The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-05-17 00:00:00

BRAZILIAN MAIL.

The steamer Avon arrived at Southampton yesterday,
with the Brazilian and River Plate mails, and brought 145
passengers, £43,000 worth of diamonds, and £6,329 in
specie. Her dates are—from Buenos Ayres, April 3; Monte
Video, April 6; Rio Janeiro, April 15; Bahia, April 19;
and Pernambuco, April 1. Among her pussengers are
Watson Vredebur?h, Esq., her Majesty's Vice-Consul for
Paraiba, and Randall Callender, Erq., her Majesty's Consul
for St. Katherine's, and family.
From Buenos Ayres we have advices to the 3rd of April.
The all-important question of a national organisation
remains in statu quo. From diplomatic correspondence it
would appear that the gulf of separation between Buenos
Ayres and the sister provinces of the confederation threatens
to become wider and wider. No offensive movement has
been undertaken against the Indians. The affairs respecting
the Indians is the real cankerworm that press upon the
vitals of the state, and blights all prospects, social and com-
mercial. The markets, in general, present a more animated
and healthy appearance, and confidence is once more in the
ascendant. Sugar, rice, coffee, and tea maintain high
prices, sugar in particular has reached rates unknown except
in times of blockade or siege. Coals, lumber, and building
materials in general are plentiful, and in languid demand,
with but little prospect of improvement. The export
produce, with the exception of wool and jerked beef. The
stocks on hand are barely adequate to meet pending con-
tracts. The news of a probable termination of the European
war had deranged all calculations, and a temporary suspen-
sion of saladero operations appeared not unlikely. The
actual course of the money market is in favour of the
saladerista. Exchange on England is quoted at 65 and 66.
Everything was perfectly tranquil at Rio. The cholera
and yellow fever were prevalent, particularly amongst the
shipping. Cholera and fever also existed at Bahia, but were
decreasing at Pernambuco. St. Vincent's, Tenneriffe, and
Madeira were healthy. The weather at Lisban was fine,
and the town healthy. Exchange was quoted at 27/.
The Avon's voyage was delayed by strong head winds. The
Tamar, with the outward Brazil mails, left St. Vincent's
on the 17th April.

The following are the latest commercial reports :
PERNAMBITCO.—The French steamer Cadix being expected
here to-day from the Southern ports on her home passage,
the present number is published for her. The import
business since the date of our last number has again been
more active than of late, especially of those goods previously
received ; the arrivals during the last live days have been
one vessel with codfish from Jersey, and another with salt
from Trapani, which both proceeded southward ; one Teasel
with wine from Spain ; one with codfish from Newfound-
land, and one with a general cargo from Havre. Sugar :
The entries from the interior since the Ist of this
month have been 38,400 bags ; prices are keeping up; we
refer to our quotations for the rates paid. The only ship-
ment has been of 140 tons to the River Plate, making a
total since Ist November last of 37,392 tons, consisting of
16,231 tons whites and 21,161 tons brown, and being an
excess of 1,097 tons over those of same period last crop.
Paraiba and Maceio Sugars : We hear of small purchases
of former's at 25500 and 25450 per arroba f. o. b. Cot-
ton; The entries, though a little more freely than of late,
continue on a limited scale, having been 187 bags only
since our last number, which have been bought up at from
55600 to 0000 per arroba for first- regular and
selected. Stock for sale and shipment about 1,777
bags. Maceio and Paraiba Cottons :We hear of
sales of latter's but the prices have not transpired.
Hides : A sale is reported as having been made at 240 ra
per lb, being a decrease for dry salted of about 8 per cent.
on the highest price paid. Since Ist November last,
50,680 dry salted have been shipped, against 59,174
within same time 1854 to 1855. Rum : We hear of no
sales of moment. The total shipments since Ist November
last, exceed those of same period 1854 to 1855, by 405
pipes. Freights : In our last number we mentioned that
some cottoa had been engaged for the Imogene at 5/83 per
lb, and 5 per cent. from Maceio, we find since that we had
been misinformed, and that the freight is from to a d per
lb. Vxchange : Some further amounts have been done at
27-id credit, and 271 d cash; we estimate the whole
amounts transacted until now to be about £28,000,
principally at 27;1 d. Discounts : The bank rate still
continues at ten per cent. per annum; money out of doors
seems pretty scarce.

RIO JANEIRO : An average amount Of business was trans-
acted during the month. The arrivals of articles of import
were ample, of some articles excessive, the nips were gene-
rally to a fair extent, in some instances at lower prices. In
coffee, which was dull early it the month, the transactions
were later of importance ; of hides the market was nearly
cleared. An average amount of business was done in
freights. The money market was steady throughout the
month, in which the amount of exchange negociatud was
more than was anticipated. A large cpe4ulative business
was done iu shares,
APRIL 12.—COFFEE : Until the 7th, the united sales
barely exceeded 14,000 bags at 5$ to 59150 for assortments.
The intelligence per Avon was decidedly adverse, and since
no transaction of moment has been reported, Prices,
however remain unaltered, and while purchasers do not
come forward at present quotations, the dealers are firm,
in the conviction that supplies will yet awhile be limited, in
consequence of the continuance of an unusually wet season,
by means of which the roads in the interior are impassable.
Sugar : Arrived 95 cases, 400 bags Campos, 2,100 bags
Maceio, 1,400 bags Parnams. Except about 200 bags
Maceio at 4sloo, nothing has been. Clone for eNportation.
For consumption, have been taken 460 oases Campos at
39800 to 4$ and at 33100 to 39300, 4,000 bags Maceio
at 33900 anl 3sloo, 1,100 bags Pernams at 4$ to 43450.
Hides : Neither arrivals nor sales of any moment. Jerked
Beef : Stock 22,000 arrobas Rio G;ande. Grande,. '7.5,000
River Plate, quoted at 43100 to 43600. Freights i No
charter has been reported. The continued high prices of
Coffee have prevented business, and our quotations, although
reduced, must be considered nominal.
SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.
PERNAMBUCO, April 12.—Arrived : Sitania, from New-
foundland. Bth —lthuriel, from Liverpool. April 1.
—Bonita, from Liverpool. March 29,—Sailed ilaura, for
Liverpool.

RIO JANEIRO, March 17.—Arrived : Windermere,
Valleyfold ; 28, Courier. April 5, Larissa ; 9, Panama (s.s.).
April 1, Vriehandel ;4, Henrietta—all from Liverpool.
ARRIVALS AND SAILINGS OF VESSELS .fto3t VARIOUS
PORTS.—The Royal Mail steamship, Camilla, sailed for the
River Plate on the 14th April, at 4 p.m. At Rio, H.M.S.
Madagascar, Express, and ►iflenian. H.M.S. Fantome
sailed for England on the 11th April. French frigates
Poursuivante and Thisbe. At Bahia, H.M.S. sloop Syren.
May 12—Coming rut of Lisbon we saw the Royal Mail
steamship Tay, at 3 p.m.

THE DYCE SOMBRE CAUSE.—The eycpenries of the cele-
brated " Pyce Sombre' case in the Court of Chancery have
already amounted to £30,000 and the ease is not yet eon.
eluded. The proceedings connected with it have extended
over twelve years.
CORONER'S INQUESTS. DEATHS PROM EXCESSIVE
DRINKING.—The borough coroner held the following
Inquests on Thursday :--On the body of lgargt. Bell, aged
50, who resided at No. 6, Cavendish-street, and who was
found dead in bed. She, it appeared, was given to exces-
sive drinking, and the jury found that death was hastened
by that habit.--On the body of William Black, a seaman,
aged 37 years, who was also addicted to intemperate
habits, and who had been found dead in bed. Verdict
same as in the preceding ease.—On the body of Anne
Griffiths, who resided in Plumbe-street. Tne deceased
died in consequence of bleeding which took place from a
varicose vein. i Verdict accordingly.—On the body of
Thomas Grady, who was accidentally killed at the north
end docks. Verdict accidental death.

1 THE LAST COUNCIL MEETING.

The following is a report of Mr. A. C. Stewart's speech,
delivered in the council on Wednesday, on the Borough
Gaol land questipn, which we have hitherto been unable to
publish, on accoient of the pressure upon our space :
Mr. A. C. Stewart said : Mr. Mayor, there is an unfortu-
nate desire on the part of succeeding speakers, during discus-
sions in this room, to ascribe motives, or to give a tone to the
remarks of those who have spoken before them, such as the
author never intended them to bear, and which they are very
much astonished to hear drawn from them. I say unfortunate
propensity, because it interferes very much with the order of
debate, and takes up the time of the Council with extraneous
matter, and this propensity is displayed in three different ways ;
first, when an honourable man feels himself misrepresented, or
attacked, which seldom happens, he is bound to repel such
attacks indignantly; but unfortunately the other two modes
are more frequently resorted to. The egotist, and lam sorry
to say egotism is very largely displayed in some of us, cannot
withstand the glorious opportunity for self laudation, and breaks
forth in a rhapsody of his own honour, and his purity, and so
forth, and those who have a weak cause, like special pleaders
before a jury, seize upon the smallest slip, and endeavour with
all their ability to draw away those who have to decide and
vote from the real issue, and sometimes save their party from
a defeat very richly merited. A great deal of this sort of
thing was imported into the debate on a previous day—with
regard, for instance, to Mr. Hodson's speech, a worthy
alderman felt it his duty to say that he stood there in stern
defiance of Mr. Hodson and public opinion, when all that Mr.
Hodson meant was simply this, that the best of men, are but
men at the best, and that the opinions of au individual of
divided responsibility, however honest, should be taken with
caution. But I tell that gentleman, that if be stands here
in stern defiance of public opinion, he has no right to stand here
at all, we are a popularly elected body, sent here for the pur-
pose of representing the public opinion of the borough, and it
is our duty to consult and follow public opinion wherever we
can clearly discern it, unless our private convictions are
decidedly opposed to it. Then, again, the chairman of the
finance committee, for whom I have a high respect, a gentle-
man who has had a long career of popularity and only because
he deserved it, was very inconsistent. Ile said this was
merely a proposition of the finance committee brought before
the council for discussion. Now, Mr. Mayor, this implies
that we had the right to discuss it. If we had the right to
discuss it, we have the right to reject it; but at a subsequent
period of the day, when we pulled the proposition to pieces, he
said—and here is the great inconsistency-- that if we had lost
confidence in the committee we should elect another. Now
this is very puerile talk for Mr. Hornby. He knows very
well that we could not elect another committee now if we
wished, and that it is perfectly compatible, with general
confidence in a committee, to reject some of its recommenda-
tions entirely. If this be not so, every proposition of every
committee must be accepted, or the eternal bugbear of " lost
confidence" is to:be paraded before us; and every member must
admit, that if that is the proper course the council had better
abdicate its functions at once, and allow the committee to do
as they like. During this discussion, I think many
of the points which those out of doors lay great stress upon
have not been noticed in this room. First of all, they think
the situation is a very excellent one, and that there is no
back land at all, and in this, I think, they are perfectly correct.
Let me ask, Mr. Mayor, where is the back land ? You have
an enormous front to Great Howard street, one to the railway,
one to the canal, and a fourth by making a short street at the
north side of the Northern Hospital. Where, then, is the truth
of the assertion that the land has only one front ? But some
member says, he has no right to the canal frontage. Will any
man tell me that the railway company, who have leased the
canal, will not find means to get every facility for loading flats
there, if they get the land ? Again, Mr. Alderman Holme
says this land is in a well, because it is eighteen feet below the
level of the railway. Now, surely, that gentleman does not
expect us to be swayed by such shallow reasoning as this. Let
me ask him how many stories are warehouses usually built—
one or two? Are they not often built five or six stories? But
let us be moderate, and take four as an average, and what have
we ? This—that only the goods on the ground floor require to
be hoisted ; the trucks can be brought into the very centre of
the warehouse on the second floor, and the goods actually
loaded where they are lying, and those on the two upper stories
dropped through a gangway upon the very carriages. Nay,
more, the ground floor may be appropriated for canal goods,
and thus there woull not be a single bale hoisted in the whole
building. Being connected with the wool trade, I have several
times had occasion to be in the new station of the London and
North Western Railway Company, in Haydon-square, Mine-
ries, London. There the trucks come into the warehouses on
the second floor. The land had no good frontage, yet they gave
a long price for it, and all the officials there declare it to be

the most convenient station they have for loading
and despatching goods. This land is better than it for them, for
they have no canal, here we have, which supersedes entirely all
hoisting while delivering goods. One gentleman said, the
man who would build warehouses except in the margin of a
dock, was fit for a lunatic asylum. Now, without going that
length, 1 will agree with him as a general principle, but this is
not a case in point, because the laud is contiguous to three
railways and a canal, thus goods are not imported into Liver-
pool to remain here, but to be distributed over the country ;
it is, therefore, evident that you do not incur cartage on
goods when warehoused in a dock warehouse; in a great majo-
rity of cases you must incur it when taking them out of these
warehouses; here you do not, you merely put the goods upon
the truck, in the very warehouse itself. I think I have shown
clearly that there is no back land here, but that it has four
points, and is peculiarly adapted, in every way, for the storing
and despatching of goods. With regard to the price, surely
enough has been said to show that the price of the land is too
small, and that the company have paid much more for a piece of
land having only a front on one side to a back street, Love-
lane, and far behind Great Howard-street. Again, another
point upon which great stress is laid out of doors is, that the
public have not been offered this land upon the same terms as
the railway company, and until that has been done, it is unfair
to the public, and we are not doing our duty to our con-
stituents, to conclude any such sale to any company.
Again, there is a decided objection to giving up for ever the
control of such an important property, espececially without an
equivalent. Now, Mr. Mayor, suppose for a moment, which
of course, I do not admit, that 2s 6d a yard rent was the full
present value of the land, should the railway company not pay
for the reversionary interest in this land? Certainly they should,
if even then it were wise to part with it, which I maintain it is
not. The worthy Alderman Parker, on the previous day,
brought forward the case of a piece of land alienable for ever,
fLr the purpose of building a Catholic chapel, no doubt with a
holy desire to rouse the religious feelings of his audience, which
are generally at overflowing point in this room, and for the special
edification of Mr. Sheil, and referred to it as as a case in paint.
Now, what are the facts. The gentlemen connected with this
enterprise bought 1,400 yards of land, on seventy-five years
lease, with one year expired. Now, supposing they paid the
value for it, which, no doubt, they did, or they would not
have got it, and supposing, for a moment, that 2s 6d a yard is
the value of this land, did the corporation say to them—take
this for ever ; no, but they charged them £7OO for the
reversionary interest, and quite right, too ; and, in the same
ratio, the railway company should pay down now £B,OOO for
this land, or calculating interest at 3 per cent., £256,000 at
the end of seventy-five years. Again, Mr. Mayor, supposing
we had sold our town dues fifty, or one hundred years ago, at
several times their value, would we have got anything like
the income out of them we have got ? Some gentlemen may say
there is no analogy between town dues and the increasing value
of land; there is more than we suppose perhaps; but suppose we
had sold for ever, fifty or a hundred years' ago, the land any-
where round the I'x-change, at several times its then value,
would we have had a tithe of the income from land since then
that we have had. But Mr. S. Holme says that it is only the
land contiguous to the new docks that is increasing in value,
and not such land as this. Now, I dissent in toto from this
assertion. Why do we build new docks P. Because the
present docks are not sufficient for the increasing trade of the
port, because more produce is being imported into Liverpool.
Now, it is plain that if produce is imported into Liverpool,
produce mutt go out of it. It can only go out by railway and
eanal ; the more that goes out, the more station room is
required, and unless you make new railways and canals with
new stations, that land then must increase more rapidly in
value than the land contiguous to any docks, I care not where
it is. Again, you can only save cartage in dock warehouses,
open goods taken out of ships in that particular dock, when
they are built, on all other goods cartage would bo incurred.
Now, warehouses on this land would be within one length's
cartage of the Prince's dock ; they are, therefore, only ono
length's cartage behind the best dock warehouse in existence ;
but every one will admit that three railways and a canal will
carry away, as many goods as can be discharged at ten docks.
Let us, however, be very moderate, and say only six docks,
Well then, warehouses, or a station, whiCh is the same thing,
on that land, according to this reasoning, would be six
times more valuable than the warehouse upon any single dock,
and increase in value in a greater ratio than any dock ware-
house, for every new dock that may be constructed, as a 'part
at least of the produce landed, as it must pass through this
station in its distribution. Again, sir, a point on which great
ttress is laid out of doors, is the absolute necessity of carrying
out, and that very shortly, one of the improvements adopted
by this council, and included in their improvement bill,
which they foolishly withdrew after presenting it to radio-
meet. This corporation has been guilty of many foolish things,
but 1 think one of the most stupid was the withdrawal of that
bill. Every one who, knows Great Howard-street well, that it
is already far too crowded ; and so soon as the docks now being
constructed, are furnished, the traffic there will be brought to
a complete jam, unless a great improvement is carried
out for
its relief; and I say, without the slightest fear of contradiction,
that the carrying out of one of the three plans of improve-
ment, is far more imperative upon us than the making of
Cannon-street from London Bridge to St. Pawls. Would it

be wise?

would it be politic to sell to this company, or to
any one else, land for such a miserable price, which we shall
be obliged to buy back again At such a fearful cost. Railways
are very beneficiel to the country, and Railway shareholders,
I may say without fear of contradiction, have been polio
benefactors; but, gentlemen, wo are placed here to look after
the corporate interests, that is our first duty let the Railway
Company have the land at a fair and full price ; they will
still have plenty, after providing fully for town improvements ;
they can alter their line, so as to get quit of the nasty and
dangerous curve now in it, and by so doing have double
facilities for despatching goods, by a station on both sides of
the line. Mr. Stewart then resumed ilia seat,