The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-15 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1853.

not forgetting the sham amnesty of Louis NAPOLEON,
have presented ample scope for conversation among
our foreign political quidnuncs at the clubs to-

1 wards the close of the week. Should the work of MAZ-
ZIN/ and his brother humbug, Lours KOSSUTH,—
the former living quietly among the cow-herds of Swit-
zerland, far from the scene of strife, the latter within a
mile of London town, still more safe, not soon be
finished, NAPOLEON will have something to do ; he must
assist Austria at all hazards. But the affair is over ; it
was a mere spurt, though it disturbed the marital peace
of the Emperor NapoLEoNIII, who did not at all expect it.
So at least I am informed by one redolent of the puff and
powder of the Tuileries. The Milanese scavengers, not-
withstanding the "blowing-horn" of KOSSUTH, were
easily settled ; but there will be more of it : Mazzm is
worth half-a
-dozen KOSSUTHS in the cause of—Freedom,
in their acceptation of the word. With regard to the
French amnesty, it appears, on analysation, that the num-
ber, nearly 5000, is swollen by the insertion of the name
of the same party two or three times over,—the insertion
also of names of parties dead, &o. The amnesty, how-
ever, such as it is, appears somewhat incongruous with the
recent political arrests, which are at present very much
disliked in the French Capital. All sorts of rumours have
been current towards the close of the week; among them
the assassination of Louis NAPOLEON. They have afforded
a slight relief to the ennui of the clubs, which Lord
ABERDEEN and JOHNNIE RUSSELL have not yet achieved.
" Such things will happen in the best regulated fami-
lies," is a phrase frequently in our mouths ;—but that a
schism, or anything like one, or cause of grumbling, or
dissentient voice should be heard within the walls of the
Royal Literary Fund Society, is almost incredible, yet so
it is, and that too on the score of expensive management.
Passing strange, seeing that almost the only two persons
really paid out of the funds are OCTAVIAN BLEWITT, the
secretary, and his man-in-plush. True, OCTAVIAN has a
bit of coal and candle o' nights, and chambers to live in :
surely these were not sufficient to cause the expense to
overrun the constable ! The Literary Fund ! How
many pleasant remembrances are conjured up by
the mere mention of the words ! Truly it has long been,
yea still is, a corporate body, whose " right hand knoweth
not what the left doeth," or vice versa as regards the
hands. Full many a hungry author, with shirt " coaxed
into neatness" on his bosom, have I known made glad by
the unostentatiously dispensed ten or twenty pounds of
the society : no one knew of it but the Secretary, sworn to
secrecy, and one or two of the Council. What though I
have seen a glorious but decayed writer indulge in a spitted
woodcock, and one humble glass of sherry, off the first end
of the bounty ! It was not much to one who had sub-
scribed his guineas in more refulgent days, and whose
tastes still lingered beyond their gratification
Literary Fund is not what it used to be ; there is not now
the noble eccentricity of genius and charity which charac-

terised the gatherings even twenty years ago, when
the greatest litterateurs, wits, and bon vivants of the
period made the welkin of Freemason's Hall ring with
mirth and jollity, co-mingled with the " melting strain."
The laugh then was real, Tom MoottE, MACREADY,
POWER, LOVER, and a dozen etceteras. men with not a
groschen capital to begin with, but raised by themselves
—most of them to eminence—honoured the cause. About
this time they had CUSACK RONEY as Secretary, since of
great railway fame, and at present in Berlin catering for
the ensuing Dublin (I was about to say DARGAN)
exhibition. Then, too, it was that WILLIAM JERDAN,
I believe the senior literary workman on the London
press, became an iconoclast, cutting into ribbons DAN
MACLISE'S image of Old SOANE, the architect, over
the mantel-piece of the Fund Meeting-room, because the
aforesaid image was so like the snappish old man, that
he was constantly complaining of it. MACLISE, like a
skilful artist at Bartholomew's strapping an Irishman's
nose after a fray, laid on his sticking-plaister so nicely that
the picture became " ash good ash new." The late Sir
ROBERT PEEL, the present BEN DISRAELI, LANSDOWNE,
ABERDEEN, JOHNNIE RUSSELL, used to unbend on the
occasions I refer to, and hob-nob it with writers not
worth, in tin, a sons ; aye, and invite on a Saturday to

COMMERCIAL AND MONETARY NETT S.

MONDAY NIGHT.
AFTER the active business which has prevailed,
both in Commercial and Monetary circles, there
has been a lull, which, considering the natural ten-
dency to run into speculation, may have been more
beneficial than otherwise. It is not, however, that
the markets have shown any symptoms of a re-
actionary character, for prices generally have been
firm; but the disposition seems rather to pause, in
order to watch the effect of recent monetary opera-
tions. Another week has passed over without any
further change having been made in the rate of dis-
count by the Directors of the Bank of England, so
that the primary cause of the alarm from French
speculations maybe considered to he obviated; but
the returns published in the London Gazette show
a further decrease in the stock of bullion to the ex-
tent of above £340,000. This can hardly be said
to be satisfactory, though it is no doubt partly
owing to the continued shipments of specie to Aus-
tralia, from whence the returns are still compara-
tively small. The public funds have slightly fluc-
tuated in value, owing to the news of insurrectionary
disturbances in Austrian Italy, through the machi-
nations of Mazzini and Kossuth; but intelligence
of their suppression was received almost immedi-
ately afterwards, and large purchases, by Govern-
ment brokers and private individuals, soon restored
the funds to their former value, so that, taken as a
test of public confidence, the appearance of the
Money-market is in every way satisfactory. Although
the changes in the stock of bullion have lately
been looked at with far more interest than usually
attaches to this subject, it must not be forgotten that
there is still a very ample margin for future contin-
gencies, even with the Restriction Act of 1844 still
in force ; for the reserve of notes unissued is above
nine millions. In addition to this, we may shortly
expect the arrival of the steam-ship Great Britain,
and other vessels, from Australia, with large sup-
plies of gold, so that, as far as the simple question
of currency is concerned, there is not the slightest
ground for apprehension. The strangest part
of the affair appears to be, that whilst an attempt
was made to create alarm for the disarrangement
of commerce, owing to too great an influx of the
precious metals, the result as yet has been in
an opposite direction. It is gratifying, however, to
observe that the fears on either side have not been.
realized, for, with the exception of Pig Iron, on
which we have previously commented, speculation
has been kept within legitimate bounds, while almost
all commercial markets have shown a most satis-
factory steadiness. The reports from the manu-
facturing districts state that the activity in almost
all departments still continues, and most descrip-
tions of goods maintain their value. There has not
been so active a demand for the raw material, but
that is solely owing to the recent large purchases
having placed the spinners better in stock, and their
disinclination to buy more freely until they see more
clearly the turn which the market is likely to take.
The Return from the Bank of England for the
week ending the sth February gives the following
results when compared with the previous week :
Public deposits .. £5,568,205; Increase £332,212
Other deposits .. 12,606,230; Decrease 459,963
Rest 3,308,432; Increase 89,991
On the other side of the account—
Government securities £13,764,651 ; Decrease 35,962
Other securities .. 13,705,812 ; increase 51,647
Notes unemployed .. 9,338,820 ; Decrease 172,540

The amount of notes in circulation is £22,695,410,
being a decrease of £288,040 ; and the stock of
bullion in both departments is £18,700,812, show-
ing a decrease of £342,023 when compared with
the preceding return.
Notes issued .. £32,034,230

ISSUE DEPARTMENT

Govrnt. Debt.. £11,015,100
Other securities 2,984,900
Gold coin & bu1n.18,015,076
Silver bullion .. 19,154

£32,034,230

X 32,034,230

BANKING D
Prop.'s capita1.£14,553,000
Rest....
Public deposits. 5,568,205
Other deposits. 12,696,230
7-day, &c. bills. 1,439,998 I

£37.475,865