The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-14 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE,

MANCHESTER, Dec. 13.—There has not been much busi-
ness, but prices are firm, and in some descriptions of goods
there is a tendency to improvement in prices. The amount
of buainess:done in shipping yarns has been small,and where
spinners have been compelled to sell rather lower prices
have been accepted. Prices, however, upon the whole,
have been tolerably firm. Many buyers ere waiting for tele-
grams (now due) in anticipation of the overland mail from
India, and this is one reason why the market has been quiet.
Should the advises prove favourable, it is expected we shall
have considerably more business doing. In home trade yarns
we have had a steady market, and a fair business has been
done at last Friday's prices. Sellers of doubled yarns re-
port rather more business. The cloth market has been very
firm, and prices continue to improve. The improvement
is most observable in the class of shirting suitable to
India. The business to-day has been but small, but manu-
facturers exhibi; great firmness. The latest letters to
hand from India were written on the arrival of the worst
news from this market, on 13th Oct. last, when prices bad
been depressed by rumours that America was likely to elect
a peace President, and consequently the telegrams now due
from Calcutta, and which will be of a later date, are ex-
pected to be more encouraging. Messrs J. Slagg and Co.
report :—" Since last Tuesday prices have shown a harden-
ing tendency, The general disposition, however, of buyers,
has been to avoid operations, and we close to-day with but
a moderate business, at our full rates of last week."
LEEDS, 13th.—The woollen cloth markets this morning
have been of the same quiet character as for the past few
weeks. The attendance of buyers was small, and there was
not the full number of cl,thiers from the surrounding dis;
triet. Tweeds and spring meltons were sold to a moderate
extent, as were ordinary black cloths. In the white cloth
hall a few hair lists changed hands. In both a few trifling
purchases of heavy goods were also made. At the ware-
houses the home trade is dull, but there is a little more
doing by some of the export houses. The manufacturers
are upon the whole tolerably well employed, and there is no
material difference to note in the prices of wool, yarns, or
goods.
NOTTINGUAK, 13th —There was a rather limited attend•
ance at this exchange ball to-day, but the demand for lace
yarns was firm, and the full rates of last week were main-
tained. The demand for hosiery yarns was moderate, and
previous rates were realised. In silks net much alteration.
There was scarcely anything doing in brown nets, but no
reduction can be quoted since Friday,
ROCHDALE, 12th.—The quiet feeling which we have
lately had to notice as more or less prevailing in the flannel
trade here appears rather on the increase. The warehouse
trade of the past week has been rather limited, and to-day's
market was thinly attended by buyers. Net much flannel
changed hands, the purchases being of a retail character.
Prices, however, were well maintained. The Yorkshire
goods trade is also iese active than we lately had to notice,
and to-day's market was a poor one, Owing to the period
of the year when stocktaking and preparations for settling
accounts occupy a good deal of attention, it appears probable
that we shall have slack markets till after Christmas. Wool
though in brisk demand keeps steady in price.

MISSING SHIP.—The Lois (Spanish ship), with
cargo ex Cadiz from London, sailed from Gibraltar on the
28th of October for Malaga, and has not since been heard of.

TlMES.—Already the Message of the newly.,
elected President of the United States has been de.
livered to Congress, and it will shortly be before
the public of this country. Very seldom has a poli-
tician had it in his power to issue a document of
more importance to the world. It has been often
said with truth that an American President is an
autocrat for four years. It he has a will of his own,
he cau assert it against Ministers, and Senate, and
House of Representatives, and State Governors and
State Legislatures. The only check on his policy
is the passive resistance of the people, or the fear
that if he becomes unpopular his chances of re-elec-
tion will be lost. This second consideration cannot
affect Mr Lincoln, for he is certain of his reign for
another period of four years, and, Recording to
precedent, must then retire from the throne. Ex-
cept, then, from the irregular influence of public
opinion, he need anticipate no control from this
time to March, 1869. Ho can do almost every-
thing; he can prevent almost everything ; and this
is a time when every decision involves the lives of
thousands of men and the squandering of vast sums
of money. It is natural to look with interest on the
deliberate expression of such a opinions at a
time when he has received the highest honour which
his countrymen can bestow, and is able to address
them with the consciousness that his past policy
has been accepted by the great mass of the nation.
Elated by political success, freed from anxiety for
the future, certain that his name will be enrolled
among the few Presidents who have received the
honour of a re-election—an honour which has been
conferred on no man since General Jackson—Mr
Lincoln stands before the world independent and
powerful beyond what is granted to ordinary states-
men. The Northern people have chosen him, and
seem to have a singular confidence in his honesty
and independence, if not in his genius. They are
themselves broken into parties agreeing in nothing
but the desire to save the Union ; and whatever
might be the course of policy chosen by the
President for his second term of cffice, there
wonid be no section strong enough to oppose him.
The Federal politicians have been for some time
speculating on the policy which the forthcoming
Message is to indicate. The extreme Republicans
have been anaious, apprehending that the candidate
whose success they did so much to insure may
swerve from the doctrines to which he was thought
to be devoted. The more moderate section of the
Lincolnites has been correspondingly hopeful, hinte
ing that Congress will not be urged again this De.
cember to that policy of relentless war which is the
creed of the Abolitionists. The belief that the
Message will exhibit an assumed, if not a real, mo-
deration was general at the latest dates. When
General Butler made a speech in New York recom-
mending an offer of reconciliation, and an amnesty
even to the leaders of the South, the conviction that
he spoke with authority, or under what the French
call "inspiration," was so general that the price of
gold immediately fell. Whatever may have been
the knowledge possessed by this officer of the Presi-
dent's intentions, his speech served to elicit an indi-
cation that new offers of peace would not be viewed
unfavourably in New York. There is a sense of
relief and of hope at the prospect of something like
a negotiation with the enemy, which shows how
ready the great mass of the people are to make any
terms that will restore the Union. It is not for us
to ray whether this demonstration of opinion has
had an effect on the President's mind. A few clays
will show whether Mr. Lincoln holds the forfeiture
of the whole lauded property of the South and the
forcible emancipation of the negroes as acts already
complete, or whether he considers that his supreme
power authorizes him to unmake as well os cask°
decrees, and to restore to the rebels by one Procla-
mation what he has taken from them by another.
But we can only give for what they are worth
the speculations of the American politicians them-
selves. These are generally to the effect that since
the result of the late election was known, Mr,
Seward has gained in influence over the Presi-
dent, and that the Message will indicate an agree-
ment with that statesman's views. One newspaper
states, as if well informed, that Mr. Lincoln
will repudiate the factionswhich would establish the
present conflict on a;sectional basis, and " will take
strong national ground, upon which Democrats and
Conservatives can have no hesitation to stand and
rally." The conclusion to which the Northern press
seems to have come is that the Message, while de-
claring the President's intention to continue the
war, will give hopes of some kind of negotiation
with the South, and perhaps of such an invitation
as General Butler foreshadowed. The people of
this country know, for they are told it by the Fe-
derals every day,how little their opinions are valued
and how much their advice is suspected. Although
the bloodiest and most wasteful war in modern his..
, tory is running its course in accordance with
our anticipations and contrary to the uni-
versal prediction of Northern politicians,
yet we shall be told we know nothing of
America and wish only evil to Americans. Let it
be so ; but, though our w ords may bo of little avail
we will utter them as a duty we owe to two cons-
nranitiea with which we have long lived in friendly
and mutually beneficial intercourse. We eineerely
trust the rumours prevalent respecting a modificas
tion of Mr Lincoln's policy are founded on truth.
Firmly believing that this war, unless ended by
negotiation and mutual compromise, must go on
until the South be made, as one fanatic proposed,
" a howling wilderness," and the North prostrated
financially and commercially for years, we can only
welcome with pleasure anything that promises re-
conciliation. What the terms are to be—what rela-
tions, political or social, may prevail between com-
inanities now so hostile, can only be settled by
themselves. But this is certain—that no harm can
come from a cessation of the strife and a proper dis-
cussion of the questions between them. Better any
way of settling the difficulties which may have
arisen than the ravaging of Georgia by Sherman or
of Tennessee by Hood, and the rotting away of two
fine armies in the mud of Petersburg. To negotia-
tion it must coma at last, and the sooner the
inevitable resolution is taken the better will it be
for America and the world. Ia this matter. the
English people, whatever the Federals may think,
aro quite disinterested. All that our countrymen
have dwelt upon from the beginning has been the
needlessness, the evil policy of a war of conquest,
and there are few Americans who, if in the early
days of 1861 they could have foreseen the task
before them, would not have joined President
Buchanan in bidding the South go if it wished it.
We, the bystanders, saw thiegs more clearly than
they, the actors; and we see them more clearly now.
Moreover, if our motives were suspected four years
age there is no reason for a similar doubt at present.
Both Federals and Confederates thought us de-
pendent upon America for our very existence.
That notion must now be dissipated. We have
proved that we can do without the cotton of ,:he
South, and we cannot be accused of begging the
Federals to yield their claims in order thaewe may
feed the workmen of Lancashire. If they fight for
a few years longer and ruin the industry of the
South the cotton crops of the world will be raised
in our own dependencies, and givethis empire a
monopoly of the Supply for a generation at least.
So far as selfish policy might prompt a wish it would
be for the continuance of the war. Nor has Eng-
land lost by the contest as regards general com-
merce. In spite of blockades and protectionist
tariffs in America the exports of this country have
increased beyond all expectation. There is no rea-
son of which we need be ashamed that we should
with this bloodshed to cease. With men of the
present age, however, humanity is not a mere empty
name, but a feeling which really sways the opinion
of nations, and disgusts them with slaughter when
they are not maddened by actual participation in
the affray. It is this feeling, and no political self-
ishness, which prompts the hope that North and
South may compose their differences.
POST.—Advertisements occasionally appear in
those weekly newspapers which circulate the most
extensively among persons to whom the acquisition
of wealth would be peculiarly acceptable, wherein
a philanthropist who burns to do good by stealth
but would blush to find it fame, announces that on
receipt of a dczen postage stamps enclosed to certain
initials at a certain address, generally a post-office
or a coffeehouse, he will transmit per return a dozen
distinct and infallible recipes for speedily amassing,
a fortune. If the suspicion cou'd possibly be sup-
posed to enter the reader's head that the advertiser
had the remotest desire of gain, the question would
naturally suggest itself now the possessor of the
secret of making a speedy fortune in a dozen diffe-
rent ways conies to be reduced to the position of
having to swede for funds by the sale of these valu-
able recipes at a penny a piece—why does he not
reduce them to practice for his own benefit ? But
persons for whose benefit these philanthropists con-
struct their advertisements arc believed to think too
well of their species ever to harbour so invidious e
thought. They would as soon think of asking the
fortune teller in rags, who undertakes for a penny to
point out where and how secret treasures of untold
gold axe to ha discovered, why she does not appro-
priate the precions deposit herself, and apply a
small portion of it in the turchase of decent appa•
rot. We cenfees we have never teen any of these
invaluable secrets for making a fortune, and don't
know what they are like ; but we should imagine
that one of them must consist in buying odd lots of
champagne who!esale at auctions, and selling it re-
tail at the various race which take niece during the
season. This sort of treffic, it appears, will be likely
to yield a profit o f something like 2,000 per cent.
on each transaction , and if that is not the way to
make a fortune with all the rapidity that could be
desired by the most sanguine speculator, we don't
know what is. The quantity of.chempsgne:drunk

appears to be such that there are absolutely
limits to the wealth that may thus be acquire;
It would appear from the case of Abraletunbe
v. Attenborough, which was tried 11
Court of Queen's Bench on Monday, that °WI°
pagne may even he purchased et the very medera,s,
price of 12s. 9d. a dcze.n, and sold at the raeaull's,
at a guinea a bottle. It has been asked—Busy cos
a genuine picture of one of the old masters pea 5,..,,,
so much value when the best judges are often unaual
to tell whether any particular piece is an origel,che
or a copy ? If the quantity and the quality 0" 41
gold in an alleged counterfeit sovereign is so We,
to that of a genuine one that you cannot tell thou_
apart by the nicest test, what 'difference of intri e.es
value can there be between them ? Similar queoriee
suggest themselves with regard to champagneas • „ to
would have thought that the mouths belong
the pockets which could disburse a guinea for a ;00
gle bottle of champagne would know the genn'ot
article when they tested it, and be able in a moinedo
to distinguish it from spurious. If they n'unct
thl9, as it seems they cannot, then the inferenca 18
that the counterfeit must be very like the ortg• losi;
It is said that there is more champagne drunk a
the world in one single day than the si hole
of the champagne country would amount to Itstis
the accumulated vintages of 20 years. The ftiril,,°o
Swiss grape, cut of which excellent chanepagri„,"
said to
.be manufactured, appears to have a for
dable rival in the equally celebrated PutneY gcoo
berry. If there is,;2o times as much chanipsgio
drunk in a day, taking the world over, as there t,
produced by the champagne vineyards a Y,e.e-e'cl
one would
. suppose that every drop must be drf'"foe
out of its native locality the moment it is fit foe
export, and that anybody applying there for a o°,'lrt
would be in the same predicament as the trace"eo
who stopped at Epping to taste the famous sauSagrd.
and was told he could not have any, for the 114;00
ficatit and suggestive reason that " the Lultio
coach had not come in." It appears that ceril;6/
champagne. warrants had been pawned ill e'pe
mention-n
with the defendant in the action
above. in May last these warrants were pt!t P•f,
for, sale at Messrs Debenham and Storrs in
Covent-garden. How it was that in the silln,:ot
season, when champagne drinking is Is- ro,
the normal state of things, eager speculatsnoo
anxious to make a hasty fortune by clearing
per cent., would not invest In this metaphorical„" 0
mine, does not appear. The champagne had t?
a-begging. "No one appeared to venture on it 11
bulk," so it was attempted to get it off in srn,"o.
lots of a dozen or two. The plaintiff Abraliatn,,si,io
vested to the extent of a couple of dozen. 'at
seems. to have encouraged the defendant to sectior
him and make him an offer of the whole quall'ea
on hand, and " ultimately it was agreed 1001 $t
them that the plaintiff should have the remainlen: $
12s 9d a dozen, but it was afterwards made
dozen. The defendant in the course of converssgri
said the wine came from Switzerland, and was via
good,. and as the Derby and Bath races were colli;tiff
off, it would be a good thing for him." The plaice.
also swore that " thia wine suited people wbc);fiei
tended races. It is sold on racecourses at a gil-tee
a bottle and under," and we dare say wbenit i 9
weather is warm, and there is much detnano, nd
sold at a guinea a bottle "and over." The facts ties
issue of the case are of interest as illustrating, rif
mysteries of the champagne trade, and perticur/rge
as furnishing an infallible recipe for making s.,;°thiB
fortune in an incredibly short space of time. ea
wine, and any amount of the same sort, bade, -be‘
bought by one knowing what to do with it ju;000
tore the races were cowing on, and sold it at b'bee
per cent. profit immediately afterwards, and ',die
the proceeds turned in the same way again and
a..t the successive races through the year, antl,,sibsl
uuteng subsequent years, the heaps of gold
would be piled up by this process in the course-a.
single. decade are perfectly astounding. The "rott
n thece! farthing put out at compound to
Anno Domini 1, and amounting by this tlrc-tee
countless globes of gold as big as this earth, is itll
only parallel worthy of being placed in contratt.",tea
so marvellous a phenomenon. Something easel'
however, is generally sure to turn up in thesl;oo
eat draught ; and this excellent champagne et
Switzerland, warranted to realise about 2,000 per
cent. profit on the racecourse, had been BO UDIUCt to
as to get into Chancery. When the plaintiff we Iv,
F enning's wharf with his warrants to get 0'3;04
he found that no less than five injunctions ha u rip
tached themselves to it, and held it in their glte
The worst of it was that he had sold it befog 1,118
had obtained corporal possession of the article• hoe
keeper of the Grand Stand at Epsom was it° Se
twelve dozen at 255. per dozen. The defence rele,
that not the wine but only the warrants were °via•
and that the defendant did not warrant his !ate
rants, but only agreed to sell them as he held tno.
His counsel impeached the patriotism of theyled
tiff'
for having " extolled Swiss charopagnee, et
ignored. the Putney gooseberry ;" but his lan-clis
and his eloquence were alike thrown away, ilit;p"
jury returned a verdict which gave back the,,l),' (I.s'
tiff the £4O he had paid, together with X 25
seta
wages for not being able to complete his coll-ilia
with the persons to whom he had told the „-er
When the injunctions are got rid of, this e",-est
pagne will no doubt be consnmed at the races -
season at the rate of a guinea a bottle.