The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-06 00:00:00

net results of Parliamentary delay and commercial depres-
sion in the diminution of the national income. It is neces-
sary to observe that an allowance must be made also for an
extraordinary increase which took place in the quarter
ending 10th October, 1844, in the amount ofCustoms' duties
paid upon corn, wine, and one or two other articles, which
added nearly 500,0001. to the revenue, as compared with that
of the same quarter of 1843 ; and also for the circumstance
that the October quarter is uniformly the heaviest one of
the year. After allowing for these circumstances, it
will be seen that the decrease upon the April quarter is very
much greater in proportion than on any of the three pre-
ceding. And if we also take into consideration the fact that
during one-half of the April quarter of last year, the same
duties were virtually in operation as in the same quarter of
this year, the decrease of revenue in the latter becomes still
more striking. In short, the diminution of the revenue from
Customs and Excise, in the first three months of 1846, as
compared with the same period of 1845, if taken as indicating
the diminished rate of consumption per head of the articles
taxed, and with regard therefore to the increase of population
in the interval, cannot be estimated at less than 700,0001., or
from ten to fifteen per cent. And this is precisely what
might have been anticipated. A more than corresponding
diminution has undoubtedly taken place in the average
earnings of the manufacturing population, from the relaxed
state of trade; and neither wages nor profits have furnished
to the people nearly the same means of purchasing articles
taxed to the Customs and Excise, since all commercial ope-
rations of any rnsgnitude were suspended, some three months
ago, in anticipation of the measures which are still held in
doubtful suspense by the Legislature.

COMMERCIAL NEWS.
(From Widmer and Smith') European Times)
The commercial accounts from all parts of the country are
desponding and gloomy. With the solitary exception of the
iron trade, in which great activity prevails, owing to tem-
porary causes, there is not a branch of manufacturing in-
dustry which is not suffering more or less under paralysis.
In many of the manufacturing towns there are thousands of
workmen out of employment; the markets for all descrip-
tions of produce are in a state of stagnation;• stocks are
&lily on the increase, with sinking prices and a diminishing
consumption ; and, in short, a condition of things exist
which threatens to suspend all the ordinary functions of
commercial and manufacturing industry.
It is hardly neccessary to state that this depression, which
every week renders more galling and ruinous, has its primary
origin in the uncertainty which still hangs about the fate, of
the tariff. Other causes, untoubtedly, contribute to fetter
the wheels of trade, but the great impediment is the one at
which we have glanced. A panic appears to be impending.
The despondency is daily on the increase ; and many per-
sons in business, influenced probably by their fears, labour
under the impression that the measure will yet be strangled
in one or the other House of Parliament. So potent is this
prestige of evil, that Sir Robert Peel, on the evening of Wed-
nesday last, felt bound to renew the assurance of his desire

to carry out his commercial policy with the least possible
delay. We have alluded more in detail to the subject in
another column, and we notice it here for the purpose of in-
dicating what we sincerely believe to be a groundless appre-
hension, and to point out, at the same time, its blighting ef-
fect on every description of business.
In order to give as much freedom as possible to the opera-
tions of the cominercial world, under existing circumstances,
Ministers, as most of our readers know, issued recently a
Treasury older for the payment of the reduced duties, the
parties giving a bond that, if the Peers threw out the Bill,
the old scale of duties would be paid. This was a wise and
a liberal move in the right direction, and advantage to some
extent has been taken of it. But the risk involved has been
too great to allow its general adoption. The public have
derived little or no benefit from the arrangement; for the in-
ducement to increased consumption has been neutralised, by
the retail price of the various articles being little below their
firmer level. Indeed, all such temporary expedients par-
take of the character of gambling—speculation is, perhaps,
a more legitimate phrase. For the risk encountered, the
profit must be correspondingly heavy.
The gloom which hangs over business has ,been gradually
deepening during the last six weeks—the last fortnight being
the darkest of all. Under the most favourable circumstance,
there seems little chance of seeing the new tariff on the
statute-book before the end of May; and it will be at least
the middle of that month before the critical stage—the
second reading—can have passed the upper branch of the
Legi..lature. If, unhappily, the measure should be thrown
out, the summer will be consumed in the turmoil of a general
election, and autumn will hardly see the new Parliament
assembled. Then the war of words will recommence, em-
bittered by disappointed hopes and individual suffering;
and even supposing the free traders to have a majority,
their policy cannot come into play before the end of the
present or the commencement of the following year. But
if, on the contrary, a Protectionist Ministry is formed,
and attempts to govern the country, the battle will
be still further prolonged, and the intensity of commercial
and national sufferings fearfully increased. While we hope
for the best, it is just as well to glance at the dark—at the
worst side of the picture ' • and his must indeed be a bold
held that can, without shuddering at the temerity, be a
party to convulsing this great commercial nation by
a struggle so intense, that all the elements of society would
stand a chance of being reduced to their chaotic condition.
The stoutest hearts may stand appalled, when it contemplates
the consequences which must inevitably result from the re-
jection of a policy, to which every man in the kingdom, who
has the least pretensions to the character of a practical
statesman, is irrovocably wedded; a policy which is opposed
solely by the heavy country squires; by a sporting lord or
two, whose knowledge of arithmetic is confined to "making
a book" at Newmarket and Epsom ;- and by a flashy orator,
clever at rounding a period, and manufacturing excitable
works of fiction, whose dreamy enthusiasm scorns all ap-
proach to the practical.
An important trial took place at Exeter lately, in which
the directors of a projected railway brought an action
against a party to whom, on his own application, they had
allotted a number of shares. The allottee refused to take
up the shares or pay the original deposit, which amounted
to some 2/. or 3L per share. As the company had con-
tracted engagements, they offered to compromise the affair
on payment of 3s. per share. The party refused, the action
was brought, and the jury gave the directors a verdict for
the full amount of the shares. This decision has spread uni-
versal consternation, for thousands upon thousands of parties,
suspended between respectability and ruin, are in the position
of the defeneant in this action. Like rats in a cage, they
are preying upon and devouring each other.
While upon the subject of railways, we may be permitted,
en passant. to glance at those connecting the British pro-
vinces with the United States, respecting which a consider-
able interest is felt by many persons on this side of the
water. We regret to find, in our advices by the last arrival
from Halifax, that the war of words had been raging in the
House of Assembly at Halifax, N.S., on the subject of the
projected line of railway from that city to Quebec and
Montreal. We fancy these differences arise out of political
feelings, which, in such matters, should not be allowed to
interfere. Our Nova Scotia friends must settle their dif-
ferences soon, or we shall be travelling to Montreal, via
Boston, Fitchburg, Ilartfo:cl, Montpellier, Burlington, and
St. Johns; and by a branch from Burlington to Kingston
and Toronto, via Plattsburgh and Odensburgh. We under-
stand, f,om a letter just received from a Boston friend,
actively engaged in that undertaking, that great progress is
making with this line of railway.
We have more than once recently referredto the popularity
which Indian Corn, as an article of food, is attaining in this
country. It will prove, ere long, a valuable export. The
Government is most anxious that it should supersede, to a
great extent, the potato amongst the labouring poor, and the
recent scarcity of that esculent is favourable to its introduc-
tion. Cargoes of Indian Corn are daily reaching the British
ports from the United States, and large quantities have been
released from bond, duty free, under the Treasury order
already mentioned. Shops for its exclusive retail sale are
being opened in many of the large towns, and the American
mode of using it is generally adopted.
The Corn market, pending the discussions of the Govern-
ment scheme, is, like all the Produce markets, in a complete
state of stagnation. Prices vary but little, and parties merely
purchase from hand to mouth to satisfy thei r immediate require-
ments. The generul belief is, that if the measure is passed the
article will rise in value, but to this doctrine there are,
of course, some dissentients. Lord G. Bentinck pressed Sir
R. Peel, some time ago, to fix the price of corn under the
operation of his new scheme, but the speculations of the
Premier, on this head, having been falsified by facts, he was
naturally unwilling to commit himself by another guess.
But what the Minister declined to do has been done by an
authority which stands high in the estimation of the agri-
culturists. That authority is the Mark Lane Express. The
publication to which we refer declares emphatically, that
under the new arrangement the price of corn will oscillate
between 455. and 48s. per quarter. Without entering into
the minutia of the question, we may observe, that if this
e profitcalculationßritißritish
therfov
jancitta to
United
at e
States' i t w
andill leave
Canadian
exporters.m arg n
Butfor
tli
their service.
the
most
Beieant..every improvement in tilling, draining, and
ardmers are getting up the steam in the race of
competition
n Inc application of capital is being pressed into
Our Bamberg coorrespondent, under date of the 28th nit.,
year would have benen
Oregon question deter
from Germany to the United States this
says, the emigrati
very great, if it had not been that the
The uneertainty abouts;tioany from going, as they fear a war.
e jnneiltve
Wiled
est.:
prevents goods from ffateins
fothrethUe nfiirtestd
half
fteosf
goi g forwatd, and will greatly lessen
the receipt of duties int
hnapprehension of war is almost as bad as
this year, so that thlse
eport that the Zollverein intend in-
wiesilipntamerican tobacco,
increaset he d
iwesraevraesir
very
as egpl r
of.
considerablebaTb lee rtehi*
this
e.place if the Amercian
and it
Government refuse to ratify theki7l!ve-in treaty. The
er•ops this
price of wheat and grain of ever
as there is every prospect of large kin.,
Is falling in Germany,
season.

KL
NERS' STRIKE,
BRIu
:tDAY.—It is expected that the
men
:.rious branches of the building trade, in
very soon be all out on strike for an advance
wniG, Ati
1131
.le, v SATti
of wages. ""i he bricklayers have already demanded an ths engaged3nttom
ad-
vance P,,` 3s. per week, and most of them have struck work.
Tte strike is said to be the result of an understanding with
the men in other parts of the country. It seems that there
has been a considerable demand for men at the Birkenhead
works and Manchester, and that this demand has led to an
inducement on the part of the general committee of the build-
ing trade to effect an advance of wages throughout the king-
dom. The master builders held a numerous meeting of their
body on Thursday night, at the Acorn Inn) Temple-street, in
this town, for the purpose of considering the demands of the
bricklayers. Mr. W. Smith having been called to the chair,
and the notice convening the meeting read by Mr. J. Davis,
secretary, the assembly was addressed by several masters,
all of whom concurred in describing the present demand as
unreasonable, and greater than the present runtracts would
enable the masters to give. It wad stated that there was at
present a great scarcity of bricks, owing to the fact that
there were only three pieces of ground in the borough from
whence bricks could be dotained, and that the works of the
new gaol were partly stopped for want of this portion of the
materials. In addition to the above reasons, it was stated
that there were only three works of any importance in course
of erection in the town, namely, that of the Norwich Union
Office in the Temple, the new gaol, and the intended erection
at the corner of Temple-street, Newr-street, by Mr. Beilby,
stationer. It was eventually resolved that the present de-
mands made by the bricklayers are greater than the price of
provisions or the state of trade warrant, but that the builders
composing this meeting are willing to advance the brick-
layers one shilling per week upon their present rate of wages,
on condition that they comply with this Otter on or before
Monday next, the 6th instant. Thanks having been given
to the chairman, the meettng separated at ten o'clock.

FALL 0!
esday Inl 12 •!,,, about sAix RctioLckw, AtYhe 13":1;InDcZaEl.—pil°1-a7; ;"the stone bridge
morn-
cross» the Caldew, near the Long Island, belonging to the Newcas-
tle and Carlisle Railway, and which leads to the Canal Basin, gave
Way, sinking nearly two feet—the centre arch and roadway sinking
to the same extent. The foundation was raised upon piles, which
had probably not been driven " home " to the rock, and the gravel
having been washed from beneath, the fall became inevitable. The
bridge will have to be.entirely taken down ; but by using a tempo-
rary railway fixed upon planks, the coal waggons have been passed
across with but little interruption ; and thus the business of the
canal has been but little impeded.—Carliee Journal.
The priz • of 50/. off red by the Royal Agricultural
Society for the best report on the farming of Cambridgeshire, has been
awarded to Samuel Maas, En., of Ickleton, slur you #.-o.l*/*