The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-08-25 00:00:00

LORD COCHRANE'S STEAM-VESSELS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH PREM.
Sts,—The positive manner in which you have taken
upon youtself to answer the query proposal in my letter
of Tuesday, relative to the steam-vessils building for
Greece, leaves me no room to doubt the authenticity of the
report to which I alluded, and I can only now express my
surprise that any man professing to be a friend to the
Grad: cause should have confided to an Agent of the Paella
of Egypt the ecnstruction of machinery which was to
he imployed against him. You have, however, added a
fact, not called for by my query, which renders the afi'sir,
with reference to its presialt state, still more extraordinary.
You state that the engineer employed to make the machi-
nery contracted to complete the whole by December last.
If this be so, how is the great delay which has since inter-
vened to be accounted for? The British public are inte-
rested in obtaining a satisfactory reply to this question ;
and as you have answered the fortmr, you will probably
be in possession of information to satisfy my present in-
quiry. Every day's intelligence confirms the opinion that
the steam-vessels would be of the highest possible import-
ance to the Greeks. I have myself seen a letter to-day
from Ccrfu, of so recent a date as the 2.1 instant, in which
mention is made of the consequence attached to the steam-
vessels by every class of pawns in Grecce.—Yours, tkc.
A. G.

TO THE EDITOR Ol' THE BRITISH PRESS.

Me. EDITOR,--I must confess I owe some apology to
you for again intruding upon your kindness, in an affair
which I hoped had long since been set at rest; nor
would.l have again introduced the subject, did I not know
the readiness with which you at all times devote Our
columns to the service of the public. Twoor three different
tunes I have, through the medium of your excellent Journal,
',Taught forward the subject of the Peruvian Loans, but in
no instance has anything satisfactory been elicited. Al-
though you professed your readiness to insert any expla-
nation that the Contractor, Mr. Kinder, might have to
offer relative to the nor-paymer.t of the dividends, yet it
appears that he has not deigned to notice the complaints of
the suffering creditors of that Government. Ile indeed
published last April something of the sort, hut merely de-
claring his conviction of toe good faith of that Govern-
ment, and his hoper that they would fulfil their engage-
ments. Nuw he it remembered that in that declaration
he told the public that "man//t4 before" he had apprized
the Peruvian Government of the necessity of their making
remittances to meet the accruing dividends on their stock;
and yet, although abundance of time has elapsed for an
answer, none has been, nor probably will be, received ;
and the wretched creditors of dist Government, in whose
good faith he professed such reliance, are doomed
to see themselves deprived of their next dividend also,
due on the 15th of October next, or little less than
too months. Ilia Majesty's ship Briton has just arrived
from Lima, hut brings no remittances from the Govern-
ment ; and 1 do think that the public (at least that por-
tion of them who are interested) are bound to convene and
expross in a public meeting their sense of the conduct of
this most worthless and perfidious State. Even the Co..
lowbian Government, who assisted them so greatly to
achieve their emancipation from the Spanish yoke, and
v..ithout whose aid they could never have eff•cteal it, have
themselves suffered severely for their generosity, and been
prevented in consequence from meeting those engagements,
ethic:l'ol-y c: mainly have shown every disposition to re-
'pert. shill have been successful in opening the
eyes of the public to this shameful breach of faith, and
thereby prevent their sustaining further losses, I shall con-
sider myself peculiarly fortunate ; and in the hopes that
you will insert the forcging observations at your earliest

convenknce,
I remain, your obedient bumble servant.
London, Aug. LU2I. INCA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH PRESS.

COVENTRY, Atill. 20, 182 C.

Sir,—you have on several occasions made sonic very just
remarks on the trade of this city, and have more than once
pointed out the fallacy of supposing that manufacturers are
wiser and possess greater foresight of what tends to de-
prets, or enhance the particular branch of trade in which
their capital is embarked, than men whose knowledge is
derived from close observation, abstruce reasoning, and re-
search. The very occurrence of periodical distress among
the manufacturers is pr ima Jiteie evidence of their want of
a perfect knowledge of the principles on which alone a
sound and permanent state of trade can be established ; for
if they rightly understood those principles, can it be sup-
posed that they would he so indiff.rent to their own interests
as not to regulate their conduct by them, and thereby avert
the disastrous consequences which result from their being
wholly disregarded ? We all remember the outcry that was
raised by the silk manufacturers when the law for permit-
ting the importation of foreign wrought silks, at a protect-
ing duty, was introduced by Mr. Huskisaou. Nothing but
ruin was foreboded by them, and they even went so far as
to charge Ministers with arrogance, in presuming to un-
derstand the principles that regulated the silk trade better
than they who were engaged in it. A similar mode of
reasoning is now used by the cotton manufacturers of Man-
chester. They affect to treat with scorn the notion enter-
tained by his Majesty s Ministers that the chief cause of
the existing distresses was a spirit of over-trading; and
yet there is hardly a sensible man in the kingdom besides
who does not consider that as having been a most power-
fully operating circumstance in the creation of those ap-
palling scenes of misery that have been witnessed lately in
the manufacturing districts. On the alarm taken by the
masters of this city, their first act was to reduce the wages
of the weavers, and presently to discharge great numbers
of them. It was impossible, they said, to compete with
the French either in the fineness of the fabric or the cheap-
ness of it; and speeches of an unreadable length were made
by their Representatives Mr. Ellice and Mr. Moore, in
Parliament, to enforce these desponding truths. But the
law widen was to annihilate the trade of Coventry has
come into operation; and what is the consequence? Why,
all hands are fully employed at good wages, the poor-
rates are daily decreasing, and are now 3001. per month
less than they were for a long period previous to the much-
dreaded 6th of July. It seems, however, impossible to
those who, for a long series of years, have enjoyed a thriv-
ing monopoly, to reconcile themselves to a liberal system,
even though its operation do not affect their interests;
and having been confuted in their prognostications with
regard to French silks generally, they now say, that
whatever may he the case with the plain articles, it
will he impracticable for them to produce fancy articles'
equal to our neighbours. But even this allegation
is untenable ; for, by the admission of some of the best
judges, there are at this moment, in one or two of the ware-
houses in this city, pieces of silk of the most beautiful pat-
terns, and of the most exquisite manufacture. I have my-
self seen some of them, and am decidedly of opinion that
the elegant and chaste taste of my fair countrywomen
—guided, as it always is, by their good sense—will in-
cline them to give the preference to an English fabric, re-
commended by the qualities I have described, over that of
any foreign production whatsoever. Then there in a third
subject of complaint, as to the merits of which I confess
myself incompetent to decide; though, judging of the na-
ture of the other two, I am certainly not much disposed to
give any great weight to it. The silk-masters say, that it
is not so much the competition with the French that they
dread, as that which they shall have to sustain in the in-
creased imports of silks from China and India, which
the operation of the new law will greatly facilitate.
Should the apprehensions on this score be well founded,
the come quenee will certainly be to reduce the price of
India manufacture, and thus increase the competition
against our own productions; but so long as machinery
and freedom of the press are excluded from the empire of
British India, and the climate and national manners of the
people remain the same as they are at present, 1 shall be
antler no alarm as to the consequences that may happen to
our manufacturers from the increased importation of India
and Chinese silks by virtue of Mr Husisaon's Bill.
AN OBSRVER.

LIVErrOOT., AVG:2ST ¶-3 —'We had a steady de.
mantl for cotton during the week, and priceti improving ;
about 7 a 9000 bags sold.