The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-03 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

LEEDS.—The transactions in the Cloth Hall still continue
very limited, though, if any thing, there has been a slight
improvement during the week. The demand is principally
for domestic consumption.
BRADFORD MARKET.—There was a fair attendance of
merchants at the market on Thursday, but they were exceed-
ingly cautious in their purchases, and the business done was
not very extensive. No alteration in prices, either of Goods
or Wool, can be noted. Both the Yarn and Wool markets
were very inert.
WAKEFIELD WOOL MARKET, Nov. 29.—There is no
alteration in the Long Wool trade from last week's report.
Some few sales continue to be made at previous rates. No
improvement in Blanket Wools.
___

i3ARNSLEY LINEN TRADE.—We are sorry to say that the
Linen Trade at this place is uncommonly flat. In the home
trade a considerable number of weavers have been compelled
to take in their reeds during the past week, but the drill
houses are very busy, and it is to be hoped many will find
employment in that department. —Leeds Intelligencer.
MIDDLETON SILK TRADE.—The silk trade in this neigh-
bourhood has become very dull within the last fortnight.
This week nearly every weaver, on taking their work to the
warehouses in Manchester, and on receiving fresh pieces,
they were ordered not to take them in before a certain time
had elapsed, consequently many weavers have not more than
half employment.—Manchester Courier.
PRESTON.—The market has undergone a further decline
of 4d to id per lb. upon yarns, and 3d to 6d per piece upon
manufactured goods. Several speculators in yarns and
goods, who had, last week, procured samples apd entertained
intentions to purchase, with the view to resell during next
spring, have declined for the present to treat at all, except
at a still further and ruinous reduction in prices. The pre-
sent losses, sustained from spinning and manufacturing of
cotton wool, have now, almost, wholly to be borne by the
Joint Stock Bank shareholders, whose money was so lavishly
and recklessly intrusted from 1835 to 1837, to all parties
who had not the firmness to withstand the persuasive temp-
tations, then so alluringly held out. In this town, the cot-
ton trade is, we are told, about as bad as it can be. Money
is exceedingly scarce, and in every branch of business com-
plaints are loud and startling.—Preston Chronicle.
DUNDEE.—There is little alteration to notice in the state
of our markets for the past week. The prices of flax, yarns,
and linens, remain without variation. Hessian sheetings are
in demand for the Brazilian market; but this has led to no
advance in the price of the article, which is not such as would
yield a profit to the manufacturer. The finer qualities of
flax are getting scarce ; and holders are firm in expectation
of a rise in prices. From a petition which has been presented
by the unemployed workmen to the town council,. craving
relief, it will be observed that twenty spinning mills are now
at a stand in Dundee; at most of these, however, compara-
tively few hands were employed. It is the opinion of many
of our most intelligent merchants, that bur trade has reached
the lowest point of depression, and that we may indulge
hopes of a speedy improvement.—Dundee Courier.

The commissioners of the northern lighthouse have given
notice of the erection of a beacon upon the Skirvuile, or Iron
Rock.

IMPERIAL BANK.—There was a meeting of the claimants
of the Imperial Bank, at Manchester, on Wednesday last,
at which meeting the inspectors made a report which was
deemed much more favourable for the creditors than that of
any preceding one. It appeared that negotiations had been
commenced with the " shilling" shareholders, and that many
of them were disposed to pay £5 per share, on condition of
exoneration by the creditors of any further calls. If this
should be quite general, a very handsome dividend may be
expected.

FORTUNE MADE EASY.—We safely assert that not
one person in ten thousand is au fait at the niceties of man-
ner required in a Ball Room, and has that self-possession
which tends so much to the happiness of the individual, and
to the forming of those connexions which lead to FORTUNE!
—Therefore that little bijou of a book, entitled THE BALL
Room GUIDE, published by Mitchell, London, should he in
the waistcoat-pocket of all Gentlemen who would behave
COMME IL FAUT, and dance correctly as to the figure: nor
will the reticule of the lady be complete without this SHIL-
LING TREASURE.—It will be observed that the leadins por-
tion of the press have given their unqualified approbation to
this delightful little work, of which nearly 30,000 copies have
been required by the public.
The Editor of The Times calls this—" A very neat, well
got up, sensibly written little book, worth at least five times
the price at which it is charged. Its merits ought to make
it a work of great utility."
• The Editor of The Herald observes :—" Let no novice
presume to enter a hall-room without having perused it."
The Editor of The Chronicle says :—" Certainly much
needed, and far superior to any thing of the kind hitherto
published."

The Editor of The Post says :—" It is a sterling produc-
ion."

The Editor of The Standard remarks :—" If any person
wishes to learn the best rules of the best society, we recom-
mend a purchase of this beautiful little production. There
is nothing better in the language."

WEST INDIAN AFFAIRS.
EXTRACTS FROM " REFLECTIONS ON WEST INDIA AF
FAIRS," BY LIEUT.-COL. THE HON. SIR EDWD. CUST.

ADDRESS TO THE COLONIAL OFFICE.
I could have wished to have addressed, with every cour-
tesy, to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State, the ob-
servations that it had occurred to me I could lay before the
public, with some advantage to West Indian affairs, after my
return home from an excursion through the principal British
and Foreign possessions of the Caribbean sea. But the in-
cessant changes of the Principals in the Colonial Department
scarcely give me any option, on the present occasion, but that
of addressing the entire Office. I will make no allusion to
the inconveniences resulting to the Colonies themselves from
the late fluctuating appointments, further than to remark,
that at a moment when the Office takes upon itself to do so
much without consulting those who are the most concerned,
it would be consolatory to the Colonists if they could have
more satisfaction in the greater stability of those to whom
Colonial affairs are entrusted. True it is, that, amidst all
the recent changes, the situation of the most active 'Under
Secretary remains always unaltered, and I might therefore
have selected him for my correspondent, without any appre-
hension of being obliged to modify my address ; but, whether
justly or not, I have found that gentleman's influence to be
so unpopular in the colonies, and considered to be so hostile
to their interests, that to address my letter to him might have
been misconstrued by all parties ; and 1 might either have
been imagined to participate in his supposed views of colonial
policy, or intend satirically some remarks in opposition to
them. I have no such motive. My object is to state, as
concisely and as clearly as I can, the opinions I have been
induced to form during a recent voyage through the Wind-
ward Colonies ; and although I shall not profess an absence
of prejudice by a hesitating inclination to blow hot and cold
upon every question, I shall endeavour to steer as clear of it
as a man not ashamed to write himself a Churchman, and a
West Indian planter, can he believed to do by those of op.
posite denominations.

DESPOTIC AUTHORITY or THE COLONIAL OFFICE.
I consider that the Colonial Office in its collective juris-
diction (for I will not attempt to dissect the individual influ-
ence that directs and controls it) is at the present moment,
and has been for some years, the most unequivocal Autocracy
in existence. The Russian Emperor rules absolutely, with-
out a show of constitutional authority : he can appoint and
depose his Governors, increase or diminish their salaries, and
enforce laws by his unquestioned power. All this is of course
done by our Superior government, but it does not hesitate to
override, at its pleasure, every constitutional influence ; for
whilst it leaves the semblance of a will to the two estates of
the several mighty rocks of the Caribbean Sea, it is only when
their freedom of legislation is discreetly moulded upon the
previously ascertained will of the Colonial Office, that their
laws are permitted to come into operation. Thus the ma-
gistracy, the militia, the police, and the prison questions, are
all arranged in Downing-street, without reference to colonial
interests. The Governors are the mere creatures of its au-
thority, of no imaginable influence but what they derive from
id nomination; they are unequal to represent at home the
just grievances of the colonists, because they know that if
these should in any degree clash with the preconceived opin-
ions of the department, their situations are in immediate
jeopardy ; and they are in no position to make head against
its influence, by an appeal to the good sense and justice of
the British people, without hazard to their individual inte-
rests, and ruin to their professional prospects.