The Sun. — London, England, 1832-03-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT Of THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. The subject of tithes in Ireland was introduced last night in the House of Commons, by Sir Richard Musgrave, who presented petitions for the abolition of them, from parishes in the coml. ties of Waterford and Kilkenny. After describ ing the misery produced by tithes, and their in jurious effects on religion, Sir Richard read a letter from a beneficed clergyman of Ireland, re commending (strange to say) the advancement of the best interests of the Church, by reducing, the incomes of the clergy to moderate dimen sions. " Let the Committee (said this clergy man) recommend that tithe property be divided into three equal parts—one for the benefit of the poor, one for the building and repairs of churches, paying officers' salaries, &c., and one for the respectable remuneration of the esta blished clergy." " I think, in the present state of public opinion (including that advice to the Established Church, and that regarding its wel fare), that it would be idle to attempt to legislate with satisfaction or success upon the method of pa)ing the clergy, without including a wholesome reduction of the Church's temporalities. It is evident that a legal provision must (and that at no distant day) be made for that ever-multiply ing body, the Irish poor ; and I feel that that object can, with justice to the best interests of the country, be best effected, by appropriating to it a portion of the superabundant wealth of the Church." These sentiments are highly honour able to the clergyman who uttered them. One subject dwelt on by Sir Richard is of immense consequence in augmenting the discontent in Ire land— Church rates. "In the parish of Lis more (he said), where I reside, tithes to the amount of eight hundred pounds a year are levied, underthe denomination of economy tithes, for the repair and building of churches; and yet Church rates are also annually exacted to the amount of eighty or ninety pounds. These rates are laid on two thousand rate payers, almost all of whom are Catholics, and many of whom are, from . _ _ their poverty, summoned before the Magistrates, who have then a most distressing duty to perform." We may here observe that the Church rate is becoming every year more and more oppressive in England. The Church rate of England alone, in the year ending 25th March, 1827, amounted to 540,9711., somewhat more than twice the amount of the income of the Church of Scotland, including the annual Parliamentary grant in aid of the small livings. Of course the evil is more felt in Ireland, because, the population being Catholic, the rates have been viewed by one or two Protestant tradesmen, as a convenient machinery for robbing their neigh bours. In England, however, the jobbing with the proceeds of the rates is very great, and the cause of much bitterness and animosity in parishes. Sir Richard concluded with observing,_ that " the report and evidence of the Tithe Committee will soon be brought before this House, and I shall take that opportunity of restating here the same objections which I urged against that report as a Member of the Committee. The report appears to me not to be borne out by the evidence, and the measure therein recommended of following the precedent of 1799, and of giving the Lord Lieutenant power to imprison those who refuse to pay tithes, must lead to the most calamitous conse quences." So then it is intended to seize the bell wethers for the tithes. We doubt the practica bility of this. No doubt this is not an age in which men compete for the honours of martyrdom. A gentleman would prefer the society of his wife and children by the parlour fire, to the society and accommodation of a gaol. But still, after all, we have that opinion of the Irish, from the strength of their sympathies as well as antipa thies, that there are few men who would not, under the exhilirating excitement produced by the warm sympathy of a warm-hearted motive, willingly expose themselves to a gaol, rather than display the white feather. The law will be . a dead letter. In the case of the poor, imprisonment is out of the question.— There would be competitors among them for the distinction of imprisonment. The better sort will be sustained by honour, and the cheering effects of public sympathy. There are in every place men of timid characters, and we can conceive that in ordinary times, by a judicious selection of persons of such character, a combination might be broken. But then, in a case of a combination of this kind, what a timid tnan would fear most would be the consequences of the universal odium. An Italian was asked how he, who was a coward, came to fight so bravely " Because," he answered, " I was more afraid of those behind than those before me." Mr. Stanley seems to have been a little annoyed by the partial publi cation of Dr. Doyle's evidence in the Dublin Mornino- b Register. It strikes us that, without swearing the Members of the Committee to secrecy, and vigorously excluding strangers, pub lication cannot be prevented. A witness can always tell what evidence he gave ; and means could be found of communicating that evidence in such a way as to evade the order of the House of Commons.—Morning Chronicle. We have great pleasure in calling the atten tion of our readers to the kind and benevolent tone of the short spee i ch of the Archbishop of Canterbury, delivered by him last night in the House of Lords, on presenting a petition from Rochester aiid its vicinity, praying their Lordships to support the measure for the proper regulation and limitation of the hours of labour for children in the woollen, cotton, silk, and other manufactories " He could not," he said, " take upon himself to an swer for the fact. stated in the petition, but he had every reason to suppose that they were correctly set forth, and on that supposition lie had no hesitation in saying that this was 3 system of cruelty or oppression which ought to he put an eni to. It ought to be recollected, that with children up to the age of about 14 or 15 the time was that of innocent pleasure or enjoyment, whereas, under this system they were confined for a most unreasonable number of hours each day at their labours, without time for relaxation or even for proper refreshment—and that, too, with very few holidays in the year. The effect of this was pernicious to their health, and it ought also to be ',collected, that it was attended with most serious injury to their morals. It was a disgrace to a Christian and civilized community to allow such a system to continue, merely for the sake of putting money in the pockets of the master manufacturers." We have no hesitatio n in saying, that neither mall, woman, nor child, ought to be allowed to work more than ten hours a day in any factory, and that all the arguments used by the master manufacturers on the subject will not bear ex amination. In the case of children no doubt more evil is caused by over-working than in the case of grown people ; but the evil in the latter case is not trilling. The country has a deep in terest in preventing the continuation of any sys tem of labour which tends to produce a race of ricketty and degenerated beings, feeble in body and mind, who, from physical exhaustion, are i nevitably led into indulgence in gross sensu ality,—persons who, in the expressive language of a master manufacturer of Manchester, have Ho leisure to be wise, and who have only the form of their species. A great mistake is committed by those who suppose that grown persons are at liberty to choose or to reject employment.— In a new and thinly-inhabited country, the labourers are free to choose ; but in an old and densely-peopled country like this, a poor man has no choice between starvation and such em ployment as is offered to him. In the country, the periods of labour are fixed by nature, and in all times the rustic, in summer and winter, spring and harvest, has worked the same number of hours. But in towns the labour is performed by artificial light, and the number of hours may be extended beyond the power of human en durance. Besides, it is the tendency of manu facturers to produce a puny and feeble race of beings, who, from want of physical power, are doomed to continue in the same employment, and are, in fact, as much a caste as if they were Indian Pariahs. It is a delusion to suppose that there is any free agency in the case. In an artificial, complicated system, like ours, the Le gislature is bound to step in between the em ployer and the employed, when suffering hu manity appeals to it. When all masters are tied down to ten hours, they are all on an equal footing ; and, as no man will produce without a remunerating price, it must be the same thing to the employer whether he produces twelve pieces of cotton for a shilling, or ten. A great deal of the benefit obtained by cheapness of manufactures, is more imaginary than real. We are loaded with ten trinkets instead of eight. We have knockers on our doors with four brass knobs instead of three. A Lord has two chests filled with cotton rags instead of one. All these things are measured by the food in the country ; and additional human beings add moie and more to the quantity of our manufactures without ob taining a proportional addition to the food in exchange for them. The only effect of limiting the hours to ten will be, that the manufacturers will have the same food for less labour—that is, the agriculturist will obtain less of that labour for his food. II the labourer were to work on Sunday as well as the other six days, he would not obtain one penny more wages. Were it not for religion we have no doubt that the steam-engine would go the week round without intermission, and man would be considered merely as an adjunct to the machinery. We have always admired the good sense of the Ca tholics, in opposition to the Protestants, on the subject of holidays. Nature, says the Catholics, does not require ao much labour to enrich you with her productions ; and why then should you make this earth a valley of toil and tears? By adding to the toil of the poor man you add to his misery, and merely enable a greater number of idlers to be fed at his expence. But it is said our manufacturers will not be able to compete with foreigners in the markets abroad. We do not believe this. We believe the price is everywhere determined by the English produce. The truth is, it is the difficulty of obtaining return cargoes--that is the great evil. We could soon de luge India, China, and the mountains of Asia with twist, but we cannot obtain equivalents. Were we to export twice the quantity of manufactured produce we now export, the returns would not correspond to them from the inability of foreigners to give you produce in exchange which can be imported into this country. The competition, therefore, is with ourselves. Each manufacturer is trying to undersell his neigh bour in the foreign market, and the effect of competition is to give more and more of the labour of Englishmen for the same returns.— The Legislature should utterly disregard the master manufacturers in such cases.—Morning Chronicle. We have hinted our opinion that the manner in which the Duke of Wellington's unexpected viva voce address to the King has been " fol lowed up" is likely to prove fatal to the conti nuance of the practice. However, we have been induced by some letters which we have received, to cast our eye back on the address itself ; and a singular one it is. First of all, it appeared in our Journal of last Saturday, with a set of signa tures of men possessing wealth and station cer tainly ; but who gave them their wealth and station ? The people of England, against whose rights they sign their names ; for they are chiefly boroughinongers and pensioners, whose subscriptions stand fixed to the address—Buck ingham, Chandos, Stuart de Rothsay, George Isaac Hereford, Sturges Bourne, Fitzwilliam Barrington, G. H. Jolliffe, Bart., Neale, Bart., Burrard, &c. Now is it to be borne with patience that such men should have the audacity to earwig the King, through their illustrious leader, the Duke of Wellington, as persons capable of giving iml. artial advice to his Majesty between themselves and their coun trymen ? They, whose pertinacious reten tion of the people's rights is the very sub ject of complaint and dissatisfaction. They, whose usurpations it is the object of the Bill to recover for the people. Can they, we ask, have dared to endeavour to embark the King in their cause against the whole body of his subjects ? But further : we look at the petition, and against what do we find its prayer chiefly directed? Not against Parliamentary Reform, nor even against the Bill now in progress for that purpose, but against Political Unions ! We have heard that there was trickery in this, and our examination confirms the charge. It was carefully concealed in Hampshire that the petition was meant to be converted into an instrument against Reform.— The announcement by placard was (and we dare the enemies of Reform to contradict our statement), " The address to his Majesty against Political Unions lies here for signature." It was asserted that there was nothing in the petition hostile to Reform ; and under that conviction and belief, signatures were importunately demanded, and hastily appended to the petition. Lord Ash town, we believe, has published a letter in the Southampton Paper, protesting against his sig nature being considered as classing him with the Anti-Reformers. Yet who does not now know that the King, in the bustle of the Levee and the novelty of the scene, was led to believe that the petition was directed against Reform ? It would not, indeed, now answer the purpose of the Anti-Reformers to have it considered in any other light : so that both the King and the people have been deceived. If we are asked whether the petition contains nothing against Reform, we answer, perhaps it is meant to do so, by implication ; for it says, " If any Bill be pa:sed (any Bill whic e.'er) through tl e demands of political associations, the authority of Parlia ment will be at an end." We say the same ; but in spite of the terror of the associations, one Bill has been rejected ; the fear of such associations is, therefore, at an end ; the spell ' has been broken : but if the manly, direct, and open advocacy of Reform be a crime, what is the surreptitious, evasive, underhand opposition to it ? We hear that a correspondenc e has followed the scene which we described as having taken place at the Levee on Wednesday, and in which a noble Marquis took a conspicuous part. His Lordship, it is said, (although we can scarcely credit such an act of indiscretion even in Lord Londonderry), wrote to the King to inquire whether the gracious observations which his Majesty addressed to him, on the presentation of the petition from the " 'Prentice Boys of Derry," was to be transmitted to them as his Majesty's answer to the address ? The proper officer was directed to refer the Noble Lord to the Secretary of State for the Home Depart ment, who lost no time in replying to his Lord ship's inquiry, that no instance was on record of the " 'Prentice Boys" having claimed or exer cised a privilege, similar to that enjoyed by the Corporations of London or Dublin, of present ing their addresses to, and receiving an answer from, his Majesty on the Throne. We hear that, beyond the speech inflicted on his Majesty on Wednesday by the Noble Marquis, his Ma jesty had to endure a religious dissertation from a Noble Apostle of the " new Irish Reforma tion,"-* and a twaddling and mumbling discourse from a certain learned and venerable lawyerd the only words of which, intelligible to the by standers, were---" Poor old man," " this side the grave," and, "so help me God !" Is it not desirable that an end should be put to these fooleries, which certainly tend to abate the re spect due to the Crown ?—Times. A very curious and interesting correspon dence, as connected with a great public establish ment, has been printed by order of the House of Commons, respecting the privileges of certain officers of the Irish Post-office, called " Clerks of the Roads," in the transmission of newspa pers, over private individuals. This correspon dence took place last autumn, or in the begin ning of winter, between Messrs. Johnston, newsvenders in Dublin, and the Postmaster- General, or his subordinate agents in this country and in Ireland. The grievance of which Messrs. Johnston complained not having been redressed, has become the subject of a petition to the House of Commons, which is appended to the document above-mentioned. It would appear from the letters of Mr. Johnston and the advertisements of the " Clerks of the Roads" themselves, that the latter boast of the facilities which their official situation gives them over the private trader in the transmission of newspapers and journals,--that they promise a priority in delivering parcels, and a security in the de posit of funds for executing orders, which place them above other newsvenders; and that they thus aim at a monopoly to which, strange to say, they think themselves entitled for the very reason which should preclude them from the private trade,—namely, their capacity as servants of the public. Mr. Johnston felt himself prac tically aggrieved by a competition with power : he found that his customers were not served so early as the customers of the Post-office clerks, — that the latter had a bag of their own which was delivered, when the general bag which con tained his papers was not opened,—that on some occasions he was distanced by several hours, — and that at one time his papers were not even delivered on the same day with the privileged parcels of the " Clerks of the Roads.' He of course complained, and carried hi s comp l a i n t s to the highest quarter, the Postmaster-General and the British Parliament. We have no doubt that this monstrous abuse will be corrected as soon as it is known and explained to the present noble head of the office. All the privileges enjoyed by the Post-office clerks in the original price, secure transmission, or early delivery, of news papers, should be instantly abolished. They cannot be supposed to enter into competition with the private dealer without using their of ficial influence to promote their private interests at his expense. They must, from the general bias of human nature, be less active in exe cuting the orders of others than in promoting the extension of their business. They thus ob tain a premium for neglecting the public and for serving themselves. If their salaries are inade quate to their services, let them be raised at the national expense, and not increased by rewards for transgressing their duties. As the Postmaster ship for Ireland is abolished, we hope that Irish jobbing is abolished along with it, and that under a vigorous general Administration for the empire, placed in competent and responsible hands, such abuses as we have stated will no longer disgrace a service otherwise productive of great public utility.— Times. The plan of operations by which the Opp o _ sition in the House of Lords are likely to at tempt the ruin or the mutilation of the Reform Bill, in its progress through that branch of the Legislature, is naturally a subject of very gene ral speculation at the present moment. This speculation acquires not only a strong impulse, but a certain degree of light and assistance, from the result of the recent struggle which took place in the House of Commons on the motion of the Marquis of Chandos. We do not participate in the opinion avowed by some of our contem- j poraries, that the issue of that struggle is calcu lated to discourage the Lords from making a similar attempt in their own Committee, if, as rumour informs us, their war against the mea sure is to be a war of detail. On the contrary, we consider a majority of eighty, upon such a question as the giving of new Members to the metropolitan districts, a direct encouragement t o the Anti-Reform Peers to try their strength on the same clause. We state this broadly, and without hesitation, because we deem it of importance that neither the Ministers nor the public should deceive themselves on the subject, and because we are convinced that the beat way of resisting danger is not to underrate, but, as nearly as pos sible to compute and ascertain it, that we may apportion our efforts to its extent. In this view, and bearing in mind what we do not hesitate to call the smallness of the majority—for there is no use in mincing matters at such a time--we strongly incline to believe that the great effort of the Anti-Reformers in the Upper House will be directed against the very provision upon which Lord Chandos has already made an im pression favourable to their undertakino, Whe ther the Duke of Wellington have or have not a plan of Reform in his pocket—we know he had none in his head when the pres is e lie n se t rn M s i t n o is h t a e v r e s Grace be c n a o m w e a i n n t e o fo r o m ffi e c r e — 0 r b n u o t t , , aw reaction taken place in quarters where it was least ex pected, and the Bill is more in dange r now from Reformers of a certain caste than from those who take their ground boldly on the assertion that no Reform is necessary. As there are many a u of is i experienced tacticians amongst th e i r L ordsh i ps, the falling off of numbers in the last di v i s i on can scarcely fail to be taken advantage of. It i s some thing to know the we ak point of a c e something to have ascertained where defection has begun, if suchrt were defection o triumphantnly• for fothre allusio n advantage t o s countenance. t f h l e oo i W k o i shall hear many' a dependent Members who deserted the colours of Reform upon this occasion, and who were so justly jealous of the privileges of Parliament as Lord Baden, f Lord Eldon. to refuse to make pledges to their constituents, or to keep them when they were made. We have often stated before that if some compro mise could be adopted, which, securing upon one hand the principle of the Bill, and concili ating, upon the other, the support of those who are conscientiously adverse to some of its details, would ensure the success of the measure without recourse to any strong exercise of the prerogative, the country would be satisfied with such an ar rangement. But the point to which we have been alluding is not one of those which the public would be willing to surrender. If we were radical reformers it would be our wish that such an attempt should succeed, for that would be the way to keep the question open for a new Parliament ; but, as we wish to see an end of the deliberations and contentions which threaten the peace of the empire, our anxious desire is that no such pretext may be afforded to men of violent politics for carrying on their struggles with increased energy in another state of things. —Morning Herald. The effects of the habit of drinking ardent spirits are seen in every country in which that pernicious habit prevails, in the lamentable pro duction of crime, destitution, and pestilence. A great proportion of the time of Courts of criminal jurisdiction is occupied in the investigation of casea of homicide, and other outrages, which are traceable to the temporary frenzy of intoxication. The outrages which were committed during the riots of London, in 1780—the burnings and devastation of property in Bristol and Notting ham at the close of the past year, and which are now the subject of the dreadful solemnities of Special Commissions—were the work of men whose reason and moral feeling had been first surrendered to the fatal influence of strong drink. Neither in London nor Bristol were wilful burnings thought of until that " liquid fire" had been swallowed which inflames the passions into a state of fury which reason has no power to resist. Then political excitement became a blind and raging madness, and a riot kindled into a conflagration. Well did our great dramatic poet put it in the mouth of a repentant drunkard, in the self-accusing moment of returning sobriety, to say, " Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil." A great deal has been said and written touching the advantages of the " diffusion of useful knowledge"among the labouring classes of society. Pressed down and impoverished as they are by a system which enriches a few to the destitution of the many, they have little time to attend to any knowledge but what concerns their immediate wants, and the means of providing for them. If any knowledge capable of improving their condition can find its way among them, what can be more useful than that which teaches them the destructive consequences of the passion for ardent liquors, which exposes them to the worst evils that can afflict human nature ? It has been held by some sound writers on criminal jurisprudence that a Government which does not instruct the people has no right to punish : whatever may be thought of that doctrine, surely it will be allowed by all reasonable men that a Government which, for the sake of revenue, or any other cause, assists in demoralizing the people by the encouragement of drunkenness, is deeply responsible for the guilt of such vio lations of the law as drunkenness occasions— and no less responsible for the invitation given to contagious distempers by breaking down that sobriety which is the best quarantine to arrest their progress. There is no part of the world, perhaps, where the vice of drunkenness pre vailed more extensively among the lower orders, and even among superior classes of society, than in the United States of America. There the spirit-stores counteracted all the ef forts of moralists, of jurists, and divines ; they were the schools ofintemperance—the overflowing fountains of evil that diffused the pestilent streams of moral poison throughout the land. But this great mischief has led to a re-action. In America the first Temperance Society arose only five years ago. We have seen the fourth report of that Society, presented at the meeting in Boston, in the year 1831, from which it ap pears that there were at that period formed in the United States, on the plan of abstinence from ardent spirits, more than 3,000 Socie ties, containing upwards of 300,000 members ! In an able statement made by the Hon. Wm. Crane!), Chief Judge of the district of Co lombia, he says, after alluding to the number of licenses—namely, 224—granted for selling spi rits in the city of Washington—" I cannot for bear to notice the bad policy of making the sale of spirits the source of revenue. The amount raised annually by the sale of licenses in that city is about 6,000 dollars ; the expense of supporting the poor is about 3,500 dollars, three-fourths of which are admitted by the overseers of the poor to have been caused by the use of ardent spirits, and to be a charge upon the amount raised by the sale of those spirits — leaving the net revenue from that source 3,375 dollars. The quantity of spirits consumed to raise this small revenue is 122,528 gallons, which cost the consumers not less than 60,000 dollars, which are worse than lost to the city, and this is the amount paid by the city to its tax-ga therers, the retailers of spirits, for collecting the paltry revenue of 3,375 dollars. This amount of loss would probably be doubled if we were to add the loss of labour and lives, and the expenses of gation, caused by the use of the ardent spirits sold under the authority of those licenses." To this should be added the cost to the public of the prosecution of crimes ;—it being computed that in America considerably more than one-half of the crimes prosecuted were the result of in temperance. It will be recollected that the frightful mortality caused by the first breaking out of the cholera rnorbus at Gateshead, in this country, was attributed to the effects of the Christmas libations of ardent spirits in which the poorer classes of the inhabitants had been in dulging when the distemper came among them. But this sort of intemperance may not only invite contagious diseases and increase their ma lignancy, but create them. In the Baltimore Gazette of July 27, 1830, was published an extract of a letter, in which the writer says—" I regret to add that death in its most appalling form has made its appearance in this town and vicinity. It seems to be confined to the labour ing classes in general; but more especially to the emigrants working upon the canal. Its ap lpirroi:tcnhi, swele, ich h to old b s e ti l l yec ti e l d e ed ho( b ly y asintvki sinks frdoem exhaustion , and after a few hours' continuance in this condition the spirit departs from its mortal tenement. Shortly after death the corpse takes a darker hue, and becomes nearly black." One would almost think the cholera morbus was here described ; and this was not an imported, but self-generated disease, at George. town, in America, in the year 1827. May not the disease at Sunderland, Gateshead, &c., which so nearly resembles it, be also of home-growth, and produced from the same causes —poverty, filth, and internperaneo? Aa America. valor, in reference to the distemper at George-town, says--." At the time of the alarm I caused an inquiry to be made of the Coroner, the under taker, and the town physician, and was satis fied that in every case of sudden death the de ceased had been in the habitual use of ardent spirits." Judge Hale declared, after twenty years of observation and experience, that " If all the murders, manslaughters, burglaries, robbe ries, riots, tumults, and other great enormities, which had been committed in that time, were divided into five parts,.four of them would be found to have been the result of intemperance." Thus we see that moral and physical pestilence commit their chief havoc in countries where in temperance prepares the harvest for the sithe of those destroying powers. Is not the knowledge useful, then, which rescues the people from an influence so powerful to enslave and slay Morning Herald. The distress in the silk and glove trades was the question before the House of Commons last night, and we deem it to be an act of justice to those important manufactures to follow up the observations we have already made upon their depression, by stating one or two leading facts in the present instance. It is a favourite doctrine with the free-trade advocates to assert, which, by the way, they do, with abstract truth on their side, that the same quantity of raw ma• terial is consumed at Coventry now as previ ously to the operation of the new system. But how does this happen ? Because the ribbon weavers are now driven out of the market for light and profitable goods by French competi tion, and the depreciation in the price of labour at Coventry (for we have that branch of the silk manufacture at this moment more particularly under our notice) is in consequence from 25 to 65 per cent. In the manufacture of light goods consists the profit to the master manufacturer and the labourer. From that branch, owing to foreign competition, Englishmen are completely excluded and in the goods they can at present find a de mand for, the master employs his capital at profits that do not remunerate him, and the operative spends his time in a manufacture that produces him a rate of wages from 25 to 65 per cent. under that which he has been accustomed pre viously to earn. The number of workmen, also, engaged in this coarse work is materially dimi nished, as compared to the number employed in the lighter fabric ; so that the present course of manufacture cuts against the labourers, both in point of wages and the number of hands em ployed, and yet the quantity of silk now con sumed is the favourite doctrine of those who support the Anti-English system. As a natural consequence with the decrease of wages and em ployed operatives, poor-rates have increased. The poor rates in Coventry in the year ending 12th of February, 1826 (before the importation of silk goods), amounted to £11,32. 14 44 In the year ending April 19, 1831, to '20,314 5 6X, The casual poor, in 18'26, cost 1831 The same, or even a more considerable, in crease manifests itself in the adjoining villages occupied in the ribbon manufactures. In the parish of Foleshill, for instance, he general poor rates to the 25th of March, 18.26, were £1,819 8 0 To the 25th of March, 1831 The casual poor, '2sth of March, 1826 25th of March, 1831 Since which time distress has made even a more fearful progress. The silk manufacture is entirely governed by fashion, which is under the influence of French taste, and that is varying so constantly, and the inundation of French goods is so great, that a silk manufacturer cannot keep a stock of goods on hand lest the fashion should change before it is sold, and thus produce a severe loss to him. Formerly French goods were used only as pat terns for the manufacturers by retail houses. Now these houses buy French goods almost ex clusively for their consumption. We have in the present instance merely glanced at one branch of the silk question, and the sub ject of the glove trade is so intitnately connected with that which we have been noticing that we shall only now refer to one peculiar hardship affecting the glove manufacturer. He has but one market to go to for his raw material, and that belongs to his French competitor ; so he has not that choice of markets which, with all the oppression he is suffering, the silk manu facturer still enjoys. In 1825, the duty received on skins imported, and the excise on tanned leather, amounted to 63,139/. In 1827, the amount of duty on gloves, and the reduced duty on skins imported, were only 20,787/. 11s. ld. leaving a deficit in the revenue in the latter year of 42,2511. The balance of trade in favour of France, within the last seven years, during the working of the new system, has been, in round numbers, 8,500,0001. This is theory put in competition with practice ! The debate of last night, which was extremely interesting, was opened by Lord Grosvenor with an able and lucid speech. His Lordship expressed himself a convert f rom t h e f ree t ra de theory, and moved for a C omm i ttee o f I nqu i r y into the present (113- tress. The Committee, we are happy to say, was grant e d, an d h opes ma y, therefore, be enter tamed th a t j ust i ce w ill at length be done to our industriou s native artisans and our enterprising man ufact u rers.—Morning Post. A DESIRABLE COMPANION FOR THE KITCHEN Ga RDEN.—A new and cheaper edition of Mr. PHILLIPS'S Companion for the Kitchen Garden has just appeared, in which the various qualities, purposes, and modes of culture of all kinds of vegetable productions are minutely explained. In this work the object of the author has been co render the knowledge of plants no less useful than entertaining. He has endeavoured to ascertain of what countries the vegetables now cultivated are natives ; the earliest accounts of their cultivation, and how far they have improved by attention, or degenerated by neglect ; also the various uses made of them by the ancients as well as the moderns of different countries,—a species of infor islTdmihneogrnabbionoigitel.: fifty wasfty About persons played ten infor mation which cannot fail to be of the greatest utility. p o spllieuAnnewdEi there ns were I,r i D s' e ' dti‘leiwensote explosion BILSTON, FEB. 29.—A most dreadful acci sit:bwtuirinisst.tbli o'clock the boiler attached to the screw manufactory of almost close to part of the manufactory, and at the time of at work, men, women, and children ; the building was im mediately filled with the steam, and all that were in it, with a few exceptions, were more or less dreadfully scalded. Some of the windows being knocked out, by that means the poor sufferers were enabled to get out at them, and then • conveyed to the ground by ladders. There were about 150 perons also employed in other parts of the factory. The sight at the factory, a few minutes after the accident, was most appalling ; women from all parts of the town came running shrieking for the safety of their children, and all eyes were eagerly cast up at the windows as the poor sufferers were got through them ; some came out covered with the duet and steam together so black as to be scarcely recognized, and of others, who had been bruised, the blood was soaked in their garments. Nearly all the inhabitants of the town were very soon upon the spot; the roof of the factory soon fell in, and men are now em ed in pulling down other parts of the build ing,pity and searching amongst the ruins for persons that are missing. It is said that the fault lies with the engineer, who had no water in the boiler, that there was cold water being put in the time, and:the bottom of the boi l e r bein g red hot caused it to burst ; but the truth of this has not yet been ascertained. The engineer died frotn the injuries he received shortly after the accident, and two employed in the factory have died since. POLICE INTELLIGENCE. B OW-ST REET. Yesterday Preece, the inspector of police, stated to Mr. MINSNULL, that a man, whom he bad in custody, came to the station on the previous night, and said that be bad committed a fraud on Saturday last, and not having had an easy moment since, he wished to deliver himself up to justice. The prisoner then confessed, that on the day in question he went to the shop of Messrs. Hodge and Loom, Regent-street, and stated that be was sent by a lady, named Holmes, who resided in Holmes-terrac e , Kentish -town, for a piece of fine linen. He obtained the linen, and pawned it in Somerstown for 3bs., and in order to drown the recollection of his crime, he got intoxicated, and lost the money. Preece added, that he sent to Messrs. Hodge and Loom, and ascertained that the prisoner's statement was correct. Mr. MiNsuum, directed that the prisoner should be brought forward. He stated that his name was Maurice Gerard, that lie had a wife and six children in a state of starvation, and that he was driven to commit the actb from extreme distress. The ahopman of the prosecutors begged to recommend the prisoner to mercy, on the ground that be might have had two or three pieces of linen instead of one, and that he was actually requested to take another piece with him, in order that Mrs. Holmes might take her choice, but he refused, saying that he should be blamed if he did so. _ _ Mr. Mirtstrur.r. should remand the prisoner, in order that inquiries might be made as to his previous character. The number of applicants for parochial relief at this office for some months past exceeds that of any former period. Upwards of 20 miserable creatures, having no parish in London, were sent to the House of Correction on Wednesday night, in order that they might have some refuge to save them from the miserable alternative of sleeping in the streets, and with a view to their being passed to the parishes to which they respectively belonged, —a power to that effect being vested in the visiting Justices of the prison, the same having been withdrawn some years since from the magistrates generally. A letter was received by Mr. Minshull on Tuesday, stating that a family, consist ing of a man and his wife and four children, the youngest an infant in arms, were actually famishing from want, in a room in Wild•court, Wild-street, Drury-lane. The Ma gistrate immediately directed that an inquiry should be made into the case, and the report of a policeman, on his return from the court in question, fully corroborated the statement contained in the letter. The room presented a most miserable scene, and the wretched inmates were reduced to the last extremity from cold and hunger.— The landlord of the house had put in a distress for rent, and the cradle in which the infant was lying was under seizure when the constable arrived. Temporary relief was afforded to the starving family by order of Mr. Thomas, the superintendent ; and when Mr. Minshull was informed of the extent of their distress, he ordered that ss. should be taken from the office poor-box, to be applied as their necessities should require. The officer stated that when a loaf of bread and some cheese were brought to the room for their use, the children ravenously tore the bread asun der, and devoured it in his presence. The family were subsequently sent to St. Giles's workhouse, where it seemed they were legally entitled. HATTON-GARDEN. Yesterday Daniel Leach, charged with having wilfully and maliciously stabbed a young man, named William Harrington, was placed at the bar before Mr. Serjeant SeLLow, for re-examination, when the following certifi cate was produced : Hital, arch 1. " This is to certify th a t William M iddlesex Harrington osM died in this Hos_ pital yesterday morning, at 24 minutes after one, in consequence of a wound he had received in the abdomen. " G. A. SABINE, House-surgeon." Mr. Serjeant SELLON, after informing the prisoner of the contents of the certificate, ordered him to be remanded until a Coroner's inquest had been held. THE MARKETS. SOU'I'HALLMARKET'.—Feb. .24. In this day's market which was moderately well Supplied, but not very numerously attended by buyers, the trade with each kind of meat was very dull, at the following prices per stone of Slb. to sink the oflals : Beef 3s. Od. to 48.2 d. I Veal 4s. 2d. to ss. 8d. Mutton .M,.,.,. 310 5 2 Pork 4 0 5 0 The foregoing quotations are precisely the same as those of this day se'nnight. Some, but not a great part of the supply left the market unsold. Beasts, 240; Sheep, 2,935; Calves, 30; Pigs, 40. LEWES MARKET.—Feb. 28. 3s. Od. to 4s. Oa. I Veal 4 , „ Sci„ to 54.24 1411,tton .........—.. 4 4 5 0 Pork 0 0 4 0 A moderately good supply, and a sluggish trade. RUAIFORD MARKET.—Feb. 29. a. d. t os. d. U. d. a. d: Beef 3 0 4 0 Veal Mutton 3 S 410 Pork ......... ......... 3 8 5 0 Suckling Calves from 14s. to 32s ; Quarter old Pigsl2s.to 18a. each. A moderate supply, and a dull trade. COUNTRY CORN MARKETS DURING IHE WEEK Wheat. Barley. I Oats. Beans. Per Quarter. ats. s, s. s. to s. s. to a. Blandford 61 34 24 41 50 .51 32 36 18 21 31 35 Cambridge 59 30 18 26 Chard 54 60 32 38 17 20 32 36 Huntingdon...—. 58 67 27 24 16 22 27 93 Long Sutton--- 46 61 16 21 28 38 Louth 50 55 27 32 17 20 32 34 48 60 26 32 16 24 30 32 Newark 54 61 34 40 18 30 33 42 Nottingham —..... 60 65 30 42 20 25 35 43 Peterborough --. 50 62 34 38 13 24 28 36 Plymouth 56 65 28 34 20 23 Pont el rac 67 43 27 43 Sleafonl 65 70 36 38 22 28 41 43 Uppingham 54 60 28 35 16 21 28 40 Wisbech 50 GO 18 22 30 34 HULL MARKET—FeI Wheat, Old —6. 565. 58s t Foreigns4s. I Oats, Poland —s 201. 225. ( Small or Feed —s. 162 20s Foreign —a. 16s. 20s Barley, Norf. & Sut. —s. 348. 388. Line, Foreign Beans 30s. 325. 345. Forei Pease, White... S. 368. 4us. Grey Tares —s. —s. —s. Forei Rapeseed, in bond none... ..... Free, iew --s. 543. sd.s. n bond —s. —s. —4. Jld --s 243. —S. --R. —4. —6. —B. —it. & Wold --s. 34s 365. ign --s. 365. 38s. Y. --s. 301.365. per last —4. 251r61. A RKET.—Feb. 28. Per lb. d. to d. Bcef -- --- 6 -- 7 Mutton Veal Pork Lamb 0 0 to 31. 15s. Od. per ton LEEDS CORN MA RKET.—Feb. 28. Wheat, Norfolk and Suflblk, 601 b. York. and Lincoln. 601 b. Foreign,s2.s. to 635. 'i ,,, Barley, Norfolk and Suflblk '3`2s. to 31s. Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Grinding Beans 00123d 63 41 1b. Oats, Potatoe Rapeseed, -1% l e a ling, English, For, 1: 1. t t —4. t 035 14 .t . 0 p 4 e 25 ; last. 291. to 325. :" Eng. 11%d. to 13d. per st. Shelling LIVERPOOL CORN EXCHANGE. —Feb. 28. WHEAT, English, White, per 70Ib. Red ---. Scotch, Welch, and Manx Irish, White 8 2 8 4 -- Red 8 1 8 3 ---- Foreign 9 0 9 3 OATS, English, Welsh, and Scotch, per 451 b 3 0 3 2 Irish Foreign BARLEY, English, Malting, per Imp. quarter 36 0 38 0 Scotch and Irish, per 60Ibs. Feeding 4 0 4 4 BEANS, English, per Imperial quarter 39 0 41 0 Irish, &c. Foreign PEASE, English. per Imperial quarter 36 0 38 0 --- Foreign FLOUR, English, per 2801 b. 4ti 0 47 0 --.-- Irish OATMEAL, English and Irish, per 240ih5.... INDIAN CORN, per 4401 b. RN it, per Imperial quarter SIALT,-per Imperial quarter IMPORT or GRAIN for the Week ending Feb. 27. Wheal Oats. Barley Flour. Oatmeal Qrs, Qrs. Qrs. IForeign, Brls.llnsh, &c. Sck s. l L oa d s . 8,788 10,145 2,803 -- 1 4,549 3,148 KETS.--Feb, 22, DUMFRIES%A_ 2 7 Beef, per lb. ......... 0 4 0 5 s.d. s.d. •• a.d. Y. d• Wheat, Imp. Bush 69t0 7 0 Butter , 602 I - ............. 00to 0 0 3 8 3 9 Eggs, dozen ......... 0 0 0 0 2 2 3 0 Mutton ................. 0 4 05. Flour, 141 b. 2 0 2 2 Veal ........................ 0 4 0:4 Oatmeal 1 0 1 4 Quartern Lost 0 7 0 9 Potatoes, cwt, o 3 CHELTENHAM Per Bushel. s. d. to s, d. Wheat Barley Oats ............ Beans Pease 5 0 7 0 Hay 31.10 x. MARRIED. On the 'Bth ult. Henry Claridge, Esq. of Jerreaux Abbey, to Harriet Jane, second daughter of R. W. C. Peirse, Esq., of ThUnbleby, in the county of York. On the 28th ult. at St. Luke's, Mr. William Smith, of Man chester' solicitor, to Martha, e ld es t d aughter of the late James Rider, Esq., of thiswell-street, Finsbury -square. On the Ist inst. at St. George's, Bloomsbury, J. C. Eastrnure, Esq. of Bedford-place, t o Clara, youngest daughter of the late G. H. de Laistre, E sq. , o f Worthing. On the 28th ult. at Walton, Suffolk, the Rev. E. R. Edgar, youngest son of the late M. Edgar, Esq. of the Red H ouse , near Ipswich, t o M ary Lynch, eldesdaughter of Chas, Collett, Esq., of Walton. On the 18th ult. at Basildon, Berks, the Rev. J. G. Copleston, Vicar of Kingsey, Bucks, to Catherine, eldest daughter of E. T Waters, Esq., formerly of Russell-square. On the 'lBth ult. at Guildford, A. Coussinaker, Esq., of Wist wood, Surrey, to Mary Anne, eldest daughter of C. Woodyer, Esq., of Guilford. DIED. On the 29th ult. at Aylesbury, uucks, Louisa, wife of Joseph Rose, Esq. aged 53. On the 28th ult. in Great Coram-street, Mrs. Shairp, the widow of Walter Shairp, Esq., of Bedford-square. Janet, youngest child of A. On the 2,itti ult. John, eldest son of Mr. Edward Curtis, of Be O rc n h t e h r, e 28th Esq . ult. at Roehampt on , Lambeth, aged 33 On the 15th ult. at Brighton, Lady Sophia Lumley, only sur viving sister of the present and late Earl, and daughter of the preceding Earl of Scarborough. PUNTED AND PUBLISHED BY MU R 0 YOUNG, AT THY SUN OFFICE, 11; STA44D. LoNvos.