The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-29 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

MANCHESTER, Aug. 28.—We have had a very
firm market for yarns, many persons asking higher
prices, though the advance to some extent checks
business. Still there has been business done at the
advance. At the rates of Tuesday and Wednesday,
or even of yesterday, a largo business could have
been done. In cop yarns for the home trade, as
well as in spinnings for export, the extreme prices
spinners are asking check business. There has
been a continuous improved tendency in prices
durieg the whole week, and manufacturers using
these yarns having supplied themselves pretty freely
for a fortnight past, and feeling that their imme-
diate wants are now to some extent provided for,
are rather disposed to hold back for a time, rather
than follow the advance any further. For India
40's cop yarn there is a good inquiry, but most of
the spinners of them are under order, and are not
in a position to seal. In the cloth market prices
continue to harden, and the advance is in some in-
stances so great as almost to stop business, While
the advance causes the buyers to pause, and neces-
sarily limits business, there seems to be a good
inquiry, leading to the impression that the demand
has not yet been fully supplied. The question seems
to be one of price, but where purchases have been
made they have mostly had to be made at the full
prices asked, which are an advance on Tuesday's
rates. The demand is principally in goods for
India, and manufacturers seem to feel they are sure
of getting their own terms by waiting. After the
large contracts many of them have already obtained
they do not appear over-anxious to take addi-
tional ones, except on better terms, though
the constantly-increasing costlof cotton renders thi;
very difficult. There are private telegrams to. nand
this afternoon from Calcutta to the Bth of August,
which report that there was more doing for heavy
cloths for up-country, at previous prices. There
are also advices from Bombay of the same date, re-
porting that market very quiet, and 71b. gray
skirtings 3d. per piece lower than they were a fort-
night previously. Cotton was unchanged, being
quoted 4.80 rupees for Dhollera and 4.60 for
Compta. The Calcutta report is considered better,
as more business was doing for consumption, at
previous prices; and with respect to Bombay it may
be remarked that the best season had not yet com-
menced at the date of advices.
LEEDS, 28th—The report of the Leeds Chamber
of Commerce for the month of August is as fol
lows :—" The improvement reported (in the woollen
trade) last month has been continued, and bath
merchants and manufacturers have had a fair
healthy demand for most kinds of woollen goods.
In addition to a brisk demand for fancy woollens for
wicter consumption, plain cloths have been much
inquired for, and the hopes held out in spring of a
revival of this old branch of the Leeds woollen
trade will apparently b 3 realised. The manufac-

turers are well employed, and many still working
overtime. The favourable harvest prospects have
imparted considerable animation to the trade in all
its branches. The London wool sales closed on the
21st inst. with great firmness. About 100,000 bales
of colonial wool passed the hammer, of which the
largest part was taken by the home trade.
Foreign buyers were, however, large purchasers, to
the extent probably of near 40,000 bales. There
has been a brisk demand for English combing
wools at full rates, and prices are very
firm. The demand for flax of most de-
scriptions has been less than in the previous month.
Prices are without much change, but firm, The
new crop in France, Belgium, and Holland is very
good, and has been secured in good condition. The
crop in England will also prove good. In Ireland
a much increased breadth was sown, and the pro-
duce will be very large. At the high prices which
flax now brings, its cultivation must be profitable

in comparison with corn; and there is every pros-
pect of flax Laing dear for some time to come, unless
a much larger supply of cotton should be obtained
than is now expected. Hemps are very firm. The
yarn trade is duller, prices remain without much
change. Threads are as before. The demand for
merchants' iron is good, and the makers are work-
ing overtime. The engineer tool trade has further
improved, and may be said to be in a good state.
Locomotive and railway plant makers remain as
before, and have large orders on hand. The cut nail
trade also continues brisk. There has been little
change in the leather market. The inquiry for
butts and bends has been limited. Stocks have con-
sequently increased, and the prices are somewhat
easier. In light leathers a fair business has been
done, particularly in calf skins and shaved hides,
the supplies of which have been unequal to the de-
mand. Prices are firm. Bearing upon the seed
crushing and oil trades, we have to note that the
harvest for rape seed is over. The quantity and con-
dition are satisfactory, and prices higher. The quan-

tity of linseed from the Baltic :ports is not so large
as usual, and prices are ruling very high. Rape oil
is in large demand, and prices are very firm, with
an upward tendency, an advance having already
taken place in the foreign markets. Linseed oil is
in fair demand for the season. Rates are rather
easier. Cakes are very firm, and in good demand
for forward contracts. Olive oils are dearer, the
consumption is large, and prices on the other side
are very high, with reports of small crops for next
season. The paper trade still continues in a quiet
state. Materials continue very scarce. The shoe
trade is, as usual at this season, quieter. A fair
business is, however, doing. The supply of cattle
during the last month has not been large, and the
demand has been about equal-to it. Number shown
—cattle, 1,482 ; sheep, 12,852. There has been a
fair business done in wheat at a considerable reduc-
tion in price. Barley nominal. Oats and beans
without much change. There is still a great breadth
of corn in this neighbourhood."
CARDIFF, Aug. 28.—The arrivals continue good,
but, in consequence of a strong easterly wind, vessels
cannot proceed down Channel, and Penarth Roads
are quite full. The demand for coal is very brisk,
and also for iron. although the recent rise has caused
a slight decrease. Freights show a higher rate.

ALFIERI AND ByaoN.--There is a Venetian
still living (we are told) who recollects Alfieri,
whom he saw once giving himself great airs in the salon of
the Countess of Albany; and Byron, who, he says, was
sometimes very haughty, sometimes very familiar, but
always shy, and whom he met every night during the car-
nival, which produced •` Beppo."

_ kr,
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HER MAJESTY.

The Queen in Germany.
The Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Prussia
and Prince Alfred took leave of her Majesty at
Rosenau on Tuesday last, and shortly afterwards
left Coburg by special train for Eisenach, on their
way to Potsdam. Their Royal Highnesses, accom-
panied by the Prince of Leiningen, arrived at the
latter place on Wednesday morning.
Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse are expected
to arrive at Potsdam on a visit in about a week.

Foreign Courts.
BRUSSELS, Aug. 27.
The King of the Belgians, accompanied by the
Duke and Duchess of Brabant, visited Bruges a
few days since, to witness a grand military festival
organised by a regiment of lancers quartered in the
city. The royal family met with a most enthu-
siastic reception on arriving at the place where the
sports were held, and also on their return to
Ostend. The King appeared to be in good health.
On Wednesday last, the anniversary of the death
of King Louis Philippe, the Belgian royal family
were present at a mass commemorative of the de-
ceased monarch.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge is
not expected to return from Germany until the second week
in the ensuing month.

Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cam-
bridge and the Princess Mary will leave Rumpenheim
towards the close of next month or early in October. In
the succeeding month the Royal duchess will go to Brighton
to pass a few weeks.

The Princess of Servia has left Paris for Venice.
His Excellency the Portuguese Minister has just
left town for the Contine.-.2 ,on leave of absence. The
Chevalier d'Oliveira remains in London as chary
d'Affaires.

Frances Anne, Marchioness of Londonderry, was
prevented receiving company at Wynyard last week, owing
to a severo indisposition, which has now abated.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Ailesbury have
been entertaining a select party at Jerveaux Abbey, their
seat in Yorkshire.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Waterford in-
tend to leave Homburg at the end of next month on their re-
turned home.

The Earl and Countess de Grey leave town to-
day for Studley-park, near Ripon, for a few weeks.
The Earl and Countess of Clarendon and the
Ladies Villiers are expected to return home towards the
end of the following month from Germany,
The Earl of Annesley has arrived at Weisbaden,
whither he has proceeded for the benefit of his health.
The Right Hon. Sir George Grey has arrived at
his seat, Fallodon, Northumberland, from Scotland.
Vice-Admiral the Hon. Sir Frederick and Lady
Grey have joined the party visiting the Right Hon. Edward
Ellice, M.P.. Mr. Ellice, M.P., and Mrs. Ellice, at Glen-
quoich, Invergarry, N.B.

The Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., MX...,
is daily expected in town from Geneva. Lady Emily Peel
is enjoying greatly improved health this year, and will in
all probability remain at their villa until th© close of the
autumn.

Sir William Codrington has returned to Dod-
ington from Filey.

Lieutenant-General and Mrs. Beckwith have left
Brown's Hotels Dover-street, for Silksworth House, Sun-
derland.

IMEMORY WOODFALL, THE FATHER OF MODERN
REPORTING.—It was his practice to go down
early to the House of Commons, and secure for himself a
favourite corner in the front row of the strangers' gallery.
There he sat the long night through, never budging from
his place, solacing himself, as he grew faint, with the in-
digestible but portable dainty of a hard-boiled egg, and
with his eyes and his attention fixed upon the various
speakers, but without taking a single note : the appearance
of a notebook or pencil would have led to immediate
expulsion by the sergeant-at-arms or his messengers.
He would absorb, as it were, the whole scene passing
before him, and would reproduce it on paper, to the extent
of several columns, in time for the publication of the
following evening. In this way he gave a character to the
Chronicle, which raised it far above all its contemporaries.
Other papers, of course, followed in his wake ; literary men,
blessed with good memories, became in great demand, and
were liberally paid—as literary pay went in those days—to
devote their nights to the gallery of Parliament, and their
days to writing out as much of what had passed there as
they could recollect ; but, so long as he had to encounter
only single reporters, Woodfall out-distanced them all.
Some of them might be equal to him in one part of the
work, others in another; one man might remember as much,
another might express it as elegantly ; and a third might re-
produce it with as much despatch; but Woodfall had the
union of all three, to an extent which none of them could
match. In that feature which was most apparent to the reader,
and in which they were most interested, some of his con-
temporaries were woefully behind him. It was no uncom-
mon thing for some of them to be seven days in arrear with
their parliamentary debates. As the memory of each un-
written day's proceedings grew dim with the fresh overlaid
stratum of the subsequent debates, it may be imagined that,
when they did at last appear, it was in a vapid and colour-
less form. Woodfall, on the contrary, was always methodi-
cal, and always punctual ; the debates were never delayed
beyond the following evening, so that members going down
to the house might purchase on the way the report of what
they said on the evening before. The very perfection to
which he had carried his system led to its downfall. Ho
could not be beaten by individual skill, he might be over-
powered by numbers. ' If ho did the work of six men, the
obvious resource of a rival was to engage six men to do the
work, and this way was not long in being struck out.
From London Editors, in London Society for September.
INVENTION OF MILLS.—The earliest mills were
hand-mills. [Think of that, Bob Travers !] In
Egypt, in Arabia, in Palestine, and even in Greece, it was
the young girls who turned them. There is still shown at
Mecca, in a beautiful house which passes for having been
that of Khadidje, a cavity, where, according to tradition,
Fatime, surnamed the Splendid, the daughter of Mahomet
and the wife of Ali, turned her mills. The wives of the
Arab scheiks still at the present day pursue this painful
occupation. Under the reign of the son of Clovis, Saint
Radegonde, Queen of France, herself ground all the sour
which she made use of during Lent. The invention of
water-mills is ascribed to Mithridates. A certain fact is that,
at least, they existed in his time. Among other proofs, some
charming verses of Antipator of Thessalonica are quoted :
—" Ye who have hitherto been employed to grind our grain,
let your hands henceforth repose. Sleep, 0 woman, undis-
turbed. It is no longer for you that the birds announce
the coming of the dawn. Ceres has c)mmanded the Naiads
to perform your labours. They obey, and swiftly turn a
wheel which rapidly moves the heavy millstones." The
Romans did not give water-mills all the perfection of which
they were capable till Constantine had abolished slavery.—
ihe Court Chronicle.

RICHARDSON, THE GREAT NOVELlST.—Richard-
son has had, and still retains, an extraordinary
influence over the imaginative literature of France. He
never loses sight of the conduct of history, and, though
inferior to Smollet and Fielding in his delicacy of treat-
ment, we recognise a fine order of art. The conceptions of
character in Lovelace, Clarissa, Clementine, are founded in
the preference of generals to particulars; that is, they are
enduring types of great subdivisions in the human family,
wholly irrespective of mutations in scene and manners.
The knowledge of the world manifested in the creation and
completion of such characters is
subtler and deeper than
Smollett or even Fielding exhibits in his lusty heron and
buxom heroines. Despite the weary tediousness of Richard-
son's style, the beauties which relieve it are of a kind that
bear translation or paraphrase into foreign languages with
a facility which is, perhaps, the surest test of the inherent
substance and cosmopolitan spirit of imaginative writings.
The wit and
.hardihood of Lovelace, the simplicity and
n
if
"Blackwood"
kde
emus,:
gni
dnt Clementine,
every
orrfiyn
cdi
va
utterance
hnegerulzoafgytey;topanansdsini passion
Sep-
tember.

THE HOP CROPS IN KENT AND SUSSEX.—The
proverbial precariousness of the hop crop has been
fully exemplified in the hop-growing districts of Kent and
Sussex during the present season. Only a few weeks
ag) the prospects of anything like a good crop were any-
thing but bright, and in many of the plantations it was
expected that the crop would be a complete failure. About
three weeks ago, however, an unexpected- change for the
better took place, and the seasonable rains of the last few
days have come most opportunely to the rescue of the plant.
These showers have proved of the greatest benefit, having
almost completely cleared the plant of the vermin with which
it was previously infested,and in many gardens the bine, thus
invigorated, has taken quite a fresh start, and thrown out
a considerable quantity of burr on the lateral shoots, which
is now rapidly coming into hops. The high wind of Thurs-
day has blown the plant about a good deal in some plan-
tations, but the damage thus occasioned is guile inconsi-
derable. The warm sunshine by which the recent rains
have been succeeded will prove highly favourable to the
development of the hops ; and should it continue, the hop
planters will be agreeably disappointed in the crop obtained.
Picking has already commenced in numerous gardens.
The hops as yet picked, however, are rather inferior la
quality,