Pest and Moldavia, Orsowa and Galacz, Galacz and Constantinople. An attempt is to be made to remove the rocks which impede the navigation between Moldavia and Orsowa.

"The advantages of this navigation for the trade of the Principalities, which consists principally in exchanges for the products of Austria, are incalculable. Galacz, especially, will gain by it greatly, as an entrepôt for Austrian goods, which will be sent thence to the Levant, and to the ports of the Black Sea. Austria may even export by the Danube the wheat of the Banat, which can be bought on the spot at 11 roubles the tchetwert, and is said to be of a superior quality. The hemp of Hungary, of which the English have already made great purchases, and formed depôts at Apathin and at Eszek (whence it is sent by water to Siszeck and Carlstadt, and from these places by land to Trieste), might here find perhaps an easier route than by Trieste; as well as building-wood, which is, at present, sent with difficulty to Fiume.

"It is evident that the ports of Ismael and Reni, having no other resource but a small portion of Bèssarabia; reduced, in their exportation, almost to one article, grain; and without the possibility of

ever having a considerable importation, from the absence of issues for it,-have, by no means, a brilliant prospect for the future. Odessa, lying nearer, by 200 wersts, to the centre of the empire, must exclude them, by her immense means, from all competition for the trade of Russia. But in rivalship, on the other hand, with Galacz and Ibrail, which are likewise about to cultivate virgin countries, and of great extent,-Ismail and Reni must, of necessity, attach themselves to these giants who threaten to overwhelm them. So long as those who are engaged in the trade of Ibrail and Galacz shall be free from every impost, it would be necessary at least to reserve to the merchants of Bessarabia, the same immunity, to prevent their leaving the country, as many of them have already done. Reni, which is only 15 versts from Galacz, might maintain considerable connexion with that place, if there were established for persons coming from Wallachia a quarantine of only 4 days, as is the case at other points of the frontier, as at Leovo and Scouliani. If even the trade between these two places did not become very great, the frequent communications which would take place would be enough to raise again the little town of Reni, whose inhabitants are

at present deprived of every means of subsistence; but Russian speculators might easily find a vent for our goods in Bulgaria, and that would be the trade best suited to Reni and Ismail."

These extracts sufficiently explain the cause of the tolls and vexatious quarantines by which Russia seeks to exclude British commerce from the Danube -to convince the populations of Moldavia, Wallachia, Servia, and Bulgaria, that their resources cannot be developed, or their prosperity secured, until they shall have ceased to be “rivals ;” that is, until they shall have become integral parts of the Russian empire. Determined to persevere in her own system of high duties, she is equally determined, it would seem, to prevent, by every means in her power, every other people from benefiting by liberal commercial regulations, and therefore she stifles the rivalry of the Principalities, by endeavouring to make them inaccessible.

Having described the transit trade, which had, for some time, been permitted from Germany, through Odessa, the author observes

"This transit trade which brought little increase to the trade of Odessa, was become of very great

importance to the Transcaucasian provinces. By

an ukase of the 8th October, 1821, there had been granted for ten years, commencing with the 1st July, 1822, great prerogatives to the traders of that country, in conceding to every Russian subject or foreigner, who established there a house of commerce, the rights of a merchant of the first class, without exacting from them any impost, and even freeing their houses from all duties and rents.Foreign goods had only to pay upon entry, a duty of 5 per cent; but if they were imported into the other provinces of Russia, they were subject to the duties established by the general tarif. This ukase remained neglected till 1823, at which period some merchants of Odessa resolved to send the refuse of their warehouses to Redout-Kalé. The success of this enterprise produced a revolution in the trade of Georgia. From the following year, Armenians of Tiflis came to Odessa, to make purchases there; afterwards they proceeded to the fair at Leipsig, and sent their goods, by Brody and Odessa, to Redout-Kalé; in 1828 they even sent them by land from Brody to Tiflis, after having obtained permission for so doing from the Emperor, by the ukase of the 12th June. Some impediments thrown in the way of this transit, from the year 1830, forced the

goods from Leipsig to take the route by Trieste, whence they were transported to Redout-Kalé. But the term of the privileges granted to the ultra-Caucasian trade was about to expire, the petitions of the Russian manufacturers who thought themselves deprived, by the competition of foreigners, of a sure vent, became stronger, and the ukase of the 3rd June, 1831, declared, that, from the 1st January,' 1832, the European tarif, with some few modifications, should be extended for four years, by way of experiment, to the Transcaucasian countries. The duty of 5 per cent on value should be retained only. on goods of Asiatic origin, which might enter the country, either by the frontier of the south, or by the Caspian sea. The goods which came in transit by Odessa, should pay the duties there; which required the advance of a large sum. The customhouse of Redout-Kalé could only receive a very small number of articles; even the greater part, if destined for the consumption of Mingrelia or of Imeretia, had to be carried to Tiflis to pay the duties there. It is easy to conceive that these im pediments would destroy foreign commerce beyond the Caucasus."