The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-12-12 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRESS.

belying, each of them, in the spirit of monopoly, raised
the prices on each other, and on themselves. Wool being
regarded as an article of universal consumption, and con-
sequently as affording a sure market, the duty upon it
having been so much lowered, afforded the greatest s:ope to
speculation; but it was carried to a prodigious extent in
other articles. Not only were immense purchases of fine
wool made in Germany, Spain, Saxony, and elsewhere,
and paid for is money by the influx of speculators from
England; but prices being thus raised, the native growers
consigned vast quantities on their own account to their
agents in this country; and thus the market be came over-
stocked, and overstocked too at a price at which no pur-
chaser could be found either abroad or at home. The
manufactories in the clothing districts were thus at
a stand. The price of the raw material had been raised
so high, occasioned by this prodigal competition, that it
would not repsfitself in the wrought article; they there-
fore confined themselves to working on their stock in hand,
and kept wholly out of the market.
A vast quantity of gold had thus gone out of the country
in payment of these extensive purchases. To this we must
add the large advances made, is the same hard currency,
by the consignees in England, on the wool sent for sale by
the foreign growers. But there being .no demand, these
agents had no means of realising the sums thus advanced.
THE INDARR4INIMENTII asoare. "%Veal was pledged
as a security for advances made by country bankers in the
cloth countries, till no further advances could be obtained.
Bills, to an incredible amount, were returned day and day,
upon the faith of which, both here and abroad, engagements
had been entered into, and contracts .made, which now
could not be fulfilled. All this arose, not from the poverty
of the parties, for our warehouses groaned under their mer-
chandise, but because the goods were not 'convertible into
money ; and all the credit which could be obtained upon
them was exhausted.

We have spoken here principally of wool;—other arti-
cles to the value of sinuous are locked up by the same
difficulties, and the speculation in them has brought on the
same embarrassments in its train.

Our imports having exceeded our cavorts, the par of
exchange is of course against us. Having more to pay
than to receive, our merchants are necessarily compelled to
pay a premium on foreign bills in proportion to the diffi-
culty of procuring them, and where they cannot be ob-
I taihed, the difference must be paid in gold. This is
a well known process of foreign exchange, and will suffi-
ciently account for the scarcity of money. A vast quantity
of bullion has found its way from this country to the bank
of Faris, which ere long will as regularly find its way back.
This scarcity, and the distress consequent upon it, is further
increased by the heavy amount of English capital invested
in the foreign loans, and in foreign funds. The rapid de-
cline of our own funds has likewise contributed not a little
to the general pressure of commerce, because all interest
beyond five per cent. being illegal, the funded Capitalist
cannot sell out stock without a loss greater than could be
legally compensated by the borrower—hence all relief that
might otherwise have been procured from this quarter has
been excluded.

It is easy to perceive here the causes which led to
the pressing demands on the country banks—to all that
complication of distress which proceeds from a failure of
confidence—and to the difficulty, beyiind all experience,
of getting even the safest bills discounted, from the con-
sternation which Pervaded the money market.
We have here elucidated, u briefly as the subject will
admit, the real causes which have led to that crisis which
has occasioned so much distress and excited so much alarm.
Rational and well-founded fear is an instinct of witolotn;
it leads to caution and to measures of timely defence; but a
panic proceeding from a vague conception of danger de-
stroys all that manliness of mind by which it ought to be
met, and all that energy which should be employed to
combat it. When we are enabled to look steadily at the
circumstances oat of which our mercantile embarrassments
have arisen, all these vague apprehensions of danger dis-
appear. We perceive that they arise necessarily out of
the improvidence that first occasioned them, and that neither
our public credit nor our national wealth are prosrec-
Lively impaired. We are enabled to look as clearly for-
ward to the cure of the evil as backward to the causes
which led to it. The summary of the whole will stand
thus:—those individuals who have engaged in these gigantic
speculations will have paid, by the entire loss of their pro-
perty, the heavy penalty of their imprudence. They will
have occasioned—as was unavoidable—a wide circle of suf-
fering, by the failure of that credit on which numbers had
fully relied, and by the breach of engagements in which many
interests were deeply involved. The consequences which
must follow—and which in part have taken place already—
will be these: the holders of wool, cotton, and of other
articles, will be obliged considerably to reduce their prices
—lower prices will bring purchasers—the stocks in hand
being greatly diminished, the manufacturers who had ab-
stained from buying will come freely into the market—
orders from abroad, which the high prices had kept back,
will begin to multiply—already the orders from France are
introducing a briskness of trade into the manufacturing
districts—the exchange is becoming every day more fa-
vourable—the gold which was drained from England, in
payment for the excess of her imports, is returning
again, in exchange for her merchandise exported : and the
circulating medium being thus gradually restored, all the
distress occasioned by' the want of it will as gradually dis-
appear. This improved state of things has already com-
menced, and we feel no hesitation in predicting that every
passing week will contribute to revive commercial confi-
dence, and to remove all the evils occasioned by the inter-
ruption of it.
After all the mischief which the Times has effected—and
effected tco with such wanton malignity—the shuffling at-
tempt at retraction contained in its leading !Illicit. of Satur-
day comes too late. Never did any public journal, with
any pretensions to character, make so paltry an effort to
veer round. We shall take the pains to examine it in de-
tail, that it may be estitnated at its true worth. But we
must defer the task till to-morrow.

CITY, SATURDAY EVCWIWG.
The sanguine expectations which were indulged yester-
day afternoon, of some further improvement in the Funds
to-day, have not been realized, the panic having been carried
to a pitch seldom equalled at the Honey 11klarket, entirely
the effect of commercial embarrassments. The distress for
money has been so severe, that Exchequer Bills, which
opened in the morning at 20s. discount, In the coarse of
the afternoon fell to 375. discount. The sales had a much
more unfavourable influence in consequepce of those'which
were effected yesterday and the day before for the Court of
Chancery, to the extent of nearly 100,0001. ; thus glutting
the a arket with bills, and increasing the demand for money.
But notwithstanding the large amount of business trans-
acted in Exchequer Bills, there were warmly any bargains
made in India Bands, which remained at nominal quota-
tions only.

The lint bargain in Consols far Account this morning
was at 84, but Immediately rose to 84 ; at this quotation
not only the regular brokers, but likewise the jobbers, an-
ticipating a reactldn On the conrptratively tow quetstions,

purchased to an immense amount. Matters did not re-
main in this state for any length of time, for by twelve
o'clock it seas ascertain-. 1 that two more firms hail been
compelled so suspend their payments, one of them of
the greatest respAtability in the Irish trade. Consols
for Account, declined rapidly to 831, and there was no
material alteration until about two o'clock, when a pied
jof information transpired which produced a complete
rush among the dealers to effect riles at almost any price:
lit was, that an eminent mercantile house had petitioned
the Directors of the Bank of England to allow a transfer
of Three per Cent. Consols, in order to relieve it from
its entharrassinente. The Directors feeling dispelled to
afford all practicahle rele.f to the party making the appli-
cation, acceded, :old the Stock was accordingly offered for
sale in the market. As Consols had been shut for some
j days, the dealers could not understand what was on ant,
!and imagined that some mistake had arisen. Purchasers
jfcr the Stock, however, after some little delay, were found,
and one transfer in 3 per Cent. Consols, to the amount of
20.0001. was sold at SII ca. dividend. As soon as this bar-
gain was made, Consols 4.0 r Account fell so low as 83,
rallied to 834, declined a.otin to 83, but left off' at 83:.
The extreme depression le Reduced Annuities we believe
to have been 811 ; but the confusion in the market was so
great, that it teas impost hle to ascertain, with any degree
of certainty, what was doing.
Tile Market fcr South American Stock opened rather
briskly dila morning. There was no material alteration
until the middle of the day, when a decline of I per cent.
occurred, and before the close of business nearly two per
cent. The lowest qentation of Colombian Bonds was 611.
Mexican New B 631, Peruvian 43, and Brazilian Scrip
14 discount. The continuation, owing to the scarcity of
money on these securities, even to the account day in
next week, has amounted to per cent., yielding an enor-
mous interest of more than 18 per cent., while the diffe-
rence in the value en Stock for immediate delivery, and for
the end of the present month, was not less than 1 per cent.
This circumstance rather chows an opinion among the
dealers that the panic Lion!), temporary.
The business trensacted in the other Securities has been
Citr,mely : during the whole of the day the
quotatiot.s of French &tick, owing to the uncertainty as to
its condition on Thursday, were merely nominal. The
Northern Bonds are only a shade lower than they were
yesterday. Spanish thuds have been sold at 14, but loft
off rather higher. Greek Bonds have fallen from 18 to
16, and up to the close of business there was no reaction
in them.

Frankfort Papers to the 3th inst. were received yester-
day. They did not contain a single paragraph of news
worth extracting.
Letters were on Saturday received from Rio Janeiro of
the 16th Sept. They coritam no political intelligence.
Extract of a letter dated Lisbon, November 29 :—" The
good old King of Portugal has been confined the last ten
days at his country seat at Mafra, and is so reduced that
the most lively fears are expressed for his life: his legs are
in the same unsound state as were those of the late King
of France. The Queen is understood to he all ready for a
start, in the event of the King's death; we expect that
Don Miguel will be back, and counter-revolution become
the order of the day."
Arnow, a number of other anecdotes related concerning
the new King of Bavaria, the two following are particu-
larly worthy of notice ; they prove how much his Majesty
has at heart the encouragement of Bavarese industry. He
hes given an inhabitant of the suburbs of Munich, a good
silk-weaver, 3,000 florins, for him to buy a loom, which
his poverty had before placed beyond his reach. A woman
has st:cceded, with native straw, in making straw bonnets
similar to the Leghorn. His Majesty has given her 1,000
florins to buy her a press, of which she was in absolute
want.—Conatitutionnel.

Sir Thomas Lawrence has arrived in town from Paris,
where he had been for some time past engaged in painting
the pot trait of the King of France, by the desire of our So-
veretn. to whose collection of the portraits of the Poten-
tates of Europe by Sir Thomas, it is understood, this will
be an addition.

CALEDONIAN CANAL.—This navigation is now open
betwixt the eastern sea at Inverness and the wedern sea at
rert-William, to the depth of fifteen feet water in the
shallowest part.—Luncoster Gazette.
The Wool. Maui( ti .e.—A preposterous paragraph is
going the round of the papers, which states that a reaction
has taken place in the wool market ; and that wool, which
ten days' since was worth 17/., 18/., and even 20!. per pack,
is now selling for only 12!. or t 3/. for the prime lots. On
this we have to olr,erve, that there has scarcely been any
alteration in the price of wool during the last month, but
' that on the whole both the price and the demand have
1m proved.—Leeds alfereary.
P. TT EM PT TO ROB TUE ALRESEOED BANG.—A most
daring attempt was made by some villains, on Sunday
morning last, about two o'clock, to break into the bank of
Messrs. Knapp and Co. at Alresford, by making a hole in
the front thaw, large enough to admit a man's arm, with
an instrument similar to a centre-bit. They had taken out
the Ley of the lock, and were making another hole to re-
move the bolts, when the clerk that slept in the house for-
tunately disturbed them, before they could accomplish
their purpose, leaving the instrument in the door, which
was so well constructei, that any person might make a
hole with it through the most substantial door in a very
sl:ort time. They made their escape before any assistance
could be procured.—Hompahire Telegraph.
Fo au EL Nor F 9.-14'e some time ago mentioned that a
forgery had been discovered of the Macclesfield and Che-
shire bank notes, of Messrs. Daintry and Ryle. We have
now one lying before us, which purports to be dated the
6th Nov. 1822. It was offered on Tuesday last, at the
shop of Mr. John Pt:AWL Old Bridge, by a wo:nan who
stated herself to have received it from a respectable indivi-
dual in Salford, whom elle said she would fetch. Being
somewhat unaccountably permitted to get away on that
pretence, it is almost needless to say she has never since
made her appearance.—The execution of the note is too
had to deceive persons at all accustomed to the plates of
this bank, or indeed any but illiterate persons, and there is
no stamp.—Mch ane.ter Guardian.

It is said, and we rejoice to h:ai it, that the commission-
era have it in contemplation to license certain glass coaches,
chariots, &c., to go at the rate of seven miles an hour in-
stead of five. The fares are to be twenty-five per cent.
higher than the present, and the plates arc to b 2 painted
white, in order to distinguish them from the present joy-
trot concerns. The same laws are to regulate them, a d
no pay can be demanded unless they perform their con-
tract. The coachmen, too, we hear, are to have a par-
ticular livery. This regulation will be cf infinite advan-
tage, as at present a tolerable walker can always keep up
with the ~:tierality of the hackney coaches ; and a e
doubt not most people will prefer the fast vehicles.—Sun-
day Pa per.
COMLIN ATION.—On 9.5111 tilt. the sloop Lady Grant,
lying in Montrone harbour, had her sails and rigging so
cut and de...troyed by sonic• ntisue,mts, as to disable her
from proc.-itling to s.:a. word poundage was chalkod
in large characters on the companion door, from which it
is supposed that the injury was dune by some fillaws who
had cemhircd to raise their wages, but no discovery has
yet het ti made of the culprits.—ihertleen Journal.

•
We lament to state. an unfortunate accident occurred at
a batty at Lu'worth Castle on Thdrsdav last. The Hon.
Capt. Wm. Waldegrave, having quitted his place whilst
walking in covert, a,:tl bein:r, entirely concealed from view,
was struck in the eye by a shot from the gun of his Royal
Highness the Duke of Gloue.iter. We are happy to add,
that the last accounts were as f.tvoutable as possible.

There is a nerve called the recurrent nerve (from its
turning back), which governs the voice. This nerve has
been found out by poachers, who manage to get at in the
dog, anal divide it : the consequence is, that dogs who are
thus treated hunt silently in the night.

The news of the death of that enterprising and inde-
fatigable traveller, Captain John lltindas Cochrane, was
received in England just at the period when a fourth edi-
tion of his " Narrative ,f a Pedestrian Journey through
Russia and Siberia," was ready for publication. This new
edition will have an additional interest with the public, as
containing two very striking likenesses of Captain Cochrane
and his Lady, fur which they sat to Mr. Harding, the
celebrated miniature painter, only a few days before their
'cdcparture•for South America.

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