The Express.
London, England, 1860-03-19 00:00:00

HIGH vrAnot AT LONDON BRIDOL

Tom ai:siii::77.lliTri;;;; est min.
Tc.,-zoasow—ltsestag. it Iva .... Memos, lk 27us.

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 19.

THE accounts from the manufacturing districts
for the past week report no diminution of activity,
save in exceptional imances. There has been a
rather decided falling-off in the inquiry for goods
for the East, where the markets now exhibit
dulness, after a prolonged and extraordinarily
active demand ; but prices at Manchester, though
betraying a drooping tendency, are still supported
by the insas of orders in hand. Most of the
manufacturers are fully engaged for weeks for-
ward. One of the most encouraging features is
the sustained activity of the home trade. Owing
to the steady absorption, combined with the
high price of the raw material, the stocks of
manufactured goods throughout the kingdom are
unusually low. This is a very healthy symptom.
Any unsoundness in the manufacturing trade is
impossible so long as the producer finds a market
ready to his hand, and sells his goods at remuners-
tire prices as fast as he can supply them. The
difference between empty and glutted warehouses
constitutes the difference between a healthy ready-
money trade and an unsafe speculative trade.
The continuance of the present satisfactory condi-
tion of affairs may be implicitly relied upon, for,
immunity from sudden checks is virtually afforded
by the number and variety of our foreign cus-
tomers. As one of them gets supplied and with-
draws, others find themselves bare and come
eagerly forward.
The reports from all the woollen districts re-
mark upon the firmness of the market for the raw
material, at the present high scale of prices. The
steady demand for wool experienced for a long time
pant springs front the absolute necessities of the
manufacturers, and is a point of the utmost impor-
thxice both to the home and colonial producer. At
Nottingham and Leicester and in the contiguous
districts the hosiery trade continues active, ma-
chinery is in full work, ample employment is pre-
sented to the workpeople, and the prospects are
decidedly good. At Belfast and Dundee business
is described as very healthy. The report from
Birmingham is of a similar character ; and special
reference is made to the large number of orders
now on the manufacturers' books.

The provisions of the Commercial Treaty with
France are now in full operation ; for, as the ne-
gotiation ham been definitively concluded by the
Emperor NAPOLEON, 41 the plenitude of his Impe-
rial power, there is no necessity for submitting it
to the ordeal of discussion in the Legislative
Assembly. The introduction of French goods into
this country upon a large scale has already com-
menced, and the notification, " Duty off," is not
unemninon in the windows of enterprising shop-
ke, pers. The development of the new trade with
France will he watched with great interest. We
confess we expect much from the Treaty ;
for the idea that trade between two popu-
lations so wealthy and chinned as those
of Great Britain and France sum resume
a one-sided character, is childish. All ex-
experience teaches us that if we consume any par-
ticular clans of foreign goods largely the balance
will be kept right bythe foreigner consuming ours.
Were it a question of a treaty with a semi-bar-
barous nation, the result would be different, for
their wants would be comparatively few. The
correctness of this view is demonstrated by all the
statistics of Anglo-French trade. A parliamentary
return shows that the exports from the United
Kingdom to France in 1855 were 6,012,6581. ; in
Kist, 6,432,650/. ; in 1867, 6,212,3581. ; in
4,863,1311. ;and in 1869,0n1y4,754,3541.
Considering the expansion which commerce has
imilergotui in every other direction, this de-
cline is perfectly unnatural, and is to be
explained only by the existence of a wretched in-
ternational fiscal jealousy now happily repented of.
Our imports from France were upon an equally
restriaed wale, and this because, although we did
not fellow our neighbours' narrow example in ab-
'whitely prohibiting the introduction of a large
number of articles of general utility, trade cannot
possibly attain its full growth unless there is
fnerlam on ono rude as on the other. This free-
dom being wanting WI the aide of France, our in-
terchanges with her have been stunted, whist
those with the United States, whose tariff is mo-
derate, have largely increased, and those with
Australia and India--communities under our own
wtwhoa trade im perfectly free—have grown
to a magnitude perfectly astonishing. Viewed
broadly, all trade is only tartar. A tribe of
aavog,s un the sea-coast cannot transact business
with the tribe further inland unless the latter can

exchange skins or some other Stitt
the fish which forms the staple of the former.
It Eta same with a nation as with • single tribe.
cannot absorb largely the productions of
unless France reciprocates with orders to
oar coal, iron, woollen, cotton, and linen interests.
When we are drinking a bottle of French wine,
it may not perhaps strike us that payment has
been made in the shape of a penknife or a pair of
scissors from Sheffield or Birmingham.
The movement for procuring the termination of
banking business at two o'clock on Saturdays has
latterly attracted a great deal of attention, and
enlisted an amount of support which ought to
suffice for the immediate settlement of the matter
upon the basis proposed. Bankers, however, are
proverbially • timid race ; and it is believed that
the Committee at the Clearing-house will this day
decide upon a compromise, and fix three o'clock
as the future closing hour on Saturdays. This
decision, instead of being considered a boon, will
excite mach disappointment. The best plan
will, of course, be to accept the alteration
as an instalment. The difference between
the old-fashioned and the modern commercial
hours is very striking. Down to a comparatively
recent period many merchants' clerks did not think
of quitting business until eight, nine, or even
ten o'clock ; yet will any one be hardy enough to
assert that more work was done then than now? A
great reform has taken place in the hours kept in
nearly every branch of business. There are some
people with whom it is a habit to be late in every-
thing, but it is good that their practice should be
improved through the example and pressure of
their neighbours. Some analogy may be traced
between the practice of the banking houses
and that of the Poet-office : the functions
of both are essential to commerce, and must be
discharged. The reform which has been intro-
duced in the Post-office hours forms a case
in point. Time was when some foreign mails
were made up in London at ten, eleven, and even
twelve o'clock at night. Jaded clerks were kept
hard at work at unnatural hours, and the rush
to catch the last post was as eager then as it is
now when all the mails are made up half a dozen
hours earlier in the day. Does any one suppose
that if the letter boxes were closed at eight p.m.,
instead of six, the crowd of letter-laden and
breathless clerks would be less num*.
mus than nowt Everybody is fond of
postponing work until the latest moment. The
boxes which are now shut at six probably receive
quite as many letters as if they were kept open
for hours longer. In the same way, if the public
knew that banking hours terminated at two o'clock
on Saturdays, they would get all their banking
business done by that hour. In every depart.
ment of trade—except the retail, where bad
habits still prevail extensively—work is now over

at an early hour on Saturday afternoon. Bow
unreasonable is it, then, for bankers to adhere to
the old practice, thereby setting a Tag bad
example where a good one is most de-
sirable ! An early closing of the banks on
the bet day of the week would affect the hours
observed in a multitude of other trades. For this
reason, it is no exaggeration to say that the deci-
sion about to be delivered by the Committee of
Bankers is regarded with interest by hundreds of
thousands of employ& We all feel that in these
days of hurry and competition, the mental and
physical faculties are alike overtaxed. Occasional
relaxation is absolutely requisite. The rapidity
with which gigantic lunatic asylums are springing
up over the face of the country proves the none-
sity of some reform. To labour unceasingly for
five days and a half in every week with that vast
expenditure of energy which is demanded from
every man resolved upon working his way upward
is surely sufficient. At no former period did the
wheels of business revolve so swiftly, throw off so
large an amount of perfected work, or entail so
much wear and tear. And no other nation works
by any means so hard as we do.