The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-12 00:00:00

no such increased demand
idustry, but on the

by the o-peration of our Bank-
ibstracting a large portion of the cir-
culating medium of the country. A few items
from the returns just published will show the opera-
tion of the drain. In the first place we shall take
the exporis of the eight corresponding months of
1845, 1846, and 1847, which were as follows :

I to pay for our excess of im-

ports in gold, tht

36,408,5%
34,531,485
35,309,798

We thus imported in 1847, £1,098,797 less than
in 1845, and about £BOO,OOO more than in 1846.
That the imports of the last two years however did
not consist of those articles, which chiefly employ

the industry of our population is proved by the
diminution which has taken place in our import of
raw materials during the same period. We im-
ported in the years—

Cotton Wool, cwts
Sheep's Wool, lbs.
Flax, cwts
Hemp, cwts...
Raw Silk, lbs.

1845, 1846 1847
5,390,286 3,446,984 3,007,369
46,131,778 44,329,466 36,103,557
814,138 499,770 533,685
480.295 431,320 319,023
2,547,632 3,000,157 2,735,317

The falling off shown here in our two main staples,
cotton and sheep's wool, is immense ; and yet the

been capable of taking off, as we know from the
fact of our mills, and every branch of our cotton
and woollen business having been for the last 18
months in a state of partiai.suspension.
_

Now in the face of this declining state of the
Export Trade and the depression of our manufactur-
ing industry, let us see to what extent we have
been encouraging the foreigner to consume, by
taking from him an increased supply of food. In
the first place we turn to the return for the imports
of Foreign Cattle, which we find to have been as
follows in the eight months of 1842 (when they
were first admitted at reduced rates,) 1844, 1846,
and 1847:

1842. 1844. 1846. 1847.
Oxen and cows 799 1,979 19,428 41,295
Sheep and lambs
A similar increase will be found to have taken
place in the following leading articles of imported
food :

Wheat, qrs

Oats, qrs.

1845. 1846
254,093 1,095,663 1,572,847
359,542 505,393 1,083,390

WheatinealorFlour, l 2,
cwts..
Indian Corn, qrs....
Indian Meal, cwt.
Cocoa, lbs
Rum, gals. .....
Brandy, gals...
Tea, lbs.
Sugar, cwts.
Butter, cwts.
Cheese, cwf

2,177,639 4,528,994
46,759 421,041 2,941,900
- 96,162 1,167,756
1,645,726 1,613,968 3,418,315
2,813,172 2,428,695 3,304,983
1,523,784 1,795,617 2,150,476
10,502,657 37,514,283 41,768,689
3,624,239 3,797,907 5,459,914
160,731 148,007 207,938
154,532 174,692 202,659

4,239

Thus, in the two years of 1846-7, up to the sth
September in each, we imported breadstuffs alone
to the following enormous amount, viz., wheat,
2,668,510 quarters; oats, 1,588,783 quarters; flour
or wheat-meal, 6,706,633 cwts. ; Indian corn,
3,363,341 quarters ; and Indian meal, 1,263,918
CWtS. ; the bulk of which must of course be consi-
dered as an excess over our ordinary imports,
caused by the partial failure of our home crops.
The large increase, however, in our imports of
cocoa, rum, brandy, tea, sugar, &c., is to be ac-
counted for, mainly, by the remission of the duties
upon some of the articles, and perhaps by the cir-
cumstance of some of our working classes being
driven to find other substitutes for their ordinary
food. It is said, indeed, that the population em-
ployed in railways have largely contributed to in-
crease consumption ; but we have, to counter-
balance such increase, the diminished means of our
manufacturing community. In addition to the ar-
ticles enumerated above, we have an increase gene-
rally in the importations of articles of luxury; and
all this is going on without the slightest sign of
any immediate increase of our exports in re-pay-
ment. In fact, we are, by our amended tariff, di-
rectly encouraging an improvident expenditure
with foreigners; and we challenge any free trade
authority to show us how we can thus go on gra-
dually increasing that expenditure without be-
coming, as a nation, poorer.
It is not at all an encouraging sign that, whilst
we have been thus increasing our consumption of
foreign food, the national revenue from the excise
and taxes has largely decreased in the quarter just
ended. Such a result shows us that our increased
imports do not denote increased internal prosperity
or commercial activity, but only an increased taste
on the part of our population for those articles
which we do not consume, and the purchase of
which is rapidly abstracting our bullion from the

3untrY

IT is no doubt a fact, that there are to be found
hundreds of persons, upon whom the calls, at pre-
sent being made for the carrying out of railway
undertakings, produce feelings which are anything
but pleasurable. It is painful enough to have to
draw out capital from profitable use in the ordinary
channels of business, or to borrow money at exor-
bitant interest, to pay investments, which seem to
become of less value the more you have sunk in
them; but it is still more painful to be in the po-
sition of some parties, who have the liabilities
hanging over them for calls upon shares which they
have long ago ceased to hold, and with which they
have been flattering themselves that they had
finally disconnected themselves upon very favour-
able terms.

Awkward, however, as is the position of the
referred to, we cannot altogether
Agree with them in the propriety and justice of the
—'rgest should be adopted for

course which they

their rel

case h

just come before us, in
which it is proposed to dissolve a company—the
Liverpool, Manchester, and Newcastle Railway
Company—for whose line an act of Parliament has
been obtained, and the merits and usefulness of
which have always been considered far above those
of the projects which two years ago
eting of the Manchester share-

mn on

ion, was held in that

convened by circular, the party
being a
.111 r. Henry Rawson, a

•easons which v

him are, f

Una urg

t, that, whereas the

stock

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meetir
of an
that I
liabilit

to his own ind