The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-23 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE

MANCHESTER, May 22.—We have had a good deal of
business in yarn, but a very flat market for cloths. Manu-
facturers are in much the same position as on Tuesday
last. They find that speculation in cotton increases
rather than diminishes, that prices rise, that as long as
they go on working full time, yarn as well as cotton gets
dearer, and that every week they are relatively in a worse
position. The sales of cotton yesterday at Liverpool
were 30,000 bales, of which 20,000 were to specu-
lators, at id. per lb. advance, and up to noon
this day the sales have been 10,000 bales. The
buyers of yarn for export have been obliged to com-
pete here with those fer the home trade, and sellers
have consequently been enabled to get up prices to
something like the advance in cotton. The aggregate
business has been large, and the improvement has been
lid. to id. per lb. The sales include 10's to 20 water
twist for China, and muleyarn up to 50's and 60's forlndia.
Buyers for Germany and the Mediterranean have also
been active purchasers. On the other band, manufac-
turers find the market impracticable at an advance pro-
portionate with the rise in cotton and yarn: In some
cases they have been able to sell at the prices they would
have taken last week. Practically they find themselves,
taking into account the fact that cotton is now id. to
lid. per lb. dearer, in a worse position than at the end
of February—though that was one of depression—by
to id. on every pound of cloth they produce. The busi-
ness in cloth to-day is generally reported to have been
small.

Messrs. John Slagg and Co. report of the cloth
market :

"The extraordinary state of the Liverpool market con-
tinues to have a very prejudicial effect here. Manufac- '
turers, whsise business generally has been for some time
unremunerative, are of course obliged to demand an ad-
vance corresponding in some degree to that obtained on
cotton and yarns ; but this has only the effect of keeping
buyers out of the market, as it is only in very few in-
stances that even the slightest advance on last week's rates
can be realised, and the business of the day is consequently
altogether inconsiderable in amount. It remains to be
been which can longest hold out ; but we fear, if manufac-
turers continue to produce at the present rate, they will
get the worst of it."
Messrs. George Fraser, Son, and Co. say :—"The
continued advance in the cotton-market has rendered
the state of ours extremely difficult. Spinners and
manufacturers decline in many cases to give quotations
at all where they are out of stock, and in nearly all cases
will not sell except at a decided rise. On the other
hand, there is an increasing indisposition on the part of
buyers to follow the movement. The extent of trans-
actions is consequently limited, and the state of matters
very unsatisfactory to all.
LEEDS, MAT. 22. —There is no change to note in the
woollen cloth trade since Saturday. The public markets
have to-day been steady both as to price and demand,
but the quantity of cloth sold was scarcely so much as
, on Ws day week.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

MR. DISRAELI'S MOTION.
( From the Times of this da,y:)

In the name of common sense, what are we all
waiting for ? Everybody is waiting for everybody.
At a time when nobody is trusted, and• to do
nothing is the worst policy of all, we are all wait-
ing one for another. Lord Palmerston and Mr.
Milner Gibson are waiting for the re-opening of
the Vienna Conferences. That wonderful entity,
' of which nothing but place can be predicated, is
waiting fhr something like grace in Russia or dig-
nity in Austria, or something decisive from Sebas-
topol. At that place they -have been waiting for
half a year, each side for the other to come on. To
return home, Lord Grey has been waiting for Mr.
Milner Gibson, and generally the Lcrds for the
Commons. Mr. Layard will now let his motion on
administrative reform wait for Mr. Disraeli, and
so we are in the end rediiced to the last-mentioned
gentleman as the only ono who at this moment is
waiting for nobody, but is pledged to a motion on
Thursday next. Lest some evil influence should
arise to put him, too, in the same mesmeric trance
as the rest, we will just remark that this attitude
of expectancy is very well in some situations ; it is
graceful in statuary ; it is proper for sentinels at
their posts ; it becomes infantry expecting a charge
of cavalry, and it is a painful necessity in the
case of a, traveller at a station when the train is
overdue ; but in political affairs it is simply stagna-
tion or.stupor ; it is " to rotin cold obstruction ;"
it is to offer any inducement to the scheming and
ambitious to play off their activity against our inac-
tion ; it is to run." a waiting race," as our witty
con temporary lately expressed it, by waiting without
motion. Every man and every State may say "I
bide my time," but then it must be au active and'
,vigorous biding—not a passive one. The chief way
in which great warriors and great statesmen have
compassed their ends has been by surprise. They
have come down upon the rest of the world before
it expected then. Had the neighbouring poten-
tate waited long enough, he might have been the
victim, instead of the author, of a coup d'etat ; but,
as it happened, his opponents chose a waiting po-
licy. At length, however, we are promised a con-
clusion of the present waiting. Mr. Disraeli an-
nounces that he will wait no longer, and he has
accordingly given notice of the following resolution
for next Thursday :

" That this house cannot adjourn for the recess with-
out expressing its dissatisfaction with the ambiguous
language and uncertain conduct of her Majesty's Go-
vernment, in reference to the great question of peace or
war ; and that, nnder these circumstances, this house,
feels it a duty to declare that it will continue to give
every support to her Majesty in the prosecution of the
war, until her Majesty snail, in conjunction with her
allies, obtain for this country a safe and honourable
peace."

We can understand almost any excuscs for wait-
ing, but that now offered to Parliament is not of a
nature to allay the general impatience. What are
we to expect from Vienna that we did not expect
before, and in which we Lave not been disap-
pointed ? Of those Conferences nothing remains
but the name of Vienna. On the departure of the
Western Plenipotentiaries the geriitts loci stood
alone in all its vacillation. We consulted the
oracle, and if it did not altogether Philippise it did
its-best to leave us in a State of uncertainty. But,
besides the place, and besides those barren prefer-
ences which Austria always shows for abstract
truth and justice, what loophlle did the confer-
ences leave for that re-opening we are asked to
wait for? Has Russia shown the smallest in-
clination to abandon her preponderance in the
Black Sea under any conditions whatever ? Has
she encouraged us to believe that this point
is still open ? Doubtless she holds it always
open to herself to make what proposition she
thinks fit ; and we, it appears, hold the same. It
is a power which Russia not only has, but claims,
and makes her own use of. Who will venture to
suggest the next proposition that she will offer
through the friendly interposition of Austria? But
the shadowy Conference that is supposed to be still
hovering over the place of its deliberations is not
the only argument of patience offered to us. There
is the wisdom, the firmness, the tact, the self-
respect, and all the diplomatic virtues of Lord
John Russell and his colleagues. Not only is the
Conference open, but in the contingency—the only
contingency—of an absurd and insulting propo-
sition there is not the least chance of its being ac-
cepted by the British Government. So not only
is it possible that no offer may be made, but it is
also certain that it will be rejected. The Con-
ferencb will no sooner open tbau it will be shut,
and both the opening and the shutting are reasons
why we should do nothing. This style of reason-
ing is very suitable to a Conference that has no
longer any existence except as an historical fact ;
but even that fact we are not permitted to receive
iu its original simplicity, for we are told to con-
sider not only what we know about it, but also
what we do not know, inasmuch as the published
record does not tell us all, and cannot possibly do
full justice to Lord John Russell's firmness,Vis-
dorm, and other virtues.,
We must have better assurances than the possible
propositions of Russia and the unrecorded achieve-
ments of our Plenipotentiary that England is not
to be compromised in a hollow and disgraceful
pence. Far better declare the Vienna Conerence
ended, and have dono with it for the present, than
keep the nation under a fearful suspicion that its
honour is in peril and the guardianship thereof in
incompetent hands. Hitherto the only overtures
that have proceeded from Russia have been illu-
sory, frivolous, and even insulting ; nor have we
the least reason to expect more from her while
our army of 200,000 men are kept out of Se-
bastopol.

(Fora the Morninl Chronicle of this day.)

Such an insult to the public, as was implied by
the proceedings with respect to Mr. Milner Gib-
son's motion, could not be expected to pass without
comment and resistance, even in an Assembly so
politically enfeebled as the present House of Com-
mots. Mr. Disraeli rightly assumed that he merely
anticipated the feeling of the house, when he re-
ferred to the extraordinary events of the previous
evening. Nor was it in the Lower House alone
that astonishment was expressed. The tone of
Lord Lyndhurst, when he put his question to Earl
Grey as to whether that noble lord intended to
persist with his promised motion on Friday, was
not to' be mistaken. The veteran gladiator of th e
Tory party took no pains to disguise the sarcastic
spirit in which he exposed the new pretences of the
Government with regard to the exhumed Vienna
negotiations.

The House of Conmions received the remon-
strances of the Leader of the Opposition with un-
wonted sympathy. Thus does " the whirligig of
Time bring round his revenges." The collapse of
Lord Palmerston's exaggerated reputation opens a
prospect of popularity and power to the Party
which refused to serve under him as a chief, and
which he was above joining as an ally. With his
felicitous choice of phrase, )Ir. Disraeli described
the language of the Government as equivocal on
Monday night, and their demeanour as discourag-
ing. He might have used stronger terms, and yet
not have exceeded the truth ; and he can scarcely
be suspected of the courteous hypocrisy com-
mon to Parliamentary protestations, when he de-
glared that he shrunk from the responsibility of
allowing the further excision of the working time
of Parliament demanded by Lord Palmerston, un-
less some means were taken to "reanimate the
National Heart." Yes, in this expression the Tory
chief has, with graceful truthfulness, described the
state of public feeling. The people of England
are in au unwonted condition of mind—a
seine-
thing between despondency and disgust—at the
manner in which the interests and the dignity of
the nation are being trifled with by this Adminis-
tration. At no period of our recent history has
the " heart" of the nation presented such a phase
of feeling ; because at no time has there been,
during a period of menaced disaster, such an utter
want of confidence in the ruling powers.

(From the Morning Herald of this day.)
Last night Mr. Disraeli gave notice that to-mor-
row be will move the following resolution :

-- - _
"That this house cannot adjourn without expressing
its dissatisfaction with the ambiguous language and un-
certain conduct of her Majesty's Government in refer-
ence to the great question of peace or war ; and that,
under these circumstances, this house feels it a duty to
declare, that it will continue to give every support to
her Majesty in the prosecution of the war, until her Ma-
jesty shall, in conjunction with her allies, obtain for this
country a safe and honourable peace."
This resolution affirms boldly the imperative ne-
cessity of prosecuting the war with the concentrated
energy of the country, as the only means of securing
a peace without a national compromise—and it as
distinctly asserts that further trifling on the part of
the Government with that momentous question, on
which rest the hopes and the fears of this country,
cannot, must not be permitted, and that no further
evasion of the real issue by those who advise her
Majesty in this crisis shall henceforth be tolerated.
The absolute necessity for this , determined course
has long been evident, but of late it has forced
itself on the house in a manner not to be resisted.
The insolent ruse played off on Monday night,
Peacec manifest pursuance of an arrangement betweenthine
Government and the leaders of the
party—
the audacious attempt to silence the
ques-
tion in which England's greatness, power, and
England, and to suppress discussion °llllll°lll3 of
ind politicaliflere
nexistence are
opinions boundoT on that
sucip.ercil.io.us
seutatives—all these are indications P---the
people's repre-
of a ispegtiou

on the part of her Majesty's Ministers to hold their
course with high-handed disregard to the authority
of Parliament, and to press despotically on freedom
of debate. That disposition the Commons are, we
trust, in no mood to endure, any more than they
are to rest satisfied with that "ambiguous lan-
guage" and "uncertain con d uct" which have already
cost us so dear, and threaten to make shipwreck of
the fortunes and to ruin the reputation of England.
• The forbearance of the opposition has obviously
reached that point at which, if persisted in, it
degenerates into weakness. , When by a course of
vigorous policy this war might have been averted
during the ill-omened session of 1853, the House of
Commons kept silence, the Opposition were content
to refrain from demanding information as to the
current of negotiations, in the too generous belief
that those negotiations might eventuate in a pacific,
yet honourable, solution of the Eastern difficulty.

PEACE OR WAR. •
(From the Times of this clay.)
The most desponding peacemonger will not
assert that our condition has, as yet become so
miserable and so hopeless that we have not still
in our own hands, under terms more or less igno-
minious,•the alternative of Peace or War. Nothing
has happened so materially to alter the state of
things which existed a month ago at Vienna that
we need despair of finding pardon and reconcilia-
tion from the Emperor and Autccrat of all the
Russias, if we approach him in a becoming spirit,
and bow before his throne with due and decorous
humility. -The conditions may, indeed., be a little
grievous, the treatment not altogether Mal we
have been -used to, but we do really believe that if
we are content to abandon Turkey to her fate by
leavel
ssivarr_leandering those very safeguard; to which Rus-
sthaednEiitt,te.d her to be entitled,—if we would
souvenirs of ourop.eresSeent.
the railway ant beifne a Russian lake, withdraw our
troops from - tce aeupdo
t,
electric telegraph, as agreeable
more durable and profitable than triumphal
rolepahvieinsgoflo;euhrindclefellast
arch es find rn on um ear:tele
justly incensed at o___ a obelisks,—the Czar, though
deaf ear to our p,niuteruccoentAltuaey, not tutu a
V° have, tiler, a choice
between peace and war,
anti
litt is also tolerably evi-
dent that the exercise of t
momentous importance.hoice is of the most
Neither the advocates of
peace nor the advocates of yr,
.r, can deny this, and
bn the present occasion we appeal to both of them.
If we continue to carry On war when
we ought to
make peace we are responsible for the blood that
we needlessly shed, forthesocial affections "
which
we trample, for the domestic ties which .
eve tear
asunder, for the happiness which we mar, and
miseries we create. If, on the other the
hand, we
make peace when duty and honour urge us alike
to the continuance of war, we are basely betraying
the int:Tests of a noble cause, unworthily desertingg
faithful and valiant allies, giving fresh strength to
the overbearing oppressor, weakening the handi of
all who struggle for right, justice, and freedom, and
inviting that injury to ourselves which we shall
have failed to avert from those whom we undertook
to protect.

ut this option of peace or war, so unspeakably
important, so entirely left to its decision, the na-
tion does not exercise for itself nor even delegate to
its Parliament ; the option resides in., the Cabinet
of the day. It is in their power, without the vote
of the House of Commons, without recourse to any
authority but their own, to conclude for and on
behalf of this country any peace they please, and to
pledge the national good faith to whatever condi-
tions they may approve. We will not stop to in-
quire whether this enormous power be necessary
or not, and whetherimpeachment and the penalties
it implies are a sufficient remedy for its abuse.
This power our Ministers undoubtedly possess, and.
may be at this very moment called upon to em-
ploy. What security have we that they will em-
ploy it in a manner suitable to the honour of the
nation, ana agreeable to the wishes and interests
of the people g The answer which would naturally
be given to this question is obvious enough. Peace
and war are matters of such transcendant import-
ance, the results that flow from them of such per-
manent and pervading interest, that, in time of
war, all other questions, compared with them, sink
into absolute insignifiance. On these questions, at
least, the men who take office together must be
agreed; they ought to form the dividing line of
party, and to supersede all merely local or personal
differences, however important in quiet times such
differences may seem to be. Men who differ on
peace and war can have no community of feeling
on that which most highly concerns the welfare of
the State. It must be therefore that the Cabinet
to which we intrust the management of this ques-
tion has given security to the public for their opi-
nions on these points, and is in perfect unison with
the nation and the House of Commons.

No one can deny that this is a reasonable
answer, and yet how widely does it vary from the
fact 1 In the very bosom of the Government Peace
and War are at this very moment an open question.
It is understood that the minority, coniprisedof
men considerable from their position and their ta-
lents, is in favour of war, while the remainder, less
individually distinguished, but more numerous,
decidedly incline to peace. In other words, Peace
or War is in the present Cabinet an open question.
It ranks with the Ballot, the abolition of Church
Rates, and a few other matters of secondary im-
portance, on which the members of the same Go-
vernment and of the same Cabinet may agree to
differ without exposing the public interests to any
injury so great as would be occasioned by their
political separation.
We have stated the case as impartially as we can,
and we now put it with all possible earnestness and
seriousness to our readers, whatever their opinions
on these momentous questions, whether they think
such a state of things ought to continue—whether
they think that in the midst of the war in which
we are engaged, by theside of the allies with whom
we are ranged, in prospect of the discontent within
and the danger from without, Peace and War
ought any longer to remain an open question in the
Cabinet ? Can any one suggest a question more fit
to regulate the relative positions of parties to the
right or left of the Speaker's chair ? What are Re-
form Bills, or Education Bills, questions of com-
merce or police, of toleration or persecution—what
are all the ordinary topics of domestic legisla-
tion compared with this single question—ls
your voice for Peace or War? As soon as there
comes to be a difference of opinion on the
subject it seems necessarily to follow that on
that difference of opinion there must be a r---
distribution of parties, unless the parties of
the English House of Commons are to be like
those of the ancient Byzantine amphitheatre, dis-
tinguished by their colours instead of their opinions.
But, if this question of peace or war must neces-
sarily occasion, as soon as it has arisen, a redistri-
bution of parties, it must also, for the very same.
reason, render the position of a Cabinet in which
it is allowed to be an open question untenable and
absurd. Let the House of Commons clearly and
distinctly pronounce its opinion on the subject,
and when it has done so- let that portipn of the
Ministry whose views are not in harmony with
Ithose of the house retire and make way for men
who represent the feeling both of the house and of
the nation. We have sacrificed many things that
we might have a homogeneous Cabinet, and the re-
sult is, that in the present Ministry, with far less
talent than the last, we have secured no greater
harmony of opinion. We shall rejoice at anything
which puts an end to so alarming a state of things,
and regard the vote of Thursday next as a welcome
escape from a situation which has long been dis-
creditable and is fast, becoming dangerous.