The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-01-13 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

o.* We have received Mr. Alarie Watts' Souvenir, one of the
most elegant of the fashionable annuals, but owing to the
elections we have been unable to notice it as it Ise well de-
serves. We have the same apology to make for Allan Cun-
ningham's last volume of Burns, Blackuood's Magazine,
Frazes's Magazine, The Church of Scotland Magazine, Captai►l
Alexander's Sketches, Crowguill's Comic Annual, The Pocket
le to Domestic Cookery, Valpy's. History of England, and
van nther works, all of which have the strongest claims
upon 0 .entioa, and merit the patronage of the public.

Zbe th,Pypool ,Stanbarb.

Tf,TESD,4

13, 1835.

Our latest . to the 17th
December., The newspapers are busily 'isugakeil in dis-
cussing the question of peace or war with France.. They
do not contain any commercial news of impoktNee.
Winter had set in with great severity.
The most important discussion however is sustained
between the president of the United States Bank and
the secretary of the treasury, on the subject of the dis-
honoured hill, which we have treated at some length in
'txother article. Certain charges were made upon the
bill, which the government refused to pay, and the
bank d6kiped a sum of money then in their hands, be-
longing to11"4 rn vement,,to cover those charges. The
bankers are anr...ms to have the question of right, and
the amount of chat..., decided in a court of law, but the,.
treasury demur to this mwe of adjustment, and imagine
they can settle it by a series or lengthy and rather stupid
letters in the newspapers. The r4oly
of the president
of the bank to one of these is ratil.c4,,
ointed. He
says
"Before the proper tribunal, the batik will always 1716-;ey
to prove,

" 1. That the bill of exchange on the French government
was drawn without the slightest authority whatever from that
government to draw it.

"2. That the bank proposed to the treasury to collect the money
as its agent—and not to pay it until it was received from Franco,
thus avoiding the very embarrassment which has occurred;. but
this the treasury declined, and requested the immediate pay-
ment by the bank as a purchaser.

"3. That of the money so paid by the bank, the whole was
immediately appropriated by the treasury, and a part used in
the current expenses of the government.
" 4. That when the bill was protested in Paris, as was in-
evitable, and the money paid by the agents of the bank, to save
the credit of the treasury, the claim of damages by the bank was
an indispensable act of dnty, as that alone would enable the
treasury to claim dainages from the French government, which,
if the treasury had any right to draw at all, was as much due as
the principal.
" 5. That the universal and inflexible rule of the treasury is
to make every one pay damages; and as it had required of the
stockholders of the bank to pay damages, when their bills sold
to the treasury have been protested, so should it now pay da-
mages to those stockholders, when they in turn have bought a
bill from the treasury which becomes pretested.
" All this will be made manifest whenever the treasury resorts
to the proper tribunal. Until then it seems unjust to prejudge
the question, and. quite fruitless to discuss it.

(Signed) " N. BIDDLE, President.
llOnAevi Woodbury,
Secretary, orthe Treasury, Washington, D. C."

This throws a new light on the subject, but the whole
aftiir is curious and characteristic.

The New York packet has brought us a copy of the.
President's Message to. Congress, which met at Wash-
ington on the 4th December. Those parts of it which
possess any interest on this side the Atlantic will b(s
found elsewhere. It is, as.iisual, a dull, prolix, drawl-
ing, and studiously inexplicable document. It is unfor-
tunate for America that these annual political essays of
the chief magistrate should be considered by the small
wits and smaller literati of the United States as models
of chaste composition. They are the very worst of all
models both'in diction and sentiment. The most disin-
genuous jesuit that ever breathed could not have wrap-
pedhis designs in more unmeaning language. The af-
fected candour of the president is insufferable cant—his
professions areas holloW as his language is ambiguous—
and his assumed disinterestedness, like his ostentatious
patriotism, is as false as a dicer's oath. The only virtue
in the deception consists in the transparent nature of the
imposition. The guarded and equivocal language--the
negative imperativeness of his declarations—the attempt
to conceal bitter thoughts and incensed feelings under
the cover of affable manners and an avowed desire to
make generous concessions—are all so transparent, that
they have only to be held up to the light in order to see
the dark blood, and the black bile, and the morbid hu-
mour of the author. Such sententious conceits, and
such miserable plausibilities, may be adapted to the scale
of intellect of those who inhabit slave states, or are only
in the first stages of civilization ; but they appear con.
temptible, and only excite derision in those communities

Y MORNI_Vbrk4NUARY
adviees from New roxl/4..are