The Express.
London, England, 1853-11-23 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL AND MARKETS.

- • -

MARK-LANE.-THIS DAY.

Business in Mark-lane was much interfered with this
morning by a dense fog. In the few transactions which took
place the turn in price was in favor of the seller, and the
market hu a firm tone.

New oats were easier to purchase, whilst old oats. and
more particularly Archangel, were 63. dearer.
Barley, beano, and peu were unaltered in value.

ARRIVALS INTO LONDON :Mom NOV. 21st to NOV. 23rd.
Llro. Zoo Ult. t4atell. DWI. Fore:gr.
Wheat if 0 .. . I 16770
11.1247 620 .. I 111 0
0 31P BO 12549 I 4660
Malt .....
Fleur.

and 3,280 barrels.

MINCMG-LANE.--THIS DAY.
ScoAtt.—The market is quiet; the atmosphere has pre-
♦ented buyers from inspecting samples. Ihe refined mar-
ket is very firm ; grocery lumps, 44e. 6d. to 475,
Comm.—There has not been a public sale to-day. Na-
tive Ceylon firm, at 465. 6d.
TEA.—The market advances daily ; the close of the pub-
lic vale this morning went off briskly ; large buyers of com-
mon Congou by private contract continue in the market,
and the present price is Is. 31d, to le. 31d. per lb.

SPICES sold well in public sale; Ringer at high prices
COTTON.—The demand is limited.
In other articles no material alteration.

TALLOW MARKET.-THIS DAY.

The ;;;Ce7ievery quiet to-day, and prices may be
nominally quoted the same as yesterday, viz.:—Town tal-
low. 564. nett cash ; Petersburg Y.C. on the spot, 56a. 6d.
to 9d.;' Oct. to Dec., 565. to 345. 3d. ; January to March,
5i e. to gs. 3d.

BOROUGH HOP MARKET.—THIS DAY.
Messrs. Pattenden and Smith report that the market
is very firm for all good bops.

COAL MARKET.—THIS DAY.
Ilnlywell, 24.1. 03. ; West Hartley, 21s. Od. ; Walls End
245. 6d. ; Walls End Haswell, 265. • Walls End
Stewart's, 261.; Walls End Tees, AL—Ships at asultet. 110.

A CONFLAGRATION.—The fire in the woods in
Michigan was checked by a recent rain, but it is still burn-
ing in many localities. Tens of thousands of acres of
f.rest have been destroyed, and o. the top soil, to the depth
of nearly a foot in many places, nothing is left but ashes.
It is istanated that more than fifty horns and houses have
been burnt, with miles of fence, and many thousands of
i 1,41 ere worth of saw-logs. co: d w,2od_ &c.— Washington In •
teliigenoer.

tlu, ororros.

met with deserved reprobation from the Belgian
journals., and excited much discussion abroad. These i
are only a few of the many facts which show the
, intense ini“.est now taken throughout Europe in, the
productton of corn, and in the laws by which Govern-
I merits have sought to regulate the supply. Under
st,n circumstances we canrot pass by the remarkable
article which appeared in the Moniteur of Thursday,
and referred to in our paper of Saturday, without a
more extended notice than it then received. It may
only reiterate, as the Presse says, doctrines which
that journal has preached continually ; it may only,
as the Constitutionnel remarks, state that with autho-
rity which all free trade journals have long ago
! taught ; still, because it does lend the sanction of
authority to much hitherto unaccredited teaching. and
because the opinions it enforces have already been
made somewhat popular, it is so much the more
important, and so much the more deserving the public
attention. It is a right word, spoken at a right time,
by a high authority; it fixes attention almost uni-
versally on a subject of the highest interest, and
will, from its effects, turn out to be an event of very
great and lasting influence.
We are well known not to be admirers of Lolls
NAPOLEON, and we abhor both the means by which
he acquired the government of France and the poli-
tical principles on which he conducts it; but since he
is acceptable to the French, and as with them his
Government is of great authority, we say nothing
aAainst him. By satisfying them, too, and keeping
them quiet, he has relieved a part of Europe hom
the apprehensions it entertained of being disturbed
or overrun, and on the continent of Europe he is held
in much higher respect than we could have supposed
possible for a BONAPARTE who had re-established the
once dreaded Empire. There he is now sufficiently
respected to make his words very influential ; nor are
they less to be valued here because they are in the
main completely at variance with the political prin-
ciples of his Government. We admire much of what
is said in the Moil/ear because it expresses important
truths, and we admire it the more because it cannot
be presented by authority to a logical people like the
French without leading them to extend its deduc-
tions from corn to politics, from free trade to free
speech, and helping them more speedily to get rid ,
of despotism.
The article is not in the official part of the
Muniteur, bat as no article appears in that
journal without the sanction of the Government, it
may be assumed to express the opinions of the EM-
PEROR, if it be not drawn up by himself or by one
of his Ministers, and is intended to defend his policy
as to corn, and promote freedom of trade. In such a
quarter, and at such a time as the present, it must
astonish and delight all Free Traders to find it written
as a reason for the Government not undertaking the
task of interfering to supply the deficiency of the
harvest : that it " would cost at since 300,000,000
francs; that to raise such a sum recourse must be
had to direct taxation, which would fall heavily on
the distressed agriculturists; or to a loan, which
would derange commercial affairs and injure
the financial condition of the Government:.
That is going beyond our own Government, which
unquestionably both deranged trade and injured our
financial system by its loan and its interference to
supply the people of Ireland in 1846.
The .Vondeur goes further than this, and shows
that the Government could not have secured ship-
ping enough to import the supplies now required by
France, without laying its hands on all the vessels of
the country, and annihilating its bade. Could it
succeed in importing a sufficient quantity of corn, it
must then, according to the official journal, provide
for its storage and its distribution, and must have
employed an immense number of persons, without
knowing what to do with them after the crisis was
over. If the corn were sold at a loss, the expense to
'the state would be enormous ; if it were sold at a
profit cJvering all charges, the Government would
only, as the result of its exertions, cause national
discontent. Moreover, the effects on produc-
tion and distribution at home would be disas-
trous. Some parts of France always produce, even
in years like the present, more corn than they con-
sume; other parts, however abundant the harvest,
always draw supplies from other quarters. Such
differences are found in neighbouring arrondisse-
ments, or even cantons, and trade effectually equalises
them Gain is its object; and if it had to encounter
the ruinous competition of the Government it would
be stopped and stifled. As soon as the Government
began to trade in grain it would have the market to
itself, and both the foreign and home trade in corn
would be stopped. As the sole purveyor of food for
the people, 300,000,000 francs would not suffice, it
must have nalliards, and for the Government to
interfere with the corn trade would lead to the de-
struction of the public credit and the whole organi-
sation of the State. The conclusion to which the
arguments we have given an outline of lead we
translate textually.
" From the alternative the state cannot escape ; it
most do all or nothing. If it touches a single source
of the supply of food, its course is fatal—it must go
on till it absorbs all, even all other business as well
as the trade in food. The substitution of the state
for the action of (private) industry is at once physi-
cally impossible, financially ruinous, and politically
absurd. The Government could take no such course,
and it has trusted to trade to supply the deficiencies
of the harvest. The result has corresponded to these
prudent resolves. The storehouses, the means of trans-
port, the multitude of persons employed between the
producer and the consumer,—all these means of distri-
bution which the state wants, are possessed by
individuals, and that which would be impossible and
absurd is government, is simple and easy for the
Government."

The Government organ, which thus emphatically
denounces all Government interference with trade,
goes on to show that trade needs security, liberty,
and facilities, and it praises the decrees of August
13 and Is, and of October 1, which suspended all
import ditties, and removed all obstacles to the
import of corn ; it praises, too, but with very
doubtful propriety, purchases of food abroad for
the army and navy, and with great justice,
the reduction of the duties on the importation
of cattle. The results boasted of are the impirtation
alteady of 3,.)00,000 hectolitres of wheat, Ind of arri-
vals from America tad the Levant increasing day by
day. " Whatever may be the deficiency of the hat,
vest," is the final conclusion in the .1/uniteur, to
which we shall advert, " there is every :lawn to
hope,:hanks to the efforts of Free Trade (e'nnmerct
lip„e) that it will be speedily supplied."
In the remainder of the article we are informed
that the harvest is not ritually deficient in all parts of
France, and that in some parts oats, barley, and
potato's, which form a large part of the
food of the people, are more abundant
than usual. J! states, to.), that Oa (i.)%erethelit