ships requiring large growth; and, with our modern method of splicing yards and masts, we can do perfectly well with the less tall timber of Norway and Sweden. The real fact is, that the alleged short supply of the raw materials to be expected from Russia is a perfect bugbear. We could dispense with Russia as a country of supply, were we to employ British capital to assist our own colonists, and other countries, to provide us with such supply. There was once, however, a Russian Company; and the trade seems to have been conducted as a monopoly ever since. But we must get rid of this strange argument, that the value of the trade with a country consists in the large amount of indebtedness which we contract with its dealers. We have now to consider the relative value of Russia and Turkey as _consumers_ of British manufactured goods and produce. The following we find to have been the value of British and Irish produce and manufactures exported to the two countries for the five years from 1846 to 1850:— 1846. 1847. 1848. 1849. 1850. Turkey, £2,141,897 £2,992,280 £3,116,365 £2,930,612 £3,113,679 Russia, 1,725,148 1,844,543 1,925,226 1,566,575 1,454,771 Turkey thus took from us in 1850 £1,658,908 in excess of Russia’s purchases, having increased that excess from £416,719 in 1846. The increased imports of the former country amounted in the five years to nearly a million sterling, or 50 per cent, whilst the imports of Russia fell off by £370,377, or above 20 per cent. There is this great difference, too, in the imports from this country of Russia and Turkey—The former takes from us raw materials, which we do not produce ourselves, deriving merely a mercantile or brokerage profit upon the supply; manufactured articles which contain the smallest amount of British labour; and machinery to aid the progress of her population as our rivals in manufacturing pursuits. The latter takes our fully manufactured and perfected fabrics. So far as our cotton and woollen manufacturers are concerned, Russia took in 1850— Cotton yarn, £245,625 Woollen and worsted do., 304,016 Machinery and mill-work, 203,992 The remainder of her imports from us consisted of foreign produce. Turkey took from us, however, a large amount of labour and skill, or its reward, as will be seen from the following table:— _Imports of Manufactured Textiles to Russia and Turkey in 1850._ Cotton. Woollen. Linen. Silk. Total. Turkey, £2,232,369 £154,558 £22,500 £13,221 £2,422,348 Russia, 61,196 66,256 5,414 8,579 140,455 —————————— Total excess to Turkey, £2,280,903