The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-02 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

MANCHESTER, OCTOBER 30.—Were we to attempt,
it would be utterly impassible to make you who are
at a distance more conversant with the position of
matters since the date of our last circular, than what
might be comprehended in the assertion, that the
market was never known to be in so embarrassed a
condition, and that the month has been one of une-
qualled severity and prostration, in the memory of
many. Bad as matters were in August and Septem-
ber, the latter especially, they were comparative free
from that want of confidence and mistrust which have
been the prominent characteristics of the present. The
transactions have been of the most limited character,
and those which have taken place, have been mainly
for the home trade and the United States.

A better feeling has, however, prevailed within the
last few days, attended with rather more inquiry for
both goods and yarns, consequent upon the temporary
suspension of the Bank Charter by the Government,
whereby the Bank has been enabled to enlarge its
discounts and advances upon bills of exchange not
having more than three months to run, and approved
securities, at the minimum rate of eight per cent.
This step has tended in some measure to restore con-
fidence, and though disapproved by some who wished
matters to cure themselves, will yet, we think, be
found to have produced much good, and its desirea•
bleness, if we mistake not, will be shown by the na-
ture of the Bank returns to be published thin day.
Whilst in operation, it must necessarily cause all
transactions admitting of delay to continue to be sus-
pended, for no one in a general way could be expected
to enter into new engagements while money con-
tinues so dear. On the other hand, the measure in
question must have a tendency to restore confidence ;
to influence the exchanges beneficially; to bring out
money which has been hoarded up from distrust and
fear, into the ordinary business channels, and to pre-
vent railway companies from procuring such an
undue portion of the floating business capital of the
country.

Railway speculations and undertakings continue,
in the opinion of many, to be the cause of all the
derangement in the mercantile world. In this we do
not agree ; for though justly blameable for much,
they ought not to be made responsible for all. Other
causes have been in operation. Our production has
notoriously been for some time past vastly in excess
of the legitimate demand. We manufacture as if we
had the whole world to supply, forgetting that in
other countries 'great progress has been made in
manufactures, and in some branches of a successful
character. How our extended production is to be
kept regularly and beneficially employed we cannot
tell ; of one thing we are certain, that it will be sure
to secure to us periodical revulsions, not equal in
severity probably, but similar to that through which
we are now passing. To railways, therefore, must be
added the effects of over-trading; the consequences
arising from the deficient harvest of last year, and
the wild speculative movement which the latter ori-
ginated; as forming collectively, in a great measure,
the causes from the effects of which we are now
suffering.
The distress, from the increased diminution of
employment amongst the operatives, is necessarily
becoming more painfully severe. Many hundreds of
additional hands have been thrown out of employ-
ment during the month. What is to become of them
during the winter? If things continue, more mills
must be stopped ; for though cotton is lower by about
2jd. pr lb. than when at the highest point, and the
spinner and manufacturer consequently in a some-
what better position as to that, yet how can he pro-
duce when there is no prospect of sale ? when all
around is disorder and distrust? It is fearful to
contemplate what must be the state of the cotton
districts in this county during the winter, if things
continue as they are.
Stocks have increased materially, notwithstanding
the diminution of the production. Prices are very
irregular, and determinble only by the position of
the seller and the nature of the payment offered.
Some goods have been sold lower than ever they
were at any previous period—we allude to some de-
scriptions of 40. inch shirtings—and many others are
nearly as low as ever they were. Many parties are
very anxious sellers, and purchases for cash may now
be effected upon such terms as would well repay the
investment. There are many considerable orders in
the market, which would be entered into were money
matters easier.

The accounts by the last Overland Mail would in
ordinary times have been considered favourable.
Those by the North American steamer were highly
satisfactory.—From Messrs. M'Nair and Irving's
Circular.

STATE Or TRADE IN LEICESTER, AND TUE
GOVERNMENT MEASURE Or RELIEF.—We regret to
say that in all quarters there is a general falling off
from the demand for goods, and countermands this
week have been numerous ; so much so that we an-
ticipate a great diminution of employment will in-
evitably result. The general impression here
amongst practical manufacturers is, that however
well-intentioned the measure of Government may be,
and however it may be calculated to relieve the large
merchants and bankers from failure and ruin,
it will inevitably paralyse business, and, by
throwing out of employment, entail additional
distress on the working population Gf the coun-
try. No manufacturer, in the ordinary common
business of this district, can make, in these times, a
profit equal (without reckoning interest for capital at
all) to the present minimum rate of interest; and
never was there a period when greater risk attended
sales. Eight per cent interest at the Bank of Eng-
land as a minimum will establish ten per cent. out of
doors as a current rate for ordinary bills ; and the
funds, shares, and all other property for investment,
will remain at a depreciation (as the London Money
Market reports show) that will make investments in
public securities a more profitable source of income,
when the absence of risk as to the principal is taken
into account, than any ordinary business can by pos-
sibility be. We hear that it is the intention of several
houses here to discontinue the services of a great
many of their workmen in consequence of this un-
settled state of affitirs ; and we fear the feeling of in-
security as to sales, with the certain profitless nature
of present and prospective investments in manufac-
tured stocks, will create an amount of non-employ-
ment through the country which it is painful to con-
template. Much shall we rejoice if the commercial
and monetary worlds soon evince signs of returning
animation ; but we do not anticipate this as the result
of the Government arrangement with the Bank of
England.—Leicester Mercury.

THE WEAVERS.—We rejoice to find that, not-
withstanding the distressed state of the money-market,
Carlisle and its neighbourhood already begin to feel the
beneficial effects of free trade. In consequence of a
repeal of the corn-laws and the relaxation
of the Ame-
rican tariff, the large import of provisions is causing an
extensive demand for handloom weavers, the Americans
finding it more profitable to take British manufactures
in return for their produce than gold. All the weavers
who can be procured in this city and the surrounding
towns are most readily employed by our manufacturers,
and, what is still more satisfactory, at wages exceeding
by 30 per cent. those paid a few years ago, a portion of
that advance having been given during the present week.
Considering, therefore, the reduced price of bread, the
condition of the handloom weavers is much more satis-
factory than might have been expected at a period of
great commercial embarrassment. The cotton-mills,
we regret to say, are working only 42 hours in the week
—a practical illustration of the folly of the Ten Hours'
Bill.—Caalisle Journal.

DISREGARD OF LONDON ANTIQUITIES.—In the
ninth part of Mr. C. Roach Smith's valuable " Collectanea
Antigua" (etchings of ancient remains illustrative of the
habits and history of past ages), the author finds reason
again to refer to the " perfect disregard in which our
City antiquities are continued to be held by the City
authorities." He says that a piece of Roman sculpture
found during excavations for a sewer in Hart-street,
Crutched Friars, representing the Dee Metres or
Matronce, which " throws a light upon one of the forms
of worship prevailing in Roman London, and has been
made the means of instituting successful inquiry into
the superstition of our ancestors, at the present moment
lies neglected in an outhouse in the City stone-yard."—
Builder.

" THE BOTTLE " IN FORT ATJGUSTITS.—In March
last, a detachment of the 27th Regiment, consisting of a
sergeant, a lance corporal, and five or privates, were
marched from Fort George to Fort Augustus. In Sep-
tember the party were recalled from the fort to the main
body at Fort George. Captain Spalding, the governor,
has his cellar in one of the magacines, and a few days
after the departure of the soldiery, the captain went
into the cellar to select some fine old wino for a friend.
The first row of bottles in the bin was all right, the
second was empty, and all the others together contained
not a drop. A hogshead of ale was then tried in some
alarm; it, too, was empty. In short; no less, than thir-
teen or fourteen dozen of port, seven and a half dozen of
sherry, four dozen of whisky, some fifteen or sixteen
years old, and thirty.two gallons of strong ale were
found to have been stolen. Circumstances fastened
suspicion upon the soldiers, whose lodgings were above
the cellar, and two privates were apprehended and
lodged in gaol. The case will probably come before the
next circuit court. It is supposed that false keys had
served as the " open sesame." The sergeant reports
himself to be a teetotaller.
A CHECK- STRING FOR ENGINE.DRIVERS.—A cor-
respondent of the Builder says, it occurred to him about
two months since, that an improvement for the safety of
the public might be made in the construction of the
locomotive engine, by having the foot-plate on which the
engine-driver stands, supported by springs and attached
to a leiter, so connected with a valve on the top of the
steam pipe in the dome of the boiler, that, should the
engine-driver leave the plate either by accident or design,
in imminent danger, the springs under the foot-plate
should cause it to rise, and by closing the valve above-
named, effectually to shut off the steam from the cylin-
ders. The engine-driver, when in his place on the foot-
plate, would have the same control that he now has.
A party of monks, says the Bristol Gazette, have
established themselves at Spring-park, near Stroud, end
are daily seen walking in the neighbourhood with cowl
and sandalled shoon, to the great astonishment of the
rustics.