The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-09-16 00:00:00

Uralic anb Commerce.

A strike in the gun trade is reported from Bir-
mingham. Looking at what is being accomplished by
these weapons in the distracted State of America and
elsewhere at the present moment it might be a good
thing or the human race if the strike became universal,
and remained permament._.
. _ .

Tug COTTON FAMINE —The following touching letter
received by the wife of the vicar of I,,—from an old
parishonor, will give our readers • true personal
account of the sufferings of tons of thousands
from the cotton famine. ." Dear Mrs. B.,—
You will think it very strange that I should
write to you, but you were to kind to me when 1 was
at T--, that I feel sure of your sympathy now. You
will think more strange when I tell you that you are
the first I ask to assist me in the midst of trouble, but I
feel sure that if you can do what I am about to ask
you will with pleasure. I have four little children
now, the one I have had slum I left T—is a boy ten
menthe old, and I cannot tell you what we have gone
through since the little fellow was born. We have had
no work but now and than a day or two on a farm
close by, and we have sold our goods for meat; then
we have very little left. We have nothing to lie on
but straw, end bat one thing to cover us with.
We have eat many a day without fire,
and been many a day without i"meat." We
have got so worn out et clothes that we have,not
a change of anything. When Sunday comes I take ray
children up in the bedroom, for they are badly off,for
clothes; I cannot let them go oat. I thought If you
had any clothes that your children had done with—and
you knew how badly off I was—you twould let me have
them; I could thank you with all my heart. I could
send my little boy, for I could not come myself, I have
nothing to put on to come so far in.
The commercial *deices from New York on Wednes-
day showed that the premium on gold continued
steadily to advance, the last quotation being 116. All
parties were evidently in great perplexity with regard
to the actual condition of the army in Virginia, and
the papers, in the absence of the slightest definite in-
formation, could only assure the mercantile community
that there is every reason to feel "cheerful." To aid
this feeling they dwell upon "the troubles, suffering,
and starvation" we are undergoing in England. The
new internal taxes were to come into operation two
days attar the departure of the Present mall, and, at
they would include the products of almost every branch
of industry, they were already giving rise to consider-
able disquietude. A further postponement had been
hoped for, but there was no *hence of its being granted.
As the taxes apply to nearly every class of manu-
factured goods, and these goods can be seised by the
Government wherever found, if the tax should not
happen to have been paid upon them, buyers are duly
cautioned to ascertain that that essential matter has
been attended to, before they accept any article or
settle with the producer of it.
AN INTERNATIONAL EXEIBMON CONTBACTOR A
BANKREPT.—Once upon • time there was a tavern-
keeper in London who held • daily ordinary, and gave
his guest* soup, fish, made dishes, joints, and pastry,
all for one shilling. The public rushed in shoal,' to a
banquet so cheap and so succulent; the only drawback
to triumphant success was that the proprietor found he
lost exactly twopence a brad by every visitor who dined
at his establishment. A friend expostulated with
him, and printed out that the natural result of the
speculation must be bankruptcy. "Ah !" quoth the
tavern-keeper, with a knowing look, "that shows what
a bad man of business you are. I admit the loss per
head; but irsthe aurater that pays in the long rear
We wonder whether the unlucky French contractor,
M. Veillard, wh has just come to such signal grief
on the foreign side of the Feat exhibition refreshment
department, ever studied in the same school of finance
with the sanguine speculator to whom we have just
alluded. Not that M. Veillard gave "coup, .figh,
made dishes, joints, and pastry" for one shilling. He
was in the habit of charging a great many shillings for
a very small supply of comestible. He less the first to
discover that omen peas are an exotic vegetable, nearly
as dear as truffles, and which cannot possibly be served
up under eighteenpenoe a portion, or five shillings a
dish; he seems to have been • perfect master of the art
of putting on the screw; and yet the "numbers" have
not paid." Since the first day of May last he has
taken • very large amount of ready cash: the gross
receipts for refreshment* in his department having
been £73,000, and the profits £21,284 15s. 7d. With
all this, M. Veillard comes before the world—or rather
before a meeting of his creditors—u • perfectly ruined
man, who will be driven into bankruptcy if a oomposi-
Mon of five shillinga.in the pound be not aeoeptsd. He
site on the stool of repentance, with Messrs. Quilter,
Ball, and Jay to watch over him. He has to account
for a deficiency of more than forty thousand pounds,
which he sets to "preliminary and special expenses,"
"general and current ex penses," and difference between
the buying and selling price of his plant. The debts
which he appears to have accumulated in about four
months are a trifle under eight-and-twenty thou-and
pounds.