The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-18 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18.

AT no season of the year arc the hopes or fears of the
husbandman so easily excited as at the present, and
there never was a period, within living memory at all
events, when the future state and progress of Eng-
lish agriculture were so completely within the control
of the owners and occupiers of land as at this mo-
ment. We have gone through a crisis of some seve-
rity, if not peril, and we have come through it
with less of actual suffering and disaster than usually
attends the transition of a protected interest to a
state of free and open competition. The period of
trial is past. All the doubtful circumstances—the
apparently endless fall of prices, which made the
boldest amongst us, who had not faith in sound
principle, quail—have given place to more cheerful
views and more hopeful anticipations.
Believing that free trade in all the products ot
agriculture will be found to be the basis of great
and enduring prosperity to the British husbandman,
we do not deny that to the change of system from
protection to five-trade, with the accompanying cir-
cumstances, very much of the recent agricultural
depression is due. And that not because our farmers
are unable to compete with the producers of food in
all or any parts of the world. On the contrary,
every one who has watched dispassionately the
amount of capital, energy, and intelligence which is
now applied to agriculture in all parts of England,
will be convinced that wheat and meat can be pro-
duced at less cost in this country than they can be
brought for from anywhere else. If three-fourths of
the soil of England were as well cultivated as are the
arms of our best farmers, there would be, in seasons
of moderate abundance, but little room in our mar-
kets for the competition of foreign grain growers.
'flint the greater part of our soil is not thus well
cultivated is attnbutable to a number of complex
causes, which we need not now stop to enumerate.
The high prices which obtained here in 1847 pro-
bably led to larger importations of foreign corn than
will be made when the trade has become settled, and
the ordinary wants of our markets more exactly
known ; for it is notorious that a great proportion of
these importations have been the reverse of profitable.
This produced a rapid and long-continued fall of
prices, so that all dealers and millers became unwil-
ling to purchase more than they required to supply
their immediate wants, finding it better to resort to
the markets, which came lower and lower, than to
risk their capital in large purchases. All speculative
purchases, all that investment of capital in holding
grain with the expectation of a profit, all those in-
termediate operations between the producer and con-
sumer, which usually take place in all commodities
of general use in this country, suddenly ceased;
and ceased mainly because there was an
influential party amongst us who spared no pains
and hesitated at no assertions likely to spread terror
and dismay amongst the agricultural body. To the
unscrupulous conduct of the protectionist politicians,
is to be attributed a large share of the depression
which the agricultural interest has lately endured ;
and, concurrently with this, we have had two indifferent
crops out of three. 'rho crop of 1848 was a bad one,
and for the losses sustained to that year the produce
of 1819 scarcely afforded a compensation, while the
following. year, 18.50, barely enabled the farmer in
the best districts to hold his own ; in many districts,
such as the fens and some others, last year's
crop was a total failure. And everywhere
the yield of corn wheat especially from
last year's crop has been less than the farmers
calculated upon obtaining according to the appear-
aace of the growing corn. That is always the effect
when the sprang is cold and the summer sunless, as
was the case last year.
Another cause of the pressure of foreign grain on
our market is to be found in the political and social
disturbance of the continental nations. For instance,
the large supply of flour we have received from
Franco has been a matter of surprise to every one.
Franco was believed to be an importing, not an ex-
porting nation, so far as regards wheat. An open
trade, however, has disclosed a source of supply not
before much thought of, and it has also disclosed a
fact that in the manufacture of flour the French
millers arc considerably in advance of our own, a supe-
riority, however, which it is very unlikely they will
long retain. But the chief cause of the large sup-
plies of flour received from France lies in the anni-
hilation which has there taken place of the inter-
mediate trade in corn. Amongst a population so
poor and ignorant as the majority of the French
agriculturists, and so imbued with communistic
and antisocial crotchets as the working classes of
their towns, the dealers in corn are regarded with an
evil eye, just as the same useful class of traders were
treated as "forestallers and regraters " scarcely a
century ago. The consequence is that, since the
revolution of 1848 no intermediate dealing in corn
has taken place; to store up corn in the hope of
making a profit—the best and cheapest public
granary a nation can have—is a business no
man will venture on, lest in some popular
outbreak his corn store may render him a
mark for the vengeance of turbulent ignorance.
Hence, the millers grind and export their flour
with all possible despatch, the result being a very
low price of corn in France and a more than due
pressure of French flour on our market.
Such a state of things, however, could not be per-
manent. Already, the price of corn and flour in
France have shown signs of considerable advance ;
already many of her statesmen and economists re-
gard with feelings of anxiety and alarm the absence,
the unusual absence, of any stock of grain in that
country, and are looking with satisfaction to the fact
that there is some store of corn no farther from their
shores than Liverpool and London.
Published accounts corroborate this view which we
have received from private and reliable sources. The
review of the foreign corn trade of the :hark-lane
Express of last Monday says :
In the French markets the prices of wheat and flour have
steadily advanced of late, and the most recent reports
from thence speak confidently of a further rise.
We have heard of more than one instance of spe-
culative purchases of corn in France by capitalists
in this country, and should such operations take place
to even a moderate extent a considerable rise in prices
is certain. For some time our own markets have been

getting firmer, and aro now gradually rising, and
that, too, with a good promise from our growing
crops. Everywhere the wheat is looking more gene-
rally healthy and vigorous than it has been for seve-
ral years, while the rain which has fallen during
the present week—from June the 9th to 14th—will
secure a full plant of barley and oats. And all con-
temporary accounts are of the same tenor. The
Mark-lane Ezpreu, in reference to the cora trade,
alp :
The reports relative to the wheat plant are, with very
few exceptions, favourable. . . . The firm tone which
the grain tnde has lately assumed must, therefore, be sari-
hated to the belief that stocks have been so far reduced as
to render our position somewhat questionable, in case the
harvest should prove late or the supplies from abroad fall off
materially.
And on Monday last there was an advance on
the price at wheat in Mark-lane of from ls. to
2a. per quarter.
If we can rely on our own observation and infor-
mation, the etc& of wheat in the hands of farmers
is less than an average ono at this season, and the
holders are camparatively few in number. The in-
different yield of last year's crop, and the pressure
I the majority of farmers have been under for money,
will amply account for this.
If such be the prospects with respect to grain, they
are no lees • with respect to grass, however
tardy the mason for th it and corn.

Wool has for some time held well. The prices of
store sheep or mutton have advanced considerably.
All sheep bmght within a year have paid extremely
well. There ni something else too that sells better
than it used to do. And that is labour. We take
by chance the following notice from the agricultural
Papers
- -

Penybout fair.—At our May fair there was a good supply of
cattle, which readily sold at an adsauced price. The hiriug
fair was crowded; servants of all descriptions asked higher
wages, and a number were hired at more money than Met
yea►, notwithstanding the depressed state of agriculture.

This is, perhaps, the most decisive practical answer
to all the lugubrious predictions we have heard of
late as to the state of agriculture. There never was
a time when so much well considered and determined
enterprise was directed towards husbandry in
England as is the case at this moment. And this
enterprise mainly dates from the period when the
system of cockering up prices by means of protec-
tion virtually came to an end; vie., in 1836, when
the last committee on agricultural distress sat, and
were unable to agree to any report, because the evi-
dence only justified a free-trade report, and the
majority of the members were protectionists. But the
evidence alone did its work on the minds of the more
in

itelligent owners and occupiers of land, who from
that time set to work to advance their own interests
in the only sound and safe way, that is by improve-
ments. The anti-corn-law league was only the na-
tural result of the exposure the monopolist stl-
ton underwent in the committee of 1836. 'the
harvest was then ripe for the sickle, the free-traders
were only the labourers wko reaped the grain.
It is impossible but that even the retrograde
farmers and recalcitrant landlords should open their
eyes to a mass of facts and circumstances all testify-
ing one way, and showing that agriculturists can
have and can need no other way to prosperity than
free-trade.

IT appears from the abstract of the Census returns
which we published yesterday, that the total popula-
tion of Great Britain and the islands in the British
seas, is nearly a million more than the free population
of all the United States. The total population of the
United States, according to the census of 1850 (as we ,
announced a week or two ago) is 23,267,498 ; if from
this we deduct 3,179,589, the total number of slaves,
we have 20,087,909. The total population of Great ,
Britain and the islands in the British sea, according
to the census of 1851, is 20,919,531. In our little
island alone (and its little appendages) is concen-
trated a population more numerous than is scattered
over the vast regions of the Union.
This crowding has its disadvantages, doubtless,
but it has also its compensating advantages. The
great emporiums of the United States—New York,
for example—present pretty much the same features
as our own crowded marts. In New York, as in Lon-
don or Liverpool, the moat squalid destitution elbows
enormous wealth, the must degraded ruffianism, high
intellect, and irreproachable morals. But over the
greater part of the Union—New England, perhaps,
excepted—fewer individuals experience any. difficulty
in obtaining a livelihood—absolute pauperism is less
known than in Great Britain. It may be doubted,
however, whether the middle classes of Great Britain,
or even the skilled artisans, would be content to
rough it in the manner that the corresponding classes
in the United States do, outside of those localities,
which, as has been remarked above, are mere cowl•
terparts of our large cities. And, undoubtedly, the
aggregate property of the twenty millions who in-
habit Great Britain far exceeds that of the twenty
million freemen of the North American Republic,
even though their slaves are to be taken into account.
The luxuries of art and intellect, to say nothing
of more vulgar luxuries, are enjoyed to
a greater amount, with greater intensity, and by a
wider "select" public in this country than in Ame-
rica. The quantity of human happiness is in both
countries nearly the same—the balance may turn
, slightly in favour of America, but the quality excels
, here.

This is an inference from other data than those
as yet furnished by the returns of the last census in
either country. Indeed, the mere numerical returns
of any census can go but a short way to decide the
delicate and all-important question upon which we
have touched. But the abstracts of the lust censuses
of the two countries, as yet published, arc too meagre
(especially: the abstract of our own) to warrant de-
cided conclusions of any kind.
As yet we are only in possession of the aggregate
number of inhabitants of England, Scotland, and the
islands of the British sea. The comparative num-
bers of males and females—the ratio of increase since
1841—and the comparative numbers of houses, in-
habited and uninhabited, in 18d1 and 1841. This
is a scanty basis whereon to erect theories, even if
it were complete in itself. But until we obtain the
same information relative to Ireland, it is miserably
incomplete. To enable us to estimate the actual
condition of the central empire, the progress it has
made during the last decade, we must be in posses-
sion of the returns from the less fortunate sister
island.
To the indefatigable and intelligent Chamberlain
of Glasgow we arc indebted for more full details of
the results of the census in that city, and the country
of which it is the head, than we have yet been able
to obtain front any other quarter. Dr. STRANG has
already published an able and elaborate report of the
census of the city and its suburbs, and has appended
to it a mere summary bat intelligent report of the
country census, by Mr. P. T. YOUNG, to whom the
superintendence of the census of Lanarkshire was
entrusted by the sheriff. Many of the results embo-
died in these two documeats appear to be of an ex-
ceptional nature ; still they are curious, and worthy
of attention.
It appears from a table prepared by Dr. STRANG,
to show the population of Glasgow and its suburbs
classified according to the country of nativity, that
among 353,220 inhabitants there are 279,454 born in
Scotland, 8,615 born in England, 62,925 born in
Ireland, 1,036 born in the colonies, 769 foreigners,
and 421 whoso origin has not been ascertained. It
is to the Irish element of this mixed population we
would direct attention ; Dr. STRANG observes on this
head:
The result of the present census appears to be that the
Irish bear to the gross population 2.07 per cent. more than
they did to that of 1841 ; but this last cipher gives no ade-
quate idea of the increase of those who may be strictly
considered as belonging to Ireland, and who are domiciled
within the limits of Glasgow and its suburbs. Within the
last ten years, the children born here of Irish parents have
been very numerous ; but these, of course, are all put under
the head of Scotch. While, therefore, there appears only
to be an increase of 2.07 per cent. in the present enumera-
tion, above that which the Irish bore to the population of
1841, the real number of inhabitants who are imbued with
Irish characteristics, habits, feelings, and religious senti-
ments is infinitely greater.

It is confidently anticipated that the returns of
the Irish census will show in a startling manner
the effects of the years of famine and sickness by
which Ireland has been subjected. But Irish back-
going will not be a mere off-set to English advance ;
the mere rapid ratio of the increase of the Irish por-
tion of' the population in Glasgow is one of the re-
sults of Irish distress. Suffering in Ireland accele-
rates the Iftliernisation which certain districts of
England and Scotland are undergoing.
The following remark by Mr. YouxG, bears not on
the city of Glasgow, but the other parts of the county
of Lanark. It presents an unexpected state of
affairs :
It is rather a singular fact also, that although there has
been an increase on the whole country since 1841, of no
ler than 98,015 souls, the increase of females over males is
much less in proportion than it was in 1841. In 1841, with
a population of 434,099, the excess of females over males
was 11,105, while at the present census, with a population of
532,114, the excess is only 13,668, or 2,563 more than it
was in 1841. • • • In several of the parishes in the
country and other burghs (Glasgow excepted) the excess of
females is comparatively trifling, and in others there is an
excess of males, and upon the three 'wards of the country
taken as a whole, exclusive of Glasgow, there is a consider-
able preponderance of males over females, particularly in
the middle ward. .

The last feature of the Glasgow Census, to which
we would direct attention at present, is the state of
education. Dr. STRANG estimates that of 21,108
children between five and ten years of age, there aro
only about 6,000 or 7,000 who have not received
some education. This is bad enough, but not
nearly so bad as might have been expected.
Glasgow, however, the scene of the labours of Dr.
Cibtxxxits, is an exceptional locality. Dr. STRAND
intimates that "the increased seal of ecclesiastical
educationists, as well as of general philanthropists,"
has contributed largely to diminish the educational
destitution of Glasgow. These influences have not
been equally influential in all parts of the kingdom.
Besides,the quality of edneation in Glasgow.

AMERICA.
ARRIVAL OF THE. BALTIC.

The United States mail steam-ship Baltic, Captain
Comstock, arrived at Liverpool late last night, bring-
ing the mails and advice. from New York to the
7tti instant, on which day she left that port for
England.
The Baltic brings 150 passengers and 827,000
dole. in specie on freight.
The United States mail steam-ship Pacific, rapt.
Nye, with the English mails of the 28th ult., arrived
at New York at 11 o'clock on the morning of the 7th.
The intelligence by this arrival is three days later
than that brought by the Africa.
It is stated that the French government arc about
to bring a claim of 3,000,000 dole. against that of
the United States, for goods confiscated at San Fran-
cisco for non-compliance with the revenue laws.
The receipts from customs in the United States,
from July, 18.50, to May, 1831, exhibit an increases
of nearly 8,000,000 dollars.
A terrible tornado visited the city of Louisville,
Kentucky, on the 17th ult. A number of buildings
were levelled, and other damage done to property.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, had been vis,ted by a
fire, which destroyed a great amount of property.
The jury. in the case of Scott, who was indicted
for aiding in rescuing the fugive slave Shadrach,
in Boston, could not agree on the testimony
sufficiently to find a verdict; but there was no doubt
among them respecting the constitutionality and pro-
priety of the Fugitive Slave Law. Another of the
parties indicted for the same offence was to be put
upon his trial on the 9th, to which day the matter
was adjourned.
The Missouri Republican says that at no period
since 1840 has the emigration to Illinois, lowa, Min-
nesota and Missouri, been so general as this spring.
Large accessions are daily made to their popula-
tion from other states of the Union, and sections of
the country which have heretofore been passed
by are now rapidly filling up with population.
In addition to the tide from other States, greatly
increased numbers of foreign emigrants are arriving.
Nearly every boat from the south, and frequently
boats from tiw Ohio, come crowded to excess with
these emigrants.
A new morning paper, on the penny system, has
been established in Lowell. It is called tho
Daily News.
Six barges. laden with dressed lumber, were de-
spatched from Montreal recently, for the United
States, two of which proceeded direct to New York,
without re-shipment. This is believed to be tho first
attempt made for a direct communication inland
with NOV York.
Business throughout the states is in much the
same condition as NI hen the Africa sailed.
Accounts from Mexico, published in the New
York Herald, intimate that evidences were visible
of a project for revolutionising Mexico.
Ilavannah letters received at Savannah state that
the cry of liberty is to be raised at Cuba on tho
25th inst.