clared value of those exports in each year, from 1805 to 1836, with the exception of 1812 and 1813, the records for which two years were destroyed at the burning of the Custom House in London.* The first thing that cannot fail to strike any one on inspecting this table is the large amount of our exports in the three earliest and two latest years of the series, when compared with those occurring in the intermediate years. The extent of the shipments in 1815 is evidently the result of the renewal of commercial intercourse after the war, but the years 1805, 1806, and 1807, 1835 and 1836, followed long periods of friendly intercourse. The serious falling off that occurred in 1808 and 1809 must, as already stated, be attributed to the effect of our celebrated Orders in Council, issued in retaliation for Napoleon's Milan and Berlin decrees. Nearly one-third of our foreign export trade in 1805, 1806, and 1807, was carried on with the United States. Our trade with the continental pations was destroyed, as far as the power of France could destroy it; and under these circumstances it was of peculiar importance that we should preserve, as far as possible, a branch of trade which gave so much and such constant employment to our merchants and manufacturers. It is difficult to account for the blindness and infatuation of the Government which could adopt a course by which what was so important to the nation, both commercially and politically, was put to hazard. The great political advantage of this trade may be thus explained. The merchants of the United States were accustomed to send American produce to the Continent of Europe to a much greater value than the goods they took in return. In their dealings with this country, their practice was directly the contrary; their purchases from us being always much greater than the American produce taken off by the English markets. The means for liquidating the balance thus raised against the American merchants were found in the circumstances of their trade with the remaining portion of Europe. The funds which those merchants had provided there in excess furnished what was wanting to pay for the balance of their purchases from us, and a safe and most convenient mode of transmitting the funds for this purpose was offered in bills on the English Treasury, the specie wherewith these were purchased being applied to pay subsidies and military charges on the Continent, for which this government was answerable, and for which it was difficult otherwise to provide. It cannot be necessary in this place to dwell upon the failure which so signally attended the retaliatory Orders in Council of the English Government. Our enemy had shut up every channel within his power through which our commerce could flow, and we, instead of looking out for new channels, or making the most of those which were beyond the control of our opponent, most unwisely aided him in his scheme, by putting a stop to all trade that was not conducted through those old accustomed channels. As might have been expected, the regulations of the belligerents were not such as the Government of the United States would adopt for the prosecution of their trade with Europe. Finding that their flag was excluded from the ports of the Continent, except upon terms which they considered degrading, all commercial intercourse with either of the belligerents was interdicted, and the result, as it affected our manufactures, is apparent in the diminished amount of our exports. This sys This omission is less to be regretted, because of the unfortunate state of hostility into which the two countries were plunged during those years. tem of non-intercourse was followed, as will be remembered, by a declaration of war against this country on the part of America, affording, it is to be hoped, the last instance in which two powerful countries, whose interests are so nearly identical in every pursuit that can increase the happiness, and advance the true dignity, of human nature, will suffer themselves to be dragged into hostility for the gratification of mistaken ideas of honour. The high degree of importance to each country of the trade which it carries on with the other needs no further exemplification than is offered by the tables appended to this Memoir. The proportions which that trade bears to the entire foreign trade of each country are given below. In this point of view it would appear as if the intercourse were of more importance to America than it is to this country, inasmuch as the trade with the United Kingdom bears a larger proportion to the whole trade of the United States than our trade with those States bears to the whole foreign trade of this country. But, on the other hand, it may be truly said, that this densely-peopled country is necessarily more dependent for prosperity upon its trade than America, and would suffer more from the loss of the smaller proportional amount of its commerce, which is involved in the intercourse we have been considering, than the United States would suffer from the loss of the much larger proportional amount of its trade which depends upon England. Centesimal Proportion which the Trade between the United Kingdom and the United States of America bore to the whole Foreign Trade of each Country respectively, in each Year, from 1821 to 1835. The proportion which our export trade with the United States bore to our whole export trade was, in 1805, 28.91; 1806, 30.31; 1807, 31.80; 1836, 23.28. In the foregoing pages all remarks upon the state of convulsion into which this most important branch of our foreign trade has lately been thrown have been avoided, partly because its occurrence is too recent to allow of a sufficiently calm estimate being made of the cause or causes which led to the catastrophe, but chiefly because it would be difficult, if not impossible, to enter upon the subject without departing from that line of strict statistical research which it is so desirable to preserve in the proceedings of this Section of the British Association. It is with much hesitation that I venture, in conclusion, to offer one remark, which however falls sufficiently within the limit thus drawn. The shipments of British produce and manufactures, in the year 1836, amounted, ac cording to the value declared by the shippers, to 53,368,5717., of which sum America took 12,425,605l., or 23.28 per cent. The total shipments in 1835 amounted to 47,372,270l., of which America took 10,568,455l., or 22.31 per cent., the difference between the two years being, on the total shipments, 5,996,301l., and on the shipments to America 1,857,150l. Without admitting or denying that these figures give evidence of over-trading, I would venture to call your attention to the circumstances of the two people—namely, that the means of obtaining the comforts of life are enjoyed by a larger proportion of them than is the case with any other people; that the habits and predilections of the citizens of the United States lead them to give a preference to British goods; that ours is the cheapest market in which they can procure many articles necessary to them; and that we are out of all proportion their best customers for the raw produce of their soil; and I would then ask whether, if the trade of the two countries were put upon a proper footing, and conducted upon enlightened principles, that amount of traffic should be considered excessive, which gives annually to every citizen of the United States articles of British growth and manufacture to the value of sixteen shillings and ninepence three farthings? MEDICAL STATISTICS. COPY OF THE LAST REPORT TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE FROM THE NATIONAL VACCINE INSTITUTION. My Lord,-A considerable time has now elapsed since we reported, to the department over which your Lordship presides, the successful labours of the National Vaccine Institution. And as, notwithstanding the manifest proofs which we have already presented of the valuable protection which vaccination affords against the scourge of small-pox, yet, from indolence or thoughtlessness, many still forbear altogether, or delay, until too late, to avail themselves of this great preventive; and others are induced by the arts of disreputable practitioners to continue to prefer inoculation; We think it necessary, therefore, to repeat in strong terms our sense of the advantages which the former has over the latter. That vaccination has this superior merit it might be a sufficient argument to convince the least considerate person, that if 300 children be vaccinated, one will be susceptible of small-pox afterwards, but only in a mild and perfectly safe form; whereas if 300 be inoculated, one will surely die. To this argument we might add that the annual loss of life by smallpox in the metropolis and within the Bills of Mortality only, before vaccination was established, exceeded 5000; whereas in the course of VOL. I. NO, I. last year only 300 died of that distemper. And it is probable that even this mortality, however comparatively small, is owing to the continued partial practice of inoculation, which is liable to disseminate far and wide its contagious influence, to the imminent danger of all who have not been protected by previous vaccination, or by having had the disease already. And this consideration suggests to us a question whether the introduction of inoculation into this country at the beginning of the last century, were the blessing which it claims to have been. We know that, before the practice of it was brought from Constantinople, the small-pox used to prevail epidemically, now and then, and to occasion a great mortality when it did prevail; but there were intervals in which the disease was scarcely heard of, and we really believe that the loss of life occasioned by the small-pox recurring after considerable intervals has been far exceeded by the accumulated mortality of successive years, in consequence of the disease being continually propagated through the practice of inoculation. We have only to add, my Lord, that although we lament sincerely the mistaken judgment which prefers inoculation to vaccination, whether on the supposition, amongst other ill-founded notions, of which we sometimes hear, that the original virtue of the vaccine virus has been worn out by time, or on any other equally ill-grounded opinion; we have the satisfaction of knowing that vaccination has made considerable progress since our last Report, and that we have supplied lymph not only to every part of this kingdom in the course of the last year, but to all the colonies also, and to many of the capitals of Europe. (Signed) HENRY HALFORD, President of the Vaccine Board. ASTLEY PASTON COOPER, President of College of Surgeons. To the Right Hon. Lord John Russell, Secretary of State, &c., &c. July, 1837. Glasgow University, Sept. 15. Sir,-At the time your prospectus was put into my hands, I was employed in making the following notes, which perhaps you may think worth a corner in your Journal. Yours, &c. A STUDENT. Cæsarean Operation.-This operation continues to be performed on the continent with partial success. The number of Cæsarean sections, on the continent, from 1800 to 1833, is 110; successful for the mother, 48; unsuccessful, 62. Of the children, 67 were born alive; 29 were dead on opening the uterus. Since 1833, it has been several times performed on the continent; and in a late number of a foreign journal, is a history of a case, successful both for mother and child, performed by Dr. Meyer, of Minden. In this country the operation has been very unsuccessful only one case is recorded in which the mother was saved, though it has been the means of rescuing 13 children up to the time Dr. Merriman wrote in 1826. This is said to arise from the operation being delayed so much longer by British than by foreign surgeons. It is not likely, however, to be much practised here, the British practi tioner generally thinking the life of the mother of more value than that of the child, while on the continent the contrary opinion obtains. In a paper read before the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh, (6th January, 1836,) by Dr. A. Robertson, Surgeon to the Eye Dispensary of that city, the following tabular view is given of the relative success of the two most usual operations for cataract, viz.— By Extraction, or the complete removal of the opaque lens from the eye, through an incision made in the cornea. By Displacement, or the removal of the opaque lens from the axis of vision, but still leaving it within the eye. Or, 30% per cent. of failures, or about three in ten. 306 188 118 50 20 30 50 20 30 80 28 52 94 71 23 1307 397 Or, 17% per cent. of failures, or one and three quarters in ten. 1004 NEW CHURCHES. The Commissioners appointed by virtue of the 58th Geo. III., c. 45 ("an Act for building and promoting the building of additional churches in populous parishes"), have recently made their 17th annual report, in which they state, that since their last report, six churches and chapels have been completed at the following places :-at Tredegar, in the parish of Bedweltz, in the county of Monmouth; at Carmarthen, in the county of Carmarthen; at Sheerness, in the parish of Minster, in Sheppy, in the county of Kent; at Newport, in the county of Mon |