The Express.
London, England, 1862-11-24 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 24, 1862.

parish up to the beginning of October, form no
index to what they must be before the year is out.
By New Year's-day we have little doubt that
many a Lancashire union will be able to point to
burdens which will satisfy even critics from
Weaver. On this point Mr. HUGH MASON, of
Ashton, furnishes this morning some facts which
will startle those who have thoughtlessly believed
that rates are light in Lancashire. Mr. MASON
shows that a rate of nineteen shillings in the
pound would be required to maintain the ex-
pendi'ture of the borough at its present rate.
But in one important respect the analogy be-
twf,en a farming and a manufacturing district
al'cogether fails. The millowner is compelled to
7.iay rates upon property which is not only un-
productive, but may be actually a source of loss.
Our Special Correspondent has drawn attention to
the fact that a very large part of the money
realized in manufacturing pursuits is invested in
fresh mills and machinery, often without sufficient
regard to the need of working capital ; and that
many men whose establishments are large, and
who, therefore, make a show of wealth, have
little that is not now locked up. Whether this
be so or not in every case, the millowner
is not only not making money by his closed
mill, but is losing rent, interest, and the necessary
deterioration of stock. These are the circum-
stances under which he is called upon to pay rates,
which in moat cases are to be reckoned by
hundreds, in many by thousands, a year. A very
striking instance of the working of the law in
regard to manufacturing property is furnished by a
case which was decided the other day before a Cheshire
bench of magistrates. Two or three managers had
clubbed together their earnings, had found a friend
to build them a mill, and had partly stocked it
with machinery when the bad times came. Not a
spindle has turned, not a shuttle has flown, but
rent goes on, and so do rates. The mill has
never had a chance of becoming a source
of profit, for not a pound of cotton
has ever entered it ; but it is, nevertheless, rated
for the support of the poor, and the unfortunate
owners see their little capital lessening day by day,
with no hope of being able to replace it. What
would the farmers say, if they had to keep all
their labourers upon the parish, through a year,
in which by some strange freak of nature they had
no crops, yet in which all other outgoings were
upon the usual scale ? Was it not the case, that
the time when their poor-rates were highest, and
the sufferings of their people at the worst, the
products of their industry were artificially increased
iu price by partial legislation 4 Has the greatest
pressure of their public burdens ever been coinci-
dent with a total stoppage of their business ?
When this time comes, and not before, it will be
lust to compare Weimer with Lancashire.

tears. General Scott cannot believe that Buchanan,
although acknowledging himself responsible, con-
sented to Secretary Floyd's removing 115,000 guns
and rifles from Northern repositories to Southern
arsenals, also to the removal of 120 pieces of artil-
lery to Ship Island and Galveston. General Scott
also defends himself for publishing various official
communications.

Two brokers in New York have been sent to Fort
Lafayette for defrauding the government by issuing
forged bills ou the government subsistence depart-
ment. Fifty persons are said to be implicated, and
the frauds are said to exceed 1,000,000 dollars.
A mixed court of justice, provided for by the
recent treaty, has been organised in New York.
Messrs. Truman Smith and Cephas Brainard
are appointed United States arbitrators, and C. M.
Archibald, Esq., the British consul, and W. D.
Ryder, Esq., arbitrators for England.
The Bishop of Georgia announces that the union
of the diocese of Texas, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, the Carolinas, and the Virginians is com-
pleted under the name of " the protestant episcopal
church of the Confederate States of America."
The first general council will meet at Augusta.
The Lager beer brewers and cigar manufacturers
of New York city are organising themselves to
resist the taxes affecting their trades, as they say
the taxes are so onerous as to destroy their busi-
ness.

There is a slight panic in the stock market,
various unfavourable rumours being current that
General Burnside has been defeated, and that the
Confederates again occupy Harper's Ferry. These
rumours cannot be traced to reliable sources.

The Confederate pickets still show themselves on
the Virginia side of the Potomac, between Point of
Rocks and Berlin.

"Stonewall" Jackson's whole column is at Front
Royal, with the exception of 2,000 men remaining
in the Shenandoah Valley. . .

The Federal general Roae ncranz has arrived at
Nashville. The communication between Nashville
and the North is restored. The Confederates have
retired southward from Nashville, but there is no
truth in the reported capture of Mobile, or in the
surrender of Confederates in South Carolina.
The Secretary of the Treasury has obtained a
loan from the bank of 12,000,000 dollars for fifteen
days, until the loan advertised for is awarded.
This has tightened the money market, thereby
causing a heavy fall in speculative stocks.
The steamer Champion, with 700,000 dolt., has
arrived at New York from Aspinwall.
The New York and the City of Baltimore have
arrived out. The Europa passed Cape Race upon
the 10th inst.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
NEW YORK, Nov. 13, Evvoia.

Money tight. Gold, 32i premium. Exchange on London,
bankers' bills, 146 j. Stocks depressed ; New YoticOentrals,
103 ; Minces shares. 744 ; Erie, 60. Cotton very firm ;
middling uplands, 64. Flour, good inquiry, sad prices sc.
higher. Wheat qoJet. Corn slightly firmer. Provisions
dull. Coffee very firm. Sugar and mamma steady.

.-(THIS DAY.)

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