The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-14 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

Every branch of the hosiery trade is in a most deplor-
ably stagnant state, as little or nothing seems doing ;
this is equally applicable to silk gloves, silk hose, cotton
hose, cotton drawers, and fancy hosiery. The master
stockingers attend the warehouses in groups, but as there
are few or no orders, they generally come away empty-
handed to their despairing journeymen. An attempt
was made in the early part of the week to get up a
meeting of the unemployed, for which purpose the
Chartist bell was sent round ; but the assemblage was
so slender, that they agreed to adjourn. If this be
the state of things early in August, what must be ex-
pected in winter, as about every fourth able-bodied man
in this vicinity is a stocking-maker ? What is most
remarkable, the hosiery trade is in a stagnant state
in Spain, Belgium, Saxony, Austria proper, and
Rome ; whilst in)Savoy, Austrian Italy, Prussia, and
Wirtemberg, (particularly in the two former), it is in a
very flourishing state, as the smiths are busily em-
ployed in building new frames. Stocking-making
ill France is removing from Lyons and the South,
and is concentrating in Champagne and Lower Pi-
cardy ; the hands are tolerably well employed, but they
are so extremely slow, that the French Government
are compelled to protect them from competition
by prohibitions. This is equally the case with the
stocking manufacture throughout Europe, except Saxony
and Switzerland, in the.latter the manufacture is nearly
extinct ; in the former, though they have for a time
been rapidly extending, yet a terrible reverse has over-
taken them. In March last we were informed by a gen-
tleman, who had been in Chemnitz, that not one frame
in ten was employed. Later information asserts that this
want of employment has increased, so that scarcely
one frame in twenty has full employment. We
are waiting for correct statements on this point.
The state of fashion is certainly against the stocking-
making trade, boots and trousers having superseded
stockings. In every other respect English stockingers
have little to fear from anything but cut-ups and foreign '
prohibitions, arising from the jealousy of foreign work-
men, as the extreme ow wages on the Continent, both in
manufactures and agriculture, prevents an extended con-
sumption. In the United States, the balance of trade
being against them, as they buy more than they sell,
causes their monetary system to be ever fluctuating,
and subject to panics - as they are our greatest cus-
tomers, it would be the height of wisdom to give them
greater facilities in disposing of their produce, assimilat-
ing them in commercial transactions with our own colo-
nies ; this would cause an instant demand for English
goods.
The state of the lace is somewhat better than the
hosiery trade. The silk blond trade, we are happy to
state, is improving, but not to that extent as to induce
the manufacturers to advance the wages to the price
which has been given by the largest manufacturer in
the trade for several weeks to his workmen. How-
ever it is hoped that they will yet think better of it,
as all they urge is, " that the firm in question having
formerly reduced wages against their inclinations,
they affect to be apprehensive, that if they advance the
wages, such a reduction may again take place ; and
that then they may be again losers by stock in hand,
and therefore it is the safest policy to keep wages to the
starving point." This may be a saving policy for the
masters, but it is a destroying policy for the men, as it
takes away all hope, and is ungenerous in the extreme,
as the men have a chance to be lowered, but none to rise,
as the manufacturers never fail to follow with eagerness
all reductions, but will not, it appears, listen to advances.
The bobbin-net trade is extremely dull ; this is applicable
to plain nets, as one of the principal power factories in
this vicinity is only working half time, or six hours
a-day. Employment in this branch is difficult to be ob-
tained, and this is increased by numerous arrivals of
English hands from Calais and the north of France,
where the lace trade is also extremely dull.

OUR D-L AND THE CORN-LAWS.-It i 8
known to all the world—and well known that " what
every body says must be true"—that a pair of scissors
and a pot of paste are mighty agents in getting up a
newspaper. Now, though we have often thought, aye,
and spilt a great deal of ink, too, upon the Corn question,
we never looked upon it in the light of a paste question
until that view of it was forcibly brought to our mind
by the young " gentleman in black" who figures at the
head of this paragraph. It so happens that he is entrusted
with the sole management of the paste-pot, but though
advanced to this high dignity, he, fortunately, has not
the control of our exchequer, for if he had, no doubt he
would play the very d-1 with it. Well, to cut a long
story short, his imp-ship had to apply to our treasurer
for the " ready" to supply his cauldron, and when he last
did so, he exclaimed, to the horror of that economical
functionary, " It 'll take another penny, Sir, the flour
be riz so !" We say our clerk was alarmed, and so
would you be, gentle reader, if the Corn-laws had a si-
milar effect upon your consumption of flour, for the " riz"
raised our expenditure for paste 50 per cent. 1— Worces-
tershire Chronicle.

SHEERNESS.,A reprt is in circulation at this
place, that it is the intention of the Lords of the Admi-
ralty to require all the mechanics who have been super-
annuated from the Dockyard to attend muster on a not
far distant day, in order to pass the examination of the
surgeon, and all who may be pronounced able to work
will be required to return to the yard and resume their
work, or in default of their so doing, to relinquish their
pensions. The report adds, that this step is to be taken
in consequence of complaints having been made that of
late years many able-bodied men have been superan-
nuated from the dockyards, who have immediate:y gone
to private yards and obtained work, which they were as
well able to do as any other men.—Kent Herald.