The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-10-30 00:00:00

vate. We shall have also two prices of Gold—one
the statutory one, which will be in abeyance ; and
the other the natural one, regulated by the laws of
supply and demand. A pound in account and a
pound in gold will no longer represent twenty shil-
lings in silver. Such a state of things could not
possibly be submitted to. We should be driven,
perforce, to a readjustment of the standard, and an
increase of the weight of the golden pound. But
the debtor interest will here interpose, and say No !
We demand our bond no w. We agreed to pay a
certain number of ounces of gold of a given weight
and fineness; and this is all that we are willing to
pay. The dilemma will be rather a difficult one to
solve, in accordance -with both public convenience
and perfect justice to individuals. We cannot tell,
either, where the necessity for such readjustments
will stop. Once admit that the Bank is not under
obligation to carry out fully its bargain with the
public, by taking all that is offered to it at the
Mint price—whatever that may be—and gold ceases
to he a standard of value at all, and beco:nes a mere
commodity. The Bank might just as well issue its
notes upon a basis of quarters of wheat, tons of
iron, or any other product of similarly variable
price.
We can well perceive, under the pressure of all
these circumstances, how misgivings, as to our pre-
sent system, may exist in Downing-street. But we
repeat, no tinkering measures will meet the present
emergency. The whole question of monetary sup-
ply—its principle—must be grappled with ; and we
do not see, either in the ranks of the present
ministry, in the Peelite, or in any other political
section, "the men for the hour."

IN expressing our deep sympathy with the natives
of Wales in the strong wish they now evince through
the entire of the country to obtain for the vacant
see of Llandaff a bishop who will be able to di charge
the duties of his important office in the language of
the people, we feel sure we only record the feelings
of the English community of Liverpool. The policy
pursued by the government for the last hundred
years towards the Welsh church has broken the
spirit of the native clergy, and depressed their cha-
racter. The bishoprics have been uniformly given
away to Englishmen unacquainted with the lan-
guage, and, as might he expected, a fearful abuse
of the patronage vested in the bishops has followed.
The cathedral preferments and the best livings have
been bestowed upon friends or relatives all equally
ignorant of the Welsh language, whilst the native
clergy have been doomed to labour without an
adequate remuneration. Where the Englishman has
not resided, a curate, ill paid, hasbeen left in charge
of the parish, and the revenues derived from the
toil of the parishioners have been spent elsewhere.
In every way the policy has operated most injuri-
ously to the interests of the church, the native
clergy, and religion,. It is confidently asserted that
eight portions out of ten of the Welsh population
have been driven by this unjust and oppressive
conduct of the golernnattit from the Established
Church to the ranks of dissent. And we ask if it
be not high time for the English press generally to
take up the subject, and urge upon the present
Premier the necessityof giving to the Welsh church
what it really wants—pious and patriotic Welsh
bishops—in order to make an effort to save it from
extinction before it is too late.
We cannot close our remarks on this subject
without calling attention—practical attention—to
an excellent letter from the Rev. David James to
Lord John Russell.

FROM every quarter we are inundated with com-
plaints of stagnation in trade. The merchant, the
shopkeeper, the manufacturer, and the artizan alike
bear testimony to the fact. An under current is at
work somewhere, which mocks at all our hopes
of coming improvement, and defeats our best
exertions ; and it is only now and then that we
stumble upon evidences of its nature and workings.
We have before us, at this moment, what may
account for the dulness of one branch, at least, of
the national industry. We have had shown to as
an assortment of samples of every description of
paper,—posts, foolscap, account book, printing,
super bank, drawing, and others,—manufactured at
Antwerp, and offered at price; which the British
manufacturer cannot possibly make it for. The
qualities are excellent; and some of the post is
marked with the English stamp " Bath." To
uuuvey tut Idea, of talc catLcuLu ,licavuLao chasi,vcd.
by the foreigner, we may state that a very first rate
bank post is offered at 3s. 9d. per ream. But how,
it will be asked, can this affect the British paper
maker ? The duty on its importation is a prohibi-
tory one; otherwise our free traders would prick
up their ears at the prospect of their epistolary
wants, and their briefs, ledgers, and cash-books
being supplied for so little. But, although there
is this prohibitory duty, it does not operate in our
dependencies, which we used to supply with the
home manufactured article. From the samples
before us hundreds of reams have just been selected,
to be shipped at Havre for Bombay. Another
large quantity has been forwarded, on English
account, to Port Adelaide. It is little to be
wondered at that the British maker feels his trade
to be deserting him ; that the shopkeeper misses
his usual export orders. We have been seduced
into throwing the custom of a hundred millions of
British subjects into the hands of the foreigner;
and we are reaping the fruits, whilst ninety-nine of
a hundred of the complainants of bad trade know
nothing of the why !
The shipowner is just now beginning to experi-
ence the fruits of our recent insane legislation.
We have, at this moment,_ flocking to our ports,
hundreds of foreign vessels, to reap the harvest
which will be ready for them in January, when the
recently passed Navigation Bill will become law.
Hundreds are also preparing to receive freights
from our colonial possessions, whilst British ships
seek employment in vain. During the past week
we have had an arrival in- our port of a large first
class British vessel,—we could give her name if
required,—with an oversee, freight of only £l7O,—
not as much as would pay the wages of her men.
We are having flour brought from the United
States well nigh gratuitously. The total cost of its
transport from the head of Lake Ontario, nearly 500
miles down the St. Lawrence, and above 2000 miles
across the Atlantic, to a British port, is as little
per ton as a coastwise cargo to Bristol or London !
Yet the expense of transport was to have been a
sufficient protection to the farmer ! Is it wonderful,
then, that agricultural produce is not worth the
growing, that our shipowners are sinking, and
thousands of, unemployed' British seamen crowding
- our boarding houses,, or starving in our streets.
No difficulty now in procuring men to accept of
employment in our navy I' Hunger will do the
work shortly far more effectually than the press-
gang and the crimp.