The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-07 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE•

MANSION-HO USE.
The LORD MAYOR received the following communication
on the subject of the coal trade, the complaints made about
which have given rise to a great deal of speculation and ap-
prehension in the North :
" My Lord—Seeing the coal monopoly again agitated in
Common Council, I take the liberty of handing you one of
our circulars. sent to all the Members of the House of
Commons, and some of the Members of the House of
Lords ; yet, notwithstanding all our legitimate exertions
towards the success of cur South Durham Railway Bill the
Lords literally kicked it out, and Lord Londonderry,
believe, absolutely had thirty or forty proxies in his pocket
to use, if necessary, besides. We have now tak upthe
line afresh, under the designation of the Newce Southen Dur-
ham Railway, to effect a junction with Clarence, at
their Buyer's-green Branch, by Way leaves_hi
into our coal-
field, which way leaves we have already obtained, so that
all the great Dukes, Lords, and Clergy cannot now stop
our coals from the London market. I would, therefore,
humbly suggest that you would be pleased to let this truth
be made known to the public at large from your Common
Council Chamber at your next meeting, and oblige your
most obedient servant:

a Whitfield House, Walsingham", jOAci‘ti.El:3lBW36.O 0 L E R.
The following is the circular :
Sir----It is with extreme reluctance .that we deem our-
selves
constrained to intrude upon you ; but we trust, in
representing the peculiar hardship of our situation, and in
displaying the cruel injustice which a body of coalowners
are attempting to perpetrate, that you will pardon this
abrupt intrusion, and afford us such aid as our case may
appear to entitle us justly to expect from every disin-
terested member of the Legislature and generous advocate
of justice.
" This considerable district (as our petition now before
the House of Commons describes), extending over several
thousands of acres of rich agricultural country, abounds in

" This serious impediment to our warfare and pros-
perity the local interests have made every effort to re-
move by the projection of a railway, called the South
Durham Railway, which would open out for remote
places more especially, a coal of superior quality. and
which is not inferior to any in the kingdom, a lime ad-
mitted on all sides to be the first agricultural manure in
England, and in extraordinary request wherever the dis-
tance and facility of carriage will afford the agriculturist
access. Of these two more particularly important mi-
nerals, now inadequately supplied, 'we are, it appears,
to be denied the benefit in consequence of the distant coal-
owners of Newcastle and Snnderland (in fact; those com-
prisinc, the whole coal trade of the north), regarding the
introduction of this excellent coal into the London or ge-
neral market with feelings both of a selfish and unjust na-
ture, and in resorting to every possible 'means, directly and
indirectly, to obstruct our successful application for an Act
of Parliament. We regret to say that as the welfare of a
large body. of agriculturists are at stake, as also the pros-
perity. and livelihood of thousands of persons of all grades
in society residing along the intended line of railway (who
are with scarcely an exception looking with intense anxiety
upon the exertions of the admirable measure, as well as
upon those of its interested opponents), we, landowners
and proprietors of property, are impelled to step forward,
and by an honest and plain statement to every friend of
equal justice and right to solicit his support ; and we, there-
fore, with a firm reliance on your unflinching advocacy of
the people's cause, beg most respectfully and earnestly to
implore you will have the goodness to institute an inquiry
into our representation, and in the event of your finding we
have truly conveyed to you a correct and honourable state-
ment, we trust that the inhabitants of this locality may
rely upon your invaluable interposition in Parliament in
their behalf ; and, reiterating our repugnance to occupy
your attention with any frivolous representation, and assu-
ring you we shall be happy to afford you every further ex-
planation, and that stern necessity has impelled us to this
appeal and intrusion, for which we offer you our sincere
apology, we, with the most profound respect and esteem,
beg to subscribe ourselves, Sir, yours, very respectfully."
(Signed by 26 Proprietors.)
It would be disingenuous not to state the arguments used
by those who deny that any monopoly exists in the north,
and assert that the evils of the system had their origin in
this metropolis. They say that the proposed increase of
price by the coalowners of the Tyne and Wear is 2s. on
the old Newcastle chaldron, or about 9d. a ton, a variation
in price which occurs in London every Monday, Wednes-
nesday, and Friday. So trifling an advance will, they argue,
have no effect whatever on the price charged by the coal-
dealer to the consumers, that price not depending on the
first cost of the article, but on the supply, and the de-
mand for it in London. The prices of coals in the north
very seldom varied, and, as they say, it is equally well
known that the prices in the London market fluctuate
every market day, a clear proof that the price in the north
has very little, if anything, to do with the price in London.
A ton of the best coals is, they declare, put on ship board
in the Tyne for 10s. 3d. The ship receives for carryinc,
that ton to London about the same sum, to which is to be
added 2s. 9d. a ton for the city of London and other charges.
These three items make up the sum at which the coals
are sold wholesale in the London markets, and the
price at which they are delivered frem the ship in the
pool ; but this price, of 235. a ton, is very different
from the charge made -by. the London coal-dealer to
the consumer. The north country coalowner there-
fore gets, they reason, not so much for his coals as
the London dealer gets • for the mere cartage of them
through the streets of the metropolis. The advancement of
a paltry 9d. a ton at Newcastle is, they add, nothing com-
pared to the imposing of 10s. or 20s. a ton, which is prac-
tised daily by the London coal-dealers upon their customers
and consumers, as the customers may satisfy themselves by
comparing the prices at which the coals are sold in the coal
market with the prices charged to them in the coal-dealers'
invoices. Upon these grounds the supporters of the northern
regulations agree in favour of the great owners. The price
paid by the consumers of coals in London is, they admit,
exorbitant, but the northern coal-owners are no way to
blame for it ; but the evil, they contend, is in London, and
that between the side of the ship and the consumer's cellar.
The LORD MAYOR observed, in allusion to the letter
which he received, that the question would, in all proba-
bility, be soon disposed of by the highest legal authority in
the country.