however, the admission of Mr M‘Culloch, as bearing upon the quality of those goods which are taken off by the foreign trade, and of which the great increase in the manufacture must consist. These are, confessedly, the coarse, heavy fabrics, into the manufacture of which the _minimum_ amount of skill and labour enters. We approach then, from this point, to a view of the comparative value to the country of the home and the export trade in cotton goods. In the same work, Mr M‘Culloch estimates the total annual value of the cotton manufacture of the kingdom at £36,000,000 sterling, of which £10,000,000 is put down for the cost of the raw material, £17,000,000 for wages, and £9,000,000 for profits, wages of superintendence, and cost of machinery, coals, &c. I am a little inclined to believe that this calculation is underdrawn, the leaning of the author being to exaggerate the importance of the export trade, the declared value of which in 1845 was £26,119,231, leaving a little under £10,000,000 as the consumption of the home market, or about two-fifths of the consumption of the foreign. In estimating the value to the country, however, of the home trade, we have a right to take into consideration the fact that the great component material of the goods which we consume at home consists of labour; for, whilst the proportion of the raw material consumed in the home trade was little over one-fifth of that consumed in the foreign, the value of the goods was two-fifths. Admitting, however, Mr M‘Culloch’s version of the case to be correct, but at the same time bearing in mind the fact of his being a somewhat prejudiced authority, let us apply the figures given to the present condition of the manufacturing interest. The average quantity of cotton taken weekly from Liverpool for consumers’ use, was, from 1st of January to 12th of April 1849, 29,475 bales. It has been this year, up to the same date, 23,176 bales—a falling off of 6299 bales weekly, or a little above a fifth of the preceding year’s importations. Perhaps a portion of this decline in apparent consumption may be accounted for by the fact that the stock in the hands of spinners has, to a considerable extent, been allowed by them to become exhausted, through their unwillingness to pay the advanced prices recently demanded for the raw material. With respect to the prudence of this policy, and its probable effect in still further increasing the embarrassment of affairs, I shall have something to say by and by; at present, the question which presses is—In what market has this decreased consumption occurred? The answer must be—In that market which pays for the greatest amount of labour expended upon the manufacture of cotton goods—in the home market. I have not within my reach the most authentic record of the Cotton Trade, for the period up to which I should desire to extend my inquiries—viz., _Burn’s Commercial Glance_, which is only made up half yearly. I have, however, before me