SHIPPING RETURNS TO JULY, 1854. The Shipping Returns of the Board of Trade for the month ending July 5, 1854, continue to exhibit a large increase in the general arrivals and departures, Russia, of course, being now a blank in the list, excepting as regards the captures brought in, and which in the present instance figure among the entries to the extent of three ships of an aggregate burden of 417 tons. Among the nations whose shipping has benefited at the expense of the Russians are Sweden and Norway, the aggregate entries of vessels under those flags during the month showing a tonnage of 54,629, against 36,230 in the corresponding period of 1853. Subjoined are the several totals of entries and clearances. These returns complete the totals for the first half of the present year. During that period, as compared with the corresponding six months of last year, the increase in traffic, including both entries and clearances, has been about 12 per cent; an augmentation beyond even that which took place in the first half of 1853, and consequent in some degree upon the demand for wheat, against the inconvenience of which the progress thus recorded, must not be omitted as a partial set-off. The rate of increase in the employment of British vessels is rapid, and in the first half of the present year over the first half of 1853 it has been about 11 per cent. With regard to the coasting-trade, the tonnage entered inward during the month ending July 5, 1852, was 1,044,862. In 1853, it was 1,097,472, and in the present return it is 1,069,384. The clearances outward were 1,131,561 in July, 1852; 1,196,888 in 1853; and 1,189,513 in 1854. For the half-year the returns of the coasting trade show remarkably little variation as compared with 1853, the slight difference observable, however, being on the side of a decline; a circumstance, perhaps, to be attributed to the comparative smallness of the home dealings in grain.-The Times, Aug. 7, 1854. AN ACCOUNT of the Number and Tonnage of Vessels, distinguishing the Countries to which they belonged, and Sailing from Steam Vessels, which entered Inwards and cleared Outwards in the Five Months ended June 5, 1854, compared with the Entries and Clearances in the corresponding Periods of the Years 1853 and 1854, stated exclusively of Vessels in Ballast, and of those employed in the Coasting Trade, and the Trade between Great Britain and Ireland. |