“_Great complaints are made of the bad state of the country shopkeepers in the agricultural districts. We have closely questioned some of our wholesale grocers and tea-dealers, who assure us that there is no disguising the fact, that such is the case, and that the general answer received from their travellers is, that ‘they can get neither money nor orders.’_ The serious falling off in the deliveries of sugar, coffee, tea, and cocoa, for the two months of this year, compared with those of the last, but too truly confirms these complaints, and are perhaps the most alarming features in our present prospects. As given in Prince’s public prices current of the 1st inst., they stand as follows:— 1850. 1849. 1848. Sugar, 37,006 43,408 42,368 tons Coffee, 3,795,712 4,907,691 pounds Cocoa, 450,774 558,888 Tea, 5,375,648 5,502,931 The circular of this house, dated the 4th of April, has since been published, in which they confirm their previous statement; and indeed show that the condition of the country, as tested by its consumption of imported produce, is retrograding. We quote the following as their summary:— “_General Remarks._—Another month of dull spiritless trade, as well in our produce markets as in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire. The demand for consumption has somewhat improved from exhaustion of stocks in the hands of dealers; but we regret to find the deficiency in deliveries of the principal articles noticed in our circular of last month (tea excepted) has still further increased, which speaks ill for the internal state of the country; in fact, _we believe the small tradesmen and shopkeepers in the rural districts were seldom or never in a worse position than at the present_.