The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-27 00:00:00

FRANCE.

The Paris papers of yesterday had not arrived
when we went to press. We have, however, re-
ceived the following telegraphic despatch

The rumour of Lord Palnierston'sreturn to office
caused a fall in the funds.

It was mooted in Paris yesterday that the Eng-
lish and French Governments had now very little
hope of a pacific solution of the Eastern question,
and that both France and England were about to
make preparations for an expedition to the Baltic
early in the spring. Sir Charles Napier was to
command the English fleet in that sea.
The Bourse was heavy yesterday, without much
business doing. The Three per Cents. closed at
73f. 75c. for the end of the month, being a fall of
65c. as compared with the closing prices of Satur-
day. The Four-and-a-Half per Cents., closed at
100 f. 75e. ; Orleans Railway Shares, 1,165 f. ;
Rouen, 1,040 ; Havre, 492 f. 50c. ; Great Northern,
867 f. 50. ; Paris and Strasbourg, 807 f. 50c. ; Paris
and Lyons, 905 f. ; Lyons to the Mediterranean,
745 f. ; Western of France, 685 f. ; Bordeaux and
Cette, 611 f. 25c. ; Great Central, 515 f. ; Lyons
and Geneva, 508 f. 75c. ; Shares of the Bank of
Credit Mobilier, 730 f.

TILE COAL TRADE.

(From the Daily News.)

Coals are frightfully dear and—How can they be
cheapened ? becomes an interesting question.
Lower freights would be one step towards cheaper
coals. Ministers intend (so rumour says) to pro-
pose to Parliament the opening of our coasting
trade to foreign shipping. This is a measure we
have repeatedly urged the necessity of ; seeing that
whilst our mercantile shipping for the long voyage
and for foreign trade generally is rapidly in-
creasing, no considerable augmentation of coasters
is concurrenty in preparation. Any and every
addition to our present means of transport coast-
wise will therefore be welcome. It is indeed quite
possible that such a measure may not at first add
very largely those means, and there is no fear of
the coasting trade of the greatest of all maritime
nations getting permanently into any other hands
than those of its own people. But, without anti-
cipating a great influx of foreign vessels to our
coasting fleet as a consequence of opening the
trade, it may reasonably be expected to have a very
considerable effect in improving the efficiency of
our coasting vessels, and by that improvement our
means of transport will practically be increased.
The truth is, that our coasting trade wants a fillip
such as competition only can give it. At present
it is a monopoly, and the pressure of a little rivalry
will in all probability quicken speed iu loading and
discharging, and navigating our coasters, improve
the seamenlike qualities of their skippers, and pro-
mote subordination and good conduct amongst the
men. Perhaps it will also tend to a more general
use of the screw propeller, an end very much to be
desiderated.

With the best coals now selling in the Coal Ex-
change at 325. and even 355. a ton, this question
of the coasting trade is a matter of very great im-
portance to London and its millions, for never, we
believe were stocks either in private houses or on
the retail merchants' wharves so low as they are
now. In June last the quotations had fallen to
155., and as the highest point reached in the pre-
vious winter was only 225., and the price of fuel
had for two years before been unusually moderate,
people generally were persuaded that coal would
remain permanently cheap. Stocks consequently
were not renewed, and here, at the commence-
ment of a severe winter, coal is selling for almost
as much as when, some forty years ago, it was
charged with 7s. Gd. a ton duty. In 1813 the price
of coals, charged with that duty, was 445. a ton ;
and in 1830, when it still had a duty of some 4s.
to encounter, it was only 275. Gd. a ton ; yet here
in 1853 it is quoted, all Government duty having
long since been repealed, at 345. Having had coals
at 14s. in both March, 1850 and 1851, and at only
Gd. a ton more in March, 1852, and having seen
them at 15s. in the summer of this year, we' may
well shiver at the present cost of fuel.
The consumption of coal in London during the
last twenty years has gone on very rapidly increasing,
and that without much reference to prices; until
now, in 1853, we use just double the quantity we
did in the year 1833.

In the Present year 1853, our consumption of
coals will have reached 4,000,000 tons, of which
probably railways and canals will have brought
upwards of 500,600 tons. The ratio of increased
consumption is greater than the ratio of increased
population ; for during the last twenty years it has
certainly not doubled itself, and the increased con-
veyance of coal by rail has, there can be little
doubt, diminished the area supplied through Lon-
don, many districts being now served direct instead
of from the Thames. With consumption increasing
at this rate, even in spite of prices now quite
doubled, it is satisfactory to observe that metro-
politan dependence on the north of England and
on shipping as a means of transport is somewhat
diminishing ; though as yet the amount of coals
brought by railway and canal has had no effect on
the value of sea-borne coal. On the other hand, it
must be recollected, that the question whether
railways can permanently carry coal at a profit is
yet undecided ; for though it is true present high
prices give them a profit, and a large profit, those
prices, it is to be hoped, are only accidental ; arid
the effect of the wear and tear of ctal traffic on rail-
ways has to be ascertained. Nor can it be over-
looked that, if railways are largely to increase their
coal transport, the number of their rails must either
be increased, or the traffic will fearfully augment
the dangers of railway travelling.
Within the last twenty years the coal trade in
the north has undergone a perfect revolution. The
Tyne has ceased to retain its " coaly" pre-emi-
nence ; many of the collieries famous in its history
have been given up, some exhausted, others un-
remunerative ; and the IVear and the Tees have
become much more important iiivers. The dis-
covery of coal beneath the magnesian limestone led
to the working of much larger mines as well as to
the production of much superior fuel, and by
means of railways from the Tees a great inland dis-
trict has been opened up in Auckland, previously
a very poor and worthless district. In that period,
too, a class of middlemen who bought from the
collieries, and sold in London, has been done away
with, and coals are now almost invariably sent
south for the account of the various collieries ; and
so the only charges between them and the retail
merchants are factorage and the abominable City
Tax.

Whilst, however, the capacity of Durham to sup-
ply coals has been greatly developed within that
period, new sources of demand have opened on it,
in the enormous extension of our steam fleet, in
the coke required for railway locomotion, and
other mechanical purposes, and in the growing de-
mand for British coal in foreign countries. Tho
example of France seems likely to be followed by
Belgium, and perhaps by Germany also ; and
though, owing to the obstructions created by an
absurd system of retail trade in Paris particularly,
the recent change in the French tariff may not
greatly increase French consumption of our best
household coal, it will lead to a very great demand
for manufacturing coal for the purpose of supplying
France with British iron. That change will, it is
said, create a demand for some 600,000 or 800,000
tons of our iron annually, and as, on an average,
it takes three tons of coal to make a ton
of iron, the effect on our coal trade must be very
considerable. Moreover, on the Yorkshire side of
the estuary of the Tees a new and most important
iron field is being worked, situate near a small port,
which a few years ago was created because of the
difficulties of navigating that river up to its old
capital Stockton, at a spot called Middlesborough,
where there is now a rising town with docks, rail-
ways, and an important trade, on what, twenty
years ago, was a beach, or little more than a fish-
ing village. Middlesborough is in truth the marvel
of the north of England. Ironstone, worth ten
years ago Is. 6d. or 2s. a ton royalty, is now
doubled or trebled in value ; small needy pro-
prietors have suddenly (to their own great surprise)
become rich men ; furnaces are rising up right and.
left ; and there are people who deliberately enter-
tain the opinion that instead of Middlesborough
exporting its 10,000 tons of coal a year, in not
many years it will be obliged to import coal to
supply its iron works. Time of course alone can
show how this will be ; but there can be little
doubt that the manufacture of Middlesborough
iron will have some of oct on the London coal
market, by increasing local consumption.
There is, however, abundance of fuel in England
to give us a cheap supply ; and nothing will more
tend to reduce present prices than increasing the
means of transport, and reducing the enormous
coal freights now obtained. So if Ministers really
do intend to ask Parliament to throw open
.our
coasting trade, they will do a v-ry sulis:.l)l thng,
and one that London, as well as the Coal Tr e,
will be very grateful for.