Trinity House Revenues, &c.-The gross revenue under the management of the Trinity House amounts to about 135,000l. a year; but the nett revenue is rather under that sum. It arises from the dues payable to the corporation on account of light-houses, buoyage and beaconage, and ballastage; and from the interest of money in the funds, and the rent of freehold property. In 1831, the receipts were as under:

By far the greater portion of this large sum is laid out on pensions to poor disabled seamen, and on the maintenance of their widows, orphans, &c. We have seen the number of persons so relieved stated at 3,000; and we believe that the fund is both judiciously and economically administered. Still, however, as we have remarked in another article-(vol. i., p. 141.)-it does appear to us, considering the vast importance to a maritime nation like this of keeping the charges on shipping as low as possible, that it would be good policy to provide otherwise for the poor persons now dependent on the Trinity House, and to reduce the charges on account of lights, &c. to the owest sum that would suffice to maintain the establishment in a proper state of efficiency. No one, certainly, would wish to see the poor seamen deprived of any part of the pittance they now receive; but a larger amount might be given them from other sources, and be, at the same time, less felt by the public. Every one knows that nothing contributes so much to facilitate a commercial intercourse by land as good roads and low tolls; and good lights, buoys, beacons, &c., and light charges, have precisely the same influ

ence at sea.

TRIPANG, OR SEA SLUG (Biche de Mer), a species of fish of the genus Holuthuria, found chiefly on coral reefs in the Eastern seas, and highly esteemed in China, into which it is imported in large quantities. It is an unseemly looking substance, of a dirty brown colour, hard, rigid, scarcely possessing any power of locomotion, or appearance of animation. Sometimes the slug is as much as 2 feet in length, and from 7 to 8 inches in circumference. A span in length, and 2 or 3 inches in girth, is, however, the ordinary size. The quality and value of the fish, however, do not by any means depend upon its size, but upon properties in it neither obvious to, nor discernible by, those who have not been long and extensively engaged in the trade. In shallow water the animal is taken out by the hand, but in deeper water it is sometimes speared. When taken it is gutted, dried in the sun, and smoked over a wood fire; this being the only preparation it receives. The fishery is carried on from the western shores of New Guinea, and the southern shores of Australia, to Ceylon inclusive. Indeed, within the last few years it has been successfully prosecuted on the shores of the Mauritius. The whole produce goes to China. In the market of Macassar, the great staple of this fishery, not less than thirty varieties are distinguished, varying in price from 5 Spanish dollars a picul (133 lbs.) to 14 times that price, each variety being distinguished by well known names! The quantity of tripang sent annually to China from Macassar is about 7,000 piculs, or 8,333 cwt.; the price usually varying from 8 dollars to a picul to 110 and 115, according to quality.—(Crawfurd's Indian Archipelago, vol. iii. p. 441.) There is also a considerable export of tripang from Manilla to Canton.

Besides tripang, fish-maws and sharks' fins are exported to China from every maritime country of India.

TROY WEIGHT, one of the most ancient of the different kinds used in Britain. The pound English Troy contains 12 ounces, or 5,760 grains. It is used in the weighing of gold, silver, and jewels; the compounding of medicines; in experiments in natural philosophy; in comparing different weights with each other; and is now (by 5 Geo. 4. c. 74.) made the standard of weight.

TROY WEIGHT, Scotch, was established by James VI. in the year 1618, who enacted that only one weight should be used in Scotland, viz. the French Troy stone of 16 pounds, and 16 ounces to the pound. The pound contains 7,609 grains, and is equal to 17 oz. 6 dr. avoirdupois. The cwt., or 112 lbs. avoirdupois, contains only 103 lbs. 24 oz. of this weight, though generally reckoned equal to 104 lbs. This weight is very nearly identical with that formerly used at Paris and Amsterdam; and is generally known by the name of Dutch weight. Though prohibited by the articles of Union, it has been used in most parts of Scotland in weighing iron, hemp, flax, and other Dutch and Baltic goods, meal, butcher's meat, lead, &c.-(See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.)

TRUCK SYSTEM, a name given to a practice that has prevailed, particularly in the mining and manufacturing districts, of paying the wages of workmen in goods instead of money. The plan has been, for the masters to establish warehouses or shops; and the workmen in their employment have either got their wages accounted for to them by supplies of goods from such depôts, without receiving any money; or they have got the money, with a tacit or express understanding that they were to resort to the warehouses or shops of their masters for such articles as they were furnished with.

*This includes a sum of 10,1747. laid out on new light-houses, and 1,0151. of incidental charges. See Parl. Paper, No. 88. Sess. 1833. For an account of the light-house revenue, see this work, vol. i., p. 141., for buoyage and beaconage, see vol. i. p. 250.; and for ballastage, see vol. i. p. 65.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Truck System.-A great deal of contradictory evidence has been given, and very opposite opinions have been held, as to the practical operation and real effect of this system on the workmen. Nor is this to be wondered at, seeing that every thing depends on the mode in which it is administered, and that it may be either highly advantageous or highly injurious to the labourer. If a manufacturer of character establish a shop supplied with the principal articles required for the use of the workmen in his employment, and give them free liberty to resort to it or not as they please, it can, at all events, do them no harm, and will, most likely, render them material service. The manufacturer, having the command of capital, may, in general, lay in his goods to greater advantage than they can be laid in by the greater number of retail tradesmen in moderate-sized towns; and not being dependent on the profits of his shop for support, he is, even though he had no advantage in their purchase, able to sell his goods at a cheaper rate than they can be afforded by the majority of shopkeepers. Sometimes, also, a factory is established in a district where shops either do not exist at all, or are very deficient; and in such cases the master consults the interest and convenience of those dependent on him when he provides a supply of the principal articles required for their subsistence. It is easy, therefore, to see, that the keeping of shops by masters for the use of their workmen may be very beneficial to the latter. But to insure its being so, it is indispensable that the masters should be above taking an advantage when it is within their reach, and that their conduct towards the workmen should not be in any degree influenced by the circumstance of the latter dealing or not dealing with their shops.

Such disinterestedness is, however, a great deal more than could be rationally expected from the generality of men; and hence, though many instances may be specified in which the truck system was advantageous to the workmen, those of a contrary description were, unfortunately, far more numerous. It is obvious, indeed, that a practice of this sort affords very great facilities for fraudulent dealings. Under the old law, a manufacturer who had a shop, had means, supposing he were inclined to use them, not possessed by any ordinary shopkeeper as respects his customers, for forcing upon his workmen inferior goods at an exorbitant price. They are at first supplied on liberal terms, and are readily accommodated with goods in anticipation of wages, till they get considerably into debt. The pernicious influence of this deceitful system then begins fully to disclose itself. The workmen cease to be free agents; they are compelled to take such goods and at such prices as the master pleases; for, were they to attempt to emancipate themselves from this state of thraldom by leaving their employment, they would be exposed to the risk of prosecution and imprisonment for the debts they had incurred. It is not easy to imagine the extent to which these facilities for defrauding the labouring class were taken advantage of in various districts of the country. In many instances, indeed, the profits made by the shops exceeded those made by the business to which they were contingent; and thousands of workmen, whose wages were nominally 30s. a week, did not really receive, owing to the bad quality and high price of the goods supplied to them, more than 20s., and often not so much.

Abolition of the Truck System.-A system of dealing with the labouring classes, so very susceptible of abuse, and which, in point of fact, was very extensively abused, was loudly and justly complained of. A bill was in consequence introduced for its suppression by Mr. Littleton, which, after a great deal of opposition and discussion, was passed into a law-1 & 2 Will. 4. c. 32.-(See abstract subjoined.)

Those who opposed this act did so on two grounds;-1st, that it was improper to interfere at all in a matter of this sort; and, 2d, that the interference would not be effective. The first of these objections does not appear entitled to any weight. In suppressing the truck system, the legislature did nothing that could in anywise regulate or fetter the fair employment of capital: it interfered merely to put down abuse; to carry, in fact, the contract of wages into full effect, by preventing the workman from being defrauded of a portion of the wages he had stipulated for. The presumption no doubt is, in questions between workmen and their employers, that government had better abstain from all interference, and leave it to the parties to adjust their disputes on the principle of mutual interest and compromised advantage. Still, however, this is merely a presumption; and must not be viewed as an absolute rule. Instances have repeatedly occurred, where the interference of the legislature, to prevent or suppress abuse, on occasions of the sort now alluded to, has been imperiously required, and been highly advantageous. Those who claim its interposition are, indeed, bound to show clearly that it is called for to obviate some gross abuse, or that it will materially redound to the public advantage; and this, we think, was done in the completest manner, by the opponents of the truck system. Regard for the interests of the more respectable part of the masters, as well as for those of the workmen, required its abolition; for, while it continued, those who despised taking an advantage of their dependents were less favourably situated than those who did. It is ludicrous, therefore, in a case of this sort, to set up a cuckoo cry about the "freedom of industry." The good incident to the truck system was in practice found to be vastly overbalanced by the abuses that grew out of it; and as these VOL. II.-3 M

could not, under the existing law of debtor and creditor, be separately destroyed, the legislature did right in attempting to suppress it altogether.

It was said, indeed, that this would be found to be impracticable; that the manufacturers would enter underhand into partnerships with the keepers of shops, and that the system would really be continued, in another and, perhaps, more objectionable form. This anticipation has, we believe, been in some degree realised; but the system has notwithstanding been in many places abandoned, and is nowhere practised to any thing like the extent to which it was carried previously to the passing of Mr. Littleton's act. It will not, however, be completely rooted out, till all small debts, however they originate, be put beyond the pale of the law. We have already vindicated the expediency of this measure on other grounds— (see CREDIT); and the influence it would have in effectually destroying whatever is most pernicious in the truck system, is a weighty additional recommendation in its favour. Were all right of action upon debts for less than 50%. or 100%. taken away, no master would think of acquiring a control over the free agency of his workmen, by getting them in debt to him; and no workman would, under such circumstances, submit to be directed in his choice of shops or goods. The case of the Scotch colliers affords a curious illustration of what is now stated. Down to 1775, these persons were really adscripti glebæ, or prædial slaves; that is, they and their descendants were bound to perpetual service at the works to which they belonged, a right to their labour being acquired by any new proprietor to whom the works were sold! The 15 Geo. 3. c. 28. was passed for the emancipation of the colliers from this state of bondage. It, however, failed of practically accomplishing its object; for the masters speedily contrived, by making them advances in anticipation of their wages, to retain them as completely as ever under their control! To obviate this abuse, the 39 Geo. 3. c. 56. was passed; which most properly took from the masters all title to pursue the colliers for loans, unless advanced for the support of the collier and his family during sickness. This act had the desired effect; and the colliers have since been as free as any other class of labourers.— (See my edition of the Wealth of Nations, vol. ii. p. 186.) In fact, were small debts put beyond the pale of the law, it would not be necessary to interfere directly with the truck system; for it would not then be possible to pervert it to any very injurious purpose.

The following are the principal clauses in the act 1 & 2 Will. 4. c. 37., entitled, “An Act to prohibit the Payment, in certain Trades, of Wages in Goods, or otherwise than in the Current coin of the Realm :❞——

1. In all contracts hereafter to be made for the hiring of any artificer in any of the trades herein-after enumerated, or for the perform ance by any artificer of any labour in any of the said trades, the wages of such artificer shall be made payable only in the current coin of this realm, and not otherwise; any contract to the contrary being illegal, null, and void.

2. If such contract contain any stipulations as to the manner in which the wages shall be expended, it is void.

3. Wages must be paid to the workman in coin only. Payment in goods illegal and void.

4. Artificers may recover wages, if not paid in the current coin. 5. In an action brought for wages, no set-off shall be allowed for goods supplied by the employer, or by any shop in which he is inte. rested.

6. No employer shall have any action or suit in equity against his artificer, for goods supplied to him on account of wages, or supplied by any shop in which he has an interest.

7. If the artificer, or his wife or children become chargeable to the parish, the overseers may recover any wages earned within the 3 preceding months, and not paid in cash.

8. Nothing in this act is to invalidate the payment of wages in bank notes or drafts on any bankers within 15 miles, if artificer con

sents.

9. Any employer of any artificer in any of the trades herein-after enumerated, who shall, by himself, or by the agency of any other person, directly or indirectly enter into any contract, or make any payment hereby declared illegal, shall for the first offence forfeit a sum not exceeding 101. nor less than 51., and for the second offence any sum not exceeding 201., nor less than 101., and for a third offence he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and be punished by fine only at the discretion of the court, so that the fines shall not in any case exceed 1001.

10. Offences shall be inquired of and fines recovered before 2 jus tices, and the amount of the fines shall be in the discretion of such justices, or in cases of misdemeanour, of the court before which the offence may be tried; and in case of a second offence, it shall be suf ficient evidence of the previous conviction, if a certificate, signed by the officer having the custody of the record, be produced, stating in a compendious form the general nature of the offence. But a second or third offence shall only be punished as a first or second offence, if committed within 10 days after the prior conviction; and a fourth or any subsequent offence shall be punished as a third offence. But no second or third offence shall be prosecuted after more than 2 years from the commission of the next preceding offence.

11. Justices may compel the attendance of witnesses, on the request of the parties. Penalty for non-attendance without excuse, and after proof of due service of summons at the usual place of abode for such persons, 24 hours at the least before the time appointed for appearance, a commitment to some prison within the jurisdiction of the justices, without bail or mainprize, for not exceeding 14 days, or until such person shall submit to be examined.

Sections from 12. to 18. inclusive, regulate proceedings. 19. Act only to apply to the following trades:-Making, casting, converting, or manufacturing of iron or steel, or any parts, branches, or processes thereof; working any mines of coal, ironstone, limestone, salt rock; or working or getting stone, slate, or clay; or making or preparing salt, bricks, tiles, or quarries; or making or manufacturing any kinds of nails, chains, rivets, anviis, &c., keys, &c., or any other articles or hardwares made of iron or steel, or of iron and steel combined, or of any plate articles of cutlery, or of any goods or wares made of brass, tin, lead, pewter, or other metal, or of

any japanned goods or wares whatsoever; or making, spinning, throwing, doubling, winding, weaving, combing, knitting, bleaching, dyeing, printing, or otherwise preparing any kinds of woollen, worsted, yarn, stuff, kersey, linen, fustian,cloth, serge, cotton, leather, fur, hemp, flax, mohair, or silk manufactures whatsoever, or any manufactures whatsoever made of the said last mentioned materials, whether the same be or be not mixed one with another; or making or otherwise preparing, ornamenting, or finishing, any glass, porcelain, china, or earthenware whatsoever, or any parts, branches, or processes thereof, or any materials used in any of such last mentioned trades; or making or preparing of bone, thread, silk or cotton lace, or of lace made of any mixed materials.

20. Not to extend to any domestic servant, or servant in husbandry.

21. No one engaged in any of the trades or occupations enumerated, or his father, son, or brother, shall act as a justice.

22. County magistrates to act in cases where those of towns are disqualified as above.

23. Not to prevent any employer from supplying or contracting to supply to any artificer any medicine or medical attendance, or any fuel, or any materials, tools, or implements to be by such artificer employed in his trade or occupation, if such artificers be employed in mining, or any hay, corn, or other provender to be consumed by any horse or other beast of burden employed by any such artificer in his trade and occupation; nor from demising to any artificer employed in any of the trades or occupations enumerated the whole or any part of any tenement at any rent; nor from supplying or contracting to supply to any such artificer any victuals dressed or prepared under the roof of any such employer, and there consumed by such artificer; nor from making or contracting to make any deduction from the wages of any artificer for any such rent, or medicine, or medical attendance, or fuel, materials, tools, implements, hay, corn or provender, or such victuals, or for any money advanced to such artificer for any such purpose; but such deduction shall not exceed the true value of such fuel, materials, tools, implements, hay, corn, and provender, and shall not be in any case made from the wages of such artificer unless the agreement for such deduction shall be in writing and signed by such artificer.

24. Not to prevent any such employer from advancing to any such artificer any money to be by him contributed to any friendly society or bank for savings, or for his relief in sickness, or for the education of any child of such artificer, nor from deduct ng or contracting to deduct any money from the wages of such artificers, for the education of any such child, provided the agreement for such deduction shall be in writing and signed by such artificer.

25. Workmen, labourers, and other persons in any manner engaged in any employment or operation in or about the several trades and occupations aforesaid, shall be deemed "artificers," and all masters, bailiffs, foremen, managers, clerks, and other persons engaged in the hiring, employment, or superintendence of the labour of any such artificers shall be deemed to be "employers;" and any money or other thing had or contracted to be paid, or given as a remuneration for any labour done or to be done, whether within a certain time or to a certain amount, or for a time or an amount uncertain, shall be deemed to be the "wages" of such labour; and any agreement, understanding, device, contrivance, collusion, or arrangement what soever on the subject of wages, whether written or oral, whether direct or indirect, to which the employer and artificer are parties, or are assenting, or by which they are mutually bound to each other, or whereby either of them shall have endeavoured to impose an obliga tion on the other of them, shail be deemed a "contract."

TRUFFLES, a sort of vegetable production, like a mushroom, formed under ground. A few have been found in Northamptonshire; they are pretty abundant in Italy, the south of France, and several other countries. They are reckoned a great delicacy. The pâtés au truffes d'Angoulême are highly esteemed, and are sent as presents to very distant places.— (Rees's Cyclopædia.)

TUNIS, the capital of the regency of the same name, on the northern coast of Africa, the Goletta fort being in lat. 36° 48′ 30′′ N., lon. 10° 25′ 45′′ E. The bay of Tunis is somewhat in the form of a horseshoe. Its western extremity, Cape Carthage, is situated about 4 miles N.E. from the Goletta; and its eastern extremity, Cape Zafran, bears from Cape Carthage E. by S., distant about 13 miles. The bay is about 16 miles deep, and has good anchorage all over, in from 10 to 4 fathoms water. It is exposed to the N. and N.E. gales; but they seldom occasion any damage. Tunis lies on the west side of the bay, being separated from it by a large lagoon, having, where deepest, about 7 feet water. The port is at the Goletta, or channel, passing through the narrow belt of land separating the lagoon from the sea; the entrance to it is by a canal, in which there is at all times 15 feet water; and ships may use it on paying a fee of 3 dollars a day. It is not, however, much resorted to; all vessels of considerable burden loading and unloading from their moorings in the bay, by means of lighters. The population of Tunis has been variously estimated; and may probably amount to 100,000, being the most populous of any African city after Cairo. The streets are narrow, unpaved, and filthy. The buildings, though of stone, are mean and poor; and the inhabitants present the picture of poverty and oppression. There is a fort at the Goletta, of considerable strength.

Trade. Notwithstanding the various drawbacks arising out of the nature of the government, and the ignorance and prejudices of the people, commerce and industry are in a more advanced state in Tunis, than in any other part of Northern Africa, Egypt excepted. Though subject to droughts, the climate is, on the whole, excellent. The soil still preserves that exuberant fertility for which it was famous in antiquity.

Non quicquid Libycis terit

Fervens area messibus.-(Senec. in Thyest.)

It seldom receives any other manure than that of sometimes burning the weeds and stubble; and yet, in despite of its slovenly culture, the crops are luxuriant; and there is generally a considerable excess of wheat and barley for exportation. Corn is principally shipped at Biserta, about 50 miles W. of Tunis. Olive oil is one of the principal articles of export. It is of various qualities; some good, and some very indifferent. Susa is said to be the best place for its shipment. Soap of an excellent quality is largely manufactured in the regency. It may be had either soft or in wedges. The soft is made of barilla and pure oil, and is much esteemed. The hard soap is made from the lees of oil, and is reckoned very strong. The principal soap-works are at Susa. Little, however, is prepared on a speculative anticipation of a demand for exportation; but any quantity may be had by contracting for it a few months before the period when it is wanted. A sort of woollen scull-caps are largely exported. They are in extensive demand all over the Levant, and are nowhere made in such perfection as here. Ivory and gold dust, hides, wax, morocco leather, sponge, barilla, coral, dates, ostrich feathers. &c. are among the articles of export.

The imports from Europe consist of woollens, coarse German and Irish linens, cotton stuffs, hardware, sugar, coffee, spices, tin plates, lead, alum, dye stuffs, wine, silk, Spanish wool, &c. There is very little direct trade between Tunis and England; but a good deal is indirectly carried on, through the intervention of Malta and Gibraltar. Marseilles has probably the largest share of the trade with the regency. In 1830, there entered the different ports of Tunis 194 ships, of the burden of 20,747 tons, exclusive of those engaged in the trade with the other African states and Turkey.

Exclusive of the trade by sea, a considerable trade is carried on between Tunis and the interior of Africa, by means of caravans. These import slaves, gold dust, ivory, feathers, drugs, &c. They carry back cotton stuffs, linens, hardware, spices, cochineal, &c.

Naval and military stores imported into Tunis pay no duty. Other articles pay a duty of 3 per cent. ad valorem on a rated tariff. Obstructions arising out of monopolies, &c. are occasionally thrown in the way of exportation; and in general it is necessary, before proceeding to ship, to obtain a tiskery, or licence to that effect from the bey. That, however, may be, for the most part, procured without much difficulty.

Money.-Accounts are kept in piastres of 16 carobas or 52 aspers. The piastre is worth about Is. Id. sterling. The asper is an imaginary money. The value of foreign coins depends on the state of the exchange.

Weights.--Gold, silver, and pearls are weighed by the ounce of 8 meticals; 16 of these ounces make the Tunis pound = 7,773 5 Eng. grs. The principal commercial weight is the cantaro, containing 100 lbs., or rottoli, being equivalent to 111-05 lbs. avoird., or 50-36 kilog.

Measures.-The principal corn measure is the caf, divided into 16 whibas; and the whiba into 12 sahas. One cafiz 14 1-2 Imperial bushels.

The wine measure is the millerolle of Marseilles = 14 1 Imp. gal.

lons, or 64-33 litres. It is divided into 6 1-2 mitres. The principal oil measure is the metal or mettar 5.125 wine gallons, or 19-39 litres; but it is of different dimensions in different parts of the coun try; and is larger at Susa, whence most of the oil is exported, than at Tunis.

The pic, or principal long measure, is of 3 sorts; viz. the pic woollen measure = 26-5 Eng. inches: the pic silk measure 24.8 do.: and the pic linen measure 18 6 do.

For further particulars, see that chapter of Shaw's Travels in Barbary, &c. (one of the most learned and excellent works of the kind in the English language), that treats of the kingdom of Tunis; Macgill's Account of Tunis, passim; Jackson's Commerce of the Mediterranean, pp. 55-96.; Kelly's Cambist, &c.

RUINS OF CARTHAGE.-The famous city of Carthage, one of the greatest emporiums of the ancient world, long the mistress of the sea, and the most formidable enemy of Rome, was situated near the cape which still bears her name, about 10 miles N.E. from Tunis. Such, however, have been the alterations on the coast, that the port of the city, within whose ample expanse whole navies used to ride, is now wholly filled up; antiquaries differ as to its situation; and the sea has in some places receded from 2 to 3 miles from the ruins of the buildings by which it was formerly skirted. The common sewers are still in a very perfect state, as are several cisterns, public reservoirs, and other remains of that sort, with the fragment of a noble aqueduct that supplied the city with water. But besides these, and a very few Punic inscriptions that have been dug up, there is nothing left to attest the ancient grandeur

and magnificence of the city, or to identify it with the illustrious people by whom it was founded and occupied till its destruction by Scipio Nasica. There are no temples, no triumphal arches, no granite columns or obelisks covered with Phoenician characters, and no ancient entablatures. These have all fallen a sacrifice to hostile attacks, or to the destroying hand of time.

Nunc passim, vix reliquias, vix nomina servans,
Obruitur, propriis non agnoscenda ruinis.

Such mutilated fragments of buildings as still remain, are evidently the work of a later age; of those who occupied the city between the period when a colony was sent to it by Augustus, and its final subversion by the Saracens in the 7th century.

TURBITH, OR TURPETH, the cortical part of the root of a species of Convolvulus, brought from different parts of the East Indies. It is a longish root, about the thickness of the finger, resinous, heavy, of a brownish hue without and whitish within. It is imported cloven in the middle, lengthwise, and the heart or woody matter taken out. The best is ponderous, not wrinkled, easy to break, and discovers to the eye a large quantity of resinous matter. At first it makes an impression of sweetness on the taste; but, when chewed for some time, betrays a nauseous acrimony. It is used in medicine, but only to a small extent.— (Lewis's Mat. Med.)

TURBITH (MINERAL), the name given by chemists to the subsulphate of mercury. TURBOT (Pleuronectes maximus), a well known and highly esteemed species of fish. Very considerable quantities of turbot are now taken on various parts of our coasts, from the Orkneys to the Land's End, yet a preference is given in the London markets to those caught by the Dutch. The latter are said to have sometimes drawn as much as 80,000%. in a single year, for turbots sold in London.

Fresh turbots, however taken, or in whatever ship imported, may be imported free of duty.— (See FISH.)

TURMERIC, the root of the Curcuma longa. It is externally greyish, and internally of a deep lively yellow or saffron colour; very hard; and not unlike, either in figure or size, to ginger. That should be preferred, which is large, new, resinous, difficult to break, and heavy. It is imported from Bengal, Java, China, &c.; but some of a superior quality is said to have been brought from Tobago. Small quantities of it have also been grown in England. It has a somewhat aromatic, and not very agreeable smell; and a bitterish, slightly acrid, and rather warm taste. It used to be in considerable estimation as a medicine; but in Europe it is now used only as a dye. It yields a beautiful bright yellow colour; which, however, is extremely fugitive, and no means have hitherto been discovered of fixing it. It is sometimes employed to heighten the yellows made with weld, and to give an orange tint to scarlet; but the shade imparted by the turmeric soon disappears. The Indians use it to colour and season their food.—(Lewis's Mat. Med.; Bancroft on Colours, vol. i. p. 276.) The imports of turmeric from all places eastward of the Cape of Good Hope were, in 1830, 1,867,764 lbs.; in 1831, 1,292,028 lbs. ; and in 1832, 1,004,045 lbs.

Its price in bond in the London market, in March, 1834, was-Bengal, per cwt., 15s. to 16s.; Java, 24s. to 25s.; China, 25s. to 26s. The duty on turmeric is 2s. 4d. per cwt. on that brought from a British possession, and 10s. per cwt. on that from a foreign country. The only effect of this injurious distinction is to force the use of an inferior article.

TURPENTINE (Ger. Turpentin; Fr. Térébenthine; It. Trementina; Rus. Skipidar; Pol. Terpentyna). There are several species of turpentine, but all of them possess the samė general and chemical properties.

1. Common Turpentine, is a resinous juice which exudes from the Scotch fir or wild pine (Pinus sylvestris). The trees which are most exposed to the sun, and have the thickest barks, yield it in the greatest abundance. They begin to produce it when about 40 years old. The bark of the tree is wounded, and the turpentine flows out in drops, which fall into a hole, or sort of cup, previously dug at the foot of the tree, holding about 1 pint. It is purified by being exposed to liquefy in the sun's rays, in barrels perforated in the bottom, through which it filters. In the United States, the collection of turpentine is confided chiefly to negroes, each of whom has the charge of from 3,000 to 4,000 trees. The process lasts all the year, although the incisions are not made in the trees till the middle of March, and the flow of the turpentine generally ceases about the end of October. The boxes are emptied 5 or 6 times during the year; and it is estimated that 250 boxes will produce a barrel weighing 320 lbs. Turpentine has a strong, somewhat fragrant odour, and a bitter disagreeable taste; its consistence is greater than that of honey; its colour dirty yellow; and it is more opaque than the other sorts. We import it almost entirely from the United States.

2. Venice Turpentine, is the produce of the larch (Pinus Larix). It is obtained by boring a hole into the heart of the tree about 2 feet from the ground, and fitting into it a small tube through which the turpentine flows into vessels prepared for its reception. It is purified by straining through cloths, or hair sieves. It is more fluid, having the consistence of new honey, a yellowish colour, and is less unpleasant to the smell and taste, than the common turpentine. Genuine Venetian turpentine is principally obtained from the forests