The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-03-28 00:00:00

EXTENSICIN OF BRITISH COMMERCE.

THE extraordinary rise of Liverpool, from the
comparatively insignificant town of little more
than a century back, to its present important posi-
tion, as the great commercial emporium of the
world, is solely owing to that spirit of mercantile
enterprise which characterises its inhabitants, the
great natural advantages afforded by the magnifi-
cent estuary of the Mersey, the facility of access
from the great highway of the Atlantic, and its
means of internal communication with all parts of
the kingdom. Liverpool may, indeed, be said to
present the realisation of the grandest ideas of
commercial greatness ; and it is no marvel, there-
fore, that the business of her merchant princes
offers a topic for discussion the most prominent and
the most interesting. Not that -the international
exchange of commodities and the pursuits of
money-making engross all attention, to the exclu-
sion of better feelings, for the large Conservative
majority at every election affords ample evidence
that the true principles of constitutional loyalty
give dignity to a pursuit which, in less worthy
hands, too often tends to moral debasement. Li-
verpool has, therefore, reason to be proud of her
commercial greatness, and, as the progress of
events opens new fields for its extension, may pro-
perly take the lead in availing herself of the full
advantages to be derived. Perhaps the most
available means for the establishment of new
markets for our exports is that of emigration to
the various colonial dependencies of Great Britain.
Not only is a profitable field for exertion opened for
the surplus population of the mother country, but
-those who leave our shoresto gain a home andwealth
in other lands—which except for their labour would
,continue unproductive—become the best customers
for the surplus products of the industrious artisans
who remain ; and thereby both parties, those who
go and those who stay, are materially benefited.
In order, however, that emigration may become .a
real advantage, it is of the first consequence that
the particular facilities for improvement afforded
by our respective colonies should be brought pro-
minently before the attention of those who would
be most likely to avail themselves of them. Aus-
tralia, in her gold-fields, held out inducements
which to many thousands proved irresistible, so
that they forgot the long and tedious voyage which
intervened, and the still more unwelcome truth
that success was but a lottery, in which, as in
other lotteries, the blanks were far the most nu-
merous. The first difficulty was, in a great
measure, overcome by the magnificent lines of
swift and safe packets for which this port is emi-
nently conspicuous ; but the latter was irreme-
diable ; yet so long as prizes are drawn, and men
will run hazards, even for remote chances of
success, the Australian gold-fields will still prove
attractive to emigrants. In the vast agricultural
districts of Western Canada may, however, be
found attractions of an enduring character, and
such as commend themselves especially to those
who rely on the exertions of honest industry for
their future independence. A soil peculiarly
adapted for agriculture, abundant in its productive-
ness of the crops most serviceable to man, rich in
natural beauties, with ample means of internal
communication, unlimited supplies of timber and
fuel, and, indeed, every advantage which can pos-
• sibly render a colony desirable to those classes of
emigrants who promise to be the best permanent
customers for British manufactures. The surest
mode of extending trade and promoting emigration
is the establishment of regular lines of steam com-
munication ; and this has been done with respect
to Canada, by a line from Liverpool to Quebec and
Montreal in the summer, and,:when the navigation
of the river St. Lawrence is closed, in winter to
Portland, whence there is efficient railway com-
munication to all parts of Canada and the United
States. By this means, postal communication is
safe and speedy, mercantile advices are regular in
transmission, and emigrants are enabled to keep
up a correspondence with their friends in the
mother country. The enterprise of Liverpool has
herein done its part in developing the vast re-
sources of this valuable dependency of the British
Crown, and what is further required is for its
peculiar advantages to be made more generally
known. Were intending emigrants to be generally
well informed of the fields, richer than gold, with
which Canada so amply abounds, it would be in-
finitely preferred as a place of settlement to the
doubtful advantages of the United States or the
hazard of a prize in the Australian lottery. In

the promotion of a branch of commerce which pro-
mises both profit and permanence, Liverpool would
have by far the largest share, both in the exporta-
tion of British produce and manufactures and in
the importation of the vast supplies of breadstuffs
and timber of which Canada would prove the most
prolific source, and Liverpool the best market.
The progress which has been made by Canada
within the last few years is extraordinary, but not
at all in proportion to its immense capabilities.
Within eighteen years the exports of wheat have
increased from 350,000 to 8,000,000 bushels, while
the proofs of its superior quality was afforded at
the Great Exhibition, when the first prize for
wheat was awarded to Canada. The growth of
other agricultural produce has also increased with
similar rapidity, while the improvement in trade
is manifest in the increase of import duties, which
reached last year to above a million. The colony
is also rich in mineral treasures, the ores of most
metals being found in abundance, while there are
immense beds of marble, stone, slate, gypsum, and
other valuable minerals. The population is rapidly
augmenting, being now between two and three
millions ; wages for good workmen are amply
remunerative, and living is comparatively cheap.
Land is easily obtainable at moderate prices, and
the cost of passage is low, varying from £3 10s.
steerage, to 212 cabin fares, and 20 guineas for
first-class steam-ships, by which the voyage is
made in about a fortnight. With such advantages,
combining all that may be considered desirable for
the industrious emigrant, they only require to be
more generally known in order to be appreciated,
and Liverpool is unquestionably the port for em-
barkation and the exportation of supplies, and the
mart for Canadian produce; which every year must
become more valuable.

Australia, however, is not without its advan-
tages to emigrants and its prospects of improving
trade, irrespective of the great temptations held
out by the immense discoveries of gold. It has
for some years past formed the source of our staple
supply of wool, superior in quality and abundant
in quantity ; and though this has been in some
measure interfered with by the rush for the pre-
cious metal, it still forms a prolific source of profit
for the employment of capital and the exercise of
industry. The vast increase of population, and
their means of consumption, have also tended con-.
siderably to augment the exports from this coun-
try, and numbers of emigrants have found the way
to wealth even without embarking in the hazardous
enterprise of gold digging. There are, however,
the means of still greater advantages looming in
the future, and recent despatches from the Go-
vernor of South Australia show the prospect of
their speedy realisation. One of the great difficul-
ties with which the colonists have had to contend,
has been the want of internal water communica-
tion, a difficulty rendered still greater by the want
of roads. This latter obstacle has been more felt
since the rush to the diggings rendered the trans-
port of goods necessary.; but the length of time
occupied in the transport of wool from the inte-
rior, extending often to three months and more,
rendered the former want one of no ordinary mag-
nitude. Through the exertions of Capt. CADDEL
of the British Merchant Navy, it has now been
ascertained that the river Murray, with its branches
is navigable for a distance of more than 1,500
miles. Capt. CADDEL navigated the Murray in a
steam-vessel, constructed in the colony, to a dis-
tance of 1,450 miles from its mouth, without any
hindrance, and would have proceeded further, but
he found so much wool collected from the settlers
that .he returned with his valuable freight of several
thousand bales. This discovery will prove of im-
mense importance in developing the resources of
the colony ; it will give additional value to the
interior by affording the settlers a Dore ready
market for their produce, and lead to a vast in-
crease in that power of consumption and capability
of production which render our colonial possessions
such valuable aids to the extension of the commerc e
, of Great Britain.