The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-03 00:00:00

would appear, are compromised in the late Cir istina
movements, and their entrance into this country
was caused by their finding no sympathy at Zamora
and Toro, whence they were driven by the National
Guard. The men were disarmed by the Portuguese
authorities, and the Minister fee Foreign Affairs here
has officially communicated to the Spanish Envoy at this
Court, M. Aguilar, that orders have been given to re-
move them all into the interior.
The revenue of the Lisbon Custom-house and Excise-
office, and Custom-house of Oporto, for the month of
September last, paid in debentures, ex-paper money, and
coin, amounts conjointly to 304,018,987 reis (equal to
69,6711. Os. 4d. sterling), showing a decrease on the pre-
ceding month of August, of 13,9141. 4s. sd. sterling.
Exchange upon London, at 30 days' sight, 53id. to 54d.
per milrei.
M. Joaquim Ferreira Borges goes by this packet, as
Portuguese Envoy to St. Petersburgh.
" FINANCE OFFICE—THIRD DEPARTMENT.
" Donna Maria, by the grace of God, and by the Con-
stitution of the Monarchy, Queen of Portugal and Al-
grieves, &c., make known to all our subjects, that the
General Cortes have decreed, and we have sanctioned,
the following law : •
" Article 1. The premium of 15 per cent. granted by
the first article of the decree of the 16th January, 1837,
upon goods, merchandise, and manufactures imported in
Portuguese vessels admissible into the custom-houses of
the kingdom and islands adjacent, is hereby abolished.
" Par. 1. The goods, merchandise, and manufactures
shipped in places or ports where the Portuguese flag is
not admitted, imported and cleared for consumption,
shall pay the respective entry, and further, one-fifth of
the amount of the said duties.

" Par. 2. The goods, merchandise, and manufactures,
shipped in places or ports where the Portuguese flag
shall be admitted, and not be subjected to differential
duties, imported in foreign vessels not belonging to the
place where the goods, merchandise, and manufactures
are produced, upon clearance for consumption shall also
pay the respective duties, and further, one-fifth part of
the amount of the said duties.

''Par. 3. The goods, merchandise, and manufactures
shipped in places or ports where the Portuguese flag
shall be subject to differential duties, imported in foreign
vessels and cleared for consumption, shall pay the re-
spective duties, and as much more as the Government
may be under the necessity of imposing, in accordance
with the Bth article of the General Custom-house
duties, established according to the Act of the 11th
of March, 1841.
_ _

" Art. 2. The provisions of the present law shall come
into operation three months after its publication, as re-
gards goods, merchandise, and manufactures imported
in vessels coming from the ports of Europe and North
America ; and in six months as respects all other ports.
" Art. 3. All other laws to the contrary are hereby
revoked.

" We, therefore, command that all authorities to whom
the cognizance and execution of the said law may be-
'will fulfil and act upon it, and cause it to be ful-
filled and acted upon, according to the full intent and
meaning thereof.

" The Minister of Finance shall cause the same to be
printed, published, and distributed.

- " Given at the Palace of Necessidades on the 18th of
October, 1841.

" THE QUEEN.
" ANTONIO JOZE D'AVILA."

THE DISTRESSED PRINTERS OF

LONDON.

AN APPEAL TO THE NOBILITY, GENTRY, &c.
" When sorrows come they come not in single pairs,
But in battalions."
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR—In soliciting the favour of insertion in your
Journal of the following observations, I trust the pressing
urgency of the subject herein discussed will be read not
as mere matter of detail, but one that shall receive at
the hands of the public generally that benevolent atten-
tion which its appeal so justly entitles it to :
" Gentlemen—The humble individual who has taken
upon himself the onorous task of submitting a few plain
remarks to your candid perusal, is one who belongs to
that numerous but depressed body styled Letterpress
Printers. It is no supposititious averment when I say,
(and hundreds can attest the fact), that during the
lengthed period of the art of printing (about four cen-
turies), there never has occurred a time in which such
distress from the want of employment has been felt
amongst its members as in the present year, 1841. Like
other trades, there is always a portion of the year in
which work is scarce, particularly when Parliament
is not sitting ; but for the whole of the last six months
the Letterpress Printers have been driven nearly to their
wit's end by a stagnation in their calling the oldest man
among them never remembered before.

" As a working body, they are the first to respond to
the calls of charity, whether amongst their individual
members, or to those who belong to other professions;
but as it respects themselves, they sensitively flinch from
appeals to public sympathy—not from a feeling of p4de,
but of honest endurance of ills, which they fondly hoped
time and circumstances would have ameliorated. But
hope has proved delusive ; yet, while they make no ob-
trusive claims upon the benevolence of any, they may be
allowed to say, without being chargeable with presump-
tion—

" ' The mercy I to OTHERS show,
That mercy show to ME.'
"Even in the year 1826, a season which presented a
most 'tragic picture of destitution amongst the printing
profession, yet it fell infinitely short in the number of
cases of absolute want, as well as the period of its dura-
tion, when compared with the present time. One fact
will illustrate it—that all the time of the present dearth
nothing has been done in the shape of pecuniary relief.
Then it received almost immediate attention, uhich was
extended to FORTY \VEERS' SUBSCRIPTION from those in
employ, which produced 9481. 6s. 100.; from the master
printers in the metropolis, 3151. ; from masters and
journeymen in the country, 43C/ 14s. id.; two excursions
to the Nore, 4(2/. 15s. 103-d. ; benefit at the Cobourg
Theatre, 531. 155:; ditto concert at Crown and Anchor.
71. ls. ; public donations and ••subscriptions, 332/. 11s. ;
total, 2,1371. 12s. 100. This was a notable offering at
the altar of benevolence; may a kindred feeling again
be shown.

"But how stands the matter now, when four-fifths
arc destitute, and when the appeal is made, most must
be ready to say 'my poverty, not my compels me
to refuse my mite. That they have commenced a sub-
scription among themselves, and will make a public ap7
peal, is true ; but only look at the following statistics:—
The number of journeymen compositors in London is
stated to be about 2,500, besides apprentices, at the
present period (about one-fourth more than in 1826) ;
the number of pressmen about 1,000, many of whom
are as destitute of employment as the compositors, the
one depending upon the work which the other prepares
to his hands. In the composing branch upwards of 1,000
are seeking employment in vain, besides about 500 ave-
raging about 10s. a week. This deplorable state of
things must astound every lover of literature, but who
may scarcely think it possible, while he is feasting his
mind with his ever-swelling stores, that London has
such a plague-spot.
"At this stage of the discussion, it may not be out of
place to 'say, that there is not an individual member of
civilized society but who owes much, very much as to
what he Is, to the handicraft labours of the press, con-
trasted with what he MIGHT have been had the art of
printing not been the agency for improving his mental,
moral, and social condition. Then, as the benefits of
this mighty engine have been so widely diffused, en-
lightening and refreshing in its intluence all upon whom
it sheds its radiant beams, and as they find the highest
mental gratification they can freely indulge in to arise
from the compensating power of literature, in all its
rich and luxurious variety of incident, let them by all
means satiate themselves in this ' feast of reason and
flow of soul,' but itl the mean time give a practical de-
monstration of that heavenly injunction, which is an
epitome of benevolence Freely ye have received,
freely give.'
"The art of printing is none other than the key which
has unlocked the gate of knowledge ; it is the sun of the
moral system, which has dispersed the mists of ignorance,
that, like the Egyptian, gloom, is ' a darkness which
might be felt ;' and, as one of its noblest features, it has
taught man his duties and responsibilities to his Creator
and to his fellow-man. Ere the dawn of this effulgent
luminary, ' darkness covered the earth, and gross dark-
ness the people.'
"Will any one then apathetically sit down content
with a barren admiration of this mighty lever, which
moveth all things, HIMSELF EXCEPTED, and permit this
humble statement (if 'they have the means to 'do good
and to communicate'), to evaporate into the callous con-
duct of the priest and Levite of old, rather than cherish
a Samaritan feeling, by binding up the wounds of those
who are stricken with penury, and too weak to help
themselves ? The thought is _too harrowing to be in-
dulged—nay, it is a libel upon human nature—nay, more,
it is an insult to the generous dispositions of English-
men ! Shall the whirlwind moans of distress be wafted
across the ocean from foreign shores, and find an entrance
both into their hearts and their purse, and no listening
the very age and
ear and helping hand be lent to the necessitous letter-
press printers, who are now completely identified with
Po be ! The benevolent
body
their natures ere they eanpGeoria'slee
of the times, its FORM and
PRESSI3III:,' ready to perish at our very doors ? It can-
The benevolent
upon their hearts and exemplified(w'rhtaltlllsr'sni
ond
indeliblymustth
eh. changegeneral
e neerna
ouduct, that mercy

It blesses him that gives,e i a
and iimtvheat takes.'
twicbless'd,
"above 'With the humble hope that the statement. of
facts Amy receive your humane and
prompt consideration,
eration,
beg leave to subscribe myself, gentlemen,
"Your most obedient servant,
" J. P. S. BICKNELL.
" 63, Be7rbican, Nov. 1, 1841.
6, N.B. A general meeting of the trade Was held on the
98th ult., at tbe MechanieS'lnstitute, Southampton-build-
ings, Holborn, sand a Committee formed fur the purpose
of rece:vin:; subscriptions and relieving the unemployed.
-ioom, Red Lion, Red Lion-court, Fleet..

On Sunday the Sist ult., the Right Rev. Bishop
'Ferret inducted the Rev. T. G. Suther, A. 8., to the
pastoral charge of St. George's Episcopal Chapel, York-
place, to which he had been unanimously elected by the
vestry, as successor to the Rev. R. Q. Shannon, A. 13.,
now one of the Prebentlariekl of St. Patrick's Cathedral,
Dublin. On the 0- Lt the Right Rev. Bishop de-
livered a learned and impressive charge to the pastor
nd congregation. Th,-. Rev. Phillip. Kelland, M.A.,
Professor of Mathemati,.Ys in the University, read the
morning prayers, and officiated as Chaplain to , the
Bishop.—Edinburgh rarer.
A FORTUNATE KEPORTER.—A Yankee edi-
tor, describing the bursting of a cannon, by which
several persons were badly wounded, says—" Our re-
porter, who had his hand blown oft; was fortunately ou
the spot, and has narrated to us the full particulars of
the cata,trophe." •