The Express.
London, England, 1861-12-09 00:00:00

raniosum

TOO 011111111. 'LA!tofgTTf wirlas NO.—A na OTH LW.
Mama Tetikw. Ipfar. Jani s. ham lenre. an.l CatbrArt
Mane C. //g/g/04 L. Lockreq, rod ilswerthy

NT. JAMMITS.
TIM treme, A WIFCA JOURNAL Mr. G. TWA( AAA
MN kale Tem.. —7ll It IMOR 11011LAMAX. Mr. A. Wigan.
—Ar4 Til Ir WHIM'. Mean U. Vials& Marla,
Asbaurs MAI 11..ite•rt sal Mrs. T. lisAthows.—Cmanseee at 7j.

VIUTANttlit.
TO galsEvai. TEE UNIX r QVUJI. Mot Chilies.—
La.tartL - Y Etlaair. te.—A BIT ibr THE
isitusr. Mr. M, Laiaa.—Asai TME 11/04JAWS rrfinux.
—Coutosage at GI.

ILION WATTS AT IMSIIOI BAUDOL
IMO DAT —*maim 7A. Ths.....ANosaraA 71 11,a.
TomoAm —Mamma. 111. la—. Alleressm. Ah. um.

LONDON, MONDAY, DDC. 0.

Tux commercial and fliansial movements of the
past week hare presented few features save those
of discouragi.ment and apprehension. The dark
shadow of impending war exercises a very gloomy
influence upon the public mind. The hopes of
peace are clung to all the more fondly now that
the first feelings of excitement and indignation,
caused by the outrage on board the Trent, have
subsided ; yet the commercial claims have a
deepening impression that there is a grave risk of
an early outbreak of war. This impression is
strengthened by the immense meta which is die-
played in every naval and military department.
How can men enter calmly into the ordinary
transactions of commerce, with their wide scope,
and, maybe'', distant returns, when every arsenal
and dockyard in the kingdom resounds with the
clang of anus, and with the bustle of a host of
supernumerary artisans, suddenly called in to meet
a pressing emergency ; when, too, the Qcycx'm
Household Troops are hastily placed under
omen for the distant region which may become
Use theatre of war ; and when the finest and
fastest steamers of one mercantile marine are
being suddenly diverted from their ordinary
occupation as ocean carriers, to be loaded
with troops and the materials of destruction
From these and many similar indications commer-
cial men infer that Government, with stern deter-
mination, are gathering up their utmost energies
for a great crisis to which they apprehend an un-
favourable issue, and in fare of which all ordinary
considerations of economy are cast on one side.
As warlike alarms begin to resound the boas of
commerce becomes hushed.

In wishing for peace we are all perfectly unit-
*Onions, while as regards the prospect of its pre-
servation opinion seems to be almost equally be
There is, however, one point on which all
parties are agreed, and this **that, pending the
correspondence between the two Governments,
the tirst result of which may possibly be the
withdrawal of the entire British Legation from
Washington, all commercial transactions must be
restricted as much as possible. It is not too much
to say that trade in every department at the
port and in the interior, in the foreign as well as
to the home branch—is partially paralysed. En-
terprise is thoroughly repressed. War might be
attended with such momentous consojnences that
to enter into any but ready-money transactions
is at present a kind of speculation, and there are a
vest number of branches of business in which spe-
culation is never knowingly permitted to enter.
Rejection of (milt engagements, and reduction of
the old ones, is therefore, the commercial policy
at the moment.

In so quarter is the paralysis so oompleke, or
the feeling of uocortaiuty so pest, as in the Gatos
trade. The eti..A is equally marked at Liverpool

sad at

the market for the row
material as in that for the manufactured artists,
and for the sufficient reason that speculative ex-
citement, from which there is now the expected
reaction, had prevailed widely in both depart-
ments. Thu difference in tho character of the
business now going on at Liverpool may be in-
toned from the fact that the sales of cotton,
which during the recent excitement reached
160,000 bales a week, amounted last week to
less than 311,11u0 bales. As there has been at the
mine time a reduction to the important extent of
about I id. per lb. in the prices of American de-
scriptiotei, the small amount of the sales that have
been found practicable is significalit of the degree
of eantion which buyers consider it necessary
to observe in the present strained con-
dition of the market. We have repeatedly
alluded to the perilous character of the cotton
speculation, nil each new event that occurs places
it in a stronger light. If the remarks which have
been offered have prevented any persons from
neglecting tlic.r ordinary business, which they are
supposed to understand, in order to join the wild
rush into the cotton market, the condition of
which they il not understand, our object has been
accompliahe.i. Thu cotton market had much better
be left at pr. ant to the professed cotton specula-
tors, and to thew, who are already engaged in it.
Unfortunatdy, to advise inexperienced persons to
quit the market is at present much easier than to
show them how to quit it, for selling is a very
different op,rstion from buying, and this ohietly
because holders refrain from realising until they all
want to do so, together. It is like an ill-ordered
crowd trying to aqueere itself out of the narrow
doors of a theatre, We notice that the fall in the
price of COMM °IWO& to all descriptions. Sea
Wand is cone lured to have declined id. to Id.
per lb. ; Egyp'.ian, Id. ; and Braailian and Surat,
Id. It I. eort:iy of remark that this proof of the
uncertainty of the present high range of prices,
combined with the contingency of war, and of the
release of the Southern supply, will probably give
a decided check to the efforts which are being
made to send tarward cotton from various paste of
the world. should the crisis in our relation
with America he prolonged, it may do incalculable
injury in this respect.

One of the contingencies to which mercantile
teen look forward At nth great misgiving, in the
event of war with America, is that of privamering.
It is feared that the Americans, who are as quick
and dexteroun in naval matters as ourselves, would II
indict great damage on oar foreign commerce,
which, be iLiettaardiarad, is the mainspring of our
prosperity. All through the Russian war, our
mercantile marine rode in perfect freedom and
safety on every sea. The enemy made scarcely
• single naval prim. buxom we shut every one of
hie ships saf..ly up in his ports. The Americans,
it is true, hay., not a naval force in any degree
approaching ours. Neither bare they elual foci-
htiss fur oMaimng coal---an invaluable article iu •

struggle in which steam would play a most
important pert. They could, however, equip •
swarm of privateers, and this circumstance would
of itself impose • heavy clog upon the whole of our
foreign trade, in the shape of a high war premium.
Shipowners and merchants are already showing
that they are not prepared to carry on business
subject to these new uncertainties, as we see by
their running to Lloyd's, to pay the current war risk,
while the nation is still at peace. The security
of modern trade is promoted in no small degree
by the universal adoption of the practice of in-
surance against fire and maritime casualties. To
these, should pihtical matters go wrong, will now
be added a far hoarier charge for insurance against
war risks, and it would be childish to shrink
from recognising the possibility of a con-
siderable addition being thus made to the
prices of foreign commodities in use in
this country. This would probably give a cor-
responding check to consumption. Let us not
plunge into war, any more than into other under-
takings, without counting the cost. We believe
Use prospect of having to pay high war premiums
goes some way towards tempering the bellicose
tendencies of Liverpool and London. Perhaps
it is as well that we have • check of some such
kind.