The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-31 00:00:00

CTOBEn 31, 1846.

MEETI.NG OF PARLIAMENT.
The decision of the Cabinet on the present crisis is
such as was most generally and, we think, most reason-
ably expected. Parliament is not to meet until late in
January. The ports are not to be opened. A more
popular policy than this might be imagined by those who
(
make popularity the reward of concessions to a prema-
ture clamour and submission to an over-estimated neces-
sity. But those who judge of a Government's actions
by its adherence to solemn obligations,_ and its apprecia-
tion of circumstances, will hesitatebefore they accuse
the Cabinet of delay, obstinacy, or injustice. To the
first proposal, which the present state of things has
elicited, viz. that of convoking Parliament, there are
many and Obvious objections. For, to put aside the
most important one, which is founded on the pro-
spect of a certain supply of food for the empire, it is
evident that Parliament could not be summoned
withoat causing the greatest embarrassment to
those for whose especial behoof it was proposed that
it should assemble. The unhappy state of Ireland
urgently requires the presence of its representatives.

Their sphere of action Is in their counties and boroughs,
not in London. It is their immediate business to act,
' not to talk. They have most momentous duties to per-
form ; hut these are provincial, not metropolitan ; local,
not Parliamentary. To console the desponding, and
' stimulate the indolent among their own neighbours—to
as jet in the collection, and superintend the disposal of
funds—to encourage the prosecution of useful, and die
c nrage the jobbery in unprofitable, works—to regulate
the payment of just, and repress the exaction of immo-
derate % ages—to facilitate the purchase, and prevent the
plunder of provisions—to subdue violence, combinations,
and menace—to mitigate an undoubted ca,amity, and
diminish its probable consequences;—these are now
the first duties of the Irish gentlemen. To neglect
such duties for the opportunity of talking in St.
Stephen's would, under any circumstances, be an
Act of questionable policy ;—but now that Loni
Besborough has by the exorcise of a rational vigour
solved the problem of statutory difficulties, it would be
one of gross folly and unpardonable rashness. Ireland
cannot at this moment afford to lose one citizen of pro-
perty, station, or character. She claims the services of
each of her sons who has a heart for sympathy or a head
for counsel. The evils under which she labours are such
as demand legislative interference far less than personal
and distributive activity ; and the crisis is one where a
man who might be worse than useless in Parliament
may do the very greatest quantity of good in his own
barony or parish. So much for the further prorogation
of Parliament. An equal amount of justification may
be urged for the conduct of the Ministry in their non-
remission of the corn duty. We are not unaware that
an apprehension has prevailed for some weeks past of a
coming dearth. We ourselves shared the alarm. But
the danger is now no longer imminent. Not only
private advices, the tenour of which had become
generally known within the last few days,
but the public accounts recently received from
America, are such as to remove very much
of the uneasiness that has been felt as to the pro-
spective supply of wheat and flour. In the granaries of
New York is stored an abundance of grain, awaiting
only the impulse of speculation to be eischarged upon
our shores. Such an impulse will be given by the no-
toriety of our duties having reached their lowest point.
Tbat any delay in transmitting the hoarded treasures
hither will be caused by a hope that our present duty
will be abrogated is shown' to be highly improbable by
the declension which an abundant supply has already
caused in the prices of the American market. The
eager avidity for selling dearly has already given way to
the more prudent desire of selling at any obtainable
price. Competition has dulled the appetite for exces-
sive gains on the other side of the Atlantic at the very
time that the detected affluence of our own resources
has deadened the edge of speculation here. Instead of
advancing, our home prices hare already begun to de-
cline. We do not, indeed, anticipate such a retrograde
movement as shall raise the duty above its
present point; but there appears every reason for
concluding that the rise in the value of wheat will
not be so rapid as was once anticipated. Indepen-
dently of the influx from America, speculators talk of
corn at Hamburgh, and other ports, which, on a proper
occasion, can be doled out to the necessities of the En.
glish buyer. Whether this opportunity is likely soon to
occur or not, we leave to be decided by those who will
take the trouble to compare the prices of the last with
those of the present year. Now these, on mere money
calculations, give an average much higher than the pre-
sent. But this does not constitute the only, nor even the
essential, difference between the two years. A great
proportion of the wheat sent to market last year was of
a very inferior description. The bulk of this year's
yield, on the contrary, is of an excellent quality. Last
year we paid for a mixture of good and bad considerably
more than we paid during the same period in 1844 and
1843. This year we are paying for good wheat some-
thing less than we paid for bad in November of last year.
Nor does this consideration limit the difference between

the two periods. Fears were entertained in 1845 that
the obstacle of high and vacillating duties might inter-
cept the introduction of foreign corn till the winter
should prevent its transmission across the Atlantic.
More than this, the potato blight of 1845 was an unan-
ticipated visitation. No man—no Minister was prepared
for it. It came upon all unawares. Nc grain-merchants

—no millers—no meal-dealers were in the field to
soften the rigours of sudden scarcity. But this year the
case is widely different. The duty on corn cannot
ascend so high as to prohibit importation, under any cir-
cumstances ; and there seems every reason for believing
that it will remain where it is for several weeks to come.
Again, the potato blight has been foresee❑ for months ;

if due preparations have not been made to mollify its
severity, the fault does not rest, and certainly the remedy
does not depend, upon Parliament or the Government.
Both of them have done their duty in givinc, free ad-
mission to the only substitute obtainable in place of the
blighted root. Nor could both of them tog( ther ease
one hundredth part of the misery which now presses
upon Ireland, by repealing the duty on an article of sub•
sistence, which not one Irishman in five hundred could
have the means of purchasing. On the whole, then, we
think that moderate and thoughtful men of all classes
will acquit the Cabinet of an impolitic obstinacy or a
heartless indifference to the sufferings of our Celtic
brethren ; and at the same time will give them credit for
justice and consistency. In our opinion, Ministers have
done well in declining to purchase an equivocal popu-
larity by fomenting a groundless panic ; and opposing to
the allurements of party the firmness of principle and the
obligations of a solemn contract.— Times.

PROROGAI lON OF PARLIAMENT.
(From the Supplement to the London Gazette of last

Evening.)

At the Court at Windsor, the 30th day of Octo-
ber, 1846, present the Queen's Most Excellent Ma
jesty in Council :
It is this day ordered by her Majesty in Council,
that the Parliament, which stands prorogued to Wed-
nesday, the 4th day of November next, be further
prorogued to Tuesday, the 12th day of January next.

COWES, ISLE OF WIGHT.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
EAST COWES CASTLE.—ThIS splendid building, the
master-piece of the late John Nash, Esq., was offered for
sale by public auction, on Wednesday last, at the Medina
Hotel, East Cowes, and was bought in at 15,8001. We
expected there would have been a good deal of compe-
tition, and that many of our nobility would have been
anxious to obtain so beautiful a place in such a desirable
situation; but, alas! not one purchaser could be found;
even curiosity had drawn but a very few persons to-
gether.
THE NEW PLANET.—The Isle of Wight astronomers
have had a meeting at Coulbourn-bottom, at the cele-
brated almanac manufactory, and after due deliberation
have decided that the new planet does not belong to our
system, that instead of its being the last of our system
it is the first of another.

PROMENADE CONCERTS.
COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.

M. Jullien opened the campaign here last evening.
We are sorry to perceive, from his programme, that it
will be a very short one, extending to one month only,
but it will be a very glorious one. M. Jullien has com-
pressed into a month attractions sufficient to draw
crowded houses every night for a year. The theatre is
beautifully fitted up with statues, evergreens, &c. The
orchestra is fitted up on the same plan as during former
years, and at the back rises ancther orchestra, fitted up

•
like the orchestra of a concert-room. This additional
orchestra is intended for the use of the four bands
—viz., those of the Second Life Guards, Royal
Horse Guards Blue, Grenadier Guards, and Cold-
stream Guards, who are, in addition to M. Jullien's
band, to take part in the performance of the " Grand new
Military Quadrille," which is to be produced on Monday
next. Proskere, Koenig, Richardson, and all the old
favourites are re-engaged ; and, encouraged by the
success which attended his experiment of last season of
introducing vocal in addition to instrumental music, M.
Jullien has engaged Miss Birch, who, last night, sang a
beautiful duet, "The Return," by Roch Albert, for the
voice and the cornet-I piston (M. Koenig accompanying
her on the cornet), and in a grand scena from Verdi's
opera of Ernani. The theatre was crowded to suffoca-
tion, and we have no doubt but that it will be so every
night during the season.

WAouoitN's EXPRESS." Mr. Waghorn's courier's
arrival at Dover is just telegraphed. Bombay dates,
Ist Oct."—Overland Office, 34, Cornhill, 1.25, A.m., 31st
October, 1846.
__

THE SEWERS COMMISSION FOR HOLBORN AND FlNS-
BURY.—Yesterday, at two o'clock, a full Court of the
Commissioners of Sewers for the Holborn and Finsbury
division, which comprises the parishes of Clerkenwell,
St. Pancras, Islington, &c., was held at the offices of the
Commissioners, Hatton-garden, to consider the report of
the Commissioners for general purposes on works re-
quiring immediate execution; to receive the report of
the same, of moneys paid and contracts entered into;
also to receive their report on works and matters recom-
mended to them to be executed up to the 29th of Sep-
tember last, and to make a rate in both divisions. The
report being agreed to, the items of expenditure for the
last quarter were laid before the Court, which amounted
to 5,4111. The Chairman then communicated that the
board of directcrs of St. Pancras had applied for per-
mission to build a sewer along the King's-road, in front
of the workhouse, and to have a communication with it
from the workhouse. This would cost about 290/., to-
wards which the directors would advance 2001. The
application was unanimously agreed to, as was a propo-
sition to cover the Fleet river with an arch to the extent
of 645 feet. After the termination of other routine
business, a rate of 6d. in the pound on the poor-rate
rental was agreed to.

1 -MARKET INTELLIGENCE
; 1 (From the London New Price Current of October 30.)
ii SUGAR.—To-day there were plenty of bu3ers of West
India Sw,,r of all descriptions, and rather higher rates were
offered, at business of moment was prevented by the scanty
and indifferent supply at market. The purchases amounted
to 400 hhds and trcs, including 94 hhds of Barbadoes at
auc!ien, which went briskly at a further advance in prices of
6d to is per cwt.
Maanrrics.—This afternoon the market was better sup-
plied with Mauritius Sugar, two parcels amounting to 376
casks and 12,488 bags were offered at public sale, but the de-
mand was active and the whole sold at an advance on former
rates of 6d to Is per cwt.
EAST INDIA.-- This afternoon 270 bags of Madras at public
sale sold at stiffer rates, good yellow at 535, middling 47s 6d
to 48s 6d, low middling 475, damaged 43s 6d to 52s 6d. 2,830
bags of Bengal went briskly, at a rise on former rates of 6d
' to ls; good strong yellow like Mauritius fetched 50s to 51s,
middling 41s 6d to 49s 6d, low 47s to 47s 6d, Dobah kind 44s
to 58s.
Fonzrox.—Today Foreign Sugar was rather more in re-
quest for exportation, and there were not generally sellers
at former rates. The private sales during the week were
1,400 chests of yellow Havanna!) at 238 6d; 100 chests of
white, 29s 6d; and 300 hhds of Cuba Muscovado at 21s
per cwt.
MowsEs.—The inquiries after all descriptions of West
India have been numerous this week, but business has been
much interfered with by the scanty supply at market, and
the high rates insisted upon ; a small parcel of Dominica 01
very fine quality has brought 308 per cwt.
COFFEE.—To-day there was no public sale of any kind of
Coffee, and privately there was little Passing; the value of
good ordinary Native Ce3lon is only 37s GLI to 38s 6d per cwt.
TEa.—There has been little desire manifested to operate in
Black Tea this week, but holders have refused to submit to
any further decline in prices privately for any kind,
although the supply at market is good; the value of com-
mon and fair Congou cash is Sid to 9d, good common 9ld,
and Pouchong low to fine ordinary 4d to 10d. Green can be
obtained upon previous low terms, still few purchases have
been made in any kind privately this week, and there is a
large quantity on offer. Hyson of common quality is only
worth Is 8d to Is 10d, and Twankay low to good yel-
lowish leaf 9d to ls. The public sales which commenced
yesterday were brought to a conclusion this afternoon ; the
trade operated with much caution, but holders insisted upon
preVious rates. Of the quantity offered, amounting to
27,000 packages, the small part only of 1,700 packages,
chiefly damaged and out of condition, actually found buyers,
at prices generally on a par with those previously, current;
a break of low sound common Conguu sold at 8d to 8 lAd per lb.
SPICES.—BIack Pepper is not to bo purchased on

lower terms, but exporters and the home trade have
acted with caution. Privately we have few transac-
tions to report, although Sumatra is to be obtained
at 2id to 2id, and Penang 24d to 28d per lb.
White is wanted at the previous currency, and some parcels
have been sold privately; 388 bags at auction were disposed
of at 3.5Ael to 33/8d for middling and good middling bold
dingy, and at 2%d to 2%d for damaged. In African Pop
several purchases have been made, and the supply being
small, prices are still improving. Ginger of all kinds is
wanted, and previous improved rates are well sustained ;
the supply is on the decrease, and the stock less
than it was last year. Nutmegs have been in good
request privately, and prices are improving. Of Mace there
is not sufficient at market for the demand, and prices are
rising. Pimento has been in good demand, and the rates
paid are fully equal to those of this day week. For Cassia
Lignea the market has a firm appearance, and holders still
refrain from offering any at public sale.
INDlGO.—Although the accounts come to hand from Cal-
cutta this week state that the Indigo crop would not exceed
90,000 maunds ; still the market here has been in a tranquil
state for all kins, exporters and the home trade operating
with caution, but merchants insist upon the prices paid at the
last quarterly sales, although the quantity held by them is
large.

RlCE.—There has been a much better demand for Bengal
this week, for home consumption as well as for exportation,
and the rates paid have been fully equal to those pre-
viously current. Privately several parcels were dis-
posed of, and 1,331 bags at auction found pur-
chasers, good clean pearly white at 18s to 19s, but 1,376 bags
of low dusty and broken quality were mostly taken in at
16s 6d to 17s. In Madras the operations privately were upon
a larger scale at firm rates, 15s to 16s having been paid.
Java is wanted, but there is none in the market.
FRUIT.—The transactions in Currants lately sold to ar-
rive have been considerable, about 1,000 tons is re-•
ported to have been taken ; Zante and Cephalonia 54s to
54s 6d, Patras 555; two cargoes Zante arrived on Monday,
and were eagerly taken by the grocers at 535; the de-
mand continues good. A cargo of Valentias arrived, which
was divided among the trade at 465, New Turkey Pulled
Figs sell freely atl4ss to 70s, New Sultanas 60s, New Mus-
catels, boxes bunch 48s, boxes layers 525; half ditto, 565.
Rum, BRANDT' and HOLLANDS.—There has been a falling
off in the demand for all descriptions of Jamaica Rum this
week—exporters and the home trade purchasing with cau-
tion, but holders for the most part insist upon full rates :
only small parcels have been sold. Demerara is not cheaper,
but there has been little passing, and only 80 puns have been
sold. Leeward Island is not offered at any further decline,
but the demand has been limited, and the sales are
only 160 puncheons at 3s 41,4 d. to 3a sd. For Cal-
cutta, the market, however, has a firm appearance,
and a good business has been transacted. There has been a
brisk demand for Brandy, chiefly for home consumption,
and prices have advanced for the vintages of 1842, 1843,
1844, and 1845, of Id per gallon, whilst all other kinds fully
sustained the former worth. Geneva is wanted for exporta-
tion, and the parcels sold were at 2s 8d to 2s 9d for common,
and at which holders are firm. Fine for home con-

sumption has been in fair demand, and prices are on
the ascendancy, the supply being small, 3s 2d to 3s 4d
having been paid. In British made Spirits prices are
rising—stocks are light, and the consumption large.
Ons.—Seal has been largely dealt in, and prices have risen
40s to 60s. For Cod the demand has been good, and further
advanced rates are obtained. Sperm has b:en much in re-
quest, and prices are still advancing. The home trade are
yet the chief purchasers of Fish Oils. Prices vary little from
those of last year, but stocks are less, consumption greater.
Cocoa Nut Oil has been purchased with avidity, and owing
to the supply being small a further rise in prices has taken
place. The demand has been active for Palm Oil, and owing
to the limited quantity brought to market buyers have been
compelled to pay further advanced rates. American Lard
Oil has been sparingly dealt in at 38s to 44s per
cwt., and there is a large quantity on offer. Rape Seed Oil
has been in much better request, and prices are firmer.
In Olive extensive purchases have been made, and prices
must now be quoted 50s to 60s per tun higher. There has
been much activity for Linseed Oil, and prices have risen
Is 6d to 2s per cwt.

TALLow.—For delivery in Spring months prices have
fallen from 49s to 49s 3d per cwt, but upon these terms
many contracts have been entered into, and prices are not
expected to be much lower, as the arrrivals will continue
deficient those of former season, the trade everywhere scantily
supplied, the stock being less than it was last year, and the
consumption going on largely.

BANK OF ENGLAND.
(From last Night's Gazette.)
Account, pursuant to the Act 7th and Bth of Victoria, cap. 32, for
the Week ending on Saturday, the 24th day of October, 1846.
ISSUE DEPARTMENT.

Notes i55ued........ 28,437,245

£28,437,245

X.
Government debt .. 11,015,100
Other securities .... 2,984,900
Gold coin and buMon 11,868,690
Silver bulliou •• .. • • 2,568,555

Dated the 29th day of October,

I £ 28,437,245
M. MARSHALL, Chief Cashier.
1846.

Government seenri-

ties (including Dead

Weight muidity).. 12,808,119
Other securities •• • • 12,219,710
Notes ••••••• • • • • • • • 7,157,355
Gold and silver coin.. 456,661

i £32,641,845
M. MARSHALL, Chief Cashier.
1846.