GREAT INCREASE IN THE Trade of FRANCE.

The London Economist furnishes to our hands a table, derived from an official source, showing the value of imports, the amount retained for home consumption, and the value of exports-showing the portion which consisted of French produce and manufactures in each year, 1847 to 1855, converted into British money at the rate of twenty-five francs to the pound sterling

The above table shows that trade has progressed, if not quite at the same rate as in England, yet in a manner which must necessarily absorb much more capital, and adds another important reason to those already stated for the great demand for capital and its high price, and also explains the rapid progress of the operations of the Bank of France.

COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS.

REGULATIONS IN TURKEY FOR PRINTING AND PUBLISHING.

The following translation of a new regulation of the Ottoman Government on the subject of printing in Turkey has been farnished to our hands for publication in the Merchants' Magazine by JOHN P. BROWN, United States Consul-General at Constantinople :

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE SUBLIME PORTE.

The Ottoman Government having established the following regulations, it takes the present occasion to bring them to the knowledge of your Excellency for the information of American citizens, in the same manner as has been done towards other foreign legations.

All persons at the capital, who are desirous of printing books, pamphlets, or gazettes, and of establishing presses for this purpose, will be obliged, if Ottoman subjects, to make application for permission to the Medgelis Maarif" Board of Public Instruction," and to the Zabtieh Naziratee or Police Department, and if foreign subjects, to the Department of Foreign Affairs, and until these Departments have made an examination of the request, and granted the petitioner a document containing permission, they will not be allowed to open any printing press. In the interior of the empire, whether the parties be native or foreign, they will be required to lay their request before the Governor of the Province in which they are, who will, in turn, transmit the same to the Sublime Porte; and until its permission shall have been obtained they will not be allowed to open any printing presses.

All persons who shall print any kind of books or pamphlets at the capital will, if Ottoman subjects, be required to exhibit them to the Board of Education, and if foreign subjects, to the Department of Foreign Affairs. In the interior the native and the foreigner will be equally compelled to exhibit their publications

to the Governors of the Provinces, who will examine them, and until no harm is perceived in them, either to the country or the government, and permission be given for their publicity, they will not be allowed to be printed and published.

Those foreign individuals who are desirous of publishing anything respecting themselves, or to publish a gazette, will not be allowed to open a press until permission shall have been given them for that effect by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

If any individuals act contrary to these regulations, and endeavor to print books and pamphlets injurious to the State and Government, the objects printed will, if at the capital, be seized upon by the Police Department, and if in the interior, by the orders of the Government of the Provinces, their presses be at once closed, and they punished according to the degree of their criminality, conformably with the criminal code established by His Imperial Majesty's commands. Within six months from the date of the present memorandum, the owners of existing printing presses who have not procured permits, or even if they have asked for them, will, conformably with the preceding regulations, be refused permission to continue them.

As the question of printing in the Ottoman dominions is now one of much delicacy, and as it is deemed a matter of duty to prevent its abuse, your Excellency is particularly requested to bring the same to the knowledge of such of your subjects as are concerned in the trade, or who may desire to engage in it, with the strictest injunctions that they shall be closely governed by the preceding regulations.

Occasion is also taken of the present to renew to your Excellency assurances of high respect and distinguished consideration.

(A correct translation.)
(Signed)

JOHN P. BROWN, Dragoman.

Redjeb 15, 1278.
March 12, 1857. (

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES OF TURKEY,

CONSTANTINOPLE, April 7, 1857.

FREEMAN HUNT, Editor of the Merchants' Magazine :—

SIR-I have been struck with the varied nature of the statements, made by writers on the East, on the subject of the weights and measures of Turkey. I have found it impossible to arrive at any correct idea of them from their operations, and, having lately had occasion to make some official researches on the subject, I beg leave to enclose you a copy of the same for publication in your invaluable Magazine. I remain, sir, with much respect, yours,

JOHN P. BROWN.

A TABLE OF THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES OF CONSTANTINOPE, AND OF SOME OTHER PARTS OF TURKEY, DERIVED FROM OFFICIAL AND RELIABLE SOURCES. WEIGHTS OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

One cantar of kintal is equal to 7 batmans, or 44 okes, or 100 lodras, or 17,600 drachms.

One batman, equal to 6 okes, or 2,400 drachms.

One kad, equal to 14 okes, or 5,600 drachms.

One oke, equal to 400 drachms, or 29,430 American pounds avordupois.

One drachm, equal to 4 dengs.

One deng, equal to 4 tcherkergeys.

One tcherkergey, equal to 4 bogdays.

One lodra, equal to 176 drachms.

One tchekee of stone, equal to 176 okes-or, vulgarly, 180 okes.

One tchekee of saffron, equal to 170 drachms of all drugs.

One teffee of silk, equal to 610 drachms.

One metical of ottar of roses, equal to 14 drachms of all essences and precious metals.

One tchekee of wood, equal to 4 cantars, or 176 okes.

Oue hyrat, or curat, of diamonds or other jewels, equal to 1 tcherkergey, or 4 bogdays.

One bogday, equal to 16 hissehs or parts.

DRY MEASURES OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

One kilo of walnuts, equal to 100 okes.

One kilo of wheat, Indian corn, or canary seed, equal to 21 okes.

One kilo of linseed, equal to 20 okes.

One kilo of hempseed, equal to 16 okes.

One kilo of rice, equal to 10 okes.

LIQUID MEASURES OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

One madrey of wine, equal to 10 okes.

One testee of oil, equal to 8 okes.

One oke, equal to 400 drachms.

One testee of oil, elsewhere, equal to 6 to 9 okes.

LONG MEASURES OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

One hallebee, or archin, equal to 8 kubs, or 16 guirays, wholesale.
One endazay, equal to 8 kuba, or 16 guirays.

One ghiray, (of Hallebee,) equal to 1.6797 American inches.

One ghiray, (of Endazay,) equal to 1.58 9 American inches.

One donum, equal to 40 square archins, or 1,600 archins.

DRY MEASURES OF BALTCHIK, VARNA, SAMSOON, AND SALONICA.

One kilo, equal to 4 kilos of Constantinople.

One kilo, equal to 4 kilos at Burgas and Kustendgie.

One kilo, equal to 2 kilos of Constantinople.

One kilo, equal to 2 kilos at Smyrna.

One cantar, or kintal of iron, wool, &c., equal to 100 lodras, or 45 okes of 380 drachms each, or to 17,100 drachms.

One oke, at wholesale, equal to 380 drachms.

One oke, (of opium,) equal to 250 drachms; if weighed at Constantinople it will only bring 237 drachms.

One cantar, equal to 125 pounds American avoirdupois.

One tchekee of goats' wool, equal to 2 okes; if weighed at Constantinople, to 1,360 okes.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES COMPARED WITH THOSE OF THE UNITED STATES.

One donum of land, equal to 40 square archins, or 1,600 archins, or 3,920 feet, or 1,306 yards.

CONSULATE OF THE U. S. OF AMERICA,

CONSTANTINOPLE, March 12, 1857.

I declare that the preceding table is correct, and that it has been procured from the most exact official sources of this capital.

VOL. XXXVI.-NO. VI.

JOHN P. BROWN, Consul General,

46

PORT RULES OF CALCUTTA.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, April 5, 1857. The United States consul-general at Calcutta has transmitted the annexed port rules of Calcutta, together with a special rule, being section twenty-eight of act twenty-two of 1855, ordering that a force pump, hose, and appurtenances shall be provided on board of every vessel exceeding two hundred ons entering the port of Calcutta, and affixing a fine of five hundred rupees in case of refusal to comply with this regulation.

The consul-general recommends their publication in the Merchants' Magazine and other commercial journals of the United States for general information and guidance.

NO. 401.-ORDERS BY THE LIEUTENANT-GOvernor of bengal.

NOTIFICATION. The 1st of July, 1856.-With the sanction of the governorgeneral of India in council, it is hereby declared that the port of Calcutta and the navigable river and channels leading to that port are subject to act number twenty-two of 1855.

The limits of the said port of Calcutta are as follows:

To the north, a line drawn across the river Hooghly from the boundary pillar on the north side of Hautkollah Ghaut to the boundary pillar on the north side of Sulken Ghaut.

To the south, a line drawn from the boundary pillar at the southwest corner of the house on the river bank usually occupied by the superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, and known as Garden House, to the boundary pillar at the southwest corner of the public Ghaut opposite.

So much of Tolly's Nullah as lies to the west of a line drawn across the Nullah between the two boundary pillars three hundred yards within Hasting's Bridge.

The limits of the said port include to the east and west so much of the river Hooghly and of the shores thereof and so much of Tolly's Nullah and of the shores thereof as are within fifty yards of high-water mark spring tides.

The limits of the navigable river and channels leading to the said port of Calcutta made subject to the said act are as follows:

To the north, the port of Calcutta as above defined.

To the south, a line drawn east and west from the lower floating light.

All parts of the navigable channels called the eastern and the western channels and of the river Hooghly between the said limits and below high-water line at spring tides are subject to the said act.

PORT RULES.

With the sanction of the governor-general of India in council, the following port rules have been made, and are hereby promulgated for general information and guidance:

RULE 1. No vessel, if above 200 tons, shall enter within the limits of the port of Calcutta, or move from one place to another within the port between sunset and sunrise, without the special permission of the master attendant.

RULE 2. All vessels within the port of Calcutta shall be bound to take up such berth as may be appointed for them by the master attendant, the harbor master, or their assistants, and shall change their berths or remove when required by such authority.

RULE 3. All vessels above Fort Point shall keep their jib and driver booms rigged in; and all vessels within the port of Calcutta shall, on the requisition of the master attendant, or the harbor master, rig in their jib and driver booms, and shall strike their yards and masts if required so to do by either of those officers. RULE 4. Every ship or vessel within the port of Calcutta shall remove any anchor or spar or other substance projecting from her side when required to do so by the master attendant or the harbor master.

RULE 5. Vessels taking in or discharging ballast or any particular kind of

cargo within the port of Calcutta shall be bound to take up such berth as the master attendant or the harbor master may direct.

RULE 6. A free channel of 240 yards width is to be kept for ships moving up or down the river within the port, and also free passages to piers, jetties, landing places, wharves, quays, docks, and moorings; and all vessels shall be bound to move when required to clear such channels or passages.

RULE 7. All vessels within the port of Calcutta shall anchor, moor, and uɛ moor when and where required by the master attendant and the harbor master.

RULE 8. All vessels within the port of Calcutta shall be moored or warped from place to place, as required by the master attendant or harbor master; and no vessel shall cast off a warp that has been made fast to her to assist a vessel in mooring without being required so to do by the pilot or officer in charge of the vessel mooring.

RULE 9. No vessel shall use any of the government chain moorings, whether fixed or swinging, without the permission of the master attendant or the harbor

master.

RULE 10. All vessels occupying government mooring, fixed or swinging, shall be liable to pay for the same according to the following scale, but no more:

RULE 11. No vessels within the limits of the port of Calcutta shall boil any pitch or dammer on board, or shall draw off spirits by candle or other artificial lights.

RULE 12. All vessels within the limits of the channels leading to the port of Calcutta shall, when at anchor between sunset and sunrise, have a good light hoisted at the starboard foreyard arm; and all vessels under weigh at night shall show a good light at the fore royal or upper foremast head; and when under weigh in tow of a steamer shall, in addition to the masthead light, show a good light at each fore yard arm, the steamer showing the usual light prescribed by the Admiralty regulations.

The provision of sections 12, 28, 37, and 40, of the said act No. 22 of 1855, are hereby specially extended to the port of Calcutta.

W. GREY, Secretary to the Government of Bengal,

ACT NO. 22 of 1855.

SEC. 28. In every such port to which the provisions of this section shall be specially extended by an order of the local government, every vessel exceeding the burden of 200 tons shall be provided with a proper force-pump, hose, and appurtenances, for the purpose of extinguishing any fire that may occur on board; and the master of every such vessel who, after having been required by the conservator to comply with such provision, shall, without lawful excuses, neglect or refuse so to do for the space of seven days after such requisition, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five hundred rupees.

FORT WILLIAM, Mar. Supdts. Office, the 24th September, 1856.