The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-11 00:00:00

IHE SUPPLY OF SUGAR.

Great. anxiety now prevails with regard to the supply of
sugar. Serious fears are entertained that the importation of
colonial and other admissible growths will fall far short of
the consumption, so as to leave little or none at the end of
the year to meet the,spring demand. The Government have
been disappointed in their expectations; our colonies have
not increased their production in the ratio that was antici-
pated, and the arrivals of foreign free-labour sugar have
been comparatively insignificant; nor does the future pre-
sent a more flattering prospect. A drought, of unusual Fe-
verity, has visited the West India colonies, and well-i,l-
formed parties calculate that it will cause a deficiency in the
crop to the extent of many thousand tons. Ti.e lowest esti-
mate of the deficiency is 15,000 tons, the highest 40,000 to
45,000—it may be safely assumed to be 30,000, or a full
eighth of the usual importation from all the colonies. This
misfortune will not exercise so injurious an effect on the Bn-
tish public as it must have done b. fore the admission of tree-
labour foreign sugar. It cannot, however, fail to raise prices,
and that very considerably, because the quantity of Java
and Manilla, or other free-labour sugar, that can arrive for
several months, is so small as to go but a short way to com-
pensate for the deficiency in the West India importation.
There were only about 8,000 tons of free-labour sugar itn-
ported last year. Even supposing this to be doubled in the
course of the present year (a result not unlikely to be at-
tained by the close of the season), parties versant with the
sugar trade reckon upon the supplies, taken as a whole,
proving quite insufficient for the now enlarged consumption.
Three estimates of the probable importation of all admissible
descriptions for the current year have been shown, amount-
ing, respectively, to 220,000, 240,000, and 255,000 tons.
The average of these three estimates is 238,000 tons. Last
year the consumption reached 240,000. This year it can
hardly be so low as 260,000, and may possibly be 270,000—
even at present prices, with the probability of reaching
280,000, it; by any means, prices fall materially.. It thus
Appears, that the supply is likely to prove 22,000 tons, or
about 8 per cent. skort of the smallest estimate of consump-
tion. In consequence of this state of the trade, prices have
advanced materially during the last year, particularly for
sorts adapted to the wants of the country, which have be-
come scarce, so much so, that the stock in London of West
India sugar is less than half of w hat it was at the corre-
sponding period of last Year ; and there are only about 250
hogsheads of West India, in fist hands, at this great em-
porium—not a single cask at brigol, and only 93 in the parts
of Clyde. The bulk of the stock. now held are East India,
a growth most of which enjoys no favour with consumers:
The article of molasses is in a still more striking position,
the stocks in the country being less than two months' deli-
veries, and the import for the year not likely to reach three-
fourths of what would be required for the year's consump-
tion, even at the present rates of delivery ! The prices, as
might be expected, have advanced greatly, not leas than 40
to 50 per cent, on the currency of the corresponding
before the reduc-
tion rresponding month
of last year; indeed, they arehigher i
on
the 14th March, 1845
effect
of duty, which took.
The following figures exhibit the present value, in bond, of
West India and foreign en,ga.r:_ •
blood _
brown for Fine yellow
refining. grocery.
s. d.
Colonial .................. 38 0
Free labour ............ 28 0_
Other foreign ...... Id,.

42
Done
21

-Lii

EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF AFFILIATION —A ca.e of
affiliation, which we scarcely suppose has ever been exceeded
in the extra .rdinary character of the circumstances it re-
vealed, occurred at the Leeds Court-house, on 11/4 ednrsday,
before the Mayor and William Pawson, Esq., the pre-
siding magistrates. Mr. Sanderson, solicitor, who appeared
for the defendant, elicited from the mother that the child
she appeared to affiliate was the seventh bastard child
she had had, all to different fathers—that she was forty
years of age—that she had bor e to different fathers
two children within the last two years—that all her
children were at present living—:aid that her elde4 s
was older than the all ged putative father of her last child.
At the close of the nitither's evidence (which it may be re-
marked was abruptly terminated by her refusal to answer
further questicns relative to her shameful lite), the Mayor,
who had evidently heard the case with feelings of extreme
disgust, properly characterised her as a living disgrace to her
sex, and remarked that he did not previously thiiik there
was such a creature in existence as she bad proved herselt to
b.. from her own lips. By refusing to answer questions put
to her, she vitiated her case, and therefore the Bench refused
to make any order whatever upon the alleged father. The
name of the mother is Elizabeth Saville, who resides in one
of the town's houses at Armley. The last will therefore be
the seventh burden of the kind she has brought upon her
parish,

Louis PHILIPPE I CITIZEN OF PERTII--Ts av will be
observed that the town council, at its first meeting since the late at,
tempt on the life of the King of the French, passed an address of
congratulation to his Majesty on his providential escape irOm the
hand of the assasin. It may Seem to some a little out of the way for
Scottish burghs to obtrude their courtesies on such an occasion ; but
it may not be generally known that the French Sovereign is a bur•
gess of the fair City, and that his Majesty retains a vivid and pleasing
reeolleetion of the fact. When the Earl of Kinnoul was last summer
in Paris, one day when dining at the Tuileries, his Majesty referred
to Perth and its scenery, as well as that of the neighbourhood ; and
Added he felt particularly interests , in all which related to it, being
himself a citizen of the place. Upon his Lordship expressing sur-
prise Majesty added—" Yes, and the
prise at the announcement,
freedom was conferred upon roe at Dupplin Castle, when a guest of
your late noble father." Louis Philippe then detailed the whole
scene- the arrival of the Lord Provost, with the burgess ticket anti
the ,council's address—and the spveeiles which followed on both sides;
end added that such honours were at that time (shout the beginnimt
of the century) not so numerous with him, and the occasion hail
mad
i unth
istati:!elii,Y with e 0,10.4 iluptession en his mammy, is was evinced in the
inch the whole was detail d. - Penh (*wrier.
meiracti
LASGOW ___!)VATti OF littork.BSt)R
Meikleham, Es 4 LL.D., Protessor of Natural Philosophy
in the University, died on Thur;Atty, at his house in the College,
here. ttis removal strike' off the last link, except one or tWo, of
those which remained to connect the present professors with the .Is-
t inguished men—Millar, Jardine, WilflPll, Young, Richardson, and
others,who, about tho close of the last, and the Commencement of the
present, century, shed lustre on the Univers.ty, and couferpo
benefits on education.— conch JP:formers' Gazette.

KENSINGTON GARDENS —On &PUT; Sal' the band 04 the
Ist Regiment of Life Guards commenced playing for the season in
these delightful gardens, and certainly a finer or more auspicious any
could not have been selected for their performance. The band will,
we understand, continue to perform every Tuesday and Friday from
half-past four to half past
BEETHOVEN'S PIANOFORTE.—This instrument. pre-
sented to Beethoven by Messrs. Broadvvood, on wi,ich Addison, Cra-
Mir, and ileScheles have played, has been given by Dr. Spina, into
wito,,e possession it came atter Beethoven's death, to Liszt. Beetho-
ven's piano could not certainly be ht better hands.
A FEROCIOUS :4”.V.--21 sitort titan ago. et
Ground, Kirkby Ireloth, a bow belongitip to a pctson named rostie-
thwaite, attacked a lamb. in vain did the ewe, throwing aside Its
natund timidity, do battle in de erne of its offspring. The lamb was
worried by the ferocious animal, and the old ewe had pearly
the Vann Wainwriland QoatAr.