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declined from toper cent.; Consols were also lower, the quotations of the latter being 893 to 893 for money, ex-dividend, and 90 to 901 for the account, ex-dividend. The minimum rates of the Bank of England and the Bank of France were unchanged, the former standing at 6 per cent. and the latter at 5 per cent. In the open London market good sixty day bills, 5 to 6 per cent. The London joint-stock bank rates unchanged for deposits.

In

For the week ending 29th June the rate of discount in the open market at Paris was 43 per cent.; at Vienna, 6; Hamburgh, 23; Brussels, 4; Berlin, 3; Frankfort, 2; Turin, 63, and Amsterdam, 3 per cent. Paris the Bank of France rate remained at 5 per cent., and in London, the Bank of England rate at 6 per cent. In the open London market 6 per cent. was charged, and the rates on deposits continued as before. Attention was directed to the sound state of English railways, which is apparent at a glance of the following table:

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The Board of Trade returns for May, and for the five months of the year, have been published, and the exports are as follow:

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The other side of the account the imports foots up a large balance against the United Kingdom:

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The failures for the month have been numerous,

For the five months.

£33,407,156
42,410,364
51,821,567

Among the number, Messrs. JAMES DUNCAN & Co., of Dundee, who attribute their failure to the stoppage of the American trade; Messrs. T. FISH & Co., manufacturers, Manchester; Messrs. B. WILD & Co., Manchester, in the American trade; Messrs. CHURCHILL & MACMELLAN, timber brokers, Cannon-street, London; Messrs. D. & J. THOMSON & Co., jute spinners and manufacturers, Dundee; Messrs. F. ATKIN & Co., merchants, Manchester.

Trade in the manufacturing districts continues quiet and contracted. So far there is nothing like pressure yet experienced, but the present stock of cotton on hand will not carry the cotton spinners into the next year at the present rate of working up.

Some particulars with regard to the movement of cotton in Liverpool during the last two months will no doubt be acceptable to your readers. At the commencement of April the stock amounted to 942,000 bales, being 36,000 bales more than the quantity held at the corresponding date in 1860; but during the last two months it will be seen that this

excess has been more than lost. Last year's deliveries, however, were on a very free scale, the crop of the preceding season having been remarkably abundant:

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The proportions in which the stocks were made up, at the first and last dates mentioned, were as follow:

June 21,..

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It will be observed, that, notwithstanding the prospect of diminished American supplies, the stock of Surat is accumulating; in fact, it is only kept down by reshipments to Russia, Germany and Sweden.

London, on Saturday evening, the 22d June, was visited by one of the most terrific conflagrations that probably had occurred since the great fire in 1666; certainly, for the amount of property destroyed, nothing like it has been experienced the last half-century, the loss being estimated at three millions or more.

This catastrophe occurred on the waterside portion of Tooley-street, nearest London Bridge. The outbreak took place at the extensive range of premises known as COTTON's Wharf, and bounded by warehouses belonging to Messrs. SCOVELL. They had an extensive river frontage, and the whole space on the land side, extending to Tooleystreet, was covered with eight or nine massive brick warehouses, six stories in height, the whole occupying an immense area. These buildings were filled with merchandise of every description. There were some thousands of chests of tea and silk stored in the upper floors, while in the lower ones there was an immense stock of Russian tallow, various oils, bales of cotton, hops and grain. Every portion of the entire establishment might be said to have been loaded with goods; and of the whole of this very valuable property, said to be valued at upwards of a million, not a vestige remains but the bare walls and an immense chasm of fire, which, at dusk on Sunday evening, lighted up the Pool and the east end of the city.

From London Bridge there is now very little to be seen beyond heaps of blackened wreck and skeleton walls. The vaults and mounds of ruin over the whole surface of the wide area of destruction are fast cooling down. A fresh outbreak, which took place in a vault on HAY's Wharf, was speedily got under. A quantity of hides has been recovered from among the wreck on HAY's Wharf, and on CHAMBERLAIN's Wharf great progress was made towards the recovery of 150 tons of spelter, which has received little or no injury.

The destruction of property and goods proves to be more enormous

than was previously calculated upon; and, by practical men of business, and also by competent judges, the loss is not put down under £4,000,000 sterling. This serious amount will fall principally on four of the London insurance companies. The insurance companies, it is understood, are about to raise the rates of insurance on fire policies, and have already done so in some instances, by 50 per cent.

Great efforts are making to enlarge the steam commerce between England and America. On the afternoon of the 25th June, the steamship SCOTIA, the second iron paddle-wheel liner built by the orders of Messrs. BURNS for the CUNARD or British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, was launched from the building-yard of Messrs. ROBERT NAPIER & SONS, at Govan, near Glasgow. The weather was rather unfavorable, yet an immense concourse of spectators assembled to witness the event. The ScoTIA, which is somewhat larger than the PERSIA, is the second vessel in point of magnitude and capacity that has hitherto been constructed for mercantile service. From the adaptation by the builders of every improvement and scientific auxiliary, the SCOTIA is expected to attain a very high degree of speed, and no doubt is felt that she will, in ordinary circumstances, perform the voyage between New-York and Liverpool in nine days.

Excepting the GREAT EASTERN, the SCOTIA is the largest mercantile steamship afloat in the world, far exceeding in length, strength, tonnage and steam-power the other vessels of the line, and exceeding by 760 tons the tonnage of the PERSIA, and by 1,900 tons the internal capacity of any other of the present splendid CUNARD liners. Her chief proportions may be summed up as follows:

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The report of the joint committee of the Board of Trade to inquire into the best form of covering for submarine telegraph cables has just been issued. Up to the present time 11,364 miles have been laid, but only about 3,000 are actually working. The lines not working include the Atlantic, 2,200 miles, the Red Sea and India, 3,499 miles, the Sardinia, Malta and Corfu, 700 miles, and the Singapore and Batavia, 550 miles. The committee give a succinct history of these, as well as of all the others, and state their conclusions. The failure of the Atlantic is attributed to "the cable having been faulty, owing to the absence of experimental data, to the manufacture having been conducted without proper supervision, and to the cable not having been handled after manufacture with sufficient care ;" and they add that "practical men ought to have known that the cable was defective, and to have been aware of the locality of the defects before it was laid." The committee recommend the construction of a vessel specially for the purpose, which they believe, when not employed in laying cables, would be found extremely useful for the ordinary purposes of commerce. In conclusion, they repeat their belief that the exercise of due care might have prevented all the unsatisfactory results that have thus far attended this branch of enterprise.

The Social Science Association.-The following appointments of president of the association and presidents of sections for the Dublin meeting

have been made by the London council: Lord BROUGHAM will be president of the association, and will deliver the inaugural address. The presidents of sections will be-Jurisprudence, Right Hon. JOSEPH NAPIER; Education, Sir JOHN S. LEFEVRE, K. C. B.; Punishment and Reformatories, the Right Hon. the Attorney-General; Public Health, the Right Hon. Lord TALBOT DE MALAHIDE; Trade and International Law, M. MICHEL CHEVALIER, the celebrated French economist. The time of the meeting has been fixed to be from the 14th to the 21st of August.

COMMERCIAL CHRONICLE AND REVIEW.

MEETING OF CONGRESS-FISCAL YEAR ENDED-FOREIGN IMPORTS AT NEW-YORK, JUNE, 1861-SAME, YEARS 1857-1861-HEAVY EXPORTS OF PRODUCE TO EUROPE-FOREIGN TRADE OF NEW-YORK, 1851-1861-EXPORT OF GRAIN, 1861-ESTIMATES OF REVENUE BY THE SECRETARY OF THE

TREASURY-IMPORTS OF DRY GOODS AT NEW-YORK-FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC EXCHANGES-RAILROAD DIVIDENDS.

The message of the Presi

CONGRESS met on the fourth day of July. dent was communicated on the following day. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury recommends numerous changes in the tariff.

The fiscal year of the federal government closed on the 30th of June, and the result is a larger business than was ever before transacted in one year. For four years the aggregates have been as follows:

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The month of June shows a very moderate amount in foreign goods imported; being only $7,262,580, against a monthly average of about sixteen millions for the whole fiscal year ending June 30, 1861; and against $19,122,517 for the month of June, 1860, and $23,583,929 for June, 1859.

FOREIGN IMPORTS AT NEW-YORK FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE, 1861.

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$ 12,649,733

Specie and bullion,..

$10,116,442 ..$ 24,069,821 . . $19,160,789

For the past six months the contrast is also remarkable, presenting features not before existing, except in the revulsion of 1857-8; the aggregate imports (exclusive of specie) for the half year being only $77,949,208, against $117,031,239 for the corresponding period of 1860; and $128,038,931 in 1859; $60,006,271 in 1858, and $115,577,415 in

the inflated year of 1857. These contrasts are more fully represented in the following table:

FOREIGN IMPORTS AT New-York for SIX MONTHS, FROM JANUARY 1ST.

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For consumption,.. $36,320,520.. $91,829,562.. $79,945,689..

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1861. $31,991,257

28,672,040

16,170,648. 17,285,911 686,837 .. 25,909,668

Total entered,.. $61,784,634 .. $129,164,874.. $117,718,076.. $103,858,876 Withdrawn,.... 21,911,964. 11,515,721. 10,315,657.. 19,374,096

From the above it will be seen that only $51,165,353 of dutiable goods have been thrown upon the market here since January 1st, against $94,261,346 for the same period of last year, and $103,345,284 for the same period of 1859; and the ratio is rapidly diminishing, month by month. We have compiled our usual statement, showing the imports at this port during the last fiscal year, as compared with the three previous years, showing the gross imports of goods and merchandise to have been. only one hundred and ninety millions in value, or forty millions less than the year 1859-1860:

FOREIGN IMPORTS AT NEW-YORK FOR FOUR FISCAL YEARS, ENDING JUNE 30.
ENTERED.

1859.

1860.

1861.

For consumption,.. $94,019,659.. $158,451,780.. $164,881,435.. $106,706,066

32,665,650.. 38,523,572

1858.

For warehousing, .

44,463,806

54,498,323

Free goods,.....

23,665,487.

27,518,177.

27,936,396.

29,121,710

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If we separate the aggregate dry goods imports from the general merchandise, we find that the decrease in the importations is in dry goods and in general merchandise:

DESCRIPTION OF IMPORTS FOR the Year enDING JUNE 30.

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Total imports,.. $171,473,336 .. $220,247,307 .. $233,718,718 .. $224,401,360

The exports of produce and merchandise at this port during the month of June were nearly twelve millions, a larger amount than was ever before shipped from New-York to foreign ports in a single month. During the corresponding month of last year the exports were also unusually large, both in produce and specie; but, compared with any other previous year, the gain is enormous, and it exceeds that of June in the last year, exclusive of specie, by nearly two millions:

FOREIGN EXPORTS FROM NEW-YORK FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE, 1858-1861.

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$7,486,872.. $12,691,153.. $17,836,546 ..$12,067,031

Total, exclusive specie, 6,882,689 ..

5,194,172.. 8,994,466.. 11,822,789

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