The Express.
London, England, 1850-02-21 00:00:00

Vbe Court.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Rent visited
the Queen and Prince Albert yesterday morning at Bucking-
ham Palace previous to her departure for Frogmore. The
Royal Duchess left town at half put 1 o'clock, attended by
Lady Fanny Howard and Sir George Cooper, for her resi-
dent* at Frogmen.

Her Majesty had a dinner party yesterday evening at
Buckingham' Palace. The company included his Exoellency
M. Drouyn de Pliuys, their Excellencies the Baron and
Baroness de Brunnow, the Marchioness of Nonnauby, the
Marquis and Marchioness of Kildare, the Earl and Counter
of Mardwielte, the Earl and Counter Granville, the Right
Hon. William S. and the Lody Caroline Lumina, Lerd
George Lennox, the Right Sm. Sir James and Lady Gra-
ham, Colonel the Hon. C. B. Phipps, and Colonel Wylde.
The royal children took pony and walking exercise yester-
day in the garden of Buckingham Palace.

Sir William C. Ross, R.A., had the honour of tak-
lag the first sitting yesterday, for a miniature of her Royal
Highness the Princess 1.311i91, to be painted by command of
her Majesty.
A deputation from the Quebac and Melbourne
Railway Company, consisting of Mr. W. J. C. Benson, Mr.
George Pemberton, Mr. Edward Bursted, Mr. Edward
Ryan, Mr. George Beswick, and Mr. Edmond Mackie, of
Quebec; and Mr. William Chapman and Mr. Robert
Carter, of London, had an interview with Earl Grey, yester-
day, at the Colonial Office.
A deputation with reference to the bonding in
Manchester, consisting of Sir Elkanah Armitage, Mr. Alder-
man Watkins, Mr. Alderman Biacide, Mr. Councillor
Gibbs, and the Town Clerk of Manchester ; and also Mr.
Ashen= (on behalf of the Manchester Commercial Ataxia.
doe), accompanied by the Right Hon. T. Milner Gibson,
M.P. and Mr. Bright, M.P., and also by Mr. W. Tatton
Reeriou, M.P., Mr. Brotherton, M.P. and Mr. Renfrew,
M.P., had an Interview with the Right Hon. It. Lsb3uchere,
yesterday, at the office of the Board of Trade.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is going on
favourably towards recovery.
The Finance Committee of the Commission for the
Exhibition of 1861 consisting of Earl Granville, Sir Alex-
ander Spesrman, lir. Jones Loyd, Mr. T. F. Gibson, and
Colonel Reid, mat at the Board of Trade yesterday.
Mr. Francis Fuller, of the Executive Committee, had an
interview with the Finance Committee.

The Judicial Committee of ti:e Privy Council sat
yesterday, and resumed and concluded the t eariag of an
appeal from Bengal " Grant v. the Chief Justice of Bengal '
(part heard).

Her Msjes'y and Prince Albert will, it is stated,
honour the Lyceum Theatre with their presence this even-
ing, to witness " He would be an Actot" and the " Island of
Jewels."

THE
MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS.

EFFECTS OF THE PAPER DUTY ON SILK
AND FANCY MANUFACTURES.
MANCHESTER, Fee. 19.
In addition to the tax which the paper duty is felt
to be upon knowledge, there is a new and rising
branch of our textile manufactures upon which it is
found to inflict "a heavy blow end sad discourage-
ment." The reader has probably seen, in shop-
windows or elsewhere, some of those beautiful fabrics
of figured silk, cr silk and cotton, and silk and
worsted, manufactured by the tailor into gentlemen's
vests. Ladies' dresses, shawls, and ribbons, of a
similar fabric, commend themselves to the eye. They
are amongst the most elegant and tasteful produc-
tions of modern art. These fabrics are the production
of the Jacquard loom. Their manufacture was, for a
tine, confined to France; but twelve to fifteen years
ago English artisans and capitalists began to turn
their attention to the Jacquard loom, and so rapidly
has it found favour that it may now he seen at work
in the factories of Manchester, Middleton, Bolton,
Macclesfield, London, Coventry, Huddersfield, Brad-
ford, Leeds, Paisley, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Derby,
and Norwich. A trade that has found such favour in
the country, and which has spread so rapidly, it
might well be supposed would deserve the attention
and fostering care of the state. Let us see how it is
bestowed.
In connexion with this branch of manufactures,
and absolutely necessary to it, is a sped'a of paper
or card manufacture. To these cards have to be
transferred the patterns and beautiful designs which
have to be interwoven with, and delineated upon the
silken fabric by the Jacquard weaver. The quantity
of cards used in the trade is enormous. In some of
the fabrics for waiatcoatings now produced in Man-
chester, there are as many es ninety picks of cotton
and ninety picks of silk in every inch of cloth, and
some patterns will require the weaver to be furnished
with 900 or 1,200 cards. A pattern was exhibited to the
writer, which was far from one of the most elaborate,
that had required 1,088 cards. The weight cf the
cards is 411bs. per hundred, so that the total weight of
the 1,088 would be something Ike 491 be. The duty
paid to government on 491 be. weight of cardboard at
lid. per lb. gives a total of 6s. lid. This is inde-
pendent of a farther per tentage, making the total
duty about Os. 43d. Thus, when the manufacturer
has produced a new design, before he can weave a
single piece of goods, he has to make an expenditure
in cardboard on which the duty to government alone
is Os. 4ld. And observe, this set of cards will only
serve one weaver ; if the design is one which takes,
and he has to put a thousand weavers upon it, a
thousand times Os. 43d. has to be paid in duty. Each
weaver will be three weeks in ptoducieg his piece
of 20 to 30 yards of waistcoating, and the duty
on the cards is estimated as absorbing the
whole of the profits on each of the first pieces
Produced by the weavers from each set of cards.
But this is not the worst part of the case. It is not
every pattern that does " take" (to use the phrase
adopted in the trade for descriptions of goods that
become favourites) ; many patterns take but very
partially, and some are dead failures. Still the duty
has been paid, and the manufacturer has ne remedy.
The idea of getting bade his money from the excise-
man, and that of "extracting butter from a dog's
throat," are somewhat identical ; they are not to be
entertained.
Aud let it not be supposed that an isolated CABO
has been selected for showing the discouragement
which the paper duty offers in this branch of manu-
factures. The number of cards used is in propor-
tion to the number of colours introduced into a pat-
tern, or the extent of it ; and cases occur in which the
proportion far exceeds the instance given above. In
bed furniture and figured window curtains produced
by a large manufacturer in Manchester, it was esti-
mated that the patterns, which were huge ones, took
in the one case 7,000 to 8,000, and in the other 12,000
to 14,000 cards for the weaver. A dress piece woven
for her Majesty, with exceedingly deep border, by a
late manufitcturer, is said to have required some-
thing like 6,500 cards, and the duty paid
upon them would be nearly 2/. Now, in
France and Germany there is no duty on paper, and
in some cf the figured velvets, and more elaborate
designs for silk goods, the manufacturer in this coun-
try cannot compete with them owing to the great
number of cards required, and the serious obstacle
awghaich the duty uponrntm
eheinthrows
mind,
thianthtihsawdauyt.ylhfa'nnena,
a cost upon these cards beyond the nominal amount.
The annoyances from the excise operated to prevent
the ordinary paper makers from troubling themselves
with the manufacture of them in the infancy of the
trade, when the demand was small, and they had to be
procured from a distance. With the increase of demand
cardmakcre have established themselves in the manu-
facturing districts, but the delays and obstacles
thrown in their way to suit the convenience of excise-
men are a source of expense, independent of the duty
charged upon the article; and but for this our silk
manufacturers, therefore, would be in an infinitely
better position to compete with our continental neigh-
bolero. The case is one of great hardship upon them,
and when the question of a repeal of the paper duty
comes before the House of Commons it is to be hoped
that this branch of the subject will be pressed upon
ministers as by no means one of the least important
or the least entitled to their attentiou.

Tnn SALE AT 111Annorteeos-House.—The sale
of the Queen Dowager's effects, which was discontinued
yesterday, recommences this morning and is fully expected
to close this week. The matron begins to bear a somewhat
dismantled appearance, but there is a large quantity of
valuable property still remaining to be disposed of. A set
of crimson and gold sofas and chairs, in Aboyaa wood, have
exhibited their gorgeousnem in vain up to the present time,
and there are several large sideboards ann consoles
which have not u yet found purchasers. The full
length portraits of their late Majesties, George 111. wid
Queen Charlotte, formerly occupying positions in the grand
aloe
dieing-room, awl ticketed at M. each, have found favour '
the sight of Madame Tussaud, in whine saloon the g
hesceforth be associated with their prototypes in w -.1..
model of Jerusalem has been *old to a clergyman
also purchased a favourite chair belonging to the I \ • . ile
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