furnishes for publication in several of the New Orleans journals, the following report of the exportations of the growth, produce and manufacture of the United States from the port of New Orleans to Foreign countries and Coastwise ports, during the second quarter of 1854, ending 30th June, 1854:

The exports of foreign merchandise to foreign countries during the quarter amounted to $121,403. The exports to coastwise ports in the United States to $6,295,337. The total value of exports from New Orleans for the three months ending June 30th, 1854, was twenty five million, nine hundred and twenty-seven thousand, three hundre d and twenty-three dollars.

COMMERCE OF SAN FRANCISCO IN 1853.

The clearances from the port of San Francisco in 1853 were no less than 1,653, generally large vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 640,072 tons, of which the following is a recapitulation :-

1,653

640,072

Total from January 1 to December 31, 1853..

VESSELS CLEARED FROM JANUARY 1 TO DECEMBER 31, 1853, FOR