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

FASHIONS FOR DECEMBER.

(From the " London and Paris Ladies' Magazine of
Fashion.")
Velvets, satins, and various materials broches, are worn,
and for full dress the Eglinton velvet raye pearl grey ; for
dinner, the same material, black on an orange ground ; also
violet reps, with broad satin stripes, plaid and plain satins.
Cotton velvets are also worn in Paris. .In mousselines de
laine those embroidered with silk on plain ground are the
newest.

Ceintures are worn of ribbon rolled round the waist, and
tying in front, with long ends. A novelty in evening dresses
is worthy of notice ; the very clear tulle dresses are made
with three skirts, each shorter than the other, and trimmed
at the bottom, by which means the weight of a full trimming
on so slight a material is obviated, and the light appearance
preserved, with the richness of a full trimming.
Manteaux are no longer confined to the useful and com-
fortable, but many very elegant ores are made; none more
so than the long cloak of dark satin, lined with pink or lilac,
confined at tke waist by a cordeliere and tassels reaching to
the feet ; and a cord is placed about an inch from the edge ;
all round the cloak, sleeves, and collar. Bournous of various
forms, are made, from tht Arabian to the more elegant
French bournous. Paletots, velvet shawls, &c. &c., are
all fashionable.

Velvets is much in favour for bonnets ' • the colours most
approved in that material are pale pink, Sevre blue, red cur-
rant, green, scabieuse, peony, terre d'Afrique, a pale ecru
colour, pearl grey, lapis blue. Nceuds' cordes, brides, all of
velvet ; ribbons are used only on satin bonnets.
In velours epinglef blue Louise, and coffee-colour are the
favourite shades, the feathers generally matching.
Evening coiffures are remarkable for simplicity ; their prin-
cipal peculiarities are, that they do nut conceal the hair, are
very low at the sides, and placed very backward on the head.
Some very pretty coiffures are composed entirely of lace
veils or scarfs ; they are simple and pretty, and form demi-
voile on the throat. Turbans will also be fashionable, and
those preferred are the Persian and Arabian, with long gold
fringe. Scarfs of every description will be very fashionable;
for full dress they are made of dentelle d'or and d'argent ;
flounces also of this material, with headings, are in prepara-
tion for dresses of velvet and other rich materials.
Fur is in high favour, and will no longer be confined to the
boa, palatine, muff, witchouras, &c., it will also be much
used on dresses, shawls, fichus, to which it gives much rich-
ness. Guipure lace continues in favour.

The Princess Sophia is said to possess the most splendid
and valuable casket of brilliants in Europe. It is valued at
£140,000.

Among the rumours current about ministerial embarrass-
ments and contemplated changes, there is one which, su-
premely ridiculous as it must appear, is in circulation and ac-
credited in high quarters. It is well known that the Premier
is extremely anxious and has been for some time past, to get
rid of Lord Normanby. His lordship, tenacious in etiquette
still more it seems than of place, refuses to be moved to 40
inferior station. But he has now, it is said, proposed as an
alternative, to vacate the Home ()thee on condition of being
raised to a dukedom, the title to be Duke of Normanby. So
far, Lord Melbourne does not appear to entertain the abs 4
dity.—Courier. 44
HULL AND SELBY RAILWAY.—On this line all the worts
continue to be prosecuted as rapidly as the very unfavourable
weather allows. About twb-thirds of the whole of the iron
work of the superstructure of the bridge over the river Ouse,
at Selby, are now on the spot, and the men are busily en-
gaged in fixing it; the whole of the iron work of the bridge
over the river Derwent, near Wressel Castle, has arrived
there, and two of the ribs are fixed across the river ; the
greatest portion of the entire length of the railway is bal-
lasted, and the contractors are busily engaged in laying the
permanent way. We understand that it is highly probable
this railway will be completed by Midsummer next, and that
in the course of the year, there will be a complete rail-
way communication between Hull and London.—Leeds
Intelligences.

COLONIAL NEGLECT AND FOREIGN PROPi
TIATION.

(From 131ackwood's Magazin(for December.)

Among the various and pressing interests, the considera-
tion of which is now brought home to the British empire,
there is none which is of such paramount and growing im-
portance as the extension of our Colonial Empire, and the
securing of our connexion with it. The more minutely and
anxiously that our social condition at home is considered, the
more it will be 'found that the maintenance, not only of our
domestic prosperity but of our national independence, is en
tirely dependent upon promoting the growth and maintaining
the connexion with our colonies ; and that our trade with
other countries, so far from being a source of strength, may
at once be converted into the greatest cause of weakness on
the next occasion in which this country is engaged in a mari-
time contest. , The facts on ,this subject which are to be
round in our Parliamentdry nepOi•is are of the very highest
importance, and perfectly decisive of the vast superiority of
colonial to foreign commerce. Nevertheless, that they are
very little known, even by those whose whole fortune audio.
terests are wound up with the subject, appears in the most
striking manner from the astonishment which the facts con-
nected with this subject never fail to excite when stated to an
intelligent and respectable assembly ; and, unless these facts
are constantly brought home to the public mind, and come at
length to influence the measures of governinent by the ac-
cumulated force of public thought; it may confidently be pre-
dicted that a catastrophe, at some future and possibly not
distant period, awaits the British empire, greater, perhaps,
than has ever yet befallen any civilized nation.
We have now been so long in the enjoyment of profound
peace, and in the possession of an export commerce to every
quarter of the globe, that the older part of the present gene-
ration have forgotten, the yofinger never have experienced,
what it was to have 66 exPort trade of England to nearly all
hut its own colonies closed by foreign hostility. Fortu-
nately, however, the experiment has been tried, and a durable
monument remains of the consequences which result to all
classes in this country from such a stoppage in the vent for
our produte. In the year 1811, the hostility of Napoleon
had closed all the harbours in Europe against our commerce,
while the Americans, by a new intercourse art, shut us out
froM every harbour in the United States. The consequence
was, that the exports of Great Britain, which, in the year
1810, amounted to forty-three millions, sank in the next year
to twenty-seven ; and the fall in the exports and imports
taken
.together for the one year, amounted to no less than
thirty-six millions. Mr, Brougham, in terms no less just
than eloquent, in the debate upon the Repeal of the Orders
in Council in 1812, thus described the state to which the
manufacturing districts in England were reduced by this
calamity :—" Take for example, one of our great staples, the
hardware, .and look to Warwickshire, whete it used to
flourish.Birminghatn and its neighbourhaod, a disttlet of
thirteen- Miles round that centre, was forMerly but One til-
lage, I may say one continued workshop, peopled with about
400.000 of the most industrious and skilful of mankind. In
what state do. You'now find that once busy hive of men ?
Silent, still, and desolate dui ing half the week • during the
rest of it miserably toiling at reduced wages, for a pittance
scarcely sufficient to maintain animal life in the lowest state
of comfort, and at all times swarming with unhappy persons,
anxious to work for their lives, but unable to find
employment. He must have a stout heart within him, who
can view such a scene and not shudder. But even this is not
all : matters are getting worse and worse ; the manufacturers
are waiting for your decision, and if that be against them
they will instantly yield to their fate, and turn adrift the
people whom they, still, though inadequately, support with
employment."—` In the West Riding of Yorkshire, the ap-
plications to the parish officers have so alarmingly increased,
that they have given repeated warnings to the master manu-
facturers, and I believe to the higher authorities, of their
utter inability to relieve the increasing distress, or to answer
for its consequences. Among other circumstances which
marked this part of the case, there was one peculiarly affect-
ing to every one who heard it. It had been proved that at
Kidderminster, where the great carpet manufacture is almost
entirely destroyed, the wants. of the poor became so pressing,
that they were fOreed to patt with their little stock of furni-
ture, which used to make their cottages in some degree com-
fortable, and even the clothes off their backs, to raise food,
until the pawnbrokers, having already loaded 411heinselves
with such deposits, refused to issue any more tickets. But
at Sheffield the same feature recurred in a heightened and
still more striking form. The workmen in the cutlery trade,
unable to obtain soy longer their usual market from the mas-
ter dealers and merchants, or brokers refusing to purchase
any more, were compelled-to pawn their articles at a very low
valuation for money, and even for food and clothes ; so that
this extraordinary- state of things arose—the pawnbrokers
dame into the London market with the goods, and there met
with the regtilar dealers,.whom they were able greatly to un-
dersell, in such wise as to supply to a considerable degree the
London and other markets, to the extreme augmentation of
the distresses already so severely pressing upon this branch
of trade."*

Now, in order to appreciate the misery that would ensue
to this country from a similar stoppage in its export trade at
the present time, we have only to reflect upon the vast in-
crease of exports, imports, and population, which have since
taken place ; we have only to recollect that our exports,
which in 1810 were forty-three millions, had, in 1838, risen
to one hundred and five millions ; and that our imports,
which in 1809 were thirty-one millions; had risen in 1838 to
sixty-one millions._; and that our population, which at the
former period was seventeen millions, is now twenty-five.
Now, if such wide-spread and heart-rending misery was pro-
duced then, what would be its effects now, when the manu-
facturing establishments of the country have nearly tripled,
and our manufacturing population has advanced in a propor-
tion unheard of in any other age or country? It may con-
fidently be affirmed, that the misery, devastation, and social
convulsions-that would ensue, would be greater than ever yet
were experienced in the world.
If we look at the jealousy with which we are regarded by
foreign powers, and the general aspect of the political world
at this time, we shall see no reason to believe that the ele-
ments of strife are awanting in the political atmosphere, or
that the time is far distant when war, even on as great a scale
as it was waged with Napoleon, must be undertaken by the
British empire. With Russia, it is universally admitted, we
are in a state closely bordering on hostility ; it is only a ques-
tion of time when that gigantic contest is to arrive. The
menacing aspect of the Baltic, of the thirty ships of the line
lying ready, and thirty thousand land troops ready at a mo-
ment's warning to embark in them—of the Dardanelles,
where fifteeh British ships of the line are constantly stationed
at the back door of the Russian empire—of Affghanistan,
where twenty thousand British troops are permanently sta-
tioned in the very heart of A.sia,—all demonstrate that both
parties are preparing for this great contest, and that it will
be carried on on a scale that will render the world itself the
field of battle. And on whom are we to rely for maritime
support in such a contest ? Is it on the Austrians, who
could not furnish a ship of the line ar two frigates to save
England from destruction ? or on the French, who, what be-
tween dread of Nicholas, and separate interests at Algiers,
have drawn off from the British alliance at the very first out-
break of hostilities in the Archipelago ? or the Americans,
whose government is so weak, and their hostility to this
country so inveterate, that thousands of armed pirates have
for two years back kept up an almost incessant warfare upon
the Canadian frontier? Everything indicates that a great
maritime contest is not far distant, and that, when it does
arrive, we will have to depend almost entirely upon our
own resources for our defence.

And are these resources, then, particularly our maritime
strength, in such a state as to warrant us in any reasonable
expectations that we shall be able to maintain our maritime
superiority in the contest, and avert the evils of actual
blockade from the British harbours ? The preparations of
the enemy are well known : they have thirty ships of the
line and eighteen frigates constantly in commission in the
Baltic, and fifteen ships of the line and twelve frigates con-
stantly in readiness in the Euxine. In considering the force
which England has at her command to resist aggression from
such an enemy, we shall not go back to the higher palmy
days of British exertion during the war; we shall not go
back to the year 1809, when the British navy consisted of two
hundred and forty-two ships of the line, and a thousand and
sixty-one armed vessels of all sizes. We shall content our-
selves with reverting to a humbler and more parallel period,
viz. the state of the British navy in 1838 compared with 1792.
before the revolutionary war commenced, and when the naval
and military establishments of the country were on the scale
to which Joseph Hume always refers as the ne plus ultra
point. of economic perfection. Now, upon turning to
authentic documents, viz. the returns of the navy in 1792,
given by Mr. James in his Naval History,t we shall find that
the defensive naval establishments of the country at the two
periods stood as follows :
Line in Frigates in Line, ordinary
Commis. Commis. and building.
1792, 26 52 124
1838. 21 9 70
Frigates, ordi- Total Total Grand Total
nary and build. Line. Frigates. of all Vessels.
1792, 63 153 115 411
1838, 84 90 99 363

But perhaps it will be said, that though the British navy
capable of meeting an enemy, is not thus one-half of what it
was in 1792, yet this is because the resources of the country
have so fallen off, that it was not able at the latter period to
maintain the defensive establishment which was in existence
at the former. To ascertain whether this is the case, let us
examine what was the state of the population, our exports
and imports, at these twd periods, as affording. a measure of
the agriculture, manufactures, and general resources of the
country. They stood respectively as_follows

•
_ _ -
1792. 1838.
Population of Great Britain 1
12,680,600 27,250,000
Exports. Official value
Imports. Official value ...... £19,659,358 £61,268,320
Tonnage
-- -

Thus it appears that since 1792 the population of the Bri-
tish islands has more than doubled, the imports more than
tripled, the exports more than quadrupled, and the commer-
cial navy increased about seventy per cent., while the ships
' of war, in all branches, have sunk to nearly half of their
standard in 1792. This, too. has taken place during a time
when the colonial empire of Great Britain has been multi-
plied above five-fold, and the chances of hostility with which
we are brought in contact at different points over the globe,
have been increased in a similar proportion. We invite the
whig-radical writers to examine and contradict these facts if
they can, and submit them to the deliberate consideration of
all the sober reasoners, and of all the intemperate admirers
of democratic wisdom throughout the realm.
It is impossible for any one who is a friend to his country
to contemplate such a state of things without the most serious
alarm—an alarm which is only rendered the greater from the
experienced difficulty of getting such future and contingent
events to arrest the attention of government or the nation iu
this unthinking age. But, above all, if the matter is seriously
considered, and if we reflect upon the imminent hazards of a
maritime war, the miserable state of preparation in which the
British navy is to meet it, and the awful effects which will
ensue by the stoppage of trade, and the blockade of our har-
bours by hostile squadrons, it must be evident that no more
important subject of consideration ever was submitted to the
attention of a thinking nation. And we dwell upon the sub-
ject with the more earnestness, because, when our situation
as a whole is fairly looked in the face, and the policy which
duty and interest alike prescribe, is adopted, there not only
is no ground for alarm, but the most satisfactory prospects of
future prosperity and welfare are opened on all sides to the
nation. It is in our colonies that this source of strength is
to be found ; it is in our descendants on the other side of the
Atlantic and Pacific, that we are to look alike for the only
certain market for our produce, and the only undecaying
eleMents for our strength. Some very striking facts on this
subject were brought forward upon the late dinner given upon
the occasion of the embarking of the first emigrants to New
Zealand, at Glasgow ; and we willingly give a place to them
,here, as exhibiting, in a more striking light than has yet been
done, she incalculable importance of the British colonies,
not merely to the extension, but to the independence and ex-
istence of the mother country.

* Parliamentary Debates, xxiii. 548.
James's Naval History, 11. 404; Barrow's Anson, App.
424.
T. Pollees Parliamentary Tables and Finance Accounts for
1838.

(To be continued.)

" After an union of only 27 years," says the Ddbats, " the
wife of the porter of No. 25, rue de la Cerisaile, named
Degand, presented him, a short time ago, with his twenty-
sixth child.

Dn. WHITTAKER'S SERMON TO THE CHARTISTS.— It
appears that besides the very large sale which this most excel-
lent sermon received in this country, two editions of it,
translated into the Welsh language, have also been dis-
posed of.