Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-11-03 00:00:00

LONDON FREIGHTS.

In their monthly circular of the Ist November,
Messrs. Seymour, Peacock and Co. say :—Since the
date of our last circular, the political horizon has
become more gloomy, wars and rumours of war occu-
pying the public mind, to the exclusion of commercial
pursuits. The position of the shipping interest becomes
daily more critical, the capital invested yielding an un-
profitable return, while the property itself rapidly
depreciates in value. Unlike other property, shipping
lasts but for a time, and, to be remunerative, must repay
within a certain period the first cast, as well as the return
for the capital invested, the costs of working, and the
risks incured by the shipowner over those of all
other capitalists ; hence every year of unproductive _
freights not only sacrifies interest on capital, but the
very capital itself. The landholder may suffer for the
temporary want of a tenant, or the tradesman' for want
of customers ; but in neither case does the capital
suffer beyond the interest or profit on the investment.
The public mind requires educating upon the great
shipping question of the country, and we hope the Ship-
owners' Associations will take steps for disseminat-
ing information on the subject throughout the
length and breadth of the land. A vast deal
of ignorance prevails among the landed aristocracy.
who comprise a large proportion of our legislators, and
the unthinking masses of the people, who return to Par-
liament another section of its members, upon the impor-
tance of the shipping interest to this country, and the
nature of the grievances under which it suffers; other-
wise the patriotism and stern sense of justice which
animates the majority of Englishmen would prevent
the sacrifice a its mercantile marine, which has
done more in developing the prosperity of Great
Britain, and defending its shores, than all other
interests put together. We believe it is intended to
invite the shipowners, of the United Kingdom to
another aggregate meeting in London during the
present month, when it is to be hoped some progress will
be made in obtaining a remedy for the present ruinous
condition of the interest. The preparations for an ex-
pedition to China have created a demand for tonnage on
the part of the English and French Governments, the
operations of the latter being at present the most im-
portant. It if supposed that the French Government
requires about 40,000 tons of coal in China, Singapore,
&e., and the Consuls at Liverpool, Cardiff, and
Newcastle have been engaged during last month in
taking up tonnage, which they have obtained to
a considerable amount, the rates paid being-
-75 francs Hong Kona.., 80 francs Woosung or Shanghae,
63 francs Singapore, &c. For English account engage-
ments have been made at the rates still current, say 60s.
Hong Bong, 655. Shanghae, &c. The English Govern-
ment_have taken up the steamers Powerful and Thunder,
arid the sailing ships Sarah M. and Childwickburgh as
hospital ships, on the usual conditions of charter as trans-
ports ; the former for four and the latter for six months
certain. The rates hrve not transpired ; but for the
sailing vessels it is supposed that the price obtained is
about I ls. 6d. per *egister ton per month for the service
ending in England, or 13s. 6d. if terminated in China
or India. .Jn freights generally there is not much varia-
tion; depression continues to mark every trade, outward
freights being alone firm, owing to the almost certainty
of little or nothing home.

THE DAY'S NEWS.

The screw steam ship City of Washington, it
will be seen from our telegraphic despatches, ar-
rived last night at Queenstown, where she landed
a portion of her passengers and mails, and
proceeded.
An abstract of her news will be
found in our latest intelligence.

Her Majesty's Government would appear in
earnest about the Chinese expedition. They are
providing supplies of coal for the steamers that
are to be employed in the Chinese waters. No
time, however, must be lost in despatching the
expedition ; for, as the Times very truly ob-
serves, "if we are at the landing by March, we
can do the work well in one year ; but if we are
later than April, we are almost certain to take
two years about the business, and to double our
risks and expenses." There is an idea entertained,
it would seem, that the expedition is to be post-
poned in order to secure French co-operation.
But this were most undesirable, on two accounts
—first, because the delay may have the effect of
defeating our purpose ; and,- next, because -
French alliance for such an object is likely to re-
sult in no good to our Eastern interests. France
has its own ends to serve, and those ends must,
too often, be at valiance with ours. In China and
in India, it is evident that they- are likely to
be so.

We have an account of the Brazilian mail, by
telegraph from Lisbon, but there is no political
news of importance. The mail steam-ship brings
drafts on London, it appears, to considerably up-
wards of half a million sterling.

It seems to be understood on the Continent.
whatever may be the case in England, that we
are to send a representative to the approaching
Congress on the Italian question, without making
any condition. If this be true, a great change
must have come over the spirit of her Majesty's
Ministry. There is no doubt that the Govern-
ment has been urgently requested, not only by
the Emperor of the French, but by the
King of Sardinia, to take part in the Con-
gress unconditionally,—although by Sardinia,
we believe, in order that the unfortunate
Italians might have a friend and defender
there. We cannot believe, however, that either
Lord Palmerston or Lord John Russell hos
yielded a compliance with any such request,
without stipulating, as they have professed to
do, for Italian independence.
The French Emperor, by his recent conduct
respecting the national interests of Italy, has
excited great animosity at Florence, and other
Italian citieel, the head-quarters of the Italian
party; and great efforts, it is said, are now being

made to iiieduce the King of Sardinia to accept
at once the annexation of Tuscany, Modena, and
Parma, and to have nothing to do with the Con-
gress, as it is proposed to [be managed by France
and Austria.

The Universities of. Oxford and Cambridge, in
a most praiseworthy spirit, are uniting in a
mission to Central Africa, to follow up the dis-
coveries of Dr. Livingstone ; and, in pursuance of
this object, one of the most crowded meetings
remembered in Cambridge for several years past,
was held the day before yesterday in the Senate-
house, at which Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Walpole, the
Bishop of Oxford, Sir George Grey, ex-Governor
of the Cape of Good Hope, and other eminent
public men, spoke eloquently in its support. The
meeting resolved to adopt the general principle
that had been laid down for the conduct of the
mission, and pledged itself to strenuous exertions
for supplying the necessary funds.

THE appearance of two of the distinguished
guests at our late Conservative Banquet, before
such an audience as that which they addressed
on Tuesday night at Manchester, certainly affords
' striking evidence of the interest which Conserva-
tive statesmen take in the well-being of the work-
ing classes. It was not to talk politics to them
that Mr. DISRAELI and Lord STANLEY Went
amongst the Lancashire operatives on this oc-
casion,—it was not to obtain their plaudits by
flattery or cajolery, or by any of those popular
plausibilities which the Liberals know so well
how to use, for the purpose of getting the people
on their side,—it was not by making them vain
with the idea, that they, and they alone, of all
the people of this great country, are the source
of power, and that therefore they ought to be
placed in a position to exercise that power, and
become paramount in the State. No—it was for
none of these unworthy, these most mischievous
purposes, that the two eminent Conservatives
went to Manchester, and met face to face so many
of the honest industrious classes of that great
manufacturing emporium. It was to encourage
and support the Association of Lancashire and
Cheshire Mechanics' Institutes,—establishments
designed to impart useful knowledge to those
classes,—to improve their minds, and thereby to
exalt their nature, and fit them all the more for
such adNltncements in social position, as by the
opportunities of future life may at any time be
presented to them.
In distributing the prizes of the Association,
which Mr. DISRAELI was invited to do, the right
honourable gentleman not only declared, but
throughout his address repeatedly evinced, the
deep interest he took in what is called popular
education. But, as the Manchester Guar-
dian well observes,—" What he appeared most
" anxious to inculcate upon his audience was
"that, despite all her faults, and notwithstanding
" the fervid declamation of Mr. BRIGHT to the
" contrary, in no country in the world has a man
" of intelligence and enalgy a better chance of
" pushing his way upwards than in England,
" Himself one of the most splendid illustrations
" of the truth of this proposition, he dwelt upon
" the theme with a half-tender, half-exulting
" earnestness, and urged upon his young fellow-
" countrymen the necessity of preparing for any
" opportunity of advancing themselves in life
" which Providence might cast in
,their way."
Here, then, we have a remarkable, yet very na-
tural illustration of that Conservatism, whose
cause we have just been celebrating here, in its
practical application to the case of the working,
classes. The Liberals pretend that this Conserva-
tism is hostile to the interests of those classes,—
that it cares nothing about their improvement, or
their welfare in any wise,—that, so far from seeking
to advance them, it would do all that it could to
depress them. Yet we see what an irresistible
refutation is here given of such party calumnies.
Not less earnest in the cause of popular educa-
tion and improvement was Lord STANLEY, who
avowed his unabated interest in that cause, in the
manufacturing districts more especially : emphati-
cally declaring, that although it might have many
more eloquent advocates, he could assure them
that within this county it had no more cordial or
more constant friend. Thus again we have most
incontrovertible evidence of the claims which
Conservatism has to the support of the people at
large, even the humblest of them—of its right
to popular favour and popular prevalence. With-
out, indeed, it can prefer such claim, and sub-
stantiate such right, its success as a great national
influence can never be promoted. As Lord DERBY
well observed, the fate of that party, whose
bond of union is this Conservatism—the
fate of the Conservative party itself—the fate of
this country—because, as the noble earl so
solemnly assured us, " the fate of this country is
" involved in the power and the prosperity of that
" party,"—that fate, we say, is in the hands of
the people themselves. Unless we can have Con-
servatism popular, in the best sense of the word,
it can never prevail to any national and beneficial
purpose. A consummation so devoutly to be
wished as this, must be brought about, let us
rest assured, by our own conduct, our own efforts'
our own example, as Conservatives. All who
call themselves such must rally together for a
united action, putting forth all their energies,
and once for all shaking off that apathy which
hitherto has so much impeded the progress and
impaired the popularity of Conservatism. We
must set forth its true principles, in their true
light, and convince the great body of the people,
that they are principles,
in the triumph of
which their own best intersts are deeply
involved. Of course, to make such prin-
ciples duly .conducive to
the public good,
they must be made to pervade alike the Govern-
merit and the Parliament of the country. As
Lord DERBY further told the Conservatives of
Liverpool—and as it intimately concerns the
public weal that the whole Conservative body of

NOVEMBER 3, 1859

England should be told—what they have to do is,
to determine that Parliament shall sustain a
Ministry to give legislative and executive effect
to Conservatism. "It is," as the noble Lord so
forcibly declared to them,—,, it is by your own
"endeavours, and by your own exertions to
" render that possible which, without those exer
" tions and without those endeavours, will be
" wholly hopeless, namely, the permanence of
" Conservative principles in the Government of
" this country." This, then, is what the Conser-
vatives of England have now to do. They
must, as a body, make those exertions and use.
those endeavours, and do so to some practiea-r
to some popular purpose. Liverpool has, in one
respect, set them a good example : let us hope
that it will have the effect of infusing new life
into the party at large.

haa
IT is curious to see the uncertainty andt&
derment, with which public writers are at this
moment pursuing their investigations into tile
position of Conservatism and the Conserotice
party. Saturday's Banquet has set them all arg"
Even their usual acuteness of reasoning, e` Is
their usual strength of declamation, have deserte:ll
them. Judging from the perplexities with
some are distracted on the one side, or from C°ll-
- which some, fairly in desperation, have
been driven to make on the other, we might 511 r,
pose either that the whole politics of the country
were in inextricable confusion, or else that a sill;
gular unanimity of sentiment was preparing fob
measures of universal benefit. Some say till'
there are such things as Conservative princil3l6"
but that there is only one party—that which cwl-0
itself Liberal. Others tell us that Conserotic
principles have died out, but that the party ao
not ; that it was never more active or more ho
ful. And still there are others who declare 0-10
infinite seriousness, and an air of intuit
that while it was right to raise hescef
and earth for the overthrow of Lord Pf'l/%
last session, because Conservatism is the g.relitil
obstructive to useful emendations, yet that 13°
sides of the House, are pretty equally Consercf;
tive and pretty equally progressive! It of
complained that Mr. DISRAELI reduced Preset J.
political rivalries to nothing but a Pers°ll.oo
question. It is asserted again, that the questi.
between the two parties is nothing but pers°llls/
It is said that the necessity which imperatit
called for the Earl of DERBY'S diSplacelnen,
Lora PALMERSTON, was the necessity of COrilEorcf
hensive reform. It is also said that Lord li her
would very probably be willing to go for