The following were the prices current in London in the spring of 1853:—­Virginia Leaf, common, per pound, 31/4d. to 33/4d.; middling, 5d. to 6d.; good and fine 61/2d. to 71/2d.  Stripts, 51/2d. to 10d.  Kentucky Leaf:  common 3d., to 31/2d.; middling, 33/4d. to 41/2d.; good and fine, 5d. to 6d.  Stripts, 5d. to 7d.  Maryland, 31/2d. to 9d.  Negrohead and Cavendish:  common and heated, 4d. to 6d.; middling to good, 6d. to 8d. and 9d.; fine, 10d., 12d., 16d.; Barret’s none.  Columbian, 7d. to 1s. 8d.; Brazil, 3d. to 6d.; flat, 5d. to 1s. 1d.; Manilla, 7d. to 2s. 6d.; Havana, 10d. to 5s.; Yara, 11d. to 3s.; Cuba, 9d. to 1s. 1d.; ingars, 3s. to 16s.; cheroots, Manilla, 7s. 6d., nominal; German and Amersfoort 4d. to 1s. 3d.; stalks, duty paid, 2s. 6d. to 3s. 4d.; smalls, 2s. 9d to 2s.

The shipments to Europe were 76,516 hhds. against 40,652 hhds. the previous year, and 43,576 hhds. in 1850.  The rapidity of sales, the diminished stocks even now held in first hands, were taken as an infallible index of the progressive rate of consumption; and of a truth the quantity of hogsheads received in the principal markets of Belgium, Holland, Germany, and the North, and as speedily relieved from the control of the importers, was enough to control even those who were alive to the existing necessities of Europe, and to give a color to the rumour of almost inexhaustible consumption.

This extraordinary demand for tobacco on the continent has been occasioned by three distinct causes; the first of which was the pressing wants which, for the last two years, were well known to have existed, and the constant willingness of consumers to act at the very moderate rates which prevailed some time last spring.  The second was the compulsory purchases by the Austrian Government, amounting, it is estimated, to 20,000 hhds., by reason that the discontented Hungarians, for political considerations, abandoned altogether the cultivation of tobacco, and which deficiency was obliged to be replaced by American growths.  The third cause also had a political origin:  the anticipation of the extension of the Zollverein or German Customs League to the Kingdoms of Hanover and Oldenburg, whereby the duties on tobacco in those countries would be greatly increased, was a natural incentive to the dealers and manufacturers there to lay in heavy stocks, to reap the benefit thereon; and these last two causes, therefore, may be viewed in the light of fortuitous circumstances, which have fostered a speculation originally founded on the cheapness of money alone.

It has been shown, and the statistics of the past year fully confirm the statement, that a plethora of money and prosperity among the middle classes of society, while it induces to the consumption of tobacco in general, rather curtails than otherwise the demand for American growths.  A poor man addicted to smoking takes