The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-22 00:00:00

MANCHESTER, JAN. 21.
The members of the Manchester Commercial Moo-
dation hid th‘ir t.isth annual meeting yesterday morning,
to recess.- the report of the retiring director*, and to elect
the dir. t tars for the ensuing year. The meeting was sumo•
rously ientially attended, and Mr. J. 1111PINALL
Tt testa, the pr.sid.nt of the associetion, took this chair.
Previous •n the reading of the report,
The CHAIRMAN sin I the report which would presently
be read to the meeting by the theretary would enumerate
the various subjcc's which bad occupied the attention of
the directors during the past year, and it would not there
fore be Leeway for him to say much in detail on more
thee one or two points. First of all he might allude to the
Minch star Customs establishment. They were aware that a
Ind lied been introduced into parliament to transfer from the
borough tend to the government the espouses of con-1
ducting the customs establishment in Manchester. This
Lill did cot pus, but Le hoped however that the efforts of
Blanchester would be eventually successful in obtaining a corn-
pl to hits.* tram those espinthes. A gentleman high in the
Customs had been sent down to Manchester to collect infor-
=mica, and he (the chairman), amongst others, was called
before him to give some evidence on the subject. He then
ventured, to the best of Ms ability, to Iraprem upon him
what Le seemed desirous to knew, whether the establishment
of the Custom house here had afforded the means to the
public of consumes, Mere largely of the articles sue
pm to the Caton' duty than if the same arts lee
had only been obtained from custom-houses at a greater
distance. Hs believed the asexiatioa had dose some
IMMO to the merchants 'egged fa the Gibraltar
trade, inasmuch as they had made some representa-
tions to the Colonial•oflice with regard to certain

expenses which the governor of Abraltas seemed
desirous of placing upon the commercial hitlerelfe Of
that place. He believed these repersentatiose had bees
the m toe of tonna matters being referred back
for the comaideration of the Forums'', which be hoped
would lead to the merchants of that plate befy
relieved from some of the imposts and cameo's whisk t
seemed the object of the governor to throw spas tam;
the direeton thought, improperly. (Hear, bear.)
had also been engaged in discussing the desirablesem el
feelitatieg steam commanieation with the Australia* Mho-
aie. He ventured to call attention to the fact that sines the
repeal of the navigation laws, we were entering
into a very arduous contest with other mercantile
maims in tine conveyauce of merchandise to different
parts of the world. The Americans were entering into the
competition with greet vigour, and he hoped Eoglishmen
would be found quite as ready to contest the point with
them. Ile hoped that anaegements would be made for
facilitating ocean communiosuoa, and that we should con- i
base, as we had probably considered ourselves for a long'
Wks of years, to be the head of the maritime powers. It
Wu desirable that we sh,reld have another route to oar
bast le -an poemesionr, and also to Australia and Chins.
by some unforeseen circumstance, great impediments
might by political events be thrown in the way of
the tree Forage of the present overland route. Although'
he did not aatitipate any immediate interruption
to that mate, yet it was desirable that some speedy mesas of
communicating with our Enters plowmen= should be
ad ptrd, without having to avail ourselves of that roots.
Several propositions had been made for tenanting Ilk OM-
Ows of those had been for the eat/ones of the
preseat overlaad routes to Chia' and ,Australia. That did
mot tastily meet Ilia °Nettie., busies he wished as aide-
peadent route to be adopted, it pemabia. Another pr
had been to take anew steamers to the Cape of (rood7oVe.
That, be believed, had b.en already adopted sa far as the
Cape of (toed Hope was concerned, bat it was desirable ant
this line of gunmen should be coat aced to Amtrak, end
Our ',Heinous la the Pacific. Another proposal was thet
there should bee communication established via Per mm'
Many pencils advocated the adoption of that I
considering the irking importance of California,=
other 'salesman on the west coast of Americo,
This anceietko bad twin, memorialised toe government on
the tetetee—mee beteg the last week. The tint memorial
was to towel Lod Jae Hassell ts give hit attention to the
a*, respeettng route via the Cape
= et Cole Hayes,
barred the 'orn the
ament had been eon-
seahlia&eabeeel4 bat meshing had yot bees done beyoad •
steamers to the Cape el Good Hope. Lest
high the mewed agaisOmping that the govern-
NMI slept that proposal whisk appeared to be the
MM, het that et ell events there would be as farther delay in
meelet% Ameba matte: mishit had been under the
elesitletellee et the airmen bad bath the tatessiee et
Min saldieds•—(beir, kter)—la valets peels et the