not
less than 125,000 hhds.; if these estimates be realised in fact, it
will follow that the stocks at the close of this year must be 30,000
hhds. less than at the close of 1849.

We estimate the present consumption of American tobacco in Great
Britain and Ireland as follows:--

The deliveries in London and Liverpool in 1849, were 18,738 hhds.;
do. do. Bristol 1,400 hhds.; do. do. Scotland we assume at 2,800
hhds. Total 22,939.

Of Stripts, the deliveries in Liverpool last year were 8,544 hhds.,
of which about 300 were for exportation; the deliveries, therefore,
were--For the use of Great Britain and Ireland, 8,250 hhds. In
London we have no account of the deliveries of stripts, as
distinguished from leaf, for the whole of last year; it is doubtless
less than that in Liverpool, and we assume it at 7,000 hhds.; in
Bristol it was about 900 hhds.; in Scotland we assume it at 2,400
hhds. Total 18,550 hhds.

Now, assuming 1,500 hhds. of the deliveries in Scotland and Bristol
to be included in the coastwise returns in London and Liverpool,
then the consumption of Great Britain and Ireland would appear to be
about 21,500 hhds. of American tobacco, and 17,000 for these to be
stripts. The progressive increase which we have shown in the returns
of 1849, as compared with those of 1840, must still go on.

Without troubling you with any detail of the stocks in each of the
several markets, it may be sufficient to show that the summary of
the whole in all the markets of Europe, other than Great Britain,
consisted on the 31st December, 1849, of about 22,000 hhds.; of
which about 18,000 were Maryland and 2,000 stalks; and it is
important to notice especially the fact, that the stocks of the
manufacturers and dealers in Germany, Holland and Belgium are
unusually small. We have taken very considerable care to inform
ourselves on this point, and are fully satisfied that the usual
stocks in second or dealers' hands do not exist. The whole demand of
the year must, therefore, be supplied from those stocks in
importers' hands, from England or from the United States.

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 3