The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-08 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

(From the Manchester Guardian.)
MANCHESTER —There was not the slightest improve-
ment in our market yesterday ; on the contrary, the dull-
ness, which has prevailed f.,r some time past was aug-
mented by reports of failures in Germany, which, though
not to any serious extent, were quite sufficient, in the pre-
sent sensitive state of the market, to produce a further
decline in some descriptions of yarn, and the business
done was very limited. In the cloth market there was no
change to be noticed. The export trade, to all quarters,
teems, for the present, to be almost suspended; and, not-
withstanding an active nome trade, goods of all kinds can-
tina. much depressed.
ROCHDALE FLANNEL MARKET, MONDAY, APRIL 5
There has been a dull market to-day : a very limited de-
mand for goads, with prices exceedingly low. The wool
market has been no better than the piece market, and
prices rather giving way.

LEGISLATURE OF PENNSYL.

VANIA.

Every one acquaint n witn
the
ma
Cery of the Bri-
tish Patliament knows that for many years nothing
coull exceed the profligate dereliction of all principle
which characterized the action of the Committees of
the House of Commons on private Bills. A gentleman
who has been a Member of the Senate of Pennsyivania
informed me, that the same mischievous machinery is et
work it their Leg stature. There is extensive jobbing
and treating roative to private Bills, or BiAs for the es•
tablishment of public companies. The parties who ap-
ply for the Bill, or their agents, come to Harrisburg
while the Legislature is in Session, and, under pretence
of explaining the subject to the members, flatter them,
give them suppers, and open their understandings by
means of plentiful libations of wine. Many of the repre-
sentatives are men from country districts, of little edu-
cation and humble fortuue, but of unquestionable integrity,
who would reject with indignation a money bribe, but who
unconsciously fall before personal flattery and champagne.
Toe technical name for these practices is " lobbying."
In the legislature of New York, some years ago, " lob-
bying " was reduced to a systeni. The agents for the
various Bills, public and private, concerted their mea-
sures together, and made up lists of all the members of the
Legislature, specifying those whom they could influence
absolutely, those whom they could probably carry, and
those (a very small remnant) who were altogether inde-
pondeat ; and after " the order of the day," or list of
business before the Chambers, was published, they nict
in a tavern, and took the "yeas and nays " on every
Bill in which they were interested, either pro or con.
'The first Bill, for instance, was named (probably one
for a charter to a bank) ; the roll of the repre-
sentatives was Voea called, and the different agents
answered " or " nay " for the members re-
spectively whose votes they could command. When
they har;i done, the independent members were next
distr::outed, according to the best estimate which the
ar. ems could form of their probable course of action ;
the balance was then struck, and the announcement
regularly made, the " yeas" or the " nays" have it. So
complete was this machinery, and so perfect the saga-
city with which the opinions of the independent mem-
bers were guessed at, that the decisions of the Chambers
became ludicrous echoes of those of' the " lobby !" At
last a check was given to the practice, but much of it
still exists ; and it will exist until a higher education of
the people shall raise the standard of their moral and
intellectual perceptions. As a stream cannot rise
higher than its fountain, so, in social life, if the public
mind be blind and -se;fisle the representatives of that
mind will never rise into the regions of truth and jus-
tice.—Combe's Notes on the United States.

DESTRUCTION OF A COTTON MILL NEAR
`ROCILDALE. —On Thursday morning, abaut three o'clock,
a fire was db.coyered in the cotton factory, known as the
Old Mid, at Shawt'orth. A man was immediately sent
on foot to Rochdale, a distance of five miler, to fetch the
engines ; and the alarm bell being rung on his arrival,
the superintendents, nith their men, were speedily at the
station, and, yoking two pair of horses to each of the
engines, the Niagara and the Extinguisher, they proceeded
at a rapid pace to the spot ; and, although the fire had
teen raging during an hour and a half, they succeeded in
saving the steam engine end the water wheel. The
severalilian c
isi
ems
tael
rl
building, which was of an irregular form, and part of it
very old, wan, with it:; machinery (a few steam looms ex-
cepted), burned down to the ground. The building was
the property of Mr. Edmund Lord, and was insured in the
LTeds and Yorkshire Office. The machinery, which was
for spinning and weaving, belonged to the
manufacturers who rented the rooms under Mr. Lord, and
wps, with the above trifling exception, destroyed. The
building was of consideraole length, and three stories
high ; the machinery was 'mot ked by a steam-engine of
16 horses' power, and a wheel of about 18 horses' power.
The loss will probably be about 2,000/.
Guardian.

The Rig Hon: Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P.,
accompanied -by Lady Peel and faa lily, left town yesterday for
Drayton Manor, Staffordshire, fol.; the holidays.