The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-28 00:00:00

DRAMA.

TILE Itorta. THEATRICAM—In consequence of the
death of Mrs. Hartley, who decease we announced a few
days since, the Queen has graciously excused Mr. Earthy
from appearing in the forthcoming dramatic ?atomism, at
Windsor Castle. Her Majesty had previously commanded
the representation of " Henry 1V.," with the view of wit-
nessing Mr. Darthy's representation of Sir Jobs Falatlf.
That play, Iz compliance with her Majesty's exprem with,
will now not be performed, but Charles XII., and the
Hon. Edmund Phipps' translation of " King lienti's
Daughter " will be represented in its stead.

MELANCHOLY AFFATIL—OE Friday Mr. W. Carter
went into a lorg inquiry at the Smith's Arco, New Park-
street, Southwark, respecting the death of Mary Ann Weed,
age i twenty two years, who came by her death in the fol-
lowing extraordinary manner : The deceased was the wife of
a lighterman residing at No. 5, Exyrson•plaes, Bankside.
On New Year's-eve the deceas .s 1 wee confined week a
daughter, and progrened very well until the night of the
sth inst., when symptoms of delirium came en. De-
ceased was frequently seen by Mr. Candle, the surgeon,
of Great GuUdtercbstrest, who gave the nurse particular
orders not to leave the deceased fir a momea', nor to let
her go from her sight. The deceased became so much
worse that a relation went for Mr. Caudle, who attended,
and found the deceased so alarmingly altered, and in such a
dangerous condition, that he questioned the nurse as to what
she had been giving h'r, when she admitted that she had
allowed the deceased to drink a gists of heir. Mr. Candle
having remonstrated with the nurse, left the room, and
shortly after his departure the deceased got out of bed and
asked the nurse to let her go below to see her husband, who
was asleep in the parlour, which was acceded to. Deceased
had not been gone more than two minutes, when the nurse
went in search of her, and, to her astonishment, found the
street-door open, and the deceased mining with only her
night-dress or.. An alarm was raised, and every etach
made for her, and although every possible effort was made,
the deceased was not discovered until Wednesday last, when
she was found in the river, off the centre arch of London-
bridge, by a waterman. The jury, in strong terms, eon•
demnedtbt thnduct of the nurse, and ultimately a verdict of
" Temporary Insanity" was recorded.
Fille ant LOSS OF LIFE IN THE BuItOUOIL-011
Saturday pkorning, between eight and nine o'clock, some
person' parsing along Princes-street, Union-street, South-
wark, observed-a
quantity of smoke issuing out of the house
No. 5, Princeestreet. They knocked at the door, and
found that the person living on the ground floor was not
aware of any casualty having occurred on the premises, but
on reaching the front attic and opening the door the room
was hand to be enveloped In one sheet of flame. Several
pinions, at the risk of their own lives, rushed into the room,
and found an old man, named Askew, about 75 years of ego,
surrounded with fire. He was in his night dress, which was
blazing, together with the bed and the furniture in the roma
By a vigorous effort he was dragged out of the room, carried
Into another apartment, and a surgeon seat for, but before
one arrived he had expired. The lire was confined, by the
combined exertion of the firemen, police, etc, to the go"
en which it occurred. From a partially smoked pipe bring
afterwards found at the bedside, it is supposed that the de-
owed had been smoking in bed, and by that means caused
she terrible disaster.

TIM
MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS.

Meet the D Nip News.)
ALLEGED REDUCTION OF WA E$ CON-
SEQUENT ON FREE TRADE.
Mucnsavaa, JN. 25. Will any of the readers of the Daily New, under-
take to define the word " benefit p" The Morning
Pod of Friday makes an assertion which leads one
to doubt if some new raeaaing does not attach to the
word in protectionist circles. An antedate is told of
Cobbett that when he was emir and years ago
leeturing in Sussex, a knot his admirers had
assembled at a market dinner in Chichester, and were
discussing the merits of his eloquence, when a sturdy
old farmer who had listened with evident distaste to
what passed, burst forth with the question, " Can any
of you tell me any benefit that Cobbett or any of
these talker have ever done ?" " Perhaps," observed
a little cynical fellow in the company, who seemed at
once to have appreciated the intellectual ca-
pacity of the questioner, " you will first tell
us what you mean by the word ' benefit ?' "
"Benefit," repeated the farmer, "benefit—benefit
means benefit; anybody knows the miming of bene-
fit." It was evident, however, the farmer could not
give the definition, and his embarrassment at such a
trifling difficulty affordea much merriment to his tor-
mentors. Now it is to be feared that the Morning
Post, which just now assumes to be the farmer's
friend, is in a similar difficulty as to the meaning of
this word. " The advocates of the policy of import
duties on all foreign goods that enter the home
market" says the Post, "must on no account
concede that free trade has benefited any
class of British producers." New, the question is—
What does the Morning Post conceive to be a "benefit
to any class of British producers ?" Is cheap bread,
cheap sugar, cheap coffee, cheap beef and mutton, a
benefit to any class of British producers? Is an ex-
tended trade, with plenty of employment, and good
wages, a benefit ? Because, if so, we down here—in
the manufacturing districts—can readily furnish the
Poet with an answer. I have before me, at this mo-
ment, a copy of "Buroe's Commercial Glance" for last
year, published by Grant and Co., Corporation-street,
Manchester, showing the results of manufacturing
industry in these districts, so far as cotton is con-
cerned, from the commencement of 1815 to the end
of 1849. And amongst other tables is one which
gives "the quantity of yarn spun in England and
Scotland" in those years. The results shown in this
table are so striking, that unless the Poses notion of
benefits received are very peculiar, even its obtuee-
nese may be penetrated. Here is a copy of it with a
slut fitly different arrangement:

QrANTITT or YARN SPUN IN INOLA,D AND PrOTIAND TN TWA TEAM
1814 1643, 1616, 1917, 1019, 1849.
Pounds weight.
Total quantity o! eottca ye= spun in 1814 418,377,41)
tt 19 ~ 1645
9. 99 91 11146 495033.109
It It 99 1617
r/ 9. ~ 16411 50,226,661
9/ 99 lll9 561,921,413

berme In 1919 our tho pmoos year
By these tables it further appears, that of the
W 8,921,433 lbs. of yarn spun is 1849, 333,023,7011 be.
were spun in England alone. This stock of yarn was
thus (Imposed ot :
Exurbia k yarn ........ ihr. 144,12C,e1r.
Ihtto as Weal
Dat , u manufactured goods (1,193,337,903 yards) ..„ 231,214,171
Quattty sent to Ireland and Scotland
ha ported in mixed manductune and other arth I. a
DALince kft fur home ermsumpUon and In stock, at the
end of 1819

Total lie. 333,023,701
It would thus appear that the quantity of cloth
and yarn consumed by the home trade during lest
year, with that left in Mock undispoeed of at the end
of the year, was 98,729.075 lbs., against 102,720,489
lbs. for 1848, and 80,821,523 nu. for 1817. It should
be 'dated also, that of these balances the stccke
on hand were very small at the end of the last and
preceding year (especially at the end of last yetr),
showing that the demand for the home market as well
as the foreign had exhibited a considerable increase.

Now hete is evidently a vast increase both in the
quantity of goods manufactured and disposed of in
toe cotton trade, both for borne conaumntinn and t
export; the question is, whether the 'Morning Post
sees any benefit to the country or to "any class of
British producers" in ad this?
The (illicit) alluded to in the Morning Post is one
in which it professedly indicates to the prwectio-irs
the policy and line of argument they are to take in
parliament in the coming session. They are "on no
account" to "concede that free trade has b cab d
any class of Britian producers." But this is not the
onfy difficult task which the Morning Post assigns to
the party. Wiley are to attempt a renewal of the
absurd statements of Lord Granby, at the close
of last session, that workmen's wages have
everywhere decreased in consequence of msre
I work and free trade. And by way of ertting
the protectionists a good example how to tell a goat,
roand, bold lic with befitting grace, their admirable
preceptor thus initiates his first lesson:—" In the
cotton manufacture we confidently assert tlaet it will
be found that the reduction of wages has been at least
121 per cent.; but." he continues with amusing sim-
plicity (not to use a harsher term) " statemen.s for
every trade should he obtained, in a form well veri-
fied, each as to bo received by the house as conclusive
evidence on the point !"

Now, it is tlu; extraordinary mendacity of the Port
as to the reduction of wages by 121 per cent. in the I
cotton districts as a consequence of free trade which
is the chief inducement to this letter. Most assuredly
when the protectionists have "obtained" rich state-
meats
"well verified," they will deserve honeeter
leaches than the Morning Post. I have, by way of
fore-hadowing to some extent the success they are
likay to meet with, beers at some pains to get together
a Mile information upon this point for the pres-nt
letter. I have been to some of the very larva and
to seine of the smaller houses engaged in the
manufacture of cotton goods, and so far I have not
heard of one in which a reduction of wages has
taken place since the repeal of the Corn-laws. And
it is no little pleasure to know, that whilst collecting
these facts information has incidentally falirn in my
way, which will he of no slight interest to some of
your readers beyond the mere refutation it will give
to thin absurd statement about the reduction of
wages. For, in many Mee, I learn that the opera-
tives are not only fully employed, end have cheaper
food, :but; that they are mare comfortably situated,
assume a more independent attitude, are more cared
for and respected by employers, more temperate, and
more intent on seltimprovement then mill hands of
past generations. I have called, up to this time, on ,
about 30 mill-owners. But I should not perhaps,
without their ccnsent, be justified in publishing
names ; it will be a sufficient guarantee to the reader
that I place the name@ of those mill-owners from
whom the most tangible and detailed ieetements were
obtained on the margin of the manuscript for refer-
ence to by the editor, should inquiry be made in :vele et
to any of them. In a general way, after the natural
surprise was overcome which the announcement
created, that any one could suppose there had been a
reduction of wages at a time when hands are in full
employ, and good workmen are looked upon as some-
thing of a treasure not to be treated as dirt, 1 found
the manufacturers mostly courteous, and ready
enough to give a straightforward ammo.. Some of
them were not prepared to go into statistical accennts,
bat most of them at once took down their wages books
for a series of years for reference, with a view to con-
firming their statements, which, without exception,
went to show that there had certainly been
no reduction of wages, though, in some instances,
there had been an advance. In one mill, more par-
ticular reference to which I shall probably make in a
future letter, the manager told me they bad given
their workmen an advance of 10 per cent. That mill
was in the country. In Manchester, however, gene-
rally speaking, there has been no change fi r years.
In one very large mill, employing 1,600 hands, there
had been a reduction two years ago, but not since the
Corn Bill had gone out of operation. This was the
single exception I met with as having occurred for
years, out of all the inquiries I have mado. Most
of them invited me freely to inquire more
particularly from their workpeople themselves, and
put the question to workmen who happened to come
near us in the mills—not only whether there had
been any redaction in wages in their own case but in
any other mills is the town or neighbourhood P And
this last question was one to: which the wo:kpeop!e
themselves are sensitively alive at the Fermat mo-
ment, for they are ready, in any case of the kind, to
seise it as a pretext for demanding an advanee them-
selves. One millowner observed that his workpeople
came in a body only last week to solicit an advance. !de
told them that, in the present state of the market, with
the constantly advancing price of the raw material—.