The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-10 00:00:00

OUR TRADE WITH THE UNITED STATES.

[The following appears in this Daily Naas .]
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY NEWS.
Sts,—The commercial community of Liverpool
have been somewhat astonished by the articles in
the London Times of yesterday and to-day in refer-
ence to our trade with America. The Times in-
dulges in prognostications of a coming crisis, owing
to the large shipments to America of goods fur
which, as the writer by implication asserts, the Ame-
ricans cannot pay ; and to give plausibility to his
version of the state of the account, he entirely
ignores the large shipments of cotton from the
United States to Great Britain.
In yesterday's Times I fiud the following
"The Cunard steamer this week has again brought
no specie. Yet it is known that the shipments of
goods to America during the past as well as the
preceding months were on a scale larger than has
been witnessed for many years, while the receipts
of produce thence have still been singularly small."
Now there can he no question that the shipments of
goods to America the past few mouths have
been very large indeed, but it is also
equally true that never at any other period
were the Americans less indebted to this country
for such goods ; for upon due inquiry from most of
our principal firms connected with the United
States, I find the same answer ; " all our orders, ex-
tensive as they have been, have been remitted for
by sterling bills when sending the order." From
what source of information, therefore, ices the
Times derive its idea of rash and extravagant
credits to the Americans 1
The Times is equally at sea as regards the shipments
of • produce from the United States to this country.
It takes great pains to show that, while we have
been supplying them with vast quantities of goods,
which the exhausted stocks in the Southern States
absolutely necessitated their taking, they in return
have been sending us but small supplies of produce,
and that even (shipments of gold to this country
have entirely ceased. Your contemporary entirely
omits from its calculations the shipments of cotton
made during the past three months from America to
this country, which have been so large, that at the
present prices current they are estimated at fully
thirteen million pounds sterling—a sufficient sum
to exhaust the Bank of England, if it had to be all
paid for in gold.
Perhaps the Times writer will, after placingltbis
13,000,0001. to the credit of the American nation,
begin to think that, as the whole estimated value of
our shipments to the United States for the first
eleven months of 1865 was not more than about
10,000,0001., the American people cannot, after
all, be owing us so very much, and as it is also
estimated that st present prices for cotton they will
be able to spare us at least 18,000,0001. worth more
of cotton during this year, 1 think the feeling of
panic which the Times is endeavouring to produce is
quite unwarranted by the true position of affairs.
The Times speaks most deprecatingly as to the
danger of the public iu Europe investing in the
United States 5.20 Bonds. Those who remember
the warnio gs w hich the same paper bestowed upon the
Germans, when they were largely investing in them
at 38 to 40, and reflect that English buyers have
since been glad to purchase from them at 68, know
how to appreciate the warnings of the Tinus on
financial questions.
How the Times can perceive a coming rise in
America in the rate of exchange of 10, 20, or 30
per cent., with recent and prospective shipments of
cotton from thence of the value of 30,000,0001.
sterling, I am quite at a loss to conceive.
Throughout these and former articles in the
Times, there has been manifested a bitterness of
feeling towards the American people and nation
which is much to be deprecated. The flippant
manner in which it insults • kindred nation, with
whom our business connexions are of such gigantic
proportions, by insinuating that they will repudiate
their responsibilities, is iu my opinion unworthy of
such a journal, and entitles it to the condemnation
of all thoughtful honourable men.
Apologising for trespassing so much upon your
space,-1 am, *c.,
AN ENGLISH MERCHANT.
Liverpool, Jan. 9.

The death of the key. T. R. Redwar, incumbent
of St. Thomas's Church, Liberty of the Rolls, is anaennceil;
also the death of the Rev. Dime' Homage Finch Hatton,
Chap Lie in Ordiaary to her Majesty.
COMPARATIVE TERVIMITT OP IMPRISORMLNT AND
PENAL SEaVITODC—The Recorder of Liverpool, who has
been roundly taken to teak by the local press for paring
no heavier a sentence then two years' imprisonment upon
Statham, the defaulting clerk to a Liverpool cotton broker,
has viodiested himself in his charge to the Sessions jury.
He states that a good deal of misconception exists on the
subject of punishment, and that the mere term at duration
is by DO =MY an index to its severity. In the cam of
Statham, and in others where the prisoners had previous',
borne flood characters, two years' imprisonment was actually
a heavier —tease thee ems oil Ave lease peal serviisole.