The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-09 00:00:00

clearly pointed out. On that occasion Earl GREY and
Lord MONTEAGLE went minutely into a consideration of
the financial theory which has induced Mr. GLADSTONE
to apply for an advance of £6,000,000 on the security of
exchequer bonds. The result of this scheme like his
famous "South Sea Bubble," shows dearly that he is only
a very juvenile financier. He advertised his bonds at 3i
per cent., agreeing to take them at £9B 15s. for the £lOO,
which, along with a 4 per cent. bonus, granted in the
shape of interest, raised the terms he offered to as nearly
as might be 4 per cent., the rate offered with success by
several of the railway companies in raising money on de-
benture On such terms they find money easily. Mr.
GLA.DSTONE, with the credit of the country at his back,
finds no end of difficUlty in raising one poor third ohat
he asks. How comes this about ? From his devWess
he mainly derives his want of success. Like the logical
student who proved to his delighted parents that the two
fowls prepared for dinner were three, and had the third as
a reward for his logic, Mr. GLADSTONE demonstrates the
readiness with which he can obtain cash, and capitalists
permit him to enjoy the demonstration for his pains.
This evening he is to make his financial statement to the
house ; that is, he is to deliver himself of oae of those
curiously stilted and involuted pieces of mystification of
which he is so great a master, and by which, in his desire
to get to windward of every body else, he succeeds only in
deceiving himself. It is now broadly stated that the
financial charlatanerie of Mr. GLADSTONE, long at a dis-
count in the city, is beginning to create such fiscal de-
rangements as can no longer be tolerated ; and it is further
hinted that some independent member of the House of
Commons will bring him and his schemes to the test of
opinion in that house.
Intelligence respecting the bombardment of Odessa,
and the destruction of the Russian ships in the har-
bour, was formally communicated to both Houses
of Parliament on Friday evening. Apropos of the
war; I am reminded, by an incident occurring on Tues-
day, that war has two phases, the harrowing as well
as the glorious. The circumstance referred to is that,
on the day named, HER MAJESTY and PRINCE ALBERT
inspected one of the hospital wagons designed for the use
of the army in the East. It has several compartments,
and is one of a series designed for conveying the wounded
from the battle-field to the hospital. The wagon was
much approved of for its convenience, and the comfortable
accommodation it was calculated to afford. It was one of
several designed and manufactured by Messrs. HOLMES,
of Derby, coach-builders to HER MAJESTY and PRINCE
ALBERT.

The past two weeks have been fertile in the display of
the truly English union of feeding and the fine arts, poli-
tics and prandial entertainments, the whole seasoned with
a dash of literary sauce-piquant. First came the annual
opening dinner of the Royal Academy. On this annual
occasion, the east room, that in which the banquet takes
place, presents an unusual appearance. The saloon is
lighted by gas-jets, which, running entirely round the
ceiling, beneath the glass-roof, are so regulated during the
dinner, that there is just sufficient light to enable the
guests to participate in the banquet without discomfort.
The instant that the QUEEN'S health is proposed, the full
force of the gas is turned on, and, in a moment, the hall is
suffused with a flood of light, bringing the rich colouring
of the numerous pictures and the dazzling splendour of
the gilded frames into full and gorgeous display. The
effect is not less charming than startling, the dim and
sombre semi-obscurity being succeeded by a brilliant and
sustained light. At the banquet of the present year, one
or two rather notable affairs occurred. The first, or at
all events the most salient, of these was the ingenuousness
with which the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in re-
-1 turning thanks for his health being drunk, while corn-
mending the study and encouragement of the fine arts, as
a matter of national concernment, conti ived to edge in a
word or two respecting his own financial difficulties, re-
minding one forcibly of a scene stated to have occurred,
during what is termed a pecuniary crisis, in the theatre of
a commercial town, which, for the present at least, shall
be nameless. A stranger having entered, and sat some
time beside a respectably-attired and gentleman-looking
personage, approaching closely to him whispered, " Have
you a bill for to-night ?" and was staggered by the re-
sponse, "No ! but I have two for to-morrow, and both
unprovided for." His body was surrounded by gaiety, but
his mind was harassed by commercial care —so with Mr.
GLADSTONE. He was personally present at the Academy's
banquet, but his mind was hunting truant promises and
illusory Exchequer bonds through the mazes of the Stock
Exchange, and ransacking the intricacies of "experimen-
tal securities" in the hidden strong-rooms of the Bank.
Another was the curious petulance displayed by Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, on the occasion of his health being drunk
coupled with that of Mr. DISRAELI. Huug on the wall,
and immediately facing the President, is a portrait of
Lord JoHN, by F. GRANT, R. A., in the same place
which was on a former occasion occupied by the same
artist's portrait of Mr. DISRAELI, and to this cir-
cumstance the president made playful allusion. This
allusion he evidently took in dudgeon ; and, being pre-
cisely what CALCRAFT says of the player —" QUICK was
little, pert, fidgetty, and important, with a strut like a
turkey-cock, and short, sharp, epigrammatic turns of hu-
mour, peculiar to himself;"—displayed most of those pe-
culiarities in his reply. He was of course followed by
the sarcastic DISRAELI, who did not spare his lordship's
want of courtesy, and who also embraced the opportunity
of slyly sand-papering Mr. GLADSTONE'S recommendation
of parsimony in patronising the arts of peace on account of
the war. Two other anniversary dinners require only brief
allusion : those are the Royal Literary Fund dinner, held
on Wednesday, and the annual dinner of the Printers'
Pension Society. The first presided over by Lord MAHON,
the latter by Mr. LXYA.RD, M.P. The feature of interest
at both was the liberal support they have each received,
and the consequent benefits they had been enabled to
confer.

Another meeting, of much less pretension and of com-
paratively small importance, took place on Wednesday,—
this was the Literary Association of the Friends of Poland,
deriving its chief interest from past associations, mixed of
course with a seasoning of current events. Foremost
among the peculiarities of this meeting was the announce-
ment of the intended organisation of a Polish legion, to
be commanded by Polish officers, enrolled under the
Polish banner, and operating under the direction of Turkey
against Russia.
The past week has numbered with the illustrious dead
the name of JAMES MONTGOMERY, known as of Sheffield,
although a native of Irvine, in Ayrshire, where he was
born in 1771, being consequently a contemporary as well
as countryman of BURNS, par excellence the Ayrshire
poet. Besides numerous beautiful lyrics, MONTGOMERY
was the author of " The Wanderer in Switzerland;" "The
World Before the Flood ;" " Greenland ;" and " The Peli-
can Island;" all of them of a high order of merit.
That the present epoch of moral, social, domestic and
foreign relationsls a singular one, few will deny. Every
day furnishes new and convincing proofs of change in
these particulars. Our sailors and soldiers have been
drafted off with those of France to fight a common foe—
interchange of civilising ceremonies has taken place
between the leading characters of both nations—and the
masses of the population in both countries look upon each
other with a friendly eye. All this is as it should be, and
worthy of all honour and encourgement ; but what is more
to the purpose, the mutual good feeling seems spreading
on both sides in the right direction. A singular and
pleasing manifestation of this has just been evidenced in
the establishment of an annual exhibition in London of
the FRENCH SCHOOL OF THE FINE ARTS. This, the first
display, is located in Pall-mall. The objects contemplated
by the French artists in carrying out this scheme are two-
fold. They would have English and French artists to know
each other by their works, and therefore they establish
this exhibition. They further profess an ardent desire
that the existing union between England and France may
be strengthened and extended ; and they conceive it
fairly within the province of the fine arts to ripen and
extend the growth of mutual friendship. The idea seems
a good and a legitimate one in that point of view ' • but
there is also another object which promises to be attained
by it. Our artists becoming familiar with the labours of
their continental brethren, and they in turn with ours,
each party would learn something—their mutual faults
would tend to correct each other—their respective excel-
lences would encourage each, and stimulate to fresh exer-
tion and an enlightened rivalry. The exhibition in Pall-
pall contains pictures from the pencils of several French
artists whose works are familiar to all educated. English-
men, such as Any, SCHEFFEE, and PeuL DE LA ROCHE,
and others ; but there are likewise numerous and valuable
contributions from artists whose names are new to the
English public. English artists have been invited, and
will doubtless respond to the invitation, to contribute to
the great exposition in Paris next year ; why should not
such temporary intercourse be ripened into a mutual
exchange, display of the progress of art, and the continuance
of good fellowship between the two countries F The project
has been happily inaugurated ; above all things, then let
it be spiritedly carried out. The Royal Academy Exhibi-
tion, as might be expected, forms the centre of attraction
to many a coterie. Its beauties are the theme of ardent
youth ; its shortcomings the lament of gentlemen, who,
though advanced in the " sixth age," will not acknow-
ledge " the lean and slippered pantaloon." To the beau-
teous and the gay it is a delightful rendezvous; to the
sedate and thoughtful a charmed abode of elevating plea-
sure. To all classes it offers some attraction, and within
its walls each individual may learn something which he
did not know before.

VESSELS FOE AIISTRALIA.—The number of entries for
the various ports during the last two weeks have been
considerable, From the 19th ult. to the 2nd instant they
have amounted to 12 vessels, with an aggreg:ate registered
tonnage of 11,769. The sailing's from the 20th ult. to the
3rd instant were six vessels to Melbourne, aggregate ton-
nage 5,097, and one vessel to Sydney, 1,204 tons; or an
aggregate tonnage of 6,301. During the month of April
two vessels, of the registered tonnage of 1,425, sailed for
Adelaide ; one vessel, 221 tons, for Geelong ; one vessel,
1,204 tons, for Sydney ; and nine vessels, 9,046 tons, for
Melbourne ; or an aggregate total of thirteen vessels,
11,896 tons. _

ELOPEMENT.—An occurrence took place last week, at
the north end of the town, which has excited considerable
interest in that neighbourhood. A short time back a
young man, formerly inspector in the police force, buz
dismissed for misconduct, took a tap attached to a public-
house in a leading thoroughfare. He continued in posses-
sion for a short time, when, in consequence of a dispute
with the landlord, he retired, and removed away for some
time, but on his return renewed his intimacy with the
landlady, but without any suspicion being entertained by
the husband, and about a week ago the parties absconded.
On their flight being ascertained, the publican discovered
that his faithless spouse had taken with her about £l,OOO
in cash. The fugitives were traced to London, and it is
supposed they intended to leave the country as soon as
possible.
THE STIR OF TILE EAST, Capt. Robertson, arrived in
the Mersey on Friday, from Shanghai, after a capital run
of 104 days, from Woosung. She sailed from this port on
the 7th July last, for Melbourne, as one of Miller and
Thompson's Golden Line of Australian Packets, and
arrived at that port on the 23d of September,—seventy-
eight days from Liverpool. She then proceeded to Sydney
to land cargo and passengers, whence she sailed on the
9th of November, for Shanghai, where she arrived on the
21st of December. After taking a cargo on board, she
sailed from Shanghai on the Ist of January, and
from Woosung on the 21st, but anchored on the 22nd, off
Gutzlaff, in a heavy gale, which continued until the 24th,
when she slipped from her anchor, and on the 25th en-
countered a typhoon. She has thus made the voyages
from Liverpool to Melbourne, Sydney, China, and back, in
nine months and twenty-seven days.

COMMERCIAL 4 MONETARY NEWS

MONDAY NIGHT.
THE money market during the week has been
in an unsettled state, owing to the uncertainty
attending the project of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer to raise a loan of six millions upon an
issue of Exchequer Bonds. The public funds have
not, however, fluctuated to any great extent,
although much apprehension was entertained that
the Bank directors, at their meeting on Thursday,
would have raised the rate of discount, owing to

the continued decline in the stock of bullion, which
by the returns published on Friday showed another
diminution to the extent of £398,167. No altera-
tion having been made in the rate of discount, the
funds slightly rallied, but the necessity of further
taxation, in order to meet the expenses of the war,
prevented any material advance, and even the news
of the successful bombardment of Odessa, though
confirmed by the ministerial statements in both
Houses of Parliament, had very little elevating
effect upon the money market. In the meantime
it is gratifying to notice the absence of any ap-
pearances likely to affect the stability of commercial
credit. Two failures are reported at Manchester,
but one of them is only for about £lO,OOO, and the
other a Greek house, though for about £35,000, has
been caused by the non-arrival of remittances from
Constantinople, which, when realised, will he more
than ample to meet all engagements. A failure is
also reported in London of a solicitor, who is said
to have absconded, leaving liabilities to the amount
of £BO,OOO, of which £30,000 are supposed to be
forgeries. When the long stagnation of several
important branches of trade is taken into account,
and the violent interruption of business, both in
the Baltic and the Black Sea, the state of money
affairs may be considered rather favourable than
otherwise.

In the Cotton manufacturing districts a general

dulness seems to prevail ; buyers acting with ex-
treme caution, and purchases being confined to
immediate wants, have had a depressing influence
upon prices, though not to any great extent. In
the Woollen districts there has been little change.
The Lace trade is considered worse, but hosiery is
beginning to improve.

In the Corn trade the chief feature to notice is
the large amount of arrivals from abroad, which
appear to have had the effect of inducing purchasers
to increase their stocks. Prices have been steadily
maintained, though the tendency has been slightly
towards a decline.

The Board of Trade tables for the month ended.
sth of April, which were issued on. Saturday, ex-
hibit unexpectedly favourable results, the declared
value of our exportations presenting, as compared
with the corresponding month of last year, an in-
crease of £993,572. In the Manchester trade,
which during the previous month showed a serious
falling off, there has been a fair augmentation as
regards the better classes of goods, and Woollen
manufactures also again figure for a considerable
improvement. The demand for Iron, however, and
the high prices it has reached, cause metals still
toikappear among the largest items of increase. At
the same time there is strong evidence of continued
activity in the colonial trade, and, notwithstanding
the extent of our exports of such articles as Beer,
Hardware, Earthenware, Saddlery., and Haber-
dashery, at the commencement of 1853, they all
show, on the present occasion, that the demand is
steadily maintained. Among the few articles
which present any important decrease are Cotton
and Woollen Yarns, owing to the effect of the war
in checking purchases for the continental manufac-
tories. Oil and Seeds likewise show a falling off,
these having been brought into request at home
from the prospects with regard to the supplies of
Tallow and Linseed from Russia.

The aggregate value of our exports during the
first quarter of the present year has been
£21,361,331, against £20,391,723 in the like period
of 1853, showing an increase of £969,608, or nearly
5 per cent., which has occurred in, the following
order :
Month ending Increase.
February, 5
March 5
April 5 993,572 ....
As compared with the same period of 1852, there
is an increase of £4,785,583.
With regard to imported commodities, the amount
of Breadstuffs continues to present a striking in-
crease. It appears that during the first three
months of this year 283,988 quarters ofWheat and
501,330 cwt. of Flour were taken into consump-
tion in excess of the quantity taken during the
corresponding quarter of last year, although the
importations on that occasion were double those of
the same period of 1852, while since the date of
these tables the arrivals are known to have been on
a still larger scale. In other articles of food and
luxury the consumption has been steady. Butter,
Cheese, Eggs, Coffee, Sugar, Wines, and Tobacco,
all show an increase, but in Cocoa, Spirits, Fruits,
and Spices, there has been a decrease. A great
decline in the consumption of Tea is explained by
the dealers having refrained from purchasing until
the reduction of the duty.—The comparative im-
ports and exports of raw material show again a
large increase in all, except Hemp and Cotton.
The importations of other articles have been mostly
large, and in Glass manufactures and Timber the
increase has been considerable.

Decrease.
.... £368,748

A valuable return has just been completed,
showing the progress of shipbuilding in the United
Kingdom during the past year, under the stimulus
of the high freights caused by the requirements of
Australia, the demand for grain, and the general
activity of trade. It appears that the total increase
upon the preceding year, when this branch of
enterprise was already in great prosperity, has
been equal, as far as regards carrying capacity, to
21 per cent., the vessels registered in 1853 having
been 853, of an aggregate burden of 233,524 tons,
against 745, with a burden of 192,949 tons, in
1852. The constant' tendency towards an aug-
mentation of the size of vessels is also observable,
the average of those built in 1853 having been 274
tons, against 259 tons in 1852. Subjoined is a
table exhibiting the relative figures for each part
of the United Kingdom

1833.

Vessels •

Vessels

. ........._
Registered. Tonnage. Registered. Tonnage.
England and Wales 583 .... 157,326 .... 649 .... 182,489
Scotland
Ireland
Guernsey, &c 3l .... 1,856 .... 32 .... 3,049

745 19'2,949 853 233,524
With regard to individual ports, the following
indicates the progress of construction at the places
of most importance :

_
1852. 1853.
Vessels. Tonnage. Vessels. Tonnage.
----........
r--..A._____,
London r-
113 .... 48,214 .... 151 .... 62.745
Liverpool 73 .... 37,250 .... 85 .... 45,682
Sunderland
Shields
Newcastle..
Glasgow 33 .... 16,248 .... 34 .... 15,419
Greenock .. . 10 .... 1,421 .... 26 .... 8,938

COTTON.—There has been but a moderate
amount of business doing during the week, owing
to the uncertainty which prevails as to the warlike
operations, the pressure on the money market, and
the recent large arrivals. Fair qualities main-
tained their prices, but middling was about
lower, and this decline led to an improved demand
towards the close of the week. The sales up to
Friday were 34,350 bales, of which 2,240 were
taken on speculation, and 1,990 for export, leaving
30,120 for the trade. To-DAY the advices per
Hermann, arrived at Southampton, were received,
and the accounts from the southern ports being
more favourable, there was an increased demand,
which was still further induced by the resumption
of work at Preston and Stockport. The sales
reached 8,000 bales, of which about 1,500 were on
speculation and for export. Prices were firmly
maintained ; but we cannot notice any quotable
advance since Friday. The following are the pre-
sent rates as compared with the corresponding
period last year :-
1863. 1854.
New Orleans, middling 6/d. 51d.
fair
Uplands, middling Oetl. 6id.
fair 6d.

The business of our SHARE MARKET has again
been very unimportant. The public do not sell,
but they will not buy, and the bungle of the
Chancellor has damaged the Money Market and
the credit of the country materially, causing
general uneasiness and some tightness. For our
local stocks there is some slight demand, especially
for gas shares, which have advanced some two or
three pounds during the week. The market to-day
is very flat, and prices are inclined to droop: We
add the quotations Chester and Holyhead,
13 13-16 ; Eastern Counties, 12 ; East Lancashire,
144 ; Great Southern and Western, 444 ; Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire, 584 4 s 4 ill s 4; Liver-
pool, Crosby, and Southport, ; London Stock,
95 44 -} 541 ; Midland Stock, 56/ 547 61 -31 ;
Newcastle and Carlisle, 85 ; North British, 78 ;
South Eastern, 17 7-16 7-16 17 7-16 ; Poltimore
Copper and Gold Mine, gd ; Liverpool and London
Fire and Life new issue at 1.1 pm., 6-ip. ; Bank of
.uiverpool, 20.