The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-20 00:00:00

THE S(1 N, LONDON,_ IiONDAY, SE

tltt't?t tine document, some articles only are published, and
among them the most important, that relative to the im•
portation of corn, the parties seem to intend to negotiate
respecting the others. One might be . tempted to ask
who is deceived in this affair, the King of Prussia, or the
people of Luxemburg ?
P.S.—We had written thus far when we received from
Luxemburg the important news that all the ititlMifla for
carrying into effect the accession of the OtlndThichy of
Luxemburg to the Customs twin are suspended, and
even that the Prussian Custom-house officers, who were
already in Luxemburg, have received orders to return to
Prussia.

These facts clearly prove that the ratification of the
treaty, if not refused, is at least suspended.—Rcho du
Luxemburg.
THE HAGUE, SEPT. 16.—1 n the sitting of the Second
Chamber to-day, the Project of Law for the Conversion
of the Funded Debt into Active Debt was the Order of
the day. It was adopted by a majority of 42 to 10.
The Handelsblad expresses great satisfaction at the
adoption of this law.
THE HAGUE, SEPT. 17.—The Second Chamber adopted
by a majority of 42 to 9 the Project of a Law respecting
the Reduction of a portion of the National Dtbt

PETERSBURG. Si'. I".—The Emperor left Yarskoye-
Selo on the night of the Ist instant, and took the road
to White Russia.
DUTCH FUNDS.—AMBTLADAM, SAPT. 17.
None.. fill Is.
Actual Ditic, 2% per Cent
Jitto, ditto 5 per ce.ct.
A mei t Syndic, 45. percent . 91% 92
Ditto, ditto, 3% per cent 75% ;lt.
Commercial Comaany 454 pier cent l5/i% 11)13
Ditto (1535 and 1837) 5 per cent. omi 10154 102
Loan 1837, 5 per cant.
Exchange on Londoh, Otte month l2 05
Two month;
Hambtirgh, One month 33 75
Two mouths 35 51
Dutch Papers, Sept. W.
BELGIAN FUNDS—DI9II3III4, Skil. 17.
Actual Debt, 2% per Cent.
Rothschild's Loan, 5 per Csnt. .'.u...:31 :191
Loan of Thirty Millions, 4 per 'l'o% o• 7 93
3 pil.l* Cent.

----Tc:it ryt.y:sevet:
Loan
of -.............__,.....0 '10) NI li
'''''''"4"s,,erCent--
1%32 4.-
SoClety of COWILLerce, 4 }iper Cent 9314
Ittutkornelgium,4 per Cent .......... -- 74%
NationalS.- et,
Each-- "' ' •
• '...ige on London (short)
--Brussels Papers, Sept. 17.
AUSTRIAN FUNDS..-VIENNA, SEPT. 10 1
Five per Cents. Metalliques . in-%
Four per Cents. ..... -.............88
Three per Cents.
Bank Shares 1572
--Allgemeine Zeitung. Sept. 11
HAMBURG BORSENHALLE, Sarr. 14.
Bills. Money
Austrian 5 per Cents. - 10714
Bank Shares - 1605
Anglo-ltussian Loan in % Ioe%
Russian 5 per Cent. Ist series, Clrtificate -
Inscription, Ist Senss lOl% 10134
Russian 5 per Cent. Hope and Co. 3d and 4th
Series ... 95% 95
Ditto in Certificates -
New 4 per Cent. (1840) 86% fli
Dutch actual Debt, 2% pe Cent lO% - 50%
Ditto 5 per Cent -
Polish BOlla i
New llcket -
Anglu-Danish Loan, 3 per Cert 75% 75
N..swegian Loan, 1334, 4 per Cane....... l+2% 10.114
Spanish, Ncw A per Cents, l6 -
EXCHANGE'S ON' LONDON.
HAMBURG, SEPT. 14.-13 5%.-Two months, 13 4
R kRI.IN, Surr, 11.-Three months, 6. 1834 Money.
BREMEN, SEPO. 10 --TwO months, 6 12.
RIGA, SEPT. 2. -Three Months, 394 s .
Siocattoms, SEPT. 7.-Seventy-five days, 12 0.
PRUSSIAN FUNDS.-BERLIN, SEPT. 12.
Bills. Money.
St. Schuld. Sch., 41, per cent. 11147, .04%
Prussian English Loan, 1830,4 per cent lO2 101%
Exchange on London, three months 6 18%
-Prussian State Gazette. Sept. 13

ONE OF THE STANDARD'S MISTAKES.—" Lord Palmer-
ston was more flippant than usual. It was, however, in
the case of Hong Kong that the Noble Viscount was most
riotously facetious. Sir Robert Peel had complained that
no less a sum than 900,0001. had been assigned to the
civil expenses of this inconsiderable acquisition in a single
year; mark, for the merely civil expenses of an island not
one-fourth as large as Thanet, nearly a million sterling.
Why, the sum would nearly plate the island with silver,
if not with gold. Lord Palmerston, in allusion to this
complaint, bantered the Premier upon the pettiness of
noticing such a contemptible place as Hong Kong. Now
this, we think, was misplaced mirth. . Hong Kong may
be a very contemptible place, and we believe it is ; but
900,0001. is not a very contemptible sum ; it makes a se-
rious inroad upon the national revenue, and the more
contemptible the object ftpon.which such a sum has been
squandered, the more have they, guilty of the prodigality,
to answer to the country." This paragraph would hit Lord
Palmerston very hard if it were not throughout a mis-
take. The sum mentioned by Sir Robert Peel as having
been expended on Hong Kong was not 900,0001., but
9,000/., as correctly reported in The Sun. From which
of the Morning Papers the Standard and Globe borrowed
the palpable and gross error we know not, though we
see that it is committed by the Times, but it was not
taken from The Morning Sun.

,
- CHARTISM. ---
T 9 ...TH,i-EDITOI? OF THE SUN.
Sin—A phragraph in the Miscellaneous of your paper
of Wednesday, the 15th instant, stating that a Chartist
meeting was to place at Salisbury on that day,
and tilati if thp Council Chamber was ,refttse4; it wonld
be it thi•clilia.li theetlh as a iegiilar subscriber tea
your pApet for the hist two years.) I beg to observe that
your informant may be a torch light incendiary, but the
Chartists of Salisbury deprecate all torchlight meetings,
of whatever nature they may be ; and; Was
.3-our infor-
mant as peaceably inelined as the Salisbury Chartists, he
would hot be ashamcd of his name,
I am, .Sir, yours, most respectfully,
JOHN WILKINSON, Sub‘Secretary
titheNatiosnaaiilsuCbhry, SeptarterAs. lsOck lti4
tionl.of Great Britain.
Market-place,
[The paragraph was taken from a local paper.—
En. Son.]

RIECLNT SlittlKE of MASONS
AT THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.
In the daily journals of last week their appeared para-
ghtamdpshtsr,uctkh the
ri substancese
luded to) of the arbitrary
gueonfeewhich was, that the masons
s
employed on the works of the new Houses of Parliament
Alien; and that they had resolved not again to resume
o(na(siusettat
oe
their
the o
rem otirnt:
Mal-
.r
their labour until the cause of their grievance was re-
moved: The fact of works of so great ati importance as
theae of the how itotlaes of Legislature being suspended,
vitttitratly catisca a Very considerable sensation, and as it
is a matter of importance to the public that it should be
properly informed of the real nature of the case, our re-
porter waited yesterday upon the contractors, Messrs.
Griasell and Pao, and the former gentleman very kindly
furnished him with facts, the detail of which will put
this atrair in its proper light. The masons employed up
to Saturday. night week numbered 222 and the whole of
them, principally pr,vincial, belong to the " Birmingham
Union of Masons." This union was established for the pur-
pose of protecting the labourer against the master. So
far so good ; but union being strength, may be turned
to other purposes than those it originally professes, and
may, as in this instance, become a powerful instrument
of intimidation. The men in a body have no fault
whatever to find with their foreman, and so, we are in-
formed, they have expressed themselves ; but a few, six-
teen or seventeen, have considered themselves ill-used,
and, to redress their wrongs, all must act up to the spirit
of their compact, and strike. Two months since the
contractors received a letter from the masons, requesting
them to receive a deputation. The contractors consented
and met the depuation, when a number of grievances
were related. They, the thputatiOn, prefaced their
complaints by stating that Mr. Allen was an arbitrary
man ; and, us an instance, he had refused to allow a
mason to leave his work to bury his mother. This cer-
tainly was a very severe accusation to make against a
man, and the contractors sifted it to the bottom. They
had the foreman 'confronted with the men, and he then
stated that a man did apply to him for permission to leave
his work for a time that he might go down into the country
to bury his mother. The foreman was willing to grant
him his request, but when he asked for three weeks' ab-
sence, the foreman said he could not keep his bench empty
that time, and, if he went, he must take his chance of
being employed on his return. This statement satisfied
the deputation, and they agreed that the foreman had
not been harsh. Another grievance, however, was
raised ; and that was, the men could not have their beer
where they liked—they were confined to two houses of the
contractors' choosing. The contractors said they had
chosen the houses nearest the works ; but to conciliate
the men they would strike one off, and allow beer to
come from the one at which they held their meetings,
the Paviors' Arms, Milbank. The deputation expressed
themselves satisfied, and nothing again occurred to dis-
turb the harmony that existed until a fortnight since.
It is the custom in all public buildings to give por-
tions of work to masons that occupy a certain time in
completing, and if one man, from being a better or quicker
workman, completes his job before the time, he is
called a " chaser," and the united exertions of the men
are put in force to expel him from the work, unless he
consents to work at the speed laid down by the Commit-
tee of Masons. A mason finished a "headway" two
days before he should have done according to his fellow-
workmen's • rule, and a meeting was held, at which he
was fined:ss. The man appealed to his foreman, Mr.
Allen, and'the latter mentioned the circumstance to the
contractors, who desired the foreman to encourage the
man, and support him against the body that oppressed
him. Another meeting of the union was held, and it
was resolved, that unless this man, who had only faith-
fully discharged his duty, was dismissed, they would
strike. Upon a re-consideration, they thought that too
weak a ground, and got up a charge against the foreman,
which was to the effect that he wished them to db
more work in one day than they were inclined to think
a fair day's work ; and that, when they did not do
this, he made UFC of intimidating language towards
them, and after alluding to many what we consider child-
ish annoyances that they had suffered, the letter concluded
.by stating that, unless Mr. Allen was discharged,they would
cease to work from Saturday week. The contractors,
having no fault to find with their foreman, determined
not to be influenced by this spirit of insubordination, and
to maintain him in his place—the result of which was
the masons fetched away their tools on Tuesday last.
The contractors having seen a paragraph in the papers,
in which it was stated that Lord Ashley had consented
. .

to present a petition to the Commissioners of Woods and
Forests on behalf of the masons, Mr. Grissell waited upon
the Hon. the Commissioners, and ascertained that the
statement was totally false, the Commissioners assuring
Mr. Grissell that, had such a complaint been made, they
should either have referred
,the matter to him, or at the
least, solicited his presence.
Yesterday the Commissioners of Woods and Forests
sent a letter to the contractors, stating that whatever
they. the contractors, might suggest, they, the Commis-
sioners, would assist them in carrying out, as far as lay in
their power. Thus the affair remains at present.—
Observer.