The Express.
London, England, 1853-11-22 00:00:00

SMITHFIELD HAY MARKET.-THIS DAY.

—•
Mr. E. J. Davis reports trade a little better ut a slight im-
provement en last week's prices, viz .—Prime meadow
hay, 80s. to 105 s. ; inferior, 50s. to 7k". ; Itowen, 455. to
551. ; clover, 801. to 120 s. ; second out, 70s. to 1051.; straw,
365. to 40a.

DEMERARA RAlLWAY.—Traffic for the fortnight
ending Oct. 8, 1553-65.51. 10e. 2d. Corrospowliag period
last year, 5.551. 25. 7d.

clortfiri.

TO COItILKSPONDENTS.
a Pee get Y.•l.•i••n •r, V.egeree." e ett.siettag the, cant eee mew.
t•. ,* • try Trisedity d Irbini :Light, um wax
tor p.c.

iv... Wended be "The ribtelk." lades ET,lin
Le .d t:.c Meek le, 10•1111.4ftet. by TWO o'clock es the
$y of publicatloo.

111441 WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
1.11:• I . - Locums, th. Ust Ariersocs, Sh.tfi.n.
To-s,iits-is Int. 2 ~

LONDOS, TUESD.II; NOVE.VBER 22.

TuE Corn Market as yet shows no symptom of de-
clink , and the question of our future supplies still
continues to be important and interesting. In a
very elaborate " Report on the Corn Trade," dated
the 19th jest., published by Mr. GEORGE DORN-
EI:801, there are numerous materials for solving this
question. lle gives us ample statements of the
quan'ities of grain and flour imported in the last ten
yaws, the countries they were imported from geogra-
phically grouped, and he points out that our more
abundant supplies have in latter years come from the
South, as they formerly came from the North. lie
supplies a history in brief and by figures of our corn
trade ; but past experience is in this respect so poor a
guide to the future that when we go back a fewyears we
find England an exporting country, and—paying high
bounties to be cleared of her surplus ! The writer
says that a comparison has been drawn between the
present year and 1t447, but circumstances then and
now are widely different. Yet there is no other
period which supplies us with any elements for
forming an opinion, and by the help of the facts he
states we must endeavour to arrive at some conclu-
sion respecting our immediate prospects.
In 1847 we imported of all kinds of cereals and of
Sour, reduced to quarters, 11,915,590 qrs.---say
12,000,000 qrs. Now, the imports of that year were
very nearly four times as great as tho average im-
ports of the four previous years. The imports from
Russia, then the greatest taunt! of supply, increased
eightfold ; and the imports from Atzerica, the next
great source of supply, increased threefold ; and so
with other countries ; and since then many new
sources of supply have been opened to us. The price
which then brought the increased quantity was un-
usually high-935. 9d., but the average price of the
year was G9s. 9d. The avenge price of the four
preceding years was nearly .525., so that a rise
in price of 41s. 9d. enticed those immense
supplies from all parts of tho world.
It was, in fact, too high ; and it brought
hither more corn than was wanted. la December
1547, the price of wheat fell to 525. 9d. from
935. 9d. in June, and the bulk of the corn importers
became bankrupts.

If, says Mr. Dorubusch, in 1817 unexpectedly and unpre-
peaty so large a quantity could be found, it is not at all
improbable that this year, if required, a much larger importa-
tion will be obtained. With the admirable organisation of the
Boning cargoes, trade with extended means of communica-
tion, stamen, railroads, and electric telegraphs, this nation
has now at its commaad a range of means and facilities of
which in 1817 it was entirely destitute. Any important fluc-
tuation in Mark•lane is felt like an electric shock in all
the corn :markets of the world. For every ds. advance in
price, a ship can sail a thousand milts further in search of
food. This autumn the demand for corn in western Europe
has already attracted from the depths of the continent to
the see shore a large quantity of corn that, in ordinary sea-
sons, cannot travel the distance on account of the coat of
carriage ; at this moment innumerable care toads of wheat
are converging towards the ports of the Black flea and the
Aticntic, ready to be shipped to the highest bidder.

All these circumstances justify the hope that we
*ball easily get as large an increase on the quantity
we import as we imported in 1847, if we want it.
Shall we want as large a quantity ? Nobody can give
a positive answer. There are only conjectures. The
wheat crop is undoubtedly very deficient in quan-
tity and very defective iu quality. But in 1817 the
potato crop was an entire failure in Ireland ; now it
is abundant, and she is exporting largely to Eng-
land. She makes now little or nodemsod on foreign
grain. In Scotland, too, the harvest has been good.
Other cereals than wheat are not deficient.
" Farmers are large holders of corn (old and new),
and have yet brought very little to market." " One-
sixth of the year's consumption is already supplied."
Should t►e next harvest be early, we shall require,
in fact, food for only nine months. These circum-
stances diminish the quantity we shall require.
Moreover,we are importing potatoes from new sources,
such as Sweden, which will help to eke out the bread;
and the old sources of supply of this valuable edible,
Holland and Belgium, continue their exports. While
we know not exactly what quantity of wheat we
shall require to import, we may conclude from these
circumstances that our probable wants have been

exaggerated.
We have, however, some peat differences betwixt
1847 and 1863 to topsider. We now import regu-
larly about 5,000,000 qrs. of wheat and flour as
wheat, and about 9,000,000 qrs. of all kinds of grain ;
lad for some years past many countries have grown
cern for oar markets. We might, theatre expect
that we shall get a larger iacressed supply now, if we
required, then in 1847. But then England was the sole
buyer in the great corn markets; and France, Italy, and
Belgium, which them seat us peat quantities of
food, are now competitors with as to obtain it in
those markets. In 1847 Francs sent us 262,380
quarters of grain and 130,853 cwt. of flour ; Italy
213,001 quarters of the former and 9,294 cwt. of the
latter; and Belgium 43,538 quarters of grain and
36,8.3 cwt. of flour. We are thus exposed to a
double deprivation : we receive nothing from them,
and they buy against us in all the markets where
we habitually deal.
Against this, however, must be set off the impor-
tant facts that sisal 1&17 the supplies of grain habi-
tually sent to our market by Russia have risen from
less than 300,000 qrs. to 1,300,000 qrs.; by Turkey,
from lees than leo,ooo qrs. to more than 1,000,000
qrs.; and by the United Stater, from 430,000 qrs. of
grain and 248,000 barrels of flour, to 852,000 gra
of grain and 2,600,000 barrels of flour. Otber coun-
tries have in like manner come to depend ou us as
habitual consumers, and they have, on the whole,
latterly sent us fivefold as much 'obviate 1847.
Oar average price of wheat has since 1847 been
below 40s. Prior to 1847 it was above 61s. A rise
now to 83a. woald be equivalent to s rise then to
945., and thus we may conclude that a much lower
price than that prevailed will suffice to bring us ade-
quate supplies. The highest weekly average which
has yet prevailed is 73.. 7d., or 20a. 2d. below the
highest price of 1847, and a lower price than this
has brought us in the present year already 3,770,921
quarters of wheat and 3,800,748 cwts. of flour. From
the habitual supply hating become so large at an
average price of 405., we may conclude, if other
countries have oorn,—snd there is an abundant
harvest in Reda, America, and Spain, from which
we now impart largely,—we shall get it at a mach
less rise of price than 83e.
In fact, at prices about equal to our own present
prices, France has already obtained 3,800,000 hecto.
litres of wheat, or more than one-third of all that it
is supposed she will require. If we need it, some of
that supply will be brought hither, and thus we
may be quite sure that, with prices somewhat higher
than at present, we shall get all that we require.
In estimating the wants of the neighbouring con-
timid, ea our competitor for.the supply, we meat not

overlook the six weeks' very fine weather which has
there prevailed, and which has enabled the husband-
I man to get all his a inter. seed sown under the
imnst favourable circumstances. as well as to
ripen and gather in perfect order the vast quantities
of beyllPliCS consumed on the continent, and which
I there to a considerable extent supply the place of
bread. It is quite pos,ible, therefore, that the real
wants of the people of France, Belgium, and Italy
I may be overrated as our wants were in 1847 ; and
that we rday procure with comparative ease the
quantity of corn we shall require from the vast
number of countries now ready to supply as.
I According to the accounts received from Odessa,
Gala:z, and also from various ports of the United
States, there will be a greater difficulty in pro-
curing vessels to bring the requisite supply than
in procuring the coat. Freights which were high
at this time last year are now double what
,they wete thee, and •it costa no less, on the
average, than 245., or nearly three times the
sum formerly paid, to bring a cargo of corn from
Galata to the United Kingdom. Mr. DORNBUSCII
says " 335. per quarter has been paid. A want of
tonnage is felt is many trades." The corn trade of !
England, absolutely surprising in its growth since
1848, must alone employ in ordinary years a million
tons of shipping. At present our own increased
wants, and the wants of other countries, must
double the demand ; and the shipping of the world,
though freedom makes it all available, is insufficient
in quantity. Hence our difficulty at present is more
to obtain the means of importing wheat than of
getting wheat 0 import; and we have to look more
to shipowners and shipbuilders for the means of
supply than to the cultivators of the ground. To the
surprise, we believe, of all ram—certainly to the con-
founding of our landed aristocracy,—the Corn Trade,
discussed as a means only of affecting their welfare,.
has become, for the quantity of shipping it employs,l
and the encouragement it gives to navigation, second]

to none in the empire, if it be not the first and
greatest of all. We know no other article, except it
be coal, which employs an equal quantity of ton-
nage; and as the trade in corn is certain to increase,
different kinds being exchanged by different coun-
tries, it will speedily come to be the greatest trade of
the world.

IN announcing yesterday the melancholy death of
the Queen of PORTUGAL—the royal lady in whose
behalf some four-and-twenty years ago the admiration
of London was so enthisiastically excited, when, as
a child, she wu the guest of GEORGE IV.-- we con-
tented ourselves with giving an outline ef the princi-
pal events of her somewhat chequered and romantic
career. But now that the surprise of the fatal occur-
rence is over, we must to-day consider its probable poli-
tical effects. Before doing so, we may, however, men-
tion that the later accouchements of the deceased
QUEEN had given uneasiness and crested apprehen-
sions amongst her family, her relatives, and her
household, and that on the occasion of one of her
NW& Y's more recent confinements—that preceding
the present, we believe—her ow n life was only
saved by the sacrifice of the intent. Nor,
before entering on the more public consequences of
her demise, must we omit paying a tribute of respect
to the personal merits of the deceased lady; for, like
our own happier Sovereign, Bona MARIA set her sub-
ject, an excellent example of purity of conduct, of
domestic happiness, and of devotion to her family
duties. Attached to her husband and her children,
to them at least her loss will be a source of sincere
and deep regret.
In her public capacity it was a misfortune, *hich
the late Queen of PORTUGAL never overcame, that
she was only sovereign of one, and perhaps, nume-
rically speakieg, the smallest, of its parties. Though
the lawful monarch, her elevation to her throne cost
Portugal a civil war : in this struggle she was suc-
cessful principally by means of foreign assistance,
military and diplomatic; and of all European nations
the Portuguese most resent the interference of other
States in their domestic affairs. With her,
too, came Constitutional Government ; and,
though properly enough it abated the im-
mense power of the Church and the Priesthood,
less of power, influence, and above either of wealth,
aggravated the hostility of the Clergy to the new
order of things, and they have kept alive even to this
day the predilections of the great mw of the igno-
rant peasantry of Portugal for Dom MIGUEL. This
gave the Court the excuse for keeping up a large
acd expensive army. The civil war had, however,
completely disorganised the finances of Portugal and
involved the Government in debt, which it had the

meanness and folly to deal with dishonestly ; igno-
rantly forgetting that with States especially is honesty
the best policy. These facts, combined with a
remarkable absence of all really able statesmen at a
period when Portugal required another acid a better
POItIIAL to resuscitate it, constituted difficulties which
Dona MARIA had to encounter, though she was not
herself responsible for them.

The Quits, however, increased these difficulties
by her own conduct. Like her father, Dom PEDRO
in Brasil, she never heartily aooepted in Portugal
the constitutional system.= which her authority was
based. Like him, she was insincere, vacillating, and
faithless ; like him, she trusted to everything but
the confidence and regard of her subjects, and to
every one but honest and truthful advisers ;—and if
,her people were, as can hardly be denied, in some
points of view as yet unsuited to Parliamentary
Government, she teased, and tormented, and per-
plexed them by enbetituting the ever-shifting and
various shadow for the Mee permanent and far safer
reality. The consequanes was, that, whilst
a powerful Miguelite feeling had always to be
guarded against, the party' which had given
Dona MARIA the crown WU unnaturally sad vio-
lently divided. Its ablest aid most loyal leaders
were treated with ingratitude and neglect; the
Court unused the place the Legislature ought to
have occupied; where wisdom and conciliation were
wanted, iatrigne and corruption prevailed ; and the
rule of the QUEEN wee associated with a selfish and
a reactionary policy. Hence violence was necessary
to effect useful changes, and at hist a powerful sub-
ject (Marshal SALDARRA), without any great abili-
ties or noble views, was, by his popularity with the
army, able to coerce the Crown, and to govern arbi-
trarily in its name, though personally disliked by the
Mosanca and her Court. Nor is it at all improbable
that, but for British intervention, the results of
Portuguese discord might have been even more
unpleasant to the Qum; and her family than they
were.

And now that death has prematurely removed
Dona MARIA, nothing certain or dependable re-
mains behind her ; unless indeed (as was the ease with
her brother under not dissimilar circumstances in
Brazil) the youth and freedom from all ill associations
of her son and successor may aresure the regard and
sympathy of the people. Dom Pr.nno V. is under-
stood to be a fine active, spirited, and intelligent
young man, whose natural abilities are considerable,
and whose education has been of a much
higher and better eharactee than that of
Portuguese Princes heretohan. The experiment
may not indeed be without some dangers ;
but in Portugal, thus situated, there is at best only
a choice of dangers ; and between a Regency and a
premature majority, there ought to be no difficulty
in preferring the latter. A King-Consort, be he
who he may, can never be popular in Portugal; and
when we recollect that, scarcely three short years

ago, the husband of the late QUEEN, who is now
Regent, was, on a critical emergency, deserted by the
army of which he was legally the chief, it is impel-
° Bible to anticipate any real satisfaction to the nation
Ifrom his administration for the next two Tears. Such
a Regency would, in fact, only be a continuation of
the last Reign ; and excellent Consorts to reigning
Monarchs as the CODGER° family make, Europe is
nevertheless jealous of them.. The best hopes of
Portugal and the beat wishes of Europe will, there-
fore, concur in desiring an earlier majority for Dom
PEDRO V. than the law affixes ; and the best contri-
bution the King Regent can probably make to his
son's happiness, and to the welfare of his adopted
country, is the resignation of his vicarious authority
in favour of the young KING himself.
For what Portugal wants, and what Portugal now
must have, is the commencement of a really consti-
tutional system ;—of a system under which Parlia-
mentary Government shall be carried out in all its
consequences; of a system of honest conciliation and
of temperate and just freedom; in which there shall
be no court reserves, no palace intrigues, no secret
combinations, no personal proscriptions obstructing,
embarrassing, and at last defeating popular liberty.
The Brazilians arc only Amcrican•Portuguese, and
there, at Rio de Janeiro, such a system is iu suc-
cessful operation. And whence its success? Simply
because there it has fair-play. It needs no more (but
it can be satisfied with no less) at Lisbon. No doubt
there is corruption, there is faction, there is intrigue,
there is even disloyalty, to be encountered in Portugal.
So there also was in Brazil. But Parliamentary Go-
vernment is proving too much and too powerful for
such evil influences. And what the Portuguese have
accomplished in South America they will achieve
in Europe under parity of circumstances. Complete
success will, of course, require time ; but what is
now wanted is a beginning. To secure that, it is
necessary to dispense with a Regency. And if pre-
cedents for its dispensation are wanted, they are to
be found in our own times. The minority of Dona
Mama herself was prematurely terminated; so
also was that of her brother, the Emperor of
BRAZIL; and in the latter case with the happiest
consequences.

To lose two years with Portugal in its present de-
plorable state is to waste half a century, is to associ-
ate the reign of the young KING with the misfor-
tunes and the failure of his predecessor ; is, in all
probability, to give an evil tone and current to his
whole life. Under a Regency, Miguelism will again
raise its head, faction be exasperated and more em-
bittered, the youth of the rising generation will be in-
oculated with all the passions and the vices of
their fathers, and a great and noble opportunity of
reconciliation will be evaded and avoided. With
the Treasury insolvent, without credit or respect
abroad, with an army four or five months in arrest
of its pay, with other state functionaries wanting
twelve mouths' salaries, with a ministry in power
by violence and force, with a populace discontented,
what can a Regency hope to effect or accomplish ?

THE LAWSON OBSERVATORY.