The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-30 00:00:00

THE MONEY PRESSURE.

LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY.—The decline in the public
funds—the new disasters announced in Manchester
to private, and in the south to banking establishments,
have tended somewhat to break the hopes indulged of
a crisis rapidly passing away from the face of com •
merce, and to chequer with new distrust the confi-
dence diffused by' the recent suspension of the Bank
Charter Act. In Liverpool, happily, we have the
favourable announcement to repeat that no new sus-
pensions haVe taken place ; but from Glasgow the
stoppage of Messrs. Holdsworth has been mentioned
on 'Change ; and, consequently, our cotton and share
markets, sympathising with the tone of affairs, have
been flat, and declining since yesterday's date to the
quotations mentioned in our usual report, transmitted
herewith, London and North-AVerterns being 150
against
.151-3- yesterday. The corn market, on the
other hand, exhibits an advanced quotation ; Western
Canal flour, named "Brunswick-street Consols,"
having been sold at 295. per barrel, with a demand in
some instances fur a further advance. The rates of discount still continue undiminished.
There are rumours mentioned on 'Change, to, the
effect; that should the North and South Wales Bank
resume operations—in regard to the prospect of which
I have remarked previously—the establishment will
cease to issue its own notes. This is merely men-
tioned here as a report. In truth, nothing is .yet
determined upon.
The meeting of the Royal Dank shareholders to-
morrow is awaited with much anxiety in •town.
Messrs. Barton, Irlam, and Iligginson's estate will
realise 19s. in the pound at present valuations; if
time he allowed, a surplus will be obtained. The cir-
cular of the bank manager has, we are informed,
received general assent.

The pressure on the money-market has had one
very beneficial effect in relation to railway affairs and
those involved in their progress, which will be felt as
an important relief to the shareholders, although its
operation will be to throw out of employment many
industrious artizans. I allude to the very general
suspension of railway works now in progress, or
rather to the diminished speed at which many
of those works are being carried on. Not only
are the Birkenhead and Cheshire Junction warks
now entirely suspended, but the contractors for the
line from Liverpool to Bury have dischargedmore than
half the workmen employed thereon ; and the works
of the London and North-Western in this neigh-
bourhood are judiciously progressing at less than half
their former speed, while the company is likewise
postponing all their intended improvements and other
works upon their line. These diminutions will be a
relief of great importance to the embarrassed holders
of railway stock; and in their adoption all the large
contractors engaged in the suspended operations have
cheerfully and happily concurred. All parties are
now discovering what might long since have been an-
ticipated,—that the demand for labour consequent
upon the mass of railway works to be executed
within brief and limited periods has increased beyond
the rate the companies could afford ; and the extra
cost of labour thence arising must even now remain
in perpetuity a permanent debt upon the various lines.
As an instance of this great enhancement, I may
mention, on unquestionable authority, that on most of
the railway works in Yorkshire the masons, who pre-
viously had received 45. per day, now obtain ss. Gd. ;
and such, moreover, was the competition to ob-
tain labour of that peculiar description espe-
cially, that the masons dictated terms to their
employers, and enforced their acceptance. The
masters were compelled to give way. Bricklayers
obtained an advance in their pay of thirty or forty
per cent. ; and .Common miners. engaged in exca-
vating for tunnels and -other works, received in num-
berless instances not less than six shillings per day.
Large numbers of these men will.now unhappily, but
necessarily, be thrown out of employ, and, yet more
-unfortunately, it, is to be feared that comparatively
few of them have provided from their previously
large earnings for the necessities of a reverse such as
that which during the ensuing winter they must
.encounter. That, consequently upon the lessened
demand, the wages of those still employed must now
fall to the level of previous years is inevitable ; while
as likewise it is clear,. that railways cannot continue to
meet the increased cost of construction caused by the
previous high rate of remuneration.
The monetary diFfnerlties of the times have yet
scarcely developed their disastrous results, however,
among these industrious classes of the social fabric ;
and, whether the reduction in the value of mechanical
labour now impending, will be effected on the
railways of our manufacturing districts without
a struggle is, as yet, a question open to the
development of time. . The trade clubs or unions,
however, are powerful in numbers and possessed of
large funds; and it may be that such measures will be
taken by them as will lead to a strike, and a conse-
quent total, suspension of all railway works during
several months;
.a result,- it may be remarked, which
would infuse secret gratification into every railway
board, and enable many companies to render more
prosperous the aspect of their finances. The com-
munity have been surprised, among the developments
of the recent commercial disaster, at the magnitude
of the liabilities exhibited in the accounts of suspended
houses; but it is well known that one great contractor
has more than 7,000,0001. of railway contracts on
hand and incomplete at this moment ; and, although
2,000 workmen have recently been discharged from
his employ,. he yet pays 50,000/. a week in wages
alone. This is a striking fact; and when it is
recollected that there 'are numbers of contractors
of lesser magnitude,- some of them, however, em-
ploying thousands of men, it is no longer won-
derful that " calls" are both frequent in
period of
num-
ber and onerous in amount, and
triunity with a feeling of t I:
works,repose ' wouldslisuch
asbewhoauillde hailed rhiys
' ht hire been supposedfrom aolder's and the corn-
There are in
the reports current
I:sac:Fri nfeuhi n
ettsol-sit.aa 1 suspension a
of
this town, howeNier, not so many unemployed men as
might -
during the last week. One large building firm,
which employs a vast number of men, was said to
have formed theo rlaersgoleutfioounnodfrisetsopwpeirnegaysi
also
nmy
eonft
itohneeidr
t similar measures ;
as works;lik e
likely
atnodatdwo, p
but happily the
former has not discharged More than 100 to 150 of
their workmen, and the latter two have discharged
comparatively few.
On the whole, there is a' better feeling abroad ;
and, now that men are beginning to regard affairs
in a calonevand more sober light, they are discover-
ing that when the storm has passed away speculation
will have received a salutary check, railway directors
a serious lesson, and it will be wall if all classes profit •
by the crushing calamities which have happened, so
that business may proceed with greater caution, and
with more reference to the actual means of the coun-
try than the greedy and baseless desires of rapid gain.
The Hibernia's accounts contain an interesting
statement of the commerce of New York; from
which it appears that during ten months,
thheegicnonnineg.
December 1, 1846, specie had been inlsilpanorrst,edbeitnog
sepxotenndtingofpeBrlo7d2,o6f94lB4s dollars,-65374a7i8n5dt0,
and that during-the
dollars were ird-
thane
increase of 8,019,216 dollars ;
month of September last 350,025
ported, while in the previous year but 2 255 dollars
were received. The export of specie during the cor-
respondent ten months amounted to 1 132 098 dollars,
against 1,490,976 dollars in 1845 -6.—', Tim' es.

A very mischievous rumour has been circulated in
the course of the present week respecting the position
of the South-Eastern Railway Company. From a state-
ment irunvolt:r:serhaptairtin ofour paper it will be seen that
these
reality no foundation whatever.
the contradleti3
We are tut ikuts to give
n unns riocunVci d publicity toyti• pto tobnl
iteo.
OnVis'aotNuir)dEanyring, PRESERVATION OF mAN LIFE.
a man employed 7 in the•
don of the railway tunnel near Stande&e, ne'earexLeenas,
was eoxpletely immured in the bowels of the earth by a
a.rge " shoot" of earth havinc, taken place. &telt was
tile quantity of earth that ler)), that though a great
number of men were employed to clear it away, and they
continued to work night and day, in shifts of three hours
duration, it was Monday afternoon before they got to
the poor fellow, when, surprising to say, ha was found to
be alive. Altogether he was it:x:ooed in the placz, with
a sufficient spice to move about, but with no food to
eat, for sixty hours ! When the woi‘kmen engaged in
his liberation had proceeded a considerable way, they
found the poor sufferer had contributed all in his power
to his own liberation, having with a large hammer, the
only instument he had, perforated through the mass of
earth some three or four yards. So intense was his
mental agony, he could form no judgment of the period
which had elapsed since .he was suddenly shut out
from the world ; but on seeing his master, he trem-
blingly asked if it was Saturday night. hot blankets
Iwete immediately at hand, and he was wrapped in them,
and taken to the nearest house,