370,000 pounds of wool are annually washed and assorted at Kherson, half of which is merino, worth $1,500,000 This branch of industry employs some 3,000 or 4,000 persons, mostly women. The wool ranks high, and part goes to Moscow, the remainder being exported via Odessa. A Russian company runs a line of steamers to Odessa and other ports on the Black sea. Nicolaieff is on the river Bug, about 40 miles northeast from Kherson, and, like that port, near the head of a large estuary. I have not been able to obtain further reliable information touching Nicolaieff. Statement showing the number and tonnage of American vessels entered and cleared at the port of Constantinople from September 30, 1858, to September 30, 1863, inclusive. Tabular statement showing the description, quantity, and value of the imports at the port of Constantinople from the United States during the year ended September 30, 1863. Tabular statement showing the description, quantity, and value of exports from Constantinople to the United States during the year ended September 30, Tabular statement showing the number, nationality, and tonnage of vessels entered at and cleared from the port of Constantinople during the year ended December 31, 1862. No. 589,831.] ORDINANCE. SUBLIME Porte, Bureau of FOREIGN AFFAIRS, July 6, 1862. You are aware of the duty long collected of Turkish and foreign merchant vessels at this port under the name of "anchorage dues." Although this duty was designed to apply to merchant vessels generally, only the small sum of 6 piastres (26 cents) has hitherto been required from foreign merchantmen, while double that amount has been paid by our own vessels. Its application has also been limited to the port of Constantinople. In order to render this reasonable tax general and uniform, the government proposes to levy on all vessels in every port of the empire an anchorage duty of 12 piastres, (52 cents,) &c. (Signed) No. 634,679.] ORDINANCE. AALI. SUBLIME PORTE, BUREAU OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, The importation of books, pamphlets, periodicals, and daily publications into Turkey having very considerably increased, it was natural for the imperial government to devise means for subjecting them to a system of inspection in order to prevent the circulation of improper works. Consequently, orders have been given to all the authorities of the seaports and frontier towns of the empire to cause a preliminary examination to be made by special agents of all books and other publications, periodical or daily, which may be entered at the customhouses. After this examination they are to allow the circulation of such works as do not appear injurious to the public order, while those adjudged calculated to pervert the mind and sow the seeds of disorder will be detained. I deem it superfluous to go into detail to demonstrate the lawfulness and the necessity of this measure, since most other nations have considered it their duty to apply it to their own territories. (Signed) ORDINANCE AALI. Addressed the 29th of Rajeb, 1279 of the Hegira, (7th January, 1863,) to the direction of the customs: The repose and security of the empire, and of all the population dwelling therein, require the prohibition of the commerce of arms and munitions of war, and the following arrangements are made respecting powder, cannons, arms of all sorts, and munitions of war, arriving hereafter from foreign lands, and of which the importation is formally forbidden, conformably with the treaties of commerce recently concluded with friendly powers: 1st. It is absolutely forbidden to import into the empire powder in grains of any kind and quantity, and for any motive whatsoever. 2d. The introduction of cartouches of powder, with or without balls, is equally interdicted. 3d. Nor may there be imported into the empire any kinds of cannons, mortars, howitzers, as well as their charges, such as bombs, bullets, case-shots, cartouches, and all sorts of projectiles, containing or not fulminating matters, balls of rifled guns, with or without bayonets, ordinary guns, carbines, pistols, lances, and saltpetre, used by troops and for warlike purposes. Exception is made in favor of sporting and other arms of luxury, and other weapons, such as sabres, swords, knives, and sporting powder in small quantities for private purposes. 4th. The articles prohibited afore-enumerated, which may be, from the present publication, introduced into the empire in quantities more or less great, will be confiscated and made over to the military magazines. H. Ex. Doc. 41-32 The prescriptions contained in the preceding articles will be, conformably with the decision of the imperial government, put in force in the custom-houses of the capital (Constantinople) and all over the empire from the date of the present ordinance. DECEMBER 31, 1863. I have the honor to communicate an additional rule to the system of rules for the consular courts in the Turkish dominions heretofore published. It relates to the fees of administration, and other proceedings connected with the estates of deceased American citizens in this empire. * UNITED STATES LEGATION, Constantinople, November 21, 1863. SIRS: No rule having been provided for the fees of administration of the estates of deceased American citizens in the Ottoman empire, I have the honor, in pursuance of the act of Congress of July 22, 1860, to submit the following to your consideration. It will, as No. 115, form part of the rules for the consular courts heretofore published, when assented to, in the manner prescribed by the aforesaid act. I have the honor to be, your obedient servant, EDWARD JOY MORRIS. RULE 115. Consuls shall require from executors filing wills and from persons applying for letters of administration a sufficient deposit. And on filing the inventory a fee of one-half per cent. of the whole value of the estate, real, personal, and mixed, as sworn to therein, shall be paid to the United States, in full for all the proceedings connected with the probate or administration. But when the estate does not exceed $2,000, the fee shall be $10. Assented to. EDWARD JOY MORRIS, United States Minister Resident at the Sublime Porte. C. W. GODDARD, Consul General. CONSTANTINOPLE, November 21, 1863. Assented to, Smyrna, December 4, 1863-Julius Bing, United States consul; assented to, Beirût, December 14, 1863-J. Aug. Johnson, United States consul; assented to at Cyprus, December 18, 1863-J. Judson Barclay, United States consul. SMYRNA-JULIUS BING, Consul. FEBRUARY 14, 1863. I have the honor of transmitting, for the use of the department and of par ties in the United States interested in the matter to which it refers, copies of communications received from Mr. Hyde Clarke, vice-president of the imperial cotton commission for Anatolia, relative to agricultural implements. An American merchant of Smyrna has just received a supply of American cotton-gins, and it is gratifying to find that the demand for these and other specimens of American industry is increasing in the same proportion as the increasing cotton culture. I trust that the documents above referred to will induce manufacturers and merchants in the United States to pay due attention to these opportunities. The imperial commissioners are unremitting in their labors for the promotion of the growth of cotton in Asia Minor; a concession of 50,000 acres of land in the island of Cyprus has just been made to an Irish gentleman who proposes to introduce Irish laborers for the cultivation of cotton. This is one instance out of many, and hardly a week passes without some grants of land or some experiments being made for the same purpose. I also transmit herewith the prospectus of the Asia Minor Company, just established at London, with a capital of £50,000, for the same purpose. The corporators estimate the forthcoming crop at 60,000 bales. This estimate agrees with that which I had the honor to submit to the department in my despatch No. 59, of December 1, 1862. The estimate of the crop of 1863-'64 is 200,000 bales; and if the zeal now displayed in the increase of cotton cultivation should continue, I should not be surprised to see even that large estimate considerably exceeded. No. 1.] SMYRNA, February 13, 1863. SIR: Though I have individually several communications from you, yet there are such an accumulation of good offices on your part for promoting the prosperity of this country, that I feel more than a passing acknowledgment is due to you. The ploughs and other instruments transmitted by you to the imperial cotton commission have been, by direction of his excellency the governor-general, placed in the great saloon of the Point stations of the Ottoman Imperial and Aiden railway, and have already been visited by many of our European agriculturists, and others connected with them, who are holders of large properties, and are interested in agricultural improvements. It is the general opinion that the American implements solve the question of the introduction of iron ploughs, and that they will in the end supersede wooden ones, and lead to a vast trade in American implements. Iron ploughs have often been introduced here, and have failed, because they were too cumbrous for the people, or because they required strong horses to draw them. What we are trying to do is to get some European who can plough to instruct a Turk, and then we will send him into various parts of the interior to plough with the American plough against the wooden ploughs. A little energy and organization on the part of American manufacturers will do a great deal. You know how American chairs and clocks, for instance, have penetrated into the country, and are to be seen in many parts of the interior, as stoves will soon be; and so, if a little trouble be taken to teach the people of the country, ploughs will be extensively used, because, being light, they can be carried upon the railway and distributed far and wide by camels. In a meeting of the imperial cotton commission, held at the palace of government, his excellency Reshid Pasha, governor-general, took charge, at our request, of thanking you for the introduction of these implements, and of representing the matter to the Sublime Porte. I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant, HYDE CLARKE, Hon. JULIUS BING, |