The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-01-18 00:00:00

SPECULATIONS IN THE CORN TRADE.
WE called attention, a short time since, to an ex-
traordinary speculation going on in the Corn Trade,
by which large shipments consigned to one house
were purchased on the continent, and sold in this
country at a positive loss. It was then stated by
some of our contemporaries, including the Manches-
ter Guardian, that the most probable solution of
the seeming enigma was—either that the Earl of
DERBY, through his agents, had promoted the
speculation, in order to influence the elections
through the country, or that LOUIS NAPOLEON
was the prime mover, with the object of keeping
down the price of flour in the south of France by
depressing the English markets. We then ex-
pressed an opinion that no such solution was at all
feasible,—it was too large a draught upon com-
mercial credulity, for the advantage to be gained
would be infinitesimal compared with the extent of
the sacrifice, as no amount of individual speculation
in articles so largely in consumption as wheat and
flour could have any sensible effect upon the market
value. It now appears, from the examination which
has taken place before the magistrates in London,
that the whole affair may be attribute.] to a system
of wholesale swindling, which, for extent and auda-
city, is almost unparalleled in the annals of com-
mercial roguery. A merchant, named PRIES, who
is m custody on the charge of forgery, has been
buying successive parcels of foreign wheat, and
selling or pledging each parcel in order to pay for
the preceding one. Not content with this mode of
doing business, on which the aggregate loss must
have been very heavy, he has resorted to the direct
fraud of selling or pledging the same parcels more
than once; and, in order to accomplish this, has
forged the warrants which gave him an apparent
ownership to the goods. The consequence has
been, that one large house whom he has victimised
has failed for a sum of nearly £400,000, and other
houses have been sufferers to the extent of many
thousands, while it is at present impossible to say
where the mischief of such an enormous fraud may
terminate.

THE EMPEROR OF FRANCE.

Tx a elevation of the Nephew of NAPOLEON B uoNA-
PARTE to the Imperial throne has been effected by
so regular a gradation of circumstances,--the public
mind has become so prepared for each successive step,
as almost a necessary consequence of the one which
preceded it,—that we have hardly been sufficiently
awake to the results and the dangers to the peace of
Europe which may possibly spring from such a reali-
sation of personal ambition. It would seem that the
subject excited some attention among the Three Great
Northern Powers, as a somewhat unexpected delay
took place in the coveted recognition of LOUIS
NAPOLEON'S inflated title, and the smaller powers
of Germany waited until Russia had taken the ini-
tiative. This, after all, may be but the formality of
etiquette, purposely delayed, in order to appear not
over anxious for legitimate thrones to fraternise
with a mushroom monarch ; and it has evidently
galled the pride of LOUIS NAPOLEON, who has
also been thwarted in his matrimonial speculation.
We in England, however, have more to do with
those belligerent propensities for which Frenchmen
are never unwilling to find an occasion, and it may
require more than the skill of Lord JOHN RUSSELL
to avert the consequences which recent events in
Europe have rendered more alarmingly possible, if
not probable. It will be remembered that LOUIS
PHILIPPE, from policy as well as inclination, was
the personification of peace; and under his sway
France, in alliance with England, proved an effec-
tual
counterbalance to the growing desires of Russia
and her northern allies. In LOUIS NAPOLEON,
however, no other idea is identified than that which
made his name alone a passport to the throne, and
under his rule France has nothing in common with
England, but, on the contrary, a remembrance of
humiliating defeats, and an increasing anxiety to
wipe out the stain which was so deeply imprinted
at Waterloo and consummated at St. Helena. The
means have been slowly but surely accumulating, a
vast standing army is maintained in the greatest
efficiency, and a powerful steam navy has been
added, to leave none of that difficulty which the
uncle found so insuperable in his flotilla at Boulogne.
It is true that no overt act can be pointed to as one
which would justify an alarm for the national safety;
but when did Frenchmen want a pretext, or wait
for provocation, if the demand of their leader was
for military attack ? We, however, know that the
policy which has ended in seating the adventurer of
Strasbourg and Boulogne upon the throne of
France, has also placed within his grasp a power
for evil against which we cannot be too well pre-
pared. Should the opportunity offer, it requires
but a word from him : he has but to cry, " ' Havoc !'
and let slip the dogs of war;" and there is nothing
in all his antecedents which offers the slightest
guarantee of his being restrained from saying that
word through any feeling of good-will to England.
The illustrious hero who now sleeps with the dead