The Press. — London, England, 1857-09-12 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 12, 1857. same capacity as his gunboat. The river was at the flood during four or five months of the year. Mr. CHEETHAM : What article, as a medium of com. coerce, could the natives best cultivate at the present moment ? Dr. LININOSTONE believed cotton would be the beet for them to begin with, and that they would cultivate it if they were assured of a market. Now that they had abun dance of land, they did not feel the necessity of improved cultivation. He described the feeling of the natives as strongly in favour of the English, whom they contrasted with the Boers and Portuguese. In the west, the popu lation was very much milder in character than in the east. The possession of a single cannon was quite enough to overawe a whole district. As to the effect of the climate on the English constitution, the most important point he had ascertained was that there were two healthy ridges in the country. In Angola skilled labour was to be had for 4d. a day, field labour for 21., and he believed it might be got by paying in calico, the usual currency of the country, at about Id. per day. He proposed, in going back, to distri• bute cotton seeds amongst all the chiefs on the banks of the river, and endeavour to give the impression that all they produced would be purchased. The beginning must necessarily In small, and not profitable ; but he thought if the natives could be engaged in lawful commerce it would put an end to the slave trade in all that central region. At the conclusion of these statements a resolution was carried thanking Dr. Livingstone, and appointing a committee to impress upon her Majesty's Govern ment the importance of assisting private enterprise to develop the resources of Africa. THE IMPERIAL INTERVIEW AT STUTTGARDT.—The following has been received from Stuttgardt, dated the 2nd of September :—" For the last fortnight a considerable number of artists and workmen have been occupied in repairing and decorating the apart ments of the royal residence here. These sumptuous preparations, which could surprise no one who is ac quainted with the habits and tastes of the King, might well astonish strangers to his character. But it soon got abroad that his Majesty was to be the host of several foreign sovereigns, who were to re main in Stuttgardt for about a week in the month of September. It is now known that amongst those sovereigns will be the Emperors Alexander and Napoleon. The King of Wurtemburg is expected here every day from Biarr►tz, but great preparations are meantime going on at the King's summer palace and at the palace of the Prince Royal. All the soldiers who were absent on leave have been recalled. There are now from 15,000 to 20,000 troops in the environs of the capital. The troops are divided into two corps ; the first commanded by Prince Frederick, and the second by Lieutenant-General Count William of Wurtemburg. After some imposing military manoeuvres, a stem battle will take place between the two corps in the plain between Heilorn Hall and Kanstatt. On the 27th of September there will be a parade of the united corps near the capital in honour of the two emperors. It may be interest ing to know at the present time what are the ties of relationship between the royal houses of France, Russia, and Wurtemburg. The King of Wurtem burg is the widower of a first marriage with Catherine Paulowna, daughter of Paul 1., and aunt of the Emperor Alexander; and the Prince Royal of Wurtemburg is married to the Grand Duchess Olga, daughter of Nicholas 1., and sister of the Emperor Alexander. The • Princess Frederica- Charlotte-Mary, the King's niece, was also married to the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, the Emperor's uncle, who died in 1846. On the other side, Count William of Wurtemburg, the cousin-germ an of the King, married Theodoline-Louise-Eugenie Napoleon, the daughter of Eugene Beauharnais, and cousin german of the Emperor Napoleon 111. She died last April. The Princess Frederica-Catherine- Sophia-Dorothea, the daugher of Frederic, the late King of Wurtemburg, and sister of the present King, was married to Prince Jerome. She died in 1836. Prince Napoleon and the Princess Mathilde are the offspring of this marriage. Finally, the late Duke of Leuchtenberg, the son of Prince Eugene Beauhar nais, and cousin-german of the Emperor of the French, married the Grand Duchess Mary, the Em peror Alexander's sister." A PAINFUL INCIDENT marked the reception of the Emperor of Austria on the borders of the district of Kaschau. While the burgomaster of that place was haranguing his Majesty, Lieut.-Colonel Count Szir•• may, an officer of great merit, who was close to his Majesty, was suddenly struck with apoplexy, and dropped down dead from his horse. The Emperor was much affected by the event, and immediately sent one of his aides-de-camp to Besenyo to an nounce the melancholy intelligence to the family of the deceased. THa Espero mentions that Montanelli, the ex deputy of Tuscany, is engaged in preparing a biography of Lamennais. The closest friendship and intimacy subsisted for some years between the French philosopher . and the Florentine litterateur, and the work, it is expected, will contain much curious information. DR. LIVINGSTONE AT MANCHESTER. AR interview between Dr. Livingstone and the Manchester Chamber of Commerce took place on Wednesday, at the Town-hall, Manchester. Dr. Livingstone was very warmly received, a congratula tory address was presented, and, after the usual pre liminaries, Dr. Livingstone entered at once upon his subject—the enormous capacity of Africa to supply our increasing demands for cotton, sugar, and other products. In the course of his explana tions Mr. Cheetham, M.P., put several questions to the learned traveller, to which Dr. Livingstone re plied satisfactorily. From these replies and his ad dress in general we gather that the natives of Central Africa are eager for trade, but that they have no markets of importance. That with regard to cotton it grew abundantly on the west coast, and that was by far the best field for cotton. Between the rivers Conza and Loando large quantities were grown : On the east it was cultivated a little, but it was not so good. It clung to the seed, and an iron roller had to be used to separate it. The quantity grown on the east side was very much smaller than that on the west side, but the natives had never been induced to cultivate cotton; they Lad never been offered anything for it, and they only cultivated a little to make clothes for themselves. He be. lieved if they had a market they would cultivate largely ; for wherever they had the opportunity of selling anything, they immediately began to collect it. The natives of Angola are acquainted with many dyes, which they are unwilling to make known to Europeans. The Columba root was exported by the Americans in abundance, as a dye-stuff, and grew along the Zambesi river. Besides this there was throughout the country indigo—the kind called the silver indigo, with which the people dyed their clothes, and which grew wild, for it was not at all cultivated. The only exportation of it was by the Portuguese who lived at Tete, but it might be ex ported abundantly. With regard to cereals, Dr. Livingstone said wheat had never been tried in the central country. Angola produced beautiful wheat, and he saw it growing on high lands with ears the length of his hand. The high land produced it without irrigation, and it might be grown there to almost any extent. It was quite remarkable that the Portuguese did not culti vate it, because they paid the Americans hand somely for all the flour and biscuits they consumed; and he found they had Irish butter from Cork : The east side of the country also produced wheat. The Zambesi overflowed large tracts of country annually, like the Nile. All wheat required was that a slave woman, with a little hoe, should make a hole in the ground, drop a few seeds in, and push back the soil with her foot. In four months there was a crop of beautiful wheat. This simple operation answered all the purposes of our Rub soiling, ploughing, draining, liming, and manuring. The higher they went up, the better the wheat was. At 'Limbo the grain was twice the size it was at Tete, where it was rather small. It had newer been tried in the high lands in the interior. The country ascended eastwards from the west coast to a height of 5,000 feet above the sea ; then it descended into the central valley, where the rivers on both sides contributed to the Zambesi in the middle, and this river flowed from north to south, leaving the valley by a fissure or creek in the ridge of thirty miles long, which formed the most beautiful sight he had seen in Africa. There were two ridges on that side of the valley, one of 5,0 O( feet. The bottom of the valley and the coasts were very unhealthy, but the high lands were very healthy. The central hollow contained herbage excessively rank. The healthy ridges were remarkably well adapted for the production of grain. The natives cultivated a kind of millet often called Kaffir-corn; another kind of millet, somewhat larger; and likewise our own corn millet. As to sheep or goat's wool, Dr. Livingstone ex plained that, inland from Benguela, " there was a long stretch of cold, elevated country, where the sheep actually had wool, and cattle flourished re markably well." Then, as to metallic produce, Dr. Livingstone said throughout the country there ap peared to be plenty of knives, axes, and hoes, and near the sea there were igneous rocks shot up, with fine iron ore The Portuguese Government employed the natives in working iron. At Kasembi a good deal of malachite was found. He had not seen copper ore in its proper place. A number of the native hoes bad been made into an Enfield rifle for him (Dr. Livingstone) at Birmingham, the maker pronouncing the metal very good, resembling, but not equal to, Swedish or Russian iron. It abounded along the Zambesi. In reply to subsequent inquiries, Dr. Livingstone said there were extensive tracts of forest land. There were nine seams of coal. He examined one near Tete, which was about sixty-eight inches in diameter, the coal having been tilted to the surface by volcanic action. Lieutenant Hoskins, who had command of one of the gunboats now gone to China, had given his opinion that the bar at the real mouth of the Zambesi was no impediment to commercial purposes, as there were twenty-two feet of water upon it, and, though the river was rather tortuous, he would not hesitate to take up a steamer of the 901 rft ont 2 parket an gitg gnitiligente. FRIDAY EVENING. THE return of the Bank of E nglsnd for the week ending the sth instant shows the following changes compared with that for the week preced ing : Decrease in Circulation Increase in Public Deposits Decrease in Other Deposits Increase in Securities Decrease in Bullion Increase in Rest Increase in Reserve Bullion hi Both Departments 11,491,313 Circulation, including Bank Post Bills 20,018,172 The Bullion is below eleven millions and a half this week, and we anticipate that a further reduction will be shown by the next return. The addition to the Securities, which is wholly in those that are of a private character, raises that item to 18,351,0001., and this item we expect will show a further augmen tation next week. The Public Deposits con tinue to increase, while the Private continue to de crease, and there is reason to believe that most of the sums withdrawn belong to the East India Com pany. The Reserve shows a trifling improvement. The Monthly Debtor and Creditor Account of the Bank of France, made up to yesterday, the 10th inst., was published in the Moniteur this morning. It is more favourable than that for the previous month, inasmuch as there is an increase of 113,0001. to the stock of bullion, which now amounts to 9,919,1701. The circulation, owing probably to diminished activity in trade, and in Bourse transac tions, is only 21,715,8321., being 2,866,9181. less than last month. Money has been in active demand since our last, owing to preparations in many branches of manu facture for the winter trade, and also in some degree to the state of the bullion market, the operations in which are now of increasing importance. To these causes must be added the fact that the supply in the hands of the public has been absorbed to a great extent by the purchase of stock and shares, and that it is unlikely it can be materially increased until after the dispersion of the October dividends. Under these circumstances rates have been generally main tained at the Bank minimum of five and a half per cent., and a good deal of money has been put into circulation on those terms. In some cases, during the early part of the week, the Lombard-street houses charged rather less ; but the average was fully equal to the Bank rate. In this state of the market the expectation which partially prevailed last week of a reduction to five per cent. has been entirely dissipated. With respect to the future there is a considerable degree of sensitiveness on the part of capitalists. The fact of the Governor-General of India having stopped all expenditure upon publio works except those for military purposes indicates that the insurrection will absorb more than the revenue of the country, even if it could be collected. And as the expenditure is rapidly growing, and will become heavier along with every successive arrival of troops, and as the sources of revenue are to a great extent dried up by the insurrection, it is incon testable that, at no very distant day, a requisition for financial assistance must be made upon the supreme authorities in this country ; in other words, a large loan must certainly be impending. Capitalists foresee the contingency, and it is not surprising that they should in anticipation endeavour to turn the current of the market into a direction likely to secure the most profitable terms when the loan is announced. The Money Market is obviously in the first stage of transition to this end. Its con dition in the meantime may be occasionally modi fied by special circumstances ; but its general tendency; so long as this Indian business hangs over it, cannot to arrested. Not only therefore do we anticipate dis counts not going lower, but we look for considerable tightness. It cannot be otherwise when Government is, or is expected to be, a competitor for supplies in the open market with merchants, and traders, and manufacturers. The arrivals of bullion this week have been upon a very limited scale. They have rather exceeded 100,0001. On the other hand, the exports have amounted to 170,0001., the greater part of which have gone to Brazil. The Bank has 'peen a pur chaser of gold to the extent of 19,0001., but has parted with quite as much for the Continent, whence we continue to receive considerable amounts of silver. On the whole, the operations of the week have diminished, but to no great extent, our stock of gold. The continental exchanges are not very favourable to this country; but they do not exercise much influence now either for or against us. Dulness continues to be the prevailing feature of business. All descriptions of securities are affected by it. To some extent this is attributed to the usua absence of dealers at this time of the year; but the