where there has been little or no duty, must have gone on more rapidly than it has done here, under the restraining force of a duty of 800 to 900 per cent.

The deliveries from London and Liverpool, independently of those from Scotland, Bristol, and Newcastle, for the use of Great Britain and Ireland, have been as follows:—­In 1840, 15,037 hhds.; 1841, 15,019 hhds.; 1842, 15,468 hhds.; 1847, 18,091 hhds.; 1848, 18,595 hhds.; 1849, 18,738 hhds.

The highest estimates we have seen of the whole of the crops of the United Slates in 1849, do not exceed 140,000 hhds., of which it is not doubted that fully 45,000 hhds. will be required for consumption there, and we estimate the supply required for the consumption of Europe, South America, the West Indies, and Africa, at certainly not less than 125,000 hhds.; if these estimates be realised in fact, it will follow that the stocks at the close of this year must be 30,000 hhds. less than at the close of 1849.

    We estimate the present consumption of American tobacco in Great
    Britain and Ireland as follows:—­

    The deliveries in London and Liverpool in 1849, were 18,738 hhds.;
    do. do.  Bristol 1,400 hhds.; do. do.  Scotland we assume at 2,800
    hhds.  Total 22,939.

Of Stripts, the deliveries in Liverpool last year were 8,544 hhds., of which about 300 were for exportation; the deliveries, therefore, were—­For the use of Great Britain and Ireland, 8,250 hhds.  In London we have no account of the deliveries of stripts, as distinguished from leaf, for the whole of last year; it is doubtless less than that in Liverpool, and we assume it at 7,000 hhds.; in Bristol it was about 900 hhds.; in Scotland we assume it at 2,400 hhds.  Total 18,550 hhds.

Now, assuming 1,500 hhds. of the deliveries in Scotland and Bristol to be included in the coastwise returns in London and Liverpool, then the consumption of Great Britain and Ireland would appear to be about 21,500 hhds. of American tobacco, and 17,000 for these to be stripts.  The progressive increase which we have shown in the returns of 1849, as compared with those of 1840, must still go on.

Without troubling you with any detail of the stocks in each of the several markets, it may be sufficient to show that the summary of the whole in all the markets of Europe, other than Great Britain, consisted on the 31st December, 1849, of about 22,000 hhds.; of which about 18,000 were Maryland and 2,000 stalks; and it is important to notice especially the fact, that the stocks of the manufacturers and dealers in Germany, Holland and Belgium are unusually small.  We have taken very considerable care to inform ourselves on this point, and are fully satisfied that the usual stocks in second or dealers’ hands do not exist.  The whole demand of the year must, therefore, be supplied from those stocks in importers’