Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-09-07 00:00:00

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THE review of the Wool Trade, from the magni—
tude it has acquired, must prove highly interesting
and important to all who are desirous of rioting
the great progress which this country is yearly
making in commerce and in manufactures. This
is strikingly presented to our notice by the wool
sales which, have just concluded in London, not
alone as denoting the rapid development of the
capabilities of our Colonial possessions, but also,
inter alia, that the premiums offered by France
and Holland, on direct imports from our Colonies,
have proved abortive. At these sales ninety
thousand bales of each kind of wool have been
disposed of, at an advance upon previous sales of
from one penny to one penny half penny per lb.
The. history of this trade exhibits. a more rapid
growth than that of any other, except cotton.
While we have an extraordinary increase of pro-
duction in wool in our distant possessions, we
find a corresponding decrease in the old wool-pro-
ducing countries of Europe. The extent of our
importations in a series of years is shewn in the
folloWing table :

TOTAL IMPORTS OF WOOL INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM
Years. lbs.
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848 •
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853 1197 3967 449
1854 106,121,995
1855 99,300,446
1856 116,211,392
1857 - 129,749,898
1858 126,738,723

From the' ,Ist of January to the 31st of July,
of the current year, we imported 292,980 bales
from all sources, against 242,386 in,the corres-
ponding period in 1858 ; the difference, of in-
crease, being 50,5.94: it follows, therefore, that

there is no want of supply to meet the demand

In corroboration of a statement we have here
made, that while our colonies have rapidly in-
creased in the growth of wool, the old producing
countries have as remarkably diminished, we

annex a comparative return of imports in 1844

and 1858

918,853 .. 110,510
21,847,684 10,595,186
15,313,087 .. 17,926,8.59
2,197,143 .. 16,597,504
17,333,504
17,602,247 .. 51,104,560
3,760,063 .. 10,046,381
3,024,216

Germany
Other 'countries of Europc
Cape
India
Y Australia

2,765,853

South America

Other Countries

1,308,831

From these figures it appears, that as far as

Spain is concerned, the trade there is almost extin-
guished ; that in Germany it has decreased in that
period eleven millions of lbs. ; and that the aug-

mentation from our Colonies, and from Sout

America, is wonderfully large. We must observe,

that we are now supplying the necessities of the

former wool-producing countries of Europc

sequently the whole of our arrivals are not re

taineC

ioine cc

shipments, including English qualities, being fifty

millions of pounds• How is so extraordinary a
change in the trade to be accounted for ?

description of cloth manufactured in this country
now, is different in quality to what it used to be

formerly; the fashion for wearing superfine cloth,
as termed, has " died oUt," and an inferior

kind is become, more acceptable

The iicople now

are generally bettor clad, though in cheaper

ments

again

kustralia anc

producing wool longer in staple tha

Germany, and nearly as fine,

Spain a

The climate of

India js. not as well adapted for the growth of

Wool, as other countries embraced in the tent' -

perate zone ; that from the East is lofiget and
more brittle in the staple, and, from the low

price it fetches in the market, it is very ques-
tionable whether it can be a profitable specula-
tion ; the same may be said of the article lately
imported from China, and , sold at Bradford.
Doubtless the construction of railways in India
will stimulate' the production of this article, .and

bring down an immense amount of wool of an

inferior quality, for which use will be found for
home consumption, at, however, a miserably low
figure. There appears, therefore, to be no ground
for the apprehension that the supply will not be
equal to our demand for the raw material.

The carrying-trade Which this great increase
has caused, we have generously thrown, open to
the whole world, without any corresponding
equivalent. Would that we could see all nations
with a liberality like that of our own shipowners,

grant a reciprocity in the same spirit of free-

trade. Would that foreign nations would do so

at once. Bis dat qui cab dat ! But if not, 'we
must endeavour to take care of our own' interests,

so that generations of our countrymen yet unborn

may still be able to say—
" Britannia needs no bulwarks,
- No towers along the steep :
Her march is o'er the mountain waves,
Her home is on the deep."

THE next great figure that is to occupy a pre-
eminent place on the Italian scene, is the POPE.
The relations between this great spiritual Poten-
tate and the French EMPEROR are of the most
delicate and complicated nature. The two-fold

character of the office he sustains, as successor to
the alleged Ecclesiastical supremacy of St. PETER,
and also inheritor of his " Patrimony," and the

undefined connection between the two, impart an

air of uncertainty and vagueness to the position
he holds 'as regards any other merely temporal
Power in Europe. The problem of the effective
and impartial wielding of the two swords by one
hand, has never yet been solved by the wit of

man, and has certainly been hitherto quite
beyond the lofty pretonsiops and divinely guided.
wisdom of the Bishop of Rome

No one would

venture to question that this union of what
seems such incongruous ideas, and whose incon-
gruity the events of the passing year demon-
strate with as much force as any part of previous
history, have in their time wrought much benefit
in Europe. It was not, indeed, the temporal
power of the head of Western Christendom, that
directly exerted in the middle ages an influence
so potent to restrain the license of Kings, and to
promote the liberty of nations. But it was the
POPE'S temporal position that secured scope for
the operation of spiritual authority, and gained
for it a freedom of action, impracticable if its
agent had occupied the position of a subject in
any European, State. Yet the changes of the
last century or two have gone on developing and
consolidating themselves, .until they have culmi-
nated to a point at which the POPE'S temporal
power, having lost its occupation and found
no other office to discharge, is a violent excep-
tion among nations—among them but not of
them—in that very character which assimilates
itself to them, still claiming a vague and wholly
peculiar kind of superiority ; not disdaining the
common analogies which rule throughout the
families of nations, yet fully responsive to the
traditions of that spiritual rule, which seems na-
turally to cherish the right of departing frOm
them when higher interests seem to demand it.
Now if there be any system of things more than
another insensible to the progress of time and the
change of circumstances, it is an Ecclesiastical
Government. It is therefore quite agreeable
to antecedent expectations, to find the Papal
Government still striving to discharge old-world
functions amid new-world relations and hypo-
theses and exigencies. To find it struggling for
the last shred of a temporal power, which by
some process of internal decay has ceded its func-
tions, and upon which the finger of Providence
seems to have set a ban. But it is not in the

nature of things that a power originally and
naturally of so active and aggressive a character
should occupy a wholly negative position. If it
has lost its potency for good, it must be potent for
evil. If it has ceased to aid and strengthen the
judicious and heathful and honest use of spiritual
influence, it must misdirect it, and pervert it, and
in every way misuse and misrepresent it.

Now the attempt to prop up a system advanced
to such a stage of decadence as this, must, as we

see at the present moment, complicate European
politics, be productive of endless difficulties and

uncertainties, and confound the relations which

ought to exist-between itself as a kingdom, and
its fellows in the European system. Who can
define the secret character and extent of the re-

lations at present existing between the POPE and
Louis NAPOLEON ? Who would ventxre to do

so, if he wished to retain any moral respect for
either ? It seems to be a system of dark and un-

definable sets-off. To the mere spectator it par-

takes somewhat of the character of a confederacy

in questionable practices, where the confederates

find it necessary to devise guarantees for each other's

good faith, and preserve some sort of accord by

a system of mutual and not over creditable coin

Rome has managed to assume, is not a direct but I

a wholly factitious importance, bmrowed from

the ecclesiastical position of its Sovereign. Inter-

course with other States, therefore, based on the

full recognition of such a political make-believe