The Press. — London, England, 1857-02-07 00:00:00

140 secretary, Mr. Sugden (who is now in this country on leave of absence), during his residence of thirteen years in the islands, is equally ignorant of any sample ever having been discovered. Stone is unfortunately too abundant; but I never saw slate fit for any roof ing purposes. I do not doubt the desire of the settlers of all classes in the Falklands to see a convict colony founded there. An expenditure of perhaps not much less than half a million, would pro bably be incurred, would no doubt be very accept. able to those possessing property or having anything to dispose of necessary to the establishment. I will only add, in conclusion, that I have never known a sober and industrious settler in and about the to‘in of Stanley who failed to make money. 1 k no w of no climate to persons of sound constitutions so healthy and free from disease. The labour market is, however, very limited ; and I see no pro spect whatsoever of it ever being greatly extended, unless gold or other valuable minerals should be discovered.-1 am, sir, your obedient servant, . . _ GEORGE RENNIE, Late Governor of the Falkland Islands. 43, Hertford-street, Mayfair, Feb. 3, 1857. "CONSERVATIVE PROGRESS" AND LAW REFORM. TO THE EDITOR 01? "THE PRESS." Sirs—We are to have a regular session of "Law Reform." We are to hear no more of the expensive iniquities of Chancery, which are at last to crumble before the active brooms of Liberal" intellects. So we are told by Ministerial lackeys, and soft is echoed in the elegant Post, whilst Doctors' Commons is to be beholden to them for the largest share of their affectionate and dispassionate regard. Sir Richard Bothell is to be launched into an exclusive immor tality without loss of time ; and that his awed con stituents may not be alarmed at the awful suddenness of his promotion, he has—got up with " laurel " already rehearsed to them in character the part he is to play amidst the legal triumphs of the future. Sir, this is to my own knowledge the sixth edition of a published farce. There is an annual battue held in Doctors' Commons ; the Proctors are driven into the corners of their preserves amidst stifled appeals for" compensation" and petitions, whilst their ancient " institution" is assailed in the Senate by the double•barrelled "piece" of the Solicitor-General and Sir George Grey, or they are sessionally annoyed uy uncommonly small shot from the platform popguns of Messieurs Hadfield, Collier, and Co. This, sir, is a " Liberal's " idea of real sport. It may, of course, suit the self-importance of Sir Richard Bethell to lisp in pompous parade before the electors of Ayles bury ; but although I should be the very last to wish to gag the flowery Knight, still it is due to Doctors' Commons, it is due to its practitioners, it is due to the dignity of the great centre of ecclesiastical law, that this elaborate trifling be at once put down. Of course the Whigs must have a cry. Well, sir, their cry is now of "Law Reform," for cries with them seem as plentiful as mystery and marvels are in Genii. Like Guy Fawkes' day and the return of the swallows, it comes once a year. Like the manager of a theatre to an angered audience when. he tells them that their spoiled pet this time is really ill, the Ministerial prints are as anxious to persuade us that this session her Majesty's Government will manage to be hi earnest. No, let us hope not—there would be danger in the convulsion ; and besides experience has given us all something more than a taste of the quality of Whig professions. Doctors' Commons should, if only by virtue of its age, be spared from the clumsy med dling of tyros and experimentalists, although it may suit certain talkative levellers to smite upon their left breasts, the supposed site of their patriot hearts, and speak of Doctors' Commons as an abomination only to be mentioned upon an empty stomach, when there can be no fear of a sense of shame interfering with digestion. Now, sir, to my own mind, had that great lawyer who held the seal, and as Lord Chancellor under Lord Derby's Administration earned more honour for himself as a " real reformer" than all the talking Whigs before him, been now the legal head, I believe the great question involved in the reform of Doctors' Commons would have been temperately considered and permanently settled. We should have had no annual mockery, no hustings' cry of law reform, no bill after bill withdrawn, whilst salaried incapacity was served at the expense of a nation's dignity. The cuckoo cry again is heard, and Doctors' Commons will again become a subject for the pompous drivel ling of levelling pamphleteers,• and the pigmy efforts of little men. But if precedent is to be regarded, or the past accepted as a warni ng , anot h er session will wane, and no solution of the pregnant question be arrived at, until the calm voice of con servative sagacity is recognised, and the genial presence of " Conservative Progress " once more directs the councils of England, and dignifies her name.—Yours most obediently, January, 1807. A TM. THE PRESS. THE SUGAR DUTIES. TO THE L•'UITOR OF 4 ' THE ritEss." Sir,—When England emancipated her slaves in 1834, she solemnly pledged herself to her colonists that she would keep a differential duty of 10s. the cwt. on foreign slave-grown sugar in her markets, in favour of free labour, humanity, and civilisation. Li 1840, Lord John Russell deliberately broke this pledge, by equalising the extra amount of duty on slave produce to that of free men in our own colonies, under the impression, I presume, that he could thus permanently supply the consumers in this country, through the stimulating influence of the lash, and the comforts of the slave-ship and barracoon, with sugar at a price lower than they had before paid for it. Food, however, it is now evident from experience, cannot be permanently cheapened by Act of Parlia ment, direct taxation, or a national breach of faith, as sugar, like corn, is dearer now that it was in 1846. Australia and California have, through the inter position of Providence, completely disarranged all the politico economio calculations that were enter tained anterior to that period, by furnishing new outlets, and giving ample remuneration in various ways, to that staple source of commerce, industrious and intelligent labour. As a proof of the increasing value of labour in a country where it has always been, in every form, protected, I will cite the state ment that has recently appeared in the papers, and which I have no doubt is correct, that a slave girl of twenty years of age, with her child, was sold in the United States of America for 1,840 dols., or 3681., whilst the compensation given to our colonists in 1834 for such slave did not exceed 7P1., thus show ing an increase in the value of such labourer of upwards of four hundred per cent. Yet we were told in 1846, as an argument in favour of cheap sugar, that the advantages to be derived from free of slave labour were so great, that the former would speedily supersede the latter, but which all of us, who had had practical acquaintance with the slave and free systems in the tropics, knew to be false, and which the sale of the girl for 3081. proves. In 1845, the Gazette average price for the year of Moravado sugar from the Ea3t and West Indies and Mauritius was, exclusive of duty, 353. sd. per cwt.; in 1846 it was 333. 4d. ; and in 1847, the year when the equalisation of the duty on slave produce began to come into operation, it was 293. 9J. ; and from that year to the end of 1854, seven years average, the period of the lowest prices, and the happy time of the one-idea men of cheapness at all hazards and by any means, it was 243. Od. In 1855 it rose to 263. Bd., and in 1850 to 295. 3d.; and for the week ending January 13, 1857, it was 388.20., or 4s.loid. higher than in the year 1810, when the scion of the house of Bedford induced John Bull to commence the patronage of foreign slavery, and which has since produced such lamentable results, and eaten• sion of the slave system. There cannot be a shadow of doubt but that from 1840 to 1854, from the disregard shown to British growers in making them compete on equal terms in our markets with the much cheaper and more regular and certain slave labour of foreigners, the low prices prevailing during that period, and the difficulty placed in the way of our colonists pro curing a plentiful supply of labour, that the extension of the cultivation of sugar in our various colonies, which was rapidly progressing—as I know from being a resident in the East at that time, in sundry localities there—prior to 1840, has now almost totally ceased; in many places the cultivation has been given up entirely. On the other hand, a rapid extension of slave territory, and the sugar-producing resources of all slave holding countries, has resulted, but not sufficiently rapid to make up for the defi ciency caused by the discouragement of free labour and British enterprise in British possessions : and John Bull now finds, at the commencement of the year of grace 1857, that the price of his sugar is higher than in 1840, and rising rapidly, with no pro sp3ct of its being so low as it has been ; and that the slaveowner, in addition to his enormous profits from the present high price, also pockets the 10s. differen• tial duty he promised the frae grower, who, to say nothing on the score of humanity and civilisation, takes, in reciprocation, of Manchester wares, at least three times the amount proportionally that the slave does; and he has finally to bear in mind that a successful slave revolt, which will take place sooner or later, will enhance the price of his sugar and cotton, as much in proportion probably as the cost price of a slave now is over what it was in 1834, and that this contingency, had he kept his word with his colonial sons, could not have hung over him. Retribution will as surely fall on a country as on an individual, when it forsakes honour, humanity, and civilisatien.—l remain, sir, your obedient servant, January ; 1857. AN Ow PLANTER. SATURDAY, vone2 parket an (fititteilz Circe. FRIDAY EVENING. THE return of the Bank of England for the week ending the 31st ult. shows the following cigniges compared with, that for the week preceding:— Increase in Circulation Increase in Public Deposits Increase in Other Deposits Decrease in Public Securities Increase in Other Securities Increase in Bullion Increase in Rest Decrease in Reserve Bullion iu Both Departments Circulation, including Bank Pest Bills The principal changes shown in this comparison are very important. The Private Securities show the large increase of 1,879,0001., a decided proof of the heavy demand for money last week, and they now amount to nearly 18,000,0001. To obtain the means of meeting the require ments of commerce to this great extent, the Directors im mediately lent out the whole excess of their receipts on public and private account, both of which were unusually large, besides making use of a part of their resources in re serve. The Bullion shows a small increase, notwithstand ing the with•lrawals during the week, and it still keeps above 10,000,0001. The other changes do not possess much importance. From the statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of Commons this evening upon moving for a committee to inquire into the operations of the Bank Act of 1844, it appears that the Government do not contem plate the introduction of any material changes in that measure. Although the commercial demand for money during the week has been very active, particularly in connection with the acceptances which fell due on the 4th, there has, on the whole, been less pressure and more hopeful anticipa tions than might have been expected. The return of coin from Ireland and from Constantinople has neutralised the effect of daily withdrawals of gold from the Bank, while, for a fortnight at least, the supply of silver from South America, received by the West India mail steamer, will prevent the necessity for any considerable import from the Continent. Another circumstance of a satisfactory charac ter is the tendency shown in some of the chief commercial cities of Europe to lower rates for money, the effect of which must be to attract capital to London, where it can be more profitably employed. Added to these, is the probe bility of some cf the national burdens being reduced by the national expenditure being brought, as nearly as possible, within the limits which obtained previously to the late war. All these circumstances have operated in favour of the market; and though it is as yet impossible to report any reduction in the current rates, and though a great demand has existed all the week, the result has been to produce cheerfulness as to the future. It is true thatthis improved tone has not been uniform. Reports that the Bank Direc tors intended to advance the rate of discount imparted a good deal of uneasiness in many quarters, while the delay in the arrival of the Australian gold now due still works upon the fears of others as to the probable action of the Bank next week. But, oh the whole, the feeling is better, and an impression is gaining ground that before the end of the month money will be easier, and that by the middle of March discounts will have been lowered. The Consol settlement has just taken place on the Stock Exchange. The account proved less heavy than was expected from the number of Bull transactions entered into previously to the payment of the dividends ; but the whole have been con cluded without much difficulty. The specie movements of the week have been rather important. Withdrawals of gold from the Bank have been of daily occurrence, and they amount since our last to about 115,000/. As the immediate demand for shipment to the Continent in return fur silver has ceased, these withdraw als have occasioned some surprise, and they have added to the perplexity created by the bullion operations of the last three months. We believe the explanation will be found in the fact that the withdrawals are the result of engage ments contracted when it was uncertain whether the over due silver detained at Puebla by the unsafe state of the Mexican roads would arrive by the last mail. It so happened that this silver did arrive ; and of course the engagements founded upon the contrary expectations must be fulfilled. The value of the whole arrival was 585,00 X, of whin 463,0001. was in silver and 122,0001. About 87,0001. has arrived from the United States and 38,6351. from the Peninsula. So that the known imports of the week have amounted to about 710,0001. On the other hand specie to the value of 971,3001. has been despatched for India and China, of which 783,200/. was in silver. The balance of exports therefore, including the withdrawals from the Bank, is adverse to rather a large extent. But against this we must set the anticipated arrivals from Australia, which, by the two ships next due, can scarcely be less than 1,000,00311. English Securities have been dull all the week, with no symptoms of activity. This state of things is partly due to the monthly settlement just brought to a close, and partly to the indisposition of the public either to invest or to speculate so long as the immediate future of the Money Market presents features of uncertainty. Consols, which closed last Friday at 93 to for money, remained at about that price until the end of the account; but for the sth of March they have been as high as 93f to f, and 93f exactly. The rates foil continuations were therefore heavy, averaging fully one half per cent. Yesterday the quotation was 93} to f for the greater part of the day, but at the final close they were 931 to f, toe lower tendency being attributed to fears as to the course which the Bank may adopt next week, but it was owing much more to the stagnation of business. This morning Condole opened at 93i Wi, and they closed at 931 to 1.