The Express.
London, England, 1853-09-12 00:00:00

eneca,

Wlw.,t, qrs.
.es.mi
Plow cwt& 1.11,110
Mesa, cwt.. *KM
Mb. taw, lb.. TAW*,
o....arollarel, tuts. 4:1::7r
boor Imaanufac

141,374.11 C

do it wu with the majority of the imports. The
comparative want of ,access and lose of confidence in

Is3l, o.tcketl business very much in the early pert
of 1%32, and in the autumn only, as confidence was
restored, as credit was re-established, as new hopes
were excited, did enterprise begin to extend. The
rate of discount was accordingly very low in 1832,
because enterprise was slack, and it began to rise as
enterprise became active and trade was rapidly ex-
tended. The demands of trade were the cause of the
rise in the rate of interest.
The extract from the circular mentions " the
heavy fall in (colonial) produce" in 1831, but the
general characteristic of that year was low and de-
lelining prices. The curtailment of imports in the
early part of 1852 led to better prices and larger
imports towards the latter end of the year. At the
commencement of the present year the six weeks
average price of wheat was 435. 4d., while at the com-
tuencement of 1 e 32 it wu37e.4d. It had risen, therefore,
6s. in the year, and the increase in the price of food,
carrying with it, as the rule, an increase in the price
of most other things, was not without influence in in-
creasing the value of money towards the close of the
year. The average price of wheat at present is 51s. 7d.,
and all kinds of grain and flour have risen in pro-
portion. Wages are from 10 to 1.5 per cent. higher
than at the begiuning of tho year. Butter is 10s.
per cwt. dearer; meat is dearer, and most other
things have risen in price since 1852. The rise in
prices towards the end of that year, which then made
money more valuable, has continued all through
this year, and has contributed to the general and
large rise in the rate of discount.
But the most important element of the rise is that
large increase of business which began in 18.52, after
confidence bad been restored, and of which we laid—

from the Trade Tables evidence—before our readers
on Thursday last. The imports and the exports of
1853 are greatly in excess of 1832 or 1851, or any pre-
vious year. following are specimens of the
excess of imports in 1853 our 1852:

_
Imported insane months.
1512. 1533.
Ount No. 12,722 17,836
Sheep No. 62,528 85.079
Cocos lbs. 4,324,785 4,544,833
Cuffm lbs. 26,826,108 30,106,051
Wheat qn. 1,327.790 2,755,527
Floor cwts. 2,417,453 2,9.5.5,989
Flag ewts. 628,289 709,672
Hides
Poutoss elms. 200,040 726,829
Butter cwht. 167,699 201,799
Cheese cwt.. 147,234 183,999
Flax and linseed qrs. 272,282 326,780
Silk (total) 9,1 3,778,233 5,031,5-56
Tobacco (total) lbs. 7,131,882 10,070,115
Wins gals. 3,379.361 5,700,781
Cotton cwts. 6,374,778 6,866,629
Wool lbs. 39,395,6.52 62,471,480

For all this increase of imports it was necessary
to pay, and as they came neither precisely from the
same places to which our greatly increased exports
were sent, nor were imported by the self-same per-
sons as sent abroad our exports, there was necessarily
payment in gold between the countries, or borrow-
ing and lending between individuals, till time
adjusts the payments.
Though capital was abundant in 1852, and was
considerably increased in that year, it was not in-
creased, and could not be increased in as equal ratio
to the great demand for it that has occurred in 1853.
The wonderful extension of trade in this year, and
the great demand consequently of the mercantile
classes on the limited capital of the country, is the
main reason why they have to pay a high price, or a
high rate of discount for the supply. This is a brief

in
explanation outline of the circumstances which
have brought the money market from the condition
of great cheapness which prevailed in 1832, to the
present condition of dearness. The important ques-
tion of the future prospects of the money market
shall be hereafter considered.

Tim gaol authorities of Birmingham appear, in
the treatment of their prisoners, to hare taken for
their guidance the maxims of Miss Lucy Lockit :

Thus when a good housewife arcs a rat
In her trap in the morning taken,
With pleasure her heart goes pit-apat
In revenge for t►e loos of her bacon ;
And she throws, sho throne him to dog or cat,
To be worried, crushed, and shaken.

But, though the termagant of the "Beggars' Opera"
could threaten Macheath with this kind of prison
discipline, her feelings as a woman prevented her
from carrying her threat into execution. No such
soft relentings have come over the Lockit family of
Birmingham. They have thrown their trapped rats
to their dogs and cats, and th• it dogs and cats have
worried the poor wretches to most frightful purpose.
When we last commented on the Birmingham
atrocities, we alluded to the similarity which existed
between them and the cruelties which in 1730 led to
the bringing of BAMBRIDGE, litrocims, and Acrort
to trial on a charge of murdering the prisoners
under their care. Now, as then, a perseverance in
the imposition of excessive labour, privation of neces-
Isary food, and painful manacling of the limbs, have
produced death—by suicide or otherwise. The gaol
at Birmingham, it is true, appears to have been kept
clean and properly ventilated; the fmtid squalor—
the most revolting feature, to nerves delicately attem-
pered,—of the London cases of last century, is wanting.
But though the humanity of the age has restricted
the means of the Birmingham torture-masters, the
ingenuity of cruelty has, as one of SILAKBPRABE'S

characters says, "gone far with little." We do not
ask to have the modern BAMBRIDOEB and HUOOINSES
arraigned at the bar of a court of justice; to make
them suffer will not diminish or undo the suffering
they have occasioned to others. Besides, the glorious
uncertainty of the law would in all probability ren-
der such a mode of proceeding illusory. But we do
expect to hear that every individual whom the Com-
missioners shall declare guilty of participation in
the Birmingham cruelties has been dismissed
with disgrace from his employment, and declared
incapable of ever hereafter serving, in the meanest
capacity, in any gaol, hulks, or house of correction.
Also: the revelations made in the courts of justice
and before the Parliamentary Committee, relative to
the fearful secrets of the London prisons in 1730,
gave the first impetus to the labours of a series of
philanthropists whose effcrts were directed to ame-
liorate prison discipline, and impart to it • more
practically useful character. It is to be hoped that
the Birmingham disclosures may, in like manner, be
made the basis of further improvements in the ex-
istieg system.
• Our expectations on this score are more than
usually sanguine. Lord PALMERSTON'S prompt and
practical rebuke to the " hush-up" tendencies of the
Birmingham Visiting Justices has so far been admi-
rably followed up by the Commissioners. To all of
these gentlemen, and especially to Mr. WELBBY, the
admiration and thanks of the public are due. In the
language of a local journal (which appears to have
the fear of the Justices before its eyes) the "impar-
tial though rigid" impartiality of the Commissioners
has elicited, and is cliciti:.g, the truth. The task of
Captain WILLIAMS and his colleagues, in so far as
the mere ascertainment of truth is concerned, is
nearly accomplished ; let us hope that their recom-
mendation of measures to prevent the recurrence of
such atrocities may be equally effective and credit-
ab e to their sagacity.

"Nearly accomplislud," we have said of the task
of inquiry. Mr. ACSIIN sod his nnderstrappers
already stand coavietcd by their own reluctant con-
fessions quite as much as by the testimony of others.
It only remains to complete the investigation by
ascertaining the rest extent of the complicity of the
Visit ii.giusticeb in the horrible proceedings of the Bir-
mingham gaol. Their attempts to hush up the