The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-11 00:00:00

nicnt ()f dividends and the conven:enees of temporary in-
vestments in a security bearing interest and always
marketable.

The accounts from Lancashire represent the cotton
trade to be in a more favourable position than, considering
the season of the year when it is usually inactive if not
dull, might be expected. There is little question that the
low prises at which raw cotton has ruled during the ye,tr
ended, arising conjointly from the very large: crop, the
largest ever known, of the previous year in the United
States, with the depressed state of foreign trade, must
have created an increased demand of cotton yarns for ex-
port to Germany from the temptation of low prices, as
well as during the latter months of the year a larger ab-
sorption among the manufacturers for home and colonial
consumption. For it is well known that no more shrewd
and calculating merchants are to be found than the Ger-
man and Russian merchants settled in Manchester, who are
the large purchasers for the supply of the markets of their
own countries, and as besides they have ample means at
command and unbounded credit, if credit they should
require, which is not the case, for they almost always
pay argent coniptant, it may be taken for granted that
they are not slow to avail themselves of the advantage of
laying in stocks when prices are at the lowest, although
they may not realise the sununuin bonam of economical
cant, of selling at the highest. It may be observed be-
siles that the manufacturers of Germany and those of
Russia have been but very slightly inconvenienced by that
crisis and untoward state of money and commercial affairs
in the United States which have so powerfully and preje.
dicially affected both France and England. For so far
as cotton manufactures Germany is but a very inconsider-
able exporter and Russia not at all. Hitherto they have
manufactured exclusively almost for home consumption,
which indeed neither one nor the other country has betii
enabled fully to supply.
It may be hoped, however, that the improvement in
the cotton trade is not solely owing to an increased export
demand for cotton yarns, a branch of manufacture which
yields the least profit of all to the country in the shape of
labour. The large capitalists who abound in Manchester
must also have been turning low prices of the raw material
to account, and laying in stocks at cheap rates, which from
their cheapness must tend to increase consumption both at
home and abroad.

According to the accounts of the cotton market from
Havre, it would seem that the cotton manufacturers of
France have partaken of the same sort of fortune as those
of this country. With a larger stock on hand at the com-
mencement and larvr arrivals during the year, there liNs
been a larger eonsumption than in any year preceding.
The account is thus stated :

Stock, Jan. 1.

1840.-57,000 bales
1839.-33,800 -
1838.-35,000 -

Arrivals in
the Year.

376,156
265,243
295,246

Consump- , Stuck
tion. Dec. 31

356,156 77,000
242,043 57,000
292,746 35 500

So that, as will be seen, stocks have increased, but con-
sumption has rateably increased also. As the amount of
cotton manufactured goods exported from France is com-
paratively inconsiderable, and chiefly confined to the sup-
ply of the colonies, these returns show a very advantageous
state of internal improvement in the condition of industry
and the industrial classes of France.

TIME S.—The state of the speculations in tea form a
topic of considerable interest in the City, purchases of
an immense amount having accumulated a correspond-
ing stock in a few hands under the impression that the
dispute with the Chinese rust inevitably diminish the
supply, and cause a much further advance in the price
of the article. Besides the great capitalists who hold this
stock, there exists a herd of smaller speculators who
buy and sell without touching stock of any kind, imitating
the speculators of the Stock-Exchange in making time
bargains, and further in giving the technical name of
" Consols" to the article principally dealt in, which is
the Company's cnngou. Among the greater part of
these the course of speculation has been for the rise, and
hence may be imagined the dismay which has spread
among them on the receipt of the last news brought
from China by the India mail, and which, unless
some untoward incident interposes, must necessarily lead
to a large additional supply. On the existing prices,
without such addition, the news has already had a con-
siderable effect. The day before the arrival of the mail
the price of " Tea Consols" was 2. !I- the lb. ; on the day
of the arrival the first fail was 1.81, afterwards to 1. ti
arid it left off on that day at 1.7 f. On the following day,
after having been at 1.8, it left off at 1.7 i to Sonic of
the brokers anticipate that it will fall much lower still.
but others, with greater confidence, and with the know-
ledge that the great bulk of the supply is held by capitalists
of great wealth and resources, who will not attempt to sell
at the present reduction, predict that there will be a mi-
terial recovery from the present depression. With this,
however, we have no concern, the sole object being to give
the prominent features of this as a remarkable piece of
" city intelligence."
The experienced brokers, and who are to be depended
on, say that the stock of tea in the country is not much
under 50,000,0001 b., which is equal to about a year arid h
consumption, and hence it seems pretty clear, as a
circumstance partly overlooked by the great leaders of the
tea speculation, who ought to have beer, better informed,
that notwithstanding the apparent stoppage of the trade,
the importations of the article have been kept up at a rate
not much inferior to that of a period of amicable relations
with the Chinese. Out of this, ins the way of carriers at
least, a splendid harvest must have been reaped by the
Americans. The difference in value of the above stock,
which may appear to constitute the actual loss of the
speculators, it forced to a sale by the inability to
hold on, will be nearly 25 per c,nt., or about 1,250,000/ ,
but it is to be considered that only a portion of the
purchases have been made at the high prices which
preceded the arrival of tire India mail, and that they have
commenced at prices not much above the present decline,
so that on balance the parties may not be in so very dis.
advantageous a position, though they have suffered oppor-
tunities of realizing to slip by them which may not return
for a very long time. The existing stock is not, of course,
that of London alone, but embraces the whole kingdom,
though it is estimated that nearly three-fourths is held in
London, and in few hands, as before stated, of whose abi-
lity to sustain it no doubt is entertained. Among the
smaller speculators, the makers of " time bargains," much
mischief is likely to occur, but of a nature not to be heard
of out of that immediate circle, nor to create any public
interest whatever. The retail dealers of London are be-
lieved pretty generally to have kept themselves out
of the vortex of speculation, and also to have avoided
any large accumulation of stock, buying, as it is
termed, from hand to hand, under a different im.
pression from that of the great speculators, and
believing that tire prices could not be maintained. The
great question with the large holders now is whether the
retail dealers will proceed to take in stock freely, or ad.
here to the same cautious policy, in the expectation of a
still greater fall in prices. That consumption must be in-
creased by the decline among private families is tolerably
certain, as the fact is well known that it had very much
fallen off during the last year, in consequence of the ad-
vance of price. This is, as near as may be, the present
situation of the great " tea speculation."
A rumour was current in the City to-day, originating,
probably, in this trade, that Government have, on the re-
presentation of the parties concerned, allowed the tea sunk
in the Westminster, off Margate, a short time since, to be
delivered for the purpose of having the salt water washed
out, and then to have it kiln-dried. The thing is not very
likely, as it is nut very obvious how the public are to be
protected from the mixture of an article thus damaged
with that of a better kind, and it may be doubted whether
any process could so purify tea saturated with salt water
as :o make it fit for consumption.
The payment of the dividends at the Bank of England
commenced to-day, and the same complaints are made a,
on the last occasion, of the great inconvenience to which
the public are subject by having to take their warrants for
several descriptions of stcck all at the same office. The
crowd of persons which naturally is collected together on
the first day of the payment used to be divided by the
division of the business into departments according to the
number of stocks. Now the only division is according to
the initial letters of the fundholders' names, and a delay en-
sues whenever a few persons of the same letter come as
holders of different stocks, the ceremony of referring to a
different book having to be repeated on the appearance of
each person. A desire to give more employment to a
fewer number of hands would seem to have suggested the
alteration ; but that seems scarcely sufficient reasons for a
sacrifice of the public convenience.

FROM FRIDSYNIGHT'S GAZETTE

DIVIDENDS.
At the Court of Bankruptcy, Basinghall-street.

A. J. M. Le Beaume, medical galvanist,- Argyle-street, Re-
gent-street, Jan. 29, at one—T. Willcocks, cabinet maker,
Jan. 30, at twelve.

In the Country.

G. Owen, mister, Efail Uchaf, Carnarvonshire, Feb. 2, at
twelve, at the Uxbridge Arms Hotel, Carnarvon—J. P. and P.
Jackson, wooldealers,ManchesterJan. 30, at 11, at the Commis-
sioners' Rooms, Manchester—G. Eld, miller, Fole>hill, Co-
ventry, Feb. 11, at twelve, at the King's Head Inn, Coventry
—J. G. Bowl, draper, Great Yarmouth, Feb I, at two, at the
Star Tavern, Great Yarmouth—S. Williams, apothecary,
Bristol, Jan. 29, at two, at the Commercial Rooms, Bristol—
S. Prioe, machine maker, Blackburn, Feb, 1, at twelve, at the
Town-hall, Preston—W. Maybury, commission agent, Trieste,
Feb. 5, at twelve, at the Clarendon Rooms, Liverpool—J. Ro-
bertson, draper, Wootton under-Edge, Gloucestershire, Feb.
5, at twelve, at the Commercial Rooms, Bristol.
CERTIFICATES—Jaw. 29.

J. P. and P. Jackson, wool dealers, Manchester—A. Duff,
jun., silk manufacturer, Fore-street, Spitalfields—W. John,
hackneyman, Bridgewater—W. Kay, draper, Bolton-le-Moors.
SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS.
DAVID DAVIDSON, brewer, Edinbu:gh, Jan. 13 and
Feb. 3, at two, at the Old Signet-Hall, Edinburgh.
WILLIAM LOW WRIGHT, Newford Park, Forfar,
Jan. 13 and Feb. 8, at twelve, at Morrison's Inn, Forfar.
JAMES SOMERVILLE, spirit merchant, Edinburgh,
Jan. 12 and Feb 2, at twelve, at the Royal Exchange Coffee-
house, Edinburgh.
WILLIAM RODGER, shoemaker, Forfar, Jan. 16 and
Feb. 13, at twelve, at Petrie's County Hotel and New Inn,
Forfar.

JAMES BISSET, confectioner, Schoolhill, Aberdeen,
Jan. 14 and Feb. 4, at twelve, at Machray's Royal Hotel,
Aberdeen.

FIRE AT NORTH BERWICK.—On Saturday
forenoon last, about ten o'clock, the inhabitants of the
burgh were alarmed at seeing volumes of smoke and flame
issuing from the attic story of a large tenement belonging
to a Mr. Walter, West Fenton. The conflagration for
about an hour had a very alarming appearance, and con-
siderable fears were entertained lest it might communi-
cate to the valuable premises and extensive shop of James
Dell, Esq., Chief Magistrate, on the east, or James Hislop,
leather-cutter, on the west. Fortunately, however, under
the exertions and superintendence of Robert Steuart, Esq.,
M. P., the authorities of the burgh, Captain Brown and
the coast guard, and the activity of the inhabitants, the
fire was subdued and confined to the premises where it
commenced. Several poor people and tradesmen have
suffered much loss of property, and been deprived of their
habitations at a most inclement season of the year.