The Sun. — London, England, 1833-11-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF IHE PUBLIC JOURNALS. Having of late frequently alluded to the for mation of Trades' Unions, in the north of England, for the purpose of regulating the rate of wages, or directing the employment of manu facturing industry, anti having quoted copious ac counts of the proceedings of these Unions from the provincial journals, our readers will be the better enabled to understand the importance to he attached to the letter signed " A :Merchant," which will be found in another column. Though its author has sent us his real signature and ad dress, he requests that his name may not be re vealed ; and his anxiety on this point, which is, moreover, manifested by subscribing the county, instead of the town, whence his letter is ad dressed, is the best proof of the terror in which he lives, and of the influence exercised by the combinations of the workmen over the conduct of their masters. The extent of these combina tions—the completeness of their organization— the presumed irresistible nature of their autho rity—the amount of their pecuniary means, and the unlimited despotism of their leaders, would lead us to entertain a very formidable idea of their danger to the country, were they to con tinue long on their present footing, or were their members not wise enough to see that a perseverance in unreasonable demands on their part must ultimately provoke a retaliatory com bination on the part of their employers. At present no individual workmen, or single factory of workmen, even though willing to continue their labours, are strong enough, physically or morally, to disobey the orders, or to resist the intimidation of the mass. They may join it with reluctance, but they think that they must join it ; they look about them for sympathy among their own class, and find the majority against them ; they hear the numbers, hopes, and wrongs of their body exaggerated by their artful chiefs, who promote at once their own private interests, and gratify their own personal ambi tion, by misleading their fellow workmen ; each person listens to a command in the name of " Legion, for they are many," and not being able to limit the extent of the evil which he may endure, thinks it better to sacrifice some days of his wages than to risk his excommunication or to exiiose his life. Meanwhile the leaders cal culate on the want of concert, or the want of courage, among the masters ; they ascertain the amount of work which they have to execute within a particular time, and learn the urgency of the orders for its accomplishment ; and being assured that their discharge at such a crisis, though injurious to themselves, might be more ruinous to their employers, they reckon on being able to wring from necessity, at a small risk, what they could not expect to obtain from justice in the ordinary course of trade. If they succeed in any case, their success emboldens them to proceed, and acquires for them more character and influence with their followers. They thence convert the whole labouring population, in parti -cular branches of manufactui els, into the blind instruments of their will or power ; and can stop an obnoxions factory or ruin a refractory manu facturer at their caprice or pleasure. Instances (we have been assured) have occurred within the last six months in Leeds, in which, after an emissary of the Union has been seen to enter the premises of a manufacturer to order " a halt," the whole works stopped in half an hour, as if by enchantment, and the people retired, express ing their regret to their master that they were obliged to desist from their labour by superior authority. Such a monstrous tyranny is not to be endured, and, like other tyrannies, must work its own ruin, or abridge its own existence, by the excesses of its own violence. While it lasts it must destroy all competition for labour— it must prevent the manufacturer from contend ing with foreigners in the sale of his commodity, by preventing him from reducing the cost of its production for the foreign market ; it must render . capital and enterprise totally unavailing against unreasoning dictation; and it must paralyze all un dertakings which depend upon a distant return,by introducing uncertainty and insecurity into the management of every manufacturing establish ment. How is it possible that a manufacturer can enter into a contract to supply a certain amount of goods at a certain price, and by a certain day, if an unknown and unrecognized power is allowed to interfere to change his prices, or to withdraw his workmen, to pass on him a sentence of excommunication, or to stop his neighbour's mills, which may be necessary to aid him in fulfilling his engagements? The consequences of such a system of combination and violence will be manifest on the slightest re flection. The masters must either combine in their turn to resist the demands of their work men, and to maintain their independent com mand over their own resources and establish ments, in opposition to the Trades' Unions, or they must individually yield to their violence, and hasten to withdraw the wrecks of their for tune from the coming storm. In the former case, they must shut up their factories,—resolve for some time to live on their capitals,—discharge every person who has entered a union, and thus throw immense bodies of men out of employment, to the risk of the public peace, and the certain creation ofextensive misery and embarrassment. If such apparently cruel firmness is continued so long as to overcome the obstinacy of the work men, the vanquished party are not likely to tabt.in better terms, by having given such striking proofs at once of their contumacy and of their weakness. They will, therefore, be more than ever at the mercy of their masters ; they will have taught a new lesson of self-protection to a body of capitalists which, being small, can more faithfully practise the art, and being wealthy, can more easily afford to make the temporary sacrifice of profit which it may require,—and on future occasions their remonstrances and repre sentations will be less regarded, though better founded than at present. In the latter case both parties are likely to suffer, but the tempo rary victory of the workmen would be an ulti mate defeat. The masters whose establishments are most easily moved, or whose spirit is most enterprising, will transfer their capital to some other quarter. Already we have seen more than one example of this migration in the silk trade, which, owing t o a fixed scale of prices, par tially deserted Spitall . ld s for Macclesfield, and which was subsequently driven by combina tions from Macelesfi9ld to take refuge in i\lan chester, where , according to the evidence ta k en rn now before the Comm ittee it flourishes f ree Com merce, and Shipping, ' on M anu f actures, Co from the fear of unreasonable demands and of Trades' Unions. If no other locality in Great Britain offers equal facilities for carrying on the same manufacture, capital will change its em ployment or its country, emigrating to states where it can enjoy greater security and incur no danger of ruinous combinations. Such is the only alternative of those results to which the Trades' Unions are bringing the situation of their own members, or the manufacturing capital of, their employers. We pray them, therefore, to reflect in time on the impossibility of a favourable issue to their present impolitic struggle, if much longer continued. Let them discard their agi tators,—let them enter into terms with their masters, and let mutual concession be the har binger to a cordial reconciliation. Their wages are at present better than they have ever been since the peace ; they can have full employment, and they ought not to obstruct their masters in those undertakings which can alone enable them to secure that employment by maintaining them selves against competition in the foreign market. —Times. The notice taken of the trial of the four Nor folk labourers, in this and some other journals, has elicited from our contemporary (the Stan dard) an attempt to vindicate the magistracy of England, both in their judicial and administra tive capacity. If we were asked what we thought of the principles laid down by Mr. Weyland, the chairman, we should have no hesitation in saying that it would have been well for Not folk if his views had been embraced by his prede cessors thirty or forty years ago. But a redun dant population having been created by a system enforced by the magistrates, which had for object to place the labourers in an artificial system, it is obvious that Mr. \Veyland's views are not applicable to such a population, without consi derable limitations and modifications. Before we enter on the consideration of the conduct of the Norfolk magistrates in their judicial capacity, we will advert to their conduct as administrators of the poor laws. " The Morning Chronicle and Times (says the Stan dard) affect to charee the country gentleman of England, and especially the Norfolk magistrates, with having, on one side, brought on the impoverishment which fits the labouring poor to act the part of conspirators, and, o❑ the other side, with having promoted and encouraged the system of lawless conflict in which the unlucky Norfolk culprits have been entrapped. No two charges can he imagined more false than these. The magistracy of England have, no doubt, committed errors in the local administration of the law, and mere particularly in the administration of the poor laws ; but if they have occasion ally gone wrong, it has been in a field where it was impossi ble for them to go steadily right. The truth is, that, for a long succession of years, the whole agricultural in terest, through all its gradations, has been suffering under an unexampled pressure. To hold their hands and do nothing in such a case was impossible for those who were supposed to he invested with means of relief, and, of course, were held responsible for every case of suffering. Beset by the ruined farmer on one side, and the famishing labourer on the other, the Alsgistrates must act; and, i❑ a case so perplexing, their attempts would necessarily be more or less empirical. Some would fail and some might succeed ; hut, even where successful, the unlucky admi nistrators of the law were sure to be deprived of the honour of success in a case where, as ruin was progressive, a state of greater misery was sure to follow whatever could he done, without a reference to its wisdom or its impolicy. That the measures of the country gentlemen were not, as basely insinuated by the Times, directed to their own ad vantage, is proved by the result—by the fact, more than once acknowledged in the Morning Chronicle and other journals, that while the landowners stand on the brink of ruin, the condition of the labouring population is, in many instances, improved—in none materially deteriorated. Wherever the labourers have suffered, they have not suf fered by the acts of landlords or magistrates, but from the same cause which has drawn ruin upon both—the Bill of 1819." This is not a correct representation of the conduct of the Magistrates. Some of the lead ing men i❑ the Magistracy framed very ingenious systems for making the poor laws instrumental in keeping up a constant surplus fund of labour, that there might always be a supply for any extra demand ; which object was to be effected by enabling the labourer to bring up all his chil dren, not out of his wages, but out of a fund derived chiefly from the difference between the value of the labour of the young, and the wages actually paid to them. They did not take into account this artificial system would have the effect of utterly demoralizing the labourers, by de stroying the chief motive of industry—the reward which should follow it. A work was published by Hatchard, in 1807, by a Magistrate for three inland counties, which expounded, with consi derable ingenuity, the views entertained by the influential Magistracy of England then, and for several years before. The following extract from the book in question, which had much influence at the time, explains why it was deemed necessary to have a redundant labouring popu lation : " Besides the operation of such an institution as the Poor Laws. and the population produced by it in the ordinary affairs of the society ; there are some demands for men of an extraordinary nature, that tend still more to show its political utility. Among others, the supply of people for the purposes of war and colonization, is a very important consideration to a pow, rful country ; and nothing can be clearer than that they who can afford the supply with the least interruption to their ordinary oc cupations, and the probable increase of them, possess great advantages over those who are under the necessity of taking every man they use for these purposes from the plough or the loom. It will easily be conceived what facilities in this way must arise from an institution, hav ing a constant tendency to increase the number of people beyond the actual demand for labour in civil occupations ; even though the future demand from these last may increase likewise. To understand this, we must con sider that the number of heads of families will always be re gulated by the actual demand for labour ; because, wherever a man's hands are wanted, there a residence must be provided for him ; but unless the demand 'should go to the extent of raising the wages of labour considerably, and thereby defeat itself, it will not encourage or enable those heads of families to rear many children ; so that without extraneous assistance for that purpose, should a further increase of demand occur, it must wait fifteen or sixteen years (while the children produced by it are born, and reared to a working age) before it can be satisfied; whereas an institution like the poor laws, by enabling and encouraging the heads of families to rear as many children as nature permits them to bear, keeps a stock of labour constantly o❑ hand to answer such further demand. Any number, therefore, that may be wanted for war or coloniza tion will not be taken from those actually employed in civil occupations, but from this extraordinary stock ; and will not interfere with the present prosperity of the State, but only with a portion of its future expected increase, should the extra supply of people not be sufficient for both the extraordinary demands." Before this plan of making the poor laws ancillary to the creation of a surplus fund of labour, to be in readiness for extraordinary de mands, was devised, and extensively acted on, where alone it could be acted on, in the agricul tural counties, in which the confederated magis trates had sufficient power to enforce their views, the .poor laws were generally thought to be instrumental in keeping down the numbers of the people. And we have no doubt that, down to the war of the French Revolution, when the magistrates took it into their heads to abuse the poor laws, with a view to create a surplus fund of labour, by paying the labourer, not accord ing to the value of his labour, but the number of his children, the poor laws were actually the means of keeping down the number of the people. Every parish naturally wished, so long as the rates were expended on the really poor, and not applied to the payment of labour, to keep what was deemed a burden as low as pos sible ; and hence great care was taken to prevent settlements being too cal:ily obtained. The Magistrates, before 1794, confined themselves within the limit s of their duty. But about 1794 and 1795, they took higher ground, no longer contenting themselves with administering the actual Poor Laws, but p ervert i ng t h ese l aws in furtherance of a plan based on the specula- tions to which we have alluded. They took into their own hands the feeding of the people, and disregarded the warning voice of Burke— that if they ever accustomed the people to be so fed, they would never be able to retrace their steps. The great cause of the evil is the exist ence of a body of men who, to the very great power and influence they possess as landowners, unite the judicial power. An ordinary Judge is merely an expounder of the law ; but a confe deration of great landowners invested with large discretionary powers, and judicial authority at the same time, set all opposition or control at defiance. No mere Judge could, as an ex pounder of the law, have dared to dissent from it as the English Magistrate-squires have done. But the English Magistracy knew that the canons laid down by them from the bench durst not be disobeyed.—The poor laws of Scotland and England are substantially the same ; but the local Judge in Scotland, the Sheriff, could only act as an expounder of the law,—he durst not ven ture on any pranks, like those exhibited in England. If the Scotch had benches of Squire Magis trates, the poor laws, would, no doubt, have been equally perverted as in England. So much for the share which the Magistrates of England had in plunging the labourers into their present con dition. With regard to the amount of punish ment inflicted by the Norfolk Magistrates on the four labourers, our objection was not so much to that amount, as to the arbitrary manner in which the labouring people of England are dealt with. Law ought to be a rule ; but how can that be a rule, which is the emanation of magis terial caprice,—may be one thing at one place, and another thing at another place--one thing at one time and another at another time ? It may be proper to consider the forcing labourers to join a strike or combination a most heinous crime ; but it has not been usually considered in that light by Magistrates. So far from it, we could in this very county of Norfolk point out several instances of Magistrates actually encouraging labourers to act as these labourers acted. In the Rev. Mr. Brereton's pamphlet of " The Subordinate Magistracy and Parish System Considered," he complains bitterly again and again of Magistrates encouraging the la bourers to injure the overseers in person and property. Alluding to one case, he observes— " The conduct of the justices is not only directly oppressive in acts and orders like these ) but the whole mode of sustaining their power is no better than common barratry, mainte nance, and champerty in law. It would be most desirable that there should be nothing more than an order founded upon an oath, however false and impious. But every one knows, that re sistance even to an intimation of a Justice ex poses the parish officers, and the parish, and the property, to the danger of insult, plunder, and conflagration. After the order was given, in the Snettesham case, seventy able-bodied labourers appeared at the Petty Sessions, ready to swear impotency, and to intimidate in any way that might be suggested. A gentleman once told us that, imagining the parish officers in his parish were too lima, he determined to act as overseer himself. He soon received a summons ; he declined to relieve on the direction of the Jus tices, without an order. The Justices imme diately rose, and said, " We do not intend to do business in that manner ;" and, with a frown to the gentleman-overseer, left the Court : the next morning the gentleman's servant came to inform him that his horses were all " flanked." The fact is notorious, that 19 times out of 20, in such a case as the recent one of the four Norfolk labourers, the Magistrates would, instead of punishing the labourers, have assailed the over seer in some such way as this Why, you know that these poor men have families, and that they must live, and that it was impossible for them to live on the small sums they have earned. To drive these poor men to the neces sity of a step like this, is on your part wicked and gratuitous inhumanity." The men would have gone home triumphant, and the overseer would have been insulted by them all the rest of the year. We could furnish abundant evidence of this from a hundred sources. The volume of extracts from the reports addressed to the Poor Law Commissioners furnishes abundance of them. The Standard does not meet the real difficulty in the Norfolk case—namely, the subjecting the English labourers, not to a rule of law, but to magisterial discretion ; but at tempts to show that all resistance to authority, or crimes committed in defiance of the law, should be severely punished : " A clear distinction (he says) must always be observed in the apportionment of punishment between crimes com. mitted in neglect of the law, and crimes committed in defiance of it. In propriety of speech, crimes are all vio lations of the sovereign authority; but crimes in neglect of the law, which, perhaps, are best described as delin quencies, do not necessarily imply, on the part of the criminal, hatred or contempt of the Legislature. Crimes in defiance of the law are direct acts of hostility against the settled order of society, and, in many cases, if not all, deliberate usurpations upon the authority of that power by which society is held together. Where this dis ' tinction, which will be admitted to be founded in the na ture of things, is clearly observed, a very different rule will prevail in the punishment of the two classes of of.. fences. Crimes committed in neglect of the law will be punished according to their peculiar cireumstances--si. lowauces wid be mercifully made for ignorance, for human frailty, for extraordinary temptation ; and the M igistrate, where he can find no other extenuating motive, may inno cently pause to consider whether the inutility of severe punishment, in the particular case, may not justify his withholding that infliction of suffering which is alto iys painful to the agent. With respect, however, to offerwes committed in defiance of the law, we contend that the Ma gistrate has no such latitude of discretion. Every such offence, how light soever may be the guilt of the act ab stractedly, is rendered, by the insolent temper in which it is committed, an act of high treason against society. The offender, in fact, to the utmost of his power, de poses the legislative authority, and, as far as lie may, dissolves the social union, He is, therefore, to be dealt with, not as an erring subject, but as an alien enemy. We may pity the misery which he thus draws upon himself ; but we, too, betray the interests of society if we fail to visit him with all punishment which the law authorises ; just as we may, and doubtless often do, regret the calamities which the policy of public war compels us to inflict ; though, if necessary for the defence of our country, we cannot innocently dispense with the infliction of them. The truth is, that, in principle, the cases are identical, both being reducible to the one hard condition of self de fence-. Amongst crimes committed in defiance of the law, however, there is one class in which, mote than in any other, the marks of treason against society are direct and unequivocal; and that case arises when men en•er into eon spiracii-s to resist legal authority, and exercise tyranny over their fellow-subjects, whether by menaces or by actual violence, ti compel them to associate in the same con federacy." In a treatise on the theory of penal law these observations of our contemporary may not be displaced. We are not, however, going to discuss with him the soundness of his theory. Should any Member of the Legislature propose next session a comprehensive law, in which the various cases of defiance might be provided for, we shall be ready to enter on the subject. We are ready to admit that the Trad es 'U n i ons occa sionally act not only in a most tyrannical manner, but in a most savage and brutal manner. We fear, however, the worst cases will with difficulty be reached. We may, in the meantime, how- ever, admit that we think defiance of the law ought always to be considered a serious offence. But the great evil in England is, that every \Tagistrate makes himself both lawgiver and judge,—that the poor labourer may find himself one day praised and another punished for the same act. The Magistrates now conceive that the struggle between them and the labourers is one of life and death, and they may be inclined therefore to punish severely all attempts to set their authority at defiance. But unfortunately they have begun too late. We lament to see, from the country papers, that, with the long nights, the fires have become fearfully frequent. In short, the Magistrates will find it difficult now to undo what they have been doing these forty years.—Morning Chronicle. Gratifying proofs throng in upon us from all sides, of the advantages resulting from infant schools (whoever may have been the original founder), and of their continued increase. With regard to the instruction given we do not value it very highly. It is a subordinate concern, though still no burden. But we do most highly value the moral superintendence, and we are inclined to think that if these schools become general in large towns, and if the plan, on which they are conducted were sufficiently understood to find its way to the extremities of the country, they might prove of the the greatest benefit to the population. There appears something so artificial in the prima facie proposal of taking children of two or three years old from their parents, after the fashion of Spartan legislation, and teach ing them to follow a prescribed track, that the first impression is naturally against them. People are inclined to look on them like Mr. Owen's villages of parallelo grams, as better adapted for the regions of fairy land than that of every-day matter of fact. A prejudice may also be excited on the score of the children's unhealthy confinement. But surely any confinement of this modified description is better than allowing them to pine in a garret, or fight in the street. It is a common-place objec tion that the mother is the proper guardian of the child. This might be admitted if all mothers could attend to the moral and mental wants of their offspring. But what is the fact ? In manufacturing towns most mothers are from home the greater part of the day, and the chil dren are left under the care of an elder sister, who is detained from school at an age when education is most indispensable. In the agricul tural districts the mothers are engaged from home for the greater part of the day in field-work, and the children (too young for a parochial school) are probably huddled together under the charge of some old woman, who, because she is unfit for any other labour, is charitably supposed to be peculiarly fitted for this most important of all human avocations and duties.—Morning Advertiser. It is to be hoped that Government, taking into consideration the whole of the circum stances connected with the case of the four labouring men convicted at the Norfolk sessions of forcing some other labourers from their work to procure a rise of wages, will be of opinion that the severity of the sentence exceeds the offence, and that a much less amount of punish ment than that inflicted by the Norfolk magis trates %aill be sufficient to vindicate the insulted authority of the law. Had the culprits, in the wantonness of over plenteous feeding and swilled debauch, sallied forth to intimidate the peaceable and to violate the law, the punishment allotted them would certainly not be too little for the crime, seeing that, although they used menaces to accomplish their object, no personal injury was inflicted. When, however, it is considered that the unfortunate offenders were in a state of the deepest distress—that their earnings, or the pittance received from the parish, could hardly keep them from starvation, and that the treat ment which they received when applying for work or for relief, was enough to raise the blood even of an Africa slave into some feeling of resentment, surely the Executive will think that to inflict upon three of them an in carceration for eighteen months, and on the remaining one for twelve months, is not to administer justice in mercy. Men who act as they have done, whatever the provocation, should be taught that they cannot do so with impunity; but, in our opinion, one-sixth of the punish ment would have been sufficient to vindicate the majesty of the law. The erroneous impression being removed, full weight ought to have been given to the extenuating circumstances. Justice is never so dignified as when dispassionate. Her sentences never command so much respect as when they avoid all suspicion of being vin dictive. Those who represent the season of England's distress as being past will find it dif ficult to reconcile the deplorable condition of the labourers of England with a state of general and solid natural prosperity. To avoid the charge of telling the public disagreeable truths we would not unite with the sycophants of power in performing the more pleasing but less honest work of flattering, the nation with false hopes, and contributing to the public delusion. Let those who fawn upon the smiles of power, or receive the wages of corruption, execute the servile task of paint ing the sepulchre and colouring in mockery of health the squalid form of misery and decay. We know that the possession of power has a wonderful influence in changing the vision of patriots, whose eloquence when out of place was never so powerful as in portraying the melan choly consequences of those errors of Govern ment of which the intoxicating draught of power induces them to become enamoured. When it was the interest of the present Ministers to re• present the country as distressed they did so ; and their slavish organ, the Edinburgh Review, was as anxious then to prove that England was on the verge of ruin, as it is 110 W to make the public believe that we have reached an era of no common prosperity. If we only substitute the word " Whigs" for the nation, the proposi tion is undoubtedly true. The Whigs have now all that prosperity which arises from holding the purse-strings of the nation. But the stren gt h and sinews of the country, its agricultural and shipping interests, are in a state of rapid decline, and its labouring population are worse off than the serfs and enslaved boors o f some o f the despotic countries of Europe. Where the foun dation of society is rotten the superstructure c anno t e a t, ( v h e a r r y i s s m e c o u v r e e r t c i o re n that offence, forms a mournf u l comment T counh y, ire p :, notwith standing the merciless appli cat i on o f t h e l aw to in creaset y 1 t h e fictions of increasing prosperity with which the public are amused. The Duke of Welling ton, lik o e f fireal the Whigs, " demonstrated" the pros perity hiigsnte'rests of England in his time. W e then stated that, so far from the country being prosperous, the state of agriculture, and the condition of th e peasantry d epen d ent u p on it,indicated something like the approach of a servile war. That servile war took ',place in the very winter following the session of Parliament in which the Duke of [Wellington had proved, as satisfactorily as the Whigs and the Edinburgh Review now do, that all the interests of the country were prospering ! While this blindness on the part of our rulers continues nothing will be done for the improvement of the condition of the labouring population. We would disabuse the Ministers of the impressions made by their cringing, fawning, and deceitful flatterers, that they may become wise before it is too late, and avert from the country the consequences of the misery and discontent of large masses of the people. The case at the Norfolk Sessions ex hibits a state of distress which, we are sorry to say, is too generally characteristic of the condition of the peasantry of England. It is a doctrine of some political economists that poor laws ought to he done away with, and the poor left to live or starve as they could. We believe that if the country were governed wisely the necessity for poor laws would he confined to the aged, blind, and sick, the healthy and able-bodied labourer would have sufficient employment to enable him to dispense with parochial relief—but it is too much to re quire that those who are deprived of the.means of earning their bread by a had system of go vernment shall be left to perish. Until Govern ment protects the interests of the many in pre ference to that of the few, we must choose be tween a system that gives adequate relief to the poor or one that drives them to desperation. Ireland is an example from which we learn how much more expensive and difficult it is to govern a pauper population without poor-laws than with them. If in this country the over- eers take lessons from the political economists of the school of MacCulloch and Miss Martineau—if they only contrive how they can screw down the poor to a starvation allowance while the circumstances of the country puts well-paid employment out of their reach, they may, even with the nominal relief of the poor laws, reduce this country to the wretched condition of Ireland, and revive the horrors of the days of Wat Tyler and Jack Cade.—Morning Herald. The public attention will naturally at the pre sent moment be directed to the official statement of the financial situation of Holland, which has been laid beiore the States-General by the Minister of the King of the Netherlands. This document, which will be found in another part of our paper, is chiefly interesting as it serves to show how foolish and unprincipled arc the at tempts which have of late been prosecuted with so much malignant industry by the organs of the British Ministry to represent the financial affairs of the Dutch Government as in a course of progressive dilapidation, in order, if possible, to impair the public credit of a State the prudence and integrity of which have always been pre eminent. This official statement establishes the important fact that the expenditure of the Government of the King of the Nether lands, notwithstanding the costly efforts it has been compelled to make in order to be constantly in readiness to assert and main tain its rights—notwithstanding the posture into which it has been forced of resistance to the unjust and unreasonable wishes of the most powerful Monarchies of Europe—is at this mo ment actually less than it was in the year 1815, when Holland was the cherished ally, the object of well-founded gratitude and esteem, to all the great European States, with the single exception of France. But this is not all. The present expenditure of Holland is shown to consist, to the extent of one fourth of its aggregate amount, of charges which will entirely cease whenever the renewal of her ordinary relations with the other European States shall be brought about. In the meanwhile, her resources, dependent on the habitual industry of her subjects, and fostered by a degree of domestic concord, in which she has no rival among the European nations, are wholly unimpaired, notwithstanding the severe calamities she has suffered, and the dangers to which she yet remains exposed.—Morning Post. _ - - MARKET INTELLIGENCE. LONDON MARKETS. (From the " London New Price Current" of yesterday.) SUGAR.—We mentioned on Friday last a general re duction of 6(1. to Is. per cwt. in Muscovades: the fall has since been fu ly confirmed, and during the present week the currency has been still declining ; the Market is very heavy ; the estimated sales for the whole week are only 2,000 blids. and trcs., at a further decline of 61 to Is. per cwt. The holders of Refined hive evinced more mness this week ; 325. is freely offered for double Refined Crashed, but the holders are wore firm at 335. ; a few large Lumps of the best manufacture have sold at 645. 641. This afternoon there is very little alteration in the prices of Refined, and the quantity of goods offering continues very small, particularly of the low descriptions ; for the fine ,orts for export (entitled to the bounty on double rfined) there has been more inquiry, and some sales were made at the quotations ; some of the Refiners are not quite so eager to effect sales. MAURITIUS Suiamt.—The two public sales of Mauii. tit's, 2,075 tags, sold considerably under the last sale, but fully as high as the Market prices by pi ivate contract, and rather higher than West India Sugars; very ord. brown sold 475. 6d. a 48s. 6d., good to fine strong hrog n 535. a 54, 6'. , low soft to mid, i,right grocery yellow 54.5. 6d. a 575. By aale this day :0.7 hags Mauritius, which were sold ar 48a. a 5-Ls., rather lower. EAST INDIA SUGAR.-The Est India sale on Wednes day, 7,134 bags Bengal, sold 4s. lower than the sale of 21st of August, but at Is. higher than the general valua tions or the prices by private contract; to good white 23a. 6 a 295. 6d. In other East Indi S.ugars no sa!e• are reported ; there is some inquiry for Siam and Manilla Sugars, fur a parcel of the ;atter pod colon:- 23e. b-en refos,d. FOKEIG N SC GA RS. —Foreio Sugars are this week ls.ed. a 2s. 1 making the reduction the same as West India Sugars, say about bs. below the late highest prices; the dAles are fair yillow Havannah 255. a 261. for 200 boxes; by public ask 460 mixes fair mid. strength, low yellow 235. 6d., mid. 21s. a 245. 6d., and good greyish yellow 255. ; 200 chests brown Bahia off the coast were 8010, deliver ible at Hamburg at 20s. 6,1. SPICKS.—At public sales 1,403 bags of Pepper were offered, of which only a part sold at previous prices, ord. half heavy 3id., good half heavy 4id., very heavy at sd. Plinento sold id. lower, old, at 44-d. a 41d., mid, to fine 41d. a 4iil. Extensive sales of Pepper, consisting of 5,200 bags mid. and good Milabar, and about 900 bags ord. and good Straits, have taken place this day, at a further decline of a id., making a decline of 30 per cent. from the late Alarket point ; for the former there was at unusual com petition at 3 1 :d. a 4d. per lb., at which the whole was sold, ord. stalky Straits 3al. a 34:1., and 3-id. good hall heavy.---3,021 bags Bengal and Malabar Ginger went off well at 345. a 335.-215 chests Cassia were offered, being chiefly ord., coarse, and foxy, part sold 775. a 795.; the remainder bought in at 858.-24 bales Cinnamon withdrawn. COCIIINEAL.—The demand continues very mad date; good silvers are now offering at 71. Stl. a Is. 6d. per lb., being about 2s. under the price a few weeks ago. LAC DYE.—At public sale yesterday 41 chests fair quality sold with some spirit at Is. 3d. a Is. 4d. per lb., being an advance of Id. to 2d., and altogether there was more disposition to buy. MC:E.—Rice is very heavy, 1,010 bags good white Bengal at public sale, all taken in at 14 . a 15s. This day by public sale 896 bags East Jollat Rice, bold good white Bengal sold 14s. a 14s. 6d., being 6d. a Is. lower, and good Patna kind 16s. 6d. a 179. COTTON.—The busitie‘s done in Cott in during the past month hat been extremely limited, and at irregular ai,d lower prices ; our present quotations are little tnure than nomin .1. By public sale this day 1,400 bales of Surat•, about 900 of which were sold, chiefly of good qualit; and at prices varying from id. to id. per lb. below th previous nominal currency, making the reduction kcal the late highest point 11d. to lid. per lb. WEST INDIA MOLASSES -West India Molasses CoP tinue to advance ; sales to a considerable extent are re: ported at 275., and yesterday 275. 6d. was paid for goo" Demerara. COFFEE.-There have been several parcels of C forced on the Market by private contract at lower price, on account of the heavy prompt ; good ord. Ceylon 5 9 el better quality 595. 6d. a 60s. The great proportion 0' the Coffee offered this week at public sale has been tak e° in, few or no buyers appearing. By public sale this dal 25 casks 200 brls. 110 bags mid. Demerara Coffee sold a! 89s. 61. a 91s. ; 44 bales 39 bags Mocha were offered, of which the greater part of good ord. brown and yell e°l were taken in at 755. a 775. ; a few bales of black trigs found buyers at 41s. a 41s. 6d. BUM, BRANDY, AND HOLLANDS.-The late purchag el of proof Leewarda are at 2s. ; fair quality Jamaica 32 oYef sold at 2s. 9d., which is again rather lower. Brandy 16 heavy on account of the expected arrivals. In Genov a there is no alteration. ctow.-The prices of Tallow fell early in the se, e . Is. ; parcels on the spot 445. 3d. ; and for forward d e 'r. very 44.5. ; the Market since has been rather firm by P ri. vate contract. 1832. 1 0 , 4 Stock of Tallow on Monday 17.765 33, 56 0 Delivery last week This tifternoon, by public sale, 545 casks first Ott Petersburgh Y. C. Tdllow 445. 3d. a 44,. 941., bone in; 152 casks White Candle Tallow 445. 6,1., b ou ght O s W00t..-The first of the public sales already announ c took place on Wednesday last in the presence of an tle u 'i sually full attendance of the trade, and was all disposed ° briskly at an advance of 3d. per lb. on last sale; the tl lities offered were of but a secondary description in en ii re r d prison with previous sales. English :Wool is inqui., after at still advancing prices, but the Market rell ol3 without adequate supplies. tl O Isrnacao.-The Market remains extremely dull ; elipitients for St Petersburgh being now over the deliver'' for the next few months m be expected to fall off. TEA.--Bolleal in large chests have decli,sd toSs• I° " . ' duty paid. There is no other alteration in the M a rket', SALTPETRE.-Saltpetre is dull, and the prices t ad', lower. At public sde 1,607 bags, about a half 0 " 1 ": Calcutta Si to 5/ refraction sold 355. a 355. 611. day by public sale 896 bags 15 tons Rough and 48 1 : 10%el East India Refined Saltpetre were offered, the goal part Madras, 45/ a 494 per cent. refraction, of wh ic t about 200 bags were sold at 30s. a 30s. 6d. ; the Os' St a 4/ refraction, were bought in at 365. 6d. PRICE OP' SUGAR. ute4 The Average Price of Brown or Muscovado Sugar, cuteP - , of from the Returns made in the week ending the '29th citiot Oct., 1833, is 325. ld. per Hundred Weight, exclusive 0 00 liuties of Customs paid or payable thereon on the ImporO thereof into Great Britain. FRICES OP HOPS.—Nov. I. New Kent I'ockets (per cwt.) —5l ss. 61. 12s. to 71. n i t Choice Bl. N. 01. Nto 91. )„,- East 71. Os. 0/. Os. tr. Si. Choice tr. Oe• 9/. Os. 01. O. to 101. 6 „, New S , ssex Pockets 5l. os. 01. Os. to 61. Superfine Ditto Farnham 11s. 01. Os to 121. 1 Ditto (seconds) 111 Os. 0/ Os to ill. The Hop Duty is estimated at 155,000/. PRICE OF OIL. 0 Rape Oil, brown Refined 11 Linseed Oil Linseed Oil Cake at the Mill, per th0u5and............ ]0 10 Rape Cake, per t0n.,....,. PRICE OF POTATOKS.—Nov. I. .31. ss. to 31. 15s. per ton• .0/. Os. to 2/. ss. ditto. .41. Os. to 41. 10s. ditto. .3/. 10s. to 41. Os. ditto. Os. to 2/, Os. ditto' Middling - Marsh Champions Scotch Iteds--- Chats V.Pw..0....w..W•Yd. WHITECHAI'EL HAY MARKET—Oct, 31. oil. Hay —......... 753. 0(1. to 98.. Od. I Clover 820. Od. to GO' 313. Od. to 33i. Od. PRICES OF Per lb. Butts, English. Ditto, Foreign Dressing Hidea Ditto Ditto, light Ciop Hides, light 12 14 Ditt0.....--‘lO to 501 b. 13 18 Ditto l4 20 d. to d. 15 25 14 21 12 15 14 17 LEATHER. Per lb. to ji English Horse Hides... 14 0 Spanish Ditto Id Per dozen. Calf Skins... SO to Ob. j 3 g 6 Ditto 40 to 601 b. 1 8 /l Ditto 70 to 901 b. 19 Small Seals. Greenland is 16 Large 0' SHEEP Polled Lambs 3s. Od. to 4s. 6d. Down Lambs 2 6 4 0 Hal SKINS. Polled Skins 55. Od. to 70; Downs 3 0 4 4s. NI. to ss. ---------- ----- - - RICE OF RAW FAT, per s tone ot 81 b. 'rice of Tallow (as stated by the Tallove PRICE OF TALLOW, SOAP, &c. per 1121 b. 0 1, Town Tallow , „ 483. Od. Yellow 50ap...................... ess. O. Yellow Russia 48s. Od. Mottled ............................... 1a• O. White —s. Od. White 7- 4 . Soap Ditto —s. Od. Graves ---..---........ Melted Stuff 375. Od. Good Dregs...- Ditto Rough , 2ls. Od. PRICE OF CANDLES. The price of Store Candles, in the retail shops, is as follows • 6 1 Candles, per doz. 7s. Pd. to Bs. Od. j Moulds, per COAL MARKET.—Now. 2. d , 1, i) Per Ton. s. d. Per Ton. 6 4 dales ..—................,......... 16 3 Walls End Brown's...•'• Il 6 , Beaumont —v.-- .16 0 W.-ills End Carr and Co. lg 6 Chester Main-- 15 3 Walls End Heat0n.......* , i g , Hebhurn Main .....---. 18 3 Walls End Killingworth is Holywell Kenton West ..........—........ 17 9 ditto NorthumberlAnd., i 9 w o Ord's 11cdhugh —............... 16 0 -si i - \Valls End Perkins & C o ' 0 I. atitield....... ,. 17 9 vdalls End Riddell's ....... ,21 0 West Hartley l7 6 Walls End Hetton ....,,,, 0 , Wylam . - --,.--.. 17 0 Walls End G0rd0n....,....... ;0' Walls End Bewicke& Co. 19 6 Walls End Tees .......... 0 ' Ships arrived since last market-day, 3. ~,/ Si, NG THE - COUNTRY CORN MARKETS DURING THE Wheat. Barley. I Oats. ^ I 13 '_7 Per Quarter. Ashburn i 52 58 34 38 20 25 42 #, Basingstoke --... 48 60 25 29 18 22 "„ Bath 46 58 26 34 21 26 4 " Bridgewater 53 60 26 28 Yi Bristol 4B 56 28 32 16 20 ;I: 4 „4 . Chesterfield 46 56 30 38 20 25 l„, Derby 48 58 26 36 20 25 l" "1„ Doncaster 48 60 30 38 16 25 Dorchester 55 29 23 „ 4 Exeter .. 48 56 26 28 17 20 04 • ) " G10uce5ter—........... 46 54 28 34 16 24 ' 1-lungerford ......... 46 58 22 29 16 22 37 j o 53 33 22 7,::; Newbury 42 58 25 31 17 30 ' O 5 41 Rornsey 56 62 26 30 17 23 Shaftesbury .., 54 25 17 4 5 Shepton Mallet M 50 56 26 30 18 24 0 , 4 1 Sherborile......—... 50 5 6 26 30 20 26 "" Taunton 48 50 24 28 21 23 15 iv Yarmouth 48 54 27 33 22 25 ' o ', ‘l , Veovil 50 54 26 30 18 24 "",3, Per Bushel. s. d. s.d. s. d. s.d. s. d. Shrewsbury 7 0 8 4 4 0 5 0 4 0 54 ,0 MEETINGS OF CREDITORS AT THE COURT, BASINGHALL-STREw (From the London Gazette.) 0 , t r i l ON MONDAY, Nov. 4. l° 11; T. Peppin, wine -merchant, Fenchurch-buildings ............ ,I , DIVIDENDS. „I II J. Richardson, currier, Regency-place, Great Surrty-str ee "; , 1 1 . J. Duke, warehouseman, Basinghall.street .................... '.„ 1; C. Thompson, jun., wine -merchant, Bu eamon t- s t i e et.) 7 ,l J. Reynolds, wine -merchant, Idol-Line, Tower-street ..... ' ---.—.--. --.., CO J. W. LyOP BIRTHS. On the Ist inst., in Belgrave-squa , ~road'„` On the 20th ult., at his house in the Wandsworth-- of wifc of J. J. Harcourt, Esq., of a son. On the 15th ult., the lady of J. P. A. Lloyd Phillips, o • Dale Castle, of a son. tBi s On the 30th ult., at Underhill-house, Barnet, Page, of a daughter. O f' RRIED. S egi nif Y On the 31st ult., at Chevening, in Kent, William C• Esq ,to Emily, eldest daughter of Frederick Peal ° 10 stecl, in the county of Kent, Esq. ot tPt On the 29th ult., at Wath, Lieut.-Colonel As.— t. llarriet, only daughter of Sir Bellingham Graham, I ; 3 ' . 01 On the 31st ult., at Ripon, the Rev. H. P. t i te r Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, to Ellen, (131i ' of Thomas Mason, Esq., of Copt Hewich. Di'fll44 . • . - On the Ist inst., at Camberwell, John Moore, Esq. , 1 , Cardiff, to Charlotte, daughter of the late Robert ri ci ' of the former place. f 11°' ; On the 29th ult., at Yetminster, Mr. John Sams , ° dig' ton and Piccadilly, to Sarah Jenkins, youngest 'la the late John Hoffe, Esq., of Iwerne Minster, Dorse. - rc ro l to On the 28th ult., at Edinburgh, the Itev. Lockhart Gordon, minister of Grayfriars parish, A be- IP' Belinda Jane, daughter of the late Major Alexan der Scots Fusileers. Col lc DIED. On the 31st ult., in his 79th year, Ebenezer Joh n o tf i Esq., of Lockers house, Hemel Hampstead. , On the 14th ult., at Whigsborough, in the 1 ,3- y• the Rev. Joseph Barnes, aged 70 years. On the 19th ult., Mary, only daughter of WM. l" ' of Wolverhampton, our rye On the 2.2 d ult., the Rev. Spencer Arden, 8.A. , ',Tor 10 he the late Rev. W. Arden, rector of Brampton , ` shire, and prebendary of Worcester. jf, On the 29d inst., at his residence in Stephen's-gr Mitchell Creighton, Esq., aged 29 years. On the 3d ult., at Ystradvelite, Mrs. Gwen p eee o r ,' aged On n tlit a pti the 14th ult., at his resi hence, near Teign iii ii - co s hire, George Boscawen, of Trevallyn Hall, in t-e u 00th alt., at On the 2:3c1 ult., at Birmingham, De o nb n ig th h e , B p 9 a t t h sh yr n r , of Sir George l'igot, Bart. tharine Jones. h a o s m f t r i n r a a g s e h l; e i r r e s , :_ogy:srl es „ C, PRINTED AND PUBLlsium DY MU 111)0 YO' OFFICE, 112, STRANI)• --- 1 41, 104, 55. -- L‘) , fk o. t :PI " it Y of li a , flf6e,B Th ei t too _ \.,n... B I ~9~a~ i qkt b„ fi„ E tt 11 4 , v 4,1 114, th, 1 b t th 4 ip7 IN