The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-05 00:00:00

THE COAL TRADE.

(From the Hull Observer.)
" The advance in the price of coals," says the Newcastle
Journal, " at this and the neighbouring ports, is causing
considerable discussion , and as we have been favoured with
a list of prices proposed to take effect on the first of next
month, we think it right to publish it for the information of
our readers. This list, when compared with the prices
charged for this important article of general consumption
at other places, shows a striking advantage in favour of the
manufacturing and other interests of this district concerned
in its use. In Manchester, we are informed, the price is
Ins. per ton ; in Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, and in
Wales, from 16s. 6d. to IBs. per ton. At Newcastle and
other ports in the vicinity, the prices per ton of the dif-
ferent sorts of coals are as follow, viz. (the list is long, the
lowest rate being 65., and the highest 10s. 3d. per ton.)"
The low price of coals at Newcastle, and the enormous
price paid by the consumers in London, it is difficult to re-
concile. No doubt Alderman Wood and Mr. Charles
Pearson can give a satisfactory explanation on this point.
One important item in the cost of coals in London is the
freight paid for conveying them there, and this is a matter
to which we wish to draw the attention of our own ship-
owners. We understand it is 10s. per ton, and it is esti-
mated to leave a profit of not less than 50 per cent. per
annum on the capital embarked in colliers. We have al-
ways considered the timber trade with British America
highly remunerative to shipping, though most injurious to
the nation, but it. seems it is not to be compared with the
coal trade. We do not find fault with the shipowners of
Newcastle and Sunderland, who are the principle owners of
colliers, for charging this great freight, because it is the duty
of men engaged in business to get all they can. We are
only desirous to stimulate our own shipowners to attempt
to obtain a share of this very lucrative trade, which is quite
open, and can be as advantageously conducted by one class
of shipowners as another, if we except the London ship-
owners, who, it must be confessed, are rather the best
situated, inasmuch that if a cargo arrive at a bad market,
the ship may be laid up with the cargo on board until
prices improve, and the crew discharged, which cannot so
conveniently be done with ships belonging to outports.
Should our shipowners take our advice, they will discover
that there arc better ways of employing shipping, both as
respects themselves and the sailors, than risking their pro-
perty in the whale fishery. Our sailors are greatly in need
of winter employment.

On the 24th ult., Mr. Nathaniel Bradley, butcher,
at Hawkwell, near Rayleigh, was found dead in a stable. He
had been shooting small birds in the morning, and his wife, on
going to the stable, found him lifeless, and a gun and shovel
by his side ; she fell senseless on the body, and remained so
two hours. It appeared the gun had been discharged, and the
features not being mutilated it is supposed the charge must
have entered his mouth, as the contents had passed through
his head. He had been married only a few months, and was
about 25. An inquest was held on Monday. Verdict—Acci-
dental Death.—Essex Herald.
A GHOST.—The inhabitants of the lonely portion
of Pentonville, beyond Maiden-lane, called the " French Co-
lony," have for some weeks past been in a state of conside-
rable excitement and alarm, in consequence of the reports of
a ghost, of colossal form, habited in the regular spectral cos-
tume of a white sheet, with a black mask on his face, having
been seen stalking about the fields and lanes by several per-
sons, to whom his formidable appearance gave great alarm ;
indeed, one of the " ghost seers," a little girl of about thirteen
years of age, was so excessively frightened as to have been
ever since entirely bereft of speech and reason. The police
were apprised of the circumstance, and made several endea-
vours to apprehend him ; but apprised by some means of their
solicitude, he kept aloof for some nights. On Wednesday
evening last, however, as two men were returning across the
fields from Copenhagen House, they espied a tall figure start
up from behind a cow, where it had evidently been couchant,
and advance with rapid strides towards them, uttering most
awful groans. The men, however, had heard of his ghostship
before, and waited his approach, "sans pcur," till he got
within range of their sticks, when they knocked him down,
and continued belabouring him most unmercifully, till his
screams convinced them that it was flesh and blond upon which
they were so vigorously exercising the argumentum baculinum,
and brought the police to the spot. He was immediately car-
ried to the station-house, where it was discovered, from his
severe castigation, he had three ribs broken, besides the other
parts of his corporeal person being terribly battered and
bruised. The next morning he was taken before Mr. Laing,
at Hatton-garden Police-office, and by that Magistrate sen-
tenced to three months' imprisonment in the House of Cor-
rection, which it is to be hoped will operate as a warning to
him and to others not to play tricks of so injurious a tendency
in futiwst