The Press.
London, England, 1853-10-22 00:00:00

C.INADIAN RAILWAYS.

t nit attention has been directed to the railway%
already 10,6'4.111g I{ll4l to thoy• which are projw•tell in
I'mo-fan. The Nlontreal and Portland Railway, PIC -
tending a Ili...tank. of nearly :HM►'aides, i% now par-
belly opened. I►n the tjnebee anti MAMMA Rail-
way a iliatattee of 1041 miles will he open for the
mutineer Irvine of 11451. Anal when the titand
Trunk line k finished goods eau be Cloweyed 1,101
mile% without the neceletity 14 breaking bulk. In
her fertile ...a Camelot p(I.O4eSION buttilles% re
'etrees, for the development of which it i% only
nereaaary that her inland .tear should 1a• (opened
loy coonneetinr, hulk joining them to the roa t.
Were that arcomplialted, then not only the Sidings
month of the I►aunie., bat all the river% and all the
ports of Europe, 'night be cloyed and the snpph•-
tnental wants of England coottlol he supplied by the
product of her t %median dependency.

Tilt: NI I%t t. not arrive in Paris on
Thurslay owing to a railway collision, which was at-
with loss of life to an engineer awl a stoker.
A con,lnetor war also wouiele4l, as well as several of

the passengers.
iT is expected that the I tins•tors of the Batik of
}'ranee will sliortb advance the eurrent rate of dis-
count to 5 per seta.
Tut subiei•t or the coronation 14 beginning to lbe
revived. It is said that on the Emperor's return tA)
Paris the date ut• that bolctuuity will be fluidly de-
cided.

FOOD I'M All:CIS.
TnE consummation foretold at many a country
meeting in bygone wagons is at length coming ripen
us. England has trusted to foreign countries for
her food, and the foreigner has failed in furnish
ing the needful supply. Deficient crops in one
quarter, political troubles in another, impending
war, and even the accidental ciremusUance that a
sandbar at the mouth of a river has grown too large
for the customary navigation, have drained and
Hosed the magazines to which we were taught to look
almost, we may say, for our daily bread. From all
parts of the European continent the cousignments of
wheat have run very short for ninny weeks past ;
and the deficiency is evidently increasing. The
arrivals grow scantier and dearer every day as the
actual yield of the past harvest in different localities
beeotnee more thoroughly areertained. Our Mark-
ham. quotations, published week after week, will
have shown the etfects of this failing supply in the
rapid rise of prices which the article has undergone.
The imperial average of wheat ranged iu the week
ending June I:th at -eis. per quarter, and stood
last week at !tie.: while superior qualities, such as
are etiefly required for the metropolitan in arket,
were at least ten shilling' dearer, with the almost
certain prospect of a further enhancement. Nor
war this the worst foreboding. The question
in
many quarters threatened soon to lie no longer one
of mere pnce, but the fund of supply itself was
about to dry up. Many chatmela which hail once
flowed freely with cargoes of grain for Enghuid had
already done so.
To begin, however, with the home product.
There are no statistical returns sufficently exten-
sive and authentic to enable us to speak precisely
on the point, but the opinions of those most likely
to be well informed concur in the conclusion that
the breadth of wheat-sown land this year was barely
two-thirds of bygone averages. We cannot wonder
at this falling out; however much the fanners them-
selves as well as the community at large may now
see cam* to regret it. Througlealt for imiortaia
months of octolwr and November last y• nr, when
the ground had to be set apart and prepared for the
autumn sowing, the price of corn afforded little en.
counagement to the ay rieulturist. twine the roamer
month the tht.:, tte averege ruled et a few ilellee over
3t45., a price which teem the continuous wet of No-
' vember raised barely to the even V. This wet again
interfered with agricultural operations. caused notch
land to remain autumn. and spoiled a considerable
Ina with whereon the sowing had been rompleted.
And rear !rase this contracted area ot' wheat land we
reap a aeauty crop imperfectly harvested. The sur-
fs,* us IP alsek turn was raised has thus been ; third
lesia tkaia au average ; the product per acre on that
111.4111• M • third less ; and the quality, as
assaall 4 the yield of !four, probably below the usual
lateklir4 In a stall larger proportion. It is stated in
Merk•lase Erpress that the autunitesown wheat
has gran a decidedly short yield ; that much of that
WWI ID 161011111/ has bet n wholly lord, or is unlit for
human hail; and that the late constant tides have
rendered it very difficult to get in many ',Relies
of eorti, ''.4.3ele 'malady still remaining on the field
t. 41 completely 1114Ii1ell 55 to be barely walk OUT) ing
From Ireland the accounts received are some-
what more favourable. Indeed, we are promised that
the sister We is once more to become a field exporting
country for our advantage. Butt, even it' this pro
raise .41 Id be kept, the aggregate product of grain
will still tall far short of its wonted oiatitity, and of
the glowing demands of our population. Taking. in
round numbers, thirty million quarters as the fair
annual average of home grown wheat, it is no
exaggerauon to say that there will be it deficiency of
from to twelve million quarters left upon the
present harvest.
The transfer of land from white to green crops—
the conversion of cornfields into pasture, and the
diversion of fiumers' capital and attention from grow
fug wheat to griming mutton and beef—were Mees-
e:wily progienaieated by the agricultmists in bygone
'ears, and accepted 115 inevitable, lied indeed !des-
pond, consequences of their policy II) the adherents of
the League. The latter pointed to the numerous
quarters whence our supplies could be drawn When
they fai!e I at home ; 111141 lola us that the staff of life
would be garnered into Enithuel out of the harvests
of the fro rid. Of course they never dreamed of Such
etnnint ',trey as that of war shutting up the grain
ri..s of Easteni Ems ;of the crops iuWesteni Europe
being too scanty for the local consumption and of
both thee casualties falling in with a deficient liar
vest and a most clitieal shin of political and coin
inertial stun in England it silt'. 11 r. 6 !mistime.
we perceive. boasted at Mainche,ter that. although the
pt-ice of et ra was so high, no distress or discontent
lad arisen amongst the industrial population. But
tlau 'anal lam not CkolllV ;et.

THE PRESS.

Looking at foreign sources, or what used to be
such, of supply, we tied that our next neighbour.
FILANCE, has for some months past been a large iree
porter on her own account. Many cargoes were
actually bought in the Thames on French account,
and the result, if not quite KO striking, is much the
same in practice, when the dealers of that country
come to compete with English purchasers; in a com-
mon market elsewhere. In Danis at this moment
the cost of bread is quite as high as in London, the
natural tariff being above a franc per Rh. loaf, while
the Emperor, in dread of the political consequences
of a famine, is forcibly keeping down the price to an
official maximum of $4l. at an outlay for the city alone
of 4::,dixtf. per diem. Respecting the amount of im-
portation into France, the Debuts of Tuesday last
states that the quantity of wheat imported into Havre
and Marseilles alone had already exceeded a million
hectolitres, and the total import into the country by
land and sea had fully reached three million hecto-
litres. This is equivalent to about a fortnight's con-
sumption of corn for the whole of France.
ItEI.OIICM is nearly in the same condition of scarcity.
Corn riots have already broken out in both countries
to an alarming t xtent ; and in both the tiovernments
have temporarily relaxed their fiscal regulations, and
dew everything in their power to invite supplies front
abroad. 'Both have, moreover, done much by means
of restrictive enactments to check the exportation Of
vegetables and other succedayets 14 bread to foreign
—that is to say, English—markets.
Front the Mime, during a few days very recently,
the arrital of corn ships al to once more to be
pretty numerous. This, however, arose from a change
of wind, which brought in a whole fleet at once. Here-
after, we are told by the Mark-lane authority, we
must " calculate on a period of short arrivals, the
shipments front the lower Baltic ports having been
very- small of late, and those from Dautzic having
fallen off." In the countries whence those ports are
fed we learn that the new wheat which is now
coming forward for sale is decidedly inferior in quality
to the produce of last year, having been harvested in
the wet, and in quantity considerably less than that
of a fair average season. Stocks of old wheat are
also wellnigh exhausted. In Konigsberg, 'Or exam
ple, not 111,0011 quarters remain of last year's corn,
and the condition of the new wheat is too bad for
shipment. At Pantzic the Nice of very inditliTent
wheat was mos. per quarter; and at Stettin, Rostock,
and Hamburg the go ed qualities commanded
and even 715., free on board, even though the quota-
tions were too high to render any purchases possible,

as yet, on English account.
The MEDITERRANEAN ports offer us no better pros-
pect. The supply in many places hardly kept pace
with the home demand. The Pope is a large pur-
chaser of corn ; and what his Holiness does from
benevolence a multitude of imitators throughout Italy
are doing for profit. Tuscany and other states are
either fencing round their home grown stock of grain
with prohibitions against its travelling elsewhere, or
taking steps to increase the quantity from distant
sources. At Leghorn,tienoa, and other seaports, the
price of corn is sufficiently high to stop all cargoes
in trunsita from the Levant. While wheat can be
sold for his. a quarter on the shores of the Adriatic,
it must nse somewhat above tiffs. to niake it worth
while to send the article to the Thames. Egypt,
moreover, so long the granary of Europe, is now
closed or empty. A brief delay to complete existing
contracts has been reluctantly obtained from the
Paella ; but by the end of next month the last cargo
of eon' that can be expected before next harvest will
have left. Alexandria.
The ports and affluents of the Ilt..tex SEA seem to
be the only Einopean localities where the supply of
corn is even coinnn abundant. At Ddemsa we
hear of its being brought in such quantities that the
granaries are glutted and the grain is piled in heaps '
in the streets. In the Danube also are several
111'114041 saul of corn-laden ships—but. unluckily, On
the wrong side of the Sulina bar. Political troubles
HMI a scarcity of shipping interpose inexorably between
the suppl and the market. In °Matz good wheat
was offered at :hls. a quarter; but freight was nearly
as much and but little at that. From both
causes, says the Express, "it is questionable whether
any portion of the large stocks of wheat lying at
Odessa or tialatt can be shipped off before winter
steps in and puts a stop to the navigation."
There remains AMERICA, whose resources are sup-
posed to be boundless. The Economist, in articles
written evidently with the view of consoling the com-
mercialists under their despondency. refers to the
mnelrbelanded "valley of the Mississippi" as the
storehouse whence England may be sure of drawing
supplies for all her need. In the famineyear of Itcr;
the United states, we ale told, furnished us with
eighteen hundreitand.odd thousand quarters. Since
that dismal era the productive faculties of America
have also, we are assured, undergone a wonderful
"Pins". "In no country in the world have the
means of supply increased in so remarkable a way as
in UP; weltvru tat a the Union, and in Upper

SATURDAY,

Canada ; and if high price continue it is certain that
the supplies from these quarters will greatly exceed
anything we have yet seen or anticipated. Since
1517 upwards of twelve million acres of land have
been sold by the federal Government and public
bodies to new cultivators. Emigrants from Europe,
to the number of about one and a half million, have
arrived, and a great proportion are engaged in tilling
the soil." Further we are informed that during the
same interval the great difficulty experienced in 1547
against bringing forward the supplies—namely, the
insufficiency of internal transport—has altogether
disappeared. lialf a dozen railway lines now de-
bout+ upon the coast from the western provinces,
and form so many additional routes for the passage
of agricultural produce Irian the corn-producing
States to the seaboard, which six years since was
squeezed through the single channel of the Erie
Canal. This may be so. But there still remains the
ocean voyage to be provided for. It may sound very
well to quote the shipping returns of the United
States, which show an increase of tonnage between
ISIS and MI, fostered by British relaxations of the
navigation laws, from 2,400,1*0 to 4,1000 NMI, lie
ducting for the vast expansion of their home trade in
all directions, and especially reckoning into the ac-
count the huge demands for shipping occasioned by
the new state of California, how much of this tonnage
will be left free for the conveyance of corn to England,
in anything like the quantities required ; or, it free,
at what price must we purchase from our 'cute Yan-
kee cousina a service which our own improvidence
has rendered so indispensably necessary ? Among
our home marine we have lately experienced the
enormous enhancement of costs and charges fir
freight produced by a comparatively trifling turn in
the equilibrium of demand and supply. If in voyages
of :Um miles, performed in coasters and lasting but a
few days, the occurrence of a slight scarcity of ship-
ping from temporary causes has caused the freight
of coals from Sunderland to reach the exorbitant
amount of r2s. or 14s. per ton, what effect must be
anticipated from a sudden and unexpected demand
for some four or five millions of tonnage to be con-
veyed across the Atlantic in vessels that cannot com-
plete the circuit, all delays included, wider three
months?

Comparing Imso will► IM-17, the Economist con-
fesses that the British grain crops this year lime
been worse, and in France, Belgium, Holland, and
the Rhenish provinces, not much better, than in the
memorable year of famine. Yet it is contended that
the prices of the coining winter and spring cannot
range by any means so high as they were found to
do at that period. For this conclusion our contem-
porary relies upon two facts and one assertion. Ihe
facts are that America, ►►. s we have already men-
tioned, can supply us abundantly ; and that the 10•
tato crop has not tailed this year. The assertion is
this—that even in 1547 the prices were extravagantly
raised through wild and disastrous speculation. Re-
specting the American stores, we have shown that
the question will turn altogether on price. There is
probably enough corn in the States, but it cannot be
brought here in sufficient abundance except at a cost
which will fearfully expand as our necessities grow
more urgent. The potato rot again affected this country
in 1m47 chiefly through Ireland ; and its bearing upon
the corn market was almost entirely limited to the
extra demand occasioned by the purchases made
with English money to feed the famine-stricken Irish.
The Economist carefully reminds us that nearly 10
millions were thus expended—a fact which we admit,
though we must question the inference- that " the
greater part of this sum acted directly upon the
foreign corn maukcts.•. The truth is that an almost
proportion of the total supply of food sent to
Ireland during the famine consisted of wheat. Indian
corn, oatmeal, rice, and other grain was sent ever in
vast quantities ; but far too little corn to affeet to
any noticeable extent either the home or the" foreign
market."

Concerning the alleged speculation we have no
means of !liming a judgment. The capitalist power
is doubtless great at all times; and, as the Economist
knows. is often recklessly and fatally exercised. In
1547 we can well believe that it did irremediable
harm to multitudes. lint against the recu►rence
of
the sante recklessness, leading to similar disasters,
we are convinced that a timely warning will be the
best safeguard. An alarm now is tar Letter than a
panic in February. It is the popliesiers of "smooth
things," with their constant assertions of safety and
plenty, until peril and want are absolutely at our
gates, who so fearfully aggravate the inevitable ca-
lamity—concealing the scarcity which should have
been provided for, and distributed over months, until
it amounts to actual famine, and giving to the public
a brief interval of delusive quit t at the cost of a Anal
access of despair and confusion, from which the ct
tn-
!nullity awakes to find itself heavily impoverished;
although a few sl•eeulators, to whom such general
delirium is a congenial element. may have improved
the oppoitunity for their own enrichment.