The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-10 00:00:00

SECRET CORRESPONDENCE.

A young lady, newly married, being obliged to show her
husband all the letters she wrote, sent the following to an
intimate friend :
"I cannot be satisfied, my dearest friend,
blest as r am in the matrimonial state,
unless I pour into your friendly bosom,
which has ever beat in unison with mine,
the various sensations which swell
with the liveliest emotions of pleasure
my almost bursting heart. I tell you, my dear
husband is the most amiable of men.
I have now been married seven weeks, and
have never found the least reason to
repent the day that joined us. My husband is
both in person and manners far from resembling
ugly, cross, old, disagreeable, and jealous,
monsters, who think by confining to secure
a wife, it is his maxim, to treat as a
bosom friend . . . . and not as a
plaything, or menial slave, the woman
of his choice Neither party,
he says, should always obey implicitly ;
but each yield to the other by turns ;
an ancient maiden aunt, near seventy,
a cheerful, venerable; and pleasant old lady,
lives in the house with us,—she is the de-
light of both young and old, she is ci-
vil to all the neighbourhood round,
generous and charitable to the poor.
I am convinced my husband likes nothing more
than he does me ; he flatters me more
than the glass, and his intoxication
(for so I must call the excess of his love)
often makes me blush for the unworthiness
of the object, and wish I could be more deserving
of the man whose name I bear. To
say all in one word . . . . and to
crown the whole . . my former lover
is now my indulgent husband ; my fondness
is returned, and I might have had
a prince, without the felicity I find in
him. Adieu! may you be as blest as lam un-
able to wish that I could be more
happy

N.B. The key to the above letter (in cypher) is to read the
first, and then every alternate line.

DEPRESSION OF THE COPPER

TRADE IN BIRMINGHAM.

BIRMINGHAM, MONDAY.—By the tariff of 1842, a duty
was levied for the first time on the importation into this
country of foreign copper ores : the duty was imposed
avowedly by way of experiment, the President of the
Board of Trade for the time being, expressly stating in
his place in Parliament that the question was open to
revision. Copper smelting had previously been carried
on almost exclusively in this country, the ore being
chiefly brought from the mines of Chili. As there are
no manufactures in Chili, the Chilian merchants and
miners were supplied by British manufactures on the
principle of a fair exchange of copper ore for manufac-
tured goods, and a good trade to British shipping was
desired therefrom. When the duty was imposed in 1842,
strong remonstrances were presented against the impo-
sition, by those engaged in the copper trade in Binning-
Lam and elsewhere, it being their decided conviction
that the imposition of the duty on their product, at a
time when almost all similar duties were being abo-
lished, would be viewed by the Chilian Government " as
a hostile and unfriendly act, which they would meet
by encouraging smelting in their own and other coun-
tries," particularly in South America and the United
States. Four years have nearly elapsed since this
remonstrance was presented, and events have proved that
it was well founded. Another memorial was subsequently
addressed to Sir Robert Peel, praying, without effect,
that the duty might be abolished ; and now the memo-
rialists come forward again, urging their petition on the
ground that, unless the duty be forthwith repealed, the
copper trade in this country will be utterly destroyed.
From facts that have recently transpired, it appears that
smelting of copper ore in Chili has been most extensively
resumed—that copper bars and pigs are now largely
shipped to various parts in Europe, and sold under rates
which the British merchant could sell for—that the
Chilian Government has removed the duty on foreign
coals—that negotiations have concluded with the United
States of America, in virtue of which the best ores will
be shipped for that country, that the Americans have
erected large smelting works at Boston and Baltimore,
and finally, that France is also being supplied on terms
which preclude our competing with the founders and
smelters on the continent. Large advances having been
made by British capitalists on the security of these ores,
the proprietors of the mines have just been enabled to
pay them off, and now it appears our copper merchants
have got intimation that they will receive no more ores
from Chili; and vessels that were chartered to take car-
goes to England, have had their charters countermanded.
These, and such like facts, are now being urged on the
Government, and it is hoped that measures will be
speedily adopted with a view to restore the trade thus
apparently lost. - . . _ .

As an evidence of the truth of these statements we
are sorry to point to the fact that the brass founding,
casting, and cock making trades here are getting into a
very depressed state ; the rates p•iid to the manufac-
turers being greatly below anything hitherto offered.
And unless a revival of the trade take place, the conse-
quences will be seriously felt throughout this town and
neighbourhood. The number engaged in the trade in
Birmingham and its neighbourhood may be thus
stated :

Brass founders. Men employed. Families.
Birmingham
Wolverhampton
Walsall, Dudley, &c

Total
And if to to these we add factors, factors' clerks, and
others less directly dependent on the trade, we are quite
sure that the number thus employed and depending on
the copper trade will not be under 20,000. A reduction
of ss. a week in wages is equal to a loss to the working
men of 20,0001., and the loss to England is not merely in
the smelting trade, but to our manufacturers also, who
now find, that as we cannot take Chilian ore, the Chilians
cannot buy British goods. The experiment, in short,
has been a palpable failure, and it is now time to retrieve
the error by abolishing the duty.

THE LATE DWARLANAUTH TAGORE.—The last
mail brings accounts down to the 22d of September, from
Calcutta, where, in the short space of 42 days, the dis-
tressing news of the death of the great and estimable
Asiatic Dwarkanauth Tagore, who died here in the be-
ginning of August, had been received. This unexpected
event created universal regret and consternation, for
although he had left India in the beginning of the year
in very impaired health, with the hope that the change
of climate and scene might do him good, and his antici-
pations had not been realized during his short residence
in Europe, no apprehensions seemed to be entertained
here or there of the fatal termination of his disease—a
slow nervous fever, with which he had been afflicted
for many months before he left India. In his own
country, with the exception of a few of the more
biggoted llindoos, who quail under his liberal and
all-enlivening measures for the improvement of his
countrymen, no man could be more beloved and I.oked
up to by all classes of society. Patriotic, princely
benevolent, generously liberal, his ever anxious endea
yours were directed to the improvement of the moral
character and the promotion of the sccial condition of
his benighted countrymen. No sacrifice of health, no
time, no labour, no expense, could oppose any obstacle
to his humane exertions to promote those objects. His
heart was set on the education of the people and the
establishment of such noble institutions as were likely to
raise India in public estimation. Influenced by these
noble motives, some four or five years ago he made a
princely gift of 10,0001. towards their accomplishment,
and now that death has closed his useful and brilliant
career, we find, by his last will and testament, he has left
a similar sum of 10,000/. for charitable purposes—a last,
and we trust a lasting, proof of the noble and munificent
tendency of this great man's mind and labours for the
welfare of his country. Dwarkanauth Tagore has left
considerable wealth; besides his Zumindaree properties,
he had large capital in houses, bazaars, and mercantile
pursuits, the whole of which he bequeaths in equal
shares to his three sons (who, jointly with his European
partner, are his executors), the eldest a partner in his
father's house of business in Calcutta; the second, also
brought up to business; the third, here in London, pro-
secuting his education, in view, we trust, to future emi-
nence.

SURVEYORSIIIP OF ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL—The
Surveyorship of this establishment is vacant, and is to
be filled up at a meeting of the Governors on Tuesday
next. Among the numerous competitors is Mr. Tress,
who is an architect of experience and ability, and whose
talents, moreover, have been acknowledged by Mr. Barry,
the eminent architect of the New Houses of Parliament,
and whose testimonial he hears.

MONSTER LOBSTER.—week a large pea lobster
was caught at Port Iron, which weighed 8 lbs., length
21 inches, and circumference 14i inches. It was in the
possession of a lady in that neighbourhood, and attracted
great attention from its size. Even the fishermen of that
district, where shellfish abound, said they never saw so
large a lobster before.—Manx Sun.
MILITARY CONVICTS TOR GIBRALTAR.—A number
of soldiers from the various regiments serving in the
Canadas have been tried by General Courts Martial.
Two of them have been sentenced to transportation for
life, ten for fourteen years, five for ten years, and five
for seven years, all of them being most incorrigible cha•
ratters, and for desertion. They are to be sent from
London to Sheerness, and put on board the Euryalus,
44-gun ship, now under immediate orders fur the con-
veyance of four hundred convicts to Gibraltar, to com-
plete the Government defences there.
STONY STRATFORD.—EXPLOSION or GUNPOWDER.
—An accident nearly of a fatal nature occurred here on
Tuesday, the 3d instant. A firework- maker of the name
of Holloway put some damp gunpowder into the oven to
dry, and proceeding to work, the gunpowder was for-
gotten. It very soon, however, made its owner aware of
its presence by exploding, and causing very great de-
struction. The fireplace and grate were completely
shattered, and the wall of the room was blown down,
causing considerable damage to the people in the next
house, who were sitting at breakfast. The doors and
theinsinwgifse, awnhdothheadman and . •
windows were all blown away, carrying hinges and fas
much ii}jured;
fire, was forced seve7srlilltehr
lug in her hand a° atilmiGralSCnntwleefrtethe room, carry -
ofw-aterjusttakenfrom the
feet,—Northampton Mercury.