The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-01 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.

PROTESTANT INSTITUTE.-A PUBLIC
LECTURE will be delivered (D.V.) on MONDAY next,
the 7th instant, in the Gnicert-hall, Lord Nelson-street, by
the Rev. W. F. TAYLOR, M.A. Subject: GUNPOWDER
PLOT.
Admission to the Body of the Hall, Free ; Reserved Seats,
Sixpence. Chair to be taken at Half-past Seven.

however, the defect of our law, or the carelessness
of those who were the victims in the transaction,
prevented them from obtaining a legal remedy.
It appears that a parcel of foreign currants was
sold in the regular way through a broker, the con-
tract expressing that the Customs' tare was to be
allowed. According to the custom of the trade,
this would have been an average tare, calculated
according to the actual tare taken on some few of
the casks by the Customs' officers ; and the bar-
gain was so understood, at least by the English
merchants and brokers. It appears, however,
that the Customs' officers, instead of taking the
actual tare by weighing the fruit and the casks
separately, were content to take the usual per
centag,e ; and accordingly the casks were delivered
and paid for at that rate of allowance. But, upon
their reaching the hands of the retailers, the casks
were found to be four per cent. heavier than the
weight allowed for ; and, upon the merchant ap-
plying for the difference, amounting to nearly £5O,
he was met by a reference to the contract, which
it was found had kept the word of promise to the
ear, though it broke it to the hope, as the Customs'
authorities had been content to take the usual
tare, and this was in the bond. Any reference to
arbitration of those well versed in the trade was
refused ; and the Court, which only dispenses law,
was compelled to nonsuit the plaintiff. We have
referred to this case, in the hope that it may lead
I to more caution in future.

ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH.—Two SERMONS
will be Preached in this Church on SUNDAY next, the
6th instant. In the Morning, by the Rev. D. A. BEAUFORT,
M.A., Rector of Warburton; in the Evening, by the Rev.
JOHN MASON NEALE, I.A.N The Collections to be added
to the Fund for Building the
.proposed Church for Daily Ser-
vices and Weekly Communion, to be Free throughout t a the
People. Morning Service at St. Martin's is at a Quarter- to
Eleven ; Evening, at Half-past Six.

With such instances as these before us—and
they form but y a small proportion of the many
disadvantages connected with our foreign trade—
we may well question whether we have not lost
instead of gained by all that Free Trade has ac-
complished. Our manufacturers set the example
of dishonesty in their fabrics, of which devil's
dust and paste formed the principal ingredients ;
and our foreign customers appear to have bettered
their instructions.

have acquired a facility for the language of hyper-
bole, which magnified alike their losses and their
profits. We have now more recent news by the
steam-ship Argo, which has opened the road home
by way of Cape Horn, in the short period of sixty-
four days, and brought gold to the value of more
than half-a-million, to recruit the diminishing
stores of the Bank of England. The news which
she has brought will tend to revive the hopes of
Australian prosperity, for new gold fields have
been discovered, with prospects of more abundant
supplies, and the rush to the diggings is main-
tained with as much zeal as that which marked
the early discoveries. If the expectations be
realised, which we have no present reason to doubt,
the additional supply must tend to augment the
demand for British produce and manufactures, and
further stimulate a trade which has hitherto
proved so productive. In the meantime, it would
appear that the rates which still rule in Australia
are remunerative to shippers, but more particularly
with reference to building materials, which realise
enormous prices, on account of the great demand
for more substantial dwellings than canvas tents.
Bricks, slates, and sawn timber are extravagantly
high, while the wages of all workmen connected
with the building trade must raise these men into
the condition of little aristocrats. Another feature
in Australian society, which is entitled to consi-
deration, is the great disproportion between the
sexes, and likely females, of good character, are
invited to come out, with the prospect of having
an excess of fifty-seven thousand males from which
to select a husband. Political affairs have also not
escaped attention, and it is said that an Upper
Legislative Chamber has been agreed to, upon the
idea of laying the foundation for a colonial peerage.