The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-02 00:00:00

r large scale by private treaty, but chiefly on speculation.
and for inferior qualities stiffer rates are obtained, butfor
superior kinds of white Bengal prices remain such the NT
came as on this day week. At auc:iiin 4,000
bags and 1,000 packets were for the most fi,\*
part sold ; tuithiblig and good vviulte weft! at
9s to 10s 61, low mid 8s 6d to 9., damaged 71563 to 94-4.`!!'(70.1.'-'7
good cargo 7, 6,1. very fine- 9s, Penang barley grin
and bold yellow Arracsn is 6d to 8s per els'''. Cleaned
his Iza en OrliV in ;united request; towr, dressed Carotins
20s to 255, 'Patna low to 114 e 13s to 19., and Afficrie"
cleaned 18s to 20s per cwt; there is also an increased ,-.rt.
supply. •
6PIRITS.—For Leeward Island Rum the market has
a dull aspect,. and prices are on the decline. Only small
purchases have been made at is 3.1 d to Is .4fel proof
strength. East India is lid to is 3d. Vemerara
Is 10d to 2s 2d for 28 to 33 per cent over-
proof, and 2s 3d to 2s 4d far 34 to 40 over-proof.
For better kinds former rates are kept up, still
there is not a brisker sale. Wo quote plain and inid
quality 23 to 30 per cent over proof at 2. 7d to 2. 9`d,
good mid 2s 10d to 3s, good 32 to 36 over 3. to 3. 4d,.
and better sorts 3s 6d to 4s 2d per gallon. Of Brandy,
deliveries for home trade purposes have bean exten.ive
since this day week. On the part of holders there is
firmness ; a good business has been concluded, and
former rates are well kept up for all sorts. Sales to a
fair extent have been made in Geneva ; the value of
ordinary is is 9d to is 10d, and fine fit for duty 2.1 d to
3s 3:1 ; upon these terms there is, however, a desire 10
sell. British made Spirit is held for formar rates, Lilt
there has been only a limited business concluded.
TALLOW —There is firmness on the part of holders oiC
Russian, and the rites insisted upon on the spot are 38s
9d to 39s per cwt fur fine P.Y. Candle, still the trade
have been purchase rs to a moderate extent only.
For delivery in the last three months of the year
there has been a goad business concluded at 39s 6d to
40. and at which the market is firm. Home melted
has been only in limited request at 39s to 39s 6d on :the
spot nett cash, and the supply does not get smaller.
Other sorts of Tallow realised full rates, although the
amount on offer is still large. At public sale 620 casks,
and 480 boxes of South American were for the moat
part sold at 378 to 39s for good to fine, and at 348 to
39s 6d for low to mid; 430 casks New South Wales, low
to fine 34s to 38. 3d per cwt. For auction 1,000 pkgs of
Tallow are declared. Rough Fat 2s 2d per stone.
OILS.—In Cod Oil only small purchases have been
made at 261 per tun. Seal—pale 30/, straw and tinged
281 lOs to 20/ 10s, and other sorts 261 10s to 281. For
Southern holders ask 30/ to 311 for fine, and 281 to 291
10. for low to mid. Sperm—at auction a part
only of 90 tuns Colonial found buyers at 761 105
to 78/, inferior 651 to 72/ 15s per tun. Linseed Oil
26s 3d to 26s 6d per cwt on the spot. Only small sale*
have been made for delivery at 26s 6d to 26s 9d, at
these rates a desire is shown to sell. For Palm a good
demand exists, and pricei are firm, as the supply
does not get upon a larger scale, fine has been selling at
335 Cd to 345. Rapeseed Oil is wanted, but the supply
continues small, and the yates paid are for brown 37s 6d,
pale 38s to 38s 6d, and foreign 39s to 39s 6d. Cocoa
Nut is little wanted, still holders are firm; Ceylon
is held for 36s to 375, and Cochin 37s to 38s per cwt.
Olive is offered at rather lower rates, and only small
sales have been made, the stock is also getting upon a
larger scale. Gallipoli can be purchased at 421 to 42/10s.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, May 1.
Their Lordships assembled at Five o'clock.
The Bishop of EXETER presented a petition against
one of the clauses of the Criminal Law Consolidation
Bill. The Right Rev. Prelate then alluded to the case
of the confirmation of the Bishop of Hereford, and the
decision of the Court of Queen's Bench thereupon, inas-
much as that clause legislated on the case.
Lord BROUGHAM said that as the judges bad been
equally divided no decision at all had been come to on
the subject.
The Bishop of EXETER thought that the opinions
of the judges ought to be taken before their Lordships
legislated on that subject.
Lord Redesdale presented a petition against the Rate
in Aid Bill.
The Bishop of CASHEL presented a petition from
Waterford, in favour of a Health of Towns Bill.
The Duke of ARGYLL presented a petition in favour
of the Bill for the prevention of seduction.
RAILWAYS.
Lord BROUGHAM rose to address their Lordships on
a subject which was second to none, involving as it did
a vast entanglement ot the capital of this country, and
one deserving the most attentive consideration of the Go-
vernment and of Parliament, because whatever might
be its ultimate result, it in its present details involved
most serious apprehensions. if there were any who in
former ) ears were blind to the possible evils that might
result, and who were callous to the appeals made to the
feelings resapecting the damning mania which then pre-
vailed, and who, for want ot warning, made Parliament
as it were an accomplice in their deeds, he was not
one ; for he in common with the Noble Duke,
and with a Noble Friend whose loss he
lamented—he meant the late Lord Ashburton—had
warned Parliament not to encourage this madness of
gambling, and the country to stay in its progress to-
wards destruction. Those warnings had been riven in
vain. They had suffered those Bills to become
law, and those nuisances to be erected by conferring
upon those companies the most extraordinary powers
of dealing with property. He was speaking now
not of private enterprizes, but of public bodies
exercising extraordinary powers conferred upon
them by Parliament. They had interfered with
properties strictly settled, and had enabled these parties
to erect their works and drive their engines through the
private property of individuals. They had set private
property at naught to promote the railway interests, on
the ground that private interests must give way to public
interests. They had done more, they had enabled these
joint-stock companies to receive „subscriptions to an
enormous amount. All political philosophers had agreed
that in forming joint-stock companies to take capital in
small shares, care should be taken nut to seduce more
capital into those channels than the wholesome state of
the country wouid require. But as everything was to be
sacrificed to locomotion, as the old mode of travelling at
the rate of 10 miles an hour with horses was
to be destroyed, they established those companies,
enabling persons whose object was not locomotion—
who did not care one straw if one inch of the rail-
ways were never made—who were makers of plans
and of attorneys' bills—to go on without the least
regard to the making of railways. They had also
made themselves accessories before the fact to the doings
of another class of persons, the traffickers and gambler',
to obtain shares to be disposed of in the market, to
obtain from ignorant dupes the stocks which
they paid into their own coffers, and on the ruin
of private persons to erect princely fortunes.
In one session no less than 519 Railway Bills were
passed. Their Lordships had no idea of the careless-
ness with which they had passed those Bills. In one
Bill they had enabled the Great Western Railway
to put in evidence any extracts from its
books, copied by a charity boy, and had even
allowed an entry of payment in these books, if the pay-
meat of rates is to be taken as conclusive evidence of
such payments having been made. What had been the
consequence of these proceedings ? In the course of
four or five years, capital in England and Scotland alone
had been invested to the amount of 180,000,0001., and
actually paid up. No great wonder if the mouey-market
should feel this. No wonder if Chancellors of the Ex-
chequer should all be in alarm at hearing of 180,000,0001.
being withdrawn from the capital of the country. We had
also experienced a commercial and money crisis ; and the
last time he had spoken to Lord Ashburton on the sub-
ject, he had said that it was worse than in 1524.182 b.
The gambling money-maker was rivalled by the thrifty
Scot. Gambling had crossed the Tweed, and the careful
Scot rivalled the careless Englishman in his devotion to
their gambling speculations. Ireland had contributed
5,000,0001. (although he believed the greater part of that
came from England), and Demerara and the colonies
had also contributed large sums in addition. But that
was not all, there were calls yet to be met
to the amount of 140,000,0001. of good money, which
remained to be sent atter the bad money. The poor
people who had incurred these liabilities did not know
when they might be called upon to pay them. When
they found this state of things they might look forward
to another panic. 160,000,0001. bad not been auffi
cient to satiate the maw of this ravening pest,
but 150,000,0001. more might be required. This
mania of gambling overwhelmed the soil. He feared
that those gambling propensities could not be indulged
safely. Ile was sure that no more mischievous change
could take place in the habits of any nation than for its
inhabitants to become reckless gamblers instead of honest
traders. It was not meiely common gambling in shares
which took place, but contrivances were had recourse: •fit
the object being not to make railways, but to ma
to
profit
by shares. The object was to obtain shares, not
was a
good
them. The shareholder did not think Brag
dog and
for the present, but
Holdfast a better—he was
i of shares. He would
oldttooast.
but 10 per cent.
guarantee not 3, or 4, or 5 p
His object was to raise the
had invested money in public securities thought he could
for a certain number of years. Thus the poor man e•ho
secure a large income, and What d
of those share.%
rose 10 or 12 per cent. What did Mr. Holdfast ?
he was Holdfast no longer, he became Brag—he brought
his shares into the market, and sold them to some poor
surgeon for a premium, who thought he was made
for life. The next year this poor surgeon found he
was called on to pay 25 per cent. on those shares.
pehrroe
cent., pi e d Bragj
He was a ruined man, for he had paid all his
savings to purchase those shares, and down came the
price of those shares in the market. Mr. Holdfast bad
made his fortune, but the poor surgeon was ruined. But
then how was this ten per cent. guaranteed to be paid ?
It was paid out of capital. That was the secret. Mat
said the projectors? Nothing ; their only object was t
get shares up to a premium and to sell shares, that was.
all they cared for. Then there were persons who did
all they could to bring down the price of shares, and
when they had brought them down to below their real
value they purchased, then they did all they could to
raise them and sold them. He knew another instanc.tfe
where a large capitalist in the City managed, by !fe.lle
known contrivances, to lower the market price47cn _
shares of a certain railway company, and thenteace g
mints
purchased a large quantity of shares on his ow_
cehnis
shares,
two
by the attraction ot a 10 per cent. guarantteedwdhivaitdeinot
raised the price of the shares 20 per ,
lowed? Mr. Holdfast got rid of all
would refer to a friend of his, .
thousand he believed, and thus I,cilreaildtt4ol3o:ooofoß/.
properly considered
died worth 50 share.. Ills. friend
who succeeded as legatee or executor to a person who
that those shares should be inquired into, and tbereup on
requested of the railway directors to allow him to set
their books. They for some time hesitated, stating
that they bad a clear balance of thirty-two thousand
pounds in the hands of their banker. lie (Ur. Hutton)