keeper are in general terrified into the acceptance of a small composition. The very sight of the tally Ledgers, from 10 to 20 in number, containing debts from 5s. to 57., dotted over the pages, like a small pattern on a piece of printed cotton, and spread over every district in and round London, determines the creditors to accept of any offer, however small, rather than encounter the collection of such disreputable assets. In an affair of this kind recently concluded, where the business was under the management of a respectable accountant in the city, the whole debts due to the concern, good, bad, and doubtful, amounted to 8,700, while the number of debtors was 7,600! giving an average of 22s. 10d. each. N. B. This article has been compiled wholly from private, but authentic, information. TAMARINDS (Ger. Tamarinden; Fr. Tamarins; It. and Sp. Tamarindo; Arab. Umblie, Hind. Tintiri), the fruit of the Tamarindus Indica, a tree which grows in the East and West Indies, in Arabia, and Egypt. In the West Indies the pods or fruit, being gathered when ripe, and freed from the shelly fragments, are placed in layers in a cask, and boiling syrup poured over them, till the cask be filled: the syrup pervades every part quite down to the bottom; and when cool, the cask is headed for sale. The East India tamarinds are darker coloured and drier, and are said to be preserved without sugar. When good, tamarinds are free from any degree of mustiness; the seeds are hard, flat, and clean; the strings tough and entire; and a clean knife thrust into them does not receive any coating of copper. They should be preserved in closely covered jars.—(Thomson's Dispensatory.) The duty on tamarinds produced, in 1832, 7887. 12s. 10d. TAPIOCA, a species of starch or powder prepared from the roots of the Jatropha manihat, an American plant. The roots are peeled, and subjected to pressure in a kind of bag made of rushes. The juice which is forced out is a deadly poison, and is employed by the Indians to poison their arrows; but it deposits gradually a white starch, which, when properly washed, is innocent. What remains in the bag consists chiefly of the same starch. It is dried in smoke, and afterwards passed through a kind of sieve. Of this substance the cassava bread is made.-(Thomson's Chemistry.) TAR (Fr. Goudron; Ger. Theer; It. Catrame; Pol. Smola gesta; Rus. Degot, Smola shitkaja; Sw. Tjära), a thick, black, unctuous substance, chiefly obtained from the pine, and other turpentine trees, by burning them in a close smothering heat. The tar of the north of Europe is very superior to that of the United States, and is an article of great commercial importance. The process followed in making it has been de scribed as follows by Dr. Clarke :-"The inlets of the gulf (Bothnia) every where appeared of the grandest character; surrounded by noble forests, whose tall trees, flourishing luxuriantly, covered the soil quite down to the water's edge. From the most southern parts of Westro-Bothnia, to the northern extremity of the gulf, the inhabitants are occupied in the manufacture of tar; proofs of which are visible in the whole extent of the coast. The process by which the tar is obtained is very simple: and as we often witnessed it, we shall now describe it, from a tar-work we halted to inspect upon the spot. The situation most favourable to the process is in a forest near to a marsh or bog; because the roots of the fir, from which tar is principally extracted, are always most productive in such places. A conical cavity is then made in the ground (generally in the side of a bank or sloping hill); and the roots of the fir, together with logs and billets of the same, being neatly trussed in a stack of the same conical shape, are let into this cavity. The whole is then covered with turf, to prevent the volatile parts from being dissipated, which, by means of a heavy wooden mallet, and a wooden stamper worked separately by two men, beaten down and rendered as firm as possible above the wood. The stack of billets is then kindled, and a slow combustion of the fir takes place, without flame, as in making charcoal. During this combustion the tar exudes; and a cast iron pan being at the bottom of the funnel, with a spout which projects through the side of the bank, barrels are placed beneath this spout to collect the fluid as it comes away. As fast as the barrels are filled, they are bunged, and ready for immediate exportation. From this description it will be evident that the mode of obtaining tar is by a kind of distillation per descensum; the turpentine, melted by fire, mixing with the sap and juices of the fir, while the wood itself, becoming charred, is converted into charcoal. The most curious part of the story is, that this simple method of extracting tar is precisely that which is described by Theophrastus and Dioscorides; and there is not the smallest difference between a tar-work in the forests of Westro-Bothnia, and those of ancient Greece. The Greeks made stacks of pine; and having covered them with turf, they were suffered to burn in the same smothered manner; while the tar, melting, fell to the bottom of the stack, and ran out by a small channel cut for the purpose." Of 10,752 lasts of tar imported in 1831, 7,779 were brought from Russia, 1,086 from Sweden, and 1,243 from the United States. The last contains 12 barrels, and each barrel 31 gallons. Tar produced or manufactured in Europe is not to be imported for home consumption, except in British ships, or in ships of the country of which it is the produce, or from which it is imported, under penalty of forfeiting the same, and 1001. by the master of the ship.-(3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 54.) TARE, an abatement or deduction made from the weight of a parcel of goods, on account of the weight of the chest, cask, bag, &c. in which they are contained. Tare is distin guished into real tare, customary tare, and average tare. The first is the actual weight of the package; the second, its supposed weight according to the practice among merchants; and the third is the medium tare, deduced from weighing a few packages, and taking it as the standard for the whole. In Amsterdam, and some other commercial cities, tares are generally fixed by custom; but in this country, the prevailing practice, as to all goods that can be unpacked without injury, both at the Custom-house and among merchants, is to ascertain the real tare. Sometimes, however, the buyer and seller make a particular agreement about it. We have, for the most part, specified the different tares allowed upon particular commodities, in the descriptions given of them in this work. (For the tares at Amsterdam, Bordeaux, &c., see these articles; see also ALLOWANCES.) TARE, VETCH, OR FITCH, a plant (Vicia sativa, Lin.) that has been cultivated in this country from time immemorial; principally for its stem and leaves, which are used in the feeding of sheep, horses, and cattle; but partly, also, for its seed. Horses thrive better upon tares than upon clover and rye grass; and cows that are fed upon them give most milk. The seed is principally used in the feeding of pigeons and other poultry. In 1829, we imported 87,101 bushels of tares, principally from Denmark and Prussia. TARIFF, a Table, alphabetically arranged, specifying the various duties, drawbacks, bounties, &c. charged and allowed on the importation and exportation of articles of foreign and domestic produce. We intended at one time to have given the tariffs of some of the principal foreign states, and had some of them translated for that purpose; but, as the duties and regulations in them are perpetually changing, they would very soon have become obsolete, and would have tended more to mislead than to instruct. The circulars issued by foreign houses usually specify the duties on importation and exportation. But the reader will find under the articles DANTZIC, HAVRE, NEW YORK, TRIESTE, &c., pretty full details as to the principal foreign tariffs. Subjoined is the British tariff. TARIFF (BRITISH).—1st of January, 1834. DUTIES OF CUSTOMS INWARDS. Duties Inwards.--The first column of the following Table contains an account of the existing duties payable on the importation of foreign products into Great Britain for home use, as the same were fixed by the act 3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 56. The next column exhibits the duties payable on the same articles in 1819, as fixed by the act 59 Geo. 3. c. 52.; and the third and last column exhibits the duties as they were fixed in 1787, by Mr. Pitt's Consolidation Act, the 27 Geo. 3. c. 13. The reader has, therefore, before him, and may compare together, the present customs duties with the duties as they stood at the end of the late war, and at its commencement. No table of the sort is to be met with in any other publication. We owe it to the kindness of Mr. J. D. Hume, of the Board of Trade, under whose direction it has been prepared. The duties are rated throughout in Imperial weights and measures. A Table of the Duties of Customs payable on Goods, Wares, and Merchandise imported into the United Kingdom from Foreign Parts. Note.-Goods on which duties are payable by measures of capacity, are rated according to the Imperial gallon and bushel. *By act 27 Geo. 3. c. 13., and 28 Geo. 3. c. 27., certain goods were allowed to be imported from France and Holland, on payment of duty, until the 10th of May, 1800, although prohibited to be imported from other countries. being of editions printed prior to the year 1801, bound or unbound, per cwt.. 4 0 20 18 6 1. 19 O Bay 0 11 1 4 13 4 0 13 3 27 10 0 27 10 0 per cent. Prohibited. 33 0 0 per cent. 058 0 11 0 0 5 8 0 16 3 2 16 0 Bay 0 4 8 0 11 0 0 18 8 being of editions printed in or since the year 1801, bound or Note.-For the description of books prohibited to be im- Boots, shoes, and calashes, viz. women's boots and calashes, per dozen pairs if lined or trimmed with fur or other trimming, per dozen women's shoes, with cork or double soles, quilted shoes and if trimmed or lined with fur or any other trimming, per women's shoes of silk, satin, jeans, or other stuffs, kid, mo- if trimmed or lined with fur or any other trimming, per 1 10 0. 116 0 . children's boots, shoes, and calashes, not exceeding 7 inches in length, to be charged with 2 3ds of the above duties. men's boo's, per dozen pair 2 14 0 men's shoes, per dozen pair 1 4 0 children's boots and shoes not exceeding 7 inches in length, to be charged with 2 3ds of the above duties. Boracic acid, per cwt. and further, per cwt. of green or common glass, not of less content than 1 pint, and Bottles of common glass were, by act 54 Geo. 3. c. 97., of green or common glass, full, computing all bottles of not imported from any British possession, per dozen quarts con'ent imported from any foreign place, viz. containing wine or spirits, per dozen quarts content - of glass, not otherwise enumerated or described, for every 1001. value Excise duty on common glass bottles, see above. the produce of, and imported from, any British possession, per powder of, for japanning, per lb. 028 Brazil wood, per ton Free. Brazilletto wood, per ton Free. imported from a British possession, per ton Free. 07 2 Bricks or clinkers, per 1,000 Brimstone, per cwt. refined, or in rolls, per cwt. walking canes or sticks, mounted, painted, or otherwise orna men ed, for every 100 value whangees, jumboo, ground rattans, dragon's blood, and other Caues, viz. bamboo, per 1,000 139 walking canes or sticks, per 1,000 050 Cantharides, per lb.. 0 10 Caoutchouc, per cwt.. 010 Capers, including the pickle, per lb. 006 Capsicum. See Pepper a Cardamoms, per lb. 010 Cards, viz. playing cards, the dozen packs 400 400 Carmine, per oz. 0 0 6 0 4 0 Carrebe. See Succinum. Carriages, of all sorts, for every 1001. value 30 0 0 50 0 0 Casks, empty, for every 1002. value Cassia, viz. buds, per lb. fistula, per lb. 0 0 10 lignea, per lb. 010 imported from any British possession, per lb. 0 0 6 Castor, per lb. 0 0 6 Casts of busts, statues, or figures, per cwt. 026 Catechu. See Terra Japonica. Catlings, the gross, containing 12 dozen knots 0 0 10 026 0 50 |