The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-14 00:00:00

FURTHER PARTICULARS.

The Courrier du Bas Rhin gives the following fur-
ther details of the recent melancholy accident at Stras-
burg :—M. Beringer died on Sunday morning. The
post mortem examinations of the five dead bodies—the
servant, the three children, and their father,—made
by several of the faculty, have established beyond all
doubt that they died from suffocation. Mme. Berin-
ger has recovered her senses, and appears out of danger,
but has one of her sides paralysed. She has
been able to give the following account i—ln the course
of Friday (New Year's-day) the whole family became
indisposed, without being able to attribute it to any
cause. They were attacked with giddiness in the head,
and the little girl with vomitings. She and her children
always slept in a chamber above, and M. Beringer in
the room en the ground floor, adjoining the warehouse ;
but, as they were unwell, and there was a fire i❑ the
room, they resolved to pass the night together down
stairs. At eight o'clock the children were put to bed,
and Mme. Beringer was preparing to do the Fame,
when she was seized with a violent vertigo, and was
laid by her husband and the servant on the bed, from
which moment she lost all sensibility. It appears that
the lives of herself and M. Beringer were preserved till
the next morning only by their having afterwards fallen
on the ground near the kitchen-door, under which a
small stream of air was able to enter."

WEATHER IN EDINBURGH.—The late frost
has been unusually severe, the thermometer on Friday
night having fallen to 15 degrees. The lakes and ponds
in the neighbourhood have, in consequence, been covered
the
gloTomheosfnaolvw
with a thick coating of ice, on which the exhilirating ex-
erciso of skating has been enjoyed to great advantage.
Lochend Lochend and Duddingstone have been both eraoswdsnerdd.
andOn
Saturday the latter exhibited a gay and animated assem-
blage. Though thwe. is cefi,nfetioamndthtehefasllurorfousnnodwin, lv,rll9isnciksaosenmannd.
what rough, yet there was a momstannumonertohuesicegor e;
skaters as well as of spectators. The ice was
ini ti.terthdwhich seemed
secure, the day
picturesque hills, with the living
urinal whirl, presented a most lively scene,
Saturday night
eactear
to chase away
wo had occasional falls of snow, and somey'
thaw, but yesterday the weather Was
, and the frost
clear,
appearance of
msoourtnhinmguwstasbesevveeryn
continues intense.
deep, as the Lyndon mail yesterday
con
hours later than usual in arrival ; and last night the coach
did not
enotigrhetachlotur the
and a
hePost- until half-past ten o'clock,
be
°hT e
half behind its time,--(:Durant,
Jan. 11.
duties of customs collected at Aberdeen
The
during the year ended s•llinstant, amount to 80,0841.
13s. 2d., being 1,199/. 45.. 3d. more than in the preceding
year.

S

t ) NiNt 4- 1411111' Ici

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC:, JOIURNAL.;..

(FROM THE DAILY PAY.I.IIS OF YESTERDAY.)
(From the Morning Post.)
Since the world began there never was offered to
public view a more gross example of inordinate greedi-
ness than that which certain manufacturing capitalists
display in their hostility to the Corn-laws. Never, even
in this money-making country, did any class of men
make such rapid fortunes es the manufacturers ;alive
made since the beginning of the present century ; but
nothing will satisfy them. With wealth flowing in
upon them, as though Pactolus itself rolled through
their smoky settlements of noise and toil, they cannot
bear that any but they should be prosperous. They
have no patience at the thoughts of landlords getting
good prices for their land, while they are get-tinenThre th in tio of prices for their menufaci tiros.
This is the vice of human nature. Pattipst a man,
and he becoint s cruel, grasping, greedy. He has
110 lea/ of aill-cuiiiinatid, hut si Inc slim,-
tiou is whether our Legislature will minister to this
gross sellialiness, or rattier try to in lintain a b lace
of interests, and give protection to the capital of the
agriculturist ngai t !oseign competition. Some of
the in inufacturers (we refer especially to those of Co-
ventry) are quite as clamorous for the continui.n of
protection to their otvn trade as they are for the abeti-
tion of all protection to agriculture. Others cry that
they want no protection, and, because they do not
want it, they insist that nobody else ought to have it.
What amiable and t cry " liberal" persons ! B, e use
th-y are placed in c reumitancas of cxtraord nary ad-
vantage, they would not only enjoy the beeetit thereof,
but hinder others ;shots circumstances are not so
ad-
vantageous from such artificial help as it may he in the
power of the Leg:slat u:e to afford. There is nu part of
the United Kingdom in which the opposition to the
existing protection of I;:iitisli agriculture is more viru-
lent than it is is Glasgow, anti yet, of all cities in the
United Kingdom, there is not one where enterprise and
industry in manufacturing and commercial pursuits
have been more prosperous. ‘Ve have been I,ld by
persons well acquainted with that city that the iastances
may he counted by hundreds of pars ms .vho had next
to nothing twenty years ago, and yet arc now ill
afiluence—spending large sums in luxury, and at the
same time annually adding to their capitals. And yet
these are the very persons who grudge to the landowner
anti the farmer the comparatively small—very
returns which, under the protecting law, they derive
from their capital and their labour ! It is no unusual
thing for these manufacturers of articles, the exchange-
able value of which depends upon the fashion attic day,
to realise full fifty per cent. in the year upon the capital
they employ, and yet they burn with envy because
they cannot cut down those who rarely make more than
saven or eight per cent, to the level of continental
prices, which would yield them no income at all. With-
out taking into account the wondrous profits which
manufacturing people frequently snake, the public can
scarcely estimate the shocking and shameful greedi-
ness which is the soul of their opposition to the Corn-
laws. We have spoken of the fortunes made within
twenty years, but a recent important trial at Glasgow
shows the more prodigious pace at which these greedy
people go. We take from a Ministerial paper—one of
those which incessantly assails the landed interest with
the most unmeasured abuse on account of the Corn•
laws—the following particulars of the fate of the much-
injured manufacturers :
" A very important and interesting case was last week
tried before Mr. Sheriff Alison, in Glasgow, which threw
considerable light on the profits of the cotton trade. The
Trustees of the Clyde navigation had obtained an Act of
Parliament, in virtue of which they proposed to encroach
on or remove the works of Messrs. Todd and Higgenbo-
tham, at Springfield. Mr. Todd, the original proprietor
of the works, is dead, and his representatives claimed for
the land, from which they derived a feu (chief rent), in
addition to his share in the value of the works. Mr. Hig-
genbot ham, who was formerly an inhabitant of Manchester,
had attracted the notice of Mr. Todd by his business-like
habits, at a time when the latter was becoming infirm,
rather more than six years ago. So imperfect were Mr.
' ifiggenbotham's ideas of the value of the concern when
Mr. Todd offered him a share to secure his services, that
he stipulated for a salary of 4001. per annum, secured, be-
fore he would remove. His modest ideas were destined to
no small slap: ise and expansion.
" The works at Springfield contained 16,000 spindles,
printing and Turkey-red dyeing works, and about 20 looms,
The manufacture was entirely for the home market. The
total number of hands employed was 889. The average
annual consumption of drugs and dye stuffs, from 1835 to
1840 inclusive, was 29,2061. Average annual amount of
furnishings for the same period was 4,5561. The average
produce in the printing and dyeing department was 264,66
pieces of 25 yards each. Sales 264,252, Leaving a dif-
ference of only 414.

"In money the average annual sales amounted to
151,2641.

la estimating the capital employed, we find that five
per cent. interest on the whole was deducted before the net
profits were taken, and in the year 1640 that interest
amounted to 5,4001., representing a capital of 108,000/.
This interest, and all charges, including Mr. Higgen-
hothani's 4001. per annum during the copartnery, being de-
ducted, 0143 average annual net profits far the six years,
from 1835 to 1840, were 11,6891.
For this concern the Clyde Trustees offered but
; but the jury, after having had the above par-
ticulars proved to them, awarded 43,733/. to Mr.
Iliggenbothain, the surviving partner in it, and 8,1194
to the heirs of Todd, as compensation for the head-
rent. Thus we find 52,0001. held to be equivalent to
business profits of 11,6891. a year ; and a man who sti-
pulated six years ago for at least 400/, a year as his
compensation enriched with .13,733/. for his interest in
the concern ! Such matters, we believe, are not at all
r a ritlnwranrk agt bhl in G
ee
verypla
persons thus
and
us
enriched,
in h
do
nt place,u findanda
clamour us though the protection which enables agri-
culture to exist at all were a grievous and almost in-
supportable hardship upon them! It is a class of people
whose circumstances are thus prosperous, that pretend
they cannot sufficiently compete with foreign manufac-
turers, who obtain labour at a cheaper rate, because
food is cheaper. It is this class of people, with their
enormous profits, who desire to cut down the wages of
the manufacturing labourers, and to throw the agricul-
tural labourers out of employment ! Is not this some-
thing monstrous to contemplate ? We admit the great
merits of these persons. We admire their ingenuity—
we applaud their perseverance—we rejoice in their pros-
perity, and we have no wish that it should be one jot
abated. But we do thick that they ought to be satis-
fied, that they should be content to let others lire while
they thrive, and that they should not look with so
jealous an eye upon the moderate profits yielded by
the land.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
Kent is the county for charlatans. There " Sir
William Percy Honeywood Courtenay," alias Thom,
found believers in his Messialiship ; and his memory
has found a worthy eulogist in the person of the Hon.
G. P. S. Smythe, who aspires to he the colleague of the
notorious Bradshaw in the representation of Canter-
bury. Mr. Smythe thinks that Thom had " glimmer-
ings of truth dawning on his mind," and was, after all,
not so much of a fanatic as Daniel O'Connell. Thera
is no accounting for tastes ; if there
.were, it would be
worth while inquiring into the taste for quackery evinced
by the Tories of Canterbury. 'Flue oration of this new
aspirant is amongst the most signal specimens of flip.
pancy, ignorance, and impudence, we have aver met
with. On the cause of Toryism at Canterbury there
rests an indelible stain. There it was that an assem-
bled faction, at its high festival, graced by the presence
of dignitaries of the Church, listenerl with applause to
the calumnies and ribaldry of a " wine.warmed indivi-
dual" upon the character of a maiden Queen.
Those who assisted at that festival, for eve* dis-
honoured themselves as gentlemen, Christians, and
Englishmen. They showed themselves destitute of the
heart or the manners of one or the other. The policy
of party, then at its high tide of disloyalty, crested. with
the foamy hope of a Hanoverian succession, has since
ebbed, and left Canterbury calumny aground. And
what says Mr. Smythe in recommendation of himself to
the people in this unfortunate predicament ? „, Ile has
the boundless effrontery to talk of " a venal and cor-
rupt press throughout the country calumniating the an,
says) I firmly believe was never delivered, but way
cient city of Canterbury," by "iitnahittsshpeinierecrloclyvwnwleioiacurls.(hahule:
applauded
md
kh
tie
trumped up with the view of taxing the citizens of
Canterbury with disloyalty." And they, the Canterbury
hey
tardo vaeptps
Tories, who heard
al
tt:tisleinniaplolaitsict
eatslipecescvhenw
it an honourable warfare ! Is Mr. Stnythe ignorant
plauded the inonoypp.pu,odoneennt
send
honestm
that this infamous. speech first appeared in the
Tory county paper ? is he ignorant that tho editor
of that paper was present at its delivery,
and was
thehimself
nstoeraystaetve dibyPthe meeting as the representative of
ress ? Is he unaware that the coin-
npaorsei t inaond o f
revisionthe
s'usapltiye speech
ahreaacrts,
rmi
saer mks
eo fwgorrekast eorf
a provincial reporter ? is he ignorant that its publica-
tion pa ssed without protest, and that it re-appeared.
with approbatory comments, in the Tory journals of
the metropolis and elsewhere ? Is he aware that, in-
stead of being censured, it was praised and boasted of;
and that the reprobation of the Liberal and loyal
papers was founded upon the reports and the laudations
of Tory journals ? Is he ignorant that Mr. Bradshaw
himself, instead of denying the speech, humbled him..
' self to the dust on the floor of the Hotiat, of
Commons in penitent apology and recantation
If Mr. Smythe be thus ignorant, where is the
knowledge ; and if he be not thus ignorant.
where is the honesty that should qualify him for A
representative ? We mean, for a representative
of the people in Parliament. The representative of
a very unscrupulous fraction of a very unscrupulous
faction he certainly may be, very appropriately.
The professions of Tory loyalty to the person of
her Majesty come too late. They have recorded
their own shame. The columns of their j)urnals of a,
year ago and upwards, are laden with the foul false-
hoods which they now vainly dream of charging as
ventions upon t ieir political opponents. While there
was a ray of hope in Hanover, they were disloyal.
While there was the supposed chance of ,hullyin