The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-11 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

MANCHESTER, Feb. 10.—In yarns there has been
almost a total cessation of business. To effect sales
sellers would have to accept ld. per lb. under the
rates of Friday, and even at that decline it is doubt-
ful whether the buying would have been large.
There have been many low offers made for the pur-
pose of testing prices, and in order to see how far
spinners would go in accepting a decline, but we
hear of very little business resulting from them.
The cloth market has also been very inactive since
Friday. There has, indeed, been an almost total
absence of business for all markets. Manufacturers
and holders of cloth on speculation show a certain
degree of firmness, but in cases where sales have
been made to-day there has been more or less of con-
cession in prices. The cause of depression appears
to be the same as that in the cotton market at Liver-
pool, and there can be no doubt that it arises in a
great measure from a growing apprehension that
the American struggle is approaching a close, and
that a settlement will be effected either through
mediation or the exhaustion of the belligerents.
What such an impression may be worth is another
question. There are telegrams from Bombay and
Calcutta. The latest from Calcutta (26th January)
reports shirtings 2 to 4 annas (3d. to 6d.)
higher, and yarns firm; and that from Bombay
(27th of January) shows some improvement there.
These advices, however, have led to no
increase of business in this market, but
though the operations have been few we do not
hear of many sellers who are pressing sales.
The advice to a recent date give the prices of cotton
cloths in India and China at 6d. to 7d. per lb. below
the buying prices here, which is equal to 4s. to 4s.
Bd. per piece on an 81b. shirting; so that there does
not seem to be much probability of a resumption of
shipments of any magnitude for those markets at
present. Shippers appear to be of opinion that under
no circumstances, even if the large stocks still in
India were cleared off, can we expect to have any
considerable revival of trade at the present high
rates. Messrs. Pender and Co. say :—" The whole
question of the consumption of cloth is one of price.
Will the same quantity be consumed, with cotton at
18d. per lb., that has been consumed when cotton
was 6d. ? We think not." The periods when we
have had the largest shipments to all markets, and
when dealers could push the sales of calicoes to the
largest extent, have been those when the cost of
cotton cloths here has been as low as ls. (and under
that) per lb. The quotations here last week were
2s. to 2s. ld. per lb. (and these far from remunera-
tive to manufacturers at the current rates of cotton).
Assuming that the fund which consumers of cali-
coes have to expend is about the same as in 1860,
the measure of our trade at present prices will be
something less than half what it was, even if the
insufficiency of supply does not still farther curtail
it. Messrs. Pender and Co. estimate the cotton sup-
ply for the present year at 20,000 to 21,000 bales,
against 48,000 bales per week in 1860, which, they
say, will apparently be sufficient for the demand
anticipated. Whether millowners can be induced
to use up even the supply of cotton we now
have depends very much upon price and upon the
steadiness of the cotton market, which at present is
subject to great fluctuation and to sudden checks
through the spirit of speculation which manifests
itself from time to time. The prospects of our ope-
rati,es, therefore, whatever the returns as to a pre-
sent increase of employment may seem to indicate,
cannot be very cheering until we have a larger and
cheaper supply of cotton. To the present time the
distress does not appear to have told upon the com-
mercial equally with the operative classes. In Man-
chester, for instance, where the mill operatives are
in far less proportion to the total inhabitants than
in surrounding towns, we have not yet that evidence
of distress in closed houses and places of business
which marked long periods of depressed trade prior
to the repeal of the Corn Laws. In a return made
at one of the periods referred to it was stated that
upwards of 7,000 houses, shops, and places of busi-
ness were tenantless, and no one could walk through
our streets, and especially into the suburbs, without
evidences of ruin and decay meeting the eye. In
the present crisis we have not yet reached this state
of things, or at least the evidences of distress do not
challenge attention to the same extent or in the
same way. If we have had only half the quantity
of cloth to sell, it has changed hands many times
(owing to speculation), and it has been sold at
double prices; so that agents have been enabled to
reap double the amount in commission they would
otherwise bave been entitled to. Perhaps it is a
misfortune, however, that under such circum-
stances business does not always flow in the
same channels as formerly, and that while some
business men, going in the olden and ap-
proved tracks, have not made rent and office ex-
penses, others, more alive to the exigencies and cir-
cumstances of the time and trade, have monopolised
more than a fair share of the profits to be had. In-
stances are known of men who have made immense
r sums of money, apparently building up sudden for-
tunes amid the wreck and decay around them. Even
manufacturers, in some instances, stepping out of
their own line and entering the field of commerce,
have realised fabulous amounts ; but such cases are
rare, and, millowners, as a rule, are, like their work-
people, not only suffering severely from their in-
comes having been suddenly cut off, but see their
capital gradually wasting and in danger of disap-
pearing altogether. Nor can it be expected, if the
present dearth of cotton long continues, that the
exceptions pointed out in favour of the commercial
classes will continue. A contracting business will
naturally contract into few hands, and:poverty and
distress will spread till they they embrace men of
all classes alike within their grasp.
LEEDS, Feb. 10.—The cloth halls this morning
have been very thinly attended, and very few goods
were on offer of the kind which just now are most
inquired after. A large clearance of low meltons
and light spring fancies having taken place on Sa-
turday, the manufacturers have not had sufficient
opportunity to replenish their stocks. No doubt
any future supplies will be eagerly bought up, not-
withstanding the slight advance in price which took
place at the end of last week. The trade in good
plain cloths is almost at a stand, but some of
the oldest houses in the trade anticipate a strong
revival. This idea is encouraged by the fact that
the trade is now much quieter than it has been
known to be for a long time in the large districts
where cloths are manufactured by an admixture of
other materials with wool. _ _ .

NOTTINGHAM, lOrix.—At this Exchange hall to-
daypT
hoed
yaet
rt ehn
tdraandcee
svo
af
smcieurice ht an
manufacturers. there was a
;
and the
al
alteration in prices was very slight. The
dull advises from Liverpool had a tendency to check
sales in hosiery yarn. Brown nets were about the
same as on Friday.

ROCHDALE, 9TH.--The flannel market has been
rather quiet to-day. Some kinds of goods have been
advanced in price by the manufacturers, which
caused buyers to put some restriction upon their
purchases and their orders. In Yorkshire goods there
is a steady business at late prices. Wools are very
firmly held by the staplers, and a moderate business
is doing.

ACTS OF UNIFORMITY AMENDMENT BILL.—The
bill which Lord Ebury has laid before the House of
Lords proposes to repeal so much of the Acts of Uniformity
as requires ecclesiastical functionaries to "declare their un-
feigned assent and consent to all and everything contained
and prescribed in and by the Book of Common Prayer."
But the bill is to leave untouched the clause which requires
such persons to declare " that they will conform to the
Liturgy." The bill proposes also to declare that the enact-
meat which requires that morning or evening prayer be read
before the preaching of a sermon or lecture, and that the
lecturer be present at the reading thereof, is to be deemed
to extend only to the case of a sermon or lecture preached
by a lecturer properly so called, and not to a sermon
preached by the incumbent or his curate,
CHESS IN PARIS.—M. Koliach, who now writes
on chess in the .Nord, has the following :—" A
chess-soiree took place a few evenings back at the residence
of the Countess de Colbert.
,Among the persons present
were arus, l Morphy, M. de Riviere, one of the best
French players,
Paul Morphy,
M. Preti, the author of several well-
known works. We cannot unfortunately offer to our readers
the games played on this and other occasions lately between
Mr. Morphy and M. de Riviere ; we can only announce the
result of five games played—three were won by M. de Ri-
viere, and two by Mr. Morphy."