The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-12-14 00:00:00

ST.4TE OF LIVERPOOL

[FROM OUR COMISSPONPIAT THAI' PLAT[.]

Amongst merchants :11111 dealers of almost all de.;
scriptions, a general gloom and despondency seems to!
prevail; some important failures are anticipated in'
this commercial town, on Ng to the universal depre-I
elation of property. Cotton is selling at .20 per cent.l
V,. Agricultural produce is almost as cheap now
as it was thirty yteta since. Amongst the shop-keep-I
•ts, (some few ready money dealeis excepted.) the
greatest distress prevails : and Christmas is looked
forward to with great at: joy. The general voice of;
the merchants imputes this awful and general &pees
siva to Loral Liverpool's sanctioning .Vr. Peel's Bill.
The hat oc made by the enormous pressure of taxation
is inconceivably great; and numerous are the indus-
trious families who struggle hard to keep their shops
open ; whilst the farmers talk of nothing but being
reduced to a state of indigence : of course they em-
ploy as few hands, and pay the lowest possible wages
which carries famine and misery into the labourer's
spatter. Wheat weighing seventy pounds the bushel,
sells for seven shillings and sixpence, and even less.
If a landlord makes a seizure for 2110/. it desolates a
large establishment In make up the money, and re-
quires as much stock as in 1412 would have produced
three times the seem. 't he accounts from Wales art
also deplorable ; and the Yorkshire clothiers and
farmers are reported as being plunged into the must
teicting distresses, arising from the same depression
in the value t,f produce and manufactured goods.
Every day inanufartured goods are exposed to sale
twenty or twenty-five per cent. under the cost price;
and the pawnbrokers, who are mute numerous in Li-
verpool than in any other place of the same size in
Groat Britain, are overcharged with manufactured
goods. The state of the poor-house, and of puors'
rates, are already known front the petition presented
by General Gascoyne to the lions, of Commons. Many
mechanics are out of work; and it is said that enlist?.
makers can be had at less wages than labourers! The
poorest of the populace are too frequently seen half-
naked, with the strongest marks of famine in their
faces. Hundreds of men, women, and children, are
sees every day picking up horse-dung in the streets
and roads ; a wretched employment, especially in
winter time, and they do not average four-pence a-Jay
by their labour. it shews at once an industrious dis-
p..isition, anti the frightful ravages of poverty. It is
natural to suppose that crime should increase with
want and wretchedness : the prisons are unusually
full, and the streets strarts with juvenile depredators.
Amongst the greatest capitalists, a degree of ills-
way awl consternation prevails, greater than prevailed,
carer at the most disasterous period of the late war.
Confidence seems at a complete stand, and the news of
fie great failures which have occurred in London, are
regarded as fearful presages of similar calamities here.
An appearance of gloom and apprehension was appa-
rt nt on 'Change yesterday anal to-day in the counte-
nance of most of our merchants.

in the midst of this despondency, a few interested
in!olerants are endea►ouring to get op on Address to
Me Xing! the real object of which is, to evil fo►
Merehester Lose+to &Wind the past measures of
Ministers against her Majesty, and pledge the ad-
dressers to support than in any mew attrntids they may
p:e3se to wake against her. It is generally believed
attempt has been made and has failed.
Liverpool, Dec. It