The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-05 00:00:00

THE L IVERPOOL STANDARD.

TRADE PROSPECTS.

[Bankers' Circular.]

We see no reason to alter the view which we ventured
to take last week concerning the immediate prospects of
temporary improvement in trade in the manufacturing
districts—that word temporary may mean four, six, eight,
or ten months, according to individual impressions, and
we would not fix on the shortest of those periods. Con-
sequently, although we have been censured for presenting
a too sanguine view—a censure not specifically neutralised
by an opposite—yet we adhere firmly to what we have
said, because some of the most cautious and considerate
merchants have commended it for moderation, and for
not passing the boundary which the facts and circum-
stances of the case, as they come under their own obser-
vation and experience, would completely justify.
The manufacturing and mining affairs of this country
are, however, in so peculiar a condition, so liable to in-
terruption from political causes, or from a policy likely to
be pursued by the best customers of England, which is in
direct antagonism to that which is, or rather has been, for
seven years in vogue here, that we think it right on the
present occasion to extend our views beyond a short
period of comprrative prosperity, for the purpose of en-
deavouring to ascertain what is likely to come after that
temporary period of relief. We hold with an overwhelm-
ing force of conviction to the opinion that we have been
for many years reiterating, viz., that the operation of the
existing free trade policy of England, with the existing
monetary system of England, will produce effects so un-
bearable, that one or the other, and we think both, will
be changed within two years from the present time.
When we say changed, we do not mean changed to their
opposites : judicious currency regulations, which the Acts
of 1844 and 1845 aimed at but did not accomplish, are
requisite ; the removal of obnoxious import duties xhich
teased and perplexed without yielding revenue, might be
necessary : but we mean that the uncircumspect head-
long measures which have been forced onward on an in-
dividual anthority, will be wisely modified and be placed
on a foundation not incompatible with the welfare of the
people, and that within two years. * * * *.
We have dwelt long on our distant prospects and their
ultimate results ; it is a prolific theme of deep interest for
us. Our immediate prospects for immediate demand and
more employment for the people are, however, improving,
and are exhibiting symptoms of endurance which could
last week. The French are showing a
1-" iv and nav fr•-•

.ningtiess and a capacity to buy and pay for imported
goo-els. For nine months they have imported no spelter ;
they are now buying fair quantities in Hamburgh at im-
pro”ed prices. They are also importing more copper.
They are, moreover, beginning to import and work up
more cotton and other raw materials. And a fact seated
in the Morning Chronicle speaks emphatically con-
cerning the restoration of confidence and the power of
consumption in Paris. It is this :—" The prosperity o
Paris is generally in proportion to the amount of the
octroi duties. When they are low, Paris suffers; when they
are high, Paris prospers. It now appears that the octroi
duties of last month are, for the first time since the revo-
lution, equal to those of the corresponding month of 1847.
In October, 1847, the amount of octroi duties collected
amounted to 2.916,420 francs ; in October, 1848, they
amounted to 2,608,983 francs. The produce of the first
fortnight of NovenTher amounts to 1,575,819 francs. The
produce of the first fortnight of November amounts to
1,575,819 francs, which is at the satisfactory rate of
105,053 francs per day."
For these and other reasons (to which we may advert
on another occasion) we hold to the opinion we expressed
last week concerning the prospects for trade in the manu-
facturing districts, which we repeated on commencing
these observations. The volcano that has burst out with
such fury in Germany will, we trust, be stopped, and it
certainly would have been some months since if an extra-
ordinary degree of energy had been exercised by the go-
vernments. A great majority of the middle and higher
classes of the people are on their side—especially in Prus-
sia ; and all would be so, if a moderate degree of intelli-
gence and liberaiity, combined with inflexible firmness,
characterised the administration of their rulers.

e wi

THE ARMY AND NAVY

When we find an ener

;etic association of men com-

bined for the purpose of depreciating the merits and
demanding the reduction of our military and naval forces
on principle—industriously exaggerating their cost and
extenuating their usefulness—mixing up truth and false-
hood, a few right and judicious suggestions with much
that is erroneous, rash, crotchetty, and violent, we feel
that the cause of reform is suffering a great damage at
the hands of pretended reformers, and that the staunch
advocates of old abuses may justify them by the state-
ments and theories of their opponents.
According to the gentlemen who met at Liverpool last
week, the terrible evil in the country is its taxation. Its
taxation is due to its wars and its army, and its wars and
its army to its aristocracy. This seems a fair summary
of all that they stated there, or are likely to state any-
where else. We are paying annually twenty-seven mil-
lions of debt incurred for past foreign wars, and twenty
millions more (this is an exaggeration of 3 millions) fcr
present defensive establishments. The former were com-
menced, as the latter are continued, for the sole benefit
of some five or six thousand officers, who are sons,
brothers, or connexions of the aristrocracy. This is, we
believe, a fair relation of what is believed by the mem-
bers of the Financial Reform Association, and what they
wish the thinking population of England and Wales to,
believe likewise.

Now, we are not going to contend that a public debt of
£770,000,000 is a public blessing, nor that the taxation of
26,000,000 persons to the amount of £53,000,000 is not
heavy. We had much rather the truth should be told.
We may be angry, sorry, indignant, or anything else, at
our burdens ; but we need not lie. If the truth, then, is
to be told, the people of this country are responsible for the
debts of this country. No people were so fond of war, and
none—for a number of years—gained so much by it as did
the English people. For full a century war was popular
with the majority, or only unpopular when unproductive.
Pepys relates the gloom and distrust which prevailed in
the city at the Dutch war; but he also tells us that the
merchants were angry, first, because it was an inglorious
war ; secondly, because it was not a French war. Again,
the only means by which William 111. could consolidate
his power and party in England was by a French war.
Unpopular himself his war with France was popular.
Detested by two-thirds of the nation as an alien and an
usurper, he enlisted their sympathies in his struggle with
Louis Quatorze. A Whig Ministry could never have
weathered the storm and tempest of opposition in Queen
Anne's reign, had it not been for the victories of Marl-
^iigh. Nothing can so clearly ;- Ii- 1-

iliaicate the neat to
winch party passion in those days rose as the interruption
it gave to the series of triumphs which had begun at
Blenheim and Ramilies. These were cherished years
after by the people, who never ceased to contrast the pa-

cific qUietude of the Georgian era, with the splendour
which glory and conquest had shed round the reign of
Anne. Everybody knows the hatred and contempt to
Walpole's scrupulous avoidance of a warlike policy
exposed him. At one time he was for giving up
Gibraltar to the Spaniards, and was prevented only
by his dread of the popular fury. It was the mass of the
people who delighted to hear him libelled as the " spaniel
of Spain"—who assailed him for resisting their own pro-

judgment and his prejudice equally condemned. It was
by his obedience to popular clamour and by his realiza-

influence Which his ca

priciousness never forfeited nor his

inconsistencies effaced: It was the boast and the theme
of his panegyrists, that he had taught our armies confi-
dence and our navies victory. The American war was
popular till it became inglorious. On Franklin's first
Le I visit to England he found the national bias against the

and h mour, in a fruit

lar with three-fourt

'en in the face of

disgrace and discomfiture, men were found to subscrit

never, perhaps, did men contribute so largely to any en-
terprise, as merchants, bankers, landed gentry, and other

of their c

did towards the a

t's project

ever was such ent

St. Vincent, and Trafalgar. There was not a respectable
corporation of England that did not shower down gold
snuff boxes or diamond-hilted swords upon Jervis, Nel-
son, and Collingwood. Liverpool itself has perpetuated
the names of Rodney and Nelson in her streets. Talk of
the aristocracy having encouraged wars for their own in-
six terest Why, it would have been impossible for any

Omen! Otsrellann.

--r-~

The barque Arrietta, from Cuba, for Swansea, with
ore, was wrecked in Swansea Bay on Monday night.
Parliamentary notices may in future be forwarded
through the Post Office, under certain regulations.
Shrawberries and violets are now growing in the open
air, in a garden at Strangeways-terrace, Truro.
Mr. Steegman, a German, has been elected to the office
of Sheriff of Nottingham.
A farmer's pocket was picked of £350 at the Monmouth
fair, on Wednesday week.
When Jenny Lind visited Bristol Cathedral on Sunday
week she was honored with a seat in the Bishop's throne.
The Corporation of Durham have resolved to petition
against the introduction of the provisions of the Health
Act into that city until the local acts are found insufficient.

A female prisoner in Gloucester gaol died last week in
consequence of exhaustion, from having persisted in tak-
ing insufficient food.
THE LYME PARK CATTLE.—A fine well-fed wild bul-
lock was slaughtered last week, at Lyme. and a hind-
quarter forwarded for presentation to her Majesty.
"An Appeal to the Public," is the title of a small
affair produced at the Lyceum, which exhibits the bustling
talent of Mr. Charles Mathews to advantage.

On Friday night the Southwark Flax Mills, belonging
to Messrs. Chapman and Co., were destroyed by fire.
The loss is estimated at £2,600 and the firm is not insured
for a penny.
On Friday a destructive fire took place in the premises
of a Mr. Powell, optician, Gray's-inn-lane, London. A
man and woman lodging in one of the upper rooms were
suffocated.

At Kirriemuir, Scotland. lately, a girl about 9 years of
age, died of suffocation, from a dose of turpentine which
her father was attempting to pour down her throat for
worms.

Dr. John Stewart, of Cumnock, Scotland, died recently
from inflammation and fever, produced by a slight burn
on the wrist, by the accidental dropping of some melted
sealing wax upon it a short time previously.
During the course of a trial at the Central Criminal
Court, on Monday. the Recorder intimated that a publican
clearly connected with a Derby Sweep lottery, is liable to
a penalty of £5OO.
Last week the chapel erected in the Duke of Buc-
cleuch's grounds at Dalkeith was broken into, and a num-
ber of valuable articles used in the service of the church
were stolen.

We (Daily News) could point to one church, not many
miles from Guildhall, in which there are as many as five
lecturers appointed who preach to congregations varying
in number from five to thirteen !

A Hull paper degcribes a full-grown crab. bearing on
its back two score and a half oysters, apparently as firmly
imbedded in its shell as if they constituted a proper part
of it.

THE CASUAL POOR.---According to the official returns
it appears there were 17,500 cagual poor relieved in the
the workhouse of St. Martin-in-the-fields

last year,

At the Criminal Court, London, on Saturday, the Ba-
ronness St. Mart was found " not guilty" of the charge of

having stolen two rings, value £4O-, the

One more of the last frail links by which hope hung in
the matter of the party who have so long disappeared with
Sir John Franklin has given way. The latest of the whal-
ers have come in—and brought no tidings. Floating or
camping they have seen no trace of the lost expedition.
A few days ago, a pensioner at Carlisle cut out of his
left arm a flattened piece of lead, about the size of a six-
pence, being a portion of a ball which shattered the upper
bone of the arm at the battle of Waterloo, he being at the
time in the 73d Regiment.
The great cluck for the Victoria Tower of the new
Houses of Parliament is to strike the hours on a bell of
from eight to ten tons weight, chime the quarters on
eight bells, and show time on four dials of thirty feet in
diameter. _ _ _

The Queen. Dowager has ordered an agent at Cowes to
distribute among the widows and poor the two months'
supply of coals furnished to the houses which her Majesty
engaged for that period, but which she only occupied for
as many days.

The bhaitist trials in Edinburgh, closed on Saturday,
when the court, by a majority of four, Lord Cockburn
alone dissenting, repelled the objections to the sufficiency
of the verdict. The sentence upon each of the prisoners
was four months' imprisonment.
At a vestry meeting held last week, at Barnard Castle,
it was resolved, by a large majority, to support, by legal
proceedings, the right of the parishioners at large to ap-
point the sexton ; and it was also determined to levy a
rate to meet the expenses.
A good deal of excitement has been created at Gorbals
during the last few days, from the circumstance of a man
named George Johnston, a master baker in Thistle-street,
having absconded with a sum of money amounting to
nearly £lOOO, which belonged to a Forester's Friendly
Society, of which he was treasurer.
A large meeting of dissenting clergymen and laymen
was held in Glasgow, on Tuesday, for the purpose of op-
posing the proposed endowment of the Roman Catholic
priesthood, and also in opposition to existing endowments
of every description. Mr. A. Hastie. M.P. for the city,
was called to the chair.
SCARCITY OF COPPER ColN.—Such was the extreme
scarcity of copper money in the town last week, that it
was quite impossible to get " change for sixpence." One
individual, of somewhat more than ordinary perseverance,
contrived, after s search of some hours, to get a four-
pcnny-pieceand twopence.—Banff Journal.
GUTTA PERC El A .—This article continues to be imported
in very large quantities in order to meet the extensive de-
mands which are made for it. A vessel just arrived in
London from Singapore has brought the largest importa-
tion at one time, consisting of 3,294 packages, 710 lumps,
and 10,441 blocks of the article.
PALTRY SPITE.—The Board of Guardians of the
Andover Union have withheld their advertisements from
the Times, in consequence of that paper expressing an
opinion on their proceedings. We talk of the freedom
of the press in England, but is not this infinitely more
tyrannical than any continental censorship ?

HONOURABLE CONDUCT.—A dinner was given on
Tuesday night, in London, to Mr. J. B. Graham, by the
creditors of his late father, in testimony of their approval
of his conduct in liquidating the claims not only of his
deceased father, but those upon the firm of which Mr.
Graham, sen. was a partner.
A RELIC OF OLD TIMES.—A golden bracelet, of the
intrinsic worth of about £2O, which is thought to have
been deposited at the time of the conflict between the

Romans and the sons of the British king, Cunobelin, was
lately found by a ploughman on the estate of Mr. It.
Fox, near Wendover, Bucks, and is to be presented to the
British Museum.
SHAM GENEVA GLOD WATCHES
on their guard in respect to a b.ar

—The public must be

yea. _...ution, in base
metal, electrotyped, of the small Geneva watches, with a
gold face and engine-turned back. They are imported for
the special use of the duffers, and are worth from 15s. to
20s. each. The articles are being offered to the pawn-
brokers, as pledges, for £2 or £3, their apparent value
being £6 to £B._

Archdeacon Hare, in his recently publish
examined at great length and singular acut
«nem te which warn hrrn,”l,4- ..A ;.. .L.

eness the lirgn-
debate of last

session in tavour of admitting the Jews into parliament.
In this question he is opposed to his friend the Bishop of
St. David's and others who advocated their admission.
ents is well-timed, as the
ain in the ensuing session.

as.ure will be introdueed ag

-14LANDILLO BRIDGE, CAR;ARTHENSHIRE.-7ThisnOi;le
structure is completed. At the Carmarthenshire quarter
sessions, Mr. E. Haycock, the architect of the bridge,
presented his report,, from which it appeared that the

0 feet span, is built principally of black rnarble,
ense of about £18,000; while Gloucester Bridge
sod Chester £40,000.
ton, on Wednesday, the Grand Open Stec.
was won by a length by Mr. Fuller's Knight of
beatine the Doctor, Alfred, Chandler, Red

At Leamit
plecha

Lancer, Prince -George
Trumna A lcoranrlPr

KhOndooz

3 to fagstyrince George, taken ; 4 to 1

6 to 1 agst