ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 64, 10 March 1843, Page 3

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

The various German States are crying out for protective duties to exclude the importation of British manufactures. The Germans attribute the prosperity of England to her manufactures, and are desirous, if possible, of becoming an exporting country in that respect. The King of Prussia has just ordered a memorable measure, in the establishment of a body of Deputies to be chosen by the Provincial States. The Deputies are to sit during the recess of the States at Berlin, and form a standing commission for the Government to consult with on all subjects. A Belgian consulate is about to be established in New Zealand. The steeple of St. Martin’s Church, Charing Cross, has been taken down, it having been severely injured by lightning. The St. Ledger has been won by Lord Eglintoun’s Blue Bonnet, ridden by Lye. The Governor of Canada, in reply to a memorial of the dissenters of Montreal, stated that he should give support to no particular sect in promoting education, his instructions binding him to regard all as on a footing of perfect equality. Great distrsss has been felt in Canada by the newly arrived emigrants. Not being able to procure employment,, many would have starved hacl not public charity provided them with some means of subsistence until they could bring a little ground into cultivation. The American Congress have passed a new Tariff and Revenue Bill, omitting the clause for distributing the proceeds of land-sales, on account of which the President had vetoed two previous bills. The President at once affixed his signature to them. Emigrants continue to return from America. The Hottinguer bringing 250 and the New York Packet 300. Many on board the latter vessel would have starved, had not the captain supplied them with provisions from the ship’s stores. Lord John Russell, it is said, has been occupying his leisure hours, since his retirement from office, in preparing for publication selections from the correspondence of John fourth Duke of Bedford. Captain Lairdet has arrived in London. The Marquis of Wellesley died on the 26th of September, being eighty-three years of age. In the West Indies there is a great demand for labour. A great number of boys have been brought from Sierra Leone. Louis Phillippe’s daughter, the Princes Clementine, whose hand was sought in marriage by a Prince of Saxe-Cobourg, asked thi*ee months to reflect. The time specified has just expired, and the Princess has answered in the negative. The Lords of the Admiralty made last week a visit to Chatham Dockyard to witness a series of electrical experiments under the superintendence of Mr. Harris, exhibiting his method of defending vessels by means of lightning-con-ductors fixed to the mast-head. Several fine experiments were performed, and it appears that almost every ship that has used them abroad has been preserved from destruction by thenadoption. It seems to be understood that Mr. S. M. Phillipps, Under Secretary of State for the Home Department, is about to retire from his office, and that his successor is to be Mr. Gregson. Mr. Gregson has long enjoyed the personal intimacy of Sir R. Peel, and is known to have been his principal agent in preparing his bills for the consolidation of the criminal laws, when the Right Hon. Baronet presided over the Home Department. Surveying Service. —Her Majesty’s ship Fly, despatched for the purpose of, surveying Torres Straits, and to offer some protection to British merchant vessels against the various pirate prows on that ground, arrived on her way there at Table Bay, on the 20th of June last. It is stated that there are nearly two thousand persons in prison throughout the country, for being concerned in the late riots.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is quite recovered from his late indisposition. Lord Eliot has given offence to the Irish Tories by subscribing 201. towards defraying the expense of a late prosecution of the World for libel. The Dublin Evening Mail has named his lordship “Mulgrave Redivivus.” Large quantities of American fiour have been recently imported into Ireland.

The Statue of William IV.—On Wednesday an immense block of Haytor or Devonshire granite was removed from Tuckwell’s Norway Wharf, Greenwich, to Chadwick’s Wharf, Millbank, for the purpose of forming the lower part of the statue of the late king. Its weight is thirty tons, of an octagonal shape, and it was placed on a truck made chiefly of iron, weighing six tons, and was drawn from the wharf by twenty of the largest and most powerful horses. It was landed on Friday last from a vessel by means of the largest crane ever used for such a purpose in London. In consequence cf its enormous weight, intimation of its approach was sent to the directors of the Croydon Railway Company, and Mr. Gregory, the engineer at the New Cross station, instantly surveyed the bridge, which is made of iron, and at once directed a strong shoring to be placed under the bridge, to guard against any accident that might arise owing to the pressure from above. It took upwards of six hours to remove it from the wharf into the street, the earth having sunk in several places from the weight. Another block of the same granite, weighing fourteen tons, was removed from the wharf yesterday to the works at Tra-falgar-square, Charing-cross, to form a portion of the abacus of the Nelson pillar, and is of a somewhat triangular shape. The entire erection, with the statue in the city, will weigh about 140 tons; the head, &c., of the statue alone requiring about 10 tons.

The Bread Question. —There is a general fact which ought to be kept in view as bearing upon this and all similar matters, and that is, that from the selfishness of the human heart whole masses of society have too often not suffi • ciently benefited from reductions which have been made in the duties on raw materials. Although, therefore, at various epochs such reductions have been made, the working classes, and the public generally, have not been the gainers. This is the case just now with bread. Although, for the last five months, a laiger quantity of foreign wheat has been taken out of bond and admitted into this country at the reduced duties than has been so admitted during a very much longer period in any other years, yet the price of bread keeps up; the labouring man gains no advantage from the increased importation ; and the cry is still heard —“ The quartern loaf should be cheaper.” And so it should. It is in vain for the baker to throw the blame on the miller, the miller on the farmer, and the farmer on the importers or landowners. Wheat is cheaper, flour ought to be so, and bread must fall in price, and yet not ill quality. Let us look for a moment at the relative position of the London and Paris markets when in a more natural state than at present.

In November, 1841, the price of flour of the finest quality in Paris was 63 francs for a quantity equal to the English sack of 2801 b. The highest price of flour in London at the same period was 645. the sack. Thus flour was per cent, higher in London than in Paris. At the 'same period the price of bread of the first qnality in Paris was equal to 6d. English money for a four pound loaf, whilst in London it was lOd. So that bread in London was 66f dearer than in Paris. The difference of 64£ per cent, and 65f per cent, is too small to be observed upon. This fact, then, proves that the cost of making the bread did not occasion the difference, but the cost of the flour. In May, 1845, the purest flour in Paris was 58 francs, or 365. 5d., whilst in London it was 575.; so that flour was per cent, dearer in London And finally, the price of the best bread at Paris in May, 1842, was sd. and £ of a penny for the four pound loaf, English weight, whilst in London it was These incontrovertible statistics demonstrate, that the great difference in the price of bread in the two capitals, must be ascribed to the enormous discrepancy between the prices of the raw material in the two countries. If this examination be extended to the present time, although the price of flour here has fallen, yet the price of bread has been by no means lowered in the same proportion. These are facts which lead to certain inferences. The first is, that our corn laws keep up the price of wheat; second, that the millers keep up the price of flour ; and third, that the bakers (speaking generally) will keep up to an unfair price the 41b loaf. But there is another conclusion, and that is, fourth, that the assize of bread in Paris causes the consumer to obtain the whole benefit of a reduction in the price of flour at once on the occurrence of a fall; whereas, in this country, the reduction is uniformly delayed, and even when it comes, is never equal to the amount of the decline in the price of the raw material. The bakers have been greatly exerting themselves to remove from their order the odium which attaches itself to them in consequence of the present price of the quartern loaf. That

the millers oppress the bakers is unquestionable : but if the consciences of the latter class are to be left to decide when the price of the loaf is to fall, so as to be sold in conformity with the real state of the corn market, we more than suspect that those consciences would suffer the public *o wait until doomsday. The selfishness of man interposes in this case between a falling wheat market, and a reduction of price, and old rates for bread are maintained until the public voice is so strongly uttered that disobedience to its mandate is impossible. The united rapacity of the millers and the bakers must not, however, be allowed to operate as an insurmountable barrier to a cheap loaf. In 'a matter of so much importance to the whole community, it is much to be desired that the question of the price of the first article of food should not be left to be decided by those whose interest it is to decide for themselves and against the public. We think that measures should be taken to inform the public of the price at which bread can be sold, by publishing the price at which it is bond fide sold by contract to public departments, or parochial unions. Whether the proposed revival of the assize laws be adopted or not, the French practice of prolicly proclaiming every fourteen days the price at which bread is to be sold might be adopted in this country with the greatest advantage both to the poorer and middling classes of society. A Surprise. —The Echo de la Dourbio of Millau relates the following anecdote :—“ An ecclesiastic of this neighbourhood was lately travelling in one of the neighbouring departments. He had alighted from his caleche, and was walking on, when a gust of wind blew towards him the hat of a village curd, who was preceding him a few paces on the road. * Abbd/ cried the latter, * stop my hat.’ Our traveller picked up the hat, and, in presenting it to the cure, observed, ‘ I hope, Monsieur, that you may one day wear one of the same colour as mine.’ The village curd looked up in surprise, but bowed low on recognising in the person before him Cardinal de Bonald, Archbishop of Lyons.”

A Real Jacobite. —Among the inmates of the poor-house of the parish of St. Nicholas there is one Kirsty Fraser, who has reached the age of 103 years. She appears to be in the enjoyment of excellent health, and says that if she could get “ a wee drap o’ tea an* a sma* bit tobacco, she might waddle on a good while yet.” Kirsty was seven years old when the battle of Cnlloden took place, and describes the appearance of the field on the day after with all the gusto of a real Jocobite. “ Muckle stir and muckle fae was there,” she says ; “the trenches o’ the dead bein’ as high as a house, and covered wi’ earth.” She was acquainted, too, with the cave in which Flora Macdonald concealed Prince Charles, having explored “ it ae day wi ither twa lasses, when Flora and Prince Charlie were out at a walk.” Kirsty came to Aberdeen about 60 years ago. “It was a guid Aberdeen when I cam till’t,” says Kirsty—- “ plenty o’ wark for baith man and woman ; but noo there is naething but poverty an’ teetotalism, an’ ilka ane fechtin’ wi' his neighbour.”

Extraordinary Effect of Wealth Newly Acquired. —Madame D., a lady of small independent property, living in the Rue St. Dominique, Paris, had, a short time since, by the death of a relation, an increase of fortune, which doubled her income. This accession, which usually brings joy and gladness, had a sinister effect on the mind of Madame D. After a time she became subject to lowness of spirits, which increased into profound melancholy, attended by fear of being robbed. Under this morbid impression she admitted no one into her apartment, receiving her food from the portress through a small wicket made in the outer door. At length the idea that she would be poisoned seized her diseased imagination, and though for a time she continued to take in the food brought her, she dared not eat anything. At length, when the portress went to-' the door, two days ago, Madame D. did not answer her call. The commissary of police came, and entered the apartment. The poor lunatic was found seated in an arm chair, in such a state of inanition that she expired on her way to a maison de sant6, where an attempt was made to convey her. On an autopsy being taken, it was ascertained that she had literally starved herself to death. Statues to Eminent Men. —Out of a list of 24 names of remarkable personages presented by the Prefect of the Seine, the Municipal Council has just chosen. 12 whose statues are to decorate the Hotel-de-Villes. They are, Michel Lallier, who, being Provost of the Trades in 1836, drove the English out of Paris; La Vacquerie, who said to the Parliament, "We are here to render justice, and for nothing else; William BudA celebrated for his learning; Mathieu Mole, Vincent de Paule,. Robin, the Abb6 de TEp6e, Jean Aubry. Hardduin Mansard, Le Voyer. d’Argenson, Robert Etienne, the printer; M. Frochot, Prefect of the Seine in the time of the Empire. The Two P.’s.—At the annual Epping agricultural meeting, on Friday, the president, H. J. Conyers, Esq., alluded in the following terms, according to the Essex Herald, to the present condition of agriculture : —" Last year

I told you I hoped the corn laws would not be altered. I hope, as Sir Robert Peel said, that he is not a class man, and that he does not look to the right or to the left, but to the nation at large ; and I hope in what he has done we shall not feel ourselves injured or deceived. I hope we shall see the cloud passing by—l can say no more than this, that I hope we shall see better times, for I consider the present times very gloomy and very miserable for the agricultural interest; but within the last week things have got a little better, and I consider the news which England has received on the subject of peace with America, one , of the greatest things for this nation ; for if we had be en obliged to go to war with that country, where should we have been then ? I hope Sir Robert Peel has done what he thought right for the good of the nation, and that what he has done will be found to have that effect. I hope Providence —for, as I said to Sir Robert Peel, we have two P’s, Providence and Peel —I hope Providence will give prosperity to the landed interest, and that I shall have the happiness of meeting you next year under better circumstances.”