The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1839

MEETING o.e THE MEMBERS O}
THE MANCHESTER CHAMBER OF COM-
MERCE-PENNY POSTAGE.

MANCHESTER, THURSDAY EVENING.
This morning a Spec General Meeting of the Mem-
bers of the Manehest( r Chamber of Commerce and
Manufactures, was held in the apartments of the
Chamber for the purpose of considering the propriety of
petitioning Parliament to adopt an uniform rate of post-
age as recommended by Mr. Rowland Hill.
J. B. SMITH, Esq., President of the Chamber, took
the Chair, and in opening the business of the meeting
said that the Directors of the Chamber had felt it their
duty to call the meeting on account of the great interest
which the question of the Penny-postage was creating
is the public mind.
Mr. Alderman COBDEN, in moving that a petition in
favour of Mr. Rowland Hill's plan of penny postage be
adopted for presentation to Parliament, said that when
the Chamber last year sent up a petition for a similar
purpose, they sent up at the same time some valuable
information respecting the effects of the high rates of
postage. Since that time a most excellent Report bad
been presented to the House of Commons, drawn up,
as was believed, by Mr. Warburton, and this report
contained a recommendation that an uniform penny
postage should be adopted ; but that as soon as pos-
sible a twopenny rate should be adopted in order to
avoid any loss to the revenue which might pos-
sibly result from the adoption of Mr. Rowland
Hill's plan. If there were a twopenny rate of
of postage, he (Mr. Alderman Cobden) felt quite
confident that the loss would be much greater than if
the sum of one penny each were charged for the trans-
mission of all letters. There had been, he believed,
since the Chamber had met, a greater progress in the
public mind on this question than there had ever
been known upon any important Reform that had been
brought forward. 'So far as the Newspaper Press were
concerned, all parties were advocating it, and he be-
lieved he was correct in saying that there was scarcely
an individual of any weight who was opposed to it. He
did, however, remember one individual whom he was sorry
to find amongst their opponents—that was Mr. Maccul-
loch. Mr. Macculloch in his Supplement tohis Dictionary,
said " at, present a letter-carrier receives a number of let-
ters, the postage of which amounts to a certain sum, and
he must either bring back that sum, or a portion of it, and
undelivered letters, making up the deficiency. But if
he has merely to deliver paid letters, it is difficult to see
what security can be bad for the careful performance of
his duty." Here Mr. Macculloch took for granted the
impossibility of finding men of moral probity and
common honesty to take the office of letter-carriers.
He (Mr. Cobden) thought the assumption altogether
unfounded, and quite inconsistent with the real cha-
racter of the people of this country ; for he would ask,
if such were the case, where would be the chance of
conducting the ordinary business of life, for if men
would not do their business without having spies set
upon their actions, how could business be possibly con-
ducted ? After refuting some further arguments of Mr.
Macculloch, Mr. Cobden moved—That a petition be
presented to Parliament, praying for the adoption of an
uniform rate of Penny-postage.
Mr. Alderman KERSHAW, seconded the motion in
a very able speech.
Mr. THOMAS BOOTHMAN, jun., the Secretary to
the Chamber, read a petition, embodying the sentiments
of the Meeting. _ _

Mr. JAMES FERNARY moved the adoption of the
petition.
Mr. J. G. FROST seconded the motion.

Mr. T. H. WILLIAMS supported the motion.
Mr. Alderman CALLENDER thought there ought to
be a public town meeting called in Manchester to peti-
tion for the removal of this tax on conversation.
It was then ordered that the petition be sent to Mark
Phillips, Esq., M.P., for presentation, and that Mr.
Poulett Thomson, and :the other Members within the
county, be requested to support the same.
Thanks having been voted to the Chairman; the pro-
ceedings terminated.

MR. ROWLAND HILL'S PLAN OF

PENNY POSTAGE.

MANCHESTER, APRIL 18.—At the meeting of the
Manchester Town-Council, yesterday, after the trans-
action of other business, Mr. Alderman Tootal brought
forward a motion of which he had given notice, that a
petition to the House of Commons be adopted by the
Council, praying for the plan of Rowland Hill's univer-
sal penny postage. He quoted the opinions of Lord
Lowther, Sir Edward Lees, Sir Henry Parnell, and
others, in support of Mr. R. Hill's plans.
Mr Alderman CO➢DEN seconded the motion.

Mr. Alderman Brooks, Mr. Prentice, Mr. J. May
Mr. Alderman Kershaw, Mr. S. Stocks, and other
gentlemen afterwards addressed the Council, after which
a petition to Parliament was adopted.

OPIUM TRADE.

The intelligence of the severe measures adopted at Can- I
ton against the opium trade has creaked a great panic
at Bombay. Contractors for purchase are paying heavy
forfeits to be released from their engagements, even
to the extent of 400 rupees a chest. A terrible shock
will no doubt be given to this valuable trade if the
Chinese authorities persevere in their present rigo.
rous efforts at expelling it from their chief port, and
that they will do so there seems every probability. It
may, we think, be reasonably inferred that the Imperial
Court is not unaware of the difficulties that at this mo-
ment are besetting the British Indian Government, and,
therefore, deems the time arrived for making a resolute
push to realize its long cherished views against the traffic
in opium. The Chinese will conceive that we are scarce
able now to put forth might to overrule the right they un-
questionably have on their side, in repressing what is a
direct infringement of the laws of their country.
It is impossible to view with complacency at this critical
season any measure which may tend to imperil an extensive
source of our revenue ; but, viewed apart from that consi-
deration, we should only find reason to rejoice that the re.
moval of the slur, which this opium smuggling trade has
always been upon our Government and our com-
merce, is likely to be now accomplished. The Chinese
require, and no demand can be fairer or more legiti-
mate, that a pledge shall be given by every foreigner at
Canton that he will be neither directly nor indirectly
concerned in any ship entering the river before that town,
which is, in plain words, engaged in a contraband trade.
Conformity to this is to be their privilege of residence.
The notorious fact is before the Chinese that foreigners
have been engaged in the traffic, and therefore while the
demand is justified on this ground, concession to it is a mere
nominal act on the part of him whose commercial pursuits
are alone of a legitimate character.
The effect, supposing this course of proceeding resolutely
followed up, will then be that the two branches of trade,
the fair and lawful and the contraband, will have a broad
distinction drawn between them. Canton will form the
great commercial mart, where the sale of British manu-
factures and of our Indian staples, whose import is
authorized by the laws, and regulated by established
rules, and the provision of the immense supplies
of teas and silk reqnired for the home markets, will
be carried on free from all those vexatious interrup-
tions and opportunities of fraudulent exaction for
which opium has always presented the fertile excuse.
It would at the same time be idle to expect, however phi-
lanthropists might desire it, that opium smuggling will
then disappear from the country. Cupidity will always
ensure the supply of the drug, habit will always keep a
demand alive for its consumption ; but it would become
thrown into another quarter. The wide extent of the
Eastern coast would be made the theatre of its operation,
and, if its moral evil to the Chinese were scarcely more
limited than previously, it would at least take the proper
features of its character, a real smuggling trade, and no
longer form a part of that commerce of Great Britain,
which is prosecuted under the sanction given by the pre.
sence of ber own officially appointed Superintendents.—
'Bornbag Gazette.

SIR ROBERT PEEL A FREE TRADER.—
When, in 1824, Lord Liverpool's Cabinet brought for-
ward their celebrated free trade measures, taking away
from our manufacturers the monopoly of the home market,
by throwing open our ports to French and other fabrics,
and when the silk manufacturers petitioned to be heard at
the bar of Parliament against the proposed changes, Mr.
Secretary Peel, in defending the Government policy, took
occasion to denounce the manufacturers as interested and
selfish parties. When, in 1839, the same manufacturers
petitioned Parliament to be heard at the bar, in order to prove
the necessity of applying the same principles of free trade
to corn and provisions, Sir Robert Peel not only de..
nounced them as interested parties, but charged them
with falsehood, deception, and even with attempts to in-
' cite the people to physical force! In 1824 be defended
the principles of free trade, to enable the peeresses to
visit Almack's and the drawing-rooms, in the cheap silks
and laces of Paris or Brussels. In 1829, he denounced
the self-same principles, when they were advocated merely
to give access to the corn and provisions of Russia and
Poland to the mechanics and labourers of England.
However irreconcilable in other respects may be the advo-
cacy of such opposite principles of commercial policy,
the Right lion. Baronet's biographer will have no diffi-
culty in proving his consistency
as the supporter of the
aristocracy against the people. —Anti- Core- law Circular.
SUICIDE FROM PHYACAL PAlN.—Saturday
afternoon an inquest was held at the Sun Tavern, Heddon.
street, Regent-street, before Mr. Higgs, on the body of
Francis Crawshaw, aged 48 years. Mrs. Elizabeth Wash-
ington, of 15, Ileddon-street, widow, stated that the de-
ceased had lodged in her house for the last seven years ; he
was a widower, and had lived for the last 00 years with Mr.
James Cutler, of 22, Sackville-street, Piccadilly, surgeon.
On Thursday afternoon, about five o'clock, lie came home
ill and went to bed ; he was in great agony from a rheu.
matic affection which seemed to affect his mind—ho was of
sober habits. He went out at six o'clock on Friday morn-
ing, and witness did not see him again alive. Witness be-
lieved that the pain he was suffering rendered him incapa-
ble of knowing what lie was doing. William Holloway was
acquainted with the deceased. About seven o'clock on Fri-
day morning, witness going into the stable saw him hang-
ing from a joist in the opening from the stable to the loft,
by a halter round his neck ; he had thrown himself off the
ladder that led from the stable to the loft, and must have
had a fall of at least 4 feet. Verdict—Temporary insanity.
VIOLENT DEATHS IN LIVERPOOL.-010 of
348 violent deaths in the borough of Liverpool, in 1838,
there were 62 cases of deaths from burning, of which not
fewer than 57 were children ; 11 deaths from scalding, 50
from drowning, 12 run over in the streets, 6 from excessive
drinking : 68 apoplexy and natural causes, and new-born
infants found dead, 31.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.
(LLOYD'S.)

NINGAFORE, JAN. 13.—The Zephyr (whaler), late
Abbot, put into Amboyna about the middle of September,
the crew being in a state of mutiny. The captain had
been killed about a month before, and the crew refused to
act under the chief officer, who quitted the vessel in the
Dutch ship, Margaret, bound to Batavia ; the Zephyr was
to follow.

VESSELS SPOKEN \MIL —The Pink, Bonny, to Liver-
pool, sth ult , lat. 1. S., long, 20. W. ; Mary Somerville,
Liverpool to Calcutta, 12th, lat. 2. N., long. 22. W. ;
Wanderer, Calcutta to Liverpool, 13th, lat. 23. ; Ludlow,
Mauritius to London, same day, by the Delhi, Byron, ar-
rived off Hastings, which vessel experienced a very heavy
gale, sth inst., Ist. 39., long 34.: Amelia, from Liver-
pool, 13th inst., by the Peru, Fennings, arrived at Fal-
mouth ; African, Free, London to Cape Mount, 19th ult ,
lat. 7., long. IS. ; Ocean, Slattery, Waterford to Que-
bec, 13th inst., lat. 49 , long. 22., by H. M. S. Pelican,
arrived at Portsmouth ; Patriot, Nichols, from Constanti-
nople, 23d ult., off Malaga; Zephyr, Messina to Glasgow,
24th ult., by the Sultana, arrived at Portsmouth ; Mary,
Liverpool to New Orleans, lat. 28., long. 45., by the
David, arrived at Cork ; William, of Whitby, 12th inst.,
lat. 51., long. 13., by the Medora, arrived at Cork ; Gene-
ral Palmer, Down, Canton to London, lat. 11. N., lung.
12. W. ; Justina, Bentley, London to Calcutta, lat. 1. N.,
long. IS. W. ; H. M.S. Electra, bound to Rio Janeiro :
Iris, Ceylon to London, and Sybilla, Maurititus to Lon-
don, lat. 28 , long. 29. ; Tweed, Ross, Guttenburg to
Cape of Good Hope, lat. 2. N., long. 20. W., by the
Malabar, Pollock, arrived in the Downs; William Parker,
Sewell, Rio Janeiro to the Mauritius ; Mobile, Ogilby,
London to the Mauritius, eastward of the Cape of Good
Hope.

FROM THE LONDON GAZETTE.

CERTIFICATES—Mar 10.
C. Stovin, coach proprietor, Birmingham—C. Odlin, Jun.,
mercer, Stamford—J. Ray, builder St. Dunstan's Hill, City
--W. Pining, common brewer, Little Bolton, Lancashire—
W. Sweeting, linen draper, Fore-street, Cripplegate—J. Bris-
terve, ship broker. Poole—C. Sarill, grocer, Romford—J.
Money, builder, Shaw-cum-Donnington, Berkshire—J. Red-
dall, carpenter, Buithill-row—T. Barnett, Jun., ironmonger,
Wolverhampton.
PARTNERSHIPS DISSOLVED.
N. Hailes and H. G. Collins—F. Green and J. D.Durham,
paper stainer, Sutton-street, Clerkenwell—J. Brown and J.
Dodman, rod merchants, City—R. Bacon, jun. and J.
Bosely, tile makers, Caversham, Oxford—E. A. Knowles and
J. Knowles, worsted spinners, Grinton, Yorkshire—J. Hill
and H. Mullen, lace manufacturers, Nottingham—ll. Miller
and J. T. Slugg, soda-water manufacturers, Manchester—W.
Charles, J. Charles, W, A. Charles, and H. Travis, steel rollers,
Sheffield (so far as regards H. Travis)—T. Greig and J.
Brown, carpenter, Holloway—T. and M. Sykes, tarpauling
manufacturers, Halifax—W. Allen and A. Nicklin, brush
manufacturers, Walsall, Staffordshire—R. Walkington and R.
Carr, cheesemongers, High-street, Bloomsbury—J. Field, W.
Field, and 'l7. E. Field, drapers, Wallingford, Berkshire (so
far as regards W. Field)—L. Friedmann and A. Mode, im-
porters of cigars, Cannon-place, Mile-end-road—F. da Gama,
A. A. de Macedo, and J. R. Franco, merchants, Leeds.

SCOTCH SEQUESTRATION.
GEORGE SMALL, musical instrument maker, Edinburgh,
April 22, and May 7, at twelve, at the Old Signet Hall, Royal
Exchange, Edinburgh.

soners Moss came to the wharf, and presented the
letter now produced, with an order in the hand-writing
of Casper, jun., at the bottom, and be accordingly de-
livered the boxes upon it. Moss at the same time
writing across it. " Received the above, for J. Hy D., for
Marsh, Esq." The prisoner Moss came to the wharf about
half an hour after Casper, jun. had been there. Other
evidence was adduced, after which the prisoners were re-
manded until Tuesday week, and they were removed from
the bar,