MISCELLANEOUS. A DAY IN THE PORT OF LONDON. [From "Chambers' a Edinburgh Journal,"]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 556, 13 August 1851, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS. A DAY IN THE PORT OF LONDON. [From "Chambers' a Edinburgh Journal,"]

At a time wben Ilolborn was a uual village, and two 01 tlneo counti)-hou-es occupied the space which is now the Strand, Queen Elizabeth was so much concerned at the magnitude of London, that she issued a pio clamation against fuither building, nffiuning that if tho mctiopohs grewjany larger, there v oulci be no possibility of providing food at leasonable prices for so vast a multitudo of inhabitants. We smile at tins crotchet oi the "fair virgin tluoned by the west;" and ye( it is less sui pnsmg than the apathy with i\ Inch wo of the present d,\y witness the perfect facility with which the wants are supplied of a couple ot millions of hum.in beings congiegated in a single capital. We have a vague notion that the ai tides of necessity, comfort, and luxury we see in such abundance around us are not all of home pioduction ; and wa even connect, somehow or other, this supp'y with the "foic-,t of masts" lismg from the Thames and its docks. 13ut the actual business of the port of London few of us Lnow anything ahout: our minds nevei attempt to giasp the idea ; and the ships, the quays, the docks, the waggons, the waiebouses, the cuunting-hou&es, are jumbled together m our imagination in a vast, foimless, indefinite, and withal vulgar whole, to which we give the name City. Some there be, however, whose curiosity is aioused by the mi«ty and mighty subject; who endeavour to comprehend it, and who, compiehontlmg it, or supposing that they do so, take the trouble ot indoctrinating such of their neighbours as may choose to listen. Of these peinons is Mr. Thomas Jlowell, who conceived the j idea of bunging lha subject within giasp, by ascertain- ! ing, so far as might be possible, what w as the actual business clone in the poit of London in a single </vi/. With tins view he provided himself with the official pnpeis issued by the custom-house last year ; and selecting (we presume) the most ciowded chy, which wa& the 17th of September, he made himself master of its contents. 'J bis document he used as the text of a lecture delivered befoie a subuib.in society — the Cl.iphara Atheiiicum; and we have now sat down to leproduce, for tho benefit of a wider audience, faome of his leading fnciv. On the single dnyrefrried to, 121 ships, navigated by 1,387 seamen, and with a legisterecl tonnage of L'!),6')9 tons, arnvedin the poit of London. Of these only fifteen weie foieign vessels ; the rost belonged to this country. 'J hey came from the east, west, noith, iiiul bouth ; and to ti.ice then course, we should have to go round the entire globe. Beginning at the noith, they were from Archangel and St. Petersburg , from the Prussian ports, and fiom those of Hambuig, Holland, France, the Channel Island-., Poitugal, Gibraltar; fiom hvo of the jNleditrrianean enipoua, fiom the west and south coast of Afnca; from the Indian pipsnienciei and the Sn.uts of Malacca; limn Canton and Shaiip,liao in China; fiom ftlauilh in th" r^teiii Aichip< j l.i'-<> ; from Adelaide and 1-ni t Philip in .Ausfiaba ; Ijoiu liio Co.isN of ijfdi'ii Amoni i. .i'id hino ol the i-nyli-)!), iSpa )i,-h, and IJuiiih We t linli.. Kla-id,,; Horn A.'iv iuik fliul IS'oton; aiul i.om llifax. Quebec and JiCiw foiuidland. it may ho <r Keivcd Ihnt the (."^ois of the^e thips ioini ■1 .1 vo' '01 ii 1 ' 'li i' i us.i'^cinb] > oft i trcbinc'j of coi/inii'ice. Ati'-d^ the rucie ucoc :uy I'llfl* s \'w<>

sorn ■ o'J0,00() cv<( = . ot sugar; not a \ery extraoidinnry quaiitit_\, since. 7,000,000 cv-f. weie impoited in the c>uis<> of the ' <\>r — nn aefrreijatt' which paid niMily .£ 1,000,000 steiln-g to thuievenup. 'Ihereueie 10 000 ! c IrmsoJ ti a, ,m mronsiderablepoitionof the ,i.3,(l(\),00() Id . nnpoitid timing tho \om m eighty or niripty ships, and pa} nig about £j, 500,000 of rimy. 'I here were 7 100 p-ulvfi-es ofccil.f, out of ().'>,00(),000 llw, (or the •seat, pie^entinsr to the Chancellor o' the Exchnjui-r j£6 10,000. Besides the nioie imjioi tnnt aiticle-, there weie many ofl^-is moment — such .is rice, coroa, tapioca ; ui)v..udb o) .3000 sheep and o'her animals, HOOP | ack.isjes ot butter. ,V), 000 cheeses nnd 900,000 eggs. The ear's suppl} ot the last, di.m n chiefly froi'i France, numbered ne illy 1)0,000,000, and paid £.30,7i)0 duty. nrlicl<M of another description may be men- | tioned 4 158 baleo ot wool , the importations for the year being aho.it 70,000,000 lbs., added to 100,000,000 lbs. of home growth. Elephants' teeth, hides, horn*3, tallow, wood and timber of all kmds>, copptr ore, xinc, cork, cod-liver oil, and Peruvian bark, are n few of the other articles in this d»jpartmen\ Among the tnor" curious importations are I'J.iO ions of gi mute from Guernsey, 1000 bundles of v.-biaki from Trieste, boner of animals collected liom the ptairii ol South Amend, their hoof* f? oni Australia, and heaps of rags from Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Germany. Some of tlip aiticle- of luxury are mllr, wine, mm, gm, spjci s, anchovies, turtle, and pine-apple* ; together buJi -jiat'inry marble ,:nd alabiater figures and ornaments. Tobacco should have a sentence of Ha own, since the yoirlv importation was -13,000,000 1b" ; the ru ned and ill-used people of England spend in? upon the filthy indulgence between £4,000,000 and £^,000,000 ot good money. Another ile:n thai may be worth mentioning is 1 219 package? of ir.'.isare, consisting of Spannh dollars or doubloon**, Sycee silver troiu China, and rupees fiom Ilindoosian, So much for the nirivals; but tho warehousing of goods piewruily nin.-ed Conns an important part of tho l>u-jn«,3 of the <hy. We need not go into particuLus, bowe\-<?r, on this subject, since the articles nro pretty nearly the bine ah thjso already enumerated — with the addition of fifty mat bio mortars, and in 7 3 skha of tin. But the goods unwaiehouspd, or, technicftlly speaking, " talon ior co'isumption," give ,i good idea of the omnivorous ippeule of London. Whale-fins and spermojl from the fiiherip* —corahs, or vSilic linndlicrchtofs, indigo, camphor, bhellac, lac dye, saltpetre, Jiemp, and jute, flora India — quicksilver from Spa'n — isinglass and bristles from Russia — Jcoland mosc, honey, and leeches fiora Hamburg — bees-wax frora the coaot of Africa, manna from Palermo, macaroni fiom JN'aplf I*,1 *, sugaicandyfrom Holland, lemon-oiHrom Messina, 81,000 Ib«. v ei»'ht of cunarJs liom the lonian Islands,, and 5760 bars of iron from Sweden — such are some of the ai tides that on this day were carried away in hundreds of gioaning waggons, to disappear in tho ever-craving maw of the metropolis. Thi3 will not appear surprising if we recollect our own individual retjuiiements. Wo ransack the world for the mate? lals ot a meat, and of the fai niture of our houses. "If I take the apparel of any gentleman present," says the lecturer, " 1 find that hiacoatn made of the wool of Sivony or Hungary, that lie is using the fla:; of Russia, Ireland, or Flanders, tho cotton of America, the kid skins of Italy, the hides of the Cape, tho silk of India, the horns of South Amenca, the iron of Staffordshire, and tho iroi.v of Ceylon — all these are m daily use ; while lie may wear upon bis finger a ring made fiom the gold of Brazil, ornamented with a pearl from Ceylon, or a dnmond from Borneo. Upon the conclusion of my l^icuie, he will protect himself from cold by a wrapper made from the wool of Cashmere; for his hat he is indebted to the beaver of Hudson's bay ; and should it unfortunately rain, he will unfold an umbrella in which the silk of Italy and China, after it has been dyed by the logwood of Jamaica, is expanded upun whalebone from tho Arctic fceas, supported upon a cane from tho island of Jaya — the cane has a feirule made fiom the copper of South America, and a handle composed of hoin fiom Calcutta, inlaid with mother-o'-pc-arl fiom Siugapoie and Manilla. The costume of the fairer sex would prove still more vanous ; for in addition to many of the fancies I have enumerated, there are the fuis of America, or the feathers of Alnca, the rich silks ot India, China, or Fiance, the shauls of Cashmeio or Pans, and the nbbons of St. Ktienne ; and all these fabrics or mateuals am witnesses to the impoiUnce of commerce, and forcibly remind us of the obligations we owe to our fcllow-creatuies in all parts of our globe." We hare now run cursoiily over a few of the ai tides brought into London to aftoul a clay's business to its port; but this is giving only one side of the subject: it is consideimg the city only as a lecipient of the tieasures of commerce, whereas it is equally active as a distributor of them to the ie^t of the woild. Only a portion of the good things have mentioned aie con sumed within the kingdom, while the rest u\e re->bipppd and despatched to other counting. England is the gieatest purchaser on the face of the earth ; but she is so because she is the greatest carnei. "The limbtr and deals," says Mr. llowell, li received from the B-iltic and Amonca, are shipped to Adelaide and the Cape of Good Hope. Rice, indigo, silks (particularly the coiahs bufjiv alluded to), drugs, tea, and sugar, from India and China, ate shipped to Riga, Konigsberg, Hamburg, Rotteidam, Antwerp, Calais, Boulogne, and Patias, for consumption on the continent of Europe; and, what im somewhat singular, is the exportation, principally to Fiance, of very laige quantities of law silk. We also ship freely to Germany our sheopsj' wool fiom Aiistialia, and the finer and znoie &ilky Alohair wool which v, imported from Turkey. To H.uhadocs theie is a slnpnipnt of guano lictived fiom Peiu. Hides fiom South Ameuca nro iorwaided to Antweip and Copenhagen. Spanish and Portuguese nines ani shipped to nnny places — J3oiwbay, Calcutta, Ceylon, Peteisburg, and otheis; while biandy and mm aro still moio widely cnculated. Ih^re is an cxpottation of glass bead=:, the nnnuiactuie of Venice, to the Cape of Good Hope, for the use of the Hottentot cv the Caflio, who is dignitied by the ndoinment; while the Woois of Mo^adoio have onlaied fifty cwt. of ginger fiom Calcutta. To Rotterdam, on this day, we sent Petuviau baik fiom ilia western coast of South A'nenca, and gum-arabic fiom Bombay. Skins fiom the shores of Hudson's Bay and the hunting-grounds of Oregon find customers in France, tvho also lake, oft' u portion of oui surplus tobacco. Cochineal from Mexico and Guatemala is shipped laigely to Smjrna, Petersburg, Leghorn, and other continental po?ts. foi the purpose of d\emg woollen and silken fabrics the- gayest of all colouis — bcailet." To t'le^o must be added tho most lmpoitaut of the whole of oui expoitations — namely, our own manufactures ; and to give an idaa of the whereabouts of this outvvaid trafiic on the single day in question, it would be necess.uy to pass once more round the entire coast-line of the globe. All these names and figures aie taken from the lecture; but veiy many more are left behind, with many facts and anecdotes lespecting foieign production-., und many inflections arising out of the subject, making up, in the whole, a very deniable pamphlet for rel'eience and mstiuction. But, nevertheless, the title is a misnomei : it is not a day's business in the port of London, or much more than half a day's business, the author having entirely forgotten the share the metropolis has m the gicat coasting tiade. This ti.ide 11 earned on between tho vanous poits of 2ingland and Wales, Scotland and li eland; and empU^s every year about IjO,ooo vessels, of 11,000,000 or 12,000,000 to.it, j i going constantly to and iio. The revenue of the city is m gieat pait made up fiom the dues paid by coasting vessels, amounting in the article of coal alone to £150,000 or £1O'O,()OO. Of thib aiticle London taket, nearly 3,000,000 tons in tho yeai, imported in neaily 10,000 ships. The tokens of this business, mighty as it is, are hardly visible beyond the spot whet u it is carried on. It is but a stone plunged into a lake, the cuclos it giveb use to growing fainter as they locedc, tnl they aie altogether lort in the smooth and slumbeious expanse. The i oar of waggons, which deefens us m the immediate tborougbiaies fiom tlio live), sinks giadually sh the vehicles sejiarate and di^poise, and is entirely lost when they disappear, one knows not bow or whither. The shops give no hint of the increase of wcalfh ; the people live, as usual, surrounded by tl.e necessanes, comforts, and luxuiies of the entne globe; the great pulse of the metropolis thiobs steadily oa, unaffected by tho fever of its poit. The nici chants, in the meantime, sit quietly in their counting-houses, rculing and writing their letters, and diiecling the comineice of the woild without uttenng a word. Iho clciks, each m his own depaitment, ply their monotonous ta~k, inscribing fiom hour (o hour, fiom da> to day, the histoiy of ci\i!i/.ition in unmtolhgiblo bool^. 'I ho marten of th" uealth no\> iiiiivii'o ii.nl d'paUinp, li.iit) iu\(" t,r"ii U with Uu j n ci el ; .ml l! tlu on ikm > fit the i t'ni i i ai if 'o niil i . oui >i f'mi quailoii i,f ii,i > lolmj haw <it ai.y hin 1 cuiio ny onouih Id M-.it thciu, they pa* lliuni'l. thu t \!nbi lion liio •■fiang"!', g,"/'i'g v\itu unntthutnt cc j >l: mi voiilcn vli,! 1 ! it i<- ior tiit ii' ai buMnc s(u <A.mpui)< i'df lint t!u; tioaMi" ,vii v liiui) lli.'s 1 iniiliilu 'tn >!• . uuv (luctiorit - ji> !on >lv and bc-l-i ' 'I he ' hiMv. oi m me\ i^ ni'Vtr boat I e \cl; z m tin. ll ■■iiiii. K<p'iud loi 0 o w^'C'ji il J "Oi Lin;;-mcii. I lltlu bits of piip.T cvi-

taming promises ami acknowledgments are the repiesptitiitnes of value, and in wholesale transactions gold anil silver are net or seen. Jn this way the meichant calmly commits some enoimona sum to tho bands of a hoy, to proceed to its (('" nrition by channels and a^t'iicies he lviiowt notlwiq up<,m. But this preternatuial stillness is only superficial. The hope-, the foan, the juvs, the agonies, that attend a single day'"* business in the port of London are indt>scubable; or>d the circles of this central agitation extend to thou^aiulj of he •" throughout the country with which it li.is do obvji connection. Ihe excitfment, howe\ei, is for t!>e most pait wholesome. Jt stirs up the languid thought-; it bends them abroad on the ivor!d ; lr establishes a connection between the various families of the human lace. It is felt likewise in the industry of the nation even 'n its smallest and remotest items, for there is not an occupation in the British jslcnJs that is not in some way or other, directly or indirect! v, affected by tho commerce of the capital. The sanif mil k ice u Ml abroad, and is not confined to the coast-line ot the four continents, but extends far into their Jiitenor. Men who know not the name of Engliind woik her work nnd receive her wages; and all soils all climates, all race.', combine to furnish a day's bij'mips-? for the port of London.