The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

MONEY AND CITY NEWS.

Th, newsp pubh..l.,al ;u 11,, agricultural districts
are beginning to be struck with the statements of the Man-
chester manufacturers. The Bury Post, which is " quite
ready to join in the opinion that if either the agriculture
or the commerce of this country must be sacrificed, the for-
mer is incomparably the more important interest of the
two," and " that the standard of value which has been con-
ferred upon landed property by laws of twenty, or perhaps
forty years' standing, is not lightly to be disturbed," sees,
however, that " if the present state of the law continue,
our ability to compete with foreign manufacturers, not only
in the markets of the world abroad, but within our own
country, must every year diminish as the application of
skill and capital is extended on the Continent," and thinks
that " the grand desideratum of the Legislature is to find
that rate of duty which, withoutinterrupting the improvement
of our own soil, will render the produce of other countries at
all times admissible." It is something to have an admission that
the present law is too injurious to the commerce and in-
dustry of the country to be much longer endurable. Those
who contend that this country ought to be independent of
all others for the supply of food, forget the trifling circum-
stance that no Corn-law can regulate the seasons, and that
by preventing a regular trade in food, we deprive ourselves
of the means of supplying our,deficiencies io bad seasons.
It is no doubt most important that lords and squires, who
are over head and ears in debt, should still desire an in-
come from artificial prices ; but then a famine at home,
without the means of relieving it from abroad, is very much
calculated to wean the affections of the people from the
landlords' law. The Rev. Mr. Stephens and Mr. Oastler
think that every man has at all times a right to as much
meat and drink for himself, wife, and children as they
can possibly consume. We are more moderate : we
merely wish that the landowners would let the in-
dustrious classes have as much food as they can ob-
tain in exchange for the produce of their labour ;
and we predict that—so strong is the feeling of man-
kind, that all attempts to prevent the labourers from sup-
plying their wants by their industry are unjust—they will
not stiffer themselves to be starved so quietly as their land-
lords may suppose. The people of England are prover-
bially patient, and had corn been purchasable at the pre-
sert price, they would have submitted to short commons,
for the sake of enabling the Squirearchy to indulge in a
becoming luxury. As Captain Basil Hall would say, a
country can hardly purchase at too high a price the glory
of having a spending class. But then, unfortunately, when
the high price is offered in vain for cargoes which are not
forthcoming, John Bull begins to have doubts whether the
glory of the Aristocracy, like other glories, may not be too
costly. The Hull Observer of Tuesday last very happily
exposes the claims of the landowners to liberality in allow-
ing wheat to be imported at a nominal duty when it
reaches a certain price :
" We produce," say the Legislature of ' landowners,' " the
staff of life, and, therefore, reasonable profits ought, under all
circumstances, to be secured to us; but, being very reasonable
and easily satisfied, we, in the plenitude of our beneficence,
decree that when wheat reaches 725. a quarter, you, the multi-
tudinous masses, may get a supply from Germany or the Ame-
ricans. God forbid that we should absolutely starve the
people of England 1 And it is credible that the disinterested
and benevolent Lords and Gentlemen who passed the Corn-
law of 1828, really believed that foreigners would always keep
a supply on hand sufficient at any time for the English de-
mand. They never imagined any difficulty in procuring
abundance from the Continent ; they aimed at preventing as
overwhelming importation from foreign ports, and, therefore,
enacted that the duty should rise upon every' reduction of
price consequent upon increased supply. But actual
experience has demonstrated a truth, which no person
of ordinary knowledge and observation ever doubted—namely,
that the steady and usual demand regulates supply, and that
it is ridiculous to expect foreigners to keep their granaries full
of wheat on the chance of a deficient harvest or extraordinary
demand from England. Germans and Americans are not
English serfs. They exist not for our convenience solely, but
have an eye to the profitable investment of their own capital.
Thus it has come to pass, that although we should gladly
snake extensive purchases of corn from Continental growers,
they have little to spare. Enormous prices--80s. and
upwards a quarter—produce but small quantities in compa-
rison with the English demand."

(FROM TILE. MORNING rArEns, OF TM? DAY.

ClifioNlCLE.—Business in the English Stock ket
I.as not been extensive, but its appearance, notwithstanding, is
good, and a tendency to improve is apparent. Consols closed
la 941 to 944 for the opening, which is I per cent. higher
tll.ln yesterday. Exchequer Bills left off at 645. to 665. prem.,
and Bank Stock at 2021 to 2031.
Foreign Securities do not present any material alteration
si,:ce yesterday, and the transactions in them have also been
unimportant. Spanish Active was last marked at 161 to
36i; Portuguese Five per Cents., 31i to 314; ditto Three
rer Cents., 204 to 204; Dutch Five per Cents., 1014 to
1011 ; ditto Two-and-a- Half per Cents., 54 to 544, ex. div. ;
Belgian, 99 to 991 ; Brazilian, 771 to 78 ; Colombian, 251 to
26 ; and Mexiean, 23 to 23i.
Shares on the whole continue to look well. Birmingham,
ld;left off at 78 to 80 prem. ; ditto, new, 24 to 25 prem. ;
S:.uthampton, old, 45 to 46 per share ; ditto, new, 20 to 21
prem.; Great Western, 12 to 13 prem. ; Leeds and Man-
chester, 19 to 21 prem. ; Birmingham and Derby, 10 to 8
(!ii ; Brighton, 3+ to 3 dis. ; Blackwall, 14 to 1 dis. ;
Greenwich, 161 to 174 per share; Croydon, 124 to 13} per
si.are ; and ditto new, 2 dis.

HERALD.—The Money Market, either as regards the
ccinmercial discounts or the transactions on the Stock Ex-
( Lange, presents but little occasion for remark.
The transactions in the Share Market have been of no mo-
ment, and with regard to the railway concerns, there is a strong
i.pinion that the "thing" has been overdone, since scarcely
tie most prosperous are able to pay their expenses without
drawing upon their capital, or obtaining new loans, and it is
understood that the Croydon Railway will be in the market
,i,ortly for a new loan, to the tune of about 130,0001. to corn-
-,,lete a line which will never add Is. of wealth to the country
through which it traverses, a remark, by-the-by, which will
apply to most other railroad concerns. Great Western Rail-
ay Shares are 124 a 13 pm. ; Brighton are 3k a 24 dis. ;
B;ackwall are 14 a dis. ; Southampton are 4 dis. ; and
Croydon 64 a dis. ; London Joint-Stock Bank Shares are
34 a pm. ; and Colonial Bank Shares 44 pm.
Commercial advices have been received from the Mauritius
to the 3d of October. Their contents are generally not very
important, inasmuch as they give but a very faint account of
the state of commerce in that settlement, which appears, how-
ever, to continue in a most stationary position. The exchange
fur Government bills at 30 days' sight was 3 per cent, prem.,
and on private bills 2 a 3 percent. die. Mauritius Commercial
Bank Shares were 5 per cent. prem., and the rate of dis-
counts on local commercial bills 6 a 8 per cent. per annum.
Freights to England were 41. per ton, with five per cent. pri-
msge, and indemnity claims were scarce at five per cent.
prem., according to circumstances. One letter from Port
Louis states that the unsettled state of the sugar market here
had had the effect of checking the speculation in sugar for the
European markets, which decline, all our commercial men will
recollect, was caused by the impolitic reduction in the draw-
b.ick upon the exportation of sugar refined in this country.
In consequence the planters had resolved to ship sugars to this
market on their own account, and run the risk, with the view
of saving the middle commission. The amount of the new
,•ugar crop, which had arrived at Port Louis, was estimated at
about 18,000 bags.

PO ST.—A half-yearly general meeting of the Proprietors
of the Colonial Bank was held to-day at the London Tavern,
when a favourable report of the state and prospects of the
Company was received, and a dividend was declared of two-
and-a-half per cent. for the half year ending on the 30th of
June, 1838.

The only arrival of later date to-day was from the Mauri-
tius, whence we have accounts to the 4th of October. The
commercial advices from England, relative to the decline in,
and the unsettled state of, our sugar market, had reached Port
Louis, and they had had the effect of checking speculation in
that article in the colony. The fall here, it will be remem-
bered, was caused by the great reduction in the drawback
upon the export of refined sugar. The planters had, how-
ever, preferred shipping on their own account, and to take
the chance of the home market to lowering their selling prices
in the island. The quantity of the new crop which had
arrived in town was about 18,000 bags. Freight to London
was 41. to 41. ss. per ton. Government bills on England, at
30 days' sight, were at three per cent. prem., and private
at 90 days two to three per cent. disc. Commercial Bank
Shares are quoted three prem. Discount on commercial
paper was at six to eight per cent. per annum.

Representations like the above are, it must be admitted,
a sore trial to the patience of the man who finds that he
cannot always buy a loaf when his children are crying for
bread.—Morning Chronicle.

We recommend to all who are curious to record the
fantastic and tyrannical tricks of the Whig Government,
to read attentively the letter of our Manchester Correspon-
dent. The intention was to strike a formidable blow at a
supposed helpless individual ; but the clumsy wielders of
the hammer have, as is the Whig custom, broken their
own heads.—Times.

The Globe of last night has fallen foul of the following
passage, which appeared in a leading article of this
paper yesterday :—" No one pretends to say that the
followers of Mr. Stephens have ever imbrued their
hands in blood, or that they have destroyed property in
any way." Our Contemporary admits the first clause
of the sentence, but observes, with regard to the second,
." One good half of the Morning Herald's assertion is
flat untruth. It is pretended, nay, it is proved to moral
conviction, that the followers of Oastler and Stephens
have on their promptings proceeded to destroy property."
Our remark was confined solely to the case of Mr. Ste-
phens, but we should like, in either case, to see the facts
alluded to distinctly specified, and the connection between
them and the parties named satisfactorily established before
we concede to our courteous opponent the truth of his
counter assertion. We apprehend that the Government,
whose good graces he would be nothing loath to propitiate,
would feel itself to no small extent his debtor, if he could
make out the parts to which he so confidently, but indis-
tinctly, appeals. In the same article from which our Con-
temporary has quoted the sentence he condemns. nay, in the
very next sentence of that article, we alluded to the charge of
burning Mr. Jowett's mill, which was for some time directed
against some unknown disciple of Mr. Stephens, as
baying been gainsaid by Mr. Jowett himself. This
we should take to be pretty good authority ; and, un-
til we are put in possession of the other cases on
which " the moral conviction" is supposed to rest, we must
be excused for retaining our own opinion, notwithstanding
the flat contradiction by which it has been met. It is some-
what singular that the Globe should rest satisfied with
picking out a single sentence from an article which con-
demned the policy of the Government in respuct to this
very question of incendiary speeches, and leave the main
body of the argument untouched ; that it should have passed
over the allusions to Mr.O'Connell's inflammatory harangues,
and the demand that equal justice should be dealt to him
and to Mr. Stephens. But it is easier to reply to a general
assertion or an incidental expression than to a train of reason-
ing calculated to prove the inconsistency and partiality of
Dlinisters in cases which can only be distinguished from each
other by the influence of the parties implicated. After all, the
Government and their advocates will find, should they succeed
in convicting Mr. Stephens, that if they stop there, and do
not follow up the law in other instances, it will be no easy
matter to satisfy the public that justice was the only
object in view. There are some side-thrusts made at the
Corn-laws in the article of the Globe, which corroborate
the opinion now pretty generally entertained as to a medi-
tated attack on the rights and property of the agricultural
body. We hope that the influential leaders of that im-
portant class will not suffer themselves to be out-generaled
on that occasion, but will prepare to meet the Ministers
in Parliament with all the zeal and energy which circum-
ataeces are likely to require. The tone of the Govern-
ment Press is a sufficient indication of what is intended in
that quarter, and it only remains for those who are in a
position to check the advance of the enemy to show that
they are prepared for the crisis.—Mortzing Herald.

TFIE ONLY DAUGHTER, EDITED BY THE
AUTHOR OF " THE SzniaLTEßN.'"—The Editor's an-
nouncement, that " The Only Daughter" is " the pro-
duction of a mere girl—of one brought up in seclusion"—
would be sufficient to disarm us of all severity, were there
in the work itself anything which might have a tendency
to excite such a feeling. But the case is quite otherwise.
" The Only Daughter" is not only a production of great
merit, bat of brighter promise for the future. Written in a
style of considerable beauty, and abounding wifh descrip-
tions of a high order, it exhibits at the same time no com-
mon power on the part of the authoress of seeing into the
workings of the human heart. It is a tale of pure, and
gentle, and maidenly love—of true and generous friendship.
To carry it forward, not many actors are required ; a few,
accordingly, occupy the stage. They are all well con-
ceived. In the character of Ruth Annesley there is a de.
gree of originality which we had no right to expect from so
young a writer, and it is this circumstance, not less in the
command which she seems to have acquired over the
English language, which makes us confident that the antici-
pations expressed by the Editor will not be disappointed.—
Literary Gazette.
On Friday night the house of G. Morgan, Esq.,
at Brickendonbury, near Hertford, was entered by some
burglars, who succeeded in stealing a large quantity of plate,
consisting of 240 silver spoons, forks, and knives of diffe-
rent kinds, besides other various articles of value.
An inquest was held yesterday in the Dover-road
430 the body of a little boy named Passfield, who was found
dead under melancholy circumstances. The jury, after
some consideration, returned a verdict of " Manslaughter
against John Passfield, for that be has accelerated the death
of the deceased, his son, by wilfully neglecting to supply him
with necessary comforts and food, he being labouring under
disease called consumption." The witnesses were then
bound wiser to prosecute at the Central Criminal Court.
The invest;gation lasted seven hours, and caused a great
Sensation in the neighbourhood.

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1839.