The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-08-06 00:00:00

Till -LIVERPOOL STANDAiii.

TUESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 6, 1850.

IN our remarks upon the importance of provid-
ing such accommodation upon our Dock Estate as
would insure the retention and growth in Liver-
pool of the trades connected with shipbuilding, we
endeavoured to show what a deep interest the whole
trading community, owners of property, and rate-
payers of the parish ought to feel in the achieve-
ment of such an object. We urged at the same
time our opinion that for years past too little at-
tention had been paid by the burgesses to the pro-
ceedings of the Dock Committee, which had been
regarded as of interest almost solely to merchants
and shipowners. It is by no means because we
are opposed to the general policy of that committee
during the past few years that we repeat this
opinion. On the contrary, as a whole, we have
given that policy our humble support. But we
think that circumstances are taking place around
us, which suggest the propriety of a reexamina-
tion of our position, with a view to discover whether
some modification of the previously adopted plans
of the committee, and further energetic efforts to
improve the vast estate under their management,
may not have become desirable and even necessary.
The fact is becoming apparent that the productive-
ness of our own dock revenue is not progressing
at the same rate as the burthens on the Estate. It
is no secret that loans on bond security are not so
easily procured as they were a few years ago ; and
that the works at the north end of the town are at
this moment in a state of partial suspension from
this cause. Many persons of discernment con-
template the probability that a portion of the in-
creased trade once so sanguinely contemplated may
be diverted to other ports.. For example, Hull and
Goole are supplying the manufacturing districts
with grain, timber, &c., from the Continent. Other
eastern ports are improving their local advantages,
and inviting the shipping of the foreigner. Is it
not then time that we should consider not only
how a decline in our position can be prevented, but
also how we may be enabled to advance that
position. .

Amongst the greatest inducements for shipping
to visit this port has been hitherto the cheapness
of its dock accommodation, the facilities which it
offers for the transmission of produce into the
consuming markets of the interior, and the oppor-
tunities afforded , for procuring outward freight.
The first and second we have been sedulously
labouring to provide. Our proximity to the grow-
ing countries on the Atlantic and the Pacific insure
us the permanent possession of a large export
trade in manufactured goods ; and we have thus
far enjoyed the great advantage of being in the
possession of means for giving a large amount of
rough freight—earthenware from the potteries. salt
from Cheshire, iron, slates, and copper, from Wales,
and coals from our Lancashire coalfield. Have we
made all the use within our power of these valuable
auxiliaries afforded by our local position ? Unfor-
tunately we have not. One of these articles, the
most valuable—coal—we have almost altogether
neglected to provide for.
A few years ago we commented upon this fact,
in noticing an able pamphlet upon the subject by
Mr. Braithwaite Poole ; and we have now before
us a very valuable and beautifully illustrated work
upon the same subject, addressed to the present
chairman of the Dock Committee, by Mr. Wm.
Laird, in which it is clearly shown that from a
proper encouragement being given to the coal trade
alone, we should be placed in receipt of an increased
amount of dock rates and town dues sufficiently
large to place both our local estates in a condition
of plethoric prosperity. A glance at a few of the
statistics furnished by Mr. Laird will show at once
the extent of our past folly shown in our neglect
to cultivate this trade.
The coal field of Northumberland and Durham
is estimated to contain a productive area of 780
square miles ; and from its development has been
derived by the locality a mass of wealth almost
incalculable in amount. The shipinents from these
counties for a single year alone-1848—are returned
at 7,838,380 tons, which, taken at 7s. 6d. per ton
at the pitmouth, would yield £2,939,392 ; or, in
round numbers, £3,000,000 sterling. The capital
embarked in the trade was stated, by a deputation
of coalowners to Sir Robert Peel, in 1844, to
amount to £9,500,000, and it employed upwards of
33,000 men and boys. Its transport to a market
employs 4,031 British ships, with a tonnage of
702,575 tons, and 2,842 foreign ships, and 275,490
tons. Only 107 British ships, of 16,615 sons, and
90 foreign, of 10,042 tons, are employed in the
north of England otherwise than in the coal trade.
In order to show the great extent to which the
trade is cultivated in the northern ports, we may
state, on the authority of parliamentary reports,
that of 11,625,193 tons shipped coastwise and foreign
in 1848, 7,838,380 tons were shipped from the
counties of Northumberland and Durham. From
the county of Lancaster, at the ports of Liverpool,
Runcorn, Preston, and Lancaster, the total quan-
tity shipped was only 252,408 tons, the export of
Liverpool being 131,947 tons. In the transport of
the coals of Northumberland and Durham it was
estimated that, in 1844, 18,000 men were em-
ployed, or nearly one half of the number, 39,500,
in the entire coal trade of the kingdom.
But it will be said the coal trade of the northern
counties is of old standing; and again that the
Tyne and the Wear afford facilities for carrying it
on, which Liverpool does not possess. Let us
examine briefly both these arguments. We admit
that the coal trade of Newcastle, Sunderland, and
Shields has for some years existed upon a very ex-
tended scale. But it has vastly increased during
the last 40 years. In 1818 the shipments of Nor-
thumberland and Durham, according to Mr. Porter's
Progress of the Nation, were 2,612,388 tons; in
1838 they had increased to 3,489,775 tons. In
the next twenty years, by the formation of rail-
ways, additional docks, and superior facilities for
shipping, the trade was much more largely devel-
oped, the shipments in 1848 having reached
7,838,380 tons. New coal fields were opened in
various parts of the district ; and several new ports
rose up to accommodate the increased trade.
Stockton-upon-Tees, which in 1826 shipped only
10,754 tons of coal, and Seaham, which has only
sprung into existence since that time, shipped in
1842, 1,682,402 tons ; Hartlepool, which has only
become a coal port within the last twelve or four-
teen years, shipped in 1848, 1,165,428 tons; and,
in the port of Sunderland alone, the shipments in
the same year rose to 2,409,974.
And now, as to the superior facilities afforded
for the trade in the northern counties,—in what
do they consist ? Obviously not in any natural
advantages possessed by them over those of the
Lancashire district. The following conclusions are
arrived at as the result of Mr. Laird's inquiries,
and are borne out by the opinions of first-rate
mining authorities.:—

" Ist. That the quality of our coal equals that of
Newcastle, except in point of cohesion and presence of
sulphur, the first of which points can be cured by means
of proper mechanical contrivances for shipping it, and the
second by the more extended use of Wigan coal.
" 2d. That the varieties of coal found in Lancashire
exceed those found in Durham and Northumberland.
" 3d. That while the depth of our pits does not exceed
an average of 750 to 1,000 feet, those of Durham and
Northumberland range from 1,200 to 1,800 feet.
" 4th. That the cost of raising coal in Lancashire is 3s.
to 3s. 6d. per ton, against 4s. 9d. to ss. per ton in
Durham.
•' sth. That the average cost of carriage from the pit's
mouth to Liverpool by railway equals, and by water and
rail averages 9d. per ton less than that of Northumber-
land and Durham."

Mr. Laird proceeds :
" These reasons why coal should be as cheaply shipped
from Liverpool as any eastern coal-port are patent, and
open to all who will inquire into the subject ; but there is
still another which does now in a limited degree, and will
eventually bear in a most important manner on this
question. I allude to the rates of freight to foreign
ports. As a general rule, vessels loading at eastern ports
go to them in ballast ; and no vessel exceeding 500 or
600 tons burthen can safely take in and sail with a cargo of
coal from them, on account of the inferior accommodation
afforded by their harbours.
" From Liverpool we have daily communication with
all parts of the world, and few vessels leaving this port
would sail without taking some portion of their cargo in
coal, provided facilities were given by the Dock Trust for
taking it in conveniently and quickly, say at the rate of
150 tons per hour, as at Hartlepool, Sunderland, or Car-
diff. So much competittou would ensue for coal freights, if

it was known that a vessel could always get such a freight
at a certain price, that they would be reduced to the
minimum, and be much lower than now known ; the
present system of loading coal being synonymous with
dirt, delay, and trouble, besides destroying the coal."
We shall not follow Mr. L. more into detail, but
on the whole question, recommend his pamphlet
strongly to the attentive perusal of our fellow
townsmen. Neither need we here describe the
nature of the accommodation to be provided for
the trade, further than to state that it consists of
the formation of proper communications from our
railway and canal termini, and our docks, north
and south, and that the works are simple and
could he executed at a light cost. We shall
only offer to our readers a few of the concluding
remarks of the writer, detailing the advantage to
our Dock and Corporate Estates which he con-
ceives would result from the adoption of his re-
commendations. Having described the plan and
probable cost of the coal staiths required to be
erected, he proceeds thus to calculate the result :

" Now, let us look at the probable returns for such
outlay. The average shipping power of each staith would
‘-,e 1 ern tons nPr day, or 6,000 per week, or 300,000 tons
per annum. It follows that a pair would ship 600,000
tons ; but to provide for casualties let two pair be erected,
the cost being, according to Mr. Highton, £6,400 ; but
I will be liberal, and say £lO,OOO, allowing ten per cent.
per annum for interest of money and wear and tear—say
£l,OOO a year. Assuming that during the next ten years
our coal trade only increased at the same rate as that of
Hartlepool and Seaham, we should ship 1,200,000 tons in
1860. Supposing, also, the present relative proportion to
be maintained between coasting and foreign shipment,
then one-half of that amount, or 600,000 tons, will be
for export, and the returns to the Dock Estate as follows
Staith and drop dues on the Tons. Per Ton. Per Annum.
whole amount shipped 1,200,000 2d. £lO,OOO
Dock dues on export ship-
ments only ..
Dues on 450.000 tons of ship-
ping required to convey
600,000 tons of coal, the
proportion of coal to ton-
nage being as 3 tons coal
to 2of tons burthen 450,000 is. 22,500
Coal Revenue to Dock Trust

in the year 1860
To which mut be added

town dues on 600,000
tons at 2d. per ton
Making a total annual gain
to the town and port of
Liverpool of .

£35,000

5,000
£40,000"

We cannot think that these calculations are
much overdrawn, when we look to the large num-
ber of small foreign vessels at presen coming here
grain-laden, and going away in ballast, the bulk of
which would prefer taking a cargo of coals if it
could he put on board with dispatch, and in good
condition ; and moreover when it is borne in mind
that Liverpool must in all probability become the
great port for our increasing steam communication
with the American Continent, and all portions of
the globe.

The present month's number of Blackwood's
Magazine contains one of those ably drawn-up
arrays of facts and figures, which have of late shown
to the world that our free-trade philosophers are
not invulnerable by their favourite weapon—statis-
tics; but that, on the contrary, the test of com-
mercial experience and returns, honestly applied,
is daily demolishing some portion of their specious
theories. There was no point upon which these
men have insisted all along with more dogmatical
confidence than upon the alleged fact that the
opening of our markets to the grain of the foreign
agriculturist would be followed, as a necessary con-
sequence, by a vast expansion of our exports of
manufactured goods. If we take the agricultural
products of Russia, of Germany, of France, and
other countries, we enable them, it was said, to
take our yarns and our calicoes. In vain they were
reminded that the serfs of Russia used few of our
fabrics ; that Germany had her own coarse wool-
lens, her own heavy cottons, hosiery, &c. The
Manchester economists maintained that their wares
must inevitably, by the natural laws of' commerce,
furnish the medium of remittances in exchange for
our increased imports of food ; and that even the
protection of high tariffs would be unavailable to
prevent so gratifying a result. Experience, however,
as the writer before us shows, has completely nega-
tived this assumption, and proved incontestibly
that notwithstanding our immens4ly increased im-
portations of food, the countries from which we
have principally drawn them have shoWn no d;spo-
sition to increase their consumption of our goods.
The following is given as the total quantity of
foreign and colonial wheat, wheat meal, and flour,
imported into the united kingdom. during the last
five years, as computed by the EConomist, of Feb.
23rd, of course a free-trade authority

1845
1846
1847 4 465.894 „
1848
1849
or, the average of 1845-6. was 1,742,581 quarters
against 4,835,400 qrs. in 1849." By far the greatest
quantity of this large increase has come from Euro-
pean countries. Thus Russia increased her supply
from 119,315 qrs. in 1845-6 to 600,355 qrs. in
1849 ; Denmark, from 67,867 to 243,297 ; Ger-
many and Prussia, from 527,612 to 1,096,486 ;
Holland, from 1,043 to 305,482 ; Belgium, from
2,023 to 366,098; France, from 54,791 to 742,023;
Austrian ports, from 47,717 to 174,654 ; Turkey,
Greece, &c., from 27,201 to 226,724 quarters.
The realization of the free trade theories would
have led to a largely increased consumption of
cotton manufactures in all these markets ; yet in
most of them we find an opposite result. There
has been a falling off in the exports of plain cali-
coes and of cotton yarns, the most- important and
accurate tests of the trade, to the following mar-
kets, viz., Belgium, France, the Hanse Towns, and
Prussia, (ordinarily, almost our largest customers,)
Sweden, Norway, and Holland ; and a small in-
crease only to Russia, Trieste and the Austrian
ports, and Turkey and the Levant. The consump-
tion of the corn-growing countries of Europe,
taken as a whole, have remained, as nearly as pos-
sible, stationary; and, for the increase which has
taken place in the aggregate amount of our ex-
ports, we have to look to either cur own colonies
or, with the exception of Egypt and the United
States, to countries which have not furnished us
with a single quarter of grain. Upon these facts,
of which we have only given the substance, the
writer in Blackwood remarks :
" We know from old experience the kind of argument
or rather excuse which will be reared to account for this
indisputable fact, and are quite prepared to be told of re-
volutions on the Continent, which have rendered society
unsafe and business unsettled. If, by recalling these facts
—of which we readily admit the truth in a limited degree
—our free-traders desire to apologise for their own foolish
and preposterous behaviour in holding sympathetic meet-
ings with Italian cutthroats and Hungarian rebels—if they
wish to acknowledge that free trade is not practicable as
applied to the political constitution of a country, and if
they are anxious to withdraw their previous testimony
respecting the character of the mild, peaceable, and vir-
tuous revolutionists of the Continent—we are disposed to
accept their apology for what it is worth, and to hail their
approach to common sense as a harbinger of better things.
But if by this they mean to excuse the complete failure of
their theory, we cannot admit the soundness of such a
line of argument ; for although exceptions may in some
cases prove the rule, they never compose it. We always
understood that corn, like all other matters of import or
export, had to be paid for in some way or other ; and it
scarcely seems probable that any revolution would in-
duce our neighbours to expend their time merely in im-
porting corn to this market, did they not receive a quid
pro quo. The insecurity of life and property must exer-
cise a peculiar influence over a country, to induce large
exports of foreign corn for which no corresponding value
was to be received in exchange.
" How far the plan of a cotton currency has sue,eeded,
any European country will shew ; and as we know the
free-traders will still talk about revolutions, we shall, for
the mere sake of giving them no opportunity of question-
ing our argument, pass by the case of. Prussia and Ger-
many. Let us take France, where our cotton exports arc
almost nominal and stationary, and whence our import of
grain has increased from 54,000 to 742,000 quarters !
take Holland, with an import increased three hundred and
eight times !—or Belgium, with an increase of one hundred
and eighty-eight times, and our exports not affected per-
ceptibly. In these countries there have been no revolu-
tions during the past year to disturb our trade or injure
the sale of British goods. Look to Russia, where there
is not a breath of revolution to taint the air, or to afford
the slightest pretext for insinuating that political inse-
curity has affected the balance of our trade ; and we shall
find that while our exports of cotton have fallen nearly
one-half, yarn being the principal article taken, our im-
ports of corn have increased nearly sixfold. Naples is al-
most the only European market where there has been a
large increase of exports, and, by some circumstance
which our free-traders must explain, we received from.
that country in 1849 just one-third of the quantity of
wheat which was sent to us three years before. We can
tell them the reason of the increased exports from this]
country, which rather militates against their excuse of re-
volutions—viz., that the disturbances and suspension of
regular authority have permitted the importation of goods,
duty-free to an unusual extent. Of all the European
markets, Austria and Turkey are the only two of any
magnitude which can furnish an argument for free-trade,'
notions; and this slender support will be lessened when
we bear in mind that, while the imports of grain come en-
tirely from Turkey and Greece, the goods exported are in

very large quantities forwarded 16 Persia and the west of
Asia, vid Constantinople ; and could ite draw the line with
accuracy, we should doubtless find that the increase of
exports has prinCipally been sent to Persia, from which
we have imported six quarters of corn during the last five
years ! and where, as is the case with many other foreign
governments, politics have much to do with trade. As
regards Austria, any remark upon revolutions applies to
her with greater force than to any other State of the Con-
tinent ; and therefore, if we are generous enough to ex-
clude Germany, with a contribution of 1,000,000 quarters,
from our argument, we may certainly claim that Austria
and Hungary, with an export one-fifth the amount, the
seat of far more severe and recent war, should be excluded
also. Besides, we have never said that it was absolutely
impracticable that, in some extraordinary case, cotton goods
should not be taken in exchange for corn. The apocryphal
case of the French captain, who, by an order of the Bey
of Tunis, sold a shipload of cotton nightcaps to the Jews
one day at four francs a-piece, and, within forty-eight
hours, by means of a second order, rebought them
at one franc, furnishes a humorous example of the su-
perior value of cotton goods, in particular instances, over
money ; but as it is more than probable that this inte-
resting anecdote of commerce derives its sole origin from
the fertile imagination of Alexander Dumas, we must,
until more pregnant proof is afforded us, insist on our
position, that the export of goods is not necessarily regu-
lated by our importations of wheat. We have a practical
illustration in the case now before us ; and without lis-
tening to the rodomontade of the League, we have a
right to ask, how has the large increased import of corn
from the Continent of Europe been paid for ? One answer
is quite certain,—lt has not been paid for in Manchester
cotton goods.

Such leas been the state of that foreign trade for
which we have deliberately ruined our home mar-
ket. The fact ought now at all events to be
acknowledged, as statistically proved, that the
foreigner does not exchange his corn for our cotton
goods, but takes as a cheaper remittance our gold
and other specie, as we too fatally know by the
disasters of 1847 and 1848. Our cheap loaf during
those years was purchased by the sacrifice of hun-
dreds of millions of the realized capital of the
country ; and its passage to our shores has been
marked by insolvencies, bankruptcy, and suffering
more fearful in amount than ever was recorded in
our commercial annals

In the quantity of goods then, taken by the ex-
port trade in exchange for grain, the expectations
of the Manchester economists have been disap-
pointed. But there is another feature connected
with this part of the subject with respect to which
we have no statistical evidence whatever. Have
our exports to corn-growing countries returned a
profit to the exporters, of whom a large number it
is well known ship speculatively, or on consign-
ment ? To this question we much doubt whether
an affirmative answer can be given. Our mercan-
tile readers are familiar with the process of an
export transaction ; but for those who are not
engaged in mercantile pursuits a little explanation
may be necessary. In the first place a manufac-
turer is advised that a consignment of certain
descriptions of goods•to a given market may pro-
bably be a profitable one; and the consignment is
accordingly forwarded. If the remittance is in
money the profit or loss upon the transaction is at
once ascertained. But remittances in such cases
are frequently made in produce—say cotton, sugar,
dye stuffs, hides, &c.,—and here another element
of risk is introduced. Again, if the money market
at home be disorganized, as in 1847 and 1848, sales
must be pressed, in order to relieve both the ship-
per and the consignee, who has probably made
advances-on the consignment.
With respect to both these influences of hazard,
the circumstances of the past few years have been
against the adventurer in foreign markets. We
have had severe monetary pressure and consequent
sacrifices of goods abroad ; and at home we have
had unremunerative prices for imported produce.
The deterioration of the market has cut both ways.
It has diminished consumption of British manufac-
tured goods, and diminished at the same time the
product of the returns for goods sold in the foreign
market. No statistics, we repeat, can reveal to us
the amount of loss thus sustained ; yet it is easily
to be seen how even a very large increase, both of
exports and imports, may be productive of nothing
but disaster.

It is, we fear, but too probable that, notwith-
standing an apparent amount of prosperity at pre-
sent existing in the manufacturing districts, espe-
cially so far as regards the labouring classes, affairs
there are not the most satisfactory. Upon this part
of the subject we shall conclude by quoting from
Blackwood's article:—
" The manufacturing districts are pointed to, where
wages are good and provisions cheap. Surely here, at
least, the system works well. Let us see. A very large
number of mills are employed in the manufacture of
goods suitable for India. There we have seen that free
trade can claim nothing : we have still a large number of
mills to deal with employed in home-trade manufactures,
but here there has .een no reduction of wages. Mark
that word reduction. Great stress is laid upon it.
There has been no reduction of wages ; consequently,
you would suppose that the hands were obtaining the
same amount of wages. Very far from it. They may
be obtaining very much less ; for these mills are work-
ing short time; and the hands being paid so much per
piece, the amount paid for each piece remains unaltered,
although the weaver mai nave only three pieces to make
instead of five, and, consequently, obtains so much less.
It will be said, " here is:a distinction without a diffe-
rence ; and, practically, such is the case ; although this
is what is understood when it is said that in Manchester
there has been no reduction in wages. That this practi-
cal reduction of wages, by working short time, has not
affected the operatives more' injuriously than it has done
as yet, is no proof of the sound condition of our trade.
From a variety of causes, ''et mill-owner will lose less, in
most cases, by workinglhis mill, than by working short
time, or closing; and, therefore, until his case becomes
desperate, he prefers- paying his hands, and losing £5OO
per week, rather than discharge them and lose £750 in
other ways.
" In every cotton manufactory there are certain fixed
expenses, such as rent, interest of capital, wear and tear,
and a number of fixed salaries, which form 'very large
items in the cost of production, and cannot be reduced
by any curtailment of the hours of labour. These ex-
penses are so great, that it is generally considered a
saving to sell yarn or goods at an actual loss on the cost
of production of 4d. to Id. per lb., rather than resort to
short time ; and practical proofs of this have, for a very
considerable time, been constantly given—the market
price of domestics suitable for the home-trade having
been from aid. to lid. per lb. under prime cost ; or, to
make it still plainer, the loss in a single piece will vary
from fifteenpence to three shillings. Bearing this in
mind, it will be seen how great must be the loss when we
bear of mills being closed or on short time; and a com-
parison of the selling prices of domestics with that of
cotton will be sufficient to show any one who has the
slightest acquaintance with the trade, what our recent
commercial policy has effected. And yet this was the
interest which was to be so largely benefited, and of
whose prosperity government officials could not say
enough at the commencement of the present session !"
We can fully confirm the accuracy of the views
here expressed, which are evidently those of a
practical man.

A contemporary of Saturday, the Journal, in an
article entitled "a dream of gold," has propounded
some views upon the currency so curious that we
feel tempted to place them before our readers. Our
contemporary sets out by expressing his opinion
that the increased supply of gold from California
will not be at the rate cf more than £5,000,000
sterling per annum ; and that this " will hardly do
more for several years to come than afford a quan-
tity adequate to the management of the commercial
exigencies proceeding from the discoveries on the
Sacramento." These discoveries are to give a sti-
mulus to enterprise on the shores of the Pacific and
the Eastern seas which is shortly to lead to the
population of the entire continent of America, whilst
the commerce of the old countries of Europe is to
become " poor and insignificant" compared with
that centreing in the auriferous regions of the west.
Hence he concludes that " the fear of evil from an
influx of gold is groundless. If gold comes from
California gold will go to it; and probably as much
has gone to it, up to this time, as has arrived."
One would naturally have assumed that, if the
supply of gold in California was to produce this
immense expansion of commerce and enterprise in
the western world, it would be through its exchange
by the diggers for those articles of necessity or
luxury which persons not so favourably situated
are compelled to live by supplying. It will pur-
chase the tea and the silks of China, the cotton
goods of Manchester, and the food raised in the
grain growing states of America, enhancing prices
everywhere, or, in other words, reducing the pur-
chasing power of the precious metals throughout
the world. Our contemporary proceeds
The present abundance of money, and the low rate
of interest, can certainly have no reference to Californian
imports. Both proceed from very different causes, and
people ought more seriously to estimate them. A circu-
lating medium is required by the exigencies of trade ;
When commodities are dear, more money is obviously re-
qiiired than when they are cheap. When tea and sugar
were double the price at which they are now sold, gro-
cers, wholesale and retail, needed twice the sum now re-
Oared to conduct their business. It is the same in all
other trades ; and it so happens that almost all commo-
dities are now unusually cheap. Cotton is almost the
Only exception of importance; but unfortunately, in
cotton, a diminished quantity corresponds to an increase
in price. No more money is required than when the ar-
ticle was lower in value; and hence it is that money is

superabundant and discounts low—there being ho finan-
cial alarms, no undue speculations. Gold is fotitid not
quite so portable as bank notes. and sovereigns therefore
are permitted, by general consent, to enrich the safe vaults
in Threadneedle-street. This is one reason why money
is plentiful ; there is another : railways render large stocks
in the hands of manufacturers and retail traders unne-
cessary. What they now want they can obtain in a few
hours ; and the electric telegraph, if necessary, antici-
pates the rapidity of the penny post."
The passage which we have marked in italics
would lead to the inference that the gold of Cali-
fornia is not wanted here ns money; yet we find
it coming here, and we have to receive it at a price
which it is not worth for any other purpose than as
money. We don't want it to make tea trays of, or
thimbles, or pencil cases. The silver article would
be quite as useful were it not that wealthy people
prefer gold as arguing their superior means and
standing in the world. When it comes here it is
" permitted by general consent to enrich the safe
vaults in threadneedle-street," where we need not
say that it is anything but a profitable stock-in-
trade. Our contemporary proceeds :

" If people would pause a moment from prejudice to
be wise, and make an effort at emancipation from here-
ditary fallacies, they could not fail to discover, in the last
four years, lessons of commercial instruction pregnant
with more information than was ever before presented so
briefly. The late panic and its sequence falsffy nearly
all the theories which had previously prevailed in re
ference to gold and currency."
We really think that "the late panic and its
sequence" showed that there was rather too in-
timate a connection between gold and currency !
And in a subsequent parapraph our contemporary
confesses as much :
" Let us have a bad European harvest, a deficient sugar
supply, and another failure in the cotton crop, and we
shall have three things—a high rate of discount, a decrease
in the stock of bullion, and alarming speculation, all to
be followed by loss, bankruptcy, and a—panic."

If there was no connexion between gold and
currency, we cannot see that there need be any
high rate of discount, or any greater calamity than
the temporary rise in prices, as compared with
other commodities, of the article in deficient supply.
The following will perhaps surprise some of our
commercial readers :

" It is obvious, therefore, that gold has positively
nothing to do with, trade beyond its operation as a com-
mercial commodity. SO far it is attended with this pe-
culiarity, that, not being seasonable or consumable, po-
pulation has increased in proportion to its augmentation.
We have no means of estimating its former and modern
value, for data is wanted ; and, as in our own day, its
value was probably regulated by a kind of general assent,
rather than by its positive quantity. Viewed, however,
in reference to population and its attendant trade, there
is no reason to suppos<• that it will ever be so abundant as
to create a serious disparity between the price of bullion
and coined gold. Should such, however, be the case, the
public will be gainers by its increase, as they gain by the
increase of any other vendable commodity."
There is a blunder in every sentence of this
paragraph. Gold is not " a commercial commodity."
It is unfortunately a fixed measure of value, as
much as a yard is a fixed measure of length. One
hundred and twenty grains of it, of a prescribed
fineness, pay £3 17s. 101 d. of debt or taxes; and,
under our existing laws, will continue to do so,
although the article should become as plentiful
and comparatively valueless, as a " comsdkcial
commodity" as lead or iron. We have plenty of
means of ascertaining " its former and modern
value." They have been fixed from time to time
by the statute laws of the land, and varied by the
circumstances of the times. We never heard,
under our existing law, of any " disparity between
the price of bullion and of coined gold" ; and
never shall do so long as the mint is compelled to
give us £3 17s. 10A-d. in current money for every
ounce of gold bullion we take to it to be coined.
We are, moreover, at a loss to know how " the
public will be gainers by its increase." Those who
owe debts payable in gold will alone gain by its
depreciation in purchasing power. Every creditor,
every man of fixed income, will be losers. They
will receive fewer commodities in exchange for
their depreciated pounds.
The concluding sentence, however, upsets the
whole of our contemporary's previous reasoning.
He says of gold :

" Its price will still be relative ; and it signifies nothing
whether the7sovereign contains an ounce or an ounce
and a half. In either case it will exchange for the same
quantity of bread ; and the debtor and creditor will
obtain no advantage over each other whether the sove-
reign be large or small. Of course, the growth of the
small sovereign into the large one would be gradual, the
state providing against any dishonest operation in the
transition, if perceptible. But the present generation
may rest assured that they will experience no alteration."
So the weight of the sovereign is to be increased
after all, as the result of a large yield of the Cali-
fornian mines ! Here is a fixed measure of value
with a witness ! The state is to watch the growth
of the small sovereign into the larger one ; but
perhaps the debtor interest may demur a little to
this pleasant arrangement, and remark with justice
that the state took marvellous little notice of the
subject, whilst the pound of debt and taxes, as
measured in gold, was yearly increasing in its pres-
sure and value. They may, perhaps, be disposed
to hold the state and the creditor interest to their
bond, which enjoined the payment of their claims
in gold, fixed at the price of £3 17s. 101-d. per
ounce, and not in pounds of from four to six times
the value, as contemplated by the Journal.

THE Gorham controversy has expired, to all
practical intents, with the harmless protest of the
Bishop of Exeter, and the equally fruitless demon-
stration of the knot of enthusiastic personages
who assembled recently at St. Martin's Hall. The
author of contention in this casus belli has received
his quietus, and been consigned to the oblivion
from which he was too long detained. But we live
in exciting times ; and just as one cause of dis-
union in the church is grappled with, she is assailed
from without ; for we can characterise the attempt
to force
Jewsinto parliament, nolens volens, now
being made by a section of the House of Commons,
in no other mode than as an attempt at the inte-
grity of the Church of England as by law esta-
blished. It is only one more of those " cunning
devices," which of late years have been so nume-
rous, to weaken the church as a component of the
constitution, and as an ecclesiastical institution to
degrade her to the level of a voluntary association,
to strip her of all prestige and legitimate influence,
and confound her amongst the parti-coloured sects
which have united to undermine her. The church
has long been the broad mark at which the envy of
some, and the malice of others, of her enemies
have directed their shafts. The most effectual
mode of getting to close quarters and fingering the
spoil is by adverse votes in the legislature : hence
the efforts made by her enemies to become eligible
for this honourable service. It may seem the
height of absurdity to dread the power of a single
unit of the Hebrew community, but "small begin-
nings" sometimes end formidably. There are
other rich Jews in England than Baron Rothschild,
and other liberal constituencies than London. But
passing over that possibility. Whom will the Jew
vote with in matters affecting the stability and
extension of the church ? With her friends, who
would give her that rank, in the nation which she
legitimately claims, and that influence with the
people which is essential to the due effect of her
exertions, and which she has always exercised con-
sistently with the high behests of her vocation, or
with her enemies, who would cripple her resources,
abridge her power, and then vilify her objects ?
The church lacks friends, and it is positively
treacherous on the part of churchmen, merely from
a mawkish affectation of liberalism, to impair her
power, by diluting the already weak spirit in the
Houseof Commons by a single antagonisticelement.
Baron Rothschild maybe a most amiable man, butit
cannot be supposed that he will care to build up a
church which he must necessarily conceive to be in
error. A yet stronger ground of argument might
be taken. This nation is essentially Christian ; it
is sought to adulterate its tone by t e admixture
of an unbeliever; there is an attempt to denation-
alise ; but we content ourselves with reviewing the
matter in its policy as it affects the national church.
The subject, though old, is suggested anew by the
events which have transpired during the past
week. We exhort all churchmen who know the
extent of the demands on the church in our day, to
ask themselves whether she is likely to prosper
under such blighting influences as are threatened
to be brought against her, and to take all legitimate
means to prevent the enactment of any power to
supersede the ir.tegrity of the present form of
oath administered to members of parliament.

LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE RAILWAY.—This corn-
panv's branch line between Halifax and Bradford is to be
opened for public traffic on Wednesday next. The open-
ing of this line will effect a considerable saving in distance
and time between Bradford and Manchester, Liverpool,
Preston, Burnley. and intermediate places. Eight trains
are W run each way on the week-days.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

HOUSE OF COMMONS-LAST NIGHT.

The Speaker took the chair at twelve o'clock, when
Mr. Higgins took his seat for the county of Mayo, in the
place of Mr. R. Dillon Browne.—Mr. J. A. SMITE asked
the Speaker why the fact of Baron Rothschild's declara-
tion, which he had signed as any other member, was not
noticed in the votes.—The SPEAKER said, in reply, it was
not noticed in the votes because the proceeding was
irregular and informal, as the hon. member had not
taken the oaths in the form prescribed in the act of par-
liament. (Hear, hear.)—The ATTORNEY-GENERAL
then proceeded to bring the two resolutions re-
specting the Baron's case as follows :—That the
Baron Rothschild is not entitled to vote in this house,
or to sit in this house during any debate, until he shall
take the oaths of abjuration in the form pointed out by
law : that this house will, at the earliest opportunity in
the next session of parliament, take into its serious con-
sideration the form of the oath of abjuration, with a view
to relieve her Majesty's subjects professing the Jewish
religion. The hon. and learned gentleman declared his
cor.viction that the seat of the baron was not vacant in
consequence of his not taking the oaths in the form re-
quired, and that the statute did not enable parliament to
order a new writ to be issued. He remarked, that the
oaths were not framed with a view to the exclusion of
Jews, but to abjure a family which no longer existed,
and therefore it was expedient that they should be
altered. If there was time, he would propose that
they should be altered this session ; but there was
not. Mr. HUME contended at considerable length that
the resolutions of the Attorney-General prejudged the
question by alleging that Baron Rothschild was not en-
titled to take his seat ; the baron was clearly entitled to do
so, and he would move as an amendment "that the Clerk
of this House having proceeded as directed by this house
to administer the oath to Baron Lionel Nathan de Roths-
child, one of the members for the city of London, upon the
Old Testament, being the for in which he declared to be
the most binding on hisconscience, and thebaron having so
sworn tothe oath c)fabjuration with the omission ofthe words
' upon the truefaith of a Christian,' and doub ts having arisen
as to the legal effect of his so taking the oath, it is expe-
dient, at the commencement of the next session of
parliament, that a bill should be introduced to declare the
law with reference to the due administration of that
oath ; and, further, that this house will then take into
its serious consideration the subject of the oaths now
administered to its:members with reference to the changes
which have taken place since they were first imposed by
law."

LATEST BETTING.
TA'TTERSALL'S, MONDAY.
BRIGHTON STAKES.—St. Rosalia, 2 to 1 ; Fernhill, 5 to 1 ;
Bee Bunnoo, 6to 1. Nothing else doing.

LONDON MONEY AND SHARE MARKETS.-YESTERDAY.

CLOSING PRICES,

Consols for Account, 96j to 97; for Money, 962 to ; Three-
and-a-Quarter per Cents. 99i to ; Exchequer Bills, 66 to 69
prem. ; Mexicans, 292 to 30; London Stock, 111& to 112; Quar-
ters, Ito 2 prem. ; Midland Stock, 34, ; Halves, 25, 24} dis.;
North Staffords, n dis. ; Old Hovers, 14, i ; Ditto, No. 4
reed., 41, ; Caledonians, 7i, 4; pref., 5, ; Eastern Counties,
g ; Great Northerns, dis. ; Great Westerns, 59i, 60 ,•
Leeds Stock, 37, 38 ; Berwick pref. 511, dis. ; York and
North Midlands, 16,
. . . _

English market 6id to-day ; Consols opened at 962, I, and
97 for Money, closing as above; market ending steady in ap-
pearance.
Railway market buoyant in the morning, but gave way
towards the afternoon. It closes with rather a flattish tone, at
reduced quotations, with scarcely anything doing.
Weather very fine.

MANCHESTER CLOSING PRICES.
North Staffords, 11* ; London Stock, 1114; Ditto Quarters,
1, 1 1-16, 1 prem.; East Lancashire, 7i.

LONDON CORN MARKET.-YESTERDAY,

FIRST REPORT.—British %% heat market opened dull. There
was a good supply, and a reduction of is. took place. Foreign
offered at rather lower terms, and sales limited. Flour met
little change, and in some cases easier terms acceded to. For
Oats the trade was quiet, and common sorts 6d. per quarter
lower, but fine corn not cheaper. Beans and Peas nearly
brought late rates, but sales limited. Bar`ey met little atten-
tion. Rather lower terms taken for inferior, but prime kinds
sustained former terms. Trade dull in Indian Corn, at prices
barely so good.
English White Wheat 4ls. to 48s.
„ Red ~
ARRIVALS.

Qrs. Qrs.
English Wheat
~ Earley
II
~ Oats
„ Malt
„ Peas —
„ Flour sacks BBl9
„ Beans
Irish Oats — Indian Corn —
„ Malt

SECOND REPORT.—In English Wheat not much desire to
purchase, and in some cases prices close Is. per quarter under
last Monday. Limited business in foreign at barely former
terms. Prices for Flour much the same as on • onday, but
sales unimportant. Malt and Barley sustained late rates.
Terms asked for Beans equal to last week. Fine new white
Peas held for 408. No change in fine Oats from last Monday,
but inferior sorts rather cheaper. Prices lower for Rape and
and Canary seeds.