period the shipments were extraordinarily large. Compared with the preceding year, the return presents an increase of £402,632; and, looking at the prosperity which then prevailed, this result must be considered exceedingly favourable. The principal falling-off from 1854 continues to be in woollen manufactures and metals, but in no article is there a difference of any very serious extent. The subjoined table exhibits the exact increase or decrease under each head:

DECLARED VALUE OF EXPORTATIONS.

With regard to imported commodities, an increase in the arrivals of wheat and flour is shown, for the first time for some months. In the consumption of other articles there has been a diminution to about the extent that might have been expected from the necessity for economy produced by the war. Coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, spices, and tobacco have all been taken in smaller quantities. In the consumption of wines and spirits there has been a trifling increase.

Subjoined are the quantities of provisions, &c., imported and taken for home consumption:

The comparative imports and exports of raw material show an increase of hemp and tallow, notwithstanding the Baltic blockade :

Month ending July 5th, 1854, and June 30th, 1855.

THE AMERICAN WHEAT CROPS OF 1849 AND 1855.

(From the New York Herald.)

WE find the following comparative table of the wheat crop of 1849, as shown in the United States' census of 1850, and the estimated crop of 1855, in the Cincinnati Price Current :

Since the season of 1849, and including the present year, in nearly all the Western States at least one-third more acres of land have been placed under cultivation, while in New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, the number of acres cultivated has been but slightly if at all augmented. But this year's crop, according to all accounts, will yield probably one-fourth more bushels of wheat on the same number of acres than the soil produced six years ago. If we acknowledge these facts-and we see no grounds for contradiction-the above aggregate of 114,500,000 bushels, or an increase over the yield of 1849 of but 22,000,000 bushels in the fourteen States named, does not even approximate to the probable actual result. For instance, the estimated yield of Ohio is put down at 16,000,000, while an average crop in that State would be 22,000,000 of bushels; and in Illinois, whence we have a report that the crop would be 25,000,000—which, however, we regard as altogether too high a figure-the table above allows only 13,000,000. In New York, the increase over 1849 is put down at 1,879,000, while, in fact, it will not fall much short of being 3,000,000 bushels greater than the comparatively meagre yield of that year. We have prepared the following table after a great deal of calculation, which we give for the benefit of speculators, and which, we think, will be acknowledged, and will no doubt be found to be, à great deal nearer the actual aggregate of the wheat crop this year in the States named than that of our contemporary in Cincinnati :

1855. Bushels.

1849. Bushels.

This shows an aggregate of nearly 157,000,000 bushels of wheat as the estimated product of the crop in 1855 in fourteen States, which is an increase over the production of 1849 of 62,500,000 bushels.

If we continue our figures for the balance of the States and territories, we shall be able to form some estimate of the entire crop of the country. We put them down as follows:

By the above, it will be seen that our estimates make 168,500,000 bushels of wheat as the total yield of the present season, which is 68,000,000 bushels over that of 1849. The value of the wheat crop in that year is put down in the census report at $100,000,000. If we value the present crop at 81 a bushel-which will probably be its average price-it will be worth an aggregate of more than $210,500,000.

FURTHER ISSUE OF EXCHEQUER BILLS OR EXCHEQUER

BONDS.

SIR G. C. Lewis, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has obtained the sanction of Parliament to a vote for £7,000,000, to meet any deficiency that may arise in the ways and means for the current year. When he raised his loan of £16,000,000, he announced an intention of asking at a late period of the year for a credit of £3,000,000 in Exchequer bills, but that is now increased by £4,000,000, making the total which he has requested power to obtain. All these movements are the necessary consequences of false theories respecting a war expenditure, which having been unfortunately inaugurated by Mr. Gladstone, appear to be too closely followed in the Treasury department. The vote was introduced to the notice of the House of Commons on the 2nd of August, and it has since passed through its successive stages, until an act has been founded in due form upon it. It will be remembered that, at the time of the negotiation of the loan, the public considered that the amount was not equal to the emergency, and contended that at least from £20,000,000 to £23,000,000 would be required. Full evidence is now afforded of the correctness of the opinion of the great majority. The following is the principal debate on the topic, and may be well incorporated in our pages for future reference.

WAYS AND MEANS.-ISSUE OF EXCHEQUER BILLS AND BONDS.

On the motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the House resolved itself into a committee of ways and means.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer then said: Mr. Fitzroy, notwithstanding the advanced hour of the night, I trust the committee will allow me to explain the resolutions which I am about to put into the chairman's hands, seeing that to-morrow will be occupied with a debate on another subject. It would not be convenient that the resolutions should be brought under the notice of the House on Saturday, and if they were postponed until Monday the session would be lengthened more than we wish to see it. If the committee will allow me to proceed, I hope to be able, in a short time, to conclude the statement that I have now to make. In the financial statement of the year, made in April last, I estimated the entire receipts of the revenue for the year ending April_next, at £86,339,000. That amount was made up of the estimated revenue for the ensuing year, of a loan of £16,000,000, and a vote of £3,000,000 for the prospective issue of Exchequer bills. [Mr. Disraeli: That does not make £86,000,000.] The estimated revenue from taxation from the ensuing year, the loan of £16,000,000, and the issue of £3,000,000 Exchequer Bills, made together a total amount of £86,339,000. That estimate holds good at the present time, with the exception that I estimated the amount of £200,000 as likely to be produced from a stamp duty on bankers' cheques, which I afterwards abandoned; and, therefore, the expected receipts of the year, as set forth in the budget of the 20th of April, may now be taken at the reduced amount of £86,139,000. The expenditure, including the loan to Sardinia, and the repayment of advances made on Exchequer bills for ways and means of the present year, was stated at the same time at £81.899,000; this sum deducted from the present corrected estimate of the receipts (£86,139,000) leaves a margin of £4,240,000. That is the margin of revenue over expenditure according to the estimate of receipts and expenditure as I stated it to the House in the month of April last. At that time as the committee are aware, this calculation was founded upon the estimates for military purposes which had been partially voted. The vote for the civil ser vice was not then taken. The estimates for civil services, which had been partially prepared, I estimated at £6,500,000. That branch of the expenditure has now received the sanction of the House, and the total sum voted for the