The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1855-03-24

this city has been very backward; but with |
in A few DAYS our merchants have been close
" engaged with the country customers we
have been around amongst them ourselves,
and ind their stocks more extensive than
ever and although the trade has been rather |
slow, they are well satisf ed that there will
vet be a larger business before the season |
is over
The bsckwardness in tradeis seriously felt
in all the large cities. We were gratitied to
learn, from the very best sources, that Rich |
mond. from every indication that is afforded,
will do a business much nearer that of the
most prosperous of recent years than any OF
the larger cities all of whom complain ofthe
falling off in trade.
We were gratified at another fact: What
Virginis merchants who have been on to the
North, have returned and purchased literally
of our Richmond merchants. Indeed we saw
several of these merchants making their pur-
chases.
No city of its proportions IN the Atlantic
States, has improved of late so much as Rich
mond in the mercantile facilities. and in the
system and ease with which business is con-
Quoted. Her merchants have displayed a
noble enterprise in the elegant and judicious
arrangement of their establishments, where
by taste is gratifed, and comfort and convent
ence greatly promoted. The spaciousness,
beauty and convenience of their stores elicit
the admiration of every stranger. while those
employed in them can do twice the business
with twice the comfort of the old time
store houses.
These fine stores all have the very best OF
stocks, and the country merchant can be &C
commodated by selecting bis supplies from
them just as advantageously as he can by
going to any of the Northern cities
Ofth grocery business of Richmond, we
need only say that nobody passes by her
warehouses to buy elsewhere. There is no
better grocery market in the Atlantic States.
French CONTEMPT OF ENGLAED.-One of
the Paris letter writers says that the effect of
the successive ministerial changes in England
on the Partisan mind is so absorbing that
even Sebastopol is almost driven out of the
organ of public opinion has roundly declare
that these continual crises are only the natu
raj laws which the decadence of England is
deserving. 1T is certain remarks the cor
respondent, "that many grave thinkers of
decidedly conservative class of mind, begin
ominously to shake their heads at the news,
as, day after day, it arrives from the other
side of ST. Georges channel They do not
scruple to say that the national institutions of
England have become efete that while the
children of the State are full of manly ener-
gy, they are proved to be but like a gallant
craft on the broad ocean, 'rudderless, afioat.'
Men who have held back from the clear
sweep which the Napoleonic system has
made of Parliamentary government begin to
speak with less hesitation of it as they OBJ
serve the position in which state of poiti-
cal peril finds that England who on this sub
Ject has given laws to the world. Nay, per
sons who have hitherto looked upon her as
terrible giantess, whose embrace was more
formidable to France than her frown, begin
to hold a language of defiance, and to speak
of the Nemesis of France in a strain that is
not very agreeable to an English ear when if
reaches it. And about the court itself, senti-
ments are avOwedly expressed viii CHI init
mate that in less than twelvemOnth the ma
tion of shopkeepers may, if it pleases, attend
TO its own affairs The ASsemblee NationnZe
has taken the opportunity of republishing
speech of NJ de Montalembert, where the de-
cline and fall of England is graphically por.
frayed. The AsSemJtee Rationale conceives
that this parliamentary inquiry as to the cen
duct OF the war cannot stop there; that such
q scene OF jObbery, patronage, aristo cratic
laundering and self serving, will be laid bare,
that other institutions will be involved in it :;
and that the whole system of aristocratic gov
eminent will be brought down, amid no sym
pathetic tears, either from within or with
out
1t is surprising that so shrewd d people as
the French should so hastily Jump to the con.
clusion that England has become mere
"nation of shop keepers" single unluckv
campaign in the Crimea is sufficient TO wine
out the recollection of thousand years of
indomtable energy and almost unbrok en-
triumph. The misfortunes of England in the
Crimea are not to be compared with those
which overwhelmed her in every part of tho
world just before William Pitt was called to
the helm of public affairs Has France al.
ready forgotten that eventful and instructive
period in her own history and in that of Great
Britain Has she forgotten how soon. as if
by magic, the ship of state which was lvipo
on her side in the trough of the sea. with
mountain pillows breaking over her. riobted
at once when Pitt seized the helm and on
an even keel and with a flag fying nroud,v
as ever, sailed on in such career of VICTORY
as was unparalleled in British history? Has
she forgotten how the wise counsels of that
single head and the colossal strength of that
single arm brought order out of chaos
strength out of weakness, victory out of de
feat, and glory out of shame, till in every
land and on every sea the British flag waved
in victory, and the banner of France trailed
the DUST What has there been in the Cri,
mea disasters as disparaging to British man.
hood or as morfifyinp IN british rrida oc III